#we start getting to the point where damage dealing is more favorable

[bluewolfangel01]

How would the brothers act during an argument?? Have a good day btw :3

Thank you anon, hope you have a good day too

Brothers during an Arguement

I feel like there's 2 levels of how they'll act depending on what happened; the "I'm going to kill you" where they'll rough up each other like typical siblings, or the "I'm going to kill you" where they'll leave whichever brother offended them on death's door

We often see Mammon owing Levi either money or something else for example, that's a typical siblings quarrel, the result of which is either Mammon doing a favor for Levi, Levi choosing a punishment for Mammon, or if it gets to the point where it's disturbing everyone else in the HoL Lucifer is going to intervene and string them both up

Such other examples include: Beel eating all the food in the house, misfired prank devised by the Anti-Lucifer League, destorying/stealing a personal item, etc

Now Satan may be the avatar of wrath but when any of the brothers get truly pissed off, it's hard to tell who's the true avatar of wrath

They can get so beyond angry, so beyond pissed, their aura can and will become so fear inducing that even Mc can't help but be scared of their beloved demons if there's ever a "I'm going to kill you" type arguement

Of course one of them must have done something almost unforgivable for any of the brothers to get to that level of pure wrath, except for Satan of course, he's a ticking time bomb but he's ours :)

Lucifer: any arguement he's apart of (where he didn't have to intervene in the first place) is typically because one of his brothers didn't listen to him, a more destructive than typically Anti-Lucifer League prank is pulled, or his belongings are messed with

Mammon: ... it's Mammon, almost any arguement he's apart of is because of money to some form or another, if it doesn't involve money then the next likelihood is that he's had enough of being called a scumbag or some variation of degrading name

Levithan: the topic, most of the time, involves his otaku collection, whether he's being hindered from getting more stuff to add to the collection, it's been defaced to any capacity, or it's been sh!t talked to such an extent that Levi can't help but to defend it with all his might

Satan: everything and anything, it's Satan, though if you want to get a bit more specific the topics might typically be the brothers being loud, a Lucifer prank gone wrong, or his book was damaged

Asmodeus: he'll probably get into an arguement if one of the brothers messes with his room, his clothes, his makeup, his beauty/self care routine, his chance to get with a potential partner, stuff like that

Beelzebub: he's not one to get mad or into arguements easily but if he does it's because of something like one of the brothers ate something he had his name on, one of the brothers picking on Belphie (mainly when Belphie isn't in the mood/isn't doing okay) ... I'm going to be honest I can't think of much Beel would get into a fight about rn

Belphegor: He'll typically get into a fight because the brothers are being to loud for his liking, for some reason or another the brothers stop him from sleeping for an extended period, or he's to tired to deal with the brothers' schemes/shenanigans

Im dealing with a bit of writer's block so the ideas started to fizzle out towards the end there. Sorry for taking a bit to answer your ask

[jgnico]

How do you feel about Gojo saying Sukuna was holding back and the people saying that this is out of character? Because to me it doesn’t seem out of character in the slightest considering how Sukuna didn’t actually go all out??? He didn’t use any of his techniques and relied on ten shadows. Which is great btw!! I think Sukuna using ten shadows is a nod to how ingenious Sukuna can get during battle and in general him solely relying on ten shadows doesn’t discredit him or anything it just shows that he is still got a lot up his arsenal. Also Gojo saying he put his whole soul and body into the fight is true he gave it his all and that’s all that matters idk why people are saying that the writing of this specific part is off because it was very clear that Sukuna was holding back on using his original form and techniques? I could be missing something idk

Short answer? I think it's silly. I've seen people call Gojo's scene in the airport outright character assassination and all that that tells me is that either a) they weren't following the fight very well or b) they don't give Gojo as a character the credit that his writing deserves.

As often as I rag on Gojo for fun, I do genuinely think that he's one of the best written characters in the manga, and his conversation with Geto, Nanami, and Haibara only adds to that. There's nothing wrong with Gojo acknowledging that Sukuna's strong, because he is. Likewise, it's not ridiculous for him to say that Sukuna didn't give the fight his all or that he might have lost even if Sukuna didn't have Ten Shadows. All of that is true and Gojo, out of anyone, would know that.

Long answer?

I think that a lot of the confusion over Gojo calling Sukuna strong comes from Gojo's confidence in the fight and people's own emotions toward Sukuna. We've all seen the fraud memes and Gojo did an expectational job showing his own fighting prowess during the second half of the fight, but a lot of people seem to be forgetting that Sukuna almost killed Gojo as soon as the fight started. Up until the fight flipped in Gojo's favor (after Sukuna was hit by Unlimited Void) Gojo was struggling. If Sukuna hadn't been holding back his other techniques to a) keep them a secret from spectators and b) ensure that Mahoraga adapted to Unlimited Void out of sight, it's very possible Gojo would have died after their first Domain Clash ended in Sukuna's favor.

Quick Explanation: In chapter 226, after Gojo's Domain breaks and he loses his technique for a time, but before he uses Simple Domain to save himself from Malevolent Shrine, Sukuna could have used his fire arrow in the same way he did against Mahoraga in Shibuya. With the amount of damage Gojo was taking at the time, we don't know if he would have been able to survive it, especially when all of his CE was being focused on healing the slashes Sukuna was dealing and likely couldn't have been spared to reinforce his body. (But once again, Sukuna was holding himself back, so neither us nor Gojo will ever know if he could have eneded their fight there.)

This is why I personally don't see anything wrong with Gojo being unsure if he could have beat Sukuna even without Ten Shadows.

But moving on to the less combat focused section of what I want to talk about. What was up with Gojo's confidence up until the literal end, only for him to doubt himself after the fact? I have two points for this one:

Gojo has to be strong for his students.

I touched on it in my response to one of your previous posts, (read: here) but I can't stress enough how Gojo's strength and, by extension, his confidence in his strength is for his students' sake. He teaches through his actions, but more importantly, he never shows them his own doubt.

The first time he fights Sukuna, he points out that Megumi is watching and, in his own words, "shows off."

Then, going into their actual fight in chapter 222, he looks serious in a way that we never really see from him. At least, up until the point where Yuuji reminds him that he and all his other students are there, that they're confident in him, and we see his entire demeanor going into the fight change. He's smiling; he's not worried in the least. He says, "Yeah, I got this," with a grin on his face, and that, more than it'll ever be for himself, was for his students.

There's another shift after the opening stage of their fight in chapter 224. What always stuck out to me from that chapter was Gojo noticing that their fight was being broadcasted. I won't go so far as to say he was less confident before that point or even that he wasn't trying as hard because that simply isn't true. But after he realizes that his students can see the fight as it's happening, Gojo's approach to fighting Sukuna changes almost entirely. Before, he was visibly having fun. Before, he was treating Sukuna as an equal to cut his teeth against. Was he getting on Sukuna's nerves intentionally, yes, but there was an aspect to it that felt more similar to how he spoke to Geto in their teenage years. Still antagonistic, that's just how his personality is, but not degrading in the way that he is later. (I'll expand on this thought in another post. For now, let's get back to my original point.)

After he spots Mei Mei's crows, Gojo never, not once, for the remainder of the fight expresses doubt in himself in any outward way.

We see frustration, we see anger, we see surprise, but never doubt. Never worry. And what does he say as soon as he get's the upper hand in the fight?

But why? Why is making sure that his students remain confident in him so important? Well, what's the answer to almost any question when it comes to Gojo's motivations?

Hidden Inventory and losing the person that mattered to him the most: Suguru Geto.

The same confidence that Gojo shows as an adult is what we see here, with one important distinction. He shares the place of being the strongest with Geto. "We're the strongest" isn't about them individually holding the title; it's about them together. They as a unit are the strongest. But here, Gojo tries to shoulder the burden of his fight against Toji alone while he sends Geto off with Riko and Kuroi. He seperates them and that duality of strength becomes weaker. Gojo loses, Riko dies, Geto loses, and they fail.

In the aftermath, Geto takes the guilt from that loss onto himself, and it only widens that separation into a chasm that Gojo is never able to cross. But we spend so much time talking about Geto's guilt over Hidden Inventory that I think we overlook Gojo's.

Even in a state where he'd feel nothing over killing a roomful of people, where he can't feel anger toward Toji over Riko, he feels like he messed up. He places blame on himself for their failure. Not just because he had lost but because Geto --someone that shared the position of being the Strongest with him-- expressed doubt in him shouldering so much of their mission at multiple points, only for Gojo to give him confidence in return and have that confidence ultimately be misplaced.

But isn't he making the same mistake with his students? Yes, and no.

Yes, in that he's giving them reassurance that is tragically (for lack of better word) misplaced, but no, in that they never expressed doubt in him. Not just because they aren't on his level when it comes to strength like Suguru was, but because he never gives them the chance to doubt him.

From the very beginning, when Yuuji first becomes his student, he makes sure that Yuuji doesn't have any doubt in him winning against Sukuna. And even when he's asked again at a time where none of his students are present, he thinks of this exchange with Yuuji. And his response to Kenjaku now was the same that it was to Yuuji.: "Nah, I'd win."

This isn't to say that Gojo didn't have faith in himself going into the fight or even through the majority of it. It would be at least disingenuous and at most outrageous for me to say that Gojo's confidence in himself was an act only for his students sake. What I'm saying with all of this is actually my second point in this post:

Gojo only expresses his true feelings to himself and....

I'm quickly running into the photo limit for this post so I'll be using quotes, but in chapter 233, we get, "Even though the opponent was the King of Curses, said to be the strongest in history, a thought nobody considered possible began to spread; Satoru Gojo could lose. Gojo himself was aware of that prospect. Yet, along with the signs of defeat came an undeniable feeling of satisfaction."

I've read through the entire fight multiple times now, and this is the only time that we see Gojo express doubt in himself. But instead of it feeling like a loss, as we'd expect, it's written as a positive. Gojo isn't upset at the idea that he might lose. He embraces it. As was stated both in chapter 233 and again in chapter 236, he's satisfied. Not just because he gave this fight everything that he had, but because him losing means that he'll return to the person that understood him --and the burden of being the strongest-- the best.

Much like Suguru couldn't smile from the bottom of his heart until his last moment with Gojo, Gojo couldn't be truly happy in a world where no one understood him. If Geto had been there with him, if Geto had been alive and by his side to share the burden and isolation of strength in the jujutsu world, he could have been truly happy with his life.

But that wasn't the reality that he lived in, nor was it something he could ever hope to accomplish.

Gojo's dream was to raise stronge allies, but that was never so that they could share the burden of strength with him. It was so that they could share it with each other. So that they never experienced the isolation of being strong alone the way that he did for the majority of his life. He wanted them to have their own Geto in each other.

It's not that he changed up his attitude regarding the fight and Sukuna after he died, but rather that his death brought him back to the person that he could finally (finally, after so long of being a pillar of strength rather than a person) express his true feelings to.

Or, to continue the quote from 233: "Being the strongest came with a sense of isolation. So the source of his present sense of fulfillment was..."

[coimbrabertone]

Indycar Left Me Pleasantly Surprised, and That Makes me Happy.

The weekend started on a rather negative note for Indycar, with Penske Entertainment CEO, for reasons nobody can quite understand, deciding to pick a fight with Pato O'Ward. Pato, an extremely popular driver hailing from Monterrey, Mexico, has pushed hard for Indycar to race internationally, particularly in Latin America. In response, Mark Miles said that Pato would need to be more popular to make that happen, that he's not as big as Adrian Fernandez was, that he isn't on billboards. Mark Miles finished off on a note that Pato's popularity was growing, but the damage was done.

That, combined with Indycar trying to ease expectations by saying they expected just 15,000 fans per day at the Milwaukee doubleheader, really put me into a pessimistic mood on Saturday morning.

I figured that the race was going to be an easy win for Penske based on how the other short ovals - Iowa and Gateway - have gone. So the best I was expecting was that it would be Scott McLaughlin instead of Will Power or Josef Newgarden.

Then, on top of everything else, we found out that Milwaukee lost its lights at some point since the 2000s, so if the Saturday evening race went too long, we were gonna be at risk of getting called for darkness.

It wasn't looking good.

But then...the race started.

Immediately Santino Ferrucci and especially Conor Daly made audacious passes around the outside, making the uppermost groove work through turns one and two.

