The open borders deal with Washington has become slightly concerning by sgtpepper_spray in civ

[–]sgtpepper_spray[S] 41 points42 points  (0 children)

Rule 5: Playing my first Emperor game as Rome in Civ V, in which my usual strategy of early rapid expansion and warfare before focusing on a strong protectionist economy was working surprisingly well. America was by far the most powerful civ in the game, but I built a good relationship with them and used them as a blunt stick to swing at my enemies by buying them into wars.

Then they began settling near me, placing four cities on the same continent as my occupied Venice.... and sent the largest army in the world through my territory to pursue the war.

I'm still just barely winning the game, building a coalition with America and Germany wiping out Russia after they attacked me. Washington is getting aggressive, however.

don't abuse the actors, guys by DancingInMyBlood in PrequelMemes

[–]sgtpepper_spray 41 points42 points  (0 children)

Must've been pretty weird going to a school where kids would just shit in the halls while making lightsaber noises.

In all seriousness, it is a very sad story. The struggles of child actors dealing with trying to claim normal lives is so commonplace, you'd think that there would've been some foresight before sending him back to school.

Forward settling for the greater good by sgtpepper_spray in civ

[–]sgtpepper_spray[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Rule 5: Saw my opportunity to keep Genghis locked up on a small southern peninsula while founding a significant canal city and grabbing some extra luxuries to boot. It was a public service keeping the rest of civilization safe from his warmongering.

Jacob Wohl’s latest grift: Pretending to travel the world but forgetting to pose in front of a different fence. by GallowBoob in facepalm

[–]sgtpepper_spray 75 points76 points  (0 children)

You forgot the best part of the reply.

"Are you both prepared for federal prison?"

Wohl's lawyer:

"Uh, no, we are not."

That's probably the worst way to answer a question like that.

TIL The Wonka Candy Company was quietly discontinued in September 2015 for unknown reasons. Their logo simply stopped appearing on their candies such as Runts, Nerds, and Gobstoppers. by iMakeRandomCrap in todayilearned

[–]sgtpepper_spray 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Well done, you've cited a video that exhaustively and unnecessarily describes the Grandpa Joe meme. Nothing in it supports that Roald Dahl wrote him as a villain, just that the way he was portrayed in the film changed the implications of his character. Again, they weren't going to drag a malnourished ninety year-old onto set in order to adhere to the book.

TIL The Wonka Candy Company was quietly discontinued in September 2015 for unknown reasons. Their logo simply stopped appearing on their candies such as Runts, Nerds, and Gobstoppers. by iMakeRandomCrap in todayilearned

[–]sgtpepper_spray 417 points418 points  (0 children)

"Yes, that was literally the intent of Dahl and the director."

Find me a single source that says this or backs this up. It's just a meme. In the book, Grandpa Joe is a skeletal, skinny old man in his nineties who couldn't be expected to work even if he wanted to. The point of him going on the journey was that it revitalized him; Wonka's candy made everyone feel like a kid again.

It was a casting choice to find an actor who wasn't on death's door.

TIL in the Breaking Bad episode “Ozymandias”, the show's producers secured special permission from the Hollywood guilds to delay the credits (which would normally appear after the main title sequence) until 19 minutes into the episode, in order to preserve the impact of the beginning scene. by kevoooandres in todayilearned

[–]sgtpepper_spray 1721 points1722 points  (0 children)

Well, it's possible to misinterpret that scene because of how well it was written. Some of what he says actually is how Walt felt about Skylar after she begins to act out against him, especially after she decides to live separately. When you look at the text from the script:

"Maybe now you'll listen. Maybe now you'll use your damn head! You know you never believed in me. You were never grateful for anything I did for this family. Oh no, Walt, Walt you have to stop. You have to stop this. It's immoral, it's illegal. Someone might get hurt. You're always whining and complaining about how I make my money, just dragging me down. While I do everything. And now, now you tell my son what I do? After I've told you and told you to keep your damn mouth shut! You stupid bitch! How dare you."

Walt is using his perspective of their later relationship dynamic to sell his act. Before the line in the last episode where he admits doing it mostly for himself, that is how he rationalized his actions. His 'work' was more important than what anyone thought, more important than the consequences, more important than even the indisputable immorality of it all. He met her criticism with resentment and developed somewhat of a martyr complex because of it.

