#The designs change a lot but I really like how Emmet looks in the last one

[yanban-san]

if it's not a bother,

could you show some more artwork of yours?

-a person who loves others art🩵

Sure! I've been doing a few sketches of some Android-mas (Yandroids, courtesy of Stardust on Ro's Discord <3) over on Discord- I'll share em here though. ^^

Here's the first one, I got bored when I got the legs lol:

Here's the second attempt- I once again got bored when I got to the legs but not too much

I saw some art of Android Ingo and Emmet with screen display faces and tbh that's my absolute favorite kind of "face" for any robot character- LED screens are really fun and cute looking, imo.

Some Headcanons about the Android boys: ◮ These two are bio-electric androids, rather than straight up machines. They're half synthetic cellular construct, half AI-powered battle machine- And beloved by the public as unofficial heroes and mascots of Android tech. ◮ They are completely autonomous, and can function for years without maintenance- They are self repairing, self fueling, and they were also some of the first androids ever released before someone realized it was a bad idea to give your lethal autonomous AI bots the ability to self-sustain. ◮ They have two "cores" that power their bodies- A biological core, much like a "heart", that supplies their biological functions with fuel, and a power core that provides them with all the power they need for their mechanical functions- They can also use their power core to power other machinery, or give themselves a super-boost in combat if needed. The bio-core is a biological hazard and contains chemicals known to the town of Undella to cause not just regular cancer, but probably Super Android Cancer- Luckily no one's trying to eat them or rub their eyeballs on their hearts. Their power cores, on the other hand, are radiation hazards when exposed- And protected by thick metal and polymer plating to prevent leaks.

◮ They are battle Androids, designed to protect interstellar transit routes or regular passenger transit- Protecting passengers is how they ended up becoming heroes as people recorded their battles against rogue drones and other threats.

◮ They have nanobots- Innumerable armies of miniscule robots inside of them that repair any broken pieces, heal/repair/grow any synthetic cells, or even specialized attack bots that dissolve any foreign materials in their bodies- Or outside. They also come equipped with the ability to synthesize human/pokemon medic bots to stabilize any injured passengers- And they can control their nanobots, as well.

◮ Androids have an extremely long list of precepts and codes they have to follow- If they attempt to disobey their precepts, their bodies literally stop working. Most precepts were things along the lines of the Three Laws of Robotics, but more and more kept being added with various legal cases and lawsuits and eventually P.R cases and public safety. ◮ They have regulators that prevent their synthetic neurons and other biological functions from acting on any... organic urges they might have, despite their genetically engineered origins. Sure would be bad if those broke, wouldn't it?

◮ Their LCD screen displays can make various emoticons for them to convey their meanings- Ingo and Emmet also use their signature triangle smiles to help differentiate the two for maintenance crews and the public.

◮ Also! Forgot to add, their limbs aren't attached to their body normally- They can launch them like drones at targets or grapple things from afar, and they can pull themselves to their limbs if needed.

And finally, some emoticon displays:

[factual-fantasy]

28 Asks! Thank you! :}} 🧜‍♀️

Nope. That's not me. I don't have a tiktok. :/

Remember folks! Like my pinned post says, if you find my artwork anywhere else other than here? Its stolen 100% of the time!

@cat7890

I don't understand what you're asking... <:0

My only opinion is that the eyes are really spooky looking <XDD

@spacewitchgardevoir

Thank you so much!! :DD Unfortunately I haven't thought much of that through yet.. I only have vague ideas so far. Like how the slimes in The Wilds will be hisuian pokemon for example. I plan to work more on the slimes soon! <XDD

@sora-the-air-wubbox (Oh hey! I know of wubboxes! :D )

I have not actually.. are those the roblox guys..? <:0

@an-aspiring-jester

Awe! Thank you!! :DDD I'll have to think of who to pass this to next! :00

AAAA THANK YOU!! :DD I haven't played the slime Rancher 2 demo but I still want to play it when the full game comes out! :))

(PLA inspired comic in question)

AAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Having my artwork compared to the beautiful works of studio Ghibili is such an honor!! 😭😭💞💞💞

And speaking of a continuation.. I actually finished drawing a short comic last night about Ingo and Emmet's reunion. It was all done and ready to post... but then I changed my mind. The quality of the comic was much lower than the PLA comic I just did. No backgrounds, rushed line art.. uninspired house design.. eh. I just wasn't satisfied.

I still plan to post a reunion comic mind you! I just want to put more heart into it and try drawing it again- <XDD

@blbllblblblll

A tempting offer I must say, but I'm still on break from the Octonauts fandom!.. <XD

@neo-metalscottic

Thank you!! :DDD And my favorite slime is the puddle slime.. 🥺💞 and my fave largo has gotta be the Mosaic x phosphor, but specifically the secret style pack version XDD

Now for Boom Boom and Pom Pom.. that's a good question.. I haven't really thought about them :00 I supposed they can be some higher ranking soldiers of some kind! (Also my Koopa Kingdoms has more primitive technology than in cannon <XD. Although they get quite a boost thanks to magikoopas.👀👀)

Also the super ball flower creates some interesting ideas.. maybe it could be a flower that allows Mario and Luigi to turn things into metal? But why would it be a flower.. hmm.. I think I'll have to do a lot of retconning If I wants to add this flower to my AU <XDD

Also thank you for the ask! Always appreciated :)))

@fizzy-stars

XDD Who knows? Maybe they are!

