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bedrock-to-buildheight · 3 years

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Assorted asks, a lotta them

I was busy being quarantined with an extrovert. Contents: ender dragon stuff, villagers in superflat worlds and bad situations, resource packs and shaders, an oak garden, zombie villagers

@gardenergulfie asked: Do you have any headcanons for the Ender Dragon in your universe?

(this was the one ask that prompted the ender stuff lore I posted) here's a few, actual level of canon in the btbverse varies:

- Does not require sustenance or having Regular Reptile Behaviors. Or innards. She does burst into light and experience orbs after all. Very much an unfinished creature.

- The present of you in the End made her and the rest of the center End island spawn, they aren't always there. If you just don't go to the end then there's no ender dragon

- Response to being called Jane, usually in the form of charging you

- Widely regarded as a milf in some circles

@baltoslav asked: the thing about endermen ending thw world. that happens to the other dimensions also i suppose, yeah-? Then the ender dragon, who doesnt die in the void, if she's not killed, does she just fly around the endless void until a new island for her is formed or does she get exhausted at a point and die too?

Yea the nether gets enderman'd too.

She only spawns in the moment you enter the End the first time (not that anyone knows that), but if you fsr loads the End, then leave it like that until that dimension falls apart completely, then she'll just die with it, like a supernova. The last light in an empty world

@nitropixelz asked: Also, how would the pre inf-dev(Old worlds on bedrock edition)/Superflat/Amplified worlds work? I assume amplified would work as normal (ish), and superflats might not be popular to the villiagers, but whats your take on these things

Not a lotta takes but villagers on superflat worlds are often slime mimics (I'm treating this as villagers move in from other worlds. It's fucked up that you can just doom a people by spawning them into a world of nothing when this isn't a game) and they collect experience orbs to make into things, so their life is less harsh than players. If you're nice or can afford it they'll give you obsidian and a flint and steel - it's much easier to survive Minecraft Hell than their overworld tbh.

wait, what does that make the nether?

The Nether as a dimension is just there and doesn't have Extra Lore like the End. For now (0u0)

are texture packs, like, perception filters? that alter how you see things? like goggles or a patch you put on your body or smth

They're used like lenses and you get them as a flexible, slightly sticky sheet like cellophane, which you have to trace and cut to size yourself and fit into your eyewear of choice (this is so stacking multiple resourcepacks doesn't look ridiculous when I draw it)

@thecartonizer asked: how do villagers deal with the more unsavoury types of players in minecraft worlds both singleplayer and multiplayer?

Sic their golems on you and blacklist you across the entire villager network. The first thing to do when you want to get away with oppressing some villagers is to move your operation out into Free Space, world folders are really sparse out there it takes forever for news to spread.

If it's the player-on-player kind of unsavory they don't give a fuck lmao. Excluding personal relationships, of course.

We know that maturation makes a world look more like ours, more natural and less blocky. Does this effect transfer to newly placed blocks in a matured world? Or do they stick out like a sore thumb

They stick out. They're uncommon, but labs that collect and develop samples from worlds exist, and the "core world" where they keep these samples look like botanical gardens crossed with animal shows crossed with museums. I'm talking like 50 oak trees in a grid carefully labelled and while most of them look like Regular Minecraft Oak you'll find one that has neon green leaves. Or funny apples. Or trees so new you can still see the 16 pixels of color across one side of their trunks.

Can canonization ever effect villagers? Cause I remembered the doctor from the diamond minecart's videos and how he actually was an important character. Is there any kind of overlap or no?

Related anon ask: What does Dr. Trayorus look like?

Canon don't effect them in the sense that they don't change for your story, but they'll acknowledge it as true if it is canon. They're pretty used to random info turning into facts, what's with the universe and its updates. In the case of that specific villager he won't get any of the special power, but he'll get the false memory and retroactive history, if he wants to. It's like roleplaying to him, essentially.

I had to look this up: Dr Trayaurus was a recurring character in DanTDM’s videos, and as I haven’t seen him I don’t know.

How do zombified villagers feel when they get cured, and what’s the entire process like for them?

I think the zombie part is completely lost to them and getting splashed with a weakness potion is like waking up after a physically taxing day and all your limbs are sore, followed by several hot flashes as the golden apple works the necrosis out of your system. A garbage of a time for everyone involved

Is there a difference between Bedrock (Pocket Edition) or Java edition minecraft in your worldbuilding?

Nah that’s a wasp nest I don’t want to hit also I have zero experience with Bedrock so I don’t think I can write that

#ask bedrock #the names might be on the wrong asks #whoops

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archaxwii · 3 years

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Through Diamond and Flesh

Warnings: This fic involves safe, soft, consensual, non-sexual vore, as well as g/t content.

This is just a silly Skeppy and Bad vore fic, I wrote it like a week ago but what better time to post it than now? Also Skeppy and Bad's relationship con be interpreted as romantic or platonic as you want. This is a little outdated now as of the last lore stream but we’ll just say this takes place in a world where everyone on the SMP makes it out safe and alive. (Also I’m a bit rusty so apologies if the writing or dialogue isn’t great)

—

Skeppy and Bad have been friends for several years now. They had grown very fond of each other in that time. Especially after a...certain incident with an egg and maybe getting possessed and Skeppy nearly dying to said egg...multiple times...However, that was a couple years ago, the egg was gone and the duo had been saved. It had taken a lot of time (and therapy) but they were now closer than ever before.

Sometimes Skeppy thought maybe too close.

Now, Bad and Skeppy had grown up very differently. Skeppy was a diamond golem, he didn't exactly have parents he had a creator, who had basically left him alone to his own devices, which is why he had come to the smp.

Bad, however, was a demon from the Nether. He had actual parents, who had raised him and loved him until he was old enough to decide to move to the Overworld.

They talked a lot about how they'd grown up, and there were a lot of things Skeppy found weird about how Bad's parents raised him, but there was one thing in particular that he kept getting stuck on.

"I still don't understand how you don't think it's weird your parents used to eat you as a kid." Skeppy said, exasperated.

Bad groaned, waving his arms around." I don't get why it weirds you out so much, it's honestly not that big of a deal!" He protested.

" Besides...I don't remember it being that bad." He mumbled, looking away with embarrassment.

Skeppy shook his head." You're such a weirdo." He said giving Bad a light shove.

Bad huffed, immediately shoving him back." Maybe I am, but I honestly don't think it was as bad as you're making it out to be." He paused, and turned to Skeppy with a cheeky grin." You know, I could show you what it was like?” He offered.

Skeppy actually, physically jumped back." What?! Are you crazy?!" He shouted." No, I don't wanna be eaten, how would that even work that's not even physically possible!" He really shouldn't have said that, because that just opened the gateway for Bad.

Bad crossed his arms." No, I'm not "crazy". And really, it's not that big of a stretch, I'm sure that at my full height I'd be able to do it." He reasoned.

He really, really hated that that was probably true.

Bad is a size shifter, with four different sizes he could choose from, and at his tallest he was somewhere around 15 feet. Probably definitely able to eat someone.

Skeppy shook his head." I think you might be forgetting one important detail here, Bad, I WILL DIE IF YOU EAT ME." Despite being almost 3 feet taller than him, Bad still winced from the loud noise.

"What makes you say that?" He had the audacity to sound genuinely confused.

Skeppy flung his hands in the air." Uhh, I don't know, maybe because things get digested in burning acid when they're eaten?!" He cried with less vigor, but still sounding upset.

Bad stared at Skeppy with an seriously embarrassing amount of confusion. After a few seconds it finally seemed to click." Ohh, no no no, Skeppy, that's not how it works. Did I never give you a lesson on demon anatomy?" No, he hadn't, and Skeppy was kind of hoping to keep it that way.

"See, demons like me have two stomachs," he pointed at an area slightly higher than where a normal stomach would be," this one is for storage purposes, it doesn't have any digestive fluids or anything like that. Everything I eat has to go through there before I manually send it into this stomach," he pointed a little lower," That one does actually digest all my food and stuff." He explained.

He gave Skeppy an odd look." How did you think my parents were able to...eat me?" He asked.

Skeppy sighed, not making eye contact." I dunno man, I just thought it happened with some weird demon magic or whatever." So it was actually possible for Bad to eat him, and for him to be completely safe.

" I don't know Bad, this is still really freaking weird, I don't think I wanna do this." He said uncomfortably.

Bad sighed, a bit dejected." Ok, Skeppy, I won't make you do it if you don't want to. I just wanted to explain why I wanted to do it." Why did he sound sad?

Skeppy tilted his head." Why, exactly, do you want to do it? I still don't see what's enjoyable about it." He asked genuinely.

Bad scratched the back of his head, looking awkward." I- I don't know. I just remember it feeling very nice. Even as a demon the Nether is still a scary place, I felt...safe whenever they did it. It was just...nice and warm. Like nothing could hurt me." He admitted quietly.

Skeppy gave him a soft smile." It sounds like you wanna get eaten more than I do." He joked lightly.

Bad brightened, giving him a wide grin." Oh my gosh, would you eat me, Skeppy?" He asked hopefully, tail wagging like an oversized dog.

Skeppy very quickly shook his head." What?! No way, dude! That would definitely kill you!" He yelped.

