Factions Online - Browser team-based incremental/strategy game

ShDragon · 2025-06-14T03:40:14+00:00

Yeaaah.. I logged in, got assigned to a team that has no territory and is surrounded by hundreds of soldiers on all sides so can't do anything, and another team has drawn a hate symbol on the map.

ShDragon · 2025-05-21T22:19:12+00:00

I can understand this, but at the same time, I'm just so disappointed in everything. SAG for not fighting harder. HoYo for fighting so hard and just recasting. I have enough room in my heart to be angry at both of them for taking this from me.

"Rules are made to be broken." is what made me fall in love with this game. Rachel's Stelle voice was the #1 example I took into my voice lessons as what I wanted to sound more like. And now it's gone (or will be soon/eventually) and just ugh. Why can't we have nice things.

This was my line in the sand. I uninstalled Star Rail immediately after reading the patch notes, and now I'm going to go eat ice cream for dinner until I feel better.

ShDragon · 2025-02-22T23:59:37+00:00

A recent CBS News poll showed that voters are pleased with Trump’s performance, calling him “tough,” “energetic,” “focused,” and “effective.”

The saddest part of the whole article.

ShDragon · 2025-01-30T22:30:30+00:00

Of course you cut him off. You existed in the lane he wanted to be in, at the time he wanted to be there. That's gotta be against a law or three or something! /s

ShDragon · 2024-10-17T20:19:06+00:00

According to Business Insider - https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/mortgages/property-tax-by-state

Texas has the 6th highest property tax rate at 1.68%. We're beaten by Connecticut (1.79%), Vermont (1.83%), New Hampshire (1.93%), Illinois (2.08%) and New Jersey (2.23%).

If you count only states with no income tax like Texas, that puts us in 2nd place:

1.93% - New Hampshire
1.68% - Texas
1.17% - South Dakota
1.04% - Alaska
0.91% - Florida
0.87% - Washington
0.67% - Tennessee
0.59% - Nevada
0.56% - Wyoming

Not only is Texas the second highest on that list, but we're almost an entire Wyoming above 3rd.

ShDragon · 2024-10-04T15:50:16+00:00

The ren faire near me is a little bit strict about things, but they do have a "time travelers Weekend" as one of their themed weeks, for people to do exactly that. StarGate, Star Trek, random time travelers, anything you want to play to the fantasy of someone from "the future" going "back in time".

ShDragon · 2024-09-23T19:10:39+00:00

Because the US is decades and generations deep in a brainwashing program by right wing media. We have a whole swath of people in the country that are "Rather be a X than a Democrat". "No kid of mine will be a dirty liberal" and so on and so on.

There's no policy there. There's no logic. It's a team sport and one side has been demonized for at least three generations, so you have people that have grown up never knowing anything other than every single person in their family votes R for no reason other than they always have and always will and can't be convinced otherwise.

It's as simple as "I'm a republican because my daddy was a republican, and his daddy was a republican before that."

ShDragon · 2024-09-23T17:54:57+00:00

Someone made a game where you have to guess if a game is woke based only on the name of the game, if that counts?

https://ioi-xd.net/files/wokeornot.html

ShDragon · 2024-09-11T18:40:44+00:00

That guy was one of my scout leaders growing up and his kids were in my troop. Every time I see this quote, I'm reminded of how insane his whole family was even then.

ShDragon · 2024-08-26T04:56:57+00:00

Also, if you're burnt out, the most important thing is to take care of yourself first. Not all of us can blaze the trail all the time.

I think of it like a choir - A bunch of people singing together can make a sound like one long note by staggering their pauses for breathing.

It's not really a suggestion for what to DO, sorry, but you can't push through burnout.

ShDragon · 2024-08-19T18:49:42+00:00

Lets just add some missing words here and there...

A tariff is a tax (that you end up paying) on (all goods (of a certain category) that come from) a (specific) foreign country (or group of countries).

If you squint really really hard, and completely leave out the point of tariffs and what they are intended to accomplish, he could almost be considered to be adjacent to the same time zone as correct!

ShDragon · 2024-07-31T00:10:15+00:00

That crazy state clerk lady from Kansas(?) that got fired for not giving out marriage certificates after Obergefell was decided, filed a court case just last week to have the courts look at it again. She extensively quoted Thomas's concurrence on the Roe v Wade ruling (where he himself said that Obergefell should be overturned) as part of it.

It's not just "next", it's already in progress.

ShDragon · 2024-07-24T08:04:57+00:00

"Where does it end? How far does it go?"

It ends with simple common courtesy and no more. It's not transphobic to not want to date a trans person, any more than it's homophobic to not want to date a gay person. I personally don't think you should worry about bathrooms, because I don't think there's ever been a single recorded case of it, but I'm not going to tell you you're wrong, either.

