#basically absolutely everything in my game that was added with patch 5 is “not found” ... super weird...because the epilogue used to work

[luxrayz64]

list of gripes i have with tears of the kingdom and reasons why I think it's not goty material

has no respect for my time. great fairies and hestu are the most blatant example of what I mean. if sonic frontiers could patch out this exact issue (adding an upgrade all at once button) there's no reason why a whole 5 years and a sequel later I still have to watch hestu shake his ass at me 7 times in a row instead of just handing him every korok seed at once. yes there's a skip button. no that's not good enough

filler content. awesome big map you've got there. and it's all just copy pasted shrines and koroks? wow this seems like a good use of my time (<- lie)

racism. I don't have the energy to elaborate im just bitching but like (waves at ganondorf)

imperialism. rauru is a coloniser and I hate that the story expects you to align yourself with him and I hate that none of the other leaders/sages are on the same level as himband I hate that he made ganondorf bow to him too.

misogyny. they damselled zelda again. complete lack of care for her character. she doesn't even get to be interesting in this one because the memories are too focused on (poorly) establishing the ancient conflict and rauru.

lack of consequences. link gets his normal arm back even though we were told at the beginning it was unsalvagable. zelda gets turned human and suffers no loss of memories or self she's just fine. why couldn't we do this earlier if all we needed was for mr and mrs imperialism ghosts to show up.

lack of any linearity. don't raise your eyebrows at me, I found the spirit temple way too early because it wasn't gated off and when I could finally do the kakariko quest that is supposed to lead to it I got pissed the fuck off because I'd already completed the quest and it was useless to me. why is it possible for me to reach that quests conclusion without the start? it's like hanging a fruit over my head and when I finally get to eat it it's just foam. gating off parts of your game until requirements are met isn't the fucking devil, it's basic game design.

storytelling in general. the lack of an active plot makes the story feel lacklustre. this game is better at it than botw was at least but the fact that we get to see so little of the main antagonist (because the past conflict, our main source of information/characterisation is seen through zeldas extremely limited pov) sucks. I like it when ganondorf gets to be a person actually. also watching the same cutscenes at the end of every fucking dungeon come on

dungeon design. we were promised a return to proper dungeons and we got Not That. better than the divine beasts for sure, but still ass. short, easy to navigate/cheat in, and unfulfilling. the thunder temple felt the most like a real dungeon, and it ended way too soon. shrines also suck btw

shrines also suck btw. I hate having these singular puzzles that I have to complete in order to get hearts. they break up the flow of gameplay and feel like a chore. id much rather just find fucking pieces of heart/stamina things. I'd rather just have real dungeons instead of breaking them up like this. why are there MORE than there were in botw

the way the gerudo treat you. misogyny AND racism. it feels uncomfortable the way you're treated by them, even though everyone here knows you're their saviour. gender essentialism is a fucking nightmare and I like to not have to deal with it in my games, thanks.

the game doesn't know what genre it is. it wants to be an open world/sandbox with the emphasis on ultrahand and building contraptions. it also wants to be an adventure rpg with puzzle solving and strong story focus. personally im not a fan of sandboxes - ultrahand did absolutely nothing for me when I wasn't being forced to use it. you can't have your cake and eat it too - the physics engine at play here is jaw dropping, don't get me wrong, but I bought zelda, not fucking gmod

it's too big. there's nothing in it. everything is copy pasted. it was fun to explore the first time around, but now I've seen everything I have no reason to visit it again. the depths and sky islands promised more, but end up just being more of the same.

sages being mapped to A and also forcing you to run up to npcs to use them. don't do that. why did you do that? why did you think this was appropriate. this complete mishandling of the sage abilities pisses me off the more I think about it. it shouldn't have gotten past testing. it's frustrating and I expect better fucking controller management from nintendo. jesus christ. you had 5 years and that was what you came up with?

5 years down the line, they did not fix any of the problems botw had. some things were handled a little better, some things were handled worse. nothing was fixed. if the next game is in the same map again, I'm skipping it I don't fucking care. if it's not, they'd better lose the fat - I don't want to have to wait 7 years for every game.

i can and happily will elaborate more on any of these points. story especially, all my gripes with the story and its presentation can't be boiled down to dot points. im tired and feel like bitching about how much this game frustrated me so it's dot points. I probably forgot something or another that pisses me off about it. I am probably biased, and I am definitely bitter. this game was disappointing, and the disappointment makes me frustrated with it. pikmin 4 sweep

[xb-squaredx]

B-Squared’s Top 10 Games of 2020

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that having something to distract me from the genuine horrors unleashed during 2020 was vital to staying alive, and for me that means a lot of video games! I played…a lot of games last year, but I spent a lot of time playing older games, so I didn’t get a chance to check out a lot of high-profile games that launched this year. Still, I do want to shine a light on the games that managed to resonate with me even a little bit, that somehow managed to launch this year. So let’s get to it!

#10 – No Straight Roads

Rarely have I been struck by a single trailer for a game like I was for No Straight Roads. Produced by industry veterans under a new studio, this is a rare game that’s not quite an indie game from a studio full of newbies, but it’s also not produced with the same kind of budget and resources of a Triple-A project. What do we call this? A Double-A game? Single-A? Regardless, I have to give the team at Metronomik some props for delivering a super stylish game in the midst of a very challenging year. No Straight Roads is a rhythm-based action game where two up-and-coming musicians fight to bring back Rock and Roll to the people of Vinyl City. I absolutely adore this game’s presentation, with each major boss being visually unique and having their own feel that compliments the music they bring to battle. There’s some real energy in these animations with character designs that ooze personality, and being a game about music the soundtrack is great! All that being said though, I have to admit I wasn’t a huge fan of the gameplay when all was said and done. It leans way more on the rhythm side of the equation than I was hoping for, and the action felt very shallow. The fixed camera made some phases of some fights a real problem, and the Switch verison, which I played, is plagued with a lot of issues that really brought the game down for me. If the game interests you at all, give it a shot on PC or PS4; I hear those versions are a lot better. Still, I liked the potential I saw in this game and in this studio, so I can only hope they did well enough to continue on. This definitely feels like the kind of passion project that deserves more recognition.

#9 – Streets of Rage 4

OK, so full disclosure: I didn’t grow up with 2D beat-em-ups. I missed out on all of the greats of the genre back in the day. No Final Fight, no River City Ransom, no Double Dragon, and definitely no Streets of Rage. In more recent years I have tried to dip my toe in the genre, as I did in 2019 with River City Girls. However, I came away from that game a bit disappointed by the overall gameplay and wondered if 2D beat-em-ups were for me. Seeing so much praise heaped onto Streets of Rage 4 had me curious, so I knew I had to try it, if only to broaden my experience in the genre. In many ways, this game is the perfect sequel to a franchise that hasn’t seen any signs of new life in years. It retains what made the series beloved with satisfying combat and challenge, but with a modern touch. The overall art style of the game and music work out pretty well, and I found the act of comboing enemies to be really satisfying. It really doesn’t overstay its welcome either, which is very appreciated in an age of endless timesinks. I also struggled a fair bit with the game, even on Normal, and well after some patches that seemed designed for more casual fans like me. Had this game not had online co-op as an option, I don’t know if I could have beaten the final levels. So my time with this game was pretty rough but despite that I can still see this was a game made with care, and if this game DOES do something for you, there’s plenty of reasons to keep playing on higher difficulties, unlocking more characters and even playing online with friends. Let me put it this way; I’m not all that sure I like the genre and I still liked this game, so I think that counts for something!

#8 – The Wonderful 101: Remastered

…this one is kind of cheating, I’ll admit! I had a lot of trouble thinking up ten games that really stood out to me this year, honestly. That said, I’ll definitely use loopholes to plug one of my favorite games from years ago. Seven years ago, PlatinumGames launched The Wonderful 101 on the ill-fated Wii U, where it bombed harder than just about anything on the system. For those that gave the game a shot, however, they were quick to discover a deep, complex, and charming action game that plays like nothing else out there. Controlling a team of 100 heroes at once, players form weapons out of the various Wonderful One’s bodies, smacking around giant robots and aliens far larger than them with the power of teamwork! How could you not love that, right?! Now, years later, PlatinumGames is aiming to become more independent and their first act was launching a Kickstarter as a way to get this game on newer platforms. While we may never know why Nintendo gave Platinum their blessing to release this game on non-Nintendo platforms (being as this is still, as far as I know, a Nintendo-owned IP), I’m just glad more people can have access to one of the most unique action games I’ve ever touched.

To sell it another way, this game combines the overall aesthetic of Viewtiful Joe with the shape-drawing action of Okami but with a bit of Bayonetta flair on the side. Basically, this is the culmination of everything director Hideki Kamiya has ever worked on. The Remastered version fixes some issues present from the game’s original release, and while I do think they could have gone a bit further with some changes, it is likely the best way to play the game for many. All those sections that made heavy use of the Wii U GamePad are a tad awkward though, but that held true even back on the Wii U anyway…d-don’t worry so much about that, though! I’d still recommend this game to anyone looking for the type of over-the-top action that only Platinum (and occasionally Capcom) can provide! So please consider joining the Wonderful Ones and Unite Up!

#7 – Paper Mario: The Origami King

Discourse around the Paper Mario series is…more than a little rough, honestly! Many fans have been quite vocal about not liking the direction the series has been heading with the last few games, but I went into The Origami King with an open mind and ended up really enjoying the game for the most part! What the game lacked in a developed storyline, it made up for with some really strong character moments and memorable setpieces. Bobby and Olivia are among my favorite partners in ANY of the Mario RPGs, easily, and the entirety of the Great Sea section of the game was a really fun adventure. I love the highly-detailed paper-crafted enemies and locales, and the soundtrack really didn’t have to go as hard as it did. While the battles against common enemies didn’t quite click with me, the boss battles throughout the game constantly surprised me with interesting twists on the ring-based combat and are a real highlight for me. I know this game is pretty divisive amongst Paper Mario fans, but I think the franchise has a pretty bright future ahead of it!

#6 – DOOM Eternal

Fair warning here, but I haven’t quite managed to beat DOOM Eternal at the time of writing this, but what I’ve played so far tells me it definitely belongs here. I think Eternal is hands-down the most intense game I’ve played in a long time. It gets my blood pumping as I dash about, shooting and slicing through demons that are extremely eager to rip and tear me to pieces. I don’t play many shooters in general, so I knew I was going to be in for a rough time, but DOOM Eternal brings it to another level right away. In some respects, I don’t quite agree with various aspects of the core game design that makes the game harder than I think it needs to be at times. The scarcity of ammo, and thus the constant need to use the Chainsaw weapon in order to gain more ammo gets tiring, though that somewhat levels off as more weapons are acquired and players learn of more efficient ways to take out the hordes of Hell. The game’s fantastic soundtrack by Mick Gordon definitely elevates the experience, so it is a huge bummer knowing that he and ID Software had a falling out and he won’t be coming back. I really dig the game’s expansive levels and more focus being put on exploring every nook and cranny for secrets, and certain old-school touches like finding extra lives or cheat codes definitely makes the game feel like it was ripped out of a bygone era and given a modern paintjob at times. Doom is eternal, and with it, so is pulse-pounding shooting action!

#5 – Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition

Compared to the other re-release of an old game on this list, I think this particular title had a lot more time and care put into it…and it also happens to enhance one of my favorite games on Wii as a bonus! Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii was a game that almost passed me by but even years later, I still adored the characters and world it introduced, and I’ve been happy to see what started as game that was almost stuck in Japan eventually grow into a full franchise. I consider the first game to the best in the series, though it was held back by a few issues later games would iron out. Chief among the problems was the visuals, particularly the character models and…wow does ten years make a world of difference. The Definitive Edition does more than just clean up everyone’s faces, it also cleaned up the game’s cluttered UI, made it easier to track quests and materials for said quests, and added some fun optional challenge missions for veterans to tackle. The bow that adorns the top of this package, however, is the epilogue story Future Connected that serves to tie up some loose ends and gives a particular character some great closure. If you love massive worlds to explore, a compelling, at times over-the-top story, and a deep, rewarding combat system, I can’t recommend THIS version of THIS game enough. If you’re going to give the Xenoblade series a try, there’s no better place to start.

#4 – Ghost of Tsushima

When Ghost of Tsushima was first unveiled years ago, I didn’t exactly have a high opinion of it. It seemed like a game that put more emphasis on visuals over gameplay, and I was almost certain it would launch as a PS5 exclusive so why bother getting excited when I probably wasn’t going to be an early adopter of the system? To my great surprise, not only was this game confirmed for PS4, it wound up being one of the prettiest games on the platform and well-optimized to boot, even on my old slim PS4. Playing as lone samurai Jin Sakai, players try to repel the Mongel invasion of Japan, but are forced to adopt less-than-honorable tactics to take on this ruthless enemy. Usually when I play stealth games, I find myself frustrated. I feel weak, or limited, and often the games feel overly harsh. If you get caught once, game over and there’s little salvaging being seen. In Ghost of Tsushima however, there’s a great deal more care put into stealth, and at times I’d argue it’s almost too fun to pass up over the sword play. Very few missions in the game force you to go completely unseen, so stealth just because yet another tool rather than a limitation imposed on you.

Swordplay felt a bit less engaging against common enemies (typically just being Simon Says, switching to the appropriate stance for a given enemy), but the one-on-one duels throughout the game were fantastic and I almost wish the game was all about them instead. I can’t overstate how gorgeous this game is either, with a world that feels like it is breathing, as the wind whips through the tall grass, the moon penetrates fog overtaking a creepy forest, or seeing the smoke from an enemy camp wafting over the distance. Hands-down one of the best-looking games on the PS4, and I’m particularly happy that developer Sucker Punch managed to land a hit with a new IP, as those generally feel more risky as times go on. While I’d argue that Ghost of Tsushima doesn’t really redefine how open-world games should be designed, it is an extremely polished experience and manages to do it well, with plenty of opportunities to grow in a potential sequel.

#3 – Animal Crossing: New Horizons

If there’s any one game that people absolutely needed in 2020, it was Animal Crossing: New Horizons. While there are other games of this type, like Stardew Valley or the Harvest Moon (and later, Story of Seasons games), Animal Crossing is one of the few games that gets mainstream attention while simultaneously running counter to most mainstream gaming trends. No conflict, no combat, no overarching story really…just a game that lets you live your live, day by day on your own terms. I tried getting into the series before with New Leaf but just didn’t stick with it, but New Horizons launched at the perfect time in an imperfect world. Being able to escape the uncertainty and dread that enveloped the world as the pandemic spread for even a little while was a necessity, and thankfully New Horizons had plenty to do to keep idle hands busy. Changes like item crafting and eventually limited terraforming of your island paradise give players so much more agency in decorating their homes and building up something they can be proud of.