Bad grabbed his hands, linking them together." Not necessarily! I think I have some potions that can make me immune to acid!” He explained excitedly.

Skeppy gave him a skeptical look." You just have those lying around, huh?" He deadpanned.

If Bad were human, he probably would have blushed." Well-I, you see-... shut up." He sputtered." Look, will you actually do it now?"

He bent his knees to look Skeppy in the eyes.

Despite the fact that Bad was a 9'6 demon, it was still impossible for him to not give into the puppy dog eyes.

He hesitated for several seconds, and took a deep breath.

"Show me what to do."

—

Well, here he was. With a tiny, potioned up Bad in the palm of his hand.

"Are you ready, Skeppy?" Bad asked gently. He was willing to go as slowly as possible for Skeppy's comfort, even if he was incredibly eager. Especially since he'd taken off his robes in exchange for an easier T shirt and shorts, making him much colder.

Skeppy shifted nervously." I don't know what to do." He admitted.

Bad tilted his head." Do you wanna let me inside your mouth?" He asked calmly.

Skeppy's anxiety skyrocketed, but he tried not to let it show. He delicately brought Bad closer to his mouth. He really didn't wanna do this.

Bad smiled calmly, sensing his nervousness." Would you like me to just climb in myself? So you don't feel like I'm being forced?" Skeppy nodded and wordlessly opened his mouth.

He slowly climbed in, trying not to startle Skeppy too much. He very patiently sat on his friends tongue. It sadly wasn't as warm as he'd like, but it was better than outside.

"Now, I know this may sound weird, but I need you to lick me, like, a lot." He guided.

Skeppy whined, and Bad reassured him that he was fine and ok with it.

Skeppy reluctantly obliged and began running his tongue across the demon, coating him in a thick layer of saliva. He had a very smoke-y taste to him, which made sense seeing as he was from the Nether. Eventually Bad told him he'd done enough and, to Skeppy's dismay, moved closer to his throat.

"I'm ready when you are, Skeppy." He shuddered, Bad was putting his complete trust and faith into him. He was willing and excited to let Skeppy eat him. He didn’t want to let his best friend down.

He tilted his head back, swallowing thickly. He tried not to panic over the unusually large lump that was traveling down his throat. It was such a weird sensation, yet to his surprise it wasn’t as horrible as he thought it would be. He swallowed a few more times, and eventually the warm weight that was his best friend settled into his belly.

Immediately he began asking," Are you ok? I didn't hurt you did I?"

Bad didn't respond for a few moments and Skeppy now had to deal with the startling sensation of something moving in his stomach, as Bad pawed around like he was trying to get his bearings.

Finally, he responded." Yes, Skeppy, I'm ok. That was a little disorienting but I'm perfectly fine." He paused for a moment." Are you ok?" He inquired.

He wasn’t sure how to answer, he was still processing that he’d just eaten his best friend alive.

He pressed a hand against his stomach, feeling where Bad was. He felt a bit of shuffling and soon a hand was pressed against the inside as well. Bad was...safe...inside him. Skeppy was now the sole protector of him. Protected by layers of flesh and diamond, no one could hurt him. Now he was beginning to understand why Bad wanted to do this so desperately. He wanted to be able to protect his best friend like this all the time, and he was certain that's how Bad felt as well.

"I think I'm ok, actually..." He said softly, gently rubbing circles against Bad's form.

Bad was quite happy about his current situation. The walls around him were very soft and, if it weren't for the layers of slime he was coated in, felt almost like a bed. He didn't have much room to move but he didn't feel like he was being suffocated. It wasn't as warm as he'd like (aka as warm as sitting in a fire) but it was warm, and that was very pleasant. He could hear the gurgles and growls of the organs surrounding him, as well as the gradually steadier heartbeat and whoosh of Skeppy's lungs as he began calming down. Loud, but not too intrusive.

The best thing about it, though, was that he hasn't felt this safe in a long, long time.

Ever since his time with The Egg he had become a very paranoid and closed off person. He was afraid of talking to the other members of the server, either out of fear that they still harbored some hatred for what he'd done, or that they would be corrupted as well. Even though he knew that The Egg was gone now it had woven itself very deep into his brain, and a small part of him still believed that one day it would erupt from the earth and devour the world with its vines.

Bad harshly shook his head. He wouldn't let thoughts about The Egg get to him. That was for Puffy’s therapy office, not for here.

Truthfully, though, he hadn't really felt safe since the day he'd stepped out of the Nether portal for the first time. Far from his family, his home. Not even being with Skeppy had made him feel as safe as he did now.

But now, he was at the very core of his best friend. Nothing could hurt him. He was safe, and he was with Skeppy, he couldn't ask for anything better.

He grinned a little to himself, giving the wall he was leaned against a little pat." I told you it wasn't as bad as you thought it'd be." He said only a little smugly.

Skeppy sighed with faux frustration." I will admit, I didn't expect it to feel...like this." He laid down on his bed, placing a hand on his stomach.

“ I guess it's not that bad." He said, rubbing small circles where he could feel Bad's form.

Bad grinned a little, beginning to rub circles with both of his hands against the walls of Skeppy's stomach.

Skeppy practically melted into his bed at that point. He'd definitely never felt anything like that before, it made him feel very warm and content.

They stayed like that for a couple more minutes but he was starting to get tired, and he knew Bad must be tired as well.

"Are you gonna be ok if I leave you in there? Will you be safe?" He questioned softly.

Bad nodded out of habit despite the fact that Skeppy couldn't see." It'll be fine, the potion’s got a long time before it wears off," he paused,"...I kinda planned for this." He said with only slight embarrassment.

Skeppy lightly chuckled, he would have to remember to tease him about that in the morning but for now he was too tired, instead just settling on giving his belly a light pat.

They both drowsily exchanged their good nights before slowly dozing off together, finally feeling safe and content at last.

#tw vore #mcyt g/t #mcyt gt #soft vore #g/t Bad #g/t Skeppy #ember's writing #If people like this I might try to write one where the roles are reversed #Not gonna make promises though

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scoutception · 4 years

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Dragon Quest I & II review

Dragon Quest: the definitive Japanese role playing game series, the one that started it all, kept improving upon that foundation, and has kept sight of just what made it a success, and stuck to it, for almost 35 years. In Japan, anyway. While the series certainly put in a good effort, managing to release the first four NES games overseas, under the title of Dragon Warrior, it was just too little, too late, in each case. The first game only got localized in 1989, 3 years after its original Famicom release. By then, the third game was already out in Japan, and the original Final Fantasy, an undeniably more advanced game than Dragon Quest I, would be localized less than a year later. Despite acclaimed offerings in later gens, like Dragon Quest VIII, and the DS remakes of Dragon Quest IV, V, and VI, the series has just failed to make an impact in the West despite its importance, and while it’s currently probably the most popular it’s ever been, thanks to the release of the even more acclaimed Dragon Quest XI, and the Hero’s inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, it’s still a far cry from its status in its home country, and thus, out of curiosity, I decided to start going through the series myself, starting with the SNES remake of the first two games. Note that this version was never actually released outside of Japan, and thus requires a fan translation to play in English. Almost every other release, including a similar remake on the Gameboy Color, and a collection including the third game on the Switch, were officially localized, and so may be better options. Either way, let’s start on it all.

Dragon Quest I:

Story: The story of Dragon Quest I takes place on the continent of Alefgard, ruled by King Lorik of Tantegel and protected by the Sphere of Light, a magical object originally bestowed upon Erdrick, a legendary hero who once saved the land in ancient times. Alefgard’s peace is shattered, however, by an invasion by the Dragonlord, an evil sorcerer residing within Charlock Castle, who caused a mass appearance of monsters throughout the realm, stole the Sphere of Light, and kidnapped Princess Gwaelin, Lorik’s daughter. Just when it seemed Alefgard would be permanently shrouded in darkness, however, a descendant of Erdrick appeared, and with the assistance of Lorik, sets out to defeat the Dragonlord and save the realm as his ancestor did. That’s pretty much the extent of Dragon Quest I’s story. There’s really not a plot so much as just a premise. The towns have no story going on in them, no substantial events happen as you progress through the game, even saving Gwaelin is more for the sake of gameplay than anything else, something I’ll get to later. That said, it was 1986, and the game even having as much dialogue throughout as it does throughout was extremely uncommon in those days. It also had a few neat twists throughout, like rescuing Gwaelin happening partway through the game rather than being the ultimate goal, similar to Final Fantasy, the Dragonlord making the Hero a deceptive offer of alliance instead attacking on sight, and the Hero speaking, after spending the whole game silent, to decline the king’s offer to rule the land, deciding that if he is to rule a kingdom, he wishes it to be one he makes himself. The original NES translation, and the revised translation for the mobile version, also have pseudo-Elizabethan dialogue that, while incredibly cheesy, gives the game a lot of charm. Overall, there’s really not much to find in Dragon Quest I’s story, and is quite possibly the most basic JRPG story there is, but it deserves appreciation for what it did at the time, especially considering that Yuji Hori, the designer, also made The Portopia Serial Murder Case three years prior, an adventure game that helped influence visual novels as a genre. It may not be impressive now, but it was significant all the same.

