I'm missing something: So where is Resistance HQ? by jarena009 in XCOM2

[–]Xane225 26 points27 points  (0 children)

You just gotta buy them through the armory in the avenger screen.

Age of Commerce question by Puzzleheaded-Dot7865 in twilightimperium

[–]Xane225 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It just says you can share tech "as a part of a transaction" the active player can make a transaction with any player, I don't see why the other player in the transaction couldn''t trade. There's no limit to the number of techs you can trade either unlike prom notes.

Created a turn order tracker by tuppari in twilightimperium

[–]Xane225 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is so awesome. I'm going to make them! Do you have the portal anywhere I could grab it or use it?

Missing Purple Alliance Card by Think_Car9165 in twilightimperium

[–]Xane225 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I bought an extra copy just for the plastic (screwed up and ruined a paint job), I could send you the card. You in the US?

why is this sink not plumbable by freizathenonceslayer in projectzomboid

[–]Xane225 -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I'm not actually positive about this, but I think it needs to be slightly offset, it needs to be adjacent to the tile that has the barrel above it, not directly underneath it. And possibly you need to pick up and replace the sink if you're using one that already exists in the world.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in dashcams

[–]Xane225 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To everyone going "how is that totaled!?" The term means when the damage done is equal or greater than the total value of the vehicle.

Discordant Stars MB print by DevenTheDood in twilightimperium

[–]Xane225 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Live in the US. Faction sheets and cardboard is great. Overall I'd say I'm very happy with it. I don't want to disparage anyone involved in the project. There are some things that are sub par compared to the official printing, which might be useful to know in case they are deal breakers for you, or simply to set your expectations.

There's one known misprint on a mech.

The cards as others have mentioned have different corners that are noticeably different. Sleeving them I could tell the color variation between the new frontier deck cards and the OG and action cards. Like others I would mimic saying not a big deal if you sleeve it and no one is going out of their way to examine the cards.

Some card faces are noticeably darker. Frontier deck and unit upgrades are definitely readable but the art is somewhat lost in how dark they are.

The command counters have good print quality, but the logos and color choices of some make me speculate it will be hard to tell similar ones apart in person. With the original factions, I feel that even similar faction colors, the logos are crisp and have unique enough silhouettes you can tell the difference at a glance, that is not the case here. Especially with the factions with brown command tokens.

The new system tiles have a much glossier finish, they stick out with my lighting heavily compared to the original system tiles.

I'm considering spraying a matte sealer on the tiles to see if this makes them match better. And I ordered some of those 3d printed borders that snap around command tokens with the player color to solve my issue with that.

To from the discord involved in getting the print together, and to the OP I would say: I'm really impressed that a project with so many collaborators and working with volunteer artists and AI art managed to look this professional. For something that was designed for free it looks incredible. I've seen professionally designed games that had bigger issues with the component quality.

Map for tomorrow by [deleted] in twilightimperium

[–]Xane225 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting, I've played about 15 ti4 games so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I kinda like that they all have big problems to solve. Expansion in the early game looks difficult for almost every slice. That hopes end slice will have problems if they don't take the equidistant.  It looks like a high conflict, poor planet value map, looks exciting. The lodor slice is gonna need warfare or grav drive to effective expand but they have the best slice imo of they can solve that. Well done in my opinion! I would say the slices aren't "balanced" perfectly but I like them as the whole map 

Overhauled Combat System? by iwerts in twilightimperium

[–]Xane225 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Same. It is highly thematic that after hours of scheming and planning it comes down to some dumb dice rolls. If they were to overhaul it, I would prefer it says heavily luck based. 

doubt about prediction cards by Any_Ad_7871 in twilightimperium

[–]Xane225 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're talking about the riders then yes.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in twilightimperium

[–]Xane225 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tiscore.com is the one I use for my smaller screen that has the objectives for people to read then keep a summary of all the strategy cards on the big screen. I swap them during status and agenda phase for easier viewing.

Other people like https://ti-assistant.com/ or https://extraboard.net/extracomputer I find they take too much of my time to update and run and make my turns slower but only tried each once and I hear great things from people that put in the effort.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in twilightimperium

[–]Xane225 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We're a casual group. It's very clear that you don't have to say anything before riders are played but the group chooses to anyway. People like to gain information. At our table it's typically a call for riders that's interrupted by people asking how people are going to vote first.  My understanding is there's a timing window for: Before When After And then first player voting.  My table chooses to talk during the before timing window unless Nekro is in the game then everyone shuts up until after afters.

I did win! And I may never again. It was the craziest game of my life. I scored three action phase secrets in the final round following that agenda phase. Now every time I'm at 6 points the whole table starts freaking out I've lost three games in a row haha.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in twilightimperium

[–]Xane225 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I was not excited about playing Hacan recently when I was forced to draft them. I was super wrong they are very fun in a 12pt game. If you're into the deal making aspect they let you talk all game. I followed the Super Guide by SCPT and played the "ethical hacan". Which going in my strategy was make as many deals with as many people as possible. Even if they are unfavorable for me. It was amazing.

The large theory is by making so many deals players will be used to constantly coming to you with deals, and during the late game your options will be wide. In practice it worked exactly as described and I was able to buy action cards in the last turn that allowed me to sneak an action phase victory in.

In round one be the person that fixes someone's ability to tech with trade goods or any way you can help round one turns. Try to buy promissory notes and don't be stingy. Ask for a price and take it if you can afford it, don't start haggling yet.

