CLAN INFO

• Link to our clan (URL is also available at the bottom of the post)
• Clan War League: Master II (30v30)
• Capital Hall Level: Level 10
  • 1,500 + Raid Medals every Weekend
  • Capital League: Titan I

CLAN ENVIRONMENT

• Active and Friendly Environment
• Simple Rules and Clear Expectations
• Rules and Expectations are Enforced
• Max Clan Games every Month
• Max Donations
• English chat
• Players around the globe
• Rushed Bases are Allowed (case by case)

We are an active, friendly clan focused on collective progress. We were recently promoted to Master's 2 (300+ league medals per season!) and we would love to add a few experienced players to our lineup. We are searching for TH15-16 but we may accept TH13-14s on a case by case basis.
Although our rules are strictly enforced, they are simple and easy to follow. All rules and expectations are clearly documented in our Discord server.
Please note that Discord membership is required. Please join from this link (URL is also available at the bottom of the post) and request to join the clan in-game. Please feel free to ping me/comment with any questions you may have.
https://link.clashofclans.com/en?action=OpenClanProfile&tag=2QJ0LG9C9
https://discord.gg/7r6V4UkURN

Basically, we know that in contemporary US, there's pretty simple and straightforward IQ->income correlation:
https://ifstudies.org/blog/can-intelligence-predict-income
On average, the higher your IQ, the higher your wage would be.
Now, if we would make all education free + pay people a stipend for it equal to a minimal wage - would such arrangement mean that people getting high wages would be getting rent income based on their inborn IQ?
I feel like in such scenario, yes they would. If we can somehow prove that people don't choose their IQ, then the variation in their income would be based on their IQ rent.
Edit: So, getting rent income from inherited land is obviously not something "productive". Isn't your "IQ" - just "inherited" human capital that you sell on the labor market to get rent income due to its relative scarcity?
Edit2: In fact, the relative reluctance to this view, actually reminds me of petty-bourgeoisie worldview. Your "smart" and high-IQ "brain" or "inherited human capital" is something you know is valuable in the labor market, so you resist having to "nationalize it". Dangerously similar to a petty-bourgeoisie POV, dare I say.
No, you don't have to lose "nothing but your chains". You still have your "smart brain" and its high price on labor market as well.
I think Engels himself wrote somewhere that the doctors, engineers, architects, etc - would be the most dangerous opponents to the socialist cause since they do have to lose their high quality "human capital". I think Engels was correct.

"Explain your past, Musa" the gov'ness walks at my right, shielding my from the piercing sun as we walks with the caravan. After the trench was dismantled, we are walking by foot to reach the capital, as the trench-line have been pushed far into our homeland.
"I was a cook when the war started, gov'ness" and now I am left wondering why did she chose me from anyone else in the caravan, there's the sergeant, the whom she asked to see earlier today.
"You have been trusted to cook rations for your company, as early as the war?" her baroque companion, similarly donned in her armor, walks close by ours, but never overtook us.
"No, gov'ness, I was a 10 years old when the war started, the war went for seven years and I fought for the last two" before she came, with weapons of the stars that could've decimate my trench instead of theirs
"Such a young man you are, seven years ago, the Emperor grants me audience, revealing that I was his progenitor"
This talk about an "imperium" across the stars and the deified emperor has gotten me worried. Is that her reason for talking to me, to ease my pain before sending me to the stars far from here? Or simply an act of pity?
The meager town came into view, and was it not for the ancient structure, we would've thought this was anywhere but the capital. Gray skies and beaten earth have become the synonym for the heart of Nagorow.
"I must say, this was not our expectation when your leader came into contact with my ship, begging for salvation" the gov'ness depart from me, and my instinct was to follow her, but who am I to her? And so I stay put and follow the rest of the caravan back to the main camp.
"You're lucky to have an audience with the Lady, runt" one of gov'ness' companion knocked me to the dirt, assuming that he's doing it out of spite and jealousy. I can see him walking to gov'ness
"I apologize for my companion's doing" another of gov'ness', as he extends his fingers that allowed me to stand to my feet "Lucius was indeed jealous, he was our best melee combatant and our Primarch haven't even bat an eye for him"
"Is that a rare thing?" Lucius and the gov'ness seems to enter the structure, doing their business there. I quickly glance at my watch, the gray sky seems to be forever, and it shows 1641. And I quickly look back at the gov'ness companion
"It is, perhaps Mother saw something within you, perhaps yours was interesting at the moment" the giant release his helmet, letting his bronze hair free from the confine "I am Rylanor, pleasure to meet you, Musa"
"As is mine, gov'nor"
The Sejm was delightful in seeing Fulgrim and her companions, as well as the news of the apparent victory on the frontlines. Such delight warrants them to spent their moneys on a grand feast right at the capital, inviting everyone within range to attend, with the guest of honor being the gov'ness herself.
"I would have thought you are with Mother, Musa" Rylanor brought two plates in his palm, the plate whom was enough for me was made miniscule by his hands, each contained meager food they could thrown
"Thanks, gov'nor" the feast gives us chair to sit, yet here I stand with him, outside of the building. Somehow the gov'nor chose to make a companion out of me, whilst gov'ness over there busy herself with her empire in the suns.
"I almost forgot what a food taste, Musa, back in the campaign, we would be served liquid ration with occasional starch" I took a look at him, and his plate was already cleaned
"You should try my cooking then, I cook better"
We let a simple laugh from the situation, from a soldier to another, from a human to another too. The door barges open and whom I thought to be Lucius emerge, escaping the feast.
"It's obnoxious inside, Rylanor, if you wish to see me, then don't, I'm heading to the nearest landing coordinate" and went he goes, somewhere place only he, gov'nor and gov'ness know. Something that I would not understand no matter how much gov'nor taught me.
"I have to agree with dear Lucius there" and speak of the gov'ness, and she shall came, looking at the horizon "they barely separate the nobility and the peasant"
I didn't mean to stare, but gov'ness wore something fine, something you'd see from paintings high in temple's ceiling, an ascendant of man. Looking carefully, it seems she wore old Nagorovian dress and modify it to suit her stature, or rather, her figure. She need not a corset, it seems.
"The food is delectable, Mother" Rylanor already took my plate without my knowing, something that I relent
"Every food is delectable when you are starved of them, dear Rylanor"
We all watched as a star suddenly rose at the horizon, perhaps something to do with Lucius and his departure. I suppose this is our future, being shackled by another uncaring emperor to fight the dangers of mankind.
"Say, Rylanor, but does that star seems approaching us?" and behind Lucius' ascend, a second star indeed looks as if its getting nearer. Just before I respond, nor gov'nor did for that matter, the air raid sirens blare and screech
"It is too late to dodge the missile, Mother, and I am the only one still wearing my armor, I would suggest taking a shield behind me" Rylanor easily stood and tower over us. I didn't even wait as I quickly take cover.
"Don't be ridiculous, Rylanor, these brutes couldn't even muster the technology to weaponize simple nuclear reaction" Rylanor didn't wait and cover me with his entire figure, and I just prayed that whatever nuclear is nor what reaction it cause would not be as devastating as I'd fear.
The moment of impact was blurry, but there was an apparent pain riddled to it, as the temperature rose akin to a sun blasting us with the heat. Like what was drilled into my head, I quickly wrap my entire face with anything, covering up the assuredly loud aftermath and the shrapnel flying around. I couldn't hear
And I wish I wouldn't hear
By the time the air around began to cool, my throat was hoarse, as if I have been shouting the entire time. It wasn't until I noticed the spasmic movement on my mouth that I realized, I have been barking around.
"At ease, gov'nor, at ease lads" I chanted
"It seems it was a nuclear explosion, Mother, albeit a primitive version of it" Rylanor seems to ignore my rant, addressing the gov'ness instead. He then release me, before coughing up liquids right at my face "apologies" he mumbles
"Be damned your humor, Rylanor" I hear the gov'ness, rasping in breath as I slowly gather my senses "Musa, you lived it seems" my eyes were blinking rapidly, due to the heat and the dust it caused "oh Rylanor, I apologized for your condition".
When my eyes fully recovered, I saw only desolation. No Man's Land was gentler than this, water and mud found refuge within them after all. But what I saw was beyond it, ruins and dry earth, trees and building charred, and people would likely evaporate. Peoples, on whom I was fighting with and fighting for, for two damned years. I couldn't take it anymore, first Maria and now this? Fate was far too cruel
Liquid barge through my mouth, followed close by every air in my lungs and waters in my eyes. There was no rythym, only that I was doing it in instinct, lying on all fours at the stairs near the gov'nor and gov'ness.
Only then did I brave to stand up, looking at them and the impact it caused. Gov'nor seems to be stuck in his place, unable to move as his hair rotted away and flesh melts to his armor. Now I understand why did he puke. The gov'ness was way less impacted, as her clothing burnt with the flesh on her skins, with her lying on her back.
"Cease your staring, Musa" she quickly commanded
"Yes ma'am" I quickly slap my cheek, a soldier need to finish his duties until the bitter end, and the enemy was no better after all "orders, gov'ness?"
"You're waiting for my orders?" she slowly sat herself, throwing out blood from her mouth while her arms sizzle and creates smoke "so it seems, help me get to one of landing coordinates" when she did sat, she saw her own legs, crushed from the debris of the railings and burnt to crisp "it seems I would have to relegate the matter of combat to you"
"Private Musa at the ready, gov'ness" so soon to serve this faraway empire, and my first duty is to escape the chaos that will ensue. And first, I need to find a cart or I will be carrying the giant on my back
"Musa, before you go" Rylanor rasp and wheeze as he reach for something, before he carved it with letters and numbers "you are familiar with latitudes and longitudes of your planet, I assume, and if not then you can ask Mother for direction" he gave me the knife, on which he have engraved numbers.
"And what will happen to you, gov'nor?" I took the knife and pocket it, then looking back at the gov'ness
"I will be fine, Musa, all I ask is that you deliver Mother there to the place, and rest assured that you will be awarded"
I ignore the last part, something about the futility in wealth and glory that I realized, living as a cook my entire life before becoming a soldier taught me that. I quickly strip my clothing, and though I have to face the cold soon, finding the gov'ness means of transportation is more valuable. I quickly wrapped the gov'ness legs with a shirt, then I cut another of my shirt into pieces before I wrapped it at her so I can carry her off, my suspender helped in holding her together too
"Something tells me I won't enjoy the journey" Fulgrim murmurs as she rest on my shoulder
"Be safe Mother, I pray that Musa will be sufficient to you"

So, this is a bit of a roleplay question. How do you all imagine your Von Valancius Dynasty faired under your character based on the results of your game? Here is my take on my end.
​
Annals of the First Lord Koronus Darius Von Valancius.
​

• Factions of the Koronus Expanse and their relationship to the Lord Koronus.