Gameplay: As you might suspect, the gameplay of DQ1 isn’t much more advanced than its story. You control the Hero, and, unlike almost all other RPGs, only the Hero, exploring Alefgard, visiting towns, fighting enemies on the world map and within dungeons, gathering equipment, and collecting various plot items necessary to create the path to the Dragonlord’s castle. Combat simply consists of physically attacking, using magic, namely healing, attack, and status effect spells, defending, and running away. Monsters are only ever encountered one at a time, and there’s only four bosses scattered throughout the game, with only the two phase Dragonlord being outright mandatory. Equipment comes in the form of weapons, shields, and armor, plus a few accessories that can be equipped, and consumable items such as herbs to restore HP, torches to light up dungeons, and keys to open locked doors are also available. The Hero naturally learns spells as he levels up, and besides the aforementioned combat spells, he learns utility spells as well, such as Glow, which lights up dungeons without needing a torch, Repel, which keeps weaker random encounters from appearing, and Return, which automatically teleports you back to Tantegel Castle.

While you can get some information talking to NPCs, generally, you’re left to figure out just what to do next on your own. Most of the time, the answer is grinding. It’s not an exaggeration to say that most of the game is made up of grinding. With only four dungeons in the game, one of them being completely optional and only containing some items, and another being little more than a passage way outside of containing Gwaelin and the first boss, and only six towns, with nearly nothing to do within except buying items and resting at inns, the game would be absurdly short on its own. That said, while justified, it’s not the most forgiving time. While equipment is obviously quite helpful, the limited availability and high price of each piece means that, invariably, you’ll have to go out onto the overworld and grind for lengthy periods of time, either to accumulate levels to make you strong enough to safely make the trip to your destination, or earning gold for items that’ll fulfill the same purpose. Trying to go anywhere underleveled almost always results in a swift death, not helped by how difficult it can be at times to discern just where you’re meant to be next, and Tantegel being the only available save point doesn’t help. Not even the start of the game takes any mercy, with you only being given a torch, a medicinal herb, if you look around, and a fairly piddly amount of money, which really stings when you start absolutely no equipment. You either have to forsake proper armor in order to buy the second best weapon, or buy armor, and be stuck with a bamboo spear that’s barely better than your bare fists. Grinding out for the rest of the equipment either way isn’t especially dangerous, but it sets the tone for the rest of the game quite well.

That said, as restrictive and unforgiving as the game is in a lot of ways, it’s surprisingly relaxed in other ways. The lack of story, and sheer strength of the random encounters, means there’s surprisingly few physical roadblocks, other than doors that need magical keys, which mostly show up in dungeons anyway, and the path to the Dragonlord’s castle that requires the Rainbow Drop, the culmination of the fetch quests throughout the game, to be traversed. Otherwise, assuming you’re strong enough, you’re free to go wherever you wish. Additionally, assuming you know what you’re doing, important parts of the game, such as rescuing Gwaelin, which requires fighting the Green Dragon, and opening up Cantlin, which requires fighting the Golem, are completely optional; their main purposes are to help locate a key item on a nondescript part of the world map, and if you know where to find it, you can simply collect it on your own and save yourself the trouble, something most later RPGs would usually bar you from. The game will even alter the ending a bit if you don’t mess with rescuing Gwaelin, or don’t return her before the end of the game, showing it was very much intentional. This helps give the game a very casual feeling pace; since there’s not that much to see or do, there’s not much reason to try to rush. You can afford to take it slow and steady, which helps make the grinding a bit more tolerable than if it were keeping you from some detailed plot event. There’s not even a way to actually game over, as death simply sends you back to Tantegel, at the cost of losing half your money. Punishing if you got caught off guard during a grind session, not so much if you were simply exploring after gearing up.

There’s also a good amount of surprisingly thoughtful gameplay elements throughout. For example, the Golem boss is normally a very difficult opponent, but there exists a flute that can put it to sleep when used in battle, making it much, much easier. Despite this, however, you can still beat the Golem without the flute, if you’re strong enough, so it’s more just a way of letting you beat it at lower levels. There’s also the infamous Metal Slimes and Gold Golems, who can be encountered in specific parts of the world map, and reward massive amounts of experience or gold, respectively, if you can manage to defeat them. While more than a bit luck based in the case of the Metal Slime, as they take minimal damage from physical attacks, are immune to magic, and will gladly flee at any opportunity, they’re still massive boons if you can defeat them, and save you a good amount of grinding. There’s also an example as far as equipment goes: the second best weapon and armor, the Flame Sword and the Magic Armor are prohibitively expensive, and trying to get enough to afford them could make you do more grinding than you’d need to beat the game anyway, but the best in those categories can simply be found for free, with Erdrick’s Armor being guarded by the third boss, the Knight Aberrant, and Erdrick’s Sword being found in the depths of the Dragonlord’s Castle. While acquiring them is obviously a bit more difficult by skipping buying the sword and armor, and the best shield, the Silver Shield, needs to be bought regardless, it’s still very possible, and can save you a good bit of work, especially with the armor’s ability to heal you with every step you take.

The experience is also streamlined a good deal by the changes this remake, and all the remakes afterwards, make, most notably reducing the amount of experience needed to level up, and increasing the amount of gold dropped by enemies to make grinding slightly faster. Additionally, compared to having to go into the menu for actions such as talking and opening doors, a general purpose button has been added that do such things automatically, and stat boosting seeds have been added across the game, allowing you to strengthen yourself a bit more than usual. Overall, saying Dragon Quest I’s gameplay is primitive by today’s standards would be an understatement, and yet it’s held up oddly well despite that. The grinding is simply emblematic of NES RPGs as a whole, and because of its simple gameplay, it’s nowhere near as cryptic, overly convoluted, or frustrating as many others that would come afterwards, such as the original Mother, Final Fantasy II, or its own sequel. That said, it’s so simple and repetitive that it’s unlikely to do much for you if you don’t have a taste for older games, and most of those games with much more visible flaws are often much more entertaining experiences.

Graphics: As this remake uses the engine for Dragon Quest V, it looks quite similar, comparable to the SNES versions of Final Fantasy IV and V. Generally, the graphics are decent, but unremarkable, especially with the overworld sprites. Dragon Quest famously features art and designs by Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, but while the art and designs themselves look great, they aren’t translated into the game the best. While it’s certainly an improvement over the NES version, the overworld sprites are still small and simplistic enough that they don’t look that great, and the rest of the characters and environments aren’t anything special either.

That said, the enemies are a whole other story. Toriyama created possibly the most adorable bestiary of enemies ever, from the famous smiling, tear drop shaped slimes, to bats with equally goofy smiles, ghosts wearing witch hats, and even the Dragonlord looks pretty goofy at first. It’s hard to be intimidated by most of the enemies, but it gives them a lot of charm, and the more serious looking enemies, like the golems and dragons work quite well. Their sprites in battle are a huge improvement over the overworld sprites as well, and are easily the highlight of the game’s visuals.

Music: Dragon Quest I’s soundtrack, as with the rest of the series, was composed by Koichi Sugiyama, and while the amount of tracks is quite small, it’s still a very catchy and classic soundtrack, especially in this version. Tracks like the Tantegel Castle theme, the overworld theme, and the battle theme have been significantly extended from their original versions, making them much less repetitive, and the music in general is updated very, very well. My favorite change is to the cave theme, which, in the NES version, would simply slow down and lower the pitch the lower you go in each dungeon. In this version, while not every floor has its own version of the theme anymore, the different versions are much more significantly different from each other, with the third version being downright sinister, and the exclusive version for the Dragonlord’s lair being near unrecognizable. It’s very much worth checking out. Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line

Here we have the awkward middle point between Dragon Quest I, the game that started up the JRPG genre, and Dragon Quest III, the game that would definitively refine it. It’s not that Dragon Quest II was a bad effort, as it is in many ways a much more advanced game than DQ1, and holds up surprisingly well in most aspects, considering it had a mere six months to be developed, but at the same time, the greater complexity means it doesn’t have the simple appeal of DQ1, and the improvements are still well behind what DQ3 did, and that’s not even considering the problems within DQ2 itself. Unsurprisingly, it’s easily the least popular of the original trilogy, and one of the most obscure of the main games. Still, I tried to give it a fair chance, so let’s get into it now. Story: After defeating the Dragonlord, the Hero set out with Princess Gwaelin to discover lands away from Alefgard, eventually resulting in the founding of three different kingdoms, spread out between the landmass of Torland: Middenhall, Cannock, and Moonbroke, all ruled by descendants of the Hero. After 100 years of peace, however, Moonbroke Castle is attacked and destroyed by the forces of Hargon, an evil sorcerer and cultist seeking to destroy the world by summoning Malroth, the god of destruction. Though the king of Moonbrooke is killed in the attack, the princess of Moonbrooke escapes, as well as a lone soldier, who travels to Middenhall Castle and informs the king of Hargon’s attack and ambitions before succumbing to his wounds. As the king of Middenhall is too old to stop Hargon himself, he instead tasks his young son to join up with his cousins, the prince of Cannock and princess of Moonbrooke, so that they may fight Hargon together. Thus, the prince of Middenhall ventures out, to live up to the legacy of both Erdrick and the Hero.

