#I might be able to solve the problem with my pc

[foxyk7]

[rhonuscorner]

SO, ABOUT THAT ART GIVE AWAY I'M HOSTING

I'm very sorry to say I have to cancel it due to circumstances beyond my control.

The main reason for this is that my PC, on which I do 99% of my art, broke down a few weeks ago and it's gonna be probably at least another month before I get it back. Maybe I'll get lucky and it'll be sooner than that but I'm not holding out any hope, I've been having nothing but bad luck lately lmao.

Longer description of what's been going on is under the cut (which I'm also going to use as an excuse to rant about it because I've been very frustrated lmao) but yeah.

I've been using my old laptop since and I still have my old art tablet, but I've been holding off on doing art on it. Motivation issues aside, I don't really enjoy doing art on it (my PC spoiled me lol) and I also don't have access to my usual art resources, like Clip Studio Paint (I know I can swap devices but I'm not going to). I haven't been able to work on any of the MerMay stuff I had planned, I have a huge back log of AU art I wanna do and I have to prepare for Art Fight... and now I don't know if I'm gonna have enough time for that either so I'll postpone that to next year. Sucks because I've never participated in Art Fight before and I was really looking forward to joining, but it is what it is (I swear this has become the motto I live by lately).

I was going to draw give-away winners in a week, but I'm at a point where adding planned art onto what I already have and want to do is just causing me stress, especially because it concerns art for other people. So for the sake of my sanity and what little motivation I still have, I have to cancel the give-away. :(

I'm really sorry to everyone who signed up to participate, and massive thanks to those who did sign up. Maybe I'll re-run it in the future.

So my PC broke down on the 21st of April. It worked perfectly fine the day before but that morning it kept hanging on the same screen during start-up and I couldn't figure out why. I can solve simple problems like the rare blue-screen but I'm not tech-savvy enough to deal with hardware and messing with the BIOS is way beyond my comfort zone.

So I called my brother, who is very tech-savvy and he came to my place to take a look where he spent the next 3 hours trying to locate the issue. No matter what we did, we could not even get the PC to boot from a USB to run a repair, the BIOS wouldn't save changes we made, it was a mess.

He ended up taking my PC over to his place where he had the proper tools to figure it all out. At the time we thought it was a processor issue, since all the signs pointed to that being the culprit.

Turns out it was one of my hard drives 🙄 If only we had thought to just remove those one by one while the PC was still at my place, because it booted up just fine once we removed the dead one. Didn't occur to us at the time, yes we were dumb. And yes, I lost a whole bunch of stuff (we tried to recover data but to no avail) but that's the least of my concerns. Anyway, he ran some tests, checked out all my other hardware and drives and everything got a clean bill of health but we figured, since my PC was already at his place anyway, he might as well run a full systems check too, stabilization tests, all that good stuff. Some good ol TLC for my beloved hard working PC. He also needed to put in a new SSD and order new thermal paste because he'd taken off the processor.

Due to annoying circumstances, that order took a while to arrive.

He then messaged me last monday that for some reason, even with the new thermal paste applied, my processor was running really hot and he couldn't figure out why. So he was going to immediately order a new, bigger tube and try again.

My hope was that by the end of this week I'd be able to pick my PC up, back in perfect working order.

My brother messaged me again yesterday when I came home in the evening to tell me he fucked up. Even with all of his experience and skill, he's not immune to making a mistake. He told me some of the thermal paste got into the port on the motherboard the processor connects onto (or something to that effect) and while he was able to clean it with isopropyl, two of the little pins there accidentally broke off. That's not something he can fix. My motherboard is completely borked now.

I'm not mad at him or anything, accidents happen (he's already mad enough at himself), but it sucks big time.

The motherboard has to be replaced which is not something he's comfortable doing right now (understandable), so my PC will have to go back to where it was built... which causes a whole slew of new problems relating to transport which I don't care to get into right now (lets just say, bad previous experiences), plus the fact that my warranty ended in February.

I don't know what the costs are gonna be at this moment and while yes, my brother offered to cover everything since he's the one who broke it, I told him we'll split it. He's already done so much for me, gifted me the new SSD and made other costs he won't let me pay for (like the thermal paste and the thingemabob he ordered to recover data from dead drives). I have the best bro ❤️

So yeah. I'm gonna be stressing about this big time until my PC is safely back home, fully functional.

Until then, ugh :')

[aurora-starlight-silly]

Soo since you guys would actually like if it if I stream, which is suprising- I mean I didn't excpect that -w-, I'm trying to figure out how to :p

I found a cool vidéo that shows how to stream, even one from the same person with how to be a PNGtuber but there's a few issues:

-I want to make my own overlays and idk how to- I mean I know how to draw them but idk how to put them on da stream ?

(I mean I could ask eri but idk if she'd use the same app-)

-I've seen a/some streamer just pull things on the stream like that how do they do that ?? (Well maybe I should actually try the app and begin before asking so many questions)

-I don't have a pc in my room and I don't want all my family hearing me speaking english, but they said they have a pc left I could use, idk where to put it in my room trough- I mean I could use my desk but that mean I can never use my desk for something else then ? And I need to see if the pc works well also for mods, cuz it's a pretty old pc TwT

I have an idea for streaming art even if I have a portable tablet trough, so that's one problem solved (if it works) :p

So yeah just know I'm trying, but I hope I'll be able to, but if I struggle I'll maybe try the first streams without a good overlay and just take a random one I guess IwI''

Also I might just do a sketch for the PNGtuber but then draw a real one on stream >:]

Anyways just, you'll have to wait, sry ^^''

[flowercrowncrip]

Inaccessible tech is such a vicious cycle it’s beyond frustrating. My computer knowledge is dreadful for someone my age, and I know it’s dreadful but it’s incredibly hard for me to do anything about it.

Dragon, the software I use to control my computer with my voice costs £679.99. I have access to it through a scheme to help disabled people in work – without a job I’d have to pay for it myself or find another source of funding (without access to a laptop/ PC).

The software is great in many ways, but limiting in others. It’s mainly targeted at able bodied professionals as a way of dictating quickly, so while it’s absolutely brilliant for dictating into a word document, it’s a bit more tricky to control your computer with it.

One of the biggest problems though is that I can’t easily try out different software and browsers. Google docs aren’t as compatible with my software as word is. I can’t learn about alternatives because it’s a lot of time invested in something that probably won’t work well.

