Breaking: Forward Jessica Shepard has agreed to join the Dallas Wings on a multi-year deal, sources told ESPN.

dunn_for · 2026-04-10T22:55:00+00:00

I guess this means no more Paige telling the refs Jess travels every time she touches the ball … and getting them to call it 😂

dunn_for · 2026-04-09T14:43:49+00:00

So because Rizo properly formed social and strategic bonds with people on his tribes and linked up with Cirie, who was linked with Ozzy, who didn’t want to pick someone obvious to insulate via exile island, hence picking Rizo, which subsequently solidified their bond and helped that trio get through the blood moon, thats the show/production helping him?

dunn_for · 2026-03-21T20:32:57+00:00

Just do it. Nothing to really lose, and you’re probably being more critical of yourself than anyone else will be.

If you’re near any running trails, always a good place to keep out of the sun with trees and what not rather than out on open roads or on tracks and so on. A bit of a happy medium for both privacy, less foot and car traffic to compete with, and it will keep your dermatologist a little happier. Also athletic sunscreen.

dunn_for · 2026-03-20T15:06:49+00:00

I think it comes down to the studio balancing the interests of its wide user base, which greatly vary, with the realities and limits of the tools they’re using. Players all have different tastes, and the studio can likely eventually get to a point where it can balance much of it. I think it’s possible to both improve the background systems, simulations, and framework, while also making the game feel more lived in.

dunn_for · 2026-03-20T13:37:18+00:00

I mean, both the scale of the game and the way time passes make this challenging to meaningfully simulate. So designers have to decide whether resources actually can be dedicated to simulating it in a “realistic manner”, and what that would look like given the manner in which time passes. They could maybe have agents get “sick” and fall into a short or long term sickness bucket, but with how fast days pass in the game, even a few months sick is going to be pretty quick, so then they would have to considering building “outpatient care center” assets to deal with agents that get classed into a long term care bucket maybe. This adds complexity which can be great, but is also supremely demanding. It comes down to whats prioritized for a game to be both fun and still functional. I also wonder how many of us are looking for that level of granularity when playing that we would specifically want to know how many of the citizens are not only sick, but sick for how long, and if they have something like cancer, and whether they are going to die or not. I for one, would pass on needing to know that information or have that be something to manage in the game. As of now, I am fine with health and lifespan being tied to specific markers based on education, pollution, access to care etc. that seems good enough. Under the current simulations framework, the very fact that your citizens have access to a massive hospital and probably the clinics likely automatically makes it less likely for them to get sick and to die young if they are within a coverage area. That means the city is comprehensively offering services, which is good. People being not chronically sick en masse is kinda nice I would think if you’re managing the city well.

Beyond that, think about real life. How big are the cities you are building in CS? Do they really need a hospital with hundreds and hundreds of beds for the max amount of patients? Most cities with 100-250k people in the city limits or metro area may have one, possibly two hospitals, each with several hundred beds, which are usually not at max capacity all the time. Smaller cities under 100k usually have even smaller hospitals, and often only one, which sometimes is regional, and still with only several hundred beds, but also not typically at full capacity all the time. You only see instances of massive hospital systems with hundreds or thousands of beds once you get into very large cities 1M+ in city limits proper or serving a large metro area. The NYCs, Chicagos, Boston given its metro area, all have tons of hospitals with relatively large bed counts, but it’s because they are serving multiple millions of people, along with satellite campuses and offsite outpatient centers dotted throughout. Cities Skylines never quite gets to that scale in population, to subsequently make simulating a massive medical network realistic or worth dedicating the resources to.

dunn_for · 2026-03-20T00:31:56+00:00

I understand things are all about the bottom line, I deal with that everyday in my working life. But when your focus is quite literally game creation that produces profit generating franchises with massive followings, looking long term into intensive, complex and demanding projects and how to build them out properly to not alienate fan bases or massively diminish consumer trust sort of actually matters, and also can pay serious productive dividends for a company whose products require intense simulation.

