Also, as you obviously know, the bots are especially bad at warfare.

The most the designers can do is give them huge bonuses.

They fail badly both at the strategic and tactical level.

You also are pointing out a fundamental issue in 4X design:

The advanced players quickly will start figuring out systems to the point of risking the fun.

Playing multiplayer is so bad that I simply refuse. That leaves us playing against AI that we are gonna whip it's hide real good!

That became an issue with c6. I modded it to the point in which that added complexity gave the bots more opportunities to get confused and stumble over the systems.

I have observed that over time they did somewhat fix them and now the bots are less incompetent.

Pravin Lal planet-busted my capitol city once out of nowhere. We weren't even at war. Big water-filled crater where my crown city once stood.

I did win that game, tho.

At the time, it really was something special.

And yes, that is an issue with unit generation. The concept is difficult to pull off often times in the real world.

I loved SMAC but the make-your-own-unit could certainly be exploited. Beyond that, it was one of my favorite games.

Upon further thought, it to me feels like something you play more at night.

I got it at the first time I got a mechanical RGB keyboard that still is on the downstairs rig and I would play that one circa late 2014, early 15 sometimes with the lights down.

That kind of captures the essence of that one.

Again, I would rate it as good- but not a blockbuster. In some ways, it has almost a feel of a modestly updated Civ5 in space more than AC2.

That one is IMO mostly worth it but not AC2. It's similar- but not a clone.

It was early on the multiple tech tree concept. It has a lot to like with some modest flaws in it.

Overall, at the time I would have given it an 8/10. Standards have risen since then, so maybe 7/10 now.

Strangely enough, a sound in the game inspired a graphic style that became a hit in my tech writeups at the time.

Yeah it shows and I gotta ask: Is Beyond Earth Alpha Centauri 2 or pass?

I am 50/50 on keeping it.

I just feel personally, that everything a "gamer" is, people like us are not.

Playing games sometimes is a whole other beast than what a "gamer" is...

I just switched that setting.

Tell me if it shows now.

I game when I can. But I'm very selective of the games I buy. I don't buy ♥♥♥♥. I don't buy hype.

Nothing. You would know the kinds of games I (barely) play.

I suppose if there was a friends only setting(??), maybe I would switch it.

My issues with the profiles are that I really don't care about games very much and the other is the profiles don't feel like people. They feel like ads. Nope! If they want advertising, they gotta pony up.

That is why I do everything to make it the anti-gaming profile as possible.

You don't even show your game collection to your friends.

Whatchya hiding? 😝

That is what I do with Civilization and why I don't show what I am "playing."

Since it has a fairly long load time, I just put it in the background.

It may have it listed at millions of hours. Not really. It might be parked in the background for days.

When I get the next PCs, KSP may go into that bin. That one is right up my alley.

Yeah even if it says I'm playing a game doesn't mean I'm in my chair.

Or awake.

I left KSP running all weekend once by accident because I forgot it was on. Still hadn't made it to the Mun (X1 speed). lol

I think that I lost a new(and very erratic) friend on here because, yes, the computer may be on and I don't constantly toggle my status.

But that doesn't mean that I am in the chair 24 hours a day. No, the PC may be on, but I might be working on something, taking the dog for a walk, at Home Depot or or or...

Hell yeah it is. Body gotta move.

These kids are going to have strokes at 30.

That is why I never sit in the chair here for long unless I am doing something productive and then maybe OT is in another window in the background.

It feels funny just doing nothing.

That is why the OT demographic feels like such an abomination. It's more work to sit in front of a screen than it is getting up and doing something.

I'm just not use to being able to sit down at this hour. I'm trying, my body says 'work mode' my mind says 'shut the ♥♥♥♥ up'.

What's missing?

I feel it too in strange ways after a long period of improvement burnout.

I'm restless.

How does it feel?

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I ran out of chores.

Getting sloppy is easy.

That situational awareness.

Today has been a good day- and among the goodness- I nearly made a catastrophic mistake.

I overfilled a water jug, leaned too far and did it over the UPS.

Immediately, I pulled the power, cleaned up and let it sit.

Things are working.

It's a reminder to not get too casual!

Yeah!

Remember when we liked the best girl in the class and her dad also was the scoutmaster?

We hated it at the time- but that helped us.

It was better to learn to face dad in jr. high and get it out now. The world has far more waiting for us later.

I have a whitelist. You ain't on it, you get shunted to the dreaded VM I keep forgetting to check.

Oh!!!

Since I blocked text, my phone has almost gone silent.

