#if it was an early access game where it was changing so significantly each time that it was going to wipe your save anyways when it updated

[lavender-sunhaven]

man how do people like... regularly restart games like this? how do you easily start over? I have one main file (with Lavender) that I am EXTREMELY attached to. even if I'd kind of like to try marrying different people and seeing their rooms and achievements and stuff (or to just see Jun's wedding- which I was already married to him when the weddings were made special, so I haven't seen :( ), the thought of starting over from the beginning, especially on farm infrastructure and stuff sounds soul crushing and tedious. Is it like... Do you just like the build up part and not being successful at the end? Is it like... podcast zoning? How do you cope?

[emblemxeno]

Thoughts on Divine Paralogues

Thought I’d do opinions on each of the throwback paralogues as I do them. It’s been a few weeks since I did the DLC ones, so for better or worse I have a more clear head on them.

The Ancestor: Tiki’s I already gave my opinion on months ago, but something to really note: Doing it after you have both Etie and Alcryst is a blessing since they can near one shot the Ice Dragons, and that makes the whole experience much more bearable. In general, the paralogue is still kind of a slog though. Never played Mystery or New Mystery, but just from playing Shadow Dragon I know that Marth’s games were designed around units, y’know, having more than 4-5 movement at a time. Engage tries to circumvent this with the ice tiles but ehhhh. It’s still not the best. Tiki as an Emblem and access to the Silver Card (which I very much love the easter egg of it being where the hidden shop was in the OG map) is definitely worth it though.

The Brash General: I like Hector’s map! Nothing too complicated, and the poison effect being different from how it was in FE7 means it’s not as much of a hassle. I like how it restricts unit amount a la Hector Mode. Wish I had more to say about it lol, it was just fun. Hector’s a great Emblem too, having another tank Emblem alongside Ike (and Tiki I guess) works wonders.

The Radiant Strategist: Loved this one. Never played FE10, though I’ve watched LPs of it, so I don’t quite know how it really stacks up. But I like the challenge, and the smog and meteors serve as a nice incentive to keep moving forward. Soren’s a fun Emblem, and great at working in tandem with others mainly due to Assign Decoy. Manipulating AI is always busted. Bolting is also a baller tome, and Flare is busted as expected.

The Doting Sister: This was a map that really tested my patience the first time I went through it, but changing my team comp helped significantly. I was originally just using the Divine Paralogues to train up weaker units (false sense of security from Hector and Soren’s maps lol) but that makes it exponentially harder, especially if you did it at the point of the game I did. Thankful that Camilla’s Dragon Vein wasn’t the fire attack like it was in Birthright cuz that would’ve made it unbearable, and overall I’m fine enough with how the map played. Not a favorite, but tough and very clear that I need to manage better. Camilla herself is a good Emblem, if only for Soar and her weapons, but I feel they kind of ran out of ideas for her beyond that. Another Dragon Vein user is great, of course, but... her other skills are kinda meh.

The Sheperd Exalt: Fuck this one, lol. Not because of the gimmick of removing the wall of darkness, but because of Robin’s fucking water trap that gets triggered early if you separate your team into groups. I haaaaate shit like that, where the first valid answer to a map’s puzzle fucks over the player because of something they couldn’t really anticipate. Mind you, as a general liker of Revelation’s map design, it just reminded me of the worst aspects of Mikoto’s and Sumeragi’s maps. Blegh. Many rewinds were used due to this, not a fan. Chrom and Robin are a sleeper hit of an Emblem, though. Surprise Attack, Rally Spectrum, and Other Half are great skills. Plus they were super gay together in their gay little bracelet. Love wins.

The Lonely Heir: Toss up between this and Soren’s being my favorite of the Divine Paralogues. Straightforward, Veronica’s reinforcements are a good push forward, and activating the tiles to reach her isn’t a sneak pain in the ass like Chrom and Robin’s map was. What sets it apart from being just ‘good’ like Hector’s is the general design of the map itself. Clever terrain placement and use of open and narrow spaces, which is an ingenious reference to Aether Raids. Veronica herself is fucking busted. Summoning mooks in FE has always been broken, so it wasn’t a surprise that getting to summon a generic or even an Emblem would be nuts. But every other fucking skill she has is just as crazy. Contract speaks for itself, Book of Worlds gives an insane reward for choosing to Wait, Level Boost and SP Conversion are prime grinding skills, and Reprisal is a reliable damage buff. Her weakest aspects are her weapons, and even those are still pretty good.

Music is peak as always. I expect the same tracks to be used for base game trials (haven’t started any of those yet) that correspond to characters from the same games i.e. Corrin’s probably shares the same track as Camilla’s, mostly because Hector having Winds Across the Plains is... a choice. One that can only be explained by sharing tracks. BIG shoutout to Veronica’s though, the Book 6 map theme will always be fucking amazing.

(Sorry for the absence, finals have been kicking my ass lol)

[mdsajibhossain0]

From Paper Trades To Virtual Portfolios: The Evolution of Stock Market Games

The notion of a inventory current market match has developed significantly through the years, reflecting each changes in technological know-how and shifts in how men and women engage with fiscal marketplaces. From its humble beginnings as an easy instructional Instrument to its latest status as a well-liked on-line simulation System, the inventory marketplace video game has undergone a impressive evolution.

Initially, stock sector video games ended up primarily Utilized in academic configurations to teach college students about investing and money literacy. These early game titles frequently concerned paper investing, where individuals would monitor hypothetical investments on paper devoid of actually risking actual income. Though efficient in educating standard ideas, these online games lacked the actual-time dynamics and interactive options of precise inventory investing.

However, with the advent of the net and improvements in know-how, stock market evolution gaming started to go through a metamorphosis. On the web platforms emerged, giving end users the opportunity to simulate trading in genuine-time utilizing virtual revenue. These platforms don't just delivered a far more practical trading experience but also authorized individuals to compete versus one another and accessibility a wide range of instructional assets.

As the recognition of on the internet inventory market place games grew, so much too did their sophistication. Currently, players can Decide on various platforms that cater to distinct talent amounts and Tastes. Some online games concentrate on giving a realistic investing expertise, entire with industry details and Examination tools, while others emphasize social conversation and gamification.

One notable development within the evolution of inventory market video games is The combination of social and gaming elements. Several platforms now include features for example leaderboards, achievements, and multiplayer operation to boost consumer engagement and retention. These features not just make the video games additional fulfilling but in addition really encourage gamers to learn and boost their buying and selling techniques.

On top of that, the increase of cell technological know-how has made stock market games more accessible than ever before. Gamers can now trade shares and observe their portfolios on the run, because of the proliferation of mobile trading applications. This accessibility has democratized the whole world of investing, allowing people today from all walks of everyday living to get involved in the inventory market place recreation and find out beneficial financial competencies.

In summary, the evolution on the stock market game has been a testomony to the power of technology and innovation. What begun as an easy educational Software has blossomed into a complicated on-line System that provides users a sensible trading practical experience, social interaction, and academic assets. Whether or not you are a seasoned investor or simply a beginner seeking to study the ropes, there is never been an improved time to dive into the earth of inventory market place gaming.

[7-days-to-die-mod-steam-bj]

The 14 Best Mods For 7 Days To Die

💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥 The beloved survival, horror, and crafting game, 7 Days To Die , has a flourishing modding community, as the game has been in Alpha since December Modding by fans has inspired the development of the game in some shape or form with every major update. With development ongoing, and hundreds of mods to choose from, it can be difficult to find the best mods out there, even on sites like Nexus Mods. To help you search for the best 7 Days to Die mods, we'll be looking at some of the most useful ones to improve your game. Updated May 11, by Ritwik Mitra: 7 Days to Die is a pretty engaging survival game where players need to scrounge up supplies in a world that has been rocked by the zombie apocalypse. All of the preparation that goes into fortifying settlements and improving weaponry becomes very useful at the end of each week when a horde of aggressive zombies descend upon you and force you to utilize everything in your arsenal to take care of this threat. It's a great game that any fan of high-stakes survival gameplay will have a great time with. What makes 7 Days to Die even better is its immense mod support, with people going above and beyond in developing a slew of great mods that can augment the game even more. The best of the bunch are mentioned below for everyone to check out and download for their own copy of the game. Roaming around in one of the many vehicles present in 7 Days to Die is a blast. Gasoline might be a finite resource, but most people don't mind using it if it means that their options of traversal are improved significantly. However, a small complaint that some people might have about the vehicles in the game is that their options are a bit too finite, which can make vehicular traversal somewhat of a challenge. However, with the Bdud's Vehicles mod, the sheer number of vehicles that players can access in the game sees a massive increase. It's a mod that has been going on for quite some time, with each update stabilizing this mod for the latest Alpha release while also ensuring that the supply of new vehicles is ever-present. Download Link: Bdub's Vehicles A The heads-up display of a survival game is imperative to ensure that players can keep track of all their survival metrics and ensure that they don't suffer a premature game over. However, there's no denying the fact that more and more gamers are seeking out minimalist UIs so that they can get immersed in their games without constantly fretting about a bunch of metrics either. As a result, games need to walk a fine line between both sides so that players can be relayed the information they want without it feeling too cluttered. While the vanilla 7 Days to Die does a decent job of integrating such a HUD, there are some players who are bound to demand more. This is where the HUD Plus mod comes into the picture, allowing for more information to be relayed to the player while still maintaining a sense of minimalism when it comes to the UI. Sometimes, finding a turret can be the difference between dying or surviving on horde nights , especially early-game. However, one inconvenient requirement of turrets is that the player has to be standing quite close by in order for the turrets to activate, and they will deactivate if the player steps out of this range. The higher the turret level, the further away the player can stand without the turret deactivating. Extended Turret Active Range helps remedy this downside by doubling the size of a turret's active range. While this doesn't change the diminishing returns provided from the Robotics tree, this mod does make the first two ranks far more appealing. You can find their new effective ranges below:. One of the most fun things to do in 7 Days to Die is working out a build for yourself and spending your skill points - it's one of those instant dopamine hits for anyone coming from a background in RPGs. This mod will make it so that you get more skill points per level and comes in nine different flavors, from two points per level all the way up to ten. This way, you can fine-tune just how quickly you want to develop in the game. You need a decent bit of materials just to craft one of them:. It can be both tedious and time-consuming to gather all of these materials just for one plot, not to mention multiple plots, and time is not something to be wasted with a blood moon always looming around the corner. Thankfully, that's what this mod is for. Grow Crops Without Farm Plots removes the need for Farm Plots , making it possible to plant seeds into the ground, so players can start farming as soon as they acquire seeds. Now you can grow a small garden without having to farm for nitrate powder or collect hundreds of rotting flesh. This mod will cut out a lot of frustration when you go looting for crucial supplies, and it does this in a quite natural way. It gives certain loot containers and locations a higher chance of having more of the items you want from them. For example, looting a hospital with this mod should provide you with plenty of medical supplies, and those huge food crates should similarly contain quite a lot of food. Any mod that streamlines unnecessarily long processes is ideal when time is of the essence. This mod allows players to deposit items into nearby containers straight from their inventory without ever having to open the containers. The deposit radius is 9x9x9 cubes, so you won't be able to deposit items from halfway across the map. This mod is extremely useful when you have multiple containers set aside for different materials, and you just need to drop some items off at your base before going on your way. Download Link: QuickStack by Westwud. If you love using firearms in 7 Days to Die, this mod is for you. Firearms Expansion 4 is the fourth mod in a series that looks to expand upon the pre-existing arsenal of guns available in the game. It also expands upon the gun tier system by having at least one new model for each tier; for example, there are two basic pistols, the Colt38 or the Beretta NANO, and the first Tier 1 pistol is the Colt Related: The Best Zombie Games. This mod does more than add new weapon models. A new suite of special weapons has also been added for players to obtain. A minigun, railgun, grenade launcher, and flamethrower are just a few special weapons this mod added. These weapons should shift the endgame more in your favor. Download Link: Firearms Expansion 4 by Smadol Setting up an electricity grid is a big part of the mid-to-late game in 7 Days to Die, and wires are possibly one of the most annoying things about it. We all want our turrets and light to work, but having wires dangling everywhere isn't a good look. This mod will completely hide wires when you do not have the wiretool equipped. This is super-handy if you're fussy about the aesthetic of your base or just find them annoying. As the game is still in Alpha, much of the game's UI is very much a work in progress. SMX, which can be split into three separate modlets, aims to add some polish to the game's user interface. The first modlet focuses on the main menu, adding an eerie red and black forest to the background and turning the menu buttons red, applying a spin to the iconic red and black design of 7 Days To Die. The second modlet focuses on giving the HUD a more horror-like and gritty art style, as well as adding useful information such as altitude and temperature. Lastly, the third modlet brings this art style over to the rest of the interface, as well as making inventory and crafting instructions clearer and creating a bigger inventory. When you use all of these modlets together, you get a user interface that does justice to 7 Days to Die's superb setting while also enhancing its functionality. If you've ever been frustrated about the game's UI, give one of these modlets or the entire package a try. Only the plant and particle modules of this mod work for Alpha Keep an eye out for an update when A20 releases. The core of HDHQ Overhaul makes changes to lighting and textures to create a more realistic and immersive environment for the player, with optional modlets adding biome overhauls, biome particle effects, biome plants, additional items, additional gun skins, and vehicles. With both 2K and 4K options, the visuals in this mod are stunning, and the changes to lighting create more realistic reflections and seamless transitions from one biome to another. Although there are many building materials and placeable objects in 7 Days To Die, for a crafting game, it lacks the ability to craft an aesthetically pleasing home. If you were hoping to create a beautiful base, then this is the mod for you. Not only does this mod add modern features such as working showers, PCs, and TVs, but you can also use beds in the same way you can use bedrolls, instead of beds acting as purely decorative items. It adds a massive range of craftable items and building materials to the game for you to create your ideal zombie-proof home. VanillaPlus looks to expand upon the feel of the vanilla gameplay while also adding unique features. Here are just a few features:. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to expand virtually every aspect of 7 Days to Die, VanillaPlus has you covered. If zombies were not enough of a challenge for you, the wasteland will now have enemy NPCs with their own melee and ranged weapons, making exploring the vast maps even more of a danger. If you're a big fan of the Fallout franchise, this is the mod for you. Download Link: The Wasteland by bdubyah. This mod is the complete collection of all Better Homes and Worlds mod series, each adding a substantial amount of content to 7 Days to Die. We'll give a brief overview of what each mod in this collection adds. Army Surplus introduces new army gear, weapons, recipes, and schematics. Power Plant gives the player more ways to power their builds with electricity. Hoarder provides more storage space in containers and vehicles. Reinforced Doors adds, well, reinforced doors, as well as reinforced windows. Signage lets the player craft and place all the signage already existing in the vanilla game, such as road signs, shop signs, and trader signs. Fashionista brings more color and makes all current items of clothing craftable. Finally, Indoor Plumbing allows the player easy access to water from inside their own home. Read Next in indie games.

