Lurker > ElatedVenusaur

CEs_EFG posted...

ElatedVenusaur posted...

-Stellaris
Stellaris is early in the Paradox life-cycle, but already pretty good. Utopia is essential, as it adds tons of great stuff. Leviathans is pretty good, and the Plantoids portrait pack is really good, but it's just art, so if that's not your thing, it's safely skippable.
It is also very much a space 4X with some Paradoxian elements, so don't expect it to be CK2/EU4 in space.

i heard this was bad and it gets to the point that they change core mechanics every patch

In truth, the battle system is a bit dull and wormholes are significantly better than the other warp types. But the game is sound, and has been for some time. It would be accurate to say they've added mechanics, but they also revisit stuff. It's Paradox's first ever space 4X, it started out much rougher than CK2 or EU4 did. But it's already pretty good, and the current lead designer is one of Paradox's best.
Plus, they hired the Sunless Sea guy to do writing for it(buy that, people).

Alright, time for Part 3 of my Paradox primer. I have to exclude HoI4, as I've never played it. This part is easy...

-Stellaris
Stellaris is early in the Paradox life-cycle, but already pretty good. Utopia is essential, as it adds tons of great stuff. Leviathans is pretty good, and the Plantoids portrait pack is really good, but it's just art, so if that's not your thing, it's safely skippable.
It is also very much a space 4X with some Paradoxian elements, so don't expect it to be CK2/EU4 in space.

-Sengoku
It's a bad tech demo for CK2. Do not buy.

-EU4 Immersion Pack: The Third Rome
I didn't list it in the earlier post because it literally just came out and thus is not on sale. It's pretty good stuff for Russia, but you can safely wait for it to be discounted.

-Victoria 2
Victoria 2's economy is a black-box that is presumably the programming equivalent of a demon-summoning circle, except it'll break if India gets free or China civilizes. Or it'll just break anyways sometimes. Be prepared. The best way to pass reforms is by being as abusive towards your POPs as possible. The British will probably make your life hell, regardless of whether they are your friend or enemy. Buy BOTH OF THE EXPANSION PACKS, or so help you God.

PoopPotato posted...

@ElatedVenusaur

What's the difference between the expansion packs and content packs for EU4?

Content packs are generally graphical stuff: unique unit models, advisor portraits, etc. Relatively minor stuff, but it adds some flavor.

Alright, and now Crusader Kings 2! CK2 DLC is a little different from EU4's, in that it's more "additive", if that makes sense. CK2 is also definitively nearing the end of its (long) life as an actively-developed title. In any case, let's get this going...

-The Five Year Anniversary Edition is good value.

-Best DLCs
The Old Gods: A new, earlier start-date(867) as well as playable pagans and Zoroastrians. The stars of the show, of course, are the Vikings: they get a unique raiding mechanic and all sorts of flavor events and rituals. You have not lived until you have burned Rome to the ground and sacrificed the Pope/Caliph/Charlemagne/Everyone to Odin.

The Reaper's Due: Who knew dying could be so much fun? This DLC is all about disease, death, medicine, and new and exciting ways to get maimed. Oh sure, you can build hospitals, seek out immortal mystics, make your priest try his hand at being a doctor, play chess against Death Itself, and become a Highlander, but the Reaper will always get his due.

Way Of Life: You can have a hobby! You could go out drinking, sleep with half of Europe, hunt supernatural beasts, or even just play not-Warhammer. Remember: live fast, die young.

Monks&Mystics: This is currently imbalanced, but secret religious cults and societies are fantastic. You can even become a Satan worshipper and use his terrible powers to further your ambitions. Just beware: the Dark Lord's power can carry a heavy price...

-Good DLCs
Conclave: This DLC actually makes the game harder. In a good way. Basically, you generally need the approval of your council to do things, and powerful vassals expect a seat at the table. Can you manage your gaggle of back-stabbing jerkwad vassals? Or perhaps you'll subvert your lord's council to your own ends?

Sons of Abraham: Allows you to play as Jews and adds lots of flavor for Christians and Muslims(more on them later). Really good flavor, like a college of cardinals for Catholics.

