Hi Frrrozi, I love your art! I was trying to remember if you were the artist with a sailor elune drawings? (If not, sorry to bug you!) If so, are you excited about the new magical girl mogs for Warcraft?

Hey, sorry for the laaaate reply but- thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoy my stuff ^^ It wasn't me with the sailor elune though I'm afraid. BUT YES I'm veeeery very stoked to have them! Gonna make a magical girl just for that

Ok everyone, wanna hear my breakdown of Philza’s character? No? Too bad. I’m doing it anyway.

Phil as a character is super interesting because of how much he allows the fans to come up with ideas and he picks what he likes and doesn’t care about the details which gives us a lot to work with. With character analysis, you have to play the meta game a bit. For Phil, this leads us knowing that he walked into the SMP with little to no back story. But we know about Phil from SMPEarth or his hardcore series or MCC/MCM etc. NOW, for Dream SMP Philza... I’m just going over his relationships with people/places so you get a feel for what he’s about. This is all basic knowledge but I want to cover everything.  Philza is a survivalist. He specializes in PvE and has a vast knowledge of how things work but he still is good with PvP. He knows these things because he is old. He has lived for so long and he has specified that he has only ever had 1 life. He’s never died. So he has had to learn and adapt. The first thing we learn is that Wilbur is his son biologically. Pushing aside who Wilbur’s mother could be (because Wilbur is a chaos child so who ever knows? Apparently Mumza got replaced with a fridge.) That means that Character Philza had settled down enough to have a child. So it’s safe to assume that despite how much loss this character has gone through, he still is willing to grow attached to other people. But because of his long history throughout his life, he limits those people and is willing to cut people out of his life if need be, like with Tommy. He is careful who he chooses to keep in his company. First off, we have Wilbur, his son. I’m sure he trained Wilbur to protect himself and always be alert due to his life experience, but that’s not Wilbur’s style. We know Wilbur is better with his words and never wears armor because he doesn’t like it but I’m not going to get into that here. But he survived off of his strengths, his words. Phil taught him well, but Wilbur was his own downfall in some ways. L’Manburg is strange when it comes to it’s connections to Philza. Phil has said that Wilbur had sent him letters about his adventures after he ventured to the Dream SMP. He probably talked about Tommy and the Camarvan and the escapades they had up until they claimed independence. Phil may know about the battles between him and Dream until that point. Wilbur probably stopped writing letters just after losing the election, causing Phil to adventure out and make sure everything is ok. That’s all he knew--it’s a country that his son built and arrived to find it a button away from exploding by the very person who founded it. He stuck around simply because it was Wilbur’s legacy and he didn’t know the full history. He didn’t know why Techno wanted to blow it up or anything that had happened during the revolution but helped them as he thought it was best at the time. Why did he kill Wilbur? He came to find his son had lost 2 of his 3 lives and was nothing like the son who had left on an adventure. He was manic and about to destroy everything he had built. They had just fought a war to win it back and he STILL was going to blow it up. Just because he could. He wanted to. That was no longer his son. It was an echo of the real Wilbur. That’s also why he didn’t like Ghostbur or consider Ghostbur his son in any way. He was a fake imitation of what he once was.  Phil is very close to Technoblade. Philza has said that they are old friends. While it is unclear how they met, it is possible that it might have been through a fight or battle. Wilbur called Phil “Killza” which you can say is a throw away line or you can say it adds into the lore that Phil is a force to be reckoned with. Their friendship probably started on mutual respect for one another and grew from that. They both have similar views about how people try to claim power for themselves and how power corrupts and follow a sort of anarchist mindset. After learning what happened to L’Manburg and why Techno spawned withers on it, he sympathized and sided with Techno more than he did with L’Manburg. He even told the Butcher Army that he and Techno ‘go way back’. Then there’s Fundy. Phil never got to know Fundy. He showed up and was told he had a grandson. He never got to know him before Fundy ransacked his house and locked him inside. (Fundy recalls this as peer pressure but it doesn’t seem like it at ALL). He then goes to try and kill the only friend Phil has left and tries to execute him in front of him where Phil can’t do anything, attempting to use their relation to try and get information from Phil. Even after Techno’s escape, Fundy makes no attempt to help him. They did have moments where they tried to bond, but to Phil, Fundy never earned his trust or respect. He doesn’t consider him family because Fundy only really shows up when he wants something or to cause trouble. At least, that is how Phil probably sees it. At this moment, he doesn’t seem all that interested in giving Fundy much of a chance since he’s never been shown that Fundy is remorseful for his actions. Tubbo wasn't and still isn’t close to Phil. He took over the nation of L’Manburg but never really stood up and set a good example for the others (in Phil’s eyes).  Tubbo(with the help of Quackity) told Phil to give them information simply because of their status and how he lives within their walls, considering it treason when he refuses. After putting him on house arrest and watching Techno’s ‘trial’ turn into a public execution, Phil lost all faith in him and quickly left to join Techno. Phil felt L’Manburg just turned good people corrupt as Tubbo had seemingly turned violent against anyone who stood against him from Phil’s POV.(Similarly to how he feels it corrupted Wilbur.) Phil is ok with giving Tubbo another chance with a peaceful life in Snowchester. Whether this has anything to do with Tubbo’s new relationship with Ranboo and their new child Michael is unclear but it certainly doesn’t hurt. For Tommy, it’s very straight forward. Tommy showed up one day and sided with Techno after his exile. Phil was under the impression that Techno was very forthcoming with his intentions--he wanted to destroy the country that betrayed him. That they betrayed him by using him during the revolution. (Because that is what Techno believes) They were working together to help each other out. Tommy just built and took whatever he wanted while living with them. Then they went to the festival together and Techno came back alone saying Tommy returned to the country that exiled him and took the Axe of Peace with him.  With Dream, it was strictly business. Dream did some messed up stuff and he probably knew Dream was the one Wilbur fought with for L’Manburg’s independence, but Wilbur died after blowing it up and Phil was more than willing to finish the job for him. So Dream was an associate with a common goal in mind that he worked with, nothing more.  Ranboo is a bit more complicated. On one of Ranboo’s first days, Phil had rescued him from lava and Ranboo had felt indebted to him for going out of his way to help. However, Ranboo was a part of the Butcher Army against Techno but never wore the bloody aprons. And Ranboo didn’t really attack Techno (Which he saw when he snooped on the battle) Ranboo didn’t really say anything during Phil’s house arrest and didn’t sound very happy when he handed over the ankle monitor. Phil felt that Ranboo was being forced into situations so he checked on him after Doomsday, asking if he was ok and if he needed a place to stay. Ranboo has earned Phil’s trust by being cautiously honest. Phil feels that Ranboo is very timid and easily falls under peer pressure. Combined with his poor memory, he feels Ranboo was coerced into most of his situations and likes to reassure him that he can stay. He also has shown that while he is hesitant, Phil has told Techno that he feels that he can be trusted.  All of this combined really just shows that Phil lets someone’s actions speak for themselves. He believes the words of those he trusts over others. He feels guilt over what he did to Wilbur, thinking he was helping everyone at the time. He still feels that way, that Wilbur was already gone and needed to be stopped. However, he wants to bring him back, being indifferent to Ghostbur and not seeing him as his son. His only true ally is Techno, though he feels positive toward Ranboo. The only goals he currently has are toward the Syndicate, to prevent any persons or government to try and rule over others and to bring back his son to right the wrong he had done and ease him of his guilt.

6.1 stuff. here be spoilers (all content)

msq  - generally good. the new dungeon is neat. love the armour set. tataru’s glam set was a surprise, but a pleasant one. tickled me just how many people i saw running around in it (dyed or otherwise). it’s a nice set; simple, but nicely detailed. my only gripe is there are no pants for some reason?? tataru pls

pleasantly surprised that we’re touching on Void stuff again so soon. disappointed that the void quests from shb had zero mention but them’s the breaks.

i adore the contrast between the cowards of sharlayan and the alchemists of thavnair. sorry but if your response to ‘we built an artificial voidsent’ is not ‘holy shit that’s awesome’ what kind of scholar even are you. (little disappointed that allag’s artificial voidsent saw no mention but i guess those only really show up in like. fates and not story content)

...i should go talk to cylva and unuk (and beq for that matter) again to see if they have any new dialogue. (they won’t, but hope springs eternal)

drk 🤝 rpr 🤝 blm [spending the 6.0 patch cycle looking into the camera like they’re on the office]

my drk-trained-blm wol eyetwitching every time someone refers to the void as ‘the abyss’, like

i like a lot the implications of That Voidsent turning up free from Contract. curious if he or golbez are going to attempt a heel face turn. little sad that the Cloud is seemingly confirmed dead, but until we see a body etc

awful plot twist could be that vrtra’s sibling is the Cloud. or That Avatar. don’t know how probable it is squex would go that route but. dragons are by their nature unsundered, which would give her a huge advantage over other voidsent...

alliance raids - The Monkey Is Up To Something. i initially mistrusted deryk too but it seems to be just good old fashioned social anxiety? idk!

the art style for the ‘twelve’ makes me think a lot of the Four Lords, which makes me wonder if they are ancient auspices or something of that sort.

raid itself is a lot of fun. far more colourful in design and variety than the nier trainwrecks, music slaps, wiping on nald’thal twice because half the alliance (me included) didnt realise you could see the scales was more funny than it has any right to be. armour is gorgeous. i was on rpr and scored the chestpiece, idc about stats it’s just pretty

endsinger - lovely weapons. music is eh but i got tired of that just being pulled into msq endsingers. fight itself is gloriously mech heavy. had a bash at it last night and we got her to 50%ish. i confused the fuck out of both the static healers and my usual melee buddy by tanking (our usual OT was otherwise engaged). healing your own living dead is fucking glorious.

pve balance - mch’s ‘balance’ is insulting, ,nobody was surprised. smn and rpr players doomposting are the bane of my existence. sam got dumped on big time, we all knew it was coming, yoshi p knew they would hate it, and yet. as a drk enjoyer i feel for them i really do, their dps just got fucked. drk came out extremely well and i’m just going to enjoy it while it lasts.

pvp balance i’ve only had a chance to play the new mch in pvp but. bruh. if pve mch fucked half this hard i would never play anything else. deleting players across the map is grand. everything feels satisfying to use, and there’s a better risk/reward for pressing your buttons versus just spamming heat blast. drk looks like a blast but i only had time after raids for a couple of matches before i crashed. ngl am tempted to mod the appearance of the drk pvp lb onto pve shadowbringer

pvp mode seems fun?? only played a couple matches, was weird to get feast achievements lel. took me a while to work out the whole team needs to be present to ‘lock’ a crystal’s progress but it makes sense. matches are fast at least. gonna try ranked later and see how it goes.

kinda eh about the majority of ‘new’ pvp rewards - upscaled hw af armour, and old feast weapons. yay. there are some new weapons (for some classes only, ones added since hw i think??) available for the season rank currency which look nice. gnb is sick. rdm is just. weird.

Okay hi you're like.

One of the only destiny players I follow, and I enjoy watching your commentary and stuff like that!!

Anyway, my boyfriend in the past month has gotten very into destiny 2 and Im starting to want to play too.

Any tips for a new player? 🥺

lord forgive me for the college thesis ive just written

thank you so much, im glad to hear youve enjoyed what ive had to say about this game!!! so, as for tips:

☆first off, ive heard the starting missions dont do a great job of easing new players into the game, so i think my advice for that would be that after you complete those, if you have any of the purchaseable big expansions (forsaken, shadowkeep, or beyond light), play through their campaigns so you can have a more "on rails" guided experience as you learn

if youre playing the free base game, you might have to set more goals for yourself. you can start by playing strikes, crucible, or gambit, OR you could explore each planet and see what they have going on. (i think to get to new planets you need to increase your power level, so thats a goal to shoot for!)

▪strikes are pve, essentially super short linear self-contained stories. you get matched with two other people and do some light combat with a boss at the end to get loot. its very casual and chill

▪crucible is pvp, you have different modes within the crucible to choose from, which are explained in-game. you can play matches for valor- which is more casual, or glory- which is more competitive

▪gambit is a mix of pve and pvp. your team and the opposing team fight enemies to collect something called motes from them. whichever team collects 100 motes, then summons and defeats the final boss first wins the match!!!

