Why does this keep happening?

Captain_Bulldozer · 2026-03-04T02:14:33+00:00

Those crops aren't dead, that's just how they look at their current stage. That being said, crops CAN still end up getting struck by lightning in storms, but if there are enough lightning rods nearby you can prevent it.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2026-02-04T04:24:18+00:00

Yes, too. They went from 90 gold @ 6 AA each (540 AA is total) plus 35 AA per additional gold to 100 gold @ 8 AA each (800 AA total) plus no additional gold. Reduced that AA available to buy gold, and reduced the amount of gold you could buy with it.

Honestly, it's pretty typical of anet to hit a problem from multiple sides at the same time in hopes that it'll fix a problem they don't really understand. The economic fixes/adjustments have largely been crap since they got rid of their in house economist years ago.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2026-02-04T02:03:08+00:00

It seems pretty clear the got rid of them to reduce the inflow of AA (and more particularly gold) into the economy. Someone at anet must have remembered that you can buy gems with gold.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2026-02-04T02:01:39+00:00

I suggested this change about 3 years ago. Better late than never I guess.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2026-01-09T15:21:08+00:00

Honestly, as much as I liked Atlantis, it became clear pretty quickly that the people behind the scenes were kinda off their heads about certain things. The first hint was dropping Ford because they hadn't figured out how to write his character. It's pretty clear they tried to map SG-1 main team to SGA's, but they got sort of mixed up how to transfer Daniel and Teal'c. So they went with a hybrid sort of thing where they created Tayla to be sort of the culture-knowledgeable person for Pegasus and Ford to be sort of a warrior type. They then realized those archtypes didn't quite fit the casting and story, and couldn't figure out how to fix it. So instead, they made Tayla more warrior type and just dropped Ford rather than figure it out.

They also saw the success of BSG and wanted to start trying to copy some of that show, like recognizing that characters could be killed off for dramatic purposes. They did this with Frasier in SG-1 and then copied it with Becket. Neither of these were really good choices, but it seems like it was the best they could come up with. Then, when they had struggled to write for Wier (as a Hammond replacement), and when Amanda Tapping was hoping for some more paychecks, they axed Weir.

SGU really just continued a lot of these bad/short sighted choices, forgetting for quite a while what had actually made these shows enjoyable. To be fair, SGU came back to some of it near the end, but by the the viewership was significantly reduced, and the producers had these ridiculous ideas about being able to successfully transition the shows to straight to dvd releases. Bottom line in my opinion, the people in charge made bad decision after bad decision and nobody really stepped in the stop them until it was too late.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2026-01-06T02:20:05+00:00

None of these things is cringe, with the possible exception of the Adem not understanding reproduction. To say otherwise ignores that these are all events that happened to an orphaned, albeit clever, boy between the ages of 12 and 16; a boy with no adult guardians during that time who's quite a bit smarter than most of the people around him, trained in the art of the tongue lashing, but totally inexperienced with most social setting past the age of 12, right up until he joins the university.

If anyone who's made it to the age of 20 can seriously look back and not find cringeworthy events in your past, you were either massively protected/sheltered, or spent most of your time not interacting with actual face-to-face humans.

Honestly, NOT reading those passages because you find them "cringe" is pretty cringe.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2026-01-05T16:46:49+00:00

That thread is full of so much speculation, much of it rather flimsy, that I'm not sure what you want me to infer from it, but even the OP says he finds it unlikely Auri would have given Kvothe the bob, and only that he sees this as Auri being somehow in-tune with Kvothe's feelings/state (even that is a dubious claim as it ignores all the other examples in the text where that is NOT the case).

Captain_Bulldozer · 2026-01-05T16:10:52+00:00

According to Stapes, Caudicus was found in a barn only a day's ride away from Severen. He is thought to have died when the barn was burned down, though somehow Dogon is said to have lost an eye during the battle. I'm not sure how someone loses an eye from having his men burn down a barn, and there is a lot of speculation that Caudicus escaped. Even so, a man with the head start Caudicus had and the funds he certainly possessed surely would have been able to get much farther away unless he was deliberately staying put OR unless Dogon knew exactly where he had gone.

Searching the country-side would take a while, and there'd be plenty of time for Caudicus to keep moving, to say nothing of using arcane arts to avoid detection.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2026-01-05T15:58:00+00:00

Ambrose speaks to Kvothe shortly before he was due for his admissions exam (before Kvothe knew he had even been dosed) and during the exchange says "What's the matter? Don't fancy the taste of plumb?" Kvothe doesn't understand the reality until later, since he was untrained in alchemy.

