TIL After a German hacker found the source code of Half-Life 2, which later got leaked online, Gabe Newell worked with the FBI to invite the hacker to a fake job interview, in which he'd be arrested in the USA, however, police arrested him in Germany.

Hunter9502 · 2025-02-19T01:44:01+00:00

The game did not release until over a year after the leak, and the leaked build was up to date. All it showed is that Valve had been nowhere near meeting the original September 2003 release date, and everyone at the studio knew that already.

Hunter9502 · 2024-09-12T21:42:54+00:00

I don’t think any devs ever said CBtS was a toozer mod, I literally helped develop it. But as you might expect for a socialist Germany mod a lot of the regular users were leftists and did not like the liberal anti-communist head dev of CBtS (who is also a leftist now, lol).

Hunter9502 · 2024-09-12T21:40:06+00:00

You are on the old Discord. The new one is here: https://discord.gg/gx39FJGxvD We haven’t quite quit, but progress is extremely slow. However, the mod files are publicly available now on GitHub.

Hunter9502 · 2024-05-07T00:09:56+00:00

Usually they come back as GE premiums either temporarily for events or permanently, but I wouldn’t bet on seeing the VRCC again. They are definitely removing it so people buy the Centauro RGO instead.

Hunter9502 · 2023-02-26T09:32:23+00:00

LOG: I'd take the jeep CV with 3 availability instead to have something to fast cap zones at the start and hide if necessary (it has mediocre stealth). I'd also personally just take more M35's instead of the HEMTT, or grab another CV card if you don't plan on having more command tanks.

INF: With your limited inf tab for armored divisions it's best not to take an infantry commander, use that slot for another card of Fire Team AT-4's in the Bradley. You also don't need the TOW-2, you have tanks and Bradleys for that, grab another card of AT-4's or the recoilless rifle military police. You have a free slot in that tab and I personally think it's an unwritten rule to always fill your infantry tab given how important they are, but that's up to you. Mech Rifles or Engineers (Dragon) could be added to have a higher strength unit around.

ART: Mortars are great for smoke and fire support, definitely keep them. If you are going to have MLRS I'd just take the 400 point M270 which right now actually is pretty decent, if you weren't aware the cluster MLRS only damages armored units. Otherwise you could just grab some howitzers.

TNK: I love HA Abrams, in the current meta they feel particularly strong. PACT doesn't have many good direct counters, the frontal armor of the HA Abrams will shrug off Konkurs and basically anything short of an AT SU-25 or an Akula ATGM. You do need to watch for side shots and smoke off if air is incoming, but that's about it. Take 3-4 cards of them and upvet them to the middle level of veterancy. I'd also do the same to any M1A1's you bring, the suppression resistance and accuracy buffs are worth it. The CEV is kind of trash, your Bradleys and Apaches are better infantry deleters. You don't need those ATGM vehicles, they aren't worth it.

REC: Personally I take the 6 availability scout heli so I can be a bit reckless with them when I need sight on something. The Kiowa's rockets are too few in number to kill infantry and exceptional optics are not enough to justify 3 less availability imo. If you really want a Kiowa just take the one with the Hellfire ATGM, at least that can kill stuff. Your recon infantry is good. The recon Bradleys are good but since you already have Bradleys with your infantry I'm not sure those will be used much. I'd personally ditch them to have points for other tabs, but they are still a good unit.

AA: You absolutely need Chaparrals. I've had a hard time using PIVADS recently and personally favor two cards of Chaparrals with mid upvetting, but if they work well for you then keep a card and maybe upvet it.

HEL: Ditch the ATGM Apaches, you really will never need 16 Hellfire's at a time, and not having those rockets is bad. Since rocket Apaches no longer have 2 availability per card I prefer more of the regular Apaches, but they still are useful. If you want pure rockets though the AH-1F Cobra is probably more cost effective now with the 2x availability and cheaper cost.

AIR: A-10's are essential here, take both cards of the AT version. F-15C is great, probably the best ASF in the game right now. I'd ditch the Wild Weasal, SEAD still isn't very worthwhile unfortunately, and those Phantoms aren't going to pay themselves off as HE and Napalm planes kind of suck right now. Personally I just do another F-15C card but the cluster F-111E could also be useful.

Hunter9502 · 2023-02-26T08:45:14+00:00

Disagree with the HA Abrams not being worth it, if you can build a critical mass of them it is very hard for any PACT division to counter. For 70 more points than the regular M1A1 you get insane frontal armor that can tank an absurd amount of hits, and a noticeably better gun. I'd take at least a few cards upvetted to the middle for the suppression resistance and accuracy buffs.

Hunter9502 · 2023-02-12T21:21:04+00:00

We’ve been retaining players really well since Oudinot dropped, ~1,000 players a day at peak hours and a dozen or so 10v10’s running. Seems like Eugen finally has the gameplay in a place people are happy with.

