Having more thoughts, as I do.
Secret Life has a special relationship to the ender pearl. In the other Life Series, they were a standard sort of tool for fighting and for escaping fights (still remembering the enderporter, can't BELIEVE that actually worked), albeit a risky one because of the damage - 2.5 hearts' worth of fall damage, though mitigated by Protection and Feather Falling as normal. Ultimate Hardcore gameplay doesn't normally use them, because the health loss is permanent - but that's only partially true in Secret Life.
In Secret Life, damage was permanent, but health could be regained. Through tasks, or as a red, through killing.
Which makes ender pearls still risky, but not pointless - they're a cost to be weighed. Is throwing the ender pearl and taking whatever damage you get from it worth whatever you're seeking? An escape from a fight that could be more costly in hearts, or making it to the Secret Keeper to turn in a task in time (if Grian had thrown early enough, would he have made it)?
Or, as a red, securing a kill that will give you back 10 hearts? If it takes you fewer than 4 pearls, or your armor mitigates the damage from them enough, you can sink the cost and still come out ahead.
Scar's aim with a bow was good. His work with a sword was solid. His handling of flint and steel was...moderate (set himself on fire a few times).
And his use of ender pearls was spectacular. He's got the arc practically mastered with some of those shots he made, and he invested enough into pearls to be trading away TNT to get more (sure, he had a gunpowder farm, but giving away TNT in the final episode???). His strategy for combat involved ender pearls more than anyone else on the server that I saw.
Scar's kill on Etho was brilliant because of this. He had the right armor on to be taking only half a heart of damage per pearl, and used bow shots to fill in the cooldowns between pearls. And then when he got close, Scar threw a pearl and then ate a golden apple before it landed, to not only have the resistance, but use the extra hearts as pearl fodder, making that pearl and the next he threw essentially free.
From the time Etho falls and Scar starts pursuing him, Scar takes exactly one heart of damage, and it's to the two pearls he throws in the water. He comes out of the exchange nine hearts up.
Just. Something about ender pearls, man. Committing to the cost in pursuit of the reward. A devil's bargain.
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As someone who's gotten verrry good at the first two PMD games I wanted to give the input that Ingo's strategy is honestly not far off the mark- scanning for items can be very useful, especially if you happen to be a hoarder like I am and pack light for the dungeon ahead. Also yeah, starving tends to happen if you're conservative with your resources, not a big deal though usually.
Sometimes Ingo prepares so much for the dungeon ahead in anticipation of all the items they’ll need to take back with them, that it loops back around to being entirely unprepared for the long haul (<- I do this more often than I should).
Haha I make Ingo a fan of thorough exploration because I’m also a fan of doing it and I’m really the one who insists on scouring every single floor. I love looking for rare items, searching out battles with a specific pokemon to recruit them, farming treasure boxes, and razing monster houses!! So yes among that, I am also a fellow hoarder lol, and I do also pack very light for dungeons to save as much room as possible for whatever I pick up.
Hunger mechanic just really gets in the way sometimes which is why I’m looking hard for the tight belt item right now, it eliminates the hunger points going down entirely (except for a few exceptions I think?) I NEED THAT ITEM!!
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Hello! how you doing?? may i request for your event , epel with a fluffy platonic ''long distance relationship" ?
and as my backup i thought of riddle with ''farmer's market'' , like a funny romantic outing
and i think you said 2 backups ... if you then stargazing with azul , romantic hurt/comfort
i'm not used to requesting so if i did anything wrong sorry oopsie i didn't mean too 😅
Long-Distance Relationship; Epel Felmier
Content; Fluff, gender-neutral reader, platonic
Word Count; 650+
AN; Everything looks great, no need to worry! I hope you enjoy this, and the friendship with Epel! As a reminder, do not put my work — or others for that matter — into AI as it steals. Link to Masterlist
This summer had been quiet, with Professor Trein basically threatening Crowley to let you stay with him. But it was nice. You had a nice room with overstuffed pillows and old quilts. And an actually nice bed that didn’t have any springs poking out of it. After the chaos that had been the school-year, it was nice having a stable home environment. Also Trein gave you the freedom you needed, and didn’t hover, but was there when you needed him.