It’s really not much more plot than the original, and while the game is a good deal longer and has more mandatory locations, it still doesn’t really have anything that could be called a defined plot, so much as just going through towns and dungeons for whatever plot item will let you into the next area. It does have the “twist” of Malroth ending up as the final boss instead of Hargon, but Malroth’s existence is only mentioned offhandedly in the opening before said event, so it’s ultimately just another thing that’s hard to appreciate past the era the game first came out. There’s really not much more to say, so let’s just move on.

Gameplay: The gameplay of Dragon Quest II is very similar to its predecessor. You go out onto the world map, grinding for EXP and gold, going between towns and traversing dungeons as needed. The big toss up is the party system. Instead of only having one party member, you gain a total of three early in the game: the prince of Middenhall, who I shall refer to as the Hero, the prince of Cannock, who shall be referred to as the Prince, and the princess of Moonbrooke, who shall be referred to as the Princess. Each character has different attributes; the Hero has access to every piece of the equipment in the game, with the best equipment in the game being exclusive to him, such as the Thunderbolt Blade and Erdrick’s equipment. He also has the best physical stats, such as HP and strength, and is in general an extremely effective physical attacker and tank, with the trade off of not having any access to magic, being the only hero in the series with this drawback. The Prince is a generalist, with a variety of magic, mostly supportive, and being capable of equipping most of the equipment in the game, making him an effective support character in each role. Lastly, the Princess has terrible physical stats, and has access to the least equipment, but learns much more potent spells, in particular having access to the best healing and attack spells in the game. It’s basic, but an effective change up from the first game.

To compensate for having more party members, enemies are now capable of appearing in groups, with certain formations resulting in as many as 7 enemies in one battle, though only specific types of enemies can achieve this, as bigger and tougher enemies seem to occupy more slots. Enemies also have access to a wider variety of magic and abilities, including being capable of summoning reinforcements mid battle. Status effects, such as poison, are more prominent, and with spells to cure them being among the new additions, along with defense buffs and debuffs, encounters have become a lot more tactical, with you often having to weigh your options to get through effectively. It makes the very prevalent grinding much more interesting, if much more difficult, and difficult is the word of the day, as this game is infamously brutal. Dungeons are much more prevalent, and much more complex, with the layout of some of them reaching spiteful levels of confusing. The limited inventory slots, previously a minor deal, since you could stack most of the important items available, quickly turn into a complicated juggling game, as item stacking has been removed, and key items are much more numerous, limiting the amount of healing you can carry around rather severely. Enemies show up in large groups so frequently that trying to take them out without group wide magic usually gets you smacked around a good deal, and tougher than average enemies will gladly show up in groups as well. The game is even less linear than the original past a point, which can easily lead you to areas you’re in no way supposed to access so early, and worst of all, the game is just plain unbalanced thanks to the rushed development, with the endgame land of Rhone containing enemies terrifyingly, and jarringly, powerful compared to even the dungeon before, being capable of demolishing you with little effort if you aren’t prepared. While the difficulty is more balanced in versions past the NES, with the Prince being given better stats and being able to equip better weapons, after being infamously weak and only being able to use a few weak, early game weapons in the NES version, to attack and the defense affecting spells having more of an effect, in addition to the rebalanced EXP and gold drops that were also in the original. You also have access to the bank, which allows you to store gold and items, and while its use in the first game is questionable, it becomes a lifesaver in this, simplifying the inventory management puzzle the game would be otherwise. It also makes a small, but important change to the final boss, namely removing the ability for it to use Fullheal, which, in the NES version, more or less made defeating it entirely luck based. Despite all this, however, Dragon Quest II is still a grueling experience, and the difficulty is certainly one of the big reasons why Dragon Quest II is obscure compared to other games in the series.

As for other new features and improvements, helmets have been added as an equipment option, though they’re very underutilized, with only 3 being available in the game, 2 of them exclusive to the Hero. Cursed equipment has been expanded past the few accessories in the original that only existed to inconvenience you. Here, they confer the biggest stat bonuses out of all the equipment in the game, on paper, but carry the risking of occasionally paralyzing the user in battle. Enemies are now capable of dropping items, from basic items like herbs, to equipment that could be sold for a decent amount, or even save you having to purchase them in the future, to items that can’t even be found elsewhere, such as the aforementioned cursed equipment, the infamous mad cap, the only helmet the Prince and Princess can equip, which cuts the amount MP needed to cast spells, and the dragon potion, which allows you to save your game anywhere you wish. Speaking of which, instead of only being able to save at the starting castle, many other towns and castles allow you to save your game, not only saving you a significant trek to Middenhall Castle, but allowing you to warp back to them with the Evac spell, which can save a lot of travel time. Most notably, the world map is much larger than the original game, including several different continents and smaller islands, accessible via a boat acquired fairly early in the game, marking the first appearance of transportation in the series. Alefgard is even visitable in a cool instance of continuity, though unfortunately, it’s quite underwhelming, as it is much, much smaller than in the first game, and only four locations that can be visited, with the only significant ones being Tantegel, which has fused with the town of Breconnary, and the remains of Charlock Castle, inhabited by the grandson of the Dragonlord, who, instead of battling the party, offers critical advice instead, in a fairly cool twist for the time.

While the game is certainly bigger and longer than the first game, most of it consists of just sailing around the overly large seas, with most of the locations being visitable as soon as you get the ship, barring the strength of the encounters. While it does give the game a much more open feel, most of what you do is just desperately scrounging for key items, many of which only have use towards the end of the game, and are often found in small, obscure locations. There’s little sense of progression, and very few dungeons manage to feel memorable or significant in any way, not helped the inexplicable lack of any bosses outside of the final dungeon. Sure, there’s a few scripted encounters, but only with enemies that are common within the area, or otherwise nowhere near dangerous enough to justifiably call bosses. While there are a few “quests” you have to do to progress at points, they’re all very short and simple, consisting of things like fighting a rather unthreatening enemy in an arena for the amusement of a king, or traversing a dungeon to grab the Wind Mantle, allowing you to cross to a different part of the continent, with said item never being used again afterwards. This all combines to make most of the game oddly dull, in my opinion, with the difficulty pretty much being the only thing that makes it stand out. As mentioned above, though, the endgame absolutely makes its mark, with the maddeningly confusing Road to Rhone being one of the most infamous dungeons in JRPGs, and the final dungeon, while being extremely simple to navigate, makes up for the lack of bosses elsewhere by having five of them spread out across it. Overall, while Dragon Quest II’s gameplay is technically much more refined than Dragon Quest I, it’s not necessarily much more enjoyable, and most of the time simply dances between repetitive and frustrating.

Graphics: The visuals of Dragon Quest II are, sensibly, about equal to the first game. The character designs do shine through a bit better with the party, and the battle sprites are once again great. Similarly to Final Fantasy II, though, the game does contain some of the weirder enemies to be in the series, such as baboons, giant Venus flytraps, and flying Medusa heads, though at the least, it introduced bubble slimes and liquid metal slimes. It also includes a few neat effects like parallax scrolling in dungeons that take place in high towers.

Music: Once again, the soundtrack is absolutely great, with the highlights being the upbeat town theme, the calm castle theme, the intimidating final boss theme, and especially the world map themes, of which there are two, the melancholic A Lonely Youth, for the earliest part of the games, before you acquire your full party, and the extremely cheerful Traveling With Friends, for once you’ve assembled your party. Even if you have no interest in playing the games, the soundtracks are definitely worth a listen. Conclusion: Overall, I would have to give Dragon Quest I&II a pretty firm not recommended. While they’re not completely unenjoyable, and can be a decent time if you enjoy older RPGs, or are curious about the roots of Dragon Quest, Dragon Quest III and IV are much better options in both regards, not to mention others like Final Fantasy I and III, and the original Mother, as far as NES RPGs go. Still, I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t have fun with them both, in varying amounts, and the remakes certainly make them much easier to digest. Either way, that’s about enough for now. Till next time. -Scout

#dragon quest #SNES #JRPG #square enix #game review #long post

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razieltwelve · 4 years

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Goo (Final Rose)

“No.” Lumina glared. “You are not making that.”

“But Lumina,” Vanille whined. “It would make cleaning up so much easier.”

“Are you serious?” The pink-haired woman’s glare intensified. “Vanille, you want to make a series of self-replicating nano-machines that specialise in deconstructing things into their base components. You know the grey goo scenario that everyone always worries about where nano-machines go haywire and reduce everything into grey goo? This is it.”

“It wouldn’t go like that,” Vanille pointed out. “I would totally socialise Gregory.”

“Gregory? You’ve already named it. Good grief.” Lumina covered her face with one hand. “And why would you need to socialise it? In fact, why would you even give something like that artificial intelligence?”

“It’s to avoid the grey goo scenario,” Vanille replied. “If you just have it following orders like a simple robot, it’s possible that those orders either get misinterpreted or the programming eventually gets corrupted and it goes psycho and murders us all. But if you socialise it, and you actually get it to like us, then there’s very little chance it will turn us all into goo.”

“Vanille, you literally fight our lawnmower every weekend. Our coffee machine spends most of its time plotting to overthrow you. If you try to socialise this thing -”

“Gregory.”