Then on the backstretch, it almost turned into a pack racing type deal, where if you had to check up on the backstretch, you immediately lost momentum and you were at risk of getting passed. It was pass or be passed, and that made any start or restart scenario chaotic in the most entertaining way possible.

It was already looking racier than expected, and that was before the two properly old school things kicked in. One: there was actually lapped traffic to contend with, Milwaukee's a short track and there are big speed differentials, so it's not an Iowa type scenario where the backmarkers are as fast as the leaders. And two: the speed differential got bigger because there was actual tyre wear all weekend.

Fresh tyres were worth a second a lap, so we got to see things like drivers pitting early to get massive undercuts, backmarkers on fresh tyres carving through the leaders to get their lap back, and massive closing rates when drivers had a tyre offset in their favor (more on that when we talk about race two).

And to top it all off, we got drama!

Marcus Ericsson and Josef Newgarden, who did battle at the Indianapolis 500 in 2023, came together in turn two. Marcus was trying to send it up the inside of Josef, tried to keep it in the middle groove, and Josef tried to hang it around the outside to get the better exit onto the backstretch. Marcus put a wheel onto the black stuff on the side, spun out, and hit Josef backwards first, knocking the both of them out of the race.

This launched the final phase of the race, with Will Power leading a group of cars from midfield on a longer strategy, whilst Pato O'Ward led the main group on the undercut strategy. Pato pit on lap 186, Power cycled to the lead, but almost as soon as he did, Colton Herta lost a tyre and brought out the caution.

Power and Conor Daly had to pit under caution, Pato cycled to the lead, and the race restarted with a battle into the sunset stint. Pato tried to break away, Power used the strength of his Team Penske car to push through traffic, while Conor Daly used his 'round the outside strategy to make up ground, these three would be the top three.

Power closed in to Pato O'Ward in lapped traffic at one point, but Pato was able to get through and win the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 - Race One.

It was the perfect narrative, with Pato O'Ward's popularity being questioned in the morning, to see him come back and win from sixth? With the crowd erupting into cheers as he did so? It was perfect.

Because Pato is popular.

And despite all the negativity, when Indycar hits, it still hits.

Speaking of the crowd, it was also better than expected. Instead of the 15,000 that Penske Entertainment warned about, the ultimate crowd ended up being closer to 20,000.

That being said, with the race starting into the afternoon and getting to just about sunset - I think in the end, we got the race done twenty-five minutes ahead of the darkness call - there was a bit of a question mark over how the Sunday race in the heat of the day would be.

I was worried that the teams would figure out the pit cycle and we'd lose some of that chaos and some of that pace difference.

However, there was nothing to fear, because Sunday's race started out with chaos from the get-go.

First of all, we missed the initial start when championship leader Alex Palou failed to start with some sort of reliability issue. The championship got blown open at the penultimate race with none of us knowing whether or not Chip Ganassi Racing would manage to get him out again. They eventually did, with just a few more hiccups, and we got around to the proper start of the race, when we just got another dose of chaos!

The back of the field failed to bunch up for the start, so Indycar waved off the start. However, with the whole field anticipating a start and a lightboard flashing green even as the starter waved the yellow flag, we saw an incident.

Marcus Armstrong in third checked up and went to the middle, trying to avoid Josef Newgarden in first, but with his teammate Linus Lundqvist in third trying to get the jump, it would up being just the perfect angle for Lundqvist to spear Armstrong into Newgarden, wrecking against the inside wall.

And just like that, Josef Newgarden, the oval master, was out.

And attrition was back in force on Sunday, with Conor Daly, Nolan Siegel, Pato O'Ward, Linus Lundqvist, and Marcus Armstrong all retiring whilst Alex Palou scrapped for whatever points he could twenty-eight laps down.

Back up front, we saw the Penskes of Scott McLaughlin and Will Power jockeying for position whilst the other teams tried to get the jump on them. Alexander Rossi in the sole remaining Arrow McLaren did his best to replicate Pato's win, undercutting virtually every time, but more often than not, it seemed to drop him in heavy traffic, allowing Will Power and Scott McLaughlin to hold onto the lead.

Eventually, Scott got the jump on Will, and then Power blew the championship wide open again by spinning on a restart.

Power was able to continue, but he gave Palou a lifeline.

Meanwhile, Colton Herta and Scott Dixon changed strategies, saving a bit and trying to cut out a pitstop to make the track position play, succeeding and cycled around twelve seconds off the lead.

And Scott McLaughlin was flying, making up multiple seconds a lap, swallowing up Dixon and eventually, taking the lead off of Colton Herta. However, Alexander Rossi stopped later than McLaughlin and head even fresher tyres now, so he was the fastest of them all, having passed Dixon, and now starting work on Colton Herta for second. At the same time, Herta was stabilizing a bit, gaining every once in awhile as Scott struggled with traffic.

We had a race on our hands.

And then Sting Ray Robb brought out the caution, bringing the leaders into pitlane again. Nobody had fresh tyres at this point though, so they switched to whatever tyres they had access to. Here, Alexander Rossi's crew got the jump on Herta, cycling into second.

It was going to be Scott McLaughlin in first, Alexander Rossi second, Colton Herta third, and Scott Dixon fourth.

However, Alexander Rossi spun up the tyres on the start, used up all the life left in his tyres, and lost out on the restart. This bunched up Herta and Dixon, with Scott eventually moving into second, ahead of them both.

It was now going to be a battle of the Kiwi Scotts, and before the race was over, they caught lapped traffic again.

Dixon gained big, but McLaughlin just managed to hold him off.

McLaughlin won for Team Penske, another Penske win on a short oval, but the way it happened...nobody was gonna complain about that.

Two popular winners on two different races, but both were great.

I have to admit, I wasn't expecting Milwaukee to be this good.

As an Indycar fan, after like two straight years of underwhelming news, it feels so good to be pleasantly surprising by the series. It feels so good for a weekend to go better than expected.

And attendance was even better on the second day, at just over 20,000 for a total weekend attendance of right around 40,000. A whole ten thousand better than expected. Life's good.

Elsewhere, tyre pace differences seemed to be the theme of the weekend.

New tyres were king at Darlington with Chase Briscoe and Kyle Busch using them to battle for the win in the closing laps, with Briscoe just managing to pull off the win for the closing Stewart-Haas Racing team. He clinched a playoff spot, at the expense of Chris Buescher and Bubba Wallace who battled hard for the last spot on points, hoping and praying for a repeat winner up front.

At Monza, Charles Leclerc on worn tyres from a one stop just managed to hold off Oscar Piastri on fresh tyres. As much as I was disappointed in McLaren squandering a 1-2, I can't complain about seeing Leclerc win at Monza.

And in MotoGP, Marc Marquez was the only one who could master a tricky repaved MotorLand Aragon circuit, dominating both the sprint and the race. Meanwhile, in the race, we saw championship implications as Alex Marquez slipped wide in the marbles, swerved to rejoin the racing like, and wound up hooking the bike of championship leader Pecco Bagnaia.

This allowed Jorge Martin in second to snatch the championship lead, mere weeks after he lost it to Bagnaia.

Tyre wear makes for great racing, huh?

Shame that, most of the time, tyre manufacturers don't want to see their tyres wearing out and potentially blowing. It makes for a better spectacle, but it doesn't make for as good of a marketing piece for Goodyear...or Michelin...or Firestone...or Pirelli...or whoever your tyre manufacturer of choice is.

[alicelufenia]

Another week, another update on the Chosen of Eilistraee playthrough

We sneak through Grymforge picking off the wandering guards and the scrying eye (which is stupidly resistant to damage in tactiction, but vulnerable to thunder so Gale blows it up with a chromatic orb)

After all the stragglers are dealt with, we try to take some of the duergar in the main room with Nere, but aggroing them, even by drawing them away, aggros the rest of them. We manage to take out one, and then run away, with plans to long rest to reset their aggro and be fresh for the big battle (no negotiating with slavers this run)

Also backed off on my rule of using no gameplay mods and added UA6 Invoke Duplicity, 5E Mirror Image, and UA8 Healing Buffs, to make Shadowheart slightly more viable as a Trickery cleric. I gotta tell you, UA6 Invoke Duplicity ROCKS! It's basically a misty step that leaves a duplicate that you can opt to cast spells from, including melee ones if they're next to enemies. Moving it is a bit clunky, as it uses Tabletop rules for moving it on your turn with a bonus action, but the fact that Shadowheart can just rush into the midst of it, Fear everyone, then bonus action fuck off to a hidden corner, where she can cast spells with impunity from the duplicate (and enemies will occasionally try to attack it, but favors easier targets usually). The fact it now only grants advantage to the caster if she's next to it and the enemy isn't that big a deal, it's now so much more fun to use! Zero regrets with this one.

Dream Visitor is back, explaining how the True Souls are controlled. Finally the seed is planted that they may yet be saved, though visitor wants her to try to work with them by using the tadpole powers, which Tav doesn't wanna do.

Tavierra now has dual wield. The start of her main playstyle is coming together (just two more pieces needed to bring it online) For now she wields a rapier in the off hand, Phalar Aluve in the main. Which gives her pseudo extra attack at Character Level 5, not bad for an early multiclass.

Time to prepare everyone for the fight.

Karlach you're not yourself before you've had your medicine.

MUCH better! (we also throw in our 2nd to last soul coin, it's gonna be a long day)

Sadly I have no screenshots of the battle but, let's just say do you know what's better than a Hunger of Hadar cast on all the enemies grouped up by a Minor Illusion, from hiding, making everyone trapped in the HoH surprised for a round? Not much. We easily dispatched the duergar from a high point, Karlach happily chucking spears, javelins, chairs, at everyone while Wyll knocked them back into HoH with Eldritch Blasts. Did you know Warlock is a really good class?

The gnomes are understandably happy with this result (I very nearly got Laridda here caught in the Hunger of Hadar, but luckily she was just out of it, and all the duergar were too busy focusing on us and getting out of the pain zone to care about the gnomes.

Time to break Nere out with the Runepowder Vial. Now, here I tried two paths, and while one is arguably more interesting, I went with the one with the best in-game reward. However:

With the Duergar defeated, we have a way to negotiate with Nere, even influencing him to let the slaves free, and he's none the wiser.

He tells us about his mission to find an alternate route to Moonrise, but the cavein lead to failure. We tell him he can inform the General himself, but he's stuck here too with his moonlantern broken. So he gives us a spider lyre which we can use via the mountainpass route. So this is an alternative to working with Minthara that still lets you take the super shortcut to Moonrise at the start of Act 2.

More importantly, now that we've had him talking for some time, he's noticed something:

Damn wish it worked this fast with Minthara. We explain how the Absolute is a front for mind flayers, and that we're protected. Just spill the beans right away.

So here's where we diverge in how we can deal with Nere. We can either goad him to fight, or convince him that he should leave the Absolute. That latter option is the interesting part. This is basically doing what we do with Minthara but way earlier and easier. Which is probably due to Nere being not as motivated to stay with a religion—unlike Minthara who has an EXTREMELY devout personality.

Convincing him to leave nets us his gratitude, and a reward of... a +1 Dagger. An insult, really. This makes you miss out on his rapier which is decent at this level, and the BEST GENERAL BOOTS IN THE GAME. And this is before we've even MET the Myconids, so we've no motivation to take his head right now. It wouldn't be so bad if he did show up later like Minthara did, but nope, this is the last we see of "Twat Soul" Nere. Had he showed up later and gave his boots as a reward, this would probably be the best outcome.

All that being said, he DID kinda murder one of the gnomes in cold blood after being rescued. So I think, after getting threatened by him for our blasphemy, it's fair to say Tav is through trying to save this guy, and is ready to kill him instead, if only to give the one gnome whose sister is killed some closure and justice. She's been Chaotic Neutral for the most part, but she's trending more towards Chaotic Good as this crisis she's in starts to feel more like a pilgrimage on behalf of her goddess.

Tavierra equips the shoes she'll likely use for the rest of the game.

Also, Astarion is interested in the tadpole powers even if Tav isn't. I make sure he gets Luck of the Far Realms and make a mental note to find enough tadpoles to ensure Minthara can get the same later. Guaranteed crits on both of them are godsends.

