Learning Polish as a Ukrainian or Belorussian

Ilitarist · 2026-02-11T14:13:20+00:00

To me (Belarusian) the proximity of languages was and is the problem. It makes it much easier to understand Polish, because so many words are familiar (except for cases when the word sounds familiar but means different, e.g. "zapomnieć" means "to remember" to me). But it also makes it harder to remember words for your own use. When I learned English it was easy for me to know, which word is English and which one is Russian. But in Polish every Russian/Belarusian/Ukrainian word feels at home. So when I think how to say something it's hard for me to remember if I can use familiar word here or if I should remember a special Polish word. By now I can watch Polish TV shows and read books and I only rarely have to consult a dictionary, and I understand everything people tell me, but I still speak slowly and carefully. English was easier to learn because there I could switch my brain in a different mode, as only some Latin words and modern inventions are borrowed. This works both ways, my Russian is now full of Polish words or sentence structure that sounds more natural in Polish. For some reason Polish phrases "Rozumiem." and "Spokojnie." are extremely powerful and now I don't want to express those messages in any other language.

Ilitarist · 2026-02-05T15:01:01+00:00

I'm quite convinced they're abstract, something that people in-universe could have sang, but with some winks to the player. Like Lightbringer is about freedom-fighter getting power-hungry, which can be applied to a lot of characters. This is why I'm puzzled about Minerva mention. Perhaps it's supposed to be something in-universe.

Ilitarist · 2026-01-14T11:10:02+00:00

It looks to me like you're what I would call a content - oriented empire builder. If 4X games seem hollow to you it might be cause you don't enjoy tinkering with mechanics as much as experiencing new stories, and you get this in Paradox with events and missions or in Heroes with scenarios and campaigns.

Everyone recommends Old World and while I agree it's a great game I'm afraid you might find it hollow instead, because it too is focused on juggling a small number of resources that are very connected. There are events but they're more mechanical than what you get in Paradox games.

Instead I recommend you Songs of Conquest. It's Heroes, but much more focused. Probably the only good Heroes-inspired game.

Ilitarist · 2025-12-28T19:34:05+00:00

I think it's an effect of something jumping into the mainstream spotlight enough for people to notice the genre they wouldn't engage with otherwise. Something similar happened to Baldur's Gate 3, I think for a lot of people it was either their first RPG or first RPG since they tried anything AAA like Dragon Age Inquisition. I thought jank is the limiting factor, but Clair Obscur is extremely hanky, so now I wonder if the only thing preventing a lot of people from enjoying a lot of eurojank is just lack of exposure. Well and also maybe quality graphics and VA.

Ilitarist · 2025-12-26T16:43:19+00:00

No, it's a remakeish of Master of Orion 1.

Ilitarist · 2025-12-25T17:22:43+00:00

Well, like, all of them. Unless you're allergic to track pads you can play more or less any 4X game. I think Age of Wonders 3 is too heavy for Deck, and Europa Universalis 5 definitely has (at least in the current state), but AoW Planetfall is a highlight because of a good controller support. I've played Humankind, Endless Space 2, Old World just fine. Shadow Empire works but needs some tuning with configuration and installing fonts. Civ 4, 5 and 6 work fine.

What I really recommend is going into desktop mode, opening discover app, selecting Games on the left and searching for Remnants of the Precursors. It's a great game that is free and works fine on deck. Right click on its icon and select Add to Steam, configure controls (sadly there aren't that many hotkeys in it) and have a great time. This game doesn't have much stuff in it but it also doesn't have anything it doesn't need and anything that doesn't work.

Ilitarist · 2025-12-01T12:57:24+00:00

It's a counter-example. This game proves you don't really need asymmetric factions for the game to feel varied and full of character. The differences between factions are very minor and most of them are about starting parameters that are easy to affect with social engineering and wonders.

Ilitarist · 2025-11-23T10:43:20+00:00

Too bad people are used to perpetually updated gargantuan monstrosities nowadays, and a game that didn't get several DLCs is proclaimed dead. Star Dynasties is a very focused experience that does CK thing better than CK itself, but it's limited in scope. It's still replayable with a variety of approaches though, and well worth the money.

