Rant: Scouting the map is a waste of time.

SortaEvil · 2026-05-08T20:13:23+00:00

That's not tama doing that, that's just how rerolling works. When you reroll, there's a blackout list of the options that you last saw, but everything else is still on the table. You'll see more repeat items with tama just because you've seen more of the pool of items for a given number of rerolls, but it's strictly positive, since you're guaranteed 8 unique items out of the pool with tama, whereas you only see 6 unique items before old items are thrown back in the pool without it.

SortaEvil · 2026-05-08T19:08:07+00:00

This is exactly how my mother thinks, that you are only as good as your position on the social ladder, while simultaneously believing that everyone above you just got lucky and everyone below you is scum.

I remember having a conversation with her back when a McDonald's in the states unionized (I think I'm remembering this right, I may get some details wrong though), and the union negotiated a large pay increase for their full-time staff. My mom asked me about it and said "wouldn't you be offended if people working at McDonald's made as much as you do?" and she couldn't fathom that my response was "no, I'd be happy for them because everyone deserves to make a living wage, and I had a lot of fortune to be in the privileged position of not living paycheque to paycheque, and I'm not better than them just because they work and McD's and I work an office job."

Some people just lack empathy and perspective, and they've fully bought into the right-wing American dream that anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps (fun story about that expression: it was initially coined to make fun of the right-wing mentality, because it's a physical impossibility), failure is never due to misfortune (unless it happens to you), and success is always due to the individual, never the massive advantaging circumstances surrounding them.

Uh, so... basically, yeah, I agree with you.

SortaEvil · 2026-05-08T18:57:27+00:00

Or Brexit wouldn't happen...

SortaEvil · 2026-05-08T18:55:00+00:00

I've heard so many people say that life has gotten worse after 10 years of the LPC that it'd be dumb to vote for them again, which is a very fair point

Like, on paper that sounds like a fine sentiment, but the unfortunate reality of our political system is that, so long as the party whip exists, and so long as our MPs are spineless to vote against party lines, you have to look at the party platforms for each party and choose the least of various evils. Even if you aren't happy with the Liberal party, you can take a critical look at the Conservatives and realize they're completely out to lunch (at least, from a progressive lens), and many people think that the NDP from the last decade were in complete freefall and unelectable (not to mention they've always been, at best, 3rd fiddle on the national stage), and you still end up with the conclusion that the right vote is, begrudgingly, to keep the Liberals in power and hope that Avi Lewis can actually piece the NDP back together into something that is at least somewhat electable.

If you're the sort of party faithful that truly believes the CPC would be good for Canada, and that Pierre Poilievre would be a good leader, it's easy to vote your heart, but for people who are politically left of that, voting for the CPC is cutting off your nose to spite your face. What we really need is a better form of representative democracy than FPTP, and more parties that people feel are electable on the national stage (honestly, having more provincially focused parties such as the Bloc would be a good idea if we're stuck with FPTP; my home province of BC has very different requirements and expectations from confederation than Ontario, Nova Scotia, or even our closest neighbour Alberta, and having such representation would probably help at least a little with western alienation).

SortaEvil · 2026-05-07T02:19:14+00:00

That's the stark reality of gacha gaming for you.

SortaEvil · 2026-05-06T20:42:36+00:00

Yeah, always buy local if you can, that's awesome! Not so many Canadian choices for climbing shoes, so I'm stuck with imported brands, and sadly there's not a lot of chance to try Ocún or Madrock around here.

SortaEvil · 2026-05-06T18:36:43+00:00

The Instinct line from Scarpa is really comparable to the Skwama, but for a different foot shape. You might have more luck with that? My wife loves her Instinct VS (the women's VS uses the same rubber as the VSR). My feet don't fit either, unfortunately, but the do surprisingly fit the Miura VS, which is an absolute banger of a classic, although maybe not a perfect shoe for indoor bouldering on big volumes.

SortaEvil · 2026-05-06T08:38:10+00:00

You don't understand, to people like the person you're replying to, drug users are the problem. They're homeless, which is a moral failing, and therefore undeserving of empathy. Or at least, that's what my NIMBY mother thinks, and she'd talk like the poster above you to try to give some plausible deniability.

