fefellama's recent activity
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Comment on Panama is planning a new dam to secure water to operate the Canal in ~transport
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Comment on The history of The Simpsons Hit & Run world records in ~games
fefellama LinkKnew this would be you u/cfabbro as soon as I saw the post :) I saw this a couple weeks back and as usual it was super interesting! Made me want to bust out my gamecube and find my copy. It never...Knew this would be you u/cfabbro as soon as I saw the post :)
I saw this a couple weeks back and as usual it was super interesting! Made me want to bust out my gamecube and find my copy. It never even occurred to me that this game would have speedruns, but I guess everything does.
Also, the Carl skip skip got a hearty chuckle from me.
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Comment on What chemicals/substances do you keep at home? And what do you do with them? in ~life.home_improvement
fefellama Link ParentHey thanks for the suggestion. I had never heard of this but it seems pretty good. Don't have any ticks where I live but cedarwood oil seems to also work well for ants, which are never-ending...Cedar oil
Hey thanks for the suggestion. I had never heard of this but it seems pretty good. Don't have any ticks where I live but cedarwood oil seems to also work well for ants, which are never-ending around here. I'll see if I can't find some to test out around the perimeter of my house and lawn.
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Comment on What chemicals/substances do you keep at home? And what do you do with them? in ~life.home_improvement
fefellama LinkLots of interesting things in this thread. Great question, OP. Two that I haven't seen mentioned are Diatomaceous Earth and Baby Oil (though someone did mention mineral oil which is basically the...Lots of interesting things in this thread. Great question, OP. Two that I haven't seen mentioned are Diatomaceous Earth and Baby Oil (though someone did mention mineral oil which is basically the same thing).
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Diatomaceous Earth, aka DE, is great as a pesticide. The food-grade stuff is non-toxic as long as you don't go inhaling it (though I'm sure that's true of most powdered substances). I spray it around windows and doors, and under/behind things like cabinets and appliances, and it works pretty well at killing bugs either before they come into your home or shortly after.
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And baby oil, preferably unscented, is just mineral oil. I use it for keeping metal tools rust-free. Especially good for things like hair trimmers that get wet either directly (when rinsing off) or indirectly (via being in a humid bathroom).
Oh and both of these are relatively dirt cheap. I bought a bag of food-grade DE years ago and am still not even halfway done with it despite reapplying around the house every couple of months. Same with the baby oil, one large bottle costs maybe a couple bucks and can last years and years if all you use it for is protecting your tools.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
fefellama Link ParentI too have heard good things about it, but figured I would be missing out by not knowing anything about the characters in the game. So thanks for the insight, maybe I'll give it a shot later. And...I too have heard good things about it, but figured I would be missing out by not knowing anything about the characters in the game. So thanks for the insight, maybe I'll give it a shot later.
And congrats!
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
fefellama (edited )Link ParentYes! As I was reading your first paragraph I thought to myself "ooh I should recommend Monster Train, they'd probably love it" and then I got to your second paragraph and laughed. Great game! I...Yes! As I was reading your first paragraph I thought to myself "ooh I should recommend Monster Train, they'd probably love it" and then I got to your second paragraph and laughed.
Great game! I too love deckbuilders and have a few hundred hours between StS and Monster Train. Both very different games but both plenty deep and beautifully polished.
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Comment on November 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
fefellama (edited )Link ParentOh boy, love talking about EU4 so here we go: Castile is a great beginner nation. They're big enough to not really be bothered by anyone, and if you make an alliance with France you're pretty much...- Exemplary
Oh boy, love talking about EU4 so here we go:
or context, in this playthrough, I [somewhat arbitrarily] chose Castile)
Castile is a great beginner nation. They're big enough to not really be bothered by anyone, and if you make an alliance with France you're pretty much unstoppable for the majority of the game. You say France was negative towards you, that is almost always fixable unless they are rivaled to you or if they really desire your lands (which France shouldn't at the start of the game). So improving relations with them, maybe royal marrying them if possible, rivaling their rivals (probably England, Burgundy, or Aragon) should get you friendly enough where they'll accept an alliance. And if not, just hover over where it says they'll reject it and the game gives you a complete breakdown of every reason why they're for/against allying you (this is just good advice in general, hover over any numbers or modifiers you see and most of the time you'll get a detailed breakdown of what goes into it, so you can know what you need to fix or change to get the results you want). If France is indeed rivaled to you, I would try Austria.