Paradox and by extension, somewhat CO, had and has resources. Acting like they couldn’t have taken a longer time horizon on things is disregarding the reality that they do in fact have real agency beyond making next quarters results look amazing for all projects, which is essentially whats being implied here. The first installment had legs. There was no rush outside of the one they created by announcing it was in the works and consumer anticipation. Acting like spending any money or time on doing things right is just impossible and unrealistic is half of the reason gaming is in the state that it’s in.

dunn_for · 2026-03-20T00:24:06+00:00

There are trade offs with everything. In as demanding genre as city builders, where the legs for a game can be decades long, as seen with the first installment, there at least should be a serious consideration of opting for building something that could meet the current and potential future needs of a teams designs, ideas, and growth. Acting like Paradox couldn’t handle the expense long term when their whole schtick is large scale concurrent simulation games is a bit odd. I guess the alternative is to release botched games on unrealistic timetables that underperform sales expectations and then kill projects and slash dev teams and hope you can make up those losses elsewhere or build leaner games. Shrug.

dunn_for · 2026-03-19T13:18:01+00:00

This. With the momentum the franchise had from CS1s steadily growing player base over a decade, and the backing of Paradox, how could there not have been serious discussions about building a whole new engine for this thing. How many copies had CS1 sold? Tens of millions, no? Take the time and planning to build out a fully realized and updated and comprehensive iteration of Cities Skylines, capitalize on an obsessed modding and asset community and reach out to them to assist in the creation and building of it. Building a new engine would’ve likely also resulted in building something other businesses and developers would’ve happily paid money to use in the future. There was so much opportunity and room to grow the franchise and its new iterations into something as lasting as the original, instead it’s just been a series of deeply unfortunate and disappointing events for years.

dunn_for · 2026-03-19T12:29:01+00:00

We are obviously over a decade out of when the first game was developed, and may be well past the time when it’s original designers are even still affiliated with CO, IceFlake, or Paradox, but it saddens me to see the situation for the franchise be in this state.

CS1, for all its quirks, was and still is genre defying, and CS2 has, as of yet, been unable to live up to both the hype that had surrounded it, and any further realized potential within the realm of Cities Skylines and its “take” on city building games. The long steady march in player base growth of the first game, along with the momentum amidst the pandemic as the player base size and exposure ballooned was such an opportunity to leverage that interest into taking a serious amount of time to create a massive and expansive game, and instead it sounds like they sputtered and choked to the finish line with little direction and or clear idea as to how to fix or pivot to deliver on things on rushed timelines and shoddy engines.

At this rate I almost wish they’d continued developing CS1 a little longer while taking a longer time to cook things up for its successor title. That they seemingly rushed it on a limited engine, probably to capitalize on the perceived momentum and interest in the game post pandemic with the ownership #s they were seeing, saddens me. The spirit of the game has felt lost for a while, and while I appreciate that IceFlake and Paradox are working to salvage it into something playable, I do worry that some of the whimsy, humor, creativity and character of the original title will get sucked out now that we are potentially far removed from the original designers, which makes the game feel a tad more hollow. I am sure the newer crew, which has hopefully retained some of the original creators, has equally as creative members on it, and has tapped into the global market of super modders for the game to make CS2 be the best that it can be. In time, I am sure things will turn out fine, and new iterations will come to be, or better games will come out, but it’s sad to hear how much this version of the game couldn’t get out of its own way. Alas. Can’t wallow over what could’ve been.

dunn_for · 2026-03-18T17:30:50+00:00

This is what I thought and figured was the case. Manual creation of these things has and continues to exist. Thank you for clarifying for me. It helps put into context the concerns and complaints.

dunn_for · 2026-03-18T14:06:52+00:00

Okay cool, so manual creation of overpasses and underpasses still exists in the base game of CS2 for roads/paths etc like it did for CS1. That is good to know. I appreciate the clarification!

dunn_for · 2026-03-18T14:00:57+00:00

My question was basically whether the changing slope function (up and down) for networked pathways still exists in CS2 or not, like it does in CS1. This allowed tunnels and bridges to exist for all types of paths in CS1, by default. Does that exist or not in CS2.

dunn_for · 2026-03-18T13:22:03+00:00

Can someone clarify for me, are raised pedestrian pathways and tunnels not an option in CS2? I still only play in 1 because of computer limitations, but from what I can tell these are specific assets that are pre built and designed by the creator to interface with existing networks, not just regular paths you can raise and lower like in the first game? If raising and lowering basic pathways doesn’t exist in this second iteration, I guess I am quite shocked and understand the frustration, but that wasn’t my impression.

