#old modded playthrough here I come

[thedeadthree]

-`. i need to be more unhinged about her so here is yana in this picrew. 🥀🌸<3💀

[rallamajoop]

More random details from the depths of RE8

With the excuse of trying some shiny new mods, I've been replaying RE8 lately for the umpteenth time. Given the number of hours I've already poured into this game, you'd really think there'd be nothing left to find by this stage ‒ yet here I am, finding still more details I'd somehow missed the first half-dozen times through.

For one, there's the fact you can actually find Eva's grave in the graveyard outside the church. As the only photo we ever see of her shows her as a baby, I'd assumed she was still a baby when she died, but turns out, she was ten years old.

"Eva, June 1909 ‒ August 1919

May you slumber for only a short while"

As expected, her death of the Spanish flu took place in 1919. There's some semi-legible text on the stone, but it doesn't match the caption ‒ it's just the same generic filler text you'll find on half the gravestone assets in this game.

For another, there's Rose's baby monitor. I'd noticed Ethan turning the thing on when he puts her to bed, and even found the assets for its screen ‒ but since I'd never found the monitor itself, I assumed they must be unused.

Until this playthrough, when suddenly I'm just like, oh, there it is, sitting right on the table. You can even interact with it!

How did I miss this so many times? It is pretty easy to overlook, given you'll trigger the cutscene with Mia if you go much closer to the kitchen, but I'm still surprised I never spotted it before. (And you do have to wonder if there was ever any plan for it to show a glimpse of something more sinister than just a still-image of Rose sleeping.)

In other minor details, there's the bit where Ethan arrives on the outskirts of the village at 8AM. You can hear a clock striking 8 times as you get your first view of area.

Granted, this is not going to excite anyone who hasn't spent as long as I have putting together an hour-by-hour timeline of everything that happens in this game, but I still do love that they give you enough detail that that's even possible ‒ and this new timestamp fits right into that timeline. (And why yes I have just gone back and updated that post, what do you take me for?)

Speaking of assets I thought were unused, you know that hidden room under the castle you can't get into until later, where you have to solve a puzzle that involves setting a moroaica on fire? Have you ever looked closely at the tapestries decorating this place? Because I found them in the game files ages ago, and have been trying to figure out if they're actually in the game ever since.

Because seriously, look at these things!

Yes, that is a indeed a man with a sword and spear, wearing a hoplite helmet and sandals and nothing else. And the women seeing him from the front seem to be having a whole range of reactions to all that, er, weaponry being brandished their way. Isn't fine art wonderful?

Another asset I'd innocently assumed was unused is this wonderful bit of bullshit which was labeled simply 'antibow'. It wasn't until I took a long look at it that I realised what they meant was more like 'anti-B.O.W.', as in Bio-Organic-Weapon.

Yes, that is indeed a knife taped to some kind of grenade. Sure is one high-tech outfit we're working with here!

Only now do I spot that this is actually the bomb Chris chucks at the Megamycete in the cavern. It doesn't even come with the knife already attached, he just kind of sticks the knife onto the bomb and presumably straps some tape around them while the camera cuts away.

I still have so much more to share from my ongoing free-camera adventures, but I think we'll leave this one there for today.

[leomonae]

Tips for BG3 fans considering giving BG2 a try!

Disclaimers: I never played the enhanced or extended or whatever it's called - the Beamdog edition, that one - so I can't say what, if any, of this it might have changed. Also, while it continues to be my favourite game of all time, it's been like 5 years since my last BG2 playthrough, and I always ran it with a whole bunch of mods; I might get a few things mixed up, but I'll edit in corrections if I find that I have!

Much of this will apply to BG1 as well, of course, but not all. I am not really addressing BG1 because I've played through the whole thing maybe twice to my couple dozen BG2 games, and also because people who started a series at #3 don't get to be too picky about doing the first two out of order either :P

Right, so! I'm going to try not to spoil much here; these are just things to make your life easier and less annoying before you are blindsided by them and have to back up three hours to avoid the issue.

1) You might find yourself having to back up three hours to avoid some issue. BG3 has hopefully already thoroughly taught you this practice, but save early, save often, and keep your old saves until you're entirely done. This is a twenty year old game, I promise you have enough storage space.

2) We are playing under something like 2e (second edition) D&D rules here, not 5e. Armour class is good when it's low, not high. You don't get a set number of ability points at character creation, you roll dice and then you keep rolling for the next ten minutes until you get a nice, high points total to distribute as you prefer. Thac0 means "to hit armour class 0". Multi classing and dual classing are not at all the same thing, and will result in very different builds (also which one a character can do is determined by their race).

3) Games came with giant manuals back then; you are gonna need to either be doing some research, or just accepting that everything is going to be very confusing for awhile.

4) Go right ahead and crank that difficulty setting down a notch or two before you get started; after the first hour or two getting to grips with it, BG3 combat was basically just a nice, gentle romp through the park for me. I'm not saying this to brag (I don't ever play above core difficulty in BG2, myself), I'm saying this because you are going to find yourself getting very, very frustrated very fast if you don't understand that games back then had much different expectations when it came to how they handled some of the things that contributed to difficulty. Don't be meaner to yourself than you have to be! Challenge is fun; beating your head against a brick wall over and over is not.

5) The game is not going to do anything to stop you from going places you are not equipped or leveled to handle yet. If you are not making progress with some new area after a few tries and different approaches, consider going away and coming back later. It is also perfectly happy to spring surprise dragons on you. Or surprise "oh hey I just opened this door in the middle of the city with a certain common item in my inventory and now I appear to be in the second hardest fight of the entire game" encounters.

6) XP is distributed to all your party if it is main quest xp, and split among your party otherwise. If a character is not in your party at the time this happens, they don't get the xp, as a general rule. One or two specific exceptions aside, the game does not play catch-up for the characters you had leave your party temporarily; I would advise deciding who you want to have in your party fairly early on, then sticking to that so you're not wasting good xp on characters you're not keeping around.

7) Unfortunately, the previous is somewhat complicated by the fact that some companions have their own personal quests they want you to do for them. Quests with hidden timers that start running when you pick them up. Quests over which they will leave your party permanently, if you don't get around to them soon enough/don't listen when they give you a "do this basically now, or else" ultimatum. Quests you are going to be in no way capable of doing at the start of the game.**

8) Not all companions get along with one another; some of them cannot be in a party together without eventually fighting to the death as you're walking down the street one day. Pay attention to their alignment and don't go mixing good and evil characters in the same run. Neutral ones are significantly more chill.

9) There's a reputation mechanic which is kind of a morality tracker; good companions can also leave you if you get too low rep, and evil if you get too high.

10) When you first get out into the city proper, go check out the shops in this starting area; you can get a gem bag and a scroll case which will make inventory management much more pleasant. There are also bags of holding in the game - you know, those things our BG3 player characters kept taunting us about not having?

