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antibioware · 5 years ago

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My final thoughts on Mass Effect: Andromeda (a 3 years late review)

So I spent the past week and a half playing a game I paid 13€ for, one that I promised myself I wouldn't touch but that in the end I gave a solid try to anyway, because I was willing to give Andromeda the benefit of the doubt. Because I'm aware that sometimes I'm a bitch, and that the Mass Effect trilogy had its own problems too, but I still regard it as one of the best gaming experiences of my life.

It wasn't as bad as I had expected it would be, but that doesn't make it good. Above all else, Mass Effect: Andromeda is a game that could have been interesting, had the creators actually cared to make something out of it outside of just “Dragon Age Inquisition in the Mass Effect universe”.

I wanted to write a more coherent post about what I didn’t like about it, aside from just shitting all over it like I’ve been feeling like doing since the canonical bury your gays in the game slapped me in the face. So here it is, an overlong post about a 3 years old game.

Before getting into the main elements that I disliked, I wanna preface this post by saying that I enjoyed parts of the game. The main characters, while not as well characterized as they could have been (no Bioware character ever is), grew on me the more I played the game, and by the end were the main reason why I kept playing. Unlike DA:I, the writers did a really good job building up the found family trope in this game, and while it turns corny at times, it’s very heartwarming. I think many of the planetary settings in Heleus were stunning to look at, to the point that I didn’t even mind all that much having to drive from point A to point B.

I didn’t hate the game, and I’m speaking from the point of view of someone who enjoyed it, but not enough to simply accept its many flaws.

The problems with the gameplay itself

There are three main things that I don’t think work well and are up in your face since the first seconds of the game: the game interface, the fight mechanics, and the open world aspect of the game.

◦ The first impact I had on Andromeda, right from the first 2/3 hours of playing it, was that it was very cluttered and very, very confusing. I had just finished playing ME3 and I had issues understanding how to move without having a proper map onscreen, how to read throught the thousand tutorials for the 100 new, useless elements they added to the game that are either reused from ME1 or taken directly from DA:I. The game didn’t need a crafting system, especially not one DIVIDED IN TWO DIFFERENT SECTIONS, it didn’t need an inventory system, and especially it didn't need to have the sheer amount of sidequest it had.

◦ The fight mechanics + leveling up/classes system is a hot mess. I understand they wanted to try something new, and in part they did make the fighting feel more fluid, but not being able to rely on teammates for necessary stuff like overloads/specific powers that you need during fights severely impaired the strategic element of the game. Now it’s just a third person shooter with teammates dying left and right because you have 0 control on how they fight, aside from putting them in one place or another.

The fact that you can only use 3 powers at the time is a consequence of the confusing leveling up system. Because you can have an endless amount of powers you can give your character, they needed to find a way to make them not too overpowered. The problem is…. You had more powers to use in-game in ME1. It doesn’t work so well.

When the fighting mechanics in ME3, a game that came out in 2012, feel way fluider and more enjoyable than the ones from the game that came out in 2017, something is very wrong.

◦ Open world games are a challenge, because too many developers don’t understand that turning a game into an open world doesn’t make it good, it just makes it bigger and slower. It was a problem with Dragon Age Inquisition, and it’s a problem here with Andromeda - with the only good aspect being that at least Andromeda gives you a decent car to explore the planets.

ME1 had some level of open world-ness, and there was a valid reason why ME2 and ME3 got rid of the concept: the maps you’re given are a big, cluttered mess of nothing. You have several thousands sidequests, many of which incredibly similar to each other, and nothing fucking else. Sometimes you will accidentally stumble upon something interesting, and then return to a 6 hours drive into the nothingness that keeps repeating over and over again.

It got to the point I almost stumbled upon the endgame because I got exhausted of running around doing errands, and I tried continuing the main plot, only to realize I was almost done with it. That was it.

Empty self-referencing

This is the term I used to describe my girlfriend why the way the game made call backs to the previous games bothered me so much. Call backs aren’t new to the concept of the game (the Mass Effect trilogy literally lived on characters returning from previous games, referencing things that had previously happened, etc.), but because this game wanted to be a separate thing from the ME trilogy, it couldn’t use this sort of material. And that’s completely fine! The game wanted to be its own thing, I was happy about it at first, because the trilogy was over and done for. If Mass Effect was indeed gonna continue, it needed a fresh start.

The problem is, it also needed to remind players that it’s a Mass Effect game, the game from which Commander Shepard came.

So, how to solve this matter? Well, instead of referencing stuff that actually happened in the trilogy, it solves the referencing aspect by putting a bunch of relatives of characters from the trilogy in the game. You get Conrad Verner’s sister, Nyreen Kandros’s cousin, a lost illegitimate son of Zaeed Massani, a brief cameo of Garrus Vakarian’s dad, a krogan on New Tuchanka being from clan Urdnot, and so on. And it was funny the first time or so, maybe even the second, but at some point it just turned awkward, and I started asking myself, “is this it? Is this all that’s left of the trilogy, just a bunch of big name characters to remind the player you belong from the same universe?”. The brief way they referenced back to Shepard was also very awkward and felt... out of place, with the rest of the game.

A couple call backs I really liked were:

Liara being acknowledged for her work as a Prothean researcher and being in contant with Ryder Senior, without much reference being done to her time in Shepard’s crew. It was good, seeing her from an outsider perspective.

The fact that Avitus Rix, being a turian ex-Spectre, knew Saren and was in fact his disciple.

Both these elements are things that make sense and tie the game back to the trilogy beyond just going “hey, this x character is the relative of this other x character, isn’t it crazy!”

The plot, and the problem with binary choices

It’s easy to make fun or critique the game struggling to find its own plot after something as big as the ME trilogy was. But Bioware isn’t an indie developer, it’s a huge fucking company, and they could have done better.

While I liked the design of the Remnants architecture and enemies, putting a plot point revolving around an ancient, long lost alien civilization who was much more technologically advanced, sounds a lot like a bad repeat of the Protheans.

I liked the Angara conceptually, but I didn’t like their design all that much and I often found it hysterically funny that angara are supposed to be a deeply emotional race, when the animators left them stuck with those mono expressive faces and unemotional eyes.

And on top of all of this, the kett are boring villains. The exaltation progress is really just a bad repeat of how Reaper indoctrination worked, and the way they talk reminds me of the big bad templars from the Dragon Age universe. It’s literally nothing new, and because of it, it’s boring.

When I was playing the endgame, all I kept thinking was “this is it? this is all they came up with? for real?”. I liked the twins aspect of the endgame, but aside from that, it didn’t feel satisfying.

And now comes the reason why it didn’t feel satisfying: the game got rid of the Paragon/Renegade system from the trilogy, and because of that, they also got rid of the possibility of additional problem-solving solutions during big choices.

In Andromeda, almost every major quest has a binary choice attached to it: choose this or that. Burn the facility or save all the angara but leave the facility standing. Save the krogans or Raeka. Pick Sloane or Reyes. Keep Sarissa as the Pathfinder or not. Etc.

in the trilogy, complete, important binary choices were rare (choosing Ashley or Kaidan is probably the biggest one) and the consequences had long lasting effects. Not all of them did (saving or killing the rachni in ME1 and rewriting or destroying the geth in ME2 didn’t have so many long term consequences in ME3, for example), but a great deal meant big changes in the following games.

The issues with these choices in Andromeda? None of them matter. Characters will get angry at you for going against their will in a single dialogue line, and then never mention it again. The opinion on the Nexus won’t change if you expose Spender, Addison’s connections to the Exiles, or Nexus people targeting the angara. None of your companions will betray you or leave you for going against their will during their loyalty missions.

A Mass Effect game with choices that don’t influence the final result of the game feels like a joke, and while I know in many ways the trilogy also had a problem on this matter on some parts, dead characters stayed dead and betraying a friend’s trust meant losing them in the near future

The unavoidable part where I mention the issue with LGBT rep in this game because I’m a nonbinary lesbian and I can’t detach that aspect of myself from how I consume media

Endless gays and trans folks out there have already written this sort of matter so as my last point of critique, I’ll make it quick. Bioware has a long story with homophobia and transphobia in its character writing - this without mentioning the huge problems with racism in the character writing, too. Many gay/bi women in Bioware games are written by the same homophobic straight cis man with a lesbo fetish, AKA Lukas Kristjanson, and that alone gives a really good feeling on why such issues exist.

The original Mass Effect trilogy had very little gay romance options, out of the amount of romance options: as of ME3, there are two main gay romance options for fShepard (Liara and Traynor, without counting the mini-romances that were put in the previous games for pure fetish fuel) and two for mShepard (Kaidan and Cortez, both only added in the last game).

Andromeda wasn’t... the big breath of fresh air in the representation department they tried to pass it as. There are more romance options, but for once, there add to add another m/m romance option later on because the only gay romance available were with minor NPCs, and there’s an issue with the amount of content gay romances get compared to main het romances.

There’s a single trans NPC, and it's a random person you meet who tells you her deadname and the reason she transitioned right away. Ugh.

And now we come to the bury your gays mission that made me almost uninstall the game: the mission to find the turian Pathfinder with the help of his partner, the previously mentioned Avitus Rix, who also happens to be the first gay male turian character in the game (the first gay female turian being Nyreen Kandros, who dies btw). You invest time to trace back to the turian arc, while listening to Avitus talk about how important the turian Pathfinder is to him, you realize pretty fast they’re lovers, and when you find out the turian arc, it’s all to discover that the Pathfinder is already dead. Not a choice in the game that could accidentally kill him, like with Raeka, or an active choice you make to keep him in his role, like Sarissa. He’s already dead, and you’re left with Avitus alone and mourning.

The game is from 2017. This sort of bullshit is unacceptable, and I will keep screaming it until Bioware manages to pretend like they care about their LGBT fans.

To end this mess of a post - Mass Effect: Andromeda lasted me a total of 50 hours of game, and in a way, I’m glad I got it out of my system. It was a delusion, but at least now I can cross it off my list and go back to playing other stuff. I understand that this is a game many ended up liking, and I’m sad I can’t say I’m among them, and that I couldn’t even fully enjoy the game at times. Also I promised myself I wouldn’t mention this but goddamn the facial animations of the game were so ugly.

DESPITE THIS, I really loved the characters, and I very much enjoyed Vetra’s romance, which was the main reason why I bought the game.

#long fucking post ahead beware #mass effect #mass effect andromeda #me:a

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mostlysignssomeportents · 6 years ago

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Read: Jeannette Ng's Campbell Award acceptance speech, in which she correctly identifies Campbell as a fascist and expresses solidarity with Hong Kong protesters

Last weekend, Jeanette Ng won the John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer at the 2019 Hugo Awards at the Dublin Worldcon; Ng's acceptance speech calls Campbell, one of the field's most influential editors, a "fascist" and expresses solidarity with the Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters.

I am a past recipient of the John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer (2000) as well as a recipient of the John W Campbell Memorial Award (2009). I believe I'm the only person to have won both of the Campbells, which, I think, gives me unique license to comment on Ng's remarks, which have been met with a mixed reception from the field.

