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vivaldiny · 1 year

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LCB Sinners as Sims players (yes)

We've had a discussion with friends about sinners and their taste in games in modern AU and, being an avid fan of The Sims, I've decided to assign sinners their Sims playstyles. After all, who hasn't played it?

(oh, I also don't always mention which Sims game they'd play, but it's mostly 2-3 purely because I'm used to these myself)

Emil - I imagine that he'd prefer a story-heavy gameplay! He'd also have few families, but would be very attached to them (and dedicate a lot of time to creating interesting personalities). So much so that it'd be very hard for him to sacrifice their happiness for drama. Oh, and as for the game, I feel that he would really enjoy Sims 3. I'd also say that he might like Sims 2, but... Emil would probably be too young to know much about it.

Rodya - I think she'd get bored of the game quickly. On the other hand, she might try building or try out different types of gameplay - building different skills, playing with different content, etc. She's also one of rare sinners I imagine playing Sims 4 (or Sims 3... doubt she'd bother getting older games).

Gregor - the most ordinary Sims player. He just wants his sims to live a happy family life. He also feels like the kind of person to have played the first Sims game (I generally headcanon him to be an old games lover in modern AU... Yes, it's because he has strong dad vibes :D).

Hong Lu - one of my mutuals said that he'd have "disgustingly huge dynasties" and I love this headcanon!! I also think that he'd try out some of the Sims challenges (Legacy Challenge at least). Aaand among sinners he's another rare fan of Sims 4 in my eyes, because he's just that nice.

Outis - ...I think she'd hate the game actually.

Ishmael - she'd play normally... and that's why she'd get really bored of the game. Besides, she's the sinner to actually touch grass, so she probably needs no life simulator.

Ryoushu - have you seen those "making my sims suffer in terrifyingly cruel ways" videos? She's their creator.

Heathcliff - he'd try all possible ways to kill his sims. He'd probably also create his enemies and make them suffer in especially cruel and/or humiliating ways. He'd also probably enjoy Extreme Violence Mod for Sims 4. (among his saves there's actually the one with the couple that he created with Cathy. He didn't have it in himself to delete this family, and it's actually the only save where he plays in a completelly normal way)

Don - she'd be the type of player to create characters with only good traits (yes, she'd play Sims 3 or 4) and try to make them the best at everything. Somehow she'd end up being the first Sims player that sucks at the game. Oh, and I also think that she'd get bored of her sims pretty quickly and would constantly create new ones. Her only long-lasting save would probably the one with some horse farm owner (in Sims 3, at least...). Lastly, I think she'd often create her simsona (with the coolest trates possible, of course!!!) or her favourite characters/celebrities (would her simsona marry them? Maybe!)

Faust - I feel like she'd be less of a player, more of a popular modder. Her actual game experience would actually be playing the game a little, noticing some minor problems, looking into them... and ending up researching the game so much that it gets really boring to play (after all, she'd know all about it).

Meursault - he'd create either himself or the most generic sim possible, get him to work in business and purely dedicate his time in game to improving in that career. In the end, he'd drop the game simply because he wouldn't understand what it's point is.

Yi Sang - I honestly don't know, but I feel like he'd be an original Sims player. Not sure he'd even know about all later releases, actually...

Dante - he'd really, really like his sims and want them to be happy, but each time they'd fail spectacularly or die in mysterious circumstances. It'd always break Dante's heart. (Dante is also the reason Vergilius (who never played the game) knows all possible ways to fuck up in Sims)

Charon - she'd know A L L about the game. She'd try so many thing so she'd probably become some sort of Sims sage. Vergilius would probably be very confused as to how she hasn't ended up as the second Red Gaze after all this time playing.

Bonus: Kromer would bully Emil for his Sims hobby, calling it cringe and too girly (and causing Emil to be very self-conscious about his interests in games). Then she'd come home to her PC, boot up her very own Sims game and spend hours playing throught the save where she and Emil are in love and happily married.

And that's all! My apologies if it was silly - again, I'm just a huge fan of both The Sims series and Limbus Company. I also really like silly AUs!!! :D

(if you've noticed mistakes in the post - please, don't hesitate to point them out, English is not my first language)

#viva posting #project moon #limbus company

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thessalian · 5 months

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Thess vs Things Left Unsaid

I started the day going, "This is a day in which I am going to do absolutely nothing, except put food in my face and maybe go to the corner shop for a treat".

Except asking me to do literally nothing is too hard an ask and while I have gone through a fair bit of Stray Gods Act 1, I ... kind of need something with combat. Except I also sort of don't because oh dear gods I hurt.

Anyway, not the point. This was actually just a quick one about the recent Video Game Awards, which have been yelled about a lot lately. Honestly, it's deserved yelling. Basically it's "They gave more time to reveals and trailers than they did to the people accepting these awards", to the point of flashing a WRAP IT UP sign on the teleprompter as the acceptance speech for Baldur's Gate 3's GotY award was getting to the part where they were thanking the cinematic animation lead who literally died not long after the game was released to such acclaim.

I get why, even if I don't agree with why. The people running this event wanted to avoid any "awkward" speeches - ones that might touch on ... for example, the situation in Gaza and how a ceasefire would be really nice, or the literal thousands of people that game publishers have laid off over the last year or so to inflate their profit margins, or the toxic work culture in those companies, and so on and so on. Awkward shit like that. Things that are really important to hear about and think about, but that video game publishers probably don't want people to think about, so they want to ensure that nothing gets in the way of "VIDEO GAMES YAY!"

However. Once again, I give props to Neil Newbon. YouTube actually happened to recommend a clip of his acceptance speech, and ... okay. Y'all know as how TEH GAMERZ have been bitching about Baldur's Gate 3. "Pronouns", and having to endure male characters making passes at their male OC. "The Woke", basically. Hell, it's got even worse since a) some modders on Nexus made a mod that turned Dame Aylin male (Ser Aylin - for real) specifically to "make the relationship with Isobel more in line with medievel norms", and b) Nexus Mods shutting that homophobic piece of shit mod down. TEH GAMERZ are shitting themselves, and I can only cheer.

Anyway, point is, at the point where they must have flashed their stupid "WRAP IT UP" sign, after he'd thanked people as best he could in the thirty seconds or so they gave him and the "get off the stage" music was starting, he leaned into the microphone and started talking about how people all over the internet had said they felt seen by this game, and how grateful he was that they did - that those people were seen, and how he was thankful that the people who needed to be seen got to feel that way. And honestly? I don't think it was just the LGBTQAI+ community that he was talking about. Because the man played Astarion. And whether your playthrough has him queer or not, and honestly, all things considered, I doubt you can make Astarion's story not-queer, given that I imagine Cazador ... erm 'enjoyed' his thralls ... honestly, that's the point. It wasn't just the queer community that would almost certainly feel seen by Baldur's Gate 3.

Two words: abuse survivors.

Astarion. Shadowheart. Karlach. Wyll to a point. Hell, technically Lae'zel. So many of the companions in Baldur's Gate 3 have been in some way abused and lied to by someone with power over them (twice in Karlach's case). And in this game, you not only see what it does to those characters but you can help. For those who are living through or even have just escaped from abuse ... they can be the protector that they wanted and needed, but maybe never had. They can see, at a remove, the strong temptation to become the abuser - or at least be like the abuser - because when you're abused, the idea is basically shoved in your face that the only way to be safe from abuse is to have the power your abuser has. Astarion's story in particular gives the option of a more healthy way to heal.

It was such an important thing to say, and Newbon did what he could to say it despite the organisers only wanting their winners to say the briefest of thank-yous before running off to leave more time for previews, trailers, and new release announcements. It was rushed, but he felt it was important enough to at least get out there, as a message, so he did what he could in the brief time he was allowed. I do very much appreciate that man.

In other news, I'm a bit of an idiot. I got to a point in Stray Gods where I was going, "Wait, I know that voice. Where do I know that voice from? Okay, here's IMDB ... I know that name. From somewhere big. Why do I know that name?" And it took a lot of scrolling to remember that Kimberly Brooks voiced Ashley Williams in Mass Effect. Then again, I admit that a) I haven't played ME1 in awhile because even in the LE, the UI is still a little iffy, and b) because of the logic my Shepards generally use, Ashley has never once been my VS. Not that I don't like the character; just ... the way shit pans out on Virmire, usually. Also c) I'm pretty shit at names anyway.

Right. Back to the vegetation. I'll probably throw on some trousers and go to the corner shop soon, and then I have an apparently easy recipe for gluten-free toad in the hole, and nice long hot bath later. Anything to get rid of the migraine, the aches, and this tic under my right eye that's been there for three straight days now and is driving me ever-so-slightly crazy. And then tomorrow, back to work, and wondering exactly what horrors the other staffers have left for me. Five hours, I worked last night and I still barely feel like I made a dent. Couldn't finish all of Friday's (partly because a lot of them were long and complicated, but mostly because there were a lot of them) and definitely couldn't touch any of the stuff done on Saturday and Sunday. At this rate, I'm going to be on overtime until the Christmas holidays. I just keep reminding myself that I did actually make a dent and it's not my fault that people just keep filling that dent up with more work. It helps. Not enough for me not to dread what the queue will look like tomorrow, but it helps.

#Thess plays video games #Thess has opinions #Thess has a day job

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thetoxicgamer · 2 years

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Half-Life Has A New Halo And Doom-inspired “Sequel” Set For Steam

An unauthorised sequel to Valve's seminal first-person shooter Half-Life, which draws inspiration from Halo, Doom, and Quake, will follow an altered Gordon Freeman (more on that later) as he navigates a post-Black Mesa world. The creator is hoping for a release on Steam. Created by Velocity Punch, Half-Life: Reamped is led by modder Just Wax, who outlined the FPS spin-off in an interview with PCGamesN. The combat is rapid, the story is brand new, and the classic shooter inspirations are numerous. Imagine Half-Life crossed with Doom 2016 and you’re almost there, but as Just Wax explains, Half-Life: Reamped is a much, much more. “Half-Life: Reamped is a sequel to Half-Life 1 set in an alternate timeline where Gordon refused G-Man’s offer to work for him,” they explain. “It’s a fast-paced interpretation of the Half-Life formula set in a surrealistic United States during an invasion by corrupted Xen forces. You play as ‘The Freeman’, a ravenous beast who used to be Gordon Freeman, but is now something much more primal, ferocious, and deadly.” Just Wax and the team began preliminary work on Half-Life: Reamped back in 2017, with a new gameplay trailer releasing just earlier this month. Though it pays homage to several other shooters both classic and modern, Wax intends Reamped to be a “personal project”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hta6HrN8DaM “People tend to simplify it to being ‘Half-Life but Doom’, and that’s partially on me for how I’ve presented the project to the public,” Wax explains. “But that’s not the whole picture. If I had to compare it, it would be closer to Doom 2016 than any of the other Doom games, but really it’s an homage to the videogame genre as a whole. I’ve taken inspiration from tons of games. Doom is an obvious one, but there’s influence from Halo to Ratchet and Clank; Quake to Banjo Kazooie; Half-Life to Earthbound. The helmet of the new HEV suit I made is heavily inspired by motocross helmets, which is born out of my love of motorsports. HL:R is really an homage to all the things I love. It’s a very personal project for me.” Although Wax and the team have developed a range of new assets, features, and mechanics for Half-Life: Reamped, they explain that – when it comes to the enemies at least – the intention is to “maintain” the “feel” of the Source engine. “A lot of the enemies are new,” Wax explains, “but they’re based on systems Valve put in place beforehand, which allows them to act in unique and new ways without sacrificing that iconic Source game feeling.” Nevertheless, working with Source, on a mod of this magnitude, occasionally proves difficult, with Wax describing how transforming the base game of Half-Life 2 into Half-Life: Reamped involves a learning curve that is “incredibly steep”. “Working with Source is like trying to assemble a piece of furniture using duct tape and baling wire,” they explain. “Valve’s code is a giant pot of spaghetti, and combing through it to figure it out is like trying to assemble a 1,000-piece puzzle where some of the pieces don’t fit correctly and others are just warped beyond recognition. That said, I absolutely love working with it, because once you do figure it out and the pieces fall into place, it’s way more powerful than people realise. “I’ve put a lot of effort into making things feel powerful and punchy,” Wax continues. “From little things, like keyframe timing in animations, to big things, like movement response and weapon feedback, everything that happens in the game feels powerful, punchy, and just really, really satisfying. It’s all the little things that make a big difference. I’m also very proud of the MechaVort seen in the trailer. He’s a total badass and a ton of fun to fight.” Though no exact release date has been given, with Wax – quoting the immortal words of Gabe Newell – saying “these things, they take time,” Velocity Punch is “definitely aiming for a Steam release”. There’s a way to go — you can follow all the progress on Half-Life: Reamped’s Mod DB page — but Wax is keen to point out they have the team to bring this Half-Life sequel over the line, as well as highlighting other modding projects connected to Valve’s defining shooter. YouTube Thumbnail“None of this would be possible without the friends I’ve made,” they explain. “I’ve surrounded myself with a wonderful circle of fellow modders, and we’re always trying to help each other out in any way that we can. I want to shout out White_Red_Dragons, who’s working on a really cool Stargate-themed mod called Astria Porta; Jancias, who’s working on a reboot of the iconic Half-Quake series called “Half-Quake Rebirth”; roman_memes, who’s working on a sequel to Half-Life: Opposing Force called “Urban Chaos”; and a big shout out to the helpful and friendly members of the Valve Modding Community Discord server.” So, with Half-Life: Reamped in the works plus all these other projects, it’s a good time to be an FPS fan. And of course, all these games help to soothe the pain while we continue speculating on whatever happened to Half-Life 3. They might also get you in the mood for some nostalgia, and the best old games on PC. Alternatively, check out some great indie games, where you can find dozens of exciting, smaller-scale shooters. Read the full article

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starleska · 2 years

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The sweeter than honey, King Candy for the ask game?

