I’m watching The Bachelorette (DVR’d it) and on Hannah and Tyler’s last date when Tyler greets her with “hey girl,” my google home goes “okay, check out this playlist” AND STARTS PLAYING BETTER BY KHALID. I mean, if that’s not a sign I don’t know what is.

Me: Hey Google, play music in master bedroom.
GHM: Sorry, I can't find a location named master bathroom.
Me: Hey Google, play Better by Khalid
GHM: Sure MILK SHAKE on Spotify, playing on Marshall Woburn
🤦🏽

I started playing Baldur's Gate II when I was 8 or 9 and instantly fell in love with it. It is the game I think of whenever I think about videogames, especially RPGs. I must have spent thousands of hours and dozens of playthroughs on it. I'd never played the first game: my older brother had bought the 2nd one standalone, and the story was pretty easy to catch up on.
But I'd always wondered what I'd missed, so I decided to give it a shot. Bought BGEE a few weeks back and powered through as a Paladin. I took Jaheira & Khalid (had always wondered about their dynamic together), Imoen, Xan, and Rasaad. Just killed Sarevok last night, and thought I'd share my thoughts.

Banter & Voice Acting

This was by far the biggest difference I noticed. Outside of NPC introductions and the most dramatic moments, there was really very little voice acting, and I was devastated to learn there's no significant banter between the NPCs in your party. My favorite part of BGII was always the characters, their reactions to what you do, and the arguments/discussions they'd prompt between themselves. Without that, BGEE felt like...just another generic RPG, I guess.
More than anything, it just drove home to me how much extra love and effort went into BGII. That commitment to dialogue (and good dialogue, at that!) elevated the sequel to a new level, and the characters seem so believable and lovable as a result. In the following 20 years of video games, the only game I've seen come close to this dedication to banter & dialogue is my recent playthrough of Hades...and that's probably why I loved the game so much.

World Size

After I'd played BGII so many times, it makes sense that the maps would feel a little small and predictable. But even still, I'd always wished there was a bit more "empty space" in BGII -- everything felt a little too compact.
Having now played the original, I wonder if that compactness was an overcorrection from the first game. There is SO MUCH WILDERNESS in this game! I did enjoy the exploration, but it started to get old as I had to devise a methodical search pattern in each map to cover every square inch in order to find the next plot point.
I did enjoy having to work my way through the Cloakwood maps to get to the mine - I think the only time in BGII you have to cross directly through one map to fast-travel to another is the City Gate. I understand why they stripped this tedious part down, but it feels like they went a little too far in the other direction with the sequel.

Difficulty

Holy crap, the early levels of BGEE are brutal. I played on Core Rules and got my butt handed to me, time and again, and not a single one of my usual BGII strategies seemed to work. It took some innovation to survive, but mostly it felt like a mixture of cheap/cheesy strategies and relying on luck. It's given me a deeper appreciation for how hard the early levels are in every edition of D&D, and made me miss starting at 7 or 8 in Irenicus's dungeon. I didn't get Stoneskin the entire game!
Things got better, but I ultimately had to cheese the final few fights with summoned decoys and abuse of ranged weapons. Who thought it was a good idea to give the enemies Arrows of Detonation? I assume that's an Enhanced Edition change to make things harder. I was not a fan.

Storytelling

Again, this mostly just made me realize how much care went into BGII. So many moments that I'd expected to be dramatic just sort of...happened. People said things so quickly, repeated information you had already, and gave you flat instructions that you were supposed to blindly follow. So many NPCs teleporting me places against my will! Talk about railroading.
The confrontation with Sarevok was especially disappointing: BGII had built him up as a huge scary badass, and he got, what, 10 lines of dialogue in the whole game? I'd expected him to play a much bigger part, just like I'd expected the city of Baldur's Gate to be more of a central base, like Athkatla was...maybe Baldur's Gate also had that intrigue, but it came too late in the gameplay, and by the time I reached the city I was tired of fetch quests and was just plowing through to the ending.
The chapter break narrations were good, and it's fun to see the main character slowly realize their murderous heritage through those prophetic dreams. But nothing was more of a letdown than the ultimate reveal that you're a Child of Bhaal -- coming in a letter left among Gorion's possessions? You just read it? That's it? It's not even particularly well-written! Why not have Sarevok do that reveal? He could've appeared in the Candlekeep prison, for instance.

Favorite parts

This is all starting to sound like I hated BGEE -- I didn't! It was quite enjoyable, and I'm thankful for the chance to learn the whole story. It was also very fun to have new & unique fights. My favorite was probably running the dungeon under Candlekeep, where the doppelgangers imitate everyone you grew up with and yell out personal attacks as they try to murder you. Very fun, even chilling at moments!
As I said before, the trek through Cloakwood was also a fun way to simulate searching the woods, and I generally appreciated the openness of the world. I didn't ultimately explore every Hills or Forests map, but I always enjoyed the artwork.
Finally, I liked how cheery and even outright sassy Imoen was in this game. For the first time, I actually realized how much of a character change she underwent from her trauma at Irenicus's hands, and it's given me much more appreciation for her almost...melancholy disposition in BGII. She used to be so bombastic, and while she's still a good & caring person, her experiences have left deep scars.

Final thoughts

Ultimately, I enjoyed BGEE, but I'm not sure I'll replay it the way I replay BGII over and over. It's nice to know the backstory, but the way those pieces are introduced in BGII was also very well done, so I don't really feel like I missed much.
I'm looking forward to importing my character and Rasaad into BGII:EE when I buy that (can I get a "whoop whoop" for finally completing the Golden Pantaloons easter egg quest?!?). I suppose I'll go back to before the final fight and play through the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion material as well. Not sure if Siege of Dragonspear is necessary/worthwhile, so I'd appreciate people's thoughts on that.
Thanks for listening to me ramble! Baldur's Gate II remains my favorite RPG of all time, and I'm thankful for the Enhanced Editions that improve the experience so much and give me a chance to easily play all the material that's available. Looking forward to playing more in the weeks to come!

I personally live through music and can find any song to express how I am feeling. I just wanted to share a lot of songs that may help or help you cope with a breakup/breakups. Songs that can help you express your feelings of sadness, grief, anger, gaining your power back, betrayal, lost, and confusion. I personally have gone through all these emotions and thoughts.
I would also love to hear what songs have helped/has been helping you through your breakup. So if any suggestions come to mind please share and I can add on to the list! Also, if you want any songs that do not even relate to breakups then just ask!
I also have tons of more music that I did not put on this list, so ask if you want more! And sorry for any repeats or mistakes. I wrote this post on separate days.
Songs that helped/helps me through breakups:

Sad Songs:

Pop:

1. I Can't Breath- Bea Miller
2. You Don't Know- Katelyn Tarver
3. How Can you Mend a Broken Heart- Bee Gees
4. She's Not Me, Pt. 1&2- Zara Larsson
5. Shattered- Backstreet Boys
6. Should've Been Us- Tori Kelly
7. Does It Feel- Charlie Puth
8. Who Am I Standing in Your Way- Chester See
9. Dangerously- Charlie Puth
10. Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)- Roxette
11. One of Us- ABBA
12. Tequila- Dan+Shay
13. Getting Over You- Lauv
14. The Lonely- Christina Perri
15. I Really Don't Know Anymore- Christopher Cross
16. Just A Dream- Nelly
17. Too Much To Ask- Niall Horan
18. The Other- Lauv
19. I Don't Wanna Live Forever- ZAYN & Taylor Swift
20. Lonely Girl- Symon
21. Dancing on My Own- Calum Scott
22. How Do We Make It- Jarryd James
23. Happier- Ed Sheeran
24. Payphone (Feat. Wiz Khalifa)- Maroon 5
25. In My Blood- Shawn Mendes
26. Reforget- Lauv
27. Breathe- Lauv
28. I Wanna Know (feat. Bea Miller)- NOTD
29. You Ruin Me- The Veronicas
30. Chasing Fire- Lauv
31. Closure- Jack & Jack
32. Youngblood- 5 Seconds of Summer
33. Want You Back- 5 Seconds of Summer
34. I Don't Want to Know- Sigrid
35. Amnesia- 5 Seconds of Summer
36. Hurts So Good- Astrid S
37. I Don't Wanna Know- Astrid S
38. How- Katherine McPhee
39. Broken- Brooke Butler
40. Stitches- Shawn Mendes
41. Come to This- Natalie Taylor
42. Somebody Told Me- Charlie Puth
43. Stone Cold- Demi Lovato
44. You Don't Do It For Me Anymore- Demi Lovato
45. River of Tears- Alessia Cara
46. Find What You're Looking For- Olivia O'Brien
47. Ashes (From Deadpool 2)- Celine Dion
48. Growing Pains- Maria Mena
49. Feelings Fade (feat. RKCB)- gnash
50. Bracelet- Lauv
51. Never Not- Lauv
52. Burning- Sam Smith
53. I'm Not the Only One- Sam Smith
54. If I Could Turn Back Time- Cher
55. Say Something I'm Giving Up on You- Sam Redden
56. Tell Me Why- Taylor Swift
57. It's Not Love- Imalive
58. Safe- Britt Nicole
59. Let You Go- Leroy Sanchez
60. Growing Pains- Alessia Cara
61. Face In The Hall- The Naked Brothers Band
62. Long Way to Happy- P!nk
63. Big Girls Cry- Sia
64. How Do You Sleep?- Jesse McCartney
65. Ordinary World- Katharine McPhee
66. Better Off Alone- Katharine McPhee
67. Never Love Again (feat. Jussie Smollett)- Empire Cast
68. Falling Stars- David Archuleta
69. Lights Off- Jay Sean
70. For the Lover That I Lost- Celine Dion
71. How Do You Sleep?- Lizzy Marella
72. Nostalgic- Rosie
73. Gone To Soon- Simple Plan
74. No Love- Simple Plan
75. The Worst Day Ever- Simple Plan
76. Better Off Alone- Ryan Pulford
77. Stitches- Shawn Mendes
78. Colder- Nina Nesbitt
79. My Heart- Christopher
80. What a Time (feat. Niall Horan)- Julia Michaels
81. Feeling of Falling- Cheat Codes & Kim Petras
82. Easier- 5 Seconds of Summer
83. Death By A Thousand- Taylor Swift
84. Cruel Summer- Taylor Swift
85. Colorblind- Mokita
86. Nightmare- Lillian Hepler
87. Strangers- Lillian Hepler
88. Even If It Hurts- Lillian Hepler
89. Downpour- Backstreet Boys
90. In Pieces- Backstreet Boys
91. Dancing With Your Ghost- Sasha Sloan

Alternative:

1. Hurts Like Hell- Fleurie
2. Boulevard of Broken Dreams- Green Day
3. Everglow- Coldplay
4. Sorry- Aquilo
5. Bloom- Lewis Capaldi
6. Don't Stay- X Ambassadors
7. You'll Be Okay- Michael Schulte
8. Falling Apart- Michael Schulte
9. I'm in Love Without You- Finneas
10. Twice- Christina Aguilera
11. Tangled Up- Parade of Lights
12. Dangerous Game (feat. Beginners)- Klergy
13. Fallingwater- Maggie Rogers
14. Carry You- Novo Amor
15. It's Not Love- Lontalius
16. The Story Never Ends- Lauv
17. Enemies- Lauv
18. Come Back Home- Lauv
19. Graffiti- CHVRCHES
20. Deliverance-CHVRCHES
21. My Enemy (Feat. Matt Berninger)- CHVRCHES
22. Really Gone- CHVCHES
23. Wonderland- CHVRCHES
24. All out of Love- Air Supply
25. Middle Finger- Phoebe Ryan x Quinn XCII
26. Hell- Chelsea Cutler
27. The Breakup- LANY
28. Visions- Dirty Heads
29. Thru These Tears- LANY
30. All Good Things (Comes to an End)- Nelly Futado
31. You Get What You Give- New Radicals
32. Loveless- X Ambassadors
33. Loveless- The Pale White
34. Eyes Closed- Halsey
35. Skinny Love- Birdy
36. IN MY REMAIN- LINKIN PARK
37. Easier To Run- LINKIN PARK
38. Heavy- LINKIN PARK
39. Nobody Can Save Me- LINKIN PARK
40. My Paper Heart- The All-American Rejects
41. The Poison- The All-American Rejects
42. Too Far Gone- The All-American Rejects
43. Fallin' Apart- The All-American Rejects
44. The Wind Blows- The All-American Rejects
45. Heart Attack- Sum 41
46. Makeshift- Good Charlotte
47. Victims of Love- Good Charlotte
48. Break Apart Her Heart- Good Charlotte
49. All Black- Good Charlotte
50. Broken Heart Parade- Good Charlotte
51. Cold Song- Good Charlotte
52. Old Flames- Coheed and Cambria
53. Heartbreaker- Bad Suns
54. Take My Love and Run- Bad Suns
55. Dancing On Quicksand
56. Salt- Bad Suns
57. Fools Gold- Fitz and The Tantrums
58. House On Fire- Fitz and The Tantrums
59. Picking' Up the Pieces- Fitz and The Tantrums
60. I Don't Wanna Love You Anymore- LANY
61. Numb- Meg Myers
62. Someone You Loved- Lewis Capaldi

Country:

1. I Can't Make You Love Me- Bonnie Raitt
2. Getting Over You- Jackie Lee
3. Let It Hurt- Rascal Flatts
4. Her World or Mine- Michael Ray
5. Buddy- Willie Nelson
6. As You Turn Away- Lady Antebellum
7. What Hurts the Most- Rascal Flatts
8. Memory I Don't Mess With- Lee Brice
9. Wish You'd Miss Me- CHASE WRIGHT
10. Die From A Broken Heart- Maddie & Tae
11. The Moment I Knew- Taylor Swift

Dance:

1. Bloodstream- The Chainsmokers
2. Cold as Stone (feat. Charlotte Lawrence)
3. Over My Head- Echosmith
4. Deep End- KREAM
5. Let You Go (Great Good Fine Ok)- The Chainsmokers
6. Happy Now- Zedd & Elley Duhe
7. Remind Me to Forget- Kygo & Miguel
8. Happier- Marshmello & Bastille
9. Drown (feat. Clinton Kane)- Martin Garrix
10. Listen to Your Heart- DHT
11. Breaking Me- Topic & A7S
12. Good Things Fall Apart- Illenium & Jon Bellion

Electronic:

1. You Can't Always Get What You Want- Ituana
2. Crawl Outta Love (feat. Annika Wells)- Illenium
3. Sound of Walking Away- Illeniums & Kerli
4. Too Far Gone (feat. Anna Clendening)- Lost Kings

Hard Rock/Rock:

1. Hiding My Heart- Adele
2. I Walk Alone- Tarja
3. The Chain- Fleetwood Mac
4. Go Your Own Way- Fleetwood Mac
5. Broken Strings- James Morrison
6. Left Alone- blink-182
7. Actual Pain- Good Charlotte
8. Open Up Your Eyes- Daughtry
9. September- Daughtry
10. Ghost of Me- Daughtry
11. Learn My Lesson- Daughtry
12. No Surprise- Daughtry
13. Life After You- Daughtry
14. Deep End- Daughtry
15. It's Not Love- Dokken
16. She's Broken (He's Ok)- Marissa
17. Our Love Is Dead- Harry Drake
18. Let You Go- Grace Potter
19. Love Gone- The Felix
20. Lovers and Enemies- The Felix
21. Life to Fix- The Record Company
22. Bittersweet Memories- Bullet for My Valentine
23. Gone- Daughtry
24. Torches- Daughtry
25. Call Your Name- Daughtry
26. This Ain't a Love Song- Bon Jovi
27. Here Without You- 3 Door Down
28. Going Down in Flames- 3 Doors Down
29. Trying Not to Love You- Nickelback
30. Torn to Pieces- Pop Evil
31. sticks + stones- Jaris Johnson
32. Careless Whisper- Seether
33. Broken (feat Amy Lee)
34. Forever- Papa Roach
35. Save Our Last Goodbye- Disturbed
36. Lost in the Crowd- Shinedown
37. Angel- Theory of a Deadman
38. Love Me or Leave Me- Three Days Grace
39. Nothing to Lose But You- Three Days Grace
40. Drown- Three Days Grace
41. Take Me Under- Three Days Grace
42. Broken Glass- Three Days Grace
43. Last to Know- Three Days Grace
44. Without You- Three Days Grace
45. Wicked Game- Three Days Grace
46. Someday- Nickelback
47. Home-Nickelback
48. Breakeven (Falling to Pieces)- The Script
49. The Man Who Can't Be Moved- The Script

Hip-Hop/Rap:

1. Just A Dream- Nelly
2. Goodbyes (feat. Young Thug)

Metal:

1. Wither- Dream Theater
2. Another Day- Theater

R&B/Soul:

1. Nobody Knows- The Tony Rich Project
2. Cold Little Heart- Michael Kiwanuka
3. Bet Ain't Worth the Hand- Leon Bridges
4. It's Over Now- Tedy
5. Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart- Alicia Keys
6. Carry On (Her Letter to Him)- Ne-Yo
7. Either (feat. Zara Larsson)
8. Shot Down- Khalid
9. 1 SIDED LOVE- blackbear

SingeSong Writer:

1. Such A Simple Thing- Ray LaMontagne
2. You- Callum James
3. Been a Long Day- Rosi Golan
4. Antidote- Faith Marie
5. Life Moves On- Finneas
6. Break My Heart Again- Finneas
7. Let You Go- Will Reagan & United Pursuit
8. Always- Gavin James
9. Be Alright- Dean Lewis
10. Hurricane- Heather Morgan
11. Fix It to Break it- Clinton Kane
12. Lost- Dermot Kennedy
13. Broken (feat. Daniel Gonzales)- Jake Dexter

K-Pop:

1. KILLING ME- iKON
2. JUST GO- iKON
3. GOODBYE ROAD- iKON

Soundtrack:

1. How's the World Treating You- Daniel Agee
2. The Winner Takes It All- ABBA & Siobban McCarthy
3. I'll Try (feat. KJ Apa)- Riverdale Cast
4. I Know Him So Well- Elaine Paige & Barbara Dickson
5. Burn- Andra Day
6. You Will Always Find Me In Your Heart- Christopher Lennertz & Shaley Scott
7. Gotta Go My Own Way- Troy & Gabriella Montez
8. Angel Eyes- Christine Baranski, Julie Walters & Amanda Seyfried
9. So Far (feat. Arnor Dan)- Olafur Arnalds

Angry Songs:

Pop:

1. Dangerous- Katharine McPhee
2. Done For Me (feat. Kehlani)- Charlie Puth
3. Neglected- Katharine McPhee
4. Set Fire to the Rain- Adele
5. Really Don't Care (feat. Cher Lloyd)
6. Fighter- Christina Aguilera
7. Without Me- Halsey
8. Jet Black Hearts- Abigail Barlow
9. Killing Me- Jacob Whitesides
10. This is How a Heart Breaks- Rob Thomas
11. How Do You Sleep?- Sam Smith
12. Hate Me- Ellie Goulding & Juice WRLD
13. Hurt Me (From "Songland")- Meghan Trainor
14. Cry for Me- Camila Cabello
15. BULLET TO THE HEART- Jackson Wang
16. Cold- Boy In Space
17. you broke me first- Tate McRae
18. You Don't Care About Me- Shakira
19. Fake- Lauv & Conan Gray
20. Toxic- Ashnikko
21. Little Boy- Ashnikko
22. Quite Playing Games (With My Heart)- Backstreet Boys
23. New Rules- Dua Lipa
24. Potential Breakup Song- Aly & AJ
25. Lies- Hilary Duff
26. Cinderella- The Cheetah Girls
27. Over It- Ashley Tisdale
28. S.O.S- Jonas Brothers
29. You Are Losing Me- Chelsea Cutler
30. Lying (feat. Lil Tjay)- PRETTYMUCH

Alternative:

1. Without Me- Halsey
2. Ghost- Badflower
3. Until It's Gone- Linkin Park
4. LIES GREED MISERY- LINKIN PARK
5. SKIN TO BONE- LINKIN PARK
6. New 4 U- Fitz and The Tantrums
7. Don't Gotta Work It Out- Fitz and The Tantrums
8. The Ghost of You- My Chemical Romance
9. Somebody That I Used to Know (feat. Kimbra)- Gotye
10. Dead To Me- Melanie Martinez

Country:

1. Villain- Lily Rose
2. Heartless (feat. Morgan Wallen)- Diplo
3. Wasted On You- Morgan Wallen

Dance:
Electronic:
Hard Rock/Rock:

1. You Can't Have It All- The Veer Union
2. Piece of Me- Bullet for My Valentine
3. Over It- Bullet for My Valentine
4. Roots- In This Moment
5. Snuff- Slipknot
6. Country Song- Seether
7. Fade Away- Breaking Benjamin
8. Crawl- Breaking Benjamin
9. What Lies Beneath- Breaking Benjamin
10. Lights Out- Breaking Benjamin
11. Dear Agony- Breaking Benjamin
12. A Place Where You Belong- Bullet for My Valentine
13. Bittersweet Memories- Bullet for My Valentine
14. Familiar Taste of Poison- Halestorm
15. Love/Hate Heartbreak- Halestorm
16. This Means War- Nickelback
17. Last Goodbye- Dead By April
18. You Don't Belong- Daughtry
19. No More- Three Days Grace
20. Letting You Go- Bullet for My Valentine
21. Breathe Underwater- Bullet for My Valentine
22. The Very Last Time- Bullet for My Valentine
23. Alone lyrics- Bullet for My Valentine
24. The Last Fight- Bullet for My Valentine
25. Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow (What Can I Do)- Bullet for My Valentine
26. Don't Need You- Bullet for My Valentine
27. Had Enough- Breaking Benjamin
28. Bury Me Alive- Breaking Benjamin
29. Never Again- Breaking Benjamin
30. Breath- Breaking Benjamin
31. No More Sorrow- LINKIN PARK
32. It's All Over- Three Days Grace
33. Let It Die- Three Days Grace
34. On My Own- Three Days Grace
35. No More- Three Days Grace
36. Torn to Pieces- Pop Evil
37. Should've Known Better- Sick Puppies
38. Dog On a Leash- Adelitas Way
39. Sick- Adelitas Way
40. Hurt- Adelitas Way
41. Breakdown- Seether
42. Words As Weapons- Seether
43. Blow Me Wide Open- Saint Asonia
44. Even Though I Say- Saint Asonia
45. No More Love- Shinedown
46. All I Ever Wanted- Shinedown
47. Stranger Inside- Shinedown
48. Sound of Madness- Shinedown
49. Devour- Shinedown
50. How Did You Love- Shinedown
51. Burn- Three Days Grace
52. Goin' Down- Three Days Grace
53. Car Crash- Three Days Grace
54. Burn It Down- Hinder
55. The Unwanted- The Veer Union
56. You Can't Have It All- The Veer Union
57. I Don't Care- The Veer Union
58. Watch You Lose- The Veer Union
59. Letting Go- The Veer Union
60. Awaken- The Veer Union
61. Save Yourself- The Veer Union
62. Defying Gravity- The Veer Union
63. Bitter End- The Veer Union
64. Darker Side of Me- The Veer Union
65. Living Not Alive- The Veer Unions
66. Seasons- The Veer Unions
67. Break Away- Everlit
68. Home- Three Days Grace
69. You Don't Mean Anything- Simple Plan
70. Ricochet- STARSET
71. Who Will You Run To- Heart
72. Stop Draggin' My Heart Around- Stevie Nicks with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
73. You Ain't Ready- Skillet

Hip-Hop/Rap:

1. Trigger- Major Lazer & Khalid

Metal:

1. Roots- In This Moment
2. Killing Me- State of Mine

R&B/Soul:
SingeSong Writer:
Soundtrack:

Cheater Songs:

Pop:

1. Cry Me a River- Justin Timberlake
2. FU (feat. French Montana)- Miley Cyrus
3. What Goes Around.../...Comes Around- Justin Timberlake
4. Cry Me a River- Justin Timberlake
5. I'm Not the Only One- Sam Smith
6. Wake Up Call- Marron 5
7. Lips Are Movin- Meghan Trainor
8. How Long- Charlie Puth
9. Somebody Told Me- Charlie Puth
10. Cheated- Boys Like Girls
11. Shattered Glass- Britney Spears
12. Irreplaceable- Beyonce
13. Goodbye Song- MKTO
14. You Suck At Love- Simple Plan
15. It's Over- Jesse McCartney
16. Payphone (feat. Wiz. Khalifa)- Maroon 5
17. You Ruin Me- The Veronicas
18. Closure- Jack & Jack
19. Hurts Like Hell (feat. Offset)- Madison Beer
20. Really Don't Care (feat. Cher Lloyd)- Demi Lovato
21. Liar- Britney Spears
22. Liar- LEON
23. Lies- Marina and The Diamonds
24. Delete You- Ashley Tisdale
25. Over It- Hilary Duff
26. Goodnight and Goodbye- Jonas Brothers
27. Games- Jonas Brothers
28. Loyal to Me- Nina Nesbitt
29. Love Letter- Nina Nesbitt
30. Break Your Heart Right Back (feat. Childish Gambino)- Ariana Grande
31. Tired of Talking- LEON
32. Gone- Mindless Behavior
33. Broken- Kim Petras
34. Blind- Jason Derulo
35. Revenge Is Sweeter- Than You Ever Were)- The Veronicas
36. Beautiful Liar- Shakira & Beyonce
37. Beggin' On Your Knees (feat. Victoria Justice)- Victorious Cast
38. The Game Is Over- *NSYNC
39. IDGAF- Dua Lipa

Alternative:
Country:

1. Should've Said No- Taylor Swift
2. Before He Cheats- Taylor Swift
3. Babe (feat. Taylor Swift)- Sugarland
4. Ciao Adios- Anne-Marie
5. Cry- Anne-Marie
6. You Lie- The Band Perry
7. Kiss That Girl Goodbye- Aaron Watson
8. Cheatin' Songs- Midland
9. the other girl (with Halsey)- Kelsea Ballerini

Dance:
Electronic:
Hard Rock/Rock:

1. I See Red- Everybody Loves an Outlaw
2. Traitor- Daughtry

Hip-Hop/Rap:

1. Lie- NF

Metal:
R&B/Soul:

1. Say My Name- Destiny's Child

SingeSong Writer:
Soundtrack:

1. Angel Eyes- Christine Baranski, Julie Walters & Amanda Seyfried
2. The Winner Takes It All- ABBA & Siobhan MacCarthy

Betrayal Songs:

Pop:

1. You Suck At Love- Simple Plan
2. Straight for the Knife- Sia
3. Just Go- Jesse McCartney
4. Lovers Never Die- Celine Dion
5. I Got Nothin' Left- Celine Dion
6. You Don't Mean Anything- Simple Plan
7. See Right Through You- *NSYNC
8. Play With Fire- Hilary Duff
9. Buried Alive- Rory Webley
10. Karma- Marina
11. Silence- Grace Carter
12. Bad Blood (feat. Kendrick Lamar)- Taylor Swift
13. Amnesia- 5 Seconds of Summer
14. Fighter- Christine Aguilera
15. Sweet Despair- Cher Lloyd
16. Return of the Mack- Mark Morrison
17. Are You Happy Now?- Michelle Branch
18. Why Did You Lie?- Carlie Hanson
19. Outta Here- Esmee Denters
20. Drown- Boy In Space
21. Walked Through Hell- Anson Seabra
22. Cut Me Deep (feat. MAGIC!)- Shakira
23. Revenge Is Sweeter (Than You Ever Were)- The Veronicas

Alternative:

1. I Gave You All- Mumford & Sons
2. All For Nothing (feat. Paige Hamilton)- LINKIN PARK
3. LOST IN THE ECHO- LINKIN PARK
4. Therefore I Am- Billie Eilish
5. Going Under- Evanescence

Country:
Dance:

1. Let You Go (feat. Great Good Fine Ok)- The Chainsmokers

Electronic:
Hard Rock/Rock:

1. Love is a Lie- 3 Doors Down
2. Apologize- One Republic
3. I See Red- Everybody Loves an Outlaw
4. Your Betrayal- Bullet for My Valentine
5. Chalk Outline- Three Days Grace
6. Forsaken- Seether
7. Bitter Taste- Three Days Grace
8. The Harder the Heart (The Harder It Breaks)- Bullet for My Valentine
9. Defeated- Breaking Benjamin
10. Let Me Live My Life- Saint Asonia
11. In Memory- Shinedown
12. Enemies- Shinedown
13. Villain I'm Not- Three Days Grace
14. Nothin's Fair In Love and War- Three Days Grace
15. Shot Through the Heart- Bon Jovi
16. Dead To Me- Hinder
17. The Bleeding- Five Finger Death Punch
18. Fake- Everlit
19. The Call of Gaia- Everlit
20. The Betrayal (ACT III)- Nickelback
21. You Give Love a Bad Name- Bon Jovi
22. You Can Run- Adam Jones
23. I Hate Everyone- Falling In Reverse
24. The Chain- Fleetwood Mac

Hip-Hop/Rap:

1. WITHOUT YOU- The Kid LAROI

Metal:
R&B/Soul:

1. DEAD TO ME- blackbear

SingeSong Writer:

1. Be Alright- Dean Lewis

Soundtrack:

Moving On Songs:

Pop:

1. Lucky Escape- Years & Years
2. Feel Alright- Haneri
3. Hello Heartache- Avril Lavigne
4. It's Over- Jesse McCartney
5. Everywhere I Go- Katharine McPhee
6. Over It- Katharine McPhee
7. Not Ur Girl- Katharine McPhee
8. Part of Me- Katy Perry
9. Ridin' Solo- Jason Derulo
10. Stronger- Brittney Spears
11. Nothing Left for You- Sam Smith
12. I Don't Think About You- Kelly Clarkson
13. True Love- Destinee & Paris
14. Fade Away- Celine Dion
15. Don't Want You Back- Backstreet Boys
16. Deserve Me- Olivia King
17. Keeping Secrets- Kicking Daisies
18. Ugly Heart- G.R.L
19. Face In the Hall- The Naked Brothers Band
20. Game Over- V V Brown
21. Karma- Marina
22. Nothing Left for You- Sam Smith
23. Good Enough- Little Mix
24. Brooklyn On the Summer- Aloe Blacc
25. River of Tears- Alessia Cara
26. Still Have Me- Demi Lovato
27. Set Fire to the Rain- Adele
28. Best Thing I never Had- Beyonce
29. Part of Me- Katy Perry
30. I'm Still Standing- Elton John
31. Trust My Lonely- Alessia Cara
32. Shout Out to My ex- Little Mix
33. There Will Be Tears- Miranda Cosgrove
34. Through With You- Maroon 5
35. Love Yourself- Justin Bieber
36. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together- Taylor Swift
37. Blow Me (One Last Kiss)- P!nk
38. Funeral- Zara Larsson
39. Delete You- Ashley Tisdale
40. I Will Be Me- Ashley Tisdale
41. It's Alright, It's Ok- Ashley Tisdale
42. One Man Show- Jonas Brothers
43. Games- Jonas Brothers
44. Tainted Love (7" Single)- Soft Cell
45. Heart of Gold- Ashlyne Huff
46. Til I Get Over You- Michelle Branch
47. So Sick- Ne-Yo
48. I'm Coming Out- Diana Ross
49. I'm Taking Off- Nick Carter
50. I'm Outta Love- Anastacia
51. I Don't Think About You- HRVY
52. Hustle- P!nk
53. Let It All Go- Birdy & RHODES
54. Don't Worry Bout Me- Zara Larsson
55. Cry Me a River- Michael Buble
56. Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken- P!nk
57. Breaking Up- Charlie XCX
58. Bright Blue Skies- Mitch James
59. You'll Never Know- Ariana Grande
60. Icy- Kim Petras
61. Slide Away- Miley Cyrus
62. Empty Words- Christina Aguilera
63. Lose You to Love Me- Selena Gomez
64. The Sign- Ace of Base
65. Don't Start Now- Dua Lipa
66. Look At Her Now- Selena Gomez
67. Release You- Megan & Liz
68. Miss Movin' On- Fifth Harmony
69. Pushing 21- Live Dawson
70. me & ur ghost- blackbear
71. Deal With it (feat. Kelis)- Ashnikko
72. Good While It lasted- Ashnikko
73. Safe- Britt Nicole
74. Find What You're Looking For- Olivia O'Brien
75. Never Again- Kelly Clarkson
76. Sick of You- Ne-Yo
77. Broken Glass- Rachel Platten
78. Never Say Never (feat. Jaden Smith)- Justin Bieber
79. If I Knew Then- Backstreet Boys
80. Party for One- Carly Rae Jepsen
81. You Don't Know My Heart- Rachel Platten
82. I'll Still Have Me- Cyn
83. You Lost Me- Christina Aguilera
84. thank u, next- Ariana Grande
85. Written in the Scars- The Script
86. Break Your Heart Right Back (feat. Childish Gambino)- Ariana Grande
87. Tired of Talking- LEON
88. The Last Time (feat. Gary Lightbody)- Taylor Swift
89. bloodline- Ariana Grande
90. Love Letter- Nina Nesbitt
91. The Sun Will Come Up, The Seasons Will Change- Nina Nesbitt
92. Broken & Beautiful- Kelly Clarkson
93. Don't Call Me- Nevada & Loote
94. DEAD TO ME- blackbear
95. it's not u, it's me- Bea Miller & 6LACK
96. Karma- MARINA
97. Hurt Me (From "Songland")- Meghan Trainor
98. Labels or Love- Fergie
99. Unapologetic B*tch- Madonna
100. Empty Words- Christina Aguilera
101. Mine- Phoebe Ryan
102. Too Far Gone (feat. Anna Clendening)- Lost Kings
103. Look At Her Now- Selena Gomez
104. Miss Me More- Keslea Ballerina
105. Heart Break- Lady Antebellum
106. Half Gone- Stephen Puth
107. The Man- Ed Sheeran
108. Louboutins- Jennifer Lopez
109. Thursday- Jess Glynne
110. Used to Love You- Gwen Stefani
111. The Road- Faouzia
112. This Mountain- Faouzia

Alternative:

1. Life Changes- Good Charlotte
2. I'LL BE GONE- LINKIN PARK
3. Somewhere I Belong- LINKIN PARK
4. The Poison- The All-American Rejects
5. The Last Song- The All-American Rejects
6. Life Changes- Good Charlotte
7. March On- Good Charlotte
8. Money Grabber- Fitz and The Tantrums
9. Don't Gotta Work It Out- Fitz and The Tantrums
10. Life's About To Get Good- Shania Twain
11. Things We Lost in the Fire- Bastille
12. No More Sorrow- LINKIN PARK
13. Believer- Imagine Dragons
14. Over It- Jordan Pruitt
15. Move On- Mike Posner
16. Dead!- My Chemical Romance
17. Swan- Willa
18. Never Go Back- Dennis Lloyd

Country:

1. Giving You Up- Jeris Johnson
2. You'll Think of Me- Keith Urban
3. Things a Man Oughta Know- Lainey Wilson
4. Better Man- Little Big Town
5. I'm Movin' On- Rascal Flatts
6. Someone I Used to Know- Zac Brown Band
7. Think About You- Lady Antebellum
8. Heart Break- Lady Antebellum
9. Let It Hurt- Rascal Flatts
10. Better Off (feat. Vince Gill)- Sara Evans
11. Lessons Learned- Carrie Underwood
12. Someone I Used to Know- Zac Brown Band
13. Leaving Love Behind- Zac Brown Band

Dance:

1. Should've Known Better (feat. Anna-Marie)- Clean Bandit
2. Tears (feat. Louisa Johnson)- Clean Bandit
3. Happy Now (ft. Sandro Cavazza)- Kygo
4. Better When You're Gone- David Guetta, Brooks & Loote
5. Don't Call Me- Nevada & Loote
6. Let It Go- Tullio

Electronic:

1. Lost (Emilie Brandt)- Illenium
2. Sound of Walking Away- Illenium & Kerli
3. Leaving- Illenium

Hard Rock/Rock:

1. Gone Forever- Three Days Grace
2. Waking Lions- Pop Evil
3. Footsteps (Go Higher)- Pop Evil
4. Invincible- Adelitas Way
5. Scars- Papa Roach
6. Better Place- Saint Asonia
7. Fairy Tale- Saint Asonia
8. I Don't Care Anymore- Saint Asonia
9. State of My Head- Shinedown
10. I Am a Outsider- Three Days Grace
11. Me Against You- Three Days Grace
12. Right Left Wrong- Three Days Grace
13. Over You- Daughtry
14. Forsaken- Seether
15. You Don't Belong- Daughtry
16. Since U Been Gone- A Day to Remember
17. Done With Broken Hearts- Dead By April
18. Already Gone- Eagles
19. Believer- Imagine Dragons
20. Through With You- Maroon 5
21. Since U Been Gone- A Day to Remember
22. Perfectly Lonely- John Mayer

