#or a good way to do combat if your players are avoiding it too much!

[snapscube]

i was super bad at final fantasy online but how much u love it makes me wanna try to play it again. do u have tips for someone chronically bad at mmos?

Sure, yeah! A few!

Make sure you read your tooltips (the descriptions of your ability icons) for abilities, and do not hesitate to look up what any particular thing means. This is gonna be a big help early on.

Combat might feel slow and not particularly powerful early on. That's okay, that's entirely intended. The combat later in the game gets SO flashy with all kinds of crazy particle effects and animation, but it starts off very slow and simple to make sure you understand the most important aspects of this game's combat, which are: 1. Positioning and avoiding area-of-effect attacks and 2. Chaining abilities properly, utilizing combos effectively, and making the most of your cooldown time.

There are SO MANY resources online, YouTube especially, that can help you with any single individual issue you might be happening, as well as just general guides to certain jobs or even just starting the game in general. Watch that starter guide I linked in my previous post and that'll get you going for at least the first few levels! And then past that, literally don't hesitate to look up anything and everything you might need help on (but be wary of story related stuff if you care abt spoilers! most people are pretty good about disclaimers for that though, since a large portion of the fanbase really values the story experience!)

Being "bad" at the game actually has so little to do with how well you'll be able to enjoy a majority of what it has to offer, believe it or not. It's actually SUCH a low stakes game for like 90% of it as long as you can push past the initial anxiety of "oh god am i doing (such-and-such) right??". The skill floor is extremely low, and you'll only ever get better the more you play as long as you, again, pay attention to what's going on, and also, feeding into my next point....

Are open to getting advice in-game! Like, from other players! The community is generally good about recognizing when new players might need some extra patience and/or guidance through a piece of content. ESPECIALLY if you open up a dungeon or a trial or what-have-you with a simple "hey guys! i'm new to the game/this content so let me know if there's anything i can be doing better"! I've actually met some very nice people and had plenty of extremely positive, fun, and genuinely helpful interactions by opening up dungeon runs this way in chat! Just be nice and sociable and generally people will be happy to help you :)

If you'd like, another option might be to look up a playthrough of the opening parts of the game to see if another player was able to intuit or discover some important stuff you may have missed, and that you can use in your own time with the game!

Also, you can pick up every single job (basically your classes, for those unfamiliar) in the game on a single character, so if you're finding that a particular job is confusing to start with or just isn't hitting right, once you hit level 10 (which you can EASILY do in a single sitting) you can pick up another one right away and see if it suits you better! You'll have to do a little bit of extra catch-up in order to get to level 10 again on that job (character levels are tied to individual jobs/classes) and be able to continue with the MSQ and such, but it shouldn't take too long. And hey, plenty of quick leveling tips for early game are out there too!

#ffxiv

[nitrogenwaters]

Thinking 

[little gore warning] So I was watching a YT vid of someone reading out the Zombies’ comic and got up to comic #2 when the end is literally zombie Richtofen punching right through a mutated animal that was after him, and quickly turns against Victis again with the rest of the Bios out of the way.

Seeing this has only strengthened my wish that Trayarch should of made a Ultimis zombie Richtofen boss fight bc that would of been dope as hell.

First of all, even out of the MPD, he still has partial control of surrounding zombies, and can even command them to solve obstacles for him.

Second, he still has consciousness and is fully aware of what is happening around him, making him literally the most deadly and threatening zombie you could even encounter in the whole Aether storyline (Brutus is stupid compared to Edward’s intelligence). He sure as hell would know how to fight back any potential threats if it presents itself, he had all that time fighting undead up until Moon and before joining Group 935 as well.

Third, he is granted the strength of the undead that they have of course. As I mentioned before, he punched through a undead Bio the Elemental Shard created like it was nothing.

(Edward has yassified nails confirmed!? 👀💅✨)

Another thing, he got the zombies to pry open a steel door that was a few feet thick and probably tons of pounds using surrounding junk in the area.

honestly, seeing Richtofen as a zombie and what he does during that time has gotten me really happy for no reason. Maybe I’m just hyper fixated on it too much, but I love seeing what he can do in battle outside of the games, which the characters are controlled by the player and their skill determined by said player. It gives us some knowledge of his combat and solving skills and how quick he is to use them.

Other honourable mentions that happenes in the comics:

Zombies will sacrifice themselves to protect Edward or he’ll doge out of the way.

Edward of course, has a sense of self preservation and for the undead as well. He will retreat (or stop) the horde if too many will or have died from Victis’ attempts to keep them at bay.

Edward lost his hat because he was body check by a monkey. (Don’t know why he didn’t bother to pick it back up, guess Victis was more important then his precious hat)

Imagine (if he was a boss zombie) him having a in game doge mechanic if you aimed at him like the Ascension ones, but quicker and more agile. His horde would still be as strong as the regular dead, but they could avoid traps if activated and would swarm back to Edward if he was hurt in any way, making it hard to get a clear shot of him. If too many of his undead are killed, he will retreat to gain mass again.

Eventually he will become angered enough to face the player(s) head on and pick up a weapon or something and just make the player’s life a living hell in any way he can. He’ll get you to chase him around well avoiding his rain of bombs and Molotovs, he’ll chase YOU around if he gets his hands on a good Goblegum (better hope not death machine) or weapons from somewhere, and he’ll most definitely jump you from the shadows from anywhere and try to rip your heart out. Hell, let’s throw in a custom animation for just that, and make the player mash a button or two to avoid getting stabbed or their throat gets ripped out by his chompers (which would probably get you an instant down if he succeeds in doing so).

It would be a sick EE in general and hope one day I gain the skills needed to make a mod of this idea, or at least inspire someone to do it. Anyways, imma end this post here and show some leftover pics of Richtofen being a menace. Plus Samual beating the crap out of zombies with a gun.

#edward richtofen #cod zombies #ultimis richtofen #Codz #ultimis crew #primis crew #takeo masaki #nikolai belinski #tank dempsey #call of duty zombies #black ops zombies

[autolenaphilia]

I like linear games, despite “linear” becoming something of a dirty word about video games, especially in the open world craze that has dominated the mainstream game market for years now. And that’s a shame, because linear game design is an artform.

The great advantage of linear game design is pacing, structure and focus. Linear games are often not that long, at most often only 8-10 hours or so. You can’t really expect much more meaningful content out of a game developer, not without exhausting their well of creativity and how much of a single game a player can endure. And linear game design is putting that gameplay content in a coherent sequence for the player to experience.

Much of this design relies on pacing, creating a good gameflow, where each successive element builds on the previous one.

The most obvious is probably pacing the difficulty, going from easy to difficult. A good game usually introduces its mechanics in a simple and understandable way, gives the player easy challenges at first, and as the player develops their understanding of the gameplay mechanics, the game ramps up the difficulty to provide a consistent level of challenge. So in the end the game is not too easy and not too hard (depending on the difficulty option chosen). And instead of introducing mechanics all at once, the game maybe introduces them gradually during the early game, so that you learn one mechanic, and then another, instead of being overwhelmed by mechanics.

There is also pacing the gameplay to avoid monotony. Even action games can become too much if they are all fast paced action all the time. It can be important for an action game to have variation from the combat with exploration sequences or puzzle solving. And point-and-click adventure games may need to have variation between dialogue and puzzle solving.

Linear game design also allows for more coherent and complex storytelling. Story can matter in video games, and linear game design helps with that. Linear game design means that the developers can pace the development of the story alongside the gameplay. It allows the parts of the story to build on each other in a coherent and well-paced fashion. That doesn’t mean cutscenes, necessarily. Half-Life uses mainly environmental storytelling to tell an interesting story, and it does so in a very linear fashion.

Indeed the linearity of Half-life is part of the story. The game’s linearity reinforces how Gordon Freeman is ironically not a free man, but follows a path laid out for him by the G-man’s manipulations. The Max Payne series has similar themes about determinism and free will, reinforced by the linearity of its design. The second game has multiple levels taking place in an abandoned funhouse and the game makes those themes explicit by having him monologue that “A funhouse is a linear sequence of scares. Take it or leave it is the only choice given. Makes you think about free will: have our choices been made for us because of who we are?”

