Shurimal

I'm not an AX combat enthusiast, but I've been enjoying the thargoid war lately. There's more to it than just combat, too—the reworked EVAC missions are great, the Scythe really puts C into CSAR and the barnacle matrix sites have interesting implications. I also like Glaives and the way they stir up the meta. Fun to fight them, too.

I think the game is moving into the right direction overall. The thargoid war story is very well done, going beyond simplistic "humans good, aliens bad and attack for no reason because they're alien" we normally see in games, movies etc.

If there's one thing to complain about, it's the fact that thargs haven't ramped up their war effort enough and it's too easy to counter them now that we've figured out what works best. We should be losing more systems to them and they should be sending vanguard forces deeper into the bubble.

On the other hand, China has no jurisdiction over me and will deny to the five eyes countries any data it collects, or the fact that it collects anything at all. Worst they can do is deny me entry to the country because I say Free Tibet! and Xi Jinping looks like Winnie the Pooh! but I don't plan travelling to China anytime soon so whatever.

But the western countries spying on what I do with my phone can put me on a no-fly list, terrorist watchlist or even arrest me when I say eg that direct action and sabotage against climate-destroying industries is justified and necessary if the powers-that-be make peaceful change of course impossible—as they are doing right now.

The situation with the ship is pizdets.

Yup, The Killing Star🙃

Peter Watts: We're already deep in some bleak dystopian hellhole which isn't even imperialist. We tried to bring salvation via transhumanism and utilitarianism, but that shit backfired like nothing else ever has. All humans died and vampires (that humans created because why the hell not?) took over.

Oh, there are some alien eldritch horrors lurking in the fringes of the solar system. They present a threat even for the vamps.

Pellegrino & Zebrowski: The story, taking place in some deep dystopian hellhole trying to bring salvation, begins with alien eldritch horrors wiping out 99.99% of humans with r-bombs.

And then it gets worse.

1. Seasonic PSU-s.
2. Locally roasted coffee that hasn't sat in some dusty warehouse and on shop shelf for 3 years.
3. Sun Tzu's Art of War.

I've had good luck of finding very good concert recordings—many are recordings from the mixing desk tape outs as 24/94 .FLAC-s with excellent sound quality—from Internet Archive. The search system is tedious, though, and you probably won't find "big acts" there. But if your tastes include modern jazz, folk and indie rock, it can be a treasure trove.

Does it overcome the limit of four shadow-casting lights rendered at any given time? Because IMO this is the biggest limitation of old Creation engine's lighting system.

Otherwise, judging by the visuals in teaser video, a carefully crafted lighting mod in conjunction with a carefully crafted ENB preset can come close to what I saw in the teaser—or at least look very, very good for an old game like this.

The problem with this is, once you're doing everything you possibly can on your individual level, you quickly see that so many others won't bother to lift a finger, or even work actively to undo all the progress. This is extremely demotivating.

I don't drive, I don't fly, I don't buy fast fashion (or barely any clothes at all), I live in a small apartment, I changed all lighting to LED-s years ago, I don't eat meat, I'm starting to smarten up my home with automation to squeeze out a little bit more energy savings.

And it doesn't help jack shit since it is impossible to get even 50% of people in the developed nations to live like that and even if we could, one multinational megacorporation still manages to do more damage than an average European country.

Sure, we could start petitions—these will be simply ignored. We could come to streets in protest—just to be beaten up by class traitors and new legislation coming in criminalizing protests and throwing anyone who dares into jail for 10+ years. Nothing will change for the world.

From this point on, the only way anyone could change anything would be to actually blow shit up—not once, but all the time, everywhere, until no polluting industry is left. That's clearly not possible to do in the era of mass surveillance.

In late July 2022, Elberton Mayor Daniel Graves said the town planned to rebuild the monument exactly as it was, adding "We're just getting geared up and excited about rebuilding them.

From the linked Wikipedia article.

Good riddance for probably wrong reasons. Shame they plan to rebuild this crap. Guidestones for thinly veiled eugenics and genocide, they were. Blergh.

Working towards a carrier plus 5 years of upkeep is a good long-term goal, but you shouldn't be laser-focused only on that. I think focusing on small short-to-medium term goals is best—progress toward the long term goal will happen along the way and you'll have less chance of burning out.

Goals like "think I'll go and romp around the Guardian ruins this week and unlock some modules" or "let's see how the thargs are doing in Pleiades and collect some meta-alloys from their surface sites" or "let's test thermal conduit PA-s in a haz res this weekend!". Fun little snippets that don't get grindy but will teach you game mechanics, bring you to interesting places and make you a better pilot in long term.

Key is to mix activites up and not do anything longer than you have the mood for. For example, in this thargoid war, I might drop into an AXCZ, blow up one or two cyclops, decide I've had enough for the day, bug out and reequip for evacs or CSAR in a different system.