After dealing with Nere and talking to the gnomes, I head back to the Emerald Grove cause I completely forgot to talk to Zevlor after killing Kagha! He gives me his gloves, which are going on Shadowheart at least until she starts getting the pieces for her future radiating orb build put together.

I also decide to just Item Spawn the ring of protection into my game. My justification is: it's my game and you have no power over me, also I did successfully steal the idol, I just didn't know that NOT accepting the quest from Mol locks you out of the reward, and giving her the idol later doesn't do anything. So lesson learned, but I still want it cause Tactician Mode.

Also got Wyll this absolutely stylish mid-tier armor! The dye is modded, but I think red and gold suits him well.

Next step: deal with the Goblins once and for all. Tav is fresh off failing to get anywhere with Nere, and is considering what other options she has with these True Souls now. She knows that they're not necessarily willingly serving, by virtue of being tadpoled, but that doesn't change the fact they're zealots right now. She'd ask for more guidance, but aside from a few days ago when she first met Minthara, and she was guided to a singing blade, there's been nothing else from Eilistraee, no obvious signs at least. What to do?? (also she really should go find Halsin, he's still locked up lol)

[blueseachelle]

It’s a Contract. Chapter 6.

Vox Machina Critical Role

Percy De Rolo x Female Human Draconian Warlock! Reader

Y/n and Percy appeared in front of the group. Vox Machina already broke into the castle and made Riley lead them the way to this secret thing under the castle. They were hoping that’s where the Briarwoods would take Percy. Once they appeared in front of them, Vex instantly raised her bow pointing an arrow directly at Y/n’s head.

“Percy! Why is she here?”

Percy quickly put himself between the arrow and Y/n.

“The contract was broken so, she’s okay now. She just is going to remain in this form until the contract is fulfilled. She protected me from death.”

Vex reluctantly put down her bow.

“Fine but, one wrong move and I-“

“Y/n!”

Yelled Cassandra as she gave her a big hug. Y/n, of course hugged her back.

The small reunion was cut short by Vex clearing her throat,

"Let's get a move on, shall we."

*Time skip because I'm lazy. Acid happens. Vax and Cassandra switch sides.*

So, Y/n and the rest of Vox Machina push on. They arrived at the underground ziggurat in a hurry. Riley ends up running off because in the end, the heads of Dahlia and Silas meant more to Percy than the head of Riley.

Y/n just put a hand on his shoulder,

"We'll get her later. She's easy to track."

Percy just did a slight nod before making his way up the stairs while yelling at the Briarwoods.

Soon, the fight started. Vex against her brother. Grog against Silas with the help of Keyleth. Scanlan and Pike against Dahlia. Pecy against Cassandra.

Y/n bounced between fight to fight. Her speed making her be able to save them from deadly wounds a number of times as well as her dealing damage to them.

Finally, Silas was weakened enough for the fear that was inflicted on them to go into effect. He fell to his knees and a dark pool formed under him.

Dahlia watched her beloved in this pool. A deep voice seemed to ring all around them. Silas started to sink into the pool under him.

“May I, Bahamut, have mercy on your soul.”

With that declaration, Silas sank for Dahlia’s eye sight. She let out a horrid screech. She ran towards the tomb, closing the door behind her.

Y/n felt more strength course through her veins. Finally, she was become whole. She quickly flew towards the tomb, the gust of her wings blew the doors open.

Everyone rushed inside. Immediately, Vex shot an arrow at Dahlia. In response, she launched as volt of dark Magic at her. Before Keyleth could sacrifice herself, Y/n deflected it with her sword.

She stood in front of the group. A force field now surrounded them. Stopping them from running in and protecting them from anymore dark magic to be launched in there direction. After the summoning stopped, nothing happened. Dahlia fell to her knees. The Whispered One betrayed her.

The group took her to question her on why she did what she did. Everything was fine until they reached the acid trap room. Percy lost his shit and started shooting at everyone.

The demon attached to his gun took over his mind. Y/n knew what was happening. She instantly moved to action. She stood in front of everyone.

“Percy. Listen to my voice. Stop.”

Suddenly, this spirit revealed itself.

“Percy is no longer here. Souls are what he is taking now.”

Y/n stood face to face with this demon. She laughed in this entity’s face.

“You do not know who I am. Do you Orthax?”

The demon got closer to her.

“How do you know my name?”

Y/n’s eyes glowed more.

Vox Machina stood in shock, watching this go down. This girl was something they never encountered. What is this power she possessed?

A bright form of a dragon suddenly formed behind Y/n.

The dragon seemed to bow to Y/n slightly.

“My name is Y/n Dagon, the chosen one. Bahamut’s favored. You shall remove yourself from my beloved and never come back. If you do not, Bahamut’s grace will not be extended to you. Begone Orthax.”

The entity screeched as the bright dragon seemed to consume him. They both disappeared. Percy was now cleansed. He fell back but, Y/n caught him. Percy cupped her face with one of his hands.

“Thank you, Y/n. You saved me once again.”

She just smiled as she held him. She turned to Dahlia as she held him in her arms. She reached her hand out.

“As of you, your fear has increased. Goodbye.” She was absorbed into the ground in the same manner as Silas was.

Y/n took a deep breath. A blue light encased her then faded. She was back in her human form. Percy stared to tear up, he hugged her tightly,

“You’re back. You’re whole again.”

She hugged him back tightly as well.

“Yes, I’m never leaving again. I promise.”

Scanlan cleared his throat,

“So, Percy, are you gonna introduced to your now normal friend?”

Percy quickly stood up and cleared his throat,

“Ah, yes. Vox Machina, this is Y/n Dagon. She was my personal protector and my counsel Wizard. As you can tell, she sacrificed everything for me and will protect anyone she deems friendly. Y/n this is Scanlan, Grog, Keyleth, Vex, and Vax. Pike isn’t currently here but, you saw her projection.”

Y/n smiled,

“Hello.”

Of course, they greeted back.

Percy then wrapped his arm around Y/n,

“Now, shall we go greet the people of Whitestone?”

With that, everyone left the cave.

When they made it back to the surface, the people of Whitestone cheered. The tyranny over them was now over. Cassandra was made to lead the people now, with the help of the priestess of the town. Y/n is now going wherever Percy goes. It’s a package deal. So, when the group travel back Amon to there Keep, she went with him.

The happiness the emitted from Percy was amazing. He never been happier.

He looked over at Y/n that was now sleeping in his bed at the keep. He sat at his desk tinkering with next project.

‘Finally, my love is back. I can finally be at ease.’

He got up and sat at the edge of the bed. He lifted his hand and lightly petted her hair. He smiled contented. She unconsciously rubbed her head into his hand. He leaned down and gave her a kiss on the head.

She moved slightly and mumbled,

“Mmm…. Love you, Percy.”

He just smiled wider.

“I love you too, Y/n. Forever and always.”

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 10- Part 9

Well, regardless of Tangrowth’s appearance, we’re still in a battle. Being Grass/Poison, there’s a few things we could try, but first and foremost we need to hinder it somewhat. So, let’s start by paralyzing it.

Oh- okay, that’s…okay. Had a feeling something was going to happen on this first turn.

I will say, it’s a very cool animation for the PULSE reaction or whatever this is called, I got so distracted watching it that I didn’t think to screenshot it. That was my bad, sor-

GOOD GRIEF, WHAT IS THAT!?

Oooookay, okay, okay okay- this is fine! We’re fine! Nothing’s changed about the strategy, sure it’s spamming a field-boosted Mega Drain but we haven’t damaged it yet so it’s a nonissue!

Luckily, Glare manages to get off Screech and lower Tangrowth’s Defense, so now we can switch her out (which is even more necessary because her health is in the red) and bring in Prong.

If you’re wondering why Prong’s Sp. Defense is down, it’s because she switched into Acid Spray, which…well, lowers Sp. Defense. I don’t think I like that very much, but with luck, we won’t have to deal with it a whole lot. 

With the Tangrowth’s lowered Defense and the boost from the field, Bug Bite should do a ton of damage!

That’s not a ton of damage!

It’s a good thing the Tangrowth was too paralyzed to move this turn, because I need to rethink things. I…don’t know what to make of this. Bug Bite…didn’t get a field boost. I don’t get it- Struggle Bug got a boost, why didn’t Bug Bite? Is it that only some Bug-type moves get a boost? Well that’s- I don’t like that! I greatly dislike that, in fact! Let Prong get a field boost, dangit!!

I mean…we could keep Prong in, but…I don’t know, that Sp. Def drop is really bothering me now, especially since this is gonna be more of an endurance test than I thought…

So, let’s switch out to bring Prong’s stats back to normal, and bring in Breeze instead.

Gust should be able to do…something, right? That’s a Special move and not a Physical one, but…it’s still gonna be super effective! It’s gotta do something to this thing!

That is still barely anything! What is this Tangrowth’s Sp. Defense stat, holy heck!

This is…a problem. I think I need to sacrifice a Pokémon to get Prong back in and reset the tempo in my favor, and while Nibble seems like the obvious choice- I can’t remember if the Pokémon needs to be conscious (i.e. not fainted) to use its HM move and I don’t know if we’ll still need to use Cut after this- 

(Future edit: No, the move can still be used if the Pokémon is fainted I think, so I could have sacrificed Nibble at some point and been fine.)

So, uh…I think it’s safest to sac Breeze. But she’ll go down swinging with one final Quick Attack!!

Your sacrificial chip damage will not be in vain, Breeze, mark my words!!

It’s Prong’s turn again, and even though she won’t get a field-related boost, Bug Bite still seems like the most damaging thing she can do here.

I’ve been getting some lucky Paralysis moments from the Tangrowth, and I swear they are saving Prong and this whole battle right now. Maybe the game heard (read?) my HP bar rant from the last chapter and decided to throw me a bone here- a bone that I will probably never be thrown again.

With another free turn thanks to Paralysis, I’ll take it to have Prong use Charge- not to power up a subsequent Charge Beam, but for the Sp. Def boost in case Tangrowth uses Acid Spray again.

And now, all we can do is just…keep up the Bug Bites! You can do it, Prong, just a little more!!

JUST A LITTLE MORE! GO, PRONG! FINISH THIS!!

YEEEEAAHH!!!

Maybe there was a way we could have won without sacrificing Breeze, but…who knows, maybe that chip damage Breeze dealt with Gust and Quick Attack made all the difference in the end.

Uh…where did Tangrowth go? Did it just go back into its Poké Ball, or did it like…you know, die?

Oh dear, the screen is starting to shake, that doesn’t seem good-

Oh! Well, that’s exactly what we came here for! And I guess that also explains why everything’s shaking like an earthquake-

…You mean to tell me they’re gonna move that whole machine? By themselves? And sneak away with it amidst all the shifting plants? Uh…good luck with that, I guess.

Gosh, day by day I wish I could go back and change Xera’s name to…well, “Xera”, the name I’ve been using for her. There’s gotta be a way to do that, right? To change the player’s name? I’m sure there is- I’ll have to look it up after this session.

Previous

Next

[secretgamergirl]

I want games that don’t care that I’m playing them.

This is one of those vague game design things where I’m probably combining more topics into one notion than I should be, but hear me out on this. How much I enjoy a game tends to be largely tied to how little it feels like the game cares that I’m playing it. Parts of this are mechanical, parts of this are story driven, let me elaborate after one of these page fold deals.

It’s probably easiest to explain what I want here by first getting into some of the things I don’t want.

First thing on the list- Adaptive difficulty. I hate it. Never even attempt to do this. It’s terrible. I’m not really sure how old this idea is. It could be argued it has roots going all the way back to stuff like Castlevania 3′s NA version throwing out all the damage values from everything in favor of a universal damage value hit with a multiplier based on how far into the game you are. It was really unambiguously becoming a trend though around the late 90s, especially in RPGs.

A basic fundamental concept in game design is that the character in a game and/or the person playing it is going to steadily improve over the course of the game, and so enemies later in the game should be harder to maintain a steady challenge. Some of this happens just as a result of the player gaining a better understanding of the game, we might also be picking up cool power-ups or doing the whole level-up thing.

The traditional way designers deal with this is, just, you know, make the later parts of the game harder. Have beneficial stuff appear less often or be more of a hassle to get, make enemies that hurt more or have attack patterns that are harder to cope with, or weak points that are trickier to exploit, maybe make environments harder to navigate, etc. etc.

