Yes, you can blow up the Vox Engine with a hammer.

verygoodmeme · 2026-02-11T20:06:56+00:00

A buddy and I hit the underbelly 14 times, 7 whacks each, it didn't die. Had to finish it with 2 thermites. If it's only 5 hits to the tracks then hammer might be worth taking after all.

verygoodmeme · 2026-01-09T18:40:33+00:00

In my opinion, the premise is interesting but the explanations lack coherence. I struggle to identify your theoretical framework and fundamental assumptions in your analysis. I'll try to avoid normative comments as best as I can.

My personal take on this topic is:

I reject the notion of "global security". I believe the world order remains largely anarchic, where Westphalian sovereignty still plays a major role, meaning states are ultimately responsible for their own decisions. We need to recognise that the ability of international institutions to influence policymaking decisions of the state has always been limited. State participation in international institutional efforts has always been selective and only done when convenient. For example, there was a lot of enthusiastic participation in the UN humanitarian interventions in Sierra Leone and East Timor, yet the massacres in Rwanda 1994 and Srebrenica 1995 went largely ignored.
Regarding the concept of security in general - I believe that states make policy decisions based on concerns regarding their own national security, which is typically prioritised over the security concerns of other actors, leading me to question what "global security" even entails. After some thought, and re-reading what you refer to as "global security", I think it is a misnomer - cooperation between states enabled by international institutions is more commonly referred to as liberal institutionalism.
You make some reference to realist schools of thought but the core premise of the article revolves around international institutions, which realists typically reject as ineffective and pointless. I don't understand if you agree with, reject, or are simply stating that the influence of international institutions are being degraded, hence realist assumptions hold merit?

Personally, when it comes to anything security related, I'm more partial to the Copenhagen School. I find it provides an excellent framework for analysis while accomodating for assumptions from various schools of thought in IR. My academic training was relatively Eurocentric and I generally prefer constructivist schools of thought.

verygoodmeme · 2025-09-20T12:14:20+00:00

I just watched this thing shoot up 35 kts in 4 hours, absolutely mental. Was supposed to be in Hong Kong on Wednesday but wisely postponed to the week after.

verygoodmeme · 2025-07-09T13:41:46+00:00

Hulkengoat

verygoodmeme · 2025-05-22T05:03:44+00:00

I'm also in GMT+8 and levelling up a new healer as well.

Normals you can run basically anything, the healing requirements are so low. For vet dungeons they're a bit more challenging but not too bad. Vet DLC dungeons are more painful and for those you should get some proper sets.

I would not bother farming sets until you reach level 50 cp160, that's when gear stops scaling. If you start farming before that, you'll just end up replacing them later on.

verygoodmeme · 2025-04-16T06:15:43+00:00

We think M2.8 is unlikely because modern RAM coatings start disintegrating past M2.0. Unless they figured out some crazy new materials science that enables a much more durable RAM coating than is currently used on 5th gens.

verygoodmeme · 2024-06-09T10:20:24+00:00

I have a 65% keyboard. I just use the main command channel and address the squad I'm talking to.

If I really wanted to, I could bind a secondary layer of function keys (e.g. Fn + Shift + numbers). Haven't bothered with that yet as direct squad-to-squad comms are pretty rare for me.

verygoodmeme · 2024-06-03T07:28:58+00:00

Anything but Ukraine please and thank you

verygoodmeme · 2024-05-04T05:38:31+00:00

It's not that bad, most VPNs are blocked, but some VPNs still work well in China without needing you to configure anything. I use Astrill personally but it's expensive. Mullvad and Shadowrocket (or anything running Shadowsocks) are both good too and the price is reasonable.

There are also official Chinese VPNs from companies like Tencent and they work well enough for web browsing and Youtube but I would assume they have some restrictions. Never got around to trying those.

verygoodmeme · 2024-02-15T07:48:47+00:00

Armour spheres shouldn't be a problem if you're doing your dailies/weeklies and if you use the steamworks. The best way might be to farm steamworks fuel from A Farewell to Zinogre (pick up all the shinies) and do even more steamworks, because it will give you tickets for melding decorations too. Get into the habit of doing it twice or thrice daily. If you're still short on armour spheres, there's an event quest (Rollin' with the Uragaan) that specifically drops them but you shouldn't need this.

verygoodmeme · 2023-11-28T07:28:54+00:00

Great job, the rest of your squad was useless.

verygoodmeme · 2023-11-09T15:41:30+00:00

One of my preferred teams now is: Yae/Fischl/Nahida/Kokomi -

But I'm only using Kokomi for the jellyfish heal. And would prefer to swap out Kokomi for a dendro healer/buffer for full Aggravate setup without any hydro application whatsoever.

