#lovely phoenix

[factorialsotherfandoms]

Hi! I just found your qsmp xcom au and I’m absolutely in love. I’ve been a fan of the game for years now and I’ve always thought it would make a good au but very rarely found fics of it, especially for a fandom I actually know and enjoy :) The way you write pac and mike especially is just so. Aaaaaaaa! If I didn’t already like them I surely would by now. I’ve actually been inspired by your au to try writing one for my own mcyt fandom, and I was wondering if you had any advice for doing a playthrough? I like to consider myself decent at the game, but I’m certainly not an expert. If there’s any settings you’d recommend or tricks to making the game more easily translated into fic I’d love to hear it!

Ah hi! Hello! Someone who has also played it!!! I definitely have an utterly normal and reasonable number of hours in this game

I'm really glad you enjoy it! And lmao I've enjoyed Pac and Mike for a while, but it really was in writing them for the au that they took over my brain. Kinda wish I had more with them, as I'm kinda trying to ration myself so I still have more them-focused stuff to write later, you know? It's a silly-huge project as, well, you know how little of the canon plot I've managed to actually write in the 100,000+ words (minus notes file) so far ^^;

Oh that'd be cool! I don't know so many of them, but yeah! It'd be really neat to see more (I recently got into Ordem and I keep having to slap myself from starting another au ^^;). It's... actually the second one I did, funnily enough - years ago I also had a Fire Emblem: Fates one going but err... Well I might have been a dumbass and written straight to ao3 drafts so I lost everything but some sketches for that.

Advice wise... I mean the main one is play it on the settings you enjoy? It is a long game, especially if like me you have DLC on when you play. Potentially longer still depending on if you mod it or not.

This is just some rambling I guess.

Do you want to deal with character death? If no, play it on an easier setting. If yes, play it on a harder one. Feel free to save-scum away as needed! Theoretically save scumming on harder still means no death but higher injury rate, but I'm bad enough at the game that happens whenever

Similarly, are you thinking more plot or more true to gameplay? If like me you're story more than accuracy when writing, and have the correct stuff installed to, consider increasing the avatar project counter and turn limits. It gives you more flexibiltiy to do non-optimal but amusing things. Like me not letting Pac and Mike split up, or making Philza occasionally running off like he's a ranger instead of anything sensible for a specialist to be doing.

Make a list of all the characters in your fandom in advance, even if you think you won't need it. You will thank me when you're 50 missions in, having to use this random major you picked up from a scan 3 days ago, and you're sat on the party loadout screen desperately trying to remember who you haven't used yet so you can customise them.

Take notes. No, more notes than that - I took what I thought were good notes, and still find myself wanting more details. This was actually easier on my old laptop where loading back to the ship after each mission took 35 minutes as I could type proper mini reports on my phone in that time. This... did not happen this time oops. My notes are a mess. The ones I published are the *tidied* ones.

That said, if something would work better for plot reasons? Just change it. You're writing a story once you sit down to write, and sometimes RNG sucks for that. Different character should have been shot for drama? Someone else should get to kill one of the Chosen as you linked their backstory in? Want more Avatars and them to be a bigger deal chatty wise? Just go for it.

What, if any, details from the original universe do you want to bring over? For me this was an after playing it thing, but it's worth thinking about. For example, do you want to keep potions, or are you using medkits? In the former case, how does that intersect with the worldbuilding? For QSMP working out how the eggs came in was one of the hardest bits, but I knew I both wanted them and didn't just want to make them units. Wanting the eggs and deciding they were ADVENT experiments (well Federation here) also influenced who went on missions. I didn't assign which eggs where (beyond Memory, A1, and Trump) until later, but I made sure that for all eggs with a combatant parent said parent went on at least one facility or chosen base mission. The exception to this is actually Tilin, as Luzu comes into the plot later (see my note about make a damned list of characters lmao), and both Quackities are non-com.

Actually that wise, the biggest question is what you do about the Commander, and their importance in getting through and into the final mission. For me, I'm using the eggs for that. For you? Who knows.

Are you doing fics before and after and off mission? If yes er I knew it'd be a big project but it spiralled out of control on me oops. Also… its not something that tends towards main characters, but you're unlikely to be able to truly keep it ensemble. Make sure to bring at least one fave on important missions, otherwise it'll suck to write them.

