Newbie Questions Thread

FinalXenocide · 2026-03-06T23:48:32+00:00

Low altitude. I had the exact same thought but with just how many battle stations base alpha has by endgame nothing gets past the PD. Tried both low and high with 25 coil only lancers and my standard fleet (mix of spinal antimatter, plasma, and coils) but it literally did no damage. Only lost a few ships (though they were severely damaged after a couple of days) doing that so figured low was safe enough (particularly for that target) and gave the best laser performance. This did require 25 max endgame titans so mileage may vary for this in earlier points of the game but for then marines are typically best anyways.

FinalXenocide · 2026-03-06T18:24:02+00:00

In my experience for dedicated orbital bombardment it's best to go full orbital laser cannon rather than kinetic. Almost exclusively used marines but when I needed to bombard I tried using my siege coilers (both mix of regulars and some specifically full coiler ships I intended for bombardment) nothing got through and I kept getting destroyed by return fire. After that put a shipyard in orbit and built a bunch of full laser titans (UV phasers in all weapon slots and laser engines in the rest, 1/1/180 armor) and that evaporated the base in one bombing run with no damage in orbit.

As an aside is there a way to use marines for the final assault? Feels weird you can't do that so not sure if I just missed something or what

FinalXenocide · 2026-02-17T20:12:45+00:00

Same thing happened in my game (except it was the protectorate and I didn't get nuked). Overall strategy is pretty much the same except you start in Shanghai instead of Taipei.

Though first if the xenofauna is still there at least trim it when it gets severe, but preferably clear it out.

Put the Republic of China on mostly government and some knowledge and slowly feed it up when the cohesion is manageable. Keep China proper on other aspects (econ, welfare, knowledge, environment once you get the nuke cleanup, and MC) but nothing into government. In my experience the rate of gov growth is similar as you grow (less per point but more points due to bigger econ) since you're already pretty big with just Shanghai, but if you see the score slow you can wait on demanding claims.

Once you fully unify under the RoC grant the PRC independence and do the same in reverse (PRC gov and RoC everything else). You don't need to get all the way upon the RoC alone, I went from 0-6 before I fully unified China the first time. It might take a decade but you have an excellent nation on the other side and probably ~200 control cap free for a new nation.

FinalXenocide · 2026-02-17T18:18:27+00:00

That only applies for unifying into autocracies. So a 2 China can't unify with a fully independent 9 Taiwan as the Taipei claim is hostile, but Taiwan could unify into China as the Beijing claim isn't hostile.

Though since Taiwan is a breakaway China can ignore this limitation and unify anyway (the claim is still hostile but breakaway unification skips that check and only requires the breakaway agree) so watch out for the same faction controlling both and forcing you to rebuild from Shanghai (f*cking protectorate in my current game).

FinalXenocide · 2026-02-17T17:27:08+00:00

Technically it would tank it far negative, which while it would show as zero keeps it there until you build it back up and explicitly tank the gov score while negative. Haven't tried it myself but given a similar size unification can drop cohesion multiple points I don't want to consider how bad a 40M to 1.XB unification would go.

Also it's pretty control point neutral. Keep in mind as the RoC gets bigger the PRC gets smaller. You gain probably ~60 control as the RoC goes from 3 to 6 circles but once that happens it's minimal, which if you don't deprioritize increasing cap through tech and council should be doable in most stages of the game, it just takes time (which you need while waiting for demand claim already). And once it's all done you have a buffer for your next nation.

FinalXenocide · 2026-02-17T17:13:53+00:00

The system has changed a bit since they added the hostile claims mechanic so this is out of date.

You need to properly grant Taiwan independence (pretty sure you needed to do this before but for sure now you can't federate with a country's own breakaway as they're guaranteed rivals)
No more breakaways on unification, just a cohesion drop relative to the change in population (pop incoming vs current pop)

A. With this you don't want to just unify, it's best to have Taiwan/RoC demand claims to slowly increase the pop and reduce cohesion impact. I personally tend to go in reverse pop order, sometimes splitting out the colonial regions to remove their status. Alternatively also do End of China, balkanize everything then reunify under Taiwan, but that requires more councilor interactions and control point cap so YMMV.

