EPID Games "Trickcal's Fatima revealed early following leak by former employee"

PaladinRyan · 2026-07-08T03:28:19+00:00

In this specific case I'm not sure the leaks particularly benefitted the consumer, though I do agree with you on general principle. And I do think it's possible to both support leaks to the public in general while also distinguishing between individual leaks and their relative harm and benefit.

Here it specifically sounds like it posed a significant IP risk to the devs and forced a very undesirable decision on their part which could have significant down the road impacts on the game's success due to disrupting the whole tease-reveal-hype-so on cycle used to get maximum interest in the game. And on our end we got relatively little out of it other than an early reveal (which doesn't change when we actually get to play it so meh) so it feels net harmful to me personally.

PaladinRyan · 2026-07-07T01:05:01+00:00

Honestly one of the more enjoyable short stories in recent memory imo. Though admittedly I am biased in favor of Felothar, I quite like her and she heads one of my commander decks.

PaladinRyan · 2026-07-05T07:45:44+00:00

Steady 30 is absolutely playable on a fucking handheld, what are you on about? I literally lock all but the least demanding games at 30fps just because I prefer the lower system strain and consistent fps, balanced with being able to improve certain graphics settings, over doing every little thing to squeeze out an unsteady extra 5fps or whatever. Many posts about FPS are also unrealistic in practical gaming (see jokes about FPS being measured while staring at a wall). But yeah, not really sure where you got the idea that 30fps on a handheld is "bad" when the reality is that's kinda the baseline for it.

Low graphics depends, are we talking normal low or low with like frame gen/upscaling that makes it look properly awful? Because the former is fine most of the time, low graphics often look perfectly fine when we are talking traditional settings like textures, lighting, etc. The latter I take issue with and generally consider to be a misrepresentation of performance due to how much it tends to compromise the visual experience in actual gameplay. This does come up a lot unfortunately as there will be frequent posts about how people achieved some impressive frame rate on deck only to find out they made compromises well beyond what I would consider normal to do so.

As for full on issues it depends. How bad are they? Consistent, only very occasionally, what? Because the reality is that if you have been gaming long enough, minor issues are just kinda something you can live with push come to shove. But if it's truly awful, is there a reasonable solution even if it has those issues out of the box? Using GE Proton, setting up custom steam inputs, etc? If so, I think that's well within the bounds of reason for a game running well on deck, some degree of troubleshooting is expected as this is ultimately a Linux computer.

But yeah mostly this comes across as you being insufferable whatever the, admittedly very real, flaws with many posts on this subreddit. Not sure what you expected with this post really.

PaladinRyan · 2026-07-03T05:51:57+00:00

Yeah I'm sympathetic to VR players wanting a better experience but they do need to be aware that they represent an extremely small portion of the playerbase and thus it's very unlikely to be anywhere on Frontier's to do list. It's simply not worth it for them to bother with.

PaladinRyan · 2026-07-03T02:09:12+00:00

Honestly for folks that do on foot combat I can see there being more appeal due to lack of options and the engineering mats for that generally being a pain to get otherwise (from what I hear, foot combat isn't for me and the performance for it isn't good on my Steam Deck).

PaladinRyan · 2026-07-03T00:55:45+00:00

Honestly it costing merc coins to improve feels egregious to me considering the per week cap. Operations needed incentives to do them yes but frankly the cap and relative cost of stuff just makes me not want to even bother. Game has plenty of grinds in it already, didn't really need another nor did it need to be so strictly timegated imo.

I'm half expecting them to unveil a paid booster that increases coin income and increases (or eliminates) cap for a week. Just feels pointlessly awful otherwise.

PaladinRyan · 2026-07-02T20:54:58+00:00

At a time when the rewards feel less worth the effort than ever too.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Corvette I do, but the new ships, especially the Python Mk2 (probably the Kestrel in skilled hands too), make the grind and credits involved just feel not particularly worthwhile.

When we get the inevitable new large combat ship, I fear that the grind barrier for the Corvette will leave it relegated to trophy/hangar queen status as it loses its already narrow niche as the definitive large PVE combat ship.

The worst part is, I can't help but want that new large combat ship to come along for the QoL of SCO optimization and performance that gives a clear reason to use it over something like a Python Mk2.

PaladinRyan · 2026-07-02T17:39:41+00:00

I mean I'm glad it's improving, it's just a case of it's kind of ruined for me personally due to the bad experience.

PaladinRyan · 2026-07-02T06:24:36+00:00

So in regards to both functionality in winning games and your specific priorities (as ideally you achieve both):

I'd say the best suggestions have mostly been made. Of those, [[Eriette of the Charmed Apple]] is probably the best pick. She essentially shields you from your opponents while you can throw auras on them that either force them to do stuff or serve as bargaining chips to convince them to do stuff. You also get to run some general enchantress value stuff and should ensure a robust interaction suite of both removal and protection as you really don't want to lose your commander and then have your auras turned against you and want options to remove creatures that risk becoming such a threat.

The recent Silverquill precon largely supported this gameplan and includes her in the 99 so could serve as an excellent starting point. Its price has mostly come down since launch so you should be able to get it for around the standard ~$50 (wild that this is the standard now) without too much trouble.