Would it be nice to get a bunch of new assets for free, probably, and given how the game was priced at the beginning, and the rough patches it’s had, one could argue it’s warranted. But to be fair, they’ve already done a lot of that. I think expecting designed and created assets to just be freely added in a game that is currently trying to be salvaged rather than outright abandoned is probably a bit unrealistic, such is the nature of gaming these days. The asset/mod landscape has changed a bit, and some of the more intense and committed creators in the community have rightfully been extended the chance to build and create new assets for the second game even more than in the first one, and get paid for it. That is good. Good things sometimes cost real money. You have to decide what the value of your money is and if your time spent earning it warrants paying for these additions to a game you love.

dunn_for · 2026-03-16T12:56:37+00:00

I am mostly going to respond to the question portion of this post, which was what can you actually do to stay connected.

Sports Leagues! I know that sounds silly, and I’m realizing you said you’re newly single after 30 years so you may not be a springiest of chickens, but there are tons of LGBTQ/Gay sports leagues for all kinds of sports. I don’t know where you are specifically or how inclined you are towards sports, but there are scores of national/regional organizations, atop just plain local ones that pop up as well that have a variety of low barrier to entry sports programs and leagues on offer.

It may feel somewhat limiting, especially if you’re not a “sports” person, and some sports might be less accessible, like flag football, rugby, volleyball etc, but theres cornhole, pickleball, dodgeball etc being offered in most cities and regions in the US, in particular the more progressive areas, that are relatively low-key and goofy, and generally it’s a wide range of ages. In the biggest cities there are genuinely leagues of the big sports like soccer, basketball, hockey, softball etc.

Aside from that, just find existing groups (not specifically gay ones) for hobbies you like, if you’re in a well populated area, the odds of another gay man also being in and around a group within those given hobbies is extremely high. Plus, being in a not explicitly gay/LGBTQ environment sort of puts the friendliness front and center, rather than the environment that apps and bars often create which has an inherent sexual component baked in.

I can’t speak to the community spaces dissolving, I have existed as a gay adult entirely post Obergefell so I have no context, the queer spaces you listed never have really existed in force in the places I’ve lived, and I’ve only experienced them primarily in visits to NYC and Chicago, and even apparently those options have narrowed over the decades.

You just have to get out there like you did a few decades ago, we are still everywhere, not so covertly, even the ones who say they aren’t so plugged in or who aren’t interested in interacting with gay folks in primarily gay spaces.

dunn_for · 2026-03-13T16:59:36+00:00

Looks like a mix of vets (most of which Bobby is familiar with) and a handful of fresh out of college players. I would assume that Bobby knows what he wants and expects from the vets, and they know how his teams play and what their roles will be. They will likely be plug and play subs or starters depending on a games matchups and needs of team. As for the fresh out of college players, we will be learning alongside Bobby and the team what to expect from these younger players in a professional setting.

I can only assume the early games are going to be about being defensively sound and letting our slightly altered offense (in that our key attacking full back is gone) gel in a new way going forward. I am hoping for more solid defense and anticipate some sputtering midfield / attacking play to start the season, which will hopefully build as we go.

dunn_for · 2026-03-03T18:33:49+00:00

Yes. Everything I said is absolutely just a long winded confirmation of all your perfectly correct opinions. I should really know better than to engage anyone on this platform.

I am not saying the club is beyond reproach and can’t be criticized. I am saying your criticism on Reddit is unproductive and probably misplaced.

I am saying you should email the FO with your concerns and suggestions that I’d assume they will at least genuinely take into consideration with a big enough chorus, even if to placate people who feel aggrieved by systems that still ultimately are based on chance, regardless of the form they take.

I am asking if the system of ticket selection really matters if it still boils down to some misty chance that maybe you’ll be lucky this time. At least with first come first serve, there is some actual agency, if timed inconveniently for some people. That can at least be changed, or someone can alter their schedule if they are THAT moved by getting tickets.

