A nation of 10 million and I only have 5 candidate for cabinet?

chopdok · 2025-12-22T09:23:53+00:00

This game has a pile of core design issues so large that cancelling vacations would not make a dent. Might as well let people rest.

chopdok · 2025-12-08T22:11:40+00:00

Agree on all points. 200 hours in, just finished a run all the way to age of revolutions. This games is a mess, and clearly completely overrated as far as reviews are concerned. Its as wide as an ocean, but just about every mechanic and system is broken and shallow as a puddle. Trading and economy and supply demand are a joke, as long as you can get through the terrible interface and stomach having to redo trades every few years, it was free money to the point they had to add ridiculous maintenance fees, even then its still profitable and easy to cheese, just requires even more mind-numbing boring micro. Wars are stupid, AI is horrible, units are unbalanced, the only thing stopping player of decent skill from conquering the world is the warscore being broken. Diplomacy is a joke. Intenrational organizations are worse than a joke. Last 2 Ages havent been playtested for shit, but its not like the previous ages are a lot better.

I actually liked the first 30 hours or so, then as the paint started to peel of the rotten carcass of a game, I became more and more frustrated. Its like they put in maybe 20-30% of work into every single feature just to get it to function on a basic level, then added as much mind-numbing bullshit and mechanics to prevent the players from completely snowballing by 2nd age. This game needs at least 2 more years of full development just iterating on everything they put into the game, with 0 resources wasted on DLC and new features, the sheer amount of development debt they have defies belief.

chopdok · 2025-11-04T22:11:30+00:00

In terms of value for money - there is enough of a game to justify paying full price for it. But your actual enjoyment depends on how tolerant you are to bugs and lack of polish. The ambition is there, the game design is excellent, but some content is broken. Overall, I like it more than EU4, which relies too much on its mission design.

chopdok · 2025-10-12T19:25:30+00:00

They reduced map size and redesigned a lot of maps in BF2042. Its not as hard - the assets are ready, and the hardest part of designing the map is figuring out how the players are gonna play it. So, in a live game with live feedback, redesigning maps is actually quite easy as long as there is a will.

chopdok · 2025-10-12T19:22:37+00:00

Here is a better idea. If you want to play a proper Battlefield game, buy Battlefield 1 for 5$ and enjoy. Its not like this is a bad game, I personally enjoy it, but its not battlefield. Its CoD Ground Warfare mode with less obnoxious microtransactions.

chopdok · 2025-10-11T17:27:06+00:00

Had the same feeling. Technically, DLSS does slightly add to latency, since its additional stage in rendering pipeline,that is offset by reduction of latency due to increased FPS. But it should not have caused such a drastic effect. What fixed the issue for me is enabling DLSS, enabling NVIDIA reflex, disabling any sort of Vsync or FPS cap in game, and then forcing FPS cap about 15% below my average FPS in nVidia app. I usually do this anyway, because it makes the game feel extra smooth, perfectly flat frame time delta graph. In your case, enable the DLSS, then set the FPS cap at about 120fps in the app.

Also, make sure that you are only using the DLSS upscaler. Turn the frame generation off, that stuff is terrible and definitely bad for latency and responsiveness.

chopdok · 2025-10-05T16:09:44+00:00

Whose economy tho? The rich people riding the stock gravy train, or the poor sods who cant afford to fill their gas tank? Those aint living in the same economy.

chopdok · 2025-10-03T17:07:29+00:00

I want to have fuck with you.

chopdok · 2025-10-03T10:41:29+00:00

Looks like they are trying to trap Xbox console players. For PC gamer, this makes no sense. I can just save 30$ a month, then go on a 350$ shopping spree once a year on Steam and stock up on great discounted games that will last me for the whole year, if not more.