**there are also much harder versions of pvp and pve activities (raids, trials of osiris, grandmaster nightfall strikes, etc) but thats all endgame content and you probably wont get into that stuff until youve spent a good amount of time with the game

if you like checking things off a list, there are things called triumphs, which are basically in-game achievements, so completeing those could be your objective. theres a TON of those to complete, so you definitely wont run out of stuff to do LOL

●○●○

☆weapon and armor drops might be confusing and overwhelming to a new player, so personally i wouldnt worry about them too much until you get some experience with the game and start getting into endgame content. getting something with good perks will really help you out later

when you wanna start grinding for better guns, looking up the best perks for each gun is absolutely recommended

trial and error, licherally just messing around, is also very useful to find something that suits your personal playstyle

●○●○

☆the fastest way to up your seasonal rank is to be constantly doing bounties and seasonal challenges

seasonal ranks are mostly just for rewards and include resources and cosmetic items, but also provide some passive gameplay perks that can help you with a seasonal activity or getting better weapon + armor drops

●○●○

☆the fastest way to up your power level is by doing weekly challenges for each activity (strikes, gambit, crucible, etc) and getting powerful gear from them

power level directly affects how hard an activity is going to be. if your power level is too low, enemies will be immune to damage, but if you are just slightly underleveled it can make for a more challenging activity if thats what you want ^_^ otherwise, if your power level is equal to or above whats required, enemy power will scale with you.

●○●○

☆try to have a variety of weapon archetypes (like smgs, hand cannons, snipers, etc) and energies (solar, arc, void, and stasis) in your inventory.

there are third-party apps that let you bring and send weapons to storage without having to stop at the main hub world, but sometimes its just easier to be able to quick-swap for different situations.

having a few armor loadouts is useful as well but again, personally i wouldnt worry about armor modding and weapon perks TOO much when youre just starting out

●○●○

☆if youre not sharing your account, you should use all three character slots on a warlock, a hunter, and a titan. obviously you dont HAVE to, you can be Oops All Hunters if you want, but ive found its super useful to have an understanding of how each class works, especially for endgame content

●○●○

and finally, this game's campaigns tend to be pretty cool, but the lore is absolutely batshit and i recommend reading lore books and lore tabs and such when you can because they are super interesting. theres so many of them though i dont think its possible to actually read all of it, in which case i HIGHLY recommend watching "My Name Is Byf" on youtube if you want all of that information compiled neatly and explained thoroughly to you. or you can read the wikis or a site called the ishtar collective to learn more about aspects of the lore you might be interested in. the lore stuff you read about is mostly gonna be pick and choose regardless

●○●○

SO, i think thats about all i can think of. i hope none of this was confusing, if you need any clarification id be glad to explain more!!! this game is a lot of fun with friends, so def play it with others when you can ^_^ plus, theres tons of resources for you to learn from, on youtube or reddit or wikis OR asking folks like myself!! a lot of veterans with more experience than me are also very willing to help you out, so totally dont be afraid to ask!!! i hope you have fun with the game!!!

also, if any other folks have some new player tips, do feel free to share!!

Epic Seven / Re: Zero Collab Units

So, a lot of units were revealed. Three five-star collab units and five three star regular units, and it is amusing to me that the three-star units are creating more buzz.

Since I am not a big Re: Zero fan, I am also more drawn to the three-star heroes, although, I have to say, the collab units seem solid so far.

Personally, I am mostly drawn to Emilia as of now, at least on paper, simply for her more offense oriented Soul Weaver kit. From what I remember, her kit doesn't really seem to work thematically for her all that much, or to her in show capabilities, but it works for the game.

So, Emilia. Her S1 gives healing based on her own max health to the ally with the lowest health. That's solid. Nothing too special but solid. Makes counter viable on her, similar to Destina only without the potential cleanse from the EE. With the right artifact, she can either heal one target with the same effect twice or heal two different units at once.

Her S2 is her best skill. It dispells two debuffs from an ally, gives increased attack for two turns and increases their CR by 40%. It also increases her own CR by 25%. With mola, the CR on the target can increase to 50% and it is on a two turn CD. SB also heals the target unit for ten souls. That's one packed skill. Can be used for cleavers or units like Straze or LQC or any other offensive unit with no atk buff who is a bit slower than her.

Her S3 cleanses two debuffs from her whole team, heals them and gives a two turn barrier. Nothing amazing but respectable.

So, all in all, she doesn't bring any new skills or abilities on the table. I will probably give her Ray's equipment and call it a day. She is a typical cleanser soul weaver where one should focus on speed, ER, HP and Def in that order. She is still very solid and I would personally benefit because I have no cleanser who provides and atk buff and cr push at the same time. I think she is also better than ML Kawarick even though they have similar kits, lol. But anyone who already has one built could probably pass on her but dunno, she has better animation and her ER imprint does make things easier.

Her artifact is interesting, in that it gives a flat ER of 15% on top of healing an ally once a turn for what I assume is 15% with no copies at plus 15. It serves her well, but of course, soul weaver artifacts are good across the board and all of them can work there.

While her S1 might allow for a counter set, I do think speed/ER set is the way to go. You want her fast enough to use her S2 or S3, depending on the situation and she has to go before the rest of your team. She doesn't even care that much whether she goes before the enemy or not. If she goes after, she cleanses their debuffs, if now, she just uses the S2 and starts an attack with your cleaver or damage dealer. She is definitely going to be useful.

Rem is more interesting in that she is getting new abilities, but that also makes her a bit harder to predict.

Her S1 can defense break the enemy. 35% odds without mola and 50% with mola. If she is in demon mode, she attacks twice.

Her S2 is her weird new stuff. When anybody dies, she cleanes all debuffs on herself and activates Demon Mode for two turns. This can only happen once every 5 turns so, basically, in pvp/rta that means it can only happen once in a fight. Demon Mode means that she is immune to debuffs, it cannot be stripped and the debuffs she applies ignore ER.

When an ally is attacked, she has a 15% chance to counterattack with iron strike. In turn, iron strike attacks all enemies, decreases their buff durations and makes them unhealable for 1 turn. It also says that iron strike takes priority over counterattacks with basic skills, so that means she counterattacks with Iron Strike instead of her S1. Molas increase her counterattack chance to 20%

Her S3 gives herself an attack buff and aoe attacks all enemies and decreases their hit chance for two turns and increases her own CR by 50%.

Her artifact increases crit chance by 15% and whenever somebody dies, it gives the user a CR push between 12 and 24%. Not sure how much CR push that is for +15 without any copies.

Artifact is meh, tbh. I guess it can be useful, but dunno if I would give her that.

Team imprint is health and on her self it is plus crit chance which would make it easier to go for dps build but have fun getting several copies of her with three collab heroes and artifacts plus summer Iseria and her artifact around the corner.

So, what about Rem? Her kit is interesting at least. She needs for someone to die before she starts going crazy which is somewhat fitting. That means she probably doesn't want to go first if one wants to take advantage of the ignores ER thing. In fact, one can build her with no effectiveness at all, which makes things at least a bit easier. That said, she seems to be a lot more gear hungry than Emilia was in order to use her effectively.

For her S2 condition to activate she needs to be teamed up with an ally who is rather fast and can snipe at least one enemy unit before she takes a turn, in which case one can get away with a bit less bulk. Still, I do think one wants to build Rem as tanky as possible, as she should remain on the field for as long as possible and hit the enemy team with Iron Strike and attack twice with her S1.

So, I am unsure how she would interact with a counter set. Does the sentence "Iron Strike takes priority over a counterattack with a basic skill" refer to all counterattacks she makes or only those which are facilitated by her S2? If only her S2, I would probably go for a bulk and damage with medium speed. So, speed or atk sets. If it refers to all counter-attacks, maybe go with counter. I think one can give her Champion's trophy and hope for stuns on top of everything, although her skill makes it clear that the ignores ER effect does not apply to artifacts, so enemies might resist there, especially if there is no effectiveness on her otherwise.

All in all, I can see two options with her builds: Either go for dmg or go for debuffs. Either way, she wants to stay on the field for as long as possible to counterattack as much as possible. She should be fun, but I don't know how good she will work.

Think will have to sit on her kit for a while longer. I could also see the cockroach approach with her, where you accept that the one person dying is on your own team and hope Rem can turn things around afterwards. If the one dying is on their team, you are kinda wasting the self cleanse but then again, planning for someone on your team to die is not a great strategy, even if you have a reviver on your team. That said, maybe she works really, really well with Arby, who should count for the team death thing. I don't know, it seems fun at least.

Last and maybe least is Ram. She is a mage, gives her team health with imprint or effectiveness to herself.

Her S1 attacks one enemy and has a 60% chance (75% with mola) to decrease attack for 1 turn. If she is buffed, it reaches 100%. Soul Burn allows her to attack all enemies for ten souls.

S2 is a passive and increases her own Atk by 30% and reduces the effect of CR debuffs on her by 80% (100% with mola).

S3 attacks the enemy and inflicts def break on them for two turns and gives herself Greater Attack Buff (also called GAB in case you heard a youtuber say it and didn't know what they meant)

Her artifact increases her ATK by 15% and decreases dmg suffered by elite or boss monsters by 15% at +15.

So, I'll be honest, she seems a bit underwhelming. Her S1 is aptly titled How Boring. because it is a very boring skill. Decrease Attack is not useless, by any means, but it is also not that great. A possible aoe on her S1 with ten souls can be useful against enemies hiding in stealth, but there are better options. Her passive is interesting at least, since it means she can't really be pushed back, and she has a lot of atk. That said, her S3 is okay, but also not great.

With her artifact, she seems more of a pve unit, but she also should be useful in pvp. Like, with 30% atk from her s2, 15% atk from her artifact and GAB on herself, alongside a decent attack set, or a speed set with good atk, that should translate into a lot of dmg with her basic attack, especially if it can be a potential aoe with only ten souls. She can also be paired up with Lilias who benefits from her high attack to cleave, especially if she goes after her and there is someone def broken there.

Could build her with no crit chance and crit dmg in order to get her speed and atk as high as possible, or a bit less of both and go for a more traditional damage dealer for pvp.

As for pve, I don't know, maybe expedition? She could def break for Banshee, but so can a milllion other units. I don't know if she is useful after that, but can't imagine her replacing Baiken there. Also find it hard to believe that someone wouldn't have Leo or Bellona or kluri or any other def breaker for that, so can't see how she is good for wyvern. If she had been ice or fire, I would say good for either one of those two hunts, but banshee might be the one hunt her skill-set is ill-equipped for. Might be overlooking something, though.

So yeah, those were the collab units and artifacts. Seems solid enough, I like Emilia and Rem seems interesting enough. A bit meh on Ram.

Still, the three stars seems more exiting, oddly enough.

? ? ?

[ a fic written for @mine-sara-sp‘s shadow people au, specifically the “season 7 shadows” au-of-an-au. fun fact, simplysarc did a series with zedaph once. ]

content warnings: possession.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 00

Okay, so they’re still working out all the issues with the shadow mob - apparently it wasn’t supposed to become a new form of artificial intelligence, who’d have thunk it? X managed to do some admin stuff and port the old shadows over, though, so I’ve still got Merino.

A lot of the new shadows have turned out, uh, concerning though? Bdubs got a plant monster even though the whole nHo plotline was two entire seasons ago, Grian’s is - well I don’t know what Grian’s is, but it’s got wings and eyes on it. Honestly, even Joe’s new one seems sort of off-putting for some reason. Keeps staring at me.

Or maybe there was just something on my face that day and he was too polite to point it out?

Whatever the case, I kind of want to get my hands on some shadow equipment as soon as possible, mostly so I can fend off Grian’s double-trouble shadows. Which means I’ve gotta head into the shadowlands as soon as possible, and I figure I’m gonna do it right now before my new shadow ends up sentient and has back pain from me trying to get a full armor set.

