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#“it’s about the chess gameplay’’
lysolbabey · 1 year
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gay ppl when two characters play chess together
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diwns · 10 months
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sluttish-armchair · 2 months
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Ok but thinking back to how I was in elementary and middle school: I had such disdain for other kids who broke the rules, that I irrationally hated a whole bunch of kids — kids I would have made good friends with — all because I couldn’t stand the fact that they engaged in conflicts with, and affronts to authority figures or standards.
It even went as far as internally mocking a kid my age — calling him “Mama’s Boy” in my head — over the fact that his mother whispered comments into his ear, which he mumbled unintelligibly into the mic, and then would fall asleep as if dead on her arm. I perceived his inability to give comments on his own, and his sleeping, as moral failings of both mother and child; because I wasn’t raised like that. And maybe, those feelings also came from jealousy. I was expected to fight off sleep all the time because I could read at a college level in third grade, and could theoretically understand the material presented at the meetings despite it still being inappropriate for my age group.
I was so far deep into the “bad associations spoil useful habits” mindset that it made me hate my fellow neurodivergents — kids I would have been friends with — who maybe couldn’t hide it as well as I could. That is beyond fucked up. Now, I work with those very kids I disliked so much as a child, and guess what? They are my absolute favorite people to be around; and many of them remind me of myself.
#exjw#ableism tw#I’m also just very uptight about rules anyway; so the whole cult thing did not help that part of me At All#I often find myself more concerned with doing things “correctly” than I am with doing the right thing in non-serious scenarios#and it’s kind of scary because like… how much of a sheep am I?#Would I torture someone if an authority figure I trusted ordered me to because it’s what I’m “supposed” to do?#Most of it comes from a desire for consistency: If [x] happens; then do [y]. So every time [x] happens; [y] is the correct response#and this — like the laws of physics — Cannot Change#Except of course the real world is vague and variable and there is a lot of grey area to work with in coming up with solutions#so doing [y] when [x] happens may make things worse than if you do [z] instead#This makes a lot more sense when you consider I was taught how to play chess at a very young age by my father#who bragged about being a “chess player” with regard to real world problems#Yes chess is strategy; but you’re also playing on a grid and your movements are entirely restricted by the rules of gameplay#My father can’t leave the cult that traumatized him because he loves Jehovah#he can’t go to the meetings to serve the god he loves because it triggers his trauma#he can’t talk to a therapist about his religious trauma to get over it because he would be defaming Jehovah#If life is a game of chess then he’s checkmated#But here’s the thing: the game is imaginary and the rules are made up#Viewing real life as a chess board is extremely unhealthy for your free will#Which is why in this essay about Nineteen Eighty Four I will—
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fizzytoo · 1 year
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kimberly invites nico for dinner as a thank you, and they seem to really hit it off! — after rosa's put to bed, the two enjoy each other's company (+ some wine).
click 4 hq huhu
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saytrtiara · 7 months
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Liberty: Trying The Perenyi Attack? It's not for the faint of heart.
Jay: Ah, but what's a game of chess without sacrificing a few knights?
These two get on like a house on fire
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imaginethathaikyuu · 8 months
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Em, you probably don't know this, but I actually have a huge weakness for streamer!Kenma. This might be kinda basic but what if streamer!Kenma and streamer!reader are both super popular, and everyone is always begging them to stream together, but what everyone DOESN'T know is that they're secretly dating and are afraid that if they stream together everyone will figure it out :') but it's just a thought so yeah no pressure. I hope you do get some inspo for streamer!Kenma though 💗 ily!
kris i love u and i wrote this just for u <333 it feels like me and u are playing ping pong with the writing brain cell recently. i love it we're so back
streamer!kenma x streamer!reader
featuring: secret relationship, kenma teaches u how to play chess on stream, loving banter, little bits of chess talk. i tried not to put too much streamer talk in this so it was actually readable and not cringe. gender neutral reader word count: 1882
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Kenma was just about to end his stream when he noticed your name being typed in the chat. Someone linked a clip of you from your stream - which was currently live - so he clicked it. 
A text to speech message read out loud, “Are you going to be in Noya’s next event?” and as you were focusing on your gameplay, you took a second to reply. 
“Am I… No, I don’t think so.” 
Kenma laughed while you struggled your way through playing MineCraft. 
“I was invited but - chat, I don’t want to start any drama but I kind of don’t want to play in it if Kenma’s playing, and someone told me he was invited.” 
Kenma barked a laugh, a loud noise that was rarely heard from him, as you shrugged and struggled to hide your smile. 
“There, I said it! If it starts drama, so be it!” You put your hands up in defense, laughing at yourself. 
The clip ended, so he immediately opened your stream, and you were still talking about him. 
He couldn’t hide his smile if he tried - he only hoped none of his viewers noticed the fondness in his eyes. 
The two of you had been dating for at least a year, and it was the best kept secret of his career.
There was a joke online about the two of you not liking each other. It all started when you were openly avoiding him in a game lobby with other streamers - from there, it grew into a bit that you committed to full throttle. 
Everyone knew you and Kenma were friends in real life. You shared a friend group, and often streamed with the same people. Online, however, you made a spectacle of not liking him. 
Kenma found it hilarious, and so did your chat. 
“Do you guys know he cheats in like, every game he plays?” 
“That’s not true!” He was laughing and rolling his eyes at the same time. “Oh my god.” 
He typed his words in your chat, and he watched the messages flood with his name. 
Your eyes widened a little when you read, “Is he in chat? Kenma, go away. This stream isn’t for you.” 
He typed a simple, “no,” and you scoffed at it. 
“Every time I mention your name you show up - I know you love the drama.” 
A few seconds later a text to speech message read, “he’s such a theater kid,” and at the sound of your laughter, he closed your stream. 
“I’m not a theater kid.” He sank a little in his chair, watching his chat being filled with emotes. “I literally played sports in high school!” 
It was only a few days later when he was sent another clip from your stream, this time from a text to speech donation. 
“Kenma, I think you need to see this.” 
He clicked the link and saw you were once again playing MineCraft. 
It was a long clip - in the game, you jumped off your boat into the ocean and started swimming to the bottom. Everyone in your chat was telling you not to, but you didn’t listen. 
“I’m not going to die. Why would I die? This is the best run I’ve had. I’m not going to die.” 
That’s when he realized you were playing the hardcore version of the game, meaning if you died, the game was over. 
He watched as you swam down into a huge ravine, and he had a feeling he knew what would happen as your character’s air bubbles were slowly popping. 
“Do you want to make a bet? If I die here I will do anything you want. Anything. Because I’m not going to die!” 
As you said that, your character started taking damage. And you tried swimming back up to the surface of the water, but you weren’t fast enough. You almost made it, and then - game over!
Your head was in your hands as the chat on screen spammed, “stream with Kenma!” 
Three days later, you were forced to take your punishment. 
Your viewers had been asking you to stream with Kenma for a long time, and you always avoided it with a joke - never revealing the real reason you didn’t want to go live with him. 
It wasn’t the end of the world if your relationship became public, but you knew things would be much easier in private. It wasn’t something you were trying to hide, but you weren’t posting it proudly, either. 
You decided on streaming Kenma teaching you how to play chess. He’d been playing a lot online, and you hoped it wouldn’t take longer than an hour. You were too nervous to go any longer than that. 
Kenma was late to answering your call. When he finally answered, you immediately started berating him. 
“Have you ever been on time?” 
“I was just seeing how long you’d wait for me,” he said. 
“If you never showed up, I would have gotten out of doing this.” 
He pulled up your stream just so he could look at you - even though he’d seen you just a few minutes ago. You were just down the hall, but nobody watching knew that. 
“Have you been watching my stream this whole time?” 
He grinned, “No, I’ve never watched your stream.” 
“Then why are you always in my chat?” 
You sat with your legs crossed, playing with the necklace you always wore - the one he bought for you just a few months ago. He loved seeing you wear it. 
“Because you’re always talking about me, like you’re obsessed with me or something.” 
“Can we get to the game? You’ve kept me waiting long enough.” 
Kenma wasn’t a good teacher - far from it - but he tried his best. After teaching you the names of all the pieces and how they moved, you were ready to play a game that he’d guide you through. You played white, he played black. 
“Can you just teach me the best opening in the game? I don’t need to know anything complicated.” 
“...Okay.” 
He took a second to decide. Once he made up his mind, he started giving his instructions. 
“The first move is pawn to f3.” 
“What does that mean?” 
“Do you see the pawns?” 
You laughed, because the way he said it sounded like he was talking to a kid. “Yes, I see the pawns!”
“Move the one on the F file up one square.” After a second you made your move, and it was his turn: pawn to e6. “Now pawn to g4.” 
“What’s this opening called?” 
He didn’t reply, instead, he was distracted by his chat. By now, everyone had already figured out what he was doing, and the messages they were sending made him laugh. 
“Kenma?” 
“It’s called the Fool’s Mate,” he said. 
“Why?” 
He had to push his microphone away from his face so you wouldn’t hear him laugh, but he pulled it back to say, “I think this is why.” 
