#hold on changing seasons reload is on

[mymp3]

GETTING ON TUMBLR TO BLOG ABOUT THE SOUNDTRACK VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!

[rainystrangerthingsimagines]

Falling (Steve x reader)

Warnings: Sad as fuck, blood, death

Note: be glad. This was the original ending to a fic I was working on. Depending on how season 4's part 2 is and season 5, it will change but this was its original ending.

Your heart was pounding in your ears as you raised the rifle. Somehow, you had become the center of this stand off with one of those damn Demogorgon things you heard about from Dustin. "Y/n, do you copy?" Dustin's frantic voice asked. "Yeah, I copy." You said with your freehand on the radio Lucas had handed you. "What's your position" "Fuck formalities Mike, where are you Y/n!?" Dustin asked. "In the woods, DO NOT come for me." You halted. "WHY WOULDN'T WE COME FOR YOU!?" Max shrieked.

The Demogorgon had disappeared but judging by the flickering of your flashlight, it was coming back. You knew this was the end of the line. The gash on your leg wasn't going to allow you to run from this one. You had no choice but confrontation. By running off, you were giving this thing a trail of blood to follow. One that could lead it right to the gang.

"Guys, I want you to know this has been the best summer of my life." You said into the radio. "Y/n, listen to me, me and Robin are coming for you!" Steve's voice said. Your bottom lip trembled. "I love you so much Harrington" you said.

"Y/n, I will be there soon, where in the woods are you?" Steve asked, panic rising in his voice. "Tell my dad what happened to me." You said. "Y/n, baby, where are you!?" Steve asked. "I love you" you whimpered out before Steve heard it. That unmistakable sound he heard once before. Once everyone heard the noise on the radio, all of them bolted out of the car and into the woods, safety be damned.

Robin sprinted as fast as she could, not caring how stupid she might've looked. Steve frantically waved his flashlight around, looking for one clue, one thing that might tell him where you were. "Fucking- where is she!?" Dustin asked. "I don't know, we need to listen out for that thing too." Robin said. Steve finally laid eyes on something. It was too small to be left from a claw. But just small enough to be your pocket knife's carving into a tree. You left them signs.

Steve sprinted, everyone following behind him as they witnessed your final stand. You shot the Demogorgon with the rifle as it roared, you landing the shot. However instead of stunning it, you pissed it off. Lucas aimed the arm canon, prepared to shoot but he couldn't get the clear shot as you hit the ground from tripping over a tree root.

Lucas fired at the Demogorgon, hitting its shoulder. It didn't even get its attention, this thing was hellbent on you. You closed your eyes, accepting your fate as the second group ran into the woods. Eleven's battery was so drained from the last fight that when she lifted her hand, nothing happened. Nancy aimed her gun, firing at it but missing the shot. She tried to reload but that wasn't fast enough.

Not when this thing tore into you. Steve was held back by Robin and Dustin as he screamed, Nancy landing the shot and Jonathan using a can of deodorant and a lighter as a flame thrower. The Demogorgon disappeared, Steve sprinting to your side once Robin and Dustin let go.

You coughed up blood, shaking as Hopper and Joyce ran out into the woods. "Help is here baby, we're all here" Steve said. "I-I'm sorry" you whimpered. "Shhh, don't drain yourself" he hushed. He held your hand, kissing your bloodied knuckles. "I th-thought if I-I got it-it alone-" "You don't have to explain anything" Robin said, holding your other hand. "I love you" you said, looking lazily at Steve. He let out a small sob. "I love you too Y/n. We're-we're going to get you help" Steve said. Hopper ran over. "Alright, give me some space, I need to carry her back to the car." He said. Everyone pulled back, Steve watching as Hopper lifted you. You let out a pained whimper, him apologizing as he walked back to the car.

Steve climbed into the car with you, your head in his lap. "You're going to make it." He said. It was more like he was telling this to himself more so than you. "I-I want you to know that... that the... the fighting... it-it was worth it." You said. He knew what you meant.

Steve and you originally butt heads for so fucking long. You were friends with Eddie Munson, hell even Jonathan Byers called you a friend. You had this easy target on your back as you went about life. You two didn't start getting along until you both witnessed the Demogorgon at the Byers' house and fought the damn thing off. After the shared trauma of that event, the whole group of Nancy, Jonathan, Steve and you all became closer. Everything changed the night of that Snowball though.

Steve and Nancy had broken up, her electing to date Jonathan instead. You had spent most of Steve's break up comforting him. His feelings began to change for you and everything changed when he asked you to dance.

You two had agreed to be chaperones with Nancy. All that night was spent with her trying to set you up with Steve and you could tell, though you never admitted that. The moment happened when she finally left you alone. Steve asked you to dance and he was met with silence.

"You okay L/n?" He asked after the excruciating silence. "Yeah uhm... I..." you shuffled, slightly embarrassed. This spoke wonders on your personality. You were this leather jacket, cigarette smoking, machete wielding badass. The fact that you were embarrassed right now confused the fuck out of Steve. You shuffled slightly in place. "I don't know how to dance." You admitted. Steve blinked. "Wait what?" He asked. "I don't know how to dance! Usually I never go to these things but you asked me to chaperone with you and I did so now I'm here and I thought I could just sit here but now you wanna dance and-why are you taking my hand- Harrington are you deaf!?" You rambled as Steve pulled you onto the dance floor.

"I will teach you, it's easy." He assured. "Is it Harrington? Is it really?" You huffed. He put his hands on your waist. "Your hands go on my shoulders, if you need a guide, look at the kids around you." He said. You put your hands on his shoulder. "And now we sway" he said. "Okay. But see, I'm in heels. One off balance moment and the things that will snap will by my heel, my ankle and my neck" you said making him snort. "I'm not joking, these things are death traps" you huffed.

You fell into a comfortable silence with Steve, simply just watching each other. "I'm glad we became friends." He said. "Me too" you nodded. "I don't know if you realize this Y/n, but you're my bestfriend." He said. "Well duh. I'm great." You said. He rolled his eyes. "Would it kill you to be even just a little sentimental?" He asked. "It might" you teased. He rolled his eyes again, prepared to pull away. "Wait, wait. Fine." You sighed. "Enjoy this moment because this is as sentimental as I get" you warned. He looked at you. "Hating you was worth it if it means I get to be your best friend now." You said. He blinked. "If you tell anyone I said that I will deny-" he cut you off with a kiss, you sinking into his touch. You pulled away with wide eyes. "....Well shit Harrington, if you had done that beforehand I'd be nicer all the time!" You said making him grin.

"I know baby. I know" Steve said softly as Robin climbed into the trunk, looking at you over the seat. "How is she feeling" she asked. "I-I keep" you coughed, blood dripping from your lips as Hopper drove with Dustin in the front seat. "I keep trying to say-say something wi-wise as my-my last wo-words. And so far-" you coughed again, wincing with it. "All I have is-is 'pigeons are-are just street chi-chickens." You said, earning sad chuckles from everyone. "You are going to live through this" Steve said. "I lo-love you" you said. "I love you too" Steve said, his voice breaking. "All-all of you. Even-even the moody ass c-cop" you said. "I love you too kid." Hopper said.

"Du-dustin" you coughed. "What's wrong?" He asked. "Make sure-" you wheezed, your breathing becoming harder. "Hurry up Hopper!" Steve said. "I'm trying." He said. "Make-make sure you take care of- of Steve." You said. "We both will" Robin assured. Robin prided herself on being a realist. She knew damn well that this was it for you. "Promise me-" "stop straining yourself-" "Promise me you will let yourself move on" you coughed out. Steve frowned. "Y/n-" "I want you to have ever-everything. The-the house- the kids. Hell- if you're happy-happy selling Conch sh-shells out the back of-of a van in California- I want you to have it-it." You coughed. "Y/n-" "Promise me" you pleaded. He closed his eyes, holding your hand. "I promise." He said softly.

Hopper pulled into the hospital, him unloading you. Doctors ran off with you, all groups meeting in the waiting room. Steve paced, running a hand over his face.

You sat on the counter as Steve flipped a pancake. "Have I mentioned how hot it is that you can cook?" You asked. Steve chuckled. "I am so glad your parents are stuck in Detroit" you said. "Believe me, I'm a fan too. Especially if it means you get to stay with me." He said. "Please, your parents love me so much, I could easily stay here anyway." You laughed. He chuckled. "Yes but you couldn't be walking around in just my shirt and boxers though." He said, looking at you as you bit into a piece of toast in his t-shirt. "Valid point." You said with a grin.

He cooked silently for a few moments. "What if we got our own place?" He asked. You nearly choked. "Don't get me wrong, I love living rent free but... I think I love waking next to you more than anything else." He said. You looked at him shocked. "...did you suffocate on your toast-" "no I just... are you serious?" You asked. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" He asked. "Okay Harrington, I'm making a deal. Laying all my cards on the table." You said. He looked over. "One year of us together. And I will gladly move in." You said. "Seems fair. And logical." Steve nodded. "You aren't just dating me for my looks babe." You scoffed. You heard the house phone ring and you sighed. "I swear to god if that's my dad, I might scream." You said.

