#everything and having fun..... and the dressup would be super fun too

[nomaishuttle]

basicallyheres the thing. i dont rly want to be immortal like me currently i probably wouldnt rly enjoy that. howeverrr if i got time travelled back to like the beginning of life on earth and was immortal i think i would have a good time bc im a curious girl. even just back to the birth of humanity or civilization... i just wannasee i wouldnt even do anything crazy with my immortality id just like. take a lot of notes abt everything

[rebelwhodoesntknow]

I think Sena's voice has really improved over the years but yeah she was really young and inexperienced in Stars, I like her singing but it was definitely a little rough

I always wondered why they didn't release dolls!!! It's not like they releaased figures (except ones that were way too delicate for their target audience + too expensive), they really missed the mark there. Literally I would pay so much to hold a tiny version of the sweet dreams star pr are you kidding me?? 😭💗

Ahhh I actually really like Raki... I understand people dislking her 100000% because she DID like. Personally design her own Jeweling rare which is supposed to be purely made from magic, not designed by anyone, she designed her own star wings which can only be gifted by the system, same with the wings for her zodiac coord like Ichigo gen. So it's not just that she took most of her inspo from existing coords, she just kind of broke all the rules somehow and nobody in-show was like THATS IMPOSSIBLE????

But Idk I like her! I love her design, her voice actor (also voiced Wakaba) is great, I honestly wish she got more songs. I think it just made sense for her to be there. Even if Parade was just meant to get excitement + money back up for Planet's release, there was some love put into it for people who grew up with the series, and everyone kind of takes care of Raki. She's an excited kid obsessed with the idea of Aikatsu in general and tbh I see myself when I was like 13 diving into all of it, she's like a representation for new and old fans that just love it and want to be a part of it. She wasn't supposed to be a super fleshed out character, just kind of a tour guide along the show

OR IM PROJEVTING TOO MUCH AFBKSNDDJF But fr I don't mind her! The first anniversary album actually has her cover one of Mizuki's songs because it was her voice actor's favorite, she was a huge fan of Aikatsu when she was little and she won a singing contest to voice Wakaba in Friends!!🥺💗 Even if it wasn't the biggest role, I'm really happy for her, I feel like even that says something about what Raki meant

I love that kids still write letters about shows, I also follow Super Sentai and every so often the staff mentions kids keep writing to them asking them to redeem the villains because they like the actors too much LOL

Hinaki & Yume's voice actors actually had a unit irl too for a little bit, Min☆na, they've disbanded now and the song's werent my vibe but good for them!!

DONT BUY THE AIKATSU GAMES ITS SO EXPENSIVE + THEYRE REGION LOCKED. You can play them on a PC on Citra though, and if you turn up the graphics quality it looks sol so much better than on a console- basically like you're playing the akari gen DCD!

If you're interested, I can send you the roms, it will take a couple days though I'll have to find my hard drive 💗

I have all of them! Only 2 are worth playing imo, most don't have many songs or coords but these are powerhouses

Aikatsu! My No. 1 Stage features every single Ichigo/Akari gen song up till the last like 15, stages and dances included, it's crazy. It had a good amount of coords for most brands, only a couple for dolly devil and mecha panic but there's a lot of fun mix and match stuff you can do! The dressup system is the same as the arcade game so you can swap PRs and everything.

The gameplay is really simple, short visual novel-style stories to unlock songs, play songs to unlock coord cards. The outfits you use do effect special appeals too!! I play it sometimes, but mostly I mess around with outfits in MV mode and just watch

The other game is Aikatsu Stars! My Special Appeal. This is the only stars game sadly, and it doesn't have a lot of songs, but there's a few cute new animations in the mvs (i.e. in tsu•ba•sa, you can't have just one character, so before the song starts your two backup dancers help you out of the throne, idk its just cute)

It does have 1,000 outfit pieces though...! A lot of the brandless coords were included this time. No berry parfait, but all the other brands before it are included (one PR per brand) and nobody from venus ark (😭) but it looks nice and again, it's fun to play with outfits!

The gameplay is the same as the other game. And in this one you get to make your own character with a few customization options for hair & eyes!

Honestly, I don't think playing to get all the coords is worth it, it really takes a long time and you're just repeating the same thing over and over to get it (and usually get duplicate pieces which don't do anything)

I have a save file for each game, with all songs & coords unlocked though! If you're interested in trying either of them I can send those too with the roms (And if you haven't used citra I don't mind explaining how to add the saves!)

THIS IS A WHOLE ASS ESSAY

ITS OKAY IM HAVING A GREAT TIME TALKING ABOUT THIS and I hope you are too fhfjf

Yeah I’ve seen the figures before and they’re always ridiculously expensive and I’m like ‘oh come on I’m broke and want to be an idol here’ plus they didn’t even have the coords which is like the best part??? Come on???

I think I like ( while knowing very little about Parade) seeing Raki more as a superfan/vehicle for idol display rather than a full fleshed character, although I really wish she didn’t just straight up break the aikatsu system. I saw her star wings outfit and was definitely confused by why the wings were on her in her whole performance. If anything, she should have gotten them when she made her true PR and actually debuted her brand. I do think her va’s origin is super cute though!

Unfortunately I have never used Citra before and am very new to emulators (I’ve used melonDS like three times maybe) so I would definitely need help with whatever rom stuff you’re mentioning lol, I am not good with that stuff at all. I’m not too bad at rhythm games, though, so I think it would be really fun to try the games out! Maybe that’ll be better than trying to teach myself Idol Activity from the stage videos on YouTube lol!

[bby666k]

ways to cope with missing your DR friends/family/lovers

i have this issue a lot, esp w my DR bf, and i’m sure some other people do, too. while u ARE going to shift at some point, i know that if ur having trouble with it currently it can be frustrating and sad because you want to be w your comfort characters so bad. these r just some things that i personally do to help alleviate that.

