Henckels classic 15-pc self-sharpening block set
Seeking feedback on the first chapter of my speculative novel [1571].
2023.06.01 22:33 Proper_Tea8445 Seeking feedback on the first chapter of my speculative novel [1571].
Thanks in advance for any and all feedback. This is my first novel and am working on material to begin querying agents.
Chapter 1
June 12, 2036, Franklin, North Carolina
I walked through the front yard to the front door. I dropped my duffel bags on the porch, stepped up to the front door, and knocked. Mom answered with surprise and worry on her face.
'Oliver? What are you doing here?' she hugged me as I stepped across the threshold. Winston, sniffed my legs wagging his tail in excitement.
'Long story, Mom, I’m out of the Army, for good,' I said. She nodded but didn’t ask any further questions. We moved into the kitchen and sat at the table to drink mugs of strong coffee.
'Do you want to tell me what happened?' she asked.
'Things went sideways.' I said. I realized I wasn't ready to talk about it just yet. 'I thought I could try and start up Dad’s welding business. I was always good at it, and I think I could drum up his old clients and stay busy with some work.'
'Well, it would be nice to have you around, honey. You’ll need to look through all his business paperwork and get caught up on all that.'
I nodded, 'We have time. I want to ensure I’m doing it right.'
'I understand, Ollie,' she said and smiled, 'let's go to the diner tonight, my treat.'
'I could go for some peach cobbler and ice cream. Sure, Mom sounds perfect,' I said, and we rose. I went to the guest room and changed out of the clothes I had spent the last 22 hours traveling in. I grabbed the truck keys, and Winston followed us down the hallway to the front door.
'Hold down the fort, Winston,' he wagged his tail in response.
'You want to drive?' Mom asked.
'I haven't had a chance to drive around Franklin in a long time,' I said, and Mom climbed into the passenger seat of the Tesla. Mom turned the radio to a classic rock station as I backed out of the driveway. I drove along the winding asphalt road to town.
'Hope it isn't too packed, it is Friday night,' Mom said.
'I'm sure we'll be ok; it's still early enough. I bet we beat the dinner rush.'
J's Diner was the only diner in town and could fill up quickly. I passed the large, green, metal sign welcoming drivers to Franklin, and approached the historic square of town. I made a couple of left turns to the diner's street parking and came to a stop. There were only two other cars.
'See, Mom, I think we'll get our cobbler pretty quick,' I said. I walked just behind her; the jingle of a bell announced our entrance.
'Just seat yourself; I'll be right with you,' a female voice called from behind a counter in the kitchen.
'Ok, thanks,' Mom answered.
We found a booth in the back corner of the small, red and white decorated restaurant. It had a 1950's theme and even a tiny 1957 Chevy hung from the ceiling. A waitress came around the front counter, her brown, hair in a messy bun and two menus in her hands.
'Here you are, Mrs. Banks,' she said, setting the menus before us. 'Can I get you two anything other than water?' She looked at my face and froze, 'Oliver, is that you?'
'Lacy?' I asked, now understanding why her voice sounded so familiar.
'I didn't know you were back in Franklin,' she said, smiling. I also noticed a large grin on Mom from her side of the table.
'Just got back, actually, a few hours ago.' I explained.
'Done seeing the world?' She said, her hands in the front of her apron, she sounded genuinely curious.
'You could say that,' I said. Lacy seemed unable to think of another question for me.
'Sorry, umm, just waters?' she shook her head.
'Waters are fine, sweety,' Mom answered, glancing between the two of us. Did Mom think this was actually going to work?
'No problem, I'll be right back,' and Lacy walked off.
'Don't be so weird, Mom,' I said, and she just shrugged her shoulders innocently. Our phones on the table between us began to flash and buzz loudly. I picked mine up and read the Alert Message, it read.
THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION HAS DETECTED AN IMMINENT ELECTRO-MAGNETIC SPACE THREAT TO PLANET EARTH. A SOLAR FLARE-GENERATED WALL OF SPACE WEATHER WILL IMPACT EARTH IN APPROXIMATELY 5 MINUTES. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. IF YOU ARE INDOORS, STAY INDOORS. IF YOU ARE OUTDOORS, SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER IN A BUILDING. REMAIN INDOORS, WELL AWAY FROM WINDOWS. IF YOU ARE DRIVING, PULL SAFELY TO THE SIDE OF THE ROAD AND SEEK SHELTER IN A BUILDING OR LAY ON THE FLOOR. WE WILL ANNOUNCE WHEN THE THREAT HAS ENDED. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION MEASURES.
'What the hell does that mean?' Mom asked, jerked her head up to look at me, panic creeping into her features.
'The message said five minutes, assuming there was a good flash to bang on the message being created and sent out,' I said.
Suddenly, our phones’ screens flashed white and winked out, going black. The diner's lights began to flicker on and off until they dimmed too.
'We have to get out of here, Mom,' I said, sliding out of the booth.
'Ollie, what's happening?' she asked, following me.
'We have to get home, now,' I grabbed her elbow and began to steer her to the exit. I opened the door, and we stepped out onto the sidewalk.
The early evening sky was streaked with green and purple ribbons of bright, glowing light. The northern lights were flashing and strobing over Franklin. It was beautiful and terrifying. Mom muttered something under her breath at my side, but couldn't hear. The streetlights, had just started to turn on for sunset, flashed and remained off. All the stoplights around the town square shut off. Cars were strewn about the streets, people stood next to them, staring at their phones, and fear on everyone's face. Off to the south, a loud rushing of air could be heard. I stepped out onto the street to get a better look. A large commercial airliner jet was careening out of the sky directly at the center of town.
'Mom, get down,' I yelled, throwing her to the ground and covering her with my body. The explosion as the jet crashed into the northern edge of town was deafening. The earth shook, windows around us shattered and glass struck the asphalt and concrete. I remained lying over Mom until the roar of the blast faded. I stood and stared north. A giant ball of flame still rose into the sky, visible over the three-story buildings of the town.
'Oh my god, those people,' Mom gasped, 'we have to help.'
'They can't be helped,' I said. The text message and what was happening before my eyes started to fit together in my mind like a puzzle. Suddenly Buddha, was standing by me just a couple of feet away. He looked real, solid, his good eye catching mine.
'You have to get your Mom home, Stone,' Buddha said, 'this place is about to turn into a freaking madhouse, and you know it.' He was right, no matter how weird the conversation with my old mentor was.
'Come on, Mom, we can't stay here. We have to get home to the cellar and hold up,' I said. I climbed into the pickup and Mom got in the passenger seat. I hit the push start, but nothing happened. It was dead.
'We have to walk,' I said, 'Come on, Mom, it's only a few miles.'
I got out of the truck and helped Mom out of her side. She stared at the streaks of northern lights, waiting for another jet to plummet down on top of us. We walked the sidewalk to US 56, the highway that would take us out of town to the homestead. We turned and began the upward climb out of the shallow valley Franklin sat in the bottom of. We summited the last hill, longer and steeper than the first couple we had climbed.
'Stop, catch your breath Mom,' I said. She had done well. Mom was fit for a woman in her mid-fifties but the adrenaline was starting to wear off. She turned and looked back down the valley toward town and gasped. The whole northern half of town appeared to be on fire.
'The whole town is burning,' she said. Her voice reminded me of shell-shocked soldiers I had seen.
'Main Street and Garfield should keep the fire contained to those current blocks, I think,' I said. I hope it saves the grocery and hardware store. This isn't going to be wrapped up and back to normal anytime soon. At 2100 hours, we turned up the driveway and back to the house. We entered the front door and checked each room in the house. The power was off in every room. I lit a fire in the living room fireplace, and we sat on the couch. Winston hadn't calmed since we entered, continuously trying to climb into our laps for comfort. Mom eventually let him onto the couch, and he laid his head on her lap.
'Ollie, did you understand the message?' she asked, still looking into the fire.
'Just from some basic space weather information I hear in briefs,' I said. 'Space weather changes based on the Sun, what kind of radiation is coming off of, and hitting the Earth at any given time. The message said a flair, so the Sun must have blasted a huge amount of radiation at a given time, and it fried everything.'
'So when does it all come back on?' she asked.
'Hard to say, if it hit the whole country,' I paused,' then it doesn't.'
'God help us,' Mom breathed.
submitted by Proper_Tea8445 to WritersGroup [link] [comments]
Chapter 1
June 12, 2036, Franklin, North Carolina
I walked through the front yard to the front door. I dropped my duffel bags on the porch, stepped up to the front door, and knocked. Mom answered with surprise and worry on her face.
'Oliver? What are you doing here?' she hugged me as I stepped across the threshold. Winston, sniffed my legs wagging his tail in excitement.
'Long story, Mom, I’m out of the Army, for good,' I said. She nodded but didn’t ask any further questions. We moved into the kitchen and sat at the table to drink mugs of strong coffee.
'Do you want to tell me what happened?' she asked.
'Things went sideways.' I said. I realized I wasn't ready to talk about it just yet. 'I thought I could try and start up Dad’s welding business. I was always good at it, and I think I could drum up his old clients and stay busy with some work.'
'Well, it would be nice to have you around, honey. You’ll need to look through all his business paperwork and get caught up on all that.'
I nodded, 'We have time. I want to ensure I’m doing it right.'
'I understand, Ollie,' she said and smiled, 'let's go to the diner tonight, my treat.'
'I could go for some peach cobbler and ice cream. Sure, Mom sounds perfect,' I said, and we rose. I went to the guest room and changed out of the clothes I had spent the last 22 hours traveling in. I grabbed the truck keys, and Winston followed us down the hallway to the front door.
'Hold down the fort, Winston,' he wagged his tail in response.
'You want to drive?' Mom asked.
'I haven't had a chance to drive around Franklin in a long time,' I said, and Mom climbed into the passenger seat of the Tesla. Mom turned the radio to a classic rock station as I backed out of the driveway. I drove along the winding asphalt road to town.
'Hope it isn't too packed, it is Friday night,' Mom said.
'I'm sure we'll be ok; it's still early enough. I bet we beat the dinner rush.'
J's Diner was the only diner in town and could fill up quickly. I passed the large, green, metal sign welcoming drivers to Franklin, and approached the historic square of town. I made a couple of left turns to the diner's street parking and came to a stop. There were only two other cars.
'See, Mom, I think we'll get our cobbler pretty quick,' I said. I walked just behind her; the jingle of a bell announced our entrance.
'Just seat yourself; I'll be right with you,' a female voice called from behind a counter in the kitchen.
'Ok, thanks,' Mom answered.
We found a booth in the back corner of the small, red and white decorated restaurant. It had a 1950's theme and even a tiny 1957 Chevy hung from the ceiling. A waitress came around the front counter, her brown, hair in a messy bun and two menus in her hands.
'Here you are, Mrs. Banks,' she said, setting the menus before us. 'Can I get you two anything other than water?' She looked at my face and froze, 'Oliver, is that you?'
'Lacy?' I asked, now understanding why her voice sounded so familiar.
'I didn't know you were back in Franklin,' she said, smiling. I also noticed a large grin on Mom from her side of the table.
'Just got back, actually, a few hours ago.' I explained.
'Done seeing the world?' She said, her hands in the front of her apron, she sounded genuinely curious.
'You could say that,' I said. Lacy seemed unable to think of another question for me.
'Sorry, umm, just waters?' she shook her head.
'Waters are fine, sweety,' Mom answered, glancing between the two of us. Did Mom think this was actually going to work?
'No problem, I'll be right back,' and Lacy walked off.
'Don't be so weird, Mom,' I said, and she just shrugged her shoulders innocently. Our phones on the table between us began to flash and buzz loudly. I picked mine up and read the Alert Message, it read.
THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION HAS DETECTED AN IMMINENT ELECTRO-MAGNETIC SPACE THREAT TO PLANET EARTH. A SOLAR FLARE-GENERATED WALL OF SPACE WEATHER WILL IMPACT EARTH IN APPROXIMATELY 5 MINUTES. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. IF YOU ARE INDOORS, STAY INDOORS. IF YOU ARE OUTDOORS, SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER IN A BUILDING. REMAIN INDOORS, WELL AWAY FROM WINDOWS. IF YOU ARE DRIVING, PULL SAFELY TO THE SIDE OF THE ROAD AND SEEK SHELTER IN A BUILDING OR LAY ON THE FLOOR. WE WILL ANNOUNCE WHEN THE THREAT HAS ENDED. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION MEASURES.
'What the hell does that mean?' Mom asked, jerked her head up to look at me, panic creeping into her features.
'The message said five minutes, assuming there was a good flash to bang on the message being created and sent out,' I said.
Suddenly, our phones’ screens flashed white and winked out, going black. The diner's lights began to flicker on and off until they dimmed too.
'We have to get out of here, Mom,' I said, sliding out of the booth.
'Ollie, what's happening?' she asked, following me.
'We have to get home, now,' I grabbed her elbow and began to steer her to the exit. I opened the door, and we stepped out onto the sidewalk.
The early evening sky was streaked with green and purple ribbons of bright, glowing light. The northern lights were flashing and strobing over Franklin. It was beautiful and terrifying. Mom muttered something under her breath at my side, but couldn't hear. The streetlights, had just started to turn on for sunset, flashed and remained off. All the stoplights around the town square shut off. Cars were strewn about the streets, people stood next to them, staring at their phones, and fear on everyone's face. Off to the south, a loud rushing of air could be heard. I stepped out onto the street to get a better look. A large commercial airliner jet was careening out of the sky directly at the center of town.
'Mom, get down,' I yelled, throwing her to the ground and covering her with my body. The explosion as the jet crashed into the northern edge of town was deafening. The earth shook, windows around us shattered and glass struck the asphalt and concrete. I remained lying over Mom until the roar of the blast faded. I stood and stared north. A giant ball of flame still rose into the sky, visible over the three-story buildings of the town.
'Oh my god, those people,' Mom gasped, 'we have to help.'
'They can't be helped,' I said. The text message and what was happening before my eyes started to fit together in my mind like a puzzle. Suddenly Buddha, was standing by me just a couple of feet away. He looked real, solid, his good eye catching mine.
'You have to get your Mom home, Stone,' Buddha said, 'this place is about to turn into a freaking madhouse, and you know it.' He was right, no matter how weird the conversation with my old mentor was.
'Come on, Mom, we can't stay here. We have to get home to the cellar and hold up,' I said. I climbed into the pickup and Mom got in the passenger seat. I hit the push start, but nothing happened. It was dead.
'We have to walk,' I said, 'Come on, Mom, it's only a few miles.'
I got out of the truck and helped Mom out of her side. She stared at the streaks of northern lights, waiting for another jet to plummet down on top of us. We walked the sidewalk to US 56, the highway that would take us out of town to the homestead. We turned and began the upward climb out of the shallow valley Franklin sat in the bottom of. We summited the last hill, longer and steeper than the first couple we had climbed.
'Stop, catch your breath Mom,' I said. She had done well. Mom was fit for a woman in her mid-fifties but the adrenaline was starting to wear off. She turned and looked back down the valley toward town and gasped. The whole northern half of town appeared to be on fire.
'The whole town is burning,' she said. Her voice reminded me of shell-shocked soldiers I had seen.
'Main Street and Garfield should keep the fire contained to those current blocks, I think,' I said. I hope it saves the grocery and hardware store. This isn't going to be wrapped up and back to normal anytime soon. At 2100 hours, we turned up the driveway and back to the house. We entered the front door and checked each room in the house. The power was off in every room. I lit a fire in the living room fireplace, and we sat on the couch. Winston hadn't calmed since we entered, continuously trying to climb into our laps for comfort. Mom eventually let him onto the couch, and he laid his head on her lap.
'Ollie, did you understand the message?' she asked, still looking into the fire.
'Just from some basic space weather information I hear in briefs,' I said. 'Space weather changes based on the Sun, what kind of radiation is coming off of, and hitting the Earth at any given time. The message said a flair, so the Sun must have blasted a huge amount of radiation at a given time, and it fried everything.'
'So when does it all come back on?' she asked.
'Hard to say, if it hit the whole country,' I paused,' then it doesn't.'
'God help us,' Mom breathed.
2023.06.01 22:28 TestOk4269 Is there a preferred Block-based analogy to Widgets/Sidbears?
For some background, I'm using a Classic/Hybrid theme. It's mostly classic but supports editing content in the Block Editor.
Widgets and Sidebars do a few things well:
submitted by TestOk4269 to Wordpress [link] [comments]
Widgets and Sidebars do a few things well:
- Centralized editing of distributed content
- Easy to restrict editing to specific roles so regular editors can't screw up multiple pages from one spot
- Set up multiple sidebars for different uses, potentially different sidebars for different groups of pages for different areas of a site.
2023.06.01 22:25 coolwali I platinummed EVERY Batman Arkham game on PS VITA
Hello everyone. I recently platinummed every Batman Arkham Game on the PSVITA and would like to talk about the experience.
Lets start with the first Arkham game released on VITA, 2013's Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate. A sort of sister game to Arkham Origins. Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate (which I'm just going to call BAOB for short) was initially released for the 3DS and VITA and has been ported to other PS4, XB1 and PC. Unlike other Arkham games, BAOB is a 2.5 side scrolling Metroidvania-type game. It has a sorta similar freeflow combat system and predator sections comparable to the console games. The premise of the game is that a few months after the events of Arkham Origins, a riot breaks out at Blackgate penitentiary. With Joker, Black Mask and Penguin taking control of different sections of the prison. Batman has to work with Catwoman (her first canonical appearance in the ArkhamVerse) and explore different sections of the prison to contain the situation.
The game really takes advantage of its metroidvania premise. Batman enters Blackgate with just the baterang and a basic Cryptographic Sequencer that can only hack the most basic looks. You must then explore the rest of the prison, going in between areas to collect the rest of Batman's gadgets (it's a little weird why Batman's gear is in various WayneTech crates scattered randomly all over the place but eh, you kinda need that for a Metroidvania) to overcome obstacles.
Batman's final goal is to reach the Arkham Wing of the prison. To this, he needs to take down the 3 main bosses, Joker, Black Mask and Penguin to gain access as Joker has the administration codes and has taken control of the Admin building. Black Mask has shut off the power to the Arkham Wing (and his tampering of the generators risks blowing up the place) and has taken control of the Industrial Section of Blackgate. Penguin has taken control of the Cell Blocks and is directly guarding the door to the Arkham Wing.
The main "gimmick" here is that you can tackle these bosses in any order you want. And the game changes depending on which order you choose. Like, the entire final sequence of the game is entirely different depending on which boss you did last. Doing Joker last has him rig these 5 gas filled presents you must disarm. And these presents are placed all over Blackgate. Doing Penguin last changes the ending sequence to needing to rescue 5 hostages guarded by elite minigun enemies that need to be taken out by the Batclaw. These hostages are in completely different areas to Joker's presents. Doing Black Mask last has the ending sequence consist of needing to get to 5 different junction boxes, "activating them", then racing to find the 3 panels they connect to nearby in a short amount of time to hit them with the explosive gel (I personally found this to be the most fun of the 3 ending sequences). These junction boxes are in different areas to the presents and hostages. The final cutscene is also different.
In addition, there are also more minor changes depending on your order. For example, saving Penguin for last has a mini-segment where when you are chasing him, he is able to lock Batman in a room and disperse some poison gas since he had more time to prepare traps for Batman as Batman was busy taking the other bosses down first.
The gameplay is also different but not in the way you expect. Like, the actual fights don't change depending on which order you do things in. Penguin will fight you the same way regardless of if he's the first or final boss you pick. But how you can fight him is different depending on which gadgets you picked up and when you choose to fight them.
Like, during my first playthrough of the game, I went after Penguin first and I found his boss fight extremely difficult. He packs these minigun wielding henchmen that can melt you if they see you. You cannot brute force or attack them like you can with other armed enemies. And there are no hiding spots so losing these alerted enemies is difficult. The only way to eliminate these enemies is to use the Batclaw on them but that takes a few seconds and alerts every enemy to you. If you get shot at while doing this, it deals heavy damage and frees the enemy. He also sends these drones out after you which cannot be dealt with. Suffice it to say, I died a lot. I barely squeaked through this fight.
On my second playthrough, I did Penguin second. As a result of doing Joker first and a good chunk of Black Mask's section, I had more armour and gadgets like the Shock Baterang and Explosive Gel Launcher which made Penguin's fight more manageable. You can use the Shock Baterang and Explosive Gel to destroy the drones and draw enemies to them. The added armour also helped me take a few more shots.
The most extreme example of this is with the Solomon Grundy Boss Fight you get as you are exploring Black Mask's sections. Normally, in this boss fight, Grundy charges Batman. You have to use the explosive gel launcher (that you get from Black Mask's section) to blow up these vents as Grundy charges through them which blinds him, and then blow up these junction boxes as the stunned Grundy goes underneath them. This shocks Grundy and damages him. He then destroys that Junction Box. You need to repeat this 2 more times with different junction boxes. But, if you have the Shock Batering (which you get from doing a good chunk of Joker's section first), you can just shock the water in front of Grundy as soon as the fight starts and beat him up to instantly KO him. So instead of a 3 phase fight where you need to time 2 different explosive gel uses and dodge a charging Grundy 3 times, it's a 1 phase fight where you just throw a Shock Batering and be done with an entire boss fight early. The game even gives you a trophy for it "Bad Case of the Mondays - Defeat Grundy using the Shock Batarang and water" (also, sidenote but Batman seems to be familiar with Grundy here. I thought this was supposed to be the first time Batman and Grundy met?).
Speaking of which, lets talk about what it takes to platinum this game. If you've read my prior platinum reviews, you'll notice I usually start by describing what the trophies are, how I got them and then a review of the game itself. I chose to instead do a summary of the game, then the trophies, then a review because this game is really confusing to platinum. Being a VITA game released in 2013 means there isn't as much info or resources on some aspects of the game or its trophies.
The game has 31 trophies. 16 of which are missable and requires at least 2.9 playthroughs to get all the trophies.
Part of this is due to Metroidvania nature of the game. Depending on which order you play the game, you can miss sections that house collectibles (for example, if you do Black Mask last, destroying the Junction Boxes takes you to an area of the Cell Blocks you have to no reason to really go to. Which houses 2 of Penguin's collectibles. Some armour and gadget upgrades can no longer be collected if you don't collect them before completing a playthrough), or not have the means to complete a challenge or once you complete it normally, it is no longer present to reuse. Such as the aforementioned Grundy trophy. Another example is the trophy "Unnecessary Roughness - Get a 50 hit combo" and " LEAGUE OF SHADOWS - Get a 100 hit combo". That trophy can only be gotten in one specific place in Joker's section as there is nowhere else in the game with enough armoured enemies for you to beat up on to get close to 100. And once you complete this fight, the enemies don't respawn. There are no challenge rooms or any equivalent.
I even tried doing this on other combat encounters and the most I was able to get was 83 even after playing perfectly and farming for high hits. In that one Joker section, I managed to get 123 and that was after multiple attempts. Though, I've read from others on other sites that this is RNG and results aren't consistent.
The collectibles were confusing to get. Both in collecting them and what to do for the trophies. BAOB has quite a few different collectibles. The first are Detective Cases. These shed light on the lore and background of the story and are really cool in that regard. I loved reading them and trying figure out the mystery before it was solved. However, they can be extremely annoying to find. Each Case requires you find between 2-6 corresponding clues scattered all over the game. These clues can be anything from a large broken door to a tiny USB flash drive to generic rubble. Unlike other Arkham games, Detective Vision doesn't automatically highlight items of interest for you. Instead you must stop and manually scan an area by dragging your finger across the touch screen to move a cursor. If the cursor lands on an item of interest, it will be green. Then it scans the item which takes about a second. It then becomes yellow in Detective Vision. If it's a Clue, the game will inform you you've found a Clue and which Detective Case it belongs to.
I love the idea of these Detective Cases and Clues, but the way the game handles them is pretty annoying. Like I said, the game doesn't highlight them beforehand and they can be literally anything. Often they are innocuous things that don't really stand out. Especially given how cluttered environments can be. It can be really hard to tell if a particular area even has a clue never mind what it even is. Especially as there often isn't much consistency in what clues can or can't be. Like, in a room filled with say, paper, computer monitors, rubble on the ground, lights etc any of these can be clues. In fact, all of the items I have listed are clues in other rooms. On top of that, some clues cannot be scanned unless Batman is in the correct position even though the perspective doesn't reflect that and you can see the collectible. For example, one of the clues, a USB Flash Drive, requires Batman to be next to it as there is a table blocking his view to the USB Flash Drive even though the player can see the USB and hover over it. And some Clues don't require this. One Clue was scanning this white cloth which was in the cross section of a wall while Batman was in a vent and couldn't even "see" from his perspective. But you could scan it from seemingly anywhere.
There is some signposting when the player might have found an area that houses a Clue. If the player finds a secret area like a vent that leads to a random cluttered room with nothing to interact with, that usually houses a Clue. But I feel that still highlights an issue, if aren't using a guide, you wouldn't know where or even if a Clue is in an area. And if it is, if you can even scan it or need to do something first. The end result is that it really slows the pace looking for Clues. The game doesn't have the equivalent of Riddler Maps that give you an accurate idea of what you're looking for and where (I can't believe this game made me miss Riddler trophies lol).
Detective Cases are also required for multiple trophies and carry over between NG+ runs. Meaning if you find a Clue in one playthrough, you do not need to re-scan it in a NG+ run. So if you can get all the Detective Cases early, you're set for the rest of the playthroughs. There are 2 trophies related to Detective Cases, "World's Greatest Detective - Complete all detective cases" which you can do on first playthrough (I recommend it as you're then set), and "The Collector - Find all detective cases and have all pickups and upgrades" which requires you have all the Detective Cases but cannot be achieved until the very end of your final playthrough.
The second set of collectibles are "Gear, Armour, Gadget and Gauntlet Upgrades". These include stuff like armour pieces (4 of which gives you more health which can be really helpful), Rush upgrades (Rush is a mechanic where if you have full health when you attack enemies, you do extra damage. I personally never saw much use in it) and Gauntlet Upgrades (increases the base damage of your attacks. But I personally never felt like they were that powerful). Gadgets also get upgrades. Such as the Batering being upgraded to the Shock Baterings or the Explosive Gel Launcher getting upgraded to the Explosive Glue Gel Launcher. You will find most of the gadget upgrades as part of the main story as they unlock more tools to explore the map. Wheras only one gadget upgrade (the proximity upgrade for the Gel Launcher) and all the Armour, Gear and Gauntlet ones are entirely optional and missable.
I like the idea of these upgrades. They are typical in Metroidvanias. But they aren't very useful in BAOB. Aside from armour which can help you in your first playthrough (but can be potentially redundant if you get a specific suit), Rush and Gauntlet don't make much of an impact. They don't even make bosses easier since you deal with them in preset ways anyway. The gadget upgrades are mostly mandatory anyway. But unlike Detective Cases, they appear as these black boxes/crates and if you scan one with Detective Vision, the rest will be highlighted in Detective Vision as well. So at least you "know" what they are when you see them.
These collectibles do not carry in between NG+ runs. So if you find all the upgrades in one playthrough, they will be present for another and you can collect them again to get the same upgrades as before. There are individual trophies for getting all the armour, gadget and gauntlet upgrades which you can get in any playthrough. However, you will need to re-collect them all for your final playthrough in order to get the Collector Trophy.
I really dislike this aspect. Aside from the fact you have to re-collect them to get the Collector trophy, even just for a casual NG+ run, one of the coolest aspect of a NG+ in a playthrough of any game is that you're powered up from the upgrades you got in prior run. In the other Arkham games, when you do a NG+ run, you have all the upgrades and most of the collectibles from your last playthrough (these games do compensate by taking away counter indicators). Which means in the case of BAOB, it's not really that much of a NG+ in terms of gameplay (ignoring the suits that is). I can understand not giving the player all the gadgets and their upgrades since that blocks progression. But I feel in the case of BAOB, you can already get most of the gadgets and their upgrades before you take on any of the big 3 bosses. Aside from the Cryptographic Sequencer upgrades, I genuinely feel you can give the player all the other gadgets and upgrades from the start of the game and it wouldn't break the game.
The third set of Collectibles are what I call "Boss Collectibles". These consist of 20 Joker Teeth (found in the Administration Building), 20 Penguin Birdcages (found in the Cell Blocks) and 20 Black Masks (found in the Industrial Building). You break them by throwing a Baterang at them. Though some Joker teeth and Penguin Birdcages will explode if you get close them since they are designed to be traps. That still counts as breaking them.
These Collectibles do not carry over in between NG+ Runs. So if you destroy 15 Joker Teeth in a playthrough, in NG+ it will act like you haven't destroyed any Joker Teeth. So all 20 are back in the world. There are individual trophies for getting each set of these collectibles but no trophy for getting them in conjunction with other trophies. The Collector Trophy doesn't require you get these collectibles as well (which none of the VITA guides I looked at mentioned. I had to go to Xbox Achievement forums to find that out). Meaning if you get all of these collectibles in a playthrough and get their corresponding trophies, then in NG+ run, they will still show up but you don't have to collect them again.
I'm not complaining that I don't have to re-collect these. But I ask why they respawn if they aren't counted for additional trophies? Surely it would be better if they stayed gone for NG+? My only guess would be that they indicate to a player they haven't fully explored an area yet?
Also, the trophy for the 20 Joker Teeth and 20 Penguin Birdcages are Silver. But why is the trophy for the 20 Black Masks Bronze? This is an insult to Black Mask! The Arkham Games really do Black Mask dirty. In Origins, he gets ousted as the main villain by Joker and in BAOB, he doesn't even get the same tier of trophy as the other 2 main bosses' collectibles.
The fourth set of collectibles are Suit Pieces. There are 5 suits you can get in BAOB. Only 3 of which are needed for any trophies. You have the standard Arkham Origins suit you start with (the game's description says it provides "minimal ballistic protection and offensive capabilities". Which is odd given how bulky and armoured it is. Like, it looks more powerful and armoured than all the other suits in the game lol). It offers no additional bonuses. You have the Beware the Batman suit from the CGI Animated show Beware The Batman (I remember watching a few episodes when I first came out. I remember liking it). It isn't "Batman wearing a suit inspired by that suit", it's that 3D model of Batman in the game. His proportions look whack. Like his chest is comically large since its not "realistic" like the other models in BOAB. If you've been the Animated Batman Suit in Arkham City, it's like that. I do like this skin. It's really cool and it offers a bonus in that reduces damage from firearms by 50% (I guess that animated chest is more powerful than Arkham Origin Batman's armour). You can only unlock this suit if you have played Arkham Origins on PS3. Fortunately, even if you haven't, it's not required for any trophies. The suits that are required for trophies are the Red Son Batsuit (which increases health regeneration by 50%), the New 52 Suit (increases damage by 25%), One Million Suit (decreases all damage taken by 25%) and the Darkest Night/Zombie suit (makes Batman invulnerable to all damage).
Apparently, on the remaster for PS4, XB1 and PC, there are more suits like the The Dark Knight Returns suit which makes you invulnerable and increases damage by 25%. But I won't be talking about that.
To unlock a suit for the trophies, you need to find the 5 pieces of the suit scattered over the game. The suits and all their pieces you've found carry over into NG+. So if you've found all the pieces for the Darkest Night suit and 4/5 pieces for the Red Son Suit, on your NG+, you will have access to the Darkest Knight suit and have 4/5 pieces for the Red Son Suit.
There is one catch with the suits, you cannot collect all the pieces in one playthrough. Remember earlier when I said the game has different ending sequences depending on which boss you fight last? This sequence also gives you a different final piece for one of the batsuits. Like, if you fight Joker last and do the present sequence, the final present contains the final piece of the Red Son Batsuit. If you do Penguin last, the final hostage contains the final piece of the New 52 Suit. And same for Black Mask and the 1 million suit. Meaning that in order to get all the suits, you need to NG+ this game twice so you can get the final pieces (and also the trophy for completing each of the sequences).
By the way, it is possible to accidentally miss picking up the final piece here. Requiring you to NG+ the whole game again and fight the same boss again last to get the piece again. So make sure you don't miss it.
But, any benefits these suits would give you is rendered moot by the Zombie suit. This is the only suit whose 5 pieces don't depend on how you play the game so you can get it no matter the playthrough. And it breaks the game. You are invulnerable to any damage. Including stuff like Joker gas so combat is a joke. The only place where you can still die is in Black Mask's boss fight as, if he shoots you, you die automatically for some reason. But that's not really a problem since you don't really fight him directly anyway. Every other combat encounter is trivial now. The only "downside" is that you are invulnerable but not invincible. Meaning enemies can still hit you which can stagger and stun Batman. This can interrupt any combos or moves he was doing. But that can be dealt with easily since you don't lose any health anymore.
Putting all this together, if you want to platinum this game (or more likely, the PS4/XB1/PC version since you aren't going to be playing this on the VITA lol), here's my "optimal" plan.
Playthrough 1: Try doing as much as you can of the Administration/Joker section first. This also gets you the Shock Baterang and Line Launcher gadgets. And the chance to try for the 100 hit combo trophy. Hopefully it's more doable if you go for it early and don't have any damage upgrades. Spam that stun beatdown move.
Once you rescue the Warden, go the Industrial Area and play through enough of Black Mask's section until you get the Explosive Gel Launcher.
At this point you are set to go after Joker or Penguin as you have all the tools you need to get to them (as you can get the remaining tools to get to them like the Batclaw and Tightrope upgrades are found along the way to the boss). The Shock Batering will make quick work of Grundy and make Penguin's boss fight easier.
I would recommend playing more of Black Mask's section until you get the green upgrade for the Cryptographer Sequencer as that can save you a second run all the way back to get the Glue upgrade but you can do this later if you want. It is a little confusing anyway if you haven't played the game before. The game eventually marks on the map where you have to go if you play "naturally".
Lets say you want to do Joker last for this playthrough and Penguin first. Head to the Cell Blocks and complete it as much as you can until Penguin hides in the Arkham Wing and Catwoman tells you that you can use the Lighthouse to get to Penguin. Before you leave the Cell Blocks to get to the Lighthouse, if you have the Green codes, you can get the Glue Gel upgrade and save yourself a trip. It is quite out of the way so if you're unsure where to go, you can ignore this and go straight to the Lighthouse and through it to get to Penguin.
Once Penguin is down, you can return to the Industrial Building and continue pursuing Black Mask. If you haven't gotten the Glue Upgrade yet in the Cell Blocks, the game marks for you where it is on your map. After you get it, you can go after Black Mask and take him down. Then backtrack to where Joker's section starts in Industrial. Follow it until you beat Joker.
You can then enter the Arkham Wing. Enter it, make sure you nab the Zombie Suit Piece located here. Then do Joker's Present Ending Sequence, making sure to grab the final Red Son Suit piece. Then, before you go to the Lighthouse for the final confrontation with Catwoman, try scouring the 3 main areas and get the collectibles of interest. For a first playthrough, I advise getting all the Detective Cases, Joker Teeth, Penguin Birdcages, Black Masks and all remaining suit pieces. That way, you don't have to worry about them again. You can ignore any optional armour, gauntlet and Rush upgrades for now. I recommend collectibles guides online.
Once you beat Catwoman, start a NG+ on the same save file you just beat the game with.
Playthrough 2: Lets say you want to beat Black Mask last for this one.
Put on the zombie suit for the invincibility.
Repeat what I said earlier about Administration first, then Industrial and get the Explosive Gel (and Green Codes early if you want). You can then backtrack and go after Joker since he's in the same building anyway. Then go to the Cell Blocks and go after Penguin. You can then get the Glue Gel upgrade along the way. Leaving you set for Black Mask. Make sure to grab his suit piece. Complete the story and do another NG+ on that save file.
Playthrough 3: Now lets say you want to do Penguin last.
Same deal. Admin first. Then industrial. Only now, you have to get the Green Codes early. You can go after Joker now. Then go to the Cell Blocks. You can choose to play some of Penguin's section until he flees to the Arkham Wing and then get the Glue Gel upgrade here if you want. But you have to get the Glue Gel Upgrade here to be able to go after Black Mask.
Once you do that, and then go after and take down Penguin and then get his suit piece. You are now free to go after any remaining upgrade collectibles one final time. Then you're done. No need to beat the game for the 3rd time.
So yeah, BOAB isn't difficult to platinum once you know what to do but it is confusing to even know what you have to do even if you have a guide at times.
As for the game itself, my feelings on it are complicated. If you asked me what I thought of the game during and even after my first playthrough, I'd tell you I really disliked the game. Maybe even that I hated the game. Because BOAB doesn't make a good first impression.
Let start with the combat. On the surface, it looks similar to typical Arkham combat. You do strikes, can bounce between enemies, counter attacks, cape stun, jump over enemies and ground takedown. Only on a 2D plane. Enemies can move a bit "up and down" on that plane but Batman will usually adjust his position as well to compensate. The issue is the flow and responsiveness. Like, in the main Arkham games, when you're fighting a group of enemies and there is a knife or armoured enemy coming at you and you need to respond, you can typically either try cape stunning them early or jumping ovearound them to evade them. If you do this, Batman will typically "lunge" at the enemy which closes the distance and keeps the flow going. If you have to cape stun an enemy, the game will help you out by prioritizing the most dangerous enemy and even cape stunning multiple enemies if your cape stun gets them as well. This is a bit forgiving, sure, but it ensures the controls are responsive and the player's intentions are read.
BAOB messes this up royally. Moves like the cape stun and counter have no "lunge" nor can they work on multiple enemies at once. So if you do a cape stun, Batman will do it right in front of him. If there isn't an enemy exactly right in front of him, the attack will whiff and you will take a lot of damage. If an enemy is about to attack you and you try responding but there is another enemy close by or next to him, Batman may target that one instead and you will take a lot of damage. Even the dodge/evade move is whack and arguably even less responsive. You are supposed to be able to jump over enemies that are right in front of you by double tapping X but there were times I mashed it and it wouldn't work (and other times it did). And other times when it did register, Batman would do a normal roll which is useless and would result in taking damage. The end result is a combat system that works against the muscle memory learned from every other Arkham game and is still less fun because of how unresponsive it is.
The game has Predator Stealth Sections but they aren't as fun as the main versions. In part because of the limited gadgets and moves. But also partly to the design. Armed enemies do crazy amounts of damage, have great eyesight and can track you much further. Many environments often aren't even big enough or offer enough ways to lose enemies' attention. Resulting in a much slower "trial and error" approach as you find the one set of moves and silent takedowns that work. Even standard moves and approaches in other Arkham games aren't as helpful here. For example, snaring enemies onto gargoyles/vantage points is useless because it attracts too much attention and enemies will see you moving away after doing it.
The other Arkham games were more fun here because the areas were designed with multiple routes so there were multiple options and ways to both take out enemies and escape when you made a mistake. On top of that, enemies didn't have the best eyesight and would even be startled for a few seconds if they saw you. Giving you time to respond by trying to take them out or get away or use smoke bombs etc.
To BAOB's credit, there are some good ideas here. For example, some Predator Sections have chandeliers you can hit with a baterang to make it fall and KO enemies. Some have bells you can hit with a batering to draw enemies attention. But the game never expands on these ideas or fleshes them out so Predator Segments never feel great to play. So I don't believe it's a flaw of the perspective and hardware. I truly believe it was possible for BAOB to have pretty fun and good Predator Segments (hell, Mark of the Ninja shows you can do it in even stricter 2D).
The pacing of the game is also whack. Like I said earlier, Detective Vision doesn't automatically highlight stuff so you have to stop and manually scan stuff. But this also extends to objects you can interact with the environment. Like, if there's a wall you can blow up with the explosive gel to progress, you can't put explosive gel on it until you scan it first. Even if you know that wall is there, you can't target it with the Explosive Gel Launcher until it is scanned. Same for debris or switches you can interact with using the Batering and Batclaw. On top of that, many of these interactibles don't look distinct. Like, in Batman Arkham Asylum, walls you can use the explosive gel on have a crumbled look you can recognize even without Detective Vision. But not so in BAOB where Explosive Gel walls and regular walls look the same. The end result is that it makes a first playthrough extremely stop and go which prevents a good flow going. You're always stopping and looking for things to scan. And once you do, waiting an extra second for it to complete scanning. And doing this hundreds of times for around 8 hours? It really drags the experience down. The experience would be a lot better if the scan was an optional tool beginners could rely on if they were stuck or confused. While if you were more experienced, you could just play normally and use gadgets directly without needing to scan first. And also if the scan was instantaneous.
With all these aspects, I don't blame anyone for dropping this game or disliking it.
However, when I was doing my second playthrough on NG+ for the trophies, something weird happened. I believe it's called Stockholm Syndrome because I was genuinely enjoying myself. I was surprised. Why am I enjoying myself?
I think it's because at that point, I was so used to the game's flaws that I could bypass them and, as a result, see its positives?
Like, the combat still has its issues, but by then, I knew how to position myself beforehand so knife, armoured and baton enemies were less of an issue so I could focus on bouncing between enemies with strikes and counters. Predator Segments were still an issue but I knew from prior trial and errors where to position myself and take out enemies. Navigation was no longer an issue since I already knew where everything was and didn't need to find any collectibles. So I could focus on using my knowledge of the game to speedrun. And that was fun. It was fun charting my own path to play the game in a way as to get all the gadgets and upgrades and hit the bosses in the desired order. And I could appreciate how truly open ended the game was and how it rewarded me for my knowledge by letting me save time by getting gadgets in fewer trips and easily stomping bosses. I truly felt like I was the master here.
The closest analogue would be like a Hitman level where you know exactly where everything is so you just go and get the things and be an absolute master.
Even the story was more interesting. I could read the Detective Cases and see all the background and it's really well thought out. Stuff like how the main bosses each orchestrated their own breakouts and took control or other DC characters like Toy Man were involved.
Of course, the main difference here with something like Hitman, or even other Metroidvanias is that the experience is fun on the first playthrough and that the mechanics are solid enough that you don't need to "get used to the flaws" to have fun. Like, it's nice that I eventually came to enjoy and appreciate BAOB, but the experience would have been better if the combat flowed better, if Predator Sections were more open ended, if the game didn't require you to scan everything. Then even a first playthrough would be more fun and more people would see the game's more unique aspects.
Playing BAOB made me wish for a modern remake of this game. One with those improved combat/stealth etc but also more open ended design.
Imagine a 3D version of this game. Like, Batman Arkham Asylum but a complete Metroidvania where you can explore different parts of the Asylum, pick up gadgets in different orders and boss fights and sequences would be different depending on when you do them. Basically, BAOB but on steroids.
In closing, BAOB is arguably the worst Arkham game. Its execution of many of the gameplay features of its console counterparts is often lacking. But it's arguably the most unique Arkham game for how truly open ended it is and how cool it is as a Metroidvania. I wish this game had more time and resources during development because it could have been one of the best games in this series and on the VITA.
This is probably going to be my last platinum for a while. I might do Lego Batman 2 VITA at some point in the future. I'm currently playing Rainbow 6 Siege and it's quite fun. Don't have any plans to write about it though.
See you all in 2024.
submitted by coolwali to patientgamers [link] [comments]
Lets start with the first Arkham game released on VITA, 2013's Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate. A sort of sister game to Arkham Origins. Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate (which I'm just going to call BAOB for short) was initially released for the 3DS and VITA and has been ported to other PS4, XB1 and PC. Unlike other Arkham games, BAOB is a 2.5 side scrolling Metroidvania-type game. It has a sorta similar freeflow combat system and predator sections comparable to the console games. The premise of the game is that a few months after the events of Arkham Origins, a riot breaks out at Blackgate penitentiary. With Joker, Black Mask and Penguin taking control of different sections of the prison. Batman has to work with Catwoman (her first canonical appearance in the ArkhamVerse) and explore different sections of the prison to contain the situation.