Maybe have a think about some character stuff before you start? Not everyone, unless you're like that, but having an idea for at least your favourites and plot-relevant people helps. Are you replacing Central, Shen, and Tygan with people from your fandom? Then you need to not use the people you replace them with as units. What about the chairman? (Early story for me his job is being done partially by Cellbit, then he's written out entirely later on). Are there specific classes you want people as? Less important for the first four, but something like PsiOps takes a bit of arranging. Are you willing to wait for the GTS for them, or are you fighting RNG? Are there any specific introductions you want? What does this need? (I knew I wanted Pac and Mike not to be there at the start of the game - I should write that huh - and their entrance to be dramatic. This meant I had to wait for an appropriate mission before I could adjust units and 'recruit' them. I actually had them premade and classed using the GTS, just not being used until I got a good mission for them. This ended up being... Well, if I write it people will see. It's on the to do list, but I need followup from the first Avatar kill first. Adjust where you need to of course, but it's easier to adjust something that already has the vibes).

If you premake your units, it doesn't necessarily remember your class preferences, and also it'll populate the long list of units you can buy before the units from say scanning or mission rewards. I just customised mine after i got them, but this does mean that my screenshots from the very first mission aren't usable (and in my notes I wrote using default names then fixed them). The first 4 characters are always 1 of each class, but I've yet to find a way to force them into specific classes. Consider that.

You will find yourself filling in worldbuilding and plot gaps. I'm sorry. I was adding stuff with bond mechanics (most of which i dropped) and

As for what I played on err... rookie (I can play up to hard, but am squishy and didn't want MCD to handle), double length avatar project (could fuck around), variable grenade damage on (I just like it), tutorial off (Jane Kelly was going to spoil all my character balancing, though I've still made reference to that mission in places), Lost&Abandoned on (I wanted a normal set of 4 to start and also already knew Bagi and Walter Bob were taking those roles), extended mission timer (see the messing about note)... basically I put it on the chillest settings possible so I could worry about in-character type stupidity rather than the complexities of the missions. Someone did frag someone at least once, though. Can't remember who, but it happened.

Um... Okay brain ran out. If you have questions ask away? I definitely have a brain today kinda honest. Also I played this back in like September so memory is a bit patchy, but see the note about considering doing another in another fandom lmao.

[bllmak]

special gift

[feralforbeanix]

He loved her immediately I'm gonna cry

[hxllo-hui]

Lawyer art is back! I missed drawing them

[steel-peach]

Drawing along Ace Attorney 1 Case 5

[anetesenpai]

Imagine tending to this idiot I'd quit lmao

[o0kawaii0o]

Ace Attorney x Hades

[compulsiveglassmuncher]

I love ace attorney. U start off with a Normal Guy and then it turns out he’s got a savior complex and a bitchy inner monologue. Also he’s absolutely insane it’s so funny to me I love u feenie

this is the face of a glass eatjing homosexual

[milkcurdles]

Fancy seeing you!

[rendevok]

Moon dance 🌕✨

[qiuing]

"I'm Apollo Justice, and I'm fine!"

[unepersonnelouche]

This sounded funnier in my head at 2am… (based on the bye-lingual joke, obviously)

[kilometresrufflefuck]

hear me out the other day i woke up and was immediately hit in the face with "7 year gap narumitsu in europe where phoenix kisses edgeworth in a low moment and then tries to flee and edgeworth uses mind chess on him to get the truth out of him which is a completely normal and ordinary average way to discuss your relationship"

[skellagirl]

help help help I can't stop drawing gay lawyers

Trucy should be brown and I'll die on that hill

The fact that Klavier is 5'11" and Apollo is 5'5" 🥹 I love a height difference

I am convinced they drew Valant's hair Like That (tm) in-game because otherwise we would have all fallen madly in love with him

Wesley is my favorite witness in Apollo Justice, I'm so sorry for my shit taste 😔

I've drawn Godot without a mask before but I wanted to do it Again because I am still enamored with the idea of him having white eyelashes

Aromantic Miles means so much to me

I get that it's probably just the way they drew his jacket but why is Miles's little court sprite so caked though 😭

[karakuliiii]

Really late but it's a redraw of my 2022 art for 'almost christmas means it wasn't cristmas" day

[hadespaint]

keeping secrets