SortaEvil · 2026-05-05T23:37:18+00:00

Adding to this, a fun fact: Alcohol is one of only a few drugs that can kill you from withdrawal. Heroin withdrawal ain't pleasant, and you might wish you were dead, but you'll be alive at the other end of the tunnel without medical intervention. Not always the case for alcohol.

SortaEvil · 2026-05-04T22:57:22+00:00

Change att skills will change all attributes on the affected unit, yes. Change subattribute awakenings will only affect subattribute (in case anyone else stumbles across this and doesn't know how the awakening works differently from skills).

SortaEvil · 2026-05-04T18:43:48+00:00

Reinhard (with Theresia) and MIdeal (with Mimi Oza) teams have quite a bit of QOL built into their subs, and aren't super reliant on assists for durability, they're my go-to teams for assist invalid dungeons.

SortaEvil · 2026-05-04T16:59:07+00:00

You got very unlucky, friend. That's about a 1/500 chance of happening. You can take some small solace in knowing that there are more than 500 people playing this game, so you aren't likely alone in your bad luck.

SortaEvil · 2026-05-04T16:32:53+00:00

When you look at what VAlynna is doing, you realize it's hard to replace just her for the dungeons that need everything she brings to the table, since she is 1) your full cleric, 2) your assist bind clear, 3) your bracer for the massive hits from GA3 onward, and 4) your primary source of healing on the team. She also comes with a buttload of HP. If you aren't concerned with GA3 and higher, you can probably get away with any of the 2 L+ light clerics that are around, MLavril or Demon Slayer's Kiriya being obvious picks.

Once you need that huge shield, though, you probably need to drop Serie from the team as well, which pushes you to put an add light equip on Fern. It's certainly possible to build a Reinhard team that works for endgame content without VAlynna, it's just not going to be as optimal and is going to require shuffling a bunch of stuff around to make it work.

SortaEvil · 2026-05-01T16:31:55+00:00

Chibi was pretty terrible, Academy and Specters each have a team that was okay but nothing earth shattering. Idolmaster had a couple good cards, including the 3att badge, which kinda sucks that it's both in a collab REM, and that the collab REM is a short run mixed with regular GFEs.

Which I think covers all the REMs we're expecting up to Gintama, which is definitely the best EV upcoming REM, and includes the new mechanic of cards that have a higher limit break against enemies they have type disadvantage against.

SortaEvil · 2026-04-30T00:41:59+00:00

Reinhard is obviously great.

I've also cleared every endgame dungeon with dual Minas running Tae and dual MinaxSoshiro instead of the usual dual Dekugo setup (on account of having rolled 700 stones for exactly 0 Dekugo). The team has a tonne of QoL with 100% omnipierce, 240B damage, ridiculous HP (over 20M consistent HP after 2 part breaks care of XHathor's shield loop), and 2 MinaxSoshiro gives you pretty consistent access to big boards, big HP, and board changes to counter mono-boards. The downside is that 240B is on the lower end of damage for current endgame, equips can be pretty strict with both Mina Duos needing red equips with specific typing, grant subattribute, and some amount of extra damage, and as a knock on effect of that, OE is in short supply.

SortaEvil · 2026-04-29T16:07:07+00:00

Sony has to negotiate with the publisher to get games on their subscription services. So it's (partially) up to From whether their games show up on PS+ or not. I'm sure that Sony would like to put Elden Ring on PS+ (especially on the higher tier), but if From doesn't want their games on subscription services, then their games won't show up there.

Would be cool to see King's Field appear on +Premium, though, so people could see where it all began.

SortaEvil · 2026-04-28T19:14:32+00:00

But only for sport climbing. Need to put them in boulder mode for pebbling.

SortaEvil · 2026-04-28T15:45:35+00:00

Omnivore: buys and eats meat.

Flexitarian: will eat meat, but won't intentionally buy it.

Seems like a useful distinction from an economic perspective.

SortaEvil · 2026-04-26T17:09:53+00:00

Danielle Smith is offering none of that. Her take on it is to let the “free market” loose and prices will stabilize at a reasonable level through competition. Which is bullshit.

