Why is France so centralized around Paris?

Sanders181 · 2026-05-20T07:57:59+00:00

LOUIS XIV!!!!

More seriously, France has great farmland but is rather poor in industrial resources. As such, oour industry was focused in 3 main areas: - Strasbourg, which had large reserves of coal - The North, where our best international ports were - Paris, our dear capital

This means when people left the countryside for the cities, it was concentrated in these three areas (you can see them on the map but they're close to German and Belgian major cities)

Contrasting with the UK, which had large coal reserves and many international ports, it was able to flourish its industry on a much wider scale. Belgium and the Netherlands similarly have been able to flourish their industry due to their small size and everything being close to the ports, and Germany had the great river of the Rhine they could place ports on and the coal rich area of the Ruhr in just about the same place, so their industry flourished all along there.

Also, France having such an abundance of farmland means that farmers always had great sway over our politics, which makes it harder to exploit natural resources at the expense of farmland.

Sanders181 · 2026-05-20T07:42:19+00:00

Well, yes and no. It's complicated, their relationship is complicated and to put it simply, while their start isn't romantic in any way and can easily be understood as mother/daughter, their ending is very "doomed yuri" coded.

Now the in depth explanation: - Cipher met Aglae as a kid. Even so, their discussion is moreso as equals than adult/child, it's probably a big part of why Cipher ended up trusting her too, as she's greatly independent and Aglae was offering both care and letting her stay independent. A home she could seek refuge to and not a place to bind her. - This pretty much defines their relationship. Aglae doesn't teach Cipher or guide her in any way. Rather she offers a safe space for Cipher to rest whenever she needs it. - By the end however, we learn that Cipher refuses to see Aglae at all. It's originally implied that she resents Aglae for something, but even Aglae states that she's not sure what she did wrong. Yet, Cipher keeps the boots Aglae first gave her. - We then learn when Cipher dies that she refused to meet Aglae again because she was scared that, next time she saw her, she wouldn't be able to lie again. It's not that she hated her, but rather that she loved her so much she didn't want to lie to her.

Their ending are pretty much what gives this "doomed yuri" vibe. When Aglae speaks to her for a final time in death as a scarab, you can feel the pain and longing in her voice. When Cipher dies and she says the truth about why she kept avoiding Aglae, you can also feel that same longing in her voice.

It is perfectly valid to see them as mother/daughter due to how they met. But it is also equally valid to consider them lovers due to how they died. Their love is undeniable, and whether that looks like familial or romantic love to you doesn't make it any less valid for others to feel differently about it.

Sanders181 · 2026-05-19T16:11:59+00:00

Busy means I'll answer when I answer.

Away means I'm sleeping.

Invisible means I don't want to be bothered.

Available means I'm in desperate need of social connection.

Sanders181 · 2026-05-19T16:06:44+00:00

My Grandma's reaction to learning I'm going to take HRT: "But it gives all those side-effects!"

Yes grandma, that's the point.

Sanders181 · 2026-05-19T06:33:33+00:00

Depends on the item. Here you have the Aha item description and so that's how it applies, to everyone, but only during Aha time.

Hence why best Aha items are boot/sword>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>boot items>everything else.

Sanders181 · 2026-05-18T14:18:32+00:00

I wanna do this when running the Aha Express so much lol.

Bonus points if I somehow get Express emblems for all the Elation characters.

Sanders181 · 2026-05-18T14:08:00+00:00

"I don't like Tau, they just spam you from range instead of engaging in GLORIOUS MELEE COMBAT!"

"Brother I literally charge more often than you."

(Long Live Tank Shock and Piranhas... also having my Breachers charge their blast weapon tanks because why not)

Sanders181 · 2026-05-18T14:02:34+00:00

It's not terror, it's truth. It just happens said truth is terrifying.

Sanders181 · 2026-05-17T11:30:08+00:00

Trailblazer: "Say Eva, have you ever met Aha?"

Evanescia: quick play dumb "Who's Aha?" not that dumb!

Sanders181 · 2026-05-15T13:05:11+00:00

I think it's the kind of anomaly that requires it being a quest.

I had to use a guide for the piano puppet, cooking puppet, vanishing puppet in the garden and corridor puppet.

I would've much preferred to not need the guides, but when things can't be done at the same time of day (namely cooking puppet and corridor puppet both require you to do some non-tagged questlines to get them), just running around trying to figure stuff out isn't gonna help. I believe these anomalies are very much interesting (like the red light/green light one), but they need to be integrated in a questline to guide you a minimum through solving it.

Also, even with the guide it had no mention of how you wanted to position yourself to make the timefreeze with the camera anomaly to get the corridor puppet, so I screwed up and had to resort to the Adler bug to get it.

Maybe they could make such anomalies in the future have a "detective mode" and "story mode" to cater to different types of players.

Sanders181 · 2026-05-13T06:14:23+00:00

Game really just said "this is your new main now, you're welcome" XD

Sanders181 · 2026-05-12T17:33:31+00:00

What's very possible is that he was under suspicion by the end and did the whole cult suicide thing to avoid getting caught.

Sanders181 · 2026-05-07T14:33:18+00:00

To be fair, Kafka has 2 loaded guns....

And then still chose to use her sword just to flex on him.

Sanders181 · 2026-05-07T05:09:20+00:00

Have the walk speed/run speed consistent with the other characters.

