#and part of accessibility is making sure you can toggle accessibility features on and off

[thefage]

If you try to force something online to be for everybody, it's just going to end up for nobody.

[laikaflash]

Newish lioden player. What's up w the rumble marking drama?

I've been playing since 2018, so I'll set the scene. Strap in.

Before we had the Rumble markings, there were some new features added to the May event in 2019. This was a huge month for updates, the relevant ones here being a "Reputation Shop" for both of the storyline NPCs where you can get Brawl and Inverted Brawl marking applicators. These were the first app markings made for this event, and you can see in the responses to this announcement post that they got a fairly warm reception at the time.

Note that Brawl has a very busy and squiggly look to it. Put a pin in that. (I swear I've seen similar textures on foam gym mats. I'm not sure if that's what they were going for, though.)

Then came May 2020. Among other things, the Rumble marking applicator was introduced to the game. It has a similar look to Brawl, only it's somewhat jagged. A few days in, there was a rash of threads in the forums about Rumble, the most serious thing mentioned in them by far was that the marking was a potential seizure risk. Some players brought it up in the announcement thread a few days into the event.

How is that possible, you may ask. Well, let me make this clear: I am not a neurologist and I've never had a seizure in my life. I'm not the person to ask about photosensitive epilepsy (or any other type); I'm just describing things as best as I understand them. From what I can find, there is ongoing research into why high contrasting patterns in still images may trigger seizures in some people with PSE. (Medical News Today has more technical info here.)

In any case, the seizure concerns got the admins' attention. On May 4 that year, the Rumble marking was hidden from view and the applicator removed from the shop. Forum threads about the marking were locked and players advised to refrain from making any more about it. (Source) The next day, the admins made a statement:

Today, we sought legal clarification over the marking. We have been advised that we are compliant and meet all legal requirements and there is no reason that the marking should be removed from the game or that any additional warning notice needs to be given out. Additionally, the marking itself was not flagged as a typical risk. [...] We must ask that if you have noticed any adverse effects while accessing Lioden at any point, to discontinue use of the site immediately and seek medical help from a physician.

(Bolding theirs! Excerpts from Rumble Marking Clarification)

With that, Rumble was reinstated with some faded effects added presumably to make it less harsh on a contrasting base. Lioden operates in the UK, so I think these are the guidelines they're trying to adhere to. However, those are mostly about video content and the May event doesn't have any animations as of yet. (And for the ones that do, you can toggle the animations off.)

But that wasn't enough for some people. Some of the players had already telephone-gamed the whole thing into "DANGEROUS MARKING AT ANY OPACITY" with the growing vibe of "If you have Rumble/Brawl lions, you're evil". Note the reminder of the section of the game's TOS against threatening, harassment; etc. in that same clarification post. This shit was nasty enough that I thought I could get dogpiled just for selling the applicators, so I buried them for a time. (You have no idea how relieved I was to find anyone this December with this marking app on their wishlist.)

You are reading this right: a year after Brawl was introduced, it got lumped in with Rumble. If memory serves, one of the game's artists was also scapegoated because of course that happened.

Finally, on May 8, the marking censor was added as part of a development update. (Announcement here.) This setting allows players to hide any marking they wish from their view without affecting gameplay for anyone else. That should do it, right?

Even then, the hostility didn't completely end there. Short of the entire art team leaving, I don't know what some of these people really wanted here. On a game that has around 2000 players online most of the day, I can't ascertain how many were adversely affected by the Rumble marking that week, but under the circumstances, I think the admins did the best they could. I wouldn't put this incident on the same level of Cyber Soldier Porygon. It was a shock at the time, but ye gods did some people take it too far.

And that's why I grit my teeth every time I see a "RUMBLE/BRAWL FREE DEN" message after having seen loads of garish customized den designs after all this time. Fortunately, you can toggle those off too.

[cat-coderrr]

Bluetooth and Headphone Safety

Although there are two main types of device-to-device intercommunications vulnerabilities that are associated with Bluetooth tech, there are also some health risks you need to be aware of. I wanted to talk about these issues not to fearmonger or cause panic but to simply educate. Let’s dive in!

One big method is called Bluejacking. Essentially, attackers will send unsolicited and unwanted messages via Bluetooth from device to device. One of the first messages sent was by a Malaysian man in or around 2001. One other individual claims to have been the first at an earlier date; however, both are Nokia phone related incidents with poor Bluetooth security especially at the time when Bluetooth was still very early on.

If a victim of Bluejacking, most people are completely unaware of what has happened to their devices when they’re BlueJacked, and just think their phones have glitched out or perhaps have had age-related issues.

Bluesnarfing happens when an attacker gains unauthorized access to your devices via active bluetooth integration. When utilized as intended by the threat actors, they can then have access to calendars, contact lists, emails and text messages, and on some phones, users can copy pictures and private videos. Fortunately, you sort of need to be within extremely close range of the attackers as the vast majority of attacks have happened within the maximum range of 10 meters.

Tech-related advice

Keep Bluetooth off when you aren’t using it

Toggling it off within the iOS quick functionality squares WON’T work. You have to go all the way to Settings to toggle it off fully.

Make sure you know what your devices are named and don’t accept Bluetooth connections from people you don’t know

Health/Physical Security advice

Our ears are very sensitive to high decibel ranges, so try and find quality, cost-effective earphones/headphones without compromising on your hearing range.

Noise canceling headphones and earbuds, especially at lower volumes can really help ease the damage or even protect your ears from future damage.

"What does this have to do with trust and safety?!" well, not only is protecting your devices extremely important to your personal data, but also your physical health is at risk if you misuse headphones or if you are uninformed.

First of all, some people think that it's totally ok to have high volume on your headphones. If you practice this bad exercise over time this will cause you to have tinnitus and hearing loss and perhaps even go deaf. Secondly, some folks out there believe that Bluetooth is some cancer-causing technology or something of that nature. Though, due to how low the signals/frequencies etc are, the impact on your health in this aspect is very low.

Trust & Safety mainly encompasses fraud, information assurance, and moderation in most day to day duties. But also, fighting disinformation is also a massive part of the duties many don't discuss and I want to do my best in what I know to combat this issue :)

REFERENCES

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1369156

[transition-with-the-torah]

Dated: 17 February 2024

I mentioned Pillowfort in a recent to-do list, and I think I've probably made some sort of reference to it before. [Yes: I mentioned a dreidel avatar frame back in 2022.] I've been using it for private, location specific aspects of remembering to journal, and I have made a point of using the offered Concealed Mode. (It's a toggle in user settings, so I'm not locked into that forever.)

Only people I'm following can access my fort [individual blog], and I'm pretty sure it was offered as a way to reduce "harasser follows person to gain access to follower only posts" tactics. This doesn't remove the ability to still use post-by-post privacy settings (visibility for mutuals, followers, logged in Pillowfort users, or everyone), but Concealed Mode does override visibility until you turn that mode off. (Or: each post I have as visible to "everyone" will automatically be public if I were to turn off Concealed Mode without me needing to edit each post.)

I can still comment/reply on other people's posts, and Concealed Mode doesn't affect posts made into a community. (The ability to make a post only visible to community members is a separate feature for whoever joins a community.) Overall, I find that Pillowfort works for me as a private blog without feeling like the same amount of work as individually making Tumblr posts private or making another sideblog.

I've wondered about trying to build up a little more interaction (or maybe, possibly community) in the Jewish Community, but I feel a bit like I'm imposing on the community when I post too often. Since October 7th, it also feels a bit like I might break some sort of bubble of reprieve from other social media sites. (It very well could be a benefit for some that the community is quiet enough that we haven't had harassment towards people posting in the community.)

Why mention Pillowfort now?

I think I've heard of a second person I found via Jumblr who's leaving Tumblr (or possibly making a nondisclosed private account for something unrelated to discussing Jewish topics if not outright leaving). A part of me is very aware that I'm basically a stranger and many people are not interested in joining a new-to-them site, and a part of me feels like Jewish Community will probably feel like tumbleweeds drifting by compared to the interaction via Tumblr. (Or: even if I did happen to know someone well enough to suggest a Tumblr alternative, I can easily imagine them bouncing because 'Pillowfort is dead'.)

[todayimgonnaplay]

Today I'm gonna play: Cloudpunk

I wanted to try something that looked similar to a game called RUINER and saw this. Reading the description it seemed more chill, but I love Cyberpunk themes so thought to give this a shot!

Gameplay is very simple at a surface, you just drive to collect and drop packages around various parts of the city. Your vehicle, a HOVA also comes with some features that require you to repair it if you were to smash it into other HOVAs or objects, or upgrade for new features, and also fill it with gas if it runs out. These things happen very infrequently (unless if you're bad at driving like me) so it doesn't hold you off from playing, which is a very nice plus that still adds a sense of realism to it! Once you get around to the game, you find other nifty features, like having to park to deliver parcels and allowing you to roam around the city on foot. Some platforming elements are present such as walking through tunnels that act as teleporters, or lifts that take you up or down a level. Little things like this add a lot of immersiveness in the level.

I wasn't expecting any story, or even a serious story at all, but instead I'm having a déjà vu when I played Firewatch: expecting a cozy relaxing game that drops a thrilling mystery making you want to know what comes next. The characters are surprisingly well written, and the plot is mostly coherent. I've been in many situations where the game asks you to make a choice (also surprising!), but I haven't seen my actions cause anything big, so it's a bit of a bummer that you're just given the illusion of choice instead.

