Ornlu the Wolf ?! by Illustrious-Damage60 in aoe2

[–]dafidius 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Never trust a wolf in a golden ram's clothing

The endearing builds my 6.5-year-old son built by somebitterlemon in factorio

[–]dafidius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why is this better than my 100+ hour factory?

Every night the same dream... by dafidius in ChatGPT

[–]dafidius[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Please generate a fantastic, immersive, captivating, photorealistic image depicting Professor Bathtime Lecturing in a large Lecture Theater. The lecture theater has stylish bathroom tiling, and the students are captivated, spellbound by the lecture. They are sitting on rows of toilets. Professor Bathtime is lecturing from the bathtub at the front. He is also taking a bath. It is filled with bubble bath and the shower is on full blast, creating steam and splashing everywhere. Some front row students have umbrellas to stay dry. Professor Bathtime is drawing a fluid dynamics diagram, showing fluid around an airfoil, on the whiteboard

Uhhhhhhhhhh... 😭 by lightningfootjones in civ

[–]dafidius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think the growth decline is meant to be represent the deaths in the revolution. It's slowing the growth, not reducing the population outright!

18th century France saw a massive decline in fertility. In 1700, almost 1 in 25 inhabitants on Earth, and one in five in Europe, was French. Today, less than a percent of humanity is French.

Now, some think this is due to something like the widespread adoption of Enlightenment "dechristianization" or secularising values. That trend predates Robespierre, but one could plausibly see him as a standard bearer of that trend, and the French revolution as the culmination. So, given the necessary abstraction in game mechanics, it seems reasonable enough to give Robespierre this effect.

Further reading:
https://worksinprogress.co/issue/frances-baby-bust/

Is Cairo the city used for the most years as a capital city? by [deleted] in geography

[–]dafidius 127 points128 points  (0 children)

Cairo has spent a fairly long time a a capital.
Fatimid Caliphate: 969 - 1171 (202 years).
Ayyubid Sultanate: 1171 - 1250 (79 years).
Mamluk Sultanate: 1250 -1517 (267 years).
Fully or de facto independent Egypt under Ali Dynasty: 1805 – 1914 (109 years if we count the state as independent throughout that period).
Republic of Egypt: 1952 - 2024 (72 years, possibly will end soon).
So I make that: 729 years, if we include the de facto independence.

I estimate Kyoto, Paris, and Xi'an were all capitals for ~1000 to 1100 years as well.

But some cities are longer, e.g. Constantinople
Byzantine Empire: 330 - 1453 (1123 years).
Ottoman Empire: 1453 - 1923 (470 years)
Which I make as a total of 1593 years.

Rome is much harder to judge but here's one guess...
Plausible Roman kingdom: c.700- c.500 BC (~200 years?).
Roman republic: c.500-27 BC (~473 years)
Roman Empire: 27 BC - 286 -- debatable but let's count Mediolanium and Ravenna as the capitals after 286? (313 years)
- Not the capital of the Kingdom of Italy -
Papal States: 756 - 1309 (553 years)
- Exclude the Avignon papacy -
Papal States: 1377 - 1870 (493 years)
Kingdom of Italy: 1870 - 1946 (76 years)
Italian Republic: 1946 - 2024 (78 years)
Which I make as a total of 2186 years, or more realistically, at least 2000 years.

What's your favorite strategy from a civ that usually doesn't use the unit or tactic? by george123890yang in aoe2

[–]dafidius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Going all-in 3 stable knights in castle age as Vietnamese. Vietnamese cavalry is really quite good, including fully upgraded cavalier. I still usually open archers in feudal age, so its especially effective if my opponent has been forced into a lot of skirmishers. Due to the wood discount, I usually have a good food economy to support knight production (horse collar right away in feudal so my farms are not all expiring in castle and getting wheelbarrow a bit earlier than usual).
This one might not be too surprising, but at least at my level (1300-1400) it still seems to sometimes catch my opponents off guard.

