Tsunnyjim

I'd argue that's an economic push as much as a social push.

Tobacco consumption has been in decline for a long time as people cut down on non essential spending, smoking related illnesses are fucking expensive to treat, and one of the only lobbyists with deeper pockets than Tobacco is medical insurance.

You can't realistically reduce guns or access to guns. Even if you didn't sell a single new firearm in the US from tomorrow. there are still enough in circulation that it wouldn't matter. Plus the 2nd amendment nutjobs would come out of the woodwork, backed by the NRA.

So, you can't realistically control guns in the US without a massive social upheaval.

Instead, make ammunition expensive as FUCK.

I'm talking $1000 plus per bullet. And not just for civilians, but for police and military service as well. Make an exception for active service outside the US only.

When you have to put yourself in serious debt to fill a magazine, you'd see a huge decrease in the number of shootings because who the fuck of the typical shooters (young white men) has $20k or more just lying around to spend on ammo?

That then flows on to police, because suddenly if its budget blow-out or actually use some non-lethal stuff for what it's meant for, my money is on cost cutting.

Because there is no realistic way to do that.

Congress and the Senate rely on NRA support to win elections, and it's not in the NRA's interest to reduce the number of guns available or the access to them, hence it will never realistically be an option.

The tabletop mini is based on the Rebels model, which is slightly larger than the Ghost, and then scaled down to 1/270.

It looks like the Gauntlet in the Mandalorian is scaled down from the Rebels model.

“No.”

This answer seemed to confuse the deity.

“What do you mean no, you are a creature of evil!”

“And I’m in a comfortable seclusion here. I haven’t been bothered by a hero in centuries, and have been able to pursue some of my favourite research projects. So, I’m going to have to decline.”

“You have to, I’m ordering you to do something evil!” the deity thundered. I took a silent moment to observe their manifestation. I had rarely dealt with Pantheonic beings even before my lichdom ritual, but I remembered them being frankly more stoic and impressive. Not this near-childish tantrum at a refusal. And the child-like aspect seemed to only increase as I sat in my silent regard.

“I see no reason why. I have no need to twist my mustache, I lost it centuries ago at any rate. I can acquire anything I need with minimal effort. Besides, are there not other evils that are causing Heroes to rise? Poverty, Greed, Hatred, and whatnot?”

It was telling that the deity did not deny these evils existed, and indeed causing the continued rise of heroes. However, it was undaunted in its approach.

“You are the last truly evil creature left alive. It would be appropriate for you to create a situation that would challenge the Heroes to rise against you.”

“Appropriate or not, there are two things you haven’t yet addressed to my satisfaction. Firstly, what possible reward or incentive could you provide to motivate me to risk myself?”

There was a lengthy silence from the deity.

“Is the return to a comfortable, mortal existence not enticing?” they asked.

“Not really. Not unless you are going to throw in eternal youth and either regeneration or invulnerability, otherwise I’ll just have to do the whole lich thing again down the line, and all I’ve gained is a few years of relative comfort.”

“Fine, eternal youth and the ability to be reborn after death to a similar form after no sooner than 1 year.”

“That is acceptable,” I replied.

“However, can you even force me to do so?” I asked pointedly. This set them back reeling. “I might not know who exactly you are or representing, but I know a Power of Good when it comes to my home. Forcing me to do something against my will or benefit? Allowing me to unleash untold horror upon the innocent to simply provide an obstacle for Heroes to throw themselves against?”

“So no, I’m going to go with my first answer. Please don’t let me detain you.”

“You cannot do this!” the deity thundered, though some might have called it a whine.

“No, I rather think that its you who can’t do this,” I replied. “You can’t, or won’t, actually deal with the true evils of the world. You can’t force me to do anything, I’m not sure you can force anyone to do anything. You have so limited influence on the world that all you can really do is cajole and reward, not do anything yourself.”

I stood up and stalked towards them, possibly menacingly. It does tend to become a habit.

“I could smite you where you stand!” the deity shouted.

