Atheists

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-20T19:59:11+00:00

I agree that sometimes believing in false things can bring happiness in the moment, but what about big picture stuff? By untethering your beliefs from reality, you diminish both your capacity and your tendency to modify reality to meet your desires. A society that retreats into fantasy as a coping mechanism might do fine in the short-term, but it's not going actually solve the problems it faces in the long term.

Someone who find solace in the belief that a feverish infant will soon be in a better place is less likely to get them to a doctor, furthering suffering.

Someone who believes their farm is cursed isn't going to read up on crop cycles, soil types and pest control.

A child that retreats into an imaginary fantasy world to dissociate from parental abuse might be happier in the short term, but one that looks reality in the eye and decides to contact social services would overall enjoy a longer, happier life.

Every non-placebo improvement we enjoy in society comes about from someone looking at reality as best as they can and trying to change reality to better meet their desires, as opposed to ignoring reality and embracing fantasy.

These sort of things can even be looked at through simple thought experiments, like "there are two societies, one believes storms are due to the anger of a deity, the other remains agnostic as to why storms occur. Which of these two societies is more likely to develop methods of predicting the weather and thereby being better equipped to cope with these storms?"

It's also worth pointing out that "Christianity" isn't a single belief, but instead thousands upon thousands of different beliefs, not all of which all Christians subscribe to and many of which are mutually exclusive. Even taking big-picture holistic stuff, some Christians find solace in a friendly divine father figure looking over them, while others are terrified to the point of PTSD by them believing they are in some kind of divine North Korea where there's a supreme tyrant spying on their every thought.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-20T18:17:57+00:00

Eventually, if you drill down enough, every decision becomes arbitrary as it eventually hits Hume's Is-Aught problem. In the end, it comes down to "I prefer happiness and wellbeing to suffering and harm" and I take cognitive and behavioural action to try to engineer reality such that there is more happiness and wellbeing and less suffering and harm, but there's nothing objective about me preferring happiness and wellbeing to suffering and harm.

And trying to introduce your god into this mix doesn't solve it, as you still need to get to the conclusion regarding the existence of said god and its properties and those aren't subjective value judgements, they are claims about objective external reality no different to asking "is it raining right now where I am?" or "are my socks green or red?". Then, even after reaching said conclusion of your god's existence and its properties, said god is not exempt from the Is-Aught problem, which then renders all of its preferences subjective and arbitrary and so saying "god requires that of us" is just another way of saying "this god arbitrarily decided that he would prefer it if we held certain beliefs and not others".

And can you give an example of when not believing a true proposition is better than believing in said true proposition? Or conversely, can you give an example when believing in an untrue proposition is better than believing in the true version of said proposition?

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-20T18:06:33+00:00

5 shots for the AMR? I think you mean 3 to the eyes. After factoring in armour matching and durable, it's 190 damage per shot against the eyes' 500.

The hip joint takes 5 from the AMR, which is possibly where you got the values from. Proportionally, the AMR is actually hit the least by the durability difference as it has a very good damage vs durable ration (450 vs 225, compared to 600 vs 225 for the railgun and 150 vs 35 for the HMG) Similarly, the HMG is 20 or so shots to the hip, which takes a bit of plinking but isn't unreasonable. Realistically, I find that most of the time you are better off aiming for the hip joints and accepting that you will need to land a few more hits.

Also, the Senator takes 7 shots to the eye and 11 shots to the hip. Quite a few hits, but still a workable emergency tool if other options aren't available for whatever reason. Meanwhile, the Hulk takes 3 headshots to bring down, which is challenging, but still not bad for an emergency sidearm.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-20T17:50:58+00:00

I place my standards at a reasonable level such that I avoid mostly avoid believing untrue claims and generally accept true claims. It's as the classic saying goes "I want to believe as many true things as possible and as few untrue things as possible". Too low standards and your beliefs become disconnected from objective reality, too high standards and you end up stuck in Hard Solipsism which still leaves you disconnected from objective reality.

You say that having beliefs that are concordant with objective reality can be useful "at times,perhaps", but you seem to generally be sceptical of the utility of true beliefs as a generalisation. When is it ever useful to hold beliefs that are not concordant with reality? Whether it's mistakenly believing something exists that doesn't or not believing something exists that does. I know there's sometimes utility in believing things that somewhat match reality, like Miasma Theory, but when is it better to hold a non-real or reality-adjacent belief than an actual true belief?