The game really takes advantage of its metroidvania premise. Batman enters Blackgate with just the baterang and a basic Cryptographic Sequencer that can only hack the most basic looks. You must then explore the rest of the prison, going in between areas to collect the rest of Batman's gadgets (it's a little weird why Batman's gear is in various WayneTech crates scattered randomly all over the place but eh, you kinda need that for a Metroidvania) to overcome obstacles.
Batman's final goal is to reach the Arkham Wing of the prison. To this, he needs to take down the 3 main bosses, Joker, Black Mask and Penguin to gain access as Joker has the administration codes and has taken control of the Admin building. Black Mask has shut off the power to the Arkham Wing (and his tampering of the generators risks blowing up the place) and has taken control of the Industrial Section of Blackgate. Penguin has taken control of the Cell Blocks and is directly guarding the door to the Arkham Wing.
The main "gimmick" here is that you can tackle these bosses in any order you want. And the game changes depending on which order you choose. Like, the entire final sequence of the game is entirely different depending on which boss you did last. Doing Joker last has him rig these 5 gas filled presents you must disarm. And these presents are placed all over Blackgate. Doing Penguin last changes the ending sequence to needing to rescue 5 hostages guarded by elite minigun enemies that need to be taken out by the Batclaw. These hostages are in completely different areas to Joker's presents. Doing Black Mask last has the ending sequence consist of needing to get to 5 different junction boxes, "activating them", then racing to find the 3 panels they connect to nearby in a short amount of time to hit them with the explosive gel (I personally found this to be the most fun of the 3 ending sequences). These junction boxes are in different areas to the presents and hostages. The final cutscene is also different.
In addition, there are also more minor changes depending on your order. For example, saving Penguin for last has a mini-segment where when you are chasing him, he is able to lock Batman in a room and disperse some poison gas since he had more time to prepare traps for Batman as Batman was busy taking the other bosses down first.
The gameplay is also different but not in the way you expect. Like, the actual fights don't change depending on which order you do things in. Penguin will fight you the same way regardless of if he's the first or final boss you pick. But how you can fight him is different depending on which gadgets you picked up and when you choose to fight them.
Like, during my first playthrough of the game, I went after Penguin first and I found his boss fight extremely difficult. He packs these minigun wielding henchmen that can melt you if they see you. You cannot brute force or attack them like you can with other armed enemies. And there are no hiding spots so losing these alerted enemies is difficult. The only way to eliminate these enemies is to use the Batclaw on them but that takes a few seconds and alerts every enemy to you. If you get shot at while doing this, it deals heavy damage and frees the enemy. He also sends these drones out after you which cannot be dealt with. Suffice it to say, I died a lot. I barely squeaked through this fight.
On my second playthrough, I did Penguin second. As a result of doing Joker first and a good chunk of Black Mask's section, I had more armour and gadgets like the Shock Baterang and Explosive Gel Launcher which made Penguin's fight more manageable. You can use the Shock Baterang and Explosive Gel to destroy the drones and draw enemies to them. The added armour also helped me take a few more shots.
The most extreme example of this is with the Solomon Grundy Boss Fight you get as you are exploring Black Mask's sections. Normally, in this boss fight, Grundy charges Batman. You have to use the explosive gel launcher (that you get from Black Mask's section) to blow up these vents as Grundy charges through them which blinds him, and then blow up these junction boxes as the stunned Grundy goes underneath them. This shocks Grundy and damages him. He then destroys that Junction Box. You need to repeat this 2 more times with different junction boxes. But, if you have the Shock Batering (which you get from doing a good chunk of Joker's section first), you can just shock the water in front of Grundy as soon as the fight starts and beat him up to instantly KO him. So instead of a 3 phase fight where you need to time 2 different explosive gel uses and dodge a charging Grundy 3 times, it's a 1 phase fight where you just throw a Shock Batering and be done with an entire boss fight early. The game even gives you a trophy for it "Bad Case of the Mondays - Defeat Grundy using the Shock Batarang and water" (also, sidenote but Batman seems to be familiar with Grundy here. I thought this was supposed to be the first time Batman and Grundy met?).
Speaking of which, lets talk about what it takes to platinum this game. If you've read my prior platinum reviews, you'll notice I usually start by describing what the trophies are, how I got them and then a review of the game itself. I chose to instead do a summary of the game, then the trophies, then a review because this game is really confusing to platinum. Being a VITA game released in 2013 means there isn't as much info or resources on some aspects of the game or its trophies.
The game has 31 trophies. 16 of which are missable and requires at least 2.9 playthroughs to get all the trophies.
Part of this is due to Metroidvania nature of the game. Depending on which order you play the game, you can miss sections that house collectibles (for example, if you do Black Mask last, destroying the Junction Boxes takes you to an area of the Cell Blocks you have to no reason to really go to. Which houses 2 of Penguin's collectibles. Some armour and gadget upgrades can no longer be collected if you don't collect them before completing a playthrough), or not have the means to complete a challenge or once you complete it normally, it is no longer present to reuse. Such as the aforementioned Grundy trophy. Another example is the trophy "Unnecessary Roughness - Get a 50 hit combo" and " LEAGUE OF SHADOWS - Get a 100 hit combo". That trophy can only be gotten in one specific place in Joker's section as there is nowhere else in the game with enough armoured enemies for you to beat up on to get close to 100. And once you complete this fight, the enemies don't respawn. There are no challenge rooms or any equivalent.
I even tried doing this on other combat encounters and the most I was able to get was 83 even after playing perfectly and farming for high hits. In that one Joker section, I managed to get 123 and that was after multiple attempts. Though, I've read from others on other sites that this is RNG and results aren't consistent.
The collectibles were confusing to get. Both in collecting them and what to do for the trophies. BAOB has quite a few different collectibles. The first are Detective Cases. These shed light on the lore and background of the story and are really cool in that regard. I loved reading them and trying figure out the mystery before it was solved. However, they can be extremely annoying to find. Each Case requires you find between 2-6 corresponding clues scattered all over the game. These clues can be anything from a large broken door to a tiny USB flash drive to generic rubble. Unlike other Arkham games, Detective Vision doesn't automatically highlight items of interest for you. Instead you must stop and manually scan an area by dragging your finger across the touch screen to move a cursor. If the cursor lands on an item of interest, it will be green. Then it scans the item which takes about a second. It then becomes yellow in Detective Vision. If it's a Clue, the game will inform you you've found a Clue and which Detective Case it belongs to.
I love the idea of these Detective Cases and Clues, but the way the game handles them is pretty annoying. Like I said, the game doesn't highlight them beforehand and they can be literally anything. Often they are innocuous things that don't really stand out. Especially given how cluttered environments can be. It can be really hard to tell if a particular area even has a clue never mind what it even is. Especially as there often isn't much consistency in what clues can or can't be. Like, in a room filled with say, paper, computer monitors, rubble on the ground, lights etc any of these can be clues. In fact, all of the items I have listed are clues in other rooms. On top of that, some clues cannot be scanned unless Batman is in the correct position even though the perspective doesn't reflect that and you can see the collectible. For example, one of the clues, a USB Flash Drive, requires Batman to be next to it as there is a table blocking his view to the USB Flash Drive even though the player can see the USB and hover over it. And some Clues don't require this. One Clue was scanning this white cloth which was in the cross section of a wall while Batman was in a vent and couldn't even "see" from his perspective. But you could scan it from seemingly anywhere.
There is some signposting when the player might have found an area that houses a Clue. If the player finds a secret area like a vent that leads to a random cluttered room with nothing to interact with, that usually houses a Clue. But I feel that still highlights an issue, if aren't using a guide, you wouldn't know where or even if a Clue is in an area. And if it is, if you can even scan it or need to do something first. The end result is that it really slows the pace looking for Clues. The game doesn't have the equivalent of Riddler Maps that give you an accurate idea of what you're looking for and where (I can't believe this game made me miss Riddler trophies lol).
Detective Cases are also required for multiple trophies and carry over between NG+ runs. Meaning if you find a Clue in one playthrough, you do not need to re-scan it in a NG+ run. So if you can get all the Detective Cases early, you're set for the rest of the playthroughs. There are 2 trophies related to Detective Cases, "World's Greatest Detective - Complete all detective cases" which you can do on first playthrough (I recommend it as you're then set), and "The Collector - Find all detective cases and have all pickups and upgrades" which requires you have all the Detective Cases but cannot be achieved until the very end of your final playthrough.
The second set of collectibles are "Gear, Armour, Gadget and Gauntlet Upgrades". These include stuff like armour pieces (4 of which gives you more health which can be really helpful), Rush upgrades (Rush is a mechanic where if you have full health when you attack enemies, you do extra damage. I personally never saw much use in it) and Gauntlet Upgrades (increases the base damage of your attacks. But I personally never felt like they were that powerful). Gadgets also get upgrades. Such as the Batering being upgraded to the Shock Baterings or the Explosive Gel Launcher getting upgraded to the Explosive Glue Gel Launcher. You will find most of the gadget upgrades as part of the main story as they unlock more tools to explore the map. Wheras only one gadget upgrade (the proximity upgrade for the Gel Launcher) and all the Armour, Gear and Gauntlet ones are entirely optional and missable.
I like the idea of these upgrades. They are typical in Metroidvanias. But they aren't very useful in BAOB. Aside from armour which can help you in your first playthrough (but can be potentially redundant if you get a specific suit), Rush and Gauntlet don't make much of an impact. They don't even make bosses easier since you deal with them in preset ways anyway. The gadget upgrades are mostly mandatory anyway. But unlike Detective Cases, they appear as these black boxes/crates and if you scan one with Detective Vision, the rest will be highlighted in Detective Vision as well. So at least you "know" what they are when you see them.
These collectibles do not carry in between NG+ runs. So if you find all the upgrades in one playthrough, they will be present for another and you can collect them again to get the same upgrades as before. There are individual trophies for getting all the armour, gadget and gauntlet upgrades which you can get in any playthrough. However, you will need to re-collect them all for your final playthrough in order to get the Collector Trophy.
I really dislike this aspect. Aside from the fact you have to re-collect them to get the Collector trophy, even just for a casual NG+ run, one of the coolest aspect of a NG+ in a playthrough of any game is that you're powered up from the upgrades you got in prior run. In the other Arkham games, when you do a NG+ run, you have all the upgrades and most of the collectibles from your last playthrough (these games do compensate by taking away counter indicators). Which means in the case of BAOB, it's not really that much of a NG+ in terms of gameplay (ignoring the suits that is). I can understand not giving the player all the gadgets and their upgrades since that blocks progression. But I feel in the case of BAOB, you can already get most of the gadgets and their upgrades before you take on any of the big 3 bosses. Aside from the Cryptographic Sequencer upgrades, I genuinely feel you can give the player all the other gadgets and upgrades from the start of the game and it wouldn't break the game.
The third set of Collectibles are what I call "Boss Collectibles". These consist of 20 Joker Teeth (found in the Administration Building), 20 Penguin Birdcages (found in the Cell Blocks) and 20 Black Masks (found in the Industrial Building). You break them by throwing a Baterang at them. Though some Joker teeth and Penguin Birdcages will explode if you get close them since they are designed to be traps. That still counts as breaking them.
These Collectibles do not carry over in between NG+ Runs. So if you destroy 15 Joker Teeth in a playthrough, in NG+ it will act like you haven't destroyed any Joker Teeth. So all 20 are back in the world. There are individual trophies for getting each set of these collectibles but no trophy for getting them in conjunction with other trophies. The Collector Trophy doesn't require you get these collectibles as well (which none of the VITA guides I looked at mentioned. I had to go to Xbox Achievement forums to find that out). Meaning if you get all of these collectibles in a playthrough and get their corresponding trophies, then in NG+ run, they will still show up but you don't have to collect them again.
I'm not complaining that I don't have to re-collect these. But I ask why they respawn if they aren't counted for additional trophies? Surely it would be better if they stayed gone for NG+? My only guess would be that they indicate to a player they haven't fully explored an area yet?
Also, the trophy for the 20 Joker Teeth and 20 Penguin Birdcages are Silver. But why is the trophy for the 20 Black Masks Bronze? This is an insult to Black Mask! The Arkham Games really do Black Mask dirty. In Origins, he gets ousted as the main villain by Joker and in BAOB, he doesn't even get the same tier of trophy as the other 2 main bosses' collectibles.
The fourth set of collectibles are Suit Pieces. There are 5 suits you can get in BAOB. Only 3 of which are needed for any trophies. You have the standard Arkham Origins suit you start with (the game's description says it provides "minimal ballistic protection and offensive capabilities". Which is odd given how bulky and armoured it is. Like, it looks more powerful and armoured than all the other suits in the game lol). It offers no additional bonuses. You have the Beware the Batman suit from the CGI Animated show Beware The Batman (I remember watching a few episodes when I first came out. I remember liking it). It isn't "Batman wearing a suit inspired by that suit", it's that 3D model of Batman in the game. His proportions look whack. Like his chest is comically large since its not "realistic" like the other models in BOAB. If you've been the Animated Batman Suit in Arkham City, it's like that. I do like this skin. It's really cool and it offers a bonus in that reduces damage from firearms by 50% (I guess that animated chest is more powerful than Arkham Origin Batman's armour). You can only unlock this suit if you have played Arkham Origins on PS3. Fortunately, even if you haven't, it's not required for any trophies. The suits that are required for trophies are the Red Son Batsuit (which increases health regeneration by 50%), the New 52 Suit (increases damage by 25%), One Million Suit (decreases all damage taken by 25%) and the Darkest Night/Zombie suit (makes Batman invulnerable to all damage).
Apparently, on the remaster for PS4, XB1 and PC, there are more suits like the The Dark Knight Returns suit which makes you invulnerable and increases damage by 25%. But I won't be talking about that.
To unlock a suit for the trophies, you need to find the 5 pieces of the suit scattered over the game. The suits and all their pieces you've found carry over into NG+. So if you've found all the pieces for the Darkest Night suit and 4/5 pieces for the Red Son Suit, on your NG+, you will have access to the Darkest Knight suit and have 4/5 pieces for the Red Son Suit.
There is one catch with the suits, you cannot collect all the pieces in one playthrough. Remember earlier when I said the game has different ending sequences depending on which boss you fight last? This sequence also gives you a different final piece for one of the batsuits. Like, if you fight Joker last and do the present sequence, the final present contains the final piece of the Red Son Batsuit. If you do Penguin last, the final hostage contains the final piece of the New 52 Suit. And same for Black Mask and the 1 million suit. Meaning that in order to get all the suits, you need to NG+ this game twice so you can get the final pieces (and also the trophy for completing each of the sequences).
By the way, it is possible to accidentally miss picking up the final piece here. Requiring you to NG+ the whole game again and fight the same boss again last to get the piece again. So make sure you don't miss it.
But, any benefits these suits would give you is rendered moot by the Zombie suit. This is the only suit whose 5 pieces don't depend on how you play the game so you can get it no matter the playthrough. And it breaks the game. You are invulnerable to any damage. Including stuff like Joker gas so combat is a joke. The only place where you can still die is in Black Mask's boss fight as, if he shoots you, you die automatically for some reason. But that's not really a problem since you don't really fight him directly anyway. Every other combat encounter is trivial now. The only "downside" is that you are invulnerable but not invincible. Meaning enemies can still hit you which can stagger and stun Batman. This can interrupt any combos or moves he was doing. But that can be dealt with easily since you don't lose any health anymore.
Putting all this together, if you want to platinum this game (or more likely, the PS4/XB1/PC version since you aren't going to be playing this on the VITA lol), here's my "optimal" plan.
Playthrough 1: Try doing as much as you can of the Administration/Joker section first. This also gets you the Shock Baterang and Line Launcher gadgets. And the chance to try for the 100 hit combo trophy. Hopefully it's more doable if you go for it early and don't have any damage upgrades. Spam that stun beatdown move.
Once you rescue the Warden, go the Industrial Area and play through enough of Black Mask's section until you get the Explosive Gel Launcher.
At this point you are set to go after Joker or Penguin as you have all the tools you need to get to them (as you can get the remaining tools to get to them like the Batclaw and Tightrope upgrades are found along the way to the boss). The Shock Batering will make quick work of Grundy and make Penguin's boss fight easier.
I would recommend playing more of Black Mask's section until you get the green upgrade for the Cryptographer Sequencer as that can save you a second run all the way back to get the Glue upgrade but you can do this later if you want. It is a little confusing anyway if you haven't played the game before. The game eventually marks on the map where you have to go if you play "naturally".
Lets say you want to do Joker last for this playthrough and Penguin first. Head to the Cell Blocks and complete it as much as you can until Penguin hides in the Arkham Wing and Catwoman tells you that you can use the Lighthouse to get to Penguin. Before you leave the Cell Blocks to get to the Lighthouse, if you have the Green codes, you can get the Glue Gel upgrade and save yourself a trip. It is quite out of the way so if you're unsure where to go, you can ignore this and go straight to the Lighthouse and through it to get to Penguin.
Once Penguin is down, you can return to the Industrial Building and continue pursuing Black Mask. If you haven't gotten the Glue Upgrade yet in the Cell Blocks, the game marks for you where it is on your map. After you get it, you can go after Black Mask and take him down. Then backtrack to where Joker's section starts in Industrial. Follow it until you beat Joker.
You can then enter the Arkham Wing. Enter it, make sure you nab the Zombie Suit Piece located here. Then do Joker's Present Ending Sequence, making sure to grab the final Red Son Suit piece. Then, before you go to the Lighthouse for the final confrontation with Catwoman, try scouring the 3 main areas and get the collectibles of interest. For a first playthrough, I advise getting all the Detective Cases, Joker Teeth, Penguin Birdcages, Black Masks and all remaining suit pieces. That way, you don't have to worry about them again. You can ignore any optional armour, gauntlet and Rush upgrades for now. I recommend collectibles guides online.
Once you beat Catwoman, start a NG+ on the same save file you just beat the game with.
Playthrough 2: Lets say you want to beat Black Mask last for this one.
Put on the zombie suit for the invincibility.
Repeat what I said earlier about Administration first, then Industrial and get the Explosive Gel (and Green Codes early if you want). You can then backtrack and go after Joker since he's in the same building anyway. Then go to the Cell Blocks and go after Penguin. You can then get the Glue Gel upgrade along the way. Leaving you set for Black Mask. Make sure to grab his suit piece. Complete the story and do another NG+ on that save file.
Playthrough 3: Now lets say you want to do Penguin last.
Same deal. Admin first. Then industrial. Only now, you have to get the Green Codes early. You can go after Joker now. Then go to the Cell Blocks. You can choose to play some of Penguin's section until he flees to the Arkham Wing and then get the Glue Gel upgrade here if you want. But you have to get the Glue Gel Upgrade here to be able to go after Black Mask.
Once you do that, and then go after and take down Penguin and then get his suit piece. You are now free to go after any remaining upgrade collectibles one final time. Then you're done. No need to beat the game for the 3rd time.
So yeah, BOAB isn't difficult to platinum once you know what to do but it is confusing to even know what you have to do even if you have a guide at times.
As for the game itself, my feelings on it are complicated. If you asked me what I thought of the game during and even after my first playthrough, I'd tell you I really disliked the game. Maybe even that I hated the game. Because BOAB doesn't make a good first impression.
Let start with the combat. On the surface, it looks similar to typical Arkham combat. You do strikes, can bounce between enemies, counter attacks, cape stun, jump over enemies and ground takedown. Only on a 2D plane. Enemies can move a bit "up and down" on that plane but Batman will usually adjust his position as well to compensate. The issue is the flow and responsiveness. Like, in the main Arkham games, when you're fighting a group of enemies and there is a knife or armoured enemy coming at you and you need to respond, you can typically either try cape stunning them early or jumping ovearound them to evade them. If you do this, Batman will typically "lunge" at the enemy which closes the distance and keeps the flow going. If you have to cape stun an enemy, the game will help you out by prioritizing the most dangerous enemy and even cape stunning multiple enemies if your cape stun gets them as well. This is a bit forgiving, sure, but it ensures the controls are responsive and the player's intentions are read.
BAOB messes this up royally. Moves like the cape stun and counter have no "lunge" nor can they work on multiple enemies at once. So if you do a cape stun, Batman will do it right in front of him. If there isn't an enemy exactly right in front of him, the attack will whiff and you will take a lot of damage. If an enemy is about to attack you and you try responding but there is another enemy close by or next to him, Batman may target that one instead and you will take a lot of damage. Even the dodge/evade move is whack and arguably even less responsive. You are supposed to be able to jump over enemies that are right in front of you by double tapping X but there were times I mashed it and it wouldn't work (and other times it did). And other times when it did register, Batman would do a normal roll which is useless and would result in taking damage. The end result is a combat system that works against the muscle memory learned from every other Arkham game and is still less fun because of how unresponsive it is.
The game has Predator Stealth Sections but they aren't as fun as the main versions. In part because of the limited gadgets and moves. But also partly to the design. Armed enemies do crazy amounts of damage, have great eyesight and can track you much further. Many environments often aren't even big enough or offer enough ways to lose enemies' attention. Resulting in a much slower "trial and error" approach as you find the one set of moves and silent takedowns that work. Even standard moves and approaches in other Arkham games aren't as helpful here. For example, snaring enemies onto gargoyles/vantage points is useless because it attracts too much attention and enemies will see you moving away after doing it.
The other Arkham games were more fun here because the areas were designed with multiple routes so there were multiple options and ways to both take out enemies and escape when you made a mistake. On top of that, enemies didn't have the best eyesight and would even be startled for a few seconds if they saw you. Giving you time to respond by trying to take them out or get away or use smoke bombs etc.
To BAOB's credit, there are some good ideas here. For example, some Predator Sections have chandeliers you can hit with a baterang to make it fall and KO enemies. Some have bells you can hit with a batering to draw enemies attention. But the game never expands on these ideas or fleshes them out so Predator Segments never feel great to play. So I don't believe it's a flaw of the perspective and hardware. I truly believe it was possible for BAOB to have pretty fun and good Predator Segments (hell, Mark of the Ninja shows you can do it in even stricter 2D).
The pacing of the game is also whack. Like I said earlier, Detective Vision doesn't automatically highlight stuff so you have to stop and manually scan stuff. But this also extends to objects you can interact with the environment. Like, if there's a wall you can blow up with the explosive gel to progress, you can't put explosive gel on it until you scan it first. Even if you know that wall is there, you can't target it with the Explosive Gel Launcher until it is scanned. Same for debris or switches you can interact with using the Batering and Batclaw. On top of that, many of these interactibles don't look distinct. Like, in Batman Arkham Asylum, walls you can use the explosive gel on have a crumbled look you can recognize even without Detective Vision. But not so in BAOB where Explosive Gel walls and regular walls look the same. The end result is that it makes a first playthrough extremely stop and go which prevents a good flow going. You're always stopping and looking for things to scan. And once you do, waiting an extra second for it to complete scanning. And doing this hundreds of times for around 8 hours? It really drags the experience down. The experience would be a lot better if the scan was an optional tool beginners could rely on if they were stuck or confused. While if you were more experienced, you could just play normally and use gadgets directly without needing to scan first. And also if the scan was instantaneous.
With all these aspects, I don't blame anyone for dropping this game or disliking it.
However, when I was doing my second playthrough on NG+ for the trophies, something weird happened. I believe it's called Stockholm Syndrome because I was genuinely enjoying myself. I was surprised. Why am I enjoying myself?
I think it's because at that point, I was so used to the game's flaws that I could bypass them and, as a result, see its positives?
Like, the combat still has its issues, but by then, I knew how to position myself beforehand so knife, armoured and baton enemies were less of an issue so I could focus on bouncing between enemies with strikes and counters. Predator Segments were still an issue but I knew from prior trial and errors where to position myself and take out enemies. Navigation was no longer an issue since I already knew where everything was and didn't need to find any collectibles. So I could focus on using my knowledge of the game to speedrun. And that was fun. It was fun charting my own path to play the game in a way as to get all the gadgets and upgrades and hit the bosses in the desired order. And I could appreciate how truly open ended the game was and how it rewarded me for my knowledge by letting me save time by getting gadgets in fewer trips and easily stomping bosses. I truly felt like I was the master here.
The closest analogue would be like a Hitman level where you know exactly where everything is so you just go and get the things and be an absolute master.
Even the story was more interesting. I could read the Detective Cases and see all the background and it's really well thought out. Stuff like how the main bosses each orchestrated their own breakouts and took control or other DC characters like Toy Man were involved.
Of course, the main difference here with something like Hitman, or even other Metroidvanias is that the experience is fun on the first playthrough and that the mechanics are solid enough that you don't need to "get used to the flaws" to have fun. Like, it's nice that I eventually came to enjoy and appreciate BAOB, but the experience would have been better if the combat flowed better, if Predator Sections were more open ended, if the game didn't require you to scan everything. Then even a first playthrough would be more fun and more people would see the game's more unique aspects.
Playing BAOB made me wish for a modern remake of this game. One with those improved combat/stealth etc but also more open ended design.
Imagine a 3D version of this game. Like, Batman Arkham Asylum but a complete Metroidvania where you can explore different parts of the Asylum, pick up gadgets in different orders and boss fights and sequences would be different depending on when you do them. Basically, BAOB but on steroids.
In closing, BAOB is arguably the worst Arkham game. Its execution of many of the gameplay features of its console counterparts is often lacking. But it's arguably the most unique Arkham game for how truly open ended it is and how cool it is as a Metroidvania. I wish this game had more time and resources during development because it could have been one of the best games in this series and on the VITA.
This is probably going to be my last platinum for a while. I might do Lego Batman 2 VITA at some point in the future. I'm currently playing Rainbow 6 Siege and it's quite fun. Don't have any plans to write about it though.
See you all in 2024.
2023.06.01 20:47 Rook4242 An Alternative Theory of Base Design: The Strongline Approach (ST:E)
 | An Alternative Theory of Base Design: submitted by Rook4242 to starshiptroopers [link] [comments] The Strongline Approach Link to Google Drive Version: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EC6GgdczEUDktYFOgpZBQGByIw58RVpK_90_Jep_0XI/edit?usp=sharing TL; DR Summary: All warfare is Based – Sun Tzu, emphasizing the importance of good base construction. Current base-design thinking, and practice, is dominated by a focus on expansive bases with multiple layers of redundancy. While not disregarding redundancy altogether, I advocate for a different approach. I contend that a more compact base with a focus on a strong front line (a Strongline if you will) which can be easily manned and repaired with only a minor level of redundancy or layering is superior. In my opinion this approach better optimizes bases for Navigability, Force Concentration, Funneling, and Cost-Effectiveness at the expense of some Redundancy. Current base design seems to revolve around controlling as large a volume of the build-area as possible, pushing the base right up to the bug entry points. But this is not a necessary or efficient use of resources. The objective is to defend the ARC, not the surrounding area. Better to build a smaller cheaper base which better defends the ARC rather than a larger, more expensive, more difficult to navigate, and more unwieldly base which (poorly) controls a large area. This is the central concept of Strongline Design Theory. If you want additional detail but not the underlying theory, skip to the section labelled “Strongline Base Design.” https://preview.redd.it/tvti1xb1bg3b1.png?width=952&format=png&auto=webp&s=6af8c413b389b5166314c1f0b53e61753d69b6fb The Five Principles of Base Design Figuring things out for yourself is the only freedom anyone really has – Jean Rasczack In order to understand and compare the current theory of base design with my alternative theory, we must first describe the 5 Principles of a good base. I. Navigability Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter. -Churchill Navigability is how easily and quickly troopers can traverse the base. Traversal includes: Combat Troopers moving from fighting position to fighting position to reinforce areas under heavy/special attack, Combat Troopers easily and securely exiting the base to hunt Grenadiers, and Repair Troopers easily and quickly checking and repairing base components. Navigability is important because it allows Troopers to bring firepower and repairs where they are most needed and respond effectively to variations in distribution of threats across the line over time. Navigability is accomplished by having a more compact base with fewer interior fortifications blocking traversal. A low-navigability base will impede troopers from assisting each other or responding to changes in threats across the line and will function more as a series of smaller isolated bases than as a cohesive whole. II. Redundancy Redundancy is ambiguous because it seems like a waste if nothing unusual happens. Except that something unusual happens-usually. – Nassim Taleb Redundancy is how well the base can tolerate a breach. It entails creating multiple layers of defense lines, compartmentalizing lines so that breaches do not grant the bugs access to a larger interior volume. Redundancy is important because breaches are inevitable, and troopers must be able to contain and ideally patch a breach. Strong redundancy fighting positions enable this. Redundancy is accomplished by having more internal layers of fighting positions and by sealing/compartmentalizing areas of each line with further internal layers. A base with low redundancy will suffer catastrophically from small breaches as bugs are able to rapidly invade a large volume of the base. III. Force Concentration A major battle in a theater of operations is a collision between two centers of gravity; the more forces we can concentrate in our center of gravity, the more certain and massive the effect will be. – Von Clausewitz Force Concentration is how well the troopers are to concentrate their firepower and repair capabilities along a narrow front. A narrow front with more troopers means firepower and repair capability can be used more efficiently and troopers can more easily support each other without having to travel a long distance. More troopers on a smaller area also minimizes the probability that a trooper will overlook/miss something (like a small bug slowly destroying the wall he is standing on) without his comrades noticing. This concept is somewhat more abstract than the previous concepts, so here illustrative example: an area of high force concentration would be a bunker which sticks out from a defense-line and enables a concentration of troopers within to engage bugs on 3 sides vs a long wall dotted with spread-out troopers. Force concentration is important because concentrated troopers are able to support one another with equipment/deployable items and multiplies the value of these items. Force concentration can be accomplished by constructing fighting positions (ideally bunkers, but groups of walls/towers work as well) which enable troopers to cover a large area or chokepoint(s) while remaining near to one another. A base with poor opportunities for force concentration will make it difficult for troopers to assist each other and use equipment/deployables multiplicatively. IV. Funneling If you have an enemy, then learn and know your enemy -Denzel Washington Funneling is how well the base directs bugs towards the intended defense/fighting positions. Funneling is closely related to and must be thought of in conjunction with Force Concentration. However, Funneling is more about understanding how the bugs will approach and react to the base. Funneling is important because the bugs must be directed towards the fighting positions to…well…fight them. Additionally, a large, concentrated mass of bugs can be better engaged by AoE weapons. One can build the most navigable and concentrated fighting positions with superior redundancy, but that hardly matters If the bugs attack/concentrate elsewhere. Good Funneling can be achieved by understanding the Bug’s mind. The Bug strongly preferences the shortest and most direct routes to the ARC, by placing obstacles and fighting positions with this preference in mind one can direct defenders to these avenues, and good Funneling can be generated. A base with poor funneling will see the bugs spread over a large front or concentrate on an unexpected/less defensible section of front, typically leading to a breach. V. Cost Effectiveness Cost is more important than quality, but quality is the best way to reduce cost. -Genichi Taguchi Finally, Cost Effectiveness is how well your base performs given the level of resources (“blue stuff”, “Baja blast”, “Smurf juice”, “blue raspberry flavoring”, “the good stuff”, etc.) has been gathered/invested. Cost effectiveness is more relevant in ARC mode than in the other mode but is still important in all cases. Cost-Effectiveness is important because you can only gather so many resources/spend so much time before the bug attack begins or you must leave to do something else. Getting the most bang for your buck will help you to build your base quickly and finish out rounds to gain XP. Certainly, a bigger more expensive base is often ‘better’ than a smaller, cheaper one, but a smaller cheaper one may be good enough or even stronger in some areas and may be built much sooner so that the game can progress. A base with poor cost effectiveness may be unfinished by the time the bug attack begins or may simply take so long to finish that players become bored/stop having fun. Trade Offs Between Principles There are no solutions; there are only trade-offs. – Thomas Sowell 1. The Big One: Redundancy vs Everything Else https://preview.redd.it/lr3fplt7bg3b1.png?width=709&format=png&auto=webp&s=1a487c815df9bc6a90d6907d45afd358d5d368bd Redundancy is by far the most controversial and difficult principle to optimize for. This is because it is in opposition to every other principle. Additional interior walls and compartments make navigation more difficult, divide up defenders, make it harder to predict where bugs will engage, and increase costs dramatically. On the other hand, the occasional breach is inevitable, so some level of redundancy is required. Be careful however, just because you have the resources does not mean you should add another interior or exterior wall, if adding that wall decreases navigability and concentration more than it improves your defensive redundancy. Layers can in fact be suboptimal, and my opinion on this has produced no small amount of onion-themed shrieking from mental midgets in VC. Weigh these factors carefully and keep this trade off in mind as you go, it is the easiest and most tempting balance to get wrong. As elaborated later, I advocate focusing more on building a solid line you can maintain/repair rather than a series of lines designed to fail. 2. Force Concentration vs Grenadiers As it says in the Bible, God fights on the side of heaviest artillery – Robert Heinlein, author of science fiction classics you may have heard of. Concentrating your force makes them more vulnerable to Grenadier artillery hits. Clustering your men or your defensive positions can make it easy for a single shell to severely weaken or even breach your defenses. However, for reasons elaborated under III. Force Concentration and IV. Funneling, the solution is not to spread your force along a broader front. Additionally, a broad front is no less vulnerable to grenadier fire as it is much harder to repair the damage or quickly respond to breaches in a large, broad front-style base. Instead, Grenadiers should be strongly prioritized and dealt with offensively. As soon as you or any other trooper are aware of Grenadier fire, repair the effected area and determine the direction of the Grenadier bug. An offensive team/squad should be dispatched immediately, and the remaining troopers rotated to cover whatever gaps may arise from sending a squad out of the base. 3. Force Concentration and Funneling vs Surface Area Small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life -God, in his hit work The Bible (Mathew 7:14) Critics of my approach have argued that maintaining a small front (a consequence of good Force Concentration and Funneling) weakens the base as the large mass of bugs are attacking a small surface area of wall/bunker and thus doing a lot of damage to a small number of props rather than a little damage to a large variety of props. They contend, not incorrectly, that this can increase the likelihood of a breach. I would argue, that while that is true, a smaller front is also far easiefaster to repair and has significant advantages in navigability, item-sharing, AoE weapon usage, and cost. For these reasons I argue that the trade off between Force Concentration/Funneling and the Surface Area (effectively HP pool) of the base, is strongly weighted towards minimizing Surface Area. Important Addenda I know it’s getting a bit long, I apologize, bear with me. A. Bunker Usage They say I get into too many bunkers. But it is no problem. I am the best bunker player. -Seve Ballestros Bunkers are by far the best defensive structure. They have extremely high health pools, defend multiple angles, and bugs cannot enter them. Bunkers should be the anchors of any defensive line and represent the best options for Force Concentrations and targets for Funneling. I recommend placing them directly along but routes to the ARC sticking out from the walls if possible and covering as many angles as possible. It is desirable to pull bugs onto bunkers rather than walls as their superior health and defensibility make them easier to defend and repair. A good base will maximize the surface area of bunker available for bugs to attack and will place bunkers so that they attack the bunker before the trying to hit the far weaker walls. For example, here is a very simplified scenario of suboptimal bunker usage: https://preview.redd.it/olbardxbbg3b1.png?width=419&format=png&auto=webp&s=27c62f59dbacb08921e0a850e48851e89d31ba41 In this layout, the bunker effectively defends one chokepoint, and has line of sight on the other if the wall should fall, but it does not physically block the bugs on the right if they should breach the small wall. Consider instead, the following usage: https://preview.redd.it/jgokdaflbg3b1.png?width=423&format=png&auto=webp&s=a660a7d9dbe07e8ba3eb0882ab02bb7611879c4e In this layout, the bunker does not directly block the chokepoint, but does lie along the most direct paths between the bugs and the ARC from both entrances. This will naturally funnel the bulk of the bugs onto the bunker, where they can be easily destroyed. The bunker does not need to actually block the chokepoint, most of the bugs will still hit it rather than the surrounding walls if it is along the most direct path to the ARC. Rather than pulling some of the bugs onto a weak wall, this layout concentrates the bugs onto the far tougher bunker. In both examples, there would likely be additional defenses and terrain complications, but I have simplified this scenario to illustrate bunker usage. B. Scale Above all, keep it simple – Auguste Escoffier, providing some advice I perhaps should have heeded before I set out to write this damn thing. As the previous example implied, a smaller more compact base can be superior to a large base. I will not belabor the point as I have previously mentioned it several times, but a smaller base is more navigable, cheaper, and concentrates both defenders and bugs in favorable ways. Even if you have extra resources, do not neuter a good compact base with strong external sight lines and internal navigability by adding unnecessary outer or inner walls. Keep it as small as possible and no smaller. C. Ammunition Box Placement Don’t be a damned ammunition wagon. Be a Rifle! – Carl R. Rogers Ammunition is stored in the bunkers. Period. Every second the troopers run around the base retrieving ammunition is time they are not fighting or repairing. Put the ammo where they do the shooting, which if you’ve done your job well, will be the bunkers. Standardize this, make it law, ensure that never again will anyone be unsure of where to look to find ammo. D. Electric Wall placement Controversy is only dreaded by the advocates of error – Benjamin Rush, foreshadowing that I am about to piss everybody off. Stop putting electric walls around the ARC. It is far better to use your limited supply of extremely powerful stunwalls to strengthen your frontline than to stick them far in the rear as a last-ditch backup for failure. The Strongline approach is all about committing to a strong front line which can be relied on not to fold. Electric walls are simply too powerful and too expensive to be used only as backup. Electric walls can be easily shot through and thus it makes the most sense to place them in front of bunkers as your first line of defense. They function best delaying/holding bugs off bunkers to increase bunker survivability. Place them in front of bunkers, in chokepoints if possible. When a front gets quiet, send a repairman out to repair them. Bunkers with forward E-walls is an incredibly strong and effective combo and should not be overlooked. Strongline Base Design If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking - Patton. To illustrate the practice of Strongline Base Design Theory, there is an attached example diagram. This example illustrates a simple but ideal base design. It is in a simplified environment without complex elevation changes, and with a centrally located ARC for clarity. Real implementation will necessarily deviate from this ideal configuration, but this provides a clear view into the fundamentals of Strongline design. https://preview.redd.it/054chsqobg3b1.png?width=949&format=png&auto=webp&s=032ddbba323488cd16e24eaeef40bf8c438451de The ideal here is to hold a strong single frontline. Note that the interior of the base has open routes for troopers to navigate between positions, has only 1 very minor level of redundancy (the interior wall around the ARC), is compact to concentrate defenders in a few critical locations, funnels the bugs effectively onto those locations, and is extremely cost effective. This base would likely withstand attacks far stronger than its cost would suggest and could be built and manned quickly and easily. If you have extra resources, a second layer of exterior walls in some places to carefully reinforce vulnerable segments could be added, but I have kept the diagram simple to illustrate key principles. Prevailing Base Design Theory: Aggressive Layering I will also provide an example of the typical Aggressive Layering Type base design. This design is extremely expensive, usually pushes directly up to the entry points to try and control the entire area, then fills in layers of redundancy behind that. These layers are effective at containing breaches, but their difficult navigability, lack of force concentration, and ineffective funneling make it difficult to prevent, predict, or contain breaches. They are redeemed only by their immense redundancy, which unfortunately comes at a high resource cost. This arrangement is still superior to many of the bases where players randomly place walls, bunkers, and turrets, but it is far from optimal. https://preview.redd.it/h7jr8lsqbg3b1.png?width=870&format=png&auto=webp&s=4ccee1dcbd428e52ff254cdee0e2affab5cb7df1 This layout, while suboptimal, would likely still survive, but would consume far more time and resources to construct. Appendix 1. Gates Gates are generally bad. They break up your walls by not having a connecting raised walking area. They are often accidentally left open. They don’t speed up navigation as the time to open and close them is significant. And finally, they are redundant with walls and bunkers as both can be easily climbed. Gates are not needed, just build walls and bunkers unless you find yourself in the very specific situation of needing access up a ramp, in which case it is impossible to climb a wall/bunker. Gates have a small number of situational usages such as in tunnels where bunkers/walls are not easily climbable. 2. Build Order Bunkers first, then ramp walls and walls, then auxiliary defenses. Fully plan out and lock in your 4 bunkers as soon as possible. Then build ramp walls and walls to seal off approaches completely. Finally, place turrets, towers, and electric walls as needed to complete your defense. Only then should you spend time or resources on costly redundant internal defenses. 3. Turret Placement Turrets are best placed in the center of bunker roofs. If you’ve done your job, the bunkers will see the most action and thus benefit the most from turrets. There is some argument for putting turrets on the bug-facing edge of bunkers, as this enables them to shoot down into bugs directly abutting the bunker. However, they can be more easily damaged by the bugs in this edge-placement, and having one more thing to worry about repairing is not optimal. If the bunkers and base have been designed with good Funneling, there should be plenty of bugs approaching but not yet abutting the bunker for a center mounted turret to engage at any time. Troopers inside can and should handle any that reach the bunker itself. 4. Tower Placement Generally, depends on the terrain and situation. If no obviously preferable locations occur to you, placing them on the leading edge of the bunker is usually excellent. While they will take damage from bugs, it is less severe if a tower becomes damaged/destroyed than if a turret were at risk, and the bunker edge-mounted towers provide excellent forward firing positions/sniper nests. 5. Kill Mazes I have not tested this yet, but I have seen it proposed so it bears mentioning. Instead of blocking bugs’ access to the ARC, build a winding but open path. Basically, force them to play a tower defense game with you. I have not tested to see if the bug AI will follow a long but open path or if they will attempt to smash through to create a shorter path but kill mazes could be a very interesting solution. 6. Complex Structures More complex structures like bastions, starforts, or U-shaped kill boxes are possible, but I have not thoroughly experimented with them. Maybe in a future even more insane document. 7. Disclaimer All claims subject to changes from patches, updates, etc. |
2023.06.01 19:59 Mission-Raccoon9432 Character Study: The Full Truth about Gorou Amamiya or Aqua Hoshino PART III
PART III of our Character Study of Gorou Amamiya is an intermezzo chapter. We'll rehash some content from the previous parts and try to understand them on a basic structural level . This is more of an extra edition I allowed myself to write down since this was impossible to fit into the main study without unnecessary distractions . Last but not least some conversations that followed from the previous releases had been ever so fruitful for the creation of either new or advancing preexisted ideas .
This is an Analysis of the Good and the Evil, the Heroe's Journey, the Problem and the Solution.
SANATORIUM - DISEASES - TREATMENTS
In Part I we discussed Gorou's loner existence in a rural city that would mainly revolve around the mountain hospital he works at. Due to low patients frequency Gorou had lots of free time to hang around mostly in patient rooms. Besides of highlighting a selfish reason for his behaviour, the general assumption was that his arrangement was convenient. Just a doctor hanging around at his workplace, right?
Now I'd like to flesh this picture out for you. This previous one was actually pretty dull, it allows too many variables in a story that is actually very intentional. Since Aka Akasaka - as well known - had figured out the beginning and the ending of the story he wants to tell before the manga even started, it's obvious that the beginning scenery is thrilled with symbols, metaphors and meanings for both the Heroes but also the meta plot itself and is interconnected with the story's ending in which all those pre-established elements will meet a final resolution to its opposite: In principle this is what you all know as the "Hero's journey".
