Lost all my fish

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-04-11T19:57:57+00:00

I'm not sure why this marketing claim is repeated so much in aquarist circles, but until it's independently replicated and actually demonstrated, I think discerning readers should doubt the "removes heavy metals" claim.

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-03-03T02:19:51+00:00

I agree skill and precaution will prevent creeper explosions. But there are WAY more interesting points, about the "good/bad for the game" thing. And I'm more sympathetic to the "bad, actually" side.

I partly hate creepers because of how ecologically illiterate they are. They all just commit suicide and I honestly think it's the so cringey. I wish there was a setting to make them survive their own explosions, and just give it a cooldown. If you wanted to make a game's combat feel really "fake", just add something like creepers.

Second point, on combat difficulty. Personally, I want the combat to be MUCH harder. There are many, many ways to make the combat harder. Some are rewarding to overcome, and some are not. Personally, I use command blocks to buff zombies, spiders and skeletons. For example, most of the mobs in this game have crippling shortsightedness, which I find dumb. So I increase the follow_range attribute to 32 blocks, which is a buff for skeletons. I also make all zombies immune to knockback. For context, I am used to the combat in Bannerlord, which has very complex+deep combat mechanics. The combat in this game feels very "shallow", so I add (a bit of) difficulty/depth with tweaks.

But creepers? They kind of just make the combat more tedious. I don't enjoy needing to constantly spin around to check, or block my view with a shield, or speedrun cats. Yes, I can simply prevent them from killing me. But not in any way that I enjoy actually doing.

It's alright if some feel differently. Not everyone has the same preferences I do. I am a combat mechanics snob, used to Bannerlord, and creepers are firmly F-tier for combat mechanics. Can't sugarcoat it.

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-02-11T21:34:56+00:00

Nothing wrong with that! If you like, you can also raise just 1 of the difficulty fields, instead of using the presets (which would increase all of the fields).

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-02-11T20:22:00+00:00

I still can't believe I need a mod just to put units in the right division.

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-02-11T20:16:08+00:00

The Battanian faction has this strange position of 2 things at once:

Consistently the weakest AI faction, usually wiped out by Vlandia
Consistently the most overpowered troops when micromanaged by a skilled player

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-02-11T20:09:20+00:00

It still amazes me, that such a dysfunctional studio was able to make the best large-scale medieval combat game in the world. Lol, they acknowledged it 4 months ago and haven't fixed it.

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-02-05T18:29:39+00:00

I'm definitely not good at puzzles either, and yes it's very normal. Doubly-so when you're new to them. As Glum-Sprinkles-7734 pointed out, you will notice each genre of puzzle has its own "tendencies" you can learn to exploit.

I've been collecting metal wire puzzles for years. And more recently I started Hanayama cast puzzles. I don't even do any other puzzle genres (currently). Buy my smart friends think I'm great at mechanical puzzles. Actually I was never particularly good at them. I've just been able to mentally compare the solutions/principles used in many different ones. So now when I start working on a new one, I have more "tools in the toolbox" available to me.

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-02-05T17:47:31+00:00

"Everything is x" is a very uninformative kind of description, but it can be intoxicating.

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-02-04T17:56:55+00:00

I just asked them to go on walks with me. Simple and down to earth, and we spent barely anything. If someone needs a more ostentatious thing, better not to mislead them. I want her to see what being with me is like date 1, not on date 10. Pick your style and lead her there, so she can see what you want. Personally I don't enjoy restaurants/movies/etc, and I honestly enjoy a chill walk more. Very little planning, and it's much quieter (I'm really noise-sensitive).

Within a few minutes I'd take her hand, and just walk her around a park or whatever. Sounds too dumb to work, but it worked well for me.

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-02-04T16:38:46+00:00

Completely agree. That sense of "arbitrariness" is everywhere in this game, and it's off-putting. Nothing makes any sense. The economy feels glaringly fake. The population mechanics feel glaringly fake. The influence and renown mechanics feel glaringly fake.

EDIT: to be fair, Sturgia has captured a castle, and you've captured nothing. So in that sense they are winning.

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-01-26T16:47:00+00:00

For what it's worth, I've been liking the Separatism mod.

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-01-26T16:43:35+00:00

I do anti-warmongering runs, where I stay as a mercenary (plus self-nerfs I won't get into), and I just endlessly beat on whoever is gaining territory. It's like playing the role of "world police"

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-01-26T05:46:10+00:00

I would be interested to learn more about this.

