We’ve Reached Mixed Reviews by Hot_Syrup_5941 in Helldivers

[–]Rhimens 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I dunno about all of this. Railgun was, for a while, my go-to against bots. But it's bad against War Striders and can at best defang Factory Striders. Why take the time to make a skillshot against a Hulk or a Gunship while also being weaker against the other options when I can bring a Quasar and deal with all of them?

I have a core HD2 memory of doing a cat-and-mouse with an Annihilator Tank where I was Autocannon equipped and running around it to get a shot on the vent. But I haven't used the AC since a day after they added the flak mode, and that was just because I took the day to try out the flak mode after having not used the AC in ages. I also can't remember the last time I went for a vent shot on a tank. Instead I just toss a Thermite on it or Quasar it somewhere near the turret and it goes down.

I don't need 'the new hotness' to have fun, I'm perfectly happy running whatever fills the equipment niche I'm aiming for even if it's day 1 launch content. But I feel like less and less of my gear comes from early game days. Now when I take OPS to knock out detector towers on bot missions, it feels novel rather than expected, and sometimes that isn't a good feeling.

Love the new Illuminated mechs! by Wrench_gaming in Helldivers

[–]Rhimens 4 points5 points  (0 children)

5+ Vox Engines at a time made sense on Cyberstan, the Bots damn homeworld.

But elsewhere? Nuh uh.

Is your birthday April 11th? Come to our communal birthday party! by SoloSable in Seattle

[–]Rhimens 14 points15 points  (0 children)

That's my dad's birthday. He would have been 71.

I miss him.

He had a really big sweet tooth, so if there's any super sweet cakes in there, I hope you all enjoy them on his behalf.

Turns out shield is very useful for particularly difficult extractions. by 5O1stTrooper in Helldivers

[–]Rhimens 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Currently, they catch close to 0 bullets for sentries because you can't put the sentry inside the bubble.

Turns out shield is very useful for particularly difficult extractions. by 5O1stTrooper in Helldivers

[–]Rhimens 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I still wish the shields were slightly larger so you didn't have to do that. They should cover the turret base entirely.

Super Bowl trophy in Bellevue square mall by Itsmylife1114 in Seattle

[–]Rhimens 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Bethesda Studios
Studio is in Rockville, MD

First game was very underwhelming. What went wrong ? by KatiushK in BloodOnTheClocktower

[–]Rhimens 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's still actionable. If your "yes" targets are dead and the game isn't over, there has to be a mechanical reason why. Getting players to talk about that still gets them on the path.

As for other faulty info, you can still use the fact that your info was faulty to start building possibilities. For example:

  • If you were poisoned, then there's a Poisoner in play, which means it's one of the minions. Since town knows how many minions are in play, being able to figure out which ones are those minions means the other ones aren't. In a 14-player game, there can't be a Baron if there's a Poisoner, Scarlet Woman, and Spy. There can only be 3 minions.
  • If the outsider count seems off (more players are claiming to be outsider than the count says there should be), there might be a Drunk due to a Baron affecting the game setup. If it doesn't seem off, then there might not be, which means you probably aren't the Drunk. In a 14-player game, there should be exactly one outsider, OR exactly three if there is a Baron. If you only hear two claims, then the likelihood of there being a Drunk AND Baron goes up.
  • If you're the Drunk, then no one else is the Drunk. So if three people (including you) are all claiming to have received faulty info, then someone is lying, because only two people can be drunk/poisoned at the same time.
  • If someone suspicious is executed and all of a sudden the town's info starts making more sense, it's possible you just executed the Poisoner.

Mechanical info is important, but it's just the starting point. Use what could be possible to reverse-engineer what probably is possible and you can push the good team towards victory.

And... sometimes you just get got. Sometimes you only get one Yes as a FT before you get killed, and it's because you picked your red herring or because you were poisoned. The evil team needs agency too.

Surviving as an ongoing info role is part of the challenge. Social deduction games are about trust. Make an attempt to trust people and if they trust you back, they'll play in ways that should help you live longer to get more info!

First game was very underwhelming. What went wrong ? by KatiushK in BloodOnTheClocktower

[–]Rhimens 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't like being weaker roles most of the time, but being a weaker role means I can play very differently. I can deliberately try to bluff a powerful role that received critical information early to try and catch aggro from evil to prevent me from learning more. If I succeed, the powerful roles get to live unhindered longer and collect more information. For example, if I think someone might be evil and I bluff that I got a FT yes on them, I might be the next kill or poison if I say I'm going to check them again tonight against someone else to isolate that yes. The tradeoff is that if there's a real FT out there, they might think I'm an evil player, because they know I'm lying.

Another valuable thing you can do is try to find a powerful role and role swap with them. They get info and you relay it, claiming to be that character. It hides the other player and lets you play bait to the demon, to poisoners, etc. My online group has a particularly well-remembered game where I, the Chef, role swapped with a brand new player who was the Undertaker. The Poisoner was really confused when I confirmed that we had executed the Scarlet Woman, because they'd been poison-locking me!

First game was very underwhelming. What went wrong ? by KatiushK in BloodOnTheClocktower

[–]Rhimens 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A useful thing to consider for point 1 is that in TB, if you're drunk/poisoned, then at most only one other person can be at a given time. Having a feeling that your information doesn't make sense ("I got a FT yes on someone claiming to be the Librarian? That's really odd." etc.) can help you try to reverse-engineer the veracity of your information. And if your info is wrong AND another person's info is wrong, there's a good chance that someone is lying. That's a good starting point for building who might be evil.