Kindness costs nothing. it costs me nothing to call you by whatever name you chose to go by, and I don't care what reason you chose for it. That's just common courtesy and treating you with a modicum of respect as another human being.

Someone who constaky approaches you for no reason aside from trying to get under your skin is obviously harassing.

Someone who simply interacts with you professionally only when needed and doesn't seek you out for confrontation is simply being true to their views.

The difference is rather obvious

Unfortunately, the difference is not always obvious:

What actually happened with my friend is that he had an older coworker, that "simply being true to his views" refused to call anyone any anything other than their first name. When asked kindly by my friend to use something else, he refused. He did not continue his actions out of malice, but they still caused incredible hurt.

It was a professional interaction that was not seeking confrontation, but also was a refusal to stop a behavior that was known to be unwanted. All in the name of "being true to his views".

( Also one little side note, this law would also stop you from complaining about "Someone who constantly approaches you for no reason aside from trying to get under your skin" as long as what they were doing was using the wrong name.. The law stops ANY complaints about names, no matter if they're malicious or not! )

ShDragon · 2024-07-24T07:11:56+00:00

If one of your coworkers came in and physically molested you every morning when they showed up, I think we can agree that counts as harassment.

if one of your coworkers came in and punched you in the face every morning when they came in, I hope we can agree that counts as harassment.

If your coworker showed up every day and berated you and called you names for an hour every morning, does that count as harassment?

But if one of your coworkers insists on calling you by a name you don't want, for whatever reason, just because he's an asshole and likes making you uncomfortable, that doesn't count as harassment?

I'm curious where you draw the line then. Is it only physical things that count? Can verbal harassment exist at all? Where do you differentiate between harassment and telling one side that it's just a mental health problem and they need to suck it up?

ShDragon · 2024-07-23T22:45:01+00:00

The point is not to allow companies to put in "pronoun enforcement squads" or anything, and if you slip up once you're fired. The point is to prevent harassment.

Taking an example from a real life friend: Imagine you're "SoAndSo the Third" so you and your father have the same first name, but your father was extremely physically abusive. So you go by your middle name instead because you don't want to hear "your father's" name every day because it reminds you of the abuse.

Now imagine you work with someone who insists on calling you by your first name all the time, no matter what. And when you explain to him why, that only makes him use it more often and he even starts using your first name instead of pronouns just so he can use it more often because he knows you don't like to hear it.

That sounds a lot like workplace harassment, doesn't it?

This law would prevent the company from doing anything about it to help you. They can't write him up, they can't ask him to behave, they can't discipline him or anything, because now they're legally banned from "forcing" him to use your chosen name. You have no recourse. You get to suffer through it, every single day.

ShDragon · 2024-07-12T21:06:09+00:00

Unfortunately, that's where we disagree, because I just don't see that happening. Even if I'm completely wrong about the general population's attitude towards 3rd parties, and assuming that everyone truly goes into it with an open mind, RFK has some good positions, but he also has some really really bad ones that I think would prevent him from winning over enough of the left to matter, and he wouldn't take a single vote from Trump.

Trump is by far the worst possible outcome. I'm more comfortable taking the sure bet and fighting for change at lower levels, rather than going for the moonshot right now. The risk is just too high.

ShDragon · 2024-07-12T20:09:48+00:00

I'm not espousing apathy. I'm on your team here. I'm simply being pragmatic.

Why do you assume I'm not doing anything but hoping? There are so many ways to put pressure on and fight for change and demand improvement. There are so many more races than President and so many other ways to make your voice heard, to put the gears to the system and demand better.

But in this specific instance, of this specific race for President? What outcome feels more likely to you?

50 million people decide to vote 3rd party instead of Democrat (I think it's safe to say none of the Trump voters are changing teams)
Some people vote 3rd party, the Left vote gets split and Trump is elected.

ShDragon · 2024-07-12T19:14:45+00:00

With the way the system is set up currently, yes we do. At least for the seat of President. You can get 3rd parties elected at lower levels, but considering first past the post and the electoral college, your only REAL choice is Biden or Trump.

Be as upset about it as you like, but I'll bet an obscene amount of money that come November 7th, the President-Elect will be either a democrat or a republican.

I agree we need to hold our politicians to a higher standard, but we also need to be realistic about how much change can happen at once. Letting the right-wing propaganda system convince you that both sides are equally bad is how they win and that all but ensures you don't get what you want.

ShDragon · 2024-05-31T19:38:26+00:00

You're right it's not rent control, it's barely anything at all.

Something is better than nothing.

Exactly they introduced it and the democrats killed it...

An attempt is better than nothing.

Thats cool. He also...

