CHARACTER AGENCY

It's ridiculous how passive and honestly "NPC" the other characters in the world are. For an installment in the series that wanted to dip deeper into the "Roleplay" side of things, it's absolutely crucial that CK3 find a way to make the other characters in the world feel like real, living, breathing, and independent people, and it currently falls flat on that.
Here are just some ways that you could improve character agency in the game:

• Characters should be able to push for appointments, regularly. How am I a god that just comes in and names every single knight and court position in the land with not a breath of reaction from my entire court. Do you know how many people would've had the king's ear in this time and been pushing for themselves or their friends or family for these appointments? Think of the court intrigue you've seen in shows like Game of Thrones or Shogun or Succession, now think how well the game captures that feeling. The -40 opinion penalty for major vassals not being on your council is a boring static modifier that doesn't take into account personality and context and only applies to your council, not to court positions or knighthoods. The random events in your Royal Court where people push for appointments are infrequent, pretty random, have little consequence, and are actually entirely optional if you never Hold Court. People should be pushing to fill your different roles regularly and react positively or negatively if you pick people they like or don't like. Here are some examples:
  • People should be able to push for themselves to be appointed, for their friends, for their family, for people they respect, for people of their culture and/or religion, for people with similar personalities to them.
  • People should oppose the appointment of their rivals, people from families their family is feuding with, people they dislike, cultures or religions they oppose, etc.
  • Personality traits should affect who people push for. Deceitful characters may want you to purposely appoint incompetent knights, bodyguards, food tasters, etc. if they dislike you. Zealous characters prioritize religion far above other qualities. Diligent characters prioritize the most competent candidate. Vengeful characters highly oppose their enemies being chosen. Greedy characters prioritize appointments for themselves or their family. Impatient characters will get upset if you leave the position vacant for too long. Trusting characters will only push for candidates they really know well.
• Characters should be able to refuse appointments, or resign from positions. Maybe the talented firstborn son of the king does not wish for the duty to rule and refuses the election to King and instead wishes to spend his days frequenting brothels and fighting in tournaments. Maybe a martially gifted vassal that has huge estates and is living comfortably in his manor off of his rents doesn't want to be appointed as my Marshall and chase and stamp down peasant revolts for a living, so he comes up with an excuse to refuse the appointment. Perhaps I need to change his mind by paying him a visit to persuade him in person, or by hosting a great feast in my hall with him as the honorary guest, or by arranging a marriage between our families. Perhaps my masterful Steward is offended at the lowborns and heathens I have hired into my council, and resigns out of protest. Perhaps my Marshall is ashamed at how badly the last war went under his purview, and resigns out of shame. Perhaps my Chancellor just heard news that his son was killed in a hunting accident back home, and resigns to go spend time on his estate with his family.
• Characters should react to actions the player takes.
  • Won a great battle? Maybe a knight approaches you after the battle wishing to enter your service after hearing of the tale. Maybe your marshall approaches you and congratulates on your generalship. If it was against heathens, maybe the Pope writes you a letter congratulating you on the victory of Christendom. Maybe a vassal approaches you and offers to build a statue in his domain to honour your victory.
  • Declared a new war? Maybe a vassal refuses the call to war citing some excuse, withholding his levies and giving you a reason to punish him in the future. Maybe another vassal joins with his personal troops as well because he is personally interested in success in this war.
  • Built a building in your vassal's land? Your vassal should thank you and like you more.
• Characters should regularly ask for favours from the player, and the player should be able to ask them in return. Maybe a an existing councillor asks that you hire him to another position for which he thinks he is better suited. Perhaps a vassal approaches you with a marriage offer, and in return offers to build a church in your honour. Perhaps a vassal approaches you and asks that you declare war on the country that is raiding their lands, and in return offers to increase his obligations to you. Perhaps a vassal asks that you raise his children with the greater learning available in your court, and in return he will send you his brother to serve as your knight. Perhaps the pope asks you to build a church and in return offers to send you some learned monks and an artifact.
• Characters should regularly travel to visit each other or do things. It seems like the only thing characters beside me do is lead armies, and go on hunts. Why don't my councillors go back to visit their estates? To see their families? Why don't distant family members travel to see each other? To host family reunions?
• The player should be able to consult decisions with other characters. What is the point of my councillors if they never give me counsel? If I am planning on giving out land to new vassals, each of them should be there with suggestions on who I should give it to, or whether I should even give it away at all. And it should not just be my councillors, sometimes these decisions are leaked and my entire court will find out, in which case many courtiers would have their own opinions on what should be done! Maybe one of my guests approaches me and begs I give the land to them due to some ancestral claim. Maybe my food taster during dinner tells me he thinks it should go to my existing vassal X because he manages his current estates so well. And what if I want to host an activity? I should be able to ask my councillors or courtiers which activity they wish for or think would be best to host next. Maybe they have suggestions for where to host it, how to plan it, who to invite, etc. Maybe my marshall wants a tournament but my chaplain wants a pilgrimage. Maybe in my feast, my Steward wants me to invite vassal X but my wife despises him and wishes me not to.

The fact that almost none of these features exist in a meaningful way in the game is kind of ridiculous, for a game that tries so hard to be role-play centered and story-driven. Think about how much we are missing out on because of the lack of agency of characters in the world. Imagine if other characters in the world acted like us as the player character. Think of the story opportunities if features like the above were implemented to make for more independent AI characters.