Hip-Hop/Rap:

1. So Done- The Kid LAROI
2. Idaf- Sik World

Metal:

1. Goodbye Forever- Volbeat

R&B/Soul:

1. Coaster- Khalid
2. It's over Now- Tedy
3. Ain't Thinking About You- Ne-yo
4. Don't Check On Me (feat. Justin Bieber & InK)
5. I Don't Miss You- Eric Nam
6. The Living Proof- Mary J. Blige
7. Do Not Disturb- Mahalia

K-Pop

1. Kill This Love- BLACKPINK

SingeSongWriter:

1. It's Too Late- Carole King
2. Beautiful- Carole King

Soundtrack:

1. So Close (feat. Arnor Dan)- Olafur Arnalds
2. Listen- Dreamgirls
3. Set It All Free- Scarlett Johansson
4. Survivor- The American Mall Cast
5. She's So Gone- The American Mall Cast
6. Knocking'- Freddie Stroma

Goodbye Songs:

Pop:

1. Farewell Love- Clannad
2. Goodbye Forever- Devil City Angels
3. Goodbye Forever- Us The Duo
4. Goodbye To You- Desmond Dennis
5. Goodbye To You- The Veronicas
6. Goodbye to You- Michelle Branch
7. Time to Say Goodbye- Simple Plan
8. I Won't Be There- Simple Plan
9. Goodbye- Echosmith
10. Goodbye to You- Michelle Branch
11. Goodbye To You- Roxette
12. Goodbye Song- MKTO
13. Nobody Wins- The Veronicas
14. Unfriend You- Greyson Chance
15. Goodbye- Boy In Space
16. Goodbye- Who Is Fancy
17. Goodbye- Kristinia DeBarge
18. Goodbye Song- MKTO
19. Goodbye My Lover- James Blunt
20. Goodbye- Echosmith
21. Goodbye- Miley Cyrus
22. Goodbye- Hootie & The Blowfish
23. Goodbye Forever- Us The Duo
24. Bye Bye Love- Backstreet Boys
25. Bye Bye Bye- *NSYNC
26. Farewell (feat. Jordin Pundik)- Simple Plan
27. Ciao Adios- Anne- Marie
28. Cry- Anne- Marie
29. Funeral- Zara Larsson
30. Goodnight and Goodbye- Jonas Brothers

Alternative:

1. Farewell- Rosie Thomas
2. Goodbye To You- Breaking Point
3. Goodbye to You- Angelsfall
4. Mark the Graves- LINKIN PARK
5. Good Goodbye (feat. Pusha T & Stormzy)- Post Malone
6. Bad Blood- Bastille
7. Goodbye- Cage the Elephants
8. Goodbye- Secondhand Serenade

Country:

1. As You Turn Away- Lady Antebellum
2. Good Bye Forever- Arovane
3. Starts with Goodbye- Carrie Underwood

Classical:

1. Time To Say Goodbye (Con Te Partiro)- Andrea Bocelli & Sarah Brightman

Dance:

1. Goodbye Forever- Melissa Molinaro
2. Goodbye (feat. Islove)- Glenn Morrison

Electronic:
Hard Rock/Rock:

1. Goodbye Forever- Misery Loves Company
2. Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding- Elton John
3. So Long, Good-bye- 10 Years
4. My Last Goodbye- Trading Yesterday
5. Say Goodbye- Theory of a Deadman
6. Goodbye Forever- Bloom
7. When the Curtain Falls- Greta Van Fleet

Hip-Hop/Rap:

1. F*CK YOU, GOODBYE- The Kid LAROI

Metal:
Latino:

1. Good Bye, Adios- Grupo Ladron

R&B/Soul:

1. Miss You, Goodbye- K.Michelle
2. Fading- Rihanna
3. Goodbye- K-Ci & JoJo

SingeSong Writer:
Soundtrack:

1. Take My Leave of You (feat. Arnor Dan)
2. Goodbye- Carlie Hanson
3. Goodbye My Friend- Cecile Corbal

K-pop:

1. Farewell Love- Lee Young Hyun
2. Goodbye- Girls' Generation

Love Sucks/Lies Songs:

Pop:

1. Someone Else- Miley Cyrus
2. F' Love- Jake Austin Walker
3. The Truth About Love- P!nk
4. The Trouble With Love Is- Kelly Clarkson
5. Love Sucks- Nathan Angelo
6. Nothing Breaks Like a Heart (feat. Miley Cyrus)- Mark Ronson

Alternative:

1. Love Never- Jimmy Eat World
2. Love Sucks- The Adicts
3. Love Is Cold- Animal Waves
4. I Don't Wanna Be In Love- Good Charlotte

Country:
Dance:
Electronic:
Blues:

1. Love Is a Lie- Beth Hart

Hard Rock/Rock:

1. Love Lies- Bon Jovi
2. Never Never- Korn
3. Play the Game- Queen
4. Love Kills- Queen
5. Love Is Dangerous- blink-182
6. Love Hurts- Nazareth
7. Love Bites- Def Leppard
8. Love Stinks- The J. Geils Band
9. Love Sucks (feat. 93feetofsmoke)- Scum
10. Love Hurts- Incubus
11. Love Sucks- Thunder
12. Love Lies- Michael McDonald

Hip-Hop/Rap:
Metal:

1. Love Is a Lie- Great White

R&B/Soul:

1. Knock You Down- Keri Hilson, Kanye West & Ne-yo

SingeSong Writer:
Soundtrack:

1. Love Sucks- Bred Michaels

​
There is a lot of gold buried in this subreddit. As new posts keep piling up, the old gets buried deeper. To preserve the awesome work and effort of the critics, and for the ease of access, here is a list of all the good posts in no particular order. I will organize it in multiple categories in future, for now I request the mods to pin this post and create a wiki for the subreddit to catalogue the good posts. I will also create a bot to help partially automate the process of updating the catalogue with new posts.
Arguments Against Islam:

• Female insects in "scientific miracles" and Arabic collective / singulative
• Proof that pedophilia is halal in islam.
• Muhammad’s surprise violation of sharia
• Countering Islamic Propaganda on Surah 5:32
• According to the Quran, Muhammad and the Quran were sent for Arabs.
• Permission of sex slavery in Islam.
• List of Muhammad's spitting
• The Derivative and Fictitious Nature of Muhammad's 'Night Journey'
• Why the "argument from contingency" put forth by people like Hijab is extremely flawed
• The most misogynistic verse in the Quran, verse 4:34
• Can muslims blame anyone for not becoming Muslim?
• Thoughts on the Arithmetic miracles in the Quran and the belief that the Quran couldn't have been a human endeavour; especially that of an allegedly illiterate person who never composed poetry before receiving God's first revelation.
• Is the Quran a linguistic miracle?
• Why Quran is logically fallacious
• Islam and the Problem of Historical Bias
• On the beliefs of the followers of Musaylimah another apparent prophet in 600's Arabia.
• Kab Qurazi and the Satanic verses: has the hadith system failed?
• A great example of why abrogation in the Quran makes so little sense.
• A compendium of all relevant verses to show that the Qur'an doesn't unequivocally state that the Torah and Gospel are lost
• Allah, the omniscient Creator, is worse at proving his claims are backed up by older Scripture than the author of the Gospel of Matthew (who is pretty bad himself)
• FGM in Islam
• What we mean with Quran, interesting dissertation on the fact that 8th century islam promotes its unity, where textuality and historical evidence suggest it became a unique text forcibly
• Yasir Quadhi article on criticism of islam, a response
• Why does Allah give men extra horsepower in jannah and take away the jealousy of women? Why are men still ruled by their earthly desires in Jannah?
• A response to the claim that "Evolution was mentioned in Islam 1400 years ago".
• Khalid bin al-Walid massacred a tribe of new converts to Islam, shocking the Sahaba. He faced no punishment
• Ibn Masud codex vs Uthman codex: Quran 18:25
• A compendium of Christian stories in the Qur'an, showing how they match non-canonical Christian traditions.
• Gondal on Twitter - 40 pictures with HAFS and WARSH variants of quran, showing differences of words
• Genocide Of Dogs - By early Muslims
• In Islamic Theology Satan (Shaitaan) is an objectively better being than Allah.
• Why your prayers don’t affect anything?
• Does God have free will?
• a Hadith condemning “every­thing by which a Muslim amuses himself as worthless frivolity, except the shooting of arrows, the training of horses, and sex play with his woman folk"
• The Hanbali Madhab and Pedophilia
• ISIS when they execute homosexuals by throwing them off buildings are doing what the Quran and hadiths tell them to do
• The Quran and hadith erroneously claim that all if not most Jews worship erza as the son of god
• Giving Absolute Proof that Aisha was 6 during her marriage with Muhhamad and 9 at consumation
• Forced Marriages in Islam
• No, The burden of proof still lies on the Muslim
• The Shafi'i Madhab Permits the Wholesale Slaughter of Male Civilians During Jihad
• Naturalism better predicts the difference in contemporary miracles between the Qur'an, Torah and Gospels
• The Islamic golden age was also helped from translating and studying pre-islamic and unIslamic texts
• Using quran to prove that there is no reason for Allah to obscure himself and make it so hard to find any evidence of his existence, and make this test of life so impossible.
• Muhammad's and the early Muslims Unnecessary Cruelty/Collective Punishment towards the Banu Qurayza
• Hell/Jahannam - Its Artificial Origins, Absurdity and the Irrational Fear due to the Legacy of Childhood Indoctrination
• The False 'Scientific Miracles in Quran' Argument
• The Unnecessary and Cruel Nature of Islamic Punishments - Mutilation, Stoning, Flogging, Beheading and Crucifixion
• Muhammad and his Followers Stoning People to Death
• The False Trichotomy, that Muhammad was either a liar, deluded or a prophet, when this is disingenuous, for he could have been all of those things.
• The Dubious Nature of Islamic history
• Allusions to a flat earth in Islam
• The faulty Predictions/Prophecies argument
• Where does Quran get the Adam and Iblis story from?
• The Faulty claim of the Quran's 'inimitable/ linguistic miracle'
• The false claim of 'Fitrah'
• Slaves: their 'consent' and rape in Islam and it's history
• The Pre-Islamic and Pagan origins of Islam/It's derivative nature

SERIES:
Response to 'Evidence for Islam'

• Response to "Sapient Thoughts #2: Does the Quran say the world is flat? | Mohammed Hijab "
• Response to "Sapient Thoughts #14: Does the Quran say the Sun sets in a muddy spring? | Mohammed Hijab"
• Response to IslamWeb's "Evidence that Islam is from Allah"
• Response to IslamQA's "Evidence for the validity of Islam"
• Response to iERA's "How Do We Know Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) Is A Prophet Of God"
• Response to: Yaqeen Institute's "The Inimitable Quran"

SERIES:
Probing for the smoking gun behind Muhammad, Jesus or Moses

• Probing for the smoking gun behind Muhammad, Jesus or Moses
• Probing for the smoking gun behind Muhammad, Jesus or Moses; Post 2
• Probing for the smoking gun behind Muhammad, Jesus, and Moses; Part 3

RESEARCH ARTICLES:

• Wadd, Suwa, Jagut Jauq Nasr, gods of pagan arabs of Hijaz?
• Safa and Marwa, Makka and Bakka, how islam changed the quran original meaning
• Martin Kerr on surah 108, another example of Islam guessing of the quran

​
​

• All of the Quranic verses and suras copied from the Pre-Islamic poets of quraish (in Arabic) - only link

​
Arguments for Islam:

• Was the Prophet Muhammad Epileptic? – A Summarised Response.
• Did Islamic scholars have a consensus for a round earth?

​
Let me know if I missed any post that you think is interesting and belongs in the list.

The Ottoman rework has been teased for a long time so I know you’ll be happy to hear it is finally here and ready for you to enjoy! Not only that, but the National France rework comes with it two, along with several other new focus trees. We’ve also spent time working on other changes, such as letting you recall volunteers, along with many bug fixes and performance improvements. We hope you enjoy the changes and have fun playing Kaiserreich!
Note: As always this patch isn’t save-game compatible. If you would like to continue your game please use the manual download found here:
- The KR4 team
Changes
Notable Additions

• Completely reworked the Commune of France’s generals, admirals, and military ministers
• Russia’s foreign policy has been overhauled to accompany the changes to the Middle East and the Caucasus
• Added “Recall Volunteers” button
• Expeditionary Forces no longer count towards the division limit

New Focus Trees

• Syria
• Iraq
• Hejaz
• Georgia
• Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem
• Suez International Zone
• Cyrenaica

Reworked/Expanded Focus Trees

• Ottoman Empire
• Egypt
• Tripolitania
• Jabal Shammar
• National France

Tweaked Focus Trees

• Russia
• Russian Socialist Republic
• Romania
• Ireland
• Portugal
• Oman
• Yemen
• Germany

New Events

• Romania
• National France
• Syria
• Iraq
• Hejaz
• Georgia
• Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem
• Tripolitania
• Ottoman Empire
• Egypt
• Cyrenaica
• Jabal Shammar
• Ikhwan

Tweaked Events

• Russia
• Commune of France

New Decisions

• Ireland
• Romania
• National France
• Portugal
• Syria
• Iraq
• Hejaz
• Ottoman Empire
• Egypt
• Cyrenaica
• Jabal Shammar

Tweaked Decisions

• Commune of France
• Russia

New Custom Country Paths

• Ottoman Empire
• National France
• Egypt

GFX

• New focus icons for Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Germany, Mittelafrika, Peru, the Union of Britain and Venezuela
• New flags for Alash Orda, the Commune of France, Illyria, National France, the Ottoman Empire and Ulster
• Adjusted the Africa loading screen to match the new situation
• New or updated portraits for:
  • Afghanistan: Amanullah Khan
  • Armenia: Berç Kerestecıyan, Hamazasp Babadzhanian
  • Assyria: Agha Petros, Dawid d’Mar Shimun, Shimun XXI Eshai
  • Austria: Alfred Jansa, Alfred Klahr, Eduard Barger, Erhard Raus, Franz Böhme, Franz Dinghofer, Friedrich Adler, Friedrich Materna, Georg von Trapp, Heinrich Pergler von Perglas, Julius Ringel, Karl Eglseer, Karl Renner, Lothar Rendulic, Ludwig von Eimannsberger, Pierre Ramus, Sigismund Schilhawsky, Wilhelm Miklas, Wilhelm Zehner
  • Belgium: Adelbert I, Georges Timmermans, Jean Baptiste Piron, Maximilien de Neve de Roden, Victor Billet, Victor van Strydonck de Burkel
  • Britain: Anthony Pugsley, Ebeneezer Edwards, John MacCormick, John Strachey, Robert Oliver
  • Bulgaria: Ivan Variklechkov, Kimon Georgiev, Konstantin Bekyarov, Konstantin Lukash, Nikola Hadzhipetov, Nikola Nakov, Sava Ivanov, Teodosi Daskalov
  • Cameroon: Karl Atangana
  • Cyprus: Leontios II
  • Cyrenaica: az-Zubayr bin Ahmad as-Sharif
  • Don-Kuban: Andrey Shkuro
  • Egypt: Abbas II
  • France: André Lemonnier, André Marty, Charles Delestraint, Charles Luizet, Diego Brosset, Ernest Petit, Gaston BIllotte, Georges Blanchard, Georges Catroux, Henri Tanguy, Jacques Sadoul, Joseph Putz, Louis Buisson, Marcel Gensoul, Marie-Pierre Koenig, Philippe Auboyneau, Raoul Castex, Raoul Magrin Vernerey, René Olry
  • Georgia: Ekvtime Takaishvili, Evgeni Gegechkori, Giorgi Bagration, Kakutsa Cholokashvili
  • Greece: Pangalis Tsaldaris
  • Hejaz: Abdullah bin al-Hussein, Abdul Qadir Pasha el-Jundi, Ghazi bin Faisal al-Hashmid
  • Hungary: Árpád Szakasits, Béla Kun, István Bethlen, Oszkár Jászi
  • Ireland: Frank MacDermot, Seán Murray
  • Ikhwan: Nidā ibn Nuhair, Sultan ibn Humaid ibn Bijad, Zaidan ibn Hithlain
  • Jabal Shammar: Abdallah ibn Mitab ibn Abd al-Aziz, Muhammad ibn Talil, Saud al-Subhan
  • Lebanon: Bechara el Khoury, Emile Edde, Emile Boustany, Farajallah el-Helou, Fuad Chehab, Pierre Gemayel, Saeb Salam, Youssef Chmeit
  • Lithuania: Augustinas Voldemaras, Mikas Reklaitis
  • Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem: Esat Sagay, Raghib al-Nashashibi
  • Najd: Saud bin Abuldaziz al-Saud
  • National France: Aimé Doumenc, André Mallarmé, Aubert Frère, Camille Chautemps, Edouard Daladier, Eugène Deloncle, François Darlan, François de la Rocque, Henri Mordacq, George Groussard, Georges Thierry d’Argenlieu, Henri Roger Marie Meric de Bellefon, Jean Decoux, Jean-Marie Charles Abrial, Jean Touzet du Vigier, Louis Franchet d’Esperey, Louis Marin, Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, Marcel Descour, Maurice Grisot, Philippe Leclerc, Pierre Boyer, Pierre Étienne Flandin, Pierre Lelong,
  • Ottoman Empire: Asim Gunduz, Cahit Toydemir, Fahrettin, Hayrullah Fisek, Kazim Orbay, Mehmet Ali Ülgen, Mehmet Hayri Tarhan, Kazim Karabekir, Fevzi Çakmak, Mustafa Kemal, Mustafa Muglali, Nafiz Gurman, Hüseyin Rauf Orbay, Mahmud Muhtar Katırcıoğlu, Nihat Anılmış, Nuri Yamut, Ömer Fahrettin, Osman Fuad, Sukru Okran, Tahsin Yazici
  • Poland: Konstanty Rokossowski, Mikolaj Boltuc
  • Romania: Nicolae I
  • Serbia: Zivko Topalovic
  • Siam: Luang Karjsongkhram, Luang Kriengsakpichit, Phraya Wichitjakkrit, Seni Pramoj, Sindhu Kamolnavin
  • Sweden: Ernst Linder
  • Syria: Adi bin Hassan, Akram Hourani, Aziz Ali al-Misri, Hashim al-Atassi, Husni al-Zaim, Khalid Bakdash, Muhammad Abdel Moneim, Rushdi al-Kikhiya, Said al-Jazairi
  • Tripolitania: Ahmad Faqih Hasan, Bashir Saadawi, Salim Bey al-Muntasir
  • Trucial States: Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, Shakhbut bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan
  • West Indies: Eustace Fiennes
  • Yunnan: Lu Han

