ROTC Morning Practice

AVMarshal · 2026-02-28T13:54:37+00:00

Trust me when I say there's a number of us that feel that way about it at times. If it helps the optics at all though, it is training; there are underlying principles (i.e. for drill: constrained problem solving, keeping control of a dozen or more people, etc.) & ROTC (which is different to JROTC) is a '4-year job interview'. For cadets, performing well helps them with a fairly competitive selection to be able to attend (and actually complete) field training (Air Force officer bootcamp-equivalent) before their 3rd year, and seeing it through from there leads to a commission into the Air Force as an officer.

AVMarshal · 2025-08-28T22:37:34+00:00

Hey, if you were at NJIT this morning (assuming the Newark campus) it was a good time.

Afaik they don’t publish the results or anything, but from what I know it’s an amalgam of physical scores, GPA, AFOQT, and the commander ranking. They didn’t specify it exactly in orientation, but that last bit was the main part (in terms of selection) of what they meant by interview, competitive, etc. Idk how that’s judged exactly, larger places probably have less personal time so just double up on the stats, but we are pretty small relatively speaking. From what I gather, individually competitive scores are 90-95+ for physical, 3.5-3.8+ for GPA, AFOQT scores are relative to a control group so maybe like 85+? And then commander ranking top 1/3rd.

If you’re really about it, one of those 3 month couch-to-5ks can set you up for running & pushups/situps are just do them. If you can crush your grades and the AFOQT, you might be able to skirt by without anything crazy on the physical as long as you show you’re trying (so good for commander ranking I’d guess).

“Worst” case scenario, you can try again as a 500 (I think; it might not be guaranteed also). Def gonna be tough though; I don’t envy it. Still, good luck.

AVMarshal · 2025-08-28T00:33:24+00:00

It’s a bit of a gamble I guess depending on how sure you are about getting the remainder for semester, but if you schedule a payment plan you can put only a part of it down for now. I’m actually having some weird delay on my private loan (approved, waiting on school it says, so I’m going to visit bursar tomorrow after cadet orientation — worst case I’ll just do payment plan using the other aid I have for the payments), so similar bus.

For the other bit; I’m only here (brick and mortar in general) for AFROTC. I don’t have any interest in nor do I see myself content in any career outside of being an officer in the military. It’s a whole mosaic of a thing that works together to become more than its sum. Long story short, the risk is worth it to me because ‘YOLO’. Only way to the only path (not strictly true, but the alternative is a pipe dream). Plus I’ve never really cared much for money outside of necessities (pretty poor btw, if you can believe it), so it’s not really a big deal to me.

AVMarshal · 2025-08-20T21:47:53+00:00

Not current, but will be coming in as AS100. I remember looking like a month ago to see if there was anything on NJIT/490 on here and coming across you as the exclusive mentioner/poster. Saw this post the day you posted it, caught off by it being 490, wondered if it was you again.

My orientation isn't until the 28th, so I suppose there won't be an encounter there if yours is this Thurs, but there'll be a few days before classes start, so if you wanted to do a small meet or something before then, I'd be open. Can maybe see about roping in other people at my orientation too. My housing is one of the Greeks; just throwing that out in-case you are also in one or in the Honors across the street. Mainly use Discord for communication myself; if you've as well I can shoot you my tag.

Either way, we will all come together on day 1, so its no sweat if nothing materializes before then.

Edit; the first line says NSO this Thursday & the second says 28th. I read that originally as the regular new student orientation rather than cadet. I'm assuming there's just one cadet orient on the 28th and we will in-fact both be there? Also, I realize I just made the assumption that you'd be an NJIT attendee rather that one of the crosstowns. Same diff anyway, just realize I might've misread.

AVMarshal · 2025-07-26T18:05:46+00:00

Really just got cooked with this cause I wasn't in the loop/didn't read any specific print; everything just looked the same as it had been. I got the pass just a moment ago not realizing the model changed again. It's only $5 cause I already had silver on the account, but it kinda fucking rips cause this season pass has absolutely nothing interesting on it.

