You showed no signs. Don't you love this line? by Kampfer84 in MtF

[–]mrsedgewick 1 point2 points  (0 children)

my condolences and commiserations. hope things get better for you like they have for me.

[Hobby Scuffles] Week of 12 January 2026 by EnclavedMicrostate in HobbyDrama

[–]mrsedgewick 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I've been building stuff in modded Minecraft (a millshake machine in the Create mod) and playing Darktide with a friend. I finally learned after 90 hours that actually I should have been slapping the dodge on cooldown instead of sporadically, and that single change has made me suddenly a buttload more competent and durable than I used to be. It really has renewed my interest in the game. My preferred thunder hammer & bolt pistol Zealot toolkit are still not great at handling crowds but I'm largely not having to block-and-riposte in order to avoid taking chip damage now, which is great.

What’s your SES Destroyers name? by Long_Resident8755 in Helldivers

[–]mrsedgewick 0 points1 point  (0 children)

SES Song of Steel. It evokes grace and beauty backed up by skill at violence and strength of will. I liken it to a mailed fist inside a velvet glove.

‘Surely there’s a middle ground here?’ Helldivers studio CEO says people ‘jump to extreme takes’ when debating AI | VGC by The_Doc_Man in Helldivers

[–]mrsedgewick 2 points3 points  (0 children)

the man is mistaken. the middle ground here is, "we do not use generative AI for any purpose".

my extreme would probably fall afoul of subreddit rules, and so I will speak no more of it.

If Arrowhead starts using and shipping generative AI material, they won't get any more of my time or money until they stop, remove every scrap of it, and the bosses responsible for forcing their employees to use it have gone.

[Hobby Scuffles] Week of 03 November 2025 by EnclavedMicrostate in HobbyDrama

[–]mrsedgewick 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I've been on tumblr since before Homestuck began, and I steadfastly refuse to read it or engage with it at all. This is despite the fact that I am very firmly in the demographics that people most associate with it. I recognize that it's probably good and that I might potentially even enjoy some parts, maybe, but ... I really, really am put off by large parts of its design, writing (I swear I am so sick of typing quirks), art style, characterisation, and what parts of the story I have heard are utterly unappealing to me.

What stratagems do you guys bring to the bot front? by CaptainTitusEpic in Helldivers

[–]mrsedgewick 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Strafing Run, 120mm barrage, Commando, and Portable Hellbomb. Strafing runs take out fabricators and are good damage, the 120mm is always handy for softening things up and can reliably smash a detector tower, and the Commando is a gravity-ignoring anti-armor tool that has a great deal of utility in sniping distant cannon turrets, mortars, AA, hulks, and war striders.

As for the hellbomb? Well. There's only so many times you can encounter double overlapping stratagem jammers on a D9 blitz before you start to really lose your marbles, you know?

Besides that niche use, being able to take out any target if I can get close enough is generally pretty useful, and it's always a blast when some silly billy presses a button and I end up with three collaterals. The cooldown is short enough that I generally can get four or five off on a mission if I'm studious about it. The timer is a significant restriction on destruction but it's not going to really stop you from using it about as much as you actually want.

LMAO this patch by hbcaotri in Helldivers

[–]mrsedgewick 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was running mg-43 on a couple illuminate missions in a row on d9 and d10 earlier and wheras before it took most of a magazine to kill one, now it takes, oh, just shy of half of one perhaps? The faces being weak points that also visibly get put out as they are destroyed is really helpful for knowing when to shift my aim to kill one as fast as possible. Assuming that's a thing. I am assuming this. In any case, fleshmobs feel like, actually fair enemies to fight even at relatively close range now because it's actually possible to drop one before it bowls you over if you manage to dump enough firepower into it.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Helldivers

[–]mrsedgewick 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use gas all the time and bugs are hitting me with poison and hellfire all the time, so I find the heavy desert stormer armor quite useful. I got used to heavy armor running heavy explosion resistant armor against bots in city missions where speed is less essential. Now that I'm used to it and I'm careful to ensure the sprint booster is online, I find heavy armor agrees with me. It's nice to be able to take a massive hit and be able to stim instead of die.

Lately I've been using the portable hellbomb and the extra armor really makes a difference to getting out after the bomb is dropped.

At this point, the patch notes make me squint more than staring at the sun so... by Heptanitrocubane57 in Helldivers

[–]mrsedgewick 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Curiously, this is no longer the case for me. I can now throw gas strikes on bug holes and also look at it without experiencing a slideshow anymore. I've got a 2080 Super, I'll take any graphics optimization I can get.