Hopper bounced his leg as Mike had his legs in his chair. Will stared out the window as the morning sun broke over Hawkins. Joyce sat next to Hopper and Robin was trying to distract herself with a magazine but failing miserably. Dustin was watching Steve pace, Jonathan holding Nancy's hand.

"If I just landed that shot." Nancy kept thinking to herself. Eleven felt more guilty than anyone else. She had taken one of those things down before. That should've been easy. But her powers were dead along with her battery. Max kept looking over at Lucas as he held your radio. The doctor stepped in, everyone looking up. "Hopper?" He asked. "Is she okay?" Hopper asked. "May I speak to you in priv-" "this is family doc, anything you say to me will get to them." He halted. The doctor nodded and sighed. Robin stood up, bracing for news. If it were good, they wouldn't need to speak about it in private, right?

"Hopper she... she tried to fight." Sound drowned out for Steve as his legs gave out from underneath him, Hopper sitting back down with his face in his hands. Joyce pulled Hopper into a hug as Steve sobbed into Robin's shirt. Dustin hugged the two teenagers as all groups felt a new sense of heaviness.

You were gone. That girl who protected them, the girl who played d&d, the girl who's laugh lit up a fucking room, all of that was gone. Eleven put her face in her hands, sobbing as Mike hugged her. Hopper hugged Eleven as well, her holding his arm as she cried. Hopper saw the blue band on her wrist.

"What's that?" Eleven asked you. "This? Oh this was my little sister Sara's." You said, sitting on your bed. "Sara." Eleven repeated. "Yes. Sara. Did dad tell you about her?" You asked. "Gone." Eleven said. "Yeah. Died when I was eleven." You said, recalling that terrible day. You knew your dad blamed himself for that. Even though you knew it was beyond his control. You looked over at Eleven. "I swore I'd never take it off unless" you lifted Eleven's wrist. "I had another sister." You said, slipping the blue band around her wrist. "Sisters." Eleven said. "Yeah. You and me kid." You nodded, her hugging you. "Promise you'll never take this off." You said. Eleven nodded.

"I promise"

[l3rking]

We got a HUGE Dev Insight post today full of the nerdy detail I love reading about. I'm gonna try and point out the big stuff and summarize the longer wordy bits.

WEAPON BALANCING

This first part is just going over weapon Usage Rate/Kill Rate pre and post mid season balance patch across both high skill and all-skill lobbies. TLDR is Immortal was top pick in high skill lobbies despite not performing higher than intended. Top performers were Hand Cannons and Pulse Rifles (Bungie once again proving airmchair dev pvpers wrong). Post patch Hand Cannons and Immortal stayed the same and Pulses went down a bit.

Interestingly, across all skill lobbies, Auto Rifles were some of the highest performers. Both in Usage and Kills. Hand Cannons, however, were still the most picked. Peak shooting and playing cover are ubiquitous to higher skill tiers, preventing autos from becoming too effective in those particular lobbies. Thus, the Hand Cannons come out. Really neat stuff. Check out the graphs on the OP.

SEASON 22 WEAPON BALANCING (the one about the Range rework)

Double Special will no loner drop more Heavy than intended

Although I will say, unless they addressed how much special you can get off Heavy kills, I don't see this changing the effectiveness of double special too much. We'll have to wait and see.

Range. Range and Zoom are being decoupled. Mid Range options are being brought closer together and down in regards to effective range and damage falloff. At 100 Range stat: Hand Cannons, Autos, and Sidearms are going up. Pulse Rifles and SMGs are going down. Bows and Scouts will remain the same. Several exotics received hand tuned adjustments (i.e. Ace of Spades (when Memento Mori is active) damage falloff range penalty has been increased to 15%, more on the OP).

Weapon Archetype Adjustments

Hand Cannons. On top of the range buff they will receive:

General

Increased reload speed at 0 stat by 15%.

PvE Damage

Increased damage against minor combatants (red bars) by 20%.

Increased damage against major combatants (orange bars) by 75%.

Heavy Burst

Changed Warden's Law to be the first member of a new sub-family, Heavy Burst

Fires a 2-round burst.

Bows are having their projectile adjusted to be more reliable.

SMGs. 750s have been 720s this whole time (visual UI bug) and will show the appropriate RPM now.

Sidearms. Aggressives are receiving a bodyshot damage nerf. 32 to 30.

Pulse Rifles. BXR is back to 20 zoom

Shotguns. Please use The Comedian (UI bug fixed).

Fusions. Fixed a bug with crafted fusions, charge times, and damage

Heavy Wave Frames. Made it harder to kill yourself with.

Swords. This is an enormous rework. The TL;DR is Sword Guard is about to be way more effective. No longer drains energy while guarding. provides 82.5% to 95% damage resist (whoa). Has duration increased across the board and increased movement speed while guarding. Huge.

Exotics:

You can now use the bayonet on the Monte Carlo (new catalyst)

Verglas Curve works with Fissures now.

DMT and Quicksilver got bug fixes.

Two-Tailed Fox + catalyst now fires a 3 rounds of rockets instead of 2 (with an extra rocket in the 2nd)

Le Monarque. Hoo boy. Is being converted to a Lightweight bow. Damage is going down. Rate of Fire is going up. Damage over Time effect duration down from 3 to 1.75 seconds. Same DoT damage as before (more per tick, 6 ticks). Poison damage INCREASED 50% in PvE. Net buff for PvE. Obvious nerf for PvP.

Vex Mythoclast's RPM is being reduces to 360. Increased damage against minor combatants (red bars) and major combatants (orange bars) by 25%

Tommy's Matchbook scorch stacks adjusted but overall the same (w/Ashes)

Touch of Malice got some big changes. The Blight will now stun Unstoppable Champs and deals Arc damage. The Final Round will no longer kill the player and instead hold you at 1HP and deals 20% more damage in PvE. Self damage reduced from 10 to 7. Health on multikills up from 30 to 75 and now functions like Unrelenting. Excellent excellent buffs. The Scout Rifle Enthusiast Club will be ecstatic.

Cloud Strike will be less effective vs players. Lightning strike kill distance reduced.

Wicked Implement also getting some buffs. The timing window for Creeping Attrition has been increased from 3.5 seconds to 4.5 seconds. You can now also active Tithing Harvest by destroying Stasis crystals. The catalyst now gets Headstone (yay). I'm personally very excited about this.

Perk Changes

Bipod is getting it's nerf to damage reduced.

Envious Assassin's weird timer has been removed. Much easier to activate now.

Over-Under now does bonus damage to Woven Mail, combatant shields, and the overshields provided from Dark Cabal and Lucent Moths. Still not a good perk.

Under Pressure. Too good on Fusions. 25% nerf to accuracy scalar.

Shoot-To-Loot works with explosive rounds now.

Bug fixes to Valiant Charge, Ambush, and Explosive Light.

Chill Clip will now take 3 shots to freeze. Slow stacks reduced from 60 to 40. Big nerf. RIPtide amirite?

CRAFTING ECONOMY CHANGES

They're essentially buffing how much weapon XP you get across the whole game. Neomuna red borders will be easier to farm.

And that's about it as far as what you need to know. Some very very nice changes in there. Very excited about seeing two Exotic Scouts getting substantial buffs. Range rework seems like a net positive change. I suspect Scouts may be more useful now that their ranges just got a lot more rigid. I hope the Hand Cannon buff feels substantial. I've been itching to use them in PvE again for a long time. The insight on PvP usage was very interesting to see. I love this kind of stuff but it can seem a little dense in places. Hope this helps!

[kaisertheadvisor]

It's that time again! Time for "Persona 3 Fun Facts I found while browsing the internet for info because P3 Reload is on it's way"!

Alright, here's what I'm able to discern. Back in March 2006, Famitsu released a special DVD to act as the first trailer for Persona 3. It was also released to the web as well. I've linked a YouTube upload, as well as an upload on the Internet Archive in much higher quality.

https://archive.org/details/persona-3-famitsu-march-24-2006-promo-dvd

Now, here are the things I found interesting. First off, it uses some early tracks. The ones that I know have the most differences compared to their final counterparts are "Burn My Dread-Last Battle" and "Want To Be Close". (my theory is that the vocal mix for those tracks were not finalized at that point, so they used those early versions without Yumi Kawamura and Lotus Juice's vocals) We even hear the unused versions of "The Voice Someone Calls" and "Master Of Tartarus" that are found in the game files in this trailer! "Burn My Dread", "Changing Seasons", "Troubled", and "Master Of Shadow" sound the closest to their final versions. (though "Master Of Shadow" has a unique intro and outro made for this trailer.)

Next, onto gameplay differences. One thing that is pretty consistent in the earlier gameplay segments is that battle backgrounds look radically different from their final counterparts. Course, I could not snip any footage of those without significant motion blur.

Some other differences I noticed compared to the final game include:

Mitsuru's hair color being RADICALLY different compared to the final game in this shot from an anime cutscene.