In terms of UI and UX, the former is great for the most part. You're able to toggle them on and off, they're non-intrusive and simple. But I have often had a lot of trouble in finding out where the waypoint actually is when I'm on foot, as it doesn't properly tell me which side of the map I should be on, or whether I should travel up or down. A suggestion for this would be to either reposition the points, or make the gaps in the map (places you cannot access due to boundary or obstacles blocking the path) bigger, as I've often seen them in areas where I think I can access, but it turns out I have to take a long route instead. Adding an arrow pointer would also help to figure out whether the destination is on top or below. Games like GTA 5 does this quite well. There are some really nifty features when it comes to the camera. For the vehicle, you have: - Automated camera while driving, right stick is used to hover up/down - Regular manual camera control with the right stick -First person view inside the car with UI scaled to look more diegetic And on foot you have: -First person view -Third person view -Third person ''cinematic'' view Not sure what else to call the last one but the camera zooms out and you get a whole view of the current area, making it look more scenic. Either way, the amount of camera options in this game is pretty insanely good!

Music is fitting, and surprisingly more so when it comes to the tone of the story. It's quite dynamic and knows what fits the right mood! However personally when it comes to driving games like this (and also for GTA), I prefer to put my own music on and just relax. Playing some Synthwave playlists felt great and coincidentally matched the story at times too.

I don't play a lot of voxel style games, the only one that comes to mind is Pixel Gun 3D. This one really impressed me with what voxel games can bring, I might check out more!

Terms exclusive to this game: HOVA - A hovering car vehicle you use to control when you're not walking around. Allows you to travel around the game

[cafeadvice]

Tumblr Basics for Cafe Dot

Please keep in mind that just like any social media site Tumblr will change and in consequence this advice is ever evolving.

What is Tumblr?

To put it simply Tumblr is a microblogging site that leans toward image sharing, but is also very generous to music & video links as well as text posts. The site itself has been around since 2007 and since then has had it's ups and downs but for the most part it has remained steady and boasts around 50 million visitors a month. As of March 2023 Tumblr hosts more than 572 million blogs. Tumblr does not lean hard into any algorithm and there is no verification process, if a celebrity is on Tumblr they're using the same tools you are. Some quick facts about the site:

48% of Tumblr users are Gen Z

It is the third most popular blogging platform on the internet

70% of users are satisfied with Tumblr's functionality - this puts them only below Pinterest and Youtube for customer satisfaction

The majority of Tumblr users are US based followed by Canada, and the United Kingdom.

The user base is nearly split 50/50 for identifying male (58%) or female (41%)

How do you set up a Tumblr blog?

First and foremost I recommend reading Tumblr's own guide for using their site here: TUMBLR GUIDE

This question is relatively loaded because Tumblr, unlike other social media sites, allows you to highly customize your profile/blog. To some this is fantastic, especially those that have a grasp of basic html editing. To others this task alone can seem daunting and an astronomical height to traverse over. Thankfully Tumblr provides some premade themes that you can lightly customize if spending hours on your blog theme isn't in the stars for you. If you'd like to learn how to create a custom HTML theme click here. You can also find plenty of free premade themes by other blog enthusiasts, they all tend to have set up instructions. Just google it :) After you create an account if you click on your profile picture it will take you to a quickview of your "blog" that most people will see if they hover over your icon. You can edit this minimally. If you click on "Blog Settings" It will navigate you to a page that allows you to edit your Username, Address (your tumblr blog address), Description, PFP, etc. If you'd like to use a custom theme please be sure to enable custom themes on this page, doing so enables you to have a full tumblr page and edit your theme. If you enable this - the edits you make on your main theme will reflect in your quickview.

Basics of Tumblr

Tumblr like Twitter keeps track of your likes, has a Following tab, and a For You tab. Unlike Twitter it defaults to your Following tab on the dashboard. It also has a Your Tags tab which are hashtags you have decided to follow and a Management Tab which gives you access to something called Tumblr Labs. Tumblr Labs has to be enabled as it's just experimental features that you can try out: Popular Reblogs Tab, Trending Tab, Favs Tab, etc.  You can at any time toggle these on and off and each provide a description of what they are and do. If you do decide to turn on Tumblr Labs the staff wants you to provide feedback, so please do!

Dashboard: This is your Tumblr landing zone - from here you can view your feed (you will only see posts from blogs you follow, no one else, unless they appear on radar), settings, overall account management, and create posts.

Tumblr Feed: this is the live feed of the most recent posts or reblogs from the users you follow.

Reblog: Effectively the same thing as a Retweet on Twitter, the difference is you can Reblog your own post infinite times and no algorithm is going to knock it out visually from your followers. They WILL see it. Keep that in mind and don't overuse it too frequently.

Tumblr Radar: this is a spotlight section that is curated by Tumblr staff and boosts artwork (4 different pieces per day). You can be randomly chosen if a staff comes across your piece or you can also submit your original work and it will go through a submission process and potentially be spotlighted. Read more about Tumblr Radar and how it works here.

Queues: In my opinion queues on Tumblr are probably the single most utilized version of queues on any social media site. A LOT of users queue their posts to spread them out over several hours or days, it's just something that has always been ingrained in the community to do. You can easily set up a draft to queue from the same area you would create the draft.

Hashtags: These are the bread and butter of Tumblr, ranging from categorizing to telling entire life stories in them (not a joke). Tags are highly visible and can even be seen in notifications of reblogs, they are sometimes used as ways for the reblogger to communicate with the OP, whether they ask a question or give you a compliment, if you filter through your reblog notifications you're bound to see some interesting ones. When it comes to using hashtags for searchability make sure they're relevant to your art/music/story etc. i.e Pixelart, Painting, Digital Art, Sky, Trees, Fantasy, Fantasy Art, Blue Art, Pastel, Pastel Aesthetic, and so on. It's also worth noting that categorizing via hashtags is very powerful on Tumblr, you can utilize your own hashtags to create pages or portfolios on your blog that can be easily navigated to. Example, I've posted 3 images to this blog tagged #matchaexample and created a link to the tagged page connected to this blog called "Example Gallery" if you click it you will notice that the only posts the page shows are the 3 images sans this text post. You can do this with any tag to highlight specific things about your blog. If you want an FAQ section create a post, tag it FAQ or whatever you'd like and create a page to link to from the main page of your blog. This is super handy for creating your own versions of a master link post to your shops, other websites etc. You'll notice the discord link does in fact take you to the invite for the cafe dot server :)

Asks: On Tumblr people are able to send you messages via asks that can be anonymous or attached to their own accounts (you can toggle the settings for asks by clicking your pfp and scrolling down to the Asks section). You can choose to answer these privately or answer them publicly which posts the asks in a format to your blog. You can add tags to asks and like mentioned above create an entire page dedicated to them if you so choose.

FAQs

When is the right time to post on Tumblr for visibility? Since the majority of Tumblr users are based in the US the best time to post is between 5pm and 1am (EST or Eastern Standard Time). Convert your timezone here. This is not an exact science, there's plenty of examples of people posting outside of what is perceived as the peak time for visibility and doing just fine. Also keep in mind you can reblog your post if you feel you missed a prime time in posting! What is the daily post limit? 250

Where can I find premade themes that are easy to install? Here :) How do I edit my theme? This depends on how you've set up your blog. You can either do minimal editing by clicking on your pfp or you can enable custom themes which allows you more customizations from your main blog page. This is the page that is [yourusername].tumblr.com. On there you'll notice 4 symbols in the top right hand corner. From left to right these are quick links to your dashboard (house), blog quickview (eye), theme edit appearance (paint palette), and settings (cog). Click the paint palette symbol to open more customizations for your theme.

How do I block Tumblrs? Click on your pfp navigate down to the Blocked Tumblrs section, from here you can add whoever you choose.

Can I pin a post? Yes! You can pin a post to your blog by clicking on the 3 dots in the top right corner of it and selecting the pin option

THIS IS A WIP POST- things will be added

[phantomcodes]

twitter | theme by sage

get the code: static preview / live preview (temporary) inspired by twitter - free through dec 31st as part of my holiday sale ♡

features (more info below the cut):

optional: music player, featured posts, blogs, updates, tags on click, glow effect

customizable: description, colors, body & title fonts, font size, & blog title

search bar, day/night, tumblr controls, & scroll to top buttons

sticky top post info with a drop down menu

responsive design, 3 border radius (corners) options, uploadable profile & header images

this theme uses tabler icons

nothing needs to be changed in the code, everything can be changed in the customize panel!

terms:

reblog if using

do not touch the credit

view all terms

credits listed in the code / credits page

please consider supporting me ♡

make sure you read through this post before asking questions!!

header

header image is 600px x 250px, it will crop to fit and is adjusted depending on screen size

if there’s no uploaded header image it will be a solid gradient background

the profile image is 100px x 100px & will default to your icon if no image is uploaded

the home/ask/follow buttons will become fixed to the header at the top of the page as you scroll

up to 3 header stats each with an icon and text

includes links to home, askbox, archive, and my credit

i recommend keeping your custom title pretty short!!

sidebars

the right sidebar can be toggled completely off if you don’t want it at all, otherwise the featured posts, blogs, & updates sections can be individually toggled

responsiveness:

the right sidebar will disappear and a sidebar button will appear to toggle it on/off

the left sidebar links will convert to icons only

the music player will become toggleable with the right sidebar

for very small screens, the top buttons on the left will become a footer

left sidebar links: up to 7 sidebar links

featured posts: 4 featured posts each with an image & url

blogs: up to 3 blogs each with a link to the blog & a follow button

updates:

up to 4 updates each with a title & text

i recommend keeping your update text to only one line

uploading your song:

i recommend using google drive to host your mp3 files - below is a brief explanation for how to do this but you can also see the resources provided here by glenthemes and more links on my credits page

to start you need an mp3 audio file, once you have the one you want go to google drive and click: ＋ New ➞ File upload

select your mp3 audio file and click open

open your newly uploaded audio file in google drive and click the three dots on the top right, then click Share and under General Access change it to Anyone with the link can view

copy the sharing link provided, it will look something like this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pBA6KdlLEzoEZPQ6hmaSr9LGLeCQGPxz/view?usp=sharing

go to the following site and paste your sharing url in the first box provided: https://www.joelgrayson.com/drive-download-link-generator

your final product should look something like this: https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1pBA6KdlLEzoEZPQ6hmaSr9LGLeCQGPxz

make sure the music player is toggled on in the theme, paste your audio link in the Song URL field

[demifiendrsa]

God of War Ragnarök accessibility features revealed

Publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment and developer Santa Monica Studio have detailed the accessibility features that will be available to players in God of War Ragnarok as part of Global Accessibility Awareness Day.

