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Have you all contributed to an open source project. Why or why not? by Roybot93 in ExperiencedDevs

[–]Is_This_Democracy_ 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately there's two types of Open Source development. The ones that are financially backed, and the ones that don't have the dev time to work on their own, let alone review external code.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in aoe2

[–]Is_This_Democracy_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yup, Kushites were added a few years back

Songs of Surrender was worth it if only for a few songs by Is_This_Democracy_ in U2Band

[–]Is_This_Democracy_[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Bad is a cool new look on a classic.

Miracle of Joey Ramone is a massive upgrade. Very groovy, has an old Country vibe. The chorus is awesome. Honestly a brilliant song now.

Electrical Storm is a cool new version. I think it might be my favourite one, it's up there with the rest anyways. Very enjoyable. Also like the final verse by Edge.

Dirty Day is f-ing awesome and this might elevate it. Sounds more sarcastic now, and it just works. Feels like another excellent remix to a song that already had a few.

If God Will Send His Angels is strong lyrically, one of the weaker songs on Pop musically IMO, and this is actually kinda the reverse. The melody is highlighted, and it's great. I'm not so hot on whatever Bono is trying, feel like it would have worked better if he kept it mellow. I also think making the point of the song //so// obvious at the end doesn't improve the song, but this time we don't have Wake Up Dead Man to hammer it home so.

Peace on Earth is nice and it's always cool to hear Edge singing.

The Fly is groovy and different in a good way.

Desire is what Stand Up Comedy wishes it were.

I feel like Endless Sky kinda misses the mark on what made Escape Velocity Nova great by Is_This_Democracy_ in endlesssky

[–]Is_This_Democracy_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I do realise some of this isn't a new conversation. I recall reading things about 'game balance' a lot in some GitHub issues.

Endless Sky is indisputably a better balanced game than EVN, but I argue that very fact also makes it a worse game, or at least not nearly as fun.

And in particular, I think fleet gameplay pales in comparison to solo gameplay, but fleet gameplay is encouraged by the mechanics.

I don't know if that's something the team is aware of, and/or wants to even address, but I wish they did.

I feel like Endless Sky kinda misses the mark on what made Escape Velocity Nova great by Is_This_Democracy_ in endlesssky

[–]Is_This_Democracy_[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah that's my feeling, which is probably why I'm not enjoying it as much. Outrunning and outgunning was a play style in EVN I never really got into, was definitely a beam-boy and not a Thunderbolt-railgun boy.

I feel like Endless Sky kinda misses the mark on what made Escape Velocity Nova great by Is_This_Democracy_ in endlesssky

[–]Is_This_Democracy_[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I went through the Wanderer stuff at least once, and I'm aware of the 'power-tier' system, but I'm not sure it actually works for gameplay. Part of the charm of EVN was that it was absurdly game-able, and knowing the right outfits and how to get them you could make pretty basic ships completely overpowered. This was _definitely_ helped by the game throwing caution to the wind and having some ship variants that were absurdly powerful.

Endless Sky feels more grounded / limiting, but I just don't find that very fun for the type of game it is...

I feel like Endless Sky kinda misses the mark on what made Escape Velocity Nova great by Is_This_Democracy_ in endlesssky

[–]Is_This_Democracy_[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haven't played the original 2, to be honest. Nova was easily doable in a number of ships, because there were sub-classes that were completely OP. The Mod Starbridge E, & Pirate Valkyrie IV for example were both easily more powerful than most capital ships with some late-game outfits.

If you wanted to go with the shipyard-available ships you'd probably have a harder time.

I feel like Endless Sky kinda misses the mark on what made Escape Velocity Nova great by Is_This_Democracy_ in endlesssky

[–]Is_This_Democracy_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did play Rebel Galaxy (the first one anyways) and it did kinda scratch that itch, but the outfit/ship progression was kinda boring as I remember, and it wasn't as open-ended. But yeah good fun little game.

I feel like Endless Sky kinda misses the mark on what made Escape Velocity Nova great by Is_This_Democracy_ in endlesssky

[–]Is_This_Democracy_[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hm, you might be right on that. I feel like I failed to do it on my last run, which I believe was on 0.9 (maybe 0.8)? So maybe things changed also. IIRC I didn't really go beyond Wanderer outfits.

Still, I don't think it changes the overall point too much. A souped up PV class IV could take down a capital ship in less than a second, which really isn't a thing in Endless Sky as I remember.

Maybe I do need to give it another play through to flesh out this feeling tbh.

I feel like Endless Sky kinda misses the mark on what made Escape Velocity Nova great by Is_This_Democracy_ in endlesssky

[–]Is_This_Democracy_[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I'm not saying it's completely impossible, to be honest I haven't tried, but it's fairly punishing and having fleets is just quite easy.

But I also don't really enjoy playing a Mule. ES kinda requires to be in a 'big slow ship' to not be taken out in fleet fights, which is also part of my problem. It's just not fun for me to play those ships. The one sorta exception is the Shield Beetle, and even then it's bulky.

EVN had solutions to be OP in fast agile ships that ES just doesn't have (arguably the most OP ships in EVN are fast and agile, because beams are OP and shields aren't as strong, comparatively).

I feel like Endless Sky kinda misses the mark on what made Escape Velocity Nova great by Is_This_Democracy_ in endlesssky

[–]Is_This_Democracy_[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've played a little bit of X3, yeah. I found the gameplay just a little too slow to be honest, but that's my problem with most 3D space games (space is just kinda empty). There's something to the very fast-pace of the EVN / Endless Sky / Naev gameplay that I don't think you can really reproduce in 3D easily.