what a wonderful ask to receive, thank you so much anon 🥺💖 he really is sweeter than honey!! answers for this ask game about King Candy are under the cut 🔥

how i feel about this character: all of you who have been around for a while know that i am in love with King Candy 🥺💖 everything about him is so delightful!! his demeanour, his intelligence, and of course that violent sadistic streak that is so masterfully revealed throughout the course of Wreck It Ralph. he's equal parts smug and demented, a real narcissist who will stop at nothing to feed his own ego...it's just fascinating watching a character so absorbed by himself and his own power. no wonder he's Tumblr Sexyman 😳

honestly WiR is a great movie that i feel is made excellent by the layers which went into making King Candy such a badass villain. his goofiness underpinned by this latent sinister attitude becomes scarier the longer you watch, and it makes the payoff for his big reveal just perfect. let alone the fact that all three of his designs slap!!! those who worked on the movie mentioned that they designed King Candy to be kind of like a mob boss, and Alan Tudyk captured that perfectly in his Mad Hatter/Sopranos-esque voice take. i love his lisp, his manic giggles, his bouncy way of moving and especially his smile...aaaah i'm getting flustered just thinking about him 🥰🥰🥰

all the people i ship romantically with this character: this is a situation where i am a hardcore selfshipper, much like many King Candy fans 😉 power to those of you who do have canon ships with him, i think that's fabulous!! i'm just a little too invested in being romanced (or negged) by King Candy myself to give him up 😉

being a huge dork, a little while ago i developed a Sugar Rush OC for this very silly selfship concept...i've always loved the idea of a character who is a video game modder, someone who is deeply invested in old gaming lore and spends a lot of time hunting cartridges and arcade cabinets. my idea was to have a character in the human world who played on the Sugar Rush game with King Candy in it regularly, only to notice after he gets deleted. they post about King Candy online and are met only with bafflement and people who think they're lying about their experience.

eventually, they end up building their own emulator arcade cabinet, duplicating the data from the original Sugar Rush game and modding themselves into the game as a Sugar Rush Racer: this OC here, Strawberta Fizzbomb. there, they end up fixing the remnants of King Candy's data and speaking to him for the first time...you can imagine how delighted King Candy would be at the prospect of sharing himself through the Internet. even better, having a human from the real world who is at his beck and call, clearly infatuated with him and willing to do whatever he wants with the hacking talents to match? well, it would be a very beneficial situation for him 🥰 i know it's very silly but i'd love to write this out properly...i have some sketches of her and King Candy that i really need to ink;;;

my non-romantic OTP for this character: you know, the villainous characters i love often come with some kind of tragic backstory, some background trauma that led them to become the way they are...Dave the Octopus and Balthazar Bratt come to mind. with that sort of backstory, it makes it a lot easier to think of possible rehabilitation and friendships building even with those they hurt, as they seem to desperately need the affection. but this isn't the case with King Candy!! i personally don't want to see him becoming buddy-buddy with Ralph, Vanellope, the Sugar Rush Racers or any of the other video game characters that aren't villainous, as i love him as a dreadful person. it would certainly be interesting to see some kind of redemption arc for him, but when i'm looking at fan content, the stuff i like the most is when he's being his usual terrible self :3c

my unpopular opinion about this character: my definitive unpopular opinion about King Candy is that i find him far more attractive in his King Candy form than his Turbo form!! absolutely no shade to those who love Turbo and his design, i think you're all very powerful and valid 🥰💖 i'm just a big fan of fruity, queercoded, brightly-dressed characters...a kind of flamboyance is always an eye-catcher. maybe it's because Turbo's design reminds me a bit too much of the Crazy Frog 🤣

one thing i wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon: oh goodness, so so much!!! i think that the first Wreck It Ralph is perfect as it is, and wouldn't change a thing. however, my real gripes come with Wreck It Ralph 2, which i've talked about before. although most of my issues came from Knowsmore's potential as a villain and the gap that was left without attempting to fill King Candy's shoes, i would've killed for King Candy to have come back in another form. i think the worldbuilding of Wreck It Ralph is so fun that we fans can have a great time playing in its sandbox, whether that's wanting King Candy to have a total redemption arc and end up best pals with all the original WiR characters...or seeing him come back in a different, much-harder-to-kill form. i'm still holding out my hopes for King Candy to return in the third Wreck It Ralph, but if not...i'm very happy with what we have and how wonderful the fandom is ☺

this was really fun!! thanks so much for suggesting him anon - i am literally always down to gush about King Candy, he is such a delight 🥺💖 everyone, feel free to send in asks about him (or other characters for the ask game)!

#king candy #wreck it ralph #turbo #wir #wreck it ralph oc #strawberta fizzbomb #starleskasks

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barbiegirldream · 3 years

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Have you seen the newest Karl Jobst video?

I have watched it actually. Lol I watched it while slacking at work.

I’ll say one thing first. When the drama happened I literally could have cared less if Dream cheated or not. His speedrun videos were never my favorite. I’m actually a huge fan of cheating. Academic dishonesty is a hobby of mine I actually use to teach people in Algebra how to make their calculator do the work for them which if you ask me isn’t even cheating. And my English teacher once asked me how I was so good at faking having read books as if every single book in high school doesn’t have the same major plot points and themes.

Plus I’ve helped my brother run scams in school that cost people actual money so fucking hell, Minecraft? That’s what people cared about? Dream wasn’t running a pyramid scheme for fucks sake.

The death threats to the mods? Do we forget what happened to Dream then? Does the reason the MCC baby meme came about mean nothing? Only for their narrative right?

Anywho yeah Karl basically just explained the past bin in a super sized video tbh. It always seemed to me that Dream had a mod that shouldn’t have done what it did and then when he realized he fessed up. Like Dream is 100% responsible for the fact that his modder hid info from him? It takes a lot more than a decent person to not shift blame it would have been easy to do it even but Dream didn’t because he’s not that guy.

And if you look at the context it makes zero sense for Dream to have cheated. He’s close to other high ranking speed runners. The video where he broke the world record with George and Sapnap there he was so fucking happy. That is not a master manipulator. He’s just some guy who likes Minecraft.

Imagine your Dream. You’re 21 and a massive youtuber all of a sudden. You didn’t cheat, you wouldn’t cheat. Cheating is being dishonest to gain an advantage he didn’t do that he wasn’t lying. And all of these people are accusing you of cheating. People are saying the most vile shit. They’re sending death threats. They’re doxing you. You can’t express any frustration without your craziest followers sending death threats and nothing you say will calm them down. You’re being held accountable for the actions of millions while being treated like Satan over Minecraft. You are told then that someone who works for you accidentally caused this mess and you’ve got to say something but how after fucking everything could you just come out and admit you were wrong. But you’re not just decent no you’re a good person so you fess up and take full responsibility for it and apologize. Then the hate comes back ten fold. No one believes you but they didn’t in the first place did they? And yet you can’t try and clear your name without people standing there trying to prove you’re an actual monster.

Just I’d have cracked. I’m nowhere near as nice as Dream I’ve never even thought to be as kind as him. I’m kinda annoyed when people call him decent cause no I know decent men. And they don’t give hours of their time away to help their friends. They don’t give away their tips and tricks to kids in hopes they’ll be big one day too. They don’t come away from conversations with people and the practically unanimous consensus is that he’s really nice. And lovely, and that he’s an inspiration for so many people. And so many people who know him personally would like to thank him for all he’s done. And he gives away money to causes all of the time and to his friends to show his love. Like I just can’t imagine judging someone so fucking harshly over a Minecraft scandal. And not realizing that everyone who actually knows Dream’s character has backed him all the way.

And to the people who think he’s a sociopath or whatever I was raised by an actually fully diagnosed sociopath or anti personality disorder who has zero empathy and he has done truly heinous things (shout out to the US military) like there is no world in which a Minecraft youtuber actually achieves the level of fucked up people think he is.

Anyways I still am a big fan of Dream I didn’t think the video would ever change my mind on that. But I actually originally thought it was just Dream didn’t idk check the notes of what was in the mod. Not that the developer hid what he did from Dream after realizing he fucked up. But as someone who’s definitely fucked up at work the last thing you wanna do is fess up so yeah.

Best thing is to do what Dream said and put all this behind us. He and the mods are cool and that’s that.

#dreamwastaken #speedrunning drama #neg #critical #I guess?#idk I’m not critical of him per say but yeah

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therichantsim · 3 years

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Is it just me or does gameplay in the sims 4 seem too easy for a life simulation?

I know there are mods but I’m just thinking about the game at it’s core. Plus, console players can’t have mods. I initially played on console and my daughter still does. (god bless her)

The rest of my rant is under the cut. To spare you a long post on your dash.

Take for instance how easy it is to take care of your families needs. You can literally have a household of 1 adult sim and have 7 children and with little to no effort earn money and take care of them. Unplanned pregnancies no problem. Just sell some harvestables. There is no daycare cost, no health insurance, no private school tuition because there is no private school. There are no major life altering consequences if you work work work but spend very little quality time with the people in your household. Sims pretty much grow up to be decent sims.

There are no sims with mental health issues or disabilities or bad sims or annoying sims. I mean except Eric Lewis but if you befriend him even his disposition changes. No holding grudges. I have twin brothers who hate each other. Their relationship bar is completely red and yet if I actually play them they’ll start chatting it up like homies.

Basically, as long as you keep their needs up sims are pretty much content. You can never use flash cards on your toddlers and they’ll still age up into decent sims. Don’t get me wrong there are rewards for actually making sure you improve skills and keep relationships up. But it’s so easy. We all hate the loading screen but you can have guest over and still maintain. But in real life, life gets in the way. Work, kids, and add a panorama to the mix, friends and extended family get tossed to the back burner.

And do not get me started on how easy it is to thrive in your career. In game all my original art sells and sometimes for a lot of money. Even in the art gallery. Yet I have to hustle my ass off both online and off to sell my art in real life. Also my vegetable garden is more accurately like the gardening was prior to seasons. A LOT OF WORK! Not to mention it’s physical labor getting your ground ready. You ending up with sore muscles the next day.

I think this why playing this game is always so short lived for me. My imagination is unfortunately too big for this game. Yet, I have two saves that are gameplay only and I keep trying to love them but I love the sims themselves but the gameplay is bananas. I could go on forever but I’ll spare y’all, besides y’all already know the deal.

Modders keep this game alive.

#TheRichAntSim #I invested too much for this bullshit #Even if I got most of it on a good sale #It's still my hard earned money #I can't go just sell some harvestables or sell a masterpiece

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omniversalobservations · 4 years

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Super Mario 64: Ocarina of Time (2018)

Super Mario 64 is considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time. Its large, imaginative levels and increasingly difficult challenges have defined the 3D platformer genre since its release on the Nintendo 64. Similarly, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time — the first in the franchise with 3D graphics — is considered a classic with a record 99 rating on Metacritic. Both have been celebrated with portable re-releases and a deluge of fan movies, artwork and soundtrack remixes. But never have the two games been combined in a fan-made ROM hack like Super Mario 64: Ocarina of Time.

The unofficial and legally dubious project allows players to traverse Hyrule, the mystical kingdom found in the Zelda series, as Nintendo's portly plumber. The world is a little different to the one found in Link's adventure, however. Hyrule Castle, for instance, is owned by Peach and patrolled by pink Bob-ombs. The Forest Temple, located in the Lost Woods, is filled with colorful Boos instead of flaming skulls. Epona, Link's reliable steed, has been replaced with wooden carriages dragged by overzealous Chain Chomps.

The game is a meticulous recreation of Hyrule inside the Super Mario 64 engine. Kaze Emanuar, a prolific modder, rebuilt every house, dungeon and fairy fountain so it would be recognizable to longtime Zelda fans. Each map was adjusted, however, to accommodate Mario's acrobatic move-set -- unlike Link, the mustachioed hero can wall jump, triple-jump and backflip — and the placement of 170 stars. Some rooms are inaccessible or streamlined so that players can quickly reach the next boss or power-up.

It's a bizarre, but perfectly playable mashup that Emanuar has been building toward for five years. He grew up in the German city of Bremen and discovered emulators — applications that mimic older video game hardware — as a 17-year-old in high school. Most people use emulation to quickly (and often illegally) play titles from their childhood. Emanuar's first exposure, however, was through a Super Mario 64 ROM hack called Star Road. He tried to play it with a mouse and keyboard at first but quickly discovered that a controller was almost mandatory. "Playing Mario 64 mods with keyboards," he explained, is "something you should never do to yourself. If you love yourself, and like anyone, you should definitely go and get a USB controller."

[...]

Emanuar began developing Super Mario 64: Ocarina of Time last August. He was intrigued by large, open world games and wondered if it would be possible to build a similar experience inside Super Mario 64. As a longtime fan of Zelda series, he felt the N64 classic would make a good foundation. So he took the original world map and started planning how his own storyline could weave through it. Super Mario 64: Ocarina of Time hews pretty close to Link's original adventure, but there are plenty of original ideas thrown in too. At the start of the game, Peach tells Mario that Bowser is planning to invade the castle with an unstoppable army. He can only be defeated with 9 Grand Stars that are scattered across time and different locales.

"The last five were all sealed by our ancestors within dungeons that we can't access at the moment," Peach explains to an expressionless Mario. "However, the seals are getting weaker, and with the power of three Grand Stars you will be able to enter the Temple of Time and use the Grand Star of Time to travel into the future, where the seals will be weak enough to be broken."

The story, while imaginative, is far removed from a classic Nintendo game. At the end of the adventure, for instance, Mario fights an older version of Bowser hunched over a grand piano. "I'm an old turtle now," he croaks, "but that doesn't mean you'll have an easy time! I'd love to beat you up one last time for nostalgia, but my children are eager to fight themselves. Go get him!" This twisted version of Nintendo's finest villain will, for some, be seen as blasphemy. But Emanuar has a simple explanation: none of his works is canon. "Each ROM hack is a separate universe," he said.

Development was rather straightforward. Emanuar started with Kokiri Forest — the place where Link starts in Ocarina of Time — and worked forwards through the game. Whenever the modder reached a dungeon, he would stop and start dreaming up puzzles appropriate for Mario. The student soon realized, however, that a direct recreation wouldn't be very enjoyable. Some rooms, for instance, "were just useless" or unnecessarily confusing for the player. That's why only a third of each dungeon is required to beat Super Mario 64: Ocarina of Time. The rest is devoted to optional stars and secrets. "I feel like that's a better fit for modern audiences," he explained, "rather than doing the whole dungeon because people don't have the patience anymore."