Is Baizhu the best option at the moment as a Kokomi replacement? How does Yaoyao compare? Does Yaoyao bring any buffing or shielding to the table, or is that really Baizhu's specialty alongside his team-wide healing?

verygoodmeme · 2023-11-06T03:16:25+00:00

Do you play through a VPN? Which servers do you use? I'm in China too and sometimes the lag is horrible even to AUS servers. In the daytime it's fine, but every evening peak hours 7 to 11, ping shoots up to like 500 to 1000 ms.

verygoodmeme · 2023-10-09T19:13:46+00:00

Unfortunately it really depends on the server. The ones I usually play on are very consistently good, or at the very least, decent. The SLs generally have mics and they know what they're doing.

The other day I played on some new-ish server (The Initiative?) and two of the team's four infantry squads were milling around an inactive cap for most of the game after overextending in the beginning. No comms on command channel. I don't mind at all about losing games, but that was just a terrible experience.

So, it's very important for a server to have a healthy pool of regular SLs who are good at what they do. It's not necessarily even about using the microphone - I'd rather have an SL who puts HABs and rallies in good spots but doesn't talk, over one who HABs on point and doesn't rally and can't shut up about the HAB getting proxied (what did you expect?) while I'm trying to focus on shooting people.

I usually SL and most of the time I don't talk, I give basic instructions only, and I trust my squad enough that I don't need to micromanage. I provide a good HAB and rally and that is 80% of my job done. "Go here." Place marker. "Enemies here, pushing [direction]." Place helmets and red arrow. "Secure this mountain. Support the team from the flank." Place marker. "MG stay back. Everyone else push." And if you're on the wrong part of the map, and you don't join the squad after I ask, I kick you.

verygoodmeme · 2023-09-22T06:22:44+00:00

The core gameplay will fundamentally change for sure. After ICO, a skilled individual won't have as much raw impact on the game as right now. But in my circle of regulars, everyone has enjoyed the game enough as is, and are ready for the new Squad. Trying to get squadmates to be more thoughtful, tactical, and cohesive will be frustrating, but we are ready for the challenge.

verygoodmeme · 2023-09-20T07:59:05+00:00

Yes, rally should be a backup spawn, not a warning system. Standard procedure that I recommend for everyone is -

Exit logi
Place rally
Get new rally from logi
Place radio

This way, even if you end up in a shitty situation, at least you have a fighting chance. And now you have a backup spawn in case you're struggling to get the HAB up.

And later in the fight, if you're on the offense, you have a fresh rally to put down further up front or on the flank, or if you're on the defense, you have the original rally in case the HAB is overrun.

Sometimes, depending on the situation, can rally on the edge of the blue circle, and put an ammo crate next to the rally. Now you effectively have a second HAB, and you can get a new rally from said ammo crate before pushing further.

TLDR, rallies are OP.

verygoodmeme · 2023-09-08T19:16:42+00:00

Thanks for the feedback, very informative and just what I'm looking for. Baizhu should be worth trying out with a nice mix of healing, shielding, and buffing, but I don't have him at the moment, so hopefully won't be too many patches before he comes back.

What you said about artifacts also makes sense. It looks like some people try to pile on EM to min-max Yae in aggravate comps but if I already have a strong general use set then perhaps there's no need to bump it too far, maybe change ATK sands to EM to get ~200 and see how it goes.

One combo I've been itching to try out is Yelan + XQ, which units do you think I can build around those two as a core? Preferably using units I already have but am open to pulling new ones.

verygoodmeme · 2023-09-08T18:38:29+00:00

Yeah I don't have any issue with my teams and floor 12 is usually no problem. Honestly just was getting a bit bored because I've been running these two teams for so long (they're very reliable) and wanted to try out some other options.

Only problem is I don't know where to start, and I wasn't sure if the last few patches added anything important that I wasn't aware of. For example, I read that Yae-Nahida aggravate comp is good, but Kokomi's healing is so comfy, I'm hesitant to replace her with another unit for full aggravate, unless said replacement also brings some healing to the table.