Portugal got a bit aggressive, so I got dragged into a couple offensive wars together with them
Yup they really gun to expand their base at Ceuta. If these types of war there's no shame in just doing nothing. Accept the call to arms and then literally just do nothing. Keep your army in your lands in case anyone tries to invade (like Granada) but otherwise, your navy alone is enough to keep Morroco/Tlemcen/Tunis from coming into the Iberian peninsula.
Then Brittany got attacked by Burgundy, and we were way outmatched by the opposing alliance.
Yup, if I had to point out a mistake, I would say it's allying Brittany as a beginner. There's nothing wrong with it, but as soon as I read that I knew there would be trouble. France, Burgundy, and even Provence (if they survive) all really want Brittany's lands, so allying yourself to them means that you're going to called into a war to protect them. Which is exactly what happened, Burgundy attacked them, then after a while, France saw how weak Brittany was and declared as well (this sort of thing happens all the time, other nations will take advantage of someone who recently got wrecked in order to take advantage of the situation, which you should do too!).
"How am I supposed to know that France and Burgundy desire Brittany's lands?" you might be thinking, well there are a couple of ways. First is to see who Brittany's rivals are, next is to go to the diplomatic map mode, clicking on Brittany's neighbors like France and Burgundy and seeing which lands they have claims on and which they consider their core lands (oh by the way you should be flipping through map modes all the time, they're great). Nations will usually try to push on their claims, and doubly so for any cores the want back. Lastly you can right click on France or Burgundy to bring up their diplomatic screen, then click on the rightmost of the three tabs in the middle there called 'show diplomatic feedback' (shortcut is 'd') and it'll show you in yellow and red which lands they really want, yellow being they're interested in it and red meaning they will stop at nothing to acquire it.
Also there are times where you can just decline the call to war. If the enemies look way stronger than your ally, you can just decline to help them when they attack. You'll lose the alliance, and get a couple of diplomatic penalties (which are temporary) but your lands, economy, and armies don't get ravaged.
While that was going on, I didn't understand why the Brittany war didn't just end, because their whole country was occupied, including the war goal.
So basically this happened because you were in the war. Peace deals are dependent on war score, and a big chunk of war score is the percentage of enemy lands occupied. So because you were in the war, Burgundy occupying Brittany's lands is only a small chunk of your side's land (they would have to occupy some of your lands to increase their war score, or just wait, which is what they ended up doing. They were waiting for the war score to slowly tick up so they can get more of their demands in the peace deal.
What's funny, though, is that, after Burgundy won Brittany, and that war ended, then Burgundy and its allies, which we were fight against just a minute ago, became our allies in the French-Brittanian war, turning the tables on France (+ Scotland)
So this happened because Burgundy demanded that Brittany become their vassals in the peace deal. So now the France vs Brittany (independent) war became a France vs Brittany (vassal of Burgundy) war, so Burgundy automatically comes to the defense of their (very recently-acquired) vassal. And you just happened to already be in that war.
and the nation is like 6+ loans in debt
The classic EU4 expression "debt is just a number" applies here. Two quick tips: 1) Go into your estates, specifically the Burghers, and select the privilege 'Indebted to the Bourgeoisie'. This will give you five more loans, but they'll be at 1% interest rate rather than the 4% that your other loans are at. Use the 1% loans to pay off the 4% ones and save yourself some cash. 2) As Castile you are lucky to have a gold mine in La Mancha. That's probably your most important province honestly. Click on the state that it's in, Toledo, enact the 'Encourage Development' edict (optional) and then develop the production of that province using your bird mana (admin/diplo/military power are often called mana, and diplomatic power specifically is jokingly referred to as bird mana because, well there's a bird in the icon). The more production in that province, the more gold you make. Rule of thumb is to develop any gold province's production to 10, more than that and you run a risk of the gold mine depleting (not a huge deal, it just lowers your production in that province, so you have to invest more bird mana to bring it up).