These I base on my faction approval and the story choices.
My Rogue Trader was a calculating ex-crime lord that finised as Iconoclast Votary with a Marazhai romance. He played as an Operative Assassine with a Sniper.
Darrius Von Valancius was a logisitical genius and as such his protectorate's economic, political and military might was unparalleled in the Koronus Expanse.
Due to the very unfortunate Fall of Incendia Chorda in Football, killed by the Liege Tocara and his rebells the Chorda dynasty never recovered from the constant rebellions on their worlds caused by the deceased Rogue Trader's violent purges. The Successor of the Chorda Dynasty ruled but a shadow of what was their domain in the past. Likewise the old lord Winterscale was forever lost in Queza Temper and his heir Evayne Winterscale was bound by an oath of gratitude to the Von Valancius House, seeing as Darrius rushed to save the Winterscale head. Sadly, he was never found in the jungle... little did Evayne know that Caligos had been slain by the Eldari and Darrius himself. Both Houses were in disarray and could not bring any worthwile challenge to the Von Valancius Dynasty, whose head was declared Lord Koronus after the events of the Epitaph.
Regarding the factions. Darrius Von Valancius lead an economical powerhouse through his combined treaties with the Explorator Fleet and the Kasballica Mission. Footfall had announced that Darrius Von Valancius was the protector of the trade hub and many unique trinkets and subtances were sold on the pleasure world of Janus to vapid nobles. On the other hand, the explorator fleet gracius that the Rogue Trader has rebuild Kiavva Gamma into the biggest Plasma Energium and that he had helped the Messiah of Discontinuation signed binding treaties on the behest of several Fabricator-Generals who needed the plasma weapons and energy cores produced in Giavva Gamma. Meanwhile, on the world of Foulstone the newly christened Cardinal World St.Drusus and St.Cognatius were fervently worshipped. The fat Cardinals of the world quickly started preaching that Darrius Von Valancius ruled by decree of the Emperor himself, after all it was he who has turned a small monastery in a Catherdal Hive City and the Eccliarchy was more that pleased to laud the Lord Koronus.
​

• The Main Worlds of the Von Valancius Dynasty

These I base on what buildings I had on the planets.
Dargonus, the Capital of the Koronus Expanse. The capital of the Koronus Expanse and jewel of the North had become the main hub of the Adeptus Administratum and the Navis Imperialis. A massive orbital shipwyard surrounded the planet created as a result of the massive Drukhari raid that devastated Dargonus before the Rogue Trader's Magnae Accessio. Likewise the Administratum palace licensed the Lord Koronus to build the first Schola Progenium of the Expanse. Many a great officer were taught on the Dargonus Progenium.
Janus, the Paradise world. After the Aeldari left Janus it became the main food producer for the whole expanse. The beaty of the green agri fields and the flowting pleasure palaces were famous in the whole Calixis Sector. It was also a common secret that the Kasballica had many of their drug factories and xenos labs in the great paradise world. The Imperium though was very reluctant to investigate, after all who wants their vacation planet under inquisitorial lockdown? It also helped that the Maw made such visits very scarce.
Foulstone, Cardinal Wolrd of Saint Drusus and Cognatus. This world now housing the Eccliarchal Palace of the Expanse started as a simple colony with a Monastery to St.Drusus. The Rogue Trader seeing a chance to invest his rule in the mantle of holiness poured an ungodly amount of resources into making this world the Paragon of Faith it is now. Darrius Von Valancius is worshipped as a Warden of Faith and it doesn't bother him the least. It was this world and the ardent stance of the Adeptus Ministorum that Darius is a loyal servant of the Emperor that stopped a civil war with the Greater Imperium after the events on the Epitaph.
Kiavva Gamma, The Great Forge World of the Omnissiah. After the Purge of Kiavva Gamma it was slowly rebuild by the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Rogue Trader held a genuine respect for the Cult Mechanicus and let the Priets of Mars rebuild the planet. He provided all resources available into turing the destroyed Mechanicus Cathedral into a Plasma Energium. The production of plasma weapons and energy cores was a very valuable tithe to the Imperium.
​

• Relevant Companions

Argenta- She build the Order of the One Star, based around the ship of St. Argenta. Many a sister were taugh of the Dargonus Progenium and the Lord Koronus kept a very good relationship with the order.
Abelard- He Became the leader of is House and was proclaimed Lord Admiral of the Koronus Expanse by the Rogue Trader.
Marazhai- Controversially his relationship with the Dracon of the Reaving Tempest was perhaps one of the few black spots in the Lord Koronus's history. The tortures Darius suffered in Commoragh changed him in a subtle way that no one could understand apart from Marazhai. The Dracon visited the Rogue Trader ofter and it was no coincidence that his raiders always targeted his enemies but never the trade routes of the Von Valancius Dynasty.
Nomos- He absorbed the Shard of the Void Dragon. Tech Magi and Archmagos Amaranth made a Binaric Techno-Oublitte inside the Rogue Trader's ship Calculum Mortis. The C'tan Shard was kept there dormant. All who knew of its existence made binaric oaths never to speak of it. The Shard was almost never used. It was only called upon to strike the enemies of the Dynasty in the most dire times.
​
Sorry for the wall of text, I was just inspired to write it all down having finished my first run yesterday.
​

Hi guys my modded Fallout 3 is without HUD, it never activates, and when I approach to talk to someone the interaction is black, I tried setting the gamma color from the menu (and it is the standard) and even tried disabling all mods (even Immersive HUD, which should equally show the HUD when you perform certain actions) but it doesn't appear at all!
I also downloaded Pulse ENB by downloading the ReShades and putting them in the game folder (also replacing dxgi and d3d9, now I don't remember the process exactly), I'm afraid the problem might be coming from there although I wouldn't know how that's possible.
This is my list of mods:
00 - Improved Male Vanilla Body - FOMOD Installer
4K Capital Wastescape with 4K Normals
Accurate Stars 4k
AmaccurzerO's Animated Wasteland
Andy's Darker Grass v2
Animated Interior Decorations
Animated Park Equipment v4 big update
Animated Statics - Anim
Animated Utility Poles (Ashens2014) Fallout 3
Animated Wasteland Trees (recommended)
Animation Compilation (First Person)
Animation Compilation (Third Person)
Archivelnvalidation Invalidated - Program Version - Recommended
ATMOS Ambient Sound Overhaul
CivisRomanus Unofficial Fallout 3 Dialogues Fixes - italiano
CivisRomanus Unofficial Fallout 3 Fixes
CivisRomanus Unofficial Fallout 3 Fixes Cheat Items
CivisRomanus Unofficial Fallout 3 Fixes Dialogues
CivisRomanus Unofficial Fallout 3 Fixes italiano
CivisRomanus Unofficial Fallout 3 Fixes Optional
Clean-Deluxe - Dust Away vO-22
Clean-Deluxe - Paper-Shredder
Clean-Deluxe - Rock-Out
Clean-Deluxe GOTY Edition
Command Extender
Desolation Flora
Devastated City
Energy Visuals Plus
Enhanced Blood Textures
Enhanced Camera
EXE - Effects teXtures Enhanced - EXE FULL RES V1
Fallout 3 HD Overhaul
Fallout 3 Realistic Wasteland Lighting plus GOTY
Fallout 3 Rebirth - GOTY Version
Fallout Script Extender (FOSE)
Fallout Street Lights - Traduzione Italiana
Fallout Street Lights Version 2
Flashlight v1-5
F03 Redesigned Standard (No DLC) Edition
Games for Windows LIVE Disable
Gutsy Handy Animated Eyes
Helm Pov 2
HR Armored Vault 101 Jumpsuit_4k
Immersive HUD - iHUD
Iron Sights Plus
Kyu's Ballistics F03
Loot Menu
MGs Neat Clutter
MGs Neat Clutter - Ammo box
More Modest T4 - Main
MTUI
no more dots v01
NV Compatibility Skeleton - NVCS Installer
NVAC - New Vegas Anti Crash
Out Of Memory Fix
PCldles03b
Power Armor Footstep SFX vl-2
PowerArmor Increases Height
RADiant Light Overhaul vl.2
Rustic Grass HQ 4K Version 1
Simple Sprint F03
Size Variable HD Moon Cycle Textures - F03 - NickKens Moon Cycle
Smaller Holotapes
Stewie Tweaks
Street Lights Bug Fix
The D.C. Interiors Project - DCinteriors_combo Edition Total Merge
TYPE4 - Body and Armors - T4 - Main
TYPE4 F03 - Body and Armors - T4 - Main
UIO - User Interface Organizer
Updated Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch - OGG
Vandr HD Creatures
Wastelander Backpacks
Weapon Enhancement Pack
Wider Street Lights
zzjay's body and face textures workshop - Type 3 - 4 and 6 - 00 - Default Version - CORE

Hi guys my modded Fallout 3 is without HUD, it never activates, and when I approach to talk to someone the interaction is black, I tried setting the gamma color from the menu (and it is the standard) and even tried disabling all mods (even Immersive HUD, which should equally show the HUD when you perform certain actions) but it doesn't appear at all!
I also downloaded Pulse ENB by downloading the ReShades and putting them in the game folder (also replacing dxgi and d3d9, now I don't remember the process exactly), I'm afraid the problem might be coming from there although I wouldn't know how that's possible.
This is my list of mods:
00 - Improved Male Vanilla Body - FOMOD Installer
4K Capital Wastescape with 4K Normals
Accurate Stars 4k
AmaccurzerO's Animated Wasteland
Andy's Darker Grass v2
Animated Interior Decorations
Animated Park Equipment v4 big update
Animated Statics - Anim
Animated Utility Poles (Ashens2014) Fallout 3
Animated Wasteland Trees (recommended)
Animation Compilation (First Person)
Animation Compilation (Third Person)
Archivelnvalidation Invalidated - Program Version - Recommended
ATMOS Ambient Sound Overhaul
CivisRomanus Unofficial Fallout 3 Dialogues Fixes - italiano
CivisRomanus Unofficial Fallout 3 Fixes
CivisRomanus Unofficial Fallout 3 Fixes Cheat Items
CivisRomanus Unofficial Fallout 3 Fixes Dialogues
CivisRomanus Unofficial Fallout 3 Fixes italiano
CivisRomanus Unofficial Fallout 3 Fixes Optional
Clean-Deluxe - Dust Away vO-22
Clean-Deluxe - Paper-Shredder
Clean-Deluxe - Rock-Out
Clean-Deluxe GOTY Edition
Command Extender
Desolation Flora
Devastated City
Energy Visuals Plus
Enhanced Blood Textures
Enhanced Camera
EXE - Effects teXtures Enhanced - EXE FULL RES V1
Fallout 3 HD Overhaul
Fallout 3 Realistic Wasteland Lighting plus GOTY
Fallout 3 Rebirth - GOTY Version
Fallout Script Extender (FOSE)
Fallout Street Lights - Traduzione Italiana
Fallout Street Lights Version 2
Flashlight v1-5
F03 Redesigned Standard (No DLC) Edition
Games for Windows LIVE Disable
Gutsy Handy Animated Eyes
Helm Pov 2
HR Armored Vault 101 Jumpsuit_4k
Immersive HUD - iHUD
Iron Sights Plus
Kyu's Ballistics F03
Loot Menu
MGs Neat Clutter
MGs Neat Clutter - Ammo box
More Modest T4 - Main
MTUI
no more dots v01
NV Compatibility Skeleton - NVCS Installer
NVAC - New Vegas Anti Crash
Out Of Memory Fix
PCldles03b
Power Armor Footstep SFX vl-2
PowerArmor Increases Height
RADiant Light Overhaul vl.2
Rustic Grass HQ 4K Version 1
Simple Sprint F03
Size Variable HD Moon Cycle Textures - F03 - NickKens Moon Cycle
Smaller Holotapes
Stewie Tweaks
Street Lights Bug Fix
The D.C. Interiors Project - DCinteriors_combo Edition Total Merge
TYPE4 - Body and Armors - T4 - Main
TYPE4 F03 - Body and Armors - T4 - Main
UIO - User Interface Organizer
Updated Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch - OGG
Vandr HD Creatures
Wastelander Backpacks
Weapon Enhancement Pack
Wider Street Lights
zzjay's body and face textures workshop - Type 3 - 4 and 6 - 00 - Default Version - CORE