It’s a good comparison, a linear game is like a funhouse, or an amusement park ride. You get a linear sequence of gameplay and story, and you either take the ride and enjoy it, or you do not. It’s not lacking in interactivity, the player still get to actually play the game, they just don’t get a choice about the sequence of events. But if the game is well-designed, the sequence the developers offer makes sense, creates a coherent and well-paced experience, so you don’t care. Player choice is not everything, and offering a coherent tightly designed experience is a good thing for games.

It’s something that open world games can’t offer. They lack the focus and pacing of linear games. In your average open world game, the actual interesting gameplay and story content is often spread out haphazardly throughout a huge map, with lots of boring traveling. This old Prozd sketch pretty sums up the average open world experience, lots of walking between when actually interesting things happen. And non-linearity means that the various gameplay and story elements can’t build of each other in the tightly paced and coherent fashion of the best linear games. Often open world games boast of dozens upon dozens of hours of playtime, I’ve read boasts about a game having one hundred hours of gameplay. Yet because of human limits on time and creativity, the games don’t offer much more actually meaningful content than the “short” 8 hour linear games of old. Instead the rest is taken up by filler, such as travelling, and meaningless busywork sidequests like “fetch these materials” and “kill those enemies.”

I think the open world genre is part of the decline of mainstream “AAA” game design over the past fifteen years or so. Massive open world games with highly detailed realistic graphics require massive resources to create. It’s one thing that can justify the massive budgets of big game studios, and provide something that small indie devs can’t. That’s why it’s the only type of single-player genre that mainstream devs release nowadays. But it’s quantity over quality, replacing carefully tuned game design with just more content. Filler sidequests are often churned out by over-worked developers being ruthlessly exploited.

It’s also a way to justify predatory “games as a service” monetization with DLC, as it is easy to just add more content to an open world game (for a prize) compared to a small linear one. It’s easy to see when you compare modern game DLC to the expansion packs of linear AAA single-player games of old. An expansion pack in the 90s and 00s was often a short but substantial game of its own, with its own campaign and story taking about 3-5 hours to justify its existence.

Things being better in the past is often a conservative lie, but triple-aaa game development sure was. I love to play mainstream games from the 00s, and it’s stunning how well-designed they can be. And it’s partly because these developers were good at linear single-player game design, something we tend to only see in indie games today. The open world genre has proven to be fertile ground for triple-AAA games to grow its worst habits into the shambles it is today.

#my writings #video games #game design #linear games #open world games #thoughts raised in me by playing doom 3 #which is a very linear corridor shooter from 2004 #and it's pretty damn good

[needlemeister]

hello! your art is amazing! i loveeee your scug designs :D

anyway, can you share something about your ocs? i don't know much, so it can be anything-- backstory, abilities, anything you find particularly cool? specifically the martyr or dragon slayer maybe :O it's hard to judge based on looks alone but thet seem like slugcats i'd really wanna play as lol

also, is the hy in your pronoun set pronounced he or hi (or some other way that i'm forgetting)?

have a good day byeee :]

hi i completely forgot to answer this ages ago sorry!!

I'll answer the non oc question first: you pronounce it like he/him! they're masc angelkin pronouns :]

also, if anyone wants me to do an info post like this on any of the antiscugs or my iterators, lmk!

MARTYR

Era: Post-Saint in a different facility entirely during a drought period induced by most Iterators dying out. Food is scarce, and there's no rain - only suffocating heat.

Diet: Batflies, Blue Fruit, Baby Centipedes - Each fills only one fourth of a pip. Larger amounts of food cause shock due to how overeating after starvation works irl. Four pips, no spillover. (OOOO|)

Abilities: Can starve one more cycle in a row before death. Always statistically considered to be in a starvation state. Can play dead.

Iterator: Calls Upon the Sea / CUTS, a lonesome Iterator whose facility acted as a giant lighthouse. Desperately pleading their siblings in their Local Group to say something, anything, unaware that they are the last one standing.

DRAGON SLAYER (anti-Refugee)

Era: Post-Pacifist, Pre-Riptide

Diet: Carnivorous. 1.5x pips from Lizards, 1/2x from any other creatures. Same amount of pips as Artificer. (OOOOOO|OOO)

Abilities: Same combat capabilities as Hunter. Deals 2x damage to all Lizards at the cost of always being fatally bit by them and locked at the lowest possible reputation with them. Bad swimming and balance due to lack of tail. Same mass as Gourmand.

Iterator: N/A. Avoided by Overseers due to attacking them one too many times.

MOTHER

Era: Post-Monk, almost immediately so. Outer Expanse is flourishing with Slugcats.

Diet: Default. Same pips as Artificer, in addition to two sets of three pips to also attend to. (OOOOOO|OOO + OOO|x2)

Abilities: Has a pair of Pups that they absolutely must take care of, or else they must repeat the cycle. Average stats. Can carry both pups on their back at once. If implemented in-game, players two and three are their pups when using Jolly Co-op. Combat stats are buffed if one or both of their pups are in danger.

Iterator: N/A. Too focused on keeping their pups safe - cans are dangerous!

SCHOLAR

Era: Pre-and-post-Martyr. Their first journey is to collect colored pearls for their Iterator before the heat burns them out, and their second is to deliver a message to CUTS.

Diet: N/A. Pips represent current charge (OOOOOOO|) and space for pearl storage (|OOO) respectively. Nap, hibernate, or interact with sources of electricity (Centipedes, Zappers, Electric Spears, etc) to charge. Charge slowly drains as they move and act. The heat will make them overheat if they spend too long outside between hibernations.

Abilities: Incapable of ingesting anything but pearls. Swift and agile, like a median between Spearmaster and Rivulet without the aquatic capabilities of the latter. Starts Marked.

Iterator: A currently unnamed Iterator that created them in order to collect and deliver pearls efficiently in the worsening conditions outside.

COVERT

Era: Undetermined, possibly before The Great Ascension. Maybe Technomancer mod era?

Diet: Carnivorous. Incapable of consuming Black Lizards. Same pips as Spearmaster, due to the slow metabolism of underground creatures. (OOOOO|OOOOO)

Abilities: Blind. Mechanically, this means everything has the Shaded Citadel or Filtration System filter. Edges of terrain are illuminated as if with Monk's Citadel assist effect to represent the Covert relying on sound and touch. Sources of sound are illuminated better, and all non-ambient noises have their volume increased. Faster tunneling speed than any other.

Iterator: there's a nonzero chance only LttM exists here

STARFALLEN

Era: Paradoxically before Spearmaster and yet after Saint. Rubicon is present.

Diet: Carnivorous. Not sure on the pips.

Abilities: Capable of holding and producing a charge similar to Centipedes. Immune to stuns or damage Centipede and Jellyfish shocks, instead entering an overcharged state that gives them mild contact damage and stuns to enemies susceptible to electricity. Can charge Electric Spears and electrocute creatures via mauling.

Iterator: Sixteen Shooting Stars, a strange Iterator whose can is only accessible in Rubicon.

REFUGEE

Era: Immediately after Monk.

Diet: Same as Monk, including the pips. (OOO|OO)

Abilities: Weaker and lighter than Monk, but also swifter. Lizard taming odds are doubled.

Iterator: Looks to the Moon, like their other siblings!

GATHERER

Not created with playability in mind. Basically a cross between Gourmand and Hunter, their parents.

WEAVER

Not created with playability in mind. An unstable cross between Rivulet and Spearmaster, their parents.

#meister answers #rain world #rainworld #meister ocs #martyr #dragon slayer #mother #scholar #covert #starfallen #gatherer #weaver #refugee

[grandprovidence]

Grand Providence development update 3/3/2024

Hello! Let's get right into it.