He made his next move: queen to h4. And a window popped up on his screen, You Won! 
“What the fuck!” 
“Good game.”
“Kenma, what the fuck!” 
“You made it too easy.” 
“Kenma.” You were whining his name, sinking into your chair. “This is why I don’t like you.” 
“Everyone knew I would beat you, I just sped things up.” 
“That’s not true!” 
“You’re always such a sore loser,” he mumbled. 
“You’re always a cheater.” 
Twenty minutes later, you were in the middle of a real game - if Kenma telling you which moves to make could be considered real. And both of you had successful streams so far, your viewers none the wiser to the truth of your relationship. 
It was easy, he realized, and fun. He hated how funny you were, because you could make him laugh more than anyone, and he was sure he seemed completely lovesick. 
“I think you should move the bishop,” Kenma suggested when you took more than two minutes to offer your next move. 
“Uh…” 
“The bishop.” 
“I don’t remember which one that is!” 
Kenma waited for you to figure it out, and then you moved your queen. 
And he was truly disappointed, because that was the one move you shouldn’t have made. He couldn’t even laugh. 
“You just sacrificed your queen.” 
“I don’t even know what that means!” 
“Babe - that was a total blunder!” His queen captured yours, and he realized this may have been a complete waste of time. “You lost your most important piece!” 
“I thought that was the bishop, Ken!” 
He sighed, acting as dramatic as possible. “You haven’t learned a thing. It’s basically game over, now,” and he scanned the chess board on his screen, looking for the quickest way to end the game. 
He looked over at his chat to see it was being spammed with question marks, and then his phone vibrated with a message from you. 
It read, “you just let the cat out of the bag.” 
“Oh,” he said. He laughed, because he only just realized what he said - the nickname had slipped before he could catch himself - and something awkward started to settle. But he shrugged it off. “Oops.” 
He started texting you back until you said, “are you disappointed in me, babe?” 
“Oh my god.” He sat his phone down, ignoring your message completely. “Stop flirting with me.” 
“You said it first!” 
“It was an accident!” 
You texted him again. “Should we just tell them?” 
He typed back, “I think so.” 
“Okay, wait,” you said. “Everyone go look at Kenma’s stream. He’s going to do something really cool while I go to the bathroom.” 
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He opened your stream in another tab and watched you get up from your seat. 
Everyone in your chat and his was confused - as was he. 
Then, his door opened, and you walked in. 
“What are you doing?” he laughed. 
“I wanted to come say hi.” You walked over to him, grabbing the back of his chair and turning it back and forth just to bother him. “Wait, are you streaming?” 
He scoffed, but it was all affectionate. “You’re so dumb.” 
You looked down at his screen and waved, “hi chat!” and then noticed he had your stream on his second monitor. “You’re watching my stream!” 
“Yeah, I’m a fan,” he joked. 
He knew the chat would be filled with questions and reactions, but he didn’t care at all. He found this entire thing hilarious, and judging by the smirk on your face, you did too. 
When you finally got back to your room, you sat down as if nothing had even happened. 
“Okay, can you teach me what a Queen’s Gambit is?” 
“No, because you can’t even tell me which piece is the queen.” 
Later that night when you had both ended your livestreams, both of you made your own posts on twitter acknowledging the announcement you’d made. Kenma posted a photo of you with his cat in your lap - the one that had been his phone wallpaper since he’d taken it. You posted the first selfie you’d taken together - both without captions, because there was no explanation required. 
And if you kept acting like you hated Kenma during your stream, he’d be the only one allowed to call your bluff.
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send a request for a drabble and i might write it :)
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cursed4myhubris · 5 months
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My favorite gameplay mechanic in the Ace Attorney franchise is absolutely Logic Chess. Like, throughout the series all protagonists have some kind of gimmick to tell if someone is lying but for everyone else it's some kind of magic or some barely explained superpower that's a part of their bloodline.
Meanwhile Edgeworth is just a guy who for some reason thinks of all his arguments as chess games. Does he always do this? Whenever we face him in court does he hallucinate himself and Phoenix in the Chess Dimension?
Does he do this outside of work as well? Him and Maya get into a disagreement about Steel Samurai Lore and all of sudden
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justthemoonz · 5 months
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UNDERTALE: Checkmate
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This is basically a take on that old Chesstale AU from back in the early Undertale Youtube themes era Except it actually utilizes chess, but with a more interesting gameplay style You have 4 ACTIONS you can perform: > MOVE - you can select a piece to move it > WAIT - you can just skip your turn > TRICK - you can trick the other opponent into doing something at random, which is also the way you'd perform the "GENOCIDE" route, by cheating > QUIT - you can give up against the opponent, but it only works sometimes You'd also only start out with the King and a Pawn, getting more pieces the more you progress through areas and the story (However this does not apply to bosses, as you get all chess pieces there)
And if you're curious about the Sans fight... well...
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Sans only has one Pawn, but it acts like a King and Queen at the same time You can't actually check it, you have to get rid of it from the board, KR also makes your time go by faster, and if you WAIT for a long time, Sans will start moving your pieces in a position he can get them himself, however you have Queens all over the board (BTW this was inspired by UNOTale and that one line from the UT Kickstarted about Toriel telling you that you should play chess instead)
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ryo-maybe · 2 years
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There is an interesting discussion to be had about the concept of “video game player guilt” and how it ties into what I’m going to refer to as “narrative responsibility”. I personally believe that games with a post-modernist approach to the relationship between the medium and their audience, where the latter’s engagement with the former is called into question, tend to fall into a self-contradictory pitfall, interestingly though they may do so.
Games tend to punish the player for mistakes made within their framework, whether it be from the perspective of their gameplay or their narrative. Soulsborne games offer an excellent example of both, wherein a rash approach to fights lead to merciless death, while hurting NPCs bars the player from witnessing the conclusion of their arcs, along with being denied the tangible rewards they may yield. Both are punishing, but there is a fairness to it, and - most importantly - the game ultimately does not judge your choices. You can link the fire or bring darkness to the world, but the game acknowledges that it gave you the choice, let you run with it, and doesn’t call it into question, because the option was laid there for you to take it, if you so willed.
And why wouldn’t you, honestly? You can certainly feel guilt at the cruel choices you make in an RPG, at the suffering experienced by characters in a Visual Novel as the result of the choices you made, but feeling an emotional response to a narrative does not mean you also lack awareness that it is, ultimately, a made-up fantasy.
Games like Spec Ops: The Line pioneered this genre of meta-narrative where the player’s actions are called into question through the avatar they control, but to me, however fascinatingly woven, they ultimately fall flat, because if the responsibility falls on anybody for having wrought the tragedies depicted, it’s on the developers. At worst, calling out a video game player for... playing a video game feels like a bid for sensationalist boldness than anything else. The Genocide Route in UT is completely optional, but being called out by the person who coded and wrote said tragedy rings a tad hollow.
I cannot see how wanting to experience everything a piece of media has to offer can be wrong, nor the supposedly inherent wrongness of people playing and enjoying games in their own ways. Sure, I might not understand people who play a Fire Emblem game purely like a game of chess without caring for its narrative aspects - or viceversa - but I believe that illustrates the beauty of games more than its flaws. There is much to discuss about the relationship between violence, video games and people’s approach to both, for sure. But treating the player’s responsibility as the equivalent of the developer putting a gun in their hand and accusing them when they inevitably pull the trigger feels a bit silly, you feel me?
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mookymilksims · 18 days
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ULTIMATE Realistic Family Gameplay Guide
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Hello, everyone. I ran a poll on my channel for you all to decide on which realism guide you'd like to see next and Family Gameplay won. While I'm aware there are hundreds of family gameplay guides out there, and you'll probably have most of these mods already installed, what I think I can offer different are fixes to the EA code, and expansions on gameplay mechanics already included in the game, as well as a masterlist that has been extensively playtested for the last 6-7 years (still testing the newer mods though!). These mods have been run through Delphy's Dashboard, and have even caught conflicts and corrected that Delphy's couldn't catch.
We will break this guide down in simpler sections.
Children can series.
XML's, Tweaks, Tunings (Non-scripts). Special section for fixes.
Scripts and scripted objects.
This guide is also aimed at overall family play. I do not just think of new interactions for babies, toddlers, children, and teens. I also consider the parents. I've included mods for parents in different roleplay scenarios, as well as, single adults looking to create a family, so we will focus on some mods that can promote the family before the family is made.
I will also included a personal recommended list of lots you'd want to include in any world you play in for an ultimate family play experience.
Now that that's out of the way:
This can be followed alongside the youtube guide, we've got a lot of mods to get through so let's jump straight into it.
Children Can Series:
We will start with the most intricate install process. There are many children can mods. And many mods that conflict with each other. I caught all of them through Delphy's Dashboard, so you will only install the mods highlighted in this guide for the most optimal and conflict free experience. These mods are self explanatory but I'm going to explain why you want them at the end of this section.
CamKitty - Children can werewolf hunt.
kls77 - children can repair, tinker, and upgrade.
kls77 - children can time travel.