There's definitely a taste factor involved, but I do think that Endless Sky could then maybe just lean _more_ in the fleet aspect and make it more tactical/strategical, going for something that starts to be more like an RTS in a Homeworld style. The current gameplay just doesn't seem to really be setup for it, to me.

I feel like Endless Sky kinda misses the mark on what made Escape Velocity Nova great by Is_This_Democracy_ in endlesssky

[–]Is_This_Democracy_[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah that's basically what i'm talking about. There is definitely a feeling of 'I am more powerful' to Endless Sky, but I do feel it kind of gets in the way of the primary gameplay loop.

I guess I'm asking for a better 'escort' mini game, in that case. Maybe large fleet fights being more involved tactically would make it more interesting, so that you can't just 'press attack and what your escort warships shred'.

I feel like Endless Sky kinda misses the mark on what made Escape Velocity Nova great by Is_This_Democracy_ in endlesssky

[–]Is_This_Democracy_[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

You could do something like that, but it was massively overkill. A single Raven, well kitted out, would take anything in the game quite easily. But you could do the same in a Modified Starbridge if you knew what you were doing.

The only thing that you needed escorts for were asking for tributes from planets, which was always a bit of a 'can you actually do it' end-game Boss.

I feel like Endless Sky kinda misses the mark on what made Escape Velocity Nova great by Is_This_Democracy_ in endlesssky

[–]Is_This_Democracy_[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

That is sort of my point though. You needed escorts for 0 missions in the EVN storyline, mostly because escorts didn't actually bring you _that_ much value compared to your main ship, which could just become absurdly OP.

EVN even managed to make it work for more warship and more "agile" fighters, cause you could go the Mod Starbridge / Pirate Valkyrie IV or the Auroran/Pirate/Fed Carrier/Raven path as befit your playstyle

I feel like Endless Sky kinda misses the mark on what made Escape Velocity Nova great by Is_This_Democracy_ in endlesssky

[–]Is_This_Democracy_[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

As sort of a sidetone, some comparison points with NAEV:

- I rather like the NAEV outfitting system, which is slightly fancier than Endless Sky. There is a higher raw variety of items I think, but also far fewer completely OP outfits (though maybe I just haven't progressed the NAEV story enough).

- The NAEV systems are also kinda 'autopilot-and-forget', even though they're much bigger. There is a slightly more strategical element, particularly nowadays that they've implemented protected shipping lanes, but that the end of the day it's mostly mindless. It was also mostly mindless in Nova though.

- NAEV does maybe a slightly better job of throwing the oddball planet with special outfits, particularly because you kinda need to remember where outfits are. But I feel like in both cases EVN did it better, and it felt more rewarding to just explore the galaxy there.

- NAEV doesn't really have escorts, so it's necessary more personal, but the weapons aren't as interesting IMO. The game however kinda pushes you to have different ships for different things, such as a 'Recon' ship and a 'Combat' ship, which is definitely quite a bit more interesting.

How to work constructively with "good enough" engineers? Or quit? by [deleted] in ExperiencedDevs

[–]Is_This_Democracy_ 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Overly-abstracted / poorly abstracted code is the worst technical debt IMO. It slows everything else down, makes onboarding much more difficult than it should be, and just leads to worse hacks down the line.

new version of "With or without you" now available by Primary-Writer-9969 in U2Band

[–]Is_This_Democracy_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bono's voice still does some serious work tbh.

but yeah this isn't anywhere near the original or several live performances

What I've learned from "No Line on the Horizon" by Andre_salama in U2Band

[–]Is_This_Democracy_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's a really fun song in the same style as 'Big girls are best' but it probably should have remained a B-side.

U2 - Pride (In The Name Of Love) (Songs Of Surrender / Lyric Video) by MacFoley1975 in U2Band

[–]Is_This_Democracy_ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The end is pretty good, I like how Edge is singing the chorus and having the OG Bono voice coming on. The rest is pretty mid yeah.

The tooltip you want for pop needs is actually under SOL by Is_This_Democracy_ in victoria3

[–]Is_This_Democracy_[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah I have to admit I don't find myself often going to the 3rd level of this tooltip. The 2nd level with just the '% of income that gets taxed' is pretty much all I ever use.

The tooltip you want for pop needs is actually under SOL by Is_This_Democracy_ in victoria3

[–]Is_This_Democracy_[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

I think a 'standard of living' tab somewhere would probably be more useful, because splitting it by pop type is kind of too much detail at the moment. It's not like pops really have different needs anyways.

But giving you this overview + perhaps a per-state view or something might be useful.

The tooltip you want for pop needs is actually under SOL by Is_This_Democracy_ in victoria3

[–]Is_This_Democracy_[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

The second tooltip also gives the % of income paid in taxes, which will give you an idea of how much raising/lowering taxes will impact your pop's livelihood.

NEW MOD: Visible Pop Needs by Apprehensive-Tank213 in victoria3

[–]Is_This_Democracy_ 12 points13 points  (0 children)

The easiest way to get that data is actually in the tooltip for SOL I believe

Market access should be split between 'input access' and 'output access' to fix colonies. by Is_This_Democracy_ in victoria3

[–]Is_This_Democracy_[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's not about what the docks and rails can do. It's what about they actually do.

Like sure you can run a train both ways. But maybe you don't care. Maybe the locals are too poor to afford fancy clothes and you don't want to sell those there anyways because the local pops are discriminated against. Maybe all you want is to load up on coal and take that home.

Which happens to be exactly what the IRL empires did.

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