Adaptive difficulty (in an RPG in particular) is when, instead of just designing a well balanced game like a sensible person, you instead design everything around the mathematical assumption that the player just started playing for the first time and needs everything to be a basically non-existent challenge, and then apply a universal multiplier to all that math based on something like the main protagonist’s experience level.

I’m just going to say it. This is probably the single stupidest most self-defeating idea any game designer has ever had.

If at level 1, I do 10 damage, and I’m fighting a goblin with 50 HP, and then later, when I am level 10, I am doing 100 damage, and that same goblin is given 500 HP to compensate, from a practical standpoint, nothing is happening. I have to hit that goblin 5 times to kill it. I have always needed to hit it 5 times, and I always will need to hit it 5 times. So why do I even HAVE a level and stats and such?

Well, because it’s an RPG. It’s the genre where there’s numbers that go up. But OK, let’s take a moment to consider WHY that’s true of RPGs. Going all the way back to D&D, the idea was that it’d be cool to have a game where you have some characters who start out super wimpy and potentially taken down by like a particularly mean-tempered rat, possibly, but would eventually get increasingly tough and cool until hitting a point where they can convincingly go toe to toe with dragons and demons and such, really selling the strength of the latter with fixed numbers such that when you’re up at the dragon killing level you can also just plow through the early game cannon fodder like it was nothing.

Going with scaling, that’s no longer true. I can walk up and punch that dragon right from the start, and then face a big goblin who could kill that dragon I killed with a glance later, and that’s dumb?

And that’s all assuming this is executed well. Another perk with the traditional approach, particularly with something in the console-style, Dragon Quest vein, is that the difficulty is elegantly self-regulating. If something is too hard, as the player hits their head on it, they level up, now the math is in their favor. Need more challenge? Intentionally avoid combat and try to keep your level as low as possible. Beautiful, elegant, not appreciated by like anyone who plays these things, but hey.

With adaptive difficulty though, ironically enough, that same setup tends to break? Generally there are other factors in how hard a challenge is going to be that aren’t all scaling off the magic scaling value. Other characters’ levels, what sort of equipment the character has access to, and hell maybe the actual scaling math just has a bad curve to it. This can, and frequently does, lead to games where if a player just grinds out levels out of habit (maybe they’re generally bad at RPGs and have learned to over level and brute force things), they totally screw themselves over, because now monsters are tuned for them being this level and having the gear that won’t be available until 3 more progress milestones. This is actually something even tabletop games have been struggling with for decades. And on the other side of the coin, odds are good players will work out what your scaling is based on, and then just game that system. Keep the main protagonist out of the fight and a lot of late 90s games become cake walks. For a while Bethesda was infamous for weird workarounds like making skills you don’t use your “primary” skills or sprinting around the world doing stuff  before monsters grow any teeth.

Meanwhile, getting away from RPGs, let’s look at horror games. A lot of people these days seem to look at the original Resident Evil (and to a lesser extent, RE2 and the GC remake) and how they got so much tension out of drip feeding a handful of bullets and healing items to the player, but they don’t want to actually study what those games did and math things out, possibly out of concern for players who burn through everything early and therefore hit a wall, so they do little adaptive tricks to simulate the feeling of scarcity. Are you a real pro at these things, never wasting a single bullet on anything but a perfect headshot, never getting a scratch, OK, we’re just going to pull all this spare ammo and all these healing items out and force you to keep up with that. Maybe start upping the HP and damage on everything to boot. Really struggling? We’ll top you off with extra goodies after every encounter.

I can see how that would hold appeal in a pitch meeting, and if a given player doesn’t know you’re doing it, sure, they’ll probably get that mild low-resources stress you’re wanting, but what if, and let’s be honest, this is far more likely, the player doesn’t buy into the illusion. How does this all play out when the player knows you’re adjusting all the math on the fly based on what they’re doing?

Well, now they’re going to have a much worse time. They have no actual incentive to conserve those healing items and dodge what they can, because they know they’ll get freebies after. There’s no real incentive to go for weak points or juke past monsters to save ammo, because they know you aren’t going to give them the extra ammo for later they’d have earned from a more honest game. Improving becomes a meaningless, self-defeating process. Unless of course there’s some flaw in the implementation and they can game the system. Like maybe if you use the most bullets possible and take the most hits on the first enemy, then avoid all combat for a while, you can score a bunch of extra pickups and then cash out later in the game by playing for real. Or maybe the player doesn’t clue in, but now they work out the cool trick to drop monsters quick, and suddenly they all get double HP and now it’s mandatory just to break even? Not really satisfying.

Now... here I’m suddenly realizing I really should have just made two posts, but indulge me as I also dig into the narrative side of things.

Nothing makes me roll my eyes harder than hearing how I’m The Chosen One from The Prophecy or whatever. That’s hackneyed lazy writing and I feel pandered to. Like yeah, obviously I’m the big damn hero who’s going to save the whole world because I’m playing a game and that’s just sort of baked into the medium, but can we not call attention to it? I, and I think the vast majority of other people, prefer a narrative where the hero is just some ordinary nobody who ends up succeeding because they were really clever or whatever.

Plus if everyone knows I’m the great hero from legend, it kinda becomes impossible to write good dialog, and avoid constantly writing yourself into a corner? Like if I’m the only person who can kill Lord Deathskull, shouldn’t the local merchants just give me all the gear and stacks of healing items I ask for to make sure I do it? How much hollow praise am I going to suffer through before I’ve even done anything to earn any of it? How many bosses are going to regurgitate the same speech about how they don’t buy into my hype? Please, I’m begging you, start me with some “who are you? Just some farm girl?” indignity and build up to me being someone to worry about only after I’ve turned a giant dragon snake thing or three into cool persistent terrain feature corpses.

And this goes double for environmental storytelling. It doesn’t help that people have been getting me to try MMOs lately where some degree of this is kind of inevitable, but I’ve been seeing this trend I hate of like... theme park attraction dungeons. Like you hear about the evil pirate king holding a meeting in a hidden grotto and you show up and it’s just this linear tube cave where you clearly see the big boss arena down at the end, and you run down cutting down mooks, and maybe partway down the pirate king comes out and taunts you a bit and runs off to the boss arena at just too fast a pace to keep up, then just stands there with his arms crossed until you’re ready to step in, hear his little speech, and fight him.

You know that sort of thing right? Again it feels to me like I’m on a ride at a theme park. This whole dungeon is just this big show being put on for my benefit, and makes no organic sense otherwise. You can do better. People have been doing better forever. Maybe I’m actually sneaking around an organically laid out base, or at least the string of fight rooms are plausibly structured. Here’s the pirates unloading a cargo hold, then over here’s a big room full getting drunk and aggro-ing when they see me, etc. Shadow of the Colossus is nothing but a string of boss fights against big freaking kaiju things which by necessity hang out in huge open arenas, and somehow MOST of those manage to blindside you by keeping you on an angle of approach where the big obvious boss arena is around a blind corner or at the top of a plateau you’re climbing and you don’t realize where you are until you almost literally bump right into the boss.

Hell here’s an easy one anyone can do- You’re forced to cross some big featureless wasteland desert. You have a boundary far enough in that you are just surrounded by wasteland everywhere, no clear landmarks in sight, then bam, giant burrowing worm boss/tank/guy on a horse/airship/sinkhole,whatever.

I just don’t want to feel like everyone I’m fighting is just standing around waiting for me to show up, you know? Gimme worlds that feel lived in. Give me monsters that are hard because this is the harsh part of the world where monsters have to be hard to survive. Slope the bottom of a pool so I can stay in the shallow end until I feel ready to go deeper. Or alternatively, don’t, just fill the pool with more water over time regardless of what I’m doing. Works great for Risk of Rain, enough so it’s where the title comes from.

Just please don’t act like I’m the special princess and everything has to be watching me to see what I do and then trying to make sure I have fun doing that. You know?

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super 040

Monaka vs. Hit!   The main event!

Well, first we gotta finish Goku vs. Hit, but that shouldn’t take to long, since Goku seemed to have him dead to rights in the previous episode.  Goku fired a Kamehameha at him while using Super Saiyan Blue and Kaio-ken x 10 at the same time, and he also punched him?  I’m not sure how you punch a guy and fire a Kamehameha at once, but whatever.

In this episode, we see Goku’s attach breach the force field bubble around the arena, but it still wasn’t enough to stop Hit.  Turns out, Hit managed to improve his time-skip power once again, and that allowed him to escape.  So they congratulate each other and fight some more. 

And this really upsets Champa, who (correctly) observes that Goku can’t keep up this level of power for much longer.  If Hit keeps his distance and fights defensively, he can simply outlast Goku and defeat him once he’s powered down.  Cabba pleads for Champa to reconsider, but Champa reminds them that they’re all just pawns in this game between gods.  This irks Hit and Goku, and Champa seems unnerved when they both glare at him.

So Hit continues to fight the way he wants, hoping that Goku’s power will force him to improve even further.  He manages to land a blow with his time-skip, which he now says has advanced enough that even Goku can’t resist it...

But Goku manages to recover from the blow and fires back.  This is pretty impressive, since Hit’s offense has been devastating throughout this match and the last one.  Remember, he took down Vegeta with only a few strikes.  As an assassin, he knows exactly where to aim for maximum damage, and his time-skip helps ensure that his target can’t block or roll with the punches.  Goku’s lasted longer, but only because he’s figured out how to fight back.  He’s still taken about as many hits as Vegeta did, so for him to eat another strike and fire back is a big deal.

Then things get stupid.  Goku stops and calls out to Beerus, asking him to lift all of the tournament rules for this match.  Goku’s reasoning is that Hit can’t use all of his techniques in this match, because they involve lethal force, and killing his opponent would get Hit disqualified.  So Goku wants Hit to come at him with everything he’s got, but the only way to get that is to fight without the rules in place, kind of like Vegeta vs. Frost earlier. 

Of course, Champa is all for it, since it gives Hit the advantage, but Beerus hates this idea, since Goku is his last hope of winning the tournament.  I was about to point out that Vegeta vs. Frost got settled without all this nonsense, but that was because it didn’t matter.  Champa was just happy to get Frost’s disqualification revoked, and he knew a no-DQ match would favor Frost, while Beerus agreed because he knew Vegeta could beat Frost with ease.  But now, we’re down to the end, and Beerus can’t afford to take chances.  Champa insists that he can lift the rules, since it’s Beerus’ fighter who made the request, but this is dumb. 

Like, they agreed to the rules before the tournament started.  This was why they agreed to it, to avoid situations like this from coming up.  And yet they’ve been tinkering with the rules anyway.  That box around the ring for Vegeta vs. Auta Magetta, Frost’s whole business, and now this. 

So while Beerus and Champa bicker, Goku just walks off and leaves the ring, ending the match.

Beerus is outraged, but Goku says his power-up was going to end shortly anyway, so he would have lost no matter what.  Beerus reminds him that if he hadn’t asked for the stupid rule change in the first place, it wouldn’t have mattered.  But Goku points out that his loss is no big deal, since Beerus’ team still has one fighter left...

... Monaka.  Earlier, Beerus claimed that Monaka was the strongest mortal that he had ever fought, making him even stronger than Goku, and Goku’s been itching for a chance to see Monaka in action.  Well, now Goku finally gets his wish, and if Goku could fight evenly with Hit, then Monaka should be able to clean up with no trouble at all.  There’s just one small problem with that.

Monaka’s hype was just a lie Beerus told to motivate Goku to get stronger.  In truth, Monaka’s weak as hell, but now it’s blown up in Beerus’ face.  Whis has been needling Beerus about this for a few episodes now, and it looks like Beerus has outsmarted himself. 

So Monaka is understandably terrified, but he goes for broke and just charges fist-first into Hit. 

And Hit figures all this out pretty quickly, and decides to take a dive, flying out of the ring as though Monaka’s punch had a delayed reaction.  This is just Android 18 vs. Mr. Satan all over again.  Hit considers this repayment of Goku’s action in the last match.  It’s not that Hit needed Goku to take a dive, but he liked the way Goku chose to be the master of his own fate, and not a pawn of the gods, as Champa claimed.  

Then we get this scene, where Goku thanks the Galactic King for giving him the clue he needed to fight Hit, and he shakes one of his tentacles, and it turns out that’s the Galactic King’s penis. 

