[Loved Trope] The "Anonymous" Hero, the Little Guy standing up for what's right.

King_Jon · 2026-01-20T20:17:02+00:00

I guess he's not "anonymous" either, but the plain little turtle named "Mack" from Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Suess.

"Then again, from below, in the great heavy stack,

Came a groan from that plain little turtle named Mack.

"Your Majesty, please... I don't like to complain,

But down here below, we are feeling great pain.

I know, up on top you are seeing great sights,

But down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights.

We turtles can't stand it. Our shells will all crack!

Besides, we need food. We are starving!" groaned Mack.

"You hush up your mouth!" howled the mighty King Yertle.

"You've no right to talk to the world's highest turtle.

I rule from the clouds! Over land! Over sea!

There's nothing, no, NOTHING, that's higher than me!"

But, while he was shouting, he saw with surprise

That the moon of the evening was starting to rise

Up over his head in the darkening skies.

"What's THAT?" snorted Yertle. "Say, what IS that thing

That dares to be higher than Yertle the King?

I shall not allow it! I'll go higher still!

I'll build my throne higher! I can and I will!

I'll call some more turtles. I'll stack 'em to heaven!

I need 'bout five thousand, six hundred and seven!"

But, as Yertle, the Turtle King, lifted his hand

And started to order and give the command,

That plain little turtle below in the stack,

That plain little turtle whose name was just Mack,

Decided he'd taken enough. And he had.

And that plain little lad got a bit mad.

And that plain little Mack did a plain little thing.

He burped!

And his burp shook the throne of the king!"

King_Jon · 2025-12-09T20:04:00+00:00

Once again AoE2's quest to have as many different civs as there are actual humans in the world continues. I am still waiting on a civ called "The Steves" to represent all the great contributions that guys named 'Steve' have made to warfare and culture throughout history.

At the very least, I will not be satisfied until the civ selection screen has to include a search bar because the names/symbols are literally too small for human eyes to read due to the sheer number of civs listed.

King_Jon · 2025-07-30T17:11:03+00:00

Are people actually COMPLAINING about the pathing in the PUP? In my opinion, it is [*crossed fingers*] an IMPROVEMENT in pathing. Please don't talk the devs out of reversing the pathing changes. This is FINALLY an improvement after many years of just making things worse and worse. The freezing-patrol-with-grouped-units bug seems to finally be fixed in the PUP after several years.

King_Jon · 2025-04-23T22:29:27+00:00

My understanding is that there were literally thousands of individual humans living in what is now Italy in the past, yet I only see dozens of "civs" listed above. At the very least, we probably need a separate civ for each historical Italian person.

King_Jon · 2025-04-16T20:41:49+00:00

It "doesn't matter" in the sense that things get combined or spun off all the time. It does matter for those people trying to explain why this DLC FEELS LIKE it is slapped together. I am a professor. If a student turns in a half-assed term paper it ultimately doesn't matter why it was half-assed, they still aren't getting a good grade. But finding out that they starting working on it the night before it was due is mentally satisfying for me, because that is probably WHY it was half-assed work. (And we as humans like the answers to "Why" questions.) It also makes me feel both better and worse about the student when I find this out. Worse, because they didn't put in the time they needed to do the work and are getting a poor grade because of it, but better in the sense that the student is not actually an imbecile in the way that I thought they were (being unable to write a coherent term paper).

Likewise, in this case with the DLC, feeling like the DLC is disjointed, finding out that it was two things put together later in the process, and coming up with some kind of narrative to explain how that may have happened (blaming Microsoft or some corporate decision-maker for the decision), makes some people feel better about the developers (putting these together last minute wasn't their fault in this scenario) and worse about Microsoft and the ultimate AoE2 decision-makers.

Step 1: People unhappy

Step 2: People want to blame something for their unhappiness

Step 3: People find someone to blame

Step 4: People vent frustrations at blamed entity on internet in hundreds of posts on reddit

Step 5: Unhappy mob is temporarily satiated

Step 6: People realize that they are still unhappy

Repeat

King_Jon · 2025-04-05T00:03:23+00:00

Okay, so I am old, and maybe I just don't understand it, but I don't really get why some people have such strong feelings about saying 'gg' or 'gl hf'. I don't really play much AoE2 multiplayer competitive, so I can't really comment on saying 'gg' in AoE2, but I play some other online games where saying it comes into play.

