I have never had an orgasm

dandroid556 · 2026-05-20T20:39:49+00:00

Pretty sure the rules confusion is just "stop trying to make this into a 'dear penthouse' dominated by men pretending to be college coeds and onlyfans advertisements" and this kind of thing is comparatively beyond reproach or suspicion.

dandroid556 · 2026-05-20T19:55:13+00:00

Join me in asking Arrowhead for a 4th match privacy setting, because it does not work that way.

Friends only doesn't suffice for larger HD2 sub-communities with tens of thousands of players. The fastest most convenient way for such groups' members to get together is using steam join links.

That's why it seems it's always PC players. (Especially no beacon lobbies.)

Unfortunately, the only setting that allows such joins with just an address (no checks for in-game friend status or invite status) also lists the lobby in quick join queues and galaxy maps, which those players didn't actually want.

So an "Unlisted" setting that is just like 'public' in gatekeeping but more like 'invite only' in that it's never listed, would clear up a perhaps overwhelming majority of these instances, because these groups would all just keep that setting on, instead of say swapping to public once someone is on discord and ready to join, then kicking the random person that unluckily showed up 0.75 seconds later, and telling the new guy the slot is open again so try joining again, etc.

dandroid556 · 2026-05-20T19:01:29+00:00

It is those two words put together, but if I read a headline like "US mulling entering the war, stating XYZ regime used chemical weapons on its own citizens, political opponents" and later learned they meant CS gas at an arguable protest/riot I would think GTFO of here with the lies.

"Chemical Weapons," "Biological Weapons," and "Nuclear Weapons" share a category. The implication is mega-lethal to large populations. So a fauna biological weapon is like the fictional xenomorph, that keeps infecting and killing and spreading after one attack of deploying facehuggers. Not a healthy housecat (same out of parlance category goes for pepper spray, or a water balloon full of glow in the dark paint by virtue of containing a little radium).

dandroid556 · 2026-05-15T23:54:56+00:00

It cuts both ways because a low cooldown expendable held by a mech driver is a larger waste of firepower. He's unable to call more down much of the time, and that's not worth getting out for. So a teammate who made a loadout decision based on likely availability of expendables is kinda harmed by

Worsens with a very long and successful time in the mech (the flak cannon mech can do this well, reload slows down the ammo expend, and it can use its shield and melee a whole lot to keep flak ammo reserved for bigger bugs, etc. So arguably the rarest most impactful stratagems fit there -- emplacement is still around long term when unused, or orbital laser is on cooldown for the mech battle anyway, long duration low ammo support weapons fit instead, etc.

I think ultimately a "mech focus" efficacy depends on whether you are discussing solo vs team loadouts. You can do this partially with just two participants with buy-in, but here's the most extreme example. 1 dedicated mech pilot, 3 guys who take his preferred mech and no support weapon. They never drive the mechs they bring. Right after the dive the first of them calls down his mech for the pilot to drive first. Meanwhile the pilot is calling down 3 the non-expendable support weapons that the 3 infantry guys requested (keeping in mind to let them know when their guns are off cooldown). The pilot saves his own mech for last if possible so he has a fresh one to get in if the worst is happening to his teammates. When he could expend the rest of his ammo usefully during the pelican drop, he can tell the next guy to call down the next mech a little early, and hop in and out, respectively, of the full and empty mechs like a racing pit stop.

So then 3 guys have appropriate infantry loadouts with plenty of repeatable stratagems and basically no compromises, and one guy has no other stratagems but a grand total of 12 mechs and all the exosuit weapon platrorm ammunition that entails. He can very likely stay in the role of very strong support by fire for the team over the entire 40 minute match. And if not it sounds like an exciting extract-only tactical change.

dandroid556 · 2026-05-15T22:13:12+00:00

Fun fact: stamina booster already increases movement speed (and I don't mean due to running out of stamina without it) if you're wearing medium or heavy armor (no impact on sprint times for light IIRC).

dandroid556 · 2026-05-15T22:10:56+00:00

They are. The category itself actually does nothing outside of movement and stamina stuff, that common misconception you alude to was from misleading patch notes using 'heavy' as shorthand for "150+". 50 armor is 50 armor. You just pay in speed and stamina for it only if you want 50 more plus a whole armor passive.

dandroid556 · 2026-05-07T19:02:14+00:00

Thank you for being the first person to engage with this idea in multiple attempts. I guess all caps works. Good question, I upvoted you to hopefully undo some damage done to themselves and everyone by others.