I wonder if it would have been better (cheaper) not to try to fight off the French alliance, but just let the nation become undefended and taken over while my allies took over France. Assuming our side wins, I'd presumably get my nation back, but without the huge debt,
This is possible, but I would avoid this while you're still new. It sounds okay in theory, but in practice, your lands get pillaged, which leads to decreased yields in the future, increased war exhaustion, and more rebels in your lands. A few provinces here and there aren't a huge deal, but you generally want to avoid completely ignoring your lands while you go off and fight on enemy soil. Just make sure you're protecting your highest developed cities like your capital, any gold mines, and centers of trade.
I do see the two rows of little squares during land battles, but I have very little idea what they mean, or if we can even adjust that stuff to be better. I haven't gotten around to learning about that yet.
Like trade, this is another topic that can go on forever. Some very basic tips:
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Always make sure to have a general when you're fighting a battle as they give flat bonuses to your dice rolls in battle.
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Pay attention to terrain, the attacker in the battle pays any terrain penalties, usually being unfavorable terrain (mountains, hills, marsh, etc.) as well as a penalty for crossing a river (the simplified terrain map mode is great for this, I use it all the time in wars) (also note that the attacker in a battle is the one who moved into the defender's province, it doesn't matter who the aggressor and defender is in the overall war - the only exception is forts, the owner/occupier of the fort is always the defender even if they weren't on that tile first).
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When in doubt, having more soldiers than your opponent is usually a safe bet. Sounds obvious, but there's a whole lot more that goes into battles and dice rolls (like morale, tech, fire/shock pips, discipline, combat modifiers, etc.). But while you're still learning the game, just try to avoid getting into battles (and wars for that matter) that are even or too close to call. Unless you have tons of manpower that you are just looking to burn, then just grind your way to victory.
As for the lines you mentioned:
Those two lines you mentioned are the front and back rows. There's only two of them for the entire game. They go hand-in-hand with your combat width (which you can see in the military tab). Your combat width starts at like 20 and then slowly goes up with tech. If you have less than those 20 units in a battle, you'll only have one row.
There are three types of units: infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Infantry are the cheapest, they take up a spot in your front row and attack the spot in front of them. Simple. Cavalry are similar, except they cost more and can attack squares diagonally from them as well. Artillery start out nearly useless in battle (still good for sieges though, they make sieges go quicker), but by late game they become half of your army (because they're the only units that can attack from the back row). So for most of the game just focus on having your armies be at least the size of your combat width, preferably a bit larger.
Typically you'll want a couple of cavalry, say 2 or 4 units per army then the rest should be infantry. Let's say your combat width is 20 and you have 20 units of infantry. Each infantry will take up one of the squares and fight the opponent until one side is dead or loses morale. If you sustain losses, you might only have 18,000 troops now, meaning you are no longer at your combat width. This is why having a few extra is helpful (they automatically deploy to the back row and fill in any gaps as they appear). Cavalry units get automatically put on the sides, that's why it's good to have like 2 or 4 of them, so they can attack units diagonally from them. If you have 10k infantry vs 8k infantry, only 8k of your infantry is actually doing anything (they can only hit the squares in front of them). But if you instead had 8k infantry and 2k cavalry, ALL of your units would be hitting the enemy. Way better.
Much much much later you'll want to slowly transition your army to be mostly infantry and artillery. Artillery are like paper, so you never want them on the front row, but they're the only ones that can do damage from the back row so the ideal late game composition is basically just 20 infantry and 20 artillery (if your combat width is 20, which it definitely won't be by the end of the game). If in doubt, just look at some of the AI's armies and (roughly) copy them in terms of size and composition.
My starting ruler only had like +1 +1 +2, and, for a long while, our nation was technologically behind most major powers.
