Hey there! Are there any other beasts in slug city or is it just the orchid and electric ones?

there are other beasts !! Smooks has one, it's made of paint! Best seen in this image

Delta and Oster and Co. have them too, Delta's is a round-ish beast with many leg and eyes surrounding its entire body with waterfall-like tears. Oster and Co's is one with multiple heads, each representing one of the "main" alters. I would like to heavily rework these both design-wise and concept-wise. Here's old art of them!

so the aero part in my username never had anything to do with airplanes or even anything necessarily aerodynamic/air related

it's the name i gave a character who was an archer. I named a character that attacks with arrows "aero" because i had no other ideas. then i became a furry and when i made my current 'main' sona (Aero), instead of giving them a name like my previous sonas (Sytrus and Arkiose), I just said to refer to them as if they were me, though people would refer to me as Aero since that was my name on most platforms at the time anyway.

So yeah Aero is named Aero because of an archery pun from a humansona character i threw in the dumpster. SyntaxAero is word play on "Syntax Error" (Some accents pronounce Aero and Error almost the exact same), which I always thought was clever! but then people started calling me Syntax (and still do) instead of Aero sooo I eventually made a sona named Syntax to cover that. Some people also somehow don't know how to pronounce SyntaxAero despite the fact that it's two words and capitalized as SyntaxAero in any platform i can capitalize my username as such in. seriously ive had people call me "Sine-tax" before

anyways as for the other sona names

Aurex - wasn't actually my idea but i no longer know who to credit this to; can mean King of Gold/Golden King (Latin: Aurum and Rex) but that wasn't intentional funnily enough! ALSO funnily enough the name of some Toshiba audio products! I have audio equipment autism!

Delta (Valstrax) - It's just sort of a gender feeling name that felt right for me. but also yes Partially Inspired By The Airline Name since Valstrax is a jet dragon and I've gone full airplane liker mode at this point.

Stratus - Spur of the moment kind of name! though I can't remember if i gave them cloudy details before or after i came up with the name! either way, creature of the clouds with a cloud name. ... coincidentally tangentially related to aviation?? I guess? so that's 3 sonas with something to do with flying

Biscuit - This wasn't meant to be their final name but it's the only name I couldve thought of when I first concepted them !!! I even commissioned a piece of them eating biscuits way before I ever actually finalized the design, soooooooo. yeah they remain biscuit forever. it's a cute name though and i like being called a biscuit

yes I have 6 sonas yes it's. alot. but the mood on who I wanna draw or get art of shifts fairly rapidly which is how im sorta able to manage it all (though, Delta barely gets drawn because FUCK those wings oh my god they hurt to draw, and they've been in redesign hell for a while, and Syntax hasn't really had a spotlight due to Aurex sort of just taking some of Syntax's defining traits and running with it {referring to their shapes and fat necks})

Still not over how bad I find the Reaper modules, so I'm going to write about modules. I'll mark the ones that I don't like for redesign, which will be in one group at the bottom. I know the concept of Delta modules exists and I could just make a Delta module but I don't want to.

Long post. Flip open to read.

Deadeye X: Distance = damage - it's fine. Some under the hood math makes it worse than it looks, apparently. Y: no kill = sp - it's good.

Core Caster X: -10 Res - exceptional and boring. Core Casters are boring, so it fits. Y: get sp - it's good.

Hookmaster X: pull = hurt - it's good. Performs better than it looks like on paper.

Dollkeeper X: Doll Atk+ - it's fine. Y: Doll Hp+ - it's fine, or would be if it wasn't the same as X.

Musha X: <50% hp = tank - Exceptional. You really feel the difference between having this and not.

Swordmaster X: more skill damage - It's good. Does exactly what 90% of them want. Y: -70 Def - it's on the wrong operators. Or rather, the only Swordmaster who wants this (Bibeak) doesn't have it. They gave this to Irene to Ireign her in. "But Bibeak deals Arts damage with her skills" - the one skill everyone uses on her might as well do 0 damage. That's not its purpose. She just wants to poke people to death.

Marksman X: air = damage - it's good when it applies and fits the subclass. Y: ground = fast - it's good.

Artilleryman X: -100 def - boring and irrelevant. Y: blocked = ouch - functional.

Chain Caster X: more slow, less falloff - it's good. Y: no falloff - boring, same effect as X

Hexer X: hit = weak - it's good and fits the subclass.

Summoner X: 1st summon = robot - very good and makes people actually use them in more stages Y: more summon - it's good

Besieger X: heavy = damage - it's good, fits with the subclass. Very functional.

