Warning: Mucho Texto below, sorry in advance.

I am sure you will get the negatives from other people who will come into the thread because the game does have quite the hatedom on this side of the internet. But as the resident Vicky 3 simp, allow me to give you my own opinions of it (ironically, I am playing it right this second and paused to make a post).

I will say that you may actually have a little bit of an advantage not being biased by Vicky 2 going into it.

Like you said, warfare was massive change over their previous games. And while I like the concept it is extremely hit or miss. When it works, it works great, but when it breaks, it breaks hard. I actually think it has the good bones of a system that can be improved, and there have already been mods that do just that, but we will see what becomes of it in the long term. But if you dont want to micromanage your wars because you are too busy with your spreadsheets, it is definitely what you are wanting for the most part.

The economic aspect is indeed where the game thrives, with most of your gameplay being around balancing your markets through either domestic production or imports (with exports to drive profits on excess, obviously). Many times, this will be limited by your own domestic situations as well. For instance, I am currently playing as Persia, and I have maxed out my logging abilities while still having a major deficient in my production. So I am looking around at other markets to buy up the logs I need to cover the shortfall.

I will say that it does somewhat misstep in that running a deficient doesnt actually cause direct negative consequences for your people like it did in Vicky 2 (ie: dont produce enough food, your people can starve), but it at least causes enough of a Standard of Living or Industrial Profit hit from extreme prices that it is in your best interest to prevent shortages.

Some people have complained about the fact that Capitalist will not auto-build their own factories in this game, but personally I always thought that them doing that in Vicky 2 was more of a pain in the ass than it was worth for any realism aspects because the AI was too stupid to make smart choices. To that end, I do think they sidestep the issue nicely in this one with the "Investment Pool", where Capitalist will pay into a fund that can only be used to pay for buildings. But when I play as highly Capitalist nations, the fund is usually so well-funded that I am effectively building for free because the Capitalist are paying for it all anyway. This on top of the fact that you can now harvest multiple resources from the same state makes it all worth it to me.

So the TLDR is that I do think it is a good economic sim, and I would recommend watching some gameplay if you are still not sold.

For Paradox themselves, I will stress every time their wokeness comes up: the company is quite aptly named. Because while their employees and their forums are extremely woke, the company has generally done a good job of keep the wokeness separate from their games. You can still shout Deus Vult! in Crusader Kings even after people said that was evil. Stellaris lets you genocide all Xeno scum, and in some builds even makes the genocide the optimal strategy!

In Vicky 3, I have seen some try and say that they gave a "woke" depiction of Africa because they use the same tech tree and are no longer called "uncivilized" by the game (in favor of "decentralized"). However, if this was supposed to be "woke" you would expect to see a non-player controlled African superpower naturally emerge since, after all, they are using the same rules as the rest of the world now. At this very moment in my game, in 1883, the best developed independent African nation is Sokoto, which has all of 2 textile mills and a furniture factory to its name and a literacy rate of 44%. Meanwhile, AI control Great Britian is rocking power plants, vast industrial complexes, and even Synthetic Dye factories (which are usually a late game building). And with about half of Africa already colonized, I dont think history is going to go much different than it did IRL for Africa. So much for those woke buffs.

Sorry for talking your ear off. Just wanted to get a solid argument out there.

I watched the trailer because I had never heard of this thing, and the environmentalism message also seems to be pretty in your face. Literally in the first 30 seconds of the trailer, when it looked like the rig was suffering some sort of geological event, one of the crew said "When you punch holes in Nature, eventually nature is gonna' punch back." And the show seems to heavily imply that whatever is happening is basically Nature taking revenge for drilling oil, and some of the crew seem to think that maybe they deserve it because they said they should have never been there to do the drilling.

Which begs the question: If you are an environmentalist with an aversion to oil exploration....why are you working on an oil rig?!

Which I dont think gets appreciated enough by a lot of people.

