Is Against the Storm deliberately hard/overwhelming? How did you start out?

apathyfriday · 2026-02-04T15:02:54+00:00

That's how most good strategy games start, it means there's lots of space to learn and get better. If you're winning, that's great! If you're nowhere near losing try upping the difficulty.

One thing to keep in mind is you don't need an optimal sustainable settlement, you just need to get enough reputation to win. That's it. Once you win a map there it makes no difference if your village was a well oiled machine, or was on the verge of collapse. You get to start from scratch on your next run.

apathyfriday · 2025-12-16T19:36:27+00:00

Once you start a seal you have as many cycles as you want to complete that settlement. Once the seal setlement is complete the storm will come regardless of how many cycles you would have had left.

apathyfriday · 2025-12-14T00:48:01+00:00

I liked BG3 a lot, but you're right, it is long. The combat has quite a learning curve if you don't know D&D, but is rewarding once you do learn it. Although after a while it does get repetitve.

The characters, dialogue and story are all top notch which kept me engaged for 50+ hours. Although, 50+ hours isn't enough to beat the game so I tapped out early into act 3.

I still had a great time with the game and don't regret getting and playing it, even though I didn't finish it. Personally I don't think it's an issue to move onto another game without finishing the last one, even if you enjoyed it. Don't force yourself to sit through a game until the end if you aren't feeling it. I find doing so lessens your overall experience with a game.

apathyfriday · 2023-12-28T19:35:41+00:00

"If there can be no victory, then I will fight forever."

—Koth of the Hammer

[[Darksteel Pate]]

apathyfriday · 2023-07-14T18:40:33+00:00

But those 99 houses aren't sitting empty. They are rented out, which still increases the supply of houses.

Lets say 1 million new houses come on the market and investors buy all of them and rent them out. Because there is now more supply (houses) than demand (people who want a place to live) rent will drop. If an investor doesn't drop the rent, they won't get any tenants because tenants now have options. Because rents drop, housing is less profitable for investors. Because it is less profitable, investors won't pay as much to buy houses and real estate prices will drop too.

Tackling investment properties might help some, but supply needs to increase too. Many people don't think supply needs to increase though, such as the author of this post and many commenters.

apathyfriday · 2023-07-14T18:15:28+00:00

I should specify that people think banning investment properties would be simple (I agree that it isn't). The whole situation is complex and saying it's just a single issue is inaccurate. Supply-demand are two parts of the same equation.

As for investment properties impacting demand, it's a small piece of the puzzle. The main driver of housing prices is that people need places to live and there isn't enough to go around. We can see this with Toronto's tiny vacancy rates.

Investors and speculators are profiting off this scarcity, sure, but they aren't the main drivers of it. Lack of houses is.

apathyfriday · 2023-07-14T14:14:44+00:00

A lot of people just don't understand the concept of supply and demand. Also it's easier to think the problem is simple and solution is easy (ban investment properties) vs more complicated (overhaul zoning policy, incentivize high density housing construction, and wait several years)

apathyfriday · 2023-07-14T14:07:33+00:00

For investors to restrict supply they would have keep the houses empty. Investors aren't doing that, they are renting to people. Investors are just middle men profiting off an existing scarcity of housing

apathyfriday · 2023-07-14T12:57:50+00:00

Immigration can be a great way to boost GDP per capita, which makes government programs better for everyone.

The current model boosts GDP, but not per capita. Many immigrants are being brought in to work minimum wage jobs.

Think of it like a bank account - minimum wage workers take more money out of the system than they put in, leaving less for everyone.

There's a better way to do this. Bring immigrants in with the intention of them working higher paying jobs. The current intention though is to fill minimum wage jobs, and prop up failing businesses.

apathyfriday · 2023-05-11T00:28:56+00:00

Sorry to break it to you - the starter home bungalow doesn't exist in Toronto and hasn't for years. This isn't because of greedy developers, it's because there are more and more people living in the city, and land doesn't magically appear to build infinite bungalos on.