We all start as nothing but a small tent on a mostly-empty island, but seeing what people were able to do even in the first few weeks or so was nothing short of amazing. We need more unflinchingly wholesome games in the world, and I’m thankful for Animal Crossing for being there when we needed it, and considering how well it sold and how much post-launch content is expected to be added with time, it remains a sanctuary to return to even now. Just…please let us craft in bulk? Pretty please, Nintendo?

#2 – Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Last year, Nintendo released Astral Chain, a game that no one knew about before release, which was revealed and released with very little gaps between them. It was a game I didn’t know I wanted until it was presented to me, and that trend continues this year with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. The first Hyrule Warriors was a fun, surprising spin-off of the main Legend of Zelda series, and Breath of the Wild was a fantastic game that shook up the core of the Zelda franchise, so in hindsight it really does seem like a no-brainer to combine the two into one package. Age of Calamity, for my tastes at least, cuts down on the repetition and overall stressful atmosphere of the first Hyrule Warriors and instead focused on fleshing out it’s core combat and crafting more creative main storyline missions. It helps that the game reimagines iconic locales from Breath of the Wild from before their destruction, and really makes you feel like you’re fighting through actual places rather than just a collection of random keeps that most Warriors games use.

Bringing in aspects like the Sheikiah Slate and Elemental Rods allows players to control the flow of combat more directly on top of letting them be more creative. Freeze enemies standing over water with the Cryonis rune or burn some grass with the Fire Rod to distract certain enemies, among many other things. Each playable character is also very distinct, even in cases where I could have forgiven the developers for reusing some attacks or traits. For one, Link has different movesets for his Sword and Shield, Spear, and Two-Handed weapons, but none of his attack overlap with the other Champions who use similar weapons. Some people might be put off with certain aspects of this game’s story and ultimately not everyone likes the overall structure of the Warriors spinoffs anyway, but for my part, Age of Calamity was one of the best surprises of the year, unveiled right at the end of the year in the nick of time. Of course, there was one game this year that surprised me more than any other.

#1 – Hades

I’ve known of Supergiant Games for quite a while and very recently began looking through their catalogue of games. They’re known for well-crafted narratives and satisfying combat, and yet when I first saw Hades when it was released in Early Access I was tepid on it. It didn’t look bad or anything, but it didn’t exactly blow me away and even now, I think a random screenshot or quick clip of the game might not do the game justice in explaining the appeal. I already wrote about the game at-length (as my only real non-retrospective blog post of the year, oops!), which you can read here if you want more in-depth praise, but to summarize…Hades is the total package for me.

Playing as Prince Zagreus your end-goal is to escape the puts of Hell, and more specifically get away from your overbearing father, Hades. It’s a rogue-lite, meaning you’re expected to finish the game in one shot and if you die you lose any upgrades you picked up along the way and have to start from scratch…to a point. Hades does allow you to keep a fair amount of items you pick up which can towards small, permanent upgrades or even gifts for various NPCs that can deepen your bond with them. Unlike most other games of this type too, the story constantly moves forward, even after death. The game is about dying over and over and then dusting yourself off to try again, all the while other characters remark on your progress or lack thereof. I grew to really enjoy this cast of characters, a fun spin on the Greek pantheon, paired with excellent voice acting for the entire cast. From the imposing, if somewhat sultry Megaera, to the nervous wreck that is the maid, Dusa, to the pompous ass Theseus, I looked forward to each new run just to learn more about this world and those within it. For once, death wasn’t really a punishment, but a reward, and just part of the process.

Of course, incredibly satisfying combat is ALSO part of the process and it just gets…addicting; muttering “one more run” over and over as you try out different weapons and boons, discovering what works well together and what doesn’t. While at first beating the game felt like it would never happen, I grew from my failures, adapted and eventually overcame. Multiple times. If you want the “full” Hades experience, this game can really demand a lot of time out of you but at the same time it stays fresh, so I can’t really complain. With new gameplay mechanics unlocking as time goes on, to the Pacts of Punishment players can trigger if they want a bit more challenge (or a lot more), Hades is that rare game that just keeps giving and giving. Before I knew it, I had dumped well over 50 hours into it, and I STILL need to get back to the game if I want that epilogue.

Compared to every other game that came out this year, Hades is the one game that grabbed me from moment one and would not let go until I hit credits. When I wasn’t playing this game, I was counting down the minutes until I could play it again, and let me tell you that is rare for me these days. At this point, Hades is clearly the breakthrough hit for Supergiant and I couldn’t be happier. The fact that this game got to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with industry titans at The Game Awards is kind of surreal, but I can’t think of many who deserve that recognition more. It helps that Supergiant is a studio that actually takes care of its employees, which is way rarer than it should be. I don’t mean to hype this game up like it’s the cure for COVID or anything, but I mean it with all my heart that this was the best game I played this year, and I’d recommend it in a heartbeat. I couldn’t stop talking about it for months after playing it, just ask my friends! So yeah, it’s pretty OK I guess.

CONCLUSION

I’m sure my Top 10 List looks a lot different from most out there, but that’s what’s great about games! So much variety and so much quality no matter where you look! Every year, without fail, there’s always at least a small handful of games that come out that I don’t get to, and try as I might I’ll never trim that backlog down. I want to keep playing games for as long as I can, trying out so many different experiences and seeing what this wonderful pastime can offer. For a good chunk of 2020 I was more than a little down, not just because of…you know, but a lot of games that were coming out weren’t appealing to me. That said, seeing as this was the year of shadow drops and announcing things at the last minute, I ended up loving a bunch of games I hadn’t already spend months hyping myself up for, which definitely helped to lift me up this year. Already, 2021 has a lot of titles I’m anticipating though, so it’s sure to be an exciting year.

Happy Gaming.

-B

[alittleyellowdinosaur]

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

So i made this here post about how satisfying making my own bread is, and, by my 300 followers, 6 notes on a good day, 0 on personal post standards, it went viral. So i thought I’d give you guys the recipe. It’s a mashup of this recipe, my own shit, and an idea from another recipe that i can’t find again to give them credit. Since i only took proportions from the first one i’m calling this my own recipe. I’m also going to go a bit into bread baking tips and tricks just in case this is your first time making bread and you want to get started on that cottagecore life. Now go bake some fine ass cinnamon rolls folks! ( @good-vibes-by-noel this here’s for you!)

Photo sucks but i couldnt get a better one because they didn’t last the night. Whoops! This is what they’ll look like though!

Time: like 2 hours, give or take, but you can do other shit during most of that.

Makes: 12, frankly giant, cinnamon rolls. good luck eating more than 2 at a time, seriously.

Ingredients: 

The Rolls:

1 cup warm milk (microwave in a mug for a minute and you are good. Any milk is fine, but i used fat free)

1 tablespoon dry instant yeast (about one and a quarter packets, but one should be fine, you just might need to extend rising times if it’s not working well)

2 tablespoons granulated sugar 

1 teaspoon salt 

1/2 cup (1 stick) and 3 tablespoons of melted butter (*** VERY IMPORTANT - melt the 3tbs and the 1/2 cup SEPARATELY or you’ll throw everything off.)

1 large egg

3 cups all-purpose flour (bread flour works too

1 cup brown sugar 

2 tablespoons cinnamon (yes the big ones) 

The Icing:

1 cup of icing (powdered) sugar (Starting point - I’ll explain later))

1 Tablespoon of milk  (Starting point)

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Directions:

 I added lots of bread fun facts to help you guys with other bread making endeavors, so it got long and is now under the cut!

Activate the yeast. Warm the milk up for a minute in the microwave, and mix that, the white sugar, and the yeast together. leave to rest for 5-10 minutes. you want it to look like the photo on the bottom, but if it isn’t as good, don’t freak out because you’ll be fine. Mine never look that good tbh, there’s a reason i was so proud. Bread Fun Fact: Less of a fun fact then just some advice, but buy the bulk jars of instant yeast. They keep forever in the fridge (always store yeast in the fridge btw) and are so much cheaper than buying packets. if you intend to make bread a lot, it’s the best way to save money. Plus, most recipes give tablespoon/teaspoon amounts, not packet amounts.

Once it looks all nice and foamy, add in the flour. On top of the flour, add the salt, egg, and 3 tablespoons of butter. You need to keep these as separate from the yeast as you can until you begin mixing - especially the salt, which will outright kill it. Always keep the salt and yeast separate guys!! Bread Fun Fact: Because you are adding eggs, butter, and milk instead of water, this type of bread is called an enriched bread. These breads are softer, fluffier, usually sweeter, and more complicated as they can take longer to rise. Yay! Doughs without these things are called Lean breads and include ciabatta, focaccia, and baguettes i think.

Mix and knead the dough. If you have a stand mixer, use the dough hook (the one that looks like Captain Hook got robbed), and mix it together until the dough forms on medium, then crank it for like 5 minutes on medium-high. If you are making this at 7 in the morning like i was and can’t wake people up, mix it by hand until combined, then knead for 10 ish minutes to build up the gluten strands on a clean table dusted with a bit of flour. The best method I’ve found is to stretch it out with the heel of your hand, roll it up, then rotate and repeat. Over and over and over.... Bread Fun Fact: You can tell you’ve done enough kneading by using the Window Pane Test. If you can stretch the dough far enough that you can see light through it without it breaking, then you’ve got enough gluten. That or go until it doesn’t look like it’s got cellulite anymore and is nice and smooth. The other test is if it bounces back when you poke it a bit. Also, when helping with kneading, for enriched breads use flour, for lean breads use oil!

Now comes the waiting. Grease the bowl you mixed in with some butter, and plop the ball of dough in. Cover with tight plastic to prevent air getting in (and creating a crusty skin that will inhibit rising), and a clean towel, and leave in a patch of sun or a warm place for 1 hour to rise. 

Before you go play video games/do work/fuck around, mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon and melt the 1/2 cup of butter. Now go have fun.

When you get back, you should have a big bowl of risen dough. Now punch the sucker. Yes, you heard me, punch it. It’s called knocking it back and is absolutely essential in dough making. Now, pat the dough out into a 12 inch by 18 inch rectangle, approximately. Don’t use a rolling pin because it’ll mess the air up. Put about a quarter of the melted butter over the top, and then however much of the brown sugar - cinnamon mix you feel like (i put enough so that, when patted down a bit, it covered the whole thing evenly.) 

Roll the rectangle up along the longer edge. It helps to tack down one side by smearing it a bit onto the table. it just makes it easier to get a tight roll and helps the seam idk. Cut off the edges to get a clean roll, then cut 12 rolls, about an inch each or so. Bread Fun Fact: If you use a sharp knife, you are going to smush your rolls. The better way is to get tooth floss, though i highly advise not a mint one. Push it under the roll where you want the cut, cross over the two ends in your hands, and pull until you’ve sliced off the roll. makes it much neater and not smushy. 

Pour the rest of the cinnamon sugar mixture and butter into the bottom of a 13in by 9in pan, be it glass, metal, whatever you have is fine. Mix it together and make sure the sludge of deliciousness covers the whole bottom. Plop each off the rolls in there, in a 3 by 4 set up, cover with plastic and the towel, leave in sun, and go fuck off for a half hour or so. Honestly i never leave it that long because mine always get massive, so for me it’s always more like 15-20 minutes. Really just wait till they balloon up and fill the pan a bunch, but don’t worry if it’s not perfect because they’ll grow again in the oven. 

At some point while they are rising, preheat the oven to 350 degrees (Fahrenheit). When you deem them risen enough and the oven is fully heated (YOU REALLY DO WANT TO PREHEAT IT THIS TIME GUYS TRUST ME ON THIS. if you dont you’ll probably burn your bread before it’s cooked), and bake for about 20-30 minutes. i know that’s a big iffy point, but pretty much just keep checking after around 20 minutes until they are colored brown on top and smell like heaven. (i’m going to be really honest with you, I’ve never baked them at 350 degrees, only at 325 like the recipe for the dough said, but that recipe is a liar because it took me a solid 30 minutes or more when it said that it should take 14. The op was eating undercooked bread guys. So do 350, but i can’t honestly tell you the right timing because i’ve only turned it up halfway through before) Bread Fun Fact: Because enriched breads, like this recipe, have more sugar than lean breads do, they can sometimes catch in the oven - or color too quickly and burn, when the inside still needs to cook. if this happens, you can always give them a little tin foil hat wherever it’s catching to prevent more coloring while not hindering cooking!

While it’s baking, mix together the icing. The amounts i gave are a starting point, because the icing is something you feel with your heart. add more sugar or more milk until you think you have enough for all 12 rolls and its the consistency you want. I made mine fairly thick so it wouldnt sink in and make the dough soggy, but i also made a shit ton because my family loves the icing. So go with the flow. 

When the cinnamon rolls are done, put the icing on and serve warm! Congrats, you’ve made cinnamon rolls entirely homemade, and you’ve now learned some basic bread making facts!! yay!!!

[enchantment1385]

My most magnificent mega must (have) mods memo.

So, I’ve been putting this off (big surprise!), but the time has come! I am going to try and provide some recommendations of my favorite mods. Mods I will not play the game without, or mods I love so much, I can’t recommend them highly enough! Hopefully some of you will find a new excuse to play one of these games again! I will split the list up into games so you skip if you don’t play a certain game. Again, these are my personal recommendations, so please don’t get all bent out of shape over this people. I also won’t be adding the very amazing utility mods (such as SkyUI or mcm or mod organizers) as I feel these are required mods. Today's installment -  

~Skyrim~

VIGILANT  +  VIGILANT Voiced - English Addon Okay, where do I start with the amazingingness of the mod? It’s massive, compelling, scary (chapter 3 holy fucking shitballs, batman!), and just absolutely perfectly executed on every level horror mod! This is not a mod you complete in a couple of hours, this you need to put aside a day or 2 and go through all 5 chapters! 1 guy made this. 1 awesome japanese dovha, alas it’s not as adored as it should be as, when originally released, the english subtitles (literally translations from Google) didn’t really translate well... or at all at some points. Hence why you need the voiced addon which makes this mod a 15+ hour, fully awesomely voiced adventure to seek out daedra, and be physically, and morally tested by the one and only Daedric Prince of domination, Molag Bal. Your choices WILL affect the outcome. This mod gives you everything you want from a mod. New weapons, new armour, new enemies, dark soul like boss battles, new places, new people, new land. With Halloween quickly approaching, this is the perfect time to give this a shot! 