I think she was right -- and seemly -- to make her remarks. There's plenty of evidence that Campbell's views were odious and deplorable. For example, Heinlein apologists like to claim (probably correctly) that his terrible, racist, authoritarian, eugenics-inflected yellow peril novel Sixth Column was effectively a commission from Campbell (Heinlein based the novel on one of Campbell's stories). This seems to have been par for the course for JWC, who liked to micro-manage his writers: Campbell also leaned hard on Tom Godwin to kill the girl in "Cold Equations" in order to turn his story into a parable about the foolishness of women and the role of men in guiding them to accept the cold, hard facts of life.

So when Ng held Campbell "responsible for setting a tone of science fiction that still haunts the genre to this day. Sterile. Male. White. Exalting in the ambitions of imperialists and colonisers, settlers and industrialists," she was factually correct.

Not just factually correct: also correct to be saying this now. Science fiction (like many other institutions) is having a reckoning with its past and its present. We're trying to figure out what to do about the long reach that the terrible ideas of flawed people (mostly men) had on our fields. We're trying to reconcile the legacies of flawed people whose good deeds and good art live alongside their cruel, damaging treatment of women. These men were not aberrations: they were following an example set from the very top and running through fandom, to the great detriment of many of the people who came to fandom for safety and sanctuary and community.

It's not a coincidence that one of the first organized manifestations of white nationalism as a cultural phenomenon was within fandom, and while fandom came together to firmly repudiate its white nationalist wing, these assholes weren't (all) entryists who showed up to stir trouble in someone else's community. The call (to hijack the Hugo award) was coming from inside the house: these guys had been around forever, and we'd let them get away with it, in the name of "tolerance" even as these guys were chasing women, queer people, and racialized people out of the field.

Those same Nazis went on to join Gamergate, then take up on /r/The_Donald, and they were part of the vanguard of the movement that put a boorish, white supremacist grifter into the White House.

The connection between the tales we tell about ourselves and our past and futures have a real, direct outcome on the future we arrive at. White supremacist folklore, including the ecofascist doctrine that says we can only avert climate change by murdering all the brown people, comes straight out of sf folklore, where it's completely standard for every disaster to be swiftly followed by an underclass mob descending on their social betters to eat and/or rape them (never mind the actual way that disasters go down).

When Ng took the mic and told the truth about his legacy, she wasn't downplaying his importance: she was acknowledging it. Campbell's odious ideas matter because he was important, a giant in the field who left an enduring mark on it. No one disagrees about that. What we want to talk about today is what that mark is, and what it means.

Scalzi points out:

There are still people in our community who knew Campbell personally, and many many others one step removed, who idolize and respect the writers Campbell took under his wing. And there are people — and once again I raise my hand — who are in the field because the way Campbell shaped it as a place where they could thrive. Many if not most of these folks know about his flaws, but even so it’s hard to see someone with no allegiance to him, either personally or professionally, point them out both forcefully and unapologetically. They see Campbell and his legacy abstractly, and also as an obstacle to be overcome. That’s deeply uncomfortable.

He's not wrong, and the people who counted Campbell as a friend are legitimately sad to confront the full meaning of his legacy. I feel for them. It's hard to reconcile the mensch who was there for you and treated his dog with kindness and doted on his kids with the guy who alienated and hurt people with his cruel dogma.

Here's the thing: neither one of those facets of Campbell cancel the other one out. Just as it's not true that any amount of good deeds done for some people can repair the harms he visited on others; it's also true that none of those harms cancel out the kindnesses he did for the people he was kind to.

Life is not a ledger. Your sins can't be paid off through good deeds. Your good deeds are not cancelled by your sins. Your sins and your good deeds live alongside one another. They coexist in superposition.

You (and I) can (and should) atone for our misdeeds. We can (and should) apologize for them to the people we've wronged. We should do those things, not because they will erase our misdeeds, but because the only thing worse than being really wrong is not learning to be better.

People are flawed vessels. The circumstances around us -- our social norms and institutions -- can be structured to bring out our worst natures or our best. We can invite Isaac Asimov to our cons to deliver a lecture on "The Power of Posterior Pinching" in which he literally advises men on how to grope the women in attendance, or we can create and enforce a Code of Conduct that would bounce anyone, up to and including the Con Chair and the Guest of Honor, who tried a stunt like that.

We, collectively, through our norms and institutions, create the circumstances that favor sociopathy or generosity. Sweeping bad conduct under the rug isn't just cruel to the people who were victimized by that conduct: it's also a disservice to the flawed vessels who are struggling with their own contradictions and base urges. Create an environment where it's normal to do things that -- in 10 or 20 years -- will result in your expulsion from your community is not a kindness to anyone.

There are shitty dudes out there today whose path to shitty dudehood got started when they watched Isaac Asimov deliver a tutorial on how to grope women without their consent and figured that the chuckling approval of all their peers meant that whatever doubts the might have had were probably misplaced. Those dudes don't get a pass because they learned from a bad example set by their community and its leaders -- but they might have been diverted from their path to shitty dudehood if they'd had better examples. They might not have scarred and hurt countless women on their way from the larval stage of shittiness to full-blown shitlord, and they themselves might have been spared their eventual fate, of being disliked and excluded from a community they joined in search of comradeship and mutual aid. The friends of those shitty dudes might not have to wrestle with their role in enabling the harm those shitty dudes wrought.

Jeannette Ng's speech was exactly the speech our field needs to hear. And the fact that she devoted the bulk of it to solidarity with the Hong Kong protesters is especially significant, because of the growing importance of Chinese audiences and fandom in sf, which exposes writers to potential career retaliation from an important translation market. There is a group of (excellent, devoted) Chinese fans who have been making noises about a Chinese Worldcon for years, and speeches like Ng's have to make you wonder: if that ever comes to pass, will she be able to get a visa to attend?

Back when the misogynist/white supremacist wing of SF started to publicly organize to purge the field of the wrong kind of fan and the wrong kind of writer, they were talking about people like Ng. I think that this is ample evidence that she is in exactly the right place, at the right time, saying the right thing.

https://boingboing.net/2019/08/20/needed-saying.html

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thebananatroll · 5 years ago

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Chapter 1 (Part 3)

1-4.1 福州名廚 ‧ 故事 1-4.1 Fúzhōu míng chú‧ gùshì 1-4.1 Famous Chef of Fu Zhou ‧ Story

在聚春苑廊下商量之際, 突然與一人迎頭撞上, 他竟是-- Zài jù chūn yuàn lángxià shāngliáng zhī jì, túrán yǔ yīrén yíngtóu zhuàng shàng, tā jìng shì-- While discussing in Ju Chun Yuan's corridor, there’s an accidental collision with someone, he actually is--

[鵠羹] 真是太好了，少主, 這回連佛跳牆也找到了。只是為何不直接邀請他們同歸空桑? Zhēnshi tài hǎole, shǎo zhǔ, zhè huí lián fútiàoqiáng yě zhǎodàole. Zhǐshì wèihé bù zhíjiē yāoqǐng tāmen tóng guī kōng sāng? This is very good, Young Miss, even Fo Tiao Qiang has been found. But why not directly invite them to go back to Kong Sang?

[Player] 對於他們而言，我不過是初次見面的陌生人，貿然邀請，是不是太唐突了…… Duìyú tāmen ér yán, wǒ bùguò shì chūcì jiànmiàn de mòshēng rén, màorán yāoqǐng, shì bùshì tài tángtúle…… To them, I'm just a stranger whom they’ve met for the first time, inviting them abruptly without careful considerations, wouldn’t it be excessively rude...

[Player] 幸好佛跳牆似乎對我仍保有一絲印象。要麼我先跟他們打好關係, 熟絡熟絡, 再尋機會和盤托出，這樣會更穩妥一些? Xìnghǎo fútiàoqiáng sìhū duì wǒ réng bǎoyǒu yīsī yìnxiàng. Yàome wǒ xiān gēn tāmen dǎ hǎo guānxì, shú luò shú luò, zài xún jīhuì hépántuōchū, zhèyàng huì gèng wěntuǒ yīxiē? It is fortunate Fo Tiao Qiang had apparently managed to retain some trace of impressions towards me. I should first build a good relationship with them, becoming close bit by bit, then search for another chance to put everything out including the tray, this method should be a little safer?

[鵠羹] 少主想得十分周到。 Shǎo zhǔ xiǎng dé shífēn zhōudào. Young Miss’ thoughts are very thorough.

[???] 刺參半斤﹐ 鴿蛋十二個, 母雞一隻, 豬肚一個﹐ 羊肘一斤…… 還差什麼來著…… Cì shēn bàn jīn﹐ gē dàn shí'èr gè, mǔ jī yī zhī, zhū dù yīgè﹐ yáng zhǒu yī jīn…… hái chà shénme láizhe…… Half a catty of sea cucumber, twelve pigeon eggs, one hen, one pork belly, one catty of lamb elbows... What else is lacking ...

[Narration] 等待之時，門廊走近一人。他低著頭，口中念念叨叨，一不小心，與我撞到了一處…… Děngdài zhī shí, ménláng zǒu jìn yīrén. Tā dīzhe tóu, kǒuzhōng niàn niàn dāodāo, yī bù xiǎoxīn, yǔ wǒ zhuàng dàole yī chù…… While waiting, someone approaches the veranda. He has his head bowed, murmuring to himself, with just a moment of carelessness, bumps right into me...

[???] 哎喲對不住! 對不住‥‥‥ Āiyō duì bù zhù! Duì bù zhù‥‥‥ Oh, pardon me! Pardon me‥‥‥

[???] 您沒事吧? 這位客官，您是打尖還是住店呀? Nín méishì ba? Zhè wèi kè guān, nín shì dǎjiān háishì zhù diàn ya? Are you alright? This honoured guest, are you looking for a snack or staying at the inn?

[Player] 我是來見福公的。 Wǒ shì lái jiàn fú gōng de. I'm here to see Fu Gong.

[鄭春發] 二位是福公的朋友? 失禮了! 我是聚春苑的主廚, 叫鄭春發。二位吃過了嗎? 我這就去給二位…… Èr wèi shì fú gōng de péngyǒu? Shīlǐle! Wǒ shì jù chūn yuàn de zhǔ chú, jiào zhèngchūnfā. Èr wèi chīguòle ma? Wǒ zhè jiù qù gěi èr wèi…… These two honoured guests are Fu Gong's friends? I’ve been discourteous! I am the chef of Ju Chun Yuan, named Zheng Chun Fa. Have the two honoured guests eaten yet? Then I’ll give the two honoured guests...

[Player] 不用不用﹐ 謝謝你﹗ Bùyòng bùyòng﹐ xièxiè nǐ﹗ No need, no need, thank you!

[Player] 胰? 等一下! 你說……你叫鄭春發﹖ 那你不就是創作佛跳牆和雞茸金絲筍這兩道佳餚的那位名廚? Yí? Děng yīxià! Nǐ shuō……nǐ jiào zhèngchūnfā﹖ nà nǐ bù jiùshì chuàngzuò fútiàoqiáng hé jī rōng jīn sī sǔn zhè liǎng dào jiāyáo dì nà wèi míng chú? Eh? Wait a minute! You said ... your name is Zheng Chun Fa? Then aren't you the famous chef who created the two delicacies Fo Tiao Qiang and Ji Rong Jin Si Sun?

