I haven’t, I don’t have Stellaris, but to be honest I am kind of exhausted by the theme of 4x games which always boils down to “paint the map your color”… like I don’t want to, I am bored with that. I want to win but the unquestioned assumptions in the foundations of 4x games is a bit too cynical for me even though I love playing war games, but then again there is a difference between two sides blasting it out in a war and an ever growing suffocating empire that consumes all under its color and banner and has no other objective than endless growth…

Almost every 4x game is concerned with consolidating power under your control, I mean yeah it is fun right! I am not trying to bash it as inherently bad but at a certain level I find it a really constricting theme after awhile even though I love playing evil villains in fantasy as the next person. I just want more from the genre in terms of evolution of game design at a foundational level not just more stuff and more dlc and more mechanics and more different kinds of space war. If the only shape of an empire game is of an oppressive unstoppable regime either succeeding or failing to rise I just think that is pretty limited in vision. Not that there isn’t an amazing diversity of strategy games that don’t fit the mold that I am describing, but in general I think there is truth to my point.

For a reference of what something different can look like, see modern euro game design in board gaming, in particular I think the board game Oceans creates a compelling strategy experience that while still being about winning isn’t inherently about just being the most powerful creature or presence on the board at any one moment. Mutual benefits are complex and arise spontaneously because the objective isn’t complete annihilation for anybody.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/232414/oceans

I guess you could argue my criticism is all a matter of perspective, any kind of winning is going to encourage more winning and snowball to some degree in a system that isn’t totally random, but then again the feeling of getting near the end game of almost any 4x gets a little bit tedious for most people, not only because every single turn takes more and more admin/micromanagement of a bigger and bigger empire but also because the most common impact of winning a 4x game is that the gameboard/environment becomes more and more homogeneous and less and less dynamic the closer you get to winning. Winning should reward you with interesting choices and dynamic board states not an experience that feels like a chokehold even though winning again can always be reframed as the process of gaining a chokehold on a system.

(again, a general point, I know and love that there always exception to the rule)

Yeah and the mechanism for adjusting your phasers is in the style of “Don’t Stop Talking And Nobody Explodes” co-operative minigames that border on silliness in their fiddly complexity at points as part of the fun (also a vehicle to poke fun at the goofy technobabble in Star Trek hahaha).

Harry Kim, we all want you to be promoted, but it isn’t productive to be upset with other Ensigns for getting promoted more than you.

I love how upset some people get about Tilly serving on a big burly masculine warship that sometimes has the serious job of killing people.

If a crew like this didn’t have people like Tilly on it, it would have fallen catastrophically apart after the 10th crisis or so.

Especially in this season it so obvious how Tilly’s intelligence manifests in being able to bypass entire complexes of prejudice and social norms (perceived and unconscious, spoken and unspoken) whether they be human or alien, and get right to the point with somebody. In an organization that is constantly trying to establish trust with a variety of unknown actors, Tilly is an incredible asset.

Stay angry, fools.

edit You know what is actually hilarious, TNG failed to really use Troi’s empathetic mind reading in interesting ways for most of its run, to the shows great detriment, but Tilly is basically who Troi would have been if Troi hadn’t been sidelined or written to be unconfident or naive for the stupidest reasons in most episodes. Tilly regularly walks into rooms and nearly instantaneously perceives the emotional context of the people in the room (whether or not she knows them that well) and boldly addresses it head on in a way that somehow isn’t overbearing, aggressive or intimidating. I don’t understand how this can be understood as anything but a minor superpower.

I am loving this seasons so far, does anyone know if I watch the TNG episode that this season connects too if it will spoil anything for later seasons of TNG? I am still in like season 4 or 5 as I am going through TNG, VOY and DS9 all at the same time.

Loved the first episode, I think the way they brought Book back made sense and I think the season set up connecting to an underutilized TNG episode is absolutely awesome, I could not be more down for this kind of season of Discovery. On to the second episode!

I am really gonna miss Discovery, I am not sure Doug Jones is going to miss dressing up as Saru for every shoot though.

Still though wow he really knocks it out of the park with conveying an alien with a physicality much different than ours, he has to easily be one of the best aliens in the whole series.

I really hope this is good, I am actually really excited to see how this turns out, I don’t necessarily have high expectations but also I don’t think there is any reason it has to suck so long as Georghiu isn’t let of the moral hook for being an awful, murderous leader.

Also Michelle Yeoh is great so I am excited fuck it.

I can’t wait!

Paramount doesn’t even want to write about the Utopia anymore. All of the Picard series is about corruption, greed, power, and the Federation failing on all accounts. I hate them for it. Star Trek is supposed to be a glimpse into a hopeful future, not a reflection of our current problems but with phasers added.

I think there are many valid criticisms of new trek but I really just don’t see this, old star trek had the same shit

It would make way more sense for Stargate cosplayers to be at a renfaire since every single planet they went to on that series seemed to have villagers at about the renaissance level of technology (gotta wonder, did they have access to a bunch of medieval/renaissance sets for cheap lol?).