Yeah Castile's ruler isn't great and their starting heir Enrique is a bit of a meme in the EU4 world. He's literally as bad of a ruler as you can possibly get in that game, 0-0-0 mana per month. You can try getting rid of bad heirs, either by disinheriting them or just making them a general and sending them off wildly outnumbered into battle and then hoping for the best/worst (this is also a strategy in CK3 lol). The best heir/ruler would be 6-6-6 but that is rare. Generally anyone with 9 or more total mana is decent, but obviously more = better. You can tweak it slightly by shifting your national focus in the court tab. One of the reasons Ottomans are so powerful (there are many reasons) is that their starting ruler is young and has 6-4-6 mana.
Hope that all helps! Let me know how the rest of your run goes, or any future runs if you decide to try a different nation.
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Comment on November 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
fefellama Link ParentTheir tutorials have gotten a lot better in recent years. CK3 tutorial is alright, and then Vic 3's adaptive tutorial with any nation is probably the best they've ever made. EU5 should be coming...Their tutorials have gotten a lot better in recent years. CK3 tutorial is alright, and then Vic 3's adaptive tutorial with any nation is probably the best they've ever made. EU5 should be coming out in like a year and hopefully that one will have a robust tutorial too.
But in my opinion nothing beats watching a couple of let's plays on youtube to really get a feel for the things you should be doing. Their game tutorials show you a lot of the mechanics but the youtube vids give you more of the context behind why you should be doing things, and what's actually important.
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Comment on November 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
fefellama (edited )Link ParentHey I missed this last week, but EU4 is my favorite game pretty much ever, I have well over 2000 hours on it. So please feel free to ask away any questions you might have. I know the game can be...- Exemplary
Hey I missed this last week, but EU4 is my favorite game pretty much ever, I have well over 2000 hours on it. So please feel free to ask away any questions you might have. I know the game can be super intimidating since there's just sooooooooo much that you can do in it but deep down that's also the beauty of it. Let me just pitch my two cents about why I love it so much so that hopefully it encourages you to try it out a bit more. (I also love CK3 and have a few hundred hours in that, so feel free to ask about that as well).
I grew up playing grand strategy games like the Civilization series and the Total War series. Have tons of hours played on Civ IV and V, as well as Rome TW, Emperor TW, and Shogun 2 TW. Then one day like a decade ago I discovered EU4 while taking a college class on Atlantic History. And I felt just like what you described in your post. The game is overwhelming, even more so now that it's had an extra decade to develop and flesh out new features. I had to look up youtube tutorials and read the wiki a lot, but once I 'got it', the other games just didn't feel the same. Everything you could do in those Civ or TW games you could do better and in way more detail in EU4. Army composition, economies, trade, cultures, religion, terrain modifiers, technology and research, naval combat, building construction and development, diplomacy, etc. All are just so much more fleshed on in EU4 compared to most other grand strategy games out there.
That's it, that's my spiel. EU4 is incredible because of just how much detail is in the game and how much freedom you have to do whatever you want.
To respond to some of your points directly:
(putting it in a spoiler box in case it gets too long)
I felt like I didn't know what I was doing, and was worried about something bad happening due to my incompetence, like getting attacked, or nationwide civil war, or some other disaster. Well, I'm now several in-game decades into the game, and the nation hasn't completely crumbled -- though I did have one civil war already, heh. I'm feeling more comfortable, but I still think I'm doing several things not quite optimally.
Optimal playing can get too grindy or boring. Leave that to the speedrunners and streamers unless you're into that sort of nitty-gritty optimization. My philosophy is to just make your own goals and then work towards that however you think is best. Do you want to conquer the world? Or maybe just beat your neighbor? Do you want to dominate trade? Or maybe try a pacifist run? Or maybe you want to become the Holy Roman Emperor? Or maybe you'd like to form a specific nation like the Roman Empire, or the Golden Horde, or Italy, or whatever? Believe it or not civil wars/rebellions can even be optimal at times, and there are numerous advanced strategies that involve purposely triggering revolts (mostly to reap the modifiers that you get for crushing them). And when in doubt, just ally someone really big close to you and you'll be free to pursue your goals without fear of being attacked (France, Austria, and Ottomans are really good for this).