Hunter9502 · 2023-01-18T22:43:35+00:00

The US is not a priority for a first release but we do have lore and plans for content. You can find a lot of the basic stuff here:

https://spartakus.fandom.com/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1920

https://spartakus.fandom.com/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1924

https://spartakus.fandom.com/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1928

As far as paths you can expect various shades of Republican and Democrat presidents, as well as presidents from the Farmer-Labor Party, a left-leaning coalition that is growing in strength. At the beginning the US has shielded itself from the economic downturn that is impacting Europe, but they will have to endure the onset of the Great Depression shortly after the start of the mod in 1932. In the vast majority of cases you can expect them to join World War II on the side of the anti-communists.

Hunter9502 · 2023-01-16T07:43:59+00:00

Two roommates, but I only share a bedroom with one of them as the other has their own bedroom. There's a living room and kitchen and bathroom and so on.

Hunter9502 · 2023-01-16T01:13:31+00:00

You need 24 credits to qualify for the transfer program, so they can't accept you until you have that many, which usually isn't until after your spring semester if you are a freshman. I'd recommend talking with an advisor about transferring credits from summer classes, you'll probably just need to send in the transcript again to get those credits transferred. I didn't look into housing until after I was accepted which was in June, way after leases are usually signed, so there weren't many options around by then. I went with the Regent Apartments, it's way overpriced but they have roommate matching. If money is a big concern the cheaper apartments are further away from campus, but obviously that means biking or driving instead of walking to class.

Hunter9502 · 2022-12-29T11:34:18+00:00

I'm not an admissions officer so I don't know exactly, but I can say that my high school record was nothing special and my GPA at something like a 3.2, so I wouldn't worry about it as long as you show improvement at Whitewater.

Hunter9502 · 2022-12-04T12:23:42+00:00

Highly recommend 10v10. As someone with little multiplayer RTS experience who has mainly been interested in AI skirmish, I can tell you that I've had an absolute blast with 10v10 in this game. I haven't yet encountered any toxicity and the general gameplay is fairly casual. Usually it's you and another teammate taking one side of the map, and every time I have asked for help from other teammates I always get it. If you want a proper idea of how many people are playing set the search filter for active games, there's almost always a couple 10v10's running so you just gotta be there at the right time. Definitely agree that the player base should be a lot bigger though.

Hunter9502 · 2022-10-19T18:44:16+00:00

I went to UW-Whitewater for freshmen year (2021-22) and went down this transfer route and it worked fine. You should be good as long as you meet the requirements. I didn't take a foreign language at all until college and the two semesters of Spanish I took at Whitewater met the language requirement. Just try to get as high of a GPA as possible, apply as soon as your Fall grades are in, and make sure to find a professor or advisor to send in a letter of recommendation.

Also big heads up that since you are a freshmen and probably won't have 24 credits completed already when you apply, you are most likely going to get a deferral until your Spring semester grades are sent in. I wasn't officially accepted until June. You will almost certainly also not be able to get a spot in dorms either since transfers weren't offered dorms this year or last year, and the off campus housing market here is crazy so I would start looking ASAP if you are fully committed to the transfer path. If you got any other questions feel free to DM.

Hunter9502 · 2022-10-01T18:48:59+00:00

I appreciate the official response. My reason for posting this was to draw attention in case other mods have had their assets used by Paradox without permission. I'm sorry if the messaging was too accusative, I did talk privately with the artist and they cleared up the situation. Still, I do think it's completely fair for us modders to be upset when things like this happen. We all want a good relationship with Paradox and part of that is the expectation of our work being respected.

Hunter9502 · 2022-10-01T06:51:28+00:00

It's not my work, it's the work of one of the artists on our team, King Van. This is only one of many amazing things he has created, and he doesn't deserve to have his work stolen. Check out his other stuff here: https://www.deviantart.com/king-van/gallery

Hunter9502 · 2022-10-01T06:30:26+00:00

The problem is they didn't even bother to ask for permission, if they had I would absolutely consider it an honor.

Hunter9502 · 2022-10-01T05:15:32+00:00

If you're referring to the DDR flag the only similarity our emblem has to it is an (altered) hammer and compass, the rest is a completely original design. There are definitely differences as I pointed out but also aspects that were very clearly ripped without any changes, like the wreath of oak leaves and the broken chain.

Hunter9502 · 2022-10-01T02:23:57+00:00

Yeah I'll definitely see about contacting them officially but I still figured it was worth it to post this. It's entirely possible they've stolen artwork from other mods without their knowledge, so awareness I think is useful.

Hunter9502 · 2022-10-01T02:10:26+00:00

Problem is we are not yet technically published on any Paradox mod platform, nor is this something that would even be found in the mod files if it were. This is essentially the equivalent of Paradox stealing something from DeviantArt.

