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Back in ye olden days, "fish" was just a term for any animal that lived exclusively in water. That's why we have jellyfish, starfish, cuttlefish, etc.

Goldfish are more closely related to you than they are to sharks.

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On 5/3/2020 at 4:03 PM, ping said:

A very popular meme in the Civilization community is that Mohandas Gandhi (who is a playable leader in all six Civ games) is actually a bloodthirsty, nuke-happy bastard.

This goes back to the very first game, despite AI Gandhi being one of the most peaceful leaders there with an "Aggressiveness" value of one on a scale from 1 to 10. However, if India adopted Democracy (and they usually would, since Democracy is the best goverment if you don't plan to go to war), their Aggressiveness would be reduced by two points - which would cause an integer underflow, so now Gandhi's Aggressiveness would be two hundred and fifty-five (2^8 - 1). Still on a scale from 1 to 10. The "Nuke" part comes from a hostile Civ1 AI's tendency to tell you that their words are BACKED WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

This meme even found its way into the last two games of the series: In Civ5, Gandhi is the only leader whose willingness both to build and to actually use nukes is always maxed out (this being extra unusual because those values are usually slightly randomized), while Civ6!Gandhi has a 70% chance of having the "Nuke Happy" Agenda (guess what that does). Other than that, he's just as nice and pacifist as you'd expect. He'll just rush to Fission tech as soon as possible, build a million nukes and rain bloody hellfire on you if you declare on him.

I'm pretty sure the Nuclear Warlord Ghandi meme became a feature in each subsequent game, even as early as Civ2. It's a tradition which only the small minded and tasteless wish to change.

It should also be noted that the original Civilization actually had separate "Likeliness to Declare War" and "Likeliness to Use Nukes" values for AI. The exact same underflow error occurred for both.

9 hours ago, Emperor_Siegfried said:

If you don't flush bacon grease down the toilet 10 times a day, you won't end up clogging your pipes.

This is false, using butter instead still clogs the pipes.

***

Speaking of Civ2, there's one guy who played the same game for nearly a decade, resulting in a three-way nuclear stalemate. That same guy still wastes time on Reddit, where he posted the original story, but doesn't seem to have updated us on the state of the game. Which is like...why even exist at that point?

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3 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

I'm pretty sure the Nuclear Warlord Ghandi meme became a feature in each subsequent game, even as early as Civ2. It's a tradition which only the small minded and tasteless wish to change.

It should also be noted that the original Civilization actually had separate "Likeliness to Declare War" and "Likeliness to Use Nukes" values for AI. The exact same underflow error occurred for both.

Are you sure? Ctrl-F doesn't yield anything for either "nuke" or "nuc" on Civ4!Gandhi's wiki page and I've played Civ4 quite a lot and never noticed any nuclear tendencies from Gandhi. Then again, my Civ4 games usually ended with Rifles.

Actually, googling "civ2 leader personalities" gave me this:

Quote

Anyway, this bug became famous and something of a joke on Civ forums. But (again, incorrectly as far as I'm aware) what people joked about was Gandhi's alleged love of nuclear weapons rather than his sudden murderousness in general. The game developers learned about this joke based on a misunderstanding of a bug and began deliberately building it into the games. Everyone says it's been a deliberately included thing since Civ 2, but actually I'm only certain about it in CIv 5. In Civ 5, once again most people are definitely wrong about how Gandhi works. He is NOT particularly aggressive. No, he's very peaceable. BUT, he has an obsessive love of nuclear weapons and is more likely than any other Civ to use those once he has them. This is actually the reverse of the true situation in Civ 1 as far as I understand it.

So the question of Civ 2, 3, and 4 remains. If you look up this bug and jokes about it online, you'll find loads of pages claiming that "nuclear Gandhi" has been included deliberately in every game after Civ 1. However, the only actual specifics anyone provides are about Civ 1 and Civ 5. Perhaps I'm wrong about Civ 3 and 4, but I DON'T think Gandhi was actually either a warmonger or a nuke fiend in either of those games.

In Civ 2 he's definitely not. In Civ 2 every single AI Civ is completely merciless with nuclear arms while at war and, as mentioned previously, they all cheat in numerous obvious ways to nuke you again and again the instant they have the technology.

Furthermore, I did a bunch of research on the details of Civ 2 AI today and I found absolutely nothing that would indicate Gandhi is unusually bloodthirsty at all under any circumstances.