You see people show up who look nothing like you, arriving on what for all you know are moving islands, wearing what look like turtle shells of a material you dont know but makes them extremely difficult to attack, with swords made of the same material which is just as sharp as your obsidian without breaking as easily, with sticks that shoot smoke and fire and kill whoever they point it at, as well as much bigger fire sticks that can even destroy a building. And they have come speaking a new language but you eventually gather they want your gold and to have you worship their god.

And your first reaction is to run to them and beg them to kill the Aztecs, and you will worship them as gods if they do it.

Just how bad are the Aztecs to make that happen?

And now we have SJW's and Leftist trying to say that we should respect them and saying that Hispanics should identify with them instead of whatever else they identify with. Which I have found is just another stick being added to the camel that is "Fed Up Hispanics joining lockstep with Right Wing Populist", because they have far more in common with the Conquistadors than the Aztecs (almost like Hispanics are descended from this or something).

It's from the latest DLC I think.

It is. The newest DLC added the three things.

1. The Stock Exchange, which I would argue is not nearly as broken as it seems here (Spiffing gonna' Spiffing after all).

2. Banks, which will send armored cars to business in your city, and will reduce the overall crime rate for areas they are covering.

3. The "Financial Offices" specialization for Office Districts, which will provide a significantly higher amount of taxes (even more if built in a radius around the Stock Exchange) in exchange for a happiness malice applied to people who work in the zone.

Maybe with the "older" crowd, but most people I know of who of Reddit think it is either unhinged to the Left or unhinged, period.

Which sucks, because I like to use it to keep up with some of my hobbies, but the SubReddits that are actually chill and open to discussion are few and far between.

If the list of concessions that has been floating around is real, they more or less have his balls in a vice grip and can squeeze them at will.

Everyone is talking about the return to the Jeffersonian rule on Speakers where it only takes one member to call for a vote of confidence in the speaker. But some of the other rumored concessions (at least showing up in the MSM, so probably with some reasonable inside scoops) are as follows:

1. MacCarthy-aligned PAC's stay out of primary races.
2. Debt ceiling hikes must be paired with spending cuts.
3. Appropriations bills moved individually instead of Omnibus.
4. Freedom Caucus members given seats on various committees. Apparently, there will also be 3 FC members on the Rules Committee, which gives them veto authority over a significant chunk of House matters.
5. Discretionary spending capped at 2022 levels.
6. 72-hours required to review bills before they are allowed a floor vote.
7. Make it easier for members to offer amendments to bills.
8. Creation of a "Church"-style committee to investigate corruption and weaponization of US agencies, especially, but not limited to, the FBI.
9. Restoration of the "Holman Rule", which allows for the defunding, firing, and even outright elimination of bureaucratic positions and departments without having to follow traditional appropriations rules.

If that is true, then the Populist have a huge amount of power because they grabbed MacCarthy by the balls and decided to ride the tiger instead of backing down. But hey, he seems happy since he has his precious little gavel. Which I suppose is the one good thing we have over MacCarthy compared to the likes of McConnell. MacCarthy is just a stooge who will ride with whoever will give him the power he wants. And if that means giving some significant concessions to the FC so he can think he has power, then so be it. And if he starts having second doubts because he has his buttboy Frank Luntz whispering in his ear, just squeeze his balls until he says uncle.

This has been floating around for about a year now (or at the very least 8+ months). And I can assure you that, based on what we have heard through mostly rumors of the live-action ATLA, it is not going to be that bad.

...It's worse.

It will be set in the modern day real world, they will all be high school students with no powers (except Aang). Their titles and roles will be changed to match the setting (IE: Ozai is now a powerful CEO instead of a king/emperor, etc). And most of the plot will revolve around typical YA high school drama stuff. "What does any of this have to do with Avatar?" I hear you asking. And the answer is.......well.......they have the same names, I guess?

Whatever is actually true, it was so bad that, after it being advertised that "We have the original creators on board for this project!", they left and put out a message saying effectively "Whatever hellspawn you end up seeing, just know we had nothing to do with it!" They are now working on actually adapting into animation the graphic novels they wrote that take place between the original series and Legend of Korra, which will probably be much more faithful and on brand.

