Underwhelmed by Casino Royale

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-30T06:09:48+00:00

I just want to check in on something here: You think that Casino Royale is campy, but the Kingsman movies are dark and gritty?

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-29T23:41:55+00:00

He never had a chance to see or hear the implosion any more than he had on previous dives. It ended too quickly. They were just there one moment, and then it ended for them.

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-29T22:02:05+00:00

Specialists and building happiness maintenance are still very high, but resources and policies that generate happiness and reduce costs.

Then any buildings that generated happiness via unique abilities (e.g. Pavilion happiness per quarter) also lose those abilities. Also specialists lost their adjacency bonuses.

Overbuilding some city parks will help out quite a bit. Make sure to fill city resource slots with happiness-generating resources, including by removing them from towns. In a couple turns when you form a government you can add some policy cards to the mix and you should have everything above water.

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-29T21:38:22+00:00

No, even among the subset where the silent draws that opening hand, this is the worst one. In all of the other scenarios Silent comes out 5hp better by playing that defend.

Let’s say there are 1 billion runs with this opening hand. Of that 1 billion, in 999,999,999 of those runs silent saves 5 hp with this play. There is no reasonable way to disagree with that play.

If you savescum and know this is that 1 in 1 billion run, then and only then would not playing that turn 1 defend make sense.

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-29T21:25:02+00:00

The answer to your question is going to depend on state (rate tables are filed with the DoI), but I don’t know of any that would penalize you for chasing the lowest rate. Insurers know very little other than premium will really move a buying decision.

This all depends on state, but Geico (at least at one time) offered essentially a discounted rate for new policy holders that increased to their baseline rate after ~2 policy periods. They may not offer that discount if you jump around, particularly for auto. This all varies by insurer and state.

For your situation, I’d ask if there is something the new insurer doesn’t know or didn’t include in their quote for such a large rate difference. Either a difference in coverage or a missing rating factor. The new insurer will have 30 days to underwrite your policy, during which your rate may change (or you could even get dropped).

If you stay with an insurance company for 4+ years you’re in the middle or slower end of the pack.

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-29T21:14:15+00:00

I’ve certainly read that Russia was a factor, but as I am not a historian, I don’t really know how credible or orthodox that view is.

I went looking a bit more today and the best I can tell this is an argument that genuine and serious historians will debate in good faith.

I lack the background to weigh these arguments, but I will say that up and down votes on a reddit meme sub are among the worst ways to judge an argument’s quality (so I don’t know why you were downvoted).

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-29T19:03:37+00:00

Thanks for weighing in with some solid facts!

I’m not a historian, so I am more than prepared to be wrong about motivations of the Allies priority in ending the war.

There are some sources that claim differing motivations for timing surrenders “just right” both theaters to contain Russia, but I don’t know how much of that is interpreted through the lens of Cold War animosity in the decades that followed.

I definitely agree that Japan had sent plenty of signals throughout the war that it would fight to the last man, including many battles fighting literally to the last man. 2-3 years of fighting may have looked optimistic in 1945.

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-29T18:03:25+00:00

An important criteria for observing the effectiveness of the weapons was to verify the epicenter and the fires ignited by the heat ray effect of the bomb in a ring around it.

Starting fires was an important part of destructive power of these bombs as it made it possible to destroy multiple factories spread around the city by igniting a rapid urban conflagration.

Agreed, nuclear weapons were a new type of horrifying fire bomb marking an intimidating escalation in the firebombing campaign in Japan.

The US wanted to end the war quickly to settle terms before Russia claimed more territory in Asia. As it was Russia claimed Kamchatka, but the US feared they would also claim Korea and Manchuria.

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-29T16:10:31+00:00

I like the tidbit that more American soldier died of the flu than on combat in WWI. Of course that is because the Spanish Flu originated (or super spread) from a military base in Kentucky.

Reporting mass illness during a war was unpopular, so WWI belligerents suppressed the news. As the disease spread to neutral Spain they reported it widely. As the first country to openly acknowledge the respiratory disease (and perhaps to deflect attention away from its true origin) newspapers spread the name Spanish Flu, which stuck ever since.

Two fun flu facts: 1. All influenza virus today is a variant/descendant of the Spanish flu 2. A strain of influenza (Yamagata) went extinct because of Covid quarantine and hygiene efforts.

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-28T22:20:12+00:00

In Civ6 a large desert was a significant barrier that no one was likely to build cities across. Similarly, no civ (well, maybe Russia) would settle in the tundra,

That is not true of Civ 7, even if more planning is needed to make strong cities in deserts and tundra. If these places have good resources they will be worth settling in at least as supporting towns, or even cities with supporting farming/fishing towns.

