[XCom Long War Ironman Impossible]

My first response on seeing this thread was "is that even possible?" so I wish you the damn best of luck. When I played EU vanilla Impossible/Ironman I basically had to give up in tears after god knows many tries, and this is after finally getting good enough to beat Classic/Ironman pretty handily. I never really got into Long War, through (I played a pirated copy the first time and I could never get the mod to work), so I don't know how much more (or less) difficult it is at the highest level. It seems like it gives you a lot more tools which is nice. Also, I'm just not sure it's possible to get harder than Thin Men already are <_<.

I'm a little distraught now, perhaps operating in panic mode under pressure to clean up and get out without anything worse happening to my boys, so I toss the flashbang. I probably should have done so from a different spot so somebody could have used this flank position, but I wasn't thinking clearly I guess.

Playing in panic mode was probably the single biggest reason for my XCOM playthroughs failing (well, after Thin Men) when I'd try and double down on a stupid decision by taking even more stupid risks, or even worse getting a little angry and doing something way to aggressive or careless. At least you made it.

[To Be a pro Fire Emblem Player and Debater]

I knew this burn felt like it was from roughly 2007.

[Soleil/M!Kamui's Supports are almost offensive]

What, you mean the crazies who don't understand the context of japanese trope comedy? The only people who think Soleil are lesbian/bisexual are westerners seeing unfiltered japanese tropes that are localized for a reason, because crap like this happens.

-Throw a kid into a dark pit full of cats to cure their fear of felines? CHILD ABUSE. Except no, it's a simple gag in Ranma 1/2.

-Naruto accidentally forced into kissing Sasuke? THEY MUST BE GAY. No wait, it's just a cultural level of friendship that is much farther apart in the west.

-Hell, there's an anime right now that has a guy kissing other guys on a semi-regular basis. The crazies in this thread would declare him gay or at the very least bisexual because they simply do not understand cultural context.

-Naoto from Persona 4 wants surgery to be a man! No, not really. She wants to be treated like a male because the japanese workforce as late as 2008 when the game came out was still incredibly sexist on how women were treated and respected.

Yo there's a whole world of difference between cultural specificity and straight up queer erasure. Just because something wasn't written as "gay" or whatever doesn't mean it's wrong to think about it that way or that there was *nothing* queer that went into the conception of a character. By foreclosing on queerness like that you're basically claiming there is no queerness in Japan, which is a kind of gross orientalisim. Queerness in Japanese media is something way more than "just a trope"--it has meaning and significance even if it isn't exactly the same and the recognition of difference is the beginning of a critique and not the foreclosure of it. People have plenty of right to find a problem with a character who expresses overwhelming attraction to women and only ends up with men, regardless of how she was "supposed" to be.

A lot of you have empathy that's about three sizes too small.

[Soleil/M!Kamui's Supports are almost offensive]

I... I was linked to this thread from a "major" gaming news outlet. What? This was not the way I expected to end up posting on SF again.

What started off as a small comment ended up as a long-winded meander through queer theory, oh my.

[spoiler=Long Digression in Queer Theory Read at Your Own Peril]I guess the one thing I would add to this is beware the assumption that Soliel is *intended* to be lesbian/bi. Fantastical sexual deviance is very very different from real lived queerness, and a fictional character's over-the-top attraction to girls is not necessarily indication she was intended to be read as a queer person. It's much more likely that in the mind of the writers this trait was simply a set up for ad-nausea gender-bender jokes, and her essential "straightness" was never really in question (think of the way that women are free to admire each others physical beauty without being read as "gay"--I suspect this is more like than not an expression of a similar, though more pronounced idea, that it is possible to express same-sex desire without being a "homosexual subject"). Soliel never, to my knowledge, self identifies as queer or lesbian or bi or anything--in fact no such word ever seems to be used about her (could be wrong about this one, though). This points to me to the notion that her desire for women while real is intended as nothing more than a kind of surface performance--if anything it seems her desire is more towards the *feminine*, as seen in Foleo, rather than to women in particular, although she couches it in terms of women.

