lettiesteadygo

[lettiesteadygo]

Some of you have never shipped a rare pair and it shows.

#i wrote the first zo/aloy fic #or im p sure i did

[lettiesteadygo]

HFW: Realistic Gameplay

I'm not sure how many people do this, but I like to approach my HFW gameplay to make the experience as realistic as possible. Here are a few of the considerations I keep in mind while playing to ensure my timeline is accurate to the game's storyline. :)

[⚠️ Warning! Some light spoilers are referenced ahead.]

ON SLEEP:

How long can Aloy reasonably go without sleep? Maybe 48 hours, but the high-intensity work she does requires dexterity & focus, so her accuracy & analytical abilities diminish the longer she's awake.

When she's desperate, or thiiiiis close to her goals, she likely gets tunnel vision, and gameplay gets a bit sloppier. (ie. Latopolis 😬)

Plus, the world is way more DANGEROUS for people at night! Humans are not a naturally nocturnal species, even if Aloy's stealth approach excels in the cover of darkness. She's also probably a little ~off~ in her circadian rhythm because she's one of a very few future humans exposed to blue light, lol.

ON FOOD:

Let's assume she's fed when she stays at any given settlement, but out in the wilds, she should be eating every day.

This means with a small food pouch, she can really only be out in the wilds for ~3 days without having to hunt her own meals. (Which no doubt, she can do, but do your really think Aloy has the time or patience to be cooking while she's saving the literal world? Nah.)

ON TRAVEL:

Along the way, I have to ask myself: how much does the side quest matter? How time-sensitive is it? Is it already on her existing route?

I try to WALK through settlements to A) not appear insane, B) accurately simulate the time she would actually spend there.

Can she really sprint all day long?? In this house, we jog. ("most humans can store about 20 miles’ worth of glycogen in their muscles." - NYT)

I don't love riding machines unless it's a long distance or an urgent situation. (ie. Sprinting back to the Base from Tilda's house) The reason for this is because:

A) you alert literally every machine around you, and I prefer to play a stealth approach

B) Riding is associated with Rebel activity, so you'd likely meet resistance from Tenakth locals.

C) not every path is cut out for riding (ie. On Lowland paths, her steed is likely too heavy & might get mired in the swamp / Riding in the Desert during the day, the metal would burn the everliving sh*t out of her.)

ON WEATHER:

In the Desert, I try to sleep during the day & travel at night. It's way too hot to be out during the height of day—even if it's around late October when she's there.

A little rain never hurt anybody, but major storms require cover & a wait-out period. I once got stuck in Sky's Sentry for half a day while I waited for an AETHER-driven storm to die down.

In my gameplay, it's November when Aloy turns up in Sky Clan territory (Yosemite Valley) which means it's freezing at night!

ON TIME:

I track calendar days while I'm playing to make sure I'm within GAIA's estimated ~3 month climate collapse timeline estimate. (Note that she doesn't give this estimate until Aloy discovers the Base, a little over 1 month into gameplay.)

Aloy is probably stuck in Stone's Echo for ~2 weeks healing her ribs. "Most broken ribs heal on their own within six weeks" (Mayo Clinic) But there's no way Aloy has that kind of patience. PLUS I'd bet big money when GAIA made her, she was given some cool genetic boosts that make her heartier than most naturally-born humans. In my game, I took her on some pretty chill missions back to Chainscrape afterward to give her more time to heal.

The game is literally set up to have us experience the seasons as we navigate the world over ~4-6 months!! (ie. The trees are changing color in Chainscrape when we begin in early Autumn / The Riverhymn side quest tells us it's the first of the winter bloom / There is snow in Yosemite Valley.)

From Embassy to Singularity, my gameplay took 132 Days (~4 months). I still have some side quests & errands to finish up, so if you try and complete all tasks before the Singularity, you're probably looking at 5-6 months total.

Okay, that's all I can think of off the top of my noggin, but I'd really love to hear if anyone else has some rad realistic constraints they like to add to the game! :)

#love this #i don't do this to this extent but i like to play like this too

[lettiesteadygo]

a fierce nora huntress in the deserts around meridian

#oh cool im immediately obsessed with her #time to Project onto her!!!!

[lettiesteadygo]

she sure did, buddy

[lettiesteadygo]

Absolutely losing it at this Guardian review of the upcoming film Cocaine Bear's trailer:

#alternate themes i will accept: none

[lettiesteadygo]

If your goal is to normalize gender-nonconformity you’re gonna have to accept that some people will fuck with gender as hard as they can while still being unequivocally, 100% cis and that is okay. There’s no egg to crack or callout to write. This is a good thing actually.