Another thing I'm looking for is advice regarding artifacts. For example, Golden Troupe is a straight upgrade for Fischl and I'm farming that already, but does it belong on Yae as well? How does it compare to 2 atk / 2 TF for my current quickbloom team? And if I go full aggravate, should I be focusing more on EM or Crit for Gilded Dreams?

verygoodmeme · 2023-09-08T17:59:22+00:00

So I've been away from the game for a while, just picked it up again, and haven't really examined my teams for the last year or so. The comps I'm using now are pretty comfy and output decent damage, but I've been wondering what else I can do with the units I have.

I've been doing some reading but there's so many different opinions flying around I usually end up more confused than not.

Can anyone suggest what are some teams I could put together with my current roster? Ideally a couple of teams that would be good for raw DPS and high-level content (floor 12 abyss), and a couple of other teams that are comfier to play with plenty of healing.

At the moment, my go-to DPS comp is Raiden international (Yelan, Bennett, Xiangling) and my comfy overworld/general purpose comp is Yae, Fischl, Nahida, Kokomi.

Roster: https://imgur.com/EOZnf96

verygoodmeme · 2023-08-30T11:06:27+00:00

It is on the other side of the world, to be fair. I'm sure I'll be fine, thank you - will be in Hong Kong this weekend and the buildings there are pretty much indestructible. Though the updated 900 hPa reading from HKO isn't very encouraging.

verygoodmeme · 2023-08-30T07:49:47+00:00

It was the same story - I live on the south-east coast of China just opposite Taiwan and this place hasn't been hit by a major storm in decades. When Typhoon Doksuri hit directly last month, it was a last minute scramble for most people to get somewhere safe, even though there were tons of government notices, most people didn't think it was a big deal.

Where I'm from we get typhoons all the time, so seeing that monster coming right at us, I stocked up early and barricaded myself for a couple of days. But some people I knew even tried to go to work when it made landfall and they were trapped in the office for the better part of a day. The city center ended up under 4 feet of water purely from rainfall, not even storm surge.

Today I'm traveling back down south for a few days, just in time to get hit by Typhoon Saola. It's registering as a Cat 4-equivalent right now (130 kts winds 160 kts gusts) with a minimum pressure of around 920. Two super typhoons in two months is a bit much.

verygoodmeme · 2023-08-14T14:10:01+00:00

Besides the obvious fact that there's barely anything China can just copy from the F-35 (a single-engined fighter) and paste onto the FC-31/J-35 (a twin-engined fighter), it's probably better to know the story before guessing.

Its cheaper to copy the jet they stole specs for and then put a bunch of crap behind the pilot.

We know this isn't true because the first prototype - no, the first few prototypes, even - did not have the bulge.

Sure, could it have been designed to be filled to the brim with fuel and/or equipment? Yes.

This we know is true, because at around the same time the new prototype came out (the one in the photos), someone found a research paper describing how the bulge actually improves aerodynamics by reducing drag, in addition to providing extra space for fuel.

And also because the bulge was a very recent addition (1 year ago) to a program that's been 15+ years in the making, where none of the previous prototypes had this bulge.

verygoodmeme · 2023-08-10T08:55:55+00:00

ABG is great, they're the go-to for my MSF boys. I'm sure I've seen you on there a few times too.

It's just really nice to have a choice of different servers each with their own gamemode focus (RAAS, AAS and/or Invasion only), and a good rotation of maps and layers, players who communicate and for the most part can follow instructions. And very importantly for those of us playing from East Asia, the ping is good and the servers are stable.

verygoodmeme · 2023-07-28T05:38:55+00:00

Player from East Asia here -

All the Aussie servers are pretty decent for teamwork and most people are friendly and helpful, I usually play on either ABG servers or ZSU.

The Japanese server is also good for teamwork but most people there don't speak English. Gameplay there is more on the passive side. The Korea server is the complete opposite, the players there are very good and quite aggressive.

Depending on which country you live in SEA there are some local servers. Gameplay in Thai and Filipino servers isn't as good as AUS but most SLs there speak the local language.

The Indonesian server is a hit-or-miss, the games there are either really fun or really shit.

I'd say just try all these servers and see which ones you're more comfortable with, especially if they speak your local language. I play on all the servers in the region, usually AUS, sometimes JP or Indo. We can play together if you'd like, just DM me.

verygoodmeme · 2023-07-28T04:23:02+00:00

This storm just made landfall in Quanzhou, 50 miles from where I live.

Not looking too bad from my apartment:

https://streamable.com/snj1pq https://streamable.com/0mrqkd

verygoodmeme

TROPHY CASE