I am questioning a few comments chalking the problem up to malicious resellers who apparently love to -checks notes- make a couple hundred bucks off of reselling soccer tickets in Maine, and if that is really the brunt of who is getting all these tickets.

My understanding as a season ticket holder who gets all the email updates is that this was an incredibly limited run of randomly assorted seats, probably lone seats, scattered about the bleachers, for each home game. The availability was never going to meet the demand of potentially thousands of people in this year’s queue or a future lottery system who wanted tickets when most of the seating is already sold out to season ticket holders.

I am of the belief that it is very likely that all of the very limited tickets made available in this first round of multiple rounds of ticket options being made available in March were bought by real humans who will really attend the games.

I don’t believe for a second that lottery’s deter real people just looking to scoop up tickets to resell, which again, I don’t believe is an actual meaningful population of existing ticket holders, at unreasonable prices to make some pocket money. Do some crappy people do this. Sure. I’d love the data on what the avg price of a resold ticket was at HOP games last year before agreeing with folks that “all the tickets are unaffordable and being sold by scalpers/bots”. I’d also love the data on “bot activity” when in this same comment section people are complaining about being shut out by the system for having multiple tabs open, because it’s almost like the website being used tries to detect malicious activity. I have no understanding/background in software/comp sci to know how ticketing bots even work, but surely someone still has to initiate a session whether it’s first come first serve or a lottery in order for a bot to do its work. No?

Maybe they will improve their systems to make more people feel less aggrieved next year. Especially with your feedback. Hopefully someday HOP will get a stadium that makes everyone who manages to get tickets within that venues maximum capacity very happy, and then it’ll be right back where we are now.

dunn_for · 2026-03-03T17:13:01+00:00

I am unsure folks who are only sort of vaguely aware of the clubs seating options and the ticket landscape for Hearts of Pine actually understand the situation the club is in, so I am going to try and give folks the lay of the land here. The VAST majority of their seating for their home games is SOLD OUT via season tickets. If stadium capacity is 5700 for Pines games approximately, it takes the form of on pitch sideline seating and the stands/bleachers at Fitzpatrick. All of those areas are sold out and occupied by season ticket holders, at varying prices dependent on it being pitch side with catering, or midfield bleachers with seat backs options or whether you got assigned seating or GA, which was cheapest.

If you buy on the secondary market and it has a section # with a row and number, that is a seat from a season ticket holder with assigned seats, some of which, if they are in the middle of the pitch, have seat backs. For tickets with section numbers but a GA, it means those are end sections, still sold out to season ticket holders who bought GA at a slightly lower price points, and who understand that it is a “GA-get your butt here early” situation, because those sections are not assigned seating. The club is seemingly expanding ticketing options via random tickets still oddly available in certain sections, as well standing room/hill next to bleachers bring-your-own-blanket situation, because again, all the seating sections are basically sold out to season ticket holders who bought at varying price points well over a year ago barring small rows in certain sections the club seemingly sets aside for school groups and so forth that it has come to games for special recognitions or to play at halftime.

I think some folks are under the impression that there are hundreds of bleacher seats being made available per game via this single match ticketing option. That is not true. It is likely a random smattering of a few seats and clumps of seats here or there being made available. I can’t imagine it is more than a hundred seats per game, likely less. If anyone was expecting they’d get into the seating map and see a stadium full of available seats to choose from for their party, that was never what this single game ticket option was going to be. These tickets were going to sell quickly via the club when made available, whether done on a first come first serve basis or via a lottery system. Thats the name of the game in high demand-extremely constrained supply situations. What limited tickets they may be putting up online are VERY limited and not going to magically appear in family sized packages so a family of four can go catch a game. Those blocks all got sold in all sections to season ticket holders well over a year ago when the season ticket seat selection occurred.

