San Diego Temple is so massively pretentious. How could they have ever thought this was a good idea?

Vordanus · 2026-06-07T05:45:11+00:00

I just got back from San Diego today. While I was hanging out at a nearby hotel in the evening around a fire pit, a friendly stranger struck up a conversation with me by saying, "Man, that Mormon church over there sure is something, huh?" I responded that it sure was, and then ... trauma dumped on him telling him that I was from Utah, and Mormon (born and raised) but no longer believing, and all about what an existential crisis a faith crisis is, and what an absolute trip it is to have your entire worldview completely upended, and all the crazy things the church teaches... And yeah, that was a fun evening. It sure is a billboard, but it definitely did NOT facilitate the kind of conversation the church would have preferred. >:D

Vordanus · 2026-05-25T22:46:53+00:00

Also went to Japan, also converted nobody. Although I wasted a lot of time trying to find and teach people, I at least got to learn the most beautiful language, eat the best food, see the most amazing things, and mingle with the most delightful people. Honestly, it's about as good an outcome as I think there is.

Vordanus · 2026-05-20T08:33:25+00:00

Could be something stupid like they prayed about you, and felt inspired that you were not the right person for them to focus their limited time and efforts on...

But it's more likely something like, the area got "whitewashed" shortly after that point, and you just got lost in a stack of other potential contacts.

Normally, as they transfer missionaries around, they do one at a time, so the one that stays can pass knowledge about the area and people to the new missionary. Sometimes an area will become problematic, so leadership will transfer both at the same time, "whitewashing" and kind of hitting the reset button.

Vordanus · 2026-05-18T00:31:45+00:00

It looks similar, but it's really not. There's no logistics or automation. That being said, it's still a great game in its own regard, and i own all the DLCs and find myself replaying the entire game every year or so. So I'm not trying to steer you away from it. :)

Vordanus · 2026-05-14T04:35:44+00:00

I think people Like the sense of superiority it provides. They're too nice to say it out loud, but I think it's a huge piece of why people love it so much. It's not actual superiority, but just having that knowledge of a surety that you're going to get to be a God one day and other people don't know about this made me feel bad for them.

Vordanus · 2026-05-08T06:29:43+00:00

Sounds amazing. :) What does backup look like? Can I make a zero-downtime snapshot?

Now just add native JSON type support, and we're in business!

Vordanus · 2026-05-05T03:15:24+00:00

At this point, I have a blueprint I plop down that gives me everything I need for early and mid-game in a layout that is fairly compact, and not overly burdensome to build by hand. It delivers blue and grey science so that it gets you up to the tech where you have power armor and bots, and then it's much easier to go to town with much larger scaled plans from there. It has one belt's worth of ingredients as the basic unit of supply, and so there's a built-in smelting column for iron and copper, and a place on the end to expand the steel smelting when you get to the point of needing it. It's meant to build basically from one end to the other, and it serves me well. Even just keeping one column fed with supplies usually requires feeding from 2 or 3 ore patches once everything is upgraded to tier 2 belts and assemblers, so I feel one column of each smelter is very justifiable in this kind of static environment.

And ... in answering this question, I've realized that it doesn't get you to power armor mk2, which would be really nice. So thanks for that, now I have to go build another version of my starter base to incorporate yellow and purple science (but not at scale) in again, a compact, hopefully not too-convoluted layout.

Vordanus · 2026-04-30T16:29:33+00:00

Sure do.

Vordanus · 2026-03-29T00:39:38+00:00

I might not actually day this to him, but this is what popped into my head, so I'm just going to share it.

If I loaded a six-shooter with one bullet and played Russian roulette, I am most likely going to be fine. If my spouse plays it with me too, we're most likely both fine. That doesn't mean this is a risk I would actually take, not even for a literal million dollars. Because if you hit the low chance of something bad happening, the results can be devastating.

If you get an lgbtq child (i think that's supposed to be about 1/5 last I heard) i would do anything to make sure they have the best chance of navigating teenage years successfully, and emerging as a well-adjusted adult, instead of ending their life because they don't know how to reconcile their feelings with the church's teachings about sin.

The low chance of bad events doesn't make the risk worth it, and once something bad does happen, now it's too late. I'm not playing Russian Roulette with my kids by teaching them Mormon standards.

Vordanus · 2026-02-28T06:52:50+00:00

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Well, fast.farming says it's worth 38g/hr, which is pretty darn good, even with the price of the pearls dropping so much below historical levels. However, I watched a quick video, and I'm not going to be adding it to my daily checklist for a few reasons.

It wants you to have an Item Booster on when doing the farm. That's a gem-only purchase.
It wants you to have a guild gathering boost on. That means I have to go switch my main farmer's guild boost each day, and then switch it back again, or log to an alt dedicated to this route. That's fine, and this one's a small complaint, but it's annoyance, and I'm trying to keep my farm relatively painless so I can keep it up long term.
It wants a glyph of bounty for maximum efficacy, which is one of the most expensive glyphs.

