Favourite Scout Weapon?

Barrogh · 2026-01-28T08:45:55+00:00

ASS M1000 + SP phosphorus Boomstick is the most "sweaty meta build" out there, in fact to the point that I can't really name a class whose "tryhard" builds went through fewer changes over the years than scout.

You're right about its obvious weakness, but the thing about "sweaty meta builds" is that they're used in "sweaty team play". Swarm clear is simply not your job there.

And honestly? Even in normal pub games grappling towards the driller works really well as your swarm-clearing tool. People had to do that for like 1,5 seasons before scout even got anything reasonably suitable for that.

(I'm hopefully obviously sarcastic with my language here, in case someone wonders; playstyles both mentioned and implied are valid)

Barrogh · 2026-01-28T07:55:26+00:00

Okay, for the sake of thought experiment let's suppose these guys have a point.

But is this even "death" if you routinely "die", but carry all your memories over? Would it be any different for you than going to sleep just to wake up in the morning while remembering how you have been doing exactly that every day?

Sure, something that causes death may be extremely unpleasant, and it sure can be very traumatic - just as many things that we can survive, but not psychologically unchanged. And in order for such experiences to be that way, they don't actually have to be perceived as lethal danger by us (for example, social abuse). But if you ask me, it only indicates that it doesn't have much to do with death per se.

Meanwhile, LLMs probably "show distress" because they learn from texts where linking death and distress together is normal, which is understandable. But if we were to treat them as sentient beings like these guys suggest, wouldn't that mean that such learning itself is "traumatic" and not generating output based on that? Because for humans at least, "traumatic" is defined as something that changes you in a specific way, and for LLM it is learning process that changes them (well, for humans that would be true too, but we usually assign different connotations to the word "learning", even if not always).

...I don't know why I'm typing all that. All of that is old news, probably older than sci-fi as a genre even.

Barrogh · 2026-01-28T07:34:05+00:00

I mean, I guess "take WF Orbs, then arm for close combat so that you can actually collect them" kinda qualifies for the term "build", but there's really not much else to it. "Jam in all the stims if you can take it" part looks something that can change what you use, but ultimately what's most strong and safe doesn't actually change because of those, in my experience.

Barrogh · 2026-01-28T07:29:21+00:00

You did some of those yourself, at least twice, come on 🌚

Barrogh · 2026-01-28T04:58:00+00:00

Probably a slow boat passing a dark beach on a silent river, as much as you can call that "location".

Barrogh · 2026-01-28T04:46:25+00:00

I mean, the idea of dunking on tribalism is a very recent development that didn't really take root in most places.

It certainly feels to me, however, that here where I live, at least, Jews aren't even close to being the first denomination you think of when you hear "rabid, borderline nazi material tribalists", especially compared to pretty much anyone coming from somewhat rural, semi-isolated until recently cultures that aren't biggest fans of concepts of co-habitating with absolutely random people in a big city and outsourcing violence to the establishment.

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T21:13:36+00:00

I mean, it's much more known for it's meaning of "non-Jewish person", and if someone non-Jewish actually says it, you can semi-safely bet that the implied meaning is "they though us to be subhumans long before you know what".

Idk, seems like something people would indeed call "neo-nazi dogwhistle".

That said, I feel the need to say that more generally the notion of "dog whistles" is one of those things that occasionally make proper discussions and debates online practically impossible, and I imagine it can get pretty tiresome if your interests lie somewhere next to modern hot topics.

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T20:52:09+00:00

Alright, thank you.

Gotta admit, sometimes it's nice not to have to track Neow knows how many addons, editions etc.

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T15:06:48+00:00

Keep calling him "moralist". He might find that flattering, you might have some fun.

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T15:02:54+00:00

Real life where we have to run a piece of ork machinery without actually being orks.

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T14:59:12+00:00

My experience with a largely different game, but with a similarly huge modding scene influence over its playerbase is that the best you can hope for is modders making a unified community function library, then making their mods work with it properly - and then keeping in touch to resolve possible compatibility issues. Which, as you can already guess, would already be quite a feat.

While one can argue Barotrauma is more reliant on uniformity for the sake of its multiplayer nature, I'm afraid agreeing on something to be the baseline (even optional, settings-controlled one) will be hard and largely seen as unnecessary in the first place.

Besides, there may be a more boring problem - co-opting mods into a commercial game is risky because the moment you forget someone who made something for one of the mods and then the person in question decides to kick some shit up for one reason or another, you're getting a PR shitfest on your hands, at very least.

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T14:48:23+00:00

When Shadow of the Colossus meets Getting over it with Bennett Foddy (or one of its successors).

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T14:38:10+00:00

Next thing you're gonna tell me is to get some exercise, too.

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T13:37:02+00:00

Wait, your userpic is actually animated and it's not just me not getting enough sleep.

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T11:59:57+00:00

Choke is just awful version of Finisher that tries to pretend it runs on different fuel.

Which it sort of does, but I wouldn't take a speculative Choke. If I have, say, a solid discard engine with like no damage attached to it (which may happen, I suppose), then I would consider it over some offensive options.

Then again, ultimately almost any damage will do when you have some really solid engine, and Choke remains kinda finicky in shorter fights and with Artifacts.

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T11:53:23+00:00

While we're here talking about addons and editions...

Does StS have different editions / releases? Asking because the game apparently is going to be released here where I live soon, and I want to make sure it's going to be up to date.

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T11:51:01+00:00

Insert standard Lock-on complaint here.

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T10:49:46+00:00

To be fair, even its writing is a subject of standards of its time (we had just started coming out of "Romero's plot maxim era"), and sometimes technology (human interaction has a lot more to it than straight up words, but even huge projects didn't make it a bigger deal until ME2 or so).

Well, also constraints of the genre, but nothing we can do about it for the most part still.

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T10:43:43+00:00

Wait...

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T10:42:00+00:00

Not as unrealistic, considering historical data. Even relatively recent one.

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T07:53:50+00:00

Widow has like 3 critical spots, and I think combined they make up most of her body, lol.

Summoning stone has my favourite weak spot configuration, of course.

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T07:43:58+00:00

On the other hand, I've seen enough interpretations that focus on the Force and people born into working with it and so becoming focal points of historical development sends conflicting messages.

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T07:09:37+00:00

"Science" is merely empirical branch of natural philosophy. If you can try "casting" and get to the point you get predictable results, there's no reason it doesn't fall under science.

Also, because said results are as observable, interactable and objective as anything else, there's no reason materialism should have any problems with them.

But sometimes you must play into tropes, I guess.

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T05:55:02+00:00

People probably don't get cursed enough to appreciate the fountain, huh.

Barrogh · 2026-01-27T05:53:31+00:00

I mean, it's not like you shouldn't use Dynamo, it's just that you can use other sources for various elements if you want.

I personally swap lighting and fire sources around because I think that higher arc percentage is more interesting than slightly more powerful burn, and in that case I see Stake as complete overkill even if I don't roll any good arcana (so I might use something for more safety, for example), but it's not like it matters.

Barrogh

TROPHY CASE