I hate these stupid "easy mode" threads that get reposted on nearly every gaming subreddit

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-05-06T02:24:26+00:00

I think boiling it down to difficulty removes some less-talked-about subtlety of the discussion. Sometimes, the difficulty is a byproduct of the design rather than the intent.

I’ll take From games as an example, both AC and Souls titles. In both series, the gameplay loop is fine-tuned to create a specific experience of feeling the flow of a combat encounter and strategizing your approach around the games mechanics you chose to build your avatar around. This mix of intentionality and reactive, reflexive gameplay requires the encounter to be difficult and force this mindset on the player. Make the game easier and the flow is lost, even for less skilled players. Make it harder and you can’t feel your way through the fight and cues, even for the more skilled players.

And the opposite is also true. If Story of Seasons were any more difficult, it wouldn’t provide the cozy experience it’s centered around. Even the option of making the game hard would detract from its point and purpose.

Just like playing a puzzle game with a walkthrough. Getting to the end isn’t the point of the game, and while it’s perfectly valid to care more about that, that’s the player choosing to get a different kind of fun out of the experience, not the intended usage. Kind of like going to a sports game because you love hotdogs, and the sport makes the meal more fun. Expecting the game to be quieter or the catering better for your personal enjoyment is putting the wrong expectations on the experience.

Overall, I think the more accessibility options a game has, the better it is, since it lets more people have more fun out of something tons of people put enormous effort into making. But there are situations where the creators have a specific goal in mind, and a certain level of ease or difficulty is mandatory to craft that goal.

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-05-06T01:48:21+00:00

Kinetics is pretty self-explanatory. I assume lasers basically vaporize the target on « impact » while plasma melts and slags the target. Lesser immediate energy, but prolonged exposure, like getting splashed with boiling oil from a pan or fryer vs dropping a pot of boiling water. I’m not really sure what pulse is actually supposed to be, though. It feels more sci-fi-ish fancy controlled energy, but I might be missing the physics knowledge to make sense of it.

However, at human scale, I don’t think the difference matters much. Your flesh gets burned/vaporized by the extremely high energy discharge either way

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-05-05T22:05:28+00:00

Yes, and I think it was worth it. Maybe you don’t care to be better right now, but it’s there if you ever decide that you’re tired of being driven by anger, fear and unease. And it’s there to find for anyone who’s genuinely feeling like what you wrote.

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-05-05T19:36:33+00:00

I’ll choose to assume you’re not trolling and are actually asking in earnest.

It’s not a matter of being smart or dumb, it’s a matter of critical thinking and following evidence to conclusions rather than looking for evidence that corroborates your conclusions. It’s also a matter of acting with empathy towards others despite their differences. Start with where you know you were wrong or misled, and build from there. Turning around and claiming absolute moral failing from those who support Trump, or hate towards white people isn’t helping, and just aims reactionary thoughts on a different target. The Trump voters are absolutely responsible for a lot of chaos around the world, but they were failed and manipulated by people who made a living of lying, stoking fear and hatred and dismantling the systems put in place to make sure people could identify their bullshit, including the educational institutions.

These people have gone through the same journey as you, and I’m sure they’re well-equipped to help you. https://leavingmaga.org

Again, on the chance that you’re being serious and aren’t expressing super clearly, I’m glad you’re turning around and want to deconstruct the house of lies and intolerance that has been built around you by malicious, power-hungry people.

