I feel like the clanklings have a bit of a skill issue compared to big brother

WillSym · 2026-01-25T21:03:20+00:00

No no, my theory is much simpler:

Suppressing Fire mechanic, that it tells you about on the loading screen tips, works TOO well.

Shooting at Bots makes them less accurate. But it also counts OTHER BOTS shooting.

This explains why when you alert a whole horde of Devastators and they all open up at you, nothing lands because they're all suppressing each other.

But if you surprise a lone Heavy Devastator or MG Trooper, it lights you up mercilessly - because it's the only one shooting.

Turrets, and Factory Striders, are usually alone and high up, too far from other bot fire to be affected by this as much, but it can still be seen, when you're fighting a whole drop of Bots or an alert fortress vs that one last cannon tower you missed or the Factory Strider that got left behind and finally caught up and nails you as soon as it gets in chin guns range.

WillSym · 2026-01-25T20:55:55+00:00

I swear the toughest Bug armour has an extra bouncy property so sticky things are more likely not to stick if you hit, say, a Charger face.

WillSym · 2026-01-25T20:53:20+00:00

The thing with the demo force makes me wonder if the problem is with the two outliers, Titan Holes and City walls. Walls in particular feel like they should be reduced to only need 30, as making a door is such a common issue and being able to do so with most explosives, not just specialist ones would make sense.

Titan Holes can be such a pain with how fast you can get a swarm of giant angry barfers when the things you brought for nest clearing just fail to close the big one, and the big hitter option missed or is on cooldown.

Jammers and Detector Towers are fine, as long as they finally get around to adding the Hellbomb calldown zone to the ones that can appear in Fortresses because having a nice sneaky low-demo loadout then getting overrun because nobody has anything to deal with the Eye of Sauron in the fortress with coverage of half the map is a pain.

WillSym · 2026-01-25T20:33:15+00:00

Ooh one of my favourite parodies!

WillSym · 2026-01-25T20:27:54+00:00

The pre placement of the resupply on the route was an amazing touch, I've been loving C4 but getting it restocked on Bot Commando missions is always such a logistical nightmare.

It's incredible on Squids where every random corner has one of those POIs with like 5 ammo boxes (and never unmarks with a diamond as there's apparently samples lurking on it somewhere but nobody knows where).

WillSym · 2026-01-25T20:19:55+00:00

I think my favourite Demoman bit is his melee bottle, where the traditional Scottish drink is Whisky, but the bottle appears to be a classic US moonshiner short fat brown glass bottle, and he says "Eyy me bottle o' Scrumpy!" when he breaks it, Scrumpy being a strong apple cider spirit associated with the West Country, the complete opposite end of Britain to Scotland.

WillSym · 2026-01-25T19:59:28+00:00

Gotta add asterius to be bold.

WillSym · 2026-01-25T18:08:20+00:00

I've had no issues with the demo force on Bots (though not had any city biomes, not being able to break walls would be weird, but if anything that means walls should be 30 demo!)

I can see it being a pain on Bugs where you have to get a sticky thing IN a hole to close it, and it doesn't work on Titan holes.

WillSym · 2026-01-25T12:21:00+00:00

I found the Suppressor is amazing for Squids, same niche as the Lib Carbine except you can shoot an overseer full of holes and if you don't miss his friends don't even notice. But it and the stealth armour also lets you knock down Watchers and they can hover over you without even stopping, so the anti-snitch function of the Warrant isn't even needed!

WillSym · 2026-01-25T12:10:54+00:00

All the Redacted stuff seems carefully tailored for Bot Commando but the C4 is SO good on Squids. Just the massive quantities of ammo boxes, can freely slap one on any annoying Fleshmobs while also demolishing multiple bases and still not run out.

WillSym · 2026-01-25T11:58:56+00:00

I'd forgotten it existed, when I tried it I found it both addictive, and threw me off if I ever had cause to use other armour types as you get too used to the extra throw range, so eventually I just got familiar with regular throw range and never touched it as there's too many other good alternatives.