Each different browser requires me to download a different extension so that Dragon can interact properly with the pages. Until that’s all set up, rather than just being able to click on things I have to guide the curser through a series of increasingly small numbered grids to the right point on the screen like this: “mouse grid [pause] 3 [pause] nine [Pause] one [pause] two [pause] Mouse left click”).

But Firefox, the browser I’m most often recommended to use, I can’t use. From what I can tell there used to be an extension but Firefox now considers the Dragon extension to be a security risk and won’t allow it to be installed. I’ve looked into finding alternative ways to download the extension, but it gets really complicated really quickly – especially when each and every mouse click takes so long. After failing several times I gave up.

And it’s frustrating because if using a computer wasn’t so difficult l me, I would probably be better at finding my way around these kinds of obstacles better.

And if technology wasn’t so expensive and difficult to access more disabled people would be creating better software and hardware for disabled people.

Similarly if adaptive controllers were less expensive I might know more than I do about gaming. And more game producers might be disabled, or might create games with disabled people in mind.

But we’re stuck trying to make do with technology that’s either financially out of reach, incredibly limited or both and it means it’s incredibly hard to learn enough to come anywhere close to solving those issues (or being able to properly describe them in the first place)

[blimgus]

Regarding WHB

(sorry for mistakes im writing this on PC without autocorrect)

I've noticed that the game is loosing many of its tumblr community due to the recent drama (idk if we can call it that? i mean that PB did some really crappy stuff)

''What in Hell is Bad?" used to be one of my fav games due to great storytelling, interesting worldbuilding and awesome and unique character designs. It was also one of the few porn games (lol) targetting the female audience which wasn't relying on heavy and steamy yaoi.I've grown so used to the absolutely cursed humor of this game that it will take me some time to find a good replacement...

While many people were annoyed at the lack of content, I used to enjoy the slow pace and lack of grind requierments.The addition of battle pass seemed fine until the only added content started to appear behind a goddamn overpriced paywall.Honestly I fully understand that adding Bath Beel to a battle pass made all hell break loose for the internet community.The card that was expected to arrive on the seals banner or idk as a login bonus was taken away from us which was soooo unfair to Beel fans. Also taking our daily 10 pull was critical to the relations between the players and devs. Imagine being a new player now, having trouble getting even a single 10 pull.

I still want to enjoy the created fantasy world from whb, but when the devs make it hard I just sometimes want to give up on that game. Like Andrealphus and Sitri are still one of my faves and i might doodle them in my notebooks, however idk about how the future of game's story will look.

The community created around this game was honestly kinda like my little safespace? We were pretty laid back and used to weird and horny stuff so I got really into doing my little silly doodles and writing a few headcanons.Big fandoms usually scare me due to the big spectrum of "types of fans". Even if we had some drama in the community among users we wre able to get back together and solve our problems together.

I just wanted to thank all of the content creators of WHB tumblr/twitter fandoms since I know that some of you decided to leave the game for good.( I mean i know that most of us are boycotting the game but just wanted to mention those who decide to leave us) My time in the fandom was really special! I loved entertaining you with my little silly versions of the characters, writing some theories and other stuff. While im currently boycotting the game just like most of us, I'm a bit tired of the lack of communication from PB. I'd love to get some new lore to make new headcanons and stuff to make the sillies even funnier, but... drawing them currently feels like I'm trying to revive the fandom by myself. blimgus was mostly created from my love for the game and I really hope that the game one day will be still fun to play

[xinyuehui]

Hello there! do you still have an older version of evolwallpaper? I was late to the party and I can't install it properly anymore T_T

Hi anon, unfortunately I no longer have the old .exe 😩 I checked weibo, other users in China are having problems with it as well, my conclusion to this is that it's a broken app full of bugs, probably got nothing to do with regions (ノへ￣、)

Babe because of your ask, I spent good 5 hours tonight trying to debug it, because I insist we all get the dynamic wallpapers!!!

Original guide // Deepspace PC guide

By the end of this tutorial, we should have a video like this applied to our computer wallpaper:

There's Nikki, MLQC, Deepspace and The Perceiver wallpapers.

New guide:

https://paperwall.papegames.com/

Same step as before, download this but don't install yet!

The following was actually hidden in their Q&A, you'll also need this for it to run, download the runtime version.

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet-framework/net48

After you install the .NET Framework 4.8 go ahead and try to install the PAPERWALL .exe

→ If it works, great! We solved the problem!! 🎉 (You can skip to the section on the bottom on how to use the app)

→ If you get this error message, ugh congratulations, this is where I tried about 67 solutions for hours just so you don't have to

It's weird, because at this point, the thing have successfully installed on your local drive but it won't run.

Let's go back a step, if you open the .exe again, take note of where it's at on your computer. For me you can see that it's in the C drive, I presume it'll be the same for you.

Find the folder, open it

Open the app

→ If it works, great! We solved the problem!! 🎉 (You can skip to the section on the bottom on how to use the app)

→ If you get the same error message, read on:

If the images haven't loaded in the 1.0.1 version it will most likely going to crash when you try to do anything on it, so read on:

Let go back to the C drive

We are gonna move this somewhere else, if you have a hard drive, paste it to your hard drive, if you have another drive on your pc, you can move it to the other drive. BUT DO NOT MOVE IT TO YOUR DESKTOP!!!! Because we practice good computer hygiene 🙏

Once you've moved everything away, open it back up and try to install it again in your new file location

→ If it works, great! We solved the problem!! 🎉 (You can skip to the section on the bottom on how to use the app)

→ If you still get the same error message, I will send my portfolio to Paper Games to be a software developer in their office and write a new app

Once you get it running *fingers crossed* move the entire folder back to your C drive if you moved it to your hard drive, unless your hard drive is plugged in all the time.

If for whatever reason you get the "access to the path is denied" error message, try the right click and select the "Run as administrator" option.

For easy access:

Go onto your desktop, or wherever you want to access it from quickly and paste shortcut!! Remember it's the shortcut!!

───── ⑅ ♡ ⑅ ─────

How to use the app

The UI has changed a little since the original one, but it's easy to navigate.

Change the language to English, it should reboot the app

From here it's self explanatory

For good computer hygiene you might want to double check where the wallpapers are stored and change directory if needed.