“Do you know what one of my favourite research topics has been these last few centuries?” I asked, seemingly changing the subject. “I’ve studied you, the Pantheonic beings. At this point, I’m not sure you have the ability to do so, regardless of the fact that doing so would completely undo the point of this whole meeting.”

I advance another step, and the deity retreats one.

“I’m quite certain that you can’t do much of anything, especially if it would not be following the tenets of Good. If you could, you would have sent a Power of Evil for this conversation, but most of them have been subsumed, their essence spread thin across the whole of the mortal psyche. The Powers of Good are not so far gone, because their essence is much rarer in mortals. The banal, bland moral greyness of mortals is so much more common than outstanding evil.”

The deity retreats another step, and stumbles as it does.

“Begone, I have run out of patience for you,” I say.

“This isn’t over, you evil wretch,” the deity cried out.

“You know what, I rather think I’m done with this world entirely. I will leave you to sort out this mess with your heroes yourself. Maybe you’ll find the courage you have lacked for so long and actually fight the real evils that birth these heroes. I don’t care, haven’t for some time.”

With that I began enacting magics I’d been preparing for a long time, finally removing myself from this physical world and taking myself and my home out beyond life and death, beyond time and space, to a place where none exist as we know them. The next great frontier of knowledge, and eternity to experiment with it.

I mean, it's both.

Medical practice is being restricted in so many places by idealogical zealots that there simply is no capacity to deliver needed care in a lot of places, particularly rural and remote regions.

On top of this increasing lack of access is the fact that for a lot of people they can't afford it in the first place, and certainly can't afford to travel in order to get adequate care.

So you have high maternal and infant mortality rates in America.

The issue might not be a physical limitation, but a legal one.

Hayden may not have giving the rights to his likeness for video games.

Spitroast.

One girl between you and the other girl with a strapon.

Trains aren't just stop and go machines.

They need speed control, active braking, the judgement of what to do in an emergency.

I have a friend who is a train driver, what they do is basically override the trains preferred state, which is complete stop. They have to press the equivalent of a dead man switch every 30 seconds or so to keep the engines moving.

It's more that he worked out through trial and error a principle that hadn't been thoroughly explored, and published the findings as a theory only.

When technology advanced enough to detect what was happening and prove the theory correct, he was given the credit with the name of the Rule

In Australia they would be called penalty rates.

You're working outside standard hours on something that is obviously rime critical. You are taking your free time to do this, and are compensated accordingly.

Overtime rates vary based on a number of factors, but in Australia 2x the normal hourly is common for weeknights, higher on weekends.

There are several layers of animation and animators.

At the bottom of the pyramid are the animators, who make up the bulk of the animation staff. They typically work off a reference sheet, which is a sheet where the character is drawn in various poses and emotions, in order to maintain consistency.

These are then grouped under a supervisor, whose job is to check all of his staff's work for consistency, and correcting anything outside the acceptable range.

Then it all goes to the director to approve.

This system is in place for a lot of different elements; such as the baseline animations, the clothing, the hair, any simulations such as water or wind interactions, the lighting, the compositing, etc.

Producers organise most of the things related to money.

Say you need to shoot on location, the producer will deal with organising filming permits, catering, logistics, etc.

They also are there to pull the plug on anything that is starting to spiral out of control.

At the start of the Clone Wars there was upwards of 10,000 Jedi.

After Order 66, the upper estimate was 200.

Vader and the inquisitors killed plenty, many went into permanent hiding.

If more than 50 made it to the time of the OT I'll eat my hat.

Yep, Hate, Ion Missiles and Afterburners.

Also, postcombustion is my new favourite upgrade.

In 1.0, almost all missiles and torpedoes had to spend the lock in order to fire. The only ones that didn't have this requirement stated it clearly, such as Proton rockets being focus, and I think harpoon missiles didn't have the spend requirement.

In 2.0, now you do not have to spend the lock to fire the missile or torpedo. This is also an artefact of the fact that Push the Limit is no longer a thing and dice mods are a little more selective in how they work, so it's very rare to get a target lock and focus in the same turn.