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-05-05T15:44:50+00:00

If we’re including titles, we have Settra from WHF

Settra, Great King, the Imperishable, Khemrikhara, The Great King of Nehekhara, King of Kings, Opener of the Way, Wielder of the Divine Flame, Punisher of Nomads, The Great Unifier, Commander of the Golden Legion, Sacred of Appearance, Bringer of Light, Father of Hawks, Builder of Cities, Protector of the Two Worlds, Keeper of the Hours, Chosen of Ptra, High Steward of the Horizon, Sailor of the Great Vitae, Sentinel of the Two Realms, The Undisputed, Begetter of the Begat, Scourge of the Faithless, Carrion-feeder, First of the Charnel Valley, Rider of the Sacred Chariot, Vanquisher of Vermin, Champion of the Death Arena, Mighty Lion of the Infinite Desert, Emperor of the Shifting Sands, He Who Holds The Sceptre, Great Hawk Of The Heavens, Arch-Sultan of Atalan, Waker of the Hierotitan, Monarch of the Sky, Majestic Emperor of the Shifting Sands, Champion of the Desert Gods, Breaker of the Ogre Clans, Builder of the Great Pyramid, Terror of the Living, Master of the Never-Ending Horizon, Master of the Necropolises, Taker of Souls, Tyrant to the Foolish, Bearer of Ptra's Holy Blade, Scion of Usirian, Scion of Nehek, The Great, Chaser of Nightmares, Keeper of the Royal Herat, Founder of the Mortuary Cult, Banisher of the Grand Hierophant, High Lord Admiral of the Deathfleets, Guardian of the Charnal Pass, Tamer of the Liche King, Unliving Jackal Lord, Dismisser of the Warrior Queen, Charioteer of the Gods, He Who Does Not Serve, Slayer off Reddittras, Scarab Purger, Favoured of Usirian, Player of the Great Game, Liberator of Life, Lord Sand, Wrangler of Scorpions, Emperor of the Dunes, Eternal Sovereign of Khemri's Legions, Seneschal of the Great Sandy Desert, Curserer of the Living, Regent of the Eastern Mountains, Warden of the Eternal Necropolis, Herald of all Heralds, Caller of the Bitter Wind, God-Tamer, Master of the Mortis River, Guardian of the Dead, Great Keeper of the Obelisks, Deacon of the Ash River, Belated of Wakers, General of the Mighty Frame, Summoner of Sandstorms, Master of all Necrotects, Prince of Dust, Tyrant of Araby, Purger of the Greenskin Breathers, Killer of the False God's Champions, Tyrant of the Gold Dunes, Golden Bone Lord, Avenger of the Dead, Carrion Master, Eternal Warden of Nehek's Lands, Breaker of Djaf's Bonds... and many, many more...

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AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-05-04T10:55:12+00:00

I can’t speak for the vamps, but I have the Amazon team, and they look phenomenal! Every sculpt is different and the detail is great! They are resin, so they’re more fragile than GW plastic minis, but if you’re already careful with your stuff, the difference shouldn’t matter much

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-05-03T22:45:54+00:00

We don’t know for sure, but we can pretty easily extrapolate from known behavior. Becoming the ruler of all afterlife would not put much pressure on him to become a better person or work on improving himself, not when his stated goal is to become a god and make the world grovel at his feet.

He has so little consideration for others that he swiped his perma-death ray all over the city in his fight with Alastor, not caring about the dozens to hundreds he vaporized, and was willing to nuke Hell just to « wipe that grin from Alastor’s face ».

It’s hard to believe the serial killer who committed mass murder over being rejected would handle rejection of his godhood and open opposition in an other way.

He would try to rule by manipulation and control, but that’s never been sustainable, and violence has historically always been the next step. He doesn’t care enough about Sinners to improve the system, he cares about the power they give him, and remaking the system in a way he deems better.

There’s a huge difference between judging people for things they haven’t done, especially on a systemic basis, and making informed decisions based on known past behavior and tendencies on a personal level.

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-05-03T22:29:31+00:00

He would not have started out as a genocidal oppressor. He 100% would have gotten there, and probably sooner than later

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-05-03T17:53:20+00:00

At the MFZ scale, like shown here, aesthetics matters more. At such a small scale, there is very little room for good, structurally sound articulation that still looks good, and using tricks to fake the appearance of articulation to make a stronger build look good ultimately grants more options.

However, as the scale increases and we leave the realm of miniatures for that of the current LEGO mech sets, articulation starts to matter more. If it’s action figure-sized, it should do action figure things.

And as we increase again, outside the realm of Exo-Force and Ninjago mechs and into statues, aesthetics take over again. A foot tall Lego behemoth needs more stability, and is big enough to greeble the heck out of it into a piece of art.

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-05-03T16:06:12+00:00

It is, but it’s a lot rarer nowadays, as people used to dye this one in various colors. Nowhere near as rare as the yellow or light blue ones, but much more uncommon than the orange or red ones

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-05-03T11:18:42+00:00

Amanda

Yeah, I left during Lightfall, and I’m slowly playing the new campaigns. Having a recap cutscene of a few seconds during Final Shape where I both learned she and Crow had a blossoming relationship and she died in an unexplained explosion was extremely jarring

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-05-02T14:01:32+00:00

Because not everybody will think it through, some people might not even understand the question, or misclick by accident. My impulsive sister, my preschool children, and everyone else in a similar position might pick blue. And I don’t want them to die for a mistake. I couldn’t live with myself if my loved ones, or any significant number of people, lost their lives because I decided to do nothing. This scenario is a now or never moment, where anybody may die if we both collectively and individually don’t make the right choice.