@wolfie-777

XDD Cant say I'll make a comic series for them, but if I did it would totally be like that! Mostly Dink being high energy and annoying the sleepy Doink XDD

So far my intentions are that they don't have a trainer :00

YOU ARE GIVING ME SOOO MANY ANGST IDEAS 👀👀👀

WAAAAAATHANKOTUUUU!!!! 😭💞💞💞💞

@gamesperger

You'd be surprised how often I get told that <XDD

@anikakitty11

AWWW I LOVE LUCAS!!! 😭😭💞💞💞

@samcat2

Draw something for me?.. weeell.... I do love Dusknoir... 🥺🥺👀👀👀

@yourstrulylightstar283

Not sick again, its the same unknown medical problem I've been dealing with for almost a year now.. 😔😔😔Thank you though, I'm doing my best to stay calm and take it easy <:}}}

Hi Timothy! I am afraid :D

His eyes always make me laugh <XDD

I have not.. though it looks good, maybe I should give it a watch! :00

(Furby Grimace)

Oh he's fine. He's just coming to grips with his own mortality that's all <XD

@red1sg0n3

:DD THANK YOUU!! :)))))

@justanintrovertedweirdo

WAAAHHGGGTHTHANK YOUUU SO MUCHH!!!!! 😭😭💞💞💞💞

And I'm so glad you feel the same way about the whole romantic love thing!! Sure they're great an all.. but I feel like the only kinds of relationships I see I fandoms are romantic ships..

Where are all the brotherhood comics? Characters motivated by a deep love for each other but its platonic and not romantic? I have so much more fun experimenting with those kinds of stories!

@cherrycreamfairy

:DDD Thank you! I'm glad to see Jangles getting some love! 🥰🥰

@kirshimadenkisero

XDD Go for it!

I know this was probably a drawing suggestion, but since they're closed now I'll answer it as a question....😅

My favorite legendary is a tough pick.. I love a lot of them.. 🥺💞💞but man, its hard to beat Xerneas. My favorite shiny is also a hard pick.. Its gonna have to be shiny Giratina. With shiny Rayquaza and shiny primal Kyogre as honorable mentions XDD

I know you didn't say this but I'll put it in there anyways XDD My favorite sub-legendary is Suicune. But my favorite shiny out of the sub-legendaries is actually Chi-Yu.. 👀👀

My favorite mythical Pokémon is Celebi , and my favorite shiny mythical is also Celebi. XDD I love that littol onion,,🥺💞💞💞

[subway-boss-jericho]

Queuing posts for most of my AUs! Check out this Masterpost! ᵈᶦˢᶜˡᵃᶦᵐᵉʳ ⁻ ᵖˡᵉᵃˢᵉ ᵈᵒⁿ'ᵗ ᶜᵒᵐᵐᵉⁿᵗ ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ᵗʰᵉᶦʳ ᶦᶜᵒⁿᶦᶜ ᵏⁿᶦᶠᵉ ᵇᵃⁿᵍˢ! ᴵ ˡᵉᶠᵗ ᵗʰᵉᵐ ᵒᶠᶠ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᶦˢ ʳᵉᶠᵉʳᵉⁿᶜᵉ ᵗᵒ ᵏᵉᵉᵖ ᵗʰᵉᶦʳ ᶠᵃᶜᵉˢ ᶠᵘˡˡʸ ᵛᶦˢᶦᵇˡᵉ.

Steady Tracks Do Not Waver

-Premise- On the return trip home from Hisui, Ingo does not return the same as he left. By some unknown cause, he has been transformed into a pokemon- 13ft tall, Steel, Ground, and very very out of his depth, he finds himself roaming the eerily familiar yet unfamiliar tunnels of Gear Station. Desperate to find a way to his "home" and remember who he is, that is when he encounters Subway Boss Emmet.

This story is not about Ingo. Or at least, not about his return. Ingo was taken out of the story many years ago, leaving Emmet behind to pick up the pieces of the life they always meant to spend together. The last several years he has walked without Ingo have forced him into an active, unavoidable struggle with grief and loss, until recent, when he finally began to come to terms with his solo-car life moving forward. However, now things are changing again. In the days leading up to their meeting, he hears rumors of a strange, powerful pokemon lurking in the subway. When Emmet finally stops in the right place at the right time to challenge it face to face- the face looking back is far too similar to the one he lost years before. It all bubbles back to the surface again; now, with an uncanny passenger in tow, he must keep moving forward down these uncertain tracks. Battling with grief once again, as he avoids pushing his old pains onto this new, familiar, face.

-Noteworthy Points- IF THIS AU INTERESTS YOU, please consider reading the prologue and chapter one on Ao3! Steady tracks! This is the one you probably know me for, if you know me at all. My poster boys!! My favoritest guys,, I want to include so many notes but I know most of the notes I want to write are all spoilers. Please poke me to keep writing <3 This AU is not even remotely dead I just have chronic burnout and it WILL continue please bother me about it whenever you want <3

This story is (and probably will continue to be) almost exclusively told from Emmet's point of view. It is a post-canon exploration of grief, change, and how to go on after everything you know is lost. THIS MEANS there is a LOT of discussion of death! NO ONE IS DEAD, but Emmet believes Ingo has died, and regularly experiences grief and/or talks about him as if he is dead. If that still bothers you, no problem! This is not going to be the fic for you. However, if it at all eases you to know that everyone is still alive, then have fun and maybe bring tissues because I really like writing people being upset (and also them getting better but, that involves them needing to be upset first.)

Also! New STIngo reference!! I have been working on updating the shape language of his design to look more like a pokemon and this is the most up-to-date version! If you want to draw him, reference this one! I swear I will get that side view done eventually, I fucking promise.

Enjoy <3 <3 I love this AU a lot.

-Links- Official Writing - Steady Tracks Do Not Waver Artwork - Fanart by Nyacat39 Artwork - Fanart by Dontmineit (1) Artwork - Fanart by Dontmineit (2) Discussion - The Luxury Ball Artwork and Trivia - Official Reference (Outdated) Artwork and Trivia - Updated Reference (Also Outdated) Discussion - "Awla Boah" Artwork - Fanart by Maelysgriffonne Artwork - Fanart by Dontmineit (3) Artwork - Big Nap (Durant <3) Artwork - CH1 Concept Sketches Artwork - STIngo Sprite

[maniacwatchestheworld]

I feel like I should put down my actual thoughts about Ingo balding because I actually do have some thoughts about it and they aren't necessarily simple nor straightforwards ones to describe.