If you're like me and have 2 monitors, this is what it'll look like with the wallpapers applied and the game opened, looks like I need a 3rd monitor for Shen Xinghui ⭐

(Desktop icons should show up, I just don't have icons on the desktop)

───── ⑅ ♡ ⑅ ─────

If you still have problems, check your PC specifications against the following that were recommended on the official site:

System: Windows10 or above

RAM: 1024MB or above

Processor: 1.66Hz Intel i5 or above

Graphics: HD Graphics 4000 or above

DirectX: 10

Secret third thing: you might be able to run it and have the lovely wallpapers but it suddenly goes glitchy or black screen... that's because of the faulty app, I've seen people mention it on weibo, it's not just you 😔

───── ⑅ ♡ ⑅ ─────

Feel free to drop me an ask with images if you still run into problems, hope this helps, until next time~ (✿◠‿◠)

Check out this tag for already answered questions #/wallpaper woes

[kingwuko]

Also I've made a post about this before but aside from Airbender Wu I'm obsessed with the idea that canon nonbender Wu has the potential to be a competent badass like Asami but different, in his own style.

And I actually got this idea during the clip show episode and the wuko segments, when it occurred to me that Mako is probably training him to fight the way Mako himself learned to fight.

And I don't think that fighting style fits Wu's mindset, temperament, build, anything really, it's a style informed by street fighting and firebending, two things Wu could not be further removed from.

He's an earth kingdom prince used to fine silks and jewelry, expertly moving about the world with the grace and balance of a dancer even when confronted with physical aggression...

Say, doesn't that sound familiar to anyone else?

I'm just saying, he could be the earth kingdom royal to denounce the Dai Li and bring the Kyoshi Warriors to the forefront of their culture.

By becoming one himself.

When it comes to Wu learning to defend himself and fight, I have two favorite hc.

1. Yes yes yes to Wu training with Kyoshi Warriors. I will say that I'm hesitant to have him become a Kyoshi Warrior, because Kyoshi Warriors are women. (Though if people have hc about Wu's gender being different, that's certainly worth exploring!) But much like Sokka was permitted to train with them, I see no reason why Wu couldn't learn from them as well! I think if given the opportunity, Wu would pick up the fighting style quite well. The method of fighting practiced by the Kyoshi warriors, and originally taught to them by Rangi herself, is focused on turning your enemy's strength against them. Seems like an excellent style for Wu, as he's built much more slender. I think he'd be into the overall aesthetics, too. I also love the idea of some Kyoshi warriors becoming his royal guard and replacing the role of the Dai Li.

2. Training with Asami. Asami has taken formal self defense lessons since she was a child. She has the technical know how of self defense and since she learned it formally, I think she would be excellent at teaching it formally. To further my Asami-teaching-Wu propaganda, check out the description of Asami as a teacher from the Avatar Legends Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide:

As a teacher, Asami is encouraging and supportive—she prizes an individual’s own inventiveness when channeled appropriately, far more than her own ideas. When it comes to the overall tone and style of mastery conditions set to PCs, Asami will emphasize thought over force, clever ideas over direct results. Asami wants those who learn from her to see how problems can be solved in many ways, and there’s nearly always a better way, in addition to seeing how they can help others and don’t always have to solve the problem on their own.

I just feel like Asami would make a good, patient teacher, I think her formal training would translate well into teaching skills, I think she might actually appreciate Wu's creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, AND I think her foundation in self defense would be ideal for Wu to learn. I don't see him needing to be a fighter in the thick of battle right alongside the rest of Team Avatar, but he should certainly learn to hold his own to protect his own life and limb.

Regardless of how Wu learns self defense and/or martial arts, we can all agree on one thing, I'm sure. Mako is a terrible person to be teaching him. He was literally the worst teacher in Remembrances lol like what was he even doing. And you're right, his style of fighting does not match the kind of fighting that Wu should learn or that he would be able to master.

That's ok. Mako can cheer him on from the sidelines!

[genericpuff]

Alright, update on the tablet situation, I do NOT have good news but there are some silver linings.

First off, thank you all so much for your patience. That one week I took off to relax seemed to be an invitation for the universe to fuck with my shit because my tablet literally chose the worst time to get on my nerves ( This is totally not something I'm gonna bring up with my therapist as proof that I'm not allowed to rest /s) I've tried just about everything to get it working again, I got a replacement 3-in-1 cable and even that didn't do anything, so I've ordered in a new pen, but that's not due to show up for another week or two.

However, I do not want to wait a week or two on the off chance that a new pen even solves the problem.

So the GOOD NEWS in all this is that I do still have my iPad. It wasn't setup with Clip Studio Paint because I own a perpetual license for my PC, but seeing as how now I can't use it on my PC (at least not with my tablet pen) I've gone ahead and setup the mobile version on my tablet, thankfully I got a discount because I already own a perpetual license but it's still gonna cost me $10/month so that's yet another subscription to slap on the 'ole credit card.

Now that does mean I have to go through the painstaking efforts of moving everything from my PC onto my tablet, but thankfully that issue is easily solved with cloud backups and transferring. Really all I need to be able to do is draw, I can still do speech bubbles and text input and texture overlays and all that post-production stuff on my PC, but anything that requires actual drawing I'm gonna be using my iPad for. So please, don't mind if you notice some weird little art differences between Episode 30 and 29, I'm adjusting to a new workflow! It shouldn't be too bad because I'll still be using the exact same brushes and textures and all that fun stuff that I do on my PC, it just comes with the adjustment of drawing primarily on iPad, which I don't normally do (I usually only draw on my iPad for tattooing and that's in Procreate which I still suck at using outside of lineart LMAO)

This is a very stressful situation that I'm hoping will only be temporary until I get that new tablet pen, and if THAT doesn't solve the issue, then I'm gonna have to start shopping for a new tablet entirely, and that's not something I can do immediately because I'm already starting to struggle financially due to the slow season creeping in at work and I'm still paying off that new PC I put down on layaway (which I'm regretting already). All that said, if you want to help a pal out, please consider tossing a dollar or two at me on my Ko-Fi, it's all gonna go towards a new drawing tablet if I need it (and if the pen solves the issue, then you'll be helping me stay afloat so I can keep bringing you guys the good shit LOL)

