All of those strike me as questions that an asshole would call stupid or is otherwise inappropriate for ask. In order:

It probably has a simple process answer. Some people might read it as a mean spirited question.

Very specific. This one was also crossposted a lot so I wouldn’t read into the community choice.

This is about tv so probably would fit better in a tv community than ask.

OP hasn’t heard of inflation. Though even adjusting for that and “new content” the answer is probably a very simple “yes”. Not much to discuss.

Not sure if this is a can we or should we, but this isn’t really an ask question. The former has a very straightforward answer (yes, it’s the same protocol)

My take is no stupid questions is for questions you’re afraid to ask anywhere else. As long as it’s not hate speech masquerading as a question I ain’t downvoting you, no matter how stupid the question is.

I think what others said about the writers not thinking it through and the canon being wobbly is the right answer. But I had a thought about what it might be if we were to assume it’s intentional:

Starfleet might have tiered selection processes based on the circumstances of the applicant. As we’re talking about a distant future utopian society, I’m going to assume their education process in Starfleet Academy is good enough that they don’t actually care how many facts Wesley knows. Those can be taught. They’re trying to pick out the best and brightest. But they probably also want to maintain Starfleet’s population as a whole as reasonably representative of the federation so that in times of war they are motivated to fight for the whole federation. They would also have advanced social sciences and are well aware of structural biases like privilege. Taken together, ill conceived entrance requirements could lead to a nepotism/caste of generational spacer families serving in Starfleet. That would be bad for the diplomatic side of the federation as then they’d be more loyal to the institution of Starfleet than the federation, and then the protection of Starfleet amounts to “trust me bro” when negotiating with prospective new member worlds who will want their people serving across Starfleet.

Those taken together means yes it makes sense to have a small and highly restricted and competitive pool for those who are the kids of senior officers serving in prestigious posts and granted unique educational opportunities.

The definition of transgender is anyone who identifies with a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth. It is therefore an umbrella term that includes nonbinary genders. Being transgender and transitioning are separate things.

That being said, when people are talking about “trans people” they often mean binary trans people (ie men and women), especially in the current political context.

It’s also not unheard of for some nonbinary people to be uncomfortable with calling themselves trans, presumably for the associations with binary trans people.

Edit: i should clarify, by this I mean transgender definitionally in the abstract. When talking about a specific person’s identity, it just comes down how they identify. If an enby doesn’t identify as trans for any reason, don’t call them trans.

Doesn’t help that Icarus is such a technical mess. Certainly limits the player base when you shoot for a graphically demanding game and then don’t bother with working on performance.

Maybe I’m just grumpy that I can’t play it anymore since switching to Linux despite upgrading my gpu.

Seconding this! I did my science writing in grad school with git and markdown.

I would add another caveat that if you’re in a committed relationship, you owe it to existing partners when starting up a new relationship to ensure that they’re comfortable with the change and feel that their relationship is honoured.

If you can’t do that it’s not actually a committed relationship, it’s solo poly. If you have absolute freedom to date anyone you want, the corrolary is your partners are left only with the choice to stay with the relationship as it is, or leave.

Have you discussed polyamory and what it looks like for your relationship with your girlfriend and partner?

Oh it’s just going to be a little thing with a couple friends. Gleba certainly has a propensity for falling apart…

Can you elaborate on your critique of Mars Horizon? Someone else recommended it so I have been looking in to it.

Probably the closest suggestion so far! Thanks

That’s something else entirely IMO. … But I am planning to do a coop Space Exploration run soon!

Hmm. Different scale for sure, but Distant Worlds 2 is in my backlog so I should probably try it again before Aurora. Thanks for the suggestion!

Mars Horizon looks fun, thanks! Definitely more of a straight up KSP successor than a strategy game, but it might scratch the itch enough to save me a few hundred hours from trying Aurora.

Motorcycle breeding mechanics would be a very different game 😂

Imagine if they got The Hu to do the soundtrack…

Inside of me there are two wolves:

“Wow, systems driven with travel based objectives, that’s a good setup mechanically for a game”

“horse”