The mod was released on March 26th, 2018. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive; multiple streamers and press outlets have covered the game since its launch. But Emanuar isn't done yet. Since Super Mario 64: Ocarina of Time, he's released Portal Mario 64, a game based on Valve's beloved puzzler, and a version of Mario 64 running in 4K at 60 frames-per-second. The modder is now working on a slew of follow-up hacks inspired by PUBG and Fortnite, the romance simulator Doki Doki Literature Club, and others.

Emanuar has considered modding other games, such as the Sega Dreamcast platformer Sonic Adventure. But he's stuck with Mario 64 because of its divisive controls and physics — which he loves — and the sheer amount of hours he's poured into the game. Emanuar is still a student, but he's spent 10 hours each day, for roughly five years, dissecting Nintendo's seminal platformer. "If I was gonna do that with another game," he said, "I would have to spend at least a year of full-time work before I was anywhere near the level I am with Super Mario 64."

The modder makes some money through YouTube and Twitch. However, it's "an awful wage" for the amount of work he puts into each project. In the end, Emanuar is making mods for the love of it. "I really enjoy it still," he said. Nintendo, of course, will never approve — but for countless fans around the world, ROM hacks like Super Mario 64: Ocarina of Time are a beautiful love letter to some of their favorite worlds and characters.

Source: Engadget

(images via YouTube)

#unofficial #Super Mario Bros #Legend of Zelda

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space-blue · 3 years

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The Hound of Arnas

My ports disengage, returning me to consciousness. I stay on my back for a while, gaze turned inward, browsing through the nets. While my body warms I review the datafeeds I requested before going to sleep. Soon there is nothing for me to do but roll out of my dingy alcove, one in many in this shabby plug-a-night for cyborgs and droids. No one pays me any mind as I amble through what passes as a lobby and step into the already busy street.

"Please, parts!" A hand grabs my coat. "Any parts you can spare, I beg you, for my child, all his ports are outdated, he can't link, ple–"

The beggar clamps her mouth shut the moment she realises what she is talking to, her dull eyes already hunting for more pliable targets. Smart woman. She will sooner convince an AI to donate parts off its droid body than the likes of me, and she knows it. Shells don't have parts to give. We're bio-engineered integral cyborgs. Expensive models like mine are even grown with full DNA print. Parts tailored for me in a body as perfect as one can dream. If I chopped my right hand and gave it away, no one else could use it.

However, getting this close to godhood comes with a sixty years binding contract, which is why I'm walking the trash ridden streets of an off-grids slum doing a bloodhound's job. Looking for a human here like a needle in a smelly haystack.

The first two days I spent along the dark sea and the beach–the rocky expense that once held sand, that we still call beach–where workers on long rafts poled their way through the mass of seaweeds they turn into fuel. I could have been done in half a day, talking to supervisors, or the AIs that regulate our dead ocean's shallows. But unlike its simulations, the sea has a smell and a taste, almost a presence. It fascinated me, so I took my time.

Today I walk away from the shore. I've decided to talk to locals or else I'll be here until I catch the carbon plague.

My legs take me past triage factories, down streets smelling of rancid grease, where mechanics bend over patrons' cybernetic limbs, bartering their services, weaving through cables like jungle creepers, children running past yelling the names of parts they sell; ports, encrypted 9G cards, 5D sticks, or accessory mods. Soon the street dissolves in a wider field. I scramble partway up a metal gangway that wraps around a building to the roofs. From there I can see, sprawled at my feet, the buzzing activity of the Mud-Market. Cyborg modders with four arms selling flatbreads faster than they can turn them. People sitting on crates half sunk in the eponymous mud, tearing at steamed bug-buns, furiously betting on some game only them can see. Others haggling over second-hand garments and scraps of food. Even a few ADroids weave through the crowds, projecting bright holos and loud slogans.

I sigh and sit heavily, my legs dangling over the tin roof of a partmonger. This wreathing mass of bodies discourages me, somehow. Resting my back to the wall, I turn inwards to log into official networks. I find a few agents in the area, and summon the closest, Agt. Edenton, an ID officer.

Before long, three kids come running out of the market, out of breath with laugher. I look down. One of them, a little blond fellow, doesn't register to my eyes. Unchipped. Or, more likely, never chipped: someone's illegal brood. Another has a cybernetic arm made of scraps. Both wave at the third, a black haired runt not possibly past seven, who leaves them to enter the street. The gangway quivers under me, heralding the kid's approach. He sits not far, flashes his credentials–this is indeed Edenton– and opens a private channel for us to discuss away from prying eyes or ears, for all the world just two strangers enjoying the view before them.

'What's a pricey Shell like you doin' here?'

I stifle a laugh. The voice that popped in my head is a deep man's bass, completely out of place coming from the scrawny boy. Edenton gives me a withering look, and I sober up as I realise what an ID officer's job would be, shelled as a kid. Hunt unchipped children like the one I'd seen, gain their trust, follow them home, have it tagged, maybe chip them himself. The kind of job you got because someone thought you deserved it...

I poke his arm, surprised to find him made out of regular flesh.

'Is this a BioShell? Aren't those pretty rare and pricey as well? Incubation is hard to do.'

Edenton's frail shoulders shrug. 'They make kids like me easily, they don't try for perfection. The body decays after a year, so we swap regularly. It's just a pain to be in a tube for two months while a new body grows around you.'

I'd shiver, if my body could.

To answer Edenton's own question, I display my working seals and credentials, and watch his eyes widen. A military Shell in the direct employ of Arnas CEO, wielding seals that give her unlimited power is a scary sight, I'm sure.

'This is Halena Tesselandottir,' I say, flashing pictures of a young woman. 'Used to live in the grids, legal as you please and pretty bigwigged. Took her chip off, came to those slums.' I wave my hand, letting Edenton imagine the sort of drama that could push someone to such extremes. 'Back then she was a modder.' Lists of parts and softwares join the pictures. 'Augmentations, but no cybernetic replacements. I'm pretty sure she downgraded, since many mods are trackable. She was spotted in this slum, so I was sent to find her. I'd like some help.'

An order dressed as a request that Edenton accepts with good graces. In no time he comes up with a cunning plan that won't damage his cover, and I mentally pat myself on the back for involving him.

We weave our way through narrow streets, continuing our secret dialogue. I learn that Edenton has been undercover in this slum for four years, and soon guess that he got there by asking too many questions. He's fourty-two, single, grumpy. We spend some time polishing our plot in a back alley. We'll need our public feeds to display some action to look credible.

Finally ready, I step into a wider street, Edenton's weightless body cradled in my arms, and stumble towards an older woman, busy smoking in front of a brothel. Edenton's notion being that such Madams know everything, and everyone.

"Seima," I call, picking her name from her public feed, "this kid just crashed into me. He banged his head hard..."

Seima rushes up to us with a face like Edenton is her own grandchild. She looks at me with narrowed eyes. Can't blame her for mistrusting a Shell in a muddy coat, but my public feed has a record of the entire "incident" we orchestrated, and Edenton moans, the voice passing his lips a mewling so pitiful that I stare as well. His feed flashes with one of the pictures of Halena I gave him.

"He's been showing that image the whole time, could it be his mother? If you know her, maybe I could leave him to you..."

It's the magical words. Trying to shirk my responsibilities, am I? She'll find the boy's mom in no time, she swears, and furiously propagates Halena's picture through her personal network. Finding where Halena (or Hena, as she now goes by) works is a matter of minutes. The hardest part of the job is to pry Madam Seima off Edenton.

Out of sight I put him back on his legs, and we hurry to intercept Halena before someone warns her that we've been asking after her.

It's almost too easy. She's exactly where we were told. Unchipped, so nearly impossible to track, she was betrayed by the simplest of human drives, everyone's inherent need to network and socialise.

Edenton's bass vibrates in my skull. 'What are you gonna do?'

He follows me over crumbled walls and up stairwells that lead us to a rooftop. Lying down, we can spy on Halena and her companions, sorting garbage, probably paid by the amount of recyclable they can sift.

I scan her face, still young, but scarred by the mods she took off her temples and neck, as I'd guessed. I extend my arm, fingers splayed, lock, breathe out, and fire. My shoulder joint shifts, swallows the recoil. People scream, run to cover. Edenton jumps, grabs me with his little hands. In the street her blood flows, joining the streams of dark fluids down the gutter. Half her head is gone.

"Why," Edenton cries. "What did she do to deserve that?!"

"I never asked," I reply, "and neither should you."

~~ April 2016 – Theme : Dystopia – Don't want to toot my own horn, but this story marks one year and one month of writing, and the progress is rather evident. It is my favourite of my older pieces.

#original work #original story #competition #scifi #dystopia #cyberpunk

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mostlysignssomeportents · 4 years

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Pluralistic: 19 Mar 2020 (Marie Newman ousts Dan Lipinski, Radicalized radio documentary, African Whatsapp modders, Imagineering in a Box, Data is the New Toxic Waste, a fair covid bailout, Fox News is a death cult, food supply chains are healthy, magic for coronavirus)

Today's links

The worst Democrat in Congress just lost his job: Dan Lipinski primaried by the amazing Marie Newman.

Canada Reads documentary on Radicalized: The Great Canadian Book debate is indefinitely postponed, but here's an hour on my book!

Africa's Facebook modders are world leaders: Technological self-determination through adversarial interoperability.

Imagineering in a Box: Interdisciplinary theme park design lessons from Khan Academy and Disney.

Data is the New Toxic Waste: It was never "the new oil."

How to structure a fair covid bailout: Stimulus, not private jets.

Fox News is a suicide cult: Telling your elderly viewers to perform tribal loyalty by engaging in high-risk behaviors is a career-limiting move.

Grocery supply chains are resilient: One less thing to worry about.

Magic in the time of coronavirus: Never let a good crisis go to waste, card-trick edition.

This day in history: 2010, 2019

Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

The worst Democrat in Congress just lost his job (permalink)

Congress's worst Democrat is Dan Lipinski, a corrupt, anti-abortion, corporatist, gunhumping asshole in a safe seat that he inherited from his father in 2004, who handed it to him after nominations had closed, bypassing the semblance of democracy.

https://theintercept.com/2018/01/29/dan-lipinski-illinois-3rd-district-marie-newman/

He's a homophobic bigot who opposed the $15 minimum wage and allowed the rail-barons who fund his campaign to dismantle safety regulations.

He was primaried by Marie Newman (I'm a donor!) whose campaign was vicious sabotaged by the DNC.

https://theintercept.com/2019/04/26/dccc-blacklist-marie-newman-dan-lipinski/

Despite this, Marie Newman successfully primaried this piece of shit.

Like AOC's seat, Newman's is a very safe one, meaning she's all but guaranteed to go to Congress in November.

Canada Reads documentary on Radicalized (permalink)

The Canada Reads national book prize is indefinitely postponed, thanks to covid. In lieu of the televised debates originally scheduled for this week, the CBC is airing one-hour specials on each book, including mine, Radicalized.

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-6-canada-reads/clip/15766247-canada-reads-2020-special-episode-radicalized-by-cory-doctorow

If you're jonesing for The Great Canadian Book Debate, you can fill the gap with the whole series:

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-6-canada-reads

Africa's Facebook modders are world leaders (permalink)

In most of Africa, the most popular app by far is WhatsApp, and unofficial WhatsApp mods – including one that started life as a Syrian alternative at the height of its civil war – are offering local tools for local contexts.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/african-whatsapp-modders-are-masters-worldwide-adversarial-interoperability

"Nothing about us without us" has been a rallying cry for many movements, most recently the disability rights movement. Coders working for a Silicon Valley Big Tech firm shouldn't have the last work on how apps work for people half a world away.

The big WhatsApp mods accommodate lots of local needs: larger groups and filesizes, better privacy protection, multiple accounts on a single device.

But it's also hard to find reliable mods, because FB used legal threats to shut down the largest, most popular one.

Ironically, this has driven peer-to-peer app sharing, where people you trust will directly send the app from their phone to yours, assuring you that they haven't detected any spyware. That's just great.

What would be even better is if local coders could dismantle FB's digital colonialism and market their improved apps directly, come out of the shadows without fear of retaliation by distant juggernauts who want to capture "the next billion users" and own their digital lives.

The history of Adversarial Interoperability is full of users modifying their tools to improve them. Before John Deere was a monopolistic copyright troll, it used to send engineers out to farms to collect and integrate farmers' mods into its products.

https://securityledger.com/2019/03/opinion-my-grandfathers-john-deere-would-support-our-right-to-repair/

Every human being should have the right of technological self-determination: the right to decide which tools they use, and to change how those tools work to suit their own needs.

Imagineering in a Box (permalink)

Imagineering in a Box is a joint project from Khan Academy, Pixar and Disney Imagineering. It's a series of interactive lessons and lectures on designing themed spaces, rides to go in those spaces, and animatronics to go in those rides.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/hass-storytelling/imagineering-in-a-box

It's interdisciplinary: land design is meant to be undertaken with physical materials, ride design uses art and math, and animatronic design is robotics – mechanical engineering and software development.

Data is the New Toxic Waste (permalink)

In a new article for Kaspersky, I argue that data was never "the new oil" – instead, it was always the new toxic waste: "pluripotent, immortal – and impossible to contain."

https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/secure-futures-magazine/data-new-toxic-waste/34184/

Data breaches are inevitable (any data you collect will probably leak; any data you retain will definitely leak) and cumulative (your company's data breach can be combined with each subsequent attack to revictimize your customers). Identity thieves benefit enormously from cheap storage, and they collect, store and recombine every scrap of leaked data. Merging multiple data sets allows for reidentification of "anonymized" data, and it's impossible to predict which sets will leak in the future.

These nondeterministic harms have so far protected data-collectors from liability, but that can't last. Toxic waste also has nondeterministic harms (we never know which bit of effluent will kill which person), but we still punish firms that leak it.

Waiting until the laws change to purge your data is a bad bet – by then, it may be too late. All the data your company collects and retains represents an unquantifiable, potentially unlimited source of downstream liability.

What's more, you probably aren't doing anything useful with it. The companies that make the most grandiose claims about data analytics are either selling analytics or data (or both). These claims are sales literature, not peer-reviewed citations to empirical research.

Data is cheap to collect and store – if you don't have to pay for the chaos it sows when it leaks. And some day, we will make data-hoarders pay.

