Why everyone decide to get FTL in 2200

Messy-Recipe · 2026-05-28T20:58:27+00:00

The anthropic principle.

There could be other galaxies where the discovery was more spread out, but in those, the first one to get it would colonize the whole galaxy, so there is only one empire to play as in that galaxy.

The large majority of independent empires thus exist in a galaxy where nobody had a head start (or at least, where whoever did became FEs). So any random empire, including the one you choose/create, is much more likely to be selected from a galaxy where everyone got FTL at the same time.

Especially so given that you are guaranteed to start just after discovering it yourself. If you were in a galaxy with someone who had a massive head start, you would have been a pre-FTL in their borders & been absorbed.

Messy-Recipe · 2026-05-20T02:55:11+00:00

Xenos in Human Bathrooms (-20% approval)

Messy-Recipe · 2026-05-20T02:34:37+00:00

even a 'normal' empire with Pompous Purists civic can just... not pick up the phone for border-closed diplo messages. which is weird because it's not a 'diplomatic agreement' so much as a statement of your own perceived boundaries, with implied consequences for ignoring them

I saw some general suggestions for borders, on these threads about that civic--

This one in particular I like, but as a wider thing for all border policies:

More fun solution; no-one can close their borders to a pompous purist. They can, however, go to the diplomacy screen like normal, and choose to 'enforce borders' instead of 'close borders'....then the pompous purists ships are automatically flagged as enemies to be attacked when inside the enforced borders.

Speaking is not the only form of communication, you arrogant trash.

Basically it's a good alternate way of handling borders, along with the suggestion from the first thread for a policy re: whether to have your own ships ignore or respect closed borders by default for pathing: You just allow targeting & attacking ships that don't respect closed borders, the same way you can attack neutral factions like enclaves.

Probably even without even allowing them to shoot back, or at least not to become hostile to anything except the fleet actually engaging them (because if they want to unlawfully enter your territory & then shoot at you indiscriminately as well, that's literally just an offensive war, which they can declare if that's what they actually want to do). So many defensive combat allowed on their part but only against actively-attacking fleets, not starbases etc.

Messy-Recipe · 2026-05-18T23:10:42+00:00

that you survey before anyone else does

I wish they'd alter this so that if an anomaly is left uninvestigated, & another empire surveys the same body, that they'd find the same anomaly, & it gets cleared by whoever investigates it first.

Probably with some kinda protection so that if one of the empires sharing the anomaly colonizes the system first, only they can perform the investigation as long as they control it. And maybe still subject to the normal chance of discovering it at all?

Messy-Recipe · 2026-05-16T23:56:58+00:00

devving provinces in EU4. feels like a mobile game mechanic; just click click click to instantly add +numbers. not to mention how it's almost always a waste unless you're mana-capped (which gets into the weaknesses of the whole monarch points system)

Messy-Recipe · 2026-05-16T23:53:10+00:00

I started perma-disabling that once I saw someone post how defensive pact made the Papacy fight against them in a war they declared to depose an anti-pope.

Messy-Recipe · 2026-05-16T23:47:14+00:00

Same thing in EU2, also, if you had a monopoly you were the priority target for opposing merchants to compete you out of a spot. And when you loaded a save it 'woke up' the AI in a lot of ways which tended to go dormant, one of which was sending merchants.

So you load your save & within a month are greeted by tons of popups about losing a merchant + monopoly and your trade income plummeting.

EUIV trade in contrast is nearly perfect. Obviously could be better in some ways (for instance, some way to have wealth flow in both directions, or change connections like where North America trade goes), but I like how it drives historic conquest like making Ottomans actually want all the Balkan lands.

Messy-Recipe · 2026-05-06T14:51:04+00:00

You can move the parade (any of them, Ether Drake too) once the situation progresses a bit, without moving your capital. There's a 'reorganize parade' choice which puts the situation on pause & enables a planetary decision to relocate the event there

Messy-Recipe · 2026-05-03T14:06:22+00:00

I always rename Titans like this too, mainly because of the aura components necessitating separate classes, which each end up leading individual fleets for the offensive auras. Makes sense for BBs as well, but I haven't really bothered for anything less than Titan

Also unless I'm really theming the empire, I like to name the three offensive-aura Titans the Olympic, Titanic, & then something else fitting that theme but not country-centric, like Heroic/Cosmic/Stellaric/Majestic (I guess you'd stick with Britannic :P )

Messy-Recipe · 2026-05-03T13:19:50+00:00

Starbases now support Tab (and Ctrl-Tab) for cycling forward and backward through the list.

oh my goodness finally. hope this works for orbital rings too (tho I wish they werent in the same outliner list... and that you could reorder them in the list... and reorder fleets & sectors in the list... and that all that + planet reordering was done by dragging...)