The first set of rules I worked on were small, miniscule even, but I believe them to be important. These are the rules of what happens during different stages of being encumbered. These are important because having a simple binary set of unencumbered and overencumbered makes the decision for players simple depending on the severity of them. Does being overencumbered make the game terrible to play? If yes, never be overencumbered. If no, carry as much as you want until the GM yells at you for having an entire library worth of books in your back pocket. While having gradients is good, it can also get out of hand in the blink of an eye. Keeping this in mind I decided that there would be four states of encumbrance along with keeping the low numbers and simple assignment of Bulk to items. This makes calculating a character's encumbrance level less of a math problem for players and Providences. Carrying less than half of your carry capacity means a slight bonus to stealth, more than half means an increase in the dodge and parry action cost, going over your total carry capacity means an increase in the movement action cost and a slight detriment to your exploration speed, and finally carrying more than twice your carry capacity means you get one less ambition at the start of each turn. These detriments stack as well so the more you carry the more you feel the effects. These effects also, I hope, lead to players considering their options. Lugging around a treasure chest during combat? Terrible idea. But doing so when your only punishment is going a bit slower while getting back to town can be appealing.

The next set of rules were based around enemy types and their different resistances and vulnerabilities. In Grand Providence, resisting one of the four damage types does not mean you half that damage. Instead creatures will have Toxic Resistance 4 which means any time they take toxic damage the damage is lowered by 4. Vulnerabilities work the same way. While it is tempting to have every monster have a personalized set of damage resistances and vulnerabilities, this can cause a large amount of strain on both players and Providences when multiple creature types are present in a fight. Due to this I wanted to follow my general design philosophy and keep the rules simple. Each of the nine different categories of enemies, one of which is broken into six subtypes, have a generalized set of two resistances, one which is higher and one which is lower, and one vulnerability. While doing this I also ensured that the different damage types were represented as close to equally as I could. This was due to one of my friends and players who has issue with D&D, specifically with how many monsters resist poison. He is a rogue at heart and enjoys the idea of poisoned blades but the high amount of monsters that resist said poison makes it so he feels that the play style is too detrimental. The other reason I wanted to keep each monster type with generalized damage resistances and vulnerabilities was for the hunt of a monster. In many games players can have a hard time preparing to fight something because the options are too varied and scouring through a list of monsters that have the specific signals given can feel like studying while grinding a game to a halt while the other option is to keep studying in game until you find the answer which als grinds games to a halt. With this normalized system players can study where a monster attacked, find signs of it being a flora monster of some kind and know that, in general, fire is a good idea while toxins and corrosive damage types should be avoided.

The final set of rules were ones for the Providence only. These are the rules for making towns. Oftentimes making towns, what kind of shops and how large the shops are, what kinds of buildings the town has, and all other decisions are up to the GM while also having a low amount of mechanical structure to them. This often leads to GM’s either needing to do a large amount of work to make each town or just letting players buy whatever they so desire. That's not how I like to do things. So I took all of the shops and divided them into three sizes. A small blacksmith will have less or lower tiers of items than a large blacksmith. I then took all of the shops and divided them into four focuses a town can have, Core, Scholarly, Crafting, and Religious. Then I took all four of those and made five levels of focus the town can have for them. A town with a high focus on their Core and Crafting will have a better blacksmith and general store for example. I then took a large list of different buildings of interest for a town and divided them into these four categories. This way, when a Providence makes a town they will know the shops, the type of items they sell, and a list of different buildings that town will have. Keeping with this generation I then suggested a number of focus points a town will have depending on its size and then made the lifestyles and training levels depend on a towns size. This way when players hear that there is a small religious town to the west and a large craftsman town to the north they have a general idea of what they can expect from those towns.

That’s all for this week. If you have any questions, comments, or criticisms send me an ask!

#grand providence #ttrpg #indie ttrpg #tabletop roleplaying #ttrpg dev #game design

[binarystargames]

TTRPG Quarterbacking part 2: Solutions, kind of? Mostly vague ideas about solutions.

So I outlined the problem (as it is) in part 1. This is the part where I think out loud about what to do about it as a designer.

Foreword

I'm going to put this as the first thing because it can't be stressed enough and because I don't really want to hear about how this isn't an issue at anyone's specific table or whatever because that's not the point. Communicate with your players. If someone's doing it a little too much you can probably just ask them to cut it out and they probably will. Folks are generally pretty reasonable.

We will ignore this going forward because it's a really glib answer from a DESIGN perspective. But keep it in mind.

The second thing is that at the end of the day you don't want to like, stifle general table talk unless you're really, really sure you want to do that. A tabletop game is ultimately going to be an avenue for folks to hang out and sometimes that involves like, giving each other advice. This is more about ways to build and run a game such that naturally it doesn't come up as much.

Strategic Quarterbacking

Getting this one out of the way first. In group-based games especially, the biggest source of this is the combination of strict role protection and role requirement. A great example of this is the “holy trinity” of DPS/tank/healer in an MMO. For a noncombat example, think about a heist crew: Shadowrun for instance wants everyone to have specific, specialized roles and you’ll probably want a dedicated face, decker, magic person, getaway rigger, etc. Maybe not all of them for every job but you’ll feel it if one is missing over time.

Ways to mitigate this include:

Similar capabilities

Make it so everyone can mostly do a similar thing, which is the thing you need to do. In APOCALYPSE FRAME you can basically make any strike team work because they largely all fill the role of “smash face”, the big difference is how much offense they have, how much mobility they have, how much they can get away being exposed along the way, and specific utilities from specific Frame abilities. This isn’t a great solution for every game but for explicitly combat-based systems especially, give this some real consideration: at the end of the day, if the thing you really need to do is move the ball forward, let everyone be able to move the ball forward.

Role overlaps

Make it easy to fill multiple roles. In Valiant Horizon each class is written to have a major and minor focus between Attacker (extra Harm, breaking defenses, exploitation of positions and conditions), Defender (mitigation, control, and prevention of enemy action), and Support (buffs, healing, and giving allies extra actions). For example, the Berserker can do a lot of AOE Harm and has a fair number of abilities that move and attack (Attacker/Spread and Attacker/Exploit) but also has abilities that give penalties to enemies who don’t attack the Berserker (Defender/Provoke).

For less combat-ish situations like the heist example, challenges can be described in-system in such a way that they can't only be solved in one fashion. Maybe it'd be better to hack security so help can't be called, but maybe you can also just physically cut the cyber-phonelines to roughly accomplish the same thing. Focus on outcomes/results rather than means. (You can still make it narratively better to do one or the other - like maybe hacking can bring down autoturrets or reveal things to grab that cutting the lines doesn't - as long as it's not a hard barrier. It's good to make choices count.)

Watch for bottlenecks

Remove functional bottlenecks - areas where a particular function needs to exist - wherever possible. A big one for combat-focused games is often healing: if only certain classes have access to healing and damage is unavoidable to the extent that healing is expected, then there's a bottleneck that you need a healer. For this particular instance, you can introduce other ways to avoid that, like damage mitigation, the ability to hamper enemy attacks, spike offense to the degree that you can defeat enemies before they attack, etc. You can also give everyone a way to "fill in" on roles: damage isn't so one-sided towards attack-focused classes that other people can reasonably do it, non-defensive characters aren't so comparatively flimsy that you strictly need a tank to draw fire, everyone has an emergency ability to heal themselves, etc.

Tactical Quarterbacking

This is the meat of what I was getting into in part 1, and what got me thinking about it in the first place. As noted in my first post re: diceless designs, I think the "set" nature of being able to set up combos, etc. can cause this. A major way to combat it is to make situations less "solvable".

Uncertain Outcomes

Certainty is a major factor in this, so a major solution is to introduce uncertainty in a few ways. The first obvious move is to...introduce randomization again, of course!