Latest details

■God of War (2018) PC Features Added to God of War Ragnarok

For God of War (2018) on PC, we made sure to improve and continue to iterate on popular features from the initial PlayStation release. We’re pleased to be continuing to support these features in God of War Ragnarok on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5:

Sprint Auto Sprint: You will sprint while the stick is held and stop when released. When Auto Sprint is active, you can begin sprinting by pressing the move stick forward for a short period of time in one direction. The duration required to engage the Auto Sprint is configurable by you.

Persistent Dot (Always on Reticle): If you need additional focal points to reduce motion sickness, or just want a persistent reminder of the center of the screen, we offer the ability to turn on a center dot in three different sizes and seven different colors.

Aim Style: You can choose to use either hold or toggle on/off the aim stance.

Block Style: You can choose to use either hold or toggle on/off the shield stance.

■ New to God of War Ragnarok

Subtitle and Caption Improvements

We have invested heavily in improving our subtitle and caption system to allow for even more customization and information.

Subtitle and Caption Size: We have increased our minimum text size and added new scaling. This includes an extra-large text size to make subtitles and captions more readable. We have also dedicated a larger text area to match TV and movie subtitle standards.

Subtitle and Caption Colors: You can adjust the colors of speaker names, subtitle body, and captions individually. You will be able choose between seven different colors.

Speaker Names (Retained options from 2018): As in God of War (2018), you can show or hide speaker names. You can set this size independent from the UI text size.

Captions: With expanded sound effects captions, we’ve added several new ways to understand in-game sound. We’ve added captions to both cinematics and gameplay to provide a rich understanding of the soundscape of the world. You can also enable captions for critical gameplay information to assist with puzzles and narrative understanding.

Subtitle and Caption Background Blur: We’ve included options to allow for blurring the background behind subtitles and captions to make them more readable over complex scenes.

Subtitle Background (Retained options from 2018): In addition to blur, we’ve included options to darken the background behind subtitles for better readability on snow. High contrast backing includes multiple opacity settings for you to select from.

Direction Indicator: Critical gameplay sounds now have an optional direction indicator which shows the direction a sound is coming from. To assist with puzzles that have sound cues, this indicator will help you orient towards the source of an important sound.

■ Text Size / Icon Size

The highly requested feature from God of War (2018) is back and better than ever! You asked for a comfortable reading experience when playing from a couch, so we listened. With a fully re-engineered and responsive UI, and a larger minimum text size that can scale significantly, reading on-screen text is easier than ever.

Here’s a look at our Default and XX-Large game wide UI Text scaling for reference.

We also have two examples to share of the in-game icon scaling with smallest and largest options available to choose from.

—Small UI icon size.

—X-Large UI icon size.

■ Controller Remapping

We have rebuilt our controller remapping system to allow you to customize your button configurations in God of War Ragnarok. There will be a wide range of preset layouts, as well as custom controller remapping support. Individual buttons can be swapped and, for select complex actions, you can choose alternate configurations from a preset list.

We offer multiple ways for you to customize your experience for certain actions that require more than one button, including Touch Pad Shortcuts for things like Spartan Rage, Navigation Assist, and Quick Turn.

■ High Contrast Mode

Our new high contrast color-mode allows you to apply a color to objects in-game like targets, enemies, and other characters, in addition to a variety of item types. When active, this will apply a color layer to characters that will make them more visible against the background. You can optionally desaturate the background to further increase the contrast. Traversal paint, loot items, and special effects can also be made more visible in this mode.

High Contrast Activation Customization: Select off, on, or always on for gameplay only (this will exclude cinematics). High contrast mode can be set to toggle on and off from a swipe for easy access. This mode will automatically disable when in a settings menu or character menu.

High Contrast Color Customization: Select a color palette that fits your playstyle and adjust individual colors for characters, enemies, and items.

High Contrast Background Customization: Separately select mid-tone or darkened background contrast levels.

Navigation Assist: New to God of War, this camera navigation system allows you to orient your view towards your compass objective. When not in combat, pressing the Navigation Assist button will orient your view in the direction of the next story goal.

Traversal Assistance: Gap jumping, vaulting, mantling, and other traversal features can now be automated based on the direction you press.

Assistance +: Adds interaction-based moves like climbs, crawls, and squeeze-through.

Audio Cues: We have linked a sound cue to each of the on-screen interact prompts, so that when using this feature, you can hear when an interact icon is nearby, as well as when the button prompt becomes active.

Audio cues extend to additional combat cues like unblockable attack rings, targeting aim cues, and weapon swap cues. The volume of audio cues can be adjusted separately from other volume sliders, so you can adjust for your own comfort.

■ God of War Ragnarok Reveal Trailer: Audio Described Version

To celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day, we also wanted to provide an audio described version of the God of War Ragnarok reveal trailer that came out last year!

■ More to Come!

We hope you’ve enjoyed a look into this selection of the 60+ accessibility features that will be included in God of War Ragnarok.

We are committed to improving accessibility and customization for everyone. We can’t wait to tell you details about our other categories of accessibility features like combat / aim assists, puzzle / minigame assists, HUD adjustments, camera tuning, auto pick up, and much more.

We are so thankful for all the support from our accessibility consultants and the greater accessibility community for sharing their thoughts to make God of War Ragnarok the most accessible God of War ever. We can’t wait to share more with you as we get closer to launch.

Happy Global Accessibility Awareness Day!

God of War Ragnarök will launch for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 in 2022.

[idrellegames]

Wayfarer Public Build 1.0.4 (April 10, 2021) has been released.

THIS IS NOT A CONTENT UPDATE! There are no new major content additions to Chapter 1 from version 1.0.3.

Play the Game

Bug Report

Patreon

This update is purely focused on making tweaks to the UI design and overhauling some of the behind-the-scenes mechanics. Because of the changes to the skill check system, you will need to start a new file (otherwise you will fail all of your skill checks).

Here’s a quick look at some of the major changes:

UI Tweaks and Additions

The Faction and Companion sections of the Journal have been redesigned. They now feature a selection of cards, which you can now click on to view information about that faction or character.

The Codex page and Codex entries have been tweaked. The Codex page now features boxes that change colour when you hover over a selected entry. The Codex entries themselves have been given a new background.

I have added a toggle button to turn the handwritten font for letters on and off.

Skill Check Overhaul

The most significant part of this update is in regards to skill checks. The player now starts with a base skill level of 5. The Prologue / Quick Character Creator still gives the player 9 skill points across all choices (2 from your origin, 4 from your Wayfarer master, and 3 individual choices) to increase their skills from the base level.

Dice rolls and the number required for a successful pass have been reworked. It is now impossible to 100% fail OR 100% succeed a normal skill check (there are still some skill checks that are purposefully easy or difficult than average). There is a level of risk across all regular choices.

For regular skill checks in Act 1:

Level 5 – 40% chance to pass

Level 6 - 45% chance to pass

Level 7 - 50% chance to pass

Level 8 – 55% chance to pass

Level 9 - 60% chance to pass

Level 10 – 65% chance to pass

Level 11 – 70% chance to pass

This new system allows for more flexibility as the player grows their stats. I found the system before encouraged players to continue to grow the stats they were already good at, which would eventually lock them out of choosing certain options entirely because their skill level would be too low. If I am committing to the idea that every choice is a risk, then there cannot be 100% chance of success or 100% chance of failure for regular checks (there will still be times when the story demands higher or lower chances of success and failure).

The player will not be able to see their chance of success before they select an option; however, I am planning on including that as an unlockable trait down the line.

For a full list of changes in this update, please see the changelog below.

Change Log

Content Additions & Changes

Re-wrote the letter the MC receives from their master (it is now a letter specifically from Brissa Varyn)

Added letter titled “A summons from the Grandmaster” to the Codex

Edited some lore in the Rona codex (look for the word greendrift! It’s important!)

Edited some timeline references (the MC and Aeran have been in Rona for six months, Luthais is specifically referred to as a greendrift in place of a street urchin)

Bug Fixes

General typo fixes and small continuity fixes

Fixed a bug where the MC receives +1 Random Stat in the Prologue and proceeded to not receive any stats. They will now receive +1 random stat.

Fixed a bug after the fight with the Count, where if the player executed Rhodarth, the text treated it as if he was still alive and left at the villa

UI Updates

Added a setting that turns off the handwritten font for codex letters

Fixed some issues with the font size settings

Improved font and passage re-sizing on mobile

Attempted to place a “Return to Game” button in the sidebar, but ran into an unfixable issue where the Inventory duplicates when the player clicks “return to game”.

