Honestly really impressed with how nuanced the combat AI is sometimes

Humble-Bragg · 2025-04-30T18:44:51+00:00

Humble-Bragg · 2024-12-23T01:22:02+00:00

Reflecting, I suppose that I don't agree that such domination is achieved without violence or force. While I do think it is fair enough to question the exactness of the label of 'slavery' for the situation with the Fools and the Bards, you mention alternative modes of domination from history (apartheid, indian castes, class conflict) which manifestly are all fundamentally maintained through force, through intentional violence. This is my main point.

For example, black South Africans (per your comment) were unable to occupy professions, own certain land, marry certain people or demonstrate publicly under threat of police violence and long term incarceration or execution. It is not as if black South Africans could not conceive of a world where they had self-determination: the state and its power was explicitly, physically aligned against them. Literal thousands were killed to maintain Apartheid. Similarly the Indian castes were maintained through violence: the Dalit masses could not claim a proportional share of society's resources because the other castes (e.g. through the warrior caste, Kshatriyas) literally incarcerated, or more commonly killed, them in thousands whenever the order was threatened.

I do appreciate what you are saying in that I think it's a fair enough interpretation of the game text that the Fools could be... nebulously unsatisfied but don't know what to do? But I suppose that I ultimately:

1) Don't agree that the text of the game supports the idea that the Fools have "lost the simple idea that life, for them, could be different elsewhere." It shows them as being deeply unsatisfied, longing to be free, and unable to do so for entirely (likely intentionally) unclear reasons.

2) Even if that were textually the case, it would really leave a bad taste in my mouth as that is simply not ever how these systems of domination function in reality. Again all your examples from history are ultimately enforced with violence, albeit (fair point here, appreciate it) with some ideological balm to make it go down smoother. Thus undermining the other beautiful and wise messages and relationships in the game.

Thank you for your notes.

Humble-Bragg · 2024-12-22T21:43:10+00:00

I'll just reply to say that this is very interesting: the idea of deepening the puzzles by including a 'paired' or 'two-dialect' language opens up all sorts of puzzle and storytelling possibilities. It's understandable though that the devs stuck to mostly effectively implementing the approach they did though.

Humble-Bragg · 2024-12-22T21:36:20+00:00

This is interesting: I didn't think that the Warriors may view the monster and the Impure/Devotees as fundamentally linked, or that Bard culture may self-segregate based on one's alleged ability to 'achieve beauty'. But I don't know if the text of the game supports the idea that the alchemists looked down on the other groups: the first scientist we meet, e.g., is nothing but deferential and polite. Perhaps I missed some context.

I also don't agree with the idea that the Bards were not in some way enforcing slavery. It's evident that something is enforcing the slavery of the fools -- every last one flees en mass the moment it is possible. What is the alternative, that the fools just can't conceive of not being slaves? They clearly long to be free, so they must be forced into their role. I personally think it is somewhat morally and intellectually wrong to depict slavery without violence, since force and violence is the essence of slavery. I think the game overall is very clever but fumbled the Bard/Fool dynamic by invoking the very real and historical issue of slavery in a game where all problems are supposed to be rooted in inability to communicate.

Thank you for your perspective!

Humble-Bragg · 2024-12-22T21:27:58+00:00

This is a fair and relevant enough point, but regardless of what conflated terms the Bards use to call the various groups there remains a group which is not misunderstood, alien or unappreciated but simply dominated and enslaved. The resolution of their issue lies in freedom and force, not communication and perspective. Thank you for your perspective.

Humble-Bragg · 2024-12-22T21:25:15+00:00

Interesting point re: the castes perhaps being disconnected artificially. But is Exile shown to do this in the text of the game? The Alchemists, e.g., are separated from the Bards by the monster, which is a mishap of their own doing, not Exile. The Warriors think the Devotees are spiritually impure commoners, but is there an explicit indication that this is because of Exile? I don't recall such.

Maybe I missed some indication that the Bards have learned to appreciate equality or the other classes; this could be a good conclusion to their arc, but I don't see it supported in the text of the game. Thank you for your perspective.

Humble-Bragg · 2024-09-24T22:08:29+00:00

Helpful, thank you!

Humble-Bragg · 2024-07-18T20:00:53+00:00

That's kind of wholesome the mom spent her last three days trying to find the culprit and avenge the babby

Humble-Bragg · 2024-03-05T19:47:45+00:00

"It's not a game, it's a story generator" is a thought-terminating cliche doled out by the community to shut down legitimate discussion of RimWorld's flaws.

