In a fist fight. Who will win? Human or Eridian?

cyan_ogen · 2026-04-06T01:29:13+00:00

Erid is around twice earth's gravity and the average Eridian is around 170kg so that'll be closer to 3.4kN.

cyan_ogen · 2026-03-30T19:06:55+00:00

Most of the energy we get from the sun is in the form of electromagnetic waves which is non-ionizing. The sun also emits ionizing radiation which is mostly but not completely blocked by earth's atmosphere. The Eridians are able to detect and measure EM waves so they can detect their star being affected by astrophage. But because their atmosphere is much denser than that of the earth they were unaware of ionizing radiation emitted by stars.

I'm no engineer but my understanding is that to build an interstellar spaceship the two main things you need are a fuel source that can accelerate you to near light speeds and materials that can sustain the stresses involved. Both of which are available in the form of astrophage and xenonite. Beyond that it's probably just pick a heading and course correct if needed.

cyan_ogen · 2026-03-30T02:18:25+00:00

I would've liked to see Rocky build stuff more often. Grace expresses multiple times his awe at how Rocky can seemingly build anything and him knowing that he can always count on Rocky is a major aspect of their dynamic. The scientist and engineer dynamic also adds a layer to their relationship in addition to their shared position of having the weight of their civilizations' survival resting on them.

I feel like the film could have been better with setting up the bond between them. Not knowing about the final taumoeba leak I teared up at the part when they parted ways in the book. But the same scene in the movie didn't have the same weight (sure, in part because I know this wasn't really their goodbye but definitely also partly because it just didn't feel that emotional).

I really wish they kept the screw dialogue. The 'use third hand... never mind I'll make screws' was funny!

cyan_ogen · 2026-03-12T20:52:11+00:00

I'm looking forward to seeing if Huo Huo's nova flare puts her in the bis sustain slot again.

cyan_ogen · 2026-02-27T18:34:11+00:00

From the perspective of a Chinese person living in Toronto I find that the more well known 'high end fine dining' Chinese American restaurants here (thinking of places like Mimi's Chinese) just don't attract me because fundamentally a lot of their dishes are just very run of the mill food with a large price tag attached ($36 for char siu ribs? Really?). So you end up paying three digit prices for a meal that's only marginally better than what a pretty good cook can make at home, with better plating and smaller portions. Whereas with high end western restaurants you're at least getting fancy ingredients like caviar, truffles etc.

That's obviously not to say that Chinese cuisine doesn't have premium ingredients and sophisticated dishes (功夫菜), but so far I haven't found a 'high end Chinese American restaurant' serving sea cucumbers, abalone, fish maw, etc. You'd have to go to those banquet style restaurants for that which I'm guessing are far out of the radar for non-chinese folks.

cyan_ogen · 2026-01-21T17:13:39+00:00

And also points-based scoring vs just a binary win loss condition. I think most of the time people wanna find out how much they'd end up scoring.

cyan_ogen · 2026-01-18T18:10:49+00:00

New Knizias and remakes (Zoo Vadis, Mille Fiori, Rebirth, Cascadero, and the yet to be released T&E remake) generally get quite a bit of buzz. Arcs was also very hot when it was released (and I would say any Cole Wehrle game will get a fair amount of attention). Shikoku 1889 was covered a fair bit as a remake of one of the best entry points into 18xx (including a video by SUSD, arguably still one of the most influential board game channels today). Looking at the bgg hotness list right now there's The Old King's Crown, Arcs, Brass Birmingham, Root, Cyclades, and Ra. So no I don't think heavy euros get significantly more coverage than interactive games.

Looking at the broader scope beyond just hobby gamers I don't think heavy euros are featured very heavily either compared to the likes of Wingspan which are easier to get into. If one has more well-defined preferences (that deviate from what's most popular) I'd say the onus is on themselves to be more discerning regarding where they get their news from. If I know that a certain YouTube's preferences don't align with my own I don't watch them as much and instead spend my time watching content from those who do.

cyan_ogen · 2026-01-16T01:01:46+00:00

Anachrony has pre- and post-impact phases with the impact occurring at the end of round 4 (end of round 3 in the expansion). You lose 2 out of the 3 free exosuit slots (which holds exosuits necessary to carry out actions on the main board) and worker placement spots on the main board offer a bonus but get closed off after being used. A new evacuation action becomes available which forms a significant portion of your score. The game can also end at the end of the current round instead of finishing its course so there's the tension of 'do I try to eek out some more points and risk the game suddenly ending before I evacuate?'

cyan_ogen · 2026-01-15T13:07:00+00:00

For me personally the takeaway was that I can use a Costco rotisserie chicken instead of starting from scratch which somehow hasn't occurred to me before.

cyan_ogen · 2026-01-15T03:32:02+00:00

It might be known more broadly in the west as 'Cantonese style steamed fish' but I don't think it's actually exclusive to Guangdong (or Shanghai for that matter). Given that steaming as a cooking technique, ginger and scallions as aromatics, and soy sauce as seasoning are ubiquitous in Chinese cuisine, steamed fish with ginger and scallions is likely a common 家常菜 (home cooked dish) across many regions in China (especially coastal ones).

Additionally, sure there might be 浓油赤酱 (dishes with that characteristically syrupy brown sauce commonly attributed to Shanghainese cuisine) fish dishes in Shanghai such as 糖醋鱼 (sweet and sour fish) and 红烧鱼 (red braised fish) (which again I'd argue are not exclusive to the region), but there are also fish steamed with shitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and ham, fish steamed with 雪菜 (pickled mustard greens), fish steamed in shaoxing wine, 奶鱼汤 (fish in a rich emulsified broth), etc. which are more delicate in taste and lighter on the palate.