Frankly I think a little randomization is fine, if not generally interesting! But I'd rather it be in the form of "how well did the thing you're doing work" rather than a pure binary "did it hit or not". This is the approach Total//Effect games are taking. (Basically fuck to-hit rolls as a base mechanic, they fucking suck. This has nothing to do with quarterbacking, but it's important to me personally so I'm including it.) Also for games where players have a ton of actions (aka mine, I do this a lot), randomization can slow things down.

Another thought re: uncertain outcomes is to have everyone figure out their actions separately, then reveal at the same time, but this is a pretty specialized kind of mechanic.

Uncertain Situations

Another idea is to just throw curveballs so players don't know exactly what to solve for. LUMEN has this built in with its "do something drastic every round as part of the GM Turn" idea: you're encouraged to constantly be changing the situation. But beyond that, just hiding information until something happens is a classic move. (Sometimes this creates quarterbacking in the way of contingency plans but like, after a certain point if everyone's that on board, have at.)

This comes with a caveat: as a designer, provide tools and templates and ideas for GMs to do this without constantly having to come up with shit on the fly. Otherwise, it can add more narrative requirements to a role that can already be very overwhelming!

Uncertain Motivations

Here's another thing: How well do you trust your quarterback? Are they calling plays that best suit the situation or ones that'll get them the hall of fame nod?

Games, mostly-co-op board games and video games, sometimes have a betrayer mechanic - thinking of the Battlestar Galactica board game where one player is a cylon so you can't really trust anyone to truly lead the way on ideas, but you can see this in video games too with SS13, Among Us, etc. The goal is to do the thing, but the goal is also to find whoever the betrayer is.

Now. I don't think you should do exactly that for a TTRPG! If everyone's always second guessing everything everyone else does because they're worried it'll fuck everyone over then it'll bog down everything HARD. (Though, if that's your bag then go wild, sounds like fun to me but I recognize I'm weird.) What you can do as a less extreme measure is introduce personal/secret motivations alongside group motivations, and to instill doubt as to motivations for opinions. Does a warrior's motivation suggesting the group try and take the demon lord on alone match his protestations about keeping civilians safe by not involving them or indicate that he's a gloryhound? Is that wizard reticent to attack a shady group because they're not doing anything wrong or because she needs something out of them? Basically, make it make sense to make your own call sometimes rather than rely on someone else. When you're not sure you're 100% on the same page as someone, you're less likely to accept their recommendations and more likely to do what you feel is best.

Uncertain Communication

This is one I'm reticent about because I don't usually like restricting table talk too-too much (see foreword point #2) but: in tense situations, make communication mechanically scarce. Enforce taking actions to communicate things of substance. Give players explicit mechanical abilities to ask for help, or create situations where there are comms blackouts, like when player characters are separated. (I don't recommend like, running two halves of a game as secret information because that shit's annoying as fuck over time, and the tension of watching half your party fuck it up for you is palpable.)

You can also make the details each character has uneven, or even just subjective - different characters will notice different details about a situation based on who they are, perfect information is a lie - but that can be a pretty tall ask unless it's very integrated into the system, and even then you can get weird situations where everyone's unclear about what kind of information their character knows vs what they know.

On a related side note...

Tangent Idea: The Quarterback Is A Gameplay Construct Now

Alright, hotshot. You think you got what it takes to run this operation? Congrats, you're now the other characters' handler. You don't have an in-action character of your own, you run overwatch from afar and communicate information as best you can. If they hit a communication dead zone, they're cut off and can't talk to anyone except anyone local, so better hope you gave applicable advice prior to that.

If it's a more local situation, you're now the squad leader. You've got one free-action suggestion per round - anything past that needs an action - but also anything intelligent you face knows to go for the guy barking orders first. Best of luck.

Reduce coordination complexity

So one major source of quarterbacking is coordination: you need to do X and they need to do Y so I can do Z, that sort of thing. If the first person doesn't get the memo and isn't on board for X then the whole plan could be up shit's creek.

In general, when there are mechanical combinations, add in fallbacks. Sure, X + Y -> Z is the best outcome, but maybe if you have either X or Y it's still better than nothing at all.

Reduce stakes out of character

So honestly, one of the big takeaways I have re: quarterbacking is that it's mostly when people think there's going to be a really important outcome from a situation: losing is too painful or winning is too crucial. Honestly though? Unless it's an especially brutal kind of game, not to spoil anything, but the good guys are gonna win eventually. And if it is that kind of game, generally the idea is to play to find out rather than ensure victory. If people start getting a little too intense about it, just remind them of the goal, whatever it may be. The benefit of TTRPGs is that it's way easier than a video game to make situations recover from "everything went sideways" because everyone involved has way more narrative control: if things do go badly in a "the good guys will definitely win" kind of game the players and GM can usually come up with a way to bounce back. Encourage people to allow things to go sideways.

Conclusions

Try out any and all of this as a dev/GM, but just be careful to make sure it's actually improving the game. In a lot of cases being too worried about it just slows things down.

I think about this stuff the normal amount.

#ttrpg #ttrpg design #game design

[sburbian-sage]

I have to go into the Psychoruins. There's no avoiding it, the session is unimaginably fucked and my denizen said I'd find something in there that would save us. I'm 17, and the other two players that are still alive are 9 and 10, it's only their second sessions, they are barely functional, I can't send them in, it's gotta be me.

I tried to follow this guide: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14382951/chapters/33212049

But none of us have the song of light, and all the members of the consort band are dead and nothing else we've tried to do to get it has worked.

I don't have the "Gorrum player pendant" the guide says helps, and I'm not sure what it is. (Since when are pendants related to denizens? Assuming Gorrum is a denizen?)

I can't use the skeletal consort tricks the guide mentions, because the game didn't actually spawn any fucking consorts on any of our lands. (Yes, seriously.)

I'm a Seer of Void. Other players are a Page of Doom and Heir of Space. None of us have god tiered, and we can't find our quest beds or sacrificial slabs. Prospit and Derse have both exploded, and most carapacians are dead.

I know there's no way that we can actually get though this, but I gotta try. If you have any Psychoruins tips, I'd love to hear them.

What the fuck. I'm reading the linked guide and seeing a lot of dubious stuff. Consorts of any stripe are generally not combat capable. WTNV equipment cancelling out the most dangerous aspect of the Psychoruins seems a bit too convenient (especially if the implication is that the two are thematically linked, SBURB isn't especially pop-culturally aware, except when it comes to prototyping because as well all know if you prototype Shrek the sprite will behave like Shrek). And most offensively, the author is using the wrong terminology! It's the Sprite Pendant, not the Player Pendant! We use standardized terminology for a reason, people!!!

You do indeed seem to be turbofucked, between the Medium-wide omnicide, implied loss of your timeplayer, and the fact that you got not one, but two unusually young replayers (9 and 10 on their second session implies they were even younger on their first session, when 12-13 is the usual minimum standard). Luckily for you though, my job is unfucking people and correcting mistakes. I'll be providing my advice in somewhat unorganized bulletpoint fashion.

Don't bring the kids into the psychoruins. Not only will it spook them, you wanna prevent any accidental PKs if funny business happens. HOWEVER they can be useful still. If they have any buffs, psychological or otherwise, make them cast them on you before you head in. The Page of Doom probably doesn't have much for you, but the Heir of Space should (maybe something like a navigational aura? or a Volto Do Mar-esque self-centering where you become aware of the world and your place in it?). Whatever slight help they can afford you. Knowing what your own abilities do also helps.

it might also be worth stressing to them that before you go, they have their own quests to attend to. I know that you said they're barely functional, but they survived once before. This might even be a valuable learning experience, teaching them that they need to be self-sufficient or be able to do things on their own. Especially if you don't come back from this mission (you will).

Disregard the "if I don't come back out in three days, destroy the entrance" advice. If the Denizen is saying that whatever's in there is urgent, it's urgent. Let the fact that you have to do this in one shot steel your resolve.

DO keep the advice to bring only one computer and turn it off beforehand. Ignore any pings.