Bluegentsu - Children can use fortune cookie maker
Jonha - Children can use urinals.
Kap Children can series:
ONLY DOWNLOAD THESE MODS FOR COMPATIBILITY
can call services can check skills can cut and trans gems and ingots can do laundry can get mail can make nectar can read skillbook music can use sketchbook
OEM Children can series:
ONLY DOWNLOAD THESE MODS FOR COMPATIBILITY
can air guitar can chess can conjure apple no auto can feed cowplant (only if you have store cow plant) can hack can magic mirror can mermaid eat can microwave can neat trait clean house can photos-phonesmart can post forum can practice speech mirror can practice speech vanity dresser can solve hard problems
All of these mods enable features already in the game that children were unable to do. Each of these small mods brings back playability with children in very big ways. This also makes children much more independent so you won't always need an adult or teen around to take care of them. For example, children can now order pizza on the phone, or microwave food, instead of needing adults to always cook for them. You can roleplay more chores with children by allowing them to do laundry, this can also be roleplayed in a scenario where a parent isn't very consistent and the child has to be. This could create amazing stories for your gameplay. Without these mods, playing with children feels so much more restrictive. They feel like cute dolls you just send to school and forget about for a couple of hours. Allowing them more agency and free will for my gameplay allowed me to immerse myself more in their child years.
We are now going to focus on XML's, tweaks, and Tunings. These are all non scripts. This is also where I will include fixes. These are very lightweight mods that change what is already in the game and do not create gameplay lag.
Adoption Costs 5 k - I made adoption more expansive because I wanted to be able to feel this decision in game. Adoption isn't neccassarily free in real life. Between the paperwork, meetings, travel, and transitioning the children into your life this can obviously be very expensive. So this mod helps me roleplay this aspect of real life.
Arcade claw machine tweaks - Family fun center version. Arcades are extremely important for my family playthrough's, as it's one of the lots where I can put plenty of interactive objects for all ages. Including a little playpen for toddlers, that won't be out of place. This can also double as a traditional birthday party lot, with closed off rooms. From time to time I like to bring my families to these lots when I want them all to get out of the house together. So with this mod, it tweaks the prizes you can win from the claw machines, increasing your chances of winning a ton more stuff.
BlueGentsu
5% chance of teen mood swings - Makes the mood swings feel a lot more impactful when they happen instead of every other day. This is especially helpful for those who play on longer lifespans.
Skates - all enabled for pregnancy - does just as it says, pregnant sims should be allowed to have a little more fun.
No blowhorns noisemakers at Age ups - It's just annoying and buggy, so removing it altogether optimizes age transitions. This also makes the event seem a bit more realistic, while everyone just cheers and laughs instead.
Toddler's can turn off stereo - Combined with my NRAAS GoHere settings, which allows for inactive daycares to be possible, sometimes when a daycare staff puts your sims down to sleep, they won't turn off the stereo so you as the toddler will have to autonomously do it so they can peacefully take their nap.
Boarding school is expensive - Again, this is so the decision feels a lot more impactful in game. This can also be roleplayed as sending your child to private school when in a wealthy family, so the prices also make more sense for this.
Maid Costs 200 - As the title says maids will be slightly more expensive, this adds up everyday, and is for the purpose of this decision feeling more impactful. It didn't make sense for my poorer families to be able to afford a maid so this is a mod catered more towards upper middle class to wealthy families. I also combine maids with a butler as well, to give a more regal feel to the wealth your sims have obtained.
No Graduation - This is optional, if you use UC mod. This eliminates the graduation ceremony altogether, for those like myself who like to roleplay this event in game instead. By simply throwing a party on a fancy lot with formal attire.
Not just teens can prank call - Just made more sense to have this option available for everyone.
Student Services Booth mod unlocked - This can be used on High school lots as well. Especially when you turn on Summer Vacations, and send kids back to school the first day of Fall. Also, for roleplay Uni scouting events, so sim families can have a more immersive experience of browsing possible universities sims can be sent to.
More Festival Ticket Rewards - BG, SN, UNI version. Just like the claw machine this adds more rewards to win on festival lots. Makes working for the tickets more impactful.
No Auto tell ghost stories - This interaction has always annoyed me as it happens anywhere at any time. I like to plan activities almost like an itinerary when sending my sims to do longer events like vacations or simple camping trips in their homeworld. So specifically for camping, telling a ghost story with the family is a very fun activity to do at night before everyone goes to sleep around a campfire. It is where this interaction makes the most sense for me to use and leaves me excited to actually use it.
Studying is easier - I always thought the study rates of performance were super unbalanced. As I don't have sims study often when in Unni unless it makes sense for their character. And so this leaves an incentive to actually study during their free time outside of class as it brings more of a reward when it is done. However, the default rates of studying was too slow and easily took up all of my sims days. So I wanted to be able to study and be rewarded for that, while also having more time in my sims days to do things. So now I can study less often, throughout the week without the stress. I am including this in the family gameplay guide because your teens can actually study together in your homeworld which doesn't do anything for their school performance but does a lot of roleplaying study groups, since I have a homework mod that only takes 15 minutes to complete.
TwoFT Mama -
Auto Potty Training - does just as it says, this mostly helps townies, but for active households to do this on their own leaves you as the player feeling more immersed.
Better grades - Lowers the grade requirements making school a little easier. This is so while playing with UC it leaves teens and children more time to interact with each other outside of working on interactive objects.
Faster homework minutes - Reduces homework times to 15 minutes, saves up much more time in my child and teen sims days.
Fixes:
This is a smaller section for the non scripts, where I consider these mods to be complete fixes to existing EA gameplay that all the patch updates missed.
Auto Romance YA-Elder Propose going steady - This is a lightweight alternative to the NPC Romance script mod by YolkSims. While the mod was completely rebuilt from the ground up to be much more optimized, I went on a journey to find replacements to my current scripts folder that delivered what I was looking for. I found this mod. While this can go all the way up into Getting divorced. I stopped at going steady because with the Supreme AI mod sims can autonomously break up if they aren't on the best terms. This may also include divorcing, but so far it hasn't been too intrusive. Combined with the simler90 mod which includes attraction fixes, this makes romance a lot more fluid, performance friendly, autonomous, chaotic, but also predictable, aids in roleplaying, and is overall a great fix for townies and creating families with active households.
Read to sleep fix - A patch broke this interaction, so Danjaley fixes it. Without realizing it, you have another immersive gameplay mechanic for toddlers in the game. This interaction is very cute and I wouldn't believe it wasn't a mod, so I'm very happy this interaction was fixed.
Midlife Crisis Always - Adult life stages can be quite boring and monotonous. I play lifespans so long that when this event happens it's like a milestone for me. I think of it as a mini game, and try to fix everything that happens afterwards once my sim comes to their senses.
MissPat Better Playdates - Just as you may have saw in my Supreme AI playtest video, Townies will autonomously call and ask for playdates if both families have children and younger in their household. This was an EA feature, but it also got broken. This makes interacting with other families more immersive, and making children and toddlers friends much more realistic and natural in the game. For those who like to roleplay life long best friends in the game, especially.
TwoFtMama
Birthday Cakes don't catch fire - These fires are annoying and I use other mods that can cause chaotic fires randomly but REASONABLY in game.
No Curfew period - This is the only curfew remover mod that doesn't break changing clothes and dresser interactions in my game. I always thought the curfew mechanic in the game was a bit too much. Police officers wouldn't know where every single child or teen was at in the world. And sometimes, I like to take my teen and child sims out late for family events, teens on late dates, etc. With curfews enabled, police would still arrest them and bring them home, even though the parents were with them, then would have to wait for the parent to get all the way back home just to yell at them for being out late. This obviously made no sense. Combined with a punishment scripts mod, I can user direct punishments for things like this instead for a much more roleplaying and immersive experience.
Teens can take unpaid days off - This mod also made more sense and should've been included in EA features. Teens call off from work, and quite often might I add. So it helps me roleplay a more realistic teen lifestyle in game.
Now for the Final section we are going to focus on Scripts. Scripts typically do not conflict with each other but for this list some of them did. The compatibility patches and versions have been included so you don't have to worry. This is where most of you will probably already have these mods, but hopefully I introduce you to some bangers you never heard of before.
We are going to go by creator and then from A-Z for the misc scripts.
Arsil
Do Homework With - Adds the ability to do your homework with other sims the same age as your children and teens. This can make study groups more immersive, as getting homework done together will actually improve school performance the next day, but can be doubled with the UNI study together interaction the roleplay a longer study session period. These can be done in the home or the Library, which allows me to get more usage out of my Library lots and make a Kid/Teen section which is always fun.
Toddler Extra Activities - Adds a bunch of cute new interactions that toddlers can do like playing in puddles, mud, sand, eating snow, dancing, and even drawing on the walls if they have crayons in their inventory.
Arsil Futons - This is for more eastern themed family plays, but you can alternatively use these if you have a poor sim in the big city who can't even afford a bed. I typically transmogrify deco beds on the floor into this script object in game, you get a lot of creative and really fun gameplay out of this. But I wanted to toss this in here for my eastern simmers, if you don't already know about this, or you'd like to play an Asian household and make your gameplay a little more realistic. I'm definitely excited to rebuild my Korean themed Uni world I had before with these beds!