Meanwhile, we have a family friend who is a black guy and fairly high ranked in a local security force. And due to his interactions with these sort of blacks, he strongly and unironically believes the old "Black People vs. Nigga's" distinction laid out by Chris Rock back in the 90's.

Two things from what I have found:

1. Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations. Most SJW's and Leftist activist really do believe the best a black person can aspire to be is a violent thug little more advanced than an ape. So when they act out and do their thing, you just need to leave them alone, get out of their way, and let them burn themselves out until it is safe to be around them again. They usually believe this sort of stuff because...

2. They are actually, unironically, as racist as they claim the average person is. Which feeds into the feedback loops that the Left keeps creating of believing the stuff they do because they are best of Humanity (they said so), and if they are that racist and bigoted, imagine how much more the lesser normies must be! And the blacks in their ranks think whites must be a bunch of people who behind closed doors still treat it like it is 1836 and it is the White Man's job to civilize them. After all, the white Leftist say that, and they are the good ones (they said so), so just imagine how much more racist the average normie must be!

Also worth pointing out that "900 miles of of unprotected border" is unprotected because it is effectively impassible terrain. Its all swamp, bogs, and taiga forest. Even reindeer dont move through there. The only part of the border that matters is the one near Karelia, just like in 1939.

Same. The ones I have been to have always been fairly straight forward and nie. And while the food is nothing to write home about, I have had far worse. So it's at least a good "We know it will work" restaurant.

Yes, they are. Which are very good (if very basic) kids movies, with no really unreasonable messages. There is a reason the newest Minions movie was one of the only movies to make more money than Top Gun in 2022.

So if Illumination is indeed working on an animated Legend of Zelda, I am...cautiously optimistic.

For me, I have kind of just became a-la carte on my Star Wars. If something is good, like Andor, I will watch it, and I will skip anything else and do my best to pretend it never existed.

Which admittedly results in me having a very....strange Star Wars timeline (Episode 1-3, Rogue One+Andor, Episode 4-6, the good Post 6 stuff taking place in the far reaches of the galaxy where information travels difficult, then instead of Episode 7 we go into the original EU a few years late).

As for Thrawn, so far he has only been animated and shown up in Rebels. But he is rumored to be in the Ashoka series, and either way their VA nails the role, at least IMO.

The fun thing is, he is technically right...If and only if we count Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau as the entirety of Lucasfilm.

It is absolutely no coincidence that the more free rein he has had, the more "Star Wars" the series have been. He basically had a blank check when making Season 1 of Mando, as well as a lot of leeway in Season 2. He did most of Star Wars Rebels, which was a pretty good entry and finally introduced Grand Admiral Thrawn to the Disney universe (you have no idea how much I would pay and/or Kill to have the Thrawn Trilogy on video). He has free rein of The Bad Batch, which I think is pretty good even if it kind of flies under the radar. And apparently he has free rein with the upcoming Ahsoka series, and there have been rumors he is going to finally put into canon his "eject" button in case Disney ever has a moment of sanity and decides to fix Star Wars.

Star Wars would be infinitely better off if those guys were in charge of it. We will see what will happen. Because now it is starting to come out in sources that are usually accurate with their dirt (instead of just mere rumor mongers) that Kathleen Kennedy is out of Lucasfilm after Indy 5 is release. On terms that will make it sound like the leaving of the conquering hero, of course, but still. The optimist in me hopes Filoni gets the big chair at Lucasfilm, even thought that probably wont happen because Disney Gonna Disney until they literally cant anymore.

I dont doubt any of that. But then why throw his own fellow travelers under the bus by court martialing them for doing exactly what he was doing, right down to still serving the goal of "getting" Trump.

I am sure there would be a strategy there. Unless, like you said in another comment here, that he really is just the Turbo-Retard version of McClellan.