First lets talk about location location location, as real estate agents love to say. And indeed the location is essential to the plot. Our story begins in a rural hospital. Stop. Actually "hospital" is already too arbitrary of a word and misses the significance of the location. A more accurate word for a rural hospital on a mountain is the Sanatorium. A Sanatorium is an antiquated name for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are tradionally located in healthy climate, usually in the countryside. In the 19th and 20th century these were popular centers for tuberculosis suffers. Some of you might be familiar with Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain" (german: Der Zauberberg) which is the most prominent novel revolving around such an institution. Magic Mountain, huh? So we have our Sanatorium, we have our countryside Mountain and certainly we have our magic through the sanctuary of Ame-No-Uzume Goddess of Entertainment and the reincarnation on top of that mountain.
Now that we have established the location lets look at our most prominent patients. What's so special about their condition that they would need treatment in a specialised hospital? How are they all connected to each other? Our most prominent patients are Sarina Tendoji, Ai Hoshino and ... well ... Gorou Amamiya.
Since we established Aqua's trauma to be inherited from Gorou and explored the tragic nature of his birth and the abuse he suffered during his childhood, his inclusion is reasonable. But this - only way later in C75 unvealed background - is already visible right from the beginning with intentional symbols, metaphors and hidden meanings. There are two levels for the representation of his illness.
https://preview.redd.it/ewasnfmvnd3b1.jpg?width=2571&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3fed46b24063b90c79df20a7a1231eaca9208bc2
What actually shocked me was that EP 1 of the ANIME basically might have proven my Theory especially from PART II. The moment Gorou dies we get to see exactly two flashback frames. The Ai-Keychain Sarina gave him and a picture of his Grandmother and him... With the missing Grandfather. I feel pretty vindicated about the importance of this photo and as you know in my theory actually his Grandfather is on that photo kinda too... That irony!
https://preview.redd.it/fo97javmgg3b1.jpg?width=2575&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2031410c5ab4e10faad18f4cb87ae9d52a48568d
She has a symbolic double function as both a sick dying child but also as physical representation of Ruby's, Aqua's and Gorou's mental situation. To quote PART II for that matter:
The true meaning of Entertainment is joyfull fullfillment and the exploration of new uplifting expressions of cultural life. It's a healing power in the most innocent and human-loving way, it's first and foremost an enrichtment of the soul, not of the pocket. The industry however inverted this relation: Now the money dictates the art. As a consequence talent get's blocked, content is cheap and underwhelming, instead of uplifting humanity, the mere consumer gets just as much exploited as the performer. The consumer is conditioned to waste his limited precious lifespawn with the consumption of the most primitive motives of entertainment. This is a form of exploitation through the industry and it has rotten everyone to the bone. The artist gets either drained or he himself corrupts and uses the same sort of schemes, trickes and deceptions to climb to the top. But the higher they climb the further they uproot from the essence of true entertainment ... And those who oppose and try tu succeed with honest and uplifting ideals will literally killed on the way.
🚬
We have diagnozed the problem, the chronical disease. A disease which is the very reason for this story to exsist, a disease that will embark our heroes on their journey and a disease that will ultimately be cured. And indeed the location has proven to be essential to this plot. Our story begins with a Mountain Sanatorium in the heart and on top of the Goddesses of Entertainment's realm. A symbol for The Cure of Entertainment.
It all leads to Hikaru Kamiki as our personified antagonist: If you write "Hikaru" in kanji, it will be like 光る or just 光, which literally means "to shine, to glitter, to be bright", which make a lot of sense being the name of man who got starry eyes. But, if we look a bit deeper, such name can be translated as "The Shining One" or "One who brings the Light"... In christian mythology this is - Lucifer the Morning Star himself. Double irony there in the fact that Ai often nicknamed and referenced as VENUS, Evening Star Reborn, as u/Raeliic4 pointed out to me. On top I also found a suitable association with Beelzebub which is another name for the Devil. Beelzebub is also called "The King of Flies" and in the Dictionnaire Infernal (1863) a Book on Demonology he's depicted as a Fly! So maybe he wasn't wearing only crow feathers but actually also Fly-hair?... Beelzebub is known in demonology as one of the seven deadly demons or seven princes of Hell, Beelzebub representing gluttony and envy. Gluttony = He appears as the best drinking buddy of Yura (and maybe Frill). Envy = He's envious towards the white-glooming Star-People.
Again, for me these are meaningful and playful interesting associations that just appear to be inline with actual content of the plot. When an author designs characters he tends to insert certain polar themes and motives for the purpose to force a dialectic inside his plot. In my PART I and PART II studies I've showed how to me the actual psyche of the protagonists, their actual humanity is what drives the plot. The Lore is a nice and interesting feature which is from time to time fun to explore.
Thus the antagonist is created: It's a demonic force of industrialized Entertainment that has rotten down Art to the bone and occupies Tokyo as it's center. Kamiki however is for now the most malicious and excessive release of this evilness. While the industry tries to just drain, corrupt and exploit stars, he literally kills stars out of personal envy. In order to cure Entertainment our protagonists have to be embarked on a journey to Tokyo. In this antagonistic relation Aqua and Ruby are ultimately Heroes blessed by the God of Entertainment to cast out the Devil that holds "Entertainment" in his death grip.
Ai Hoshino's story begins with her escape from the "Devil" literally and metaphorically. She flees Tokyo and tries to find protection and cure in Takachiho in at least 3 meanings.
I promised to talk about another connecting layer, the very reason why it must be exactly SARINA and GOROU who are chosen to wield the sword against the devil. But we will delay this topic for another time. PART IV will get us to the THAT CORE. They are not chosen because they have Trauma, this would be absurdly dull. The Trauma or chronical disease they suffer are the result of a "crime" against the blessings of the Goddess of Arts. That's a small hint from my side.
Thank to the faithful readers and brave souls who dived back again into another of my essays and also thanks to every new face here as well.. Hopefully I'll see you all again for the next Part!
***
submitted by Mission-Raccoon9432 to OshiNoKo [link] [comments]
This is an Analysis of the Good and the Evil, the Heroe's Journey, the Problem and the Solution.
For thosee who are new here and haven't read the previous parts: You still can just enjoy MYTHOLOGICAL LORE! Scroll down until you see all the Hyperlinks or better start a bit earlier at "3. Entertainment"
SANATORIUM - DISEASES - TREATMENTS
In Part I we discussed Gorou's loner existence in a rural city that would mainly revolve around the mountain hospital he works at. Due to low patients frequency Gorou had lots of free time to hang around mostly in patient rooms. Besides of highlighting a selfish reason for his behaviour, the general assumption was that his arrangement was convenient. Just a doctor hanging around at his workplace, right?
Now I'd like to flesh this picture out for you. This previous one was actually pretty dull, it allows too many variables in a story that is actually very intentional. Since Aka Akasaka - as well known - had figured out the beginning and the ending of the story he wants to tell before the manga even started, it's obvious that the beginning scenery is thrilled with symbols, metaphors and meanings for both the Heroes but also the meta plot itself and is interconnected with the story's ending in which all those pre-established elements will meet a final resolution to its opposite: In principle this is what you all know as the "Hero's journey".
First lets talk about location location location, as real estate agents love to say. And indeed the location is essential to the plot. Our story begins in a rural hospital. Stop. Actually "hospital" is already too arbitrary of a word and misses the significance of the location. A more accurate word for a rural hospital on a mountain is the Sanatorium. A Sanatorium is an antiquated name for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are tradionally located in healthy climate, usually in the countryside. In the 19th and 20th century these were popular centers for tuberculosis suffers. Some of you might be familiar with Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain" (german: Der Zauberberg) which is the most prominent novel revolving around such an institution. Magic Mountain, huh? So we have our Sanatorium, we have our countryside Mountain and certainly we have our magic through the sanctuary of Ame-No-Uzume Goddess of Entertainment and the reincarnation on top of that mountain.
Now that we have established the location lets look at our most prominent patients. What's so special about their condition that they would need treatment in a specialised hospital? How are they all connected to each other? Our most prominent patients are Sarina Tendoji, Ai Hoshino and ... well ... Gorou Amamiya.
- Gorou Amamiya
Since we established Aqua's trauma to be inherited from Gorou and explored the tragic nature of his birth and the abuse he suffered during his childhood, his inclusion is reasonable. But this - only way later in C75 unvealed background - is already visible right from the beginning with intentional symbols, metaphors and hidden meanings. There are two levels for the representation of his illness.
- The general representation of his life in this rural area and his habitual lurking around patient's rooms, like when Sarina was around and so on. Just sitting their while looking out the window at the beautiful landscapes. On the surface this is of course just a Doc with a qurik and a lot of free time. But no, the actual meaning is here that he's seeking a cure too. That he is sick. Patients are naturally bored in hospitals, they have a lot of free time because they are sick. They also enjoy the countryside's view. It's one of the main healing attractionto Sanatoriums and made them so popular in the 19th and 20th century. In this specific case the countryside he observes is sacret and related to entertainment. Keep this in the back of your head for now.
- The second, now tangible representation of his diseases is what we already established in Part 1: his obsession with Ai, the inner void he tries to cure with his active measures of "medicine" in a patient's room. While technically he could've watched her literally elsewhere, he decided to hide away in a patient's room. This is a symbol. His first scene in the Manga ever starts exactly in such a room. The sister came in to check - metaphorically speaking - on the patient Gorou Amamiya. This illustration is completely intentional and meaningful to flesh out the double-sided irony of his employment at this particular hospital as a doctor and admission to the Sanatorium as a chronically ill patient.
https://preview.redd.it/ewasnfmvnd3b1.jpg?width=2571&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3fed46b24063b90c79df20a7a1231eaca9208bc2
What actually shocked me was that EP 1 of the ANIME basically might have proven my Theory especially from PART II. The moment Gorou dies we get to see exactly two flashback frames. The Ai-Keychain Sarina gave him and a picture of his Grandmother and him... With the missing Grandfather. I feel pretty vindicated about the importance of this photo and as you know in my theory actually his Grandfather is on that photo kinda too... That irony!
https://preview.redd.it/fo97javmgg3b1.jpg?width=2575&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2031410c5ab4e10faad18f4cb87ae9d52a48568d
- Sarina Tendoji
She has a symbolic double function as both a sick dying child but also as physical representation of Ruby's, Aqua's and Gorou's mental situation. To quote PART II for that matter:
In a sense the image of the handicapped Sarina living in the hospital is the quintessential metaphorical representation of Gorou himself. She shows upfront what was the psychological state of Gorou's soul. When he realized in C119 that Sarina's life must've been like hell he reflected his own experience too.But in order to apply these 3 characteristics to Gorou we first have to explore another symbolic layer to why all of our proganists revolve around this particular hospital. For this we have to step back and look at the most dominent theme of the story: Entertainment...
3. Entertainment
... is our PATIENT ZERO. Entertainment itself in this Story is chronically ill. It's existence - the very nature of art - is handicapped and crippled by cold hearted and ultimately in opposition to the essence of entertainment standing particular business interests. Their practice of entertainment harms both artists and art enjoyers and thus the meaning of entertainment itself. Entertainment as a mass-produced industry is a disease to entertainment as the realm of the truth-seeking, philanthopic and graceful expression of the uttermost passionate creative minds who enjoy the blessing of the goddess and share her blessing with the community.The true meaning of Entertainment is joyfull fullfillment and the exploration of new uplifting expressions of cultural life. It's a healing power in the most innocent and human-loving way, it's first and foremost an enrichtment of the soul, not of the pocket. The industry however inverted this relation: Now the money dictates the art. As a consequence talent get's blocked, content is cheap and underwhelming, instead of uplifting humanity, the mere consumer gets just as much exploited as the performer. The consumer is conditioned to waste his limited precious lifespawn with the consumption of the most primitive motives of entertainment. This is a form of exploitation through the industry and it has rotten everyone to the bone. The artist gets either drained or he himself corrupts and uses the same sort of schemes, trickes and deceptions to climb to the top. But the higher they climb the further they uproot from the essence of true entertainment ... And those who oppose and try tu succeed with honest and uplifting ideals will literally killed on the way.
🚬
We have diagnozed the problem, the chronical disease. A disease which is the very reason for this story to exsist, a disease that will embark our heroes on their journey and a disease that will ultimately be cured. And indeed the location has proven to be essential to this plot. Our story begins with a Mountain Sanatorium in the heart and on top of the Goddesses of Entertainment's realm. A symbol for The Cure of Entertainment.
- Ai Hoshino
- Lucifer: pride
- Beelzebub: envy
- Satan: wrath
- Abaddon: sloth
- Mammon: greed
- Belphegor: gluttony
- Asmodeus: lust
It all leads to Hikaru Kamiki as our personified antagonist: If you write "Hikaru" in kanji, it will be like 光る or just 光, which literally means "to shine, to glitter, to be bright", which make a lot of sense being the name of man who got starry eyes. But, if we look a bit deeper, such name can be translated as "The Shining One" or "One who brings the Light"... In christian mythology this is - Lucifer the Morning Star himself. Double irony there in the fact that Ai often nicknamed and referenced as VENUS, Evening Star Reborn, as u/Raeliic4 pointed out to me. On top I also found a suitable association with Beelzebub which is another name for the Devil. Beelzebub is also called "The King of Flies" and in the Dictionnaire Infernal (1863) a Book on Demonology he's depicted as a Fly! So maybe he wasn't wearing only crow feathers but actually also Fly-hair?... Beelzebub is known in demonology as one of the seven deadly demons or seven princes of Hell, Beelzebub representing gluttony and envy. Gluttony = He appears as the best drinking buddy of Yura (and maybe Frill). Envy = He's envious towards the white-glooming Star-People.
Again, for me these are meaningful and playful interesting associations that just appear to be inline with actual content of the plot. When an author designs characters he tends to insert certain polar themes and motives for the purpose to force a dialectic inside his plot. In my PART I and PART II studies I've showed how to me the actual psyche of the protagonists, their actual humanity is what drives the plot. The Lore is a nice and interesting feature which is from time to time fun to explore.
Thus the antagonist is created: It's a demonic force of industrialized Entertainment that has rotten down Art to the bone and occupies Tokyo as it's center. Kamiki however is for now the most malicious and excessive release of this evilness. While the industry tries to just drain, corrupt and exploit stars, he literally kills stars out of personal envy. In order to cure Entertainment our protagonists have to be embarked on a journey to Tokyo. In this antagonistic relation Aqua and Ruby are ultimately Heroes blessed by the God of Entertainment to cast out the Devil that holds "Entertainment" in his death grip.
Ai Hoshino's story begins with her escape from the "Devil" literally and metaphorically. She flees Tokyo and tries to find protection and cure in Takachiho in at least 3 meanings.
- AS AN IDOL : On the surface level it's because an Idol can't justify promiscurity towards her fans and because the Agency can't justify pregnancy of a Teenager, so she has to flee where nobody knows her. This is besides also a metaphor that indeed the Town of God is where nobody knows the filth of the rotten Tokyo-World. But this is just again the convenient explanation the characters verbalize towards us, as proven many times there is also a hidden symbolic dialectic to it. The IDOL as the Evening Star VENUS is an object of LUST (Asmodeus, one of the seven deadly demons). You might be familiar with the VENUSBERG) from european folklore. "In German folklore of the 16th century, the narrative becomes associated with the minnesinger Tannhäuser who becomes obsessed with worshipping the goddess Venus**.**" But what AI seeks is real love, somethinf that can be loved. And thus she steps down from the Venusberg ("Venus Mountain") in other words steps down as an Idol of Lust to become a Mother, It's a purification - "I am Maria" she sings in the OP song. There is a metaphorically similar transformation which starts Richard Wagner's "Tannhäuser" Opera. Tannhäuser: The world of Venus is dedicated exclusively to LUST. Tannhäuser found his way here as a mortal, but is increasingly weary of the enjoyment (“If a god can always enjoy, I am subject to change”). Trying to persuade her knights to stay, Venus prophesied that the people would never forgive Tannhäuser for dwelling with the pagan goddess of love: he would never find salvation there. However, Tannhäuser sticks to his decision: “My salvation rests in Maria!” When Mary is invoked, the world of Venus disappears and Tannhäuser sees himself transported to a lovely forest valley in Thuringia at the foot of the Wartburg. The Beginning of Wagner's Tannhäuser basically sums up AI'S ESCAPE from her VENUS-TRAMMEL to her MATERNAL HAPPINESS. Even that this purification situates Tannhäuser in a lovely forest valley at the foot of a mountain-castle fits the narrative. Our Sanatorium in the lovely rural japanese backwaters is a powerful castle which gives her ultimate protection to bear her children. Just like that Ai "spawns" into the our plot. A minute before that she was the worshipped VENUS obsessed over by Gorou on his TV, but became the MOTHER when she entered the Castle. Gorou became her KNIGHT. Gorou had a Tannhäuser-Transformation himself, when he realized that the IDOL Ai needs him as the future MOTHER Ai and therefore overcame his lewd interest and served her as the protector of her maternity.
- AS A BRIDE: Lucifer's wife is also associated with the she-demon LILITH, the child murderer. Ai flees her relationship with Kamiki and therefore flees from the fate of a child murderer. She was pregnant with "soulless Children" which means: Stillbirths. In german we also say "Sternenkind" (Star Child) for stillbirth. So she metaphorically flees the "marriage" between Evening Star and Morning Star and eventually opposes her fate as the child murderer LILITH who carries Sternenkinder with the help of the Knight and Hero Tannhäuser-Gorou. As Takachibo is the realm of our blessing Goddess of Art and the Sanatorium her Castle on the Magic Mountain it's fair to assume that also soul migration is only possible there in the center of her purifying power. The Devil Kamiki maybe can't even enter the Castle himself because it shields itself from Evilness...
- AS A SAVIOUR: Just as RUBY and AQUA our AI gets send back with a Mission: To Cure Art and Entertainment. There is a lot we can say about her involvement in this but I want to cut it down to one essential plot-line: Her association with Gotanda and the following shoots for a documentary with him. Gotanda for that matter is a very, very important figure. He is the man who only wants to hear the TRUTH, a man who is capable to see through LIES instantaneous, he who CAN'T BE DECEIVED. As long as he doesn't stop the recording it is a proof for the verisimilitude of the content. He is the "NOTARY" who witnessed her TESTIMONY but also her TESTAMENT (in german we also say "LETZTER WILLE" instead of Testament, which means LAST WILL or LAST WISH... Ai's Wish). She was killed but she archived everything she needed to archive: Found true Love and passed down her LEGACY through the recordings with Gotanda. Ruby and Aqua received everything they need to fight the Evil. Ai's KARMA as a result led for her soul to enter NIRVANA and break out of the cycle of rebirth which in Buddism is called "SAMSARA" - Thus "her soul collapsed and returned to the stars and the sea. It will never be reformed again. Death is Death. Ai Hoshino doesn't think of anything anymore, nothing is on her mind" -> NIRVANA. But as far as the content of the movie goes it's obviously a big exposure of the corruption and wrong doing that is happening in the Industry. She, Goatanda but als Aqua want to archive a social phenomenom with the movie. They want CHANGE. Thus she came to Takachiho to heal and left as a HEALER and MOTHER MARIA with her Twins as the SAVIOURS of ART. In PART I and PART II we identified in full extent her role as a saviour for Ruby and Aqua in the form of Ruby's muse and mother-figure and Aqua's unconditonally loving mother that reenacted his innocence in the tragic death of Gorou's mother.
I promised to talk about another connecting layer, the very reason why it must be exactly SARINA and GOROU who are chosen to wield the sword against the devil. But we will delay this topic for another time. PART IV will get us to the THAT CORE. They are not chosen because they have Trauma, this would be absurdly dull. The Trauma or chronical disease they suffer are the result of a "crime" against the blessings of the Goddess of Arts. That's a small hint from my side.
Thank to the faithful readers and brave souls who dived back again into another of my essays and also thanks to every new face here as well.. Hopefully I'll see you all again for the next Part!
***
2023.06.01 19:45 EpsilonX029 Crash error, need help solving issue
Every Compat is causing an issue and I'd really like to have it, but I'm not versed well enough to solve this. Please Help?
Crash log follows:
---- Minecraft Crash Report ----
// You should try our sister game, Minceraft!
Time: 2023-06-01 13:38:47
Description: Mod loading error has occurred
java.lang.Exception: Mod Loading has failed
A detailed walkthrough of the error, its code path and all known details is as follows:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Head --
Thread: Render thread
Stacktrace:
Details:
-- System Details --
Details:
submitted by EpsilonX029 to ModdedMinecraft [link] [comments]
Crash log follows:
---- Minecraft Crash Report ----
// You should try our sister game, Minceraft!
Time: 2023-06-01 13:38:47
Description: Mod loading error has occurred
java.lang.Exception: Mod Loading has failed
at net.minecraftforge.logging.CrashReportExtender.dumpModLoadingCrashReport([CrashReportExtender.java:55](https://CrashReportExtender.java:55)) \~\[forge-1.19.2-43.2.11-universal.jar%23332!/:?\] {re:classloading} at net.minecraftforge.client.loading.ClientModLoader.completeModLoading([ClientModLoader.java:167](https://ClientModLoader.java:167)) \~\[forge-1.19.2-43.2.11-universal.jar%23332!/:?\] {re:classloading,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.client.Minecraft.lambda$new$2([Minecraft.java:585](https://Minecraft.java:585)) \~\[client-1.19.2-20220805.130853-srg.jar%23327!/:?\] {re:mixin,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:mixin:APP:balm.mixins.json:MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:architectury.mixins.json:MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:cgm.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:blueprint.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:imm\_ptl.mixins.json:client.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:imm\_ptl.mixins.json:client.block\_manipulation.MixinMinecraft\_B,pl:mixin:APP:imm\_ptl.mixins.json:client.sync.MixinMinecraft\_RedirectedPacket,pl:mixin:APP:physicsmod.mixins.json:MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:physicsmod.mixins.json:cloth.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:physicsmod.mixins.json:fabricapi.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:immersiveengineering.mixins.json:accessors.client.MinecraftAccess,pl:mixin:APP:flywheel.mixins.json:PausedPartialTickAccessor,pl:mixin:APP:quark.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:byg\_forge.mixins.json:client.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:create.mixins.json:WindowResizeMixin,pl:mixin:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.Util.m\_137521\_([Util.java:438](https://Util.java:438)) \~\[client-1.19.2-20220805.130853-srg.jar%23327!/:?\] {re:mixin,re:classloading,pl:mixin:APP:bettermineshafts.mixins.json:SuppressLogMixin,pl:mixin:A} at net.minecraft.client.Minecraft.lambda$new$3([Minecraft.java:579](https://Minecraft.java:579)) \~\[client-1.19.2-20220805.130853-srg.jar%23327!/:?\] {re:mixin,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:mixin:APP:balm.mixins.json:MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:architectury.mixins.json:MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:cgm.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:blueprint.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:imm\_ptl.mixins.json:client.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:imm\_ptl.mixins.json:client.block\_manipulation.MixinMinecraft\_B,pl:mixin:APP:imm\_ptl.mixins.json:client.sync.MixinMinecraft\_RedirectedPacket,pl:mixin:APP:physicsmod.mixins.json:MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:physicsmod.mixins.json:cloth.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:physicsmod.mixins.json:fabricapi.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:immersiveengineering.mixins.json:accessors.client.MinecraftAccess,pl:mixin:APP:flywheel.mixins.json:PausedPartialTickAccessor,pl:mixin:APP:quark.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:byg\_forge.mixins.json:client.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:create.mixins.json:WindowResizeMixin,pl:mixin:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.client.gui.screens.LoadingOverlay.m\_6305\_([LoadingOverlay.java:135](https://LoadingOverlay.java:135)) \~\[client-1.19.2-20220805.130853-srg.jar%23327!/:?\] {re:classloading,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.client.renderer.GameRenderer.m\_109093\_([GameRenderer.java:885](https://GameRenderer.java:885)) \~\[client-1.19.2-20220805.130853-srg.jar%23327!/:?\] {re:mixin,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:mixin:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.client.Minecraft.m\_91383\_([Minecraft.java:1115](https://Minecraft.java:1115)) \~\[client-1.19.2-20220805.130853-srg.jar%23327!/:?\] {re:mixin,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:mixin:APP:balm.mixins.json:MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:architectury.mixins.json:MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:cgm.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:blueprint.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:imm\_ptl.mixins.json:client.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:imm\_ptl.mixins.json:client.block\_manipulation.MixinMinecraft\_B,pl:mixin:APP:imm\_ptl.mixins.json:client.sync.MixinMinecraft\_RedirectedPacket,pl:mixin:APP:physicsmod.mixins.json:MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:physicsmod.mixins.json:cloth.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:physicsmod.mixins.json:fabricapi.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:immersiveengineering.mixins.json:accessors.client.MinecraftAccess,pl:mixin:APP:flywheel.mixins.json:PausedPartialTickAccessor,pl:mixin:APP:quark.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:byg\_forge.mixins.json:client.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:create.mixins.json:WindowResizeMixin,pl:mixin:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.client.Minecraft.m\_91374\_([Minecraft.java:700](https://Minecraft.java:700)) \~\[client-1.19.2-20220805.130853-srg.jar%23327!/:?\] {re:mixin,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:mixin:APP:balm.mixins.json:MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:architectury.mixins.json:MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:cgm.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:blueprint.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:imm\_ptl.mixins.json:client.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:imm\_ptl.mixins.json:client.block\_manipulation.MixinMinecraft\_B,pl:mixin:APP:imm\_ptl.mixins.json:client.sync.MixinMinecraft\_RedirectedPacket,pl:mixin:APP:physicsmod.mixins.json:MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:physicsmod.mixins.json:cloth.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:physicsmod.mixins.json:fabricapi.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:immersiveengineering.mixins.json:accessors.client.MinecraftAccess,pl:mixin:APP:flywheel.mixins.json:PausedPartialTickAccessor,pl:mixin:APP:quark.mixins.json:client.MinecraftMixin,pl:mixin:APP:byg\_forge.mixins.json:client.MixinMinecraft,pl:mixin:APP:create.mixins.json:WindowResizeMixin,pl:mixin:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.client.main.Main.m\_239872\_([Main.java:212](https://Main.java:212)) \~\[client-1.19.2-20220805.130853-srg.jar%23327!/:?\] {re:classloading,re:mixin,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,pl:mixin:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.client.main.Main.main([Main.java:51](https://Main.java:51)) \~\[client-1.19.2-20220805.130853-srg.jar%23327!/:?\] {re:classloading,re:mixin,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,pl:mixin:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) \~\[?:?\] {} at jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke([NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:77](https://NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:77)) \~\[?:?\] {} at jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke([DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43](https://DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke([Method.java:568](https://Method.java:568)) \~\[?:?\] {} at net.minecraftforge.fml.loading.targets.CommonClientLaunchHandler.lambda$launchService$0([CommonClientLaunchHandler.java:27](https://CommonClientLaunchHandler.java:27)) \~\[fmlloader-1.19.2-43.2.11.jar%23101!/:?\] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.LaunchServiceHandlerDecorator.launch([LaunchServiceHandlerDecorator.java:30](https://LaunchServiceHandlerDecorator.java:30)) \[modlauncher-10.0.8.jar%2388!/:?\] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.LaunchServiceHandler.launch([LaunchServiceHandler.java:53](https://LaunchServiceHandler.java:53)) \[modlauncher-10.0.8.jar%2388!/:?\] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.LaunchServiceHandler.launch([LaunchServiceHandler.java:71](https://LaunchServiceHandler.java:71)) \[modlauncher-10.0.8.jar%2388!/:?\] {} at [cpw.mods.modlauncher.Launcher.run](https://cpw.mods.modlauncher.Launcher.run)([Launcher.java:106](https://Launcher.java:106)) \[modlauncher-10.0.8.jar%2388!/:?\] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.Launcher.main([Launcher.java:77](https://Launcher.java:77)) \[modlauncher-10.0.8.jar%2388!/:?\] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.BootstrapLaunchConsumer.accept([BootstrapLaunchConsumer.java:26](https://BootstrapLaunchConsumer.java:26)) \[modlauncher-10.0.8.jar%2388!/:?\] {} at cpw.mods.modlauncher.BootstrapLaunchConsumer.accept([BootstrapLaunchConsumer.java:23](https://BootstrapLaunchConsumer.java:23)) \[modlauncher-10.0.8.jar%2388!/:?\] {} at cpw.mods.bootstraplauncher.BootstrapLauncher.main([BootstrapLauncher.java:141](https://BootstrapLauncher.java:141)) \[bootstraplauncher-1.1.2.jar:?\] {}
A detailed walkthrough of the error, its code path and all known details is as follows:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Head --
Thread: Render thread
Stacktrace:
at jdk.internal.loader.BuiltinClassLoader.loadClass([BuiltinClassLoader.java:641](https://BuiltinClassLoader.java:641)) \~\[?:?\] {} -- MOD everycomp --Details:
Caused by 0: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException at jdk.internal.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method) \~\[?:?\] {} at jdk.internal.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance([NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:77](https://NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:77)) \~\[?:?\] {} at jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance([DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45](https://DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstanceWithCaller([Constructor.java:499](https://Constructor.java:499)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance([Constructor.java:480](https://Constructor.java:480)) \~\[?:?\] {} at net.minecraftforge.fml.javafmlmod.FMLModContainer.constructMod([FMLModContainer.java:68](https://FMLModContainer.java:68)) \~\[javafmllanguage-1.19.2-43.2.11.jar%23329!/:?\] {} at net.minecraftforge.fml.ModContainer.lambda$buildTransitionHandler$10([ModContainer.java:121](https://ModContainer.java:121)) \~\[fmlcore-1.19.2-43.2.11.jar%23328!/:?\] {} at [java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$AsyncRun.run](https://java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$AsyncRun.run)([CompletableFuture.java:1804](https://CompletableFuture.java:1804)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$AsyncRun.exec([CompletableFuture.java:1796](https://CompletableFuture.java:1796)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinTask.doExec([ForkJoinTask.java:373](https://ForkJoinTask.java:373)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool$WorkQueue.topLevelExec([ForkJoinPool.java:1182](https://ForkJoinPool.java:1182)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool.scan([ForkJoinPool.java:1655](https://ForkJoinPool.java:1655)) \~\[?:?\] {re:computing\_frames} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool.runWorker([ForkJoinPool.java:1622](https://ForkJoinPool.java:1622)) \~\[?:?\] {re:computing\_frames} at [java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinWorkerThread.run](https://java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinWorkerThread.run)([ForkJoinWorkerThread.java:165](https://ForkJoinWorkerThread.java:165)) \~\[?:?\] {} Caused by 1: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/simibubi/create/content/decoration/palettes/ConnectedGlassPaneBlock at net.mehvahdjukaar.every\_compat.forge.EveryCompatForge.lambda$new$7([EveryCompatForge.java:69](https://EveryCompatForge.java:69)) \~\[everycomp-1.19.2-2.4.9.jar%23273!/:?\] {re:classloading} at net.mehvahdjukaar.every\_compat.EveryCompat.addModule([EveryCompat.java:123](https://EveryCompat.java:123)) \~\[everycomp-1.19.2-2.4.9.jar%23273!/:?\] {re:classloading} at net.mehvahdjukaar.every\_compat.forge.EveryCompatForge.([EveryCompatForge.java:69](https://EveryCompatForge.java:69)) \~\[everycomp-1.19.2-2.4.9.jar%23273!/:?\] {re:classloading} at jdk.internal.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method) \~\[?:?\] {} at jdk.internal.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance([NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:77](https://NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:77)) \~\[?:?\] {} at jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance([DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45](https://DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstanceWithCaller([Constructor.java:499](https://Constructor.java:499)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance([Constructor.java:480](https://Constructor.java:480)) \~\[?:?\] {} at net.minecraftforge.fml.javafmlmod.FMLModContainer.constructMod([FMLModContainer.java:68](https://FMLModContainer.java:68)) \~\[javafmllanguage-1.19.2-43.2.11.jar%23329!/:?\] {} at net.minecraftforge.fml.ModContainer.lambda$buildTransitionHandler$10([ModContainer.java:121](https://ModContainer.java:121)) \~\[fmlcore-1.19.2-43.2.11.jar%23328!/:?\] {} at [java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$AsyncRun.run](https://java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$AsyncRun.run)([CompletableFuture.java:1804](https://CompletableFuture.java:1804)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$AsyncRun.exec([CompletableFuture.java:1796](https://CompletableFuture.java:1796)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinTask.doExec([ForkJoinTask.java:373](https://ForkJoinTask.java:373)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool$WorkQueue.topLevelExec([ForkJoinPool.java:1182](https://ForkJoinPool.java:1182)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool.scan([ForkJoinPool.java:1655](https://ForkJoinPool.java:1655)) \~\[?:?\] {re:computing\_frames} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool.runWorker([ForkJoinPool.java:1622](https://ForkJoinPool.java:1622)) \~\[?:?\] {re:computing\_frames} at [java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinWorkerThread.run](https://java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinWorkerThread.run)([ForkJoinWorkerThread.java:165](https://ForkJoinWorkerThread.java:165)) \~\[?:?\] {} Mod File: /C:/Users/Ethan/curseforge/minecraft/Instances/Modded 1.19.2/mods/everycomp-1.19.2-2.4.9.jar Failure message: Every Compat (everycomp) has failed to load correctly java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException: null Mod Version: 1.19.2-2.4.9 Mod Issue URL: [https://github.com/MehVahdJukaaevery\_compat/issues](https://github.com/MehVahdJukaaevery_compat/issues) Exception message: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.simibubi.create.content.decoration.palettes.ConnectedGlassPaneBlockStacktrace:
at jdk.internal.loader.BuiltinClassLoader.loadClass([BuiltinClassLoader.java:641](https://BuiltinClassLoader.java:641)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass([ClassLoader.java:520](https://ClassLoader.java:520)) \~\[?:?\] {} at cpw.mods.cl.ModuleClassLoader.loadClass([ModuleClassLoader.java:137](https://ModuleClassLoader.java:137)) \~\[securejarhandler-2.1.4.jar:?\] {} at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass([ClassLoader.java:520](https://ClassLoader.java:520)) \~\[?:?\] {} at cpw.mods.cl.ModuleClassLoader.loadClass([ModuleClassLoader.java:137](https://ModuleClassLoader.java:137)) \~\[securejarhandler-2.1.4.jar:?\] {} at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass([ClassLoader.java:520](https://ClassLoader.java:520)) \~\[?:?\] {} at net.mehvahdjukaar.every\_compat.forge.EveryCompatForge.lambda$new$7([EveryCompatForge.java:69](https://EveryCompatForge.java:69)) \~\[everycomp-1.19.2-2.4.9.jar%23273!/:?\] {re:classloading} at net.mehvahdjukaar.every\_compat.EveryCompat.addModule([EveryCompat.java:123](https://EveryCompat.java:123)) \~\[everycomp-1.19.2-2.4.9.jar%23273!/:?\] {re:classloading} at net.mehvahdjukaar.every\_compat.forge.EveryCompatForge.([EveryCompatForge.java:69](https://EveryCompatForge.java:69)) \~\[everycomp-1.19.2-2.4.9.jar%23273!/:?\] {re:classloading} at jdk.internal.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method) \~\[?:?\] {} at jdk.internal.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance([NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:77](https://NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:77)) \~\[?:?\] {} at jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance([DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45](https://DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstanceWithCaller([Constructor.java:499](https://Constructor.java:499)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance([Constructor.java:480](https://Constructor.java:480)) \~\[?:?\] {} at net.minecraftforge.fml.javafmlmod.FMLModContainer.constructMod([FMLModContainer.java:68](https://FMLModContainer.java:68)) \~\[javafmllanguage-1.19.2-43.2.11.jar%23329!/:?\] {} at net.minecraftforge.fml.ModContainer.lambda$buildTransitionHandler$10([ModContainer.java:121](https://ModContainer.java:121)) \~\[fmlcore-1.19.2-43.2.11.jar%23328!/:?\] {} at [java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$AsyncRun.run](https://java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$AsyncRun.run)([CompletableFuture.java:1804](https://CompletableFuture.java:1804)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$AsyncRun.exec([CompletableFuture.java:1796](https://CompletableFuture.java:1796)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinTask.doExec([ForkJoinTask.java:373](https://ForkJoinTask.java:373)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool$WorkQueue.topLevelExec([ForkJoinPool.java:1182](https://ForkJoinPool.java:1182)) \~\[?:?\] {} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool.scan([ForkJoinPool.java:1655](https://ForkJoinPool.java:1655)) \~\[?:?\] {re:computing\_frames} at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool.runWorker([ForkJoinPool.java:1622](https://ForkJoinPool.java:1622)) \~\[?:?\] {re:computing\_frames} at [java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinWorkerThread.run](https://java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinWorkerThread.run)([ForkJoinWorkerThread.java:165](https://ForkJoinWorkerThread.java:165)) \~\[?:?\] {}
-- System Details --
Details:
Minecraft Version: 1.19.2 Minecraft Version ID: 1.19.2 Operating System: Windows 10 (amd64) version 10.0 Java Version: 17.0.3, Microsoft Java VM Version: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (mixed mode), Microsoft Memory: 407197840 bytes (388 MiB) / 2084569088 bytes (1988 MiB) up to 8589934592 bytes (8192 MiB) CPUs: 12 Processor Vendor: AuthenticAMD Processor Name: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor Identifier: AuthenticAMD Family 23 Model 113 Stepping 0 Microarchitecture: Zen 2 Frequency (GHz): 3.59 Number of physical packages: 1 Number of physical CPUs: 6 Number of logical CPUs: 12 Graphics card #0 name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER Graphics card #0 vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de) Graphics card #0 VRAM (MB): 4095.00 Graphics card #0 deviceId: 0x21c4 Graphics card #0 versionInfo: DriverVersion=31.0.15.1694 Memory slot #0 capacity (MB): 8192.00 Memory slot #0 clockSpeed (GHz): 3.00 Memory slot #0 type: DDR4 Memory slot #1 capacity (MB): 8192.00 Memory slot #1 clockSpeed (GHz): 3.00 Memory slot #1 type: DDR4 Virtual memory max (MB): 28604.86 Virtual memory used (MB): 11274.75 Swap memory total (MB): 12288.00 Swap memory used (MB): 426.25 JVM Flags: 4 total; -XX:HeapDumpPath=MojangTricksIntelDriversForPerformance\_javaw.exe\_minecraft.exe.heapdump -Xss1M -Xmx8192m -Xms256m ModLauncher: 10.0.8+10.0.8+main.0ef7e830 ModLauncher launch target: forgeclient ModLauncher naming: srg ModLauncher services: mixin-0.8.5.jar mixin PLUGINSERVICE eventbus-6.0.3.jar eventbus PLUGINSERVICE fmlloader-1.19.2-43.2.11.jar slf4jfixer PLUGINSERVICE fmlloader-1.19.2-43.2.11.jar object\_holder\_definalize PLUGINSERVICE fmlloader-1.19.2-43.2.11.jar runtime\_enum\_extender PLUGINSERVICE fmlloader-1.19.2-43.2.11.jar capability\_token\_subclass PLUGINSERVICE accesstransformers-8.0.4.jar accesstransformer PLUGINSERVICE fmlloader-1.19.2-43.2.11.jar runtimedistcleaner PLUGINSERVICE modlauncher-10.0.8.jar mixin TRANSFORMATIONSERVICE modlauncher-10.0.8.jar fml TRANSFORMATIONSERVICE FML Language Providers: [email protected] [email protected] kotori\[email protected] [email protected] Mod List: YungsBetterDungeons-1.19.2-Forge-3.2.2.jar YUNG's Better Dungeons betterdungeons 1.19.2-Forge-3.2.2 COMMON\_SETManifest: NOSIGNATURE bettercrafts-1.2.0.jar bettercrafts bettercrafts 1.2.0 COMMON\_SETManifest: NOSIGNATURE v\_slab\_compat-1.19.2-1.4.jar Vertical Slabs Compat v\_slab\_compat 1.19.2-1.4 COMMON\_SETManifest: NOSIGNATURE naturalist-forge-3.0.3a-1.19.2.jar Naturalist naturalist 3.0.3a COMMON\_SETManifest: NOSIGNATURE paragon-forge-3.0.2-1.19x.jar Paragon paragon 3.0.2 COMMON\_SETManifest: NOSIGNATURE rsgauges-1.19.2-forge-1.2.18.jar Gauges and Switches rsgauges 1.2.18 COMMON\_SETManifest: bf:30:76:97:e4:58:41:61:2a:f4:30:d3:8f:4c:e3:71:1d:14:c4:a1:4e:85:36:e3:1d:aa:2f:cb:22:b0:04:9b mcwfurnituresbop-1.19.2-1.2.jar Macaw's Furnitures - BOP mcwfurnituresbop 1.19.2-1.2 COMMON\_SETManifest: NOSIGNATURE cookingforblockheads-forge-1.19.2-13.3.2.jar CookingForBlockheads cookingforblockheads 13.3.2 COMMON\_SETManifest: NOSIGNATURE YungsApi-1.19.2-Forge-3.8.9.jar YUNG's API yungsapi 1.19.2-Forge-3.8.9 COMMON\_SETManifest: NOSIGNATURE Powah-4.0.10.jar Powah powah 4.0.10 COMMON\_SETManifest: NOSIGNATURE additional-guns-0.8.2-1.19.2.jar Additional Guns additionalguns 0.8.2 COMMON\_SETManifest: NOSIGNATURE guardvillagers-1.19.2-1.5.5.jar Guard Villagers guardvillagers 1.19.2-1.5.5 COMMON\_SETManifest: NOSIGNATURE Steam\_Rails-1.2.6+forge-mc1.19.2.jar Create: Steam 'n Rails railways 1.2.6+forge-mc1.19.2COMMON\_SETManifest: NOSIGNATURE balm-forge-1.19.2-4.5.7.jar Balm balm 4.5.7 COMMON\_SETManifest: NOSIGNATURE cloth-config-8.2.88-forge.jar Cloth Config v8 API cloth\_config 8.2.88 COMMON\_SETManifest: NOSIGNATURE soundphysics-forge-1.19.2-1.0.18.jar Sound Physics Remastered sound\_physics\_remastered 1.19.2-1.0.18 COMMON\_SETManifest: NOSIGNATURE indreb-1.19.2-0.14.2.jar Industrial Reborn indreb 1.19.2-0.14.2 COMMON\_SETManifest: NOSIGNATURE 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2023.06.01 18:44 eyeofhorus919 Grimmaldus, the Titan.
O----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------O
Gender: Male
Age: 1,052
Family and Relations: None.
Voice Claim/Accent: American
Role in a party: DPS Tank
Level: 2 (4/10)
Stats:
Strength:4
Dexterity:5
Constitution:2
Intelligence:5(+1 from racial)
Wisdom:1
Charisma:3
Spirit:0
Personality: Kind and bigger than life.
Likes: Forges, LMGs, and other high power firearms
Dislikes: Pancor Jackhammer, Goblins, and Eldritch monsters.
Weight: 426
Hair: black
Eyes: blue
Markings/Scars/Tattoos: Scratch marks on his cheeks.
Extra: Has three platinum studs in his skull above his eyebrow.
Appearance:
Armor and armor attachments:
Armor set: Emperor’s Angel.
Helmet: Prateor’s Visage (Legendary) - ”Crush them…slaughter them.”
Weapons/Other:
Uses Strength to be thrown, deals X1.5 damage when thrown, if it hits and is retrieved Merek is healed for 25% health.
Deals 1d12+STR blunt (or the same amount of piercing if used with the pointed end) and 1d4+INT burning on a hit.
If not retrieved before three rounds are up after being thrown this hammer vanishes and reappears attached to his belt after six rounds.