Arsil Napping Mats - These work exactly like the futons except for toddlers. It's honestly so cute. Outside of the crib and Olomaya's toddler beds, this is just another super cute way for Toddler's to fall asleep. The crib always seemed way too overbearing, and for those who roleplay toddlers aging but not yet into children, these other various options would serve you a lot better. Now for these mats specifically, I typically like using them in my inactive Daycare lots, but from time to time I'll use them in my active household's living rooms or play room, just in case I don't always feel like bringing the Toddler to another floor to fall asleep.
Arsil Low Dinner Table - Another really awesome mod for those who want to be able to roleplay better with eastern households. I always have so much fun with these tables and chairs, I've even converted some myself. One of my favorite general things to do is set the chair up in front of a TV and direct my sims to play video games. So they will be sitting on the floor and playing video games and it always looks super cute, so much nostalgia!
Arsil Limbo Mod - For the same reason I removed the autonomous ghost telling interaction, is why I use this limbo mod. Another activity for sims to do at various different parties. It's one of my favorite little events to host during a birthday party. It's seriously so cute!
FloTheory
Pay For This - Adds a mechanic where every time you change your baby and toddler diapers and give them a bottle of milk you will be charged 5 simoleons. It's such an awesome addition because when you think about it, diapers and milk should add up in real life. However, combined with the other mods in this guide, if you change their diapers and give them a bath using the store object, or give them a bath using The Sweet Simmer's mod, you won't pay for anything then. Which makes sense, sometimes you can roleplay already having diapers in supply. As well as Olomaya's toddler snacks and meals, you would shop for groceries and make the toddler whatever you have available in your fridge, but actually feeding the child those meals won't cost 5 simoleans because you already paid for the ingredients. So this interaction fixes the lack of realism with EA's diaper and bottle interaction. I find myself using all 3 mods at random, and it's always so fun.
Wedding Inactives - Adds the ability to have two sims in a relationship that your sims are friends with, to get engaged, and you can set their wedding party as well. This can give romantic stories with townies more user control. Since we are using tuning mods to make romance more autonomous, and stopped at going steady, eventually SP will push those sims to get married, but you can not only speed things up whenever you'd like, but you can also attend their wedding in the same way they attended yours! This gives the user another way to experience going to a party instead of hosting one like LN introduced. Idk about you guys but I love also feeling like a townie/NPC sometimes, it immerses me much further into my gameplay!
Weight Gain - Adds a random percentage of weight gain for pregnant sims during and after they give birth. Women's bodies are absolutley beautiful especially after giving birth, I always hear about those mommy curves that finally come in for so many women, while you can choose to go to the gym and work this mommy weight off, I imagine myself keeping it probably for most of my playthrough's. It's just always made sense that this should happen, our bodies can change forever after giving birth and so I'd like to roleplay that kind of wholesome realism in game, too.
GameFreak
Advice interaction - Adds a new social interaction with custom moodlets when you can ask for and give advice. There are several different kinds of advice you can give, with many random prompts, and a reasonably timed moodlet that you'll get after the interaction. While this can be applied to general gameplay mods, I'm including this in the family gameplay because there are just way too many roleplay oppurtunities you can have with this one. Siblings or parents giving romantic, career, etc advice. Friends, lovers, maybe a lover asking for romantic advice on how to sweep your sim off their feet? It adds a lot more roleplaying elements that can really help you the player put a story together. I've always had a gameplay style where I generally know what I'd like to happen but I go with the gameplay and can change the plot at will, so the gameplay has to reflect many more possibilities.
Smartphone Dating - Is a smaller mod that just adds the dating app from the computer onto your phone. I personally love to roleplay like this is Tinder for my sims. I always felt the dating app should also be available on sims phones like in real life, and it gives us some things to do when out and about or bored at home!
JunJay
Everyone Clip coupons - This, again, should've been available in the game already, it can be quite fun to shop smarter, even if you aren't poor per say but money is getting kind of tight. I know large families that do pretty well still love using coupons so I've included this mod.
Online Center - Adds a brand new scripting interaction to the PC which makes so much more sense. You can shop online for groceries, books, pets, relics, bots, consignment, potions, etc. You can check weekly events, which means you can disable the newspaper and still get those benefits. Read E-sim news. And probably my favorite, there is a new Simbook (Facebook) feature! Your sim will basically scan their timeline and comment on other townies simbook's, and you'll actually get slight relationship increases with random sims you already know, and you can even meet sims you haven't met already through this feature as well.
Study Skills Online - Adds another interaction to the online center where you can study any and all skills. Instead of having to go out and buy the things you can study them for free right from your pc at home. I typically use this interaction for my teen sims to improve their basic school skills as an extra layer of work for them to do for school. Outside of studying, creating books titled their class projects and etc.
Lizcandor
Potty Training - Adds a new interaction for toddlers to play in the toilet and use it instead of always using their potty training potty.
Independence GoHere Compatible - Adds the ability for toddler's to use stairs! Always exciting! But you'll have to keep an eye on those little rascals a bit more, which is always more realistic!
Mintbeehry
Mint Makeup - Adds a new interaction for children and toddler's to play with makeup. And some very silly makeup masks that will go over the kid's face when done. I used to play with my mom's makeup all the time so it brings back memories for me, I think it's a super cute interaction for you to experience with your sims families!
Fidget Spinner - Adds an interactive fidget spinner object that can go into your sims inventory and taken out and be played with for a couple seconds. I think these are super cute for kids to win at festivals and arcade lots so I included it as it can be combined with savvier seller mod to actually shop for it on these lots.
MonocoDoll
Remove Shoes - Another really great eastern culture gameplay mechanic or just for your more cleanly families with a mud room. Either way, you'll have plenty of fun with this mod installed for realism.
Government assistance - Adds just what it states for your sims. EBT, health insurance, Child support. It's super realistic and adds so much more depth and mechanic to your gameplay. You'll actually be able to roleplay your poor families without having to get creative. Make a side chick a baby mama to a wealthy sim who cheated on his wife, etc. Tell some crazy stories, this mod will certainly help you with all of those scenarios.
Olomaya
Hang out, Children and teens - Adds an interaction where children and teens sims will sit down on the ground and talk, laugh, etc. It increases their relationships, and can be quite a large group. I used to have the all ages version, but I think seeing teens and kids sit on the floor faired out much better in my gameplay than seeing adults. Pick which ever version you'd like, though.
Toddler Bed - Adds a functional single bed for toddlers to the game! I've planned to convert many sims 4 toddlers beds using this scripted object so we have some more variety, but for now the options available for it are so adorable. It's got one bug, where you can only enter the bed from the left side I believe, but other than that it's a much needed mod for more realism, especially for those toddlers that just turn 3 and 4 in your game.
Activity Table - Adds a crafting option, and serve snack option to the activity table. The crafting increases the painting skills but uses glitter as a prop instead. For toddler's and children, so they can both play and eat snacks at the table!
Coloring Book - Adds functional coloring books that are portable!
Smoking - Fixes Cmoney's smoking mod, optimizes the scripts, fixes the animations, adds a sitting animation, moodlets work much better, adds new custom moodlets. Also adds a vape. But most excited, this adds the ability for teens to buy fake ID's for tobacco products. I also use the fake ID's to roleplay my teen sims getting into bars and clubs. As they can actually order from the bar, I like to imagine they were able to slip passed security.
Student council - Adds a really fun almost mini-game interaction to a new student council option for teens in high school. And a new interactive board. It may not be everyone's flavor but it makes highschools a little more interactive outside of UC. See also PheobeJay's cheerleading mod for another interactive mechanic for teens and YA in UNI!
The Sweet Simmer
This is where most of you probably have these mods, so let's just do a basic checklist of all the mods you do or don't have.
Animation World
Children Can care for their little siblings
Family Kiss
Biggest Little Mod for Toddlers
Children and Toddlers can follow
Toys Are More Fun
Peek-A-Boo and Hug Toddlers
Toddlers can ride rocking rider
Replaced child hug
Toddlers can pick up easter eggs
Toddlers can sit on couches and chairs
Toddler can ask for things
Toddlers can catch butterflies and pick flowers
Outdoor activities for Toddlers
Toddlers can sit on sims laps
Toddlers can learn to walk alone
More Baby Interactions
More Toddler Interactions
Functional Baby Carrier
Pick Up Toddler Fixes
More Pregnancy Interactions
So obviously all of these mods MASSIVELY Overhaul family gameplay with babies, toddlers, and children in the game. Not only does it fix EA mechanics, but it also compliments and expands existing mechanics, and then adds even more. You'll probably never go back to regular family gameplay again after these mods. You might only have a couple so consider getting all of these mods listed above!
Twinsimming
Acne Mod - Adds acne to the game, and can randomly have break outs. This suits this theme mods list as puberty can be quite strange. This also effects adults though, and adults still get acne. I mean not me really but y'all be easy.