Therapist X: sneak and resist - very good, removes the flaw innate to Therapist (has to heal self to get Resist) and Medics in general (Want to deploy late, don't want to get hit) Y: no falloff - boring. It's just numbers. Won't redesign cause Medics aren't my department. I won't even write down the other Medic modules.

Executor X: life insurance - it's fine, more comfy to use them. Y: alone = damage - it's good and fits the subclass.

Merchant X: discount - exceptional.

Dreadnought X: blocked = damage - it's good. Serves their duel purpose. Y: +1 Life - exceptional. Exciting and functional. Duel beyond death, come back stronger, it's got it all. Still doesn't get me to use them much though.

Heavyshooter X: become executor - exceptional. Gives them a totally different feel. This is what I want, not boring number increases. Y: become Reimu - exceptional. Fuck those dodgy idiots. Would be nice if it was spread around better among the <6 stars, but we have Melanite now.

Guardian X: Does this even exist? Probably ups healing. Y: take less damage - boring, but functional. Patches up their relative frailty.

Duelist X: have sp regen - exceptional, but goes agains their subclass identity. Allows them to receive sp-support too. Ptilo like doubles the reduced regen they have with this just by hanging out. Y: become buff - boring, but fits the subclass. Just have more stats. Duelists are the big stat class.

Ambusher X: slow - it's good, gives them better uptime. It's a slow, not a Slow, so it stacks. Y: more dodgy - 30% reduced odds of taking a hit, very strong.

Pioneer X: gain stats while blocking - it's good, it's boring. Y: first deploy = cheap - Exceptional. Exciting! Enter mission, have a 9 cost Saga, drop her onto the field immediately. Wonderful.

Splash Caster X: become Core - not as good as it sounds. The relevant Splash Casters either don't have this (Skyfire, Mostie) or have range-increase skills that ignore the module (Leonhardt, Dusk, Mostie) Y: become "cheap" - accidentally exceptional. The base effect is already good, don't underestimate it, but Dusk's and Mostie's Y module have such a strong impact on their performance that they warp the perception of SPCY to being even better than it is.

Decel Binder X: get sp - Very good. Works well for these guys in every way.

Mystic Caster X: charge more - it's good. It does what they do but more. Y: charge fast - it's fine. Isn't Ebenholz the only one who has this anyway?

Charger X: more dp, always full refund - exceptional. This is one of the best module base effects. It doubles their DP generation and allows them to always be retreated for full cost. Does everything they want. Y: execution damage - it's good. They're a duelist type, so it works well, but you pretty much always want X because it does so much.

Flinger X: more - it's good. What's there to say?

Protector X: more def Y: more block. I don't know which is which.

Push Stroker X: more push - it's good. Y: refund half current DP cost when retreating from ranged tile - Why. Could've just put nothing.

Trapmaster X: trap crit - This is good but I don't like it because it does nothing for Frost but she's stuck with it now. The talent buff effect on it is good, but the base effect is meh (for her. Don't decapitate me, Dorothyheads.)

Phalanx Caster X: retain some def while attacking - it's good.

Mech-Accord Caster X: more drone damage - it's so bad. It amounts to nothing.

Reaper X: heal more FUCK this module. Yes, this still was about the Reapers all along. I'm still not over it.

I don't like how when a Module X for a new class comes out, all the existing <6 stars get that one instead of just leaving some without it so they can get the Y type if it fits better. I'd rather have nothing than a module that amounts to putting +25 Levels onto the operator who got it.

So here's the redesigns:

Dollkeeper Y: Substitute has more HP. This is fine and I wouldn't care, if the X type didn't have the exact same effect.

Instead of this, I'll just do this: Substitute has +1 Block. or this: Switch back to main body faster. The +1 Block could be pretty interesting, especially for Laurentina who is just so beefy with her squad support and the faster swapping is just a boring, but generally good effect.

Artilleryman X: Ignore 100 Def when attacking. Ignoring 70 Def as Swordmaster is fine, because you're a fast-attacking, low damage/hit class, but Artilleryman is a subclass that hits you once every five seconds for big damage. 100 more or less def won't make a difference, except for Jieyun but that's life I guess.

Redesign: -8 Deployment Cost. "But this is just SPCY" Yes.

Chain Caster Y: No damage fall-off for chained attacks. This would, again, be fine if X didn't already reduce fall-off. We don't need two modules that do the same thing.

Redesign: +1 Jump. Simple, boring, effective. Or this: Increased jump range. Could increase it to the point where it can reach across an entire tile. Would be interesting to let Chain Casters cover two lanes that are a tile apart.