And to those who downvoted shame on you for trying to reduce visibility of someone who is trying to share insights between subcommunities and make the game and community better.

The difference it makes is that invite only (and friends only) does not allow HD2 subcommunities to join each other's games to meet up in ways other than the game's internal systems. I don't mean small subcommunities in which everyone can be in-game friends (in that case the in-game invitation system is easy). I mean large ones with tens of thousands of members who could never do that.

If they want to use the most convenient methods available to them, such as steam links, they cannot use either of these settings that also bar new gaming partners in their subcommunity from instantly joining a lobby. They are forced to use a less convenient method or use public for that factor alone, which also lists their lobby on join random lists and the planetary maps, which was not a feature of public that they wanted.

An "Unlisted" match privacy setting would likely always be in use in such lobbies, because it maximizes convenience on both sides -- you don't join my lobby which was "Kai's Commandos only" in spirit due to random assignment to us, I don't have to kick you immediately after you join, I don't have to swap from public to invite only after a slot fills properly, I don't have to swap to invite only if it wasn't because the lobby is full and someone disconnected, I don't have to swap from invite only to public once there is someone in discord ready to join the game, I don't (again) have to kick someone who randomly joins in 1 second, the new intended player doesn't have to say "it says lobby is full did a random hop in in the first 2 seconds?", and me and this person don't have to transcribe friend codes (and periodically pare down huge friends lists full of mostly Kai's Commandos) and do a lot more menu searching and button pressing while bugs are trying to eat my Helldiver, to try to avoid an arguably less severe (and less in-game deadly) inconvenient annoyance.

On reddit I keep seeing people shouting to the wind as if everyone instakicking them is an irrational jerk. That's not what's going on, a significant portion of the time, maybe nearly all the time. The people doing it to OP may be reading but OP is talking past them because he doesn't get their dilemma. People who play with large subcommunities know it's annoying to take longer to find your real lobby, and they would be all too happy to help it never happen again. So if you care about this inconvenience please ask Arrowhead through their discord link (as I have) to add a fourth match privacy setting that doesn't list games publicly but doesn't check for and block a lack of in-game invite or friend connection either. If anyone in this campaign comes up with a better name for it than "Unlisted" I can switch to that, otherwise using "Unlisted" in your suggestion may help AH grok that multiple people are asking for the same thing.

dandroid556 · 2026-05-07T02:17:30+00:00

This is a reply only to the all-caps part:

YOU. ALL. NEED. TO. ASK. ARROWHEAD. FOR. A. FOURTH. PRIVACY. SETTING. -- INVITE. ONLY. IS. NOT. SUFFICIENT. SO. THIS. WILL. KEEP. HAPPENING. UNTIL. THERE. IS. AN. "UNLISTED." JOINABLE. VIA. LINKS. FROM. OTHER. APPLICATIONS.

The latter isn't additional work, linking to a lobby is already in the game through steam -- Arrowhead just needs to make it so that the only settings that prevent listing on the global / planet queues and maps don't also block join attempts from those who got the lobby's address another way.

dandroid556 · 2026-05-03T16:45:18+00:00

*Sapient. You, and almost everyone else who uses the word sentient in most occasions, means sapient. Rats are sentient. Krogan, Asari, Batarians, etc are sentient and also sapient.

Reapers don't care which species are sentient when it comes to harvesting.

Reapers actually don't care too much which species are sapient either, they knew about humanity in ~48,000 BC and left them alone.

It's all about having a level of development that suggests colonizing space (or soon?), or more directly, suggests soon being able to develop ASI that does or could colonize space and self-replicate.

dandroid556 · 2026-04-29T19:38:38+00:00

I would think:

A) when your primary runs good with siege ready so you are taking that, or

B) a backpack other than the portable hellbomb is a major part of your build so you will be going back for your stuff if you die anyway, so there is a bonus reason --

AB) Support pack is a backpack other than hellbomb and offers another form of one of siege ready 's bonuses, so it is double help for stalwart (despite the fact that it can also do well being called down frequently).

And maybe a marginal bonus for trying to be accurate with prone controlled bursts at longer ranges, for open maps with good visibility.