Music Mod

• Added Ottoman songs: Resadiye Marsi, Ottoman March, Izmir March, and March of the Ottoman Expedition
• Added Indonesian song: Rayuan Pulau Kelapa
• Added Polish song: Marsz Obozowy
• Added Mongolian Song: Chingges Khaanii Magtaa
• Added German Song: Komm Zurück! There’s also a new version of Das Gibt Nur Einmal (It’s the same recording, just with less background noise)
• By request of the French Team, the French music list has been reworked. The new songs are: Ça ira mieux demain, Ce que c'est qu'un drapeau, Cocorico, Debout la France, Hymne de L'Infanterie de Marine, Ils ne la gagneront pas, Ils Reviendront, La France de demain, La Galette, La Royale, Le Chant des Girondins, Le Cuirassier, Le Rêve Passe, Marche des Tirailleurs, Nous autres de la chasse (Us of the Hunt)", La Renouveau, Rhin et Danube,Semons le Grain de la Lumière and a new version of La Marche Lorraine. French songs that have been removed: Partant pour la Syrie (main theme, will be re-added later), Au 31 du mois d'août, Maréchal Nous Voilà, La Victoire est à nous, Aida Triumphal March, La Grenadière, Primer Imperio Francés, Veillons au salut de l'Empire

Mapping

• Ningbo is now a city
• Added Poti and moved Batumi to Trabzon
• Made the Trans-Saharan railway a special crossing
• Split Wales into North and South Wales
• Merged the Barotseland states
• Strategic region updates for Britain and the Congo
• Ifni is now a separate state from Rio de Oro
• Added new border states in Panama and Costa Rica
• Restored the correct borders of Burkina Faso
• Removed Lake Volta, as it doesn’t exist in 1936
• Split Flanders into Antwerp and Flanders
• Split Wallonia into Hainaut and Liège
• Curaçao and Qatar now have ports
• Chinese provinces are now displayed on the state screen

Miscellaneous

• Added a British Exile trait for CAN generals and admirals, showing which leaders will return to GBR when it is formed
• Added coalitions for Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Panama
• If Shanqing forms Qing, they can integrate parts of China
• The Manchu Coup is no longer really democratic, and ends elections after 1945
• Japan can no longer annex China for a smaller cost
• Legation Cities now keep their current government when puppeted
• Legation Cities can request allied Chinese concessions
• MacArthur can now secure all of Texas and Oklahoma before the Civil War starts
• Tennessee and North Carolina are now more likely to stay with MacArthur.
• Added a way for Austria to bribe Bulgaria with Macedonia for an alliance if DAB exists after annexing Serbia.
• Added the ability for Austria to give core Serbia to Illyria (it cannot core it).
• Delayed Austria's entry into the WK - they’ll only do it if they’ve chosen their reform path and done the focus, and if Germany has lost Bavaria or has over 30% surrender progress.
• If Canada is invaded by anyone other than America or one of its allies, a non-socialist America will join the war in favor of Canada.
• Anqing and Nanjing Clique Yiguandao/KMT decisions have been improved and cleaned up.
• Rocket artillery and motorized rocket artillery added to companies
• Ireland now starts with an AuthDem Minister of the Interior, instead of NatPop
• Romania's Iron Guard content expanded, especially the middle Legionary tree. King Nicolae I can succeed instead of Michael.
• Michael I is now localized to Mihai, just as other Romanian kings are localised.
• Gave player more control over whether or not Carol II dies in the assassination event.
• Added decisions to Carol's post-unification path
• American Union State can now join the Entente
• Venice now begins with a military malus for a couple of months, when it revolts
• Russia no longer sends volunteers to Xinjiang
• Reduced Kumul's out of supply boni and lowered their starting troop count by 2
• Transylvania can now be granted to a non-aligned Romania.
• Several new event pictures for Russia and the Commune of France
• Removed Volkerschau events
• Portugal’s Colonial Development focuses have been turned into decisions.
• Custom GUI in the stateview that shows which Province Chinese states belong to, similar to the new Ottoman GUI
• The above GUI now shows the status of replacing the governors in the Reestablish Order decision tab for Anqing
• Germany can now influence the Portugal-Mittelafrika peace deal
• Redone the Socialist Anti-Colonial Committee focus for the Commune of France to match with the changes in National France
• Added camels to the Middle East nations, Ethiopia, Somalia and National France
• Internationale and Entente/Reichspakt countries will now embargo each other when joining the faction
• Twilight Struggle is now removed if the Internationale is defeated.
• The Internationale will now collapse if a suitable leader cannot be found.
• Poland now gets claims on Germany upon allying with Russia.
• Majors now have an increased factor towards researching CAS and NAV.
• Moved the Isle of Man to Lanark
• Poland now gets claims on Germany upon allying with Russia.
• Poland can now annex Gumbinnen if it has annexed Konigsberg.
• Can no longer go down to “Disarmed Nation” voluntarily
• Removed Arabian cores on the Levant
• NatPop SIC now more likely to join Entente
• Added a couple of tooltips to three Russian events
• Updated Persia-Russia peace deal
• Ecuador now starts with a mountaineer template
• Smedley Butler now dies after the Second American Civil War
• GEA and RUS will now send lend-lease to the United Front if possible
• Added Aland annexation decision
• Added Romandie annexation decision
• Aland is now demilitarized again at the end of wars
• The Phalanstere's assistance can now be refused.
• AI USA now builds more tanks
• Xinjiang may now be given to the Central Asian Federation
• Updated AI factors for the conscription laws
• Chen Jiongming no longer invites a corrupt Zhao Hengti to the Federalists.
• Legation Cities can now request concessions that their allies hold
• Removed dates from loading quotes
• Chile will now receive Tierra del Fuego if it can't be returned to Argentina by whoever is releasing it.
• Belgium's AT ideas now give piercing boni instead.
• Updated AI factors for the conscription laws.
• Tags that revolt from Andesia now automatically join a faction to work together to crush Argentina
• If Brazil is a puppet or was Balkanized by Patagonia then they too can join the faction to crush Andesia
• When a tag revolts against Andesia it automatically goes to war, no longer can you opt to not go to war
• Andesia now peaces out with the revolters after its full collapse
• The NFA and GBR foci about the British-French relationship are now linked.
• Added unit limit bonuses for the SCW
• Added a small unit limit bonus for Yucatan
• Russia can now invite Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to its faction
• Hawaii can now be granted to GEA
• Added an Ukrainian rename for Kuban
• Some nerfs to the CSA military ideas
• Lithuania will now refrain from rebelling before the WK
• The UK will target in peace conferences, and then no longer release, Malaysia or Sarawak unless decolonised.
• Romania’s Great Game decision category now warns you when you’re losing stability
• Memel can be granted to an allied Lithuania
• “Restoring Napoleon” loading tip replaced with “Restoring monarchies”
• USA can now break the ceasefire if the PSA is losing against a third party
• New unique American designers
• Removed any mentions of Hitler or Heydrich
• Added a dynamic description to the Siamese engineers event
• Reduced the time for Yunnan's war declarations
• The Brazilian Greenguards idea now has a more fitting effect
• Guatemala will now try to get rid of Monroe as soon as possible
• The UK now gets a claim on South Georgia alongside the Falklands
• Russia will now refrain from attacking Japan while Germany is still alive.
• Increased suppression values for armoured cars, camels, and bicycle battalions
• The Third Internationale will now research oil tech more but has fewer bonuses for it.
• Greece now gets Northern Epirus via the Treaty of Budapest.
• Hawaii now gets two destroyers from each purchase
• Russia's military AI should now focus less on Finland and more on EE
• Changed the Russian attack on Germany to be focus-based
• Occitania has been fully removed
• Ukraine's mission to peace out with Germany now cancels if they reach 50% surrender progress
• AI republican Poland will now wait for the WK to join a faction.
• Foreign volunteers to the CSA are modifiable
• Ulster’s parties have been redone
• Transylvania will no longer rejoin a capitulated Romania.
• TAN can now integrate China if led by a Han regime
• The Gruppa di Difesa Della Donna template added for the SRI is no longer locked
• SRI can no longer join the Third Internationale if it declares war on a fellow socialist country before joining the faction
• All SRI decisions to build factories now require PP and civilian_factory_use, and take longer to build; they no longer need to be done only one at a time, however
• The bonuses provided by many SRI economic and military ideas have been significantly nerfed across the board
• Italian focuses which add resources have been moved to decisions, so they can be available to other tags if/when Italy is united
• Legionary Italy now gets its navy back from Venice, upon taking Venice during the revolt

Fixes
Notable Fixes

• Fixed Portugal not joining the Entente if MAF is dead, again
• The Netherlands no longer trade with their enemies
• Fixed Japan's collapse resurrecting a dead Russia in Transamur
• ROM can no longer release Greater Hungary
• ANI Italy actually tries to beat Venice, for real this time

Other Fixes

• America can now actually ask for their vote back in the Legation Council
• Panama’s politics now make more sense
• Fixed Legation Council vote timer appearing for nations not on the Council
• Norway no longer has identical companies
• Austria can still do their Secret Deal path
• If the Left Kuomintang are a puppet then they will only be able to take Army/Navy/Air national foci to prevent your puppet from doing major changes to their government (1st congress etc) without your knowing.
• Removed the white border around the Hunan flag
• Fixed the resolution of the Rassid Arabia flag
• Fixed Persia returning Herat to Afghanistan
• Fixed MAF-released Rhodesia not owning Nyasaland.
• Fixed a number of XSM typos
• Fixed Persia returning Herat to Afghanistan.
• Fixed France not getting claims on Wallonia if they annex all of Belgium
• Fixed the Dutch Revolution news event using the wrong description
• MAF can no longer release its constituents while at war
• The CSA Constitutional Congress popularity gains now reflect the actual politics
• Fixed a Yunnan focus bypassing incorrectly and added extra AI factors to their war foci
• Post-ACW emergency mobilization is no longer locked
• Fixed and improved the Hunan faction joining decisions
• Fixed the post-Great Game trees' availables
• WIF can no longer get spontaneous coups late game or when a conflicting game rule is enabled.
• Fixed Fate of Kurdistan not transferring the states
• The party popularity GUI now correctly reflects the party providing the PP gain
• Fixed the Brazilian volunteer division not being removed when the ACW ends
• Fixed the CAN-CSA peace triggering the Fall of Boston event incorrectly
• Fixed the terrain around Vancouver
• Fixed the endonym for Kisangani/Stanleyville
• Fixed some misleading tooltips in the Unification Conference starter mission
• Fixed Fengtian being able to join Japan's faction when already in it
• Added an alternative response to the Manchu Campaign news event for their enemies
• No more errors from unplanned offensives
• Fixed Natal's tree being unlocked before the Boer War begins.
• Fixed the Peruvian foreign policy foci.
• Fixed frontline bug in Cabinda
• Fixed a SIK decision giving steel while referring to oil deposits.
• Romania can no longer join the Entente if at war
• The LKMT no longer commits suicide by Japan
• Fixed the inverted BHC civil war leaders.
• State modifiers are no longer overlapping in the UI.
• Some fixes and improvements to the Chinese army reform system.
• Mongolia and Tibet can no longer join the Unification Conference
• Some fixes and improvements to the Chinese army reform system
• Mantetsu is now disabled if Japan dies
• Fixed Russia starting an early WK by attacking Ukraine in the middle of their revolution.
• Fixed a Yunnan focus not accounting for the exiled Federalists
• Fixed Fengtian offering Japan protection
• Fixed a wrong scope error in the UK files
• Fixed and optimised a bunch of EGY-ETH rivalry events
• increased AI CAN emphasis on suppressing Quebec
• Fixed and improved the SAF-ENT peace deal
• Riga now checks if it can actually declare war on Latvia in its focus
• Fixed a broken ANQ tooltip
• Canada can no longer get the Fate of New England
• Fixed the spawns of the Romanian legionary volunteers
• Illyria can no longer release Slovenia
• Fixed the SOV Gosplan idea swaps
• Belgium's AT ideas now give piercing boni instead
• Yunnan's demand events now keep the original government when puppeting Hunan
• MYS core is removed from Malabar Coast once the PRF revolt is done
• Fixed an ANQ flag not being cleared and breaking the Conference event
• Fixed a Greek focus not accounting for the Dodecanese and Cyprus
• France now gets partisan bonuses
• Fixed Edwin Barclay's portrait being overwritten by vanilla's
• Fixed a broken failsafe in the LEP Move Quickly missions
• Fixed a misleading Siamese event option
• Fixed GXC not being able to declare war on FNG
• Fixed original United Front member countries leaving the alliance
• Fixed a post-war CSA event firing mid-ACW
• No more irregular provinces in Zambia
• Some rebalancing of the MAF building slots
• Fixed the Peruvian foreign policy foci
• Fixed Serbia coring Anatolia
• Fixed Tang Jiyao leading two parties at once in the UPC.
• Fixed a Yemeni focus only targeting Oman
• Fixed and improved old Egyptian decisions
• Fixed Egypt instantly getting rid of illiteracy
• Renamed Andalucía to a more fitting name
• Fixed Yunnan being able to peace out with Japan due to Burma
• Fixed a duplicate JAP tooltip
• Fixed Stalin being killed by Patagonia while in Russia
• Bolivia no longer gets the Fate of Northern Chile
• Fixed the USA not being able to purge the Longists
• Fixed a number of BOL bypasses
• When releasing Turkish borderlands with annexation decisions, cores are not granted to neighbors when the states are given to them.
• Fixed KR operatives with non-KR portrait references
• Added missing AI factors to a number of GEA decisions
• Transylvania will no longer rejoin a capitulated Romania
• Fixed a BOL war decision being visible when the targets are already owned
• AI and performance improvements for the Swiss NatPop decisions
• Qing now sends volunteers correctly
• Fixed CAN not being able to release a claimed AST.
• Fixed the Democratic CEN elections
• KMT Yunnan can no longer use the generic Form China decision.
• Fixed Sichuan moving its capital to Chongqing when it's already there
• Fixed a Federalist focus not bypassing properly
• Tried to improve the flow of the United Front code.
• Fixed Mongolia not getting its claims when the Ma Clique sues for peace
• Fixed the layout of the Zimbabwe army tree
• Fixed a number of missing Shan icons
• TAN can now integrate China
• Fixed the missing checks for the formation of the Belgo-Dutch research group
• The RKMT will no longer accept Federalist ultimatums
• Fixed the UPC decisions not showing up correctly
• AI Qing will no longer go for war decisions before 1938
• Fixed MAF claiming Sudan
• Fixed Wallonia not getting cores on Antwerp
• Fixed an unlocalised FRA tooltip and improved the checks on the Phalanstere decisions
• Liberia can now be released normally by NFA, GER or GBR.
• Fixed the QIE ally integration decisions being visible while invalid.
• Fengtian's attack decision now invalidates if the conditions are no longer met
• Fixed Poland getting generic PatAut leaders
• Some improvements and a fix to SQI's German Collaboration mechanic
• Slight fix so Chinese tags don't get claims on their cores
• CSA can no longer get rid of its org debuff before winning the ACW
• Fixed a broken PUE idea desc
• Fixed Fengtian being able to invite Japanese companies while at war with them
• SAF's AI will now prioritise attacking direct neighbours when multiple targets are available
• Fixed SIK keeping the Rumors of Discontent idea after winning the war
• Liangguang now joins its targets' wars when puppeting KMT cliques
• Fixed some TEX decisions not appearing correctly
• Fixed a MTG-only ROM event firing for non-owners
• Fixed two RUS loc bugs
• Fixed a mass replace bug in the ENG naval OOB
• Fixed the Beijing Government reverting to the Qing Empire.
• Fixed Finland's suicidal AI
• Fixed a couple of naval variant bugs
• Fixed the broken targeting for albania.50
• Fixed the CSA being released too late in Landon's route
• Fixed the SAF annexation tree switches
• Fixed the loc for the annexation of Dvinsk
• Increased the AI factor for Romania coring Silistria
• Fixed Egypt instantly getting rid of illiteracy.
• Readded a bunch of missing US company logos
• Fixed socialist SAF getting Nuweweld decisions
• Fixed the Ma Clique peace and collapse events
• Countries will now leave the Kaiser Wilhelm Society when no longer in the Reichspakt.
• Fixed the Italian names of PAP's Catholic divisions
• Fixed Russia not taking the Alands.
• Fixed Manchu SQI causing a focus lockout for the LKMT
• Fixed Wallonia not gaining cores on Liège
• Fixed the double Momentum Lost ideas
• The LKMT can no longer attack FNG before doing the prerequisite focus
• Fixed the SZC NPA focus not allowing for joining it instead
• Fixed Austria not getting a core on Burgenland.
• Fixed FNG not getting cores on China when released by Japan
• XSM will now give Chamdo to Tibet when releasing them
• Fixed the traits of a CHI company
• Fix your eyes, you’ve been reading the patch notes for too long
• Fixed the Roads to Riga idea not being removed if Riga dies
• Removed a meme description from the Persian Balochistan focus
• Fixed the DEI focus tree building factories on INS states
• Fixed a missing Sichuan loc entry and a typo
• Fixed Yunnan not getting claims on Sichuan when forming the KMT government
• Fixed Sichuan retaining cosmetic tags when puppeted
• Fixed Japan getting the Fading Sun after annexation
• Fixed Iceland staying in the Reichspakt's wars after breaking free from Denmark
• Upon completion of the Cod War in Iceland, a unit is generated so that they have some form of defence for naval invasions
• Added missing vanilla tooltip about extra aircrews
• GEA will now lose the Vietcong ideas when peacing out with INC.
• Jerusalem's province is no longer a desert
• Fixed Nasir Shah not keeping his original trait when returning to Kumul
• Reduced Kumul's out of supply boni
• Fixed a MEX idea swap not giving any new modifiers
• Fixed the United Front leader's faction not reforming properly if it was not the original leader of the faction
• Fixed the duplicate decisions for leaving the United Front
• Fixed FOP not being properly released by The Revolution Successful
• Added a bunch of backup countries to Wilhelm's death event, so it finally fires correctly
• Fixed the layout of the Zimbabwe army tree.
• Iraq no longer gets a core on Qassim, and Britain no longer claims Kufra
• Jin Shuren's mission to unify Xinjiang is now removed if Sheng Shicai takes over
• Fixed Long Yun's non-civil war takeover not adding the correct ministers.
• Serbia's decision to attack Austria now has ITA- and POL-specific targeting to preempt issues
• Fixed DDR and GRU getting cores on Memel without owning Königsberg
• Fixed all countries in the world going for Grand Battleplan
• Replaced the UoB's concentrated-dispersed focus dichotomy with another idea level, to avoid needing tech triggers
• Fixed the trigger for the Gumbinnen annexation
• Fixed YUN losing manpower in a civil war event without combat
• Removed a deprecated GER focus to invade Denmark (now better handled by a DEN decision)
• Fixed a POR event referencing the wrong year
• Fixed the POL-UKR peace deal having inverted loc
• Fixed a GXC decision taking two years to complete
• Fixed Japan ceding the Legation Cities to Fengtian via their foci
• Fixed SOM being referred to as an empire
• AI Fengtian will refuse to start the Conference if set to pro-Japan in the game rules
• Fixed the peaceful HOL revolution not loading the socialist tree
• Fixed the Harass Political Enemies decision for Romania decoupling the influence values
• Fixed Serbia attacking Austria during the Venetian war
• Fixed Serbia joining two factions at once
• Fixed RUS not getting resistance on LAT and EST states
• Austria's event to return lands now checks for any puppet- and ally-held areas as well
• SAF is no longer arbitrarily restricted from releasing Namibia or Mozambique
• Fixed Canada not getting the Fate of America
• Fixed SOV's tree being blocked by a player finishing the war too quickly
• Fixed missing infantry equipment bonus to camels (vanilla bug), by adding a new subcategory of mounted infantry (includes camels and cavalry)
• Added missing bicycle and amtrak bonuses to some techs
• Replaced `var:faction_leader` with the new `faction_leader` scope.
• Added missing hardness bonuses to rest of motorized battalions from mech 1
• Your soldiers now can learn both, how to ride a horse and how to shot from AT-rifle (vanilla bug of infantry AT weapons not applying to cavalry, and cavalry not being in category “all infantry”)
• Adjusted airtech window grid to vanilla standards, removing the need to use scrollbars to see scout planes while using FullHD. You can now see all planes in same time
• The Andesian Rebellion events now have localization
• SRI attack decisions will now disappear if the target no longer exists
• If syndicalist France is released after annexation, it is puppeted to the releaser if no faction exists for it to join
• Removed the duplicate SRI decision to join the Phalanstere
• SRI socialist welfare idea now costs consumer_goods_factor instead of adding it
• Additional units are no longer transferred from Legionarry Italy to Venice upon the revolt breaking out; any Italian units left in Venice are teleported away
• Romania’s AI should now core Transylvania much more efficiently

