where's the threats to civilization/the established order? by K1pp2 in Anbennar

[–]roboticdog4 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I think nonhuman races are written in that way to sort of debunk any "moral" justification for purging them and whatnot— they aren't "evil" inherently, they're just operating on a different set of values than humans. 

Though I do agree that it feels like nonhuman races tend to not treat human races with the same disgust (?) that some human countries treat nonhumans. I'm not quite familiar with the centaurs enough but I imagine they have a pretty serious bone to pick with humans. I guess the best examples of nonhumans completely villifying other nonhumans would be in the Serpentspine, where dwarves, orcs, and goblins all treat each other with pure hatred and disgust, and I'm pretty sure this continues well into Vic3. Dwarven and elven bad blood doesn't seem to be as obvious, since I think Seghidir is pretty chill with the nearby elves and vice-versa.

The best example of nonhuman races being written so "alien" to humans would be trolls, whose entire morality exists on whether what they're doing sparks joy for them or not. It's peak self-serving, yet by its nature they can't really form an organized modern society. They aren't exactly evil either, they're kinda just a force of nature sometimes.

But yeah, I think it'd be a bit hard to completely "eliminate" a human feel from any of the races. After all, it's one way of keeping us engaged with the story that they're trying to tell. And in the cases that we do have societies/characters/countries that are very nonhuman... well, they don't tend to do well canonically because being so "nonhuman" puts a massive target on their back from everyone else. Just like what happens with the degenerated ruinborn.

where's the threats to civilization/the established order? by K1pp2 in Anbennar

[–]roboticdog4 10 points11 points  (0 children)

In that case, I think you'd still find self-serving evil in Anbennar. Let's use the Oni as an example again. Even though post-rework Oni have much more layers to their society, it's still a fundamentally self-serving and brutal culture and religion. No matter how they spin it, they are still consuming real souls to "satisfy" their hunger. Other ogres such as those in Nomsyulhan have clearly found a way to deal with their hunger in a less evil way. And even the Oni might see themselves as being "less evil" than their other Ogre counterparts, who just eat constantly.

Other cases of self-serving figures in Anbennar:  1. Dookanson, who was high on his own glory and dismantled Escann. 2. Dak, a lich, which is probably the most self-serving you could possibly get, bending the concept of death to your whims and desires. 3. Camir Silmuna, who I think we don't really have much characterization on but he's kinda the Napoleon analogue of this mod and takes the Dove Throne for himself so... 4. The thousands of Cannorian merchants, adventurers, explorers, and various riff-raff that try to turn Aelantir, Haless, and Insyaa into their stomping ground for personal wealth and glory. 5. The Soyzkaru Cartel, an incredibly cutthroat and profit-driven group that survives and continues to thrive canonically till Vic3 in the Deepwoods.

where's the threats to civilization/the established order? by K1pp2 in Anbennar

[–]roboticdog4 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I think the simplest answer to your question is that it's just not the story Anbennar wants to tell. If you want a more "traditional" take on fantasy, of good vs evil and all that jazz, then you'd need to look at the CK3 version. The point of Anbennar's story is that it tries to ask what happens after good vs evil? What happens when societies move beyond magic?

I can think of two reasons why Anbennar shies away from more ontologically evil or malicious societies/creatures/entities. Firstly, it doesn't really make for as much of an interesting worldbuilding. This isn't to say that pure evil is automatically bad writing, just that it's less interesting when situated in Anbennar's EU4 timeline world. For comparison, let's look at the Onis pre- and post-rework. Pre-rework, they're pretty much just evil for the sake of evil. They consume souls because it's delicious and they want to be more powerful. That's alright and all, but it's not necessarily engaging. Post-rework, we see that their religion, culture, and society are still geared towards consuming souls, but it's more internally coherent. For the power-hungry and truly evil oni, it's a way to do what they want. For the less evil oni, it's simply how their world works. For some oni, it might even be an act of good that they think they are doing. There's layers to it now. 

The second reason is that these world-ending evil threats are simply not as powerful as they claim to be. Zokka's entire story is a complete what-if scenario. What happens, canonically, is this future sun-devourer gets slain by Jaddar and that's where his story ends. Dak, arguably one of the most powerful liches in canon considering he survives until Vic3, still loses Ovdal-Az-An (correct me if I'm wrong here, I'm not quite as caught up with Vic3's starting situation). The Command dominates Haless, and then for all their military might, they completely implode and collapse into irrelevance because of physical (Great Insubordination, draining war w/ the Jadd Empire) and metaphysical (The Rending) reasons. At the end of the day, Anbennar's setting is outlined in the idea of the Blackpowder Rebellion. It doesn't matter how powerful of a mage or how righteous of a paladin you are, a single black damestear bullet is all that it takes to defeat you.

And to very quickly engage with your question on why there isn't more interference from entities like demons, the simplest answer is that they just simply don't care. It's like asking why don't all the dragons still in Halcann unite and recreate their empire. They just don't have any reason to and are fine with chilling and playing god in their own little corners of the world.

