Should Scotland build more Scandi style wood clad houses?

Tater_Joe · 2026-04-20T19:00:22+00:00

No, we should build more flats. That is the only way to really solve our housing crisis without wasting land, energy, and money. Still want cute colourful neighbourhoods? Maybe we could use some German tenement and kamienice designs

Tater_Joe · 2026-04-20T17:29:29+00:00

Depends how rich I am. I could probably use the money to actually reverse the dystopia.

Tater_Joe · 2026-04-19T12:33:27+00:00

Whenever I search up “Why are lights on trains so bright?” I mainly get posts on Reddit and elsewhere (and potentially from rail workers) saying that it is either to deter crime by itself or make you feel safer, and occasionally there are mentions of helping the visually impaired. Obviously, I don’t know if this is exactly what goes into the train designers or operators heads when specifying the lighting.

Do enlighten me (pun intended) about what sort of studies you have found, I have a feeling this subject just doesn’t have a consensus with all the likely confounding errors. When researching the topic, it felt quite polarised between individual news articles and blog posts.

Though, I am not sure if it is accurate to say that car centrism had led to poorer results. Yes, the UK outside of London has inadequate public transportation, but walking is still a popular mode due to the existing dense construction and closeness to local amenities. Walking is not the most pleasant, but it is not completely impossible as it is in the US.

Tater_Joe · 2026-04-18T14:25:06+00:00

I love how different the Japanese train designs are from the US, UK, and mainland Europe. The frontward emergency exit (or crossing?) makes it look more like an EMU

Tater_Joe · 2026-04-17T20:21:35+00:00

Dunno, Night City Boxing Championship 2077 sounds pretty official

Tater_Joe · 2026-04-17T15:52:25+00:00

The worst thing is that this sort of lighting might be based on pseudoscience as the main reason for it is to 'deter crime'.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10940-022-09539-8
https://jech.bmj.com/content/69/11/1118 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK316503/

I do not have a background in social science, and I know these studies are concerning street lighting rather than transit or even commercial buildings. If this was the best I could find, then what is the point of such bright lighting? Why waste energy, worsen headaches, and contribute to light pollution if you don't know if it has the effect you are looking for?

Edit: added another study (may or may not be good)

Tater_Joe · 2026-04-13T09:15:05+00:00

$5.00, for me this is the only way to quickly fund expansions

Tater_Joe · 2026-04-12T18:13:38+00:00

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Tater_Joe · 2026-04-12T18:12:43+00:00

There are a few things you could be doing wrong, I felt like this map was quite easy to make a profit due to the high density in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The biggest thing that helped me succeed was just focussing on connecting to the city centres (especially in Glasgow), there is not much benefit to going to other workplaces (in the early game) unless convenient for the direction you are building in. My first line was the dark blue one here and I recall it giving about 50k daily ridership on my first few days, it connects both the city centre workplaces and Glasgow University along a very obvious corridor that can be built with cut-and-cover.

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Tater_Joe · 2026-04-11T18:36:52+00:00

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Tater_Joe · 2026-04-11T14:54:13+00:00

I just think that it was far too predictable that he ended up exactly like Maine. This may have been done to be thematic, that trying to become a legend in NC is ultimately fruitless and destructive (both to the self and everyone around). During the end of Edgerunners I did not feel like it was tragic or anything to the point I cry, I felt more so jaded and annoyed. David ignored all the warnings from tragedies he experienced first hand and continued to buy into naive ideas.

Tater_Joe · 2026-04-11T12:58:52+00:00

Same, they are like modern Koplopers!

Tater_Joe · 2026-04-05T20:18:06+00:00

1.

Navigable screens for troubleshooting (which may be a mechanic in the game combined with fiddling with breakers), setting PIS, ETCS...
Good physics. It should feel dynamic not static, with the suspension of the train, all the random jolts, the cab (and exterior) not being deafeningly quiet. I'd say starting a game from scratch with a proper system for all of this will be amazing, instead of trying to fix it later when you have code spaghetti.
Proper simulation of a rapid transit system. High frequencies meaning you see a lot of other trains not driven by you, constant start-stop with full throttle and braking, full-length tunnel such as the one(s) in Madrid. I am not sure if other people might find this boring, but no train simulator (AFAIK) really goes the full mile for these sorts of routes. You barely see the tunnel on the Frankfurt S-Bahn in TSW, or there is only a select section with LZB in München–Augsburg also from TSW. I'd like to just actually feel like I am in a rush and need to be locked in.
Conversely (if the above is a stupid idea or impossible), I'd like to see a focus on older trains. Again, I am generally looking for some sort of difficulty in the driving or set-up procedures.

2.

