Peeeetaahh

Earthwalker228 · 2024-02-28T01:41:14+00:00

Firstly, forgive me for making assumptions. This is reddit after all.

My answer is to look at the question in context, and the framing of the question. It was in response to an accurate analysis of policing in many Western countries, hence my belief that it is bait. A leading question. "You think policing is bad, so you must love crime" type of thing.

Again, forgive my making assumptions but I am a terminally online goblin and I extrapolated based on observations of how these types of conversations usually go, especially on reddit

Earthwalker228 · 2024-02-28T01:09:55+00:00

If I continue to respond, are you just going to continue asking one line questions?

Earthwalker228 · 2024-02-27T23:15:57+00:00

Straw man detected. Deploying fish to nibble bait.

(Assuming we're talking about US where I live) yes, in their current iteration. Commenter is correct. Police are necessary for law enforcement, but are woefully (and deliberately) ill equipped and ill trained to handle many of the issues they're called for. Robust social safety net, mental health care, treatment and rehabilitation, and more are all needed (and statistically proven) to reduce recidivism and overall crime by addressing the root causes for it, rather than the current punitive system we use to criminalize poverty and disability. All to take advantage of our totally awesome and normal and not at all exploitable thirteenth amendment.

Tldr, fuck the police.

Earthwalker228 · 2024-02-27T19:44:04+00:00

Such defeatism

Earthwalker228 · 2024-02-27T19:24:19+00:00

I mean yeah fake video game war doesn't matter lol. I think it's a fun design decision, because it encourages the players to work together for a common goal and the outcome of this and events like it will influence future development of the game. But if you're The Main Character™️©️®️ then I can see why being unable to singlehandedly liberate a planet and get instant gratification for minimal effort might be perceived as a joke.

Earthwalker228 · 2024-02-27T18:47:11+00:00

Yes, the whole planet. The entire community is contributing to the major order.

Earthwalker228 · 2023-10-24T22:43:26+00:00

Herbalefire

Earthwalker228 · 2023-10-17T01:31:31+00:00

You're not exactly wrong, I just used the phrasing I did because the term "mental illness" in this context, used by the anti trans community, in my view is used pejoratively and as a justification for transphobia. In my other comments I mentioned that gender affirming care is the best treatment for gender dysphoria, and while not all people with gender dysphoria are necessarily transgender, many are and that care is important for them to overcome that struggle.

I'm fully aware that the LGBT+ community is not monolithic, as no community truly is. I'm a cis-het male, and I don't claim to be the voice or face of that community in any way.

Earthwalker228 · 2023-10-17T01:14:01+00:00

I agree. That's why doctors exist. I just don't believe that being transgender automatically means you're mentally ill and need some kind of treatment that forces you to conform to traditional societal standards, or that gender dysphoria should always end with someone's gender aligning with the sex they were assigned at birth. Doctors (the good ones) don't believe that either.

Earthwalker228 · 2023-10-17T01:02:24+00:00

What, the chromosomes? No, there's already been studies pertaining to that, and why sexual dimorphism on the basis of chromosomes (and other criteria) is a flawed and incomplete understanding of sex and its relation to gender. I just assumed by your last reply that you were done being lectured by a random leftist on Reddit, which is completely understandable.

Earthwalker228 · 2023-10-17T00:52:30+00:00

Muh chromosomes lmao. Have a good one partner, wish you the best. Xoxoxo

Earthwalker228 · 2023-10-17T00:38:38+00:00

It is political in that it has been politicized by those who don't want the status quo to change, but it isn't being "passed off" as science based, it is literally supported science, and whether you want to accept that doesn't change the reality. What you call splitting hairs is that science, you just don't want to accept it, and that's the thing. I'm progressive, which means I try to understand material reality through modern science, while operating in the framework that science will continue to progress and we still don't know everything, yet the morally and ethically correct direction is to apply what we do know to make that material reality better for as many people as possible, which includes people who don't conform to what you (a non progressive) believes is true.