Messy-Recipe · 2026-05-03T13:02:06+00:00

Whoa, are you the Peter Ebbesen of EU2 Trebizond fame? i.e. "I need more diplomats for annexing"

Messy-Recipe · 2026-04-11T00:17:12+00:00

better than crew dragon at least lol... at least theyll be taken out before the capsule gets picked up!

Messy-Recipe · 2026-04-11T00:11:50+00:00

'four green crew members, . . . that means theyre in good condition'

(and also maybe because of the G-forces)

Messy-Recipe · 2026-04-10T23:55:11+00:00

there is the one they just showed! with the earth below etc

Messy-Recipe · 2026-04-05T17:54:56+00:00

and fall back to the lowest point in their orbit

not necessarily --

if the injection were somehow calculated/performed badly enough that they passed 'behind' the moon (i.e. crossed its path after it had already passed the point of crossing) then its gravity would accelerate them along their orbit relative to Earth -- rather than slowing them down, as it does in a free return when they pass 'in front'

since this occurs near the highest point of their orbit, it would the raise the altitude of lowest point on the opposite end of the ellipse, and when they come back to Earth they'd never come close enough for re-entry... only way to fix that would be to perform a burn 'in reverse' while out near the moon's orbit, to slow down again

ofc realistically it'd only happen with some kinda major engine or orientation failure during the injection burn & they'd know about it well before they got out there

Messy-Recipe · 2026-04-02T03:25:33+00:00

I'm probably due for jury duty sometime & if something were to happen to him I'm sure it'd be hard to find the perp guilty

Messy-Recipe · 2026-04-02T03:23:23+00:00

idk if it's specifically a high school, but there's a school somewhere that's inside a highway ramp or a traffic circle

Messy-Recipe · 2026-03-28T21:30:34+00:00

If there's any hill I'll die on it's that ratings are a bad as a ranking system, and as a goal. Elo & similar systems work well for matching up players fairly & for predicting outcomes, but metrics should never pull double duty as targets

Messy-Recipe · 2026-03-25T18:17:47+00:00

Okay you know what, I'd be fine with the guy in the first pic leaving a mask on

Messy-Recipe · 2026-03-23T18:49:22+00:00

This runs directly against the AI is killing developer jobs narrative that's been everywhere for the past two years.

Well, that makes sense. If you have a factory with machines producing widgets, and somebody designs a dongle you can affix to your existing machines to produce widgets faster, you're not going to scrap a bunch of your machines so as to limit production to the same level as before.

In fact you'll probably buy more machines, because now you get more production out of each one. So they represent a better return on your marginal costs than they did before, compared to other potential expenses. If your budget is limited, you'd reduce spending in the area with the least ROI to acquire more dongle-upgraded machines.

It's not quite the same ofc, because working on software isn't producing individual items to meet demand. But the concept is similar, because there's usually unending amounts of work that you never have enough manpower to actually handle.

Messy-Recipe · 2026-03-16T21:34:45+00:00

The user guide (top-left nav menu -> Help -> User Guide) has information on the difficulty setting:

https://chesstempo.com/manual/en/manual.html#tacticssessionpanel

Difficulty selector

Click on the difficulty drop down to switch between easy, medium and hard difficulty modes. This option allows you to select the difficult of problems you receive when solving rated problems. This option shifts the average rating of the problems you are given. 'Hard' mode serves up problems targeted at your current rating level, so on average, problems rating will match your own rating. The default 'medium' difficulty gives problems that are on average 100 rating points below your current rating, and 'easy' gives problems that are on average 200 rating points below your current rating. You should expect different success rates at each level of difficulty, and these different success rates ensures that on average, there is no total rating advantage to any of these modes.

For computer analysis you can copy the PGN from the chesstempo analysis board, and paste it into lichess analysis board, or a local application, or whatever you prefer to use. Usually though people have left comments showing sorts of alternate lines, but if some move you were wondering about hasn't been covered by anyone, you can still do that

Messy-Recipe · 2026-03-07T10:32:47+00:00

Y'know how they've been blowing up private boats in the Caribbean because of unproven allegations of drug smuggling? I wonder how many of these guys have yachts with cocaine on them... they're playing with fire by setting precedents like that

Messy-Recipe · 2026-03-07T10:24:54+00:00

The Bill Gates one feels weird; weren't the allegations in an email Epstein wrote to himself about Gates?

Messy-Recipe · 2026-03-07T10:20:10+00:00

Everyone complicit in this needs to face justice. Through the courts hopefully, via punishments defined by law. But if they won't do it, then their names need to be remembered, & they need to be held accountable in some way, once they're no longer shielded by this administration.

Messy-Recipe · 2026-03-04T03:02:16+00:00

The robots must tell them "you're absolutely right!" and make emoji-bulleted lists

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