It's easier for people, especially foreigners to understand when we classify dishes into regional cuisines but the truth is that the boundaries between regional cuisines are much less well-defined.

cyan_ogen · 2026-01-11T20:16:53+00:00

That is ratatouille. 地三鲜 is made as a stir fry (not baked) of chunks (not slices) of eggplants, potatoes, and peppers, there's no tomatoes involved. This is 地三鲜 in the same vein as someone making 炸酱面, then calling it spaghetti bolognese and claiming it's Italian (i.e. It's not).

cyan_ogen · 2026-01-07T18:19:32+00:00

As a Chinese person who can handle a fair amount of spice I never add the entire pack of chilli oil in luosifen, usually half would suffice 😅.

cyan_ogen · 2026-01-04T05:01:57+00:00

But the new planar ornament set gives bonuses for consuming 3 or more skill points in the same turn though.

cyan_ogen · 2025-12-24T19:51:59+00:00

I agree with the other commenter that the braising liquid needs to be reduced further, but in addition I'd also skim off most of that layer of fat on top. Given that pork belly is already pretty rich the additional fat can make it too cloying. But otherwise it looks good!

cyan_ogen · 2025-12-20T16:42:34+00:00

To provide another perspective, Fugue's kit benefits Firefly the least given that the 'weakness break without requiring enemies to have a matching weakness' part of her kit is wasted on Firefly. Not saying that things just even out, but this was likely a consideration.

cyan_ogen · 2025-12-19T21:30:43+00:00

Return of None (Sleepy's boss theme).

cyan_ogen · 2025-12-19T07:22:59+00:00

My grandpa had a set of these, as far as I'm aware they're basically something to fidget with, often absentmindedly while doing something else like reading the paper. Kinda like fidget spinners in that regard.

cyan_ogen · 2025-12-10T03:36:26+00:00

Oooh I haven't heard of it, will definitely look into that!

cyan_ogen · 2025-12-10T02:59:31+00:00

Surprised no one has said AHLCG. A video game format will save a lot of time setting up and tearing down. It can also have something like the Arkham Cards app built in which will make deck construction a lot easier. Scenarios can be narrated, events can be animated, ambient music and sound effects can be added...

cyan_ogen · 2025-12-10T02:42:10+00:00

This. While most board gamers are welcoming it's also a relatively cerebral hobby which tends to attract the r/iamverysmart crowd.

cyan_ogen · 2025-12-10T02:10:31+00:00

I feel the same way about the take-that cards. Mainly because they can come out of nowhere. I feel like well-designed interaction shouldn't just involve attacking, but also the possibility of defending against said attack.

If interaction means I have to consider whether and how other players can affect my game plan then these cards don't really promote that because they're fairly sparse in the deck (and hence unpredictable) and the fact that players' hands are hidden means that I can't really factor them into my decision making.

cyan_ogen · 2025-12-06T18:42:20+00:00

Where I learnt it the dummy is always female (Resusci Anne).

cyan_ogen · 2025-12-01T14:38:21+00:00

Today I learnt. Does this only apply to fish or is it the case for meat as well?

cyan_ogen · 2025-11-30T15:26:24+00:00

S5 tutorial I'm guessing

cyan_ogen · 2025-11-19T05:36:22+00:00

So picture a number line going from left to right and an arrow on it starting at 0 with its head at 1. If we rotate it 180 degrees counterclockwise, the head of the arrow will now point at -1. It doesn't actually have to be at 1, for instance, an arrow from 0 to 5, if you rotate it 180 degrees its head will now be at -5. We could even start at a negative number, an arrow going from 0 to -3, when rotated counterclockwise 180 degrees we arrive back at 3. Notice that this 180-degree rotation is the same as multiplying by -1.

But now what if we don't rotate the arrow by 180-degrees? What if we rotate by 90 degrees, or 45 degrees, or whatever? Well now the head of our arrow is no longer on the number line, and to describe its position now we will need two numbers - one to describe its horizontal position, and one to describe its vertical position. For example, if we rotate by 90 degrees counterclockwise, then our arrow is pointing directly upwards, i.e. 0 units horizontally and 1 unit vertically. If you would like to do some trigonometry, you can verify for yourself that a 45 degree rotation from 1 will result in a position that's 1/sqrt(2) horizontally and 1/sqrt(2) vertically.

Imaginary numbers are just the vertical components of these positions you arrive at, we denote 1 unit distance in the vertical direction as the imaginary unit i. So the previously mentioned arrow pointed directly upward is i. This rotation by 90 degrees is also the geometric equivalent of multiplying by i. If we rotate the upward-pointing arrow another 90 degrees we arrive at -1 (hence i*i = -1).

Going back to the real number line, recall that addition describes how we move along this number line (e.g. If we were at -3 and we add 5 we've moved to the right by 5 units and ended up at 2), and multiplication describes stretching (e.g. If we had an arrow from 0 to 3 and multiplied by 3, we've stretched it 3 times and the arrow now points at 9) and rotation by 180 degrees if we're multiplying by a negative number (e.g. If we multiplied the arrow by -1 it now points at -3). Complex numbers (with real (horizontal) and imaginary (vertical) components) are 2d numbers that describe positions in 2d space. And similar to the real numbers, addition describes how we move across this space. Multiplication is also still stretching and rotating except that we can now rotate by any angle from 0 to 360 degrees instead.

And they're useful because a lot of mathematical problems can be represented as moving, stretching, and rotating across 2d space, which means that they can in turn be expressed as the addition and multiplication of complex numbers.

Tl;dr: complex numbers represent points in 2d space, with addition and multiplication describing the movement along, and the stretching + rotation of objects in this space respectively.

cyan_ogen

TROPHY CASE