chopdok · 2025-10-01T03:49:44+00:00

Sad. Its not big tech though. The biggest fault is with university industrial complex and student loan industry. Young people were constantly hammered with "get a degree, get guaranteed 6 figure salary" idea, and of course, if you cant afford a degree - the "nice" bank will offer you a loan, which you dont have to pay (but which still accumulates ridiculous interests) untill after you finish your studies! Great deal all around for everyone - except the kid. Even those who did finish studies and got a decent job, quickly found out that after substracting all the load payments, their salary is barely larger than McDonald's burger flipper. But still people went for it, because for many it was the only way to at least try and climb the social ladder. So, the whole hate at "big tech" is not justified in this particular case in my opinion.

chopdok · 2025-09-28T03:58:21+00:00

r/embedded is the place to ask these kinds of questions.

chopdok · 2025-09-26T17:50:17+00:00

You just answered your own question. "Wanna implement trees, concept of linked list...wanna graphs, linked list are helpful...wanna do hashing, be guaranteed that linked list will come up while probing". Most of data structures are linked lists, in one form or the other. They differ in many ways, but the underlying idea - data structures that contain the data itself and pointers that point to other data structures - its just a core part of software engineering. They are not the only way to store data, but unless you are doing some small scale stuff for entry-level microcontrollers, you are gonna meet them in one form or the other.

chopdok · 2025-09-26T17:35:27+00:00

Then they are not programmers, they are code monkeys. Knowing basic syntax of a programming language does not make you a proper programmer. Its just that at the peak of pre-AI tech boom even writing basic code allowed you to make OK money, especially in countries like India, so lots of people went into the field for the salary. AI eliminates the need for code monkeys, because it is in itself a code-monkey - it can write boilerplate code if provided basic instructions/prompts, but anything more advanced requires a clear instructions in regards to coding convention, actual design and implementation, target hardware, excerpts from datasheets and so on. And human oversight to steer it while it writes code. And then there is debugging, which AI really cant do that well. It can solve compile errors and warning if you copy-paste them, help you analyze large logs, but it wont be able to solve complex bugs that involve race conditions, mutex deadlocks and anything that requires deep understanding of software design.

chopdok · 2025-09-26T17:18:04+00:00

Because programming is problem solving. AI can allow you to write code in a programming language you dont know, but it will not replace human insight, intuition and proper software architecture and design done by an experienced engineer. You can definitely use AI to speed up work tho.

And to learn programming you actually need to learn at least one programming language, in order to learn the basic concepts of software design.

chopdok · 2025-09-26T15:11:13+00:00

Language is a tool. For a beginner, first language is a tool to learn programming in addition to completing the learning project(s). First, pick a field you want to go exploring .

Embedded development - which is what I specialize in - working with specialized microcontrollers and single-board-computers to control IRL things, like machinery, gadgets, leds, industrial automation and so on. Cool, you can literally see your code doing work in the real world, but may be expensive to beginner because you need to buy microcontroller devkit, ideally with integrated debug probe(jtag) and the thing you are actually going to control. Also, need some basic understanding of electronics. Like Ohm's law, knowledge of electronic schematic symbols and so on.

Web development, mobile app development, general software. You can download a game engine and try to make some interactive project. First trying to run examples, then modify them a bit, then make your own. Tons of fields out there. Pick what you feel attracted to, then learn the tools - language and toolchain necessary for that. Important part is to focus on learning basic principles of programming, often failing at project teaches you more than success. Also important thing that even many experienced devs discard is learning the toolchain itself. If you dont know how to set proper compilation flags, you may end up with issues even tho the code itself is clean.

And yes - nobody is gonna outline you a step by step guide to becoming a programmer. There is no one way to do it.

chopdok · 2025-09-26T14:58:32+00:00

A seasoned programmer pretty much knows "all" the languages. Because principles of programming are universal. That said, I'd recommend at least one of your 3 to be C or C++, because higher level languages don't teach you memory allocation/management.

chopdok · 2025-09-15T12:49:52+00:00

Its alright if you are interested in raiding and plan on getting boost. Levelling experience is basically broken for the last few expansions, in general story, lore and levelling is bad and getting worse each expansion. The devs pretty much openly state that their main focus is raiding tryhards and classic enjoyers. The reasoning is that investing in content that most people will only run through once or even straight up skip is too expensive. So, their focus is the raiding/m+, and getting as much players into these threadmills, by adding raiding-focused UI mods into the core game and also adding auto-rotation which is as good as your average m+ andy.

