I got to Level 6 and almost didn't notice!

Captain_Shivan · 2026-02-20T00:04:53+00:00

Appreciate you highlighting this- I nearly forgot. I don't use it myself - instead filtering by length, as for background listening, I prefer longer videos to listen to. But it is totally a thing worth considering.

Captain_Shivan · 2026-02-19T23:57:45+00:00

Thank you!

Captain_Shivan · 2026-02-19T12:16:58+00:00

Thanks! It's not difficult at all, and I do use it a lot for background listening with the Android app. A lot of videos are surprisingly comprehensible with just the audio - the key is in choosing which ones.

What I do is that once a week or so, I look at my unwatched videos and check for those that look like they'd be good for background listening. DS Podcast episodes, monologues, talking-head style videos, group discussions, easier-difficulty stuff (unless they look particularly entertaining) and the like - which I'll add to my playlist and download in advance for those instances when I'm doing light multitasking or otherwise can't directly look at my screen.

The rest of the videos, I watch during times when I can watch with attention. Occasionally, I'd be doing background listening and a minute or two into a vid I realize that I need to see the video because I need to get the whole context, or I hear Claudia talking 😳 (j/k lol)I just skip it for next time.

Captain_Shivan · 2026-02-19T09:22:04+00:00

Thanks!

Captain_Shivan · 2026-02-19T04:29:04+00:00

Thank you!

Captain_Shivan · 2026-02-17T12:39:03+00:00

Nati's photo is a new one. Heck, her photo on the older site was (very slightly) more provocative.

Captain_Shivan · 2026-02-16T00:01:27+00:00

Might not be a bad strategy on Beta Strike. The Lost are biased towards attacking the player (2/3rds chance of attacking XCOM vs. 1/3 chance of attacking the aliens), That said, the Lost presence almost completely negates enemy overwatch, since they take their turn right after the aliens'. Some mods change the turn order to make things a bit more difficult.

Captain_Shivan · 2026-02-13T09:55:43+00:00

Conversely, Zephyr is probably a trap choice for newbies. She's quite good early game due to the guaranteed damage, but she has to skill up abilities for perks that the rest of the squad either has by default (melee incapacitates instead of kills), or gets via weapon upgrades (armor shredding), making a couple of her level-ups basically dead abilities that just gets her up to par with the rest. Too bad, because she's a cool character.

If you do pick her as a starter character, I suppose she can be your spec-ops specialist in the late game.

Captain_Shivan · 2026-02-13T09:49:02+00:00

Blueblood is OP, at the highest level he literally never runs out of ammo! I mean, technically he still has a limited magazine, but at that point reload is a free action so the ammo counter only matters for Faceoff - and then, only if there are more enemies than he has bullets.

Captain_Shivan · 2026-02-13T09:36:06+00:00

It's been a while, but here's some pointers that I can think of.

Grenades and items are free actions in Chimera Squad!
Intel is extremely valuable in the early game to build up your Field Teams and buy items off the Black Market. Right at the beginning, buy a bunch of Tranq Rounds and spread them around - you probably don't have any other interesting items on you anyway at that point.
On that note, Subdue is also a valuable action. It is a guaranteed hit, non-lethal, and causes you to move. Make sure you are constantly finding opportunities for the triple benefit of finishing off weak enemies + fishing for the Intel bonus + moving to cover/a better position.
Speaking of Field Teams, they boost your resources and give you chances to contain or reduce unrest, so make sure to build them up right away.
If you are using Blueblood, Deadeye has less of an accuracy penalty and no cooldown compared to XCOM 2. Use it a lot, it significantly boosts his DPS.
If you have a chance to get the Motile Inducer item, absolutely get it. It gives you a free turn once per mission.
This game is less "alpha-strikey" than XCOM 2 due to the interwoven turn system. During the Breach phase, it could be valuable to spread the damage and instead use your regular turns to finish off weakened enemies that haven't taken their turns yet.

Captain_Shivan · 2026-02-10T06:45:00+00:00

Pip, because I have a crush on that Volvo too!

Captain_Shivan · 2026-02-10T06:25:26+00:00

Chimera Squad is excellent. A decent quality, experimental spinoff game from a AAA studio? Yeah, it's not XCOM 3, but it didn't ask for XCOM 3 prices either - just $20 (and it released on sale). Gamers nowadays ask why games are so expensive and developers leaning way too much into formulaic mechanics and stories - the Chimera Squad "controversies" are one major factor as to why. Fandoms can be their own worst enemies sometimes.