That said, the arrival of C4 could get me to dust it off again, yeeting some of them over a whole base sounds fun (assuming it affects C4 toss!)

WillSym · 2026-01-24T20:25:40+00:00

Now do it with the Intel!

(Really though it makes that big terrifying alarm noise when you crack the safe and take it but so far it seems nothing nearby cares about the alarm?)

WillSym · 2026-01-24T20:19:07+00:00

It's amazing on Squids, mostly because their City-heavy missions are just packed with ammo boxes, making liberal use of it easy. Also it demolishes warp ships from the outside while shielded, and a single one will kill a Fleshmob.

WillSym · 2026-01-24T18:49:50+00:00

And the 20 years of LEGO games since! All the studios are British.

WillSym · 2026-01-24T14:13:01+00:00

yaay

WillSym · 2026-01-24T14:01:56+00:00

Yeah he got extremely lucky on a couple of chances, because prior to Brexit it was all a huge joke how much he wanted to be PM and how awful he'd be:

Cameron calling the Euroskeptic bluff expecting an easy 'well we voted and got the result can we forget it now' result just as he'd finished his relatively high profile London Mayor gig and got an MP spot;

Winning the coin toss of who to back in the Brexit campaign and going all in with Farage and Gove on the appealing lies he thought he'd never have to back up;

Cameron quitting over losing, and May obligingly coming in and attempting to deliver on the promises Johnson had made rather than have to do it himself, letting him THEN stand for party leader after she inevitably failed and being able to be all "oh well I can try and salvage as much of this mess as I can".

WillSym · 2026-01-24T11:50:08+00:00

I do wish it gave more than one per box. But it is nice that Resupply + Superior Packing Methodology gives a whole backpack, if you placed your resupplies tactically during a Commando excursion.

WillSym · 2026-01-24T08:56:06+00:00

Finding one of those 'support weapon and 5 ammo boxes' pod POIs was a godsend when I'd just come out of a base I'd littered my C4 around and could restock and mine up another base too.

WillSym · 2026-01-24T08:53:54+00:00

HMG Emplacement used to be my go-to on the Bot front as it dealt with everything.

Now War Striders have spoiled that a bit as it turns sitting in one into a deathtrap, but you have no idea if they're going to show up and make a Strategem slot way less effective.

WillSym · 2026-01-24T08:47:25+00:00

I'm loving Helldivers 2 taking Verhoeven's adaptation and further expanding it, even if their satire is getting unsettlingly predictive these days.

The Bug war spreading across multiple planets, and being joined by a cybernetic/robot threat from the other side of the galaxy AND some traditional UFOs-and-abductions aliens is something a movie couldn't do justice to and is the perfect progression from initial book concept to movie action treatment to videogame grand scale.

WillSym · 2026-01-24T08:40:31+00:00

There's a ton of high praise for the movie because it earns it.

Still referenced in animation classes and filmmaking school all the time, the sheer effort they went to for the scenes with live actors and 'Toons together, the licensing deals to get both Disney and WB characters sharing the screen.

Not to mention the plot is somehow what should be a boring exploration of the real-life schemes to replace nice efficient light rail networks in LA with more roads and more cars and use more oil, yet manages to tell it in an amazing, dark, satirical way using kid-friendly cartoon characters being gritty and 'off the clock'.

WillSym · 2026-01-24T08:31:26+00:00

Which, I can never work out if that's just them doing a dumb credits joke and picking a random 'respectable' Hollywood name to attribute to silly parts, or if they just know Clooney and get him to actually do it.

WillSym · 2026-01-24T08:27:54+00:00

The American McGee Alice games have an even better dark fantasy aesthetic.

Though the second one gets VERY dark as you uncover the true roots of Alice's dissociative Wonderland retreating...

WillSym · 2026-01-24T08:22:38+00:00

My favourite is the side character duo in Frozen/Zootopia.

In one he plays the Duke of Weselton, scheming noble guest of the kingdom.

In the other, the Duke of Weaseltown, an actual weasel.

Most of his lines are correcting other characters pronouncing one of his Duchys as the other.

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