Hello. I'm not non - binary but i am a gay male and today i went to have a nice Sunday lunch with my uncle and my aunt. My uncle is my father's brother and since i was little i always viewed him as a second father. I loved him since i can remember. He always loved me like his own kid too. My whole family is extremely religious (greek orthodox) and very traditional and don't approve of everything lgbtq. When my parents found out that i like men a few years ago we had issues for a long time. Then i moved away in the country capital and everything was better. My only relatives close to me here are my uncle and my aunt where i go for a family meal every one or two weeks.
So yeah i went to my uncle, we were cooking and drinking coffee. I always kept personal things to me just because i knew my uncle wouldn't understand and when we discussed about everything else, he was very open and informative. Keep in mind that i always adored him like a superhero. Then i asked a simple question "Did you watch Eurovision?". He immediately said that it was great that he didn't because there was this "demon witch with the pentagram". I understand that a pentagram can scare an orthodox but i never expected what came next:

• Ok i understand, but the winner song was amazing. Such an amazing voice.
• No, it was disgusting. They try to provoke us and pass this "neutral gender thing" as a fashion and they hurt the children of the next generation.
• But they don't try to force it on anybody, they just try to express themselves. I have even met people like them and you have no idea what they struggle with. Some even "end themselves" and that's sad.
• Well, they better end themselves than show us these things. They try to force all these anomalies. All these people are followers of Satan etc etc etc

I understand that he may not understand or like the LGBT, he doesn't have to, but people, the momment he talked about how they should end themselves, i started panicking. I myself struggled with these thoughts and had many difficulties for many years. I have received a lot of support from friends, boyfriends and my sister. But hearing all these mean, inhumane things from a "christian orthodox that preaches love" was devastating to me. Funny thing is he "didn't want to hear a single word about it" but he kept talking to himself over and over as long as the words weren't coming from me. I went out to the balcony alone to try and relax. I was shaking. It was not that i was sad for me as an lgbt who previously wanted to end his life. I was sad that my childhood hero said mean things like these to people who just tried to find themselves. I found it unfair how Nemo grabbed the mic and preached for love and unity as a "satan follower" and the "god follower" wished death upon people. That moment i decided that even if it would hurt my uncle, i would pack and go back home for the day. My uncle said he wanted to talk but i was already packing. I know that maybe i should have stayed and talked but i was scared, sad and didn't have the courage to sit and eat or talk with him. When i was leaving he told me that "i was making him sad and that what i was doing was not right". I replied "you shouldn't go to sacrament (i had to google that) next Sunday in church". I left. I was shaking and crying all the way back.
The internet is a dark place. I know that here i might get some amazing tips about what to do next, a few discussions but also some mean things. Some people will hate the fact that a gay man tried to defend a non binary person. I mean, if people want to be mean to me they will find a way. Still, i felt the need to defend you people, even if it means ruining the relationship with my family members. I hope that i did the right thing. Even if i don't manage to get any more tips about what i should do next, the fact that i took all these thoughts out of my chest and expressed myself makes me feel relieved already. Thank you for reading my story.
P.S: Please don't show a lot of hate to my uncle :)

Hi all,
For the past year, I've been using LLMs for many different types of tasks, both via chat and via APIs, often things that would be considered qualified work if done by a human - coding, translation, document synthesis, etc. On many of those tasks the LLMs' results were really impressive. Recently, I tried using LLMs (mainly GPT4 Turbo and Claude3) for simpler tasks, such as automated data entry from freeform documents, and got very poor results even though the tasks required no specialised knowledge or difficult reasoning, just being meticulous.
I've decided to try and analyse this a little more by creating a "proofreading" benchmark that tests models' capacity to "pay attention" and little else. The core modalities are:

• I generated (using Claude) stats and other infos about ten fictional countries (to ensure my benchmark did not test LLMs' existing knowledges)
• I then generated (using Claude again) four "articles" discussing the economy, society etc of the countries in question while using stats and infos from the reference data
• I edited the resulting articles to introduce three errors in each. No tricks, all blatant mistakes: wrong population figure, wrong name for the capital city, wrong climate, etc.
• I'd estimate that a meticulous human would find 90% of them in maybe 20-30 minutes of proofreading
• I then tested 7 LLMs on proofreading the articles based on the reference data, with a basic prompt (a few sentences with no specific tricks) and an advanced prompt (detailed instructions, with an example, a specified format, asking for CoT reasoning, highlighting the importance of the task etc), and tried each prompt with each LLM three times each.

Key results:

• I expected LLMs to be bad... but not so horribly, terribly bad. With the basic prompt, the LLMs averaged 15% of errors detected, and 14% with the advanced prompt.
• GPT-4o performed the best, reaching 42% with the advanced prompt.
• On top of missing most of the errors, the LLMs typically reported "errors" that either they were instructed to ignore (such as rounded figures) or that were completely wrong. If I had taken out points for this almost all would have ended with a negative score.
• The same LLM with the same prompt gave very inconsistent results. For example, GPT-4o with the simple prompt found 3, 6 and 2 errors in its three attempts (and not always the same ones)
• While the "advanced" prompt helped GPT-4o get the best result, on average it made no difference, and at the cost of generating far more tokens

Complete results (% of the 12 errors detected, average of three attempts):
https://preview.redd.it/o0b1qn0ykd1d1.png?width=439&format=png&auto=webp&s=0ac210311c0cb520fe10aade347440de9f12341f
Obviously, very disappointing results. I'd love it if anyone can point out any mistakes in my procedure that would explain such bad results. In the meantime, I see it as a reminder that while LLMs can be very useful at a wide range of tasks, before using them for serious purposes you really need to be able to properly benchmark your use case. Also, what tasks LLMs are good at is not always intuitive and definitely does not always match what would be hard for a human. Something to keep in mind as we see LLMs pushed for more and more use cases, including helping blind people catch taxis!
Full data available as a comment on this post: https://www.reddit.com/ChatGPT/comments/1cvmnt5/attention_is_all_you_should_need_a_benchmark_of/

Hi all,
For the past year, I've been using LLMs for many different types of tasks, both via chat and via APIs, often things that would be considered qualified work if done by a human - coding, translation, document synthesis, etc. On many of those tasks the LLMs' results were really impressive. Recently, I tried using LLMs (mainly GPT4 Turbo and Claude3) for simpler tasks, such as automated data entry from freeform documents, and got very poor results even though the tasks required no specialised knowledge or difficult reasoning, just being meticulous.
I've decided to try and analyse this a little more by creating a "proofreading" benchmark that tests models' capacity to "pay attention" and little else. The core modalities are:

• I generated (using Claude) stats and other infos about ten fictional countries (to ensure my benchmark did not test LLMs' existing knowledges)
• I then generated (using Claude again) four "articles" discussing the economy, society etc of the countries in question while using stats and infos from the reference data
• I edited the resulting articles to introduce three errors in each. No tricks, all blatant mistakes: wrong population figure, wrong name for the capital city, wrong climate, etc.
• I'd estimate that a meticulous human would find 90% of them in maybe 20-30 minutes of proofreading
• I then tested 7 LLMs on proofreading the articles based on the reference data, with a basic prompt (a few sentences with no specific tricks) and an advanced prompt (detailed instructions, with an example, a specified format, asking for CoT reasoning, highlighting the importance of the task etc), and tried each prompt with each LLM three times each.

Key results:

• I expected LLMs to be bad... but not so horribly, terribly bad. With the basic prompt, the LLMs averaged 15% of errors detected, and 14% with the advanced prompt.
• GPT-4o performed the best, reaching 42% with the advanced prompt.
• On top of missing most of the errors, the LLMs typically reported "errors" that either they were instructed to ignore (such as rounded figures) or that were completely wrong. If I had taken out points for this almost all would have ended with a negative score.
• The same LLM with the same prompt gave very inconsistent results. For example, GPT-4o with the simple prompt found 3, 6 and 2 errors in its three attempts (and not always the same ones)
• While the "advanced" prompt helped GPT-4o get the best result, on average it made no difference, and at the cost of generating far more tokens

Complete results (% of the 12 errors detected, average of three attempts):
https://preview.redd.it/o0b1qn0ykd1d1.png?width=439&format=png&auto=webp&s=0ac210311c0cb520fe10aade347440de9f12341f
Obviously, very disappointing results. I'd love it if anyone can point out any mistakes in my procedure that would explain such bad results. In the meantime, I see it as a reminder that while LLMs can be very useful at a wide range of tasks, before using them for serious purposes you really need to be able to properly benchmark your use case. Also, what tasks LLMs are good at is not always intuitive and definitely does not always match what would be hard for a human. Something to keep in mind as we see LLMs pushed for more and more use cases, including helping blind people catch taxis!
Full data available as a comment on this post: https://www.reddit.com/ChatGPT/comments/1cvmnt5/attention_is_all_you_should_need_a_benchmark_of/

What Is Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a model where you purchase products directly from suppliers and manufacturers, who then ship them directly to your customers.
Dropshippers can focus on marketing and customer service, freeing them from the burden of warehousing and logistics challenges typically associated with running a dropshipping business. In digital entrepreneur circles, dropshipping has gained prominence due to its many benefits for beginners.
With low capital required, dropshipping provides an accessible and low-risk entry into the e-commerce sector. With no upfront investment in inventory, this becomes a more viable option. Furthermore, it simplifies the process, eliminating the need for tasks like packing, shipping, inventory tracking, and warehouse expenses. This reduced complexity makes dropshipping a more simple and scalable approach than other forms of e-commerce.
In traditional retail, a threefold increase in orders typically translates to a proportional increase in workload. However, this dynamic changes when it comes to dropshipping. The need to buy in bulk is immediately eliminated, making it more convenient to assess and test the market.
Many drop shippers test the market by listing and selling an item before investing large amounts. Experienced entrepreneurs stress the importance of validating your idea to avoid heartbreak later – the biggest risk is in creating and selling something that no one wants. In today’s economy, the appeal of working from anywhere is significant.
visit www.thenewsnetworks.com for more interesting topics.

