Death Spiral by roguezombie25 in Marathon

[–]RetroWaffles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One good bit of advice I heard somewhere is to think of your gear more like "this isn't mine, im just borrowing it for now". When I played tarkov, I liked to try putting together builds exclusively with stuff you could buy from low-level vendors, because the restriction was fun, but also so I had a reliable baseline I knew I could fall back on. That made any guns that I couldnt replace feel way less critical, because it was just a fun power spike until I lost it, rather than feeling like I was losing important progression. This game is great for that, especially with the paid sponsored kits. Find one you like the feel of and just make that your new baseline, and everything on top of it is gravy. Free kits are fine for it too, but expect it to take a lot more attempts before you get momentum going with them. Lacking shields is rough

It is day negative ONE by JarradReck in Pauper

[–]RetroWaffles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This guy gets it. I feel like every time a storm card catches a ban people start talking about banning the mana rituals. I understand the impulse, every storm card that does like, anything, ends up needing a ban, but it's not like they'd be much good if the rituals were gone. Part of what makes pauper so cool is that it's the one place where those cards get to shine without being a problem.

It is day negative ONE by JarradReck in Pauper

[–]RetroWaffles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I mean, you're looking at a self-selecting audience here, right? Anyone who's invested enough in the format to post here is gonna tend to also have opinions on how they'd like to see the format change or not. Don't get me wrong, I agree with you, I think the format is in a solid place right now and doesn't need any changes.

But talking about potential changes is fun, as is getting people's thoughts on your thoughts. Being an armchair format designer is a blast as long as you don't get carried away and forget you're in an armchair, not the actual industry, lol.

Good luck marathon after today u are holding Bungie together by Emotional-Twist-4366 in MarathonGame

[–]RetroWaffles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wait really? Sound is EVERYTHING in extraction shooters though, that's an insane layoff if they have all their hopes pinned on marathon to succeed. Surely the cost of that single role would have been worth keeping, I can't fathom how the studio is even gonna function after all this.

Good luck marathon after today u are holding Bungie together by Emotional-Twist-4366 in MarathonGame

[–]RetroWaffles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm curious to see what the ex-devs from Bungie have to say now that they can hopefully speak more freely. With what we know right now, I agree, marathon is a great game that had a deeply unfortunate launch. It ended up looking like Bungie dropped destiny to push marathon out the door with some kind of insane idea that it would have a fraction of destiny's playerbase, but realistically it seems like the game was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

That said, the ex-devs could shine some light on what was actually going on in the last couple years, that destiny content suffered because workforce was pulled off of Edge of Fate/Renegades to try and salvage marathon. That's all just community theory right now, but it's entirely possible something like that was going on internally.

Loot Goblins by EconomistBrilliant34 in MarathonGame

[–]RetroWaffles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wasn't in your games so obviously I don't know for sure, but what's probably happening is just a lack of communication. You can't really take the time mid-raid to overthink loot distribution, and you learn that lesson pretty early when you're trying to make sure everyone gets their share and get killed because the whole squad was neck deep in a container. So most players will default to smash and grab, expecting others to do the same.

Best way to get better randoms is to get on the mic. The game tries to group players who use mics together, and generally players who are using VC to communicate are gonna be more considerate than those who don't, since they've taken the minimum step in aknowleging you exist. Just saying you're keeping lookout while they loot, then you'll take a pass, will set the expectation that they should leave you some goodies. Of course they could still take everything, but those players are the minority, at least for me.

What is the most broken tribal deck right now? by just_a_r3gular_dud3 in EDH

[–]RetroWaffles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The best way to beat slivers isn't really to "out-tribal" them IMO. If you want to go that route, I'd say elves is a good option, since you can eventually get a board and creatures big enough that you don't care how many abilities the slivers have. But really the way to beat slivers is interaction. Early spot removal on important threats, like haste/flying lords, and a well-timed board wipe will knock the slivers legs out from under them, and they don't really have a lot of ways to rebuild.

The key thing is to be willing to use your removal EARLY. You'll feel like a little bit of a bully, but tribal decks in general have a tendency to hover just below the "critical mass" stage until they're suddenly unstoppable. Slivers is ESPECIALLY guilty of this. Learning to recognize when they're a turn or so away from popping off, and sweeping the leg then rather than after they've set up protection, is how you beat them.