“If you try to socialise Gregory, I give it less than a week before either we’re all dead, or we’re forced to erase this lab from existence using my sister’s Semblance.”

“In fairness, the lawnmower has yet to murder me, and our coffee machine is more into petty villainy than grand evil. I’m assuming Gregory will be the same. Oh, he might dissolve the occasional plush toy or stack of paperwork, but I doubt he’ll do anything more malicious than that.”

“No.” Lumina shook her head. “You’re not making it.”

“What if I put a kill-switch in?” Vanille said. “A flaw that would allow us to instantly kill Gregory if he goes crazy?”

“If you give Gregory a decent level of intelligence, I can guarantee you that he will go crazy if he finds out about the kill-switch. That’s exactly the kind of thing that would drive anyone crazy.”

“Hmm... what if we had like a vat full of unintelligent nano-bots that couldn’t self-replicate? Then we could just throw stuff in and watch the magic happen, and there’s no risk of a grey goo scenario.”

“Why didn’t you start with that?” Lumina asked, twitching.

“Because it wouldn’t have been as fun as having something like Gregory around.”

“Go with that.” Lumina frowned. “The vat, not Gregory.”

X X X

Centuries later...

Gregory #2140-AJBD-4110-AKHI rolled along the floor of the infected starship. Fetid slime and strands of bizarre organic material dripped from the ceiling and crawled across the walls and floor. When the ship had turned up on the edges of Imperial space, the Dia-Farron had immediately quarantined it. Plagues from unexplored regions of space where common and needed to be dealt with firmly.

As a matter-decomposition unit, Gregory was perfect for the job. He could roll in, record data and take readings of everything, and then reduce everything into its base components. Like most plagues, this one seemed to be well-suited for attacking carbon-based life forms. And like most plagues, it wasn’t very dangerous at all once it had been broken down into what was essentially a harmless grey-goo composed of its most basic components.

As he continued to roll through the ship, turning everything into grey goo as he went, Gregory found himself whistling a happy tune. It was, admittedly, a less than perfectly efficient use of his nano-machines, but he had always been told that he should strive to enjoy his work. After all, how many other people got to spend their whole existence doing something they liked so much?

An infected crewman lunged at him, and Gregory sighed. It was a pity that the infected could not be cured once they passed a certain level of infection. This poor fellow was far, far beyond that. Indeed, the infection had almost completely replaced his original tissue. He was little more than a walking plague factory.

Gregory ignored the infect man’s blows and calmly swallowed him whole, turning him into more grey goo that spilled across the ground as he continued his journey through the ship. At this rate, he’d be done in about an hour.

X X X

Author’s Notes

Trust Vanille to almost bring about the grey goo scenario... and trust her descendants to find a way to make it work. As his serial number implies, Gregory is one of many. They don’t self-replicate, but they can have more nano-machines added to ensure they remain effective and efficient. Most of the larger ones are used in decontamination and other dangerous settings while the smaller ones often act in janitorial roles. Although they could be used for combat, the Dia-Farron typically avoid deploying them since they don’t want them to get too used to killing things. In a pinch, though, every Gregory has combat protocols that can be employed.

I also write original fiction, which you can find on Amazon here. I’ve recently released two stories, Attempted Adventuring and Surviving Quarantine, as well as two audiobooks, Two Necromancers, a Bureaucrat, and an Army of Golems and Two Necromancers, a Dragon, and a Vampire. If you like humour, action, and adventure, be sure to check them out.

#final rose #fanfiction #lumina #oerba dia vanille

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fuckingfroggymemesorsomeshit · 4 years

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Pt 2 of monster hunter post

Deviljho - Deviljho is truly the Dark Souls of monster hunter. Deviljho was the hardest fight in the game when he was first released, not through gimmicks like Kushala or strange attacks like Kirin, but through aggression, ferocity, and broken hit boxes. Deviljho’s main weak point is it’s face, and you harvest needed parts from breaking its face, which is nothing new. It’s face is also it’s most dangerous part, still nothing new. However the level of danger that comes with fighting Deviljho head on was higher than any monster before him, as he could legitimately kill combo you off one hit, especially from a bite or from dragons breath. Deviljho, also, is incredibly tall. So tall that you probably won’t hit it in the head unless you’re using a long gunlance or ranged weapons, and trying more often than not will get you killed in your attack animation. Deviljho also loves to stagger, stun, and use tremors, which he can then turn into a kill combo. Just by being near one of his attacks, you are at risk of losing the mission. He was the first taste of how unfair monster hunter can be, and it gets much worsea in Iceborne. 10/10.

Kulve Taroth - Very cool looking, but an introduction to the ugly side of MHW grinding. At the time of release, KT had some of the best weapons in the entire game. However, they just had a random chance of dropping, and he could drop several types and degrees of these weapons, making you fight him over and over, battling RNG to get one fucking weapon that didn’t even look that cool. Neat design, nice fight, wouldn’t wanna do it 100 times like people have before.

Lunatsra - I didn’t fight lunastra lol

Beotodus - The first monster you encounter in Iceborne. Beotodus is actually okay. It is just a Jyuratodus/Laviosoth clone, but it’s model and move set are just different enough to make it stand out. Probably not a good first monster, not very impressionable, but palatable.

Banbaro - Banbaro is what should have been the introductory Iceborne monster. He is an incredibly fun fight with great environmental interactions and weapons. My only complaint is that you should be able to break his antlers more than you can. I know it’d be kinda game breaking to just shatter his main offensive weapon, but it’s monster hunter, lemme break his fucking horns

Viper Tobi Kadachi - The first of the Iceborne subspecies, Viper TK is a pretty challenging fight. His poison seems to act faster than other poisons in the game, and he rarely stops attacking. This is a trend that continues in Iceborne. One of the best gunlances in the game drop from him.

Nightshade Paolumu - Annoying. Puts you to sleep and then one shots you, while just kinda floating around. Really unremarkable, but unfun.

Coral Pukei-Pukei - Honestly, a really fun fight, his water jets are unique and his vibrant colors make him easy to look at even in spite of his horrific asshole tail that jets water at you.

Barioth - One of the hardest monsters to fight in Iceborne, Barioth is the first cat Wyvern you fight. His attacks are relentless, his hit boxes are huge, and every move sends him flying across the map. It’s a challenge just to keep up with this monster, and it’s incredibly difficult to be able to consistently DPS his health bar down. Even if you’ve memorized his attack patterns and can stay alive during this fight, his attacks send him so far and they happen so frequently that comboing him without a knockdown is nearly impossible, making you rely on chip damage for the majority of the fight. Because of this, the fight takes a much longer time than it should.

Nargacuga- Another cat wyvern. Coming off the fight with Barioth, I was very afraid of Nargacuga. I was worried this would be another 30 minute fight with a cat that just wouldn’t keep still, and while Nargacuga can match Barioth in aggression, he is significantly less mobile and some attacks even keep him held in place entirely, making the entire fight much more streamlined and fun. However, his weapons and armor are significantly less worth farming than Barioth.

Glavenus - At first glance, this monster was giving me flashbacks to Deviljho. His massive frame, heavy, fast attacks and fire breath brought back memories I wasn’t ready for. Luckily, Glavenus is a bit of a pushover in comparison. Unlike Deviljho, it is fairly safe to just sit at Glavenus’s legs and fire gunlance shells through his weak points without much worry. Obviously it isn’t the fastest way, but he really can’t do much about it and gunlance shells do set damage no matter if they’re hitting a weak point or not, so it gets the job done.

Tigrex - Tigrex is quite the difficult fight. His ferocity matches Deviljho’s and his attack range and speed is on par with Barioth. If you don’t know how to approach this fight, Tigrex will probably just roll you. His enormous hit boxes and constant attacking seems almost insurmountable. However, if you play the beginning of the fight slowly, sever his tail and break his arms, the fight is much easier. His tail no longer has the incredible range it did before, and his wild charge now had a chance to make him stumble, granting you a free knockdown. Some of the best armor in the game stats wise.

Brachydios- Really not much to say. His design is so different from every other monster, yet he manages to be incredibly boring to look at anyways. He slimes and he explodes, break his hands and head to castrate him. His armor is Shinjis mech from NGE and that’s kinda cool.

Shrieking Legiana - I want to mention that I won’t bring up every subspecies from here on out since most don’t really add to the monsters fight or how you approach it, but Shrieking Legiana is different. Legiana was already a fast, aggressive apex predator with Iceblight and constant flight to worry about, but pair that with the constant attacks of Iceborne monsters, and this is a new beast entirely. Shrieking Legiana NEVER slows down. She is always flying through the air, staggering, inflicting Iceblight, and one shottinf you. This fight is annoying.

Velkhana - Imagine Barioth if he could fly. Same situation. Fuck this fight.

Namielle - Another one of the coolest elder dragons in the game. Namielle has one of my favorite designs of any monster, with an almost squid like appearance and the aesthetic of the abyss. She’s a water themed monster, and her gimmick is the fill the arena will puddles then elecrocute you. Her armor is woefully ugly, but the weapons are top notch.

