#just figuring out looks for some backstory NPCs! I like their designs a lot and hopefully this time it’ll stay that way lol | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

quibbs126 · 1 year

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I’ve been drawing more of my North and South Dragons these past couple days

I tell you, for some reason it’s been really hard for me to make a full sketch page like I used to. I think it’s because my brain now thinks it needs every sketch to be connected with one another in terms of characters and things I’m going for, when before that wasn’t really the case. But whatever, I’ll figure that out

So first up I had some normal Cookie disguises for Choco and Milk Creme, in which they go by their actual names, just omitting the Dragon bit, mostly because most Cookies don’t actually know their real names and it’s just easier. I based Choco off the physicians and Milk the warriors just because I wanted to base them off other NPCs in the kingdom, and doing different roles seemed more interesting. Another design idea was making them look more like some of the villagers we see, like Milk Creme looking like one of the Milk Tribe, but I just went with this instead. Maybe those are other disguises they use when they feel like it

With their colors, I wanted to make them look more like Dark Cacao, giving them purplish eyes (though they’re more of a pink), and I gave them somewhat similar dough colors, with Choco Creme’s being darker and Milk Creme’s being lighter. They’re also supposed to have long hair (though probably not as long as his), they just keep it tied up

So since I based them on Cookies in the Citadel, I decided that these guys actually show up in the Citadel. Every couple decades, they disguise themselves as members of the Citadel, Choco Creme a physician and Milk Creme a soldier, and spend a few days there, just to see how things are going with Dark Cacao and his kingdom. The other people of the Citadel know they’re odd, as they mysteriously show up one day and mysteriously leave shortly after, and no one has seen them outside of those days, not to mention there are those who have been there long enough to see them more than once and know they haven’t aged since last time, but at this point they’ve been showing up for longer than anyone but Dark Cacao knows, and he seems to be fine with them, so they’re just something people accept. Many suspect that they’re the Twin Dragons, but no one knows for sure. During one of these, they’ve met Dark Choco Cookie (though they likely first met him as a freshly baked Cookie), when he was a child. They probably told him who they are, but he’s meant to keep it a secret, which he does. Not sure if they know what happened to him though

Anyways, then I wanted to draw the two and Dark Cacao as smalls, with younger versions of their designs. To be honest, not sure I’m satisfied with these designs; I know I had a lot of trouble with the hair and I ended up just giving up, and it was a similar story with their outfits. I tried to base them off of Dark Cacao’s new flashback outfit, because I’m imagining that he would have gotten it from them. I also wanted to give them identical outfits, since they were a lot more attached to each other when younger. Over time they grew to individualize themselves more rather than just being a pair, but this was before then. For Dark Cacao I redesigned that young look I gave him before, making it have darker colors. I think I like this one better, I feel like it looks more like him? Also I’m aware that the fabric is facing the wrong way on his outfit, that was supposed to be intentional

To be honest, now that I’ve finished Episode 14, I feel like changing my personal headcanon for Dark Cacao’s backstory, but I was already making this before doing that, so I’ll just do that later. But some things I plan on keeping is that as a young child he ended up lost and alone in the mountains, the dragons find him and take him in, he grows up essentially a loner of the wilds, who goes around helping other Cookies, he meets the Ancient Cookies and we know the rest from there. Which I now realize is essentially the backstory I already gave him, but in my head there are more differences, like the dragons’ age when they meet him and stuff like that. And I might just throw it all out and start fresh. I dunno I’ll work on it

And the last one I did mostly just to fill up space, but it’s supposed to be one of them finding him and bringing him back with them. I like to imagine they’re big enough to hold him in one hand. Also it’s supposed to be like that ferret thing, but maybe I’ll draw that more clearly later. But they do pick him up in one hand and throw him around like a rag doll.

Also the dialogue is in parentheses because they’re supposed to be talking in the Dragon language, but I don’t know what that would look like, so just assume it’s in another language but being translated

Anyways yeah, dragons

#I think maybe the difficult thing with their hair is the fact that I made most of their heads bare #I dunno not sure if it looks right #also I don’t know where the two are taking Dark Cacao in the second drawing #but it’s either home something they want to show him #or they just like to walk around together in a little chain #with him in the middle #actually I think that was what I was originally going for #also I didn’t draw their markings on their heads bc I just couldn’t get it to look right with their eyes #but assume it’s face paint and they just start putting it on later #I think that was it #cookie run #cookie run kingdom #cookie run oc #black dragon of the north #white dragon of the south #choco creme dragon cookie #milk creme dragon cookie #dark cacao cookie #my ocs #my art

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gbgamebun · 1 year

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Road to Cream64 v1 Part 3: So many friends and an egg.

I was hoping to do two of these a week but man this has been a crazy week. Anyway, we back to wrapping up the rest of the NPCs. Actually had to grab

Star Toads were next and I wanted to make each one unique. The thought process for who got chosen was a mix of who was connected to Cream and just who I liked. The obvious answers were Amy and Blaze and I ended up choosing Blaze for the second toad. Doesn't mean I would leave Amy hanging, as she got a little side story in v2, but when we get there of course.

In Blaze's dialog, she mentions that Marine was also with her and that she's somewhere. So go help her find this mangy raccoon! I wanted to do something special and stick Marine in a level where you'd just run into her. Though with very limited code knowledge, even if you find Marine, Blaze's dialog stays the same. Mostly just a cute little event that would eventually fuel my desire to add more stuff like this in later versions. So much more...

The first star toad as you can see here ended up being a leftover from a small edit I did when just figuring out dialog edits and stuff. Eventually just ran with the idea of a single stubborn toad who refused to leave when Peach gave the order for every toad to go on vacation for this party.

Even after all the latest versions and dialog rewrites, his has been the only one that's stayed the same since v1. People really have come to love this little asshole.

For the last toad, I ended up choosing a little blue bunny for reason that should be clear: she be my bun bun.

Around early 2020 is when I finally had gotten out of my weird funk about my drawing ability and stuff and finally started getting back into Sonic stuff. Bare with me for a bit for I must go into a tangent into what I've been doing for the past few years before all this.

Near the end of 2019 I started slowly getting back into Sonic AUs and OCs again, a bit of that can be attributed to the Sonic movie and my friend's revigorated interest into that part of the fandom. One of my oldest characters, Mark, was stuck in a weird limbo of being in a Sonic AU and being in an original story for a few years. It reached a point where I just tired of it and shelved him to focus on an entirely new story and characters unrelated to anything I've done before.

Now back to the start of 2020, I actually go out of my way to try and update his design and do some stuff with him.

And we have our new design. I swear one day I'll go into his backstory but I'm dragging on. So where does this rabbit fit in? One of the new story bits I had in mind was that he would find a little rabbit named Katalina and adopt her. Then while he does his adventurin', he would leave her with Vanilla and that's how she would form a bond with Cream and the rest of her family. It's also why she calls Cream "Lil' Sis" in her dialog since she's like slightly older than Cream.

So yeah this hack is based off my AU, which is still mostly just told through these hacks. Don't blame people for getting real confused as to who the heck she is and eventually her adopted pappy. Sorry for the long bit, I rarely get a chance to speak about them as much like this. Speaking of, let's go back to him since that we're now done with the toads.

Changing Yoshi was just like changing the other model though this is the first time changing someone's model who was bigger than the model swapped (in this case it's using Mario's rig on a model that's taller). The best way to describe it is that the root position is off so he's kind of sticking a bit on one side, even if his shadow looks fine. His collision is kind of wonky as a result.

I would end up leaving this for v1 but it is something I would fix down the line. It was just a matter of changing the root point or even moving the rig a bit before exporting. Also noting, Mark here has changed again, with Blaze like fur sticking out instead of the weird white hair flowing from the back. Saved me a lot of effort down the line, lemmie tell ya!

Ya know I guess I should at least show what they're latest designs are. From the ref sheets I got, made by my friend @fudgernutter.

And now time for the big boy. That's right, it's time for Eggman and his Egg Koopa Mk 2!

God, this monster was one of the hardest thing to put together, if only just to uncrumple him so I can apply his textures and fix up the head mesh.

WHY IS YOUR JAW SO FAR APART?! It was one of those that was so bad I had to write down which bone was moved and how much so I don't accidently mess up the whole thing. Gah, it was a mess but as the years have shown me, it was 100% worth the effort.

It wouldn't be the first time messing with Bowser's model and rig, as I did an edit for Super Suwako 64 by turning him into a Cirno cosplayer. Don't mind the missing jaw, had messed up rotating on of the bones. This is what can happen.

The actual design of the EggBowz basically just comes down to "I wanted the robot to look as close as I can with him". So changed the hair to brown, the horn and spikes to gold to match Eggman's buckles, the upper torso is red to match his coat and the lower half is black for his pants and shoes. The mustache model is just his SA1's stache slapped on the front of the nose cause it seemed like something he would do.

Carving a hole into Bowser's head mesh wasn't too hard thankfully and then just repositioning Eggy to look like he's sitting and we're good! Still weird to think that it was initially just a random thought to actually do this but hey that's how half the ideas in his hack have worked out. Shoutouts to Cream nerds on twitter.

And with that, we got every major character swapped out! I suppose the last reoccurring character not mentioned here would be Mips so I'll just stick him at the end here.

Sonic is full of small animal critters so grabbing one of them was perfect for Mips. Ended up grabbing a model of Pocky from I forget either Smash 4 or a mobile game where the animal friends are there (and low poly). Everything here is still the Mips model except for the head obviously. Then just applying Pocky's textures and even connecting his ears so that they're a single mesh.

Whew that's a lot but there's not much else left. Just enemy models, UI stuff and the soundtrack and that's gonna be fun to discuss. Gotta see if I still have spreadsheets of the songs I chose before adding them.

#super cream 64 #sc64 #romhack #super mario 64 #cream the rabbit #blaze the cat #marine the raccoon #mark and katalina tannon #mips #pocky #dr eggman #egg koopa mk 2 #blender #rigging #modeling #road to cream 64

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ravixen · 3 years

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hip hop unit reaction to you having many tattoos?

svt + s/o having tattoos

➔ reaction || requested || hip hop unit

➔ 450 words ➔ notes: slice of life ; i've been looking at a lot of tattoo designs lately, but i'm too baby to get any. i'm scared of the pain lmfao. do y'all have any tattoos? :o pls reblog!

SEUNGCHEOL: "did it hurt?" he asks, tracing over the ink on your arms. his head rests in your lap as you scroll through your phone, but at his question, you snort. "what, when i fell from heaven?" his shoulders tremble against your thigh as he laughs. "you got jokes, y/n. but no, i'm talking about these," he says and presses against a particularly intricate tattoo. "hurt a little bit at first, but i got used to it. it also depends where you get them." he hums, letting your attention return to your phone and contenting himself with staring at your half sleeve again to pick out every design.

WONWOO: you have a lot of small ones scattered throughout your body, and he treats it like a game, trying to find all of them. of course, it'd be easier if you just showed him, but "it's like unlocking content," he says, pointing at the ones exposed by your crop top. "new y/n backstory." you roll your eyes. "are you comparing me to an npc? i thought i'd be worth more than a side quest." "no, you're not a side quest. more like a dlc — only available to people who are really into the game. or maybe a limited special event?" "are you saying my presence in your life is limited—" "no, wait—"

MINGYU: you wear a muscle tee for the first time since you've met, and it suddenly occurs to you that you've never told him about the tattoos that span the entirety of your back. you call his name hesitantly, glancing over your shoulder to see him staring at the designs that peek out of your top. "everything...okay?" he snaps out of it and meets your gaze. "yeah! i just didn't know about this," he says, waving at you. "are there more? can i see them?" he's holding back his excitement; you can tell by the way he rocks back on his heels, hands clasped in front of him. how can you say no to those eyes?

HANSOL: "there's a lot," you warn. he's been asking to see your tattoos ever since he discovered the first one, and with your latest one finally healed, you figure it's a good time to show all your ink. he nods. "i know. you already said this." "yeah, but it's...a lot." when you finally strip to reveal your marked skin, his eyebrows shoot to his hairline, and despite his attempt to school his expression, he can't help feeling awestruck. "these are super cool," he murmurs. "wow. would you get more?" "not right now, but maybe in the future. who knows?" give him some time to take it all in lol

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cryptidmads · 3 years

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good evening nsr community, i went through the ama from today and came back with an armful or two of lore. there’s a bunch more than last time, and i included bbj as well as the npcs. cozy up, check under the cut, and prepare for a long read. enjoy!

today's ama featured wan hazmer and daim dziauddin again, as well as concept artist ellie and animator ben fong.