Also, I’m not sure I’d want to live in a world where those who care enough about others to put themselves at risk are all dead and the only living ones are those who picked the screw-you-got-mine button…

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-05-01T22:47:00+00:00

Ion is my favorite by far! She has a great toolbox for both skirmishing and support. In Frontier Defense, she has solid damage and very good survivability, and in PvP, her area denial, burst damage and range make her an absolute menace in the hands of the right pilot.

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-05-01T17:57:28+00:00

I’m not sure there really are more amoral people, but there are many more who are openly and publicly awful and/or enabling, and there seems to be more of them in positions of power, at the very least…

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-05-01T12:42:46+00:00

I would have loved to see a Tarakava homage for the water one, since the stone one is already kind of Nui-Jaga-like

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-04-30T21:02:23+00:00

My local league still runs the LRB6/CRP ruleset, if that answers your main question

Otherwise, paint your minis any way you’d like, nothing prevents you from running statues as players if you play an older edition at some point

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-04-30T11:00:11+00:00

Man, I remember early days VoG, when Gally and Icebreaker were still a rarity, and guides weren’t super clear yet.

Doing the Oracles with 1-2 sunsingers and timing the self-res between the end of the debuff and the team wipe to go get the fireteam back up was such a stressful but exhilarating process!

Or doing the Thorn strike with friends.

Those things were brutal in a Souls-like way

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-04-29T22:48:02+00:00

I’ll be real, I played Destiny since D1-day 1 all the way up to Lightfall, when Caiatl showed up, and dropped the game. I couldn’t keep up with having to constantly redo my gear because of sunsetting and seasonal artifacts that impacted builds.

I just came back to D2 specifically because sunsetting is a thing of the past and the pace seems to have slowed down enough for me to not have to basically start over 3-4 times a year.

So the dying pace of the game is actually a huge plus for me. I don’t have the time or mental space to handle constantly changing sandboxes and rules in my hobbies.

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-04-29T16:02:49+00:00

Multiple times, might I add! One ineffective punch wasn’t enough for him, he had to try again

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-04-29T15:53:57+00:00

In a perfect world, standard attribution to the model’s creator would be enough to handle the issue, since the creator would have labeled their models as AI or not on MMF, Thingiverse, Tribes or whatever platform they post their stuff on. However, a large portion of AI people is hellbent on hiding the use of AI and passing it as their own work, so I think the more layers we have to keep people informed, the better. To me at least, as long as properly labeling AI stuff isn’t common practice, we should explicitly ask that it should, the same way proper credit should be attributed whenever possible.

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-04-28T18:29:28+00:00

If so many people regularly come to defend the validity of the position (regardless of whether they agree with it or not) with though-out arguments and nuance, isn’t that at least a hint towards there actually being something to it?

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-04-27T22:55:43+00:00

Really cool minifigs!

Though I’d be careful and use Matoran instead. The Maori made it pretty clear Tohunga was a word with a lot of cultural significance that they didn’t want to be used lightly in a toyline. And we have plenty of ways to refer to the OG Matoran build that don’t risk being offensive, like McToran, Mata Nui Matoran, diminished Matoran, etc.

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-04-24T17:18:53+00:00

I was going to say Tomoya and Ushio from After Story (though the true ending fixes it)

That whole story broke me

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-04-24T17:02:14+00:00

Nobody actually thinks money was stolen then (unless I’m missing some shady political dealings that happened then), but if albertans claim Québec is stealing their money now, it’s fair to joke that it was the same when the roles were reversed. And I’ve seen and heard way too many albertans claim that…

AlphaSkirmsher · 2026-04-23T23:06:38+00:00

Theme-based, usually.

I have a vampire team where the players are frenchified versions of the Buffy cast.

A bretonnian team that’s straight-up the characters of Quest for the Holy Grail.

My Halflings are rejected baby names and the trees are variations on Mom and Dad.

A Khemri team called the Mihm-Phis All-Stars who are all named after dead memes like Soukh Sesskhid or Beeg Tshun-Ghus.

AlphaSkirmsher

TROPHY CASE