We hope you enjoy playing Kaiserreich as much as we did making it!
- The KR4 Team: Alpinia, Arvidus, Augenis, Blackfalcon501, DSFDarker, Carmain, Dr. Njitram, Drozdovite, Edouard Saladier, Eragaxshim, Flamefang, Fort, JazzyHugh, Jeankedezeehond, Jonjon428, Jonny BL, Krco, Liegnitz, Maltesefalcon, Matoro, Nijato, NukeGaming, OperationsManagementDecisions, PPsyrius, Pietrus, Rei VL, Rylock, SPQR, Starguard, Telcontar101, The Alpha Dog, The Irredentista, Thomahawk2k, Vidyaország, WordZero, Yard1, Zankoas and Zimbabwe Salt Co.

Lately, I’ve been seeing people making complaints about the DL DPS Simulator on various points, most of which are either criticisms of how the sim is doing things (it’s not perfect, I agree) or are from a misunderstanding of how the sim functions. From what I see, it's mostly the latter.
First, a little background of myself: Some of you may know me as Khalid or K from the maincord. Currently, I’m one of the contributors to the DPS sim, whenever I get free time. Like most of you, I had my own complaints about the sim back then (the builds were woefully out of date or were never worked on).
The sim being a project run on Github meant I could make the changes I wanted to see. So I did that and headed over and made my changes. I first started out doing updates on specific units (one of my earlier builds was the S!Celery with S!Luca SS build that is still going strong).
Eventually I started working on complete overhauls/updates of entire elements, from the top of the chart to all the way to the bottom) to make them up to date with the current geameta/knowledge, which I think some of you may have noticed when entire elements suddenly jump up/down out of the blue pre-2.0
Enough I want to go straight to the point and address some points people make about the sim, hopefully to clear some things up, in no specific order:
​

Why is nearly everyone using frostbite?

There are multiple reasons for this:

• Nothing resists frostbite (yet)
• All frostbite-inflicting skills apply a 21 second long frostbite. This is in contrast to other afflictions like poison, burn, or paralysis, which are 15 seconds or less (with exceptions)
• Even without the frostbite affliction Karina and Xander skill shares are incredibly strong depending if the user is capable of capitalizing on the bonus damage from having lots of buffs on them.
• His Clever Brother (20% frostbite punisher) is a 4 star wyrmprint. In a lot of cases, there aren't many worthwhile 4 star prints to use. An extra 20% punisher with a 50-80% uptime is incredible value for a single 4 star print slot.

You can expect to see something similar happening once Flashburn becomes more available as a skill share option along with a Flashburn punisher or similar print.
If you still don't believe it, seeing is believing, and you should try it for yourself before knocking it down.
Ironically, I noticed that the same people who want people to keep an open mind about character choice and builds are the same people who aren't welcoming the frostbite setup.
​

Why is nearly everyone in light built for Daikokuten?

Version 2.0 has indeed buffed up Daikokuten by that much. Even I didn’t believe it at first but seeing it ingame is a sight to behold.
While I will most definitely want to try and make a character stand on their own to showcase their own performance, Daikokuten is just too good to not use. Daiko’s damage, along with light agito weapons’ dragon bar filling s3.2 and G!Mym's skill share is one hell of a combo here.
And the DPS sim being a DPS sim... you get the idea :)
​

The sim is unrealistic.

This is correct. It IS unrealistic. There is currently no scenario in-game that exactly matches the sim’s, which is as follows:

• The target is stationary
• The target does not attack
• The adventurer has no external buffs or teammates supporting them, other than a vague “team DPS” value.
• Some team buffs are not considered (team SP haste, team energy, team inspiration, team skill damage buff, and Marth’s Last Boost)

The sim is intended to showcase each unit’s best case scenario given the above scenario.
If you want to see how a unit does if we force them to do nothing, you can simulate that in the custom sim by changing the “dumb” value under Conditions (press the Conditions button)
​

You keep mentioning the custom sim. What's that?

It's the script used to simulate a unit's DPS, but in a fancy and (somewhat) easy to use interface.
There are two main parts in the custom sim:

• Settings, which consists of the equipment, coabilities, and the ACL. The first two are self explanatory. ACL is where you "program" the adventurer on how to perform their actions. Click on the "ACL Guide" button for more instructions.
• Conditions, where you are able to set various values such as an external strength buff, doublebuff intervals, or external affliction sources.

It takes a bit of learning to use, but is a very good tool to learn to use if you want to get more serious with making your own good builds.
​

The sim makes no sense to me on how it came to these numbers

My best advice here is to check the custom sim (click Customize in the DPS chart) and check that unit’s kit in the wiki or ingame to see how that character functions. If you still don’t understand, ask around, maybe over in the theorycraft channel in maincord and someone should be able to help.
The custom sim also has some neat features that you might want to check out to help you with this:

• Log

This lets you see the exact rotation used by the unit in question, along with the buffs and afflictions, down to the millisecond.

• Graph

This graph shows you the unit’s DPS over the course of the entire simulation period, along with team buffs and afflictions. The sim isn’t great at showing DPS spikes, so you can check them out here.
​

Why is Durant so high?

Due to the sim’s own scenario (see previous question), it favors self-buff spam units by allowing them to go wild and stack as many buffs as they possibly can, allowing them to constantly stay at their peak damage output.
I don’t expect this point to change any time soon.
​

Why does the DPS sim not count Overdrive and Break states?

This is actually hard to implement in a way that makes sense. As a compromise, until there’s a solution, it simply applies any Overdrive punisher abilities at 35% efficiency, and Break Punisher abilities at 15% efficiency.
​

I don’t have X for this unit’s build. Can I use Y instead?

80% of the time, the answer is probably a solid no.
If you’re missing one piece of the puzzle, the entire build may not function as intended (eg, using a Daikokuten build with Gala Thor or Cupid instead of Daikokuten). You will want to change the build around and find what works best with what you have available.
Try to understand what the build is going for, and then make your changes.
​

Why is X unit not using one or both of their skills?

Sometimes, that’s just how things go. For example, Catherine’s s2 gets stronger at 3x stacks of Perfect Escort (from her S1). However, her standard attacks also get stronger with every stack. Using s2 resets your Perfect Escort stacks to 0, and you have to cycle back up to 3 stacks to finally do decent damage again with her standard attacks.
For example, let’s take Catherine. Her S1 powers up both her standard attacks and her S2 with each stack of Perfect Escort. You’d think you want to get to 3x stacks of Perfect Escort and blow up the enemy with an S2 as soon as it’s ready, but consider the standard attacks getting weaker after every S2. To bypass that, she never uses S2 in the sim until at the very end for a big dps spike. In practice, there would be a lot of nuance on when to use S2, but I do believe using it on break is a good idea.
Sometimes, the time spent in the skill’s animation is just not worth the time not spent charging up your better skills (eg, Incognito Nefaria pre-2.0’s s2)
​

Why are healers being run as DPS? They shouldn’t run as DPS!

I have two points for this:

• There is currently no content where you actually need a healer to run with a full healer setup except for auto, where the sim doesn’t apply
• If people are playing well enough, chances are, the occasional S1 heal is probably more than sufficient to keep everyone at max HP. At that point, you’re nothing more than dead weight. Might as well run something, right?

Of course, you can run something like P!Siren or Gaibhne & Creidhne, depending on what’s available or the team composition. But this is a DPS sim and we’re here for the DPS :D
​

I don't like the new DPS sim. The old one was better.

I keep seeing this statement but I don't understand it lol. It's literally the exact same sim, with the exact same people working on it. Nothing changed, other than what was needed to be added to accommodate for DL version 2.0's additions (5x print slots, affinities, etc).
​

The DPS sim is a tier list

No, it’s not. Use whoever you love to play as. I put a lot of work in making sure the "low tier" characters be as best as they can be on the DPS sim. If you love to use off-meta characters, do consider the builds used in there!
Or if you think the build can be better or are lacking certain key pieces of the build, head over to the custom sim and make your own builds!
​

Why did an adventurer suddenly jump up or down the chart?

There can be many reasons for this, which can be one or a combination of the following:

• New weapons, wyrmprints, dragons, or shared skills were released
• Skill rotation optimization (ACL)
• Equipment optimization
• Bug fix

​

How buggy or accurate is the DPS sim?

No software is bug-free, but we strive to have it working as closely as possible as in-game, and that means going as far as simulating ingame bugs (eg, Zhu Bajie’s longer than intended s2 buff, Victor’s weird burn punisher on his stage 3 of s1) or weird behavior (Lathna’s extra hits ignoring Cat Sith and attack rate)
Accuracy-wise, it’s very accurate, given the rules and assumptions the sim is operating in (a stationary sandbag that does not attack you).
Do note that the sim is coded by humans. The general workflow of a new character is as follows:

1. Datamine the game files
2. Verify the datamined info with how the character behaves ingame
3. Translate how the character in question operates into code
4. Test said character in custom sim and make sure everything is correct (check logs for damage and timings)
5. Done

As you can see, the accuracy is entirely dependent on our understanding of the character in question. Simpler characters would be straightforward to translate into code, but someone with unique mechanics and effects (eg, Meene or G!Zena) would take a while until they’re ready and may even need a few bug fixes after they’re “done”.
And sometimes, the bug can be just a typo in the code. We’re human after all. :)
Some notable bugs/oversights that were fixed in the DPS sim recently:

• FS buffer time is now considered (the time between the tap and the FS marker showing) This caused sword units to no longer prefer c2fs or c3fs as a combo.
• Timing of some weapon FSs have been fixed (some were 1-2 frames faster than they should be)
• Daikokuten was doing more hits than intended (he’s still best light dragon form though)

---------------------
I know it's a long post, but I hope this might cleared up some things about the sim for you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask here.

Hi :)
So in an attempt to write better chords/melodies I have analyzed a few songs (mainly by Calvin Harris) to understand what kind of emotion/vibe each type of keys/scales give but I have not been able to pinpoint an easy enough method to detect/write chord progressions that sound a certain way (Happy/Sad/Uplifting).
​
The songs I have gone through are as follows:
​

• We Found Love w/ Rihanna : Ebmin, Ebmin7, Gbmaj, Dbmaj ;

This track is written in a Minor scale and it sounds kind of sad even for a Dance song.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GchEVSx9XEA
​

• Blame w/ John Newman : Abmaj, Cmin, Bbmaj, Fmin ;

Minor scale and sounds sad/melancholic.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJb0VYVtaNc
​

• My Way by Calvin Harris : Emin, Dmaj, Gmaj, Amin, Emin, Dmaj, Amin ;

Also in a minor scale and sounds kind of sad/depressing, nothing too confusing for my small brain so far.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSbxm6wMcDI
​

• One Kiss w/ Dua Lipa : Amin, Dmin, Amin, Dmin ;

This track is written in a Minor scale yet it sounds very uplifting and elegant/pleasant.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm8rz-llMhE
​

• Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO : Fmin7, Ebmaj, Dbmaj ;

This track is in a Minor scale yet it also sounds very energetic and 'dancy'.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIh5AHxh-Ok
​

• Rollin w/ Khalid & Future : G#min (C#7sus2), Amaj7, F#min7, Amajadd9 ;

This one for me is the most confusing one as it sounds imo the nicest out of the songs I've linked yet it is also written in a minor scale.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f_JiibvQAM
Link to the instrumental version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6vcipv6MbA
​
I have also found this post (https://www.reddit.com/musictheory/comments/b6zfgf/happysounding_minor_and_sadsounding_majo) where some users have mentioned in the replies that 7th chords play a major role (no pun intended) in making the minor chords sound happier and uplifting yet some of the songs I've linked here don't include any 7th chords.
(Just to clarify, I have found the chords stated above by downloading MIDIs of the songs and ran them through a VST plugin called Scaler2, so I apologize if there are any mistakes as I am not a music theory expert; I also I'm in no way saying that minor scales are strictly sad-sounding I'm merely trying to associate certain chords with certain emotions in order to improve my writing skills.)
With that being said, how can one write chords while having certain emotions (positive/negative) in mind? and which chords are associated with what emotions?
Cheers.