A fair bit of the game seems to be just waiting for the next interesting point, or the point that you have enough X points to spend on thing Y that you want to buy or unlock. I understand that you can speed up and slow down time, but I worry about missing something important, so I only ever speed up to 3/5, and usually play at speed 2/5.
There's no right way to play the game. Though I'll encourage you to maybe speed it up to 4 if you feel like things are moving too slowly or there's a lot of downtime. I usually play on speed 4 by default and then 5 in periods between wars/goals. You can set your game to automatically pause for you whenever you receive certain notifications, so you'll never miss an event regardless of what speed you're on. Once you get more familiar with the game you start realizing all the things you could be doing during those downtimes between wars, so the game doesn't feel like you're just waiting for events to pop up. Maybe you're developing your nation, maybe you're suppressing rebels, maybe you're fixing your army layout and composition, maybe you're improving your merchants and trade network, maybe you're looking at nations around you to see what's going on diplomatically and where there might be opportunities and threats in the near future, etc.
War is a little interesting, though not at all at the level of a 3D battlefield simulator like the Total War series -- but I understand it's not trying to be that. I've won most battles so far, but I am still getting the hang of things. Took me forever to figure out how to get troops onto a transport. Yes, the tutorial shows you this, but I forgot it, and couldn't find it in the UI that easily.
Yup, warfare is one of my favorite parts of the game. There's A LOT that goes into it, as you've seen. And every war leads to some new lessons learned for future wars/runs. And I feel you on the transports things. Even after thousands of hours I still learn things in the game, lol. It's a common thing to still learn little tricks and basic things deep into the game, especially if you play nations or regions that you've never played before.
I made some early governing mistakes, and I think they hurt the nation significantly in the long run (such as having crown land % below a penalty threshold for a long time).
Every game I start by lowering crowlands (because I give out the estate privileges that give you 1 free of each of the monarch points at the cost of 10% crownlands). Just take back some crownlands whenever the game tells you you can and you'll be back to 30% (the minimum needed to not have a penalty) in no time. The main downside of being below that minimum is that you'll miss out on some tax revenue, but the 3 monarch points you get are more than worth it.
I also don't quite understand how trade works. I mean, I see numbers, and arrows, and I see that I get money each month, but it's difficult to see what actions the player can take to influence the numbers in the right directions.
This is another topic that you can still be learning stuff after tons of hours played. Very briefly, you just need to understand three things: trade nodes (like English Channel, Constantinople, Sevilla, etc.), merchants (you can only interact with a trade node if you have a merchant there or if your trade capital is in that trade node), and trade power (more trade power = good). Trade nodes flow into one another (e.g. Sevilla flows into Valencia which flows into Genoa). The amount of trade power that each nation has in a specific trade node determines where the money goes. Like if Castille has a lot of trade power in Sevilla, they naturally want to keep it there for themselves, so if you are playing as Aragon, your trade power is mostly in the Valencia node, so Castille is essentially taking away from your potential trade income. You can 'fix' this by taking some of Castille's lands (especially trade ports), sending some light ships to protect trade in Sevilla (which increases your trade power in that node), sending a merchant to Sevilla to pull trade towards Valencia, or a mixture of all of those. If it's still confusing, the easiest thing to do is make note of how much you're making from trade that month (just look at the trade tab), then mess around with some stuff like light ships and merchants, then wait a month or two and see if your trade income went up or down, then adjust accordingly or leave it if you're happy with it. I know a lot about trade in the game and I still find myself doing this all the time rather than trying to manually calculate which option is best.
So yeah, hope you give it another try. EU4 is like a world sandbox, as long as that world is during the age of exploration and colonization. Its systems are some of the most detailed of any game I've ever played, which can be both a positive or a negative depending on how you look at it. And If you have any questions about specific things that are confusing you please feel free to ask. :)
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Comment on Do not buy NZXT | Predatory, evil rental computer scam investigated in ~tech
fefellama Link ParentWholeheartedly agree. Them and PeopleMakeGames do some of the best investigative journalism I've seen in recent years. Glad there are people out there shedding light on scummy practices.Good on GamersNexus to keep doing videos like this.