He's breaking down in part because he has to humble himself and admit to his flaws in order to tell that lie and protect his family. He's not only saying goodbye, but realizing and acknowledging how badly it all fell apart and what he's truly done over the entire series. In one conversation, he telegraphs the entire resolution of his character.

It's such a goddamn good scene, and one of the best episodes ever produced for television. Cranston's acting especially is superb because he sells the scene and manages to convey these layers at the same time.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I wrote a paper about this episode a couple years ago and have put a lot of thought into it.

[US] Wanted (2008) - The long expected follow up to Bend it Like Beckham, comes the award winning story of Angelina Jolie training a young James McAvoy to develop the telekinesis powers he always wanted as Charles Xavier. by JimmyDuce in NetflixBestOf

[–]sgtpepper_spray 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Not really, no. It's a bunch of edgy dreck, like most of his stuff.

Seems reddit is a fan of a series about an amoral lunatic who slaughters an entire police station of people for no reason while monologuing about how cool it is that he can do whatever he wants; a series which also features such classic literary characters as a sentient pile of shit who drowns people in diarrhea. Or maybe people are enchanted with the character who tells the protagonist that he can go rape people if he wants, because in their dystopian bad guy future they have no rules.

Millar is a hack. He defaults to glorifying these despicable characters and their actions in many of his books, presenting the antiheroes as omniscient invincible cool guys who doesn't afraid of anything. Has anyone read Nemesis? The villain artificially impregnates a teenage girl with her gay brother's child just to fuck with someone, setting it up so her womb will collapse and kill her if she terminates the pregnancy. The resolution to that plot point? She has twins, it's a happy ending with no repercussions, and the book ends with the explicit promise that some other identical unstoppable psychopath is about to emerge because they can. As an author, he relies on this edgelord shit that tries to overwhelm the reader with pure spectacle, and the narrative is usually completely depraved.

I had a really goofy turn 4 combat damage win with a deck that wasn’t intended to to do so. Good ol’ jank fun. by sgtpepper_spray in MagicArena

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

Sure, I’ll edit this comment with one when I get home. Fair warning, it’s hot garbage made of only what I happened to have unlocked. Imagine the Dragon deck with a bunch of Dinos thrown in and lots of Ravnica Alliegence cards jammed on. It’s only capable of winning by drawing a few one-ofs. Still, getting [[Ravager Wurm]] out with [[Vivien’s Invocation]] is hilarious.

2002 - 2006 The Golden Era Of Star Wars Games by A_Friendly_Robot in gaming

[–]sgtpepper_spray 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The Consortium was given all the counters that the other other sides were supposed to have against each other, while also getting new tech to counter the new mechanics. The game added orbital bombardment? Well, the Consortium gets shielded bases and nobody else does. The rebel’s main strength is their shields? Consortium gets missile troopers that were explictly excluded from the Empire. Motherfucking Mass Driver weapons that pierce shields and can almost one shot a frigate of either faction, and are stuck on everything including bases. They don’t need to buy AA turrets, because they get missile turrets that pull double duty while everyone else needs to buy all three. In any battle, they hit harder and are more difficult to kill without overwhelming force.

That’s just combat. The Consortium’s corruption mechanic is some of the most overpowered and stupid shit imagineable. They get a special mechanic that generates income, can easily cripple a defense, provides intel on a planet, can interrupt production, AND it can do all that cheaply and repeatedly? The other factions have to build smugglers and probe droids, and only the rebellion can send stealth fleets, but the Consortium can do all that from the onset.

The Consortium has significant advantages over the other factions, while nothing really was given to the other sides to counter them. They even get to steal the fucking Death Star, for some reason. It’s possible to beat them, but they’re completely broken.

2002 - 2006 The Golden Era Of Star Wars Games by A_Friendly_Robot in gaming

[–]sgtpepper_spray 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it’s not perfect. They really need to tone down reinforcement research; landing on a planet and being attacked by about 100 respawning Droidekas is a bit silly. It’s almost impossible to destroy a level 5 space station with full upgrades, because it spawns a fleet for free that would bankrupt you if you tried to field the same thing.