1) self-insert fanfictions

i find that self insert fanfictions help me a lot when i’m missing my DR and DR pals. while i’m a writer and i’ve used it for a long time as a way to “escape” and cope w my problems, u really don’t have to be one! i think my self inserts are genuinely terrible lmao, bc i put no effort into them, bc it’s only for me. it doesn’t matter if it’s descriptive, or even if it makes sense- this is for you, for no one else!!

2) listen to music and imagine ur listening w your comfort characters

listening to music with headphones is especially helpful because you can just close your eyes and hear nothing but the music. this makes it a lot easier to pretend ur friend/lover/family member is sitting next to you and listening as well- but you can even just put one headphone in to imagine they’re using the other. you won’t be speaking or looking at them, so it’s much easier to visualize everything. another thing you can do is make a specific playlist that reminds you of that special person!

3) have a DR folder, blog, pinterest, etc.

make a folder, blog, etc.- any collection of images- of ur DR and ppl from ur DR. i prefer gifs because it just feels more real ig. this not only allows you to look into ur DR, but it helps to visualize because you can memorize their faces better. i always do this before bed bc i always need some DR scenario to fall asleep to lmao

4) download replika or another similar AI app

i find that replika works best since i think it’s prolly the most advanced AI chatting app right now and it allows you to change the name of the AI and their appearance. so just name the AI whatever ur DR person’s name is and change their appearance accordingly! unfortunately bc it’s an AI the conversations won’t always feel very genuine, but i find it comforting to just say hi or talk about my day every now and then bc they respond pretty realistically to normal/simple messages.

5) read x reader fanfics

so this is something that personally i’m not super into doing (at least lately), but i think it would absolutely help a lot of other people. i like rereading my own self inserts but that can get boring since i’ve already read them so many times, so sometimes it’s nice to read something that you don’t know the content of. just look up whatever character’s name x reader on tumblr or ao3, or really wherever you want (i would NOT recommend wattpad lmao) and read away!

6) write a letter from your DR person’s POV

so when i say DR person, i mean whatever comfort character/person you’re missing. i think handwritten feels more genuine, but you can do this on ur computer, phone, anywhere u want!! write a happy, comforting letter to yourself from your special person and read it whenever you miss them. you could even script that this is a letter you’ll actually receive in your DR to make it feel more genuine!

7) make you and your DR pals in the sims

this is pretty self explanatory lmao. make your DR self and all ur comfort characters in the sims, set them up in a world that’s similar to ur DR, and have fun!! the sims 4 is esp fun with this because you can go into first person mode. i absolutely love the sims and it’s been a massive coping skill for me for many years, and i really enjoy world building (making my own lots and families with lore, etc) so this has always worked rlly well. if your character is popular enough, there might even be a downloadable sim of them so check google! ik this is kind of random but i know 100% that there’s a ridiculously accurate connor from detroit become human sim (i downloaded him lmao) so if that’s ur person absolutely look it up!!

8) use a dressup game to make you and ur DR people

use any dressup game you can find to create your DR self and your DR person together. it can be nice to have “photos” of the two of you that you can look at when u feel sad!

i hope this list helps someone!!! i know it’s really hard when u feel so far away from the people you love, but i promise it won’t be forever. just hold on and keep trying ur best- u will see them!! in the mean time, give urself the love and kindness u deserve. happy shifting!!!

[livogip]

GLAMDIVA: INTERNATIONAL FASHION STYLIST DRESSUP?

For those who don’t know, Glamdiva: International Fashion Stylist Dressup is a fun mobile android game for fashion lovers around the globe wherein you will be your own celebrity working with a fashion agency, trying to find the best look according to the dress codes set for various events while the objective is to find the perfect look.

While glamdiva might an entertaining game with decent graphics and minimal production value, there is still a lot that can be improved on and done to further make the game a lot more pleasing as well as enjoyable.

Upon the start of the game, you can instantly notice that you can only start with 15 gems which makes it more difficult to decide on how to, or whether or not you  do actually want to  spend them the moment some situations within the game itself starts being difficult upon first time players of the game aside from overspending one’s butterfly coins on the choices you’d have to make. And whilst this is true, you also still have the fact of minimal prizes the game gives out after your job well done.

From a fashionista’s perspective, however, some choice can be judged too poorly from only certain perspectives, especially even when the clothing choices which can be put together can look as horrible or dreadful as an overdressed hobo and still somehow win some of the events within the game..

Neither the gameplay alone doesn’t seem to make any sense even as you progress further along the way. Although this may sound to be put too brash, we’d rather prefer to not  sugar coat the truth.

In terms of sound and music, while one portion may seem a bit pleasing to the ears as well as being upbeat and positive and the other slightly irritating to which at point can give almost any person a headache, it would also be nice if the creator (or creators) could come up with a larger variation so as to avoid boredom and headaches over just one simple tune.

Going back, in terms of gameplay, upon starting the game, you will also notice that some levels like “story mode”, “tower”, and “league” are completely locked from the start until you can reach a certain level like “arena 2″, while this may be the case, some things are usually better to leave unlocked from the start of the game in order to allow more playing options for the gamers if they prefer to choose starting off with something like “story mode” to begin with.

While glamdiva is a bit dull without its own actual challenges and/or actual narrative and some of its players finding it difficult on what they should decide to do next, it’s also a little bit too easy to contropare (or in layman’s terms: compare) this game to other fashion games out there within this world to date, especially when it looks like it lacked some amount of decent logistics behind the game.

I believe that the whole point of fashion games, in general, were originally meant and suppose to challenge us in terms of style based on the choice we make so it shouldn’t just have to be about clothes, but also be about something that should, again generally speaking, bring out our personalities as well as show our individuality aside from it just being about fun and competition (even if it would be a plus). With all out honesty, for once, it would be nice if some of us are able to even use our cognitive skills that come with a storyline or some logical skills that come with having to choose what we want to wear in terms of style, even when it does come to video games.