Dirty Laundry - Again, I think cleaning and have a family just goes hand in hand. This mod adds more custom moodlets the longer you go without washing your clothes. It's how it should've been in the game, to really incentivize you to get that laundry done.
Growing Pains - Is a great addition to family play. Whenever anything significant sad or angry happens to children and teens they will go through a time in their life that will deeply affect them (almost traumatize them in a way). Divorce and breakups, etc. It makes what story you tell with those sims more impactful on their lives.
New Scholarships - Adds new scholarships to the game, I also consider UNI to be an integrated part of Family life in the Sims 3. I love going off to Uni with my sims I watched grow up since birth. This mod just adds more ways they could get in to those Universities.
Tooth Fairy - Is a cute little mod that adds a tooth losing mechanic, it feels like it always should've been there. With custom moodlets that will make you know your kid sim is growing up.
Now we are going to move onto misc Family gameplay mods, these are from various creators where I don't have more than one of their mods installed!
All Adults carry - This is a mod that allows all adults to carry children. It was originally a feature in the sims 3 with the firefighter career, but Puddingface made it possible for all adults to pick up and carry kids. This adds another roleplay element, as sometimes I like to direct my parents to carry their rowdy kids to bed if they aren't listening and staying asleep.
Clean House for Everyone - This mod just makes the ability to clean the house for everyone. Originally this mechanic was only avilable for neat sims, but I find I have neat sims without the trait, and slobby sims who eventually wake up and want to get their house together. So it's a pretty convenient mod. The sims will autonomously be directed to every dirty object in the lot and clean it all up. This is pretty useful for those larger family homes who can't afford a maid or a butler or can, and you don't want to sacrifice a trait slot just to be able to clean your house.
Cherry Toddler interactions - This is another script mod that adds some pretty fun interactions into the game that combined with all the other scripted toddler interactions makes the game an abundance of choices you can do more with toddlers. Things like talking with another toddler, exploring around, having a bottle to themselves, and even eating pet food from their bowl.
Ferris Wheel - This adds a new scripted object ferris wheel, you can actually ride it. Combined with all the other store content geared towards festival lots (roller coaster, carousel) this is another really fun object for your family's to go crazy on in game. It adds a custom moodlet once you've finished and it's super cute.
Icarus Scolding - This adds a new scripted mechanic where you can user direct punishments to your child and teen sims now. This is what I meant earlier with the removal of the curfew mod. If you still want to catch your teens sneaking out it can actually make more sense. Now you can do all sorts of things for your stories and gameplay. Kid didn't clean up their room like you asked? Send them to the wall. Not doing their homework? Ground them from all electronics. You get it.
Lyralei Journal - Not quite like the other journal mod, your sims won't actually write anything to publish like with buzz's notebook mod. But they will get custom moodlets after writing a passage. I like to roleplay this as a diary for my sims and also sometimes extra homework for other classes they take. You'll get random whimsical prompts after they finish writing and you can only imagine what triggered that response from your sims (it's random so get creative). You can also hide the journal, and a new interaction where a sim can ask what you wrote. It's very cute and certainly worth the install.
Fairy Tale Books - adds more fairytale books to the game. Classic ones from real life. They are classified as children's books so you can read them to your kids at night. Makes a more relatable childhood experience for us simmers out there!
Mingos Option b - This adds basically an abortion pill to the game. You take it after suspecting your sim of being pregnant. While you can get an abortion for the enhanced hospitals mod this mod adds a CVS like experience where you can buy the pills from the grocery stores yourself or pretending you got a prescription to terminate a pregnancy. So it makes 2 ways you can get an abortion in game. I'm aware that some more mods that will eventually do this are currently being developed for the game, so this one might not stay in my mods folder after extensively reading through those future mods if or when it includes them. But for now, I think it's a great realistic addition for your gameplay.
Nona Breastfeed Baby - Adds the ability to breastfeed the baby. That's all. It's really cute and realistic, it's an older mod so you might not have heard of it.
I know I've already included a Lyralei mod but the Randomizer mod is a big game changer that shouldn't be ignored. It adds way too much random EA prompt mechanics that actually impact your gameplay and story. I've got all the modules. Things like combatting rumors. Giving Advice. Getting Sick. Power and water outages. Work and School related triggers and many many more.
Zoeoe Buzzler Scribbling Pad Fixed - This is an essential fix and script optimization to this older and most adored scribbling pad mod. This works like typing/writing on the pc except you'll write in the journal and it's portable so you can do it from anywhere. I love having my working and school sims get the most use out of this. You can also use this to replace the writing pc interaction if you're playing in an older time period that didn't have computers.
Ok! Awesome! So we got through all the family gameplay mods! Now when you stick around to the end of the video I can showcase to you what all of these mods combined are going to look like in your game! We won't get through everything because there are simply WAY too many scenarios to show and we would be here all day. So I'm just going to show you how a general gameplay session would go instead!
And just as promised I'm going to recommend you a list of lots you're going to want to have in any world to get the most out of your family gameplay!
The EP's we can combine in this Theme are Seasons, UNI (although this will be in another world entirely so don't worry about this one too much), Generations, Pets, Island Paradise, and Late Night. This is the ultimate pack arsenal combined that gives you so many more features and interaction for your Family gameplay. You do not have to disable all of the other packs, you're simply going to focus on the content and lots given by these EP's in the world you chose to play your family in. Also consider adding all of the premium store content you don't need the full sets, just the functional objects.
Arcade lot - For family events and date nights. Friends meetups.
1 Dive bar - for singles to meet and date nights. Friends meetups.
1 Sports bar - for guys nights or date nights. Bachelor parties. Friends meetups.
1 Dance club - for singles and date nights and girls nights. Bachelorette parties. Friends meetups.
1 Gym - Consider adding a playpen to a toddler/child care section for those busy parents. Friends meetups.
1 Library - Consider adding a toddler playpen section, a child and teen section for homework, and a computer lab. Friends meetups.
1 church - This can double as your opened Masoleum RH, and a pretty place to get married. Friends meetups.
1 functional Movie Theater - Does not need the Theater RH rug. Use the premium store content. For family events and date nights. Friends meetups.
1 Consignment store - With savvier seller objects to buy cc deco and furniture. I use this to roleplay changing around my bedrooms for when my sims age up. I don't put everything I have in the store obviously, but I do buy some things to include in the build.
1 Bistro - Open up the RH and use Ani's Business as Unusual set. For singles, family events, and date nights. Friends meetups.
1 Diner - Same as above, more afforable and relaxed eaterie. You don't have to open up every RH, but you should focus on the ones your active family will be working in and going to school. So for schools, that would be 1 elementary and 1 high school.
1 outdoor picnic/camping lot - For in home vacations, family events, and date nights. Friends meetups.
1-4 festival lot - Could be broken up into several throughout your town, one for each season. This makes these lots more optimized and you can decorate more cc into these seasonal themed lots without worrying about overloading the lot and crashing during season transitions. For family events, singles, date nights. Friends meetups.
1 Pool lot - For everyone, and parties.
1 Fancy banquet lot - Can double as an exclusive lounge, for wealthy family events and fancy parties, can also add casino objects.
1 big park - with a playground.
1 small park - with another playground and cat and dog park.
1 pet store - using store content.
1 pet clinic - Using ATS3 pet clinic set, Pet Vet career, and a second hospital RH combined with Pet diseases mod to make the lot functional, and also adding UC.
1 art gallery - consider adding an easel room for art class, a mini winery (for paint and sip date nights), and a savvier seller gift shop, to gift to your date or friends or for yourself.
1 Fishing spot, with rentable IP boats - For those fishing trips you'll take with your kids and make memories. You can also add this lot to your vacation worlds instead.
1 CoffeeHouse or Java Hut - For singles, Friends, dates during the day. Teens and parents.
1 Laundromat - For families without the laundry objects in their home.
1 Opened up Spa - With store and script objects combined for a more luxorious experience and extra custom moodlets.
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thatsthat24 · 2 years
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Sanderstober 2022
Upon request (and because you're all amazing at them), I have a NEW Sanderstober art prompt list for you this year! Feel free to do one, some, or all of these prompts for October! Take em in any order you feel & use the hashtag #Sanderstober2022 if you’d like me to see your creations! Hope you all have fun with these if you take em on!! 🎨 
Day 1: Starting out with a traditional classic, take a character from media or OC and draw how they look on September 30th vs. how they look on October 1st. 
Day 2: Time to shine the light on the articles of clothing we all love to bust out in the fall, by CHOOSING one of those items and making a monster based on it!
Day 3: It is announced, beyond all reason, that they’re going to add a NEW suit to the deck of cards, in addition to hearts, clubs, diamonds, and spades. Disregarding how much this would destroy the structure of most card games, what is this new suit called and what does it look like??
Day 4: Centaurs are half-man, half-horse. Draw another kind of fantastical creature, that’s half-man, half ANOTHER kind of animal! - Idea from Dominic!