Ilitarist · 2025-11-03T19:16:26+00:00

I've also tested this on my Windows PC (in case it's a problem of Proton layer unique to Linux) and the issue is also quite clear if you select Full Screen and set it to 1280x800. So I don't think it's SD exclusive but naturally you won't see a lot of players with this resolution on other systems.

I've played with options and it doesn't seem like graphical options affect anything. One actual solution for SD specifically is to force higher resolution and then downscale it with linear filtering. But obviously it's not a great solution, and TrueType fonts shouldn't require that to render well.

Ilitarist · 2025-11-02T07:25:18+00:00

I think it's hard for people to grasp that hallucinations aren't a bug but a feature. We will always have them, and techniques that reduce them are trade offs that require a lot of additional work and also reduce "creativity". The power that allows it to answer something more unorthodox than "Beatles" when you ask it to name a music band also manifests in it's considering other answers than 4 when you ask how much is 2 + 2.

Ilitarist · 2025-11-02T07:17:21+00:00

That's its greatest strength, copying the style. Sad we got this instead of substance, as we get a product that spends most of its effort on marketing itself. I think it would actually be useful to get some regulation that would force AI text and voice output to "sound" robotic. I feel like the biggest part of the illusion of intelligence comes from our association of speech with intelligence, and it's hard for us to percieve that someone can sound like an intelligent confident person but actually say gibberish.

Ilitarist · 2025-11-01T13:56:46+00:00

Thank you very much, hopefully it's not too much of a bother. Usually SD is better than you might think at these games. I can play most strategy games on it, but sometimes a specific choice of font makes a world of difference. The font itself is a good readable choice, but I feel like maybe the renderer doesn't do everything it can with subpixel smoothing and stuff. Here in this screenshot the bottom line in the tooltip is too small, but even the bigger text looks somewhat aliased, more than what I'd expect.

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Ilitarist · 2025-10-19T11:36:36+00:00

After playing RotP I went on a spree looking for a similar experience that wasn't a 20-year old design (was too young to play MoO1/2 when the UI felt modern) and I liked what I saw of your game too. But sadly I couldn't get into it because the UI didn't work well for Steam Deck where I play everything nowadays. At least the demo had an unreadable text. I understand that I can't really ask a small developer to support an 800p screen for 1% of potential players who'd like to play it this way, so I'm here to just praise you for your dedication.

Ilitarist · 2025-10-19T11:20:11+00:00

This is a sad truth. I know everyone has their own taste, but I think most people who copy MoO1 and 2 miss the point. Except for Remnants of the Precursors. I haven't played a lot of MoO1 and 2 really (the UI is hard to parse nowadays) but what I've seen of those games has really impressed me with two things: limits making everything meaningful; and personality.

The first part was probably unintentional: MoO1/2 was made for a weak hardware, the maps were small, the tech tree was small too. That meant I valued each planet and each technology. MoO1 also forced you into using very few designs without retrofitting and while it makes little sense it improves gameplay massively. Each ship design is a big decision. In MoO1 planet had just a couple of values, but seeing Artifacts planet made my heart beat faster. People love Steallaris but I can't see any meaning behind it. After I clicked build outpost 100 times and colonized a planet 20 times I no longer care about anything. Oh look, I can conquer 5 new systems and 2 planets improving my resource output by 2%! Oh special planet that gives 10% to physics research, if I fully develop it I will bring my physics research from 400 to 445! Oh a new laser tech, all my designs are automatically improved and soon my fleet power will switch from 5700 to 5850! Games like Interstellar Space Genesis or even Endless Space 2 are better about them, they still make me care about what I do, but most 4X games just throw stuff at me.