Deals 5 burn damage but makes five attacks due to burst fire, this damage is boosted to 8 burn per shot against armored targets.
After firing thirty shots, the gun can release the heat generated by the plasma going out in a shotgun like blast of energy.
Deals 25 plasma (Unable to be healed in combat) + 1d20 plasma to a single target up to thirty feet away.
Silenced shots.
Deals 2d20 blast damage.
Kraken missiles: ignores armor bonuses, deals quadruple damage to armored vehicles and double armor wearing enemies.
Antipersonal: hits all enemies within ten feet of the target, deals double damage to unarmored targets.
Flak shot: Flying enemies automatically are grounded when hit, advantage against airborne enemies.
Energy surge: On a hit apply a 15+intelligence DC, on a failed save all electronics within ten feet of the target are shut off.
Takes ten rounds to load a barrel. (Passive)
Can be fired as a bonus action or fired all at once with a attack action.
• Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi: ”A legendary blade who’s name literally translates to “Grass-Cutter”. This blade is said to be able to cut through almost anything and is practically indestructible. In earlier legends, this blade was associated with the clouds or winds and said to have been wielded by Amaterasu, the sun goddess of Japanese mythology. Because of this, it is able to emit a powerful gust of wind every 4 rounds which can knock opponents back a good distance.”
Deals 2d6+DEX slash damage that ignores nonenchanted armor and slash resistance. Can be used to parry and block energy weapons.
Upon using the attack action with this gun attack the same target three times or attack three targets.
Deals double damage to zombies.
Has the ability to apply knockback to any enemies inside of ten feet to send them to thirty feet back. Cooldown of four rounds.
Capacity: sixty shells
Loading time: three actions.
Capacity: 9 bullets.
Uses Perception and Intelligence.
Deals 1d6 piercing per shot. Deals triple damage on a crit, crit chance of 18.
Burst: Once per ten rounds tag 3+wielder’s level amount of targets or a single target that many times, firing that many times in a single action.
Burst can only be used by cyborgs, while wearing power armor, or wearing sci fi optical wear and a mechanical arm sleeve.
Magical Null: Merek is unable to be healed by spells or learn magic.
(-3 slots)
Racials:
Artificial Human Bound Monster: Merek’s nature as a HBM made his body stronger and his mind sharper than it had been in life, his body actually becoming unaging and a bit bigger than he was in life originally.
Plus one to strength and intelligence.
Unaging (appears 41)
Superhuman body: Falling damage from a fall up to 10 stories is nullified, all other is subjected to a 90% reduction.
Secret’s in the armor: Grimmaldus can only wear his Imperium Armor set and it replaces stats. The armor gains power as Grimmaldus levels up.
Passives:
Combat Mastery: Grimmaldus moves surprisingly fast when it comes to combat,
Actives:
Hammer of Dawn: Merek’s strongest SG given ability, during it he summons a massive burning hammer and swings it about, smashing bones and burning away his enemies with his Servo Ghost’s plasma. While the hammer itself is extremely powerful it has even more powerful abilities than simply swinging it about, using them results in draining the Phoenix flames that fuel his hammer.
For every attack of Merek’s that lands and enemy attack blocked gain half of the damage dealt in Phoenix Flames, upon reaching 100% Phoenix Flames the Hammer of Dawn can be summoned.
Weapon stats:
Has a plus 3 to attacks.
Deals (LVL)d8+STR in blunt and a additional (lvl)d4+INT in burn damage.
Requires both hands to swing, can be held with one hand. For every round held drain Phoenix Flames by 10%.
Eruption: Merek brings his hammer up and back down, leaping ten feet into the air to slam his hammer into the ground and discharge a blast of flames through the ground and into a single target.
This attack has advantage and adds intelligence modifiers to it.
Drains ten percent Phoenix Flames in addition to the round drained amount.
Dawnguard’s Wrath: Merek’s Phoenix flames wreath his arms and body, blessing his body with sheer strength and speed enough to unleash a flurry of three blows in the span where one should be done…
Grants the ability to attack three times per attack action while wielding Hammer of Dawn but consumes 10% Phoenix Flames per use.
(Ten slots)
Ignition Burst: Merek makes a ball of plasma in the palm of his left hand, contained by electro magnetic fields before being flung like a baseball at a target, upon sticking it burns into the target before exploding!
Deals (Lvl)D6+INT burn damage, this weapon is considered sticky, dealing (X1.5) more damage upon a successful stick. Explosion radius of 4 feet.
Uses Intelligence for casting.
Cooldown of 6 rounds hit or Miss.
(3 slots)
submitted by eyeofhorus919 to TheOakShack [link] [comments]
- general information.
Gender: Male
Age: 1,052
Family and Relations: None.
Voice Claim/Accent: American
Role in a party: DPS Tank
Level: 2 (4/10)
Stats:
Strength:4
Dexterity:5
Constitution:2
Intelligence:5(+1 from racial)
Wisdom:1
Charisma:3
Spirit:0
- Personality Info
Personality: Kind and bigger than life.
Likes: Forges, LMGs, and other high power firearms
Dislikes: Pancor Jackhammer, Goblins, and Eldritch monsters.
- Physical Description
Weight: 426
Hair: black
Eyes: blue
Markings/Scars/Tattoos: Scratch marks on his cheeks.
Extra: Has three platinum studs in his skull above his eyebrow.
Appearance:
- Equipment [Pictures also suffice]:
Armor and armor attachments:
- Assault Pack: A even stronger version of the jump pack, boasting two massive thrusters as well as a energy field projecter designed to allow for the power armor wearing user to crash down like god himself among enemies.
Armor set: Emperor’s Angel.
Helmet: Prateor’s Visage (Legendary) - ”Crush them…slaughter them.”
- Armor Mods - Heads-Up Display (Unlocked): A tactical visor which displays necessary biometric and target-acquisition data. Provides a +2 bonus to Perception rolls
- Armor Mods - Treasure Finder (Unlocked): A specialized radar which allows for the detection of hidden treasure in a 15ft radius around the user. Cannot detect treasure hidden by supernatural means.
- Armor Mods - Terrain Anomaly Detection System, T.A.D.S. (Unlocks at PC Lvl 3): An A.I. image processing unit constantly scans the terrain within view of the user, highlighting any anomalies such as footprints, claw marks, etc. for easy detection.
- Armor Mods - Striker (Unlocked): A sufficiently light alloy ensures fluid movement while covered in armor. +2 to dodge rolls and to unarmed strike attacks such as punches.
- Armor Mods - Punches of Power (Unlocked): Every punch made has a chance of dropping an orb of power. Roll a d10, if it lands on 1, an Orb of Power is made. When an Orb of Power is generated it is automatically collected by its producer. When collected an Orb of Power reduces the cooldown of the producer’s Super Ability by 1 round. (Gives Grimmaldus 10 Phoenix flame)
- Armor Mods - Tempered Rage (Unlocks at PC Lvl 3): Every successful 5 unarmed strikes performed grants a temporary buff to all further unarmed strikes for 2 rounds. Upon being buffed unarmed strikes deal 3% damage than they would normally.
- Armor Mods - Strong Alloy (Unlocked): A stronger metal alloy ensures the wearer of this armor’s safety even more so than before. Takes 20% less damage from Piercing and Slashing sources.
- Armor Mods - Anti-Magic Alloy (Unlocked): A safe Hive spell has been cast on this armor, making it slightly resistant to magic attacks. Takes 20% less damage from magic sources.
- Armor Mods - Dense Alloy (Unlocks at PC Lvl 3): The alloy of this armor has been increased in width, allowing for greater concussive force to be absorbed while mitigating damage as much as possible. Takes 20% less damage from Bludgeoning Sources.
- Armor Perks - Locked n’ Loaded: Weapons which take multiple rounds to reload have that time cut in half. Weapons which take one round to reload are instantly reloaded when stowed away. Allows you to pull out weapons much faster and provides a +2 bonus to initiative rolls.
- Armor Mods - Spring-Loaded Soles (Unlocked): Newly added suspension system quite literally gives the user a spring in their step, providing a +2 bonus to movement rolls as well as allowing the user to jump an extra 5 feet.
- Armor Mods - All-Terrain Boots (Unlocks at PC Lvl 2): A heap of modifications have allowed the user to properly traverse almost any terrain. Toggleable magnetic plates allow the user to walk up walls and across ceilings without issue as well as stick to any solid surface with an attraction force of about 50 pounds. Magnetic plates do not slow movement speed.
- Armor Mods - Even Springier Soles (Unlocks at PC Lvl 3): Previous spring-loaded suspension system has been upgraded, giving a +3 to movement rolls instead of 2 and allowing the user to jump an extra 10 feet in the air.
- Servo Ghost: The source of his power, this tiny skull like companion is at the moment broken, keeping it from bringing him back from death beyond what it already has but it’s ability to grant him access to pure plasma and electromagnetic fields to contain them as well as protect him from the Phoenix Flame protocol.
- Rosarius: A necklace/amulet that can be tied to a belt, the amulet contains technology that produces a transparent field of energy that turns tiny objects and energy moving at high speeds through it into light.
Weapons/Other:
Uses Strength to be thrown, deals X1.5 damage when thrown, if it hits and is retrieved Merek is healed for 25% health.
Deals 1d12+STR blunt (or the same amount of piercing if used with the pointed end) and 1d4+INT burning on a hit.
If not retrieved before three rounds are up after being thrown this hammer vanishes and reappears attached to his belt after six rounds.
- P10K: A two handed SMG designed after a old world P90 but takes energy cells, the same shape, mag load area, and the silencer on it resulting in the weapon being perfect for Merek due to him being from modern day earth and used to the SMG. The main body of it is designed with a mag lock body, resulting in it sticking to armor when not needed and the tube at the end not only helps to hide the source of the shots by hiding the flash but also lowering the already quiet Energy weapon.
Deals 5 burn damage but makes five attacks due to burst fire, this damage is boosted to 8 burn per shot against armored targets.
After firing thirty shots, the gun can release the heat generated by the plasma going out in a shotgun like blast of energy.
Deals 25 plasma (Unable to be healed in combat) + 1d20 plasma to a single target up to thirty feet away.
Silenced shots.
- Whirlwind Launcher: A armor module that attaches to any form of armor, as well as allowing for impulse control or manual controls. The unit typically remains folded into a small orb with a rectangle to the side but when unfolded forms four rocket launchers loaded with smart ammo.
Deals 2d20 blast damage.
Kraken missiles: ignores armor bonuses, deals quadruple damage to armored vehicles and double armor wearing enemies.
Antipersonal: hits all enemies within ten feet of the target, deals double damage to unarmored targets.
Flak shot: Flying enemies automatically are grounded when hit, advantage against airborne enemies.
Energy surge: On a hit apply a 15+intelligence DC, on a failed save all electronics within ten feet of the target are shut off.
Takes ten rounds to load a barrel. (Passive)
Can be fired as a bonus action or fired all at once with a attack action.
• Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi: ”A legendary blade who’s name literally translates to “Grass-Cutter”. This blade is said to be able to cut through almost anything and is practically indestructible. In earlier legends, this blade was associated with the clouds or winds and said to have been wielded by Amaterasu, the sun goddess of Japanese mythology. Because of this, it is able to emit a powerful gust of wind every 4 rounds which can knock opponents back a good distance.”
Deals 2d6+DEX slash damage that ignores nonenchanted armor and slash resistance. Can be used to parry and block energy weapons.
- Komodo shotgun: A belt fed shotgun designed for clearing out zombie infested ships, the heavy gun contains a means of blasting back groups of people to buy the wielder time to reload due to a gravity engine built into the gun under the barrel.
Upon using the attack action with this gun attack the same target three times or attack three targets.
Deals double damage to zombies.
Has the ability to apply knockback to any enemies inside of ten feet to send them to thirty feet back. Cooldown of four rounds.
Capacity: sixty shells
Loading time: three actions.
Capacity: 9 bullets.
Uses Perception and Intelligence.
Deals 1d6 piercing per shot. Deals triple damage on a crit, crit chance of 18.
Burst: Once per ten rounds tag 3+wielder’s level amount of targets or a single target that many times, firing that many times in a single action.
Burst can only be used by cyborgs, while wearing power armor, or wearing sci fi optical wear and a mechanical arm sleeve.
- abilities:
Magical Null: Merek is unable to be healed by spells or learn magic.
(-3 slots)
Racials:
Artificial Human Bound Monster: Merek’s nature as a HBM made his body stronger and his mind sharper than it had been in life, his body actually becoming unaging and a bit bigger than he was in life originally.
Plus one to strength and intelligence.
Unaging (appears 41)
Superhuman body: Falling damage from a fall up to 10 stories is nullified, all other is subjected to a 90% reduction.
Secret’s in the armor: Grimmaldus can only wear his Imperium Armor set and it replaces stats. The armor gains power as Grimmaldus levels up.
Passives:
Combat Mastery: Grimmaldus moves surprisingly fast when it comes to combat,
Actives:
Hammer of Dawn: Merek’s strongest SG given ability, during it he summons a massive burning hammer and swings it about, smashing bones and burning away his enemies with his Servo Ghost’s plasma. While the hammer itself is extremely powerful it has even more powerful abilities than simply swinging it about, using them results in draining the Phoenix flames that fuel his hammer.
For every attack of Merek’s that lands and enemy attack blocked gain half of the damage dealt in Phoenix Flames, upon reaching 100% Phoenix Flames the Hammer of Dawn can be summoned.
Weapon stats:
Has a plus 3 to attacks.
Deals (LVL)d8+STR in blunt and a additional (lvl)d4+INT in burn damage.
Requires both hands to swing, can be held with one hand. For every round held drain Phoenix Flames by 10%.
Eruption: Merek brings his hammer up and back down, leaping ten feet into the air to slam his hammer into the ground and discharge a blast of flames through the ground and into a single target.
This attack has advantage and adds intelligence modifiers to it.
Drains ten percent Phoenix Flames in addition to the round drained amount.
Dawnguard’s Wrath: Merek’s Phoenix flames wreath his arms and body, blessing his body with sheer strength and speed enough to unleash a flurry of three blows in the span where one should be done…
Grants the ability to attack three times per attack action while wielding Hammer of Dawn but consumes 10% Phoenix Flames per use.
(Ten slots)
Ignition Burst: Merek makes a ball of plasma in the palm of his left hand, contained by electro magnetic fields before being flung like a baseball at a target, upon sticking it burns into the target before exploding!
Deals (Lvl)D6+INT burn damage, this weapon is considered sticky, dealing (X1.5) more damage upon a successful stick. Explosion radius of 4 feet.
Uses Intelligence for casting.
Cooldown of 6 rounds hit or Miss.
(3 slots)
- backstory: Merek was a spec ops in life, helping to train American troops in Europe with a captured AS Val, showing them how it could not only pierce body armor but also served as a suppressed sniper rifle or a SMG. Eventually he was shifted over to training with the P90 and literally fell in love with it, the ambidextrous grip, top loading mag, and the over all length of it helped the fact that it was made to RIP armor into fragmentation made it all the better. However, before he could start training other soldiers with it, he was trampled to death when a mounted cop’s horse was spooked by a car back firing, his broken body resurrected via the Ghost Servo’s Phoenix protocols in order to have a outlet for it’s power.
2023.06.01 18:38 Superteletubbies64 [H] Games [W] Paypal, The Darkest Tales, Symphony of War, Ashina: The Red Witch, Fates of Ort, Ace Attorney Trilogy, Hidden Through Time, Super Alloy Ranger, Treasures of the Aegean, Coromon, No Straight Roads, zombotron, Dusk Diver (maybe), Princess Farmer (maybe)
I'm selling these for Paypal (my region is EU and buyer covers the fees if not from EU, I do not have set prices) or could trade non-headliner games for one of the games in the title I want. Not interested in anything else, i will ignore any lists of random games
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters
Operation Tango
The Invisible Hand
I do not have a set price in mind for any of the games, if you ask "how much for?" you'll be asked if you have a price in mind. Only exception would be one of the indie games for Coromon or Lil Gator Game
Lost Planet 3 - Complete Pack
Strider
Orbital Bullet – The 360° Rogue-lite (might keep)
Death STranding Director's Cut (might keep)
Life is STrange 2 Complete Season (might keep)
Revita (might keep)
Just looking for Coromon and the games in the title and Paypal (my region is EU), nothing else. If you offer a huge list of games or anything that's not in the title or on my wishlist you might get blocked for not having basic reading comprehension
I know Coromon is in a pricy build your own bundle rn so could do multiple smaller games for it but no ridiculous offers please
https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/diamond-collection-build-your-own-bundle
Only interested in Paypal offers and games in the title don't comment if you don't have either to offer. For AAA games I'm only taking Paypal offers, not trades Any comments with lists of random games I likely already own will be ignored and possibly blocked. My region is EU, if you are outside of EU you have to cover Paypal fees. I do not have a set price for anything, if you ask "how much for" you'll be asked if you have a price in mind.
Golden Light
Batora: Lost Haven (might keep)
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
112 Operator
Agent in Depth
Alchemist's Castle
Arcade Spirits
Death Squared
Detached: Non-VR Edition
Doughlings: Arcade
Doughlings: Invasion
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Farming Simulator 17
Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue (might keep)
Frick, Inc.
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
Guns & Fishes
Hack 'n' Slash
Hyper Gunsport
Izmir: An Independence Simulator
Little Orpheus (might keep)
Lust from Beyond: M Edition
Meow Express
MirrorMoon EP
Monaco
Mount & Blade: Warband
Non-Stop Raiders
Orbital Racer
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
PAYDAY 2
Planet TD
Project Chemistry
Quadrata
Remnants of Naezith
Rym 9000
Soul Searching
Soulblight
Soulflow
Space Crew: Legendary Edition
Stacking
Stick Fight: The Game
Strange Brigade
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
Sunlight
SYMMETRY
System Shock 2
The Amazing American Circus
The Inner World
Ticket to Ride
Worms Rumble
XCOM 2
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack
Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition
DARQ (might keep)
Fallout
Othercide (might keep)
GameGuru Classic STAR WARS™: Knights of the Old Republic™ Driftland: The Magic Revival Red Faction: Armageddon Puzzle Chronicles STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy™ STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast™ Distrust Radio Commander
Main Assembly
RPG Maker VX (may keep)
Hamilton's Great Adventure
[Amnesia: The Dark Descent](httpsa://store.steampowered.com/app/57300/)
LEGO® MARVEL's Avengers (may keep)
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD (may keep)
Dungeon of the ENDLESS™
Go Home Dinosaurs!
Soulblight
Lust for Darkness
RPG Maker VX Ace - DS Resource Pack
RPG Maker VX Ace - Zombie Survival Graphic Pack
Iron Danger (may keep)
The Swindle
Morbid: The Seven Acolytes
Amnesia: Rebirth
X-Morph: Defense
Treasure Hunter Simulator
Orbital Racer
Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes 2 (may keep)
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
Monsters' Den Chronicles
Telefrag VR
NecroWorm
We are alright (Wszystko z nami w porządku)
RPG Maker VX Ace - Old School Modern Graphics Pack 2
Rebel Cops
Farmer's Dynasty
The Plague: Kingdom Wars
PlataGO!
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes (may keep)
Bang-On Balls: Chronicles (may keep)
Jetboard Joust
Forgive Me Father (may keep)
Aliens vs. Predator Collection
LEGO® Star Wars™ III: The Clone Wars™
Golf Gang
Maid of Sker
Hedon Bloodrite (may keep)
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning FATE Edition (may keep)
Blade Assault (may keep)
DOOM Eternal (may keep)
Grow: Song of the Evertree (may keep)
Scribble It! - Premium Edition
[Liberated] (GOG)
[Wanderlust Travel Stories] (GOG)
My full list of games: https://barter.vg80b7/t/ (this link might be more up to date than the list above)
Full wishlist (bundled games are at the top so you don't have to scroll through tons of unbundled and upcoming games): https://barter.vg80b7/w/f/?filter=0,17,0,0
https://store.steampowered.com/wishlist/id/superteletubbies64/
IGSRep (no longer updating): https://old.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/p7k848/superteletubbies64s_igs_rep_page/
submitted by Superteletubbies64 to GameTrade [link] [comments]
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters
Operation Tango
The Invisible Hand
I do not have a set price in mind for any of the games, if you ask "how much for?" you'll be asked if you have a price in mind. Only exception would be one of the indie games for Coromon or Lil Gator Game
Lost Planet 3 - Complete Pack
Strider
Orbital Bullet – The 360° Rogue-lite (might keep)
Death STranding Director's Cut (might keep)
Life is STrange 2 Complete Season (might keep)
Revita (might keep)
Just looking for Coromon and the games in the title and Paypal (my region is EU), nothing else. If you offer a huge list of games or anything that's not in the title or on my wishlist you might get blocked for not having basic reading comprehension
I know Coromon is in a pricy build your own bundle rn so could do multiple smaller games for it but no ridiculous offers please
https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/diamond-collection-build-your-own-bundle
Only interested in Paypal offers and games in the title don't comment if you don't have either to offer. For AAA games I'm only taking Paypal offers, not trades Any comments with lists of random games I likely already own will be ignored and possibly blocked. My region is EU, if you are outside of EU you have to cover Paypal fees. I do not have a set price for anything, if you ask "how much for" you'll be asked if you have a price in mind.
Golden Light
Batora: Lost Haven (might keep)
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
112 Operator
Agent in Depth
Alchemist's Castle
Arcade Spirits
Death Squared
Detached: Non-VR Edition
Doughlings: Arcade
Doughlings: Invasion
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Farming Simulator 17
Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue (might keep)
Frick, Inc.
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
Guns & Fishes
Hack 'n' Slash
Hyper Gunsport
Izmir: An Independence Simulator
Little Orpheus (might keep)
Lust from Beyond: M Edition
Meow Express
MirrorMoon EP
Monaco
Mount & Blade: Warband
Non-Stop Raiders
Orbital Racer
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
PAYDAY 2
Planet TD
Project Chemistry
Quadrata
Remnants of Naezith
Rym 9000
Soul Searching
Soulblight
Soulflow
Space Crew: Legendary Edition
Stacking
Stick Fight: The Game
Strange Brigade
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
Sunlight
SYMMETRY
System Shock 2
The Amazing American Circus
The Inner World
Ticket to Ride
Worms Rumble
XCOM 2
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack
Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition
DARQ (might keep)
Fallout
Othercide (might keep)
GameGuru Classic STAR WARS™: Knights of the Old Republic™ Driftland: The Magic Revival Red Faction: Armageddon Puzzle Chronicles STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy™ STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast™ Distrust Radio Commander
Main Assembly
RPG Maker VX (may keep)
Hamilton's Great Adventure
[Amnesia: The Dark Descent](httpsa://store.steampowered.com/app/57300/)
LEGO® MARVEL's Avengers (may keep)
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD (may keep)
Dungeon of the ENDLESS™
Go Home Dinosaurs!
Soulblight
Lust for Darkness
RPG Maker VX Ace - DS Resource Pack
RPG Maker VX Ace - Zombie Survival Graphic Pack
Iron Danger (may keep)
The Swindle
Morbid: The Seven Acolytes
Amnesia: Rebirth
X-Morph: Defense
Treasure Hunter Simulator
Orbital Racer
Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes 2 (may keep)
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
Monsters' Den Chronicles
Telefrag VR
NecroWorm
We are alright (Wszystko z nami w porządku)
RPG Maker VX Ace - Old School Modern Graphics Pack 2
Rebel Cops
Farmer's Dynasty
The Plague: Kingdom Wars
PlataGO!
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes (may keep)
Bang-On Balls: Chronicles (may keep)
Jetboard Joust
Forgive Me Father (may keep)
Aliens vs. Predator Collection
LEGO® Star Wars™ III: The Clone Wars™
Golf Gang
Maid of Sker
Hedon Bloodrite (may keep)
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning FATE Edition (may keep)
Blade Assault (may keep)
DOOM Eternal (may keep)
Grow: Song of the Evertree (may keep)
Scribble It! - Premium Edition
[Liberated] (GOG)
[Wanderlust Travel Stories] (GOG)
My full list of games: https://barter.vg80b7/t/ (this link might be more up to date than the list above)
Full wishlist (bundled games are at the top so you don't have to scroll through tons of unbundled and upcoming games): https://barter.vg80b7/w/f/?filter=0,17,0,0
https://store.steampowered.com/wishlist/id/superteletubbies64/
IGSRep (no longer updating): https://old.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/p7k848/superteletubbies64s_igs_rep_page/
2023.06.01 18:38 Superteletubbies64 [H] Games [W] Paypal, The Darkest Tales, Symphony of War, Ashina: The Red Witch, Fates of Ort, Ace Attorney Trilogy, Hidden Through Time, Super Alloy Ranger, Treasures of the Aegean, Coromon, No Straight Roads, zombotron, Dusk Diver (maybe), Princess Farmer (maybe)
I'm selling these for Paypal (my region is EU and buyer covers the fees if not from EU, I do not have set prices) or could trade non-headliner games for one of the games in the title I want. Not interested in anything else, i will ignore any lists of random games
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters
Operation Tango
The Invisible Hand
I do not have a set price in mind for any of the games, if you ask "how much for?" you'll be asked if you have a price in mind. Only exception would be one of the indie games for Coromon or Lil Gator Game
Lost Planet 3 - Complete Pack
Strider
Orbital Bullet – The 360° Rogue-lite (might keep)
Death STranding Director's Cut (might keep)
Life is STrange 2 Complete Season (might keep)
Revita (might keep)
Just looking for Coromon and the games in the title and Paypal (my region is EU), nothing else. If you offer a huge list of games or anything that's not in the title or on my wishlist you might get blocked for not having basic reading comprehension
I know Coromon is in a pricy build your own bundle rn so could do multiple smaller games for it but no ridiculous offers please
https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/diamond-collection-build-your-own-bundle
Only interested in Paypal offers and games in the title don't comment if you don't have either to offer. For AAA games I'm only taking Paypal offers, not trades Any comments with lists of random games I likely already own will be ignored and possibly blocked. My region is EU, if you are outside of EU you have to cover Paypal fees. I do not have a set price for anything, if you ask "how much for" you'll be asked if you have a price in mind.
Golden Light
Batora: Lost Haven (might keep)
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
112 Operator
Agent in Depth
Alchemist's Castle
Arcade Spirits
Death Squared
Detached: Non-VR Edition
Doughlings: Arcade
Doughlings: Invasion
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Farming Simulator 17
Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue (might keep)
Frick, Inc.
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
Guns & Fishes
Hack 'n' Slash
Hyper Gunsport
Izmir: An Independence Simulator
Little Orpheus (might keep)
Lust from Beyond: M Edition
Meow Express
MirrorMoon EP
Monaco
Mount & Blade: Warband
Non-Stop Raiders
Orbital Racer
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
PAYDAY 2
Planet TD
Project Chemistry
Quadrata
Remnants of Naezith
Rym 9000
Soul Searching
Soulblight
Soulflow
Space Crew: Legendary Edition
Stacking
Stick Fight: The Game
Strange Brigade
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
Sunlight
SYMMETRY
System Shock 2
The Amazing American Circus
The Inner World
Ticket to Ride
Worms Rumble
XCOM 2
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack
Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition
DARQ (might keep)
Fallout
Othercide (might keep)
GameGuru Classic STAR WARS™: Knights of the Old Republic™ Driftland: The Magic Revival Red Faction: Armageddon Puzzle Chronicles STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy™ STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast™ Distrust Radio Commander
Main Assembly
RPG Maker VX (may keep)
Hamilton's Great Adventure
[Amnesia: The Dark Descent](httpsa://store.steampowered.com/app/57300/)
LEGO® MARVEL's Avengers (may keep)
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD (may keep)
Dungeon of the ENDLESS™
Go Home Dinosaurs!
Soulblight
Lust for Darkness
RPG Maker VX Ace - DS Resource Pack
RPG Maker VX Ace - Zombie Survival Graphic Pack
Iron Danger (may keep)
The Swindle
Morbid: The Seven Acolytes
Amnesia: Rebirth
X-Morph: Defense
Treasure Hunter Simulator
Orbital Racer
Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes 2 (may keep)
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
Monsters' Den Chronicles
Telefrag VR
NecroWorm
We are alright (Wszystko z nami w porządku)
RPG Maker VX Ace - Old School Modern Graphics Pack 2
Rebel Cops
Farmer's Dynasty
The Plague: Kingdom Wars
PlataGO!
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes (may keep)
Bang-On Balls: Chronicles (may keep)
Jetboard Joust
Forgive Me Father (may keep)
Aliens vs. Predator Collection
LEGO® Star Wars™ III: The Clone Wars™
Golf Gang
Maid of Sker
Hedon Bloodrite (may keep)
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning FATE Edition (may keep)
Blade Assault (may keep)
DOOM Eternal (may keep)
Grow: Song of the Evertree (may keep)
Scribble It! - Premium Edition
[Liberated] (GOG)
[Wanderlust Travel Stories] (GOG)
My full list of games: https://barter.vg80b7/t/ (this link might be more up to date than the list above)
Full wishlist (bundled games are at the top so you don't have to scroll through tons of unbundled and upcoming games): https://barter.vg80b7/w/f/?filter=0,17,0,0
https://store.steampowered.com/wishlist/id/superteletubbies64/
IGSRep (no longer updating): https://old.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/p7k848/superteletubbies64s_igs_rep_page/
submitted by Superteletubbies64 to indiegameswap [link] [comments]
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters
Operation Tango
The Invisible Hand
I do not have a set price in mind for any of the games, if you ask "how much for?" you'll be asked if you have a price in mind. Only exception would be one of the indie games for Coromon or Lil Gator Game
Lost Planet 3 - Complete Pack
Strider
Orbital Bullet – The 360° Rogue-lite (might keep)
Death STranding Director's Cut (might keep)
Life is STrange 2 Complete Season (might keep)
Revita (might keep)
Just looking for Coromon and the games in the title and Paypal (my region is EU), nothing else. If you offer a huge list of games or anything that's not in the title or on my wishlist you might get blocked for not having basic reading comprehension
I know Coromon is in a pricy build your own bundle rn so could do multiple smaller games for it but no ridiculous offers please
https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/diamond-collection-build-your-own-bundle
Only interested in Paypal offers and games in the title don't comment if you don't have either to offer. For AAA games I'm only taking Paypal offers, not trades Any comments with lists of random games I likely already own will be ignored and possibly blocked. My region is EU, if you are outside of EU you have to cover Paypal fees. I do not have a set price for anything, if you ask "how much for" you'll be asked if you have a price in mind.
Golden Light
Batora: Lost Haven (might keep)
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
112 Operator
Agent in Depth
Alchemist's Castle
Arcade Spirits
Death Squared
Detached: Non-VR Edition
Doughlings: Arcade
Doughlings: Invasion
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Farming Simulator 17
Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue (might keep)
Frick, Inc.
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
Guns & Fishes
Hack 'n' Slash
Hyper Gunsport
Izmir: An Independence Simulator
Little Orpheus (might keep)
Lust from Beyond: M Edition
Meow Express
MirrorMoon EP
Monaco
Mount & Blade: Warband
Non-Stop Raiders
Orbital Racer
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
PAYDAY 2
Planet TD
Project Chemistry
Quadrata
Remnants of Naezith
Rym 9000
Soul Searching
Soulblight
Soulflow
Space Crew: Legendary Edition
Stacking
Stick Fight: The Game
Strange Brigade
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
Sunlight
SYMMETRY
System Shock 2
The Amazing American Circus
The Inner World
Ticket to Ride
Worms Rumble
XCOM 2
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack
Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition
DARQ (might keep)
Fallout
Othercide (might keep)
GameGuru Classic STAR WARS™: Knights of the Old Republic™ Driftland: The Magic Revival Red Faction: Armageddon Puzzle Chronicles STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy™ STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast™ Distrust Radio Commander
Main Assembly
RPG Maker VX (may keep)
Hamilton's Great Adventure
[Amnesia: The Dark Descent](httpsa://store.steampowered.com/app/57300/)
LEGO® MARVEL's Avengers (may keep)
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD (may keep)
Dungeon of the ENDLESS™
Go Home Dinosaurs!
Soulblight
Lust for Darkness
RPG Maker VX Ace - DS Resource Pack
RPG Maker VX Ace - Zombie Survival Graphic Pack
Iron Danger (may keep)
The Swindle
Morbid: The Seven Acolytes
Amnesia: Rebirth
X-Morph: Defense
Treasure Hunter Simulator
Orbital Racer
Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes 2 (may keep)
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
Monsters' Den Chronicles
Telefrag VR
NecroWorm
We are alright (Wszystko z nami w porządku)
RPG Maker VX Ace - Old School Modern Graphics Pack 2
Rebel Cops
Farmer's Dynasty
The Plague: Kingdom Wars
PlataGO!
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes (may keep)
Bang-On Balls: Chronicles (may keep)
Jetboard Joust
Forgive Me Father (may keep)
Aliens vs. Predator Collection
LEGO® Star Wars™ III: The Clone Wars™
Golf Gang
Maid of Sker
Hedon Bloodrite (may keep)
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning FATE Edition (may keep)
Blade Assault (may keep)
DOOM Eternal (may keep)
Grow: Song of the Evertree (may keep)
Scribble It! - Premium Edition
[Liberated] (GOG)
[Wanderlust Travel Stories] (GOG)
My full list of games: https://barter.vg80b7/t/ (this link might be more up to date than the list above)
Full wishlist (bundled games are at the top so you don't have to scroll through tons of unbundled and upcoming games): https://barter.vg80b7/w/f/?filter=0,17,0,0
https://store.steampowered.com/wishlist/id/superteletubbies64/
IGSRep (no longer updating): https://old.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/p7k848/superteletubbies64s_igs_rep_page/
2023.06.01 18:38 Superteletubbies64 [H] Games [W] Paypal, The Darkest Tales, Symphony of War, Ashina: The Red Witch, Fates of Ort, Ace Attorney Trilogy, Hidden Through Time, Super Alloy Ranger, Treasures of the Aegean, Coromon, No Straight Roads, zombotron, Dusk Diver (maybe), Princess Farmer (maybe)
I'm selling these for Paypal (my region is EU and buyer covers the fees if not from EU, I do not have set prices) or could trade non-headliner games for one of the games in the title I want. Not interested in anything else, i will ignore any lists of random games
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters
Operation Tango
The Invisible Hand
I do not have a set price in mind for any of the games, if you ask "how much for?" you'll be asked if you have a price in mind. Only exception would be one of the indie games for Coromon or Lil Gator Game
Lost Planet 3 - Complete Pack
Strider
Orbital Bullet – The 360° Rogue-lite (might keep)
Death STranding Director's Cut (might keep)
Life is STrange 2 Complete Season (might keep)
Revita (might keep)
Just looking for Coromon and the games in the title and Paypal (my region is EU), nothing else. If you offer a huge list of games or anything that's not in the title or on my wishlist you might get blocked for not having basic reading comprehension
I know Coromon is in a pricy build your own bundle rn so could do multiple smaller games for it but no ridiculous offers please
https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/diamond-collection-build-your-own-bundle
Only interested in Paypal offers and games in the title don't comment if you don't have either to offer. For AAA games I'm only taking Paypal offers, not trades Any comments with lists of random games I likely already own will be ignored and possibly blocked. My region is EU, if you are outside of EU you have to cover Paypal fees. I do not have a set price for anything, if you ask "how much for" you'll be asked if you have a price in mind.
Golden Light
Batora: Lost Haven (might keep)
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
112 Operator
Agent in Depth
Alchemist's Castle
Arcade Spirits
Death Squared
Detached: Non-VR Edition
Doughlings: Arcade
Doughlings: Invasion
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Farming Simulator 17
Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue (might keep)
Frick, Inc.
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
Guns & Fishes
Hack 'n' Slash
Hyper Gunsport
Izmir: An Independence Simulator
Little Orpheus (might keep)
Lust from Beyond: M Edition
Meow Express
MirrorMoon EP
Monaco
Mount & Blade: Warband
Non-Stop Raiders
Orbital Racer
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
PAYDAY 2
Planet TD
Project Chemistry
Quadrata
Remnants of Naezith
Rym 9000
Soul Searching
Soulblight
Soulflow
Space Crew: Legendary Edition
Stacking
Stick Fight: The Game
Strange Brigade
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
Sunlight
SYMMETRY
System Shock 2
The Amazing American Circus
The Inner World
Ticket to Ride
Worms Rumble
XCOM 2
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack
Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition
DARQ (might keep)
Fallout
Othercide (might keep)
GameGuru Classic STAR WARS™: Knights of the Old Republic™ Driftland: The Magic Revival Red Faction: Armageddon Puzzle Chronicles STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy™ STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast™ Distrust Radio Commander
Main Assembly
RPG Maker VX (may keep)
Hamilton's Great Adventure
[Amnesia: The Dark Descent](httpsa://store.steampowered.com/app/57300/)
LEGO® MARVEL's Avengers (may keep)
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD (may keep)
Dungeon of the ENDLESS™
Go Home Dinosaurs!
Soulblight
Lust for Darkness
RPG Maker VX Ace - DS Resource Pack
RPG Maker VX Ace - Zombie Survival Graphic Pack
Iron Danger (may keep)
The Swindle
Morbid: The Seven Acolytes
Amnesia: Rebirth
X-Morph: Defense
Treasure Hunter Simulator
Orbital Racer
Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes 2 (may keep)
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
Monsters' Den Chronicles
Telefrag VR
NecroWorm
We are alright (Wszystko z nami w porządku)
RPG Maker VX Ace - Old School Modern Graphics Pack 2
Rebel Cops
Farmer's Dynasty
The Plague: Kingdom Wars
PlataGO!
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes (may keep)
Bang-On Balls: Chronicles (may keep)
Jetboard Joust
Forgive Me Father (may keep)
Aliens vs. Predator Collection
LEGO® Star Wars™ III: The Clone Wars™
Golf Gang
Maid of Sker
Hedon Bloodrite (may keep)
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning FATE Edition (may keep)
Blade Assault (may keep)
DOOM Eternal (may keep)
Grow: Song of the Evertree (may keep)
Scribble It! - Premium Edition
[Liberated] (GOG)
[Wanderlust Travel Stories] (GOG)
My full list of games: https://barter.vg80b7/t/ (this link might be more up to date than the list above)
Full wishlist (bundled games are at the top so you don't have to scroll through tons of unbundled and upcoming games): https://barter.vg80b7/w/f/?filter=0,17,0,0
https://store.steampowered.com/wishlist/id/superteletubbies64/
IGSRep (no longer updating): https://old.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/p7k848/superteletubbies64s_igs_rep_page/
submitted by Superteletubbies64 to SteamGameSwap [link] [comments]
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters
Operation Tango
The Invisible Hand
I do not have a set price in mind for any of the games, if you ask "how much for?" you'll be asked if you have a price in mind. Only exception would be one of the indie games for Coromon or Lil Gator Game
Lost Planet 3 - Complete Pack
Strider
Orbital Bullet – The 360° Rogue-lite (might keep)
Death STranding Director's Cut (might keep)
Life is STrange 2 Complete Season (might keep)
Revita (might keep)
Just looking for Coromon and the games in the title and Paypal (my region is EU), nothing else. If you offer a huge list of games or anything that's not in the title or on my wishlist you might get blocked for not having basic reading comprehension
I know Coromon is in a pricy build your own bundle rn so could do multiple smaller games for it but no ridiculous offers please
https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/diamond-collection-build-your-own-bundle
Only interested in Paypal offers and games in the title don't comment if you don't have either to offer. For AAA games I'm only taking Paypal offers, not trades Any comments with lists of random games I likely already own will be ignored and possibly blocked. My region is EU, if you are outside of EU you have to cover Paypal fees. I do not have a set price for anything, if you ask "how much for" you'll be asked if you have a price in mind.
Golden Light
Batora: Lost Haven (might keep)
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
112 Operator
Agent in Depth
Alchemist's Castle
Arcade Spirits
Death Squared
Detached: Non-VR Edition
Doughlings: Arcade
Doughlings: Invasion
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Farming Simulator 17
Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue (might keep)
Frick, Inc.
Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
Guns & Fishes
Hack 'n' Slash
Hyper Gunsport
Izmir: An Independence Simulator
Little Orpheus (might keep)
Lust from Beyond: M Edition
Meow Express
MirrorMoon EP
Monaco
Mount & Blade: Warband
Non-Stop Raiders
Orbital Racer
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
PAYDAY 2
Planet TD
Project Chemistry
Quadrata
Remnants of Naezith
Rym 9000
Soul Searching
Soulblight
Soulflow
Space Crew: Legendary Edition
Stacking
Stick Fight: The Game
Strange Brigade
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
Sunlight
SYMMETRY
System Shock 2
The Amazing American Circus
The Inner World
Ticket to Ride
Worms Rumble
XCOM 2
X-Morph: Defense Complete Pack
Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition
DARQ (might keep)
Fallout
Othercide (might keep)
GameGuru Classic STAR WARS™: Knights of the Old Republic™ Driftland: The Magic Revival Red Faction: Armageddon Puzzle Chronicles STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy™ STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast™ Distrust Radio Commander
Main Assembly
RPG Maker VX (may keep)
Hamilton's Great Adventure
[Amnesia: The Dark Descent](httpsa://store.steampowered.com/app/57300/)
LEGO® MARVEL's Avengers (may keep)
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD (may keep)
Dungeon of the ENDLESS™
Go Home Dinosaurs!
Soulblight
Lust for Darkness
RPG Maker VX Ace - DS Resource Pack
RPG Maker VX Ace - Zombie Survival Graphic Pack
Iron Danger (may keep)
The Swindle
Morbid: The Seven Acolytes
Amnesia: Rebirth
X-Morph: Defense
Treasure Hunter Simulator
Orbital Racer
Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes 2 (may keep)
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
Monsters' Den Chronicles
Telefrag VR
NecroWorm
We are alright (Wszystko z nami w porządku)
RPG Maker VX Ace - Old School Modern Graphics Pack 2
Rebel Cops
Farmer's Dynasty
The Plague: Kingdom Wars
PlataGO!
LEGO® MARVEL Super Heroes (may keep)
Bang-On Balls: Chronicles (may keep)
Jetboard Joust
Forgive Me Father (may keep)
Aliens vs. Predator Collection
LEGO® Star Wars™ III: The Clone Wars™
Golf Gang
Maid of Sker
Hedon Bloodrite (may keep)
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning FATE Edition (may keep)
Blade Assault (may keep)
DOOM Eternal (may keep)
Grow: Song of the Evertree (may keep)
Scribble It! - Premium Edition
[Liberated] (GOG)
[Wanderlust Travel Stories] (GOG)
My full list of games: https://barter.vg80b7/t/ (this link might be more up to date than the list above)
Full wishlist (bundled games are at the top so you don't have to scroll through tons of unbundled and upcoming games): https://barter.vg80b7/w/f/?filter=0,17,0,0
https://store.steampowered.com/wishlist/id/superteletubbies64/
IGSRep (no longer updating): https://old.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/p7k848/superteletubbies64s_igs_rep_page/
2023.06.01 17:44 baddayforsanity Session 5 - Prison Break!
Session 5 - Prison Break!
https://imgur.com/a/Hx3xpGr
The rogue hands over the bounty papers Dughan provided on the way to Northshire, but also takes a second to forge an extra crayoned-on zero to the bounty reward. So 500 becomes 5000 gold, the warden shrugs and accepts it because he's old and why not, the party is ecstatic. I make a note.