Of course, in counterpoint to this we know she *does* expresses very real desire for women, which she is self-conscious of, so I can see where a reading of her as a queer subject might come from. This is less to suggest she be beyond critique and more to suggest that that critique probably shouldn't be rooted in the assumption that she was "supposed" to be queer. In fact, this almost suggest something worse, a world where queerness is a kind of disassociative heterosexuality, where genuine queer subjects are impossible since they simply become folded back into heterosexual ones--notice how in her interactions with women she overwhelmingly takes a "mans" aggressive role, even while she's very "feminine" in presentation. This also suggests new readings of that support where she argues with the fujoshi--both of them are shown to be engaging in this distancing strategy. She desires women in the same way the fujoshi is supposed to imagine a boy desiring boys, as something at arms length from the self. We can see her perhaps performing heterosexual desire from the "male" position, in a kind of flip dismissal of her own "femininity". Of course, were this desire actually enacted, it would be something like the butch (the "masculine" lesbian), but it isn't, and that's the very point, this contradiction in terms between performed "maleness" and embodied "femininity". ...maybe, but I'm getting into waters that are making me uncomfortable, hence the scare quotes.

It needs to be reiterated--what we're looking at (perhaps) is not a queer subjectivity but a heterosexual fantasy that touches on queer things (of course, I wouldn't be a good queer scholar if I suggested those were actually entirely discreet). When Soliel aggressively flirts with women she is doing it in a kind of drag, but shes also enacting a kind of aggressive (but also sentimental) sexuality that "more ok" because shes a women. This makes sense if we read her as a fantasy site of the male player. Alternatively, this also suggests an entirely different reading in a Takarazuka context, where sex is downplayed in favor of a nebulous "beauty", and the question of gender is elided because were talking about relationships that happen on a totally non-physical level. In fact, looking back I'm more inclined towards this one since she doesn't engage in any illicit physical activity towards women--for example, groping excused by "but were both girls". This is also worth serious critique as a general rule, since it constitutes a shocking dismissal of queer persons (of course, queer person-hood is much less strong in Japan, where queerness has long been considered a safe domain of fantasy). This is of course all to say that when it turns out she desires men all along there should be nothing surprising about it--since what we're looking at is probably nothing more than a conduit of male heterosexual desire. This character isn't real, there is no "real" lesbian underneath her performance, only a male writer.

Counterpoint--queerness has totally been gaining traction in Japan in recent years. What we might also be seeing is a "transitional" character--a character written in a culture with a kind of growing awareness that there is such a thing as "queer people" but one that doesn't quite know what to do with it yet and has one foot in two worlds (much like our own really). In which case what we might be seeing multiple strains of queer identity being worked out--the heterosexual fantasy coming into contact with the lived experience. Of course, the resulting hybrid is pretty awful, which is sadly par for the course. With this in mind I will also totally defend readings of Soliel as queer, especially because ambiguity is so essential to what constitutes queerness in the first place. There is plenty here in her narrative to look at it and see a queer person, and from that draw legitimately bad conclusions--I probably don't need to rehash those at this point. Simply because someone probably wasn't written as queer doesn't mean they can't be read as it.

Also the original support conversation has serious consent issues and is gross, even if it isn't "date rape" per se (whatever still totally disrespectful and awful behavior close enough).

[Ancestors Angered]

9. "Fuck you, the old ways dictated that I be married to a man who's old enough to be my father and have a bajillion kids by him."

Both men and women must follow the will of the clan ring, yet no proud Orlanthi is required to remain. If a marriage match truly displeases you you may find another clan to adopt you into there fold.

8. Present them with a cease and desist notice

Actually, there is an event where you send your Lawspeaker to sue a ghost.

[Ancestors Angered]

I say 1!

Your words mean little when you fail to act as Orlanthi! Were taking the clan magic until you shape up.

3 and 5. The leaving of offerings as payment for the binding.

To do such a thing to your own ancestors! Our clan will be known as stickpickers throughout the land!

[Ancestors Angered]

6. Blame it on someone else

So you're saying it was the Heortlings, with whom we have an ancient bloodfeud! Whose traders are a blight upon Issaries name and whose men lay with there sheep since there women be so grotesque! We should have known!

[Ancestors Angered]

In the middle of Death Week, a gruesome delegation appears in your clan hall. These are the insubstantial spirits of your own dead warriors. "You have shamed the clan. You have turned from the old ways. You will face nothing but doom and disaster until you act in a manner worthy of our ancestors

1. Promise them that you will do better in the future.
2. Sacrifice to Humakt for protection from ghosts.
3. Sacrifice to these spirits.
4. Scold them for frightening their own people.
5. Try to bind some of the spirits as magical servants.

