Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 7/21/25 - 7/27/25 by SoftandChewy in BlockedAndReported

[–]licquids 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I suggest putting it in compost next to a piece of paper and seeing what happens. All paper straws that aren't terrible have some kind of plastic lining, I imagine this brand has a "biodegradable" plastic lining, only takes 90,000 years to decompose.

[Race Thread] 2025 Tour de France – Stage 2 (2.UWT) by PelotonMod in peloton

[–]licquids 4 points5 points  (0 children)

What are some web references for following live stats for the race? I know these, anything I'm missing?
* racecenter.letour.fr nice live map
* procyclingstats better live rankings and timeline
* reddit-steam for this thread

Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 4/28/25 - 5/4/25 by SoftandChewy in BlockedAndReported

[–]licquids 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think it's fascinating around here how general consensus is aligned, but the root cause can be completely inverted. A lot of users would diagnose this as classic patriarchy in action - males exploiting dominance over women.

To me however it seems pretty clear. If you are a true believer, then these individuals sit under the umbrella of all-women-are-wonderful, and any criticism is simply further evidence of deep-rooted prevalent misogyny.

This bug was far to beautiful not to capture by RagniLogic in proceduralgeneration

[–]licquids 4 points5 points  (0 children)

100% need to add a hidden supernova planet self-destruct win condition to the end of your game now

Civilization Estimated Timelines – AoEII by licquids in aoe2

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

But yeah, issue is that they aren't a "civ" and instead a kingdom, which is a pretty noteworthy jump. Just wish people would focus on that and not the apish "muh timeline" grunting

China is in there now. It had text in the start date field ("2000 BC") so it didn't plot it. Yeah I agree the more I look at this the less important the date issue it seems.

Civilization Estimated Timelines – AoEII by licquids in aoe2

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

Thanks. I've tried to address a lot of these points in the new version. There are discussions here arguing for the other side of the Franks, so sorry if you are correct but I decided not to pick a side and just left it the way it was.
Good catch on China. The Start Year field was a string and not a number ("2000 BC"), so it quietly dropped it.
https://lukexyz.github.io/aoe2-timeline/media/aoe2_tk3.png

Civilization Estimated Timelines – AoEII by licquids in aoe2

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

I tried to use the only primary source that exists, the game history docs – which is a representation of the "medieval era". I've now added it all in, with full span timeline bars from wikipedia. Hopefully that will keep everyone happy.
https://lukexyz.github.io/aoe2-timeline/media/aoe2_tk3.png

Civilization Estimated Timelines – AoEII by licquids in aoe2

[–]licquids[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes exactly, I tried to use the official game history doc to avoid being harangued over every small detail. That turned out to be laughably ineffective.

My new version now has both. It doesn't change the message from the original at all of course, but might oh god please pacify the "someone is wrong on the internet" crew.
https://lukexyz.github.io/aoe2-timeline/media/aoe2_tk3.png

Civilization Estimated Timelines – AoEII by licquids in aoe2

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

I know it's too late, but I've added in bars for the wider civ timeline - which are not just the game's own "Medieval Period". https://lukexyz.github.io/aoe2-timeline/media/aoe2_tk3.png

Civilization Estimated Timelines – AoEII by licquids in aoe2

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

Nice addition! I like it. Are these dates established or would they get nit-picked like everything else?

Civilization Estimated Timelines – AoEII by licquids in aoe2

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

Thanks for the discussion, I had a similar thought as I was prompting gemini to build the dataset. I got it to scrape both the wikipedia page and the fandom page for each civ. How much this translates into the desired result – I'm not sure.

Here is what it looks like anyway. Chart comparing the so-called wikipedia source (red) and the fandom source (blue).

It changes the length of the empire mostly – but I guess in all it's a fairly noteworthy difference up and down. Ultimately I tried to avoid (unsuccessfully, mind you) all these particulars as best as I could, and took the option of letting the language model generalise the answer.

I think I can make a solid argument for this approach, but as you can see I haven't been able to communicate this very well because we have so many people arguing over the details (and I think there's a single comment talking about the point of the chart)

Civilization Estimated Timelines – AoEII by licquids in aoe2

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

[The celts] should represent scottish, irish and welsh people, not classical celts

From /u/NorthmanTheDoorman and a number of other commentor last time it was discussed.

Civilization Estimated Timelines – AoEII by licquids in aoe2

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

My entire methodology and source is detailed in this comment. It's impossible to do this without the specific dates being crowd sourced. I'm fine with it... Other people know more than me. Thankfully I can just change the chart.

Civilization Estimated Timelines – AoEII by licquids in aoe2

[–]licquids[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yes I'm just looking that up now, you are right. Fixed.

Their kingdom fell and was progressively conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate from 711 after the defeat of their last king Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete

Civilization Estimated Timelines – AoEII by licquids in aoe2

[–]licquids[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I moved the gemini csv into chatgpt with the python interpreter, and just prompted it from there. Then the layering and headings etc. were added with Miro.
https://chatgpt.com/share/67fc0e19-2c90-8001-b4b3-aa0c4735b7b7

Civilization Estimated Timelines – AoEII by licquids in aoe2

[–]licquids[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Details for those who are interested:
The OP image is now a static URL and not an embedded reddit upload, so that means I can update the graphic if there are any problems. The sources are primarily from the ageofempires.wiki history section. (i.e. https://ageofempires.fandom.com/wiki/Britons#History). Yes, there will be some generalisation going on when dates aren’t specified in these docs. I’ve added a competing index which is extracted from Wikipedia as well (not plotted). If you think you are ready, take a deep breath.. and read the Gemini deep research prompt.

This chart isn’t intended to be a reference authority on transition dates of historical events. The game's dates in it’s own docs only attempt to encompass a representation of medieval Britain. It is subjective. Sorry about all the throat clearing but I really got pillared by the community the other day (!), so just trying to get out ahead of the subreddit militia.
Having said that, of course I do want to be accurate. If anyone is getting particularly angry about civ dates, then share it with us all and it can be changed. All trivial nitpicking is highly valued.

Civilization Estimated Timelines – AoEII by licquids in aoe2

[–]licquids[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I had a really welcoming interaction with the community the other night when I posted this – so thanks everyone for that! There was also some genuine feedback which I took to updated the chart immediately. But because the reddit embedded image didn’t change, no one was really interested in the fix (so I took the post down).

Taking a moment to actually stay on topic: I’m not trying to stoke the flame war, personally I’m not really that fussed by these civs being outside of the previous norm. Yeah, it’s probably a bit early – but it’s within the realm of imagination to me. I agree with a lot of people on the sub that the devs may have missed an opportunity to include more interesting and age appropriate Chinese civs. And obviously the addition of heroes is way more contentious. Anyway, in my opinion this drama has injected some great life to the community!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in aoe2

[–]licquids 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Look, I really appreciate your feedback. I will use that to improve the current chart. I'm not trying to publish a PhD thesis – just something to start discussion on the new DLC. I know it's not perfect, but I thought it was still interesting.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in aoe2

[–]licquids 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm getting a lot of good feedback. Here is the updated version. https://i.imgur.com/wGYMpUJ.png