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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • For the people unaware why EU4 is hard:

    Take risk (the board game)

    Now split the provinces till you have more than 3000 provinces. Then add variables to each region for culture, claims, trade good, trade power, buildings, development (in 3 aspects), the region they are part of, the trade node they are part of, religion, autonomy, unrest, devestation, temporary effects, and many many more.

    Do the same for armies.

    Add complicated politics, with royal marriages that allow countries to inherit other countries, war goals, casus belli requirements, etc.

    Add colonization mechanics.

    Add government mechanics (with many different variants for different governments ofcourse).

    Add a compex Holy Roman Empire system and a complex system for the Chinese empire.

    Add mechnics for different religions, including a pope and a religous war that can bring all of europe into a giant war.

    Add a pool of diplomats, merchants, generals, and missionaries.

    Now realise that I haven’t played the game for ages, and this was just mechanics from the top of my head, and without what they added in the last few years.

    EU4 is not hard due to required reflexes, muscle memory learning, or rythm feeling. It is just a lot of things to learn and to keep track of, woven into a super complicated simulation.


  • The puzzling part is fun, because you are constantly learning new ways to use your body. See how to balance, how to move around, etc. I have found that dancing gives a similar learning challenge. Especially the more free-form dances like salsa and bachata. It’s fun learning new moves every week during the lesson, and then try to see if you can put them to practise during a party.

    And don’t worry about beeing to stiff. If you can balance around boulders, you can get your body to move around for dancing too. Just takes some practise. I currently do both, and feel like I lack dexterity more for the climbing than for the dancing.

    And unlike most of the hand-friendly options mentioned already, you do have to use your hands and arms a lot. Just not in a way that puts any stress on them.




    1. It reduces the barrier of entry for new users to get an account going that is not flooded by political extremist views in it’s feed.
    2. It causes anonymous users to not see they shitshow. And since most users start out by browsing anonymously while deciding whether they want an account or not, that is a big deal.
    3. It gives the impression that this community is at least somewhat ok with the views that these extremists hold.

    It should be opt-in to view posts and comments from these sources.








  • Point 1 has to be chosen when the cat is young. Forcing an outside cat to suddenly only be inside often doesn’t work.

    I adopted a 7-year-old cat from the shelter, and after a week of having to be inside all the time, he got more and more frustrated. After a week and a half, he escaped during the night. In the morning, while I was panicking, he came strolling in as if nothing was wrong.

    Since he apparently comes back, I allowed him outside from then on. Since that moment, his behaviour inside has improved a lot. No more random play attacks on my ankles and hands, and generally much calmer.

    He has also come back home with mice several times. He always eats them. So I think he is very used to living outside. Maybe been a stray, or a farm cat.

    Forcing him to be inside would feel cruel.



  • Where I live, the places that do blood donations, also do plasma donations. The process is longer, but is otherwise a similar experience. And since plasma is extracted from blood, it is not entirely wrong to argue that people can get paid for blood donations in the US. It is not accurate, but I would argue the statement is probably based on a truth.





  • I would drop any reflavouring in favour of making it fun to be a cook outside of combat.

    What does his character want to achieve? And what are his ideals? Then try to give him objectives to work towards.

    For example: his goal might be to find a fabled ingredient. You can then drop hints on where to find it. Or he might want to be the most renowned chef in the world, after which you insert a cooking competition that requires special ingredients (that just so happens to be found in the same dungeon the party was supposed to head to anyway).

    As for examples on ideals: Feed anyone that is hungry (without harming them via the food). Try to cook/eat anything (causing them to want to hunt/gsther stuff. Never use your hands to fight, to keep them clean for cooking (might need some reflavouring of abilities).

    These examples make, that his cooking gives his character a reason to do things, rather then just be the thing he does.

    Neither of you will remember how many dice were used to slay that monster. But the memory of how his character sliced up the monster for ingredients, only for some treasure or quest item to pop out of the belly, will certainly remain.


  • What you are mentioning is forcing companies to comply when selling inside the EU or California. The EU does not force companies to comply with their specifications outside of the EU. Companies simply do so because it is convenient.

    The EU cannot decide how cars should be made that are sold in California. If they tried, I bet the US government would have something to say about it.

    What the EU can do, is exert influence to get other governments to adopt the same rules. This already happens with a lot of countries surrounding the EU. But asking another government to adopt rules, is wildly different from forcing companies to adhere to those rules inside the borders of another government.


  • Not entirely. There still exists trade agreements, and diplomatic pushback.

    Forcing companies to make products to a certain specification, would mean the EU is attempting to regulate other markets. Markets it has no direct governance over. While it may come from good intentions, it still invades the authonomy of the governments that should have governance over these markets.

    Much better would be to work together with other countries, and help these countries implement similar rules, and enforce them together. Like, pretty much that the EU is doing for its members in the first place.