redhorsejacket

joined 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Fwiw, I personally would recommend utilizing milk (or milk substitute, if that's at issue) rather than plain water. I find the texture and flavor improved. No matter what flavoring additions I make, if the cooking medium is just water, my feeling is that it's like eating wallpaper paste.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Ah, well, these are desperate times, Mrs. Lovett...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

I need to lay off the Mount and Blade. Definitely saw Calradia as I was scrolling past.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

What was their name? Any favorite stories you want to share?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Further context, assuming the ruleset governing the OG Baldurs Gate games was true to the tabletop (I know they sort of kludged AD&D and aspects of 3e together). As the above said, a dual classed human "retires" their original class, and then begins to advance in their new class, essentially starting over from level 1, with only the hit dice and HP of their original class rolled over (you cannot access any of the class abilities you learned while advancing your original class). However, once your new class level is superior to your original class level, you can now access both skill sets.

It's a very strange system, and I am curious what the fluff reasons surrounding it are, if anyone has any insight into that edition.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Coheed and Cambria's lastest album (Window of the Waking Mind) has gotten me back into their work for the first time since high school. I think it might be their best work, which is not something you can say for many band's 10th album.

I wrote a lil blurb post in a community for the band here on Lemmy. If there are other Coheed fans wandering through, check it out.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

Dr. Ellie Satler is in her late twenties, according to the book. Laura Dern, the actress, was simply playing older than she actually was. Also, in the context of these films, Jurassic Park's operations were still a tightly held secret at the time Dr. Satler would have been obtaining her credentials.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

100%. I know that the jury is out, academically speaking, on the actual effectiveness of the bombs, but it makes intuitive sense to me that they at least contributed to the Japanese decision to surrender unconditionally.

In fact, up until the bombs were dropped, Japan was working with the Soviet Union to act as mediators in peace talks, so Japan could get a better deal. Of course, while the USSR entertained the diplomatic overtures from Japan, they were actually planning on declaring war, as they had promised at Yalta. But, I think it still contributes to my point that a civilian population that has been targeted by a besieging force must believe their only options are unconditional surrender or utter destruction (which, incidentally, is exactly the verbiage the US presented Japan in the Potsdam Declaration 10 days before the first bomb was dropped). If there is a plausible third option available (or believed to be available), then that's what will be pursued.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

No, it was not my intention to suggest that. I'm sure the Germans threw everything they could afford into the Battle of Britain.

Though, I am most definitely not an expert in the field and should be treated as I am, a dude on the internet lol.

However, even Germany in early WW2 (arguably at the height of their power) was unable to throw enough explosives into London to make that switch flip in the civilian population from "we shall fight them on the beaches" to "okay, in light of recent events, we are reevaluating our 'Never Surrender' policy...".

In fact, I might even suggest that the scale of bombing necessary to make it a viable tactic was impossible at that time, as the nuclear bomb hadn't yet been invented. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me can fact check this assertion, but I think the only time intentionally targeting civilians has successfully cowed a belligerent was when the US nuked Japan. And even then, it took two.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)

Also, to add to the other poster's point, in a medieval siege, the defenders have every reason to believe the attackers will happily let every man, woman, and child behind the walls die gruesome deaths to starvatiom or disease. That's why, when it came down to the wire, cities would submit.

In modern times, cultivating a believable military posture of, "Surrender, or we will personally execute every last motherfucking one of you" is politically dicey. Look at the news stories coming out of Gaza about supplies running low thanks to Israeli interference. Right, wrong , or indifferent, the international community (as well as your domestic community, if those that disagree with these sorts of tactics are allowed to make their voices heard) tends to look down their noses at targeting noncombatants populations. So, due to these complications (which were largely absent or less impactful from warfare in the time of Genghis Khan) wholesale slaughter of civilian life isn't really openly used. In fact, guidelines like "proportionality" are invented which dictate the level of response you can give certain provocations and what not.

So, if you're a modern day commander being tasked with taking an urban center, the closest way to approximate a medieval siege would be to absolutely carpet bomb everything. Make it known that you will happily let every single person in Moscow die, if not send them to the afterlife yourself. While you're bombing the suburbs, you'll also need to encirce the whole city to prevent supplies from being delivered, since you can't guarantee every bomb will hit it's target and need starvation to provide additional assurance to the population that, if they maintain their current course, they are doomed.

Unfortunately, the world isn't going to allow that, and you know it, so you commit to the level of bombing deemed acceptable by the world at large. At best, you wind up in a situation like London during the Blitz. Your bombing runs are effective, in that they disrupt the daily life of citizenry, and cause some infrastructure damage and loss of life. However, you're never going to be allowed to scale up to the point where your victims feel they have no way out but to submit. There's enough plausible deniability that, even when a bomb hits close to home (literally or figuratively), the victim is more pissed at the bomber than their government.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago

Right? Like I see folks in this thread and elsewhere echoing some of the typical things you hear when Hollywood botches an adaptation. Things like "it would be better if it was faithful to the source material" and other sentiments like that.

However, in this case, the one aspect of the games that is easily translateable to film (the writing) seems to have aged the absolute worst. Self-referential Internet humor was a bold, unique aesthetic in 2009, but it's been largely played out the 15 years since the og game released, or at least Borderlands' take on that style of humor has gotten stale. Maybe the writing was better outside of 2 and Tiny Tina's (the entries I played the most), but I sort of doubt it.

I would not want to be tasked with adapting Borderlands. Stick close to the source material, get flamed for writing something juvenile. Diverge from the source material, get accused of not capturing the spirit of the franchise. It's an impossible situation.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

I have it on good authority that that isn't an issue in this instance. They've towed the boat outside of the environment.

 

Cross posting for lack of a better term from [email protected] for visibility.

I hope that this doesn't result in accelerated enshittification. I've been upgrading my home theater set up over time and I was finally ready to start building my collection of titles. Criterion factored heavily into my shopping list.

 

I hope this is allowed. Seems like a lot of books / content for a steal of a price.

 

I haven't checked in on this game since around launch. Anyone want to bring me up to speed on what's happening? I gather the latest expansion pack is priced differently than prior DLC?

Also, that line about discussion being a privilege seems icky.

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