[ 鄭春發] 您您您, 您這太客氣了﹗ 小人哪是什麼名廚﹗ 若是沒有褔公的提攜, 小人如今也不過是府衙裡一個打雜的衙廚... Nín nín nín, nín zhè tài kèqìle﹗ xiǎo rén nǎ shì shénme míng chú﹗ ruòshì méiyǒu fù gōng de tíxié, xiǎo rén rújīn yě bùguò shì fǔ yá lǐ yīgè dǎzá de yá chú... H-H-H, Honoured guest is too polite! What is it about this humble one that is a famous chef! If it wasn’t for the support of Fu Gong, this humble one nowadays would be no more than a kitchen helper in an official residence of a government official.

[ 鄭春發] 當年官錢局宴謂布政使周蓮大人, 著大人內眷籌備宴席。我向夫人提議以紹興酒壇裝菜煨湯, 這才有了佛跳牆的原型。 Dāngnián guān qián jú yàn wèi bù zhèng shǐ zhōu lián dàrén,zhe dàrén nèijuàn chóubèi yànxí. Wǒ xiàng fūrén tíyì yǐ shàoxīngjiǔ tán zhuāng cài wēi tāng, zhè cái yǒule fútiàoqiáng de yuánxíng. A government official of finance bureau announced a banquet back then for provincial treasurer Master Zhou Lian, the banquet’s preparations were done by that master’s women in the household. I suggested to the madam to use Shao Xing wine jars to simmer the soup, and this was the prototype of Fo Tiao Qiang.

[ 鄭春發] 福公當時正是這宴席上的賓客。宴席後他將我尋來, 說要合夥開一家名湯福州的餐館, 就用佛跳牆做招牌菜。 Fú gōng dāngshí zhèng shì zhè yànxí shàng de bīnkè. Yànxí hòu tā jiāng wǒ xún lái, shuō yào héhuǒ kāi yījiā míng tāng fúzhōu de cānguǎn, jiù yòng fútiàoqiáng zuò zhāopái cài. Fu Gong at that time was a guest of that exact banquet. He sought me out after the banquet, saying he wanted to form a partnership to open a famous Fu Zhou soup restaurant, using Fo Tiao Qiang as the signature dish.

[ 鄭春發] 我說就我這水準, 不要說名揚福州, 別砸了自家招牌就不錯了。可福公對我很是信任, 他取了一筆錢, 硬是把這聚春苑開了起來。 Wǒ shuō jiù wǒ zhè shuǐzhǔn, bùyào shuō míng yáng fúzhōu, bié zále zìjiā zhāopái jiù bùcuòle. Kě fú gōng duì wǒ hěn shì xìnrèn, tā qǔle yībǐ qián, yìngshì bǎ zhè jù chūn yuàn kāile qǐlái. I then said that at my level, no need to mention raising Fu Zhou’s fame, not smashing your shop’s signboard would already be considered not bad. It allowed Fu Gong to treat me with a lot fo trust, he took a sum of money, and he just opened up this Ju Chun Yuan.

[ 鄭春發] 他還親自指導我將烹製之法加以改進，改進後佛跳牆口味更勝從前。聚春苑開業之時, 一, 一時名動榕城! Tā hái qīnzì zhǐdǎo wǒ jiāng pēng zhì zhī fǎ jiāyǐ gǎijìn, gǎijìn hòu fútiàoqiáng kǒuwèi gèng shèng cóngqián. Jù chūn yuàn kāiyè zhī shí, yī, yīshí míng dòng róng chéng! He also personally instructed me on how to improve the cooking method, improving the taste of Fo Tiao Qiang to be far more superior to before. When Ju Chun Yuan opened for business, it, it became famous in Rong Cheng.

[Narration] 鄭春發講述的往事讓我陷入溧思…… Zhèngchūnfā jiǎngshù de wǎngshì ràng wǒ xiànrù lì sī…… Zheng Chun Fa’s reminiscence of the past makes me sink into thought...

[Narration] 本來食魂從菜肴中誕生。而如今食魂從空桑消散穿越萬象陣，竟回到了早於菜肴被創作的時間…… Běnlái shí hún cóng càiyáo zhōng dànshēng. Ér rújīn shí hún cóng kōng sāng xiāosàn chuānyuè wànxiàng zhèn, jìng huí dàole zǎo yú càiyáo bèi chuàngzuò de shíjiān…… Food Souls were originally born from dishes. So the Food Souls that have dissipated from Kong Sang and travelled through the Wan Xiang Array, have actually went back to the early time of when those dishes were created ...

[Narration] 他們甚至反過來影響了菜肴的研發與傳播, 這就相當有意思了…… Tāmen shènzhì fǎn guòlái yǐngxiǎngle càiyáo de yánfā yǔ chuánbò, zhè jiù xiāngdāng yǒuyìsile…… So much that they even reversed the influence of development and spread of the dishes, this is considerably interesting...

[Player] 原來聚春苑創辦之初還有這樣一段故事啊... Yuánlái jù chūn yuàn chuàngbàn zhī chū hái yǒu zhèyàng yīduàn gùshì a... It turns out that there was such a story at the beginning of Ju Chun Yuan ...

[ 鄭春發] 福公是我的 “伯樂”, 也是聚春苑的金主。他與福州城眾多名流商賈、達官貴人多有往來。 Fú gōng shì wǒ de “bólè”, yěshì jù chūn yuàn de jīn zhǔ. Tā yǔ fúzhōu chéng zhòngduō míngliú shānggǔ, dá guān guìrén duō yǒu wǎnglái. Fu Gong is my "Talent Scout", and also the financial backer of Ju Chun Yuan. He with Fu Zhou’s numerous gentry merchants, high official and noble persons have had many dealings.

[ 鄭春發] 有福公的名聲加持, 聚春苑自創辦以來一直客似雲來! Yǒufú gōng de míngshēng jiāchí, jù chūn yuàn zì chuàngbàn yǐlái yīzhí kè shì yún lái! Having Fu Gong’s reputation as support, there’s been a continuous stream of customer’s since Ju Chun Yuan’s first launch.

[ 鄭春發] 昨日知府大人家中僕從來聚春苑下了訂單, 七日之後要在這裡為知府大人舉辦壽宴! Zuórì zhīfǔ dàrén jiāzhōng pú cónglái jù chūn yuàn xiàle dìngdān, qī rì zhīhòu yào zài zhèlǐ wéi zhīfǔ dàrén jǔbàn shòu yàn! A servant of the Prefectural Magistrate came to Ju Chun Yuan to place down an order yesterday, wanting to hold a birthday banquet for the Prefectural Magistrate in seven days!

[ 鄭春發] 這可是樁大生意啊! 萬一搞砸了, 我可怎麼對得起福公! Zhè kěshì zhuāng dà shēngyì a! Wàn yī gǎo zále, wǒ kě zěnme duìdéqǐ fú gōng! This is indeed a big business! If by chance it becomes a mess, how will I ever face Fu Gong!

[Player] 原來聚春苑要舉辦壽宴呀? 如若你不嫌棄，我願意協助大家一起舉辦知府大人的壽宴, 可好﹖ Yuánlái jù chūn yuàn yào jǔbàn shòu yàn ya? Rúruò nǐ bù xiánqì, wǒ yuànyì xiézhù dàjiā yì qǐ jǔbàn zhīfǔ dàrén de shòu yàn, kě hǎo﹖ So it turns out Ju Chun Yuan is going to hold a birthday banquet? If you don’t dislike it, I would like to provide assistance in holding the Prefectural Magistrate’s birthday banquet together with everyone, is that okay?

[ 鄭春發] 您說的可是真的!? 太好了﹗ 謝謝您! 我也得去謝謝福公, 是他帶來了像您這樣熱心腸的友人啊! Nín shuō de kěshì zhēn de!? Tài hǎole﹗ xièxiè nín! Wǒ yě dé qù xièxiè fú gōng, shì tā dài láile xiàng nín zhèyàng rèxīncháng de yǒurén a! Is what you said true?! That’s wonderful! Thank you! I must also go thank Fu Gong, for him bringing over such warm-hearted friends like you!

[Narration] 鄭春發說罷，興沖沖地找佛跳牆去了…… Zhèngchūnfā shuō bà, xìngchōngchōng dì zhǎo fútiàoqiáng qùle…… Zheng Chun Fa finishes speaking, going off to animatedly look for Fo Tiao Qiang...

[鵠羹] 少主這副熱心腸，似是隨了夫人。 Shǎo zhǔ zhè fù rèxīncháng, sì shì suíle fūrén. Young Miss is warm-hearted, seems to be similar to the Madam.

[Player] 娘親樂於助人, 一直以來都以身作則，我又怎能辜負她的期望。 Niáng qīn lèyú zhùrén, yīzhí yǐlái dōu yǐshēnzuòzé, wǒ yòu zěn néng gūfù tā de qīwàng. Mother is the type that’s willing to help others, always setting an example, so how can I fail to live up to her expectations.

[Player] 況且我也是有私心的啦。有了 "幫忙舉辦壽宴” 這個理由，我就可名正言順地在聚春苑裡逗留﹗如此一來﹐ 我就有更多時間跟他們二人相處了。 Kuàngqiě wǒ yěshì yǒu sīxīn de la. Yǒule"bāngmáng jǔbàn shòu yàn” zhège lǐyóu, wǒ jiù kě míngzhèngyánshùn de zài jù chūn yuàn lǐ dòuliú﹗rúcǐ yī lái﹐ wǒ jiù yǒu gèng duō shíjiān gēn tāmen èr rén xiāngchǔle. Besides, I am also selfish. With the justification of "helping to hold a birthday banquet", I can stay in the Ju Chun Yuan justly! As a result, I will have more time to get along with them.

[鵠羹] 少主心思聰慧。 Shǎo zhǔ xīnsī cōnghuì. Young MIss has an intelligent mind.

1-4.2 福州名廚 ‧ 鏖戰 1-4.2 Fúzhōu míng chú‧ áozhàn 1-4.2 Fu Zhou Famous Chef ‧ Fierce Battle

((After the battle, there is another tutorial at the main screen))

任務 Rènwù Mission

[Chibi Hu Geng] 少主完成了第一個任務, 可以領取獎勵了! Shǎo zhǔ wánchéngle dì yī gè rènwù, kěyǐ lǐngqǔ jiǎnglìle! Young Miss has completed the first mission, the rewards can be recieved!

煲仔饭屬粵菜, 廣州街頭著名的美食是一位性情隨和的鄰家哥哥人生樂事是吃飯睡覺和泡澡無論在哪兒都能睡著 Bāo zǐ fàn shǔ yuècài, guǎngzhōu jiētóu zhuó míng dì měishí shì yī wèi xìngqíng suí he de lín jiā gēgē rénshēng lèshì shì chīfàn shuìjiào hé pào zǎo wúlùn zài nǎ'er dōu néng shuìzhe Claypot rice Cantonese cuisine, a famous gourmet food of Guang Zhou’s street Is a neighborhood big brother with an easy-going nature Life’s pleasure is eating, sleeping, and taking a warm bath Able fall asleep anywhere

[ 煲仔饭] 我系煲仔飯﹐ 我來自廣東。 Wǒ xì bāo zǐ fàn﹐ wǒ láizì guǎngdōng. I would be Bao Zi Fan, I come from Guang Dong.