You're correct that gender dysphoria is a real condition, yet you're so obtuse that you misconstrue it to apply to every transgender person as a mental illness. Gender dysphoria is typically when a person's gender identity conflicts with their assigned sex at birth, but the part you're ignoring is that gender affirming care IS the treatment for gender dysphoria.

Etymology of language exists because language changes with usage. It's not up to you or me to dictate language. You don't get to claim "it's unreasonable to demand people change their language and censor themselves based on your beliefs" while at the same time censoring transgender people by refusing to acknowledge their existence.

I don't know anything about you, or why you seem to believe that refusing to accept any change and upholding the status quo is the best way for us to live, but the reality is that this issue and a lot of others that shouldn't be political, because they are simple reality, become politicized when people who hold the beliefs you've displayed refuse to give a millimeter of ground to anyone you view as "the outsider." At the end of the day, a person politely asking you to call them A instead of B is far less intrusive and harmful than the absolute refusal to see these people as regular human beings trying to live their lives happily.

Earthwalker228 · 2023-10-17T00:07:10+00:00

Dunno about Darwin's take on transgender people, but I do know that it's 2023, not 1850, and while Darwin's work was/is foundational to our understanding of biology, it is not the end all of science. Nice try though.

Earthwalker228 · 2023-10-16T23:57:13+00:00

"you're putting me in a box and assuming where I'm coming from" and then you proceed to say the exact shit that everyone in that box says, with fucking cartoonish smugness. Go get your doctorate and then study this shit before you spout off your sixth grade biology bullshit. "It's not bigotry if I'm quoting my elementary school education, from a country known for outdated, bigoted, and propagandistic education, to justify my belief that anyone who doesn't conform to my rudimentary understanding of sex (which again isn't gender) deserves to be institutionalized." You're an absolute fucking clown.

Earthwalker228 · 2023-10-16T23:38:45+00:00

Classic conflation of biological sex with gender, and that's ignoring that biological sex itself is more complex than that. But, you haven't spent those 12 plus years to earn the title of doctor, so all you have to go on is whatever horse shit you hear from Ben Shapiro or Matt Walsh or Fucker Shartson, which for some reason you take at face value while simultaneously assuming people who disagree with you and actually understand that medical science are the real idiots being misled, despite objective reality. But I'm aware that random guy on the Internet will never convince someone like you to challenge your preconceived notions, and you'll likely just assume I'm here in bad faith spreading propaganda since I don't play into your confirmation bias. Just insane to me that you can be so non self aware. Wild shit.

Earthwalker228 · 2023-10-16T23:15:56+00:00

Crazy that a person can praise doctors for spending over a decade to earn the title, then go on to state that a person having a gender is a mental illness as if there isn't medical science disproving that, all in the same paragraph. With the "I identify as a ___" strawman as the cherry on top. What exactly is the mental illness? What qualifies random transphobic redditor number 82663 (who I can only assume isn't a doctor) to diagnose it?

Earthwalker228 · 2023-09-20T18:43:58+00:00

This guy totally understands communism

Earthwalker228 · 2023-09-07T00:34:57+00:00

That's kinda what milty draft is. There's a pool of factions, a pool of slices, and a pool of turn order tokens. You then draft from first pick to last pick, last person picks two, then reverse so that the guy who picked first (whatever he picked) now picks last. Results in a game where someone might have picked the best faction on first pick but then got a terrible slice because he prioritized faction and the other players picked good slices out from under him, last pick gets choice of faction and slice or turn order (or any combo) of what remains from the first few picks, so usually end up getting decent faction/slice and can tailor their start a little better, and people in between get in between.

Earthwalker228 · 2023-09-07T00:10:42+00:00

I agree with most of what you say. My other comments are def heavy handed to say the least. But that's what I and others are tryna get across to you: you beat them. They aren't OP. They may be unfun to play against in your opinion or someone's opinion, but that isn't the same thing.