Other pieces of that guide's advice you should follow include being well-rested before going in, bringing food and don't eat anything you find in there (even if you dropped it), bringing your best gear (and make some better ones just in case), bringing any good luck charms or that which makes you feel happy. I can tell this guide is shit because they forgot the most important piece of gear you should bring into the Psychoruins. A pair of fresh pants. Har har har.

If you don't have the Song of Light, that's insane but okay. Make a token attempt at bringing a lantern or flashlight or something, even though the Psychoruins will probably make them fritz out or do something spooky. Better than literally nothing.

On that note, I wonder if your Seer of Void title might be advantageous here. Aspects and Classes can be interpreted in a variety of ways, and I wonder if "divine information from nothing" could be perhaps a bit bent into "see in the dark"? It's not Scrying, so it should work, assuming you're capable of doing this at all.

I also feel like this expedition might be very synergistic with your title, but not to the extent that this will be easy. The Psychoruins are not easy.

I know this is the "get good" of Psychoruins advice but unironically, none of the shit you see in there is real. If you have any experience with the Earthsea Borealis, it's kind of like how the Nightmare Heir says stuff that is designed to poke at your insecurities and make you doubt yourself (which they pull from your head), but you're always supposed to have some sort of response to it. The Psychoruins are the same, but they're trying to invoke fear instead of self-doubt, and they're also much weaker and shittier than the Nightmare Heir. This isn't to say you should just ignore them and courteously let them do their thing while walking past, like this is some IRL haunted house and you're letting the actors do their job. They will not only obstruct your important tasks, but try to psychologically harm you by looking like your dead friends or the bugs you're really afraid of or the guardian you raised you from birth and who you killed by playing this game and you barely remember what they look like anymore. While the Nightmare Heir is complicated, and there's no one-size-fits-all method, it might be better to just get really angry. Like act indignant when a Nightmare shows up and scream "HOW DARE YOU WEAR THEIR FACE" like you're some anime character and then you shoot them and try to complete all the puzzles.

I imagine the Denizen is trying to do some secret growth bullshit, like you haven't conquered your fears and there's some critical development you haven't undergone, and it's sending you to the Psychoruins both so you can get the thingy and so you can undergo the Deep Revelations. In that case you might still want to do the "get angry and shoot" strat at least until you feel like shit is getting real, maybe around the 1/2 to 3/4 mark.

This is the "rainy day for when the worst possible outcome happens" advice, but if you feel the need to pull back, surrender, or otherwise give up on this journey, don't. You can't die in there, unless you get so stressed you have a heart attack, which is rather unlikely (alchemize medicine if you think otherwise). Suicide is disabled by the game (or at least I hope so, the Exiles handle that but communication is supposed to be blocked). The worst outcome I can see the Psychoruins having is longterm trauma. You have people's lives riding on your success. Learning to live with trauma is an inevitable part of the game. If you haven't learned how to do it before, you'll do it now. The advice I keep jamming into your head is that you have to succeed and survive. Let that be your polestar no matter what.

But also I've heard the Psychoruins are supposed to be B-movie horror scary, so maybe it won't actually be that bad and someone's fucking with you. All this advice assumes that you got a version of the Psychoruins (or suspect you will get a version of) that is actually terrifying and traumatizes people with how 3spooky5me it is. If you don't, then take the advice anyway, laugh when it turns out to be not that spooky at all and you over-prepared, and continue shooting things. Then tell your coplayers that it actually was very scary and you were a badass for doing it, and revel in their applause.

#sburb #replay value au #psychoruins

[laurarolla]

Tomb Raider playlist is ready! Well, I still have to upload a few videos for the last stage and one of the Atlantis videos is saying that it's still processing. I'll upload a replacement if I need to.

So my overall experience with Tomb Raider is that it is a frustrating game that mostly satisfies when you succeed at solving a puzzle or completing a jumping gauntlet that was giving you trouble. Playing through the game while limiting my saves for the achievement, however, really puts how demanding some parts of this game can be. Combat, for instance, was never really a fun experience, largely due to my more methodical way of moving and jumping in most situations. More than a few deaths were caused by hopping the wrong direction during combat, taking extreme amounts of damage very quickly with little chance to recover, and ending up out of rhythm with the enemy movement or attacks when I did try to dodge and roll like I'm clearly supposed to. Thankfully there are a LOT of healing items, and tanking damage while unloading everything into an enemy was completely viable for many of the harder fights in the game. Didn't feel good to win so many fights like that, though.

The jumping puzzles were largely satisfying, pushing you to get a feel for how the grid based level design and tank movement work, then asking you to color a bit outside the lines with your platforming skills to skip sections of a stage or find secret stashes of ammo and health. I tried to play the game as unspoiled as possible (it's been out for over 25 years so I did know a few of the more notable moments), and I had to look up where to go maybe a half dozen times, which isn't bad at all. Heck, if I were more thorough in my movement and searching around, I might have avoided at least a few of those situations. The remaster graphics created some problems and helped solve others, but overall the game looks quite nice.

My last point of frustration that I have to comment on has to do with controls. Now, either control style is fine to play with, as there are work arounds for issues players sometimes have with the modern controls, and indeed the instant directional changes of modern controls actually made it possible for me to solve a couple of the game's puzzles that were giving me a lot of trouble. My bigger issue is more personal, namely that I own an Xbox 360 controller for my computer and that thing has a garbage D-pad. I fell to my death multiple times because I would push the direction to turn and Lara would instead dash straight forward off a cliff. My advice is get a better PC controller than an Xbox 360 one, or at least something with a good D-pad, because tank controls with an analog stick are just too touchy IMO.

As an aside, this playthrough was done with 85 saves, getting the achievement for finishing with 86 saves or less. If you aren't interested in that achievement, I highly recommend you save as often as you like, even if you save after nearly every big jumping puzzle or fight. It will save you so much time and energy.

#backlog resolution #tomb raider #tomb raider remastered #video games #gaming #playlist #review

[morningstar-warriors]

Clan Reputation

Your actions reflect on your clan, certain things you do and say can sway the way different clans feel about your own. This can lead to border disputes, allyship, or war. The world of warriors is fickle, those who stood beside you before may change their minds if you make one misstep. Life is harsh, even sometimes your own clan is ruled by these fickle laws. When cats are desperate, they’re no longer rational. 

Clan Reputation is best used in games where the players are all in the same clan. This is a tool to make it easier for a Narrator to organize the inner workings of each clan and how they affect the players. In cases where players are from separate clans, it's okay to still use Clan Reputation as a way to record clan interaction and wars, but the personalities aren't suggested as players actions in role-play should not be heavily dictated. 

If you wish to use the different Clan personalities for players in different clans, speak with them first to see what may fit and what they’re comfortable with. 

Different Types of Clan Personalities

These dictate a cat's morals, goals, and personality outside your own clan. This helps the Narrator decide how each clan feels, while also deciding how conflicts begin between them. The personalities below are suggested, but feel free to create your own!

Traditionalists

These cats are unfriendly to outsiders or those of mixed blood. They maintain original strict traditions, and frown upon those who make exceptions.

Snobs, Guarded, and Regal.

How to play: Hold your head high, and make eye contact. Keep your words crisp and measured. Pay attention to the Warrior Code, and have a good understanding of the Traditionalist Clan’s Customs. Their way is superior!

If you have a traditionalist clan, strike two bubbles under your own clan’s reputation sheet. 

War-Torn

Cats that are quick to pick a fight, or find any excuse to start one. Supremely hostile and stubborn. 

Irrational, Angry, and Witty.

How to play: Glare at the players, imagine a cat with its ears pinned back and its tail lashing. You are practically bristling before a word has been spoken. Find a way to make anything into an argument. These cats are stubborn, and never want to be caught as in the wrong. They are very hard to reason with. 

If you have a clan that is war-torn, have them be at war with another clan. 

Peacekeepers

Clans that seek to unite the clans and avoid combat. They tend to be perceived as weak but favorable allies. If they believe your clan is making choices that are too violent or dangerous, then they see you as a threat. 