What's wild is that in all my Google searching, I found a thread from two months ago with literally the EXACT same issue, under the exact same conditions, in which OP's tablet pen unexpectedly stopped registering with their Huion Kamvas 22 Plus that they had owned for two years. According to them, it did start working again, after resetting the PC and re-installing the driver over and over again, but I've already done that myself a ton of times and I'm tired of being let down and that doesn't seem like a "real" solution beyond luck, so I'm gonna take a break from doing that while I get my iPad set up. I have the sneaking suspicion this might have to do with some recent Windows updates that just rolled out, my PC had definitely gone through a couple leading up to the malfunction. This wouldn't be the first time Microsoft has fucked with my tablet functionality so I literally wouldn't be surprised if it was something like that. Either that, or the '2' in Kamvas 22 stands for "will only last for 2 years before stopping entirely" LOL

Anyways, that's all for now. Thank you all so much for your patience and understanding through all this. While I don't want to have to reduce the quality or frequency of what I put out for you guys due to technical issues, I also don't want the comic to stop entirely, so if this turns into one of those desperate situations where I'm delivering you guys episodes of Rekindled drawn on a Nintendo DS, so be it. I'm not gonna let this beat me.

[danieyells]

Seeing how Tohma gives the MC the wildest tasks related to Jin just to get a laugh out of it, it reminds me of Dragon Ball Super, where a character named Whis sent Goku and Vegeta to change Beerus' bedsheets it a 10 minute tense situation where they had to do it without waking him up. Do you have any headcanons on other things he might have asked the MC to do?

Lol I feel like Jin gives the PC more wild tasks than Tohma. Jin's the one who's like "clean my room and my clothes because they got a little dirty" and "give me a massage--no, harder than that" to both Tohma and PC. Then again, Tohma also deliberately ignored Jin's messages and left behind paperwork so Jin would make the PC get it, only to take care of it himself and make the whole process moot. . .okay he might give them some silly pointless tasks just to force them to spend time together and entertain himself with the outcomes.

I think Tohma's goal is more to force Jin to get used to the PC and being used to/relying on other people than his own entertainment--he just happens to be entertained in the process. That being said, Jin almost never leaves his room, so Tohma has to find ways to get them in there without being there himself.

Honestly doing what they ask is part of the PC's job(at least, to some extent,) so he rarely even needs excuses when it comes to tending to Jin. Doesn't need to ask anything unusual either. . .or nothing unusual for him to do for Jin anyway. The PC is one of Jin's servants now--and maybe they could even help him after graduation when he's working at the Institute properly. So best to make sure they're familiar with everything that could possibly be asked of them now. It's a lot of menial tasks, especially early on before he can really trust them.

Tohma's busy making something else for Jin or solving some other problem that's arisen, so take Jin's tea/meal to him. The officials at Darkwick are expecting him, so here's Jin's finished laundry. Oh, none of it is folded? Silly him. Their 'King' will be cross if he doesn't see that it's at least done, so you can fold it in his room. Some of it needs to be hung up too anyway. Off they go.

Sometimes he really is busy--Jin isn't his only priority after all, between official Darkwick business and the spy situation and his mysterious health problems--so he just asks the PC to fill in for him for the day once he trusts them enough. Plus Jin sends him on missions--someone has to check on the guy while he's gone.

There's a party in the Frostheim ballroom--Jin even agreed to attend! Tohma has to host however, so do him a favor and help Jin get ready. Oh, they got there and Jin said he never agreed to attend a party. . .what a silly mistake. Well, keep him company while Tohma handles the party, alright?

Oh and god forbid the pc have any interest in classical music. Tohma canonically can't tell which musician is which so if pc knows then that is 100% their problem! If they don't though maybe they'll be able to figure it out better than Tohma can. . .so he'll have them periodically come in and listen to Jin explain which one is which so he can ask them to take care of the music for him instead. Because he can't get these names straight.

Of course after catching a sickly Jin lying with his head in their lap he has a new assortment of tasks for them. The Captain seems lonely, so why don't you stop by? Don't mind too much if he scolds you, if he let you in that means he wanted you there. Will you take care of the flowers on the balcony for me? Jin only begrudgingly allows me to do so, I think you would be more befitting of handling something so precious to him. He seems to respond well to you, so will you go wake him up? He actually has something to do today for once.

Of course it'll be a while before he trusts them for real, so it's a good while before they get any interesting demands I'd say. The most interesting demands come from Jin himself. Tohma's commands are mostly just training and to get them in the door I'd say lmao.

I'M SORRY I CAN'T REALLY COME UP WITH A GOOD ANSWER TO THIS. I FEEL LIKE TOHMA DOESN'T GIVE TOO MANY ABNORMAL COMMANDS. He's about practical instruction--something like 'fold everything and put it in the drawer you have 15 seconds' is unreasonable and if anyone would have unreasonable demands I think it's Jin. Or Taiga. Like "i'm gonna take a nap in my bed, i want you to change my sheets before i wake up" is absolutely a jin command lmao HE WOULDN'T BE SERIOUS ABOUT IT. But i can absolutely see him saying that lol.

[moonpile]

The Trouble with Home Tours - ESO U43

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/661795/ - U43 Home Tours - Preemptive Feedback

TL;DR: A description field alone would solve a lot of problems. With the other sub-features, it could've been great.

Intro:

I admire the project this is based on: EHT Housing Hub. Due to clues in datamines and because EHT's creator was hired to work for ZOS (he was on the reveal stream), some of us suspected for months that Home Tours would be the new feature in Update 43. It was not a surprise.

The disappointment is not about what it is. It's not that "we already have an addon" (the feature could've been better for all of us, PC and console alike).

It's that I hoped it would come with more utility and improvements on EHT's Housing Hub,

rather than being an extremely "lite" version. I actually don't use HH much due to UI and UX; official implementation could improve these.

For now, I’m not looking forward to Home Tours. I don’t want to share nor tour builds if there’s no way to share the description or POI.

Feedback:

1. Descriptions:

Anyone who's done housing events knows that descriptions are crucial, both for explaining the build's story and visitor tips/directions.

Two things make me want to visit a build:

Screenshots

Description

HT has neither; tags don't suffice. It will be a mess when there are thousands of listings.

Example from EHT Housing Hub: Hovering over a home in EHT shows the description. Home Tours could improve upon this UI and make it fit the game's aesthetics.

Also with EHT, players can put a custom book containing the house description. This would be a great sub-feature to bring in, keeping things in-game rather than in UI.