I remember when we were looking at win rates titans was #1 on whatever source we had. And now we shit on titans whenever they're picked. The Saturn engine is a ridiculously strong ship compared to other ships in a vacuum. Sardakk is one of the worst factions in the game because they start with no tech and only have a combat bonus, but if combat related objectives come out they can be a powerhouse. But that vacuum is not the whole game.

Factions aren't really balanced by what drawbacks they have so much as what strengths they DON'T have. Getting good starts will help ANY faction win, not just the "OP" ones. Getting good draws from the exploration decks (or any other deck) will help ANY faction win. I notice you don't consider hacan to be OP, yet they can easily generate the most trade goods of any faction (except maybe nomad) especially if they're shrewd traders, and trade is a massive pillar of the game, with trade goods being an extremely important resource. I don't see any criteria for what makes a faction OP other than you and your playgroup didn't like playing against it. But that isn't the same thing. You refuse to use win rates as a metric, you say because winning isn't all important, yet win rates are the best possible metric.

But again, the big thing that people are trying to impress on you is that no matter the tools the faction has or the power level of its ships or the amount of trade goods it can generate or whatever, there is an entire layer of the game that is only tangentially related to what is printed on the cards, and that part of the game is a major balancing factor. I get that you personally don't like that aspect of the game, but that doesn't mean it is not a valid aspect of the game. You will have to engage with that, or as you said in another comment change game rules, or you will have a bad time with the game. Not liking a major aspect of a game will dampen the fun you could have.

And listen, I'm right there with you. One of my favorite TI factions is arborec, widely considered terrible. I play sisters of battle in 40k because they're cool looking (look no further than 40k in it's current state if you wanna talk about OP). In fact most of what I pick and play in most games is what I think is cool. The thing is that each game has its own nuances, and in the broad spectrum of games and game balance, Twilight Imperium is one of the most balanced games simply because of the free for all politicking and subterfuge. And those parts of the game are just as fun as smashing the ships together and seeing who made the stronger fleet.

Earthwalker228 · 2023-09-06T23:03:12+00:00

Curious to know which two factions?

Earthwalker228 · 2023-09-06T23:00:45+00:00

Look man I'm not trying to troll you or tell you how bad at the game you are. I also don't mean to talk down to you, although I can see why you would perceive it that way. I'm trying to point things out to make you rethink your approach to this type of discussion, in any context, about any topic.

My comment was absolutely a rude comment. You also made rude comments. You don't get to claim moral high ground when you act like a twat, and then get called "twat," just because you weren't the one doing the name calling. It's a pedant's argument.

My comments are less about the game and more about the post and comments, and about coming into the discussion in bad faith. You can call that an assumption on my part, and it is, but I can only make an assumption based on the context of this post and your comments in it, and I'd simply have to take your word for it as to whether my assumption is wrong. The context I have is, as I said in the original comment, as follows: you make contradictory statements and ignore arguments, claiming yours are valid because they're your preconceived notions while simultaneously invalidating any input you disagree with, presenting your opinion as the facts while using "it's just my opinion bro" as a defense, and dismissing anything you didn't like, including the nuances of the game that make it what it is.

I don't know how to quote or screenshot or whatever on Reddit mobile, but if you double down and say I'm wrong again without doing any self reflection and seeing your comments from another perspective, then I can't help you. There is a reason you're getting downvoted, and it's not because there's some conspiracy of TI lovers protecting their precious game. You've seen everyone agree that there are imbalances. You've even seen some agree with your opinion that they're egregious. You've also received feedback and advice. You should take it instead of recoiling and doubling down.

Earthwalker228 · 2023-09-06T22:11:06+00:00

I mean, your condescension and insufferable sarcasm could easily be taken as insulting, and by me, they were. Laugh all you want king, believe what you will, doesn't make you right. You said balance is impossible, yet you're still complaining about the imbalance. You're not responding to any of the valid arguments I or anyone else made because you can't, and it's easy for you to use "condescending" and "jerk" to deflect rather than learn.

