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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   2786 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 26, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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For others? Probably quite a bit. The non-autistic millenials that I used to play with often had a very competitive streak to them and seemd to be genuinely invested in how they ranked relative to others.

The zoomers...oh man. The zoomers keep talking to themselves. It seems to me they all imagine themselves to be the next big streamer. Or maybe it's not even conscious, and they just naturally adopted the monologuing from watching too much Twitch and Let's Play.

The autists are just fine playing against bots. They seem to prefer it, even, for predictability.

As for myself, where multiplayer is an option I strictly prefer it to playing against bots. Not really for the social aspects, those are rather tiresome, but because playing against bots invariably becomes an exercise in exploiting the AI's predictability, which feels like a waste of time. In playing against humans, I can at least semi-credibly tell myself that I'm exercising my mind a little bit rather than just consuming product.

Yesterday I spent 30 minutes before going to bed playing a round of Nebulous: Fleet Command, and I rammed my Beam Battleship into the enemy Cruiser formation just right. It was pure dumb luck, of course, and a game at a fairly low average skill level, but still. Against bots that would have been meaningless. Against humans...it was still just dumb luck, but infinitely more exciting - they could have countered this! Nobody on either side knew what to expect! And so it was a lot more satisfying.

Hello, fellow ANS enthusiast!

I don’t know how to play OSP, and I don’t need to when the Vauxhall is right here.

Hello, fellow ANS enthusiast!

Damn right I am. The German soul cannot truly embrace the OSP ethos. Also I just love using beams. That said, sometimes the ANS team is full, so I do my best to be somewhat competent with the OSP also.

I don’t know how to play OSP, and I don’t need to when the Vauxhall is right here.

The Vauxhall is, in my opinion, the most difficult ship to play. Too big to hide, not enough firepower to take on the big guys, too expensive to be a an effective torpedo carrier, not durable enough to skirmish for long. The only thing it's good at is going fast, and when I play all it does is sail very quickly to its doom. In the one round I played yesterday (as a carrier / cap OSP fleet), a formation of Vauxhalls was mildly annoying, not really a threat, and a giant target for everyone in the vicinity.

So, master of the Light Cruiser, teach me your ways.

I wish I could. I just think it’s neat!

My old torpedo fleet was thoroughly overcome by updates, so that’s out. It was one CL and a slew of spotting and sig-scramble corvettes and frigates. Haven’t made a new one yet since the missile designer intimidates me.

I’ve tinkered with a CL Wolfpack intended to sneak up on carriers. Now that the update frenzy has died down, I’m not sure it’s a remotely good investment. As you observed, “sneaking” is awfully tricky when you’re huge and everyone brings sundials.

The other niches that come to mind are “torpedo boat destroyer,” existing to screen CA or BB, and “counter cap,” intended to slaughter shuttles. I have yet to run either.

But it’s just too pretty to ignore.

The speed of strategic evolution in multiplayer vs single player games is amazing. There's a bunch of autistic shipbuilding simulators out there (aurora, coade, etc.) where everyone has just been larping at strategy the same way for decades, whereas the nubulous meta looks different every time I check on it.

Nebulous: Fleet Command

Interesting, but apparently they canceled the single player plans? What’s going on there, any way to get that back?

They worked really hard on a strategic game mode, but ended up having to give up on it for various reasons in order to focus on the core tactical gameplay. Very recently they released an update that significantly improved the tactical AI so that you can get a meaningful single-player skirmish experience, and they announced the development of a single-player classically scripted campaign mode.

As it stands, you can actually go and play the strategic mode they worked on, as they left it in an opt-in branch on steam, in just the state they aborted development in. I haven't tried it yet. IMO it was a very interesting concept, and I do kind of hope they revisit it eventually, but I somewhat doubt it'll happen.

That said, the multiplayer is great and I invite you to come play. Or we can just skirmish against bots, if you're dead-set against competitive MP.

and they announced the development of a single-player classically scripted campaign mode.

So they will have a single player campaign? That’s what I thought was cancelled. Neat if so.

I will probably pick it up… someday. I still need to complete the original two Homeworlds.

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