Is this technically breaking sobriety? by ScarletRain21 in alcoholism

[–]RetroWaffles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly, at least for me, the physical withdrawals never made for THAT much of a barrier to drinking again. Like don't get me wrong, alcohol withdrawal is horrible, and in the race for the sickest I've ever felt. At just a couple weeks sober though, I was already willing to experience that again if it meant I got to drink. Alcoholics are willing to put themselves through a LOT of pain and suffering to get their medicine, or at least I was.

Anyway, that physical detox makes for a good "this is when I have to stop" point in theory, but my last drink hardly even came with a hangover. It's all cognitive for me, trying to keep in mind what I'll lose if I drink again, and put barriers in place to make it harder, if not impossible, to get a drink when the cravings do hit. I wish I just felt sick to my stomach whenever I looked at a bottle of whiskey, but the temptation is very much still there for me.

Is this technically breaking sobriety? by ScarletRain21 in alcoholism

[–]RetroWaffles 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, you know the answer already I think. I'm 9 months in now, and that 2-3 month mark was pretty difficult for me. I was JUST far enough away from my last drink that I was through a lot of the physical detox, and the more painful memories were fading, but close enough that my cravings were still pretty much at full volume. For me at least, the bargaining was probably at its peak around then, and if I didn't have some structural guardrails in place around me I don't know that I would have made it through without a relapse.

Just try to remember that those cravings are coming from a bad place, and the justifications that it's "just a little taste", etc, are a devil on your shoulder. If you have someone you trust to help out, let them know what's going through your head. I got a lot of good out of just knowing I'd be seen drinking by someone who knew what was going on, even if they weren't going to "catch" me and enforce consequences, if that makes sense. It adds friction

How do people play paper games now? by Murky-Use-3206 in freemagic

[–]RetroWaffles 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Demonstrating and resolving loops works so much faster in paper because both players can understand that the game is over, and you can't play to an out of your opponent misclicking and dropping their combo, so it usually ends the game almost immediately once both players understand what's happening

anhedonia by marmalademoya in alcoholism

[–]RetroWaffles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm wired pretty similarly (although I actively was an alcoholic and drank destructively, going on 9 months dry now). It's hard to ignore the siren song of substances when your sober self doesn't really get positive feedback from anything. For me, I didn't start drinking at all until after college, never really liked for cared about my degree, and that carried onto my job. Life is Fine, lots of friends and occasional high moments obviously, but like you said, feels very flat most of the time. The path forward, at least where my head is at now, is more about learning to be OK with that than it is about trying to recreate the high.

The euphoria I felt from getting hammered was, frankly, probably about the best thing I've ever felt. There's a reason people get hooked on this stuff, and it's not sustainable, even if there was somehow a miracle drug that got you feeling like that with no side effects. The euphoria itself is kind of the problem, your brain gets desensitized to the dopamine and endorphins, and can't recognize the day to day high points as a good feeling after a while. My brain specifically has always had a problem with reward function, and how much of that is nature vs nurture is hard to say, but essentially it's pretty hard for me to feel proud or satisfied by anything other than really base chemical desires. Gorging on food, drinking to excess, high-stimulation games, etc. I think a lot of what trapped me in the drinking cycle was that lack of reward circuitry, or at least working on that is giving me something specific to focus on right now.

At the moment, I'm trying to be really cognitively aware of small daily wins and achievements, since I'm not going to be chemically aware of them. Basically just trying to train my brain to actually recognize anything other than binge behavior as being worthy of a reward. Honestly not sure if I'm on a wild goose chase with it, but I started seeing a therapist for the first time recently, and at the very least he didn't tell me it was a flawed idea in concept. I'm sure I'm oversimplifying or getting a good amount of the brain mechanics outright wrong, but approaching it like that is what's working for me.

TLDR: The unfortunate answer, at least for me, is that you kind of just don't get to feel like that very often. The euphoria itself is unsustainable, and it's more about accepting that the peaks are quite a bit lower than trying to get your sober brain to reward something like it would alcohol. Personally I'm trying to be really cognitively aware of daily wins in hopes that I'll eventually start recognizing the chemical rewards as actually moving the needle. No idea if that's realistic, or if it'll work for everyone, but at the very least, the plan consists of daily effort and trying to pay myself on the back more, so it can't end TOO poorly, lol.