First of all, for anyone who's upset about it, honestly I think that's fair. We haven't had any idea what his or Emmet's hairline has looked like for the past >10 years, and this latest piece of concept art from the artbook doesn't erase the last >10 years of ideas and headcanons that people have had for what their hair looks like. And there are some VERY neat ideas that have been pitched in this regard over the years! Also given that characters within the Pokemon franchise tend to skew younger, I think it was reasonable for none of us to have predicted that he's balding! Personally the thing that I dislike the most about this idea that Ingo is balding is how much it just doesn't mesh well with the shapes at play with his character design. Namely the fact that he and Emmet are very arrow shaped. How wide their jackets splay out, the shape of their sideburns, mouths, eyes, the way their sleeves flare out, and how they're always pointing at things, I think that these are all deliberate character design choices to evoke the idea and image of arrows onto the audience. And I think that their hair should also reflect this arrow motif to their designs. Primarily, I think that their hair, whatever it looks like, should reflect how Ingo is an arrow pointing up and Emmet is an arrow pointing down. And the smooth roundness to this balding concept just... Bugs me... I'd only really feel alright with it if Emmet is rocking one hell of a widow's peak. There isn't a whole lot to Emmet and Ingo's designs that really get across the up arrow and down arrow idea, so to not use that concept in their hair, which is one of the few places where you could play with it (given that they're identical twins otherwise), is CRIMINAL to me! Also him having less hair like this makes me worry about the structural integrity of those sideburns. Those sideburns are beautiful gifts from Arceus itself, and out of anything else for Ingo to lose, PLEASE don't take those glorious, confusing sideburns from us!

Secondly, I'm not entirely certain that this is something that is supposed to be taken as what Ingo's hairline is canonically supposed to look like in the first place. When you look at the concept art, it's pretty clear that the purpose of that image is to give everyone an idea of what Ingo's face looks like when it's not obscured by his hat. The second image of him without hair is there to get an idea of what is going on underneath the coat, aka what he looks like without his uniform on at all. However we all know that we aren't actually going to ever see Ingo without his hat on within the game. And since we're never going to see him without the hat anyway, maybe the concept artists just didn't want to bother with trying to figure out what Ingo's hairline would actually look like, and basically just drew a line so that his head didn't just look weirdly and suddenly blank. Or maybe they did it because they thought it's funny. Or to mess with Ingo stans. In any case, this is concept art, and I don't necessarily think that it's canon, nor that it's even supposed to be taken as canon. This is a character that we've known for >10 years, and maybe they didn't want to step on any toes regarding the designs for his hair and so didn't bother with trying to invent something for this game. Therefore, personally I won't take it as canon unless it's actually shown in one of the games. Additionally, it's not like they can't just change their minds and give him a different design for his hair later on. They've redesigned and changed their minds on character's hairlines in the past. No reason to think they won't do it again.

However all of that being said, I don't entirely dislike the idea of Ingo balding either. In fact many MANY artists have already drawn him in a way that pulls it off well, and makes him look incredibly cute, regardless of the receding hairline. And given that before I am anything else within the Pokemon fandom, I am a Giovanni stan, a receding hairline and lack of eyebrows has never been a problem for me when it comes to my favorite characters. (This isn't my first rodeo in terms of being in complete denial over a favorite character of mine having no eyebrows!) So honestly, I don't mind, and it is a design choice that continues to grow on me.

But also... Ingo balding is probably just the funniest design choice that Game Freak could have made for what Ingo's hair looks like! If this is supposed to be canon that is. In fact, it makes it even better if this was supposed to be the case this entire time! Like... Emmet and Ingo have always looked like they could be anywhere from their mid-20's to their 40's in terms of age. The fact that their hair is naturally white really obfuscates things. But if this balding business is indeed supposed to be canon and these rumors that Ingo is supposed to be in his 50's are true, that means that they're likely on the older side of this spectrum... And just... AHAHAHA! Game Freak just tricked thousands to maybe millions of people into thirsting for a 40 year old man for >10 years! This Japanese sex icon is literally just a balding 40 year old man! That's fuckin' HILARIOUS to me! If Ingo was supposed to be balding this entire time, that makes what happens to him even MORE hilarious! It would really just emphasize how he's Just A Guy™ who was transported to Meiji Pokemon Hokkaido for seemingly no apparent reason! This man really is just a middle-aged rail worker who has no idea what's happening! But also it makes Ingo even MORE of a himbo! My dude, you're 40. WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU DESTROYING EMMET'S POOR ELEKTROSS WITH MOLD BREAKER HAXORUS!? If you're in your 20's and are young and reckless, fine. But you're a fully grown-ass man. You MUST realize what you've done, right!? He's been a grown-ass adult for 20 years and he never figured out that his face isn't very expressive!? Ingo, you dumb but sweet bitch! I love you! And ultimately this is a children's franchise, so the funniest option may just be the best option, tbh.

So yes. I have mixed feelings about all of this. I don't know if I want it to be canon or not. And I don't know what I'm ultimately going to have my personal headcanon be. If I were to draw them without their hats, I don't know which direction I would want to go. If it does end up actually being canon, I can accept that. But I doubt that we're going to actually ever know, so that just leaves me conflicted. And I don't know how to feel about it. It's just kinda... Complicated in a very odd way...

[brickowskibois]

Late nights... or early mornings, depending on how you look at it

A little drabble about Rex struggling to fit in again that I made to cope

"Rex?"

Rex looked up from the blueprints he had been examining, meeting Lucy's gaze in surprise. He hadn't even heard her enter the room.

She stood in the doorway in her nightshirt, hair still rumpled, but her eyes were awake and attentive as they scanned Rex's face.

"Are you all right? I felt you leave bed, and got worried when you didn't come back..."

"Ah, nah, I'm fine, don't worry about it. Just the usual trouble sleeping. Thought a little jaunt through the house could help." Rex smiled slightly as Lucy walked over, taking the seat next to him. "Is Ems still asleep?"

"You know him, he could sleep through a freight train driving right through the middle of the room." Lucy gave a small laugh. Then she leaned over, letting her head fall on Rex's shoulder. "Whatcha looking at?"