11) Companions can permanently die in a way that leaves them unable to be resurrected again due to the condition of the body. Be careful! Or just reload one of your twelve billion saves you've been carefully making, that works too.

12) Sometimes certain spells can have effects that might not occur to you in advance. Like, oh, say, disintegrating a dragon and only realising thirty hours later that you also disintegrated the crafting component required for making a really powerful weapon which it had in its inventory at the time.

13) You've noticed by now in BG3 that there are enemies who are resistant or vulnerable to certain types of damage, yeah? Bludgeoning, specific elements, etc. That is also going to be a thing here, but it's not always as immediately obvious what the problem is when you're failing to damage something. But in general, magical vs non-magical damage is a much bigger concern in BG2. There are many enemies that only take damage if your weapon is an enchanted one, and they might also require a certain minimum level of enchantment; +3 weapons or better, that sort of thing. Spells can affect this, too. Certain types of damage can cut through certain spell protections. Etc.

14) Hint: Melf's Minute Meteors count as +5 weapons, if you should ever find yourself unexpectedly in need of such a thing for some unknown reason I'm sure will never come up!

15) You can turn on a great many auto-pause options in the menu to get something significantly closer to the turn based combat you're used to. I use most of them; pausing whenever one of your characters finishes casting a spell (different spells take different amounts of time to finish casting and you can be interrupted before you manage doing so) is very useful so that you can immediately start them on their next spell without wasting time in combat.

16) If there's anything you really don't like, such as constantly being told to gather your party before venturing forth, there's almost certainly a mod for that.

That should do for now, have fun, enjoy the absolutely terrifying versions of vampires and illithid which will stalk your nightmares afterwards!

**It's Keldorn, I'm talking about Keldorn. I know he's amazing, but just leave his ass right the fuck where you found it unless you are feeling about ready to fight some of the toughest enemies in the game. Or you've bought that one specific item and don't mind a little cheese, because god knows I always use it if I'm planning on recruiting him.

[serataph]

could you tell us about your ocs ? ive been seeing a lot of them lately n i would love to figure out more :0

uhhh written half-asleep summary

so basically this is ori

he's a partial celestial that had his body reformed and his soul revived after getting killed by his best friend, basically.

before i give the rough summary, this guy is a terraria oc. fae is a terraria oc. this will involve terraria lore. notable things are the moon lord, the cultists worshiping the moon lord, the lunatic cultist [the character ori derived from], the calamity mod, and stardust celestials.

the reasoning for the terraria background is that ori came from a playthrough of the calamity mod that happened right after a vanilla run. where I was like "haha wouldn't it be cool if the lunatic cultist from the previous playthrough ended up as a character?" because we had already been making characters with personalities n stuff because the group I played with are all avid writers and/or artists. including me

their character arc centers around uncovering their old memories and coming to terms with themself and their actions. generally just learning how to stop living in the past

this is Tia [who isn't my character]

she belongs to @postinguntilitransitionnn, who doesn't actually have terraria and so her entire thing was being intangible until Ori kills the god that cursed her. tia is in a romantic relationship with Ori and takes care of Ori whenever he reverts to a fluffy noodle.

this is Janaier [who also isn't my character]

he belongs to someone who isn't on tumblr. this guy ""domesticates"" Ori (teaches them social norms after being cooped up in a shelter for a few years) and is their best friend. they go through a lot of traumatizing events together. also he has an edgy backstory and is sexually ambiguous

under the cut is the """backstory""" of Ori [which is 2 years old and is yet to be rewritten/revamped.]

this backstory is kind of outdated so yeah

I'm making a really rough summary but he was raised in a cult worshiping an eldritch after the family that was [barely] taking care of him was kind of killed by his uh best friend at the time, the guy with the hat that I draw sometimes. he isn't my character. the killing was totally justified tho because they kind of kidnapped him to get ori to kill him as proper initiation into the cult. dedicate yourself to the moon lord via sacrificing someone close to you!!!! so yeah after his family is killed he's taken in by the cult his family was a part of and eventually rose to leadership. and then he gets killed by his best friend. and then gets revived by cult escapees. i guess uhmmm

this backstory is from 2 years ago and I haven't changed a single thing about it since I thought about it with my friend at the time and like saying it out loud I should really properly write down a few things because the summary sounds nutty (sobbing emoji here)

[eponymous-rose]

Now Streaming: Baldur's Gate 3 on Tactician Difficulty!

Stream starting momentarily here!

Previously: After a githyanki ambush that nearly went very wrong (and proved Kithrak Voss' warning system really does work, we're just not bright enough to do much about it), the party doubled back to take out Raphael's old enemy before heading into Moonrise Towers. Yurgir was very nearly victorious, and if it weren't for Astarion as sole survivor with 10 HP and a dream (and a Revivify spell for Lae'zel, who'd been running around the battlefield picking up bombs), the party would have wiped then and there, wasting a perfectly good hour-long battle. Onward... to Moonrise Towers!

Finally (mostly) ready for family to come stay for five nights starting tomorrow, so it's time for the final stream for a bit!

Trying to keep this playthrough pretty spoiler-free for those who haven’t played all the way through yet. As a side note, I do these streams partly to chat with fellow fans of the game but also to meet folks who are new to the game/stream/what-have-you, so please don’t hesitate to jump in and chat!

The game is modded so that all companions travel with me (for banter reasons), but only a subset will actually be in battles (for balance reasons).

Note: This game contains some body horror as well as general fantasy violence and sexuality. I’ve turned off full nudity, but you still might want to avoid watching at work and/or around kiddos.

[jestersnonsense]

So this is a niche idea that probably only appeals to me but I can't get it out of my head so I'm sharing it with all of you. AU where Gold (from the Pokémon: Lost Silver creepypasta) gets adopted by the Haunted Mansion crew

Long post under the cut

Quick disclaimer: I have not played the Hypno's Lullaby FNF mod yet and I have not watched a full playthrough of it yet (I have seen parts here and there though). I've just been listening to the Monochrome song on loop for 4 straight days (it's a banger btw, especially the Perish mix) and fell straight back into my old Creepypasta phase. My entire perception of Gold's personality comes from what I've seen of the FNF mod, read about on TvTropes, and fanon (I did read the original creepypasta story that he's from, but that honestly gives nothing to work with). This is to say, I apologize in advance if I absolutely butcher Gold's canon personality. I am just very fond of the perception of his character I have in my head.

Anyway! The most prominent trait I interpret of Gold from what I've seen of him so far is that he is DEAD. And SAD. And SAD about being DEAD.

And Disney's Haunted Mansion is filled with dead people who are not necessarily as distraught about their predicament.

