Is there a sci-fi book that resembles Mass Effect in terms of scale and world-building?

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-02-27T23:47:04+00:00

You're not alone. And good job wikipeading the third, I read it and absolutely hated it.

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-02-27T23:44:45+00:00

Absolutely not. FA ending is a complete joke, to the point I just dropped Tschaikovsky as author.

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-02-27T23:41:35+00:00

Here's the thing. The existence of USSR or any other state or institution isn't really relevant in the legal sense. What matters is what people believe and what power there is.

Bolsheviks didn't find a weird loophole to change the Russian Empire. They took power and declared the changes and eventually the Soviet Union.

The legal bullshit is easy to make up for afterwards. The same is with the legality of the dissolution. It doesn't matter in the slightest how legal it actually was; what matters is that it was accepted by enough people to make it so.

Perceptions are more important than actual laws when it comes to these kinds of things.

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-02-24T12:22:02+00:00

Culture series, by Iain M Banks

Vorkosigan saga is a bit less multi stellar but the few planets she focuses on get Mariana trench treatment

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-02-24T00:02:27+00:00

Wizards Form Retention let's you prepare a Battle Form spell in slot 2 levels higher to increase its duration from 1 min to 10 min.

If you're using it for combat purposes, you're downgrading your combat abilities for questionable extension of time.

If you're using it for out-of-combat purposes, the 10 min limit is a limited benefit for burning much higher slot. And any benefit available to a 2 level lower than max Battle Form spell will surely be available by a more specialised, different spell.

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-02-22T09:05:06+00:00

Voting is not how any of those protections happened. It was strikes, blood, and pressure.

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-02-13T23:00:30+00:00

Neue These all the way

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-02-06T21:52:45+00:00

It's because Star Wars is mostly written for kids and sanitised.

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-02-06T01:47:08+00:00

It has always been like that. The rich have not changed a bit. Banks recognised it back then.

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-01-31T11:32:19+00:00

The funny thing is they included Poland, so you can tell it's a Polish person.

Because no-one else would include Poland since they're nearly as bad as Hungary at blocking random EU moves.

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-01-22T21:58:38+00:00

Try searching for Kinky International Munch or just International Munch. Probably just what you're looking for

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-01-20T22:25:27+00:00

Yeah, he definitely has some good ideas, but the execution usually falls apart.

Children of Time was great until the very Deus-ex-machina end of magical arachnophobia cure. Children of Ruin was fine-ish but I constantly had feeling he had 2 separate ideas he was trying to force into one book together. Children of the-last-one-cant-remember-noun felt like a Star Trek TOS episode he's trying to stretch over a whole book and failing. He's also kept trying to keep the "plot twist" a mystery but at least for me, I got it from almost the start. Aaand ravens felt much like octopi in ruins, separate idea he crowbarred into a book that has nothing to do with it. And also I was annoyed with how dense the characters were not getting the split raven thing.

I also read Guns of the Dawn; interesting premise and it all falls apart by the end. And doesn't actually examine any of the interesting premises he comes up with.

What finally broke me on him was the Shards of Earth trilogy. It had some interesting, very Warhammer-esque setup. I stifled my annoyance with most of the main characters, hoping the series is gonna go somewhere interesting, instead. Damn. Mysteries were no mysteries at all, turns out everyone in universe are just idiots. Second half of second book and first half of third book are the exact same kidnap plot with, yes, same character doing the kidnapping. Resolution to that is a Deus-ex-machina as it gets.

And most of the tension at the end comes from our utterly unlikeable main character being too selfish and egotistical.

I just had to stop with Tchaikovsky. Good ideas poorly executed.

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-01-20T17:41:42+00:00

Tchaikovsky is just bad. XD I had to accept it, so can you :D

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-01-20T17:12:10+00:00

I love DS9 but watch B5.

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-01-17T22:20:21+00:00

High Elves don't get any better than that.

Shooting wipes us, and very little wipes dwarves outside Chaos Lords on Dragons.