How to structure a fair covid bailout (permalink)

It's a foregone conclusions that there will be a bailout. My first worry is that it will be inflationary, because production has ground to a halt. More dollars chasing fewer goods — not good.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/18/diy-tp/#covid-stimulus

But there's another risk, which is that it will just go to the finance sector, who will use it to buy private jets and political influence, repeating the 2008 pattern.

https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/how-to-structure-the-coronavirus

Financialization is how the economy got so fragile in the first place. Leveraged buyouts, debt-loading, payoffs for layoffs, looting corporate cash reserves, selling assets and spiking executive competition made companies brittle. As Matt Stoller writes, financialization's goal "is to eliminate production in favor of scalable profitable things like brands, patents, and tax loopholes, because producers – engineers, artists, workers – are cost centers."

Bush/Obama had huge leverage over corporations during their bailout, but they squandered it by making companies subservient to finance, instead of public priorities, workers' rights, or a fair deal for customers.

We must not repeat that blunder. Any company that gets a covid bailout should:

be permanently banned from buybacks, and banned from dividends for 5 years. Companies need to restore their financial cushions.

have their share price zeroed. Shareholders aren't getting a bailout. They "took the risk and upside, they should get the downside too."

have limits on executive comp. Tax dollars shouldn't make execs who presided over failure into millionaires.

a ban on lobbying, limits on PR – you can't spend public handouts to lobby for more public handouts

no M&A activity for 5 years. We're bailing you out so you can run a productive business, not become an acquisition target.

This crisis is different than 2008. It's worse. Let's not make the response worse, as well.

(Image: Bernie Durfee, CC BY-SA)

Fox News is a suicide cult (permalink)

Throughout the crisis, Fox News has been dutifully fulfilling its role as a state new organ for the Trump admin. When Trump's narrative was "no big deal," the network engaged in denial and urged its viewers to engage in high-risk conduct to perform their tribal loyalty.

TV news viewers are much older than the median American. Fox viewers are much older than the median TV new viewer. Old people are at the highest risk of covid complications. Linear increases in patient age yield exponential increases in mortality.

Fox has since changed its orthodoxy to match the president's new narrative. But it's too late. Many viewers will cling to their original denial in order to protect themselves from feeling like dupes.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/on-fox-news-suddenly-a-very-different-tune-about-the-coronavirus/2020/03/16/7a7637cc-678f-11ea-9923-57073adce27c_story.html

Others are already incubating – and passing on the virus.

Fox News just murdered a substantial portion of its viewership.

https://ritholtz.com/2020/03/foxnews-clearpresentdanger/

But don't get smug. The Fox viewers' risky conduct will have spread the virus further, infecting people far beyond the circle of denialists.

And their cases and the cases of those they infected will contribute to the overwhelming of the health-care system.

People who have car-wrecks or burst appendices or complex births or other emergency hospitalizations will die as a result.

Fox didn't cause the pandemic, and its viewers aren't solely responsible for its spread. But their ideology and conduct made it much, much worse.

Grocery supply chains are resilient (permalink)

If you – like me – have been worried about empty US grocery shelves, it appears that you can rest easy (or easier).

US food distributors' warehouses are at 200-500% nominal, comparable to pre-Thanksgiving.

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/18/817920400/empty-grocery-shelves-are-alarming-but-theyre-not-permanent

They saw this coming and stocked up.

Food production is also still very healthy.

The shortages appear temporary, driven by logistics bottlenecks that will ease with time, assuming the labor force for grocers/warehousers/shippers remains healthy and available.

(Image: Lyza, CC BY-SA)

Magic in the time of coronavirus (permalink)

I really dote on the "social magic" of Andy at The Jerx, a one-on-one style of conjuring and mentalism that often plays out over weeks and months. He's been doing a series of performing tricks during coronavirus, and the latest instalment is great.

http://www.thejerx.com/blog/2020/3/19/magic-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-part-3

"I have this trick I'm working on but I've run out of people to perform it on in person. Can you hop on Skype for a few minutes?"

This implies that you could do the trick in person, and you can use it to do something you couldn't do in person.

"The window of the Skype frame makes switching and ditching and that sort of thing incredibly easy. You don't need a pocket index, you can have stuff just sitting on your computer desk off frame."

This day in history (permalink)

#10yrsago Peter Watts found guilty www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=1186

#10yrsago Icelandic Pirates soar: citizenship for Snowden? https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/03/icelandic-pirate-partys-rapid-rise-may-result-in-citizenship-for-snowden/

#1yrago Uber used spyware to surveil and poach drivers from Australian rival service Gocatch https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-18/uber-used-secret-spyware-to-try-and-crush-australian-start-up/10901120

#1yrago Kickstarter employees want to unionize under OPEIU and have formed Kickstarter United to make that happen https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/19/18254995/kickstarter-unionizing-union-representation-inclusivity-transparency-tech-us-crowdfunding

#1yrago The European Copyright Directive: What Is It, and Why Has It Drawn More Controversy Than Any Other Directive In EU History? https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/03/european-copyright-directive-what-it-and-why-has-it-drawn-more-controversy-any

#1yrago Matt Taibbi finally makes sense of the Pentagon's trillions in off-books "budgetary irregularities" https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/pentagon-budget-mystery-807276/

#1yrago New Zealand's domestic spies, obsessed with illegally surveilling environmental activists, missed a heavily armed right-wing terrorist https://consortiumnews.com/2019/03/15/misguided-spying-and-the-new-zealand-massacre/

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources: Disney Parks Blog (https://disneyparks.disney.go.com), Naked Capitalism (https://nakedcapitalism.com/).

Currently writing: I've just finished rewrites on a short story, "The Canadian Miracle," for MIT Tech Review. It's a story set in the world of my next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel about truth and reconciliation. I've also just completed "Baby Twitter," a piece of design fiction also set in The Lost Cause's prehistory, for a British think-tank. I'm getting geared up to start work on the novel next.

Currently reading: Just started Lauren Beukes's forthcoming Afterland: it's Y the Last Man plus plus, and two chapters in, it's amazeballs. Last month, I finished Andrea Bernstein's "American Oligarchs"; it's a magnificent history of the Kushner and Trump families, showing how they cheated, stole and lied their way into power. I'm getting really into Anna Weiner's memoir about tech, "Uncanny Valley." I just loaded Matt Stoller's "Goliath" onto my underwater MP3 player and I'm listening to it as I swim laps.

Latest podcast: The Masque of the Red Death and Punch Brothers Punch https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/16/the-masque-of-the-red-death-and-punch-brothers-punch/

Upcoming books: "Poesy the Monster Slayer" (Jul 2020), a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Pre-order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627?utm_source=socialmedia&utm_medium=socialpost&utm_term=na-poesycorypreorder&utm_content=na-preorder-buynow&utm_campaign=9781626723627

(we're having a launch for it in Burbank on July 11 at Dark Delicacies and you can get me AND Poesy to sign it and Dark Del will ship it to the monster kids in your life in time for the release date).

"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother book, Oct 20, 2020. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250757531

"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583

#pluralistic

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callsignbaphomet · 4 years

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So I’m just gonna get right to the point. I love playing Skyrim, I love playing as my OCs in Skyrim. I especially love modding the living heck out of this game while playing as my OCs and pretty much living vicariously through them.

However, as much as I love this game IT IS SEVERELY LACKING IN LGBTQ+ CONTENT AND THE OPTION TO MARRY SOME CHARACTERS OF THE SAME GENDER AND ONE INSTANCE OF AN MLM COUPLE THROUGH A LETTER BECAUSE THEY’RE BOTH DEAD AF IN THE DRAGONBORN DLC IS NOT ENOUGH FOR MY QUEER ASS!

So what to do? Mods! It’s 2020 and a lot more people are openly accepting and open-minded, right? So finding LGBTQ+ mods should be a lot easier, right? Eh.........no. I’ve spent several days trying to find mods to make my Skyrim playthrough as queer as I possibly can make it, specifically for my High Elf OC who is trans (FtM), very effeminate, has a none muscular body and build and very gay. I think now, after several days of research, tutorials, testing and an endless amount of headaches I think I have the mods to make my play through true to how I imagine and have written this character as.

Bare with me for a few seconds, I promise I’ll get to the point and this is worth reading. I’m trying to get as much information in this as possible.

Disclaimer:

This mod list is only for the PC version of the game. Look, I’m super, super sorry but basically over 95% of all these mods are exclusively found online and even if they ARE on beth.net they aren’t used at full capacity from what I understand. Believe me, as a mainly console player, it breaks my heart that I can’t include the consoles for this list.

I won’t be linking to just Nexus. I’ve found a bunch of mods outside of the Nexus that are reliable.

I’ll only be working with the Special Edition version of the game. It’s the one I have and am playing on.

I will NOT be covering female body replacers. At freakin’ all. There are literal dozens of mods covering this. There will only be ONE and it is for very specific reasons only.

In my little venture into finding these mods I came across a lot of homophobic, transphobic and downright disgusting comments within the Nexus. I also found out a lot of queer mod authors were driven out of the Nexus because of said homophobic people. This is what happened to Vector and also why SavrenX refuses to upload anything other than weapon, item retextures to the Nexus. Nexus users and community overall is very homophobic and toxic so I’m very sorry if you see or read something upsetting. I advice you avoid the comments (known as posts on Nexus) tab as to avoid seeing some vile shit. Ignore them and don’t engage them ffs, they just want a reaction out of you. There’s no correcting these assholes much less educating them. They ain’t worth your time. Just report and move on.

The majority of the mods linked in this post have been tried by me, if I haven’t tried them out I’ll say so. Again, I’m learning as I go along and believe me this hasn’t been an easy task to find all of these working mods.

No, I won’t be searching or uploading any ports, texture, mesh or mod edits I myself have done. I ain’t confident in how well I may have or not have edited the mods and more importantly that’s as bad as uploading art that wasn’t done by you. Sadly, you’ll have to do these changes yourself. I’ll try my best to link tutorials. Also don’t go and harass the authors for a port or an update ffs.

I’ll most likely be editing this list as I learn more.

Yes, I will leave links from adult sites. A lot of these sites pretty much force you to sign up in order for you to download their content. It’s fine, just make some random account and you’ll instantly gain access to the mods. Just know there’ll be nsfw images, gifs and videos everywhere in these sites.

While I will be referring to male characters a lot of these if not all can also cater to non-binary characters too!

No, I will not be covering sex mods. I have no intention of adding them to any of my load orders and I really don’t care to. You’re on your own for that category. Try Lover’s Lab.

*Body Mods/Replacers/Races:

Schlongs of Skyrim (aka SOS). Not the only choice out there but the most current and fully working one. Pretty much mandatory for a bunch of mods so might as well have it, ya know?

Tempered Skins for Males. Was known as Better Males; pairs up beautifully with SOS. Super amazing work if you ask me.

Shape Atlas for Men (aka SAM). This is literally the god king of all male body replacers. Want a twunk? This mod will do it. Want a regular Joe? This can do it. Want a bear of a man running around in Skyrim? Yeah, girl, this can do it. Ever since I discovered it I have been obsessed with it! HOWEVER, the full working mod is only available for Old Skyrim, maybe for Legendary Edition but I’m not sure. Vector said he had plans to port the full working mod to Special Edition but confessed he was having issues with the scripts. Also afaik Vector’s last updates on working on the mod were back in late 2016 so I think it’s safe to say this beautiful mod will never be seen running on SSE. Sadly Vector just up and left the modding scene somewhere in 2018. It none of our business but from what I read he faced a lot of homophobic harassment from people not liking his body mod or giving him shit because he didn’t want to make a female body mod. He even faced harassment from our very own community.

Not all’s lost though. Some of the amazing modders in Vector’s site have made a working version for SSE.

SAM Light, SAM Morphs for RaceMenu, SAM SE Vanilla Armor Refit, SAM High Poly Conversion, SAM Light Texture Add-on, High Poly Head

The Ultra Femme. Title should be super self-explanatory. Super good if your character is really femme or non-binary or trans. I haven’t tried out this body myself and I’m not entirely sure whether this is compatible with SE or not. RefurbMadness has a lot of mods hosted in her site and still has some in Nexus that are being hosted by the site’s Care Taker. I’m actually gonna link a few later. I honestly suggest going through her site and reading up everything. She’s pretty clear when it comes to instructions, the only problem is she’s not exactly clear on whether her mods are compatible with SE or not. Maybe it’s written somewhere in there, I’m still new to modding and need very clear descriptions (you kinda gotta talk to me like I’m 5 when it comes to mods). I need to check more of her content and test a bunch of things. She also has armor and clothing mods.

Milkdrinker Male Texture and Slim Male Body for SoS (<3<3<3). Both by the same mod author. Sadly only available for Old Skyrim but the only reason why I linked it is because both mods are super easy to convert to use for SSE. Sweetie, if I managed to do it, you can do it too. Watch this, or this or this or try to Google it and see what comes up. Personally I tried the Slim Male Body and it was pretty good. Unfortunately you’d have to refit all the armors to fit either body yourself.

Transgender Race and NPCS SSE. Like I said before I wasn’t going to link or talk about any female body replacers except for one. This one! Look, there are a few out there but they’re extremely transmisogynistic and fetishistic and use a lot of outdated and transphobic language plus they’re mostly sex mods so I will abso-freaking-lutely NOT be linking them. Anyway, the people behind this port are back to working on this mod and have plans for adding transgender men. As of now the mod only has transgender women. They can’t add more genders due to the engine limitations and FYI they used “race” in the title because this isn’t a body mod, it’s actually a race. This is one of the few mods that won’t play well with SoS.

There IS one more body or better said, race, I tried but I really didn’t like it. Mod worked as it was advertised but--well, whatever, it’s for personal reasons that I didn’t like it and it depended way too much on a lot of more mods and it bloated up my LO something fierce so for that reason I ain’t gonna link it. Mod’s called Femboy if you wanna give it a try yourself.

*Extras (edits, armors, clothes and more):

Enhanced Character Edit SE. Tl;dr this is like RaceMenu but on steroids. It offers way more sliders and because of this it has fantastic potential to mold your character’s body to your personal liking. I used this instead of RM for my High Elf I mentioned earlier. He has a more “delicate” frame and is much thinner than my other OCs and this mod did exactly what I’ve been trying to achieve for a very long time now. Works like a charm.

