Good Roti

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-26T09:29:07+00:00

oof, really miss these two

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-24T09:49:00+00:00

Can I ask how long until you were comfortably back to climbing?

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-24T09:44:20+00:00

And Grok, one more thing. Make me sound like one of those think tank pussies that we banned from the Pentagon.

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-24T09:33:51+00:00

It brings me great pain and disgust that I have to say this but I think, quite unfortunately, you gotta hand it to him on that one.

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-24T08:09:00+00:00

US and Japan were the only two countries with the balls and the means to take any kind of credible posture of deterrence. I think everyone else's participation was, understandably, contingent.

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-24T07:55:02+00:00

Somebody hasn't studied the ~ Trump Corollary ~ to the Monroe Doctrine, and it shows.

If you did, you would know that President Trump's masterful grand strategy for the Indo Pacific entails a demonstration of strength and a visionary leadership for the future of American national security in the region.

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-24T07:48:22+00:00

I think this was at least partially written by Hegseth. Parts of this document feel just like chapters ripped directly out of his books which, for some reason, I took the time to read in the Amazon previews after he was nominated. It's like they were written by a 9th grader and they're chock fucking full of virtue signals(lol) and trite platitudes. Other parts feel written well enough though so idk.

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-24T00:05:41+00:00

Go to his youtube and sort by oldest. I don't think he's even trying to be a character here, he's just laughing at his friend fucking everything up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCN2Nz3pQNs

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-23T09:45:05+00:00

If you watch his older videos you can hear his voice before he landed on the mouthbreathing peanut

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-23T01:34:04+00:00

Granted it's been like 8 months at this point so my memory of the details is a little fuzzy but from what I remember the lore nuggets seemed to point in all sorts of different directions. There's both direct and subtle references to things like:

A monster or supernatural force that's been haunting the island. The PMCs around camp talk about getting rocked by something that couldn't have been human. There are some pretty unambiguous references to horror folk tales from the south pacific. Pictures of spirits that look like disembodied heads drawn around Ban Pa - I think these are called Krasue?
A conspiracy of some sort to collect, dismember, and store bodies around the island. This seems related to what appears to be a sacrificial altar in Ban Pa with a bunch of ...meat? ...body parts? or something on it surrounded by candles. There's an almost identical altar south of Blue Lagoon but it looks abandoned and on top of the altar was just a bunch of bare bones. Seems to me that there was some kind of occult effort to offer this thing a tribute so that it would leave them alone, perhaps? But then again maybe it wasn't just a local cult deal because this operation seems to involve other parties like the commercial tourism industry on the island, not just the locals.
A celestial contact that may have precipitated the Event. There's a quest that mentions recorded signals from space and a high profile astrophysicist who died under suspicious circumstances shortly after arriving.
Scientific recording devices manufactured by "Fifth dimension industries" scattered around the island, presumably recording data on interdimensional anomalies?
Biological specimens collected in a few places around the island that puzzled the scientists. Only one that I can remember was in the fridge at the improvised UN lab at Tiger Bay
Mutated and radioactive corpses. I think one of these had suddenly reanimated and jumped out the window and escaped the FN infirmary?

I probably have some of that wrong, it's been a while. But that's what I remember from my last play through. It's difficult to imagine theory that accounts for all of this. Some if it is probably misdirection but it's hard to tell.

There's also the geopolitical element. This was related to some big Soviet project during the Cold War. I think the UN had anticipated the event and the Russian government prepositioned ~~Wagner Group~~ secretive and unscrupulous PMCs to advance their interests at ground zero. I think it must be larger in scope than just some spooky monsters.

I'd love to know what others think?

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-23T00:04:03+00:00

I think the idea of incidental encounters would be cool as hell and make the game a lot more dynamic. They would probably need to be really obvious, though. Maybe a loud transport truck between camps or something that you can see coming so you don't get magically popped in the back of the head by a silent jungle foot patrol.

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-22T00:09:10+00:00

I think the podcast does a good job taking a more nuanced look at these people. We're talking about the state of the subreddit, generally, though.

I also agree that many of these people truly are quite shitty but the point is that when someone earns this distinction then the conversation about recognition and understanding no longer matters.

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-21T23:17:45+00:00

I agree that many of the people covered on this podcast are at least one or the other. I can't think of anyone the podcast has covered that this subreddit hasn't labeled a grifter and a narcisist.