Moved the chapter header to the sidebar. The chapter number and title will now appear above the sidebar menu, rather than in the top right-hand corner of the passage

Removed the Font-Awesome icons next to Saves and Restart, as well as the icons next to Save to Disk, Load from Disk and Delete in the Saves dialogue (these are part of the base SugarCube stylesheet)

Added a new toggle icon for the sidebar

Changed the Save notification icon

Added box shadows to all passages to add more dimension against the background

Added a header box on the Journal pages

Moved the Guide to be accessible from the sidebar right away, rather than from the Journal

Adjusted the sidebar for Combat screens (new combat icon and new background)

Updated the header image on dialogue boxes (Saves, Restart, etc)

Made significant progress on mobile optimization. It’s not 100%, but fonts and headers should resize for smaller viewports. The UI bar cannot be resized without destroying its functionality (not sure why), so it must be collapsed if you’re playing on mobile.

The Settings popup now launches on one of the opening pages after you click “New Game”. This is to ensure players don’t skip over elements that may be helpful for their particular playstyle

Game Mechanics Updates

Skill Gain and Action Key now default to being “on” rather than “off”

Added a tutorial popup in the Prologue that explains skills and skill checks

Lockpicks are now no longer consumables. They are a reusable item, like the grappling hook, and can be used as long as they are in the MC’s inventory.

Added a “Pact Forged” icon to the MC’s dialogue options when they accept their contract from Zenaida (this will also be tracked in their records in the Journal)

Reworked the skill check system for more flexibility (see above for a full explanation). It is now impossible to 100% pass or 100% fail regular skill checks.

Known Issues on Mobile / Smaller Viewports

Scrollbars on dialogue pop ups that contain a lot of text are broken on mobile and can’t scroll all the way to the bottom of the dialogue box (you close the popup, but there is text that gets cut off

Formatting of stat bars doesn’t resize properly on mobile

Hover box on character cards in Companions and Factions section of the journal do not re-size correctly on mobile

The Settings dialogue box changes the text layout on smaller viewports

Dropdown boxes in the Settings do not trigger on mobile

[thesims4blogger]

The Sims 4 Paranormal Stuff: Developer Blog (Part 1)

SimGuruConnor has released part 1 of the Sims 4 Paranormal Developer Blog series.

Hello Simmers! Welcome to a small 2-part Dev Blog about our newest Stuff Pack, Paranormal Stuff! This pack has been an absolute blast to work on, and I’m excited to share what this pack is all about!

I’ll try not to reveal too many spoilers for the pack either, so I’ll keep things somewhat brief. Our topics for today are the new Scared Mood and the Haunted House Lot Type, plus an interview with our Audio Artist too!

Get Scared

Sims can now relish in the mortal dread of the Scared Mood! The Scared Mood affects Sims in a variety of ways, with my personal favorite, the new Scream Incoherently interaction, where a Scared Sim runs up to another Sim to scream their lungs out. This can result in the other Sim calming down the Scared Sim, or resulting in both Sims becoming Scared. This can create a Scared Mood wildfire if you’re not careful!

Whoa, whoa, whoa, it's okay!

Sims afflicted with the Scared Mood also have trouble communicating with others, the urge to panic-run everywhere, and are slightly more prone to accidents. If no other Sims are around to help calm down a Scared Sim, they might just have to Hide Under The Covers for a while.

But if being Scared just isn’t your Sims style, consider purchasing the new Brave Trait. This Satisfaction Reward Store Trait will rapidly reduce the incoming fear a Sim feels and help Sims regain their composure faster. While no Sim is totally fearless, this trait should help mitigate some of those creepy feelings.

The Scared Mood and the Brave Reward Trait are all base game features coming with the Paranormal Stuff patch on January 21st. Tons of previous Uncomfortable Buffs are now becoming Scared Buffs, such as the “Startled By Ghost” Buff or the “Thalassophobia” Buff from Island Living.

While being Scared might not be a common occurrence in your everyday Sims life, living in a Haunted House is a whole different story…

Happy Haunts

Introducing the Haunted House Lot Type!

The Duplantier Dwelling, created by Doctor Ashley! This “canon” Haunted House will be available in the gallery!

They’re like regular houses, only haunted! Although unassuming during the day, at night, these places get super weird. Your Sims may notice things like flickering lights, pipes rattling, or even creepy dolls staring at them in the corner. All are totally normal occurrences in a Haunted House, but it may take some time for your Sims to adjust to their new surroundings.

Sims living in a Haunted House will also be introduced to floating apparitions known as Specters. They’re cute little critters, but their motives aren’t entirely clear. You can try talking to them, or even offer them presents in hopes of establishing a good rapport. If they like you, they’ll drop special loot for you and your family. If they don’t like you, well, you’ve been warned.

o o o (> ‘ u ‘ )>

Learning to get along with your new ghostly inhabitants is crucial in a Haunted House. Things like botching seances, neglecting Specters, or letting accursed objects invade your house will have a negative impact on its spiritual serenity. There is a delicate art to co-existing with the entities of the house, and thankfully you’ll have an expert on the matter to assist you!

Meet Guidry

Claude René Duplantier Guidry was a seasoned Paranormal Investigator in his previous life, but now he exists to help anyone brave enough to live in a Haunted House! You’ll probably run into him eventually living in a Haunted House, but don’t worry, he’s a nice ghost!

Guidry will gladly offer his wisdom to those who seek it. If you’re confused, alarmed, or slightly uncomfortable by your new haunted surroundings, give Guidry a holler and he might be able to help. He can also offer valuable objects to help your Sims, too; all you need is to reach out!

Still got it.

All Guidry wants in return is to crash at your place for the time being. Sounds like a fair deal, right? But if you’d prefer to fly it solo, you can always disable his nightly visits—he won’t be too upset, maybe.

As mentioned before, Guidry was a Paranormal Investigator before his untimely demise. If he sees potential in you, he can certify you with a Paranormal Investigation License, granting access to the Paranormal Investigation Freelancer Gigs. Only those who are qualified enough can join the ranks of Paranormal Investigators, but more on that next time!

Be Brave!

Living in a Haunted House adds a layer of risk and reward for your Sims, and each successful night yields Reward Store Satisfaction Points for everyone in the Household. Specters can also drop treasure that can also be collected, consumed, or sold to an Oddity Collector. So although your Sims might go through a bit of peril, they’ll thankfully be compensated.

One of my favorite pieces of haunted treasure is the new Sacred Candle. Not only do they look cool, but they also help protect Sims from paranormal influences. Place them around your house to make sure Sims are properly shielded!

A properly protected Sim.

Things like Sacred Candles and performing ceremonies at the Séance Table are integral to keeping your Sims happy in a Haunted House. Without using these paranormal tools, the entities of the house might get a little bossy.

And while it might be in your Sims’ best interest to keep the spirits of the house in check, watching things go horribly wrong in a Haunted House can be just as fun too. So whatever works for you!

Like Tiny Homes, this Lot Type can be toggled on or off at any time. So whether you’re a casual thrillseeker who wants to spend a couple of nights in a Haunted House, or a seasoned Paranormal Expert who wants to take on a new challenge, this Lot Type should offer something for you!

Crosspack Stuff!

Pets get to share the fun too! They especially love the accursed objects that show up!

I think they’re gonna get along great.

As mentioned before, a ton of old Buffs from multiple packs are now being converted to the Scared Mood. I think 70 something Moodlets were converted? Honestly, I lost count. Anything that seemed more appropriate for the Scared Mood was transferred over.

Oh, and you might remember an old Lot Trait from City Living called Haunted. For clarity’s sake, it needed a name change, so now it’s the Spooky Lot Trait. It also benefits from being combined with the new Haunted House Lot Type and will have an increased chance of spawning Ghosts at night. So use both for maximum haunted-ness!

Audibly Frightened

Last but not least, I’d love to turn it over to our Audio Artist for this pack, Briana Billups! She did a killer job bringing Haunted Houses to life! Trust me!

Conor: Can you tell us what an Audio Artist does on The Sims 4?

Briana: Big, broad picture: an audio artist decides what everything in The Sims 4 sounds like. We record, create, and edit sounds to the art and animation of the game. Little, very detailed picture: creating the actual sounds is usually one of the smaller aspects of our job. We are meeting with other departments, like design, animation, and VFX, to understand the overall vision of new game features and how we can fit in sonically. We are meeting with each other to make sure all our new content still keeps the very fun and quirky vibe of the Sims. We come up with new tools and implementation where necessary.

Conor: What sort of things go into the creative process for creating audio?

Briana: Every audio artist/sound designer has their own creative process, but I like to make a “sonic mood board” of sorts. I typically like to have a good idea of what I want something to sound like in my head before I record or edit it, so it’s nice to have sound effects or music to refer to that represents my original inspiration or ideas. When I was in college, I would make Spotify playlists for whatever I was working on. I would listen to them once a day, adding and editing as necessary, so when I actually got to work, I was in the right headspace. Now I’m usually less formal about this sort of stuff, but for this pack, I would refer back to things like Vincent Price’s demonic laugh from Thriller or Casper the Friendly Ghost Cartoons and the looping soundtrack from the queue of a horror ride at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk (Ghost Blasters)

Conor: What were you most excited to work on for this pack?

Briana: Definitely all the haunted house sounds! Good sound design is the crux of so many horror movies and video games, so even if we were keeping things more “Casper” and less “Poltergeist,” I still wanted to give a good scare here and there. I actually scared myself one day while playtesting another feature in the game!

Conor: If you had to choose, what is your favorite audio clip you’ve ever added to The Sims 4?

Briana: I would say my favorite SFX were the sports arena loops in EP08: Discover University. When you visit the arena for the soccer/esports match or graduation, you can actually listen to the whole game or ceremony. It was great to craft a whole story from start to finish using just sound. I also snuck in a lot of developer names when writing the scripts for our voice actors.

Thanks, Briana!

More To Come!