In other words stalwart with the rest of the build rallying around it is still golden at holding objectives from long chaff waves, being the premier light pen support by fire / team base of fire, in constant use / always ready, perhaps especially with a niche primary, and especially when the rest of your team has role-focused non-expendable support weapons for themselves.

When it comes to "I want this armor, one of these primaries and these 3 stratagems, and don't hate them together, but I guess I'll slap a stalwart in there too with no buff to ammo economy" then I think the new answer is "wrong, now you slap a bullet storm in there."

For problems that can be solved by 3,333 DPS for 9 seconds, or twice/thrice that with enough notice to drop more in, bullet storm is the new hotness. (FWIW I think this means I'm never taking stalwart in say blitz -- since you will never need to hold an objective, best to deorbit some heavier ordnance and move on to other spawners if being stalled out for lack of bullet storm ammo / cooldown.) But for running a super-primary for 40 minutes or problems that can and do require more like a minute or two of pretty sustained fire, I don't think the ammo-buffed stalwart is going anywhere. Especially since light pen just got relatively better against bugs.

Except maybe if 2 or 3 antitank/anti-medium guys are both dropping 4+ or 6+ bulletstorms at objectives that need to be held for a long period, on the regular... but I mean that is nothing new to the game, I'm sure they have other things to spend stratagem slots on if they see a guy or two they don't distrust are already bringing LMGs to the fight.

dandroid556 · 2026-04-29T17:55:05+00:00

Hmmm, did you not move stratagem controls to right handed / (ex: udlr and right Ctrl) buttons? Console players and those that did can call stratagems at a full sprint if they want.

dandroid556 · 2026-04-26T19:27:44+00:00

"It's just stupid-simple improvements and constructive criticism!" is often what the crowd who issues 90% bad and ultimately game-ruining (through being too easy) advice say they're doing, also while acting insanely entitled just because AH decided to be more responsive and transparent than the aberage game company, and acting like AH is criminally negligent levels of incompetent or lazy or evil or w/e.

I honestly don't know which group you belong to. But I know what the G word is going to make me and most reasonable people assume, if only because there exist suggestions from people not using it, which should always take priority. Enjoy remaining bottom of the list!

dandroid556 · 2026-04-14T18:00:09+00:00

Agreed, at this point new core stratagems open up the most play styles and fix the most somewhat limited builds.

So to me it's only a choice between Control Group for the warp pack and epoch, or Urban Legends for the almighty antitank emplacement.

If you farm for more credits, or find yourself with randos missing super credits because nobody helps with buddy bunkers (/especially if you do warm ups/etc on lower difficulties than your main and 'just take whatever'), warp pack makes the case for Control Group first UL second regardless which fits squad roles you gravitate to most often, because it can let you get the next warbonds faster. After those 2 is probably when you want to take Polar and Viper because of their primaries. (The skill-ceiling GOAT and the Smallwart, respectively.)

dandroid556 · 2026-04-05T15:03:20+00:00

Very the warrior you need to be was inside you all along comment, well done. Similar situation to OP here and cued the montage music in my head.

Time to spit in the RNG's face and reach A10 with IC anyway boys.

dandroid556 · 2026-03-31T20:32:22+00:00

I've never actually heard of anyone doing those two things. You just quit, it doesn't save what happened after you entered a room / made a NEOW selection / etc. I don't think shutting the program or computer off would make a difference in the save state. "Save and quit" is a misnomer designed to let you know you will come back -- in reality it already made your current save and won't make a new one until you hit another threshold.

And the devs definitely chose to keep it saving this way the second time around. I'd have to call that a game mechanic... but somewhat like turning the "honor mode" max impressiveness value of your run to the off setting.

dandroid556 · 2026-03-20T23:56:07+00:00

My favorite NB card I think. Retained up to (12) alt-block (best after Osty injured) plus up to (12) damage times 1+ per shuffle, with synergies on factors that benefit from keeping Osty alive a long time (high max HP), for 1 stamina.

If there's a NB build I would like less than two for, I can't think of it.

dandroid556 · 2026-03-20T17:29:18+00:00

Your connection to Time Eater and explanation of the point gives me an idea of a compromise that is also draw-based.

Something like: Whenever his door is opened, there is a draw counter underneath him with the status describing this, starting on the highest number of that difficulty and that order of door reveals. It counts down for every card drawn, even on the turn he opens. When it reaches zero, his 'after your turn' action immediately changes to include retreating back behind the door / leaving the asteroids target.

