• 2 Posts
  • 15 Comments
Joined 7 months ago
cake
Cake day: November 7th, 2024

help-circle


  • Sort of, but it’s more a comforting theory rather then a true belief. I came up with it when I was younger, doing a lot of psychedelics, and meditating often on the nature of existence and reality.

    My theory is that God is everything. The earth, the stars, our fellow beings. All of reality makes up a complex web that I loosely refer to as a “consciousness” for lack of a better word. The nature of this “consciousness” is incomprehensible to us. It does not activly intervene in our daily lives, and operates on a scale beyond our comprehension. Mostly, it simply is. It is the oblivion from which our consciousness was once plucked, and it is where we will one day return.

    In essence, each of us is a tiny fragment of reality experiencing itself. The meaning of life is to experience it. All of it. Joy, pleasure, and suffering. It is all a part of the whole of existence. When we die and return to the infinite our individuality is lost, but maybe God learns something about itself.




  • What exactly has been changed besides the graphics? Sounds like they tweaked the melee combat to more resemble Skyrims.

    Imo Oblivions two biggest problems were level scaling and how barren the world was between cities and dungeons.

    Edit: I got it after watching more of the gameplay. It still feels like Oblivion, but there’s a lot of little tweaks that improve the experience. Combat and movement has more weight to it, so while the systems all effectively function the same it feels a lot less floaty then the original game. There’s a lot of small tweaks and QOL improvements, like the UI is reminiscent of the original but much more fluid. Cant comment on if they fixed level-scaling or not, as I’m only at level 3.

    Make no mistake, this is 100% Oblivion. Its just a lot prettier and with a lot of small improvements. So far it seems like a rare modern Bethesda W.






  • Small states will likely form coalitions with neighbouring states with whom they share culture and values. Texas, California, Florida, and New York might be independent, with nearby coilitions of states falling into their spheres of influence, or they may be the dominant power in a coalition of states.

    It would be interesting to see what becomes of the states in the Midwest and the Great Basin. None of them have the economic power to stand on their own, and they will be reliant on having good relations with States that have ports.

    Border disputes and tensions will be widespread, and the state-lines we know today will likely be completely redrawn. It’s likely too that many States will be facing their own internal succession movements from regions on the other end of the culture wars. Not to mention foreign powers pursuing their interests in the remains of the United States. The only certainty in this hypothetical future is that is will be a big, bloody, mess.






  • TNG and DS9 are the only two series that I really know well enough to make these recommendations for.

    I would highly recommend watching TNG before DS9, even if she likes DS9 better. TNG and DS9 work best as companion shows, with TNG building up a lot of DS9 plot-lines in its latter seasons. I would also highly recommend against starting with any episodes involving Q or the Borg, or any of the series “highlights”. Let those plots build, and you don’t want to spoil some of the best episodes in a sampler. My go-to TNG introduction picks are:

    -Cause and Effect

    -Darmok

    -Measure of a Man

    DS9 can be harder to pick introductory episodes for. Its more serialized nature means that a lot of later episodes have a lot of spoilers. I would highly recommend against picking any episodes that highly involve the Dominion or the Dominion War, let that plot build itself up. That does however, leave us with a lot fewer options. My DS9 introduction picks are:

    -Duet

    -Past Tense

    -Bar Association