One of my fiancés favorite things to do whenever she has an SJW try to tell her that all of these sort of characters are just there for the "male gaze" and "sexualizing women", she tells the SJW's "How dare you oppress bisexuals like me!" It has actually caused some of them to bluescreen because they dont know how to respond to on of their groups they claim to speak for going against the message.

As for myself, I am actually not a huge fan of the super skimpy look, and I generally prefer my female characters more along the lines of this, where it is a nice balance of femininity and modesty, and when I want something a bit more "enticing" I prefer that same sort of balance (another example).

But obviously, even that is fairly far removed from what modern Western entertainment has become, where it really does seem like they try to make every woman hyper-masculine while also making them butt ugly.

If we go by what the usual problem is, the creative types who live in LA probably only see black women who look like they are in terrible shape, with ratty hair and messed up skin, and that "This is a black woman." So that becomes all of them, and all of the ones who look normal dont exist.

Milley said he was concerned about politicization of the military

BUT THAT WAS YOU!!! YOU DID THAT YOU ABSOLUTE BABOON!!!!!

I swear to baby Jesus, these people are about 5 IQ points above being legally retarded, and it swings depending on the day.

The answer is that it is probably 3/4 of women that she knows fuck dogs. Because they all congregate together and then convince themselves that it is the norm, when most actual normal people think they are freaks.

With the Christian comments in the 3rd image though, I think she is just a straight up schizo though, because There is nothing else to imply she is Christian and she is getting the Bible wrong on multiple fronts and verses if she thinks that is true.

Even when they were bad, they could be made great. Through Razorfist, I discovered there was a cartoon of Battletech/Mechwarrior made in the 90's. It was absolute ham, completely over the top, didnt really fit the tone of most Battletech lore, and there were a lot of other non-canon things that happened with it. So the show only lasted for one season and then was ended.

BUT, the Battletech lore owners decided to run with it, and made the cartoon canon. Not that the cartoon story was canon, the cartoon itself is canon to the Battletech world. In lore, it was made as childrens propaganda for the Inner Sphere, which is why it portrays the Clans so over the top.

I just thought it was a fun way of sidestepping a bad product, and you would never see modern Hollywood think up something like that.

And now you know why there was so much seething and gnashing of teeth over Elon buying Twitter.

I came for the funny rocket man letting me make memes again.

I discovered an international web of corruption and oppression of the American people, as well as the free people of the western world.

I suppose one one good thing (at least hope) is that Elon getting his hands on Twitter and getting rid of all of these brainwashed Leftist and their Security State handlers is that, if Twitter continues to speak freely because of Elon, it will be that much harder for them to pull this shit off. Especially because they have made Democrats/Leftist so depending on getting their NPC updates through Twitter by destroying all competition (oops...) that it may make it the bots get stuck in a loop.

Netflix in general is something I have a very love-hate relationship with. Obvious, they are terrible for all of the race swapping shit.

But at the same time, they have a great Anime library (Cyberpunk Edgerunners, Vinland Saga, etc), and a lot of more niche movies are some of my favorites I have ever seen. Specifically, Wheelman, The Highwaymen, and The Irishman. All movies that feel like movies used to, but just so happening to be on Netflix. I also generally like their documentaries.

Still probably not going to have it any time soon though and will continue to account share with my parents. But we will see what the future holds.

Agreed. The second I heard the article say that the "anime" this girl was watching included pedo and incest stuff, I was about 99% sure it was hentai. Almost no mainstream anime has those sort of themes (save for cousins due to weirdness in Japanese law/customs), and the anime that does you generally have to actively seek out because it is hyper-niche. Hentai though? That shit is rampant.

I dont normally care about porn like some has started to, but I can see what they are getting at with how warped some hentai can be.

I also have Dune on my wishlist. The Starship Troopers one is definitely very fun, but I will say that it is less of a "strategy" game and more of a moveable tower defense game. Since all of your strategies are about setting up strong gun lines and then letting the bugs to come you.

The Engels-2 Air Base was also just droned, again.

Insert Spongebob "It's even funnier the second time!" meme here