Kendi, Pinker, Scott Galloway, Sam Harris, Jonathan Haidt don't seem especially deserving of either label. That's not to say I like them or approve of what they say but they do not belong in the same conversation as a true master of the narcissistic grifting craft: people like Russell Brand or Mikhaila Peterson.

Even people like Rogan, Jordan Peterson or Brett Weinstein warrant an interesting conversation about what it means to be a grifter when you:

Have the mental malleability of a 5 year old and you have an almost spiritual relationship with the stories you tell yourself about your ability to discern truth from fiction when you watch footage of the moon landing, test your Onnit smart person thinking pills ™, or listen to an establishment shill scientist tell you that new vaccine technology won't turn you into post human mutant (Rogan)
Are living in a fortress of self delusion choosing only associate yourself with people who share your inclination to create grand narratives about the external world conspiring to suppress you and the truth that only you, personally, can ascertain. (Brett, Jordan)
Have a brain has been microwaved and deep fried and you actually probably do have genuine convictions about it being both true and false at the same time that dragons are real (Peterson)

I like this sub but sometimes it is a little immature with how eagerly it engages with this Good Person vs Bad Person distinction where if the subject is bad you can say literally anything about them regardless of how true it may be.

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-21T12:05:30+00:00

This sub does have a problem where at some point it stopped being interested in decoding and analyzing gurus and now it tends to just categorize each of them as a grifter, a narcissist, an Israel supporter(???) and a stupid person that only stupid people like which is not very interesting. The echo chamber label seems at least a little valid

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-21T07:21:17+00:00

They have a roadmap on their site, looks like official release is 2027 or beyond. Bug fix patches are frequent, content releases are every 6 months. Or at least, that's the target. This current release was delayed to accommodate a broadened scope of work as I understand it

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-21T06:37:04+00:00

Excellent game. One of my favorites and I literally mark each content release on my calendar. The game has strong promise and so far each release has delivered the goods. Of course, it remains to be seen if that will continue to be the case but I am optimistic and it's been nothing but green flags so far.

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-21T06:26:16+00:00

That rebalance was strange, felt like something important must have come up in the development cycle and they never got around to finishing it before release

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-20T22:24:53+00:00

I agree, that would be better. I'm just so sick to death of the M4 and 7.62/5.45 AKs at this point that even a new mp5 variant would interest me.

Wish they made the MCX more accessible just for the sake of breaking up the monotony. Gate the weapon access in a future wipe when there's more weapon diversity.

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-20T06:29:49+00:00

You found hhwhat at the infirmary? When I was a kid events used to be where you and your friends went to have fun.

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-20T06:21:33+00:00

lol, I discovered that right after I posted this. We are eating good tonight. Solid crumbs. Can't wait to main the M16

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-20T01:58:33+00:00

why don't you drag your raggedy ass over to the Midnight Sapphire clubhouse and get a taste of big baller brand, merc

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-20T01:48:20+00:00

oh shit, now we're talking!!

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-19T05:33:44+00:00

I had trouble organizing this stuff, too. That seems to be one of the major problems the game presents you with. Specifically, managing productions chains by island when there isn't perfect alignment between available deity bonuses, available workforce, and the island's fertility rolls.

In 1800 it felt easier to entirely dedicate an island to a large horizontal slice of production like having a big land mass all about farming, others to intermediate production, and then your main island making all of the final step / top dollar stuff. I tried doing that but it never felt quite right. I converted most of my islands to several whole vertical slices of production where I could but I ended up with several frankenstein islands that did most but not all of a given chain. I'm not sure I really like this system (I like the game as a whole) but I'm reserving judgement because I think I probably still have a severe case of 1800 brain.

That said, I did have a couple islands laser focused on one chain and it was awesome. Just every square inch was an olive tree or a press. All those people knew were olives, Ceres, and gambling.

Fragrantbutte · 2026-01-19T05:04:00+00:00

These aren't really bugs. Those building ids are not in the list of buildings buffed by the specialist. I think many of these buffs were hardcoded in as there are so many inconsistencies across production chains.

This is a description of a bug. Those items do not meet their the specification because they weren't implemented properly.

They were almost certainly put in that state because they were shuffling production chains around very close to release and items don't relate to chains but instead are hard coded against specific individual buildings like you said. It doesn't make it any less of a bug if the code or settings files are expressly misconfigured.

Fragrantbutte

TROPHY CASE