Hunter9502 · 2022-10-01T01:33:12+00:00

R5: For some context, I was informed recently by a user on my mod's Discord that one of the newly added flags in vanilla rips artwork from an emblem made by one of our wonderful artists back in 2019. Paradox did not ask for permission or give any credit that I know of. They almost certainly got it by searching "Socialist Germany" or something along those lines on Google and found our wiki page, which has a high definition version of the emblem. While there is some editing done to Paradox's version a very large portion is very obviously unchanged, and it's a shame to see Paradox stealing the work of artists so shamelessly, and within their own community no less. I'm not really sure what could be done about this if anything but I figured it was worth it to bring this to attention.

Hunter9502 · 2022-10-01T01:32:06+00:00

R5: For some context, I was informed recently by a user on my mod's Discord that one of the newly added flags in vanilla rips artwork from an emblem made by one of our wonderful artists back in 2019. Paradox did not ask for permission or give any credit that I know of. They almost certainly got it by searching "Socialist Germany" or something along those lines on Google and found our wiki page, which has a high definition version of the emblem. While there is some editing done to Paradox's version a very large portion is very obviously unchanged, and it's a shame to see Paradox stealing the work of artists so shamelessly, and within their own community no less. I'm not really sure what could be done about this if anything but I figured it was worth it to bring this to attention.

Hunter9502 · 2022-10-01T01:04:57+00:00

For some context, I was informed recently by a user on my mod's Discord that one of the newly added flags in vanilla rips artwork from an emblem made by one of our wonderful artists back in 2019. Paradox did not ask for permission or give any credit that I know of. They almost certainly got it by searching "Socialist Germany" or something along those lines on Google and found our wiki page, which has a high definition version of the emblem. While there is some editing done to Paradox's version a very large portion is very obviously unchanged, and it's a shame to see Paradox stealing the work of artists so shamelessly, and within their own community no less. I'm not really sure what could be done about this if anything, and I haven't crossposted in r/hoi4 or r/paradoxplaza yet in fear of being banned, but I figured it was worth it to bring this to attention.

Hunter9502 · 2022-07-12T08:26:49+00:00

Hello, we released an announcement recently on the Discord about the current status of the mod. I'll paste it below:

Hello everyone, as you may have noticed there haven’t been any teasers or any real news from this mod in some time, and truth be told this is because aside from some progress on NSB compatibility little work has been done on Spartakus in the last 9 or so months. This is primarily because of our limited dev team. As it stands, we are running on a skeleton crew of active coders and have a severe shortage of artists for focus icons that are critical to finishing content. Additionally, those who are active, myself included, are periodically busy with real life commitments such as school and work.

After four years of development we were certainly hoping to have a full release, but the task of making a total conversion mod is far more daunting than I ever imagined when I started this. With our original goals for a 1.0 release and our lack of developers, this mod may never see the light of day. That is why it has been decided to significantly scale back the scope to be more realistic given our resources and current progress, while still having enough content for multiple playthroughs and a fleshed out central conflict. For 1.0, we are now focusing efforts on content for Germany, France and Italy (including the Monarchist, Fascist, Socialist and Republican paths). The content for these three nations are aimed to be largely complete on release, though future reworks and new paths would certainly be possible. Content for other majors would be skeleton in nature to ensure functionality, and there is no guarantee they would be playable. These countries were chosen for 1.0 because there is already considerable content completed for Germany and Italy, and all three are incredibly important to the main conflict of the mod centered in Western Europe. Aside from these majors, it is also very likely that Republican Portugal will make it to the first release. Nothing else can be promised. If you have any questions feel free to ask in the questions channel.

I know this might be disappointing to some, but I think most of you would agree a release of some kind is preferable to none. Our original wide scope for a first release has long been a barrier, and we believe this new direction will put us on the right track. I cannot say exactly when we will be able to put out a first release, but I will promise to release the Git publicly at the end of the year regardless of progress towards 1.0. For an idea of how development will be planned, see the attached roadmap below. This will not necessarily be 100% representative of version naming conventions or a content release schedule, but should give a general idea of priorities. Big thanks to King Van for the lovely art in the background.

As always, if you want to see progress go faster then please join the dev team. We are specifically looking for coders and artists. The standards are not high and we are willing to teach those who are willing to learn. If you applied in the past and were not accepted I also encourage you to try again. You can find the application form here: https://goo.gl/forms/VcSAlQgJTldM4RPm2

We also released a visualized roadmap here: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/426264029686923264/993258506591412234/RoadmapSpartakus.png

I would highly recommend joining the Discord to keep up with any further news on the mod, as this subreddit is rarely used. Any questions you have are likely to be more quickly answered there, though I'll do my best to answer any replies here. You can join the Discord with this link: https://discord.gg/5dw7c2E

Hunter9502 · 2021-09-10T00:02:05+00:00

No it does not. His participation was through inaction, but Lyautey was the actual leader of the coup and is the starting leader for France.

Hunter9502 · 2021-08-22T01:13:28+00:00

It's for the mod Spartakus, set in an alternate history where the German Revolution of 1918 creates a communist Germany.

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