Calm, Judgmental, and Hippocrates.

How to play: Speak gently, and talk much of wisdom and safety. Keep your movements soft and lofty. Much like traditionalists, you should be aware of the Clan Code– but also every clan’s customs. You’d never be caught being rude, you are morally superior compared to everyone else. 

If you have a peacekeeper clan, mark them as an ally with your clan.

Disaster Prone

These cats can't ever catch a break, something is always wrong. The camp is flooding, foxes attacked, prey is short. This makes the clan weak and needy, but desperation can make them dangerous. They are quick to choose any side that favors them. 

Groveling, Creative, and Desperate.

How to Play: You are meek, shrivel into yourself and seem small. You should be so pitiful, it's disgusting. These cats have gone through the worst, they practically tremble with each word. You are at the mercy of anyone you speak to. 

This clan has a poor reputation, put 1 mark against them for every clan.

The Cult

These cats follow their Stoneteller more closely than their leader, holding onto every word like its treasure. Cult clans are supremely religious, trusting in their faith more than their reality. They can be easily manipulated as long as your words praise Star Clan. 

Paranoid, Orate, and Intense.

How to Play: You know what's best, and that's listening to your spiritual leader. Be very familiar with the Religious stories your Stoneteller tells you. They don’t have to be accurate, they can be skewed to certain ideals. Become suspicious of anyone who questions them, and always find a way to praise Star Clan. 

If you have a Cult clan, mark their reputation as poor with the Traditionalist clan, or ally them with the Disaster Prone clan. 

Reputation Tracking Cards:

War and Diplomacy:

Perhaps you have reached three marks with another clan, from there you may decide to go to war, or you may engage in diplomacy.

In order to fix your reputation with the other clans, diplomacy is the best course of action. This means speaking with the other clan and their leader, striking a deal, or finding a common enemy.

When fighting another clan, despite whomever wins the battle, your reputation with that clan will be reset. Once the bloodshed is all said and over, the enemy clan may be satisfied, or feel too powerless to engage with you for another moon.

#prototypes #warrior cats adventure game #warrior cats #warriors rp #warrior cats art

[liz-trix]

Consequences

Something I was really excited for when it came to BATDRs' release was something that was... entirely missing from the final product. That same 'something' that was heavily advertised early on. "It" being: Consequences. Choices. Having your actions matter.

The concept of your actions being important was something that was originally toyed with back in BATIM, the first game. There was going to be an Angel and a Demon Path.

This "path" system seems to have been abandoned, with only some small/minor remnants existing that hints to it existing in the first place, namely the Alice Angel/Bendy Room in chapter 3.

The concept of choices seems like something they had planned to finally reintroduce in BATDR, as seen in their original showcase trailer. In fact... "Don't be afraid. Don't let the darkness take you. You may walk with Angels, or Cower before demons... but one thing always remains: The choices you make." Was the opening sentence! (This trailer seems to be deleted now but there are still some channels housing reposted ones.)

The concept of choices being entirely missing in BATDR bums me out. I thought the "Banish" ability was going to play a huge role in it, but alas, it changes nothing. I feel like literally vaporizing Ex-Employees out of thin air wouldn't be the nicest way to go about solving your issues.

...And I've been thinking about it a lot.

Obviously it's too late to wedge this into BATDR but maybe this could work for another game or project of mine sometime, who knows. Anyways here's the concept:

Bring back the concept of choice, but instead of tying it to set determined paths, tie it to how the player interacts with the world. Take the Honor/Karma system from Fallout/Red Dead Redemption, both are wonderful examples, but both are also seriously complex examples to reference from. So let's boil it down. Keep in mind this is all designed/concepted for a much more open game compared to current BATDR. A lot of what I get into can be applied to BATDR but it can't exist in its full capacity/potential.

I drew up these quick mock-up "Honor Badges" of Audrey. This bar would showcase to the player what sort of path they're going on. These paths would affect how the world views you, since it is how you view the world that is taking you along these paths in the first place, isn't it? You start here. In the middle.

People love you! Or they have the potential to, at least! You're an outsider to this world, no one knows whether they should trust or fear you, it's up to you to make that decision.

The path of the Angel: So the idea is pretty simple, the more good deeds you do in this world the more you lean towards an Angelic role. Here's some potential examples.

Sparing enemies in Combat.

Choosing not to use Banish.

Staying out of Inky Domains for too long.

Actively avoiding helping "Demon Followers".

Tarnishing Bendy Merchandise.[?]

Assisting characters in side quests. [Akin to Betty/Big Steve.]

You get the idea. Do good things, be seen as an Angel.

The path of the Demon: Now of course... there's always the option to refuse to behave. Or maybe you really do just prefer the way the Demon runs the studio, that's where the Demon Path comes in.

Pretty much the opposite applies here:

Over abusing the Banish ability.

Needlessly/endlessly killing Lost Ones outside of self defense.

Striking down those who choose to walk with Angels.

Spending too much time wading in the Dark Puddles/Ink. (looking at you, Sammy.)

Tarnishing Alice Merchandise.

Sabotaging safe zones.

And now, for the consequences of your established actions! There's a LOT of potential here so I'm only going to quickly dive into a few examples but ultimately the world should react to how you're choosing to play the game. And of course, each path would have its own benefits...

For example, many NPCs in the game should be allied to a specific faction, and many should be neutral! Sammy is a perfect example of a Demon allied character. Boris is a fine example of a neutral character, etc.

Falling in low honor would prevent you from interreacting with those who oppose the Ink Demon, and vice versa. Gameplay wise this could lock you out of specific character quests, or even areas entirely. I highly doubt a safe heaven run by Lost Ones following the path of the Angel would appreciate a Demon Follower dragging their inky shoes into their pristine establishments...

A fairly important over arching idea would be having your honor affect the outcomes of the ending of the game. Something hinted at back in BATIM with these gorgeous, but sadly now unused portraits.

Oh, some last dev notes!

-Some notable inspirations/examples to look at are Epic Mickey, Fallout, and Red Dead Redemption.

-A lot of these ideas/concepts are sorta just for fun, but I'd love to introduce them in a game at some point. I've studied too long to not put this to use. -Whether you choose to view the Angel route as the "good" route and the Demon route as the "bad" route should be up to the player. -Ideally this system wouldn't be linear, it'd be flexible. If a system like what I propose were to exist I'd rather give players the opportunity to have repeatable actions to dynamically change their alignment as they progress throughout the game. Locking players into a set path isn't something that's impossible to do without seeming unfair but its not something I'm personally interested in.

-Wow I really like those old choices also I love games that let me be an evil gremlin I would've loved to fuck up stuff and join Bendy to fuck up even more stuff teehee >:}

-This post is large. :{

-Did you notice the horns/halo I gave Audrey? ;}

#gamedev #conceptdesign #batdr #batim #bendy and the dark revival #bendy

[semi-imaginary-place]

fe3h maddening thoughts and advice

As a Maddening player I think Hard is better balanced, it is the difficulty the game was designed for. In Maddening the disparity between different builds grow so that only a few builds are optimal (which is why I like played suboptimal builds) where as in Hard there's a variety of builds that are similarly good.

Some general tips are that many units will be too weak to 1 round enemies on their own so you will need to gang up on them. First strike from out of range then finish them so they can't counter attack, taking down the enemy without taking damage. In general on maddening just don't get hit aka avoid engagements that will result in your units taking damage, so movement and positioning is key. A common strategy is to bait out enemies 1 or 2 at a time with a dodgetank. Defense tanks dont do as well between the high might and poisonstrike on maddening, they are still useful and can take a hit just not as as invincible as on hard.

In terms of builds think about how abilities work together. Might is the most important thing in maddening as enemy stats are high and you need to break through that so thinks like relics and combat arts become even more important. Might is the reason we joke that maddening is just hunter's volley and wyvern lords because those are 2 of the most useful classes for their might, I advise you to choose builds that are the most fun for you, you don't need optimal to beat maddening. Battations are critical as they can boost might by like 8 or hit by 30 or avoid by 20, absolute game changers and the keystones to builds. Swords and sword classes aren't as good for the same reason, they're just too low might so one some characters you'll do 0 damage. Not saying don't use them but be aware.