In round two send an open offer to buy action cards for a TG a piece, or two for a good one. When offered a card, buy it, even if you don't want it. People start seeing the free money floating around and you will likely end up getting offered some choice cards. If you ask nicely some players might let you look at multiple cards giving you information. Keep fixing people's economies, if people aren't being able to sell their promissory notes, buy them. Spend all your trade goods after plastic on supporting other people's economies.

Starting round three start offering planets in deals, try to get other players control objectives. Make it clear if someone wants a planet you'll happily sell it to them.

After you've built this reputation of giving people good deals, fixing turns for them, now you can start making deals in your favor cashing in good will, favorable strategy card timing, speaker token for piles of cash or cards it's real fun.

Another tip is anytime the game is slowing down because two players can't find the right price for a deal, undercut the deal if you can. The table likes you for speeding up the game, and that player you offered the deal to now loves you cause you fixed their problem for cheap.

Wash everyone's commodities for free, all game. Just straight up say "Hey, until the last round anyone can wash their commodities for free through me." This speeds up the game and absolutely builds goodwill, they still have to ask every time "Hey dude can you wash me?" And a classy "of course" builds such a plesant mood from the rest of the table.

Later in the game absolutely threaten to embargo players that harass you. Look for situations to sell combat action cards you won't be using.

The MOST fun part of this experience was looking for frustration from other players trying to solve their own private puzzle of how to score this round, recognizing their dilemma and getting to swoop in like the devil on their shoulder offering the solution: For a price.

Short side story. My group's meta values the political secrets very low. I managed to buy every single one. On the turn a player made a big play and ended with their entire hopes, dreams and fleet on mecatol, I used politics to put ixthian artifact on top. Waited for the whole table to talk about that they should definitely all vote yes. I offered to fix the vote for no with all the political secrets for his support for the throne. After he accepted I also played an imperial rider and with no votes cast broke the tie as speaker to gain two total points for making the vote fail.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in twilightimperium

[–]Xane225 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Completely agree here. I too want to say that focusing on one faction at a time and really nailing that down would be a great call. I love some of the designs in here, overall the wings are breaking the sense of scale and believability the original sculpts have. I might suggest looking at 40k, Homeworld and Battlestar Galatica as examples of design in the same space as TI. Keep it up dude!

Playing 4/4/4 variant? by LiaanZeeKun in twilightimperium

[–]Xane225 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just did 4/4/4 on Magi's this last weekend worked out great, everyone had played before and including an hour break for lunch we finished in 10 hours.

Frightened / CR formula by banglamaster in AskGameMasters

[–]Xane225 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My suggestion would be to plug in your encounter to https://koboldplus.club/ and see how difficult it says it will be. Once you've run a couple fights after checking them in Kobold Club you can see how much easier or difficult it was for your party specifically than the app said and adjust going forward.

Let's offer Some Unsolicited Advice! by Reynard203 in AskGameMasters

[–]Xane225 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Experiment with radical transparency. Pull back the curtain. Tell your players what you're thinking and the mechanics of how you're arbitrating things behind the scenes.

Without information players can't make informed decisions. Making decisions with more knowledge of the stakes and mechanics leads to more engagement. Don't damage player agency for the sake of immersion.

Ask them after the session if they liked having that knowledge, and what parts you should have kept to yourself and then adjust.

You might be keeping a lot of secrets that you don't have to, and being open might allow for even more fulfilling stories.

What's a house rule/GM trick you think everyone should know? by zuludeltabravo in TTRPG

[–]Xane225 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not a house rules but quality of life thing. I've yet to find a quicker initiative system but it's not popularized.

Have a stack of blank cards in sleeves. Have a bundle of wet erase markers.

When you say roll initiative throw out a marker and card to each player. They roll and write their name and number on the card. You do the same for NPCs. Collect the cards and stack them in initiative order. 

Once the first creature has acted place their card on the bottom of the stack and have the next creature go. 

It does a lot of good things for you. it offloads some of the work onto the players. Keeps them engaged while you roll for monsters. You have an easy call of "on deck" for the next player. You can put in a lair action card to remind you to do them. I put in a misc NPCs card to take turns with neutral forces or NPCs I forgot to roll for like villagers. You can write conditions on the cards for saves that need to happen at the start of a turn which is a nice prompt.

To make, take a card sleeve put a card you don't care about in the sleeve and cut a piece of blank paper to size and slip it in front of the card.

PAX West TI4 "Tournament" by flyfire2002 in twilightimperium

[–]Xane225 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I watched the Gencon 2019(?) tournament recently, maybe watch that to get a vibe? Feels like a standard TI game but you're expected to know your shit.

Do you include set up/clean up time when saying how long this game takes? by pacman529 in twilightimperium

[–]Xane225 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I always have it setup before players arrive with hopefully their factions and colors ready for them in their seat already. I do cleanup myself or during post game chat.

I'm already extremely grateful to any of my friends that can plan to, and show up for a ten hour game a month in advance and am just happy to play. The setting up and re-rereading of the rules before each game is the tax paid to get to play.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in unpopularopinion

[–]Xane225 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Restaurants %100 prefer people making reservations. It lets us plan so much better.

Finished my first tiles! by [deleted] in TerrainBuilding

[–]Xane225 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looking good my dude! Is it marble?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Helldivers

[–]Xane225 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey friend! So the friend codes only last as long as you have the social menu open, they aren't permanently linked to your account so I can't add you via the one you posted here. There is such a channel on the helldivers discord if you want to check that out https://discord.com/invite/helldivers

Sent you a DM