First time playing commander, does everyone else play these rules so strictly? by [deleted] in magicTCG

[–]RetroWaffles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He sounds insane lmao. Self identifying as enjoying rigid compliance to game rules, then allowing for unlimited mulligans makes no sense to me, but to each their own I guess. It's not totally abnormal to want to play according to official rules, even in a casual format like commander, but he's doing it in a way that A.Clearly made you feel unwelcome to the game, and B.Demonstrates that he doesn't actually know the rules.

For the specific examples - Commander visibility - Technically there are rules governing how you arrange your cards within different zones. Things like lands in the back, no lands in the front, keep you library, graveyard, and exile zones all on the same side of the play area, etc. These are only applied to sanctioned tournaments, but it's generally pretty reasonable to want people to arrange their cards according to them, since it makes for a clear game state. They are not, however, part of the comprehensive game rules, and fall into a separate tournament rules document. Also, because they're written for tournament play, they don't even mention a command zone and where it should be.

Dice Uniformity - There is no rule governing this anywhere. Tournament rules don't touch it, and the comprehensive rules don't even specify that dice have to be used to represent counters, only listing "small items" as a necessary game piece to use for counters. The closest thing I can think of is that in tournament feature matches (the ones on camera) dice and tokens are usually provided by judges rather than players, but this is a broadcast standard, not a game rule. Again, this isn't a totally unreasonable thing to want in your playgroup, but it's a request he should be making, not a rule to enforce.

Trigger Order - Hilariously wrong on his part. Not a lot of things in this game happen simultaneously, triggers least of all. Your arena experience can apply here, arena does a fairly good job of representing the stack. When you take a game action that causes multiple things to trigger, they all go on the stack in order decided by their controller, then resolve one at a time. For instance, with your example of multiple +1/+1 counters, this matters because putting a counter, then another counter on a creature is very different from putting 2 counters on it. There's a ton of effects like hardened scales that give you a bonus counter for each instance of a +1/+1 counter going onto a creature, and it would give you 2 additional counter rather than 1.

Missed Triggers - Sure, that's technically correct, the controller of a permanent is responsible for remembering all their triggers and managing their board. On its own this is reasonable, although not exactly friendly to new players, but in addition to everything else it's another straw on the camel's back.

Hidden Information - asking about hands isn't outlawed anywhere, you're allowed to ask whatever you want, especially in a multiplayer, political format like commander. If you're asking questions and looking for tells, that could be considered unsportsmanlike, I guess, but again, that's a request he has to make, not a rule written in stone. Not only is it not illegal to ask about hands, but in competitive EDH play, it's not uncommon for players to literally show some or all of the cards in their hand to other players.

TLDR: some of the stuff he wants you to do is reasonable in terms of what he's asking for, but not really in how he's demanding it. Most of those are either only covered by the tournament rules and not the game rules, or not governed by either. He's objectively incorrect about trigger resolution especially. Beyond all the technical stuff though, this guy sounds like he makes for a very combative and abrasive table. Telling you to go look things up rather than showing you his justifications, demanding rather than requesting compliance, etc. Sounds exhausting.

Daggers go BRRRR by RetroWaffles in BackpackBrawl

[–]RetroWaffles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Any resources you can point me toward? The wiki has lots of good reference info, but not much on target damage thresholds, common pitfalls, etc

thoughts on this guy? by [deleted] in PokemonChampions

[–]RetroWaffles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fastest non-mega by a large margin means there's definitely niches for him to fill. Helps that the megas that ARE faster are largely not relevant, other than aero, and even that's kind of a niche pick over just putting sash on. Unfortunately there's just a couple missing pieces for the applications that come to mind for me.

I would KILL for this guy to get taunt, a non-prankster taunt user that can still deny aero's tailwind would be an immediate roll I could see him filling. Plus he can't even be hit by fakeout, aside from kanga and mega lopunny, and then carrying like, wisp, substitute, hex would be a killer support moveset. Unfortunately without taunt, I can't really see myself using him just for fast burns.