I imagine Gold (and the many, many Unown inhabiting his corpse) somehow get isekai-ed out of his game and into one of the Disney Parks. He's floating down the sidewalk feeling very sad indeed, groaning "N O M O R E" every so often.

Ghost Host looks outside and sees this lost soul and his companions just floating about. Hosty, not being one to just leave a soul out in the open, decides to take him in.

The Hatbox Ghost and Emily (Beating Heart Bride) adopt him immediately! Gold is like the son they never had. Hatty is absolutely delighted when he learns Gold can detach his head from his body.

Communicating with Gold is difficult at first, seeing as Gold doesn't speak much. But after some time, the other ghosts eventually learn to read the Unown language.

In particular, Gold and Gus (the prisoner hitchhiker) would have a special bond over both being non-speakers (I headcanon Gus as mute)

This isn't to say I don't think Gold has the ability to talk. I think he could, he just prefers not to. More often than not, he only groans maybe 1-3 words at a time. Otherwise, the unown just spell things out for him.

Sally Slater (the tightrope girl) and Victor Geist (the Organist) go out for ice cream once a week. After they get to know Gold, it becomes a regular thing for them to invite him on their outings. They grab a wheelchair for him (so that he doesn't have to use extra energy floating around) and wheel him out of the mansion to grab some Dole Whip.

Gold doesn't talk much. So during these outings, he prefers to just sit and enjoy his ice cream while listening to Sally and Victor bicker and gossip. Even though he never says it, he enjoys their company.

The hitchhiking ghosts are the ones to take Gold on his first tour of the park. Their preferred method is tying up Gold to those big Mickey balloons and dragging him from place to place

They take him on the fast-pace thrill rides first (think Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, etc.) first because those are their favorites (though specifically more Ezra's favorites). They quickly find out that Gold does NOT like that. So Phineas suggests they take him on It's A Small World. Gold feels much better afterwards. :)

I headcanon Gold prefers the more calm rides. So think It's A Small World and the Storybook Land Canal Boats.

Oh, and he absolutely does NOT want to go on Matterhorn. Ever.

At the end of the hitchhiker's Disney park tour, they gather near the castle to watch the fireworks. Hatty and Emily join in too.

Gold is now surrounded by many more friends, who are all dead just like he is. But perhaps being dead doesn't have to be so bad after all.

[that-sims-four-blog]

And another slice of the playthrough...

(cw: plenty of violence and some blood further down below)

And on tonight's episode of Leeb, Leefuh, Love:

Back at the Metallica household, Kirk and Lars share a top-bunk bed—partially because they're not gay, that one parody music video be damned.

Honestly, there is not much to tell, although Lars did say something about a case...

Heh, heh.

No, it's not about Napster, although it was equally as scandalous as his case against it.

Furthermore, the royalty report for Lars' track finally came in:

That's not quite a bad profit for someone who just started out their journey to become the new Skrillex, and there will be more, I am certain. Since the household has not seen anything interesting in quite some time, I don't think it'll get much attention in the following posts.

Moving over to Strangetown Strangerville, Sussus Amogus settles into sus residence at Slip 42. Yes, sus pronouns are sus/sus (singular: crewmate), although it's fine if you use they/them pronouns for sus for serious discussions.

The first thing that Sussus did was to go over to the pub across the street and then... uh... break someone's nuts into a million pieces. I am sorry that I couldn't get any images of the event (I need to stop confusing the C key with S), so this anecdote is the only evidence I can offer, along with the fact that the victim was named Daiki.

By the way, I'm thinking of making Sussus' parts more chaotic compared to the rest—which means more violence, yay! So, yeah, I would suggest that you might want to tread carefully when coming to their parts.

Excuse the mod's misgendering, but I think I have accomplished my goal of making Sussus an egotistical bastard. I have worse things in mind that would prove that sus is, like, really evil. Or rather, really suspicious.

That is also Sussus. I don't like how sus turns bald every time sus enters the shower, so I decided to give sus a little Jack Frost disguise. So, there it is: Sussus Amogus, masquerading as Jack Frost—of Shin Megami Tensei and Persona fame—every time sus enters the shower or goes to work—as pictured, as a scientist.

As insane as it sounds, I'm thinking of giving sus a romantic interest. Because I can, and also that I found one of the Sims at Sussus' lab pretty cute.

Pictured here is Sussus Frost at work, complete with the UI glory. I don't recall what her name was, but that's the Sim I'm thinking of pairing Sussus with.

Okay, lab aside, I'd like to mention one of Sussus' days—a really specific one that I thought was worth writing about.

After doing a really, really horrific thing at that Strangerville bar—let's just say that it was murder; I cannot go into further detail lest I get this blog deleted—Sussus decided to head to the Old Quarters' Inn. It would have been fine had Daiki not been the bartender there.

And, uh.

Yeah, Sussus seems pretty hell-bent on making this poor guy miserable.

I think it's clear in Daiki's eyes how really miserable he is, all because of some random crewmate who just moved in several hours earlier. Then came a fight!

Sussus lost. It was too much for this one Imposter to handle. The next thing that sus did was to throw blood on him and then call the cops. Nope, they were too late. So, I decided to let Sussus take the matter into sus' own hands.

You get the idea. Most of the aftermath of it is probably too... grisly to be put in here. I'm just going to give you a couple of images that I took in the aftermath of the incident.

And then—

Wait, what?

What the fuck.

[transprincecaspian]

Caspian's Inquisition Mod List

For his transmasc Trevelyan

Not even gonna lie to you guys, I probably could handle more mods but my computer is a little old. He's trucking along though and I am so proud of him. I'm gonna include all of the mods I have downloaded for my Trevelyan playthrough (with a link) and a brief description of what they do/why I picked it. I'll try to update it because I usually end up adding more as I go.

Any Voice - Mod that allows you to choose any voice during character creation (male or female/British or American). I don't know how well this portion of the mod works because I opted for the optional file: Flipped Pronouns. This causes your character to be referred to by the opposite pronouns of the gender presentation you selected at character creation. (For me, this allows my male Trevelyan to be played on a feminine model). Player's Note: This does not apply to text in game. Missions, notes, and letters will still refer to the default gender for your selection.

Divine Armor for Lady Trevelyan - Mod that allows the Divine Armor (normally bestowed to a Divine Cassandra or Vivienne in the Trespasser DLC) to be acquired early and equipped on a female Trevelyan model.

War Table (No Waiting) - A classic. I'm an impatient little bastard when it comes to those missions.

More Banter - Make those companions talk a little more often! Guaranteed chatter about every fifteen minutes so they're not just silently following you around for hours on end.

Skills Revamped (Warrior) - I think Warrior is (sadly) one of the weakest classes in Inquisition. I chose to revamp the sword&board and the battlemaster lines, but there are files for all of them. The mod creator has also done a revamp for mages and rogues as well.