Rex tried to ignore his blush, returning his attention to the blueprints in his hands. "Just checking out Emmet's latest project. Looks like he's designing something for Riptide Dave."

"He's going by 'Riptide' now?" Lucy snorted, rolling her eyes. "And here I thought I changed my name a lot..."

Rex chuckled, tilting his head to rest on Lucy's. "Yeah, well, gotta cut him some slack. He's still figuring himself out. Not everyone is as good at that as you were."

Lucy lifted her head from his shoulder to look at him properly, raising a brow slightly. "... I take it you're not just referring to Dave?"

"Oh, here I was trying to compliment you, only to have you go all psychologist on me? How dare you." Rex shook his head in mock disappointment.

"Oh come on, Dangervest, you know I can read you like a book! Don't act so surprised!" She gently took his arm, giving it a soft squeeze, making him look back at her. "I can tell a lot has been on your mind recently. I'm guessing that's why you couldn't sleep...?"

Rex sighed. She really did know him frighteningly well... There was little point in hiding the truth from her now. "... Yeah. I have been doing a lot more thinking than usual... about... myself."

He looked back at the blueprints he held. It was almost impossible for him to believe that, at one point in time, he could have been the one doing this. Designing wonderful things for all of his friends, bringing their dreams to life, creating something new where there had been nothing before.

Rex couldn't remember the last time he had built anything, much less something of his own design. He idly wondered if he even could anymore...

"... Emmet has his construction job, you have your music, but I'm just... drifting. I thought things would get easier with time, not harder... But now, seeing you two so happy and confident in your paths, it just makes it all the more apparent that I... don't have one."

Rex sighed, setting down the design again. "I'm happy for both of you, I really am. I just... It's hard to stay positive when I feel so lost. A majority of the time, I don't even know what the hell I'm doing here..." He bit his cheek, mentally scolding himself. He hadn't meant to say that last bit aloud, Lucy was definitely going to look too deeply into that...

Lucy was silent, no doubt turning over his words in her head. Then she leaned towards him, wrapping an arm around his waist, once again resting her head on his shoulder. "I know how you feel, Rex."

"You do." He had intended to phrase it as a question, but her gentle touch had temporarily robbed him of breath.

"Mhm." She paused, organizing her thoughts. After a moment she nuzzled his shoulder, then continued. "After the rebellion... I didn't know what to do with myself. I threw myself into going full 'apocalypse' because, well, it was something. But now I know that it wasn't quite me. And... I didn't even realize I was pushing you away while I was doing it..." She holds him tighter, giving a quiet sigh. "It's not easy, I know. And you're right, it probably won't get any easier. But there's no rush, Rex. You have the rest of your life to figure all this out. And I have no doubt you're gonna find what makes you happy. Might not be anything quite as exciting as defending the galaxy or pioneering the wild west, but... I'm sure you can find something worthy of you."

Rex beams at her, truly touched by her words. "... You think so...?"

"I know so, silly." She reaches up, angling his face so she could kiss his cheek. "Now... come back to bed. We miss you Mr. Insomniac.~"

Rex chuckles, rubbing her arm gently. "Okay, I guess I can save the worrying for later."

"You better! You still owe us, like..." She glances at the clock on the stove. "... four more hours of snuggles."

Rex snorts, grinning wider. He keeps an arm around her as he stands, moving his other arm under her legs and scooping her up. "Guess I'll start paying up then!~"

[thatrhen]

Shadowbringers, thoughts...

This will likely get rather long winded, so I’ll put it under a cut. This will be all off the dome, so expect it to be a mess and potentially full of holes. (There will be spoilers, obviously)

I went into this expansion without any expectations. That’s not to say I had any expectations going into Heavensward or Stormblood, more that both of those expansions didn’t really give me what I wanted. I was expecting even less this time around, and that might have made things seem better as a result.

The story, this time around, was more enjoyable for me... aside from some glaring issues. I think I’ll touch on those first since they mar an otherwise enjoyable experience (especially in comparison to the last two expansions). Things start out simply enough, but I couldn’t help but feel like the explanations for things we were given, even in the end, were just a little too contrived and formulaic. I’m sure I’m missing some stuff, but given the way the story has gone thus far I’m feeling as though it won’t make much of a difference. The broad strokes are generally well thought out, but the small, more intricate details, tend to get muddled. 

I knew who the Exarch was from the moment I saw art of him. I knew it had to be him due to his lineage, ties to the Crystal Tower, and his face, build, and height. He might as well have just shown up as he had before. It’s like when people in movies go undercover and toss on a hat and sunglasses. The other new character, Ryne, was actually pretty great. I have no complaints about her, aside from her manner of dress. She’s like, what, 15-16 max? Also, while on the subject of Ryne; the whole time she is running about as Minfillia she’s got blonde hair and glowing blue eyes. This reads like the whole Super Saiyajin thing. Like, I don’t really need to get into that, because y’all should understand why and how that’s an issue. The other characters were either two dimensional or just plain uninteresting. I could maybe recall them if I looked at them, but otherwise I’m drawing a blank.

The Scions just felt like, well, the Scions. Despite all the time that they have spent on The First, they don’t really seem to have changed much. Yes, a few of them changed Jobs, but they are still the same uninteresting people. Sure, they have their moments where I find myself actually caring... but often times they’d do something stupid, like yeet themselves into the Lifestream for no good reason and brush it off like it was nothing. Typical fare as far as that lot goes. At least I didn’t have to deal with Lyse.

The first big issue was Eulmore. All of it. The whole thing. The whole place couldn’t possibly function in the manner in which it is presented, first and foremost. Then the whole thing where people live in squalor dreaming of a life of servitude for people who blindly follow a clearly evil tyrant. Said Tyrant is, of course, the atypical fat man child villain trope. You know, because of course he has to be fat, you know. Speaking of fat characters, we have one... But she is, for the most part, also a villain. Just because she was willfully ignorant of what was going on and apologized for it doesn’t really make up for the fact that she was, and presumably still is, benefiting from a system that runs on slavery. I’, all for having fat characters, but could they, for once, be out and out good guys? Oh, and let’s not forget the transformation, because when they reach “god hood”, they then become an aesthetically built, fit, dude. If that doesn’t have connotations, what does?