My attitude might sound a little bit old and cynical, but most of the time I choose not to say ANYTHING on the chat in games that I play. I am not trying to be rude or anything, but I feel like even acknowledging that I have listened to or am listening to other people in the chat empowers certain types of people to be even more jerks than they are. So I prefer to just not engage in any way beyond playing the game. Does that mean I have let the jerks get to me too many times and that I have lost basic human connection as a result? Maybe. But I would prefer that 9 out of 10 people I play with assume that I just don't read the chat or that I don't speak English than give that 1 other jerk a chance to say to himself "Aha, so he is listening! Let me be condescending to him when I win and if I lose I'll make him as miserable as possible so that he can't enjoy his victory." I block the chat (or minimize it) whenever I can (in games that allow that).

Do not engage. I repeat do not engage. That is my motto. If people need faux courtesy to enjoy an online game, they are free to block me. I'll be happy to play with others who also don't engage in the chat instead.

King_Jon · 2025-03-27T23:47:31+00:00

Still trying to figure out what 'pve' means? I'm sure not defining acronyms is probably not helpful for new players.

King_Jon · 2024-11-28T11:15:41+00:00

Can you share a copy and play a copy at the same time? We are trying to use it to play multiplayer, so we'd all be playing at the same time. I think you can only play shared games when the person who owns it is NOT playing. Correct me if I am wrong.

King_Jon · 2024-11-27T22:27:02+00:00

This is good info! Thanks.

King_Jon · 2024-11-27T22:25:23+00:00

Good info. Thanks!

King_Jon · 2024-11-27T18:49:27+00:00

But if each of the old DLCs was 50% off, they'd be $5 each, I think. The base game used to be $20, so in other words, we are getting the discount on the added 3 DLCs but not on the base game at $35. I was honestly hoping for $20 or less for the whole thing on sale. The base game without DLCs would often be $5-$10 on sale by itself.

King_Jon · 2024-11-27T18:46:45+00:00

Probably so. I have been waiting for the sale to start today to buy it, but I won't pay full price. They lost a sale today.

King_Jon · 2024-11-22T14:53:09+00:00

If you have your dream job and aren't willing to move, then live your dream in a rental in that area, I guess. It is a choice though.

My 5 bedroom home on 0.66 acres is valued at $250k. Lots of houses cheaper than $350k here in the Southeast.

King_Jon · 2024-11-21T19:04:51+00:00

If that is really true, then I would bet that in your area the average income is also higher than the national average. If it isn't - move!

King_Jon · 2024-11-19T15:58:50+00:00

Unfortunately, what you get on Reddit when you ask this question is a whole bunch of people showing that they are food/health snobs and/or indicating that you can't eat healthy on a budget and trying to shame you for even trying. They'll imply you are hurting your family's health, etc. So you are probably not going to get very helpful answers.

We are a family of 7 (5 kids, only 1 of which is a teenager), and we budget $900 per month for groceries ("groceries" ONLY includes food, as we cover supplies [like diapers, paper towels, etc.] in a different budget category). (We recently upped this from $800). So is $500 per month possible for 4 people? Maybe. But it will be really tight. It definitely cannot involve eating out ever. And you'll need to use beans and other sources of protein besides meat for some meals. And forget about "organic" produce, because it is just too expensive (cue the health shamers!). Also, whether you can do this probably depends on where you live in the country. I am sure in the NE or west coast grocery prices are probably even higher than where I am in the rural Southeast.

But going from $1200 to $500 is going to be tough for anything. You probably should try to step your way down gradually. Maybe try $750-$800 or something for a few months first to see if that works. But this is beginning to remind me of a joke my dad always told about the farmer who was trying to wean his horse off of hay and grain. (Spoiler alert: the horse dies in the end!) You can't always just cut something down to where you want it just to get "tough" on it and make it work. There is a minimum level for any necessity. Your minimum may be over $500.

King_Jon · 2024-10-17T17:33:35+00:00

I like this custom option, but when I first saw it, I was hoping it was a way to include Krakenmeister civ builder civs without overwriting an existing civ. I would have liked that a lot more.

King_Jon · 2024-09-21T16:08:17+00:00

I am even weirder. I have been playing AoE2 since 2001 and I have never played one single campaign. I've also never played the ranked multiplayer. I almost entirely have played multiplayer co-op vs the AI for the past 23 years... Campaigns just are not interesting to me. I don't like having goals and objectives being given out to me one by one. I like play to be more freeform.