That about covers this first foray into the Paranormal Stuff Pack! This pack has been a ton of fun to work on, and watching my Sims flee in terror has been more enjoyable than I’d like to admit.

Next blog, we’ll focus on the Séance Table and developing your Medium skill, as well as the new active freelance career Paranormal Investigator.

Big thanks to the Stuff Pack team for helping this pack come to life, and thank you, Doctor Ashley, for building our featured Haunted House!

Until next time, SimGuruConor

[dollarsblog461]

Macbook Pro Openvpn Connect Download

A VPN protects your internet connection, so you can browse the web safely, enjoy your favorite websites and services, and access geo-restricted content from anywhere. It’s easy to configure a VPN connection on an iPhone, and we’ll show you the fastest way to do it.

OpenVPN is a full-featured SSL VPN solution which can accomodate a wide range of configurations, including remote access, site-to-site VPNs, WiFi security, and enterprise-scale remote access. Free Vpn For Macbook Pro free download - Hotspot Shield, VPN Gate Client Plug-in with SoftEther VPN Client, CyberGhost VPN, and many more programs.

What is a VPN on iPhone?

VPN, a virtual private network, lets you access the internet via a secure encrypted connection. This adds an extra layer of protection to your browsing, so nobody can snoop on your online activity.

There are two main cases when you may want to use VPN on your iPhone:

Protect your data online. VPN is a must while using public Wi-Fi. Such networks are typically unencrypted, so bad guys can easily get access to your passwords or credit card numbers. VPN encrypts your data and makes it unreadable to hackers, so you can safely check your bank account from a local coffee shop. VPN is also useful at home if you don’t want your ISP to snoop on your activity.

Access your favorite music, movies, websites, and services from anywhere. VPN makes your device think you’re in another location, so you can enjoy Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and any other services that may be restricted for you.

How to set up a VPN on iPhone

The fastest and easiest way to add VPN to your iPhone is by using Documents by Readdle. Documents is the super app for file action. It lets you do what you want with your files, from watching movies to PDF editing. Documents features a built-in VPN service that works across all your apps.

Here’s how to configure a VPN with Documents:

Get Documents for free.

Launch the app and jump to the VPN tab.

Tap the big Start button.

That’s it! Now, you can enjoy safe and private browsing. You can also pick a different server location if you need to bypass certain geo-restrictions. VPN works across all your apps, even when you close Documents.

How to connect and disconnect a VPN on iPhone

Once you’ve added a VPN in Documents, you can quickly turn it on or off in the app:

Open Documents.

Jump to the VPN tab.

Tap Start or Stop.

How to manually set up VPN on your iPhone

We’ve just explored an easy way to add a VPN to your iPhone. Alternatively, you can configure a VPN connection manually in the settings of your device. You’ll want to use this method when you already know all the connection details. For example, your employer can provide this information to let you set up a corporate VPN.

If this is your case, follow these steps:

Open the Settings app on your iPhone.

Tap General.

Scroll down and select VPN.

Tap Add VPN Configuration.

Here, you can select the VPN type and fill in all the required settings.

After adding all the details, tap Done at the top right of the screen.

Once you’ve added a VPN configuration, a new VPN toggle will appear in the iOS settings. Just turn it on to start using the VPN.

If you’re looking for the easiest way to use a VPN on your iPhone, download Documents. Turn on a VPN with just a few taps, enjoy safety and privacy while using public Wi-Fi, and get access to your favorite content from anywhere.

We’ve built Documents to supercharge your iPhone. Documents lets you do what you want with your files, without juggling between multiple apps. Browse the web safely, download anything, watch movies, listen to music, read books, and more.

Download Documents for free and supercharge your iPhone!

Are you experiencing those Wi-Fi problems with your Mac? For example, your MacBook Pro won’t connect to wifi, connected but no Internet or the network speed is super slow, etc.

Our smartphones may be equipped with the latest wireless data capabilities, but our MacBooks definitely aren’t. We rely on WiFi to do our daily work, and when it inevitably experiences an error of some sort, all you want to do is throw your hands in the air.

After all, WiFi frequently seems to be on the more technical end of things, shrouded in mysterious terms like “DNS”, “modem”, and “IP address”. It can be a bit intimidating to try and fix without worrying that you’re either doing nothing or making the problem worse.

But no one likes mindlessly refreshing a webpage and hoping the WiFi fixes itself in the meantime, so in this guide, we’ll show you a few ways you can take matters into your own hands to find a solution.

Do You Know?

You can troubleshoot network connections in the office or at home with WiFi Explorer. It’s an awesome app that shows you what’s going on with your network and helps you fix it when needed. The app offers a range of extensive details about all your Mac networks in the vicinity, including their band, signal quality, range, security status etc.

Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is what determines your maximum internet speed, but your usage at home is what ultimately determines how well your connection functions. Whatever your provider advertises is always going to be more than the rates you actually get, but you can always make adjustments on your end to get things running faster.

Bandwidth is not the same as Internet speed. The Internet speed is how fast data can travel on your network, whereas your bandwidth determines the volume of information that can travel at that speed. A larger amount of bandwidth means you can request more data at once, which will make your connection seem faster, but it’s not worth paying for if you don’t use your Mac for much beyond Facebook and email.

It’s important to connect to secure networks even if it means using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or proxy. While it’s tempting to use the free coffee shop WiFi, the lack of protective password puts your computer at risk because malicious users can use the shared network and attempt to break in. If you must use one of these networks, a proxy or VPN can protect your computer by isolating it from the other connections.

Connection Problems

Issue 1: Physical router interference

Cause: A router sends electronic waves, but these can be impeded by thick walls or other large blockages such as a row of metal filing cabinets.

How to Fix: If your router is currently buried behind a file cabinet, in a closet, or otherwise awkwardly placed you should move it to a more open and central location. If your router is already in a fairly clear area, consider where you’re sitting. Can you minimize the amount of distance between you and the router, or otherwise move closer?

Alternatively, consider purchasing an extended if you can’t seem to move the router to a location without too much interference.

Issue 2: Neighborly router interference

Cause: As we said earlier, a router sends electronic waves. These waves occur at certain frequencies and can be interfered with by other electronic devices such as microwaves or your neighbor’s router.

How to Fix: Most routers come pre-calibrated to certain frequencies or contain software that helps them pick the best channel. You can manually change the channel though by following a few steps.

Step 1: Find out your router’s IP address. This is usually printed on the router, but you can also check in System Preferences > Network > Advanced > TCP/IP > Router;

Step 2: Copy the IP address into the address bar of your browser and hit enter. You’ll be directed to your router’s settings;

Step 3: Select the channel you want. Make sure to choose a channel 5 to 7 away from the original, since many frequencies overlap;

Step 4: Use Wireless Diagnostics to monitor which frequencies make the biggest difference in your wireless signal.

You can get open wireless diagnostics by navigating to Spotlight and then beginning to type “wireless diagnostics”. It should be the first option.

Openvpn Mac Download

Open the app and click “Continue” to start diagnosing.

Issue 3: MacBook Pro or router failure

Macbook Pro Openvpn Connect Download Pc

Cause: When there doesn’t seem to any conceivable reason your WiFi shouldn’t work, it’s not your fault. Sometimes the MacBook Pro, the router, or both experience an unexpected error that’s invisible to the eye and impossible to figure out exactly what went wrong.

How to Fix: Your best bet at solving this type of problem comes in two parts: your computer, and your router. Follow these steps:

Step 1: Turn off the wifi on your computer from the menu bar along the top;

Step 2: Turn off your router by physically disconnecting it (or pressing the power button if it has one) so that all the light turn off;

Step 3: Restart your MacBook from the Apple menu in the top left of the menu bar;

Step 4: Once your Mac has restarted, turn the router back on. You’ll need to wait 2-5 minutes for all of the lights to come on and for the signal to begin sending again

Step 5: Turn your Mac’s WiFi back on, and allow it to connect to the network.

While this method isn’t guaranteed to work every time, it often solves mysterious wireless issues and with a little luck, your problem is minor and will be resolved with a bit of restarting.

Problems Once Connected

Issue 4: WiFi connection is spotty

Cause: If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a million times: your router transmits waves, and when these are weak at your location, you’re going to have connection issues. In this case, you may have been able to connect to the network but now service is patchy at best. The cause is simple — you’re too far away for the frequency you’re trying to use.

How to Fix: There are two different ways you can fix this issue. First, move closer to the router if you can. This is the easiest way to attempt to solve the problem and maybe all you need to do.

The second way is to use a different frequency band than you normally would. By defaults, your router uses the 2.4GHz band, which is weaker than the 5GHz many router models have available. If your router supports 5GHz, you should switch to this instead- it usually appears as a different network in your WiFi list, with a “5GHz” or “5G” as part of the name.

For example:

If you have a large home, an extender might be a more practical solution. It will amplify the signal from your router so that it can reach the areas of your house that usually suffer from poor coverage.

Issue 5: WiFi connection is very slow

Cause: If things have suddenly slowed down, it’s highly likely you can point to another person to take the blame — someone else is eating up your bandwidth! Make sure to check your own computer first though, especially if you’re running multiple programs in the background.

How to Fix: The easiest way to figure out the culprit is by running a quick scan using Advanced Network Care, it’ll show you the connection speed issues found with your current network and fix it if needed. An alternative is a Wifi Explorer as we already mentioned above.

However, you can also fix that manually. Bandwidth refers to the volume of data that can be transmitted over your WiFi connection. Certain apps can require larger bandwidth and thus restrict the data available to everyone else.

If this occurs in your home, the first step is to check your own applications. The most common offenders are multiplayer video games, video-intensive apps, or files that are uploading and downloading. If your Mac isn’t running anything strenuous, then ask the others in the household if they are.