Sometimes my econ students will ask me if I believe we should do student debt relief. Yes, absolutely. Its usually followed up with a question about my student loans but I don’t have any, that’s not why I am for it. I hate seeing people in generations after me with crushing debt. I want them to be free. My girlfriend was at the table last month reading a letter and then she put her head in her hands and cried really hard and I wanted to see what was making her cry, I was hoping I could make her feel better. Now I will say my girlfriend cries a lot. These are just some of the things I’ve seen her cry about the last two years:
The Chiefs losing the Superbowl
When we went to the Khalid concert at Sprint Center and he played Better and we danced up in the nosebleed section
a work spreadsheet she didn’t understand
John Legend’s Instagram post (even though she doesn’t listen to John Legend)
when the NY photographer who took the famous Hosmer picture died of Covid
when I beat her in Scrabble
how beautiful a pony was playing in the snow
a $39 ring I bought her at Ross Dress for Less in Olathe because I was thinking of her
The stripper movie with Jennifer Lopez and Cardi B
I know it sounds like I am making up that last one but we were at our favorite theatre, the BandB one in Shawnee with the big cushy leather chairs that lay all the way back and she cried and cried the one part where Jennifer Lopez is hugging that girl. I heard the sniffling and looked over and couldn’t believe it because honestly that movie was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen in my life.
I’m just saying she is very sensitive. Only yesterday I found out when she gives the cat treats she heats them up for a little bit first, in the microwave. She said he likes them warm and it made me smile. I don’t give her a hard time because she is very very sweet. And so kind. You can imagine if she is that kind to a cat how kind she is to me. And she came into my life in a time when I needed kindness more than anything in the world. So the letter making her cry could have been anything. She let me see it and the letter said your student loans are going up from $700 to $1100 and it broke my heart. $1100 a month is terrible and it is a crushing amount for her to pay most of the rest of her life. I don’t want to see that anymore, for her or for any other Millennial. Or a Zoomer either for that matter.
There aren’t a lot of positive aspects about growing up Gen X. We were the silent generation. We were told not to speak until spoken to. But then we were never spoken to. No one asked us anything. It didn’t matter if we wanted to go to church or not we had the mean early Boomers for parents (My house my rules they screamed). Go tell your dad its your birthday she said, we both forgot. Maybe we can go get some pizza or something. Our parents were the last generation to beat their kids, the last generation to force religion, the last generation to be openly racist. GenX was the generation given a key but never a say.
But some things were good about growing up GenX. For one, we never had cell phones and the internet. I know that seems counterintuitive because the internet has cool stuff like porn and chess now but it also has God damn Facebook and Instagram, the dirge of my existence. I know I sound like an old man yelling at the clouds but everyone is so fidgety now, everyone is always swiping swiping God damn swiping. Always looking to see what is next, what celebrities are doing, what their friends and distant family are doing. One time I was in a KFC on a weekday lunch and there was a man there dressed up in a business suit and a tie and he had two sweet little daughters with him who were wearing dresses. It must have been take your daughters to work day but I remember they kept saying dad dad but he never heard them he was just swipe, swipe, swiping and it made me so sad. I wanted to shake him and say look at your sweet daughters this is precious time with them. I never said anything but since then I always try to put my phone away when I am with my kids.
I try to live in the present. That seemed easier when we grew up GenX. Sometimes we would go to the ballfields by Avila and just play home run derby all day. Hours and hours we would try to hit home runs and try to catch balls in the air, that was my favorite, shagging fly balls. I remember one time going back back back for a long fly and catching it just as it was going over the fence. The momentum took me over and my hip was all scraped from the top of the chain link fence all bleeding and shit but I didn’t care, I held up the ball and everyone held their caps up and yelled fuck yeah, good catch! Hell yeah! We were just there all day.
No one had to check their phones or scroll through post or Instagram anything. I remember reading Lil Nas X during the pandemic say he missed going to nightclubs and standing against the wall and then remembering to post to Instagram about how much fun he was having so he would take a quick picture dancing and then he would go back to standing against the wall. He was being sarcastic, he didn’t really miss that, no one does. But it was a good post because it made a lot of people think. Why do we do what we do? Is it for the gram? Is it so other people can see our lives and think we have our shit together? I miss the time before we had social media because we never stopped to think about whether or not we were missing something. We were right there with our friends, exhausted after hours of shagging balls, with our baseball gloves under our heads for pillows, staring up into that hot Missouri sky and realizing there was nowhere else we would rather be.
One other good part about growing up GenX was the ridiculously low price of education. $700 was what I had to pay for tuition at Truman State University. Before every semester started I would go to the cashier and give her my check for the upcoming semester. My parents said they would pay for all my school if I went to a Christian University but I was disinterested, to say the least. I had already been kicked out of Christian high school, the last thing I wanted was to be kicked out of a Christian college. I did take one Christian college visit though, I visited an awful school called Liberty University in Virginia founded by a racist TV preacher named Jerry Falwell. The reason I took the visit was because my mom said she would buy me a plane ticket to go there on my own and when you are 17 and someone says they will let you ride in an airplane by yourself from Kansas City to Virginia you take it, no matter how bad the school seems.
I was right though, the school was fuckin terrible. Everyone was wearing suits and dresses and for fun they had a animated movie with a mouse in it. But you had to sign out of the prison er I mean dorms to go see it. I stole a bike the second day and put on my headphones with contraband rap music I had taped off the radio and peddled as fast as I could into the town of Lynchburg. I found an arcade and a pizza parlor and watched all the R rated movies they were playing and didn’t ride back until late at night. Apparently that is a no-no with that University because a bunch of angry old white men had a meeting about me when I came back and threatened to call my parents but ended up just taking me to the airport at 8 am on Sunday and leaving me there just to be rid of me. Mr. Falwell himself told me that I was never welcome again on any campus of Liberty University. Good, fuck that place. Truman State was an amazing college. Lots of kids on the smarter side like me and I could listen to Dr. Dre as loud as I wanted.
The $700 for my tuition I earned during the breaks. My girlfriend could never do anything like this because she is Millennial and all you guys got fucked on education. They told you that you needed it and then they priced it so high you would be in debt for life. My situation was better and I usually delivered pizza back home and saved up my $700. I drove for the Grandview Pizza Hut on 71hwy next to the abandoned Kmart first but the second winter break they didn’t need any drivers. They told me to go work at the Pizza Hut by Bannister Mall on James A. Reed. Now I don’t know if any of you remember the Bannister Mall area from the mid 90s but it was not nice. This was before cell phones so these places would be locked up twice- once at their apartment and once for the building itself. So you had to bang really loud on the building door and then when someone let you in you had to bang on the apartment door. Pretty scary late January nights in South Kansas City.
My worst pizza delivery wasn’t scary, it was just sad. This delivery was to Bannister Mall itself and the Foot Locker on the lower level. That’s where I ran into Anthony from my high school football team. We hugged and then I asked him about school but he told me he dropped out. Anthony was the fastest motherfucker I had ever seen. When the college scouts came to watch him on that day he happened to forget his shoes. All his shoes, no tennis shoes, no cleats, no spikes, nothing. So he just told them he would run in his socks. These weren’t ankle socks, they were full length socks that he pushed down but as soon as he came off the blocks his fuckin socks flopped and flopped and flopped. God damn I will never forget watching him run his heart out that day, just sprinting for everything he wanted- for a college scholarship, for a chance for an education, for a chance to leave the Grandview Apartments and a childhood filled with poverty behind. And he got it too.
That day shoeless Anthony ran the 40 yard dash in under 5 seconds, 4.8 seconds with no shoes on. The scouts all saw it too that day. He signed a full ride scholarship to a historically black college in the south and we all hugged him and were so happy for him and his ticket out of poverty. But God damnit that night I delivered the pizzas he was right back there working at Foot Locker like that dream never happened. He told me he was staying back at the Grandview Apartments but that was a misnomer. Because they were not Grand and there sure as hell was no View. I knew for Anthony like every other kid that couldn’t get out, he was back in the cycle. I threw my empty pizza warmer onto the passenger seat and cried because I knew his life and his talent and his dreams would die and it made me so sad. He said he was going to enroll in Longview College but everyone said that. Longview was a misnomer just like Grandview. It didn't take long to drop out and there was still no view. That night sitting in the parking lot of Bannister Mall I could see the future and it was Anthony living back in poverty at the run-down Grandview Apartments thinking about how life had passed him by.
You can juxtaposition my worst pizza delivery with my best, a girl named Christina who was in my journalism class in high school. She was one of the only rich people I knew in my low income high school. Her dad had some kind of job in the stock market and they had a pool inside their house! And a fuckin hot tub, can you believe that? Inside the house! I didn’t even know that was legal. Certainly no one from Hickman Mills I had ever heard of had a pool inside their house. I delivered her pizza and she told me her parents left her money before they left for the weekend so this was her third time ordering pizza and she was glad it was me. Holy Shit had Christina gotten in shape since college. I had heard of the freshmen 15 for college girls adding weight but I never knew it could go the other way too. She told me she was a workout instructor now in Columbia and she lifted up her shirt and showed me her six pack. I whistled and said God damn girl, you are looking good! She asked me how long I had to deliver pizzas and I told her I got off at 10 so she said to come over after and we can get in the hot tub. She said it real suggestively too so I was thinking there were going to be some sparks afterwards. I rushed home between deliveries and snuck in and grabbed my swimsuit before my mom could say anything and jumped back in my car and drove back to Pizza Hut for the rest of my shift. When I got to her house just after ten she invited me in and grabbed my hand and took me to the room with the hot tub and the pool. She said if you want to get in the hot tub I am going to take these clothes off. And then she left.
Well fuck, I was in a real dilemma. What did she mean she was going to take these clothes off? She was going to come out naked? Should I put my swimsuit on? Or get in the hot tub naked? I decided to get in the hot tub naked because that stupid fuckin Wayne Gretzky quote was in my head, you know the one that says "You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take." Or maybe that was Michael Jordan. Or Michael Scott. Can’t remember. All I know was that I was feeling like an asshole because she came out in a proper one piece bathing suit that looked like it was from the swim team. So she sat in the hot tub with me and then she was getting amorous but I was getting nervous because I had no pants on, I just kept shifting to the other side of the tub. I didn’t want her to think I was assuming we were just going to get naked or whatever, eventually I just had to say look I’m not wearing any pants. She laughed and I laughed and we made out but not sex because Jesus was watching and I was super scared of Jesus back then. So I drove home and reveled in being in the moment with the only rich girl in South Kansas City, and saving up $700 to pay for the college I loved, and how much my car still smelled like pepperoni.

Sometimes my econ students will ask me if I believe we should do student debt relief. Yes, absolutely. Its usually followed up with a question about my student loans but I don’t have any, that’s not why I am for it. I hate seeing people in generations after me with crushing debt. I want them to be free. My girlfriend was at the table last month reading a letter and then she put her head in her hands and cried really hard and I wanted to see what was making her cry, I was hoping I could make her feel better. Now I will say my girlfriend cries a lot. These are just some of the things I’ve seen her cry about the last two years:
The Chiefs losing the Superbowl
When we went to the Khalid concert at Sprint Center and he played Better and we danced up in the nosebleed section
a work spreadsheet she didn’t understand
John Legend’s Instagram post (even though she doesn’t listen to John Legend)
when the NY photographer who took the famous Hosmer picture died of Covid
when I beat her in Scrabble
how beautiful a pony was playing in the snow
a $39 ring I bought her at Ross Dress for Less in Olathe because I was thinking of her
The stripper movie with Jennifer Lopez and Cardi B
I know it sounds like I am making up that last one but we were at our favorite theatre, the BandB one in Shawnee with the big cushy leather chairs that lay all the way back and she cried and cried the one part where Jennifer Lopez is hugging that girl. I heard the sniffling and looked over and couldn’t believe it because honestly that movie was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen in my life.
I’m just saying she is very sensitive. Only yesterday I found out when she gives the cat treats she heats them up for a little bit first, in the microwave. She said he likes them warm and it made me smile. I don’t give her a hard time because she is very very sweet. And so kind. You can imagine if she is that kind to a cat how kind she is to me. And she came into my life in a time when I needed kindness more than anything in the world. So the letter making her cry could have been anything. She let me see it and the letter said your student loans are going up from $700 to $1100 and it broke my heart. $1100 a month is terrible and it is a crushing amount for her to pay most of the rest of her life. I don’t want to see that anymore, for her or for any other Millennial. Or a Zoomer either for that matter.
There aren’t a lot of positive aspects about growing up Gen X. We were the silent generation. We were told not to speak until spoken to. But then we were never spoken to. No one asked us anything. It didn’t matter if we wanted to go to church or not we had the mean early Boomers for parents (My house my rules they screamed). Go tell your dad its your birthday she said, we both forgot. Maybe we can go get some pizza or something. Our parents were the last generation to beat their kids, the last generation to force religion, the last generation to be openly racist. GenX was the generation given a key but never a say.
But some things were good about growing up GenX. For one, we never had cell phones and the internet. I know that seems counterintuitive because the internet has cool stuff like porn and chess now but it also has God damn Facebook and Instagram, the dirge of my existence. I know I sound like an old man yelling at the clouds but everyone is so fidgety now, everyone is always swiping swiping God damn swiping. Always looking to see what is next, what celebrities are doing, what their friends and distant family are doing. One time I was in a KFC on a weekday lunch and there was a man there dressed up in a business suit and a tie and he had two sweet little daughters with him who were wearing dresses. It must have been take your daughters to work day but I remember they kept saying dad dad but he never heard them he was just swipe, swipe, swiping and it made me so sad. I wanted to shake him and say look at your sweet daughters this is precious time with them. I never said anything but since then I always try to put my phone away when I am with my kids.
I try to live in the present. That seemed easier when we grew up GenX. Sometimes we would go to the ballfields by Avila and just play home run derby all day. Hours and hours we would try to hit home runs and try to catch balls in the air, that was my favorite, shagging fly balls. I remember one time going back back back for a long fly and catching it just as it was going over the fence. The momentum took me over and my hip was all scraped from the top of the chain link fence all bleeding and shit but I didn’t care, I held up the ball and everyone held their caps up and yelled fuck yeah, good catch! Hell yeah! We were just there all day.
No one had to check their phones or scroll through post or Instagram anything. I remember reading Lil Nas X during the pandemic say he missed going to nightclubs and standing against the wall and then remembering to post to Instagram about how much fun he was having so he would take a quick picture dancing and then he would go back to standing against the wall. He was being sarcastic, he didn’t really miss that, no one does. But it was a good post because it made a lot of people think. Why do we do what we do? Is it for the gram? Is it so other people can see our lives and think we have our shit together? I miss the time before we had social media because we never stopped to think about whether or not we were missing something. We were right there with our friends, exhausted after hours of shagging balls, with our baseball gloves under our heads for pillows, staring up into that hot Missouri sky and realizing there was nowhere else we would rather be.
One other good part about growing up GenX was the ridiculously low price of education. $700 was what I had to pay for tuition at Truman State University. Before every semester started I would go to the cashier and give her my check for the upcoming semester. My parents said they would pay for all my school if I went to a Christian University but I was disinterested, to say the least. I had already been kicked out of Christian high school, the last thing I wanted was to be kicked out of a Christian college. I did take one Christian college visit though, I visited an awful school called Liberty University in Virginia founded by a racist TV preacher named Jerry Falwell. The reason I took the visit was because my mom said she would buy me a plane ticket to go there on my own and when you are 17 and someone says they will let you ride in an airplane by yourself from Kansas City to Virginia you take it, no matter how bad the school seems.
I was right though, the school was fuckin terrible. Everyone was wearing suits and dresses and for fun they had a animated movie with a mouse in it. But you had to sign out of the prison er I mean dorms to go see it. I stole a bike the second day and put on my headphones with contraband rap music I had taped off the radio and peddled as fast as I could into the town of Lynchburg. I found an arcade and a pizza parlor and watched all the R rated movies they were playing and didn’t ride back until late at night. Apparently that is a no-no with that University because a bunch of angry old white men had a meeting about me when I came back and threatened to call my parents but ended up just taking me to the airport at 8 am on Sunday and leaving me there just to be rid of me. Mr. Falwell himself told me that I was never welcome again on any campus of Liberty University. Good, fuck that place. Truman State was an amazing college. Lots of kids on the smarter side like me and I could listen to Dr. Dre as loud as I wanted.
The $700 for my tuition I earned during the breaks. My girlfriend could never do anything like this because she is Millennial and all you guys got fucked on education. They told you that you needed it and then they priced it so high you would be in debt for life. My situation was better and I usually delivered pizza back home and saved up my $700. I drove for the Grandview Pizza Hut on 71hwy next to the abandoned Kmart first but the second winter break they didn’t need any drivers. They told me to go work at the Pizza Hut by Bannister Mall on James A. Reed. Now I don’t know if any of you remember the Bannister Mall area from the mid 90s but it was not nice. This was before cell phones so these places would be locked up twice- once at their apartment and once for the building itself. So you had to bang really loud on the building door and then when someone let you in you had to bang on the apartment door. Pretty scary late January nights in South Kansas City.
My worst pizza delivery wasn’t scary, it was just sad. This delivery was to Bannister Mall itself and the Foot Locker on the lower level. That’s where I ran into Anthony from my high school football team. We hugged and then I asked him about school but he told me he dropped out. Anthony was the fastest motherfucker I had ever seen. When the college scouts came to watch him on that day he happened to forget his shoes. All his shoes, no tennis shoes, no cleats, no spikes, nothing. So he just told them he would run in his socks. These weren’t ankle socks, they were full length socks that he pushed down but as soon as he came off the blocks his fuckin socks flopped and flopped and flopped. God damn I will never forget watching him run his heart out that day, just sprinting for everything he wanted- for a college scholarship, for a chance for an education, for a chance to leave the Grandview Apartments and a childhood filled with poverty behind. And he got it too.
That day shoeless Anthony ran the 40 yard dash in under 5 seconds, 4.8 seconds with no shoes on. The scouts all saw it too that day. He signed a full ride scholarship to a historically black college in the south and we all hugged him and were so happy for him and his ticket out of poverty. But God damnit that night I delivered the pizzas he was right back there working at Foot Locker like that dream never happened. He told me he was staying back at the Grandview Apartments but that was a misnomer. Because they were not Grand and there sure as hell was no View. I knew for Anthony like every other kid that couldn’t get out, he was back in the cycle. I threw my empty pizza warmer onto the passenger seat and cried because I knew his life and his talent and his dreams would die and it made me so sad. He said he was going to enroll in Longview College but everyone said that. Longview was a misnomer just like Grandview. It didn't take long to drop out and there was still no view. That night sitting in the parking lot of Bannister Mall I could see the future and it was Anthony living back in poverty at the run-down Grandview Apartments thinking about how life had passed him by.
You can juxtaposition my worst pizza delivery with my best, a girl named Christina who was in my journalism class in high school. She was one of the only rich people I knew in my low income high school. Her dad had some kind of job in the stock market and they had a pool inside their house! And a fuckin hot tub, can you believe that? Inside the house! I didn’t even know that was legal. Certainly no one from Hickman Mills I had ever heard of had a pool inside their house. I delivered her pizza and she told me her parents left her money before they left for the weekend so this was her third time ordering pizza and she was glad it was me. Holy Shit had Christina gotten in shape since college. I had heard of the freshmen 15 for college girls adding weight but I never knew it could go the other way too. She told me she was a workout instructor now in Columbia and she lifted up her shirt and showed me her six pack. I whistled and said God damn girl, you are looking good! She asked me how long I had to deliver pizzas and I told her I got off at 10 so she said to come over after and we can get in the hot tub. She said it real suggestively too so I was thinking there were going to be some sparks afterwards. I rushed home between deliveries and snuck in and grabbed my swimsuit before my mom could say anything and jumped back in my car and drove back to Pizza Hut for the rest of my shift. When I got to her house just after ten she invited me in and grabbed my hand and took me to the room with the hot tub and the pool. She said if you want to get in the hot tub I am going to take these clothes off. And then she left.
Well fuck, I was in a real dilemma. What did she mean she was going to take these clothes off? She was going to come out naked? Should I put my swimsuit on? Or get in the hot tub naked? I decided to get in the hot tub naked because that stupid fuckin Wayne Gretzky quote was in my head, you know the one that says "You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take." Or maybe that was Michael Jordan. Or Michael Scott. Can’t remember. All I know was that I was feeling like an asshole because she came out in a proper one piece bathing suit that looked like it was from the swim team. So she sat in the hot tub with me and then she was getting amorous but I was getting nervous because I had no pants on, I just kept shifting to the other side of the tub. I didn’t want her to think I was assuming we were just going to get naked or whatever, eventually I just had to say look I’m not wearing any pants. She laughed and I laughed and we made out but not sex because Jesus was watching and I was super scared of Jesus back then. So I drove home and reveled in being in the moment with the only rich girl in South Kansas City, and saving up $700 to pay for the college I loved, and how much my car still smelled like pepperoni.