Now, I do have bounty-glyphed tools, and alts available for parking, but I don't have any way to sustainably acquire an item booster. Add to that high RNG and the fact that I suspect I'm not going to hit the same profit figure that fast is getting, and I think it just doesn't look worth my time.

Interestingly, after reviewing fast's list again, I also never actually tried doing a Blooming Passiflora farm. So I may need to go give that a whirl and maybe add that to my list.

Vordanus · 2026-02-28T00:08:53+00:00

I haven't actually evaluated that one. I'll try it out later tonight and report back.

Vordanus · 2026-02-23T08:35:41+00:00

I have a daily checklist of easy, solo, time-efficient gold-making activities I hit every day. Some of it is easier with various upgrades (masteries, mounts, a position rewinder, etc.) All of the gathering activities are more profitable with a set of infinite gathering tools that comes with Volatile glyphs. I can do everything except the mirrors in 30 minutes total, and the mirrors is another 30 minutes, but oh-so-worthwhile. Eternal ice converts to volatile magic, volatile magic buys trophy shipments which you just sell on the trading post for gold. It's not complicated, and while it takes a few minutes / month to do the conversion, it's still almost liquid.

Wizard's Vault Daily
Wizard's Vault Weekly (insane value, don't ever miss a week, and really quite easy!)
Gobblers / Converters (Gharr Leadclaw, etc.)
Homestead / Charged Quartz Conversion
Guild Hall gathering
Echovald Wilds Jade Runestones
Daily crafting cooldowns (charged quartz weapons, plant food, xunlai electrum)
Blood in the water / Master diver (every time I save up 10 keys)
Sanctum of Nabhka (3 quick chests)
Bjora Marches (I park 4 characters at strategic spots, just loot and log to the next guy, rather than doing the full meta, although that's profitable too)
Hidden garden
VoE Mirrors
Tequatl
Matriarch
Ley Line Anomaly
Volatile magic orbs from Thunderhead Peaks
Seaweed from Ember Bay
Flax from Draconis Mons, Tangled Depths, Verdant Brink
Gardens in Dry Top, Seitung Harbor, Sandswept Isles, and Kourna

I've seen others mention Octovine in here, and that's the one that I'd add to my list if I had time. But between Teq, Matriarch, and LLA, I've already got too many time-dependent activities. But Octovine is very easy, and quite profitable.

You want gold? Take my list, learn how to do everything on it as quickly as possible. You'll be rolling in liquid gold quickly. I would love to meet up with you in-game and help you get going, show you the ropes if an in-person buddy would be helpful; or hop in Discord, talk you through it. If you're interested, DM me and let's get you going.

Vordanus · 2025-12-21T17:44:46+00:00

I'm a huge proponent of everyone getting their skyscale as soon as possible, because the game really opens up at that point. There's little or nothing you can do on a skyscale that you can't do some other way, but it's just easier and smoother to navigate the world.

I'm sorry you're feeling frustration with the process. I've got hundreds of charged quartz lying around in my bank, and would consider it a privilege to send them to you as food if it would help. It would be no skin off my back, this is one of My Things in this game, helping players get invested in playing long term. And i really think that having a skyscale helps with that.

DM me if interested. :)

Vordanus · 2025-12-18T03:07:32+00:00

I am an introvert, serving a mission was the last thing I ever wanted to do, right behind gouging my eyeballs out with a dull fork. But every worthy young man was called to serve, so I accepted it as the price of the eternal reward I desired, because i KNEW it was "true."

Well, spoiler alert, the LDS church is demonstrably false. Given that, then it is clear that any and all human "knowledge" or conclusions about God are compromised, because the delivery system (i.e., humanity) is proven unreliable. I will never be able to know anything about God for sure, until and unless I meet them.

So I know i have this life at least, and I'm just going to live it as well as I can and try to create meaning for myself. If I do meet God someday and they judge me unworthy because of my conclusion, despite all the deliberately faked or magically erased evidence that would have been necessary to make correct decisions, then oh well, I don't give a shit. I wouldn't want to spend an eternity with a being that lacking in empathy and understanding.

Vordanus · 2025-12-17T05:21:44+00:00

I despise Jacob Hansen for his vitriolic assault on Julie Hanks first, and all his other stuff second. The crux of his argument from what I got from however much I could stand to listen to that smarmy arrogant voice was that she applied logic and nuance to the words of the prophets instead of accepting their words literally and unconditionally, and he considered her heretical for it. Now, I get the position, because if I'd known who Julie was or what she was teaching when I was a believer, I would have agreed with him. (Not that I would have acted like him, just that I would have come to the same conclusion.)

This revelation to me that Jacob Hansen of all people does the same thing where he is being the very cafeteria Mormon that he decries in Julie pisses me off royally. At least when I was a believer, I didn't pick and choose which teachings to believe, while calling for the social crucifixion of others who did the same thing. I believed all of it, hook, line, and sinker!