[Chibi Hu Geng] 點擊 “﹢” 號為食魂升級吧 Diǎnjī “﹢” hào wèi shí hún shēngjí ba Press the "+" symbol to upgrade the level of Food Souls.

[Chibi Hu Geng] 升級食魂需要消耗兔兔包。 Shēngjí shí hún xūyào xiāohào tù tù bāo. Upgrading Food Soul levels consume rabbit buns.

[Chibi Hu Geng] 點擊升級按鈕進行升級。 Diǎnjī shēngjí ànniǔ jìnxíng shēngjí. Press the upgrade button to upgrade.

((going back to the map))

1-5.1 三坊七巷 . 故事隨佛跳牆遊歷福州城, 意外暴露自己曾遊歷此地, 我只好-- 1-5.1 Sān fāng qī xiàng. Gùshì suí fútiàoqiáng yóulì fúzhōu chéng, yìwài bàolù zìjǐ céng yóulì cǐdì, wǒ zhǐhǎo-- 1-5.1 Three Lanes and Seven Alleys. Story Following Fo Tiao Qiang to tour Fu Zhao City, I accidentally exposed that I had toured here before, I had better to--

[佛跳牆] 美人怎知我正想要帶你來逛一逛這三坊七巷﹖ Měirén zěn zhī wǒ zhèng xiǎng yào dài nǐ lái guàng yī guàng zhè sān fāng qī xiàng﹖ How does fair lady know that I was about bring you on a troll in Three Lanes and Seven Alleys?

[Player] 正所謂 "上元燈市中元塔, 車馬如潮湧後街"! 我聽說福州城的百姓會在春節來臨前到前街辦貨，正月初起便會帶孩子到南後街買燈。 Zhèng suǒwèi"shàng yuán dēng shì zhōng yuán tǎ, chē mǎ rú cháoyǒng hòu jiē"! Wǒ tīng shuō fúzhōu chéng de bǎixìng huì zài chūnjié láilín qián dào qián jiē bàn huò, zhēngyuè chū qǐ biàn huì dài háizi dào nán hòu jiē mǎi dēng. Like the old saying "Shang Yuan Lantern market within Yuan Pagoda, carriages surge like the tide in the back street"! I hear that Fu Zhuo’s common people would purchase supplies early when Spring Festival is approaching.

[Player] 後街除正月元宵前的燈市外，八月中秋排塔也會相當熱鬧! Hòu jiē chú zhēngyuè yuánxiāo qián de dēng shì wài, bā yuè zhōngqiū pái tǎ yě huì xiāngdāng rènào! In addition to the backstreet’s lantern’s festival before the night of the 15th of the first lunar month, the Mid-autumn festival on the eight lunar month Pai Tower will be just as lively.

[佛跳牆] ��人當真博聞多識。莫非此前曾遊歷過福州? Měirén dàngzhēn bó wén duō shì. Mòfēi cǐqián céng yóulìguò fúzhōu? Fair lady is seriously knowledgeable and experienced. Could it be that you had once previously visited Fu Zhou?

[Player] 還不是上一年中秋跟佛跳墙一起...咳唔, 我是第一次來﹗ 之前都是聽說﹗ 聽說... Hái bùshì shàng yī nián zhōngqiū gēn fútiàoqiáng yīqǐ... Hāi wú, wǒ shì dì yī cì lái﹗ zhīqián dōu shì tīng shuō﹗ tīng shuō... Wasn’t it last year’s Mid-Autumn Festival that together with Fo Tiao Qiang... Ahem, this is my first time! I heard about it before! It is said that...

[佛跳牆] 那實屬是本公子的榮幸。 Nà shí shǔ shì běn gōngzǐ de róngxìng. It is truly this Gongzi’s privilege.

[Player] 這裡有沒有可以挑選海產, 乾貨等食材的店鋪? Zhèlǐ yǒu méiyǒu kěyǐ tiāoxuǎn hǎichǎn, gānhuò děng shícái de diànpù? Is there a shop where you can choose seafood, dry goods and other ingredients?

[佛跳牆] 南後街商賈雲集, 柴米油鹽, 生活日用所需三十六店一應俱全。那裡必有上好的乾貨店鋪。 Nán hòu jiē shānggǔ yúnjí, cháimǐyóuyán, shēnghuó rì yòng suǒ xū sānshíliù diàn yī yīng jùquán. Nàlǐ bì yǒu shàng hǎo de gānhuò diànpù. South backstreet are where merchants gather, firewood, rice, oil, and salt, everyday use in life requires 36 stores with everything needed available. That place will certainly have a top-notch dry goods shops.

[佛跳牆] 只是你尋那店鋪做什麼﹖ Zhǐshì nǐ xún nà diànpù zuò shénme﹖ But what do you want to do by searching for that shop?

[Player] 我答應鄭春發, 要助他舉辦知府大人的壽宴。家父是廚師，我打小從旁協助, 應該能幫得上忙。 Wǒ dāyìng zhèngchūnfā, yào zhù tā jǔbàn zhīfǔ dàrén de shòu yàn. Jiāfù shì chúshī, wǒ dǎ xiǎo cóng páng xiézhù, yīnggāi néng bāng dé shàng máng. I promised Zheng Chun Fa, to him hold a birthday banquey for the Prefectural Magistrate. My father is a chef, I’ve been helping from the side since I was little, I should be able to help.

[Player] 福公子，你不會怪我……多管閒事吧? Fú gōngzǐ, nǐ bù huì guàiwǒ……duō guǎn xiánshì ba? Fu-Gongzi, would you blame me...for meddling in other people's business?

[佛跳牆] 怎會? 美人不僅生得一副秀麗脫俗的容貌，就連心腸也如此之好。 Zěn huì? Měirén bùjǐn shēngdé yī fù xiùlì tuōsú de róngmào, jiù lián xīncháng yě rúcǐ zhī hǎo. How can it be? Not only is the fair lady born with features of refined beauty, but also a good heart.

[Narration] 佛跳牆驀然撩起我的長髪，盯著我的臉看，目光似是有些迷離，令我心跳驟然加速... Fútiàoqiáng mòrán liāo qǐ wǒ de cháng fà, dīngzhe wǒ de liǎn kàn, mùguāng sì shì yǒuxiē mílí, lìng wǒ xīntiào zhòurán jiāsù... Fo Tiao Qiang suddenly lifts up my long hair, staring at my face, his eyes seem somewhat misted, making my heart beat suddenly speed up ...

[佛跳牆] 抱歉! 是本公子唐突了。 Bàoqiàn! Shì běn gōngzǐ tángtúle. Sorry! This Gongzi that has been rude.

[佛跳牆] 我只是覺得你身上有一種....既熟悉又溫和的氣息, 穰人禁不庄想要親近... Wǒ zhǐshì juédé nǐ shēnshang yǒu yīzhǒng.... Jì shúxī yòu wēnhé de qìxí, ráng rén jīn bu zhuāng xiǎng yào qīnjìn... I just think that you have a kind of ... a familiar and gentle atmosphere, and can't help but want to be close ...

[佛跳牆] 我絕對沒有冒犯美人的意思。 Wǒ juéduì méiyǒu màofàn měirén de yìsi. I definitely did mean to offend fair lady.

[Player] 沒, 沒關係! 我明白的﹗ 我知道這其中緣由，你……想知道嗎﹖ Méi, méiguānxì! Wǒ míngbái de﹗ wǒ zhīdào zhè qízhōng yuányóu, nǐ……xiǎng zhīdào ma﹖ It’s, it’s no prolem! I understand! I know the reason, do you ... want to know?

[佛跳牆] 願聞其詳。 Yuàn wén qí xiáng. I'd like to hear the details

[Player] 我名[Player]，乃是食神伊摯之女，生於未來世界。此行褔州，正是為了尋找佛跳墻你、以及雞茸金絲筍-- Wǒ míng [Player], nǎi shì shíshén yī zhì zhī nǚ, shēng yú wèilái shìjiè. Cǐ xíng fù zhōu, zhèng shì wèile xúnzhǎo fútiàoqiáng nǐ, yǐjí jī rōng jīn sī sǔn-- My name is [Player], I am the daughter of the God of Food Yi Zhi, born in the world of the future. This trip to Fuzhou, for the purpose of looking for you, Fo Tiao Qiang, as well as Ji Ring Jin Si Sun--

[Narration] 趁此時機，將空桑往事、饕餮入侵、典籍毀滅等變故--告知佛跳牆…… Chèn cǐ shíjī, jiāng kōng sāng wǎngshì, tāotiè rùqīn, diǎnjí huǐmiè děng biàngù--gàozhī fútiàoqiáng…… Taking advantage of the opportunity, about Kong Sang’s past events, Tao Tie’s invasion, the misfortune of the ancient book’s destruction--informing Fo Tiao Qian...

[佛跳牆] 我竟然將與美人十幾年的記憶通通忘卻? 實屬罪過…… Wǒ jìngrán jiāng yǔ měirén shí jǐ nián de j��yì tōngtōng wàngquè? Shí shǔ zuìguo…… I have forgotten all memories of fair lady for more than ten years? Such an offense ...

[Player] 這當然不能怪你! 那日，你們奮力保護空桑, 是我沒有保護好大家…… Zhè dāngrán bùnéng guài nǐ! Nà rì, nǐmen fènlì bǎohù kōng sāng, shì wǒ méiyǒu bǎohù hào dàjiā…… I obviously will not blame you! That day, you all spared no effort to defend Kong Sang, it is I who did not do well to protect everyone...

[Player] 我曾與大家約定，要將食魂們整整齊齊地帶回空桑! 所以, 佛跳檣，你願意隨我到空桑去嗎? Wǒ céng yǔ dàjiā yuēdìng, yào jiāng shí húnmen zhěngzhěng qí qí dìdài huí kōng sāng! Suǒyǐ, fú tiào qiáng, nǐ yuànyì suí wǒ dào kōng sāng qù ma? I have made a promise with everyone, to bring the Food Souls back to Kong Sang in a neat and tidy fashion! So, Fo Tiao Qiang, are you willing to follow me to Kong Sang?

[Narration] 想起鄭春發曾說過聚春苑不能沒有福公, 佛跳牆一時半刻怕是也放不下人間的牽絆吧... Xiǎngqǐ zhèngchūnfā céng shuōguò jù chūn yuàn bùnéng méiyǒu fú gōng, fútiàoqiáng yīshí bàn kè pà shì yě fàng bùxià rénjiān de qiān bàn ba... Recalling that Zheng Chun Fa once said that Ju Chun Yuan can't do without Fu Gong, Fo Tiao Qiang was afraid for a moment that he would not be able to let go of his connection to the human world as well ...