Legacy of the Dragonborn

I stayed away from this mod for SO long thinking it was just a massive oversize player home to put all your crap on display. I was wrong. I was SO wrong. This mod is the ultimate scavenger hunt turned up to 11. It adds some of the best mods out there and puts them all together to make you WANT to go find that bloody staff, or helm, because A, it now looks amazing, and B, there’s a place for EVERYTHING in the museum, it must be filled! It adds old relics, new quests, a very gorgeous fair sized player home, you get to go to Elsweyr, and even get an airship you CAN use later! And trust me when I say, there is nothing that looks quite as impressive as your dovah walking around a city with your massive ass airship looming overhead. The way everything gets placed into the world is fucking flawless, and if you’re bored or just want more out of Skyrim, this is the mod that does that, and WAY more. Also a massive bonus, it has several patches for other mods that didn’t get incorporated (vigilant being among them) to add extra wings for you to display the items from other mods! 

Interesting NPCs

Another mod I stupidly avoided to begin with. So as we know, vanilla followers are... meh. But now with all these new battles and exploring you have to do, you might want someone watching your back, right? Forget vanilla, time to go interesting! This mod adds -

• 250+ Voiced NPCs • 25+ Followers with Location Based Commentary • 15+ Marriage NPCs 

This mod makes Skyrim feel inhabited, but with REAL people. People who you can, should, and will want to talk to. The voice acting is just fantastic, the characters are an absolute joy, they fit into the world so perfectly you’d never know they weren’t there all along! Well... Except for the fact they’re actually interesting, and have more than 5 things to say! It also has something called ‘Super Followers’. These followers actually comment on what’s happening in your story. Just about to go kill your first dragon? They have something to say about it. Just joined the college of mages? Have a chat to see what they think! I can not express how much this will change your game, but 151% for the fucking better! Oh! And just in case you were running short on things to do, this also adds 50+ more quests! *(footnote) Pleaaassssee go to Soljund's Sinkhole and take Rumarin with you. What he says when you clear that place out has me laughing my ass off every time.

Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul

Are you tired of being the only one is Skyrim who actually seems to DO anything? Are you weirded out by the fact when you walk into an inn at 4am everyone is doing the same thing as they were at 2pm last week? Confused as hell by the comment ‘Do you hunt? The plains outside Whiterun are ripe with game.’ How the fuck would you know, Anoriath?! You never leave Whiterun, dude! EVER! That ends with this mod. Now people have routines. They sleep, they eat, they walk around, they don’t just stay in one place all the time! It makes the npc’s go from a static feature and changes them into actual people, or goes a long way to help! Even people like carriage drivers now have a lil tent near the carriage, and will even take shelter under cover if it starts raining. (if it’s not too far from the carriage!) Random people will now not try and fight the big dragon who is burning everything to a crisp, but instead run away and take shelter, you know, like a normal person would? Which is helpful, as I tend to hit them with a stray spell then get into shit for accidentally electrocuting the blacksmith or someone who shouldn’t have stood in the way of the MASSIVE FUCKING DRAGON IN THE FIRST PLACE! Anyway... This mod is awesome and makes all the vanilla npc’s less static and weird!  

Relationship Dialogue Overhaul - RDO

Don’t know about you but, I’m kinda bored with the dialogue in this game. The same 5 lines on repeat, over and over and OVER again. I want people who hate me to say something a bit more nasty that ‘What do YOU want?’ This mod adds over 5000 lines of dialog that was never used. Braith finally has more insults to throw at you! Which is great, because I hate that kid and now you will too! Your rivals will be rude to you. Your friends will compliment you. And your spouse will finally say more than a handful of lines to you! With this and the AI overhaul Skyrim will finally feel like it’s come alive. It seems like such a small addition, but it makes a huge impact when you hear lines that you’ve never heard before! 

PC Head Tracking and Voice Type &  Expressive Facial Animation (M)  (F)

So we’ve finally got a living breathing Skyrim, and holy shit, it’s a beautiful thing, right? Time to focus on bringing you to life. Don’t know about you, but I found it plain fucking odd that I didn’t ever look at the person who’s talking to me. Like, not even accidently. I also found it creepy the only time I ever made any sound whatsoever was when I shouted. So the first mod is going to fix that shit. You’ll finally look at the person talking to you, or at that dagger you’re just about to steal. What's more, you’ll be able to assign a voice to yourself, so you’ll greet people who talk to you. Fun doesn’t stop there! You can download voice packs such as, Ciri, Yenifer and loads of others! But... What if you know who you want them to sound like and there isn’t a pack for them? Well, make your own! The page is really good and explains how. So we’re not a clueless goon anymore, we look and talk, but that basically makes us no better than the T 800 terminator. The second mod will make you actually have emotions, instead of constant blank face. You’ll smile at friends and loved ones, and scowl at people who you hate, like you Elrindir. For the last time, I didn’t mean to steal the fucking apple pie! But I think me spending HUNDREDS of gold should have made up for that and did NOT warrant you sending a group of thugs to come kick the shit out of me!  Sorry. Just... Some unfinished business between me and that bastard bosmer. 

Enhanced Lights and FX

I have a potato as a laptop, as such a lot of these amazing ENB’s are totally off the table for me. But... We all deserve a pretty Skyrim, right? Fuck yes we do! And this is the mod that does that for me. So there are two versions of this bad boy, and you will really want to think about which one you want to go for. You’ve got standard, or hardcore. The MAIN difference is, the hardcore version will make dungeons dark. No, I mean pitch black darkness. Really think you know bleak fall barrow? Install hardcore then go run through it. It make sense that it would be dark down in these places, but fuck me dark is now really dark, which I personally love, but you might not. Install at least the main file and the weather mod and I guarantee when you boot your game back up you’ll be saying ‘wow’.  

Enhanced Character Edit  OR  RaceMenu

Okay, first off you only need one or the other NOT both. Here’s the difference. If you want to make a character that looks like they’re from FFXV or korean mmo, you’ll want to get Enhanced character edit. They’re all so damn pretty! Even the men are pretty! If you want something a little less cute looking and maybe more mature, Racemenu is character creator for you. Both give you a TON more customization when creating your new oc, down to finger and toe length and what’s not to love about that?? 

Enhanced Camera

You finally have a body in first person mode. not just hands when attacking. Which FYI Bethesda, is creepy as fuck. Next mod. 

Familiar Faces

Right, last one as we could be here forever, but I need to do more of these things for other games so let's finish with something stupid, but awesome, shall we? You know who’d make the best companion? That spellsword character you made. Or the sneaky archer. Or that tanky as fuck warrior, but they’re on that other save.. No more! When you fire up the game with this mod installed, you get a portal stone placed in your inventory. Use it and get get warped into this empty hall. Go to any of the books on the pedestals and hit yes when prompted. You, your abilities, spells, shouts, game progress and inventory has just been recorded. Load up another save and do the same in a different book, then you can go recruit... you! You can even make yourself marribale! Got that perfect otp? Create them both and have them travel around with you! Want them to use their shouts? No problem! Want them to not use shouts? That’s fine too! Isn’t that overpowered? Who gives a flying fuck?! 

Now go have fun in Tamriel, Bahlaan fahdonne!

[bedlamgames]

Q&A #103

Today we have the Twine conversion, lesbian training mantras, social lube, a bunch of random stuff from the discord, and a whole lot more. 

[Anonymous said]: I'm really curious what the tally means for your twine conversion posts. Can't seem to figure out what its suppose to represent progress wise...

- Answered this last Q&A. Because of you asking I’ve now also added the explanation to what it’s about to every stream post so I hope that helped with understanding what’s going on with that.

[Anonymous said]: Suggestion: For races that start with a random corruption (ie: Succubi), have an option in full custom to spend points to either narrow what that corruption is (to be one of the four types, for example) or to outright pick one (for a much higher cost).

- That’s a good idea. Being able to pick specifically I think would be too much. There are ALOT of corruptions so that would mean many many menus to be able to select everything. Being able to pick one of the four types seems fair to me as something to spend points on in Full Custom. Added it to my notes. 

[Anonymous said]: Have a succubus slaver who used to be a lamia. On level up, she had the option to get the Fleet trait, which I thought was off-limits for Lamia due to their body shape. I think it's a bug?

- Good spot and should be fixed as of the last update. 

[Anonymous said]: Noticed a bug with No Haven 0.903: If you select a human (or once-human) for your character, and then quick restart, your next character will keep the human's Racial aspect Social Lube. On the topic of that Racial, it says " includes one human, and three other different races/subtypes gain an additional Success" Does that mean one human and three non-humans, or one human and three slavers each of a different race from each other?

-Took me awhile to work this out as going from human to human seemed fine. However you’re right that those with a heritage like demi-angels or succubi will incorrectly keep the previous racial. 

The second so as long as you have at least one human you can get the buff by say having a northerner, noble, wastelander, and convent. 

[Anonymous said]: hi bud, xfto/x421 here, its been a long time i guess. wanted to ask about the status of the no haven/twine conversation. i joined your picardo lately but couldnt post some reports since you dont allow guest-posts. well anyway, the report is about something ridiculous i have found after some restarts, the chosen main charakter (lamia) starts as male with the hard carry aspect(immense shaft) and different description than the ones the perks would give. 1/2

another question, feels like i asked something similiar in the past, how about the integration of different artpacks/access to older pics, or deletion of those that never get used? i guess that would requiere some more access to the game than you allow atm. maybe with twine? do you have a roadmap on tfgames or somewhere for the future of no haven? i know there are some more races you want to implement and improve some systems, but thats it, hope you are doing well in these times. 2/2

I do an update on the patreon every two weeks which is linked on the twitter. You do not need to be a patron to read these and is the best way to stay informed about what I’ve been up to. That includes the status of the conversion. To quickly sum it up;

It's at a stage where all the RAGS to Twine code conversion is basically done. What I need to do now is translate all that work into something playable and there's currently big logic issues with a bunch of the conditions and passages. So what I'm currently doing is trying to tidy up the visual look of the code with a bunch of idents with the theory that will make finding the errors easier.

Alas it’s not me disallowing guest posts... Picarto had some massive stonking issues and so they locked things down hard due to that preventing guests from chatting. I suggest a throwaway email site to get around that.

I don’t think there’s any art in the game file that’s not used as I try to keep on top of deleting the old ones. Not really down for doing art packs of the old ones as due to that not being my art so I see them as placeholder only until they can be replaced by commissions. 

I probably do need to do some kind of roadmap sometime. I’m less keen as it’s kind of a dirty word these days as due to the miss-use of them by others it’s got some bad connontations, but I’m also aware the alternative which is me randomly mentioning stuff on discord/picarto streams leaves the vast majority of my audience in the dark which is also really not ideal.

[Anonymous said]: [no haven 0.903] [Crit no longer grants Bimboborn] okay, but how do I get bimboborn now?

- It’s a corruption. Specifically Blessings of Perversion. 

[Anonymous said]: With the change to training where hypnotic slavers can fully embed the relevant mantras for blowjob, bimbo, and sissy training, could we also get that for lesbian training?

- Yes that’s the plan when I do the third part of lesbian training. Got a set of commissions planned just got to sort the funding and work out who I’m getting to do it. 

[Anonymous said]: hey bud, x421 here, again, might be already fixed because thats from no haven .903, but i recently had the witch queen super rare quest, you might want to proof read the quest and results, there are a few typos. i really did enjoy the writing nonetheless, just a quick question about that quest, as far as i understood this one, you only change your odds of the final result depending on how good you do on your way to the final, but the reward in the end only depends on the final result? 1/2

2/2 it just dawned on me that its been a while since you made an Q&A post so i guess i ll go and lurk on the tfgames forum in the next days, just one last question: i asked early in development about camp upgrades and you were not that convinced about that stuff, i understand you want the slaver camp as some bandit camp and not some castle/bastion or whatever, but since you added camp upgrades, maybe add proximity to a certain region? or something to spend supplies and gold in a 13month+ run?

- Hah! Okay will give it another read through.That’s correct yes. There’s also rewards on the way if you Critical those parts. 

There is a new gold sink coming soon in an upcoming update. I’ve also got plans for more camp upgrades coming later. 

[From the Patreon]: I'm that guy you replied to about the patch notes in Q&A 101. Solid updates. Bugs in the outfit system has driven me nuts since like, 2015, has it been that long already? I think it has. I like collecting them and something always blows up. This time, I ended up with a slaver wearing both the ooze outfit and ponygirl outfit. So there's that. Also I was disappointed the new Quicker then You'd Like wasn't interactive. Solid in any case though, thanks!

- I'll get them all one day I swear! Don't suppose you remember the chain of events that led to that? New QAYL was a patron requested one with the idea of having a big pay off for playing submissive which often involves playing sub-optimally.

[From the Patreon]: 1-ive been noticing when you choose to repick choices for an slave training assignment the slave gets added to the list of choices 2-also just how rare is the post-slave princess city assignment, cause i can never seem to get it even after selling multiple slave princesses 3-another thing is that the nightly puppet-leader stat is almost impossible to get again(either that or i have bedwarmers incapable of usurping me even thought i my current stats mean i couldnt win against even the subbiest slave)

- Will check 3 as you've not been the only person to mention that. 2 I know exists for sure as other people have definitely got it. Should be no rarer than any other rare City assignment, and thanks for the spot on 1.

[From the Discord]: Top 3 Animes of the 2010 to 2020

Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica the series was staggeringly good. Just redefined what anime could be to me. Film is a... well it was a thing. A beautiful thing with an ending which I still quite know how to feel about. 

Shirobako. It’s about creativity, craft, and about how people can come together to make something. It might not be something good, but dangit it’s been made and that’s worthwhile. It’s also from personal experience by miles the most accurate depiction of working in an office I’ve ever seen.

Oh man this is very very hard deciding on the third so pick one of the following and I could probably make a strong case for it. 

Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon, Darling in the FranXX (yes really, yes even the ending), Lupin III: Part 5, Kill la Kill, Monster Musume, Flip Flappers, Demi-chan wa Kataritai, Zombieland Saga, or Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai.

Also while I was taking the question to mean series both Your Name and Promare are absolutely phenonemal films. 

[From the Discord]: Best recent Eurovision Act

Lena. Always Lena. 

