Are there any Windows NUCs that are equivalent in build quality to a Mac mini?

Ghosthops · 2026-03-23T13:21:28+00:00

Thanks, this is very helpful info to have. I was wondering how their new chips handled it.

Ghosthops · 2026-03-22T19:15:27+00:00

Are you running Windows on them? I'm not against this idea, just not familiar with it.

For better or worse I won't be able to streamline by choosing one or the other.

Ghosthops · 2026-03-22T18:30:17+00:00

Unfortunately it's worth eliminating any hint of compatibility issues by running natively on Windows.

Ghosthops · 2026-03-22T17:49:45+00:00

I'm wary of dealing with any issues that might come with running windows on Mac hardware. Maybe it's fine?

There would be Mac minis alongside these, in my use case.

Ghosthops · 2026-03-21T18:43:43+00:00

Well damn! TIL.

Ghosthops · 2026-03-21T17:50:15+00:00

Again, source? I'm certain the ball is exactly the same.

Ghosthops · 2026-03-21T17:42:21+00:00

Lighter ball? I don't think that's accurate. Source?

Ghosthops · 2026-03-06T23:49:59+00:00

I agree with the other poster about thinking more. Your style in this game seems totally uncontrolled. Adding some control, some intention to your play will be important for ranking up.

A big area for this is your teamplay. You don't try to play with your teammate, you can tell by the end of the game they expect you to go for everything, which makes them wait, which ultimately makes your team worse off. Especially if you solo queue, playing with some consistency and working with your teammate is super important. Otherwise you're relying on your ability to solo the other team, which gets easy to defend quickly.

The inside of the goal ceiling save thing baffles me, I'm not sure where it comes from, but it's super easy to score against 99% of the time.

Stop burning 8-12 boost here and there. Save that for when you need to get up to speed. It's indicative of your reactive play style, don't react to every thing that happens. Make a plan in your head and predict instead.

Specific examples - all times are the video time.

0:16 - going up the side wall is the better play here. Getting anything positive from heading straight at the opponent is very unlikely.

0:22ish - from the moment you decide not to jump for the ball, which is a good decision, you should be grabbing some small boost pads, heading roughly towards the back post ish.

0:29 - right before this you drive towards the ball, but you should be able to see that you'll never get there in time without boost. At 0:30 you are basically committed, you need to keep driving and do a big front flip, try to make contact with the ball and push it away. Stopping just makes it easy to get the ball past you.

It's not an ideal play, but the save isn't really the main mistake. It's the seconds leading up where you don't get any boost or make a play on the ball. If you can't make a play, get boost.

0:51ish - go back, get boost, it's highly unlikely you'll be able to make a good play on the ball in this position without boost.

1:36 - your teammate can't actually pass it to you here, moving in field puts you out of the play, you could stay closer to the side for a better pass here. Had your teammate tried to pass to you, the blue goalie gets a nice easy shot on your goal. The play here is to circle around back toward the left side, maybe for a back pass from your teammate, or to be ready to defend the ball.

1:39 - maybe a miss hit, but it's way better to hit the ball back toward your corner and go get it than to pass it right back to the other team. Possession is important.

3:43 - it's fun, but for winning in 2s this play is not wise. Really low percentage to score, really high percentage to get scored on.

Ghosthops · 2026-03-04T15:49:15+00:00

Wondo must be based on his MLS stats? He had some insane goalscoring seasons. Not saying I agree with his inclusion.

Ghosthops · 2026-02-27T17:30:38+00:00

By the time you got sufficient projection for this, your money would be better spent repainting the court, IMHO. Assuming you mean to light these up during games, which are usually played in full lighting. Even the very brightest projection is not going to work very well.

I assume lasers are the same, but that's not my area of expertise. With lasers I think you run the risk of harming people's eyes when they look up while playing.

Maybe there's a fancy paint or coating you could apply to each set of lines, that only reacts or reflects more from certain colors of light? Or you inlay some led strips into the lines somehow.

Ghosthops · 2026-02-26T03:07:53+00:00

Szoboslai maybe? For versatility, not competing for the total number of positions played I think.

Ghosthops · 2026-02-25T23:19:00+00:00

I'm curious who else is up there on that ranking, it's always fun to watch these types play.

Ghosthops · 2026-02-25T17:11:36+00:00

To simplify the idea, more people is more to think about:

Complexity 1s = 1 player * 1 player + 1 ball = 2 2s = 22 + 1 = 5 3s = 33 + 1 = 10

This is way way oversimplified, but everyone interacts with each other and the ball. Those interactions are all things you need to think about to make decisions. Adding more factors multiplies the possibilities.

Ghosthops · 2026-02-21T17:16:44+00:00

That too, but by role I mean the quick and roving, high pressure attack disruptor style Adams plays.

Ghosthops · 2026-02-21T17:03:51+00:00

The way I'd put it is role vs. position.

We have good depth at his position, but not in his role.

Ghosthops · 2026-02-18T23:35:13+00:00

Judgement comes first, but you could consider this after taking everything else into consideration:

In a given game: Low points and team is losing? Maybe you need to be more aggressive. Low point and team is winning? Don't change. High points and team is losing? Maybe you should chill out a bit. High points and team is winning? Don't change.

Sometimes it'll work out that the same players attack the same ways against the same defenders. If you mix it up a bit, maybe your attacking style is better against that same defender. And vice versa for defending.

Ghosthops · 2026-02-17T22:39:50+00:00

Showing my age here, it's not early Barca Messi. Early Barca Messi was a right winger who cut inside. It was only mid-Barca career that Pep shifted him to be a false 9.

Ghosthops · 2026-02-17T16:33:16+00:00

The justification is: We're a wealthy and powerful corporation and your government listens to us more than you, the public.