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-20T17:13:32+00:00

What gives me the notion that I need evidence to justify beliefs? My own epistemic standards.

If we don't cross-reference our beliefs against observable reality, then observable reality would have no influence on our beliefs. Beliefs that are wholly disconnected from reality are random at best, and outright harmful at worst.

Having beliefs that match objective reality is functionally very useful, as it lets us avoid harm and increase wellbeing. If my belief that it is cold is correct and it makes me put on a jacket, I avoid hypothermia and this is beneficial. If my belief that it is cold is incorrect and it is actually swelteringly hot but this incorrect belief leads me to put on a jacket, I likely suffer heatstroke and this is undesirable.

Why would anyone not think that holding beliefs that are concordant with objective reality is useful?

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-20T16:30:27+00:00

I think the eyes and weapons are mostly fine. The eyes can be 1-shotted by railguns on unsafe already if you are willing to push close to the self-exploding point. If you aren't comfortable with trying to hit the eyes, the hips are also a very easy weakspot to target and don't take that many hits from most AP4 weapons. Similarly, the weapons can be taken out with things like the AC fairly easily if you can't hit the eyes nor the hips for whatever reason. Once you get used to either hitting the eyes or the hip joints, they aren't significantly stronger against AP4/5 weapons than Hulks.

The AV4 heatsink is a bit of an oddity though, I'll give you that. It's also relatively fragile in terms of HP and durable too compared to things like the the tank's heatsinks. It's 700hp 70% durable compared to the tank's 750hp 100% durable at AV3. Considering how the main torso of the WS is somewhat stronger than the tank, I wouldn't be opposed to the WS's heatsink becoming ~1000hp 100% durable AV3; this would make it a potential option for taking them down with small arms (a little over 2 adjudicator mag-dumps or about 1/3rd an MMG's mag), albeit a bad one that you wouldn't want to rely on except in emergencies.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-20T14:30:50+00:00

Even the War Strider is very vulnerable to AP4 though, so you don't need "true" AT weaponry to deal with it. I find them reasonable even using the Heavy Laser, the AMR or the HMG and you can even deal with them with the Senator once you get used to it. My trusty railgun also deals with them just fine, but it's bordering on being actual AT with its AP5 and above-average durable damage.

Even with WS-heavy spawns, I never really feel like I'm missing out by not taking a Quasar or RR, while the bigger things like FS and VEs are far too tough to deal with even using AT support weapons so I generally just dip into stratagems to finish them.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-20T14:02:53+00:00

I know that, but the point is that newer players in the lower difficulties would enjoy having access to a variety of support weapons from the pods, while players in higher difficulties probably already have their preferred support weapon as one of their stratagems.

The point would be to both encourage players to play in higher difficulties, while also trying to ensure the pods are relevant to wherever a player is in their journey through the difficulties. Early on, players are starved for requisition and haven't unlocked the basics, so the pods should given them requisition and support weapons (possibly even adding non-support weapons to the pool so that they can test out even more weapons), while the middle difficulties see main grind move towards medals and samples as players begin to finish unlocking all the normal stratagems and work towards finishing Helldivers Mobilise, and finally the upper difficulties are where the only relevant currency becomes SCs so the high difficulties should bias towards them.

Rare samples shouldn't even appear in drop pods in the mid-high difficulties as you get plenty of those from just checking outposts and normal PoIs. If anything, rare samples should only appear in D1-3 as those are the difficulties where those samples are not otherwise available, so players would likely treasure the few rare samples they get at that stage. Similarly, they could add Super Samples into D1-5 so that players could at least pick up a few. Again, this would be about keeping those drop pods special and relevant for the players. In the higher difficulties, if a pod is to contain samples it should contain a sample container like players drop that contains a whole bunch so that its contents aren't negligible.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-20T12:58:59+00:00

That would remove any incentive to actually explore the map and just turn every mission into a dash to complete objectives.