Day 5: Take a typical children’s nursery rhyme… and create a thriller poster based off of it…
Day 6: Design Challenge - create a stylish look (clothes, makeup, whatever you like) based off a candy of your choice!
Day 7: There’s a Pokemon based off almost everything. But not everything. Take a random object, animal, etc. that a Pokemon hasn’t been based off yet… and create one, complete with a corresponding name!
Day 8: Take any piece of Western animation and re-imagine it in anime form. - Inspired by an idea from Dominic!
Day 9: Take any traditional Halloween monster and think about what TikTok challenge they probably would take on. Doesn’t even have to be a real one! 
Day 10: A dabbling in minimalism. Take one or several characters from one of your favorite pieces of media, and try to depict them using only simplistic shapes. See if you can get people to guess the characters or show/movie/video game from the shapes and color schemes. 
Day 11: Always a fave prompt of mine - depict a pleasant fall-related memory of yours using solely fall-related colors (red, orange, yellow, brown, etc.)
Day 12: What if Halloween took place at another time of the year than Fall?? How might the holiday look different? Are there any traditions that might change? Any imagery? Any houses decorated differently??? Depict any aspect of the holiday that may look different!
Day 13: Another fave of mine - Take ANY Disney character and depict what they might look like as a superpowered individual in the Marvel universe.
Day 14: It happened again. This time, they announced a NEW chess piece that would be added to the game of chess. Why are they doing this?? Once again, disregarding how much of a wrench this throws into the gameplay of chess, WHAT does this new piece look like? What is it called? And how does it move on the board? 
Day 15: Re-imagine any Halloween monster or thriller movie baddie… as a character in a fantasy world…
Day 16: Using just inspiration from items found in your kitchen, use them to create a flag for a new country - Idea from Tammy!
Day 17: Draw a dynamic duo in a dynamic couples costume (Jessie & James from Pokémon as the front and back half of a horse, etc) - Idea from Cambria!
Day 18: My first prompt where I can take Inspo from Our Flag Means Death! Take any character from pop culture who isn’t a pirate… and design what they might look like in a pirate universe. Basically… pirate-ify them.
Day 19: Taking inspiration from the Haunted Mansion paintings, where the top of the painting looks pleasant only to then pan down to show the situation is much more grim (give it a Google if you need a reference!), create your own version of one of those paintings! - Another idea from Cambria
Day 20: The return of a classic… take any character(s) from a piece of media and depict them in the style of a Tim Burton character. (Sorry, I just love what you all create with this prompt!)
Day 21: Take any social media app… and turn it into a person.
Day 22: Take any Halloween-esque or Fall-based item/imagery and depict it in the iconic style of a famous painter!
Day 23: Oh my god, they’re doing it again!! Out of the blue, Hasbro announces that Clue will now be adding a NEW guest to the game of Clue who will be joining all the other color-based guests. Why does this keep happening?? Please create this guest and what their colorful name shall be!
Day 24: Take a loved pet from any point in your life, and turn them into a MONSTER.
Day 25: Take one of the characters from our videos (or a character from another piece of your fave media if you prefer!) and draw them with an animal that you think matches them perfectly! - Idea from Cambria!
Day 26: I’m such a sucker for this prompt: Depict characters from one of your fave animated shows in the STYLE of another animated series
Day 27: Since this would probably make Remus happy… if it makes you comfortable, draw a nightmare you remember having in your life, and instead of it happening to you, depict it happening to Remus
Day 28: Since we did the opposite prompt earlier… take a superhero and depict who they’d be in any fairytale you think suits them…
Day 29: Take any Halloween/ Scary movie monster and draw a suit/dress/suitdress inspired by their style and color palette!
Day 30: At long last, it’s revealed, the reason behind ALL THESE ADDITIONS to traditional games (the fifth card suit, the new chess piece, the additional Clue guest) was ONE NEW EVIL MASTERMIND! Based on your past creations for Day 3, Day 14, and Day 23, draw what this mastermind looks like and give them a name!!!
Day 31: In typical end-of-the-month fashion, today’s prompt is all about celebrating the reason for the season, Halloween! This year, Halloween’s PR team wants you to come up with a new catchphrase/slogan for Halloween! Please create a Halloween sign/poster with the new phrase featured!! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
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centrally-unplanned · 1 month
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Something I do see a lot on discourse around Vicky 3 is a discussion of essentially "strategic decisions", people going "I want the game to always challenge me on what the right decision to make is and have meaningful tradeoffs and choices". And while for sure you need some of that - its inherent to diplomacy & war for example - I don't actually think that is true for the core mechanics. For one, Vicky 1 and Vicky 2 never had those! It did not, I am so sorry. In Vicky 2 if you want to move up the value you chain you "build factory in territory that has matching RGO", "research the pop growth, literacy, and research point techs before pivoting to key industrial techs" and "spam factories and railroads as long as they are profitable". Every country run was the same in pretty much every context from a strategic lens, your choices in this regard were not meaningful and you never needed to stop and think "hm...what do I build here, let me research the market..." or something, you learned a few tricks and applied them over and over. In Vicky 1 it was the same, but simpler, with a weirdly high punishment for imports (import costs were 100% paid by the government for some reason) so you try to avoid those, and also pop splitting as pure manual labor.
The Victoria games are simulation games, where "NPCs" have a ton of agency and therefore a lot is out of the hands of the player. That gameplay model actually conflicts with strategic depth, because if the simulations choices are meaningful then they need to be taking strategic options off the table. And its also a game simulating a 100+ countries and dozens of goods in a market economy, its operations are gonna be opaque as all hell. Because the simulation is expansive, to handle it as a player your actual decisions need to be simple and clear. Otherwise each decision would be a slog of digging through tables to figure out what to do, the game would drag down (and if the game just gives you a summary table of the data for you, well that is like a chess AI showing you your best moves isn't it?)
Instead what you want is the roleplay of meaningful tradeoffs. What is annoying is if every country feels like it industrializes and politics the same way, if you just "Build University - Build Steel Mill - Win" every time you lose the sense that you are roleplaying a leader of that country figuring out its challenges. You want multiple pathways - autocratic agrarian regime, liberal export powerhouse, communism autarky, etc - to all feel viable so you can play different roles. All of them being viable is anti-strategy in a way, right? It means your decisions kind of don't matter, anything can work out. Again you balance this, you have to do each path "right" and can screw up, but at its core its not meant to be hard the way chess is hard.
Vicky 2 for example did this a little bit with its RGO bonuses to factories - each province had its "best" factory, so if your country didn't have a great iron/coal province then maybe going for steel wasn't for you. Its an obvious decision right, not much strategy there, but it separates countries as an identity. But overall Vicky 2 wasn't amazing at this - one of the reasons event-heavy mods were so popular.
I see a lot of complaints online about Vicky 3 having that "sameness" to countries, but I also think those comments are rose-tinted about its predecessor games. I haven't played enough to say yet, so its what I am keeping an eye out for.
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weebstranglerkiwi · 9 months
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DELTARUNE: The Chess Theory v2.0
A popular theory in DELTARUNE is the "Chess Theory", the concept being that the main Dark World villains chapters 1-6 are based off of chess pieces and how they work, from highest to lowest value:
1. The Chess Theory
Infinite Value - King (Chapter 1) - Sits isolated in his castle and only attacks when provoked, has very slow movement.
9 Pawns Value - Queen (Chapter 2) - Is very mobile and goes wherever she wants. Combines the movement of a rook and a bishop, but can't imitate a Knight piece.
These are the confirmed villains, now we move on to theory territory:
3. 5 Pawns Value - Rook (Chapter 3) - Usually appears halfway through. Needs a pawn to move so it can move.
4. 3.5 Pawns Value - Bishop (Chapter 4) - Very mobile and versatile. Usually gets moved right at the start.
5. 3 Pawns Value - Knight (Chapter 5) - Very mobile and can straight-up ignore and jump over other pieces.
6. 1 Pawns Value - Pawn (Chapter 6) - Follows commands, presumably the Vessel(?)
This is the general outline of the chess theory. From here, I will expand on what it started.
First of all, something that absolutely nobody brings up, and it ticks me a lot, is that in chess, there is 1 King and Queen. But there are 2 Rooks, Bishops and Knights. I believe that Chapters 3-5 (which are releasing alongside each other) will have 2 main villains, 2 Rooks, Bishops and most importantly... Knights.
2. The Rooks
Let's start with Chapter 3. I believe that Tenna will be the main villain alongside either Mike, or someone new. A Rookie is a new recruit, an apprentice if you will. Also, "to rook" means to defraud or swindle someone. Therefore, I believe that Tenna will be a former apprentice of Mike, that has defrauded them and took their place as the star of the TV Dark World, a sort of darker version of "the apprentice bests the master". Alongside Tenna, I believe there will be another main villain, another one of Mike's Rookies, possibly a sort of "movie director/writer" character, working behind the scenes while Tenna is the public star. Mike will most probably be hiding somewhere, I believe he will be an ally to the Delta Warriors, and will help to defeat the two Rooks that defrauded him.