Typically, after applying for an Indeed vacancy, agencies will be delighted when I contact them by phone with my wealth of experience and express my interest further but this agency rep just said "what's the reason for your call then?" "(I express interest)" "Well you'll just have to wait for the company to contact you. We have sent your CV to them for review"
Maybe I should have asked them to recommend me but I haven't worked for this agency before. Usually they single me out and let the company know about me, as I went above and beyond, calling the agency to express interest. I went to the company website and emailed them directly explaining my suitability and skillset. Is this a bad idea? I do this when I really want a job and know there will be many candidates, as I try to find a way to stand out.
It's not even a dream job, it's just a kitchen porter role close to my house. I just need a 9-5 and that shift pattern is SO competitive, it's ridiculous... I'm sick of waking up at 4-5 in the morning (depending on commute) to get to work for 6am in a warehouse and I can't do night shifts in the summer and evenings are no good for me, as I have commitments outside of work that I need evenings free.
So yeah, did I do the right thing?
And any other suggestions for getting 9-5 work easier? I don't have a degree so entry level office jobs are a no for me (another ridiculous aspect of the current job market).
Money is not an issue just full time hours needed. In the UK.

I am just wondering for those who have a lottery apartment how you feel about this and what do you choose to share? My friends and family know but if I meet strangers I do not divulge I am in a lottery apartment. I just don't personally feel like that is information that needs to be automatically broadcasted.
I have a close friend who is jealous I live in one and she tells everyone that I won a lottery apartment. I told her to stop and she was confused and doesn’t understand why I have an issue, she said it is a good thing and I am so lucky to have a lottery apartment so I shouldn’t be ashamed of it.
I am not ashamed, I just don't think it is anyone's business and I should be the one who chooses when to share my housing info. I have tried to help my friends with the lottery application process and they don't seem very motivated to apply, they are just fixated on my apartment for some reason.

So I applied for a PM position at a technology firm. I had 2 rounds followed by a case-study and final round with the Head of Product & Engineering Manager. The HR was really supportive and highly responsive. I did my level best in cracking the case study, getting to know about the company via their website, interview/podcast of senior management.
I was rejected and HR shared the following feedback with me.

Notes from HM:
- English: adequate, but not great
- Extremely thorough analysis of the case study (overdid it)
- A bit mechanical
- Seemed to have some trouble understanding questions, repeated questions back to answer

To which I replied,

I appreciate the feedback. At the same time few points are contradictory in nature hence unfathomable at my end, which I am enunciating below.
1) Rejecting because English is not great. Not selecting because Analysis is great. These are contradictory logics. Purportedly punishing someone for excellence in a department is not warranted. This is my strength. This is what a PM does - Thorough Analysis of the core problem. Isn't?
2) The English which did not work for them is what got me to this round after 2 rounds of interview and the case study.
3) I confirmed 2 questions for clarity before moving to the solution. The volume of HMs voice fluctuated in the interview, which could be due to multiple reasons. I believe reconfirming before proceeding to the solution is the right thing to do.
I am majorly disappointed because of the passionate and genuine effort I had put in the preparation which has been blatantly overlooked by the HMs.
Well, we can't do much about it. This is my feedback.
Once again, I really appreciate your professionalism and responsiveness.

AITAH for my rebuttal to the HR regarding HM's feedback? And should I really care about this feedback, say stop putting effort in future case studies because someone says solving it thoroughly means overdoing it?
Reddit folks, please share your opinion.

-"Bi people cannot choose"
-"Bi people cheat more"
-"Bi people will miss the other genital"
-"Gay, bad because masculinity/femininity"
-"Bi people cannot be friends with anyone because sex too good"
-"Gay bad because God!"
Is there an actual study that confirms this shit? No? Then shut up please. You just make things up.
Have you ever met a bi person? Most probably yes but you don't even know it.
For some people all these statements apply, obviously. But it is not everyone. Not by a long shot. And you have no basis other than anecdotal.
The only reason bi people are Bigfoot is because your behavior makes people hesitant to come out.
If any biphobe sees this I please you reconsider.
Thanks for coming to my TedTalk and rant.

I'm a US citizen married to a Canadian. I've applied for permanent residency via spousal sponsorship, and am close to receiving PR. I'm also currently searching for new employment, and for a variety of reasons wish to maintain US employment, benefits, etc. for at least a year.
I know that without PR I was able to work remotely for a US employer in a role that did not impact the Canadian market via the digital nomad program. I also know that to maintain permanent residency I need to be present in Canada for two of the next five years in total.
Once I have PR, if I maintain primary residence in the US for a year or two but continue to travel to Canada, is my situation more complex for myself or a US employer if I'm spending under 180 days in Canada in each of those years? Or would I be able to treat it similarly to how it's been when I didn't have PR? I know that I'll still have to deal with the CRA and filing Canadian Tax forms since I'm a PR, I'm specifically wondering about if this would exempt my employer from Canadian employment law/etc.

