#XCOM worldbuilding

[etherealvoidechoes]

Me: Hm I wonder if we got translators going or are all the Chosen just speaking English(or a major language of your choice)to Resistance or XCOM specifically.

Brain: The Chosen are speaking English/language of your choice, all three for different reasons.

Assassin: “Professionals have standards. How else are they to know their crimes against the Elders? And for those that are “allowed” to live, they may spread the impending judgement upon the others unless they turn to our Masters for forgiveness.”

Hunter: “The human tongue just has something to it that’s neat. Maybe it’s a touch of nostalgia for the human I once was. Who ever that unlucky bastard was. Also, I do love how it freaks out the humans. Hearing my voice speak their language flawlessly inflicts a special kind of terror in their minds. Intoxicating really. And, ticks off the Elders when I solely use it to communicate with Them… some of the time.”

Warlock: “Regretfully, it is needed to communicate with those lowly cretins, but it is the only way for them to understand the Elders’ will and righteous judgment to oblivion. Then those wretched ears are not fit to hear the blessed tongue of my Masters.”

#xcom 2 #xcom #the chosen #xcom musings #brainspew #xcom worldbuilding #yes I have tf2 Sniper on the mind #*stealth editing awaaaaay

[austinramsaygames]

God. Imagine all the wild shit the make up industry is getting up to in the world of original XCOM where you're just selling alien corpses by the pallet to anyone with a forklift.

#xcom ufo defense #xcom #worldbuilding #world building

[janeaudron]

A fresh one since the last got infested.

I’m Jane Audron. You can call me Jane or Linx. Semi-freelance artist and just like making art in general. Working on several projects which include a few game and comic ideas. I do warn I can sometimes be sporadic with my interests/fixations so posting gets a bit weird.

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✦ My Carrd - Important Comish info and links to other sites I'm on and where I sell my resources.

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✦ Art Tags - Warning, for some reason when updating and applying new tags, Tumblr messed up the order my work is in. So some very old stuff appears where it shouldn’t be. Fair warning for some 18+ content. Blood, gore, artistic nudity.

JaneAudronart - Most results

My Art - Some how missing a bunch.

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✦ Other Tumblrs:

etherealvoidechoes - Fan blog. Mainly post XCOM related content but have some other things I dabble/have interests in. Occasionally reblog content to my main.

void-river-creations - Dice and Craft Blog

voidrivercreations - Supposed to be the main hub for all my worldbuilding. Need to get back at it.

[cerastes]

My favorite aspect of Arknights’ worldbuilding, what I believe to be the most important factor in helping it feel like a breathing, living world in which people live and events have weight, is the fact that there are a lot of stories in different states of completion to be told, some happening, some starting, and most importantly, some concluded. I’ve talked about this before, but it all ultimately helps with immersion and with the quality of the overall writing, knowing that all of the world doesn’t center around you or yours.

Allow me to offer a few examples of what I mean:

Rhine Labs and Kjerag, to name two, have active stories going on, in media res: We know that Rhine Labs is up to no good with their human experimentation and information control, and moreover, they have an actual active agreement with Rhodes Island, whereas the shadow political war in Kjerag, with SilverAsh and family in the middle of it all, clearly will be going somewhere with the breadcrumbs we’ve gotten, particularly that it is very likely that one of the Knight champions of Kazimierz is under SilverAsh’s employ and the fact that Cliffheart’s Oripathy was very much inflicted intentionally, not to mention the suspicious circumstances of Pramanix’s selection as the Saint, which might actually be a failed assassination attempt; Pramanix’s Files detail that potential Saint candidates dying during the trials is a very common occurrence, but she powered through and actually succeeded, something to keep an eye out on. Point is, these are Going Somewhere, the ingredients are there, they just need the inevitable event.

Other stories are just now starting to kick off or where presented from start to finish: Hearts Of Surging Flame was a self-contained story, for example, which sprawled a few tentacles, let’s say, into other stories, but nonetheless it was its own thing. Code of Brawl functioned as this for Penguin Logistics as a whole, while mostly serving as a detailed look at the underbelly of Lungmen’s other side. Of more relevance altogether, Siege and Victoria’s story is about to unfold as part of the main story after the appropriate breadcrumbs were dispensed: We had some vague but enticing bits of bait, and now we’ll see it in execution.

And then, interestingly, you have the stories that have already concluded, and are waiting for their “sequel”, so to speak, they are in their “time skip” right now: This is the case for Texas, who already concluded her initial journey as a mafia member back in Siracusa, where she had some sort of relationship with Lappland, ending in her likely gutting Lapp in their final showdown, with Lapp surviving and looking forward to provoke a Grey Fox in Texas nowadays. That story is concluded, it’s over, they had a whole journey, and now it’s the ‘post-game’ for them... Until it’s time to see what happens next. It’s also the case for the Abyssal Hunters, to a immense degree: Skadi, Specter and Gladiia already finished their whole journey, their very own XCOM Plus Bloodborne in which they fought, researched and finally defeated the Seaborn menace in climatic combat, with Skadi triumphing over the Seaborn God, albeit at the cost of almost every single other Hunter. For the longest time, Skadi wandered the surface in the most miserable, depressive ‘post-game’, until she found Specter in Rhodes Island and later on Under Tides happened. Now they are back in their post-game stage, waiting, just like Texas and Lappland, for the ‘sequel’.

And of all the examples posited, Doctor themselves only really truly have hands in two -- Hearts of Surging Flame and Siege’s story -- with Rhodes Island as an entity being involved in only a few more and usually just tangentially.

It’s good. It really helps making the world of Terra feel dynamic and a place where Things Not Only Happen, But Are Also Happening.

#arknights

[trbl-will-find-me]

A Guide to Dressing Your Upstart Resistance

AKA Part 3/(hopefully) 3 in FIRAXIS, WE GOTTA TALK ABOUT TEXTILES AND CLOTHING. You can read Part 1 and Part 2 here, if you want to see how this escalated.

So, high points:

- XCOM, logically, should not have a ‘uniform,’ per se. Central, Shen, Tygan, and haven civilians are all great examples of how, given the constraints of ADVENT, people on the fringe dress (i.e. they throw together what’s available and adapt it as necessary). - ADVENT is still, logically, producing and refining raw materials into commercial textiles. From what we see in game, many of these textiles appear to be synthetic in nature. Mass manufactured clothing still exists.

- If you aren’t in a city center, you have five potential ways to get clothing: (1) stolen off of ADVENT transports (2) bartered for among havens (3) been passed down from before the Invasion (4) come from raided houses/shops/other pre-Invasion locations (5) been made within the havens (e.g. knit, crochet, hand sewn)

- Ready? Let’s go. Living off grid, for our purposes, means dressing for that outdoors/hiking life, yo. What that functionally means will depend on climate.

In general, synthetic fabrics over natural. Synthetics dry faster and will wick moisture. I pestered my resident outdoormsan (Pacific Northwest & Central PA backpacker) into some basic guidelines. -The goal is never to be too hot or too cold, especially if you’re in a cooler environment. Layers are your friend.

That means, if you’re in colder climates: -Synthetic base layer, top and bottom: -Synthetic tee shirt -Synthetic long sleeve shirt -Middle jacket (e.g. a fleece) -Shell (heavy wind & waterproof jacket)

The colder it is, the more layers you’ll want or want to have available --- and no one’s exactly living in the lap of luxury. -But that’s an ideal. Practically, you may not be able to get all of that. In which case, your intrepid XCOM volunteer/haven dweller is going to want wool. Wool is warm, it breathes, and it will hold heat even when wet. There’s a reason it’s been such a useful fiber through history. Hell, even as a non-outdoorsy person, I have had wool socks come in real handy when my boots leaked in the middle of a very slushy, snowy New York City afternoon. Wool undergarments, sweaters, coats, socks, etc. have historically been important in dealing with the cold. While you’ll still need layers, and will still want synthetics, wool is a nice option --- except when you really, really need it to dry quickly.

- You’ll also need to be able to have waterproof layers. This is really important for both hot and cold climates --- sitting in wet things for extended periods of time is ... not great. Tim O’Brien’s works, including Going After Cacciato and The Things They Carried, touch on what happens when you’re dealing with hot and wet in clothes that don’t dry quickly. Spoiler alert: it ain’t pleasant. For overcoats, if you can’t get synthetics, garbardine, oil cloth, or waxed canvas may also offer some amount of protection.

-Yes, in theory, you could cut apart a lot (a lot) of umbrellas and piece them back together as a coat/tarp, if need be. It would be time consuming and you would need a pattern of someone who knew how to drape. Not beyond possibility, though.

- In warmer climates, there is both the concern of needing protective clothing and clothing that won’t overheat you. Again, the primary answer here is synthetics. Historically, however, linen and cotton have also been useful in these climates. But again, linen and cotton aren’t moisture wicking. Please see the above point about extended time in wet things.

So, other than hiking/outdoors gear, what else will be useful and available where clothing is concerned? Vintage militaria and military surplus. These things are made tough and would be available from raiding homes, stores --- hell, even museums, if you’re alright with that. They’ll wear well and won’t wear out, assuming they can be cared for sort of properly.

Underfunded resistance is also probably relying on pre-Invasion tactical webbing and kevlar fabric/plating for its armor --- when it can be found. It’s probably a pretty significant luxury; almost no one in the havens would have it.

Accessories, theoretically, have a lot of room for personalization, especially as they’re more likely to be made in havens or be survivors from the pre-Invasion days. Hats, scarves, gloves, etc. offer more room and flexibility in terms of what you can get away with.

Given all this variety, one thing emerges: man, are matching uniforms gonna be hard to pull off. You *can* make hand-embroidered patches, and having one of those for each crew member is feasible --- and is probably the closest thing ot matchy-matchy you’ll get under the constraints Firaxis has imposed.

tl;dr Hiking and outdoors gear. Military surplus. Fit in wild/ridiculous things as necessary. Turn your upstart resistance into a hodge podge of sensible outdoors gear and whatever they can fish from the annals of fashion history.

#xcom #i'm done i think #maybe #for now #at least where clothing is involved #i will definitely have more to yell about with lore and worldbuilding #esp with shen and manufacturing/fabrication #please someone include an umbrella patchwork raingear bit

[kaeternalis]

Hello!

Heya, I'm Kayzen, and this is my blog!

My goals for this blog are 1) to have a space to self-indulgently talk about my various interests and 2) to find mutuals/online friends, so feel free to message me anytime!

Below are a few of my interests, being things that I'm always down to talk about and may appear on this blog, those in bold being what I'm most likely to post about:

Character Art- especially anthro and other scifi/fantasy characters. I do some drawing myself but don't have a great way to do digital art at the moment.

Electronics- I build computers and do hardware and software mods on old Nintendo consoles!

OCs- I am generally bad at keeping notes on my characters, so this blog will be a way to potentially remedy that. Any and all asks about them are welcome!

TTRPGs- I've played a lot of D&D 5e as a player and DM, as well as some PBtA systems like Masks, Monster of the Week, and Apocalypse World. I also make homebrew for D&D 5e, which I post over on reddit under the account u/Kayzen_Creates.

TV, Books & Movies- Invincible, Watchmen, The Expanse, Parks & Rec and The Office and all that, Dune, Arcane, The Stormlight Archives, My Hero Academia, etc, etc, etc.

Video Games- ULTRAKILL, Deltarune/Undertale, Phasmophobia, Risk of Rain 2, XCOM, Dark Souls, Bloons Tower Defense, Titanfall, Civilization, Pokemon (Gens 3, 4, and 5 anyway), Minecraft, Terraria, etc, etc, etc.

Worldbuilding- I have a few worlds I've been developing for a while, both for my D&D games and for this nebulous story/game/ttrpg-system/all-of-the-above that I may someday make! As with OCs, I'm always happy to answer asks about my worlds.

#blog intro #introducing myself

[earlgraytay]

@ellieintheskywithdiamonds​ asked for some video game recommendations that are not Triple-A Polished Games that cynically schill for Woke Points. I dunno what genres you like, so this is just a smattering of games I’ve played or watched Let’s Plays of relatively recently.

Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition An indie metroidvania where there’s no gravity and you can’t jump; instead, Dandara navigates by zooming between patches of salt on the floor and ceiling. You get into a nice rhythm bouncing between ceiling and floor; it’s kinda hypnotic. The game’s also got interesting worldbuilding and creative use of its 16-bit-esque artstyle. Like any other metroidvania, you explore a big interconnected world, collect upgrades, fight monsters, and fill out a map, but the moment to moment gameplay is figuring out how to navigate the gravityless rooms.  Recommended by Mark Brown of Game Maker’s Toolkit fame, and for good reason- this one has all the polish of a triple-a game and all the obvious love of an indie. Highly recommended. (I’ll note it’s got some extremely blatant political content, specifically anti-fascist content, but it’s wound into the game pretty well, IMO-- it’s definitely not Woke for the sake of being Woke.)

Phoenix Point An XCOM-like game made by the original creator of XCOM, Julian Gollop. The world ended thanks to an eldritch plague from the sea that spreads a deadly fog and turns people into squicky monsters. You’re in charge of Phoenix Point, the last remains of an international task force against these terrors from the deep. Build your army, engage the monsters in tactics-based combat, and keep the warring factions that seek to rule the new world happy. Phoenix Point is what you might call a triple-B game, made by a large indie studio that clearly has the resources to make a big game but not the resources to polish it. And unlike the modern XCOM games, Phoenix Point embraces the genre’s jank. You can micromanage every little part of your strategy and tactics-- and you have to to keep moving forward. You’re under a brutal time limit and your resources are constantly limited. I’ll warn you-- this game was made before COVID-19. It might hit a little close to home now. I had to stop watching the LP because of that. >.>; Also this one is an Epic Store exclusive for now-- it’s not coming to Steam until next year.

Hylics You want weird? Here’s some weird. Hylics is an RPG Maker game completely done in claymation. All the characters, the enemies, and the special attacks are made of clay. The rest of the world is rendered in a really ... strange artstyle. The NPCs’ dialogue is randomly generated and strangely poetic, and the stats are all named things like “MEAT”. You will die a lot-- and in fact, you’re expected to, because that’s the only way you can upgrade your health. It’s kinda grindy, because... well... RPGMaker.  TBH I haven’t actually played Hylics, because I only have so much tolerance for RPG Maker games, so I don’t have that much to say about it...  but it’s definitely one of the more unique ones out there.

Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut The design brief: “What if Twin Peaks were a late-oughts detective VN/survival horror game?”  The characters: charming, funny, and frightening by turns. The story: Incredible, one of my favourite game stories ever. The main character, York, is a snarky, chainsmoking, cleverer-than-thou  neurodivergent detective; you’re kind of playing as his alternate personality, Zach. Most of the game is wandering around the town of Greenvale and doing side quests to get to know the inhabitants so you can uncover the mystery of who killed Anna Graham.  The gameplay: welllllllllllll... Honestly, you’ve probably heard of this game, because it’s the poster-child for triple-B jank. Everything about the gameplay is off. The combat is terrible because it was grafted onto the game at the last minute. There’s a lot of driving, with intentionally “realistic” (IE: ghastly) controls. There’s a lot of character dialogue, corny horror moments, and semi-magical detective profiling. If you like VNs, you will probably adore this game-- and I do-- but if you don’t, you probably won’t miss much. A slight warning: most of this game is a very relaxing experience, almost soothing- until it very much isn’t. There’s some disturbing content, including creative gore, explicit bigotry, and multiple major character deaths.

Dominique Pamplemousse in It’s All Over Once The Fat Lady Sings Let’s continue the claymation theme, shall we? Dominique Pamplemousse is an Extremely Indie LucasArts-style point-and-click adventure game. It’s a quirky detective musical -- most of the plot-important dialogue is sung. And of course, all the character models are claymation- they’re slightly uncanny, but IMO, in a good way. The sets have an almost Yoshi’s Crafted World feel to them. You play as the titular Dominique, a nonbinary detective who must track down a missing pop star for the CEO of a record company. But of course, this is a detective story, and nothing is as simple as it seems. This one is a little more Woke than you’re probably comfortable with-- the main character is nonbinary and it’s clearly signposted, and there is a fair bit of snarky millennial political commentary about the economy. So you, specifically, might find yourself rolling your eyes a bit. It’s definitely a product of a single creator with a particular worldview and is an extension of who they are as a person. But. But. This is a fantastic game. It’s easily one of my favourite point-and-clicks, it’s one of my favourite games of all time, and it’s well worth your time IMO. For heavens’ sakes, it’s got a puzzle you must solve by playing the bagpipes.

Cultist Simulator How do I even begin to describe this game...  it’s part interactive novel, part solitaire. You play as an occultist in 1920s London, and your task is to study eldritch lore, make enough money to survive, and ultimately ascend beyond humanity. In your dreams, you climb through an alternate world called the Mansus, discovering deeper and deeper secrets, while gathering cultists (and human sacrifices!) to help you along your journey. Every story event, resource, peril, and connection you have is represented by a card on a virtual table; you organize the cards, and keeping track of them all is a vital part of the game. If you lose track of, say, a nasty lingering illness, or your eldritch-induced existential terror, you’ll lose the game. It’s a stressful experience, at times, but it’s a really fun and immersive one, especially for a game that’s entirely text-based.

Honestly if you play one game on this list make it Dandara or Cultist Sim; those games are both beautiful and well-constructed. 

#video games #game reccomendations #long post #game recs #cultist simulator #dandara #phoenix point #hylics #dominique pamplemousse #deadly premonition

[gay-robot]

good things about starsector:

- cheap and easy to run (it was originally started like a decade ago)

- tons of flavor text and worldbuilding including slightly noncanon out of game timelines by one of the devs, the setting is thematically comparable to fallout in terms of geographic isolation, remnants of the military forcing law and order, and mystery surrounding poorly understood centuries old tech

- like i wrote about before the ludonarrative as you build yourself up and struggle to stop yourself from becoming worse than the other factions hits really hard

- the gameplay has a similar feeling to say xcom where theres this great balance between the action stuff and the logistics behind it; you salvage a new ship after a fight and that lets you explore further so you can get more resources to put together a heavier escort so you can fight through to the more dangerous areas and get rare expensive things to sell for even more resources or even to use yourself by forming a settlement which you can do on any planet in the game with each one having different resources and hazards that are only revealed when you survey them

- EXTREMELY easy to mod, no coding required for adding ships or weapons. as long as you have an image editing tool that supports transparency and a text editor you can add your own ships though theres fanmade programs to make it easier

- speaking of fanmade there are tons of mods for the game many of which pull insane technical wizardry to make super cool mechanics and graphics for the engine, even if they tend to mess with the lore and atmosphere of vanilla

[ortothan]

Ok, so this is an in game poster from the new XCOM game, Chimera Squad. This picture is great for several reasons including:

The sectoid with a cat.

The warning at the bottom to please don’t eat cats.

The Viper in the background with what another site made me realize isn’t some made up alien lizard dog, but instead is probably a red tegu:

It’s even got the throat pouches! 

All in all, adorable worldbuilding details

#xcom

[companionwolf]

Who or what inspired you to become a writer?

I’ve been writing since I was very little; no real inspiration that made me start, it’s just been something I always felt I Need to do.

I do have a few authors I admire, though! Ray Bradbury, especially because of ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’, is one; Adam Douglas, who wrote the Hitchhiker’s Guide series is another; I have a soft spot for Micheal Grant (GONE) and Hugh Howey (Silo series) as well because those were two authors I read while inpatient, but they aren’t ‘writer inspiration’ for me.

Franchise wise, I find the writing of Halo and Elite Dangerous very nice. Firaxis’ XCOM universe is also a writing source, but more story inspiration wise rather then lore admiration wise- I actually am very critical of the games’ handling of their narratives.

My friends (Codeless, Celestial Brush, Noc, and Skirmisher) who do fanfic writing are honestly my biggest source of inspiration, though. I am enamored by their ability to characterize, their ability to plot, their ability to worldbuild. They’re incredible, and I can only hope to ever be even a quarter as good as them.

TLDR: my friends write Good Stuff, and I want to be like them, even just a little!

#wolf barking #barking asks

[etherealvoidechoes]

Wondering if I should toy around with the idea of certain parts of a Chryssalid just aren’t salvageable for meat due to how toxic their venom is. “…individual specimen storage in reinforced caskets…”

But may depend on how the bug gets killed. But also their young and where ever that is stored in their body. Probably don’t want to ingest those eggs.

The worldbuilding I can toy with…

May just say sustained heat for a certain cook time can neutralize the venom.

^My poor brain atm

#I’m supposed to be getting ready for work and my brain hits me with this #xcom musings #xcom worldbuilding #my brain now going ‘do you want to patch up old information in those fics???’ deary me… #edit because wow spelling on my part but autocorrect ugh #now I’m imagining the trial and error the Reapers went through #and yes I know the difference between venom and poison when it comes to ingestion. just wouldn’t be surprised if the Elders -> #made their venom poisonous too. also xenobiology can do (nearly) what ever it wants

[memelordofmunchkinland]

Here’s a fun thing I love to fall back on when I want to try worldbuilding or just writing anything in general: The Lexicon Legion.

It’s basically an entire organization where everyone could be referenced by a letter of the alphabet. Then you just adapt to the situation.

What would their loadouts be if they were an XCOM unit? What would their team be if they were a Pokemon Trainer? What would be their race and class as a DnD character? The list goes on.

I’ve created some of the most entertaining OC stories I can think of using this baseline. Use at your own discretion.

#writing #letters #allow the alphabet to fuel your procrastination #more so than usual

[asuccessfulbusinessman]

The absolute biggest problem with XCOM 2 is that the base game, unless you have mods because Firaxis has like 3 writers or something-

Has, like, 13 default backstories for your soldiers. All the possibility for subtle dark souls esque worldbuilding - hell, you could update it now with the relationship system and have fucking intertwined backstories for troops working reasonably well.

[trbl-will-find-me]

So, I was going through my screen shots to refill the A Softer XCOM queue, and I caught this one and just. Wow. For as much as I gripe about Firaxis’s visual worldbuilding, they do some beautiful visual character building. Lily’s a damn competent engineer, and she has no problem ordering her own engineers about (that’s right! don’t just stand there! help the lady move the power converter!) or confronting Tygan. But that body language upon first meeting the Commander, upon having to explain that her father is dead and she is XCOM’s best hope? Damn, does that visibly scare the hell out of her. She’s hunched up, she’s clinging to a wrench, and she’s relying on ROV-R to make the first impression.  And it’s not a command staff thing. I don’t think I have as many screenshots on hand, but she’s damn near comfortable around Central. Watch them in the additional material for WOTC, Avenger defense, or Chosen assault cut scenes. Even when Central is shouting (and let me tell you, as a human being only a few years younger than Lily, having Central shouting would give me hives), Lily is never, ever anywhere near this nervous. Which brings up a lot of questions about just what’s behind Lily’s stage fright.  (Personally, I chalk it up to the whole ‘well, Central didn’t mention Dad was DEAD and now it’s all on me thanks Central’ bit, but I digress.)

In any case, it’s a great bit of visual character development. 10/10 Firaxis.

#xcom #lily shen #meta

[transcriptroopers]

Hi there! As a writer, unfortunately most of my military experience is from video games. My character has a husband who was discharged but part of my story goes back to the time he was still active. Back to the video games thing though, is any of that accurate and should I let it influence my writing? Thanks for y'alls service and for running this blog!

Hi anon!

I think your situation is what most people are in when they think about what they know about the military, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Movies, books, and video games can lay the tropes on a bit thick, but they’re not always wrong.It’s hard to say what’s truly accurate because by their nature, video games HAVE to simplify some things, and they HAVE to exaggerate and dramatize other things. It’s perfectly fine to use media as a backbone for what you want to write, but it’s always a good idea to do a quick google check to make sure. One thing that tickles me in fiction is hearing someone refer to an unknown on a radar as a “bogey.” Correct! A bogey could be anything from an flying scrap of metal to an unidentified aircraft. But “bogies on approach?” ehm...well, I’ve never personally said that, and identifying bogies and hostiles on radar was basically my job, but maybe someone else out there has? Maybe it’s an air force thing? Maybe it’s an old military thing? It certainly sounds like something we might say. Who knows! Unit-unique jargon is pretty common, so why not? I’ll suspend my disbelief for that. (in case you’re wondering, I wouldn’t say “bogies on approach” because that doesn’t TELL me anything; that doesn’t tell me at what speed or altitude the bogie is or where it’s currently located. I’d much rather provide more relevant information than say something that’s going to be requiring immediate explanation anyway.)What about “the AO is clear!”? AO is the area of operations, and clearing it is pretty relevant, so yeah; it’s pretty reasonable someone might report the AO being clear. How about the exceptionally common phrase heard now in Aliens, Starcraft, and XCOM is “We’re in the pipe; five by five!” Even if you knew jack shit about the military, everyone somehow knows what that means, right? “We’re where we need to be and everything is going smoothly.” And that’s essentially what it means. It definitely sounds like a military jargon phrase, too! You can even infer how the phrase came about if you break it down far enough. But...is it really military?

Answer: Kinda? It’s a combination of two existing phrases that were more commonly in use fifty years ago. But in modern context, surprise: it was actually thrown together by the scriptwriters of Aliens to sort of worldbuild their military. Dare I stop there and say it’s a fake phrase and don’t use it? Of course not; it was so effective in Aliens that it seeped BACK into the public consciousness after fifty years and it’s become a thing again. It’s funny how things work like that. I feel like this answer perhaps isn’t very thorough, but I guess my answer really is just like...you should never take anything you see in media for granted, and you should always double check. But sometimes you’d be surprised how much truth there can be in fiction. 

#jargon #military advice #writing advice #media #inspiration #Anonymous

[waynekelton]

The Best Games of Apple Arcade

Apple’s long-standing reputation for innovation and all-around brilliance is offset by its missteps, like bend-gate or the 32-bit app purge. Happily, Apple Arcade is a return to form, and a point in favor for those who choose to associate the Apple brand with careful excellence. They’ve carefully curated a selection of premium-style mobile games and bundled the lot for an excellent price of 5 dinero monthly. Subscribers can play anything and everything to their heart’s content.

Right now, there’s eighty-some odd games from pretty much every major genre, from action-RPGs to meditative je-nais-se-quoi art pieces. This is a quality catalog with no real weak members; a gamer could use a dartboard or divining rod to hazard their next play and not be disappointed. It will remind gamers why premium craftsmanship is worthwhile and hopefully change some market expectations for competitors.

What are the best Apple Arcade Games?

Various Daylife (RPG)

Spaceland (Tactics)

Sayonara Wild Hearts (Action)

Overland (Strategy/Exploration)

Neo Cab (Exploration/Narrative)

Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm (Action/RPG)

Mini Motorways (Puzzle)

Grindstone (Puzzle)

Card of Darkness (Card Game)

Cardpocalypse (Card Game)

Cat Quest 2 (RPG)

While all are quite good, some of the games are exceptionally strong entries and without further ado, here they are:

Puzzles & Card Games

Card of Darkness

I’m calling it now, this is 2019’s best solitaire game to date, with Eliza’s minigame running second. It got some of the fun effects and progression at play just like in stuff like Card Thief while still retaining the whip-smart balance Zach Gage has delivered with previous titles. The happy-bouba-blob artstyle is very adult cartoon but suits the game perfectly, for both seem simple and are indeed ultra-accessible but belie a thoughtful, riotously colorful game. The enemy design in particular is just *chefs kiss*.

Grindstone

Capy hasn’t done a puzzler in ages, and this one is a surprisingly minimalist take. To ascend the Grindstone Mountain, your burly adventurer cuts through swathes of matching-colored foes, building up equipment as he climbs ever higher. The difficulty is stern but rewarding, with most later levels requiring some careful forethought. There’s very little actual grind necessary, only if you need to replenish resources wasted on failed attempts. Very pure and smooth fun.

Mini Motorways

Smoothing out traffic congestion has never been this soothing. Ironically, it’s an ideal game to play whilst commuting, spending the time stuck in your vehicle sputtering away on Mini Motorway’s intricate puzzles. Just as with Mini Metro, the game is more about building solutions than ‘finding’ them. It asks for a creative and constructive mindset when approaching its systems. Mundane but never plain.