Also, I’m taking notes, because that’s the difference between science and screwing around.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 01

I have to admit, I was really worried about going into the shadow temple and doing the whole summoning thing considering that so many people have gotten big spooky monsters as their shadows. I guess the devs wanted to buff them because some of the stuff that happened with people’s shadows, like Shadoc and Murmur?

But, you know what? Everything went great! Sort of. Okay, so I didn’t actually see my shadow because I double-summoned it as quickly as possible and then leapt right on into the shadowlands. I’m sure it’ll be fine - it seems like you can hit any yellow-colored shadow with the scythe to get out, and guess what I got on my first run of the shadow boss! And… the second one. And the third one.

I think it’s probably a guaranteed drop.

I had to leave after three fights, though, because it turns out they definitely nerfed the livability of this dimension when they updated the Nether to be more homey. If you stick around for too long, you start getting slowness; stick around even longer, you get a really slow version of wither. Supposedly there’s a third drawback, something about the bottom of the shadowlands. I didn’t read the update notes too closely.

Anyway, I’ll have to go back soon, I want a full armor set and I only managed to get the chestplate - you know, the piece of armor I probably won’t use most of the time. Oh well, having spare scythes isn’t that bad.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 03

Full armor set obtained. Also, I think the third consequence for staying in the shadowlands too long is bugged. I got the slowness and wither effects in the middle of finishing off the last boss, and when I headed back to leave, it looked like something was rising from the bottom of the abyss?

But the animation sort of… looped, glitchily, like the amorphous blob of shadow was only consuming the bottom layers of the shadowlands repeatedly and not actually advancing upwards. So, yeah, it might be bugged.

I did get hit with a killer headache when I left the shadowlands this time, though. But hey, I don’t actually have to go back there for a good amount of time when I have the full set of gear, so I don’t have to worry about getting a post-shadowlands-exploration headache for a little while.

Merino’s been staring at me like there’s something wrong, recently, I’m not sure what’s going on. I tried to ask them and they just said it was nothing.

I guess it’s nothing to worry about, then. Maybe they just want me to get back to herding sheep so they can kill them again, like old times. I’ll do that.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 04

Okay, maybe there’s something to worry about. Thing is, Merino’s not the only shadow that’s been staring at me. Now it’s Joe’s new shadow - Joyful - tailing me, and Puzzler - Grian’s brand-new bastard - is always watching me specifically when it’s not being creepy at Grian.

I’d assume they’re jealous of my really cool clothing, but the shadowvex are normally all over that kind of thing and both the old and new ones are… I think they might be avoiding me? Which would be super convenient if not for the fact that it’s very out-of-character for them to outright avoid people.

The other thing is that… I still have that headache from exiting the shadowlands. Maybe that’s the third consequence, is a really long-lasting headache that can’t be cancelled out by milk? Either way… ugh. Just, ugh, I’ll start seeing what might cure it.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 05

I’m going to talk about the not-interesting part of today first, because I know someone’s reading these notes and I think it’s more fun if I add narrative spice to their poking and prodding.

Yeah, that’s right, buddy, I’m talking about you. I don’t know who you are but I know you’re reading this. (Are you Joyful? I think you’re probably Joyful.)

Anyway, boring parts first! I went into the shadowlands again to test something - turns out, the headache debuff might be a thing that happens when I’m not in that dimension, because the moment I teleported there, it went away. That was a real relief, honestly, because I’d had a rough morning. The glitchy stuff at the bottom of the abyss was still glitching, everything seemed as normal as a weird dark hellscape could be.

So, about the rough morning…

I was heading out to the shadow temple to do more shadowlands testing when someone grabbed me by the back of the collar. Biffa’s old shadow, Apex - I could tell it was him and not the nearly identical new one, on account of his visor being up and his eyes being blue. And, y’know, him lifting me up by the collar.

Basically, we had a talk - apparently, according to him, there’s something very bad in the bottom of the shadowlands. He called it the “old shadows” and told me that since I was there so often, I should be extremely careful.

He said even the Vex were scared of it. I told him that the old shadows seemed to be glitched, because last time I saw them they were only rising up to a certain point (and my trip inside later proved it). Apex just dropped me, and shook his head, told me to be careful again.

So yeah, Joyful, there’s your juicy tidbits for the day. While you’re reading these, d’you mind helping me clean my desk? It’s the least you could do in exchange for me letting you snoop around my stuff.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 06

Something really weird happened.

Grian’s been menaced by Puzzler a lot lately, and I sort of ended up running into one of those menacement sessions? I figured I should chip in and help out, so I butted into the conversation and tried to be obnoxiously cheerful, as Puzzler plays nice around anyone that isn’t Grian.

The second I popped out of the bushes with a “he-LLO guys!” though, purple shadow jerk’s eyes widened - all of them, even the ones on its wings - and it took a step back. Eyes flicked from me to Grian and then back again.

“He’s dangerous,” it told Grian, and then flew off.

I have no idea what that was about, because it’s not like I’m particularly skilled at PvP or even PvE, and I don’t have a special creepy shadow like Joe (or any shadow besides Merino, actually). Grian didn’t seem to know what was going on, either, but he thanked me for the help.

My headache flared up as soon as he approached… went from background annoyance to full-on migraine. Grian seemed worried, but I told him it was really just a me problem and that I’d be fine.

After that, I headed out to the shadowlands for a bit, because my head just wouldn’t stop pounding and I needed a break from it. I didn’t do any dungeon-crawling this time, just sat on the uppermost layer and stared into the abyss.

It didn’t stare back because, y’know, it’s a pit, pits don’t have eyes, but the cool air made me feel a lot better and when I returned my headache was less bad.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 07

So apparently the person reading my notes isn’t Joyful, because I confronted him today and he seemed… super, super on edge, but about something entirely else. Apparently, he’s got some sort of outcome-controlling power, except he can’t use it on me. He says that he blanks on the words whenever it comes to me.

He said I should be careful. And then my headache flared up again, particularly badly this time, and Joyful got concerned and said he’d leave me alone for the time being.

I tried to track down Puzzler again, since it seemed to actually know what was going on with me, but nobody’s seen Grian’s shadow around in a while, even Grian himself. From what Grian says, Puzzler might have gotten desummoned somehow, and nobody really wants him resummoned except for the shadowvex.

I really hope I don’t run into desummoned Puzzler in the shadowlands next time I go, because that would be even worse.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 07.1

Maybe the old shadows are rising. The glitchy abyss seemed to have risen up a little more than before - I was going to leave off the week’s entry before, but I wanted to make note of this before I forgot to do so.

I didn’t see Puzzler anywhere, though.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 08

Still no sign of Puzzler. Good riddance, Grian says. But now, in addition to the other shadows, even the jerks like Apex and Jigsaw are starting to avoid me, and I’m really not sure why. I don’t think I’ve changed much as a person, and none of the other hermits have come up with anything.

Joyful used to sort of watch me from around corners, and now he’s intensified that activity. If he wasn’t reading my notes before, then he definitely is now. So, uh, hi - please stop staring at me, and actually talk to me? I promise I’m not going to start a fight.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 09

I woke up and my mouth tasted like oil.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 09.1

Okay, I don’t remember writing the first part of this entry, so I guess I must have woken up really early, written it, and then immediately fallen asleep again? Best guess, I might actually be sick - between the headaches and now me feeling a little woozy while in the overworld, I’ve probably gotten a very mild version of the bends.

So I stayed in bed today, drifted in and out of sleep as a couple of the other hermits stopped in. One of them - the guy that stuck around the longest - was Joe.

Apparently nobody’s seen Joyful around for a few days…

I’m not an idiot. Something’s wrong.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 09.2

Snuck out of bed to check the shadowlands. The old shadows rose another few blocks. I watched the abyss for a few minutes, glad to be rid of all the weird illness symptoms, and then I felt a hand rest on my shoulder. They didn’t push me, so I just let them leave it there for a minute more…

And then I turned to look up at them, and there was nobody there. The hand still felt like it was on my shoulder, but nobody was actually there.

I should probably not go to the shadowlands again.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 10

So, I’ve abstained from going to the shadowlands for a while now, but shadows keep vanishing, and my bends keep getting worse and worse. It’s the new shadowvex, this time, they’re just straight up gone-gone. Can’t be summoned even to go into the shadowlands.

Man, this new mechanic is really buggy.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 10.1

I caved.

The abyss has risen higher.

It’s not staring back yet.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 11

I keep waking up places that I don’t remember going to sleep. I’ve decided this is way too dangerous, because I’m pretty sure I’m the reason that shadows keep vanishing. So far it’s been mostly the mean ones. I don’t want them to get at anyone else, either one of the nice shadows or one of the actual hermits.

I also don’t remember writing the entry for 10.1, so it’s safe to say that something is horribly, awfully wrong. And it’s probably my fault…

I have a dumb idea - I’m gonna see if jumping into the abyss does anything. Maybe it’ll reverse all this if I die to the mechanic? Also, it’d be my first death on this new server, and that’d be a pretty neat way to go out.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 11.1

So I’m standing there, fully prepared to yeet myself into the abyss, when I feel a hand on my shoulder again. And this time, when I turned around, there was something there.

I’m pretty sure it was my shadow, because it had the same proportions as me, only it was absolutely as pitch-black as the abyss below. I couldn’t make out any details besides yellow eyes and the glint of sharp white teeth when it spoke.

“Not yet,” it told me.

And now I’m back in the overworld somehow. My mouth tastes like oil again.

ZEDAPH - S7 - 12

Xisuma’s gone.

...My eyes have always been yellow, right?

ZEDAPH - S7 - 13

It told me, one last thing, the place I should go when it’s all done.

Craterville.

I’m going to see an old friend.

I went through the new Destiny 2 trailer frame by frame so you don’t have to

This post is gonna be very pic heavy, so I’ve made it keep reading so it doesn’t clog your feed

(also none of what I say is confirmed I’m just a random guy on the internet)

So! That new Stasis trailer, huh? 

It actually shows us a lot of stuff, including:

Our first look at the new armour sets for Europa

Some more weapons, including what I believe to be our first totally new exotic

A small peek inside what I think is the Deep Stone Crypt raid

Some rad new Fallen enemies!

And more!

So without further ado, let’s get into it:

Kicking this off with this, one of the first shots of the trailer, which seems to show a small hut in the distance with what looks like the Exo Stranger on the left, along with some other figures on the right that could potentially be Eris and / or the Drifter. This could be the landing / hub area of Europa, and looks suitably inhospitable.

We also get our first look at the new armour sets from behind, along with some of the new weapons, a scout rifle and what appears to be a sidearm in the second image. The scout rifle looks like it’s got a little PS Vita stuck to its side (RIP). We’ll get a better look at both the weapons and armour later. For now, look at how the Guardians make tracks in the snow!

First new Fallen enemy! Beyond Light doesn’t appear to be introducing a new enemy faction like Forsaken or Taken King, but is compensating with new types of Fallen enemies. This one in particular seems to be able to wield Stasis, and is dressed in the distinctive white robes of the House of Darkness.

Lots of House of Darkness banners strewn about the trailer in various locations. The House seems to be much stronger and more unified than the House of Dusk. Its symbol is hella swanky too

A look at what appears to be a new grenade launcher on the back of what seems to be a Hunter. Note the camping rucksack and the PS Vita on the grenade launcher. Good luck finding a memory card under fifty bucks

The dude who appears to be a Warlock (?) also has a backpack and a new weapon - one that looks like a pulse rifle, but again, it’s hard to tell. Note the little jerry can on the side of their waist.

NOW WE’RE TALKIN. Our first proper look at the armour sets. It’s hard to make out the details in the lighting, but it looks like the sets for, from left to right, Warlock, Titan and Hunter.

I also want to talk about the Warlock bond, which looks like it bears the same icon as several items from the Collector’s Edition of Beyond Light. The meaning of this icon is still beyond me.

Dayum Daniel back at it again with the Titan snowshoes

Another new Fallen enemy that will be familiar if you’ve played Scourge of the Past or seen the previous gameplay trailer. These appear to be smaller versions of the Insurrection Prime mech, perhaps a sign of the Kell’s Scourge joining the House of Darkness?

