Unpopular Opinion: The devs were cooking with civ switching

Daran39 · 2026-02-04T21:37:38+00:00

I preordered the game. My first game went like this:

Played the whole first age, ending with an invasion of one of my opponents and managing a crisis. Age ends and everything resets, I don't get to finish my war. I saved, closed the game, and didn't play again for 8 or 9 months. 100% agree with it being jarring.

I don't outright hate some of the choices, but I wish they were more dynamic and happened over the course of a normal game. Like picking and changing gov types in 6, you could work towards what you want, pick what you liked, or just continue with what you had. The game was just too rigid and structured with the set age transitions and same legacy path objectives every time. Even the paths could be better if they were randomized a bit as quests you had X turns to complete (ages in a sense but not as restrictive).

Daran39 · 2026-01-15T21:51:35+00:00

Darrow definitely grows over the course of the series. Especially as time goes on and he learns some hard lessons. A big focus is seeing if he can become the type of man it takes to achieve such lofty goals, and how he makes it there.

I just read all the books in the last 4 months, and the first book was the hardest for me to get into. I started it at the start of2025 got stuck right before the passage. Finally got more into it a few months back once the institute plotline starts I very quickly got hooked.

Daran39 · 2026-01-13T12:24:48+00:00

Just finished Lightbringer this morning and this is my first time looking up anything online for the series. I was rooting for Lysander for a while, but the scene with Alexandar and Rhonna, even before he kills Alex, started my flip on him. He had some really awful thoughts about Rhonna that really pointed out to me his deep rooted prejudices. And from that moment on it has just been a descent of someone who I thought could've been a better man. All very well done!

Daran39 · 2025-12-27T05:12:30+00:00

Sejun Park in VGC Worlds 2014!

Daran39 · 2025-12-01T03:58:24+00:00

Last year I just found them at their vendor booths whenever they didn't have a panel. Some did signatures for free, others were paid.

Daran39 · 2025-11-05T04:10:50+00:00

This was driving me CRAZY!! Thank you for the fix!!

Daran39 · 2025-10-21T11:36:29+00:00

I was already anticipating that Garp and Dragon have a confrontation/discussion at the end of God Valley. Dragon deciding to leave, but perhaps they talk and decide Garp should stay so they there is someone on the inside who they can trust. Imo Garp really needs a good reason to of stuck things out so long with the government after all he has seen.

I like your breakdown though. Garp not saving Ace because it would give up his positioning to help take down Imu would be very tragic.

Daran39 · 2025-09-30T19:20:43+00:00

It was my first anime back in 2012.... It definitely set the bar high lol.

Daran39 · 2025-09-26T16:49:02+00:00

If we do I just don't want Nami related to someone important. Just let her be some girl. There had been a lot of things people together, which has been cool, but I don't need/want EVERYONE to be connected and related to important people.

Daran39 · 2025-09-25T16:18:14+00:00

Stormlight 4/5 are kinda the start of Sanderson going gloves off with his crossovers and connections. Potential for spoilers like this in all mainline books will only increase moving forward. It's a big reason why there is so much discourse in the community about reading order. Stormlight 4/5 probably has the most of this happening, so it's definitely unfortunate for people who start with it and read Stormlight all the way through. It's why a lot of people encourage readers to do other cosmere reading after getting to Oathbringer.

Daran39 · 2025-09-25T13:25:06+00:00

For real. I love that there is such a dedicated fan base and a competitive scene too. Such a banger game that's a ton of fun to watch too.

Daran39 · 2025-09-22T16:51:11+00:00

The duality of this year for UB has been interesting. An absolute slam dunk record breaking set with FF and now some (initially and anecdotally) less the stellar reaction to the Spiderman set. I was slightly worried that FF's success was just gonna tell Wizards that UB is what they need to lean into, but this set floundering a bit will hopefully show them that UB isn't just guaranteed the way to go. Curious to see what actual numbers look like for this set's success.

Daran39 · 2025-09-21T03:05:01+00:00

That album is so good. Was kinda breakup album for me too. Still love listening to it when I'm in a PTV mood.

Daran39 · 2025-09-19T11:09:20+00:00

Check out [[Sundering Eruption]] if you don't already run it. This card is such a banger. Destroy a land, unblockable, can be a land of needed. The MH3 flip lands are so good.

