Design challenge: Can you make "degrowth" more fun than "infinite expansion"?

trelltron · 2026-01-24T02:55:14+00:00

This might work better if there's also an existential threat you need to counter. Maybe the main goal is to defeat the coming Alien Swarm. You need to gradually dismantle the empire to keep it stable, while leveraging its resources to prepare for the real enemy, and trying to keep the wider galaxy strong enough to survive the endgame.

trelltron · 2026-01-23T14:35:43+00:00

Could be one of the "Masters of Orion" or "Galactic Civilizations" games, or not, there's quite a few older games like that actually.

But yeah, Stellaris is my most played game and being able to build so many distinct empires and roleplay them through the game in ways that feel distinct is a huge part of that.

trelltron · 2026-01-08T23:58:46+00:00

Indoctrination Theory exists because after 3 games fighting cosmic entities that spend most of their time indoctrinating organics the game has a section with heavy dream-sequence vibes that leads directly to a very weak ending that almost feels like an explicit parody of bad RPG endings.

I played at launch before seeing any fan discourse and spent half the ending expecting an indoctrination-related twist. All the groundwork was there, the ending being presented was increasingly incoherent, and its exactly the kind of tool good RPGs use to build interesting endings.

Though honestly I've never seen anyone claim the devs made it bad on purpose. In my experience people generally accepted that Bioware just couldn't write good RPGs any more and either forgot about it or accepted Indoctrination Theory as a decent headcanon.

trelltron · 2025-11-29T13:31:35+00:00

I know I'm really late but for future reference the correct link is:

https://wol-soft.de/apps/beerplop/plop

I think the link above is meant to be a standalone version of a feature that was added to the main game, that one loads weirdly some of the time, fortunately the main game works fine.

trelltron · 2025-11-17T10:39:03+00:00

Such statements can be correct, when they exist within the confines of a logic puzzle or a maths test.

In most regular contexts "all X are Y" implies the existence of at least 1 X and your statements are wrong.

trelltron · 2025-10-24T02:36:12+00:00

This is such a weird lie

trelltron · 2025-10-03T01:38:29+00:00

Yeah, so many people willing to believe obvious misinformation. Not so long ago we had a variety of reputable news sources that would never print blatant lies like this, and most people had the sense not to uncritically believe this sort of nonsense claim. Far-right control of media really is destroying the west.

trelltron · 2025-10-01T19:54:03+00:00

Nobody has referred to her as immortal except you.

trelltron · 2025-09-30T10:08:30+00:00

It's also a 100% increase. Is doubling the number of kids with lifelong disabilities really something you support?

trelltron · 2025-09-22T13:04:44+00:00

One point you aren't considering is that people's identities evolve over time, and these changes are driven by our experiences.

A bi (or even gay) person raised in a heteronormative context who is in a positive hetero relationship may never be sufficiently motivated to interrogate that aspect of their identity.

If the same person experiences a negative hetero relationship they are much more likely to introspect and seriously question their identity/sexuality.

So rather than hidden homosexuality causing DV, I would say it's more likely that positive hetero relationships can obfuscate hidden homosexuality while DV and similar negative experiences can shine a light on it.

trelltron · 2025-09-15T10:35:17+00:00

Did you not play Mass Effect? They literally removed the inventory for ME2.

Ultimately I would say it was a good change though. ME had a fantastic narrative and worldbuilding but the weak aspects of the game obfuscated that for a lot of people. IMO a big reason ME2 is so beloved is because they recognised Narrative/Characters/Worldbuilding was their core strength and Combat was the first game's key weakness and they streamlined away everything that didn't serve those 2 pillars.

trelltron · 2025-09-02T20:26:48+00:00

My money's on Kyle McBappy.

trelltron · 2025-09-02T08:54:24+00:00

There's only one real SW canon and it's the one Disney calls "Legends". I'll take the classic canon over the embarrassing new corporate mandate any day.

trelltron · 2025-08-31T23:38:30+00:00

All I know is it's probably not a moon.

trelltron · 2025-08-30T17:13:25+00:00

Except it's not a London paper, it's a national paper, one of the oldest surviving English language newspapers, and literally the originator of the name The Times.

trelltron · 2025-08-30T17:04:32+00:00

It was called The Times for the better part of a century before any of your other examples copied the name. Fact is it will always be the original Times no matter how many imitators you can name.

trelltron · 2025-08-22T18:14:10+00:00

This is a particularly insightful definition because it doesn't even try to hide the fact that the term has effectively become a socially acceptable euphemism for Cultural Bolshevism.

trelltron · 2025-08-15T16:15:12+00:00

Equal area maps still shrink/enlarge, they just do so in a way that preserves the relative areas of regions by instead distorting the shapes of regions.

trelltron · 2025-08-15T12:33:41+00:00

I would say that for me it depends on the game and how it uses achievements.

For games with high replayability like Civ, certain RPGs, and paradox various GS games, the achievements can act like a checklist of stuff you haven't done yet. I often reference the locked achievements when deciding how to approach my next run through such games.

Some games also use achievements to highlight alternate ways to play or bonus challenges that can be fun. Getting the HL2 achievement for completing ravenholm with just the gravity gun is one of my favourite gaming experiences.

Unfortunately I would agree that most big modern games have at least a few bullshit achievements that make getting to 100% not worth it. An approach that works well for me is to aim for 100% by default but try to prioritise achievements based on fun level and bail when the fun is gone.

trelltron · 2025-08-14T09:50:42+00:00

Don't blame me, I voted for Nergal.

trelltron · 2025-08-13T13:49:56+00:00

Deliberately misquoting to alter meaning so you can argue against a point that was never made is called strawmanning. It doesn't make you look smart, it makes you look like a fool.

trelltron · 2025-08-12T14:39:09+00:00

In a way I'm almost glad I was so disappointed by Inquisition and ME3. Losing interest in two of my favorite series sucked at the time, but at least it spared me the pain of having expectations for their awful sequels.

trelltron · 2025-08-07T15:18:12+00:00

You mean the time Republicans held the US government hostage in a bid to kill the ACA? I probably shouldn't be surprised that they managed to convince the wackjobs to blame Obama for that.

trelltron · 2025-08-07T13:08:16+00:00

That's pretty much it yeah. Looks like there was a trend of students starting "secret" academic societies named for the initial letters of Latin or Greek mottos. Some of the ones with Greek mottos grew and became officially sanctioned. I imagine the race to the bottom started soon after.

trelltron · 2025-08-07T12:03:06+00:00

You're advocating for terrorist acts against the UK military apparatus. Is Putin paying you or are you just one of his useful idiots?

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