The second big issue is Emmet-Selch (Or, as I liked to call him: Felch). I’m getting really tired of villains being humanized. He has no room to ask for sympathy. He is, by design, a racist zealot bent on mass genocide. He’s literally Space Hitler, and while it’s nice to not hear people drone on and on and on about Zenos for a change... this isn’t better. It’s worse. I’m so glad we got to actually kill this piece of shit. The Ascians have been fucking with us since 1.0 and we haven’t really done jack shit in terms of retaliation until this moment. Maybe now we can finally go fight the Empire too? Like, we’ve had two goals since go; destroy the Garleans and destroy the Ascians. We’ve been doing a piss poor job of both. It’s almost like we are looking for any excuse not to do it at this point. Like, taking both of them out won’t solve all our issues. We’d still have a lot of stuff that could be done, as shown by Heavensward. Like, shit, we haven’t even been to half of the places on the Source.

There were a lot of enjoyable moments, but there were also a lot of moments where I felt like all the momentum the story had built up came to a screeching halt in favor of fetch quests or exposition that didn’t amount to much. I would have much preferred to just been fast tracked through the story, with each leg of the quests keeping me properly geared and leveled (especially leveled) so that I could enjoy the parts in which I was an active participant in a steady stream. That’s not to say that I didn’t like a lot of the story and details that were revealed over the course of 30 some odd hours of play time. But a lot of it either fell flat for me, personally, or directly contradicted things we’ve been told. Things written in the “lore books” that we have, until now, been able to tote as “word of god”. I feel like I know more and, at the same time, less than I did before. It’s like being at square one, despite all that time that’s passed. That sucks a lot of enjoyment out of it for me.

Gameplay has been a bit of mixed bag. Dark Knight feels simplified, but at the same time I now feel like I have way more to do and not enough ways to do it. It’s about how Bard was feeling for me in 4.0; just too much that can be going all at once and any moment not doing something is wasted. It’s exhilarating, but also draining. I haven’t had a chance to really play anything else, but the time I have managed to put into Ninja, Bard, White Mage, Gunbreaker and Samurai has been alright, but definitely not to the level of enjoyment I have with Dark Knight. Maybe that’ll change once I get one of the other Jobs to 80. I feel like Samurai changed the least with Bard and Ninja following just after. White Mage has, seemingly, been pretty ok but I need more time with it. 

I enjoyed all the dungeons and I especially enjoyed the Trust system. I would enjoy it even more if it didn’t go tits up at 80... While they were definitely slower than an actual party, I could be at the first boss by the time the queue actually popped. Added bonus; I didn’t have to deal with assholes.

I don’t think I’m going to bother with crafting. I spent so much money and so much time working on Gathering and Crafting throughout both 3.0 and 4.0 with little to no reward. The way in which the systems have been changed for them definitely killed whatever vestige of caring I had left in me. As long as I can repair in combat, I’m good. It’ll be nice to have extra money for once as well.

All in all, I feel like I did back in 2.0. Love and hate, but a good mix of the two. Despite all the bullshit, despite all the issues, despite it all I’m back on board.

[kriatyrr]

The many ways in which Fallout 4 could have been better.

I’ve had so many ideas run across my mind that I have no hope of getting them all in writing, but some of the big ones..

During the opening, when your spouse goes into the cryopod in Vault 111, instead of merely waving to you, they could signal “I love you” in ASL. Your character mirrors the gesture and whispers “I love you too, hon.” Even if sign language never comes up in the game again. Just that little thing could mean so much to some players.

The intimidate perk could be used to resolve some situations peacefully. In Diamond city when that guy pulls a gun on his brother, thinking him a synth, you can pacify him if you have the perk - and nothing happens. The security goons don’t arrest him, they just stand around doing nothing and the encounter does not resolve until you put your gun away or walk away, where it resumes as scripted and security shoots him. 

Not to mention in the Railroad ending... Haylen surrendered to me, and then Tinker Tom comes along and fucking murders her anyway. How awesome would it be if you could talk her into joining you, in order to reduce collateral damage. While you’re planting bombs on the Prydwen, Haylen rounds up the squires (+Emmet) and take them down to the ground and away from the blast radius. Or you could even tell Desdemona that no, we’re not blowing up the Prydwen, there are children on that ship. Your plan sucks and I will not do it until you come up with a better one. At least in the Institute ending they had some time to evacuate - the last thing I saw before being forcibly relayed away was Elder Maxson in power armor, running away.

Everyone has already mentioned actually fixing Danse’s dialogue post-Blind Betrayal. A redemption arc would be nice too. He doesn’t strike me as the type of hypocrite who would accept himself being a synth while still hating every other synth in the game.

You learn Danse’s synth designation, but you can’t do a damn thing about it. You can’t ask the Railroad about what happened (granted, they’d have a lot of personnel changes since 97 originally escaped, but Deacon at least was probably still around back then, or they might have records. Or maybe those were destroyed at the Switchboard)

You can’t ask anyone in the Institute. Not even Liam. Obviously he’s too young to have been involved back then, but he’s pretty good with computers, surely he could dig up information about old synth escapes.

you never actually get to see the intel that Quinlan decrypted. All you get to know is he was on the list of “missing or escaped” which Arthur Maxson can’t tell apart from “infiltrator unit” and they announce his synth designation to the entire division as if there is no risk of actual institute infiltrators who can then contact their superiors to get the recall code. So I get at this point that bringing Danse back isn’t an option, but surely there is no danger in Danse existing after the institute is destroyed. When Maxson tells you that we will never speak of this again, I wanted to tell him that I’ll obey that order until the institute is destroyed, but after the dust settles, we need to talk.

Or how about some delightfully awkward situations where BoS members see you with Danse and you run away instead of killing them. Have Maxson exposed as a liar. Undermine his authority. (They sure gave us a lot of fanfic fuel...)