Party at the Winter Palace - Allows for ALL of your companions to join you at Halamshiral! Bit lengthy on the introductions, but I think it's worth it to interact with everyone and hear all of the dialogue. Optional file that I think is a MUST is one that cuts out the sexual harassment dialogue concerning Cullen.

Actually Alistair - Another must have. They butchered my boy in Inquisition. This doesn't restore him quite to his Origins glory, but it's much better...

Blackwall, Warden of the North - I just couldn't stand his beard. I'm sorry.

Lady Josephine's Outfit Retextures & Lady Josephine Complexion - I picked blush for the outfit and gold for the headband and jewelry under her complexion. It gives her soft brown eyes and a much more fun and romantic outfit detailing!

Dark Knight Cullen - The outfits are fun but I really appreciated the complexion retextures here! I liked it best with the scars and the DA2 beard.

The Wolf - Darker Solas Retexture - Self-explanatory, and it's a gorgeous labor of love.

Refined Varric - He just looked a little too grungy for me. Sorry grungy Varric lovers, the vanilla complexions in this game are too oily.

Refined Vivienne - Fell in love with this mod the second I saw it; I love the makeup and contours it adds to her face, very striking and very VIV!

DA2 Cassandra - Very close to her default Inquisition complexion, I just wanted something a little more familiar.

C.A.R.P. Concept Art Sera Overhaul - New complexions and face textures + hairstyle that causes Sera to more closely resemble her concept art design.

Royal Retextures - Retextured outfits for Celene, Florianne, Gaspard, and Briala at the Winter Ball. (BTW if anyone can send me the link for the Briala mod that overhauls her whole design. Throw it my way)

New Outfits for Human Female - Wanted a mod that overhauls the default Skyhold PJs and found one that didn't make my poor Trevelyan stand around with his tits out or in lacy lingerie. Features some mixed armor between Vivienne and Cassandra and Flemeth's outfit.

LL Inquisition Faction - Mod that recolors all of the Inquisition heraldry into a green/black/gold scheme. Includes optional files for retextured furniture and Halamshiral finery.

Inquisition Branded Finery - I opted NOT to use the finery from the above mod and selected the white/emerald one here. There are other cute color options too!

Anto Hairstyles for DAI - I picked the Elena mesh for Veremund's hair. I will say this was the only mod that I could get to load (AND PLEASE READ THE REQUIRED MODS ON THIS ONE).

DAI Frosty Texture Glitch Fixes - Fixes a bunch of things that I broke :)

Sprint Key - Another must-have. Enables you to sprint at any time by holding down left shift.

Winter/Autumn in Thedas - I have only linked the winter one here as that's the one I'm using, but I LOVE both of these retextures! If you love autumn leaves or crisp snow, check these out. You do not need reshaders to play with these.

Winter Fog ReShade - But if you'd LIKE a reshade to complement the mod above, this is the one the creator recommends! I'm giving it a whirl, too.

Always Night in Skyhold - It's always night in Skyhold! I think it makes cutscenes more dramatic.

**Other recommendations:

Gender-Neutral Pronouns for the Inquisitor - Similar to the first mod I listed, except it removes any mention of "Lord/Lady" and strives to be an entirely neutral mod. (You can find the original tumblr post explaining the mod in more detail here).

Custom Body Models - Adds more variety to the Inquisitor's physical appearance. Only works on the Skyhold PJs and the various meshes you can find thereof.

As I said, I'll be adding more as I go! If you have any recommendations, please send them my way as well :)

[zydrateacademy]

First Impressions - Starfield

I have a friend who once told me that Starfield is a game of compromises, but I can't deny that an open world Bethesda game still scratches an itch that does not get satisfied very often. The likes of Cyberpunk 2077 (which is already three years old, ho' hell...) and Baldur's Gate 3 come along to scratch my back but I still always hold hope for the next Bethesda game. So while I enjoy the game for what it is, this review might have a lot more bad to say than good, because the good is just 'good' and there's just a lot more to say about the bad.

The good here still works. Running around in a new world, picking everyone's pockets (oh yes, the "stealth archer" archetype is just as valid here if a bit twitchy), fiddling with gear and the like. It doesn't quite scratch the same tech/tactical shooter that I eventually turned FO4 into with mods but I think it has the potential when the modding tools are released soon.

Now that is always an ongoing debate. Modders should not be tasked to 'fix' a developer's game, and the baseline game has to be good and enjoyable enough to attract said modders to eventually spend years of their life toiling. As of this writing, Skyrim has 500 new mods published -this week-, and that's not even bothering to look up what's been updated as well. All that said, it still most certainly helps.

The general gameplay loop still works, generally just looting and shooting and slowly upgrading my gear as the enemies acquire better stuff while I level up. I enjoy some of the spaceflight but it's more thin than I expected. Spaceflight is not a "pick a direction and go" but more when you fast travel to planets there may or may not be some kind of encounter, between fighting mercenaries or having your cargo scanned for contraband. Once you're done with the encounter, it's done, and there's no reason to continue flying around.

I still really enjoy spaceflight and I truly wish there was more of it. But so far in ~20 hours it has mostly amounted to "kill three ships, now land on the planet towards your objective".

There's a contraband feature I'm a bit mixed on. Every now and then, notably when you're exploring "abandoned" structures on planets (so far, always occupied by pirates), you'll find some very high-priced illegal item packs you can take to the Trade Authority to hock. Unfortunately this is basically just a special item with extra steps. There's only one or two viable places to go to, to avoid the authorities scanning your ship and I've found a backpack full of high-priced guns can yield more cash than the specialized contraband which has an expected huge markdown when I go to sell them anyway. It's a fun idea but not implemented as well as it could be.

Very quickly, I am hit with this strange double-triple-unlock perk system. Things like upgrading your weapons and gear are behind a tiered wall so you might have to dump points in a line you're hardly interested in (I don't really care that my scanner gets 10 more meters, I'm running towards the thing I'm scanning anyway) just to be able to get the capability of upgrading your own stuff. After that you need to 'research' your ability to craft these things. At a certain point I might just cheat in 100 units of various materials just to skip the research part.

It's basically Fallout4's system but worse, with extra hoops to jump through. At least in FO4 your perks were just locked behind the attribute level and nothing else. But in order to fly the 'best' ships you will need a bunch of perks in the tech tree, for a game you really don't spend that much flying in.

I think the game has a scaling problem. While you can't fly planet to planet manually hoping to run into random encounters (ala~ random spawns on the roads of Skyrim that are different on every playthrough), it also has trouble with on foot traversal itself. People complained about planetfall on the first Mass Effect as just amounting to a square foot space to run around and explore in but I think Starfield would have benefited from that system here. So far in my experience I have simply done the Mass Effect thing and explored the three or four points of interest on a planet and left it at that. You can choose a point and land anywhere on planets and maybe establish an outpost but there's very long expanses of nothing and running between PoI's made me wish for some kind of hoverbike. Or a Mako.