Fuuka's little Christmas tree being present during the Protag's arrival.

Certian scenes having different lighting, for example, the protag's invitation to S.E.E.S., and Natsuki in the dorm room during the June Full Moon Mission.

Fuuka is somehow the navigator during the May Full Moon, even though she doesn't join until the next. (also notice the different HP and SP counters as well)

An unused Chihiro sprite with her holding a clipboard, that doesn't appear in the final game (Correct me if I'm wrong). Interestingly, this sprite is present in both the P3 artbook as well as her trading card in the Persona 3 Atlus Frontier Works trading card sets (which I'd like to see some high quality scans of someday).

So far, that's all I've been able to pin-point, but let me know of other differences that I missed. God, this deep dive into Persona 3 knowledge is getting insane for me. But who knows? Maybe I'll find even more obscure P3 information that surprises me over time.

[simstryingtheirbestok]

I can't get David home from university.

I haven't tried everything, but I've tried most things: reloading from different save points, removing Traveler, removing all mods, restoring all mods, restarting Origin, restarting the macbook... according to the ErrorTrap call stack, it's bombing out in a call to have him change his outfit without the spin-around animation. There's a null pointer either being passed into it or otherwise occurring.

I thought that might be the game trying to put him into his outerwear upon his return home, because the seasons are different--he went home from university in the summertime, but it's only spring in Riverview. So I tried having him get in the moving van already wearing his outerwear, but that didn't fix it. I'm wondering now, is it trying to put him in graduation robes? He didn't actually graduate, but who knows with this broken game? Or, very possibly, it's nothing to do with the outfit at all. Maybe the null pointer is supposed to be pointing to him, because the interface that loads in Riverview is Sim-less.

Oh well, isn't that all very boring? I only meant to say that everything's on hold until I get this sorted out. If I can't get it sorted out, I'm reloading his last Riverview save and I'm gonna cheat the fuck out of him to get that goddamned rebel influence. Because I am not doing this again. No way.

edit: Someone at nraas fixed their similar issue using a test version of Overwatch, so I'll try that.

edit 2: Test version Overwatch was no match for EA's fuckery. Does anyone have any experience resetting the entire university town...? 😂

edit 3: Resetting the entire university town certainly didn't make things any worse. Unfortunately, it didn't make things any better, either. Gonna try rolling the save back to the previous day... if I have one from then. I think I do.

edit 4: I think I can at last claim to have tried everything. To hell with it, Riverview David is going to Fakeversity via Master Controller.

[marebear-and-her-digidiary]

March 2024 Goals Update 🧸🌙🧡

Home:

Paint craft room closet doors-not until spring

New tank for the Lizard of Oz- DONE!!! ✅

Personal:

Grow out my hair, no dying or cutting it- Last haircut was February 2024

Study 30 minutes a day about spirituality- in my own way, yeah!

Go to two workshops- not yet

Go to the observatory- Summer!

Fitness:

30 minutes to one hour of exercise per day, 5-6 times a week- hoping to build a routine that works for me to be consistent!

Aim for 10k steps a day- I've been better!

Learn to rollerskate- not yet- warmer seasons

Explore two new hiking trails-warmer seasons

Hobbies:

Sewing- on hold, sewing machine is out of commission, update is sewing machine is still not good but is just waiting for a part!

Sew one spring/summer dress, bell sleeve 60s swing style dress-not yet, this might not happen and that's okay!!

Use up fabric stash with various projects or one big patchwork project-not yet

One embroidery project-✅DONE, Mom's Embroidery #2

Reading

Read 12 books in total-Started The Hobbit! Having a good time so far!

Read 3 Classic Novels-not yet

Read one old forgotten favourite-not yet

Movies and TV

Re-watch The Lord of the Rings trilogy- 1/3

Watch the Hobbit movie series-0/3

Watch the new season of Rising of the Shield Hero-not yet

Watch the new season of Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear- not yet

Spice and Wolf- not yet

Re-watch The Big Bang Theory- not yet

Watch the new season of Young Sheldon- not yet

Re-watch Toradora!- I only have like 7 episodes left, will be done by next month

Re-watch Bones-season one! Haven't watched more

Gundam series watch- finished the Advent of The Red Comet and really enjoyed it! Continuing on with my UC timeline watch list! Plus the hubby and I have been watching GBF together, it's his first Gundam anime so it's a nice starting point as a stand alone spin off! I love diving into new hobbies with him ;-;

Crafting:

Nature walk journaling (foraging, birdwatching, stargazing, etc)- have the journal, have not started lmao

Fire starter perlers- ✅ Torchic & Cyndaquil

Crochet blanket- ✅DONE! Turned into a loom knit plushie hammock for our spare room!

Complete one model kit or 3d puzzle- THREE DONE!!! ✅ Orange Haropla + Chinagguy + Beargguy III

Video Games:

Persona 3 Reloaded- Started!!! We got the physical copy of the game!

Persona 5 Tactica- dropped

Metaphor: Re Fantazio Fall 2024

Visions of Mana 2024

EC: Hundred Heroes April 23, 2024

Finish FF7R:Intergrade

SMT:3, started but then dropped for P3R

Highlights:

I quit vaping!!! March 27th!! So far so strong. I'd been without nicotine since just before the winter holidays and now going without completely!

We moved the CRT into the living room! Now we have both functional retro and modern gaming setups!! I'm obsessed, I started replaying Dead Space 2 and I love the feeling and sound of the hum of a crt and a PS3 booting up.

I made a bunch of perler bead bows and other perler crafts for the craft room walls! It's so cute and I love it so far.

We were kindly gifted a little orange and green mushroom led neon sign that we put in the craft room!

We started displaying all our cute lil pins on a corkboard in the craft room! Plus our con badges and con pins. It's nice to have memories of the summer we spent as my hubby on staff for a local con and I was a volunteer. I did maid cafe that year and it was such a fun time. It's been so long, I can't believe how much things have changed! It's been nice to be able to have those things out on display and look back fondly!

Got our sentimental stuff stored into proper boxes! Glad to have it all done.

I started connecting with people I've known for years but not necessarily very close with which has been nice! I worked with an old friend that I used to work with at a local hotel and she's just such a delight to reconnect with!

Not many more highlights to add without it being a mile long LOL so I'll keep it brief with these! April is our anniversary month 🥰 I can't wait to celebrate with my boy with some time off!

[futuresconnected]

Falling Down the ARPG Hole

Another Sunday, another blog about what I've been playing recently!

Here in the weeks leading up to the RPG-pocalypse that is the period from Feb 2nd-???, before my life is consumed by Persona 3 Reload, FF7 Rebirth, Dragons Dogma 2, and Granblue Fantasy Relink, I've found myself completely in the rabbit hole of Diablo-style ARPGs, a favorite genre of mine that I haven't taken a deep dive into in many years.

I talked some last time about Path of Exile, which at this point I think I'm done playing for the season, but had a real blast with. I dumped like 100 hours in that game over a couple of weeks, made a build stronger and more expensive than anything I had made previously, and got to see a lot of cool stuff in that game that I've never encountered before. I thought for a bit that that would be the end of it, but another one of my friends in an effort to spend his time while sick has gotten really into Last Epoch, another game in this genre which has been in Early Access for a while but will be releasing into a full version in a few weeks. I'd heard about the game over the years as it was in EA, but hadnt really been drawn to it, or knew much about it. However, now I've had a good taste, and wow!! This game really has the sauce to stand and be counted amongst the really good games of this genre so far.

The big things for me with this game is that it has a lot of the depth of skill customization that you find in something like Grim Dawn or Diablo 3, without the bloat and brain-genius complexity of Path of Exile. Being able to load up my characters passive trees and skill trees and see that I have a lot of options that would often meaningfully change the role of that skill in my kit, while still being easy enough to understand (i.e searching for "fire damage" and taking anything that makes my fire damage better) that I've cruised through the main game fairly easily just sightreading and not following any guides. So the gameplay is great, and the endgame system of the Monoliths takes good bits of PoE's map system and the rifts of Diablo 3 to make something that is complex enough to tickle the brain while still being easy enough to just load up and blast guys. Really really impressed with the game so far! Plus it doesnt hurt that you can actually have a really fun Necromancer build in this game, something that games like Diablo 4 are just completely missing. Very excited to see how the game develops!

I really do want to get back to my Like a Dragon Quest soon, but that might be for the month of February since I will be streaming Persona to a friend of mine, I'll need something else to take up my own personal time.

FGC Corner

Been a minute since I updated the FGC corner, here's the latest!

As much as I've loved playing Narmaya in Granblue Rising, I've come up against the fact that she really is a good deal more complex to play than any character I've played before, and while I do love the playstyle and combos that she offers, I think that for now I'm going back to my first love, Siegfried, a guy with a ton of armor and a big sword he swings around (AKA the most me-coded character that has existed in a fighting game). I've been having a great time playing him, and in fact having some more success with him as well. I also watched a lot of the coverage for Frosty Faustings this weekend, which is a large anime fighter tournament that happens in Chicago every year. Watching that just made me so so excited to go to Combo Breaker in May, I think that me and a friend of mine might be the kind of people who make or print some signs to hold up to the stream cameras for silly good times, but also just the idea of being in that space and taking in all the emotions and hype of the crowd is so exciting, I dont think I've really done something like this before! So please look forward to all the pictures, videos, and stories I will have from that event, but in the meantime I gotta get my grind on.