#this!!! #like i have sat with and questioned my gender and i Know Im cis #i dont like the whole cis+ joke because like #idk i dont think i should get extra credit and also morality isnt connected to gender

[lettiesteadygo]

alrighty, my fellow wlw gamers, i don't know about you but bioware are directly responsible for breaking my heart several times over due to their big No Homo rule on women that femshep should absolutely be able to smooch but cannot. i'm curious, though:

#this is jack erasure #she's literally so good for renegade shep especially

[lettiesteadygo]

The Gaia Gang Dormitory

Anyway I noticed the three little bunks of Alva, Erend and Kotallo in the Base are carefully designed and very In Character(tm) and here's my essay nobody asked for.

1. Erend

His bunk looks as if a workshop had a baby with a college dorm and then exploded. It is as clumsy and slightly careless as Erend is, all his things strewn haphazardly over the place. There's an apron for blacksmith work, clothes, tools, bottles and the keg of ale he shared with Kotallo. A chair with a reading lamp too, interestingly, but unusable since he parked a chest on it. Erend sometimes has a very bad opinion of himself (wrongly so) as well as a daydreamy, somewhat immature streak and that is reflected in his unwillingness to tidy up, because why bother. It's very Him in every way, a little muddled but oddly charming.

2. Alva

She is a scholar through and through. Her bunk has barely any decoration or clutter since she spends 99,9% of her time getting excited over the data in the archive. She's a family person who likes to keep in touch with her loved ones - she has a little desk with a handwritten letter to her family, a holo diary and scrolls. Her bed looks as if she never sleeps there. Probably doesn't. Probably never sleeps at all.

3. Kotallo

Kotallo is mentioned several times preferring privacy and alone time, stated so by the other inhabitants of the Base including Gaia. This is reflected in his room being the only one with an improvised curtain shielding his bed from view. He stores some trophies in his bunk (like the scorcher heart that I remember being WAY smaller when he pulled it out of the carcass...), vessels of what looks like scrap metal and spare parts - tools of a soldier to keep his weapons ready for use. He mentions the Base could use some color, so he brought some Tenakth decor in. In Sky Clan magenta, interestingly, not Hekarro's colors. What is most striking is the kitchen corner with sausages (?) and the cute pumpkin candle holder that looks like Zo crafted it. He likes to cook, apparently? It is never mentioned by him or any of the others. Overall a surprisingly cozy ensemble that fits Kotallo's personality - stoic, practical warrior with a soft, broody streak.

#also i havent gotten DEMETER yet but Kotallo has books in his bunk! thought that was interesting

[lettiesteadygo]

good <3

EDIT: hi so editing this post because holy shit. my intent with this was not to say that cyberbullying is okay. from my understanding, 'cyberbullying' in this context means criticizing and holding accountable. this post was intended as "oh you can't handle people literally just saying 'im disappointed' and unsubscribing? cry about it' and not "actual cyberbullying is good and okay". i think the notion that consuming any single piece of media makes someone a bad person is ridiculous. should people be playing this game? absolutely not. it's a bad thing to do. but doing a single bad thing doesn't make you irredeemable or deserving of harassment. I turned off replies and deleted most of them because it was so incredibly toxic. I left a few up that I fully agree with if you're curious.

#i wish i could reblog without the edit #hate that OP was misconstrued like that #like im so done with GFR forever now #their fans asked them not to stream it and they did anyway amd then weaponized her tears #ick

[lettiesteadygo]

the thing about Cassandra and Varric is that they are just SO GOOD, SO CHOICE, SO 👀🥺😳 because like…they hate each others guts, they have so much in common, they’re both the family renegade, they both lost their only brother, they both have grand, outsized public personas that eclipse the people they actually are, brave and stubborn and loyal to a fault, they would very probably - with little sentiment and hardly a second thought - die for each other, but lock them in a room together and you’d return to an icy silence at best, they won’t give each other a single goddamn inch, after their biggest fight both of them will apologise to YOU the Inquisitor and admit they were at least partly wrong but they both point-blank refuse to talk to each other, but Cassandra WILL speak to you earnestly and gently about Varric’s faith and his virtuous heart, and Varric WILL write an entire NOVEL just…for a joke…for the lulz… as if writing an entire smooshily romantic smutty romance novel is an absolutely normal amount of effort to put into a Jape™ for someone who hates you, because of COURSE they hate each other, Varric even tells Dorian outright that just because two people don’t get along doesn’t mean they’re going to kiss, not like in his books, but the thing is his books are EVERYTHING because he believes in stories and so does Cassandra, it’s how they met after all, they’re both romantics, idealists, people who care so much about the world and everyone in it, people who believe deep down in sunsets and roses and happy endings and heroes, she dragged him halfway across the world because she believed he could help and he stayed because he wanted to believe it too, she loves his books but she can’t stand HIM of course she can’t, she’s a Seeker of Truth and he’s a professional liar, and he’ll get along with just about anybody, embrace the rogues and reprobates of the world with open arms but not HER, she expects too little of him and demands too much, she’s got a stick up her ass except when she doesn’t and he takes nothing seriously except when he does, but no they’ll just keep sniping and bickering like an old married couple and fighting side by side as the world falls apart around them, looking everywhere with eyes wide open except at each other