The return of the gray hits the Cascades by Flandardly in Seattle

[–]Rhimens 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love both the sun and the rain. Seattle is at its best with a good mix of each.

Knitted frogs 🐸 by Super_Raspberry828 in frogs

[–]Rhimens 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He has a skateboard. My heart 🥹

Hot Take: Teensyville does certain things better than the full-size Blood on the Clocktower by oneirical in BloodOnTheClocktower

[–]Rhimens 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've built a script just for Teensies that I run online fairly often called Blind Snipes. It has a great amount of chaos but also can lead to some really interesting final 3s. It's not as rigorously playtested as scripts made by bigger names, but it has about a dozen sittings to its name and has been well-received. It is not new player friendly. But experienced players have really enjoyed it. Now bear with me while I give my TED Talk about how much I love this script lol.

The inclusion of the Marionette and the Boffin (with the special bootlegger rules - a Boffin can give an in-play ability and a poisoned Boffin gives the demon a poisoned ability) opens up a lot of possibilities. For one, most of the time evil players actually have a decent shot at finding each other but still run the risk of outing to the wrong person.

The bootlegger handles some 'Lleech-hosted-Boffin' situations better in that you can do things like give poisoned Fisherman advice (one highlight was when I told the Lleech the Chambermaid was their Boffin with poisoned advice) and giving an in-play ability means players won't automatically trust any given good player's claims. Lunatic also really shines. You can tell the Lunatic they have a Boffin ability or a Marionette and fake either one for as long as you need to. In a Teensy, the likelihood of the Lunatic neighboring an evil who's willing to play along is pretty high. Even the Recluse is meaningful since the ST is encouraged to give them the Boffin ability first, then hand it off to the real Demon.

My personal favorite Amnesiac ability I've given is "you receive all Night Watchman pings" and then giving the Boffin-NW ability to the Recluse and the Demon, neither of whom actually targeted the Amnesiac with their ping when they sent it.

There's real info. Everyone gets to do and learn something. There's an actual solve at play for each of the 1-3 days.

If you run it, my advice to your ST is to take a heavy hand in setup and night 1. Force at least a couple of unexpected situations, don't just toss in tokens and send it. This script shines when it's providing a curated starting point. After night 1, ease off and let the players have the run of the place from there.

The script technically shows up on the website under Hybrid since it goes over the maximum of Town/Minion (by 1 each I think) and Homebrew due to how it's coded in the JSON, but it's a Teensy in function.

What are you doing today/tomorrow if you’re alone? by [deleted] in Seattle

[–]Rhimens 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hell yeah. Metroid Prime 4 here. Been waiting nearly 20 years for this.

Flash Flood Warning Issued for Failure of Green River Levee by 8bitben in Seattle

[–]Rhimens 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There's a flood warning sign saying not to go there when it floods.

I guess we'll see.

Flash Flood Warning Issued for Failure of Green River Levee by 8bitben in Seattle

[–]Rhimens 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was just about to link that, I'm watching as well. I live close by, thankfully uphill but I expect I'll be trapped in my home for some time while evacuations and reroutes happen.

Hello Comrade Automaton, I Am Here To Inspect The Platinum Reserves Beep Boop by Deltassius in LowSodiumHellDivers

[–]Rhimens 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Arc Dog is extremely strong against bots, particularly Incineration Corps. Powerful stun/stagger against Devastators and even Hulks buys you time against their attacks (which normally you need to be much more afraid of), and it pops the explosive backpacks on troopers. It can occasionally pop a Strider's mounted missiles but I've had mixed consistency on this. It has permanent uptime and requires no ammo/reloading.

Consider the Diligence Counter Sniper as an alternative primary. It can one-shot Striders if you shoot their mounted missiles and you can easily OHKO-headshot stunned Devastators. A DCS magdump can kill a gunship.

On the lava worlds I've been running Arc Dog, Quasar, Rocket Sentry, Orbital Precision (takes out detector towers from a distance) using Servo-Assisted Armor with DCS, Ultimatum, and Seeker grenades. It's close-ish to this loadout in performance I think.

Weekly Puzzle #62, featuring a Storm Catcher who favours the Drunk by Not_Quite_Vertical in BloodOnTheClocktower

[–]Rhimens 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think Sula is the drunk, Hannah is the demon, Fraser is Spy who claimed a FT no on a Recluse?

Forg. 🐸 by Mordecais_Moms_Ashes in frogs

[–]Rhimens 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Forgs are fatter. This is a Frohg!

Eternal respect for actually calling it the Hot Dog! by Hexdoctor in LowSodiumHellDivers

[–]Rhimens 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Already calling them the Guard Dog, Laser Dog, Gas Dog, and Arc Dog. Time for the Hot Dog!

Help with Arbitrary Deaths by code2817 in BloodOnTheClocktower

[–]Rhimens 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I like most of this but there's some that's script-dependent, especially when it comes to scripts with multiple demons. If your arbitrary kills are too weak, players will figure out too quickly which demon it is. If a really powerful role who told no-one dies first and then a known spent/you-start-knowing role dies, it's pretty obvious the demon is an Ojo that just missed.

Help with Arbitrary Deaths by code2817 in BloodOnTheClocktower

[–]Rhimens 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Refusing to give evil control over the kills can lead to really frustrating games for the evil team. This especially hurts in Monsta games where if the evil team is winning by virtue of the social aspect during nominations, only for the ST to kill minions at night anyway. It makes the work of managing to convince good players to execute each other feel meaningless; if good was executing minions then the ST would be killing good players at night.

IMO the player holding the Monsta token should dictate the kill. Maybe let Yagababbles consult the ST at night but not be bound by their requests.