“Another letter arrived for you,” the older man said while waiting for his morning cup of tea to cool down. “From Felmier.”
Epel couldn’t come to visit as often as the others, as he was busy at the farm and doing promotional work to help bring Felmier Farms into the public’s eye. But he sent a letter every week, each with an apple stamp.
You opened the letter, curbing your excitement. There was rarely anything super exciting in them, but it was still nice to read what Epel got into.
Meemaw says I should be able to visit next week! So be prepared for a lot of stuff; could ‘have sworn you’re her grandkid an’ not me.
Hope you like kitschy apple-themed clothes.
Epel is coming. Epel is coming! You hadn’t seen him in over a month, and the last time you did he was working the family stand at the farmer’s market. You couldn’t really catch up then, but now, now you could. You could finally catch up with your best friend. “Is it okay if Epel comes over?”
Trein looked up from the book he was reading and gave you a curt nod before going back to his book and morning cup of tea
Places to go with Epel;
You had started to make a list, but nothing was really coming to you. You didn’t know many other places save for Night Raven College, and the small village where Trein, and now you, resided. Sighing, you spun in your chair, thinking. Epel was arriving tomorrow and you had jack-all planned. And sure, just catching up and hanging inside the home or out in the yard was nice and all, but you wanted to do something. “Come on brain, be smart,” you sighed, plopping down on the bed and groaning. Maybe some sleep would hel- “Epel?”
And standing outside your window was none other than Epel Felmier, carrying a backpack and an amusingly large box. He was moving his mouth, but you couldn’t make out what he was saying. Getting up, you moved towards the window and pushed it up.
“-et me in, these damn skeeters are eatin’ me alive,” is what you heard upon opening the window. And there were indeed a few mosquitoes trying their hardest to make a midnight snack out of your friend. “Long time no see, huh?”
You moved aside so he could let himself in. he was early, in the letter he said he’d be arriving tomorrow right after lunch. But Epel was here, in the middle of the night, hauling a large wooden crate into your room. “Yeah, but what are you doing here Epel?”
He let out a grunt as the wood crate finally got through the threshold of the window. “Visiting, like I said… Pa dropped me off early but I had some runnin’ around to do.” He reached into his pocket and handed you a small bee keychain. “Gotcha this in town, since you’re a busy bee.”
You lightly punched his shoulder, as you knew Trein would give the both of you a questioning look, but you were happy to see Epel. “So, what horrors did Marja send?” You peaked into the wooden crate.
Epel grabbed out a cardigan made of granny squares with apples and apple blossoms instead of daisies. “Matching sweaters,” he said with mock fear in his voice.
The two of you laughed though, as it was a sweet action, and once it started to cool off, the both of you would wear them together; like the cheesy matching outfits parents put siblings in.
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Went on a tag rant earlier, but I'll also post it:
Not everything in Skyrim needs a 4k+ texture mod (or a super high poly version, tbh.)
All those 4k clutter mods are eating into your VRAM and for little benefit. For small objects, 2k is practically identical to 4k, and 1k is usually sufficient if you're not zooming in on every apple (which... Are you honestly doing that during regular play?)
4k shines more on big objects where the texture is stretched over a larger mesh (dragons, for example) or for stuff like armors, horses, etc in screenarchery when you're doing close up shots.
2k is great for trees, landscape, bigger objects where you won't necessarily be zooming in.
Really small objects (ants, eyes, etc) look fine using 512x512 (again... How often do you zoom in to look at ants??)
Additionally: even modern 'realistic' games don't go 4k high poly on everything all the time! Smaller objects are often lower quality compared to characters because it's not as important. Modern games have better methods of reducing texture qualities dynamically that even modded Skyrim can't even touch.
Anyways, Cathedral Assets Optimizer is a great tool to tune down any textures that are too big.
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