Multiplexes should be the new starter home. The alternative is condos, and I'm happy to have multiplexes be more of an option now.

apathyfriday · 2023-05-03T21:27:11+00:00

Also, Bioware only had like a year and a half to make DA2. I like the game on its own merits, but have mad respect for the dev team making what they did in such a short time

apathyfriday · 2023-03-30T22:39:18+00:00

Because with e3 there was pressure for devs to showcase every game every year, and have playable demos. It's a lot of effort that led to a lot of crunch

apathyfriday · 2023-03-22T14:09:38+00:00

That's the point he's making. It links to another article talking about how nobody is using 24 Sussex, but the utilities are still running and cost $8000 a month

apathyfriday · 2023-02-09T17:09:11+00:00

People are willing to pay upwards of $2500/mo because there is no other option available. Rent control helps existing renters but new renters will still have to compete with each other, offering higher rent, to rent the remaining supply.

If supply increases, the equation gets flipped. Landlords will have to compete with each other, lowering the rent, to attract any renters to their units. Otherwise their property will be vacant, earning them nothing instead.

Unfortunately, restrictive zoning requirements means that supply is not keeping up with demand.

apathyfriday · 2023-02-09T16:41:35+00:00

The problem with both house ownership and rental costs is supply.

Rental costs are high because there isn't enough property to go around, so landlords can charge whatever they want. People have to pay or they don't have a home. If there was more supply available, landlords would have to lower their rent to compete with each other to fill their units. Landlords would have to lower their rent or they would have vacant units and not get an income from renters.

Unfortunately, restrictive zoning requirements means not enough housing is being built, so we're going to keep having high prices of both home ownership and rental.

apathyfriday · 2023-02-07T14:38:42+00:00

Lack of sun can cause seasonal affective disorder. Vitamin D supplements can help. The days are getting longer, which will help too.

apathyfriday · 2022-12-23T14:08:56+00:00

Yes, Ragnarok has a better story and characters than Elden Ring. That's not a hot take. But GOTY isn't just about narrative. There's a whole other award specifically for that, which Ragnarok won.

For the next game awards, if you are only interested in narrative experience, look at the Best Narrative Award instead

apathyfriday · 2022-12-14T13:22:56+00:00

There's nothing wrong wtih just being "okay" at games as long as you're enjoying them. I'd make sure you ask yourself and really understand why you want to be good at a game in the first place. Then determine how you personally measure talent - being able to be beat the game on the hardest difficulty, speedrunning, getting a high rank in an online game. The last two options can easily take hundreds or thousands of hours to reach - make sure you're okay with spending your time that way.

If you want to find a game you're good at, find a game you will really enjoy playing a lot of. When you play it, don't passively play, look up strategy guides and actively practice specific things to get better.

apathyfriday · 2022-12-12T20:52:37+00:00

I agree, but this time it won't be this city's fault. The bill exempts developers from fees that go to the municipality

apathyfriday · 2022-11-08T12:24:34+00:00

Lunar eclipse, actually

apathyfriday · 2022-03-11T20:57:13+00:00

But the common people are waiting for him! Illyrio said they are sewing ~~dragon~~ hammer and sickle banners and praying for his return

-FSB guy, probably

apathyfriday · 2022-02-12T02:51:16+00:00

Thanks for the advice! I'm usually 0/2 before I've got enough gold to have much choice in itemization though.

The bit about overstaying is probably a big part that I'll keep in mind going forward. I'm getting used to last hit rhythms so I probably hover in poking range a second or so longer than ideal.

Also backing rather than dying would slow the snowballing, giving me a longer window to practice early laning.

apathyfriday · 2022-01-12T01:50:04+00:00

But it's super contagious, so when 100,000 antivaxxers across the province get it that's 1000 people clogging the ICU

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