SSE Luscious Locks for All - Unisex KS Hair. Makes it so that male characters can use all the hair options that comes with KS Hairdos SSE. Guys with long hair! Yummy! <3

Oooooooorrrrrrr you can just install ApachiiSkyHair SSE which has a bunch of long hair options for men to look fabulously yummy! This is the one I’m using.

Femfeet Redesigned SSE Port For Everyone. Look, it’s a foot texture mod, that’s it. Works with Better Males aka Tempered Skins and SoS, so yes, your guys will have pretty feet. Load this AFTER you body mod of choice.

Apachii Divine Elegance Store. This store has so much to offer. Really beautiful clothes and armors, exceptional jewelry, wonderful accessories aaaaaand your male character can also use the nails that are offered by the mod. So if you want your male character to have some stunning and colorful manicures done this mod offers it. They also offer actual claws that also comes in different colors so you can have both styles. Look, imo this is a must for femme male and enby characters. Your guys are going to look beautiful!

Immersive Jewelry - Earring for Male Characters. This enables Immersive Jewelry earrings to be wearable and visible on male characters.

Light Elven Armor for Men, Light Glass Armor for Men, Light Daedric Armor for Men. Tired of women being the only ones to get skimpy outfits? Ja, me too! Here’s some of the armor mods RefurbMadness ported to SSE before she left Nexus. There’s more available for Old Skyrim but you’ll need to convert them over to SSE yourself.

Slof’s Lair. Slof has a collection of skimpy armors, some accessories and even modern clothes (if that’s your thing). They have a link to their Nexus profile on their page but instead of adding all the links I just figured to leave the link to their site so you can check everything they have to offer. I haven’t tried any of Slof’s mods myself though I’m super interested in the Just For Men collection of mods and the Goth Shop (chill, it’s mostly Tera armors without the need to download that massive Tera mod).

Tera Armors Collection - Special Edition. And here’s that massive mod I previously mentioned but it’s actually a really good one. I’ve tested this out on both pc and Xbox One and it looks gorgeous on both!

The Well Dressed Mage. Not exactly skimpy but kind of revealing. Idk, these look lovely af and I wanna try them on my Altmer. Maybe someone else will want to try these too.

Modular Bandoliers and Pauldrons for Males. Pretty simple and to the point. Haven’t tried it since it wouldn’t go with my elf’s more refined bitchy tastes.

Bad Dog’s Skimpy Clothes SE. Some skimpy outfits for guys that were converted over to SE apparently not too long ago.

Bodyslide and Outfit Studio. So none of the stuff listed above is to your liking. That’s where this comes in. Thing is you actually CAN convert female armors and clothes for male use. So download the armors and clothes you wanna use and throw them and the body meshes you use into Outfit Studio. I myself am still learning how to go about doing this and the tutorials out there are kinda hard to come by. Try this video. I followed it and managed to convert a female outfit to fit on a male body I was using. Still need a lot of practice though but am working on it.

As far as makeup goes you can edit the colors of your character’s eyeshadow, eyeliner, cheeks and lips but with ECE or RaceMenu you can edit the colors further. May need to do some extra hard tweaking some choices though, not gonna lie. If I find a much better option I’ll post it.

I’m currently trying to find how the heck to get male characters to wear heels or if there’s a mod that has it. Like, that’s the last thing I need to make clothes complete. I’ll get back to this when I find it.

*Animations:

FNIS PCEA2 - Player Exclusive Animations (Dynamic) SE. So you got your character, you’ve dressed them and done up their hair and all that and to this point it’s all come together perfectly...until your femme male/enby character or your butch female/enby character starts walking and standing idly by and the poses and animations are completely and utterly wrong. Why is he walking like an angry gorilla? Why is she walking like a Victoria’s Secret model down the walkway? Can you switch their animations?

YES!!!

PCEA2--and yes, you will need FNIS to get this working--allows you to make animation changes to only your character. You can even add and/or remove which animation packs you want your character to use! I’ve just barely begun testing this mod as well as adding some specific packs for my Altmer and the pretty female idles works like a charm for him. I downloaded FNIS Sexy Move SE to try this out on him and see if it works but according to Fore it should work as long as you installed everything correctly and ticked the appropriate box to activate the animation pack you want. I’m not entirely sure if you can customize the choices given by each animation pack, probably something as simple as deleting the animations you don’t want and leaving the one you do want. I’ll have to test this further.

*Gameplay and Voices:

Simply Gay Letters. Simple and sweet little mod that adds some letters in certain places all over Skyrim tying certain NPCs to other NPCs. The hinted at couples are all the mod author’s headcanons so if that bothers you I suggest moving on.

Queering Skyrim - Blueflower Necklace. Basically it stops female NPCs from showing interest in your male character when wearing an amulet of Mara. Queering Skyrim - Lavender Menace Necklace does the exact same thing but for female characters.

Same Sex Perks - A Lover’s Insight - Agent of Dibella - Allure. Y’all remember Confirmed Bachelor from New Vegas? Remember how no Beth game has put it in their games again but are totally adding some lazy attempts to include us LGBTQ+ folks? The author has a pretty clear and easy to understand description of the mod in the page. There’s also Gay Insight - A Lover’s Insight Tweak which does the same as the other one but much simpler. I guess it’s up to you and your tastes when it comes to which one to use. I myself am using Same Sex Perks since it adds other perks.

Player Voicesets for SSE - Custom Voice Version. I downloaded this but I haven’t installed it yet. If I understood correctly this lets you change your character’s voice to any of the in game voices. My advice? Go into the page and read everything.

PC Head Tracking and Voice Type SE. The reason I haven’t installed the previous mod is because I have THIS one installed because of the head tracking but it also comes with an added voice feature so this might clash with the other one. I still need to test whether they do the same thing or not.

Skyrim - Player Re-Voiced Series. CaseyTheVA was kind enough to make a bunch of voices for your character. Just your character. I’ve tested these on Xbox and they are legit really freakin’ good! They seem to have added a lot more since the last time I checked. Unfortunately these are only available on beth.net or for Old Skyrim on the Nexus. You could just download them from the game’s mod page and remove the files and upload them back into the game using whatever mod manager you use. I did this with Cheat Room. Or you can port them yourself from Nexus. Honestly the quality alone is worth all the trouble.

#skyrim #skyrim mods #modded skyrim #queer mods

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annakie · 5 years

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Thoughts on a DW Rewatch & Mass Effect replay.

So I’m in the Eleven / Clara half-season now.

Also I’m now replaying Andromeda. I have thoughts, about both. I’ll start with Doctor Who then label it when I get to Mass Effect stuff.

Oh my God this gets long and rambly. Apparently, I have a lot of thoughts.

So, season 702... I’m ready for it to be over. I miss the Ponds. I felt like most of the first half of this season was pretty great, honestly. I’d forgotten how fun some of those episodes were, I think at the time we were anticipating a new companion so heavily that it was harder to appreciate those episodes? I feel like there was a lot of criticism levied towards them that now I felt like was a bit too much. The western episode was kinda meh but still not bad.

I’m not sure what exactly it is about these Clara / Eleven episodes that I’m still not connecting with but I’m in the middle of the Crimson Horror episode (which is a Vastra/Jenny/Strax heavy episode and enjoying it more than anything else so far this half-season.

*edit later* NOPE NOPE NOPE I’D FORGOTTEN HOW THE DOCTOR FORCES A KISS ON JENNY. GROSS. SUPER GROSS. SHE’S A MARRIED WOMAN, A LESBIAN AND DID NOT CONSENT TO ANY OF THIS. BAD DOCTOR, BAD.

Honestly even with some excellent guest start acting, the Russian Submarine episode was STILL a slog and the ghosts in the 1950′s episode no better. Like they still weren’t ridiculous and unwatchable but... just didn’t feel fun or interesting at all? The Journey to the Center of the TARDIS episode was decent, and I felt like that wasn’t nearly as cool as it should have been..

I remember reading a criticism of these episodes early on where they said that the biggest fault is that they failed to give Clara any real characterization or solid personality other than “girl the Doctor is obsessed with”. She’s SUPER IMPORTANT but not only do we not know why at this point but it really doesn’t feel... earned? I don’t recall it ever feeling earned that Clara was supposedly always so important? “The most importantest companion EVAR!”

And as someone who stanned the hell out of a character who was hated in the fandom for “replacing” a previous companion I’m checking myself to make sure it’s still not because I Miss the Ponds. Like, I don’t HATE Clara, I just, at least at this point in the rewatch, can’t find any reason to really LOVE her? She’s there, she’s fine, Jenna-Louise Coleman is doing a great job with what they’re giving to her but... I don’t know. It all feels... off.

I had forgotten all about the “the Doctor rides a motorcycle up the side of a skyscraper” moment and something hit me in that moment that made me remember that wow people hated that moment. It felt really... shark-jumpy somehow.

I love Eleven, but this half-season isn’t connecting with me, AT ALL. It feels like the writers just went and dug through a bunch of rejected script ideas, polished them up and were likle “let’s just do this until Matt Smith is gone.” I’m anxious to get to Twelve.

Mass Effect Stuff

OK TECHNICALLY I haven’t finished ME3. I still need to do the party and the goodbye scene, (Citadel Epiloge Mod installed) but I’ve gotten all the Stuff and done all the missions in the arena. I just wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye yet, so I started Andromeda a bit early.

-----------------

OK look I had a point I wanted to make and never quite got where I wanted to go with it right here. I’m too tired of trying to fix it, so this stands as written.

This playthrough had me ruminating a lot on Kaidan and Garrus. I really love both of those characters, though in my heart I’ll always primarily love Kaidan, I’ve done the Garrus romance and wouldn’t mind playing that character again to see the romance one more time. In ME1, I bring Kaidan everywhere all the time, and pick which other companion I bring to the story-based missions based on what I know is gonna happen like I’m sure most people do. Wrex for Therum, Tali for Feros (though I REALLY wish you could switch before going to see the Thorian), Liara for Noveria, Ashley on Virmire, Garrus for Ilos/Endgame. I rotate through all five for sidemissions.

In ME2, Garrus is my always-bring companion, with Garrus + Miranda being my favorite team. Except after the Omega relay, where characters with Throw really shine with all those husks running at us, Jack holds the bubble, and Miranda and Thane, who both have Warp to help take down the Reaper Baby, are the preferred team. Also so Miranda can tell TIM to fuck off.

Then in ME3, once the game opens up, Garrus is back on the perma-team, with a preference towards bringing Liara along... until we get Kaidan back. And then I realized I didn’t bring him to a single thing except a side mission or two until Earth. Mostly, this is because I’m following the Kaidan Banter guide and it turns out Garrus is a real banter hog for most of the missions. At leat he’s not James, who I literally never use unless I’m going on an N7 mission and feel bad that I haven’t taken him off the Normandy in awhile. I mean, even Javik gets more play. Also EDI doesnt leave the Normandy til near the end when all of a sudden she gets real important.

But Garrus is always on the team for Priority Earth. And that always felt like the way the main game should end, with your two favorites. (Also what kind of monster wouldn’t bring Wrex to the combat-centric areas of Citadel DLC? I keep thinking I should have runs where I bring other people but... Wrex is my other fave and we don’t get him with us AT ALL since ME1.)

I love Garrus, so much. And I was thinking with this whole parallel DW rewatch / Mass Effect replay think I’m doing right now how both Rose Tyler and Garrus Vakaraian are characters that were ruined for me for awhile due to their respective... overly enthusiastic fanbases who a small percentage of were dicks to people who loved other characters. The Kaidan tag (and from what I understand Thane got some of this too, but not nearly as bad) was a pretty hostile place for awhile (and yeah I used to check the Garrus tag too and there was a small amount of tag-invasion there but uh, like 5% of what the Kaidan tag got) which made loving the character of Garrus a lot harder for awhile. But when actually watching seasons 1 & 2 / the end of 4 of DW, or actually playing the games, those characters are awesome.

Fanbases can be amazing or terrible, and time and time again I think you start to realize that no matter how great a fandom is, there are going to be a few people who can only enjoy themselves by feeding on drama, or on lifting up what they love by stomping on other people/characters/plotlines. Going back through my blog reminded me that even the TAH fandom had some of this, with a small percentage of fans being real dicks to two prominent female characters in favor of their favorite ship, which soured even that just a tiny bit.

It’s not fair to characterize everyone who loves a popular thing as someone who does this. It’s also hard to avoid completely because there will always be jerks, or young/new people who don’t realize what bad form they’re showing. I did learn by trying to fight it for a year or two, that responding might help that one person not do it again, but it’s not going to stop overall. Maybe yelling a lot about Martha Jones did change some people’s minds. It still isn’t that good of a look now, even knowing that in general I was pretty polite and logical about it. I might respond to an odd comment now and again in some favorite character tags, but in general, turns out that kind of fight just isn’t worth it.

And those fights seem so stupid in the light of everything else happening in the world today.

Anyway, don’t be a dick about the things you don’t like.

-----------------------

I also wanted to say, and I know I said it in a few other posts about this ME3 playthrough, but seriously I cannot believe how much ME3 is a changed game because of the modders. I cannot imagine ever playing ME3 again without these mods. There were so many small things that I kept thinking I should take note of to talk about and I’m sure I forgot 90% of them, but there’s things like... adding in mentions of the Andromeda Initiative, closing a few plotholes, mentioning Emily Wong, adding in many more Spectre console options which end up having their own plotlines, adding in an entire plotline about the VI civilization that had previously only been talked about in like, social media or Cerberus News Network posts, having the Normandy be so much more populated, seeing so many more other species on the Citadel with more variety in clothing for those species that have clothing / could have more variety, way more female Turians.... every time I play ME3 the game is more and more like the game we wanted when it came out.

I am kind of itching to go back and replay it even now.

But hey, instead, its time to talk about Andromeda.

-------------------------

So first of all, yes, mods for Andromeda. A few appearance mods, a lot of convenience mods.

After having recently played DA:I and I think Andromeda and DA:I are a lot more similar than Andromeda and the previous trilogy, I had decided it was time to cut down on the stupid stuff Andromeda does, like “Oh, you want minerals? Spend 10 minutes in each mining zone finding the PERFECT place to gather materials or you’re fucked” No, thanks. I’ll mine but give me that “one probe placed anywhere and you’re done” mod.