Another day another look at the PS Vita Grenade launcher

A couple of shots showing what looks to be a new heavy machine gun, with a nifty little scope. It seems to share the same blue and red colour scheme as the legendary weapon that was teased at Guardiancon a few weeks ago, shown below.

A much clearer look at the new hunter armour, along with the machine gun from the last image. The boots in particular look very snazzy.

We also get to see a first-person look at the hunter’s gauntlets as they prepare to throw some Stasis projectiles at some crucible opponents. Stasis is going to have a big impact on PvP and PvE alike.

The next shot shows some house of Darkness Fallen, clad in white fabric, in what looks like the Deep Stone Crypt raid, or at least the image of the raid that you can see on the Beyond Light page on bungie.net.

The server racks and the foggy red background in particular bear a strong resemblance to the ones in the raid teaser image, which leads me to believe this has a possibility of being our first look at the raid.

It’s time for some Stasis abilities! The first one we get a proper look at is the Warlock’s Ice staff. This one in particular looks like it’s being used for some kind of ranged ability, as opposed to a proper Super ability.

Up next is a Titan that looks like they’re using some kind of lunging melee ability, not unlike the melee ability for middle tree Striker Titan.

Here’s the cleanest shot I could find of the new SMG that pops up quite a bit in the trailer. The all-important PS Vita screen thingy can be observed just below the scope.

This next shot is pretty chaotic, but we get a look at a new bow that seems to share the same blue and red colour scheme as the machine gun. As an avid bow user, I’m pleased to see a new one here - all but three legendary bows are being vaulted in November.

Here we see a Titan preparing to slide into the DMs of some frozen enemies, shattering them in the process. The trails of Stasis ice that the Titan is kicking up behind them leads me to believe this may be some kind of sprint ability that lets you shatter frozen enemies.

Now we’re talking - Warlock Super time. 

In the trailer, the Warlock uses their super to create a damaging Stasis field around them, kind of like a mobile Mei Blizzard from Overwatch. However, this could be just one move of a roaming super, and could have combos like Arcstrider.

Here we see a Titan getting up close and personal with some enemies - with a bazooka / sleeping bag strapped to their back. It doesn’t look like a stowed weapon - it’s probably part of the new Titan chest piece. Good luck fitting through doors come November.

Hell yeah. A great look at a Warlock with the new armour set wielding what looks like a new Exotic weapon - it bears a strong resemblance to the exotic teaser image on the Beyond Light page on Bungie.net. If you look closely at the bottom right hand side of the Warlock robes, you can see the same icon from the bond and water bottle from earlier.

The first person perspective of the exotic weapon is held in a very unique way, further evidence of it being an exotic. The way it’s held looks like a cross between Sweet Business and Jotünn.

The Fallen enemy that the Warlock is shooting at looks like he has a Stasis elemental shield, too. The enemy in question bears a strong resemblance to one we saw in the first gameplay trailer, shown below:

Here’s the goon in question. Note the same helmet, glowing eyes, pointy ear thingies and a black, angular device on their back. Perhaps some kind of device that lets them harness Stasis energy?

Another look at the new Fallen enemy from the very start of the trailer, wielding a pair of frozen swords formed from Stasis Ice. These swords bear some resemblance to the Shock Blades wielded by regular Fallen Captains, but with a few key differences. These ones are a lot colder and pointier, for example.

And here’s the final shot of the trailer - a Titan with their back sleeping bag / bazooka and the new exotic, a Warlock with their ice staff and a Hunter preparing to unleash an ice sickle (icicle?), all clad in Stasis energy.

And that’s all I could find! I tried to focus on smaller things that were easier to miss as opposed to big things like the cool new hunter grenade that makes ice walls and floors. This trailer was really neat - November is a long way away, but damn it’s gonna be something special.

Feel free to reply if you noticed something or have any theories. Thanks for reading through this post, and I hope you have an awesome day!

How to make games: Hero Shooters

So, class, today I posit this little question to you all: Do you want to be the next Blizzard? Fuck no, you don't want to be "Don't you guys have phones?" Blizzard; you wanna be Blizzard from 5-10 years ago when they were at the height of their popularity. But that's not what I'm shooting for here. Do you want a fount of endless revenue? Do you want to do the absolute baseline minimum in terms of engine and game design to actually create a game but aren't creatively and ethically bankrupt enough to make a gacha game? Do you want to build a game whose rules, designs, and themes were just stolen from the effort of others? Do you really like Rule 34? Then it sounds to me like you want to make a Hero Shooter game! Hero shooters are easy to make on account they fundamentally have only three gameplay modes: push a payload, kill the other team, and kill the other team while standing on top of a glowing circular thing. They're also equally easy to design as they require no thematic consistency whatsoever and what little writing you'll be expected to bother with will simply be character bios, which you can keep so vague as to be virtually meaningless. There's never a 'story' in a hero shooter game and what semblance of one does exist is pretense for the non-canon aforementioned three game modes you'll be forced to build around. Best of all, the individual mechanics of each hero are easy to design - just steal them from whatever games came before. Now create about three or four maps with some different sorts of themes, but don't make them in any way mechanically varied - the most complex obstacles on any given map should be walls and maybe elevators that move at a very low speed. We're making a hero shooter, not Mario Party, dammit. If anyone asks why you are essentially just reskinning the same maps you can explain that it's to ensure that the game remains a "test of the players's skills" even though that's a bold-faced lie for the same reasons people who play Super Smash Bros as "tests of skill" are full of shit. Meta-gaming retards make games algebra homework instead of fun, but that's precisely what you'll be banking on in this genre. Once you have that, we need to get into the most important thing about hero shooters: the Heroes. Heroes in these games take one of three major roles: 1) The retard scrub DPS heroes - who will be played by the vast majority of your one-trick glory-chasing mentally-stunted community under the pretenses of being 'the most fun' and will be where the better part of your "cool" themes and motifs will be dedicated toward. These work under the key principle of "Shoot everything until it stops moving" and requires zero brainpower whatsoever. 2) The under-estimated doggedly persistent Tank heroes, played by those with either the willingness to learn something other than "Shoot bad guy with gun" or those who find pressing and holding a single button for the duration of the 10 minute match time to be the highlight of their bleak office-job lives. Though, on the other hand, some of the really cool designs will ultimately end up in this family. 3) The unsung gods among men known as the Support heroes, AKA: the ones no one will actually play. These characters will never be given cool or interesting mechanics or designs, but you'll be at liberty to make as many sexy nurse outfits as you can come up with and no one will be able to tell you otherwise. Like an ungodly amalgamation of tanks and DPS, your gameplay experience will boil down to pointing at your target and holding down the button the entire match - except unlike DPS heroes, you'll be shooting at the blue team and not the red team. Now, some might argue that there are technically other families of heroes, like flankers, zone controllers, pseudo-supports who can debuff enemies, but remember that the key to any good hero shooter is keeping everything rock-stupid. Every hero should have only enough abilities to fill a role for the left and right mouse buttons and the Q and E keys. F or R can be for reloading where applicable, but if you demand anything more of your players, you're going to lose their interest because Hero Shooters are hugboxes for sociopaths who care for nothing more than getting that sweet, sweet 5-second long "Play of the Game" replay at the match's end. This is why the character who invariably rips off Team Fortress 2's Demo Man and can kill people he doesn't have direct line of sight with will always be the most popular, without exception. I mean, sure, you can have 30 or 40 heroes, each with incredibly detailed outfits, backstories, kits, and personalities but everyone will just play the Not-Demo Man so you might as well accept that your userbase is going to be the only thing more toxic than a puffer-fish or a modern-day feminist. But I repeat myself. I don't have the time nor particular inclination to tell you exactly what you need to make but I can give you some character types that are obligatory by law to be in any hero shooter game. This will at least give you a start before you realize that being creative is hard and just steal kits from better games than your own. Call of Duty Man - The main DPS hero and usually the face of your game. Typically a grizzled war veteran man and almost exclusively an American if your game is set in the real world - remember, creativity is hard! He'll have a medium-ranged assault rifle and precisely one movement skill and one healing skill in his kit making him a jack-of-all-trades. Will either be loved or hated by your community with no room for in-betweens. Sexy Healer Lady - The main support hero who is literally just TF2's Medic reskinned and with tits. You really don't need to do anything more with her, as the fanbase will handle the rest. And the less said of that, the better. Big Knightly Dude - The main tank hero who has a big shield that, regardless of origin, will be transparent so Call of Duty Man and Not-Demo Man can fire through it while guarded. Probably wields a melee-ranged weapon even if in a modern warfare setting. By law, they can never be shorter than 6'6" (or 7200 cm. Pretty sure I did my conversion right on that). Flamethrower Guy - Literally just TF2's Pyro. Mechanic - Literally just TF2's Engineer. Sniper - Literally just TF2's Sniper. Probably also a voluptuous woman in a tight suit because creativity is fuckin' hard, man. Not-Demo Man - The cancer in your fanbase you will never nerf. Doesn't matter that he can party-wipe the enemy team single-handedly without being anywhere near them because Hero Shooter maps are literally just a set of narrow corridors so his kit is extremely OP. No, better just nerf Sexy Healer Lady again, since your DPS fanbase is pissing and moaning about her again and, this time, not in the same way a cat in heat does. Next, just make characters around elemental themes. Once you have 30 or so, you can get around to actually doing really mechanically interesting and varied heroes, since there's really only like 10-15 good FPS character ideas to begin with. So don't be surprised if you have some overlap. But by then we should hopefully have completed the next major step after the game is made: alienating your fanbase! This step is easy and requires no particular skill or coordination on your part. First, make some events seasonal, such that you have at least a major event every other month. Any more than that and your fans might actually think you're trying to be anything but another generic Korean eSport event, so be sure to space them out and have at least half of them be terrible. Valentine's Day is a good excuse to dress your female heroes sexily, summer games are a fun and not-at-all tired motif, and of course you need some kind of Christmas event. Just make sure these events only run maybe 2 weeks out of the year, have lots of stuff that you can only get during those times and, as said, that most of them are terrible and not fun at all to play. And don't -EVER- make any of them PvE, as that requires coding AI characters and effort and shit - what do you think think this is? Warframe? No, terrible gimmicky PvP events will be a good start because there is no frustration quite as severe as being told you didn't grind hard enough for: Loot boxes! Shit yeah, your hero shooter's gonna have loot boxes in them! Remember, we want maximum money for minimum effort and there's nothing like a Skinner Box within the hugbox that is the sweet dopamine high of popping a loot box open only to get common drops every time! If MMORPGs have taught us anything it's that Sub-1% drops are TOTALLY good game design and aren't at all unethical and an artificial, cheap tactic to keep people hooked on your game. This is why, in addition to the e-peen bolster that is your arbitrary profile ranking also drip-feeding a loot box upon level up that you have "Weekly Resets" for additional loot boxes. This runs on essentially the same principle as a cell phone games making you wait for additional tries to make it more a habit than a game - but that's okay! You can just rationalize it away as "it was the player's CHOICE to buy 300 loot boxes for the low, low price of 799.99 USD!" and not at all a psychological compunction found in human psychology! You're not an unethical douchebag in the slightest! And speaking of douchebags, it's time for the third and most important step in alienating your fanbase: Balancing the Game! What do I mean by that? You might think it's something like "Oh, this one character has an attack that is way too powerful and so it should be retooled in such a way that it either isn't available as-often, or maybe make its hitbox narrower to make the game more skill-based" but you're dead wrong. That requires actual effort and we all know how we feel about that. So, instead, just start an eSports team. Why? So you can listen only to the DPS players from each team and only implement THOSE changes. That way, only tanks and supports get nerfed into irrelevance and since no one in eSports is ever going to play those roles anyway, who cares? Who needs healers when you respawn to 100% after 7 seconds of dying?! Who cares if the majority of your fans hate these changes and that you end up completely destroying the kits and frameworks of their favorite heroes with needless, superfluous, unwelcomed tweaks? God-damn it, the Not-Demo Man needs to be able to wipe out an enemy team with a 3-second Time to Kill! No questions! I have a very specific vision!! Once your fanbase has been alienated - congrats! You're no longer obliged to release new heroes and levels! The responsibility of server upkeep and releasing new content twice a year are lifted! Now, just reskin the entire game top-down and release a new, better hero shooter founded on the same grounds to re-capture your fleeing audience and fleece them all over again! Now repeat ad infinitum and gain unlimited money. Congrats, you're now another Chinese game manufacturer that shits out products with no care for their fans or reputation but you get to go whaling every single day and fill your bathtub with money. You're ready to work for actual Blizzard now! You're welcome.