Synopsis:
Carlos was an ordinary software engineer on Earth, up until he died and found himself in a fantasy world of dungeons, magic, and adventure. This new world offers many fascinating possibilities, but it's unfortunate that the skills he spent much of his life developing will be useless because they don't have computers.
Wait, why does this spell incantation read like a computer program's source code? Magic is programming?
___
Here we go with book 2!
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Carlos lounged comfortably on one of the mayor's fancy sofas. At 23 years old with a healthy body he really didn't need cushioned upholstery, but he liked how it felt. Honestly, he was probably more comfortable with high quality furniture than someone of his relatively low-income background should be in this world. Spoiled by the mass production factories of modern Earth, I suppose. All of this stuff here is probably handmade. Er, make that definitely handmade. Unless they have magic factories I haven't heard about, or something. He mentally shrugged. There was no point trying to change his attitudes toward furniture now. While this world might have higher prices for a lot of things than he was used to, he was also a lot richer than he was used to thanks to having become a noble lord. People would expect him to treat fine furniture as cheap because of his station.
I might have the physical habits of a couch potato, but at least I don't look like one. Too skinny. Not as skinny as Amber, though. He smiled as he watched the young woman next to him on the sofa continue animatedly expounding on their recent adventures together. She was lanky, with few curves to speak of and spindly limbs, far from any conventional picture of feminine beauty. Her hair, a slightly lighter shade of brown than his own, was cropped short. He thought she was 18 or 19 years old, but wasn't sure. Have I really never asked her age before? ... Would that be a rude question here? Regardless of her age, she had grown her confidence a lot since their first meeting a few weeks ago. She'd found her footing in a new life that she'd seized with utter determination, and he saw no sign of the shyness that she'd first greeted him with. The way her potential was finally blooming was beautiful to watch.
Carlos turned his gaze to the sofa across from them and carefully held back from laughing at the expressions Trinlen was making as Amber wrapped up explaining the events and developments they'd gone through since their introduction to him at the Royal Mage Academy. Carlos had contributed a fair amount to the explanation at first, but Amber had taken to it with enthusiasm when she arrived, and he could tell she was enjoying it. The young man in front of them, newly graduated from said academy, was on the edge of his seat and leaning forward, hanging attentively on every word. His casual attire, plain and made of cheap materials, looked thoroughly out of place on the finely embroidered velvet of the sofa, but he'd shown no sign of even noticing the finery around him. Excitement warred for control of his face with surprise, disbelief, envy, and dismay.
Amber finished her impromptu monologue, and Trinlen slowly schooled his face into a neutral expression. His voice was tense and tightly controlled. "So... In short, you're telling me that in the mere two weeks since you met me, you discovered a mana-poaching conspiracy of nobles, were abducted right under the noses of two royal guards without them even noticing, absorbed mana so fast that you gained 6 levels in a day and a half - so unfair, by the way - somehow learned an obscure portal spell from just its name and description, found evidence of a conspiracy against the Crown, and personally met a princess." He paused, then threw his hands up as he wailed in frustration and disappointment. "And I missed it!?"
Carlos threw back his head and burst out laughing. He couldn't help it. Trinlen just sounded so much like a little kid who'd barely missed out on a candy store giving away its entire stock for free. It was such an incredible light-hearted contrast with how everyone else viewed these same events that the sheer ridiculousness of it was overwhelming. Amber joined the laughter a moment later, shaking her head in amused disbelief, and after a few more seconds Trinlen started chuckling too.
Carlos's laughter eventually trailed off, and he took a deep breath to settle down. "Thanks, Trinlen. It's been a very stressful two weeks, and laughing like that helped release a lot of it. Feels good. Anyway, what have you been up to? I thought you would take a whole month to graduate?"
"Technically I only said 'next month', not that it would be at the same point in the month. But yes, this is earlier than I expected. The normal graduation ceremony is still a week and a half away." Trinlen shrugged. "They didn't explain the reasons, but after what you said I'm guessing your meeting with the princess prompted her to do something. The vice headmaster called me to his office yesterday morning, a few teachers grilled me on my classwork, and they declared I'd passed my exams. Then they told me to pack because I'd be teleported to my new employers the next day, and here I am." He sighed. "Hmph. Now I won't get to humiliate Norla in front of the whole academy when she gives her speech." Then he perked up and grinned widely. "But it sounds like you two are going to be so much fun that I'll get over it in no time!"
"I'm not sure if I agree with your idea of fun, Trinlen, but if it motivates you to help us more then that's good enough for me." Carlos chuckled again. "Anyway, do you need some time to get settled in? You might need to think about lesson plans for us too. We don't need just catalogues of incantations to learn anymore, at least not for simple ones, but I believe you learned other things in the academy too. You mentioned creating your own spells, as I recall."
Trinlen nodded. "I did mention that, yes. I'm guessing your lack of need for a catalogue is because of your newfound ability to somehow pull entire incantations from thin air? You'll have to at least tell me about the limitations of that so I'll know what I still need to teach you, but yeah, there are other things. For one thing, there's your sloppy terminology! Why does no one outside of the academy care about properly distinguishing between the states of mana? Is it really that hard to understand that calling aether, mana, and essence all by the same term obscures your meaning and often causes confusion? Or are people so stupid that they can't even understand the difference?"
Carlos blinked and exchanged a look with Amber. His comprehension aid informed him about the distinction the instant Trinlen spoke the terms. That would have been nice to know earlier. The comprehension aid is a house secret, so we should let him explain. "At least for us, it's just ignorance. I don't think I've even heard the other two terms you mentioned, and certainly no one ever explained them. So, what is the difference?"