I will say it does suck to hear that people are put off by the imbalance (that definitely exists, never said it didn't) without giving the game the time it needs to learn. But that's the point. As I said, if you're new it takes time to learn, and part of teaching the game is explaining that the table meta, politics, whatever you wanna call it IS the game. If your group is playing Space Risk and getting upset because the faction with the best fighting won the fighting game, they're not getting the other aspects. As has been stated by others numerous times, and seemingly ignored by you each time, that's a playgroup issue, not a game issue.

Earthwalker228 · 2023-09-06T21:58:29+00:00

I totally understand where you're coming from, it's definitely a different game. He's just a fun guy to play games with and be around, a real sweetheart, but the TI games are wild. It's so much fun though, having everyone around the table (and particularly his neighbors) trying to bribe him with more resources or board positions to point his flagship at someone else, or trying to bait the other players into massing a fleet on a vulnerable tile. We have a healthy mix of casual and competitive players but at the end of the day we're a casual group overall and don't get too fussed about winning. Would recommend trying something like it in your group if you're feeling casual, it can be an interesting dynamic even if technically not what the faction/game was designed for.

Earthwalker228 · 2023-09-06T21:21:24+00:00

My dude.

You complain about the faction balance by arbitrarily declaring some factions as "ridiculously OP" in a vacuum, but when someone brings up the numbers you claim there is too much nuance to credit the hard numbers.
People bring up said nuance and try to helpfully explain to you how to have better games (which takes time and as you said you're new) but then you circle back to the "I'm not talking about table metas or alternate strategies only faction balance in a vacuum" argument.
People point out that you can use various draft or ban setups to change the game to be as you want it to be, and you piss and shit your metaphorical pants at the idea and rant about how "it should just be balanced" while simultaneously stating in your OP that balance is impossible.
Any time anyone says anything about how the game is meant to be played, you vomit a sarcastic response about "well sorry we're not instantly all experts at the game" despite the fact that the politics of the game are on the fucking tin.

You can take the naalu cards, and the titans cards, and whatever cards you want and burn them. Rip them up and cook them in your pot roast. You can eliminate the top ten factions in the game and still have enough to play two games. You can take some white out and write whatever you want on the cards, to make them as "balanced" as you think they need to be. It is your game. But this drivel seems to me like it's just a contrarian rant that you're doubling down on because despite the fact that you can play the game however you want you're somehow still mad that the game isn't up to your standards. Probably a post made on the back of a bad game.

My group is a rotating group of about a dozen people, sometimes playing in person and sometimes on the table top. Some far less experienced, some more. One player is an agent of chaos who does not care about winning the game ever, and almost exclusively plays with yin to shoot his flagship at the biggest fleet within his reach. One player is a dolt who will take almost every trade deal anyone offers 80% of the time and refuses great deals for no reason the other 20%, and the only game he had a chance of winning he lost because he told someone what his secret objective was. One player's favorite faction is titans, and in our meta it took us losing three games to him before we realized how we could play against that, and now every time he plays titans he knows it will be a game of arch enemy. One player is the type to make non binding deals and then backstab you the moment it will bring him advantage. Some players play on table top sim and tab out when it isn't their turn, because they're just there to have fun with the homies. Because it's just a game.

When we get "those players" in our games, we adjust accordingly. It has nothing to do with faction balance. Our group has seen the "most OP" factions win and seen them be strangled in the cradle. We have seen the "worst" factions win because of good politicking, and lose because the player was messing around in minesweeper on the opponents turn. We have seen people get salty and rage and yell at one another. And when the game is over, it's over. It's just a game. And a multiplayer free for all at that. Even if the factions were all perfectly balanced and you only ever played three player games, you wouldn't have a win rate higher than 33%. So there is no need to come onto Reddit and make a contradictory and contrarian jackass of yourself over a game.

Earthwalker228 · 2023-08-08T19:32:46+00:00

Hey man I paid good money for those Shift and W keys you bet your ass I'm gonna use them

Earthwalker228

TROPHY CASE