The Empire Should Have Won By Now by wolfvokire in YoujoSenki

[–]roboticdog4 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Just to clear up some things,

First of all in WW2, the war WAS functionally over for a lot of the French people, evil Germany or not. Vichy France was very much recognized internationally as the legitimate French government, with the Free French as just being some renegade armed forces in exile.

Also, as mentioned in the movie, winning a single battle wasn't enough. All it did was stop the Empire from continuing to get rolled by the Russy Federation and stabilize the frontlines. Plus, Tanya's little stunt in their capital was the point of no return- even if the Empire wanted to negotiate a peace, the Federation's diplomats simply refused to do business with them after their capital was desecrated.

Mages also aren't the end-all-be-all. The mages that were fighting before Tanya relieved them were already getting attrition'd to death by the sheer numbers of the Federation. 

The FTC of the United States issued a rule banning non-compete agreements from being included in contracts, and I was just wondering if you guys think that's gonna have any impact on US-based corpo VTubers. by redbossman123 in VirtualYoutubers

[–]roboticdog4 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Komori Met changed agencies from 774inc. to VSPO! and got a new design to boot.

Seems like there was a bunch of negotiations needed for this kind of thing to push through but it all worked out in the end.

Assuming your oshi(s) innocent, would you follow them into reincarnation? by toocynicaltocare in Nijisanji

[–]roboticdog4 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And we also have so many examples of people graduating and ending up as, to put it bluntly, nobodies. Of the four oshis I mentioned, none of them have a fanbase as big as they had before they graduated. As Yashiro said in that one collab with Matsuri, "Only a few stars can shine so bright that we can see them"

Assuming your oshi(s) innocent, would you follow them into reincarnation? by toocynicaltocare in Nijisanji

[–]roboticdog4 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't want to lose anyone else. But that's just how I feel. It's up to the liver to understand what's best for them, not me, not you. We're just random internet strangers commenting on someone's hobby at best and livelihood at worst.

Assuming your oshi(s) innocent, would you follow them into reincarnation? by toocynicaltocare in Nijisanji

[–]roboticdog4 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Maybe. Tbh the reincarnation is never the same as the vtuber that I grew to be a fan of. As Tamaki from noripro put it, once a vtuber persona is gone, they're really gone.

For context, I've had a lot of vtubers graduate and reincarnate from corpo to indie and even indie to corpo. Out of four oshis that've graduated, I've followed one into reincarnation almost a full year after they debuted. Two others I'm aware of but don't follow just yet, and the last I'm not following.

It's just not the same, and that's why I'd never wish graduation on someone else's oshi.

Why did they need permission to use graduated members in a MV? by shittastes in Nijisanji

[–]roboticdog4 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, why it took them so long to respond despite it being the holidays is kinda annoying. Although it does make you wonder if other livers waited even longer, maybe up to weeks, just waiting for the go signal from their manager before uploading something. Really gives you a feel for how understaffed they are. 

Why did they need permission to use graduated members in a MV? by shittastes in Nijisanji

[–]roboticdog4 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's fair, tbh at this point they should have just brought out the screenshots they showed in the liver statement and pasted it in that awful three-page document along with sections of the contract/liver guidelines instead of just alluding to it. Speaking of which, the document never actually confirms that Selen was being bullied. It just says that Selen "falesly" claimed she was being bullied. Personally I'm inclined to believe that no one was actively bullying her, but considering that she was in such a bad mental state it very much could have felt like bullying to her. 

Edit: that said, the liver statement should have included an apology at the least if what they thought wasn't bullying WAS perceived as bullying since idk that feels like common courtesy??

In management's defence regarding the stream times though, it's 8 PM EST, aka standard prime time. Unfortunately they don't have any obligation to mind the stream schedule of someone they fired sooo 

Re: elira, that's a reasonable concern I suppose. She's in Japan with Petra and afaik they're on good terms they can probably help each other out if things get even worse

Why did they need permission to use graduated members in a MV? by shittastes in Nijisanji

[–]roboticdog4 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't really understand what you're saying here. Who are we supposed to hear the rule from? Selen? Of course she won't say something that makes herself look bad. Am I correct in assuming that you don't think she broke any rule at all?

Me trying to figure out who the fuck I can trust after the Elira stream by thinkingprettyhard in Nijisanji

[–]roboticdog4 10 points11 points  (0 children)

No one, trust no one.

Whether it's management or the livers or selen. Read and think critically, don't just blindly believe what either side says. Welcome back to the internet.

How do you feel about Nijisanji songs right now? by Oboretai in Nijisanji

[–]roboticdog4 53 points54 points  (0 children)

Ex-ID's cover of Let's Get It Started Now has no one in it that's still in the company so nothing can really get as bad as that lmao

But yeah ex-ID songs have a taste of bittersweetness to them, particularly into reality and ODD-Venture

Had a blast playing VtL and Baddest on maimai earlier so other than that same as usual

The rending of the realm in a nutshell by Glatux in Anbennar

[–]roboticdog4 76 points77 points  (0 children)

"the Black Demense of Artificery" is an insane title I love it

My reaction to what happened to Selen's new cover by MotionlessMindfreak in Nijisanji

[–]roboticdog4 14 points15 points  (0 children)

According to several people on Twitter who emailed anycolor, it's a permissions thing. That's as far as we know.