Heya Songie, hope you're doing well! I'm going to buy a game on steam but not sure what should i buy. I tried to play Outlast but it scare the shit out of me. I'm thinking to buy The Witcher trio, but i wanted to ask you. I want to buy a game that has a great story, the gameplay and graphics don't bother me at all. What is your advice? Other than horror i can play any games!

Oh I don’t play PC much: I only have the Fallout series and Skyrim in my Steam archive. All of the other games I’ve played are always on PS4.

I remember a few cool PC games (and a few games that aren’t exclusive), though, so I’d recommend:

Fallout 3, 4, and New Vegas: Legit if you haven’t played any of them I urge you to. Don’t care what anyone says, the games’ stories are always what drag me in and despite FO4′s shortcomings, specifically when it came to story DLC (they only had 2, Far Harbor was fantastic but Nuka World needed more to it), all of them delivers. Not just that, the mods. You want a game that can tell new stories over and over and over? Fallout provides that just fine alone, like you always discover something new even if it’s like your 20th playthrough, but it’s the mods that helps the game shine. I’m talkin’ the quest mods and complete overhauls into a new game. For example? Fallout The Frontier: I’m super excited for that one to drop. I’m keeping my eye on another, Fallout: Miami. Or Fallout 4: New Vegas, in which it’s basically building Fallout New Vegas from the ground up using Fallout 4 as a base. The remake we deserve but probably will never get. What is essentially a full remake, another a completely new game... All for the stunning price of... nothing. You get it for free thanks to these amazing people putting their worth into this shit. If you can, support your modders. They do some good work, dare I say better work putting so much care into their creations of the game.

Elder Scrolls Skyrim: Bro it’s basically the same deal here as it is with Fallout: get it for the game itself and it’s fun base-game stories, stay for the fantastic mods. They also feature DLC-sized mods, mods that are essentially brand new games, and once more the modding community continue to amaze me with their dedication.

Ori and the Blind Forest: I watched this game since I didn’t buy it myself and it is gorgeous.

Cuphead: if ya don’t mind being angry, I hear it’s hard but great. I admire it deeply for its animation style.

Stardew Valley: I actually played this one but on the PS4. It doesn’t have like a full and deep story but what’s great about this game is that it’s very relaxing, aesthetically pleasing, and it’s the characters that are surprisingly well written and have complex personalities you get to discover through tiny cutscenes.

The Walking Dead (telltale): Fucking fantastic game, specifically the first two series. 3 was aight, with Clementine stealing the show (but I personally wasn’t interested in playing it because you didn’t get to play as Clementine exclusively like no thx I wanna see Sweetpea.)

The Witcher 3: It looks like a truly beautiful game with a deep and engaging story, so much so that I’m considering playing it myself.

ARK Survival: Okay so, in my opinion ARK isn’t actually worth it’s price tag, primarily because of the toxicity of PVP (like it’s moreso than usual) and the plethura of bugs it has and the admittedly shady practices of its developer. Now, that said? I love the game. For all of it’s faults, it’s honestly really fun: I prefer solo play but if you get a good band of buds to play with on PVP or PVE it’s even more fun. It has like.. some sort of semblance of a story, but it’s mostly just background noise, but this game is absolutely fantastic if you like a game that gives you the tools to essentially create your own story and essentially roleplay it out. That’s what me and my friends kinda did and we used to play the game for hours and days at a time because of it. I’ll tell ya’ll some of the shit we got up to later, I fondly remember them.

7 Days to Die: It’s a lot like ARK in that it doesn’t actually have much of a story to tell (in this case. barely at all) so it’s up to you and your friends (or just you if solo) to make one up and roleplay it. Unlike ARK, this game is sinfully cheap for the amount of fun it provides and don’t let it’s dated-like graphics fool you. It is a very solidly built game and some of the most fun I’ve had with a zombie game in years. It’s also on sale right now I think?

MASS EFFECT SERIES: YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  SORRY BUT THIS IS LEGIT MY FAVORITE GAME OF ALL TIME???? FUCK. I love this game! The characters, all of them are so well written and compelling and arguably the best part of the game. The atmosphere is breathtaking, especially the places you get to visit while playing the game (especially Andromeda like wow the game’s gorgeous), the gameplay is fantastic (it has it’s flaws but it works for the game for sure), the dialogue is some of the best I’ve experienced, and the story honestly makes you feel like every little thing you do in the game actually matters. Like everything has it’s rewards and everything has a small story to tell in this game: it’s why when I replay the entirety of it I play all of the games from the very first one to Andromeda. Now, I will say if you’ve never played this game I highly recommend playing the first one first. Not only because of the story but because, as much as I adore the game, the gameplay is.... well. It’s kinda bad. Like it’s legit my least favorite to play because it can be kinda taxing in the gameplay aspect, specifically combat and that goddamned Mako. Also don’t just listen to all of the naysayers about Andromeda if you decide to play it because honestly, it is not that bad. And in comparison to the first? It does a much better job with setting up the series (if we ever get more of it, fuckin’ EA) than the first does, especially the characters. But like all games, I just recommend that you play them and make that judgement for yourself whether or not you think it’s worth your time.

Dragon Age series: I’ve never played the first, I will be playing the second soon, but I have played the third and I’m honestly surprised by how much it impressed me? This game seems to get a bad rep for a lot of stuff but from my perspective as a newcomer, it was a lot of fun to play and the story was fun and the cutscenes, when they mattered, were goosebumps inducing. That scene, the scene where they show their faith in you? I’m not gonna spoil it but jesus. The combat takes some getting used to but overall a fun game with a fun story and, once again, it’s the characters that draw me in.

Far Cry Series: From what I hear the stories are good enough as well as the gameplay and, from my experience playing the 5th one, that’s all true. I dunno about the rest of them but the 5th’s ending though? It’s total shit. I’d recommend playing it because, despite the bugs and some bullshit physics it honestly was really fun and the story did keep me interested to the bitter end. I’m just angry at how they ended it. Yeesh.

Top 8 Funny Best Minecraft Mods Quotes

Listen to the choices on the proper, notably artistic sport mode or survival game mode. The Minecraft Texture Packs and Mods don't solely give you more choices of numerous backgrounds within the Minecraft world. Right now, these Minecraft Skins or texture packs are only able to be utilized on Macs and Home windows computer systems. You possibly can upgrade to Windows 11 from Windows 10, and Windows 11 has no app limitations. It handed and they can categorically state that there isn't any malware, the app is stable and it's reliable. Lastly, it won't be an exaggeration to state that introduction of digital video games has facilitated innumerable changes in the society. From interface adjustments to instruments to aid your hours of exploration, you've the choice to make Mojang’s basic even better on Laptop. It's at all times nice to have a spot to return to at the end of a protracted day, a spot the place you'll be able to kick up your ft and recharge.

That might be remedied in short order, although, and in the meantime, you may read all about it on the sport's official webpage. Go to game's webpage. Having the capability to own some portion of your own property or your complete world is a serious ordeal for Minecraft gamers. On this manner proceed replaying the amusement to have the capability to flaunt their own manifestations. 3. Third, the app developers have their very own status to consider and, earlier than their app installer was released publicly, it was thoroughly tested to make sure it was hassle-free. Users that don’t personal the original game is not going to see a obtain choice for the app on their store. Subsequent, upload the most well-liked image in PNG format across the profile web page from the game in addition to your new skins are prepared. If you want to change the character's skins for instance, this may be achieved simply.

Minecraft skins themselves fundamentally make reference to the character's pores and skin in numerous components of the physique. Plague Inc. - Your earlier plans for world domination didn't quite pan out, but you can make your days in middle administration feel far more destructive by unleashing a virtual plague upon the populace. This is essential as it makes the gamer really feel imperative, much like they are having a genuine obligation in how the world advances. Incomes coins -- however it's still a fun diversion when you do not really feel like constructing levels. Many individuals have now played Minecraft, it's an incredible amusement and individuals prefer to make, battle, mine and even specialty on it, nonetheless why do people really like the diversion? I comprehend gamers can thoroughly venerate the diversion once they initiate enjoying it. There is no profitable, just planting trees, catching fish and chatting with other players -- a great video sport situation for the tremendous-burdened. The sport options practical physics, for instance if the propeller on one side of your flying robotic gets destroyed, you are going to be flying lopsided. Going on digital amusements is a really superior side interest to assist avid gamers to de-stretch and enhance following a working day.

The following list compiles some of the best Minecraft mods out there proper now. What's the most effective 5-man instance in the sport? Wolves are probably the greatest pets to have in Minecraft, so it is sensible to offer them the perfect therapy attainable. It doesnt make a difference whether they've an internet performance or not. Djw360.Com helps make the water effects hanging around look more life like. Make the sport extra attention-grabbing, it's necessary to Obtain mods for Minecraft 1.18.2. This is completed absolutely for free. The open world, sandbox style of massive PvP works perfectly for a sport like PlanetSide 2, but how properly will it work in titles which can be extra aligned with a PvE setting, notably EQ Subsequent? That makes it extremely protected as a result of it doesn't open your machine to potential malware or another security concern. Open the link and reset your forgotten password. Now you will obtain the password reset hyperlink. In this way you'll be able to recover or reset your password. Generally customers additionally neglect their password. 1. At the beginning, the developers of Panda Store have developed their installer in such a means that, unlike most other Cydia alternatives, there isn't any want for you to make use of your Apple ID.

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online - Episode 02

Okay, let’s get into this a little deeper. It’s Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, episode 02! Here we GO!

-It’s July 2025. We come in on Karen, who’s been attending university in Tokyo for the last three months. She thought things might change, but…They’re not. She’s still awkward, and shy, and taller than any of the other women in her classes. She’s still having no luck finding a job, and spending her days going from apartment to school to apartment if she goes out at all.

-A gaggle of schoolgirls pass by, and Karen can’t help but be deeply envious of the tiny adorable things. Made all the more real when she tries to walk past, and cracks her head on a hanging sign. The pain is real.

-Opening! Which, the more I watch it it’s very interesting how much…*fulfillment[i] they wrap into the game environment. This is very clearly a space where not just Karen/LLENN, but a lot of the people around her, find themselves.

-August. Karen went back home for the summer break. With nothing better to do, she ended up getting curious about VR games after seeing a news report on the new, next-gen hardware made to simplify the VR connection and block off a lot of the safety problems with the SAO-era gear. And something about the idea grabbed her…

-Which is how she ended up snaring an old acquaintance to learn about the things…An acquaintance who was, of course [i]very* eager to tell her everything about her passionate hobby.

-She got the gear, and a copy of Alfheim Online, and settled in to try it back at her place….And it was in! She picked the name LLENN for the first time, went through the creation process….

-And became a tall, graceful elf.

-She was NOT into that. At all. It freaked her out so bad that she actually tripped the safety sensors and got forcefully logged out.

-And learned from said acquaintance, Miyu, that the whole system automatically creates characters for you…She could try again, or try shifting her account to a different game in the same engine. Which is not how game design works, but, you know what, okay. So Karen tried something else…

-And again and again, her characters kept being big. Racing game? Tall sexy racer. Flight game? Thicc pilot. Sci-fi game? What a halloween store would call “Sexy Chilled Alien” because it’s off-brand Frieza race. Fantasy games? A buff-ass barbarian queen and a…I think they’re going for orc there but the Western and Eastern ideas of ‘orc’ have diverged so fucking far it’s hard to tell. Sexy mermaid. And finally Karen was just pushing on through sheer god damned stubbornness.

-When she stumbled onto Gun Gale Online.