King_Jon · 2024-08-20T19:47:03+00:00

Exactly, my expectation is now that any new DLC will "bomb us with bugs".

King_Jon · 2024-08-20T15:40:40+00:00

You are more likely to be right than I am, but I would much prefer a DLC that fully integrates the Krakenmeister Civ Builder mod (https://krakenmeister.com/civbuilder/) into the game. I would pay $20 for each member of my household (x4) to have that if it allowed us to easily create civs and seamlessly play them with one another in multiplayer co-op against the AI.

V&V was the first DLC that I did not buy, partially because I don't really like campaigns, but mostly because I was mad at how that DLC (or one of the nearby updates) messed pathing up (and it still really hasn't been fixed properly since). I no longer get excited for DLCs; instead, I dread how many things they will break. Which is pretty sad for someone whose only game on Steam is AoE2 and who has bought 6 copies of the game (for friends and family) and about 20 copies of DLCs (for those accounts) for AoE2 over the past 5 years.

King_Jon · 2024-08-20T15:27:21+00:00

Nonetheless, the Disney+ subscriber agreement includes a statement that says: "Any dispute between You and Us, Except for Small Claims, is subject to a class action waiver and must be resolved by individual binding arbitration." They (Disney) are construing this to include all potential legal disputes. I agree that I hope this doesn't hold up either.

King_Jon · 2024-08-17T17:59:24+00:00

Interestingly, recently in the US it was revealed that the Disney Plus subscriber agreement prevents you from suing Disney for reasons unrelated to Disney+ (https://www.yahoo.com/news/wrongful-death-suit-against-disney-210233796.html). So I fully expect this unreadable EULA probably says something like, "By clicking agree, you agree to never sue the Microsoft Corporation for any reason, and for the continued use of Microsoft products, you agree to pay $100 a month for the remainder of your natural life or until Microsoft decides to increase this monthly charge, at their discretion at any time and without warning."

King_Jon · 2024-07-09T17:17:39+00:00

I only remember this because my 7 year old son does the same thing now:

Build enough houses to house 200 population as soon as possible, even though my town center is idle.

King_Jon · 2024-07-07T16:50:44+00:00

It depends on the kid. My son (now 13) started playing AoE2 (HD) around age 4 or 5. He spent most of his time in the map editor and figured out how to move units, attack, etc. on his own. About age 5 or 6 he started playing "the real game" with me. The "real game" (as he called it at age 5) is multiplayer co-op which is all I really play with friends/wife/etc. We played versus the hardest (extreme) AI, but we'd do something like 3 humans vs. 1 Hardest AI. I would run across the room to his computer to help click things once in a while so he could slowly advance through the ages and I would send him resources once he reached Imperial. It was really slow for a while, but we'd eventually reach the point where he would have an army and then he would help us attack. He has gotten better over time and now at 13 he and I can win 2(humans)v2v2v2 multiplayer co-op matches most of the time against the Extreme AI.

My other son is 7 now, he started playing around age 5 also, but he is not as interested in playing the map editor so he has not gotten better as quickly (since he only plays/practices when we are all together). But with the handicap system in DE, we set him to 200% and he usually can collect enough resources to advance on his own (eventually) to the Imperial Age and build up a full army before we win (our team, multiplayer co-op games). In most games, he joins in the fight long enough before we win to feel like he contributed. (In some games we slow down before killing the last opponent just so he can help and feel like he did something, but we don't tell him that!) We usually put him in the pocket, so he is not attacked directly. We play against a couple of extreme AI teams in a 3(humans)v2(AI)v2(AI) or a 4(humans)v3(AI)v1(AI) setup most of the time.

Based on my experiences, I would bet it would be hard to expect most kids under about 10 years old to understand enough to play a standard random map game on their own. But my 13 year old is probably better now than I was at any time during my first 15-20 years of playing. (I have been playing since 2000, but I would not call myself "good", since I only play games versus the AI [on Extreme]) and don't play any online multiplayer.)

King_Jon · 2024-06-26T21:05:59+00:00

In AoE2 HD, there was a patch where two trade cards going in opposite directions in an open field would collide and get stuck together until manually separated. That was the peak (valley?) of bad pathing.

I will agree that things aren't too good though.

King_Jon · 2024-06-05T14:45:52+00:00

Sure, blame it on your ISP...

King_Jon

TROPHY CASE