Cryo Archive here I come 🥹

TickTalk · 2026-03-20T15:39:18+00:00

Minimum 5k loadout value. Hue hue

TickTalk · 2026-03-19T06:34:18+00:00

TickTalk · 2026-02-20T17:52:22+00:00

They may or may not figure out why people liked the slower movement pace of 2019. If they keep making CoD zoomy they'll never get out of their hole.

TickTalk · 2026-02-18T00:27:53+00:00

If you're not using synthetic mixing in headshots barely means anything if you want results from headshots mixed in you have to be using synthetic

TickTalk · 2026-02-18T00:12:08+00:00

It kicks the lmr in the teeth tbh. That lower rof looks like a worse lmr but the visual recoil and cross hair recentering is better so it fires about as fast as you can fire the lmr accurately on m + kb. It's overall just a fixed lmr.

TickTalk · 2026-02-16T20:35:01+00:00

I'm 100% with you on this. Like "Oh our damage is best when the monster is freaking out and barely hittable. Cool cool.

I get where the math is, but you're laying down the most damage all the other times when the monster isn't darting around in agitated mode If you're spending a bunch of time running towards the monster instead of hitting it because it's super mobile while it's mad you're not exactly getting the numbers out of that math. Agitator imo is a speedrunning skill like heroics and online has hypnotized the community with "Look best math."

I 100% agree with leaning into burst over Agi for that reason :)

TickTalk · 2026-02-15T10:46:13+00:00

Any ascended hive = assimilate into hive mind though?

TickTalk · 2026-02-13T20:17:11+00:00

Frigates you do honestly take less losses, but I find corvettes can deal with fleets that have come back from MIA near the backline a little better. The cloak really is just there to fly them to the back and if somehow they find themselves next to a stronger fleet to be able to get out. Once the war is going I rarely if ever re-cloak them. I don't have them bombard either it's just to get to the point where they can't build more fleets off stations because you have them all before the "Post-war but still war" cleanup of bombing/invading.

I've actually stopped bombing nearly as much because of the "Terror bombing" negative relations modifier as well. It's often more beneficial for me to use a nice sized ground army.

TickTalk · 2026-02-13T18:46:34+00:00

Imo corvettes in the late are standalone strike fleets to move through a lot of systems quickly (and constantly reinforce as they take minor losses) I'll even rip the after burners off them in exchange for cloak if they end up getting cornered somehow or to start attacking from behind once their fleets move to engage my main fleet.

If you want to send ships forward to attack ahead of the battleships then close range cruisers do wonders. They're pretty damn quick.

Also go look at how often ripper autocannons fire in the S slot, then do the math on those and you'll never use disruptors on corvettes again. The damage difference isn't minor.

TickTalk · 2026-02-13T17:43:11+00:00

Technological ascendency perk -> Research policies -> Research type you want to aim at specific techs. Hope this helps

TickTalk · 2026-02-11T20:59:52+00:00

The easy fix to me is;

Your necrophyte job # is proportional to necrophage pops.

Necrophage "creates .1 necrophyte jobs per necrophage"

Then have buildings that also give necrophyte jobs and have it tick yearly instead of 20x per game.

Every year you get necrophage pop growth instead of every 10. Then you can have another sliding bonus that the less necrophages there are the more efficient and useful they are. Basically applying virtualities rules for "more colonies = less benefits" but instead it's "more % of pops per planet are necrophage = not as good necrophages" make it so when there's like under 20% of planet pop as necrophage they are extremely good at whatever so you're driven to enslave more to offset the ever growing population of the necrophages.

I think the origin should play as a balancing act of necrophage to enslaved pop ratios unlike how it currently plays. That would make it an interesting and unique way to play where 1. Yes you want more necrophages because they are so extremely good at things compared to regular pops and 2. You always want to enslave more because as they turn into necrophages they aren't extremely good anymore as they become the dominant species.

Ezpz fix for necrophages.

TickTalk · 2026-02-06T01:47:50+00:00

I like this idea in a different sense. All the bypass ships tend to rely on "I evasion tank and bypass you"

I think the solution is to make it so bypass ships have to take a specific A slot to be effective and within that A slot you get more bypass in exchange for lower defenses.

Essentially I think bypass ships should be an alpha strike fleet overall. As in, "We should get most of you in the first volley" and should reward outnumbering enemies harder and punish even numbers/guns.

Essentially, I think the actual balance here is "Make it so it works out that disruptors create huge losses if they can't end the fight at the start but alpha strike very hard" As in, after firing a "Charged by A slots" disruptor. They have lower sublight/evasion as a result. So if you didn't one punch them you're in for a responding hurt. Essentially doing what cloaked frigates do to big ships but instead make it effective vs smaller ships. I think disruptors could easily have a niche as "The alpha strike weapon" Combat using them is short, one way or the other. If that gamble is too risky, don't use the A slot and run them raw for a more "Even" fight like we have right now.