-And it put her, after 37 different games attempted, as like three and a half feet tall. At that point it officially stopped mattering what the game was about. It officially stopped mattering what kind of crazy mechanics she’d have to learn. All that mattered was being a tiny adorable waif of a girl for the first time since she was a child. The identity of LLENN ended up filling her heart that day…

-And then she did the tutorial. And got to learn that her true LLENN was in a shooty shooty game and being taught by a dominatrix drill sergeant. This was not what LLENN planned on doing on this day. She learned of the two core gun types, laser guns and slug throwers.

-Side diversion! This is actually an interesting thing to be using in a representation of an online shooter, because shooters tend to divert into two key types of handling their bullets; Some games(or even some guns in games that use both) use hitscan, where at the moment you squeeze the trigger it instantly draws a straight line and sees where it hits, while others use projectile based systems where a bullet is actually spawned and sent at high speeds with physics and time applying. Both of these are entirely valid systems, but which one you’re dealing with has strong implications for higher level play.

-But here in Gun Gale Online, another core difference was put into play; namely, laser guns(or as they call them, optical guns) could be defended against by energy fields. Live ammo’s a different story.

-So LLENN got to learn about the Bullet Line, the singular warning sign that an attack is imminent. She got to shoot her first gun, and learn about the system’s Bullet Circle idea to model the randomness of bullet spread…Which would be fine if LLENN could keep the fucking pistol steady enough for the Circle to stay in a single place.

-She got to try pistols, and sniper rifles, and submachine guns…And at least the submachine gun was vaguely suited to her skills.

-Cut to September. LLENN’s decided to stick with the game. Because being this tiny adorable figure was just too good to give up. She ended up doing PvE, just learning the systems. The whole time she was playing solo, just thrilling in the experience of being LLENN…But she hit a bit of a problem.

-A distinct lack of cute and adorable outfits in this grim serious game. …On the other hand, they had a color palette system. So she took her drab green military garb, and turned it BRIGHT PINK. She even had her optical gun done! And hearing comments from other players, was enough to keep her playing…

-Until one day she was out in the field, had set up a trap for some monsters, and put on some tunes while she relaxed. It’s at this moment that I realize they keep using the same artist name, so I have to imagine that one Elsa Kanzaki is either a really neat reference I don’t get, or going to be relevant. Either way, I should probably note it.

-She could eat cookies and drink tea as much as she wanted, with no worries of calories…But, this trap she set up was in a free-for-all area. And another group of players spawned in. She considered running, or logging out, and ultimately ended up hiding…Not noticed…Her trap went off, and in a panic, she raced in and started firing wildly!

-That whole time, she’d been cranking her SPD stat through the roof with her XP, needing it to deal with giant monsters solo…And so she tore through the three in a flash…When LLENN had enough time to stop and think, and notice that her pink outfit was actually almost the same color as the sunset-lit desert sands…

-Within a few weeks, people were talking about the Pink Devil in chat. A PKer who operates the desert field, ambushing anyone who gets close…A tiny, speedy little demon with two submachine guns.

-Because, indeed, LLENN had thrown some currency into a pair of live-ammo guns, and had turned the desert into her domain to roam freely in, to run far and wide on her tiny tiny legs…

-Until one day, someone caught her and put a gun to her head. A woman in all black, who liked the Pink Devil’s style…Enough to not shoot her. To think the infamous Pink Devil was so teeny and adorable. And she offered a trip back into town to get some tea, since this game didn’t have anywhere near enough female players…

-That was how LLENN met Pitohui, or Pito. Who, true story, added those tattoo cosmetics to her face to reduce how many guys were hitting on her in the game. And played GGO since launch day. While LLENN had only been in for about three months at this point.

-Pito found her more than interesting enough to send her a friend request, and the two ended up in an obscure shop in the corner of town, with rare drops from the PvE segment…Which is how LLENN found her P90, a hot new arrival sitting on the shelf for mere minutes. She bought it right then and there…And with Pito’s encouragement, she named it.

-P-chan. She named that gun P-chan. And let me tell you there is nothing that has made me laugh quite so hard as LLENN enthusiastically saying she’ll do her best to kill lots and lots, while the swelling meaningful-moment music plays.

-Anyways, she and Pito became a squad, and would go hunting and PKing a lot. But aside from having enough real-world money to keep dropping premium currency on fancy shit, LLENN barely knew anything about Pito.. She barely ever listened to music, didn’t watch a lot of movies…And of course LLENN still had lots of anxiety about any talk of real life.

-So Pito ended up putting down a challenge. Take her down in the PvP mode one day, rookie. Get a kill on her, and she’d made sure they could meet in real life. Take that challenge and live up to it. And LLENN was fired up about it, as they made a woman’s promise!

-January came, and they celebrated together in the game. And LLENN learned about the new battle royale mode, the Squad Jam…

-Credits!

I did not expect this much feels from my cute-girls-shooting-cute-guns anime.

Destiny 2: Out with the New..In with the Old?

So I’ve been a hardcore Destiny fan since its release and I will be the first to tell you it works best in bursts.

Throughout the entire franchise Bungie had always done a poor job at the simpler aspects of communication. They promised things, that depending on your interpretation of their words, were very feasible or too ambitious. At best their words came across as nebulous to much of the diehard and casual community.

In D1, The Taken King brought new life into the game when it needed it most. Now in D2 it looks like we’ve hit the same point.

A lot of players, myself included, have been running on empty trying to care about the expansions D2 delivered in the first year. Curse of Osiris had much to be desired and I’ll finish Warmind when I have the time. But after spending so much time maxing 3 characters on 2 systems I really needed a reason to do so.

So let’s talk about FORSAKEN.

                          THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN.

Quite literally we are going backwards and that’s a great thing. When D2 came out and the most devoted players had run out of content to actively do, the critiques and complaints started pouring in. If you lurked on the DestinytheGame subreddit you could see that most of the comments made comparisons to between D1 and D2 in regards to features, activities, and general quality of life changes to the franchise. Many players felt that D2 offered a more simplistic and streamlined experience in relation to D1, which left the hardcore players with little to do week after week. With Forsaken, Bungie is trying to take that criticism and run with it.

So what’s coming back? Over the course of the summer Bungie will be updating the game to reintroduce older modes and pother changes that all players (not just those who purchase Forsaken) will be able to take advantage of.

In general we can see that they will be tweaking some of the D2 systems to make them work better for players, while the roadmap doesn’t give us all the exact details. As of now the first two columns are already live, modifying players options in the Crucible, adding space to the Vault, and expanding the Masterwork system are probably the most notable changes there. 

Between now and then with update 1.2.3, we will be getting 6v6 Quickplay and Permanent Rumble, two Crucible options that players have been asking for since the first couple months of the game. In addition to that we’ll be rounding out Year 1 with Prestige Raids and Triumphs, both returning systems from D1 and an event called Solstice of Heroes, which will probably be further detailed during Bungie’s E3 event.

In the final column we have a list of the smaller additions Forsaken will be bringing. Some of these changes we examined a little more deeply than others during Bungie’s ViDoc, so for now we are gonna stay focused on those.

The first guy on the list is Gear Collections. Separate from the Vault and the Tower Kiosks, the game will now allow you to track what Weapons, Armor, and Items you have obtained during your D2 tenure.

The categories tell you how many of the items you have collected, how many there are in total, and what you need to do in order to get the ones you’re missing.

Then with Exotics (maybe more but we’ll have to wait and see) you can purchase exotic items you have unlocked, but may have dismantled during your gameplay. With the exotics and you haven’t discovered the Collection will let you know if you have top complete a particular quest or objective in order to discover it.

Other additions that weren’t individually pictured, but are interesting nonetheless are Weapon Slot Changes, Weapon Randomization, and an update to the Mod System.

With the weapon slots, Bungie is looking to bridge the gap between new and old players.

D1′s weapon setup had 3 slots, Primary (Assault Rifles, Hand Cannons, Scout Rifles, Pulse Rifles), Secondary (Shotguns, Sniper Rifles, Fusion Rifles, Sidearms), and Heavy (Machine Guns, Rocket Launchers, Swords).

D2′s set was a tad different with their slots being Kinetic and Energy which shared all weapon types, with the exception of Grenade Launchers, Rocket Launchers, Swords, Trace Rifles, Shotguns, Sniper Rifles, Fusion Rifles, and Linear Fusion Rifles. whew

Players felt that D2′s changes made players weaker all around, by sticking the game’s more powerful and situational weapon types into the weapon slot that would have the least amount of ammo drops and overall use.

With Forsaken, you can move weapons to any of the 3 slots you want, which means things are gonna get a whole lot crazier, but its gonna be a great ride for both PvE and PvP environments.

To add to that insanity, we’re getting back Radmon Rolls (Weapon Randomization), meaning that not every gun of the same make and model is identical. Bringing more of the Borderlands style of gun drops to the game. Some gun/perk combinations will work really well, some will be useless and do nothing, and others will (this is may personal favorite), will cause players to janky, different things with their loadouts

NEW STUFF INCOMING

So what do we have on the way?

New WEAPONS

New ENEMIES

New PLACES

New MODES

New RAID

NEW SUPERRRRRS

So considering this is our first look at all this content, there may not be too much to say at this point, but the visuals give us enough to be excited about.

So it’s no surprise that we’re getting new weapons, I mean that happens all the time right? But new weapon types? Not so much. But Bungie’s taking us back to 2013, when Bows were dominating the video game ecosystem.

So Bungie didn’t go into the specs of the Bow weapon type, but this is what we know or can infer right now:

Different Bows are designed for different types of engagements, most likely close range, midrange, and long distance.

Some bows have energy related abilities.

Time-to-Kill is balanced to make up for the act of drawing the bow.

Now Enemies. Because Bungie will be exploring more of the story during their E3 slot, we only know a bit about who were are gonna be fighting in Forsaken.

But if you guessed Fallen

YOU’D BE RIGHT

I bet you’re all wondering why I’ve gathered you here today.

So what they have said so far is that there has been a jail break at the Prison of Elders in The Reef, so it stands to reason that all the enemies we’ll be fighting are some topnotch Fallen.

We will be getting new Fallen enemy types and a sizeable number of Baron boss fights.

The major Barons are said to each operate in their own way, providing different types of engagements, instead of just a simply Kill List.

So where is all this going down? So obviously we’re going back to The Reef, the section of the Solar System that has appropriated the asteroid belt in Jovians (the Jupiter/Saturn area).

More specifically we have a new area to explore!

The Tangled Shore is a network of terrestrial platforms floating in the Reef, that are linked together through cables and wires. The idea itself is reminiscent of Fallen architecture, but I think it’s safe to assume the Awoken are responsible for its creation.

I would appear to be very open from the shots delivered in the ViDoc, but these could be imagine captured from cutscenes or early builds of the game that haven’t been populated. So there’s definitely more questions than answers here.

There is definitely an overwhelming Western theme in play here so maybe it just empty???

With the new Raid Bungie confirmed that there will be a new location that will house the Raid itself, which is slightly different than the previous raids, which were typically connected to the general overworld. How exactly they plan to section all that out has not been discussed, but I’m sure we’ll get more information on that moving forward.

The new raid is takes place in the Dreaming City. This is the birthplace of the Awoken, who are descendants of humans that escaped Earth’s orbit during the Collapse. As it stands we don’t have a real sense of the general timeline of those events, but it seem reasonable that the Dreaming City may provide some answers.

Bungie has said that the new raid with offer new puzzles to solve and mysteries to uncover. But that’s nothing new. What’s new: The raid will CHANGE. Bungie says that as people continue to play the raid, the environments will change so that over the course of weeks and months the raid will not be the same as it was when it premieres.

Definitely gets points for being pretty.

Time will tell what the scope of these alterations and changes will be. Players at least remember that the Infinite Garden from the Curse of Osiris expansion didn’t live up to the hype. Hopefully, the Dreaming City can.

So we’ve hit some PvE content, some PvP content, so now let’s talk about some content for PvEvP???

So at first glance this takes me back to Archon’s Forge from D1′s Rise of Iron expansion. Not surprisingly considering some of Bungie staff have looked to RoI for some inspiration, but we’ll get to that in a second.

For starters, Gambit is a mode for some PvE arena goodness. You kill enemies for motes of light which your team collects to deposit in your bank.

