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This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.

Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.

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Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

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PaperclipPerfector 5d ago (text post) 2268 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for November 7, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

faceh 3d ago

They've kind of amped up the variety of everything. More ship types, more planet types (also, the planets can have orbits and shifting phase lanes now!), more potential 'paths' you can take when optimizing fleet capabilities and strategic approaches.

The latest DLC added a completely new ship type that is basically a "SuperCapital" that is more affordable than a Titan so it can come online a little earlier.

The TEC Primacy version is interesting in that its modular and you can choose its weapon loadout specifically. So its still kind of 'hero-ish' but you can directly adapt it to the situation at hand as you go.

I've also played games against friends where they sort of eschew capital ships altogether and just build tons of a particular type of unit and that can work if you're not prepared for the sheer number of ships they bring to bear. Although I doubt that's the most efficient use of fleet supply.

The downside is that Capital Ships have items that can be added to kit them out for more specific purposes, and these items have to be researched then individually added to each ship... and replaced if they're expendable. And there's no 'templates' for automatically adding the same loadout to a new ship. So it adds to the Tech tree clutter and requires extra attention to a detail that probably could be automated.

Makes you not want to lose capital ships even if the situation might call for it.

So there's no way to set just general "strategic stance" to automate much of the management of the empire and fleet production. But it is more viable to manage your economy and planet and ship production from the general empire management screen, and only get involved with your fleet's actions in the most pivotal battles.

Context

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.

Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.

New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!

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