Reposting here for posterity
Summary: Greens hits out at policies tailored for the wealthy, not the people; saying they are devoid of care and evidence. They said if they were delivering this year's budget, they would deliver the following by taxing wealth:

• An income guarantee for everyone
• Lift every family out of poverty
• More support for students or people out of work
• Extra help if you're sick or disabled
• Payments for families so kids can thrive
• More resourcing for the public service
• Free dental care
• Cheaper power bills
• Solar panels and batteries for homes
• Climate pollution reduction

Mā te oranga o te taiao, ka ora ai te iwi. Mō te takitini, kāore mo te torutoru anake. Ki te mana whenua o tēnei rohe, tū mai rā Ngāti Whātua, tēnā koutou. Ki a tātou e huihui mai nei, ko ngā moemoeā o te Pāti Kākāriki te take, nau mai, haere mai, whakatau mai.
Tenā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.
Sixteen million dollars.
That’s how much the coalition parties raised to win last year’s election.
Ten million for National.
Four million for Act.
Just under two million for New Zealand First.
Sixteen million dollars.
From property developers and business tycoons who have built their wealth by exploiting our natural environment.
To companies who profit from digging up our whenua and overfishing our oceans - activities that cause significant harm to our precious ecosystems.
Sixteen million dollars helped to put this government into power.
And in a little less than two weeks, the coalition government will unveil its first budget.
It has clearly been difficult for them to put it together.
To the right, Act is trying to fire all the people who make our public services work, while in their own cooker corner New Zealand First hoards 1.2 billion dollars for hand-chosen pet projects.
The Coalition has found half a billion dollars for new defence spending, but cancelled projects to improve buses and trains in Auckland and Wellington.
They’re borrowing billions to cover the cost of cutting taxes for wealthy property investors, because they’ve realised that the promises they made during the election campaign were slapdash and expensive.
Meanwhile, people with the least face ever higher costs.
Bus fares have already gone up.
Rents continue to rise, while the government is giving tax breaks to landlords instead of investing in more public housing.
So on Budget Day, when we see what the coalition has been able to cobble together, I want you to remember: sixteen million dollars.
What’s in the Budget for the people who paid for National’s election campaign?
And what could have been in the budget instead if Aotearoa had a Government that prioritised people and planet?
Because I am not here for the relative few who donated those sixteen million dollars.
I am here for the many, including the 330,000 people who trusted the Green Party with their votes last year.
And I want to thank you all once again.
Your voices will continue to be heard.
You told us you wanted us to fight for an Aotearoa where everyone can get by, where our native wildlife and oceans thrive, where we take bold climate action, and where we honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
That is what we are doing. And we will be loud. And we will be staunch as always.
I am here for those who cannot sit by while the government tries to take the country backwards on the issues that matter most.
While the goal of a smoke-free generation goes up in smoke.
While new coal mines are dug into our precious conservation land, even as the Prime Minister claims to want to achieve climate change targets.
While the few with extraordinary wealth get what they want, at the expense of everyone else.
The Greens have always been, and will always be, the voice for a different kind of politics.
A politics centred in justice through honouring te Tiriti o Waitangi, not using it to drive a wedge in our communities.
A politics that celebrates the potential our country could live up to if it was grounded in manaakitanga and equity.
That acknowledges the richness of generations of tangata whenua and tangata tiriti working together to care for our whenua and collectively enjoying the fruits of mahitahi.
Where we protect Papatūānuku out of aroha for her, and respect that her wellbeing is also what keeps us alive.
Where we share what we have so everyone in Aotearoa can live a good life.
Everything the Greens won over the last two terms in government with Labour was hard fought. Governments must make tradeoffs. But Governments are defined by their choices.
And right now, the coalition is making theirs clear.
If the Greens were delivering this year’s budget, I’ll tell you what would be in it.
An income guarantee, so no matter what, everyone has what they need to live a decent life.
We could lift every family in Aotearoa out of poverty, and give people the peace of mind that they’ll be supported if they fall on tough times.
More support for students and people out of work, extra help if you’re sick or disabled, and simple payments for families so all kids can thrive.
Free dental care.
Successive governments have let basic dental healthcare get so expensive, that forty percent - forty percent! - of people avoid going to the dentist.
It’s just too expensive.
In Aotearoa, we could choose to resource our public health services - funded by taxes on wealth, so that everyone can be looked after when they need it.
And if the Greens were putting together the Budget, it would fund our plan to make your homes warmer while cutting down your power bills AND climate pollution.
Solar panels and batteries for homes to store the sun’s free energy, taking pressure off the power grid.
But this year, with the help of sixteen million dollars from some of the wealthiest people in Aotearoa, National, Act, and New Zealand First have the privilege of making those decisions.
And I say to them, what are you going to do with it?
You have the choice to end poverty.
Or to give tax breaks to landlords.
To give back more to people who earn their living, instead of tax breaks for people who own more houses than they need, and who already get untaxed capital gains.
You have the choice to invest in solar power, or open up new coal mines.
The choices people make when they have power show us what they are motivated by. These choices define the world they want to create.
So today I want to talk with you about what motivates the Green Party.
Ko te mana o Te Tiriti.
Ko te oranga o te Taiao.
Ko ngā tūmanako mō ngā tamariki.
We are motivated by generations of movements and leaders who have pushed for the sovereignty of tangata whenua guaranteed by te Tiriti o Waitangi.
A partnership on which this country was built, despite the continuous breaches by the Crown partner.
The Green Party is a Tiriti party.
Our leadership is a partnership between tangata whenua and tangata tiriti.
Our work seeks to honour the commitments made generations ago, to prosper together.
Our commitment to Tiriti justice is absolutely integral to everything the Greens do - just as it is integral to the future of Aotearoa.
Tino rangatiratanga is at the heart of healing relationships across communities and reconnecting all of us with our seas, our rivers, our bush, our mountains, and our whenua.
And central to our vision for a Tiriti-based future, is our commitment to restoring and protecting nature.
Because nature is in crisis.
Just out these doors, and below our feet, in the Hauraki Gulf, the impacts of commercial overfishing and the pollution washing into the water from the land, has brought the ecosystem to the brink.
North and west of here, great kauri are critically threatened.
To the south, unique animals found in no other country, are at risk from the bulldozers of mining companies, unless we protect them.
Four thousand different native species are at risk of extinction in Aotearoa.
Four thousand.
We can turn that around, but it takes commitment. It takes effort. It takes mahitahi. And it takes choices. Choices that put people and planet first, instead of a cynical politics that serves the short-term interests of wealthy donors.
If the government chooses not to prioritise restoring the health of the natural world in its first budget, that shows what they are motivated by, and it shows what kind of world they are prepared to leave to our tamariki.
It is our tamariki and mokopuna that motivate the Greens.
Not just the ones born tomorrow, but those after that, for seven generations down the line.
Sustainability doesn’t just mean sustainability for nature, but for people too. This planet is our home. We need it to thrive.
The Greens have always been deeply motivated by care for other people, for communities, for those with us today and for those who will come after us.
We are motivated by every single child who goes to bed hungry tonight.
We are motivated by every single adult who isn’t sure how they’ll pay the rent or mortgage next week.
As winter hits, we are motivated by every person who sits in the cold, staring at the heater, knowing they can’t afford to turn it on.
Our challenge to the coalition government is to prove that you are motivated by this too.
Choose to do something about it.
The solutions to many of the problems we face in Aotearoa are clear. This week I had the privilege of meeting with rangatahi, and hearing about the solutions they want to see in their communities. They are THE experts in their own experience - and they know they need to be empowered and given better opportunities; not marginalised, patronised, ignored, and punished.
But the coalition government doesn’t like those solutions, because they don’t fit its agenda. They prefer catch phrases like “social investment”, to real data and lived experience.
A Government which says it is motivated by evidence-based solutions has cut funding to the world class Growing up in New Zealand study, and continues to ignore the evidence it provides. Like the evidence that 40% of children live in the most deprived areas.
If this government was truly invested in improving social outcomes, it would affirm and resource the experts who know best and have proven the most.
And that includes empowering the people with the lived experience of the systems failing them and their whānau. It requires removing all the barriers to wellbeing such as poverty and homelessness. We need to support whole whānau, instead of focusing on ‘fixing’ an individual after they’ve already been broken by poverty and neglect, and expecting them to rise above circumstances of deprivation that we should have all worked together to prevent in the first place. We need the solutions to be grounded in community knowledge and care. I hope this government is open to sitting with kai rangahau Māori and families to learn more about what really needs to change.
When the Crown has repeatedly failed to be accountable for the harm it has caused to whānau Māori, it is clear that we need an authentic transfer of power and resources - with a partnership of a strong public and social services sector working together, with communities, hapū and iwi, and whānau.
I have seen what works to support people off a destructive path in life. To instead become the best of themselves. There is a mountain of evidence about approaches that work where all other attempts have failed - particularly where there is deep trauma.
These approaches, like Kaupapa Māori interventions, build the strength of whānau and community.
Now for far too long, successive governments have been stuck on catch phrase politics, devoid of evidence or genuine care.
Policies like bootcamps for the young, benefit sanctions for the already struggling, higher criminal penalties - a punitive, petty politics that makes life harder for those already
excluded, and does nothing to keep communities safe and well. This is divisive, stale, cruel and ineffective.
When I have met and listened to the very people at the forefront of this cruelty, the impact has been clear.
Such punitive and dehumanising measures have instead caused even further disconnection and hopelessness. The Greens know that meeting trauma with punishment isn’t going to work. I want rangatahi to hear us loud and clear. You matter. Your whānau matters. You deserve dignity, a community and a country that sees your strength.
At a basic level, I think we all agree that identifying the causes of persistent hardship, and supporting people to get out of those situations, is a good idea.
And we all agree that the measure of a government’s success is whether it achieves outcomes, not how much money it spends on trying.
But the Government isn’t actually doing this.
Two weeks ago the Minister of Finance said her government will “use hard evidence to invest in what works.”
On that same day, the Minister of Social Development announced that people on a benefit will face financial sanctions if they don’t attend work seminars.
Let me be clear, work seminars don’t help people find jobs they’re suited for - let alone create meaningful work with decent pay and conditions. The Ministry of Social Development has told the Minister there is no evidence for the government’s cruel approach. Sanctions do not make a difference for the number of people moving into paid work.
And the evidence against sanctions is extremely clear.
Financial sanctions for beneficiaries, who already don’t have enough income to pay for life’s essentials, simply push people into further hardship.
That affects their children, their whānau, and their whole communities.
Instead, people need tailored support into work that matches their skills and interests, with a guaranteed income while retraining.
At the same time, the Government needs to invest in creating sustainable jobs that transition our economy away from fossil fuels.
Jobs with decent pay, secure hours and support for people to balance caregiving responsibilities. Jobs that support wellbeing for whānau, instead of seeing workers as just a cog in a labour machine.
When the Government rolls out policies like benefit sanctions, they are making a choice to ignore the evidence about the effect of their actions.
And it is our job to expose that.
I cannot say it enough: we have everything we need in Aotearoa for everyone to live a decent life.
We know what people need to rise up out of persistent hardship.
A warm, dry, affordable, and accessible home.
Healthy kai on the table.
The freedom to go to the doctor or the dentist when they need to, without having to worry about the cost.
And next week, the Government has a choice whether to put people at the heart of the budget - or not. If they don’t, they are holding back the potential of our people and our communities to thrive.
And we will ask, exactly who are they governing for?
The Greens are here for the many, not just the few.
We carry decades of political leadership with us, starting from the late Jeanette Fitzsimons and Rod Donald, through to our newest co-leader Chloe Swarbrick.
We are here thanks to the thousands upon thousands of volunteers over the last three decades.
The many grassroots-led movements who we are honoured to have worked with for the kaupapa.
We draw our strength from knowing we are powered by the many. This gives us the strength to oppose a government whose sixteen million dollars of political donations got them where they are today.
Thanks to our people-powered campaign, we have our largest Caucus ever.
And it represents Aotearoa more than it ever has before.
Green politics is the alternative to this cynical, cruel coalition government.
And we are only just getting started.