Minor nitpick: Beth games really need to give their merchants more money. Scrolling through some reviews there's one that formatted very simplistically. Perfect? No. Overhyped? Sure. Fun? Yes. A lot of that I agree with. I won't deny Bethesda has some real work to do here (with a major patch coming in a couple of days) but I'm still enjoying the experience.

So here's a thumbs up if you're anything like me and are just suffering from the general dry spell of open world RPGs. It'll do for now.

[princeofcyberpunk]

PSA to XY enjoyers - Pokemon Y Crashing

Yo! so I started a replay of Pokemon Y yesterday, but it was verrry different this time. I've replayed this cartridge at least 10 different times if not more over the course of about 8 years and take very good care of my games. I have run into zero problems in the past. It is an authentic, bought new from Nintendo (I believe it was purchased from Target? if thats at all relevant) and has never been modded or hacked. It's just a normal cartridge lol. I play using a New Nintendo 3DS XL

However, when I started this new save up (i wiped a half-played save file from 2022) up it suddenly wouldn't let me past the language selection and would crash before getting to Sycamore's cutscene where you choose your character. I tried multiple times and it wouldn't do anything.

Solution to that: I updated my system and it let me past the language selection with no issues. I had a habit of clicking the "no" option whenever prompted with a 3DS system update for years no so ig thats my karma lmao.

I've noticed after this that the frame rate is a lotttt lower. Normally the only Pokemon game that lags at all for me is my copy of Ultra Moon, which is common for that title because of how much stuff is on it (genuinely have no idea how they fit all of that onto the 3DS) but the frame rate of battles and some areas (like route 3) are significantly worse and i've even noticed some pop-in with some NPCs which has never happened to me on a 3DS game before lol

However, once so far in my playthrough it has crashed. Basically I tried backtracking out of Glittering Cave after the first two grunt fights so I could heal and take on the double battle you do with your rival. So i went out of the cave and ran into those shadows that give you a wild encounter and the second I did the game crashed.

No idea what happened there but it's worth mentioning.

So I looked online elsewhere (reddit, pokemon forums etc) and a lot of people are aparently having this issue and judging by the date a lot of those people posted about it on, it started occurring right after I played it last (2022)

So yeah. basically if your Pokemon X/Y game isn't working past language selection, try updating your 3DS.

And if it's still crashing occasionally (like mine did and maybe will in the future) keep an eye on it. I'll most likely take it to my favorite game shop for a repair if this persists enough for it to become a problem (because if it just crashes occasionally then I'm just going to chalk it up to the game just being old). I encourage you to do the same if this issue crops up for you too! Retro game shop people are always really nice in my experiences so give it a shot :D

I'm mostly putting this out here because I know a lot of people are going to want to replay/play these since Z-A are going to come out. And I didn't want anyone to freak out about it (like i did. lol.)

[leopardmuffinxo]

hello~ your tavs always look so amazing and unique! i saw you use unique tav and was wondering if you had any advice on how to use it or resources for it. i find the mod author's description a bit confusing but i really want to be able to have several customized tavs like you 🥹

hi anon! thank you for the kind words. ♡ i'll try my best to explain how i use it with so many Tavs. i feel like i'm terrible at explaining things, so apologies beforehand. i might not be the best person to ask, but i'll try.

to start, i do not use Vortex, so if that's your mod manager of choice, i won't be able to be of any help with that. i use the BG3ModManager to install all my BG3 mods. the PAK file will always need to be below all other mods you install. make sure you download Trips' Old Shader Pack as well. it should automatically go to the overrides once placed in your mods folder. C:\Users\(USERNAME)\AppData\Local\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\Mods

(yes, i have 136 mods installed lol)

now the data file download will go in your BG3 data folder. i have it downloaded on Steam, so i found it by browsing the installed files for the game. to find the unique_tav folder, it'll be in data > generated > public > shared > assets > unique_tav. there should be 2 folders at this point. BODY & FACE.

FACE:

FACE is for make-up and face/neck tattoos. this is where you will place any modded versions of make-up or face tattoos. just make sure they have the same name as the current files so that they work in game. some mods have unique tav versions of their downloads, but this will work with any modded tats/makeup, as long as you change the file name to match the one in the unique_tav folder.

make-up mods need to be named: Skin_Atlas_Head_SHR_Makeup_A_MSK face/neck tattoo mods need to be named: Skin_Atlas_Head_SHR_Tattoo_A_MSK

i have custom templates i've made for both, so that i can have several different tattoos/make-up options from different mods, without having to switch between them. there's a tattoo tutorial here if you'd like to learn how to make custom tattoos and/or just make a custom template like i have. you just need a basic understanding of photoshop and a DDS plugin. if you're unable to make your own custom template and want multiple different tattoo/make-up options, then you would just need to switch out tattoo/make-up templates between playthroughs. i'm extra and would probably keep folders saved somewhere of each Tav and each tattoo template they use.

BODY:

now when it comes to the BODY file, i've only messed around with full body tattoo files and the black nails file. I haven't ventured into the more advanced options of unique tav... yet.

for the black nails file, i downloaded that mod (Humans Elves Half-Elves Drows) then changed the HUM_F_NKD_Body_A_MSK file name to UNIQUE_F_NKD_BODY_A_MSK and placed it into the body > normies > female folder. (black nails for masc bodies have a unique tav option here)

for body tattoos, those are under body > tattoo. how you organize these will be up to your personal preference. everyone keeps track of things differently, so i'm only showing you the way i switch them out for different characters. i currently have 5 different templates in my tattoo folder.

the reason for this is because whatever body tattoo has the current name: Skin_Atlas_Body_UNI_Tattoo_A_MSK is the one that will show on any Tav file you load up. right now, it's the blank one, which means no body tattoos are loaded when i boot up the game.

i have added an underscore (_) + the name of the Tav/NPC they go with to keep track of which is which. when i want to play the Tav the tattoos go with, i add an underscore to the one i'm no longer using (_None or whatever Tav was previously loaded) and i change the name of the template i want to use to Skin_Atlas_Body_UNI_Tattoo_A_MSK.

so if i wanted to use Kyvoni's tattoo template, it would now look like this:

doing it in this order ensures you don't overwrite any templates.

this might be a little confusing with the way i worded it, so if keeping your templates in separate files on your desktop with different Tav's names works better, then you could go that route too. you would just need to swap them out in the body > tattoo file each time you want to boot up a new Tav. i have mine saved in a folder too, just to have a back up in the event i do accidentally overwrite something.