Example: custom books

I don't like to use EHT effects: they don't match the in-game aesthetics/UI, show through other objects, and not everyone has them enabled. Official implementation could improve this.

1.5 Weather Control:

Worth mentioning weather control again since it shows up a ton in descriptions: "Please visit in sunny weather or lights don't work!" etc. Dark, low-contrast rain & lightning flashing are physically painful and annoying as a builder, but it's bad for streamers or judges too: they don't have time to wait around for the right conditions or return when it's finally sunny again if they have 50 others to visit.

2. House Nicknames:

Disappointed that titles are not showcase-specific.

I use nicknames with BMU to organize my houses for easy travel. (I constantly change the numbers, so if I'm actively working on a house it might be 00 or 01.)

But I don't want my "Teahouse for Azandar" to show up as "04 ATHFA" for visitors... or worse thanks to the character limit:

3. Point of Interest markers:

Descriptions could be shorter if we could place graphical POI markers, with an option to add short flavor text that would show on interaction. (No slot wasting: these should not be furnishings. Should be able to show/hide so they don't clash with the visuals.)

Example, EHT's POI markers:

Again, style doesn't match and these show through walls and objects. Official implementation could improve upon EHT.

I started making graphics like this to help visitors. The above in-game features would be better.

Since I couldn't include a graphic in-game, and without descriptions (and because of the EHT copy-paste issue!) I’d rather not use the House Tours feature for now. Discord, Reddit, Youtube, etc. are all better ways to find housing inspiration and community.

I'm making my own housing directory, here.

...

From the outside, it appears like there may have been hurdles that tied devs' hands, preventing something more feature-rich.

I know others are disappointed it's not one of many other oft-requested features. But since this is what we got, I hope others will ask for these improvements as well, and that the devs can keep working and expanding on it.

[squarebracket-trickster]

Writer Q&A Tag Game

Thank you @sunset-a-story for ALSO tagging me way back in August. I AM SO SORRY

1. What motivates you to write?

It itchy, itchy urge to create something. I NEED it OUT. I MUST make sense of it ALL. The thoughts need ordering and putting together to maximize the happy chemicals. I see something I like that someone else made and I get jealous so I must do something like that, but MY way, and BETTER. It all makes me very itchy (restless).

2. A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud/happy of. If not maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them)

I skimmed my entire 3rd draft (so far) to pick a line. There are a lot of good ones but none I liked more than the rest - I couldn't choose. So... I know I've already shared this one but dammit. It is a kickass line. It's also the first line of WIPVII - and you do not know what devils I sold my soul to to escape THAT writer's block.

I will live, I tell myself through the salt water in my eyes and the sting of the south wind on my face. This will make for a good story one day.

5. What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

Banter and wit. Which is funny because I always thought that was the thing I would struggle most with - I was the academic overachiever who took herself too seriously in school. But when I reread my drafts there is something that makes me laugh in nearly every scene. Most of my highlighted lines are banter or retorts.

6. What do you enjoy most about the Writeblr community?

I love seeing writeblr content on my dash and I looooove getting interactions when I liveblog my writing. It is so nice to be able to share this with people who love it too (rather than inflicting it on my poor irl friends who are not writers). I just love all you Writeblr friends so much!

7. A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)

A 2x3.5' and a 3x5.5' whiteboard with a rainbow's worth of whiteboard markers in different thicknesses for brainstorming, family trees, timelines. My sketchbook, a mechanical pencil, and YouTube drawing tutorials for my maps and concept art. MS Word, dark mode, Times New Roman pt 11, with comments enabled for my manuscripts, outlines (bullet points), and worldbuilding notes. Subfolders within subfolders stored on my PC to organize all my Word docs. Two separate USBs which my completed manuscripts are saved to (in case something happens to my computer AND one of the USBs).

I have yet to find any worldbuilding or map making software (and it hasn't been for lack of looking) that gives me enough flexibility. I have yet to find any writing software that has features Word doesn't but that would actually help my process rather than overwhelm me.

I do want to write out a draft of WIPVII by hand at some point (though with my penchant for writing hand cramps this might be doomed). I also want to try an electric typewriter.

8. A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law etc)

WIPVII doesn't have very complex worldbuilding (there is no magic and most of it is ripped from real world history) but I do always love it when authors tell us what way the wind is coming, what smells it carries, what the view is in the distance, whose lands those are... that kind of stuff. Really creates a sense of place. I spent a lot of time mapping all this out in my own novel and I am very happy with it! The description feels so rich!

9. What piece of advice would you say to encourage others to write if they are having a rough patch?

Learn more about the craft. Writing is problem solving. If you aren't happy with something figure out why - the mechanics and technique behind writing. If you're still stuck learn even more. There are so many great, free resources on tumblr, youtube, blogs, pinterest (though it is most stolen from tumblr) even twitter and tiktok.

Also, learn how to filter out what advice is helpful now versus what should wait for later so you don't get overwhelmed. If you haven't even written a first draft yet don't bother with pacing, exposition, line editing, or let alone how to query. Just focus on the macro-stuff like plot and character arcs.

Tagging with the lightest brush on the shoulder these nine alleged humans: @cheeto-flavoured-pasta, @alnaperera, @bluberimufim, @daisywords, @boundedsea, @full-on-sam, @writernopal, @ashen-crest, @surroundedbypearls

[operationslipperypuppet]

Can you tell us about the deal your character made with a god, the tags made me curious

Hell yes, but fair warning, this might end up being a long explanation. (This is referring to my tags on this post.)

I promise that most of these details i mention will be important.

To start, I’m playing a game of Blades in the Dark in a slight riff on the town that the game is originally set in, which my group determined in a game of The Quiet Year. During that set up game, we established a character who would try to solve the root of supernatural problems in the city but never quite be successful, and the NPC name generator we used spat out the name “Tip Footman, PI”. When we did character creation for blades, i was a bit stuck, and the GM and other players encouraged me to just play Tip, who’s still a bit of a joke, given his playbook (Quotidian, for which the explanation is “just some guy”.) Tip has two failed marriages and has been a PhD candidate for 17 years, and is attempting to finish a dissertation that maybe just has some formatting issues.

Thus a bit of a meme of me playing Tip at any possibility began.

