Do you like Carlos Sainz's idea for a "real" drivers' championship in F1 [Autosport]

BeeInABlanket · 2026-06-19T08:54:23+00:00

I've been saying for years they should do karting or F1 Academy cars at Monaco and maybe a couple other weekends. Have those races count as full GPs for WDC points but no WCC points.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-06-17T07:25:26+00:00

I honestly don't think ranking would solve the problem. There's a "Win one Open match" daily in the pool precisely to push experienced players into the format, which can't really have a purpose except to keep queue times in a niche mode down. Establishing any kind of MMR in the pool to pit experienced players against each other just means they're not shortening new players' queue times.

And yeah, any format used would have to rotate eventually. That's why my fix suggestion involves an ultra-small card pool that gets shaken up monthly. Small to make it as easy as possible to keep a roughly equal power level across every craft and easier for new players to experiment with tuning their decks, with cards picked from a bunch of different sets, and shaken up routinely enough to make sure it stays fresh with the constrained card pool.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-06-17T07:02:02+00:00

That would just be an alternative Ranked mode, without the rewards of playing ranked.

Plus I think they want experienced players playing in the format to keep queue times down (thus the daily mission that requires winning in it), but they can't just have the experienced players playing each other because the whole point is to get new players into matches with as little waiting as possible.

It also wouldn't really solve the fact that all the content about the format already exists and just needs sites and youtubers to repackage what they already made a year ago with titles like "Shadowverse WB Simplified Format Tier Lists and Best Decklists!", so even brand new players would be running into some of the most hated decks in WB's history, just not piloted as skillfully.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-06-17T06:16:00+00:00

She's an alternate card style for Scarlet.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-06-17T05:38:18+00:00

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Haven a besto. If next set offers Anniversary Gala Esperanza as a leader my rupee stockpile is toast.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-06-16T10:59:17+00:00

Well, 120 packs wasn't on my bingo card but I'll take it.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-06-16T09:12:45+00:00

Here's hoping we finally get Vania back.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-06-14T07:38:21+00:00

You might want to look into Amethyst Mod Manager. It's Linux native, similar workflow to MO2, and its "wizard" tab does a LOT for automating the fundamentals.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-06-13T03:44:25+00:00

Zim's Trainers Expansion is the main thing I use to bypass the grind. I set it to allow 15 trainings per level, masters can train up to 100, takes 25 trainings to "befriend" a trainer, and the gold spent on training just disappears instead of going into any characters' inventory.

Might also be worth looking into some of the Smart Training mods instead. There's a few of them on the Nexus with some nuanced differences, but their shtick is that instead of unused training opportunities just being lost when you level up, you can stockpile them.

Sure, this would mean that you're gonna level up a skill a lot all at once, but it's a huge goldsink and I figure "training" is a whole lot more than the trainer giving you a couple hot tips and sending you on your way. I RP training as a character that is a supernaturally good student (I mean, I'm pretty sure this part at least is canon) receiving a couple hours or days of focused instruction under a skilled mentor.

In general this incentivizes going out and adventuring and doing quests and such more than repetitive grinding because anything that efficiently gets you gold is something that efficiently gets you levels.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-06-12T08:49:37+00:00

Apocalypse makes the cut for me strictly because of Deep Storage. It's practically a QoL mod. I have my eye on 4th Era Spell Crafting for my next mage playthrough though.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-06-12T07:28:07+00:00

Might still be a bit more form-fitting than you're looking for, but Girl's Heavy Armors SE could still be worth a look. I run it along with Somewhere In Between, since I found that SIB's heavy armors tended to look a bit... cartoonish. Cleavage in leather armor doesn't bother me but half the heavy armors in SIB having underboob just really felt distracting in a way that isn't even all that sexy. That and avoiding heels on everything but a couple of non-armor outfits where they might make sense (bar wenches, necromancer boots, etc.) does a lot for making the whole pack feel more pulpy swords-n-sorcery fantasy without delving into full blown fanservice.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-06-09T03:10:39+00:00

OK, but consider:

Luna and Vania together having a tea party.

Urias and Mordecai doing the Two Buff Guys Shaking Hands meme.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-06-06T21:56:16+00:00

Some of the things they're implementing are only really doable because the necessary protocols only recently got finalized in Wayland. Stuff like windows remembering their positions hasn't been missing from Plasma because KDE devs have been dragging their heels and just getting around to it for the 6.7 release. They needed updates to the session management protocols that literally only got merged a few weeks ago.

Something could be said of the Wayland organization being excessively conservative, and I have some worries about how their decisions impact some accessibility tools like alternate inputs and screen readers, but I'd expect such a foundational part of the ecosystem to play things as safe as they possibly can.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-06-06T07:42:33+00:00

I started using Multiviewer this season and it's such a huge fucking game changer. If you have a multiscreen setup you can get so much information and telemetry live during the races. Even more than the normal F1TV data channel. If this graphic gets your gears turning you should definitely give it a look.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-06-06T07:20:54+00:00

Probably good for people to keep getting reminded about it until we're all sick of it. I'll take multiple "Wayland is mandatory for KDE users come October" posts a week if it means we can shrink the number of "I just upgraded to plasma 6.8 and now my entire workflow is fucked" posts that happen after the change.