[GOG Autumn Sale]

If you're into more retro, MASTER OF MAGIC is literally the best game of all time. If you're into less retro, Age of Wonders 3 is an excellent modernization of the same, but I don't know if it's on sale.

EDIT: the original Age of Wonders is also very good, if a little clunky.

Dont get me wrong Master of Magic is the shit, but I'm more partial to Master of Orion, which you can also get right now, and you get both one and two, so you dont have to worry about the silly debate about which one is better. The answer is two, btw. Also, I always thought Dominions was a better successor to Master of Magic than Age of Wonders, but that isnt on GoG. Its just so much more more strategically interesting and satisfying to play.

If your into tactical strategy games, the do have Silent Storm which is flawed but interesting. If you get it there is a mod the speeds up the ludicrously slow animations, as well as one that helps fix the broken level up system. On a larger scale they have Panzer General 2, which is just fucking awesome. Still definitely the best WWII strategy game ever made.

[Civ thread]

Some strategic/tactical impressions:

- Sponsor-wise. Franco-Iberia, Slavic Fed, Polystralia are top. Pan-Asia and KP are next. Then quite a gap, then Brasilia and ARC. African Union are the worst because of the health requirement as far as I can tell.

- Seeding wise. Artists > Engineer/Scientist/Aristocrat > Refugee. Culture is the most scarce, expands borders, and Artists give health. The middle 3 are all nice, Aristocrats mostly for health. Not that Refugees are that bad, but midgame, in my experience it’s so hard to get positive health with the food (unless going straight for Eudaimonia).

- Tectonic > Retrograde > Continental > Lifeform > Fusion. Seeing Titanium initially can be ridiculous because of +5 production. Then it’s just scouting stuff, and the reactor which is useless imo. But the first 4 are pretty similar.

- Machinery > Weapons > Laboratory > Hydroponic > Raw Materials. Worker synergizes with seeing Titanium really well and is more expensive than the Soldier. Soldier can be used to scout resource pods (I usually build one if I didn’t start with that). You don’t need Pioneering that super early, but should still tech it first. So Laboratory is mainly good so you can tech Engineering for Titanium first if you didn’t go Tectonic scanners. Last 2 are just small bonuses.

- I find doing all random pretty fun so you don’t do Artists, Tectonic Scanner, Machinery every time, which seems so far the best on average.

I’m not going to talk too much about trade routes. Wide play is my preferred, but because of decision-making and trade-offs when building stuff (having not enough production to build everything). When nothing really matters except trade routes (and more cities for trade routes, and autoplant for trade routes), it’s just tedious and uninteresting.

- The weaker trade mod does help matters, primarily because the trade-off involved when only having 1 route. The choice between boosting your cities and the international beakers (and diplo bonus) is very significant.

- Even with weaker trade routes, wide play and rex is still very strong since health doesn’t matter until -20. Though at some point later you probably want to go happiness virtues/buildings/biowells to get positive, for the effective +20% Science (with Knowledge opener).

- The AI seems to do slightly better on non-staggered starts, but I suspect that’s because the player gets less excavations and resource pods. It’s actually small difference overall (the AI doesn’t do well at all). Still, it’s a lot more fun to do staggered starts imo. More to explore and more interaction with the aliens.

- I don’t know if it’s coincidence or not, but my last games with the mod the AI did multiple early dows on me. I had trade routes going to them and couldn’t bribe them anywhere. So that was nice.

- However, while combat tactics are slightly improved, the affinity upgrade system doesn’t help them. It’s too easy to keep par or be superior on affinity, tier-wise, and defend with far less troops. The AI’s 20 Combat Rovers (aren’t upgraded until level 3) can’t do much against affinity level 1 Marines fortified (at least it’s a change from ranged units only). Timing attacks (prebuild, then get the affinity to mass upgrade) are extremely powerful with the current system, which ofc AI is notoriously bad at.

- The level 4 Affinity UUs are just broken. They are extremely cheap to build and are like double to triple the strength of everything else around the same tier. They are stronger than cities. You can just mass them if you have the strategic and roll over the AI. They’re easily relevant for 100+ turns.

- Prosperity to the free settler seems by far the best initial option. After that, should nearly always do a minor hybrid build in tier 1 for the free virtue, but all the other trees (or continue in Prosperity) seem viable to mess around in. I really like Might for the affinity boosts.

- Wonder-wise, Ectogenesis Pod is op, and you can usually get it, but it’s still easy to win without it. Most wonders seem like placeholders.