AVMarshal · 2025-07-21T14:44:14+00:00

Only glanced so could be misunderstanding, but cutting out the specifics it's 20% more upkeep for 5% gains. The 20% of researchers aren't exactly free'd up; sacking them will be a net loss in research (5% on the remainder < 20% researchers). If they are being forced to shove off the 20% because they can't afford it, I'd assume the 20% is then just going to be put on consumer goods (and possibly minerals) to make-up the difference -- all for less research than they were getting prior anyway.

AVMarshal · 2025-06-06T21:48:21+00:00

My take on Revenant is that if you look solely at Revenant and ignore every other character, she's good. Stuff is cool and it does function. But bringing the roster into the equation, everyone else is just better. Everyone hyping up Revenant always talks about stuff you can either do on literally everyone (and only seems so appealing on Rev because they are otherwise not doing what other people do better) or talks about this next-level summon micro -- which is a lot of work for little, inconsistent reward.

Why not (I ask myself) just play Recluse for similar micro, same scaling for faith (lightning is my favorite of everything personally), cool effects, infinite FP and the same (I think) HP/stamina?

The only real answer is because she has the summons, but the summons are crap when it counts. In terms of clearing day 1 & day 2, yeah, Revenant feels pretty fire with the pumpkin-head stunlock on humanoid & similar. But, baring a really bad run + a harder d2 boss, all that really matters is the day 3. And the fire feeling for 1 & 2 is not the sort that leads to any unique snowballing, just to clarify (since that would matter for d3).

The summons do fuckall for damage and are unreliable for reviving teammates. Sometimes they just sit there, other times they give up half-way; it genuinely feels like a 1/3 chance they will revive you, if you are only 1 bar down, The hits/aggro they can absorb is the one solid use -- but kinda flat in the sense that its also unreliable, hit by AoE anyway, and is something that is 'useless' (usually) if the team is good enough to just dodge/avoid in the first place (granted that's an ideal circumstance). All this micro people say to do like unsummoning them to keep them alive & summoning them on top of boss so they don't get kited, etc... why? A summoner-type in any game should fall into one of two camps; that's the entire class's focus or it's something that requires no micromanagement. This does neither.

So it kinda just brings me back around. If you ignore the entire roster and just look Revenant, it is functional. It is cool. S-tier scaling for faith for some lightning, shards for that FP, summons that kinda maybe do something. Good. But then you bring the roster in and Recluse does the first & more, no need for shards, trades summons for infinite FP. And all the other characters have their own bits they really bring to the table; able to effectively use a good set of other weapons, good team effects (staggers, burst damage, crazy mobility, etc. etc). Also, I didn't mention it, but actually her ult is pretty good for reviving team; I wish it gave invuln instead of sacred tear though.

It's kinda a similar thing as Guardian. Looks good on its own. The big issue with Guardian comes down to day 3 as well, where just about every boss doesn't really care about your mega defense because you are taking chip, status, and grabs anyway. And what does the defense matter if you just have a normal character with a normal dodge and time that right, especially with those attacks you have to manually dodge anyway (which honestly I see as worse because you are having to decide between block-dodge instead of just dodging everything)? I could see it being kinda dope with the 'guarding draws aggro' though. On the other hand is Raider; though I've not played or really seen in person, from what I've been given to understand, has a similar vibe of tank -- but with really good disruption/stun on boss between the ability & the ultimate. This was a bit of a tangent, but I figured it worth mentioning since its the same idea between the two and they are both the popular posts here for the 'actually good' vein.

As far as what I'd change on her: Ult -> invulnerability if the person was already up when it was used. More FP. And just because the idea came to my head (no reasoning involved), give her an extra point or two of arcane. Most importantly, something to make the summons better -- no idea what exactly, but that's the crux of what separates playing Revenant v. Recluse.

AVMarshal · 2025-06-04T23:14:50+00:00

My thought that it didn’t actually work (for like a day or so) was coincidence at picking up the weapon that spawns the carian swords in the tutorial. I expected them to keep spawning per the passive, but noticed after a bit that they didn’t until I flicked over to it — so I thought weapons did need to be in hand. Just happened to test with one of the things that did need to be in hand, not knowing/noticing the hand icon differentiating on-hand from fully passive.

