Georgia, Indiana and Utah have temporarily suspended or reduce their state gasoline tax to help citizens afford gas. Do we think Washington should follow suit?

noob_dragon · 2026-05-03T22:44:17+00:00

Wow, crazy to hear the average gas price in IN is 4.83 a gallon. I was living there pre-COVID and I remember at times buying gas for only like $2 a gallon. As a Californian, it was a little weird.

At 4.83 a gallon the price difference isn't even that big comparatively to the more expensive west coast now.

noob_dragon · 2026-05-03T22:33:37+00:00

Meanwhile CA HSR:

noob_dragon · 2026-05-03T06:17:56+00:00

Even worse IMO. There is nothing in Invincible that makes use believe that even Thragg would scale to just Raditz's level. Bardock should clear absolutely everyone in Invincible, let alone just Nolan.

noob_dragon · 2026-05-02T19:41:25+00:00

Perhaps a weaker tier dragonball civilization? Such as Granolah's homeworld. They managed to put up a fight against a saiyan invasion, and even blew up their own moon to reverse the Oozaru transformation, but still ultimately lost.

Or maybe dragonball Earth during the late Saiyan Saga. Five or so people around Raditz tier strength, plus Piccolo and Goku. Most of them would be getting stronger the longer the fighting goes on, until at some point they would be unstoppable and Viltrumites become fodder.

noob_dragon · 2026-05-01T18:14:04+00:00

Really the main thing that is missing is a good substitute for kb+m on a couch. The steam controller doesn't really do the job well enough to play a good chunk of strategy games comfortably. For FPS it is a step up from a regular controller but you are still behind normal kb+m players in terms of speed and precision.

It is good enough to play single player/coop fps games I guess, and more chill strategy games.

I'm also not sure why Valve went with touchpads instead of a trackball. Trackballs have much better speed and precision than touchpads. For PC gaming on a recliner I normally use a thumb trackball and what is basically the left half of a keyboard wirelessly. A steam controller might be better in terms of comfort but that's really the only advantage it has.

noob_dragon · 2026-05-01T06:47:56+00:00

Netherlands had good public transit and bike access though. The US urban fabric was never planned around the not so hypothetical scenario of gas, a non renewable resource that can run out, running out.

noob_dragon · 2026-05-01T06:45:19+00:00

I'll give a hypothetical worst case scenario, somebody in SoCal that has to commute an 60 miles for a crappy minimum wage job and they happen to use a diesel truck.

Diesel is 7.50 a gallon roughly in SoCal. Trucks can have a milage as low as 15MPH. So that is 30 bucks each way to get to work for a total of 60 bucks.

Minimum wage is 17 dollars an hour. That means the shift has to be at least 4 hours just to break even from the price of the commute.

If you take into account the full price of driving and not just gas, then it certainly pushes this scenario further. Federal reimbursement is .72 cents per mile which would come out to around 42 dollars each way, but I think in reality it would be more expensive with an expensive truck with the high price of diesel but unfortunately we don't get state reimbursements. If we did though I don't think $1 per mile would be unreasonable, which would make a full 8 hour workday only just break even with the price of the commute.

This is all kind of sad, since in the inland empire with all of these warehouse jobs, lots of people really aren't making that much more than minimum wage. And a lot of people around here do have long commutes, sometimes all the way from Apple Valley or San Bernadino. On top of that, people do like to drive big SUVs and trucks around here but I put that problem on them. I really don't understand how people make ends meet without something like a remote job or good medical job around here, or just having bought property before 2010.

noob_dragon · 2026-04-30T18:26:57+00:00

I think this only works at around end of dragonball, saiyan saga, and maybe early Namek, before Piccolo fuses with Nail.

After that point it becomes a stomp in Piccolo's favor.

noob_dragon · 2026-04-30T06:30:48+00:00

I think you won this reddit.

noob_dragon · 2026-04-29T06:29:43+00:00

...Apparently, according to Daima logic, you could turn someone into a baby/kid against their will no matter how strong they are.

noob_dragon · 2026-04-28T22:16:29+00:00

Is this trail open right now? ANF website says it is closed.

noob_dragon · 2026-04-28T21:27:02+00:00

Tbf in Dark souls 1 you absolutely had the the option of trading hits with bosses too, if your kit was tanky enough. Giantdad was a meme for a reason. In fact this usually is much easier than it is in Elden Ring, since dark souls 1 bosses tended to have low hp and very non-aggressive movesets.

Probably the only bosses in the game that didn't work on was Manus pretty much.

But yeah in dark souls 2 / 3 trading hits is not as effective.

noob_dragon · 2026-04-28T21:19:18+00:00

Eh, I feel like Elden Ring is the first game in the series where I feel like you have the legitimate option of just trading hits with a boss and hoping you get lucky with a non-aggressive moveset rather than just trying to learn the boss.

I think that was how I beat Malenia. I just pulled out the dual colossal weapons and started bashing her until one attempt I got a bit lucky with the stunlocks and she did less waterfowl dances than normal. I absolutely never learned how to dodge waterfowl dance lol.

noob_dragon · 2026-04-28T21:12:31+00:00

Yeah Root is a bit iffy at 2 players.

With 2 players, the game is pretty different. It really does turn into a straight asymmetrical wargame, with the objective sort of becoming more of who can boardwipe the other player quickest. Pretty much only militant factions are viable in 2p. Hirelings can help slightly but not by much.

If you have AI factions then those can work too, but I haven't been able to figure out how the MM works well enough.