[From the Discord]: What's the agricultural technological level of No Haven like 

It’s not hit industrialization yet. What makes the difference is and allows cities like Aversol and even bigger to exist is that the organization of the human empire is far better than it has any right to be for the other levels of development being able to keep an incredibly complex supply chain constantly flowing even if on the ground level it barely seems to be moving at all. There are also some much, much larger farms both on the Great Plains and further to the north compared to the much more isolated single/couple of households ones that your slavers raid. 

[From the Discord]: What have been some of your all-time favourite assignments, both in terms of working on them and how they turned out?

Love When Week’s End Comes for a recent one. Writing all the results in colour commentary (and all the variations for weather, events and outcomes) was a real challenge and I do like how it came out. 

Witch-Queen and Arisin’ for being the first times I tried to go for a different, more potentially disturbing/freaky mood, and I’m pleased with the results. 

Sable Masquerade as I really like the ‘bad end’ I came up with. Actually I like the whole thing as while the pitch from the patron obviously helped, a lot of it was inspired by a random superhero bondage party picture I saw on HF, which I decided to run with, and had a bunch of fun exploring. 

[From the Discord]: Weirdest bug and most difficult bug

The one that resulted in a male wisp riding a griffon was a fun one. 

Most difficult has to be the clothing management which as a previous question suggests I’ve still not entirely solved. 

[From the Discord]: If No Haven was an MMO, what race/class would you play?

Kreen rogue mainly as I really like the edit I did for the portrait which MidnightonMars later translated into a commission. 

If not definitely a lamia. 

[From the Discord]: Knowing what you do now about the design of the game, are there any game mechanics you wish you'd have implemented differently?

Clothing management. So very much clothing management. I’ve redone it entirely twice now, and it’s still not where I want it to be. 

[From the Discord]: What was your inspiration for creating the setting of No Haven?  Has the direction the game has gone varied from your initial idea? If so what has been the biggest change?

- It started off with adapting the chan game Deeper Dungeons which was basically a certain popular mmo with nothing different about it outside of it being porn along with some possibly unwise options of personal abuse. I first changed it by ditching gnomes for neko which to my mind was a clear upgrade. There even used to be an examine refference in the RAGS version to suggest they’d been in the region of the dungeons before being driven out.

Then it was a gradual process of adding with the occasional subtractions to get it closer to a more Warhammer feeling setting which has always been a major love of mine when I was still doing Whorelock’s in RAGS.

With No Haven it was a case of building on what I’ve done there and expanding upon that with the race lore and assignment descriptions. Biggest was probably when I did the favoured/unfavoured stuff and added a ton of extra backstory to various races to justify the choices made there. 

[maxmakkaroni-blog]

Me and fandom

In almost all of my 23 years, I can’t remember not being a fan of something. As the youngest one in my family I grew up with 2 cousins and my sister, all at least 4 years older than me. Growing up in rural Bavaria, my cousins introduced me to fandom before I could even talk properly, as they plastered everything in their rooms and themselves with merchandise of soccer clubs they loved. So, it is funny enough that I never even started to care about a single soccer club, other than my 5-year-old me assuring them that I was in love with Bavaria Munich in order not to get a wedgie. However, when I was old enough, I was allowed to tend for their neglected video game consoles for a limited time whenever I was over, which is the first time I really understood what fandom actually meant. Both cousins had games for the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchise, games that focus on displaying semi-realistic skateboarding action with real-life brands, skaters and locations. The first time I was exposed to this type of media I became obsessed with it. I would call my mother over to read me the names of the skaters and levels, I started to recognize the brands in the game in real life, I wanted my cousins to tell me about this Tony Hawk guy. I even wished for an actual skateboard, a hobby that I still casually but passionately perform to this day even going to contests to see some of my heroes of the sport. This must have been in late 2000 however, so researching on the internet was not a real possibility, plus I was barely literate enough to write my own name. Luckily enough, some of my friends also started to get into video games via their older brothers etc., so there soon was a small community around video games, small in every sense of the word. It was mostly me and my friend Peter, who came from an even lower income family than myself and unlike me he was allowed to basically play video games all day, every day, so we used to sit in front of a television for hours, playing all sorts of video games and eating chunk food. For a long while skateboarding and video games of all sorts were my obsession. Franchises like the Tony Hawk’s games, Metal Gear Solid, Fallout, Need for Speed and many more were part of my daily life. As soon as the internet became more accessible and I was smart enough to wrap my head around it, I would watch videos about these games via pages like YouTube and spend a lot of time finding out more about my favorite skateboarders. While watching a compilation of the video game Skate 2, I found my new obsession, which was going to be music.

Though at this point the band that was playing in the video is merely a nostalgic guilty pleasure, Korn turned me into a full-blown music fan. No one in my family was ever even interested in music despite liking something that may have been on the radio, but this band had really touched me in a completely new way. I would get every album, watch every interview, learn about their instruments, analyze all their lyrics, buy their merch with my pocket money and generally annoy everyone out of their mind with this band. Oddly enough no one around me seemed to like the band all that much, but a lot of the community that came with it for me was on the internet anyway. As much as I don’t care for the band now, I’m still more than grateful to this band as they were the reason why I picked up the bass guitar and started making music, which is to this day still the biggest joy in my life. The pattern of passionately plunging into fan communities also established here. Even today, whenever I find bands, fictional universes, authors or anything else that tickles me in a certain way, I tend to immerse myself completely. For fictional universes I usually lose myself in endless reads on wiki pages about the happenings and characters of whatever I am into, trying to know absolutely everything about this universe, whether it is Harry Potter, Fallout or Elite. Being part of the fan communities is also a big part of enjoying the experience. For me, Reddit and YouTube are the places where I have the most interaction with other community members. Whether it is a discussion over lore on r/falloutlore or comments on a video about the latest patch of Elite Dangerous, I always seem to find time to stay in contact with people I will probably never meet, but have the same passion about fiction that I have. As far as fan fiction goes, by far the most contact I had, is with a more unusual approach to fan fiction, which is modding. Modding means modifying existing video games and adding new user generated content for others to enjoy. This can mean everything from improving graphics and mechanics of games, to using the game engine as a foundation for expanding the story, which is what I was always interested in. I consider this fan fiction in video games. Fans of a franchise take the existing narrative and either fill the holes or add more to it, all the while creating their own virtual places with new characters to interact with. For me, the games that I adored the most for this were the Fallout games, as they actively encouraged modding with every part of it. They are open world role playing games in a futuristic post-apocalyptic setting that still has a foot in 1950s America, that allow the players to go about the story at their own pace, making it easy for modders to easily add more and more without interrupting the pacing of the story. The mod community of these games are still as active as when they were brand new.

As far as my fandom in music is concerned, everything is a lot more personal and therefore much harder to describe. For me, the music that I listen to and the musicians I obsess over seem to always seems to reflect where I am in life. Not to say that I inevitably tend to lose interest in all the music I listen to at some point, there are certainly constants. Artists and bands like Mark Kozelek, Neil Young, Sufjan Stevens, Mr. Bungle and many more are always in my rotation of music that I love. Listening to music is also not the only way I enjoy it. Like already mentioned, I like to get to know the people behind the music, analyze the lyrics, learn the songs on my instruments, find out more about their gear, their creative process and pretty much everything around the music itself. Though it may not seem like it, I am a very different fan of music than I am a fan of all kinds of fiction. For one, the community aspect is way less pronounced, as music is a way more personal hobby unless it comes to my own music. Most of my friends don’t share my musical taste and it has pretty much always been like that, so I like to think of my music fandom as something that only exists between me and the music that I can relate too, which is more than fine by me.

It is safe to say that fandom is an enormous part of my life and I don’t think this will change much. Being a fan of something does not only mean enjoying something to a great extent, it also means being part of a community that shares your interests. Fan interaction takes mere entertainment and turns it into something far more personal, yet communal.  All the things I have been a fan of  left a major impression on me as a person, whether it is a video game series, a band or some fictional universe, and I certainly look forward to getting into new and interesting fandoms that further accompany me through my everyday life.

[official-alan-dabiri]

First and foremost, every hero in the game is now 10% faster. This means that everything you knew is now invalid. Rotations are faster, skillshots are harder to land, area denial is harder. Basically, from this one small change, no one knows how to play anymore.

Anub has returned to his former position as a highly contested tank in all situations. As our intent for him is to be an anti-mage tank instead of a universally-desired pick, minor nerfs are being applied to try and push him back into that niche. Also, our previous attempts to outright murder his viability have failed, so we’re just gonna keep on chipping away...

In the wake of our other changes, ETC has become the highest winrate tank in the game, primarily because we’ve recently buffed a lot of DPS where the only counter is “just CC chain them to death lol.” A slight nerf is due.

It turns out Mal’Ganis is still in the game? I literally forgot he existed until I saw him on the notes here, even after the immense buffs he received in a recent patch. A lot of his abilities carry a lot of different things for him - engage, disengage, and CC - so even the slightest buff to one of them might be enough. It would probably help if the buff was to the correct ability, though. Buffing his Q instead of his E is basically a joke.

MY BUFFS FOR AIUR! We’ve... Well, actually, we’ve done basically nothing for Artanis here. We buffed his underpicked talents on level 4, but they compete with Shield Surge, so they won’t be picked, and we buffed his underpicked talents on level 13, but they compete with Triple Strike and Phase Bulwark, so honestly we shouldn’t have bothered.

The brand new Brewmaster hero, Chen Stormstout, who was just added last patch and definitely wasn’t a real hero before then, has been performing slightly below expectations. Because we need to encourage people to buy new heroes, which he is one of, we’re making some slight buffs to how his new double-ability W works, and then giving considerable buffs to underpicked talents. New hero. Chen Stormstout. Brand new.

Speaking of newer heroes (What? His was only two hero releases ago! What do you mean it’s been like six months?) Imperius has finally found his place in the meta, and slipped into a rut that means adjustments to him are the best opportunity for talent diversity. Some talents are being made baseline, some are being removed, some are being moved from level 16 to level 4, some are being folded into others, and some are being entirely reworked. T A L E N T   D I V E R S I T Y !

Speaking of Imperius, he’s entirely replaced Sonya. Like, we’re gonna pretend she just “fell out of the meta” for unrelated reasons at the exact instant he was added, but we know. Unfortunately, everyone on the HotS team who knew how to play her and could figure out what she needs are working on Starcraft Ghost 2 now, so we’re just going to buff her base health and hope that people start picking her again.

After obliterating Yrel by giving her a debilitating thirst for mana, we began to worry that she might turn to fel sources of strength and start an offshoot race of draenei who are brooding green-eyed scene kids. To prevent this, we’re giving her considerable buffs to a lot of her talents - even talents that people were already picking! That’s how you know we’re serious.

In an attempt to reduce the impact of what has become the “banana effect” which effectively removes one ban from any team who can’t play her, we’re making two-pronged adjustments to Ana. In the first prong, we’re nerfing her level 4 W talent in an effort to reduce the impact of her full W build. In the second prong, we’re buffing other talents in order to trick players into not going W build.

Minor talent diversity adjustments have been made to Medivh, Rehgar, Maiev, Falstad, Mephisto, Orphea, and Illidan in the form of buffs to talents with pickrates around 20% or below.

There are exactly two (2) good stealth heroes. One of them is Valeera, and the other is Zeratul. Unfortunately, the gulf between their respective viabilities is large enough for Azmodan to fit his hitbox through without touching either one of them. As such, Valeera is getting massive buffs to a lot of her talents, making her an excellent hero in the situations where she was already an acceptable pick. Meanwhile, Zeratul is getting a nerf to wormhole that absolutely kills the talent - and therefore the hero - against any team comp with CC.

Greymane - or Fuzzy Raynor, if you prefer - is getting a significant buff. A flat 5% autoattack damage increase is going to be monstrous when combined with his existing kit and builds. The talent diversity changes that accompany this are going to be drowned out by the sheer damage he’s going to be able to put out.

A friend of mine read these patch notes before I did. He told me they buffed Valla, so she might be good. I asked if they buffed her HP by literally any amount. He said yes. This means that she is OP first pick first ban material now. I don’t need to know anything else.

[ijustfeelokay]

Entry August 4 2021

I don’t even know where to start with this one. I’m listening to a song that puts me back into a time two years ago during the winter exam season when my parents went on vacation and my lab PI was expecting the absolute most out of me. And yet I still had a multitude of other club responsibilities in addition to classes. At the time I knew I had to practically give up any sense and reason of social or rec activities and just work. I remember it was such a dark time because I had no weay of getting out except to keep working just to barely get by. I’m actually going through my “gratitude” notebook that I barely even used. I made a couple of pages but it really did help. The goal with it was to write something that I was grateful for at least once or twice a week. I had read in various places on the internet that one of the biggest correlations in prediction happiness was simply one’s gratitude, so I gave it a shot. I feel like it helped at the time but only because it forced me to step away from all the work and to give time to myself and to think about anything I wanted to. Thankfully it was only positive thoughts as well.

Five days ago I asked HK out through the most convoluted plan possible. I was at a barbecue with friends from highschool the week prior on June 24, which lasted the entire day and night. I was really happy to see MC doing well, since he had a very rough patch at the beginning of uni. And then I lost touch with him for most of uni after second year. I don’t remember how the topic came up but the boys found out that I couldn’t exactly talk to any new girls since I was already talking to someone, and they just had to know the details. I really tried to reveal as little as possible, but one of my closest high school best friends that I kept in touch with throughout all of uni, SH, punched me on the shoulder and told me that I needed to ask her out. I was trying to explain that I was GONNA DO IT EVENTUALLY ANYWAY but I was getting extremely pressured to do it literally the next time I see K. …So I sort of did, except the Monday afterwards was only a short visit in Brampton. I looked at which day had the best weather, which was conveniently the Friday, which I also had nothing to do the whole day except workout in the morning with T at his condo. After the barbecue on Saturday, I woke up on Sunday already trying to figure out plans. I was talking to K and I originally planned to ask her out at High Park, since I guess it would be cool if High Park is where we first met (in person) then it would be cute if that’s also where I asked her out. The day prior to the highschool friends barbecue, I was visiting friends of my VSA on June 23, and we were playing a card game “The And”. It consists of prompts on each card that are designed to help the players get to know each other better. Considering that VSA members are always required to be able to discuss heavy topics due to our focus on inclusion, mental health, and generational obstacles faced as second generation Vietnamese Canadians, it was really fun for all of us. I enjoyed it. Answering these questions also came so naturally to me. I still remember MY perspective of playing whatever that whiteboard game is called with K while I was on edibles and I feel like half the game was just me looking like a doofus and neither of us were saying anything. K would obviously describe her perspective of that night differently haha. But since The And was so fun I figured it would be such a great way for me to actually help K get to know me better since I realized these questions came to me really naturally to answer.