We flash forward a year or so. We decide to play a game of Fiasco as a one shot, still set in Eelmouth, our beautiful haunted town, a decade or so before the events of A Quiet Year. Fiasco starts with dice rolled and pulling certain dice to determine your character’s relationship with the characters next to you at the table. One of the players next to me got our relationship to be “an informant and an investigator”. Tip is an investigator. I was encouraged to continue playing Tip, and I accepted. The other player next to me and I got our relationship determined to be “twins”. Her character and the one i wasn’t connected to were “a vampire and their thrall”. (This is, unfortunately, important.) The last relationship, between the informant and my sister’s thrall was something like “cult leader and follower”.

The way Fiasco works, as my limited memory recalls it, is that on each of your turns you pull a die and either call for a scene between two characters or start a scene with someone. The color of the die determines whether or not the scene will have a good ending.

Throughout the game, some things become interesting. There are some other mysteries that come up. The cult leader/thrall decided to attempt to create a new god. He failed this task in a way where he was able to create a god, just not the one he wanted. This new god, was the god of failure (someone who existed in the anthology of gods in our blades game already).

The information that Tip received from Nell, his informant, was that the cult leader intended to do a ritual with Mags to unthrall her. Something that could kill her, his beloved twin, who he had already lost when she got turned. He couldn’t have that. But he did try to convince Nell to leave the cult.

So then it’s my turn. And I deliberately pick a die that gives me a poor outcome. And i ask for a scene with this god of failure (who is played by the same player who is playing my sister).

The deal Tip makes is simple. This is a new god, he has no followers. And power comes from followers. So Tip will be his most devoted acolyte. In return for the unthralling failing, he will become the poster child for this god. The person who will, at any turn, fail. This is a man who was newly engaged. Who was starting a program and young with his whole life ahead of him. And he was willing to fail at everything, for however long this god saw fit. As long as the other ritual was also a failure.

And it was. So Tip is, forever, marked by failure. Retroactively justifying a lot of the events of A Quiet Year and our Blades game. He’s trying to get out. He has to believe he will get out one day. And he kept his deal a secret. For decades.

The end of the game went poorly for all of the PCs. The cult guy died. Nell is unable to do her art anymore (it was an art cult). And Mags left town, and is hiding forever in a church, afraid of hurting people once more.

And the best part? We didn’t mean for this game to be canon when we started playing it. And it’s fundamental to how the story works now.

[taffywabbit]

some people were concerned about my joke in this earlier post regarding "putting tape on the fan", so let me just clarify what happened there lol

(this is kind of another computer storytime post, but it's longer and not really a joke like the other one, so i will put it behind a Read More for those who are curious)

ok so basically my computer started making this HORRIBLE screeching squealing noise intermittently back in October. it scared the hell out of me so badly that i just IMMEDIATELY turned off my computer because i thought that shit was about to catch fire. this happened multiple times and i couldn't figure out what was causing it and i just decided to leave my computer off for the rest of the night and open it up in the morning when i could get a second opinion from one of my techy roommates. but then it was just... fine? for a couple days? and i was like oh phew everything's ok i guess! that was really weird!

of course the noise started again, and i determined that it was coming from back end of my liquid CPU cooler, so for the first time ever, i figured out how to open up the side panel of my case and made sure everything was free of dust (it was fine) and there were no loose wires or components brushing up against the fans (also fine). then i took the top off to see if there were any loose screws where the cooler attached to it, and there weren't, but there WAS an inexplicably bent filament in the heatsink

and i was like oh shit! i wonder if that's causing some kind of air resistance sound or something and that's what i've been hearing! so i very very carefully bent it back into shape with a small screwdriver and then closed everything back up and tested it. it did not help. in hindsight it was kinda dumb of me to assume that would have anything to do with the issue, but oh well, i learned lots of things about computers throughout this process

anyways i looked inside the case with a flashlight WHILE it was running and pretty much immediately realized that the problem was very obviously one of the 3 fans on the CPU cooler that was stalling. it only started screeching when it tried to get up to higher speeds, but it was still slowing down/stopping every few seconds and creating a lot of vibration, which was something i COULD deal with while trying to get my work done, but it was distracting and made me really really anxious.

my phone's mic is always really quiet for some reason but you can still see/hear what was going on in there:

i think this was around the point in the process where i looked into fan control software, because i realized they didn't seem to be dynamically adjusting to my PC's resource usage or temperature and were instead just running full blast all the time. (it got SO much quieter after i did that. i can't believe i just dealt with hurricane winds under my desk for a year without questioning it lmao). it was AFTER i slowed their default running speed down a bit that i was able to see the problem more clearly and took this video.

i installed FanControl in the hopes that it would give me some kind of option to JUST turn off that one fan and leave the other two running, because obviously that fan isn't contributing anything to keeping things cool anyways so i may as well just shut it off and avoid further damage to the motors (and further squealing), right? well unfortunately the whole CPU cooler is treated as a single fan on the software end of things, so whatever i do to one fan, i do to all of them. it was still worthwhile to set up FanControl but it didn't solve my issue.

so THEN i did some digging, and according to some forums online it sounded like these 3 fans might at least be wired separately? or daisy-chained off of one set of wires via metal contacts on their sides? either way, it sounded like it'd be possible to just detach and remove the faulty fan until i could replace it, temporarily solving the issue. i figured out how to open up my PC even MORE than before and accessed the rear side where all the cables are kept. this is where i ran into a wall again re: my lack of expertise and confidence with this stuff.

looking at the back of the motherboard, this is what i was greeted with:

the part that's circled at the top is where the cables from all 3 fans (turned out they DID each have their own separate cables) were bundled together into two groups and fed into the back, behind the motherboard. the ones that run across the top to the left are bundled up back here and then feed back through to the front and connect o the motherboard, and the ones running down the right side go to the power supply in the bottom of the case (which i quickly found to be inaccessible because it was protected on both sides by solid metal plates that i couldn't figure out how to remove without breaking anything). in both cases, regardless of whether i could access the actual ports to disconnect them, it was nearly impossible to figure out which cables corresponded to which fan from this vantage point.

after spending a few minutes quietly coming to terms with the fact that i was WAY over my head and not equipped to carry out this particular solution, i closed the computer back up and went online to look for more possible solutions. i didn't find anything, but a piece of info i DID consistently come across throughout this whole process is that computer fans are typically very low-torque (so that they stop easily if anything obstructs them, to prevent damage to wires or anything like that). talking to a few friends about it, i decided i might have the temporary solution i needed.