BUNK BED JUNCTION (FT. DK WEST)

- mayday and zuke live in the sewers because they're an underground band. it's a pun - there were originally two variations of bbj leaving the sewers - one with mayday hi-fiving gigi (which had a 95% chance of happening), and one with zuke awkwardly fumbling and attempting to hi-five gigi (which had a 5% chance) - one of the inspirations for mayday and zuke were the two main characters of samurai champloo (zuke was jin, mayday was mugen) - someone asked about if the rest of the cast had their own shadow puppets. ben suggested a lemur for mayday, while ellie suggested a zucchini for zuke. she may have been joking. - mayday's guitar solos were done by different people, but zuke's drum solos were all done by bruno valverde. - zuke was the one who implemented the canister thing into mayday's guitar. - someone asked who of the cast are the introverts and who are the extroverts. mayday is an extrovert, zuke is an introvert. - the team does have a bit of lore for mayday and zuke and how they met, but they want to save it in case of a future project. - mayday was inspired by both genevieve from company of thieves and the unbreakable kimmy schmidt. - ben did the animation for mayday swinging the hammer in the workshop. - haz recalls seeing some fanart of mayday being brought up as a rich girl. he doesn't remember the artist, but he does like the idea. - the japanese version has zuke say he has a phd rather than a master's degree. this is apparently a mistake. - the pattern on zuke's pants was inspired by jolyne cujoh and prosciutto from jojo's bizarre adventure. - zuke's toilet seat collection came partially from a story from one of the environmental artists where one of their high school friends pranked another friend with a toilet seat. - zuke does a lot of reading and is naturally inquisitive about things like tech and mechanics. - dk west's shadow puppet abilities might run in the family, and zuke may have it as well. - both zuke and dk west are connected by percussion (zuke with the drums, west with the hand claps) - zuke and west weren't always designed to be related -- west was originally designed as "some guy who comes and goes," but was made into zuke's brother later on in production - dk west is an extrovert.

DJ SUBATOMIC SUPERNOVA

- djss' dj name is obviously a stage name, but the team didn't have a real name for him in the script or anything. - haz joked that his name is bob salad. that's not canon but from what i seen the chat loved it lol - haz brings up the symbolism of djss spinning the planets around himself and how it represents that he thinks of himself as the center of the universe. - ellie helped design the districts, and something she noted about dj's is that it's supposed to look the "slummiest" because he cares more about himself and less about things like blackouts. - dj had some lines cut from his boss fight. those lines? mini lectures towards bbj during every phase. they were cut because the team felt like they were too much for the game, but they want to share them one day. - daim says that dj could be either introverted or extroverted becuase of how much time he spends alone looking at the stars. - dj was never planned to have an approach segment, but funk fiction wasn't told that, so he made him an approach theme anyway. - dodo ice pops are traffic light flavoured, which is a popular ice cream in malaysia. it's strawberry, pineapple, and lime flavored.

SAYU AND THE NERD SQUAD

- three of sayu's creators were based on staff members at metronomik. remi (voiced by ben) was based on one of the programmers and one of the environmental artists (ellie calls him "the lovechild of two dudes"), tila was based on (and voiced by) ellie herself, and dodo was based on danish mak (another environmental artist who also voices him). - sofa wasn't based on anyone in particular, he was more of a "general otaku guy" according to ellie (though haz joked that ellie could just say he was based on him). - dodo is daim's favorite npc -- he also designed him! - sayu was ellie's favorite character to design. she loves drawing mermaids. - the progression in sayu's fight where you go deeper into the "ocean" is supposed to be a metaphor for going deeper into the internet/the deep web. - ellie suggested that if sayu were to have a shadow puppet, it would be a cat. - as for the introvert/extrovert debate, daim says sayu is technically comprised of 4 introverts. sayu herself is the extrovert mask they wear. - sayu's ahoge is a submarine periscope. remi looks through it in one of the cutscenes. - sayu's not a mech. she's remotely controlled by her creators from their computer room. - the backstory between remi and tila is meant to show that artists can come from all sorts of backgrounds.

YINU AND MAMA

- yinu's promotional video was one of the first ones done before they brought in lzbros, so it originally looked different from how it looks in the game now. - yinu's mother's eyes are yellow because she spends most of the fight focusing on yinu (who is mainly yellow). when her eyes go blank white, it represents that she's momentarily forgotten what she loves the most. when her eyes become yellow again after the fight, it means she's remembered yinu and her piano playing. - the way ellie describes natura is that yinu is a plant and her mother is very protective of her, and one of the distinctive features is that there are a lot of domes with plants inside, particularly on the roofs of the houses. - yinu's commercial was not intended to reference little miss fortune. the commercial was shown in 2018, while LMF came out a year later. - yinu's mom turning into a giant tree monster isn't exclusive to her just being angry at bbj. apparently the whole plant thing runs in the yinu family.

1010

- 1010's concept as a boy band had been around since before the team started production, but they were the last to be fully designed -- their designs weren't finalized until way later on. - 1010 were ellie’s least favorite characters to design. she doesn't like drawing guys OR robots. - 1010's early designs had them wearing tuxedos. - 1010 do have memories. - the inspiration for the butt plates came from one of ben's gundam figures from his collection in the metronomik office. thanks ben. - ellie's favorite member of 1010 is purl-hew/blue. - eloni/green is apparently the rapper of the group. - the jingle you hear from the carousel in metro division is a carnival remix of 1010's boss theme. - the numbers underneath 1010's names on the autographs are completely random.

NEON J

- neon j is a dancer. daim explains that in addition to being in the navy, dance has always been his true passion. - in the final phase of 1010's fight, he was originally supposed to control the dance moves of the factory as he was fighting you, but it was cut due to limited resources. - daim designed neon j based on ellie's designs for 1010. - neon j's factory's dance moves were all animated by ben -- no mocap needed. the factory was also his favorite thing to animate. - daim says that "neon j is to tatiana as soundwave is to megatron." basically he is extremely loyal to tatiana. - neon j was one of earliest members of nsr. - neon j seeing 1010 as his sons wasn't planned, but daim loves the concept so much that he could see it being canon. - daim says neon j's brain is "probably" still inside the monitor head. somehow. - neon j is an extrovert. - haz likes the idea of neon j being blind and using his sonar to "see" things. ben joked that the screen worked like giant glasses. - neon j originally had red dots that would pop up on his face when the sonar moved by that were meant to represent acne, and that would've been the reason why he's mostly behind the scenes.

EVE

- in mayday's side of the room when eve splits up bbj, the hands all over the walls are meant to be there to show how eve is angrier at mayday than she is at zuke. - the time signature for the music in mayday's room during the fight is 6/8, whereas in zuke's room it's 4/4. - ellie suggested a platypus shadow puppet for eve. the rest of the team seems to be on board. - eve was ben's least favorite character to animate. he said he struggled with animating her dance moves because it was something he'd never done before, and he still doesn't think he did a good enough job. - eve was born with her split skin tone. - apparently eve's near scrapping had something to do with costs. haz was the one who stopped it from happening. - eve's outfit was partly inspired by beyonce, while her jacket was partly inspired by ariana grande. the team took some inspiration from bjork, as well. - the sleeves on eve's jacket were apparently limbs at one point. - eve is an introvert.

NPCS/OTHER CHARACTERS

- part of tatiana's symbolism is how she used to be a rock star, but her flame/passion slowly burned away, and now she's just a rock, referencing how she was literally on fire as the rock star kul fyra, but now looks burnt out. - daim thinks kliff is older than tatiana, probably over 50. - in addition to the neon j dance lore mentioned above, kayane rambling about neon j after the 1010 fight was supposed to be connected to her watching neon j dance. - ben and haz's favorite npc is mia, and ellie's is dj zam. - dj zam was inspired by one of ellie's college friends, who she says "makes you feel comfortable to be around". - ellie thinks dj zam's neck tattoo says "i love mom". - amal the unicorn was inspired by lady amalthea from the 80's animated film "the last unicorn". he was originally written to be a real talking unicorn, but it was changed partially because his horn wasn't in the right spot on his head. - zed was based on game designer dzaid and has hyperacusis, a hearing disorder that makes it difficult to deal with everyday sounds. - yiruk's name is an anagram of kiryu, the protagonist of the yakuza games. - chef sunshine's design is a homage to julia child. she originally had a bigger physique, but was changed to match lylia's bubbly performance.

#no straight roads #nsr #nsr ama #madison speaks #mayday nsr #zuke nsr #dk west #dj subatomic supernova #nsr sayu #yinu nsr #1010 #neon j #eve nsr

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oodlyenough · 3 years

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life is strange true colours review

the non spoilery part: i LOVED this game, my personal fave game this year and the first franchise entry since the original that has really resonated with or moved me.

it's a life is strange game through and through, so if you don't like slice of life episodes or bonding with NPCs, it's not gonna be for you. but if you like the franchise, or even if you liked the first game but haven't been interested in/liked the other two instalments, i recommend giving this one a chance. i think it got closer to figuring out the formula while still doing something new and interesting.

more detailed spoilers and opinions:

alex

holy shit i love alex? bisexual chad... my darling... i'm gonna be real, a lot of the trailers and promo for this game made me worried she'd be kind of a dull wallflower Soft Girl character, but she's not! she's so funny, and even parts of her characterization i initially thought were maybe a bit of a stretch ended up making sense as i learned more about her. she stole the show. i straight up forgot how much loving the protag helps enjoyment of these kinds of games lmao ... finally a reason to click on everything in the room: to hear what alex will say about it.

i thought her backstory exploration in ep 5 especially was wonderful and emotive and great. broke my heart and explained so much about her :( baby girl

plot/choices

i loved the mystery. i don't think it was quite as Mysterious as the mystery in lis1, but that was okay, i was still invested in solving it. i also got invested enough in the NPCs around the town to make all the exploration bits really fun. i loved eavesdropping on the sagas of the random NPCs like bald man and ice cream couple... just fun little touches and narratives to follow that i enjoyed.

i really appreciated this script not being afraid to shy away from some messier emotions, even if in some cases i wish we spent more time on them. for example: alex feeling a bit jealous of the other people in town that got to know gabe better than her/spend more time with him than she did. or charlotte hating ethan!!! my jaw dropped, i thought that was so good, what a messy but realistic response.

I'm not entirely sure what all the ramifications of different choices are at this point, fresh off my first play. i ended up getting only part of the council to stand with me (eleanor & duckie) while losing pike and charlotte.

i do wish we saw a bit more fallout or exploration of what taking away emotion DOES. i took charlotte's anger, and obviously it meant she didn't stand up for me in the council meeting, but where does she go from there? does she like... ever return to feeling emotions lmao... I also think we probably should've had the opportunity to do that another time, instead of just 2 isolated events -- I think Diane would've been a good candidate.

the romance

i romanced steph, ofc, but i was surprised during the game how drawn i was to ryan too -- i really liked that Drama of him being the one who cut Gabe free, as well as later the drama of him being Jed's son. UNTIL HE DIDN'T BELIEVE ME... that made me mad lmfao, i have to learn what to do to make him believe me before i play a Ryan route bc i'll kill him lmfao.

the steph/alex romance was sweet... it didn't really, like, Consume Me as a ship, but by the end of the game I was still "aww"ing at their moments in the flashforward. steph was more rounded and flawed than i thought she might be, which i really appreciated! i was worried they'd just make her perfect idealized gf, but she has a bit of a temper and is kind of tempestuous and stuff... liked it. loved her standing up for alex so fiercely and immediately at the council meeting <3 and my main reservation about her in ep 4 was that i wanted alex to stay in haven, so when she offered to stay i was thrilled LOL

one semi-complaint i had was that something i loved so much about lis1 was how max and chloe's relationship was central to the entire game and story, it wasn't some extra thing on the side, it WAS the game... whereas here, the romance routes, especially steph's, felt like sidequests. I wish they'd found a way to incorporate those relationships a bit more into the main goings-on. I also wanted to spend more time with either romance option to feel like I knew them better -- splitting the time between Steph and Ryan means that I came away feeling like I didn't get quite as much of either of them as I would've liked, vs spending almost the entire game with Chloe lol.

