Be advised; this thread is not for serious in depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
- 111
- 7
What is this place?
This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a
court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to
optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.
The weekly Culture War threads host the most
controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are
appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy;
if in doubt, post!
Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts.
You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.
Why are you called The Motte?
A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently,
it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey",
originally identified by
philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial
but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens
this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for
the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired
propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."
On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.
New post guidelines
If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it.
A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts
such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a
submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).
Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or
significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.
If in doubt, please post it!
Rules
- Courtesy
- Content
- Engagement
- When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
- Proactively provide evidence in proportion to how partisan and inflammatory your claim might be.
- Accept temporary bans as a time-out, and don't attempt to rejoin the conversation until it's lifted.
- Don't attempt to build consensus or enforce ideological conformity.
- Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
- The Wildcard Rule
- The Metarule
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
RimWorld dropped a new DLC today, Biotech. Who is playing it?
I tried this game for the first time last weekend, how do you keep everyone from dying the first time a wild animal attacks?
You start with two guns which is plenty for early animal attacks. Make sure to have one colonist who has good shooting skill (more than one is better). And out of your starter three, definitely only have one (at most) who is incapable of violence. On your two best shooty colonists, give them the guns. When you get the notification that an animal is attacking, immediately draft those two colonists and position them so that they will be able to shoot at the animal as it charges your base. You might need to engage in some fisticuffs when the animal closes the gap, but you should be able to at least wound it before it gets into melee with you. Then make sure your colonists get to a bed to rest (you might need to mess with their work priorities to get them to do that), and have your person with the best medical skill treat their injuries.
Another good low-tech solution is a spike trap killbox. Make a maze-like pathway out of walls (preferably granite as they are the sturdiest), and line the whole thing with spike traps. Animals that try to get to you will go through the trapped pathway, and the traps will fuck them up. Do note that you have to have your base kind of walled off for this to work, though. And human enemies will often be smart enough to try to destroy your walls instead of dealing with the trap maze. But it can be a ridiculously effective defensive technique even so.
Also, it's pretty normal to be overwhelmed by the various things that can go wrong in early playthroughs. Each time I first played the game I'd get to a point where I was fucked, try to figure out what I should've done to prevent that, and made sure to cover those bases in the future.
More options
Context Copy link
Medical skill to treat wounds, kiting the opponents (or using the run-n-gun mod to skip that), building an early killbox, using the scenario editor to start with cataract armor and a monosword.
One thing you can do is stand in the doorway, running inside when the animals get close and opening the door to take potshots when they wander off.
More options
Context Copy link
Pick starter colonists who can actually fight.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
I'm still waiting for my list of 200 mods to update, which is actually just an excuse on my part to not lose dozens of hours of free time by getting back into the game.
More options
Context Copy link
Yo. Also playing all the other expansions for the first time as well. Haven't gotten to any of the fun gene modding stuff yet, but I did have fun making an ideology which values supremacy, human supremacy, and body modification.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link