this is where the tape finally comes in! i used scotch tape and just kinda... folded it around one of the fan blades and attached it to the outside of the fan casing, like a leash.

then, very very fearfully, i turned the PC back on and watched to see what happened, ready to cut the power if needed. but it worked, more or less! it would pull, meet resistance, immediately stop, and wait a moment before trying again. the important thing is that it couldn't get up to speed and it wasn't making noise. so i turned it off again, redid the tape (i don't have a pic of it but i did a much better job of securing it from multiple angles so it was 100% immobile), and it was good to go!

not a pretty or ideal solution, but my computer doesn't make funny noises anymore and still isn't having any temperature issues. if there was anything to actually attach it to then i might use a zip-tie or something instead, but this has been working fine for 2 months and will continue to work for the foreseeable future, or at least until i move and have computer-savvy friends living nearby who can help me remove and replace the fan/cooler.

anyways yeah after going through all of this chronologically, this is DEFINITELY why my computer sometimes turns red and evil and wants to kill me lmao

[chevvy-ryder]

WIP Wednesday

Been tagged by @morganlefaye79 thx! <3

I tag: @imaginarycyberpunk2023, @itzsassha, @medtech-mara, @therealnightcity, @humberg, @pinkyjulien, @hydrasshole @kharonion and @elvenbeard as always: no pressure!

— VP

No plans atm other than preparing and thinking about sth for Arki as his birthday follows up next. Also promised I'll take some pics of Enzo and Jay as i couldn't make it in time for Enzo's bday. So I don't have much to add other than what I sneak-peaked last week that will be posted when I feel ready to push the button in my drafts (some pics are already months old again …). All other VP ideas are on hold as I still would liketo play the game a bit longer and only do random pics in between — but I need to solve first my problem I have with Thyjs' save data that is crashing when wanting to watch the deathshead BD in Judy's van. I want to look into it on the weekend because before I hop back into my bigger VP ideas I plan to get every oc into Phantom Liberty start and have them skilled a bit because that also motivates me to actually play the game from time to time and helps me to describe their fight style in the rp story. If I can't solve it I'll try Vijay next and see if he crashes too at the same point or not as I remember he's not far away from the Scav mission either. Then last I can try is Jay but he needs to get through the entire prologue first which will take me a weekend as well.

FIC/STORY/RP

Once I get Vijay's npv, @nervouswizardcycle and I can finally start taking story pics as well, though I believe she might just wait until she gets her new pc for that. I have overworked "The Golden Demon of Kabuki" text some months ago so it is a better readable fic now. I will place it into layout as soon as the needed pics are done. Then I'll see what happens next. Probably try and get ch2 ready.

I've said enough now, let's give you another snip-bit:

CORPO PARTY RP SNIPPET (my part only):

He noticed that Vijay says something Ry can’t concentrate on since he’s busy staring the redhead down and trying to see through him, but sees V starts walking and so he follows. They walked a bit further away leaving the red-haired man alone, Vijay pleased to stay and wait until they would come back to him. Once they were far away enough, Ryder turns around and raises his voice with a certain gnarl in his undertone “I leave you alone for almost an hour and you take the next best chance to shove your tongue down the throat of one of those Corporats?!” “Ry—” Vijay starts but Ryder is not done and so he hisses dangerously. “ON A JOB!? — Seriously V!” Scharfenberg shifts his weight to one leg, breathes audibly through his nostrils, crosses his arms and waits for V’s explanation.

Somehow Steyr finds it funny because he knows Ryder exaggerates it as always. Nonetheless Vijay feels a bit embarrassed as well because he knows Ry is also right. He should behave in a certain manner here but he is bad at being a Corpo. “Calm down man — Part of the job now,” V answers and gives him a stupid smirk. “You weren’t in reach. Had to escape from that escort chick otherwise I’d have blown cover. Unlike you I dunno how to friggin’ corpo. Dunno how to even pronounce my fuckin’ fake name either. Stainback von Kra– Krawnee–” “Steinbach von Kranichstein!” Ryder repeats fast in exasperation. 

They’ve practiced it a few times before and V still wasn’t able to pronounce it right. “Yeah whatever!” Vijay gestures with his hands. “But uh— Arki happened to—” “Oh, it’s ‘Arki’ already?!” “—chill a few feet away from me, so I took the chance to escape and, yeah — he’s my fiancé in disguise now as long as we are on the job here. He’s the dude from the Afterlife weeks ago, ‘member? Could help us out on this.” Ryder raises both eyebrows, his mouth opens a bit and he feels how Beast wants him to yell at V yet he -tries- to stay the calmest he can be. “Afterlife red haired rando? Supposed demon — your fiancé?! Alter Vadder! Tell me this is a joke!?” Ryder throws both hands in the air and makes a few steps as if he wants to walk away now and curses further in German “Ich glaub, ich bin im falschen FIlm!” He wasn’t in the wrong movie, though. “Chill, bro. I’ve got it under control. All good,” Steyr tries to calm his friend. “V, you know he’s a—” Scharfenberg starts but stops abruptly as he realizes something now that doesn’t make much sense to him. Wait. Afterlife merc rando— a true Corporate? How’s that fitting in? “He’s what?” V raises an eyebrow at that. “Forget it!“ “M‘Kay, if y’say so.” V crosses his arms, not satisfied about Ry’s answer.

“Just don’t like to get into a fucking mess,V!” Scharfenberg spits his sentence out rather inappropriately. Judging by V’s face however Ry notices it is meant seriously, so he facepalms with an angry growl as Beast already tells him to just flip the switch, turn around and kill some of those poor dancing souls behind him. “I’m not riding us into a mess. I bet he can help us to klep the info we here for.” Ryder gets immensely fidgety, looking into every direction trying to ignore the voice as best as he can. He fiddles out a menthol cigarette, lights it up and takes a few long puffs inhaling it deeply into his lungs as he walks up and down glad that Vijay waits until he’s done. The least V could use was having Ryder in a critical state on this job, so V gives his best mate time to clear his mind.