however, this ended up not really bothering me too much because I DID really like the core mystery and themes, the exploration of grief and Emotion, etc.

other characters

considering everyone knew going into the game that gabe was going to die, i was impressed with how they did it, and how they managed to get me attached to gabe in a mere single episode. it's a tall order to introduce a character designed to die, who your audience KNOWS is going to die, and still make them work.

i thought this supporting cast was ... maybe the strongest in the franchise? or at least, they created scenarios where i felt invested in multiple people in the town, and was genuinely trying to build decent relationships with most of them. duckie cracked me tf up, i liked eleanor and riley, even diane and jeb were good for their roles. (fuck pike. i signed ur stupid thing and left your emotions alone and you still won't do shit? ACAB!!!) the choice to stay in haven or leave was a little harder than i expected honestly, considering how quickly i let arcadia bay burn to the ground lmfao.

gameplay/etc

also i know the whole internet has been dunking on "empathy" as a super power since the game was announced, and i get that it sounds corny and looks corny in the trailers, but i thought how they did it was really cool. i wish they'd branded it "Mindreading" more than empathy tbh because a lot of the cooler elements of it are more along those lines... using her power to manipulate people, potentially taking people's emotions away and what that does to them... very interesting imo!

i really liked the memory feature!!! cool way to give us character exposition and inform the story while encouraging exploration. finally a collectible that like, expands the story, instead of chloe drawing butts on the wall and sean taking 10 years to draw something.

it's definitely the most evolved-feeling LIS game, which it should be, given it's the newest. graphics looked really nice, loved getting to see the characters actually emote, even if there are still some scenes that were a lil comically blank-faced -- usually NPCs. i actually noticed this with Jed the most, which in retrospect maybe was somewhat intentional?

i had a number of visual glitches, nothing major but a little silly, like T-posing Alex, npcs t-posing in the windows, etc. i'm sure they'll get patched out soon.

anyway... i rly liked this game, i'm excited for the steph dlc and finally feel like i have reason to be optimistic about future LIS instalments. hooray!

#life is strange #true colors #listc spoilers #lis spoilers #secrets of haven

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captainkurosolaire · 3 years

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~ Mass Update ~

Mainly going into future plans and intents alongside ideas below cut.

Ton's of things I've in store this will prove difficult to vent it all out. But here we go... First off rehashing and appropriately learning to tag and organize things better on my blog. Each category will have their own corresponding content, I seek to bring or share. [Tales of Goldbrand] -- I intend this to carry a Compendium of all my writes soon that'll have everything neatly in-order including a glossary, so it'll have highlights of stories that even matter or the best stuff. I've written here for a very, long time, there's been many shifts. I want to make it more accessible. While coloring what matters for people who want to learn Captain or his Crew with less chapters. While also giving choice to find it all easily. This is essentially a step-above master-lists. I'll be doing that after the Saga I have going on, right now is done. [Captain] -- Will provide you strictly with Captain screenshots, gifs, photo-sets. This is still his blog despite the Crew thing's will sort of make this a scuffed Multi-Muse blog. I've few more things to edit and tag fix to get all his stuff though. [The Wild Crew] -- Afterwards this story is done Immortal Age Saga, It's something that I mainly wrote as a passion project within three days to get my warm-up process fixed. It's to allow me to get a feel for all his Crewmates and casts, in combat, in-general, to feel their presences. While also giving a bit of their backstories. At any point, I can go back and polish or tweak things in. They're NPC's but... not entirely. All will have their own 'Dreams' and their own 'Disapproval's' they have their own missions even. These things will factor eventually, they might set seeds, to betray or disagree with something, but that's all angst and more stories to be created, but overall, they'll probably always be Crew, eventually. -- I plan on making character-profile sheets of them and putting them in this Tab, it'll have their screenshots, their likes/dislikes. Some RP partners or people can also be shipped with them, but they'll all be monogamous and originally start off probably Pan. This allows them to figure out what they like on their own stories. I've always been someone who likes organic-flow. Although this one story contain all 16 characters or more, the rest will probably be shortened to a Squad of 4 and dispersed when on adventuring missions. Until I do a War Arc, that's my main goal to build too. [Roster] -- Will contain this Crew in just screen-sets dedicated to them, I'll probably randomly produce those. I've PC players among this Crew too. I may not be done either adding more, but this Crew is mainly built around Quality. Most pirate crew's mainly, have hundreds, thousands. Even Fleets. This Crew has personalities, monsters, people who are living life's that exist with piracy. He's an particular leader that had PC players the same way, he's had split-personality serial killers aboard, tribal chieftains, succubus, all sorts of various people once on a Crew. It's often an outcast style, pirates default are chaotic in nature, so this really isn't any different, it's a Fantasy version of it. There's humanization characters aboard too though, so this cast is really decked, everything and person is vital, they matter because they remind or covet something that others can draw upon. If ever played (Three Houses or Mass Effect / Dragon Age Origins) A lot of things like that are relatable too this structure and format. Which, Is something I want to be able to give when RPing. I want a genuine feel of this new world someone else's muse will be the main-character too. Depending on what's interacting everything they'll be scale appropriately to follow the genre they're in and environment even. [Aesthetics] -- Already explainable what you'll find here. [Asks] -- Same thing. [Prompts] -- Trivial things I was tagged too, I plan on compiling later. [Writing] -- Another alternatively to randomly go-down and it works right now. [Logs] -- Will have more individualistic master-lists and posts there, my poems from Sheik Sphere the Bard, etc.

Things of that nature, I'll probably add still. It's where a lot of my creative writing is summed. [Gems of Hydaelyn] -- My main #tag for other characters and artists, creationist. Lot of amazing people easily to find their zones or follow them optionally if you like. Ton's I intend to support and bolster, be a lot less unspoken. I'm never the type who's been strictly inclusive. But I'll do that when I've time to even explore the dash, I'm always still planning ahead with things and projects. [CKS] My original character-sheet it's outdated on something's but not too terrible. I'll give him polishing someday, I swear? [21+F-List] -- Just purely degenerate stuff of Captain. I'm a pirate blog. I will represent that with openness and furthermore. I'm never projecting you some false-image. I started off a smut-writer by stripping that, I no-longer represent the same aura and identity. But those are strictly his stuff and kinks, I'm effective in executing them but they're not all relatable to me OOC. This blog will always be 18+ containing crude or dark material sometimes, romantic things, this Captain is blunt, will literally put his cock on the table in conversations. Swearing and being censored would be too uncommon and displace most of him, but there's more about him then all this. [Other] -- I pay homage to a lot of characters, I originally am a Concept Designer. Which mean's I make characters and ideas like my addiction. Bad characters / villains or other little things I like to share in designs, I'll put there. Some villains might get little photo-sets, even if they died. Just cause I like their design, or maybe I'll give them an AU, where they won. When I've wrapped up things. [Collabs + Ships] -- Is a new project idea. This isn't going to be something limited too romantic only ships. It'll contain, platonic, romantic, friendships, rivals, frenemies, family, PC Crew, all ships. I am desperately working on improving my gif, screenshot, posing game so I can supply 'Screen Stories' this is not only a way to RP that's accessible with even people who are upon time-crunches from work, It gives visual-representation. To impactful stories shared with others and establish bonds. That are all-valid and impactful matter. Lot of people take a lot of their characters attributes into them and are them dialed up, I work with that and bit more, differently. I'm disconnected from my characters and they'll get hurt and injured and killed by me, that's my duty as their Author to give them conflicts and struggles. I'm their major antagonist, but that doesn't mean at-all, it's always SET that way. The characters I like to make have their own life, they live in this setting and are abide by it, they're often nothing, nobodies, and by the interacting with others, they slowly gradually building, more... Through emotional impacts, they alter, these are REAL people by all their beliefs. Each person they come in-contact with are legitimate and treated like that too. They've always impacted or given them insights to grow, or represent more. Otherwise it'd be criminally disrespectful if I allowed any emotional I felt OOC be the grudge to something IC. Captain in-particular is set on defying me. I cannot have that. ...But I can't stop him. He's met and encountered so many people and lived so many scenarios based on the actions of others, he's giving a chance right now to actually do things a lot further than impossible. The more people he meets and encounters, experiences, the more I lose. These stories are emotionally interactive where everything is a factor and adds to the dice, where the other people are the one who get to roll the dice for him, not me. That's something I want to color in. People range in emotions, they have their down's, ups, their own wholesome-grounding people, spending time with your favorite people, there's nothing more cherishing than that, being in your own comfort-zone or 'safe-space' these are all treasures that we live under, today. Contrary if what people assume of me, I'm not another 'blogger' that's came

before, who's wanting to force a harem, then constantly is bewildered when that falls to pieces cause of selfishness or a lack of communication, or the skeletons they have in their closets and beliefs they hid behind and swindled fooled everyone. I'm not looking to be popular or anything really, I just create stories and want to share in those, and I want to also boost others included, upward with me, especially those who make me. There's no ego in anything I do, this is purely love. I've never cared about being replicated or duplicated, I've had stalkers, I've gone through more then anyone would imagine, I've been used OOC and abused, just for my writing and cold-harshly told, i'd never amount to anything other then that or vice-versa. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Passion. That's all I got and am anymore. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Passion is the hardest thing to keep. It's something that can be stolen, quite effortlessly. Few words of discouragement, a bad negative representation, a lack of confidence, or small amount of time, there's many thing's that can put that flame out. Once you lose it. The difficulty to reattain is hundred-times harder than climbing any mountain for real. I've watched the greatest creators crumble from under the pressure, from beaten down by others. I watched many of them do it to themselves because they put a grand vision of needing validation of another and once lost, felt uncompelling to press onward. But passion also can be given BACK and drawn. It can be shown and encourage others, with a soft-triggering, that pushes them. That motivates, that constantly sticks to it. There are many that fuel me. If I ever quit, I let them down, I spit in the faces of people who're better than me in every-way. Or people who've came and given me their precious Time. That have given their character's or dedication to the abundant stories and community-driven things I've done. There's ONLY things you can do, create, give and provide. It cannot ever come to life without YOU. This is a fact. ...I swear, If you let your creativity soar, you'll be amazed by the heights you get. Constantly polish and learn and hone the best you, challenge yourself day after painstaking day, to draw better improvement on something, no matter how trivial or unfamiliar you are. You'll find a confidence only you can give yourself. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Future Plans --------------------------------------------------------------------- For me, I've got so much more stories to give and also explore, I might be taking up soon some other artists and more skilled people from community and hire them for some of my future writes, to up my game or cause something thing's can't be done in-game cause no background carries it. I also got a lot of-set up things and more angst stuff I want to practice, plus I'm adamantly on that grind to produce screen-sets with the intent's to some sort of improving daily. Additionally more people I'll be reaching out too soon for these collab's ideas and things. I look forward to shaking your hands, giving some hugs, show you my respect and admiration, then creating some enchanting stories and giving plots light. Feel free to reach out to me, I get scattered-brain but I'm working on getting better about it. Eventually will get to you though, my goals, if uninterested just say so when I poke, no bites, unless you kinky. Anyways, cheers hearties.

#ooc #update #future plans stuffz #ToG #Work on thinking of daily practice now

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sewingbear · 3 years

Photo

The first stitches

I’m about to go on a rant about dai and this piece. It’s long as heck so it’s going under a read more. Long story short I bought dragon age inquisition, love it, and here’s my character card. I’ll probably make two more cards.

Hi hello howdy, I am 6 years late but here I am. My girlfriend streamed DAI during a group discord hang out and I was like “This game looks fun 👀”. Then I bought it at 1am highly questioning my late night purchase. I’m gonna be honestly my other friend in the chat was making it sound like a really bad game, so I was going in with the lowest expectations I could possible have. I was thinking I was gonna hate the game and regret spending money on it but h o l y f u c k i n g s h i t!!! I LOVE THIS GAME. I probably should have played the other two games before but it’s fine.

Anyways it’s been like 2 months now and I’ve played the game all the way through and I’m already on my second play though. I’m almost done with the second play though and I’m already thinking about what I wanna do for my third play though. I am hyper fixating on this game soo fucking much. Of course I’m gonna draw stuff for it. I already drew my first dwarf character (Well a concept) and made a dai theme card for some other ocs i have. I’ve been wanting to make my own card for my character for a while now but I just could not for the life of me figure out out I wanted it. I honestly wanted my character to be holding halla fawn in her arms but I just couldn’t draw it to save the life of me. I also wanted halla running in it and it took me forever to get a good placement.

