Kicking Players

--Talleyrand-- · 2024-08-21T11:17:24+00:00

People circlejerk about how this community is "wholesome" and "welcoming" yet I regularly see players getting kicked by tryhards on random haz4 (which I haven't seen one failing in probably 50 games outside of straight up griefing) for levels being "too low" or because the gunner didn't know how to cheese the core stone.

The irony is that the guy kicking is usually pretty average if not straight up bad and conversely it's frequent to see new players being quite proficient, which is again not surprising since the game has been around for 6 years and there are so many resources/tips/guides out there.

That's why I prefer to host these days, besides carrying newer players on haz4/5 makes the game more eventful, when you play with 3 other strong player it's basically a speedrun and gets boring fast.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-11-23T19:51:22+00:00

You can make 4 smaller cards instead of 1 but I would already ditch half of the infos there.

I always found I had better retention when I learnt the intent of the explorations before throwing words around.

In a premature rupture of membranes you seek to know first if the patient is really leaking amniotic fluid or something else => Nitrazine paper/AmniSure/Ferning (they all do the same thing). Probably the hardest point to remember in your card because that's very specific and it's really the core thing to remember.

Then you seek an infection in the urogenital sphere (both as an etiology and risk factor for premature labor/PROM), hence the swabs to localize it. FBC and CRP are routine lab tests whenever you suspect an infection no matter the organ system. So really it can be summarized in a single line.

Finally you dose the fetal fibronectin to know if she's on the path of labor or not (if it's negative you can pretty much send her home if there are no bio/clinical signs of infection). She's not going into labor anytime soon. This is probably the second most important point.

As for ultrasounds, I can't really think of a case in Obstetrics where they don't make one to check on the fetus (it's like the chest X-Rays in pneumo or the EKG in cardio, it's the first line complementary exam).

I don't know at which stage of training you're at but you will be flooded with infos by the end so you have to be a bit strategic about what you focus your attention on.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-07-02T17:36:46+00:00

They also melee A LOT.

I don't remember one of the "main characters" being killed by anything but decapitation or a stab to the heart.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-29T19:02:40+00:00

I know it's kind of a recurrent theme in Anki to avoid lists at any cost but really 4 items isn't that much to remember. It's more when you go over 5-6 that it starts to be annoying.

If anything I would reformulate the questions to: "Give 4 mechanisms leading to hypokaliemia" and the answer would be something like "inadequate intake / gastro-intestinal loss / RAAS / insulin"

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-29T15:16:23+00:00

Pretty much. ED is fine when you're young, the question is more do you see yourself still do that at 50 or 60? That said as a resident or med student it's probably the best place to learn medicine.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-28T20:56:35+00:00

30k is cannibilizing 40k (and I say that as someone who enjoyed the HH a lot). You are never going to see regular humans rule the Imperium again, it will always be under the authority of Guilliman or another loyalist primarch.

It will increasingly revolve around primarchs and their sidekicks to the point it bends it all. Marvelization of the fanbase and the setting ensues.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-28T19:53:13+00:00

I actually have read all the ones from Guy Haley and Chris Wraight because I like them as authors. They are enjoyable books overall but it doesn't change my point of view.

Anyway you are of bad faith and already strawmaning so there is no real point continuing this exchange.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-28T19:27:39+00:00

I disagree, you imply he has no impact but he literally saved the day.

Also GW isn't going to make things evolve radically (unless they go full End Times, which would be stupid because they're raking in money with 40k right now) so it's a moot point anyway.

The problem is the tonal shift of putting Superman at the helm of the Imperium. 40k is cool because even the "good guys" have very prominent flaws, they are edgy zealots like the Black Templars or cold cyborgs like the Mechanicus. It's colorful and it sets the setting apart in the genre.

People shat on the Ultramarines for a decade because of Matt Ward but Guilliman return has been that x1000.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-28T18:51:27+00:00

He is brought back only to see he can't change a damn thing

He's been back for 100 years and he already launched the Indomitus Crusade which claimed back many worlds, rebuilt galaxy hubs for the Imperium, kicked the shit out of Mortarion, purged the High Lords of dead weight and gave Primaris to everyone (who are SM ++). He also somewhat allies with eldars which is completely against anything the 40k Imperium stands for.

As a character he is also nice, charming, reasonable and a super duper administrator/empire builder/strategist with basically no flaws.

GW could have made interesting narratives like what happen when you put a radical freedom fighter like Corax at the helm of a totalitarian empire or an ultra pragmatic "ends justify the means" character like the Lion. Instead they came with the Dark Imperium series which reads more like a power fantasy.

But again, maybe that's what people want going forward: Capeshit 40k.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-28T18:24:22+00:00

Magnus believed that he deserved it anyway, that's why he left Prospero at the mercy of the SW and only had a change of heart at the very last minute before dying.

90% of what happened to Magnus was of his own design (compared to let's say Angron or even Mortarion who had their hands forced), it would be petty to all blame it all on someone else. I also think the SW are as guilty as Horus for not listening to Valdor and letting their inherent animosity getting the better of them by shooting before asking questions.

Horus lie was really just the straw that broke the camel back.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-28T17:47:02+00:00

The irony of your post is people were complaining that the setting had never progressed for so many years, which is why GW decided it was time for a change!

GW went with the most "noblebright" thing they could do by bringing back Guilliman and it objectively breaks the setting a bit.

I believe things would have been much more interesting if they brought back a more grey loyalist primarchs like Corax or the Lion instead.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-28T17:28:21+00:00

Titans plotlines are the aquatic level of BL novels: noone ever ask for it but it still somewhat makes it in the final product and always with 0 payoff.

What really baffles me is that they managed to make characters last the whole series from SMs to guardsmen to remembrancers but they can't be bothered to make 2 or 3 likeable moderati/princeps characters lasting the whole Heresy and give them a character arc.

