Recent posts

#41

Gaming HQ / Re: Europa Universalis V confi...

Last post by Sophie Scholl - October 07, 2025, 12:15:40 PM

I don't think I have since EU2 either. Weird. I usually find the end game just... less interesting. Usually everything is blobbed up, ahistorical, and only kept vaguely in check by me playing time cop and keeping things even in that marginally viable level by taking out the worst blobbers.

#42

Off the Record / Re: Youtube Recommendations

Last post by Valmy - October 07, 2025, 11:07:26 AM

Act 3 of Baldur's Gate III is such a slog though

#43

Gaming HQ / Re: Europa Universalis V confi...

Last post by Valmy - October 07, 2025, 11:00:43 AM

I have to admit, I have never finished an EU game

I used to all the time in EU1 and EU2 but now it is just ridiculous how long it takes to get through a few years. That was my biggest complaint about EU3, the game goes too damn slow. I have thousands of hours of CK2 and I only played to the end date once...when I started in 1337.

And I was not alone either. AARs regularly ran to the end of the game back in the EU1 and EU2 era.

#44

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by grumbler - October 07, 2025, 09:49:46 AM

I hadn't realised it was basically a bit like the argument against nukes.

I think that I have made that point here previously. Radar changed that calculus, but almost no one (outside of the UK) realized that until mid-war.

#45

Gaming HQ / Re: Europa Universalis V confi...

Last post by Baron von Schtinkenbutt - October 07, 2025, 09:39:52 AM

Other than maybe one Stellaris game I don't think I have ever finished a Paradox grand strategy game.  I typically get bored after I either hit a local maxima where I can't do anything other than maintain my position and make numbers go up, or I get so powerful that nobody can stop me and growing just becomes a tedious chore.

#46

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Baron von Schtinkenbutt - October 07, 2025, 09:36:05 AM

Is there social housing in the US?

Yes, but it's handled at a local level so is very unevenly distributed.  The New York City Housing Authority is likely the largest, though it has its issues.

#47

Gaming HQ / Re: Europa Universalis V confi...

Last post by crazy canuck - October 07, 2025, 09:35:49 AM

I have to admit, I have never finished an EU game

#48

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by The Brain - October 07, 2025, 08:58:21 AM

The issue where tenants with eviction history can't find an apartment is also part of a much bigger problem not tied to homelessness.  It's one of the older AI problems I was always concerned about, where many seemingly independent actors all buy a vendor solution, and in effect become a monopolist even without intending to do so.

At individual level, it makes sense to screen out tenants with a bad "tenant score", whatever the reasons happen to be.  At a collective level, though, people who fall on the wrong side of the model, either for good reasons, or for reasons of being an unlucky residual, get frozen out of the market entirely.  Previously you may find some luck with some landlord, but if all of them now use same or similar solutions to screen out potential nightmare tenants, then these potential nightmare tenants are fucked.

In car insurance, we have insurers of last resort or risk pools, because we understand that even justifiably bad risks often need a car to functional in a US society.  That's why there are various schemes to force insurers to deal with them, even if all the good models as well as common sense tells us they're a loss.  I think it's way past time the same concept was extended to housing, or access to financial services.

Is there social housing in the US?

#49

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by HVC - October 07, 2025, 08:51:19 AM

They don't fear and mock the losers of society, they rely on them for their votes. They fear and mock the different and use them as  a means of uniting said losers.

[I think it's way past time the same concept was extended to housing, or access to financial services.]

#50

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by mongers - October 07, 2025, 08:28:55 AM

The issue where tenants with eviction history can't find an apartment is also part of a much bigger problem not tied to homelessness.  It's one of the older AI problems I was always concerned about, where many seemingly independent actors all buy a vendor solution, and in effect become a monopolist even without intending to do so.

At individual level, it makes sense to screen out tenants with a bad "tenant score", whatever the reasons happen to be.  At a collective level, though, people who fall on the wrong side of the model, either for good reasons, or for reasons of being an unlucky residual, get frozen out of the market entirely.  Previously you may find some luck with some landlord, but if all of them now use same or similar solutions to screen out potential nightmare tenants, then these potential nightmare tenants are fucked.

In car insurance, we have insurers of last resort or risk pools, because we understand that even justifiably bad risks often need a car to functional in a US society.  That's why there are various schemes to force insurers to deal with them, even if all the good models as well as common sense tells us they're a loss. I think it's way past time the same concept was extended to housing, or access to financial services.

Look luck with that in trumpistan and that builds on as system that seems to need some obvious losers, to both fear and mock.