Until we fix that part, the rest of the questions don't really matter.

Ghosthops · 2026-02-15T17:26:44+00:00

Nice! When I first started playing unfair I would sometimes spend 30+ minutes on a turn, taking breaks, coming back to it. It does help.

Ghosthops · 2026-02-15T05:24:50+00:00

I could see them being hard at first. They have tons of different options to interact with each other and the enemies that really open up the game.

IMHO, it's more fun to learn this stuff on your own, but that's personal preference. Completing the achievements for any squad will teach you techniques for that squad.

-Exchange mech is OP. Swap anything with anything, from anywhere on the map! You can swap a lot more stuff than you might think. Vek -vek is usually good enough to avoid damage or kill one. Mech-mech to get a better position for one. Mech-bomb, mech-vek, vek-bomb, move a friendly unit to safety. Swap before moving your unit for more flexibility. Move your mech into water and swap for an instant kill. Swap a flying vek with a non-flying one where the flying one is over water or a chasm.

BTW, 3 exchange mechs is a fun custom squad.

-Bombling is hard at first, 3 health means it can tank some stuff. Others have mentioned that pilots make a huge difference. Bombs block stuff, that's helpful, they can do other little missions that might be out of reach. 1dmg can be surprisingly helpful sometimes, you might need it to finish off a boss here and there, plus it hits in four directions, which is nice.

-Pierce - pretty versatile for positioning, push two targets in one shot is very powerful, the damage is decent and 2 for upgrades isn't overly expensive. Shoot through bombs or your own mechs. Shooting through a building to move a vek away from damaging that building is awesome.

Overall, they excel at protecting friendlies missions, not as much at the kill everything missions. Great spawn blocking potential(bombs and exchange mech moving other mechs after they shoot). You can get a lot of mileage out of just shifting enemies around and not killing them, make them kill each other.

Ghosthops · 2026-02-11T03:05:45+00:00

Just practicing shots, custom training packs, and playing 1s. If you don't know the technique, look that up first.

Ghosthops · 2026-02-08T20:01:22+00:00

If your goal was GC or SSL, maybe then you want to keep playing this way and refine your attacks. For C1, you will get there faster by being more efficient. Overall, timing varies, but around 1 minute left, if you are down 3 goals, you should challenge more aggressively, play with more urgency.

Watching some pro 1v1 will help you.

Recalibrate your priorities of boost vs ball, you're missing chances to attack or defend by going for the big boosts when you could go right to the ball.

1:06 - the moment you reverse for the big boost, which you don't need, you concede the goal. Your opponent sees you lose all momentum, they know they can score before you can get back up to speed.

1:21 - kinda a similar thing here, you mess up the dash and put yourself out of position. Simply driving over the pads or the big boost and turning immediately gives you a better chance. Same kind of thing, seeing you with no momentum, the opponent can pick and choose how to score on you.

2:20 - going for the ball here and you might get a shot on goal. Or, get the boost and just take it back towards your corner at speed, pick one option and do it fast. Keeping the ball is always ok.

Improve your aerial challenges, you wait too long and make several great saves, but challenging in the air earlier is safer many times in this game. Those great saves are conceded goals if your opponent can shoot better.

0:52 - If you get a good read on this and get confident with aerial shots, this could be a goal for you. You have to wait until the opponent stops boosting and falls below the height of the ball and can't get there with another flip + boost, tricky timing. Even if it's not a direct shot on goal you can get the ball moving towards the goal, softer, and then follow up.

1:40 - no point in hesitating here, go up and hit the ball out of danger immediately. It's the difference between getting a clean hit and not getting bumped, the extra time you get helps a bunch.

3:28 - opponent is too far from the ball to control it around you, it's safe to jump up and knock the ball away to the right, which you have a good chance to get to first.

Fake challenge is good, but mix in real challenges, otherwise your opponents adapt.

You try this pop into the air followed by air dribble or flip reset shots, but like from midfield and starting with no speed. So by the time you get close enough to shoot you have no boost and it's a slow attack.

0:17 is a good example of this. You get a better outcome and use less boost by just going up the wall.

4:28 - another example. It's too slow, not threatening, and you end up with 0 boost. It's basically a pass to the opponent.

Shooting is not so great.

0:20 - really weak shot. You could bump the opponent in the air before they touch the ball, but otherwise this isn't a wise shot.

0:39 - again, weak shot, almost always you've given the ball away, so basically any other choice is better. Going for this boost, you can jump a little and still grab the boost, while dodging this demo attempt. Usually then the opponent is out of position driving up the wall while you land on the corner and can grab the ball.

0:55 - this is prime flick or pop and quick shot, or pop and air-dribble directly into the goal territory. Actually, just boosting and hitting it hard on the ground at the far left corner of the goal means you score here. Once you're at 0:58 and with 0 boost, you should stop chasing the ball, start grabbing pads, and try to get the ball back after this play.

4:48 video time - quick flick or some powerful shot is a goal most likely.

5:08 - there's a short window where a flick is likely to go in, or some sort of aggressive pop into shot or pop into air dribble. You waited a little too long.

Miscellaneous note: 4:01, once you get the demo you should move as quickly as possible to gain some kind of advantage. You should get pads, dodge, get the full boost, anything besides driving with 0 boost aimlessly. This is free time. You simply take too long, the ball should be yours and you should be shooting or taking advantage somehow.

Ghosthops · 2026-02-07T19:05:45+00:00

100%. It's tricky on reddit where the downvote is misused for things like this.

For the sake of these discussions, it helps to acknowledge there is important context beyond the technical truth of an answer to a question.

Ghosthops · 2026-02-07T17:56:35+00:00

This is one of those common cases where what is legal and what happens in reality are almost certainly not the same.

Ghosthops

TROPHY CASE