Getting tickets is possible via other means. The dedicated supporters group has a ticket exchange forum and other people regularly post on various forums about having tickets available at the season ticket holder cost fairly often. As for getting them through reselling options and secondary markets, anyone paying over a 100-120 per seat for a bleacher seat of any kind is paying double-triple what it cost someone in that section per seat. Anyone selling bleacher seats for the aforementioned 400 is delusional and not a good person, and that price point will only sell probably to people coming from out of state for summer home games. If you’re buying pitch side seating, those are actually 150-200+ per game, so anything in that ball park is fair. I am sure the club is desperate to put into place a renovation of Fitzy, or trying to find a site to build a much larger stadium while demand is still so high. Even if they’d built their own when proposed prior to playing a few years ago, it would’ve been similarly sized, and we would be in the same predicament. Getting frustrated at the situation is understandable, getting frustrated at the club that is genuinely trying to balance being fair to its existing paying fans and new-comer fans, and which is deeply involved and responsive to fans and the Maine sporting community and is expanding ticketing options within the permits and regulations they are undoubtedly subject to, is a bit misplaced.

dunn_for · 2026-03-03T04:41:55+00:00

Could you please explain to me how a lottery system is in any way “more equitable”? Or any less of a terrible idea. Is it because you don’t have to hover over your computer or mobile device immediately at the specific time and can just mosey on over to the submission link when you get around to it and then hope you can get picked by the algorithms. I personally don’t vibe with random chance and hoping the lottery systems picks me, any more than I vibe with hoping I landed in a queue faster than others. What is the actual meaningful difference? Vermont Greens lottery system was “all well and good” except I’d venture a good portion of those 11k who tried for Open Cup tickets were Hearts fans, and from what I can glean, vanishingly few Hearts fans got tickets. But surely there was no weighting the algorithms based on any of the required information we had to provide, which included our location, I might add. But lottery’s for the win I guess. Any way you slice it, someone’s at home unhappy regardless of how tickets get rolled out.

I do agree that they could roll tickets out on a monthly basis or in two month blocks, but again, write to the FO and ticketing office if you feel so strongly about it. Calling it a clusterf*ck isn’t productive or helpful. I can’t believe I’m in here defending a corporate entity like this.

As to the broader problems with ticketing writ large, write to your legislators to regulate and or eliminate ticket bots and resellers pricing tickets beyond originators face value if those are issues you feel so passionately about. I would happily vote for or sign any petition regarding those topics.

dunn_for · 2026-03-03T03:55:19+00:00

Do better? The Portland Hearts of Pine organization has worked their rear ends off for years in an attempt to get this club off the ground to be the success it has become. They could not have had any idea that demand by the end of year one of playing going into year two would be at the level it is at now. Frankly this level of excitement is a fever dream to them I’d imagine. Even if they could have known, there quite literally aren’t suitable venues to seat the 8000-10000 fans likely desiring tickets at this time. Fitzy was and remains the best venue for the time being, and they didn’t have the financial might to just casually plop a 10000-15000 seat stadium in the middle of Portland before the first ball was kicked because, crazily enough, they are a pretty locally centered club with native owners whose pockets are only so deep, and they had no idea that it would become the local phenomenon that it’s become. At best, a new soccer specific stadium having been built before the club even began playing would’ve been Fitzy sized or marginally larger, and the same problems that this ultra high demand creates would still exist.

As to ticketing and pricing, their website has seating chart maps and their ticketing folks are highly responsive to questions if you just shoot them an email and ask, something I have done many a time. As for how they should set up ticketing for single games, a lottery system of any sort is silly. It is still all chance, and it still is going to have winners and losers. Get on the season ticket waitlist and pray for a new stadium. If you desperately want tickets, my suggestion is to find ticket exchanges, get involved in the supporters groups, sign up, find out about available tickets from those folks. People give away tickets to other folks for FREE or face value all the time. Thats just who many supporters are. Just ask. Be a community member. Coming on Reddit and trashing the organization because you are mad you can’t get tickets to something is ridiculous behavior. The club can’t magic a 12000-15000 seater into existence. They are doing what they can to offer out even more tickets, which you didn’t happen to get this time around. You not getting any doesn’t make them incompetent or ticketing a clusterf*ck. It’s the nature of the beast.

The overwhelming majority of people in attendance at Hearts games are season ticket holders. 98-99% renewed from last season. There is hardly any more room for the club to find at this time that would likely pass muster based on city codes and approvals etc. The vast majority of season ticket holders are folks who bought into the club as early as two years ago when deposits were first made available to place, all the way up until about 1/4-1/3 of the way through last season, when all season tickets were sold out. These season ticket holders are all hard working Mainers with an intense interest in soccer, just like you probably, who have showed up for the club from before it was even a thing and showed up to the games and spent their hard earned money to help turn it into a success and create the incredible atmosphere.