#screams

[lettiesteadygo]

This might be my favorite submission so far

#me birdwatching

[lettiesteadygo]

“Fairy godmothers start stories,” said the old woman. “I end them. It’s not a popular job, but fortunately I’m the only me they ever made.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, love, if you want, I can get you out of this dungeon right now and back home by morning.”

The dungeon went deathly silent. Through the high ceiling of stone and steel, she could hear the sound of the goblins marching.

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“But the chains—”

There was a silken hiss like falling sand. All that was left of the shackle was the angry, red welt around her ankle.

She stared. She said: “They have my sister—”

“Not to worry, dear,” said the old woman. “I can get her on our way out.”

“But the goblins—”

“Can’t do a thing about it. I do whatever I want – they all hate it, but they can’t stop me.”

“I signed a contract—”

“Oh, love, listen to me: I don’t care about contracts. I don’t care about quests or bargains or deals or wishes or riddles. If you want me to get you out of this story, then you’re out, no strings attached.”

There was a trickle of rainwater somewhere in the dungeon. Every drip echoed through the gloom.

She narrowed her eyes. “I’m sorry, but I don’t believe you.”

“You’re very wise.”

“What do you get out of this?”

The old woman sighed and shuffled back to sit against the stone wall. “Piece of mind, maybe,” she said. “A story is a terrible thing to bear for some.”

“How many people have you done this for?”

“Hundreds.”

“That’s a lot.”

“No, dear. Not nearly enough.”

“No strings attached?”

She heard the rainwater again, a distant, dark and echoing drip… drip…

And then – “Only one,” said the old woman. “There is a chance that someday, you’ll look back and realize that you’ll never know if you could’ve done it.”

She nearly laughed. “That’s all?” she said – and then she caught the look in the old woman’s eye.

There was something there that chilled her.

Drip… drip…

She pulled her knees up to her chest. “That doesn’t sound too bad,” she said quietly.

“And for some it isn’t,” said the old woman. It sounded like a very careful answer.

Drip… drip…

“If,” she said. “If I say no – what happens?”

“Then you save your sister and defeat the goblins,” said the old woman. “You become an unlikely heroine, and your story becomes the stuff of legends – or you die and your sister is lost forever. But no matter what, for the rest of your life, no matter how long that may be, you will know exactly how you did.

“It’s up to you, dear,” the old woman said. She rose stiffly and brushed the dirt from her gown. “Have you made up your mind?”

#this is such a cool prompt #and has me thinking about what constitutes a selfish character vs a selfless one #like imagine being her sister #and knowing you could have been safe immediately #but your sister chose a need to Prove Herself #its so human and understandable but just imagine that your own family chose pain instead of peace #im sorry i love angst so much ok

[lettiesteadygo]

some shakarian text posts + lil baby grunt

[lettiesteadygo]

and i usually don’t do this but pls rb for a bigger sample size

#yeah this website skews v white

[lettiesteadygo]

dnd paladin character concept: a knight raised alongside a magic user, who loves his friend, considers them family — but the magic user through a twist of fate ascends to godhood, vanishing from normal human life. so the knight swears fealty to the fledgling god so he can have some connection to them even still & the god who loves him dearly in return blesses him with gifts and divine powers as a way to reach back toward him, back toward earth. this paladin’s vows are easy to keep, like second nature… and prayer is both automatic and personal

#ngl paladins are usually not my jam cause **religious trauma** #but this #THIS #Ugh yes #beauty

[lettiesteadygo]

You mentioned doing a print of the previous page, any chance of posting a decent resolution image we (I) could save to use as a phone wallpaper as well? Because the page is a link I am unable save it for such a use.

Here you go. :3 This is just a JPEG copy of the page without any adjustments; I hope it does the trick for you. Thanks!

#this is the perfect post to alert yall that daughter of the lilies is EVERYTHING to me #it is glorious and beautiful and im so excited to find out wtf is going on lol

[lettiesteadygo]

I don’t want to ‘piss off a terf’, I want to make sure other trans people in my life are safe

#this is IMPORTANT