Shara Ishvalda - My number one monster in the entire game. The fight is amazing. The appearance is amazing. All the armor and weapons are amazing. The design of the monster is amazing. This monster is what Xeno’jiva wishes it could be. It blows Xeno’jiiva out of the water in every single way, the lackluster, dull fight is now an epic, beautifully scored battle, and Xeno’jiva boring and uninspired appearance is put up against one of the most unique designs of any video game enemy I’ve ever seen. Shara Ishvalda starts the fight encased in rocks, appearing as a giant stone golem that is slow moving but lethal. Once you break away it’s armor, it reveals the most disturbing but beautiful monsters in the game. Shara Ishvalda is sickly, but vibrant at the same time. The freakiest part is it’s eyes, which do not follow the player, but the camera as you fight it. It’s a very weird feeling, making it seem like Ishvalda is staring at you behind the screen. The issue is that the fight takes fucking forever, but for a one time final boss, it’s fine. However, like I said, Shara has some of the best weapons and armor in the game. If you want them, you won’t be just doing the fight once. Grinding Shara Ishvalda is one of the most tedious experiences in the game. Each fight takes in excesss of 30 minutes, amounting to a damage check where you simply are spamming the same combo on its legs over and over and over. Not fun to farm, but a great final boss.

Rajang - monke

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vexredain · 5 years

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Vex’s Brief Guide to Eureka Pyros

“Pyros feels like what I expect Llymlaen t’look like... Hot.”

So, this will serve as a comprehensive/better guide for Pyros now that I’ve had the chance to get to 50 and do a lot of the farming at cap. This is a comprehensive guide to Pyros and will serve to cover entry at ELvl 35 to ELvl 50, and the end-game of Eureka Pyros!

First and foremost, I’ll talk about my impressions of Pyros. It’s a mix between Anemos and Pagos, with the levelling process being much more similar to Anemos (as well as being much faster) and the ‘endgame’ of Pyros being more similar to Pagos (but with better droprates and more to do). There is a very clear indication of community feedback at work, and so far it’s been my favourite Eureka experience yet, and perhaps with the Logos Actions, some of the most fun I’ve actually had in XIV as balance means very little in here.

There’s a lot to cover, so unlike my previous guides to >Anemos< and >Pagos<, this one will be under the cut and have a lot of screenshots and visual aids because by god, you’ll need them. In some cases I’ve attached other links, as people have put in spectacular work in other areas!

So! This guide will cover:

Leveling

The Relic Steps

Heat-Warped Lockboxes

Elemental Conflicts (Bunny FATEs)

Efficiency tips/tricks

That pesky extra magicite

The Logos System, Mnemes

Map of Pyros

Best of luck to all of you Warriors of Light who seek to venture to the penultimate part of the Forbidden Land, Eureka!

1. Leveling

So, leveling takes a bit of a backseat in actual effort in Pyros, with FATE train parties being the best and quickest way to level. Furthermore, Elemental Conflicts also give E-EXP, with there being two on the map - one north, one south - and are worth doing as soon as you see them pop. You want to be running to any NM that spawns for the E-EXP, as well as doing Elemental Conflicts when they pop up. If neither of these are up, you should be working on spawning an NM with your party.

2. Relic Steps

Unlike previous Eureka Expeditions, Pyros’ relic progress is directly tied into the Logos system. You’ll receive quests from Gerolt to upgrade your weapon at 10, 20, and 30 discovered Logos actions.

The required items for each step of your relic weapon are:

150 Pyros Crystals, 10 Logos Actions

200 Pyros Crystals, 20 Logos Actions

300 Pyros Crystals, 30 Logos Actions, & 5 Penthesilea’s Flames.

So in total you’ll need: 650 Pyros Crystals and 5 Penthesilea’s Flames. Penthesiliea drops 3 flames as a gold reward for her FATE so unlike Pagos’ Louhi, you’ll only need to kill her twice if you get enough contribution.

Unlike Pagos, Pyros actually has relic armour as well as the weapons. Relic armour pieces are purchasable from the Expedition Artisan upon unlocking all 50 Logos Actions - that’s right, you need all of them. In total you’ll need 200 Pyros Crystals per set. There’s a set for each armour type, with unique looks for Tanks/DRG, Melee/Aiming DPS, Healers/Caster DPS.

3. Heat-Warped Lockboxes

So the warped lockboxes are back once again, and found in a similar manner to those in Pagos. The good news? These are quite easily farmed and the drop rate for the boxes is better, should you find the right mobs to kill. The change from Pagos is that these boxes have better drop rates from mobs that mutate in different types of weather.

Notable Drops:

Ballroom Etiquette - Ideal Gossip

Samurai Barding

Dhamel Calf

Materia V/VI

Tactical Logograms.

This is not a complete list, but this should get you started with some ideas as to what monsters you should be killing to farm these lockboxes, as well as between what times and what weather. Please note that Day is from 6am - 6pm Eorzea Time (ET) and Night is from 6pm - 6am ET.

Pyros Henbane [ Daytime/Any Weather ]

Pyros Singha [ Nighttime/Any Weather ]

Pyros Zebu [ Anytime/Snow ]

Pyros Hornbill [ Anytime/Heatwaves ]

Pyros Minotaurs [ Anytime/Storms ]

Henbanes and Singha seem to be very basic in their lockbox droprate, with Zebu being some of the best in regards to my personal experience. If it��s day you should be farming Henbanes, and if it’s night you should be farming Singha, unless there’s weather changes.

4. Elemental Conflicts

Elemental Conflicts have been revised and incentivised in Pyros in comparison to their first appearance in Pagos! The biggest change is that these now give E-EXP (300k for the South EC and 750k-1m for the North EC), and the chests that the Happy Bunnies lead you to are somewhat important in Pyros should you wish to get your Relic Armour (Offensive Logograms only drop from Gold Chests).

Notable drops from Bunny Chests are:

Offensive Logograms [Gold Chest]

Eldthurs Mount Horn [Gold Chest]

Modern Aesthetics: Form and Function [Silver Chest]

Happy Bunny Triple Triad Card [Silver Chest]

Archaeodemon Horns [Silver Chest]

Fundamental Logograms [Bronze Chest]

Conceptual Logograms [Bronze Chest]

5. Tips & Tricks

The Elemental level cap for Eureka Pyros is 50.

Aetherytes are gained at 37, 39, 41. These are South, Central, and North-West, respectively. Their names are Northpoint, Dragon Star Observatory, The Firing Chamber, Carbonitite Quarry.

You get your mount at ELvl 50.

Remember, remember, remember your Potion of Harmony (10% E-EXP increase made by Alchemists) and/or the Heat Of Battle II FC buff (if you can have it on). This will make things even quicker!

Remember that mobs don’t aggro on to you if you’re 2 or more levels above them! Once you reach ELvl 44-46 nothing in the south of the map will aggro on to you, this makes the South Elemental Conflict very viable for farming as you don’t risk your Bunny being killed.

Perhaps one of the coolest things about Pyros is that you can use the XI Bestiary to understand how each mob handles aggro, as they’re all found in both games, albeit with some name changes.

The following mobs aggro only on sound and touch: Pyros Clippers, Karlabos of Pyros, Pyros Hawks, Pyros Wood Golems, Flame Void Dragon, and Pyros Slimes.

Pyros Sprites, and Pure-White Flames aggro on cast and touch.

Pyros Ashkin still aggro on low HP.

Following on to the sound aggro, you should be able to get from the Firing Chamber Aetheryte all the way to the northern bunny FATE just by walking and avoiding touching any mobs, regardless of your level.

Much of Pyros’ Endgame consists of spawning the 6th Magicite NMs, farming Pyros crystals for more 380 sets, farming light for re-skills on Pyros Weapons, Bunny FATES, and farming Heat-Warped Lockboxes.

The ELvl 38 FATE “Creepy Doll” drops a Calca Minion

The ELvl 47 FATE “You Do Know Jack” drops an Elvaan Minion to complete more of your FFXI races minion set

The ELvls 35 & 38 FATEs “Medias Res” and “Creepy Doll” drop a Curative Logogram each kill.

The ELvls 37 & 40 FATEs “On the Non-Existent” and “Up and Batym” drop an Inimical Logogram each kill.

The ELvls 39 & 48 FATEs “Quiet Please” and “Mister Bright-eyes” drop an Protective Logogram each kill.

If you use Reflect L, cast it, and then pull all of the Pure White Flames near the Carbonitite Quarry, you’ll be able to level quickly from 47 to 50 (Some sources say around 10 minutes). You can do this as Reflect L reflects all magic damage back to the attacker, and Pure White Flames only do magic damage. I don’t necessarily advise this as I haven’t done it, but there’s an idea for the adventurous!

6. 6th Magicite

There is indeed a 6th Magicite for your Magia board in Pyros! You’ll be able to get this after collecting three items from three NMs within Pyros. Note that you’ll only be able to stack 5 Magicite in one element, it’s probably best to go 2/4 on your Magia Board for attack/defense or defense/attack depending on your role. These items do have quite a low drop rate, so I would advise to not expect to get them quickly, unfortunately.

The required items and their FATEs are:

Lamebrix’s Dice | ELvl 45 FATE “Thirty Whacks”

Yin-Yang’s Flesh | ELvl 49 FATE “Haunter of the Dark”

Skoll’s Claw | ELvl 50 FATE “Heaven’s Warg”

7. Logos System and Mnemes

Yes, Mnemes is a word you’ll see every so often in Pyros, and it definitely does look a lot like Memes. The Logos System is perhaps the biggest draw and definitely the most fun part of Pyros in my opinion, there’s some super interesting spells that you’ll be able to get your hands on.

