#Dev Nexus

[rajubhai76]

Web Development with Modern Frameworks Mobile App Development for Education Game Development with Immersive Technologies

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[dericbindel]

The Core - A Setting Guide

The Core is a place deep, deep underground. Some might say impossibly deep.

While its societies may look familiar, dig a little deeper and one will find they differ greatly. Every person here is part of a rich tapestry, a blending of many species and constructs and their cultures.

Hey there, as part of the Tiny Worlds TTRPG Jam, I've assembled some of my worldbuilding into a 7 page setting guide! Get down to the Core for some pulpy retro-future sci-fi adventure and intrigue!

Within, you'll find information on:

The Core overall

DownTown, a place of tinkering and adventure

The Haydrian Mass Foundries, a city-factory of industry and spirituality

The Shattered Pillar, a place where reality itself has fallen apart

The Nexus, a secluded machine hivemind

I had a lot of fun working on this, and making the section marker art! Here are all five collected together:

[zaziecurie]

Me watching most of a "full film" of the French version of FFXVI (which, by the way, is based on the Japanese version): Huh, lots of differences here and there.

Scene where Ultima is defeated and is absorbed by Clive (roughly translated): "Poor fools. Even if we're gone, as long as this world exists, the supreme reason will remain. You shall painfully writhe in a coffin, slowly sinking in the darkness."

Me:

[ragnar0c]

rozelia after getting inflicted with confuse

Real and true I bet that’s what she’s saying rn

[captorcorp]

actually i am going to share something about the lucid dream stuff i'm distracted with because look at this fucking promo mailer about their research

[mr-laveau]

I have uh a question :]

Why doesn’t Hugo have a character design?

Mostly because I was wayyyyyyy too lazy to make one at the time of his creation

But really and truly, at the time, it was to give people a chance to see him as whatever they wanted, like every other VA who makes their characters into icons does (see Peter, also Niven once upon a time, Conan and etc), HOWEVER I am slowly leaning away from the idea of icons as permanent placeholders because I've just noted a pattern where I end up giving them designs when people have learned enough about them and I just feel like the audience has seen a real perspective of them (something something about metaphorical masks and such).

All that to say that in the future, I am probably gonna give icon characters a design sooner or later, depends on what I want

[exhaustedalien]

everytime I'm feeling sad about not being able to play bg3 I look at pictures of the male party members weird 0% body fat dehydrated vanity abs and suddenly I am cured of wanting to play the game for at least 5 minutes

[devonment]

why did I get the fucking wire mother

[elliespuns]

How can I start modding?!

To mod, you need to own the computer version of the game. Most importantly, the original Steam version (otherwise it won't work). 

Once you have this set, you just go to Nexus and download the Tlou debug dev menu mod by Goghor (link here).

The installation is a bit tricky. If you have never installed mods in any game before, I recommend to ask someone who has experience. If you want to try it on your own, I advise you to download Vortex (which should be on the Nexus page) and install it via this utility. 

When you finish installing Vortex, make sure to connect the game to it. It should be easy, but if you don't know how to do it, I'm sure there are a lot of tutorials on the internet. It's necessary to connect the game to it before doing anything else.

Then, when you're done connecting the game, go to the link I attached, and on the right, you'll see an icon called "vortex." Once you click on it, it should install the mod right into the game without you having to deal with it manually. This is perfect for beginners; this way you can be sure you're doing it right.

Then, after all this is done, the real fun begins. I'm not even shitting you when I say I spent over 5 hours figuring out how to work with the freakin' mod. I couldn't find out how to turn on the free roam camera, and it was driving me crazy.

So, just in case you went through all the previous steps and got the mod into the game, here's a little help on how to work with the dev menu!

Once the game launches and you're in the main menu, you need to open the dev menu to activate the mod. To do it, you need to press [CTRL] + [~]. When the little window in the left corner pops up, don't bother with the "camera" option. It doesn't work. To use the free roam cam, you have to go to "display" and press [1] - the one above Q and tab. This should open a quick menu. From here, you just go to "manual camera" and you're good to go.

This is what it should look like before you press [1] and the manual camera option shows up.

I'm from Europe, and the keys work just fine for me. But I heard some people have trouble opening the dev menu with the keys mentioned. For those who can't use the [CTRL] + [~] option, try [CTRL] + [ ' ] to open it.

