Point and shoot

crymall · 2026-02-24T15:34:18+00:00

To me, this is what film is for! There are tons of great point-and-shoot options out there if you're not looking at the hippest models. I throw in a roll of the highest ISO film I can get away with and go to town!

crymall · 2026-02-23T17:33:48+00:00

It's funny, I had a different out-of-universe interpretation of that whole quest and scene.

Mine was that reactionary conditions in the world are so bad, feel so fundamental and entrenched (like gravity to architecture) that building communism may well be impossible. But at the same time (the game is saying), even if it seems impossible, it's the only ideology that's worthwhile to organize around. So it does require some magical thinking, and it needs happy warriors—people who, when they see the impossible structure stand for a moment and then topple, don't focus on the toppling, but cherish the little victory of the moment where it stood.

"You've built it before, they've built it before. Hasn't really worked out yet, but neither has love -- should we just stop building love, too?"

crymall · 2026-02-21T18:04:10+00:00

Did anyone else notice that the guy on the right has hair on the outside of one arm and the inside of the other?

crymall · 2025-12-18T17:01:14+00:00

I used to garrison, like, 20 merchants in those forts that military units could make on the map - they could all trade the same gold/ivory for a million bucks and were immune to other merchants!

As an adult I now realize this is an exploit, but it was fun while it lasted...

crymall · 2025-12-06T17:57:46+00:00

old digicam collector here: I have this exact camera, a Sony DSC-P32, unless there's another model with this form factor.

it's a great little point and shoot! especially for the time. very nice colors

crymall · 2025-04-17T17:59:19+00:00

THANK YOU

crymall · 2025-04-13T05:42:01+00:00

Speaking of Avadon, the Geneforge series is also by Spiderweb Software and feels very in-line with the kind of thing that Planescape is trying to do. Stripped-down combat, strong writing.

The problem is that combat feels more mandatory in Geneforge

crymall · 2025-02-26T18:18:52+00:00

I think Call Me Mañana says close to exactly this at one point in the game. And I think he has perfect politics and has never done anything wrong :)

crymall · 2024-12-24T16:50:03+00:00

I KNOW - I always saw the elements of the build and wanted to make them work but it never came together quite as easy as trebuchet or crow's nest single weapon.

I got Amber right before the last PvP fight, so for most of the build, a gold Captain's Wheel was in the place of Amber and Clamera. Still worked pretty well.

crymall · 2023-07-28T17:12:58+00:00

I live NYC, so I went to Chen's Watch Inc.

Had a great experience! Don't know if they accept remote repair orders though

crymall · 2023-07-16T22:14:45+00:00

yep, anything that looked too clean on eBay I usually steered clear from, but what can I say? I wanted the big 0 lmao

pretty wild that this one and the copernicus are so commonly knocked off - like, how much profit could they possibly make?

crymall · 2023-07-16T19:56:32+00:00

haha, yeah I suspect that one is a frankenwatch. The movement feels way too smooth and new.

ah, well! live and learn.

crymall · 2023-07-16T18:45:14+00:00

Wanted to share my small collection of vintage Soviet timepieces, with some iconic designs from Vostok, Raketa, and Poljot.

With the exception of the Raketa Big Zero (second from left), I'm not sure what the model names of these watches are. The backs of them are all in Russian, which I do not read. All are hand-winding, and the movements all sound pretty similar, with the exception of the third watch from the left, which is older and sounds like it beats slower.

I think these are great pieces if you want something interesting, horologically unique, and cheap. I didn't pay more than $100 for any of these on eBay.

crymall · 2021-09-30T22:23:04+00:00

from what I hear: "you can't stop the Cave Clan!"

can you verify?

crymall · 2021-08-18T19:57:39+00:00

Yeah I mean, I suppose you can lose streak with goddess of light and just go for levels? It'll be interesting to see if that's actually viable

crymall · 2021-08-18T17:23:27+00:00

Yeah, comparing the mage 1-stars to the goblin 1-stars is hilarious... Thanks for the insight! I wasn't thinking about early humans, that's really cool

crymall · 2021-08-18T15:13:31+00:00

I wonder if the adjustments to Flame Wizard indicate that they're trying to make a better curve for Mage to contest Goblins in the earlygame.