Macbook Pro Openvpn Connect Download Software

While you can’t get more bandwidth without paying for it, you can ask anyone on the network to limit which applications they use at one time. In the worst-case scenario, you’ll need to wait a few minutes while a download finishes or until the other person is done working.

Final Words

WiFi issues on Mac are among the most frustrating issues that can occur on your computer. They’re confusing, bothersome, and significantly slow your productivity. We hope the methods listed above help you resolve any issues you face.

Macbook Pro Openvpn Connect Download Windows 10

Do you use a different method to troubleshoot your wireless network? Tell us about it in the comments below!

[justsimplypretty]

goodnight -n- go (n.m.)

Storyline: Lena joins Nick on a winter family vacation while attempting to keep a good image... even after a heated night.

Author’s Note: My submission for chan’s 700 followers writing challenge using line #19! This took me forever to find the time between school and life to write and though it still didn’t turn the way I intended, I’m growing to love it. Enjoy everyone! @temperaryheart​

Warning: smut

Word count: 2.1k

Lena tossed and turned attempting to find any level of comfortable on this cold winter night. The freezing air still nipping at her toes as she struggled to bundle up in the enormous pile of knit blankets sprawled across the bed. The fire place had done her zero good being all too modern and puzzling, making it impossible to turn on. 

It was Nick’s yearly winter family vacation to their lodge cabin in Colorado that viewed just across the frozen over lake. Lena had been dating Nick for a little over a year now, making her officially invited to join the Nick’s family and bandmates on this adventure. And what an adventure it had been. Since Lena was a guest on this trip, she’d decided it would be best if her and Nick stayed in separate rooms for the duration of the vacation. Considering this was her first major impression on the extended family, she strived to make it a good one, being as endearing and charming with any chance she got. Which wasn’t too hard considering that was her typical personality. All the love-able qualities that made Nick fall wildly hard in the first place.

But the sleeping arrangement may have been tougher than she had originally anticipated. Lena and Nick typically spent every single night together wether it be at his place or hers. So the past two nights not having Nick by her side had definitely become an unbearable struggle.

Lena’s thoughts were cut short at the sound of a faint knock. Curious as to who it could be at the late hour, she wrapped one of the larger throws across her shivering body and hurried to the door. Her fingers numbed at the feeling of the frigid metal knob turning in her hand. Eyes in complete shock to find her sneaky boyfriend standing on the other side.

“You have got to be kidding me... have you lost your mind?” Lena quietly shouted as she yanked Nick’s body inside, quickly closing the door behind the two before anyone could catch them. “Are you lost or just intentionally trying to ruin my life?” Lena snapped sarcastically at an attitude filled Nick. His eyes rolling heavily in annoyance at his girlfriends words, having been told a million times this trip of the strict rules she’d made to be followed.

“Relax, I just need to grab the jacket I packed in your suitcase for snowboarding with Brandon and Austin tomo-” Nick assured before the chill of the room bit at his skin, cutting him off mid sentence. “Lena what the hell? It’s freezing in here!” he questioned as he wondered about room.

Lena sighed heavily as she pointed towards the source of all her problems, causing Nick to giggle and head over to tackle the fire place. His fingers began fumbling with the many different buttons as they toggled through settings on the side that Lena had spent hours trying to accomplish on her own. 

She caught herself biting gently on her bottom lip as she watched her boyfriend zero in on the situation. Something about the determination on Nick’s face to solve her dilemma surprisingly caused Lena to become flustered on this late winter night.

“You’re all set baby” Nick announced as flames rose to the tops of the brick trimming. The fire illuminated the dim room, inviting her to see all of Nick’s angelic features that she treasured so deeply. His hair a few shades darker from the dampness still clinging on after showering with the tones of his arms practically begging her to be wrapped in them. She’d be lying to say she wasn’t the slightest bit turned on by his presence. And between the sleeping arrangements and Nick’s prior family obligations, Lena felt as though she’d barely seen her boyfriend this entire vacation. It was rare they ever had a second alone.

It didn’t take long for Nick to catch on either. He knew his girlfriend better than anyone else. The way her legs crossed one in front of the other and how rushed she was to have him exit the room indicated all too well to Nick of her need for him. He even noticed the tiny infinite number of goosebumps that trickled down her arms.

“Cold angel?” Nick spoke as he let his fingers softly graze her shoulder, exposed ever so slightly from matching pajama top. He knew exactly what he was doing from the start. His plan all vacation long. He knew with just enough effort, he’d be able to have Lena right where he needed her.

Lena wanted his touch to linger, but still tried to fight it for awhile longer. “I-I’m fine.. I’ll be fine now that it’s fixed so you can um... head back now” Lena mumbled as she cursed herself mentally for the stutters that she knew would clearly indicate her need for more of him.

“You really want me to leave baby? Be honest now” Nick continued as he stepped behind her, now letting his hands run up either sides of her hips. Thin black sleep pants being the only thing keeping her from experiencing the warm touch she’d been missing so much this trip. Lena nodded her head up and down in reply to the boyfriend that knew she was close to giving in.

“Hmm... is that so...” Nick questioned as he let one hand slip Lena’s front and fall beneath the thin lace material, brushing past her soaked folds “...because it sure doesn’t feel like you want me to leave angel” he continued. He slowly slid two fingers inside of Lena as he watched her back arch against him. “So wet for me... just how I like it” Nick confirmed grinning at her mess. His fingers were soft and warm. Easily the most warm thing she’d felt in days. 

“But I can stop and go back to my room... if that’s what you really want” he went on as he removed himself from filling Lena. 

“N-no, please don’t stop baby” she confessed. “W-we really just can’t get caught though okay?” Lena trailed through muffled whimpers due to the immense pleasure she was feeling.

“Guess we better keep you quit then babygirl” Nick whispered as Lena felt chills roll down her spine.

••••

Lena wasn’t sure how or when things grew so intense, but it wasn’t long before Nick’s tongue was working wonders on her most sensitive area. He was nothing shy of amazing when it came to making her feel good. The way he moved quickly but still lovingly enough to make sure he devoured all the mess he’d caused. Something Lena knew she could never grow tired of. 

Glancing down to see his hooded eyes staring right into hers caused more of the sweet moans Nick treasured to slip from Lena’s lips, now incredibly more plump from the many bites she’d made to her bottom one. All failed attempts in keeping herself silent.

“Sh sh sh... remember baby no getting caught?” Nick reminded as he placed one hand over her mouth, allowing the other to make swift circles at the desperate bundle of nerves. He could always tell when Lena was close from the way her toes curled and eyes shut as she wondered into a complete spell.

“There you go baby, wanna cum for me?” Nick coaxed as he aimed to keep Lena’s body movements under control. She couldn’t have nodded any faster, realizing how badly she needed release only after feeling her boyfriends words vibrate against her. “Go ahead mamas let me have it” he replied as Lena let go for the first time that night. Nick was always delighted in how could he could make his girl feel. Sometimes believing he took more pleasure out of it than she did. Nick went on to strip himself of any remaining clothing, throwing it in the pile of Lena’s next to him. 

“I want you to ride me until you cum... can you do that for me baby?” he whispered sternly in her ear. This was always Lena’s most dominant position. It was rare that she ever took control in the bedroom. Her life was full of consistent decision making and being the most put together in any sea of people. So she greatly enjoyed having Nick take charge over her. But every so often, he indulged in seeing Lena get herself off using him.

Within an instant Lena was straddled on his lap, doing her best to slowly take every inch of him. His length took her by surprise each and every time, but the feeling was always intoxicating. No matter how long the two had been a couple, the love making was just as passionate and intense as their first time together. Their bodies always proving to be utterly made for one another.

Lena’s pace steadily increased as she adjusted to the fulfillment Nick was giving. Her head now arching back allowing Nick perfect access to leave markings all along her neck.

“You’re doing so good for me baby... fuck you always feel so good” Nick mumbled into her skin. Lena was doing everything possible to control the sounds that constantly wanted to break free, only allowing slight whimpers to part from her lips. She couldn’t contain the pleasure any longer as she let her high take over. It was everything she didn’t know she needed this trip.

Nick hardly allowed anytime for Lena to recover before his hips were bucking upward into her, knowing his girlfriends legs were too weak to take the lead any longer. The sensitivity hitting Lena so strongly that she couldn’t help but scream his name out so clearly.

“I c-can’t Nick I can’t keep quit anymore” Lena confessed as another extreme plea of his name escaped. The sound so melodic to Nick that he no longer wanted to keep her cry’s contained.

“I know mamas it’s okay...I know you’re feeling good huh? Does this dick make you feel good?” Nick encouraged as his speed grew. It was clear neither of them cared any longer about who heard or caught them in the act. The only thing that mattered was the sensation they both endured from one another.

“Y-yes daddy FUCK IT’S SO GOOD” Lena screamed before releasing on Nick for the third time that night. Hearing the name echo in the room was enough to bring Nick to his high at the same time, holding Lena in his arms for awhile after. So caught up in the moment, Lena had forgotten all about the fire place that had now warmed the room to comfort. She starred adoringly up at Nick as she lay serenely on his chest.

“I love you... you know that?” she affirmed as Nick gazed into her eyes.

“I love you more baby... so much more” he replied with every being in his body. Lena was everything to him. The way she dropped everything to be on this trip while putting up with weather conditions he knew she despised meant the world to Nick. And he truly knew in that moment that the future he saw with Lena... started with forever.

•••••

The next morning seemed to fly by quickly as the earlier festivities ended and packing for departure began. Nick and Lena made it a point to pack everyone’s bags tightly into the cars as Zion joined them outside.