How about being able to assign settlers to corpse disposal or general clean-up and slowly over time get rid of those trash piles that are everywhere and those infernal skeletons that you can’t even drag around. But no, we had to get a mod for that.

How about after getting rid of the raiders at Nuka World, they actually start wearing normal clothing and take off the damn shock collars and get someone to work in the radio station - it’s still on air, Red Eye just left the studio without turning anything off. I bet they meant for that guy in Cappy’s Cafe to take over and then just never finished it.

Also wouldn’t it be cool if you ran into Red Eye in a random encounter that could go many ways depending on what you say to him. I wanted to say I loved his station and it was the only thing I missed from before I killed everybody. Offer him a ton of caps to come back and work for me again.

If you let the raiders take over Commonwealth settlements before turning on them, they’ll randomly show up and try to kill you - again and again, long after you exterminated them at Nuka World. How do they keep getting new recruits when all their leaders are dead? How does the Brotherhood keep getting new vertibirds when they crash all the time? There are always more raiders. Where was this massive population when I was just thawing out? Encounters should get less frequent to reflect the dwindling population.

There is no sense of scarcity beyond the first few levels. Things respawn at a ridiculous rate. Just the other day I was picking up some scavenge, wandered into a different area, backtracked and went through the same area later the same day and everything had respawned. This is so upsetting to me. I want my efforts to mean something. I am cleaning up the commonwealth, one discarded beer bottle at a time, but all the clutter just keeps coming back! I hate it. I have yet to play a character who is a cannibal because I really can’t imagine needing to do that when the world is just full of food. I plant some crops and tell a settler to tend to them, and when I return a day or two later it’s ready for harvest.

Speaking of harvest, there are no seasons. The daylight hours don’t get longer in summer or shorter in winter, there is no sense of the passage of time, the date is just a string of numbers in your pip-boy with no meaning whatsoever, you get a quest and everything just waits on you, for months or years, Father doesn’t start to question your dedication to the Institute when you STILL haven’t relayed to Mass Fusion six months later, nor will he be a good boy and just die already from his rapidly progressing terminal illness, no he’s going to force you to kill nearly all of your friends before he’ll let you actually take over. Not that you get to do ANYTHING at all as Director. All you get is the institute power armor paint job and the ability to buy synth relay grenades. You don’t get to say “Oh by the way I’m abolishing slavery, have fun doing your own menial work from now on” (I keep thinking I’d be able to do more good for the synths as the leader for the institute than I ever could with the railroad) and why can’t I tell Desdemona to go deeper underground and I can just tell Father they had already left when he sent me there to kill them. Why can’t I tell Elder Maxson to go back to the Capital Wasteland because literally no one in the commonwealth wants him there. We have the Minutemen to defend the settlements and the Railroad to fight the institute and all he’s doing is making things worse.

And let MacCready stop being such a deadbeat dad and bring his son to live with us in the Commonwealth.

I loved the Far Harbor DLC, but it was so disappointing that none of the companions other than Nick had any new voice lines. 

Why can’t I bring my romanced companion to the Memory Den for a date in a simulation of the pre-war era? Danse would love that, I’m sure..

why can’t I pet cats? Why didn’t Bethesda spend a quarter of the effort they did on dog animations on making cats look more realistic. They should be napping on beds and chairs, rubbing up against settlers’ legs and tripping them and interacting with their environment too. Have you seen the animation that passes for a cat’s yawn? The first time I saw it, I thought Ashes was about to throw up a giant hair ball.

If you are caught pickpocketing, that’s it, game over. Diamond City Security doesn’t try to arrest you, it’s shoot to kill. Same in the institute. I’m sorry to say it, but that was something Skyrim did better. 

why can’t you romance non-companions like in Skyrim? I want to marry Arturo Rodriguez and be Nina’s step parent.

Synth relay grenades should not work after blowing up the Institute.

The AI should not fall off things quite so often. I should not go through an entire Research Patrol assignment for the Brotherhood only to have the Scribe I’m escorting fall to their death when I take the vertibird up to the Prydwen.

When an enemy panics and decides to run away, they should keep running and not turn around and go right back to trying to kill me seven seconds later.

my companion should not be quite so bloodthirsty. They should not attack a fleeing enemy, particularly a civilian like the institute scientists.

Every companion shouldn’t have all the same animations. Preston should not inhale Jet if you linger around on the top floor of Drug Den. Curie should not smoke.

The companions should have preferences as to what food they prefer to eat, which chems they take or under which circumstances. I gave Danse a whole bunch of different stuff to see what he’d use, and the first time I got in a fight he had taken med-x and berry mentats (fun fact: your companion takes berry mentats and you see the pink haze). You’d think Yao Guai ribs were his favorite things to eat, but no, it’s just that the AI will favor taking anything with damage reduction. Other companions do the same. Synths will not favor Fancy Lads Snack Cakes. Little things like that would have made the game so much more fun to me.

Damn it there should have been a terminal with journal entries in Danse’s quarters on the Prydwen. Or he should have continued to update his terminal at the Cambridge Police Station. Maybe wash his face once in a while after the Prydwen arrives.

You should be able to give people caps. I hate how caps only flow one way in the game. You can take your settlers’ measly pocket change, but you can’t pay them for working for you. You buy property in Diamond City but you never pay taxes or utilities. (that might help with the sense of passage of time).

You build a peaceful utopia at your settlements, but your settlers never form relationships or start having kids now that it’s finally safe to do so. The world could feel a lot more real. (I mean I love how absurd it is, but absurdity and realism can coexist, I promise)

“Crop’s been growing pretty good lately” - there’s never any crop failure, or natural disasters making food a scarcity. Rad storms don’t affect anyone but you, and people will not seek shelter.

Nick and Ada remind you that they don’t need to eat or sleep or anything, but neither does any other companion. I mean I guess they’re adults who can take care of their own basic needs, but they don’t have any money of their own unless you specifically tell them to pick up caps you find.

You never find out where Danse got that lovely suit of X-01 power armor from.

