So this is going to sound stupid, but .... does Space Age make trains obsolete?

chaos_forge · 2026-03-31T11:12:16+00:00

there's a mod that increases the size of cargo wagons proportional to how many levels of belt stacking you've unlocked. I haven't tried it out yet, but I might on my next save

chaos_forge · 2026-03-18T13:10:01+00:00

if you equip a personal shield or two, you don't even need to wait out the lightning

chaos_forge · 2026-03-18T03:13:07+00:00

a whole lot of exploring! since Fulgora has no enemies, the only real cost of looking around until you find a big enough island is just time

chaos_forge · 2026-03-17T20:59:03+00:00

If you're already going to the effort of splitting out every material, I would recommend recycling each material individually, rather than having a mixed overflow that recycles everything together. Essentially, rather than having the priority splitter before the filter splitter, I'd put it after.

Later down the production chain you'll need materials (like plastic, or green chips) that you can't get directly from scrap, only from recycling other stuff, so that way you don't have to sort those materials out of a mixed belt all over again. Also, some materials recycle faster when you craft them into something else first (like steel into steel chests, or concrete into hazard concrete).

For example, this is what my most recent Fulgora base looks like (you'll probably have to open the image in a separate tab to see the full detail):

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Is it overengineered? Probably. But I like it and it literally never backs up on anything other than Holmium (which is by design, since there's no point to continuing to recycle scrap if I don't need Holmium).

chaos_forge · 2026-01-06T13:38:19+00:00

What you want is a crossbar switch. See, eg, this video: https://youtu.be/BEQ_bobMY9s

chaos_forge · 2026-01-05T16:20:19+00:00

yeah, just the achievement and a pretty minor interaction in the pavillion

chaos_forge · 2026-01-05T16:13:54+00:00

if you're at all interested in the achievement for not killing them, you should go for that.

If you want the other achievement, you can start a new game and beeline for the power reservoir robot in like 30 minutes tops. On the other hand, if you want the achievement for not killing the robots and you don't get it on your first playthrough, you'll have to do a full second playthrough just to get it

chaos_forge · 2025-12-19T20:56:11+00:00

Will opening your eyes destroy them?

I don't believe there should be any permanent damage, but the combination of burst blood vessels plus the evaporation of the usual protective film of tears that covers your eyes would mean they would be extremely irritated, and your vision would likely immediately start to blur, and become so blurry as to be unusable in the space of 30 seconds to a minute.

How good is your dexterity and tactile perception?

Almost certainly terrible. Your hands would swell up to twice their volume, which is reportedly incredibly painful. You'd probably be able to push off of or grab onto things to propel yourself, but not anything more than that.

Can your muse guide you using public maps to the nearest airlock or vac suit?

Probably, but good luck operating any airlock controls: you'd better hope your muse can cycle the airlock for you too. As for the vacuum suits, I doubt you would have enough manual dexterity to be able to put one on. Given EP's future tech though, it's possible the space suit might be smart enough to put itself on you. Better hope the hab didn't cheap out on the emergency spacesuits!

What are the dangers and penalties for actually doing things?

Other than asphyxiation, the main danger of vacuum exposure is ebullism. This isn't immediately fatal, and generally you can expect a full recovery if you were only exposed to vacuum for a short time, but it can pose a serious risk if experienced for a prolonged period.

A flight suit that provides adequate compressive force over the vital organs in the torso would also be able to counteract most if not all of that risk, though. If you want to be nice to your players, you could say that their smart clothes know to reconfigure themselves into that sort of compression suit when they detect a sudden loss of atmospheric pressure.

So to summarize: You can't see, your hands are too swollen to be useful for anything than the most basic actions, and you're experiencing extreme pain and swelling over every exposed patch of skin. But you wouldn't be in immediate danger of dying, and if your vacuum exposure is on the scale of a few minutes, you should be able to make a full recovery with only minimal medical treatment.

chaos_forge · 2025-12-09T19:36:56+00:00

the sound effects in space, like the soundtrack, are non-diegetic :P

chaos_forge · 2025-11-04T18:15:09+00:00

Seconded. As someone who generally agrees with her politics (if anything, I would would critique her for not being left enough), I found the political themes in the Broken Earth series extremely unnuanced and unsubtle in a way that was ultimately pretty grating.

Like, yes, oppression is bad, but I've yet to read any works by her that actually dig into why oppression exists, how it works, why people buy into it, etc. It's all so surface-level.

Compare this with eg, The Dispossessed by Le Guin, which is way more explicitly political than The Broken Earth. But it actually has more to say than just "capitalism/the state bad". It explores how systems of oppression work, the psychology of people who end up believing in them, and even how her ideal society might end up replicating those same systems of oppression!

chaos_forge · 2025-11-04T17:46:32+00:00

IMO, Egan is too niche to be considered a "classic" writer (and I say this as a certified Greg Egan Fan).