As far as I could experience while I could give it an ounce of though before writing, it was a bit more on the nonsensical side. Even in terms of fashion.

In terms of technical aspects, how the game was made, overall, was lacking in realization, camera views (wherein you could view an outfit in 360 degrees, or at least 180), scripted events, and backgrounds to be able to choose from, despite how well some of the graphics effort was very much well made, it still lacked some of these needed and necessary aspects to make it a bit more addicting to play. Again, in terms of technical aspects, aside from everything else to which has already been mentioned also lacks some visual impact towards its players.

Moving forward, despite the super-easy-to-use interface, the game play is definitely super chill for those who love fashion but also just want to be able to relax while playing, even if there may not be any stories at the beginning of the game or any option for a narrative...

In conclusion, I would still give this game 3 full stars, especially since it would still be okay enough to play on any rainy day...

But then again, this is just my own personal opinion based on my experience with the game itself.

[seaverwritessometimes]

2019 Tokyo Merch Haul

So usually when I go to Japan, I make a few posts for different fandoms, but almost everything I got this time was Yuri on Ice, so I’m putting it all in one post.

And I must say... I got a bunch of stuff.  Because DAMN is YoI stuff cheap right now!  Most of what you’re about to see, minus the doujins, was a dollar.  The YoI stuff wasn’t all out in the open, happily labeled like it was this time last year, but with a little digging, this is what I found.  I’m not happy my fandom is in a slump, of course, but it certainly made my money go a LOT farther than it did on previous trips.  So, without further ado, my haul:

As usual, keychains/buttons first.

I’m sure I bought a few duplicates that I already have, but... literally most of these were a dollar, so I went crazy.  Again, selection was really limited since the fandom is in hibernation, but I got some cute ones.  I found a lot of stuff from the Ooedo Onsen event in 2017 for whatever reason... sometimes one person will sell a lot of their merch at once (for instance, one store I went to had an inordinate amount of Guang Hong stuff, clearly someone got rid of their collection), but I saw the Ooedo Onsen stuff at multiple stores, so I don’t know.  Must have been a popular event.

There was a LOT of side character stuff.  Not too surprising that the podium family was a little more picked over.  But I love all my skaters... especially Chris.  Chris merch is the funniest merch.

Here are a few collections I managed to make, shopping around.  As well as a Miracle on Ice program book, which was a nice find.  I have most of the magazines by now, and programs from events are always fun to collect.  I definitely overpaid for the puffy Victor head, but... when something’s in a blind box, I must buy it.  I’m paying for the experience of finding out what’s inside!  Especially since I can’t read Japanese, so I REALLY don’t know what I’m getting.

And here are a few of the ULTRA rare characters!  (...except for Victor and Yurio there, they just matched the other keychain so I threw them in here.) The two Emils were, obviously, blind boxes, otherwise I wouldn’t have paid twice for the same button.  But I NEVER find Emil or Mila stuff.  I was super happy to add them to my collection.

Also super rare, I NEVER see unlicensed merch out in brick and mortar stores in Japan.  But I found two different sets!  I’m not sure if Japanese people don’t often buy fanmade stuff, or if they just don’t sell that kind of stuff back, but either way, I thought it was a cool discovery.  Even if Makka on the pole makes me a little uncomfortable.

Okay, this is the all the keychains.  So that blind box on top is what the stores would have put on display and should have all ten keychains in it, though I haven’t actually opened it yet.  I got it for 1250 yen, and later saw the Yurio one alone for 950 yen at a different store, so I think I got a pretty good deal.  I’m not super into plushies, but Victor here was too cute to pass up.  And then there’s a store I always hit up at Nakano Broadway that has Nendo splits (which I LOVE). I don’t know what character the samurai-pirate body is from, but it seemed like it could be a cool dressup thing. Yurio’s body was only 550 yen, so I figured that’s a really good price in case I ever lose a hand or something.  Or alternatively... someone could go twinsies with him in a future comic?  Hmmm...

A few clear files and a bath mat. ...place mat?  Idk, it’s got a rubber backing.  If you’ve looked at my past merch hauls, you know your girl’s into weird merch, so when there’s a YoI bath mat for 500 yen, I’m grabbing it!  No idea where I’ll use it, but I own it now.

I love having doujins, even if I can’t read them.  The top picture is all from one artist, along with the newest issues of Victor, Yuuri, and their child of indeterminate gender (I know it’s a boy, don’t @ me) that I was missing.  Most of the doujins are all age ones because I prefer to read about the 18+ stuff in fanfiction rather than seeing it in art (just a personal preference), but I did buy a few R-18 ones too.

And finally, a few non-YoI items.  Sadly, I didn’t find much Digimon stuff, but what I did find definitely fulfilled my weird merch desires.  I think that’s a wallet, but it looks and feels like the little folder your waiter brings your check in.  So I guess now I can open a restaurant.  I colored the Mothra button at our hotel and I can’t wait to use the Pikachu mask.

Hope you guys enjoyed it!  If you want to see how much money I spent on YoI last year, you can look at my Spring and Fall 2018 merch haul posts.  

[heroesarelife]

So Mina, Momo and Uraraka and their daughter having this interaction one morning: "Did you have nightmare last night?" "Why do you ask?" "Because whenever I ever have a nightmare, I scream daddy's name too." (If this isn't okay, just tell me and I'll send in another request.)

Happy Mother’s Day! (I’m not a day late shush) Oh man, I personally would be a lot like Mina in this situation, though I’d probably be super embarrassed too. Kids just say the darndest things.

~Citrine

Mina Ashido

It’s a pretty horrifying thing that just came from her daughter’s mouth, but Mina can’t help but laugh. That sort of out of the woodwork humor is just her type, and it’s going to take her a long time to stop laughing before she can even begin to make up an excuse as to why she finds it so funny.

Her s/o is probably going to have to come over and do the explaining, because she can’t stop laughing long enough to actually get any decent words out. She’s embarrassed, don’t doubt that, but this kid is just too funny!