Speaking of penis, this entire tournament sucked a cock.  Every single match was either a blowout between mismatched opponents, or a disqualification, or a forfeiture. It’s absolute trash.  Goku vs. Hit is the only real contest to watch, and that had no stakes or importance, because neither fighter had anything to win or lose.  

Of course, Champa’s a sore loser about the whole thing, so he prepares to destroy his entire team. Hit wouldn’t follow his orders, Frost cheated, and the other three guys just suck.  And you know, he’s got a point.  Beerus fucked up his entire team.  He put Monaka on the team, even though Monaka can’t do anything, and he let Majin Buu join, despite his penchant for falling asleep in critical moments.  So this was really a 5-on-3 tournament, and Universe 6 still lost because four of them are jobbers and Hit doesn’t particularly care who wins.

Goku is upset about this, but there’s nothing he can do.  Beerus reminds him that the tournament is over now, so the gods are back to calling the shots, and no one can defy Beerus and Champa...

... until this guy shows up.

[drwormdcg]

Learning to Love Good Decks

Or how a timmy became a Spike and then a Mel

TAK/CORE TCG September Evo Cup Top 16

A small recount about how during Digimon [BT5]. I broke taboo about playing the best deck in the format and how it affected me positively.

As TCG players we usually pivot away from [tier 0-1] decks due to the triviality of a relative power advantage over our peers, maybe the decks are perceived as easier, more linear, etc. But the truth is unequivocally good decks can teach you about aspects of the game which are mostly ignored by new players.

I actually started to play this game around [BT4] in plain Yellow WarGrey Format, and my color of choice was red, I was piloting a [BT4] ShineGrey deck (one of my favorite cards ever, but thats a story for another time.)

But then the infamous LordKnightmon tier 0 format came by in [BT5]. And I ended building the deck in question after it was favored in my pulls, Had to sell my soul for a pair of TKs and Pulsemon but every card I needed for the deck after that was actually fairly easy to get, so I said:

"what the hell I am expending so much in this game I may as well pick some wins."

...

What was the result? I performed like fucking ass for the first half of the format.

LKM was a good deck, the best deck probably, it had an unfair edge in it's ability to cheat out Lv5 digimon to the field as well as the best removal in the game by far.

With an ideal stack

The player can start the turn with WarGrowlmon, use its effect to do -4K

Evolve into LKM, attack, use its effect to play a Knigthmon which deal another -4K on play, finish its attack.

And evolve that new Knight into a SlashAngemon for -8K

For a total of -16k damage for a total cost of 6 memory spread across multiple targets and 2 Lv6 digimon on the field. Mind you in a time period where removing a Lv6 or higher digimon meant either dropping a Gaia Force or getting Omnimon on the field.

But that was just a branch of all the possible routes you could go with it. With Angewomon you get access to lines in which you play a Knight and a Starmons or a BushiAgumon (maybe even 2) for a hit for game. You even have access to Lucemon for a recovery +1 if you need to stall.

Just reading these card together explains the strategy in its barebones

For the first time I had a deck that gave me enough fuel to do tons of different things at any point of the match. My red ShineGreymon deck needed me to find tamers and build my guy, then swing at security and hope he would be alive next turn but LKM gave me a flowchart of questions and options at almost every relevant point of the game.

The deck was a huge toolbox with generous action economy. The problem was, you, the player, needed to manage those resources and find the shortest route to your win. It becomes a game about Macro. Do you extent early? Do you play defensively, count how many attacks your opponent has over you next turn. You gotta manage the Pickmon -1k you are missing to attack over that Hexeblaumon this turn before it becomes a problem, or maybe remove that blocker on field so you can go for lethal.

I took LKM to the online Regionals and got beat by everything, Lilith-Loop, Hexeblaumon, Sec-con a scimblo black deck. But when I came back to locals, I started to win more games, not undeserved either I was just a better player on macro level. As minimal as it is just learning when to just straight up pass turn was really beneficial, I could identify that even though I was piloting the best deck, it still had a roll, LKM was a reactive strategy.

By BT6 I started to pivot toward purple strategies, picked Titamon, legitimately not a bad deck but a much much more difficult one, in part because it didn't carry that generous action economy LKM had. In Tita you build an ideal stack, discard some cards, and with luck and care you will have from 2 to 5 security checks in one turn, with all the flexibility purple already brings to the table. We were still just hitting hard. But despite some learning rounds I was a much more confident player, Titamon had an excellent niche against the best deck at the time, GabuBond, because you could build a Lv6 blocker with retaliation abusing the way Rebellimon retains the effect even if it evolves on Titamon.

But I did dip back into LKM builds, Lordknigth-Dynas was a fantastic. Less strong comparatively to its predecessor but it carried this action economy that made me enamored with it on the first place.

In short, picking wins with a better deck will always be easier than with a worse deck, there's fun in being able to pilot a powerhouse. I dont have to tell you this but winning in cardgames is fun, and even tho losing can be fun, the root of said fun is having a chance in the first place. No one likes being the coughing baby . And sure, over favorable wins aren't fun either.

Playing a close to tier 0 deck in BT5 taugth me that, when your gameplan is working you get to learn a game about what do you do once your deck is working, in contrast to the struggle to achieve your gameplan in the first place.

I now pretty much play only Mastemon, a deck historically known for being a deck about struggling to achieve its gameplan. (We find gatomon or we cry) But for me now it feels like its a risk I calculate before choosing the deck, rather than the blind gravitation to quirky off-meta decks I used to feel.

It will save me stress, to know that my Sakuyamon deck which is really inconsistent but has strong and satisfactory blow out. Will lose the majority of games it plays against a consistent aggro deck like Imperial. And it is the awareness of these weaknesses what allows me to play around them.

Maybe by the end not much has changed, I used to play quirky trashy decks, then I played LKM for a season and then went back to my jank. I am not a fantastic pilot in the first place but I like to imagine the humbling experience of being in the big chair changed the way I see the game, the decks I like, the options I can take when building a given strategy and the way I play the macro game. And I feel, if you are starting in any decent tcg and can afford it or have the chance be in a simulator or playing with proxies, try the best deck in the room. Even better, ask you friends to do the same, you will get a perspective change, you will play fire with fire and your piloting skills will be rewarded with some of the most satisfactory wins, and all you learn there, you will take it with you next time you show up to locals playing Black/White Diaboromon-Eosmon OTK

[getyourblisson]

A Look At September 2023

September in general finds us in a pretty positive flow.  People are standing more in integrity.  Although September is a month that is always about exposing lies; and having to deal with aspects of lies, deception, and manipulation.  However, at this time, it is mostly going to be exposure of people that are in that space.  People are finding that they are able to start seeing how their efforts are paying off on things.  The mind is a little clearer, and they are able to focus on carrying out their own ideas and plans.

It is a month that favors things that are truly humanitarian based.  So, anything that favors humanity, animals, and Earth we should be able to see strong successes with it.  However, those that appear to be doing this, but are really damaging these things; are likely to meet with either exposure about their organization, or to meet with aspects of failure or ruin.  Nothing comes for free; and so, we must be willing to put forth the efforts needed to create some strong results.  It is also important that we share our successes with those that struggle to take care of themselves; which includes people, animals, and the Earth.  This is a time for connecting with true abundance; and we do that by being connected with each step of the process, and seeing something through from start to finish.

Most people will be in a kind, compassionate, and caring space.  They tend to be supportive of those that are experiencing difficulties.  Mostly, people just want to have peace within themselves, and in their life.  This is a time where we want to be conscious of the things that we do and say, for they will be what remains in people’s minds.  If you do something that is unfavorable; then apologize, correct it, and make it right.  People will not be concerned over an unintentional mistake, but will care about how we handle that mistake.

This month shows that true love can emerge.  If you meet someone, and they are working from true kindness and compassion; then it is likely that it can be a strong a lasting relationship.  However, it is important to take the time to really get to know them.  For those that are already in a relationship, this is a good time to let your partner know that you love them and care about them.  Consider doing something simple but soulful to honor your relationship.

This can also be a great time to focus on those things that need to be accomplished; such as any obligations and responsibilities that you have.  It is important to carefully consider any path that you are taking.  Whatever path you take, it must be your own path, and done your own way.  While it is ok to listen to what others advise or have to say, that doesn’t mean that it is something that you need or should take.  Even good advice does not always work out favorably; so, you will have to see what you feel is best for you at this point and time.  Others may mean well, but even good intentions don’t always have favorable outcomes.  Your biggest focus and responsibility at this time is to do things that will provide you with greater peace once they are done, and will provide a more peaceful environment for you to be in.

I welcome you to contribute to or be a part of those things that support humanity, animals, and Earth.  What if helping to bring success to truly humanitarian things, also brings personal blessings?

I welcome you to be supportive of those that are experiencing difficulties.  What if this helps someone to have peace in their life?

I welcome you to embrace and appreciate relationships that are rooted in true and unconditional love.  What if these are the relationships that are likely to be with you for a lifetime?

I welcome you to use discretion with the advice you receive from others.  What if you only used what will truly work for you?

From September 1st through 22nd we find that we are able to experience some great successes.  However, we have to focus on providing quality, and doing things through integrity.  It is important that we do not compete with others even though they may want us to.  Those that do this are insecure, superficial, and looking to feel superior.  They do not focus on doing their best, or doing what is right; they just want to be seen as the best or greatest.  These people are more like a performer.  Someone can put on a good show, and with the right connections, they are able to become a superstar.  They will sacrifice anything to be that superstar; however, that doesn’t make them good at what they do.  On the other hand, you can have someone that just embraces their talent in a raw and authentic way.  They don’t care about being famous and rich; but they work in their talent from the heart, and give the best they can at any given time.  If they make a mistake, they fix it.

Abundance energy is magnified during this time.  So, keep putting forth the effort needed to bring things all the way through to completion.  Where we have worked hard in integrity, blessings and good fortune are likely to show up for us.  This can also be the time to plant the seeds for something that you want to see success in.  This is no different than planting the seeds of bulbs in late Fall, that you want to see emerge in the Spring.  Remember, that with true abundance, it is the process that is the greatest blessing that you receive from your efforts.  There is also always enough to share even a little piece with someone else.

It is important, that we take some time out to have some fun during this time.  This will be a great time to participate in or experience all forms of the arts.  It is a time to get inspired by seeing what others are doing.  Any form of personal expression can also work out well; so that makes it a great time for writers, speakers, and performers.  However, it is important that we do not do things impulsively.  Being spontaneous is great, but do not let others pressure or coerce you into things that you really don’t need or want.  We need to be careful of those that appear charming, because they may not be as good as they seem.  You will need to give things plenty of time to know where they really are.  Magnetic energy or chemistry is a great thing; but does not always connect us with good people.  This is a great time to learn from your own experiences that you are having.

Power battles and struggles are on the surface.  It is likely that those in positions of power and authority will be seeking more power.  This is a time where it is important for us to stand our ground, and to do what we can to take command over our own life through becoming as self-sufficient as possible.  It is very important that we do not turn over our rights and freedoms to others.  Those that are working from tyrannical, authoritarian, and dictatorial structures; will never have our best interests in mind.  We may see shifts in power, and those that are corrupt in their leadership falling from power as those in their own inner circle expose their ill intent.

I welcome you to realize that those that want to compete with others are insecure, superficial, and looking to feel superior.  What if they are nothing more than a performer with good connections instead of someone that genuinely embraces their talent from the heart?

I welcome you to remember that it is the process that is the greatest blessing that you receive from your efforts.  What if the process brings things that money can’t buy?

I welcome you to take time out to have some fun.  What if this is a great time to get inspired by what others are doing?

I welcome you to take command over your own life.  What if this is done through making ourselves as self-sufficient as possible?

From September 23rd through the end of the month, we are being called to bring things to completion.  It is a time where we need to finish up the things that we have started, and to consider what we want to work on next.  As we look at our next cycle, we will do best to pick those things that serve humanity and the planet in some way.  We want to consider what nourishes the Soul Self, and keeps the Spirit strong.  There are those that will want to try and break our Spirit, and to keep things from coming through for us; but we must not allow them to stand in the way.  We will need to consider if these people can be either removed from our life, or kept at a distance.  This energy will not be beneficial to carry forward.