Make the modifications and crafting materials I use actually matter. 2% damage increase is nothing. Make my squadmates not suck because I remember doing 90% of the work myself before and that got exhausting with the number of spawns.

I tried to not go overboard so things feel like cheating, but there’s enough out there to just get rid of the stupid stuff, and it’s nice. And works together a lot easier than the DA:I mods did.

One thing I did do was install the Multiple Romance Mod. I enjoyed it in DA:I, even though ultimately I only did 2 full romances. I am **NOT** romancing Gil or Cora with the mod, I just wanted to experience all the content available for female Ryders at once, since I’m not going to have the energy to replay this 100+ hour game enough times to see every romance on its own. So I am poly-romancing Liam, Jaal, Vetra, Suvi, Peebee, Keri, and if it lets me, Reyes when it’s time.

I’ve only gotten all the way through Andromeda once (where I romanced Liam) My second playthrough was right after my first and stalled out about halfway through (was romancing Jaal.) It was one of those “I’m totally gonna get back to this! (She didn’t.)” things. I’m gonna be honest, I enjoyed the Liam romance and was enjoying the Jaal romance, I’d done a fling with Reyes but not the full romance my first time through and the fling with PeeBee on my second. Reyes was probably my favorite out of all of them. So this time I decided.. let’s see which I love the most, all at once. I don’t know if I’ll do this in the future, but this game is too long to not see all the content I wanna see, TBH.

And you know, I still really do like Andromeda. It’s a GOOD game. And I’m forever going to be mad that we’re not going to see how this story ends. This story deserved to finish being told. Like, there are a lot of very legit criticisms about Andromeda, but it didn’t deserve the harshness it got. And the worst thing about it, and DA:I both is that... there’s just a little TOO MUCH of it. 100 hours is an amazing amount of game but... it’s also just too much. For now I’m not trying to 100% this playthrough. My plan is on each planet to get the planet to 100%, take out the Kett or whatever major base, the Remnant Architect, and yeah probably clear out the sidequests that show up on the map, but fuck quests that are like “visit random Kett camps until you find the right datapads that don’t show up on the map!” or “scan random blobs in the forest that don’t show up on the map!”

So like, do the content, not the filler.

I still hate the vaults. The first one is cool. The rest are tedious. But they’re mandatory.

I love everyone on this spaceship though. They did the Tempest stuff SO WELL. All the companions I think are... good? There’s no one I don’t like, even the non-squadmate shipmates ship have so much interaction and so much to do/say. It’s not like “a bunch of randos and Joker, with occasional appearances by Chakwas and the Engineers” There’s no randos, it’s just a few people you have real interactions with, and its great.

The lack of enough beds in the bedroom will never not annoy me. There’s 4 beds for... Lexi, Liam, Cora, Suvi, Kallo, Vetra and Gil? Even if Liam slept on his couch, and Vetra put a bed in her supply room... still doesn’t add up. What, do Salarains not sleep or something? Does Lexi sleep in a medical bed?!? Peebee sleeps in the escape pod, Jaal brings a bed with him, and Drack’s like “Eh I’ll just sleep in the kitchen”. WHAT? THE KITCHEN?

I mean sure there weren’t enough beds, even with the sleeper pods, on the Normandy either, but somehow that was less disturbing.

Also, I know you’re supposed to HATE Director Tann but I love Kumail Nanjiani so I find it hard to be a total dick to him, even if he usually deserves it. If he wasn’t an anti-Krogan racist I think it’d be easier to like him. He was thrown into a pretty shitty situation and... did actually hold things together for some time. He’s not doing anything out of malice. He’s a dick, but also doing what he needs to do to keep the Initiatiave going. Oh, except for being a anti-krogan racist. (Honestly, I also think “until he turned Cerberus Udina was just doing his job pretty well” too, so...)

Taking some screenshots as I go. I mostly just take screenshots for me now. I have a few thousands screenshots from a dozen or more games rotating through my desktop background, and I keep adding to it, and love it.

Anyway, I’ve gotten Eos, Voeld and Havral to 100%. Time to go save the Moeshe. I’m having fun.

*edit from later* I’d forgotten that... idk if the dialog they recorded for Jaal was the first thing they recorded for him or they used a different VA or what but on the Save the Moshe mission his voice is VERY DIFFERENT and oh man, that is still bad.

Might take a break for when Onslaught comes out for SWTOR, though. I haven’t really played SWTOR in months. Oops.

#personal post tag thingy #annakie's mass effect stuff #doctor who stuff #hey this gets REAL RAMBLY sorry not sorry

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imx-doomer · 6 years

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Yes, it has finally happened. After almost 10 years, DOOM 2 RPG has been ripped successfully.

Which version? Both versions, the Java release and the iOS release!

You have no idea how happy it makes me to finally see this happen. Why is this important, you might ask? Allow me to explain:

First of all, and for those unaware, DOOM 2 RPG is a mobile game officially released by id software for mobile Java phones and iOS in 2009 and 2010 respectively. It was designed to be a turn-based RPG instead of a full-blown FPS mobile game. It was produced and programmed by John Carmack, with help of many other employees at id software (fun fact: Carmack's wife, Katherine Anna Kang, also helped in the development of both DOOM RPG games at the time!).

DOOM 2 RPG is also known for being the first game to connect two of id software's main characters from Wolfenstein and DOOM, by making a direct reference to a plot point of Wolfenstein's very own mobile game that was released a year before, conveniently named Wolfenstein RPG.

(If you want to read more about that connection, click here.)

DOOM 2 RPG had some monsters from the classic PC games, but it also included an extensive list of new characters, unique textures and weapons. But the way they programmed the game in order to make it work for all mobile phones of that time made it ridiculously hard for DOOM modders to extract the resources of the game, and the fact that it took nearly 10 years for someone to crack open and successfully decode the contents of both DOOM RPG games is solid proof that John Carmack did some black magic fuckery on the programming of these games.

(If you want to read even more about the ripping process of the graphics of the first DOOM RPG, click here!) I would also like to thank David Richardson once again for doing such an amazing job with the decoding process of the contents of the first game!

The extremely generous individual that shared the ripping process for DOOM 2 RPG is Erick194, and it seems to be a project that has been on the making for many years. So it goes without saying, all the credits for this incredible achievement should go to him.

The release thread is here, and I can only imagine that now that they're out there for easy access, you will start seeing the resources of DOOM 2 RPG in a few PC mods very soon. The image from this post comes precisely from DOOM 2 RPG, and yes, it's the Icon of Sin, but with a custom-made half chest!

#gaming #retro gaming #DOOM #pc games #DOOM RPG #DOOM 2 RPG #mobile gaming #icon of sin #videogames #retro games #retrogaming

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pkansa · 5 years

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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A smaller watch customizer has been seeing success, and decides to put their hat into the production ring. Yeah, that’s right, it’s not a story we hear all that often when it comes to Kickstarter campaigns. When it’s successful, you get some really lovely stuff – see brands like MKII and Orion. The latest one to jump one is right here in my neck of the woods, with the Alexander James NDR001 campaign wrapping up very soon.

Given that Alexander James calls Chicago home, I don’t know how this project missed hitting my radar. Good thing I had a backup system (accidentally) in place with the TBWS Podcast where they were just talking about the Alexander James NDR001. As of this writing, the campaign is not quite 100% funded yet, but I don’t know how it couldn’t hit that mark. I mean, just have a look at the watch. The proportions on – and in – the 316L case (which I believe is a 40mm) are just right. I rather like how the hands are the same width as the applied indices – it’s a bit of parallels that speaks well of the design. Since we’re on the subject of the dial, you’ve actually got three different choices here.

With the Alexander James NDR001, you’ll be able to chose from a textured black dial, a grey sunburst dial, or (my favorite) the white “snowflake” dial, which has the appearance of freshly-fallen snow. Everyone will have their own preference, of course – based on where you’ll be wearing the watch or what you might already have – but that white dial looks to be something else. Topping the dial you’ve got a lovely bit of sapphire, and surrounding that, you’ve got a luted ceramic bezel insert on the 120-click unidirectional bezel.

That bezel – along with the printed water resistance rating (200m) should clue you in that the Alexander James NDR001 is intended – at least in terms of design heritage – as a dive watch. With the classic looks and brushed oyster bracelet, however, this is a watch that could easily work into a variety of situations. Purists may argue, but I’ve got no problem wearing a good-looking dive watch with a suit, so long as I can fit it under my shirt cuff.

Tucked into the case of the Alexander James NDR001 is the Seiko NH35. Why that movement? Well, affordability and reliability aside, Alexander James started out as a Seiko modder, so this is a movement that he is familiar with. Makes sense, then, that it would continue on into his production watch. You interact with the the movement via the screw-down crown, which I do want to focus on. The crown itself sticks out a bit, without any sort of crown guards. In fact, it looks sort of like you can see the crown tube, right? Well, that’s actually part of the crown itself, and I imagine it lends some extra structure to the assembly. At least, I hope it does, since you could certainly catch this on a door jamb, say. While a flush crown may have been more what we’d expect, with the crown sticking out, it should actually make it easier to work with the crown. We’ve all had watches that it becomes a very frustrating game to get the threads to engage to screw down. That should not be the case here.

As I mentioned, the campaign for the Alexander James NDR001 is currently running, wrapping up on February 14, 2019. Right now, it’s sitting at just over 88% funded. If you want to help them hit that goal, well, get on over to the Kickstarter. There are still some early bird slots sitting there at $300 (which is a $50 discount off of retail); once those are gone the next pricing tier hits at $325. There’s a lot to like about this design, especially at this price. I’ve been talking with AJ to see about meeting up to see this in person, so if that works out, be on the lookout for a fuller review. For now, though, I do really like what I see for this inaugural production outing with the Alexander James NDR001. It’s a break from his homage mods (which look great on his site), but it’s a necessary next step for him to make the move into his own designs. We here at WWR like it, and can’t wait to see this project be successful. project page via alexjameswatches.com

Review Summary

Brand & Model: Alexander James Watches: NDR001

Price: $350 retail, with early bird pricing starting at $300

Who’s it for? Whether or not you’re in the modding scene, a clean, classically-inspired dive watch is for just about everyone

Would I wear it? Yes, I do believe I would

What I’d change: While I get that it keeps the dial simpler, I do miss having a date window (I don’t mind that it’s exclusion left us full-size numerals, though)

The best thing about it: Those dials, from the indice/numeral choice to the interesting textures they’ve got

Tech Specs from Alexander James

Movement: Seiko NH35

Water Resistance: 200m

Case Diameter: 40mm

Lug to Lug Height: 48mm

Lug Width: 20mm

Thickness: 12.6mm (14.3mm to crystal’s dome)

Crystal: Blue AR Coated Low Double Domed Sapphire

Case Material: Stainless Steel

Case Back: Solid Metal

Bezel Style: Coin Edged

Bezel Insert Material: Ceramic (lumed)

Lume Type: BGW9

Bracelet: Stainless Steel; Oyster Clasp

Kicking it off with the Alexander James NDR001 Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A smaller watch customizer has been seeing success, and decides to put their hat into the production ring.

#Alexander James #dive watch #diver #Kickstarter

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ambiguouslyliterate-blog · 5 years

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Respawn Point Ch. 7: A Guide to Totally Legitimate Advertising Practices

“I swear to Notch…” Slenda groaned. She tried to push off the ground, her arms wobbling under her weight. San falling on top of her didn’t make it any easier. My mind hazy from the fall I tried to move, only for a stabbing pain to shoot from my leg. The limb was twisted by the fall, my right ankle bent at an odd angle and a crooked angle broken into my left. Fall damage… I thought to myself.

As my body fell into a helpless, sore lull, my eyes began to roam around the walls of our prison. It was a tall chamber with walls carved from ancient sandstone and the ceiling pouring dust around us in a veil. The walls were lit sparsely with torches and lined with texts in a strange language, likely stolen from a desert temple somewhere just to fit the aesthetic, or maybe it was just conveniently in the ground.

We’d landed in a small sandy pit in the center, the light from the surface contained in a small square high above our heads. Our captor stood under two torches in front of us, a golden eye glinting softly from under the tip of his hat. He was thin, his body draped in a blue coat that extended his silhouette, his lengthy blonde hair spilling out from under his feathered hat. The thief looked more at place in an opera house than in an underground lair, especially with the black mask that covered his mouth and nose.

“Please..?” VillainFan42’s quivered. Slenda and I sighed. His voice always broke the façade, “I’d appreciate if you could play my game, I could really use the feedback…”

San rose groggily from Slenda’s midsection, her eyes half-lidded as her hands skidded on the piles of sand, her body rolling over Slenda’s like a drunk slime, “Oh, I have some feedback for you… VF, was it?” San grumbled. Waking up just when you can get your two cents in? I thought, scoffing, Where have I seen that before? She clawed at the sand to pull herself forward, “Let’s start with the visual representation.”

The thief stepped back for a moment, his eye moving amongst the features of the room. Begrudgingly, let her continue.

“Great use of pistons for the drop, visually stunning… But the presentation!” She grunted, pulling her jaggedly misshapen legs out from under her so-called friend, “There was no buildup! No foreshadowing or bait, I felt more surprised than anything.”

Well, you were supposedly unconscious at the time. But go on.

“Two out of five.”

The phantom thief gasped, his eye wide. He looked shattered. The thief pulled his cape closer, his strained expression clear even with his mouth covered.

“B- But, it’s a trap! Isn’t it supposed to be unexpected?”

San waggled a finger at VF. I wondered if she remembered we were his captives. Notch, he didn’t seem like he remembered either, “No no no, there’s got to be some theatricality to it. You can’t just pull the rug out from under a group like that. You need to make them afraid, let them doubt their senses, get them really looking over their shoulders! Then, when they’re at they’re most vulnerable, you wait someone to say something like “It was probably nothing” or “What’s the worst that could happen?” and WHAM!! That’s when you do it.” The thief shifted himself, turning his body just enough to face away from us. He placed a hand on his chin, tapping as he thought to himself. His hand drifted, pulling nervously at his mask. A single eye darted to us and his whole body flinched in response, almost as if he’d forgotten the three of us were laying broken in a heap on his floor.