“Need some help with that daddy?” he joked to Nick letting laughter consume him. 

“Wait don’t tell me you hea-...” Lena trailed, instantly becoming paranoid at who else might have heard the events that transpired between the two last night.

“Trust me, you’re just lucky Edwin and I switched rooms with Nick’s aunt yesterday for the extra space or the whole cabin would know by now about your little late night visit” Zion confirmed as he walked back into the house. Nick and Lena starred at each other in panic before busting out in laughter themselves.

“Hey, at least it was just Zion” Nick implied as Lena playfully shoved his arm. She wasn’t irritated in the slightest as originally predicted by her. She had gotten the best of both worlds, keeping her saint image to the family while also finally having a romantic night with Nick. There was little to complain about after experiencing more joy than she ever knew this trip could bring.

[eggdesign]

day / night mode tutorial

After featuring a day/night mode toggle switch on the Accessible revamps and Rougir, this tutorial has been requested a lot! I’m going to cover two different ways to do this: vanilla JS and jQuery. 

While this tutorial does use JavaScript, it is mostly CSS. Knowledge of both will make this tutorial easier to understand, but I will try to explain everything as clearly as possible. 

To decrease the length of this post, I will be going over the basics of each part and then link to the full step by step tutorial at the end. 

The CSS

Regardless of if you use vanilla JS or jQuery, the CSS is going to be pretty much the same. You can do this for virtually any theme, but for this to work effectively, you’ll need to figure out a few things about your theme first. 

Find everything with a background color. This means posts, sidebar, footers, headers, everything. An easy way to do this is to look in the theme’s code and search (control/command + F) for background. This should pull up every instance of background used in the theme’s css. Keep track of the selectors (I recommend writing them down in notepad) as we will be using this to create the night mode. 

You’ll also need to keep track of text colors and decide whether or not you want a new color scheme for links / accent colors for night mode. 

When writing your CSS for night mode, it’s good to update the preview and test it out to make sure that everything is changing colors correctly. You can test this without even writing the JS first by adding class=“night” to your body tag (just make sure to delete this if you do not want night mode to be your default). 

JavaScript

Once we have the styling for our night mode, we need to be able to turn it on/off. We created the night class, so using JavaScript, we will add the night class to the body tag whenever a user clicks on the night mode switch.  

jQuery

If you’re going to use jQuery, you will need to make sure the jQuery library is in your theme (searching for jquery should do the trick). If not, you’ll need to include it.  The library needs to go under <head> in your theme. 

For the jQuery version in the tutorial, we will also be adding a class to the icon we are using so that the icon will change between a sun and a moon.

The jQuery method is the quicker of the two, as jQuery is a simplified version of JavaScript. However, there are some cases where you might not want to use jQuery.

Vanilla

You won’t need any extra library for this method. The script will be longer and a bit more complicated looking than jQuery, but still works the same way. 

For the vanilla version of the tutorial, the switch will switch between the words on and off using CSS. 

Step by step

Here is the full step by step tutorial 

Please let me know if I need to add more!

[wolfewritings]

My Cyberpunk 2077 Hot Takes (Spoilers for first 5ish hours of gameplay)

It was “in development” for 8 years, delayed multiple times in the final release year, and is still so poorly optimized, buggy, janky, and so obviously not fully tested on release that it is so unplayable on consoles that both Sony and Microsoft are offering refunds on digital copies regardless of hours played. And on PC you could have built and updated a desktop just to play only Cyperpunk on as high a setting as possible and you still would have to turn of features to get everything to load in properly. The game needs a full year delay working a standard 40 hour week to be even playable, and that's accounting for the features available as of Dec. 11th 2020 aka launch features. They forced the devs to work 100 hour work weeks just to launch a game that's technically playable in the loosest sense of the phrase.

TLDR: The game in-general needs to be redesigned like the RPG it was initially marketed as instead of a different flavor of near-future Ubi-sandbox. It also should totally embrace the full depth of customization cyberpunk as a genre and transhumanism as an ideology allows and envisions. And bugfixed and optimized, like seriously. There’s also almost no reason for anything to be as remotely bad as it is, if I’m remembering correctly the only “pressure” they had was from “fans” and that’s because they thought Gamers(tm) would be sensible and not send fucking death threats because they thought they had a release date.

This might be a GOG only gripe (or cpu) but that makes it even worse if it is: patching takes literal hours to complete no matter how small the patch is. The only game that might take longer to patch is Baldur’s Gate 3 which is a whole separate fuck-fest but atleast that is early access.

It has less gameplay options than vanilla Skyrim, just in general and in specifics.

Melee combat is clunky as hell and not satisfying.

I think driving is bad, and vehicle combat is god awful with almost no onscreen indicators if your hitting enemies or even correctly aimed at them.

The lifepath opener sucks. It literally ends with a montage of scenes and interactions that should have been playable and greatly added to the dynamic of Jackie and V. It also would have helped established literally every part of gameplay without requiring a literal in-game diegetic tutorial to break the flow of a scene leading into the 2018 gameplay teaser. It also so far only affects dialogue options, no ability increases, no skill increases or passive experience buffs. It doesn’t even effect how V speaks, just what they know prior to meeting Jackie.

Character creation is meh at best. Unless you choose the more techy looking eyes that change everything about the eye, the iris color barely appears to change. Pronouns being tied to voice is a very weird choice, especially when the choices are literally just male or female. Available hair styles are alot right off the bat, especially since you have to remember which numbers you like with no option to preview or change later in anyway aside from apparently forced hair styles hard designed with various head gear, especially apparent on femme V where they grow and fully style their hair on contact with ball caps etc. Tattoo options are generic “nothing or your skin is over 30% tattoos” no pure back or pure limb tattoos. Facial cybernetics are serviceable but there should have also been an option for purely cosmetic body cybernetics. Facial hair is both meh and almost too indepth at the same time. Visually bland but also having too much to customize and compare with each beard selection having seemingly 3 barely different versions and mustaches having essentially every type aside from pencil (i think, i didnt care too much to look at all of them).

In-combat weapon selection is clunky. The lower right icons for unarmed is the exact same as if you were wielding a gun. The only way to know for sure you have only fists is to use the weapon selection wheel and try to get the cursor to show you hovering unarmed even if you have weapons in 2 out of 3 slots. And im fairly certain having no weapon in the first slot breaks hotkey selecting weapons. There have been several times where I pressed 1 to only use fists and it kept my katana or gun out despite them clearly being in the 2 and 3 slots respectively.

Hacking is weird as you need direct line of sight and the game to register you’re actually looking at what you want to hack, meaning you can’t really stealth hack in enclosed areas without almost guaranteeing you’ll be spotted.

Randomized loot doesn’t really make sense, especially when the randomized tier determines if you can install components like scopes, silencers, etc.

Thats all I can remember off of the top of my head as of initial writing.

Now for some praise, but still with some complaints and ideas for improvements.

Gender and sex being separate is a great idea but could have been implemented alot better. Pronouns should have been an actual choice between he/him, she/her, and they/them. In my opinion, voice options should have also been expanded to include masc/fem or masc/fem/”yeah thats a generic ‘X’ voice” for both male-voiced and female-voiced V. Genital selection being both “which do you have?” and “do you go commando?” is just questionable. It should have been genital type as one selection and default underwear as another (maybe some people want schlonged V to wear panties and vagina’d  V to wear men’s boxers or tighty-whities). I personally find the nipple and pubic hair customization almost too much for almost no reason especially since there is no practical way to even be naked to be funny without being one-shot because you have literally zero armor aside from maybe shoes, hats, and face covers.

Tattoos should be broken down into subcategories like limbs (divided into the different parts of each limb/full limb), torso (chest, stomach/full), back (shoulders, mid, lower/full), hands/feet (maybe including fingers/toes) with an extra option to mirror limbs and hands to streamline creation time if the player wants.

Hair should also be broken down between pre-styled, and customizable pieces like top, sides, and back. Hair style should also have custom gradients or full palette selection.

The nail paints were a nice surprise, but again would have been better with color customization (I managed to settle on the one that looked kinda like the demisexual flag, which was nice surprise).

Lifepath selection should have some effect outside of just the occasional dialogue option (so far only on the main story path). At the very least it should offer bonuses to atleast one associated ability (like Nomad offering a +1 to tech and associated skills gaining bonus experience). At the far end it should affect what words or slight accent uses during dialogue and maybe have some NPCs know which lifepath you chose based on that.

Melee combat needs to feel more impactful. From what Ive used so far (katana and fists) the katana barely has any reaction from enemies unless you trigger the passive bleeding skill and fists barely register outside of heavy attacks and guard breaking. Dare I say, Dead fucking Island has more impactful melee combat (probably because it wasn’t seemingly designed as an after-thought outside of skills).

Make it so that once you’ve marked a target you can hack it through walls so you can actually be somewhat stealthy or atleast give you an advantage before combat.

Make the overworld hub-based (like in the 2010s Deus Ex games) but still the same size so that its (theoretically) easier to load while also getting the same amount of detail or even more. 

Add seemingly basic things in open world action-adventure games like toggle walking, keybinding, and maybe more than less than a handful of quick-select slots.

Make sure the game actually runs as it ideally should on the platforms you sell it on. Like that really should be step fucking two after can you launch it without causing a fire.

Enemies (and predetermined killable NPCs) should have set gear that is dropped and gear should have set designs for if they can be customized or just sold for money. Iconic gear should probably be better than just “ ’X’ weapon but named”.