I think there's a difference between a good build and a fun one. A good build is confined by notions of efficiency and cost benefit analysis like in investing in this unit what are you sacrificing for other units, while with fun ideas you can just take an idea and run with it even if bad. I talk a lot about optimized gameplay but sometimes optimized isn't fun and you should do what you want and what is fun ultimately. You can totally play maddening with non-optimal units, it's the only way I play these days.

Every unit is viable in any class in maddening, its just a matter of how hard you want things to be for yourself. There's a lot more that is feasible in maddening than most people think. I've done mage Dimitri, he is not the worst mage in the game. Worst might be Petra, 0x0 is still 0 and then she dies in 1 attack (good ol maddening). Dimitri's got enough stats to be not useless I'd be more worried about mage Dedue, who I've also run on maddening and who is very bad. As someone who plays every unit in every class on maddening I can say that every unit is viable in every class, like it is possible to beat maddening with any class combination but uh some will make your life much harder and it sound like you are going down one of the more medium difficulty paths. In the end, do what you want and what sound fun.

That's what I love about fe3h is what while the game give some guidelines to help you out when starting to make builds, ultimately you can make anyone almost anything. I love how sandbox-y this game is, great replay value. For my first 3 routes i did no recruits and didn't use the free recruits, for SS I used only Church units, and for these first 3.5 playthroughs I stayed with more or less the unit's intended class progressions. After that I started recruiting and support collecting and for class choice I started playing around with how that would in narrative have affected the character. And this is why I prefer 3H! Where else am I going to get the mage in the heavy armor and axe class and wielding a bow. Note to anyone wondering if this is a good build, it's not but that's what makes it fun.

#fe3h

[ssreeder]

SREEDIE MY GORGEOUS EX-WUSBAND

(this one is possibly my longest comment ever so uhh good luck)

no fr I saw the update I was like fucking FINALLY I’m getting some good enrichment in my enclosure how do you always have perfect timing???

and just like.. 30k?? IS IT MY BIRTHDAY ALREADY WTF you’re honestly insane ilysm

fuck you I don’t love you “zuko didn’t return that night” looking ass >:(

okay ik this is a sad emotional scene but the spirits not giving a fuck about sokka is like so ironic lmao bc in the show they never leave him alone even tho he tries to avoid them at all costs T-T

bruh not sokka thinking hakoda is annoying for breathing- he’s finally experiencing a normal teenager experience :’)

oh nooooo sokka if you tell hakoda you’re in love with zuko and hakoda reacts badly fuuuuuuck

YES SOKKA SOB OUT THE SADNESS EXPERIENCE SOME CATHARSIS BESTIE WOOOO

hakoda said toxic masculinity get rekt that’s so girlboss of him

THANK YOU BATO FOR BEARING THE BRUNT IF HAKODAS ACCIDENTAL HOMOPHOBIA SO SOKKA DOESNT HAVE TO SUFFER ANY MORE THAN HE ALREADY HAS YOURE DOING THE LORDS WORK TRULY

idk how you intended this to be read but I’m picturing hakoda saying “no.. not the watch tower” like this:

but also not hakoda doing reconnaissance on zukka-

yes sokka when it’s a question of how information gets spread the answer is always fucking reho (and I love him for that how else is anyone supposed to get anything done with everyone else being too emotionally constipated to talk to each other)

I cannot express to you how fucking frustrated I am by the communication being compromised bc of the fucking dai li bc ykw??? it’s such an incredible plot point by you since it is 100% in character for the dai li to interrupt messages bUT I HATE IT SO MUCH I’m literally going to have the time of my life when Somebody finally gets a clue about what’s going on

lmao katara something really did happen after you left but lucky for you it was a good thing!! and a bad thing bc everything always goes to shit but oh wellllll

katara you moron why did you tell them you’re leaving T-T

uh yeah no I can promise you jet is anything BUT bored jet is scheming jet is raging jet is challenging firebenders to duals he can’t win JET IS MAKING FRIENDS (well one friend and he doesn’t want to admit they’re friends but reho still counts)

oh fuck. jet you’ve really done it now.

BUT ALSO I FUCKING CALLED IT I KNEW ZUKO WOULD LEAVE JUST IN TIME IM SCREAMING THE STARS ARE ALIGNING THE PLOT US UNFOLDING THE DAI LIS PLANS ARE RUINED

oh hakoda I love how smart you are we really need a good tactician and here you are saving the day <3

also quon is a fuckinf asshole I hope he gets decked at some point xx (but it’s kinda a slay too that he just has so much audacity like it’s honestly lowkey impressive ngl)

yes bato act dumb and pretty we fully support lying and trickery in this household

also I’m placing my bets on zuko returning at the most inconvenient time in the most dramatic way possible fyi (and I’m going to eat it up bc I live for dramatic zuko)

uh yeah jet bby you’re definitely ashamed of what you did hate to break it to you HOWEVER I really do get why jet did do what he did bc he’s traumatised and also a teenager and so he was never going to think maturely and rationally (which like yes obvi that means he caused the problem BUT ALSO it’s not his fault he’s problematic) I just really need him to get some therapy dude

OKAY can I just say I love you showing toph as being affectionate outside of playful physical aggression?? it’s been ages since I’ve read a fic where toph has shown some form of affection that hasn’t been a punch in the arm! and I feel like that’s so important bc in the show most of the female characters are insanely talented in the art of combat and so often they then get reduce to Just being aggressive (like toph) or being overly emotional (like katara which is super ironic considering the ember island players tragic performance and how that was supposed to actively argue against katara being so one dimensional) WHEN REALLY they ARE BOTH tough and have feelings bc they’re literally human beings

yeah I have many opinions oops

I FEEL SO VINDICATED I LOVE YOU KATARA AND YOUR BIG SMART BRAIN she’s such a good actor my heart is squeezing in satisfaction oh lordy

shit. appa. fuck. goddamnit. REALLY?

omg this is so not gonna happen but imagine if zuko turned up in ba sing se and then all communication Issues are solved and he can help find appa like in the show :D

well not all communication issues but a fuck ton of them

YES RASU he’s such an icon I actually love him with my whole entire heart my flirty baby boy

lmao zuko had a crush on rasu

same.

shit. idk why but it’s so jarring to have be explicitly said that zukos death (even tho it’s fake news) is a casualty of war. like OBVIOUSLY but to have it put so bluntly is like damn. it’s like as a casualty of war, it matters fuck all that he was a prince or why he was hunting the avatar and everything that made (makes) him integral to the war effort bc in reality he really just is another kid who died in the war. and then THAT just makes you think, yeah he’s not all that special because the horrific reality is that so many people were casualties of the war and while they’re anonymous numbers on a large scale, in life they Mattered and now it’s all for naught. jesus crispy sreedie you’ve really got me grieving

FUCK YEHA QUON IS SUCH AN ASSHOLE HES DISMISSING JETS INTEL ALL BY HIMSELF THIS IS A WIN TEAM

sokkaaaa now is not the time to be bad at readying facial cues T-T

aang has so much more emotional maturity than people give him credit for fr. like there’s no way in hell I would’ve been able to regulate my emotions half as well as aang when I was 12 even WITHOUT factoring in the genocide of his nation

holy shit reho DESERVES SO MUCH FUCKING LOVE I WILL PERSONALLY FIGHT EVERYONE WHO DARES TO INSULT HIM AFTER THIS

also he’s so fucking wise “evil people don’t only belong to one nation, they are everywhere” LIKE PREACH they really fucking are war provides a platform for the worst people to shine

real talk if shen dies I’m gonna be devastated

ohoho nice like fic name drop right here

omg not zuko popping up at the MOST convenient time in the least dramatic way possible??? shocked but also not surprised bc it’s making perfect sense narrative wise

wheezing at zuko being consistently unpredictable bc ykw the only reason nobody can figure out what he’s planning is bc my boy simply does not have one!! ever!! and it’s legend behaviour actually I think it might be the reason he’s my fav character

okay okay okay at least sokka and zuko have bato with them for child wrangling purposes bc they need an adult. but oh no hakoda is aloooone

zuko you dumbass motherfucker did you just SURRENDER YOURSELF

ykw I take back what I said about him never having a plan being my fav thing about him I have come to my senses and have reconsidered.

