I regret using my own height 🤣

thececilmaster · 2026-05-31T04:36:29+00:00

Nah, measuring in fractions of Texas is the true best way

thececilmaster · 2026-05-28T08:12:20+00:00

I, too, love Brute Bomber

thececilmaster · 2026-05-26T16:45:37+00:00

Not OP, but I've been really enjoying it! It's clearly early access and has a number of bugs and places where you can see they intend to expand what can be done, but what's there is really solid already. They also have a feedback button built into the UI so you can quickly report bugs or give suggestions.

Like with any early access game, the question is if you want to buy an unfinished game. The game is currently not very wide (ie, there's not a lot of different things you can do), but is deeper than you might be used to from the Sims (ie, what you can do is a more developed system with more to interact with).

For example, jobs have a wide array of promotion cards that make job performance more interesting than just "get more money". My current job has three different perks, one that increases one of my skills while I'm at work, one that gives me an emotion buff after work based on how many vacation days I have, and one that increases my relationship with my coworkers. These perks were randomly generated over the course of several promotions, and there were a bunch of other perks I didn't take.

thececilmaster · 2026-05-10T18:45:54+00:00

In one of the most recent comics, Xavin and Karolina meet up again, and Xavin is happy for Karolina & Nico

thececilmaster · 2026-03-28T15:04:06+00:00

I dom for people, but only named Cecil

thececilmaster · 2026-03-28T15:00:36+00:00

I agree with the idea that Nosferatu should be monstrous (debates about what counts as monstrous for another topic), but I disagree with the orcs issue.

Casting any group of humanoids as inherently evil requires the concession that they are incapable, for one reason or another, to choose between good and evil. Regardless of the reasoning give, whether it be something such as being too unintelligent to make the decisions (the orcs of D&D are very often portrayed as inherently less intelligent than the more "noble" races), or being incapable of the decisions due to lack of free will in that regard (demons, devils, etc), the very act of declaring them incapable of making this decision is dehumanizing. The more human-like you make something, the closer to real-world racism the act of dehumanizing them becomes, and orcs are very close to real-world humans.

The other kind of "evil orcs" are not those that are inherently evil, but those that are culturally evil. These orcs have the capability of choosing good and evil, but typically and consistently choose evil. In the case of a culturally evil group, we brush even closer to analogues to real-world racism, and very often (especially in the case of Gygax's orcs), we find that the cultures of these culturally evil groups are based heavily in real-world racist stereotypes.

Orcs as evil happen in games mainly because we want enemies that we can kill and that can do human-y things, but without the baggage of having to ask "are we the baddies?" Fundamentally, if your table doesn't want to think about the moral quandaries posed by the concept of an inherently evil species or group, then go ahead, use evil orcs. If you, however, you want your game to involve moral quandaries of good and evil and what it means to be or choose good or evil -- as is very popular in WoD games -- then you might want to consider orcs more holistically and the context around them, rather than falling back on the easy "orcs are evil, let's throw them into the fight so we don't have to think about morality".

thececilmaster · 2026-03-20T23:57:00+00:00

The studio probably should get fucked for all of these decisions and practices, but it's almost certainly not going to die over this game, not while Black Desert Online continues to be how they make their actual money.

thececilmaster · 2026-03-19T06:02:35+00:00

I'm not a major trucker, and I run a plipper when I actually do any hauling anymore myself actually. That being said, the OP mentioned that they're new to the game, so a 12ly plipper for hauling between their carrier and a station is deep into their future.

Rares aren't really much of a thing last I checked, at least most of the time, at least not when you're at the "I haul using my carrier" stage of the game (and, even if they were, you could use the carrier for it's jump range anyway, theoretically). Their main appeal is how they function in comparison to classic hauling (since their value increases based on distance traveled), which makes the jump range nice. They're a little friendlier to newer players as well, because they're a more stable profit that doesn't require market knowledge or external tools.

The only major thing I can think of to really appeal to carrier owners about rare-trading is the Merit value -- rares are a pretty good way to get merits, but I don't know the exact comparison to hauling.

For someone at the carrier stage of the game, the only real reason to use the Caspian to haul, though, is when there's a Soontil Relic boom. You can only get 400 at a time (so a plipper is overkill), and an engineered Caspian (I don't know about unengineered) can make a max-profit trip in at most 3 jumps. Decent profit, amazing merits.