[phantomcodes]

kyoshi | theme by sage

get the code - $1: live preview / static preview / view on @tina-snow inspired by spotify, featuring an (optional) music player and profile menu

- the song in the preview is Good Days by SZA - rina gif by @sashafierce ♡

basic features (more info below the cut):

optional: music player, tags on click, glow effect, & explore menu

full length sidebar blog icon, custom description, & up to 5 extra links

explore menu with sections for updates, bio, blogs, lots of links, & socials

customizable: colors & color gradient, body & title fonts, font size, and post margin

540px posts, scroll to top button, responsive design, search bar, day/night toggle, & adjustable border radius

nothing needs to be changed in the code, everything can be changed in the customize panel! instructions for how to customize this theme below the cut

terms:

reblog if using

do not touch the credit

view all terms

credits listed in the code / credits page

please consider supporting me ♡

make sure you read through this post and check the additional links provided before asking questions!! this theme is currently on sale as part of my 1k followers appreciation :) as of september 1st it’ll be $3!

footer

uploading your song:

i recommend using google drive to host your mp3 files - below is a brief explanation for how to do this but you can also see the resources provided here by glenthemes and more links on my credits page

to start you need an mp3 audio file, once you have the one you want go to google drive and click: ＋ New ➞ File upload

select your mp3 audio file and click open

open your newly uploaded audio file in google drive and click the three dots on the top right, then click Share and under General Access change it to Anyone with the link can view

copy the sharing link provided, it will look something like this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pBA6KdlLEzoEZPQ6hmaSr9LGLeCQGPxz/view?usp=sharing

go to the following site and paste your sharing url in the first box provided: https://www.joelgrayson.com/drive-download-link-generator

your final product should look something like this: https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1pBA6KdlLEzoEZPQ6hmaSr9LGLeCQGPxz

make sure the music player is toggled on in the theme, paste your audio link in the Song URL field

notes:

the song will automatically repeat once it’s finished playing

if you choose the “toggle footer” option, the footer will disappear and a button will appear on the sidebar that allows you to show/hide the footer

the footer has links for random posts, archive, askbox, & home

if you toggle the music player off, the music info on the left side of the footer will be replaced by your blog icon, title, & url

profile

header section:

your profile image is uploadable, 200px x 200px, & circular

there’s space for your name and 3 info stats with icons

updates section:

up to 6 updates with text and a title

this section will scroll if it gets too long

bio section:

this section will scroll if it gets too long

blogs section:

can be toggled on/off

up to 6 blogs

the blog images’ size will adjust depending on your font size, the default is about 100px x 100px

links section:

can be toggled on/off

up to 12 links

leave the section title field(s) empty if you want fewer links

up to 6 socials links

sidebar

image:

if you’ve uploaded a profile image this is what will show on your sidebar

if there’s no profile image uploaded, the sidebar img will be your blog’s icon

both images’ size will adjust depending on your font size, the default uploaded img is about 105px x 105px, the icon size is about 90px x 90px

notes:

the sidebar will scroll if it gets too long

i recommend keeping your description short and personally i think it looks better when it doesn’t scroll

the sidebar will disappear and become toggle-able if your browser window’s width gets too small

the sidebar toggle will appear above the profile toggle in the dropdown menu on your header

[retphienix]

As I type this the credits are rolling on FF12 and man, what an interesting ride this turned out to be.

It’s flawed as can be, and in ways I never suspected. But that was a really fun romp to be honest, and that’s in no small part because of the remaster’s fast forward feature.

But let me rewind a touch for fun.

When this game came out I was falling away from RPGs for a while in my life, not in a “sudden distaste” kind of way, more of a “I have x amount of dollars either directly to my name or accounted to me by my parents being kind and this new thing called ‘xbox live’ just came out and Halo 2 is cool!”

So to say I was out of the loop would be an understatement, I’m almost certain I didn’t know this game came out for upwards of a year of its release. When I did find out about it I had assumed it was an MMO due to the very very little I did see of it through possibly G4 at the time, I mean, it LOOKS like an MMO, and I had heard they had made one, so it lined up.

I knew 11 was an MMO so I just assumed FF was dead and they just made MMOs now, and that 12 was like, a new MMO or something. MMOs were a foreign concept to me at the time so this seemed weird but plausible.

Now I said all of that just to say that now that I’ve played it, man I was more right than I suspected and than anyone who told me I was wrong were willing to give me credit for! THIS IS SO CLEARLY a mismatch of MMO concepts they didn’t do for 11 with broken concepts from FFT and FFTA.

This plays 100% like a single player MMO and that is so utterly bizarre and has so many strengths, weaknesses, and potentials to its name that it’s a miracle this is a game that was released and not cancelled for being too complicated to materialize.

It DEFINITELY holds the faults you might expect from that concept, holy moly.

Regions that are WAY TOO BIG FOR NO REASON? YEP!

A severe lack of respect for your personal time? YEP!

Story feels like a backseat ‘flavor’ feature rather than the point of the RPG you’re playing? GOT IT!

And so much more on the negative front, but it still holds the positives.

I also can’t understate how the disrespect to your time is a lot less of a negative with the 4x speed the remaster allows you, but that’s not the game’s direct doing.

Enough of that though. This was a bizarre game, good and bad all in one, flawed as heck but just so mesmerizing in some respects.

I genuinely liked the single player MMO style. I love the general gameplay of an MMO boss and while the main quest bosses are..... severely lacking and mostly auto-play themselves which is really dull, the side hunt bosses offered a bit more to the fun which I enjoyed!

Ah.

Auto playing.

Should mention that in my little wrap up now shouldn’t I?

FF12 has a sort of ‘program your fight’ mechanic through gambits. I mentioned them in an earlier post when I was just starting the game and my general positivity towards them remains!

But man, they are. Not PERFECTLY applied here.

It’s a weird mix of you having too much and too little all at once and the combat itself not really.. doing much with it?

For one, you can’t go in-depth with how you program your units. You can’t say “When Ashe enters combat cast decoy on Ashe” you just say “Cast decoy on Ashe” and accept the fact that a lot of mp will be wasted unless you toggle off your gambit in between combat.

You can’t say “When party hp < 40% cast group wide heal” or, well, anything that would be so situational. It’s pretty bare bones “Heal when under 80%” “Attack nearest enemy” and no real conditionals to be applied outside of the literal conditionals like “If Ally = Poison use Antidote”.

And yet...

The combat is so simplistic and lacking decisions beyond what gambits you set that you can literally, and I practically did, auto-fight through the whole thing bosses included.

I wouldn’t say that’s the worst. I mean, DWM has that going for/against it and I adore how it handles. But this game arguably has less choice than that game and this one lets you pre-program your fights...

It’s, a sticking point. It didn’t ruin my experience and infact was something I admired about the game, but it’s a flawed system so if the flawed part of it bothers you, ho boy will this bother you.

I did enjoy forcing the game to give me some form of a build through this system but the lack of creativity it fully allows (instead relying on you to battle traditionally which is fine) makes it feel like a weird “Not enough power, too much power” feature.

I was able to make it so I had a full tank/dps/healer setup at least and auto fight with that, so it wasn’t all bad. Just. Flawed.

And I’d bet because this system exists is why the main bosses are so bland. Literally every one just falls to auto attacking, heck, THE FINAL FORM OF THE FINAL BOSS is the first real main story fight to have something you might need to micromanage and even then it was just “He’s immune to physical.... okay now he’s immune to magic” but I could have honestly just auto fought and waited out each phase due to how undertuned he seemed.

All the main fights feel extremely underleveled, which isn’t unusual for FF, but in THIS one with the literal auto fight gambit system, it’s noticeable. The hunts were the only real challenge that usually amounted to “tackle them, change my gambits around, win” which felt rewarding to be honest.

But what of the rest of the game outside of the gambits?

Well it’s alright.

I enjoyed the story beats that reminded me of FFT, though they feel a touch front loaded and then spread thin, but that’s the story as a whole to be honest.

It’s a, well, pretty weak one. Remarkably weak one. Painfully weak.

It has beats that remind me of my favorite! But the rest of the story is just “We have to find the mcguffin.” “I hope she doesn’t use the mcguffin for bad” “Oh thank god she didn’t”

With the interesting bits put to the side and kind of entirely ignored? It’s weird. Like they bring up an immortal species of pseudo angels that control all destiny and fate in our world, and the story is KINDA how do we fight fate or do we follow fate, but it’s shoved so far on the back burner that it isn’t even given closure in the end after you defeat the big bad. Logically, we’ve defeated fate and broken ties to those immortals, but we don’t see them after the fact, and we fight and destroy... not them? We fight the rogue immortal and not directly, if anything we killed his puppet and he just said “later” or maybe he merged with the puppet and we did get him, hard to say. But what isn’t is that the entire story beat is wasted and just kinda there.

The story is forgettable as heck, has a lame and frankly ugly final boss, and gets thrown away to say “We did it, hooray!” at the end so it’s lacking closure on that level, but it does have a sense of character based closure so that’s nice. Well, pretty nice.

Can’t say I adored the cast, but I liked them. I really did end up liking them, and the ending is a nice little “Everyone did well even if we grow somewhat apart” story, that’s sweet.

Not sure what else to say. I know in 20 minutes I’ll have more on my mind, and I know I’ve missed my chance to speak on countless moments in this game by virtue of not truly live-blogging the experience since I lack a mouse/keyboard for my main computer (such a bizarre way to lose access). But here’s a closer.

Final Fantasy 12 was a bizarre, flawed, fascinating game. And I truly understand why it’s the one final fantasy I have never had someone talk to me at length about. Because it’s excruciatingly long (without the remaster fast forward), it’s story is dull, and it’s gameplay is experimental in a way I’d argue has more misses than strikes. It’s not a tranwreck, but it’s forgettable if you aren’t one to pick and find intrigue in those weird little decisions like I do.

This was fun.