[drillmatch8]

Our Camping PDFs

Reviewed the original article on Travel + Leisure. When talking concerning how easy it would be to obtain a job if you did not administer for one, it is tough to say that the job yard was completely completely transformed over the previous two years. There were actually not big numbers of qualified job hunters in high-paying projects. Additionally, the number of possible employers that possessed apps hanging around for them was quite reduced. Maintain reading Many studies have located perks to spending time in the outsides: much better concentration, raised mood, also faster healing and improved sleep designs. The end result: a brand new research study led through Dr. Kaitlin W. Miller at Georgetown's Department of Exercise likewise discovered "a crystal clear and beneficial effect of taking a brief remainder at a time, in contrast to possessing the exact same quantity of exercise twice a time for around 40 mins.". That added workout aids you focus on those early instants. But outdoor camping isn't merely a prescription for handling along with urban dread and stress. Related source here has actually to be a way of life correction procedure. What may you take as a marker of this change? It's been a married couple of years since my 1st hike, but that sense was ultimately over. I still had lots of opportunity between the last time we came back in June, and the last time we went in February. The previous few months have incorporated a brand new fact for me — the weather condition. It's additionally a joy in its very own right — an reason to go to mattress early, stare at the stars and get your hands grimy consuming icky s'mores roasted over an available blaze. But this is a really great, enjoyable video game — one that permits you to receive all this attention and acquire that lot of it.". More than five years later on, this is the first time we may view anyone truly carrying out it. If you're appearing for a main reason to clean off your headlamp or fire up the RV, every singular state in the U.S. boasts outstanding gardens where you can easily bunk for the evening. Listed below are some of our top ranked California tourist attractions. In a handful of additional states, you'll desire to receive a new vehicle because that's where you've been very most used to finding the attractions. Check-in and walk-in hrs are currently open simply on time courses.

From remote seashores easily accessible only through boat to tough gulches best looked into through canoe, these are the greatest spot to camp in every singular condition. The majority of have fishing and camping amenities and are simply easily accessible by aircraft, by watercraft, bus, automobile or foot. The chart of Arkansas presents numerous web sites off Lake Erie so that there would be just the pond of ponds and streams you needed to get to for the time you are happening up. Glamping fulfills the hinterlands at Gulf State Park's three walk-in Outpost sites, where canvas tents established on the sand look drew from a travel Pinterest board. For the the majority of component, backpacking and backpacking websites are a delight to go to. All of the individuals who make it listed here are terrific to be around: some of whom are household, buddies or coworkers. For the remainder, check out out the Outdoor Life Guide to the North Country's Natural Outreach for less cash. Each happens along with four beds, an outside sink, port-a-potty, fire pit and, perhaps very most significantly, tranquility and personal privacy. The bed room opens up up right into a tiny room, with four full-size mirrors and a small, hand-made tub that is simple to readjust for your specific convenience level. Lastly the living location has actually three or four bedrooms, plus a large wash basin so you can easily clean around your physical body and physical body components. In a condition complete of organic treasures, Glacier Bay is a wonder, home to lofty optimals, humpback whales, 700 miles of shoreline, and blue-tinged icebergs that calve directly in to the ocean. The label: Glacier Bay. In simple fact, the label is really the same as the label of the state's largest traveler tourist attractions, the Grand Canyon Trail. It's a impressive place, packed with natural elegance and incredible scientific research centers and all-natural tourist attractions that stand up the test of time. Established within temperate rainforest along Bartlett Cove, the playground's only camping area is beautifully environment-friendly (if a bit moist) and an quick and easy diving off point for paddling trips or boat trips. The brand-new camping site is only 15 min walk from the campsite, and its area delivers a lot of shade, new water, and excellent meals. The grounds are encompassed by lots of plants, which have been adjusted to develop on-site for the brand-new Camping Site. Obtaining to Havasupai is a problem. Listed below is the tale: It goes coming from a single-class starship to a more intricate starship created by two students at a single university. In each case, a singular student performs a job and in purchase to complete it, the teacher generates a model computer system. To function, one trainee has actually to find out how to develop that pc making use of a system foreign language and the student has to apply that plan language to the work of producing the task possible. Permits are taken up virtually promptly, and also if you run into one it's 10-mile hike coming from the edge to arrive at this rustic camping site embracing Havasu Creek. When it happens to what is considered an American heritage, a few additional policies are in purchase. The majority of campgrounds possess car parking. In Hawaii, car parking was obligatory, but in Hawaii it was restricted. Some camping grounds had cost-free going swimming pools and plenty of other establishments, but some did not. Make the adventure, nevertheless, and you're awarded with a series of emerging waterfalls and natural pools all an surprising shade of robin's egg blue. The upcoming measure is to go for the lengthy, long method. At that point you leave the town's breathtaking coast and venture in to the hinterlands. This isn't generally a trip to receive abundant. But it is a worthwhile stroll to check out the country that doesn't finish in what one could call wilderness.

[kinogane]

Meditations on Playing as Earthlings in Dragon Ball Xenoverse, Part 2

(previously)

The Dragon Ball Xenoverse games allow you to play as five races: Earthling (the default selection), Saiyan, Majin, Namekian, and the elegantly named "Frieza Race", with the first three races having an additional choice of gender. Compared to the Dragon Ball games mentioned in the previous post, Xenoverse probably differentiates the most between race/gender combinations. Each has a drastically different basic moveset that will be extremely relevant in combat, especially for strike-oriented playstyles, each have different stat spreads (and sometimes mechanics) that incentivize different playstyles, and arguably most importantly, each have their own unique techniques, the centerpiece of which is the race-specific Awoken Skill.

For context, in the first Dragon Ball Xenoverse, there were two problems with transformation skills like Super Saiyan and Unlock Potential. First was that they counted as Super Attacks, so you would have to give up a skill slot to make use of them, and second was that the transformations available to your character consisted of Kaioken, Unlock Potential, and variants of Super Saiyan. So like past Dragon Ball games, you weren't especially rewarded for playing a non-Saiyan character, since it meant you had to run Unlock Potential (or run a gimmicky Kaioken build), while Saiyans could at least nominally choose between that, and multiple variants of Super Saiyan that suited their playstyle.

This was remedied in the second Xenoverse game with the addition of Awoken Skills, which were transformations that occupied a separate slot. More importantly, Xenoverse 2 also added race-specific Awoken Skills, which meant that there was actually a compelling reason to pick races besides Saiyans.

In theory, at least. In practice?

Frieza Race characters probably gained the most in the sequel. Their Awoken Skill, Turn Golden, is relatively straightforward, both from a gameplay standpoint and an aesthetic standpoint. Your ki blasts are stronger and you do the Golden Frieza thing. Much like the form in the series proper, it's a bit dull and uninspired as a body recolor, but it is identifiable as a powerful transformation.

Namekians gained the ability to Become Giant, hearkening back to King Piccolo in the original Dragon Ball (and I guess Lord Slug in the movies), which as I understand was a fun transformation to use before it got nerfed in subsequent patches. Currently, it's a neat gimmick that's fun to mess around with and can be effective in bursts, but the stamina drain means it can't see the extended use that just about every other Awoken Skill can.

Majin gained the wildly unpopular ability to undergo Purification, which translates into becoming a Kid Buu with a special moveset. A Kid Buu that, mind you, only changes its skin and eye color as appropriate; regardless of how you customized your character before the transformation, your Purified Majin is going to look basically the same as any other Purified Majin, which is kind of a problem in a game where a significant portion of the userbase's interest in the game is at least partially in coordinating outfits for their player characters.

Earthlings got to ride on a Flying Nimbus and use the Power Pole.

The race-specific Awoken Skill for Earthlings is riding around on a cloud that kinda already loses a lot of its luster when, by construction, all characters can fly, and wielding a weapon/tool that hasn't been relevant since the original Dragon Ball. It's a nostalgia play that basically no Earthling character is going to use extensively, since you can't use your own skills and are limited to a moveset that loses its visual and gameplay novelty in minutes, at most.

It should be mentioned that Saiyans, as of the time of this writing, have access to five variants of Super Saiyan.

(Caveat that I can't speak for the PvP side of these evaluations, and quite frankly, I couldn't be bothered since Xenoverse PvP seems thoroughly unappealing, but I digress.)

So yet again, even when concessions are explicitly made to make playing non-Saiyan races an appealing alternative from a gameplay standpoint, Saiyans are still the clear winners and Earthlings are still clear losers. Furthermore, there's at least an argument that the non-Earthling Awoken Skills at least invoke an image of power as understood in Dragon Ball. For all the shortcomings of the Namekian and Majin Awoken Skills, you can at least point to King Piccolo and Kid Buu as signifiers of strength. If anything, the image of Goku on the Nimbus with the Power Pole is reminiscent of a time when Dragon Ball was significantly less concerned with displays of power, which is kind of counterintuitive when it's invoked as a method of attaining greater power.

Put reductively, it's kind of a bummer, but then again, isn’t this dynamic, of Saiyans being given the lion's share of power and relevance while Earthlings get virtually none, the most Dragon Ball shit ever?

Hindsight has only made Videl's presence in the early parts of the Buu Saga all the more fascinating. For that run of episodes, all the way up to the World Martial Arts Tournament, the degree to which Videl is an active participant and outright combatant in the action is kind of surreal. It's not entirely without precedent, since Chi-Chi had her moments in the original Dragon Ball and the occasional moment in Z, but unlike Chi-Chi, it really does seem like Videl's perfectly content to be this active for as long as she's around. What's more, the show explicitly makes reference to her being wildly more powerful than her dad, who himself is established as of legitimate world champion caliber, and it even goes out of its way to have Gohan teach her to fly. While that scene is absolutely primarily meant to set up her true purpose in the series writ large, there's a pretty good correlation in Dragon Ball between "people who can fly" and "people who can at least fight a little".

Then, of course, Spopovich happens.

I'm not particularly interested in litigating post-crisis Videl here, since it's been discussed plenty, and yeah, I also think it's more than a little bit of a bummer. But knowing the trajectory of post-Z Dragon Ball, especially Super, it makes Videl's irrelevance on an action level kind of an inevitability? Like, yeah, maybe if she bounced back harder and played a larger role after the Spopovich fight, you maaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe could draw a line to her at least being comparable to the likes of Krillin, Tien, and Yamcha, but given the reality of modern Dragon Ball, would that be anything more than a pyrrhic victory?

So really, when you consider that the frankly ridiculous power scaling of Super is really just the logical extension of the scaling in Z that was already well underway by the Buu Saga, it naturally raises the question of why they bothered to even make Videl this much of an active force in the first place. From square one, she's arguably destined to be relegated to Gohan's love interest and future wife, so why go through the effort of showing the audience that she's stronger than every Earthling that's not a Z-Fighter? It does parallel Chi-Chi's strength in Dragon Ball to help further foreshadow her pairing with Gohan like Chi-Chi with Goku, but then why make her be that into fighting when Chi-Chi was always clearly content to be a housewife?

And like, Jesus Christ, all that only to be that definitive with that Spopovich fight?

I bring Videl up because my main created character in Xenoverse 2 is a female Earthling. Ever since I booted the game for the first time, there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to primarily play as a female Earthling, because with it came the knowledge that I was going to control a female Earthling doing and achieving some frankly wild shit, like going toe-to-toe with Final Form Mira, literal deities, Jiren, and Ultra Instinct Goku(?!?), sometimes back-to-back in certain Parallel Quests.

And of course I can, because that is the entire reason for the Xenoverse games' existence. The game has always been an unabashed power fantasy all about defeating some of the most powerful entities in Dragon Ball history with your own created character on your own terms.

And yet, as I do all of this with my female Earthling, the knowledge that in canon, the most powerful analogue to my character is Videl, a character who almost literally gets the relevance beaten out of her in a brutal and unforgettable manner, makes the experience feel almost rebellious. It feels like everything from the godawful Awoken Skill to the subpar race/gender stat distribution for a strike-oriented build to the very nature and history of Dragon Ball itself is working against my character becoming a ludicrously powerful force of nature, and yet I not only can, but literally must push through and go even further beyond.

I cannot emphasize enough that this sense of transgression has no basis at all when it comes to the game. Absolutely nothing about the Xenoverse games explicitly suggests that Earthlings, female or otherwise, are somehow destined to be strictly lesser than Saiyans or any other races. Again, the game is an unabashed power fantasy; it's going to let you achieve that power fantasy regardless of race or gender, because to do so otherwise is completely antithetical to the entire reason people play the game in the first place.

But looking at past Dragon Ball games, at least to me, makes clear that they really didn't have to include the option to play as an Earthling. They clearly feel no obligation to do so, since they've excluded it in previous games. They completely dodge the need to include a human-like race option with the existence of Saiyans, who aren't even differentiated by the presence of a tail. I genuinely don't think any significant number of people would have even batted an eye over the exclusion of Earthlings. ‘Cause, you know, it's Dragon Ball, why would you play as an Earthling?

But they did. They let you choose to play as an Earthling, a race that Dragon Ball has essentially been drilling into your head, for years, is a strictly less powerful and less interesting version of Saiyans with practically no upside. They gave you the option, and I took it, all because it effectively let me play out an extended Videl what-if by proxy and stretch credibility into complete, unrecognizable nonsense.

I recognize that this absolutely reflects more on me and my relationship with Dragon Ball as a whole than it does on Xenoverse, but when it’s the only Dragon Ball game that embraces customizable characters to the extent that it does, it’s necessarily going to be the only game that actually lets me grapple with that tension between the source and the spin-off, and reckon with how that can shape the audience’s experience and perception of the bigger picture.

[xbaebsae]

Changes and Deleted Content Part 2 - Far Cry 5: Features and Missions

This is a small passion project series of posts where I share some insight of what’s hidden in the game(s) files, but also some general observations. The main focus will be on character changes or deletions with a few words about functions and deprecated missions.

What will not be touched upon are a lot of the things the Resistance Mod on PC restores, namely deleted store weapons and clothes, weather systems and general gameplay related things like skinning animations. I also won’t go into audio files and their content, as @lulu2992 is already working on an amazing series for FC5 that summarizes them per character.

This part will be significantly shorter Edit from post finishing-Angy: This post turned out really damn long despite only discussing some scrapped or changed features and a couple of deprecated mission strings. I still hope you find this as interesting to read as I found writing and investigating it :)

1. Changed and Scrapped Features

1.1 Guns/Fangs for Hire

Just for reference, the release version of the game has 9 unique GFH/FFH available + 3 slots for random specialists you can hire throughout the world.