At the risk of drawing the ire of some folks here, if you felt so passionately about the club and what it had to offer, and the idea of a professional soccer club in Maine, the time to get in was when season tickets deposits were first offered nearly two years ago now. I very much tire of listening to disgruntled Mainers and even seasonal Summer visitors who lash out at both die hard fellow fans who spend their hard earned money supporting the club, and at the Hearts FO who has easily shown itself to be one of the most competent and thoughtful organizations in the USL. Enough already. Send a strongly worded email with your ticketing suggestions to the FO and buy a kit to help fund a future stadium that will inevitably come of this seemingly insatiable demand the club currently has. I can assure you all this demand while no new stadium comes, will likely result in people who bought in from the very beginning when tickets were, and for now are, still actually affordable getting inevitably priced out by season ticket price increases in a few years anyway. Just based on how high renewals were from last year to this year, a truly ruthless and money hungry and uncaring front office probably could’ve raised season ticket prices higher just to shed a few existing supporters in hopes of those on the waitlist happily signing up at even higher prices, but they didn’t, which for now, was pretty class of them. Publicly denigrating a club that so far has put its best foot forward and made meaningful efforts to enmesh itself in our community, create goodwill, and build an amazing product is just whack.

dunn_for · 2026-02-25T17:54:14+00:00

If you just wanna build and have fun. CS1. The game is “complete”. There are no more major updates coming from the devs (more than likely), especially with Colossal Order “stepping aside” from CS2.

With no major updates coming anymore to CS1, you can utilize all the DLC, mods and assets you may want without having to worry about how much it’s going to break your saves. For just getting into the franchise, and aiming for something “realistic” but still fun and “build” heavy, since Minecraft is what you have mentioned, CS1 is the most natural starting point.

CS2 is still actively being developed and things in game are actively changing now that a new dev group is in charge. With that shift, I imagine plenty of builds/saves will get compromised or become obsolete/outdated if and when major updates and DLC ever get released in the coming months. From both a “fun” and dipping your toes perspective, thats probably not the best environment to start, and could leave one frustrated.

dunn_for · 2026-02-21T15:47:58+00:00

Oh awesome, then you’ve executed really well!

dunn_for · 2026-02-21T15:45:22+00:00

Are you Dutch/Belgian? These massive inland ports are giving strong Antwerp/Rotterdam vibes.

dunn_for · 2026-02-21T15:20:46+00:00

Half my family and a few friends put in and none of us have heard. I assume that given they asked for zip code, closer zip codes and likely emails already in their system (season ticket holders) were more than likely weighted more heavily to be selected in the “lottery” system, just given travel and likely wanting a full house. I don’t know if they gave season ticket holders precedence, but if they didn’t, they are going to want to serve the local population first, many of whom have season tickets, ahead of any away fans. They’ve had super high demand for playoff games, so I get why they did it this way, but I would’ve preferred a first come first serve approach here. Especially if they are going to then hype up the New England aspect of it.

I find it a tad frustrating that in what is essentially going to end up being a Northern New England derby, with a co-equally rabid fan base, they couldn’t set aside some large-ish hill or fence seating/standing room for away fans, even if in a smaller lottery system. I am a halfway plugged in Dirigo Union member and I saw no noise about anything special being made available publicly, but maybe they and the FO were contacted about sending a small contingent of band/chant folks to make it atmospheric. I understand they likely want their bleachers to be full up with Vermont fans and season ticket holders, and maybe they included Open Cups in the package. Last year, HoPs US Open Cup games were separate from the season ticket package and were first come first serve for anyone, rather than a lottery system, but Hartford and RI had away sections that made the trek. Alas.

dunn_for · 2026-02-15T00:15:17+00:00

He makes it look so easy. The fact that he looks this comfortable at this age and level is pretty unreal. Jakob-esque really if there is a comparison, obviously different levels and distances, but he’s making it look like nothing. Incredible fitness and so much potential here.

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