A problem I should've expected: My players picked up on the layout pretty quick and stood back at the entry hallway to create a bottleneck so that every new wave of enemies would have to go through that intersection, and the ranged PC's would just turn that square into an absolute meat grinder.
As they cleared the initial cells, I put a twilight cultist barricaded in one of the front ones that was preaching on a soapbox about the end times. He was a madman but had a small following gathered to hear him out, and eventually fight on his behalf. They snagged Val (mage) and swarmed him in melee in a cramped cell, a few followers blocking the small entrance and not allowing support to get in. Val's got a 1-per-short-rest wing buffet that will let him shift a few squares with his dragon wings, and some clutch use of frost nova let him get the upper hand.
Outside the cell, Xalatath woke up on Baldris' (Druid) belt. A failed Wisdom save later and he assured the party he'd cover Val and the rest should move deeper into the prison, and that he heard the cries of a trapped guard just out of view (this was corroborated by a low DC group perception check).
This worked twofold because Orfiz (rogue) couldn't make the session because of a Covid scare and couldn't dedicate time to participate online beyond just observing over a makeshift discord stream. After talking with both players before the session, we agreed Baldris would use this opportunity to knock Orfiz out and lock him in the first cleared cell. Orfiz told the party he was going to check for loot, and then clunk.
I put the bosses at the extreme ends of each branching hallway- Targorr The Dread, a large Orc barbarian beating up on a guard and a defias prisoner, to the west. Kam Deepfury, a Dark Iron dwarf still in his cell, to the east, and Bazil Thredd, the defias lieutenant, to the north.
Dorgon made it to the intersection and heard an orc grunt down the west hallway and just charged in solo. Ferren went to eavesdrop on a defias thug berating Kam. Val and Baldris were treating the beaten guards, Bazil intimidated them and caused them to run in and engage in combat. So all 3 bosses were pulled in a round.
I had a trap fashioned out of a hanging-light-thing in front of Bazil's cell, yknow like the old wooden chandeliers in dungeons and castles, that Bazil cut the rope on as a guard approached and knocked them down headfirst at his feet. Bazil used this opportunity to threaten to kill the guard if the players tried to stop the escape. The other rescued guard was searching a cell and found a healing potion (if a player had it, healing pot; if the guard had it, toilet water). The guard drank it and couldn't help in the fight because he was busy puking.
Dorgon going one on one with the orc meant he had to pull out all of the stops when it came to damage mitigation and the little self healing he had at the time. With heroic strike rerolls and stoneform and dull pain, it played out like the Saving Private Ryan knife scene.
Ferren overhears the defias telling Kam that he did his part and needs to commit further to the cause, and Kam just wasn't having it. Ferren killed the defias and approached Kam, who blew him off, and after one attempt of RP he basically gave the dwarf the finger and turned back to support the others fighting their own bosses. Kam's cell wasn't locked, and he took offense, so he followed Ferren back to the main intersection and started blasting away with a mysteriously acquired blunderbuss. The party was using crates around the hallways as cover, but didn't think to look in them or question how the bandits were armed with short bows and other non-shank weapons. Baldris was going boomkin to assist with Targorr and Bazil in the intersection but when Kam entered the fray he swapped to bear and kept the dark iron busy.
The guard's throat is cut, and Val goes loud with every high level spell slot he had left. Dorgon finishes up Targorr and charges back to the center intersection, catching eyes with Kam. Dorgon's player is a classic vet so he knew the relation between dwarven clans, and throws out a dwarven slur he intended to be one of those words you can only say the first letter of. I didn't make him roll, because I was laughing too hard, and I said "yep, you've got his attention now and even though he has a bear jaw latched on his arm he REALLY hates you, Dorgon".
The party mops up the bosses, and I don't dick around with them clearing out minions from every cell since they were just supposed to be fodder until the bosses anyhow. Targorr had a map to some place in the mountains where orcs were gathering called "ragefire chasm", and after rolling on a random loot table, Ferren got a disguise kit. That comes up later.
Orfiz is liberated by the party figuring he just got jumped by a wayward prisoner, Baldris chooses not to divulge what happened.
The party re-emerges from the stockades and is awarded their bounty. They question the girl who was throwing produce at Dorgon and Orfiz questions Padfoot. The session ends here, and Orfiz comes by my place during the off-week to have a solo session.
Been crazy busy with work and the holiday so I'll knock out the next few sessions with more mechanics and stuff in the next few days. Thanks for hanging around so far!
END OF SESSION 5
Up Next: Session 5.5 - Orfiz, Noir Private Eye
submitted by baddayforsanity to wc5e [link] [comments]
https://imgur.com/a/Hx3xpGr
The setup: the party had just managed to skirt a brewing riot in front of the city stockades and were now prepping to go into their first actual dungeon. I pulled in a few NPCs for some RP and dialogue in the upper chamber and the party had successfully escorted their quarry from Northshire to the prison. The party didn't pick up on the "most crimes are now a death sentence, especially defias affiliation" and listened to Padfoot's request to be taken to prison rather than killed on the spot. He definitely knew the prison break was imminent.
The session: So the party gets to the warden, an old, half-blind octegenarian that was conscripted to guard the prison alongside adolescents and pre-teens. One of the kids was trying to scold a prisoner for fashioning a defias mask out of the few blankets available to them, and was shanked for it, sparking the prison break. Outside, the townspeople caught wind of the murder and wanted to confront the warden directly about sending kids down to certain death.The rogue hands over the bounty papers Dughan provided on the way to Northshire, but also takes a second to forge an extra crayoned-on zero to the bounty reward. So 500 becomes 5000 gold, the warden shrugs and accepts it because he's old and why not, the party is ecstatic. I make a note.
The Stockades: I'd built this before we'd acquired any actual terrain (beyond the river setting my WH40k player provided), and I'd had K'Nex from my childhood unearthed from the back of a closet since my wife and I had just bought a new house. The K'Nex being what they are meant that measuring things out and scaling it to what appears in game was remarkably smooth. I'd created a number of side rooms and accounted for roughly 5 enemies in each cell, and I'd roll a d4 to determine how many rounds it would be before a not-yet-cleared cell would send another wave at my party. Came out to be about 90 bandits possible, depending on how my party advanced.
Since this was earliest in my campaign writing, I hadn't yet thought of any mechanical fun to have except bog standard melee nonsense and the occasional cultist or madman. This is where I figure I have to spice things up going forward.A problem I should've expected: My players picked up on the layout pretty quick and stood back at the entry hallway to create a bottleneck so that every new wave of enemies would have to go through that intersection, and the ranged PC's would just turn that square into an absolute meat grinder.
As they cleared the initial cells, I put a twilight cultist barricaded in one of the front ones that was preaching on a soapbox about the end times. He was a madman but had a small following gathered to hear him out, and eventually fight on his behalf. They snagged Val (mage) and swarmed him in melee in a cramped cell, a few followers blocking the small entrance and not allowing support to get in. Val's got a 1-per-short-rest wing buffet that will let him shift a few squares with his dragon wings, and some clutch use of frost nova let him get the upper hand.
Outside the cell, Xalatath woke up on Baldris' (Druid) belt. A failed Wisdom save later and he assured the party he'd cover Val and the rest should move deeper into the prison, and that he heard the cries of a trapped guard just out of view (this was corroborated by a low DC group perception check).
This worked twofold because Orfiz (rogue) couldn't make the session because of a Covid scare and couldn't dedicate time to participate online beyond just observing over a makeshift discord stream. After talking with both players before the session, we agreed Baldris would use this opportunity to knock Orfiz out and lock him in the first cleared cell. Orfiz told the party he was going to check for loot, and then clunk.
I put the bosses at the extreme ends of each branching hallway- Targorr The Dread, a large Orc barbarian beating up on a guard and a defias prisoner, to the west. Kam Deepfury, a Dark Iron dwarf still in his cell, to the east, and Bazil Thredd, the defias lieutenant, to the north.
Dorgon made it to the intersection and heard an orc grunt down the west hallway and just charged in solo. Ferren went to eavesdrop on a defias thug berating Kam. Val and Baldris were treating the beaten guards, Bazil intimidated them and caused them to run in and engage in combat. So all 3 bosses were pulled in a round.
I had a trap fashioned out of a hanging-light-thing in front of Bazil's cell, yknow like the old wooden chandeliers in dungeons and castles, that Bazil cut the rope on as a guard approached and knocked them down headfirst at his feet. Bazil used this opportunity to threaten to kill the guard if the players tried to stop the escape. The other rescued guard was searching a cell and found a healing potion (if a player had it, healing pot; if the guard had it, toilet water). The guard drank it and couldn't help in the fight because he was busy puking.
Dorgon going one on one with the orc meant he had to pull out all of the stops when it came to damage mitigation and the little self healing he had at the time. With heroic strike rerolls and stoneform and dull pain, it played out like the Saving Private Ryan knife scene.
Ferren overhears the defias telling Kam that he did his part and needs to commit further to the cause, and Kam just wasn't having it. Ferren killed the defias and approached Kam, who blew him off, and after one attempt of RP he basically gave the dwarf the finger and turned back to support the others fighting their own bosses. Kam's cell wasn't locked, and he took offense, so he followed Ferren back to the main intersection and started blasting away with a mysteriously acquired blunderbuss. The party was using crates around the hallways as cover, but didn't think to look in them or question how the bandits were armed with short bows and other non-shank weapons. Baldris was going boomkin to assist with Targorr and Bazil in the intersection but when Kam entered the fray he swapped to bear and kept the dark iron busy.
The guard's throat is cut, and Val goes loud with every high level spell slot he had left. Dorgon finishes up Targorr and charges back to the center intersection, catching eyes with Kam. Dorgon's player is a classic vet so he knew the relation between dwarven clans, and throws out a dwarven slur he intended to be one of those words you can only say the first letter of. I didn't make him roll, because I was laughing too hard, and I said "yep, you've got his attention now and even though he has a bear jaw latched on his arm he REALLY hates you, Dorgon".
The party mops up the bosses, and I don't dick around with them clearing out minions from every cell since they were just supposed to be fodder until the bosses anyhow. Targorr had a map to some place in the mountains where orcs were gathering called "ragefire chasm", and after rolling on a random loot table, Ferren got a disguise kit. That comes up later.
Orfiz is liberated by the party figuring he just got jumped by a wayward prisoner, Baldris chooses not to divulge what happened.
The party re-emerges from the stockades and is awarded their bounty. They question the girl who was throwing produce at Dorgon and Orfiz questions Padfoot. The session ends here, and Orfiz comes by my place during the off-week to have a solo session.
Been crazy busy with work and the holiday so I'll knock out the next few sessions with more mechanics and stuff in the next few days. Thanks for hanging around so far!
END OF SESSION 5
Up Next: Session 5.5 - Orfiz, Noir Private Eye
2023.06.01 16:29 NostalgicDumbass [SPOILERS] DD2 Lore
Denial
I remember our first meeting on the steps of the University - a collegial handshake that would doom us both. Your insightful questions during my lectures gave me pause, and I recognized in you something... of a kindred spirit. Despite our differences in age and position, we shared a keen fascination for archaeology, folklore, and of course, occultism.
Interminable faculty socials became something of a delight, knowing we'd abscond to a quiet table and lose ourselves in riveting discussion and passionate debate. Between semesters, we would spend our days rambling the woods, talking excitedly of esoteric theory and ancient mysteries.
We spent long nights immersed in crumbling, worm-eaten volumes, plumbing the forbidden secrets of antiquity. The university's resources were impressive and yet, on occasion we relished in... firsthand experience. Commonalities between the mythos of ancient cultures was not a new area of study for either of us, but it was there that we first noticed the pattern.
You were my brightest student, my research partner, and my dearest friend.
It was you who found the cypher, scribbled hastily in the decaying margins of some long-forgotten tome. Scribbled... in blood. Whether by providence or happenstance, we stumbled upon the mark of some strange power invoked the world over, reflected in cultures predating mankind itself…
The Iron Crown... enigmatic, and ubiquitous. A semicircle, radiating five points of power - a symbol hidden deep in the iconography of every ancient empire.
Resentment
Your vociferous calls to bring our findings before the faculty were dangerously premature. Given the gaps in our understanding, doing so would risk ridicule, or worse, robbery. I took no pleasure in asserting my seniority - stifling your protestations with a strict mandate of absolute secrecy. You acquiesced, but your plaintive susurrations betrayed a burgeoning resentment.
I understood your eagerness to build a reputation, and it pained me greatly to hold you back. We had managed to grasp a thread of connective worship - that stretched across vast gulfs of time and tribe. but we did not understand it. We required the highest standard of empirical evidence, lest my career and your future be compromised by the cynicism of our peers. The subsequent months were measured in melted candles, and mounting disappointments. Time and time again, I impressed upon you that any adulation afforded us would be fleeting if we could not properly defend our findings. You mistook my abundance of caution for a lack of confidence, and would perseverate on your grievances at length.
The blaze began in the east wing of the Great Library. Within hours, the entirety of our effort lay in a smoldering, ashen heap. I braced against your rancorous buffeting, avowing a certain hesitant relief at our freedom from that mocking sigil. The uncanny arrival of the letter, however, heralded a new, pernicious phase of our investigation...
Obsession
We set out immediately into the kaleidoscopic wilds of the countryside, and by sundown, reached the remote manor whose whereabouts formed the sole contents of that cryptic invitation. At the behest of our charismatic host, we feasted beneath a banner of the Iron Crown; questioned exhaustively by an eager cabal of masked delegates.
The house was scattered with ancient rarities and timeworn artifacts - all bearing that damnable emblem that had come to dominate our thoughts. Our host assured us of the group’s anthropological values, but I sensed his designs extended well beyond the theoretical. Eyes wild beneath their masks, the assembled devotees shared their terrible theories of timeless extradimensional intelligences of forces beyond human comprehension...
As the night wore on, circles were drawn carefully in chalk, and salt was laid upon the floor. This was not research, it was ritual. And I could not stifle my repulsion. They lit black candles and chanted rhythmically in the guttural tongues of long-forgotten tribes. Even now, I can hear the echoes of those awful invocations. At my insistence, we retired to our room, where I countered your excitement by clearly outlining the vulnerability of our position. Reason prevailed, and we elected to block the door with a large dresser.
We awoke to an empty house. The garroted bodies of the attendees lay around the basement dais, each prostrate along a point of the Crown; our host conspicuously absent. I could scarcely countenance such obscenity, but you were transfixed, eyes ablaze with inspiration. The failed ritual would become your obsession - from that pivotal moment, you were blind to all else.
Ambition
Refusing enrollment in the fall, you took up in that moldering brownstone, where I joined you in a vain attempt to assuage your aspirations. Now free from academic oversight and moral restraint, you vowed to reach into the blackest depths of the occult sciences and be the first to grasp the secret of the Iron Crown. The polarity between us reversed - I became your reluctant assistant in dozens of deplorable experiments, crushed in the grip of your ambition.
Desperate to somehow help you regain yourself, I prepared a breakfast, and an urgent appeal. My words fell on deaf ears; the food flung to the floor. Your appetites demanded more than I could hope to provide. The walls of the place closed tight about us, and it seemed at times that the outside world was a dream we could scarcely remember. At night I could hear you shuffling about the house, muttering with diabolic intent.
The Crown was a hateful and ravenous thing - it had consumed our careers, our lives, and our friendship. And still, it hungered... You attempted to map the geometric proportions of the Crown to frequencies of sound, and in the resulting silence, our ears welled with blood. You calibrated prisms along the points of the Crown, cackling in smug satisfaction as wavelengths of hideous and indescribable light burned our eyes.
Unable to suffer your unprincipled overreach any longer, I made ready to depart; imploring you to rejoin me in more wholesome pursuits. Instead, you babbled of impossible measurements, ushering me down into the bolted cellar. In the dim light, I recoiled at the preparations you had made. Four bodies, laid out along the lateral points of the Crown. As the dagger's blade revealed itself through my chest, I understood I was to be the fifth.
Cowardice
A precise arrangement, the sacrifice of conscience, the abandonment of self the Iron Crown had found its king. Upon your furrowed brow, the mathematics of our existence, the geometry of the cosmos - an ephemeral equation wholly expressed in negative space. To invoke its power was to refactor the most fundamental underpinnings of our fragile dimension, to imprint one's mind upon reality itself...
The wind blew sour, the oceans roiled. The earth shuddered at the coming change. What world could be born of a mind so sharpened by appetence? Our world convulses, stretched and torn by the emptiness that surrounds it. Mankind became a mockery - his newly horrid outlines a twisted tribute to the shape of your flaws. Newborn horrors, spawn of the crown, imprinted with your insatiable, reaching hunger. This existential dissolution is born of you, and only you can do what must be done to stop it…
Here, at the nexus of ruin, loathing poured forth from the darkest recesses of your mind. Your failures took form, and the world bowed in honor of your great wretchedness. The stain of your bankruptcy frayed the very fabric of our dimension. But you were afraid to face what you had wrought, and fled down the long road of your memories. Hiding yourself away. I remember our first meeting on the steps of the University... You were golden, lit from within by the glow of potential. Finally, my friend, I would see that potential realized. It is time to reclaim the world from your weakness. Meet your derelictions with blazing defiance! The Equation must be balanced. Gaze now upon your great achievement - the sum total of your failings. Your Body of Work. To destroy the thing is to destroy yourself, but the world will spring anew from the memory you kept of it.
submitted by NostalgicDumbass to darkestdungeon [link] [comments]
I remember our first meeting on the steps of the University - a collegial handshake that would doom us both. Your insightful questions during my lectures gave me pause, and I recognized in you something... of a kindred spirit. Despite our differences in age and position, we shared a keen fascination for archaeology, folklore, and of course, occultism.
Interminable faculty socials became something of a delight, knowing we'd abscond to a quiet table and lose ourselves in riveting discussion and passionate debate. Between semesters, we would spend our days rambling the woods, talking excitedly of esoteric theory and ancient mysteries.
We spent long nights immersed in crumbling, worm-eaten volumes, plumbing the forbidden secrets of antiquity. The university's resources were impressive and yet, on occasion we relished in... firsthand experience. Commonalities between the mythos of ancient cultures was not a new area of study for either of us, but it was there that we first noticed the pattern.
You were my brightest student, my research partner, and my dearest friend.
It was you who found the cypher, scribbled hastily in the decaying margins of some long-forgotten tome. Scribbled... in blood. Whether by providence or happenstance, we stumbled upon the mark of some strange power invoked the world over, reflected in cultures predating mankind itself…
The Iron Crown... enigmatic, and ubiquitous. A semicircle, radiating five points of power - a symbol hidden deep in the iconography of every ancient empire.
Resentment
Your vociferous calls to bring our findings before the faculty were dangerously premature. Given the gaps in our understanding, doing so would risk ridicule, or worse, robbery. I took no pleasure in asserting my seniority - stifling your protestations with a strict mandate of absolute secrecy. You acquiesced, but your plaintive susurrations betrayed a burgeoning resentment.
I understood your eagerness to build a reputation, and it pained me greatly to hold you back. We had managed to grasp a thread of connective worship - that stretched across vast gulfs of time and tribe. but we did not understand it. We required the highest standard of empirical evidence, lest my career and your future be compromised by the cynicism of our peers. The subsequent months were measured in melted candles, and mounting disappointments. Time and time again, I impressed upon you that any adulation afforded us would be fleeting if we could not properly defend our findings. You mistook my abundance of caution for a lack of confidence, and would perseverate on your grievances at length.
The blaze began in the east wing of the Great Library. Within hours, the entirety of our effort lay in a smoldering, ashen heap. I braced against your rancorous buffeting, avowing a certain hesitant relief at our freedom from that mocking sigil. The uncanny arrival of the letter, however, heralded a new, pernicious phase of our investigation...
Obsession
We set out immediately into the kaleidoscopic wilds of the countryside, and by sundown, reached the remote manor whose whereabouts formed the sole contents of that cryptic invitation. At the behest of our charismatic host, we feasted beneath a banner of the Iron Crown; questioned exhaustively by an eager cabal of masked delegates.
The house was scattered with ancient rarities and timeworn artifacts - all bearing that damnable emblem that had come to dominate our thoughts. Our host assured us of the group’s anthropological values, but I sensed his designs extended well beyond the theoretical. Eyes wild beneath their masks, the assembled devotees shared their terrible theories of timeless extradimensional intelligences of forces beyond human comprehension...
As the night wore on, circles were drawn carefully in chalk, and salt was laid upon the floor. This was not research, it was ritual. And I could not stifle my repulsion. They lit black candles and chanted rhythmically in the guttural tongues of long-forgotten tribes. Even now, I can hear the echoes of those awful invocations. At my insistence, we retired to our room, where I countered your excitement by clearly outlining the vulnerability of our position. Reason prevailed, and we elected to block the door with a large dresser.
We awoke to an empty house. The garroted bodies of the attendees lay around the basement dais, each prostrate along a point of the Crown; our host conspicuously absent. I could scarcely countenance such obscenity, but you were transfixed, eyes ablaze with inspiration. The failed ritual would become your obsession - from that pivotal moment, you were blind to all else.
Ambition
Refusing enrollment in the fall, you took up in that moldering brownstone, where I joined you in a vain attempt to assuage your aspirations. Now free from academic oversight and moral restraint, you vowed to reach into the blackest depths of the occult sciences and be the first to grasp the secret of the Iron Crown. The polarity between us reversed - I became your reluctant assistant in dozens of deplorable experiments, crushed in the grip of your ambition.
Desperate to somehow help you regain yourself, I prepared a breakfast, and an urgent appeal. My words fell on deaf ears; the food flung to the floor. Your appetites demanded more than I could hope to provide. The walls of the place closed tight about us, and it seemed at times that the outside world was a dream we could scarcely remember. At night I could hear you shuffling about the house, muttering with diabolic intent.
The Crown was a hateful and ravenous thing - it had consumed our careers, our lives, and our friendship. And still, it hungered... You attempted to map the geometric proportions of the Crown to frequencies of sound, and in the resulting silence, our ears welled with blood. You calibrated prisms along the points of the Crown, cackling in smug satisfaction as wavelengths of hideous and indescribable light burned our eyes.
Unable to suffer your unprincipled overreach any longer, I made ready to depart; imploring you to rejoin me in more wholesome pursuits. Instead, you babbled of impossible measurements, ushering me down into the bolted cellar. In the dim light, I recoiled at the preparations you had made. Four bodies, laid out along the lateral points of the Crown. As the dagger's blade revealed itself through my chest, I understood I was to be the fifth.
Cowardice
A precise arrangement, the sacrifice of conscience, the abandonment of self the Iron Crown had found its king. Upon your furrowed brow, the mathematics of our existence, the geometry of the cosmos - an ephemeral equation wholly expressed in negative space. To invoke its power was to refactor the most fundamental underpinnings of our fragile dimension, to imprint one's mind upon reality itself...
The wind blew sour, the oceans roiled. The earth shuddered at the coming change. What world could be born of a mind so sharpened by appetence? Our world convulses, stretched and torn by the emptiness that surrounds it. Mankind became a mockery - his newly horrid outlines a twisted tribute to the shape of your flaws. Newborn horrors, spawn of the crown, imprinted with your insatiable, reaching hunger. This existential dissolution is born of you, and only you can do what must be done to stop it…
Here, at the nexus of ruin, loathing poured forth from the darkest recesses of your mind. Your failures took form, and the world bowed in honor of your great wretchedness. The stain of your bankruptcy frayed the very fabric of our dimension. But you were afraid to face what you had wrought, and fled down the long road of your memories. Hiding yourself away. I remember our first meeting on the steps of the University... You were golden, lit from within by the glow of potential. Finally, my friend, I would see that potential realized. It is time to reclaim the world from your weakness. Meet your derelictions with blazing defiance! The Equation must be balanced. Gaze now upon your great achievement - the sum total of your failings. Your Body of Work. To destroy the thing is to destroy yourself, but the world will spring anew from the memory you kept of it.
2023.06.01 14:55 wisdom_and_frivolity Street Fighter Glossary, the words/phrases you need to know to join in community discussions!
Street Fighter Glossary
Shoutouts and sources: THE FIGHTING GAME GLOSSARY, The New Challenger teamBoxer
A common name for the Street Fighter character Balrog. We aren't just describing his profession for fun, though; his Japanese name is M. Bison, so we need a clear way to describe which character we're referring to. See also Dictator and Claw.Claw
A common name for the Street Fighter character Vega. Because the Japanese call this character Balrog, we often use this more general name when discussing him so there's less confusion. It's a problem that exists due to a triple name swap between three characters in the Japanese and English versions of SF, the other two being Dictator and Boxer.Counter
Often used as shorthand for counter hit, especially if you are reading an on-screen message during a fight.It's also a move that looks to catch an incoming attack, deflect it away, and automatically launch a counter-attack. You'll sometimes hear it called a "catch counter". You might just get one hit that sends the opponent flying, but some counters will let you get a full combo if it works. Lots of games have counters, from Street Fighter to Killer Instinct to Tekken to virtually every sword character in Super Smash Bros. It's kind of like parrying, except you don't return to neutral or get to choose your next attack.
Counter can also be used in the general English sense, as a technique that specifically wins against another technique. For example, you can counter pick your character matchup. Or you might say "that move is a hard counter to my strategy" if it stops everything you're trying to do.
Critical Art
The Street Fighter V-specific term for a super.Crush Counter
A unique counter hit state specific to Street Fighter V that leads to highly damaging combos. If you counter hit your opponent with certain heavy attacks (each character will have their own list of Crush Counter moves), they will violently spin around as a glass-shattering sound effect plays, and they'll get put in a ton of hit stun. Many characters will be able to dash forward and still continue the combo with something beefy.You can think of them kind of like a "super" counter hit, but tied to specific moves. SFV also tags dragon punches as counter-hittable during their recovery, which means you can wind up with your crush counter move and earn a huge punish when you block one.
Delayed Wakeup
The ability to slightly extend how long you stay on the ground after you've been knocked down. This is different from soft knockdown vs. hard knockdown, where you either rise immediately or stay on the ground for a set amount of time. In games with delayed wakeup, you can choose to make your hard knockdown ever so slightly longer, in the hopes that your opponent won't be able to easily meaty you or otherwise run their planned set play. Games like Ultra Street Fighter IV and Mortal Kombat 11 implement delayed wakeup.Demon Flip
One of Akuma's trademark special moves; he jumps up into the air while performing a front flip, and then can choose several different unique attacks on the way down, including a divekick, a low attack, and a throw.Dictator
A common name for the Street Fighter character M. Bison. We have to call him this because, in Japan, they call him Vega, so this helps us be clear about which character we're talking about. We have this same problem with Boxer and Claw.Drive Impact
The character will garner armor that can absorb an incoming hit. Players can perform this technique by pressing R1+R2 (or just L1 if you're using simplified controls) and it costs one bar of your Drive Gauge. SourceDrive Parry
Players can simply hold down medium kick and medium punch to activate Drive Parry, which continually depletes the Drive Gauge until the buttons are released. If an incoming attack is successfully parried, the character will repel the foe's attack and some of their Drive Gauge will be replenished. Players can aim to perform a "Perfect" parry by activating this at the precise moment an incoming attack lands, which will net them some kind of additional bonus. SourceDrive Rush
Characters cancel out of animations early with a forward dash, presumably enabling them to perform otherwise impossible combos. This can also be performed from a Drive Parry, in which case its cost is reduced from three Drive Gauge bars to only one. This is done simply by double tapping forward while the animation for either a cancelable normal attack or Drive Parry is going on. SourceDrive Reversal
Similar to Alpha Counters/V-Reversals seen in Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter 5, respectively. Pressing forward and R1+R2 while blocking an attack will activate Drive Reversal, which causes your character to perform a counter attack that does little damage but that can give you some breathing room to get off of the defensive. Using this maneuver costs two bars from your gauge. SourceOverdrive
Which is essentially the Street Fighter 6 way of describing an EX move. Every character has a few special attacks unique to them, and players can give said specials additional enhancements (such as more damage, invincibility, further reach, faster speed) by performing the "Overdrive" version. This is performed by pressing two of the same button instead of just one when doing a special attack. For instance, if Ryu throws his trademark Hadoken special (quarter circle forward + a punch) he might enhance it by pressing two punches. Overdrive costs two bars from your Drive Gauge. SourceEX Move
A more powerful version of a special move, enhanced by spending some super meter. These moves have better properties than the base version of the special move, which may include more invincibility, more damage, or faster startup. The character often glows a different color, like yellow, while performing an EX move, just to make it extra clear what's happening.Flash Kick
An invincible charge move made famous from Guile in Street Fighter. Hold down, or down-back, for about a second and then hit up plus a kick button to fly into the air foot first. It's a very common reversal and anti-air, but because it's a charge move, it needs more planning to use than a dragon punch.Frame Trap
Two attacks back-to-back that leave a very small gap between them. The gap will be shorter than the defender's fastest attack, which means if they try to attack with a normal, they will get counter hit. Finding effective frame traps requires some basic understanding of frame data (or finding a good Youtube tutorial that has done the work for you!); you'll usually be looking for an attack that is plus on block, which lets you attack before your opponent afterwards, then swinging with a fast attack that "traps" your opponent who foolishly thought they could swing themselves.Frame traps aren't foolproof, though. You can usually just continue to block and be fine until your opponent gets pushed out of range. Or, if you're feeling risky, you can try to get through the opponent's attack with an invincible reversal, which doesn't care about your opponent's pesky frame advantage.
Gap
How long your character has returned to neutral in between blocking (or getting hit by) two attacks. Like all discussions of time in fighting games, it's measured in frames. While you're in neutral, you can take any action, but be careful! If you are only in neutral for a few brief frames, there are some actions you won't want to take, especially if your opponent is looking to do a frame trap.If your character blocks two attacks and there is no gap at all, we'll call that a true block string or say the offense is tight (it's also quite related to the Tekken concept of jailing). Sometimes players will just ask "is there a gap in that string?" just so they know whether they even have the option to do anything except block. Maybe if there's a gap they'll sometimes try a reversal to escape.
Gimmick
Also known as: Oki-Doke A plan of attack that requires either the element of surprise or a lack of knowledge from your opponent to work. The term is often meant in a negative way towards a strategy that wouldn't possibly work against well-prepared opponents, or something that can only work in the short term until your opponent understands the trick.The term can also refer to a player who uses one linear but mostly effective strategy to beat lower skilled opponents, but who loses convincingly, with no backup strategy, when playing against better players who can defend properly. It may sound like gimmicks are kinda bad, but there's no better feeling in fighting games than to hit someone with a good one.
Gouki
The Japanese name for Akuma. Like with Vega, M. Bison and Balrog, there are some naming differences between some characters in the Japanese and English versions.Hadouken
The specific name for Ryu and Ken's fireballs in the Street Fighter series, but it can be used to talk about any generic, forward-traveling projectile that is not a charge move.Hit Confirm
Performing an attack, seeing that your attack successfully hit, and then reacting to this information by continuing the combo. That is to say, you "confirm" that your first attack hit before you launch further attacks, and if the attack was blocked instead, you stop and don't follow through with anything else. This is important because, usually, you will be canceling into a move that would be unsafe if it was blocked, so you only want to do it if it won't get you killed.In some games this can be a pretty advanced skill, since you might not have a ton of time to recognize if your attack hit or not. In really fast cases, good players may even employ special tricks, like looking at the opponent's health bar or using special audio cues, to help them react as fast as they can.
Knockdown
Being knocked off your feet and landing on your back. Certain attacks commonly cause knockdowns, like sweeps, throws, many special moves, and in some games, simply getting hit out of the air. There are generally two types of knockdowns, hard knockdowns and soft knockdowns, which describe how long you have to lie on the ground before you can get up and fight again, and what options you may have (if any) while standing up.Mixup
A situation where the offensive player has several ways to attack that each require a different defensive action to stop (such as blocking in different directions and avoiding throws).Okizeme
Also known as: Oki The moment during a fighting game when your opponent is knocked down and you get to attack them as they stand back up. The defender's options are limited, so the offensive player gets to attack with all sorts of mixups or apply any mind game they choose. Some options include attacking with a basic meaty, doing a cross-up, or trying to bait their opponent's desperate dragon punch by simply doing nothing and blocking.Okizeme (pronounced oh-kee-zeh-meh and often shortened to "oki") means "wake up offense" in Japanese, so the term mostly focuses on the offensive choices. If you hear someone ask "what's the oki going to be?", they are wondering what method of attack (or non-attack) the offensive player will choose to assert their advantage. It's closely related to the term wakeup, although that tends to focus more on the defensive choices (you might hear "I can't believe they did a wakeup DP!").
If someone asks "do I get oki after this move?", they're asking whether that move leaves them close enough, and with enough time, to threaten multiple different offensive options. Moves that "don't give you oki" will leave you far away and mostly end your offensive pressure.
Plink
An input trick where you press two different buttons on two consecutive frames. If you use an arcade stick, the best way to do this is to "drum" two different fingers across the two buttons extremely quickly. It will kind of feel a bit like a piano input. It's often notated with a ~, so pressing MP and then LP right after would be MP~LP.Poke
An attack that's thrown out to occupy the space in front of you and remind your opponent not to try and come closer. Usually, this is a far-reaching and safe normal move with little risk. Pokes are often used to harass your opponent into doing something stupid, not unlike prodding a bear with a stick. If you use a poke to hit your opponent's poke, that's called a "counter poke".Raging Demon
An iconic super for Akuma (and related "Evil" characters) in many Street Fighter titles. Akuma travels forward and grabs you, the screen goes dark, and after some rapid-fire hits in the darkness, you appear knocked out on the ground. Akuma then poses with his back to the camera.Reversal
Reversal - An action taken on the first frame after your character recovers, such as after getting knocked down or exiting block stun. Sometimes conflated with "invincible reversal", an attack with invincible properties during startup.%%%Shimmy Tricking someone into thinking you're going to throw them by walking close, and then, at the last second, walking backwards out of range so they whiff a throw tech attempt like a dummy. You can then pummel them with a huge punish.
Shoryuken
The specific name for Ryu and Ken's dragon punches in the Street Fighter series, but it's used to talk about any generic uppercut-looking move in pretty much any fighting game. Very often shortened to just "shoryu".Shoto
An archetype in the Street Fighter series for a character that has a fireball, a shoryuken, and a tatsu. Their main gameplan is to play solid footsies with fireballs and pokes, and then uppercut you when you jump at them. Ryu, Ken, and Akuma are the quintessential shotos that appear in virtually every Street Fighter title.Sonic Boom
A specific type of projectile that travels horizontally and is traditionally input using a charge command. Notably, they have considerably faster recovery than a fireball, but needing to have charge to throw one really limits the situations in which you can use them. Sonic Boom is the specific name of Guile's famous projectile, but it will often refer to any projectile with very little recovery.Spam
Using one attack over and over again. Calling something "spam" or someone a "spammer" is the hallmark cry of the scrub, who is unwilling to find a strategy to beat any attack that hits them, no matter how telegraphed it is. Fighting game veterans will still use this term, but mostly in jest, or to give praise to a legitimate strategy. If you think someone is bad for using one move repeatedly to beat you, I'd recommend looking inwards and re-evaluating your strategy and game knowledge before lashing out. You might save a bit of embarrassment and you'll probably improve at the game at the same time.Spinning Piledriver
A classic Zangief command throw in the Street Fighter series, executed with a 360 motion. Zangief grabs you, jumps high in the air while spinning, and then slams you into the ground. Commonly abbreviated to SPD. It also is a catch-all term for any grappler's command throw executed with a 360, across virtually any game.Stagger
Stagger can also be used in its more common English meaning to describe attacks that are slightly delayed or off-beat from each other. Basically, you leave gaps between your attacks in tricky and unpredictable ways so your opponent thinks they're free to attack, then you smoke them with a devastating counter hit. You might hear something like "he staggered that heavy punch" or "nice stagger pressure" to indicate this.Tatsu
The name of a shoto special move where the character travels forward with their foot extended, usually spinning like a top while doing so. It is sometimes called "Hurricane Kick" in English, but many in the community call it "tatsu", a shortened version of the Japanese name. Tatsus are often briefly projectile invincible which can help you win fireball wars, and they're often good combo enders too.Tech
Most commonly is shorthand for a throw tech. It can also refer to the act of quick rising after being knocked down, as in "you should tech when you hit the ground". In Smash Bros. in particular, teching when you hit the ground lets you stand up in place or roll either left or right, which is super important for trying to escape offense.It can also refer to recovering in the air after you've been hit by an air combo. Or, if all these definitions aren't enough, it's also used to talk about cool new strategies developed for a character, like "did you see that new Ryu tech posted to Twitter?" Confused at why so many fighting game terms have ambiguous meanings? You're not alone.
TO
Stands for Tournament Organizer. It's the main person in charge of running your favorite event, which could mean things like booking the venue, deciding which games to run, seeking out sponsors, and everything in between. Most TOs have a team of people working with them to make the event run smoothly, but they are kind of the front-facing entity of the tournament.V-Reversal
A defensive mechanic in Street Fighter V that lets you attack while blocking. You consume one stock of your "V-Gauge" (which is also shared for use with your V-Trigger), and your character will do an attack which is invincible to all hits but can be thrown. Usually, your character will knock the opponent out of the way, dealing some gray life while you get some breathing space.V-Shift
A Street Fighter V mechanic that lets you defensively dodge an attack and follow up with a counter-attack. For the cost of 1 V-Gauge bar (a meter also shared with doing V-Reversals and V-Triggers), pressing MK + HP in neutral will perform a V-Shift. You will emit a blue aura and do an invincible backdash, slowing down time if your opponent happened to attack at the same time.V-Shift Break
An automatic follow-up attack you can perform after you successfully dodge an attack with V-Shift. By pressing MK+HP (again) during the slow-motion dodge animation, your character will lunge forward with a basic punch or kick that keeps your full invincibility from the V-Shift, causes a knockdown and deals some gray life. It's a way for you to get some breathing space if you don't have a good invincible attack to follow up with, like a dragon punch or a super, or you are worried about being out of range of those attacks. It's a slow attack, but fortunately it will be safe if it's blocked.V-Skill
A character-specific Street Fighter V technique, activated by pressing medium punch and medium kick together. You can basically think of it like an alternate special move that builds your V-Gauge (used for V-Reversals and V-Trigger) if it connects with your opponent.V-Trigger
A central comeback mechanic in Street Fighter V. Your "V-Gauge" fills up as you take damage or successfully use your V-Skill, and when it's full, you can activate your V-Trigger, which usually powers up your character in a unique way for a good length of time (or, for some fighters, it is just simply a strong one-time use move with no powerup).Wakeup
The act of rising from the ground after you've been knocked down. Since you are usually invincible when you are on the ground, there's a specific period of time when you become hittable again; this moment in time and the decisions around it from both players comprise the "wakeup game".2023.06.01 09:29 Austin001316 Lag spikes that I can't seem to nail down what is causing
My pc is having weird issues with lag spikes, varying in frequency depending on what I'm doing. There's almost always one right after windows starts, sometimes when doing varying things with windows settings or file explorer, watching youtube videos, and of course while playing games, but not all games. Youtubes "stats for nerds" menu wont always show the spike even though I can clearly see it when it happens, and while gaming it is measured by msi afterburner. I have a latencymon report from just watching a youtube video, and am unsure exactly how to fix the issue CPU is amd ryzen 5950x, and gpu is a rtx 3090, so Im pretty sure lag spikes shouldn't occur if everything is running right
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CONCLUSION
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Your system appears to be suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for 0:03:39 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.
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SYSTEM INFORMATION
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Computer name: AUSTIN001-PC
OS version: Windows 11, 10.0, version 2009, build: 22621 (x64)
Hardware: System Product Name, ASUS
BIOS: 4402
CPU: AuthenticAMD AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-Core Processor
Logical processors: 32
Processor groups: 1
Processor group size: 32
RAM: 65449 MB total
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CPU SPEED
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Reported CPU speed (WMI): 3401 MHz
Reported CPU speed (registry): 340 MHz
Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.
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MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
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The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.
Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 181.70
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 13.567643
Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 89.10
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 1.237007
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REPORTED ISRs
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Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.
Highest ISR routine execution time (µs): 57.890
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: ntoskrnl.exe - NT Kernel & System, Microsoft Corporation
Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.000550
Driver with highest ISR total time: Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation
Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.000680
ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 54078
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 500-1000 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 1000-2000 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 2000-4000 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0
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REPORTED DPCs
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DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.
Highest DPC routine execution time (µs): 567.040
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: ntoskrnl.exe - NT Kernel & System, Microsoft Corporation
Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.007884
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation
Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0.030531
DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 202013
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-10000 µs): 4
DPC count (execution time 1000-2000 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 2000-4000 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0
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REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
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Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.
NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.