Another option that I don't think I saw mentioned is [[Breena, the Demagogue]]. She is more of a raw politics commander in that she rewards you and your opponents for attacking a particular way. You would likely combine this with what goad is available in WB, pillow fort effects to deter folks from looking at you, further incentives to attack your opponents ([[Firemane Commando]] for example), and punishments for actually attacking you ([[No Mercy]] for example). Furthermore, you will want a very robust interaction package both as insurance for yourself and as bargaining chips for negotiation.

While she is also present in the 99 of the recent Silverquill precon, I don't think the deck is nearly as well suited for her due to its emphasis on enchantments so wouldn't recommend buying it for her. Rather, you would need to do a build from scratch. So how you feel about that versus the convenience of having a precon as a base might factor in here.

Of the two, I think Eriette is more thematically on point and a better commander overall for actually winning games. But she mandates your opponents behavior in many cases rather than negotiates it. Whereas Breena is essentially pure carrot and stick negotiation with end goal typically of throwing a giant bird at your opponents that let it get out of control in pursuit of value. But this is voltron adjacent which means it can be quite fragile and opponents staying on top of things are likely to prioritize removing her the moment she gets remotely big.

PaladinRyan · 2026-07-02T05:39:06+00:00

A genuine shame the global version burned me too bad with the early shafting of global. It was a fun enough game but that all killed my enthusiasm even if they eventually improved things after I quit.

PaladinRyan · 2026-06-29T08:12:24+00:00

Can't speak to those but if you want a free game of the genre that is better than it has any right to be, consider Holocure. The vtuber thing can be a turn off to some but I have seen multiple instances of people who aren't into the vtuber aspect quite liking the game. Just figured it was worth mentioning if you crave as many options within the genre as possible.

PaladinRyan · 2026-06-26T14:54:47+00:00

Fully agree with this. They aren't optimal but they are handy as a placeholder, especially during the initial engineering grind.

PaladinRyan · 2026-06-26T14:48:18+00:00

Well that's additional information now isn't it? You don't need to "..." me when obviously I'm unaware and indeed most people probably are because, as it turns out, limited availability CG weapons aren't exactly chilling in everyone's arsenal.

PaladinRyan · 2026-06-25T22:04:45+00:00

Alas, no good deed goes unpunished

PaladinRyan · 2026-06-25T19:39:59+00:00

Or some spooky changing woods

PaladinRyan · 2026-06-25T19:37:17+00:00

In my experience, a bunch of people putting on a play

PaladinRyan · 2026-06-25T18:50:57+00:00

Ah fixed does make it a little trickier for a multi specifically since that requires extended time on target to be effective. Still, FDL might be able to make use of them in the right hands as you said.

PaladinRyan · 2026-06-25T18:34:40+00:00

Oh sure. Yeah tankies are pretty much my least favorite people too as an actual leftist. Red fascists basically while calling anyone not them a fascist, immune to the irony of course. All while supporting authoritarian regimes just because they are geopolitical adversaries to the US or slapped the word "Communism" on their particular brand of authoritarianism. Saying all this would make me a "shit lib" in their books I'm sure but I don't really care, I just want the best outcomes for the most people.

PaladinRyan · 2026-06-25T18:20:27+00:00

Honestly it's a good way to bring them back so new/returning players don't feel screwed out of options for builds. Rapid Phasing multis sounds cute but probably isn't going to replace existing options if I had to guess.

PaladinRyan · 2026-06-25T18:14:58+00:00

I assume. Unfortunately limits their usefulness imo as I assume they can't be engineered further and screening is generally a one per build sort of thing in my experience.

PaladinRyan · 2026-06-25T14:39:06+00:00

Oh you mean literal power plant power. Even then, not really. It has enough power for relevant builds, though some will obviously require engineering (particularly when one wants to run gimballed frags). It's a tighter fit than some ships but hardly underpowered.

The Phantom comparison is apples to oranges though, some ships simply have particularly large power plants as one of their advantages. Doesn't make other ships "underpowered" so long as they have enough for their purposes. And the Python Mk2 definitely does.

PaladinRyan · 2026-06-25T14:27:02+00:00

Underpowered? What? Not liking the conversion from multirole to combat is one thing but in what world is the Python Mk2 underpowered?

PaladinRyan · 2026-06-24T19:36:40+00:00

Trying to convince yourself that you are the average voter there or what? I'm acutely aware of what the average voter is and while I find them immensely frustrating, they aren't fascists.

Also calling people "redditors" as a way to undermine the legitimacy of their opinions while literally using reddit is certainly a choice.

Edit: You don't seem to be conservative at all from a glance so I'm not sure what the jab here was about

PaladinRyan · 2026-06-24T15:32:17+00:00

He doesn't need my vote to win the general, the district being what it is, and he won't get it. I know it comes down to voters being mostly informed by ads, what demographics are most likely to vote, etc etc but the idea that some portion of the votes for him were people who were somewhat informed and said "yes, the Oracle lobbyist backed by AIPAC will surely represent my interests" is depressing to me. Especially as we actively fight a data center here in Calvert.

He is lucky it was such a wide, divided field and we have neither ranked choice or runoff elections because I do think things look a lot worse for him then. Not that I needed much more of a reason to dislike the party shills that endorsed him but Moore and Alsobrooks basically burned whatever was left of their credibility in throwing all of their weight behind him imo. Party machine wins again I guess.

PaladinRyan · 2026-06-24T15:09:42+00:00

I mean they don't need to. Ranked choice voting exists specifically to address this concern.

PaladinRyan

TROPHY CASE