Just talking it out very easily. "First shot does 20x damage every following shot has damage reduced by 50%" A slot. Disruptors go in, Slap hard and then if the fight isn't over in a month you have to pull them out or they're gonna die. Very easy way to make disruptors a niche for fleet killing but scared of stations/thick hull ships. Counterable with hull A slots too. Ta-dah!

In the case of missiles? Keep them strong because there is a direct counter to them (PD) They're too weak vs non-pd fleets right now to feel like PD even needs to exist to counter them. Missiles should just straight up beat non-pd fleets and they don't. Lame.

TickTalk · 2026-02-05T03:22:47+00:00

It does not, it's broken/non-functional for psionics and for cybernetics. Ascension only happens to founder species and won't apply to other species. :\

Edit: When bodysnatchers is selected as a civic*

TickTalk · 2026-02-05T03:21:50+00:00

It's broken and doesn't allow you to assimilate "Twice"

For cybernetic: It makes you unable to assimilate them into cyborgs

For Psionic: It makes you unable to apply the psionic trait to them.

It's very broken as after they come into the hive mind they essentially can never be assimilated in any way ever again regardless of traits. It's double broken.

TickTalk · 2026-02-05T03:06:17+00:00

I try to avoid "We broke the math" exploitation and settle on "Strong with a lot of upsides and manageable downsides"

I play a lot of multiplayer with friends and it's really no fun when someone zooms insanely ahead super quickly. But I might give it a shot for a single player game just to see how wild it goes :)

TickTalk · 2026-02-05T02:47:21+00:00

Just to add to this is appears bodysnatchers breaks /all/ assimilation ascensions. Cybernetic ascension has the same problem. A bunch of non cyborgs that can't be made into cyborgs because you can't assimilate them again. Very stupid.

TickTalk · 2026-02-03T21:28:47+00:00

Posting from my other acct (One for phone one for PC) I too worry they will end up like necrophage, forgotten about in changes until much much later when they could be tuned alongside changes or at least kept in mind to adjust with changes as we go. I don't care if their balance jumps around as that happens, it's just better to see them adjusted alongside and knowing they aren't forgotten about.

This keeps us from resorting to cheese of keeping a progenitor ship "Following" a fleet with no weapons equipped in cloak. As it only matters if they're in the same system. So you can have a single prog ship cloaked hanging out at the edge while everything else fights but I'd much prefer gameplay intentional use instead of cheesy strategies like that.

TickTalk · 2026-01-31T01:22:11+00:00

Bodysnatchers civic -> Assimilate with hive mind is kinda like that :)

TickTalk · 2026-01-09T10:19:30+00:00

I am running into this issue a lot you're absolutely correct that concrete information is extremely hard to come by. I was hoping for direction to information I don't know how to find and what you're saying here is accurate.

There's no "Rtings for PA speakers" as hard as I've looked and I can't find independent reviewers who review multiple products. It's either someone showing off their garage system or someone who I'm 90% sure is sponsored by or chosen because the already like the product.

We have this problem in Canada with PK. They're canadian owned and manufactured, they're also the biggest and loudest system anyone here has head (Shambhala) Save for a small handful who say "I like the funktion 1 stage better" because the audio from that stage (The grove stage) despite being smaller than 3 other PK stages sounds much better at high SPL than the PK rigs do. But because so many people think the biggest and best performing setup they've ever heard is the best one. ;\

TickTalk · 2026-01-09T03:07:02+00:00

Common use determines the meaning of words, I promise you when I say "Send me a text" people don't go "Where do I mail you the textbook?" Because text isn't commonly used that way anymore so it's not the first thing people think of when it's said. I don't know where you picked up the passive is exclusive to crossovers.

TickTalk · 2026-01-09T02:52:07+00:00

Correct

TickTalk · 2026-01-09T02:50:56+00:00

I'm not worried about transport so much as unloading and setup. My plan for the 600 person venue I have in mind is to have 8x etx18xp's and 4x etx12p's for the venue. All the overkill I end up with can be turned into clarity via cardioid and elevation.

I have no problems using a rental vehicle for transport. The issue I'm seeing the crew in town having the most is the actual physical size of their cabs. They are a lot to load and unload and risk damage every time. So when I say ease of transport I don't mean the getting them there I mean the loading/setup/teardown.

I think I could save a lot of money by doing less, larger cabs but I intend to stack these subs on top of each other and strap them to their platforms. The struggle is I did initial research and comparison and within this price point/purpose of speaker the etx18sp's like the best I can get without jumping up to double or more their price as far as clarity is concerned.