Process with highest pagefault count: msmpeng.exe
Total number of hard pagefaults 67
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 53
Number of processes hit: 5
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PER CPU DATA
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CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 2.750605
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 5.660
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 0.017084
CPU 0 ISR count: 20243
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 567.040
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 0.359906
CPU 0 DPC count: 56930
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CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 8.563376
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 57.890
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0.025349
CPU 1 ISR count: 29295
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 228.0
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 1.621216
CPU 1 DPC count: 124848
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CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.145210
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 2.270
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000033
CPU 2 ISR count: 24
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 34.070
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000702
CPU 2 DPC count: 178
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CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.032982
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs): 1.790
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000008
CPU 3 ISR count: 5
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs): 33.390
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000097
CPU 3 DPC count: 20
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.601345
CPU 4 ISR highest execution time (µs): 2.970
CPU 4 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000763
CPU 4 ISR count: 667
CPU 4 DPC highest execution time (µs): 94.150
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s): 0.027405
CPU 4 DPC count: 3485
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.638482
CPU 5 ISR highest execution time (µs): 3.430
CPU 5 ISR total execution time (s): 0.001591
CPU 5 ISR count: 1466
CPU 5 DPC highest execution time (µs): 88.510
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s): 0.029032
CPU 5 DPC count: 3186
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.020316
CPU 6 ISR highest execution time (µs): 1.670
CPU 6 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000010
CPU 6 ISR count: 7
CPU 6 DPC highest execution time (µs): 33.810
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000167
CPU 6 DPC count: 38
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.986612
CPU 7 ISR highest execution time (µs): 2.0
CPU 7 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000006
CPU 7 ISR count: 3
CPU 7 DPC highest execution time (µs): 32.830
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000128
CPU 7 DPC count: 23
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 8 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.618747
CPU 8 ISR highest execution time (µs): 3.670
CPU 8 ISR total execution time (s): 0.001231
CPU 8 ISR count: 1076
CPU 8 DPC highest execution time (µs): 87.90
CPU 8 DPC total execution time (s): 0.028098
CPU 8 DPC count: 3697
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 9 Interrupt cycle time (s): 2.682762
CPU 9 ISR highest execution time (µs): 3.440
CPU 9 ISR total execution time (s): 0.001230
CPU 9 ISR count: 1013
CPU 9 DPC highest execution time (µs): 86.980
CPU 9 DPC total execution time (s): 0.061365
CPU 9 DPC count: 3039
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 10 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.925713
CPU 10 ISR highest execution time (µs): 2.030
CPU 10 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000002
CPU 10 ISR count: 1
CPU 10 DPC highest execution time (µs): 12.850
CPU 10 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000134
CPU 10 DPC count: 40
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 11 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.923203
CPU 11 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 11 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 11 ISR count: 0
CPU 11 DPC highest execution time (µs): 6.510
CPU 11 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000009
CPU 11 DPC count: 2
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 12 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.061525
CPU 12 ISR highest execution time (µs): 2.420
CPU 12 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000052
CPU 12 ISR count: 36
CPU 12 DPC highest execution time (µs): 56.130
CPU 12 DPC total execution time (s): 0.001444
CPU 12 DPC count: 237
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 13 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.930878
CPU 13 ISR highest execution time (µs): 3.190
CPU 13 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000033
CPU 13 ISR count: 21
CPU 13 DPC highest execution time (µs): 51.090
CPU 13 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000585
CPU 13 DPC count: 112
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 14 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.189919
CPU 14 ISR highest execution time (µs): 2.620
CPU 14 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000219
CPU 14 ISR count: 158
CPU 14 DPC highest execution time (µs): 76.10
CPU 14 DPC total execution time (s): 0.004922
CPU 14 DPC count: 641
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 15 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.009145
CPU 15 ISR highest execution time (µs): 2.660
CPU 15 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000089
CPU 15 ISR count: 61
CPU 15 DPC highest execution time (µs): 545.050
CPU 15 DPC total execution time (s): 0.002876
CPU 15 DPC count: 269
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 16 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.585380
CPU 16 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 16 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 16 ISR count: 0
CPU 16 DPC highest execution time (µs): 28.240
CPU 16 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000101
CPU 16 DPC count: 33
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 17 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.603758
CPU 17 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 17 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 17 ISR count: 0
CPU 17 DPC highest execution time (µs): 27.950
CPU 17 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000222
CPU 17 DPC count: 37
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 18 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.628634
CPU 18 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 18 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 18 ISR count: 0
CPU 18 DPC highest execution time (µs): 64.370
CPU 18 DPC total execution time (s): 0.003286
CPU 18 DPC count: 5075
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 19 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.569351
CPU 19 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 19 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 19 ISR count: 0
CPU 19 DPC highest execution time (µs): 3.540
CPU 19 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000007
CPU 19 DPC count: 2
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 20 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.524458
CPU 20 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 20 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 20 ISR count: 0
CPU 20 DPC highest execution time (µs): 3.350
CPU 20 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000015
CPU 20 DPC count: 5
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 21 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.549726
CPU 21 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 21 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 21 ISR count: 0
CPU 21 DPC highest execution time (µs): 3.220
CPU 21 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000006
CPU 21 DPC count: 2
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 22 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.540518
CPU 22 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 22 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 22 ISR count: 0
CPU 22 DPC highest execution time (µs): 3.970
CPU 22 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000013
CPU 22 DPC count: 4
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 23 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.536702
CPU 23 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 23 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 23 ISR count: 0
CPU 23 DPC highest execution time (µs): 35.950
CPU 23 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000058
CPU 23 DPC count: 9
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 24 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.505420
CPU 24 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 24 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 24 ISR count: 0
CPU 24 DPC highest execution time (µs): 3.70
CPU 24 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000047
CPU 24 DPC count: 15
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 25 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.492121
CPU 25 ISR highest execution time (µs): 2.240
CPU 25 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000004
CPU 25 ISR count: 2
CPU 25 DPC highest execution time (µs): 35.040
CPU 25 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000149
CPU 25 DPC count: 38
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 26 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.456061
CPU 26 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 26 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 26 ISR count: 0
CPU 26 DPC highest execution time (µs): 51.150
CPU 26 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000072
CPU 26 DPC count: 8
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 27 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.483053
CPU 27 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 27 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 27 ISR count: 0
CPU 27 DPC highest execution time (µs): 2.870
CPU 27 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000006
CPU 27 DPC count: 2
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 28 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.502307
CPU 28 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 28 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 28 ISR count: 0
CPU 28 DPC highest execution time (µs): 33.380
CPU 28 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000091
CPU 28 DPC count: 20
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 29 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.501242
CPU 29 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 29 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 29 ISR count: 0
CPU 29 DPC highest execution time (µs): 39.630
CPU 29 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000064
CPU 29 DPC count: 10
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 30 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.497778
CPU 30 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 30 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 30 ISR count: 0
CPU 30 DPC highest execution time (µs): 33.320
CPU 30 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000077
CPU 30 DPC count: 6
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 31 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.524047
CPU 31 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 31 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 31 ISR count: 0
CPU 31 DPC highest execution time (µs): 33.580
CPU 31 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000072
CPU 31 DPC count: 6
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
submitted by Austin001316 to techsupport [link] [comments]
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CONCLUSION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Your system appears to be suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for 0:03:39 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name: AUSTIN001-PC
OS version: Windows 11, 10.0, version 2009, build: 22621 (x64)
Hardware: System Product Name, ASUS
BIOS: 4402
CPU: AuthenticAMD AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-Core Processor
Logical processors: 32
Processor groups: 1
Processor group size: 32
RAM: 65449 MB total
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed (WMI): 3401 MHz
Reported CPU speed (registry): 340 MHz
Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.
Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 181.70
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 13.567643
Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 89.10
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 1.237007
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED ISRs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.
Highest ISR routine execution time (µs): 57.890
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: ntoskrnl.exe - NT Kernel & System, Microsoft Corporation
Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.000550
Driver with highest ISR total time: Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation
Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.000680
ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 54078
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 500-1000 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 1000-2000 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 2000-4000 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.
Highest DPC routine execution time (µs): 567.040
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: ntoskrnl.exe - NT Kernel & System, Microsoft Corporation
Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.007884
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation
Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0.030531
DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 202013
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-10000 µs): 4
DPC count (execution time 1000-2000 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 2000-4000 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.
NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.
Process with highest pagefault count: msmpeng.exe
Total number of hard pagefaults 67
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 53
Number of processes hit: 5
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 2.750605
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 5.660
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 0.017084
CPU 0 ISR count: 20243
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 567.040
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 0.359906
CPU 0 DPC count: 56930
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 8.563376
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 57.890
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0.025349
CPU 1 ISR count: 29295
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 228.0
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 1.621216
CPU 1 DPC count: 124848
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CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.145210
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 2.270
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000033
CPU 2 ISR count: 24
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 34.070
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000702
CPU 2 DPC count: 178
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.032982
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs): 1.790
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000008
CPU 3 ISR count: 5
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs): 33.390
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000097
CPU 3 DPC count: 20
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.601345
CPU 4 ISR highest execution time (µs): 2.970
CPU 4 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000763
CPU 4 ISR count: 667
CPU 4 DPC highest execution time (µs): 94.150
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s): 0.027405
CPU 4 DPC count: 3485
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.638482
CPU 5 ISR highest execution time (µs): 3.430
CPU 5 ISR total execution time (s): 0.001591
CPU 5 ISR count: 1466
CPU 5 DPC highest execution time (µs): 88.510
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s): 0.029032
CPU 5 DPC count: 3186
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.020316
CPU 6 ISR highest execution time (µs): 1.670
CPU 6 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000010
CPU 6 ISR count: 7
CPU 6 DPC highest execution time (µs): 33.810
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000167
CPU 6 DPC count: 38
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.986612
CPU 7 ISR highest execution time (µs): 2.0
CPU 7 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000006
CPU 7 ISR count: 3
CPU 7 DPC highest execution time (µs): 32.830
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000128
CPU 7 DPC count: 23
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 8 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.618747
CPU 8 ISR highest execution time (µs): 3.670
CPU 8 ISR total execution time (s): 0.001231
CPU 8 ISR count: 1076
CPU 8 DPC highest execution time (µs): 87.90
CPU 8 DPC total execution time (s): 0.028098
CPU 8 DPC count: 3697
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 9 Interrupt cycle time (s): 2.682762
CPU 9 ISR highest execution time (µs): 3.440
CPU 9 ISR total execution time (s): 0.001230
CPU 9 ISR count: 1013
CPU 9 DPC highest execution time (µs): 86.980
CPU 9 DPC total execution time (s): 0.061365
CPU 9 DPC count: 3039
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 10 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.925713
CPU 10 ISR highest execution time (µs): 2.030
CPU 10 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000002
CPU 10 ISR count: 1
CPU 10 DPC highest execution time (µs): 12.850
CPU 10 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000134
CPU 10 DPC count: 40
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 11 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.923203
CPU 11 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 11 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 11 ISR count: 0
CPU 11 DPC highest execution time (µs): 6.510
CPU 11 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000009
CPU 11 DPC count: 2
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 12 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.061525
CPU 12 ISR highest execution time (µs): 2.420
CPU 12 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000052
CPU 12 ISR count: 36
CPU 12 DPC highest execution time (µs): 56.130
CPU 12 DPC total execution time (s): 0.001444
CPU 12 DPC count: 237
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 13 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.930878
CPU 13 ISR highest execution time (µs): 3.190
CPU 13 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000033
CPU 13 ISR count: 21
CPU 13 DPC highest execution time (µs): 51.090
CPU 13 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000585
CPU 13 DPC count: 112
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 14 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.189919
CPU 14 ISR highest execution time (µs): 2.620
CPU 14 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000219
CPU 14 ISR count: 158
CPU 14 DPC highest execution time (µs): 76.10
CPU 14 DPC total execution time (s): 0.004922
CPU 14 DPC count: 641
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 15 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.009145
CPU 15 ISR highest execution time (µs): 2.660
CPU 15 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000089
CPU 15 ISR count: 61
CPU 15 DPC highest execution time (µs): 545.050
CPU 15 DPC total execution time (s): 0.002876
CPU 15 DPC count: 269
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 16 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.585380
CPU 16 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 16 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 16 ISR count: 0
CPU 16 DPC highest execution time (µs): 28.240
CPU 16 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000101
CPU 16 DPC count: 33
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 17 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.603758
CPU 17 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 17 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 17 ISR count: 0
CPU 17 DPC highest execution time (µs): 27.950
CPU 17 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000222
CPU 17 DPC count: 37
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 18 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.628634
CPU 18 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 18 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 18 ISR count: 0
CPU 18 DPC highest execution time (µs): 64.370
CPU 18 DPC total execution time (s): 0.003286
CPU 18 DPC count: 5075
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 19 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.569351
CPU 19 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 19 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 19 ISR count: 0
CPU 19 DPC highest execution time (µs): 3.540
CPU 19 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000007
CPU 19 DPC count: 2
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 20 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.524458
CPU 20 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 20 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 20 ISR count: 0
CPU 20 DPC highest execution time (µs): 3.350
CPU 20 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000015
CPU 20 DPC count: 5
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 21 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.549726
CPU 21 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 21 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 21 ISR count: 0
CPU 21 DPC highest execution time (µs): 3.220
CPU 21 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000006
CPU 21 DPC count: 2
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 22 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.540518
CPU 22 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 22 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 22 ISR count: 0
CPU 22 DPC highest execution time (µs): 3.970
CPU 22 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000013
CPU 22 DPC count: 4
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 23 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.536702
CPU 23 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 23 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 23 ISR count: 0
CPU 23 DPC highest execution time (µs): 35.950
CPU 23 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000058
CPU 23 DPC count: 9
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 24 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.505420
CPU 24 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 24 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 24 ISR count: 0
CPU 24 DPC highest execution time (µs): 3.70
CPU 24 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000047
CPU 24 DPC count: 15
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 25 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.492121
CPU 25 ISR highest execution time (µs): 2.240
CPU 25 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000004
CPU 25 ISR count: 2
CPU 25 DPC highest execution time (µs): 35.040
CPU 25 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000149
CPU 25 DPC count: 38
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 26 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.456061
CPU 26 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 26 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 26 ISR count: 0
CPU 26 DPC highest execution time (µs): 51.150
CPU 26 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000072
CPU 26 DPC count: 8
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 27 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.483053
CPU 27 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 27 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 27 ISR count: 0
CPU 27 DPC highest execution time (µs): 2.870
CPU 27 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000006
CPU 27 DPC count: 2
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 28 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.502307
CPU 28 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 28 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 28 ISR count: 0
CPU 28 DPC highest execution time (µs): 33.380
CPU 28 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000091
CPU 28 DPC count: 20
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 29 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.501242
CPU 29 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 29 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 29 ISR count: 0
CPU 29 DPC highest execution time (µs): 39.630
CPU 29 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000064
CPU 29 DPC count: 10
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 30 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.497778
CPU 30 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 30 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 30 ISR count: 0
CPU 30 DPC highest execution time (µs): 33.320
CPU 30 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000077
CPU 30 DPC count: 6
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 31 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.524047
CPU 31 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0
CPU 31 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0
CPU 31 ISR count: 0
CPU 31 DPC highest execution time (µs): 33.580
CPU 31 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000072
CPU 31 DPC count: 6
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2023.06.01 09:26 Amazing_Ad3198 Advice?
So here’s a fun one I was really down bad and sent some “pictures” to someone on Snapchat. I sent my face first and then the “other one” after so my face is not in the second one. They had a screenshot of my profile, face, and other picture all separately (I fell for the classic scam of pretending to be decently attractive woman). They threatened to post it but it was really weird. They didn’t have any personal info on me and they asked for 50 euros on PayPal which seems like a small amount plus I live in the US. I was like “yeah my PayPal won’t work can I cash app you “ and they said yes. I responded with the banger “cashapp these nuts” and they said ok then I blocked them. Do you think anything will come of this?
I forgot to mention I also changed my Snapchat username and deleted my public profile. I changed my settings to where nobody can contact me unless I am friends with them
submitted by Amazing_Ad3198 to Scams [link] [comments]
I forgot to mention I also changed my Snapchat username and deleted my public profile. I changed my settings to where nobody can contact me unless I am friends with them
2023.06.01 08:34 Lovely_Hippo78 F35 update:
So for those who have been asking about my f35 here's an update on how it's going. For those looking for some reading material before bed I got you covered as well.
Things I've changed: - weapon panel. It went from barely functional to completely inoperative. Currently working on auto sorting/switching weapons panel to replace the old manual one.
-control system. I added extra keybinds for important things (autopilot, gear, flight mode, launch) and added controller support so it now supports hotas systems! Only downside is that when I looked at it again after having not touched it in a day or two, there is an uncontrollable oscillation above 200knots. The current 'fix' is turning down the leading edge flaps but that messes with trim which messes with autopilot which messes with everything. Safe to say this system is worse off than it was a few days ago, but it's on a better path so eventually it'll get good. I might end up fitting a hotas seat into the plane just for the extra keybinds and axis. This plane is already a dream to fly (when working properly) so being able to keep your hands on the controls would be great! Only downside is that I need to relocate 1 panel in the cockpit and I haven't decided where to put it. So for now, the old seat stays.
-core systems. I am trying desperately to simplify the computational load of the f35 without sacrificing features. I taught myself tables today and they will definitely come into play as a go forward with this project. Today alone I removed 16 lua blocks from the weapon system. I went from every pylon doing its own math to one central brain in a different MC that just pumps out what pylon to drop and when. Progress is decent in the optimization department!
-attitude. Don't get me wrong, this is still the single most complex system I've ever built in stormworks. Half the systems haven't been started, and the other half are barely functional. I've already put over 200 hours into the project over the past few months and it often feels like 2 steps forward 1 step back, but right now I feel more motivated to work on it than I did when I first saw those bays open. So even if this project is formed to fail, it will not be going down anytime soon.
-canopy. The all important canopy. The aesthetics did not change but the brain did. For reference on how much power I'm putting into this computer, the canopy talks to the main systems on board. For 99% of applications the canopy will do exactly what you want it to without your input being required. The other 1%? It's being worked on. That's kinda the goal of this whole plane. I want to do as little as possible as a stormworks pilot but man I really hate it when a computer does something you didn't want it to do. That just gives yall a good reference as to what my thought process is here.
OK as much as I love talking about my FCS dying, autopilot crying, weapon system reviving, and canopy vibing, I think it's time we talk game plan. There were a lot of people mentioning how they just couldn't wait for this thing to go up on the workshop. So for those of you dying from anticipation, I expect a funeral invite. This project has taken a long time, and there isn't a single aspect of the plane that I am even close to happy with yet. As much as I would love to put this plane on the workshop right now, I just can't. It NEEDS to be perfect. Saying "a long time" and "perfect" doesn't allow for reasonable time estimates, instead, I'll just list off some of the main goals of the plane (subject to change of course) and yall can make your estimates on how long these will take me to implement. Remember, half the fun is learning how to do it, so every system will be home grown for this plane. Also I know these are basically unattainable, but either I make it happen or this plane never gets seen on the workshop so let's hope for a miracle shall we :P.
Flight control system goals: - full controllekeyboard support with selectable control types based on controller needs (sticky throttle vs centering throttle for example)
Auto Pilot System Goals: - full GCAS system. If my autopilot hits the ocean, my plane better be on fire.
-the classic gps stuff dialed to 11. Alt hold that works perfectly at every speed, autoheading that tracks a line on the floor, and a system that both levels roll and compensates for it. If I decide that my plane flies better on its side, the autopilot should agree.
-auto formation. Two reasons: 1, once I install everything else, this will be easy, and two, because a screenshot with 4 f35s in diamond formation would be epic.
-auto takeoff and landing. I'm not sure if this was shown yet, but my map display has every static airport in game coded into it. My dream is to be at one airport, click on another, and watch my plane do everything without me. Future plans to add carrier landings as well.
MFD goals. - map display. Full pan, zoom, and follow features (duh) as well as information overlays(weapon and navigation). Picture things like points of interest, laser designator(s?), IFF locations, and of course, airports.
-weapon display. My biggest planned compromise... I have 2 options here; I could build a fully proprietary standard and use home brewed weapons with amazing integration, or use a standardized approach ensuring compatibility. I chose the latter. I'm not the best at anything , and certainly not with weapons. I decides I'll leave that up to the community. That doesn't mean the weapon Page will be bad though. It's still going to auto group weapons by type, offer different firing modes, a wide suite of guidance types, and of course, a quality sequencer. This is what I worked on today and even though I still haven't started most of the features, the polish on the parts I have finished is definitely good enough for me.
-EW display. [REDACTED]. Jk of course. I'm not that multiplayer type so I don't really care if people take my EW systems. To be clear, there is 0% chance the public release is going to be fully featured, but it certainly wont need an ew pod. Planned features include radio sweeping/jamming, radio tracking, multi-standard IFF, datalink, frequency hopping, and depending on how ambitious I'm feeling, maybe some code breaking as well. Again, I'm not that multiplayer type, so I'll probably never see the benefit from these systems. But to have such a nice plane be spoiled by a radio guided missile would be a crime. Side note, currently there are exactly 0 antenna in the build, but I'm sure I'll find space somewhere...
Conclusion. Would you look at that! A list of goals so ambitious there's no chance he'll accomplish any of it! Yeah, probably. Nice to dream I guess. Anyway, here's the fun part: I'm easy to persuade, and I am shooting for every bell and whistle I can think of. That means if one of yall give me a sales pitch for a feature I should add, it will most likely end up on the list. Also if yall have standards or references you think I should take a look at, I will gladly do so.
submitted by Lovely_Hippo78 to Stormworks [link] [comments]
Things I've changed: - weapon panel. It went from barely functional to completely inoperative. Currently working on auto sorting/switching weapons panel to replace the old manual one.
-control system. I added extra keybinds for important things (autopilot, gear, flight mode, launch) and added controller support so it now supports hotas systems! Only downside is that when I looked at it again after having not touched it in a day or two, there is an uncontrollable oscillation above 200knots. The current 'fix' is turning down the leading edge flaps but that messes with trim which messes with autopilot which messes with everything. Safe to say this system is worse off than it was a few days ago, but it's on a better path so eventually it'll get good. I might end up fitting a hotas seat into the plane just for the extra keybinds and axis. This plane is already a dream to fly (when working properly) so being able to keep your hands on the controls would be great! Only downside is that I need to relocate 1 panel in the cockpit and I haven't decided where to put it. So for now, the old seat stays.
-core systems. I am trying desperately to simplify the computational load of the f35 without sacrificing features. I taught myself tables today and they will definitely come into play as a go forward with this project. Today alone I removed 16 lua blocks from the weapon system. I went from every pylon doing its own math to one central brain in a different MC that just pumps out what pylon to drop and when. Progress is decent in the optimization department!
-attitude. Don't get me wrong, this is still the single most complex system I've ever built in stormworks. Half the systems haven't been started, and the other half are barely functional. I've already put over 200 hours into the project over the past few months and it often feels like 2 steps forward 1 step back, but right now I feel more motivated to work on it than I did when I first saw those bays open. So even if this project is formed to fail, it will not be going down anytime soon.
-canopy. The all important canopy. The aesthetics did not change but the brain did. For reference on how much power I'm putting into this computer, the canopy talks to the main systems on board. For 99% of applications the canopy will do exactly what you want it to without your input being required. The other 1%? It's being worked on. That's kinda the goal of this whole plane. I want to do as little as possible as a stormworks pilot but man I really hate it when a computer does something you didn't want it to do. That just gives yall a good reference as to what my thought process is here.
OK as much as I love talking about my FCS dying, autopilot crying, weapon system reviving, and canopy vibing, I think it's time we talk game plan. There were a lot of people mentioning how they just couldn't wait for this thing to go up on the workshop. So for those of you dying from anticipation, I expect a funeral invite. This project has taken a long time, and there isn't a single aspect of the plane that I am even close to happy with yet. As much as I would love to put this plane on the workshop right now, I just can't. It NEEDS to be perfect. Saying "a long time" and "perfect" doesn't allow for reasonable time estimates, instead, I'll just list off some of the main goals of the plane (subject to change of course) and yall can make your estimates on how long these will take me to implement. Remember, half the fun is learning how to do it, so every system will be home grown for this plane. Also I know these are basically unattainable, but either I make it happen or this plane never gets seen on the workshop so let's hope for a miracle shall we :P.
Flight control system goals: - full controllekeyboard support with selectable control types based on controller needs (sticky throttle vs centering throttle for example)
- full INS based flight control system. Ability to auto trim every axis without feeling too snappy or unpredictable. If drift exists, it should be from your flightstick, not the plane.
- complete flight modes. Ex: dogfight mode with increased control responsiveness, landing mode with autoleveling, descent rate control, and auto flaring.
- perfect in all weather conditions. If I feel the need to look at the wind setting, somethings gone horribly wrong. The wind doesn't move mountains, so why should it move my plane?
Auto Pilot System Goals: - full GCAS system. If my autopilot hits the ocean, my plane better be on fire.
-the classic gps stuff dialed to 11. Alt hold that works perfectly at every speed, autoheading that tracks a line on the floor, and a system that both levels roll and compensates for it. If I decide that my plane flies better on its side, the autopilot should agree.
-auto formation. Two reasons: 1, once I install everything else, this will be easy, and two, because a screenshot with 4 f35s in diamond formation would be epic.
-auto takeoff and landing. I'm not sure if this was shown yet, but my map display has every static airport in game coded into it. My dream is to be at one airport, click on another, and watch my plane do everything without me. Future plans to add carrier landings as well.
MFD goals. - map display. Full pan, zoom, and follow features (duh) as well as information overlays(weapon and navigation). Picture things like points of interest, laser designator(s?), IFF locations, and of course, airports.
- navigation display. Essentially the better way to talk to your autopilot. Tell it things like remain level, stay at 1000 meters, land here. Basically anything that doesn't fit with a keybind or on the map display. One notable goal is that both panels could be up side by side allowing you to input way points, and visualize flight plans a lot easier.
-weapon display. My biggest planned compromise... I have 2 options here; I could build a fully proprietary standard and use home brewed weapons with amazing integration, or use a standardized approach ensuring compatibility. I chose the latter. I'm not the best at anything , and certainly not with weapons. I decides I'll leave that up to the community. That doesn't mean the weapon Page will be bad though. It's still going to auto group weapons by type, offer different firing modes, a wide suite of guidance types, and of course, a quality sequencer. This is what I worked on today and even though I still haven't started most of the features, the polish on the parts I have finished is definitely good enough for me.
-EW display. [REDACTED]. Jk of course. I'm not that multiplayer type so I don't really care if people take my EW systems. To be clear, there is 0% chance the public release is going to be fully featured, but it certainly wont need an ew pod. Planned features include radio sweeping/jamming, radio tracking, multi-standard IFF, datalink, frequency hopping, and depending on how ambitious I'm feeling, maybe some code breaking as well. Again, I'm not that multiplayer type, so I'll probably never see the benefit from these systems. But to have such a nice plane be spoiled by a radio guided missile would be a crime. Side note, currently there are exactly 0 antenna in the build, but I'm sure I'll find space somewhere...
Conclusion. Would you look at that! A list of goals so ambitious there's no chance he'll accomplish any of it! Yeah, probably. Nice to dream I guess. Anyway, here's the fun part: I'm easy to persuade, and I am shooting for every bell and whistle I can think of. That means if one of yall give me a sales pitch for a feature I should add, it will most likely end up on the list. Also if yall have standards or references you think I should take a look at, I will gladly do so.
2023.06.01 07:42 RemnantEvil [Video games journalism] When a writer's punished for having the wrong opinion and leads a tiny exodus of hobbyists
What is Rock, Paper, Shotgun?
Rock, Paper, Shotgun (RPS) is a PC-gaming focused site based in the UK that was started in 2007. It has the usual gaming site content – Top 5/10/50/100 lists, publisher or developer press releases dressed up as news, reviews, previews, press event reports, a podcast, and – important to this story – a comment section below articles where gamers and capital-G Gamers, left-wing and right-wing alike, can find unity in complaining that their favourite was inappropriately placed in the aforementioned Top 5/10/50/100 lists.
(Fun fact: one of the co-founders of RPS was Kieron Gillen, who has since worked on Uncanny X-Men, Young Avengers, Marvel’s Darth Vader, and co-created Doctor Aphra.)
Of note, RPS bucks the generally apolitical nature of gaming sites by being quite openly left-wing. Though it generally isn’t a feature of many articles, it does show up on occasion, and not always in the best light. For instance, this article that has an unusual bone to pick with Rainbow Six Siege having a female hostage in the E3 demo. Despite Tom Clancy himself having a reputation as a conservative, and that’s pretty evident in his fiction, the Rainbow Six series has been unusually progressive in having women fighting terrorists alongside the men since the inception, and Siege was no exception. It was actually quite rare in the ‘90s that a woman not named Lara Croft was involved in the action alongside the boys, so it does seem like an article about Rainbow Six’s treatment of women is more about having a bone to pick.
(Editorial note: I do not believe a person’s identity is political. Some people do. There’s a saying that applies to capital-G Gamers – “There are two genders: male and political.” Often when they decry keeping politics out of video games, it’s directed at any sort of inclusion. So, the political slant on this is just to point out that left-wing people are generally pro-trans and right-wing people are generally not. Spoiler alert, this is a discussion about trans people.)
What is wargaming?
Within gaming, there are genres. Wargaming is one of them, and quite niche. Within the genre, there’s a diverse spectrum of passion. Some would consider themselves wargaming fans if they played and liked the Total War series. More hardcore wargamers would vehemently disagree and look down their nose at a game that has giant men standing on a world map; in their minds, wargaming is the domain of the chit and NATO symbology – a whole other language where a rectangular with an X through it represents an infantry unit, and the number of Xs or Is above the rectangle represents its size from XXXXX being army group, XX being division, II as battalion or I as company. (Give me hexes or give me death!) But in general, it’s operational (think the Italian campaign of WWII), strategic (the invasion of Sicily the Allies), or tactical (taking a specific town in Sicily with a regiment), and generally turn-based but occasionally real-time. You won’t find Age Of Empires in this genre, for instance.
Wargaming is not exclusive to the digital space either, and it’s just as likely to be played around an enormous table with intricate landscapes, pushing 8mm, 15mm or bigger pieces, usually hand-painted, and rolling dice. They’ll have a hefty rulebook in hand to consult how many dice you roll and what sort of success you need in order for your British mortar team to successfully knock out the German machine gun nest on the rooftop. Warhammer 40K is the most famous example, but that’s a single guy per base; the deeper wargames have a single base representing a squad or platoon stuck together to move as a group.
(The more hardcore have taken on the moniker grognards, a reference to old soldiers and specifically the original Imperial Guard that fought under Napoleon at Waterloo.)
What’s The Flare Path?
Among the contributors to RPS was one named Tim Stone, who started writing for the site as soon as it was founded. (I cannot use anonymity, so the usual sub rules apply about leaving people alone; Tim’s still writing and in order to engage with this drama, we have to link articles that clearly have his name on them.) There’s a distinction between staff and contributors; staff were full-time employees of the business, whereas contributors are just freelancers who pop in and out. He was not a run-of-the-mill writer who would guzzy up press releases, Tim only had one ongoing feature called The Flare Path with a supplemental Friday Foxer. Though he started out doing little comics under the title Strafe Left, he moved on to reviews and features before creating the regular feature The Flare Path in 2011.
The title The Flare Path is a reference to the lights that outline runways, allowing aircraft to take off or land at night. And that is a pretty good summation of the feature, because Tim’s focus was exclusively on wargaming and simulations, which could mean directing squadrons of aircraft to take off for a mission, or yourself piloting a plane to a gentle landing guided by the flare path. Every Friday, you would just as likely find an article about a game where you drive a train in rural England as you would a wargame where you command Roman legions in that very same countryside. Among the regular features were A2Z articles, where Tim would have short snippets for each letter of the alphabet, with Q often necessarily “Quick tea break” due to the infrequency of that letter showing up. For instance, a new ARMA game might be A, then teasing a review of Battle Brothers is B, and so on, just a fun way to wrap up a lot of short bits of news that don’t have enough meat for a full article.
Another article type would see Tim break out of his usual Friday containment and run communal games, typically Combat Mission. Combat Mission is a WWII/Cold War turn-based tactics game where you’d queue up orders to your units that would then be executed for 60 seconds, during which the other side would be executing their own orders and you’d simply have to watch how your planning and preparation plays out. And it turns out, this is surprisingly adaptable to a group game – Tim would grid the map, lay out a scenario, identify the units and the objectives, and then people would comment below the article to give instructions. You could only move one unit in a turn and you had to be the first to claim that unit, but you’d say, for example, “I’d like to move 1st Squad to H3 and try to suppress the machine gun,” and Tim would take your comment and play it out. The next day, he’d do a little narrative report on who did what, where, and when, and what the enemy did in response, in a fun narrative way, even naming characters who pulled off particularly heroic or cowardly feats. Then he’d update the map, and the next turn begins.
Alongside his regular article, he’d also post a Friday Foxer. He’d have a variety of different games in the Foxer genre, and often rewarded correct answers with prizes – usually codes for games that developers gave him. One type was giving clues to a location and the readers would have to deduce where Tim was “standing” that fit all the criteria. Others were Catchphrase-like messages hidden in images that you’d need to decode, or a series of seemingly-unrelated images which had a theme that you’d need to identify.
I go on these tangents to emphasize that Tim had built himself a little community on RPS. While contributors did reply to reader comments in articles, Tim was often playing a game with readers, which endeared him to some people. Not only that, if you were interested in wargaming or simulations, any article on RPS about those genres was typically Tim’s domain. For a certain group, Tim was the only regular source of news on two niche genres, and the only reason to read RPS if the newest action game or looter-shooter didn’t appeal to you. There was and (spoilers) is nothing like The Flare Path and the Foxers on RPS, as far as actual engagement with the article itself through community wargames or puzzles.
Equally important, wargaming itself is niche enough that there are few others who do what Tim does. Wargaming.net is actually the name of the company who makes World Of Tanks, World Of Warships and others – ironically, none of which would qualify as wargames and would barely pass musters as simulations either. Wargamer has infrequent articles. The best podcast on the subject is Three Moves Ahead (which originally launched as the podcast for the now-defunct Flash Of Steel website), but the podcast is infrequent as well, is primarily focused on a single game per episode (though with comparisons made by the host or guests to other games), and has a bit too much focus on Total War or every single new Paradox DLC for Crusader Kings at the exclusion of more niche titles.
On a weekly schedule, Tim became a stable pair of hands, and was directing his community to support all sorts of up-and-comers who were otherwise ignored or neglected or just invisible to wider gaming press.
I also want to point out that there’s an often-unspoken ethical question at the core of wargaming as a hobby. To his credit, Tim often wrote about it, and would even avoid wargaming topics as a matter of sensitivity to significant dates. As players in this hobby, we are moving chits around that represent thousands of people and though nobody obviously dies, wargaming frequently deals with historical events and it’s something we need to be aware of. Tim would frequently muse in his articles or bring it up in interviews with developers – to paraphrase, what we’re doing for “fun” is essentially turning some very dark times in human history into entertainment, and to what extent should we be aware of that? Should we want to simulate “playing” as Germany to conquer Europe, which in the real world resulted in tens of millions of innocent and not-so-innocent people dying? It’s a tough conversation to have and Tim chose to engage with it, which probably put him offside with some of his readers, because it’s a topic that actually genuinely is bringing politics into gaming, unlike a lot of the gaming discourse.
A journalist is booted off a fictional radio for being a bit TERFy, resulting in a journalist being booted off a website for being a bit TERFy.
The inciting incident for this drama is an article posted in 2020 about a UK journalist who was one of several used by game developer Ubisoft to provide voiceovers for the video game Watch Dogs Legion. In the article, it is revealed that this journalist had in the past posted a 2017 The Times article titled “A man can’t just say he has turned into a woman.”
What is TERF? Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist, which probably spiked the Google charts more recently with The Author Who Shall Not Be Named. I will add this disclaimer, I am inferring things about Tim when I call him a TERF, and maybe I’m giving too much credit. I don’t know if Tim Stone is a feminist, so I’m giving the benefit of the doubt, and I wear that. The author of The Times article is a self-proclaimed feminist, and does claim to support trans right, but according to the RPS article, “(She) uses familiar hand-wringing about biological sex, transgender identification as a trend, and people with penises in women's changing rooms.” I’ll leave it up to your judgement whether you think either is an actual TERF or not.
In an unusual move, one Tim Stone showed up in the comments of the above article, and that’s the meat of this drama.
The Alamo but with TERFs.
The comments, as you can imagine, were completely chill since obviously “censoring” a “journalist” in a “video game” for “anti-trans views” outside of the game itself is just the perfect intersection of everything political on an internet forum possible. (The voiceover in the game was scripted by Ubisoft and was itself not an issue; they were choosing to remove the voiceover to remove association with the journalist based on their views.)
One user wrote:
One commenter wrote:
The inciting article is itself tame. Incredibly tame. As referenced earlier, it has the usual games journalism scent of just dressing up a press release. At the most judgemental, they referenced that the voiceover-providing journalist had “some pretty ugly opinions about transgender people” and “that’s decidedly not neat,” which is just the lovely understatement you get from British people. “This is a bit bothersome” was, I believe, repeatedly uttered during the Blitz.
I won’t bore with copying over more comments, but it gets quite heated – although Tim seems to remain quite collected in the comments, which does have an air that he isn’t aware of what kind of hornet’s nest he’s kicked. The most noteworthy exchange is between a user and Tim, where the user writes:
In all, Tim would comment eight times, with his last being:
Five days later, the RPS Twitter account posts this tweet.
The responses, I’m sure you can imagine, are the usual volleys from the usual battle lines. Left-wing and trans rights people are chuffed to bits, believing that an insidious TERF has been weeded out from RPS. They view his comments about bathrooms and sports as the usual dogwhistle, typical of the alt-right where the goal is to draw increasingly smaller circles to exclude trans people from one thing after another until they ultimately cannot exist in society. Gamers with a right-wing focus and wargamers (and those are not mutually exclusive) try to cancel culture RPS, many declaring that they’d never return to the site for this grave injustice. And for wargamers, that’s pretty easy; Tim was the only one catering to their genre appetite, and there literally was no reason to return without Tim. The most vanilla response was those who didn’t care about the comment section conflict at all and just wanted their dang wargaming news.
(The wargaming audience was not exclusively on the right-wing - the creator of one of the biggest wargaming podcasts showed up in the comments too, and took a distinctly anti-Tim and pro-trans stance.)
The last (spoilers, not really) article posted by Tim was a typical A2Z column, and became somewhat of a shrine to him. Of note, the very user to whom Tim gave his perhaps most damning response showed up:
Of particular note, a user named hms_pepperpot shows up, and it looks like it’s Tim. I have no evidence to the contrary and the phrasing is close enough that I’m willing to believe it. But wait, Tim was posting as Tim Stone in the inflamed comment section, right? Yep, the divorce was so swift and decisive that they even blocked his access to his old username, or deleted it entirely – either way, he was in the comments to say goodbye under an alias.
Napoleon’s exile on Elba.
Some time later, Tim would resurface on a new site of his own creation, Tally-Ho Corner. Very much The Flare Path with a new coat of paint, he would carry on with his regular columns on a weekly basis. The Foxers returned, as did A2Z and communal wargaming. RPS, for their part, did not seem to fight to keep the column to themselves. There was a small exodus as RPS had once been a PC gaming site with a wargaming/simulation column, to just a PC gaming site. Those with only an interest in those genres left; there was nothing for them anymore. An unknown number followed Tim to his new endeavour and made themselves known over there. Striking out on his own has costs, however, and Tim sells membership and banner space to those who wish to help out. He has made follow-up requests since Tally-Ho Corner started which would indicate that it isn’t a profitable venture; he says he only wants enough to support the site, and seems to be happy to continue for the love of the hobby. He has alluded to the site not breaking even, so you can infer from that what you want about the size of the Flare Path exodus. Like I said, it’s a very niche hobby, so even 100% of Flare Path readers might not constitute a large number. One of the posts with the most engagements is a community vote on the best PC wargames; two years old, it has 144 comments and a closed comment section, so you could probably extrapolate a rough guess on readers versus commenters to see how popular the site is.
Tim would make the occasional comment about his past misadventure, but generally seemed to just carry on. Others would fight for or against him in other corners of the internet, but publicly, Tim seemed done with the whole thing and happy to just get back to writing about games.
The most blatant reference was an A2Z at the start of this year. No longer than any other entry (remember, he’s filling out 26 entries in a week, they’re usually just snippets), the entry “P is for Pointless provocation” in its entirety:
In a strange, quite dickish move, an RPS writer recycled an old Flare Path to come up with “The 25 best simulation games on PC”, with the writer credited… even though it was copied from Tim’s 2015 article. Tim called it out in an A2Z, as “H is for Hire a new sim correspondent, you cheapskates”, and that really sums it up – they were not rewriting the list, rearranging it, or updating it, they were literally copying the original list over and slapping a new author’s name on it.
If you click the above link, you’ll see that the article now has Tim as the author, changed retroactively (again). That in itself added a new element of drama, as readers who showed up after the edit were surprised by a new article from Mr Flare Path himself. Though it says “updated” in 2022, the giveaway is that the comments are predominantly from 7 years ago, when it was originally posted. One commenter, who I’ll take at their word, seemed to be witnessing the Stalin-esque rewriting of history in real time:
People noticed that the “updated” tag was the last attempt to hide in plain sight, since there was nothing updated about the list. It was identical to the one posted by Tim in 2015. And the clue was that, according to RPS, no simulation game had managed to crack the list since 2015; the “youngest” game on the list was 7 years old (now 8), a title shared by Farming Simulator 15 and Train Simulator 15.
15, of course, being the year both games released and the year Tim wrote the list.
An odd move to dig up the bones of the past, both the article and Tim’s involvement with RPS, for a single cheap parlour trick. Needless to say, if you search for Tim Stone contributions on RPS now, his “shrine” – a pretty typical A2Z Flare Path – is not his most recent contribution to the site. Instead, it’s “The 25 best simulation games on PC” from 8 years ago.
Fittingly, in the comment section below, the most recent post is by someone seemingly oblivious to the drama surrounding Tim Stone, RPS and trans rights. They’re instead complaining that two other motor racing games were left off the list. And really, there’s probably no better tribute to the community.
submitted by RemnantEvil to HobbyDrama [link] [comments]
Rock, Paper, Shotgun (RPS) is a PC-gaming focused site based in the UK that was started in 2007. It has the usual gaming site content – Top 5/10/50/100 lists, publisher or developer press releases dressed up as news, reviews, previews, press event reports, a podcast, and – important to this story – a comment section below articles where gamers and capital-G Gamers, left-wing and right-wing alike, can find unity in complaining that their favourite was inappropriately placed in the aforementioned Top 5/10/50/100 lists.
(Fun fact: one of the co-founders of RPS was Kieron Gillen, who has since worked on Uncanny X-Men, Young Avengers, Marvel’s Darth Vader, and co-created Doctor Aphra.)
Of note, RPS bucks the generally apolitical nature of gaming sites by being quite openly left-wing. Though it generally isn’t a feature of many articles, it does show up on occasion, and not always in the best light. For instance, this article that has an unusual bone to pick with Rainbow Six Siege having a female hostage in the E3 demo. Despite Tom Clancy himself having a reputation as a conservative, and that’s pretty evident in his fiction, the Rainbow Six series has been unusually progressive in having women fighting terrorists alongside the men since the inception, and Siege was no exception. It was actually quite rare in the ‘90s that a woman not named Lara Croft was involved in the action alongside the boys, so it does seem like an article about Rainbow Six’s treatment of women is more about having a bone to pick.
(Editorial note: I do not believe a person’s identity is political. Some people do. There’s a saying that applies to capital-G Gamers – “There are two genders: male and political.” Often when they decry keeping politics out of video games, it’s directed at any sort of inclusion. So, the political slant on this is just to point out that left-wing people are generally pro-trans and right-wing people are generally not. Spoiler alert, this is a discussion about trans people.)
What is wargaming?
Within gaming, there are genres. Wargaming is one of them, and quite niche. Within the genre, there’s a diverse spectrum of passion. Some would consider themselves wargaming fans if they played and liked the Total War series. More hardcore wargamers would vehemently disagree and look down their nose at a game that has giant men standing on a world map; in their minds, wargaming is the domain of the chit and NATO symbology – a whole other language where a rectangular with an X through it represents an infantry unit, and the number of Xs or Is above the rectangle represents its size from XXXXX being army group, XX being division, II as battalion or I as company. (Give me hexes or give me death!) But in general, it’s operational (think the Italian campaign of WWII), strategic (the invasion of Sicily the Allies), or tactical (taking a specific town in Sicily with a regiment), and generally turn-based but occasionally real-time. You won’t find Age Of Empires in this genre, for instance.
Wargaming is not exclusive to the digital space either, and it’s just as likely to be played around an enormous table with intricate landscapes, pushing 8mm, 15mm or bigger pieces, usually hand-painted, and rolling dice. They’ll have a hefty rulebook in hand to consult how many dice you roll and what sort of success you need in order for your British mortar team to successfully knock out the German machine gun nest on the rooftop. Warhammer 40K is the most famous example, but that’s a single guy per base; the deeper wargames have a single base representing a squad or platoon stuck together to move as a group.
(The more hardcore have taken on the moniker grognards, a reference to old soldiers and specifically the original Imperial Guard that fought under Napoleon at Waterloo.)
What’s The Flare Path?
Among the contributors to RPS was one named Tim Stone, who started writing for the site as soon as it was founded. (I cannot use anonymity, so the usual sub rules apply about leaving people alone; Tim’s still writing and in order to engage with this drama, we have to link articles that clearly have his name on them.) There’s a distinction between staff and contributors; staff were full-time employees of the business, whereas contributors are just freelancers who pop in and out. He was not a run-of-the-mill writer who would guzzy up press releases, Tim only had one ongoing feature called The Flare Path with a supplemental Friday Foxer. Though he started out doing little comics under the title Strafe Left, he moved on to reviews and features before creating the regular feature The Flare Path in 2011.