Among the game’s UI textures for tutorials is this image, showing an earlier version of the GFH screen.

What this indicates is that the planned amount for active GFHs you can have was originally 4; or the top row could function as some sort of favorites tab. We will probably never know for certain. 

Interestingly though, this version has slots for 20 GFHs in total, 18 either filled a character icon or a locked symbol, suggesting the originally planned unique GFH count was 18.

Considering almost every NPC in-game has spawn-able archetypes with battle audio fully in place it is possible that we were supposed to be able to recruit more of them. I will return to the matter of recruitment shortly.

Another thing I’d like to open up for consideration is that there may have been plans for (ex-)cultist GFHs or at least areas where they act friendly towards the deputy. Reason for this assumption is the fact that cultists have recorded lines for when you meet them (spawn them), aim weapons at them (the taunts GFH and friendlies do too), along with idle lines when you use mods to spawn them as friendly followers. The game has no purpose for most of these lines, as you never walk into peaceful cultists outside of the intro. In the intro you have no weapons to aim at anyone, making it impossible to trigger these lines. 

You may argue they were recorded for the arcade, but the Seeds are also featured in it and have none of those. However, they may also be a leftover from scrapped missions that would feature cultists that don’t shoot you on sight. 

Additionally to that early menu screenshot, I have also found an old reddit thread discussing the game’s Uplay page near release because of the following image:

Unfortunately I was not able to find this particular page myself anymore, and knowing how short lived everything is nowadays, it might be lost in time forever. The commenters discuss that the three additional slots here refer to potential DLC characters, but we don’t get to use any of the DLC companions in the main game (nor do the DLCs share the main game’s art direction). So, this might be another indicator for additionally planned GFH/FFH we never got to see.

One of these was likely the Eagle FFH called ‘’Freedom’’ (Character/Unique/FFH_Eagle_Freedom), which was partially restored through mods on PC as its loaders and everything are still present. It is unknown why this was scrapped.

It also appears that there once were inventory (purchaseable?) items for almost each GFH (Boomer and Jess have none), as these placeholder icons exist inside the game’s ui\icons\inventory folder:

Possible functions: Quest items you needed to obtain to recruit them (implying changed missions); Gift items (for potential level up?)

Now to return to the matter of recruitment: Deprecated mission strings suggest that originally you had to hire unique GFHs similarly to random ones; and that was part of quest lines. These lines appear in ‘oasisstrings’, the game’s main language file(s):

HIRE Jess RECRUIT Adelaide Drubman ADD Adelaide to your squad

In light of the old GFH screen I actually looked up the definition of ‘Squad’, and on wikipedia it is listed that a Squad is a team of 5+ members, further strengthening the theory that originally you could have 4 active GFH (plus the Deputy they’d be 5, therefore a squad). 

1.2 In-game Wiki menu

Some of the previous Far Cry titles have a sort of wiki menu that features short bios of characters, explanations of locations, resources and weaponry. New Dawn sort of brought part of this back with the ‘Survival Guide’ (accessible from the pause menu), but 5 does not have this at all. However, in the ui files there are still texture leftovers, implying this feature was planned and it had sections for Animals, Base Jumps, Characters, Destructible Structures, Fish, Locations, Parking Spots (Garages), Plants and Treasure Hunts. The following image shows the ‘undiscovered’ symbols arranged in that order.

Again, no text entries along with a lot of duplicate and unfinished images imply this was scrapped early.

You can view the additional images (minus characters, because they will be handled in the next posts) here.

2. Abandoned Missions

This section will focus on mission strings that still exist in ‘oasisstrings’. For the sake of readability I removed the style code the game uses and the line numbers. You can easily find them by searching part of the text in the files or website listed in References. Please keep in mind that only the mission titles themselves are 100% like that in the files, any assumption as to what they might have been used for is purely speculative, but I attempt to always provide a reasonable explanation with evidence for the theories presented. Also I am not perfect, so it is possible I missed something in-game. In that case please do correct me!

2.1. Investigation Type objectives

There is a set of objectives listed that imply a different setup for Willis Huntley’s mission. It introduces the objectives PHOTOGRAPH, TAG, LISTEN and INTERROGATE:

PHOTOGRAPH potential property PHOTOGRAPH an animal slaughter TAG the target PHOTOGRAPH the target LISTEN to the conversation INTERROGATE the target PHOTOGRAPH cult signs and rituals: BRING the photos back to Willis

The release build mission has you tail someone and steal a VHS tape. None of the above objectives appear. It’s interesting to see that at one point there were mechanics in consideration that included intel gathering.

2.2. Quest centered around Melvin

The only Melvin I could find in relation to Far Cry 5 is Nadine Abercrombie’s grandfather. Melvin Abercrombie joined the cult. It isn’t assured that these objectives refer to him, but if they do it’d mean a potential mission where you speak to a lower ranked cultist.

Please Note that mission strings are not always in correct order.

TALK to Melvin LOOT Melvin's corpse REACH Melvin's house WAIT for Melvin to arrive GO MEET Melvin

2.3. The ‘Redeemer’ Objectives

At some point there was a quest-line revolving around something called the ‘Redeemer’ in Holland Valley. I could not find out what this thing really was supposed to be, but it sounds like it was either a boat or a submarine (???). In this line it appears that the garage in Fall’s End had actual relevance.

FIND a similar engine BRING engine to Mary's garage TALK to Mary's assistant TOW Redeemer Back the Garage (this typo is also in the file) SUBMERGE the Redeemer FLIP the Redeemer upside down GET IN the Tow Truck PUT the Redeemer on the Flat Bed

What this also implies is the inclusion of tow trucks and that there was a ‘Mary’s assistant’ character.

2.4. A few seperate Entries before we focus on plot relevant ones

In light of the afore mentioned wiki menues there is also an objective type that goes very well with its character section:

DISCOVER this character.

This could be attached to unknown entries in the character list.

There also is an unused objective called:

FIND the cow in the field

Which at first glance made me believe it was related to the mission at Cattle co., but it is not used there or anywhere else. I suppose we will never find out what was so special about this mysterious cow.

TAKE Joseph's writings

is also an interesting entry, as it is not related to the mission where you burn his book. This is again an unused string with unknown original purpose.

2.5. Mary May and John Seed

There are two particularly interesting unused mission objectives in relation to these two characters. 

For one, it looks like originally we were supposed to rescue Mary May from John’s ranch:

RESCUE Mary May From John Seed's Ranch

This could either be a replacement for saving her in Fall’s End or it is a mission that appeared later on in which John possibly captured her. It gets more possible applications with the next one, though.

FIND John and Mary May's secrets

Now, this one caught my attention immediately, because there are two big things that come to mind in terms of possible application. It could refer back to the novel Absolution in which Mary May gets captured and tattooed by John, heavily implying that part of the plot that made it to the novel was originally intended to be shown in the game (we will get back to this in the character episode when talking about Holly). 

Additionally, keeping the previous objective in mind, it could also imply that Mary has been converted during her capture (or her capture was planned) and played a different role in the story overall. Of course, all of this is only speculation as we will probably never know, but the objective specifically says ‘John AND Mary May’s secrets’, refering to shared secrets, not just one of Mary herself (which would fit more into the tattoo theory). 

   If you have ever even considered the possibility that Ubisoft might have cut a lot of stuff from the Whitetail region of the game, the rest of this Mission section should finally prove this to you. I’d like to make clear here that this is unbiased. I have tried to dig up deleted content equally in all regions but it just turns out that this is the one they really went wild with. There is nothing that stands out in terms of deleted or changed missions in the Henbane area and the Holland Valley content is mostly not that plot relevant minus the last examples just mentioned.

2.6. Eli and the Wolf’s Den

In the final version of the game we are told that Eli is an important character, but he is not very active in any way. Where Mary May assists you on the way to John’s Ranch and Tracey and the others at the prison fight by your side in defense missions, Eli will stay at the Wolf’s Den and have you run his errands for him. Just like the other mentioned characters he has full fight capabilities though. His AI is capable of using that bow, despite him never leaving the bunker.

As it turns out, he used to be a far more active character and there were multiple ways you could encounter him for the first time. For reference: In the game as it is now you will only meet him when he and his people rescue the deputy after Jacob’s first trial. You cannot enter the Wolf’s Den prior to this point.

Inside the game’s animations folders are these three subfolders including the respective files (JJ and Key03 is how Eli is often referred to in the files, I will get back to this in the character post):

This means there were three ways that you would encounter Eli: Inside a cabin, through being captured in a net or by being released by Perkins. This was most likely Doc Perkins, giving her a bit more significance in the game.

The main cutscene files for these are not present anymore, only the animations remain so I could not find out where the exact locations for these were supposed to be at. I however, loaded these animations into a game cutscene so we get to look at them anyway. I have chosen Jacob’s death cutscene for the simple reason that there’s only the player + 1 NPC, it is daytime and there’s no intrusive DOF blurring everything. The video below shows all of them. 

Keep in mind that only the player animation matters in the first two! Ignore the rest. The third one features Doc Perkins and has her animation applied to her. As you can see it is very very unfinished, but it shows that she possibly unties the deputy or opens an animal cage, then drives away in a car.

This unused mission string supports the theory of these different ways further, as it implies that you met him somewhere and he would guide you to the den:

FOLLOW Eli into the Wolf's Den

There are several other objectives that suggest a more active Eli, who might have accompanied you on some missions:

WAIT for Eli to arrive GO with Eli GO inside the Wolf's Den

2.7. Jacob and the Veteran Center

Before swan diving down a very deep rabbit hole, let’s address this unused mission string first:

TALK to Deputy Pratt

Sounds very unspectacular and like something you would do at some point, but this is never an objective in the game. The intended function will forever remain unknown most likely, but possibilities are vast, especially with the upcoming abandoned objectives.

There are hints at an alternate useage of Jacob’s bunker (specifically called bunker here and not armory). Mission strings are:

FIND a way out of Jacob's Bunker LEAVE Jacob's Bunker

Again, on first sight you’d think these are just what’s there in-game. But they aren’t. During the final mission it goes from RESCUE Deputy Pratt straight to ESCAPE Jacob’s Armory. There is no indicator that you’d need to find a way out. The objectives above hint that it was similar to John’s and Faith’s bunker initially, where you had to do a few more things before escaping. 

An observation derived from the game’s subtitle file is that at one point there might have been a differentiation between ‘Armory’ and ‘Bunker’ as, most likely, a random NPC says "I don't know where Jacob's bunker is. I'm not sure anybody does, but it's out there somewhere." The armory is (other than John’s and Faith’s bunkers) directly next to a main road, next to McKinley Dam. It is quite impossible to miss. Therefore this statement, along with the inconsistent switch between calling it ‘armory’, ‘bunker’ or ‘gate’, could mean there was originally a different bunker and the armory really functioned as such. 

Before moving on to more mission strings, there is one more subtitle entry worth mentioning: "When you tried to arrest Joseph, Jacob got wind of it and things got real crazy here in the Whitetail Mountains." It heavily implies that at some point, Joseph’s family might not have been intended to be present during the opening, and they instead found out about the arrest afterwards. As far fetched as it sounds at first, it does check out with the inactivity and absence of the three heralds after you cuff Joseph (and in case you ever wondered what the three of them are doing while you guide Joseph outside, they de-spawn and are gone as soon as you turn around).

But enough about that and let’s get back to more missions we never got to see.

For instance there is:

GO TO the Veteran's Center

Which, as most of you know, is impossible during the game because you get repositioned everytime you attempt to go close. This string implies a different kind of mission at some point. 

HUNT Jacob

No, this also does not appear in the game. The final mission goes from DESTROY Wolf Beacons to KILL Jacob Seed. Possibility in combination with the previous entry is that you were supposed to follow him back to the Veteran Center and that’s where the final fight would be. It could also imply a different kind of trial.

Small observation because we are talking about the final fight: The Prima Games’ guide (based on a pre-release build of the game, it will be featured more prominently in the next post) depicts Jacob at the bottom of the mountain during this encounter. WIth a lot of perseverance I’m sure you can somehow manage to replicate this in-game. But it is interesting regardless that they chose this image. It might imply that at some point he was not positioned on top of the hill, and instead closer to the area he finally dies in.

Before we move on, here are a few other interesting unused strings:

TRAIN TRAIN yourself INTERACT with Jacob for finishing takedown TALK to Jacob

They imply a different way to end the fight along with the possibility to talk to Jacob at some point (unrelated to each other mind you). I have no clue in what kind of scenario you were supposed to talk to him. The only explanation I have is that trials were possibly supposed to be different at some point and maybe they had more intentions to explore the whole brainwashed aspect of it to the point you casually took strolls around St Francis. Now before you say I just made that up, I implore you to wait till after the next part to call me out on it, because there are reasons I offer that possibility up for discussion here.

TRAIN and TRAIN yourself might not be linked to this region at all. But it is interesting to have these sort of objectives as they form the ‘Train, Hunt, Kill, Sacrifice’ part of the region’s theme, when you refer back to other mission strings: TRAIN (yourself), HUNT Jacob, KILL Jacob Seed.

Now to get to the main part. If you ever used mods on PC that let you access the Veteran Center, you will have noticed that the AI acts very strange. Your assigned GFH might wander around, aim at nothing or even attack civillians. Cultists inside the area will not always attack you, while civillians will do. This is most likely why the developers were so quick to patch out the tricks to access the region without mods.

I have seen multiple speculations circling around, but the one that always struck me as the most plausible one is that there was some kind of mission after Pratt rescues you from the cage. It is a very discontinuous cutscene, in which you transition from the cage directly to the top floor of the Veteran Center, implying there were no problems for Pratt and the Deputy to get there, despite having to cross the entire guarded frontyard and going through multiple building floors to get to the office. So, naturally I wasted some time of my life trying to dig up stuff that proves this theory right and I...well I did find something.

Important note so you understand what’s going on here: It is very common in games to load objects underneath the map (outside of sight of the player) to assure they are properly loaded in when they are needed. I have seen posts circulating around which depicted Pratt underneath the building, suggesting they eventually had an area planned there. The more likely case is that Pratt was loaded there for later use in a cutscene.

Why am I saying that? Well, this following screenshot was taken underneath the map during the cutscene where Pratt rescues the deputy and it transitions to the top of the building. I have changed the time to daytime for a bit better visibility.

What you see here is an entirely unused set of either cutscene or gameplay elements. A truck, Jacob (who’s absent in the cutscene we see), Pratt, a random NPC, a bag, a small table (unseen in cutscene), a single door (unseen in cutscene), a double door and 3 small pieces of paper (only two are in cutscene). I have kept watch on these assets for the entirety of the cutscene and none of them were moved into place. Meaning that all of these were here to be used in either a different cutscene or even a gameplay segment.