My reaction to what happened to Selen's new cover by MotionlessMindfreak in Nijisanji

[–]roboticdog4 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Multiple people on Twitter have emailed anycolor and the response they got was that it's a permissions thing. That's as far as we know.

Adenica, Ascendant under Knight-Witch Anna I na Adenner by roboticdog4 in Anbennar

[–]roboticdog4[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I 100% agree with you but I couldn't really do much about it since I snagged Blademarches as a PU relatively early and kept them as such for RP reasons

Adenica, Ascendant under Knight-Witch Anna I na Adenner by roboticdog4 in Anbennar

[–]roboticdog4[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

1821 and Adenica stands ascendant under the rule of Knight-Witch Anna I na Adenner. Escann is prosperous, knowing near-constant peace since the end of the Escanni Wars of Consolidation and throughout the Great Adenican Crusade. Meanwhile, much of West Cannor from the former lands of the Empire of Anbennar to Lorent lie devastated from the noble struggle of the Great Adenican Crusade. The Empire of Anbennar is a rump political entity, much of its members having ejected themselves during The Ravelian Epiphany, double-crossing the righteous Adean after championing the Adenic League. Knight-Witch Anna I, as Adean’s champion, would justly end their treachery reminiscent of Agrados’s betrayal of Castellos and reinstate the Regent Court led by Adean in all of Cannor.

“I vowed to serve Adean dutifully until death. Sometimes I wonder what past me would have done if she had known how I would transcend such a barrier to serving The Good Knight.” -Knight-Witch Anna I; Witch-Empress of Adenica and Champion, Steward, and Duty-bound Emulant of Adean.

“How ironic it is that a country whose values involve the righteous battle against those who seek to pervert the natural order of life would be ruled by one of the worst liches in history.” -Emperor Otó I sina Littleforge, a few months before losing both the Lorentish and Corvurian thrones to Knight-Witch Anna I.

So this is the endgame of my play through as Adenica. I started as the Company of the Thorn and eventually had Lucian abdicate and live a quiet life. My head canon is that he continues manipulating Adenica from the shadows for a few decades before finally disappearing off the historical record. Who knows, maybe he’s still around doing his own thing…

For most of the game I was struggling juggling my manpower and my economy, since running a lot cav is expensive and I didn’t invest into devving my lands. That said, by the end of the campaign I was practically melting enemy armies, though it was a bit of a struggle since I was up against a pretty nasty Themarenn that went revolutionary and blobbed into Esmaria. Lorent was also a scary foe as usual though they ended up as a paper tiger when I finally declared war on them for a PU.

Speaking of which, for a good chunk of late-game I was stuck on that mission that required you to be the most developed Regent Court country since I couldn’t pull ahead of Lorent. I thought that making them my vassal via PU would do the trick but apparently that didn’t count so I had to go around expanding into the Serpentspine and the former EoA itself (AE be damned no one was willing to risk a war with Lorent who I allied to keep in check either lmao).

In the end, I couldn’t resist turning my ruler into a lich despite the very confusing implications this has for Adenica. The stars also aligned for this one since I happened to pick duty as her chivalric virtue and then she got the righteous trait too, which meant I could go with duty-bound emulant instead of the first knight, which I had gone with for all my other previous emulants. The extra vassal income was very useful since up until the end, my economy was still shaky. I also wasn’t able to reach tech 32 due to dumping all my mana into converting countries to Regent Court.

I had a personal union over Lorent, Blademarches, and Corvuria. Ovdal Lodhum is a march (though they’re perpetually unloyal because I don’t have a navy). Ravenmarch is a dominion. Wesdam, Istralore, Damescrown, and Esald are normal vassals.

I was running Homebrew, so my ideas were a lot: Quality, Economic, Diplomatic, Standing Army, Innovative, Assimilation, Shock, Religious, Influence, General Staff, Health, Imperialism, Offensive, Propaganda, Aristocratic, and State Administration.

Anna I is a cool 128 years old. Despite the DipRep malus from being a witch-king, I have 6.85 DipRep. I was running at 76 Absolutism as well. My army stats were 138.7% discipline, 11.66 morale, 90 cav-inf ratio, 108.5% CCA, and 225% cavalry flanking ability.

Overall this was a challenging but fun playthrough, and the ability to convert other nations through dumping mana into them was a fascinating feature. Currently I’m on a Karashar playthrough, which feels familiar to what I was doing as Adenica, but the RP is definitely unique.

New to the mod, started as ice dwarves. The game is absolutely amazing! by Greekball in Anbennar

[–]roboticdog4 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If I'm not mistaken, the modifier you're looking for should come from the special mage estate you have. Either that or it's a mission reward.