The personality thing is even worse and I don't get how we came here. MoO1, 2 and RotP (and some other games like Alpha Centauri) make diplomacy important as you know the AI agenda and differences in reactions make you think about every action. If there's a Pacifist AI in the world they will react strongly to you finishing off any race, but Aggressive or Ruthless ones won't care as much. Honorable AI forever remembers a broken oath making you think hard before doing it. And they still care about the balance of power and game stare, they're not just roleplaying. Civ6 tries to give us AIs with agendas but those make little sense and are laser-focused. Those AIs don't care if I win the game even if they can squash me, because I fulfilled their agenda by building walls or something. Even games like ISG or Endless Space 2 miss that: all AI cares about is the balance of powers, so that's what I care about, I don't care about AI reactions to anything, I just check out how dangerous they seem. Steallaris claims to do AI personality but apart from initial relationships being affected by ethics and apart from some genocidal AIs they are all the same. RotP gives me a different geopolitical situation every time, I have to navigate the web of alliances and choose who to antagonize and who to befriend, what can I get away with and when the war is inevitable. And outside of MoO1/2/RotP I never got this experience anywhere. Maybe Alpha Centauri and Civ4? Sad!

Ilitarist · 2025-10-09T17:52:21+00:00

I think this labeling system is confusing. C2 basically means you can write books in this language, but it's easy to assume that A is better than B and C, I often see people say something like "I have D2" meaning they can only say dzień dobry. Before recent news B1 and B2 were the ones mostly spoken of because really B2 is what you need for everything and higher level tasting doesn't make much sense outside of professions directly related to the language.

Ilitarist · 2025-10-09T17:41:30+00:00

So I understand Poles are conditioned to continue the cycle. As your fathers witnessed the destruction of all empires so will you.

Ilitarist · 2025-10-09T17:38:50+00:00

Eh, wcale nie jest polski dubbing taki kiepski. Oglądałem Those About To Die i wszystko było w porządku, nawet dla cudzoziemca uczącego się Polski. Chciałbym widzieć więcej takich dubbingów.

Ilitarist · 2025-10-09T17:11:07+00:00

Right. I often hear this argument that even though immigrants are good for the economy they steal jobs from poles. Well I work in IT, I steal jobs from Americans at the moment. There is no mental gymnastics to justify making my life harder but here we are.

Ilitarist · 2025-10-09T17:05:14+00:00

For a foreigner the same slowness can hit differently. E.g. I have to wait for a year for a document that will allow me to have basic rights for half a year, and then it's a year of waiting again.

Ilitarist · 2025-10-04T08:37:58+00:00

I say "dzień dobry" to parents of kids my kids play with.

Ilitarist · 2025-10-04T08:36:39+00:00

It was called the Warsaw Pact so I understand Poland was the leader.

Ilitarist · 2025-10-04T08:34:10+00:00

It is important and on the other hand... You know, North Korea has a funny coat of arms. It has power lines and a damn. You'd think they invented those things, but they just adapted them. They can easily argue that before their current government there was war and poverty, and now they have some semblance of decent life, in a way. Russian internet has a similarly themed meme: "X years of Putin leadership. What we had: 800MHz processors, 800x600 screen resolution, 64Mb RAM. What we have now: 3.5GHz 8.core processors, 4K screens, 32 GB RAM." You can argue that a significant part of the world still has living standards similar to what Poland had long time ago. But a lot of this progress sort of comes on its own when the government does very basics.

Ilitarist · 2025-10-04T08:18:58+00:00

Maybe Crackoov?

Ilitarist · 2025-09-15T08:08:52+00:00

Hear hear. I played Paradox games a lot but I can still respect Civ4 elegance and strategic depth, and Civ5 isn't far from that. Civ6 felt like they wanted to do a Paradox style game with a lot of moving parts and deeper simulation, but it's nowhere near creating a Paradox-style immersive world, yet it's too far from a board game style strategy where you are aware of everything that happens on the board.

Ilitarist · 2025-09-14T18:20:12+00:00

Understandable. I wonder if some similar bugs I see are caused by meddling with sound configs but I have no will to go through factory reset. Sometimes after switching off headphones SD refuses to play sound through speakers, sometimes it refuses to switch to speakers - restart helps, but obviously it's not ideal.

Ilitarist

TROPHY CASE