I’ll probably get around to drawing fanart but I’m gonna put that on the back burner for the moment.

So, I put a heck ton of symbols on this and I know most people aren’t gonna notice them so I’m just gonna state what they are here.

-The sewing project my character has in her hands is suppose mean the start of the inquisition. The thread turning green is the anchor. The needle is also being held in the left hand which you know has the anchor in it. Also I just like sewing. It’s one of my main hobbies. If I was an npc I feel like it would be one of the factoids you’d learn about me.

-The tree on the right is supposed represent the chantry. A dying order in need of change. The leaves on the ground represent those who die in the conclave and the single leaf is those who remain. The tree can change and adapt (like in autumn) or die due to the sudden temperature change (The mage rebellion/the over all change in politics)

-The shadow of tree is suppose to represent how the chantry looms over the main character. How they’re gonna drop a bunch of responsible on you for being the herald. It also just looked cool af so I did it.

-The background has a lot going on and it’s on purpose I swear. I really like the halla’s design and I enjoyed the golden halla’s fetch quest so I thought I’d make a nod to it.

-I felt like I didn’t really draw my character super dwarf-ish or at least you can’t tell since they’re not next to someone. So I was thinking the top part of the background are suppose to be the surface and the middle/dark area is the stone/under ground. I try to put some straight line dwarf like motif in there to be like roots. Always there, never fully gone, even on the surface.

Not a symbol but thought I mention it but like I’m not a big fan of the dwarf smuggler backstory but I understand it because it’s probably the best way be at the conclave. Anyways I picture my character living a more simple life and is just really good at archer. I want my character to look cute and god damn it I’m gonna make her look cute. Unlike the game giving me such uncute clothes options. I will also have long hair just try and fucking stop me >:/

I’m gonna make two more cards. I wanna make one that’s like my champion card and the other is a romance card. I like to think this is the card I get at the start like the other party members get.

Anyways thanks for reading this if you did akjhawrjhkfadjkhqas

#dragon age inquisition #pc card #digital art #self insert art #artwork #shelly #self protrait #dai #dragon age

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dndeed · 3 years

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Crit Role Miniature Rollout: C2E137

With Andrew Harshman

An archive and review of the minis used on CR.

Is anyone else worried about how incredibly dangerous a blood cleric could be when the fight takes place in a city made of flesh and blood? I'm very eager to see what terrain (if any) is used to represent the organic nature of the building they’re in. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Before we can discuss next episode, we need to first discuss this episode.

But before that, lemme say a few good words about the good ol’, grand ol’, mighty fine ol’ folks at Mats by Mars. They make great mats, such as the cobblestone Bustling City Tabletop Wargaming Play Mat. Whether you’re looking to purchase this cityscape design or any other terrainscape, I encourage you to proceed directly to matsbymars.com and use my code DNDEED0621 for 10% off your entire MBM order.

The city is alive, the city is expanding, living in the city can be demanding, it’s time for Crit Role Miniature Rollout Campaign 2 Episode 137!

The List

Mats by Mars Bustling City Tabletop Wargaming Play Mat

Monster Fight Club Verdent Forest Double-sided Neoprene Area Template

Dwarven Forge City Builder System

Dwarven Forge Wicked City Smuggler’s Wagon

Dwarven Forge Wicked City Pheasant Fountain

Dwarven Forge Wicked City Stalls

Dwarven Forge Wicked City Crate & Barrel

Dwarven Forge Dungeons of Doom Large Curved Daises

Dwarven Forge Caverns Deep Dreadhollow Forest Tree

EnderToys Greek Ruined Buildings Bundle 3D Printed Terrain

Mantic Games Terrain Crate Dungeon Debris Crates

Mantic Games Terrain Crate Orrery

Miniature Building Authority Witt House

Miniature Building Authority Corner House with Turret

Hirst Arts Stone Arch Wall Mold #88

Mage Knight Artifacts Set 2

Steamforged Mighty Nein Miniatures

Resin Printed Veth Model (not publicly available)

Eldritch Foundry Essek Painted by Iron Tusk Painting

Axe N Shield Single Flyer Risers - Clear Mithril

LITKO Flying Figure Stands

Monster Menagerie 3 #024 Gibbering Mouther

Waterdeep Dragon Heist #010 Mirt

Waterdeep Dragon Heist #006a Merchant

Deathknell #25 Voice of Battle

Pathfinder Battles Iconic Heroes Set 8 Rivani Human Psychic

Reaper Miniatures Barkeep

Ruins of Lastwall #020 Razmir Priest

Unknown Archway

The Terrain

Handsome looking Mats by Mars mat right here! The Bustling City mat, like all MBM mats, does an absolutely brilliant job of tying this whole layout together. A tidy, uniform design with virtually no perceivable tiling repetition.

A lot of returning elements, including modular Dwarven Forge City Builder structures and Miniature Building Authority buildings (the likes of which we’ve not seen since the Xhorhas arc some ~80 episodes or so ago). The tower is a newcomer, a 3D printed, modular tower by EnderToys. Looks very nice indeed.

This next topic would fit into the category of Mini-Based Conspiracy Theory. I haven’t worked out all the details of this crackpot theory. But here’s the general gist: this very specific Mage Knight Artifact statue piece showed up this episode in the streets of Cognouza and also appeared under the Cathedral of the Dawnfather in Episode 86 as well as inside the Icozrin Steelworks in Episodes 59/60. Generally, when I see a terrain model reused, I try not to make a habit of overanalyzing it. But this particular model is just so specific. Like why use this mini instead of a generic statue? It has a very alien, eldritch sort of design, I wonder if there is some significance to its presence in three separate Campaign 2 locations.

EDIT: Nevermind, I rewatched Episode 86 and the Mage Knight Artifact statue is expressly described as being a statue of the Dawnfather. Yeesh, the cathedral sculptors really phoned this one in.

The Monsters

Resident of Cognouza Waterdeep Dragon Heist #010 Mirt Mini photo sourced from minisgallery.com

So this is Mirt the moneylender. Maybe he shoulda invested some of that cash in a better paint job. Not great. But the the model is very colorful, so that’s fun. And the pose is to my liking. As far as generic background pedestrian NPC minis go, this one is decent.

Resident of Cognouza Waterdeep Dragon Heist #006a Merchant Mini photo sourced from minisgallery.com

Another decent NPC model. This Merchant has a cool costume design. He has some nice accessories, a couple coin purses and a scroll. What kind of a merchant do you reckon he is, a scroll seller? A paper proprietor? A sheet slinger? A papyrus peddler? Lots of truly riveting backstory possibilities for this mini merchant.

Cognouza Flesh Horrors Monster Menagerie 3 #024 Gibbering Mouther Mini photo sourced from minisgallery.com

John Carpenter eat your heart out! On second thought, scratch that. This miniature suffers from subpar sculpt detail and rather unexciting paint. Looks good enough at a distance though. Though not especially relevant to the visual quality of the figure, I feel compelled to mention how wildly overpriced this Thing is (approximately $10 at the time of posting). Forget body horror, it’s this pricing that’s horrifying! I can’t imagine what sinister free market forces are responsible for this. Yikes.

Closing Thoughts and Predictions

I am predicting some blood creature summonings and/or the animation of the terrain itself. Will I be right? Will I be wrong? One thing’s for sure, this Cree battle is gonna get bloody! See ya next sesh!

#critroleminiaturerollout

#criticalroleminiaturerollout #critroleminiaturerollout #critrole #criticalrole #cr #matsbymars #3dprinting #dnd #d20 #mighynein #critical role #crit role #flightoftheconcords #crspoilers

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papermariosuggestion · 4 years

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What are you hoping for from a new Paper Mario? What's your "golden ideal", I guess?

I could spend, like, years thinking of things I’d like to see in a Paper Mario game, but I’ll try to narrow it down. Here are some of the main things I’d really like to see:

☆ New partners (plural)

• Based on previously established Mario species, preferably “enemy” species, as “The circumstances of one’s birth are irrelevant; it is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.”

• Unusual, but believable, and perhaps even poignant, backstories and fully realized character arcs. I want to care about these characters because I’m invested in this world, its inhabitants, and those inhabitants’ personal successes and failures, not just because their design is so kawaii and/or their dialogue is so funny, though those things are a plus.

• Distinct personalities and opportunities to show those personalities off (through design, body language, dialogue, etc).

☆ RPG mechanics

• Built on the solid foundation established in Paper Mario (N64)

• Turn-based combat

• A leveling system where you get to choose which stat to increase

• Badges (Including superficial badges like the L Emblem and Attack FX badges)

• Something new, like being able to use two partners to perform a Bros.-Attack-like move, or maybe even stats specifically pertaining to your partners.

☆ New locations

• It’s a delicate balance. Locations should both feel like they could realistically exist in Mario’s world and feel like something we’ve never seen before. TTYD has some great examples of this (Rogueport, Boggly Woods, Twilight Town, etc). Super Paper Mario has some creative locations as well, but because it takes place in another dimension, not in the typical world that Mario inhabits, none of them really feel particularly “Mario-esque” in nature. They’re all a bit off-brand, so to speak.

• On a technical level, graphics are improving all of the time, but that doesn’t automatically lead to more intriguing and/or more visually satisfying designs. At it’s core, Mario is a fantasy franchise, an escape from reality, and the Paper Mario series is one of the few series in the franchise that really builds out- or at least used to really build out- its world, and that world was interesting because it was new and mysterious, it practically begged to be explored. Paper Mario games should show me something I can’t see in reality; I know what paper and cardboard and lemons and steaks look like, show me underground cities and palaces, show me sprawling gardens with talking flowers, show me a floating tourist trap in the sky. The biggest limit is your imagination, so let it run wild, and show me that, show me that Alice in Wonderland-like controlled chaos.

☆ An interconnected world and motivated backtracking

• No stage-selection maps. Even if the game is fairly linear, I don’t need to have that shoved in my face. I don’t want to feel like I’m working my way down a to-do list, glued to a track, I want to journey through the world and explore somewhat freely.

• No fast travel by default (maybe you unlock fast travel after beating an optional challenge like the Pit of 100 Trials)

• No pipes that take you right from the hub world to the chapter area; I wanna walk…

…and I want it to be through a believable, expansive, intricate world that changes as I progress through the game, a world I could see hundreds of times and never get sick of because its details are constantly in flux, and because those details are the kind that make it feel realistic and lived-in. I don’t want to be teleported from A to B, or confined on a path from A to B to C, I want to explore, I want to discover, I want to experience this world and to form an attachment to it. This alone would make backtracking more worthwhile, but…

• …another way to make backtracking even more enjoyable would be to add events that make walking into a game in and of itself, like having to follow a creature up in the trees, or having to get through a cursed area in Mirror Mode, or having to dodge and weave through falling rocks because there’s a huge earthquake destroying- and altering the actual geometry of- the area. Walking doesn’t have to be a chore for you to complete in order to get on with the game, and it shouldn’t be, it should be part of the game, just as engaging as anything else you’re involved in.

☆ Non-linear elements

• The game should still be fairly linear overall, because Paper Mario games are chapter-based stories with beginnings, middles, and ends, but having some say in which chapter comes next, or which partner you meet, or even just which puzzle you solve next would give the player a stronger sense of agency. Story-driven games are at high-risk of making the player feel like they’re just along for the ride, and this would help to counteract that.

☆ Spin dashing

• Gotta go fast! Getting rid of spin dashing always felt like an odd choice to me. Characters like the Yoshi kid, Carrie, and Dashell kind of replaced it, in the sense that they allow you to move quickly, but being able to speed up without switching partners, as well as being able to spin attack and just to witness the utter chaos of Mario flinging himself across the screen again, would make backtracking and walking around in general less of a slog. It would also give you more agency in the overworld and serve as a nice callback to the original game.

☆ Free-moving NPCs & situational dialogue

• In past games, NPCs have been confined to certain paths and locations. They might move from chapter to chapter, but they would always stay in the same general area until you triggered an event that placed them somewhere new. I’d like to see characters wandering around, going in and out of buildings, visiting other locations, having private conversations with one another, getting into fights, buying and selling items at the shop, putting on different clothes, and doing just about anything else they would typically do in-universe. Obviously this would be huge challenge to program, but we’re talking about an ideal here, and anything in this general direction would be an improvement in my eyes. We already see a bit of this in the series, but I’d like to see even more.