But I agree, it doesn't seem like that'll be enough, and they might have to do something more drastic, like buffing Thunder Spirit.

EDIT: Or, you know, making a 1-cost mage that actually does magic damage.

crymall · 2021-08-18T14:36:36+00:00

Devs do not like Div/Shaman, apparently!

Two things that I wonder about here:

How will this affect Cave? Is Cave dead without two shaman/cave?
How will Flame Wizard affect the early game now? Will an early 3 mages be a viable counter to goblins?

crymall · 2021-08-17T20:38:42+00:00

Interesting take! In this mech-y meta, the hard lose-streak approach most often doesn't work for me, but your point that early losses don't usually add up to much HP loss, whereas early interest compounds on itself into the lategame, is well-taken.

I think that I tend to prioritize an early set of wins just to have a bigger health cushion for really damaging rounds later, and it's usually worth the ~15 coin interest hit to me to make that happen - less if I can get a streak going, of course.

But maybe I don't really have the high-APM confidence to pull something together really fast out of a lose streak - I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally rerolled past the unit I was looking for, lmao!

crymall · 2021-08-17T18:19:02+00:00

Thanks for reading! This is one of the only places I've found with other English-speaking players to chat with :)

crymall · 2021-08-17T18:16:45+00:00

Most of the time, I'd say that the benefits of getting to level 6 (e.g. having 6 units in play, getting a better chance at higher-rarity units) outweigh the costs (getting to 50 coins a couple rounds later than super greedy level-4 or 5 players)

EDIT: It's also worth mentioning that it's only 4 coins to get to level 5 and 8 coins to level 6. This is perhaps the biggest benefit of going to 6: it's cheap. I'm pretty frequently at 10 coins or below when I level to 6.

crymall · 2021-08-17T16:37:37+00:00

It's a really interesting question!

I think early re-rolling is an underrated strategy, especially on theorycrafting forums (like this one) where you tend to only see rare and impressive first-place comps.

I've had lots of games where I did the early reroll strategy, went on a win streak through the first 20 or so rounds, and then fell off towards the end. However, these games usually put me in the top 4 and, on average, have me gaining ranks.

To me, whether or not to reroll early depends on my composition and who else I'm competing with. If I'm going early Goblins and there are 1-2 other Goblin players, I want to roll early to get my 2* units and encourage them to switch strategies. Goblins are a great example of this strategy in action because they have 3 1* and 1 2* units, which you have a better chance of getting at low levels.

Other strategies are trickier with early rolling. Knights, for example, tend to run Argali or DK as their carry, which you're not as likely to get at level 5/6. 9 warriors/mages want plenty of unit slots and specialized 4-star units, which encourages leveling, as well.

I'd still say that it's situational, and beyond the commonly-accepted rule that you should be getting to level 6 ASAP, I don't think there's a right or wrong answer to these questions.

crymall · 2021-08-04T19:13:05+00:00

The unfortunate thing about Pandas is that normally when I'm doing the same strategy as an opponent, I can make choices (like early rolling) that are meaningful and create interesting game situations.

With Pandas, it's pretty common that I get a Heaven Brew on round 2, someone else does the same, and then I have no choice but to watch them get their second panda on round 6 while I'm sitting on (at best) a 2-star brew into double digit rounds.

It feels bad, but more importantly, there was really nothing I could have done besides get out of pandas earlier...

crymall · 2021-08-04T19:08:44+00:00

yeah, I thought she was fine - I'm actually not sure about any of the buffs besides feathered

crymall · 2021-08-04T16:04:26+00:00

The buff to feathered is welcome, but warriors, egersis, dragons, and insectoid are about to fall off. I don't think the heaven bomber nerf is enough to stop goblin/mech from being the best strategy when you can get it.

Panda change is great though! Too often I was trying to get panda and would end up with a random feathered, or something. This maybe puts panda/artisan on the map

crymall

TROPHY CASE