If you don't know where to find the [~] button, it's under the ESC key on your keyboard. The [ ' ] is basically the apostrophe you use in English grammar.

Also, when ready to mod, I highly recommend connecting a controller, because the manipulation with the camera is pretty sketchy, and unless you want to fall into mild rage, this is the easier way.

I wish you the best because I almost lost my fucking mind learning to work with this, lmao. So good luck!

[recents]

[gemsalive]

re: that HEFTY siffrin sweep on id5’s isat favourite blorbos poll — this might sound silly but i do actually think it’s kinda fascinating that isat, as a game so inseparably steeped in (for lack of a better way to describe it) queer fandom culture, managed to so completely sidestep the common Fandom Phenomenon that i suspect was behind the poll in the first place by creating a main character that is also overwhelmingly the fan favourite character for once.

obviously there are any number of factors we could point at to explain the extent to which siffrin nomiddlenames nolastnames manages to grab people and absolutely not let go, but personally i think one of the most interesting ones to consider is the one specific to the medium — that is, how siffrin subverts the “silent blank slate video game protagonist” archetype in such a way that happens to be primo brainrot breeding grounds.

like, when a video game dev makes a silent protagonist it’s usually a bid to maximize immersion by closing the aesthetic distance between player and character as much as possible, right? which is especially true of rpg video games — players find connection in the generic, as that is what gives you the freedom of motion to insert yourself into the story in whatever unique shape suits you best. you are your character and your character is you.

(as ever, post ran long. yall know the drill. tossin in a quick header pic before thoughts on blank slates & blorboification continue under the cut)

and then you’ve got siffrin, who is expressly pointed out to be the taciturn type; who when initially giving the player exposition about their journey so far doesn’t seem to hint at a life or history or even really any motivations outside the journey; whose every thought and action is narrated in second person so as to keep tracing and re-tracing the connection between him and you.

even their design — all darkless and shapeless, bundled up in that big cloak, as if an invitation for you to fill it in with whatever lets you relate to them most! at this point they are their own character for sure, but they also have enough very clear parallels going on with the silent protagonist archetype to feel more than accidental.

of course, as you keep playing you start to recognize that his blankness is much, much more than just a grab at immersion; his apparent lack of backstory, itself a fundamental piece of backstory. this is where he flips dramatically in the player’s perception from “generic vessel for story delivery” to “thoroughly multidimensional character trapped within endless torment nexus custom-built to target and exacerbate all his very specific worst traits rooted in very specific traumas”.

yknow, the good stuff !

but by then you have also been playing enough to be feeling the effects of the thing isat’s design does best of all. i’m talkin bout that ludonarrative lockstep baby. every piece of isat’s gameplay is designed to make you feel what siffrin is feeling — you understand by now that he is not a stand-in for you, but all the same you share in his frustration, his grief, his rare moments of joy and the subsequent heart-in-your-shoes devastation when that joy is inevitably poisoned — and through it all, the desperate grasping for anything new — all as if they were every bit your own.

so in this way the connection is maintained, even if you were someone for whom siffrin’s particular traits & struggles might not otherwise cause you relate to them at all if you had encountered them elsewhere, in a setting where you weren’t actively controlling them as a player. siffrin still gets to carry all the “just like me fr” impact of the blank slate protagonist in the tropes he embodies and in the game mechanics’ design, while totally free to evolve completely into his own character and keep you relating to closely them all the same. now toss back in the fact that said traits & struggles very much ARE of a flavour that a great many people Would Tend To Relate To and just like that you’ve got a perfect storm cookin.

too individual and compellingly written to be an empty vessel for plot delivery. too closely connected with the player’s emotional state to be a story observed impassively from the outside. he has 92 mental illnesses and for the low low price of free u can give him yours to carry too. nobody is doin it like him. congratulations on your well-deserved nose sniffrin nomiddlenames nolastnames <3

[0alix0]

looking at nexus mods you really understand just how lazy BW was with veilguard

one of the first mods that has been made (aside from sliders) was about making varric actually look like himself. i'm no modder but i doubt it took a lot of time, and it probably would've taken even less for a professional game dev

there's a mod for nudity for companions in a romance sex scene

the ability to choose clothes for you inquisitor instead of that ugly ass SD pajamas

adding letters between inquisitor and their SO (who isn't Solas, cuz seriously they didn't even get that much)

better eye/skin/hair colors

smaller more proportional heads

and lets not forget, that this is the first goddamn game that people need to mod CODEX for

Like, something so basic, so easy to fix that fans did it a week after release.

the level of laziness, my god....