“O- Okay, that makes sense… But wasn’t it cool when I stole all your equipment and items…?” He muttered in a quiet voice. My arm flinched, my palm patting an empty pocket. Slenda’s eyes grew wide as she reached into the collar of her sweater, her hands grabbing at air as she grew frantic. San nodded, her lower lip out. She stroked her chin, admiring the new facet of our situation.

I slammed my fist in the sand, glaring at VF, “What the Nether did you do to all our potions?! And my pickaxe!”

VF pulled at his cape in an attempt to throw his silhouette, but it just flapped feebly, the thief sighing as it fell at his side. Grumbling, he put out an arm, a ghostly mist curling up from his sleeve. The mist stretched, wisps sharpening into the form of fingers. It was more like a claw then a hand, but it moved fluidly and naturally through the air as if it was a part of him. Like an animal’s tail. He let a miniaturized pickaxe fall from his sleeve, the phantom hand catching it.

“This is my mod.” He said simply, “It’s like a… A ghost hand. It’s kinda useful.” His voice was still low. The situation began to set in, He’s definitely a threat… Not just an RPer or nerd, he’s a real modder, I thought, muscles in my stomach tightening, Though, he really does need to work on his presentation.

Slenda snapped at him, demanding our items back, but he only continued to mutter quietly about his trap, ignoring her. Honestly it was hard to tell whether he was talking to us or the floor, “I’ll try to do better next time. This went way better than my last trap though. I sealed these two adventurers in a tank of rising water where they couldn’t use their weapons--only one of them could swim—I thought it was pretty daring, but afterwards they said it was just so-so… I’m optimistic about my next one at least.”

I sighed loudly, realizing we’d returned to the trap workshop. I looked at Slenda. She was fuming, protesting sternly to a deaf audience. San and VF were too busy discussing traps.

“Yeah, that’d be an automatic zero out of five for me.” San said, laying her head on her shoulder, a confident smirk trying to mask the pain in her legs, “Too much water.”

The thief nodded thoughtfully and thanked San, the creeper girl making a short bow. Slenda coughed, calling VF’s attention. He looked at her in started confusion for a few moments before his eye lit up, his body swinging around.

“Oh! Crapbaskets, I almost forgot!”

VillainFan pressed a button on the wall behind him, the sand around us spilling and shaking as machines moved out of sight. Slenda glanced around nervously, trying to right herself on broken legs so she could run. San beamed, scanning the room, absolutely delighted at the new addition. Before we could run or even know what we were running from, a ring of iron bars rose up from the ground around us, three blocks high on all sides, sealing us in.

Our captor stood before us with a sinister pride, knowing we could do little to escape. I thought of mining my way out, but the emptiness of my pocket struck me suddenly, my heart sinking. Before we could have just broken through and limped away, mined our way out of the underground, but now…

“This isn’t half bad!” San cheered, knocking on the bars. I swear I could see VF blush.

The thief hit another button in the wall that was next to the other one, this one causing the wall behind him to open up, a door-sized chunk of the wall recessing into the sandstone around it. How long was he putting this together?? I questioned, This place is a fully functioning secret base!

The thief turned, his ghostly hand extending from his body, twisting off his shoulder, tossing the pickaxe he’d stolen at the floor so that it planted firmly in the ground. His body began to disappear in the darkness of the doorway, the light of the connected room blotted out. He cast a golden eye over his shoulder.

“No mercy, eh?” San asked, smirking.

VF chuckled, taking a long stride through the door and throwing up the end of his coat so that it flapped dramatically behind him. Crap. It actually worked this time.

“Mercy is for wimps.”

The door slammed, leaving us in the amber darkness of dim torches, the walls flickering, claustrophobic. There was an authentic pressure as he left. I started to feel unsure as I stared around at the walls, my mind pushing escape scenarios that I knew wouldn’t work. I began to doubt that we would ever leave.

“Well, at least he left us alone, maybe he’s not that smart after all…” Slenda said weakly, pulling herself across the mound she laid on, sand spilling around her in small clouds. San shrugged, “I dunno, I thought he was pretty cool at the end there.”

The blocks in the wall moved suddenly, the shape of a hat and a single eye poking around the corner.

“R- Really?” Our captor asked nervously.

Slenda stared, bemused. Her cuddle buddy flashed VF a thumbs-up and he disappeared back around the corner. Slenda’s head fell into her open hands, “We’re being held captive by a loser…”

We surveyed the cage, finding it without cracks or openings, the iron bars freshly made. It would take a while to punch through them… But it should still be possible. I propped myself up against the wall and delivered and swung my first hard at the bars, only for it to softly bounce off, almost like there was a thick padding around the bar. I tried to grip the steel only for my fingers to freeze a pixel away from it, unable to make true contact.

“What the…?”

“Aaand he has a command block active,” Slenda groaned, “Fantastic.”

I stared at the bars, imagining the protective field around them. Command blocks were a thing I’d only heard of, before now. They worked like admin commands, but were on all the time and anchored to a block. Like tiny robotic gods you could keep hidden in the floor. They could teleport large groups of people, give anyone within their field of influence items, and, unfortunately for us, make blocks in their vicinity unbreakable.

San reclined against the bars, “Dang, that ghost boy really turned this whole thing around, didn’t he? I can dig it.”

“Ugh, we could always kill each other. Whoever gets hit will go back to the Sandy Speakeasy and can come rescue the rest of us.” Slenda posited. I shivered.

"Not... A great option?" I squeaked, Slenda rolling her eyes.

I sighed, my mind beginning to skim through scenarios, flipping swiftly through plans and discarding them just as quick, my body sinking into the corner made by two bars. Can’t dig under, can’t climb over, can’t go through… Would rather not die. It was hard to find a truly practical option. I went back to the desert, retracing our encounters, trying to think of what mod I had. Nope… I thought, blowing out a disheartened puff of air, Dusty’s drinks. Not exactly useful here.

Pulling myself vertically along the bars, I got myself back to a sitting position, holding out my hand. I focused, a shiver running through my arm. “That’s right, you still have Dustin’s mod. At least we’ll be able to heal this stupid fall damage.” Slenda smiled weakly. Her eyes were unmoving. “Drinks!!” San cheered, throwing her arms up.

Smoke poured down my sleeve and into my hand. Is it for the glass? I thought, my head tilting. It spun into a round shape, sticking to the inside of my hand but never fully taking shape. The smoke stayed wispy, ghostly. Slenda’s face lit up.

“Cyrus..!”

I turned over my hand, the mist flowing around, following it like a shadow. It began to peel away, taking its own shape. The shape of a hand.

“You don’t have Dusty’s mod anymore. You have VF’s.”

The realization was immediate and electric, as was the smile sparking across my face. My eyes tagged the space on the wall where the phantom thief had vanished, the buttons sat less than a block away. I looked at the ghostly claw shifting gently in my sleeve, tugged at by the air.

With as much dramatic flair as I could muster I threw my arm between two bars, towards the cage button, casting the ghost hand towards it like a hook. The hand flew over to the button, pausing in the air just in front of it and pressing it with an extended index finger, the bars around us beginning to sink into the sand as pistons chugged along in the walls. Adrenaline was flowing through me, my hand clenched in a confident ball, but our escape wasn’t over yet. And our legs were still broken. My eyes flashed to the pickaxe on the floor, then to San. Without words, we set a plan into motion.

Slenda pulled the pickaxe from the floor and San pushed herself up against the wall, crouching just under the buttons. I crawled up next to her, joining my crippled crew. Quick taps of boots on sandstone echoed from the other side of the wall as the thief came to investigate the source of the mechanical noises, mumbling nervously to himself as he went. Inside of a second, the blocks retracted into the wall, VF stepped out, and Slenda swung her pickaxe at his legs, the blade hooking his leg below the knee and sending him to the sandstone where San pinned him, throwing her body on top of his like a playful dogpile.

Like a reflex, his phantom hand leapt from the collar of his coat, sailing for Slenda’s throat. I cast mine out at the same time, my phantom limb snaring his, sending the two tumbling to the ground where they intertwined, both of their forms becoming confused and inert as their masses dissipated into each other. Neither of them were completely physical, but they seemed to be able to subdue each other. I wasn’t quite sure how it worked, but it was good enough for me. Slenda rifled through the thief’s pockets, tossing us morsels of food as she restored her own inventory. The food tasted like sand, but my bones didn’t care. They snapped back into place, healing as good as new, my stomach and health both topped off. VF huffed impatiently.

“How was I supposed to know you could copy mods…?” He griped, “Doesn’t this break the whole foreshadowing rule, San?”

The creeper girl put a finger to her chin, considering it, but Slenda delivered a swift kick to the thief’s side and reminded San not to listen to our captive. The creeper girl shrugged it off, her body falling limp and heavy on the thief once more. As feeling returned to my legs, I stood and stretched, craning my neck into the sandstone doorway. There was light on the other side, and I could see the edge of a chest. VF uttered muffled protests, but with our phantom arms wrestling in the sand, he couldn’t stop me from entering his sanctum.

I stepped out of a raucous hostage situation and into a quiet study. The room was made of sandstone blocks as well, but had walls checkered with orange wool and decorated with frames. Each frame held a small item or tool, most of which were completely alien to our world. A collection of stolen mods. At the end of the room was a command block with a lever atop it, and behind it a ladder that was enveloped in the orange light of the afternoon above. But something else caught my eye.

On a nearby table was another strange, likely modded, device; a box-shaped contraption with a glass lens on the front and a lamp on top. Near it was a frame, likely where VF was about to store it, and a pile of pictures printed on clean white paper. They were clear as if you had seen them with your own eyes, but didn’t seem painted or made by hand in any way. The picture on the top of the pile interested me the most… Because Slenda and Roxxie were both in it. With two others.

"Aren't these weird?" Slenda asked, pulling one off the wall. A few were pinned to the wall with swords and daggers, most depicting interesting locations like ruins or other players’ creations. I tapped my finger against the one with Slenda and Roxxie and her eyes drifted to it, resting on it for a few moments before exploding open. She clawed the photo from the desk, holding it close to her face.

“How did… He get this picture?” She searched the desk for more pictures she recognized, seemingly finding several, her heart practically jumping through her sweater. She lifted up the boxy device likely responsible for the images, turning it over in her hands, “And Penelope’s camera!”

The sound of dragging cloth came from the hall as San stepped in, holding VF by his collar. Apparently San had gotten bored of holding him while we advanced the plot. She didn’t have to do much work to hold him though. No wispy hand extended from his cloak and the shine in his golden eyes was replaced by a half-lidded malaise as he waited for his bad day to end. He looked completely defeated.

“Please don’t be so rough… I’m not wearing any armor, so my health is pretty--”

He looked up at Slenda, then the camera in her hands. His golden eye shined as his face contorted under his mask. I was expecting a yell, a scream, but he only spoke in his same frail voice. “H- Hey! P- Please put that back where you found it..! It’s mine.”

Slenda scowled at him, wrapping the device tightly in her arms. He tried to get to his feet and jump towards her but San knocked him onto the sandstone floor and promptly sat on him. A dry gust of air was shoved from his lungs, his arms falling flat on the floor. I knew how much she weighed… He wasn’t getting up anytime soon.

“You stole this from my friend, I’m taking it back.” Slenda growled, cramming the camera into her inventory.

“That’s fair…” The thief sighed into the stone. Honestly, I felt kinda bad for him. I stepped forward, hands on my hips. “Come on, dude,” I urged, “You’re a desert thief! You say something cooler than that!”

“G- Give that back… Darn it!” He cursed quietly. San looked at me, an uneasy smile on her face. She moved off of him slightly, now just holding him down with her arm. “I’ll settle for split custody… I follow you guys to Giant’s Way, we trade it back and forth. I just like it ‘cause it looks cool…”

Slenda stepped forward, a suspicious twitch in her eye, "How did you know we were going to Giant's Way?" She questioned.

"I was there in the bar." Phantom leered back at her, "How do you think I was able to set up this trap? I mean, if you guys wandered a different direction I'd be--"

San’s eyes lit up, her hand leaving his back entirely. It was strange but, rather than terrified or bemused of the masked dork, I was honestly impressed. I mean, of his trap making abilities of course, not of his combat skills, theatrics, or social skills or… Well you get the idea.

I let out a “Wow” without even thinking. Slenda leered at me.

“You built this all overnight?!” San gleamed. Slenda’s face remained stone, “That’s incredible!! You should join our crew! We’re gonna have to fight this really powerful modder who beat up my girlfriend and got her kicked out of our server. You even know the area so you’d be great for the job!!”

“Really?” VF asked, his voice breathless but filled with enthusiasm.

“No.” Slenda countered, squinting at the pair, "I know Roxxane probably just seems like a monster to you... Or maybe even less... But she's my friend," Slenda gazed into the photo, scanning the image, “And we’re going to try diplomacy first. I don’t intend on dropping her down some sandy death pit… Or blowing her up. And I doubly don’t intend on taking someone who just tried to leave us for dead along for the ride.”

San looked up at her cuddle buddy with puppy dog eyes. The soft eyes behind Slenda’s cracked lenses faltered for a moment, but as her fingers traced the photo her eyes once again became cold, hard pearls. She put the picture in the neck of her sweater, depositing it in her inventory. I put a hand on her shoulder. She flinched at first, glaring at me, but her eyes quickly softened. Crouching next to VF, I took a deep breath.

“Do you guys actually want to take me along?” VF asked, his voice pricked with genuine excitement, but dripping with anxiety. I looked at Slenda, who squinted at me. I knew it looked bad, but San was right… At least partially.

“It’d be kinda hard to take you on considering only one of our members actually trusts you...” I sighed, scratching my head, “But I’d be lying if I said you wouldn’t be useful.”

Even if he couldn’t be an ally, he could be our guide. Slenda scoffed, her feet scratching the sandstone. I didn’t look at her. “She won’t let us bring you along, but do you have any information that could help us? Or anything we can use to our advantage? I’d appreciate it at the very least.”

The thief brought himself to his knees, dusting the sand off his pants and coat.

“I have friends in the next server, I could let them know you’re coming and they could help you out. Give you supplies or help you if things get ugly.”

I nodded, clapping a hand against the thief’s back. A cloud of sand sprayed from his mask. He groaned, but continued. His tone was bright, he sounded excited to help out even if he was more of a hostage than anything.

