Ask Lemmy

Have a couple different ones:

Star Wars:: How many Clones were actually in the Clone Army (and, by extension, how large are the setting's armies in general)?

The original wording used in 2003's Attack of the Clones is (perhaps deliberately) ambiguous, so from that point on fans have forever debated this. On the one hand, there's arguments that the visible cloning facilities and formations on-screen suggest literal interpretations of "unit" as "soldier", and armies of a few million at most. On the other hand, fans have also pointed out that a galaxy-spanning conflict being fought by fewer troops than fought in World War 2 is ridiculous, and the casualty figures given would mean the entire clone army had been wiped out many times over - unless "units" can be taken to mean a much larger formation of troops.

Expanded Universe materials (both pre- and post-Disney) have given figures supporting both sides.

Eve Online: Was the game better or worse in the era of "Rorquals online"?

Context is, at that point in the game's history, much of the game's economy was driven by very large mining capital ships - Rorquals - systematically stripping in-universe resources at high speed.

Proponents suggest that the presence of vulnerable ships out in space doing things promoted conflict, and that this induced conflicting player groups to raid each others' territory, creating game content. Detractors argue that Rorquals inevitably existed under the protective umbrella of existing large player groups, meaning only those groups could effectively harvest resources, creating a positive feedback loop where strong alliances got stronger and everyone else got wiped out.

(Personally, my answer is 'both' - but most of it has to do with other game changes besides Rorquals.)

Railfanning: Is coal-fired steam locomotives going away a good or bad thing?

Coal-fired steam is undoubtedly cool. you get the authentic sensations and smoke clouds that oil-firing really doesn't provide. Many who favor it bemoan old coal-fired locomotives being converted to run on oil, sometimes also arguing the locomotives should be preserved as historically used.

On the hand, other fans point out that coal firing creates a very real fire hazard; there have been multiple brush- and forest-fires started or thought to be started by coal-fired locomotives. There's also issues with coal becoming harder to get as use in power generation dwindles, and these fans would prefer to convert to oil rather than not run at all.

Most people just see a steam locomotive and go "Cool!"

In a flight sim board, I once witnessed a heated debate over the HE111. The argument was over whether the first HE111s to drop torpedoes were field modified or had torpedo hardware mounted at the factory.

This thing went on for pages, and there was plenty of primary source documentation posted. And it was heated, personal, and vicious.

The Magic:the Gathering community is constantly bickering about what cards to be banned/unbanned. A lot of modern (modern as in the format, not present day) players agree a card from Titan needs to go but they disagree over which. Personally I think Amulet of Vigor needs to go. If you do that then energy probably needs a ban and I think goblin bombardment would make them weaker against removal and board wipes, though Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury is also a good option because it's egregious with Arena of Glory

Han shot first.

in VX circles there's been a debate for at least 20 years whether it's better to use copper or aluminium foil to isolate duractance attenuators. obviously aluminium is more of a nuisance because you have to add ridges to the foil, but it's a lot cheaper. where it gets annoying is when the copper purists start talking about "ripple current" and "second laplacian instabilities" and "metallic saponification". like bitch, you are not running anywhere close to that kind of linearity on your shitty little taped-together Gravitias-5. or 4.9, i guess. pfft. just get a hobby knife and crease that aluminium.

anyway i recently started a VX community at !deltahunters@feddit.nu, swing by.

Are larp arrows supposed to have a flat foam tip, or a rounded foam tip?

Either side will claim the other had blinded a dozen of their friends, impaled their cattle and poisoned the well!

SPN the show, yea people think they were suppose to be a "gay relationship" , but the new writers mde it that way, it was clear that KRIPKE never intended them to have a human-angel relationship of any kind. but people are obsessed parasocially over this.