[dysansohmin]

what do you think abt DT now?

(sucking down like an entire liter of water) hold on

I am not through 7.2 yet, but I suspect that's not going to effect my answer here very much! I've definitely had some time to sit and think about it, and my major takeaways are:

The format of main expansion story content has changed. I am not holding out hope for it to come back. The sidequests were crazy sparse, and Tural suffered for it. As overwhelming as it can be to get to a new area and see 50 sidequest markers, many of which are gonna feel like a chore to clear if you are rushing - every one of those is a character beat, a little nuance to the setting, a chance to pause and look around the environment. I think that there's a bit of rose-colored glasses about what I'm about to say next, and it's a sentiment I've seen expressed a lot, that previous expansions were **edgier** in that, we got allusions and direct plot-handling of lots of nitty-gritty everyday life shit. Dawntrail is the tail end of that progression, with like. The standard of living and intercultural conflicts in Tural being ironed over entirely, this sense of an absurd & universal standard of living, that Tural feels very much akin to Living Memory as being like, a perfect little facade. I am anticipating that this may be challenged, but I think it also may not be! (Much like EW's Garlemald segment, another bugbear for people with this opinion). I am frustrated that Alexandria is getting the goods when I was so excited to see what they did with Tural. There's a good chance Tural will continue to be a playground for a scavenger hunt, and Gulool Ja Ja's legacy will continue to be that of like, a beloved righteous superpacifist or whatever! We might never get Whalaqee either! I'm doing the Wachumeqimqi quests rn (I hate it I hate how they named it I hate it) and the fisher one is like. I don't want to be herrrrrre Then again, I am enjoying observing what the devs dive into and what they don't. I would love to peek at the JPN script, but my Japanese is rusty and elementary, so. I would LOVE to know if the Shock and Awe flyer in Living Memory was a localization insertion - it's one moment that comes to mind as "oh they are working with what they have to inject some interesting complexity." Woulda loved to see more of that in Tural proper and not have it all penned off in War Criminal Infinite Growth Torment Nexus Electrope Land. It made me yearn for Stormblood! I'm very excited to revisit Stormblood now! I don't think I appreciated Stormblood properly the first time through! I say this knowing that the Stormblood localization DOES make me want to claw my own eyes out every 20 minutes, and by GOD does Stormblood have its own issues about many of the same things- I think the localization HAS gotten better, and I think that there is a general move in fantasy games right now to tamp down on the colonial legacy of fantasy RPGs. I think Dawntrail is situated in that context. I feel they tried very hard to be respectful, and what we got is shallower for it. It's really hard NOT to read that next to, say, Veilguard as a State of The Industry thing. Anyway, this was the expansion with the graphical update, so it makes sense that there was less time/resources devoted to quest design and writing. But it's also a bar-set, and I understand how game studios operate.

I will be playing MSQ much more slowly going forward. Even with how sparse the sidequests were, completing them in time with MSQ as they unlocked left me with a MUCH more favorable impression of DT than most of the people I saw rushing through it. My full-game playthough on Evka, I am totally adjusting my approach to match how I played DT: clear every single area of quests before moving onto the next. This has helped me a lot with my FOMO about the game, and really helped me slow down and read closer. This approach is helping rekindle my appreciation for ARR. It puts me in a more receptive mindset for things like the interminable Tombstone Shaaloani bit, or the post-Titan wine fetching. And it requires patience. If I start feeling impatient, I stop playing. Believe it or not, I was like, not tremendously impressed with the post-ShB patches because I felt like MSQ was just rehashing. I remember sitting there looking at Ardbertlidibus like, "fuck man, power of friendship. we get it." I took it too fast, and I was impatient to be Caught Up. I genuinely wish I could replay ShB for the first time and NOT just mainline the primary story, because if I was close-reading I would have gone totally insane about this game like, two or three years earlier.