We will do best to focus on finishing up projects, and working on meeting our responsibilities and obligations.  It is likely if we will just get started on the things that we need to do, that they will flow with greater ease.  It is important to push through since once you begin to procrastinate, it will be harder to get started on things; and then they will become more difficult to do.  However, if you are able to be disciplined enough to wrap up the loose ends, then you are likely to be able to enjoy more time for things that are more pleasurable.

This is a time where we will do best to stay in observation, and to remain focused on taking care of our own things.  It is important that we do not get involved in other people’s battles.  Power struggles are likely, and the only thing that we need to make certain that we are doing is to not turn our power over to others.  Esoteric thinking and philosophies can help to make sense of some things; but if we give up our rights and freedoms, then we will allow the corruption to have full control over our lives.  Remember, that rights and freedoms were put into place to protect us from corruption, which is why the corruption wants so badly to take it from us.

It is important that you honor what your body needs, and to take care of your health.  This is a time to be in observation of what is happening with you personally in your body, mind, and soul.  We benefit from processing what is happening in our life, respecting our health, and honoring when we need to rest and restore.  Try taking some time to disconnect from technology, and to spend some time in nature.  This can help you to see the spiritual aspects that are connected to what is happening in your life.

I welcome you to bring things to completion, and consider what you want to work on next.  What if a key focus in your next cycle allowed you to be of benefit to humanity and/or the planet in some way?

I welcome you to realize how procrastinating will only make it harder and more difficult to get through things.  What if a little discipline gives you more time for things that are enjoyable?

I welcome you to stay in observation, and stay out of other people’s battles.  What if you only need to focus on not turning your power over to others?

I welcome you to be in observation of what is happening with you personally in body, mind, and soul.  What if this helps you to process what is happening in your life?

In Summary, carry out your own ideas and plans.  Do things that favor humanity, animals, and the Earth.  Embrace being kind, compassionate, and caring.  Do something simple but soulful to honor relationships that are rooted in unconditional love.  Meet those obligations and responsibilities that will give you greater peace once they are done.  Do not engage in competing with others.  Bring things into completion, and plant the seeds for future successes.

Take time out to have fun, and get inspired with what you want to do.  Stand your ground, and take or keep command over your life through increasing your self-sufficiency.  Consider what nourishes the Soul Self, and keeps your Spirit strong.  Bring things to completion.  Stay in observation.  Honor what your body needs, and take extra care of your health.

What to Focus Our Actions On

This month shows that we want to stay focused on our own plans.  The biggest key is to be happy with the work that we are providing, and that we are doing things with quality and integrity.  If this is where we keep our focus, then the success and recognition will come naturally from this.  This is very valuable since success that comes in this way, and it helps to hold a perpetual or continual flow of abundance and blessings.  It also builds the amount of positive energy that is flowing towards us due to others appreciating things much more.

We are seeing that our hard work is paying off.  This will be a relief for many because it can be hard to keep putting a lot of effort into something if there are no visible results.  Even though our Soul Self gets it; the human self can have some real challenges, and get worn from the work that is being done.  This is why embracing the process helps, because we naturally create points of progress with each step.  As successes come through, we want to keep things in a flow so that they can continue to build and flourish.  We do this by planting seeds for the next phase, cycle, or project from the abundance that we are feeling.  We share a little of our successes with those that are struggling to take care of themselves; which grows positive successes in the world, and not just in our own lives.  We want to take time to rest and enjoy what we have created, and to really acknowledge our own accomplishments.

During this time, we want to remove ourselves from those that are only seeking to compete and be in battle with us.  If you know your value and worth, then you know that you do not need to give your presence and energy to those that are only set on proving they are superior; and that want to break your Spirit, and make you as miserable as them.  The people that are in this space, care nothing about you; and are only seeking power, control, fame, and fortune.  They have no intention or desire to change, and have already separated from their Soul Self.  There is nothing that we can do to make them feel better, because they have rooted their life in material things.

It is important that if you have any responsibilities and obligations that need to be taken care of, that you get them done.  This can be a very productive time, and great for getting through large projects.  It can also be a good time to consider what responsibilities or obligations that you have to humanity, animals, and the planet.  This can lead you to search out more responsible ways of living.  We sometimes think this means deprivation; but often times, it leads us into good care for ourselves through being conscious of what we are doing, and how we are living.  We also need to be careful, as some things that are promoted as being environmentally friendly or humane are not.  It is worth looking more into things, and considering even minor adjustments.  Most things that are truly responsible and environmentally friendly are simpler, healthier, and much less expensive.  In many ways, this is about establishing a stronger connection with nature, and the planet that we live on.

I welcome you to allow your success and recognition to come from honoring quality and integrity in your work.  What if this also builds the amount of positive energy that is flowing towards us?

I welcome you to see where your hard work is paying off.  What if you keep your abundance flowing, so that you can continue to build and flourish?

I welcome you to remove yourself from those that are only seeking to compete and be in battle with you.  What if these people have no intention or desire to change, and have already separated from their Soul Self?

I welcome you to consider what responsibilities or obligations that you have to humanity, animals, and the planet.  What if understanding what it means to be truly responsible and environmentally friendly; is about building a stronger connection with nature, and the planet that we live on?

What To Focus Our Thoughts On

From September 1st through September 16th is a time where our mind is not fully clear.  It may be distracted by daydreams, visions of a more pleasant life, and spiritual processes.  It is a time where we will do best focusing on our own self, and what we need to do for our own health and well-being.  This can be a good time for a personal retreat, and disconnecting from intense communications, technology, and heavy logical or mental processes.  Instead, we want to consider working more with our intuition, and the insights and understandings that are surfacing for us.

It is important that we also don’t take chances with weather.  It can turn suddenly; and so, we will want to make certain that we have some extra supplies on hand at home and in our car.  We want to give ourselves extra time to get home from any place that we are, and to never be far from a safe place if we need it.  If you are in an area that gets hit heavily with a storm; then focus on remaining calm, and helping others to be calm.  This is the way that we will be able to deal with the trauma, and use our power wisely.  It provides the quickest way to settling down any trauma that we are faced with.

We also want to release trying to focus on things that take strong concentration.  It is likely that we will experience many interruptions in things that we are working on; so, try to break anything that you are doing into smaller tasks that you can leave quickly and easily if need be.  Let go of having plans go through.  Unexpected upheavals, trauma, and drama; are about the only things that you can rely on.  Be forgiving where plans are shifted unexpectedly; as this is likely to be out of people’s control.

This will be a great time for us to break free from controlling structures.  This is a time for us to focus on being in command of our own lives, and to do things that will allow us to simplify and be self-sufficient.  The choices that we make will have an impact on all of our existences; so, make certain that what you are choosing is allowing you to be able to focus on what is truly important in life.  This includes experiences, living authentically, and living freely.  The more we release material things by choice, the less we have to deal with them being taken from us in sudden and harsh ways.  It is worth using any “devastation” as an opportunity to rebuild your life in alignment with the Soul’s Path.

I welcome you to focus on your own health and well-being.  What if disconnecting from intense communications, technology, and heavy logical or mental processes will help you to do this?

I welcome you to use caution where weather is concerned.  What if you remain close to safety, in case a storm turns suddenly and unexpectedly?

I welcome you to let go of having plans work out.  What if we cannot plan for unexpected things, and a sudden shift of events?

I welcome you to focus on being in command of your own life.  What if this happens easily when you simplify things, and become more self-sufficient?

From September 17th through the end of the month we are able to learn a lot about our experiences, and from our experiences.  It is the lessons that we get at this time, which will help to lead us into being successful with our own plans.  The key is to remain committed and devoted to what you are doing.  If you do this, you are likely to find that others will also be willing to help or support you in your success.  You may also find that sharing your experiences with others, will help them with what they are working on.  This is a time to realize that no matter where we or others are at in our processes; that we always have something to give, and something that we can receive.

It is important to work with others as a team, and to not do battle with them.  It is through observation and working together that we will be able to unfold solutions, and create successes in the things that we are working on.  Even if you are in a position of leading others, it is important that you work side by side with them instead of over them.  Try to allow the process to be even more rewarding than the results.

Power battles among those in positions of power and authority are likely to get very intense at this time.  Those that are corrupt leaders will not want to relinquish their power.  It is possible that we will see deaths as the result of them refusing to give up power, or that we could see the deaths of those that are not in integrity and working for the benefit of the people.  It is important that we are supporting those leaders that are standing up for rights and freedom; and are not trying to centralize things, and seeking total power over others.  The more that corrupt leaders are losing their power, the more tyrannical that they will become.

It is during this time that we want to use extra caution in all that we are doing, and to pay extra attention to what is happening around us.  It is easier than normal for accidents to happen.  Much of this can be diverted, as long as we hold strong to making breakthroughs instead of breaking down, and caving into that which is challenging us.  Old structures are ending, and we need to move forward.  It is likely that we will see many more deaths happening at this time, and for many different reasons.  Many will be to prevent breakthroughs, and to cover up crimes that have been committed.  However, we will also see many innocent people lost due to corrupt leaders.  There may be many that are made to look like accidents and are not; and several, that are truly strange and bizarre accidents, including ones that don’t seem like they are logically or physically possible to have happened.

I welcome you to realize that we always have something to receive, and something to give to others.  What if we simply need to be open to learning what we can in each experience that we have?

I welcome you to work with others, and not against them.  What if working together helps to unfold solutions and create successes?

I welcome you to pay attention to what those in power are doing.  What if you support those that are standing up for rights and freedom?

I welcome you to realize that old structures are ending, and we must make breakthroughs in order to move forward.  What if giving up and breaking down puts us at the mercy of those that are working corruptly?

Connecting To Our Soul Self

From September 1st through September 3rd the codes show that we need to work on harmony and balance during this time.  It is important to balance out all of the polarities in our life.  That means honoring time to work and time to play, time with others and time for self, helping others and getting helped, having plenty to enjoy life but living simply and authentically, appreciating our home and what we have but exploring new things as well.  This is a time where we want to find options and ways to express ourselves, but we also want to honor freedom of expression for others.

It is important that we stand up to the bullies and abusers without getting into a full battle with them.  The way that we do this is to stand strong in our rights, and don’t allow them to censor or silence us from telling the truth.  Nothing can hide during this time.  Not even the lies, deception, and manipulation of corrupt leaders and those in positions of power and authority.  We must use caution as those in power are likely to misuse their power, and try to turn people against those that are standing up to them.  They will use all kinds of tactics that create disorder, confusion, and chaos; and just these things alone are likely to put many in fear.  We are likely to see tactics that include threats, and creating a fear of not being able to make it in the world being used; just to get people to turn over their rights and to comply with the dictators, tyrants, and authoritarians.  They will be coming down hard on freedoms and rights; in order to make people helpless, and unable to defend themselves, or stand up to them.

No matter what happens, it is critical that we remain true and loyal to God, Divine Principles, and the Soul Self.  This is really the only safe space to be in; and if we will stand strong in this space, then we will see that we will have success and victory over our challenges, and those that want to tempt us away and pull us out of that connection.  This is a time where we can make great advancements if we are standing in this space.  We are standing up for not just a few principles; but for the future of humanity, and the ability for God and Divine Presence to remain strong in our world.

I welcome you to create balance with the polarities in your life.  What if this adds to your fulfillment, and helps to hold you in greater health with body, mind, and Spirit?

I welcome you to stand up to the bullies and abusers; and don’t allow yourself to be silenced, or your rights to be squashed.  What if they only have power when you give them power, and become silent and compliant to their requests?

I welcome you to remain true and loyal to God, Divine Principles, and the Soul Self.  What if this is the only safe space to be in?

From September 4th through the end of the month we connect with and nurture our Soul Self by focusing on our own processes and well-being.  This will be a great time to do a personal retreat, get off-grid for a few days, and to disconnect from technology and others.  This is a great time to get out into nature.  You will want to make certain you are providing your body with strong nutrition, getting extra rest, and connecting with the spiritual meaning and purposes that are related to the experiences that you are going through.  We sometimes forget how strongly our body is connected to the presence of our Soul Self.  The healthier and stronger we keep our body, the easier and more present the Soul Self can be in our life.

People may feel some stress and anxiety, particularly if they are having physical or material challenges.  However, if we stand strong in our Soul Self, we will find that these challenges lead us into something great.  It is important that we do not give into the temptations that get presented to us; for the successes that we make are helping to propel us towards are more Soul-filled existence.