See yall next time!

[swayaminfotech]

The Future of Web Development: Trends and Technologies to Watch

Web development is a rapidly evolving field, constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible on the internet. As technology advances and user expectations continue to rise, staying ahead of the latest trends and technologies is crucial for web developers and businesses alike. 

The digital landscape is constantly evolving, and web development is no exception. From the rise of mobile devices and the increasing demand for seamless user experiences to the emergence of new technologies like artificial intelligence and voice user interfaces, the future of web development holds immense potential for innovation. By understanding and harnessing these trends and technologies, developers can create websites and web applications that are not only visually stunning but also highly functional and user-friendly.

In this article, we will delve into the exciting world of web development, discussing the trends and technologies that will shape its future. From the growing importance of progressive web apps (PWAs) and the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) on web experiences to the rise of voice user interfaces (VUI) and the dominance of mobile-first design, we will explore the forces driving change in the industry. By gaining insights into these trends, developers can stay at the forefront of web development and create websites that are future-proof and ready to meet the evolving needs of users.

Join us as we embark on a journey through the future of web development, exploring the trends and technologies that will define the digital landscape of tomorrow. Whether you are a seasoned web developer or just starting your journey, this article will provide valuable insights and inspiration to help you navigate the exciting and ever-changing world of web development.

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) – Bridging the Gap Between Websites and Mobile Apps

Progressive Web Apps combine the best of both worlds by offering the responsiveness and offline capabilities of native mobile apps with the accessibility and discoverability of websites. We’ll delve into the benefits of PWAs and why they are gaining traction among developers and businesses.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) – Enabling Intelligent Web Experiences

AI and ML are transforming the way websites interact with users. From chatbots and virtual assistants to personalized content recommendations and smart search algorithms, we’ll explore how these technologies are enhancing user experiences and optimizing web development processes.

Voice User Interface (VUI) – Embracing Voice-Activated Interactions

With the rise of smart speakers and voice assistants, voice-activated interactions are becoming increasingly prevalent. We’ll discuss the impact of VUI on web development and the challenges and opportunities it presents for developers.

Single-Page Applications (SPAs) – Enhancing Performance and User Experience

SPAs offer seamless, fluid experiences by dynamically updating content without requiring page reloads. We’ll examine the advantages of SPAs, their impact on performance, and the frameworks and libraries driving their adoption.

Responsive Web Design (RWD) – Prioritizing Mobile-First Experiences

As mobile devices dominate internet usage, responsive web design has become a necessity. We’ll explore the principles and best practices of RWD, including fluid grids, flexible images, and media queries, to ensure optimal experiences across various screen sizes.

WebAssembly (Wasm) – Unlocking High-Performance Web Applications

WebAssembly is a low-level, binary format that enables developers to run high-performance applications in the browser. We’ll discuss the benefits of WebAssembly and its potential to revolutionize web development by bringing desktop-like experiences to the web.

The future of web development is filled with exciting possibilities. By embracing trends and technologies like Progressive Web Apps, AI and ML, VUI, SPAs, RWD, and WebAssembly, developers can create innovative, user-centric web experiences that meet the demands of the modern digital landscape. Staying informed and adapting to these trends will be essential for businesses and developers to stay competitive and provide seamless, engaging experiences for their users. The future of web development is here, and it’s time to embrace it. You can contact Swayam Infotech for web development services and schedule a meeting for a detailed discussion.

[lavieencis]

i’ve been playing Farm Manager 2018 and it’s so buggy and badly written. If i save the game & quit while some employees are doing certain kinds of tasks, when i reload the game they’re not doing the task but also are still assigned to the task. Resolving the bug requires repeatedly reloading the game until it works. i swear i could write a more reliable game than this. however. i do enjoy it. it’s pretty well balanced, has enough stuff to keep a player busy without ever being 100% idle. My other complaint with the game is that the campaign is the tutorial, but the tutorial-campaign just keeps going and there often isnt enough guard rails/guidance to prevent you from overspending your money from one quest to the next. For example, you have your starter money that’s supposed to get you through some portion of the tutorial, but they dont prevent you from spending all your money right at the start, and they give you enough downtime to want to spend it. What a lot of games do instead is control in-game time to make the tutorial completable in just a few hours--prevent seasons from changing to give a newbie farmer the space to slowly plant their crops, skip a few months to instantly have crops be ready to harvest, that kind of thing. That prevents users from misbehaving and spending all their money just before being asked to spend $100k on a quest--far more than they can easily or quickly generate based on their current income streams. You could easily argue that i’m a bad player and should have only done what they asked me to do, and I don’t have too much of a retort, really. I think a tutorial should hand-hold you through the process of playing the game. Mistakes the player makes should be pointed out but easily rectified/overcome by the player. It shouldnt take hours/days of playing in real time to overcome an issue I introduced by doing something the tutorial let me do. It’s just not fun to feel like you’re playing catch-up for hours or days in the tutorial of a game, aka the “easy part”.

Anyways, the rest of the game is fun. It’s got reasonably complicated mechanics, where crops can fail if they don’t get enough attention, are planted too early or too late, if the soil quality drops too low, and presumably other reasons. Farm animals get sick, require special trips from the inseminator person to reproduce, and require some level of diet diversity. Employees can farm fields by hand or with machinery, and specialized tools are required to do various tasks for various crops. There are multiple tools required just to plant every kind of crop, let alone maintain and harvest them. Some plants require multiple tools just to harvest the one crop! It’s quite good. The relentlessness of the clock also is compelling. i’m using barely half of my current land area and i’m barely able to get all the crops in the ground before it’s too late in the season for them to mature in time.

I just wish the tutorial-campaign was a bit better designed and that there were fewer bugs.

[thetoxicgamer]

Destiny 2 Trials of Osiris Map and Rewards This Week

Bungie's weekend PvP event, Trials of Osiris, draws the most devoted players to the game and offers some of the greatest gear around. The most accomplished players can even get Adept weapons, which offer an extra perk slot and better stats when masterworked. There is a catch, though: in order to enter the Lighthouse and get that wealth, you must go seven games without losing. But, if you’re up to the challenge, then it’s time to equip your best Destiny 2 Warlock build, best Destiny 2 Titan build, or best Destiny 2 Hunter build for a chance at glory in the arena. If you’re new to Trials or just want a refresher on what’s new in the game mode, our Destiny 2 Trials of Osiris guide has everything you need to know. What time does Trials of Osiris start? Trials of Osiris starts every Friday at 9am PST / 12pm EST / 5pm UTC and will stick around until Tuesday at the same time. What are the Trials of Osiris Adept weapon and map this weekend? The Trials of Osiris Adept weapon for the weekend of December 30 to January 3 is Unwavering Duty, a legendary machine gun. It is one of only a few weapons that can roll with Subsistence and Killing Tally, which amounts to buffs to both reloading and weapon damage. To earn the Adept version of this weapon, players must go Flawless on this weekend’s map, Eternity. When masterworked, Adept weapons get +3 to every stat (except impact), plus the usual +10 stat, and are the only guns that can equip powerful Adept mods. After achieving Flawless, every additional win has a chance to drop bonus Trials Engrams, adept weapons, prisms, and Ascendant Shards. This is true even if you lose your Flawless status. The Trials of Osiris Adept weapon pool for the season includes the following: - Burden of Guilt legendary fusion rifle - Forgiveness legendary sidearm - The Inquisitor legendary shotgun - Whistler’s Whim legendary bow - Exalted Trush legendary hand cannon - Unwavering Duty legendary machine gun Trials of Osiris rewards However, even if you don’t manage to go Flawless in Trials of Osiris, you can still earn some great rewards. Simply playing Trials grants players Trials engrams, which, when not focused, will grant a Trials item not already in the player’s collection. Additionally, you’ll have a chance to earn Pinnacle rewards for participating in matches. Players can also earn the following based on reputation ranks: - Reputation Rank 4: Upgrade Module (2) - Reputation Rank 7: Enhancement Prism (3) - Reputation Rank 10: Trials Weapon (Changes for each rank reset) - Reputation Rank 13: Upgrade Module (2) - Reputation Rank 16: Trials Weapon (Changes for each rank reset) Trials of Osiris also drops a special unique armour set as well. How to start Trials of Osiris You can start Trials of Osiris in Destiny 2 by visiting Saint-14 in the tower and picking up a Trials passage. Once you have that, simply assemble a team and head to the Crucible playlist and it’ll be there waiting for you – just like how Iron Banner works. If you don’t have a team, we’d recommend checking out the Destiny 2 PC LFG Discord. You can find players there who will be doing normal Crucible, Iron Banner, and PvE activities such as any of the raids, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gooi0jKJ7GY What are Trials passages?Trials passages track your progress through Trials of Osiris, but they each come with a unique perk. The four Trials passages are: - Mercy – forgives one loss every new run - Ferocity – grants a bonus win if you can get to three without losing - Confidence – gives you a bonus reward from the Flawless chest - Wealth – increases the Trials tokens you get for winning matches How does Trials of Osiris work? Destiny 2 Trials of Osiris is a three-on-three elimination-style PvP mode. That means when the other team bests you in a fight you won’t be able to respawn unless someone on your team resurrects you. To do that, they have to get to your ghost and hold down the resurrect button for a short amount of time. If you take out every member on the opposite team, you win the round. Each game is done to the best of five, so you’ll need to win three rounds to take the game. Rounds are timed, however, to encourage players to engage in combat. If time runs out, a flag will spawn in the middle of the map, and the first team to take it wins the round. If that fails to happen, the round is a draw. Destiny 2 players in the lighthouse And there you have it, everything you need to know to get you started with Destiny 2 Trials of Osiris. If you’re unsure of what weapons to take in, then you should check out our Destiny 2 best PvP weapons guide. The rest, of course, is up to you – good luck! Read the full article