…So that was Friday night, when I decided to borrow the card game.

And then it was on Saturday, that I was pressured into and deciding to ask K out.

Then it was on Sunday when my doltish plan simply clicked into place. Since I know that I can cram up, my plan was to ask her out by surprise while playing The And. I realized that the game had (only a few) wild cards, where you could ask any question you want. I thought this was amazing. My picture was us sitting on a hill at highpark with K’s trusty picnic blanket from Indigo, and we’d be playing the game after Chako. And then when she least expects it, when the game is almost over and I have the last wild card, instead of asking something not-deep like the previous wild cards (that would have/should have been played) I would just be like “do you wanna go out as my girlfriend” and that would be that. HOWEVER. The plan quickly evolved into something even better, and the night turned out even more amazing that I could have even thought.

I was on Instagram and I scrolled past an ad for Terra Lumina which I direly wanted to go to three years ago, but since I didn’t have anyone to go with or didn’t know who I’d ask to go on something like that with me I never ended up seeing it. I mentioned it to K and she said that she’s interested in seeing it too. That made me really happy inside. I asked if she would want to go on Friday as well, in addition to our other plans and we agreed to it. To make the travel easier for us we moved our plans from High Park to Scarborough Bluffs, which is also amazing because we’ve been meaning to go the Bluffs for a while now as well. I kept going through the itinerary because I wanted to make sure everything would go to plan, and that we’d have enough time for everything before Terra Lumina. We agreed together to arrive to the Bluffs and bike/hike around the trails in the morning, and then eat a packed lunch and snacks. I brought condensed milk and hot water in a thermos because I was surprised to hear that she’s never mixed the two and drank it before. I’ve always done it as a kid so I thought it was normal. I asked some friends later about it and they said they’ve seen or heard about it too. She thought it was good, but not that good I guess because we were drinking it with cottage cheese, salsa, and chips. Since she was used to soy milk it was a bit underwhelming in terms of taste and it was mostly just sweet-tasting. Which, really that’s all it is haha and that’s why I like it. Anyway, the plan after the hiking and biking was for us to take a nap and in my head the nap would have been somewhere under a tree or in the car but we ended up trying to have my nap at the beach. It ended up not going so great because the sun was directly above us, and we didn’t have much to cover us from the sun. The umbrella wasn’t able to block the sun and sand for some reason kept blowing onto us. I guess it was a windy day. Either way, let’s just say the nap was a bit of a failure and I ended up just laying there while I got sand everywhere.

After the attempted nap we went back to the car to get our swimming gear and headed back to the beach, with pool noodles! She brought four of them because they were supplies for her mirror frame. Since I couldn’t float, she placed noodles under my leg, back, and neck, and floated me around in the water. It was pretty fun, although the water getting in my ears and occasionally my mouth would momentarily break up my zen moments. We dropped off the noodles with our beach stuff and walked around in the water. The water started feeling cold to us so we couldn’t really swim around as much. I must say though, the water at scarborough bluffs is really clean for a beach. I also gave her a piggyback for a little bit to zero-gravity K. When we went back to our stuff we noticed all our pool noodles flew away, and we could only find three of the four. We walked around to see if it was nearby but we eventually gave up looking for it. We brought all our stuff back to the car and I guess once we left the water another wave of sleepiness was hitting me and I was ready to nap on the ground, so we ended up going to the park area at one of the peninsulas. K brought her surface and my USB stick and watched some episodes of Demon Slayer while I napped. The most vivid memory of my napping is some weird honking noise, since it kept playing while I was dreaming as well. Though, I don’t even remember what I was dreaming about. They were short naps. I basically slept during the episodes that K watched. I think she only watched two episodes.

When I woke up after the second nap I realized we were a bit late from our plan to get to Chako by 5, since I think it was already 5:30, so we’d get to Chako by about 6. When we arrived, I was a little concerned and shocked to find out that there would be an hour wait until we could get a table inside. There would have been little time for us to play after Chako’s so K suggested we play while we wait. We also walked into the Home Depot Gardening section and I found out K likes “different looking plants”. Still not sure what her criteria are that would make her like a plant or not though lol. We played The And, and when I first opened the box I was frantically going through the cards to make sure we wouldn’t go through the wild cards because I reallyyy wasn’t trying to waste them in the parking lot. After about twenty minutes of playing we received a call from Chako’s, finding out that there was a table available. They asked if sitting outside was okay and immediately I know that was A SCAM and I suggested K to ask if there were inside seats, and they said that there would be one available if we waited an extra five minutes. Eventually when we were seated inside. I started to get desparate though because if I couldn’t ask her out before Chako’s, when am I going to do it? Right after we finish eating we’re going to have to head to Terra Lumina. I was thinking maybe we play in the car after we eat. I even suggested we bring the cards with us into Chako’s in case we’d somehow get the opportunity to play while we eat. ..And that definitely didn’t happen because cooking and eating took up all our time. I was very full. Also the bill was so expensive. Chako’s used to be much more affordable I’m pretty sure… we basically paid premium Gyubee prices so that was a bit regretful. I’m glad I was able to have Kelen experience the AYCE Korean Barbacue experience though, even though I wouldn’t recommend it again for those prices haha. I practically grew up in highschool with my close friends going to Chako’s so it was such a nice feeling to share this experience with K. I was really excited for that.

After we ate, we headed back to the car and headed straight to the Toronto Zoo. It was dark by then, and we were met with winding roads at night. There were parts of the drive where the bridge was only wide enough for one lane of cars, and there were stop lights on both sides. When we arrived, we accidentally took the wrong right turn at zoo Rd. which we later realized was the exit of Zoo Rd. When we eventually found the correct ramp to get onto Zoo Rd., which was also a right turn…. K suggested we bring The And with us, in case we found time to play. I quite literally have no clue how I was going to ask K out if she didn’t bring those cards with us. Throughout the exhibit, we would bring the cards to the light and ask each other questions as we enjoyed the exhibits. I noticed her hands were a little cold. She brought a hoodie but was still in shorts. I hope she wasn’t feeling cold.

The entire exhibit, I was a) trying to figure out how many wild cards could be in the deck and how much time we had, and b) rehearsing the same damn question over and over again. K took a small deck of cards earlier and when she finished them I asked if I could take the box so I could take a pile, since I knew where the discard cards were. That was a lie because we ended up playing a bunch of cards we already played earlier in the parking lot haha. But I got ahold of the box so I could strategically place four wild cards into a large stack of cards that we could go through, and leave the rest in the box, in her purse. The plan again was to prime K into recognizing the wild cards and getting used to me asking questions on the wild cards. But every time a wild card came up, I would watch her immediately skip it without even a second thought. And worst part is that it was always her turn with the wild cards!!!! At the back of my mind I was severely starting to feel the sweat and massive desperation. Meanwhile, there were parts of Terra Lumina that I felt were just absolutely beautiful. Many of the light exhibits were incorporated into the actual Zoo exhibits. The way they incorporated lights into the trees and paths was also just stunning, with the music as well. I felt walking doing many of the paths was a little romantic with K as well. Not that romantic though because I was mostly freaking out of my mind that my plan is literally about to fail. I figured the exhibit was almost over so I had to make some sort of move soon.

On the next wild card she pulled, it was actually my turn. AND YET SHE HAD THE AUDACITY TO NEARLY SKIP IT AGAIN. I went straight for the card, grabbed it, and said that I’ll think of a question. I just held on to it though. The moment I had my hands on the card, I realized in that moment that the time that I was waiting all week for, had finally come. The moment that I was frantically trying to get to during all of Terra Lumina. I couldn’t say it. Do I say it while we’re walking? Are people going to hear us? Is this the right time? I really couldn’t. We ended up finishing the exhibit and we went to the washroom. At that point I was again feeling frantic, but for a completely different reason. I was still cramming up. I have this habit of pacing when I need to think, and we quite literally walked back and forth at least twice in the lobby of the Toronto zoo, until I decided that walking was the complete opposite of what I needed to do. So I suggested we sit down at a bench.

We sat a bench far from the main entrance and traffic of people exiting the zoo. Kelen went on top of my lap, and I held her close as I tried as hard as I could to just clear my head. At this point, she knew exactly what was coming. I asked her if she knew how I felt when we first matched on Tinder. I mentioned that I thought it was so odd how all of this started, after a 6AM morning conversation. I saved the sappy talk though and kept it to a minimum, and then eventually I just took a deep breath

I forget the exact words I used.

I asked her out, and she said yes. She gave a small forehead kiss, and I would have turned towards her but we both still had our masks on so I felt that would’ve been a little unproductive. I was holding her tight as we sat there a little longer until we saw a skunk run by and realized that sitting there was the exact opposite we needed to do, so we left and went back to the car. We drove home afterwards. All the tension was gone as well, after.

That god damn wild card.

[suzanneshannon]

Review: UniFi from Ubiquiti Networking is the ultimate prosumer home networking solution

I LOVE my Amplifi Wi-Fi Mesh Network. I've had it for two years and it's been an absolute star performer. We haven't had a single issue. Rock solid. That's really saying something. From unboxing to installation to running it (working from home for a tech company, so you know I'm pushing this system) it's been totally stable. I recommend Amplifi unreservedly to any consumer or low-key pro-sumer who has been frustrated with their existing centrally located router giving them reliable wi-fi everywhere in their home.

That said...I recently upgraded my home internet service provider. For the last 10 years I've had fiber optic to the house with 35 Mbp/s up/down and it's been great. Then I called them a a few years back and got 100/100. The whole house was presciently wired by me for Gigabit back in 2007 (!) with a nice wiring closet and everything. Lately 100/100 hasn't been really cutting it when I'm updating a dozen laptops for a work event, copying a VM to the cloud while my spouse is watching 4k netflix and two boys are updating App Store apps. You get the idea. Modern bandwidth requirements and life has changed since 2007. We've got over 40 devices on the network now and many are doing real work.

I called an changed providers to a cable provider that offered true gigabit. However, I was rarely getting over 300-400 Mbp/s on my Amplifi. There is a "hardware NAT" option that really helps, but short of running the Amplifi in Bridged Mode and losing a lot of its epic features, it was clear that I was outgrowing this prosumer device.

Give I'm a professional working at home doing stuff that is more than the average Joe or Jane, what's a professional option?

UniFi from Ubiquiti

Amplifi is the consumer/prosumer line from Ubiquiti Networks and UniFi (UBNT) is the professional line.  You'll literally find these installed at business or even sports stadiums. This is serious gear.

Let me be honest. I knew UniFi existed. Knew (I thought) all about it and I resisted. My friends and fellow nerds insisted it was easy but I kept seeing massive complex network diagrams and convinced myself it wasn't worth the hassle.

My friends, I was wrong. It's not hard. If you are doing business at home, have a gigabit network pipe, a wired home network, and/or have a dozen or more network devices, you're a serious internet person and you might want to consider serious internet networking gear.

Now, UniFi is more expensive than Amplifi as it's pro gear. While an Amplifi Mesh WiFi system is just about $300-350 USD, UniFi Pro gear will cost more and you'll need stuff to start out and it won't always feel intuitive as you plan your system. It is worth it and I'm thrilled with the result. The flexibility and customizability its offered has been epic. There are literally no internet issues in our house or property anymore. I've even been able to add wired and wireless non-cloud-based security cameras throughout the property. Additionally, remember how the house is already wired in nearly every room with Cat6 (or Cat5e) cabling? UniFi has reintroduced me to the glorious world of PoE+ (Power over Ethernet) and removed a half dozen AC wall plugs from my system.

Plan your Network

You can test out the web-based software yourself LIVE at https://demo.ui.com and see what managing a large network would be like. Check out their map of the FedEx Forum Stadium and how they get full coverage. You can see a simulated map of my house (not really my house) in the screenshot above. When you set up a controller you can place physical devices (ones you have) and test out virtual devices (ones you are thinking of buying) and see what they would look like on a real map of your home (supplied by you). You can even draw 3D walls and describe their material (brick, glass, steel) and their dB signal loss.

When you are moving to UniFi you'll need:

USG - UniFi Security Gateway - This has 3 gigabit points and has a WAN port for your external network (plug your router into this) and a LAN port for your internal network (plug your internal switch into this).

This is the part that doles out DHCP.

UniFi Cloud Key or Cloud Key Gen2 Plus

It's not intuitive what the USG does vs the Cloud Key but you need both. I got the Gen2 because it includes a 1TB hard drive that allows me to store my security video locally. It also is itself a PoE client so I don't need to plug it into the wall. I just wired it with a single Ethernet cable to the PoE switch below and left it in the wiring closet. There's a smaller cheaper Cloud Key if you don't need a hard drive.

You don't technically need a Cloud Key I believe, as all the UniFi Controller Software is free and you can run it in on any machine you have laying around. Folks have run them on any Linux or Windows machine they have, or even on a Synology or other NAS. I like the idea of having it "just work" so I got the Cloud Key.

UniFi Switch (of some kind and number of ports)

8 port 150 watt UniFi Switch

24 port UniFi Switch - 24 ports may be overkill for most but it's only 8 lbs and will handle even the largest home network. And it's under $200 USD right now on Amazon

24 port UniFi Switch with PoE - I got this one because it has 250W of PoE power. If you aren't interested in power over ethernet you can save money with the non-PoE version or a 16 port version but I REALLY REALLY recommend you use PoE because the APs work better with it.

Now once you've got the administrative infrastructure above, you just need to add whatever UniFi APs - access points - and/or optional cameras that you want!

NOTE/TIP - A brilliant product from Ubiquiti that I think is flying under the radar is the Unifi G3 Flex PoE camera. It's just $75 and it's tiny but it's absolutely brilliant. Full 1080p video and night vision. I'll talk about the magic of PoE later on but you can just plug this in anywhere in the house - no AC adapter - and you've got a crystal clear security camera or cameras anywhere in the house. They are all powered from the PoE switch!

I had a basic networking closet I put the USG Gateway into the closet with a patch cable to the cable modem (the DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem that I bought because I got tired of renting it from the service provider) then added the Switch with PoE, and plugged the Cloud Key into it. Admin done.

Here's the lovely part.

Since I have cable throughout the house, I can just plug in the UniFi Access Points in various room and they get power immediately. I can try different configs and test the signal strength. I found the perfect config after about 4 days of moving things around and testing on the interactive map. The first try was fine but I strove for perfect.