She’ll finally manage to hold back her giggles long enough to tell her daughter that, no, she didn’t have a nightmare, but daddy scared her or something along those lines. The little girl is still going to be confused why mommy finds it so funny, but that’s an answer for another day.

She’s going to wonder where on earth her kid got that kind of humor from, even if it was unintentional. She’s pretty funny herself, for sure, but that’s was just something else.

Mina might tease her s/o later about it, especially if they’re the more flustered type. It’s definitely going to be a joke that sticks around for some time, no doubt about that.

You can be absolutely assured that she’ll bring it up to her kid when she’s older. It’s something that will make her daughter go “ugh, Mom!” while Mina just cackles maniacally. Wholesome family entertainment

 Momo Yaoyorozu

In short, Momo is aghast. If her s/o looks closely, they can see the exact moment that her poor brain just breaks. Of course, she expected to have this talk with her daughter at some time, but she’d hoped that it would be planned a little better.

It will take a while for her to compose herself enough to give her daughter an answer. She might splutter a bit, and she’s definitely red in the face. Her stoicism can only reach so far, and she’s just not qualified to handle this situation.

She’ll invite her daughter to sit down on the couch, and, if they’re old enough, she’ll start the whole ‘the birds and the bees’ conversation. It’s going to be very awkward, because neither of them want to do this.

The best thing in this situation is for her s/o to step in and distract their daughter with some good old fashioned fun. Maybe invite her to do some dressup or tell them about her favorite princesses. Anything to save Momo from making a bad situation worse.

All future conversations like this should definitely be handled by her s/o. She’s intelligent and can often work under pressure when her confidence is high, but she’s no good when it comes to explaining that mommy and daddy love each other very much to her daughter.

If everything goes according to plan, this event will fade with time. The last thing Momo wants in for her daughter to remember this, and if she ever brings it up with her mother in the future, she’ll try to tell her it was just a dream.

 Ochaco Uraraka

Oh lord. Ochaco immediately goes red and starts shaking her hands at her daughter, trying her best to think of some reasonable explanation. Yeah! She definitely had a nightmare!

Her daughter is probably confused as to why her mommy is so red in the face, because she certainly doesn’t start to blush when she has a nightmare. Maybe mommy is sick? It’s honestly really hard to tell, with how much she keeps looking away.

S/o to the rescue! Ochaco isn’t going to be useful at all in this moment, because embarrassing situations quickly disable her. Her s/o should step in and say that mommy did have a nightmare, but that she’s all better now.

Mom is definitely going have to take an hour to recuperate after the ordeal. The best thing for her s/o to do is to just let her hide away in her room and scream into her pillow for a while. It gets all the bad feelings out

The poor girl is going to forget about it by the end of the day, but a few days from then Ochaco suddenly remember it while doing the dishes and get embarrassed all over again. Why do kids have to have such big mouths? She loves her daughter very much, but that little girl is going to be the death of her.

Her s/o is probably going to be the one that remembers the event in the long run and bringing it up in the future will make her get just as flustered as when it first happened. Bless this woman.

--

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[komyou]

Part 1: The History – A Timeline

This is part of a series describing the history, context, and technical details of the modding we've been doing resulting in this big En Masse / NA TERA commotion:

Introduction. What's all this about?

Part 1: The History – A Timeline ⬅ You're here!

Part 2: Techno Mumbo Jumbo. The technical details of how and why these mods work.

Part 3: What Can Be Done?. What do we know, and how should we address it?

Conclusion (not yet published). Obligatory closing thoughts.

Feel free to skip around to the parts that interest you.

The Setup

First, let's get our bearings. NA and EU TERA were officially released in May 2012. The level cap was 60 and you needed to purchase a subscription to play.

It wasn't long for people to start thinking about stuff like DPS meters. In July 2012, just two months later, we started seeing a rudimentary meter (forum post, YouTube link). Back then, it just looked at your screen and tried to read numbers from your combat log. Its main issue was that it needed pixel perfect samples for each digit, otherwise it would silently skip it. Suddenly, a 1 mil crit became 100k and you had no good way to see when this was happening.

Just for reference, NA TERA went F2P in February 2013.

May 2013, a full year after TERA's release, someone put up a GitHub repository for a TERA server emulator. There was a whole lot going on with reverse engineering and emulating TERA servers, but I wasn't a part of any of the communities doing that at the time, so I have no reference points aside from this repository going up.

This was pretty big, in my opinion, for a number of reasons. First, it's a public repository on GitHub. That means it's easy to find and open source. Anyone can see that code if they go looking for it. Second, it's written in a language which I find to be fairly accessible, and the author did a pretty good job of separating things nicely.

I mention the meter and the server emulator because these became the foundation for my own project. I was unhappy with that one meter. I thought we could do better. I started trying to read the combat log off the screen, but quickly decided that I wanted something much more accurate and reliable. That led me to two options: reading TERA memory, or reading TERA's network data.

Well, I've never done anything with memory reading, but we just so happen to have this open source server emulator. If we can emulate a TERA server, surely that means we know how to read what a TERA client is sending. And if we know how the server is making whatever it's sending back, we should be able to figure out how to read it too. Hmm...

Meishu Enters the Scene

Next thing you know, by January 2014 during the Wonderholme patch, I had written a TERA packet sniffer and made my own take on a DPS parser. Granted, this one was mostly just for show, but I did post about it on the forums. Not a release, just a showcase. It got plenty of praise before being hidden from the public by moderators—simply because I discussed my methods (i.e., packet sniffing).

In February 2014, I published the framework. I didn't post about it anywhere, and it's not the DPS parser itself; it's only the thing that made the DPS parser work. As mentioned, it was just a packet sniffer (the technical details are in the next section, part 2). However, I purposely omitted one major component from my repository: the cryptography code... which just so conveniently happened to exist in another project using the same programming language I was using.