Trinlen paused, cocked his head for a moment, and slowly deflated after his impassioned rant. "Yeah, okay, that's fair. I don't think I ever heard about it before going to the academy either." He sat up straight. "Aether is what you've been calling ambient mana. It's thin like air, and it's everywhere. Its only use is converting it to mana or essence. Mana, using the term with proper precision, is thicker but still fluid like water. It exists primarily in people or creatures and is used as fuel to supply power for spells and magical effects. Essence is hard and solid. It is the material that soul structures are made of, as well as the forms of active spells and enchantments. Am I clear so far?"
Amber answered first. "Yes, I'm familiar with each of the forms you described. I have questions about more details - so many questions - but you should get properly settled in, and maybe eat lunch, before we really get down to it. Have you spoken with Mayor Stelras yet? Do you have lodging sorted out?"
"I went by his office first. He's having someone take my luggage to an inn. The Adventurer's Haven, I think? He said something about a 'low-value target' and having an empty suite already booked." Trinlen's eyes widened. "Waaait a minute. Is he putting me in the room you two were abducted from?"
Carlos shrugged. "Sounds like it."
"Nice! Think there'll be any evidence left of how it was done?"
"Haha! Probably not by this point, but you're welcome to look. Now go get unpacked, eat a meal, and start planning your lessons for us. I'm glad you're here, but we have some other things to do too."
Trinlen nodded and stood up. "Sure. I'll be back before you miss me."
Carlos waved as Trinlen sauntered out the door. He and Amber sat in companionable silence for a while as he felt the mana - or essence? - of Trinlen's soul moving off into the distance. "Well. That was interesting. It's good to have him, but I was expecting a bit more time to think and plan before he'd get here."
"Yeah." Amber stretched and then leaned back into the sofa's cushions, luxuriating in their soft firmness. "So, how much are we going to tell him? How useful will his knowledge even be for us, now that we have, what did you call it, the reference documentation? That bit about the states of mana is good to know, but is it really relevant and important, and how much more can there be that's not in the documentation?"
"Be careful talking about that out loud, remember?" Carlos relaxed and draped his arms across the sofa's back as he focused his mind on their mental bond through Purple, their friendly dungeon core. [On Earth, we made many languages similar to the language of incantations, and we had the reference documentation for all of them. We even published that documentation free for everyone to have. Teachers for those languages were still useful, and even critically important for many people. Having access to knowledge doesn't mean you automatically understand how to properly apply it. There may be related knowledge we have no idea even exists. There could be techniques and patterns for how to use the language that are simply outside the scope of the documentation. Perhaps most importantly, a teacher can use their experience to notice a student's mistakes and correct them before they become problems.]
[Hmm.] Amber bit her lip, thinking. [Like how I knew about making soul structures and synergies between them, but had no idea about the importance of being able to examine and fix them, I suppose.]
Carlos nodded. [Yeah. And that's a really simple example. I know some that are a lot more complex, though I'm not sure how many of them are even applicable for incantations. Inversion of control, dependency injection, factory patterns...] He shook his head. [Just the context knowledge needed to be able to fully understand those could take days or weeks to teach well enough for you to use them. I could maybe explain the basic ideas faster with some simplified analogies, but that would lose so many details that I doubt it would still be useful.]
Amber paused. [... Even my comprehension aid is baffled by the terms you just said. It translated the individual words that you said, but all I got for the phrases is a confusing jumble.] She chuckled. [Anyway, I concede the point. Trinlen will still be able to teach us important and useful things. We still need to decide what secrets to share with him.]
[A lot depends on how good he is at keeping secrets. We don't actually know him all that well yet. He's certainly fun, and he seems clever, but for assessing his integrity we're leaning pretty hard on just a janitor vouching for him.] Carlos frowned in thought. [In order for him to do his job, he needs to know that we can only "pull an entire incantation from thin air" if it's a simple one. He does not need to know the full details of help, however, and most certainly does not need to learn to use it himself. That secret is a very sensitive one, where even just letting too much knowledge of it spread would lose us a major advantage.]
[Definitely. No casting help where he can hear it, and don't say anything about it that's not directly relevant for his teaching, either. Not until he's earned our full trust.] Amber lapsed into silent consideration. [We should introduce him to Purple. We'll kind of have to at some point anyway, and the really valuable thing there is Purple himself, not just the knowledge of his existence.]
Carlos nodded. [True. I think that probably is the least sensitive of our house secrets, and being able to call him through a bond with Purple would be useful.] He chuckled. [And maybe his cleverness will end up producing some good ideas for Purple to use. See if he can find a more productive outlet than pranks for his creativity. And then... If he keeps that secret well enough for long enough, we can consider trusting him with more secrets.]
Amber sent back wordless agreement.
Carlos started sitting up, lifting himself out of the comfortable cushions. "Well, we should get some food ourselves, too. And maybe introduce Trinlen to everyone else along with Purple." He stood up and spotted a letter he'd set aside when Trinlen arrived. "Oh yeah, and what do you think we should do about Kindar?"
"Wait, what's this about Kindar?"
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Hey guys.Im looking for suggestions of what I can do to get approved for an another Chase Business card. My goal is combine lines from Unlimited (first one that I opened 4 years ago) and Cash that I opened last year to get line boost and get APR 0% for a year. I have requested line increase on Cash card and got declined and then in about week applied for second Unlimited card and also got declined, this what I got
We based our decision on the following reason(s) •You have too many active accounts or too much available credit
Called them to reconsider and same thing.
Now I’m wondering if I should even try to apply for Business Preferred Card, it seem going to be same outcome…