[Narration] 誰會輕易相信一位初見不久的陌生人呢? 更何談放下一切隨他去別的地方... Shuí huì qīngyì xiāngxìn yī wèi chūjiàn bùjiǔ de mòshēng rén ne? Gèng hé tán fàngxià yīqiè suí tā qù bié dì dìfāng... Who can easily believe a stranger they’ve recently met? Let alone letting go of everything and follow the stranger to some other place...

[佛跳牆] 我願意。 Wǒ yuànyì. I am willing.

[Player] 嗯? 你, 你說什麼?! Ń? Nǐ, nǐ shuō shénme?! Um? You, what did you say?!

[佛跳牆] 我願意隨你一同回空桑, [Player]，這一次, 聽清楚了嗎﹖ Wǒ yuànyì suí nǐ yītóng huí kōng sāng, [Player], zhè yīcì, tīng qīngchǔle ma﹖ I am willling to follow you to return to Kong Sang together, [Player], this time, did you hear it clearly?

[Player] 當真! 可不是在誆我? 你……捨得放下人間的牽絆? Dàngzhēn! Kě bùshì zài kuāng wǒ? Nǐ……shědé fàngxià rénjiān de qiān bàn? No jokes! Is this possibly to mislead me? Are you ... willing to let go the connection to the human world?

[Player] 莫非你是因為不好意思拒絕我的請求才…… Mòfēi nǐ shì yīn wéi bù hǎoyìsi jùjué wǒ de qǐngqiú cái…… Could it be because you were embarrassed to refuse my request ..

[佛跳牆] 美人多慮了。其實在此之前，我已有離開褔州城的打算。 Měirén duō lǜle. Qíshí zài cǐ zhīqián, wǒ yǐ yǒu líkāi fù zhōu chéng de dǎsuàn. Fair lady is too anxious. In fact beforehand, I already had plans to leave Fu Zhou City.

[佛跳牆] 數月前我曾書信告知小筍自己將要離開褔州的計晝，沒想到那孩子擔心日後與我斷了聯繫, 慌慌張張從海外趕回來…… Shù yuè qián wǒ céng shūxìn gàozhī xiǎo sǔn zìjǐ jiāngyào líkāi fù zhōu de jì zhòu, méi xiǎngdào nà háizi dānxīn rìhòu yǔ wǒ duànle liánxì, huāng huāngzhāng zhāng cóng hǎiwài gǎn huílái…… I previously wrote a letter a few months ago to inform Little Sun the day I planned to leave Fu Zhou , didn’t expect that child would worry that one day he might lose contact with me, and had hurried back from overseas in a fluster...

[Player] 你可是有想去的地方﹖ Nǐ kěshì yǒu xiǎng qù dì dìfāng﹖ Where did you want to go?

[佛跳牆] 食魂化靈於人間, 其貌千百年不變，這意味著食魂與凡人之間註定不能共度遲暮年華。 Shí hún huà líng yú rénjiān, qí mào qiān bǎi nián bù biàn, zhè yìwèizhe shí hún yǔ fánrén zhī jiān zhùdìng bùnéng gòngdù chímù niánhuá. Transformed Food Souls in human world, their appearance remain unchanged for thousands of years, this signifies that Food Souls and mortals are not destined to spend their twilight years together.

[佛跳牆] 輾轉遷徙, 不過是食魂在人間生存的常態罷了…… Zhǎnzhuǎn qiānxǐ, bùguò shì shí hún zài rénjiān shēngcún de chángtài bàle…… To migrate and wander to many lands, it is just the normal way for Food Souls exist in the human world.

[佛跳牆] 倒是小荀曾向我提議, 兩人擱手踏遍大江南北, 去尋一尋那名為 “空桑", 濁屬於食魂的桃花源, 到底在不在這世上…… Dǎoshì xiǎo xún céng xiàng wǒ tíyì, liǎng rén gē shǒu tà biàn dàjiāngnánběi, qù xún yī xún nà míng wèi “kōng sāng", zhuó shǔyú shí hún de táohuāyuán, dàodǐ zài bùzài zhè shìshàng…… It was actually Little Sun who suggested to me, for both of us to travel all over the north and south sides of the Yang Tze River, to search of that place named “Kong Sang”, supposedly classified as a utopia for Food Souls, confirming whether or not is it on this earth...

[佛跳牆] 而如今，你就來了。空桑少主, 你說, 這算不算是緣分呢﹖ Ér rújīn, nǐ jiù láile. Kōng sāng shǎo zhǔ, nǐ shuō, zhè suàn bù suànshì yuánfèn ne﹖ And now, you arrived. Kong Sang’s Young Miss, you say, would this not be considered fate?

[佛跳牆] 冥冥之中, 到底是什麼在指引著我們... Míng míng zhī zhōng, dàodǐ shì shénme zài zhǐyǐnzhe wǒmen... Mysteriously and inexorably, just what is it that’s lighting the way for us...

[Player] 可是你離開福州以後，你與鄭春發一同創立的聚春苑又該如何﹖ 畢竟鄭春發似是未能獨當一面呀…… Kěshì nǐ líkāi fúzhōu yǐhòu, nǐ yǔ zhèngchūnfā yītóng chuànglì de jù chūn yuàn yòu gāi rúhé﹖ bìjìng zhèngchūnfā sì shì wèi néng dúdāngyīmiàn ya…… But after you leave Fu Zhou, what about the Ju Chun Yuan you established with Zheng Chun Fa? It seems like Zheng Chun Fa is unable to take charge alone...

[佛跳牆] 這就是我想要離開褔州城的原因。 Zhè jiùshì wǒ xiǎng yào líkāi fù zhōu chéng de yuányīn. This is the exact reason why I want to leave Fu Zhou City.

[佛跳牆] 鄭春發如今離不得我，若我一直在他身旁，他只會愈加依賴我。 Zhèngchūnfā rújīn lì bùdé wǒ, ruò wǒ yīzhí zài tā shēn páng, tā zhǐ huì yùjiā yīlài wǒ. Zheng Chun Fa is unable to be apart from me nowadays, if I am always beside him, he will be all the more dependant on me

[佛跳牆] 成長定伴隨著不安與坎坷。兒童走路學步，起初可有旁人攙扶，可日後終歸是要獨立行走的。 Chéngzhǎng dìng bànsuízhe bù'ān yǔ kǎnkě. Értóng zǒulù xué bù, qǐchū kě yǒu pángrén chānfú, kě rìhòu zhōngguī shì yào dúlì xíngzǒu de. Growth must accompanied with unrest and frustrations. Children learn to take a step to walk, other people can support them at first, but they must eventually walk independently.

[佛跳牆] 現下聚春苑已是福州城中頗有名氣的餐館, 該是放手的時候了。 Xiànxià jù chūn yuàn yǐ shì fúzhōu chéngzhōng pō yǒumíng qì de cānguǎn, gāi shì fàngshǒu de shíhòule. Ju Chun Yuan is now a well-known restaurant in Fu Zhou City, it is time to let go.

[佛跳牆] 此次知府大人的壽宴，我已交由鄭春發全盤打理，再不插手。所以美人，你也不必太幫著他。 Cǐ cì zhīfǔ dàrén de shòu yàn, wǒ yǐ jiāo yóu zhèngchūnfā quánpán dǎ lǐ, zàibu chāshǒu. Suǒyǐ měirén, nǐ yě bùbì tài bāngzhe tā. This time’s Prefectural Magistrate’s birthday banquet, I have already handed over everything to Zheng Chun Fa to take over, no longer willing to interfere. So fair lady, you don't have to help him too much.

[Player] 原來你早已經思慮周全。那好吧, 我已經知道你的心意了, 自會拿捏分寸，你且放心! Yuánlái nǐ zǎo yǐjīng sīlǜ zhōuquán. Nà hǎo ba, wǒ yǐjīng zhīdào nǐ de xīnyìle, zì huì n��niē fēncùn, nǐ qiě fàngxīn! It turns out that you have already thought about it before. Then that’s good, I now know your intentions, I will behave with propriety, you can rest assured!

[佛跳牆] 那麼去往空桑的日子，定於壽宴三日後如何﹖ Nàme qù wǎng kōng sāng de rìzi, dìng yú shòu yàn sān rìhòu rúhé﹖ Then as for the day to leave for Kong Sang, how about scheduling it three days after the birthday banquet?

[Player] 好呀﹗ 小筍要是知道自己能去空桑，一定十分高興。我這就回去把計畫告訴他﹗ Hǎo ya﹗ xiǎo sǔn yàoshi zhīdào zìjǐ néng qù kōng sāng, yīdìng shí fèn gāoxìng. Wǒ zhè jiù huíqù bǎ jì huà gàosù tā﹗ Okay If Little Sun knows that he can go to Kong Sang, he’ll definitely be happy. I will go back and tell him the plan!

((1-5.2 stage: Proceed to battle to progress))

#食物語 #食物语 #tale of food #the tale of food #story

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championfrita · 5 years ago

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Pokémon Sword and Shield Review

So...I've taken some time to fully play Pokémon Shield. Now, I know this is pretty delayed, and I got the double pack so I wanted to play Sword first to see if how I felt was really accurate or if I was being too harsh. That said, let's talk about my experience with the Galar Region.

Initial Impressions

Overall, I was excited to play Shield at first. Everything was bright and exciting and the characters were easy to recognize and not overly generic.

The first few hours of this game, well it's a slow burn. And I do mean SLOW. Even with the text set to Fast and me taking things at my own pace it took me at least a good couple hours to reach the Wild Area. Furthermore, this game has an infernal amount of handholding, even when given the option to say "I know all this already" it still gives a brief explaination for almost anything and STILL makes you sit ALL THE WAY THROUGH the catch tutorial.

It's 2019 and older players still don't get the option to skip this. Come on GameFreak.

That said, the longer I played the more I began to notice...how should I put this? Blatant laziness?

The Wild Area

Now, the CONCEPT of the Wild Area in theory is amazing. It's still not too bad as is, but there are definitely flaws. For starters, the same tree has been copy pasted all over the place to make up 90% of the foliage.

More than that, though, despite the Wild Area having a good selection of Pokémon and a fairly varietied environment (desert, lakes, forest) it feels oddly...empty. There are no real secrets to speak of, no hidden areas, no easily missed items. Everything is all right out there to see and spread pretty far apart. I don't know if it's a lack of Trainers or the fact that I don't have an Online membership so I played alone, but the Wild Area feels like it just needs something MORE.

Dynamax Raid Battles, even when done alone, are fairly fun and sometimes challenging with the turn limit. Radiant AI Trainers spawn in to assist you if you're playing alone so there's no worries about having to take one on with just one Pokémon.

Camping, which can be done anywhere but is introduced to the player here, is an absolute treat. Have YOU played fetch with a unicorn? I have, and I love it. The wide variety of curries you can make with different ingredients is nice, and your Pokémon even get EXP boosts if you play with and feed them while camping.

The Pokémon

Honestly, I'm really not impressed. The Galar Dex of new Pokémon feels painfully small, so much so that playing Pokémon GO and catching a few Unova Pokémon made me yearn for the days when we used to get regions completely FULL of new Pokémon. Remember when you had to wait until AFTER the main game to start catching Pokémon from past gens? I...well, this might be an unpopular opinion, but I LIKED that.