Once I took away their ability to hide behind the machine, that was too much for them.

I even had items for sale that I pulled. All they were doing was sending the same "Do you still have it" text and never buying anyways. All they can do is quick hit-and-runs with text these days.

1 - And if her father didn't like you—
2 - You knew it.
1 - He'd stand in the doorway.
2 - Arms crossed.
1 - Not saying a word.
2 - Didn't have to.
1 - Now it's just a read receipt.
2 - No reply.
1 - Left on read.
2 - (shakes head) At least her daddy had the decency to glare at you in person.

It is funny. That Russian guy. I had watched that exact same video and I know for a fact that the two of us learned that how we carry and conduct ourselves makes all the difference in the world.

The truth is, the battle is won or lost in the opening seconds.

This also is why guys need to stop asking girls to dinner. She decided long ago how far she wants to go with you, and if you are asking about dinner- you have already lost.

Start over and don't repeat those same mistakes.

But no, only a small number of people get it. Beyond a certain point. That's it. They are telling the world that they are a low round draft pick. Treat me as such!

So like, two grumpy men in rocking chairs be like:

Back in my day, we didn't text a girl. We wooed her.

1-Wooed her.

2-Yeah. You'd call her house.

1-On the telephone.

2-Of course.

1-And her father answered.

2-Usually.

1-And you had to ask permission to speak to her.

2-Yep.

1-Texting...

2-…Jesus Christ.

Standing up straight and looking forward does a hell of a lot alone to bring you to life.

I wasn't going to say it- but something happened Saturday night again.

And often times, what I feel coming out of them is relief. I get that same look. Frequently, it's relief.

They look at every guy there and I win simply by default. I was the only guy who cleaned the house before leaving, showered, put on something worthy of setting foot out of the house...

Youtune idea: Grumpy old men in rocking chairs.

Maybe it is because all the socialists are going with green energy that costs vast fortunes and hurting the poor defenseless fossil fuel companies perhaps?

I swear some of the men put on the grossest ♥♥♥♥ in their laundry pile and call it a day.

Sometimes I walk into a place, all the women look at me, and I look around and see why: you don't have to jump the bar when it's on the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ground.

Here, everyone knows about the tourist corridor.

The truth is it is a very small sliver at the center of town and people know when to take the back roads and which are "scenic" and slow as molasses such as driving The Strip itself on a weekend night.

And yet huge portions of the population are dumb enough to complain about traffic when it's clearly not a traffic problem.

With the roads in town being in a remarkably simple, square and consistent pattern, and major monuments that can be seen throughout town- with possibly streets named right after them...

What we really are revealing is many are just not right in the head!

I also long ago embraced contrarianism.

Everyone is parking right in front of the grocery store.

Good, park offset and stop doing battle over things that are really dumb.


Bonus;

My dead brother was the kind of person who would drive for an eternity up and down the lot just to be "right." That was very very him.

Being awake in a world full of zombies does have advantages, though. Everyone takes the main road and sits for 30+ minutes in traffic, I take the back road and get home in 10.

I care for our brother- but right now he is on one of those benders in which the chair he is sitting in is socialist, and I am just not going to argue about it.

Everywhere I go, I am seeing more gloom than ever. If people even set foot out the door at all, the faces are utterly down and blank with the head buried in the shoulders just hoping that nothing more falls from the sky to hurt them.

Just get by every day at most.

Was talking to the wife, things are sooooo bad on the hospital side. So many people lost insurance this year and are dying because they can't afford what's on offer. Thanks, Trump.

Of course, you'd have folks like Kbiz come in 'best president evah."

Welcome back.

Quick observation: My new windows appear to stay clearer after rain.

Is the surface smoother?

Hmmmmm.

Yeah severe storms over I can plug the electrics back up.

I just got home and it's only 100 oustide- but muggy and overcast again.

98 damn degrees, feels like 111.

That reeks of AI.

I have been especially careful about letting the bots see any word that could be misconstrued. The bots simply are too dumb for context.

Probably play more textual defense.

Oh, the rain finally came. It's not full monsoon- but it's enough to be warned to stay inside- which really sucks.

My condition randomly lets up and.... Oh, never mind.

Apparently, discussing an upcoming legal execution is 'self harm'.

What the ?????

What could you have possibly said to have gotten banned?????????

And, it looks like practically tornado weather out there again- and yet it isn't fully forming and there is no %*$# rain yet.

Count this as looking like another in a long line of storms that look like a big deal and end up fizzling out.