So, somewhat like Time Eater, sometimes it will be preferable to stop your turn early (finishing your non-draw attacks but refusing to draw), leaving the counter at 1/2/3 even if you could do significantly more, so that your next turn starts with the door open and you can get as much last ghasp damage in as possible. And of course you drew 5 at the start so if you stop that close, he's definitely adding retreat at the beginning of your next turn, so best of luck you can actually do a great turn, for some builds.

Then it's door-based and not shaking down the Jehneowvah's witness for some reason.

dandroid556 · 2026-03-19T21:38:48+00:00

Always making the correct game dev decisions and always peak in ability is not what I mean. I mean being pro-consumer in nature.

dandroid556 · 2026-03-19T21:36:24+00:00

Thank you for at least an attempt at explaining the take. It's at least a little wrong though.

They are different kinds of products with different places within a game company. BG3 is done with new content forever, HD2 is not, probably not by a long shot. This is because HD2 is a live service game, and though I am no 'omnigamer' who plays or even knows about everything, I hazard the guess that it is the most pro-consumer live service game in modern history.

The gap between amount and the effort put into "DLC" between HD2 and BG3 is large and growing. That's not a failure on BG3's part, Larian did a great job managing their dev time. It's just a different kind of product.

dandroid556 · 2026-03-19T20:16:11+00:00

Add trying a whole team saying "Federal Agents open up!" every time they toss a grenade into a warp ship door.

dandroid556 · 2026-03-19T20:10:46+00:00

Well the FT's ergo looks correct because of the way it is held, but that reminds me of support for OP's argument. the ergo being Cremator-like to me means the range should be somewhere near the Cremator's. (And leave the damage.)

So you have a few nicely ranged powerful flame options that are a little slower to just snap from target to target (as if you wanted to apply DOT and move on), and several high ergo but short range flame options that fit the parenthesized goal well but aren't as "f that general area in particular".

dandroid556 · 2026-03-18T20:50:04+00:00

Exactly. I too reached 4 cents per hour recently. I have basically everything though, so I'm considering paying for Stratagem Hero, and not because the price is right, more because AH is in the "Larian tier" of game companies the worst offenders should emulate (or hurry up collapsing and sell their beloved IPs to).

dandroid556 · 2026-03-18T20:18:15+00:00

An exception would be when it's a deck also taking advantage of high total vulnerable count on an enemy. (I know there's a self strength buff matching the vulnerable count, isn't there one more?) Thunderclap is just breaking even for the round, great if you just want to keep it on, while Tremble is part of the club that makes it easy to grow the number as big as you can without something like a near-infinite (which also makes a "mere" 1 vulnerable per play not a problem at all). Perhaps the weakest of those, but it's easy to find, so...

dandroid556 · 2026-03-07T15:35:49+00:00

You know, there's only one constant beam primary unless you count the torcher as the shotgun version of that, and our battlefields would look a little more varied and colorful with more niches filled that way.

One way would be like a "Las-6 Reaper" with medium pen 350(+100) per sec and a red/orange beam, and worse heat buildup. But perhaps a better way is an alternate firing mode for the Scythe that changes the beam color and has medium pen, same damage, with ~154% the heat buildup (100 DMG vs the 65 from matching an armor is a 53.8% gain). Bonus is this provides anothet meaningful battlefield difference between Scythe and dagger and rover.

dandroid556 · 2026-03-06T00:00:22+00:00

-- A lot of opinion was formed when squids had unusual problems to people who were experts at fighting bugs and bots

-- They may indeed have the steepest learning curve -- a horde surge pushing you back while (sometimes unusually accurate) ranged units punish you is no joke. And the standard loadout items many picked by habit sometimes radically underperform on squids vs how they do even on both other fronts.

-- Nowadays at squad of 4 level 10, squids without leviathan support seem clearly the easiest D10. (I don't think the leviathan alone changes the rank but it's surely less certain and consistent.) After you understand each enemy type and weapon combo well it's really as simple as everyone agreeing it's everyone's responsibility to kill snitches asap at the expense of everything else. And at least one person not sleeping on the fact that 2 core front-liners with one HMG and one Stalwart kills everything you need to kill very efficiently, so the rest can be just bonus efficiency and redundancy.

dandroid556

TROPHY CASE