- Difficulty is even more map and land dependent. If you just get screwed with siege worms, miasma, and stations taking your expansions, you’ll fall like 50+ turns behind (still winnable). This is probably why certain mechanics are designed that way (in terms of the affinity, spies, etc), but eh.

- In addition, the randomness in ruins is also very high. Getting affinity from progenitor ruins is ridiculous when it comes to early rushes (can cut like 20++ turns). Getting culture from resource pods (which can happen twice in a row) gets you like a turn 5 Prosperity settler. Contact victory can occur in like 100 turns. Etcetc.

- Similarly, randomness in quests matters a lot for Autoplant trade routes, Fence for route immunity, and Institute free tech. Plus some affinity quests rely on randomness like alien nest locations/aggressiveness or certain buildings (that you’re not guaranteed the resource for), which is really relevant for the early pushes.

Finally, some of the design seems like it’d make for a more competitive mp if not for lolfiraxis, lolcivmp, lolrandomness. For example, the outpost mechanic, combined with the Might tree, plus cities retaining most of their pop on capture, and halved puppet time if you choose, hinders the ics of standard play and trade route spam. Ectogenesis pod is far more risky as a world wonder and especially if others are rushing the level 4 UUs. A lot of the city hp/defense quests don’t matter in sp, but could in mp.

Tl;dr, wait for patch (but you knew that, fwiw, that’s the status quo for these strategy games. >_>)

late edit: To emphasize that point, based Firaxis nerfing Tradition (a bit) and buffing early warmongering in BNW today. :DD

I think its telling that I've been using literally the same strats, and this is the first time I've read about what anybody else has been doing. The only difference is I havent really bothered with warmongering, its too chance dependent on getting early affinity quests and not having a huge swathe of aliens and rugged terrain between you and you enemies. Also, Ive been tending to go Harmony each time because Transcendence is so much simpler than Emancipation or promised land, which is just BAD. I haven't really tried Contact yet, mostly because I haven't bothered and Ive never gotten a piece of the signal from a ruin despite having played a good number of games at this point. I could never consistently beat Immortal on Civ 5 and I find even Apollo pretty easy, although honestly I would say it is a little closer to Emperor than to King.

[Karel <<< God]

It is becoming increasingly clear the only way to root out this continued heresy is with fire and sword. I now have no choice but to write to Rome so that His Eminence can send out the call for a holy Crusade through all Christendom.

[Karel <<< God]

Blasphemy. To believe that any mortal could approach the divine transcendence is an insult to the very idea of faith itself and the majesty of Gods infinite splendor. God who is the one and everything, the alpha and omega. I demand this topic be looked as it is a den of Sin and Lies that risks leading the flock of this good board astray into Devilry.

[Serenesforest's member appreciation thread- Hattu]

Wow it's a good thing you know it's not me.

In my mind you've always been the guy who isn't FESS Nightmare.

[Serenesforest's member appreciation thread- Hattu]

I think we probably made the right choice in not bothering with tier lists though

Sure, tier lists sucked just as much back in the day if not *more*. But that doesnt mean that they didnt take *effort*, someting you young folks would know nutin about.

Ah yeah I remember you. I thought Thunk because he always has some communist name or avatar or some shit lol

God yeah. You remember SRC/Holyn? He's been appearing in and out of skype. I have quite a few of us in the facebook group - which I can invite you to if you add me on FB or something - and I keep in good contact with Absolut_Iceland (we talk a lot of trash to each other). I should probably start reconnecting to these guys soon, honestly, I really miss it.

Nice to see you again.

Honestly, I don't remember a lot of FESS folks as well as I should, but I was gone for a lot of those years. I've been Facebook friends with Nightmare, the old one, for a long time but its so hard to keep up. I should give it a shot again.

[Serenesforest's member appreciation thread- Hattu]

God I have one of those, her and my mother are super tight

Of course we are. Wont you be a deah and tell your mother we should go out for cocktails,sometime?

[Serenesforest's member appreciation thread- Hattu]

This is like watching my mother meet old friends and family

I'm more like everyone's crazy alcoholic aunt, TBH.

Pretty cool guy, we used to chat together a lot and even met up in real life/10

Wait ...who are you? I must be loosing my mind in my old age. Either that or your sense of humor is even drier than mine is.

[Pokemon ethics and morality. Is forcing Pokemon to fight morally right? Is eating Pokemon justified?]