Splash Caster X: +1 Attack Range. Splash Casters need help. I like the +1 Range module so this is more of a "Delta" idea.

Take 1: Increased Attackspeed per enemy in range. Take 2: Increased SP regen per enemy in range.

Splash Casters suck without a skill up and both variants amend this by either making them better without a skill up (1) or shortening the time they spend without a skill up (2). Now, these are the tame versions. If I were to actually get to make these they'd be like this: Take 1: Increased Aspd per enemy on the map. Take 2: Increased SP regen per enemy on the map.

Push Stroker Y: 50% current DP refunded when retreating from a ranged tile. Again I will ask: Why? Who came up with this? Did they design other modules? Surely this was just some intern who got onto their educator's computer, saw an open document for module design proposals and put this in with their eyes closed. What's the reasoning behind it? Are we really shuffling Push Strokers around this much that we need a discount? How frequently are we putting them on ranged tiles anyway? Whenever I use one, I have them on the floor because of their pretty good performance in melee combat.

So why don't we do this: Halved redeploy time when retreating from a ranged tile.

This, just like the actual module, promotes an alternative (in my eyes) playstyle. With this you actually can shuffle them around all over the map, so long as you play into the restriction.

Mech-Accord Caster: Damage cap of drone increased to 120% (from 110%). So this is just silly. Here's how much of an increase this is: You go from dealing 210% damage at full stacks to 220%. This is a 4.5% increase. If you have two drones it goes from 320% to 340%, which is 5.9% more. At three drones you get 6.5% more damage. This is so whatever. It's also just boring. You do nothing with this. If we have to stick with this, at least make it 130% (which was the number I wrote down for my module predictions. I predicted this very predictable module, big shoulder pats). With that you get +8.9% damage with one drone (basic performance), 11.1% with two and 12.3 with three. This is respectable, good even.

So now that Module X is fixed, let's whip up a funny Module Y: When defeated, doesn't retreat for 10 seconds, gains +1 drone during that time.

A non-irrelevant number of M-A Casters perform in a rather haphazard manner, so I think this is a suitable thing to give to them. And Kjera. I don't care if this makes Susie overpowered, she's already really strong, I just want something nice for my granny.

Reaper X: Recovers 60 HP per enemy hit during attacks, up to Block count. I hate this. It's boring and dumb. I can understand wanting to make a module that increases the self-healing of Reapers, I really do, but this is not the way.

Watch me do it right: Recovers 50 HP per enemy hit during attacks.

No target limit. This still increases their sustain, but only when they're in a "many whelps, handle it" situation as they should be. Seeing many numbers pop up at once is exciting! Seeing a 60 instead of a 50 isn't.

So now I fixed Module X, but I don't want that for La Pluma so I'll make the Y one. In my module predictions I wrote down "+1 Block", "Deal increased damage to low health% targets" and "Gain increased Aspd at lower health". These are all shit. Derivative and boring.

Let's try to do better:

Reaper Module Y: Whenever an attack interval passes without making an attack, build up Execution Counters. Inflict % of max health physical damage to target per Execution Counter. Doubled Reduced vs Bosses.

Is this practical? Not usually, no. This entirely goes against their common use of sitting on high-traffic lanes and instead promotes putting them on low-traffic ones.

Does this even work for La Pluma? No, hardly. She wants a bunch of kills. But just think of the moments where it does work. That's what it's about. It doesn't have to be good always, it has to be exceptional sometimes.

Do Reapers even need a base module effect in the first place? No, they don't. Reapers are already a premium subclass that excel in a widely applicable field, that is handling trash waves and occasional strong enemies. They're incredibly strong with just their basic traits and attacks and have flexibility in their positioning thanks to their odd attack range. You can let them tank, you can place them around a corner and let someone else tank or combine them with another offensive melee fighter, you can put two of them side by side or use two reapers to hold one lane with a corner position or whatever else. With such a strong base, we should do something wacky.

This is an idea I had for some fanart for this AU, and I was wondering if you have ever had a similar idea: since there are AFAC versions of Kris, Susie, Noelle, etc. have you considered possibly taking some of the darkners and redesigning them as monsters that would fit into AFAC's setting? Even just as a fun noncanon thing it might be interesting. I might try sending in some of my fandesign concepts as well!

Feel free to do that.

Honestly, most of them as monsters would likely look very similar to their selves in Delta Rune except maybe a slight change in wardrobe for some.

-TQ

Crash Landers

pairing: kageyama tobio/ tsukishima kei  prompt: tsukkikage + pacific rim AU (SASO ‘17) summary:  In which Tsukishima Kei, J-tech mechanic extraordinaire, tries to stop an infuriatingly stubborn Kageyama Tobio from piloting his Jaeger solo. Pacific Rim AU.

also on ao3.