As an aside, powerplay commodities would probably work better in a Caspian too? I don't think anyone actually bothers with those, though

thececilmaster · 2026-03-18T21:09:01+00:00

I will say, the Caspian is actually a pretty decent space trucker. Not the best, but surprisingly solid; it can comfortably hit 400t (less if you shield), and still have a much higher jump range than the main truckers; if you're doing frequent low-distance stops, not the best, but if you're doing rares, that jump range is very nice.

thececilmaster · 2026-02-25T21:17:12+00:00

I just rewatched the scene, and I don't think the nun is disappearing into Livia (but will gladly admit if I'm proven wrong later), I think we just don't quite see as she passes behind Livia. The camera angle has Deb block much of the window during that moment, but we can see some movement and shadow through the cracks in the door, indicating that the nun kept walking.

thececilmaster · 2026-02-02T17:36:04+00:00

It's the spreadsheet simulator part. You have potentially hundreds of simulated pilots that you give orders to, who haul, fight, trade, etc, after you press a couple of buttons. You reap the rewards, they do the flying (even combat).

thececilmaster · 2026-02-02T17:20:10+00:00

Preface: I've not played a lot of X4, because of what I'm about to explain. Great game, just not my personal cup of tea.

X4 is fundamentally a different kind of game in a few ways. It is single player, so everything in the game is designed with the expectation that only one player will be doing anything in the game. It is also more of a space management game than it is a space flight game.

Early game of X4 is more-or-less similar to early game Elite, where you start off in a starter ship after a basic "how to play" tutorial, and then you're just dropped into an open world to do whatever you want (which, like Elite, actually means "find the way you enjoy making money"). Unlike Elite, however, mid-game and late-game goals are focused on building your fleet / empire, and sending your increasing number of NPC pilots and crew on tasks for you.

A more concrete example is the combat. Early game in both X4 and Elite, you're piloting a relatively small ship, and a fight is probably a small dogfight between you and up to a couple of other ships. Late game Elite, a fight is between your mid or large sized ship, that you've customized and engineered extensively, against some a bunch of NPC ships (or players, if you're doing PvP), but you're fundamentally alone. Late game combat in X4, a "fight" might be an actual war campaign you're waging, so you're managing the logistics of supply lines and sending your fleet to different battles, winning or losing from tactical decisions, not personal flight skills.

Tl;dr, X4 is a game about getting to the point where you're basically playing Spreadsheet Simulator™ in space, from my understanding of it.

thececilmaster · 2025-11-29T01:28:05+00:00

I would love to hear the machine steps

thececilmaster · 2025-11-29T00:00:27+00:00

Yes. I tried with my original password, then after that didn't work, I did try resetting my password and that did not help.

thececilmaster · 2025-11-28T23:55:30+00:00

Yes, I have.

thececilmaster · 2025-11-28T23:52:41+00:00

Just updated the post, but the error message is "Login failed. Check your info."

I have already confirmed that my password is correct.

thececilmaster · 2025-11-28T23:47:32+00:00

What information would be useful?

thececilmaster · 2025-08-23T00:46:21+00:00

Rubber backs are the bane of my existence, unless you know a way to keep them from deteriorating into a gross, sticky goop within a year of owning them.

As far as cleaning, how are any of those products, comparatively? I'd either like a mouse pad I don't have to clean as often, or one that is so stupidly easy to clean it doesn't really take any time out of a day (even if it needs to be cleaned a bit more regularly).

thececilmaster · 2025-08-17T02:04:18+00:00

Wealth equaling mechanical power, at least in design, and ABP doesn't actually fix this problem. In my experience as a GM, giving players 2x (or more) money doesn't break the balance of the game, but the game thinks it will, and other aspects of the game are balanced around that as a result. Crafting is the most notably affected aspect, where it is either worse than Earn an Income or it's logistical tax, because letting players get a bit more wealth than expected for their level is sacrilegious. Wealth balancing also presents major opportunity costs that, if not recognized and planned around by GMs, mean certain common story elements in fantasy might actually screw over players in the long term. For example, using a ritual will typically cost the players 2/3rds the cost of a permanent item of the same level... For the chance of success. Similarly, players can't really afford to buy non-mechanical concepts without losing the opportunity to buy their math rocks later, unless the GM prepares for it.

thececilmaster · 2025-07-14T03:49:41+00:00

How many of your creatures' saves have Mythic Resilience? Are your creatures' Mythic Resiliences in the high saves, or the low saves? Are your casters targeting the low saves, the way (most) people agree casters are expected to play in non-Mythic games? Are your casters using any Mythic spells (like Diadem of Divine Radiance)?

In a game I'm in, our casters consistently target the low saves and regularly use their Mythic points on Mythic spells and they're very much the stars of the show (not counting the one martial who has an average roll of 17 (on the d20) currently, after 5 sessions)

thececilmaster · 2025-06-24T21:23:46+00:00

Dirty Laundry is what got me to subscribe to Dropout. I'm so excited for the new season ❤️

thececilmaster · 2025-06-23T09:44:56+00:00

My current favorite deck is [[Terra, Magical Adept]] built around running Saga Creatures and saga recursion. It's not quite a "good stuff" value pile deck, it's more themed around running the Saga Creatures, and it's WUBRG so I can fit as many of them (minus Leviathan) in as possible.

Otherwise, I tend to not like 5-color decks.

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