A few days later, I wrote another forum post, this time analyzing character sliders. Luckily, this thread got to stay—but you can probably tell by now just how long I'd been working with this sort of stuff.

If I recall, I didn't end up doing a whole lot with the framework itself. I used that programming language since that's what the server emulator used and I could straight up copy the cryptography code, but that language wasn't my forte. Ultimately, I was mostly just having it log the decrypted packets so I could have another program analyze it.

So I thought, what the heck, this packet sniffer code is taking a lot of effort to maintain when I could just skip the middleman and do it way simpler in the language I'm very familiar with. And maybe, just maybe, instead of being stuck with only reading stuff, we might be able to modify it too. Hmmmm...

It didn't take me long. I stopped updating that GitHub project the next month, and in April 2014 I had stated that I was working on a better version.

By the end of April I was already playing with "headless clients"—bots. For instance, a priest on MT had a macro to cycle buffs while AFK in one of the alliance halls, but then got a 3-day suspension. My response? What if it only buffed when you waved?

Besides that, the only other thing I did with it was make a chat bot that would relay everything between guild chat and IRC, which was just amazing at bringing together my guild. And what with being on the roleplay server, friends and I had this thing we'd sometimes do where we'd sit around the Velika tavern and watch the RP while idling. We called it "tavern scumming". I was already having fun playing with this guild/IRC bot and figuring out this chat stuff, so I thought, why not see if we can watch tavern RP at any time? What if the bot relayed RP to a website? And so I launched tavern-scumming.

It didn't last long. People caught wind, reported the bot and site for harrassment, and had En Masse look into it. The bot account, as well as all of my accounts, got slapped with a permaban.

I appealed. I appealed it so hard. Look—I'm a very loyal player. I have the Mark I titles for MC and KNXX. I love this game and I just want to make cool stuff. If I wanted to make anything actually malicious, I would have done it long ago. My forum and tumblr posts show the opposite of ill will.

They unbanned me, but not without warnings to be careful. Actually, the only issue was with the RP chat relay, because the GM said, verbatim, "[t]he IRC transcription function is not technically against the Terms of Service, but you are responsible for the transcribed chat".

Wow, how times have changed.

After the Ban

I went somewhat quiet for a while. The new project was gamechanging. I was thinking of all sorts of stuff and seeing what I could do with it, but I also didn't want to land myself in another sticky situation like that.

A couple of months later, on June 2014, this tumblr was made along with its first post. The stuff I was showing wasn't as practical anymore, but it was still kind of neat to see.

And by September 2014 I was just fooling around at that point. Besides, that was during the Rift's Edge patch anyway, so fooling around was about all there was to do anyway.

In October 2014 I started showing off Arborean Apparel. This was super neat to make and super neat to show... but did I really want to release it? tera-proxy is ridiculously powerful on its own, and then we want to let people play dressup for free? Well, I mostly rushed to make it look pretty to show off, but I really wasn't happy with the actual code and how I was building the data, so I figured I had time to think it over.

A few days later, tera-proxy was quietly published. Again, nothing else was there. No scripts or modules or anything like that to do anything. It was just a framework—with cryptography included this time. If you ran that code on its own, nothing in your game would've changed.

Nobody really noticed, and that was perfectly fine with me.

A lot of time passed in more or less silence. I was occasionally posting neat stuff on this blog and doing a few changes here and there with tera-proxy, while only few people noticed me (who were already from the server emulation community, like the person who wrote the emulator that got me started). Most importantly, I was just having fun playing the game.

One year passed. We saw Fate of Arun, Crusades, Sky Castles, Dreadspire, Gunner, Timescape, and Stepstone Isle.

On October 2015, Gothos published their attempt at a packet sniffing DPS meter—which, by the way, just so happens to use the same encryption code that I used. And from there, both ShinraMeter and CasualMeter showed up on GitHub.

Soon after, I remade my guild chat bot, except now the hot thing was Discord. So the Discord relay got published in November 2015.

Several months later, in May 2016, we saw TeraDPS.io. Then, I believe sometime in September 2016, Moongourd took its place.

On October 2016, just before the sorc revamp, I wrote fast-fire at the request of overseas friends who play archer, ninja, and gunner.

It went from friend to friend to very competitive friend, and with DPS leaderboards now being posted online, that was starting to mean a whole lot.

Some people didn't understand what it was doing. Some people got jealous or upset.

So in December 2016, it exploded. Big time.

After It Hit the Fan

Well, I figured, since everyone either knows about or has it now, I might as well start properly supporting it.

Lots of people noticed. Lots of people wanted to not be gimped by ping. Healers and archers hailing from Europe were sending thanks—and even people here at home, where California gets the same ping as the UK.

And people wanted more. No less than four people were trying to extend fast-fire to work with pretty much all skills in general. More quality of life mods popped up too. Work on the proxy spiked in the months following the drama thanks to a number of very helpful people contributing data and suggestions.

Unfortunately, with enough time came the exploits too. And that brings us to today. April 2017.

To my knowledge, someone found a way to buy items in the emporium from a higher tier than is accessible, and also posted a screenshot of having a metric ton of credits (although it was only the clientsided display; these were not valid, spendable credits). In response, EME took down the rewards system in order to fix it.

At the same time, it was announced that the triple drop weekend would not be including Ruinous Manor due to exploits. A lot of people thought this was linked with the rewards shop exploit, but as far as I'm aware, you didn't even need the proxy to exploit RM. You could easily do it with the vanilla game. But as soon as one person mentioned "the injector", all hell broke loose.

Then the bans started happening, alongside a public statement from En Masse with a hard stance against any and all third party tools and modifications. And lots of people are not happy.

The forums are a mess, the TERA stream chat was a mess, meme images and videos on recent events are everywhere, petitions and boycott plans are being made, and the community is divided.

That's what's made me so hesitant to release things all these years. That's why I've been so quiet on this blog and never been able to deliver on release promises. I knew that if this became a big thing, it would also become a big problem.