“I’m not doing this,” Kageyama snaps, making a beeline for the exit, only to be manually dragged back onto the bed.

“Pilot induction program,” Tsukishima announces, and Kageyama splutters. (It is not one of his prouder moments.) “Now sit down and listen.”

“I’ve been piloting for four years,” Kageyama retorts, feeling personally attacked in spite of himself.

“Which is why this is long overdue,” Tsukishima says, coolly. “Now, pay attention to point number one on the screen. Did you know that, even after controlling for confounding variables, the odds ratio of mortality associated with piloting solo is-"

It’s 5 AM on a Thursday morning when Kageyama is awakened by a series of furious tapping on his door, followed by the sound of something crashing, and - "Listen up, you crazy lunatic," announces the tall, blonde-haired stranger looming at his doorway, impervious as to 1. Kageyama's withering glare, 2. the fact that it is 5 AM in the morning, 3. the fact that Kageyama is wearing nothing but boxers, and 4. any concept of basic human decency and personal space. "I heard the higher ups cleared your request to pilot my jaeger alone." Kageyama barely has the time to interject with the half-choked sound of an enraged animal before the stranger continues on, in his infuriatingly obnoxious tone, "While I don't particularly care about whether your brain turns into soup, I'll have you know that Delta Lux was built to withstand five point three billion volts of electrical energy, three hundred and twenty-two tonnes of Kaiju waste, but not sheer human idiocy." It takes a while for Kageyama's brain to process the crazy asshole's soliloquy and the accompanying insult, in no small part because the speech, while impassioned in content, was delivered via a quiet, deadpan monotone. "Who are - why is - fucking 5 AM," is all that Kageyama manages. He winces. "Tsukishima kei, because I built Delta Lux, and a good morning to you too," the stranger says, each syllable slow and deliberate and positively oozing vitriol, before breaking into a particularly sadistic grin. When he leaves the room the door slams behind him. Kageyama spends the rest of the morning in a particularly livid mood, but promptly writes off the incident from his mind by noon. The Tsukishima guy’s probably another crazy weirdo, which is no anomaly because Shatterdome's teeming with them; living in a confined environment, and the incredible pressure of being on constant alert, will do that to anyone, even those in possession of any reasonable degree of coping skills. Not that Kageyama’s being a hypocrite about it; if someone calls him bonkers - well, he's never pretended to be anything else. (He really should've known better than to just write the incident off, though; crazy lunatics are nothing if not perversely obstinate. That’s how he’d gotten the clearance from the higher ups to do solo piloting to begin with, by refusing to step foot into a jaeger so long as it meant working with anyone else.) (That, and the fact that Kageyama Tobio is the most promising pilot Shatterdome’s seen in five years, and also because the one person he used to be drift compatible with is now gloriously and irrevocably dead. Not that Kageyama blames himself for it, or anything. No, these things happen to the best of them. Every night Kageyama sits in his room, smokes cigarettes after cigarettes, and his hands shake but his eyes do not water.) The next day, this time at 3 AM in the morning, Kageyama is awakened yet again by the door being flung open unceremoniously. This time without even knocking. Just how low can this Tsukishima guy sink? Kageyama starts to splutter indignantly (”but I installed a lock last night!”), to which Tsukishima just looks at him pityingly with a glance that clearly states “a contraption of that calibre wouldn’t be able to stop a cognitively challenged three-year-old toddler, to say nothing of the accomplished technician that I am.” Before Kageyama has the time to grab the nearest alarm clock and smash it into Tsukishima’s damn face, however, his finds his senses assaulted by a powerpoint slide being projected onto the wall, titled, Why You Should Not Pilot Solo. Upon closer inspection, Tsukishima seems to be holding a projector in his hands. It takes Kageyama a few moments to suspend his disbelief because, firstly, do these things still exist? “I’m not doing this,” Kageyama snaps, making a beeline for the exit, only to be manually dragged back onto the bed.