When you do that you end up sending a stronger enemy over to the opposing team’s arena. While that enemy is alive the other team will be unable to deposit motes, so you can gain a lead. After that you can fill up your bank, which summons an enemy for you and your team to take down, called a Primeval. Once you defeat it, you win the the round. Simple right?

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE!

You can also use motes to jump over to the other teams arena to kill their guardians or just generally prevent them from advancing. Bungie didn’t say what limitations there are in doing this, but I’d bet there’s a once per round limit.

Hmmmm? Is that everything? I felt like there was something I was really excited about, but after getting this far Ican’t seem to remember what...it...was...

OHYEAH

NEW SUPERS

But now I’m sad because I just remembered. Bungie didn’t show us too much on this front. But what they did say give us enough to work with I think.

So, first thing, these are not really new classes. Big difference there. And I really think what they’re doing here is more reasonable. They are creating new perk paths.

In D1, each class at a suite where you could choose what perks you wanted to pair together, but you were limited to one perk from each column (i.e. you couldn’t use two grenade type perks at the same time). The downside to that system was that you typically wouldn’t alter your perks much. At best you found the right combination for your playstyle and kinda left it at that. You couldn’t go full RPG and style your perks for different engagements as much as you might’ve wanted.

But in D2, the classes were steamlined as well. You choose from a jump type, grenade type, and melee type. Then you chose your path, which contained perks that would affect your playstyle. With a new super getting added to check class, it would be unreasonable for them to not introduce new perks, or a new path to augment it.

From what we’ve seen older supers look like they could have new abilities and new supers may be lifting parts from the super we lost going into D2. Gunslinger seems to be pairing its Throwing Knife mechanic with the old melee Super Bladedancer.

Warlocks seem to have a flashier teleport during Stormtrance and beam super not unlike what Moira from Overwatch has. And Titans get a Warhammer, which seems to blend together abilities from the new and old Sunbreaker.

GEEZ, that was more stuff than I thought to have before E3. But we got through it and I’m definitely excited to get back into one of my favorite game addictions!

Gauntlet: Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t

Alternatively titled: Concrete Reasons to Hate Gauntlet that Also Make Me Want To Quit The Game.

I’m starting this post 5 days past after when I had originally intended to post this.  Typically one might say that no one needed to know this unnecessary info, except I can probably relate the procrastination directly to my disengagement with the game this past week, which is definitively directly linked to the unhappiness of my teammates during Gauntlet, as we each tried to hit our higher-than-normal personal prize tiers.  Also, while I stoned like a shitty teammate in WD this week, I played Call of Duty Mobile and it’s actually a decent game that rewards my grinder tendencies, so I’ve been occupied with that.

I should make it clear that while this, being the shittiest discount-period PvP possible, made it a particularly shitty Gauntlet to have to grind out, my points stand for any Gauntlet, in general.  Gauntlet being the discount PvP simply highlighted it’s most hateful facets and drove me to analyse where and how exactly this event went all wrong.

...---...

FOUNDATIONAL PROBLEMS

1. Too little opportunity for teams to differentiate themselves by consistent activity- and possible activity is limited.

In higher leagues, many teams have most if not all of their PvE islands on cool down at any given time.  Some larger islands even see people setting timers for their appearance, just so that they can get in hits before said islands disappear. The rest of the time, everyone just waits for PvP islands to appear once every 3h.  This means that differentiating one’s team from the competition falls to PvPs, which come with their own slew of negative implications.

2. PvP and PvE islands die too quickly and regenerate too slowly.

This week, I watched my teammates congratulate each other for getting hits in on Gustav island.  The typical teammate would only get in one hit, and then have to wait another 4h for the largest PvE island to reappear.  In the meanwhile, they would hit the other islands, and at multiple instances this event, we’d have all the islands in cooldown...at the same time, leaving us with nothing to hit.

Current island health seems like it was balanced for supers, not megas.  When islands appear once every 4h only to disappear after 3 minutes, this seems poorly designed.  It should not be possible for no islands to be open at any one time.

3. The first few islands are worth fewer points for each attack for no reason.

For most players in Sapphire and Diamond, all the PvE islands are equal in difficulty.  Not only is it unnecessary to force us to all spend energy and inner fires at suboptimal rates  at early parts of the event, it also creates competition for the PvE islands with better value, and elicits unnecessary consideration of the conundrum ‘Do I kill earlier islands at terrible rates to contribute to team points, or focus on getting personal points for better value by waiting for larger islands to reset?’  I don’t think it’s fair to force people into having to consider the value of personal progress against helping their team; isn’t the point of a team-based game to incentivise teamwork?

4. PvE is meaningless and unsatisfying.

PvE bases have low point value and take precious time to grind, but are also unchallenging and boring.  This isn’t to say that I think making them challenging will fix this, but rather that their point value should be increased and the work needed to get those points decreased, with, say, a raid button, instead of wasting our time.

5. 70% is a win.

Unless every single base on a team is a maxed base, most bases optimised for strength, under level 550 hit 70% at an earlier point as compared to bases optimised for a longer time needed to reach 70% completion, which are often weaker.  This places forces players to choose between having a strong base, or a long base.  With a single defensive base design meta and the latter being generally detrimental with it’s only benefit being a longer completion time, should it be an encouraged base design?

Should sudden spikes in performance be rewarded over constant high performance?  Does the ability to have a fraction of the team complete bases to 70% a few seconds faster really determine a superior team?

...---...

IMPLICATIONS

1. The deciding moments of Gauntlet occur in literal seconds.

As pointed out, the deciding moments of Gauntlet are the PvPs.  Between two competent teams who spend enough megas to finish off a PvP island in one wave, the difference between a loss and a win is very often mere seconds.  This is bad for multiple reasons.  

First and foremost, 2 minutes (or less!) of PvP every 3h is both too draining over 4 days and too insignificant to excite and satisfy when it happens.  Additionally, any internet connection problems or PG server glitches, which are common, within those two minutes can cost your team the entire PvP.  Finally, it’s idiotic that these few seconds to 70% matter far more than the hours of grinding a team does on PvE islands.  All in all, flying a base a few seconds faster comes down less to skill and more to fortune, which makes it a very idiotic metric to determine whether a team should be winning the entire event.

PvP rounds should be decided by some other metric other than completion time.

2. Longer bases > Stronger bases.

This is an unfortunate meta that has been becoming more and more prevalent in recent times.  It rewards the wrong things- logically, shouldn’t planning ahead and building strong towers be encouraged?  Farms give an unequal % of base completion as compared to actual damaging towers of the same or higher level, as they have higher HP.  As most bases have no hope of stopping recent dragons stronger than their towers, if said base isn’t endgame, it’s ideal that a base backload a larger comparative percentage of HP with it’s farms by having lower level, and hence a lower HP kill island ahead of the farms.  Rewarding poor base building not optimised for damage tower strength seems bad.

Somewhat tangentially, shorter bases are preferentially attacked over longer bases in order for teams to win PvPs.  Sacrificing points and risks taken on larger bases just because they take too long to complete devalues defenders and makes PvPs a pure speed race instead of valuing skilled flying.

Stronger bases should be rewarded instead of bases that take longer to complete simply because their HP was backloaded.

3. Defence is undervalued.

Say you shut down an attack on your team’s PvP island before 70%, sacrificing the opportunity cost of being able to launch your own attack on the enemy team and having it land, helping your team complete the PvP island faster, potentially winning the round.  However, while your defence may screw that one attacker, the next enemy hit to land will probably finish off the island, so multiple defenders are needed to make a noticeable dent in the enemy wave.  Additionally, defences are unrewarded in the PvP, your attacker only needs to kill 70% of the defended base with three dragons; in the case of a failure will likely still score a percentage of points from their unsuccessful attack, and also have the choice to receive an energy refund if they drag out their attack for long enough.  Also you’ve probably spent a bunch of hammers and boosts.

Defence should be rewarded more strongly in PvPs, as dragons and bases are two sides of the same coin (and people tend to spend more on bases than dragons, as a rule)

4. If your team isn’t competing for points, your team isn’t good.  If your team is competing for points, your teammates are selfish.  

Obviously, while this statement, while echoed in the sentiments of many players, may be logically untrue, the reality is that individual sandbagging is rewarded in this event.  In a less competitive team with fewer competitive teammates, players are able to access and earn more high-value personal points with less stress and time management.  This is bad; isn’t the point of a team-based game to encourage teamwork?

One might argue that such sandbaggers would miss out on team prizes, but the fact remains that personal points are easier and less stressful to earn on shittier teams, and that alone makes the sacrifice worth it for some.  Team strife is never fun to have to deal with; some may feel any animosity unintentionally caused by competition with teammates for high-value points is undesirable and wish to avoid such a situation.

More points should be made available to decrease the scarcity of points and hence intra-team competition for points.

5. PG isn’t maximising profits from this event. 

By creating a PvP where some point sources are more valuable than others, PG has artificially caused some to believe that it’s not worth it to push for higher personal prize tiers if their teammates are constantly causing said point sources to be unavailable.  This may cause some to spend less PvP resources than they might have otherwise, since they may think it’s ‘not worth it’.  PG isn’t very good at this comparative pricing thing!

The value of certain point sources should be increased relative to each other.

...---...

CONCLUSION

Gauntlet is a pretty terrible PvP as is.  Most of it’s problems arise from it’s not providing enough comparatively high-value point sources; I’d like to posit that island HP were never adjusted appropriately after the introduction of megas. 

 (Megas are a fine high-value introduction to the game; if I had a gripe about them it’d be that IF costs were never adjusted after the energy pack discounts, and 20 IFs to launch one is far too expensive for how ubiquitous and necessary megas are in more competitive leagues now.  This is probably another post, though.)

Where PvP islands used to take 10+ minutes to be cleared with supers; now they’re cleared in a single wave.  If you’re not clearing your PvP islands within 2 minutes, you’ve probably lost that wave, too.  This is obviously bad.

I’m not asking that island HP be adjusted accordingly, or for PvP islands to spawn more frequently, since this would only increase the necessity for megas in this PvP and exhaust team resources more rapidly, but the PvP should be adjusted for their addition to the game.  

A few suggestions:

1. PvE islands should have shorter regeneration times in general.

2. PvE islands can have shorter regeneration times based on how rapidly they’re cleared by the team, since PvE island clearing speed can be a fair indicator of the activity of the team, and hence their greater need for point targets.  Obviously, this also gives greater advantage to teams with generally higher team activity, since they can kill the same island more times than a less active team that clears islands more slowly.  Maybe a point multiplier to be applied on team/personal points based on how many times each island is cleared?

3. Point value of each attack on the smaller PvE islands should be increased to be more in line with the point values that larger PvE islands provide.

4. Install raid button for PvE attacks.  I’m tired of Krelos being used as an excuse for going half-lazy.  Always go full-lazy.  #RaidButton2k20

5. No points awarded below 70%; instead, a full energy refund is provided.  This point is controversial; in higher leagues this would punish players legitimately trying bases outside of their expected ‘ez point’ range.  At the same time, others disagree that people should get ‘free tries’ on enemy bases until they get it down, since it further devalues defenders.

6. 70%ing a base still remains a win; but no points are awarded until farms and mills are killed.  Most bases have their farms and mills behind all their defensive towers, this solution ensures that no one needs to adjust their base so they’re not 70%ed until later into their base.  At the same time, higher level bases remain advantaged as it would take longer to clear/skip islands before the farms, to kill them.  However, this also punishes players hitting above their weight class, and puts a defensive focus on defending farms.

7. Reward defenders by awarding points for dragons shot down; scaled according to dragon DP as compared to base tower level.  Or something.

8. Let all attacks started against PvP islands land, and have bonus hits that land after the enemy island is killed earn bonus team points, with a significant multiplier.  This is good as it rewards teams that have more attackers online and ready to go for their higher blanket activity, instead of just the speed of their fastest attackers.

Mainly, I’d just like this event to not punish active teams for their activity.  It’s tiring to have to entertain thoughts of leaving for a smaller team every time this event runs.  My team’s really nice, so it’s actually a pretty serious internal debate.  #ChronicSandbaggerCat

One Person’s Broken Is Another Person’s Perfect (Classic Flashback)

This post originally appeared on dorkfam.net on July 1, 2016.