It brings me back to the mission theory, where there was a potential stealth segment between leaving the cage and entering the office.  Maybe there was an alternate cutscene for the case where you’d be caught and the one we see in the game is the one after successfully sneaking up there? We will never know for certain again but it is one possible explanation as to why these assets even still exist. It would also check out with the TALK to Deputy Pratt mission string, as you maybe had to speak to him after reaching a certain area.

Here are also some additional screenshots of the room in front of the office:

It was modelled and filled with a few detail props we never get to see much of.

Another potential mission, which would explain the broken AI behavior better, is the already mentioned theory that they might have planned to do more with the whole brainwashing aspect. Cultists inside the Vet Center area do not shoot and are allied, while civillians act hostile, implying while the player is there they are considered to be allied to cultists. TALK to Deputy Pratt, TALK to Jacob or TRAIN (yourself) could have taken place during this also. Something that could support this theory is also this unused timelapse marking days passing:

3. The Game’s Title and Closing Words

Internally the game is often called ‘fc zeta’, ‘zeta’ or ‘fcz’. So *sigh* of course I tried to find a deeper meaning behind it all and came to the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet ‘Zeta’. If you count Far Cry: Primal as a real standalone title, Far Cry 5 is the sixth Far Cry release. But because the Greek were special snowflakes or something, the sixth letter actually has the value of 7. So Zeta is actually 7 despite being the sixth. If you count Blood Dragon as a Far Cry release it’d mean FC5 is the 7th release. However, these theories exclude all the expansions and stuff for earlier Far Cry games.

Another indicator that Zeta might have been more than just a number, is this texture used as a decal on some clothing materials:

I have not found someone in-game who has this anywhere, and they might just disable the transparency and use it only for the American flag. But still, why would they make such a decal texture in the first place? Maybe very early name of the cult or resistance group? 

Before closing this incredibly long essay, here is an old, unused version of the logo found in the files :)

Phew, we finally reached the end. If you made it all the way down here: CONGRATULATIONS you just read a long af essay! Again, i’d like to remind you that a lot of what you’ve read is pure speculation. I tried to prove my arguments as best as I could with evidence that I provided but only Ubisoft knows what really happened. And they are unlikely to tell us.

The next post will focus on the expansive character list and I may split it into parts because there is a lot to say and show about some characters. 

I hope you have a nice day and thank you for reading ♥

_______________________________________________________

References:

text.farcry.info (website where you can look through Oasisstrings yourself!) languages\english\oasisstrings.oasis.bin languages\english\oasisstrings_subtitles.oasis.bin animations\narrative\cin_key03_q01_b00_meet_jj_cabin animations\narrative\cin_key03_q01_b00_meet_jj_net animations\narrative\cin_key03_q01_b00_meet_jj_release domino\user\fcz_proto_ld domino\user\zeta_dlcm ui\resources\textures\04_menu\tooltips ui\resources\textures\06_icons\inventory ui\resources\textures\05_hud\tutorials\_images __Unknown\XBT\AE800D066AB2E84A.xbt __Unknown\XBT\FD080AA2BBABE691.xbt Zeta on Wikipedia (english) Squad on Wikipedia (english) Prima Games guide (2018, collector’s edition, print and digital) reddit.com/r/farcry/comments/89nsf1/so_theres_3_missing_guns_for_hire_here_maybe_3/ __Unknown\BIK\C6AB10EDBC81E933.bik

[trulymightypotato]

For the DVD Commentary?

Techno stepped out of the gold and red nebula of magic, a triumphant grin on his own face.

A gold and netherite sword slashed, cutting the magic in half, and there stood a teenager with golden hair that flowed into golden clothes, Her eyes obscured by magic and Her mouth in a feral grin. She held the sword in one hand, Her shield in the other, and howled with absolute delight as She jumped into the fray.

If Her sheer presence wasn’t enough to immediately identify Her, the Nether itself willingly folded to Ethemr, ground shifting to boost Her jumps and fungal trees reaching to catch Her. Sparks flew from Her sword each time She swung it, embers shimmering on the ground where Her boots dug in with inhuman force. All the fire burning stopped being orange and blue as she moved past, instead burning bright gold before slowly getting smaller with each and every flicker.

This got long, so I put it under the cut:

(Spoilers for When the End Calls, of course)

1. So there's a fun fact behind this bit, where Paradox and I actually debated if Ethemr should be like asleep and out of action (though we never decided on a reason why) before deciding it was cooler to have her all ready for action and just where Darkness couldn't get her.

2. The whole reason behind the nebula is it kinda looks like Nether fog but also a whole lot of chaotic things happen in nebulas and it's very fitting.

3. There's a specific Nether song track I was trying to channel in this scene. Rubedo has this slow start that just amps up the anxiety (gosh I have a complicated relationship with this when it plays in-game), but at about the 3:40 mark it has this bit that's always felt kinda triumphant to me, like the Nether is singing out in some sort of recognition.

Obviously that's a lot of projection onto a single background song, but I really wanted to have that same sort of buildup.

4. Ethemr is feral. On one hand, because she's the Goddess of Chaos. On another, because she's a teenager with access to a sword and magic. And she's very powerful, and not entirely in control of her magic when she's outside of the Nether, though she does her best. In the Nether, though--it's her domain. Like, it literally started forming in response to her needs before she even realized she was capable of forming a dimension. Of course it's going to respond to her every move. Of course she's going to be so incredibly extra.

(Fun fact: we see a similar thing happen with Dream in the Badlands when he and the Captain are fighting. Except it doesn't work the way it's supposed to, because the world is fighting back against Darkness, so sometimes it hindered Dream instead of helping.)

6. Early on we decided that green was The Godly Color--in the Overworld, at least, because everyone there is so used to associating it with Gorai. Historically, Champions wore green and then their god's color--something we actually see Phil do, wearing green and black.

Ironically, Gorai's color is actually white, which is reflected in his quintessence. Y'know, like pure light that feeds the life cycle--the order of life? Which is why Dream's mask is white and Sapnap's bandana is white and the frames of George's goggles are white. Of course, those things were established before the fic, but why change stuff that isn't broken?

Denenur's color is black because of the void and the End, and because they eventually sacrifice themself to significantly delay Darkness. Parallels are fun. (Side note: Phil actually would have been pretty invisible when flying between islands in the End, between his dark clothes and his dark wings. Not entirely, obviously, but he'd have looked a lot smaller than he was.)

Ethemr could have been either gold or red, but we also needed a color for Techno and that kinda needed to be red. So we went with gold for her, because it's such a big deal in the Nether already- and so what if one of the reasons for that is because it's the color of the goddess there?

7. Gold and netherite swords do not exist but it really is a fun visual and honestly that's a huge part of the point. I have this mental picture of it looking like how when someone wraps two pipe cleaners together in a spiral, except then hammered flat. Obviously that's not logistically possible--netherite goes over diamond, and that's not something you can smelt.

Ethemr did it. Neither Denenur or Gorai would have done it (Denenur wouldn't have wanted to, given she made it to fight in the Horizon Wars and she was the equivalent of like nine at the time, and Gorai can't make something so far out of the natural order of things). I don't know how she did it, but she did, and that's the important part.

8. Phil has seen her do this before. He still thinks it's really cool.

9. I don't know if you've noticed, but each of the godly siblings have different colors of hair. We wanted them to be plausibly siblings--though hair color is, as far as that's concerned, not always consistent on that front--so they have a gradient of hair among the three of them. It gets more saturated with age order--Denenur's was nearly white, Gorai's is darker but definitely a blond-ish color, and Ethemr has gold.

Also, none of them have short hair. Irrelevant, but now you know.

10. Techno's very proud of her causing chaos. He won't answer her phone, but he is very proud of her.

11. Ethemr immediately knew she was fighting corrupted mobs. Literally no Nether inhabitant would ever even think about attacking her or her allies otherwise. She's their goddess and they love her.

[matchasprouts]

Listen Closer - Chapter 10

[ 20,000 WORDS (altogether as a story) BAYBEE, THE POLYCULE IS SO POWERFUL ]

First || Next || Previous || Last

“Why would I apologize to him? He was asking for it.” Garrett was defending his position on biting Strahm as he made dinner for himself and Mark, who apparently just kind of lived in his apartment now. He’d even brought some spare clothes.

Mark sighed at his response, running a hand through his hair. The longer this went on, the more exasperated he got. “Because he’s an FBI agent, and if he thinks you’re dangerous, he’ll accuse you of being Jigsaw. We can’t handle an FBI investigation, Garrett, you should know that.”

Garrett just hummed, as if the idea of the FBI finding them really didn’t bother him. “He’s not a very good one. I mean, he could barely even take a little bite.”

“That was not a little bite. He had to get stitches. It’ll probably scar.”

The knowledge that he’d scarred Strahm made Garrett grin, darting his tongue out to lick his lips as if he could still taste his blood. “He deserved it,” he finally replied, finishing up with the preparation and putting the tin pan he was using into the oven.

Then he joined Mark on the couch, immediately cuddling into his side. Mark sighed and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pulling him close.

“... Do you really want me to apologize?” Garrett asked once they were comfortable, one of his hands up Mark’s shirt and gently playing with the hair on his chest.

“Yes, I do, because the last thing we need is an investigation with an agent that hates us,” Mark answered, tightening his grip on Garrett slightly. “It doesn’t have to be genuine. Just make it seem like it is.”

Garrett muttered an ‘ok’ in reply, falling silent again as he rested his head on Mark’s shoulder.

This quiet lasted for a good few minutes, to the point where Mark honestly thought Garrett had fallen asleep. Until he spoke up again, of course.

“Thoughts on polyamory?”

Mark almost choked at the suddenness and bluntness of the question, and he could feel Garrett tense up in response, like he was ready to run at any second.

Garrett knew that if he had to choose between them, he would choose Mark. Yes, he had known Lawrence for longer, but he was in love with Mark the second they met. Besides, he was only officially dating the detective at the moment.

But he didn’t want to choose, and he knew an ultimatum would change the relationship forever, and he couldn’t handle that.

Before he could spiral too far, Mark cut in. “I’ve never tried it, but I’d be willing to, for you,” he said, immediately feeling the tenseness in Garrett’s muscles drop, even hearing a soft sigh from him.

“Are you sure? I mean, you don’t have to date Lawrence too if you don’t want to, I really don’t mind if you just wanna date me-”

“Garrett. You’re overthinking this. I’m sure,” Mark cut him off, pressing a long kiss to the top of his head. “I’d do anything for you.” There was a pause, before he continued. “Lawrence Gordon?”

“Yeah… it would appear that my type is people tied to Jigsaw,” Garrett joked, leaning back again now that he wasn’t freaking out. “Have you met him?”

“Once, when he was being investigated as a Jigsaw suspect. It wasn’t a very long meeting, Tapp and Sing were about to interrogate him,” Mark replied. He wasn’t all too surprised that Garrett would be into him, his actual type seemed to be big men, and Lawrence fit that category.

Garrett hummed softly, kind of expecting that. Lawrence had told him about the investigation, and he’d been the one to plant the penlight in the first place. Of course, Lawrence knew that now, but he’d been rather upset when he first found out.

“I just wanted to check in with you,” Garrett said softly after a moment, looking up to press a kiss to Mark’s jaw. “I don’t like keeping things from the people I care about, especially not when it’s this important to me.”

It was then that the timer on the oven went off. Garrett groaned before pulling himself away from the warmth Mark exuded and headed over to turn off the timer and remove the pan from the oven.

After setting it on the stove and cleaning up some so it could cool off, he called Mark in for dinner.

Despite the earlier altercation and other excitements of the day, the night was peaceful and relaxed, which Jigsaw apprentices didn’t get all too often. They just had to cherish the moments they did get.

---

“And you’re sure everything is in place? You double checked?” Garrett asked as he and Amanda made their way over to the abandoned building they were using for his first multiroom and multi-player game.

He still had to gather the players- his coworkers who were more focused on gossip than doing literally anything else with their lives- but he wanted to be sure that his traps were in place.

Especially his version of the “iron maiden but for the face”. He was so excited to see that one in action- he designed it with Nadia in mind. He hoped they would appreciate his work if they survived.

“Yes, everything is in place,” Amanda replied with a groan, rolling her eyes. She was already tired of Garrett constantly asking her about it. “I double checked, John double checked, hell, I even had Nar take a look at it.”

Well, at least she had the foresight to check that many times, because Garrett did not trust her anymore. He did, however, trust John and Nar.

“Okay, okay, I get your point. Thank you,” he replied, unlocking and opening the door. “I’m just gonna check one more time and then I’ll go get Nadia.” He didn’t have time to get all of the players himself, so he was getting Nadia, Mark was getting Tyler, and Amanda would be getting Joyce.

They all planned on leaving at the same time, so they would hopefully get back at the same time, which meant they were waiting on Garrett.

“Just hurry up, I’m not going to wait around for you forever,” Amanda said, crossing her arms as she stood by the door. Garrett just brushed her off with a wave of his hand, heading further into the house.

The players would be locked up in their own rooms with their own traps- a mask with retractable spikes on the inside that would activate if they didn’t find the key in one minute for Nadia, a device that would slowly pull out his tongue if he didn’t find the code to unlock it fast enough for Tyler, and a machine that would crush Joyce’s fingers one by one until she willingly cut them off.

He’d had a lot of fun creating these traps, but he could only hope the rehabilitation worked.

And, theoretically, the only one in danger of dying early was Nadia. Tyler and Joyce would run the risk of bleeding out, but they still had a much better chance than them.

Garrett ran through the house, checking each room and the center trap, where they would all have to work together. Of course, it was survivable without Nadia, should they die, but if they failed, they would die slow and painful deaths in this house.

“Okay, everything’s good,” Garrett announced as he returned to the front door, ignoring the huff from Amanda. “Let’s go.”

“God, finally,” Amanda said, opening the door for them and heading out to their cars. “If you’re not here when I get back, I’m not setting up your trap.” Of course she wouldn’t, because she knew he didn’t trust her anymore.

“Thank you,” Garrett replied, grinning at the offense on her face. “Just put her in her room, I’ll take care of the rest. Try not to fight with Mark if you run into him.”

He didn’t hear Amanda’s retort, since he got in his car and drove off as fast as he possibly could. Besides, he didn’t have the time to argue, Nadia would only be home alone for another fifty or so minutes.

Unfortunately, he was cutting it really close, but it wasn’t his fault. Mark legitimately made him go to work with him in the morning to apologize to Strahm for biting him, only letting him leave when he explained WHY he reacted like that to a simple touch.