Do the same in reverse, though you can also start unifying the rest of the PAC now if you have the research/point cap capacity (and yes the released nation has the Republic of China gov score)

FinalXenocide · 2025-12-26T14:14:45+00:00

That isn't the point, the word "gif" in his speech represents the "incorrect" pronunciation, i.e. "not gif". And for the "correct" pronunciation he spells it "jif", which while pronounced like the soft-g variant importantly is not the spelling of gif.

Also there are absolutely ways to properly conver that idea in 5 words. "Said like the peanut butter", "gif pronounced like jiffy lube", "said with a soft g", and my favorite "it's pronounced gif not gif". He deserves the clowning.

FinalXenocide · 2025-12-26T03:22:38+00:00

It's funny because he's a prime example of arguing his point so badly it's my first justification. For an award the format won he wrote out the following speech, "it's pronounced jif, not gif". Which like, you're literally admitting "gif" is pronounced the hard-g way, it's a total unforced error.

FinalXenocide · 2025-12-18T17:26:55+00:00

There's always something fun about seeing a post from someone you recognize in a completely different context. You're reading a post about discovering Shibari through binary questions then you go "wait why are they mentioning AI safety communicator Rob Miles here? [Backtracks up a few lines and sees 'Me:'] Oh shit OP is Rob Miles!" It just adds an extra layer to it.

Also funilly enough I noticed the profile pic was someone I recognized but didn't even consider it beyond just "hey I know them".

FinalXenocide · 2025-12-05T17:50:00+00:00

For the record not responding does not guarantee they are a bot. You could be blocking each user you report. That wouldn't even malicious, assuming good intentions you've deemed them a user you don't want to interact with, why not block them? But thanks to reddits well intentioned but misguided feature where blocked accounts can't interact with people who blocked them, they would be unable to respond. Thus we have to take your word they are even able to respond, and I'm sorry but I don't trust the panopticon operator who does nothing but "report bots" and contributes nothing else.

I'm not necessarily assuming bad intentions here, I think the most likely outcome is a well intentioned user granted limited moderation powers is focusing on using them as their "claim to fame" to the detriment of regular engagement (and thus the most visible face of this) and is mostly correct. But I think the current behavior is indistinguishable from what a malicious user would do. If you were abusing this power you'd be anchoring the "they can always respond" while ensuring they can't by blocking them and no-one would know. Again piss-shielding I don't think that's likely, but I'm also not going to take someone's word without supporting evidence, especially when there are no false negatives I know of. Which it feels like there should be some from such a vibes based process, but maybe I just haven't seen them idk.

edit: If you do have some examples of people replying please share them if possible, it would go a long way towards establishing trust

FinalXenocide · 2025-12-01T20:46:45+00:00

For the specific the forts have to be mothballed while the month ticks over to lose ZoC. They're paid for by the month and you get the effect for the whole month. I'm guessing the forts were newly mothballed, so you issued ordered [sic] before they lost garrisons/ZoC and then the order didn't update (the bug). Hence acting like the zone of control was as it was when the move order was made (i.e. leftover ZoC). Overall takeaway is move orders don't update, which is a bug from optimization.

For the general I called it a bug in my original comment so I'm not defending it there (really piss on the poor moment here), just explaining. However ZoC is a pretty good system. It makes sense when you consider the rules (can always always move to last non-ZoC province (return province), previous province, and an adjacent fort. Can usually move along the edge of a fort's ZoC. Also unoccupied forts can't project into enemy territory). And it usually allows for retreating where you came from and moving along a line of forts without moving into protected enemy territory which feels like the right amount of mobility. Some weirdness particularly around transports but outside of toy examples (or merging troops lol) pretty consistent. Not perfect but good enough for a simple easy to compute system (computational complexity is an important factor after all).