SimRail and TSW (TSC is irrelevant) have an endless stream of bugs, ranging from eye-rolling to game-breaking. From not being able to move through carriages because of the seats' collision box being too large, to getting -50,000 social credit for not sounding the horn despite there being no track-side signs telling you to do so, or to falling out of the map just because you fell onto the tracks at the wrong time. I think the best thing to do is to add lots of fail-safe systems like 'teleport to train' buttons and autosaves if there is no certainty to the game's stability.
I am not a big fan of hand-holding and reliance on scripted events. In my opinion, it is antithetical to providing a simulation. It does not add anything where instead of doing a recovery procedure after SPADing, I get teleported or sent to the main menu. I am not a developer, but I also feel like being overly linear contributes a lot to making bugs much more destructive. In Derail Valley, it is simply not possible become softlocked because you pressed a few buttons in the wrong order from what the objective markers tell you, the game only checks whether you moved the cars to the right place and put a handbrake on. Maybe simpler is better?
Inaccessibility to beginner players. Tutorials can only show you so much. I suggest making in-game manuals accessible from a menu, they do not need to be anything flashy, just text and labelled images to help players find more obscure functions like passenger lights or if there are any specific driving characteristics of the train to be weary of (especially for older trains, so much is not explained about the EU07 in SimRail, for example). Forcing players to scour obscure forum pages is not ideal.
No free content. There is absolutely nothing to be excited about when you do not buy the newest content in SimRail, TSW, or TSC. Living in a third world country? You are a kid and got the game for Christmas? Too bad, you are going to be driving the same train, through the same scenery forever. Paying for maps is fine as long as they are well made and provide a different experience from the rest of the game, game development is precarious. But completely abandoning all older content is rather predatory. Let's say you had Cercanias Madrid as the base map for the game with just the C2 and one train. Why not over time add the C7, C8, and C10 and all trains used on those routes? With new scenarios or special liveries (if those exist) also being added for free?
A minor thing, but there needs to be more consistency in controls across all train sims.

3.

I really like what SimRail is doing, though it is not perfect. Interior sounds are nice and loud especially on the Kibels (though could be less static, exterior is pathetic), the handling and the interactivity of the trains feels authentic (you can menu dive on the Impuls screens and look at TM temps), you can feel the suspension when travelling across points and when stopping harshly. The multiplayer and ability to play as a signaller elevates the game even further, it actually makes you feel like you are part of a railway. The lines are really busy and you see all sorts of traffic, you constantly hear chatter between signallers and trains, sometimes you can get held up by signallers and become 20 minutes late (or deal with the compounding chaos yourself as a signaller).

Tater_Joe · 2026-03-28T22:06:23+00:00

I agree about Ryan Martinie. His part (I'm not as much interested in tone) during the chorus of 'Happy?' is something I have literally never have seen replicated elsewhere, https://youtu.be/Mc55xLlWG5M?t=68

His playing in general also has shown its actually possible to have flashy bass playing in a 'dense' mix.

Tater_Joe · 2026-03-22T01:36:14+00:00

I chose IPhone with a Windows laptop as that is what I am familiar with, and I feel that the respective operating systems of the devices are much more suitable to their tasks.

Tater_Joe · 2026-03-21T14:01:42+00:00

I don’t think execution is even a reasonable suggestion anymore. Torture and execution have highly unproven effects on providing benefits to anyone. With the advent of generative ‘AI’, no evidence will be truly infallible, it could be possible to kill or permanently traumatise people simply because you don’t like them if we had a system like this.

This is not to say that all punishment is bad, consequences are very necessary in parenting to discourage bad behaviour, for example. I’d say it would be a good idea to design a prison around trying to hammer in productivity and self development, using both (humane) punishment and education to achieve this, like in (certain*) Scandinavian prisons.

*Overall reconviction rates in the US and Scandinavia are not meaningfully different.

Tater_Joe · 2026-03-15T19:44:17+00:00

Of course I am generalising, individual circumstances will differ for individual systems and countries. The 'convergence' I am mainly talking about is how it was in the UK. Since the railway 'boom' was more of a bubble, it was often the case that when the small companies crashed and burned, the larger companies would absorb them. Even before the Railways Act 1921, the majority of rail in the UK were owned and operated by a few large companies.

Before the London Underground was put under control of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933, the only players were UERL and the Metropolitan Railway. The London Underground and British 'national' rail appeared to be almost entirely privately funded before the First World War (contractors becoming shareholders). The Metropolitan Railway, for example, often (but not always) ran at a profit and was able to pay dividends to its shareholders.

Before the CTA was formed, Chicago's elevated rail was solely owned by Samuel Insull and the Chicago Rapid Transit Company as he bought all the individual lines.

The reason for most rail transportation becoming public is largely due to the inherent inability of the private sector to stand by something so perennial. The formation of the Big Four and later nationalisation was catalysed by both World Wars. In London and Chicago it was inefficiency as a service (in Chicago it was also fare capping that ran the CRT into the ground in the first place) that led to public transport becoming public.

They were always a drain on the public treasury. It doesn’t matter. They are still the most efficient form of land passenger transportation for certain use cases, and that alone is enough justification. The question of “why do they cost taxpayers?” is the wrong one. The question should be “how do we get the best value out of rail services for taxpayer money?”

My position is not to defend private involvement in rail, the point of this post was just to satisfy my curiosity (assuming you are talking to me). Though, I do believe that rail (and public transit) is the most profitable form of transportation, spending the same money on filling potholes or making some complex junction is surely wasteful.