He’d made up some stupid shit about how it was laced in with his trauma and how he reacted violently to things he wasn’t expecting because of it. It wasn’t like he could tell Strahm that he’d ripped his step-father’s throat out with his teeth and became obsessed with the taste of blood, so that would work.

With that taking up most of his day (the other part of it being him making Mark make up for the wasted time), he was now in a rush, and he hated being rushed.

He noticed Nadia open her curtains when he drove past their house, hissing softly to himself as he had to keep going, circling around until he had clear access to her backyard instead. There was a fence around it, but that was okay, he just scaled it and unlocked the back gate to make it easier to pull them out.

Despite hating it, Garrett pulled on the pig mask he’d brought before heading inside, remembered that Nadia kept their backdoor unlocked- they made the mistake of telling him, when they were talking about how safe their neighbourhood was.

It seemed like they had stayed upstairs after seeing his car, which was good because it was what he had planned for.

Nadia didn’t have any pets or children either, which made heading upstairs without alerting them a lot easier. They didn’t even look up from their computer when he slowly pushed their study door open, hardly even twitching as he approached them from behind.

They tried to scream when he grabbed their hair, but he jabbed the syringe into their neck too fast for them to get the chance, the sedative inside making quick work of their consciousness.

Luckily, Nadia wasn’t very heavy, so it was extremely easy for Garrett to carry them back outside and to his car. He made it out of there with twenty minutes to spare, which made it his fastest job yet. He was sure Nadia’s roommate would be concerned when she got back and found them missing but not enough that she would call the cops. Nadia had a habit of leaving without saying anything, which worked out nicely for him.

He still drove quickly to get back to the house, but he was significantly less worried now. He knew the sedative would last a long enough time for him to not risk getting pulled over for speeding.

It wasn’t long before he was hoisting them out of the back seat and carrying them inside the house, not at all surprised to see Mark already there but Amanda still out. “Did you have any trouble with Tyler? He’s not a big man, but he’s fast,” he said, readjusting Nadia on his shoulder.

“I just hit him in the head,” Mark admitted bluntly. “Not my greatest moment, but he came running at me and I just kind of reacted on instinct.”

Garrett stared at him for a second, before bursting out in a laugh. “Holy SHIT Mark, you were supposed to SEDATE him, not knock him out in one blow!” He meant to be scolding, but that was damn near impossible.

“I- I tried, alright? It was instinct!” Mark defended himself, covering his mouth in an attempt to not join in on Garrett’s laughter.

Garrett just shook his head, still fighting back giggles as he made his way to Nadia room.

He laid them down on the floor once inside, taking two keys out of his pockets. One was for the door, the other for the trap. He put the one for the trap in a whole in the wall that he covered up with a painting- Nadia used to be quite the peeping tom, so it seemed appropriate. The key for the door was placed inside the mattress on the iron bed frame sitting in the middle of the room.

Once that was done, he placed the heavy metal mask on their face, securing it with the thick leather straps that wrapped around their head. The buckle was held shut by the padlock the key belonged to.

With the mask secured, he placed the tape player on the floor next to them and set the timer to activate in an hour, which was when the game was to begin.

It had been excruciatingly timed by him several weeks before, so he knew exactly when everything was going to go off.

Now that Nadia’s game was set up, he left the room and locked the door behind him, moving on to the others.

---

“Do you want to watch the game with me, or do you have work to do?” Garrett asked Mark when he was done setting up all the traps, Amanda having left as soon as she dropped off Joyce.

“I’ve got to get back to the precinct,” Mark said, getting a “booo” from Garrett that made him chuckle. “Don’t worry, I’ll probably have to call you in anyway to save face.”

Garrett didn’t like the idea of leaving in the middle of a game, even if he had it timed down to the last second, but he knew that keeping up their lie was important, so he just nodded.

“Well, I’ll see you later then,” he said, pulling Mark down for a kiss. “Bite Strahm for me, will you? He needs to remember his place.”

Mark laughed at that, just giving Garrett another short kiss before heading out.

Garrett checked the center trap one last time before heading to the room that contained his “trap”. What better way to facilitate the trap than being in it himself? Lawrence had agreed to watch it through the cameras, since Garrett had already known Mark wouldn’t be able to.

It was complicated, had a lot of moving parts, and would require him to get hurt.

He was more excited than he had ever been.

[iturbide]

You don't even have to ask! Details please!

Well I always like to ask just in case you guys are the ones who have to see it on your dashboards

I’m very glad you’re exited though so crossover details go

The Starters

Because we have different lords heading up the titular three houses, and each one leans heavily into certain color and element themes similar to the common starter trio in mainline Pokemon games, it becomes almost a no-brainer to say that the Lords from Three Houses are your starter choices in this game.  For Edelgard, you have Embird, a fire-type eagle; for Dimitri you have Parcub, a water-type lion; and for Claude you have Fawnceal, a grass-type deer, reflecting both their house color schemes and emblems.

These starters, however, are unique in many ways.  To begin with, no matter which one you pick, they will always have a set gender, nature, and characteristic; they will also have perfect IVs and their hidden ability, rather than the standard one.  Since they are meant to reflect specific people, you’ll also have a limited choice on nicknames, similar to the original Red/Blue giving you options for your name and your rival’s: for Embird, it would be along the lines of “Edelgard” and “El”; for Parcub, it would be things like “Dimitri” and “Dima”; and for Fawnceal, you would have choices like “Claude” and “Khalid.”

Whichever starter you pick is also going to be your companion throughout the entire game.  As with Pokemon Yellow and the Let’s Go games, your starter will follow you outside of its pokeball, and you’ll be able to turn around and interact with them whenever you want to build your bond and get a feel for their mood.  Unlike these games, though, your starter cannot be put into a box, traded, or left at the daycare: they’re your companion, and they will stay that way throughout the game.  To give players more opportunities to train pokemon other than their starter, though (and to allow more freedom for people who like to play hardcore styles like Nuzlocke), there is a special “starter slot” that effectively allows you to bring seven pokemon with you; however, only your starter is allowed to take this extra slot, and while they’re in it they cannot be used in battle and will not gain experience or IVs even if the ExpShare is being used: they’ll just follow you around in the overworld so that you can interact with them.  To swap your starter back into your team, one of the other six will need to be returned to the PC.

In addition, each starter has a unique talent allowing them to access things that are normally unavailable: for Embird’s line, you can engage any NPC in the wilds to a battle, including those who normally are just there to offer advice or healing (since if they’re past the tall grass, they have to have pokemon); for Parcub’s line, they can detect secret entrances to the evil organization’s bases (which otherwise can only be found through either trial and error or by talking to people for hints on where to look -- plus they’re likely randomized every time a new game is started); and for Fawnceal’s line, they can locate areas well off the beaten path with new people to talk to, secrets to uncover, and pokemon to befriend. 

The Rivals

Much in the way that the starters are all based on the Lords from the game, the rivals are based on their retainers: Hubert will always choose Embird for his starter, Dedue will always choose Parcub for his, and Hilda will always choose Fawnceal for hers.  Byleth, of course, throws a wrench into the system, since they will be picking one of those three pokemon as their own starter, meaning that you end up with two rivals (one for each of the two you didn’t select) while the last will become the professor’s assistant, who will occasionally seek you out on Hanneman’s behalf.

Each rival also has unique information to share as the game progresses.  Hubert knows a great deal about the evil organization, and informs you of their existence and misdeeds; Hilda’s older brother Holst is a gym leader, so she tells you about the gym challenges; and Dedue is quite well traveled, and can point you toward special locations yielding rare items like high quality berries or pokemon that only appear at certain times/on certain days.  During the main path of the game, you’ll come across two of these characters routinely and therefore gain insight into your chosen starter’s evolutionary path, along with some extra challenges or exploration opportunities; however, the last rival will only give you that information if you backtrack to Hanneman’s lab to talk to them, something that can be tiresome and challenging in the early game before you have access to transport moves like Fly.  Ultimately, this means that you’ll likely have one gameplay challenge that goes unexplored until very late in the game or after the credits roll.

Along with the information they provide, each rival also has unique interactions with you.  Hubert is highly competitive and will always fight you when you cross paths, only giving you information after you beat him; he also gives you the occasional item to strengthen your pokemon, like Protein or Iron.  Dedue is much more peaceful and will give you a choice about whether you want to battle or not (though you have a limited window where you can change your mind if you say ‘no’); he gives you information regardless of whether you choose to fight him or not, and frequently gives you special berries when you meet him.  Hilda considers battling to be way too much effort and will only battle you a few times under normal circumstances (though with Embird’s special talent you can induce a challenge against her), preferring to give you information instead and usually giving you a held item “accessory” when you meet her.

The Challenges

Unlike the usual mainline Pokemon games, this game's traditional objectives -- the gym challenge, fighting the evil organization, completing the pokedex -- can be prioritized and tackled in a more focused manner, with incentives to do so dependent on your starter choice, since each starter’s evolution is tied to a specific narrative element.  For Embird, you need to acquire six badges in order to evolve her into Empyre; for Parcub, you need to beat three executives of the evil organization to evolve him into Soverain; and for Fawnceal, you need to talk to 500 people throughout the region before he’ll evolve into Camaradeerie. 

Given the nature of Three Houses, it only makes sense that certain key figures take on prominent roles in this pokemon offshoot:

Hanneman is the region’s Pokemon Professor

The eight gym leaders you’ll face include Manuela, Lonato, Rodrigue, Holst, Alois, Gilbert, Catherine, and Shamir

The Elite Four is made up of the Four Saints: Macuil, Indech, Cichol (Seteth), and Cethleann (Flayn)

Rhea is the region’s champion, and has been for ages

The Agarthans are the evil organization you’ll face: Cornelia, Monica/Kronya, and Tomas/Solon are the executives, while Arundel/Thales is the boss

If you pick Embird as your starter, facing the gym challenge is going to be your top priority so that you can have her final evolution (which fits Edelgard’s route in Three Houses perfectly).  Hilda will give you information on the different gyms when you meet her, and Dedue will give you info on rare pokemon you might want to incorporate into your team; however, the evil organization will be much harder (though not impossible) to access and engage with until after the gym challenge is cleared, and they will be much more difficult to deal with after being put off for so long, with run-of-the-mill members having significantly stronger teams and the executives and leader being incredible challenges.

If you pick Parcub as your starter, uprooting the evil organization is going to be first on your list of things to do so you can have his final evolution.  Hubert will give you information on where to find their bases (and notably, Dimitri will face Arundel as the boss rather than Thales, just as he does in Azure Moon), and Hilda will still give you information on the different gyms so you can level your team more and more; however, it will be more challenging to find and access hidden areas until very late in the game, so completing the pokedex will be more of a chore and the legendaries will be significantly more challenging when you finally do face them.

If you pick Fawnceal as your starter, exploring the world and working on the pokedex will be your primary focus to secure his final evolution.  Dedue will tell point you toward all kinds of places off the beaten path where obscure pokemon appear, and Hubert will still point you toward the evil organization since many of their bases are out in the wilds where you’ll be hunting for pokemon; however, leaving the gyms will result in a greater challenge, with different and stronger pokemon on each leader’s team and an even more intense Elite Four and Champion (drawing on both Claude’s paralogue against Macuil and Silver Snow’s endgame boss of the Immaculate One, since it’s mostly a copy-paste of Verdant Wind anyway).

[thesevenseraphs]

[Bungie Weekly Update is pretty light today but has some neat tech info that makes me very excited for the future of Destiny. I am gonna just post that part here.]

TALKING TECH – PREPARING FOR BEYOND LIGHT

With Beyond Light on fast approach, it’s time to shift our TWAB gears a little. Today, we’ll be talking through some of the back-end changes that will be coming to Destiny 2 on November 10. To guide us through this process, we’re passing the mic to Destiny Engineering Director David Aldridge.

DAldridge:  When Destiny 2 launched three years ago, we had no idea that in 2020 we’d announce a new trilogy of expansions (among other 2020 surprises we didn’t anticipate).  At the time, we thought Destiny 2’s arc would look a lot more like Destiny 1 – a couple of expansions, and then a sequel.     We learned many lessons from the transition to Destiny 2, and from shipping Curse of Osiris, Warmind, Forsaken, the Year-2 Seasons, and Shadowkeep. When we evaluated those lessons, we decided not to pursue a Destiny 3, but instead to reinvest everything in Destiny 2 and make it all that it can be (check out our longer writeup on this choice here). To support that strategy, we’ve made several tech investments to help us sustainably evolve the game for years to come, and some of those investments are arriving in Beyond Light.

Many of these changes are under the hood and won’t affect your experience (except insofar as they help us deliver you more and better Destiny in the future), but some may result in neat improvements, curious behavior differences, or bugs. This means that, on November 10, some places and things will feel a little like Sliders (only 90s kids will get this), so we’d like to give you a rundown of some of the changes and possible side effects. 

We shifted our mission scripting model to run on the Physics Host instead of the Mission Host (more details on this split here, in the interview with Matt Segur). In the long run this change will give designers options to create more novel mission mechanics by giving the mission scripting environment full access to the game state, instead of the much more limited access the Mission Host had. For example, the Physics Host knows exactly where enemy combatants are and what actions they recently performed – while the Mission Host only knew how many combatants were alive in a squad and what that squad was generally trying to accomplish. In Beyond Light we’re only launching the foundations of this system, and we look forward to evolving and leveraging it in the future.

What you might notice:  

The new scripting environment changed many behaviors in complex ways, and you may see interesting behavior changes or bugs in pre-Beyond-Light missions (and public events, and similar) that were originally built and tested on the previous system.  We’ve tested these missions heavily and stamped out many bugs, but some will undoubtedly slip through. We’ll be monitoring and fixing remaining bugs over time. In some cases, these issues were more severe – for example, they caused the Prophecy dungeon to be unavailable temporarily. We’re all excited for its triumphant return, slated for the end of this year!

One other cool new feature in this area is face-to-face joins in social spaces, so you can now fireteam up with Tower friends without a long Tower reload!

We revamped our content building and patching pipeline for speed and install size. With the tremendous size of Destiny, our complete shippable content builds were frequently taking north of 24 hours. We made investments to bring that down to sub-12 hours, which resulted in a bunch of changes to our content and patching formats. We also took on work to allow us to cull content that we’ve upgraded or replaced – our previous patching system had limited capabilities here (due to trying to minimize patch sizes and other constraints), and the current Destiny 2 install has a significant amount of accreted ‘dead’ content (e.g. assets in the base install that were replaced in later patches). 

What you might notice:

Due to all these changes, Beyond Light will be a full re-download on all platforms – we know this will be painful for those with slower or metered internet connections, and we’re sorry about that. To help mitigate this, we’re planning to enable Beyond Light preloads sometime in the evening of November 9, Pacific Time, which should give everyone at least 10 hours to download before the gates open.