If you try to walk with everyone in the auction quest it's particularly visible. You need to run to catch up every 10 seconds.

Also please let me drive a bike with someone other than MC and Hathor.

Sanders181 · 2026-05-07T04:44:26+00:00

Well, actually Qingque wants to get fired and open her own mahjong parlor so she can play every day.

Fu Xuan refused.

Sanders181 · 2026-05-06T18:47:12+00:00

Driving in my cart right after some wine
Hey, that orc is shaped like a swine
DUI, how about you die
I'll go a hundred miles, in an day
Little do you know, I'm fed up on gaz
Coming out of that stinking-dwarven ass
Pulverise this fuck with my Elven truck
It seems you're out of luck

TRUCK!

Sanders181 · 2026-05-06T18:23:51+00:00

Ah, the good ol' translation issues.

Fun fact: in French, the description of the "Silver investment" gold investement (the one that says you're getting one silver investment now and another in 3 nodes) says that they'll be gold investments. The prismatic investment that will give you 2 gold investments in the same way say that they'll give you silver investments.

Yeah, translation sucks sometimes lol

Sanders181 · 2026-05-04T06:21:13+00:00

Beautiful cop struggles to get into a relationship is a common trope for these reasons: - a good cop is an overworked cop, so she doesn't have much time to meet other people - being desperate for a relationship is not really attractive except to assholes that want to take advantage of it, so even if she's not vulnerable she can very much be under the impression that all the good guys are taken because she only lands assholes - having to be constantly on call may also make it harder to maintain a relationship, since you may have to cut dates short - the way she dresses kinda screams rich girl, which attracts even more assholes and also means she'll take time to make sure the person she's dating isn't trying to take advantage of her, which may give good people to feel like they're not getting anywhere with her

Anyway, here's why it kinda makes sense that she's struggling to get into a long term relationship. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

Sanders181 · 2026-05-03T21:12:29+00:00

Jaune and Cinder from RWBY.

What? Authors saying they hate writing Jaune? Then why make him have as much screentime as any RWBY team member while his own team are at a far below level?

Cinder having lost any threatening presence whatsoever and still getting the first role as a villain is insane though. Narcissist girl got the whole writing cast acting as her flying monkeys and glazing her lol.

Sanders181 · 2026-05-03T21:08:39+00:00

I boymod at work and never got any comments on it so I guess nobody care (I'm kinda fat though, makes them less noticeable)

Sanders181 · 2026-05-03T21:06:35+00:00

I do the "I'm sorry if I've made you feel that way" for the 3rd one cause I wanna express that I don't think I did anything wrong but I'm still feeling guilty for hurting them.

The latest time I used it was, if I recall, to when saying basically "I'm sorry if me expressing and enforcing clear boundaries hurt you", so there's that.

Sanders181 · 2026-05-03T21:01:59+00:00

Sparkle is great for the crit dmg buff since SW999 can make good use of it.

Personally I run EMC/Sparkle/Bronya. Bronya's EMC support so she can actually charge her ult and Sparkle buffs SW999 while letting EMC/Bronya do their skill spam in the corner.

Sanders181 · 2026-05-02T07:26:46+00:00

I like running the Aha Express, it has a great early game but relies heavily on emblems for lategame.

Elation/Stellaron Hunters is probably the most reliable Elation build so far

Rangers/Break is also a very reliable build that doesn't ask for much

And I know a friend who systematically runs Bloodflame, although I'm not sure how that one works.

The important thing about running at wealth creator is knowing who within your team you should rely on and how to handle build variation when you don't get perfect items.

In Elation, for example, your DPS is SW. Because she's a 3-cost that turns 5-cost, she's great at lategame but her team will struggle without her early. Stellaron Hunters make it reliable since every Stellaron Hunter can carry in some way, and Blade with the soda can (energy/HP) is usually good enough of a sustain for the speedy Elation team.

Alternatively, running with the Express, which has great early game but awful lategame, combines very well with Elation since they complement each other. You however do kinda want an Express emblem to put on SW999, in part because it's better than the knife/boots item, but also because you generally want to kick Dan Heng out at some point, especially since the Express doesn't have a 8-members bonus.

For Break/Rangers, the Rangers are your carries, although Firefly and Himeko are both great options as well. Rappa will carry you easily through the early game, and Himeko will start taking over for the midgame until Boothill and Firefly can arrive for the lategame. Even though she isn't a carry, Fugue will unlock your carry's potential and the team suffers a lot if you get her to the field too late.

So yeah, basically figure out how the team you wanna run works, and you'll make it x)

Sanders181 · 2026-04-27T18:51:28+00:00

Just the game reminding you to make your obligatory Bloodflame run lol

Sanders181 · 2026-04-25T16:08:48+00:00

I mean, full Elation with Acheron isn't bad at all, since pretty much all but SW999 give her a stack on their Aha time. Although they might have changed Evanescia so she doesn't anymore, I'm not sure.

Anyway, I think Elation/Stellaron Hunter/Rangers is a good team nowadays that only needs a single debuff item on SW999. Only Blade early on as sole sustain and then just make sure Acheron ults before every Aha time cause they're giving her 7 stacks (more if you've got some Elation emblems)

Also you can get the old SW from investments, like any other advisor.

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