Remember that you’ll be able to equip two Logos Actions at once, so you may want to bind Duty Action 1 and 2 to your bars to make things easier. My personal favourites are Swift L and Raise L, or Spirit Dart L, all of these are really good. Swift L is perhaps the best with 20 uses and you move faster than anything else alive, so that’s pretty great.

The way Logos Actions are obtained is through the use of the Logos Manipulator, and Drake. Go to Drake to appraise Logograms that you have, which will give you different Mnemes, then go to the Logos Manipulator to input the required Mnemes into the array, and you’ll have a Logos Action created! Drake will also show you a list of discovered Logos Actions, this is a numbered list from 1-50 and is the same for everyone and does not change, so you can easily tell what you’re missing from the link below. I’ve linked someone else’s work from the subreddit for the list of all 50 Logos Actions, as their table is simply the best way to show the actions. You can find it >here<.

Logogram Attainment:

Conceptual: Bronze Chests & Current or Higher Level Sprites

Fundamental: Bronze Chests & 30 Chain

Offensive: Gold Chests

Protective: Gold Chest & "Mr Bright-eyes” FATE

Curative: Silver Chest & “Creepy Doll” / “You Do Know Jack” FATES

Tactical: Heat-Warped Lockboxes

Inimical: Level 50+ Sprite Adapts & "On the Non-Existent” / “Put Up Your Dux” FATES

Mitigative: Gold Chest & Adapted Ashkin

8. Map

Again, I’ve linked someone else’s work, as this is a REALLY complete map. You can find it >here<!

#Eureka Pyros #Pyros #Eureka #FFXIV #Balmung #long post

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okayideas · 7 years

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Chef’s Notes for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition Monster Manual, E-L

continued from here

Eagle, Giant: Not much different from common eagle. Thicker cuts should be bisected to ensure they cook through. Giant eagles are sometimes friends of wizards, so cooking and serving a giant eagle of unknown provenance is not recommended.

Ear Seeker: Often harbor strange diseases with no known cures short of experienced divine intervention. Do not eat.

Eel: An acquired taste at best, but a cheap source of meat if they are common in a local river. Keep alive in water, kill immediately before cooking.

Efreet: Inedible without rare and expensive magical protection.

Elemental: Air elemental is an insubstantial meat, but a notable novelty. Magical handling is required, of course. Earth and fire elementals are inedible, and a killed water elemental is no different from any other water.

Elephant: Similar to mammoth or rhinoceros. May be taboo in some cultures.

Elf: Eating an elf would be interpreted as act of war. An elf carcass should be delivered to the nearest elven community for proper burial there, if possible.

Ettin: Extremely fatty. Organ meats are tasty but have been known to carry disease. Despite pretentious claims to the contrary, there is no flavor or texture difference between the left and right heads.

Eye, Floating: Causes extreme numbness. May be useful in potion crafting, but not in a kitchen.

Eye of the Deep: Not meaningfully different from beholder.

Flightless Bird: Cook as you would a turkey, and expect similar results.

Frog, Giant: The legs are as delicious as those of common frogs, and easier to eat. Even poisonous varieties are edible; simply skin thoroughly before cooking.

Fungi, Violet: Do not touch.

Gar, Giant: If there is any sign a giant gar has been eating human, it should not be served. Cut the stomach open and look carefully. Otherwise similar to tuna.

Gargoyle: Can be transmuted to a tender flesh between pork and goat using a Stone to Flesh spell.

Gas spore: The remnants of an exploded gas spore can resemble truffles, with application of appropriate seasonings.

Gelatinous cube: A wild gelatinous cube will contain too much dirt and debris to be edible. Farm-raised gelatinous cube should be purchased live, fed already cooked food to infuse it with a desired flavor, then killed and served chilled.

Ghast: Obviously not something you want in your kitchen.

Ghoul: The common ghoul is essentially already rotted. Rarer non-undead varieties of ghoul are intelligent and relatively peaceful and should be given burial in accordance with their own culture.

Giant: All giant flesh is essentially indistinguishable once cooked. Do cook very thoroughly, as any unkilled parasites in the meat are likely to grow to at least 2 hit dice.

Gnoll: Similar to dog, or somewhat less similar to goat.

Gnome: Like dwarf or elf, too intelligent and civilized to seriously consider as a foodstuff.

Goat, Giant: Spoils quickly; what can’t be cooked and eaten immediately should be thrown away, not saved.

Goblin: Generally unpleasant, occasionally diseased.

Golem: Depending on the specific method of preparation, a flesh golem might be essentially a large quantity of jerky, as might a stone golem subject to a Stone to Flesh spell. Other golems are inedible.

Gorgon: Similar precautions apply as with basilisk and cockatrice. Flavor resembles beef with a slight reptilian hint.

Gray ooze: Usually fatal. If prepared with exceptional care or a successful save vs. poison, may only cause horrible diarrhea and vomiting instead.

Green slime: Very small amounts are a powerful tenderizer; rinse the meat or vegetable thoroughly once it has softened. There is a market for green slime as a spell component, but the quantities you would need are affordable nonetheless.

Griffon: The lion and eagle portions can be prepared respectively. There is no good way to prepare the transitional portion.

Groaning Spirit: While there are ways to bind this noncorporeal being to a tangible form, there are no edible ways.

Halfling: Stringy and usually tobaccoey, also intelligent.

Harpy: Only the wings have any edible meat, and there is not much meat on them.

Hell Hound: Dried hell hound meat can be very useful when traveling, as it will not only add flavor to a stew but also cook it without a fire.

Herd animal: Most animals that behave similar to cattle or deer also taste similar. Poisonous exceptions may exist in some regions.

Hippocampus: The horse portion should not be considerd edible. The fish portion resembles trout but with a firmer texture.

Hippogriff: Lore regarding the hippogriff is unclear. There may be separate subspecies of hippogriff, some better prepared as poultry and some as red meat. Trial and error may be needed.

Hobgoblin: Slightly less inedible than goblin, but still sometimes disease-ridden.

Homunculus: Essentially a being of pickled meat.

Horse: Vaguely similar to goat or deer. Taboo in many, but not all, cultures with mounted warriors.

Hydra: Usually poisonous. It is unclear how to find the exceptions.

Hyena: Simply foul-tasting.

Imp: Spicy to the point of excess. Dispel Magic should be cast on the flesh as a precaution during the cooking process.

Intellect Devourer: Poisonous, even to non-psionic diners. While it is possible to neutralize the poison, the result is no better than any other brain meat.

Invisible Stalker: A slightly tougher, less fatty aerial servant.

Irish Deer: Resembles both mammoth and venison, closer to mammoth.

Ixitxachitl: Not distinguishable from an unintelligent ray. A cookable but not desirable fish.

Jackal: More edible than hyena. Similar taboos may apply as with dog.

Jackalwere: A dead jackalwere is essentially the same as a dead jackal.

Jaguar: Stringy and flavorless even in comparison to other big cats.

Ki-rin: Excellent in stir-fries and noodle dishes. Unicorn can be substituted where ki-rin is not available.

Kobold: Extremely difficult to cook properly. Cutting away the toxic and disease-bearing portions of the meat leaves very little.

Lamia: Sometimes poisonous, though rarely lethally. The poisonous and non-poisonous varieties are difficult to distinguish.

Lammasu: Intelligent and lawful. The animal portions of the carcass could be cooked separately, as with a centaur, but expect repercussions.

Lamprey: Not enough flesh to be worth eating. More useful as a potion ingredient.

Larva: A damned soul, and thus technically cannibalism. Flesh is slimey and tasteless in any event.

Leech, Giant: Requires a very light touch; must be cooked thoroughly, but not so much that it dries out. Do not serve a giant leech that has been feeding on human or demihuman blood.

Leopard: Resembles giant rabbit. Generally hunted for its pelt; if the meat is put to market at all, it is lilkely to be inexpensive.

Leprechaun: May induce unusual curses; avoid.

Leucrotta: Combines the least edible portions of each of its component animals, and is thus wholly unsuited for the dinner table.

Lich: Not edible in any way whatsoever. Of menu-planning interest is the fact that a lich's lair may (25% chance) contain 3d10 bottles of fine wine, aged 20+1d100 years.

Lion: The most tableworthy of the big cats, but ultimately still not much different from rabbit.

Lizard: Most lizards are a basic mild-tasting meat. Fire lizard resembles red dragon in its ease of preparation and texture, though not its flavor.

Lizard Man: Closer to man than lizard for meal purposes, and should probably not be eaten.

Locathah: Similar to lizard man, but can be dried to a seafood-like jerky.

Lurker Above: More edible than its appearance might suggest, but tends to stick to the roof of one's mouth.

Lycanthrope: As a lycanthrope reverts to its human or demihuman form when killed, hunting it for meat would be pointless.

Lynx, Giant: A beast of quantity rather than quality. Best with heavy seasonings.