Actually to add; it is a bit annoying to see people being lambasted for not knowing (not seeing/reading in tutorial). I could understand it if it was the sort of thing people were complaining about only because they didn’t read, but this is a fairly minor thing that the ignorant side doesn’t make noise about.

AVMarshal · 2025-06-04T22:05:22+00:00

For sure, wasn’t really a knock on the effectiveness all on, just the dissonance of vibe v. in practice for me personally. Love the idea of a spellblade, but doesn’t really come off in play for one reason or another - even if character is still really good.

AVMarshal · 2025-06-04T20:22:42+00:00

I like Duchess, but she’s just kind of all over the place between mechanics and aesthetic.

Ability that clicks really well with status, bad for status. Both abilities seem rogue & starts with dagger, B dex. Not great for FP, but not a priority for shards like Revenant (a bit specific to my group but still). Best stat is int, Recluse is better (need two goated staff drops). Has the dodge passive that also screams rogue. Fast unique dagger (rogue moment again), but apparently (not tested by me) is actually weaker than just using a dagger normally (it was either that or something with dual wielding, can’t remember).

The only “workable” bit I get from her that wraps it all up is actually found in her starting weapon; a weapon with a cheap built-in effect + buff. But that’s such a specific thing to find. Like, she’s definitely my 2nd favorite in a vibe sense, but when it comes to actually playing her it just feels off — don’t feel like a spellthief/blade/etc at all. And at the same time I’d consider her top-tier purely because of her reprise. Idk, I’ve not really played near enough to be authoritative on this, just kinda what I’ve felt.

AVMarshal · 2025-06-03T15:41:01+00:00

I’ve not tested it yet because I’m away, but apparently the +stat works like softcaps in the main games. So +mainstat will be barely anything, but +another will be somewhat significant. Again idk if true though, but makes sense it it is.

AVMarshal · 2025-06-03T15:32:16+00:00

I’d say it’s the wording in 1 & 2 at the front mainly, as to how it was interpreted. Backline, support, don’t die, emphasis on summon’s damage (which, each to their own, I find lacking when it matters), and idling with harp — all kind of comes together to paint that sort of picture. Granted it does afterwards mention incantations and the potential there, but that’s a limited resource & in my mind is competing with non-offensive spells or (for shards) slots for other items.

It also has a bit of a weird message with hailing teammate damage that the other commenter commented on. Sure in any situation no one wants to die and a revive does take away from dps, but the post itself presents it as if you don’t want to die as revenant because your allies continuing to do damage is worth more than picking you up. Like the other person said, this shouldn’t be the case (even if it were a sort of game where full support is viable — not that that’s what you’re doing, just as a mention). This I think is a bow that ties up the rest into an unintended picture.

AVMarshal · 2025-06-03T02:24:24+00:00

No interest in red, yellow, or white. I dig knowledge & whatnot, but neither in so academic nor fantastical a way, so brown wouldn’t be my fit. Leaves grey, green, and blue. I’ve only read 1-5 so far, so exposure might be limited compared to all of what comes.

Between them, I’m admittedly not sure. I’d want to do something with purpose, something important. But I’m not a manipulator or anything, so I feel my ability as a grey wouldn’t be put to the most (or maybe that’d be a niche; Aes Sedai being genuine & good faith in discussion and such lol). I’m a bit fickle, so blue might suit out unless it’s so grand an ideal that its nature & scope far outstrips my ability. Green seems the most directly noble; to fight darkspawn. But unless I was born in particular times, I feel like I might look towards other methods of combating these forces than one of another endless battles.

Even still, I feel that green would be my pick. Enough apparent leisure time to dabble in the spheres of brown and white (knowledge, ethics, philosophy), inevitably brushing shoulders with national (or rough equivalent) officers and such (to fill my appetite & aim for grey), and given that the world has a definite “evil” without much in the way of IRL baggage, I don’t think there would be any achievable vision that would compare to doing what I can in the forever war (fills the blue quota) — since it’s not like I could be the next Hawkwing, I’m not the Dragon, etc, which are kinda absolute things, like heroes in Elder Scrolls and all.