“Pilot induction program,” Tsukishima announces, and Kageyama splutters. (It is not one of his prouder moments.) “Now sit down and listen.” “I’ve been piloting for four years,” Kageyama retorts, feeling personally attacked in spite of himself. “Which is why this is long overdue,” Tsukishima says, coolly. “Now, pay attention to point number one on the screen. Did you know that, even after controlling for confounding variables, the odds ratio of mortality associated with piloting solo is - ” “What is wrong with you!” “I’d leave all questions until the Q&A section after the presentation,” Tsukishima informs him loftily. “Unless you’re interrupting because you can’t understand the technical terms, in which case I still do not care. Moving on -” This cannot be happening. Fifty five minutes and seventy convoluted slides later, Tsukishima turns off the projector, switches the lights back on, and throws Kageyama a long, withering glance that somehow manages to convey the very specific message of “if Delta Lux gets destroyed because you died while piloting it, it will be entirely your fault, and I will spit on your grave”. (By now, Kageyama is starting to suspect that Tsukishima’s entire repertoire of expressions can be divided cleanly to either ‘intensely dispassionate’ or ‘oddly specific derisiveness’, with nothing in between.) Tsukishima then stalks out of the room without a single word. So much for the Q&A section. Because Kageyama is one more sleep deprived night from being driven well past the point of irreversible insanity, he feels approximately zero remorse in storming into the J-tech headquarters the following day and demanding for directions to Tsukishima’s desk from the first person he sees. “Tsukishima’s office is on the right, two aisles down,” says the stricken looking boy at the front desk. So the asshole’s bigshot enough to get an office to himself. Whatever, Kageyama doesn’t care. Anyway, the lesser the audience when he beats the guy into a pulp, the better. He storms down the aisle purposefully and flings the door open. “Stop breaking into my room every morning, you sick lunatic,” Kageyama begins, brimming with indignant rage, only to realise that he is speaking to an empty room. Or rather, an uninhabited room. To call the place empty would be a far stretch of the imagination; for someone whose entire persona exudes stick-up-his-ass, Tsukishima’s office is surprisingly messy. There are random jaeger models littered on the floor, volumes and volumes of papers weighted down by an equally alarming number of books, and post-it notes covering almost every inch of wall space possible. The only desk in the room has been delegated to a sad corner, although Kageyama cannot reliably tell if it is indeed a desk or a block of wood that has been scribbled on and covered by a stack of blueprints that probably weighed more than it. Kageyama is about to leave the room when he catches sight of a photo pinned onto the wall, and his heart stops cold. It’s Kindaichi. Or rather, it’s a piece of paper with Kindaichi’s mugshot stuck onto it, along with a photo of the jaeger he’d been piloting when he died. Underneath it are paragraphs after paragraphs of furious scribbles: ejection pod JAMMED: backup energy for future models???? alt energ sources? discuss w Y ^date engine model -> DO NOT SACRIFICE STABILITY FOR PROPULSION/SPEED recalculate/redesign - KIV discuss next meeting ??funding?? KIV - change contractors?? SM wing material carbon fiber - durability?? SM contact - LM That’s when Kageyama realises that the entire wall has been covered with these papers: photos of jaeger pilots who’d died in the line of duty, complete with painstakingly tedious analyses of every possible flaw pertaining to the jaegers they’d flown, and methods for improvement. Jaegers that Tsukishima had helped to build. Pages after pages of them, tacked on with a dizzying amount of post-its and increasingly desperate scribbles. Whatever goes through Tsukishima’s mind when he looks up from his work and sees these reminders on his walls, day after day? When Tsukishima stormed into his room the other day, said things like, “Delta Lux was built to withstand five point three billion volts of electrical energy”, it wasn’t because he was trying to show off. It’s a startling realisation, Kageyama thinks, not least because this is a very different side to the impervious man who’d rattled off statistics and numbers in that oddly detached tone, just hours ago, as if he were reciting a sales pitch to a blank wall. It’s a startling realisation, to realise that anyone cares for you at all.

