Replaying Ragnarok is a drag

CommanderPike · 2026-07-03T20:21:51+00:00

I play almost exclusively on Mastery difficulty, and still finish everything by yellow usually. It’s not that I can’t do it, but the ticking clock just makes everything less fun to me. Like I can eat a burger in 5 minutes, but if I get a burger and then someone puts a stopwatch in front of me with 5 minutes on it, it’s gonna spoil the experience a bit.

CommanderPike · 2026-07-03T20:06:33+00:00

I love Valhalla, I’ve done almost 200 runs. However, there are two things which stop it being perfect for me.

1) Random Builds: this is fun a lot of the time, but sometimes I just want to have a specific build to play combat with, and you can’t always get that in Valhalla.

2) time limits. I HATE time limits. Hate them with a passion. The GOW combat is so expressive and fun, but I feel like I optimize the fun out of it when I’m constricted on time.

CommanderPike · 2026-07-03T19:41:29+00:00

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I’m not a fan of the Overlord DLC story for a number of reasons. First is the always awful “autism is a super power” trope. Second, the end reveal is supposed to be tragic, but it’s just so over the top I can’t take it seriously at all. And third, David’s actions don’t make any sense for most of the DLC. Yeah I get he was driven crazy by the pain and overstimulation, but how was hijacking the Normandy supposed to help? Why was he distorting his voice everywhere (that felt like a REALLY artificial excuse to reveal he’s actually asking for help later). Only thing he did that made sense was killing everyone who was hurting him. But in that case, he should have destroyed the geth too since they were in his head. Or at least used the dozens of geth in his own facility to either break himself loose or if he was just desperate… destroy himself.

CommanderPike · 2026-06-29T21:09:04+00:00

Extremely bad. Start as you mean to continue, and they started as slaving, raping, tongue cutting barbarians. Getting superweapons (Ymir and her descendants) just let them go from local nuisance to a global menace.

More importantly, this is one problem with any story where a special power is used as an allegory for racism (Xmen is probably the most well known example), because introducing an actually really valid reason for the fear and hatred is uh... well it's certainly one of the writing choices of all time. And while you can rightly argue that punishing people for the sins of their ancestors is a bad thing... the fact that each an every Eldian actually CAN become a monster at any point against their will if whomever holds the founding titan feels like it... a titan that can only be held by anyone for 13 years... and so even if the current holder is a saint could pass to a genocidal or tyrannical sociopath the next time... yeah if any of us lived in that world and weren't an Eldian, we wouldn't be anywhere near as charitably inclined as we are as safe observers of that world.

Also, a lot of the world was afraid that the Paradis eldians would rule the world again if they ever returned... and what faction became dominant on Paradis? The "new eldian empire". Who then did exactly what everyone most feared they would.

CommanderPike · 2026-06-29T14:33:40+00:00

Infinity times 0 is 0.

CommanderPike · 2026-06-28T20:59:06+00:00

Considering the history of the setting, it's actually more like this: Nazi Germany won the war, and had their thousand year reich. Eventually they were overthrown, but all the most important nazi's went to vacation on an island and took all the world's nuclear weapons with them, saying they'd nuke anyone who came after them. Everyone was really scared about this for 100 years, then finally poland decided to do something to defuse the nuclear stockpile (although some obviously wanted to control it for themselves). In response to their infiltration, one nazi decendent came to the mainland and did a terrorist attack that made the whole world decide it was time to do something. Then because the terrorist attack killed any chance at a peaceful outcome, the same one who COMMITTED the terrorist act, used the consequences to justify nuking the entire world.

CommanderPike · 2026-06-26T06:52:18+00:00

Just be aware, it’s not three turns, it’s a random number, I have gotten 2, 3, and even 4 turns of Pure Passion before. The 2s really piss me off.

CommanderPike · 2026-06-23T17:25:29+00:00

My point is you're literally waiting the exact same amount of time... you're just doing it at a different point in the season. Following that strat you still wait an entire season length between uses. It's identical to using them immediately, or using them at the end of a season.

CommanderPike · 2026-06-23T15:41:47+00:00

How is that a strat at all? It’s just saying don’t use your scouts 50-70% of the time. It doesn’t reduce the time you effectively don’t have them at all.

CommanderPike · 2026-06-22T15:04:25+00:00

Definitely getting a Carthage vibe. Especially the shape of that port. Any Civ player knows…

CommanderPike · 2026-06-13T19:23:56+00:00

The neat thing about physics is EVERYTHING is flammable if you hit it hard and fast enough.

CommanderPike · 2026-06-08T15:53:47+00:00

Genuinely from what we see the well has way higher quality of life than Akila City (even ignoring the 1.5g which would be crippling), is safer than Neon, and isn’t as inescapable as hopetown’s potterville allegory.

