#that was next level customisation

[tf-lover]

I know I’ve already wished you a happy birthday but I can’t help the opportunity to do it here as well. Just wanted to make sure that you know I love you and that I feel proud to call you my boyfriend. You’re one of the kindest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing and I’m sure anyone who’s spoken to you knows that just as well. I feel so lucky to know you and have you in my life and I’m grateful that we were somehow able to meet through the unlikeliness of Tumblr messages of all places hahah! You deserve the world and I hope I’m able to give it to you ❤️

That said I’m glad you’re enjoying my present so far. It wasn’t easy to get my hands on that nanotech body suit. Expensive thing but well worth the money with how easily customisable it is at any time. I know you’re probably gonna be spending the majority of your time as a massive black stud but I can’t wait to see what other bodies you try out with all the customisation as well!

Of course I had to save the best of all of these birthday asks for last. ❤️

I couldn't ask for a sweeter man to call mine. That day I was bored at work and reading stories then messaged you from my main accidentally was one of the best and most unlikely outcomes ever. I wouldn't change a second of anything that led you to being the most wonderful boyfriend I could have asked for. I love you Mr Wavell, I can't wait for the rest of our days together.

That being said, I'm sure you all saw this picture I posted with the original post getting you to send asks in. That, if you can believe it was how I woke up! Already in the suit and programmed to look like my favourite stud, my boyfriend definitely knows me well. It was wild to say the very least waking up and feeling genuinely different; I thought I was seeing things at first until I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

Of course then when he walked in and called me by this body's name I knew who was responsible. After all the roleplays we've done this was really taking it to a new level with him acting like he was totally unaware of me being anyone other than Ched.

Still, I've had plenty of other fun with the suit too!

Taken a ride through a load of my other favourite men's bodies and fucked or been fucked in all of them. Flipped my gender and spent an afternoon teasing him about being a straight guy whilst riding his cock and making him grope my tits. Became a copy of him too for a little bit just to play out the twin fantasy.

I've had all sorts of kinky fun to say the least, but at the end of the day we both know who I'm always coming back to.

Like you suggested I started playing around with the customisation settings this morning. How do we think dreads suit me? There's a few other surprises too, but you'll have to find those out for yourself. All the hint I'll give you is try sucking my nipples next time we're alone together and see what happens. 😜

Thank you again though for the new suit, and for everything else you do to make my life better with you in it. ❤️

#male transformation #racial transformation #my writing

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Porsche 918 Spyder Harlekin, 2023, by Next Level Cars. Regular followers may remember me posting about Volkswagen's Polo and Golf Harlekin special edition models. In homage to these cars Dutch customisers Next Level Cars have created a harlequin wrap for a Porsche 918. It was presented at the Sportwagentreffen Velden 2023. The event is held at Velden at Worthersee, on the shores of the lake where the Wortherseetreffen Golf GTI festival used to take place. You car watch a video here

#Porsche #Porsche 918 #Porsche 918 Spyder Harlekin #Next Level Cars #Harlekin #harlequin #Volkswagen Polo Harlekin #2023 #custom car #hypercar #hybrid hypercar #Worthersee #Sportwagentreffen Velden #video

[fredwkong]

Hey there :D I hope you'll be able to help me. See, I've always felt like something was wrong with my life. Never felt like home anywhere. The only place I feel free to be myself is in video game. Oh, how I wish a game like the Oasis in Ready Player One could be real... So here is my wish. I wish I am living in a perfect video game fantasy world. Can you do it for me?

You find yourself drifting awake in a grassy field. A massively muscular genie stands over you, his face shrouded under his hood. “Welcome to your fantasy world, Level 1 Hero,” he intones.

After a moment of shock, you take stock of your body. You’re slender, lanky, with short hair and reasonably handsome features. You lift up your loose-fitting pants to see a perfectly average cock throbbing against your thigh. You think to yourself, “What am I good at?” and a glowing blue menu appears in the air before your eyes, listing your new stats next to a display of your rather ordinary body.

Race: Black (non-customised) Dom/sub: not yet set Top/bottom: not yet set Muscle: 1 Beauty: 1 Musk: 1 Cock: 1

At the bottom of the menu is a spare stat point, which glows as you focus on it. The genie, your tutorial character, tells you, “Assign your stats to improve your skills.”

Before you can even open your mouth to ask your next question, the genie continues, “Your stat totals are uncapped, and more stats can be unlocked through gameplay. For instance, complete the quest ‘Feeding Time’ to unlock the Fat stat, or 'Bro Time' to unlock the Dumb stat.”

There’s a flashing tooltip next to “Dom/sub.” When you focus on it, the genie says, “Set your interests to dominant, submissive, switch, or something else to customise your experience.”

Welcome to a world of limitless potential. What will you do first?

#male transformation #answered ask #muscle tf #male tf #race change #wish granted #fantasy tf #all fwkong

[fortheloveofarchons]

Been playing Love and Deepspace for the past few days and here's my take on this.....

Content warning though, it's gonna be a long post! And this is just coming from someone who only played the game a few days ago so this is just my first impression!

Let me just say this, algorithm...

It's your fault for making me download the game.

You knew I like hot attractive fictional men. You knew I like bratty boyfailures. You knew I like older, stoic yet kind men. You knew I like mysterious softboys.

YOU KNEW.

So you bombarded me with L&DS content on my socials, my home, my walls, and even my grass!!! I won't forgive you for dragging me into another gacha hole, especially when you knew that I promise myself to never spend a dime on any of these games!!! (I'm an f2p player)

Anyways-- Here's my take on this game as a newbie.

The VAs and character designs?

Amazing. I love the boys (including Caleb) and the MC customisation is really detailed. Though, I wish we could have short hair MC permanently but I'm glad we get to experience it on photoshoots. I do wish we get to explore more of the boys on the main plot cause it feels a bit underwhelming. Then again I just finished chapter 3 so we'll see!

I love the dates and the playtime mode since it gives us time to get closer to the boys and understand more about their past and their characteristics. (I'm convinced the claw machine gacha is so random cause one day Xavier won a lot and the next it was Zayne)

I will say tho for now I feel like Rafayel is more developed and interesting compared to the other two. I like Zayne in terms of how much he really cares about his patients and how he was closer to MC back then, but I wish we get more of him soon. For Xavier he's such a mystique as well and I really like him too! Overall, I wish we get more events dedicated to Zayne and Xavier.

The fluidity of the animation and graphics?

Really good considering that I'm playing it on mobile, I set it to medium and its runs pretty smoothly without any low pixelated quality. I love how detailed the backgrounds and designs are, and I really love some of the cinematic shots the developers added during the date scenes. I can't wait to pull for more dates for the characters!

Combat wise?

It's fine for now ,and I really appreciate the proceed 10x button when farming for materuals considering that I'm more of a casual player rather than a combat one.

Though I'm still frustrated that one of the requirements of getting 3 stars for extra diamonds would be to win the combat within 90 secs and I'm like-- boy if that dragon didn't have that short animation I would've gotten it faster!!! If it had been 120 secs I would have gotten it easier... I know that the whole combat system will get a bit complicated the more you ascend your hunter level so I'll just farm for materials just to prepare the inevitable.

Also I wish there were more ways to gain more exps for your hunter level instead of doing the daily tasks. Imagine you are about to head to the next chapter get some main content and yet you can't bc your hunter level is just two level away so you have to wait for the next day...

The plot?

I would say its okay for now since I'm about to head to chapter 4 and even though I finished chapter 3 it still feels like the beginning. The worldbuilding is really interesting but I'm still a bit confused on some aspects of the story. Overall, I can't wait to finally see Caleb on screen (I already saw him on Youtube and I wish he's playable he's so pretty sksksksks)

Edit: I just finished chapter 4.... what in the sweet metaflux world... CALEEEBBBBBB!!!!!

So yeah this is my impression on the game as someone who only joined after a few days! I hope to see more contents for the boys and I can't wait for more chapters (I spoiled myself at chapter 4 and my god... I want Caleb to be playable plzzzzz)

I'm aware that as a newbie my opinions are probably flawed considering that it's barely even a week since I joined, I would love to hear some advices from you guys just so I can prepare myself in terms of combat and to understand more about the characters if I missed anything about them!

#love and deepspace #rafayel #rafayel love and deepspace #zayne love and deepspace #zayne #xavier #xavier love and deepspace #love and deepspace mc #caleb #caleb love and deepspace #caleb plz be playable #zayne my love #xavier my sweetheart #rafayel my boyfailure #love and deepspace rafayel #love and deepspace xavier #love and deepspace zayne #love and deepspace caleb

[tegu-the-tegu]

Flavoured Artificer Concepts

Artificer is by FAR my favourite class in Dungeons and Dragons, primarily for how customisable they can be with regards to their flavour; because of the ability to cast through any tools you are proficient in, it gives a LOT of range to how your magic works. As such, I will put some ideas I have had to build unique Artificers.

An Artillerist that uses woodworking to carve totems; they are flavoured as a tribal shaman that summons the spirits of magical creatures to aid in battle. Their flamethrower turret conjures a dragon spirit to burn their foes, their protector turret calls the spirit of a unicorn to protect the virtuous, and their ballista invokes a manticore spirit to pepper distant foes with spikes. Their other spells can also be flavoured this way, such as Thunderwave being flavoured as an Aerosaur spirit emerging from a totem and flapping its wings to blow enemies away!

A Battlesmith that uses leatherworking to create a horrific stitched Frankenstein's monster for their steel defender. Every time they kill things, they skin the corpses to repair their hideous flesh monster. Or, if you prefer, you could stick with the shamanistic theme from the Artillerist entry, and use leatherworking to maintain the pelt of the first wolf you killed; its spirit inhabits that pelt, and defends you to this day!

An Alchemist that uses chef's tools to create supernaturally delicious food that cures illnesses and grants supernatural abilities. I have actually played this, he used brewers supplies to create caustic acidic drinks, had peppers so hot that it made your breath ignite to cast fire spells, and he would spray sticky toffee over the area for web. He would make food puns, and was named Guido Fiero.

An Armorer that uses jeweller's tools to create bling that imbues them with magical powers. A circlet that grants a force field, a ring that shoots lightning, a pair of bracelets that create thunderous shockwaves when brought together. Then, when you hit level 9, you can have distinct infusion tied to each one! A circlet or diadem or whatever for head armour, necklace for chest armour, anklets for boots, and bracelets or rings for the weapon! Perfect for a wealthy nobleman artificer who wants to broadcast their glamorous lifestyle.

There are loads of other things you can do with each tool proficiency, and it's a shame that the class is so easily pigeonholed into "The Tech Class". Not to say I don't like the gnomish tinker that creates fantastical and crazy gizmos to mimic magical effects. Hell, my character in the campaign I'm not DMing is exactly that, an autognome (Flavoured to look like a normal gnome in the face, so they appear normal when wearing their clothes) that woke up one day in a tinker's lab next to his deceased creator, and then left to try and find a purpose in the world. He has an insect motif, so all of his spells and things are flavoured as small clockwork insects he makes.

But the point is, while that's a staple of the Artificer class fantasy, there are loads of other ideas to flavour it! A calligrapher that writes arcane runes in the air, a potter with a terracotta soldier for a steel defender, a weaver that knits arcane circles, a painter whose drawings become magical effects, a glassblower whose glass figurines come to life, I can't think of one for cartographer's tools, but I bet there is a dope idea in there somewhere!

Even as I mentioned before with leatherworking, you can have the exact same class, the exact same subclass, and the exact same tool, and STILL have wildly different flavour! One is Doctor Frankenstein, the other is a mystical shaman with a spirit guide!

Anyway, that's today's rambling. I would also do a thing on subclasses the Artificer could have, given they only have four, but that's a whole other rant. Besides, this is already a thesis.

#dnd artificer #dungeons and dragons #dnd 5e #d&d #dnd #d&d 5e #I don't actually know what I'm meant to do for tags #I'm new here. #Still figuring it all out

[doriana-gray-games]

are the character customization parts important? when you skip to chapter 5 it skims over most of the character customization

When you skip to Chapter (4), the character customisation is shortened to only the relevant variables in the following chapters (actually, a few variables aren't asked for even cause they are so minor and will only appear if you start from scratch, I think...). But that's why it's like that. Not every chapter brings up everything. Ch5 added a few more questions to the ch4 quick start, and the next chapter will too, etc.

For the ball, I might skip directly to the ball, and then other variables will be asked for—that is all ♥️

Currently, in the chapters so far, the MC choices that have consequences/flavour text beyond pasting in the variable are:

Gender.

Sherlock as first name or own set.

Eyecolour

Face detail ("liked")

- Lashes

- Eyes

Face detail (not "liked")

- Nose

Attractiveness level

Body detail

- Waist

- legs

- hands

Outfit style

- Proper

- Delicate/charming

- Bold

Heels (yes/no)

Blushing (yes/no)

(I might have forgotten something, tbh...)

But I think these are the ones so far, but many are quite hidden in specific choices and routes, etc. There will be more and more, don't worry. My hope is for everything to be referenced at least once.

+ The ball will have more opportunities where it will make sense for me to reference things. I simply don't feel it's been relevant to mention many things yet—without forcing it.

The choice of "body type"—

Body type How would you like your body to be described? (Choose the word you most prefer.)

It is not referenced yet, because I think if I were to do that, I would need to ask some follow-up questions. What is "burly" or "voluptuous" is so subjective that currently, that choice is more for HC and word exchange.

#character creator #character customization #body #face #mc

[meichenxi]

SpeakGaelic: a guide!

Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the national centre for Gaelic language and culture, recently worked with BBC Alba to produce videos, audio and a website called SpeakGaelic. 

There’s videos, an online course, support for tutors, multiple new podcasts, Youtube, various things airing on TV. The actual self-taught online course is only one part of how much this resource has to offer! So here’s some of the things I’ve been looking at. 

1. The website itself

 https://speakgaelic.scot/all-online-courses/

This is just the whole website: explore at your leisure! At the moment they have finished up to around A2 level, and are working on producing higher level content. 

Each topic has a series of 8-10 mini-lessons that are sometimes more duolingo style, and sometimes with videos.

I...actually prefer to use the teaching resources for tutors (linked below) than this course for a few reasons. My main problem is that the vocabulary they present to you is far too fast (in one lesson they might give you 20 words for different Scottish towns), which is fine if you just need to choose the relevant words for where you are from, but in order to pass the quiz to get to the next level you have to get ALL of them right. And Gaelic spelling takes a while to get used to...

There’s also no writing / spelling practice, but to pass the level requires you to write things. Which. Feels counterintuitive! You can learn any level without passing the tests, but it’s annoying because it means your progress isn’t saved to an accurate place. I emailed them about it and got a friendly response back, but this isn’t something they are planning to change. 

2. The classroom materials

 https://speakgaelic.scot/classroom-materials/

Now THIS is where it gets exciting. These are materials designed in theory for tutors - full lesson plans, worksheets, everything - but they are accessible to learners too. In fact, I think they’re much better than the online course. 

Why? Because everything is STRUCTURED. You are given practice, and told what to do, and there are grammatical explanations. (NB: all of these exist in the online course, but not in one handy document for you to look over in one place.) 

You have all of the learner content....

...and you ALSO have teacher content:

‘If learners need more time and practice with the vocative case’ > that’s me! And it shows you then exactly what you should do next. Whereas the online course doesn’t have that option for customisation at all. Most of the worksheets are included in the lesson plan, and some are on the main page. Absolute bliss. 

3. The SpeakGaelic learner podcast

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6x5b901Zj8ky0UsMM4SzZM?si=00c361fe5ffc4f0d

(If you don’t have Spotify, you can just search ‘SpeakGaelic’)

This is an audio version of the lessons above, and goes into more detail - with information from three different native speakers - into some of the grammar things that the course doesn’t really cover in that much depth. There’s conversations you can listen to, and it’s all targeted at complete beginners. If you listen to any other Gaelic podcasts you’ll recognise the presenter, John Urquhart!

After each episode, there’s also a special episode - scroll down to the bottom - with conversation about different topics relevant to the day’s lesson with two of the presenters. Great for providing extra information!

4. The Youtube channel

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppoHU_ece7o&list=PL_U7jPRkbJZtFegaqKKT8MrZnV7ugwHAG&index=1

Ok, so there’s a LOT of content here. First you have the A1-A2 lessons, around 30 minutes each. Despite what the name suggests, these are not the same as the audio podcasts. They have Joy (who presents the online course) but they also give some extra video clips and information about cultural things too!

They’re a little slow, but a good supplement to the material given above. As far as I can tell, there are only 13 of this particular series (and 13 for A2) but the YouTube channel SpeakGaelic itself has hundreds of episodes of everything that goes into the online course. All the videos can be found there. 

This includes all audio and conversations, as well as snapshots on individual learners and some cultural information. 

They also seemingly have started marking some grammar videos! Check out this playlist for more grammar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq9_0ht4L3Y&list=PL_U7jPRkbJZu0uq_6wpzCgZcpddGDU76D

5. The intermediate podcast: Beag air Bheag

https://open.spotify.com/show/34wGOU9sDTE7Vzg0qMexfv?si=314cbbb294b648ec

Once you’re a little further on in your journey (I...can’t understand these yet), there are a few other podcasts on Spotify also by the BBC Radio nan Gàidheal. This is one! This is totally in Gaelic, but spoken fairly slowly and designed for intermediate learners. 

6. The old site: learngaelic.scot

https://learngaelic.scot

Check it out! I...actually prefer this site and the way it teaches. It has some bonuses over the old one - good vocabulary sections, plus a really great directory of Gaelic courses online and in person, as well as a dictionary, and so on. 

It goes all the way up to B2, so is a better choice if you have more than a little Gaelic. 

It’s also a brilliant directory of media in Gaelic - you can watch lots of videos with transcripts in Gaelic with a dictionary, as well as finding native-level material. You can sign up to their newsletter and get weekly Gaelic information too. 

It also has links to Speaking Our Language!! Which is an absolutely wonderful resource from the 90s teaching Gaelic one conversation at a time, and also goes up to a fairly high level. These are all updated for The Modern Age: i.e., they all have PDFs and transcripts, as well as links to the grammar points for whatever lesson you’re listening to. Far more advanced than anything the new site currently has. 

I might do another post once I’ve explored this website a little more! 

7. Bonus: Gaelic with Jason

Finally, one extra! The other main resource I’m using is Gaelic with Jason (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rAE_iLRh4g for example). 

He has a whole bunch of free Youtube videos, but I’m actually doing his paid online course - it’s by the best value for money I know from any course, Gaelic or otherwise. If you have the money for it and like immersive learning with a board and just being chatted to, I’d highly recommend you give it a go. He also has loads of Gaelic books for learners, which are wonderful too, and a folktales and traditions course for intermediate learners. Can’t talk about this man enough. (https://gaelicwithjason.thinkific.com)

---

Once again, I’d really encourage you to check out the teaching materials: I personally find them way more useful than the online course for learners specifically. I’m looking at the teaching materials in conjunction with the audio on YouTube and then the podcasts on Spotify.

All the best!

- Melissa

#gàidhlig #gaelic #scottish gaelic #langblr #studyblr #learn gaelic #seriously guys there are SO MANY resources out there #mainly these two sites though lmao but the amount of ancillary content is insane #anyway. once again. anyone learning: hmu! #I'm very much learning casually but it's great fun when I don't want to think about korean or chinese lmao

[shiningliive]

Live Emotion Tap Spaces

A too long post on the Live Emotion preview clip only having two touch icons:

I've seen mixed reponses. Some people are happy to see a more accesible layout that is less likely to cause hand and wrist damage from long/frequent play sessions, and some are dissapointed and fearful that it might be too slow or too basic.

I'd take an educated guess that what we're seeing in this clip is an 'easy' difficulty, with higher levels hopefully having at least a faster speed. When comparing this clip to the easy difficulty of Shining Romance on SL, both are nearly identical with 11-12 taps within 8-9 seconds.

It's hard to say how I feel about it so far without seeing more footage. Personally, I think at least 4 would be ideal but I can't say until more footage is revealed. It's certainly possible there are more tap spaces in higher difficulties, or the higher speed and potentially more gesture options would make up for it.

Here are some other rhythm games with similar amounts of touch spaces. I've tried to link higher diffulty levels to show the potential:

Love Live All Stars - Very similar layout to Live Emotion with two tap icons, however there are also some notes that have to be swiped in the direction indicated which I think could be implemented in higher difficulties in LE. Also has a mode with less distracting bg visuals (that is customisable with unlockable backgrounds) which I am also currently hoping to be a toggle in LE.

Aikatsu - This I believe is a two player mode that is being played solo, but it does show another example of a 2 touch icon UI. I think it's also played with a controller, but its easy to imagine the arrows as directional sliding gestures as well. Aikatsu has a slightly younger demographic, so it makes sense if the beatmaps skew a bit simpler.

Idolish 7 and I-Chu - Both with four tap icons.

Then of course you have games like Bpro and SIF that have a similar high amount of tap icons to Shining Live. There are also some with similar functionality but different look, like Show By Rock, D4DJ, Project Sekai, and Hypmic.

And for more varied rhythm gameplay styles, but to highlight the potential of different gesture types, you have:

King of Prism - Tapping and making certain swipe gestures as they skate through hoops. This and some others linked also have segments where you trace shapes on the screen at certain parts of a song, or whena gauge fills up.

Te to Te Connect - Arcade game with beatmaps that encourage copying the movements on screen. These sort of swiping and tracing shape movements are especially interesting to me but I dont know if we'd see something like that in LE.

Muse Dash - A different style of rhythm game to what we've seen so far from LE, but there may be something in there to inspire you.

Fit Boxing - Again very different and doesnt really translate to touch screen, but while holding a joycon the player does different types of punches and movements corresponding to the icons.

Osu - A classic, with its icons taking up the screen in various patterns rather than staying in set positions, this is also something I dont expect to see in LE, but is a fun gameplay style. Osu also has a large spinning wheel that shows up occasionally for a short period of time, and has to be spun in circles very quickly.

All that to say, who knows what we're in for. I would prefer a few more touch icons, but even if harder difficulties still only have 2 I think its possible to get a fun and difficult game out of it if theyre fast enough, and have various tap gestures to keep it intersting and engaging (tap, hold, spin, multi-tap, swipe up/down/left/right etc).

Lets wait and see what the next game reveals showcase.

#utapri #live emotion #uta no prince-sama #not shining live #have you missed by very long analysis of a 9 second clip? #i havent played any of these other games so could be wrong but i think theyre interesting to look at as examples #im a bit fearful but im sure itll be fine #we have more game introductions coming so we can judge what we see in those and once we can play the final game #video #long post #sorry for no read more break

[genshinarchives]

𝐆𝐎𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐄𝐒 𝐂𝐇. 𝟏

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏 : 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐊𝐘 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐕𝐄𝐑

𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘 : Shortly after being transported to another reality, you clash with a god who goes by the name Enkidu. You later learn that you have been thrown into a warring era in which the gods of Teyvat are fighting each other to claim a divine seat in Celestia.

𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐒 : Al-Haitham, Kaveh; hints of Cyno x reader

𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐑𝐄 : Romance, adventure, isekai

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 : N/A

𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄 : N/A

𝐍𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄

Year 2052.

The gaming industry has flourished in the past years, and VRMMO-RPG took over the market. VRMMO-RPG is abbreviated from Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, an online game that allows the player to enter a virtual world and experience it as though it were real life. On the pinnacle of VRMMO-RPG is Camelot Chronicles, a game that is popular for its unusually high player freedom which enables the player to customise their character however they want, and they could also create their very own unique NPCs. The latter requires a hefty sum of in-game currency and materials, so you were only able to create one NPC for yourself.

His name is Enki, a doppelganger capable of copying the appearances and abilities of the people he interacts with. Although your character is of the same heteromorphic race, most of your points were spent on levelling your magic skills so you're only able to retain your humanoid form. In your party, Enki functions as the vanguard and so was given high physical and magic resistance, but this is adjustable when he takes on the form of someone else. His primary purpose is to aggro the enemies while you attack at a distance as a mage; outside of the battlefield, he's your loyal attendant who caters to your every whim.

As you stretched your arms over your head, you expelled a deep sigh before closing your notebook. You've just finished taking notes of the reading material your teacher had assigned you this week, and decided to play Camelot Chronicles for the rest of the night since it'll be the weekend tomorrow. Humming a random tune, you put on the specialised VR headset that's needed to play VRMMO-RPG and logged into the game.

You were immediately greeted by the sight of Enki standing next to you in Arondight Forest, the surrounding pine trees and uneven topography conjuring up the feeling one might get when venturing through a coniferous forest. You've been farming Jagged Fangs for the new craftable weapon that's coming in the next update, as Enki needed a new spear; you wanted to make him stronger so you could explore Galahad Ruins, a new area that was recently released. Extending a hand in his direction, you gently waved it from top to bottom.

"Follow," you said. The in-game command was immediately processed by him, prompting him to trail closely behind as you led the way. You traversed Arondight Forest in search for the bird-like mobs you'd usually farm for Jagged Fangs, only to notice their unusual absence. The lack of mobs in the area was already concerning enough, making you wonder if there was some sort of lag that's causing a delay in their spawn time.

Just as you're about to teleport to the nearest save point, your console froze.

"What's going on...?" you mumbled, tapping the air where your console had frozen in place. You then tried to close it by force which didn't work, and when you shifted your attention to your surroundings, you saw distortions in the environment. As incessant buzzing filled your ears, glitch patterns appeared around you before vanishing abruptly, and this repeated until the scenery shattered like glass.

You stared in awe. Things that you've never seen before were reflected in the shattered pieces. Upon closer inspection, you noticed that those things - those people - were moving, which drew you in. One scene showed an armed group of humans uniting under the leadership of a young boy holding a lyre; another showed a multi-headed sea serpent being rained on by gargantuan spears of stone; another showed a brutal war between a gigantic white snake and a woman with long violet hair wielding a spear.

"Master!"

A hand clasped your elbow suddenly, startling you. You were then spun around to meet the crimson eyes of Enki, your creation. Your jaw went slack when you realised that he had somehow become sentient amidst this strange glitch.

"E-Enki?!" you squeaked.

"Master, it seems like we've gotten ourselves in a dangerous situation," he said, "Stay close to me so that I can protect you. We don't know what's going to happen next."

Quickly recovering from your surprise, you told him, "I believe the server had crashed. My console froze and I don't think I can contact the admins at all." To prove your point, you tried using the call function only for unpleasant crackling sounds to echo in your ear.

Suddenly, the ground beneath your feet cracked. With panic overtaking your mind, you clung to Enki for dear life whilst he held onto you firmly.

"The ground is about to break!" he exclaimed. As if on cue, the cracks swiftly webbed out and an ear-splitting crash resounded through the area.

The next thing you knew, you were falling.

❀

"... aster... ake... up..."

You let out a groan and knitted your eyebrows together.

"Mas... Please..."

Is someone calling for you?

"Master, please wake up!"

Eyelids flying open, you quickly sat up with an audible gasp. Your eyes immediately burned from the sudden brightness overhead, forcing you to close them again as you raised an arm to shield them. Seeing your discomfort, Enki moved himself in front of you, casting a protective shadow over your form.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"I'm alright," you replied, "Just a little disorientated." Lowering your arm back to your side, you slowly lifted your eyelids and scanned your new surroundings curiously. "Where exactly are we?"

Standing up, Enki then looked around briefly. "It appears that we've been transported to a desert by mysterious means. I'm afraid I don't know any more than that."

You pushed yourself to your feet whilst brushing the sand off your clothes. This doesn't look like any of the deserts in Camelot Chronicles, and as you rummaged through your brain for any coherent explanation to the situation you've found yourselves in, you suddenly remembered the moving images you had seen during the glitch. The young boy with the lyre reminded you of Venti, who's a popular character in an old fantasy ARPG; the woman fighting against the serpent-like monster also resembled the Raiden Shogun, another iconic figure from the same game.

What was the name of the game?

You knew that Camelot Chronicles took inspiration from it after you watched an online interview with the game developers. You had done a little research on the game it took inspiration from out of curiosity and was impressed by the unique gameplay and rich lore.

"Jen... Jenshin...?" you mumbled.

That didn't sound right.

Your attention then shifted to Enki, who appeared to be waiting for your orders patiently. You noted that up close, he's quite good-looking; his sharp red eyes complimented his long ivory hair that's tied in a half-ponytail. Without a second thought, you held his wrist and was surprised to feel a pulse. You cupped his face and gently caressed his cheeks, your jaw going slack in disbelief; not only did he become sentient, he looks and feels real! He has a pulse like most living creatures do, and he smells pretty nice as well... While you were busy admiring Enki, you failed to notice his flustered look.

"Wh-what is it, master?" he asked with a slight stutter.

Before you could answer him, a loud explosion sounded at a distance. Startled, you both turned in the direction you had heard it come from, and your eyes widened when you caught sight of a sandstorm heading straight towards you. As it neared you and Enki, you noticed a shadow barely concealed behind the sandy veil.

"A hostile object is beelining towards us from 12 o'clock!" Enki exclaimed, summoning his spear. You instinctively slammed your hands on the ground, spawning a glowing glyph beneath you and Enki. "Making contact in 3... 2... 1!" On cue, silver chains shot up from the glyph and overlapped each other to form a makeshift shield in front of you. Something crashed into the chains at high speed, the impact causing the sand near its point to spew towards you like a tidal wave. Gusts of wind whipped around the two of you, and once the chaos has settled, the chains dissipated at your command to reveal another human standing before you.

Your gaze immediately settled on the bull horns protruding from the sides of his head. The mysterious man smiled, but you could sense the underlying malice in that supposedly friendly gesture.

"How brave of you to step outside of your god's domain," he said, "Which god do you follow? Gugalanna? Rukkhadevata?" He arched an eyebrow when he perceived your puzzled expression. "Is it neither of those two? Then perhaps you're one of those desertfolk whose god I've slain." He then threw his head back with a loud laugh, as if the words he had uttered carried no weight at all. "He was truly a weak god. For someone who's revered as the God of Heroes to fall so easily... How pathetic!"

"Who are you?" you asked with a frown. Although you didn't know who this God of Heroes is, his arrogant attitude still got on your nerves.

He ceased his laughter to answer your question, "Enkidu. You picked a wrong time to go adventuring, humans."

Enki couldn't accept the rude way in which Enkidu had spoken to you and immediately became aggressive. "Where are your manners? Do not speak to my master in that tone, and kneel when you greet her!"

Enkidu was unfazed.

"Oh... So that woman is a god as well?" he mused, grinning, "I suppose that makes us enemies!"

"Watch out!" Enki said, swiftly moving in front of you to deflect the light projectiles Enkidu had fired from his palms. Before you could fully process what was happening, your attendant had engaged in a ferocious combat with Enkidu. Sparks flew like steel birds of prey as their weapons clashed, their feet manoeuvring around each other's like elaborate pieces of footwork.

Gods. This world has gods, and the gods are fighting each other for some reason. You wondered if you got thrust into another reality during an era that's being devastated by countless power struggles - because if that's the case, you're the unluckiest person on the planet right now.

"Whatever," you mumbled, raising a hand with your open palm facing the sky. You'll worry about the war ravaging this world later; helping Enki take down Enkidu is your top priority, and fortunately, you possess the very weapon that's meant to combat god-like beings. "My soul has united with the stars. I command the celestials of the sky! Where the heavens shine, there am I! Thou wait at the gates of hell! Come forth, divine restraint! Shirshirdingira!"

A large golden portal expanded above Enkidu. Its sudden appearance made him falter as he looked up, and Enki took this chance to swiftly run him through with his spear. Enkidu bellowed as his chest exploded with pain, and the sight of a gigantic spearhead attached to a silver chain emerging from the portal prompted Enki to drive him into the ground before leaping out of your attack's range. As Enkidu lied on his sandy grave, you dropped the chain on him, quickly cutting his life short.

"That's... it...?" you said, blinking. That seemed far too easy; his bravado earlier gave you the impression that it would take more to kill him. When the chain dissolved into golden particles that were swept away by the passing wind, crimson webs were seen on the sand.

Enkidu is dead.

You killed someone.

But why do you not feel anything?

You stared at your hands.

Could it be because your character's race has merged with you when you came to this new world, it made you indifferent towards the things that humans would normally react strongly to?

"Y-you must be..."

You were pulled out of your thoughts when a new voice filled the silence, and you looked to your right to see a man crawling out from behind a rock. His expression was a mixture of fear and wonder as he regarded you with wide eyes, and the next thing you knew, he had prostrated himself before you, his forehead touching the sand.

"What are you-" you began, but were cut off by him.

"You must be the new god Celestia sent down! You're the one who will become the new God of Heroes!"

When Enki stepped forward to punish him for interrupting you, you barred his path by raising your arm in front of him.

"I don't think I follow. What is this world exactly?" you asked.

"You have descended to the world of Teyvat, O Exalted One," the man answered.

"And your name?"

"I am Ushar, a humble desertfolk from the sands of Sumeru. I work as a soldier for the city the God of Heroes had built."

"Raise your head," you ordered, and Ushar complied. He had clear crystal blue eyes, dark brown hair and a tanned complexion... You can't help but notice how much he resembles Dehya, a Pyro character from Sumeru.

Your pupils dilated when realisation dawned on you.

Celestia. Sumeru.

You finally remembered the name of the game.

Those are places in the world of Genshin Impact.

But how can that be? How can Genshin Impact be your new reality when it's been 30 years since the game was released?

"Then right now... It must be in the middle of the Archon War," you murmured.

"That's correct. Every day, the gods of Sumeru are at war with each other," Ushar said, having overheard you, "The God of Heroes whom we follow... was slain by Enkidu, the one you had defeated. Which means that you must be the god he spoke of before he passed! The god who will avenge him, and take his place to guide us! Please hear your servant's plea, and be our new God of Heroes!"

You were hesitant to accept his request. You didn't know if the deceased God of Heroes was fighting to protect his people or to claim one of the seven divine seats in Celestia. You had enough knowledge of Genshin Impact's lore to survive with just Enki by your side, and you were well-aware that if you participated in the Archon War, battling the future Dendro Archon - Greater Lord Rukkhadevata - will be inevitable. At the same time however, you needed more information, more than what the game has already revealed about Teyvat's history.

"... I want something in exchange," you finally said, "If you can give it to me, I will protect you and your people as your new god."

Ushar bowed deeply in gratitude. "Whatever it is that you wish for, will be yours."

You knelt down to his level. "I want information about this world."

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟐

The picrew below is Enki.

𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 : @flowwerpot​ / @myevergarden​ / @hey-comrade-hold-stil​ / @genshin-idiot /

#✍️ : alice writes #genshin #genshin impact #genshin x reader #genshin impact x reader #nahida #cyno #alhaitham #alhaitham x reader #kaveh #kaveh x reader #fem reader #god of heroes

[sirnerdbird]

A post to illustrate just how insane the Golden Grizzco Point badge is

One of the major additions to Splatoon 3 was the Splashtag system, which brings with it a lot of extra customisation for the player. Maybe the most interesting part of this new system is the fact that you can attach up to 3 badges (splatoon's new form of achievements) to your Splashtag to demonstrate your prowess in different aspects of the game (pictured here is my splashtag with my badges for "10 tricolour defender wins", "rank 50 in tableturf" and "S+ in anarchy battles").

A lot of these badges come with different tiers of completion (like the "turf war wins" badge which gives you a normal, silver and gold variant as you get to 50, 250 and 1200 wins respectively) and one of these sets of badges is tied to accumulating Grizzco Points across your Salmon Run matches.

Grizzco Points are a form of progression tied to your performance in Salmon Run and are what's used to determine your progression through the Bonus Meter for that rotation (the thing that gives you the different coloured capsules, the points are referred to here as "p").

These points are calculated using for following equation (where X is taken from whether you completed every round [X=1], completed every round and defeated a King Salmonid [X=2], or lost a round [X=0]):

(Golden Eggs + Power Eggs / 200)(Pay Grade / 100) + 50 * X = Grizzco Points

There are three badges tied to accumulating Grizzco Points over time; a bronze badge for 10,000 points, a silver badge for 100,000 points and a gold badge for collecting a grand total of 9,999,999 points.

The purpose of this post is to illustrate the extent to which this last requirements is (genuinely) unlikely to be reached by anyone legitimately before Splatoon 4 is released.

To understand why, let's take a look at just how many points you can get per match, then craft a best-case scenario to demonstrate how long it would take in hours of playtime.

The highest recorded number of eggs in a S3 Salmon Run game so far that I could find was this run posted by Brian with 241, however in the video it's mentioned that 250 is possible (and/or the current record? couldn't quite make out what was said exactly). Lets also take their number of Power Eggs collected in that run as well and generously round it up to 8000 to represent what you might get with a WR 250 egg run.

Using this and the 235% Paygrade you get for playing at Eggsecutive VP 50 and above, we can find out the number of points that you could get for an "optimum" run (if a King Salmonid does not appear)

(250 + 8000 / 200)(235 / 100) + 50 = 731.5 (lets call it 732, idk how Splatoon treats decimals so I'm just going to round it to the nearest whole number).

(Given that my average game as a pretty mediocre Eggsecutive VP player gets me about 270-330 points per win, I hope you can see the extent to which 732 is a pretty unsustainable "optimum" value, but let's carry on)

Salmon Run is made up of 3 rounds that are 100 seconds long ("0" is counted as a whole second iirc, so even though the timer shows 99 seconds you have 100), with about 10-15 seconds between waves. If you want to play multiple games one after another there's also about 1-2 minutes of waiting for a lobby + the opening helicopter cutscene + the end screen. As a rough estimate, lets say it takes an average of 7 minutes between joining the freelance queue and starting the queue for your next match afterwards.

9,999,999 / 732 = 13661.20082 (so 13662 games in total)

13662 x 7 = 95634 minutes = 1593.9 hours = 66.4125 days of solid playtime

Cutting our points per game to a more sustainable 360 points per game at Eggsecutive VP level, then adding a 75% win rate to the equation gets us to 4050 (.925...) hours of solid playtime for this one golden badge.

To put this into perspective, in an equivalent timeframe you could watch Shrek 2700 times and be just over half way through the 2701st viewing when the timer ran out.

Very illuminating example aside, I hope I've demonstrated why this badge is effectively unobtainable for those of us not in possession of a hacked switch. I would honestly almost bet a sizable amount of money that nobody is going to get this badge by the end of the decade (and/or when Silksong is relea.... wait that's coming in 2023 isn't it nvm)

(if I've got any of the maths wrong feel free to bully me in the tags)

#splatoon 3 #maths #tumblr deleted 90% of this post when I accidentally pressed ctrl z

[titanomancy]

Even though I already snaked all the pics, I liked how well the archive of part two turned out that I'm going back and archiving the first part of the Ash Wastes terrain dive in full.

You know, just in case WarCom ever gets an awful redesign that invalidates all its old articles.

Standard Template Constructions

As part of the Imperium of Man the world of Necromunda makes extensive use of Standard Template Constructs, or STC for short. Everything from lasguns to combat spoons are made to the same specifications – including the very homes, factories, and tunnels everyone lives in! The Ash Wastes terrain sets have been created with this standardisation in mind, so a ‘tall’ platform (or Hab) is the same height as a Sector Mechanicus strut or two Zone Mortalis Columns.

This also means a platform can also be built at the same height as a single Zone Mortalis column… which is also conveniently the same height as a set of Zone Mortalis stairs.

This means it’s very easy to link up terrain pieces built using the three different ranges as the different levels will always match up. In addition to this height compatibility, various platforms and gantries from the Sector Mechanicus range can be easily attached to an Ash Wastes Hab or Hab platform element.

The two Ash Wastes platforms also share the fittings of the Sector Mechanicus floors, which allow for them to sit on top of the rail and clip into place.

The large corner sections of the Sector Mechanicus floors will fit around the large Hab platform, and can be attached with the clips provided. This allows a huge range of customisation between the two ranges making it easy to blend the factory elements of Sector Mechancius sets with the outland Habs of the Ash Wastes terrain.

One Hab, Countless Houses

Much of the Thatos pattern compatibility comes into its own when you experiment with the many different ways of building the Hab modules. These deceptively simple constructs come with truly impressive modularity. For instance, if you don’t want to have your modules held aloft, leave off the pins (A5 and A6) and put the floor directly on the base, which happens to be the same height as one Zone Mortalis stairs.

Want more variety in your struts? They can be stacked using the spaces, using unique fittings so you can’t go wrong. Two short struts are also the same height as a long strut.

Want another way to connect a Hab platform to other terrain pieces? The balcony will hang off the platform rail without the need for glue. It also hangs the same distance as a small strut, making it great for modular gaming.

To keep stacking up Hab platforms, you have the option not to put a cap (A17) on the platform. Instead, attach another strut into the fitting, allowing you to stack multiple platforms on top of one another.

Even the Habs themselves can be stacked. Each roof has a hidden fitting which allows you to slot in any strut. It will sit at the correct height, adding platforms to the roofs or allowing for a double-stacked Hab.

If you do want to cap off your platforms and Hab roofs then there are three different cap designs which can be used on the platforms (big and small) and also the Hab roofs.

Need to get to your fighters? You can leave the roof unattached so it can be easily removed during gameplay if required… and also allow you to show off the fully detailed interior.

If you remove a Hab roof, you can replace it with a large platform, or you can put two Habs directly onto one another giving even more space for fighters to stand… or hurl each other to their doom.

To add more variety to your small platforms or sniper nests to the top of a Hab, the small platform has fittings that allow you to attach a large platform strut to the underside, adding some variety to your small platforms.

That’s it for now – next time we’ll take a look at all the extra features you can add to your Habs to link them together or blend them into other terrain ranges.

#games workshop #citadel miniatures #warhammer 40k #necromunda #ash wastes #terrain #thatos pattern hab module #sector mechanicus #zone mortalis #warhammer community

[terra-drone]

My gripes with Rift Apart

Consider this a review of Rift Apart (PC ver). After playing this game twice on Renegade Legend, I have... opinions. Being a fan of the franchise since Going Command/Locked & Loaded, I admittedly have some strong biases for both the PS2 saga and the Future Trilogy for various reasons. But before I go lambasting this entry into the franchise, a TLDR summary;

Pros:

The game is pretty and well executed on a technical level (for the most part).

The platforming and movement is refined and a step up from previous titles.

Cons:

Quite literally almost everything else.

Also has a propensity for crashing (both freezing and blue screen of death).

Movement & Platforming

One of the core aspects of RaC that I am happy RA got right. The movement is buttery smooth and chain daisying from one platform to the next using wall runs, dashes and rift pulls is excellently designed. The addition of the dash function adds an extra dodge ability that was absent in previous entries although granted we can still use the age-old side jumping while aiming/shooting.

I do wish however that the hoverboots were more integrated into the platforming since most of the time you only ever need it for super long leaps or the timed step puzzles. Something like the jump pads from ACIT would be nice to see paired with the new wall run and dash mechanic. You hardly need to use it outside of Savali and Torren IV and the last part of the Nef Mech fight.

What I wished they truncated however was the glide mechanic the hoverboots had. Given that the hoverboots could both glide and make you go fast, it makes this better than whatever Clank could possibly offer. @erablisme has done a wonderful breakdown on this matter (see here), but essentially having the hoverboots be an upgrade of both the charge boots and fulfilling Clank’s contribution to Ratchet’s mobility (gliding) renders Clank, from a gameplay standpoint, moot. It renders Clank into nothing more than a glorified backpack/exposition device, which beats the entire purpose of the franchise’s own title.

Gameplay

Weapons

The arsenal, while fun to use, is too bloated. A lot of the guns overlap in functionality:

Shotguns: Enforcer, Pixelizer, Void Repulser

Seeker/Turret weapons: Agents of Doom, Bombardier, Mr Fungi

Crowd Control: Topiary Sprinkler, Cold Snap

Grenades: Shatterbomb, Bouncer

Rapid fire: Burst Pistol, Blackhole Storm

Lock-on weapons: Drillhound, Richochet, Buzzsaw, Lightning Rod

Heavy hitter: RYNO, Negatron Collider, Warmonger

Do we really need multiple weapons that do the same thing just with different particle effects?

The level up mechanic, while a staple of RaC games, is frankly outdated by this point and actively hinders the game. If anything, it punishes players for sticking to guns they enjoy once they hit max level. It makes the motivator for using weapons not be its function but rather to chase that arbitrary level cap. Plus, there’s no telling what the level up actually did for a weapon aside from damage buffs.

It’s not like they couldn’t do away with this feature, Deadlocked made the guns increase so many levels it frankly deemphasises them in favour of choosing the best weapon for any given scenario, ItN decreased the max level to 3 (6 on challenge) in favour of more meaningful weapon upgrades, and ACiT had the Constructo weapons and mods (which Deadlocked also had called Omega Mods) that incentivises experimentation on what combos worked best while allowing you to spice things up post max level. Why not tie weapon upgrades to collectibles? They already had the Raritanium collection, sprinkling effect mods for weapons throughout the locations shouldn’t be too difficult. They already did this for the armour system, so why not do it for the weapons too? Heck, why not make all the weapons customisable like the Constructo weapons? It would solve the bloated arsenal problem.

Enemy Design

The enemy design in this game just isn’t great. While it makes sense considering you’re fighting an army so it’s obvious they’re gonna have standardised units, you would think they would spice up their combat stratagem when they know they couldn’t beat our protagonists by throwing the same old shtick over and over. Instead, we keep having to fight the same miniboss Juggernaut over and over and over again. Sometimes there’s two of them! Make it three during the Juice fight!

It’s not a problem with just the Nefarious troopers, it’s an issue across multiple factions too. Across all three factions (Space Pirates, Goons & Nef’s army), they all follow the same formula; 

the one with the gun: Pirate Corsair, Goon, Nef Lasertrooper

the one that does melee: Space Pirate & Shield Pirate, Goon Rusher & Undead Goon, Nef Slugger

the tiny short range/melee swarmer: Cutlassies, Robomutt, Nef Trooper

the vehicle one: Goon Dropship, Nef Dropship

the flying one: Zoom Goon, Nef Sniperbot & Blitztrooper & Sniperbot

the heavy flying one: Vroom Goon, Nef Peacekeeper

the rinse repeat miniboss: Pirate Marauder, Nef Juggernaut

While stylistically different, they don’t differ much from how they shoot/do damage at you. It would have been great if they did some things different from one another. Some really simple fixes;

While I think giving shields to pirates makes little sense, it is some variety at least. Expand on that. Maybe make the Goon Rusher actually rush towards you faster than the others, or make the Nefarious Slugger can do 360 attacks or have more range since it’s a) a robot, and b) basically has the Scorpion Flail for arms. 

Make the Vroom Goons try to ram you instead of just having to avoid the taser things it shoots cuz that’s the exact same thing that the Nefarious Sniperbot does since all you need to do to avoid both attacks is sidestepping it.

Make the Pirate Corsair shoot high damage while the standard Goon does horizontal strafing rapid fire compared to the Nef Trooper’s vertical one

Make the Zoom Goons dodge your attacks, maybe give it a ground pound that opens it up to attack so it's at least somewhat different from the Nef Peacekeeper other than being a slightly squishier variant.

For a game so pretty it is bizarre they couldn’t put more effort into gameplay itself. The repeating minibosses get stale very quickly since once you’ve figured out a tactic that worked, it is rinse and repeat across the whole game.

Two Protagonists, Same Shtick

The gameplay doesn’t differentiate itself between Ratchet and Rivet. They play the exact same way, with the exact same arsenal, and the exact same progression. What is the point of having separate playable protagonists if they’re just gonna end up the same? You could replace Rivet with Ratchet and vice versa for 90% of the game and nothing would change. It would be something if they had separate weapons or separate movement gimmicks that make them distinct, but we didn’t get that for some reason.

Character Issues

The character writing is just abysmal, even when compared to the Future trilogy. While the Future trilogy (and by extension A4O, FFA and ItN) had plenty, and I mean plenty, of plotholes from a worldbuilding standpoint, the character writing was solid and fairly consistent. I cannot say the same for RA. Some examples;

Ratchet(?) & Clank(?)

I can hardly recognise Ratchet as the same character we had over the PS2 and PS3 instalments. He feels more like the 2016 reboot version just haphazardly retconned as the ItN version that RA was supposedly a continuation of. Being afraid of being a washed-up hero was Qwark’s thing, not Ratchet’s. Why would he even care? The man was downright tired of being a hero come ItN. And why is he even worried about meeting the Lombaxes? He saved Polaris multiple times and beat Tachyon, y’know, the reason why they left in the first place? The reason he gave up searching for the Lombaxes was because he had more going on with Talwyn and was assured the Lombaxes would do just fine without him. Why the sudden change of reason? What, is acknowledging Talwyn one too many female characters for Insomniac?

And why would Clank, despite knowing Ratchet not wanting to pursue the Lombaxes, go out of his way to make a whole ass parade about the Dimensionator? If he was just trying to cheer Ratchet up from his fear of being a washed-up hero (which, again, made no sense for his character) he would have just done the parade and given him the Dimensionator in private. The entire premise of Rift Apart hinges on the fact that Clank decides to give Ratchet what can be considered as a WMD since the Lombaxes used the Dimensionator to get rid of the Cragmites in an open public setting. Had he not done this, had he not told Qwark he wanted to surprise Ratchet, Nefarious probably wouldn’t have found out about the new Dimensionator, and the entire game wouldn’t have happened.

Another gripe I have with how Clank was handled was that his Zoni heritage was conveniently forgotten about. They could have tied the Zoni more deeply into the mysticism of the RaC universe and be the reason why he was able to fix the dimensional anomalies, but instead it was tied to Gary and... the Lombaxes. Huh.

Rivet, or as I like to call her, “Furbait”

There is so much missed potential with Rivet. Where to start? Instead of a grizzled, closed-off survivor of a robot dystopia, we just get miss middle-of-the-road, clearly made for pandering, furbait. Design wise, she would have been perfectly serviceable had this NOT been a robot dystopia. The only physical giveaway to show that she was a survivor/rebel fighter was her arm. It is the only thing that shows she’s a rebel fighter survivor. Her suit is well made, her eyelashes are on fleek, her hair is silky smooth, her tail is all fluffy and clean. Nothing about her says she was a survivor. No scars, no dirt, nothing other than the obvious robot arm. It is lazy. Lazy and stupid.

Her personality doesn’t make sense for the universe she supposedly inhabits either. Heck, no one in this franchise fits well in this robot dystopia, tbh. She distrusts robots due to past experience, yet  is chummy with both Clank and Kit (and by some extension, the Zurkons & Pierre) relatively quickly. For someone who should have gone through a lot of adversity, she hardly acts like it. She’s confident, has a lot of friends, and whatever negative aspect she does have (which is just distrust instead of the obvious robot racist she should have been) that would have given her an opportunity to grow as a character is watered down and conveniently forgotten, so she hardly grows as a character, if any.

Ultimately, Rivet boils down to being “What if Ratchet, but a girl?”. There’s work put into trying to make her her own thing, but there’s also the narrative yanking her by the collar to be Ratchet’s other self. She’s the last Lombax in her dimension, she also wonders where the Lombaxes went, and she’s trying to be a hero. At that point, how is she any different than Ratchet? They don’t even differ much personality wise for a version of Ratchet who never met her Clank, so to speak. One would think she would be the spunky RaC1 Ratchet since it was meeting Clank that got Ratchet to grow as a person. Instead she’s just your lovely neighbourhood Rivet, friend to all except robots except the ones she meets I guess. What is the point of having two main characters if they are just gonna end up the same?

Kit

While arguably the better other of the new duo, she has issues as well in the writing department. She had the most growth out of our titular cast, however how she got there is ramshackled at best. 

In comparison to Clank, he was a defective warbot, which made sense why he was small. Kit on the other hand was tailor made by the supposedly competent Emperor Nefarious, so why does she have a cutesy mode? Why does she even have a character crisis from hurting Rivet, for that matter? Stopping rebels was what she was designed to do, and she suddenly gained a conscience from doing her job? If Kit is so effective at what she did, why did Emp Nef stop at making just one of her? Shouldn’t there be multiple Kit models roaming about? She could mow down hordes of newer Nefarious Troopers and Juggernauts, so why didn’t Emp Nef expand on that?

These inconsistencies make Kit as a character start falling apart as soon as you give it more scrutiny than a surface level glance. The writers could have easily solved these issues by just alluding that she might have been an outdated model, or was damaged and abandoned on Savali where Gary and the monks fixed her up and gave her a new purpose — protecting the Archives. Instead of an exterminator, she became a guardian. They could have taught her how to be more “human” as it were, too,  which would tie up nicely to why she regrets her actions in her previous line of work. Instead, they went with the “Oh no, what have I done, I did my job and injured a trespasser, now I’m gonna be a recluse on Savali” route.

She doesn’t gel well with Rivet either because the only one actively having something to overcome was Kit. Had Rivet been written better (having to overcome her prejudices, letting go of her past trauma, solving her trust issues) it could work with Kit growing out of her self doubt and regrets, but it just isn’t there. Plus, there weren't enough scenes of them together to build towards that conflict resolution that would make their friendship more believable. She has more of a relationship with Ratchet than Rivet.

“EmPeRoR” Nefarious

He is boring. Simple as. There is no driving motivation to him other than “conquer everything”. We could have gotten an Ultron (which would make a perfectly sensible callback to the Biobliterator shtick our Nef pulled from UYA) but we just end up with a sassy English bastard with the personality of wet bread. There was no fun interplay between him and our Neffy, anything to make both their personalities shine as they work together or grind against each other, it just sucks.

The Plot(holes)

Imma just list it down.

How does a helmet clearly designed to fit a Lombax head is supposedly “one size fits all”?

How did the fish kid Rivet saved in the intro made it around Nef City in the first place if this was supposedly a robot dystopia that eradicated all squishies? What, was he just having a stroll, taking some fresh dystopian air? Could have made it that this was a fellow rebel she was tasked to save cuz he had some intel that he swiped and Rivet decided to use herself as bait to draw attention away from him so he could get the intel out of there, but no.

On that matter, why do planets like Savali and Torren IV still have organic inhabitants?

What was Skidd trying to achieve by hacking the propaganda blimp? This served no purpose at all narratively since it didn't even turn any robots against the Neffies.

Why was Skidd even in Nef City, for that matter? What was his original mission that he was going undercover for? Busting Rivet out of prison? Couldn’t be, since he made no mention of it.

Why did none of Emp Nef's cronies question our Nef just popping in despite looking clearly different? He’s a whole head shorter and the wrong colour. What, do they not have colour vision?

How did Emp Nef know about the existence of the dimensional map? He barely knew about the Dimensionator so how does that make sense?

If Ratchet already has hoverboots, why couldn’t he dash/sprint with it until he gets to Savali?

Where and when did Rivet get a rift tether?

Where and when did Rivet get a pair of hoverboots?

Wasn’t the Space Pirates/Decadroids designed by Tachyon? Why do they exist in this dimension? Why aren’t they allied with Emp Nef since they too are robots? None of this is explained.

Where did the Lombaxes of Rivet’s dimension disappear to? Did they have a Tachyon-like threat in this dimension too? Did Emp Nef wipe them out? Don’t know, and the game doesn’t bother explaining it cuz Rivet is supposed to be girl Ratchet and nothing beyond that.

Why would Emperor Nefarious announce for the whole galaxy to see where he was going during the finale? Did he lose that much intelligence in the short timeframe we’ve known him? This is the guy who conquered the galaxy?

Why would he leave a portal for our protagonists to conveniently follow him through? 

Where did that telekinetic abilities of him suddenly disappear to?

Where was this dimension’s Lawrence counterpart? That stupid little secretary is so dumb as to not recognise her own boss she couldn’t possibly be the Lawrence replacement.

Environmental Storytelling & Worldbuilding

Environmental storytelling & worldbuilding has never really been Insomniac’s strong suit. RA is pretty and all, but aside from Blizar Prime, none of the other locales did anything different from Ratchet’s dimension. If this was supposed to be a galaxy where Emp Nef has conquered it all, you would think that there’d be more neon, more cyberpunk, more Emp Nef aesthetic, more robots flying about. Instead, we just got the same thing we had from Ratchet’s dimension, just in prettier graphics. It is set dressing with no story to tell. It's a puddle pretending it was an ocean. While I appreciate seeing the graphical glow up the locations got, it’s a missed opportunity to actually show the impact Emp Nef had. 

Take Nefarious City for example;

How was Ratchet able to move around Nef City without raising alarms? This negates the entire point of Rivet needing a robot disguise in the first place.

Why does a static statue in the middle of a city have a terminal that activates a platform that leads to Emp Nef's office in the first place?

On that note, why is an EMPEROR working from an office? Where’s the throne? The grand palace and palisades? The royal guards? If he’s an authoritarian that likes to take control, where’s the giant screen with a hundred monitors that watch every inch of Nef City?

Why does Emp Nef have a tiny four seater shuttle? If he needed to commute planet-side, wouldn’t he have something more posh? More grand? A Rolls Royce of shuttles instead of what can be considered a slightly pricier but still shitty Tesla model? They could have made Ratchet or Rivet have to steal a fighter jet and that would make infinitely more sense than what we got.

The same can be said with the inhabitants of this universe. They only exist to serve as plot devices or to point the protagonists to the next goal rather than actual people. There is no culture, no differing beliefs, nothing to tell you about what they are about or what they do. If all they exist to do is to be exposition devices/mission pointers, what was the point of even making distinct characters? Then again, the Future trilogy suffered the same problem with environmental characters being practically stand-in cardboards so points for consistency, I guess.

Verdict

Essentially, Rift Apart is a creatively bankrupt, designed-by-committee tech demo for Sony Playstation. What used to be a franchise that does satirical commentary on capitalism that later tried to delve into narrative/character driven sci-fi story, has ended up being the most capitalistic-designed entry imaginable. Which is unfortunate because I want to like this game. God, do I want to like it.

Did I enjoy playing it? When it works and doesn't crash on me, sure.

Do I like it enough as an entry to the franchise though? No, no I don't. The gameplay hardly expanded on the RaC formula, and the narrative just killed it for me.

But of course, that's just me. If you enjoyed RA, more power to ya. If you told me to play it again, I'll probably do it. It's just not for me for the long run.

#terra rambles #ratchet and clank #rift apart

[sourcreammachine]

rougelite-ish game set in the Doctor Who universe with two concurrent roguelite cycles. you play as a time lord starting out on an adventure across time and space, and when you die, you have to crawl off somewhere to regenerate. BUT you only have thirteen lives - and when you die permanently that time lord is uploaded to the matrix and all traits and progression are reset and you begin with a new time lord altogether

you pick from a selection of randomly generated academy graduates, with some innate basic traits, but your actions and levelling choices define who they are, NOT birthright. you can name them, and the several versions are by default referred to retrospectively as ‘The First [blank]’, ‘The Second [blank]’ etc but can be given custom epithets such as ‘The War [blank]’. time lords can permanently die before their thirteenth - when the regeneration process begins they receive a tiny amount of health back and must find a safe place, because if they are killed in this time they are dead dead. individual incarnations age, and eventually will weaken, slow, and die. regeneration is a lottery, it is ostensibly impossible for the player to control BUT is influenced by certain gameplay factors, with personality traits being governed by narrative decisions as well as pure randomness, with gameplay traits being governed by gameplay factors as well as pure randomness, and with time lords sometimes having an overarching gender preference (though with most being ontologically genderless and with the average time lord not having a clear preference and flipping between male-presenting, female-presenting, enby-presenting, or non-presenting). physical appearances are fundamentally completely random, though rarely your character will steal the face of a generated npc they’ve interacted with. you can speak with your dead time lords in the matrix

all player characters begin as obedient little academy graduates from the upper classes of gallifrey, and are given every opportunity to remain in the time lords’ good graces. as an obedient time lord you may only use TARDISes on time lord authority for time lord business, may not breach the no-interference policy, and may be bound to a full crew of six. of course, you have every opportunity to steal a TARDIS, but you will be declared renegade and you will be ostracised, though the game will open up massively to allow you fun and free will across the whole universe. all naked TARDISes are metal pods with small, white console rooms adorned with bright roundels. their chameleon circuit begins switched on, and can break, and can be switched off. you can turn on the blue boringers if you really want to go from A to B, but leaving them off allows for broader adventures. you can customise the interior aesthetic of the TARDIS as you like. when your time lord dies, their TARDIS will remain wherever they left it, and can possibly be retrieved by the next time lord should they have its key, letting them inherit the items and upgrades within. leaving it on gallifrey will allow the new time lord to beeline straight to it and avoid the time lords’ wrath

an incarnation will level up, gain perks become more powerful and experienced over time, but their incarnation-specific levelling will be reset at regeneration, with only the higher tier of ontological time lord levelling being carried forward, which still allows for a strong upwards power curve over the course of the thirteen lives. all of this gets reset at a permanent death. the only form of power curve established over the course of the entire game is based around your character’s actions - worlds can be made better for your later characters, items can be improved and bequeathed, TARDISes can be upgraded and reclaimed

you are not The Doctor and you are not their wannabe. though you (probably) will be a time lord renegade, that is not correlated with any sort of personality implications, or moral railroading. you can be a The Doctor, or a The Rani, or a The Master, or a The General, but you ultimately will be forging a path as The [insert name here]. if you play as a villain, your moral ills will affect the world but will not have a bearing on the nature of your future characters. the universe is your oyster, go live and die and have adventures

#196 #doctor who

[shoyoackerman]

LETS GO BABY 😩 nah but LND are spoiling us fr y’all. Tell me an otome game or any game really where you can as much rewards as you do in this. I also was able to pull for Zayne and now Xaviers next on my list.

I seriously just love this game so much, theirs so many great, amazing things about this game. And honestly one of them was the customisable mc, especially with the skin colour options. Like it’s such a small thing to some people, and it shouldn’t be something to be so happy about, but in games like this. Especially otome ones, the mc has always been fair skinned. Now it really does like it’s YOU and not someone else. Especially as a woman of colour.

Plus the rewards we get? Being able to level up, free interactions with the male leads, amazing world building and the mechanics during the fights.

You mean to tell me this is a FREE game?

Anyway love and deepspace has put all otome games to shame and I genuinely love it so much. And if anything definitely hoping this inspires change in future ones.

#love and deepspace #love & deepspace #otome game #love and deepspace rafayel #love and deepspace zayne #love and deepspace xavier #I’m so obsessed

[entropy-game-dev]

Alpha testing, v0.11a & patchnotes: The dark side of RNG

In the v0.10a build blog that L had tested, I had mentioned that the enemy AI’s targeting was not working, and they were mainly using defensive moves or otherwise acting passively. Well, as you’ll see in the patchnotes below, the AI was indeed turned on, which led to some... interesting developments.

Ye olde RNG

It’s always valuable to get feedback from new players, as both M, Z, and myself were quite familiar with the game now. Over subsequent iterations testing, the early game may have become a bit overtuned, in the enemy’s favor. These included:

Flat stat increases per level rather than a logarithmic curve that front-loads the stat gains

Slightly increased encounter rate in the first area

Slight debuffs to the overtuned starting moves

Now, considering this is an SMT-style game, I am perfectly fine with the early game being a bit of a rough start until you get a full party. However, the starting area’s  RNG in SMT games are a lot gentler to compensate, whereas here one has to deal with:

1 or more enemies spawning from any faction

RNG part drops

and RNG recruitment chances.

And on the whole, I was correct in that on average, one was statistically likely to make decent progress during the early game. A few levels and any gear drops generally makes fights much more even, but the downside of using RNG as a mechanism to add variation and excitement to the game means that sometimes, you just get unlucky. Of course, I consider running from encounters a necessary part of the game, but running away all the time when first starting out isn’t very fun!

A great suggestion L had to remedy this was to only allow certain weak enemies to spawn in the first area. This will ensure that one will have encounters tuned to their specific level of power, and the reduced variance in enemies will ensure that they can build a general strategy to deal with the units in the area. I’ll be working on implementing this later on.

Visual clutter

The worse your Astronaut’s condition is (low health, energy, oxygen, number of bad status effects) means a worsening of visual effects. My design reasons for this are numerous but in short, it serves as a warning to the player, it adds immersion, and it adds a small amount of visual difficulty. While I stand behind these decisions, I can understand not everyone will appreciate this, and especially in the early game where one is trying to learn the game, adding this visual noise is likely to add to the frustration, and detract from learning the rules of the game.

This definitely affected my friend L, and as such I’ve allowed one to set the intensity of the effects to zero (previously you could only go as low as 5%). Furthermore, I have another option planned that lets you customise the amount of time the screen stays glitched before it goes away. Purists (like myself) can set this to 100% of the time for a challenge, while those that aren’t keen on them can set them very low, or off if desired.

I’m sad to see that my effects were not as well-received as I’d hoped, but that’s the whole point of testing! M and Z didn’t mind it as much, which was interesting. Obviously, the glitching isn’t going anywhere, but now it can be removed if one so desires!

And that’s about it for these notes - you’ll be seeing a couple more playtest blogs in rapid succession because I happen to be a god at fast turnarounds (not really, it’s just that I fixed a lot in this version and the next couple of tests were quite short). Patchnotes, as always, are below:

v0.11

Features:

Routine now tells you why it is unavailable

Mouse cursor now becomes hidden after a period of it not being moved

Controller right stick now moves the mouse cursor!

Shows kmown enemy affinities during move selection

Shows targeting locations during move selection with enemy dimming

Mouse controls for selecting planets!

Mouse controls for choosing attack target!

Added doors! (Sprite + turning + tooltip)

Polish:

Darkened move text if it's on cooldown

Changed destroyed icon's colour based on team in routine summary

Enemy AI doesn't prioritise applying an already-applied status effect

AI doesn't kill themselves unless their cost is like way above their remaining hp

Carpet bomb's description changed: "standing on the ground" -> "in the lower row"

Turned down frequency of visor effects

Added tutorial about scanning enemy more than once

"hopes and miracles" -> "miracles, hopes, and dreams"

When mouse tooltip is shown, the mouseover stat panel is hidden

Move kamikaze flag in movedb now flags when a move that costs HP should be used when on very low hp

Made AI control limit message imply it can be increased later on

Stopped mouse interaction during the gameover sequence

Allowed mouse clicks to advance the gameover sequence

Slowed tutorial spam

Made right click during targeting selection cancel it (until you mouse over the attack menu again)

IN TRANSIT now appears when flying

Bugs:

Welding now available to use on bottom row

AI AOE grid generation working now

Right icon displayed for AM cost on move window & ammo not overriding EN cost now

Stopped battles occuring inside a wall

Mouseover move icons in equipment panel now working

Move mouseover now refreshes when you swap parts

Fixed aerospike engine no item sprite

Fixed script picking a logid greater than the max log

Fixed picking picking a log part greater than the max number of log parts

Stopped crash related to equips grid when summoning a unit

If you get teleported down a floor and are looking at a feature, that feature does now appears

routines/null/ now is routines/<parttype> when looking at parts in ship storage

Fixed the %max resource increase/decrease status effects

Fixed big bug with how stats were being refreshed with the "always" trigger - rolled this into the stat refresher script

Fixed move costs not appearing when shown on character status panel

Fixed move panel crashing when selecting defend/retreat

Fixed deadzone calculations and stopped R stick from being used as controls as it controls the mouse

Units will correctly prioritise moves that give units a status effect they don't currently have

Fixed targeting issues where the user moves before the move happens

Fixed routine summary not working properly for elemental bursts

Element now revealed properly on burst and on 0 damage attacks

Fixed teleporting not updating the minimap

Stopped "see trap" tutorial triggering on the spawn tile

#indiedev #gamedev #gaming #pixel art #scifi #space #gamemaker #programming #rpg #robot #devblog #game #videogame

[reds-ultrakill-brainrot]

Hi, what about v1, v2 x reader - gone from hell?

After Hell's Fall

general post-hell headcanons (included characters; V1, V2) x reader content (read platonic or romantic)

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

V1 - most likely becomes a form of nomad after completing their crusade in hell, I doubt they would ever stop moving, it's just how they were made - does become lost without their programmed goal to complete, finding themself lacking the previous motivation they had, but they soon find exploring and spending time with you to be fufilling. while there are no more husks to kill there is plenty of earth left to visit and many more moments to spend with you - in the remnants of society V1 is home, wether it be swinging between skyscapers or launching themself into the ocean from increasingly larger heights. expect each day to be full of shenanigans - V1 is extremely interested in human artifacts, most specifically music and magazines. they keep a scrapbook of sorts, crudely cut out images from old magazines are kept with an endearing level of idolisation - after leaving hell V1 makes a big decision, yes you can now touch their guns. they won't let you keep any of them, but they will take great delight in teaching you how to handle them - they have an innate ability to capture what they see, saving images and video for later. this is very often utilized while you both are visiting landmarks, they have seperate folders for genuinely beautiful pictures of you and comedically timed images - now that V1 has access to more complex art supplies they are in paradise, they have a very unique perception of the world and it's always a treat to see what new patch of graffiti they have added to the world - will modify themself in minor ways, most likely making themself stockier, physically stronger and increasing the mobility of the joints in their hands to allow them more precise gestures - they have a particular fondness for birds, its about the only creature that will wilingly get close to them. while you sleep V1 will see how many birds they can lure to sit next to them - you both eventually find a way for V1 to function without consuming blood, or limiting their consumption to where they can survive off the occasional animal or perhaps yourself. this doesn't change V1's love for carnage, its not out of malice, they are just programmed for violence, so occasionally they will just destroy things - they really like the idea of clothing, and though it will take a little bit of altering to fit their wings, they very much appreciate being able to customise their appearance in this way, a form of self determination and control they weren't able to perform earlier

V2 - if V1 is still alive i'm afraid their main goal will be to either kill or inconvenience them as much as possible. V2 likes you, but they like being a pain in V1's ass even more - besides giving chase to their sibling model, they are similarly nomadic in their choice of lifestyle. unless you really wanted to stay somewhere, V2 is happy to scour the earth in search of new sights. they find particular joy in trashing literally everything they get their hands on - even after finding a way for V2 to run on less blood, they will consume as much as they can. if you really want to spare the random animal they caught they will relent, reluctantly, but elsewise they are going to kill most things they find - doesn't have much interest in seeing most of humanity's creations, music and the arts aren't really their thing, cars however are. now there isn't an urgency to move around, V2 likes taking their time outfitting a car they claimed as their own - mods themself fairly quickly, mostly with things that help them maintain their car or traverse devastated cities. originally didn't care about clothing, however they did realise that contact with them would be more comfortable if they wore clothing. it's a surpise to see them wearing their extremely tattered hoodie, but you appreciate the gesture none the less - will help you aquire your own weapons and help you mod them, they have a very advanced understanding of both mechanics and gunsmithing and can help you make nearly anything you wish - the prolonged distance from violence does help damped their temper, that isn't to say they are particularly peaceful, but its a noticable improvement - much more of their focus is now on you, before they had to one up V1 and destroy hell first, but now they have a much clearer schedule they ahve decided impressing you is also fufilling. V1 couldn't garner your attention like they could (wether this goal justifies their rampant destruction is up to you, just avoid pointing it our lest you have a very embarrased murder machine) - they tend to struggle with boundaries now there isn't much for them to do by themselves, being firm with them that you need space won't hurt their feelings, they appreciate straight fowardness. do expect them to linger nearby, much like a cat they want to know what you're up to literally all the time - they tend to be a little theatrical with their gestures to make up for their lack of voice, they will literally fall over in frustration. if they find out you enjoy this, oh boy, expect shakespearean reactions to the most minor of things, anything to make you laugh

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

i was unsure wether the anon wanted a modern au or a natural continuation of the plot, i picked the second, the both of you returning to an earth without humanity. if anyone is interested in a modern au please feel free to request that. thanks for your time :)

#v1 ultrakill x reader #v2 ultrakill x reader #ultrakill x reader