Legacy of Rome: Adds lots of flavor for Orthodox Christians, and especially for Greek characters. Also enables retinues, which are basically small but professional forces.

Horse Lords: Mostly relates to nomads and the steppe, but also has expanded mechanics for mercenaries.

-DLCs that exist to unlock stuff

Sword of Islam: Lets you play as Muslims. Muslims have access to powerful CBs and a unique succession type, but must deal with the Decadence mechanic. They essentially are "better" at conquest, but less stable.

The Republic: Let's you play as merchant republics, which revolves around making money, controlling trade and outmaneuvering your political rivals in elections.

Meh DLC

Charlemagne: Unlocks a new 769 start-date. However, the start-date in question is blobby as hell and thus tends to be more stagnant than the 867 and 1066 start-dates. There are also unique events charting Charlemagne's life and rise to power.

Bad DLC

Rajas of India: Adds India and allows you to play as Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists. The problem is that India just kind of exists and rarely interacts with not-India, making it somewhat uninteresting.

Best and Worst DLC

Sunset Invasion: Have you ever wondered what it would be like if the Aztecs existed hundreds of years earlier and were also advanced enough to launch a Transatlantic invasion of Europe? No? Well, this is the answer. It's hilarious, and you can even play as the Aztecs once they show up, if you have The Old Gods. Also, obviously ahistorical and ridiculous. How much you like this is a matter of personal taste(I never play without it).

With a new Steam Sale, the Paradox catalogue is once again on sale. And yes, these games have tons of DLC, which is why I'm here to help! I'm going to break down which DLCs have a big impact, and which can be safely passed over. I'm going to start with Europa Universalis IV.

-Buy the Extreme Edition. The Star and Crescent pack gives Muslims a piety mechanic that allows them to pick up different bonuses by being pious or unpious. The Women in History pack is basically a huge event pack highlighting notable women in the period, which amounts to giving you access to special advisors, consorts, or even generals and admirals, depending on who you're playing as or what provinces you own.

-Must-Have DLCs
Art of War: Adds unique mechanics for the Thirty Year's War as well as a bunch of useful diplomatic options.
Rights of Man: Adds a great power system and consorts, as well as unique mechanics for African paganism and Coptic Christianity.
Common Sense: Adds the development mechanic(which is probably the single most consequential mechanic to be locked behind a DLC) as well as a lot more things to do with your subjects.

-Good DLCs
Wealth of Nations: Spices up the trade game significantly.
Mandate of Heaven: Lots of special mechanics for China, the Manchus, and Japan. These mechanics are actually good, unlike what was introduced by a certain EU3 expansion...
Cossacks: Lots of stuff for hordes, as well as estates. Estates are fiddly and sometimes annoying, but also quite useful.

-Meh DLCs
Res Publica: It adds a special government for The Netherlands and a handful of things for merchant republics that are like estates-but-from-before-estates-were-a-thing. They're not as good.
Conquest of Paradise: Adds a lot of stuff for colonizers, but it's literally all quality-of-life type things. Also special mechanics for Native (North) Americans which largely fail to make playing as them interesting.
El Dorado: Adds special mechanics for Central and South Americans. Also a nation designer. These are somewhat better than CoP above, but, well, the scope is limited, at best.

-Dumb DLCs
Mare Nostrum: It adds a mechanic like manpower, but for boats. It literally only matters if you're a country with few ports, in which case you were never going to have a worthwhile navy even before this came along. Also a few other bits and bobs of limited utility.

Everything else is music or graphics. Note that Paradox recently increased prices across the board for international markets and this resulted in a massive backlash in the form of tons of negative reviews. Paradox has since rescinded the price increases.

I share your feelings, TC. I think we know quite well by now that "moderate" Republicans are spineless and easily appeased by tokens. This vicious bill will kill millions of people, all in the name of transferring yet more wealth from the poorest to the richest Americans.

ultimate reaver posted...

I dislike Metroid 2, but it was mainly for reasons related to the console limitations of its platform than the game itself

I thought Fusion was way too linear and the story was bad

Other M is just grating and dreadful

Fusion was frustrating at times and the story wasn't good, but it was helped by the fact Samus herself chafed against it. And I found the SA-X segments legitimately tense.
That said, it's definitely a weak entry. Never played Other M, never intend to.