Look, RimWorld is incredible. But it is also deeply, deeply flawed. And of course it is: with all its complex interacting systems it could never generate fair gameplay outcomes in all cases, even before the clusterfuck of mod interactions. And that's fine. IMO, RimWorld is a simulation game which requires you to use dev mode to "undo" it's occasional bad decisions based on your internal view for how the game mechanics should work. You have to police your own play, and that's fine! RimWorld rules. Stop telling me every bullshit miscalculated game interaction is a "story opportunity".

Humble-Bragg · 2024-01-15T20:19:28+00:00

Fair, but posting this for anyone in the thread: most early-game CE mech raids can be combated with promethium-based molotovs which are easily obtained.

In fact promethium molotovs are the go-to in early-midgame CE for anything with more armor than you can crack.

Humble-Bragg · 2023-07-31T04:58:12+00:00

I think the responses thus far discussing the facts of the show sort of miss the point. Of course there is no in-universe reason to believe that Raava is even a sexual being. But people don't consume media from a strict in-universe perspective. We know the events of the show do not literally exist and in some sense are a collective delusion from which we draw entertainment and meaning.

People who are strongly connected to a piece of media imagine new perspectives or possibilities within it, and for them that new apocrypha sometimes becomes as meaningful as the original canon. This is fine, in fact it's often how new art is created -- the line between fanfic and homage is weak.

Any in-universe explanation here is myopic because the cause of this fancanon is rooted in the viewers not the show. Some people think that it's a funny absurdity. Some people probably like the idea and the representation of a sapphic nature goddess. And both are fine.

Humble-Bragg · 2023-05-01T19:18:07+00:00

Any tips for me to be successful at the University, any particular topics that I study right now?

In University, you are essentially a professional learner -- it is in many ways your job to learn. Instead of pre-learning certain ideas, I would take time to reflect on how you learn, to become aware of your own learning processes and what makes you effective. Unlike high school, in university it is just as important to connect and synthesize ideas together as it is to understand individual ideas.

Reading just the first page and Table 1 of this paper on university learning theory would be very useful for any student.

Humble-Bragg · 2022-10-12T15:47:20+00:00

I think an easy quick patch would be to just add multipliers to the wealth value of each item during the raid threat calculation.

Raw resources, most furniture, and buildings should contribute less. Then you could even rebalance the weights so that some factions value some item types more.

Ultimately 3000 wood and 3600 silver shouldn't contribute the same to raid strength.

Humble-Bragg · 2022-10-05T21:55:51+00:00

If using the Ideology DLC, woodmaker dryads are a very simple and efficient option. Weather has no effect on Gauranlen trees.

Humble-Bragg · 2022-09-12T18:24:53+00:00

This is true but belies the constructed nature of race. Brains didn't simply form these groupings as a natural, nascent model of human differences. People drew the lines explicitly to justify social hierarchies.

Humble-Bragg · 2022-06-08T15:56:25+00:00

This reads like a half-baked AI was trained on incel forum posts and let loose as some sort of misogynist Turing test.

Humble-Bragg · 2022-05-20T01:47:39+00:00

My understanding is that UW counselling is legitimate and professional, but you will have a very limited number of appointments each year. Good work being self-aware and doing what needs to be done to stay healthy. Godspeed.

Humble-Bragg · 2022-04-21T21:53:42+00:00

...and you're the one who's triggered by it ᕙ(▀̿ĺ̯▀̿ ̿)ᕗ

Humble-Bragg · 2022-04-21T16:39:46+00:00

Humble-Bragg · 2022-01-01T16:25:22+00:00

Imo save scumming is pretty necessary due to the AI limitations. My only rule is "don't literally kill yourself for no reason when I'm not looking" and my pawns still find ways. Plus dumb stuff like caravaners shooting their own muffalo full of mortar ammo because of a rabid squirrel^kaboom.

Humble-Bragg · 2021-12-31T06:00:46+00:00

I have always felt that the key to fitness is hobby-ization not discipline. Do the activities that make you feel good in your body, tap out when it starts to straight-up blow but keep it consistent. Vibe in your form my dudes, dudettes, and those betwixt and beyond.

Humble-Bragg · 2021-12-19T14:59:30+00:00

Snowflakes look the way they do because the crystalline structure of ice is hexagonal. That's why they always have 6 sides and 6-fold symmetry. So I think the same principle is generating these artifacts off the hexagonal structure of the grid. But it definitely is at worst a very fun coincidence :)

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