Does anything truly get better than moving soldiers around on a little map?

If he can lay down a four-belt balancer from memory, you are the side hoe to his Factorio addiction.
- Her: "He's thinking about other women now...isn't he?
  Him: "If I rebuilt my rocket control units factory, I could reach a rocket launch every 4 minutes vs 4.5. Then if I optimize my platform in space....."
  
  Platform in space? What what what? Is it time to sink another 100 hours?
- I play Satisfactory instead, but I felt that in my soul.
  
  We may pray to different gods, but the factories must grow.
- Four to four balancer ist easy. How about a eight by eight?
  
  I was about to say this. At LEAST wait for a 6 belt balancer to think the man can't be saved.
  
  Which one? The shortest one with the bump on the side, or the narrow on that is never wider than 8 belts?? Here, let me show yo…. Ohmigawd.
- Yeah, my first thought is that the 'map games' are the side hoe to my factory game addiction, which is mostly Factorio.

Map man map man map map map men men men
- Obscure and good
- Who are you, and where's the map!?

But do they know the difference between Istanbul and Constantinople?
- That's nobody's business but the Turks.
- Why'd they change it?
  
  I can't say.
  Maybe people just liked it better that way?
  
  That's nobody's business but the Turks.
  
  i think the city had several names and the official byzantine name was after constantine, it makes sense that after the ottomans took the city they didn't keep honoring the dude they took it from. they started using other names along with constantine's, and and eventually this one won out.
- But what about Istanbul and Konstantiniyye?

How they hell would anyone not know the difference? It’d be like not knowing the difference between Taylor Swift and Madonna.
- Most people don’t have a clue. I remember mentionning the word byzantine at the dinner table when I was a teenager and was told “you play too many games and read too many books, this is reality, there’s no such thing as a byzantine”.
  When I showed them the wikipedia page about it, “it’s not because it’s on the internet that it’s true”. Yet here we are, in 2024, where they are glued to facebook believing some of the wildest things.
  
  Yeah, I've noticed there's this weird cross-section of people who ask "do you believe everything you heard on the internet?" about some pretty established facts, and blindly believing Fox News.
  
  I mean, there was no such thing as a byzantine. That's a name we came up with in the modern era to help distinguish between "roman" empires.
  
  Well clearly the Earth is flat because here's a picture of some water reflecting off a puddle, and that totally proves it apparently.
- Yeah, it's a pivotol part of European history that has ramifications to the present day. It's like not knowing the difference between England and a second thing.
  
  As a high school graduate I can totally tell you the history of Europe.
  So first it was 1066, then the Victorians, then the second world war, then it was now. That's it, all of European history. Now perhaps some Americans think another historically important event occurred, but it can't have, because no one mentioned it.
- I know I learned about them twenty years ago but I don’t recall anything about either of them anymore, so that’s how I can’t know the difference anyway.
  
  It helps that They Might Be Giants wrote a song about it. Constantinople was the capital of what we now call "The Byzantine Empire'' (at the time they just called it 'The Roman Empire') Istanbul was the capital of The Ottoman Empire. And as everyone knows. Istanbul was once Constantinople.

I know what the difference is and don't play those map video games.
But I do like shoving little soldiers around the table top. And the only thing historic about those is that most of them are no longer being produced.
- I bet you would love some hardcore strategy games then.
  
  The most hardcore "map game" I'm playing is Total War (Warhammer these days). I do love me some Starcraft though.
- Big maps, little movement, lots of stuff to track; Hearts Of Iron is made for folks like you and me.
  
  Nah, a 4'x6' table is a big enough map for me most days.
  I'm more of a Total War gamer than something like Heart of Iron anyways. Or better yet: some good old Starcraft, if we limit it to strategy alone.
- What is the difference?
  
  Ottoman's get free unit production with military schools as well as faster production in blacksmith influence. Also producing units and ageing up gives your expirence towards vizier points, which can unlock special bonis.
  The Byzantines get the cistern system which increases gathering rate and can be toogled to eithe faster production or research speed. On top of that they get an additional resource, olive oil which they passivly produce from food gathering and can be used to purchase mercenary units from other factions.
  
  The difference between what?
  Those map games and shoving little plastic soldiers over the table top?
  Those map games are huge, having many armies on the map and managing your state. While shoving soldiers over the table top usually just involves your one army with no state management at all and the map just consisting of the game you are playing.

Just paint a map on your skin and ask "conquer me"...

It is ABSURD how long Turkey's focus tree takes in HOI4 unless you're okay with making Ataturk cry.
And how could you be?
- The problem with the Ottomans is that they just try to walk it in.
- Doesn't sound like you have an Iron Heart with that attitude

Who doesn't know the difference? One is green, the other is purple, it's simple.
- One has a good sword unit early game, the other gets grenadiers mid-to-late game.

Um, it's called RTS. Helloooo.
- It's probably called a GSG (Grand Strategy Game). Almost all "map painting simulators" are GSGs.
- Pretty sure they're talking about something more like Crusader Kings or Europa Universalis than Age of Empires.
- unless it's civ which is turn based
  
  I wonder what RTS Civ would be like 🤔

Here in europe both are taught in elementary school.
Edit: spelling
- Not in all of Europe, they completely ignored everything west of Germany in the medieval period here.
  
  But both are east of Germany, so why are they ignored? Or did you mean that they only focused on stuff that happened west of Germany?
  
  Whereas they ignored everything East of France over here.
  Actually, I went to school in Scotland so our teachers also tried to ignore everything south of the border too.
- "Taught."
  I apologize for English.
  
  Never apologize for what the Sea Germans and Sea Germans From France did to us
  
  My bad

Just one more turn...
- Adjacent. Pivotal difference is not turn based.

Oh yeach there is that one eu4 streamer with a girlfriend. Truly a rare breed.

Not always true, sometimes it's Elden Ring

OK, now I understand that Yeah Yeah Yeahs song.
- Oh say say say?

It does not. Why do you think all the rich people resort to drugs and shit? They're just chasing that dragon because they've forgotten what it's all about.

I don't get it. They're totally different things.
- Ultimately they're both just large territories controlled by the same city.
  
  I N C O R R E C T H E R E T I C

It's just Left Turkey versus Right Turkey, isn't it?
- Well
  More like West and East these days. They're pretty thoroughly right everywhere now.

Only map game I play is Worldle. But I'm pretty sure it doesn't contain neither empire, as they don't exist anymore. But it's true I'm a little addicted to it.

I mean, one was Christian, one was Muslim, it's debateable how significant other differences are.

I assume this is an assassin's creed joke. I've not played it recently so I have no idea what we're doing anymore
- This is an EU4 / CK3 / HOI4 joke

I read "map" as "minor-attracted persons" and was very confused for a moment.
- That's a very upsetting term to hear.
  
  it was a 4chan psyop, created to link LGBTQ+ people to pedophiles. And then some pedophiles coopted it. Ever since then some right wing idiots point to MAPs and go: "you actually want pedos to join you", eventhoigh they have never been allowed to any pride event im aware of.
  
  Yeah, it's basically pedophiles trying to rebrand themselves. You don't hear it much outside a few open pedophiles on social media and the whole radqueer community. If you're on one of the few instances that don't block them there's even a radqueer Lemmy instance if you're curious how messed up they are.