The title The Flare Path is a reference to the lights that outline runways, allowing aircraft to take off or land at night. And that is a pretty good summation of the feature, because Tim’s focus was exclusively on wargaming and simulations, which could mean directing squadrons of aircraft to take off for a mission, or yourself piloting a plane to a gentle landing guided by the flare path. Every Friday, you would just as likely find an article about a game where you drive a train in rural England as you would a wargame where you command Roman legions in that very same countryside. Among the regular features were A2Z articles, where Tim would have short snippets for each letter of the alphabet, with Q often necessarily “Quick tea break” due to the infrequency of that letter showing up. For instance, a new ARMA game might be A, then teasing a review of Battle Brothers is B, and so on, just a fun way to wrap up a lot of short bits of news that don’t have enough meat for a full article.
Another article type would see Tim break out of his usual Friday containment and run communal games, typically Combat Mission. Combat Mission is a WWII/Cold War turn-based tactics game where you’d queue up orders to your units that would then be executed for 60 seconds, during which the other side would be executing their own orders and you’d simply have to watch how your planning and preparation plays out. And it turns out, this is surprisingly adaptable to a group game – Tim would grid the map, lay out a scenario, identify the units and the objectives, and then people would comment below the article to give instructions. You could only move one unit in a turn and you had to be the first to claim that unit, but you’d say, for example, “I’d like to move 1st Squad to H3 and try to suppress the machine gun,” and Tim would take your comment and play it out. The next day, he’d do a little narrative report on who did what, where, and when, and what the enemy did in response, in a fun narrative way, even naming characters who pulled off particularly heroic or cowardly feats. Then he’d update the map, and the next turn begins.
Alongside his regular article, he’d also post a Friday Foxer. He’d have a variety of different games in the Foxer genre, and often rewarded correct answers with prizes – usually codes for games that developers gave him. One type was giving clues to a location and the readers would have to deduce where Tim was “standing” that fit all the criteria. Others were Catchphrase-like messages hidden in images that you’d need to decode, or a series of seemingly-unrelated images which had a theme that you’d need to identify.
I go on these tangents to emphasize that Tim had built himself a little community on RPS. While contributors did reply to reader comments in articles, Tim was often playing a game with readers, which endeared him to some people. Not only that, if you were interested in wargaming or simulations, any article on RPS about those genres was typically Tim’s domain. For a certain group, Tim was the only regular source of news on two niche genres, and the only reason to read RPS if the newest action game or looter-shooter didn’t appeal to you. There was and (spoilers) is nothing like The Flare Path and the Foxers on RPS, as far as actual engagement with the article itself through community wargames or puzzles.
Equally important, wargaming itself is niche enough that there are few others who do what Tim does. Wargaming.net is actually the name of the company who makes World Of Tanks, World Of Warships and others – ironically, none of which would qualify as wargames and would barely pass musters as simulations either. Wargamer has infrequent articles. The best podcast on the subject is Three Moves Ahead (which originally launched as the podcast for the now-defunct Flash Of Steel website), but the podcast is infrequent as well, is primarily focused on a single game per episode (though with comparisons made by the host or guests to other games), and has a bit too much focus on Total War or every single new Paradox DLC for Crusader Kings at the exclusion of more niche titles.
On a weekly schedule, Tim became a stable pair of hands, and was directing his community to support all sorts of up-and-comers who were otherwise ignored or neglected or just invisible to wider gaming press.
I also want to point out that there’s an often-unspoken ethical question at the core of wargaming as a hobby. To his credit, Tim often wrote about it, and would even avoid wargaming topics as a matter of sensitivity to significant dates. As players in this hobby, we are moving chits around that represent thousands of people and though nobody obviously dies, wargaming frequently deals with historical events and it’s something we need to be aware of. Tim would frequently muse in his articles or bring it up in interviews with developers – to paraphrase, what we’re doing for “fun” is essentially turning some very dark times in human history into entertainment, and to what extent should we be aware of that? Should we want to simulate “playing” as Germany to conquer Europe, which in the real world resulted in tens of millions of innocent and not-so-innocent people dying? It’s a tough conversation to have and Tim chose to engage with it, which probably put him offside with some of his readers, because it’s a topic that actually genuinely is bringing politics into gaming, unlike a lot of the gaming discourse.
A journalist is booted off a fictional radio for being a bit TERFy, resulting in a journalist being booted off a website for being a bit TERFy.
The inciting incident for this drama is an article posted in 2020 about a UK journalist who was one of several used by game developer Ubisoft to provide voiceovers for the video game Watch Dogs Legion. In the article, it is revealed that this journalist had in the past posted a 2017 The Times article titled “A man can’t just say he has turned into a woman.”
What is TERF? Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist, which probably spiked the Google charts more recently with The Author Who Shall Not Be Named. I will add this disclaimer, I am inferring things about Tim when I call him a TERF, and maybe I’m giving too much credit. I don’t know if Tim Stone is a feminist, so I’m giving the benefit of the doubt, and I wear that. The author of The Times article is a self-proclaimed feminist, and does claim to support trans right, but according to the RPS article, “(She) uses familiar hand-wringing about biological sex, transgender identification as a trend, and people with penises in women's changing rooms.” I’ll leave it up to your judgement whether you think either is an actual TERF or not.
In an unusual move, one Tim Stone showed up in the comments of the above article, and that’s the meat of this drama.
The Alamo but with TERFs.
The comments, as you can imagine, were completely chill since obviously “censoring” a “journalist” in a “video game” for “anti-trans views” outside of the game itself is just the perfect intersection of everything political on an internet forum possible. (The voiceover in the game was scripted by Ubisoft and was itself not an issue; they were choosing to remove the voiceover to remove association with the journalist based on their views.)
One user wrote:
there are diverse voices within RPS when it comes to games, genres, preferences etc but I would say (and i’d be prepared to be challenged on this) there is zero diversity in respect of political views and arguable groupthink and alignment particularly around trans issues.To which Tim opined:
There's at least one regular RPS contributor who'd like to see the site show a little more respect for the gender critical position in the trans rights debate. Me.He proceeded to link several articles, saying,
I agree with all those arguing for more constructive discussion and less name-calling in this debate.And we’re off to the races.
One commenter wrote:
never mind 'gender critical' being an obvious dogwhistle, it boggles the mind that you think "trans rights debate" is an acceptable string of words in 2020And significantly, it wasn’t just site users who were chiming in. Another writer for RPS came in guns blazing:
trans rights are human rights, this shit isn't a debate
The "gender critical position" is tired snivelling cowardice hiding behind Very Real Concerns while throwing shit at the people whose lives are routinely treated like an intellectual excercise. [sic]What the writer was alluding to was the typical capital-G Gamer response to anything political (and often something is only “political” if they don’t like it), namely “Get your politics out of my video games.” Often the corollary of that was “..or I’m getting out of your website.”
I am frankly embarrassed [sic] to see you repeating such dogwhistling bullshit. The obviously lying "I am cancelling my subscription!!!" oafs in here are one thing, but this is just sad.
The inciting article is itself tame. Incredibly tame. As referenced earlier, it has the usual games journalism scent of just dressing up a press release. At the most judgemental, they referenced that the voiceover-providing journalist had “some pretty ugly opinions about transgender people” and “that’s decidedly not neat,” which is just the lovely understatement you get from British people. “This is a bit bothersome” was, I believe, repeatedly uttered during the Blitz.
I won’t bore with copying over more comments, but it gets quite heated – although Tim seems to remain quite collected in the comments, which does have an air that he isn’t aware of what kind of hornet’s nest he’s kicked. The most noteworthy exchange is between a user and Tim, where the user writes:
It is distressing that you think my rights as a trans person are subject to some sort of "trans rights debate," and that "gender critical" is anything but a dog whistle for the same transphobic rhetoric as I've always been subject to, but now behind a veneer of intellectualism and civil discourse.And Tim’s response:
This isn't a matter of left and right, it's a matter of respect for other human beings. Good to know at least one RPS writer has none for me.
I have profound respect for you and your life choices.If you were to take an unfriendly view of Tim, this might be it – calling a person’s transition a “life choice”, and then putting the question of trans rights up for debate, calling the desire not to debate someone’s human rights “totalitarian.”
I also believe that questions like "Should trans women be allowed to compete in female sports?" and "Should male-bodied trans women be housed in womens' prisons?" are worthy of debate.
To forbid all debate on "trans rights" and to seek to silence and cancel people who don't unquestioningly support one side of the argument seems horribly totalitarian to me.
In all, Tim would comment eight times, with his last being:
Some proposed trans rights clash with women's rights in certain areas. It is not bigoted to point this out or advocate debate so that compromises can be reached.Overrunning the drop zone.
Five days later, the RPS Twitter account posts this tweet.
Trans rights are human rights. We strive to create an inclusive space for all people. Earlier this week, a freelancer used the RPS comments section to express views that failed in that goal. We will no longer be working with this freelancer or publishing their column.And just like that, the flares are snuffed and Tim’s time at RPS comes to an abrupt end after 13 years of service.
The responses, I’m sure you can imagine, are the usual volleys from the usual battle lines. Left-wing and trans rights people are chuffed to bits, believing that an insidious TERF has been weeded out from RPS. They view his comments about bathrooms and sports as the usual dogwhistle, typical of the alt-right where the goal is to draw increasingly smaller circles to exclude trans people from one thing after another until they ultimately cannot exist in society. Gamers with a right-wing focus and wargamers (and those are not mutually exclusive) try to cancel culture RPS, many declaring that they’d never return to the site for this grave injustice. And for wargamers, that’s pretty easy; Tim was the only one catering to their genre appetite, and there literally was no reason to return without Tim. The most vanilla response was those who didn’t care about the comment section conflict at all and just wanted their dang wargaming news.
(The wargaming audience was not exclusively on the right-wing - the creator of one of the biggest wargaming podcasts showed up in the comments too, and took a distinctly anti-Tim and pro-trans stance.)
The last (spoilers, not really) article posted by Tim was a typical A2Z column, and became somewhat of a shrine to him. Of note, the very user to whom Tim gave his perhaps most damning response showed up:
Please don't assume Tim is a TERF. I was involved, and indeed in lots of was responsible for what happened on the other forum which i am devastated by.Flare Path fans were somewhat split. The most mild responses were critical of RPS for how they booted Tim out the door without a second chance; some were concerned that it’s not a great way to win allies and convince people. Throw in the usual snippets: “cancel culture” and references to “The Inquisition”, and a number of people saying their farewells to RPS. In an odd way – and I did it myself by calling this a shrine – the comment section really does feel like the man died, with some outright coming to, quote, “pay their respects”.
I am trans and Tim replied in support of a view that i expressed! He shared some views and links to articles (including one from a trans blogger) that many people (including many trans people) would agree with. And even if they didn't, and Alison below articulates the position better than i could, its not like he went on an alt right tirade. This is a reasonable person making reasonable views very politely and and commenter whether they agreed with those or not has gained nothing from what happened subsequently, and we have all collectively lost something.
Of particular note, a user named hms_pepperpot shows up, and it looks like it’s Tim. I have no evidence to the contrary and the phrasing is close enough that I’m willing to believe it. But wait, Tim was posting as Tim Stone in the inflamed comment section, right? Yep, the divorce was so swift and decisive that they even blocked his access to his old username, or deleted it entirely – either way, he was in the comments to say goodbye under an alias.
Leaving RPS without being able to say a proper goodbye to you, the readers who have made my job such a joy this past thirteen years, has been one of the most depressing aspects of the last few days. Your enthusiasm was as important to The Flare Path's modest success as the complete creative freedom Graham afforded me. Thank you for making possible the happiest years of my working life.Of note, HMS Pepperpot is a reference to warship HMS Penelope. With Tim’s penchant for riddles and puzzles, it is not likely a coincidence that:
While the Flare Path name is destined for the scrap heap, the concept and spirit of the column will hopefully live on. I'm planning to pick up pretty much where I left off early in the new year. An article devoted to the FP game jam entries will be amongst the first pieces I post. Of course, there will be foxers too.
To readers hurt by my words last weekend, all I can say is a heartfelt sorry - I didn't set out to wound and have no wish whatsoever to make the lives of trans people more difficult. To readers baffled by the comments that ended up costing me my job, I strongly recommend reading a thoughtful essay written by Sam Smethers, the CEO of respected British women's rights charity The Fawcett Society. Google 'Sex and Gender Indentity: Finding a Way Forward' and you should find it.
See you in 2021 I hope. Tim.
On wartime service with Force K, she was holed so many times by bomb fragments that she acquired the nickname "HMS Pepperpot".Though Tim had some in agreement with his views in the inciting comment section, he was undoubtedly outnumbered and taking a lot of flak.
Napoleon’s exile on Elba.
Some time later, Tim would resurface on a new site of his own creation, Tally-Ho Corner. Very much The Flare Path with a new coat of paint, he would carry on with his regular columns on a weekly basis. The Foxers returned, as did A2Z and communal wargaming. RPS, for their part, did not seem to fight to keep the column to themselves. There was a small exodus as RPS had once been a PC gaming site with a wargaming/simulation column, to just a PC gaming site. Those with only an interest in those genres left; there was nothing for them anymore. An unknown number followed Tim to his new endeavour and made themselves known over there. Striking out on his own has costs, however, and Tim sells membership and banner space to those who wish to help out. He has made follow-up requests since Tally-Ho Corner started which would indicate that it isn’t a profitable venture; he says he only wants enough to support the site, and seems to be happy to continue for the love of the hobby. He has alluded to the site not breaking even, so you can infer from that what you want about the size of the Flare Path exodus. Like I said, it’s a very niche hobby, so even 100% of Flare Path readers might not constitute a large number. One of the posts with the most engagements is a community vote on the best PC wargames; two years old, it has 144 comments and a closed comment section, so you could probably extrapolate a rough guess on readers versus commenters to see how popular the site is.
Tim would make the occasional comment about his past misadventure, but generally seemed to just carry on. Others would fight for or against him in other corners of the internet, but publicly, Tim seemed done with the whole thing and happy to just get back to writing about games.
The most blatant reference was an A2Z at the start of this year. No longer than any other entry (remember, he’s filling out 26 entries in a week, they’re usually just snippets), the entry “P is for Pointless provocation” in its entirety:
If, after my bruising departure from RPS in 2020, I had decided to start work on a “cathartic” retro FPS about gunning down dogmatic ‘trans allies’, I hope someone – a friend, colleague, or family member – would have taken me to one side and said “Tim, WTF are you doing?”. Unfortunately, no-one seems to have urged Norwegian coder Sandra Moen to think again. If they had perhaps the nasty Terfenstein 3D wouldn’t have made it onto Steam.Tim’s back, baby! But it’s not him! But it is!
In a strange, quite dickish move, an RPS writer recycled an old Flare Path to come up with “The 25 best simulation games on PC”, with the writer credited… even though it was copied from Tim’s 2015 article. Tim called it out in an A2Z, as “H is for Hire a new sim correspondent, you cheapskates”, and that really sums it up – they were not rewriting the list, rearranging it, or updating it, they were literally copying the original list over and slapping a new author’s name on it.
If you click the above link, you’ll see that the article now has Tim as the author, changed retroactively (again). That in itself added a new element of drama, as readers who showed up after the edit were surprised by a new article from Mr Flare Path himself. Though it says “updated” in 2022, the giveaway is that the comments are predominantly from 7 years ago, when it was originally posted. One commenter, who I’ll take at their word, seemed to be witnessing the Stalin-esque rewriting of history in real time:
Wow, I just saw that Tim Stone's name has been removed. He was there as author when I first saw it this morning, with a note about it being updated by someone else. Now his name has been fully removed as the original author. I don't know what to say, but it feels icky to rewrite history like that, very 1984.(Not calling anyone over there a tyrant or communist or anything, merely referencing that infamous photo where people are removed one by one as they fall afoul of the Stalin regime. In this instance, taking Tim’s work and crediting to someone else, then crediting Tim in addition to the new writer, then finally just calling it a Tim article.)
Update - now it says article by Holly, Additional Contributions by Tim Stone. Still not accurate (seems to be the reverse or reality) but at least the original author's name is in there somewhere again.
People noticed that the “updated” tag was the last attempt to hide in plain sight, since there was nothing updated about the list. It was identical to the one posted by Tim in 2015. And the clue was that, according to RPS, no simulation game had managed to crack the list since 2015; the “youngest” game on the list was 7 years old (now 8), a title shared by Farming Simulator 15 and Train Simulator 15.
15, of course, being the year both games released and the year Tim wrote the list.
An odd move to dig up the bones of the past, both the article and Tim’s involvement with RPS, for a single cheap parlour trick. Needless to say, if you search for Tim Stone contributions on RPS now, his “shrine” – a pretty typical A2Z Flare Path – is not his most recent contribution to the site. Instead, it’s “The 25 best simulation games on PC” from 8 years ago.
Fittingly, in the comment section below, the most recent post is by someone seemingly oblivious to the drama surrounding Tim Stone, RPS and trans rights. They’re instead complaining that two other motor racing games were left off the list. And really, there’s probably no better tribute to the community.
2023.06.01 05:42 Guilty_Chemistry9337 Hide Behind the Cypress Tree, pt. 2
They didn’t tell us the name of the next kid that disappeared. They didn’t tell us another kid had disappeared at all. We could all tell by the silence what had happened. It spoke volumes. I’m sure they talked about it in great detail amongst themselves. In PTA meetings and City Councils. My parents made sure to turn off the TV at 5 o’clock before the news came on, at least in my home. They’d turn it back on for the 11 o’clock news, when were were in bed and couldn’t hear the details.
The strange thing is, they never told us to just stop going outside. They told us to go in groups, sure, but they never decided, or as far as I could tell even though, to keep us all indoors. I guess that sort of freedom wasn’t something they were willing to give up. Instead, they did the neighborhood watch thing. For those few months, I remember my folks meeting more of our neighbors than in all the time previously, or since. Retirees would spend their days out in their front lawns, watching kids and everybody else coming and going. They’d even set up lawn furniture, with umbrellas, even all through the rains of spring. Cops stopped sitting in ambushes on the highways waiting for speeders and instead started patrolling the streets, chatting with us as we’d pass by. Weekends would see all the adults out in their yards, working on cars in the driveways, fixing the gutters, and so on. They had this weird way of looking at you as you’d ride by. Not hostile stares, but it was like they were cataloging your presence. Boy, eight years old, red raincoat silver bike, about 11:30 in the morning, heading south on Sorensen. Seemed fine.
The next time we saw it, it wasn’t in our neighborhood, and I was the one who saw it first. We were visiting Russ, a sort of 5th semi-friend from school. We rarely hung out, mostly owing to geography. His house wasn’t far as the crow flies, but it was up a steep hill. We spent a Saturday afternoon returning a cache of comic books we’d borrowed. The distance we covered was substantial, as we had decided to take lots of extra streets as switchbacks, rather than slowly push our bikes up the too-steep hills.
The descent was going to be the highlight of the trip, up until I saw the Hidebehind. We were on a curving road, a steep forested bluff on one side. The uphill slope was mostly ivy-covered raised foundations for the neighborhood’s houses. That side of the road was lined with parked cars, and the residents of the homes had to ascend steep staircases to get to their front doors.
I was ayt the back of the pack when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Movement, something brown squatting between two closely parked cars. My head snapped as I zoomed past, and despite not getting a good look, I knew it was that terrible thing. “It’s behind us!” I shouted and started pedaling hard. The others looked for themselves as I quickly rushed past them, but they soon joined my pace.
Ralph’s earlier idea of directly confronting the thing was set aside. We were moving too fast, and down too narrow a street to turn around. Then we saw it again it was to our left, off-road, between the trees. Suddenly it leaped from behind one tree trunk to the next and disappeared again. That hardly made sense, the base of the trees must have been thirty feet below the deck of the street we rode down. One of us, I think it was India, let out one of those strangled screams.
There it was again, back on the right, disappearing behind a mailbox as we approached. That couldn’t have been, it must have outpaced us and crossed in front of us. Logic would suggest there was more than one, but somehow the four of us knew it was the same thing. More impossible still, the pole holding up the mailbox was too thin, maybe two inches in diameter, yet that thing had disappeared behind it, like a Warner Bros. cartoon character. It was just enough to catch a better glimpse of it though. All brown. A head seemingly too bulbous and large for its body. Its limbs were thin but far longer, like a gibbon’s. Only a gibbon had normal elbows and knees. This thing bent its joints all wrong like it wasn’t part of the natural order. We were all terrified to wit’s end.
“The trail!” Ralph shouted, and the other three of us knew exactly what he meant. The top of it was only just around the curve. It was a dirt footpath for pedestrians ascending and descending South Hill, cutting through the woods on our left. It was too steep for cars, and to be honest, too steep for bikes. We’d played on it before, challenging each other to see how high up they could go, then descend back down without using our brakes. A short paved cul-de-sac at the bottom was enough space to stop before running into a cross street.
Ralph had held the previous group record, having climbed three-quarters of the way before starting his mad drop. India’s best was just short of that, I had only dared about halfway up, Ben only a third. This time, with certain death on our heels, the trail seemed the only way out. Nothing could have outrun a kid on a bike flying down that hill.
We followed Ralph’s lead, swinging to the right gutter of the street, then hanging a fast wide left up onto the curb, over a patch of gravel, between two boulders set up as bollards, lest a car driver mistake the entrance for a driveway, and then, like a roller coaster cresting the first hill, the bottom fell out.
It was the most overwhelming sensation of motion I’ve ever had, before or since. I suppose the danger behind us was the big reason, and being absolutely certain that only our speed was keeping us alive. I remember thinking it was like the speeder bike scene from Return of the Jedi, also a recent movie from the time. Only this was real. I didn’t just see the trees flashing past it, I could hear the motion as well. Cold air attacked my eyes and long streamers of tears rushed over my cheeks and the drops flew past my ears, I didn’t dare blink. Each little stone my tires struck threatened to up-end me and end it all. Yet, and perhaps worse, half the time it felt like I wasn’t in contact with the ground at all. I was going so fast that those same small stones were sending me an inch or two into the air, and the arc of the flights so closely matched the slope that by the time I contacted the trail again, I was significantly further down the hill.
At the same time, I had never felt more relief, as the thing behind us had no way of catching us now. Somehow, maybe the seriousness of the escape gave us both the motive and the seriousness to keep ourselves under control. Looking back, I marvel that at least one of us didn’t lose control and end up splitting our skulls open.
We hit the pavement of the cul-de-sac below, and didn’t bother to slow down. We raced through the cross-street, one angry driver screeching to a halt and laying on his horn. This brought out the neighborhood watch. Just a few of them at first. Still, we didn’t slow down, our momentum carried us back up the much shallower slope of our neighborhood. Witnesses saw us depart at high speed, and this only brought out more of the watch. We heard whistles behind us, just like our P.E. teacher’s whistle. We figured that was the watch’s alarm siren. Regardless of what happened to that thing, it was behind us. We returned to our homes, shaken, but safe and sound, our inertia taking us almost all of the way there.
Another kid disappeared that Sunday, up on South Hill. We’d suspected it because we could see the lights of the police cars on a high road, surrounding the spot where it would turn out later, one of the kid’s shoes had been found. Russ confirmed it at school on Monday. It was a kid he’d known, lived down the road from his place, went to private school which is why we didn’t recognize his name.
I remember seeing Ralph’s face the next day when he arrived at school. He looked angry. Strong. Like he’d been crying really hard, and now it was over and he was resolved. He said he’d felt guilty because the thing we’d escaped from had gotten the other kid instead. He tried to tell his old man about it, then his mom, then any adult he could. He’d tell them about the monster who hides behind things. They needed to focus on finding and stopping that instead of looking for some sort of creeper or serial killer. Of course, nobody had listened to him. They hadn’t listened to the rest of us either when we’d tried to tell.
So he’d devised a plan. He was calling it the “Fight Patrol,” which we didn’t argue with. If the adults wouldn’t do something, we would. We’d patrol our neighborhood on our bikes, the four of us, maybe a couple more if we could talk others into it. We’d chase it off like that first time, maybe for good, or maybe corner it. Clearly, it could not handle being caught.
Naturally, we brought up the scare on South Hill. He argued that was a bad place. Too isolated, couldn’t turn around easily. We needed to stay on our home turf, lots of visibility, and plenty of the Neighborhood Watch within earshot. Maybe we and the adults working together was the key, even if the adults didn’t understand the problem.
Well, that convinced us. Our first patrol was that afternoon, after school. We watched everybody’s back like hawks. Nothing had a chance to sneak up on us. Nothing could step out from behind a bush without getting spotted. By Friday afternoon there were eight of us. The next week we split up to extend our territory to the next neighborhoods over.
Nothing happened. We never saw anything. Ben thought it was because we were scaring it away. Ralph just thought we were failing, and took it personally. I myself thought the thing had just moved to different parts of town, where the new disappearances were taking place. I told him we should keep it up until the thing was caught.
It was all for naught.
One day, India didn’t show up for school. I asked everybody, the teachers, the office staff, the custodian, my parents. All of them said they didn’t know, and it was so easy to tell that they were lying. That would mark the end of the Fight Patrol.
Ben didn’t show up a couple of days after that. When I got home and collapsed into bed, my mother came in to tell me that Ben’s mother had called. She’d taken him out of school and they were moving elsewhere. I called up Ralph to let him know the news, and he was relieved too.
My last day was Friday, and then I was taken out. Again, I called Ralph so he wouldn’t worry. I guess when there were only two weeks left of school, and it was just grade school, a couple missed weeks don’t amount to much. So I ended up spending the bulk of the summer out in the country, with my grandparents, which was why I brought up my grandpa in the first place.
I suppose I did fine out on their farmhouse. I was safe. There was certainly no shortage of things for a kid to do. I think my mom felt a strong sense of relief too. Things slipped through the cracks.
My grandparents didn’t have cable, too far out of town. They just had an old-school antenna and got a couple of TV stations transmitting out of Canada, Vancouver specifically. I remember one July day, sitting in their living room. My grandmother had just fixed lunch for me and my grandfather and had gone out to do some gardening as we watched the news at noon.
My grandfather was already being ravaged by his illnesses. He was able to get around, but couldn’t do any real labor anymore. He’d lounge in front of the TV in a special lounge chair. He hardly talked, and when he did he’d just mumble some discomfort or complaint to my grandma.
The lead story on the news was the current situation in Farmingham, despite being in the neighboring country, it was still big news in Vancouver, and the whole rest of the region. It seemed the disappearances were declining, but the police were still frantically searching for a supposed serial killer. I didn’t pick up much about what they were talking about, I was a kid after all, but my grandfather was watching intently, despite his infirmity.
He mumbled something, I didn’t catch. I asked him was he said, and as I approached I heard him say “fearsome critters.”
He turned his eyes to me and said again, distinct and in a normal tone of voice, “fearsome critters,” then returned his attention to the screen. “I don’t know why they call them that. Fearsome, sure. But ‘critters?” Makes it sound silly. Like it's some sort of fairy tale that it ain’t. Guess it’s like whistling past the graveyard. Well, they don’t have to worry about them no more, guess they can call them what they like.”
Then he turned to me. “Do you know what it is?” he asked. “Squonk? Hodag? Gouger? Hidebehind?”
“Hidebehind,” I whispered, and he turned back to the TV with a sneer. I had no idea what on earth he was talking about. Remember, this would be years before I learned he spent his youth as a lumberjack. And yet, somehow, I knew exactly what we were talking about.
“Hidebehind,” he repeated. “That will do it. They give them such stupid names. The folk back East, that is. Wisconsin. Minnesota. Ohio. Way back in the old days, before my grandfather would have been your age. Back when those places were covered by forests. They didn’t give them silly names back then, no. Back then they were something to worry about. Then they moved on, though. They all went out West, to here, followed the loggers. So as once they didn’t have to worry about them anymore, they started making up silly stories, silly names. “Fearsome critters,” they’d call them. Just tall tales to tell the greenhorns and scare them out of their britches. Then they’d make them even sillier, and tell the stories to little kids to spook them.”
“Not out here they didn’t tell no stories nor make up any names. It was bad enough they followed us out. I had no clue they even existed until I saw one for myself. Bout your age, I suppose. Maybe a little older. Nobody ever talks about them. Not even when they take apart a work crew, one by one. They just pull the crews back. Wait till mid-summer when the land is dry but not too dry. Then they move the crews in, a lot of them. Do some burning, make a lot of smoke. Drives them deeper into the woods, you know. Then you can cut the whole damn place down. But nobody asks why, nobody tells why. The people who know just take care of it.”
“I guess that’s why they’re coming to us now. All the old woods are almost gone. So they’ve got to. Like mountain lions. I supposed it’s going to happen sooner or later.”
We heard my grandma come into the back door to the utility room, and stomp the dirt off her boots. My grandfather turned to me one last time and said, “Whichever way you look at it, somebody’s just got to take care of it.” Then my grandmother came in from the utility room and asked us how our lunch had been.
Now that I look back at it, that might have been the last time my grandfather and I really had a meaningful talk.
We moved back home in late August. I had been having a fantastic summer. Though looking back, I suppose it could be rough for a still-young woman to be living in her aging parents' house when she’s got a perfectly good husband and house of her own in town.
First thing I did was visit Ralph. He’d been busy. He’d fortified his treehouse into a proper, well, tree fort. He’d nailed a lot of reinforcing plywood over everything. He hadn’t gone out on patrols by himself, of course, but the height of the tree fort afforded him a view of the nearest streets. He’d also made some makeshift weapons out of old baseball bats, a hockey stick, and a garden rake. The sharp rocks he’d attached to them with masking tape didn’t look very secure, but it’d only take one or two good blows with that kind of firepower. He also explained he’d been teaching himself kung fu, by copying all the movies he saw on kung fu movies late at night on the unpopular cable channels. That was classic Ralph.
As for the monster, it seemed to be going away. Its last victim had disappeared weeks previously, part of the reason my mom felt it was time to go back. This had been at night too. What’s more, the victim had been a college student, a very petite lady, barely five feet tall, under a hundred pounds. The news had speculated that their presumptive serial killer had assumed she was a child. I remember thinking the Hidebehind didn’t care. Maybe it just thought she couldn’t run fast enough to get away or put up a fight when he caught her. Like a predator.
At any rate, the college students were incensed. Of course, they’d been hyper-alert and concerned when it was just local kids going missing. Now that it was one of their own the camel’s back had broken. They really went hard on the protests, blaming the local police for not doing enough.
They started setting up their own patrols, and at night too. Marches with sometimes dozens of students at a time. They called it “Take Back the Night.” They’d walk the streets, making sure they’d be heard. Some cared drums or tambourines. They’d help escort people home, and sometimes they’d unintentionally stop random crimes they’d happen across. I felt like this was what the Fight Patrol could have been, if we’d just been old enough, or had been listened to. This would be the endgame for the Hidebehind, one way or another.
I stayed indoors the rest of the summer, and really there wasn’t much left. It doesn’t get too hot in the Pacific Northwest, nobody has air conditioners, or at least we didn’t back then. It will get stuffy though, in August, and I liked to sleep with my window open. I could hear the chants and challenges from the student patrols on their various routes. Sometimes I could hear them coming from far away, and every now and then they’d pass down my street. It felt like a wonderful security blanket.
I also liked the honeysuckle my mother had planted around the perimeter of the house. Late at night, if I was struggling to fall asleep, the air in my bedroom would start to circulate. Cold air would start pouring in over my windowsill, bringing the sweet scent of that creepervine with it, and I’d the sensation before finally passing out.
This one night, and I have no knowledge if I was awake, asleep, or drifting off, but the air in the room changed, and cooler air poured over the windowsill and swept over my bed, but it didn’t carry the sweet smell of honeysuckle. Regardless of my initial state, I was alert pretty quickly. It was a singularly unpleasant smell. A bit like death, which at that age I was mostly unfamiliar with, except a time some animal had died underneath the crawlspace of our house. There was more to it, though. The forest, the deep forest. I don’t know and still don’t know, what that meant. Most smells I associate with the forest are pleasant. Cedar, pine needles, thick loam of the forest floor, campfires, even the creosote and turpentine of those old timey-logging camps. This was none of those smells. Maybe… rotting granite, and the spores of slime molds. Mummified hemlocks and beds of needles compressed into something different than soil. It disturbed me.
So I sat up in bed. I hadn’t noticed before, but I’d been sweating, just lightly in the stuffy summer night heat. Now it was turning cold. Before me was my bedroom window. A lit rectangle in a pitch-dark room. To either side were my white, opened curtains, the one on the right, by the open half of the window, stirred just slightly in the barely perceptible breeze.
Most of the rectangle was the black form of the protective cypress tree. Only the slight conical nature of the tree distinguished it from a perfectly vertical column. To either side was a dim soft orange glow coming from the sodium lamps of the street passing by our house. It was perhaps a bit diffuse from the screen set in my window to keep out mosquitos. In the distance was the sound of an approaching troupe of the Take Back the Night patrol. They were neither drumming nor chanting, but still making plenty of noise. They were, perhaps, three or four blocks away, and heading my way.
For some reason that I didn’t understand, I got up, off of the foot of the bed. The window, being closer, appeared bigger. I took a silent step further. The patrol approached closer. Another step. I leaned to my right, just a bit, getting a slightly wider view to the left of the cypress tree. That was the direction the patrol was coming from.
That was when it resolved. The deeper black silhouette within the black silhouette of the cypress tree. A small lithe frame with a too-bulbous head. It too leaned, in its case, to the left, to see around the cypress tree as the patrol approached. They reached our block,on the other side of the street. A dozen rowdy college students, not trying to be quiet. None of them fearing the night. Each feeling safe and determined, and absorbed in their own night out rather than being overtly sensitive to their surroundings. They were distracted, unfocused If they had been peering into the shadows, if just one of them had looked towards my house, behind the cypress tree, they might have seen the Hidebehind, poking its face out and watching them transit past. But they didn’t notice.
It hid behind the cypress tree, and I hid behind it, hoping that the blackness of my bedroom would protect me. I stood absolutely still, as I had done once when a hornet had once landed on the back of my neck. Totally assure that if I made the slightest movement or made the slightest sound that I’d be stung. I hardly even breathed.
The patrol passed, from my perspective, behind the cypress tree and temporarily out of view. The Hidebehind straightened, ready to lean to the right and watch the patrol pass, only it didn’t lean. Even as I watched the patrol pass on to the right, it stood there, stock still, just as I was doing.
It was then I became aware that my room had become stuffy again. The scent was gone. The air had shifted and was now flowing out through the screen again, carrying my own scent with it. I knew what this meant, and yet I was too paralyzed to react. The thing started to turn, very slowly. It was a predator understanding that it might have become victim to its own game. It turned as if it was thinking the same thing I had been thinking, that the slightest movement might give it away.
It turned, and I saw its face. Like some kind of rotting desiccated, shriveling fruit, it was covered in wrinkles. Circles within concentric circles surrounded its two great eyes, eyes which took up so much of its face. I couldn’t, and still struggle, to think of words to describe it. Instead, I still think in terms of analogies. At the time I thought of the creature from the film E.T., only twisted and distorted into a thing of nightmares. Almost all eyelids, and a little drooping sucker mouth. Now that I’m more worldly, it reminds of creatures of ancient artworks. The key defining feature were the long horizontal slits it had for eyes. You see that in old masks carved in West Africa, or by the Inuit long ago. You see it in what’s called the “slit-eyed dogu” of ancient Japan.
As I watched the wrinkles on the face seemed to multiply. Then I realized this was the result of its eyes slowly widening. It’s mouth, too, slowly dilated, revealing innumerable small razor-sharp teeth. A person, standing in its location, shouldn’t have been able to see in. Light from the sodium streetlamps lit the window’s screen, obscuring the interior. It was no person. It could see me, and it was reacting to my presence. Its eyes grew huge, black.
My own eyes would have been just as wide if not for my own anatomical limitations. I was still watching when it disappeared. It didn’t see it move to the right. I didn’t see it move to the left, nor did I see it drop down out of view. It simply disappeared. One fraction of a second it was there, and then it decided to leave, and so it did. It was not a thing of this world.
There were no more disappearances after that poor woman from the university. I don’t think it had anything to do with me. The media and police all speculated their “serial killer” had gone into a “dormant phase”. There was no shortage of people who tried to take credit. Maybe they deserve it. The thing’s hunting had been on the decline. All the neighborhood watches and student patrols, I think that maybe all that commotion was making it too hard for the Hidebehind to go about its business. Maybe it had gone back to the woods.
Then again, maybe Ralph had been right the whole time. Maybe it really, really, really didn’t like to be seen.
So.
Now I’ve got some decisions to make. I think the first thing I should do is look at social media and dig up Ralph. It’s been a good thirty years since I last talked to him. He ought to know the Hidebehind is back. He’s probably made plans.
Then, there’s the issue of my son. He’s up in his bedroom now, probably still mad at me. Probably confused about why I’d be so strict. Maybe he’s inventing explanations as to why.
I’m not sure, but I’m leaning toward telling him everything. He deserves to know. It’d probably be safer if he knows. I think people have this instinct where, when they see or know something that they’re not supposed to know, they just bottle it up. I think that was the problem with grown-ups when I was a kid. It was the issue with my grandfather, telling me so little when it was almost too late. I think people do it because we’re social animals, and we’re afraid of being ostracized. Go along to get along.
Hell, my son is probably going to think I’m crazy. It might even make him more mad at me. And even more confused. He knows about the disappearances. “The Farmingham Fiend” the media would end up dubbing the serial killer that didn’t really exist. It’s become local “true crime” history. Kids tell rumors about it. It was almost forty years ago, so it probably feels safe to wonder about.
So yeah, I suppose when I say I know who the real killer was, a magical monster from the woods that stalks its prey by hiding behind objects, then impossibly disappears- that I’m going to look like a total nut. I’d think that if I were in his shoes.
Except… people are going to start disappearing again, it’s only a matter of time. The media will say that the Farmingham Fiend is back in the game. Will my son buy that? He’ll start thinking about what I told him, and how I predicted it. Then he’ll remember that he saw the thing himself, he and his friends, even if it was just out of the corner of his eye.
I hope, sooner or later, he’ll believe me. I could use his help. Maybe Ralph is way ahead of me, but I’m thinking we should get the Fight Patrol back together. Father and son, this time. Multigenerational, get the retirees involved too.
Old farts of my generation, for reasons I don’t understand, like to wax nostalgic over their own false sense of superiority. We rode our bikes without helmets and had distant if not irresponsible parents. Yeah, yeah, what a load. I think every new generation is better than the last, because every generation is a progression from the last, Kids these days? They’ve got cell phones, with cameras. And helmet cams. GoPros you can attach to bikes. Doorbell cameras.
It seems the Hidebehind loathes being seen. This time around, with my grandfather’s spirit, my own memories, and my boy’s energy? I think this time we’re finally going to beat it.
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The strange thing is, they never told us to just stop going outside. They told us to go in groups, sure, but they never decided, or as far as I could tell even though, to keep us all indoors. I guess that sort of freedom wasn’t something they were willing to give up. Instead, they did the neighborhood watch thing. For those few months, I remember my folks meeting more of our neighbors than in all the time previously, or since. Retirees would spend their days out in their front lawns, watching kids and everybody else coming and going. They’d even set up lawn furniture, with umbrellas, even all through the rains of spring. Cops stopped sitting in ambushes on the highways waiting for speeders and instead started patrolling the streets, chatting with us as we’d pass by. Weekends would see all the adults out in their yards, working on cars in the driveways, fixing the gutters, and so on. They had this weird way of looking at you as you’d ride by. Not hostile stares, but it was like they were cataloging your presence. Boy, eight years old, red raincoat silver bike, about 11:30 in the morning, heading south on Sorensen. Seemed fine.
The next time we saw it, it wasn’t in our neighborhood, and I was the one who saw it first. We were visiting Russ, a sort of 5th semi-friend from school. We rarely hung out, mostly owing to geography. His house wasn’t far as the crow flies, but it was up a steep hill. We spent a Saturday afternoon returning a cache of comic books we’d borrowed. The distance we covered was substantial, as we had decided to take lots of extra streets as switchbacks, rather than slowly push our bikes up the too-steep hills.
The descent was going to be the highlight of the trip, up until I saw the Hidebehind. We were on a curving road, a steep forested bluff on one side. The uphill slope was mostly ivy-covered raised foundations for the neighborhood’s houses. That side of the road was lined with parked cars, and the residents of the homes had to ascend steep staircases to get to their front doors.
I was ayt the back of the pack when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Movement, something brown squatting between two closely parked cars. My head snapped as I zoomed past, and despite not getting a good look, I knew it was that terrible thing. “It’s behind us!” I shouted and started pedaling hard. The others looked for themselves as I quickly rushed past them, but they soon joined my pace.
Ralph’s earlier idea of directly confronting the thing was set aside. We were moving too fast, and down too narrow a street to turn around. Then we saw it again it was to our left, off-road, between the trees. Suddenly it leaped from behind one tree trunk to the next and disappeared again. That hardly made sense, the base of the trees must have been thirty feet below the deck of the street we rode down. One of us, I think it was India, let out one of those strangled screams.
There it was again, back on the right, disappearing behind a mailbox as we approached. That couldn’t have been, it must have outpaced us and crossed in front of us. Logic would suggest there was more than one, but somehow the four of us knew it was the same thing. More impossible still, the pole holding up the mailbox was too thin, maybe two inches in diameter, yet that thing had disappeared behind it, like a Warner Bros. cartoon character. It was just enough to catch a better glimpse of it though. All brown. A head seemingly too bulbous and large for its body. Its limbs were thin but far longer, like a gibbon’s. Only a gibbon had normal elbows and knees. This thing bent its joints all wrong like it wasn’t part of the natural order. We were all terrified to wit’s end.
“The trail!” Ralph shouted, and the other three of us knew exactly what he meant. The top of it was only just around the curve. It was a dirt footpath for pedestrians ascending and descending South Hill, cutting through the woods on our left. It was too steep for cars, and to be honest, too steep for bikes. We’d played on it before, challenging each other to see how high up they could go, then descend back down without using our brakes. A short paved cul-de-sac at the bottom was enough space to stop before running into a cross street.
Ralph had held the previous group record, having climbed three-quarters of the way before starting his mad drop. India’s best was just short of that, I had only dared about halfway up, Ben only a third. This time, with certain death on our heels, the trail seemed the only way out. Nothing could have outrun a kid on a bike flying down that hill.
We followed Ralph’s lead, swinging to the right gutter of the street, then hanging a fast wide left up onto the curb, over a patch of gravel, between two boulders set up as bollards, lest a car driver mistake the entrance for a driveway, and then, like a roller coaster cresting the first hill, the bottom fell out.
It was the most overwhelming sensation of motion I’ve ever had, before or since. I suppose the danger behind us was the big reason, and being absolutely certain that only our speed was keeping us alive. I remember thinking it was like the speeder bike scene from Return of the Jedi, also a recent movie from the time. Only this was real. I didn’t just see the trees flashing past it, I could hear the motion as well. Cold air attacked my eyes and long streamers of tears rushed over my cheeks and the drops flew past my ears, I didn’t dare blink. Each little stone my tires struck threatened to up-end me and end it all. Yet, and perhaps worse, half the time it felt like I wasn’t in contact with the ground at all. I was going so fast that those same small stones were sending me an inch or two into the air, and the arc of the flights so closely matched the slope that by the time I contacted the trail again, I was significantly further down the hill.
At the same time, I had never felt more relief, as the thing behind us had no way of catching us now. Somehow, maybe the seriousness of the escape gave us both the motive and the seriousness to keep ourselves under control. Looking back, I marvel that at least one of us didn’t lose control and end up splitting our skulls open.