Driven by two-parts curiosity and one-part something he can’t quite name, Kageyama Tobio slips into the HR office later that day, and discovers a few things about Tsukishima Kei: 1. Tsukishima Kei is the youngest jaeger engineer to ever join Shatterdome, but he has spearheaded more than six major projects in an equal number of years. 2. Tsukishima Kei specialises in making jaegers that feature heavily in defense, especially against Kaiju Blue. Delta Lux, his newest creation, has an additional novel function of detoxifying Kaiju waste. 3. Before he became a technician, Tsukishima Kei had trained to become a pilot for a year. 4. Tsukishima Kei’s brother, Akiteru, used to be a jaeger pilot. He died in battle six years ago. When Kageyama drops by Tsukishima’s office in the evening, he finds Tsukishima glaring pointedly at a life sized blueprint of what looks like a design of the jaeger’s driver seat, with a sort of single minded ferocity that would likely induce a secondhand headache in Kageyama if he stared for ten more seconds. “I - I went back to Ops,” Kageyama blurts out, and is promptly awarded with the rare (and oddly satisfying) sight of Tsukishima startling before he whips his head around and stares. “Told them I changed my mind. They’re gonna start finding drift compatible partners for me starting tomorrow.” Tsukishima looks at him for a long, unnerving moment, his face impassive. “Good for you,” he finally says, as if this isn’t the intended outcome he’d spent two days tormenting Kageyama for. He turns back and continues to glare determinedly at the blueprint without another word. Kageyama almost goes up to shake him and maybe yell really loudly, or something, but decides to exercise extreme self-restraint and keep his mouth shut instead. There’s a few more seconds of radio silence, and then - “You know, if you could adjust the - the design of the seat to allow it to withstand the pressure during acceleration and deceleration, it would help a lot. Not so much for the impact when we launch but more like - when we exchange blows with the Kaiju and the impact sends us crashing into things, especially in cities or mountainous terrains - ” Tsukishima turns to stare at Kageyama again, but this time his gaze has sharpened with renewed interest. “Anyway, I’m just gonna - get going now,” Kageyama continues, hastily, as he inches towards the door. “Just don’t come barging into my room again tonight -” “No,” Tsukishima says just as Kageyama is almost out the door, causing him to almost reel back in surprise. “Tell me more.” Kageyama blinks. "You mean tell you more about the design?"

"No, I meant tell me more about your horoscope," Tsukishima snaps. Jerk.

Kageyama scowls. “I mean, it’s like when you’re turning and the jaeger goes ZNNNG and then you’re like BAAAM and - ” “Are those even human words?” Tsukishima interjects, looking two parts aghast and one small, tiny part almost amused. Kageyama is beginning to realise that Tsukishima is, in fact, capable of conveying expressions other than complete apathy and/ or derision. “I’m trying to be realistic,” Kageyama retorts, sounding a lot more annoyed than he actually is. “What, do you need me to do it in a powerpoint?” It earns him an unexpected smirk from Tsukishima. He's wildcard, this Tsukishima guy. “You know, that would be great.” It’s going to be another long night, but this time Kageyama thinks that he doesn’t actually mind. (Sometimes Kageyama catches Tsukishima staring at the rows of photos on the wall, an unreadable expression crossing his face; and then Tsukishima will notice Kageyama staring, and hastily look away. Kageyama doesn't say anything, doesn't have anything to say, but the knowledge settles, quietly, like a deep layer of dust on his heart.) It takes them five months to find Kageyama a drift compatible partner. Hinata Shouyou’s a wild, inconsistent thing, runs on too much pure instinct and too little restraint; drifting with him is like wielding a razor thin blade without a hilt. Kageyama, on the other hand, has precision down to a fine art. It is a recipe for an unthinkably disastrous outcome, and they really shouldn’t work out but they do. Above and beyond all else, however, Hinata is malleable. Kageyama has witnessed pilots bending and breaking under the sheer pressure of the battlefield, even during simulations and before stepping into an actual jaeger; Hinata might bend, but no matter how despairing the circumstance he will always remain forgeable. In their field there are few qualities more important than resilience. “We’re gonna be kept off duty for a while,” Kageyama tells Tsukishima the night after his first successful drift with Hinata. They’re lounging in Tsukishima’s office (when did this become routine?), although it’s not so much lounging as it is perched precariously amongst haphazard islands of blueprints and engine models. “Hinata’s gonna need six months’ worth of intensive training, and then we’re gonna pilot Delta Lux.” Tsukishima snorts, and doesn’t look up from the stack of notebooks he’s scribbling furiously into. “He can wait that long?” “He’s busy being ecstatic over the fact that he’s found someone drift compatible,” Kageyama acknowledges begrudgingly, and Tsukishima lets out something between an amused snort and a dismissive tch before diverting his complete attention to his notebook. Kageyama’s not jealous of a few pieces of paper, don’t be ridiculous. “What about you? Are you glad?” Kageyama asks, not sure as to why he’s asking, but does so anyway out of sheer curiosity. “That I found someone drift compatible, I mean.” This time Tsukishima doesn’t turn to face him, but the hand holding onto the pencil hovers, momentarily, in mid-air. “Don’t ask ridiculous questions,” is the reply. “You were gonna have to find a co-pilot eventually.” A pause, then: “We’ve finalised the pilot seat design based on what you told me the last time. If I harass the team frequently enough, they’ll be able to make the changes by the time you pilot the jaeger.” And even though it is not quite the answer he is looking for, Kageyama smiles anyway.