There's lots of UniFi Access Points to choose from. The dual radio Pro version can get pretty expensive if you have a lot so I got the Lite PoE AP. You can also get a 5 pack of the nanoHD UniFi Access Points.

These Access Points are often mounted in the ceiling in pro installations, and in a few spots I really wanted something more subtle AND I could use a few extra Ethernet ports. Since I already had an Ethernet port in the wall, I could just wall mount the UniFi Wall Mounted AP. It's both a wireless AP that radiates outward into the room AND it turns your one port into two, or you can get one that becomes a switch with more ports and extends your PoE abilities. So I can add this to a room, plug a few devices in AND a PoE powered Camera with no wall-warts or AC adapters!

NOTE: I did need to add a new ethernet RJ45 connector to plug into the female connector of the UniFi in-wall AP. Just be sure to plan and take inventory. You may already have full cables with connectors pulled to your rooms. Be aware.

There are a TON of great Wireless AP options from UniFi so make sure you explore them all and understand what you want.

Here's the resulting setup and choices I made, as viewed in the UniFi Controller Software:

I have the Gateway, the Switch with PoE, and five APs. Three are the disc APs and two are in-wall APs. They absolutely cover and manage my entire two story house and yards front and back. It's made it super easy for me to work from home and be able to work effectively from any room. My kids and family haven't had any issues with any tablets or phones.

As of the time of these writing I have 27 wireless devices on the system and 11 wired (at least those are the ones that are doing stuff at this hour).

Note how it will tell you how each device's WiFi experience is. I use this Experience information to help me manage the network and see if the APs are appropriately placed. There is a TON of great statistics and charts and graphics. It's info-rich to say the LEAST.

NOTE: To answer a common question - In an installation like this you've got a single SSID even though there's lots of APs and your devices will quietly and automatically roam between them!

The iPhone app is very full-featured as well and when you've got deep packet introspection turn on you can see a ton of statistical information at the price of a smidge of throughput performance.

I have had NO problem hitting 800-950Mbs over wired and I feel like there's no real limit to the perf of this system. I've done game streaming over Steam and Xbox game streaming for hours without a hiccup. Netflix doesn't buffer anymore, even on the back porch.

You can auto-optimize, or you can turn off a plethora of feature and manage everything manually. I was able to twitch a few APs to run their 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi radios on less crowded channels in order to get out of the way of the loud neighbors on channel 11.

I have a ton of control over the network now, unlimited expandability and it has been a fantastically stable network. All the APs are wire backed and the wireless bandwidth is rock solid. I've been extremely impressed with the clean roaming from room to room while streaming from Netflix. It's a tweakers (ahem) dream network.

* I use Amazon referral links and donate the little money to my kids' school. You support charter schools when you use these links.

Sponsor: Get the latest JetBrains Rider with WinForms designer, Edit & Continue, and an IL (Intermediate Language) viewer. Preliminary C# 8.0 support, rename refactoring for F#-defined symbols across your entire solution, and Custom Themes are all included.

© 2019 Scott Hanselman. All rights reserved.

      Review: UniFi from Ubiquiti Networking is the ultimate prosumer home networking solution published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

[philipholt]

Review: UniFi from Ubiquiti Networking is the ultimate prosumer home networking solution

I LOVE my Amplifi Wi-Fi Mesh Network. I've had it for two years and it's been an absolute star performer. We haven't had a single issue. Rock solid. That's really saying something. From unboxing to installation to running it (working from home for a tech company, so you know I'm pushing this system) it's been totally stable. I recommend Amplifi unreservedly to any consumer or low-key pro-sumer who has been frustrated with their existing centrally located router giving them reliable wi-fi everywhere in their home.

That said...I recently upgraded my home internet service provider. For the last 10 years I've had fiber optic to the house with 35 Mbp/s up/down and it's been great. Then I called them a a few years back and got 100/100. The whole house was presciently wired by me for Gigabit back in 2007 (!) with a nice wiring closet and everything. Lately 100/100 hasn't been really cutting it when I'm updating a dozen laptops for a work event, copying a VM to the cloud while my spouse is watching 4k netflix and two boys are updating App Store apps. You get the idea. Modern bandwidth requirements and life has changed since 2007. We've got over 40 devices on the network now and many are doing real work.

I called an changed providers to a cable provider that offered true gigabit. However, I was rarely getting over 300-400 Mbp/s on my Amplifi. There is a "hardware NAT" option that really helps, but short of running the Amplifi in Bridged Mode and losing a lot of its epic features, it was clear that I was outgrowing this prosumer device.

Give I'm a professional working at home doing stuff that is more than the average Joe or Jane, what's a professional option?

UniFi from Ubiquiti

Amplifi is the consumer/prosumer line from Ubiquiti Networks and UniFi (UBNT) is the professional line.  You'll literally find these installed at business or even sports stadiums. This is serious gear.

Let me be honest. I knew UniFi existed. Knew (I thought) all about it and I resisted. My friends and fellow nerds insisted it was easy but I kept seeing massive complex network diagrams and convinced myself it wasn't worth the hassle.

My friends, I was wrong. It's not hard. If you are doing business at home, have a gigabit network pipe, a wired home network, and/or have a dozen or more network devices, you're a serious internet person and you might want to consider serious internet networking gear.

Now, UniFi is more expensive than Amplifi as it's pro gear. While an Amplifi Mesh WiFi system is just about $300-350 USD, UniFi Pro gear will cost more and you'll need stuff to start out and it won't always feel intuitive as you plan your system. It is worth it and I'm thrilled with the result. The flexibility and customizability its offered has been epic. There are literally no internet issues in our house or property anymore. I've even been able to add wired and wireless non-cloud-based security cameras throughout the property. Additionally, remember how the house is already wired in nearly every room with Cat6 (or Cat5e) cabling? UniFi has reintroduced me to the glorious world of PoE+ (Power over Ethernet) and removed a half dozen AC wall plugs from my system.

Plan your Network

You can test out the web-based software yourself LIVE at https://demo.ui.com and see what managing a large network would be like. Check out their map of the FedEx Forum Stadium and how they get full coverage. You can see a simulated map of my house (not really my house) in the screenshot above. When you set up a controller you can place physical devices (ones you have) and test out virtual devices (ones you are thinking of buying) and see what they would look like on a real map of your home (supplied by you). You can even draw 3D walls and describe their material (brick, glass, steel) and their dB signal loss.

When you are moving to UniFi you'll need:

USG - UniFi Security Gateway - This has 3 gigabit points and has a WAN port for your external network (plug your router into this) and a LAN port for your internal network (plug your internal switch into this).

This is the part that doles out DHCP.

UniFi Cloud Key or Cloud Key Gen2 Plus

It's not intuitive what the USG does vs the Cloud Key but you need both. I got the Gen2 because it includes a 1TB hard drive that allows me to store my security video locally. It also is itself a PoE client so I don't need to plug it into the wall. I just wired it with a single Ethernet cable to the PoE switch below and left it in the wiring closet. There's a smaller cheaper Cloud Key if you don't need a hard drive.

You don't technically need a Cloud Key I believe, as all the UniFi Controller Software is free and you can run it in on any machine you have laying around. Folks have run them on any Linux or Windows machine they have, or even on a Synology or other NAS. I like the idea of having it "just work" so I got the Cloud Key.

UniFi Switch (of some kind and number of ports)

8 port 150 watt UniFi Switch

24 port UniFi Switch - 24 ports may be overkill for most but it's only 8 lbs and will handle even the largest home network. And it's under $200 USD right now on Amazon

24 port UniFi Switch with PoE - I got this one because it has 250W of PoE power. If you aren't interested in power over ethernet you can save money with the non-PoE version or a 16 port version but I REALLY REALLY recommend you use PoE because the APs work better with it.

Now once you've got the administrative infrastructure above, you just need to add whatever UniFi APs - access points - and/or optional cameras that you want!

NOTE/TIP - A brilliant product from Ubiquiti that I think is flying under the radar is the Unifi G3 Flex PoE camera. It's just $75 and it's tiny but it's absolutely brilliant. Full 1080p video and night vision. I'll talk about the magic of PoE later on but you can just plug this in anywhere in the house - no AC adapter - and you've got a crystal clear security camera or cameras anywhere in the house. They are all powered from the PoE switch!

I had a basic networking closet I put the USG Gateway into the closet with a patch cable to the cable modem (the DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem that I bought because I got tired of renting it from the service provider) then added the Switch with PoE, and plugged the Cloud Key into it. Admin done.

Here's the lovely part.

Since I have cable throughout the house, I can just plug in the UniFi Access Points in various room and they get power immediately. I can try different configs and test the signal strength. I found the perfect config after about 4 days of moving things around and testing on the interactive map. The first try was fine but I strove for perfect.

There's lots of UniFi Access Points to choose from. The dual radio Pro version can get pretty expensive if you have a lot so I got the Lite PoE AP. You can also get a 5 pack of the nanoHD UniFi Access Points.

These Access Points are often mounted in the ceiling in pro installations, and in a few spots I really wanted something more subtle AND I could use a few extra Ethernet ports. Since I already had an Ethernet port in the wall, I could just wall mount the UniFi Wall Mounted AP. It's both a wireless AP that radiates outward into the room AND it turns your one port into two, or you can get one that becomes a switch with more ports and extends your PoE abilities. So I can add this to a room, plug a few devices in AND a PoE powered Camera with no wall-warts or AC adapters!

NOTE: I did need to add a new ethernet RJ45 connector to plug into the female connector of the UniFi in-wall AP. Just be sure to plan and take inventory. You may already have full cables with connectors pulled to your rooms. Be aware.

There are a TON of great Wireless AP options from UniFi so make sure you explore them all and understand what you want.

Here's the resulting setup and choices I made, as viewed in the UniFi Controller Software:

I have the Gateway, the Switch with PoE, and five APs. Three are the disc APs and two are in-wall APs. They absolutely cover and manage my entire two story house and yards front and back. It's made it super easy for me to work from home and be able to work effectively from any room. My kids and family haven't had any issues with any tablets or phones.

As of the time of these writing I have 27 wireless devices on the system and 11 wired (at least those are the ones that are doing stuff at this hour).

Note how it will tell you how each device's WiFi experience is. I use this Experience information to help me manage the network and see if the APs are appropriately placed. There is a TON of great statistics and charts and graphics. It's info-rich to say the LEAST.

NOTE: To answer a common question - In an installation like this you've got a single SSID even though there's lots of APs and your devices will quietly and automatically roam between them!

The iPhone app is very full-featured as well and when you've got deep packet introspection turn on you can see a ton of statistical information at the price of a smidge of throughput performance.

I have had NO problem hitting 800-950Mbs over wired and I feel like there's no real limit to the perf of this system. I've done game streaming over Steam and Xbox game streaming for hours without a hiccup. Netflix doesn't buffer anymore, even on the back porch.

You can auto-optimize, or you can turn off a plethora of feature and manage everything manually. I was able to twitch a few APs to run their 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi radios on less crowded channels in order to get out of the way of the loud neighbors on channel 11.

I have a ton of control over the network now, unlimited expandability and it has been a fantastically stable network. All the APs are wire backed and the wireless bandwidth is rock solid. I've been extremely impressed with the clean roaming from room to room while streaming from Netflix. It's a tweakers (ahem) dream network.

* I use Amazon referral links and donate the little money to my kids' school. You support charter schools when you use these links.

Sponsor: Get the latest JetBrains Rider with WinForms designer, Edit & Continue, and an IL (Intermediate Language) viewer. Preliminary C# 8.0 support, rename refactoring for F#-defined symbols across your entire solution, and Custom Themes are all included.

© 2019 Scott Hanselman. All rights reserved.

      Review: UniFi from Ubiquiti Networking is the ultimate prosumer home networking solution published first on http://7elementswd.tumblr.com/

[recentnews18-blog]

New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/the-quiet-man-review-silence-is-stupid/

The Quiet Man Review – Silence is Stupid

During Square Enix’s bizarre 2018 E3 conference we mostly saw nothing of value. However, there was one game that caught my eye. This was The Quiet Man, and I’m not sure it captured my attention for the right reasons. Since seeing more of it, I realize I was excited not as a game but as a possible train wreck. Now it’s in my hands, and simply, it’s hard to be quiet about how hilariously awful the game truly is.

You play as Dane, a name I only know because I read the game’s Steam description. The best I can figure is that Dane works for a crime boss and is in love with some lounge singer. Then, some guy in a bird’s mask shows up and kidnaps the lounge singer. After that, I totally lost the plot. At no point does The Quiet Man even try to make sense. Sometimes there are hints of supernatural stuff. I think three different characters betray you. I’m not sure any of it ever matters.

It’s the Hush Hush Lad!

The reason I can’t figure the game’s plot out at all? Dane is deaf. The Quiet Man attempts to emulate this by playing no sound at all at any point in the game. This is a novel idea that can totally work if the developers build the game around it. However, The Quiet Man is not that game. It’s overwhelmingly obvious that this was a regular game that quickly shoehorned this in. Cutscenes will go five or more minutes yet include absolutely nothing but two characters talking. There are no subtitles, there are no translations, there is no way to tell what they’re saying. As such, the plot gets totally lost.

However, The Quiet Man seems particularly strange about this. The excuse given is that you “experience the world as Dane does.” Yet, Dane can understand sign language, so why isn’t any of that subtitled? It’s later shown that Dane can read lips, but the game still isn’t telling you what anyone is saying? Why are scenes that don’t even have Dane in them silent too?

The truth is, The Quiet Man has no interest in showing you how a deaf person experiences the world. Instead, deafness quickly becomes an insulting gimmick. It’s all part of an attempt to try to make a subpar beat ’em up stand out from the crowd. This especially feels true when you finish the game and it flat out tells you that you didn’t actually get the story before showing a countdown timer that shows how long before they release the patch that puts all the noises back in.

The Quiet Man uses his Quiet Hand to deliver a beat down

It should be noted that many of the game’s cutscenes are actually FMVs. It’s clear this is a very low budget production, as the game only uses FMVs for the most simple of moments. Long car conversations play out in FMV and the game awkwardly transitions to CGI the minute any action takes place. It’s hilariously obvious when these moments happen, as the CGI is awful. Sometimes the transitions are sudden, hidden behind a flash of white light. Other times the camera slowly pans to something innocent, like a wall, transitioning as it does so. I got the feeling the goal was to amaze players at these transitions. Instead, they just caused me to burst into laughter.