#writing saturday #it's a cookbook

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loreleywrites · 7 years

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The Limited Archetypes of Modern Masters 2017 Edition

So, how ‘bout that Modern Masters 2017 Edition?

While the majority of the hype surrounding the newest Magic set was for the sheer volume of sexy reprints at rare and mythic rare, don’t forget that this set was designed for limited play as well. If you’re gonna be spending more money on booster packs, you might as well throw a draft together and get some extra value out of them!

Like all sets, Modern Masters 2017 Edition has a few different archetypes to build around. Unlike most Standard sets, however, these archetypes are loosely defined. There are five basic ally-color themes that support a heckload of multicolor cards. There’s a lot going on, so today’s article is going to help give you some direction when drafting this set.

And as always, make sure to check out the whole set in the Card Image Gallery! Drafting is always easier when you know what you’re looking for.

White/Blue – Flicker

Aethermage’s Touch by Randy Gallegos

“Flicker” is Magic slang that means to exile a permanent and return it to the battlefield. Sometimes the object returns immediately, and sometimes the object doesn’t come back until the end of the turn (slow flickering).

The goal of this strategy is to accrue value from creatures with enter-the-battlefield effects. It’s not a fast archetype, but it’s not always slow either. These colors have access to a lot of fliers, which can end the game quickly if left unchecked. Flickering can also help those creatures dodge removal spells; keeping tempo is important.

It’s tempting to draft a bunch of flickering spells, but you’ll still want to focus on creatures first. In limited, drawing a card like Momentary Blink when you have nothing to flicker is not good (AKA bad). You can win games if you only draw creatures, but no flicker spells. The other way around does not work.

Key cards: Attended Knight, Flickerwisp, Ghostly Flicker, Wing Splicer

Blue/Black – Control

Pilfered Plans by Michael C. Hayes

This is easily the least-defined archetype in this set. Am I supposed to be milling myself? Do I want evasion? Is there a Blue flash package here? So much confusion.

Regardless of how this color pair shapes up, it’s gonna be slowww. Overall, I think a general “control” label can be applied to the Blue/Black strategy. You’ll want to draw cards, counter some spells, and kill whatever else gets through. Card advantage is the name of this game, which is where some of the graveyard shenanigans come into play. Flashback gives your spells an extra use. It also gives you a place to spend your mana later in the game.

What you will inevitably need is a way to win the game. A few powerful, resilient threats should do it. Evasion is also key, so keep an eye out for fliers with 3 or more power. Being a slow deck also means more time to find lands for a splashed color. If you see a bomb rare that can win the game if it sticks, take it. You’ll probably be fine playing it.

Key cards: Rewind, Compulsive Research, Cower in Fear, Abyssal Specter

Black/Red – Sacrifice

Falkenrath Aristocrat by Igor Kieryluk

Death reigns supreme if you’re drafting Black/Red.

The battlefield is only a temporary residence for your creatures, as you’ll practically be sending them from your hand to your graveyard. Of course, you won’t be doing this for no reason. You’ll also be drafting cards that care about creatures dying or cards that have nifty effects that cost creatures to activate.

And if you can send your army from cradle to grave so easily, why not the other way ‘round? Unearth, the “flashback for creatures,” is a mechanic that shows up in this color pair. You can sacrifice creatures for value and attack with them later, or unearth can bring them back to be sacrificed yet again. There’s a lot of value here, and how you use it depends on how you build your deck.

In general, I think this archetype is going to lean aggressive. Unearth grants haste, so you’re often better off focusing on offense and ending the game as quickly as possible. But I also think there’s a slower, grindier, more controlling deck to be had here.

Key cards: Grixis Slavedriver, Entomber Exarch, Scourge Devil, Skirsdag Cultist

Red/Green – Go Wide

Wort, the Raidmother by Dave Allsop

Ain’t no breaks on the Goblin train! Because Goblins haven’t invented breaks yet. That’s not their style.

In this set, Red/Green wants to flood the battlefield with creatures, turn them sideways, and then take a nap after 2-0ing its opponent in ten minutes. It wants to employ abilities like menace and first strike to make combat miserable for any blocking force. It wants to deploy far more threats than any deck can deal with.

It’s not really a difficult deck to draft at first glance, but Modern Masters 2017 Edition has a lot of smexy cards that help this deck out a lot. People often tend to forget that they need cheap removal for their aggressive draft deck too. You won’t want to spend more than one or two mana to trade for an opponent’s creature. The burn in this set is very good at this, as much of it also hits players. Being removal when you need it, but the final bits of damage when you don’t, gives those spells lots of value. Absolutely pick them up if you’re in Red at all.

Key cards: Magma Jet, Goblin Assault, Strength in Numbers, Gaea’s Anthem

Green/White – Tokens

Call of the Conclave by Terese Nielsen

In most limited formats, “tokens” is synonymous with “go wide.” While there is certainly overlap in these adjacent archetypes, this Green/White deck is looking to go much bigger than the Red/Green deck.

Populate, the Selesnya mechanic from Return to Ravnica, prefers a few large tokens to a bunch of small ones. You’ll notice that both colors have the ability to make tokens that are at least 3/3. This makes the archetype more of a midrange beatdown strategy than an aggressive swarming one. White’s ability to flicker creatures is also relevant here.

You’ll notice a lot of different tokens in this set. From 1/1 flying Birds, 3/3 Golems, and 4/4 Beasts to 4/4 Angels, 5/5 Wurms, and massive X/X Oozes. All creatures big and small are welcome in this army.

Key cards: Slime Molding, Baloth Cage Trap, Rootborn Defenses, Master Splicer

Multicolor Madness

All that said, this set is loaded with multicolor cards. With Guildgates at common and Signets at uncommon, it’s very easy to splash a third color in your draft deck. You can sure as heckfire just draft a full three-color deck too. Maybe even four! Sky’s the limit!

Because the main archetypes, and thus the bulk of the gold cards, are ally-color pairs, you’ll most often end up drafting a shard (color and its two allies) if you do go three colors. So I’m going to briefly talk about how all these themes overlap if you do walk this yellow-bricked road.

Green/White/Blue (Bant)

Stoic Angel by Volkan Baga

This combines the Green/White Tokens strategy with the White/Blue Flicker strategy. As I mentioned above, flickering works great with the creatures that create tokens when they enter the battlefield. Can you imagine casting Ghostly Flicker on two Splicers to get two extra 3/3 Golems? Because you should be imagining that. It’s the dream of this deck.

Green brings a beatdown speed to the White/Blue archetype that turns the Bant deck into more of a tempo deck. You’ll want to stick a meaty creature early and then use spells to disrupt your opponent’s plans. Because you get to recycle so many effects, this deck has some huge late-game plays too.

White/Blue/Black (Esper)

Tower Gargoyle by Matt Cavotta

Flickering and Control are kind of a weird pair, but this is the three-color deck that most wants to win the card advantage game. Doing more with less is the goal, and you can see that in both individual strategies.

If you want to draft this deck, efficiency is your top priority. Play the cheapest, but most impactful, cards from all three colors. Find threats with a lot of stats. Disrupt your opponent’s plans while furthering yours at the same time. You’ll eventually win if you have more resources than your opponent.

Blue/Black/Red (Grixis)

Cruel Ultimatum by Todd Lockwood

I mentioned that the Black/Sacrifice deck probably has a grindier game plan in it somewhere. Combined with Blue/Black Control is a surefire way to bring that slow side out.

This deck can look a lot like the Esper one, just with the value focused on the graveyard instead of the battlefield. Then again, Blue’s bounce spells can simply supplement the aggressive Black/Red strategy you have. There’s a lot of flexibility in three-color decks, so try not to lose focus on what your specific draft deck is trying to accomplish.

Black/Red/Green (Jund)

Broodmate Dragon by Vance Kovacs

Sacrifice decks need food, so give it to them with Red/Green’s surplus of little creatures. Green pushes Black/Red in the more aggressive direction for sure. This is a deck that wants to put a lot of stuff onto the battlefield and then use it as needed.

Having the option to simply attack with your forces or sacrifice them for other effects is the dilemma the Jund deck thrive in. And really, it’s not much of a dilemma. Attack when you can, sac when you can’t. You’re getting closer to victory either way, so stay adaptable.

Red/Green/White (Naya)

Woolly Thoctar by Wayne Reynolds

If you want to draft the most brutal curve-out creature deck in Modern Masters 2017 Edition, these are the colors you’re going to do it in. Many limited games are won by simply casting effective bodies on turns two, three, and four.

Red provides the damage reach that a Green/White deck might struggle with, while White provides some of the better removal for larger creatures that burn spells can’t hit. Together, this strategy has some of the most impactful spells in the format. Playing good cards is always a good idea.

Mastering Limited

If you think this is a lot to keep track of, note that I didn’t even mention the enemy-color gold cards that enhance this format even further. I, for one, am hoping to get to draft Simic Sky Swallower, Urban Evolution, and Coiling Oracle for that Green/Blue Ramp action. In Modern Masters 2017 Edition limited, almost anything seems possible if the cards get passed your way. I can’t wait to get a draft in.

Until next time, planeswalkers, may you draft bomb rares and have your favorite colors always be open.

#Magic The Gathering #MTG #Modern Masters 2017 #MTGMM3 #limited #draft #sealed #archetypes

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