3. The Bishops
Continuing, Chapter 4 (which I suspect to be located in the Church) will have 2 Bishops. Now, Chapter 4 is the biggest shot in the dark here, the only information we have on it are the Light World and Castle Town sections from the Status Update. However, we KNOW that it won't be a purely Light World Chapter, because in the most recent newsletter, Toby Fox stated that Chapter 4 will be a much more normal experience gameplay-wise than Chapter 3. We have no idea what 2 Bishops could entail, possibly one being a genuine, righteous, religious Bishop that wants to stop us due to their beliefs, while the other is a lying, evil preacher. Who knows?
4. The Knights - Pawn Promotion
The most interesting part of this theory is the idea of two Knights. I will refer to these 2 Knights as the Roaring Knight, and the New Knight. What is another important thing in chess? Pawn Promotion. In the Snowgrave/Weird Route, Spamton is a pawn that gets promoted to become the Queen, taking over her mansion. I believe, that the same thing will happen in Chapter 5, the main villain will be the Roaring Knight, however, at the very end of the chapter, a New Knight will rise up, Kris Dreemurr.
Chapter 5 will conclude with Kris escaping our (the Player's) grasp, no longer being our Pawn, they will become powerful enough to be the Knight. Chapter 5 will end with us being separated from Kris, and Chapter 6 will begin with us reconnecting with the Vessel.
If you want to learn more about HOW Kris will get stronger and become the Knight, go read my Knight Theory, it should be up now!
5. The Pawn, our Vessel
With Kris breaking free, we are able to finally control our Vessel, taken away from us by an unknown interloper. This theory can branch in two ways: 1. The main villain of this chapter will be either another of many Pawns, maybe December Holiday, trapped wherever the Vessel is situated, a Bunker Dark World I presume. 2. Alternatively, WE could be the main villain of Chapter 6, the 6th Chess Piece, I lean into this more.
Both branches entail that Chapter 7 will reconnect or even reconcile us with Kris!
6. Behavior of the Villains
Both King and Queen behave very similar to their respective chess piece's movement. What would the future villains' behavior be?
The Rooks are most probably going to be preceded by a Lightner, a Pawn that is influenced/controlled by them, most probably Toriel. Rooks only start playing a major role halfway through the chess match, but are the most important pieces when it comes to the end of the match, the Checkmate. They will pack a punch I bet.
The Bishops will appear as soon as the Dark World adventure begins, and will play a vital role throughout the entirety of the Chapter, however they will probably appear less than Queen, and in more serious, noteworthy situations as well.
The Roaring Knight would most probably be very erratic, appearing at unexpected moments, ignoring what blocks their path through force of will. I believe that the Delta Warriors will confront the Knight by cornering them, much like a Knight in chess must be cornered to stop jumping around.
The Pawn will mindlessly follow orders.
5. End
This is it! Sorry if I messed something up, this is my first post on Tumblr! I'm not sure how things work around here, but if you have anything to add to the table or your own interpretation to discuss, feel free to leave a note! Alright that's it. You can scram now.
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cerastes · 1 year
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What are your thoughts of a possible Arknights event where you get to strategize against your own operators?
Like how W was a boss first but became an Operator, but it's you going against waves of Rhodes Island Reserve Ops (the no names) and occasionally Amiya or Texas or Kal'tsit + Mon3tr show up as the bosses.
I've thought about this, whether that be some sort of endgame "Doctor vs. Doctor" scenario or some what if event (something like PRTS replicating a perfect facsimile of pre-amnesia Doctor, or a battle-inside-the-mind existential showdown kind of deal, etc, plenty of ways one could provide context for this). Vigilo specifically made me think about this a lot, and I keep revisiting the concept in my brain palace now and then.
Regardless of how we get there, I'd love to see it. Personally, I'd lean into the vs. Pre-amnesia Doctor angle. Enemies would never really be referred to by name specifically, but gameplay and sprites would make it obvious, or at least indicative, as to who they are. Every enemy unit would have some sort of fuzzy mosaic effect covering their face.
Mooks would be Reserve Ops and the sort of RI/Babel Operator we see in cutscenes, the good ol' generics. Given how much Pre-Amnesia Doctor has been likened to a machine-like chessmaster, I think chess terminology would be fitting, although it needn't be used exclusively, especially for whenever it would be thematically appropriate not to use it. Generic footsoliders would be "Pawns", for example, and would very clearly be wearing Rhodes Island uniforms and colors (blue and black colors, mix of tactical gear and urban clothing). You'd have other more advanced units like snipers (Bishops), specialists (Knights), and hard-hitting, beefier units (Rooks).
There would be plenty of boss/midboss units, and their "tooltip" (the little pop up that appears mid-stage when a new units is introduced) would be entirely narrative. For example, you'd have:
'Ever-Marching Bulwark' - "The giant that carried the world if ordered to. No matter how grim the situation, he would always find a way to dispel the miasma." -> Ace. Effect: [Bulwark]: Ranged units will prioritize him if he's in range. Requires 2 Block to block. [Castled King]*: High HP, DEF and RES; Physical damage will raise his DEF, but decrease his RES. Arts damage will raise his RES, but decrease his DEF. *"Castling" is a chess technique used to protect the King.
'Unsung Champion' - "The hero killed and loved silently, like the shadow of a dear ghost. He could spot weakness in enemies as easily as virtue in friends." -> Scout. Effect: [Gaze of the Wraith]: Uses Ranged Physical attacks with no limit on range. Every 4 attacks, the next attack will target the unit with less DEF on the map. The amount of attacks needed to trigger this special ability decreases by 1 each time it is activated, also increasing damage dealt. Resets upon changing targets. [J'adoube]*: This enemy's route is determined by the number of allied units (the player's units) in its path. Unsung Champion will warp to the route with less units overall (melee and ranged) between it and the Defense Point (practically speaking, it checks every couple of seconds and warps to a tile equivalent to how much progress he's made). *"J'adoube" ("I knight"), or "adjust", is a special call in chess where you are letting your opponent know you're about to move a piece in the board, usually to center it on its square or if it gets otherwise displaced accidentally.
'Selfless Sage' - "Some could call her nosy, some could call her foolish, but the undeniable truth is that even if it dims her own fire, she'll fill this world with as much light as she can." -> Kal'tsit. Effect: [Selflessness & Spite]: Heals enemies at long range. Prioritizes 'Sage's Obsidian Juggernaut', then 'King's Pupa', then 'The King', then Leaders, and finally regular enemies. [Remorse & Rebirth]: Upon reaching 50% HP or if all active Leaders are defeated, spawns 'Sage's Obsidian Juggernaut'.
Making a cut here due to post length.
'Sage's Obsidian Juggernaut' - "A force of nature as unstoppable as it is unexplainable, not dissimilar to the Sage herself." - Mon3tr. Effect: [Meltdown]: The Juggernaut's Ranged attacks deal True Damage in a line, piercing through the targeted ally and hitting those behind them, leaving a damage over time effect for a few seconds. The Juggernaut's Melee attacks deal high Physical damage. After being hit a number of times (10), the Juggernaut's next attack will deal increased True damage and afflict the target with a longer damage over time effect that stacks. [Fallout]: Enemies defeated by True damage instances of the Juggernaut have increased redeployment time.
'Scholar's Mate'* - "Unusually durable and tenacious pieces. They can be reused, over and over. Useful in disrupting enemy tactics." -> W (Ranged Physical), Ines (Ranged Arts), and Hoederer (Melee Physical). They spawn at the same time. [Kriegspiel]**: All 'Scholar's Mate' must be defeated roughly at the same time, otherwise, they revive at 50% HP after a delay. [Queen's Gambit]*: The red-horned 'Scholar's Mate' plants bombs on three units in range, detonating after 3 seconds. Units defeated by this attack or an attack shortly after [Queen's Gambit] have increased redeployment time. [En Passant]*: The black-horned 'Scholar's Mate' presence in the battlefield slows down DP generation by 50%. Cannot be blocked, but moves slowly. [Albin Countergambit]*: The male 'Scholar's Mate' presence in the battlefield reduces SP Recovery rate by 30%. Attacks halt target's SP recovery momentarily, and don't reward SP to "Defensive" type Skills. *Various chess moves. **'Kriegspiel' is also known as "blind chess", in which two players play against each other 'blind', that is, they can't see the opponent's pieces. For this purpose, a third person, an umpire, is necessary to oversee the game.
'The King' - "The embodiment of tomorrow, incarnation of our hopes, and our dearest friend." - Theresa. Effect: [Noblesse Oblige]: Raises the ATK and DEF of every enemy in the field. Effect increased for Leaders. [Civilight Eterna]: Swings sword in a circular area around herself, dealing high True damage and reducing Max HP and DEF of allies hit. Leaves a [Regal Pulsation] behind on each use. [Regal Pulsation]: Every time 'The King' uses [Civilight Eterna], [Regal Pulsations] activate and replicate [Civilight Eterna] wherever they are. Can stack on top of each other. [Dead Position]*: 'The King' pours powerful Sarkaz Arts into the closest Ranged tile to her position, inundating it with dangerous Arts and rendering the tile unusable for the rest of the map. Immediately retreats the unit standing on the tile, and starts spilling onto other tiles. If there's Operators standing on these tiles, the spread is halted and they receive Arts damage continuously. If there's no Operator in the tile, after a few seconds, [Dead Position] spills over and makes that tile unusable. Can spill to Melee tiles. All [Dead Positions] vanish and become reusable if 'The King' is defeated. *A "dead position" is a position where neither player can mate the opponent’s king with any series of legal moves. Effectively a draw.