Destiny 2's install size shrinks by 30-40%: Due to a combination of culling unused or replaced content, install size optimizations, and moving some content to the Destiny Content Vault, Destiny 2’s install size will shrink to between 59 and 71GB (depending on platform), a reduction of 30 to 40%. These improvements should also help us control install size better in the coming years.  

We hope to use these much faster builds to accomplish two things:

Help us ship mission-critical fixes faster when game-breaking bugs arise.

Reduce our overall ship pipeline depth, enabling us to work on Destiny releases closer to their ship dates, so we can react to fresher information about what’s happening in the live game. For example, historically each of our Seasons has had to get deep into production before the preceding season launched, preventing us from reacting to learnings from that preceding season. These tech improvements should give us 1-2 more weeks of flexibility on a Seasonal scale, helping us pivot more quickly in some cases.

We rebuilt our character face system. We know that how your Guardians look is important to you, and we’ve long wanted to add more player customization to Destiny. Our original system for player faces had some combinatoric content authoring problems – for example, every decal had to be authored completely custom for each player face permutation. This prevented us from extending this area of the game with more content and features. We’ve upgraded to a significantly more capable system (with e.g. runtime decal projection), which we hope to leverage for more player customization options in the future. As part of this process we reviewed the existing player models with our Diversity Committee and Employee Resource Groups in the studio to make small tweaks to existing player heads. We’re also building a list of Guardian face shapes we should bring to the game in the future in order to increase Guardian diversity in Destiny, with the long-term goal of enabling everyone to imagine themselves as their Guardian.

What you might notice:

Your Guardian’s face may look a bit different.

We relit portions of EDZ and Nessus. During the early stages of Beyond Light production the Lighting and Skies teams had a desire to provide a visual refresh to the two remaining D2 Year 1 destinations, EDZ and Nessus, as they enter their fourth year in rotation. To that end, the teams performed relights and global lighting updates to a number of locations on both destinations.

What you might notice:

Different lighting on existing destinations! The changes are intentional and are meant to bring the visual quality of these spaces up to our current lighting standards, while providing a fresh coat of paint for some of our Year 1 locations. We hope you enjoy these updates to some familiar locations when you explore EDZ and Nessus this November.

[gascon-en-exil]

Three Houses 100% Completion: Refining Those Spreadsheets

To my utter surprise, @symsykins has expressed interest in trying out my long and convoluted idea for a 100% NG+ run of FE16. Far be it from me to stifle the ambitions of a fellow completionist, but as I've made a fair number of updates to the methodology of that post in the months since I wrote it I would be remiss if I didn't publish those changes for the benefit of him or anyone else who wants to try their hand at this absurdity. Sometimes playtesting this stuff can be more entertaining than actually carrying it out....

Additional Parameters

It occurred to me that for "true" 100% completion you also need to complete those things tied to your Switch account rather than individual files. This means filling out the support log, event gallery (Goddess Tower events), and music library. Fun fact: there are exactly 29 Goddess Tower events if the same-sex ones are counted twice as the game does, so provided you plan them out ahead of time you shouldn't have to save scum to get them all.

As mentioned in the earlier post most of this is trivial to complete. The easiest way to raise support points between an active unit and a classroom unit is to have the latter serve as an adjunct during battle. They don't need to have an equipped weapon or be in a class other than noble/commoner, but just having them there will rapidly build supports. Still, it's best to plan out and stagger the number of supports your units take on each run so they're not overloaded. Cross-house supports are one of only two reasons to ever do cross-house recruiting, and they should also be staggered accordingly.

There's also the matter of building up your battalion guild. There are 127 unique battalions to obtain, discounting the Essar Research Group which requires the game's online features and a Switch Online subscription to access. Your guild can fit 200 total battalions in it, so there's ample room to acquire and max out one of each battalion as well as duplicates for the better ones. This is also the only other reason to recruit across houses: to get the three Part 2 paralogues that require it (Ferdinand/Lysithea, Linhardt/Leonie, and Caspar/Mercedes) and so unlock their associated battalions. As with recruiting for cross-house supports, you should only bother doing these once.

One-Time Renown Purchases

You can and should buy all the Renown purchases in Abyss and most of the saint statue bonuses during your first run, using the 10000 Renown bonus from CS and all incidental Renown gained during the run to do so as you can't spend it on anything else. Note that the last bonus for each statue, a boost to units' max stats, is functionally useless for the purposes of this project and so can be left for the second run - a full 10000 Renown you won't have to worry about spending right away. At any rate, however, you'll have amassed enough Renown to complete the saint statues during your second run.

On Monastery Activities

Previously I'd discounted the greenhouse as an unnecessary time sink like fishing and tea time, only to be completed when a quest is involved. However, I find that in non-CF runs you'll quickly start running out of dining hall resources in Part 2 without planting crops, which forces you into the less efficient alternative of running around and throwing gifts at your active units to max out their motivation each week. Therefore I recommend planting vegetables and fruit in the greenhouse throughout Part 1, at which point you can stop because by then you should have accumulated enough resources to cover the rest of the game. Additionally, there are certain glowing blue spots along a typical exploration run route that are guaranteed to drop fish or edible crops - at the stall in front of the fishing pond and on the stalls in the corner of the marketplace where the special merchants gather, namely - which you should check out each month.

Byleth's Level

When Byleth is not an active unit don't bother raising their level higher than 15. This is good enough to recruit all the level-dependent characters (most of the church units), and the only meaningful benefit to going up to 20 is to attempt the proper conduct tournament. However, early on Byleth is unlikely to be able to win the tournament even at 20 without an appropriate class or abilities, and the Renown and brave weapon frankly are not worth the waste of time and space in having them be an adjunct for those five extra levels. Save the tournament for runs where you're actually using Byleth.

Classroom Unit Ranks

A quick correction here. I previously said that Authority should be every character's first priority as a classroom unit, but I no longer believe this is true. With standardized class sets (see further down) it's more important that characters look ahead to the runs they'll be doing in the near future and work on skills relevant to those runs. This especially holds true for banes; a classroom unit can easily take a bane skill as high as B or even A from base over the course of a run, which will help significantly with future certification requirements. Classroom units can work on Authority, but I'd save that for those that have free availability in most or all runs like Anna and the Wolves. The regular students and to a lesser extent non-student characters that join late will want to prioritize their problem skills and build Authority mostly during combat in their active runs.

Route Distribution

I had previously suggested that CF should have the most runs to compensate for Jeritza being awful...but screw that. My current 29 run setup:

6 runs of SS

10 runs of AM

9 runs of VW

4 runs of CF

Notably, this works out to 9 or 10 runs per house which is overall more significant given the advantages in-house units enjoy. The choice to give AM an extra run over VW came down to AM having more exclusive units; VW's one extra week isn't that much of an advantage, not when the Deer lack a Part 2 exclusive and also include Lysithea. But, you ask, can you get away with running CF that little?

Playtesting suggests yes, provided those runs follow some strict parameters: five units only, with three of them being the CF exclusives and the remaining two slots covered by a rotation of the other Eagles. SS runs should precede CF runs whenever possible, to give Edelgard, Hubert, and the rest of their house more classroom time to make up for having to share runs of the shortest route in the game with Jeritza. Jeritza should always hold one of the Knowledge Gems during Part 2, with Edelgard and Hubert sharing the other. The other Eagles can lean on their active use in SS runs to make up for the deficit, and even Edelgard and Hubert can prep for their active runs or finish up skill ranks in SS. Jeritza though....

Number-Crunching Jeritza

To illustrate why I complain about Jeritza as much as I do (from a unit perspective, that is - it's been well-established why I hate him as a character), let's take a particular trouble spot of his as an example. Jeritza has an Authority bane, which means that even with Mastermind and a Knowledge Gem equipped he'll gain no more than 3 points of it during each combat encounter, or 6 if he uses a gambit (not to be relied on given how limited in use per map gambits are). He doesn't have access to any classes that boost Authority, so this is the best it gets. Starting at B Authority means it'll take him 2920 total points to reach S+. Assuming no classroom instruction (because he's got ten other skills to work on, you know) and no gambit use, that works out to him needing about 974 total combat encounters or an average of 244 encounters in each of his four runs.

Is that feasible? If you follow my method of exploring on weekends before instruction weeks and battling on other weekends (and assuming your first run is not CF which...no) there are (3 battles per weekend x 5 calendar months) + 6 chapter maps = 21 battles that Jeritza will fight. Obviously those battles vary in length, but that comes to an average of 12 combat encounters per battle. That's admittedly a bit steep, especially earlier on when few of your other units will have maxed Authority and can be used as adjuncts, but remember that gambits count as two combat encounters and that, more significantly, the other units will eventually max out Authority and allow you to field only three frontline units at a time. It does help that both Edelgard and Hubert have Authority boons, so they should be backline-ready no later than their second active run.

Unfortunately there is one little hiccup to this. CF's first calendar month consists of just one free weekend and the chapter map. As annoying as it is the journal can only be accessed while exploring, which means that on each CF run after the first you'll have to choose between skipping three battles that month or updating Jeritza's skill ranks. You should always choose to battle, because it will help out your other units (who already end up screwed out of a few battles thanks to what choosing CF does to the end of Part 1) and also allow Jeritza to start working on ranks he hadn't touched in earlier runs. The wasted Authority growth is a shame, but at least Jeritza has the base ranks to certify for any beginner class right out the gate so he can pick up a sword/lance/axe/gauntlet/Thunder and still make use of the training time. CF Chapter 13 is also unusually short and will be finished in only a few turns, so it's not a great loss either.

And all that was just for one rank! Hopefully that proves my point about Jeritza sucking, even if mercifully his class masteries and other skill ranks are less of a pain. Even faith can be worked around with bishop and holy knight offering 6 points per combat encounter, although he'll probably want to save his monk run until he can be an adjunct so he's less hobbled by his tiny spell lists.

Standardized Class Sets

Probably the part of this update I'm most proud of, as I put a lot of thought into simplifying one of the more needlessly complex elements of my original setup. Crafting individualized class sets for each character may sound fun on paper, but it's a hassle to keep track of when actually playing the game and doesn't have any substantial benefit. Characters can patch up their banes through classroom training, and furthermore class certification requires nothing higher than A which is a major reason that mastering classes is more of a rote structural element of individual runs than something that requires intricate plotting.

As such, have some standardized sets. These come in male and female versions to account for genderlock and similar considerations, and they apply to all characters except Byleth and the house leaders who have to be handled a bit differently. Noble and commoner are not listed as they're trivial to master; just make sure that non-student characters go back and do so at some point, like when they're being used as adjuncts for supports.

Below each set is a list of the skills needed to guarantee certification in all of the set's classes. This was a useful metric for determining which classes went best where.

Myrmidon

Male

Mercenary

Thief

Dancer (if available)

Hero

Swordmaster

Assassin

Trickster

Death Knight (Jeritza only)

Mortal Savant

A Swords C Axes C Bows B+ Reason B Faith

Female

Mercenary

Thief

Dancer (if available)

Swordmaster

Trickster

War Cleric

Mortal Savant

Gremory

A Swords B+ Brawling A Reason A Faith

There are a lot of sword-based classes, more so than any other weapon or magic type, and that combined with the rarity of sword banes - only Bernadetta and Mercedes - means that often even characters neutral in the skill will max out swords during the course of their myrmidon run.

This run has the distinction of being the only one to not require any of the movement type ranks, which is one reason why gremory is here. The other is that female characters have eight regular master classes as opposed to males' seven, so while when divided across four runs males get a free space here (which Jeritza takes advantage of), females do not. Unfortunately mortal savant is the only master class that proceeds naturally from all the earlier sword classes, but if you'll notice from the male set's requirements there are fairly high reason and faith requirements here even without gremory.

The other oddity is war cleric, which takes the place of assassin (see below) but stands awkwardly as female characters' only serious brawling class. The secondary faith requirement slots easily into a run that also includes trickster, but as I explained in the first post brawling is going to be a problem skill for female characters no matter what you do.

One more note: it's important to consider certain things when deciding which active units will go in which run. Myrmidon runs require the most scrutiny as this is where characters will be dancers, and of course you can only have one of those per run. These runs also require the limited availability Abyssian Exam Passes, one for males and two for females, so keep that in mind as well.

Soldier

Male

Armored Knight

Cavalier

Archer

Fortress Knight

Paladin

Sniper

Great Knight

Bow Knight

A Lances B+ Axes A Bows A Heavy Armor A Riding

Female

Cavalier

Archer

Pegasus Knight

Assassin

Paladin

Sniper

Falcon Knight

Bow Knight

B Swords A Lances A Bows A Riding B+ Flying

Here we see the major influence of genderlocked classes. Female characters have more obvious lance options thanks to the pegasus classes, whereas males have to take the heavy armor classes instead. This balances out in the fighter runs, but for now it's worth pointing out that characters will only be using lances and bows in these runs. Swords (females) or axes (males) will be trained entirely in the classroom, with females running assassin as a bow class and males running the heavy armor classes with lances. Hey, great knight does have Lancefaire, and more importantly all the classes mentioned also boost those weapon types.

Fighter

Male

Brigand

Brawler

Wyvern Rider

Warrior

Grappler

War Monk

Wyvern Lord

War Master

C Lances A Axes A Brawling C+ Faith A Flying

Female

Armored Knight

Brigand

Fortress Knight

Wyvern Rider

Warrior

Wyvern Lord

Great Knight

C Lances A Axes A Heavy Armor B+ Riding A Flying

This is the inverse of soldier, with male characters taking a quartet of brawling classes while females go mono-axes with the heavy armor classes and others. The female set also has one fewer class than all the others here, a consequence of there being one fewer female-exclusive class than male. As with the master class free space in male myrmidon, keep that in mind for later. The singular axe focus and smaller number of classes compensate for female fighters needing to train all three movement types here, which is annoying but necessary. I tried numerous combinations of classes in the soldier and fighter runs, but incredibly this is the one that's least demanding on overall ranks. What can you do?

Male fighters require an Abyssian Exam Pass - just pointing that out.

Monk

Male

Mage

Dark Mage

Priest

Warlock

Dark Bishop

Bishop

Dark Knight

Holy Knight

C Lances A Reason A Faith A Riding

Female

Mage

Priest

Warlock

Bishop

Dark Flier

Valkyrie

Dark Knight

Holy Knight

C Lances A Reason A Faith A Riding C Flying

With the understanding that gremory is covered in the myrmidon run, there's little to mention here. Rank requirements are almost identical with females only needing to work on flying a bit. These runs are the most demanding on limited seals though, with males needing two Dark Seals and females two Abyssian Exam Passes. Make sure you plan accordingly.