• When NPCs say things like “Where are your manners, Mario? You shouldn’t climb on the table” and “Don’t be so careless. There are too many enjoyable things in the world to gamble with your life!” it makes it feel like they actually see what you’re doing and care about what you’re doing. Having NPCs respond to you differently because of where you’re standing, or what partner you have out, or what badges you’re wearing, and so on, makes them into more than just set decoration or a sign to read, it makes them people, or at least more person-like. Nintendo’s been pretty good about this in recent years, probably because technical improvements have made it easier than ever before, and I think it would be fitting for a series known for its world-building.

☆ Dynamic lighting design & a day/night system

• This is all about aesthetics because, as it turns out, visuals are pretty important in a video game. Paper Mario (N64) had some really interesting lighting design, notably in darker areas like the secret passage in Peach’s castle, and we haven’t really seen a lot of that since, despite having more advanced technology that would allow for advanced lighting.

• I’d like to see things like swinging chandeliers that cast beams of light, and cracks in the ceiling that light pours through, and mirrors/reflections that Mario uses to solve puzzles, and shadows that hint at secrets. Lighting is a huge part of shaping a world, and using it in a variety of different and meaningful ways just makes your world seem that much more complex and grounded.

• As for the day/night system, I am picturing a game that visually changes based on the actual time of day, kind of like Animal Crossing games do, but not a game that requires it to be a certain time of day for any gameplay purposes, not for the main quest, not for side-quests, and not even for easter eggs. All I want is for it to be bright when I play in the morning, orange when I play at sunset, and starry when I play at night. This also would add to the game’s replayability, as different chapters would look and feel different depending on what time of day it was when you played through them.

☆ Easter eggs that reference other games in the franchise

• I want it to be clear, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the Mario we see in Paper Mario games is the same Mario we see in other Mario games, not another person, and talking about the time he visited Isle Delfino or when Bowser fused with a sentient tennis racket would really drive that home.

• Make me really look for some, though. It’s cool to spot easter eggs in plain sight, but what’s really rewarding is having to dig for them. I don’t just wanna see Luigi standing in the background, I want to spot little inconsistencies and cracks in the walls and cryptograms spread throughout the world. Sure, the five-year-olds playing might not find them on their first playthrough, but when they’re fifteen and they remember that awesome Paper Mario game they played a decade ago, they won’t just be revisiting a world they’ve fully explored, they’ll be playing on a whole new level, figuratively speaking.

☆ amiibo Compatibility/functionality

• I’m not a big fan of DLC in general, as it’s often overpriced, but I do think amiibos are neat; using a real object to unlock something in a virtual world makes the virtual world feel just that much more alive to me, that much more like it’s a little world I can actually affect.

• The Paper Mario series never really got official merch, and while you do see a bit of your partners’ lives in the epilogue, it’s only a glimpse into their future, so getting little figurines of past partners that make them appear in the game, tell you about a recent adventure they had, and give you a unique badge based on their abilities/personalities/experiences, would be like a dream come true.

☆ Just be creative (I know it’s not that simple, but like, figure it out)

• Surprise me; throw in something inventive and revolutionary, like Wall Merging from A Link Between Worlds or The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device from Portal. There’s a whole universe of possibilities out there; please dream a little bigger than items disguised as a gameplay element and a hammer that fills in glaringly obvious gaps in paint. Nintendo’s always pushing the video game industry forward with their creative consoles. Use that, take whatever whacky control method they come up with next and integrate it like Super Paper Mario did- but hopefully even better than Super Paper Mario did- with the Wii remote.

• I see fans writing stories, and drawing characters, and making sprites, and working with all kinds of mediums to make art that knocks everything from recent “Paper Mario” games out of the park. Obviously Intelligent Systems can’t just steal those ideas, but I’d love to see them get on that wavelength and match that passion.

• Make a game that you’d never want to put down because you just can’t get enough of it, and don’t even bother with that “You’ve been playing for a while. You wanna take a break, grab a snack, chill out for a sec?” message; if I die playing your game because it’s truly that good, I see that as an absolute win. That’s legendary game design, my friend; aim to make a Paper Mario game so good it’s worth dying for, and if you fall short of that, hopefully you’ll still land on something pretty awesome.

#paper mario #papermariosuggestion #ask

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zerobotic · 3 years

Text

Well, you asked for it and you can’t say I didn’t warn you :3

First off, the usual disclaimer that I did enjoy DH2. I thought it had some very interesting level design ideas with the clockwork mansion and crack in the slab, the new powers were very cool and fun to use, and it polished some of the rough edges from the first game’s mechanics. It’s just the story and such that disappointed me after how much I loved the first game.

So to start off here’s some of the things I found disappointing or frustrating (and keep in mind these are all just my personal feelings on the games):

“Spoiled rich person learns a lesson from poverty tourism” is a plot that gets on my nerves in general and that’s more or less what happened here with Emily’s story

Like, not to disagree with an anti-rich-people story but the first one did a much more poignant job of highlighting greed and corruption and letting you be the one actually fighting it, rather than putting you in the position of perpetuating it. It felt like the first game showed it, while the second game just preached about it.

Boy this sure did feel out of character for both Corvo and Emily. Emily watched her mother be murdered at ten years old for the sake of political power, and then was held hostage for six months while being told her father was executed for her mother’s death. She got a firsthand view of how much the people of the empire were suffering during this time, and then when she finally got rescued she was immediately kidnapped and used as a pawn again by yet more schemers after her mother’s throne. You cannot tell me that’s a person who would grow up to be spoiled and carefree and complacent with their position, or someone who wouldn’t give a shit about their people. Yes, I know that she was a headstrong, rebellious kid with an adventurous streak, and I’m not trying to claim she wouldn’t probably still prefer, on some level or another, to escape to the rooftops with a sword rather than being stuck in court. I’m just saying that kids grow up and change and whoever wrote the second game seems to be stuck on taking ten-year-old Emily at face value for her adult self’s personality too, instead of considering how the first game’s events might have actually influenced her. She’s got more than enough firsthand experience to know to be wary of scheming nobles. (Also I definitely got the feeling, playing the first game, that at least a bit of how Emily behaved at the Hound Pits was her trying to cope with what was happening.) You also can’t tell me that Corvo, father and royal protector of the current empress, man with the most reason and justification to be paranoid out of everyone in the whole damn empire after everything he’s been through, would be so negligent in paying attention to a coup that the first mission claims pretty much everyone in Dunwall knew was happening.

Building off of that, in general it felt like the first game wasn’t allowed to have much of an impact. It pays lipservice to Jessamine’s death, and acknowledges Corvo having been a badass back then, but that’s....about it? Like I said in the other post, the first game felt so saturated in grief, both for Jessamine and for everything else going on in Dunwall, that it really influenced the overall tone of the game. The second one kinda feels like the first one never happened, or at least didn’t have any lasting influence on the characters or world, and it’s kind of jarring going from one to the other.

So with all that said, here’s my idea for a different DH2. Still using Karnaca as the setting and Delilah as the primary antagonist, just...different.

"Delilah wants to use a reality-altering painting to change the world into her vision of it” is still a plot point. Except, instead of the end of the game, it’s the beginning. It’s a logical extension of her actions and powers during the Daud DLC - the plan to use Emily’s painting to take over almost worked til it was stopped, so there’s clearly potential there. She’ll just think bigger, more direct this time.

The game starts on a ship. Emily and Corvo are en route to Karnaca for some sort of diplomatic mission. We get to know them a little bit during this opening trip: Emily isn’t an absent, complacent ruler, she's a young woman who inherited a difficult throne as a child, after a series of traumatic events, and now she's trying hard to live up to her mother's legacy and prove herself worthy to an empire that still seems to only see her as the child she was during the interregnum. She’s doing her best, but she’s insecure about all of that, and spends a lot of time frustrated with the back and forth scheming of the nobles, trying to please everyone instead of putting her foot down and getting things done. Corvo is trying to keep her safe where he failed Jessamine, but court still isn’t his preferred arena either.

The night before they’re due to arrive in Karnaca, we start getting hints that something is...off. Strange dreams, maybe?

They land in Karnaca and things are different than expected. But they don’t get time to look around, because there's guards there to arrest them, claiming they’re wanted criminals. They’ve got music boxes or something that can strip Corvo of his powers, and only one of them gets away while the other is taken. The one that gets away is stuck alone, disoriented, and hunted in an unfamiliar city - even if you play as Corvo, things are different than he remembers. More different than can be explained by just time.

They meet Meagan Foster. She takes them to meet a group of ex-whalers (the player character doesn’t know who they are). They’re a group that got back in touch with each other in Karnaca after Daud left and the whalers split, and they still do shady shit, but these days it’s generally more smuggling type stuff and they’ve put down the assassin blades. They’re the equivalent of the loyalist home base in this game. Meagan is still the Samuel stand-in, taking the player places and narrating things as necessary.

Information is shared and the player finds out that somehow, the world is changed from what they remember. Delilah is the empress, here, come by it what seemed like legitimately at some point in the 15 years between Jessamine’s death and now, and Emily and Corvo are wanted criminals. No one seems aware of the change except for the player and the whalers (who only remember it because of their experience with magic, though the player character doesn’t learn that til much later).

Clearly it’s Delilah who did something, because she has magic, and she’s the one on the throne now.

The Outsider shows up in their dreams that first night in the new world, but something is clearly wrong in the void, too, and it seems like he’s barely capable of reaching out and communicating with them. He offers the mark, but disappears before really getting a chance to explain anything.

The player goes through the game now with the goal of finding out what happened, how it happened, and how it can be fixed. DH2 and DOTO explained a lot more than I felt they should’ve, at times, and I preferred how the first game balanced worldbuilding with mystery. So, let things be explored and figured out along the way.

Things are real bad in this universe. From Emily's perspective as she goes through the game, we get commentary questioning whether or not she was doing a good job, and comparing it to how things are in Delilah's world. There’s lots of corruption and poverty and people suffering, and the question "is this just Delilah's world? How much of this going on in mine too? In trying to navigate court instead of putting my foot down, was I failing my people in the end after all? Would it have been better if my mother was still the empress?" The difference between this and what DH2 did is that she was trying, there was just a lot hindering her, including her own doubts. In this one, those questions aren’t preaching, they’re a sign that she does care and is pained by the idea of her people suffering like this again, by the mere possibility that it might not be just Delilah’s world.

Corvo and Emily have distinct perspectives, not just the same lines very slightly altered.

The bloodfly infestations are either 1) a natural thing that wasnt supposed to turn ugly like this and has been affected by Delilah’s magic, or 2) wholly the product of unnatural magic. None of this "we need them and they’re always like this, just not this bad" stuff. if you're gonna repeat the plague motif, make it actually horrifying, like the rat plague was. In fact, there’s obvious magic influence here and there in general - maybe not quite as thorough as at Brigmore Manor, but it’s present enough to give you the creeping feeling that things aren’t right, here, visual confirmation of Delilah’s influence, that things have been changed and twisted from their normal state of things. Hell, maybe this is where the hollows from DOTO come in, the original world and Delilah’s altered version of it trying to bleed through each other in some spaces. Maybe that’s a different explanation for the crack in the slab mission, even.

Actually, if you’re gonna repeat the plague motif, lean into the similarities between the rat plague era and now. Have them be reminded here and there by things they see, recount what happened and how terrible it was, compare it to now. Give NPCs lines about the comparison and how some of them left Dunwall only to be stuck living through something like this a second time. Let the first game have happened and had an impact, folks, cmon.

On a similar note, if you’re gonna keep Delilah's backstory the same when we finally learn it, let Emily and Corvo get mad about it. They lived through the first game - what right does Delilah have to talk like she's got a monopoly on suffering and that's why she should have the throne?

Delilah's mistake was assuming Emily was a sheltered child who wouldn’t come for her, rather than someone who's already been through a lot and come out on top. That was almost a satisfying thing about the second game but they messed up the execution of the whole concept and I want it to actually pay off.