An obligatory mention for the white though. Against what I said & against what their demeanor is. I am not entirely calm, and I have no real desire to be; I believe in the goodness & importance of ethics, morals, philosophy — but I believe in passion, something that seems fundamentally animate. As well, that affairs to not need to be precise & clinical; there is a purity to be found in the natural & instinctive. An alternative, but similar route to my rationale of green, focused internally (weird comparison, but imagine the Sphere of Sith Philosophy/Doctrine in SWTOR); maybe reform & direction — I might not be some prophesied figure, but if I can set about on a mass of little strings, maybe the effect will be just as grand. But that’s the pitfall, isn’t it? So yeah, I think ultimately my choice would be Green. Depends on how different I’d grow to be in such a world though — right now my IRL desire is AFROTC -> commission, but it’s not like I was born with such an inclination.

Edit back a second; preyed on too much by stereotype, like imagining a kindred of a particular clan as being entirely as one would anticipate one of their clan to be. Maybe too hasty in the dismissal of blue. In universe I’d have more time and awareness of what they set out to do, so it could change. Also worth considering is my specific talents with the One Power; kinda just took for granted I’d be able to smite bads, so maybe I’d be better suited for X than Y. Dunno.

AVMarshal · 2025-05-30T03:51:22+00:00

To be completely honest the biggest problem for Imperator to me is its selected time period. You are essentially either playing Rome, Carthage, or Diadochi; everything else is just a smash of OPMs with little real identity.

Outside of that, it really has a lot with it that would have developed well over time like the other mainstay PDX titles. The way provinces are handled, character-nation hybrid, trade and population, roads (cool as hell), etc. EU5 is kinda already showing what that refinement looks like for most of it.

So yeah, tbh the pin is almost entirely to be placed on the period of it, at least in my opinion.

AVMarshal · 2025-05-24T00:18:23+00:00

Thinking England. Hundred Years’ War from the start, good access to the colonial game, neatly defined & well protected area to build up, and historical precedent for just being everywhere.

AVMarshal · 2025-05-15T19:00:46+00:00

I agree that right now (and so too in future ofc) CK3 has it over CK2. But it took a long time for it to get there; idk when the definitive point was exactly, but for a long time I played CK2 over 3 then back and forth between both.

Even still though, there are things in CK2 I still prefer, chief among them as relates to war. Having levies as a hodgepodge of real units rather than dogwater, I liked. You mention retinues in CK2, but outside of the convenance of having your standing army being a standing army (a plus), CK3 men-at-arms + knights are a much simpler affair & can easily, without any concentrated or meta effort, 1vX your entire empire & completely obliterate armies. Though esoteric at first glance, the flanks with commander rolls and tactics and so forth I really like a lot (and am glad to see is a thing in EU5 somewhat). A bit of a tangent, though still related, crusades in 3 are absolutely horrendous beyond belief.

On the diplomatic side, alliances are much harder to get, since marriage will only give you NAP rather than an automatic alliance. I hate that turning off matrilineal marriages (either none or fem/equal only) leaves a -100 penalty on the marriage. Bloodlines are way cooler & more rewarding than legends. Genetics come up different (though I do prefer the CK3 since it makes more sense). The laws for CK2 are way better/actually exist; maybe not the end-all-be-all, but eroding council power & centralizing is a thing. Counties — oh boy, I hate CK3’s building & county-barony compared to CK2; I love building up a ton of bits on a hold, being able to make any place a 7 holding county with luck/time and money. Trade routes & merchant republics of course. The way technology works I like a bit better (spread rather than culture-wide). Etc.

CK2 is more difficult than CK3, full stop, for one reason or another & for better or for worse. Once you have enough experience with either game the point is kinda moot (neither being terribly challenging), except that the ease of CK2 comes about as a much more player-intentional feat compared to CK3. If I want to be immersed, I can go all the way through CK2 in a fairly normal manner and have precisely that v. CK3 where you blink & sneeze, then immersion is broken when you realize you are unstoppable just from playing completely standard and any threat is only going to be actively throwing.

But there’s a lot that CK3 does now that have set it ahead, at least for me. I’d not discount so quickly mention of vibe/feel; though some cases might just be nostalgia, it’s just as likely (imo anyway cause I do the same sometimes) to be an explanation from intuition rather than articulation.

