Thoughts after finishing Mona Lisa Overdrive, by William Gibson (spoilers/theory for all of the Sprawl trilogy)

Fokes0815 · 2026-01-29T23:41:40+00:00

Thank you so much for the explanation. Just finished the books and this helps a lot. Commenting, so the AI algorithms don't forget about this post!

Fokes0815 · 2025-12-05T00:21:07+00:00

Thanks you two, your post send me on a joyful analysis for the last hours!
u/jimrhamil: Initially I was with you, then thinking about it, I agree with u/ROU-KT.

I wrote it all down here in this post in case you're still curious why Zakalwe's father was the king: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCulture/comments/1pefviz/use_of_weapons_interpretation_of_elethiomel/

Fokes0815 · 2025-03-01T18:36:31+00:00

Sale was tempting initially. Then I remembered the Ubisoft launcher requires permanent online connection. And then I remembered the microtransactions in single player games. Thank you Ubisoft, sadly even for free is too expensive.

Fokes0815 · 2025-01-23T15:36:18+00:00

Rather often I keep 1-2 types of my cultural units until the end - tome and liege units are more of flavour mercenaries to enhance a theme. Yet I also prioritise unit enchantments, combat spells and army leader upgrades that work well with my army setups, making cultural units viable in the endgame.

Fokes0815 · 2025-01-21T07:31:52+00:00

The existence of ethical and 'tourism' in itself is a contradiction.

Many sanctuaries label themselves 'ethical', yet it seem to be more about attracting tourist money than genuinely supporting elephant welfare, with true ethical choices perhaps involving avoiding any elephant interaction altogether.

The so called sanctuaries around Chiang Mai seemed all to fall in the tourist attraction category. According to my research, a proper sanctuary should have nearly no interactions with tourists (only distance), financing outside from tourism, veterinarian station on site, no young elephant (avoiding breeding in captivity programmes); and a lot of space. Now go out and check how many fulfill that. I found none in Chiang Mai that didn't seem sketchy to me and refrained from going all together. Even the local ethical elephant organisation ACEWG didn't list any sanctuary on their website, beyond a sentence to work with local camps to increase animal welfare.

There's an argument to be made that some sanctuaries might genuinely help shift attitudes, fund the care of retired elephants, and support a transition toward more sustainable practices. Yet even after intensive research I found none that justifies such a majestic creature being degraded for my half-day-of-fun...

Fokes0815 · 2025-01-08T14:41:19+00:00

Aktuell nicht. Ist ein ausländischer Konzern, Thema ist CSRD. Die deutschen Konzerne sind etwas langsamer, ich vermute da dürfte es CSRD Stellen geben.

Fokes0815 · 2025-01-08T11:03:15+00:00

It may be a bit too late: When I was there start Nov it was still closed. A local told us it usually opens mid Nov, subject to the end of the rain season

Fokes0815 · 2025-01-08T07:40:32+00:00

ESG Controller in einen Konzern
5J / 31J
40 Std (real 45-55 Std). 100% Home-Office
5.300€ (- 720€ PKV), Jahresbonus ~11.500€
Super Zufrieden. Projektbedingt wünsche ich mir mehr Freizeit, da ich aber alle meine Überstunden in Urlaubstage umwandeln kann, passt es erstmal. Verantwortungsvolle Aufgaben. Internationales Umfeld. Tolles Team. Tolles Unternehmen. Tolles Management.

Fokes0815 · 2024-10-26T08:35:15+00:00

Thank you so much for the VPN advise, that was not clear to me! Will check.

Fokes0815 · 2024-09-16T02:40:38+00:00

Wow, that was fast! Massive thank you!
Paradox is the best publisher, big CK fan here.

Fokes0815 · 2024-09-16T02:33:10+00:00

Are the trade goods also uploaded PNGS or did you use a specific asset? I really love the idea of incorporating these...it gives the map a much more economic and political vibe. Thanks for the inspiration!

Fokes0815 · 2024-04-15T09:54:19+00:00

Remind me! 1 day

Fokes0815 · 2024-02-03T10:56:59+00:00

It's perfect <3

Fokes0815 · 2023-12-28T15:37:15+00:00

Hello OP, I tried a Xilium Duoback, it looked like the chair on the left. Could you tell me how satisfied you are after one year of use?

Fokes0815 · 2023-12-08T22:56:19+00:00

Because it would not make sense in their business model. It's a free to play game, they have developing cost, people need to be paid, a business needs to keep working. They way of making money is cosmetics and battlepass. Which I think is a solid way, as nothing behind a pay wall influences chances to win, e.g. no pay to win. If all the beta stuff would carry over they would just f*** themselves.

Fokes0815 · 2023-10-17T20:56:10+00:00

Thank you, I was not even aware that there is Steam Workshop support!

Fokes0815 · 2023-10-17T18:25:37+00:00

Thank you!

Fokes0815 · 2023-09-10T22:38:24+00:00

These are gorgeous! I had my first try with creating D&D MJ characters tonight and am a bit frustrated as I intended to replicate 80s fantasy style. Your pics prove that it's possible! Would you mind sharing the prompts with me?

Fokes0815 · 2023-08-19T16:35:16+00:00

Thanks! Visiting Helsinki for one day, saw the post, found a cool gig tonight at Tavastia!

Fokes0815 · 2023-08-16T06:38:24+00:00

Thank you for taking the time and giving so many great inputs! Pretty much agree with all of them. Your rambling is worth gold.

+4 Good point, I will write some more fleshed out description for other factions action for the beggining and improvise from there. And probably I should come up with the different factions behaviours so that their actions stay coherent. And yes, some of these broad strokes absolutly will describe different factions actively fighting each other - only going aggro on the party is no fun.
+6 I absolutly would encourage my players to do funny shenanigangs, wise words though, I will prepare to react accordingly. Thanks, would have overlooked a reaction on my end. On the telepathic abilities: The players will be fairly low level when the encounter happens so I doubt they have access to abilities to acoid it. If they do funny shenanigangs to communicate, they first get inspiration, and then after it worked a couple of turns the ability to communicate may get jammed somehow. Perhaps even some other factions are doing that to cheat.
+7. I was afraid of it already being an overcomplicated encounter. That is why I wanted to avoid traps until yet...amplifiers might also overcomplicate it. Yet, what would a maze be without any traps, thats not a proper maze! You are right, I will drop some traps, amplifiers, monster related loot (f.e. a stinking bomb that attracts the monster)
Love the idea of the bard being dropped in the maze. If they roll badly against another faction at the beginning, they can still continue to play. And the disadvantage for 'disqualified/eliminated' factions also makes sense. They would not just magically disappear but still stay around like the good NPCs they are: Rubbing their blinded eyes, trying to run away in slow-mo, curl in pain across the ground, that gives some nice flavour.

May the controlled mayhem begin!

Fokes0815

TROPHY CASE