That said, using a sparse selection of Galar Pokémon and Galar Regional Variants on my team definitely made the Gym Challenge more difficult. I picked Scorbunny, because Fire Types, and honestly didn't really care for it or its evolutions at first. Cinderace has really grown on me though and I like Pyro Ball as a move. It's flashy and powerful and that suits me just fine. Most of the new Pokémon's DESIGNS were good and I liked them, there just really weren't ENOUGH of them.

I'm fairly pleased with the regional variants as well. It was difficult to adjust to Ponyta and Rapidash being Psychic Type, but I really liked having them on my team. At the same time...Meowth not evolving into a Persian doesn't really sit right with me.

I'm all for branch evolutions, but Perrserker honestly just looks more like a giant Galar Meowth than anything. I played this with only the info given in the few scattered trailers I'd seen, so I was genuinely excited to see what a Galarian Persian would look like only to end up with Perrserker. The Typing is phenominal, and I think it's great to see a Steel Type Meowth for a change, but I just don't like where they went with it. Eh. Ces't la vie, moving on.

The Story

It's weak. Straight up, the story in this game is poor. There were so many directions they could have gone. I really liked the idea of Rose being this charismatic chairman hype man for the League and being the bad guy. I saw it coming, but it was a nice change to see just based on his personality. Still, it feels rushed. His motivations are really one dimensional and glossed over. Like, "Oh, here's the bad guy. Go get him." It worked in Gen 1 because Giovanni was a MOBSTER. He was MEANT to be a bad guy straight to the core in general, but Rose just doesn't have that vibe.

Not only that, but the "Bad League Members" are kinda meh. That feels REALLY lazy. They didn't even really get a decent uniform change when they started taking on the name Macro Cosmos in Rose Tower. They got black glasses. That's it. Just that. The fight with Eternatus feels painfully rushed and shoehorned in too, almost like they thought "Oh no, we need to give them a big nasty boss to fight! Let's just throw a random monster at them and say Rose summoned it. Seems like a solid plan."

I DID like the after story with Piers though. It really solidifies that older brother sort of nature with him, even if he tries to hide it most of the time.

The Characters

I liked Hop. As a character he's really fun and I like how they gave him this over excited very grand gestured sort of personality. He's really just happy to be ANYWHERE as long as it's with his Pokémon and you. His admiration for his big bro might come off strong and make him seem a little flat at first, but he's overall portrayed as a good kid and I like him.

Leon on the other hand...well I hated him for most of the game. His design is great and he looks fabulous, but he just has the most cocky, obnoxious, pandering personality 90% of the time. Still, I have to give credit where credit is due and recognize that he IS actually a multifaceted character. He showboats not just because he's too confident but also to give the crowd a show and put people at ease in times of danger. Not only that, but his recognition of his little brother's accomplishments and his graceful acceptance of defeat when you beat him reveals a really well written character.

I don't DISlike Sonia, and I have no problem with Prof. Magnolia sitting on the sidelines, but she can be a little...irritating at times with the way she speaks about and to people. The Gym Leaders, aside from Piers, feel a little...light.

I mean, most Gym Leaders don't have detailed backstories, but these ones feel paper thin personality wise as well. I had to look at the official GUIDE just to be sure what the relationship between Melony and Gordie even WAS because you only seem him in her Special League Card in Shield and that tells you nothing about him. The only real leaders that stood out to me were Piers and Raihan, and while I was iffy about his design at first I LOVE Raihan. He has so much more personality and ferocity than any of the other leaders. And the social commentary about him needing to constantly take and post a selfie, even after losing, is a nice touch.

The Galar Region

Is very linear. Like, VERY linear. Even when you take a branching path it either loops back around or gives you a free ride to wherever you have to backtrack to. I hope you like Hammerlocke, cuz you're gonna be visiting there several times.

I know that the region is based off the UK, and maybe my Americanized idea of cities is different (idk, I've never been to the UK), but a lot of the towns in this game feel really small. Like, almost smaller than some of the towns in Hoenn small. Maybe it's a lack of significant interactable buildings, but despite many of them having multiple floors you typically can only access one and that's kind of a disappointment. The hotel in Wyndon won't even let you get in the elevator, and while I get that Alola also did that, it's kind of jarring when the hotel in Motostoke WILL let you see other floors.

That said, I kind of expected more than ONE Wild Area. The one we DID get is fine, and I appreciate what it is and lets us do, but I honestly thought there would be multiple places to really explore outside the standard straight lines. Pokémon has never been a franchise to shy away from puzzles before so I expected this to not be any different. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

Moreover, many of the environment pieces are just UGLY. A lot of the ground textures are reused 3DS assets, and those copy pasted trees I mentioned earlier? Also 3DS assets. How do I know? They're pentagonal instead of round. In other words, they have five sides. Why? Because the 3DS hardware couldn't handle complex environmental shapes that well so they could get away with it, but now that we have nice round berry trees the contrast becomes painful. The Wild Area is so ugly the first time you see it is at NIGHT. They were so aware of what they did they hoped making it darker would hide the lazy flop instead of showing off how bad it was.

It isn't like they COULDN'T fix it either. Look at Ballonlea and Glimwood Tangle. They're absolutely beautiful and very well done. The modeling with them is fantastic and I love the glowing effects. They absolutely could've made the poorly done areas look amazing, but for some reason they didn't and the game suffers some as a result.

Other Thoughts

The Gym Challenges...they were not fun. Like, honestly some were ok. Herding Wooloo was easy, but they really didn't feel like anything I would expect from a Gym. The water puzzle in Nessa's Gym was fine, and I personally liked the spinning cup ride, but the rest just felt like agonizingly long padding because they couldn't come up with anything. Look at Circhester's challenge. It's a dowsing rod gauntlet where you have to avoid falling in pits in an artificial blizzard. It. is. SO. SLOW. That said, Spikemuth having just a Trainer gauntlet instead was kind of awkward. I reached the end and asked myself "Was that it? Is this it? Is this all there is to Spikemuth? Just one giant alleyway and a Pokémon Center?"

Raihan's three trials of worthiness challenge? It was more difficult than the battle AGAINST RAIHAN. Speaking of, I beat Hop, Marnie, Bede, all the Gym Leaders, Rose, Oleana, and Leon on my first try every time. While it was more difficult with my specific Pokémon choices, it really wasn't much. And can I just say that the Gym Badges are kinda lame? I get what they were going for, but the designs of each piece could've been really unique and intricate and instead we got glorified stamps.

I liked a lot of the general features of the game. Camping, clothing shops, League Cards. I love designing League Cards, even if I'm the only one who's ever gonna see em. That said, the clothing choices were really narrow based on what we got in Sun and Moon. The variety of different items was pretty small, though I loved all the punk leather stuff but WOW IS IT EXPENSIVE. Like Lumiose Boutique expensive. AND WHY IS THERE NEVER A REDHEAD HAIR COLOR THAT ISN'T JUST AUBURN RED? There are actually A LOT of redheads with LIGHT RED hair (that's more a personal gripe than anything, I know).

A lot of the music felt almost like rehashes of older BGMs. Like, Postwick, Route 1, and Wedgehurst all sound like they have remixed Hoenn music. A lot of the other music tracks just don't feel fitting for the areas or for Pokémon games in general. I like parts of the Slumbering Weald music and I like the Gym Music, but the opening of Slumbering Weald feels awkward and like it doesn't fit a mysterious forest we're not allowed to be in.

I know I've complained a lot, but there were some things I genuinely liked. A lot of the Pokémon designs, place names, and other radiant decor and parts of the region are actually subtle and not so subtle references to cultural points of the UK. Skwovet and its evolution for example are a gray and red squirrel respectively and are a nod to invasive species, which is neat.

In Conclusion

Is Pokémon Sword and Shield amazing? No. Is it bad? No. Sword and Shield fall into that mediocre middle ground of being ok but nothing to write home about. Could I have done without them? Sure, they aren't some world ending imperitive must play. They're ok, and they make for a fine jumping on point and a fine little adventure if you have spare time. Have other mainline games done it better? Heck yeah, but that doesn't mean Sword and Shield haven't done a few good things too.

Overall, it sort of feels like GameFreak bit off more than they could chew, or were afraid to make changes because of unfamiliarity with the Switch's hardware and software limitations. Pokémon Let's Go had a lot more effort, but it also was much safer and had a much easier to work with art style to everything. Chibi proportions are a lot easier to fake than a more realistic counterpart. Things can be not perfect and it's less noticable than with more realistic proportions, and I think they were afraid to push back the deadline any further for the inevitable backlash despite that being what they likely needed. The DLC may change my mind, but as it stands, just the fact that they feel they can JUSTIFY their laziness with DLC packs really upsets me.

I give Pokémon Sword and Shield a 5/10.

It's just, OK.

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namikala · 6 years ago

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Finally started playing Readyyy! last night. The prologue/tutorial is rather long but you can't skip it. However, you can fast forward through it so I did that. I can always read the story again later. The main story is fully voiced.

So the main gameplay is organized as a set of days before a live. Some of the days are 'training' while others are the story parts. The last day is a 'live' and you probably also get 'drama filming' in later parts of the story.

For the current event, the gameplay is basically the same just without the story parts. The event story parts are point prizes. Also the highest rarity of card/photo you can get as a point prize is only 4 stars. The 5 star is a ranking prize.

The bad thing about this gameplay system is that it makes grinding an event really time-consuming as you have to go through all the same training days and lives again and again and again. You can skip the training but you can't skip the lives... You can only set the lives to auto if you can't be bothered to do the bits of interaction required.

During the lives, you will be prompted to press on the various idols and different stage actions to increase their appeal. Then towards the end there's a sort of rhythm game part where a heart appears in the middle of the screen. Various other hearts will fly towards the central heart and you have to press on the central heart when the flying ones overlap with it.

There's also an 'idol activity' function where you can just play the lives or drama filming. For the drama filming, you have to give the idols various items according to their needs before the filming. The actual filming part does not require any interaction from you and it can't be skipped...

So for the cards/photos, you get a 4 star starter of your choice. I went with Uta since I already got a Soshi from the pre-release Twitter daily gacha thing. Visually, I'm most interested in Uta and Soshi so far.

The best thing about playing a Sega game is that Sega is super generous when it comes to giving out free cards/diamonds/gacha tickets. Here are all the 5, 4 and 3 stars I was given from the start before claiming my Twitter prize and before doing the FREE 10 draw gacha. I think you were guaranteed at least one 5 star in that free draw? Can't really remember. Everyone gets that 5 star as a preregistration prize.

Here are the results of that free 10 draw. And I love that you don't need two copies of the same card to awaken it!

I was also given enough diamonds for TWO more ten draws. Got Soshi's event 4 star and a bunch of other 4 stars.

Then after finishing the newbie missions, I had enough diamonds for yet another TWO ten draws. Also got a bunch of normal gacha ticket and guaranteed 4 star gacha tickets. However, I only got one 5 star overall from the gacha, i.e. the one from the free 10 draw... (Edit: Just did another 10 draw and got another 5 star!)

You can also change the chibis' outfits and set a homescreen character.

All in all, I guess it's okay. I don't really have any special feelings towards it and none of the characters have grown on me yet. I should actually sit through the story later.