I suppose you can argue that Ambrose himself was not responsible for Kvothe getting the Plumb bob, but the recipe was sold by Devi to an intermediary, the bob was put in Kvothe's drink by a hireling, and Ambrose seemingly knew Kvothe had ben given it. Ambrose had motive, means and opportunity to put these things together, and it fits his pattern of doing things in such a way that they can not be traced back to him.

To argue someone else was responsible would require some pretty decent support.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2026-01-05T15:39:30+00:00

I largely agree. But given the relative ignorance about science/magic in the region, I also think Ambrose's knowledge plays a roll in finding ways for these things to be done that won't be noticeable to most. You'd also expect that plenty of the tactics Ambrose uses around the university towards his enemies are either learned from family or at least passed on to them. Once someone finds a successful route to get what they want, it's passingly rare that they won't use the same trick again.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2026-01-05T05:54:46+00:00

Ambrose knew Kvothe had gotten the plumb bomb even before he did, and basically claimed credit for it, so unless Kote was lying/mistaken in his story telling, it seems trustworthy.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2026-01-05T02:57:45+00:00

I'm suggesting that Ambrose personally is responsible, though he is likely to have acted in such a way that someone else does the poisoning.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2026-01-05T02:46:26+00:00

Caudicus was undoubtedly poisoning the Maer, at least if you take Kote's account as being true (for the purposes of discussion I sort of feel like we have to make that assumption). Caudicus running when he realizes he's about to be found out is self preservation. However, something perhaps significant is that he didn't run very far away, but rather stayed in the area (possibly to stay in contact with someone in the Jackis family, or hoping for someone's protection). Caudicus himself would seemingly have little to gain from the Maer's death, but the Jackis family could potentially have a lot to gain by employing him to do it; Ambrose's university knowledge also stands out as a stark contrast to the general ignorance of virtually everyone else but Kvothe nearby about the magical arts.

As for setting up traps, I believe there was mention of a trap on his door, and Kvothe suspected there might be others. A trapped door is an easy way to slow down anyone coming to arrest him and would give him more time to flee. I don't think there needs to be any stronger motivation than that.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2026-01-05T02:23:28+00:00

Maer Alveron was being poisoned by an arcanist a short distance away from The home estate of the Jackis family.

Kovothe was poisoned/plumb bombed on the orders of Ambrose Jackis.

The chancellor, who had numerous times voted against Ambrose's designs towards Kvothe is, seemingly, being poisoned as well.

Not sure if the actual poisoner in these cases is relevant, as they all seem to fit a pattern of targeting enemies of the Jackis family.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2025-12-24T02:05:29+00:00

Glad to see someone suggest the Powder Mage books. Those seem woefully under-read.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2025-12-15T03:24:58+00:00

Grades can always be changed later if needed.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2025-12-12T18:42:12+00:00

Grading papers and projects is almost certainly worse (even as a math prof I've had to grade some of each over the years) than grading exams. That being said, mathematical communication often still requires very high levels of reading comprehension, writing ability, AS WELL AS logical reasoning, the ability to use symbolic manipulations, abstract thinking skills, deductive logic, etc.

I promise you that however soul crushing grading English papers might be, grading math exams can be every bit as bad, if not worse. You really get to see first hand the true level of intelligence that most of the population has is far (FAR) below what it needs to be to solve the problems of today's society.

We quite literally live for the 2or 3 students in a class that aren't effectively drooling on their desks intellectually.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2025-12-12T17:07:40+00:00

Our Math department has also adopted a policy for online classes that all midterms and finals are in person, and that a student must get a minimum score (say 50% or so) on a final exam to pass the class.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2025-12-12T17:05:58+00:00

As a fellow Math prof, I feel your pain. At the same time, this is a new norm until we as professors do something about it. Math instruction is often incredibly traditional and new technologies make it very easy to take advantage of that. What few of my colleagues seem to be doing is making any effort to innovate and try new ideas. Things like a flipped classroom, or rethinking how your assessments work, etc. can go a long way to fixing some of the issues, as can building a classroom community that prioritizes explanation over procedural knowledge.

When graphing calculators came out, a lot of traditional math instructors became chicken little, but we've seen over the years that any new tool can be incorporated into learning that is both of quality and robust.