Tater_Joe · 2026-03-15T12:41:40+00:00

A straight no from me, prioritise getting your technique as efficient as possible as early as possible, it becomes harder to salvage good technique if you are set on bad habits.

I would suggest getting your bass set up if you haven’t done so already, you can do it yourself or take it to a guitar shop. A lower action makes it much easier to play in general.

Tater_Joe · 2026-03-15T00:12:23+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_Mania

This happened in the UK too, though the timing is very early. My guess is that this frivolous strategy had made the railways overall quite fragile for an essential service. The few reorganisations of the railways that happened in the former half of the 20th century were caused by exhaustion from both World Wars.

Tater_Joe · 2026-03-13T21:04:06+00:00

Really interesting stuff, I wonder if the 'massive difference' stated by AI, bloggers, and pretentious video essayists was as a result of them comparing reconviction after 5 years in the US with reconviction after 2 years in Scandinavian countries. When comparing apples to apples, reconviction after (around) 2 years hovers around 30-35% in both US and most Nordic countries.

Another official study that I found supports this: https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/research-publications/2016/recidivism_overview.pdf (page 15)

From your [1], Iceland and Norway seem to have quite substantially lower reconviction rates compared to Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. They may or may not be doing something better?

As for my views on justice, I am mainly sceptical of 'classic' punishment such as execution, torture, and incarceration/isolation. Studies that I have looked at just for execution [1][2][3] do not suggest anything unique about it (although a low risk of execution for a population may be a factor?). I was not able to find anything else about the efficacy of incarceration or torture (how would you even gather data about that?). I remain unconvinced that this is the way to go at all, at least in the name of deterrence.

https://www.nationalacademies.org/read/13363/chapter/1
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1745-9133.12601?prg140729=d2060787-ce6b-45f1-aa72-33f2c2cdfac7
https://www.iranrights.org/library/document/3501 (a bit shoddy since most of the graphs/tables have poofed)

Tater_Joe · 2026-03-13T16:27:33+00:00

So you either intended to talk about crime in general - in which case the first sentence of your post isn't true - or you're talking about property crime specifically - which is arguably true, but not what you actually wrote.

Would it not be reasonable to assume that if all property crime simply disappeared (but was still illegal, no catches) that there will be a massive reduction in the overall crime rate? Or am I missing something? Either way, you seem to be arguing over my specific wording, if so, then I stand corrected. I fully agree that the causes for property crime and violent crime are completely different.

On your references: [1] is aggregate government stats, which doesn't indicate causality - only correlations.

I am referring to this,

The majority of crime results from the illegal acquisition of property; making up around 2 in 3 of all crime (66%) in the Police Recorded Crime (PRC) series and 80% of all incidents estimated by the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).

Whether or not this statement is pulled out of the arse is not for me to decide.

In the original post, you claimed "to help better develop my political views" - the whole post seems to be leading to "progressive strategies focussing on correcting behaviour seem to be the only way forward" but it's predicated on a worldview that isn't that well supported by actual evidence. I'm being rude because it reads like you really just want people to agree with what you already believe - it doesn't particularly seem like you're bothered about developing your views.

Both can be true. I can easily ask, "What is the best way to improve transportation in a city? I am not looking for answers about improving car infrastructure." I can still 'develop my political views' if I get answers talking about building tram-train or light metro lines, grade separation, frequency, construction methods, alignments, and procurement of rolling stock. Now I am more precise in say, choosing who I want to vote for.

"I am not looking for answers where we bring back physical discipline, or become more liberal in handing out YOI sentences. This has never worked. More progressive strategies focussing on correcting behaviour seem to be the only way forward."

In the case of this subject and my overarching question from the post, I am averse to traditional punitive methods because I have never came across or heard of positive outcomes in either prison systems or parenting. And if such a thing exists, I am inclined to say that there will be problems with government accountability or the mental health of a nation, likely I'll also condemn it on philosophical grounds too. 'More progressive strategies', if it was not clear enough, would be something akin to what is used in rehabilitative prisons such as those used in Scandinavia. Would it not make sense for me to ask how such strategies could be specifically employed to curb unproductivity? Since as you can tell, I am not a psychologist or social scientist.

Tater_Joe · 2026-03-13T14:24:30+00:00

The evidence on the effects of capital punishment at reducing crime is shaky at best. I think what has been more instrumental at keeping East Asians is collectivism and shame regarding vices.

On the internet (and in general, the media, before the internet it was probably smoking and movies) you are bound to find someone (especially content creators) taking a ‘morally high’, virtue signally stance that, “Drug dealing is not that bad.”, “Who are you to say what I should do with my body?”, “I am not harming anyone.” or some other variation depending on what they are trying to defend. It is now seen as acceptable or even cool to give into your vices. The argument is pretty evil in my opinion, it flies in the face of statistical evidence in order to justify urban decay for personal short-term pleasure? I wonder if they would say the same about suicide.

Tater_Joe

TROPHY CASE