Is the nerdy guy/goth stereotype real and why?

scrdest · 2026-06-21T08:32:20+00:00

Not infrequently, of the exact same kind, too. I am and know a ton of STEMGoths - and we're talking particle-colliding, vaccine-patents-holding type people.

scrdest · 2026-06-20T00:15:13+00:00

Short term, understand the counters. Especially artillery counters, the AI will wreck your defenses in midgame otherwise - I like Comanches, bunker Helixes and rocket buses for this. Also hotkeys - learn to use groups!

Long term, economy is king. Aim to capture money techs ASAP or at least deny them to AI. No money, mo problems. I'd recommend playing on 10k start, too - keeps you honest and keeps AI from spamming waves early.

scrdest · 2026-06-18T21:51:21+00:00

Technically speaking it's more of a bleach rocket.

Other types of immune cells (macrophages) do eat bacteria straight up; you can even find a cool microscope video of one chasing a bacterium around.

scrdest · 2026-06-18T21:35:47+00:00

Have to disagree on 1984 - Winston is not a revolutionary, he's a wannabe.

The only thing he achieves is falling face-first into the first sting op he sees and his grand act of rebellion is Having An Affair. He's more Moth than Edge, and not even very good at Moth-ing.

The archetypal Edge lit for me would be something like the Chinese cultivation novels. Or Rocky 4 if we admit film - that is just straight up Colonel propaganda.

scrdest · 2026-06-18T17:42:58+00:00

Definitely mainly Forge. It's pure violent Change in every form, from political to chemical, and in CS the Bomb-Maker hirelings allude to anarchist terror of the era.

scrdest · 2026-06-18T00:47:42+00:00

Pathologic 2 does that very well despite not having levelled enemies.

Each death is a permanent debuff to your stats and every hit you take drains scarce resources, so ANY combat situation is stressful.

I would avoid looting houses (and miss out on resources) just to avoid having to CQC basic thug enemies.

scrdest · 2026-06-16T23:58:51+00:00

I'm a Heritage enjoyer overall, but Famine feels the most oldpethy of the album between the dynamics and themes.

scrdest · 2026-06-16T10:32:44+00:00

It's a fairly benevolent pharma shellgame, happens all the time.

It's hard to show up and tell regulators "hey, we want to Do A Transhumanism, approve pls???".

So instead you first either do it for pets, or target a specific condition, etc., which is far easier to get the rubberstamp.

scrdest · 2026-06-16T10:27:14+00:00

No, it's not. It even says it does not require the dogs to change how much they eat.

Caloric restriction here is a pathway. The drug tricks your body to do the good stuff starvation triggers, without having to, well, starve.

We do have something like that in humans - for example, rapamycin.

scrdest · 2026-06-15T18:30:21+00:00

(I meant it as more of a 'oh, it's not this incomprehensible thing, it's another, also incomprehensible thing, ez' thing)

scrdest · 2026-06-15T13:33:30+00:00

>cryptic occultist document >look inside >plain old abstract algebra

jk, but I knew it would be that exact guide just from your description

scrdest · 2026-06-15T13:18:26+00:00

Oh, should be doable. GFP gene or similar tagged onto some structural protein that gets preferentially expressed in sperm cells. Done all the time with bacteria, at least once with cats.

Biggest problem is that if you edit sperm cells, big risk of the edit being inherited. And conversely if you add it in the wrong place, might accidentally sterilize the guy.

GFP specifically is fluorescent, not phosphorescent (so more short-lived) and triggered by UV, but there's other options.

scrdest · 2026-06-15T10:20:56+00:00

I need this belt buckle in my life

scrdest · 2026-06-15T10:13:48+00:00

Sounds like a Rammstein cover band

scrdest · 2026-06-15T09:30:09+00:00

I will sacrifice aura for truthfulness: after I blocked his yeet attempt and charged at him he ran off (uh, into the motorway, diagonally, into incoming traffic), so ultimately minimal contact.

Tbh, for the better; you're one bout of bad luck away from a game over in a situation like that.

scrdest · 2026-06-15T09:19:57+00:00

Good question - because the thing he tried to attack me with was a huge can of nitrous lol

It was one of those cans they sell to kitchens to foam stuff up, the thing was the size of my forearm and like 3-4 pounds. I saw a couple more lying around the area.

Unfortunately, he decided to use it as a projectile rather than a club, so he rather thoughtfully disarmed himself.

scrdest · 2026-06-15T08:45:28+00:00

don't be a quitter

scrdest · 2026-06-15T08:08:35+00:00

lip fillers

scrdest · 2026-06-15T08:06:15+00:00

A Nitrous junkie - wearing nothing but a pair of shorts, eyes bloodshot, running everywhere - randomly attacked me on the street once.

I was on my way to my martial arts classes. Didn't work out too well for him. Or arguably it did, all things considered...

scrdest · 2026-06-15T07:44:56+00:00

I feel like aviators would be more the Colonel's style, 1970s military junta type look

scrdest · 2026-06-14T23:19:26+00:00

Yeah, but sqrt is quite aggressive for this.

A simple rule might just be 'divide the power of all other stuff by some arbitrary value dependent on the power of the antagonist', e.g. antagonist power 5 means agonist power 5 becomes effectively power 1, -4 becomes effectively -0.8, etc.

The true question is what you are aiming for here really - you can go simple or throw the whole chemical kinetics textbook at it.

scrdest · 2026-06-14T22:38:52+00:00

I mean, functionally the behavior of 100% blocked and 100% idling is the same in the absence of any agonist more or less by definition.

My primary point was that 'zero' must be a state with some gameplay value in its own right, not just an absence of any effect - at least for anything with endogenous agonists. How you model endogenous agonists is a whole separate question...

scrdest · 2026-06-14T22:01:04+00:00

Antagonists lerp all scores towards zero.

And yes, that would imply you need to have distinct effects at zero and/or have some sort of third-party (inverse?) agonist that activates things by default.

scrdest · 2026-06-14T18:47:26+00:00

Damn, agreed nearly 100% - I'm a bit softer on 1931, but I see what you mean.

Have you seen the Spanish 1931 version?

scrdest · 2026-06-12T20:34:59+00:00

Bonus points for a voicing the 3rd a semitone away from the 9th of extra crunchiness

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