We will do best to keep things simple and authentic.  It is a great time to appreciate what we have in our own space, town, or yard.  However, we are also greatly favored for getting out and exploring new things, and going to new places.  Doing this, will help us to gain focus on the direction that we would like to head.  Listen to what you are being pulled to from within your heart and Soul; for this is the adventure that you want to have at this time.  This will be a great time to find ways that you can work less and live more.  It is a time to make getting new experiences a priority, and to focus on things of real and true value.

I welcome you to honor extra personal care.  What if the healthier and stronger we keep our body, the easier and more present the Soul Self can be in our life?

I welcome you to let your Soul Self carry you through your challenges.  What if it leads you into something great?

I welcome you to listen to what you are being pulled to from within your heart and Soul.  What if that leads you on the adventure that you want and need to have at this time?

The Code Journey ~ 2023 Edition

[big-golyat]

A thought on the Abyss Watchers boss fight:

Nearly every boss fight in the Soulsborne series are (mostly) intense affairs, what with the dark atmosphere, character designs, oppresive movesets, and the lore if you're into that kind of thing. I have a wide array of feelings towards these boss fights, ranging from "holy shit this is awesome" to "what the fuck, this is bullshit". Across all of these fights, these feelings start off fairly balanced but gravitate towards "holy shit, this is awesome" after I've beaten them.

However, after beating the Abyss Watchers, I still had a lot of "what the fuck" feelings, which is highly unusual. I'd like to talk about why that is.

The main component of fair and fun gameplay, I think, is a matter of interactions. How we can interact with the game, and how the game can interact with us. For Soulsborne boss fights, we interact with the boss by moving, rolling, attacking/casting spells, and healing. The boss interacts with us by moving and attacking/casting spells, with some other actions on a case-by-case basis (such as the Witch of Hemwick fight in Bloodborne). A large part of the fun of these fights is learning exactly how these bosses attack and move, so that we can react and perform our own moves/attacks/spells.

However, not all interactions have equal value. Dodging and healing may be crucial mechanics, but they won't win the fight. We need to be able to attack, or else the fight won't be winnable. A large part of what makes the Bell Gargoyles in DS1 so hard is finding an opening to attack in between the two of them. Dodging is easy to do in their arena; killing is not.

I also had some "what the fuck" feelings after the gargoyles, which leads me to believe the reason what I disliked the Abyss Watchers so much might be similar.

The Abyss Watcher's moves caused me to dodge and move far more often than attack, which already makes the fight somewhat tedious. His long reach and ability to dash across nearly half of the arena means that even running away to heal is difficult, since he can just interrupt your healing animation with a dash and slash. This isn't a problem by itself; it can still be a fun challenge, if we have some openings to attack.

The rest of the problem, I think, comes with the two other Abyss Watchers. Having two enemies who both like to overwhelm you with long, overbearing attacks means that while one has an opening, the other is covering that opening with his sword. Being able to deal damage is meaningless if I have to take that time to use lower-value actions like dodging, or swearing at my monitor as I watch another 10-second-long death animation.

(And yes, the point of the third one who attacks the other two is to help create opportunities for the player to act, but since he can also damage the player, he can cover openings entirely by accident.)

This also seems to apply to the Bell Gargoyles, who, despite having long recovery times for their moves, cover each other's openings with extremely far-reaching polearms and fire breath. It's also what makes Ornstein and Smough more fun than my other examples; they also like to attack constantly, but their differences in reach, moveset, and even movement speed make it easier to work out a strategy for beating them.

Now maybe I'm only having these problems because I favor melee combat. Perhaps using more magic would've made these fights easier, or more manageable. I also might be missing something vital about these fights, or have a suboptimal build, or need to just get good. But I honestly believe that in a series of games where the point is to kill challenging enemies, having extremely limited chances to kill them doesn't make for good gameplay. If I have to kill, and my enemies won't let me get close enough to hit them, I'm not having fun; I'm just being bullied.

I'm glad that I finally managed to beat the Abyss Watchers. I'm not glad at all that I had to do it.

[blogmox]

Artifice Day 1 Minutes and Playtesting

13 May 2024

Today was the first Monday of playtesting and discussing Artifice. A and B were there, A to discuss and play, B to play. Sadly a small turnout but I do think that if I can rearrange schedules I should be able to host one of these on Friday and have Monday for playtesting in the future.

The minutes first bring up the changes of the weekend, though we had not had a decision before, it was instead to discuss the various changes I had personally made to the document. Of most importance was deck size. This was discussed, 80 cards seemed like a fair number with a 15 card sideboard for now, though it was agreed that a set in stone number right now would take playtesting.

The concern of "The Shop vs The Command Zone" was brought up by A. His concern is that having these be two separate zones is a redundancy, and that having the masterpiece not be the commander is another additional restriction that only makes things less synergistic in a format that still uses commander staples and cards. My concern is that the addition of the masterpiece to the command zone brings about unfounded problems with the wide variety of commander staples caring about having a commander on field and that being able to trigger those off of your masterpiece is an issue enough to make me not want to have the masterpiece act as your commander. Not to mention it would be a rules nightmare on my front to word how they would interact with it. No progress was made on this front today, the status quo remains.

After the terse pause, Playtesting begins.

We start with 80 cards for our first game, at 30 life, with three players in a multiplayer format. There are three players: Ashnod, the Uncaring/Time Sieve, Brenard/Panharmonicon, and Urza, Chief Artificer/Cranial Plating. These were commander decks cut down to 80 card decks, this is important to understand. T1-3 are uneventful, two players get out sol rings. T4 sees Ashnod beginning to set up the combo with the other players having minimal ways to react. By T6 it's an Ashnod win. Take aways from Game 1 were that 30 life felt like a good number, 80 cards felt like too much to sift through, and that this format incentivizes heavy interaction.

Game 2 we has the same setup, though I switched Urza, Chief Artificer/Cranial Plating to using Urza, Lord High Artificer and Goldmire Bridge. Urza got mana screwed for T1-T4. Ashnod was setting up the combo. Brenard was sidelined for mana issues. Urza got online and was able to get in somewhat but it was not enough. Ashnod won this game as well. By this game I was realizing that this format greatly favored wincons already in the shop, rather than fishing for them.

Game 3 I wanted to try 60 cards out, we kept the same 30 life out of experimentation. It plays fast. I switch back to Urza, Chief Artificer/Cranial Plating, and it has a much better leg up, and is able to deal solid damage all around with massive creatures. 60 card I noticed does lend itself better to aggro as it gives them less variation in what they're having to fish for, and 30 life dampens Bolas' Citadel shenanigans from where they would be, though the point was made that Brawl uses 25 and that could also be a much more favorable number as this format also doesn't have a commander damage analog. Urza slaughtered the table unforgivingly, the other decks were not built to handle a deck like that; nor, were they all that optimal now that we were in the 60 card trenches, which was met with very tired looks all around. 60 card felt better to me, but my own thoughts are separate from the case of this match.

We did not have any 1v1 match games as is intended with the format, so I can not comment on the state of that meta.

General Match Takeaways: 30 life seems to be a very good place right now, with the option to go to 25 in the future. 80 cards +15 sideboard will be kept for now, with the option to go to 60 cards +15 sideboard down the line.

Artifice Tip #1: Keep a stifle in hand at all times.

[senstless]

Splinterlands BATTLE MAGE SECRETS Featuring Explosive Weaponry in Bronze!

Featuring Bronze League Summoner and Monsters in Action!

CHALLENGE RULES

RULESET: Explosive Weaponry

Description: All units gain the Blast ability.

Additional damage is equivalent to main damage divided by 2, rounded up.

Include a unit with Reflection Shield in your lineup to absorb blast damage and protect your back line.

Reasons Why I like it Giving all monsters the blast ability, which gives them all blast damage on your tax can make some monsters exceptionally powerful. Typically cards that have blood bust, or high attacks are more powerful than normal. Classically this rule set has been dominated by cards that play snipe as it will damage up to 3 monsters versus your typical 2. This also has a big focus on cards with reflection Shield.

The Matchup - Where Rules Sets, Splinters and Mana Collide

The Rule Sets

Watch the Match Here

MANA: 32

Ruleset: Explosive Weaponry: All monsters gain the blast ability.

SPLINTERS: Water, Life, Dragon

Initial Rule Set and Mana Gameplay Thoughts

Rulesets As I said before, I think this rule set papers fast attacking cards, with an additional focus on big attacks, bloodlust, or snipe. Some way to get additional damage in the first few rounds that can turn out to be critical

Mana P 32 mana is a little light but leaves enough room to play most of the cards you want while still making some sacrifices. And 32 minutes I don't think it'll be too big of a deal either way and you should be able to make a fairly good team from either splinter

Splinters

Going down to only two splinters plus dragons makes it a little bit more difficult. I think that fire death and Earth all have great cards that could be used and benefit from explosive weaponry. There's still some good options and I think it would be an even split between water life depending on if you went with opportunity attacks, or kept in Katie's snipe magic attack.

Summoner POSSIBILUS THE WISE Decided to go with an overwhelming mailing attack hoping to get a lot of splash damage to reduce monsters health that will allow trample to be triggered and get bonus attacks

First Position DIEMONSHARK High armor and health plus speed needs it should attack first and might be missed a few times. Biggest concern is no protection against magic

Second Position VENARI MARKSRAT

Since they'll be a lot of splash damage, I might as well give both cards a boost to the stats and see if we can't turn things in my favor

Third Position COASTAL SENTRY If I'm going to give a card reach, then coastal century is my primary choice. Double strike with three to four melee damage and trample means it could really get on a roll

Fourth Position VENTAR KINJO Reflection Shield here to help protect my healer as much as possible. Likely not going to make a difference but I figured it was a decent idea

Fifth Position MERDAALI GUARDIAN Trying to heal either demon shark or coastal century if I get the opportunity.

Sixth Position TORRENT FIEND

Opponent Lineup & Match Play

Summoner HELIOS MATRIARCH Interesting to the voice to go with dragon. Also gives them access to Gladius cards and an additional speed so it's always a decent option

VENARI MARKSRAT This card gets put everywhere in anywhere that we expect it to provide the most benefit from the Martyr boost

DJINN OSHANNUS Dangerous card to get boosted from martyr. If the speed starts to get too high it'll become almost unhittable and could be really troublesome to take out

TORRENT FIEND Looks like an attempt to place it here to soak up one of the splash damage tax and allow Larissa a chance to keep itself

LARISSA KERATO Great card, and one that I don't have yet. A double striking magic attack card with bloodlust and now splash damage means it could really start to build up its stats and become overpowered to the point that it wins the marriage

RIVER HELLONDALE Sneaky play here, playing that resurrect to give a double boost to Djinn Oshannus

CHAOS AGENT

Similar to myself, it looks like it's just a rear sneak attack protection.

Round 1

Round one starts off and the additional health I got for my seminar is actually making an impact and allowing a couple cards to stick around longer than I would have expected. I do suffer the first knockout of Markscrat. Luckily it gives a boost to both demon shark and coastal century. Additional speed is critical. Ending round one that's the only card lost

Round 2

Around 2:00 is about to get crazy. Additional speed I picked up from martyr weighs heavily in my favor and I now have two cards second second and third in the order. Demon shark knocks out their Markscrat. Since I have trample it follows up an additional attack on Djinn Oshannus before the murder boost is applied and that attack triggers splash damage to knock out torrent fiend. Luckily for me Markscrat kids resurrected and the next attack comes from coastal century. The splash damage which hits every single time brings Djinn Oshannus down to three health before the trample from the second knockout of Markscrat. The trample is enough to knock out Djinn, and bring the health and Larissa down to two. The second attack knocks Larissa out and remove the armor from River hellondale. That knockout triggers yet another trample which knocks out River Hellondale and the splash damage takes out Chaos agent.

Because of the extra damage done by explosive weaponry, and the travel effect coastal century attacked a total of four times knocking out pretty much their entire team. That was a 16 melee damage done on a primary attacks and eight splash damage done from explosive weaponry. It went from looking like I was thinking of a hard time hitting Djinn Oshannus to wiping them off and getting a picture very early.