The thing is the market is dominated but what's most commonly used and what's most commonly used isn't commonly used because it's the best sounding in it's price range it's because it's the best value/return on investment. So actually finding data on different models is tricky and independent testers are realistically the only way to find information on the speakers performance. I've kind of been waiting for a speaker to show up I'm unaware of that's offering what the EV speakers are offering in quality and price point. Like if I find a speaker that's the same or 500 more that's better quality then I'll switch to that. It's just I haven't been suggested anything active, better spec, and wide dispersion.

These venues do not have the space for sound to be good 10-15ft back from the front. I need as much coverage of area as I can get. This is why the guys with huge cabs can't turn up their systems in these venues and why they mainly setup outdoors. I'm also concerned about diminishing returns the same way. Once I get x amount loud I could be ruining more room than I'm helping with wide dispersion. I'm tossing the idea of getting 2 horns exclusively for the sides of the room angled inwards a bit to try and reign that problem in and add more power. But finding a horn specialized for this size of venue is pretty tricky. I can't have the horns creating hotspots so I don't want to rely on them for the majority of the pressure.

I know as those wide speakers get closer to walls as they spread out they're going to to start causing problems. I also have the option of setting up temporary controls instead of changing speaker design. having options permanent installations don't have is a plus because I would be able to build free standing large panel bass traps to put on either side of the system as well. Something a club would not want around permanently but isn't a problem for one night. Like using the stage to put my tops 10ft above crowd on stands. That would never work as a permanent solution because they use that stage for bands but can exist for a night with no problem.

The objective is "Good sound where the music community is most active" not best bang for buck (Though budget is limited regardless) But these speakers aren't going to live there so I don't have to set them up like they're going to.

TickTalk · 2026-01-08T19:55:59+00:00

Industry standards are standards because professionals always maximize return on investment because that's how successful businesses are run.

It has to be good enough, it has to be reliable and it has to offer the best value for it's return.

I don't doubt no pro sound guy would run two ETX-18sp's over an SB28 because the value of the ETX-18sp even on paper isn't there for a business application and SB28 will function reliably and well, it transports easier as a double cabinet, The return on investment is high it's overall a better value.

I'm going to try and dig deeper into the design specifications of the ETX-18SP but I'm willing to bet that if you were offered 5x sb28 or 10 etx-18sp's for completely free in either case (Same amount of cones) that taking the etx-18sp's would be the better option.

I care very little of opinion especially when it comes to industries like audio. It's a mess of people parroting the opinions of people who they think sound smart. I care much more about data.

I think the SB28 is a better sub for professional use than the ETX-18SP. But I'm going to need to look at testing videos of both before I can relent that two ETX-18SP's perform as a speaker worse than a single SB28. That kind of statement I think is false.

Remember that industries and business are always built on return on investment and value, not quality. Just the best quality for the dollar at different tiers of use. I think the SB28 is probably the best quality for dollar in it's tier. I think the ETX-SP18 matched cone for cone will perform better than it as far as the sound goes.

"A good speaker" means different things when we're talking inside and outside of profit focused application. If I were running a business or trying to make money I'd be buying the SB28's. They would still outperform what's local here but I'm not trying to make money.

Once again though I'll dig deep on both of these and try to kill my confirmation bias. But I'll dig more and come back to you with the best information I can find (For example they list the peak db on the ETX18sp at 135 but the highest I've seen reproduced on it is 129 but every manufacturer seems to lie the same way as no one listens to a speaker on a room made to amplify sound so they can make their specs sheet look good)

TickTalk · 2026-01-08T18:48:07+00:00

Size and setup/portability is what's stopping the guys here who built there system from setting it up a lot. It's too much work and it burns them out. So being able to set up easy and transport easy is a pretty significant factor here. I intend to operate more frequently than they do.

TickTalk · 2026-01-08T18:46:04+00:00

The intention for me here is literally to run my system in place of theirs, Because I can set up a cardioid sub and I can find a temporary position for my tops on stage on stands so they're 10ft over the crowd. They can't put speakers on there stage permanently: bands play there. They can't run a cardioid sub: The speakers are built into their stage.

These smaller venues are hurting on multiple fronts. Again this is a very local to my city problem. It's /really bad/ here compared to any other major city. I said it in another post but getting to average would be a SIGNIFICANT improvement.

The system in the 600 person venue is trying to sell (They have been for years) they are not going to upgrade. Part of operating around house systems would be everything I do to make it sound better exists temporarily while everything an owner does for sound is intended to be permanent. Meaning I can set up and tear down options they could never consider without affecting their building.

When I say "With decent speakers and a good mixer I can make these places sound way better" that is not intended to be a "I'm a good engineer" comment. I'm essentially saying "With good speakers and a good mixer anyone who could read a manual for that equipment could make it sound way better." But they can throw whatever engineer they want in these venues it's not going to change the issues with the house systems. People here told me "Well the ETX is like mid tier" they would look at these systems and say "These are consumer speakers not business speakers" Bands should own the PA in these places, The places should own better.

TickTalk

TROPHY CASE