As AI inevitably destroys capitalism as we know it. “Work to live” will no longer be a model. Instead of instating “universal basic income”, …giving us humans money to spend at will. We instate “right to live”. You are not given money, you are given small shelter, sustenance, meal replacement calories, water, and internet. Those who want more “things” than this, can still participate in inventing a new capitalism. Those that are happy just living, can still be alive. If you want better meals than simple sustenance calories… be creative… find a way in the new system. You want the new technologies, find a way. But you will never be forced to die by taking risks in your creativity. We free this whole collective human consciousness to be free without the fears of survival… which we conquered technically ages ago. All the systems hindering our evolution will be released if we give all of us a right to live and let the systems we create play out without the fear of persecution and death.

1330 Terran Front Fleet Time
On the Turinika homeworld, the first signs of unrest began to manifest like a wave, The broadcast of the most esteemed Tizikikoonazikiakakiatkata, Taratanti of the roost Kazatalak, openly performing the act of Kavsa had been met with shock. The last Taratanti who had voluntarily performed Kavsa had done so in protest of the treatment of the Kulorn caste, nearly two thousand years prior. It was an ancient rite, one that signified rejection of the greatest shame. Even more shocking than the act itself was the evidence that had followed it. Visuals of species, brought into the Conclave, not as migrant workers as had been believed, but as slaves, was met with an almost immediate attempt at censorship. This attempt failed spectacularly, mostly due to those who had been tasked to censor the information not only refusing to follow the command, but openly declaring that they had been ordered to do so. A situation that was already, as the humans would say, out of hand, spiraled completely out of control. Within only twenty minutes of the ending of Tizikikoonazikiakakiatkata’s broadcast entire cities entered a state of absolute anarchy. Two planetary capitals were stormed and taken by the furious civilian population, demanding the location of those who had been enslaved. The Turinika Armada, which even then was in the middle of a training session meant to prepare the fleet to withstand the Terran Front’s assault, began to cease operations. Within the hour, the entire armada would be recalled to the turnika homeworld. Those who did not take to the streets simply stopped whatever work they were doing and went to their homes to be around their brood. Images of Tizikikoonazikiakakiatkata with his stripped wings spread wide in front of the human fleet commander were on every news fed of the Conclave, as was the sound of his thunderous voice, and the wails of despair from a turinika female that couldn’t be seen. Close ups of the human fleet commander’s face were shown, with analysts remarking on the shock, horror, and sympathy. Since the outbreak of the Seventh Orion War, the female human known as Simmons had been reported to have made several threats towards the turinika, she had quickly become seen as a warmonger, ready to take revenge against the turinika for refusing to go to war and violate their principles of pacifism. Now the images of her lunging forward to stop the violation of Tizikikoonazikiakakiatkata’s plumage, the agonized expression of her face, and the true reason for her threats against the turinika were rapidly reversing her image. On far flung deep core mining stations and agricultural stations, on deep space stations dedicated to material processing, and in other areas hidden from the sight of the normal turinikan population, overseers and taskmasters felt their hearts run cold at the knowledge that very soon, their part to play in the willful enslavement of another species would be known to the wider Conclave. As the data package transmitted alongside the broadcast were fully decompressed and the scale of the Conclave’s government’s involvement was revealed, the entirety of the Conclave itself was teetering on the verge of absolute pandemonium. The image of a member of the kolra species, from the look of it barely a hatchling, quickly was becoming the face of the entire incident. The picture was absolutely damning, and the sight of the image had sent any who saw it instantly into contorting and painful displays of shame. The young kolra was sprawled on it’s stomach, looking to the one taking it’s picture with eyes that had no life in them. It’s shell covered it’s back, and despite the age of the kolra it was already dulled and scuffed. The foot pressing down on the shell was unmistakably familiar to those who saw it, the clawed feet of a turinika. Within the hour, billions of winged figures stood in streets, the normally soft spoken and passive species demanding action, demanding justice, on the hundred worlds of the Turinika Conclave. The bulk of the Taratanti caste, most of whom had been left in the dark of the truth of the situation, quickly went public with their own declaration of outrage, and the eyes of the entire species turned inwards to the mountainous homeworld of their species.
Hakuri Watanabe looked down at his helmet before putting it on his bed, the stylized SEVEN seeming to stare at him. He sat down in his chair and picked up a small cloth from his buffing kit. No one knocked on his door, in fact, mostly he and the rest of his squad were left alone before a major operation. They were just given their time, time to mentally prepare. Some of his squad would go over their mission briefing, some, like him, would spend their time doing something to relax themselves. Hakuri always found that taking care of his suit calmed him considerably. Granted he could simply turn it over to the squads armorers to be tended to and they would do as good of a job as he could, but he preferred it to be done by his own hand. The symbol of a triangle was on his form fitting shirt, the symbol of his special operations command unit. He was known as a Myrmidon, but the official title of his unit was Section Three. He knew this, his superiors knew this, and as far as Hakuri knew, most of the Terran Front was aware of his unit’s existence, but past that, they knew very little about what he actually did. As far as his mother knew, Hakuri was a pencil pusher onboard the TFS Berlin, the troop mothership that all of his letters were sent from. He thought about writing her, but then again, he only liked to do that when he returned from a mission, not when he was expecting to go to one. If he tried to write her when he was waiting, he would just get anxious, and homesick. That wouldn’t do when he was dropping into a combat zone. That wouldn’t do at all. Hakuri instead started to buff his helmet, waiting for the word to come down which meant they were prepared to jump. A glance at the clock made him pause in his circular rotations. The clock said 1330. Operation Naked Sun was about to begin.
Tika was on his side, Kzia standing at the end of the medical bed that had been adjusted for his turinikan physiology. He felt cold in more ways than one. For his people, clothing was more of a decoration than a necessity, but without his protective plumage he felt the cold stabbing him through to his hollow bones. His diplomatic access was already gone, his privilege access revoked. He heard the broadcast for a preparation to jump, but he wasn’t truly listening. There was no question in his mind he had made the right decision. There was no question at all. One of the humans, a nurse, came to his side and gently laid a heavy blanket over him. The human’s hand lingered on his trembling body for a few moments before it was removed, and Tika glanced in their direction. The female was one of the ones who had responded first to the call for medical service for him, had heard what had happened and why. Tika had gotten very used to being glared at on this ship. He was hated, and he knew it. He knew he had deserved it. He was a party to the vral’s enslavement of the humans, the chua, and far too many others. When he had come to Thermopylae station, he had not even given that fact a single thought. He was born into power, being of the Taratanti. He belonged to the most powerful species and government in the entire quadrant of the galaxy. His people, while mighty, did not seek to use it. To him, they had simply been above it all. When the vral had approached him with the offer to sell captured species at first TIka had wanted to reject it out of hand, but a few had told him to go through with the sale. Such was the nature of this galaxy, or so he had believed. The weak were at the whims of the strong, and one’s place in the galaxy was determined only by the power they could wield. The turinika were not nearly the first to have taken a species and used it for slave labor, and while Tika did not approve of the deal, he had not fought it either. As he looked back to the wall, he remembered what the humans had taught him these last days. When he had arrived in Thermopylae he had assumed he would find the chua species to have been at the very least regulated to a subservient role, if not outright enslaved. Finding them sharing power was a curiosity. He had expected to be treated with all the honor and dignity that his station demanded, that the power of his government demanded. Fleet Marshal Simmons had disabused him of that, and had left him humiliated and shamed. As he had laid in the dark as Simmons had declared the Seventh Orion War, covered in his own filth, feeling as if at any moment he was going to be killed he knew true fear and horrific uncertainty for the first time in his life. He had never faced these emotions, these sensations before. He had always been in power. He had stood with the full might of the Turinika Conclave behind him. He had never known anything other than the superior position. Now, as he lay in the hospital bed, staring at the wall, he was ashamed of how arrogant, how blind, and how short sighted he had been. After he had risen from his own filth, he had desperately tried to convince his leadership of the strength of the Terran Front, how it matched or eclipsed their own. The Conclave was not the unchallenged power in the quadrant anymore. The terrans, the human and chua, had somehow defied fate. They had not fallen to the vral after ninety years of near constant conflict, and now if Tika was right they had come out of it nightmarishly stronger than before. Tika had actually begged to be heard by his superiors, and he had never come close to that once in his life. The chua homeworld however, had fully broken him. If he had not been on the Antares, had not been humbled beforehand, he knew that he would have just clapped his hands together and said that it was delightful. As the transmission from the chua homeworld had come in, and the rescue effort had begun, he could only wallow in his own shame. He had profited directly from the chua’s suffering, the human’s suffering. Again he had tried, and failed, to convince his people, and again he had failed. Being on the Antares, for him, was torture. The lights were too dim, every human and chua looked at him with nothing more than loathing and contempt, his entire worldview had been shattered from the way he viewed the galaxy to his own place in it. Every time he closed his eyes he saw the shadow of Simmons standing over him, her voice cold with a lethal rage, hearing her voice echo in his mind, seeing the glint from flashes of light shining in her eyes. ‘We Know.’ echoed in his mind in his sleep, the voice of the terrifying Fleet Marshal transforming into the sound of a vengeful god demanding compliance and promising retribution. Then he had watched the humans and chua, who he knew were preparing to go to war with his people, celebrating the return of the shesvie. Once more he had expected them to be integrated into the Terran Front, but as soon as he learned Simmons offer to them, and what it had entailed, he had been called to his room to answer the latest message from his people. Once again, his people had doubled down, the knowledge of the enslavement of the humans had been suppressed, and once more Tika found himself, and his people, standing against a Terran Front that had every justification to declare war, to right the wrongs that had been done to them. All the while, he knew something else. He knew that, after everything he had seen, that his people would lose. The turinika had not been to war for nearly two thousand years. His people were not ready for what the Terran Front could do, and after seeing what they had done to the vral so far, he knew his people were not ready for what the Terran Front would do. He was afraid of the dark. Tika was absolutely terrified of it now, because now he knew the monsters were real. Simmons had shown him that, but the humans, the chua, they were not the monsters. He was. He had refused to be one any more. He had announced his intentions to his staff, who had squalled in rejection, all but three. Kzia was the first to step to his side, Kikumot and Tziki had stepped forward as well. Never, in his most nightmarish dreams, did he ever think that he would stand in front of Simmons and voluntarily have his plumage stripped from him, performing the act of Kasva. He never thought that his staff would have ever compiled and transmitted the data package they had sent. He had never thought that he would betray his people, if only to save them. Simmons had changed that, the humans had changed that. He knew the terror of the dark, he knew fear for his people’s safety, he understood the horror of war, and for the first time in his long life he could truly look back at every interaction he had had, with every species, that had asked for help in their struggle for survival against the vral and truly understand their fear and desperation. Now he lay, his plumage stripped from him, his station revoked, his status removed, surrounded by a people who despised him. He wouldn’t have it any other way now. He knew that they would listen now, if not to him, then to the civilian masses of the Conclave that would not stand for what they had done. He prayed to the Great Mother often now, shivering in the dim light, hoping that it would be enough. He had been wrong, and in his error he had sullied his own people. He had made them complicit. Even now, he did not know how they would ever be forgiven, because right now he wasn’t quite sure he could ever forgive himself. As he heard the broadcast calling out on the ship, announcing one minute to jump, he felt a hand on his side, and looked up to the human nurse. She was smiling at him. Not a smile born of malice, or anger, but a genuine smile. She patted his side lightly, then turned to walk out of the room. For not even the twentieth time since he had come onboard Thermopylae, he was mystified by these people.
The bridge of the Dhampir was thrumming with music and the vibrations of the reactor and Conrad leaned forward in his chair mount, his eyes almost feral as he looked at the empty space that was the mandeville point. He was positively chomping at the bit. Batz was positively roaring the lyrics to the song that was blaring over the ships speakers. Rev and Dev sat side by side in their mounts, throwing their hands up in time with the pounding bass beat of the sound. Towns was the only one besides Conrad that was quiet, both of them looking towards the mandeville point with complete impatience. Conrad felt like jumping from his skin. Fidget, well, fidgetted, holding his hands over his headset and listening as if he were trying to hear secret messages in the music. They were ready, their pulses were racing. The crew of the Dhampir was positively vibrating. Conrad looked to the shipboard clock, seeing 1330 displayed, and his head snapped to Fidget, waiting for the word. They were going to run, they were going to chase, they were going to hunt.
Vicky sat back, looking towards Jess and Kukat as they slept. Jess was in her chair, Kukat in her medical bed. Vicky glanced back at the block print on the paper and read it for the fifth time. She read the individual lines, one at a time, cursing their existence. After reading through the message printed she let her hand hang again. Kukat would be released from medical tomorrow, and both her and Jess still thought they would be boarding the Thumper to join the Vellacore once more. Jess had talked non-stop about her quarters on the Vellacore the past few days, how she just wanted to be back in her room. Kukat was equally excited. Only Vicky didn’t share their excitement. They didn’t know yet. They didn’t know about their battlefield promotions, they didn’t know about their reassignments, they didn’t know the days of them working together were functionally over. Vicky looked down at her hand holding the paper again, and felt like crumpling it. She had lost her crew. She had lost them not due to negligence, or time, she had lost them to fame. Kukat was to be promoted to ensign, and was to be the sensor officer on the destroyer Hadrian, Jess was getting the same promotion, her station on the cruiser Victorious. Vicky? She was the sparkling new commanding officer of a destroyer that was arriving at Thermopylae in two days, the Quarrel. She never wanted this. She had turned down promotion after promotion that would take her from the cockpit of the Thumper, away from Kukat, away from Jess. She wanted to serve in this war in her own way, as a pilot, with the two who had made her life so enjoyable. Now though, they were to be split up, and there was nothing she could do about it. These promotions hadn’t come from simple seniority, they had come from High Command, as had the orders. Tomorrow, when Kukat was released, they would be ushered into the hanger bay of the Barrowmore. They would all three be awarded the Star of Terra, then they would be reassigned. Tonight was the last night they would all be together. Vicky wanted to wake them up, she wanted to tell them, to give them a chance to process it. As she looked to Kukat and Jess she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She held up the letter again, reading the first few lines, then she felt the sting of tears in the corners of her eyes. She looked away, her heart panging with sadness, and stared at the wall. The clock read 1330.
Corporal Brandy was sitting on the small rack, with Janet Shippen sitting between his legs using his thighs as armrests. They were both dressed for the first time in the last few hours, both of them staring at the clock. This close to the reactors they could feel them beginning to spool up for the trip through hyperspace. When the news of the operation had come down they had elected to spend as much time together as possible, which Brandy had enjoyed to no end, and he had made sure Janet had as well. Brandy had even taken some time to reach out to his sister Victoria, a rarity for them both, as since they were children they were often barely able to speak to each other simply due to schedules. He had even told her about Janet, and although he hadn’t gotten a response from his sister yet he already knew what she would say. Janet nestled back against him, but he could feel her body was stiff. Neither of them knew what the next few months were going to hold. Their time together might be constricted, in fact, this might be the last few moments they were together for quite awhile. Brandy’s Ghouls were specialists, ship boarders. Chances are he was going to be extremely busy, as was she. He didn’t quite know how he felt about Janet, but he did know that beyond a shadow of a doubt he didn’t want to be away from her. Judging from how she was acting, she felt the same as him, conflicted about her relationship with him, but not wanting to be apart. He knew what he needed to tell her, that he had to get up, that he had to leave. The Ghouls were going to be assembled at 1345, ready to board. Her unit was going to be prepared at the same time, to begin taking on salvage. Her hands were like clamps on his legs, and from how tense she was, he wasn’t going to get up until she was good and ready. The clock on the wall switched to 1330. He stared at the clock, feeling like the clock was mocking him, when suddenly Janet leaned up and turned. Her hands took hold of his shoulders and she threw her body against his, her lips finding his own. Her arms wrapped around her frame and he tightened his grasp on her.
Simmons spread her hands over the panel in front of her, looking at the table. Seven points connected the recently reclaimed chua space to what was former Shesvie territory, and beyond that, the heart of the Vral Empire. Her lip curled in a wicked smile, On the digital display of the table the hyperspace lanes, and more importantly, the avenues of attack her fleet was preparing to take. She held out her hand, all five fingers splayed over the lanes, envisioning the war as it stood now. The war to come. Seven hyperspace lanes, seven systems, branching out into sixteen, branching out again to another twenty. The Antares herself was going to link up with the Barraki, and was set to simply plough through the next five systems to do so. Slowly she tightened her hand into a fist as she looked along the hyperspace lanes, seeing task forces lined up and ready to jump. Drones had already been sent through. The vral had forces along the border, but nothing that could withstand what was to come. Her fleet was ready. She was ready. The Seventh Orion War was at the end of it’s first month, and had taken back six systems. The first moves of Operation Naked Sun would double that and exceed it, then double it again. She had already given her speech, her task force commanders were ready. High Command had taken it’s time making this decision, and while she had railed against the delay that didn’t matter now. All along the front, individual task forces were joined into larger fleets, ready to jump into the next system and eliminate any vral defenses, but unlike now, they simply would not wait. Naked Sun was to be a lightning strike to cut off as much of the Vral Empire as possible, to deny them their own space, to imprison them on their own worlds. Task Forces were designed around three types of vessels combinations, Lighthammer Task Forces were comprised of corvettes and fast destroyers, the fastest vessels in the fleet, meant to take systems quickly, to devastate unprotected infrastructure, and to eliminate light resistance. Simply put, they were going to swarm into vral space, determine pockets of resistance, and move on. They were going to rip entire sections of vral space from them, calling in other task groups if needed. Thunder task groups were the primary capital fleets, meant to be sent into those pockets of resistance, and neutralizing them, joining with the Lighthammer groups if needed. The cruisers, carriers, battleships, they all belonged to these task forces. Her own task force was called the Nova task force, and it comprised only the Antares and it’s sizable fleet escort. Simmons glanced up at the clock, the time was 1329. She breathed in slowly, then unbidden the thought came to her head and she looked to the report from the two habitable planets that had been scanned by the drone cutters, the information having been relayed to her almost twenty minutes prior. She was not worried about the ground campaign, in fact a reserve fleet from Thermopylae would be the ones to escort the landing ships from planet to planet that her fleet left behind in it’s wake, isolated and defenseless from the wider Vral Empire. Fleet escorting was no longer her job, protecting ground invasions were no longer her job. Simmons was positively growling now, as her only job was to take her fleet and use it to rip the vral out of the stars. Still, the thought nagged at her. On both of the planets that her fleet was set to overrun, there were Vral ships in orbit. On the first, there was evidence that the Vral had been bombarding a small area of the surface, extremely similar in size to the hole that now existed on Zvitia, the planet that even now was being integrated into the Terran Front. In the second system it showed Vral ships in orbit, but whatever they were doing during the time they had taken the scans, whatever they were covering up, they didn’t seem to have gotten to it yet. On the radiological scan of the planet a massive bloom of electromagnetic energy painted a broad region of the planet blistering white. She had sent the images back to Earth, back to High Command, but no one seemed to know what was happening. The one thing that every analyst agreed on so far that was that whatever the blooms represented, it meant nothing good. She took another long look at the radiological scan, seeing the intensity of the radiation, and her lip curled in a snarl. She couldn’t think about that right now, but orders had already been given to notify her the moment that they had taken a planet that still bore the radiation signal. The vral were being damned fastidious about it though. She pulled her thoughts away from it, looking back to the hyperspace lanes. The slow grin entered her features again. She glanced at the clock. 1330. Her hand took hold of the receiver next to her station and she pressed the transmission stud, knowing that Hazard had already opened a channel to the wider fleet.
“Commence.”