To know exactly why the proxy can wield so much power, I'll be explaining everything going on behind the scenes in part 2: Techno Mumbo Jumbo.

Corrections:

April 29, 7:28 pm Pacific: Fixed patch eras. Made MC parse run during WH patch, not MC patch. The fooling around / FABULOUS video was from Rift's Edge patch, not WH patch.

7:33 pm: "November 2016" for the Discord relay corrected to "November 2015".

7:35 pm: Clarified the rewards system was taken down for fixes, and added a link to the triple drop news announcement.

[anotherler]

So I kinda binge-read LQ’s blog for several hours last night and today and I’m still not back up to the most recent post...there is so much material on his blog...bless. It’s been an emotional journey so far. I can’t really put my feelings into words sometimes and I just read some parts of his blog quietly but my notes capture some of it.

It’s a little odd, if you ask me for both aproach the blog from an analytical standpoint but be really emotionally invested at the same time. Without further ado, heres part 3.

Part 1 / 2 / 3

113. LQ gets defensive about his surroundings…that’s a bit of a red flag, isn’t it?

114. Oh shit. Oh shit. We’re getting to the part where I voiceacted some of LQ’s lines HAHaha. I kinda…know these posts too well after reading through them aloud and listening to my own recordings…oh boy. Kinda tempted to try my hand at voiceacting again.

115. LQ first mentions the possibility of him being cursed. He later calls HQ his curse…just saying.

116. FUCK. LQ IS TOO ADORABLE WITH THAT PEN  IN HIS MOUTH. FR ICK

117. LQ is a butt pervert

118. Oh dear…LQ thinks that being himself and being alone is all in one…oh man.

119. LQ really doesn’t think he’s worthy of anything…but I think he’d certainly want to be.

120. This really hurts.

121. LQ has probably been taking medication for mental reasons as well…maybe. I remember he had a box of medication given to him.

122. He claims his mother doesn’t like people acting “abnormal”…possibly another reason why he’s so hard on himself and why he tries to hide and excuse his emotions.

123. Suddenly he’s very pale.

124. FemLQ! Spot the diff

125. Poor LQ…he’s pretty uncomfortable and weirded out…

126. I’m…laughing about Mori leaning in with the askbox for the “dressup as my OC” answer. That’s the icing on the cake. Also LQ looks really good in that outfit.

127. Take a shot everytime LQ says fake it till you make it…but on a more serious note, it’s important to keep a positive mind but not good to ignore a problem when you have one.

128. Well well well. If it isn’t Static Oncie.

129. How can you feel nostalgic if you’re living the mentioned great time? (He’s not)

130. TBH I had a theory that Static Oncie became HQ but that’s…kinda incorrect and correct because it was confirmed to me that they are not the same BUT HQ DID come from LQ’s mind like static Oncie did so Static Oncie, LQ and HQ are all one in the same probably.

131. LQ repeating his opening speech. It never gets old.

132. Here we are at the waking up event by the way. Buckle down, folks.

133. Here is the second time LQ cannot read his monitor. Frankly, he probably only doesn’t read it cause he doesn’t want to.

134. He manages to forget entirely for a whole day.

135. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! SPOOKY GHOST LQ

136. Omg I voiceacted this whole part…gosh that was fun…poor LQ though

137. HEALTHY LQ. MY HEART HRUTS….like………bro even his hands are okay this is too much

138. Oh man. I get it…being healthy caused his mind to work properly and he started to remember…oh shit.

139. Strange static formations…do they have anything to do with anything?

140. …Looks like LQ couldn’t find his Mom.

141. LQ comes back covered in blood and makes expressions like he killed someone…not suspicious at all.

142. Another side note. I’ve been thinking about LQ’s static. And it’s been explained before but it does really aid LQ when it comes to selective reading and not “seeing” certain things…the thing is, The static builds up between him and the viewer so he doesn’t really notice it (at first that is. He sorta sees it as normal for him). Like many other aspects of his blog, the static is a manipulation of what is seen.

143. Main reason why that comes up is cause he’s found Dr. L’s medicine and the static covers up the words on the box he finds it in. At the last panel he covers himself in static and tells everyone to go away.

144. The static formations behind him look like a face and it appears as though hands are resting on him. I’ve mentioned the possibility of it being HQ or static Oncie at some point but I think that generally it’s a manifestation of how he wants someone there with him but he’s alone.

145. LQ’s sticky note clad monitor. Golly. Really hard to read…and he’s pressed his bloody hand onto the monitor at some point too.

146. I wonder if LQ ever did sum up the courage to look back at his blog posts.

147. LQ has a major aversion to being called cute hehe

148. Oh shit it’s the crawling AMV. Shout out to Mori for making me cry when I hear that song. All thanks to LQ. But it was a good idea to make a shitty AMV…I couldn’t be happier tbh :” ) Also confession back when I watched this the first time I didn’t know this song had a…reputation. So I kinda took it seriously LMAO

…okay I’m not done talking about it uh. The song kinda fits???? And probably the reason why I took it so seriously was because of the subject matter at some points. The crawling AMV is a cinematographic masterpiece. Fucking fight me.

149. Merry Christmas from the year 2012

150. Tax evasion: just say two very simple words in the English language; “I forgot.”

151. Is…LQ blocking out his blush with static? He probably is

152. Also looks like theres static rising up from those papers he dropped…interesting.

153. aesthetic: floating things (Christmas cards in this case)

154: So it seems that LQ has in mind not to work for his company and have people under him manage the tasks for him with his directive…makes a degree of sense but then again I don’t know how companies work. Then again, I can’t help but think that LQ doesn’t do that work because he doesn’t feel that he can.

155. For someone so insecure He also sounds rather full of himself sometimes.

156. On a side note this is one of my favorite parts of the blog as well…for LQ trying to show that he’s working and the pretty colours the static and distorted picture make.