'King's Pupa' - "With time, she, too, can be a king." -> Amiya. Effect: [Chimera]: 'King's Pupa' slowly charges SP over time. Receives SP each time an enemy is defeated and each time an ally is defeated. Once SP is full, activates [Pawn Ascension]. [Pawn Ascension]*: 'King's Pupa' turns into another 'The King'. Avoid this at all costs. *Pawn ascension or pawn promotion is when your pawn reaches the other side of the board in chess and you can promote it into another piece, such as a rook, bishop, etc. Most players, of course, promote their pawns into queens.
'[NULL]' - "[CLASSIFIED INFORMATION. CLEARANCE IS INSUFFICIENT TO ACCESS THESE FILES. IN CASE OF ANY ERROR OR QUESTIONS, CONTACT THE SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR]" -> Doctor. Effect: [Resign]: '[NULL]' only appears after every other enemy has been defeated. No attacks, slowly trudges forward. They must be defeated to put an end to this. It was a good game.
I really would like to see the idea, the concept, of the current Doctor quite literally having a showdown with their past, current tactics vs past tactics, current ideals vs past ideals, to prove that today's idealism isn't mere bluster, that one needn't rely on sacrifice to get to the finish line, that we can all get there, we simply need to find a way, because it'd be not only a showdown of morality and to prove one's growth, it'd also entail having to defeat the shadows, plural, of the past, regrets, joys, all of it. Uproot the old, and change for the better, even if it means having to say one final farewell to beloved friends. Even if it means testing yourself against yourself, and them. It's because you would test yourself against yourself that it means something, after all.
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gaycethecard · 5 months
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TW: Human trafficking, pedophilia
Okay, I need to do a silly rant RRRRIGHT NOW!!!!!!
LET'S BE HONEST HERE! AMERICAN MCGEE'S ALICE AND ALICE MADNESS RETURNS ARE THE MOST UNDERRATED GAMES IN EXISTENCE!
Just think about the games. Ama has amazing gameplay and it's actually decently difficult (or maybe I just suck)! Amr has SO MUCH lore abt Alice!! Like it actually explains her backstory and it shows how the fire actually happened! It kinda confuses me why the cat caused the fire in the first game, but maybe it's trying to show that Alice wasn't sure what happened and she just assumed it was the cat and since I'm assuming she was a kid or something when this happened (because of the fact she was reading Alice in Wonderland), so she wouldn't fully remember what happened. Also, the asylum was having her forget about her traumas so her memory was a bit different. She started realizing the truth in the second game. Like how she was like "Wait a minute, Dinah was in my room! So how could she have started the fire?" LIKE OMGG!! Honestly, Dr. Bumby was a good villain for the story. I think since this was the 1800s, women didn't have a lot of rights and they were treated VERY badly by everyone in society, so I think human trafficking would be a lot more common. It'd make sense for a villain in that type of game to be a trafficker. I think both games are also just beautiful. Amr especially. The visuals are just AMAZING! It gives such a weird but soothing feeling. Same with the OST! I don't know what it is, but the Vale of Tears makes me feel so calm and relaxed. Ama's OST is also BEAUTIFUL! Like, have you HEARD Wonderland Woods?! Literal masterpiece!! It gives you an eerie but nice feeling!! But some are a tad bit spooky. Like the song that plays in the chess map.. If you play that, I am RUNNING away. LIKE OMG?? It's so CREEPY!! LIKE THE BACKWARDS HOG?! NUH UH!! And don't even get me started on Time to Die... IT MAKES ME FEEL SO SCARED BUT IT'S SO FITTING!!! For those that don't know, Time to Die plays in one of the last parts of the game. You're at the Queen of Hearts' castle. Looking for her throne. Her card guards are chasing after you, trying their best to murder you. And when it's quiet and you can just hear the OST.. IT MAKES SENSE!! IF THAT WAS YOU, AFTER YOU DEFEATED A BIG GROUP OF GUARDS, YOU'D BE UNSETTLED!! SCARED!! ON YOUR TOES!! AND THAT'S WHAT THAT SONG MAKES ME FEEL!! IT ALL MAKES SENSE AND IT'S ALL SO POETIC!! LIKE I THINK THE MAIN MESSAGE OF AMA IS THAT SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO LOOK IN YOURSELF TO FIND THE PROBLEM! BECAUSE THE FINAL BOSS WASN'T EVEN THE QUEEN OF HEARTS, IT WAS ALICE HERSELF!!!! LIKE SHE HAD TO DEFEAT HERSELF TO FIX WONDERLAND!!! IT'S JUST SO AMAZING!! Also, just a little comment.. ALICE SLAYED WHEN SHE PUSHED BUMBY INTO THAT TRAIN! He honestly got what he deserved. That nasty pedophilic asshole. I think the main message of amr is to be careful who you trust and surround yourself with. I mean, THINK ABOUT IT!! She worked with a HUMAN TRAFFICKER!!! I also think it sends a message that justice is always possible no matter what. There's always a way to avenge somebody or something even if it's a bit immoral. Overall, I LOVE THIS GAME!! Sorry I ranted this much! This was like the first game I fell in love with in 2012 or 2013 I think!! BYEE!! :33
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helenascorpse · 2 years
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TF2 MERCS AS YOUTUBERS 😰
SCOUT: has a gaming/ like a unus annus style channel. Frequently gets all of the others to participate. long running joke about how jerma and him are long lost brothers. does a few speedpaints and tutorial videos from time to time and of course baseball videos. has his own gfuel flavor 😔 calls his subs his “boyz (gender neutral)”
SNIPER: foraging, hunting and survival videos. “Surviving 3 months in the australian outback” “How to use every part of a moose” “how to preserve animal bones” has a ton of thirsty af fans bc he frequently is seen without a shirt in his survival videos and due to his deep voice 😳🫣 has gotten lots of request to do asmr, always says he will do one at 4 million subscribers (currently at 3.8 million 😰) also revealed the fact he can play the sax on a medic livestream and everyone was SHOOK. calls his subscribers “roos”
SOLDIER: educational channel about various wars and general military stuff. also does mre tasting videos and raccoon care taking videos. frequently appears in scouts videos bc this man loves doing dumb shit. one of his videos blew up and the conservatives started flooding in but he immediately was like “FUCK OFF YOU UNAMERICAN ASSHOLES”subscribers are called “cadets”
ENGIE: obviously he does stuff about engineering but also does videos about grilling and southern cuisine. very popular due to his high quality editing, personality and lovely voice. running joke for his channel is people calling him any variation of dad, he prides himself on it because he often gets emails and comments from people telling him about how he is the father figure people wanted growing up. first time he got a comment like that he cried 😭 also does TheBackyardScientist type videos when Scout appears on his channel. also does videos with demo sometimes. does restoration videos also. AND GUITAR AND VOCAL COVERS OF OLD COUNTRY SONGS 😭😭 calls his subscribers his “darlings”
MEDIC: does similar videos to Ask A Mortician. also dove care and has videos on different medical procedures from around the world and from different time periods. also has basic first aid videos on his channel. calls his subscribers “meine kleine tauben” has random little german lessons in his videos sometimes. had his beloved sometimes help him with videos and he became a fan favorite bc… ough lorge hubby with deep voice and medic talked him into making his own channel. plays his violin on livestreams sometimes (engie, demo and sniper sometimes play with him)
HEAVY: reads classic russian and latin on his channel and does teaching videos about the languages he knows and about chess. very vibey and videos you can fall asleep to easily. also tells stories about his family sometimes. does gun care videos too. calls his subscribers his “медвежата” also gets called a dad by people 😭
DEMOMAN: does videos about cryptids and how to hunt them 😰 also does videos about the occult, on how to make your own alcohol (with the help of engie), piano and bagpipe videos also videos on what its like living life with only one eye. subs are called “lads” 🏃🏻
PYRO: gameplay videos / guides. Minecraft and other games like that are a staple on their channel. Do unboxing videos on different subscription boxes containing cute items. also do videos about mental and physical health (specifically concerning burn victims) always provide subtitles as soon as the videos come out so everyone can enjoy and understand them. also… plush restoration and doll customization videos… subscribers are called “matches” or “lil sparks” and are very protective of pyro
SPY: does film reviews and video essays on like topics that only a niche group of people appreciate. also does very high quality and realistic sfx makeup plus makeup reviews and rant videos about shitty brands. also due to his vast knowledge on languages and different cultures he dies a lot of videos on that plus videos on wine and suits cuz hes a fancy bitch. (and no heidi im sorry but imagining spy as the nostalgia critic makes me want to scream so he is going to be NORMAL)
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