[keywestlou]

NO ONE IS SAFE

NO ONE IS SAFE - https://keywestlou.com/no-one-is-safe/No one is safe any longer. Death and injury have become too commonplace. Today, Speaker Pelosi's husband. Yesterday, blacks and school children. Tomorrow, Jews. We are a nation out of control. Trump let the vermin out of the their holes. The solution? Vote! Get rid of the Republican Party that has crossed over the line and permits and encourages these activities. If the people do not recognize the evil for what it is, the remaining alternative will be outright civil war. January 6 was close to 2 years ago. Hundreds have been arrested. Mostly the small guys, the followers. Time to go after those at the top. Time is wasting. Two groups must be sought out. The political leaders and the money bags who support what is happening. Those who foster the evil. It may already be too late. It takes forever to prosecute, convict and jail. At least 2 years. Could be 4 with appeals. In the meantime, the bad guys continue to get their way. Once the top guys are toppled, the body will fall. Tonight the Fantasy Fest parade. As many as 60,000 will line Duval. I have always wondered where they sleep. There are not enough beds between here and Marathon to hold them. Back when, I thought how much fun it would be to be on a float. The opportunity arose some 20 years ago. My good friend Howard Livingston asked me to join him on a float he had prepared. I jumped at the chance! One time was enough. Never again. A float can be work. The one I was on was. I was totally exhausted at the end of the evening. There were about 70 floats in the parade that year. We were number 64. It took 2-3 hours to make the trip. The first floats had finished before we even began. Howard had purchased 30,000 strings of beads. There were at least a dozen of us on the float. We threw 22,000 to the crowd. Howard had it organized. We kept one arm extended. He had people running to "reload" our arms with beads as they ran out.  The other arm was used to throw. Throwing was initially exciting. Show me this, show me that had its pleasures. After a while, became work. I noticed as we moved down Duval there were many in wheel chairs who were not getting any beads. I changed my modus operandi. Threw beads only to those in wheel chairs and on crutches. The first portion of the trip was down Whitehead to Front. Then Front to Duval. The world changed the moment we hit Duval. It was like entering the mouth of a whale. The crowd and noise devoured us. Exciting! My game plan was to hit La Te Da after the parade to party. Never made it. I was too exhausted. Found my car and drove home. A good experience. However as indicated earlier, a one time experience. The flu season is upon us. Flu season 2022 has begun early. Experts say its severity is the worst in 13 years. If you have not, get a flu shot! Don't be stupid! Flu is non discriminatory. It kills as well as making one ill. The first game of the World Series over. The Phillies beat the Astros 6-5. The interesting thing about the game is that the Astros initially had a 5 run lead. At noon today, Syracuse/Notre Dame. Syracuse a 10 point favorite. Whatever, I don't care. As long as Syracuse wins. Though my heart tells me Syracuse will defeat the Irish by much more than 10 points. Over the years, I have closed the blog with: Enjoy your day! Many have been critical. Wondering how I could suggest that when many of the things I wrote about were of an unpleasant nature. I have decided to change my closing. To something hopefully more fitting: Be well! So au revoir, auf Wiedersehen, good bye to Enjoy your day! Hello to Be well! Be well!  

[together-bnb-cheats-wd]

TOGETHER VR - PC Game Trainer Cheat PlayFix No-CD No-DVD | GameCopyWorld

💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥 Developer: Aurora Games Consider supporting the dev if you like the game and want them to do what they love. Click on dev's link for more info. Release Date: 5 March, Game Size: 3. Please co-operate with us by reporting dead links, bugs, wrong info, new games updates and any idea in comment section. Post your problem in our Discord server for faster response. Click here to join. James was forced to take over the management of the BnB since his brother mysteriously disappeared. Our site does not work properly with Adblock. We keep ads and pop ups minimum so please whitelist us Learn how. How to install? Extract and run. Intel HD or equivalent Graphics. Copyright and Terms: Lewdzone is a crawling site. We only share links of files provided by those sources. We do not host those files and those files are hosted in public file sharing server and by the ToS of those servers, it is legal to share any public files. For example, sharing files publicly in mega. And if you are a visitor and worrying about malwares, do not worry, we do not inject anything. Have fun. Bug fix: Corrected and improved the physics system when cooking. Modify the Gas stove model size to avoid collisions. Fixed some information not being displayed when ingredients are in pots. Fixed the bug of entering cooking mode when holding a gun. Corrected how knives and seasonings are projected. Fixed a bug where food could not be delivered on the trolley. Fixed liquid errors on plates and pot. Fixed out of focus after borsch task. Fixed the dialogue after inviting NPCs to dinner. Fixed untranslated text in the plot. Fixed UI text. Fixed the position of the car after using teleport. Fixed a bug where pressing Esc when the instruction manual was displayed after acquiring the pistol. Fixed the error caused by pressing the space key when calling and texting mode. Fixed wrong text. Fixed some bugs after SMS mode. Fixed the display effect of task props in the scene. Fixed the bug that when the Firework Launcher was taken and saved, and then reloaded, another Firework Launcher appeared. Fixed removing the location on the map of the firework launcher after setting it up. Replace kitchen items. Replace scene objects. Change mission items. Added Nana kimono after fireworks task. If you have a problem, post in these links. Keep Comment section clean New Update? Request here. Install Problems? Post your problems here. Broken Links? Let us know here. Bugs in game? Use this forum to report it. Comment Rules: Do not post same comment twice, your pending comment will be moderated, approved and replied by a stuff soon. We do not develop games, use common sense. Use English Language only. You can click the bell icon before commenting to get mail whenever someone replies your comment. Great way to be notified if you are posting questions , be sure to provide correct email in that case. If you want to ask features of games like Bugfixing, save file support, new content ideas etc then please contact the game developer, Aurora Games. You can help us by reporting dead links, wrong informations, new available updates etc in the comment section. Notify of. Inline Feedbacks. Sponsored Booty Call Nutaku.

[benichi]

Tips & Tricks for Story of Seasons - Pioneers of Olive Town

Here are some tips and tricks to make your farming life more easy! Basically the Makers play a very big role in this game (similar to My Time at Portia if you’re familiar with the game). You won’t be able to progress without using them, unlike previous SoS entires where they had a more optional role.

• Be! Organized!👏

This is something I learned the hard way in My Time at Portia where I would just randomly cram everything into Boxes without much though... which lead to a lot of unnesessary searching and organizing later on. So right from the start, make several Boxes and categorize what you will put in them (1 Box for Flowers,1 for Foraging etc.). Obviously this can and will change over time as you start getting more resources. At the beginning I put Lumber/Stones/Ores etc. into one Box because I had their Makers next to each other, but now that I have access to several kinds of wood and Ores I’ve seperated them.

This also goes for the set up of your Farm. Moving things around in this game is honestly a pain so you should try to plan ahead as much as possible.

When removing a Box everything you stored inside will be dropped to the ground. Be prepared with enough Inventory space and time.

! You can store your tools in the Tool Bag for additional space. This is a useful trick in general.

There are 3 Areas to use. The one you start with which is the smallest, ones to the left which unlocks via a Bridge and is a bit bigger. Plus North by clearing some rubble which is the biggest.

Keep your enemies close and your resources even closer: when unlocking these Areas I’d recommend to use Money rather than resources. Usually you’ll need your resources to build stuff and progress (Lumber and Ingots are holy) especially later on when it takes longer to process the Products you’ll do good to hold on to them. I’ll add more on how to make money down below.

Back to organizing. Personally I think that putting your Makers into Area 2 (once unlocked) is a good idea because you’ll be running though there often so you can just pop in and check on your Makers, replenish if needed etc. The rest is up to personal preference I’d say. I don’t like growing crops too much so I’ve put them on the first Area while my Animals are on the third. 