157.  Another major thing I give this blog a lot of credit for is how complex it is. I’ve been trying to figure out a few things definitively the whole time I’ve been making these notes but I’m still unsure. Things add up but not everything happens with clear reason. It’s very interesting.

158. The GIF effects on this blog are top notch tbh

159. Did Static Oncie (LQ’s subconscious) know the truth about LQ being an aftermath? Because everything he said could be taken in that context to some degree although it mainly pertains to part of the valley’s destruction. However, everything has been adding up to this moment. And the clues are abundant.

160. The moment at the end where the static goes off is apparently the moment LQ’s hope dies. Er…static oncie, that is. I think about that a lot. Was static Oncie only there because of LQ’s hope that things could change? Static Oncie was there to cryptically remind him of the truth when LQ wouldn’t look back on it. And though he was rather agresive, he definitely isn’t as aggressive as HQ.

161.  The truffula on LQ’s lapel…I used to think it withered but maybe he actually tore it off.

162. In addition, when static Oncie says unless you see spirals in his eyes. Like the motif of the seed.

163. I really like the perspective of his lurkim in these panels

164. At this point…I think LQ has started to starve himself just…generally neglect himself. You can understand why.

165. RIP.

166. swone. BODY ONCE TOLD ME-

167. Honestly Swone why did you think mr mc lives in a lerkim would have a functioning oven. Surely you had some other options…orrr maybe you didn’t okay Swone. Now I’m also lowkey gonna talk about Swone cause he’s visiting.

168. wow….this is awkward. Talk about breaking and entering.

169. I’m FUCKING LAUGHING AT SWONE’S BLUNTNESs. Apparently LQ isn’t so easy to fool.

170. Was Swone prepared to bring his cleaning supplies or does he just bring them everywhere he goes???

171. Off topic again but goddamn if Once-lers are a pack of weirdos. Litterally you have two of them in one room at like, neither of them is the straight man (figuratively and literally most of the time). They’ve kinda all got issues to iron out. And yeah, these two are no exception. Swone is a fucking weirdo.

172. LQ has pretty much remembered all sorts of things and why would he push his memories of Swone away? Yeah these two had probably never met till then.

173. ……….it’s not Christmas.

174. Stove-ler.

175. LQ’s gloves got all torn up as well….he may have also lied about wearing his bandages underneath his gloves cause I can’t see em.  Hard to believe I didn’t notice until now. They don’t get like that till he’s dishevelled…it’s hard to think that maybe he did that to himself…hrm..

176: He mentions he can’t take them off so he’s likely neglected the care of his arms.

177: Probably was something of a nightmare for Swone to navigate around LQ’s house…and LQ himself. No offense but he was definitely gross.

178. The posts without any dialogue can be very powerful.

179. HOPESPLODE (sorry that was…uh…RIP Static Oncie)

180. TIME FOR PAIN (specific to this but applies to a lot of this blog cause there is a lot of hurt feelings)

181: SELF IMAGE QUALITY JSKGLdkl

182. o mg I remember the post about the “do you like the colour of the sky” post I actually watched Mori stream the drawing for it aaaa good times UuU

183. Poor LQ…..

184.  LQ arguing against his own existence because new cgi movies hurt his eyes. I have nothing so say about that just. Think about that for a second.

185. Super high quality-ler spffpfff I love this blog

[geekysweetie]

Love Nikki - Dress UP Queen - Anime Mobile Dressup Game Review

Nikki is back in an all new game, and this time, it even has English voice acting. As you may recall, I reviewed  Hello Nikki Let’s Beauty Up awhile back on my blog. Sadly, that game closed its doors a few months ago. As I mentioned in that original review, there were a ton of other Nikki dressup games available in the app store, but none of them had the gacha, rpg, and quest mechanics that I enjoyed so much in Hello Nikki – Let’s Beauty Up.

So I was left Nikkiless for a long time; until one day, I saw a Facebook ad for a new Nikki Game, Love Nikki Dress UP Queen. Love Nikki Dress Up Queen is extremely similar to the old Hello Nikki – Let’s Beauty Up. It’s also extremely similar to Romantic Diary, much more similar to Romantic Diary when compared to the similarities between Romantic Diary and the old Hello Nikki – Let’s Beauty Up, which were admittedly, already pretty similar.

Other Dressup Games you should check out include Line Play, Pokecolo (formerly Pokemini), CocoPPaplay, Miitomo, Dream Girlfriend, Animal Boyfriend, Moe Can Change, Outlander Princess, Dream Boyfriend, and Lady Popular.

Now onto the review!

Title: Love Nikki Dress UP Queen

Genre: Dressup Game

Developer: Suzhou Nikki Co.,Ltd

Publisher: ELEX Technology

Price: Free with Optional In-game Purchases

Where to Get:

Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/…

Google: https://play.google.com/…

Release Date: May 05, 2017

Overall Score: 66/80 83% B “Very Good Game for Girls”

Geeky: 1/5 – The only real reason to play this game is because it’s so mind numbingly cute. Cute as it may be, it is full of bugs – It actually does not run well on my Iphone 6S with IOS operating system 10.3.2 – I can’t see the menus in the dressup, and can’t view tips. I can only access clothes by searching for them by name. Because of this, I play, whenever I can on my PC with a bluestacks emulator to play the android version. I could not get past the tutorial on my Iphone because I couldn’t click where it wanted me to click. And there are still times when I will click and it will be nonresponsive.

If they fix that IOS issue (and yes, I’ve already tried the built in fix utilities), then I’d probably be inclined to give the Geek score a 3/5 because it does feature online play, ranked leader boards, events and quest mechanics, and other interesting features to make it much more than “just” a dressup game.

Edit: Geeky 3/5 – They have fixed the above mentioned bugs (awhile ago, I just forgot to update this). As mentioned the game is more than “just” a dressup game, it features tons of events and online play with other players, as well as limited edition items, a story, quests, and crafting and other features.