I've searched and searched for what they mean when they say Taylor has all these queer coded songs even though they're all about a man, with male pronouns.
Please stop 😭 Taylor knows coming out would get her a LOT of attention. The fact she hasn't capitalized on this opportunity tells me she doesn't love women. Very simple.
There's people saying they're gonna tear out their hair if her orange and pink outfit doesn't end up being a lesbian pointer of sorts
Completely ignoring all the LGBT women that are successful, like Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Renee Rapp, even Melanie Martinez if you wanna go that far. Why does it have to be Taylor Swift, arguably the straightest woman alive?

I remember the first time I played War of the Monsters on the PS2 was when my dad brought home a copy of the game and played with me and my siblings. I grew up watching monster movies and instantly loved this game. It has been 20 years since I have first played this, I decided to write this guide in advanced tricks and techniques that I have developed from my experiences playing this game. I hope you enjoy this read and that It increases your appreciation of this hidden gem.
There are many guides online that cover combos, tactics, item placements, boss guides, level guides, cheats, etc. This is not one of those. This will cover more niche and advanced techniques that you can use to enhance your capability in your gameplay.
This guide will be written with the assumption that the control scheme is set at control 'B' which you can set in the pause screen during a game. (I think most people have it set at 'A') It shouldn't effect how these techniques function but something to keep in mind.
This is a work in progress and I will edit this thread as I come across new info and insights into the game.
Glossary: Movement Special Attacks Rage Utility Map Awareness Advanced Combat
\\\\MOVEMENT////////
The monsters in the game have varying movement speeds (running, climbing), jump heights, and flying speeds. However even with the slowest monster you can work around the lack of speed with enough practice utilizing the following methods and the environment to your advantage. Little is more scary than a slow monster like Agamo zooming around your foes mwahaha!

The Dashing Mechanic<<<

As listed in the instruction manual, this allows your monster to sprint at the cost of energy by double-tapping and holding the foward button until expended or pressing the ram button.

Launching<<< You can use the ram button to launch yourself off buildings, ramps, and rock formations to get extra height quickly (a mechanic that the mini game 'Big Shot' is soley based around).

This is particularly useful in maps like baytown where theres a lot of verticality in the environment.

Super Fast Flying<<< This ram mechanic is especially useful for flying monsters like Preytor and Raptros. Executing the dash-ram in conjunction with holding 'x' right after ramming while on the edge of a building or flat surface will result in a blisteringly fast flight speed that gives you better movement and height. Preytor is super fast with this method while Raptros has better airtime and control, though the speed difference is minor. Raptros is my prefrence due to the better airtime, control, and Projectile damage.
Firing projectiles while flying<<< Raptros and Preytor both have the ability to capitalize on their aerial advantage by firing projectiles mid glide. You can accomplish this by performing the glide holding X and while holding glide tap the □ button to fire. This takes energy though so maintaining altitude is key. the most effecient way to do this is to execute the dash>ram>fly combo to get extra speed, glide up over your opponent and lock-on to them to spin like a vulture firing down on your target.
Lock-On Steering<<< You may notice that while dashing, your ability to steer your monster is stiff. This technique will allow you to navigate around all those tight corners on a dime while dashing! This is more tricky to execute because it is depenent on where your opponents are located around you. This is indicated on the HUD as these numbered circles that show the health status of your opponents.