Why, Pokemon love being owned by trainer! They have no responsibilities except to fight, which is there natural state, (although half the time they can hardly be bothered). The rest of the day they just spend in there cozy little pokeball fishin, dacin, and eatin watermelon without a care in the world. Sometimes it seems like ownin Pokemon is more trouble then its worth, but then I remember the trainers burden. Without us these creatures would be nought but tallgrass savages, and they need trainers to teach them civilization and work ethic. Most of the times it feels more like they own me! You know, God gave man speach and pokeballs and set man over as the guardian of Pokemon, and thats just the way the worlds supposed to be. Why, I would contend that ownin Pokemon is not bad, but a positive good!

[Serenesforest's member appreciation thread- Hattu]

Wait is Le Communard Thunk?

Well holy fuck. Almost exactly 6 years ago FESS died. Crazy right? It was the week of my 16th, and now it's the week of my 22nd.

Der Commissar was Sword Saint, right?

No, Im not Thunk, Hero is Thunk. I got banned from FESS2 for accidentally saying I was under 13 and then kind of acting it, although I later came back for a while as General Veers. Spent a lot of time in those days in a little drama backwater called Fire Emblem World, a little bit of time at Fire Emblem Fusion. Now that place was mad cliquish. Fortunately, all of the archives of those days are I believe off the internet. And Der Kommissar was indeed Sword Saint, the old bugger. I don't think anyone has seen the people who were our age during the old FESS days in years.

[Serenesforest's member appreciation thread- Hattu]

As far as Le Communard goes...don't tell anyone, but I always get him, Hero, and Der Komissar mixed up. They are all cool, so it doesn't really matter.

I don't really get the excitement around gamergate (...pretty sure that's what you mean by goobergate) that much either.

Things are going pretty good for me. I thought I had run into a disaster of sorts today, but I talked with someone at school and I think it's going to be fine. As for how things are on SF more generally, I feel like I'm noticing an age gap more than I used to, even though I was always on the older end of things. Overall I'm a bigger fan of #serenes_forest on IRC than the forum, but I still think the forum is fine.

Age gap? I hate to break it to you be we are old as fuck, man. Older than balls. Which is why youve gotta embrace it like me. As for goobergate, unless you enjoy conspiracy theories and harassing women you arent really missing much. I just happened to know a lot of people who were unwittingly involved. Good to hear about school stuff. I was supposed to be graduated by now but I ran into a little one of those disasters and it didnt go quite as well.

Its funny, because Hero and I actually know each other and ended up kinda coordinating our interchangeability, but Der Komissar was just an mod back in the FESS2 days of yore (that was an effin long time ago now, like actually ten years. Jeez, we *are* old).

[Serenesforest's member appreciation thread- Hattu]

its time to take your meds you old coot

I aint gonna take no meds! they put illuminati dust in em and muck around all in your brain. I can hear the voices sometimes tellin me to do illuminati stuff in my head. Nuhuh this geezer is one hundred percent natural.

[Serenesforest's member appreciation thread- Hattu]

You young shits need to have some more respect for your elders. Why, lemme tell you, I helped build this board with nothing more than my two hands and my snark! It wasn't easy in those days. You had to type uphill both ways just to start a new topic. And dont even get me started with how hard it was to build a tier list with nothing more than a broken down chevy and a clock radio. You kids these days just take everything for granted, and never think of all the hard work your forefathers put in so you could enjoy the luxuries you do today.

[Serenesforest's member appreciation thread- Hattu]

Holy shit it's le communard.

Yes, surprising, I'm not dead. It turns out people think I'm a lot funnier on twitter, or something like that. I just popped in to see what goobergate was up to in my old playground. Turns out its pretty boring. Howve you been? Things the same as always?

[Serenesforest's member appreciation thread- Hattu]

Shutout to Hero for the magan mundi thread because that shit was bomb.

Also, cant forget the followups,

http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=18634

http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=18633

...although it does seem a little crass to be complimenting yourself.

[well done david and dan, for ruining a great book series (spoilers i guess)]

Basically, the answer to all of your questions is that Maelys Blackfyre lives and will come to cleanse Westeros with fire and sword.

[Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual intercourse, emerged from the foaming semen of her father's castrated testicles.]

Just read every book in every structure.

Actually, I do this. Not necessarily at the time, but I pick up all the ones I don't have already.

Really, though, most of the interesting stuff can be picked up by playing through the main quest in Morrowind, which is essentially about a massive theological dispute. True story.