Kageyama doesn't know how, much less why, he ends up spending most of his free time lounging in Tsukishima's office, but it happens anyway. Sometimes they discuss jaeger designs; other times they engage in something that almost approximates small talk. Mostly, though, they go about their own work in a comfortable silence. If Tsukishima was initially resistant against the idea - "stop hovering around, you're distracting me" - his resistance against Kageyama's presence dwindles considerably as the days go by. Kageyama even makes friends with Tsukishima's colleague, Yamaguchi, whom Tsukishima is surprisingly tolerant (and perhaps, shockingly, even fond) of; sometimes even Hinata joins in the fray, and Tsukishima will throw a half-hearted hissy fit about how disruptive everyone is being, he's going to kick everyone out of the damn office, but for the most part no one takes his threats seriously. (One day, too tired caught up in training for his daily round of hovering around Tsukishima's office, Kageyama returns to his dorm room way past midnight and crashes into his bed. When he wakes up there's a large carton of milk on his dressing table, and a familiar neon green post-it note, the blue ink smudged from coming into contact with condensation: collected this from breakfast drink BEFORE 11AM or it WILL SPOIL. Kageyama laughs in spite of himself, takes a long swig, goes back to bed, closes his eyes, sleeps.) Kageyama will, much later, learn to look back at these days as one would an Indian summer: fondly, and wistfully. Always with nostalgia. As it turns out, they end up piloting Delta Lux two full months ahead of schedule, before Hinata can complete his training program. The Kaiju’s been attacking more frequently and with greater intensity, smashing through entire cities like they were made of paper mache; the general consensus was that nobody could wait that long. Right before he sets off, Kageyama stops by Tsukishima's office. Partly out of habit. "I'm leaving now," he tells Tsukishima, who's perched atop a mountainous pile of blueprints, fiddling with an engine model and a particularly nasty looking screwdriver. On the surface Tsukishima looks like he's going about doing his work as per normal; yet every so often the mask will slip, and his gaze will fall, inevitably, on those photos pinned onto his wall. "Just thought I should tell you." "See you," Tsukishima says, simply, and it is testament to how far they've come that Kageyama picks up a bestseller between those two words. Kageyama turns to leave the room, but stops abruptly in his steps. "You'll take them off when I come back, won't you?" Kageyama asks. "Those notes and photos of the ex-pilots on your wall." And Tsukishima Kei, being the fucking wildcard that he is, breaks into a smile (a smile smile, not a smirk or a sneer), says, "it's a deal." Addendum: As promised, the photos and notes and post-its are removed five days later; the wall is empty for approximately two days, until hinata decides to decorate it liberally with photos of the four of them.

Asset Management Mastery Journal

lnvidual Post Modem

    This project was a very strong learning experience into how assets management would work within the game industry. I learned quite few lessons through this class, I am also very glad that this class was in the course of this learning year in the game design master’s degree. The first lesson that I learned would be about the idea of time management. The way that this lesson was learned was when the estimates were given for the work that was to be done I believed that the best course of action at first would have been to give myself more time to do the characters that were assignment to me. I estimated that it may have taken longer than what it would due to making sure that I was covered for anytime that I may go over while creating the characters that were assigned to me in the game. I realized at the end of that week that I should have not done that, when I found out upon delivery of the information, it was recommended that I would be time boxed, which would mean that I had to then set my estimates to less time to get them complete. I was a little worried at first and the reason why is because I knew that my parents were coming down that weekend as well as on the day that I was told this I was given a big project in capstone. I was worried about the time management that would come into play. That weekend I also had a personal emergency that weighed heavier on my mind. This was tough to deal with along with everything else that was going on. I unfortunately prioritized the capstone work over my project work that weekend. I also did not get to the specific project work until late night of the deadline, I ended up being late and had to ask for more time from the art lead Alex, Which I do regret that I had to do that because I had to then rushed through the characters that I had to get done for the project. I did get the deliverable in however they were not at the standard that was expected for the game. 

    Through milestones 1 and 2, The main lesson that I learned would have been about prioritizing my time. I learned this lesson and I am also grateful for the experience because it allowed me to get some real-world experience to how a project could be with real life distractions, dealing with the personal emergency as well as my parents visit and the capstone work. I learned this lesson and I can take this to real word with this experience and apply it. Milestone 3 was a lot different because I now knew what had to be done and I learned from the experience with the feedback that I received and I made sure that the first priority after I had gotten out of capstone was this class project. As soon as the capstone work was completed then I would begin working on my project work continued work on the characters for the project every day. I also did get a chance because of capacity to see about redoing two models that I had trouble with the last Milestone. I tried a different approach when looking into the new models I decided to do everything that I could to make it look like what it was supposed to be, for an example when creating a wizard, I wanted to make sure that it looked like a wizard including what you would expect like a beard and a robe, Which seemed great at first until it was pointed out to me by the team that the redone wizard did not match the concept art. Because the concept art did not have a beard it was more of a Mario wizard without the beard. I also learned a lesson here. I learned that as an artist it is more important to match the concept art for what the art lead believes that the character should be. This was another lesson that I learned, I will continue to bring into the real-world experience that I am glad that I had also learned in this class project experience. 