Wholeheartedly agree. Them and PeopleMakeGames do some of the best investigative journalism I've seen in recent years. Glad there are people out there shedding light on scummy practices.
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Comment on Is Wise bank safe? in ~finance
fefellama Link Parentu/Plik already replied to you, but yeah the key part of this equation is something the FDIC calls 'Pass-through Deposit Insurance Coverage'. Link With their interest plan, Wise is essentially a...u/Plik already replied to you, but yeah the key part of this equation is something the FDIC calls 'Pass-through Deposit Insurance Coverage'. Link
With their interest plan, Wise is essentially a middleman between you and their partnering banks. If the money makes it to the bank (and if the bank is FDIC insured) then your money should be safe. The problem is if something happens to Wise while your money is in transit (i.e. not at the bank yet, or being transferred from that bank to another). For most people, I think it would make a lot more sense to just do business directly with the bank and avoid that risk altogether.
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Comment on iPhone music players with good CarPlay experience? in ~tech
fefellama Link ParentDidn't know these existed, thanks for the recommendation! Important to note that there's a Christian music app called Prism Music as well. I was very confused for a second before I went back to...Didn't know these existed, thanks for the recommendation!
Important to note that there's a Christian music app called Prism Music as well. I was very confused for a second before I went back to the Google search and found the Prism Music you were talking about, lol.
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Comment on Is Wise bank safe? in ~finance
fefellama Link ParentNever heard of them but figured I would take a look cuz why not. Again, I'm not a lawyer or financial analyst or anything like that, so please verify everything I say, but I just spent 5 mins...Never heard of them but figured I would take a look cuz why not.
Again, I'm not a lawyer or financial analyst or anything like that, so please verify everything I say, but I just spent 5 mins looking through their website and on the surface they seem pretty similar to Wise but there is one specific reason why I'd trust them more than Wise: They are a member of SIPC and regulated by FINRA (I checked both websites to verify).
Most of what I said above about Wise applies here, that they essentially take your money and deposit it at partnering banks, so your cash would have FDIC protection there. But whereas Wise states that your cash is unprotected while it's being transferred to/from the partnering banks, Wealthfront is a member of SIPC and thus has protection on the cash before it gets to the partnering banks, up to $500,000. So in that sense I think they would be way more secure than Wise. SIPC protects your money in transit and then FINRA basically shows that they're at least trying to be open and honest with their dealings (so less chance of total collapse).
I would look closely at any contract you sign with them just to verify what I've stated above, but on the surface they do look pretty secure (just don't make any transfers of over $500,000 all at once lol).
I still prefer some low-cost index funds for the majority of my savings, but a HYSA like Wealthfront seems fine based on what I just saw. If it were me personally, I'd prefer a HYSA directly in a bank that's a member of FDIC (there are a few that give similar rates like Barclays, Amex, or Capital One) and just cut out the middle man entirely (why add complexity and an extra point of possible failure if you don't need to?). But that protection would only be good for up to $250,000, so I guess if you had more than that it would behoove you to spread it out like Wealthfront does, but at those numbers I would definitely be spreading out my money more creatively.
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Comment on iPhone music players with good CarPlay experience? in ~tech
fefellama Link ParentI came here to recommend Plex and I'll double down on it now that you've mentioned this. I used the plexamp carplay app for a few years and it worked pretty decently for my needs. If you have the...I have a very large music library on a server
I came here to recommend Plex and I'll double down on it now that you've mentioned this. I used the plexamp carplay app for a few years and it worked pretty decently for my needs. If you have the paid version of Plex (which is on sale currently) you can download some of the songs or playlists in case you drive somewhere with spotty/no connection. But you don't need it if you'll have plenty of data wherever you go.