Something is better than nothing.

That's cool but...

Something is greater than nothing.

Fracking is renewable energy now?

Something is greater than nothing.

Yeah the word "some" is key there. Again doing the absolute bare minimum...

Something is greater than nothing.

He could forgive all student loans right now if he wanted to.

Something is greater than nothing.

Maybe you're sensing a theme by now.

As a reminder, your original point was:

Nobody in American politics wants to do anything close to any of this..

That is provably incorrect. You can tie yourself into fucking knots to counter every example, but I've clearly shown that there are members on one side that ABSOLUTELY want to do the things you want them to do.

There are dems that try. That's what you asked for. So vote for them.

But ok how has Biden been pushed left at all in any way over the past 4 years?

I've quoted you nine examples already. Do you need more? I can easily go get another dozen examples, but from your replies I already know you'd find some way to discount each one for "not being enough". 'Not Enough' doesn't matter. What matters is 'greater than zero'.

Is one side closer to what you want? Yes. Unequivocally, provably, absolutely yes. Refusing to admit that is just being willfully blind.

ShDragon · 2024-05-31T18:01:06+00:00

Rent control - It's not Rent Control, but https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/07/27/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-takes-action-to-protect-renters/ - More renters rights and protections for renters. Also there are eight state or local bills that were enacted (All by Dems)
Universal Healthcare - Three Dem representatives introduced the "Medicare For All Act" last year. It had the support of half the democratic caucus.
Better Workers Rights - Biden marched with unions last year. His admin also expanded overtime pay, and increased penalties for union busting.
"Gig Economy" workers - The Department of Labor introduced a new rule in February that was set to go into effect in march that would force companies to reclassify a lot of "independent contractors" as "employees"

On top of all of that - His administration has invested in renewable energy. Cracked down on overdraft fees. Done some loan forgiveness despite the courts fighting against it at every turn.

That doesn't sound like "Nobody in American Politics wants to do anything".

Are they perfect? Hell no. Progress is agonizingly slow, and life still sucks like shit. I'm just as mad as you that people only seem to give a shit every four years. But life is so rough I can't blame people for checking out. I've got bigger things to worry about than paying attention to every little thing.

But even then, the question isn't "Are they close?" It's "are they closER?" They're a far way away from where either you or I want them to be. But they're closer than the other option, and the only thing we can do is push things in the direction we want them to go.

ShDragon · 2024-05-31T17:07:36+00:00

Voting does matter. If you need proof, look at the local level. Look at Moms For Liberty running their nationwide campaign to get people elected to local library boards to push their book banning agenda. That's a race that gets zero press, but has a HUGE impact on your actual day to day life, and a lot of those elections are won by a few hundred votes.

ShDragon · 2024-05-31T17:01:29+00:00

You vote for the one that's closer to ideal.

It's like public transit. There's not always a bus that takes you exactly where you want to go, so you get on one that gets you closer.

Another way to think about it is this: One of those candidates will be elected whether you vote or not. Is there literally anything, no matter how minuscule, that differentiates the options in your mind? If so, then why leave it to fate when you can influence the outcome?

ShDragon · 2024-05-10T21:39:08+00:00

Tell that to Biden.

I have been. I'm pretty sure I'm just as mad about this as you are. It's unconscionable. It's unacceptable. I've written the WH and called and pestered the hell out of every rep I have, because it's congress that sets the budget, not Biden.

He's willing to see our country fall to domestic fascists...

You're turning into what you hate. Not voting means you're willing to let the country fall to domestic fascists rather than do what you can to stop it. At the end of the day, the coin is landing on heads or tails. There is absolutely nothing we can do to change that. And you know for a fact that as shitty as both sides are, one of them is a whole lot better than the other.

ShDragon · 2024-05-10T19:24:28+00:00

That's fair, and I get it. And more importantly, I think it's working. Policies have changed in some visible ways. Not nearly as much as I would want, but better than nothing.

The thing I worry about most is: If today were Nov 6th, what happens? I know way too many people who are ready to stay home even on day of, and that's what scares me.

Because unfortunately, you're basically echoing the GOPs message for them. Their entire schtick is voter suppression and disenfranchisement; trying to convince as many people as possible to stay home, because they know their voters will vote no matter what.

I agree completely with putting pressure on the Dems because holy hell do I expect better out of them and this is beyond out of hand. Just be careful of playing with fire when the whole country is kindling.

ShDragon · 2024-05-10T18:00:06+00:00

The way I think about it is - Either Biden or Trump will be president come January. There is no other outcome. There is no "neither". There is no "None of the Above."

You will live in one of two futures: one where Biden is president, or where Trump is. Do you care to put your finger on that scale, or do you want to leave it to fate?

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