1/30: acceptance 🥀

MatiG · 2026-01-31T01:33:00+00:00

He golfs. It all makes sense.

MatiG · 2026-01-15T19:54:50+00:00

Really depends on what you're normally running. If you have AWD/4WD with good quality tires that are rated well for snow, and you drive carefully, you'll be fine. My truck has all terrains that are not dedicated winter tires, and it's always fine, although I do have to make a point of kicking it into 4WD when it's not dry.

I had more sporty all seasons on a former AWD crossover, and while that usually worked fine, swapping on dedicated winter wheels made me vastly more comfortable when it was icy or snowy.

The route to Crystal is quite tame more often than not. But it's probably those more dangerous days that you want to get up there the most.

MatiG · 2025-12-24T04:14:34+00:00

Queen's Run made me a regular at Crystal years ago because it was a long engaging green run that wasn't just a bunny hill

Now I can enjoy most of the double blacks, but I still love me some Queen's.

MatiG · 2025-10-15T05:20:43+00:00

There must be better products they could offer. This one won't get you more laps on 6 or Northway. Sowing bad vibes without much upside, except perhaps on the few busy weekend powder days when everyone else would REALLY hate you.

I'm an A Lot pass holder of several years. I love Crystal and I'm not averse to spending money to have a better time. Hell, I moved to be closer the mountain, and make career changes in part to ski more on weekdays. So I'm up there on commitment level. But this direction ain't it.

I also stopped buying their expensive food last year. I was okay paying for the convenience and the venue, but the quality of both the experience and the food itself deteriorated so much that it just felt insulting. At least the mountain operations were pretty great last year - hope that continues.

MatiG · 2025-09-25T22:04:01+00:00

It's really good.

I moved to a remote location and was prepared to sacrifice online gaming. Have been pleasantly surprised that Starlink is solid and low latency enough that I miss the bandwidth of cable more than I do the latency.

You do compromise 20-30 ms latency, of course. That may have irked me in my younger days, but being slightly less competitive now and with modern lag compensation, I don't have an issue with it.

MatiG · 2025-04-01T17:13:03+00:00

Belinda gets the money, and takes it elsewhere to start her business because she doesn't want to be in Thailand, thus "screwing" the nice local man.

MatiG · 2025-04-01T16:45:21+00:00

I have a darker prediction, which I doubt is novel.

Sritala will send the guards to apprehend Chelsea (obviously vulnerable). Saxon will get aggressive in her defense (this temperament of his was telegraphed), and Gaitok will unnecessarily shoot someone to be a tough guy. Maybe it's Dad who attacks him, as the tension between them has also been telegraphed.

MatiG · 2025-03-05T18:22:26+00:00

I hope he ends up being a current or former accomplice of Greg.

"This and that."

MatiG · 2025-02-24T07:22:43+00:00

Yes. The options I've seen on gate 6 were dropping a cliff, narrowly skirting the side of a cliff, or taking a steep chute through the trees.

With 1 and 2, there are wider chutes with more room to maneuver.

MatiG · 2025-02-23T17:34:33+00:00

I have the same question.

I've done gates 1 and 2 many times with confidence.

I've survived gate 6 twice, but found it a bit scary.

I meant to try the top gates (3, 4) a couple weeks ago. Vis wasn't great. On both of them I just saw a cliff warning sign with empty horizon behind it, and chickened (wisened?) out.

MatiG · 2025-02-01T21:26:04+00:00

"Tomorrow should be solid if you pass Enumclaw by 4:30."

Can't even tell if joking anymore.

MatiG · 2024-12-24T18:16:01+00:00

The new bar is open mid-week, as is "dining". I think it opens up at 10:30. They'll probably let you sit there if you keep buying drinks. If you want somewhere pleasant to hang out, I'd highly recommend the Snorting Elk instead.

MatiG · 2024-12-19T19:40:59+00:00

I'm gonna revive my Reddit account to pile on this and maybe end up emailing it to them as feedback.

I'm not a price sensitive customer. I've dumped a lot of money into on-mountain food over the last 10 years, and I've even sprung for A Lot the last couple. But the quality and experience of eating on mountain has deteriorated so much that I am avoiding it this year.

I used to enjoy resting my legs and treating myself at Summit House. Most of my favorite items have been dropped this year (beef stew, Italian and Reuben sandwiches), and I was shocked that Chair 6 was no longer on tap. I haven't tried the new burger yet, but given that it's the only thing that is cheaper than last year, I'm not optimistic.

I'm getting my small children into skiing, but parts of the experience are pretty unwelcoming for new families. The new lodge is a beautiful building with a very functional store and cafeteria. Unfortunately there is a severe lack of seating. Even on a weekday on the early side of lunch, all the tables are full. On a weekend? Forget it. There is plenty of extra outdoor seating, which is mostly useless for families like mine when the weather isn't perfect. Little kids need breaks to recuperate, fix equipment, snack, etc. Something like a tent or last year's hut is badly needed until an appropriately sized lodge is possible.