Iodine posted...

But in all seriousness, the Democrats lose at the Local and State levels is a combination of several factors:

1) Gerrymandering
2) Poor Grassroots Organization
3) Terrible messaging.
4) Lack of a coherent Ideology.

This is a pro-post. Karen Handel spent the final days of her campaign going hard-negative on Ossoff, connecting him to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Kathy Griffin, and harping on the fact that his house is just outside the district. Jon Ossoff talked about how both parties needed to be fiscally responsible. Republican messaging is tailored to rile up their base and get them to vote. Democratic messaging is tailored towards voters who don't exist, often at the expense of their base.

https://www.vox.com/2017/6/20/15839452/georgia-special-election-results-ossoff-handel
Ossoff seems to have not staked out any substantive positions other than being vaguely anti-Trump.
Will the Democrats ever learn that's like fighting fire with one of those prank fire extinguishers?

That movie was really close to being special, IMO. If you have to do a "Superman-but-before-he's-Superman" film, focusing on how he feels alien and has no idea how to wrap his head around being a demi-god is a great starting point. Also, we could've used at least one other instance where he attempts to do something like the scene where he first tries to fly in the movie. Him crash-landing was actually really funny, added a bit of levity to an otherwise grim film, and helps make Supes more relateable.

Lastly, it would've helped to see him aghast at the destruction of Metropolis. Should've been a big character moment where he swears to do better next time. That's one of my sticking points: it's okay if Superman isn't quite yet Superman and makes mistakes, but it seemed like all they focused on was him killing Zod.

Oh, and speaking of Zod and the other Kryptonians, they went too far in making them straight-up evil, what with their plan to deliberately genocide an alien race of billions. It would have been more interesting if Zod envisioned them as a lower-class to support a Kryptonian elite, or a race to be "guided" to Kryptonian perfection.

Mozart loved fart jokes. And also farts.

teepan95 posted...

MuayThai85 posted...

I miss good pizza, sour keys/soothers and wine gums.

Soothers were the shit.

Pizza isn't too bad here

And I've seen wine gums around. Just never was interested in them

Maybe if you've never been to the areas around New Haven and New York.

Eh, TC, all you REALLY need for EUIV is Common Sense, Art of War and Rights of Man. Most of the content comes from the patches.
If you're looking for more than those, Cossacks and Mandate of Heaven come after in importance.
The other content DLCs(Third Rome, Res Publica, Wealth of Nations, Conquest of Paradise, and El Dorado) are minor and won't be missed. Mare Nostrum is by far the worst content DLC.
Literally all the other DLC is music, unit sprites, and/or advisor portraits.

I could've bought even more...

Not enough.

Europa Universalis IV(going for the First Come, First Serve and For Odin achievements)
Donkey Kong Country Returns
Fire Emblem: Echoes- Shadows of Valentia
Child of Light

-Foundation Trilogoy by Isaac Asimov
-Walden Pond and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
-The Art of War by Sun Tzu
-The Brothers Karamzov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
-Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
-Great Tales of Horror by H.P. Lovecraft
-The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay

Galaxy or Galaxy 2.
SMB3 and SMW close behind though.

averagejoel posted...

if I had written a story for my Creative Writing class with a hero named Reality Winner and a villain named Beauregard Sessions, I would have gotten a zero in the class

That's Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III to you, boy. It's even more ridiculous than Edmund Duke!
I wish Ms. Winner had been more careful.

DuranOfForcena posted...

no, because Obama is not a butthurt egomaniac whose entire political aspiration is to get revenge because he couldn't handle being roasted at a White House Correspondent's Dinner

Eh, Trump did extend Obama's order protecting so-called "Dreamers" from deportation.
Figures the one good thing he's done is because he ended up not messing with something some one else did.

We should pay teachers like Finland pays theirs.

fan357 posted...

Hopefully they will boost employment or at least retain it.

That's funny. You're funny.

Come now comrade, why not join the ranks of the Internationale?
I jest. What draws you to the likes of Macron?

QuantumScript posted...