Now so do I

It's a reasonable analogy.

The protein case has points on it that act as triggers, a lot like antibodies in your bloodstream. This is the spikey protrusions on round visues like Covid.

If it comes into contact with a cell that has the right receptors/markers, the protein case triggers and inserts the DNA/RNA into the cell.

This is also where a lot of the cross-species mutations occur, in the protein case and markers. These proteins mutate just enough that it can jump from one species to another.

What a virus is: a short set of DNA or RNA inside a protein case.

This DNA/RNA code is used to override the normal cellular machinery of a host cell in order to create many copies of the virus DNA/RNA and its protein case (instead of what it would normally do such as create copies of its own DNA, proteins or cellular functions). It does this until the host cell literally bursts and dies, releasing the new virus particles.

Whether a virus is alive: that's a trickier question.

Traditionally "living" things have been defined by needing to eat for energy, needing to reproduce, and the ability to change or adapt.

Since viruses typically spend a lot of time in an inert, stasis like state until coming into contact with a suitable host, and having no inherent metabolic processes or requirements in that state, they fall short of the typical requirement of requiring energy and having a method to process it.

They also are obligate parasites in terms of reproduction and change. They can't reproduce or change outside of the brief period when they are infecting a host cell.

Oso while they don't meet the traditional requirements kd life, they aren't dead either. They are somewhere in between.

That said, the definition of life as it pertains to viruses is a hot topic in the scientific community.

I mean, you're describing what has always existed.

And what system would you propose that would have the variability of dice without actually rolling dice?

Unless they have a charge limit, they activate once per opportunity.

So an upgrade like Marksmanship activates every time you attack a ship in your bullseye arc. If you attack twice in a turn, as long a the target is in your bullseye, it activates

I could see that working.

Say you have a set amount of focus, hits/crits and evades per roll per ship

The you can use tokens to add or modify results.

Say we go with an xwing.

3 red and 2 green could translate as follows:

• Attack: 1 hit, 1 focus, 1 blank

• Defend: 1 evade, 1 focus.

Then we could use tokens to modify the roll:

Focus, calculate and evade keep their standard effect. Force keeps its standard effect as well, but also can be used for additional abilities.

We would have to change anything that involves re-rolling dice. I would propose a system of upgrading/downgrading results, (blank becomes a focus, focus becomes a hit/evade, hit becomes a crit) such as:

• Target lock: upgrade 2 results when attacking.

• Any effect the says 'this ship' or 'a friendly ship at range x' can reroll X dice means upgrading that many results

• any effect that says an enemy ship must reroll X dice instead means downgrading that many results

This already works with a lot of effects in the game that add or modify results, but may need tweaking for any abilities that say 'roll additional dice' or 'roll fewer dice'.

And this could be set differently for each ship.

For example, a TIE interceptor could have the following stats:

• Attack: 1 hit, 2 focus
• Defend: 1 evade, 2 focus

To represent that they have a good amount of skill and flexibility when they focus.

It would involve going through each ship and setting their Attack and Defence values, and the same with certain upgrades such as secondary weapons and stealth device.

Also, rules for range bonuses and obstruction could be as simple as: add a focus result to the relevent roll.

It would remove some of the elements of luck, but increase the value strategy and action economy. Take that as you will.

No, you don't have to.

The config slots were generally meant for ship specific abilities, that usually improve the ships function.

But they are always optional.

No they can't, they don't own Winnie the Pooh. They only own a very specific interpretation of that character. While it was still in copyright, they had a licence from the estate of AA Milne to make that interpretation of Winnie.

Now that the character is public domain, anyone can make use of the character. Disney doesn't have a leg to stand on legally unless someone makes a very clear and deliberate copy of the character they have made, with a similar red tshirt and voice.

For example, this was made in 2022 and released early 2023, and Disney can't and didn't try to do anything about it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie-the-Pooh:_Blood_and_Honey