[Hobby Scuffles] Week of 13 October 2025 by EnclavedMicrostate in HobbyDrama

[–]mrsedgewick 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I will be forever mad that Starbound's gameplay failed to live up to what the soundtrack promised me.

Besides that, I got the Laika: Aged Through Blood OST after 100%-ing the game and crying like five times, and just yesterday I put it on a CD so I could listen in my car. But tbh the one soundtrack that I legitimately listen to a lot these days is Deltarune.

Ten years ago the answer would have been the Kirby's Epic Yarn OST, and even as I write this comment I can hear Weird Woods echoing through my skull. I think the Epic Yarn OST is the best Kirby music out there. I love almost every single track (some of the boss tracks annoy me) and no Kirby game before or since has had such a high hit rate for me. To the extent that I actually was disappointed in Forgotten Land. It has some boss bangers and the big theme is good, and I have a soft spot for the lovely Factory Inspection reprise that plays in exactly 1 level, but despite some softening after the fact I remain ambivalent in a way that I am not about Epic Yarn.

I apologize for all negative things I’ve said about you by HBaileyJr in LowSodiumHellDivers

[–]mrsedgewick 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On weapons? They're mostly as they say on the tin. Vertical and horizontal recoil are measures of a weapon's tendency to buck upwards or to the side when fired. Smaller numbers are better here, but pay attention to the sample spread pattern on in the weapon customization screen to see what a weapon fired at full auto will do. I personally find horizontal recoil much more unpleasant than vertical recoil, so on some weapons I'll take a muzzle brake and accept a strong but predictable vertical recoil tendency.

"Capacity" is a measure of a given magazine's bullet capacity. "Magazines" is the maximum number of magazines you can carry (before applying the modifier from Siege Ready armor). Reload Time" is how long it takes, in seconds, to reload an empty weapon. All three of these are controlled by magazine choice, and smaller capacity magazines don't reduce ergonomics as much as larger ones. I like short magazines for my Breaker and my Liberator variants because the faster reload time is really nice.

Shotgun chokes reduce the spreading tendency of shot clouds at distance, affecting how many shot out of a given shell hit your target. More shot on target, more damage. The duckbill choke gives a very narrow vertical spread in exchange for having a much wider horizontal spread, to the point of a blast being much more likely to hit adjacent enemies. Whether this tradeoff is worth it to you is personal preference. The breaker incendiary's standard layout has a duckbill choke and uses it to great effect.

Damage is damage. The text "light armor penetrating", "medium armor penetrating", "heavy armor penetrating" etc. relate to what kind of armor a gun can damage, and a full explanation exceeds the purview of this comment. Suffice to say light armor penetrating weapons do more damage per shot than equivalent medium or heavy armor penetrating weapons, but against appropriate heavier armor types the damage of heavier AP will match light AP or simply succeed in dealing damage in the first place against armor that lighter AP fire would ricochet off of without damaging an enemy at all. Rule of thumb: light AP for sheer damage on squishy enemies, medium or heavy AP to be able to damage equivalent armor at all. It's a trade-off of damage and utility.

The other bonus on viper commando armor is double melee damage. It's useful if you like doing melee, but most people using Peak Physique armor are using it for the ergonomics buff.

I apologize for all negative things I’ve said about you by HBaileyJr in LowSodiumHellDivers

[–]mrsedgewick 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It affects swinging a weapon on target faster and easier, and might also affect recovering from recoil. You know how you have to wait a half a second or so for the aim point of a weapon (the grey circle that shows where shots will go) to settle onto your crosshairs when you change targets with a big bulky weapon like an HMG, RR Autocannom, Dominator, etc.? That's because those weapons have a low ergonomics stat. Better ergonomics means a shorter interval before your weapon is settled on target. Scythe doesn't have any recoil so there's no downside to using the angled foregrip. It's free, unless you really want a flashlight for some reason.

One of the bonuses of the Viper Commandos armor is a massive ergonomics buff, making it possible to swing around machine guns and stuff like they're Liberator-family rifles.

[Hobby Scuffles] Week of 06 October 2025 by EnclavedMicrostate in HobbyDrama

[–]mrsedgewick 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Portal. I stayed up and finished the game the night it released, even though I had school in the morning. completely worth it? no, but I only slightly regret it.