Hi I graduated from ISC syllabus in India and I wish to study abroad (due to many reasons) I'm a complete noob when it comes to this so idk much. I've been checking ucas and daad(English courses) and have short listed some based on my subject preferences (I'm interested in biology/life sciences and also in economics/business related studies). My ucas tariff point is 152. I'm also writing cuet soon and I've heard that's useful in applying for some German universities. I would be really grateful for any info that you can give me related to sites/unis to find good courses. I would also appreciate if you can give me any info on any available scholarships/grants. Money is my main issue since my parents won't fund me, my sister(employed) is ready to support me and I also have some savings of my own, I'm also willing to work as long as required in order to earn enough for living expenses abroad. Also any info on banks that give loans with/without income proof will also be helpful :) I wanted to consult a study abroad agency but I simply cannot afford them right now. I'm clueless af which is why as a last resort I'm turning to reddit for help, I tried doing some digging and research on my own but all of it led to more questions and confusions and things at home haven't been great either which is adding on to the pressure and I'm really sorry for the long af rant. Please provide me with any guidance or info you may have and thanks in advance. Edit: Prefer to study in Singapore or any EU country

I’m 17f and i have a boyfriend 19m. For privacy reasons i’ll call him Connor. Connor and me have been together for a little over 5 months. We got together and made things official soon before new years 2023. Ever since, we have been hanging out every week, and we could never get enough of eachother until now. Things between us haven’t changed. There has been hard times for us both, and sometimes it even got to a point where i thought that i would lose him. However, we have managed to get past these problems, and i am very thankful that things happend because it only made us and our relationship stronger. I value this relationship, because i have both trust and faith in this man, he is not like any other dog that i have dated before, and that he has proved. I would like to include that due to getting cheated on before, and being a teenager in this generation, i have severe trust issues, and i have abandonment issues as well. Connor used to have a girl bestfriend, and apparently they had known eachother for more than a decade, so i respected that since they had been friends for so long. Or so i thought. Connor told me something that made me mad, he and his girlbestfriend used to date, but he made it clear to me that it wasn’t for long. Not only was this girl pretty, but she was HOT. Even i would date her. Once, me and him met up with an old friend of his, and it was a girl but i didn’t know who it was at the time. As soon as i realized, i was furious. I never lash out on him, i keep my anger to myself. The first time i brought up that i did not like him having her in his life, Connor and me argued back and fourth for over 2 hours. In the end i gave up and just went with the flow, but it did nor stop me from thinking. I asked my bestfriend 17f about her thoughts on this situation, and she pointed out that i should not make him cut het off because he would choose her. This got me thinking, and i actually ended up asking Connor to cut her off. I was straight forward, i did not threaten him with our relationship, but i told him that it made me pissed. I was shocked that it was easy for him to remove her bc i asked him to. Connor was grumpy but he let it go after a short amount of time. Things continued like normal after that, nothing ever changed. However, back to today, this part is important. Me, my bestfriend and Connor all go to the same school, and we had a class trip coming up which was today. Me and my bestfriend had agreed that we would spend the day together, but Connor ended up spending it with us. Throughout the whole day, they talked like never before. And i was present, i heard everything but it made me want to vomit so i put on my airpods to distract myself. They didn’t do anything inappropariate, but they talked a little too much. I left them a few times, not because i wanted attention, but because i wanted to be alone. He could sense that something was wrong, and i played it off like nothing becaude i didn’t want to make my jealousy a big deal. Connor is very open when he is comfortable around the people he is with. I am happy that they got along so good, but there was some things that just didn’t sit right with me which lead me to be jealous. Connor was talking about how he could never get a job, and my bestfriend asked to see his phone just to help him apply for a job. I have been encouraging him before to apply for jobs, but he ”didn’t have time” or something, eventually i stopped caring about thay part. But seeing Connor so invested in the idea when she brought it up made me want to leave. Am i the ahole for having jealousy issues and trust issues?

Apply Here
ChillZone is a newly releasing Semi-Vanilla server. We're dedicated to providing a great vanilla experience, with small additions that help enhance the multiplayer aspect. We value the community aspect greatly, on ChillZone all players have a say as to what goes on, what gets added, and so on.
We've existed as a community for around 4 years now, starting out with a similar server, inspired by Hermitcraft. This means we're experienced in creating and hosting a community, providing a great experience with great server performance & well developed features. However, we're always looking to add to our tight-knit, welcoming community and share :)
Quick Links

• 🌐 Website
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Our Values

Community - In ChillZone all players get a say in what happens, all suggestions and feedback are taken seriously. We're transparent with all decisions made, asking the community for their input and giving our reasoning for everything.
Welcoming - We're committed to creating a diverse environment where all players can feel welcomed, included and accepted. We welcome everyone, from people who are more interested in Redstone, Farming to Builders or people more focused on Community, such as setting up towns.
Stability - We use top of the line, dedicated hardware to ensure your experience is stable. The owner is an experienced sys admin, managing multiple nodes across the network.
Updates - We release frequent updates, keeping the experience fresh. We're also committed to updating to the latest version of Minecraft as soon as possible.

Some of Our Features

- We have a simple, user friendly claims plugin allowing you to easily claim & protect your land, and also provide access to your friends.
- Vanilla Tweaks, including Armor Stands, Mob Heads, Double Shulker Shells, etc.
- Discord Linking, you can talk to your friends ingame from our Discord server!
- Dynmap, allowing you to preview our whole world & some great builds from players.
- Player Shops, including a central shopping district. We do have an economy plugin, however our economy is based around the value of a diamond. The economy is completely player controlled.
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We try to be fairly relaxed, as we aim to build a mature community where staff don't need to parent players. However, obviously any exploiting, griefing, stealing & any sort of abuse to other players will not be accepted. We're a safe place for all, and anyone who doesn't share that interest won't be tolerated.