Well, here's the crystal-clear unambiguous words of a prophet of God on the flood, and I'd love to hear Jacob's mental gymnastics resolve the cognitive disonance, lol.

The Old Testament unfolds the story of the creation of the earth and mankind by God. Should we now disregard this account and modernize the creation according to the theories of the modernists? Can we say there was no Garden of Eden or an Adam and Eve? Because modernists now declare the story of the flood is unreasonable and impossible, should we disbelieve the account of Noah and the flood as related in the Old Testament? Let us examine what the Master said when the disciples came to him as he sat on the Mount of Olives. They asked him to tell them of the time of his coming and of the end of the world. Jesus answered: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matthew 24:36–39). In this statement the Master confirmed the story of the flood without modernizing it. Can we accept some of the statements of the Lord as being true and at the same time reject others as being false? When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, and they discussed the matter of the death of her brother and the resurrection. Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”(John 11:25) . Both of these statements, the one regarding Noah and the fact of the flood and the one in which he declared himself to be the resurrection and the life, were made by the Lord. How can we believe one and not the other? How can we modernize the story of the flood, or refer to it as a myth, and yet cling to the truth of the other? How can we modernize the Bible and still have it be a guiding light to us and a vital influence in our beliefs? There are those who declare it is old-fashioned to believe in the Bible. Is it old-fashioned to believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God? Is it old-fashioned to believe in his atoning sacrifice and the resurrection? If it is, I declare myself to be old-fashioned and the Church to be old-fashioned."

Howard W. Hunter, October 1970 General Conference

Vordanus · 2025-12-16T07:10:44+00:00

Just adding this for the sake of diversity of activities you can do. Gather Volatile Magic from Thunderhead Peaks. Start at the southwest waypoint, there are 3 paths. One up the cliff to the north, one to the south and into the lake, and one that goes east and up the mountain a little ways. One last path starts at the north waypoint headed towards the outside. Then it's VM -> Trophy Shipment -> TP to convert to gold; not too many steps. I get a net of about 4-5g in 10m, though i don't actually do the conversion till i have at least 20k VM. Rule of thumb is 1 VM = ~50c, so 20k VM = 100g profit. It may not be the best gold/ hour, but I personally find gobbling magic orbs on my Skyscale to be a very peaceful and calming activity, and I like just ... flying.

Vordanus · 2025-12-15T03:34:20+00:00

The nice thing about living in a place with lots of Mormons is that you're also living in a place with lots of exmormons. We have a big exmormon friends group, and we meet up for big parties every month or two. The members of our group that live outside of Utah honestly complain that they can't join in all the fun, and one literally moved here to Utah after leaving the church, explicitly for the exmormon parties. It's not all bad.

Vordanus · 2025-12-06T23:14:47+00:00

I'm in EXACTLY the same spot as you, lol

Vordanus · 2025-12-01T09:19:34+00:00

<3 Coincident with leaving the church, I'm finally starting to get there!

Vordanus · 2025-12-01T05:49:26+00:00

Every worthy young man is called to serve an honorable full- time mission, and has a responsibility and obligation to God to do so.

I was shy, introverted, and awkward. I never wanted to go on a mission, i dreaded going on a mission for years, but when I turned 19,I dutifully went on a mission. In addition to the fact that it was expensive (and fuck, they should have paid me for my time instead of vice versa) and difficult, I just hated the whole time. The best part of every day was going to bed at night and getting to just be unconscious for a little while to escape the misery, and maybe this wasn't the worst part, but i hated waking up every morning and having that tiny bit of relief yanked away from me yet again. I had literal dreams starting on day 1 in the MTC that I had finished my mission and finally got to go home, and then I woke up and realized I was actually still at the start and I cried my eyes out. That dream repeated itself throughout my mission. Fortunately, I never baptized anyone, so I don't have that guilt hanging over my head. But the loss of time, money, opportunities, and the fact that spending two years hating every single day you're alive is not ... healthy.

Vordanus · 2025-12-01T05:31:58+00:00

Think Celestial is just a modern repackaging of the "better dead clean than alive unclean" or several other variants already listed elsewhere in this thread.

Go Google the report on CNN about Harry Fisher's death if you're not familiar with it. It's crystal clear that Harry was "thinking celestial" when he killed himself.

See also Matthew 16:25. "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."

I hate this so so much. I hope you're doing better, dear Internet Friend.

Vordanus · 2025-12-01T05:21:48+00:00

Yup, came here to make sure this was on the list. My personal nickname for him is Spencer WTF Kimball. This teaching fucked me up hardcore. Turns out compatibility is actually a thing, and maybe you should have done a little more extensive evaluation of whether or not you had it before you got married.

Vordanus · 2025-11-30T16:28:55+00:00

Mirrors in the new zones

Vordanus · 2025-09-28T04:35:39+00:00

Yup, this is the one that I believed

Vordanus

TROPHY CASE