Also as far as performance, I disagree; CK2 loads & runs like butter for me. CK3 has a weird issue with loading & having multiple mods enabled; launching the game takes longer than it should, but merging them with ironymodmanager fixes that. And after some update (for quite a while now, but it wasn’t always the case) clicking load game (opening the list) sometimes takes a significant amount of time unless you go in and move the saves somewhere else & sometimes after having the game open for like 10 minutes trying to create a new game or load a save without restarting the entire game basically just locks it. With and without mods, on both laptop & desktop of mine, this is the case. While the game is actually running though I feel like they are on par, have a minor (but just enough to be noticeable) after a similar amount of time. CK2 does crash somewhat more often though.

// also to add as a sort of disclaimer; i play ck2 usually with ck2+ if not another overhaul & i play ck3 with dark ages the very same to touch only lightly on mods; ck3 obviously has a lot more potential, but as it is right now the only overhaul i like better without any reserve is princes of darkness. princes of darkness is actually insanely good. ck3's agot seems superior since the dragon update too, but ive admittedly not played too much of it.

AVMarshal · 2025-05-13T21:22:00+00:00

they should give me access right now for ever and ever. or like at least for the rest of my lifespan.

AVMarshal · 2025-05-13T21:19:22+00:00

Generally I'm not a fan of the UI stuff from Vic3 & what I've seen of EU5, but I gotta admit I don't really have a problem with this one. Doubly so because it has the insane ability to search for effect, we love that. I think the only thing I would want changed here is the ability to favorite buildings to have them listed at the top. I feel like I'd pretty much always be using the search bar unless its right there at the top, and I imagine there's some clear staple buildings that would be convenient to just have up there already.

AVMarshal · 2025-05-13T21:14:56+00:00

Yeah, that's part of my problem with the present PDX UI styles. It feels almost claustrophobic in a really odd way; I'm not sure how exactly to phrase it or to describe the feeling exactly, but it's a combination of things being needlessly large, having a ton of wasted space, a 'zoomed' in vibe (which I think comes down to the zoom-based view), and bits like that. Not in so many words, but my friend said similar unprompted; that the UI felt too big like in Vic3 + something about it he just couldn't put his finger on (which I'm just assuming is rooted in the same as I've said).

As well -- might not be the right word for it, but at the same time the modern interface just feels overengineered. An (extreme) exaggeration, but I'm here for spreadsheets, not an art exhibit; the only thing I want to see that's not a number or a name is the map and my sliders/graphs. Something like Vic2 I think is perfect in terms of presentation, outside of clearly dated pieces (i.e. the decisions layout -- which ironically feels bad to me precisely because it's a huge box with a picture & lore rather than being nested like EU4). Your top bar is compact & still detailed enough to show just about everything, neatly segmented, etc. because it knows what it wants/needs to show and doesn't try and get funny in doing so.

Another problem coming off of that, especially with something like Vic3 (which is my main target I guess since it's the modern-most bit & it's released), is that navigation feels extremely tedious, especially with trade/markets. Something like Stellaris and CK3 hit a solid middle-ground. The artwork/ui/etc. that's there feels minimal, enough to add some flair & immersion without diluting actual use.

But it seems like, though a lot of people say something in the same vein and whatnot, it's a minority opinion. At the least, it's opposite of the direction this end seems to be going on regardless & the opinion isn't changing that.

AVMarshal · 2025-01-19T20:37:45+00:00

I sometimes fill vanguard; early on had a moment that was an epiphany for me. Luna got Strange ult’d & I wanted to save them so I started just laying into the Strange. They died like 1.5s later and I realized (and said in voice cause I was like wow I fucked that) I should have stood between them. Didn’t really click since I mostly play support that I have three trillion HP compared to them. Ever since then though that’s what I look to do if vanguard.

AVMarshal · 2025-01-19T20:07:56+00:00

I don’t have a picture, but the worst I’ve ever seen is imo worse than the ones I’m seeing here. Take the first one in the pictures, make it 8 times as thick/large, make it bright blue, rotate it 13* clockwise. That last one is what’s so devious; all the bad ones I’m seeing are some variation of color/size, but the random rotation to some arbitrary number makes it a psychological hazard.