“Suicide doesn’t stop the pain,” “It gives it to someone else.” - [ ] 1: We would miss you - [ ] 2: It’s worth it to be alive - [ ] 3: It does get better,believe it or not it will eventually get better. - [ ] 4: There’s so much you would miss out on doing. - [ ] 5: You are worth it don’t let anyone,even yourself tell you otherwise. - [ ] 6: God made you for a reason, you have a reason. - [ ] 7: There is always a reason to live! - [ ] 8: So many people care about you - [ ] 9: You are amazing - [ ] 10: I don’t even know you and I love you - [ ] 11: I care for you - [ ] 12: There are plenty of people that love you - [ ] 13: Youre literally perfect!! <3 - [ ] 14: There are plenty of people that care for you - [ ] 15: God loves you - [ ] 16: God cares about you - [ ] 17: Sometimes life is hard but it will make you a stronger person don’t worry! - [ ] 18: What about all the things you’ve always wanted to do?What about all the things you’ve planned,but never got around doing? You can’t do them if your dead. - [ ] 19: I want you to be alive - [ ] 20: So many people want you alive! - [ ] 21: You won’t be able to listen to Music if you die - [ ] 22: You’ll never be able to listen to your favorite song if you die. - [ ] 23: You’ll never be able to listen to your favorite singer if you’re gone - [ ] 24: You’ll never be able to listen to your favorite rapper if you’re gone. - [ ] 25: listening to really loud music - [ ] 26: Killing yourself is never worth it,you’ll hit both yourself & the people who care about you. - [ ] 27: There are so many people that would miss you,including me - [ ] 28: the clouds - [ ] 29: You are gorgeous - [ ] 30: Someone out there would die for you :’) - [ ] 31: How do you think your family would feel? - [ ] 32: Proving people wrong with your success. - [ ] 33: Watching the jerks that doubted you fail at life. - [ ] 34: You’ll never have the feeling of walking into a warm building on a cold day. - [ ] 35: You’ll never have the feeling of walking into a cold building on a hot day. - [ ] 36: Being stupid in public just because you can. - [ ] 37: Helping other people. - [ ] 38: You have a future to live for.. - [ ] 39: Being alive is good - [ ] 40: thinking about happy memories - [ ] 41: Finding your soulmate. - [ ] 42: All nighters!!! - [ ] 43: Sleeping in all day - [ ] 44: You can look back at yourself later in your life and be glad you didn’t commit suicide. - [ ] 45: Nobody could ever replace you - [ ] 46: You’re unique - [ ] 47: pets - [ ] 48: petting pets - [ ] 49: Netflix and movies - [ ] 50: Decorating the Christmas tree - [ ] 51: Dreams that make you smile - [ ] 52: Breakfast in bed - [ ] 53: New clothes - [ ] 54: New shoes - [ ] 55: New books - [ ] 56: Sunrises and Sunsets - [ ] 57: Friends - [ ] 58: The ocean - [ ] 59: Sunlight - [ ] 60: Your family - [ ] 61: Inside jokes - [ ] 62: Birthdays - [ ] 63: Christmas - [ ] 64: Family traditions - [ ] 65: The taste of your favorite food - [ ] 66: Favorite tv show - [ ] 67: Favorite movie - [ ] 68: Going to new places - [ ] 69: The ability to peruse what ever you choose (there are over 7 billion people on Earth,don’t be afraid to be you) - [ ] 70: To earn money and rewards - [ ] 71: You can always flip your life around. - [ ] 72: To find the perfect job/career for you - [ ] 73: Pizza - [ ] 74: Kittens - [ ] 75: New haircuts - [ ] 76: Moments you can look back to and laugh at - [ ] 77: The clouds - [ ] 78: The world is better with you in it - [ ] 79: Roller Coasters - [ ] 80: Showers - [ ] 81: Cake - [ ] 82:Growing old - [ ] 83: Growing old with the person you love - [ ] 84: Singing - [ ] 85: Sleeping - [ ] 86: Icecream - [ ] 87: Cookies - [ ] 88: food in general - [ ] 89: Movie nights - [ ] 90: Candy - [ ] 91: Popcorn - [ ] 92: Daydreaming - [ ] 93: Happy moments - [ ] 94: Halloween - [ ] 95: Sleepovers - [ ] 96: Parties - [ ] 97: Having a good personality - [ ] 98: Making people happy - [ ] 99: Bonfires - [ ] 100: Sitting on rooftops - [ ] 101: Vacations - [ ] 102: Hearing crazy stories - [ ] 103: Telling crazy stories - [ ] 104: Treehouses - [ ] 105: Starbucks - [ ] 106: You’ve changed someone’s life - [ ] 107: If you’re gone how will you achieve great things? - [ ] 108: Everyone has talent including you - [ ] 109: Eating crazy food - [ ] 110: Hanging out with your friends - [ ] 111: Nobody could ever replace you - [ ] 112: You have so much to live for - [ ] 113: Your dreams need some fulfilling to do - [ ] 114: Living life to the fullest - [ ] 115: Heck,I would miss you like crazy - [ ] 116: Your family and friends would be devastated if you were gone - [ ] 117: Someone out there is constantly praying to meet someone like you - [ ] 118: Your future - [ ] 119: You could save so many lives - [ ] 120: You are too beautiful to disappear - [ ] 121: You are bigger than any of your problems - [ ] 122: You are never alone during this struggle - [ ] 123: Tomorrow is a new day! - [ ] 124: You are worth more than you think - [ ] 125: But, the final and most important one is, just being able to experience life, because even if your life doesn’t seem so great right now, anything could happen! 💗💗 All suicide hotline numbers if you need someone to talk to : - [ ] Argentina: +5402234930430 - [ ] Australia: 131114 - [ ] Austria: 142; for children and young people, 147 - [ ] Belgium: 106 - [ ] Bosnia & Herzegovina: 080 05 03 05 - [ ] Botswana: 3911270 - [ ] Brazil: 188 for the CVV National Association - [ ] Canada: 1 .833 .456 .4566, 5147234000 - [ ] (Montreal); 18662773553 (outside Montreal) - [ ] Croatia: 014833888 - [ ] Denmark: +4570201201 - [ ] Egypt: 7621602 - [ ] Estonia: 3726558088; - [ ] Russian 3726555688 - [ ] Finland: 010 195 202 - [ ] France: 0145394000 - [ ] Germany: 08001810771 - [ ] Holland: 0900767 - [ ] Hong Kong: +852 2382 0000 - [ ] Hungary: 116123 - [ ] India: 8888817666 - [ ] Ireland: +44058457909090 - [ ] Italy: 800860022 - [ ] Japan: +810352869090 - [ ] Mexico: 5255102550 - [ ] New Zealand: 0800543354 - [ ] Norway: +4781533300 - [ ] Philippines: 028969191 - [ ] Poland: 5270000 - [ ] Portugal: 21 854 07 40/8 . 96 898 21 50 - [ ] Russia: 0078202577577 - [ ] Spain: 914590050 - [ ] South Africa: 0514445691 - [ ] Sweden: 46317112400 - [ ] Switzerland: 143 - [ ] United Kingdom: 08457909090 - [ ] USA: 18002738255 - [ ] Veterans’ Crisis Line: 1 800 273 8255/ text 383255 💗💗 songs that could make you happy 🥺 Personal by HRVY: u/YJpE I like me better by Lauv: u/ozwA Classic by MKTO: u/A4Ds Just friends by JORDY: u/eINM Eastside by Benny Blanco,Halsey,& Khalid: u/UvGY What makes you beautiful by 1D: u/-A4E Cheerleader by OMI: u/QfW8 Everybody talks by Neon Trees: u/84lE Dear future husband by Meghan Trainor: u/D_40 Backyard Boy by Claire Rosinkranz: u/shy8 Shut up and dance with me by WALK THE MOON: u/lx6Q iSpy by KYLE: u/gMPU Trap queen by Fetty Wap: u/NKio LMK by Lil XXEL: u/IC24 Dynamite by BTS: u/WNZg - fun facts! 1.Otters hold hands when sleeping is they don’t drift away from eachother 2.Penguins only have one mate their entire life,they also propose by giving them a pebble 3.Cows have best friends 4.you’re perfect <3 - another message : - 💗💗 To all those people being bullied - To all those people who have lost a loved one - To all those people who have lost a pet - To all those people being abused - To all those people going through depression - To all those people with anxiety - To all those people in poverty - To all those people going through a breakup - To all those people having a bad day - To all those people with insecurities - To all those people just having a hard time Don’t forget - Your weakness today - Is your strength tomorrow - It always gets better - Your loved ones will remain in your hearts - You always have the memories - Love yourself - Stand up for yourself - Money can’t buy happiness - Those lovers - Just weren’t right - Don’t abuse yourself - Don’t abuse others - Kill them with kindness - Treat people with kindness - We’ve all had these times - There will always be a hole in our chests But - Let’s all be each others’ strength - whether you’re - Black - White - LGBTQ+ - Christian - Atheist - Etc - Love yourself - Love others - Don’t cut - Don’t kill - Don’t criticize - Don’t beg - Don’t do drugs - Don’t starve yourself - Don’t starve others We aren’t supposed to do any of that - Just keep your strength - Keep your faith - Don’t change because you were told to - Be yourself - Sometimes playing a character,isn’t the best thing to do. Have a great day,and don’t stop spreading awareness about things that are happening currently in the world . ⚠️ this is not my text, that however doesn't mean that I don't agree with every single word said here. out of experience, it destroys people. Please don't be afraid to ask for help. Please, I beg you, please don't do it. You are worth it and there are people who love you.⚠️ I need everyone to pass this on