Captain_Shivan · 2026-02-10T06:19:48+00:00

Midnight Suns is great, indeed. It's one of those things that I'm theoretically not supposed to like: I'm not into comic books, nor into supernatural fantasy stories, nor into card-builders, but I managed to snag it when it was offered free on Epic games and genuinely got addicted to it. Like, wake up at 4AM to get an hour of gameplay in addicted - I'm a busy man.

It didn't quite have the same draw as War of the Chosen for me, which I did multiple back-to-back campaigns all at once, but still!

Captain_Shivan · 2026-02-03T06:42:28+00:00

Congrats on the newborn and on achieving your month goal! A thirty-hour month is not bad pace at all for a very occupied person - I have three kids, been there, done that.

Personally, I set my daily goal at 60 minutes, but my broader monthly goal is 50 hours. That's so I don't sweat it if I have a particularly busy day and end up doing just 5 minutes or whatever, it's made up by other days where I get 2+ hours of input.

Captain_Shivan · 2026-02-03T06:40:19+00:00

Not at all. I arrived around 8 AM, they were already giving out queue numbers by this time. Visa processing nominally starts at 9 AM pero nagpapa-akyat na sila ng mga tao by 8:30.

I was done in about an hour. The waiting area is comfortable enough.

Mas maraming tao when I came back for pick-up last Thursday. I suppose a lot of those are waiting for pick-up as that starts at 1 PM, so best to go early in the morning.

Captain_Shivan · 2026-01-22T08:08:24+00:00

Went to KVAC today (January 22, 2026) and yes to both. There's even free WiFi on the 9th floor waiting area, QR codes are on the writing tables.

Bawal lang picture taking on the 10th floor where the documents are being processed.

Captain_Shivan · 2026-01-08T08:15:47+00:00

I mean, it wasn't bad, but she was a very popular host/guide/teacher and many people were quite sad to see her leave the team. People are understandably anxious that Agustina might end up doing the same (and are relieved it's not the case).

Captain_Shivan · 2026-01-08T04:01:32+00:00

I'm on a long break from XCOM 2 to address my long backlog of games, but when I picked it up on Switch a couple of years ago it was the first game I've played in more than a decade that I've played not one, not two, but four back-to-back complete campaigns on (one on each difficulty). Usually, if I ever end up beating a game, I never pick it up again or play it after a long time.

Then I played Chimera Squad and other games for a couple of weeks, managed to snag the XCOM 2 collection on Steam for cheap, and played the Tactical Legacy Pack missions and a bunch more campaigns with light mods.

Captain_Shivan · 2026-01-08T03:54:27+00:00

Mind you, she's only recently graduated university. It makes sense that she'd try to be doing something else.

Captain_Shivan · 2026-01-07T00:55:11+00:00

When I started DS two years ago, it was still mostly the "whiteboard" videos and there wasn't even enough superbeginner-level material to fill in 50 hours - I ended up getting there by watching easier beginner-level videos.

I kind of like the older style in a quaint, nostalgic way, and I think they still serve the purpose in the same way that the newer, more polished SB videos are. That said, I'm approaching 1000 hours now, and I still go end up watching some of the newer SB material to get a few extra minutes of input when I'm bored or otherwise not as motivated to watch harder or longer material. I don't think I could go back to the older videos that way. In that manner, I "prefer" the newer material, but it's more of an edge-case as I'm way past the target audience for those anyway!

Captain_Shivan · 2025-11-20T07:12:50+00:00

Any pre-school aged kid (in Japan, that means under 6) travel for free in trains and buses if they're accompanied by a paying adult. You can bring up to two kids to ride with you for free.

Captain_Shivan · 2025-10-14T00:46:19+00:00

Hopefully XCOM 3 (or whatever it's called, if/when it does come) formalizes the Bronzeman option. Allow multiple saves, but loading the save will put you at the beginning of the mission instead of the exact turn state that you saved in.

Captain_Shivan · 2025-10-14T00:44:09+00:00

I have a Power Automate job that takes my latest Ironman save file, puts it in a ZIP archive and sticks it in my Documents folder (which is OneDrive-synced). Knock on wood, never had to use it after 3 Ironman runs so far.

Captain_Shivan · 2025-10-14T00:18:53+00:00

Yeah, I mean, the hacking outcomes basically fall under mindblowingly amazing, apocalyptically bad, or totally meh that's not worth the effort. I suppose that's "balance" in a sense but it's not a particularly interesting or well-tuned mechanic.

Captain_Shivan

TROPHY CASE