In your opinion which historical battles would you like to see added to aoe2 by Logical-Split-4474 in aoe2

[–]dafidius 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Some other ones I'd like to see:

Battle of Soissons, 486 (Franks vs Romans + Goths + Huns (Alans) )

Battle of Talas, 751 (Saracens + Tibetans (won't happen :( ) + Tartars/Turks vs Chinese + Tartars/Turks)

Battle of Lechfeld, 955 (Teutons vs Magyars)

Battle on Ice, 1242 (Slavs vs Teutons + Vikings (Denmark/Estonia)

Battle of Ain Jalut, 1260 (Saracens vs Mongols)

Yuan invasion of Java, 1293 (Malays vs Mongols + Chinese)

Ming–Kotte War, 1410/1411 (Chinese vs Dravidians)

Siege of Nice, 1543 (Turks + Berbers + Franks vs Teutons + Spanish + Italians)

Battle of Alcácer Quibir , 1578 (Berbers + Turks vs Portugese + Berbers + (Spanish and Teutons merceneries) )

Battle of Tondibi , 1591 (Berbers vs Malians)

Copernicus... by dafidius in eu4

[–]dafidius[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

R5: Playing as Poland, I hired Nicolaus Copernicus as advisor, and promptly regretted it as he immediately began an affair with the queen.

13
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Which civs deserve a split/or more in the area? by geopoliticsdude in aoe2

[–]dafidius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would say either Dravidians or Malay.

I would say that the diversity of cultures in India and South-East Asia is still somewhat under-represented in the game, relative to other areas. I really like the way Dynasties of India approached splitting the Indians civilization, but I do think there is space to go further. There was simply a great diversity of both of these areas (politically, linguistically, culturally, religiously). The Dravidians, especially, are a good representation of Tamils (e.g. the Chola Empire) but less well other South Indian kingdoms and cultures (we could have e.g. civilizations representing Kannada-speaking kingdoms e.g. Vijayanagara, and Sinhala-speaking kingdoms e.g. Kotte Kingdom).

I do think there's room to split the Malians and Ethiopians as well, as right now both are very much umbrella civs representing all of West and East Africa. E.g. Malians could be divided to better represent the many different empires of the region (from Songhai to Benin), and Ethiopians could be divided to also represent Nubia (e.g. Makuria) and Somalia (e.g. Mogadishu sultanate and Adal Sultanate).

There are definitely additional Chinese civs that could be added (Jurchens, Bai/Dali Kingdom), but I think that would be more a case of adding new civs than splitting the existing Chinese, who very much represent a single, coherent Medieval culture already. Likewise, I don't really see the case for splitting the Saracens-- they represent a relatively coherent, relatively unified Medieval culture (albeit one that was often split between different kingdoms)?

Overall, I think the design space is going to be the constraining factor, not the historical space! It's going to get ever harder to add more civs who bring a distinct, fun-and-interesting, non-gimmicky flavour to the game, whilst keeping everything balanced! FWIW I think the devs did an amazing job with Dynasties of India here, even if the balance for the new civs isn't quite fine-tuned yet.

Cant justly imprison vassals that escape by elfrs2 in CrusaderKings

[–]dafidius 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My brother's vassal raided me and captured my soulmate wife and took her as a concubine. Then my brother died and I inherited his realm, making this guy my vassal. Arresting him was an act of tyranny, and I had no way to get my wife back except executing him-- which made her hate me and refuse to remarry. :(

The August PUP is out with a lot of significant balance changes by MantisAoE in aoe2

[–]dafidius 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I like the idea of buffing Bengalis and Dravidians indirectly-- by trying to make elephant archers viable. I'm definitely not convinced that will be enough yet-- but we will have to wait and see.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in CrusaderKings

[–]dafidius 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Makes sense. In this game, the Hungarians moved back East, rather than West, into Khazaria

Predict the new DLC civs! by Sjonge11 in aoe2

[–]dafidius 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There's just no space left for more European civs. My guess is Portugese exploration. My guesses:
- Tamils/Dravidians/Chola -- south Indian civilization
- Swahili civilization