Use the terrain to your advantage. Basically keep a balance between zones you actively use and just letting nature grow/items spawn. Especially at the beginning when you need a lot of materials I’d recommend to let nature run wild to get a lot of resources. As you progress and don’t need as much of the (lower grade) resources anymore (or you have enough money to simply buy them) you can start putting down paths and decorations so that you don’t have to clean up the area each day. 

For example: you’ll need a lot of iron initially so I wouldn’t put down a path in front of the second mine because some rocks spawn there. But once you got the third mine unlocked and can basically get all your resources from there there’s nothing wrong with setting up a path in that spot, which will prevent the rocks from spawning.

! Pay attention to what spawns where. Higher level materials have less area they’re available on. So if you put down your Barn and Coop in that zone you’ll be blocking their space to grow = less resources. Initially I’d recommend sticking to one part of your area (near the beginning) and leaving the rest open for nature to grow so that you can gather Lumber etc. For example: once I unlocked Area 3 I put my Barn and Coop near the beginning so that they won’t interfere with the Tree growth.

You can see the subtle difference between the Trees below. Basically when it comes to lumber and ores the highest ranking materials are always on the left side of each Area. The only exception to this is the highest ranking Wood (Mirage) by the Hydroculture Plant.

! Survey your Areas regularly. New Crops, Animals etc. will pop up from time to time, so be sure to have a look around. When there is a new crop/flower just ship it, the seeds will be available next day.

Prioritize your Hammer and Axe. As you can see these are the most important ones. For the first half I’d say the Axe is more important, but once you get to Area 3 (and need Gold) you should switch your focus to the Hammer. Below you can see that only my Axe/Hammer are golden. The Watering can is Silver while the Sickle and Bucket are Iron. The Hoe I hadn’t upgraded at this point at all.

! You will unlock the small sprinklers early. While certainly helpful I wouldn’t resort to using just them, as the use of your watering can will raise your Fieldwork skill. Again I’d say that balance between using both is important as seen above.

Always have your Makers running. Though in this case you should also pay special attention Lumber and Ore you will need everything at some point, trust me. You’ll unlock different Makers by raising your skills.

The setup that got my through a lot of the story. Not pretty but efficient.

! To maximize the use of your time put in resources that take a long time over night (so they will be ready next morning) and those with a shorter time during the day so you can replenish when needed. Of course this can be thrown out the window when you need a lot of something that takes longer to process.

Ship one keep one. A lot of items will become available in their respective Store once shipped. From what I can tell this doesn’t apply to processed goods (for example you can buy Durable Log but no the processed version which is Durable Lumber). There are some exceptions though, Dye can be shipped and will then become available for purchase at the Flower Shop. If you want to test out whether something will become available once shipped simply save the night before and put the item into the shipment box. If you wake up and get a Message that says “____ Shop has expanded it’s product lineup!” it worked, otherwise you can reload and keep the Item. On the other hand it’s also a good idea to keep at least one of each item, or at least those that don’t show up as commonly (like Olive Crystals from Puddles etc.)

! Don’t ship/gift all of the foragable Flowers though. I know it’s tempting, especially at the beginning. But you will be needing 3 each of Moondrop, Pink Cat, Magic Red and Magic Blue Flowers for the Honey Maker.

Sprites and the Sprite Shop. As you’re working on your farm you will see these smalls Sprites pop up from time to time. Eventually you'll be able to travel to the Earth Sprite Village, which gives you access to more resources. At the beginning there are only 3 Earth Sprites you can get items from. but once you’ve gathered 100 small Spirits you’ll unlock an option to add additional Spirits (Field, Journey, Care, Fishing and Food). The (Field) Sprite/s is/are especially great because he/they can give you access to resources you may not be able to acuire just yet. Same goes for the Shop, the items at the bottom of the menu change daily so be sure to keep and eye on them. You don’t have to collect resources from the respective Sprites each day though, the items do stack over time.

Mining = $ $ $ . You will be hitting up those mines for Ores anyways, might as well make the most of it. The Mine gives you access to raw Material (raw Diamond in particular) which can be turned into pure Jewels with the Jewel Maker (unlocks at Mining Skill Lv. 6) and make for great money.

Town Hall Requests. We’ve already established that Lumber and Ingots are basically holy. Each time you get a request there will be 3 choices on how you can fulfill them. Obviously use the one which uses the resources you can produce fastest and don’t need for building Makers/upgrading tools etc.

Title Rewards. While at the Town Hall it’s a good idea to check the Mailbox right to the Request Board. This is where you can accept rewards after raising you skill levels. They range from coins that can be sold for money to seeds, resources and even Makers. Be sure to drop by often.

This should help you get a gist of what’s important. I hope you found this guide helpful! If there are questions feels free to ask :)

[apexland]

New Season, Same Old Idiot.

Mirage x Reader (Season 7)

Warnings: None! Gender Neutral 

"Rise and shine" followed by a thump to my forehead woke me out of my sleep, only to wake up to the sight of Mirage standing beside my bed with a his usual mischievous grin. "No-get out" I muffled into the pillow, turning around and attempting to pull the cover over my head to drown out the now perky tune Elliot was singing but the covers were soon yanked from my head. "C'mon y/n, time to get movin' Olympus is on the Horizon" He said, whilst trying to hold back his laugh due to his witty pun. Holding back smile, I eventually sat up. 

"Can you get out I need to get changed, you idiot", he simply nodded before walking out but leaving one of his 'decoys' still standing. 

“I know that's you", but it was followed by a stretched out silence, after letting out a sigh I quickly jabbed the 'decoy' in the stomach causing Mirage to let out a groan. "Out!" He quickly threw his hands up in surrender, "W-what how'd you know it was me!"

"It'll work some day" He muttered to himself defeated that he didn't get the bamboozle over on me.

__________________

"Dropship inbound" the AI voice rang out over the comms. Horizon was staring out out of the small windows of the dropship, it must be hard for her coming back here. "You okay?" I asked her, she turned to me forcing a smile onto her face -"Aye, I'm fine. Just looking forward to showing you lads n' lassies how it's done" She let out a laugh, but hiding the sadness she probably felt from coming back to Olympus, "Come on newty" I gave a smile, watching as the small drone followed behind her.

"Ah, let's go let's go let's go" Octane eagerly said whilst cranking a bolt on his right leg. "Eh, Chey do you think you can mend this thing" He said whilst giving his leg a kick out. Lifeline rolled her eyes before muttering "this boy". 

The teams eventually flashed up on the screens but before I could even look to see the two legends I was paired with I heard Mirage’s voice echo, "Hey sunshine, look, you get the pleasure of being on my squad, ain't that great" 

Flashing his signature grin, but in contrast to Revenants growl "stupid skinsuits"- which at the start chilled me to the bone but overtime being in the arena with the murderous robot, it still chills me to the bone. But, a squad was a squad none the less and now the collective goal was to win, stepped into the same platform, after the familiar loud buzzer sounds we begin be lowered slowly above Olympus. "So, uh- where are we headed guys" Mirage said as we were all taking in the sights. Scanning around I eventually spotted a place that peaked my interest, "what about the big dome" I half yelled over the noise of being so far up in the air. "Let's go already!" Revenant growled, jumping from the platform we all took different buildings to grab loot from inside the dome.

 Luck was not on my side when I looted the building, finding no armour along with a P2020, and only one stack of ammo until I spotted a purple evo "About time" I muttered to myself but as I got closer I spotted Mirage also going for the armour, "Back off!” I yelled at him, only to be returned with a smirk from the bamboozler.

"As if, I was here first sunshine. But if I see another one I'll be s-sure to shoot it you way". Just as he was about to lift the armour, I quickly put down a blaze of fire, between him and the armour.

 "I seen it first, it's mine" He only laughed "There's the scorcher I know". "Go ahead y/n take it, I'm sure you'll need it more than me anyway" He said jokingly but knowing it would get under my skin, rolling my eyes I grabbed the purple armour and we continued to rotate through Olympus.

"Skinsuits over there" Revenant spoke, I spotted Caustic going into the building but immediately the door was blocked by one of his traps. "Who is he with?" I asked, looking down the scope of the triple take I had found inside one of the loot bins close by, but couldn't see who was with the toxic trapper. "Bloodhound and Bangalore” Mirage commented. “Have you got a shot sunshine”

“No or else I would have took it, genius” Mirage put a hand on his heart acting hurt by my comment before he mumbled a ‘leave it to me’ as he left the cover of the rock getting closer to the building, I looked at Revenant with a look of confusion and if the murderous robot could express himself, I think he would have the same look. As Elliot got closer, I watched as he sent off one of his decoys over the door and low and behold the door opened, quickly looking down the scope of the sniper I took the shot seeing Bangalore hit the floor.

No words were spoken only the sound of Revenants totem sounded beside me and I knew that was the signal to push in, Bloodhound quickly used their scan and we were exposed, our first obstacle was getting around the toxic traps that lay at the the door I quickly sent another blaze of fire at the door which took both the entire door and trap out in a flash before we pushed in, they had retreated to the back of the building probably attempting to go for the revive. 