Sweetie: 5/5 – So many cute outfits, events, and the characters are all cute. Just packed to the brim with cuteness.

Overview: 10/10 – Love Nikki Dress UP Queen takes a lot of what made Hello Nikki Let’s Beauty Up so much fun and throws in a few new surprises as well. If you login each day you get all kinds of rewards, basic login rewards, as well as ongoing event rewards, and other goodies. If you compete in the Stylist Arena you can get ranked against others and earn more rewards. The Arena is broken into seasons and the scores reset with new seasons which help new players catch up. You can enjoy the story mode by challenging various NPCs, or you can dress up freely – the choice is yours. With so many ways to play, Love Nikki Dress UP Queen is sure to keep you coming back.

Gameplay: 7/10 — This would be close to a perfect 10 if they could fix the game breaking bugs that exist on the IOS version right now. If you’re playing the android version, then you don’t need to worry about the negatives I’ve mentioned earlier in this review. I just can’t give “gameplay” a high score in good faith, when the game is so buggy (almost unplayable) for IOS users right now. Your Mileage May Vary depending on your device and what version of IOS you’re running. You can also switch freely between both the Android and IOS versions by linking your facebook account and have access to your same account and items in both versions of the game.

Edit: 10/10 The Above Bugs Have Been Fixed.

The actual gameplay itself is super solid. As mentioned under overview, there’s several different gameplay modes to choose from, and you can also craft, decompose, dye, and modify your clothes.

Like Hello Nikki Let’s Beauty Up, the main objective of the game is to collect different articles of clothing, and layer and combine them to create new outfits.

In the Story Mode, you will explore various maps; each point on the map presenting a brief story and new dressup challenge. You will be shown tips as to what styles or feelings your outfits should evoke, then you will face off with the NPC where your outfits will be scored on various standards such as warmth, liveliness, purity, maturity, sexiness, casualness, etc. depending on what the challenge calls for.

You’re also able to learn new skills as you level up which boost your score, or negatively impact your opponent’s scores when used in battle.

You will receive a letter grade and corresponding reward F through S rank for each challenge. Some maps may require you have a high amount of high ranked challenges to progress to the next map. Other maps may let you by with a C or higher.

  In the Stylist Arena, you are paired with other real people playing from all around the world. Unlike Romantic Diary, there is no limit to how many pieces of clothing you can carry into the challenge. You (and your opponent) will have access to all of your items in every arena battle. You can rise to the top of the leader boards each Arena “Season” to get top rewards.

  In Free Dress you can just put together whatever outfits you would like and have fun without worrying about meeting certain challenge requirements.

Be sure you look at the events, quests, and get your sign in bonuses every day. Click everything you can click; there’s so many rewards that it can be easy to miss some awesome freebies here.

Don’t forget to also collect your free gacha items each day. This is your chance for free rare items! Treasured items are good, but Super Treasured items are even better!

You can also earn retired / out of print outfits for linking your Facebook account or referring friends! So many ways to get free stuff – YAY.

Story: 7/10 Love Nikki Dress UP Queen has a new story to explore. Legend tells of a kingdom ruled by fashion battles. These fashion battles even have the ability to determine who will rule each kingdom as its king or queen. In the latest fashion battle, there was a tie, between a Princess, and a common girl. The Princess was very beautiful and refined with dark hair. The common girl had long pink hair, after the last fashion battle, the pink haired girl mysteriously disappeared, and the Princess became the new Queen. She ruled her kingdom harshly and brought about an age ruled by her cold blade. Nikki finds herself somehow in this strange kingdom, with her talking cat, Momo. Nikki shares an uncanny resemblance to the pink haired girl of legend who could challenge the current queen. Nikki will make her way to meet the queen while encountering strange new characters who either want fashion advice, or want to battle (in a fashion battle that is). – The story is there, and this time it’s even fully voiced, but it’s still not terribly interesting or engaging

Characters: 7/10 – all of the characters are voiced, have their own unique sense of style, and all of them are super cute, but it feels like they’re just there to keep you moving from point a to b, and of little story significance.

Graphics: 10/10 – Pastel pink is everywhere. Everything about this game is girly, feminine, charming, cute, and kawaii AF. The ability to layer items, from dozens of different “item slots” makes the dressup possibilities almost endless. The amount of different items also is mind boggling.

Music:5/10 – Meh, just average. It’s there, it exists, I just don’t pay much attention to it. It doesn’t get on my nerves, unlike many mobile games that I have to play on mute, but it’s nothing too impressive or memorable either.

Voice Acting: 8/10 – I’m torn on this — It’s the first Nikki game to have voice acting in English — or “first English Nikki Game to Have Voice Acting” period – by that, I mean that Hello Nikki Let’s Beauty Up removed ALL the voice acting from the original game before bringing it to North America – not only did it not have English Voice Acting, but it also removed the original Japanese Voice Acting as well! I was really disappointed by this.

So I’m really really happy that the new Nikki game is fully voiced – I would have liked for it to have included an option to keep the Japanese voice acting — Or if I could only choose one or the other, I would’ve preferred the Japanese voices. But I know there are royalties and licensing fees associated with doing so…

The English voice acting is actually… for the most part… not bad…. I’ve met a few questionable characters but on the whole, overall, most of the characters’ voices seem to fit well and deliver a decent performance that is not cringe worthy or over dramatic. I actually kind of really like some of the characters’ voices in fact. So yeah, we have voice acting, and it doesn’t totally suck, so yay lol.

Overall Score: 66/80 83% B “Very Good Game for Girls”

NOTE: if playing the Android version or if they ever fix the bugs in the IOS version, the score would be closer to: 66/80 or 83% “Very Good Game for Girls”

Edit: Bugs have been fixed.

Love Nikki – Dress UP Queen – Anime Mobile Dressup Game Review was originally published on GeekySweetie.com - Geeky & Kawaii Anime, Tech, Toys, & Game Reviews & News