While sprinting using the dash, hold the lock-on button to force your monster to take a tight turn in the direction of the closest target. This is great for adjusting after missing your target.
For simply turning tight corners, simply tap the lock-on button instead while the opponents icons are on the side you want to turn.
There is a brief charge up before a dash, if you time your lock on just before the dash activates, you can pull up to a sharp 180 degree turn on your opponent if you missed the first dash-ram.
There is some wiggle room in the timing to play around with and practice your navigation using this technique.

Building Hopping<<< Every monster has different climbing speeds, some are fast like Kineniclops and Preytor, some are slow such as Agamo and Togera.

Building Hopping is the simple action of jumping while climbing a building. Repeating this cycle of (jump+grab+jump+grab+jump) will do two things:

1. It will add more speed to slower monsters climbing
2. It will reduce your contact to the building by about 80% and greatly reduce the chance of getting knocked down when an opponent is throwing projectiles.

\\\\SPECIAL ATTACKS////////
Every monster has two special attacks at their disposal under two categories; Close range and Long range. This chapter will cover the expansive utility of both types.

Short Range Special<<< Despite the differences in the vibrant animations, all monsters share the short range special attack in common. The only difference between them as far as I can ascertain Is the the time it takes to start up the blast (Ultra V being almost instant and zorgulon Taking 1.5 seconds). The purposes most common is to give yourself space when surrounded or cornered, and to have a quick and strong offense to your opponent knocking them down. However there is more utility in this attack when you think of this as a defensive move.
Invincibility Frames<<< The short range special attack gives you about 2-3 seconds of invincibility frames meaning almost nothing can damage you aside from falling buildings. This is excellent as a defense against thrown objects, explosives, lightning, short and long range special attacks, and environmental hazards.
Long Range Special<<< Every monster has a unique long range special attack that has different effects and ranges. There is more nuance in how you can utilize these attacks, so I will cover each monsters long range special individually so you can make the most out of these attacks:

1. Raptros' Fire Breath Raptros has a unique advantage in regards to how he uses this attack. He can activate it on the ground AND while mid-flight. Additionally, he can fire his projectiles while using his fire breath to squeeze in extra damage (There is a weird glitch where doing this turns the flame invisible, but the effect is still active). This also hinders opponents and catches them on fire.
   
2. Togera's Atomic Breath Similar to 'Raptros's Fire Breath' Togera's Breath has similar range and hinders opponents. The difference is that it deals more damage. You can also fire his projectiles while using his breath for pretty nasty damage.
   
3. Preytor's Flying Leeches Leechs not very damaging by itself, it is a decent threat if you can manage to chain up multiple specials around the map. (Ex. In Metro City there are multiple red orbs, 50% energy, around the buildings and streets where you can chain at least 3 leeches). There are two minor benefits from the leeches: A. It gives the opponent something else to target or focus on A.I. or human B. Can't be blocked unless intercepted by thrown object or shot projectile, or using a special attack, thus resulting in multiplying damage stacks if chained. You can also spread the leeches out by locking on different targets while sending them.
   

*This Special attack is really best used in situations where the opponent won't have time to stop all of the leaches (preferabally up close) followed up with your own projectiles or thrown objects or follow up advances.

1. Congar's Sonic Roar Similar range to Raptros and Togera's Breaths, and Considerable damage and launches opponents far. It can reach through some buildings for full effect. You can also tilt congars head around to spread the roar around to get a wider spread. Opponent can block this attack or counter with a short range special.
   
2. Robo-47's Atomic Missile The most immediately damaging special in the game by far. It also launches opponents far like congars roar. It is very versatile at close range and long range. You can choose to fire quickly or wait to lock on the target for a more likely hit. You can tilt his head down to shoot the ground for a damaging 'short range' blast. You can also cancel the missile by pressing the block button for later use. It cannot be blocked unless opponent uses short range special or dodges.
   
3. Agamo's Head This special is unique in it can be used to farm for more energy considerably fast while weilding it, which in turn stocks you with an additional special when you are ready for the next head or short range attack. Creating an efficient cycle of banking more special attacks. It is damaging and knocks opponents down upon a confirmed hit. It also can be used as a bomb by pressing the long range special button a second time. This isnt great for throwing at enemies from a distance as an explosive, launching opponents. The head when thrown is also super bouncy and ricochets damaging buildings and knocking down opponents all the while gaining you energy.
   
4. Magmo's Eruption This special launches a barrage of fireballs at an opponent and juggles them into the air with good damage followed up with some decent fall damage. This can be paired with a second erruption when chaining with a second special pickup on the map. You can tilt magmo's head up first before locking on an opponent to send the fireballs over obstacles and tyen lock on to your opponent have a better chance to reach them.
   
5. Kineticlops's Lightning storm This is great for crowd control and anti-air with good range. The storm electricutes all nearby monsters in range and launches them upward. This is nice for discouraging flying enemies. You can also flick the lighting up and down for flavor just to show off but it won't do much damage.
   

*Its also nice using this special following a one-two combo of shocking an opponent with a power generator and throwing for a double shock.

1. Zorgulon's UFO Swarm Arguably the weakest of the long range specials, but it is still is fun to use and can be used in creative ways. If you lock-on a target while executing this special (provided they are not behind cover) you will fire this device that hover above the target that calls in ufos to harrass the opponent. The damage is varied based on how many shots are managed by the ufos and when the device is destroyed. There is a charge on the device that when run out releases the ufos and ends the special. This can be shortened if you damage them in any way. Another use is to place them in an area of interest, such as locations with resources like health, energy, or powerups. It is more defensive and punishes opponents for going where you don't want them to go. You can also grab these ufos for a weapon to attack with, gaining more energy or even fire their lasers at the opponent. while not practical is fun.
   
2. Ultra V's Grapple Cable This special does minor damage but can grab and pull an opponent across the map to you and stuns the enemy for a few seconds. This can be really nasty since it allows you options to set up a combo, launch them with a 360 kick, pull them into environmental hazards (bottomless pits, radioactive waste, powerlines, steam, tsunamis, falling buildings). It can be use up close for an easy stun or to take opponents away from reaching resources such as Health, Energy, or powerups. At long ranges it is best used at highground where line of sight is less blocked by obstacles. You can also send the grapple while holding any object for extra damage. The fan favorite method is to use explosives (gasoline truck, airplanes, fuel tanks) for an explosive combo! even if you miss with the grapple the impact of the explosive will hit the opponent if close enough. You can also use the grapple to damage buildings to knock opponents off the walls.
   

\\\\Rage Utility//////// Rage is an interesting mechanic that I think some people overlook as not that useful. It Is available once you collect enough energy that you energy bar flashes, and makes it so your following actions are more effiecient than standard usage. Instead of your energy being used up quickly it is unlimited until the rage runs out. I have not tested if Rage increases your damage output. I have focused this as more a tool for various tactics I came up with.

sprinting with rage<<< using the dash usually expends energy really fast. however with Rage, you can extend the time you can continue you sprint significantly. you can Also dash-ram infinitely until expended, which is scary when used in conjunction with the lock-on steering technique.
Firing projectiles with rage<<< Every monster has projectiles that have unique behaviors, have varying damage and cost. Every monster in general benefits from using rage to shoot more projectiles, the difference is in how you position yourself to shoot them effectively.

Flying monsters can use this to fire even more projectiles while in mid-flight without worrying about losing stamina, the unlimited energy also gives room to reposition the monster if more altitude is needed the damage is also decent from both of them.
Robots like Robo-47 and Ultra V have similar projectiles that pepper small damage but are very rapid. The faster you mash the □ button, the faster the firing rate. when using rage you can catch opponents with little cover and barrage them with a volley of lasers/bullets.
Kineniclops's projectile is unique that it is the slowest but has the most heat seeking property. You can shoot a lot with little cost and it deals decent damage especially if you can land multiple hits with them. with rage you can create an army of these lightning balls at some highground or running and jumping approaching them from different angles makes it hard for them to avoid the stacks in damage.
\\\\Map Awareness//////// This section will cover Map awareness and how to take advantage of the abundant resources in your game. knowing the layout of the map as well as intimately knowing the placement and respawn time of your resources will aid you so much in how you decide to approach the following setups we are about to cover here.

Resources<<< Resources are defined as anything on the map you can pick up that aids you (Health, Energy, Powerups, Items). The location of Health, Energy, and powerups on each map is static, though consistent and respawn after a period of time. Items However can both be static (pieces of a building, rocks, water towers) and dynamic (moving items like cars, helicopters, trains).
chaining resources<<< This is a series of actions that utilizes multiple resources for a desired outcome. (ex. gaining health/energy/damage).

For example, chaining a power transformer lightning bolt+throwing the transformer+radio tower spear impale+gasoline truck = a chain resulting in big damage to your opponent there are many combinations you can chain together with items its devistating when you know exactly when and where an item will be so you can in rapid succession throw items to juggle them from a distance.

chaining specials<<< For example, it is possible to set oneself up to use at least three specials in succesion easily in a map such as atomic island where the reactor in the center can recharge your special rapidly. Think of the possibilities with this alone, thats 3 to 4 flying leechs from preytor at once, 3-4 nuke missiles from robo- 47 and so on. Other maps have instances where if you have a special in stock you can position yourself next to another red orb or 50-100% energy and use a special of your choice and follow it up with an additional special that you subsequentally grab.

\\\\Advanced Combat//////// There are guides out there that cover the specific combos you can pull in sequence and I have a few quick tips to increase your combos, and increase your lethality.

Combo canceling<<< Each monster has varying speeds in execution and amount of hits they cam perform before they end with a launching strike. What I suggest when pursuing higher combos is to simply tap the block button before the launch. Speed is key here so results may vary. such as congar who is more combo focused with fast punches. You can unleash a lot of hits and tap the block button, the follow up with more hits. there is a chance that the opponent will have time to block so it takes practice.

I've put a good few hours into this game and I still feel like I've barely improved any on understanding how things are working. The following are a few bulletin points of points that I'd like greater clarification on.