i hope this wasn't too confusing nonny. i know it can seem intimidating, but if you can get it working, it's nice to not see NPCs walking around with your tattoos/make-up. also keep in mind that some mods aren't compatible with unique Tav (some corset mods will hide your freckles or body tattoos), so be sure to read any mod descriptions regarding it.

happy modding! ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ

[catenby-perineum]

games

idk what kinds you like so here’s a few

fighting: guilty gear strive (fun and flashy but very fastpaced), soul caliber 6 (top tier character customization but low playerbase), if youre into jojo then heritage for the future is free on fightcade (might have to follow a tutorial or two though)

deckbuilding: slay the spire (hard to get into though), inscryption (also leans into the next category a little, both because of vibes and the OLᓍ₴♅▩—

horror: lost in vivo (another ps1-styled silent hill inspired game but actually really good), voices of the void (kinda funny at times but gets under your skin quickly - also free if i remember right)

fps: ultrakill (cmon. i had to mention it at least once), payday 2/3 (idk shit about 3 yet so can’t vouch there but i know payday 2 was awesome and i bet even more good stuff got added since i last played), any of the borderlands games

other games that idk what to classify them as: garry’s mod, portal series if you haven’t already, no more heroes series, terraria, if you have minecraft then hypixel skyblock is nice for on-and-off playing since minions work while you’re offline

the Niche/Forgotten Stuff: dicey dungeons (a different take on the deckbuilding archetype), RUINER (cyberpunk beat-em-up that is immensely fun - major flashing lights warning though), killer7 (old actually-ps1 game made by the same dude behind the no more heroes series), hyper light drifter (and the sequel coming out soon, hyper light breaker), FURI (great boss rush game with tons of collaborating artists), fuser (now abandonware so you can get game + all dlc free online easily, plus the modding scene is crazy and only getting started)

Hell yeah and thank you anon :)

Oh yeah thank you for reminding me of inscription, I still need to get that the next time I feel like dropping some money on games.

Also gotta grab Ultrakill at some point 🙄 Damn my money worries.

I can protect you from one thing on this- DON'T BUY PAYDAY 3 YET lmao.

Bit that bullet, got my refund, at least wait until they get the servers running and if you're actually into payday (like me) maybe wait quite a bit longer because there are Core And Fundamental Issues with things like progression or how matchmaking is formatted that really need addressed- do like me and look back at 2 :P

I have gmod and a 'good enough' supply of valve games to run it (got a bundle of most of their stuff that's gmod-related) but, outside of running around a couple maps, I haven't done jack in it- gamemode or sandbox- either. Just don't know where to start tbh.

Still need to go play no more heroes 2, let alone looking into 3 or checking which side games are worth a damn (last I heard one was trash mostly released to remind people that 3 was coming but remains to be seen when I give a damn). I loved NMH 1 and have 2 on hand, just need the motivation lol

Just got done doing a terraria modded playthrough, could always do another- minecraft I've never looked into specific server/mod stuff- only really played with friends- though could be fun to play with them again, good call :P

I don't remember if I own killer7... surely I do, I have fuckin' shadows of the damned and killer is dead and all kinds of junk, I have to have that.... watch it be the one I don't- I need to actually get around to playing all these instead of being stuck in my head not entertaining my hobby 🙄

Fuser is just gonna make me sad about getting a working rock band instrument around here being a pain in the ass 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Definitely some great reminders or ideas here- thank you a lot ^^

[genderqueer-karma]

Welcome ♡

(If you follow or are already following, please like or interact to let me know you’ve read this. XX)

BASIC INFO:

☆ my carrd ☆

Here are some of the names I use:

Dio: If you’re a stranger, you are here! If I don’t know you or don’t feel 100% comfy enough with you yet, please stick to this one or one of the others.

Dora: If you’re a stranger, you are here! Mostly a joke in reference to an old url of mine that also is based on a childhood memory. You can call me this regardless of familiarity as well, but use caution, as it is more of a joking thing.

Devin: If you’re a friend, you are here! Refrain from using this one if I’m not really comfortable or familiar with you. That's all. Thanks.

Damian: If you’re a stranger, you are here! This name is based on a favorite character of mine, Damian Hinge (localized: Colias Palaeno) from Ace Attorney Investigations. Feel free to call me this whenever.

Colias: If you’re a stranger, you are here! Based on the same blorbo as the previous name, so you can call me this whenever.

Serina: If you’re a stranger, you are here! This name is in reference to the first (known) stage name of MALICE MIZER/Moi dix Mois guitarist Mana, who is also referred to as Mana様 (romaji: -sama) by fans, including myself. Feel free to call me this whenever!

D: If you’re a stranger, you are here! Shorthand for all names that start with D! Call me this if you want to.

☆ I’m Black. Keep that in mind, always.

☆ My pronouns are they/them. I also use þei/þem (still pronounced they/them), but mostly jokingly. You may use she/her if we’re close, but please ask beforehand! He/him is fine for jokes, but not always. And finally, never use “it/its” for me, since I personally find them to be dehumanizing. I’m a Black enby, so surely you can understand why I feel that way. Any neos and whatnot are just what they are 🤷‍♀️. I’ll let you know for sure if a pronoun makes me uncomfortable.

☆ I have four sideblogs:

@dios-multiverse ~ my writing and oc sideblog

@crucible-memes-4-salem-teens ~ my sideblog based on the 1953 play The Crucible where I am head mod.

@melanated-attorney ~ my Ace Attorney-centric sideblog. i may get a little mean there on occasion but it's entirely out of love for the series.

And another, (not very) secret blog. If you can find it, I’ll give you a cookie 🍪.

○°•°○°•°○

MY CURRENT INTERESTS:

♡ Ace Attorney! I love the silly little lawyer games, so feel free to talk to me about them! I’ve watched playthroughs of the trilogy and am currently playing Investigations 2 as well as the DGS duology. In addition, I’ve watched most of the stage plays as well as the anime and the live-action film. I have yet to watch the musicals. Plus, AA gave me THE problematic fave~

♡ Ouran High School Host Club! OHSHC is a lifelong love of mine. However, I’ve only watched the anime and have only read the first three volumes of the manga. Still, I don’t mind spoilers, so if I come across them, I’ll be okay. I don’t have a *favorite* host, though I am somewhat partial to Mori-senpai. (Also Ranka my love, my light ♡)

♡ JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure! I really like this series, but I am also fully aware of the reputation of the fans. I will try not to be annoying as shit but no guarantees. Also, maybe basic or wtv but DiU Josuke my beloved <33. (+ Does anyone wanna give me access to all the manga parts up until now?)

♡ Markiplier! Once again, lifelong appreciation for him as a person and creator. One of my favorite series from him is probably his playthough of West of Loathing, though I love most of his other videos as well and find myself coming back to his channel again and again.