   The final task that was given to me for that milestone was to set up some testing for the game. I did go ahead and do the testing, however when I did the testing I added my name to the notes that were already on the document, however there was a separate row specifically for my testing note information. When this was pointed out to me I did go ahead and copied the rows from the document on the excel file to file in that information, I did not realize that the excel file was formatted is a specific way so the copy and paste information would not be the correct rows. Which again would be another lesson for the continuation of the project and real life. When going into final milestone it was decided that the two artists would switch roles. That would mean that I would do props and Matias would do the characters for the game the reason for that would be because I was running very close to the amount of capacity that I had allowed for the project. I continued to work and I decided to try to get everything in as early as I could and did there was an issue with one of the props. I had a great art lead to help with a PDF that was sent to me with better explanations of how the props should work along with explanations of edge flow and the ways that things moving within the 3D space when modeling, which was very helpful with looking into and learning different aspects of 3D modeling. I truly appreciate the work that my Art lead put into the creation of this document. I will continue to learn and get better as an artist and a worker in the gaming industry. The final week for the Milestones I am going to continue to go through my previous characters or props that I have created and make any kind of improvements that I am be able to rather it be remodeling or little changes.  This class was definitely a good way of giving a good look at what an actual project in the game industry would be like and the way that time management and asset management can play in the game industry.

Group Postmortem            

Before we had stepped into Asset Management, the group was dealt with a challenge. Our capacity had two less people than Prototyping and Content Creation. This became an opportunity for the group as multiple people got more fluid roles in the project. We had a producer cover audio, an art lead also cover design, and two artists who got to try their hands at both character art and prop art. Immediately the group became more well-rounded thus.Learning from our mistakes two months ago, we immediately knew we needed an art lead. This allowed us to agree to a certain design that would not confuse the art team as we did when we made Little Cupid. The art lead provided references for all art which, unfortunately, was not followed. Some on the art team had their own vision and did not consider the art lead’s thought process as to why he chose the references he did. This caused frustration among the team as the lead kept sending assets back  As the project went on the producer had to sit down with those artists not following the references to explain why the assets were getting rejected and an understanding was reached. The art lead had those references picked out to not only assist the artists but to fit the theme of the game.

The group decided to take an asset pack from the Unity store and re-skin it. The reason this strategy was chosen was because there was no developer on the team. One student took on the role with little experience and experimented with adding another tool to his toolbelt. His role involved a high amount of art asset integration as we were just replacing objects already in the asset pack. This became problematic as we had a missed milestone by one of the artists. Time management and outside distractions became an issue causing low quality models to be pushed out which in turn got rejected. That artist learned from his mistakes and managed his time between classwork and capstone very well for the remainder of the project. Even allowing for models to be redone from the original missed milestone. Models that were turned in after the milestones were greatly improved thanks to a detailed presentation the art lead made up for the artists.As the project moved along we began to get into a rhythm thanks to the group defining the game right from the start – an infinite shooter that was very content rich. Members of the group began to see the end project and enjoyed playing the game in their spare time. 

The group had a bit of an issue with the quality assurance testing. The testing plan was not specific enough and multiple iterations needed to be made as the project moved along. Builds did not get out on time before presentation day which caused incomplete testing results to be present in front of the investor. Sloppy testing was also present as the quality test plan was sometimes filled out in a copy paste fashion instead of typing out the results one-by-one. The group remedied the situation by creating a log in which people could sign out the test plan and sign it back in when they were done. Multiple copies of the plan were made so that information would not be overwritten.The final challenge we faced involved most the group padding their estimates causing the producer to have to time box the estimates. Our original estimate was over double the actual capacity for the project! The time boxing became time intensive but it became clear that even with time boxing the assets were being completed with a negative delta. This caused an issue where we did not have enough planned for the game on the UI side. The group had to scramble to get work for her to do as her hour count was very low. She helped by redesigning a couple of stage environments, as well as contributing in quality assurance testing for the group.All in all, the project had some rocky moments but flowed a lot better than it did two months ago. The issues we dealt with were mostly minor which had easy fixes. The group felt as if they gained a ton of knowledge from the experience and can use that information in the future.

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