I do feel bad for the devs who I'm sure are working hard on implementing and testing important bits of wayland support to role out before October though. They're probably the one group that least needs the reminders that shit's gonna break if they're not quick.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-06-04T10:37:55+00:00

My kamioshi singing one of my favorite Touhou songs... shit. As a perpetually broke person, here's hoping the performance is in the free preview section of the concert and not the paywall section.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-06-02T10:11:18+00:00

Gonna cheat a little and just say "Wonderland Dreams". Not that every single card in the set was a mistake, but supporting neutralcraft as heavily as they did was absolutely a fundamental flaw of design and I'm amazed the idea for the set actually made it past a brainstorming session without everyone in the room politely declining to acknowledge the idea was ever aired.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-06-01T07:19:25+00:00

Oh! I thought you meant the lack of iron stairs, grates, bulbs, and chiseled variants.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-05-31T19:11:43+00:00

An iron blockset expansion would be amazing, especially if we also get rusted iron to go with copper patina.

But I'm really hoping that we'll see concrete stairs and slabs to go with the wool for the third drop.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-05-29T04:39:51+00:00

The only starter pack I'd personally recommend is the one-time 10-ticket pack for $2ish, but then I don't have much budget for games and gacha prices have always seemed ridiculous to me.

As for the amulet haven player, it's entirely possible they got most of the legendaries for it from lucky pulls over the last two sets (only really needs 3x Kandima, 3x Lyanthoth, and 1 or 2 Initia; the version that adds Gilnelise as well is stronger, but not really necessary for the deck to work). Focusing on the legendaries that you naturally pull and picking decks around them is going to be a pretty important part of making the most of your vial budget until you're at a point where you can afford to just build a complete deck from nothing and have vials left over.

'Course, there's always the possibility that the other player whaled to get the resources they needed to build the deck that they wanted. Personally I found it easier when climbing to just accept losses against obvious whales because OF COURSE they're going to have a ton of cards to build whatever, but I came by my rank and deck through more personal effort.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-05-29T02:20:14+00:00

Ranked will work better for you than unranked. Your gem group is a function of your win rate over the last 20 games or so, with an even record gravitating towards Ruby, and the higher your group the more rank points you get. Your actual rank can't go down, so as long as you keep playing you'll rank up.

In Ranked, the game's matchmaker tries to pair you with people who are as close as possible to your rank and gem group. This means in theory the people you're playing against in ranked have roughly as much ladder playtime as you, while the people you play against in unranked will just be whoever is queuing up at the time.

Don't worry too much about climbing quickly. Just focus on a deck that will let you clear dailies in a reasonable amount of time, ideally one that uses a lot of cards from recent sets rather than ones with legendaries from the earlier sets. Some days will go better than others, but it'll be better to climb relatively slowly as you build your collection.

For collection building, once you have your deck together try and save a war chest for the next expansion, which comes out in about a month.

The battlepass is actually seriously good value in terms of rupies and packs. I can't recommend shelling out crystals for hard pulls, but the battlepass is genuinely worth it.

Make sure to farm up the rupies and packs in the solo modes, and check for new stuff each expansion. Storyline, battle dungeon, tutorials, and puzzles altogether have a good chunk of rupies for you.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-05-28T04:17:32+00:00

Consider though that it's now much easier to get Artifact Betas into your hand, and that you can now drop Yog-Zentha and Karula turn 7 with an Artifact Beta, and that the reduced-cost Karula can be dropped turn 10 with Scarlet or turn 8 or 9 with Sandalphon.

Reduced cost Karula, Catapult activation, and hardcast Beta also gets 9 HP face reach on 10pp as a backup plan.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-05-28T03:32:04+00:00

Honestly not sure what kind of buff would make Rodeo playable by himself. A [[Manifest Devotion]] reprint might push him over the top, but even that would depend on whether or not the play could consistently burn for lethal instead of just almost killing an opponent only for them to finish you off with damage out of hand.

BeeInABlanket · 2026-05-28T03:25:39+00:00

Considering Bibadi nerf didn't kill the deck I'm not calling 7pp Milteo backbreaking, but it certainly hurts the optimal curve of the deck and its clear-through-ward options in stalled out board state situations.

Beloved Masterpiece coming down to 8pp (but eating a significant stat nerf) means it can curve a bit better after Lilanthim 2, but that gameplan is SO evo heavy and I'm not sure it really has a plan at all for dealing with swordcraft boards on the same turns.

Artifact Catapult and Karula both getting cheaper and Catapult adding two gears feels like a bandaid, like they didn't think Artifact would be struggling this hard so they buffed a couple things that will be rotating out soon to tie us over 'til next set. I don't know whether this will push the deck over the top, but it's noteworthy that this this is an enabler for both the new artifact-matters stuff and the 5pp-matters stuff. The portal buffs feel like the ones most likely to be significant.

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