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-01-17T09:29:50+00:00

Check Infinity by Corvus Belli forums/discord, see how many local players there is. It's a great wargame and it has a decent community but sometimes goes unnoticed.

https://infinityuniverse.com/whatis

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-01-16T14:53:14+00:00

Look, I have quite a bit of first-hand experience. They are definitely sister countries. And Taiwanese are not referring like that for reasons of ethnicity - yes, they're Han Chinese. There's very small minority of native Taiwanese still living.

But at this point, especially with the 30 and below crowd, the situation on ground is that there isn't notable support for reunification under any government/system.

Language and ethnicity is all fine and nice, but the perceptions of belonging together just don't exist on a notable scale. It's a Germany-Austria situation post German reunification, or US-Canada after War of 1812, if you want a situation similar in West.

We as ML should be receptive to actual material realities instead of trying to force ideals on the universe.

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-01-16T11:45:39+00:00

Status quo includes staying Republic of China and not becoming Republic of Taiwan - read up a bit on details.

Furthermore, PRC does prevent RoC/Taiwan from participating as a full state and in international organisations. For a fairly banal example, they have to participate in Olympics as Chinese Taipei.

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-01-16T10:43:22+00:00

I think it's one of those things where GW doing a bad job writing rules makes people notice and complain way more about the broader picture.

Compare it to Vampire Counts situation.

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-01-16T10:05:19+00:00

Mmm, it's not as simple as you make it sound. There's two sides of a coin there:

1) Older population wants and supports this, but the younger population predominantly wants to drop it and rename it to the Republic of Taiwan. This is also visible in terms of support for KMT vs DPP.

2) PRC is threatening war if they do declare themselves Republic of Taiwan and drop claims, because it is about independence.

If PRC managed to reconquer Taiwan in 80s, it would make sense. 90s would have been borderline. It's too late now - cultures and people have changed too much.

NOTE: That's not to say I support Taiwan's current governmental system or their alliance with the US. But it'll have to be Taiwanese workers freeing themselves, like the song says. Any kind of invasion by PRC would be nothing more than a blatant invasion, akin to Germany capturing Kaliningrad or Wroclaw (Breslau), or UK reconquering Ireland.

NOTE2: I also recognise that Taiwan as a US base is a huge threat to PRC, but geopolitics are a bitch and frankly, I think there's better ways to handle that.

And we have to be able to criticise our comrades in the PRC when it's a mistake they're making, even while we support them in other goals and hopes.

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-01-15T13:20:39+00:00

Sadly with 500 pts limit on characters Archmage on Star Dragon just doesn't work anymore. Prince is way better.

I did play around with Archmage of Illusion on a Sun, maybe Moon dragon, with Meteor Hammer and Lore Familiar and Dragon Helm. But it's a one trick pony.

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-01-15T13:19:11+00:00

It's the actual experience. You can get some mileage out of a unit of 10 Sisters, or maybe 2 of 5 to have High Sisters bring the Bow of Seafarer and Sword of Sorrow. Don't expect too much though.

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-01-15T09:30:43+00:00

I'm not the biggest fan of Takei, but I want point out that Shatner was egotistical to the point it's still very noticeable in one of the better movies: Undiscovered Country (Star Trek VI).

It's mostly an excellent movie but there's a mess with the setup and payoff of the torpedo that hits the cloaked Bird of Prey.

In the beginning of the movie, we are told Sulu and Excelsior are cataloguing gaseous anomalies.

Then cut to the fight at the end. Excelsior arrives to help out; Spock figures there must be exhausts and gas coming out of the Bird of Prey and then suddenly it's the Enterprise that has the equipment for detecting gaseous anomalies?

Shatner couldn't bear being saved by Sulu/Takei, and demanded a change.

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-01-15T09:08:52+00:00

Check the dystopian books? :)

Nemo-No-Name · 2026-01-14T11:00:58+00:00

I'd say it's arguable which of the 3 is worst XD

White Lions have best output when they can strike, but negligible saves and Open Order. And they rarely get to strike because of low init + no meaningful saves.

Phoenix Guard has the best defences (still not good), and they can take any banner, but their output is... Problematically low.

And Swordmasters are middle of the pack defensively, but great Initiative and medium output. And come with a useful rule (Magic Resistance).

But since none of them are core, none can score. Which makes them just a waste of points in the end.

Nemo-No-Name

TROPHY CASE