• Rebels of a puppet you're attempting to annex , you win the war but the rebels break off to form a new nation, despite the fact you literally held both the rebel province and the original.
• Constant subject rebellions , becomes rather disruptive / annoying , preventing diplomatic plays as you have to go stomp out a rebellion that consists of a single disgruntled grandad.
• Naval invasions, seriously; is this just an issue with the game in the current state? When I have a Flotilla of 60 ships and I'm having my invasion stop because the same 5 ship flotilla keeps popping up with each ship having a crew of 5 people , it gets to be a bit clownish. You should be able to "force" a landing attempt if you have overwhelming numbers of ships.
  • Another issue : why are my naval invasions pausing because they psychically know that a flotilla is coming from literally the other side of the world, they seem to wait literal weeks or months to do with the above 5 boats.
  • Another issue x2 : Naval invasions seem to just .... pause ? at points , Naval units are unoccupied , the army assigned has relatively high morale and manpower and organization and yet they'll sit there for weeks before launching the invasion, if ever.
• Armies , is it better to have 1-2 (high rank) officers assigned with "Adamant Defense" / "Pillage" / "Heavy Barrage" , or is it better to just fill up all 4 slots? It seems like if you have multiple officers, whoever is the left most takes priority? E.G. I had an adamant defense and a pillage officer, but the army more or less never attacked, even on fronts where they had rather strong numerical advantage.
  • Armies 2 : Is there a "meta" strategy for handling big nations? I tend to just do adamant defense for a while, let them burn MP and then mop up the rest.
  • Armies 3 : Is there a such thing as an ideal army comp? I tend to just do 50/50 Infantry/Arty or 60-80/40-20% of both
  • Navy : Does the rank of the Admiral matter / does it let them bring more boats into a single engagement , and should I have three admirals, one for Intercept/Raid/Escort?
• Great Powers : Is liberating countries the best way to kneecap the great powers? E.G. Ukraine & Kazan from Russia , I've been liberating but it feels like it's a bit of a double edged sword as some of the countries released can be powerful in their own right and can go against you later.
• Italy : Why the fuck can it annex my Piedmont / Tuscany / Lucca / Modena etc. puppets without even a notification, with the above great power question , Italy just keeps reforming itself, it's incredibly infuriating.
• Conquering : Is it better to actually gain land, or better to puppet them and have them depend on your customs union and pay you a tithe? (Ignoring Infamy costs)
  • On this note , is it better in terms of less infamy to outright take land, or to puppet then annex, I know that annexing puppet's lands costs less infamy, but does the initial puppet cost combined with lowering autonomy etc. make the cost greater in terms of overall infamy generated?
• Economy : It's either nuanced, or I'm dumb or both. I spend a lot of my early game building a couple of construction sectors, Logging camps & Iron Mines , Gold mines if they're there and largely ignoring everything under the agriculture tab and letting the investment pool build farms in the assumption that it'll build things that I'm short on (grain, tobacco, cloth, etc.) ; the only exceptions to this are usually in the case of something like Afghanistan where opium goes brrt. Mid/Late game I tend to build a bunch of Govt. Admin for Bureaucracy for the institutions, and just a bunch of factories : Glass, Paper, Steel etc.
  • GDP Growth and spontaneous dips without any seeming cause , is this normal, am I doing something wrong? This is particularly worrisome to me when I try to play bigger nations : France/Germany/Russia/GB where I can be growing at a fairly steady rate then I just hemmorhage 10-20% GDP in a short fashion, bonus points if I applied a building upgrade that said it'd make money. (no supply shortages)
  • Upgrades to buildings : Seriously, this one confuses me extensively and I can single-handedly cause GB's entirely 200m GDP economy to tank to 80m in a few simple clicks because I decided to tell certain industries to use a steam donkey or sumt.
    • Tall or Wide for industry for EOS , should I just make a few super industrialized counties and just let immigration within the country handle it, or should I spread it out a bit?
    • Should I ever use rail transportation , it seems to have more cons than pros, sure it means less employees needed but in almost every case I've seen, it's not worth it monetarily and population tends to not be much of an issue. (Minus stuff like small nations without conquering or places like the sahara)
    • Refrigeration for fishing/whaling , Livestock ranches in general , anything better than harvesting tools for farms,
  • Trade : Tips in general , importing seems to cost you money even if it says otherwise, and exporting feels rather disconnected.
  • Shipyards : Rather annoying gripe as once you upgrade to Steamers from Clippers you might still need them , leastwise this is true in case you have junior customs members.
  • Arms / Artillery industry : Subsidize during peacetime or just let them sit there empty until war kicks off again? Micromanaging trade for these things considering how short most of the AI wars last, it becomes more tedious than anything.
  • Urban Centers : Do these things just suck? They seem to always be losing money and services even if taxed don't seem to really ever make these things require more than market stalls , let alone any lighting upgrade.
  • Fishing / Whaling : Does this just suck in general? I've barely ever seen these things turn a profit.
  • Treaty ports (Qing) : Do these just let you bypass embargoes?
• Colonies : Are they actually worth it? I like doing it just because it let's me paint the map, and Niger (Delta) can actually be rather useful from my experience as that region has a rather large amount of population and seems fairly easy to integrate into your country.
  • A lot of the small pacific islands under the oceania region feel utterly worthless, they're all very small, low population, have no real interesting resources and all need a port that'll just act as a money sink as the islands will never get enough population to staff them or make it a profitable venture.
  • Colonial administration pros/cons? They don't seem particularly good in general.
• Education : Does literacy matter much? It seems like if you have even a 50% ish rate, qualifications aren't very hard to get filled, secondly how many universities are too many? Should you bother making numerous in high pop states, just a few in say your capital for the innovation bonus (which seems to get capped off rather quickly?)
• Tech : Is it better to research all of a previous row's techs or does it not matter, I read somewhere that if you research a previous row fully, you get a bonus but I haven't seen anything to corroborate that.
• Assimilation / Conversion : How , aside from promoting national values decree?

Clearly what we're doing now is not working. Criminals know there are no real consequences for any crime except mass murder and speeding. With any other crime the criminal is treated as a victim.
Extremely harsh sentences do stop crime. The countries with the least crime are countries such as Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Singapore. This is because the people know they actually cannot commit a crime and get away with it. There are real consequences for their actions.
We should implement a very simple act which mandates capital punishment for crimes such as:

• repeat theft
• repeat burglary
• repeat sexual assault
• repeat assault
• manufacture or distribution of highly addictive and harmful drugs

No cultural reports, no discounts, no confusion. If you ram raid, you will die, guaranteed. I guarantee that serious crime will go to zero immediately. Imagine how much safer our communities would be!
Arguments against:
But capital punishment is more expensive than prison: Yes but there will be far, far, far (almost none) serious crimes committed. The cost savings will be enormous. Prisons can be freed up into rehabilitation centres for people who commit less severe crimes and can be helped.
But it's mean to the poor criminals, we want to foster kindness: This argument really pisses me off. Have you considered the actual victims? It is not kind at all to allow these horrible things to happen to innocent people constantly. Also this would actually stop people from becoming criminals and stop many people from spending their lives in jail. It's kinder to everyone. It is kind.
The point isn't to end the lives of criminals, it's to tell the criminals that serious crimes are no longer accepted. There are real consequences to consider.
If you are not convinced please listen to this wise man who created a very prosperous nation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PXAOZwvv04

I FIRE'd at probably the worst market conditions in a while on Jan 1, 2022. So it's been about 2.5 years.
Here's my net worth numbers, I am renting, so this is all invested in mutual funds. No additional side income. I am assuming a 3% SWR. I'm now 38 years old, single, no kids.

Date	Net Worth	Percent Change	Safe Withdrawal
Jan 2022	3.4M		104k
July 2022	2.8M	-18%	84k
Oct 2022	2.6M	-24%	78k
Nov 2022	2.8M	-18%	85k
Feb 2023	3M	-12%	91k
Dec 2023	3.3M	-3%	101k
March 2024	3.5M	+2%	105k
May 2024	3.6M	+6%	110k

Withdrawals:

• 2022: 15k ( Had cash on hand already )
• 2023: 77k
• 2024: YTD 32k / Estimated: 64-85k

Analysis / Questions
I think the highest my withdrawals would be this year would be 85k. Given that the lowest my SW number went was around 78k I'm thinking this might be a pretty good baseline to try to keep moving forward?
Aside from tracking my withdrawals, I haven't really been tracking my expenses too much. It's been a breath of fresh air to relax and not be so obsessed with the numbers on a weekly or monthly basis. I have a very simple setup for handling my checking and savings accounts with bills and regular spending that I can share in a follow up post if anyone is interested.
For major upcoming life expenses, I'm looking to buy some land out in the country and eventually build a home on it when / if I decide to move further away from the city center. My strategy for doing this will be most likely a personal line of credit that's secured with investments. I think this will end up being less interest than getting a land loan, but i'm not sure yet. One friend suggests only paying interest on this loan & keeping money in the market as long as possible, but idk. I like the idea of paying it off with whatever excess money I have in my capital gains limit and still be at 0% tax.
The area I'm looking at is an up and coming area that's currently experiencing explosive growth, so it seems like a good time to buy now and I'll be thinking of the purchase as an additional investment for now, since I'll still be renting for a few more years. So I'd keep that amount of money in my safe withdrawal calculations. There's a very good chance it'll appreciate as much or more than the stock market in the next 10 years.
Another area that I have a question: I have about 400k in my 401k and with my excess capital gains I can convert some of it to a Traditional IRA and then roll into a Roth IRA. I'm not sure if this is worth doing vs doing a capital gains harvest if we have another up year.
With a capital gains harvest in 2023, I was able to harvest around 20k and reset the cost basis. I think I could have instead converted 20k from my 401k to my Roth and paid around 10% tax on it in order to do that. I'm curious what y'all think is best?
ChatGPT seems to think the best plan is different depending on up and down years. On up years, harvest as much capital gains as possible while also doing a small roth conversion that keeps me in the lowest income tax bracket of 10%. On down years, harvest losses and do larger roth conversions since the losses can be used to offset taxable income and stay within that 10% bracket.
Learnings
- When you transition to FIRE it's very important to turn off re-invest dividends and have them sent straight to your bank account instead. I made a mistake with this in year 1 & 2 and ended up with a wash sale on some of my re-invested dividends. Then just withdraw extra money as needed throughout the year.

• Retire TO something. This has been mentioned a lot on this forum, but I FIRE'd to escape work hell that I was in and didn't have a solid plan for after. I was under too much stress to formulate much of a plan at the time and I paid for it. I spent almost a year in a deep depression. I would recommend figuring out what you want to do with your time while you're still working. Another thing to consider is you can actually do this stuff a little bit while still working, you'll just have more time afterwards! I did eventually start a few fun projects I wanted to try and made some major life changes, so things are looking up this year!
• Have a consulting side business if it makes sense. If you're planning to actually try to work then you want an LLC otherwise it's cheaper to register as a sole proprietorship. It's pretty fun to hop on phone calls and talk about stuff you're interested in. Very low stress, would recommend. I've only done a few, but I would do more. The major benefit of this is you can write off expenses for a bunch of stuff, which allows you to harvest more gains at the end of the year to reset cost basis and save more money on taxes in the long run. It's important to stay very diligent with separating your income / expenses for business vs personal. But this also provides an opportunity to get a ton of credit card points on a business card if you're planning to set up a home office with a new computer and stuff.
• Pay estimated taxes! I messed this one up last year and got a small penalty.

FAQ

• How did I FIRE at an early age? It was due to a startup that blew up. I consider it to be equal parts hard work and luck to be honest. Not everyone at my company got the same payout though. I had negotiated better terms throughout the time I was there, so that's something to keep in mind.
• Do I plan to stay single and no kids? I'm hoping to find another relationship which I expect will increase my expenses a bit. IDK about kids, but I'm assuming that if I do then I'll need to go back to work or lean on my partner's work if they wish to keep working. I'll make that decision once the time comes. Maybe I'll get with someone that FIRE'd at an even higher amount? hahahaha

Thanks for taking the time to read this and sharing your thoughts!