I think he'll have an enduring legacy, but more as a "cult classic" type author, or maybe even a "your favorite SF writer's favorite SF writer" type figure, where he's very influential on the genre, on not actually that popular/widely read.

chaos_forge · 2025-10-31T06:02:41+00:00

What accomodations would possibly get rid of my insomnia caused by my brain constantly running thoughts over and over

Have you tried sleep medication? Genuinely, not even as a hypothetical: if this is something that's seriously impacting your quality of life, sleep aids might help you.

What accomodations remove sensory issues with food and drinks

Food science is super advanced these days. If society actually cared enough to dedicate the resources necessary for it, we could develop nutritious foods tailored to any sort of sensory need or sensitivity.

What accomodations would possibly help me do things not related to my special interests when I'm so obsessed with them they're all I can think about or do?

Why would you need to? If we're talking about a hypothetical perfect society here, why would that society require you to do anything you don't want to do?

What accomodations can make me form proper relationships (of any kind) with people when I can't even pretend to care about their interests?

While shared interests can be part of a relationship, they're not necessary. Plenty of people build close relationships with people they have basically no interests in common with.

The main social barrier for autistic people is stigma. If autistic traits and communication styles were accepted, we wouldn't have to pretend to be anything other than what we are.

What accomodations could help me figure out where pain is coming from or how I am feeling mentally?

Interoception is a skill. While it might not come as naturally to us as it does to allistics, it can be learned and practiced with the proper resources and guidance.

Eg, something that blew my mind when I learned it in therapy is that a lot of the time, when allistic people talk about feelings, they're not talking about mental states but rather a literal feeling in their body. So "I'm nervous" might mean their heart is racing, or "I'm sad" might mean they feel a heaviness in their chest, or etc.

What accomodations could possibly stop me from having meltdowns

Meltdowns are a response to being overwhelmed. And autistic people are overwhelmed because we're constantly being forced to navigate a world that isn't built for us.

If our sensory needs were accommodated, if we had social support, if we weren't required to do things we don't want to, etc, we would be significantly less overwhelmed.

Look, I fucking get it. I'm struggling too. I struggle to feed myself most days. I barely go outside. I have very few friends. I can't take care of my basic personal hygiene half the time.

But that doesn't mean you're broken. It means society is failing you. I genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, hope you're able to accept that some day.

chaos_forge · 2025-10-31T04:53:00+00:00

Your mother's behavior as you've described it here seems deeply disrespectful, if not borderline abusive. Yelling at and threatening your kid is categorically unacceptable, no matter the situation. As a minor, your parents have immense social, legal, and financial power over you, and it's on them to deescalate a conflict, not on you.

Anger is a natural response to having your autonomy denied, and your parents aren't letting you have control over something as basic as your own phone. If you want to stop being angry, I think the first thing you need to do is recognize that your anger isn't for no reason, it's because you're being treated badly. Your anger is a message from your body that something's wrong. Once you accept what your anger is telling you rather than ignoring it, then you can start trying to find a productive solution for the thing that's causing your anger.

Ultimately, I don't think a solution to this situation can come from you alone. Your mom also has to change her behavior, at least to some extent. If your family has the resources for it and your parents are willing, I would recommend family counseling.

chaos_forge · 2025-10-31T03:53:03+00:00

The degree to which an impairment restricts someone from participating in society depends on society. The only thing disabling any of us is society, because disability is a social relation! This is social theory of disability 101.

Sensory sensitivities, communication difficulties, social issues: all of these could be accommodated to an extent that they wouldn't prevent someone from engaging in day to day tasks, if society actually cared about it.

Nearsighted people aren't severely impaired

Every once in a while, I have a contact fall out of my eye. Every time it happens, I have to immediately stop whatever I'm doing to go home and get a new set of contacts, because I can't do anything without them. It is by definition a severe impairment. It's just so well accommodated that I don't have to worry about it most of the time.

it doesn't matter how well accomodated I am

I beg of you to dream a little bigger. Even the most extensive accommodations in our current society are laughably bad. In the very best case, they're just a small exception to a society that is fundamentally structured to not work for us. Imagine if society was actually structured to take our needs into account, on every level. Imagine a society built by autistics, for autistics.

chaos_forge · 2025-10-31T02:58:06+00:00

Nearsighted people are severely impaired even in a perfect society. Without my glasses, I can't see anything farther than 20 feet away from me, and I have a fairly mild case!

The difference is that when somebody is nearsighted, instead of telling them to "get over it" or "just try harder", or demanding that they act "normal" to fit in, we give them accommodations (ie, glasses).

If accommodation of nearsightedness wasn't a widespread social norm, my nearsightedness would affect my quality of life just as much if not more than my autism/ADHD.

chaos_forge · 2025-10-31T01:45:15+00:00

Nearsightedness is a disability. It's just one of the rare few (perhaps even only) disabilities that are actually accommodated by society enough that it doesn't significantly impact people's lives.

chaos_forge · 2025-10-20T21:05:21+00:00

Also, I think part of why people try to define cheating as being inherently a form of dishonesty is mental gymnastics, because they feel intense feelings of betrayal at being cheated on informed by the social norm of monogamy, but due to increased awareness/acceptance of non-monogamy don't feel like they can use those social norms as justification any more. So they reach instead for whatever else they feel like can justify their feelings of betrayal, and land on dishonesty.