The on-level content's never been more fun. I loved the dungeons/raids this time around. They have really honed in. There's less though! There's less combat! There's less gameplay and more story, which is wild, considering how little story there is. This was a sparse expansion. But I'm having a blast with what was there, and did ultimately feel satisfied. Again, this is where I'm setting my bar for expectations going forward, if I'm pleasantly surprised than that rules. I like that they're getting goofy with dungeons ago. Much as I groan when I drop into Strayborough, it's fun, and it puts me in mind of things I liked about ARR dungeons. I also love how they continue to play with duty support as a diagetic tool. This is now approaching 100% on being a wonderful MMO for people who want a single-player experience, which is a weird sentence! Even though I like the social aspect, I appreciate being able to drop into a new dungeon as a healer and getting to learn the mechanics myself firsthand, instead of being obligated to spoil myself with a dungeon guide to ensure a zero-death run. Environmental design also wowed me. There is a great mix of detail and traversability. I do miss the little tiny tableaus and unused locations of HW & StB, having a multilevel space to poke around. I am not a huge fan of DT's "split the zone in half so we can use it twice" structure. I want those zones to become unsplit, at some point in the story, if that's the case, and have an available instance where a previously untraversable area becomes so. At least an interactable, like an NPC who will ferry you from one side to the other? But the zones were gorgeous, the settlements had tons of fun little details, Tuliyollal is, again, the most impressive hub city in the game. (Sorry Crystarium!!! SORRY!) There were places that could have used polish to match it - The settlements Urqopacha felt much more living than Kozama'uka, for instance.

Previous expansion content is starting to suffer. I have NO idea how they are going to manage further re-balancing. Many of the jobs are no longer any fun to play until like, 80 for me. This problem is only going to get worse, and it's going to require major overhauls more and more frequently, and those overhauls are going to simplify rotations and pare down interesting toolsets. I worry!

This game is going to be about itself for the rest of its lifespan. Shadowbringers was the thesis. Endwalker was metatext. Dawntrail is the rehash. It will be all rehash from here on out, mark my words. Unless they are willing to pull back the stakes and refrain from parallels and drop us back into something like HW or StB (which I desperately hoped DT would be!) It's going to be the Azem show forever. Which, again, means the story is now much less important to me in terms of perceived quality. I'm just hoping they get silly with it? I made a post about shark-jumping. I will be clapping like a seal as this story calcifies and crumbles under its own live-service weight. All that lives must someday die. Except our subscription based MMO, which you can play forever. The tension is impossible to reconcile, and this is the way of episodic stories. It's going to get funny. I'm ready.

I... Understand the beef with Wuk Lamat. The data doesn't lie. My girl Lamaty'i has an ASTOUNDING amount of dialogue. Record-shattering. My girl Lamaty'i cannot stop fucking talking. Hear feel think. Big bug. Oh no she's seasick again. I think Sena Bryer's been an absolute trooper, I think this is a star role she should be proud of, and I think she's settled into the character nicely. And also, I get it. Lyse didn't deliver the entirety of the StB script. If this was Alphinaud I'd be seething. But, and here's the kicker, here's why I love her: kibty.

I still hate that fucking train! THE TRAIN IS ONLY A METAPHOR FOR SOCIAL PROGRESS INSOMUCH AS COLONIZATION IS. YOUR WALKABLE CITY LIGHTRAIL IS NOT AN UNCOMPLICATED GOOD, AND ALSO NOT COMPARABLE TO A "TRANS-CONTINENTAL RAILROAD." TRAINS ARE NOT LEFTIST, WHATEVER THAT MEANS. ARE WOMEN BOURGEOIS ETC & also KOANA WAS SO HIGH ON ADOPTEE RECONNECTION HE SUDDENLY DECIDED HE LOST HIS PARENTS AS A SWADDLED BABE, WHICH. OKAY Subjecting me to the entirety of Smile for the first time during the inspirational train sequence probably didn't help me suspend my qualms long enough to huff that Spirit O' Progress. And I had source Jeryk & Train Friends ON my Dawntrail bingo card. I wanted to see it. I asked for this. (head in my hands) Actually, this is something I haven't talked about: I feel really conflicted about Smile! They tackled a lot of kinds of American music for this expansion and normally I would be really into gospel being one of those genres - but god is it a stinker. god does it suck. fuck. I really wanted Alexandria to be a little more experimental for the soundtrack. The gamer EDM thing is low-hanging fruit, imo. I wanted to step into Solution 9 and be as wowed as I was in Tuliyollal, I wanted like, avant-garde jazz or funk or blues. (Hang on I just imagined electroswing S9 and had a coughing fit.) I was even hoping for like, some disconnect between the sonic/visual environment. Haven't fought Dancing Green yet, so I'm excited to hear that track but. They could have been more textured with this. Vanguard having that dubstep breakdown over the Shaaloani music got me READY and then S9 let me down. Every time I go turn in materia clusters it's like stepping into an elevator. Snooze!