“There’s also a pool of lava beneath Giant’s Way. A huge one. So try to avoid that… And um, there’s a shrine to Herobrine in the center. I know some modders believe in that stuff, so she might be there. It’s in the middle of the big temple part. Can’t miss it.” A breath left the thief as his chest came against the tops of his legs, his body curling up. At least we don’t have to restrain him. It looked like we’d be able to walk out of here without much problem.

I looked at Slenda, thinking about the pictures she so quickly sealed away. The people she was hiding. There was a man and a woman, both around her age, though the man stood behind them all. He had a powerful air about them. Slenda and the others were all smiling, holding each other. It looks like one of the few happy memories Slenda has. How come she’s hiding it from us? I didn’t want our group to have any more secrets, not after the whole San incident, but now didn’t seem like the time to ask. I rose to my feet, a hand on my hip. “Sorry for making this brief VF, but it looks like we’re gonna have to go. Can’t keep Roxxie waiting.”

“O- Okay...” He sighed, “I’m gonna take a nap.” Too bad he wasn’t coming with us. Honestly, looking at his beat-up form curled up on the sandstone floor, hearing his tired voice croak in his chest, I couldn’t relate to anyone more. Just another dork wearing a coat too big in the heat, beat up and given up on looking cool. Oh well… I thought, Maybe next time, when we meet outside of a trap. Maybe we’ll even get along.

“Well enjoy your nap my dude!” San grinned, “We’ll be seeing you!” She delivered a hearty pat to the thief’s back, which apparently took the last of his health.

With a guttural oof, VillainFan42 vanished, leaving only a cloud of smoke and some scattered belongings. The three of us looked at each other for a moment, each face as baffled as the last. San pulled her lips between her teeth. I couldn’t tell if she was cringing in guilt or trying to hold back a laugh. After a few seconds, her hands clapped together. She pointed them towards the ladder

“So uh, Giant’s Way then?” she asked the two of us. We nodded. “Giant’s Way.”

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foxforfree135 · 3 years

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Borri Dont Use Whirlind Sprint

With DIRECTV, you can watch TV anytime and almost anywhere. Sign in to DIRECTV entertainment with your ID and password. Select Watch Online.; Browse available titles and make your selection. Heads up: If you see an Activate now or Upgrade button, you don’t subscribe to the channel airing the program you selected. Follow the on-screen prompts to subscribe and watch the program. Download directv video player for mac for free. Audio & Video tools downloads - DIRECTV by Directv, Inc and many more programs are available for instant and free download. Take it with you. Download the app to live stream—anytime, anywhere—everything from breaking news to the hottest shows and movies everyone’s talking about, on up to 5 screens at once. Available only in the U.S. (excl Puerto Rico and U.S.V.I.). Req’s compatible device. Directv video player download. DIRECTV 2.0.1 - Set home DVR on the go. Download the latest versions of the best Mac apps at safe and trusted MacUpdate Download, install, or update DIRECTV for Mac from MacUpdate. It is the directv player that i was prompted to download to my mac desktop to watch shows online.

Finish the quest 'The Horn of Jurgen Windcaller without whirlwind - posted in Skyrim Spoilers: I just started my second play through of skyrim and I'm stuck on this quest. I'm at the part with the gates that open as you walk past the stones. I know exactly what I need to do, but I don't have whirlwind sprint. I think I should have gotten it by now. Did I just miss it while doing a previous. Whirlwind Sprint - Vertical Functionality - posted in Skyrim Mod Requests: Hello and thank you, Nexus modders! Ive searched the Nexus quite thoroughly and have not come across any mods that modify Whirlwind Sprint to have the specific functionality I had hoped for when I first was introduced to it. I had hoped to be able to use Whirlwind Sprint not just to move across land or water, but also. I don't know what causes it, but every now and then when I use whirlwind sprint My character keeps running real fast after it is done and is moving at super speed. Not sure what causes it, but it has gotten me killed a few times. I am wondering if this is known and if it is known what causes it.

Borri Dont Use Whirlwind Sprint Flip Phone

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The UESPWiki – Your source for The Elder Scrolls since 1995

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2Detailed Walkthrough

2.2The 7,000 Steps

Meet the Greybeards.

Quest Giver:Jarl Balgruuf the GreaterLocation(s):Ivarstead, High HrothgarPrerequisite Quest:Dragon RisingNext Quest:The Horn of Jurgen WindcallerReward:Word for the Unrelenting Force shout, Word for the Whirlwind Sprint shoutID:MQ105

Master Borri teaching 'Wuld'

Quick Walkthrough(edit)

Go to Ivarstead.

Climb the 7,000 Steps.

Speak to the Greybeards at High Hrothgar.

Detailed Walkthrough(edit)

Ivarstead(edit)

After you're finished in Whiterun, you'll want to head to Ivarstead, as it is located at the foot of the 7,000 Steps leading up to High Hrothgar. Once you get there and get close to the bridge, you'll hear a conversation. Talk to one of the men, Klimmek, and learn about what dangers are lurking ahead. You can take an optional quest from him to deliver supplies to the Greybeards. You may also ask people there to tell you some information about High Hrothgar:

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NameResponseWilhelm'The Greybeards are a solitary lot. I don't think they've ever ventured outside their monastery. We get the occasional pilgrim passing through here on their way to the summit, but almost all of them have returned disappointed.'Klimmek'I've been to the monastery many times, but I've never even laid eyes on one of the Greybeards. Not that I'd care to. Being masters of the Thu'um, they could kill you by uttering a single word. Well, not that they would. They seem peaceful, but I wouldn't want to provoke them. 'Bassianus Axius'Klimmek brings food supplies up to them once every few weeks when the weather permits it. Other than that, they seem like a quiet lot. Don't really know too much about them.'Boti'It's frightening living below their monastery. Sometimes I swear I can hear strange noises rolling down from up there. It sounds like thunder, but there's never any rain. What do you make of that?'Temba Wide-Arm'The Greybeards stay away from me, and I stay away from them. Suits me just fine.'Gwilin'Always thought it was odd that there's a layer of thick clouds covering the peak of the mountain above the monastery. Not sure what's up there, but I bet the Greybeards know.'Jofthor'They call the path to the monastery the 7,000 Steps. Can you imagine? I'm not certain if I could even make it to the top without collapsing from exhaustion.'Fastred'The Greybeards are a strange bunch. I heard they live their entire life without uttering a single word; can you even imagine?'Lynly Star-Sung'I've always fancied a journey up the 7,000 Steps to the monastery. Anything to break the boredom of living in this town. I envy you.'

The 7,000 Steps(edit)

When you start on the trail up, you'll run across various leveled wildlife and monsters, and a couple of pilgrims, Barknar and Karita. You will also find various etched stone tablets ('emblems') giving you information on the history of the dragons and the Way of the Voice.

Shortly after the fourth emblem where you meet Karita, at a point where the steps are sandwiched between two cliffs, there is a frost troll that will jump from the top of one cliff if it sees you (though sometimes it may be found further up the path). For low-level characters, this can be a difficult fight. It can be avoided altogether by sneaking past it at night or scaling the cliffs nearby.

Combat strategies(edit)

Frost trolls, like any other type of troll, have a weakness to fire. Thus, handy combat strategies include using weapons which have a fire enchantment, using fire-based destruction spells, and summoning a flame atronach. The Shout Fire Breath could also be used, as a word for it can be gained early on in the Companions questline.

Trolls can deal a substantial amount of damage, but most of it can be avoided by tactically falling back when one sees the troll raising his arms or preparing a power attack. If you need to heal, you can sprint away; the troll will not generally outrun you. Similarly, using a shield to block the Troll's attacks can also be effective, but does depend highly on timing.

It is possible to scale the rocks just before the troll, allowing you to use ranged attacks to safely eliminate it. However, the troll may regenerate its health faster than you can damage it. Using a bow with a fire enchantment or ranged destruction spells such as Firebolt would give an advantage.

If you are careful, it can be killed by long distance arrows from the entrance to the ravine it lives in. Go into stealth mode, stand at the entrance to the ravine, all to the right, and shoot at the troll when you can just see it on top of the cliff. If done properly, the troll may shift left or right a little, but will not come after you; the x2 sneak attack bonus (x3 with the perk) should allow you to kill it quickly. However, if it falls off the cliff, this will not work anymore.

If you retreat down the stairs, Karita, who is meditating at the tablet, will help defeat the troll.

Avoiding the fight(edit)

It is easily possible to simply run past the Troll, as it moves rather slowly.

Being a Nord, one can use their racial power Battle Cry to make the troll flee for 30 seconds, giving enough time to run to High Hrothgar. Similarly, being a Bosmer, one can use Command Animal to calm the troll.

You can scale the rocks to the left of the ravine, and you’ll never be detected at all.

The Greybeards(edit)

High Hrothgar

After finally arriving at High Hrothgar, you'll be greeted by Master Arngeir, who speaks to you on behalf of the other Greybeards (whose voices are too powerful for conversation). After proving you are the Dragonborn by using the Unrelenting Force shout, they welcome you to their monastery and instruct you on how to use the dragon shouts, or Thu'um.

Borri Dont Use Whirlwind Sprint Flip Phone

To further your training in the ways of the Thu'um, you will be taught the second word to the Unrelenting Force shout, Ro, and asked to practice it three times on ethereal targets that the Greybeards summon. Arngeir comments on how quickly you learn, then takes you outside for the next lesson. They teach you another word for Whirlwind Sprint. You'll be asked to practice it by using the shout to get through the gate Master Borri opens before it closes. When you're finished, Arngeir will send you on the last test: retrieving the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller.

Achievements(edit)

Borri Dont Use Whirlwind Sprint Phone

One achievement is unlocked when you complete this quest:

The Way of the Voice (20 points/Bronze)

Notes(edit)

If you activate and read all ten plaques along the 7,000 Steps, you'll receive the blessing Voice of the Sky that causes wildlife to neither flee nor attack you for 24 hours.

There appear to be only around 700 steps, but many may have been worn down or covered in snow over time.

If you consider steps as paces rather than stairs, there are around 2000 steps (when using the walking animation)

Despite the fact that, especially at higher levels, there are many dangerous wild animals along the 7,000 steps, the two pilgrims met along the way seem to be around the same level as the average bandit.

With a horse and a little cunning, you can skip both the long trip to Ivarstead and climbing the 7,000 Steps altogether. Starting at the Whiterun Stormcloak Camp, you can ride almost straight up the mountain, bypassing the dangerous creatures and the tedious long climb with only moderate difficulty.

If you bypass Ivarstead and the two pilgrims on the way up in this way, Karita will never be encountered, since she is set to disappear from the game once the player reaches High Hrothgar. Barknar will still be there at his position, on the way down, and so will Klimmek in Ivarstead, with his quest to deliver the goods. Unfortunately, the Frost Troll will also be there - although of course, fast-travelling directly from High Hrothgar avoids it (and all the above).

The shout the Greybeards use to create the attack targets for learning Ro is Fiik Lo Sah, Mirror Deceive Phantom. It is not attainable by the player except through console codes.

When you are asked to run through the gate before it closes using your new Whirlwind Sprint shout, you can make it through the gate in time using a regular sprint.

Upon completion of this quest, you will gain access to the main quest of the Dragonborn expansion.

Arngeir's dialogue about Whirlwind Sprint is slightly different if you already know a word of the shout. If you have learned part of the shout through word walls, you will receive the second or third part of the shout instead.

Bugs(edit)

If you enter High Hrothgar from the back door (where you perform the shout 'whirlwind sprint'), the Greybeards may not congregate in the hall and the quest will not progress (stuck on 'speak to Arngeir'). Exit from the front door and re-enter before speaking to Master Arngeir to progress.

This bug is fixed by version 1.2.4 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.

The Greybeards may attack you after you use an Unrelenting Force on them.

If you leave High Hrothgar after being presented the word Ro, but before learning (absorbing) the word on the floor, you may not be able to learn the word when you return. This can also happen in very rare cases even if you do not leave (more likely to happen later in the game if you have put off doing the main quest). This can break the main quest. There is no workaround for this other than reloading a previous save from before the word is presented to you.

If you interrupt Einarth while he's casting Ro on the floor by talking to him or shouting at him, it may not appear. ?

Save and re-load the game, and he should resume the casting.

When asked to demonstrate the Voice, the spectres may not appear.

Open your inventory and close it again and the spectre should appear.

In demonstrating Whirlwind Sprint, Master Wulfgar may inadvertently send himself flying off the mountain. ?

Quest Stages(edit)

The Way of the Voice (MQ105)StageFinishes QuestJournal Entry8

Objective 10: Speak to the Greybeards

10The Greybeards have summoned me to their monastery of High Hrothgar on the slopes of the Throat of the World. They seem to have learned of the mysterious power that I gained when I killed the dragon outside Whiterun.30The Greybeards summoned me to their monastery of High Hrothgar on the slopes of the Throat of the World. I spoke to Arngeir, one of the Greybeards, who believes that I am 'Dragonborn', which means I am especially gifted in the use of the Voice. They have offered to help me learn to use my new abilities.

Objective 20: Demonstrate your 'Unrelenting Force' Shout

5058

Objective 30: Learn the Word of Power from Einarth

Objective 40: Demonstrate your 'Unrelenting Force' Shout (<Global=MQ105TargetsHit>/3)

100120

Objective 60: Demonstrate your 'Whirlwind Sprint' Shout

140

Objective 70: Speak to Arngeir for further training

160The Greybeards summoned me to their monastery of High Hrothgar on the slopes of the Throat of the World. Their leader, Arngeir, recognized me as 'Dragonborn', and taught me more about my new Voice powers. After passing several tests, they sent me on one final trial, retrieving the legendary Horn of Jurgen Windcaller.

Borri Dont Use Whirlwind Sprint Car

The following empty quest stages were omitted from the table: 0, 1, 5, 12, 15, 20, 25, 55, 56, 59, 60, 70, 75, 76, 82, 85, 90, 103, 105, 110, 115, 125, 127, 130, 150, 180, 190, 200, 220, 240, 242, 245, 250, 255, 260, 265, 270, 280, 282, 284, 288, 290, 300.

Borri Dont Use Whirlwind Sprint Phones

Notes

Prev:Dragon RisingUp:Main QuestNext:The Horn of Jurgen Windcaller

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