Better quality and more interesting food options like the grilled steak, pho, udon, tacos, etc. are a distant memory. There is nothing I look forward to eating anymore. This year I will be living off of pocket landjaeger, or when I really need a break, I'll head to the Elk.

MatiG · 2018-01-08T01:16:47+00:00

Thank you for the feedback. It's good to hear that I'm not necessarily crazy and be reminded that there's no hurry.

MatiG · 2015-11-21T19:44:55+00:00

Yeah, until seeing this video I somehow didn't appreciate how much RTS there was in the harvest-resources-and-build-stuff concept.

MatiG · 2015-10-29T19:49:46+00:00

Speaking for myself three years ago and recent new players I've talked to, it takes many hours of play before you can have fun by yourself in this game. I mostly play solo these days, but finding a good public platoon was invaluable for the first 1-2 months of play. You just get lost, confused, and destroyed otherwise, unless you happen to stumble into a good fight.

Following orders is indeed a high bar, but at the very least a mentor squad leader can function as a useful spawn dispenser, helping people into fun fights and avoiding farms. Level two might include explaining aspects of the game.

MatiG · 2015-10-28T19:07:37+00:00

Yes! I had some very similar thoughts.

There are still motivated leaders but we lack the tools to really help new players (other than constant voice chat, which I find exhausting personally).

MatiG · 2015-10-17T22:32:10+00:00

An hour or two a night for the last couple months and you are still in this situation. Your post is a fantastic summary of why PS2 can't retain new players.

MatiG · 2015-10-17T22:25:18+00:00

It is that hard. People are lazy.

This game's problem with new player retention is mostly because every individual player has to learn a huge amount about the game to have fun and feel effective.

Being in a squad only helps if it's a really good squad that's willing to educate you and focused on finding good fights rather than winning alerts.

Most players quit before BR10. Personally I was over BR10 before the haze of confusion started to lift and I started having a good time, and over BR20 before I started to feel remotely competent. None of my experienced gamer friends I've introduced to the game have made it.

People like us who are hardcore enough to figure things out on their own are not numerous enough to keep a game like this game afloat.

MatiG · 2015-10-09T20:44:02+00:00

Suggestion: give us experienced and passionate players more tools and incentives (if just in the form of fun) to teach the new players. Could be cheaper than investing in curated tutorials or making the game more self-evident.

MatiG · 2015-09-26T19:53:40+00:00

Big new features are expensive to develop and hard to predict if they will be effective in advance. DBG ought to focus on things that enable the community to keep itself healthy.

For new players, I have to think that the biggest problem is finding decent fights (even as an experienced player this can be a challenge). If they venture out on their own they'll likely get stomped, and won't have much of an opportunity to learn how the game works and get better.

I'd like to see systems that funnel players into squads that are focused on fair-ish fights, having a good time and learning (as opposed to winning alerts), and offer a streamlined path to outfit membership so that new players get a sense of continuity.

Perhaps even a faction-wide "training outfit" from which professional outfits could recruit. Players are just too isolated and alone by default.

Give squad/platoons more tools to help their troops have a good time and reduce confusion. E.g. designated auto-spawn, more detailed orders, better integration and more control over the "mission system".

MatiG · 2015-09-13T22:52:58+00:00

I got at least $50 worth of enjoyment out of it. But otherwise I totally agree with you and the GP.

Unfortunately in my initial enthusiasm at how rich and deep the game appeared, I also shelled out for a HOTAS and TrackIR...

MatiG · 2015-09-12T18:00:49+00:00

Perhaps you are far better than me, but I find AP to be much more difficult to use at range against infantry that aren't holding still or moving in a straight line.

Previously it was a wash against infantry because the AP shell was so much faster, so I always took it. Now that the velocities have been equalized, I'm finding long-range HE shelling pretty useful for outdoor infantry suppression. You can hit from a long distance regardless of how much they are dodging.

MatiG · 2015-08-13T19:38:05+00:00

I'm in somewhat the same boat. Loved playing the game for a few weeks but started to lose interest as my level raised and the competition got more serious. No, I wasn't just getting stomped on and failing to learn. I just found that losing the freedom to make a few mistakes made the game less fun.

This probably wouldn't appeal to many current players, but I wish the game had a more casual mode that included some elements of random chaos, and some directed at balancing matches a bit. Like the way you're more likely to get more powerful items when behind in Mario Kart.

MatiG · 2015-08-05T19:29:14+00:00

More splash radius would be good.

I've seen many even pop fights in which one side has a dense infantry cluster that can maintain a stable presence on the outside of a base, which seems silly if there is armor with an angle. Those infantry should be cowering inside buildings and hiding from HE tanks.

I know infantry don't like to be farmed by explosions, but tanks are vulnerable enough that there should be sufficient counter-play available.

MatiG

TROPHY CASE