In sum: Still unhappy the game has contented itself to discard Tural as a backdrop for inter-dimensional Alexandrian drama. I think Tural was fun, and am sad it did not get more room to breathe. WRT writing about nations, peoples, colonization, technology: there is no winning, but there is trying. I felt like I could see things there that did feel like earnest attempts to engage - traditional ways of life being upended, lost knowledge & skills, indigenous ways of teaching, sharing economies, etc. And also, these themes are being evoked in ways that naturalize them in a way it's fair to file under "a bit noble savage-y" & are divorced from their relationship to colonialism. Why did all of the Hanu forget about the harvest festival that has ensured their livelihood for years on end, and had to be instructed on it by Wuk Evu? Well like, you know. That's how these stories usually go, isn't it? The lazy youth spurn their elders' knowledge, and there is no particular outside force that threatens to destroy indigenous technologies, and no purpose to those technologies being supplanted, Koana just happens to be the World's First Turali Sharlayaboo and the steam locomotive is a net good and obviously no one on the entire continent could have figured out A Balloon without the Studium's help... Hey what's this plot about a moneylender? You know, unless the Hanu were ALL play-acting for Wuk to teach a lesson, as in the quest chain that also occurs in Ok'hanu, and like the cooking contest in Yak'Tel and, well. That's not how it panned out! The Blessed thing was! like. La raza cosmica had to be on the mind, yeah? But... I can't even really articulate anything about the Mamool Ja because the logic of that story section is so alien and inarticulate itself. I think the Yok Huy were underutilized. I think blue-eyed-babyfaced Christopher Columbus in his magic avatar forest hut was weird. I FEEL LIKE I WON'T HAVE AN INFORMED OPINION ABOUT THE POLITICAL BAGGAGE OF DAWNTRAIL UNTIL I REPLAY ARR-StB! Genuinely! I need a refresher! This is a game written by a Japanese team which featured an entire expansion about occupied China! And I was, again, rushing through that! I think a lot of the people speaking about Dawntrail ALSO rushed through that! Because the playerbase EXPLODED with EW, and this is the first expansion where many people have been around for the full dev cycle. But anyway, This was a fraught setting, and it seems like they're eager to abandon it now that it's set up Azem's Weird Cup. That makes me sad, even despite all the failings, because I think they failed in interesting ways, and they were always going to fail, and they were always going to do some things right, and there is no ONE way to talk about these issues, yeah. Biggest gripe is still Xak Tural and the way it was handled, and choosing the spaghetti western vibe over like, the cultures indigenous to the American southwest, that hadn't changed. I wanted to see it. I still want to see it. Me and Erenville are going and you are all invited. But pulling away from text and into Me The Player My Experience: I'm sitting pretty tight with FFXIV. I think I'm in this longhaul style, and again, I am satisfied with it as a game. There is NO way they could have kept up those chops. We got a pretty incredible first run, and I will feel fondly about it as a piece of writing for a long time. And I don't feel like I'm settling! I'm having fun! Higher quality fights in lower quantity is FINE by me! And my favorite thing in this type of game remains the busy work & grind, and the outfits and the decorating. My gameplay experience has not suffered, I am in fact having way more fun now than I was pre-EW.

