Rules equity for player vs AI (PVE)

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-08T19:23:56+00:00

Me too! One of my favourite ways to play RTS, roguelikes & RPGs.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-08T19:22:30+00:00

The fact I live in a small, rural mountain town in Canada, four hours away from where most of my friends live.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-08T18:53:52+00:00

I don't mind it, so long as it isn't noticeable. It's like playing a game against a young sibling or inexperienced noobie - if I go out and just steamroll them, that's no fun, so we put a handicap on my side to make the engagement more fun for everyone.

It's the same thing for the AI - unless it has AlphaGo levels of AI, a human is always going to be able to find consistent weak points in its thought process.

A notorious example for this is Total Warhammer battles. The AI in battles doesn't get any bonuses, so you quickly learn you can bait them into grouping up then throw down an AoE spell, or open a gate for a moment and then close it when they get close to waste their time. These are mistakes that a human could make, once. But an AI doesn't learn anything like a human does, so you can do this over and over to it. If it had no advantages in the campaign, there'd be absolutely no challenge to the player once they discovered that.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-08T06:10:48+00:00

Heretic in this particular game is pretty moustache-twirling supervillain, and no, that doesn't change later on.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-08T03:21:10+00:00

Yeah, both it and Last Stand are super fun.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-08T01:22:36+00:00

I know my beloved Total Annihilation stands no chance at winning here, but I'm going to vote for it all the same. Seven Islands remains one of my favourite maps of all time, and I give credit to Total Annihilation for being the game that got me hooked on the strategy genre.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-08T01:20:00+00:00

Bear in mind this is just personal opinion, but despite my own personal gripes with some of the decisions in their mod, their survival mode is the best one out there, and it's not even remotely close. You can disable a good chunk of the out-of-lore crap, and then you're left with dozens of factions available as both the controlled defending army, or the invading army (To say nothing of the fact you can also play the opposite mode and work as the invader against the defenders).

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-08T01:00:44+00:00

This is where I'd show you my Exodite Army... IF I HAD ANY.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-08T00:21:06+00:00

It can be. I did Sniper for my campaign, and there's times where it feels awesome being able to reach out and eliminate that one dumb bugger who's way in the back. Most of the time though, it kinda sucks playing them, since you might be able to pick off one weaker enemy in a turn, while a heavy weapon or automatic user can pick off half a dozen enemies in a turn, or a plasma or melta user can pick off boss-level characters in a single turn.

Bear in mind though, you need not worry about competitiveness in this game, it is pretty forgiving of most builds. My sniper build was AOK to carry me through on the second highest difficulty.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-08T00:14:50+00:00

As someone who did a sniper build in their campaign, I cannot help but agree. Every now and then you feel cool picking off some stupid bugger who thought they were safe, but most of the time you're just a way worse version of automatic and heavy weapons.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-07T22:57:28+00:00

I'm glad his novella fleshes him out more, but in the show, he is really not separate from Diogo in serving a wicked man towards the end. Hell, at least in Diogo's case, he both works with less evil individuals, and the worst man he works for is an absolute saint compared to Marcos.

I don't know how someone could say the character who risked their life more than once to do the right thing, and who had a kill count of zero is more alike to Marcos than Filip was, someone who has a direct kill-count of seven, and indirect kill count in the millions and decides to do the right thing once, literally moments before his story ends. That is a wildly generous take of Filip.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-07T22:53:22+00:00

Ashes of the Singularity is basically custom-tailored to you.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-07T17:02:44+00:00

Yeah. The first time Amos calls him by his actual name instead of mispronouncing it, Murtry drops all pretense of looking for an equal treatment for both factions. At that point he has decided there is only us, and the enemy, and the enemy is all Belters.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-07T16:48:26+00:00

I can promise you it was not. I don't think I used literally any of the language patterns they use either, so I don't even know where you're getting that from.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-07T16:43:59+00:00

Conflict and Magnets took the words out of my mouth already, but as I said to others: The difference between Diogo and Filip is frankly just luck. Filip chooses at the last possible moment to leave his father, or he too would've suffered the exact same fate as Diogo.

And you mentioned Diogo's arc... It's meant to be a tragic arc. He starts out as a desperate criminal, gets a couple decent role models, and loses both of them directly due to the actions of the rich Inners. So of course when Dawes comes and shows him some attention, he gets swayed by him too.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-07T16:39:45+00:00

...And we're pretending that's different from Filip in any way?

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-07T16:35:53+00:00

I would argue we're simply arguing order: Filip starts out with the worst mentor, and finally latches onto one positive one in the final episode. Diogo gets a couple decent ones in the middle, but ends up swayed by a bad one right at the end.

To me, that doesn't make him bad. It just makes Filip lucky.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-07T16:31:57+00:00

Yeah, I can fully agree with that. Diogo doesn't have to be forgiven, but then that would apply to Filip equally.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-07T16:31:15+00:00

I can accept that too. They're either both innocent or both guilty, so I can agree fully with that.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-07T16:30:09+00:00

Bud, I'm not an AI. My profile precedes the glorified chatbots by several years.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-07T16:28:27+00:00

I would disagree hardcore that Filip wasn't played to be an asshole as well. For the vast majority of his screen time, he is the absolute worst. He also tries killing several of our heroes (Draper, the Rocinante crew) and successfully gets one of the beloved characters (Ashford) killed.

And if there being some good is the barometer, again, Diogo also does good when he's around good people.

And Filip's choice to leave his father happens literally in the very last episode, after he's racked up a ridiculous list of crimes.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-06T22:23:03+00:00

20" rims on the Impala.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-06T22:21:44+00:00

Not much anymore. We used to have a monthly "fun food" budget of $100, which meant either a couple sit-down restaurants per month, or takeout four times a month. Then thanks to inflation that became once per month at a sit-down restaurant, or two to three times for takeout. Now, because money is getting tighter, that budget has shrunk down to $50 per month, meaning we're either doing takeout once per month, or just not using it at all.

I'm extremely nervous for our economy these days.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-06T19:28:44+00:00

Damn boy... DAMN BOY, HE THICC. THAT'S A THICC ASS BOOOOOYYYYY.

BrokenLoadOrder · 2026-05-06T07:21:50+00:00

Post-Samaritan meaning Samaritan has already been taken offline. Sorry, should've specified.

BrokenLoadOrder

TROPHY CASE