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Comment on Anyone here watch the Copa Libertadores final? in ~sports.football
fefellama LinkNot sure if there are many South American or Brazilian soccer fans here on tildes but damn what a match! My team, Botafogo, got a player sent off in literally the first 30 seconds of the game. Yet...Not sure if there are many South American or Brazilian soccer fans here on tildes but damn what a match!
My team, Botafogo, got a player sent off in literally the first 30 seconds of the game. Yet they didn't just hold on for dear life, they scored 2 in the first half and then another in the last minute of the game to win 3-1 versus Atletico Mineiro. Absolutely incredible stuff. 20% possession vs 80%, 143 passes vs 548, yet somehow managed to win the trophy for the first time ever. Feel for Atletico though, they did not play well given the huge advantage they had, and this is their second final they've lost this year!
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Anyone here watch the Copa Libertadores final?
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Comment on Missing camper found safe after more than five weeks in Canada's Northern Rockies in ~news
fefellama Link ParentNot a sentence I thought I would be reading in 2024. But kudos to him, surviving 5 weeks in the wilderness with little-to-no supplies like that takes either a lot of determination, or a lot of...But he did say that he did get lost because he was getting chased by a wolf.
Not a sentence I thought I would be reading in 2024.
But kudos to him, surviving 5 weeks in the wilderness with little-to-no supplies like that takes either a lot of determination, or a lot of experience, or both!
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Comment on Is Wise bank safe? in ~finance
fefellama Link ParentI agree. I don't know much about EU rules relating to ETFs but I'm a big fan of low-cost index funds with reputable brokers rather than fintech companies or other alternatives like savings...I agree. I don't know much about EU rules relating to ETFs but I'm a big fan of low-cost index funds with reputable brokers rather than fintech companies or other alternatives like savings accounts, CDs, or T-bills.
Side note, but I hope these personal finance questions become more common on Tildes. There were tons of subreddits for this sort of question on Reddit, but I feel that the general level-headedness of people on Tildes lends itself well to answering specific questions about one's finances.
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Comment on Is Wise bank safe? in ~finance
fefellama (edited )LinkAlright I dug into it a little bit and (assuming everything on their website is accurate) it seems like you are fine as long as you are earning an interest in your account with them. I am not a...- Exemplary
Alright I dug into it a little bit and (assuming everything on their website is accurate) it seems like you are fine as long as you are earning an interest in your account with them. I am not a lawyer though, so take this all with a big grain of salt, and I personally would look elsewhere going forward.
Long explanation below:
I looked at their website and they really seem to emphasize that only the accounts with interest get pass-through protection. So I looked into what pass-through protection was on the FDIC website and it's mostly what it sounds like. The relevant conditions for an investment to actually receive the FDIC protection is the following:
1 Funds must be in fact owned by the principal and not by the third party who set up the account (i.e., the fiduciary or custodian who is placing the funds). To confirm the actual ownership of the deposited funds, the FDIC may review:
- The agreement between the third party establishing the account and the principal
- Applicable state law
2 The IDI's account records must indicate the agency nature of the account (e.g., XYZ Company as Custodian for employees, XYZ for the benefit of (FBO) customers, Jane Doe UTMA John Smith, Jr.).
So seems like the money needs to be owned by you, not the third party [Wise], and your contract with them needs to specify that they are holding the money for you at these 'program banks' that are insured by the FDIC.
So from there I looked at their interest plan that they so heavily emphasize. The agreement for that plan states that:
Wise’s ownership of the Deposit Account will be evidenced by a book entry on the account records at the Program Bank and by records maintained by Wise as your custodian.
So the agreement you signed with them (I assume there was something signed) indicates that they are the custodians for your cash, the exact same terminology used by the FDIC as a requirement for pass-through insurance protection.
So again, everything seems fine. I wouldn't panic right now.
However, if I was in your shoes I would probably look into some alternative bank or company in the future. I'm not familiar with Wise other than the 10 mins or so I just spent browsing their site. But there are a couple of things that just make me feel a little uneasy, which is not what I'd want to feel when it comes to life-changing sums of money.