“Are we ever going to play The Division again?” OtherMark asked.

“I dunno,” OtherOtherMark replied, “Is The Division going to not suck anymore?”

I winced, partly at the reply, and partly because I was repeatedly falling to my death in the Vault of Glass jumping puzzle. Four months ago, OtherOtherMark was really excited about The Division. Destiny was looking long in the tooth. Our raid group completed King’s Fall. This was the end game content that we’d been working on together for a couple of months, since early December. And with the end game content mostly completed, the group started to drift apart as players started playing other games. Destiny was no longer holding their interest.

Destiny was the first modern online multiplayer game I had played where I became really involved in a group. In Destiny, you can group up into a fireteam of up to six people, and to do the raid, you’ll need six, so the first step was finding a group of people who could play together. It started with friends, and then friends of friends, and pretty soon we had a group of six who played at the same time and played well together. And so we did strikes, and played in the Crucible together. And it got to be a thing, you’d look to see who was online, and you knew you would be playing with them, often until late into the night. It became this wonderful social aspect to an already almost sublime gaming experience. I finally started to understand why this was all my friends were talking about last year.

But that social aspect was diminishing, and it looked like we were going to move to The Division. And that didn’t quite happen. Not every one in the group made the jump, and The Division didn’t have the end game that we needed, or wanted. It didn’t have much of an end game at all. Certainly not the raid that we worked towards as a group.

I spent most of March leveling up in The Division. I completed the story, and then there wasn’t much to do but to grind out better gear in the Dark Zone. The Dark Zone is an a special area within The Division. The Division is a beautiful open world design, where players move freely through a detailed recreation of midtown Manhattan. You complete missions and encounters on this map to get better gear and to advance your character. But in the middle of this map lurks a large section that is walled off, and can only be entered through select portals. This is the Dark Zone, and within the Dark Zone, The Division becomes a significantly different game.

In the regular game world, the player runs into randomly generated groups of bad guys to fight, but also civilians to help, and most significantly, no other players, except for those that you invite into your game session. You could play the entire main game solo if you wanted to, though you will see and run into other players within the safe areas where you restock armor and sell your loot. But once you leave the safe areas, the streets are yours and yours alone.

In the Dark Zone, you run into other players, players who are ostensibly agents of The Division, like yourself. But the Dark Zone is a place of no rules, and so not only can you see the other players, but you can shoot them. The Dark Zone was The Division’s unique take on PvP, and it could have been very interesting, creating a unique gaming environment.

I didn’t find The Dark Zone to be much fun. I don’t mind PvP, and while I like to keep my PvE and my PvP separate, I can play in a mix. I used to love to play on PvP servers in Warcraft, even though I almost exclusively played PvE. I wouldn’t even duel with people. I tried it once, found it tedious, and moved on. In Warcraft, you knew when you were in a PvP situation. It wasn’t ambiguous. But The Dark Zone was a big mess of ambiguity. A player who was helping you could turn and stab you in the back at any moment. A guy who ganked you earlier could help you out. You couldn’t trust anybody, and basically came down to people taking advantage of weaker players. Maybe if they had disabled level advantages, it might have been better.

I saw a lot of people defending the Dark Zone on Reddit, and I spent a lot of time wondering why they liked it so much. I think they wanted PvP. Some people really enjoy PvP, the challenge of playing against other actually human players instead of the somewhat limited and predictable AI. And that’s fine. I’ve been playing death matches online since Quake. I play Crucible in Destiny, though it’s not my favorite. I think that if you enjoyed The Dark Zone in The Division, it was because you decided that you were going to go rouge. You either went in with a fire team with the intent to go rouge, or you were a solo rouge. Then the ambiguity is gone. Or you play with the notion that everyone you see is a rouge, and stay away from them. And it did make it spooky, because other, so-called friendly agents wouldn’t be tracked on your HUD, so suddenly you’d see a group of gunmen appear out of nowhere.

The problem was that you couldn’t preemptively defend yourself, without going rouge yourself. It was like a game of chicken—you didn’t want to be the first one to shoot. If you went rouge, then not only could they kill you without getting marked for it, but they’d get bonus experience for it. So, if you’re going to play with the mentality that everyone in the Dark Zone is a rouge, then the only way to play it effectively to plan on going rouge yourself.

Which is why I think it’s flawed design on the developer’s part. The idea was to create this sense of ambiguity, this idea that these agents that are supposed to be on your side have flipped to the other side, and you don’t know who is who. But with no real consequences for flipping, in fact, there are actual bonuses and better gear for flipping, then the ambiguity is gone. Everyone is out to get you, because it’s really just a free-for-all.

Here’s how I would fix it: once you go rouge, you’re cut off from The Division, and you have to find the opposition, and make contact with them, and build rank with them, probably through ganking Division agents in the Dark Zone. Eventually, you get enough trust with the opposition that they send you back to The Division to become a double agent, except The Division doesn’t trust you right away, so you have to rebuild some rank with them, probably through not ganking Division agents in the Dark Zone while killing rouges. Then you’d have to make a choice at some point, who to betray, the opposition or The Division. Man, now I want to play that game.

The problem was that there was nothing else to do. I had spent most of March in The Division‘s rendition of Manhattan, taking out looters and rioters and guys with flame throwers and mercenaries. Block by block, I took out bad guys to defend civilians. It was made pretty clear who was bad and who wasn’t, at least to me. The civilians were always a little jumpy around me, skittish if I got too aggressive, a nice touch since I don’t think I could hurt any of them if I tried. I could shoot the tires on parked cars (which I’ll admit, I did a lot) or stray dogs (I never did, and it bothered me when my teammates would), but I couldn’t shoot any of the bystanders.

It was a game without an endgame. You could grind gear in The Dark Zone, but since outside The Dark Zone I was already like a god, basically unstoppable, why bother? There was no reason to play a mode that I didn’t find fun, and that was all there was to do.

What is the end game? Most video games have a story, or at least try to, though in Destiny‘s case, it was sort of loosely stringing missions together with some sort of tangent. It really didn’t matter, because the missions were engaging and fun.

So, the end game is what you do when you want to keep playing the game, but you’ve completed the story. For a multiplayer game like Destiny or The Division, that usually means PvP or a raid. The problem with The Division was that the PvP was more frustrating than fun, and there was no raid.

They did add The Incursion, which was supposed to be the first end game option, but I never played it. From what I heard, it was wave after wave of bullet-sponge bosses, and you needed serious gear to run it. In fact, a whole new tier of gear was rolled out just for The Incursion. To help you grind gear outside the dark zone, a new set of daily and weekly missions were available, but again, it seemed like a lot of work to grind gear for a mission that just didn’t seem fun, which was disappointing because the main story had been fun, and the missions were different and varied.

What Destiny did was a brilliant. Players left because there was only two options for end game, PvP and the raid. The raid was difficult to set up because you needed six players who knew what they were doing, because it was complicated. And you only had a week to complete it, and that’s assuming that you started on Tuesday, which most people didn’t. There were checkpoints through the raid, and if you made it to a check point, you could start there the next day. And when you were learning the raid, you’d need the checkpoints. And really, you could say that part of the end game in Destiny, once you completed the story missions, was getting gear good enough to go on the raid, something that took a little grinding to do. Also, players left because they had completed the raid, and it wasn’t holding their interest anymore.

So, Bungie raised the light limit, to give players something to work towards, and then opened up new paths to get the light limit. Now, in addition to PvP and the raid, you could do the revamped Prison of Elders/Challenge of Elders, which was sort of like PvE Crucible. You could also get higher level gear from the faction vendors, and they made it easier to grind faction rep. So now, just running the daily missions became a way to get better gear and raise your light level.

What happens when you hit the light limit? I don’t know, probably drift into another game for a while. The next update will be in September, and there will be new content, and the light limit will be raised again. There will be a new raid. That will make four raids. I’ve only completed one.

The Division is still on my hard drive, and I’ve been updating it, though I haven’t actually played it in a long time. Things could have changed. The conditions that I’m writing about were in late March, early April. I had a lot of fun playing the story of The Division, and the mechanics and gameplay were pretty solid. It was disappointing that the game didn’t scale well. Once we got to a high enough level, the bad guys just seemed to become bullet-sponges, and the difficulty was upped by sending them at us in overwhelming waves. I think part of what propelled me through The Division through most of March was the uncovering the map, learning the game and how to play it effectively, and grinding out better gear. There’s a whole world of crafting and improving gear that I was just starting to get into before I hit the why bother point. I’m keeping it because there might come a time when I want to get back into it, a point where they’ve fixed things and made changes to end game, or created more story to work through.

I’m still grinding through Destiny, daily. Destiny‘s April update came right when I was losing interest in The Division. At its core, Destiny is a lot of fun. The first thing I did when I dropped back into Destiny after being in The Division for so long was jump. When you jump in Destiny, you can soar. You can float all around the map. In The Division, you’re stuck on the ground. But more than that, the basic mechanics of Destiny are smoother and sweeter. It’s more fun to pull the trigger in Destiny, more fun per round fired. It doesn’t matter than I’m ranging over the same maps that I’ve ranged over a hundred times before, it’s just fun to be there.

Last night we were playing Iron Banner with DMot, who wasn’t part of our core raid group, but had filled in a couple of times when we needed a sixth. He admitted that he hadn’t been playing Destiny for a while, but had been playing The Division. It was fun, he said, “But I always knew I’d come back to Destiny. You can always come back to Destiny.”

And we did. We all came back.

from dorkFarm http://ift.tt/2GkBbt1 via IFTTT

How to get fortnite thumbnails

Fortnite For Xbox One

Epic Match, the architects behind Fortnite, once more take case against a supposed cheater. Distinctive versions of Fortnite: Battle Royale may well give you exclusive rewards so you could possibly want to choose your platform cautiously. For instance, acquiring a Nintendo Switch Fortnite Bundle gives you 1,000 V-bucks plus exclusive outfits for your avatar correct out of the gate! Playstation 4 customers also had access to a PSN-exclusive cosmetics such as the blue leader and blue ace outfits.

For these of you who've got extra time than cash at your disposal, then there are some surprisingly effective strategies for obtaining hold of V-Bucks devoid of whipping out your credit card. There's just 1 little drawback, even though - you'll want to buy the single-player Save The World PVE element of Fortnite. At times it is readily available at a drastically lowered price tag, but it is a case of maintaining an eye on the retailer to save oneself a bit of cash.

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It looks like the two Halloween-themed outfits, the Renegade outfit, the glider and the new harvesting tool skin is all we have to see for ideal now. The day-to-day things will rotate so we'll see what's there the next few days. The Season Shop isn't open however so we'll definitely be getting a lot more techniques to devote V-bucks in there. We're hoping to see some cheaper skins in the future since not every person desires to drop $20 on a game to get a new skin.

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In February, Fortnite's developer Epic Games announced that it had clocked an astonishing three.four million players playing the game at 1 time, and the wider player base (persons who have played Fortnite Battle Royale at least as soon as) was claimed to be 45 million back in January. It's now a handful of months later, during which time the game has become readily available on iOS and Android devices, so the figure is most likely to be considerably, significantly higher now.

Fortnite Battle Royale is a 100-player game in which you play solo or as teams, and parachute onto an island to fight other players until only a single of you is left standing. To make it harder, the area in which you play is shrinking and you need to remain in that area to survive, setting traps, scavenging weapons and developing defenses. As the map shrinks, it pushes players together as time goes on, forcing confrontation.

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And it's not just that those actions contribute to your chances of winning the game, although playing good with teammates surely does go along way in helping claim victory. Rather, this game mode, when combined with the incentives Epic has built into Fortnite and the common positivity of the player base, creates a particular formula exactly where I found my faith in world-wide-web strangers warmly rewarded with each new encounter.

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You can commence playing Fortnite: Battle Royale for totally free right now, and if you have the solution you ought to play it on Xbox A single X (or a excellent Computer). For the best probable knowledge you will possibly want to spend for a Battle Pass too, and the cheapest (and fastest) way to get it is shelling out $ten for some in-game currency.

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