We hit the pavement of the cul-de-sac below, and didn’t bother to slow down. We raced through the cross-street, one angry driver screeching to a halt and laying on his horn. This brought out the neighborhood watch. Just a few of them at first. Still, we didn’t slow down, our momentum carried us back up the much shallower slope of our neighborhood. Witnesses saw us depart at high speed, and this only brought out more of the watch. We heard whistles behind us, just like our P.E. teacher’s whistle. We figured that was the watch’s alarm siren. Regardless of what happened to that thing, it was behind us. We returned to our homes, shaken, but safe and sound, our inertia taking us almost all of the way there.
Another kid disappeared that Sunday, up on South Hill. We’d suspected it because we could see the lights of the police cars on a high road, surrounding the spot where it would turn out later, one of the kid’s shoes had been found. Russ confirmed it at school on Monday. It was a kid he’d known, lived down the road from his place, went to private school which is why we didn’t recognize his name.
I remember seeing Ralph’s face the next day when he arrived at school. He looked angry. Strong. Like he’d been crying really hard, and now it was over and he was resolved. He said he’d felt guilty because the thing we’d escaped from had gotten the other kid instead. He tried to tell his old man about it, then his mom, then any adult he could. He’d tell them about the monster who hides behind things. They needed to focus on finding and stopping that instead of looking for some sort of creeper or serial killer. Of course, nobody had listened to him. They hadn’t listened to the rest of us either when we’d tried to tell.
So he’d devised a plan. He was calling it the “Fight Patrol,” which we didn’t argue with. If the adults wouldn’t do something, we would. We’d patrol our neighborhood on our bikes, the four of us, maybe a couple more if we could talk others into it. We’d chase it off like that first time, maybe for good, or maybe corner it. Clearly, it could not handle being caught.
Naturally, we brought up the scare on South Hill. He argued that was a bad place. Too isolated, couldn’t turn around easily. We needed to stay on our home turf, lots of visibility, and plenty of the Neighborhood Watch within earshot. Maybe we and the adults working together was the key, even if the adults didn’t understand the problem.
Well, that convinced us. Our first patrol was that afternoon, after school. We watched everybody’s back like hawks. Nothing had a chance to sneak up on us. Nothing could step out from behind a bush without getting spotted. By Friday afternoon there were eight of us. The next week we split up to extend our territory to the next neighborhoods over.
Nothing happened. We never saw anything. Ben thought it was because we were scaring it away. Ralph just thought we were failing, and took it personally. I myself thought the thing had just moved to different parts of town, where the new disappearances were taking place. I told him we should keep it up until the thing was caught.
It was all for naught.
One day, India didn’t show up for school. I asked everybody, the teachers, the office staff, the custodian, my parents. All of them said they didn’t know, and it was so easy to tell that they were lying. That would mark the end of the Fight Patrol.
Ben didn’t show up a couple of days after that. When I got home and collapsed into bed, my mother came in to tell me that Ben’s mother had called. She’d taken him out of school and they were moving elsewhere. I called up Ralph to let him know the news, and he was relieved too.
My last day was Friday, and then I was taken out. Again, I called Ralph so he wouldn’t worry. I guess when there were only two weeks left of school, and it was just grade school, a couple missed weeks don’t amount to much. So I ended up spending the bulk of the summer out in the country, with my grandparents, which was why I brought up my grandpa in the first place.
I suppose I did fine out on their farmhouse. I was safe. There was certainly no shortage of things for a kid to do. I think my mom felt a strong sense of relief too. Things slipped through the cracks.
My grandparents didn’t have cable, too far out of town. They just had an old-school antenna and got a couple of TV stations transmitting out of Canada, Vancouver specifically. I remember one July day, sitting in their living room. My grandmother had just fixed lunch for me and my grandfather and had gone out to do some gardening as we watched the news at noon.
My grandfather was already being ravaged by his illnesses. He was able to get around, but couldn’t do any real labor anymore. He’d lounge in front of the TV in a special lounge chair. He hardly talked, and when he did he’d just mumble some discomfort or complaint to my grandma.
The lead story on the news was the current situation in Farmingham, despite being in the neighboring country, it was still big news in Vancouver, and the whole rest of the region. It seemed the disappearances were declining, but the police were still frantically searching for a supposed serial killer. I didn’t pick up much about what they were talking about, I was a kid after all, but my grandfather was watching intently, despite his infirmity.
He mumbled something, I didn’t catch. I asked him was he said, and as I approached I heard him say “fearsome critters.”
He turned his eyes to me and said again, distinct and in a normal tone of voice, “fearsome critters,” then returned his attention to the screen. “I don’t know why they call them that. Fearsome, sure. But ‘critters?” Makes it sound silly. Like it's some sort of fairy tale that it ain’t. Guess it’s like whistling past the graveyard. Well, they don’t have to worry about them no more, guess they can call them what they like.”
Then he turned to me. “Do you know what it is?” he asked. “Squonk? Hodag? Gouger? Hidebehind?”
“Hidebehind,” I whispered, and he turned back to the TV with a sneer. I had no idea what on earth he was talking about. Remember, this would be years before I learned he spent his youth as a lumberjack. And yet, somehow, I knew exactly what we were talking about.
“Hidebehind,” he repeated. “That will do it. They give them such stupid names. The folk back East, that is. Wisconsin. Minnesota. Ohio. Way back in the old days, before my grandfather would have been your age. Back when those places were covered by forests. They didn’t give them silly names back then, no. Back then they were something to worry about. Then they moved on, though. They all went out West, to here, followed the loggers. So as once they didn’t have to worry about them anymore, they started making up silly stories, silly names. “Fearsome critters,” they’d call them. Just tall tales to tell the greenhorns and scare them out of their britches. Then they’d make them even sillier, and tell the stories to little kids to spook them.”
“Not out here they didn’t tell no stories nor make up any names. It was bad enough they followed us out. I had no clue they even existed until I saw one for myself. Bout your age, I suppose. Maybe a little older. Nobody ever talks about them. Not even when they take apart a work crew, one by one. They just pull the crews back. Wait till mid-summer when the land is dry but not too dry. Then they move the crews in, a lot of them. Do some burning, make a lot of smoke. Drives them deeper into the woods, you know. Then you can cut the whole damn place down. But nobody asks why, nobody tells why. The people who know just take care of it.”
“I guess that’s why they’re coming to us now. All the old woods are almost gone. So they’ve got to. Like mountain lions. I supposed it’s going to happen sooner or later.”
We heard my grandma come into the back door to the utility room, and stomp the dirt off her boots. My grandfather turned to me one last time and said, “Whichever way you look at it, somebody’s just got to take care of it.” Then my grandmother came in from the utility room and asked us how our lunch had been.
Now that I look back at it, that might have been the last time my grandfather and I really had a meaningful talk.
We moved back home in late August. I had been having a fantastic summer. Though looking back, I suppose it could be rough for a still-young woman to be living in her aging parents' house when she’s got a perfectly good husband and house of her own in town.
First thing I did was visit Ralph. He’d been busy. He’d fortified his treehouse into a proper, well, tree fort. He’d nailed a lot of reinforcing plywood over everything. He hadn’t gone out on patrols by himself, of course, but the height of the tree fort afforded him a view of the nearest streets. He’d also made some makeshift weapons out of old baseball bats, a hockey stick, and a garden rake. The sharp rocks he’d attached to them with masking tape didn’t look very secure, but it’d only take one or two good blows with that kind of firepower. He also explained he’d been teaching himself kung fu, by copying all the movies he saw on kung fu movies late at night on the unpopular cable channels. That was classic Ralph.
As for the monster, it seemed to be going away. Its last victim had disappeared weeks previously, part of the reason my mom felt it was time to go back. This had been at night too. What’s more, the victim had been a college student, a very petite lady, barely five feet tall, under a hundred pounds. The news had speculated that their presumptive serial killer had assumed she was a child. I remember thinking the Hidebehind didn’t care. Maybe it just thought she couldn’t run fast enough to get away or put up a fight when he caught her. Like a predator.
At any rate, the college students were incensed. Of course, they’d been hyper-alert and concerned when it was just local kids going missing. Now that it was one of their own the camel’s back had broken. They really went hard on the protests, blaming the local police for not doing enough.
They started setting up their own patrols, and at night too. Marches with sometimes dozens of students at a time. They called it “Take Back the Night.” They’d walk the streets, making sure they’d be heard. Some cared drums or tambourines. They’d help escort people home, and sometimes they’d unintentionally stop random crimes they’d happen across. I felt like this was what the Fight Patrol could have been, if we’d just been old enough, or had been listened to. This would be the endgame for the Hidebehind, one way or another.
I stayed indoors the rest of the summer, and really there wasn’t much left. It doesn’t get too hot in the Pacific Northwest, nobody has air conditioners, or at least we didn’t back then. It will get stuffy though, in August, and I liked to sleep with my window open. I could hear the chants and challenges from the student patrols on their various routes. Sometimes I could hear them coming from far away, and every now and then they’d pass down my street. It felt like a wonderful security blanket.
I also liked the honeysuckle my mother had planted around the perimeter of the house. Late at night, if I was struggling to fall asleep, the air in my bedroom would start to circulate. Cold air would start pouring in over my windowsill, bringing the sweet scent of that creepervine with it, and I’d the sensation before finally passing out.
This one night, and I have no knowledge if I was awake, asleep, or drifting off, but the air in the room changed, and cooler air poured over the windowsill and swept over my bed, but it didn’t carry the sweet smell of honeysuckle. Regardless of my initial state, I was alert pretty quickly. It was a singularly unpleasant smell. A bit like death, which at that age I was mostly unfamiliar with, except a time some animal had died underneath the crawlspace of our house. There was more to it, though. The forest, the deep forest. I don’t know and still don’t know, what that meant. Most smells I associate with the forest are pleasant. Cedar, pine needles, thick loam of the forest floor, campfires, even the creosote and turpentine of those old timey-logging camps. This was none of those smells. Maybe… rotting granite, and the spores of slime molds. Mummified hemlocks and beds of needles compressed into something different than soil. It disturbed me.
So I sat up in bed. I hadn’t noticed before, but I’d been sweating, just lightly in the stuffy summer night heat. Now it was turning cold. Before me was my bedroom window. A lit rectangle in a pitch-dark room. To either side were my white, opened curtains, the one on the right, by the open half of the window, stirred just slightly in the barely perceptible breeze.
Most of the rectangle was the black form of the protective cypress tree. Only the slight conical nature of the tree distinguished it from a perfectly vertical column. To either side was a dim soft orange glow coming from the sodium lamps of the street passing by our house. It was perhaps a bit diffuse from the screen set in my window to keep out mosquitos. In the distance was the sound of an approaching troupe of the Take Back the Night patrol. They were neither drumming nor chanting, but still making plenty of noise. They were, perhaps, three or four blocks away, and heading my way.
For some reason that I didn’t understand, I got up, off of the foot of the bed. The window, being closer, appeared bigger. I took a silent step further. The patrol approached closer. Another step. I leaned to my right, just a bit, getting a slightly wider view to the left of the cypress tree. That was the direction the patrol was coming from.
That was when it resolved. The deeper black silhouette within the black silhouette of the cypress tree. A small lithe frame with a too-bulbous head. It too leaned, in its case, to the left, to see around the cypress tree as the patrol approached. They reached our block,on the other side of the street. A dozen rowdy college students, not trying to be quiet. None of them fearing the night. Each feeling safe and determined, and absorbed in their own night out rather than being overtly sensitive to their surroundings. They were distracted, unfocused If they had been peering into the shadows, if just one of them had looked towards my house, behind the cypress tree, they might have seen the Hidebehind, poking its face out and watching them transit past. But they didn’t notice.
It hid behind the cypress tree, and I hid behind it, hoping that the blackness of my bedroom would protect me. I stood absolutely still, as I had done once when a hornet had once landed on the back of my neck. Totally assure that if I made the slightest movement or made the slightest sound that I’d be stung. I hardly even breathed.
The patrol passed, from my perspective, behind the cypress tree and temporarily out of view. The Hidebehind straightened, ready to lean to the right and watch the patrol pass, only it didn’t lean. Even as I watched the patrol pass on to the right, it stood there, stock still, just as I was doing.
It was then I became aware that my room had become stuffy again. The scent was gone. The air had shifted and was now flowing out through the screen again, carrying my own scent with it. I knew what this meant, and yet I was too paralyzed to react. The thing started to turn, very slowly. It was a predator understanding that it might have become victim to its own game. It turned as if it was thinking the same thing I had been thinking, that the slightest movement might give it away.
It turned, and I saw its face. Like some kind of rotting desiccated, shriveling fruit, it was covered in wrinkles. Circles within concentric circles surrounded its two great eyes, eyes which took up so much of its face. I couldn’t, and still struggle, to think of words to describe it. Instead, I still think in terms of analogies. At the time I thought of the creature from the film E.T., only twisted and distorted into a thing of nightmares. Almost all eyelids, and a little drooping sucker mouth. Now that I’m more worldly, it reminds of creatures of ancient artworks. The key defining feature were the long horizontal slits it had for eyes. You see that in old masks carved in West Africa, or by the Inuit long ago. You see it in what’s called the “slit-eyed dogu” of ancient Japan.
As I watched the wrinkles on the face seemed to multiply. Then I realized this was the result of its eyes slowly widening. It’s mouth, too, slowly dilated, revealing innumerable small razor-sharp teeth. A person, standing in its location, shouldn’t have been able to see in. Light from the sodium streetlamps lit the window’s screen, obscuring the interior. It was no person. It could see me, and it was reacting to my presence. Its eyes grew huge, black.
My own eyes would have been just as wide if not for my own anatomical limitations. I was still watching when it disappeared. It didn’t see it move to the right. I didn’t see it move to the left, nor did I see it drop down out of view. It simply disappeared. One fraction of a second it was there, and then it decided to leave, and so it did. It was not a thing of this world.
There were no more disappearances after that poor woman from the university. I don’t think it had anything to do with me. The media and police all speculated their “serial killer” had gone into a “dormant phase”. There was no shortage of people who tried to take credit. Maybe they deserve it. The thing’s hunting had been on the decline. All the neighborhood watches and student patrols, I think that maybe all that commotion was making it too hard for the Hidebehind to go about its business. Maybe it had gone back to the woods.
Then again, maybe Ralph had been right the whole time. Maybe it really, really, really didn’t like to be seen.
So.
Now I’ve got some decisions to make. I think the first thing I should do is look at social media and dig up Ralph. It’s been a good thirty years since I last talked to him. He ought to know the Hidebehind is back. He’s probably made plans.
Then, there’s the issue of my son. He’s up in his bedroom now, probably still mad at me. Probably confused about why I’d be so strict. Maybe he’s inventing explanations as to why.
I’m not sure, but I’m leaning toward telling him everything. He deserves to know. It’d probably be safer if he knows. I think people have this instinct where, when they see or know something that they’re not supposed to know, they just bottle it up. I think that was the problem with grown-ups when I was a kid. It was the issue with my grandfather, telling me so little when it was almost too late. I think people do it because we’re social animals, and we’re afraid of being ostracized. Go along to get along.
Hell, my son is probably going to think I’m crazy. It might even make him more mad at me. And even more confused. He knows about the disappearances. “The Farmingham Fiend” the media would end up dubbing the serial killer that didn’t really exist. It’s become local “true crime” history. Kids tell rumors about it. It was almost forty years ago, so it probably feels safe to wonder about.
So yeah, I suppose when I say I know who the real killer was, a magical monster from the woods that stalks its prey by hiding behind objects, then impossibly disappears- that I’m going to look like a total nut. I’d think that if I were in his shoes.
Except… people are going to start disappearing again, it’s only a matter of time. The media will say that the Farmingham Fiend is back in the game. Will my son buy that? He’ll start thinking about what I told him, and how I predicted it. Then he’ll remember that he saw the thing himself, he and his friends, even if it was just out of the corner of his eye.
I hope, sooner or later, he’ll believe me. I could use his help. Maybe Ralph is way ahead of me, but I’m thinking we should get the Fight Patrol back together. Father and son, this time. Multigenerational, get the retirees involved too.
Old farts of my generation, for reasons I don’t understand, like to wax nostalgic over their own false sense of superiority. We rode our bikes without helmets and had distant if not irresponsible parents. Yeah, yeah, what a load. I think every new generation is better than the last, because every generation is a progression from the last, Kids these days? They’ve got cell phones, with cameras. And helmet cams. GoPros you can attach to bikes. Doorbell cameras.
It seems the Hidebehind loathes being seen. This time around, with my grandfather’s spirit, my own memories, and my boy’s energy? I think this time we’re finally going to beat it.
2023.06.01 03:18 storyteller323 W.A.C.S.: Wasteland Anthropological and Cryptozoological Society
Hello! I think its pretty common consensus by this point that 76... Let's say was not the best the Fallout universe has to offer. But I have noticed talking about it with people that one part of the game they liked was its emphasis on cryptozoology: The study of unknown, mysterious creatures like Bigfoot, Dogman, the Loch Ness Monster, etc. As such, I figured I would make this post as a sort of hub for people to share their homebrews of the cryptids of the wasteland. Share whatever stat blocks you may feel are appropriate here, from ghosts to bigfeet. If anyone is looking for some suggestions, here's some ideas for cryptids that could be fun to give lore and stats in the fallout universe:
submitted by storyteller323 to Fallout2d20 [link] [comments]
- Champ. America's very own equivalent to the Loch Ness Monster, and probably the most famous lake monster in the country, Champ is so named because he lives in Lake Champlain, located between Vermont and New York. He's kind of a mascot for the surrounding towns, he even has his own local brand of potato chips. Generally speaking, his descriptions come in two types: A plesiosaur-like critter like his Scottish cousin and a more traditional sea serpent. Was he always real, or did the power of mutation and dramatic irony cause fiction and reality to overlap?
- Dogman. While sightings of these werewolf-like cryptids come from all over the country, they are particularly associated with Michigan and Wisconsin. Usually resembling something out of The Howling, the Dogman is a large, powerful humanoid creature with a thick coating of fur and a head like a canine. While some believe the dogman to merely be people misidentifying emaciated bears, the legend of such beasts is supposedly centuries old, and there is even a quite enjoyable little song titled The Legend about these creatures, which caused a spike in their popularity. In the Fallout universe, are they mutated wolves? Some sort of intelligent, bipedal Yao-Guai? Or perhaps the werewolf comparison is all too apt...
- The Beast of Bladenboro. This is a less famous one but could potentially look really badass in Fallout. The Beast of Bladenboro was a vampiric catlike monster that was allegedly responsible for a string of livestock and pet killings in 1953-54. Alleged sightings of the beast said it resembled a massive bobcat with pronounced fangs, and its victims being drained of blood suggests the purpose of such weapons.
- Alien Big Cats. This one is probably the easiest to explain in fallout via mutated housecats and escaped zoo animals. Alien Big Cats are not feline animals from outer space, rather they are big cats found in a place they are not normally native to. Panthers in Britain, Lions in Texas, etc. In the real world if these creatures DO exist they likely are exotic pets that escaped confinement or were set free, but in the fallout universe, while that is possible, it could also be a case of convergent evolution brought upon by rapid onset mutation, similar to how yao-guai were able to mutate from black bears into something more like grizzly bears in size and ecological role.
- Hogzilla. Particularly well known in the southern states, Hogzillas are also potentially explicable using mutation. Simply put, wild boar that grow much larger than they normally would, we're talking like "Porcine Minivan" huge, with a temper to match. These ones would likely be supremely tanky in their stats, and I don't wanna know what could happen to someone on the business end of those tusks.
- Jersey Devil. This one is a classic. The Jersey Devil is a draconic or demonic-looking creature found in the pine barrens of New Jersey. I could see this being be an individual, and one of the few outright mystical (or at least inexplicable) entities out there, or could it be animals exposed to some strain of FEV? either could work.
- Chupacabra. Ending the list out with another classic. The Chupacabra is usually given one of two descriptions: The Puerto Rican Chupacabra resembles a small reptilian creature, roughly humanoid with large black spikes on its back and beady black eyes, believed to potentially be an escaped government experiment, while the other Texan Chupacabra resembles a large, hairless canine of some sort (And in real life is probably just mangey dogs, wolves or coyotes being misidentified but we won't let that stop us here). Given the nature of radiation, government conspiracy before the war, and the FEV virus in the Fallout universe, it would be totally possible for both versions of this creature to exist in the fallout universe.
2023.05.31 23:22 Bright_Promotion_330 [PC Server] Paws and Claws PvE Cluster (Fjordur, Gen 2, Primal Fear + more) 5x Tame/Harvest/Farm - 25x Baby Hatch/Growth - Active Discord!
Welcome to Paws and Claws, a PvE ARK cluster on PC!
We are a small, but active community looking for more players like you! So here’s the quick TLDR I know you’re wanting to know about before we get into the detailed stuff: https://discord.gg/mK6Kg7gS
Overview:
TamingHarvesting 5x
FarmingXP 5x
Egg Hatch 25x
Baby GrowthRate 25x
Other Stuff
We are a laid back, active community that is also very active in the Discord! If you ever have any questions or concerns we’re there to help! And its a great place to ask for a little assistance when you’ve found yourself in a sticky situation. We have a variety of new and veteran players so wherever you fall on that scale, we’d love to have you! We also have two Conan Exiles servers as well if that interests you! We also have people playing a variety of other games as well if that interests you!
Maps
In our cluster we have two main maps, Fjordur and Gen 2. These maps do not wipe, and the only changes made to them are event based, or adding mods by community vote. We have a 3rd map that rotates every week, giving players a chance to do bosses and obtain tames not available on any of the ‘home’ servers. (Extended for tough maps like Extinction by community vote).
Our 4th server is set up with Primal Fear! Transfers are open so feel free to take dinos and items over but remember, Primal Fear dinos cannot be transferred to a non PF server.
Starter Packs
Starting on a new ARK server can be fun but the early game grind can really be a chore. If you’d like a little boost to get you started, we have a free starter pack in the TC Auto Rewards Vault! Just head on over to our Welcome Center and use the one located inside the doors. If you are unable to locate the welcome center you can teleport there with an Omni Tool! Just make one with 1 thatch. There are also other items in the community center you can take, graciously donated by other players on the map.
TC Auto Rewards Vault
One of the mods that we utilize is the TC Auto Rewards Vault. This allows us to give you a currency to purchase different items in the store! We have rotating dino packs with various dinos and one specifically for modded dinos (They can be tough or impossible to get on some servers). We also have hard to get items like honey and milk(mod)!You will receive 10 ARc for every 15 minutes of gameplay, along with 100 per week that trickles in daily.
Events
We host a whole slew of events like hide-and-seek, geocaching, various races and other unique challenges! These events come with prizing that can range anywhere from sets of breeding dinos to dino recolors, or element and other resources/items!
We also tend to run bosses together on the rotating maps and there is always someone providing armor and resources so you can join in on the fun even if you yourself aren’t prepared to run bosses yet!
We also rotate out events based on community interest such as the Easter event, Halloween etc. We know this doesn’t give all of the benefits of the event when its the wrong time of the year, however it does allow different dino colors to spawn! Giving a little variation to your tames.
submitted by Bright_Promotion_330 to playarkservers [link] [comments]
We are a small, but active community looking for more players like you! So here’s the quick TLDR I know you’re wanting to know about before we get into the detailed stuff: https://discord.gg/mK6Kg7gS
Overview:
- Beginner Friendly
- Maps: Fjordur, Gen 2, Ragnarok (With Primal Fear!) + Varying Rotating Servers
- Active Discord Server! (I'd recommend joining this to keep up with updates!)
- No Wipes!
- Active and Friendly Admins!
- Steam Only PC
- Admin sponsored events with prizing!
TamingHarvesting 5x
FarmingXP 5x
Egg Hatch 25x
Baby GrowthRate 25x
Other Stuff
- Loot Quality: 10
- Fishing Loot Quality: 10
- Max Wild Dino level: 150
- Tribe Tame Limit : Unlimited (We do however recommend that you ball up most of your dinos that are not in use to reduce server lag!)
- Structure Plus (S+)
- Dino Storage v2
- HazeStacks
- Dino Tracker
- Awesome spyglass
- MarniiMods: Wildlife
- Extra QoL Items
- Peachy Decor
- Peachy Furniture
- Castles, Keeps, and Forts Remastered
- Peachy Vikings Decor
- TC Auto Rewards Vault v1.12.16
- (Other mods may be added by community vote or on rotating servers for various events!)
- No harassment
- No PvP behavior (Insiding, dropping dinos in bases, drowning players, stealing items etc)
- Loot beacons are claimed by whoever landed first
- No cave/obelisk building or resource blocking
- Build out of render distance of other bases
- 1 Land Base - 1 Water base (Exceptions may be made but we’re aiming for longevity and avoiding server lag)
- No Littering (Pick up your taming traps please!)
We are a laid back, active community that is also very active in the Discord! If you ever have any questions or concerns we’re there to help! And its a great place to ask for a little assistance when you’ve found yourself in a sticky situation. We have a variety of new and veteran players so wherever you fall on that scale, we’d love to have you! We also have two Conan Exiles servers as well if that interests you! We also have people playing a variety of other games as well if that interests you!
Maps
In our cluster we have two main maps, Fjordur and Gen 2. These maps do not wipe, and the only changes made to them are event based, or adding mods by community vote. We have a 3rd map that rotates every week, giving players a chance to do bosses and obtain tames not available on any of the ‘home’ servers. (Extended for tough maps like Extinction by community vote).
Our 4th server is set up with Primal Fear! Transfers are open so feel free to take dinos and items over but remember, Primal Fear dinos cannot be transferred to a non PF server.
Starter Packs
Starting on a new ARK server can be fun but the early game grind can really be a chore. If you’d like a little boost to get you started, we have a free starter pack in the TC Auto Rewards Vault! Just head on over to our Welcome Center and use the one located inside the doors. If you are unable to locate the welcome center you can teleport there with an Omni Tool! Just make one with 1 thatch. There are also other items in the community center you can take, graciously donated by other players on the map.
TC Auto Rewards Vault
One of the mods that we utilize is the TC Auto Rewards Vault. This allows us to give you a currency to purchase different items in the store! We have rotating dino packs with various dinos and one specifically for modded dinos (They can be tough or impossible to get on some servers). We also have hard to get items like honey and milk(mod)!You will receive 10 ARc for every 15 minutes of gameplay, along with 100 per week that trickles in daily.
Events
We host a whole slew of events like hide-and-seek, geocaching, various races and other unique challenges! These events come with prizing that can range anywhere from sets of breeding dinos to dino recolors, or element and other resources/items!
We also tend to run bosses together on the rotating maps and there is always someone providing armor and resources so you can join in on the fun even if you yourself aren’t prepared to run bosses yet!
We also rotate out events based on community interest such as the Easter event, Halloween etc. We know this doesn’t give all of the benefits of the event when its the wrong time of the year, however it does allow different dino colors to spawn! Giving a little variation to your tames.
2023.05.31 22:39 Anonimo_Llopi War Thunder Mobile Review: The Good, The Bad (and the ugly?) of Ground Forces
Max level (9) player of Ground Forces here, Normal WT player since 2015, 25 days since I first installed it, 2 extreme grinding days with 4 days of free premium accounts:
Good stuff:
Ok, that's all I could think I've been writing for more that 2 hours bruh, btw if your phone is good unlike mine you might be able to connect to your pc and play with basically pc mouse controls thanks to tc games, it makes grinding way more bearable but I've gotten pretty decent with touch controls and I'm max level so I won't need it anymore: https://www.reddit.com/Warthundecomments/13u6cn8/8_kill_game_in_war_thunder_mobile_with_mouse_aim/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
submitted by Anonimo_Llopi to Warthunder [link] [comments]
Good stuff:
- The optimization, I'm amazed it works at all on my shitty phone (Poco M3) though at 30 fps minimum settings and with fps drops to 20 when there's smoke and worse fucking falling trees on sight (when they aren't down they are 2D textures but if they get taken down they become full 3D with more polygons than the tanks and really reduces fps)
- Gameplay is good, the aiming is exactly the same with drop and aim indicator, you have adjustable zoom from no zoom to max zoom and at max the camera will actually zoom as much as the enemy tank size no matter the distance also you have optional tracking that will perfectly follow an enemy tank moving and all the tanks have this same sight, the driving is as you would expect (the driver seems less stupid even, at least on reverse gears) with an optional visual arrows to help you know where the tank is gonna go, you have death cams, enemy hit cams, you have all the shells that are available on WT (though you can only have 2 types), machine guns work too etc
- Free smoke even when stock
- Free arty no matter what type of tank you have
- No repair cost on vehicles when you die, or shell cost, no more losing SL bs by playing
- Some war thunder premiums are tech tree here like T14, Black prince, M26E1
- You can get 10 GE by watching ads every 2 hours, with 100-130ge you can get 5 squad levels (it gives you a whole tank without grinding) or with 100ge a day of premium which gives 1.5 times rp and SL
- Stock tank crew gets 1 fpe and 1 repair per tank spawn instead of 0 and 0 like in normal WT, you can get up to 4 fpe and 6 repair per tank
- No crew lock if you leave, you can leave uptiers if you want
- This game has bots when there aren't enough players (happens a lot in tier 5) and it makes grinding easy
- The daily login reward bonus IS ACTUALLY GOOD, the normal one gives you either 15k sl or 1 backup, the big rewards gave me 150GE or 1 day of premium (worth 100ge), the best part is that if you watch an ad you can get the daily reward again so thanks to this I actually got 2 days of premium, if you watch enough ads you can get premium platoon tanks (eg 47 ads for T-34E, T-34 1st gvtbr, kv-2 1940, or 57 for Dicker max, Panzer 3 M, and panzer IV J or 377 for KV-220 which I'm gonna get since I'm never gonna get it on normal WT, already at 1400GE of ads)
- When grinding you don't need to stick to a nation, what you can buy is limited by the player level so instead of researching a specific tank with the same nation here you just play whatever you like
- You can get perfect (ace) war thunder crews without GE and pretty easily by just playing the platoon, when you reach level 25 on the platoon you have it (I already have it on my Tiger 2H/JagdtigePanther F crew)
- Currently they are giving some free platoons/tanks (0 sl cost) when you level up, usually it is the less fun choice (br*tish or fr*nch) but pretty nice still since it's free you can select it and then buy with sl the fun tank platoon (tiger h1)
- When you level up they give you 50 GE, a bunch of backups (37 iirc) and consumables
- Less annoying map objects, barely any fences
- Downtiers are really fun with a good heavy tank, eg you can face with a tier 4 Tiger 2P or T26E5 jumbo pershing these tier 3 Tigers H1,hetzer, vk 3002m, T-34-85, IS-1, SU-152, M4A1 76, M6A1, ebr 1951, arl-44, m4a1 fl10, comet, challenger, churchill VII
- You can either buy normal (with sl) or premium (ge without spending any sl) version of any tank platoon you want, so not just a talisman that only increases rp and not sl afaik
- Let's get the thing most people are concerned over with:
- The parts and fpe consumables, currently you can watch every 2 hours an ad to get 20 parts uses and 20 fpes (currently at 3256 parts and 3345 fpe, I'm stocking up just in case lol), luckily I've found out that you don't really use that many repairs or fpe per game, it's pretty rare that you will use more than 2 repairs and 1 fpe per game since the games are pretty short usually and if you die you won't use any repair or fps, currently most tanks use only 1 consumable per repair but in tier V the american platoon does use 2 consumable per repaifpe use, in the future gaijin could increase these even more to make high tier unplayable by making a repair 5 consumables for example, you can also buy these consumables with silver lions, 100 parts or fpe cost 15k sl which is about 15 kill game on premium account normal platoon tiger 2H but for now I haven't bought a single one, only ads
- SL gain is currently bad, luckily it's mostly only used to buy tanks and you can (and should) skip the worse tanks in favor of getting/saving up for the best tanks, currently a 15 kill win game with tiger 2H gives you with premium 15k sl or 10-11k sl without premium, every 2 hours you can watch an ad to get 3k sl btw
- The rewards are heavily based on the amount of kills and wherever you win or not, you barely get anything with assists, there's no scouting option either so light tanks kind of suck, you don't get more stuff the longer the match is like in normal war thunder so the quicker it ends with high kill count the better
- The maps and how few of them, oh god they are all city super flat maps like abandoned factory, an edited poland (there aren't these 2 long hall ways where you see the enemy entering the town anymore, it's blocked by the church) and edited stalingrad which again is super flat, as a american tank hulldown enjoyer these maps barely have any spots to hide your hull and hull down so I had to go mainly germany and some soviet
- Spawn points,here you have 3 spawns instead of 2 on normal gamemode of 3 caps, the problem is that these spawns are very close to the cap points, the enemy can be back to the cap really quickly and some of the spawns are so awful that you can literally see them spawn from the cap point
- Some up tiers can suck and you can have up to 1.3 br spread : so this game has completely ditched the BR system for a Tier System, how does this work? well basically two adjacent tiers can face each other so 1 can face 2, 2 can face either 1 or 3, 3 can face 2 or 4 etc luckily the platoon are 3 selected by gaijin vehicles so you can't just have 3 same br tanks, usually there's a higher br tank and 2 worse brs one, like for example 5.3 tiger h1, 5.0 vk3002m and 4.7 hetzer, or 7.0 tiger 2h, 7.3 jagdtiger and 6.3 panther F, 5.3 M4A3 76, 6.0 m41, 6.7 T26E5 etc
- If you leave the game early it will count as an lost match even if you win so if you used all your 3 respawns you can't leave the game if you want the full reward so you will have to spectate, if you know your team is gonna lose you can leave early
- If all that remain are bots it's a pain because you have to wait for the enemy to kill them
- Some level 0 platoons are really unplayable because:
- Stock shell grinding is still here (imagine tiger h1 with 110mm pen HEAT shell as stock until platoon level 3 or T-34s with solid shot, YEAH that was a thing, luckily they removed it)
- How unlocking tanks in the platoon works, at platoon level 0 you have 1 tank, if it's a good tank you are good, but if it's a bad tank you are fucked for a while until you reach level 5 and unlock the second tank and level 10 for the third and level 15 for the usually antiair, with one tank leaving early really sucks, when you get the second and then third tank you will notice a sudden extreme level of getting xp for the crew all the sudden
- Some level 0 platoons having only 1 shitty tank (Tier 4 M4A3 76 stock with solid shit, and then T26E5 on level 10 platoon is prime example) to play and having the good tanks on the platoon/crew level 5 or 10 (this is how you unlock the tanks on all the platoons) the problem of this is that you can only respawn once unless you use backups and if you leave the game early it will count as a lost game so in games you perform well with your shitty tank you will have to wait for the game to end (if your team is clearly winning if it's losing you can leave) luckily you can skip both these prior points by watching 10-13 ads by getting 5 levels with the GE you got from the ads
- Antiair is unplayable against planes afaik
- You can't free look without turning the turret which is annoying with both fast turrets (showing an enemy your side turret eg tiger 2H) and slow turrets (moving the turret into an undesirable position eg Panther D)
- Currently missing all the war thunder ways to check the armour and shells on the hangar or test drives, currently I wouldn't recommend this to anyone that doesn't have war thunder already because of this
- Updates are a pain, you have to keep redownloading the apk from the wtmobile page every time and install it
- Currently everytime you open it you get an ad of GE of some premium platoon which is annoying
Ok, that's all I could think I've been writing for more that 2 hours bruh, btw if your phone is good unlike mine you might be able to connect to your pc and play with basically pc mouse controls thanks to tc games, it makes grinding way more bearable but I've gotten pretty decent with touch controls and I'm max level so I won't need it anymore: https://www.reddit.com/Warthundecomments/13u6cn8/8_kill_game_in_war_thunder_mobile_with_mouse_aim/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
2023.05.31 22:29 OldRuskiNoir My 2,800%+ Goldfind Barb. I think I can hit 3000% if I get lucky finding a few more items.
tl:dr - https://www.projectdiablo2.com/armory/builds/6477acccf9bb8c0539607518
Run stats:
Typically stacking GF on a merc and yourself to reach the 3500-4k% range and then singing sweet lullabies to the council is the go to. I find that play style boring and wanted to be doing the killing.
The following is my progression of items to get to where I am now:
Switch 1&2:
Selling gold and map Orbs. Gambling is also an option but I haven't had any success after having spent about 100million gold gambling on rings and ammys with nothing to really show for it. If you want to go that route, up to you. I didn't find any success in it. I created a Google Sheet that helps keep track of your runes, their value, gold sale, and orb prices to make sure you are making a profit while undercutting the going rates for these items.
submitted by OldRuskiNoir to ProjectDiablo2 [link] [comments]
Run stats:
- A really bad run will get me 450k, these runs happen like 1:30
- A normal run will be 900k-1mil, these runs happen like 1:1.5
- A great run will be 1.3-1.7mil, these runs happen like 1:50
- Runs take 0:50-0:55 from the moment I join the game to leaving.
Nerd stuff below
I played a few different toons last season and had fun. This season I decided to go after something unique that I had never done before. A gold find barb. I have attempted to make these in the past and failed pretty abysmally. But doing this season as a min/max gold farming exclusive has been really fun, up to this point.Typically stacking GF on a merc and yourself to reach the 3500-4k% range and then singing sweet lullabies to the council is the go to. I find that play style boring and wanted to be doing the killing.
The following is my progression of items to get to where I am now:
Gear
Helm:- Early - Immortal King's Will: Max of 67% GF: In the beginning using an IK helm with 60%+ GF with 2x Lem is a solid option until you can get the late game. These helms are cheap and often free if you are following through a map, they have very little value to a majority of the player base. However due to corruptions not rolling +GF% on helms it falls off pretty quickly with a max of 167% with 2x Lem.
- Late - Crown of Thieves: Max of 100% GF: The late game COT with a 3socket is BIS. It gives you LL, Dex, Life, Fire Rez(good for council) and 80-100% gold find. This item will cost you a bit more, I have seen 3OS COT going for 1.25-1.75. However clean COT go for a few WSS to Pul. It might be cheaper to buy them and slam yourself. Up to you. With 3OS you will get an additional 150% GF bringing the helm on the low end to 230% to 250% on the high end.
- Early - Wealth Runeword: Max of 300% GF: Needing only 3 common runes and some armor that you likely have found already you can get great GF/MF armor for cheap. Wealth gives 300% GF and 100% MF in addition to Dex and MAEK. I found a downside being low defense as there is no ED. If you find some SUP armor with 15% ed, I would recommend using that.
- Late - Goldskin: Max of 200% GF: This armor with 3OS is easily BIS for my build, maybe others as well. Goldskin has +35 res and 200% GF. With 3x Lem this brings you to 50% more than Wealth and gives more def and all res. Switching to Goldskin was the best move I made during this adventure.
- Early/Late - Goldwrap: Max of 80% GF: The Goldwrap is a great all around GF belt. Unless Bountiful Crafting gets a change to add GF that exceeds 80% GF in future seasons, Goldwrap is BIS. However finding a perfect Goldwrap with a perfect 100% GF slam is going to be a bit harder. I wish you luck looking for this item, but only after I get one for myself.
- Early/Late - Chance guards: Max of 200% GF: Again, another staple of MF/GF in D2 the Chance Guards. Just like the Goldwrap, unless Bountiful Crafting gets a change Chancies will be the BIS. Glove corruptions give a max of 100% GF which gives a possibility of 300% gloves. That with the +2 MAEK and small amount of MF, these are the best option.
- Early - Infernostride: Max of 70% GF: A classic in D2 is the Infernostride. These come with Fire/Max res, 30% FRW, and a Blaze proc which gives CBF while active. With the possibility of 100% GF slam we're looking at the potential of 170% GF. These are great boots and cheap when clean. Maybe you can get lucky with a slam of your own.
- Late - Unique: Max of 80% GF: Finding decent GF unique boots that have FRW, FHR, and res is going to cost you a little bit but can get you a max of 180% GF. However like other niche items people will either never think to slam them or charsi them. You might get lucky and find someone selling boots in the 150-160 range for cheap. I was not so fortunate.
- Early - Metalgrid: Max of 0% GF: Metalgrid was my early ammy honestly anything that helps keep you alive will work, found one with a low range ~60% GF for really cheap and helped a lot with suitability. This item gives you golem mastery points as well as points to iron golem.
- Late - Mara's Kaleidoscope: Max of 0% GF: Mara's Kaleidoscope is a great all around ammy and with +skills and +all res. Finding one with a 80% gold find slam isn't too difficult and it is typically seen as undesirable making it a bit more affordable. With a slam possibility of +100% GF this is a great mid/late game ammy.
- GG - Crafted/Unique: Max of 80% GF: Unique/Crafted is the BIS. Finding this item or making it yourself is going to be a mountain to overcome. For my build this is my only source of Mana Leech which makes me need a +2 barb skills, +%mana leech, Gold find Mod, and a gold find slam.
- Early - Dwarf Star: Max of 100% GF: The (Dwarf Star)[https://wiki.projectdiablo2.com/wiki/Rings#Dwarf_Star] is another standard D2 GF ring. In addition to its 100% GF, it has fire absorb, life, and +% blocking. Early game this will be the primary source for mana leech. Finding one with 4-6%ML is vital until you can replace your ammy with something that has mana leech.
- Late - Dwarf Star: Max of 100% GF: After you have gotten a +2 barb skill ammy with +%ML you can find a DS that has a high Ring corruption for an additional 40-80%, ideally looking for something in the 70%+ range and high fire absorb.
- Bul-Kathos' Death Band: Max of 0% GF: Because we are doing the damage ourselves finding a high ED and PDR BK set ring is optimal. Getting a 70%+ GF slam on it as well is important to us. Again this isn't a popular build so these rings are pretty cheap. If you can find a +%ML BK set ring you can get the +GF Dwarf Star earlier.
- Bul-Kathos'_Tribal_Guardian: Max GF of 0%: The Tribal Guardian is the first set weapon in the Bul-Kathos set and can slam with up to 5 Sockets. With 5 Lem's in this you add 375% GF.
- Bul-Kathos' Sacred Charge: Max GF of 0%: The Sacred Charge is the second set weapon in the Bul-Kathos set and can slam with up to 6 sockets. With 6 Lem's in this you add 450% GF.
Switch 1&2:
- Blade of Ali-Baba: Max GF 2.5%/level: Most builds center around these weapons with 3 sockets and filled with Lem's. I have opted to go with Ist's and use them for horking. Added benefit if you can find them with a 20-30% MF slam. On switch these will bring me up to ~640% MF. Currently I am sitting at ~420%(nice). This has gotten me a number of Rainbow Facets(none perfect yet) and has paid for most of what I have bought already.
Mercenary
Merc:- A5 with Might aura and a weapon that procs amp. I give them my old lower quality GF gear and don't really worry about them, just keep them alive. Their sole purpose is might and breaking phys immunity.
Inventory
Charms:- Finding a Torch and Anni with good +all res is important. High Vit is nice as well. Grand charms should be made up of Max/40% GF GC's and a Gheed's with 15% vend and high GF. I found a perfect one on the trade site. The rest of my stash is filled with various 9-10% GF 3max SC's. I am still short on a few more Max/GF charms.
Wealth
Shopping:- This should be done with Edge Runeword which gives me 15% off vendor prices
- Gheed's which gives another 10-15% vendor price reduction
- A new item this season, the Kadala's Heirloom which gives 5-10% vendor reduced price. If you are some how able to get all of these items perfect you will get a 50% discount on vendor prices.
Selling gold and map Orbs. Gambling is also an option but I haven't had any success after having spent about 100million gold gambling on rings and ammys with nothing to really show for it. If you want to go that route, up to you. I didn't find any success in it. I created a Google Sheet that helps keep track of your runes, their value, gold sale, and orb prices to make sure you are making a profit while undercutting the going rates for these items.