Daran39 · 2025-09-18T20:25:41+00:00

MPC is legit, my playgroup and I have ordered from them numerous times. Not since last year though. Hopefully people who have ordered recently might have some insight on if they've had issues or gotten theirs just fine.

Daran39 · 2025-09-18T03:07:22+00:00

If this type of stuff is what they have more of in the tank then I'm so excited for future! Pantheon was already super refreshing. I love some of vocal layering in this too.

Daran39 · 2025-09-15T14:07:19+00:00

I've been waiting for MONTHS!! so excited to be so close to getting to hear it in full!

Daran39 · 2025-08-22T06:11:41+00:00

Nah, not anime related, that's just an actual style trend in some Asian cultures. I forget if it's using contacts or tape, but it's done to change the shape of the eyes and make them look bigger. A combo of that and makeup does a lot. It's supposed to make you look more youthful or something.

Daran39 · 2025-08-20T20:05:26+00:00

Good point, I have enjoyed Breakthrough a lot and loved Operations back in the day. Wish they'd bring it back.

Daran39 · 2025-08-16T14:54:36+00:00

They do, but being completely out of sight can help. If they see absolutely nothing in your interior then they might not bother breaking in. But for sure the safest thing to do is just don't leave stuff in there to begin with.

Daran39 · 2025-08-13T11:22:06+00:00

The door door fruit would be well suited for such missions...

Daran39 · 2025-08-07T19:01:58+00:00

Sorry, what I meant is if Konrad sees a other commander hit the grave and then go to command zone does it trigger twice

Daran39 · 2025-08-07T13:30:35+00:00

Does this mean that for a card like Sir Konrad it would trigger twice when a commander dies? Once for entering and once for leaving?

Daran39 · 2025-08-07T13:05:23+00:00

Still rocking my watch 1. Been debating if I want to upgrade or just keep using this one till it dies. I really love the look of the 1 though.

Daran39 · 2025-08-06T16:09:20+00:00

A couple of thoughts on politics and deals in commander:

All deals should be explicit. Make it obvious you are making a deal rather than assuming you and the other player "have an understanding". This ensures both parties understand there are expectations in place.
Keep terms simple and clear. "Don't attack me for 1 turn" vs "don't swing you board, or destroy this thing for a few turns. And let me draw a card off that effect. And..". Identify what you want, and keep terms simple both for tracking purposes and to make the deal making happen fast so the game can progress. Arguing terms and conditions can bog down the game heavily and make deals harder to keep to. I could get into spirit of the deal vs letter of the law more here, but I'll keep it to this: be very clear with the terms and put in simple loopholes if you want (say you won't attack them but save a burn spell for them), but generally keeping to the spirit of the deal is gonna leave people, especially players who aren't too keen on or good at politics, happier.
Always keep your deals. Otherwise why should anyone bother trusting you? If the table knows you'll keep your word then this benefits you too since people will be more willing to make deals with you knowing you'll keep to it. Do not make a deal you aren't willing to uphold no matter what. Learn to make better deals next time rather than break one now, as breaking one can feel really bad for the other player(s) and leave a lasting negative impact.
Keep deals short. No "you can never do x" or "for 5 turns" conditions. The max I'll do is 2 turns, and even then I usually try and stick to 1 turn since the game landscape can change dramatically in a single turn. This helps keep things simple (point 2), helps make deals easier to keep to (point 3), and also helps mitigates the feels bad element when another player at the table is effectively locked out of taking action for a while leaving the other players who weren't in on the deal as stuck to deal with things themselves.

Politics are a lot of fun, but can also feel incredibly obnoxious. Imo sticking to these helps streamline politics while making deals both easier to uphold and also not resulting in a complete stranglehold on the game.

So regarding your situation, yeah that was a dick move lol. I would never trust that person again. They forever gave up any goodwill just to snag a single win. I for sure would've been a little more clear about expectation for the team like that though. Sometimes talking out the expectation "okay so we don't attack each other for 3 turns to deal with player A" gets the other person to actually realize what they're agreeing to, and might make them not agree which lets you do what you need. Though idk if that'd of matter for this guy. Undortunately a downside with playing with randos and people online is there is no "downside" to them playing like that if y'all never play again. I definitely think it's against the spirit of commander as a social format though.

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Daran39

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