♡ RTGame! Another favorite youtuber of mine. I love most of his videos as well, though his Planet Coaster videos are what drew me to his channel initially. I really like his content, so I frequently watch his videos.

☆ The Crucible! Yes, that play from the 50s. It gripped me in a hyperfixation when I was in 11th grade and hasn’t let go since, hence the blog! I also like other works of “classic literature”, though my interest in those is a bit more tame.

♡ Percy Jackson and the Olympians! (and related franchises, such as Heroes of Olympus). Though I’m out of the “target” demographic for those books, they are still near and dear to my heart. However, (possibly controversial opinion) I don’t like Jason Grace as a character. Sorry guys, but he’s mid. 🤷‍♀️

♡ My Chemical Romance! This band has stuck with me since middle school and I did cry when I found out they got back together, so jot that down. Also stream Foundations of Decay.

♡ Fall Out Boy! Another lifelong love of mine. I’ve loved this band since before I knew it existed. It truly has been there for me from the start. Also, M A  N   I    A is a good album, you guys are just anti-black. 🤷‍♀️ Stream So Much (For) Stardust!

♡ MALICE MIZER! I started listening to them (and the members’ solo work) in September of 2022, and am stuck in MIZER hell. It feels weird to be obsessed with a band that was created and broke up went on indefinite hiatus before I was even born, but I’m used to it at this point. Mentally I’m here.

♡ Queen! I typically only listen to music from the 90s and 2000s, but I love Queen a lot. Like with Fall Out Boy, I liked a lot of their music before I even knew it was them, which is interesting for a number of reasons. 

♡ ABBA! Another golden group from the 70s. Absolutely love them and I think it’s funny how they can now say they went on a 40-year hiatus. How many of your faves can say the same?

♡ BABYMETAL! While I’m not caught up on all the lore (I’m getting there, okay?) I really do like them. I started listening to them in 2019, right before METAL GALAXY came out. When that album came out, I obsessively listened to Night Night Burn! almost every day. It was crazy.

♡ ♡ ♡ Honorable Mentions: Greek Mythology, the novels Homegoing and Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi, too many WEBTOONs to name, Kamigami No Asobi, Waterparks, DE'WAYNE, Kero Kero Bonito, MARINA, Lil Nas X, and Paramore!

○°•°○°•°○

DNF 

(My love for the marginalized and downtrodden overrides my hatred for you 100% of the time.):

× Anti-Black/Racist/Neo-Nazi. I don’t tolerate that shit here. Leave me and my blogs alone.

× TERF/SWERF. Our trans siblings and sex working siblings belong in our community. If they hadn’t fought for us, we wouldn’t be able to live as freely now.

× Homophobes. I’m not explaining this one. Just know you shouldn’t care who other people want to kiss or fuck.

× Exclusionists. Ace people, Bi/Pan/Poly/Omni/etc people, and Nonbinary/Genderqueer people do not have to explain themselves to be allowed to exist in our community. I don’t care if you don’t understand their identities. It’s not their job to teach you.

× Transmeds/whatever the hell you people are called these days. Trans people do not need to suffer for you to consider them valid.

× Anti-Semites. Idc. Y'all’s hatred of Jewish people is quite literally irrational. They haven’t caused any problems for you and don’t secretly control the government. Don’t believe everything you read.

× Islamophobes. Again. As a whole, Muslims are not causing problems for you, and if you think that, you’re too far gone.

× Pedos/MAPs/NOMAPs. It’s not okay or right or normal to be an adult attracted to children. I don’t give a fuck. Get away from me. I don’t want you fuckers around.

× Pro-ship. I don’t care if it’s fictional. It’s weird. I personally just feel like “ship and let ship” can’t and never should apply to real-person, pedophilic, abusive, or incestuous ships, and that’s a normal opinion to have. It doesn’t “squick me out” if it’s straight up illegal! It disgusts me.

× AO3 simps. I use AO3! I like the platform. Its tagging system is well-organized. However, I would not put my moral character on the line for it. It’s not that deep, babes. I promise. No one’s going to cleanse the internet of your Destiel smuts.

× DDLG/DDLB/MDLG/MDLB. Why does another person acting in child-like manners or dressing like children arouse you? Quickly. Prove with facts and research how that doesn’t make you adjacent to being a pedo. Fuck off.

○°•°○°•°○

Finally, I hope this blog is a safe and happy space for everyone to be in! Let’s have fun together~! 

Thanks for reading, dears~ ♡

[goneloot]

Badges, Medals and Mementos

Here’s a system I’ve always really enjoyed: Badges.

In most traditional RPGs you get a set of equipment that may or may not have added effects. So you end up replacing low level equipment as you progress with the game. Did an old weapon have a really cool secondary effect? Too bad, you can’t use it now. With Badges, you get to choose those added effects every time, and most badges stay useful the whole game!

Badges allow for so many fun strategies. Do you want a build that’s defensive, offensive, one based around being at low HP? The sky’s the limit! And since you can change it any time, you don’t have to commit to a “build” for the whole playthrough. And with the BP system, you can balance it fairly well! You can make simpler effects cost less while broken ones cost a ton, and even make some utility or challenge equipment pieces cost 0.

With that said, I have some issues with the way it’s implemented in Paper Mario, and TTYD. The first one is a smaller complaint: The level up system.

When you level up you get the choice to level up HP, FP (Flower Points, the thing that allows you to use skills) and BP (Badge Points, the thing that allows you to use more Badges). My problem is twofold: BP is much more fun than a simple stat increase and it is more useful, as you get HP Plus and FP plus medals that allow you to level up those stats anyways, so BP becomes the best and most fun option, rendering the choice not actually one.

The second one is more important: the game doesn’t encourage strategies. Sure, you could make a really sick strategy of managing HP and FP to do some massive overkill damage. But why would you do that? You can just use the Attack up Badges and call it a day. It’s not a matter of difficulty, it is a matter that there aren’t that many interesting options. The only true well-defined strategy is danger/peril/low-hp, which is the best by far. The system is great, and it’s just fun to mess around with even if it’s not “optimal” to do so, but I wish it encouraged you to mess around with it a bit more.

So, that’s something I wanted to solve.

The first one was easy: every level up you get MP (Memento points) and can choose whether to upgrade Health, Love or Time, which are just base stats. Not only does this make the choice less clear-cut as to which one is better, I can make the game a bit harder since players will always get stronger stat-wise AND equipment-wise.

The second one is much more complex. For this, I took inspiration from many sources. Bug Fables, Paper Mario Dark Star, The Binding of Isaac, Friggin’ shonen anime and more. So I will explain the design philosophy I have figured out.

There are two types of mementos: what I call “General” and “Core”.

General mementos are ones that do a very simple thing that’s always kinda nice: Heals some Health every couple of turns, increases defense a bit, gives a new skill, increases Time gained each turn, etc.