That was a lot of words, however to summarise we're a great community looking for some new members! We're committed to creating a great player experience, from frequent seasonal events, to our high performing dedicated server with great uptime. If we've hopefully captured your attention in this post - Apply Today! Our application process isn't very complex, we just have a couple simple questions to weed out any unserious players :)

“Love, duty,… The machines had been built by men who had little use for such things, being like machines themselves. So they built new men, men without chests, father says. Men made stupid by the machines to serve their designs.” -Howling Dark, Chapter 65

Here Suzuha is telling Hadrian the history of the Mericanii. What’s interesting is that “men without chests” is a phrase and chapter title used by CS Lewis in The Abolition of Man. This book is Lewis’ critique of subjective/scientific morality, and a defence of traditional morality, which Lewis calls ‘the Tao’.

“We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” -The Abolition of Man

I think these next two quotes illustrate that Hadrian and the Sollan Empire—even with all their flaws—try to conform to traditional morality or ‘the Tao’.

“Tao. It is the reality beyond all predicates, the abyss that was before the Creator Himself. It is Nature, it is the Way, the Road. It is the Way in which the universe goes on, the Way in which things everlastingly emerge, stilly and tranquilly, into space and time. It is also the Way which every man should tread in imitation of that cosmic and supercosmic progression, conforming all activities to that great exemplar.” -The Abolition of Man
“The Empire is a river, it has currents and a course. And while our movement may be limited—we are always limited. By our bodies, as you correctly noted. By our minds, by nature itself. Freedom is accepting those limitations and responding to them with humility. We cannot change nature.” -Kingdoms of Death, Chapter 14

This contrasts with other societies like the Lothrians, Extras, Demarchists, and the Mericanii, who embrace a scientific morality or try to transcend morality. But even when rejecting traditional morality they cannot escape the Tao.

“What purport to be new systems or (as they now call them) ‘ideologies’, all consist of fragments from the Tao itself, arbitrarily wrenched from their context in the whole and then swollen to madness in their isolation, yet still owing to the Tao and to it alone such validity as they possess.” -The Abolition of Man
“sweeping away the old is like knocking the foundations of a tower out from under your feet. Tradition grounds a man. Even for you Lothrians it is so.” -Kingdoms of Death, Chapter 14

Even if the Lothrians pride themselves for sweeping away traditional morality, their Lothriad still carry’s echos of the Tao:

“Let each toil for the good of all. Let there be bread, and board, and good order for all who toil.” -Kingdoms of Death, Chapter 10

The Lothrians and ancient Mericanii were also ruled by a class of people CS Lewis would call “conditioners”. We see humans being treated like livestock. The Chairs of the Lothrian Commonwealth need not adhere to the strict linguistic rules which they enforce. Similarly, we learn in Disquiet Gods that “American Princes” still managed the Mericanii machines without subjecting themselves to a cancerous fate. Lewis’ worst case scenario—the abolition of man—is realized in the Sun Eater universe.

“the man-moulders of the new age will be armed with the powers of an omnicompetent state and an irresistible scientific technique: we shall get at last a race of conditioners who really can cut out all posterity in what shape they please.” -The Abolition of Man
“critics may ask ‘Why should you suppose they [conditioners] will be such bad men?’ But I am not supposing them to be bad men. They are, rather, not men (in the old sense) at all. They are, if you like, men who have sacrificed their own share in traditional humanity in order to devote themselves to the task of deciding what ‘Humanity’ shall henceforth mean. ‘Good’ and ‘bad’, applied to them, are words without content: for it is from them that the content of these words is henceforward to be derived.” -The Abolition of Man

Hadrian does not believe that humans need to be conditioned. He sees that while the Sollan Empire has flaws (like slavery and their Palatine eugenics system), the empire is not trying to change what humanity is.

“At least the Empire protects humanity… Humanity. And mankind. The Commonwealth’s ideals were as toxic to the human animal as the surgeries and augmentations the Extrasollarians enjoyed. Each saw humanity as a problem to solve.” -Kingdoms of Death, Chapter 14

P.S. I think Sun Eater is so great on rereads for reasons like this. I made so many more connections like this on my reread. On a surface level it’s a fun story, but there are also profound themes. Btw thanks for reading if you made it this far, I know this is a bit long.