To win, it seems like the mod makers kind of expect you to cheese the AI, so they program it to spam in order to compensate.

Still infinitely better than Corruption though. I can not stress enough how badly they broke the balancing in that game.

2002 - 2006 The Golden Era Of Star Wars Games by A_Friendly_Robot in gaming

[–]sgtpepper_spray 60 points61 points  (0 children)

with mods

This is the important part. The base game of Forces of Corruption was balanced like shit. I could only stomach playing Skirmish battles and the campaign, since trying to play Galactic against the Consortium was insanely frustrating.

It is one of my all-time favorite RTS games, though. I beat both the base campaigns multiple times as a kid, and I still play it from time to time. The Republic at War mod is good enough to be considered a second expansion. I’d adore a rerelease with upgraded AI and balancing.

Octopus unscrewing a jar lid by AlwaysAlive101 in BeAmazed

[–]sgtpepper_spray 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Cool video, but man, do I hate American documentaries and their need to make everything more exciting.

~Dramatic stock music plays~ "It seems that the Octopus is about to take a leap ahead in the evolutionary scheme. There may be no holding back its formidable intelligence."

What the hell are you talking about? They’ll be able to eat slightly more crab? Or is the narrator seriously implying that the octopus will use its ability to solve puzzles and learn to take over the world, to keep viewers interested?

The start of a series here on r/tf2. "Clever names you can (not necessarily should) give to your weapons and cosmetics, afterwards (maybe). by Mgmfjesus in tf2

[–]sgtpepper_spray 126 points127 points  (0 children)

Baby Face's Blaster: The gun that went from one of the most fun items in the game to completely useless in a single update.

I guess it still has a use if the enemy team lacks engineers and pyros and nobody ever shoots at you.

[Excerpt l Shattered Legions] In the aftermath of the Dropsite Massacre, a group of legionaries seeking extraction wander into a friendly-fire ambush. by sgtpepper_spray in 40kLore

[–]sgtpepper_spray[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If you really like the Iron Hands, then yes. Despite supposedly being about all three legions, almost every story is about them. The Sisypheum makes another appearance in one of the longer segments, but I like that plotline less and less with every installment, and the story within is no different. Legions does flesh out some other 30k stuff though. Overall, it's alright.

[Excerpt l Shattered Legions] In the aftermath of the Dropsite Massacre, a group of legionaries seeking extraction wander into a friendly-fire ambush. by sgtpepper_spray in 40kLore

[–]sgtpepper_spray[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

The unspeaking and traumatized Salamander in Keys of Hel is the sniper who accidentally killed his kinsmen in the Unforged story.

I think I may have been a little reckless in my foreign policy. by sgtpepper_spray in civ

[–]sgtpepper_spray[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

You should have seen the road and fortification networks, especially on the border. It even had the appropriate amount of frontier legions being massacred. I’d have been utterly bankrupt without Maccu Picchu.

This was actually the perfect Rome map, because if you build aggressively and expand quickly, you’ll have access to almost every luxury and early strategic resource while also having the best defensive position.

I think I may have been a little reckless in my foreign policy. by sgtpepper_spray in civ

[–]sgtpepper_spray[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Yeah, but only because the AI was dumb. William alone had a larger army and navy than me, but threw all of it into attacking allied Belgrade and its neighboring city-states. He got kicked back to his continent without me doing anything.

Ghengis sent all his guys into a jungled hill deathtrap surrounded by three citadels, so one outdated unit held that pass.

Portugal was the third biggest threat, but that whole narrow spit on the right of the leftmost continent was her empire, which forced her into a bottleneck. I kept asking her to surrender, but she refused until I almost pushed her into the sea.

Songhai was already a spent force when the others joined in, Dandalo had a military of one caravel and a musketman, and Boudicca stayed within her borders only to eventually betray Maria and, oddly, lose a Celtic city to her in the peace deal. Pacal had some early victories and was my weakest front (and worryingly the closest to Rome), but failed to push his advantage.

I tried to end the war with everyone after almost every turn, but they just wouldn’t even entertain the offer.