Hate me for this long post yet? I’m not even done but this’ll do for now. Uh, how do I do a Read More thing again?

[jsfmp]

A Recap of the 2019 CWP User Group

More presenters!

With some last-minute volunteering at this year’s CWP User Group at FileMaker DevCon (our 13th annual!), we had a record-high seven people share with the group.*

We saw:

Joel Shapiro @jsfmp (that's me) - details below…

Mark DeNyse @mdenyse, who demonstrated how, with his fmPDA, you can change just one line of legacy FX.php code to use the FileMaker Data API with a new FX.php DataSource class. He then showed techniques for using the Data API to store data passed to a SmartThings webhook, and also demonstrated how to pull weather data from multiple sources (Ambient and Weather Underground) with cURL and the Data API to display in an iOS SDK app. 

Charles Delfs @mrdelfs, who talked about how they incorporate testing at four levels in their CWP service. He demoed UX pre-build testing, automated CWP testing, and FMP testing, using fullstory and UI-licious. 

Steve Winter @steveWinterNZ, who showed us how he uses database abstraction to decouple an app from its underlying database. Using Doctrine and Symfony he demoed how he can change one line of code to switch between the FileMaker PHP API and the Data API, or potentially any other database connection. You can see his slides and resources on his blog

Mike Beargie @MikeBeargie, who showed us some work he's been doing with Laravel Nova.

David Nahodyl @bluefeathergrp, who showed off a clever mapping solution where they’re caching data as JSON in Amazon S3 instead of pulling it directly from the FileMaker database in order to both improve performance and reduce Data API usage. You can see the demo, using customer/customer as the username and password.

Lui de La Parra @lui_dog, who shared his fms-api-client and node-red-contrib-filemaker, along with Node-RED.  “fms-api-client” is a FileMaker Data API client designed to allow easier interaction with a FileMaker database from a web environment. This client abstracts the FileMaker 17 & 18 Data API into class based methods.  “node-red-contrib-filemaker” uses “fms-api-client” to connect via the FileMaker Data API to FileMaker Server and provide FileMaker nodes to Node-RED. Node-RED is a programming tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services in new and interesting ways. It provides a browser-based editor that makes it easy to wire together flows using the wide range of nodes in the palette that can be deployed to its runtime in a single-click.

My turn…

I started out mentioning a couple recent items that all CWP developers should be aware of:

FileMaker Server 17.0.3+ now installs PHP 7, but the PHP API isn’t compatible

For the first time since the FileMaker PHP API came out with FileMaker 9, the FMS installer now installs PHP 7.x.  Unfortunately, the API itself has not been updated to be PHP 7-compatible.  If you haven’t already updated your version of PHP to 7.x, the easiest way to have your CWP site work with PHP 7 is to use Steve Winter’s PHP API modification.  It’s a simple switch of the original FileMaker.php file and FileMaker directory to the same-named versions in Steve’s download. Note: You may separately need to modify your own PHP code to be PHP 7-compatible

Changes to Java in FileMaker Server 17.0.3+

Due to changes in Oracle’s licensing of Java 8, using the Web Publishing Engine (WPE) for either the XML/PHP API or WebDirect in FileMaker Server 17 and 18 now requires us to either purchase an Oracle Java SE Subscription or use a free open source license of Java 8 (OpenJDK 8). Note: The Data API does not use the WPE and so is not impacted by this change.

Mike Duncan @SoliantMike has written a blog post that nicely describes how to deal with the change.

Who’s using the Data API in production CWP sites?

I then took a brief poll, for my own curiosity, to see how many people are using the Data API in their CWP sites.  Very unscientifically… lots of people are(!) Some reported using fmPDA, some fmREST, and some RESTfm which now supports the Data API (yes, there’s fmREST & RESTfm).  Presumably other people are connecting to the API in other ways, but they weren’t sharin’ :-P.

Scrollbars made visible on Mac and iOS — via CSS!

I’ve long been frustrated by the macOS/OS X and iOS default setting that hides scrollbars except when actively scrolling.  I think this is Bad UX, as users often won’t realize that there’s more content for them to see.  Fortunately, scrollbars can now easily be added using CSS (hurrah!)  Technically, the CSS specification is about styling the scrollbar—which on Windows (where scrollbars always display) means you can make them look nicer—but to me the best part is that we can now make scrollbars always visible on Mac/iOS.

See the Pen xxKRgEB by joelshapiro (@joelshapiro) on CodePen.

According to Can I Use, browser support is now good (with the inclusion of the pseudo-elements). Even with no/limited support in Edge & IE, Windows users still get the default scrollbars; they’re just not styled.

Quick tip: Emmet plugin

Just a quick mention of the handy Emmet plugin that can be added to many text editors and IDEs.  It’s installed by default in VS Code (my editor of choice).

Emmet takes the snippets idea to a whole new level: you can type CSS-like expressions that can be dynamically parsed, and produce output depending on what you type in the abbreviation. Emmet is developed and optimised for web-developers whose workflow depends on HTML/XML and CSS, but can be used with programming languages too.

So typing something like:

div.wrapper>h1#main+p

will produce:

<div class="wrapper"> <h1 id="main"></h1> <p></p> </div>

There’s a handy cheat sheet on their site.

And if I may…

*It really was great to have so many eager presenters, especially since just the day before I thought there’d only be three besides myself and we might end early.  My request for you all is: Please consider sharing something with the group at next year's #ClarisEngage… but puh-leeze let me know in advance so I can plan (sleep) better.

I generally get notified about our room in the Spring and then I tweet about it and post about it in the FM Community.  Please let me know you'd like to share as soon as you can after that.  Thanks! :-)

[terryblount]

The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame – Review

Okay, let’s set the tone here. I’ve been playing the Lego games for review since 2017 and all of them have been solid, albeit stale for my taste. I wished that the formula gets a shake in my last review.

With The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame, my wish has been granted. TT Fusion, a team under TT Games, actually made changes for this movie tie-in game! After all these years, they did it! With mixed results.