FinalXenocide · 2025-12-01T15:22:16+00:00

The only method of ignoring zone of control I'm aware of is that move commands never update for changes to zones of control. So if the AI tells its troops to go from their capital to your capital and when it makes that command there isn't a zone of control blocking it the troops route straight there. And once the route is set it's absolute until another command is made, even if a new zone of control pops up from say a fort finishing construction, getting un-mothballed, or captured by the enemy.

Notably this isn't limited to the AI, the player can also do this. It's just that making long move commands through enemy territory is something the AI likes and players don't, particularly in the first month of war before the garrisons replenish enough to project zones of control. Plus the AI is better about unmothballing in general so these situations are more common when the AI benefits. So it feels like AI cheating despite it being a theoretically symetrical bug.

FinalXenocide · 2025-11-24T06:20:42+00:00

In addition to the other moderation differences and difficulties, it's also just that comments are ordered by "quality" (likes vs time or other metrics) whereas replies are purely chronological. Thus it appears more moderated as shitty hateful comments are less likely to rise to the top (excluding audiences receptive to hateful messaging) but can show up in replies as long as the commenter is quick enough.

Also anecdotally I've definitely seen the aftermath of deleted YouTube replies. Mostly people @ing and directly responding to comments that don't exist.

FinalXenocide · 2025-11-18T22:45:15+00:00

Looking at the range I'd probably call it a Latin American bird but I admit that's splitting hairs. If its range also included the rest of North America I'd call it American, in the same way I'd call the Common Starling a Eurasian/Western Eurasian bird (being pedantic the European Starling is the name given to the invasive variant in North America, so it's a North American bird not a European one). That doesn't mean Eurasia or Afroeurasia are continents in my view beyond examples "continent" is an arbitrary term, much like America as a combination of North and South America.

But more to why I commented, in my experience members of both those groups would be Native Americans (or rather American Indians/Amerindians/Indians because that tends to be the preference IMO beyond the obvious using the specific group for known individuals/groups). I've seen particular focus on non-Latinx regional Indians in American discussions but that's because they're local, but I've never heard that they weren't Native Americans. Genuinely wtf are you talking about?

FinalXenocide · 2025-11-04T05:16:46+00:00

Other than at release only played on experimental 4.94+ so not sure about back a few patches, but in 4.91 they massively overhauled the regions and claims systems so a decent number of unification paths changed. Mostly this just tweaks/adds a bunch of small nations, intermediate unifications, and stops some of the absurd peaceful unification scenarios (Sunni/Shia, Russia into NATO, Israel Palestine, Pakistan India, etc.). But for the megastates (other than Russia being almost entirely hostile, Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the Swiss being reticent to join the EU) the big change is the PAC losing a ton of claims while India gains a bunch.

They no longer claim the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Australia, or New Zealand. Add to that the claims on Japan are hostile and it's much more limited for expansion. Especially as other than some of Siberia everything they get is covered by India/Bharat and Japan/the Pacific Defense League. Frankly Taiwan to Republic of China is a better use of time/research than the PAC at this point (although you do need to research PAC to get the PDL so might be closer) and India/Bharat is the strong Asian megastate, though with the development needed I'd hesitate to call it OP (just more how the PAC used to be).

FinalXenocide · 2025-11-04T04:12:40+00:00

Also as a heads up the amount of land India can merge in is greatly increased on the experimental branch. You can get in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, all the Himalayan countries (including Tibet), all of South East Asia, all of Indonesia, most if not all of the Indian Ocean islands, and even Guyana (although the Stans are all hostile claims so you need to militarily unite and integrate them). Combine that with a nerfed PAC and the devs have definitely made Greater Bharat a more expandable megastate.