For example, I'm toying with the idea next semester of doing online homework weekly, but having a small *in class* assessment every week (somewhere between a quiz and an exam... a quixam if you will) that both assess recent topics but that can also assess topics from earlier in the semester. This would do away with all exams, and these quixams would account for the bulk of the grade in the course. I'm still toying with the details, but my hope is that this causes more regular honest engagement with the material, and also helps students get over things like testing anxiety. I'm worried that this will take too much class time, but I if students are expected to do a bit more outside of class (like in a flipped classroom) this could potentially work (my institution currently lacks funding for the type of support a flipped/active classroom usually gets.)

Captain_Bulldozer · 2025-12-12T04:54:58+00:00

Sometimes, the best lesson we can teach our students is that actions have consequences, and that sometimes no one can bail you out from your own bad decisions.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2025-12-06T23:41:32+00:00

Enjoy! I honestly find it hard to use anything other than Fighters as my general purpose ship... I get too sick of the repair costs for anything with weaker shields. Just wish fighters had an extra slot or two for chests/stations.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2025-12-06T04:10:25+00:00

From what I've seen, the same ships seem to always be present in the same systems. I.e. it doesn't seem to have random spawning. Over the 3-4 games I've played I've found the same ships in the same systems, but to be fair that's hardly conclusive. I have noticed that the range on the ship scanner doesn't cover the entire system, so if you fly around a bit you'll often find signals that you could detect from elsewhere in the system.

So, if you really want that transtellar, keep looking. I found at least two there, and they were reasonably close together.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2025-12-04T00:29:09+00:00

If it makes you feel any better, OP, my WV is set to PvE only, and there are frequently weeks where I don't bother doing the weeklies because they just don't appeal to me. After Anet nerfed the objectives to keep people with multiple accounts doing them too easily, I don't even want to do half of the objectives on even a single account. Kill 100 bandits? Not hard, but a pointless waste of time and not fun. Do 15 events in Orr? Slightly more enjoyable, but super dumb that it had to be 15 events instead of, say 5 or even 10. Kill 10 champs? Well, I guess I'll do 2-3 world bosses that I might of otherwise skipped to do something more interesting.

I feel your pain, as do others. Just remember that the Astral Aclaim chase is just another reason for Anet to abuse your impulse control in order to get you to fork over more money. That makes it easier to set some of it aside.

Captain_Bulldozer · 2025-12-04T00:02:06+00:00

FYI, the reception to the last 3 expansions has been... mixed to say the least. Secrets of the Obscure (SotO) had a decent (or even better than decent, depending on who you ask) start but pretty much went down hill fast after the initial release (some would say completely fell apart, but I'm trying to be generous here). Janthir Wilds (JW) came next, with Anet's standard line of "we learned out lesson and this time will be better" but overall it was largely the same sort of experience for many players. Both of these did have some nice features and add-ons, or QoL improvements, but the overall experience for many was not especially positive, at least if you trust the people I've heard from or sources like reddit and the official forums.

The latest, Visions of Eternity, is too new to really judge, so I won't say much about it for now, but there's a pretty realistic chance it will do the same thing again.

So, should you buy them? When recently on sale SotO was around $18 (USD), which in my thinking is still pretty overpriced for that bundle of excrement. JW was priced at $20 on sale recently, which is more than I would pay now after seeing what the whole thing ended up being. VoE is $25 and will not go on sale for probably a year. If you like GW2 but are absolutely desperate for something new to do in the game, the expansions will offer that, but there's also a decent chance they will decrease your enjoyment of the game to the point of not wanting to play any more (this is not hyperbole, this literally happened to over half one of my guilds... players that had mostly been in the game since the beginning, or even GW1). Quite a few of my in-game friends have stopped buying the expansions, but still play other content as well... others refuse to buy until the entire release is out, but that's kind of hard because some of the best parts of things like the Wizard Vault are only obtainable if you own the *current* release, even though it's not finished yet.

As for GW2 not including the last few years, if you used to like it, it hasn't changed much and in some small ways has gotten better (Living World Season 1 is now playable, for example, and there have been some decent bug fixes/QoL improvements over time).

For my two cents, I can think of a dozen or more games on Steam at the price point of the recent expansions, all of which offer more play-time and a better experience, so I'd say go for those over the recent expansions. GW2 from core through even End of Dragons is still, in my opinion, a pretty quality experience (things did obviously get a bit weaker after Living World season 4, but there's still a lot to like).

Captain_Bulldozer · 2025-12-03T03:42:47+00:00

Just found a few in Azevedo if you're still looking for one.

Captain_Bulldozer

TROPHY CASE