“Fine— But we’re not done talking about this!” Ryder states as he throws the smoked up stub on the bottom to rather aggressively put it out with his double varnished fine shoe. He doesn’t look amused about the fact that his best friend obviously seemed to know this dude named Arki already better than he thought. Steyr must have kept this info from him for whatever reason and he doesn’t like it at all. But since it is not part of the job right now, he accepts this now changed situation. So he takes another deep breath and says under gritted teeth “Let's get back to your new flame then, see if he can be of help as you predict and brief him.” Vijay gives him a thankful gaze. He knows it’s not easy for Ry to control but he managed well enough not to raise any suspicion and V does feel guilty too for not telling Ry he knows Arki already better than he might think. They would discuss it later. But now back to business. So they walked back to the redhead who was awaiting them back where they left him, enjoying a cigarette.

[mxtwister]

Cult of the Lamb has been on my list of games to play for a good while now and since I'm finally just a few bosses away from finishing Hi-Fi Rush I figured I should get some input from a fan before starting a file. got any comments or things I should know before playing?

Oh yeah!

So I put off answering this for a little while because I was on vacation but also my first instinct was to warn you off of buying the switch version due to some performance issues. Once I hit about 20 followers (which is required at some points to progress the game!!) it started to lag terribly; dropped resources would fly all across the screen, follower dialogue was getting swapped, somehow, it would lag and sometimes crash entirely, etc., etc.

But!

The game's since updated, and after a few trial runs it seems that these issues have markedly improved. Doing some preliminary research I almost think that this might be something of a pattern where the devs release an update and it's absolute havoc on the switch for a little while until they're able to fix it. I can't say for sure though. In any case the switch version is working fine now.

(Although I've seen some shader packs people have been using on pc that are really really pretty so yknow. pros and cons. really it's whichever you prefer)

Anyways, cotl is pretty straightforward. Besides decorations the most important "customization" is the doctrines, which are rules and rituals you can unlock and apply to your cult. You're given a choice between two and have to pick only one (the other can be unlocked postgame, which personally I think is kind of a bad move because it takes the point out of the game having multiple save files, the biggest draw for which is picking different doctrines but that's off-topic). Usually you can go either/or depending on your play style-basically how brutal you want to be-but I'd recommend:

Don't pick the Resurrection Ritual! It doesn't take a lot of resources and has almost no downsides. It takes the punch out of your followers dying when you can just zap em back to life anytime. It lowers the stakes, and a big part of the game's fun (especially the early part) is in the struggle to keep your followers happy, obedient, and healthy. It's better to unlock post-game.

Pick Return to the Earth, which unlocks the ability to turn your dead followers into fertilizer. It will get tedious to deal with the bodies. You'll run out of space to bury them and it costs loyalty to cut them up in front of your followers, meaning you'll have to wait until night (it's more annoying than anything).

Pick Tax Collector. Money isn't incredibly important in the game, but one issue I've constantly run into is food insecurity. Harvesting food doesn't always yield seeds, so your supplies aren't going to replenish themselves. You'll have to buy seeds fairly often. It's better to have someone running around collecting extra cash for you.

(^Note for this one, you can unlock a doctrine that removes the penalty for making your followers eat grass, which seems like it'll solve all your food problems, but grass isn't very filling and you do need it as building material too, so that isn't really sustainable in the long run. Also, feeding your followers better food increases loyalty)

These are just some thoughts that I notice are different from the guide I saw online. Moving on from that, some completely miscellaneous tips:

A big part of the game outside of cult-caretaking is going on crusades...which means leaving followers to their own devices. Unfortunately, your followers are useless and cannot do anything to take care of themselves unless you've unlocked enough buildings to make your cult semi-automated (kitchen, outhouse, etc.) Make sure before you leave your loyalty is full or close to it, the place is completely tidy, and no one's hungry.

They're going to dissent anyways. Build prisons asap.

I didn't realize this for the longest time, somehow, but you can gain extra blue hearts each time you perform a sermon. Stacking them up makes crusades a lost easier before you've unlocked all of your permanent red hearts + stronger weapons.

There's a rat follower form hidden behind Ratu's house and a starfish one hidden in Midas' Cave :]

Photosensitivity warning: Sometimes when unlocking things (usually new stages, I think) there'll be this irritating black-and-white colour-shift/flash. Luckily the game has a ton of accessibility settings that you can fiddle with if anything bothers you.

Recently there was a pretty major update (Sins of the Flesh) and it seems like the devs have the intention of continuing to add more free content to the game Stardew Valley-style which I'm really looking forward to! I definitely recommend it if you're thinking of buying.

God's a catboy. It doesn't get better than that.

[gaminganxious]

Deponia Review

Genre: Point and Click Adventure/Comedy

Release Date: Aug 6th, 2012

Playtime: 9hrs

Completed?: Yes, just barely

Would Play again?: No but I am looking forward to playing the next one.

This week was too busy for me to play during the weekday But I was able to find enough time this weekend to dedicate a few hours to it Saturday and today. This is a game that can be finished in a weekend.

Deponia is a classic point and click game in which you play as Rufus, a self-centered jackass with almost no conscience. A fact everyone else you encounter will happily And repeatedly remind you of. Your sole mission is to leave Deponia and reach the glittering city of Elysium where chores don't exist, or something. Why? Because your Rufus and you deserve it! You'll use your incredible intellect and your five finger discount to cobble junk together in order to solve the many problems you cause. As well as lie out your ass to everyone you meet and kind of sorta coincidentally save Deponia along the way.

I really love the art style of this game. The character animation style feels very Sam and Max meets Professor Layton. The cut scenes are styled differently but are still really good. Each background panel feels like it's been given its due and there's lots of attention to detail. I also really love all of character designs.

I had some trouble with the controls in the beginning. They're not clearly labeled but there is a pretty thorough tutorial explaining them In the beginning. I just don't think I paid enough attention to it. That being said this game was adapted from PC and finding a controller guide for Playstation took some serious digging. As with most point and clicks I've played there were a few points where I found myself completely bewildered as to what to do or what components I might have missed. For the most part though, allowing the nearest citizen to humble Rufus gave me the hint I needed to move on.

Comedy wise Deponia is a continuously entertaining game and did manage to get a few good laughs out of me throughout. There were a handful of times where it fell flat with me but I think that's just the risk we take with comedy. Not every joke is going to be a belly buster to everyone.

The first chapter of Deponia is currently listed for $12.99, which I think is solid for what I got out of it. I think it's well worth it if you're looking for something entertaining or if you are feeling nostalgic for a good point and click. I've added the second one to my list of games to play.