I've been seeing all the posts about Titan subclasses lately, and I wanted to jump in on the fun and share my ideas!
This is mostly going to be a Striker specific revamp, but I do have a universal idea for Arc...4.0 as a whole. I have been a striker main since I started playing this game back in Season Of The Splicer, I play nothing but Striker because it's my favorite subclass, despite its obvious shortcomings. Something about thundercrash satisfy Titan brain, yes?
Let's start with the Striker Aspects!
KNOCKOUT:
Knockout is actually a pretty good aspect up until your healing gets interrupted before it even starts. This is arguably the only thing that I would change about Knockout. Let the healing be uninterruptible for a few seconds. If I had to change something else though, I think I would also trade out the extra melee lunge distance for something else as well. Let's be real, the melee hit reg in this game has always been terrible, it's useless.
They had no issue removing it from Synthoceps, so let's remove it from Knockout as well and replace it with the blind verb! Give us more ways to access arc blind, Bungie! When knockout is procced, let that electrical titan fist do the extra damage it already has, and arc blind surrounding enemies! Survivability is an issue for Striker, right, Bungie? And you want us titans to punch things, right, Bungie? Then let us do so safely at the very least.
JUGGERNAUT:
Juggernaut, for what it's worth, in terms of what it was going for, it only scratched the surface of what it could really be. The frontal shield was only a small fraction of the direction that Bungie should have gone with this aspect. For this instance, I'm going to reference Warhammer 40k: Darktide's Ogryns so that you can envision the best possible image for this aspect in your head (also a game that I play fairly religiously). If you've ever played Bull Rush on an Ogryn, you'll know where I'm going with this one.
The Juggernaut aspect should give us some decent DR and let us bulldozer through enemies, trampling everything in our path. We should be able to either stun these enemies or completely knock them on their Witness-worshipping butts. Let us plow through everything in our path, and jolting everything we leave behind. Let us stagger bosses for a second so that we can stop them from advancing or let our teammates hit some quick crit damage on them. (This would be good for those agro Ogre bosses in Onslaught, would it not?) My idea is, in order for this to not be spammed on bosses and in general, your frontal shield should get broken on impact with a boss, or when it takes enough built up impact on adds, so you need to wait for your class ability to be recharged to do it again.
TOUCH OF THUNDER:
This aspect got one thing right with Striker Titan. Back in the skill tree days, I THINK it was top tree striker(?) IIRC that was a grenade class for Titans. This is why we got Touch Of Thunder, for this reason, so let's expand on this a little bit, shall we? This is something that the HoIL Stormnades build got correct. Let Striker lean into demolitionist-like combat! Let us give our enemies a little touch of thunder...and LIGHTNING!
Rollback the nerfs a little bit to HoIL. This nerf was way too harsh. On top of the universal ability nerfs, Bungie nerfed everything about this exotic. From the damage bonus, to the ability regen rate, to the duration of these buffs themselves. Imo, I always thought it was way too harsh. We're in PvE, we are not playing Gambit and Crucible. Let us have the buff for the ten seconds again, please, at the very least. Whether Bungie would want to rollback the damage and regen rate a little bit, that's up to them, but I wouldn't complain.
Striker Titan NEEDS a grenade exotic. Something like Controverse Holds, or Starfire, or Sunbracers...and definitely not something like Arbor Warden, or Ashen Wake, please. (I'm aware that Ashen Wake refunds energy on kills, but the effect it gives to Fusion grenades is just not substantial). Something that buffs the regen rate and damage of a specific grenade (I'm probably gonna go with Pulse Grenades for this one since they were one of the original Titan grenades...and Warlocks would probably get upset if we got an exotic for storm grenades, so let's spare them those feelings please).
How about an exotic that just buffs the radius of the pulse grenade itself? Turn it into a gigantic emp like bomb, or maybe enhance the pulse effect by creating a shockwave effect like that of Thundercrash, or even Kinetic Tremors...but in a arc way, of course.
I believe that letting us lean into Grenadier combat on striker is the way to go because all we've gotten are melee exotics for striker, and well... they're kinda underwhelming. Maybe they aren't? One thing is for sure, though, and it's that Striker's melee combat/capability is indeed underwhelming, and it isn't strong enough to justify using any of these melee exotics, also because again, Striker Titan is made of paper and has no safe way to survive up close, unless we do become an actual Juggernaut...with a lot of grenades strapped to our belts and chest pieces.
Bungie if you do read this, I would really really beg you to consider giving Striker Titan this Juggernaut/Grenadier identity that it needs to pair with Touch Of Thunder. This would help the class (or at least the subclass, anyways) have some form of identity and a different play style as opposed to just meleeing everything. Let us trample through everything and give us grenade energy to finish those enemies off. We were given touch of thunder for a reason, please expand upon this.
SUPERS:
FISTS OF HAVOC...more like Fists Of Glass Bones and Paper Skin:
With or without the Juggernaut Aspect equipped, let the DR and Trample effect join this super, please. Eternal Warrior's overshield doesn't do anything for this super. Bring back super energy return on melee kills also, to extend this super. FoH is by far one of the worst supers in the game, and it needs a lot of help. Let us tank some crazy damage like that of a Berserker Titan, please. Even when I proc my Berserker super on critical health, everything shooting at me takes so little HP. Let's give this super the Juggernaut feeling that is so desperately needs.
THUNDERCRASH:
Arguably my favorite super in the entire game, I love it, but it too also needs some love. Thundercrash is the only arc one and done super in the game that does not apply jolt to enemies. Change this so that Tcrashes' aftershocks apply jolt to all enemies that are in them, and let the shockwaves last longer too.
In addition to applying jolt and making more shockwaves, please buff the damage of base Thundercrash so that the amount that Cuirass Of The Falling Star is doubling...isn't still less than a Needle Storm. This is one of the riskiest supers in the game, please let it do a substantial amount of damage. Make the tradeoffs of getting into Master Atheon's all mighty stomp worth it. Let us hit like the meteor it is supposed to be.
CUIRASS OF THE FALLING STAR:
All this exotic needs is a little bump to the same level of Pyrogales. A little neutral game bump that might make it worth keeping it equipped instead of swapping it on and off. Let it blind or jolt enemies with ballistic slam, come full circle with the code of the missile.
Additional Subclass Verb(s): (Universal)
So, this one is a bit tricky, and still in the rough draft process for me, but I think this one could be used for some nice add control.
I'll call it EMP for now (electrical magnetic pulse). Let us stun enemies in place for a few seconds with this verb, allow it to keep enemies in place for a couple seconds while doing some tick/shock damage to them. Perhaps the main use of this verb should be used to stagger beefier enemies such as Taken Phalanxes, Cabal Colossus, Gladiators, Vex "red bar" Wyverns, Fallen Briggs, Hive Ogres, Scorn Abominations, etc. Hell, even Tormentors if we wanna go that far. Gives us some breathing room and buys us time to eliminate bigger threats, or regain health. Will not be as strong as suspend or freeze...but I sure think I'd be locked in place if I was getting hit by a bolt of lightning. This could also work on Champions even, but stunning them will still be the main priority, of course, unless this gets reworked into the subclasses where it's allowed to stun specific champs, then sure!
A verb of this caliber could be awesome, but maybe we don't need it? It's the only idea I could come up with, but I thought it would be worth mentioning.
Please let me know what you think and share your ideas too!