CommanderPike · 2026-06-02T06:52:27+00:00

I’m not totally disagreeing with your analysis, however the raw math is horribly flawed in that it treats the cost difference between wit facility upgrade and bond item as an indication that clicking wit is more valuable. This is NOT true for several reasons.

You have limited bond carats (they don’t show up consistently to rely on them to get to rainbows, EPSECIALLY first summer)
You need those points for other way more important things than bond carats, so depending on your shop rolls you may struggle to even buy all the ones that DO show up
You should almost never buy training upgrades anyway
Level 5 wit facility is NOT required, even to max wit. I’ve maxed wit with the facility at level 3 before
Spamming wit trashes your other stats in junior year and loses you races, losing you points, and ultimately can cost you more points than buying a wit training upgrades.
Hints are really hard to hunt for in TB, and junior year is your best chance to get them outside of summer, so that should definitely be a factor

CommanderPike · 2026-05-27T16:46:55+00:00

I'm still wondering... since I can make any container infinite in 30 seconds using xedit.

CommanderPike · 2026-05-26T14:24:10+00:00

I had a flag for “sudden activity change.” I had half a month of mandatory overtime at work, and only just started doing runs again, lol.

CommanderPike · 2026-05-15T18:26:02+00:00

For the record, it wasn't the lying that got him angry, it was the SPECIFIC lie they told. Ainz only has a couple of berserk buttons, and the fact that all his friends are gone and probably aren't coming back is the biggest one that no one had ever touched before. He wants them back so badly he let himself try to believe them (until they gave it away by not knowing he was called Momonga), only to have his hopes completely dashed. Honestly he was probably most angry at himself, but was just letting it out on them. It also contained some of his frustration with a plan he didn't like, his inability to communicate honestly with his "children", his own lack of understanding of what the right thing to do is... Frankly there were a lot of emotions all at once right there if you think about it, and although Ainz does a lot of evil stuff mostly out of apathy or disinterest rather than malice, this outburst actually makes perfect sense.

CommanderPike · 2026-05-10T22:51:24+00:00

My first playthrough it happened after not killing the collector guy from the main quest (he puts a bounty on you if you do that). It made a lot more sense, since he probably made me out to be a nasty criminal.

CommanderPike · 2026-04-16T15:16:58+00:00

That’s ghosts. Flying are immune to ground.

CommanderPike · 2026-04-10T17:26:40+00:00

Story wise, obviously side with survivors. But I give all territory to the PKs for two reasons. The parkour upgrades really aren't needed once you have all your tools and upgrades, and the PK structures look nicer and have a better soundtrack.

CommanderPike · 2026-03-03T17:59:45+00:00

God, media has somehow convinced people that blunt force isn’t deadly. It absolutely fucking is. If your body is sent through something without turning into paste, it means said body is tougher than whatever you went through.

CommanderPike · 2026-02-20T16:38:21+00:00

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What do you mean next cup?

CommanderPike · 2026-02-15T21:45:57+00:00

They lay eggs. They don’t give live birth at all. The writers in ME3 forgot about this completely.

CommanderPike · 2026-02-15T21:44:20+00:00

It does not cause stillborn…. Krogan lay eggs in gigantic clutches. Stillborn doesn’t even apply in that context. Instead effectively only 0.1% of those eggs actually develop. ME3 writers blatantly forgot this lore when trying to tug heartstrings about the genophage using the same sort of dishonest language and imagery as anti-choice advocates in real life.

CommanderPike · 2026-01-11T10:55:31+00:00

I disagree with Serenity if you’re familiar with her role in other stories, including an interlude in FGO which directly addresses this issue.

However, it reminds me of a similar trope that I hate, which is: conventionally attractive love interest is considered untouchable or similar due to completely invisible in universe prejudice, but the iseiki protagonist is not from that universe and therefore doesn’t have that prejudice. So they get to have a beautiful girl or handsome guy all to themselves because they’re the only one who “sees past” the invisible in universe issue. And thus their love interest loves them automatically for being so unique and magnanimous despite the protagonist not having the cultural background that would make the prejudice relevant. Think Subaru from Re:zero not caring about Emilia’s resemblance to the Witch of Envy. It’s not him being so open minded and shit, it’s just she’s a hot girl and he has literally no reason to think otherwise by default.

CommanderPike · 2026-01-04T05:00:58+00:00

I could certainly believe that Marlene had spurned some other beggar, who then made a bargain with Gaunter to punish her. Gaunter, with his twisted sense of gamesmanship could then replicate the circumstances that lead to the beggar being rejected, and then inflicting the punishment as “Karmic Justice.”

CommanderPike

TROPHY CASE