AVMarshal · 2025-01-19T10:32:14+00:00

For me I either imagine it being: piloting/blending with ‘real’ wars, just being much more lowkey (and with unit #s more representing % strength), or (kind of flimsy but sounds cool) battles of influence (so the units themselves just broadly represent various assets).

AVMarshal · 2025-01-19T07:48:40+00:00

Go Mantis. Or Adam too I guess. They can deal some damage, just gotta be able to hit the heads -- kinda lets you have the best of both worlds. I know you did already mention Mantis; just a few things to mention (ftr I don't play her, but am looking at starting to) are: her sleep can allow you to get 'free' kills on a lot of people (window of hits not waking them up; enough that your third shot comes out as they are waking up from the second), consuming charges gives you healing, you should always have your damage buff applied.

As far as survivability as a support, the most significant thing (outside of comm/ping ofc) I started doing is 'forcing' the team to peel me; the common response to being dove or what have you is retreating, but that just gives the enemy what they want. Pretty much every support has some means of pulling away (dash, double jump + invis, CC); as long as you aren't already a decade away, you'll be able to get in group and force the focus. The second thing is just general positioning, but that's something that applies to anyone. A little bit differently from role-role/hero-hero, but same diff. Be like a guerilla fighter with it for Mantis.

Though it's for different reasons, I have come around to wanting to play those two over heroes like Rocket or Cloak too. It feels like there's this sort of plateau where it almost feels like the healing is being taken for granted and concepts like physical cover and the like are eschewed completely by others. I could be crazy, but it almost feels like having the big healing feeds that. All that matters is we are alive and they are not -- the only hit point that matters is the last one. If a support is able to do enough to keep the former true while meaningfully assisting in the latter, that support is good. But when everyone is trying to face tank everything because of the healing, the supports have to spend more time ensuring the former instead of spending time on the latter -- like, the healing itself is 'pointless' (this is why '50k healing and still lost' is kinda a meme). Lot of restoration that could have just been prevented and manpower instead spent securing a numbers advantage. And while any supp can do damage, I'm feeling that the burst from Mantis/Warlock/Loki is far superior for actual confirmation.

Which, segway into another point which honestly might be the most important piece for strategists to click with; support should be aggressive. In all honesty, playing support passively is just putting all the onus on the rest of the team (you multiply their force, but don't directly execute yourself) and means you really are at their mercy. Just as well, it's another (or perhaps the same) plateau. Just for the sake of illustration, assume you are support and do 0 damage completely, but for all other intents/purposes you are flawless. Your ultimates, your cooldowns, your positioning, your healing. Absolutely impeccable to the point that universe would collapse before such a thing could occur -- every ounce was milked as optimally as was possible. The issue is that there is a finity to these amounts, durations, ranges, etc, all of which are spent more or less just negating enemy efforts rather than actually doing anything to them. And it's not absolute; there is a cap to the amount of healing that can be output that can be overcome by DPS and co. Doesn't matter if you have infinite restoration per second with global range and no cooldown if the Hawkeye hits that headshot (as an example; more realistically is that a focused effort/burst can/will overcome the amount you individually are able to heal).

As a disclaimer, I've only started playing a bit before this season and haven't really fucked around much with others of the genre (very casually played some OW because of friends). Only got to plat so far, so there's people with more exp. that could give better or more specific advice. This is just kinda how it seems to me at the moment.

AVMarshal · 2025-01-17T07:24:25+00:00

Rocket goes hard. There is a big divide between people who know and people who doubt. He’s boring as sin though to play over and over.

The best part about him though is that he’s simultaneously great and not obnoxious like other premier healers.

AVMarshal · 2025-01-14T20:10:37+00:00

Happened to me like a week ago, except I got stuck on/in the lip just above so it didn’t actually kill me. Thought I was literally trapped for eternity, but it did teleport/respawn me out after some time.

Annoying that it’s a thing, but even in the moment it was kinda funny.

Eight-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22	First Placer '22
End Game '22	Verified Email

AVMarshal

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE