#you get what i mean. like small changes to add perk abilities. nothing wild or extreme | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

falcor-thee-luck-dragon · 3 years

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Rough Night

Bucky Barnes x (f)werewolf reader

Summary: Your life is already so weird, thankfully Bucky loves you through it all.

Warning: fluff, reader being a sass master w/ no filter

side note: couldn’t think of any cool avenger powers and then brain went werewolf so here we are

Masterlist

If you had a dollar for every time you’d ended up in the woods with ripped clothes and no shoes, well, let’s just say you could probably afford a real nice two bedroom apartment in some real pleasantly fancy building with a great view and all. Too bad green doesn’t just rain down from the sky every time the full moon comes round to knock you back into another world of blurry confusion.

You won’t lie to yourself, being what you are is strange and not very common in the slightest, obviously. It’s even weirder that you weren’t bitten one night and turned just like that, oh no, all passed down through the bloodline of other strange relatives. So you’re gifted with the curse, forced to inevitably change into a furry beast every single full moon, so what you’re still a mostly pleasant individual.

Well luckily for you, being born with the gift does happen to have its perks which do come in handy. For instance, you’re incredibly strong, quick on your feet, and have heightened senses, plus the ability to shift on command. It’s not all bad, well......most of the time.

Honestly you truly thought life couldn’t get much stranger for you and your whole hidden secretive situation, until low and behold some random red head found your little hideaway in a remote mountain side village far off in the Himalayas.

Everything was completely fine and under control and then BAM, she showed up with some important documents and something called an Avengers initiative and well shit, guess some time spent with the real world couldn’t hurt. I mean come on, some more friends seemed like a nice idea and uh, somehow they knew who you were so too late to run and hide.

Also at the time, considering you lived like a recluse on the edge of the village and of course for good reason, but damn if the red head didn’t just hand you an open invitation for some real adventure. Who were you to say no?

Fortunately for you, all seemed to go in your favor and fantastically enough, they had a nice big strong cell for you on nights when the wolf was inevitably bound to come out. A fridge full of plentiful snacks, a training room to lay off some steam, and a big safe and secure room all your own. It was perfect. Only problem was, there happened to be a very attractive and very wary of you super soldier who undoubtedly caught your attention.

How could you not, he smelled divine, muscles for days, thick thighs that could make a girl swoon, and he just seemed like the best goddamn hugger alive. Okay listen, maybe you were touch starved and deprived of human affection but dammit if your little monster heart didn’t skip a beat every time he was near you.

And yes, the few months it took to get him to crack was just down right torturous. But with some coaxing from Steve and encouragement from Sam, the winter soldier at long last did talk to you. Turned out he thought you were scared of him all along, how hilariously ironic you thought when he told you that.

But as time progressed and you both opened up more and more, a blossoming relationship sprouted forth, eventually evolving and manifesting into a big beautiful flower called love. Cheesy yes, but you couldn’t have dreamed of anything better.

And seriously, he wasn’t freaked out about your whole hidden hush hush secretive gift that usually either goes in your favor or ends up causing you major legal trouble. The man himself, Bucky Barnes, thought you were a marvel to behold, so odd and fantastic that he couldn’t stay away even if he tried.

And for that you could love him forever, especially now after a full moon while you’re out in the middle of nowhere. Hoping that the team will send your hundred year old boyfriend out to find you in the brisk dark morning after a grand unrememberable adventure. Which would be very nice of course, considering you have not a damn clue what you’ve done.....or where you are.

Cracking your back, you stretch your hands up to the dawning sky as a tired yawn escapes you. It’s been a long night and you look like a wild woman with your hear a fluffy nest and your clothes ripped in various unrevealing places thankfully.

Your surroundings are simply trees and small scraggly bushes, green grass underneath your bare feet and a small stream flowing in the near distance. With a second to listen, you can hear a highway a couple miles away to the east, guess that’s a start.

Rubbing your eyes you set out in that direction for about twenty minutes before a blue and gold Mercedes comes into view from the side of a country back road, it stops when you guess the driver spotted you from the tree line. Keeping a wary eye on the fancy sports car, you keep walking towards it until a figure gets out and leans against the passengers side door all cool and casual, then on further inspection you realize the driver is Bucky.

Yes! My knight in shining armor is here!

Trudging through the grassy field in the dewy morning light, he watches your every move, eyes crinkling in amusement as you come to stand a couple feet in front of him. Undoubtedly looking a bit wild, and very tired as you fold your arms underneath each other, giving your dark haired lover a shy almost fangy smile.

“I know I look like a hot mess.” You mutter with a shrug, biting your lip as you dart your eyes to the fields behind him, slightly embarrassed of the current disheveled state you’re in.

Bucky smirks before pushing himself off the car and engulfing you into a big Bucky bear hug to your pleasant surprise, “Y/N I’m just glad you’re okay and nothing bad happened to you.” He mumbles into your shoulder as you press yourself closer to him, letting yourself have this wonderful moment to relax and feel at ease.

Slowly pulling back to look up at him, you smile, “Aww Buck you were worried about me?”

He returns the grin, leaning down to press his head flush against yours, “We all were, me more then anyone else of course...and maybe for the general civilians nearby.”

You laugh nervously, “Oh right, yeah. Well hey, I didn’t destroy anyone's car this time. I think I’ve made progress.”

He pauses for a brief moment indicating he’s not sure if he should tell you something and this does make you nervous before Bucky finally lets out a little laugh, “You ate a whole cow Y/N.”

Snorting in surprise you quickly pull your head from Bucky’s, “What? Did I? Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Yeah, uh I wish.” He admits with a casual reassuring squeeze to your arm, “We tracked you with Sam’s suit tech, yunno Red Wing, and uh....you seemed to be having fun.”

Mentally and just about physically cringing at yourself, you purse your lips together in slight embarrassment, “Shit. Was it gross?” You ask, making a face that causes him to chuckle.

“A little.” Adds Bucky with another casual shrug to make you feel less terrible.

“Is the farmer going to see everything, I mean shit they’re gonna be so pissed.” You worry, biting your lip anxiously as you break eye contact from him. “Why am I like this.”

“Uh, that’s not going to be a problem.” Inquires Bucky causing you to find his blue eyes once again.

Eying him up suspiciously you raise a brow, “And why’s that.....Bucky what did I do?”

Taking a breath he gives you a small apprehensive smile, “Y/N...you uh, kind of ate......everything.”

“I what?” I did not! No way, right?

Giving you a quick kiss on the cheek he smiles affectionately, “I’m going to be honest with you here it looked like a kid with a piece of cake who has no impulse control, and loves cake....like a lot.....Rodney almost puked.”

Rolling your eyes you fake glare at him, “Oh god who all watched my little horror show?”

“Mostly everyone.”

“Jesus.”

“It’s like a car crash Y/N, we don’t want to watch but we can’t look away. Sorry doll.” He confesses apprehensively, though honest and sincere knowing you do feel bad for what you do when out of it.

“No.” You say honestly, pausing for a moment, “It’s fine. Seriously Buck, I’m just relieved you guys keep taps on me while I’m out, god knows I can’t help what I do and where I go. It’s nice to have people making sure I don’t injure any innocent bystander.”

“Yeah I guess so huh...alright Y/N/N,” Chirps Bucky with a beaming grin as he attempts to shift the mood to a less dull one, “let’s get out of here, I mean unless you want to sniff around the place for awhile...it is a nice forest over there and all but I guess we can stay and I’ll let you...”

“Alright Barnes, can-it or maybe I’ll bite you.” You tease with a playful squeeze of his bicep before breaking out of his strong grasp.

“Depends on the context maybe I’d enjoy it.” Adds Bucky sarcastically, side eying you with a half smile as you move to open the car door.

Shaking your head in playful disapproval you lightly shove him aside, “Believe me you wouldn’t.”

——

The ride back to the Avengers base or headquarters or facility, who the hell knows at this point, was actually quite smooth and peaceful. Then again you fell asleep as soon as Bucky made it onto the highway, and continued to catch a much needed nap for the next hour ride home.

No one ever said you were easy alright, but let’s be real, Bucky would let you put him through anything and he’d be happy about it.

After parking and walking down the sidewalk past some early morning trainees catching a run, the two of you made it into the Avengers official HQ where all your rooms and other luxury’s are located. But of course not before walking past the facilities giant living space and huge kitchen.

Just keep looking forward, keep walking, walk faster you idiot!

“Y/N!” Shouts Sam in that stupidly peppy obnoxious early morning voice of his, no doubt gaining the attentions of Steve and Natasha who are seated at the kitchens bar talking about some mission report.

Pausing in the large doorway that’s not giving you or Bucky a whole lot of hiding space, you take a deep breath before turning to acknowledge him, “You’d think people would be sleeping considering it’s only six in the morning.”

Chuckling, Sam raises his protein shake, “Weird,” He says while giving you a knowing smirk, “we missed you during training this morning.”

Nat and Steve conceal their amusement as you simply roll your eyes, “Yeah well it was a long night.” You mutter unenthusiastically, earning the tiniest laugh from Bucky which causes you to throw him a glare. Knocking that smile right off of his handsome stubbly face.

“Well we got all these shakes here if you two love birds want one. Hate to have em go to waste.” Adds the smiling man with a nod, if he doesn’t just love seeing you looking like shit. No Sam I do not accept this invitation for you to tell me how crazy I look.

Sam means well of course, but damn he loves teasing you in front of Bucky for a fun reaction out of him. And it’s kind of working, but not on Bucky.

“It’s fine Y/N, you don’t have to have one if you don’t want to.” Calls Natasha before taking a sip from her mug. “Just ignore Sam, he’s been annoying since the gym.”

Before Sam’s even able to speak you quickly narrow your eyes at him, holding up a finger before making hasty steps across the room. Stopping right in front of him, “Give it.” You deadpan.

Brows raised in surprise he glances from a confused Bucky, then back to you again, “Listen I only made so much, Y/N this is my breakfast okay you can’t just...”

Ignoring his rushed rambling you pull out the whole glass blender full of protein shake before taking a step back as the whole room goes quiet, then never breaking eye contact you heartily drink up the whole entirety of its cold contents without missing a beat. Yeah, definitely needed that.

After you’re finished you lick your lips in satisfaction, taking a step closer towards a speechless Sam as you set the blender back in its place. Giving him a satisfied smirk before walking back over to Bucky where you tug on his jacket to follow you down the hall and away from everyone else.

Sometimes you can’t help but be a little dramatic.

——

Laying sprawled out on yours and Bucky’s giant mattress, you stare up at the ceiling as he folds your clean and freshly scented laundry, your mind swirling with thoughts of what duties you have to be apart of today. Blah, work.

Sighing gently you glance at Bucky to see if he heard you, not getting anything from him you sigh again with more grandeur this time. Nothing. Rolling your eyes you suck in a deep breath before practically soft yelling out your exhale like the dramatic little beast you are.

Glancing over to Bucky, you watch as he turns around to put some of your pants away in a drawer. Okay then, that’s how it’s gonna be. Quickly sitting up, you smirk a devilish grin before silently reaching over to pick up a small pillow, once in hand you don’t think twice before launching it at full speed directly headed for the back of his head.

But before your decently soft projectile can smack his precious flowing locks does a metal arm swiftly reach up to catch it mid flight. Oh, shit. Bucky’s head turns to you, brow raised at you before tucking the pillow underneath his arm, and going back to his usual domestic duties for the day.

Okay, killer of fun Mr. James Buchanan Barnes.

Frustrated from lack of a reaction out of him, you stand up on the bed like a warrior about to give a great battle cry. Eyeing his cute butt up for a moment, you smirk once again before launching a sneak attack pillow right for his head. It sails magnificently across the room before a metal hand stops it in its place.

Well, shit.

This time he gives you a proper look, full of mischief and a new profound playfulness that sends an excited thrill throughout your entire being. As fast as one of Thor’s lightening bolts does the pillow soar in your direction, but conveniently for you he’s forgotten just how quick you can really be. This is just what you wanted.

Dodging to the left you watch in almost slow motion as the fluffy cloth just misses your face, instead opting to smack against the back wall with a loud thud. Snapping your attention back to Bucky he narrows his blue eyes at you suspiciously while you let out an admittedly scary villainous chuckle.

Let’s party my love.

He hands you a smirk right before shifting his body to the right, arm cocked back and thrust forward just as quickly, launching his second pillow attack without an ounce of mercy. You see it coming a mile away and as graceful as a dancer do you flip off the bed, landing perfectly on the carpeted floor just as the pillow smacks hard against the door. Thwack!

Slowly standing, eyeing him up like a lioness to her prey, you give him a satisfied smile, “Missed.” You tease.

Letting out a breathy laugh, Bucky takes a cautious step in your direction as he tests the waters, “Y/N what are you doing?”

“Getting your attention you ass.”

Chuckling he takes another step forward, “Was I ignoring you?” Duh, that’s why I, oh wait he’s playing you.

“Well you certainly weren’t doing anything interesting.” You sass as he steps again closer, this time about an arms length away.

The corners of his eyes crinkle in amusement, “Okay that’s fair, but was the pillow really necessary?” He asks, though his tone is still humorous.

Not falling for his alluring charm you tilt your head to the side, a knowing smile breaking out across your face as he tries to register what your true intentions are. “Yes, and so is this.” You quip before dropping to the floor for a side sweep of his legs, in an instant he’s on the ground and looking wide eyed up at you.

God he looks beautiful. No, focus.

“Y/N!” He whines breathlessly, brows furrowed as he holds himself up by his elbows, “Now you’re gonna get it!”

Taking a quick step back you snort, “Oh really now?”

And he’s fallen for the plan.

“Yes, and when I get you, you won’t be laughing anymore.” He grumbles, trying to keep himself from laughing as well.

“Alright then hot stuff try and bring me down.” You snap back playfully as he rises to his feet, “First one pinned has to run with Sam later, and we both know how much fun he is to run with.”

Bringing his arms up into a defensive position he readies himself for an attack, “Yeah, I’d rather not be his jogging buddy today. I mean it is raining outside, but I know you’d look real nice after a wet run.” Teases Bucky with a smirk.

“Touché you smartass.” His lips twitch into a grin as you ready your own stance. “Now let’s dance.”

#bucky barns x reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky barns imagine #bucky barnes x y/n #the winter soldier #the winter soldier x y/n #the winter soldier x reader #bucky barnes #marvel imagine #marvel x y/n #marvel x reader #marvel x you #The Avengers #the avengers imagine #avengers x fem!reader #avengers x you

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minsyal · 5 years

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Mutual Feelings Pt. 9, [Revali x Reader]

Summary: Smart nerdy stuff that smart nerdy people do

“Incoming!” The small metal hinges on your door shook as a heavy foot collided with the old crackling wood, only making its condition worse. The door flew open, slammed against the wall, and rattled the entire room. If the shelves and desk weren’t bolted to the wall, they would have clattered to the ground or move. Purah stood under the frame with the widest smile stretching across her face.

She was nothing but a lit firecracker. Her smile spoke words of mischief, as it always did, speaking essays and forty-minute presentations without her even having to part her lips.

You slid the papers you were working on under a leather-bound book. She wouldn’t like their contents. After all, they were full of information to the Divine Beasts controls that she didn’t know about. Controls that you added. You could imagine the look on her face if she learned that you were going behind her back to answer the Champion’s requests.

“Morning, sleepyhead.” She waltzed into the room with an energy that dumbfounded you. How she managed to stay in a perpetual state of joy was something that intrigued you, but you had no desire to live through yourself. “Brought you more super royal work! I know how much you love all that jazz.”

“You know me better than anyone.” You joked, turning your chair to face her. “What is it?”

“Oh,” she danced around you to slink toward the window. “you know! Just… some stuff.” The pile of papers in her hands didn’t seem like too much work. There were only two notebooks and maybe a dozen sheets of paper with scribbles all over them. There was one thing you took note of, the princess’s perfect cursive that seemed to glide across the page.

“Some stuff.” You repeated, quickly snatching a paper before Purah could protest. “Zelda’s work?”

“Precisely!”

“Why?” There was no way Zelda would want you messing with her work.

“Well. Big boss-man told her to focus on her powers. That means that you and I, more so you,” she quickly added, “get to finish it for her!”

“She would be furious if I so much as touched this.” You speedily put the page back on the stack that was now perched on your desk. “Are you sure we’re supposed to do this?”

“It’s not so much as finish it. Rather,” she leaned to the right and then swayed to the left, “add it to our work! It’s about the shrines and everything. You know? Science stuff.”

“Is she allowed to continue searching for shrines?”

“Probably not. That means less trips with her for you! Maybe more time to spend with,” she waggled her brows in a suggestive manner, “you know who.”

“Purah, let’s not go there.”

“Oh sweetie, you already went there! In fact, you’re way past there! You’re,” she pretended to cast a fishing hook off into the distance, “waaaaayyyy over there! And over there,” she pointed in the opposite direction, “was the point of no return.��

“You’re insufferable.”

“All in a day’s work!”

“Don’t you have other work to be doing?”

“Nope!” She swayed on her toes, the mischievous smile never leaving her face. “So, are you and Revali like, a thing?”

“It was nice to see you, Purah.” You rose from your desk chair and began pushing her out the door. “Please, visit less.” Her feet halted in the hall. “I’ll send a card.”

“It better tell me you and Revali are dating!”

You slammed the door in her face. You could hear her giggling to herself as she left.

Shortly after meeting Keumi and learning of her situation, you traveled alone to Zora’s Domain to obtain updates on how many shines were identified in the surrounding areas from King Dorephan and Mipha. Sidon, who is Mipha’s brother, tagged along but proved to be little to no help as he was just beginning to learn how to utilize his swimming skills.

While there, you met a peculiar older gentleman who gave off an air of wisdom and vast medicinal knowledge. He was kind, quiet, and understated. Unlike the other Zora, he lived in the outskirts of the Domain. His whereabouts remained a mystery to the other Zora, and he was said to only appear when he sensed illness.

It was surprising when he set foot in the Domain seeking you.

You sat with the medicine man, listening diligently as he told you stories of his many travels throughout Hyrule. He had been everywhere you had and more. The ingredients he collected for treating illness were from all walks of the land.

“What brings you to the Domain?” He asked, folding his wrinkled hands in his lap. The two of you sat on the steps of the Domain.

“Research.” You commented.

“Just research?” He implored, eyes leaving you to look off dreamily to the sky. He closed his eyes, taking in the breeze that blew through the canyon walls. “I think you’re here for far more than that.”

“More?”

“You have someone special to you. Very special,” his gaze returned to yours, “and they’re very sick.”

“How do you know that?” You whispered, eyes going wide.

“It’s all over your face.” He smiled, “And I’m not oblivious.”

The medicine man, Sopho, told you of a mysterious plant with an inimitable name, “Omisaato.” The enigmatic flower heavily resembled the Silent Princess, but with small differences in its shape and the introduction of golden speckling on its petals. It radiated the scent of fresh vanilla bean and only sprouted from the ground once a year in varying locations around Gerudo. Sopho told of its intense healing abilities. When brewed correctly with specific ingredients, it could cure even the most devastating diseases or genetic mutations.

He couldn’t provide you with the exact information you needed but could gift you a descent sized book that he had bought on a trip to Kara Kara. Even if there was no evidence of its existence, it was worth a try.

It could fix her. It could save her.

Though it was only a few days ago, Zelda was growing restless. She was itching to breach the walls and return to the wild where she could spend time with what she loved most. You’d find her lingering in the library for longer periods of time, watching over your shoulder as you sifted through her research notes. She’d practically be dangling from the balcony to see what you thought of her work. It was detailed, far more detailed than you had ever bothered to do. She described the make and model, how many screws and bolts she estimated they have, and where she hypothesized, they led to. With such a small entrance, it had to go down. But where? That was the looming question.

“Why don’t you just join me, instead of scare the hell out of Link?” You turned around to find her wide-eyed, either surprised you called her out or surprised that you knew she was there. With a short nod, she descended the stairs and sat down across from you at the table. Link stood a few feet behind her, looking as uncomfortable as he typically did while he followed her around like a lost dog. “Link, come on.”

He hesitantly sat down.

“My notes.” Her fingers danced across the pages that you piled together. “What are they like?”

“They’re yours,” you let out a tired laugh, “you tell me.”

Many emotions crossed her face in very few seconds. Her eyebrows drew together as she contemplated what she wanted to say next. Link was staring blankly at her, likely wondering the exact same thing as you. Zelda reached out and fixed the stack neatly, ensuring the pages corners lined up perfectly.

“Thank you.” She finally said in a quiet tone. “For saving me when we were in Hebra.”

Catching you completely off guard, you examined her expression, trying to figure out whether or not she was telling the truth. She showed no signs of dishonesty. Her eyes were glossy and large, her fingers rubbed together lightly, and her shaking leg inched the table over with each bounce.

“It’s no big deal.” You gave her a tight-lipped smile. “Guess I didn’t expect being a royal scientist meant experiencing 60 volts of electricity coursing through your veins.” With another smile, she was relaxed and smiling back. “Your notes are good. Detailed to all get out. But we haven’t been able to pinpoint whether the shrines in the different regions vary. I’d like to arrange a trip to Gerudo, sooner rather than later, to examine the shrines there.”

At the mention of traveling, she perked up. Something crossed her face that told you the conversations with her father were resurrected in her mind as she physically slumped a bit.

“We can request it to make ambassadorial relation meetings with Urbosa and for the possibility of finding another spring in the desert. He won’t question that.” You assured her.

“I’ll have it arranged at once.”

The next day you set out with Link, Zelda, and Mipha for Gerudo. Daruk and Revali had decided traveling separately would be faster and more efficient for the group as a whole. Plus, they wouldn’t even be allowed to enter the city so getting there immediately wouldn’t be called for. Zelda was much more pleasant than usual. Her attitude changed the moment you suggested the trip and a way around the King’s tightening rules for the young princess. She didn’t even question the cage you wore on your back meant to house the legendary flower.

Mipha, on the other hand, was curious as all get out. She poked and prodded at it, examining the welding techniques used. Link and Zelda led the group while you walked along side the Zora princess who swam slowly through Aquame Lake.

“What is it for?”

“I’m collecting some samples from the desert to take back and analyze at the castle. Boring stuff.” You laughed it off.

“Fascinating.” She was always so joyful. If there was a definition to innocence, it would surely be Mipha. “I’ve always wanted to do more scientific things. There’s just no time to.”

“You’ve helped me install updates to Ruta. I’d say that’s pretty scientific.” You commented. Mipha smiled, ducking beneath the water for a moment before coming back up.

“I mean with lab goggles and coats!”

“Next time I visit, I’ll make sure to bring an extra.”

“I’d enjoy that!”

#revali x reader #revali imagine #revali imagines #revali #botw revali #botw #botw fanfic #botw fic #botw fanfiction #botw loz #loz #tloz #tloz breath of the wild #breath of the wild #x reader #revali x you #loz fanfic

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carrottheluvmachine · 5 years

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Title: Being Human Pairing: ironstrange warnings: none Summary: The cloak is temporarily transformed into a human.

“Stephen?” Tony paused for a moment to observe the scene before him, trying to process exactly what he was seeing. “Would you mind telling me why there's a naked man in your living room?”

There was, indeed, a naked man sitting on the floor of the living room in the Sanctum. He sported fiery red hair, pale skin, and looked to be nearly as tall as Stephen himself. But none of those other tidbits mattered right now because the fact was that there was still a very naked man sitting in the middle of his boyfriend's living room.

The man looked just as stunned as Tony felt.

Stephen breathed out a sigh and pinched between his eyes. “That's the cloak.”

Tony raised one eyebrow, about to argue that he hadn't ever seen the cloak change its shape into anything less impressive than a scarf, but Stephen cut him off.

“I was practicing a transfiguration spell because we were curious what the cloak would look like as a human. I got that part down pat, but now I can't seem to switch it back.”

Tony locked eyes with the man. There was something familiar in those eyes—they were a surreal kind of gold, one that wouldn't look normal on average humans but somehow fit a magical artifact that had been temporarily transformed into one. He approached and held up his hand. Immediately, the man lunged forward and slapped it very clumsily with one of his own. Tony burst out laughing, a smile breaking onto his face.

“That's the cloak, alright!”

Tony took off his hoodie and urged the cloak to sit up straighter. He tied the fabric around his middle, just until they could bring him to Stephen's room to get dressed. They looked about the same height and build which meant that Stephen's clothes would fit a whole lot better than Tony's would (not that Tony had any other clothes to spare).

“The spell should wear off after a day or so.” Stephen said, coming over to help Tony get the cloak on his feet. He wobbled and clutched onto his master, a small whine escaping him. “Oh. Right. You aren't used to walking.”

The cloak shook his head, wild red hair flopping all over the place. The cloak had always seemed very human to Tony, but now that he had a true form it just appeared to fit. He wasn't used to having legs, but he always used his ends as hands and his collar like a head. Walking, instead of levitating, was something he would need to get used to.

“One foot in front of the other.” Stephen instructed, watching the cloak carefully lift one leg to stick out in front of him. He placed it down solidly on the floor and looked up to Stephen for further instructions. “Lean on that one and lift the other just like you did the first.”

Stephen's arms went around the cloak's waist, supporting him as he lifted the second leg and placed it beside the first. A smile broke out on his face and he looked excitedly from Tony to Stephen, making the mechanic laugh.

“Aww. Our baby just took his first steps, Steph.” Tony cooed, hugging the cloak closer. Had he been in his normal form he would have flown circles around Tony and spun, a sure sign that he was happy.

Stephen just laughed and gave a fond eye roll.

It took them several more minutes to make it up the stairs and into Stephen's bedroom, but by the time they were there the cloak was able to stand on his own legs. Together, Tony and Stephen went through the sorcerer's clothes to find something to dress the cloak in. He did his best to behave as clothes were tugged over his body, preferring things that were loose fitting as opposed to the jeans that Stephen usually wore. Eventually, the cloak was dressed in an old Nirvana t-shirt and some black sweatpants.

“Come look,” Tony said, tugging the cloak in the direction of Stephen's mirror.

He caught sight of himself and instantly went to attach himself to Tony's shoulders. However, that action didn't do much other than send the two of them sprawling onto the floor seeing as the cloak was nearly a head taller than Tony was and it had just put its full weight onto him. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's just you. Don't worry.”

Stephen helped them both to stand and tolerated as the cloak hugged onto him and peeked into the mirror once more. He came close enough so that his nose bumped into the glass, making him go cross-eyed as he tried to observe his image. Stephen pulled him a little further back and the cloak tilted his head to the side, a cascade of fiery red hair falling into one of his eyes. It made him laugh and the sound startled him. Instantly, he jumped onto Stephen's back, arms going around the sorcerer's neck and feet dangling off the ground. In human form, the cloak was surprisingly light for someone of such great height. Stephen simply sighed and allowed the hug to go on until the cloak detached his arms and landed back on his feet.

Once again, the cloak observed his image. Although it had lost its ability to levitate, it still seemed impressively light on its feet. It appeared to hover before the mirror, pulling faces and giggling, surprised by the noises it was now able to make.

During lunch, Tony had tried to teach it to talk. He knew the cloak could understand everything that was being said around it, but it had never been given a voice before. Now that it had one, Tony was determined to get it to speak. So far, all it managed were their names and several more noises. It seemed that getting a two thousand year old artifact to speak was more difficult than they thought.

The cloak was thrilled that it could eat the things it had watched Stephen eat for years. At first it shoved things into its mouth without abandon, figuring that it already knew how to eat since it had seen Stephen do it so often. It barely chewed before swallowing, and like the doting father that he was, Stephen wasn't going to let that fly for long. He pulled the food away and told the cloak that he wasn't allowed to have any more unless he could chew properly before swallowing. They didn't need a choking incident to add to their list of memorable moments of the day.

Tony's cell phone had gone off after the reprimand and he fished it from his pocket to find that Peter was calling him. “Hey kid, what's up?”

An explosive sounded from the other end of the call and Tony was instantly on high alert. “Peter? What's going on? Do you need help?”

Peter's voice came through a little bit crackled, but Tony got the picture. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, I think so, Mr. Stark.”

Nodding, Tony stood up and tapped at the nanotech in the center of his chest. The Iron Man suit bled over his skin, covering up to his neck where it stopped. “Right. I'll be there soon. Hang in there.” He ended the call and the phone vanished back into his suit. “You comin', Doc?”

“Yeah.” Stephen got to his feet and his clothes turned into his robes, sans the cloak. “Stay here. In that form you're much more vulnerable. I don't want you getting hurt.” He ran a shaking hand through the cloak's hair and watched the man pout at him. “Don't give me that look. You can't fly and you're in a meat suit. You can bleed now, which means you can be killed. I'm not risking that.”

The cloak looked to Tony as his helmet snapped down over his face.

“Sorry, but I agree with Stephen. You aren't used to fighting in that body. You're safer here.”

The look of disappointment didn't fade from the cloak's face. Instead he looked down at his feet, only perking up when Stephen sighed and leaned forward to give him a hug and a peck on the cheek. “We'll be back soon,” the sorcerer promised.

This comforted the cloak, and it smiled sadly as Tony and Stephen left the Sanctum. It remained on the couch and tried to watch some television with Bats, who sat in his lap and snored softly. The feeling of Bats's fur underneath the pads of his fingers felt so neat. In his normal form he was able to feel things, but only slightly. This body was much more reactive. He could smell and make sounds too. He wished he could stay like this whenever he wanted, but just like when he changed into a scarf it was all up to Stephen and his magic. He could not forget that Stephen was his master and the things he did were to serve him. Still, Stephen was an excellent master who cared deeply for him. That was how they had gotten into this mess to begin with.

Something pulsed through his body, making him cringe and clutch at his heart. This was a familiar feeling—one he felt when Stephen was in danger. His master needed him. He couldn't just sit back and do nothing.

Gently, the cloak nudged Bats from his lap and stood up. He was used to having legs by now and was able to run to the door and throw it open. Knowing his way around the city was something he had known for a long time since he was always with Stephen whenever he left the house. Following the sounds of explosives would surely lead him to where he needed to go. He pushed his new legs to the breaking point, the sneakers that Stephen had lent him pounding against the pavement of the sidewalk. His heart pumped, the blood roaring in his ears the closer he got.

Please let Stephen be okay. Please let Tony be okay. Please.

He arrived right in time to see his master falling, unconscious, from the top of a building. Iron Man and Spider-Man were preoccupied fighting off the villain who was threatening to bring down several buildings with explosives. It was up to the cloak to save his master. The only problem was that he was in the wrong form. He couldn't risk trying to catch Stephen like this, not when he could easily miss. He needed to be in his normal form, to fly up there and wrap safely around his master to ensure he wouldn't take damage in the wall.

He felt his body shifting much like it had that morning when he had initially been transformed. The fabric grew in place of skin, his bones breaking and dissipating, all of the features that made him human vanishing completely until all that remained was The Cloak of Levitation. The cloak soared through the air, easily latching onto Stephen's shoulders, wrapping around him to protect him from the fall.

There was no impact. Just the cloak setting Stephen down on his behind in the grass. It used the ends of its collar to run over Stephen's cheeks, trying to wake him. It got a groan in response and knew that its master was back with it. Stephen was safe. The cloak had prevailed.

“Hmm? Wha?” It took Stephen a minute to realize that it was the cloak that had caught him, but he smiled to see his friend in its true form once more. “You're back to normal.”

The cloak nodded its collar and hugged Stephen tightly, earning a laugh and a pat from the sorcerer. “We have business to attend to. Think you're up to it?”

The cloak gave another nod and took to the skies once more.

“So, it can change whenever it wants now?” Tony asked, watching the way Peter and the cloak were cuddled together in a pile of limbs on the couch.

“Not exactly,” Stephen corrected, smiling fondly at them. Now that Stephen looked more closely at him, he could guess that the cloak's human form was somewhere around Peter's age. “It still needs me to cast the spell, but it can transform back on its own.”

Tony pulled Stephen closer, raking his fingers through the sorcerer's whitening hair. “I think it'll be good for it. Gives it more freedom, ya know? Besides, I think it likes being human.”

Stephen closed his eyes, the cloak in its human form being the last thing he saw before doing so. “At least that makes one of us.” He received a pinch to the rear and laughed softly.

#colie writes #ironstrange #Avengers #the cloak of levitation

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returnerofthesky · 7 years

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why do you hate skyrim so much, anyway?

To be honest, I don’t… “hate” Skyrim, per-say? Hate’s too strong a word for any game for me, and even then Skyrim isn’t necessarily a terrible game despite how much I dislike it.

Which probably sounds weird, but that’s just me; most games that I dislike aren’t just plain old bad games. I don’t have an emotional dislike of, say, Bubsy, or Superman 64, or so on. They’re shit games, but there’s nothing particularly redeemable about them. They might have had potential, but it’s more conceptual, rather than being very flawed games with some good ideas (like Gates to Infinity, or Super Mystery Dungeon to a lesser extent).

Anyway, to get back to the question, the reason I don’t like Skyrim is because it feels creatively bankrupt.

To steal a quote from Super Bunnyhop, it’s hard to get engaged in Skyrim when every character feels like the most boring character, when every quest feels like the most boring quest, when every dungeon feels like the most boring crawl… you get the idea. To me it feels like every single time Bethesda had the opportunity to do something creative or interesting in Skyrim or its DLCs, they took the easiest, most boring route possible instead, even though it actively hurts the game’s appeal. And it’s very telling that what I consider to be the two most interesting quests in the game (the murder mystery in Windhelm and the peace treaty in the main story) are also two of the buggiest quests in the game.

Like, vampires in Skyrim are a good example of what I’m talking about. There’s a book in the previous games about a vampire hunter and a scholar (actually a vampire) advising him, and he describes Skyrim vampires as having breath that could freeze the blood inside of you, as well as actually living underneath frozen lakes and being able to reach up through the ice, grab people, and drag them under to feed. That’s not only a fascinating (and grim) concept, but an incredibly cool idea for a snow-based vampire.

Now granted, that’s a fairly dynamic idea, and it’d be hard to implement in Skyrim (especially given they never bothered to add underwater combat), so while I could criticize them for that, I won’t. What I will criticize is the fact that they didn’t even try to make the best approximation of that idea, instead opting to make vampires into slightly tweaked and reskinned bandits/draugr/etc etc.

Like, it wouldn’t need to be exactly like the idea presented in the book, but imagine this: vampires spawn in this invisible, walk-through-able state and have a circle that activates them. Once you walk in and out of that circle, an “invisibility spell wears off” animation plays and they properly spawn, body, weapons and all. Then, they aggro and you might get ambushed if you weren’t being careful. It’s not exactly like the book, but it’s close enough, and since the rest of the game’s enemies are so samey it’d be a nice change of pace.

There’s so many elements that are lacking that it’s very easy to sense the hand of the devs making out exactly what you can and can’t do, despite the whole TES brand emphasizing freedom. It’s obvious that you can’t do absolutely anything (well, at least it was obvious until Breath of the Wild came out), but Skyrim is especially bad at locking you out or not considering other options.

You can’t double-cross or double-deal in the Civil War aside from one single part that basically is the last chance for you to decide your faction. Being a thief is basically useless unless you join the guild, because the Fence perk for Speech doesn’t unlock until the skill is almost max. Conversations in general are far less varied and open-ended than before, meaning speech checks are few and far between as is. Stealth is only really useful for sneak-attacking, since most dungeons aren’t designed to be stealthed through completely. Most of the game’s “puzzles” are those simple match-the-symbol ones, and there isn’t anything particular brain-teasing or dynamic compared to even Oblivion.

I mean, even dragons have this issue. Anyone ever try fighting a dragon without any ranged options? It’s hell. And boring. And oh, oh so bland.

Similarly, like I mentioned, the quests themselves are incredibly bland. I’ve already seen plenty of posts on here throughout the years about how even the most mundane, non-combat-sounding quests usually end up with “please go to this dungeon full of Draugr and get my thing”, but it really is that bad. Most of the quests in Skyrim are either being sent to a dungeon to deal with the incredibly mediocre combat, or you get a vague, completely unashamed fetch quest.

A lot of this is tied to the Miscellaneous quest option, which is basically the game’s way of saying “we whipped up a quick, shitty quest in an hour or two, have fun”. In Riften alone, there’s at least seven or eight Misc quests that essentially amount to “I need you to find me some items, please”:

Finding ten fire salts for the blacksmith

Getting a sword and bringing it to its owner at the castle

Finding alchemy ingredients for the alchemy shop’s apprentice

Finding some gemstones and other items for a jeweler

Finding some gemstones for a bartender’s unfinished wedding ring

Finding ice wraith teeth for a lady to preserve her

Going to another big city to deliver a dagger

Going to a small village to pick up some ore and bring it back

And there’s very little proper “masking” to make these quests seem more interesting. The two quests that I didn’t include that are still fetch quests are a quest about mead being stolen (actually smuggled out at lower prices, which you can partake in or tell to the guards), and a quest about a Dunmer raised by Argonians who wants to find out more about his real parents (which is at least vaguely interesting in and of itself, due to the general relationship between Dunmer and Argonians and all that).

It isn’t just the Misc quests that suffer from this, though. Most of the writing is flawed, bland, or otherwise retreading old ground already, and a lot of it suffers from huge pacing issues. The main quest seems to expect that you’re not going to get distracted, so all of the “urgent” situations it sets up fall flat.

The Fighters Guild recruits you, has you do one proper quest where you find out that they’re werewolves, do one more radiant quest and suddenly they decide that you’re important enough to become a werewolf too. Not that “you know so you might as well”, but that you’ve actually done enough work (two quests worth, oh boy) to merit it (also you’re forced to become a werewolf even if you don’t want to). The Dark Brotherhood essentially does the same Oblivion story of a traitor in the guild over again, except with less interesting characters and less personal stake in the goings-on.

And the quests that aren’t tied to guilds aren’t really that much better, save for maybe a handful that I can’t even think of off the top of my head. It’s lazy, messy, and boring. It’s not completely, utterly terrible or full of plotholes, it’s passable at its best, but it’s still not terribly thought-provoking. I mean, thinking about it is what made me realize it’s not that good, so.

Perhaps more damning than any of this though, is that the gameplay itself is so boring. It’s already kind of an issue that Skyrim has iffy writing in a genre that generally needs to have semi-decent writing most of the time, but its gameplay isn’t really interesting enough to pick up the slack, either.

Admittedly, this problem goes back deeper than just Skyrim - even back during the Morrowind days, people were complaining about the combat due to how you could walk up to enemies and attack or use a spell, and you’d miss even though you’re standing right next to them. People still complain to this day about how confusing the combat is for an action-RPG.

But the problem with that logic is that Morrowind isn’t an action-RPG, it’s a proper old CRPG, more along the lines of Baldur’s Gate or Icewind Dale. You might be moving in first-person with the WASD keys and so on, but make no mistake that its core gameplay is far more in line with how the older isometric RPGs played, right down to standing right next to an enemy and missing your swings even though the animation played. When you view the game this way, most of its design decisions make a lot more sense.

Unfortunately, that never really registered (again, people still say Morrowind’s an action-RPG), so Oblivion changed things to have some sorta-kinda action-RPG combat. They didn’t rebalance the rest of the RPG elements (how to level up, level scaling, etc) to compensate, though, but instead of tweaking everything to work more naturally in Skyrim, they just removed all of the RPG elements entirely except for the Health/Magicka/Stamina thing.

Of course, that results in another problem: if the game is going to lean so hard on its action elements instead of its RPG elements… why not just play a better action game? Like, Skyrim’s combat is nothing to write home about. Oblivion’s wasn’t great, but at least it was faster and you could attack while jumping and swimming. Skyrim’s is just slow and clunky, and lacking in depth unless you actively choose to add it in.

The perks system is what ties into the combat problems the most. The issue is that the combat actually does have a small bit of depth and quality of life improvements… if you pick the perks that activate them. There’s two main screws with this, the first one being that due to how the level scaling works, you’re better off choosing the perks that just upgrade the raw damage you deal. Since even the most basic enemies slowly become health sponges, the fancy perks usually aren’t as helpful when it comes to actually defeating them.

The other screw is that these upgrades are even perks in the first place. While some abilities are understandable (like the one that sometimes replaces a normal cinematic kill with a decapitation), the ones that alter your power attacks to have extra effects have absolutely no business being optional when the combat is already as shallow as it is. If these tweaks to the power attacks had been default abilities, the perk trees could have been changed or expanded to capitalize on the differences between each kind of attack. On top of this, the choice between maces, axes and swords could have been more significant, rather than simply being minor differences in speed and power.

I know there are more abilities and special things you can do with the dragon shouts, of course, but between having to fight through dungeons in order to get those shouts, and then kill a dragon for a soul to unlock it, it’s usually too much of a pain in the ass to be worth it. Forget going out of my way to get Throw Voice - why not just give me a Noisemaker Arrow or something and be done with it?

The unfortunate thing is that despite all these issues, the combat is still generally just okay at best, so it can be hard sometimes to complain about it. But when the entire game is focused almost entirely around this combat, with almost no quest or gameplay variety to speak of, the only way it could be really seen as “good” by any stretch is by people who haven’t played other, better games.

But anyway… uh, yeah. tl;dr: I don’t like Skyrim because even though it’s incredibly safe and boring to play… it’s incredibly safe and boring to play.

Like, it’s oddly depressing to hash all this out because I really was excited for Skyrim six years ago, and I did genuinely enjoy it at first. Hell, despite all these problems I’ve still probably put way too many hours into it than I really should have. But nowadays, it just doesn’t feel that interesting. Oblivion, Morrowind, Daggerfall, and ESO are all much, much better games, and even though they have their flaws, they have a lot more interesting ups, as well. Morrowind is all-around an excellent CRPG, Daggerfall is an incredibly interesting roguelikey experience, Oblivion generally has better atmosphere and more quest variety, ESO has great combat and writing, albeit at the expense of stealth and some puzzles.

Skyrim... I dunno. Skyrim is stuck somewhere between being an average game and an undercooked one, and that really eats at me because I know that the franchise can do better. I didn’t even discuss a lot of the other problems I have with the game, just the major ones. But considering that Fallout 4 has a lot of the same issues, but even worse... I worry for what the next entry in the series might be, if it’s handled by Bethesda proper.

#elder scrolls #skyrim #Anonymous

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slapegg · 7 years

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Quick Critique: Battle Chasers: Nightwar

Before I even get to the meat of this: DO NOT BUY THIS GAME, IT IS VERY BROKEN. Again, even if you loved the comic and love turn-based RPGS: DO NOT GIVE THIS COMPANY MONEY, THEY RELEASED A BROKEN GAME.

Joe Mad is one of my favorite artists and I read the Battle Chasers comic pretty much just to see him draw pretty things. I only just read it a year or two ago, so I thankfully avoided the whole incident of him bailing on the series and leaving it unfinished after a main plot twist. The actual story (and most of the writing) is kind of just Dungeons and Dragons meets generic anime stuff, but it had enough moments and unique ideas here and there to make the comic series worth it, even this many years after its initial release. So Battle Chasers the comic is pretty good. Battle Chasers the video game, however, is a steaming pile of garbage.

This game is so unfinished and slapped together that I'm just going to list out a stream of the constant issues it has: It crashes. A LOT. It's not just one thing going wrong, it crashes all over the place and multiple times at different spots (inventory screen, leaving a dungeon, changing screens, and so on) I actually had a crash during the ending credits It locks up every time I try to enter the Arena forcing me to force close the game I finally managed to enter the Arena (apparently some of the difficulties work and others don't), it's a series of battles with a 20 minute time limit, I'm doing the hardest difficulty to get the final prizes, get through multiple rounds where I'm one turn away from the entire party dying or I lucked out and a character dodged an instant kill move, I'm at the last boss with 2 minutes left on the clock, deliver the killing blow with 23 seconds left on the clock, I get the Playstation level trophy for completing the Arena, the game showers me with prizes, I leave the Arena, I open the menu, the game crashes and upon relaunching sets me back at the beginning of the Arena having made no progress at all and with none of the prizes. I think I just instantly skipped over anger, sunk back in my chair, and whispered "mother fuckers" to myself for a few minutes After a battle, I lost the ability to interact with any objects. Seeing as how the dungeon required me to flip a switch to advance, I had to quit the game. This happened multiple times Frequent hitches and freezing for a second on the map, exploring, and in battle Menus aren't responsive for a few seconds after opening them I had a story scene fail to load and the game just displayed a screen full of that "missing image" pink I had a different story scene fail to load but I still got the subtitles. This one was a major story sequence so it wasn't repeatable the next time I played the dungeon so I would have liked to have seen that The voice acting is Sega Saturn levels of bad. They're horrible choices for the characters but then poorly acted on top of that. And they apply random odd filters over the readings. There's a scene in the open air in a town where your characters talk to each other but Gully sounds like her lines were recorded in a particularly echo-y bathroom. The only character I cared for was The Collector, a sinister but gleeful little monster that is likely eating the remains of dead bosses that you bring it. The Collector deserves to be in a better game than this one The text size is WAY too small The walking speed is slow. If you doubled the walking speed, it would still be too slow Battles are slow both in animation and action speed and how many hits it takes to kill a grunt enemy The core combat system is tedious and relies far too much on crits and applying status effects. Most end game fights devolve into who can apply the most debuffs to the other team and then spamming special moves that gain extra traits if the enemy has specific debuffs The music is so laid back that it (rightfully) just seems uninterested in being a part of this game, even during battles. The soundtrack is so forgettable and uninteresting that I usually turned the game audio almost off and listened to the BBC while I played. The Shipping Report pretty much matches the pace and excitement of this game Totally unnecessary crafting mechanics By the time you get enough crafting materials to build a weapon, it's worse than what you get from dungeon crawling You can't sort your crafting materials alphabetically, so when you're looking up how many of a quest item you need, have fun sorting through that mess Totally unnecessary fishing mini-game Every time you enter battle, the UI flashes a move description. I think it's loading the last thing you used in the previous battle Occasional multiple second pauses at the start of a battle before the UI will display or you can interact with it in any way Clunky menu UI Loot-based drops that do nothing to make the game more interesting Loot that isn't even interesting or exciting because most of the equipment is very similar and the vast majority of what you find is just crafting materials you won't use Major side-quests and items that are gated by random loot drops. You have to hope the characters show up on the map and then hope they drop the item you need (usually multiple times) or else start a dungeon from scratch and do it all over again Semi-randomized dungeons where the actual rooms barely change but their order does, so combined with the need to grind, the dungeons get really boring and just have you looking for the exits rather than rewarding you for exploring. Later dungeons even repeat pieces of earlier dungeons Items in shops are stupidly expensive for how little they change your stats and for the piddly amount enemies actually pay out or what items sell for. While spending a night at the inn cost me 40 coins, selling a purple rank weapon only got me 17 coins. It's actually faster to play through the whole first dungeon and get the health and mana refill before the boss than it is to grind out the money to stay a night at the inn for a large chunk of the game Just about every item you find in the wild will raise one stat but then lower multiple other ones so you kind of just have to pick one stat for a character to use and min/max the hell out of it Items in your inventory will mark themselves as new even though you've seen them before Items in the world will still sparkle as if they're unchecked even though you already have them If you have to close and restart a dungeon (say because the game crashed or locked up), it will acknowledge that you've been through the rooms but respawn the enemies past a seemingly random point. I had one dungeon where the objective was to kill two mini-bosses, I did so, saved the game in case it crashed at the boss, and upon reloading it, the mini-bosses respawned even though I had the objective that said they were dead checked off Every time the game crashes, it resets your super meter. So you can go through a dungeon, build up your meter, save it for the boss fight, the game crashes, you reload at the boss, and now you have no meter and you're at a serious disadvantage Perks and equipment will unequip themselves (this may be related to all the crashes) I met an enemy without warning that was vastly stronger than anything I'd seen in the game before, I could only do 80 damage to it per turn, and every turn it could heal itself for 84 health. And for some reason I wasn't allowed to run away from the fight so I had to sit there for 10 minutes turn by turn hitting the enemy, watching it heal, and letting it whittle down my party's health. Dying then made me lose a chunk of my money Apparently those are special enemies that offer a special reward if beaten, but it wasn't until I was at the final dungeon that I ever saw them again. I don't know if the game was broken and would no longer spawn them or what Another dungeon had a bunch of enemies that I tore through with no problem, and then I got to the boss and it killed each member of my party in 1 hit. Dying, again, made me lose a chunk of my money. So the lesson is to never sell anything until you can fully afford the thing you're trying to buy because you never know when the game is going to throw balancing out the window and punish YOU for it I don't think you can manually save without quitting the game. But quitting the game dumps everything it loaded into memory or something because when you load the game back up, it can take 40 seconds to load into your first battle. Given all the crashes, you have to save and quit often, so get used to watching the first 15 seconds or so of the opening cutscene because you can't skip to the title screen until that plays out The trophies aren't properly proofread and sometimes won't award when you earn them and instead pop the next time you load the game If a character dies from a status effect at the start of their turn, the UI is not graceful I would love to hear some kind of justification on the game's balancing because the way it's set up is that you beat a dungeon, unlock the next story dungeon, but you're not actually strong enough to progress the story yet, so you have to go back and grind the dungeon a you've already finished to level up a bit. You pretty much have to beat each level on each difficulty before you can move ahead, so by the time you're ready to move the story along, you're really, really sick of the previous dungeon Characters not in your party don't gain any experience from battle, so the game actively discourages you from trying new characters. I was level 10 when I unlocked Knolan, but he was only level 9 and the more I use my normal team, the further Knolan falls behind, so I have no reason to ever add him to my party. Changing team members just means you have to redo all the grinding you've done to level them up and hope you get some loot drops for them. Maybe it's just how I play the game, but there's really only one viable team. You HAVE to have Calibretto on your team because he's the only decent healer. Garrison is the only one that can do any decent damage. Gully is slow and focuses on defense, while Monika has high evasion, good damage, and can bog enemies down with stat debuffs so Monika is way more useful Doing end game clean up, I used my weaker teammates because my main team stopped earning experience from the early dungeons, I met those special pirate enemies with this team, was happy to have a chance to fight them, but the pirates scale to your strongest team not the team you're actually using so my level 9, 12, and 17 characters got destroooyed by the level 30 enemies The team couldn't even do New Game + properly. Starting NG+ causes you to lose all your items, so all that time you spent on random drops to get the ultimate weapons and armor was totally wasted. It's completely unnecessary to do this because all the weapons are level gated. So if you reset the character levels, you stop them from having access to the top gear from the start, but once they level up, they get their hard earned weapons back. That would have been the competent way to handle NG+ here New Game + starts you off with the whole team, but it doesn't properly handle that you've unlocked characters before their normal unlocking event, so the shops won't sell you their perk bonus or costume items. Even if you come back at the end of the game when you'd normally have those characters, the game still treats them like they haven't been unlocked yet

Even with its many, MANY glaring flaws, they have the audacity to not actually finish the game's story. You slog through all of this, beat the final boss, and the ending is barely more than "hey, buy some DLC or a sequel".

So, yeah, don't spend money on this game. The perk system is kind of neat though. You get points when you level up and you can cash them in on an attack path or a defense path. As you buy perks on each path, every 20 points you spend unlocks a bonus perk that can offer some substantial stat boosts. You can respec for free, so you can mess around with different choices as you slooowly grind out levels or boss fight currency to get more points.

Battle Chasers is bad but not in the way that most low budget games are bad. The art's great so the game looks fantastic and draws you in. It's the quality design sensibilities and usability in the game that are godawful, the gameplay is as dry as it comes, and it's an unfinished mess. Everything about this screams that the team got a slew of crowdfunding money but then nobody on the team actually knew how to make a good video game so this got rushed out the door without proper testing or fixes to hit a deadline. Battle Chasers makes me question whether Playstation cert matters. If this game, with its constant crashes and 100% reproducible lock-ups, can be released for sale, then clearly nobody is checking the actual game or doing anything remotely resembling quality control.

#Battle Chasers #nightwar #battle chasers: nightwar #airship syndicate

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entergamingxp · 4 years

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How to get the most out of your Tiny Home Residential Lot • Eurogamer.net

The Sims 4: Tiny Living is the first add-on of the new decade, and perhaps the first official Sims add-on to incorporate a popular community-created challenge into its core.

Tiny home builds have been popular among Sims players for years, with the results being shared on social media, fan sites, and most recently The Sims 4’s Gallery feature.

Until Tiny Living, the rewards for completing one of these unofficial challenges were the admiration of fellow players and the satisfaction of mastering a tricky task.

The new Stuff Pack takes things a step further, introducing a new lot type – Tiny Home Residential – that allows you to formally declare your intention to build a tiny home and track your level of success, as well as allowing your Sims to gain a variety of benefits for your creative problem solving and attention to detail.

On this page:

Looking for more The Sims 4 help? Read how to become a Mermaid, a Ghost and a Spellcaster, as well as our The Sims 4 cheats page to help fast track you to various aspects of the game.

How big is a Tiny Home Residential Lot in The Sims 4: Tiny Living and how do they work?

In The Sims 4, Residential lots have been pretty much unrestricted until now – unlike their Community counterparts, which have literally dozens of specialised variations – so whether you were making a lean-to shack or a mega mansion, you were building on the same lot type.

Tiny Home Residential lots are the new lot type introduced with the Tiny Living Stuff Pack, and carry with them one major additional requirement: they are restricted to a maximum 100 tiles of living space. That’s 100 total, including all tiles across multiple floors if the house has more than one storey.

There are no pre-made lots assigned as Tiny Home Residential in The Sims 4, but you can convert any existing lot into one. Enter the lot you wish to convert in Build Mode, click the ‘Lot Info Panel’ in the upper left hand corner of the screen (the icon looks like a house with a lower-case letter ‘i’ inside of it), and select ‘Tiny Home Residential’ from the drop-down menu.

While Tiny Home Residential lots are restricted in terms of indoor space, you can have as much outdoor space on the lot as you like. There’s no need to stick to the smaller lots available if you don’t want to; you can just as easily turn the biggest lot in the game into a Tiny Home Residential.

Maybe you have a vision of a tiny hut engulfed by a wild garden; or of creating a small cottage surrounded by its own private woodland. Whatever your ideas, you can be as free as you like with your selection of where to start your Tiny Home Residential project.

The 100 tile limit includes all indoor spaces on the lot, as well as porches, patios, balconies, fenced-in gardens, and any other raised and/or enclosed outdoor area; but it does not include garden or yard spaces that aren’t fully surrounded by fencing.

There’s also a small amount of grace allowed for staircases: for example, a set of stairs leading up to the porch won’t count towards your tile limit; however the porch tiles they attach to will.

The game doesn’t actually go so far as to enforce the 100 tile restriction in any way when building on a Tiny Home Residential lot. It will warn you when you go over the limit, and when exiting Build Mode you’ll be reminded that it considers the building to be incomplete. It will also mark the lot as Tiny Home Residential Incomplete when viewed from the world map.

But, you can still move in Sims to live there, and while they won’t gain any of the benefits of living in a Tiny Home, they won’t be hit with any penalties either.

Technically, there’s also a minimum limit of four enclosed tiles before the game recognises your build as a Tiny Home. While this is enough space for a fully functional bathroom, you’re probably going to want to use a few more tiles if you actually intend for your Sims to be able to live in the house.

There are some additional benefits to making a house with a 64 or 32 tile limit (see the Tiny Home Residential Tiers section below) but beyond that there’s nothing to be gained from restricting yourself further, so consider treating your Sims to a studio living area to go with that bathroom, at least.

How do Small Home, Tiny Home and Micro Home Tiers in Tiny Home Residential builds work?

Tiny Home Residential lots let you test your ability to build a functional house containing less than 100 tiles of living space. However, the challenge doesn’t end there.

Once you start thinking in miniature, after a while 100 tiles starts to feel like loads of space. A couple who are happy in each other’s company can live perfectly comfortably together in a home of 100 tiles.

They’ll even have space left over after buying the essential furnishings to pursue a hobby or two without things feeling overcrowded.

That’s why Tiny Home Residential lots have Tiers: three levels of additional challenge within that 100 tile restriction:

Tier 3: Small Home (65-100 tiles)

Tier 2: Tiny Home (33-64 tiles)

Tier 1: Micro Home (4-32 tiles)

Unlike when you first assigned the lot to become a Tiny Home Residential, you don’t need to (and indeed can’t) apply any of the Tiers yourself. Instead, the game will apply them automatically based on the number of enclosed tiles it recognises on the lot.

You can view your lot’s current Tier by clicking on the concisely named ‘Tiny Residential Venue Lot Rewards (by Tier)’ tab, which appears next to the ‘Lot Info Panel’ in the upper left hand corner of Build Mode when you assign the lot type.

Additionally, when viewing the lot from the world map, its Tier will be included along with the other lot details when you hover over it.

Note: Speaking from personal experience: the absence of the second tab in the upper left hand corner is a good indicator that you’ve forgotten to reassign your lot as a Tiny Home Residential. You’ll need to change it over in order to receive any benefits for your show of dedication to the Tiny Living ethos, so make sure you do it!

(Don’t worry if you forget at first, though: even after you finish building the house and have your Sims move in, you can freely switch lot assignments between Residential and Tiny Living Residential.)

Creating these progressively smaller living spaces unlocks a series of Lot Perks. The smaller you go, the more Perks you receive, and the more benefits your Sims experience from living in their tiny home.

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The Sims 4’s Tiny Living Lot Perks explained

If you’re a long-time player of The Sims 4 you’re probably familiar with Lot Traits, which were added to the game to coincide with the release of the City Living expansion pack in late 2016.

Similar to the Personality Traits belonging to the Sims themselves, Lot Traits add depth to gameplay by buffing emotions, affecting skill or relationship gains, or causing random events to occur on the lot they’re applied to.

Lot Perks are in many ways very similar, at least in terms of the benefits they grant. Exclusive (at least for the moment) to the Tiny Living Residential lot type, Lot Perks can’t be directly applied by the player, but are awarded when you reach a new Tier (see Tiers, above).

Lot Perks accumulate when you reach a new Tier, meaning that (for example) a Tier 2 house will have access to all the Perks from Tier 2 and Tier 3, but will need a further reduction in living space in order to unlock the Tier 1 Perks.

Tiny Living Tier 3 Lot Perks – Small Home:

Lighten the Load: Household bills are reduced.

Feelin’ Fine All The Time: All moodlets granting the ‘Happy’, ‘Inspired’, and ‘Focused’ emotions double in duration while on the lot.

Tiny Living Tier 2 Lot Perks – Tiny Home:

You Got The Touch: All skill building on the lot receives a double-time boost.

Cozy Comforts: All objects on the lot that grant Comfortable moodlets double their buff amounts.

Tiny Living Tier 1 Lot Perks – Micro Home:

Let’s All Get Along: All relationship gains (and losses) are doubled while on the lot.

Let It Grow: Garden plants on the lot grow twice as fast.

Note: The ‘Feelin’ Fine All The Time’, ‘You Got The Touch’, and ‘Let’s All Get Along’ Perks will apply equally to all Sims while on the lot, whether they are residents or visitors. So if your Sim is looking to improve their Writing skill, for example, you could consider having them take their laptop over to a friend’s Tiny Home to take advantage of the skill gain boost.

When in Live Mode, your Sims will receive a moodlet with the same name as their home’s Tier. Unlike other moodlets in The Sims 4 this one will be linked to the ‘Fine’ emotional state, and will not provide any buffs. It’s just there to remind you what Lot Perks are currently affecting your Sim, since there’s no other way to view them while in Live Mode.

The Sims 4: Tiny Living tips and ideas to help you get the most of your Tiny Living space

There are many, many ways to build and furnish a Tiny Home. To provide a comprehensive walkthrough would be nearly impossible, as well as rather defeating the purpose of this exercise in individual creativity.

There are, however, a few pointers that can help you start to design your own Tiny Living space.

Make the most of new items from the Tiny Living Stuff Pack

The Tiny Living Stuff Pack includes two new object types that can be purchased in Build Mode:

Media Marathoner: All-in-one TV/stereo/bookshelf objects that take up only two tiles of floor space. There are both free-standing and wall-mounted variants available; the latter allows room for some other objects to be placed underneath the unit as well, and both models include shelf space to hold small decorative or lighting items too.

Murphy Beds: Foldaway beds that can be stored away to create extra living space during the day. Other objects can’t be placed in the footprint of the Murphy Bed while it is stored; however, there are four models available, three of which include built-in sofas and/or bookshelves to create an adaptable living/sleeping space.

Note: Murphy Beds are great space-savers, but they’re also trying to kill your Sims in a couple of interesting ways. Thanks to its electronic components, a Murphy Bed can electrocute a Sim who is attempting to upgrade or repair it; while there’s also a chance of a Sim being crushed beneath it while putting the bed down.

Proceed with caution, and maybe save your game before bedtime if you don’t fancy dealing with a visit from the Grim Reaper.

Use the new features added in Patch 91

The update patch released on 16th January, 2020 for The Sims 4 included a couple of optimisations for existing objects. These can be used by any players, including those who don’t own the Tiny Living Stuff Pack, but are very useful for furnishing restricted homes.

Bookends: Previously decorative objects, all bookends from the base game and add-on packs now function as fully interactive bookshelves.

Accent Tables: Additional slots have been added to all accent tables in the game, allowing televisions to be placed on them.

Use items from the Discover University expansion pack

While they are largely stand-alone, stuff packs and expansion packs for The Sims games often complement each other.

This is definitely the case for The Sims 4: Tiny Living Stuff and the Discover University expansion pack released in November 2019.

The possibility for a vast reduction in household bills thanks to Tiny Living Stuff is obviously a boon to university students; and if authenticity is your thing, the pack gives you the opportunity to create realistically minuscule student accommodation.

Meanwhile, Discover University added a couple of household items that make downsizing your living space that little bit easier, regardless of where you are in your education.

Mini Fridges: Half-height, fully functional fridges that allow for some objects to be placed on top of them. Particularly useful for making space for small kitchen appliances, such as microwaves or coffee makers; but can also be used for small decorative and lighting objects.

InvisiShower: A free-standing shower not tied to a cubicle or bathtub. Like most other separate shower units, it still takes up a single floor tile; however, it requires less free space around it, as it won’t hinder access to objects on adjacent tiles when not in use. Handy for turning small water closets into wetrooms (and it comes with a built-in drain that will magically prevent unsightly puddling).

Space-saving hotkey commands and building cheats

Finally, there are a couple of quick commands and cheats you can use in Build Mode to sidestep a few of the game’s restrictions on object placement. These come in particularly handy when you need your furniture to be placed quite cozily.

Resizing hotkeys

After picking up an object using the hand tool in Build Mode, you can scale its size up or down by pressing the square bracket keys. Left Square Bracket ([) will shrink the object, while Right Square Bracket (]) will cause its size to increase.

Repeatedly pressing Left Square Bracket will eventually reduce the amount of floor space the object takes up.

Most objects will remain fully functional after this treatment and there is no known risk of corruption or serious glitches; however, some animations may end up looking a bit weird, as Sims might continue to interact with the objects as though they retained their original size.

Consider the bb.moveobjects cheat

Sometimes, the game will refuse to let you place an object, usually because it considers another object to be in the way. You might well disagree, believing your choice of layout to be completely reasonable.

If that’s the case, then you can open up the cheat console, turn testingcheats on, and enter bb.moveobjects. Entering the cheat code multiple times will toggle the MoveObjects cheat on and off.

This won’t give you complete freedom to place objects wherever you want (it won’t help you to place a large object on a small shelf space, for example), but it does remove the vast majority of restrictions.

In most cases, if you thought the placement looked OK, it probably will be in practice: for example, a refrigerator nestled under the stairs or a litter tray tucked discreetly beneath a countertop will probably end up completely useable.

If the placement doesn’t work, your Sims will simply shake their heads when directed to interact with the object and drop it from their action queue, at which point it’s time to move it to somewhere more accessible.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/01/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-tiny-home-residential-lot-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-tiny-home-residential-lot-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

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