Balrog0 posted...

you keep calling this a leftist policy but its basically cribbed from the market urbanism website and supported by the GMU crowd which is funded by the Koch bros

surprise surprise - you don't have to be a democrat to support leftist policies. whatever it is, it's not good

Quite interesting that you seem to consider those terms interchangeable. Is it bad because it's "leftist" or is it leftist because it's "bad"?

Seems like a good time to point out that school integration failed in cities like Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, etc. because upper middle class whites were bitterly opposed to it.
And, speaking of Detroit, one reason for its struggles is that it hasn't been allowed to annex neighboring municipalities. Most of which just so happen to be enclaves populated primarily by upper class and rich whites.

You are doing good work.

Can't wait for the Twitter tantrum. It's going to be a terrible embarrassment to our nation, but at least it'll be a funny one.

Gladius. That game felt like it had a lot of potential, but it was half-baked at best.

Nah, there's no right or wrong way to do single-player.
Competitively, only moves that buff two or more stats(Dragon Dance, Quiver Dance, Calm Mind, etc.) or buff an attack stat two stages(Swords Dance, Nasty Plot) are used(Agility is used rarely). Defensive buffs are kind of iffy because critical hits ignore them, and debuffs are (generally) weak because a human opponent isn't going to let the pokemon you just Screeched stay in and eat physical attacks.

As far as buffing in-game, Swords Dance and Nasty Plot each buff their respective offensive stat two stages, making subsequent attacks 100% more powerful(i.e. you'll do about as much damage in one attack as you would in two before the boosts.) The AI switches once in a blue moon(if it's the third Tuesday in a month), but mostly it'll just leave its pokemon in to die against something that has super-effective attacks.

Caution999 posted...

He went to prison and came back a rehabilitated man.

If they don't take him, then the Eagles gladly will. He has been nothing short of a model citizen since he has returned. Deal with it.

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/michael-vick-atlanta-falcons-super-bowl-li/
He wrote that in the run-up to the Super Bowl. Just thought I'd share. I agree completely that Vick has paid his debt to society and realizes that what he did was terrible and that there's nothing wrong with honoring him for his play as an Atlanta Falcon.

DK9292 posted...

known2FAIL posted...

DK9292 posted...

known2FAIL posted...

DK9292 posted...

Its not dumbness its arrogance.

No. It's "dumbness."

You can be intelligent and do dumb things if youre arrogant.

Trump is smart enough to maintain his multi-million dollar business, but he's got his head so far up his own ass he doesnt consider the consequences of his actions.

It shouldn't take much knowledge to maintain a business you inherited.

I couldn't do it. And I doubt you could either.

You literally could by just investing the money through a brokerage(you have access to all the best ones as a preferred client, of course). It's hard to make 1 million from nothing, but every subsequent million is much easier to make than the last.
Trump inherited his money and bankrupted himself multiple times. He probably wouldn't even be rich anymore if not for preferential loans from rich friends.

It wouldn't be as bad as it is if we hadn't stopped adding additional House representatives over a century ago. That has the effect of making the Electoral College less representative than even the founding fathers intended!
Even then, it would still suck.

D. One of them's a florist who did a cooking demo once(she made some delicious spinach).
The other left her job to look after her grandma in North Carolina.

Sure sounds like obstruction of justice. Sen. McCain might be dismayed, or even disturbed.

It's okay. Last time I played, I barely managed to stalemate my 12 year old cousin.

CEs_EFG posted...

The biggest question imo is why didn't they make stadium

Yeah, the Pokemon Stadium games owned, and you wouldn't even need special peripherals to make them work today.
Colosseum and XD had decent story modes, but it doesn't feel like much time or effort was invested in them. Plus, you're locked out of getting most of the available Pokemon for long stretches of each game.

GOATTHlEF posted...

Is this like the Austrian ultimatum that started WW1, where it's not really in good faith, they know Qatar won't follow through, and just want to a reason to go to war?

Or are these things that Qatar would be able to accomplish by the deadline?