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Heya guys, I hope all of you are doing well because I certainly am! The series is coming to an end (finally) and I'll tie it up with the very very start by the next or definitely by the sixth part anyway :)
I'll probably write more stories set in this universe when I have way more free time like next summer so stay clued in for that if you like what I'm doing with this!
Feel free to give me any advice/tips/criticism as it's all welcome by me. Edits: added links, replaced photo-absorbent with reflective plates and edited some minor details
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Sol System
Hyperspace near Sol
Newton’s Flaming Laser Sword Research Vessel
13:09 December 2, 2338 AD
Isabella was honestly mediocre in every sense of the word, with the most exotic thing about her being quite possibly her Afro-Brazilian ancestry, and she knew it. Isabella Santos had been born into a life of opulence on Earth, all money inherited from her ancestors who had been at the very top of the rung when automation really kicked in (pretty much old money at this point) and her family had been earning untold billions since then.
Automation has drastically altered certain aspects of the economic system while leaving others relatively unchanged in comparison to the economic models employed by humanity during their information age - for example, private property and corporations certainly still existed along the supply chain from extraction to manufacturing to retail (though with very few humans involved).
However, since automation and universal basic income meant incomes were no longer tied with survival and livelihoods, the UNE General Assembly passed a motion in 2157 that all software produced was to be open source and similarly all music, film & art was to be royalty-free. Copyright law ceased to apply to citizens, and only applied to corporations - where corporate activity was defined as earning income outside of their UBI in exchange for a good or service. This heralded the beginning of the human golden age of culture and arts, for removing the monetary incentive meant that content creators were driven only by their passion for the craft and their ambitions.
Isabella had gone into the field of biological research mostly as a rebellious act against her parents and the aristocracy she had been born into which had only tied her down; she was tired of having to follow the paths already trodden on by those before her and only then to join them as forgotten predecessors. Her parents were slow to come to accept the idea of their dear Isabella being a researcher but came around in the only way rich, well-connected parents knew how to, by leveraging their extensive connections to secure a lucrative UNE research grant for Isabella and her research team.
It had been a long day, having to get the ship retrofitted and then clearance to enter hyperspace but everyone on board was in high spirits after getting a few billion credits from the UNE Research Council to play around with. They were heading to a nearby solar system with a suspected habitable planet around it (of near-Earth gravity too!), and in the process were to become some of humanity’s very first xenobiologists. The research vessel had first lived life as an automated mining shuttle, before being purchased from a declining mining company by the UNE. Basic research stations, sensors and a pilot seat [1] were all fitted to the ship in preparation of being used for research purposes. The group of young xenobiologists had christened the vessel Newton’s Flaming Laser Sword after being granted it for the duration of their expedition.
However, while Newton’s Flaming Laser Sword was stationary in the endless void that was hyperspace, Isabella noticed the ship’s EM sensors detecting undecipherable static across the spectrum. She wasn’t a physicist by any means but she knew that there were no EM sources out here in hyperspace, except the very odd photon. The ship AI had found no faults with the sensors and noted that the waves were very blue-shifted. This meant only one thing: something artificial was headed straight in their direction. The research team decided not to tempt fate and sped off towards their destination while using the quantum-entangled comms system to report the anomaly to the head research office of the UNE.
For this exact reason, a hotline existed between the civilian and military branches of the UNE, especially with the existence of hyperspace, rapid response times to unknown threats meant the difference between life and death, victory and defeat, and the very survival of the human race. The anomaly was confirmed by drones sent out into hyperspace, and the reports were sent further up the hierarchy until it was astutely deemed a possible military threat by the UNE Director of Research and sent to a military commander via this very hotline. No actual physical calls were made, rather something similar to a forwarding system was used, with important alerts showing up in brain implants rather than a device meaning that they were impossible to miss.
Within 4 minutes of Isabella’s discovery, the UNE military consisting of five battle groups stationed (mostly) inside the boundaries of the Asteroid Belt was put on high alert. All military fleet exercises were postponed and fleets were to be stationed on strategic points across the system, hoping to defend against the unknowable. It would take at least 10 minutes for all detached squadrons in navy exercises to merge back with the main fleet.
Sol System
Aerosynchronous Orbit (ASO) of Mars
Battle Group Ceres
UNE Justice, Ireland -class Supercarrier
13:15 December 2, 2338 AD
Admiral Francis received the warning just two minutes prior and set the gears and cogs of the ship in motion almost immediately. Sailors were moving out to their positions along the length of the vessel [2], mechanic bots were on standby, and the various captains of the ships within Battle Group Ceres had received very clear orders from Francis: only fire once they fire the first shot, and then give them hell! Although their intentions were probably hostile, he was not about to sabotage proper first contact by having any of his subordinates get trigger happy and fire upon some innocent alien diplomats.
Officers scrambled to the different portions of the ship, ready to command the sailors and assign fighter pilots to their fighters. The result was unadulterated chaos once the enemy battle group appeared through hyperspace, by a stroke of luck, a couple of dozen kilometres away - well within firing distance. Francis could only momentarily shudder at the thought of enemy ships tunnelling their way into normalspace right on top of his ships, resulting in instant mutual annihilation as the universe realised its grave mistake.
For a fleeting moment, both fleets had stared each other off in a Mexican stand-off of sorts, orbiting at thousands of kilometres an hour around a somewhat densely populated celestial body. That was until a mass driver silently travelled the void between them with deadly accuracy directly towards the UNE Justice supercarrier. The ship AI had barely any time to even detect the 5kg of solid iron travelling at over 2% of the speed of light before putting the deflectors on full power. The deflectors worked by imparting momentum from the ship to the projectile so that it would change course, continuing its journey through space for endless aeons, or at least hit a less critical part of the ship. The AI also had to work out the positions of the other ships in the fleet to avoid inadvertently putting them in the firing line.
For the crew, the groaning of the superstructure of the ship must have been near-deafening as the entire ship’s mass was being slightly displaced to deflect a simple iron projectile that might as well have been a nuclear warhead. Newton’s 3rd law in (very dramatic) action; the ship accelerated (nearly) imperceptibly to the side and the projectile was only able to score a glancing hit on the hull.
The opening salvo that should have claimed the lives of hundreds on board instead claimed the several large external hull plates and was reduced to molten slag (a significant proportion of the projectile was atomised) travelling at nearly 1% c that was most likely going to ruin someone’s day at some point in the near or distant future [3].
Every crew member held at least a formal education that included physics, and everyone had it drilled in them that they were to either hit the target squarely or not fire at all. The AI had the firing under control but needed a human there to authorise firing the projectile (unless in exceptional circumstances and up to the discretion of the admiral or highest in command in the case of the admiral’s death or absence).
Battle Group Ceres wasted no time in returning the favour, with several of the fleet’s destroyers unleashing their own mass driver rounds at various targets and the outpouring of fighters from the flight decks of Justice being oddly reminiscent of a swarm of angry bees whizzing out of their beehives.
At that moment, two interstellar civilisations came to blows in the space just above the 35 million souls that called the red planet home. Within 5 minutes of the first shot, almost all Martians had seen videos of tiny non-moving specks of light in the sky or heard reports of a massive battle in aerosynchronous orbit of the planet [4]. The malevolent alien civilisation was unknown (assumed to be the ones who found the probe), but Battle Group Ceres was already lauded as Mars’ spear and shield that defended Mars from oblivion. Of course, nobody had a clue as to the nature of the invader’s intentions but nobody was going to assume anything but the very worst.
All 1000 of these exoatmospheric fighters had been fitted with limited hyperspace capabilities being able to travel only a few AUs in hyperspace at a time, but each had an impressive arsenal of four small antimatter tipped missiles (only 1 kg in each) and two directed energy weapons (aka lasers) effective against normal hull armour (but not against special reflective hull plates; however these could only withstand several seconds of focused laser fire before deforming and breaking down). Of course, there’s no maximum speed they could go at but typically they’d be travelling a few kilometres per second in combat.
Francis however, never liked to use up all his assets at once, that was a vulnerability that could be exploited by an accomplished and experienced enemy. He gave the order for half of the fighters to take off and move ahead striking the enemy from the top and bottom, acting as an invaluable distraction for the main fleet as well as important point defence against slower-moving projectiles. There were two other carriers each with 200 fighters at his disposal anyway, those would be his reserves.
Meanwhile, the first casualty of the battle was a Luna-class destroyer on the edge of battle group Ceres, its deflectors simply overwhelmed by mass driver rounds from the enemy. Pacific went down with all hands, all 860 of the crew perished when a lucky mass driver slammed into the core of the vessel and on its way there, directly hit a bunch of antimatter-tipped missiles - for a split second, the battlefield was illuminated by a new star in the night sky. At least their ashes would continue to orbit the red planet they died to protect.
As the populace of Mars prepared to head into underground bunkers (and in many cases, the derelict caves of abandoned automated mines) where the first colonies had set up to avoid the dangers of solar radiation, tens of thousands of personal and individual acts of heroism and bravery were taking place in the skies above Mars.
Private Kaylee Harrison
UNE Justice, Ireland -class Supercarrier
Flight Deck 08
13:18 December 2, 2338 AD
Officer Reynolds marched into the flight deck as stoically as ever. Even in the middle of a surprise attack by an enemy of unknown capabilities, his wrinkles betrayed only his experience and nothing of emotion.
This was all from behind his plasma-resistant face visor of course as we all were required to wear a modern and efficient type of space suit and wetsuit hybrid out here. I’m not clued into the exact physics or the exact way it works but the outer part is as expected from a spacesuit with all the electronics and the hard kevlar-derivative stuff while the inner part is essentially an advanced wetsuit that covers everything below the neck. The wetsuit keeps the wearer from overheating with millions of microscopic pipe-like structures in the fabric carrying cool water, when the water heats up it is cooled by a refrigerator unit and recycled back into the wetsuit. A cutting-edge catalytic converter unit within the helmet converts exhaled carbon dioxide into oxygen, and that is supplemented with an external oxygen tank.
Our radios almost crackled in anticipation. 'Stand at attention!'
We certainly didn’t need to be told twice, a mixture of dark excitement and adrenaline had the entire squad already at attention before he could begin saying attention.
'Today, we have made hostile first contact as you are all aware and considering your line of duty, you’ll either be returning home alive or you’ll end up orbiting this majestic planet underneath us for all of eternity.'
Honestly, after launching antimatter missiles to rip apart space-time, I came to realise that no matter how much at peace you are with your own mortality, nothing can ever prepare you for when you’re put in a potentially fatal scenario. Death cowers to no man, after all, my acceptance was but an illusion - but orbiting Mars for millennia to come might not be such a terrible fate, in a morbidly beautiful way.
'When I call your name out, you will head into your fighter and take off in an orderly and safe manner, am I clear?'
'Yes, officer!' The response echoed and reverberated within the deck, a vague hint to the expansive nature of the flight deck.
A minute or two passed until my name was called, 'Private Harrison!'
I could have sworn I saw a flash of regret in Officer Reynold’s eyes as I marched over to my fighter and deftly opened the cockpit before lurching into the seat of the fighter. Reynold was calling out the names of the few privates left before the sound of the MPD [5] thrusters drowned out his radio transmission.
Taking off a moving ship was simply a matter of gentle thrust until you’re floating far enough away - there was a minute risk of the deflectors squashing you with immense momentum transfer if you sped away while too close to the ship. The most vulnerable part of the whole operation, but also by far the easiest.
Technician Leopoldo Risi
UNE Excalibur, Luna -class Destroyer
Near the ship’s central AI computing core
13:30 December 2, 2338 AD
The heat was sweltering even in these specially made technician suits, adapted from the military-grade spacesuits, but bulkier with greater cooling capacity as well more sensors and electronics integrated with the ship AI. It was of no surprise, considering only 5 metres of plating and hull separated my team and several hundred degrees celsius heat banks and radiators that kept the weaponry firing nearly constantly without melting and allowed the AI to make several sextillion operations per second (mainly calculating trajectories of both enemy and friendly projectiles as well as taking into account the gravity well of Mars).
A quarter-hour of incredibly intense fighting had put all of the systems onboard to the test and of course, now we had to have a hull breach right beside the heat banks. The robots couldn’t fit down here so we were here to patch up the damage and report it to be fixed properly if we ever got out of this sticky situation alive. Luckily it was a very small breach and didn’t require the activation of energy-intensive atmospheric shields.
Through the hole, I could see exotic coloured plasma a few hundred metres in cold hard space with innumerable pieces of debris slowly spreading out as a cloud. I needed to see no more, shutting my eyes and mentally praying to whatever deity was up there that their souls would rest in peace.
I opened my eyes to red flashes of light flowing throughout the impromptu maintenance corridor. Waving away my two colleagues, Sabrina and Liang, they understood the gesture immediately - their protests against my spontaneous act of bravery restricted to surprised glares before they sprinted down the corridor. I couldn't have forgiven myself if they paid the price for having them stay here. It took several seconds for the autowelder to 3D print the exact shape of the hole and weld it in place, and mid-heel spin just before I could run-
A thunderous groan made the corridor indecipherably blurry before it all went black.
Captain Hassan Nasan
UNE Khalid ibn al-Walid , Luna -class Destroyer
Helm of vessel
13:35 December 2, 2338 AD
The battle group silently drifted forwards through the void of space, as per the orders of the Admiral, to support the vanguard of the fighters moving ahead of the fleet towards the enemy. I pondered for a moment what the existence of alien sentients would mean for Islamic and general religious theology, I’m sure most major human religions would come to accept aliens amongst as full converts but maybe religion was largely unique to humans due to a quirk in our psychology (I didn’t see the drones of hiveminds having theology for example). Would their souls go to Jannah alongside human ones? That’s a problem for future imams and theologians to deal with, I’m here to make sure there is a future for humanity after all.
A faint rumble shook the room very slightly with each mass driver that was electromagnetically propelled to ludicrous speeds, before an accompanying flash of light from the other end of the battlefield marking the enemy target. Slowly but surely, the ship AI was learning the weak points of the various enemy ship types to either disable or annihilate them from studying the light emissions from the target ship and determining the ship’s estimated efficiency relative to before it was hit with the force of a nuclear warhead.
By the grace of Allah, the enemy had (mostly) overlooked us so far in targeting the main supercarrier and axillary carrier vessels - and we would make sure they didn’t live to regret that decision. We had already fired quite a few direct shots onto enemy frigates even though I knew that the deadly capacity of direct shots, although almost certainly deadly to some capacity, was limited by the development of atmospheric shields. Assuming these vessels have them as we do, these shields could contain the atmosphere after a breach but put a surprisingly high toll on the energetic demands of the ship. Energy was a resource like any other, and draining them of it would be critical to our success.
Our directed energy weapons were much less effective at these distances, with the particle beams having an effective range of about 10-12 km. We were closing in quite fast, at a relative rate of maybe 20 kilometres per hour compared to the enemy battle group - however, we were already taking heavy casualties with the most recent reports of deceased crew members constantly updating by the dozens across the battle group. Those reinforcements coming from their postponed navy exercise would be greatly appreciated right about now.
If they had any inkling of modern human warfare doctrine, they’d have known we won wars by cutting off supply and logistics and encircling the enemy. They’d have known of our incredibly lengthy militaristic history and how empires stretched thousands of kilometres mere centuries after the Iron Age began. They’d have the historical context to understand this ship’s name, Khalid ibn al-Walid, the very Sayf Allah (Sword of God) who defeated one empire and brought the other into a centuries-long decline! They’d have known that humanity only desires peace because, in the hellscape of war, we fear what we may become.
As the ship creaked to deflect another projectile although I knew I would likely be dead if it had hit true, I found myself praying that the task force would come rushing to our aid from hyperspace at that instant. A growing number of flashes of light appeared behind enemy lines as a whole squadron of fighters raced out of hyperspace almost simultaneously with the vanguard arriving from the front. Mashallah! A smirk came to my face a mere instant before a mass driver erased it.
High Admiral Icokera
GUS Battle Group Akkurbad
Ger’kera Herra , Cadea -class Battlecruiser [6]
Command debriefing room
13:37 December 2, 2338 AD
Holographic video feeds surrounded the command room, showing the state of the battlefield from this battlecruiser as well as a few feeds from other ships. As the front half of yet another human (that was what they called themselves, even the way it sounded was somehow primitive) destroyer simply ceased to exist, I could only look on in barely contained rage at the battlefield sensor readings. A swarm of tiny, incredibly manoeuvrable vessels had come to surround us from the back - not only did this one system civilisation have a fleet that outnumbered us (thank the gods that our technology is the best in the galaxy!) but the fact that these tiny vessels came from hyperspace means they must have more of these mothercrafts!
I would have to find the fool who let this happen and deal with them later if we got out this alive that is… the only weapons we have that were effective against this strategy was our directed energy weapons and they had to be focused on a target for at least a second or 2 before melting the hull plates, these fighters were just too manoeuvrable for our weapons to track them. Our mass drivers stood no chance, they fired too slowly to even come within a kilometre of the target and had zero tracking capability being fixed to the fronts and sides of our ships.
Every civilised species that had reached space ran with the logic that larger guns were better and produced a few massive ships or vehicles to face each other in grand open battle. These deathworlders had instead swarmed their enemies using greater numbers. A part of me admired this novel tactic while the rest of me shuddered thinking of the historical conditions that could have made them employ such a strategy. Maybe we could take some of their military strategies after wiping them from existence of course.
Our sensors were practically overloaded with hundreds of red dots in all directions around us, they had encircled us in all three dimensions. A military feat that had only been accomplished as an enemy made their final stand (relatively few ships were involved in battle after all), and these upstarts had done it to a technologically advanced race. Maybe the craziest thing about it all was the fact that the human capital ships still fired into the cloud of their own fighters - such little regard for their own kind that they would take some of their own down just to strike at us.
I could only watch in horror and shock as antimatter missiles peppered and ate at the hull of ships across the battle group. It had reached a point where our ships were firing blindly, almost vainly, in the hope that the humans would fight us symmetrically. I was still alone in the command debriefing room, looking onto the reddish-green planet below and wondering what its name was since there was no harm in knowing the name of the planet which would hold my mortal body in its grasp soon.
Mars, named after a Roman god of war. Of course, the one race we decided to get rid of was one with an impossible amount of resources which had named one of their celestial bodies after warfare. My hubris had put my asphx on the sphinx [7] and quite probably the entire galaxy’s too.
I took out my holonotes and started dictating the course of the battle and my inner monologue, including my newfound respect for these humans, an exercise in futility as it was much too little, much too late. It is now of my opinion that this is indeed an existential war but not for the hum-
The structure of Ger’kera Herra simply couldn’t hold up any longer, escape was impossible with an attempted entry into hyperspace only resulting in the certain very rapid and explosive deconstruction of the entire mammoth vessel. Key struts and braces had been incinerated in multiple hundred megatons of pure annihilation - although even if the ship had survived, exposure to the gamma radiation emitted would have finished them off anyway. What was left of the ship broke off into the void, and the 5,000 souls that were still on board joined their 15,000 comrades beyond the grave.
Icokera’s last thoughts as he was ripped out of the command room into the inky, inhospitable void was those of awe and a certain kind of respect - a kind that only a military commander could give to another who had bested him in battle.
The two remaining destroyers and three frigates of Battle Group Akkurbad surrendered just as the task force came out of hyperspace where the swarm of fighters had come from. Ceres had truly paid the blood price for this pyrrhic victory and now Mars, for the first time since the fall of Rome, stood with his iconic spear and shield and turned the gears of war in the name of humanity.
Battle Group Ceres
UNE Justice, Ireland -class Supercarrier
Flight Deck 08
13:45 December 2, 2338 AD
In the heat of battle, Kaylee was a different beast entirely. To her, it must have been all a blur, distant memories of a side of herself that she only endured because she couldn’t bear anyone else doing so. It was a matter of duty, but not pride to her. The killing of sentients was morally repugnant in her eyes in every way, you’d be hard-pressed to find a less suitable person for the armed forces.
There was one single redeeming quality about her, outside of her talent as a pilot - as soon the first mass driver was fired, a switch flipped in her brain. Kaylee in battle truly embodied the 'shoot first, ask questions later' mentality,
Her confidence transformed into her breathtakingly risky manoeuvres around the capital ship of the malevolent aliens, dodging death by mere metres at times. With the gentle reminder that she was travelling at least a few kilometres a second, it was one of the closest someone could stare into the Reaper’s face and still be able to tell the story afterwards.
Her laser focus was expressed in her nearly perfectly timed release of both of her missiles into a deep hole in the hull carved by an earlier mass driver round. The missiles flew silently forwards into the hull and with the speeds she was travelling at, she put herself at almost 30 Gs of force momentarily to a hard bank to the left and avoid being a smear on the side of this gigantic ship.
A flash of gamma radiation as well as photons from all over the spectrum went in all directions - the only thing saving her from acute radiation sickness and terminal cancer was the radiation shielding of her fighter and the 24/7 work of the billions of medical nanobots in her bloodstream. In that single press of a button, the superstructure of the ship had been made even more compromised and a further 237 alien combatants had perished.
Deadliest of all, her self-sacrificing nature had very nearly shown itself, a very last resort to protect humanity at any cost. She put herself at insane levels of risk by volunteering to be the first human to enter hyperspace, and she had no qualms with being the first human to use hyperspace to annihilate an enemy fleet. And maybe irradiate half of Mars too. Humans were categorically insane but I mean that in the nicest way possible.
Now, however, she was precariously piloting her fighter back to Flight Deck 08 of UNE Justice, dodging space debris from the decisive but very deadly battle, an easy task with the advanced radar system of her fighter but regardless, she had to be careful - especially of fast-moving micro fragments that could easily pierce the fighter’s thin armour. That was the main reason why the space fighter training program had taught them to limit their speeds while flying and only go faster than 500 m/s relative to the debris around you if absolutely necessary or in the heat of battle.
The scarred supercarrier soon came into full view, while minuscule tiny corvettes with hastily made boarding groups rushed to the surrendered enemy vessels. A few fighters who had conserved their missiles continued to circle the vessels, ready to pull the trigger at any sign of foul play. The existence of the Geneva Convention certainly was of a welcome surprise to these soon-to-be alien prisoners of war (POWs), but also terrified a number of them once they learned about it (what kind of species needed rules of war, how bad were their wars and did they have unhonourable leaders?)
An interesting fact about humanity was that they had codified rules of war, rather than being based on a vague sense of honour like most militaristic species. The Union had prohibited warfare within its jurisdiction anyway, so not having rules of war made sense. The very idea of killing citizenry in warfare was either abominable or seen as a fact of life, depending on the species. The latter was only true if the species had traditionally involved every single individual in the war effort so there were, technically, 'no civilians' to harm. In many ways, humanity was brutal and dishonourable but at least humanity realised their nature and tried to contain it.
To think that she played a part in one of the briefest but most critical space dances over the increasingly green plains of Mars was astounding. The fact that she used to look up to mere navy exercises and now… it started to hit her.
As the reverse thrusters of the fighter powered on, controlled by an inflight AI, which was orders of magnitude simpler than the main ship AI. The thrusters worked in coordination with a modified deflector system deployed by the carrier to slow the fighter down and automatically guide it to Flight Deck 08. All Kaylee had to do was sit back and feel the adrenaline fading away as she slowly returned to her out of combat self. Dull throbbing aches all over her body, formerly masked by her adrenaline, appeared - turns out those G-forces did a number on her body (and joints especially) and she’d need a post-flight medical examination but at least she was one of now only 650 humans (360 from her squadron of 500 and 290 out of the 400 fighters that came out of hyperspace) who could say they fought aliens in a fighter and came back to base in one piece.
Even though the journey over to the enemy fleet took the better part of the battle, the fighters were way too spread out and tiny at that point to even suffer more than the very unfortunate few casualties due to stray mass drivers. Almost all of the casualties were from during the bombardment of the fleet with antimatter missiles, in a few collisions but mostly from antimatter detonations - the tragic first test of these barely out of prototype fighters.
Once the corvettes had docked with the enemy destroyers and frigates, the enemy ship AI was deactivated and replaced by a human ship AI - the humans were taking zero chances, holding plasma weapons at each and every crew member, tying their appendages together using forcefield handcuffs. It was here that humanity first learned that these aliens weren’t homogenous, but very far from it, with at least 26 different sapient species on board - all with similar atmospheric requirements for breathing [8].
As UNE leaders were debriefed on the situation almost as soon as it occurred, it became clear that there must have been a whole council of these civilisations, with possibly trillions or even quadrillions of individuals in total. The total absence of robots on their decks signified that they had probably avoided automation in wider society, but even then in a protracted war, humanity was guaranteed to lose. Either diplomacy would prevail or a decapitation strike at a civilisation of unknown proportions and significantly ahead technologically would be necessary. The fact that they sent what seemed like an oddly small fleet meant that they either underestimated humanity or weren’t entirely willing to wage war.
Sol System
Planet Earth
Nairobi, UNE East Africa Region
UNE General Assembly Building (Emergency Special Session)
December 5 - 10, 2338 AD
In the most divisive emergency motion passed in the UNE General Assembly since the conclusion of the Climate Catastrophe, the votes were split between 162-158 passing “Motion to seek diplomatic normalisation of relations with unknown hostiles” with important caveats such as the payment of reparations, a redrafting of the Geneva Convention as well as most other human rights legislation to include sentient non-humans, the permission to reverse engineer advanced alien technology and the permission to vastly expand the UNE military for the foreseeable period, regardless of the results of the diplomatic overtures.
The General Assembly was made up of 240 elected representatives of populations scattered across the major celestial bodies of the solar system, with the gradual dissolution of nation-states leading to the removal of individual governments picking representatives. Each colonised celestial body with over 50,000 citizens was given a single representative, and every 1,000,000 citizens after that meant an extra representative. This meant that Mars had 35 representatives, Venus had 20, Luna had 14, Titan had 5, Ceres had 3 and so on…
This left Earth with 156 representatives, which were slightly in favour of passing the motion while almost all the Mars representatives were against the motion, having come so close to oblivion now the intention of the fleet was known from the POWs. The representatives from the outer solar system, knowing that if the hostile civilisation came again that fleets may well not be in a position to defend them, voted overwhelmingly to pass the motion. Venus and Luna were slightly opposed to the motion, and all this meant that it was about as divisive as a motion could get.
The debating was fierce, with many Martian representatives just barely short of calling for the execution of all the captured combatants, but the vast majority of representatives disagreed on moral grounds as well as losing valuable intel from the POWs. A thin veneer of civility was only kept by the nonstop work of the council president, keeping order to the very best of his ability as tempers flared.
A particularly talented representative from Pluto described the very fact that this civilisation was so multicultural, that humanity had a very real chance of making peace - it seemed like a militant faction of kinds did this without the approval of the full council at least. Still, he continued, that this would not mean humanity would bend over to alien interests but would sign a peace with honour, and if this opportunity was rejected then the olive branch was to be replaced with Mars’ sword and shield once again!
The General Assembly seemed to generally agree with that sentiment, later making a statement in the formal motion that 'freedom and liberty were of paramount importance to humanity and we will take any necessary course to preserve those fundamental human rights'.
Hyperspace around the Sol System
Nairobi, UNE East Africa Region
UNE General Assembly Building (Emergency Special Session)
December 25, 2338 AD
It was going to be a long Christmas for Magnus Friedrich, flying on a ship headed towards a large region in the Perseus arm of the galaxy known as the ‘Core Worlds’ to the aliens, who are in an expansive state called the Galactic Union of Intelligent Species. This was all information extracted in a humane manner from the POWs captured from the (as it's now known) Battle for Olympus, a reference to human mythology and a slight embellishment of the battle as one for the very throne of gods!
As the lead diplomat, he had a lot of work to do and hoped the machine learning translators would do the job - they had a surprising amount of data to use by overhearing the conversations of some of the POWs with each other so they should be effective to a certain degree.
He came with a small army of an entourage: a few elite ASTRO soldiers with full power armour and the latest M64 plasma rifles capable of both anti-personnel and anti-tank capability, a few xenobiologists and linguists (who helped sort out the whole translating business, it helped that the Union had a lingua franca in almost exactly the same way humanity did with English in the 24th century - one that everyone learned as their native or second language but other major languages existed), a few junior diplomats, a few POWs to be transferred as a sign of goodwill and five corvettes accompanying them - the very first to be retrofitted with reverse-engineered tech.
Humanity was only offering this olive branch of peace because as thought by the late Hassan Nasan (posthumously given the Purple Star, the highest military award in the UNE; <> is the customary way that thoughts are transcribed into written word) [9].
References posted in the comments!