In sum in sum: I think FFXIV is still pretty good, for an MMO. The format of an MMO is at odds with nuance. The format of an MMO is at odds with a story about grief and mortality. That FFXIV has received its accolades and is being held to this standard is, frankly, insane, what a crowning achievement in narrative design within these constraints. I don't mean to sound like I'm shoveling garbage in my mouth but I don't think I could have taken another ShB/EW type deal. Now, if they would just Slow the Fuck Down and make something that is not trying to match Endwalker's pacing... & I still don't know what Solar Bahamut is. And that scares me.

[maggplays]

Welcome to my dev blog!

I’m Magg, and I write dialogue and events for Stardew Valley. Currently, I have completed (still actively updating) immersive character mods for Sebastian, Sam and Alex. These mods have spiciness levels, sweet is PG, spicy PG-13, and extra spicy NSFW. I plan to continue making immersive character mods until something else strikes my fancy. I’m also an occasional artist, and have a sprite/portrait mod out there for Sebastian based on vanilla style.

So if you’re interested, join me on my adventures… you can also find me on Bluesky, Ko-fi, and of course Nexus.

Current 2025 schedule:

Working on now: Immersive Sebastian v4 anniversary update Immersive Lance (SVE) Killian OC Tohtalem OC (collab)

In the early planning stages: Sebastian Choose Your Own Adventure: This might turn into a "dating game" with Seb, Sam, and Alex with the farmer choosing one at the end Immersive June (RSV) Rey'el OC (collab) Spouse Buildings Sam and Alex updates

Recently completed: Emo Sebastian Sprits & Portraits Update: Released! On Nexus here Immersive Alex: Released! On Nexus here Townsfolk Dialogue Expansion: Released! On Nexus here

See below for a few more details...

Follow my blog to see my current work and progress on my mods, with the occasional squirrel deviation. I have ADHD so my obsessions do change and it is difficult to stay on track, keeping up with this blog is my way of staying on task and completing the mods I’m working on. 

Please leave me feedback, I love seeing comments no matter what they are, and knowing people are actually looking at my work helps keep me going! And it keeps my brain from wandering off too often. Ask questions too, I love answering questions!  

Released mod links:

Maggs Immersive Sebastian Maggs Immersive Sam Maggs Immersive Alex Emo Sebastian Sprites & Portraits Townsfolk Daily Dialogue Non-Smoking Sebastian

[aurelion-solar]

Dev Update: Exalted Skins, Mythic Shop, and Nexus Finishers

Arcane Fractured Jinx - two distinct models across three different forms with their own VFX. Each form also has a unique HUD overlay and unique VO that reflects her at that moment in her journey. You can swap between these versions at any point in-game with Ctrl+5

Acquired through gacha - the base drop rate for an Exalted skin like Arcane Fractured Jinx is 0.5%, but you’re guaranteed to unlock it within 80 pulls, costing 32,000 RP

From patch 14.24, the mythic shop will be re-introducing some cosmetics from previous events such as Legacy skins, event chromas, and emotes from Event Passes, but this time around they will be offered for Mythic Essence

Nexus Finishers - the first is themed around Jinx and will be available from the Mythic Shop for 250 Mythic Essence during the Arcane event

At the very end of the match, a randomly selected player from the winning team’s equipped Finisher will play, visible to everyone in the match. While this first one is themed after Jinx and Arcane, future ones will not always be directly related to a skin.

[bite-the-bloody-hand]

Got some loose meta observations about Daeran floating around my head that might turn into a longer character observation post because I think way too much about where the devs choose to put characters on the map, but like. I love how wherever he's positioned on the hub maps he's always Keeping Watch.

In Kenabras, he's seated right at the door of the first floor bedroom, in the chair that has the best view of the entire Inn. He has an eye on all the exits and is all but guarding the door to the room where everyone sleeps.

In the Crusader camp, his tent is situated in such a way that he can keep an eye on the main entrance to the camp, the commander's tent, and all the communal areas.

In Drezen, I find it very interesting that he's right in the center road to the posh district, where he'd have full view of the markets, the main road, and the Keep. And if Camellia is in the party it's almost like he's barring the way to her moving freely through the city, keeping an eye on her coming and goings.

Then in the Nexus of the Abyss, he's positioned by the fire, the most central area he's been in since Kenabras. (I find it especially compelling because, if you leave him at the camp when going to Colophyr mines, he's the one that organizes everyone to get a secure camp together.)

He's always being watched, and always watching out.