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Their main page has this line in a disclaimer at the bottom: "The Program is not intended to be a long-term investment option, checking or savings account, investment contract or security. " <- seems like a cover-your-ass statement if shit ever hits the fan.
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The 'program banks' seem problematic to me in a number of ways. Look at sections 1E and 1F on this page. The program banks are subject to change at any time and for any reason. There's no guarantee that the program bank will be a legitimate FDIC-insured bank. They don't have to tell you where your money is and you don't have access to see it. And there's a lot in there about what happens if the program bank fails and how the FDIC will cover that, but no mention about what happens if Wise fails. Oh and it explicitly states that "FDIC insurance will not be continuously available while funds are in transit to, or from, Program Banks" which again they are free to change and swap out at any time and for any reason. If things go wrong in those times where your money is being transferred, seems like the response would be 'tough luck, it wasn't actually in a bank at that time'. Oh and "Wise does not recommend, endorse, guarantee or warrant in any way the financial condition of the Program Bank(s)..." which again sounds like more CYA legal speak.
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Lastly, and perhaps more importantly, all of this assumes Wise is acting in good faith and everything on their website is accurate. What I learned from that other thread you mentioned is that these companies can just say whatever and then when shit hits the fan and you find out it was actually not correct, what are you to do then? Sue them? Get in line, plus good luck collecting your debts on an insolvent business.
I'm not saying Wise is bad or that you should run to take your money out of there or never use their services again. Just that I would personally look for more-secure money-storage options that don't involve a third party. At the very least I would make sure whichever company I put my money in is covered by or a member of:
Hope that helps anyone else looking at this subject, and good luck!
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Comment on New gaming PCs - price sanity check and recommendations? in ~games
fefellama (edited )LinkPeople have mentioned other websites for benchmarking, but one that I don't see is Tom's Hardware. I built a PC from scratch last year (black friday actually, so exactly one year ago today) and...People have mentioned other websites for benchmarking, but one that I don't see is Tom's Hardware. I built a PC from scratch last year (black friday actually, so exactly one year ago today) and these CPU and GPU benchmarks really helped me narrow down what I wanted in terms of performance/price. I found them very intuitive to use and compare things on those nice charts rather than just looking at numbers like how other sites present their benchmarks.
Then once I found a CPU/GPU benchmark I liked (AMD) I went over to pcpartpicker and crafted the rest of the build. Found a motherboard that matched the CPU, then a case that matched the size of the MB. Then a power supply big enough for what I wanted to do. Then miscellaneous things like storage, ram, cpu cooler, and fans. Ended up getting ridiculous deals between amazon, newegg, and ebay (new, not used). Built my computer for around $500 but the specs would have been closer to 700-1000 if I hadn't gotten them all on sale. Just the CPU and GPU alone I think I saved like 200 total. And though I don't play many AAA games these days, I'm confident it could handle them with ease.
Edit: forgot to mention that pcpartpicker really helps with things like compatibility checking. If you've never built a pc, it really helps by letting you know things like 'hey your cpu might not be compatible with your mb' or 'looks like your gpu is a bit too long to fit in the case you selected'. Highly recommend it even if you know what you're doing. Could save you some headaches from something easy to overlook. I use it to keep track of my builds, so I don't have to open my pc to remember things like which fans or psu I have in there, or how many hard drive bays I have left in my case.
Edit 2: to specifically address your question about the RTX 4070, I looked at those gpu benchmarks on the toms hardware page and found that going AMD could save you a bit if you're looking for bang/buck ratio. The RTX 4070 seems to be going for around $500-$600 depending on exact model. The RX 7800 XT (which benchmarked a bit higher than the 4070) is going for around $450-$500, and if you're okay stepping down to the RX 7700 XT (which benchmarked a bit lower but still close) then they're available starting at like $380. That's an extra $100-$150 that you can spend on more ram or storage or something else in your build. Hope that helps!
For those who like looking at maps (and watching long videos), there was a RealLifeLore video about a year ago that explained a lot of the background context behind why such a dam is needed and what's going on with the freshwater in Panama.