Also, these runs make it clear that if you're going to equip these characters with a weapon for when they run out of spells (as might well happen during earlygame), make it a lance.

Edelgard

From the standard sets:

Add lord to myrmidon

Add armored lord and emperor to fighter

Because female fighters are already one class short Edelgard can add two classes there and still come out as even as possible. She's the only character other than Byleth with more than eight master classes, meaning she'll have to do three of them in one run, but with her it's no trouble aside from emperor having the worst availability of any class in the game that is. Her unique classes slot well into fighter as it is.

Dimitri and Claude

From the standard sets:

Add lord to soldier

Move hero from myrmidon to fighter

Add high lord and great lord/wyvern master and barbarossa to myrmidon

The guys, meanwhile, don't fare as well. They take advantage of the same free space for a master class that Jeritza does, but to make the rest of this happen things have to get a bit messy. They'll have to have a certain sword rank for their soldier and fighter runs now, but as they both have sword boons that's not too tall of an order. They can also run hero as an axe class and lord as a lance class to match those runs' themes, which also helps each of them a bit in a different way - Dimitri with his axe bane, Claude with his lance bane. Dimitri's unique classes fit well with myrmidon as they also boost swords, but the best you could say about Claude's unique classes in myrmidon is that he won't have to train up bows for assassin when he can just switch to using them in wyvern master.

Byleth

The Avatar’s special gender-variable self needs class sets built from the ground up to accommodate their ability to access all of the genderlocked classes. As follows:

Myrmidon (male)

Mercenary

Thief

Dark Mage

Hero

Swordmaster

Assassin

Dark Bishop

Trickster

Enlightened One

Mortal Savant

Soldier (female)

Cavalier

Archer

Pegasus Knight

Paladin

Wyvern Rider

Sniper

Falcon Knight

Wyvern Lord

Bow Knight

Fighter (male)

Armored Knight

Brigand

Brawler

Fortress Knight

Warrior

Grappler

War Monk

Great Knight

War Master

Monk (female)

Mage

Priest

Warlock

Bishop

Dark Flier

Valkyrie

Dark Knight

Holy Knight

Gremory

Apart from the two female runs having three master classes apiece - unfortunate but necessary, as with Edelgard - the biggest surprise here should be dark mage/bishop in myrmidon. They need to be in a male run though, and there are more magical female-exclusive classes so that's not going to be monk. Alongside the standard mortal savant it's not much of a stretch in terms of skills (something Byleth never struggles with anyway because faculty training is a thing), but the required two Dark Seals should be considered.

Conclusion

I think that's just about everything for now? I could be really over the top and map out exact routes for exploration, efficient paralogue choices, and more nitpicky stuff, but even I've got my limit. Part of the fun of 100% is being able to adapt your strategies anyway, so I'm not sure that being that precise would be the best way to approach hypothetically helping someone else do something like this.

[secretgamergirl]

We really need 1:1 time passage in games.

I play a lot of games. I particularly play a whole lot of RPGs, strategy things, survival games, and these all tend to be games that try to create an extra sense of immersion with hunger, thirst, and a day night cycle. And WOW do they ever end up doing the exact opposite with the implementation!

Like, let’s just start with food. If I am playing a survival game, and I choose not to eat for a while, my little hunger meter will bottom out, and I will start taking damage then eventually die. This tends to take like, one real life hour/in-game day, give or take to kick in, and then death comes within like, maybe 5 minutes if they’re generous? And I stave this off by... usually finding, killing, cooking, and eating, 2 entire turkeys per real hour/in-game day.

So... what the hell is any of that!?

So we have hunger, and we’re representing it as this slowly draining meter you have to keep an eye on. Already, that’s just weird. In my experience, you can go an entire day, not eating a damn thing, and not feel a thing out of the ordinary. But when you do actually get hungry, it can be overwhelming and impossible to ignore (have you eaten yet today by the way? My meal schedule’s gotten totally weird). Nothing about that makes sense to simulate as a slowly lowering bar. If you want realism, you have absolutely no onscreen hunger meter, and then like every 4-24 hours or so you have some incredibly distracting hunger indicator kick in and stay kicked in. Like, activate rumble packs and leave’em going at a steady pulse sort of annoying. And it gets worse when you’re actually preparing food.

Also feeling hungry is not an early indicator that you are going to suddenly die of starvation, or even that you’re anywhere near that point. I had dinner 6 hours ago, I’m a little hungry now. It varies a lot, but actually starving to death can take upwards of going TWO WHOLE MONTHS without any food at all. Like if we’re representing that as a meter, “hungry” kicks in when it drops to 99% full. Starvation is not a particularly common cause of death. If you’re dying of starvation, either someone is intentionally starving you to death, or some horrific catastrophe has just wiped out completely absolutely every potential food source in an area you somehow cannot wander your way out of even if you have months to do so. Relevant real world fact- Any time you see stuff about people dying of starvation, that’s never “farming just is not a thing that works in this area,” it’s “some malicious tyrant is actively preventing these people from accessing food in a deliberate effort to cause them to starve.” It’s really not actually a concern in any sort of survival story, unless we’re going real long term.

Meanwhile, have game designers ever actually, like, eaten food? Like I said, 2 whole turkeys per real hour/game day seems to be the going standard and like... have you had a turkey? I live in America, there is this tradition on Thanksgiving to go get a turkey, spend a day cooking it, and serving it as part of a meal served to one’s whole extended family. You’ve got that one turkey (granted, generally with a lot of side dishes) feeding like... a dozen people, easily. And at the end of the day, you’ve only MAYBE collectively made your way through like half a breast. You carve up a bunch more and send everyone home with a ton of leftovers. Then you’ve still got this giant mountain of turkey left, and you’re eating it for like the next week until you’re completely sick of turkey and throw the rest out, with plenty of meat entirely uneaten on the bird. Or hey, do you eat hamburgers? You know how the standard for a really kinda too big to responsibly be ordering it hamburger is “a quarter-pounder?” Which refers to the 0.25 lbs. of meat on the bun? Just quickly googling “beef weight” and copying the preview text from the oddly named first hit, on beef2live.com... “An average beef animal weighs about 1200 pounds and has a hanging hot carcass weight (HCW) of about 750 pounds.“ I can’t honestly say I know what “hanging hot carcass weight” is and I kinda doing want to, but I’m assuming that’s how much you have to work with after stripping out all the bones and organs and such. Multiply that by 4 to get how many oversized burgers you get out of one “beef animal” (why does it not say cow? I’m growing increasingly unsettled)- 3000 burgers. Give or take. You go smack that one Mnecraft cow with your sword, you should be fine for like 5 years. At least assuming we’re not simulating food spoilage. And if we are, HEY THAT TAKES SIGNIFICANTLY LONGER THAN ONE DAY, 2 IF YOU SALT IT!

And I mean, on top of that, we’ve got this whole standard I keep citing of 1 real world hour/1 in-game day. That kinda seems to be one of the more common standards for the passage of time video games use. That or 1 minute=1 hour. And I... really don’t understand why we have these scales?

Like, the earliest example of a day/night cycle in a game is Dragon Quest 3, where 1 steps on the over world map=12 minutes passing, or 120 steps=1 day. That’s a weird scale I’m having to use, but that’s because as the most traditional of JRPGs, DQ3′s sense of both time AND space are super abstracted and walking a short distance across the world map is this super compressed and simplified conveyance of a big long epic journey through the untamed wilderness. The first games I can think of offhand to really do it as a real time elapsed ratio thing are like... The Sims and GTA 3? Let me look at each of those in turn in a bit here.

So, The Sims has to pass days pretty quick, because that’s like, the whole idea. We’re watching this little household drama unfold in a compressed time scale... but the scale is really messed up? Like, we start off pretty simple. Sims work their shifts of like 9-5 on the in-game clock, need an appropriate amount of sleep... but then MOST things have timing based off having animations play at a reasonable pace, which is to say, 1 to 1 time, not 1 to 60. It takes like 3 in-game minutes for a Sim to get up out of a chair, several more minutes to walk to the kitchen and even start cooking, altogether just getting up, making a meal, cleaning up, and sitting back down is going to end up being this hours long affair, most of that being travel time from one room to another. It’s weird, and practically speaking you end up having them eat one meal, use the toilet once, and take a shower once per in game day, because less than that problems occur, and more than that, it’s a huge pain. And forget conversations. Those are like 12 hour commitments.

And then we have GTA3, where 1 real minute=1 in game hour... and this isn’t tied to anything in-game at all really. You don’t eat, you don’t sleep, nothing really has business hours to deal with, the whole day/night cycle is just there to give you a nice cycling change of scenery... and also again, breaks immersion, because the animation speed is 1:1. According to a video I just watched, walking end to end across the map of GTA3 takes a full 48 in-game hours (121 in GTA5). And I mean... there’s races, and high speed chases, and all this other stuff that according to the in-game clock are at such slow speeds you can barely tell anything’s moving. It’s weird and arbitrary! And also unnecessary! Like, I’m pretty sure I sank at least 80 hours into my first playthrough of GTA3. I definitely spent enough time cruising around any given island that if time passed in a 1:1 ratio, I’d still see what everything looked like at every time of day. And hell if you rigged it up to a real world clock I could plan around that, do all the cool missions right at sundown.

But I mean, also, there’s these things called movies and TV shows? You may have heard of them, because it’s where games get a whole bunch of terms they use all the time. Like camera, and scene. So the thing there is, when, say, a movie switches to a new scene, they’ll often arbitrarily jump the day/night cycle ahead by several in-movie hours, or even days, so the lighting is appropriate to what’s going to happen in that scene. You can actually just... do that in games, too. It’s OK. Nobody’s going to stop you or say it’s breaking immersion. I talk to this guy to start this mission at what’s clearly noon, then we fade to back, and I come back out onto the street late at night so I can do this daring nighttime raid. That’s.. OK. You can do that. Honest. No need to have the sun doing crazy fast laps in the background.

Anyway, other games since have all copied that time scale, because blindly copying things from GTA3 was kinda... how people made games for a good stretch of time (and yeah yeah yeah, Elder Scrolls was probably already doing it, whatever... hell so was Robinson’s Requiem I’m pretty sure, and Drakken I know was paced something like that). But anyway, we mixed that sort of time scale with Survival Gameplay and we’re just kinda mashing these problems together. We’re doing everything in this one to one time scale, but the in-game clock is running at like 60 times that, and our already ridiculous food intake needs are downright absurd, and suddenly we’re destroying absolutely all life on sight to sate our ever-present ravenous hunger (and possibly never sleeping).

And like... survival games don’t actually need that? Like the interesting bits of the angle are finding sources of things like clean water and shelter so you don’t die of exposure once the sun’s down and stuff. And these are things you really just need to do once and you’re set. You could... basically set up a whole game, running in real time, where these are early potential fail states. Get some kind of shelter set up within the first 5 hours or so, sleep to advance straight to the next day after pulling that off, then you have like 3 days total to find drinkable water, and... honestly at that point we’re talking like a good 45 minutes of gameplay and you could really end it there, or start your last goal. But instead, no, we’re making some kinda crude axe/bow and killing everything to eat.

Not only is it not realistic, not only does it take me out of the experience by checking the math, the whole affair feels kinda like I’m being put through someone’s weird hyper-masculine cargo cult fantasy of what it would have been like if they grew up Hunting With Dad and like.... OK people who actually do that still kill like one animal, then drag it home, throw it in a big fridge, and eat it for quite a long time, or sell it, or leave it to rot because they’re just really into ending the lives of innocent creatures and don’t want weird gamey meat at all.

So yeah, just let time be time, and don’t ever actually make me eat if we’re trying for some kind of gritty realism thing. I really don’t get hungry nearly that often and fill up quick.

[casualotptrash]

Why the Persona 3 FES vs Portable Debate Makes Me Want to Fly Into the Sun Pt. 1

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Yes, this is an emotionally fueled rant about Persona 3. No, this is not meant to send hate at those who enjoy Persona 3 FES or dislike Persona 3 Portable.

That being said, this discussion mentally pains me. I won’t go into all of my opinions on the matter here (I’ll probably go into it later with more posts), but I will be talking about one of the most prevalent “points” that I see being brought up every time the comparison between FES and Portable is made:

“Just play FES with the controllable party members mod.”

This point, although it doesn’t say so directly, essentially sends the message to anyone who doesn’t know the differences between the two games that the only thing Portable has to offer (besides the obvious changes to the game) is controllable party members. For the sake of this post, I won’t be going into the obvious changes such as having cutscenes and The Answer in FES compared to no cutscenes and a FeMC route in Portable. Instead, I’m going to rant about every other positive change I can remember that no one seems to talk about.

1. Jealousy Mechanic

Unlike in FES, the jealousy mechanic is completely erased in the Male Route. The dialogue/warning will still show up after hanging out with multiple female social links, but the social link will never reverse or break because of this. Social links are already a pain to try and max out in a run, even on NG+ without a guide, so the fact that you don’t have to stop seeing a social link for awhile or focus on just one girl at a time means this will at least be marginally easier in Portable. For those who don’t care about maxing out all of the social links, it’s still a relief because you can hang out with whatever social link you want without any penalty. This doesn’t apply to the Female Route as there isn’t a jealousy mechanic even implemented into that.

2. Fatigue Mechanic

For the pure amount of people I see complain about Tartarus, and don’t get me wrong I’m one of them too, I cannot comprehend how they fail to mention this change. In Portable, the fatigue mechanic is totally gone. Much like the jealousy mechanic, the text is still there where the navigator will say you’re getting tired, but no one actually gets the tired effect until you leave Tartarus completely. This means you can bust out a whole block in one sitting, if you so choose. I found this extremely useful because I hated being in Tartarus and this allowed me to just get it all done quickly instead of having to go back and forth from the Dark Hour multiple times.

3. Various Battle Mechanics

In addition to adding the “direct” command to the tactics menu (allowing controllable party members), Portable also adds the “defend” option. This is akin to the “guard” option in the other games where you use your turn to gain more defense. The combat system has also been improved to function more like P4′s in the way that you can get a 1-more from knocking just one enemy down, it no longer takes a full turn for a party member to get up after being knocked down (so you can stand up and immediately do your turn), party members can follow up with a co-op attack if you knock an enemy down, and after a certain social link event for the team social link party members can take a fatal blow for the MC. Again, I don’t know how people are not talking about any of these changes besides the “direct command” addition while also complaining about how Tartarus is a slog. You know what makes it less like a slog? All of these additions.