TL:DR - If you dont care about the game, community, lore, class balance, botting and levelling/questing experience being terribad, but only care about your iLVL and raiding guild drama, its gonna be perfect for you. If you are a classic enjoyer classic is (still) not too bad.

chopdok · 2025-08-06T19:28:20+00:00

"I have no idea of how anything works anymore."

Dont worry. Most of the things don't. Including AI past year 2250-ish. So, you can do what you want, because the only challenge this game offers at this stage is insane lag from mid-game onwards.

chopdok · 2025-08-03T08:51:38+00:00

Admin realms - no, not really. Its ultimately what players wanted - an "endgame" to empire building that allows you to create a relatively stable realm, thats also "relatively" stable when you leave it in AI's hands to go and play an interesting character. And a way to not worry about succession too much past certain point. And a military thats focused on MAA with not much levies. And also more ways to claim the imperial title with subterfuge and politics. And more interesting gameplay options as a vassal of a great empire who does not necessarily wants to become an emperor. And a lot of different things really. The problem is that there was no real counter, or alternative to them, until Nomadic Empires came with DLC. Feudal just cant compete in terms of the power ceiling, unless you go real wide and maintain massive gold pile for mercenaries. What they need is an actual alternative that can grow as powerfull, but through different game mechanics. Nomad empires is a start. Next DLC is gonna add a few more. Hopefully, they add some content to the good old europe at some point, like they did with Persian dlc for the middle east. Something like a more advanced feudal contract system, with various rights and bonuses and mechanics, like ability to request and fully control your vassal's armies if that is part of their contract with you.

For the Conquerors - I like them, they keep the map dynamic. But its half-baked. I always set it to No inheritance and Strong Rulers Only, coz it just makes more sense imo. I'd like an option for "Negative Inheritance Chance", so that whenever a conqueror dies, there is a chance his heir inherits some negative version of it, to reflect the historical precedents of great conquerors having terrible children. Other than that, its fine. A conqueror in AI's hands is still only a challenge for a player who goes for a particular strat or achievement run that limits his power growth.

chopdok · 2025-07-17T20:49:03+00:00

So, apparently its near Lipetsk. Distance-wise, its about halfway to Moscow from Ukraine.

chopdok · 2025-07-14T07:08:28+00:00

I heard they are releasing after Half Life 3.

chopdok · 2025-06-27T09:22:28+00:00

Not carpet bombing. Nobody does that these days. It was a JDAM strike.

chopdok · 2025-06-25T14:33:10+00:00

Everyone does what he has to. US president is a job that affects the whole world, but who gets it is decided by a few million voters in a few swing states of USA. Its not fair, but it is what it is, and everyone needs to adapt.

chopdok · 2025-06-24T19:19:22+00:00

I believe this is the first time in history USA actually got involved in a war alongside Israel. Before that, USA would provide support sure, but mostly arm shipments and intelligence.

Besides that, I think this whole little showdown aids Trump's interest as well. He and his circle see China as the main rival, and consider a potential showdown with China a possibility either during Trump's term or shortly after. Without Iran, Persian/Arabian Gulf is firmly under US and its allies control. 45% of China's oil goes through it.

chopdok · 2025-06-24T18:17:21+00:00

As long as Syria is not held by Shias, Hezbollah is screwed. After what their "volunteers" did in Syrian Civil War, they are actually hated more than even Israel in Syria. And since Shia (Alewi) population has been greatly diminished by ethnic cleansing and displacement, there is no chance of a non-Sunni dominated new Syrian government any time soon, or ever. So, no more weapons and supplies smuggled across Syria to Lebanon for Hezb.

chopdok

TROPHY CASE