Cardpocalypse

Cardpocalypse is another game-within-a-game whose premise leans heavily on teenage nostalgia and classic 80s nerd tropes. It’s got a lot more going on under the hood, though, and is a little less earnestly cheeseball than Guild of Dungeoneering was. The ever-mutating ruleset and cardlist are effortlessly cool, and do honestly gin up that giddy feeling of misspent youth. One more time with feeling.

RPGS & Quests

Cat Quest II

For those who might think the title is a gag joke or a quick play for feline fan sympathies, nothing could be further from the truth. Cat Quest II is a robust full sequel to an equally competent original take. (This one now accommodates dog-lovers, too). The theme becomes just a tad cute, then is quickly expounded on to become a feline-fantasy world. Very endearing mix of twee and mock-serious worldbuilding. Mechanically quite solid, and rather challenging if the optional side-quests are avoided.

Various Daylife

Various Daylife stands out from the other games on this list because it has a curious, free-to-play-like remnant. On the one hand, this is a true jRPG through-and-through with a wide cast of characters and wide-ranging scope. On the other, any time gallivanting with your party members is also split with professions and occupations, which provide slower, more passive kind of progress which is nonetheless enjoyable. Various Daylife, indeed.

Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm

This action-RPG throws off serious Zelda vibes. It has some light puzzling and enemy encounters, and is surprisingly terse in its sign-posting and hint system. It is the largest game in terms of data on the Arcade, and, not coincidentally, one of the most gorgeous. Deep natural tones and sweeping vistas really do help drive home the free-form sense of adventure. Best with a controller.

Strategy & Tactics

Spaceland

Spaceland has that soft-poly look that is becoming more common because it connotes ease. Xcom with rounded edges, literally and figuratively. This also makes the game its own beast, with a smaller set of tools to tackle admittedly more straightforward challenges. Not necessarily a starter, full enough to enjoy on its own but also an excellent springboard into other games of the type.

Overland

This is a procedurally-generated roguelike which has been on Pocket Tactics own best-upcoming list for quite a while, rightly so. Its debt to games like FTL and even Oregon Trail is clear, but it has stripped away any sci-fi or historical trappings to tell a straightforward story of dogged survival in post-Apocalyptic americana. It’s a weird, intense episodic game, best played in short bursts.

Stories & Style

NeoCab

Good storytelling about the near-future, all unfolding from the (dis)comfort of the driver’s seat view. Economic precarity, the gig economy and the practical impossibility of making life work out make for a heady mix. Every fare has a story, and these stories and conflicts mingle with a necessary amount of techno-politico backdrop. Every twist and turn on the journey of NeoCab feels intimate and local. There are no easy morals or routes here, just an uncharted path.

Sayonara Wild Hearts

So stylish it hurts, this rhythm-it-up from Simogo really shines with a nice set of headphones and controller. (Sidenote: all arcade games support controllers, so avail yourself of any you’ve got around for the action/real-time titles). The power of dance and physical coordination defeats all, but this hand-wavy theming is perfectly executed. Pop music as eternal youth, irrepressible optimism. The original soundtrack is legitimately catchy as well, so that’s a bonus.

All of the above games are hardly an exhaustive list. I had to axe other contenders like Jenny LeClue, Exit the Gungeon and Tangle Tower. Not to mention any new games that will be added. This is such a golden opportunity one scarcely wonders how Apple could improve the Arcade. Maybe with an MMORPG or MOBA? Quite a few of the games are so good that people are (paradoxically) sorely missing the chance to purchase them individually, ‘forever’. But app purchases function more like licenses than ownership of a digital entity; they don’t grant any ability or right to resell or modify an app purchase.

In this way, the subscription model is really only a stone’s throw away from business as usual. Many of these titles are either already on other platforms or might be soon. For now, Apple Arcade has quality and variety, and manages to offer it with economy and only a smidge of exclusivity. This is a service that will move the needle.

What have been your favourite Apple Arcade games so far? Let us know in the comments!

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