4. Equipment Menu

Many of the changes not talked about are tweaks to Tartarus/battle gameplay, and this is another one of them. Although more of a small quality of life change to save some hassle, I personally appreciate any change that makes Tartarus easier to get through. In FES, if you wanted to change your party member’s equipment, you would have to talk to the party member who you wanted to change the equipment for. That means if you wanted to change your whole party you would have to do your own first and then talk to your three other party members individually. Portable changes this so that there is one overarching equipment menu that you can access (like in the future games) and change their equipment there.

5. Fusion skills being items + Personas giving you skill cards

This is probably one of the smaller changes, but it can still be really useful. First off, fusion skills in FES are activated when you have two specific personas needed for the skill, but in Portable fusion skills can be bought as items from a store. They cost “gems” that are collected in Tartarus and I think some can be acquired as rewards for quests. This can be useful if you want to use a fusion skill without needing to have the two specific personas taking up slots. Additionally, every persona now gives the player a skill card once they reach a certain level with them. Skill cards can also be bought for gems in the same store that fusion skill items can be bought from. With how fusion works in P3, in which skills are unable to be specifically selected to pass onto the persona being fused, having skills cards is a pretty good change.

6. More Tartarus events/anomalies

Sometimes when going into Tartarus, “anomalies” can occur. This ranges from entering a floor and having your whole party be separated or entering a floor and having no shadows present. Portable adds four new anomalies, and although they may not add much sometimes they can be pretty helpful. The four new events are experience gain will increase on the floor, enemy items drops will increase, the floor will become dark and the auto-mapping feature in game is temporarily disabled, and upon entering the floor it can be fully mapped by the navigator. I specifically found the increased experience gain to be useful because that really boosted the experience cards and could easily level you up without having to grind for hours.

7. Two more added difficulties + Vision Quest

With the new changes to combat, some people dislike how easy the game can seem. To counteract this, or for people who really just want to play the game for the story, two new difficulties were added to Portable: Beginner and Maniac. Beginner is below Easy and significantly toned down enemy damage, and the player has 30 plumes of dusk (opposed to 10 when starting on Easy). Maniac is above Hard, and it adds a heap of new things to make the game more difficult such as enemies deal 2 times more damage than normal, can gain a higher chance of Enemy Advantage when not taken by surprise, and certain weapon fusions cannot be performed. If this still isn’t hard enough for you...I’m sorry, or something? I personally played on Easy because I was working my way through the Neo-Persona (3-5) games and didn’t want it to take ten years.

If you still want more of a challenge, or a fun time-killer, Portable also added Vision Quest. Like the Monad Depths, it’s accessible through Tartarus. Upon entering there are is a door corresponding to each Full Moon boss (besides the Magician) and five special doors. Each Full Moon boss door can be fought with any party members, but the bosses are much stronger than when they were originally fought. For example, the Hanged Moon boss (last one fought) is level 54 in the base game. In the Vision Quest, the Hanged Moon boss is level 95. I did complete all of the doors in Vision Quest (on my NG+) and this one took me almost as long as the final boss of the game to beat, because of the level and the fact that is has 18,000 hp. Yes, I was around level 95 at the time too because I wanted to fuse Messiah. For reference, the final boss has around 25,500 hp in total and is level 76. The five special doors are more so puzzles rather than standard fights in my opinion because you’re forced into the fight with specific party members and stats. Each special door also has its own strategy to beat it, which is where the puzzle part comes in. An example of what these doors offer ranges from having three strong enemies you can only hit with physical attacks that consistently switch between nulling, being weak to, and absorbing all three kinds of physical attacks (and the three enemies switch at different rates/patterns) to fighting an enemy one on one that you need to kill in a certain amount of turns before they insta-kill you (and there is also a pattern of what these enemies are weak to/null/etc.) If you even try looking up what the Vision Quests are you’ll likely to see a plethora of guides because these fights can be very frustrating if you can’t get the patterns down on your own. However, that’s still good for a challenge. In addition to all of this, if you beat all of the doors you get the option to fight a second secret boss: Margaret (from Persona 4).

8. More part-time jobs

One of the more minor changes, but in Portable there are more places where you can work at for part-time jobs. I don’t know if it follows the same system as FES, but generally the longer you work at a job the more money they will give to you. This can be helpful in the early game if you want to raise a stat by working and gain money at the same time.

9. Soundtrack 

This one is tied in directly with the FeMC Route, but a whole new soundtrack is available in this game. You are able to hear almost the full Persona 3 FES soundtrack in this game with the Male Route too, so if you play both routes you won’t miss out on a majority of the songs. Personally, I like a lot of the songs from both soundtracks (and the P3 soundtrack is one of my favorites, if not maybe my number one favorite, of the 3-5 series). I believe it is also widely regarded as a solid soundtrack, and some even like it more than the Male Route one. You could just listen to the soundtrack without playing the game, but again this list is just going through changes from FES to Portable that people don’t often mention.

10. Extra scene at the end of a NG+ run (Spoilers for those who do not know the end of the game)

For everyone out there who likes the dating sim portion of Persona and a heaping of heart-breaking angst, this is for you. On a NG+ run of either route, in the final scene before the credits roll you are able to spend your last moments with whoever you romanced. They each have their own personalized little scene, that is beyond adorable and sad, and the game ends with one last loving comment/sentiment from them before you fade away and Memories of You starts playing. In my opinion, it’s a great little addition, especially for those who like to play multiple runs.

And that’s the last of it I suppose, although there are some other minor changes I probably missed because they’re too small or probably can’t be considered either a “good” or “bad” change. Anyway, asking others for their opinion on the two games is obviously fine, but if you’re someone who boils down the situation with providing the input “Just play FES with the controllable party members mod.” ....don’t. Please :)

[redphienix]

I'm trying to make it a point to rave about stuff I like in games because it's a good excuse to share thoughts so:

Phasmophobia?

That's a good fuckin' game.

I was of the impression that it was a good, like, "youtube/stream" game, but not much outside of that, but no.

Phasmophobia is a good game, highly recommended if you have at least 1 other person to play with (because I've yet to play with randoms).

I'm basically parrotin' a thing I typed to "review" it on steam but: The game is really fun- as in the challenge you're tasked with is fun- the scary stuff doesn't really work on me (yet, current build etc) but I'm so entertained that I don't mind.

And if you're playing with anyone who IS scared it's 10x better lol.

Keep an eye on that one, it seems they are trying to make it something special once it breaks free from early access and I'm prone to believe them because everything that's there right now is way better than I expected.

Honestly? It's something special already. Finding out what type of ghost you're dealing with is fun as hell, the tools are fun to use and are getting updated and expanded over time (yesterday they changed a lot about the parabolic mic's utility for instance, as well as adding more nuance to how temperature works).

It has early access-itis in some places, like progression is kinda meaningless. You do hunts to get money to buy the tools you use for hunts, a feedback loop is fine (most progression systems are that, like monhun, "do fight, to make thing, to do fight") but whereas other games either offer BIGGER, BADDER hunts that REQUIRE the shiny new tools- phasmo doesn't really scratch that yet for a couple reasons.

1) The hard ghosts are still the same tasks, just generally more aggressive (more likely to die etc) or bigger spaces (more splitting up to find them), that's not the same as like "Bigger new challenges in monster hunter" (I'm sorry I keep saying monhun, but it's a coop PVE 4 man game where you go on ghost HUNTS, it's comparable)

2) The build up you feel from getting the better tools isn't there, like at all. There aren't enough tools and there aren't enough "big, good" tools. At the moment there just aren't enough things to buy with the money you earn to feel like any sort of progression or even investment because if you DO die and lose your items then it's just like a strong flashlight and a tripod that you have to buy again.

So right now it can stand to improve on progression feel- like making hard hunts a bit more interesting (two ghosts? They'd have to improve things like the spirit box so you could ID each independently)- Or (DO THIS) expanding what we invest in within our progression. More, better tools to make it feel like you're progressing a bit.

Although they could go another way and just expand the things we can research about the ghosts and make it a wider pool of tools instead of a more vertical "weak to strong" pool of tools. That wouldn't feel like fun progression but it would feel like a good addition of depth to the challenge of IDing a ghost which would counter-act the progression feeling lesser.

But then they'd have to expand what a ghost can react to significantly, because it every ghost only reacts to 3 stimuli and you add 30 types of stimuli then more hunts would come up where the players just don't have the right tools to know what they are dealing with- that's not fun either.

But if the ghosts react to like 10 things AND we gain the ability to add "Not Evidence" to our journal to cross out some stimuli then players would probably still be able to find the ghost more often than not.

I rambled for fun.

Good game.

[gamename436]

What is the online gaming website

Career In Gaming

On line Gambling Websites covers the entire industry of gaming more than the Online. Our initial company program was to commence in the UK industry and then move on to Europe in 18 months and to the rest of the world in 36 months. Having said that factors didn't go fairly to plan because inside the initial 6 hours of going reside we sold 400 games in Japan. This meant that from the begin we were always going to be a worldwide corporation. Green Man Gaming has been listed as the 53rd biggest exporter in the UK out of 354,000 SMEs in the Sunday Times SME Export Track one hundred list.

The multitude of gaming news sites continues to develop as gaming emerges as a thing bigger and more worthwhile than merely a hobby. It would be an understatement to confine the role and purpose of these web-sites to news and testimonials broadcasting for each and every day, the legion of geeks and gamers is strengthened by these very gaming news web-sites. In midst of this competitors, there are numerous sites like Virteract which are emerging to the scene and putting in some really fantastic efforts to deliver you with quality content.

The X Rocker Pro H3 Audio Gaming Chair can be rightfully regarded as a really serious gamer's one particular and only gaming lounger. It comes completely integrated with 4 highly effective speakers to give you a sensational game play. And if that is not enough of the best gift for a gamer, its equally remarkable subwoofer can turn even the slightest hint of bass into a thunderous boom, additional enhancing your overall gaming practical experience. Enhancing your immersive game play are vibration motors that can be completely synchronized with the unique bass tones in your game, delivering you with shocks, jolts, and minute vibrations fairly significantly like the tactile feedback of vibration-enabled game controllers.

If you do not have a large gaming group, you have probably noticed that two-player games are really hard to find, and definitely great ones that are just as terrific for two players are even more rare. I've wracked my memory (and pestered my friends) to come up with a bunch of tabletop games that are a blast for two— not just technically playable with no extra.

You Will Thank Us - 10 Tips About GAMING You should Know

The future of India's game improvement community looks bright and there is no cause why it can not turn into the chosen destination for international gaming market. The customer base for games is increasingly expanding, particularly on mobile, and the correct e-commerce options are currently in spot to facilitate micro-transactions and ad revenue. The Indian game app developers will as a result have ample opportunity to innovate, design and style, and develop compelling game content for both the Indian and global audience.

Game makers can assistance basic leaderboards easily by working with DynamoDB. One such use case is the ability to show top rated scores for a game. If a gaming company currently retailers players' game state in DynamoDB, like players' major scores, the capacity to get prime scores can be implemented by utilizing a worldwide secondary index.

Bit points continue to develop up and platform was changed differently. Google and Apple changed their algorithms handful of time and this shake entire App search benefits. Platforms fixes their early troubles and if you recall Balmer's joke "Who's gonna purchase $500 phone? persons start off to purchased $500 phones. Also stable platform bring "BigGuys" there like EA, GameLoft in gaming market or Adobe, Autocad in graphic apps. This happens about 2011-2012.

The benefits of this cloud model for gaming? The newest gaming hardware doesn't come low-cost: hundreds of pounds for a console or thousands for a tricked-out Computer, plus the games themselves - and with gaming technologies regularly evolving, upgrading hardware just about every handful of years is mandatory to appreciate the most current titles at their most effective. By connecting to devices in the cloud, fees are lowered to a subscription fee, and the provider requires on all the responsibilities of keeping higher-end gaming systems. With no need for on-web site hardware, cloud gaming also saves space in the home and eliminates the noise and heat generated by gaming machines.

Yeah I would say this thread currently hit on the fantastic ones. Joystiq is a pretty superior newsy form web page. PA Report appears to be embracing the same virtue of GB which is to say let's not be beholden to something other than to great content. Great point is that Ben Kuchera posts other good pieces from several web-sites so its not just his voice which is quite terrific as properly. Vox Gaming I assume requirements a much better net designer but their content seems to be going in fantastic locations.

In order to make all the content material of your gaming web-site appear great on smaller sized screen sizes, you want to make positive that your online project is mobile-friendly. One particular of the very best methods to develop a responsive web page is picking a Bootstrap-based internet theme as its foundation. Operating with a Click here mobile-friendly internet site template, you may possibly neglect about the want to adjust your content material to all devices manually.

The ASTRO Gaming Headset is not your common headset that comes with a range of capabilities especially designed for enhancing your music listening experience. Alternatively, the ASTRO A50 is especially created and built for the really serious gamer especially those who play on the Personal Personal computer or even the PlayStation four game console. The ASTRO A50 comes with 7.1 Dolby surround sound technologies, providing you exceptionally loud bass and chest-thumping trebles, elegantly amplified to bring you to an out-of-this-globe adventure. The ASTRO A50 is embedded with professional excellent audio drivers in an elegant and stylish finish. It comes with its own docking station, as well.

This (Blog) is exactly where you can read every thing I know. Find out about the most effective board games for game nights in original critiques, get suggestions on every little thing from organizing to snack and drinks, and study up on inclusivity and diversity in gaming communities. There's stuff here for person players attempting to chip in on game evening, to hosts who want to (ahem) up their game, to companies interested in hosting normal board game nights.

Some like it wireless. Some choose to go old-college with wires. If you come about to belong to the latter group, you may possibly want to give the Havit HV -MS672 Wired Mouse It may well not have a really outstanding optical sensor that can run in the 16,000s, but its maximum of 3,200 DPI really should be adequate to present you with an exceptional gaming knowledge. Its DPI settings can also be adjusted to three other levels with the lowest at 800 DPI. The Havit Mouse also comes with breathing LED light effects including 7 circular LED light effects to set the mood in your game.

On the internet multiplayer shooters, like CS:GO, Fortnite, and PUBG, are at the moment dominating the gaming planet, thanks to professional gamers, eSports tournaments, Twitch streamers , and YouTube gaming channels Some games that have been released years ago are nonetheless well known currently, like League of Legends, Minecraft, World of Warcraft, Dota two, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. Other fantastic games trending now involve Overwatch, Rocket League, Super Mario Odyssey, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege. Other folks have spawned sequels that out play and out carry out their original games.

Their mission is to be the initial choice for gamers globally, supplying the biggest range of digital games and access to a vibrant, entertaining, worldwide gaming neighborhood that rewards gamers when they connect, play and take pleasure in immersive gaming experiences. At Green Man Gaming they want to be trusted, respected and valued by their buyers and these in their neighborhood. They have put a popular set of values at the heart of how they do business. Their values are designed to capture what they do when they are at their most effective.