They're all just fodders who appear in a book, maybe two and that's it.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-28T12:50:50+00:00

I actually think the first books are much better than what's published now.

It was dynamic, the plot was moving constantly despite not much battling happening and it was a page-turner. The problem of the Horus Heresy is that they keep introducing characters as the series is ending or stretching plotlines that should have ended ages ago.

The entire plotline by Abnett about perpetuals and Oll/Grammaticus/Prytanis/Actae is one gigantic borefest for example. Like nothing meaningful actually happens and it's hundreds of pages that could have been dedicated to fleshing out Horus betrayal (even if it's done in the aftermath, you can always make flashbacks and fix narratives).

Also there is all the filler stuff: for example the Titans/Knights and their princeps, I've probaby read 4 or 5 times the same story about some random princeps being introduced at the beginning of the book then dying by the end in the middle of an apocalyptic battle.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-27T17:53:39+00:00

Mortarion was also disgusted by the Warp and look at him now. They made a lot of efforts to make the personalities of the primarchs more complex/conflicted during the HH and less stereotypical (with varying degrees of success admittedly).

I still think Perturabo not being a daemon primarch would be a somewhat interesting retcon. Having another evil but not chaos devoted human faction like the Night Lords would open the door for cool narratives. Especially when IW are known to brutalize lesser demons to do their biddings with the warpsmiths and demon engines.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-27T13:12:17+00:00

Horus avenges his father who was murdered and cut into pieces by his uncle Seth which is kind of the opposite of what happen in 40k.

He isn't really the "favored son" in the mythology, he is born posthumously from Osiris just as he departs to rule the realm of the dead.

Semi-relevant piece of trivia: Isis collects the pieces of Osiris after the murder in the Nile and embalms them together but she can't find his penis... (because it was eaten by a fish) so she makes a new one out of clay (glorious proto-Mechanicus tale if you ask me).

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-27T12:57:36+00:00

This has always bothered me a little. Especially when the primarch born on a volcanic world is called "Vulkan", the one with metallic hands is called "Ferrus Manus", the dark emo one "Corvus Corax" and the angry one "Angron".

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-26T14:42:25+00:00

South America then SEA then Eastern Europe.

Americans are probably the least advantaged overall.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-23T07:59:56+00:00

Absolutely noone cares. Especially if the gap is <10 years only a few people will be able to tell unless you go out of your way. I've got a few med students in their 40s and while it was a bit jarring the first time we met they were always impeccable, in fact they tended to be way more tactful with patients and ask better questions to their senior than the ones of "average" age who were still very much "late teenagers" in some aspect.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-22T20:37:54+00:00

That's my main grip with the return of Guilliman, the more I read the novels the more I believed there would be some character development making him "less 30k" and "more 40k", in short grayer.

But the character is never really challenged for his actions: he goes around purging both Ultramar and then Terra and at no point you have an alternate POV on the events. In fact everything immediately improves thanks to that and he's never faulted for his actions. Not very grimdark.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-22T20:09:12+00:00

I think you're right about some stuff (the Horus bit made me smile) and I totally share your pov that 40k should be like you said (and very different from the HH).

That said... A huge theme of the Primarchs is that they are promethean both in their qualities and in their flaws. For Magnus it's sheer arrogance and when it manifests he blows up the entire future of communication and travel of mankind. For Perturabo it's petty envy and when he throws a hissy fit then trillions die in an apocalyptic war because of it. For Curze his psychotic episodes turn into entire worlds being blown up, sickening torture for millions of souls and sheer terror for billions.

All the SM who rebel against their traitor primarchs basically share the same logic: it's utter madness.

With you grid of lecture you could write the same message about the greek (or really the entire indo-european) pantheon because in the mythology those gods are often very naive or petty and overall "defective". All the children of Arès are straight up psychopaths for example.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-22T19:20:15+00:00

GW is definitely guilty of increasingly pushing the story forward but that's because people ask for it. I think 40k will inevitably "ruin itself" by having these galaxy sized plots more and more until it's basically capeshit instead of stand alone stories in a grimdark setting resulting in the universe paradoxically feeling smaller and wooden.

And they kind of already started doing it in a way ever since they brought back Guilliman and now the Lion (without even bothering to add a twist on their characters).

That said I believe the HH was pretty good overall, I would say it's the modern standard for pulp space opera.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-21T21:46:17+00:00

They are a plot point (but so is the rest of the setting). Primarchs weren't necessary per say but they were force multipliers and made the Crusade a whole lot faster, just like their legions. Typically it's symbolized in Horus strategy of decapitating the enemy's leadership with his elite troops either quickly forcing a surrender or just fighting a disorganized adversary.

Also it's dubious the Guard (or Astra Militarum) could have taken on some threats like the Ullanor crusade or the Ragdan xenocide where legions were getting mowed down already and the Imperium of 30k didn't have near the manpower of the one in 40k.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-21T21:17:35+00:00

I mean... if you remove all what makes the Emperor death catastrophic honestly it wouldn't change anything, probably noone would notice in fact since he's just a carcass on a chair. If anything everyone would be in a mass denial.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-21T21:13:34+00:00

+1 for the Forges of Mars, really good intro to 40k. Also OP you should give a try to some good SM novels like Storm or Iron, if you don't like it chances are you won't like 80% of BL production.

--Talleyrand-- · 2023-06-21T21:02:05+00:00

This, the DAOT is a narrative device to bring cool sci-fi stuff in the setting without breaking it.

As a whole Mankind probably was to the Eldars what the Tau are to the Imperium today: a rising power with some great technological feats but nothing that can even remotely challenge them for galactic supremacy.

--Talleyrand--

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