Hi all, I’ve currently been waiting for 8 months for a decision on fee waiver. I honestly have no idea why it is taking so long and have seen some people on this sub who applied months after me yet have already got their decisions back. I assume they are considered in date order since there is ‘no service standard’ however I don’t understand what the reason for this is.

The reason I ask is because linkedin has a lot of remote jobs focused on data entry, but nearly every one I've applied to has actually been a survey scam. Email you within 5 minutes with "Next steps" regarding making an account somewhere etc. Or maybe I just need better search filters? Is linkedin not the place anymore? Everybody still raves about it, but is that just for connections rather than job hunting? Indeeds ok as well, but could be better. I'm aware of appen also but hasn't it been going to shit lately? Or have things gotten better these past few months. On that note though, are any of those contract work sites doing alright? I wouldn't rule those out either. Thanks all. Oh and almost forgot: I'm in canada.

Howdy! New to journaling, and for that reason I think it must be the reason my memory is improving and "coming back"! I started writing every other day, have been doing it for about two months now. So many wonderful memories have been coming up throughout the day of years past! I typically have hard time recalling events and details, even when friends and family bring them up. No more! Ive written down a few of them that I thought applied to my current day to day life and lessons I'm continuing to learn. Others I just enjoy the memory as it comes and passes :). Very grateful for this change. Has anyone else noticed this shift when they started to journal?

Hi everyone 👋🏽 I am a 24-year-old female residing in South Africa (Gauteng province) and I am desperately seeking employment opportunities. I hold a diploma in Management Services in Engineering and a B-tech/Advanced Diploma in Quality Engineering, both from the University of Johannesburg (I will list my school majors/specialisations at the end of the post). Additionally, I am preparing to enroll in a Software Development bootcamp in June to further enhance my skill set.
Despite diligently applying to numerous job openings—approximately 30 applications per day—over the past 11 months, I was forced to leave my previous job due to the company going into liquidation and have had no luck since then, the current job market in South Africa doesn’t make it easier.
I’m at a state of being emotionally detached from everything right now because this is genuinely depressing, so if anyone could assist in helping me find a job in my field of study or any field, preferably excluding sales due to growth reasons, I would be so grateful. If there’s two things I pride myself in it’s the fact that I’m hardworking and willing and able to learn anything. Any opportunity granted to me I definitely grab by the horns.
If it counts for anything I worked four roles whilst completing studies at my previous company including being a Logistics Supervisor, Internal Sales and Procurement Operator and a Inventory and Quality Analyst all at the same time due to shortage in staff at the organisation.
Your assistance would be highly appreciated. Please don't skip this or ignore it if you're able to help. Typing this alone has required a great amount of strength😔🧎🏽‍♀️
(Specializations/Majors of Study: Quality Assurance, Job Analysis and Design, Operations Management, Business Analysis, Project Management, Organizational Development, Work Study, ISO Standards, Statistical Techniques, Quality Auditing)

Posting for a friend:
My friend is already in the US on a TN visa. He has a job offer he’d like to accept. Does the 10-day rule apply if you’re already in the country? The reason I ask is because he wants to get his visa prior to giving his notice to the current employer (1 month notice). Thank you.

I checked Amazon this morning for 5.0, and lo and behold, it was available to order! And then I noticed that the coupon wasn’t applied. Because I pay OOP, that means the price was $1095. So I didn’t get it. And now of course it’s not available again. (And for some reason Amazon needs yet another denied prior auth for this even though they didn’t need it last time for the same prescription, but that’s another story.)
I know I made the right choice for my finances, but I can’t help but second guess myself!

Hi everyone 👋🏽 I am a 24-year-old female residing in South Africa (Gauteng province) and I am desperately seeking employment opportunities. I hold a diploma in Management Services in Engineering and a B-tech/Advanced Diploma in Quality Engineering, both from the University of Johannesburg (I will list my school majors/specialisations at the end of the post). Additionally, I am preparing to enroll in a Software Development bootcamp in June to further enhance my skill set.
Despite diligently applying to numerous job openings—approximately 30 applications per day—over the past 11 months, I was forced to leave my previous job due to the company going into liquidation and have had no luck since then, the current job market in South Africa doesn’t make it easier.
I’m at a state of being emotionally detached from everything right now because this is genuinely depressing, so if anyone could assist in helping me find a job in my field of study or any field, preferably excluding sales due to growth reasons, I would be so grateful. If there’s two things I pride myself in it’s the fact that I’m hardworking and willing and able to learn anything. Any opportunity granted to me I definitely grab by the horns.
If it counts for anything I worked four roles whilst completing studies at my previous company including being a Logistics Supervisor, Internal Sales and Procurement Operator and a Inventory and Quality Analyst all at the same time due to shortage in staff at the organisation.
Your assistance would be highly appreciated. Please don't skip this or ignore it if you're able to help. Typing this alone has required a great amount of strength😔🧎🏽‍♀️
(Specializations/Majors of Study: Quality Assurance, Job Analysis and Design, Operations Management, Business Analysis, Project Management, Organizational Development, Work Study, ISO Standards, Statistical Techniques, Quality Auditing)