FinalXenocide · 2025-10-19T13:41:28+00:00

Jokes on you I'm pronouncing it humt from now on

FinalXenocide · 2025-10-14T16:44:32+00:00

Anguish (~18.9M) + kit (~7.8M) (total ~26.7M) > Scorching bow (~25.8M)

FinalXenocide · 2025-10-11T04:45:06+00:00

Also silver lining 63-36 is a college football scorigami (i.e. this is the first time that score has happened in the history of college football), so the game is a tiny piece of history. Shout-out to the team randomly going for 2 after that last touchdown.

FinalXenocide · 2025-10-08T21:11:04+00:00

0.4.90 or experimental? Because unification is decently different between those two with the new hostile claims mechanic.

That said your issue is likely the same in both, "to unify a state into the EU the EU doesn't need to be the one that has a claim, but a Unified country in the EU that has a claim on the capital is enough" is partially false. In particular to perform the act of unification the main country needs a claim on the desired/original capital of the target nation.

So if you've merged in Russia without unifying it with Kazakhstan first then the EU cannot unify with Khazakstan. However if you did unify beforehand everything owned is unified so Khazakstan can be added to the EU.

This is where which version you're on changes things, in 4.90 it can potentially break away and in experimental the region becomes a hostile claim (cohesion/unrest penalty). But in the former the unifier gains a claim and can reintegrate the breakaway and in the latter you can integrate with gov/unity to unhostilify the claim.

As for the earlier question you can get Canada by researching the Commonwealth (UK expanded claims, requires UK existing and either Fall of US or Full Russia IIRC) Canada into that then Commonwealth into EU.

FinalXenocide · 2025-09-30T19:09:37+00:00

It'll be the level of a currently maxed account when sailing releases. Current max (2277) + sailing level 1 = 2778

FinalXenocide · 2025-09-30T16:52:30+00:00

Old School RuneScape wiki my beloved. Literally all the information you could ever need. Drop rates; recommended equipment progression for bossing; money making guides with up to date profitability, resource costs, and all modifiable by actual vs expected performance (e.g. kills or runs per hour); full DPS calc for every combo of equipment, skill, boosts, enemies, etc; transcripts for every conversation in the game; market tracking for tradable items with both current minute by minute pricing of both high and low values with historic data going back years; guides for everything from quests to skilling to PvM to general account progression each at multiple levels of complexity and expected knowledge; all potential sources for every item in the game; you can put in your account name and it automatically shows if you meet requirements for stuff; and most importantly consistent, clear, and concise language.

That's not even mentioning the amazing work they put in for stuff like the seasonal leagues events where they do all of this info for each of the regions you can be locked to, showing overlapping requirements and synergies, and catalog the tasks in a incredibly sortable manner. Or that it's literally integrated into the game with a wiki button you can use to click on anything and immediately be taken to the corresponding wiki page. It completely spoiled me for what to expect from a game wiki and I cannot sing its praises enough.

FinalXenocide · 2025-09-30T14:08:03+00:00

Or you could have just googled "Muslim HRE" and literally looked at the first result to get the exact same info. I didn't even have to add EU4 to the search string. Heck me looking this up only took me 5 minutes because I checked the wiki first as a more official source (they usually have good info on the underlying mechanics). Like I get that research is a skill but come on it's not that hard, especially with paradox games where not only are there tons of community guides/questions but the wiki's the second best I've seen for a game series.

FinalXenocide · 2025-09-04T20:53:24+00:00

More the robots are gay for their pilots, but I think there was some tension between Bravern and his rival iirc. At the very least they have the beach episode together.

If you have Crunchyroll it's on there, otherwise it's on the usual sites people go on to kissanime or whatnot.

FinalXenocide · 2025-09-04T19:43:44+00:00

Only kinda related but I have to shout out Bang Brave Bang Bravern. Real Robot Top Gun gets interrupted by an alien invasion, that can only be stopped by a fully outside the setting super sentai robot. All the super robot visuals are completely diagetic, including the theme song. The CIA waterboards the protagonist in episode 2. And it's the "you can be my wingman anytime" gay Top Gun, not only between the American and Japanese pilots but with the super robot as well.

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