I do dislike how there's no skip function for the lives or drama filming, which they have in Idol Fantasy, especially for the event! It really puts me off doing the event... Also, I wish they had gone with scale models for the lives and dramas, like in Dream Festival and Idol Fantasy, instead of using chibis. I guess the chibis are kind of cute, but something just seems a little off about them, maybe it's the way they are coloured/shaded?? The chibi models in Boykira are way cuter! Also if you were expecting animation on par with the PVs, you will be disappointed. It is also completely different from YumeCast, so don't think of it as a replacement. (I'm still grieving over Sega killing YumeCast.)

The card/photo art is very nice though and you get so many chances with the gacha from the get-go! Way more than most games! The only other new-ish game that was generous with its gacha would be Starry Palette and how it let you keep rerolling and rerolling that newbie gacha till you were happy!

#readyyy project #readyyy!#idol game #idol hell #mobile gaming

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superzeroic · 6 years ago

Note

hi! do you have a gif tutorial by any chance? yours are absolutely stunning 💓

Hey, thanks buddy! You’re hecka sweet. I can give you a little preview into my own process, but keep in mind that I’m sure there’s a heck of a lot of better tutorials (I’ll link them in the tutorial, they’ll be under part 2 coloring section). But this is how I go about it:

Part 1: Prep

Believe it or not, this is where most of my time goes. I’ll assume that you have some kind of photoshop that can make gifs at this point (I personally use Photoshop CC 2015) as well as the video files for whatever you want to gif.

First thing after having the video files for what’cha want to gif, we’ll have to upload the frames to photoshop. My method depends on how short the video files actually is.

If it’s a short mp4 files (e.g. a trailer from yt), I can just upload the part I want to gif by directly opening photoshop and clicking on the top menu: file >> import >> video to frames. Click on the video file and select the range you want to gif.

Easy peasy, you can now skip to step 2 in that case!

Unfortunately, the file is usually a large, 2-3 hr long, mkv file so that won’t cut it. Instead, you’ll need create a file that contains each frame as a screenshot (don’t worry, it’s not as tedious as it sounds!). There’s several ways to go about this, but I personally use a combination of Adapter and VLC.

Adapter will allow you to input a range and create a file to save your frames. Makes sure to pick a custom place to save your files (under directory) and your export frame rate to be ~24 images per second. At the bottom of the screen, you can also pick the file type of your screenshots - I personally will save them as PNG. I use VLC to find the range (since it’s the only video player I can find that opens mkv files AND works on mac) since unfortunately Adapter won’t let you preview the actual video, unlike when uploading to photoshop.

Here’s another tutorial on Adapter that is a lot better written >.>

Once that’s all done, we can finally upload to photoshop. To do this, you’ll go to the top menu like you would to directly download the video file, but instead click file >> scripts >> load files into stack. Click “Browse” and select all the screenshots in your file. Click okay.

Give it a few moments (or in my case, 15 minutes or so bc it’s slow for me for some reason ;_;) until the upload is complete. Once it’s complete, you click “create frame animation” at the bottom (if you don’t see the timeline, go to the top menu and select window >> timeline).

You’ll see only one frame so far. No worries, select the 4 little lines at the top right of the timeline and select “make frames from layers”.

So close! Now we need to reverse the frames and the layers. This does get a little tedious, so bear with me. Select all the frames and go down to the same drop down menu (with the 4 little lines) and click reverse frames. To reverse the layers select all except the bottom one (for some reason it’ll give me an error if I try to select all of them) and go to the top menu: layer >> arrange >> reverse. Then click that bottom, troublesome layer and click layer >> arrange >> bring to the top.

A tedious method indeed, but you can make it easier by memorizing the hot keys or, better yet, creating an action (which allows you to save numerous steps).

Tutorial on actions here.

Finally (I swear there’s light at the end of this tunnel), go to the bottom of the timeline and click “once” and select “forever” to the gif will loop once you save it.

OKIE DOKIE, FINALLY READY TO ACTUALLY MAKE THE GIF.

Part 2: Coloring + Sharpening + etc

There are loads of methods on coloring, which heavily depends on your preferences. No matter what, I usually start with levels to up the contrast. Add a little bit of darkness (leftmost slider…thing - don’t go too crazy, I stay within the 5-15 range unless I’m doing something special), and up the brightness by sliding the other two sliders to the left.

Now it all depends on you. Do you want vibrant? Single color specific? Pale? Whatever you might want, I tend to use the following the most: levels, selective color, color balance, hue/saturation, brightness/contrast, vibrance, and occasionally gradient map.

Check out specific blogs below for more information on that (or if you want to know how color a specific way, let me know).

Blog recs for tutorials:

@chaoticresources || @itsphotoshop || @completeresources

+ their recommended/affiliates (on the side of each blog)

Okie dokie, before moving forward, we’ll need to resize the gif if you haven’t already. Tumblr specifically allows for only different three widths: 540 px (one gif across), 268 px (two gifs per row), and 177 px/178 px/177 px (three gifs per row, yes the middle is 1 px more). The height has less limitations, but all your gifs should generally be the same within one gifset (unless you’re going for something interesting); each gif in a row specifically has to be the same height, however, or else you’re gonna get some funky results.

Note: my most generic sets tend to be 8 gifs, 2 per row. These tend to have a height of 154 px. But all up to you, my dude.

Once you’re all done coloring and resizing, it’s time to sharpen. The quickest way to sharpen is to convert your timeline to “video timeline”. But I personally dislike that method for various reasons (mostly bc saving a gif while in that mode takes like 700 years for my poor computer and I have less control over each individual frame), so I’ll show you my tedious as heck way (hint: once again, I use actions to do this).

To sharpen each frame, you have the frame and corresponding layer selected. Then in the top menu, select filter >> sharpen >> smart sharpen. My settings are as follows: amount ranges between 250-400%, radius is 0.3-0.4 px, reduce noise is 10%, and remove gaussian blur. You’ll have to do this for each frame/layer, so again I suggest either learning/downloading actions or learn the video timeline method.

Lastly, make sure your gif delay is around 0.5 secs - or at least that’s what I use. Sometimes I’ll go up 0.7 or even 0.9 secs if I have a really really small amount of frames and I want to make the gif look like it lasts longer ^^;.

Part 3: Saving and Posting

Okie dokie, so this should be the easy part, right? Maybe? All depends on your gif. You see, when you save (top menu: file >> export >> save for web), you gotta make sure your gif is under 3M…but I usually try to get under 2.87 M to be safe (I’ve saved at 2.9M before and the file ended up being bumped up to over 3M when I checked the file itself….very rude).

Anywho, the best way to cut down size is deleting frames. Other methods include playing around with the coloring (less vibrant, for instance) and height (especially for 540 px gifs).

So once you get a decent size, click “preview” to see how your spiffy gif will be looking. Once you’re satisfied, you can finally save! Upload those bad boys to tumblr and tag them with appropriate tags (e.g. the fandom edit tags or tagging blogs if that’s your sort of thing). Finally done to show the world :’D

Hopefully that was someone helpful? ish? If you need any specifics, let me know.

#tutorial #ask #anonymous #it's very vague but it's still a lot lmao #apologies

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moonpix-art · 7 years ago

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Art Tutorials!

Greetings! Meanwhile, I wanted to thank you for all the support you're giving us here on Tumblr, really means a lot! ❤️

I would like to start using this blog not only to show our works but also as a personal diary of our artistic journey... so let us know if you are interested in any particular content!

So... why not start with some artistic tutorials? :P

CHAPTER ONE:

an artistic mind makes an artistic guy.

Before throwing ourselves in a deep technical vision and some kind of “how to” things, I find truly important to talk about attitude and mental arrangement, because a thing like knowing how to unlock when you are not inspired, are as significant as know which tool to pick. Or maybe more important, really.

1) PRACTICE

The first thing that we need to say is that, like everything, to obtain results, you need practice, time and passion. Everyone can draw decently, just need some practice and time. Natural talent doesn't really exist at all, of course for some people, truly passionate on what they’re doing, should need less time that other, but believe me, with constancy and dedication, you can do everything.

2) SELF CRITIQUE

Second thing you need to know is to be a self-critique, it’s really important to understand errors, and learns from it. That’s the fast way to learn something. Neither an instructor can gift a teaching better than that, because when we fail of course we feel bad, but for sure we will learn how to avoid this next time.

3) RESEARCH

Third fact is: when you feel stuck, don’t give up. Just take a breath, think about what you don’t like in your art, and then try to solve it. Example, you’re drawing a face. However, it looks horrible to you. Well, try to answer that question: why I don’t like this? The eyes are too small? His nose is awry? Look too flat? Well, then try to improve the parts you dislike. You don’t like that at all? Take a break then, some minutes, an hour, a day, rest on your eyes really help a lot. Maybe on your first attempts you don’t make some masterpiece, but is important to rejoice of small success and remember that a bad drawing will never, listen to me, never, be a failure, because from it, you will learn a lot, and believe me if I say that you became better after that.

4) FIND INSPIRATION

At the fourth position, we’re talking about finding inspiration. Inspiration it’s not something like a mana bar that needs to charge, of course on some day we really don't' want to do anything, but you don’t need a divine touch to make some art. So, my best advice is to look around, look at your drawing from distance, see the world around you, just make some steps in your room or go into the courtyard to take a break, or maybe search some image on the web. Take a look on the real life, to find some references to put and transform it in a piece of art. And well, let’s talk about references. If you're attempting to make a realistic drawing is essential to use a model, a photo to study how the light build the shape, how the texture looks and the proportion are connected with different part, but even if you make a cartoon character you need to take elements from real life. Even on an abstract painting you may find useful to put some elements in it, because from reality human use to find a correspondence, an identity, and it’s what can give to your art a personality. So to make art it’s very important to learn to observe. Don't just watch at something, observe, trying to understand every part in a thing. Sometimes to make a good painting is all about details, and the best way to know how to do is to synthesize what our eyes are teaching to us.

5) (extra tip) ENJOY!

Art doesn't have to be a frustrating activity, it doesn't have to make you feel inferior to others or even better than others. It must be a way to express yourself, both with pleasurable and sad emotions, must make you feel free to communicate and not to feel yourself closed in a corner of your room. You have to relax, make you smile, but don't make you suffer, make you cry and make you angry. Certainly the creative process is not always fluid, but if you really like what you are doing, then everything else will not matter. Besides, art has a therapeutic power, and it can really help in difficult times. The art is our friend, who listens to us, and likes us. Not our rival that makes us angry, hurts us and makes you hate everything else. So always remember to have fun, first of all :)

I know, that may looks boring and useless for some of you, maybe you need to know how to make a perfect color blending or to make a realistic eye just with a pair of strokes, but attitude is the most important part of everything in the life. Learn from your error, never give up, and I’m sure you’ll create a lot of a masterpiece.

See you next time, talking about tools and everything you need to be an artist!

⭐️ Part 2 here => https://moonpix-art.tumblr.com/post/173191380078/art-tutorial-chapter-2 ✨

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thecoroutfitters · 6 years ago

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loopednetwork · 2 years ago

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Learning JavaScript

As of a few weeks ago, I've been working on building a web app for a friend of mine. I initially started building it with Django since:

Python is the language I work with the most frequently.