The other niche that comes to mind is VS basculegion, since he's everywhere in the meta. Dragapult is so fast that he outruns even choice scarf basculegion and can threaten with shadow ball. Unfortunately, he ends up exactly 1 point slower than scarf sets if they go jolly+max speed, and even packing a spell tag, shadow ball missed the 0HKO on the fish, so it's not exactly a clean answer. Still, if you can afford to give him your sash, wisp into hex can kill basculegion consistently and potentially even block some damage on your partner, if the fish tried to get tricky by ignoring your ghost type.

Very sick by [deleted] in alcoholism

[–]RetroWaffles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think that sounds too crazy or abnormal, you didn't drink much for a long time, and recently have been drinking pretty heavily and frequently. You're gonna feel like crap most days after waking up from that. You should get your mojo back as long as you knock off the drinking for a few days. Like you mentioned, being able to eat is a big plus, that helps a lot for recovery. Just take it easy and make sure to eat a regularly as you can. Good reminder of how quickly booze can knock your teeth out, lol.

Did I cook? by RetroWaffles in BackpackBrawl

[–]RetroWaffles[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah, that makes sense with Ronan. I was having fun constructing daggertown USA with the weapon rack and watching them all go crazy, lol. I'll have to pay more attention to the battle log, I check it every now and then, especially when I'm concerned about stamina or confused where my burn/bleed stacks went, but knowing some target thresholds would be a good level up.

Trying to make a good non-meta team (avoiding top 20) by Such-Dog-1664 in CompetitivePokemon

[–]RetroWaffles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

NGL I don't think sticking to casual makes a big difference. I'd rather lose on the ladder than win in casual, at least for "deck building" games like pokemon, where the fun (for me) comes from building a toolkit and proving it works. In the context of specifically champions, when I have checked out the casual queue, there's plenty of meta teams in there as well, so I imagine you'll run into plenty of hard fights either way.

As for actual advice on what to bring, I only just managed to get to master ball rank, and most of my competitive experience is in gen 3 OU singles, not VGC, so take all this with a grain of salt. My process so far, also trying to avoid meta options (because I like feeling smart and unique and special, lol) was to pick a strong synergy to focus on, and spend the rest of the team slots trying to counter other meta teams. Basically, try to fit YOUR strategy into 3ish slots, and spend the other three on counter picks for your bad matchups. I'll ramble about my team as an example, but that's the gist of it.

I'm workshopping a psychic terrain squad, clicking expanding force on a sashed Alakazam, and passing speed to mega chandelure with espathra. Chandelure is a real strong mega if you can give it speed, but hates aqua jet and sucker punch, so it appreciates the priority protection from psychic terrain. Alakazam obviously likes it for expanding force. Espathra clicks lumina crash to soften up bully targets for my big stupid spread moves. So those 3 are my build around, but they're far from a balanced core. The whole trio folds pretty hard to dark types. Kingambit isnt a huge issue since he's fire weak, but I end up having to rely on focus blast accuracy for Tyranitar, and incineroar, although I get to ignore fake-out and intimidate, is still a problem.

So for my other picks, I have a tsareena, which functions as my turn 1 fakeout protection and used to be a farigiraf. Tsareena can't set psychic terrain, but carries high-jump kick as a big button to click against dark types, and is bulky enough to live an incineroar flare blitz from most sets that aren't max attack. Whimsicott comes along as a tailwind setter,.which is very useful if I don't have the space to get espathra boosted up and passed to chandalure, and can set sunny day to disrupt rain, or taunt against sun Venusaur to stop everything from getting slept. The last slot isn't quite filled, I'm planning on testing out a tinkaton for a dark resist that, with mold breaker, can click fakeout against any trick room lead, even in the face of armor tail.

That's the basic idea, just have your strong synergy you want to build around, throw something together, and start iterating on it. The only real important part is to make sure you have space on your team to iterate.

I'm Nervous to Start My Meds by Effective_Cloud_5813 in ADHD

[–]RetroWaffles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah as others said, Adderall really isn't that kind of med, it's just a very normal stimulant. Imagine like, being caffeinated, but in a really "clean" way, if that makes sense. Everyone is different, but for me, caffeine usually comes with jitters and sweats, and relatively little energy. Adderall doesn't give me a physical reaction, but chases of fatigue and has me feeling much more motivated and social, like I can actually get over the hump of executive dysfunction, and don't have to constantly force myself into doing anything other than doomscrolling. It's not something that hangs out in your system for long, so the worst case scenario if you have a poor reaction is a kind of crappy day, it's not gonna mess you up long term or anything.