I’m not sure if the targets in this one should be the same or how much should change there. Honestly, except for Breanna, the targets in DH2 felt a lot less relevant to what was going on than the DH1 targets did, like...why are half these people even at this ritual? But for simplicity’s sake let’s keep it as close as we can, while also adjusting for the fact that this reality has been tailor-made for Delilah and her buddies. Perhaps the Duke is only the Duke here because things were rewritten to put one of Delilah’s allies in charge, and it was supposed to still be his father. Hypatia isn’t the crown killer (what even was that plot point honestly), she’s the doctor they found to help Delilah recover after her time in the void, and now they’ve rewritten things to imprison her in the institute to keep her quiet and out of the way, and you get wind of it and go to see what she knows. Etc. Is Sokolov involved in this version of things? I dunno! But speaking of Sokolov I want some sort of explanation for where the other surviving loyalists are, damnit.

Delilah did something in and to the void, just like in canon, but it actually has a visible impact here (beyond just a total aesthetic redesign of the void between games that never gets commented on). The void is struggling under her influence when you find shrines, and you never know what you're gonna find at one of them, or what the Outsider is gonna be like, if he even shows up. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of the way DH2 gave him a human backstory, because I liked the mystery there behind what he was and what the void was, but this is open to go either way, either with Delilah finding his death site like in canon, or some other way she found to influence it. I’m not sure how the progression would go of how the void changes over the course of the game, but it would be cool to get to help/save the Outsider in some kinda way.

Finding Corvo's childhood home should have more impact. Let it be like when you find the saferoom in Dunwall tower, in the first game. A temporary refuge in a dangerous place, full of obvious memory and grief - not so much for the time spent here since that's so long in the past, but for all that's been lost, everything they've been through and are in the middle of going through. Especially if you're playing Emily - this is the home of the father she just lost.

Let the heart be vague and ominous again, and let our interactions with it be sad, especially as Emily! I’m still messed up about the first time I heard "the doom of Pandyssia has come to the city" in DH1, and the lines about the floodwaters and the plague victims, give me stuff like that! Especially in a world that isn’t meant to exist the way it currently is, where things have been twisted almost beyond recognition. And give me lines that remind Emily of the mother she lost and how this is the first time she's heard her voice since she was a child!

Give us more on citizens and how they're suffering in this world, the way the first game showed us plague victims who died in each other's arms, journals from the desperate and dying, living people sent to the flooded district. Let it be a reminder to Emily why it's worth it, why she has to change the world back and what she wants to be fighting for when she gets her throne back. Another reason to question - has she been doing all she can? (Alternatively, a source of righteous fury for high chaos Emily.)

This is a journey of self discovery for Emily, either low or high chaos. It's about realizing she hasn’t been doing all she could, despite her intentions, because she's been trying to please everyone and in the end it still wasn’t good enough. She needs to stop living under her mother's shadow and come into her own (and the heart plays a role in this epiphany, probably. This might actually come to a head when she has to let her mother's spirit go, if we're gonna keep that plot point.)

High chaos Emily is similar but in a more "alright no more nice empress" kinda way whereas low chaos is more about conviction to put her foot down to do what's right.

You meet people during the game who in a good ending become part of her new council. Common people, who are more in touch with what needs to be done. It pisses nobles off but she's determined to do better, after everything. It helps both her and Corvo come to terms with the whole safety thing, because you can't ever make sure you're totally safe but you can try to make sure the empire can keep going should something happen to its ruler.

In fact, part of Corvo's perspective on this game probably would involve him still wanting to keep Emily out of things for safety's sake, and wondering if sheltering her from knowledge of magic and such contributed to this situation.

When it's revealed who the whalers are, it's late in the game after we've already come to like them a lot. They don't betray you like the loyalists did, but it should still feel like a punch to the gut for Emily and Corvo.

They don’t know where Daud is, haven’t seen him since the whalers disbanded .

Billie talks about that whole thing, and it's complicated. She decides maybe she should try to find him, after all. Cue DLC, which is about finding Daud, and helping/saving him, and the two reconciling and Billie finding some kind of...if not redemption, then absolution. A parallel to the first game’s DLC, Billie getting an arc like that in Emily’s game the way Daud got that arc in Corvo’s game. Y’know, instead of DOTO going and undoing all of Daud’s character growth.

I know I’m kind of handwaving the actual mechanics of who the targets are and how you actually go about uncovering what happened and how you can fix it and take down Delilah in the end, but this is all just. Concepts. If I were to try to write this as a fic or something I’d have to actually sit down and work out all those details, but for now this is something that’s just been living in my head since like an hour after I finished DH2 for the first time a couple years ago.

(I did warn you it was gonna be long lmao)

#turnabout rambles #mvtk42

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sepublic · 4 years

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You know, I’m entertaining the concept, the idea… for a fanfiction about Infinity Train? Specifically a hypothetical ‘Book 5’, given the anthological nature of the series. The basic premise is that our cast/main group consists of multiple passengers, each with different numbers of varying length, all from different backgrounds and with a multitude of issues that they’re working through, together.

Perhaps by some stroke of fate, or One-One deciding to experiment with the Infinity Train’s algorithm, these passengers have all come across one another. As ‘Book 5’ progresses (it’s probably going to be a bit longer than your typical Book given its written fanfiction format), our cast grows close and bonds as a very messy, but well-meaning found family… Inevitably, they start to open up more, work on their numbers, etc.

The way they start off isn’t so genuine, of course- Initially our cast of passengers keep their issues and backstories from one another, for fear of judgment, a lack of trust, wariness as to the others who have even higher numbers, etc. But eventually, they begin to tackle different scenarios, and react uniquely to each one… More observant, perceptive passengers note what makes the others tick, and get a guess as to the others’ issues.

Functioning as one another’s support group, they move past being together for physical safety, but otherwise solving their problems on their own… And eventually develop to care for the others and their personal dilemmas. Some may dismiss it at first as believing that helping the others will help THEIR number go down… But it eventually becomes a lot more than that. Regardless, in this hypothetical fanfic, I imagine the personalities and issues of each character will be designed to play off one another, with some cast members contributing to one another’s issues, others being able to counter another, and a few being capable of providing insight here or there. Each of them have a LOT to learn from one another, no one person knows best despite having the lowest number…

What’s more- As the story progresses and begins to near its end, eventually, each passenger from the cast leaves the Infinity Train after their number reaches zero. In anticipation of this, they give each other their phone numbers, addresses, makes plans to regroup and meet up once this is all over. With each cast member’s issues solved, they leave, and the group gets smaller and smaller…

It’s this sense of development, and further incentive to get off the Infinity Train- Because for the remaining passengers, they also want to reunite with their old friends! But for those who take longer than most, I can imagine their being some apprehensions and insecurities… Perhaps there’s going to be a Simon or two, a passenger that never quite learns their lesson, maybe even dies! Be it by their own mistakes, or by a genuine accident, symbolic of how sometimes death can suddenly and abruptly end a person’s life unfairly, before they can ever finish their ‘journey’. I could see some interesting moments between the final two passengers or so, some quiet emotional discussions here or there, maybe a little drama.

How this would all turn out and end, I have no idea- This is just a hypothetical WIP, assuming I’ll ever get started on it. It’d require a LOT of energy, time, passion, creativity, and skill to figure it all out- And it wouldn’t be nearly as nuanced or subtle as the actual show itself, but alas. Still, it’s a fun idea… Especially if the fanfic begins to end with just one passenger left, forced to confront their issues on their own, with only the memories of their missing companions to provide courage and support. It could be an ultimate test, to see how this last passenger functions, alone- A measure of integrity, the ability to retain lessons without the others around to keep them in line or judge.

This does leave the question of who our main-stay denizens will be. There should be at least one, it’s a staple of the series so far! I’d have to wonder how this denizen would function, if they could have their own issues to work through- We might see the other passengers explore the idea of just how much autonomy these denizens have, as NPCs designed to encourage their growth. Would denizens have their own issues to work on, their own character development to go through? Lake was an interesting case as she mirrored a pre-existing, actual human being…

Personally, I’m of the belief that denizens CAN change and grow just like any regular person- Or at least, it’d be more interesting to go this route. Perhaps the question could be left ambiguously, if some denizens are made with the capacity to learn and grow… While others are given static, singular personalities with very little depth. Regardless, having at least one denizen in the cast would provide a constant for the group, and a friend that those who are left behind can count on, no matter how long it takes for their numbers to progress…

And, it’d also leave some angst, especially for the final passenger- Because while everybody has made plans to reunite, there’s this implicit realization that the denizen can’t come along. Perhaps we’ll have a repeat of Book 2’s finale, where the final passenger gets their zero, but works to get their denizen friend a way with them to Earth… Maybe doing so is what gets their number down completely! Or, maybe the denizen has their own life to return to, or at least a home they have on the Infinity Train that they can’t quite abandon…

It’d definitely make for a tearful goodbye for each passenger who leaves. And when they all reunite… I imagine everyone will look to the last passenger to arrive at their destination, the one who made the ‘final goodbye’ to the denizen, to see what that denizen had to say to them all as an ending message. There’d likely be themes of feeling left behind, of feeling stagnant… Thinking that everyone else is moving on ahead of you, while you have yet to grow. There’s the idea of different lives and worlds coming together, then coming and going… People reaching their different stops and destinations, as new arrivals come in. It’d be like being on a train, waiting at various bus stops, and the small little encounters and interactions you have with strangers, before your paths inevitably diverge.

Actually, perhaps it’d make for an interesting twist- For a new passenger to join the group as it dwindles to its final numbers! It’d definitely contribute to the theme of endings being new beginnings, of how people enter your life and leave, just for others to come along… It’s about how different lives and paths can intersect. It’d be a twist if the new passenger actually knew of a passenger that had just recently left. I suppose this fanfic/Book 5 would revolve around connections, an inter-connected web of interactions that bring people together as a community, and the sharing of stories. Chance encounters that don’t last, but still mean a lot…

(Last Train Home would be a perfect song for a trailer, or like… Just in general to listen to while writing and brainstorming.)

There’s a very high chance I won’tactually go ahead and do anything with this concept. At most I’ll offer or air a character concept here or there, but that’s about it. But, it’s food for thought… And hey, maybe this kind of project could be turned into a collaboration amongst multiple fans! As each writer contributes an OC that will become a part of the friend group, amidst discussion of how each OC will interact and contribute to the arcs and development of the other, how some will function as narrative parallels and foils, etc.!

#infinity train #prompts #writing prompts #speculation

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c-is-for-circinate · 4 years

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But guys I am so proud of my party’s bard, the one I was asking for clip recs for the other day. We played last night and I’m so happy for her!

The party decided, after MUCH debate and discourse, to spend an entire month camping out with a colony of kobolds they’d saved from some gargoyles. Over the course of the month they each did various things, rolled some dice to see how well it went, and made it to level 3.

So like, our forge cleric had a full-on HGTV experience trying to help the kobolds rebuild and discovering that working with a crew of untrained amateurs is NOT the same as going onto a project with his buddies from trade school, and spent a lot of time muttering about his swatches and trying to talk them out of last-minute design changes like suddenly switching out the bathroom tile. Our paladin buried themself in the secret basement library of their church, went full research academic for a month and kept forgetting about, oh right, there are actual gods involved in this that I’m supposed to be praying to, and took their oath at three in the morning in a study blackout after 22 hours straight of trying to teach themselves Abyssal because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Our rogue and barbarian both tried gamely to investigate the ancient ruin where the kobolds are now living, with some pretty poor success (both of the players have ADHD and found it all INTENSELY relatable), and ended up spending alternating days out in the woods with the kobold hunters, where the barbarian got so into having the chance to fight again that he started sprouting a tail and using it to whack escaping deer, and the city-raised rogue finally learned enough about the woods to become a scout. It was awesome.

The bard, though! The kobolds had expressed some interest in learning to defend themselves, and I’d thrown several resistant-to-nonmagical-damage enemies at them so far because I like making them work for it, so the party figured that magic lessons were the obvious answer. Since the bard is the only non-divine spellcaster in the party, she and her player jumped on it. The character thus far has been very much a friendly chaotic anarchist rebel without much of a cause, with some of those not-yet-unpicked delicious bard layers of “look at me! (please look at me tell me I’m good at something)”, and not much in the way of goals or direction so far. So this turned out to be great.