The only other web app I've built was with Django.

The more I thought about it, though, the more I disliked the work I was doing. Django is awesome, but I didn't feel like creating a personal project in Django was really going to cause me to learn much in the way of new stuff. Instead, I kept thinking more and more that I'd be better off learning some full-stack development with JavaScript.

JavaScript is a language I've historically avoided whenever possible. With web development in 2023, though, it's unavoidable. For the Django application that I built last year, for example, I quickly reached a point where JavaScript was necessary for modifying the frontend. Django does a great job of providing great forms and buttons out of the box, but eventually I hit a point where I could've avoid JavaScript any longer for extremely fine-grained customization.

As much as I dislike JavaScript, I also recognize that it's--by many metrics--the most popular programming language on the planet. I haven't been following job listings too closely since I landed my current role, but I know back when I was last hunting that basically everyone wanted JavaScript skills. As a result, I decided that I'd be better off just trying to build an entire application with JavaScript.

The primary problem is that I know next to nothing about JavaScript other than a little bit of jQuery to modify things on the DOM. I also errantly thought that Node.js was more fully featured/batteries included out of the box that it is (and I'm not saying that's a bad thing... just that I didn't realize.) For example, if I'm looking to make a web app I didn't realize that I'd be best off finding a web application framework to use; I just thought that was something Node handled itself. After a little research, I pretty quickly settled on Express, which seems to be the de-facto web framework. After going through their tutorial, I immediately at least felt comfortable with the setup of Express projects since it immediately fits with what I'm used to for Django, at least for views and controllers. I still need to learn how to handle models and database connectivity.

Tonight I figured out mainly how to define routes and use templates for my views. My current routes are all very simple GETs, but I don't see additional commands being particularly troublesome. This was my first experience with Jade/Pug templating, but after playing around for a while I'm liking it so far. I appreciate that it seems a lot ore concise than what I'm used to with Jinja.

This is going to take me more or less forever, and it'll be interesting to see if I ever end up developing something viable. I'm excited for what I can learn, though. In a perfect world, I'd like to deliver the front-end with React and convert the entire project to TypeScript. In the interest of keeping things manageable, though, I'm just following along with tutorials for now and will work on some of the additions later if I reach that point.

#javascript #express #node

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katatty · 7 years ago

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Characters

Part 5 of my Custom Neighbourhood Guide

While working on your neighbourhood you most likely already have an idea of the families and sims that will be living there, and how they relate to each other. Now’s the time to flesh those characters out! This section of the guide will cover creating sims, characterisation, relationships, and the question of whether to include townies and/or NPCs.

(As always do take everything I say in this guide with a grain of salt – every creator is different and my own preferences & opinions might not be your own. But hopefully there’ll be something useful in here for everyone.)

Making Sims

You can create you sims in either Bodyshop or Create a Sim. There are advantages to both! Many people find Bodyshop easier to use and it has slightly more tools available, plus it will allow you to save copies of your sims easily. CAS sims won’t be able to be saved without first extracting their appearance in SimPE – however it will allow you to do genetic mixing more easily, and with debugging mode on will enable more of the catalog, such as career outfits and alien skins. Whichever one you use is really just down to personal preference.

When creating sims to populate a neighbourhood, it’s generally good to have plenty of genetic diversity. You might choose otherwise, for example if you are closely basing your neighbourhood on a real-world location with a less diverse population, but a good rule of thumb is to try to include at least one sim with each of the available hair colours, eye colours, skin colours, etc.

Different players will have different tastes when it comes to sim faces. I have bad facial recognition and like extreme, cartoony features. Other players might prefer prettier sims! Again, this is something that’s entirely up to you. Almost all players, however, like to see sims with unique and recognisable faces, so try and avoid simply using templates when creating sims. Pick at least one “unusual” feature, perhaps a large nose, beady eyes, a slightly upturned mouth - anything to make them stand out! Another possible idea is to combine existing templates for more interesting results.

It’s also worth looking at the some Custom Sliders! Sims made using these will still work in a cc-free game, and they open up a lot of new options, like asymmetrical features, buck teeth and elfier ears. Honestly, I am not the greatest at face sculpting, so I’ll link to a few resources and tutorials on it by other people:

Sims 2 Sliders - index of all sliders

Pooklet’s Method - a “randomisation” method for making interesting faces

The final detail for you sim will be their hair & outfit! Resist the temptation to pick the cutest items in the catalog – think about the personality, occupation and interests of the sim you are making and try and give them an appearance that suggests that. Desiderata Valley is actually a great example of this being done well – most of the inhabitants dress in a way that reflect their chosen hobbies. Remember that many players LOVE giving everyone makeovers so don’t get too attached to their appearance! This is another reason to place more importance on getting across their characterisation rather than focusing on making everyone look cute.

Characterisation

To me this is one of the most important aspects of a sim! Aside from their physical appearance, there are so many things that can help flesh out and define a sim:

Bio – This is one of the least subtle as it is literally what you tell the players about your sim, so make it count! I like my bios to be short and snappy, and try to include fun facts, personality traits, or info about the character’s values and motivations.

Memories – I’ll go into more detail about editing memories in the next part, but memories are one of the easiest ways to show a character’s history. Who taught them their toddler skills, if anyone? When did they have their first kiss? Did they ever run away from home? Take a look at the full List of Memories for more ideas!

Storytelling images – Another good way to show a family history!

Aspiration – This is one of the things that most defines a sim. They might be a very typical sim for their aspiration, like the Curious brothers, who are very much classic knowledge sims! Aspiration doesn’t have to define them, however, and there’s no reason they have to follow the classic stereotypes. Maybe they’re a family sim in love with two people, like Widespot’s Mary Hart? Maybe a shy, grouchy romance sim like Nina Caliente? Take a look at Rockethorse’s Alternate Reads of Aspirations and Dinuriel’s Psychology Version of Aspirations for some “outside the box” ideas.

Personality Points – Bear in mind that more extreme personalities will result in more interesting behaviour from a sim! In my view it’s worth giving each sim at least one extreme personality trait (such as being a mega-slob or a outgoing chatterbox) to help define them.

Zodiac – This will effect chemistry, which is the only real gameplay effect, but players into astrology might infer some character traits from this!

Interests – This mainly effects the conversations sims will have, but again will give players ideas about their personality. A refined sim might have a lot of interest in culture. A high interest in crime could point towards a potential criminal career, or maybe in law enforcement. Eco warriors might have a high interest in environment, politics and animals.

Hobby – Similar to interests, this can flesh out what a sim is all about, and in some cases can even give them new traits and abilities. I particularly enjoy giving sims points in the film & lit hobby so that they’ll walk around with a book in their hand.

Skills – It makes sense for a sim to have a few skills, especially if they are an adult or elder! As a general rule I give sims skills corresponding with the point they are at in their career.

Many of these things, like interests, skills and hobbies, will be assigned to a sim when they are created, but these can easily be changed with testing cheats, SimPE, the Simblender, or the Batbox if you have a strong preference for what they’re into! There are other things you could consider too, like turn ons, sexual orientation, vacation memories, skill badges, etc.

This is my own preference, but when defining a sim’s personality I think it’s importance to give them both some positive and negative traits, and keep the details ambiguous enough that there is plenty of room for player interpretation. Donna Fusilli, for example, can be interpreted as a victim, villain, or something in between. She’s a mob boss’s wife, they have a low relationship and it’s implied she married for money, but she also does love him, and has turned down the opportunity to have an affair according to her memories. She has a good relationship with her kids but is thoroughly detested by her mother-in-law, and the reason for this is up to the imagination of the player.

Then again, perhaps you prefer more clear-cut good guys and bad guys? That can work, too! Bear in mind though, that the player might not agree with the roles you have cast them in. Don Lothario and the Caliente sisters seem to me as though they were intended to be villains by Maxis, but many players like to give them more sympathetic backstories and motivations. Remember that the characters you are creating should be giving the players prompts and ideas rather than dictating any one “correct” interpretation.

Relationships

Another important part of a sim is the relationships they have with other characters in the neighbourhood! How big is their family? Does it only consist of their household, or do they have other relatives living in the neighbourhood? Do they get on well with their family, and who are they closest to? Who are their closest friends? Are their friends in the same age group, or do they get on better with a different age group? How long have they been friends? Are they married, single, do they have a love interest? Multiple love interests? What about enemies, or rivals? Is there anyone in town that they dislike, or who dislikes them?

One-sided rivalries or crushes can be particularly interesting! When I made Europa, for example, I made all of the elder females dislike Viola Rochetti – implying (along with her biography) that she was the subject of a lot of gossip.

For most neighbourhoods the interwoven network of relationships will comprise a lot of the plot. Pleasantview has its tangled love web, Veronaville has its bitter rivalries, Strangetown has its complex family trees… the only limit is your imagination. When creating a sim I like to work out what their connections are to the rest of the town very early on – there shouldn’t be any sims included with no relevance to the neighbourhood plot and no links to the other residents. (Unless perhaps they’re a hermit or recluse? In which case, carry on.)

You might find it helpful to scrawl out some family trees or relationship maps on paper, especially if the set-up you are envisioning is complicated!

Townies and NPCs

When setting up your neighbourhood you will have taken steps to avoid generating unnecessary townies and NPCs. However, perhaps you want a few townies around so that the dating options in the neighbourhood are more varied? There might be some NPCs you can’t avoid generating, and maybe you want to customise them to fit in better with your neighbourhood? Perhaps you’d like a few non-playables to play a role in the plot, like Kaylynn Langerak? Most sharable neighbourhoods contain a few townies and NPCs, and even Meetme’s uberhood templates contain a few “plot relevant” townies, like Crystal Vu.

You may even want to include a complete townie and NPC pool. There are pros and cons to doing this; some players prefer fewer character files and like being able to choose whether to add townies themselves, whilst others might appreciate having less work to do, and being able to play a more customised neighbourhood which feels fully populated. Quadington University and Tumbleton are a few examples of this! Creating multiple versions of your neighbourhood with and without townies and NPCs is also an option.

Something I haven’t seen done but am interested in trying myself in a future neighbourhood is townie-owned community lots! According to some testing by @dramallamadingdang, it’s possible to have a townie purchase a community lot and run it as an owned business. This could open up some interesting possibilities, like shops that can sell just about anything, restaurants with more selective menus, staff that you can pick out and customise yourself very easily... could be fun to experiment with!

There are quite a few ways to go about making and customising townies and NPCs, and the method you use will depend on your game configuaration and exactly what you want to do with them. Personally I create townies in CAS and townify them with the Simblender. I let NPCs generate through normal gameplay then change their appearance using SimPE. I’ll link a few tutorials/resources below:

Alternate Sim Surgery Plugin

How to Use Sim Surgery with SimPE

Modifying a Sim's genes

Extracting & Packaging sims

Clean custom neighbourhoods + townie creation

NPC and Townie Maker

Make your own hobby sims

Make Your Own Default Townies, Downtownies, Dormies, and Adoptable Pets!

#ts2 tutorial #ts2 resource #custom neighbourhood guide

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