(emphasis by me)

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Speaking of "what everybody knows" apparently being wrong: The popular story that Albert Einstein didn't do well in school probably partly stems from the grading system in Switzerland (where he got his Matura) where 6 is the best and 1 is the worst - it's the exact opposite from how the numbers work in Germany. Einstein's final report, while a little weaker in the non-sciency subjects, was still really good overall.

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Carrots are orange because there was this king who wanted everything orange so he got his gardener to genetically engineer him orange carrots. They were white before.

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On 5/4/2020 at 11:55 PM, AnonymousSpeed said:

I'm pretty sure the Nuclear Warlord Ghandi meme became a feature in each subsequent game, even as early as Civ2. It's a tradition which only the small minded and tasteless wish to change.

Or, those who think memes can become overdone and beaten to death more times than there have been humans to ever exist. Nuclear Gandhi would appear to fall into this camp, alongside Belhalla Barbecue memery. 

And, there are those who think Nuclear Gandhi is fine- but it's Indira Gandhi who deserves the role. Since, you know, Indira actually governed modern India, unlike Mohandas, and was the prime minister whose government oversaw the creation of an Indian nuclear arsenal. Give her the "Smiling Buddha" nuke as her unique unit (so the Varu can be retired for a game) even and make it available in the Classical era for a lead over everybody else.

Just please bench Mr. Slept Nude With His Niece to Test His Celibacy (yes, Mr. Gandhi was human, in ways good and unfortunately bad; and by no means do I excuse Indira for Operation Blue Star) for one game. And toss in a Mughal alternative leader for the country on the side, I'd choose Akbar- but I'll let you call him overrated.

 

@ping I like your avi by the way. I got Civ VI for Switch as an Xmas present last year. I wasn't sure if I'd like the franchise and 4X genre, but Civ VI has consumed my soul now, it's so addictive. I have to force myself to take breaks from it.

 

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There was a historical "Treaty of the Three Black Eagles". This moniker was given by Poland to its three signatories, its rivals: Prussia, Russia, and Austria, who all used black eagles as a national symbol. Poland did not use a golden deer or blue lion sadly, it used a white eagle.

The Treaty was an attempt to get the Black Eagles to agree that Poland should remain weak in accordance with the wishes of all three members. The Treaty didn't work out, but the failed alliance would prepare the grounds for the three Partitions of Poland generations later in 1772, 1790, and 1795, which wiped Poland off the map for more than a century.

Edited by Interdimensional Observer
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On 5/3/2020 at 6:37 PM, Lightchao42 said:

Back in ye olden days, "fish" was just a term for any animal that lived exclusively in water. That's why we have jellyfish, starfish, cuttlefish, etc.

And it is also why beavers went extinct in Europe. There was no meat on fridays and I guess a beaver counted as a fish, ergo, not meat.

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I knew a guy in high school who I claimed was "so dumb he could throw a rock at the ground and miss" in jest. He then proceeded to attempt to prove me wrong, and when he drew back his arm in over-dramatic fashion, the rock still wet from the rain, slipped from his hand and landed on the library's roof. Consequently, he unironically threw a rock at the ground and missed.

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For a certain time in history people thought tomatoes were poisonous and called them "death apples". I guess Little Timmy took a bite out of one and was absolutely fine.

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6 minutes ago, Dragoncat said:

For a certain time in history people thought tomatoes were poisonous and called them "death apples". I guess Little Timmy took a bite out of one and was absolutely fine.

To be fair the things are closely related to Atropa Belladonna, or as it's more commonly known "Deadly Nightshade"... which is extremely toxic.

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12 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

@ping I like your avi by the way. I got Civ VI for Switch as an Xmas present last year. I wasn't sure if I'd like the franchise and 4X genre, but Civ VI has consumed my soul now, it's so addictive. I have to force myself to take breaks from it.

One...more...turn... :lol:

I'm still more of a Civ4 and 5 fan, although I haven't played 4 in quite a while now. Civ5 is pretty divisive in the fanbase because it not-so-gently pressures you into a low city count (four being the magic number). But personally, I like the smaller number of relatively powerful cities more - Civ6 always feels kinda slow with how long it can take for a city to finish its projects.

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The second entry of the Master of Orion series has the subtitle "Battle at Antares", which gives it the objectively strongest abbreviation in video game history: Moo2:Baa.

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Just now, ping said:

One...more...turn... :lol:

I'm still more of a Civ4 and 5 fan, although I haven't played 4 in quite a while now. Civ5 is pretty divisive in the fanbase because it not-so-gently pressures you into a low city count (four being the magic number). But personally, I like the smaller number of relatively powerful cities more - Civ6 always feels kinda slow with how long it can take for a city to finish its projects.