She did reasonably well on Persuasion to convince a few kobolds to come and learn from her, and pretty well in Performance to teach them a little basic bardery, including some clever use of invoking individual NPCs and asking for help from other party members, which means that she’s now founded what is possibly Onde’s very first all-kobold bard dance troupe. Then I made her roll Insight to see how well she actually paid attention to her students and the community they come from, a skill for which even bardic jack-of-all-trades only just got her up to a 0 modifier, and very much a skill at the heart of what we’d spent like half an hour talking about for this particular bard and College of Satire. (You can do college of satire without it, but--if you’re going to set your character path about pricking overstuffed egos and taking down the systems and machines of corrupt society around you, you need to understand them first.) This is not a skill this bard has historically been good at. It’s built into her character backstory, that she’s not always great at paying attention to other people.

Y’all, the look on the player’s face when she rolled a nat 17. She was so happy!!! And then I got to narrate for her a little bit about what that meant over the course of the month, and like, at “you know the names of all 40 kobolds in the colony” I think she almost cried.

One of the great bits of advice y’all had the other day was, ‘invest in a specific flavor of charisma’, and I really like that for her. This bard is not a suave, sophisticated seducer. She is a friendly, energetic, slightly rough-around-the-edges punk who you can’t help but trust, and she’s learning to listen to people. She’s learning to do her own thing (and not be intimidated by the noble-background paladin, who’s good at persuasion and formality and who’s been the party’s face a lot so far). She’s not going to seduce any dragons, but she is absolutely going to befriend local children and accidentally (or intentionally) start revolutions.

So she’s level 3 now, and she took Insight as her bonus college proficiency, and now she has some sense of what a character arc could look like for the next howeverlong we play. I’m real proud.

Also I probably need to hand her a revolution to start or something, soon.

#C the DM #dungeons and dragons #dnd #bards

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erikatrammell · 4 years

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The Sims 4 Celebrity/Famous Legacy Challenge!

Ok so this is my first post on a blog dedicated to a new legacy challenge that I came up with and will be playing out here, and I figured I would just explain the rules and post it so that people can follow along and can even play themselves if you’d like!

If anyone decides to play tag it with “Celebrity Legacy Challenge” so I can see & so its not mixed up with normal Legacy challenge posts.

Summary: This challenge centers around a family of famous sims, with each generation experiencing different ups and downs depending on how they chose to live their life in the public eye. Will the magic of fame and fortune make up for the tragedy it brings?

This Challenge deals with more dark themes/ tragic/ dramatic stories than challenges usually do. If that’s not your thing you probably won’t like this. But if you do like high drama then buddy you’re in the right place!

Rules: -This challenge requires the Get Famous expansion.

-CC allowed, cheats only allowed if specified, mods allowed as long as they aren’t there to make the game easier.

-Sims are allowed to move out as Teens if their relationship with their parents turns negative. Otherwise, they may only move out as a Young Adult.

-Every Heir must max their Fame level

-The next generation begins when the next Heir moves out or turns into a Young Adult (whichever happens first).

(Optional) Mods that I use: Subject Homework mod by scarletqueenkat on Mod the Sims

Adult Skills for Children by Peterskywalker! on Mod the Sims

(18+ only) Basemental Drugs/Alcohol mod

(18+ only) Extreme Violence mod by Sacraficial

Starting out: This challenge lasts 7 generations, with one optional generation 0 (if you like playing out the backstory like me). If you want to skip gen 0, go right to Generation 1. Gen 0 centers around the strict farming family that the first famous sim (Heir 1) grows up in. The parents should be Adults. Heir 1 can be created as a Teen, Child, Toddler, or not born yet.

You should chose a lot big enough for the parents to farm. The parents may have any traits you’d like, but I would suggest making them family-oriented but strict sims. Heir 1 can look however you’d like. They should have the self-absorbed trait- all other traits and attributes are up to you. They should have at least 2 siblings. The siblings’ traits are up to you, but remember that they are more similar to their parents than Heir 1 is.

Optional Generation 0: Humble Beginnings

These parents are simple and humble farmers, and they had children hoping those kids would carry on this legacy. However, one of their children is distant, rebellious, and ultimately leaves home to pursue some silly dreams of Hollywood.

Objectives: -Never have a career. Live completely off the land.

-Have a minimum of 3 children

-Have a friendship level of 0 with one child (Heir 1)

Optional Objectives: -Have a negative relationship level with Heir 1

-Max the Gardening skill

-Complete the Nature aspiration

-Have Heir 1 move out as a Teen

Generation 1: The Lucky Young Star

You grew up on your family’s farm, but always dreamed of leaving and making it big in Hollywood. You may have ruined your relationship with your own family, but it’s all for fame. You know it’ll be worth it when you achieve your dreams.

Getting started: This sim should have the Self-Absorbed trait. If you don’t play Gen 0, you must start as a Young Adult. You should move into a city (Either Del Sol Valley or San Myshuno). Their other traits and physical attributes are up to you.

Objectives: -Become a Five Star celebrity before aging up to an adult

-Complete the World-Famous Celebrity aspiration

-Get to Level 10 in either the Acting or Musician careers. You may not have any other career.

-(If you had parents) have a friendship level of 0 with your parents

-If you have a romantic relationship with someone of lower/no fame status, you must break up with them once you become a 3-star celebrity

-You must marry a 4 or 5-star celebrity (you may design/place this person in the world due to the limited number of celebrity NPCs. You may play them for up to 1 Sim day in order to establish their life. You may use cheats to quickly establish their life, but you may not cheat their relationship with your sims or Heir 1, and you may not have them interact with Heir 1 until you are playing as Heir 1 again.)

-You must have at least one child

Optional Objectives:

-Have an infamous affair

-Have a child with your affair

-Get to Level 10 in both the Actor and Musician career.

-(18+, requires basemental mod) Get addicted to drugs or alcohol

-Have a butler or babysitter do every childcare related thing

Generation 2: The Ruthless Celebrity

You felt like you never got anything from your own parents. The only time they ever spoke to you was to remind you the hard way that nothing in life will come easy. Fine, you’ll show them- you will do anything to get to-and stay at-the top.

Objectives: -Become a 5-star Celebrity before aging up to an adult

-Have a Friendship level of 0 with Heir 1

-Complete either of the Wealth aspirations

-Reach level 10 of the Actor, Musician, or Comedian Career before aging up to an adult

-Any interaction with someone of a lower celebrity status must be rude and dismissive

-Make an enemy of at least one sim in your same career

-Only Marry a sim who has a higher fame level than you (Unless you are already 5-Star, in which case only marry another 5-Star celeb). If they ever drop to under your celebrity level, divorce them.

-Through all this, maintain a neutral reputation. Your reputation shouldn’t fall in the red for more than 3 sim days.

-Have at least 1 child

Optional Objectives: -Murder at least one sim in your career (you can use Extreme Violence for this, or just trap them in your house or something)

-Befriend at least one sim in the Criminal career

-On top of only marrying a sim with higher fame, that sim should also have more money than you.

-Have a reputation of at least Good

-Have a negative relationship with your parent

Generation 3: The Notorious Mob boss

The types of people your parents kept around the house weren’t exactly... trustworthy. With a combination of your criminal and Hollywood contacts, you pretty quickly rise to criminal infamy.

Objectives: -Reach level 10 of the Criminal career

-Reach 5-star celebrity status before becoming an Elder

-Have a spouse die of either murder or some sort of “accident” (drowning, fire, electrocution etc)

-Max the Public Enemy aspiration

-Murder 3 people you have declared your enemy

-Have at least 1 child

Optional Objectives:

-Get killed before becoming an elder or die in an “accident”

-Be friends with at least three 4 or 5 star celebrities

-Have a child with someone who is not your spouse

-Have a negative relationship with your parent

Generation 4: The Lover

You grew up under constant surveillance and attention, but with very little love or warmth from your own family. You will spend your life finding dysfunctional relationship after relationship.

Objectives: -Complete the Serial Romantic aspiration

-Become a 5 star celebrity before becoming an Elder

-Get divorced 3+ times

-Cheat on a partner at least once

-Have at least 3 children, but never two with the same person (except twins of course).

Optional Objectives: -Cheat on every single partner you have

-Never get a job. Most money should be made through your spouses

-Have a negative relationship with your parent

-Get addicted to any substance

Generation 5: The sensitive artist

You grew up in a highly dysfunctional home, but found comfort in your art. You will become a celebrity artist.

Objectives: -Join either the Painter, Writer, or Musician career (not the freelance versions)

-Become a 5-star celebrity before becoming an Adult

-Leave your career once you hit level 10 or become a 5-star celebrity. All of your money must still be made through your craft (writing, painting, music) but now you aren't held down by...the man.

-Max out whatever skill is related to your career (painting, piano, guitar, etc)

-Never get married. You can’t be held down.

-Have at least one child. Turns out you can be held down.

Optional Objectives: -Have a negative relationship with your parent

-(18+) Become addicted to a psychedelic drug

-Max out on an artistic skill unrelated to your main career

-Live in an “off the grid” house for at least a week

Generation 6: The Shia Labeouf

You grew up in... extremely unusual circumstances. You were in the spotlight from a young age. You lived with a parent who projected being a free-spirit, but who you knew to be just as fame-hungry as the rest of your family. They say it’s lonely at the top, and you were born there. There’s no where to go but down. Time to go bonkers. Just really McFucking lose it. You will become the most wild and unpredictable celebrity the world has seen.

Objectives: -Become a 5-Star Celebrity before becoming an Elder

-Reach level 4 in at least 5 careers. You may not stay in any career after reaching level 4. It doesn’t matter what careers you chose.

-Have an equal amount of friends and enemies.

-At least once in your life, bring your reputation level from one extreme side to the other (i.e. reach Pristine reputation, then bring it all the way to Atrocious, or vice versa.)

-Move at least twice

-At least 5 times, cause some sort of extreme public scene/scandal. This could be anything from getting in a fight, having a messy divorce in public, living on a public lot for a long period of time for no reason, starting a fire, anything.

-Have at least 1 child

Optional Objectives: -Have a negative relationship with your parents

-(18+) Get addicted to multiple substances at once

-Bring your reputation level back to the first extreme (Meaning if you had a Pristine reputation then brought it down to Atrocious, now bring it back to Pristine)

Generation 7: The normal one

Everyone in your family as far back as you know has lived in the limelight, and it’s ruined all of their lives. You decide to leave fame behind to live a real simple life.

Objectives: -Either become a farmer and live off the land or get a normal job.

-Never have any level of fame. If you hit any level of fame, leave the spotlight behind

-Have at least one child

-Avoid celebrities at all costs

-Avoid having anything other than a neutral or good reputation

-Have at least 1 child

Optional Objectives: -Reach level 10 in your Career

-Have one spouse and 2-3 children (like a real nuclear family lol)

-Have a negative relationship with your parent

-Have a bad relationship with one of your children

The Challenge ends when the final sim ages into an Adult or Elder (depending on how invested you are in playing the most normal family ever). If you would like, you can begin a cycle again with Generation 7 acting as the second cycle’s Generation 0.

I will update this blog with my own play through of this challenge soon!

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smash-64 · 3 years

Text

Ok so I typed up a super long review of Starlink: Battle for Atlas, and I spared nothing in what you might call a scathing review. It’s below the cut, but if you’d like the TL;DR part, I’d summarize it as follows:

The Starfox stuff is fun, but the rest isn’t. 5/10

Starlink Battle for Atlas review

Being a huge fan of Starfox, I’ve had my eye on this game for a very long time. However, the whole “toys as games” thing was a huge turnoff, coupled with the fact that apparently even getting the physical version meant you needed to devote 15GB of storage space to the game, which makes no sense to me.

Anyway, I watched the reception closely, and it was pretty lukewarm, at best. People generally had very little to say about the game, so I only ever occasionally looked into whether it was on sale or not. Luckily for me, I got my hands on a 400GB microSD card for my Switch at the same time that the digital version went on super sale at 70% off, so I decided the time was right to try it out.

The Good

The Starfox team is at their graphical best in this game, by far. They looked great in Starfox Zero, but they look exactly how I pictured they would in my most fantastical dreams from when I was little. They all move smoothly, have perfect fur and feathers, emotive expressions, and they just fit so well with all the other characters in Starlink. There is a wide variety of allies and NPCs in this game, and they all have just as wide a variety of races and species. One guy looks like he should be a grass type Pokemon. I really think the character design is fantastic in this game. The fact that the entire inclusion of Starfox was an afterthought, yet they all fit in so perfectly is really a huge victory for Starlink.