Of course, if you went as Stargate cosplayers you would have to basically dress up as para military wannabe chuds who’s personalities revolve around owning useless guns (like sword person who is obsessed with swords but way less fun) and being a bigot. People might not even recognize you are in costume and just assume you are a bunch of losers who express their freedom by going to renfaires carrying around murder weapons and dressing in tactical gear.

sigh

…better to go as the Star Trek cosplayers lol.

Well I haven’t gotten that particular conspiracy theory off the ground yet, still trying to get people in on that one.

I think it is everything you could want from a conspiracy theory though, you just steal all the same talking points from flat earthers but apply the conspiracy in so much more of a petty and meaningless direction that I think it has real potential.

Pretty much the lamest conspiracy theory. There are better ones like Rhode Island is actually the third largest state in the US but the other states are trying to keep it down.

I won’t tolerate the lincoln town car being used as the butt end of a joke. The previous generation lincoln town cars from 1990-1997 are some of the nicest sedans ever made. Super comfortable, good gas mileage (better than the newest generation that we all think of when we hear licoln towncar), extremely easy to replace and maintain mechanics (panther platform) and overall an absurdly comfortable car.

It is probably one of the most genuinely good American cars ever made and they are hilariously cheap (you can get them for <5 grand in good condition) because nobody really remembers them except old people.

American car companies broke the automotive unions and the quality went to shit, but the 1990-1997 run of town cars definitely represent a high water mark of American cars built by people that were truly proud of what they made (because they had some degree of decency ensured by the presence of unions). You can find one on craigslist and chances are everything except the air ride suspension (probs replaced by now with traditional spring suspension) probably still works even though it is a 30 year old vehicle selling for dirt cheap.

Fun fact, the tech bro who jadzia in DS9 convinces to help her in the episode that sisko becomes Bell of the Bell riots rode around in a jet black lincoln town car of this generation.

Awesome car, I almost bought one but went for a toyota sienna instead because minivans are the ultimate power form.

A bunch of people create the most OP way of travelling and barely use it, and don’t tell me that the ship is unique and Stamets is the only person in the universe in the following centuries to be able to use it, because that just doesn’t make any sense, it’s a cheap trick to justify why such an incredible technology has never been mentioned after, not even by a super villain that gives no crap about genetic augmentation.

That wasn’t really the reason, the reason wasn’t nobody else could figure it out or that nobody wanted to do it because it required genetic modification, the reason was that jumping on the mycelial network was actively killing it unless I am misremembering things which is in line with the rest of star trek’s ethos (how about the DS9 episode where they help the dominion destroy a trans warp gate for example? There are other technologies that are abandoned and hidden for the greater safety of the universe all over Star Trek, it can be really silly I agree but I don’t think discovery is unique here.

Stargate: like Star Trek except without any of the interesting ideas, there is a cool scene where the U.S. military bros hold up a sub machine gun and say how it is so cool compared to a lame alien staff weapon. Best moment in sci-fi to some people apparently. It’s fine, but it is an action hero show about war and it rarely even remotely approaches the thoughtfulness of the better Star Trek episodes. I like the characters, I have had fun watching it but Stargate can fade away into obscurity and shrug meh.

Battlestar Galactica: yawnnnnn sorry what oh yeah I fell asleep to the monotonous drone of grimdark, military space war scifi. I am sure it is good but again Star Trek is on a whole different level because of its broadness of vision, ideas, and focus on humanity.

Babylon 5: haven’t seen this one in ages, isn’t it another space war scifi?

Star Trek is great because somehow it managed to escape the fly trap that all sci-fi shows/books seem to go to of grimdark space war scifi where everyone is a miserable f^%k. I’m fine with grimdark space wars, I don’t want 100% of my sci-fi to be about grimdark space wars because then you have idiots like Elon Musk who grow up injecting this stuff directly into their veins and they develop an absolutely shockingly tiny worldview. If they had just read some damn fiction that actually challenged their perception of reality like Virginia Woolf or something…. well they probably still be a&$holes but maybe a tiny bit less?

I have heard Red Dwarf is pretty good.

I have already made my arguments about this elsewhere on this thread.

Because bicycling is pleasant af, why walk when you can glide? Yeah, you can just teleport everywhere but that is kind of something you can say about everything in star trek.

I love when actors do this out of a genuine love for the potential of a character, star trek would be so much worse if it wasn’t for so many actors challenging the ethical and visionary failings of the script both through their acting and directly speaking up. It matters less that the script never ships bashir and garak (I thinkkk I haven’t finished though… hahaha) because the acting makes it true no matter what the narrative says on paper or what dialog happens between them.

It is always about what is implied by what we are being shown isn’t it? Especially if you don’t quitteeee take the words the actors are literally saying at face value as the only dimension of truth.

Nothing is more fitting for garak in a way, though that is more sad than anything because the show would have been richer with an openly queer garak.

It would be a matter of public health policy that people had some kind of access to a short, physical commute to whatever place they worked/spent their day at, right? That is at least how I rationalize why they just don’t teleport people everywhere. They COULD technically teleport everywhere all the time… but the mental and physical health consequences to not getting some kind of mild daily exercise like bicycling are too intense (also having some kind of short, stress free commute helps one get into the mindset of work anyways).