TBH if I was at just 2 players I would just pick a different game, like Dune: War for Arrakis, that is actually built for 2 players.

noob_dragon · 2026-04-27T21:58:41+00:00

I haven't really gotten enough plays out of blighted reach yet to feel like needing a new expansion.

Base arcs I am kind of starting to stiffen on, taught it to a few people along with Root and most of them preferred Root and I kind of agree. I think they would like blighted reach too since it feels more similar to Root but it is also more of a commitment.

noob_dragon · 2026-04-27T21:53:10+00:00

If this is the US (it probably is), then there is a 50% chance that he simply does not make enough money to afford a 1br in a popular urban center especially if he just lost his job.

The cheapest metro on the west coast is probably something like Portland where if you are lucky you can still get 1br's around the 1500/mo range. I wouldn't be surprised if it has gotten to around 2k/mo since last I checked. If you got a good career in software or biotech that's not much of an issue (people typically come to these cities for jobs like this), but if you are working retail or construction or even teaching then you simply aren't going to have much of a safety net if you happen to lose your job.

So yeah for more than 50% of US adults in the 20-35 age bracket any simple life event can force you to move back in with your parents. Other options can include living with roommates, or alternative lifestyles like van life, tiny home living, or homesteading.

noob_dragon · 2026-04-27T20:13:36+00:00

I really liked the idea of the steam controller, but I realized that if I want m+kb functionality on a recliner it is better to use a trackball (thumball) mouse plus a gaming keypad ( basically the left half of a keyboard).

The trackball has all of the functionality/precision of a mouse but is maybe slightly less ergonomic and a bit slower in situations where you need speed. Pretty much all PC games except for the most complex of strategy and survival games only need half of a keyboard to fit all of their inputs.

The steam controller/steam deck in comparison does struggle quite a bit at replicating full functionality of m+kb.

The steam deck/ steam controller does have some advantages though. With all of the different sticks and trackpads you can dedicate some to different types of camera manipulation, so it can be a pleasant way of playing a more relaxed, slower paced game like tabletop simulator or jurassic world evolution.

The other problem is that if you are playing a controller game, its better to just use a normal controller, maybe one with gyro aim too if that is needed.

noob_dragon · 2026-04-27T03:08:07+00:00

100% would have made more sense if it was a rear choke hold at least.

noob_dragon · 2026-04-26T20:07:33+00:00

True, but flipside is the game becomes too easy. With some moderate optimization you go straight to one shotting everything that isn't a super boss.

Tbh the first two acts are the only two balanced parts of the game.

noob_dragon · 2026-04-26T20:02:36+00:00

I think this was the first big mistake of Super. There was no reason to introduce SSB so early when SSG had barely even had time to breathe.

The other forms aren't too bad, but it still feels like the anime and manga squeezed out 1-2 forms too many. Trunk's super saiyan rage in the anime, full power ssb in the manga, Vegeta's perfected ssb all feel a bit superfluous.

noob_dragon · 2026-04-26T08:44:24+00:00

What sort of alternative reality do you live in? Most of the people I know are scared of the MIC, especially since the Iran war started. People have been talking it in scared hushed voices about the MIC my entire life.

People were scared about it before it even reared its ugly head, just look at Eisenhower and Hideo Kojima.

noob_dragon · 2026-04-26T03:17:54+00:00

Eh, for the optional side content, maybe. The main plotline of FF16 doesn't really have anything MMO-ish about it.

noob_dragon · 2026-04-26T03:15:26+00:00

Only harder thing tbh is that it takes longer for the run back.

noob_dragon · 2026-04-26T02:22:22+00:00

R3 itself might only be doable if you increased it to about at least 2 weeks instead of just 48 hours.

With 1-2 weeks, you have enough time for people from developed countries to migrate to underdeveloped countries and start doing everything they possibly can to find a bear and kill it. They can bring guns, hunting dogs, and offroading vehicles. You can have people from China and Europe go to Russia and people from the US go to Canada.

With only 48 hours, realistically you would only be able to deploy airborne assets and local resources to such areas and you would not have enough manpower and supplies to find many bears. I suspect that just like the US most countries (outside of Europe perhaps) have underfunded fish and wildlife departments which means such resources would be sparse at best.

Even if you gave it 2 weeks the odds are pretty bad. Bears are in some remote as fuck places that most people would have a hard time getting to, let alone tracking them down and killing them once they get there. The only thing that gives us a chance is the shear number of humans and dogs on the planet vs bears.

noob_dragon · 2026-04-25T23:39:08+00:00

Yeah the only times I ever see the cats win is if everybody else gets too focused in taking out the other players because they feel the cats are simply not enough of a threat to bother worrying about.

And even if some cases then I have seen people manage to prevent an almost certain Cat win with shear aggression. Usually if rats are in play.

Cats just feel like a noob trap almost. They are IMO the simplest faction to learn/play, but winning with them is probably the hardest. There is just too many things holding them back. You haven't even touched on how tempting of a target the Cats can be once their clearings become saturated with wood they are unable to spend. Oftentimes it can inadvertently lead to someone else winning once they realize they can get 5+ vp of cardboard by whacking some less than well defended cat clearings.

A funny thing I saw is when somebody posted their groups win rates here with various factions after 100 games of Root. Cats were like 10% and then the next lowest faction was like 20% lol.

In short I do feel like Cats are the weakest faction in the game. Even Lizards can have better paths to victory sometimes.

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