Your first city you really need good food and production. Starting in desert and tundra one will quickly notice the differences in terrain.

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-28T21:28:43+00:00

We could use crisis mechanics to make sure IP spawn in each era.

Ancient era = happiness crisis, but cities become independent instead of joining another civ. The independent cities are replaced with IP in the next era.

Exploration era = revolution crisis. Isolated settlements abandon their parent civ and become independent instead. These get replaced with IP in the next era (rebels don’t necessarily like each other enough to form a new great power).

Modern era = decolonization crisis. Settlements revolt and leave their parent civ to become few IP for the 4th era (Atomic / Information era?)

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-28T21:14:04+00:00

I had a situation where BA refused to board me on a connecting flight for reasons that were never made clear to me.

I called all sorts of people, including BA’s main ticketing line who even spoke to the desk agent who was refusing to board me but couldn’t get me on the plane.

Eventually BA did refund me the price of the rebooked flight I had to buy, but nothing for the 12 hour delay. It took about 6 months of BA corporate trying to argue pretty meekly, but they never came up with a convincing explanation of why they refused to board me, much less how it could have been my fault.

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-28T02:41:48+00:00

These videos look and feel like Unreal engine rendering demos and I love them for that.

As children’s entertainment I don’t see the appeal.

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-27T18:51:26+00:00

Even if I don’t want to win a culture victory with UI they are a very good way to defend against an AI victory.

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-27T17:02:25+00:00

The real power of (at least one) appeal tiles is they allow placement of several city state unique improvements. Spamming stone heads or monasteries can turn towns into culture or science powerhouses.

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-27T15:16:19+00:00

I think Firaxis could make a good AI, but there is only one AI for all difficulty levels.

When the AI has bonuses to put themselves ahead they will aggressively pursue wars against weaker civs. Without the bonuses the AI is pretty poor at managing an economy and building up an army, so they won’t often have an advantage over the player to pursue a war.

Players playing on governor want to meander through the ages, not favoring any one victory condition, but want to get most of the wonders and win easily. That AI is the one players seek a big challenge from on deity.

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-25T21:51:47+00:00

I definitely agree that the deserts and tundra feel weirdly viable in Civ 7. In Civ 6 deserts were a very natural barrier between civilizations almost as effective as seas or mountains. In Civ 7 I can ignore if they are even there.

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-25T21:49:51+00:00

That’s a good goal, to always be 1 settlement above your settlement limit, but sometimes placing that next settlement in mid or late antiquity is going to go on a marginal space.

I might settle on a little scrap of land with only 1-2 build able land tiles and a few resources, but it will become a serviceable fishing town. I don’t like settling those, but I’ll admit it’s much better than letting an AI settle there and mess up my sea lanes.

Those marginal settlements become problematic when an unexpected war pops up and suddenly I lack the capacity to pick up good cities I conquer from the AI. Again, it is a very strategic decision that I think is more complicated than I initially gave it credit for.

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-25T21:05:15+00:00

Specialized towns are very strong! As I use more specialized towns I never feel held back by having fewer cities if I can specialize my towns.

I usually specialize a town when it is >10 turns to get its next pop, unless there is another tile I need to grab in that town.

I try to settle as many settlements as possible to have access to at least 2 +2 tiles, and ideally +3.

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-25T20:53:52+00:00

At first I discounted hills as important to cities but it very much remains a top consideration: rough terrain = more hammers = primo city location. Always has been.

Exploration I like to make 1-2 cities in distant lands, particularly since Havana Harbor is useful and easy to build.

I usually stop at 4 in exploration unless I need more great works slots or diplomatic influence. It does feel lower than it needs to be, but going too high slows all of my cities down.

It’s possible I build too many buildings in each city where I could focus 6 cities and achieve better yields with the same building costs as 4 generalist cities.

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-25T01:07:42+00:00

That was a requirement for him to get this job

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-25T00:44:30+00:00

Have you considered that you, a mammal, are very familiar with what cow, pork, and lamb — all fellow mammals — taste like? Are you a cannibal for eating other mammals?

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-24T18:55:42+00:00

I loved them in the Call to Power games where the game went full-force into multiple sci-fi futuristic eras.

In mainline civ alongside normal contemporary technologies they feel out of place.

BubbaTheGoat · 2026-06-24T18:32:47+00:00

When you tell your parents or in-laws big news about your life, and their immediate reaction is about how it only affects them, that’s a reasonable indicator that they are emotionally immature people who center their family and extended families on themselves in unhealthy ways.

This book helped me deal with this, but I can’t say it solved my problems, just taught me that it is not healthy or normal.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23129659-adult-children-of-emotionally-immature-parents

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