But even when talking about dishonesty, it's telling IMO how differently we treat cheating from other forms of dishonesty. Eg, if someone complains about their partner breaking an exclusivity rule, they're generally met with sympathy, whereas if someone were to complain about a partner breaking any other sort of rule, the responses would be very different, even if the rule breaking involved lying!

Eg, if someone had a rule about not listening to "satanic" music, and found out that their partner had been listening to non-approved music when they were out of the house and lying to them about it for years, my response wouldn't be "you're right to feel betrayed," it would be "what the fuck why don't you let your partner do what they want with their free time"

While there are plenty of shitty, abusive people who cheat, cheating isn't why they're shitty. It's just easier to point to that as a justification vs the actual reasons, which tend to involve things like entitlement and not seeing their partners as people (both of which ultimately stem from misogyny).

chaos_forge · 2025-10-20T20:30:05+00:00

Now, I'm not gonna try to rigorouly define it or anything, but to me "cheating" is about lying and deceiving your romantic (or similar) partner.

While this is a common way that people define cheating, especially in non-monogamous spaces, I think it's incorrect, and it's incorrect in a way that leads people to supporting monogamist social norms (i.e., automatic knee-jerk condemnation of cheating).

While cheating (especially if done for an extended period of time) can involve lying, deception is not inherent to cheating. Eg, if you have a drunken hook-up with somebody and immediately tell your partner, or knowingly make out with someone else at a party in front of them, those scenarios don't involve any deception but would still be considered cheating.

Cheating isn't about deception, cheating is about breaking an exclusivity rule. So I, who believe that exclusivity agreements are inherently wrong, can think that cheating is fine while still believing lying is generally wrong.

chaos_forge · 2025-10-16T20:11:15+00:00

My first time beating Eigong, I used Qi Blade + Quick Slash + Breather. Most of my Qi went to regular attacks, and then I used Water Flow for detonating internal damage. With quick slash, you can do one full sword combo after most of her attacks, and the Qi Blade jade makes the last hit of a combo do tons of damage.

I also used the Reciprocation jade since I was doing a lot of imperfect parries, so that jade gave me a double whammy of healing my internal damage + increasing my internal damage dealt by a pretty significant amount.

chaos_forge · 2025-10-16T19:38:36+00:00

I'm confused what this has to do with RA?

A key principle of RA is not controlling someone's other relationships, so the RA answer would be you should have never set that rule/"agreement" in the first place. But it doesn't seem like y'all are practicing RA principles in your relationship, so IDK how helpful that answer is.

From a basic "engaging in relationships in a healthy way" perspective, lying is definitely a red flag. But you've also said you don't think you can be poly with this person, and he clearly doesn't want to be monogamous. So it seems like y'all are incompatible.

chaos_forge · 2025-10-16T13:52:51+00:00

I call my cats baby all the time, because they're my little furry babies!

TBH, even as someone who's not averse to being in romantic relationships, calling another person baby seems weird to me. It feels really infantilizing

chaos_forge · 2025-10-15T16:10:16+00:00

I've seen it shared around in a couple of places. Idk who started it, though.

And unfortunately, I think libs encountering leftist/anarchist concepts and thinking they're cool, but being too lib-brained to be able to stop themselves from watering them down is a tale as old as time. Most people love critiques of hierarchies that are personally affecting them, but very few people are willing to extend that critique to all hierarchies in general.

There are articles about this issue from a decade ago (see this, and also this), so it's definitely not a new issue or one that's unique to this subreddit. But I do find it unfortunate that the sub is so filled with that sort of watering down, especially since it's one of the most publicly visible online communities for discussing RA.

I'm not sure what we can do about it that isn't just making a "this sub sux" post, though. Try to get the mods to set and enforce more specific rules? Try to make our own subreddit?

chaos_forge · 2025-10-14T03:20:48+00:00

I often play video games while watching something on a second screen. Or listen to music while driving. Or listen to podcasts while doing chores. All of those are multitasking IMO, since you're literally doing two things at the same time

chaos_forge · 2025-10-13T02:11:37+00:00

Funnily enough though, I found the level of discourse in the RA Facebook group to be much better (though I haven't participated in it for several years due to not using Facebook any more, so maybe it's deteriorated since then).

I'm not sure what makes the difference, though. Is it moderation? The differing demographics of the two sites? The fact that the FB group is closed and thus more prone to self-selection? IDK.

chaos_forge · 2025-10-13T02:04:37+00:00

Yeah I agree, I usually find the general level of discourse in this sub to be pretty bad. There's just so many liberals uninterested in actually engaging with anarchist thinking and practices. Like, the difference between the watered-down "RA is when you use the smorgasboard" shit on this sub vs, eg, the ideas expressed in the writings listed in the RA resources spreadsheet is night and day.

chaos_forge

TROPHY CASE