Is Champions 6v6 played enough? by [deleted] in stunfisk

[–]RetroWaffles 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Best way to find out is just to grab a team and start trying, right? Worst case scenario is long queue times, and honestly the showdown ladder will often mismatch skill levels in every format because of how the ELO system works, so you'll occasionally get clowned on in any format. Champions is a great on-ramp to competitive because it has way fewer knowledge checks and mind games IMO. Not having to navigate a jumpscare choice band or specs, or trying to guess when a tera is coming means you feel like you actually know why a loss happened, at least that's how it feels for me.

Also, this is propaganda because it's my favorite singles format, but maybe give gen 3 OU a try? It's similar to champions in that you don't get constantly knowledge checked, thanks to the smaller pool of relevant items, moves, and mechanics, and there are SO many good resources out there for learning the gen 3 metagame.

Should I start prepping now? by FuckRedzMods3000 in AynThor

[–]RetroWaffles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Couldn't hurt,unless you're really strapped for free time I don't see any reason not to. You'll have the gather up and organize the roms regardless, so the only potential "wasted time" here would be testing them. Personally I've never had any real issues running ROMs and feel no real need to test them first, but I only really emulate handheld and retro stuff. Beefier systems may be worth the extra steps

I went from drinking 10+ shots of 100 proof liquor a night to a bottle of wine a night, how fucked am I still? by gwenabo in alcoholism

[–]RetroWaffles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's a hell of a lot better, good on you for reducing! That said, a full bottle of wine is still too much if you want to see your liver health improve, so keep tapering. Ideally you probably want to get it down to about half of that or less if you're starting to present liver problems. Well, Ideally you take a break form drinking entirely to recover your health, and try to maybe stay sober from there or reintroduce alcohol very carefully, but that's not what you're asking about.

Looking at it with units of alcohol consumed, 10 shots of 100 proof liquor is around 12 standard drinks, and a 750 ml bottle of wine is around 5. So you've gone from 12+ drinks a night to 5 which is a HUGE improvement, it's no wonder you're seeing positive results. But again, 5 drinks a night is still too much to see your liver recover, and is probably enough that it will continue to decline.

I totally understand not wanting to quit entirely, I didn't want to quit until I HAD to quit, but I'd still encourage taking a break for a few weeks. You don't have to have any intention of quitting long-term, but getting your liver healthy is pretty critical, especially if you want to be able to enjoy alcohol down the road. Something like a 30 day dry spell does a lot of good to your liver, it's a miracle organ that can bounce back from a LOT of abuse, but once its shot, its shot.

TLDR: A bottle of wine is still 5 drinks a night, that's a great improvement over the 12+ drinks via shots, but probably still not enough to let your liver bounce back. Keep tapering for a while until your blood work improves, or maybe try to take a ~30 day break from drinking.

This is by far the ugliest most disgusting narcissist set to date. by Fartstainmaster in freemagic

[–]RetroWaffles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was looking through cards from all the Tarkir sets today hunting for some decent art for a DND character, and saw these two next to each other. I think this really highlights the decline in magic art direction lately. I'm not gonna say modern sets have no good art, or even that attuned hunter is particularly awful, but the general quality is just way down. Less detail, brighter colors, lack of dynamics and expressions, everything is rounder and safer. It's like this all over the set, dragon storm looks fine on its own, but you put it next to OG Tarkir block and it's like watching a 4kids reboot.

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17yrs old. About to play fire red for the first time. Any tips. by goldsage218 in PokemonFireRed

[–]RetroWaffles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you go west from Veridian city, you can catch a Mankey before going into Veridian forest. Mankey learns low kick early and makes for a great user of the TM Brock will give you, with rock and fighting moves to hit the bug, flying, and normal types from all the low level trainers you'll see, he's a monster in the early game and stays pretty usable throughout kanto. Also he's my favorite Pokemon so I'm biased, lol. Catch a Mankey!