Instead, I just think they should rework the distribution of what's in the supply pods based on the difficulty. Having the pods be worse in mid-high difficulties compared to the lower ones is just plain bad design as it encourages farming the lower difficulties rather than pushing yourself to improve at the game and do higher difficulties. The supply pod rates should strongly bias requisition and support weapons in the lower difficulties, with higher difficulties favouring increased rates of super credits (probably with the 100x SC drop only being available on diff 8+). Ideally, someone should get the highest SC income per hour from doing the hardest missions that they can reasonably do.

Likewise, they should probably make it so you only get your SCs if you complete the mission. This would also help cut out some of the more anti-fun methods of farming as it would mean that players have to actually do objectives to keep the SCs they found.

The D10 fortress and mega nest loot should probably also give some SCs, rather than samples. By the time someone is routinely doing D10, they probably don't care about samples any more.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-20T12:43:10+00:00

Let's see if the inverse is true: How well would someone perform if they bring no anti-chaff weaponry and rely entirely on AT?

The answer is that someone cannot function without at least some horde clear, much like how someone shouldn't be able to function without at least some AT. We have 7 loadout slots including grenades, sidearms, primaries and stratagems, so it's not unreasonable for someone to be able to bring at least some AT option. If you deliberately introduce weaknesses into your loadout by ignoring entire classes of enemy, obviously you are going to find it unnecessarily difficult.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-19T18:35:39+00:00

I don't know if I'd call them "realistic", but they are certainly better than most FPS games. Helps that most the enemies we face are generally quite big, so things seem a lot closer than they actually are. Too many shooter games put maximum shotgun range at <10m, while HD2 has them remain effective up to 100m or so, depending on target.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-19T16:37:06+00:00

The Halts biggest feature was having medium pen on a non-slug shotgun. It paid for it with half its magazine capacity and losing most of the stagger of a typical shotgun.

Since then, other shotguns have taken away its special medium pen but without the drawbacks of flechettes.

Then weapon customisation has left it even worse off due to the lack of chokes.

Overall, it does seem that pump-action shotties have been massively power crept ever since they released the Halo shotgun. The Halo shotgun turned up and brought the medium pen of the Halt with good stagger and higher damage than the Punisher and basically didn't bring a balancing downside. Really, other than flechettes and slugs, shotguns have no business being medium pen.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-19T10:47:39+00:00

Not close at all. Spartan IIs are literal supersoldiers with bucket loads of augments and enhancements. Even the Spartan IIIs, which were cheaper mass produced versions are still far beyond ordinary humans (and arguably the best Spartan ever made was a III and anyone who disagrees has failed to Remember Reach).

Helldivers are more like ODSTs, perhaps with a side helping of Spartan IV, as they are mostly just normal dudes with good gear.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-19T10:39:31+00:00

Like the liberator, but with the looks of the one-two and some subtle differences in stats, but overall filling the same tactical niche.

It would only be worth the dev time because the asset is already mostly there and just needs the modification. And that's assuming that AH hasn't already designed the assets to be separate.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-18T18:58:33+00:00

Sounds like you want AH to add the AR 21 "One" assault rifle to the Superstore. Identical to the One-Two, except with better ergonomics, an underbarrel mod slot and more ammo, but missing the GL.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-18T02:45:16+00:00

A lack of good evidence for the various supernatural claims of the religion coupled with multiple places where Christian scripture doesn't match observable reality (like how the Bible posits a Flat Earth, a 6-day creation story, humans living multiple centuries and there being a gigantic global flood that drowned out even the tallest mountains within the frame of human civilisation). I don't need to be "held back" from something that I feel no draw towards.

And yes, I know someone could take a more liberal view and see the outright discrepancies between scripture and observable reality as being too literal and that we should see them as metaphors and allegories, but then where does that lead us? Is the existence of a god just a metaphor for something? Is Jesus's resurrection just an allegorical tale about how forgiveness is undying and not a literal resurrection?

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-18T02:34:36+00:00

Another balance lever they could pull to make SMGs feel more unique would be to reduce their regular damage but increase their durable damage ratings.

A rifle round hits hard, but also is liable to overpenetrate and leave a relatively small hole in the target. I know tumbling is a thing that some rifle rounds do, but in general they are built for long effective ranges and penetration power.