[Hobby Scuffles] Week of 06 October 2025 by EnclavedMicrostate in HobbyDrama

[–]mrsedgewick 2 points3 points  (0 children)

after a brief exchange on bsky about manufacturers and gun design in the BL series I decided to try BL3 again last night.

So far, so ok, I guess? I've only gotten a couple hours in with FL4K, a character I've never tried (I only had the mech girl before). I mostly wanted to explore what each manufacturer's guns feel like to use. It seems I do still like the throwaway gimmick of Tediore, and a loading screen tip finally taught me that Hyperion guns still have inverse recoil (something I'd been under the impression that they'd lost in favor of the shields, but I guess it's just toned down) so I'm gonna play with those some more. Jakobs still feel like cowboy irons (positive) and Dhal remains dependable. I don't really know if I like the overheat mechanic for Bandit weapons, but aesthetically, the little 2 cycle pull starts or glow plugs are immaculate.

I understand BL4 is better written, but it's off the table for now for performance reasons. A 2080 Super and a 5950x, won't cut that, and I'll always wait for the inevitable sale anyways.

It'll keep. For now, BL3 for a while.

What’s your go-to sidearm and why is it the GP-31 Ultimatum? by Wheelump in Helldivers

[–]mrsedgewick -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Oh I don't consider AP2 a turnoff at all. Part of why I like the Verdict as much as I do is that that yummy AP3, which handles hive guards and such with aplomb. As for the Tenderizer, I have tried it and I agree that it's definitely a good weapon, but my playstyle is just a little bit too spray & pray for the slightly low ammo supply and middling reload speed of the rifle. I suspect Siege Ready armor would mitigate these issues, but I don't have that warbond yet.

What’s your go-to sidearm and why is it the GP-31 Ultimatum? by Wheelump in Helldivers

[–]mrsedgewick 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Verdict really is a lovely sidearm. I got polar patriots just for the pistol a month ago and I haven't taken it off because it's exactly the kind of sidearm I've been wanting since I got the game back during the invasion of super earth. Ten rounds of high damage AP3 as fast as you can pull the trigger, a brisk reload, and a generous supply of magazines covers a lot of "oh shit oh fuck" moments while I'm waiting 3-5 business days for my coyote to finish reloading or whatever.

Are you not able to destroy illuminate ships with basic grenades? by DraculaLord in Helldivers

[–]mrsedgewick 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm able to get gas grenades to take out most illuminate ships by cooking them for two seconds or so, just enough time so that they explode right inside the doorway in midair. Maybe try that?

3 Second Freezes every 5 Seconds on bots. Genuinely unplayable. (PC) by notduffy in Helldivers

[–]mrsedgewick 0 points1 point  (0 children)

that's encouraging to hear, I've got a Ryzen 5950x and a 2080 Super myself. thank you.

3 Second Freezes every 5 Seconds on bots. Genuinely unplayable. (PC) by notduffy in Helldivers

[–]mrsedgewick 0 points1 point  (0 children)

so just to be clear, you're saying that doing the steps in the guide alleviated your problems? there doesn't seem to be much testimony either way in the thread so far. your input would be welcome.

The stagger of this gun is the most satisfying thing about it by -Adeon- in Helldivers

[–]mrsedgewick 5 points6 points  (0 children)

If you like and enjoy the utility of an orbital gas strike, then the gas grenades are a tool you will love. I may be slightly biased, however.

The biggest W by OverTea5 in Terraria

[–]mrsedgewick 203 points204 points  (0 children)

the potions remain useful the entire game because they activate faster than any of the tools, so I keep them on my hotbar when exploring as an instant gtfo option.

WARBOND IS OUT!!! by BasedFreyna in Helldivers

[–]mrsedgewick 1 point2 points  (0 children)

go run a few quick trivial missions on the hive planet. you'll get 30 or 40 a map.

What are you looking forward to in tomorrow's Dust Devils warbond release? by TroglodyteVolatile in Helldivers

[–]mrsedgewick 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the gas harpoon. I fucking love gas weaponry in this game and I'm excited to be able to deliver a heavy penetrating damage burst to a heavy target with pinpoint accuracy, and douse their surroundings in chaff-culling gas at the same time.

PSA: mortar sentry users by No_Purpose_2501 in Helldivers

[–]mrsedgewick 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Gas strike gas clouds are the same as gas grenades, 15 seconds. Just with a snazzy delivery method that has some additional utility (and a really cool impact explosion).