“Send a decoy to bait them out” I said to Mirage in the hopes they would show their position and they did, still under the cover the Revenants totem, with the help of a kick of the door from my squad, I pushed in and released my ultimate which was a pool of fire that quickly started to damage the enemy squads armour and as the returned to the totem and pushed in again knowing they were low with no time to heal.

“Well played squad” Mirage said triumphant with his hands up in the air awaiting a high-five. 

“We’ve still got another 4 squads to get through” I said picking up the extended energy magazine and equipping it. “C’mon, we’re the dream team. We’ve already won” As if he had just jinxed it himself, the sounds of Rampart’s turret sounded, oh shit.

“Get down!” I yelled as we dove for cover, the bullets hitting the wall were fierce as we were stuck in the one spot. Revenant growled as he turned around and targeted the turret with one of his silences, which quickly put a stop to Sheila. Throwing a few grenades to break the line of sight as I pushed Mirage’s shoulder to move and we ran out the door, leaving behind a blaze of fire at the door to prevent them from pushing.

 But our squad got separated as the sound of Gibraltar’s ultimate sounded and we all took off seeking cover, but as the air strike hit the sound of Revenants comms cut off, meaning he had gotten downed. “Shit, shit, shit!” I whispered to myself trying my best to reload the volt with a shaky hand.

“You still alive sunshine?” Mirage's breathless voice sounded over the comms.

“Yes, I think the rest of the squads have made an appearance” Taking a peek over the rock only to get skimmed with a bullet from Lifeline with a Sentinel perched on top of the building.

“Make a run for the building to your north, I’ll meet-” 

“I’m pinned down, there’s a red dot pointed at me and if I move I am done for” I said, I was about to tell him to wait it out and see if he could get the jump of the last squad at the end until I just heard a faint ‘give me a sec’. 

“MOVE NOW!” I trusted his word and made a b-line for the building to the north, but as I spotted Mirage at the door, I hit the floor as bullet hit me straight in the thigh, the decoy didn’t distract the enemy squad long enough for me to make the distance to the building. 

But, as a showman Mirage quickly used his ultimate to break the line of sight and distract the enemy squad long enough to pick me up before we made it to the building. “No need to thank me, I know I’m great” he grinned, I was sat on the ground my back against the buildings wall. 

“Can you just give me a med kit, please” I breathed out, “Armour only keeps a certain amount of pain away you know”

“Here, let me do it” He grabbed the kit, and started to bandage my leg up. I wasn’t sure what it was but the way we were so close in proximity and the fact he had ran out to get me even though he could have gotten away with not being spotted made me just stare at him. “I know I’m handsome, but please stop staring at me sunshine”

My emotions had just seem to all come at the one time and I couldn’t even come back with a stinging reply like I normally would have and Mirage noticed that because after hearing no reply, he looked up at me. “You okay?” I snapped out of bringing myself back.

“Yeah, fine” I said flatly, as I took over doing the bandages. Feeling a hand on my cheek sent my right back to being frozen, his hand moving to lift my chin forcing me to look at him. 

“You are a horrific liar” he said, his eyes landing on my lips as he moved closer. Our breaths mixed with such close proximity, my heart racing. I’ve never felt paralysed, who knew the back and forth jabs and ego killing jokes between us both was just hidden feeling on both sides.

“As much as I would love to kiss you right now Y/N, we are in the middle of a bloodspot and the people wanting to kill us are right outside” Flashing a smile at me and he kissed my cheek. 

“You’re still an idiot” He stood up and stretched out a hand and pulled me up from the floor. 

“Clearly you have an attraction to idiots then” I rolled my eyes at his comment. “Now, let’s win this sunshine”

We didn’t win, but instead won something a little bit more priceless. 

[betterthanadventure]

BTA 1.7.6.2 has been released

Major features:

Controller support

Server player list

Photo mode for isometric screenshots

Labels

Can be used to rename mobs and items

Named mobs will not despawn

Labels can be dyed to change the color they apply

Information overlays

Different items will show different information onscreen

Compass displays coordinates

Watch displays ingame time

Calendar displays season

Mipmapping support

Fragment shader support

Support for custom water, lava, and portal animations

VSync support

New server menu

Optional 3D items

New blocks

Stone Bricks

Polished Slate

Slate Bricks

Polished Stone, Granite, Limestone and Basalt

Charcoal Block

Support for HUD padding

Gamma slider

New debug shortcuts

F3 + N switches gamemode

F3 + H toggles tool durability display

F3 + R reloads textures

F3 + F toggles fullbright when cheats are enabled/player is OP

New block placement settings

Block rotation can be locked for easier positioning

Player nickname and color can now be set in multiplayer

New server options

Mob griefing can be enabled or disabled

Sleeping percentage can be modified

Hotbar icon to display how long the player will stay on fire for

Experimental ModLoader support

Raw Mouse Input setting

                Major changes:

Overhauled armour protection:

Scrapped durability based protection and made different sets protect better against different types of damage to promote mixing and matching sets

Leather protects better against fall damage and fire

Iron protects better against projectile damage

Diamond protects better against melee damage

Steel protects better against explosion damage

Chainmail and gold offer all-around protection

Overhauled command system - all SP commands now also work in multiplayer

Can now obtain coloured wood through different log types

Spruce logs - brown planks

Birch logs - white planks

Mossy logs - green planks

Euclyptus logs - orange planks

Cherry logs - pink planks

Improved control rebind menu and lots of new rebinding options

Sunrise is now east instead of north

Text boxes now support Copy & Paste

Mobs only spawn at block light level 0

Shiny new main menu logo (thanks @Lurondor!)

Removed Herobrine

  Minor changes:

Slightly altered the textures for basalt, limestone and granite

Labyrinths now spawn a new library room

Diamond’s mining speed has been significantly buffed

Nether coal is now much more frequent

Empty buckets now stack

Blast furnace now requires nether coal to craft again

Wet sponges can be crafted via a bucket of water and a dry sponge, and will instantly evaporate in the nether

Placing netherrack in a furnace now makes it appear to be lit

Slime chunk particles can now be disabled

Tool durability is visible in item tag when F3 is enabled

Placing netherrack in a furnace now makes it appear to be lit

Guidebook and creative GUI can now be paged via the scroll wheel

Increased Vertical Item pickup range

Increased Fire Striker durability

Items now fall slower in water

Water now creates sources on other water sources

Minecarts are now twice as fast

F3 shows block light and sky light

Minecarts are now twice as fast

F3 shows block light and sky light

Improved Mipmaps

Clouds can now be turned off

Mobs only spawn at block light level 0

Player List position can be changed with CTRL + L (default)

All players can use /difficulty to see the current difficulty

Detector and Powered rails recipes now output 8 instead of 6

Portals are slightly less noisy

Holding the button while crafting on a controller crafts more

Burn times for planks and sticks have been reverted to vanilla values

Steel blocks are now blast resistant

Changed granite iron ore texture

Added options to swap some controller buttons

Minecarts and boats break instantly in creative

Reduced Rain volume

Empty buckets can now stack

Hotbar indicator looks a bit nicer

Screenshots are now copied to the clipboard when taken

F3 menu looks a bit nicer

Nether coal can now be used to make torches

Trapdoors can now be placed on the upper half of blocks

Wool now uses individal textures again

Shift-click crafting now makes an entire stack

Chat colours now reflect wool colours

                Bug fixes:

Blocks now drop when broken with a tool's final durability

Fixed slimes jittering in multiplayer, and having incorrectly sized hitboxes

Fixed world holes appearing in multiplayer

Restored retro leaves texture

Sheared sheep no longer flash when hit

Fixed tile entity dupe

Fixed world type getting corrupted when leaving the nether sometimes

Fixed placing sugar cane, repeaters and cakes consuming 2 of the item instead of 1

Fixed bug that caused entities to stay in memory after walking into unloaded chunks (should improve mob farm efficiency)

Olivine blocks are now made with 8 olivine instead of 9

Players can now sleep during thunder storms

Creepers now flash in multiplayer

GUI scale now behaves better

SP and MP mining speeds are now consistent

Frame-time graph no longer appears when inventory is open

Shift+F now behaves properly

Bonemeal now works as intended on dirt in retro worlds

Water now renders properly under ice

Water is coloured on its bottom face

Texture streams are now properly closed after use

Fixed clay brick block description

Crash report now appears when the renderer crashes

Players no longer take damage when exiting a minecart in a 3-block-tall space

Fixed TNT dupe bug (don’t worry, not that one)

Flying up and down simultaneously in creative now makes you stay still

Moss now only spreads to adjacent blocks

Fire no longer destroys moss blocks

Dirt paths can no longer be created if there’s a solid block above

Picked up items now go to the currently active hotbar

Slimes no longer suffocate in blocks when they spawn

Spiders and baby slimes now spawn in one-block-high holes

Hidden guidebook items now render properly

Boats now face the direction they were placed

Chat Messages now appear in the log

Log now shows time

Chat Messages now appear in the log

Lighting TNT now takes Fire Striker durability

Fixed Tooltips going off-screen

Animations now work properly with non power of 2 resolutions

Fixed shift-click for some fuel items in furnaces

Game no longer crashes when high res texture packs are selected

Skeletons now hold their bow properly

Fixed Capes

Fixed Skins not reloading

Fixed crash in worlds without seasons

Rebalanced Blast Furnace fuel (was incorrect before)

Arrows no longer disappear when reloading world

[thecollegefootballguy]

2021 Top Games of the Week: Week 1

Football is back! Week 0 was incredibly boring but Week 1 should more than make up for that. We’ve got a load of interesting games this week that should kick off the season in style. Let’s have a look!