Can we be certain that Civ doesn't involve putting you into a hyperbolic time chamber? I don't understand how time passes so fast when I'm playing it.

Although I wouldn't go for it right now, maybe later I'd take up 5 and give it a try. 4... not so sure, but I understand it's a great challenge and does a good job of balancing empire expansion and city quality. Anything before 4 looks entirely too dated, even if Civ is a franchise that ages well I'm told.

I'd like to give Beyond Earth a fling too because sci-fi, so it saddens me the game is subpar and unfinished. A sequel in the not too distant future that does better Firaxis?

...Now back to my first play as American Caricature That Has An Underpowered If Not Bad On Paper For Gameplay Marginal Lands Bonus- Canada. I want to build tundra farms- Kongo stole the good land up north so I've only four non-Tundra cities (b/c Canada I set the temperature to Cold to "maximize" it's "bonus"), but my eyes see too many National Parks it wants later, it can't find easy space for the farm diamonds now. 

 

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The Arabic word for coffee is "gahwa". Traditionally among Arabian tribes, a welcomed guest is presented with three cups of coffee. The first must be accepted or else you insult the host, the second cup is for enjoyment, the third cup is given upon conclusion of an agreement between guest and host- historically tending to be a defensive pact. If the host fills your cup 2/3rds full- you're welcomed to stay, if they fill your cup to the brim- it means "drink up and get out of here".

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For reasons unknown to even myself, my two favorite funny bits from video games at the moment are a girl with an incredibly creepy face (pictured on the left, as of this post) that likes to say "smiiiiiile" in a creepy-cute way and to scream her name a lot, as well as the joke that characters say "Barrel!" whenever they see one.

Edited by DragonFlames
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54 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Can we be certain that Civ doesn't involve putting you into a hyperbolic time chamber? I don't understand how time passes so fast when I'm playing it.

Although I wouldn't go for it right now, maybe later I'd take up 5 and give it a try. 4... not so sure, but I understand it's a great challenge and does a good job of balancing empire expansion and city quality. Anything before 4 looks entirely too dated, even if Civ is a franchise that ages well I'm told.

I'd like to give Beyond Earth a fling too because sci-fi, so it saddens me the game is subpar and unfinished. A sequel in the not too distant future that does better Firaxis?

...Now back to my first play as American Caricature That Has An Underpowered If Not Bad On Paper For Gameplay Marginal Lands Bonus- Canada. I want to build tundra farms- Kongo stole the good land up north so I've only four non-Tundra cities (b/c Canada I set the temperature to Cold to "maximize" it's "bonus"), but my eyes see too many National Parks it wants later, it can't find easy space for the farm diamonds now. 

Kongo forward-settling Canada in the (ant-)arctic is one of those amazingly silly Civ things that I love about the series. Coincidently, my ongoing Europa Universalis IV campaign is as Kongo right now, with the goal of conquering all of Africa before the end of the game. My two main obstacles are more plausible in general - Ottomans doing Ottoman things (the start of the game is titled "Rise of the Ottomans" for a reason), while France inherited Castille (i.e. 2/3 of Spain) like 10 years into the game (*) and expanded into Morocco a little bit. Scary stuff, especially since France gets an additional HUGE boost to their already excellent quality between ~1615-1710 (and the current year is around 1620).

(*) Well, game-mechanically speaking, they got a Personal Union over Castille more than half a century before I even got vision of Europe, but integrating a PU into your realm proper takes a while. I should consider myself lucky that France didn't get the union after Castille got its semi-scripted union over Aragon (i.e. the other third of Spain) and Napoli (i.e. half of Italy), I guess.

Playing Civ1-3 instead of 4 has the same energy as playing OG Gaiden instead of Echoes. 2-4 were all pretty straightforward improvements over their predecessors, and only 5 and 6 do things different and not just better than the games before them. Although I'm sure you'll find people arguing that Civ4 RUINED THE SERIES FOREVER REEEEEEEEEEEEEE

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At some point in time, Blizzard lost or just didn't keep a copy of the source code of the original Starcraft - not too uncommon in that era, but something they regretted when they started working on the remastered version some years ago. However, some random guy bought a "box of Blizzard stuff" on ebay, which included a CD-R (greetings fellow boomers) with the entire source code. When he posted about it on Reddit, he naturally got pestered to upload it, but didn't do so. Of course, Blizzard contacted him once they heard about it - the sourcecode on the internet would've been an absolute nightmare in terms of security and the Remastered team was VERY grateful to have the source code to work with.

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