nobody mentioned Long War so i'm mentioning Long War. ever think 30-40hrs wasn't enough for your XCom 2 campaign? ever thought it was kind of immersion breaking that these incredibly well equipped aliens couldn't swat down a ridiculously high-profile smash-n-grab resistance op foolishly headquartered in a single hovercarrier? Long War turns your chaotic gunfight missions into guerilla insertion and extraction missions, broadens your conflict from a months-long to a years-long endeavor, makes it MUCH harder to eject the aliens from earth while simultaneously making it a much slower process for the aliens to complete their doomsday plan, really makes you undertake missions on a global scale as opposed to the one- or two-region conflict that the base game tends to become, extends the available troop roster while forcing you to actually use more than an elite core of troops (because you have way more bases to cover), extends the max troops on a mission from 6 to 12 while allowing the aliens to field a LOT more forces (think 40+ enemies in some situations), making for some really HUGE fights near the endgame. really a spectacular rebuild mod, two thumbs up.

another really good mod for Stellaris is the Star Trek: New Horizons mod, a total conversion mod that was so good paradox got the envy and put out Star Trek: Infinite, which is just their own stab at a total conversion mod for Stellaris except they expect you pay 30 bucks for it, plus DLCs. New Horizons very worth it, give it a shot if you like trek and already have Stellaris

nope, there's some callbacks but no really necessary worldbuilding that isn't contained within skies itself

the deep discounts page is pretty nuts this year, too bad i have everything i want off the list

i picked up terra invicta for 30% off, it's pretty neat. the mod team that did Long War for XCom 2 built a 4x grand strategy with an alien invasion layer to give you a long-term goal beyond simple 'turn map my color' domination. get your research pumping, mine asteroids and the moon, develop a defense fleet to repel the aliens camping out beyond pluto's orbit, all while turning the whole solar system your color!

oops the libification ray built into his bionic knee is running low on batteries

Supreme Court: there are no effective limits on presidential power

Biden: "i will respect the limits of power"

i use aniwave (aniwave dot to) and the subs are fine there

girls band cry is a whole lot of implicit gayness and one good shot of explicitly lebsbiblianism in episode 8. it also just ended this week so it's fresh for the binging

they found something denser than lead

acute malarkey shortage artificially sustained by federal malarkotics bureau interference with private malarkey industry production chains in bullshit-rich sectors of the market

you will be praised once (1 time (uno)) upon the moment of the completion of your one millionth dodge roll

he was cursed by the evil fox deity that inhabits rupert murdoch's corpse

the fruit of the nutbird vine (invasive species, cognitohazardous)

sir your vehicle has testicular cancer

the disassociated lefty to painfully insightful doomer girlboss pipeline is measured down the length of a needle full of estrogen going into a thigh

found too infirm to stand trial

sorry kamala, he already did

gimme da gril pil

the resemblance is uncanny

getting a low back tattoo CW LEWD BUTT

without a big x or a red cross through the hand how am I, Everyman Amerikanski, supposed to know the pear is not for me?

oh this one's a gem, a real "Pluto's Pluto" ya know?