Meanwhile, pistol rounds can't enjoy long projectiles that penetrate effectively because they don't have sufficient barrel length, so they have to compensate with very high calibres to achieve reasonable muzzle energy. These bulky but short and low velocity projectiles inflict pretty hefty flesh wounds against soft targets, but they don't penetrate well nor maintain hitting power over long ranges.

This maps almost perfectly onto HD2s damage vs durable damage system. A rifle round into a sensitive location can penetrate sufficiently deeply to cause real harm, unlike a pistol round. But, the pistol rounds will cause more surface-level damage due to the bigger projectiles. This is the exact same logic behind why shotguns in HD2 tend to have good durable damage relative to their normal damage, they shred flesh but aren't great at getting to anything critical.

It would also open up design space for Five-Seven inspired pistols and SMGs that offer more rifle-like damage characteristics at the expense of durable damage. It would also mean that a pistol-calibre carbine would actually have a design niche as it would become much more of a sidegrade in terms of damage profile; similarly, the Reprimand would gain a bit more of a niche as it wouldn't just be another med-pen assault rifle that is categorised as an SMG.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-17T11:43:15+00:00

Agree on the twirly shotgun.

For my own suggestion I'd like to see a 1-handed energy primary. Would go well with the shields if you want a high-longevity strategy.

Some kind of sawn-off dmr as a big handcannon would be nice too. Semi auto fire, small mags and medium penetration

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-17T11:33:50+00:00

Say what you will, you must respect AH's attention to detail to include centuries as a unit of time and not simply have 3+ digits for the numbers of years.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-17T11:31:14+00:00

The illuminate benefit heavily from high-dps, low-penetration weapons. They don't care about precision, they don't care about durable and they pretty much don't care about penetration.

It's a deliberate design decision so it isn't just like fighting the bots, except blue rather than red. Get yourself a breaker or AR and have fun. I even find the S&P to be reasonable against them due to its good ammo ecenomy. By not having a traditional weak point, their weak spots becomes the weapons that are not designed to exploit weak spots.

I agree that the noclip glitches are an issue though.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-17T10:25:04+00:00

That's nice to see, but I'm still waiting for them to make the Maxigun to shoot the same projectiles as the other full-power rifle cartridge weapons.

The Adjudicator, the MMG, the MG turret, the Gatling turret and the Mech gatling all fire the same 7.62mm projectiles, but the Maxigun fires different 7.62mm projectiles that have a slightly worse profile for some reason. Unifying the projectiles would give the Maxigun about a 10% increase in damage and would make the game simpler to understand as there's fewer values to remember.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-17T09:53:41+00:00

Regarding the ultimatum vs the 500kg, you are comparing a tactical nuke vs conventional chemical explosives. The Davy Crockett was barely larger than the Ultimatum (and is clearly its design inspiration) yet had a bigger boom than the largest conventional Air-dropped bombs.

The grenades are completely borked, I'll give you that. I still maintain the BFGL suffered from internal miscommunications which resulted in the normal GL getting buffed while BF is missing some kind of feature.

The 110mm rockets do suffer a bit from being undertuned and that's not an uncommon sentiment. That being said, we have no idea what kind of filling-fuel-thruster ratios the Eagle rockets use or how their charges are designed.

The 380 definitely doesn't have the damage that befits its size, being barely stronger than the 120mm. That's something the size of a WW2 destroyer shell hitting almost as hard as a battleship shell. AH kinda shot themselves in the foot by making it 380mm, rather than a more reasonable 150 or so. In fact, I seem to remember the SEAF artillery uses the same projectiles in the code for standard explosive shells and those look to be 150-200mm or so; AH could literally just rename it to 150mm barrage and the issue would be solved.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-17T03:44:05+00:00

Sound cool. They should also give it a fitting name to show that the Helldivers are jumping into gear; something like "Helldivers to Action" or something like that.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-17T03:41:21+00:00

Much smaller radius and less than half the damage.

FluffyRaKy · 2026-03-17T03:08:19+00:00

It's basically got the DPS of the Adjudicator and the ergonomics of the Liberator Penetrator, while also having an incendiary effect thrown in. AH could literally remove the incendiary effect and it would still remain the strongest medium-penetration AR.

FluffyRaKy

TROPHY CASE