When its time to actually play The Quiet Man, you’ll be punching people in the face. The game has a very basic brawling system where you combine light and heavy attacks into something that vaguely resembles a combo. I say vaguely because all of the attacks feel sluggish and I was never sure which button did what. There’s a dodge button, and I could dodge attacks to counter-attack in theory. In practice, this only worked about once every five or so times I tried it. There’s no tutorial or interface of any kind. If there’s some secret to how to get consistently working counter attacks, it never revealed itself.

It’s the Quiet… Girl?

There are a few attempts to mix things up with a focus system. At certain times you can focus on an enemy to deliver a special super powerful attack. However, it’s never made clear when these times actually are. The only way I ever got focus to work was by smashing the button until it eventually let me use one. The attacks themselves are only really noteworthy for how underwhelming they are. Nearly every time I performed a focus attack, I got the same one. A really goofy open-palmed slap to the top of an enemy’s head. It’s the kind of thing that makes you just want to say “boop” when it happens, and not once did it look actually threatening.

Not like any of this matters once you learn how easy it is to exploit the combat system. Every single enemy in the game falls victim to the same problem. You can pin them against a wall and lock them into an endless combo by mashing the light attack. This includes bosses and even the final boss. It turns an already boring beat ’em up into a trivially easy one that makes you a tired man. It’s not like there’s even simple enemy variety to change things up. Every enemy is exactly the same, even if they’re holding a weapon. I can’t think of a single fight where I had to do anything other than mash light attacks against a guy pinned against a wall.

I hate everyone in this room

The lack of sound is also present in combat, contributing to a constant feeling of apathy. A dull muffled “thud” is the only feedback you get from your attacks. As you can imagine, this fails to actually sell your hits. There’s no soundtrack at all, which seems weird because it’s not like adding a soundtrack would do anything other than make the game feel a little better.

Everything about The Quiet Man is just plain ugly. Animations are stiff and fail to convey any weight. One awkward scene saw the main character dodging a boss’ punch, but it’s tough to buy when the boss’ fist clips right through the main character’s face. Speaking of Dane, his design looks like someone decided to mash together Spider-Man 3‘s emo Peter Parker with a 16-year-old version of Resident Evil‘s Leon S. Kennedy. The result is a character that I can safely say made me laugh at every scene he was in.

This is a totally normal thing that can happen on the streets of NYC

Look, even as a “so bad it’s good” game, The Quiet Man doesn’t work. It’s a boring, baffling, and genuinely insulting video game that fails at every single thing it tries. The story makes no sense as the protagonist’s deafness becomes a mere gimmick. The beat ’em up elements are absolutely no fun, the controls are awkward, and the game is ugly. The only positive I can pull from this is that I always wanted to see how much worse it could get. The Quiet Man deserves to remain silent.

TechRaptor reviewed The Quiet Man on PlayStation 4 with a copy purchased by the reviewer. The game is also available on PC and Xbox One.

More About This Game

1.0

  Awful

Summary

The Quiet Man is an absolute disaster of ideas that don’t work, bad design decisions, boring combat, ugly graphics, and attempting to use a real disability as a gimmick in a way that feels borderline insulting.

Pros

There May Be Great Voice Acting?

Cons

Dumb, Nonsensical Story

Poorly Used Deafness

Terrible FMV to CGI Transitions

Boring Gameplay

Ugly Graphics

Have a tip for us? Awesome! Shoot us an email at [email protected] and we’ll take a look!

Samuel Guglielmo

Associate Review Editor

I’m Sam. Been playing video games since PlayStation. Favorite games include Ace Combat 5, Perfect Dark, Final Fantasy IX, Metro 2033, and MonsterBag. Also loves books and can be found face first in one all the time.

report this adSource: https://techraptor.net/content/quiet-man-review

[starcitizenprivateer]

via RSI Comm-Link

Other Ship Items

A Guide to the New Ship Matrix

Greetings Citizens!

In this article, we’ll be discussing our final stops on the list of dedicated ship items displayed in the New Ship Matrix: Utility and Systems items. While it might be easy to dismiss these as being less impressive than the more flashy weapons, turrets and missiles, they are no less important to the overall operation of your spacecraft, and found far more commonly across all ships and vehicles in-game. We’ve talked previously about the various sizes of ship items like Power Plants, Coolers and Shield Generators, and while much of that still holds true, there are some key updates we want everyone to be aware of beginning with this article.

We’ll begin with Utility Hardpoints. Like those previously mentioned hardpoints they have some common elements:

Utility hardpoints can only take utility items. No swapping them out for weapons or missiles.

Utility items have a numerical size system that allows them to be swapped and mixed between ships.

Like other hardpoints, some items usable here are bespoke to the ship and would therefore be non-swappable.

For some ships with utility hardpoints, you can swap out the utility items to change their functionality.

While you can swap utility items out it may not always be as effective as simply using a dedicated ship designed for that cause. You could swap the Terrapin’s Radar Dish out for a Mining Laser or Tractor beam to allow basic mining or salvage, but you have no discrete way of processing it. In a situation like this, you’d likely need a second ship nearby to process things effectively.

Allowing a certain level of interchangeability for groups of players to cobble together unique gameplay out of unexpected elements is something we look forward to, the idea that you’ll show us what’s truly possible in Star Citizen.

An interesting example here might be a small fleet of ships including an Orion, where the Orion is great for mining but is slow and ponderous to re-align, considering that it’s tractor beam turrets that help guide rocks into its mining mechanism can still only do so much. In this situation, players with smaller ships equipping tractor beams would be able to help ferry more material either directly into the Orion or within reach of the Orion’s beams to create a more efficient operation.

The remaining ship and vehicle items displayed on the ship matrix consist of the following items:

Power Plants Coolers Shield Generators Fuel Intakes Radars Quantum Drives Jump Drives Computers (Formerly Avionics Motherboards or Modules) Fuel Tanks

Aside from Fuel Tanks, all of these items are swappable and to ensure balance, fall under one of 5 size categories:

Vehicle Small Medium Large Capital

Each itemport is restricted to a single type and size, meaning you cannot put a Power Plant on a hardpoint that a Cooler occupies, nor can you swap two Small Shield Generators out for a Medium Shield Generator. The jump in output between each item type varies but it can roughly be considered to be a 3:1 ratio, as in 3 Small items give roughly the same output as one Medium.

Item Grades

Every swappable item in the game is assigned a grade for ease of comparison, this should be your first port of call when deciding what items to buy and swap out as it gives you a simple scale to compare against. Additional details about the individual nature of an item with be visible in the purchase screen of any vendor, but for a place to start, we provide a simple letter grade.

Different grades have different values to the items:

A = The best possible performance, usually has an additinal Sub Item slot.

B = A good upgrade to performance, may have an additional Sub item slot.

C = The standard item for most ships be default, average performance.

D = Lower grade, generally makes up the NPC/AI populace, good for emergency use to get through troubles.

Most ships come standard with default C grade components. SOme of the more exotic or specialized ships may come with Grade B equipment in default loadouts, which can often be seen reflected in their price. Of course, the reverse can also hold true where cheaper ships may come with D grade components by default. They’ll still work fine and get you where you wanna go, but you’ll want to consider upgrading them after a while.

Item Classifications

In a future 3.x patch we plan to assign every ship and every item a component class. This means players will only be able to put an item of that class into a ship that can utilize it.

Military – The best overall at that item’s functionality, at the expense of emissions and cost.

Civilian – The most common, wide range of behaviours to suit cost, options to approximate all other categories but not as specific.

Stealth – Vastly reduced signatures/consumption at the expense of functionality.

Industrial – Reliably high output and low wear, high emissions.

Competition – Higher performing than military but at the expense of durability and stealth, performance over everything.

At present, no ship is restricted to a single class of item, with each having at least two classes and virtually all of them featuring Civilian as an option. While this system is still in development, the idea at it’s core is to prevent players from making certain ships too powerful within respective areas. We still want there to be an enormous amount of customization available, but this system we’re still developing would do things like limit the chances of finding a Military Spec 85X or a Stealth Herald simply due to people buying the best items of that type.

Sub Items

Sub-Items live inside components and provide a boost to the base effectiveness in a variety of ways. Currently, they are consumable parts that will wear out much quicker than their host items themselves. Without sub-items the base item still functions as normal, but will find a small boost in performance when sub-items are installed. It’s recommended that players carry spares for longer trips as the need to swap these out over extended duration trips is likely. Not carrying spares (or not having the ability to carry spares) isn’t an impediment to base functionality, but should be seen as a continued maintenance loop necessary to provide an improved-upon and highly proficient system.

Each Sub Item fits in one of three categories, each boosting a different set of stats for that item:

Efficiency improves the overall effectiveness of the main item by reducing power or improving cooling performance.

Protection reduces the damage being dealt to the main item by absorbing different damage types or reducing wear rate and misfire chances.

Detection inhibits emissions in various spectrum from the main item or provides resistance to scanning.

Sub Items can fit in many different items and are not restricted to a specific type of item, such as a Power Plant Sub Item.

Frequently Asked Questions

or: Questions We Figured You Might Have

Q: Are Computer Blades Sub Items?

A: No, they are their own stand alone item that adds or expands functionality rather than improving a baseline stat. While currently they can only be added to Computer items that may not be the only place for them in the future.

Q: I’m worried about the restrictions of classes on ships and items, will it mean my ship gets nerfed?

A: We’re still in the design phase of this system and therefore still working on all the edge cases we have internally. For 3.0 the default loadouts for the ships actually are the correct grades/classes that they are planned to be so the performance of those ships should change and there will be many upgrade paths even with the class restriction. We’ll provide more information on the class restriction system when we have more concrete information to share.

Q: Are there other items that I can swap out on my ship?

A: Absolutely, the list here is just the items that are on the ship matrix and we have many more in planning or in-game such as Scanners, Batteries and Armor.

Further Reading

Ship Mass

Careers and Roles

Thrusters

Ship Technical Information

Ordnance Hardpoints

Weapon Hardpoints

Other Hardpoints

Turrets

coming soon: Variants & Modules

coming soon: scu and Cargo

   $(function() {      Page.init();  window.Page = new RSI.Game.About();      });    

[inexcon]

RSI Comm-Link: The Shipyard: Other Ship Items

Other Ship Items

A Guide to the New Ship Matrix

Greetings Citizens!

In this article, we’ll be discussing our final stops on the list of dedicated ship items displayed in the New Ship Matrix: Utility and Systems items. While it might be easy to dismiss these as being less impressive than the more flashy weapons, turrets and missiles, they are no less important to the overall operation of your spacecraft, and found far more commonly across all ships and vehicles in-game. We’ve talked previously about the various sizes of ship items like Power Plants, Coolers and Shield Generators, and while much of that still holds true, there are some key updates we want everyone to be aware of beginning with this article.

We’ll begin with Utility Hardpoints. Like those previously mentioned hardpoints they have some common elements:

Utility hardpoints can only take utility items. No swapping them out for weapons or missiles.

Utility items have a numerical size system that allows them to be swapped and mixed between ships.

Like other hardpoints, some items usable here are bespoke to the ship and would therefore be non-swappable.

For some ships with utility hardpoints, you can swap out the utility items to change their functionality.

While you can swap utility items out it may not always be as effective as simply using a dedicated ship designed for that cause. You could swap the Terrapin’s Radar Dish out for a Mining Laser or Tractor beam to allow basic mining or salvage, but you have no discrete way of processing it. In a situation like this, you’d likely need a second ship nearby to process things effectively.

Allowing a certain level of interchangeability for groups of players to cobble together unique gameplay out of unexpected elements is something we look forward to, the idea that you’ll show us what’s truly possible in Star Citizen.

An interesting example here might be a small fleet of ships including an Orion, where the Orion is great for mining but is slow and ponderous to re-align, considering that it’s tractor beam turrets that help guide rocks into its mining mechanism can still only do so much. In this situation, players with smaller ships equipping tractor beams would be able to help ferry more material either directly into the Orion or within reach of the Orion’s beams to create a more efficient operation.

The remaining ship and vehicle items displayed on the ship matrix consist of the following items:

Power Plants Coolers Shield Generators Fuel Intakes Radars Quantum Drives Jump Drives Computers (Formerly Avionics Motherboards or Modules) Fuel Tanks

Aside from Fuel Tanks, all of these items are swappable and to ensure balance, fall under one of 5 size categories:

Vehicle Small Medium Large Capital

Each itemport is restricted to a single type and size, meaning you cannot put a Power Plant on a hardpoint that a Cooler occupies, nor can you swap two Small Shield Generators out for a Medium Shield Generator. The jump in output between each item type varies but it can roughly be considered to be a 3:1 ratio, as in 3 Small items give roughly the same output as one Medium.

Item Grades

Every swappable item in the game is assigned a grade for ease of comparison, this should be your first port of call when deciding what items to buy and swap out as it gives you a simple scale to compare against. Additional details about the individual nature of an item with be visible in the purchase screen of any vendor, but for a place to start, we provide a simple letter grade.

Different grades have different values to the items:

A = The best possible performance, usually has an additinal Sub Item slot.

B = A good upgrade to performance, may have an additional Sub item slot.

C = The standard item for most ships be default, average performance.

D = Lower grade, generally makes up the NPC/AI populace, good for emergency use to get through troubles.

Most ships come standard with default C grade components. SOme of the more exotic or specialized ships may come with Grade B equipment in default loadouts, which can often be seen reflected in their price. Of course, the reverse can also hold true where cheaper ships may come with D grade components by default. They’ll still work fine and get you where you wanna go, but you’ll want to consider upgrading them after a while.

Item Classifications

In a future 3.x patch we plan to assign every ship and every item a component class. This means players will only be able to put an item of that class into a ship that can utilize it.

Military – The best overall at that item’s functionality, at the expense of emissions and cost.

Civilian – The most common, wide range of behaviours to suit cost, options to approximate all other categories but not as specific.

Stealth – Vastly reduced signatures/consumption at the expense of functionality.

Industrial – Reliably high output and low wear, high emissions.

Competition – Higher performing than military but at the expense of durability and stealth, performance over everything.

At present, no ship is restricted to a single class of item, with each having at least two classes and virtually all of them featuring Civilian as an option. While this system is still in development, the idea at it’s core is to prevent players from making certain ships too powerful within respective areas. We still want there to be an enormous amount of customization available, but this system we’re still developing would do things like limit the chances of finding a Military Spec 85X or a Stealth Herald simply due to people buying the best items of that type.

