FunkyStuff [he/him]

What other automation games are you into?

The latest one I tried out was Oddsparks which I think is fantastic but I bounced off it because the rail system is a bit underpowered compared to what I’m used to in Factorio and Satsfactory.

Dang, so you had run out of resources on your starting system? Or were you really counting on some rare resource from the system that the dark fog was orbiting?

The combat system in DSP is not as disruptive as the one in factorio, and it isn’t as “integral” to the game as the one in factorio either. Once you get rid of the darkfog bases in your planet they will mostly leave you alone unless you’re unlucky; if that minimal interaction sounds annoying, turning them off entirely has little consequence.

If you enjoy Dwarf Fortress it’s very similar, but instead of military dwarves just… training passively, the whole game is centered on progressing them little by little through a wide array of different mechanics that each have a lot of nuances. It’s even more of an ‘autism game’ because it has a lot of minmaxing and analysis/decision making. The only part of it that is ironically a bit unfriendly to my brain is how FOMO inducing the minmaxing mechanics are, because you always feel like you can make the numbers on your guys go even higher.

What if it was Chinese

(Amazing Cultivation Simulator)

It is a proxy for an empire with even bigger bloodstains on its hands than Nazi Germany. The fact that NATO, and the US particularly, supports Ukraine to the point of making this war continue at all, rather than ending the same year it started, is evidence that the long term goals of empire are served by meeting Russia in the front. You might think it’s not fair to judge Ukraine for the actions or intentions of their supporters, but ultimately I’m concerned with the end of imperialism and capitalism; to “support” Ukraine (which in practice means supporting the military industrial complex) just means supporting my own oppression as a subject of American empire.

The ones who did in Crimea by voting to join Russia weren’t recognized internationally. In general though, if you’re in the middle of Ukraine and your family has lived there for centuries, even when Western backed fascists take over the country and start shelling you in the civil war, would you easily make the decision to leave for Russia instead of staying, trying to survive however you can? I think if people legitimately were invested in preserving the Ukrainian state’s territorial integrity, the press gangs wouldn’t be abducting people with vans, and the militias for the LPR and DPR wouldn’t have been able to recruit much of anyone at all.

Okay so what? They’re getting javelin missile launchers, tanks, drones, and who knows what else. Do you think the Azov Battalion would otherwise have access to that level of weaponry?

I honestly believe that ethnic minorities in Eastern Ukraine are 100% better off under the current Russian military occupation than they were under the NATO backed fascist government that came to power via coup in 2014. I also honestly believe that just about everyone in Ukraine will undoubtedly be better off if Ukraine concedes that territory to Russia as soon as possible rather than continue to throw away lives into a meat grinder to stall an inevitable conclusion.

Ukraine loses the war within the next 24 months since it has outlived its usefulness, the US pivots to the Pacific, and Europe doesn’t have the capacity to support it. What do you think happens when these reasonable moderates wearing Black Suns and Tottenkopf patches, armed to the teeth by NATO with any kind of weapon you can think of, are no longer fighting Russia?

Ever hear of operation Cyclone?

Most westerners, even people who otherwise have good positions vis a vis Palestine and other foreign policy issues, have a very David vs Goliath view of politics where they reflexively support the small side against the big side. Russia is a big country invading Ukraine, a smaller country. Russia is more powerful than Ukraine. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth (even when the meek in question are a US backed far right country that venerates its nazi heroes like Bandera). This is idealism, but it is widespread and organic. It’s only astroturfed in the way that support of capitalism is also astroturfed.