Bay 12 Games Forum

More importantly, I think you overestimate how much competence is required to be the mayor of a small town. One I was raised in had illiterates, alcoholics, and, more likely than not, illiterate alcoholics at some point or another.

Now, mayor in the sense of someone that actually does something constructive... maybe. But they make good figureheads, and you don't really need a brain for that so long as someone's got a gelding chain attracted to something important.

I've experienced apoplectic rage to the point I started beating the shit out of a close friend and was only barely able to stop myself from going further. I kinda' do know anger, and it has unilaterally felt like crap.

I know annoyance well. I feel it very, very often. Anger is a very different beast, and by the gods I've never liked it and it's never done anything good for me. Once or twice I've seen something vaguely good come from anger motivated action. Out of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of examples that either went badly or went more (often much more) poorly than it could. Civility and purposeful action has done more and more consistently in my life than anger and shouting at people has even approached managing.

Though I guess that's why it's a sin instead of a virtue, hum.

See, this is why Wrath is the best sin. No confusion on that one.

Nnn... nah. At least gluttony and lust are kinda' enjoyable, and sloth can loose some stress here and there. Wrath just makes you and everyone around you feel like shit, same as envy and greed. Not really sure about pride. I think something broke in me a long time ago and I can't really feel it enough to know what it is. S'kinda' odd, honestly. I guess it might feel good? I can feel satisfaction in an act well performed, but that's more an aesthetic thing than anything personal.

And to preempt it, no, I've never had a single emotion related to anger that I can recall that felt anything even remotely approaching good. Anger just makes me tired, feel like shit, and roughly 95-99% of the time it's made the situation worse. Maybe even more often. Even righteous anger is usually a downer, because it probably means there's a problem I either can't fix or haven't figured out how to. What joy is found in futility?

... though I do kinda' like breaking things. S'no wrath involved, I just like seeing how things come apart. S'a very innocent feeling, really.

DEPRESSING SHIT: NBC Boston is saying the youngest victim is 3 years old.

Gods fuck. I'm calling now that those media bastards and the whorespawn politicians that try to squeeze this to fuck with people are going to milk that if it's true. S'going to turn me goddamn apoplectic with rage. I enrage preemptively at those tasteless pieces of filth. Damned entertainment media bullshit.

Personal reaction beyond that pending further news. As with other stuff like this that's happened to the US in my lifetime, I'm... not really feeling anything unusual. S'a tragedy, yeah, but there's those every day all the time. Y'do what you can, but if you can't do anything about it, no point in getting worked up. I guess. Best victory against those who would strike you is to live despite it, etc., etc.

Heart goes out to the injured, killed, and those related to them. Praying the reaction to this isn't going to put the US into even more of a political shitter.

... hidden costs like...?

I do remember there's a couple that actively increase unrest or something along those lines, but... those ones were crap anyway. Don't get me wrong, not all of them were good, heh, just like the order ones have their issues (like upkeep, ferex, and movement range). But a full chaos army (barbs/shamans starting out, branching from there) was quite solid for getting off the ground, especially with some zombie backup. Later you just drown them in ghosts or whatever.

Bribing was actually one of the things you do to stay good, though. Getting through the joint without bribes or diplomacy (i.e. murder everything) is how you make the place a land of tar and bad events. I don't remember if that was good karma or just no karma, but attacking when you can bribe is just about th'best way to wrack up chaos like it's going out of style. Diploranger and some bribe money is basically the stage one method of staying in good graces.

Well, I really like leech starships so far (usually the first starship I sink knowledge into). They've been quite incredible as screens and firesoaks versus non-guardian forces, even when you can't reclaim stuff, and just chew right on through the non-starship stuff. Definitely they do more damage than when that report was issued, heh. They're currently at ~6.5k damage/second (~13k/every two seconds) per shot (and six shots, coming up to ~39k/mark total output) and quite readily chew through lots of chaff ships. Also fairly tough, alright range, etc., so forth, so on. Wish I could build more of them, and it's always nice to send a full wolfpack of them into a large fight and come out ahead. Multiplayer game we were playing this weekend, one fight I threw the six fleet into and came out with 390 or so new ships, iirc

I mean, the ships were blown up not too long after that but still! Also since then they've been patched so health is equal to reclaimation damage, not 1/2 of it. It's pretty easy to come out with full or mostly full health units, when you can recoup them at all.

Biggest problem with leech starships is that they're outranged and weak vs. missile frigates. But, well... that's what the spire blade spawners are for _{(protip: Spire blade spawners are for goddamn everything. Okay, barring stuff immune to blade attacks. Everything else, though!)}

The specific fairly major problem with the botnet golem is that it just doesn't attack unreclaimable targets at all. Leech ships, parasites, etc., can still fire and damage enemies even if it doesn't reclaim, but a botnet without something bot is relatively flimsy deadweight. I mean, I'll be paying better attention this time, but when it's matched up against the armored golem which you just v+rightclick into enemy systems and go deal with the other side of your empire or whatever, the botnet is high maintenance, in terms of player attention. Still holding out on if the payoff's worth it, though.

Was doing course searching online, getting registration and whatnot for the summer semester started and...


I suddenly find myself wondering a bit about what Vector and friends are up to in the math department.