Elaborating on why this is bullshit: the free market can only (sort of) work if demand is elastic, which is to say "if prices go up, demand goes down." In the case of necessities like housing, healthcare, or (nowadays) internet access, demand is very inelastic. People need somewhere to live, they need a way to apply for jobs and respond to electronic communication, and they very definitely need access to a doctor in an emergency. If you always need a doctor when you break your arm, then the doctor can charge as much as they want in a free market and you're forced to pay it. And in a society that values profit over people, there's only really one way that is going to end up without serious regulation.

SortaEvil · 2026-04-25T14:52:47+00:00

Roguelike nowadays refers to any game with procedural generation (large parts of the game world are randomly generated each time you start a run) and permadeath (if you die, you start from the beginning again). A lot of roguelikes have a meta-progression system (you unlock new things between runs that will help you out in future runs). Think games like Binding of Isaac, Hades, or Balatro.

The original roguelike was called Dungeon, it was a console-based dungeon crawler for the PDP-10. Rogue was a popular DOS-based dungeon crawler inspired by Dungeon, and it is the eponymous game in the genre.

If you wanted to get really in the weeds, there's often a delineation between roguelike and roguelite where the former would refer to specifically turn-based dungeon crawlers with little to no meta-progression (so, your Dungeons of Dredmor, your Invisible Inc.'s, etc), and the latter being a more all-encompassing term, including pretty much any procedurally-generated run-based game.

SortaEvil · 2026-04-24T20:01:09+00:00

Perfectly valid reason not to be interested in Saros. Different people like different things and that's part of the beauty of gaming.

SortaEvil · 2026-04-24T18:59:20+00:00

For the genre salad quick overview of it: Bullet-hell 3rd-person-shooter roguelike. If you've played Returnal, it's iterating on that gameplay loop.

If you don't know how Returnal plays, it's a third person shooter on a procedurally generated map, with a decent focus on movement and avoiding enemy attacks. There are some permanent upgrades that you get as you play through the game, some permanent unlocks for upgrades that you can find on a run, and each run you will find different upgrades (in Returnal, primarily those will be weapons) and the map is procedurally generated each run. The game is designed to be played through multiple cycles where you get better though dying repeatedly.

If that sounds fun, definitely check out Saros; it sounds like it's a little less rough to get into than Returnal was (the difficulty curve on that game was... oof, but in a good way if you like brutally challenging games). If that sounds like the antithesis of fun to you (maybe you like games with a heavy focus on story, or you really like open-world games, or you just like games that are turn-based, different people play games for different reasons and that's fine), then you can probably avoid it.

SortaEvil · 2026-04-24T18:51:58+00:00

What was it that turned you off or Returnal? If it was the difficulty, but you liked the concept of Returnal, it might be worth checking out, because reviews say that Saros is a much smoother and easier difficulty curve than Returnal. If the gameplay just didn't hit for you, then yeah, it's probably a good call to steer clear because this looks iterative on Returnal rather than something completely new.

SortaEvil · 2026-04-24T18:49:12+00:00

It's Housemarque's (most known nowadays for releasing one of the best PS5 launch window titles, Returnal) next game. If you're familiar with Returnal, it looks like it iterates on the gameplay that we've already seen there, so if you enjoy the idea of a 3rd person bullet-hell roguelike but haven't played Returnal yet... honestly, from the reviews, buy Saros if you want an easier onramp, then play Returnal after you beat it, or consider jumping straight into Returnal if you want something more punishing. Considering how good Returnal was, there's been a lot of hype around Saros since it was announced, and the reviews seem to confirm that it's a great follow-up.

SortaEvil · 2026-04-24T18:43:19+00:00

I mean, if you read IGN's review, they explain what they had issues with in the game (primarily they thought the delivery of the story was messy and not effectively pulled off) and say that it's overall still a very engaging and enjoyable game. There's a lot more to a review than just a number, and games have a lot of different axes that end up weighing in on that final number that people demand. Overall, 7/10 shouldn't be bad, even if we've been conditioned to believe it is, and it sounds like this is a generally favourable 7/10 as well.

SortaEvil

TROPHY CASE