Sub Items

Sub-Items live inside components and provide a boost to the base effectiveness in a variety of ways. Currently, they are consumable parts that will wear out much quicker than their host items themselves. Without sub-items the base item still functions as normal, but will find a small boost in performance when sub-items are installed. It’s recommended that players carry spares for longer trips as the need to swap these out over extended duration trips is likely. Not carrying spares (or not having the ability to carry spares) isn’t an impediment to base functionality, but should be seen as a continued maintenance loop necessary to provide an improved-upon and highly proficient system.

Each Sub Item fits in one of three categories, each boosting a different set of stats for that item:

Efficiency improves the overall effectiveness of the main item by reducing power or improving cooling performance.

Protection reduces the damage being dealt to the main item by absorbing different damage types or reducing wear rate and misfire chances.

Detection inhibits emissions in various spectrum from the main item or provides resistance to scanning.

Sub Items can fit in many different items and are not restricted to a specific type of item, such as a Power Plant Sub Item.

Frequently Asked Questions

or: Questions We Figured You Might Have

Q: Are Computer Blades Sub Items?

A: No, they are their own stand alone item that adds or expands functionality rather than improving a baseline stat. While currently they can only be added to Computer items that may not be the only place for them in the future.

Q: I’m worried about the restrictions of classes on ships and items, will it mean my ship gets nerfed?

A: We’re still in the design phase of this system and therefore still working on all the edge cases we have internally. For 3.0 the default loadouts for the ships actually are the correct grades/classes that they are planned to be so the performance of those ships should change and there will be many upgrade paths even with the class restriction. We’ll provide more information on the class restriction system when we have more concrete information to share.

Q: Are there other items that I can swap out on my ship?

A: Absolutely, the list here is just the items that are on the ship matrix and we have many more in planning or in-game such as Scanners, Batteries and Armor.

Further Reading

Ship Mass

Careers and Roles

Thrusters

Ship Technical Information

Ordnance Hardpoints

Weapon Hardpoints

Other Hardpoints

Turrets

coming soon: Variants & Modules

coming soon: scu and Cargo

   $(function() {      Page.init();  window.Page = new RSI.Game.About();      });     http://bit.ly/2yG74v9

[sad-ch1ld]

via RSI Comm-Link

Other Ship Items

A Guide to the New Ship Matrix

Greetings Citizens!

In this article, we’ll be discussing our final stops on the list of dedicated ship items displayed in the New Ship Matrix: Utility and Systems items. While it might be easy to dismiss these as being less impressive than the more flashy weapons, turrets and missiles, they are no less important to the overall operation of your spacecraft, and found far more commonly across all ships and vehicles in-game. We’ve talked previously about the various sizes of ship items like Power Plants, Coolers and Shield Generators, and while much of that still holds true, there are some key updates we want everyone to be aware of beginning with this article.

We’ll begin with Utility Hardpoints. Like those previously mentioned hardpoints they have some common elements:

Utility hardpoints can only take utility items. No swapping them out for weapons or missiles.

Utility items have a numerical size system that allows them to be swapped and mixed between ships.

Like other hardpoints, some items usable here are bespoke to the ship and would therefore be non-swappable.

For some ships with utility hardpoints, you can swap out the utility items to change their functionality.

While you can swap utility items out it may not always be as effective as simply using a dedicated ship designed for that cause. You could swap the Terrapin’s Radar Dish out for a Mining Laser or Tractor beam to allow basic mining or salvage, but you have no discrete way of processing it. In a situation like this, you’d likely need a second ship nearby to process things effectively.

Allowing a certain level of interchangeability for groups of players to cobble together unique gameplay out of unexpected elements is something we look forward to, the idea that you’ll show us what’s truly possible in Star Citizen.

An interesting example here might be a small fleet of ships including an Orion, where the Orion is great for mining but is slow and ponderous to re-align, considering that it’s tractor beam turrets that help guide rocks into its mining mechanism can still only do so much. In this situation, players with smaller ships equipping tractor beams would be able to help ferry more material either directly into the Orion or within reach of the Orion’s beams to create a more efficient operation.

The remaining ship and vehicle items displayed on the ship matrix consist of the following items:

Power Plants Coolers Shield Generators Fuel Intakes Radars Quantum Drives Jump Drives Computers (Formerly Avionics Motherboards or Modules) Fuel Tanks

Aside from Fuel Tanks, all of these items are swappable and to ensure balance, fall under one of 5 size categories:

Vehicle Small Medium Large Capital

Each itemport is restricted to a single type and size, meaning you cannot put a Power Plant on a hardpoint that a Cooler occupies, nor can you swap two Small Shield Generators out for a Medium Shield Generator. The jump in output between each item type varies but it can roughly be considered to be a 3:1 ratio, as in 3 Small items give roughly the same output as one Medium.

Item Grades

Every swappable item in the game is assigned a grade for ease of comparison, this should be your first port of call when deciding what items to buy and swap out as it gives you a simple scale to compare against. Additional details about the individual nature of an item with be visible in the purchase screen of any vendor, but for a place to start, we provide a simple letter grade.

Different grades have different values to the items:

A = The best possible performance, usually has an additinal Sub Item slot.

B = A good upgrade to performance, may have an additional Sub item slot.

C = The standard item for most ships be default, average performance.

D = Lower grade, generally makes up the NPC/AI populace, good for emergency use to get through troubles.

Most ships come standard with default C grade components. SOme of the more exotic or specialized ships may come with Grade B equipment in default loadouts, which can often be seen reflected in their price. Of course, the reverse can also hold true where cheaper ships may come with D grade components by default. They’ll still work fine and get you where you wanna go, but you’ll want to consider upgrading them after a while.

Item Classifications

In a future 3.x patch we plan to assign every ship and every item a component class. This means players will only be able to put an item of that class into a ship that can utilize it.

Military – The best overall at that item’s functionality, at the expense of emissions and cost.

Civilian – The most common, wide range of behaviours to suit cost, options to approximate all other categories but not as specific.

Stealth – Vastly reduced signatures/consumption at the expense of functionality.

Industrial – Reliably high output and low wear, high emissions.

Competition – Higher performing than military but at the expense of durability and stealth, performance over everything.

At present, no ship is restricted to a single class of item, with each having at least two classes and virtually all of them featuring Civilian as an option. While this system is still in development, the idea at it’s core is to prevent players from making certain ships too powerful within respective areas. We still want there to be an enormous amount of customization available, but this system we’re still developing would do things like limit the chances of finding a Military Spec 85X or a Stealth Herald simply due to people buying the best items of that type.

Sub Items

Sub-Items live inside components and provide a boost to the base effectiveness in a variety of ways. Currently, they are consumable parts that will wear out much quicker than their host items themselves. Without sub-items the base item still functions as normal, but will find a small boost in performance when sub-items are installed. It’s recommended that players carry spares for longer trips as the need to swap these out over extended duration trips is likely. Not carrying spares (or not having the ability to carry spares) isn’t an impediment to base functionality, but should be seen as a continued maintenance loop necessary to provide an improved-upon and highly proficient system.

Each Sub Item fits in one of three categories, each boosting a different set of stats for that item:

Efficiency improves the overall effectiveness of the main item by reducing power or improving cooling performance.

Protection reduces the damage being dealt to the main item by absorbing different damage types or reducing wear rate and misfire chances.

Detection inhibits emissions in various spectrum from the main item or provides resistance to scanning.

Sub Items can fit in many different items and are not restricted to a specific type of item, such as a Power Plant Sub Item.

Frequently Asked Questions

or: Questions We Figured You Might Have

Q: Are Computer Blades Sub Items?

A: No, they are their own stand alone item that adds or expands functionality rather than improving a baseline stat. While currently they can only be added to Computer items that may not be the only place for them in the future.

Q: I’m worried about the restrictions of classes on ships and items, will it mean my ship gets nerfed?

A: We’re still in the design phase of this system and therefore still working on all the edge cases we have internally. For 3.0 the default loadouts for the ships actually are the correct grades/classes that they are planned to be so the performance of those ships should change and there will be many upgrade paths even with the class restriction. We’ll provide more information on the class restriction system when we have more concrete information to share.

Q: Are there other items that I can swap out on my ship?

A: Absolutely, the list here is just the items that are on the ship matrix and we have many more in planning or in-game such as Scanners, Batteries and Armor.

Further Reading

Ship Mass

Careers and Roles

Thrusters

Ship Technical Information

Ordnance Hardpoints

Weapon Hardpoints

Other Hardpoints

Turrets

coming soon: Variants & Modules

coming soon: scu and Cargo

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Climbing in Achensee, Tirol – Scaling the Heights of the Rofan Mountains

Climbing in Achensee, Tirol is definitely a sport to take up to get an elevated view of the land as an alternative to hiking and biking. In the region of Achensee, home to Tirol’s largest lake encased by mountain ranges, it was most certainly worth the muscle power and the effort to see this unparalleled Tyrolean beauty differently.

Considering Tirol has 600 mountains, interspersed with alpine green and graggy hills, it is not hard to find routes and rocky walls to satisfy my inner-climber, even as a beginner.

In Achensee, the dark blue lake and surrounding valley forms the border between the two major mountain ranges of Rofan and Karwendal. It was on the Rofan that I took on two new challenges: a full-route Via Ferrata and my first introduction to Rock Climbing.

Since I’ve found a sudden passion for clambering and climbing, Tirol couldn’t have been more perfect a place to step up my game.

Climbing in Achensee: TheChallenge

The  Achensee ‘5-Peaks Via Ferrata’ in the Rofan Mountains is a two-kilometre route that guides you through the craggy landscapes of the five mountains that surround Achensee lake: Haidachstellwand, Rosskopf, Spieljoch, Seekarspitze and Hochiss. Split into five sections of varying difficultly levels; everyone from beginners to climbing veterans can enjoy it. I spent the day tackling the mid-range to slightly more challenging Grade C sections.

It was a mix of heart-racing nerves (and swearing) and adrenalin-fuelled exhilaration (with fist pumps to the air). And while there were times I wondered what I had become, with no prospect of getting down, I loved every second of the euphoria that comes from being pushed to your limit.

Starting with the 1,800-metre climb in the cable car from Maurach, the adventure starts with a short one-hour hike to the Via Ferrata starting point. The completion of this route would mark my first full Via Ferrata challenge, since I had only tried a very small section of a path in St. Johann, Tirol two years ago. It was exciting to finally get to grips with a more difficult trail and push myself to climb higher.

The Via Ferrata in Achensee isn’t a walk in the park. It’s a sport that expends a constant burst of adrenalin when you know you are literally hanging on a rock face and balancing on small surface areas by your feet, fingertips and trusty carabinas and rope harness. It’s a real workout for the arm and leg muscles (and mentally) as you work out where to step, stretch and pull yourself up into a new platform of the mountains. It’s even harder when you have slightly more slippery surfaces than normal because of the light rain, like I had.

My instructor Mike was not only guiding me but also teaching me step-by-step techniques. It takes some getting used to, mixing elements of rock climbing with the training of the mind to have consistent awareness of always clipping in and switching to the next carabina line. I often had to step back down to un-clip from the last line, which was a little frightening. But that is the lesson you have to learn quickly to move towards onwards to being pro.

At more difficult points, Mike had me attached with rope should he need to give me a little tug for a boost where my short legs wouldn’t always suffice. You are, at all times, in the safe hands of the expert and I liked to joke that I was a mountain goat being led around.

Reaching the cross markers on each peak is an exhilarating feeling, where you are rewarded with panoramic views of the valleys below and the peaks opposite. It’s at this point that you absolutely must take a photo of your achievement – hugging that cross for dear life or in pride – before you start the rocky and slightly steep hike back down, which eases into flatter lands over time.

Climbing in Achensee: Rock Climbing Lessons on the Rofan

After trying indoor bouldering in the Salzburg mountain region, I’ve been eager to put the basic skills to the test outside. The Rofan and Karwendel) mountains attract climbers of all levels, from beginners like me, to the more experienced who often have secluded crags to themselves, including rock faces around the Lamsenjoch up to 400 metres in height.

My mountain guide and I first went through the basics, including how to tie the ropes and the main harness knot (which you will keep being tested on), before practicing the abseiling and balancing manoeuvres and body positioning to get back down. This is essential, especially for someone like myself who has slightly poor balance and need extra tension during the belay in order to step down more slowly. I even slipped and hit my head on one descent, proving how important it is that you also wear a helmet!

Rock climbing has fast become my new obsession, as I seek out places to practice and improve in Vienna. During this session, where each climb was set with a new goal to get just a little higher or tackle a slightly different route with feet and hand placement, I learnt how to better position my body to balance and climb more safety. Importantly it pushed my determination, especially when it comes to taking that one giant stride that gets you further and, to have trust in yourself and your body. My instructor kept telling me that climbing shoes grip more than you think, your instinct is often right and together, just go for it.

Being a mountain loving girl, I love nothing more than hiking and biking large patches of nature to reach dizzying heights of the peaks and be rewarded with views, fresh air and the isolation of landscape.

Climbing in Achensee in Tirol is simply another way of reaching panoramic heights from a completely different viewpoint and with an added adrenalin boost.

There’s no way I will ever say no to that. My climbing addiction has only just begun…

Things to Know:

Getting Around Achensee, Tirol

The Achensee Holiday Card is a 7-day all inclusive card for use on both the Maurach and Karwendel cable cars, the lake ferry steamer, the steam railway ride from Jenbach to Maurach and for entrance to nine attractions in the area. The inclusive price of 69 Euros (available from local tourism offices) also includes access to the public wifi system and local buses.

The Rofan cable car, in Maurach, is open in both summer and winter. Because of it’s location next to the lake, this area is particularly popular with sports enthusiasts.

Where to stay in Achensee, Tirol

As I was in a small group, we shared an apartment in the village of Achenkirch (30-minutes drive from main train station Jenbach). A village of little over 2,000 people, it has everything you need for a relaxing stay in a more tucked away setting. The Tiroler Madl Chalet became our cosy mountain home and it just a few minutes walk from the northern end of the Lake Achensee and the very centre where you will find all the stores and restaurants. Fully equipped with all amenities, each of the five room can sleep up to four people (a double bed and bunk beds). That’s one fun chalet with a group of friends!

This trip was a part of the #Blogville Europe campaign showcasing the Emilia Romagna region of Italy and two regions of Tirol (one being Achensee). I took a train from Emilia Romagna to Tirol, which was a beautiful adventure in itself. All opinions of my crazy climbing endeavours remain my own, because I’m just a crazy adventure kind of girl. 

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