Presentation

If you’ve played the recent Lego games, you would know what to expect by now presentation wise. Very animated minifig, a lot of objects to smash and see it break satisfyingly. And goofy humour here and there.

Interestingly, The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame relied less of its source material this time. Very little snippets from the film are shown. The voice cast from the movie is not all present here in the game- protagonist Emmet just murmurs sounds like how old Lego games used to, which is fine.

The storytelling also relies more telling than showing. With way too many narrations. And the story suffered as a result. This is no replacement for watching the movie proper.

The sweeping changes, which will be touched shortly, also brings a new UI that feels different from the familiar seen in previous games. And it’s unfortunately bad. It moves a tad sluggish and looks bare bones. The sounds clicks are satisfying but nothing really animates and scrolling through the long lists took longer than I would like.

Just like the previous Lego movie game, the environment is made completely out of Lego bricks. There’s a ton of work here to represent all the models similar to the toys you can buy in stores. I love the fact that in the rare occasion the wall is blocking the camera, the walls not only go opaque but removed partially, exposing the studs. It’s as if the walls are rendered to be Lego bricks, not just a texture.

There are signs of short draw distance and some framerate issues, but it’s not much of a dealbreaker.

The animations are a bit of a mishmash. The Lego movie game brought a lot of the stop motion style to the game. The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame mostly used normal animations bar some exceptions like Unikitty, who can only be animated via the magic of stop motion.

While it’s jarring to see some animations move in different frame rates, they’re still pretty good. Emmet is so stiff he basically just floats upwards when jumping in contrast to the acrobatic Lucy.

Also, minidolls now debut in a Lego game. They don’t have leg articulation, so they flop left and right like how you would try to move them in real life with your hands. Albeit more exaggerated.

Gameplay

The Lego Movie 2 Videogame finally took a big departure from the tried and true Lego game formula. What’s the Lego game formula? You have plenty of characters to choose from each with different abilities to help you progress. There are linear levels designed to be played at least twice to get everything unlocked. More recent games have added open world to the layer as a free-roam activity with side missions sprinkled here and there.

With this game, it’s not a full-on, 3D collect-a-thon platformer. Abilities that lets you progress are now just tools everyone can equip. There’s no real difference when playing one character to another outside of different animations and sounds. You can even mix and match parts of any of the characters as if it’s your custom character.

There are no linear levels, so to say. Everything takes place in one big open world map, with a critical path set of story quest to follow. And each world is littered with collectibles.

The main one is the Master Pieces- you need to have a set minimum of them to unlock the next story world. And there’s plenty, plenty of rewards for discovering every nook and cranny.

The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame passes my basic test to see if it rewards exploration: on level start, turn around and see if there’s something hidden there. More often than not, you will be rewarded for your curiosity and that’s great.

The Lego games ironically have a lot of good destruction for a game series based on a construction toy. At least with the Lego Movie 2 Videogame, building is being put back front and center. A lot of puzzles involved you building certain items you can place freely on the map. It’s not as free-form as you first expected but the slight change of presentation really puts the emphasis that you are a Master Builder.

But unfortunately, it is missing one little ingredient to make it a great platformer: great controls. The game feel is still the same as previous Lego games and that means it’s a litte mushy and mashy. Characters move a little slow and floaty, jumps and ability uses can sometime not register. A lot of tools still use the aiming where you can only move in two axis which works great when levels have fixed camera but not so great in games like this.

Vehicles move laughably slow I find most of the time to just go on foot rather than building up this huge monster truck that feels like pushing a shopping cart through a busy aisle while looking for that one brand of frozen sausages.

Combat is just a matter of mashing one button until you win. Driving cars, boats and T-Rexes with wings instead of legs are disappointingly dull.

Sure, it’s a game series made for kids. But kids also deserve good game feel. It’s okay to make them easy, I just wish controls are tightened up a bit.

But as always, the folks at TT Games certainly put effort and love in the game. Each story world has a boss encounter and each of them involves scaling something to reach its weak point. The first few fights have Shadow Of The Colossus style of scale which is amazing.

Content And Longevity

It took me 8 hours to see the story to the credits roll, and possibly even shorter too if you blazed through it. With only six main worlds plus 1 sandbox world plus five smaller, optional worlds, the game is a little bit on the short side. Like any good collect-a-thons, there’s a secret world to unlock with a hefty Master Piece requirement. It took me up 15 hours until I collect enough pieces to unlock that as well.

The game still supports the usual split-screen co-op play with a friend.

A lot of the missions available still follow what the previous Lego games did so expect the usual race, fight, use this tool and fetch/deliver quests. At least it has some fun writing around it.

Early in the story, you get access to Syspocalypstar, an empty sandbox planet where its inhabitants will ask you to build certain buildings. Also, certain buildings you build will unlock new quests for more Master Pieces.

It’s a fun diversion and can be entertaining to push the limits of the game engine. But it’s not as fully featured as I would want. If there is a terrain editor and a better way to paint ground tiles this would be a pretty nice Lego Worlds mini-game.

The way you collect characters and unlocks are also changed a bit. It has loot boxes.

But wait, don’t go grab your pitchforks. For one, there’s no method on buying any of them with real money. Second, the loot boxes, called relics, can be found in discovery chests that reward exploration. And also, they’re so abundant and can easily farmed. Heck, if you played far enough to reach the secret level, you should have no problems with unlocking all of the items available.

Even with some duplicate drops, you still can easily unlock them all, just not in the order you would like.

Verdict

The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame deconstructs the usual Lego game formula to mixed results. The game embraces the 3D platforming style of gameplay and level design which should be applauded. It also tries to give more player freedom with a seemingly more building mechanics fit for a Lego game.

However, the changes are not enough to mask its mushy controls and lousy UI design. But at least we are spared from horrendous loot boxes.

The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame is not a substitute for the movie proper, but it’s still a good game to play with a friend. The new changes are welcoming signs and good building blocks toward a better Lego game coming out soon.

Played on base PS4. Review copy provided by the publisher

The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame – Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/