LESSONS LEARNED - STRAGEGY FOR NEXT TIME

Explosive Damage always hits - not matter the speed. My first take away is that the explosive weaponry splash damage always hits the adjacent monsters. Doesn't matter how fast they are, if the attack hits the first monster then the splash damage always hurts the second monsters. Sometimes that can hurt you as it did in this case for my opponent where I was able to deal significant damage to the second tank current prior to getting boosted the moving to the front

Trample Triggers before Martyr Another key factor here is that trample appears to trigger prior to Martyr boost if I had it reversed, and Martyr was applied first then the additional speed might make my trample attack mess. Something to consider especially when you're playing cards that have bloodluster boost the trample will take effect prior

Don't underestimate reflection shield If my opponent had used reflection Shield somewhere in the lineup, I think they could have really protected themselves a bit more. It would have been available to hold on to their armor and not lose it on the splash damage, or lose their health from splash. While it doesn't always work it does provide some huge benefits

~~@senstless

[sacred-stanning]

Chapter 9 Part 3: Recruitment on the Battlefield

We left off just as we were about to push through the door of the fort.

This guy is holding a key, so Lute relieves him of it.

Ephraim equips the heavy lance we just picked off of the dead cavalier and waits for the armor to come over.

The guy quickly discovers that Ephraim is not a horse, and his horse killer lance will not be killing Ephraim.

Ephraim also gets a pretty good level up. I want to see some more defense though.

Before we open this door, let's see what we have to deal with.

The armors both have javelins. Then there are two guys with swords, and behind them (outside the frame) we have Amelia and a soldier.

Amelia, like Ross, is a trainee unit, so she starts with only 4 move.

Then we have a bunch of jerk archers and mages in the thin hallways. It was also around this time that I remembered that I hadn't done any weapon shopping in a while. Of the five units I have who can use javelins, I think only 2 of them still had working javelins at this point.

Artur takes the key from Lute and opens the door for her.

The armors don't currently have their javelins equipped, so Lute gets a free kill here.

I throw Franz up in front of Lute so that she doesn't have to take any physical hits. And Ephraim uses the heavy lance again to take out the armor.

Ephraim has taken some damage, so I put Seth in front of him, and also take a moment to unequip the heavy lance in favor of his personal lance, since the heavy lance is, true to its name, quite heavy. The mercenaries can't reach Ephraim, but the mage or archer can, and I'd rather he doesn't get doubled. Seth equips an iron lance.

Franz takes (lol) 0 damage, Seth takes (lol) 1. Ephraim only takes 3 from the archer, although this is also where I noticed that he has a long bow, not a normal bow, so he's got some extra range.

Always check enemy inventories!

Two cavaliers appear in this hallway next to Tana's cell. One of them has a javelin, but again, if you don't move Tana she's fine.

Amelia and her soldier friend had moved down, so Franz is able to move up towards Amelia and talk to her.

Franz gives her tips on how to hold her lance since she looks like she's going to fall down. He sympathizes and says he was the same when he originally started training.

Franz makes it clear he doesn't want to fight her, and tells her she should join.

Amelia says that she's heard rumors that Ephraim captures women from enemy countries and asks if she'll really be safe from Ephraim if she surrenders.

She uses the word "koukyuu" to describe the place that Ephraim is rumored to drag women back to, which is a word referring to the women's quarters in a castle where a king or whoever would keep his harem.

Franz: "Ephraim is not that kind of person...I think."

Jesus, Franz, what the hell kind of answer is that?

But then he reassures Amelia that it's fine, and that he guarantees her safety.

Now, I will not be using Amelia because she is bad and frustrating to level up.

As an example, here she is getting doubled and utterly destroyed even when attacking this guy with a slim lance.

Unlike Ross, who shows up with a light, accurate hatchet that allows him to safely attack enemies from 2 range, Amelia has no special 2-range option. She can use a javelin, but those are heavy, and she'll be super slow and inaccurate.

Use Amelia if you like her (I have in the past) and she'll get good eventually, but it's a real struggle at first.

So first I have Lute deal with this mercenary...

Then Ross starts on the archer.

Since I'm low on 2-range options, Kyle hands his busted javelin over to Ephraim. Ephraim is faster, so the hope is that he'll take this guy out.

The hope was that Ephraim would take out that long bow archer. He managed to miss one of his shots though. I double check the range because I realize I have Amelia (weak) with only 4 move deep in there, and Ross has gotten kind of beat up too. And Vanessa is limited in where she can end up because of the archers.

Uhhhhh.......

Next time! Let's get out of this mess without someone dying maybe???

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette Bonus Round: UTNT's Fury of Fire

Welcome back to the world of pretentiousness known as Ultimate Torment and Torture. Today we will be taking a look at the separate episode of this WAD titled…

B15: Fury of Fire

Main author(s): Daniel Gimmer (Tormentor667)

Release date: September 9th, 2007 (original release)

Version(s) played: 1.07

Required port compatibility: GZDoom

Levels: 1

Not enough of the weird Tormentor667 stench that he puts in his WADs? Don’t worry, you can play another episode that is (technically) not connected to the main part of the WAD. And yes, it does have moments of unintentional cringe and laughter, including the cutscene; you know, like the rest of the WAD. Now with stopping alien-looking creatures from leaving hell or something.

Now, like with the previous, bonus review, do me a favor and read the original one on this WAD before reading this review.

Are you done? Good! Let’s take a look at the final piece of UTNT.

Like the rest of UTNT, Fury of Fire looks great. The demonic cave with outposts coupled with the more grassy tops, while looking kind of boring in the first half (without counting the secret areas), still looks at least good in my eyes.

The music is… I don’t actually know. Just when I started hearing Matrix music again, after what I experienced with the fourth episode, I thought NOPE! I CAN’T TAKE THIS SHIT SERIOUSLY! and just turned it all off. Like I said in my original review, the Matrix soundtrack might fit great when it comes to the movies themselves and some laugh-inducing media that doesn’t take itself seriously, but it all falls down when your work takes itself as seriously as possible and sniffs its own farts in return.

I probably skipped some really good bangers in the process, but can you really blame me?

This map isn’t really complicated, it’s just really annoying in some places. Particularly the demonic cave section, where there are many instances of backtracking from one far place to another just to press the switch or grab a key.

There are two optional sections in this map. One references Wolfenstein, and the other references the original E1M1. I’ll get to them more later when I’ll be talking about the difficulty of this map.

Speaking of which... Fury of Fire is at least as tough as the rest of UTNT. It might be the hardest map to play due to the Wolfenstein section, which sucks; it’s full of hitscanner enemies that fire the moment even one, tiny pixel comes out of the cover; sometimes I feel like the enemies could deal a shit ton of damage while surviving so many bullets/pellets that you will run out of them before reaching the teleporter back to the main section of the map.

The other optional section isn’t that bad; it’s just a mirrored E1M1 with much tougher enemies that aren’t as annoying as the previous one (at least almost all of them) and with different textures.

There are some additional enemies that weren’t in the other episodes. There is Snake Imp (a tougher variant), Zombie Marine (even worse than Hoovy; no wind up), Railgunner which shoots orange projectiles rather than red ones, and the final boss which is Duke Nukem’s Alien Queen and her Protector Drones (or how they are called, I can’t remember). Of course, there are Wolfenstein enemies in their dedicated section.

And... that’s basically all I have to say about Fury of Fire. It’s just more UTNT in all of its glory and cringe. It kind of fits as an epilogue, not gonna lie.

And that’s all for the bonus WADs of 2007. In the next week I’ll be finally tackling the 2008 roster of Cacowards, starting with, surprise, surprise, a gameplay mod (I’ll have to come out with an award to it because these things are different from conversions (booger sugar... something; I don’t know at this point)).

Anyway, thank you all for reading my filth, and I’ll see you next time.

Bye!

[wreckedregent7]

Regent's Ramblings: Arena Thoughts

Welp, Arena's second run in League is about to come to a close, and I've played plenty of it over the past while, and have quite a lot of mixed feelings about the gamemode. And, as though a single soul should care what I think, I'm going to organize my thoughts and vent about it at-length here.

Let's start with some of the stuff we can get out of the way quickly; starting with some of the more neutral mechanical changes. The randomization of the Ring's ending position is nice, and does change up the round-to-round gameplay while discouraging sessile camping playstyles with Champions like Zyra and Heimerdinger. They can still be situationally effective, but no longer an overwhelming pain point.

The once-per-round revives are...meh. They can potentially make for some impactful plays, but more often they flit between a binary of "the enemy has a tank so they're guaranteed to get a revive" or "by the time my revive is available the ring has already covered the pool so we're stuck with a 1v2." I don't think the revives add any reasonably unique benefits to the gamemode, and skew things heavily in favor of tankier Champions, making mages, assassins, and marksmen have a rougher time in a gamemode that already generally disfavors them.

The Hexgates...I do not like. Their ease of use combined with their cooldown can lead to degenerate gameplay strategies of hovering around a hexgate for an easy escape, especially in maps with poor or minimal healing flower placement, and the mechanics are violently inconsistent to the point where I've dodged a perilous situation, only to die immediately after coming out on the other side to a basic attack that somehow ignores the concept of being "untargetable".

For the Champion Cameos; holistically, I don't think they benefit the game mode at all. Champion Cameos range from "extremely rarely impactful" like Sett, to "changes the approach of engagement" like Pyke, to "extremely frustrating and unnecessary gamechangers" like Gwen. The fact that Gwen remains chafes me, but hers isn't impossible to deal with.

The new Cameos, unfortunately, fall on the opposite extremes of that scale; Thresh is...Inoffensive and seldom impactful. Knowledgeable players can use him to add variance to a fight with the escapes/maneuverability he provides, but if that has ever actually changed the outcome of a round, I have not noticed.

Sylas, on the other hand, is objectively the most frustrating cameo to get, bar none. Even playing a Marksman in a Gwen cameo is reasonable; Sylas is just a matter of "whoever gets the CC ult wins unless they play like absolute apes". Playing super well as a high-damaging hypercarry, outmaneuvering your foes? Well FUCK YOU, Sylas just gave you Mundo Ult while the enemy gets Lissandra and Malphite Ult.

Sylas' cameo so singularly swings the outcome of a fight by pure, unadulturated randomness, I hope to god if Riot decides to run Arena a third time, they axe him entirely and never look back.

And now, we get on to Augments; this is quite possibly an unsolvable problem, because on the one hand, the randomization of Augments is core to the gamemode, but on the other hand, the design of Augments is to warp a Champion's playstyle in unique ways, but due to the complete randomization of it, leads to more of an issue of having to play around a bad hand for the majority of cases.

I've played a match where I got terrible augment selections, with the best that I got being minor throughput buffs, while an enemy Riven got decked out from the outset with a broken Augment combo in Slap Around (stacking Adaptive force for Stunning/Knocking enemies Airborne) and Earthwake (every dash is followed by a delayed AoE damage burst).

As well, so many of the newer augments are game-warping now, often resulting in situations that cannot be countered or otherwise lend to an unhealthy game state.

Oppressively high Ability Haste buffs (particularly for basic abilities - ever see a Jax permanently in Counter Strike?), free healing for so many actions, %max health true damage for any ability hit, and the especially annoying Raid Boss, which is simultaneously a noob trap for uncoordinated teams and the singular reason you can't kill that fucking Swain, there's no real strategy to be had - you just luck your way into a god-rolled Augment selection and win without reprisal.

Also, while it isn't powerful by any means, fuck Nesting Doll. There's no point to this augment besides delaying a win and dragging matches out as long as possible, and it's unnecessary due to the Revival Mechanic.

My only hopes for the next run of Arena are these three, since I know Riot's never going to bother trying to make the gamemode balanced;

Limit Swain's ult duration. He is incredibly difficult to deal with on account of having functionally indefinite healing since it's so difficult to actually escape his ult range.

Get rid of Sylas cameo. There's already enough randomization in the gamemode, we don't need quadruple-layered randomness deciding the outcome of a match, let alone a single round.

Increase Grievous Wounds' effectiveness to match the dramatic healing potential in the gamemode; Trundle and Swain are oppressive to deal with thanks to their absurdly easy healing, some Champions with innate healing on their abilities can just build to become impromptu healers without sacrificing damage, and some Augments provide needlessly strong healing for zero cost. 40% Healcut is not sufficient to counter the amount of healing that can be had in this gamemode.