The Top Ten Games of the Week

10. West Virginia at Maryland (Saturday 9/4)

The 10 spot goes to one of the fun rivalry games once again kicking off. West Virginia and Maryland have kept their non-conference rivalry going even as both schools changed conferences in the past 10 years. I hope they keep playing it moving forward. Neither team is expected to contend for their conference, or division in the Terrapins’ case, so winning the rivalry games is #1 on the list for many fans on both sides.

9. Michigan State at Northwestern (Friday 9/3)

The Big Ten is trotting out several conference games to open the season. Michigan State at Northwestern is perhaps the least interesting, but it does feature the defending champions of the West Division. In 2020, the Wildcats came out of nowhere last year to claim their second division title in three years. Meanwhile, the Spartans gutted their way through a season that would have been incredibly disappointing if not for their win over Michigan. Both squads have question marks but with this early conference game we’ll get a better idea where each team stands.

8. #4 Ohio State at Minnesota (Thursday 9/2)

Ohio State is ready to kick off another season with a national championship in their sights. The Buckeyes are quite clearly one of the best teams in the country and expect to go 12-0 or 11-1 at the very worst. Minnesota hasn’t had an opportunity like this is a while. The Gophers are expected to be loaded for bear as they prepare to take the next step forward under P.J. Fleck. Back in 2019, Minnesota defeated #4 Penn State to catapult themselves into a tie with Wisconsin for the West title. I’m sure they have a similar outcome on their minds here for OSU.

7. #16 LSU at UCLA 1-0 (0-0) (Saturday 9/4)

This one is going to hold my attention this weekend. LSU has had a strange two years, going from national champions with potentially the best football team of all time to 5-5 also rans nearly overnight. Sure, they have had time to reload now and the Tigers should be fine, but more than a few eyebrows have been raised already. Meanwhile, UCLA’s long rebuild under Chip Kelly has finally started to bear fruit. The Bruins mauled an overmatched Hawaii squad in week 0. Big deal, the Rainbow Warriors aren’t on the same level as Louisiana State, who will give UCLA a real litmus test to see how far they’ve come. Also it’s cool to see a PAC-SEC matchup, I feel like those conferences have the most infrequent combinations of matchups among the P5 leagues.

6. #10 North Carolina at Virginia Tech (Friday 9/3)

The ACC isn’t quite matching the Big Ten for Week 1 intrigue, but this early bout may have big ramifications on the Coastal race. North Carolina is favored in a race with Miami according to the experts, but things rarely ever go right in this strange division. Virginia Tech are in an awkward position. Things haven’t been going well in Blacksburg lately and fans wanted Justin Fuente fired years ago at this point. It would be a huge opportunity for the Hokies to turn their fortunes around if they can jump on the Tar Heels at home.

5. #23 Louisiana at #21 Texas (Saturday 9/4)

This is a trap game for sure. Steve Sarkisian’s first game as Texas head coach and it’s against a team that made their name last year upsetting regular season Big 12 Champions Iowa State. Louisiana will absolutely give the Longhorns a tougher test than they would normally expect from a G5 program and if they’re not careful UT could faceplant.

4. #17 Indiana at #18 Iowa (Saturday 9/4)

It’s not a sexy matchup in the conventional sense, but you have to give credit where it’s due. Indiana were one of the darlings of the 2020 season. The Hoosiers shocked the world last season with a breakout 6-2 record. With a full season’s worth of games to play now, IU is gunning for double digit wins. Iowa is their usual selves. The Hawkeyes were once again a strong team last year and that should be the case in 2021 as well. Iowa expects to contend for the West Division this year and have to win their cross-division games to give them their best chance at getting to Indianapolis.

3. #19 Penn State at #13 Wisconsin (Saturday 9/4)

The biggest of the Big Ten’s Week 1 matchups sees two of the best programs in the conference square off. Penn State had a bad year in 2020, no other way around saying it. The Nittany Lions need to rebound in 2021 or there will be a lot of question marks surrounding the direction of the program under James Franklin. Wisconsin is their usual selves, meaning the Badgers should once again be one of the top teams in the league but still a step (or two) behind Ohio State. Both Wisconsin and Penn State want to win their respective divisions, a loss in Week 1 would be a crucial setback for either side.

2. #1 Alabama vs #14 Miami FL (Atlanta, GA) (Saturday 9/4)

The defending champions start off the year in a high profile matchup with another high profile team. Miami isn’t quite playing up to their potential just yet, but the Hurricanes are on more solid footing than we’ve seen in a while. Many are expecting another breakthrough season similar to what we saw in 2017. It might not matter either way if the Canes get back to that level. It will be incredibly hard to unseat Alabama. The Crimson Tide are losing a lot of guys from their championship squad, but new faces with similar levels of talent are coming in to replace those who’ve left for the NFL. It feels foolish betting against Bama but a Week 1 loss would be one of the more likely scenarios for a regular season loss at all for the Tide.

1. #5 Georgia at #3 Clemson (Saturday 9/4)

This one is a no-brainer. Georgia and Clemson’s on again-off again rivalry is once again heating back up. The stakes haven’t been this high since the early 80′s, with both the Tigers and Bulldogs attempting to claim national championships this year. UGA is hoping to rebound and reclaim the SEC East after giving it away to Florida last season. The Dawgs are on the short list of 6 or so teams that are aiming to make the Playoff every year. Clemson is one of the other squads on that special list. The Tigers are hosting and may be favored, but we need to be wary of their lack of depth at the QB position. A loss here might not end a Playoff campaign, but it would be a bad start to one as well as a black eye against a regional recruiting rival. 

-

5 G5 Games of the Week

5. Syracuse at Ohio (Saturday 9/4)

Frank Solich unfortunately won’t be the head coach in Athens, but I think his old team is in great position to claim a P5 scalp as hapless Syracuse makes the trek for a rare MAC road date.

4. Marshall at Navy (Saturday 9/4)

Two of the G5′s more consistent brands face off. Marshall is trotting out their first new coach in 15 years while Navy is attempting to spit out the bad taste in their mouths after a disappointing 2020 season.

3. Miami OH at #8 Cincinnati (Saturday 9/4)

The Battle of the Bell is one of FBS football’s oldest rivalries and I love giving it the spotlight. I don’t expect Miami to win of course, while they have been a solid MAC program in the last couple years, the RedHawks aren’t up to the same level as Cincinnati. The Bearcats are favored to repeat as the #1 G5 program in the nation. Cincinnati haven’t lost to their in-state rivals since 2005, giving Miami plenty of reason to try and solve the Cincy defense that gave teams such fits last season.

2. Texas Tech vs Houston (Houston, TX) (Saturday 9/4)

That’s right, Houston was able to call on to upgrade this game to NRG Stadium. The Cougars and Red Raiders are throwing a Southwest Conference reunion party and everybody’s invited. Both Texas Tech and Houston have been struggling lately and this game definitely has high stakes for both programs.

1. Boise State at UCF (Saturday 9/4)

Two of the G5′s biggest brands face off as Boise State travels to the Bounce House to take on UCF. The stakes are obvious: the winner here will be the G5′s #2 option after Cincinnati moving forward through the season.

-

FCS Games of the Week

5. #14 Central Arkansas at Arkansas State (Saturday 9/4)

More likely to happen than you might imagine. Arkansas State moved on from coach Blake Anderson at the end of 2020 and Butch Jones (yeah) needs time to get things set. Central Arkansas has an opportunity to knock off their big brother in Jonesboro.

4. #9 Montana at #20 Washington (Saturday 9/4)

It’s the revival of an ancient PCC series dating back to the 1950′s. Montana will certainly be an underdog against a Washington squad that technically did win the PAC-12 North last year.

3. #21 Northern Iowa at #7 Iowa State (Saturday 9/4)

Iowa State has moved mountains to become this good, but the Cyclones aren’t impervious to upsets as last year showed us. Northern Iowa has their own chance to knock off big brother.

2. #6 Weber State at #24 Utah (Thursday 9/2)

This one should be tough no matter how good Weber State is. The Utes’ physical game will be tough for the Wildcats to overcome, but they’ll take their shot at glory no matter what.

1. #10 Jacksonville State vs UAB (Montgomery, AL) (Wednesday 9/1)

Now this is cool, an FBS-FCS game played at a neutral site. I love to see matchups like this. UAB is one of the best G5 programs of the last 5 years while Jacksonville State is one of the most consistent FCS squads in the deep South.