Core mementos, on the other hand, are ones that basically require you to base your strategy around them or they will not provide much use: Increase attack, but only at low HP; increase defense every even turn, but decreases it every odd turn; gives more moves per turn, but only if your partner has fallen; etc. These are very strong, come in groups (The “Danger” mementos, the “inter” Mementos, the “Lonely” mementos) to really encourage you to use them, but they come with a drawback, a condition, a risk.

You might even think this distinction is “obvious”, but I invite you to go though Paper Mario’s badge list and consider which ones could be considered “core” (and which of those are actually good). I don’t see many, personally. That’s something that Bug Fables and Paper Mods get: they give you more “core” strategies to play around, like status effect builds, “do nothing” strats and such. It also help that they are harder (specially the mods) so strategy is often mandatory.

Something else I think is crucial: make the mementos synergize. Don’t just make a “Danger” strat, and a “Lonely” strat. Make it so you can try and do a “Lonely-Danger” strat too!

A Memento that requires you to have Low Time to activate? Now if only there was a Memento that increased your attack by making it cost Time... A memento that increases your defense every other turn? If only there was a memento that increased your defense when you used the “Wait” command so that you could negate the stat drop...

Of course, not every memento or strat goes well with every other one, but by designing a series of mementos this way I hope to give not only a lot of choices, but make them easy enough to start with so the player gets wacky with it.

Maybe at some other point I will show more individual mementos, but I think this post is already very long.

Oh, yeah. The little pick-up quote when you pick up any item? That comes from Isaac. I think it adds that little touch of personality (and maybe lore???) to each memento without having to flood the item description.

And why are they called mementos? First one is because I wanted a name that started with M, so it was similar to Medals. The second reason is plot related! If you want to find out, you can play the game here!

[travelingcentaur]

Stalker Anomaly: Modded Playthrough

Neyas Journal

It is sunset and my excitement has dwindled unfortunately. Mutants were... former humans from what I was told afterwards. Zombies but everyone here calls them husks. Said that a thing called 'Emmision' kills the mind and leaves the body to wander aimlessly. Going through old routines with old howls to signal their approach. Regardless, they're at peace now, as for the one taken hostage by the bandits, eh. 

Found them located at what honestly looks to be a old mechanics garage, everyone just calls it the 'Car Park'. Limited ammunition and only a scavenged double barrel shotgun that has seen better days to use, so needless to say, I snuck around the back. Thought their was more of them, really did, turns out their was only two of them holding the man hostage. Their was a third but one of those anomalies that simply crushes people had claimed them, other two were avoiding the spot where he died.

Made it easier to sneak up on the first and the shotgun did good. Slug to the back of his head and he dropped, followed by the other coming up running. Shooting a cruddy looking pistol and the hammer didn't drop on the shotgun like it was suppose to. Jerked out the little smg I got from the soldier and put him down. Neither of the pair had much more than shotgun ammunition and a bandage between them to scavenge. As for the hostage, he was more than willing to follow me back to the village once I cut the rope from his hands.

He found his stuff in the storage room of the complex and thank goodness he did, soon as we left towards the village, we encountered a group of eight husks. He had no qualm about looting them, even tossed me a medkit in good condition before he pocketed the rest. Now, once back in the village, I got paid and he now sits at the campfire with his buddies. Seems he's quite a musician, decent tune he can carry as the sun sets.

[fereldanwench]

So we've made a lot of in-game progress since the last little update I made on my random Valerie-inspired playthrough of Dragon Age Inquisition:

The big story advancement was choosing between the templars and mages to close the Breach. I still have no idea where Valerie really stands on magic, the Chantry, etc., so I opted to go for my personal favorite route: disbanding the Templar Order and bringing them under the Inquisition. I just really like Ser Barris (a good man who has mistakenly given his life to a shitty institution and is now coming to terms with it? Why yes, I do have a type, thanks for asking) and The Champions of the Just is prrooobably my favorite quest in the whole game because it's one of the only quests across the entire series that really gives us a good glimpse into the secret life of templars, so to speak. Like we get to see a lot of what life is like behind closed Circle doors for mages in all the games (especially if you play as a mage in Origins), but not so much the templars. Even in DA2, where you do have more access to templars, it's still mostly their public-facing arenas, like the Gallows courtyard. And the way Barris describes how the Order slowly introduced red lyrium into the ranks is horrifying on so many levels. (Also, it always fucks me up that the fully corrupted templars don't die as human enemies, but as creatures.)

This means Valerie met Cole! She also met Dorian since she did talk to Fiona before going with the Templars, and if I recall correctly, he's gonna be pretty pissed that she went with the Templars, whoops. First impressions: Cole: ???? Does not compute. But she's pragmatic and he helped her so he can stay for now. Dorian: Far too pleased with himself, but he's obviously brilliant so at least it's not without cause.

Jury is still out if I'm actually going to romance anyone in this run--Leaning towards no, but Valerie is a bit of a flirt by nature and a heartbreaker in Cyberpunk canon so I have had her up the charm with a few characters: Blackwall: Serious, hardened warrior too committed to his duty and with a manbun (he's modded in my game) certainly meets some of her requirements, and his delighted response when she told him he's better suited to getting eaten by a dragon is fun for everyone. But he's a little too enamored with her too fast and he's not honest. Verdict: Needs less simping, less lying, and more biting sarcasm. Cullen: Flirting with him was more for old times sake and because I wanted to see the cute smile the Inquisitor makes when they say they're willing to listen to his lectures. But Valerie in a lot of ways is sort of a spiritual successor to my favorite Hawke, Rhiannon, whomst I shipped hard with Cullen so there is something there. Cullen also fits the decent-man-coming-to-terms-with-serving-a-corrupt-organization archetype. I think he's just slightly on the wrong side of priggish and dorky for her, though. But perhaps most importantly: I don't want to romance him again, lmao. Verdict: Get wrecked, nerd. Cassandra: I don't currently have a mod installed to romance her as a femInquisitor, so I would have to grab on in order to make this happen obviously. But I think Cassandra actually has the highest potential here: grumpy, stubborn, impulsive warrior trying to stick to a righteous path even if she's full of doubts? With a secret soft side?? I mean, come on. That's perfect. Verdict: Modding magic vs Wench's laziness: Who will win?

I want to grind a little bit more before actually closing the Breach (and dying from cringe at that goddamn singalong scene) so I've been chipping away at various quests in the Storm Coast, Hinterlands, and Fallow Mire. I remember really disliking the Fallow Mire when I first played, mostly because of the undead popping up everywhere, but I'm actually finding it far less of a slog than the other two maps this time around. Like a fairly small map that I can actually clear without huge expanses of emptiness that are just there to make the game seem bigger? Yes, please.