The former. Many of the conditions are extremely vague(giving the Saudis plenty of room to quibble) and many others are aimed directly at Qatar's current foreign policy projects and/or could not be reasonably accomplished in 24 hours.
What the Saudis intend to do about Qatar not agreeing to their satisfaction is unclear. Qatar doesn't have much of a military, but is home to a U.S. army base. Unclear exactly what role, if any, we(i.e. the U.S.) have in any of this.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/06/qatar-diplomatic-crisis-latest-updates-170605105550769.html
The alleged list(from Twitter. Not yet verified by the Saudis, but tweeted by a journalist):

"1. Immediately break diplomatic relations with Iran.
2. Expel all Hamas members.
3. Freeze bank accounts of Hamas members and stop dealing with them.
4. Expel all Muslim Brotherhood members from Qatar.
5. Expel anti-GCC elements.
6. End support of 'terrorist organisations.'
7. Stop interfering in Egyptian affairs.
8. Cease broadcasting the Al Jazeera news channel.
9. Apologise to all Gulf governments for 'abuses' by Al Jazeera.
10. Qatar must pledge that will not carry out any actions that contradict the policies of the GCC and adhere to its charter."
Apparently, a 24-hour deadline, which suggests the Saudis don't plan on Qatar actually agreeing.

In any case, this rift got serious in a hurry.

Engineer_Gamer posted...

ElatedVenusaur posted...

Yeah, the Saudis are the #1 funders of Wahhabist mosques and madrasas worldwide.
For those who don't know, Wahabism is a reactionary form of Islam the Saudi royals adopted in the 18th-century that thinks everything has gone down hill in the world since Muhammad died and tends to cast everyone who isn't a Wahhabist as an irredeemable infidel(especially Shiites and Jews).
The vast majority of Islamic terrorists are Wahabists.

It's like islam exists in a world where their version of the westboro baptist church won. And has trillions of dollars in oil money to spread their shit.

Ehh, I wouldn't say mainline Wahabbism is THAT bad. It's more like a mainline ultraconservative Christianity(think Southern Baptists or Conservacatholics), except more or less entirely controlled by an absolute monarchy.
Of course, the other Gulf States aren't entirely innocent either, but at least Qatar gave us Al-Jazeera English.

I grudgingly voted for Hillary. She didn't really inspire anyone and ran a poor campaign, so she lost and every morning is waking up to yet more damage to the socio-economic-political fabric of our nation.

Yeah, a long time ago. It gets hard towards the end, but I powered through with the endurance and insistence of childhood.
Never could finish Lost Levels though. That gets balls hard in a hurry.

The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914(Christopher Clarke)
1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed(E.H. Cline)
The Name of the Rose(Umberto Eco)
Dracula(Bram Stoker)
The Fall of the House of Usher(Edgar Allen Poe)
Frankenstein(Mary Shelley)
The Idiot(Fyodor Dostoevsky)

Yeah, the Saudis are the #1 funders of Wahhabist mosques and madrasas worldwide.
For those who don't know, Wahabism is a reactionary form of Islam the Saudi royals adopted in the 18th-century that thinks everything has gone down hill in the world since Muhammad died and tends to cast everyone who isn't a Wahhabist as an irredeemable infidel(especially Shiites and Jews).
The vast majority of Islamic terrorists are Wahabists.

GreatEvilEmpire posted...

Not block, but I support careful vetting from countries that are terrorism hot spots. A travel slowdown from certain counties would be acceptable.

Something has to be done. You can't just let everyone in freely.

But that's what we do already?

Delirious_Beard posted...

kap is booty

would still take him as my team's qb over blake bortles

Blake Bortles was doomed to be a bust eons ago when his first ancestor took the last name "Bortles" after losing a bet.
The fact that his parents named him "Blake" just made things worst. It's almost as much a bust name as Blaine Gabbert.

I was surprised, in a good way. He's really fun to play, so that helps. Wish they had added more than two tracks for the Midgar stage though.

Maybe the shareholders should accept fewer dividends?
Wait, no, I'm sorry. I forgot that would be COMMUNISM.

Because he thinks it's a conspiracy to hamstring American industry?
Syria and Nicaragua are the only other nations not party to the agreement. The former because it's in the midst of a multi-sided civil war, and the latter because they thought it was too weak sauce to bother with.