In addition to how they look, the Starfox team also sounds great. They got the original voice actors back for Fox and Slippy (and I do mean the originals from Nintendo 64!), and the rest of the squad, plus Wolf, came back from the 2011 remaster of Starfox 64 for the 3DS. That game was a great remaster, and the voice work was phenomenal. The characters and their personalities all shine through just as you expect them. They banter slightly less than on the N64, but part of that might just be because sound bytes were at a premium on that system, so they had to pick and choose what lines to include more carefully. So, I don’t think you can really count that against Starlink, which is a game that can include just about as many lines of dialogue as it wants. Fox, for one, has a TON of dialogue and I loved every bit of it. I kind of wish I lived in the Seattle area so I could hear Mike West’s radio show (and hear Fox’s voice all the time), which is how Nintendo discovered him for the original voice of Fox McCloud way back in 1997. Another great piece of work here.

In what very well might have been the source of the “Star Fox Grand Prix” fake leak a few years ago, there is a planet called the Crimson Moon where you can take part in what is essentially pod racing with your Arwing. Now, I really did not enjoy the pod race scene of Star Wars Episode I, and aside from Mario Kart 64, I really don’t find racing games very rewarding. However, these racing levels are actually pretty fun. There are hidden shortcuts you can take, plenty of obstacles, and the computer racers are actually fairly difficult. I honestly found myself getting really into these races. The only downside is, there aren’t very many of them. They’re also kind of long, which is no problem for a veteran of N64’s Rainbow Road, but I was a bit surprised at the length of some of the courses.

The Meh

The music, which I have come to believe might be the element of games that really determines whether I just like a game, or love it, is fairly generic. It sounds like your average Marvel movie soundtrack, except without any real bangers. The Corneria remix is too short and not often played, and the Star Wolf theme is the same deal. That’s just about it for Starfox music, and the rest of it is just so generic that I can’t even comment any further. A real letdown for me, although it doesn’t particularly take away from the game or produce any grating tracks.

The difficulty was a mixed bag as well. I played about 70% of the game on Hard mode because I’m very experienced with Ace Combat and Starfox games, so I thought I’d be fine with the air/space combat. But, the difficulty slider didn’t really make the game more difficult, it just made it take a lot longer. I guess that could be seen as a good thing for people who get upset about dying really quickly on harder difficulties, but it felt like a way to cheat at padding the game’s playtime. I ended up lowering the difficulty just so I could finish faster.

The Starlink characters are a really big missed opportunity. They all have very distinct personalities, but I was shocked at how little content actually featured them. They each have a backstory cutscene that highlights them, but those scenes are so short that it’s more of a 30 second elevator pitch than anything else. None of the characters have more than a sentence or two to comment about said cutscenes, and none of them ever show any growth. Even the “main” character of Mason is basically the same by the end of the game. Although, I do think their designs are excellent and their personalities stand out from one another well enough.

The Bad

Spoilers ahead for the next three paragraphs! The story itself is pretty crappy. I’m still not really sure what was going on or why the Equinox (the main ship) was where it was. In more than one of the character-specific backstory cutscenes I already mentioned, they talk about Earth. So, ok, we understand that almost everyone on the Equinox is human, that’s fine. But...how exactly did they get here and why do they want to recapture the solar system of Atlas? As you play, you essentially claim territory in the name of Atlas, but it’s not clear at all who that exactly is. Does that mean the Equinox is in charge? Is there a government somewhere? Military affiliations or alliances? Because plenty of territory seems to be independent, in addition to enemy-controlled territory. Maybe there was a single line of dialogue I missed somewhere.

But, ok, we just want to fly spaceships and shoot stuff, who cares about politics! Well, there are still issues with the story because I honestly could scarcely care less about any of the plot in this game, which makes it tough to get into any of the battles or things at stake. The entire Starlink team was so unimportant that I literally never used ANY of them even one time, and the game never encouraged me too, either. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by the unparalleled writing and character development of the Kiseki series of JRPGs, or maybe I just really don’t like the storytelling methods and style of western RPGs, but I feel like the story should make you WANT to learn more about characters. Instead, I was just constantly asking questions like “Why does any of this matter?”

Now, that would be a totally unimportant question if the game was all about space battles and explosions and pew pews, but it pretends to have this really deep, engrossing story with characters wracked over the (spoiler!) kidnapping and death of their leader and captain. We barely even get to know who this dude is before he’s kidnapped, and then the rest of the story is so bare-bones that most of what we’re “supposed” to be feeling has to be completely assumed under the guise of “Well, I guess he was the captain so we’re supposed to feel bad, right?” He did apparently act like a father figure for many of the Starlink pilots, but we are only briefly told that in those previously mentioned 30 second elevator pitches. We never actually see it.

Ok spoilers done, but I’m not. The enemies that you fight in this game are also horribly boring and repetitive. We get about 10 enemies in total throughout the entire game, and most of those only have very slight variations. They try to spice it up a bit by adding in “elements,” but about 70% of what I fought ended up always being the fire type anyway. Sure, we get five or so “boss” type enemies, but they’re not particularly special, either. Most of these enemies are copy-pasted all over the planets you visit to give the impression of a planet full of activity, but really it’s just the same things over and over.

The real issue here is how the Big Bad, a bird guy named Grax, is supposed to be really feared but we only get like two cutscenes about him. His army is completely faceless. It’s really shocking that we got significantly more development from the Star Wolf team almost 25 years ago on the Nintendo 64, and all of that was delivered in five second one-liners spread through only a couple levels!

All I’m going to say about the “toys as games” thing is that it’s stupid and clunky and should never be used, especially the way they make you mount the ship onto your controller. What an absolutely idiotic method. I can understand having a portal like they did with Skylanders. Still not a fan, but you can toss something onto it and it doesn’t weigh down your controller. If it was required to play, I would have never even tried this game.

Gameplay is supposed to be the real winning point here, with an honestly unbelievable amount of content available for each planet you visit. I think there were six or seven planets you could visit, so there was actually a ton to do. But I can’t imagine beating my head against the wall so many times on each planet to complete any of it. If you really enjoy grinding, monotonous, pointless gameplay, then by all means, try this game.

Conclusion

I mean, if you like Starfox, I think you’ll have at least some fun with it. The Starfox levels are fun, and it feels like legitimate Starfox content. It also shows that Starfox could branch out into something different, but I’m not sure I’d be a big fan of it going such a repetitive route with regards to gameplay. If a game like this were fully devoted to a Starfox story, and not just including Starfox as an afterthought, then I do think it could be a good game. But as it stands, Starlink: Battle for Atlas is an example of something that looks and sounds great, but revels in gameplay mediocrity and fails at story-telling. 5/10. If there was no Starfox content, it’s honestly a 3/10.

#i'm not even going to tag this with the game because it's pretty harsh

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theworldbrewery · 5 years

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how to build a world so you all have fun

The cardinal rule for building an entire game world from scratch is very, very simple:

Don’t waste your time.

Now, what that advice means in practice varies dramatically between gaming groups and even between PCs. To help address some of that, I’ve broken my advice into two categories: Friends Playing Together and Meeting Strangers.

Friends Playing Together

The most important thing about this type of worldbuilding is that as the DM, it is not only within your power, but it is your responsibility to take into account the characters your players are inventing. But that’s not the first step, so we’re breaking it down.

Come up with big-picture stuff.

For my campaign, I first developed a world featuring natural disasters and dangerous weather conditions, and then decided that society coped by either clumping together in massive cities or retreating into isolated communities with little-to-no interaction from outsiders.

You might decide that ley-lines cover the world, and magic-users on those ley-lines see a major increase in powers, then figure that because of this, mages are seen as explosive, dangerous, and unpredictable, putting them in a lot of social danger.

This might be when you decide on gods for your pantheon, a rough outline of locations and cities (you don’t have to name them yet), and potential ways this world can affect the player characters.

Then, share that big-picture stuff with your players. This is when they should be designing their player characters--as a response to your world and how it works. You don’t need towns or cities; you need the rules of your world, so the players can decide how they fit into it.

They’re going to come up with things that you didn’t have in mind. They’re going to ask ‘can we do [thing you the DM didn’t plan for].’

Keeping your world pretty open (like not settling on WHY things are the way they are, on a global or even national scale) leaves you opportunity to let the players tell you what they’re interested in without knowing they’re doing it.

Let them flesh out the characters, decide race/class/background, but you don’t need to demand a complete backstory just yet (if an eager player supplies you with one, roll with it; they’re doing the worldbuilding work for you! The only thing you truly need from the PCs at this stage is a goal they have. It doesn’t matter what scale the goal is.

Your next step is simple: look at what your players gave you and develop those elements.

Does your party have a barbarian trying to avenge their family? Invent a reason their family was killed (politics? jealousy? a local, vengeful deity?) that matches the world you’re making and build it into that. Let’s say you have a rogue whose end-goal is to expose a corrupt politician; then you can develop a world where politicians are corrupt, and why. Are they threatened by a dragon clan, or being bought by the fantasy Mafia? Is this nationwide or just in a certain town or city?

This also tells you what kind of game your players want. If they come back to you with goals full of intrigue and social interaction, they probably aren’t looking for slash-and-burn dungeon crawling. When they come to you with a mix of things (your rogue wants to get Stuff, your paladin wants to proselytize, your ranger wants to be an animal rights activist) then you tailor your world accordingly.

This prevents DM burnout. If the players are looking for adventure on the high seas and exploring abandoned ghost towns, you don’t need to prep the politics of your world too deeply. Don’t get me wrong; do enough so that if someone asks a surface question, you can answer it quickly, but it can be quick-and-dirty. Don’t plan out a line of kingly succession if no one’s going to care about the usurper because they’re busy fighting spiders in the Underdark.

From there, keep going back and forth with your players. The more they give you--the more towns they describe and NPCs they invent--the more material you have to work with, and the less you have to create on your own. This takes a huge burden of work off your shoulders, and it directs your attention toward the things your players will actually enjoy. Like I said: don’t waste your time.

Meeting Strangers

When it comes to this type of worldbuilding, it’s harder to get what your players want, but it’s also much more straightforward. Typically, the meeting-strangers game happens when A) someone (often the DM) sends out a call for players online and recruits them, or B) the players meet in-person at a gaming shop or convention and don’t have the luxury of spending days of worldbuilding back-and-forth. With that in mind, the ideal structure works very differently.

As the DM, you can start off by building your world. As much as you want, and whatever elements you want. You may want to have a campaign premise, almost like the back-cover blurb on a book.

Do you want to run an eldritch campaign, or a horror campaign Curse of Strahd style? This is your sandbox right now. Devise your elements. But remember to prepare potential situations, not plotlines. If the party misses a clue because you were expecting High-INT characters and got a gaggle of idiots instead, you need to be able to roll with that, not let the dropped thread bring your campaign to a halt.

Your campaign premise should be your advertisement to players saying: THIS IS WHAT TO EXPECT. That way, they can decide if they want to play the kind of game you’re proposing. Lots of DMs put out a call for players without saying what they have in mind.

Example: “In a world where volcanic activity rendered the earth’s surface uninhabitable, a group of brave adventurers are about to leave the caverns belowground for the very first time. What monsters and dangers await in the lands above? Will they find what they’re looking for?” In something like that, prospective players know exactly what to expect. The game is combat, survival and exploration oriented, but there’s a hint of a larger quest going on as well. Players hoping for lots of social interaction are likely to be disappointed, but they read your campaign premise and now they won’t get into a game they won’t enjoy.

Once you have players who like your premise, follow the steps above for longer campaigns by checking in with your players about what their characters are like and getting a sense of their personal goals.

If you’re playing a one-shot at a convention or just testing the DM waters, skip all that; prep a more generic adventure with a mix of different types of play, so that your players hopefully get what they want from the game.

If this is intended to be a recurring game (at a game shop or online), continue to learn your PCs’ goals and other elements they’re designing their PCs around. Follow the steps above to prepare situations, but remember that since you made your world in advance and recruited based on your premise, the players aren’t likely to throw as many surprises your way; they’ve already bought into the type of game you’re presenting.

Whichever game setup you have, keep in mind that this process is ongoing. Do NOT prep cities and towns until your PCs demonstrate some interest in going there. Give them names, give them a short description, more if it’s a PC hometown (and they ask for it), but only build what you need in the current arc and what you think you’ll need for the next. Otherwise you’ll spend hours developing intricate ideas for things the party never sees.

#d&d #dnd #dungeons and dragons #critical role #taz

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