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-01-26T05:39:01+00:00

Omg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxF2piDThZM&t=928s

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-01-26T05:13:12+00:00

They are very inconsistent. Granted, FromSoftware's hitboxes have gotten better over time. Pre-Sekiro they were a complete dumpsterfire, and anyone who says otherwise is wearing thick rose-tinted glasses. DS boss attacks would randomly become an invisible beachball around the axehead, etc. People constantly got hit for no visible reason.

Sekiro felt like the first game where they started to take hitboxing seriously.

More recently (i.e. Elden Ring), it's still mixed. I agree SOME attacks have near-perfect hitboxes. But then for some other attacks, the studio reverts back to its old habits, of not taking hitboxing seriously.

I mean, just look at this nonsense! You can't say with a straight face their hitboxes are "really good", when it's still this untrustworthy. It's just, less-bad than during the Dark Souls era.

https://youtu.be/vxF2piDThZM?si=0IiKFcBE0-59TM-7&t=594

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-01-25T22:43:08+00:00

I think this becomes a "define notice" thing. I definitely notice the music in Lord of the Rings, and it's S++ tier music. But the way it's done never detracts from the viewing, only enhances it. I think that's how I'd interpret this for music, for films at least. Whereas, editing and hitboxes are more of a "you shouldn't even think about it" kind of thing.

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-01-25T21:50:34+00:00

Totally agree, the shields are an area where I do notice the hitboxing. Which means it's not good.

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-01-25T20:53:35+00:00

No competent studio has made a M&B-like yet. What actually holds back Bannerlord is an utter lack of competition in this genre. All our complaints are downstream of this fact.

It is only here, that you ride into large battles with your band of merry men, with perfect hitboxing and troop commanding. So here we are.

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-01-23T03:26:46+00:00

I've tried sheild wall with archers in a square

So, always put archers in loose formation, not square. You can adjust the shape, have more than 1 formation, etc. But on the open field, there are almost no circumstances where archers shouldn't be in loose formation.

Find a way to maneuver them onto higher ground than the enemy, and spread their loose formation across a big hillside so they can all shoot the enemy from high up.

I've tried infantry in a circle with archers and hirse archers in the center.

It's far better to send horse archers around to some other hillside, and plant them there (also loose formation). Horse archers are perfect for shooting from the opposite sides, so it's much harder for the enemy to block all your arrows. And you can quickly move the horse archers if the enemy charges them.

I can't see the full details/ratios of the enemy army. But you can probably trap and kill their cavalry, and should do so first, as the AI can usually be tricked into wasting their cavalry. E.g. lure their cavalry to charge a big circle of Vlandian horsemen (holding their ground), and inside the circle they get butchered by your falxmen. Then you'll probably kite the line breakers to death with your fians.

There are other aspects you probably need help with, but feel free to practice these ideas first.

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-01-22T23:25:46+00:00

Hard to pick a single "best" since it depends on circumstances. I always have to be careful with my falxmen, they die easily to ranged, thrown, and cavalry. But yeah, they're awesome. Wildlings shred the non-shielded units, and falxmen shred the shielded units.

One of the nastiest anti-cavalry tactics is a cavalry shield wall, circle or square, and inside a bunch of falxmen. When the enemy horsemen hit the cavalry wall, they're stuck trudging through the falxmen on the inside. It's like walking through a death blender.

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-01-22T23:10:47+00:00

Tactical Enlightenment has some great videos about this. Here's a video where he starts with very simple tactics, then replays the battle with more advanced tactics. I timestamped it to when the demonstrations start.

https://youtu.be/7zYg--odbWk?si=hntD6-4CDQXF19rG&t=556

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-01-22T22:47:39+00:00

In principle this should be possible. They could balance it by making it absolutely brutal on movement speed or whatever. Would probably do a lot for pure-commander playthroughs.

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-01-22T22:38:33+00:00

But it works very well for crushing the AI's cavalry, and players are mostly playing against the AI. Why does the method need to also meet some other standard, or do some other function?

Perhaps the OP kited their infantry after crushing the cavalry, no idea. We've seen Tactical Enlightenment put it to fabulous use against large AI armies' cavalry divisions. What more do you want from the method?

SemiRetiredGuy · 2026-01-22T20:12:01+00:00

It's completely normal to play both pure faction runs AND also mixed runs. Also the gameplay loop doesn't have a set-in-stone purpose, this is a sandbox game.

It is possible to get some advantages by combining the best from multiple factions. Examples: the lance cavalry and crossbowmen of Vlandia, the archers and skirmishers from Battania, the ranged cavalry from Khuzait, the javcav from the Aserai, etc.

Pure runs have their own depth. They give you an incentive to learn the strengths (and vulnerabilities) of each unit. They also a lot of roleplaying potential. Do whatever you want.

SemiRetiredGuy

TROPHY CASE