ZUKKA KISS??? it’s tragic.

it’s so fucked up that ara and sokka are gonna become friends again bc their bfs got taken hostage but I’m here for it

HOLY FUCK SHIT YEAH SUKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

MAI AND TY-LEE OMG MY GIRLS ALL MY GIRLS ARE COMING ITS HAPPENING ITS NOT A DRILL OMG SREEDIE YOU DONT UNDERSTAND IM GOING FERAL

A Z U L A

okay so obviously appa is under lake lagoli right

and yes I’m very relieved that shen and zuko are together at least BC NOW WE CAN GET SOME MORE QUALITY BANTER AND THATS ENOUGH COMPENSATION FOR THE TRAUMA RIGHT

RIGHT??

reunion soon :3

anyways why did I think this would actually end okay with zukka and bato off frolicking to ba sing se?? how am I that delusional?? it’s like I don’t know you

I HOPE YOU TAKE A REFRESHING NAP AND RECOVER FROM THIS DOOZY OF A FINALE BUT ALSO I AM WAITING IN ANXIOUS ANTICIPATION FOR THE NEXT BOOK ITS GOING TO BE THE LONGEST AND MOST HORRIFIC JOURNEY TO A ZUKKA REUNION EVER AND I CANNOT WAIT also bc you don’t write zuko pov that means we’re gonna get a lot more shen pov?? which I think will be really fun so that’s exciting too

LOVE YOU TO BITS AND PIECES

leekie <3

OH MY GOSH, if you keep flirting with me we might just have to tear up our divorce papers and move in together.

Hahah Hakoda’s reaction to the watchtower is exactly how I envisioned it. Sarcastic & pretend shock lol.

Katara’s honesty is finally catching up with her, getting her in trouble with the Dai Li that is. But she is a strong girl and she can hold her own, I know she’ll be ok!

Ok I love that you brought up toph because sometimes I feel like fics make her out to be a lie detecting, punching, sarcastic person and just leave it at that. But she is so much more than that, all the female characters are! I hope I can do them justice.

Zuko does have a plan!!! “Don’t let Sokka get hurt” - that’s it, that’s the plan. Haha.

I hope Shen doesn’t die… but also, I can’t make any promises.

SUKI IS ON THE WAY TO HELP SOKKA!!! & azula is on the way to bomb him lol.

Im sure it’ll be fine, I love you! You’re amazing. But I also hate you because we are divorced and GRRRRRRR, but secretly we’re still hooking up and it pretty obvious but shhhh don’t tell anyone. ;)

:D

#I’m sorry I didn’t respond to every point #but I picked my favorites #Shen is a dick #but we do get more of him in the next series #super excited to get that part going #I mean I have #but we are SO CLOSE to the reunions #it’s scary haha #I love you leekie #I’m happy you liked the last part #& ahhhhh your brain is so beautiful #I wanna pop open your skull and kiss your brain #keep being you #even if we aren’t married anymore #we are still in love #we both know it #MWAH MWAH MWAHHHHH #don’t be a stranger #come back soon #*waits patiently* #leekie tag #leekie my ex wife #or… ex…. husband? #I’m not sure our gender roles #liab #ria #ask

[tf2workbench]

Sentry of the Dead

Last September, I discussed a sentry that fed on blood, getting stronger with each kill it scored. Now, I want to talk about a different but related idea: sentries that spring up from the bodies of your dead enemies like rhythmically beeping mushrooms. How macabre!

Zombie Sentry Wrench Iteration 1 Engineer melee (+) On kill or assist-kill by wearer or building: Builld a Mini-Sentry at or near the dead enemy’s location. You can have a maximum of two sentries at once. [New sentries will not be spawned once two are already placed.] (-) Cannot manually place or repair Mini-Sentries

This is one of those ideas that might require extensive bug fixes if implemented, since there are plenty of odd places that a sentry could spawn if a player is killed, say, midair. But let’s not worry too much about that, because it’s not our problem (yet).

Anyway, proliferation is the name of the game here. You’ll want to prey on unsuspecting targets to set up a few sentries, then rely on their damage output to create new ones. But if both of your sentries are taken out (not hard to do, given that it’s just a grenade each) you’ll be forced to rely on your shotgun, which isn’t a bad weapon, but is sometimes tricky to score kills with.

One problem here is that mini-sentries affect different classes different. Two mini-sentries could be terribly oppressive for some classes, like Scouts, but pretty trivial for others, like Demomen. This means that player experience can vary a lot, sometimes incapacitating the enemy, sometimes (probably more often) making it feel like the user can’t do very much. Note that this does not take away from the effectiveness of your Dispenser or Teleporter, which are both very important assets, but not having an effective sentry defense can certainly be troubling to both you and your team.

However, we should also look at the positive experiences you can get with this weapon. One thing I purposefully left in was the ability to move your sentries once they’ve built themselves. This ensures you have a little bit more control over how you play, letting you move a sentry from a poor placement to a more effective one. (It’s very rude of the enemy to die in places that aren’t conducive to sentry encampments, but sometimes they’ll do it anyway.)

Additionally, in an ideal scenario, you’ll have a lot of positive feedback as your little minions multiply, sustaining an effective mini-sentry defense backed up by your shotgun. I can’t say for sure how common this would be, but I know it’s the ideal situation for an Engineer using this weapon. This can be accomplished through good personal combat skill and effective sentry placement, as well as strong team coordination to avoid losing both your sentries at once.

One way we could tweak this weapon is by having you build the first mini-sentry, but then let the other one build itself after a kill. This gives you a little more control starting out, but also makes you stronger right off the bat - which, as we’ve discussed, can pose problems for the opposing team.

There was a time when mini-sentries were viewed as the worst thing ever, and a lot of people still don’t like fighting them. Having two can be very difficult for enemies to deal with, but at the same time, they can also be cleaned up quite neatly if your opponents have the right weapons. It’s a tricky thing to balance, and I can’t be sure I’ve done it right; but if I have, this would be a really interesting way to play. How do you feel about it? I’d be interested to see if mini-sentries are dangerous or just nuisances to you.

#tf2workbench #tf2 #team fortress 2 #engineer #melee

[animentality]

rey + hayward + cisco + the 7 exes - how do they play dark and darker, the other best game ever created

Hee hee.

Referenced book here.

Rey- he would play a wizard, every time, all the time. Would love spamming all his spells within three minutes of the game starting, on enemies, NPCs, and his friends. He pretty much never survives, because he's having too good of a time fighting every monster and jumping on players and getting third partied. But he's a good sport. Also, he's dumb enough that he sometimes goes through the red portals even when he has good loot and has the opportunity to just leave. Big Dummy.

Hayward- he's taking the first blue portal out first, every time. He actively doesn't tell his friends and doesn't even give them the option of maybe stealing it from him. He sometimes wanders off on his own, looking for his own way out. He'd main a barbarian, because it's the most OP right now and he will always play the most OP character. That being said, if they ever buff rogue, he will absolutely play Rogue and just stab bitches in corners. Like a cunt. Cunty gameplay.

Cisco- He'd play a cleric so he could just protect his friends and force them to do all the work for him. He basically hangs back until he thinks enemies are weak enough for him to kill. If you die first, he'll die trying to get your stuff, though. And either take it for himself when he escapes, or revive you. He's kind of a rat, though, might do good as rogue just for the escape potential. If Rogue ever gets buffed, anyway.

Anaheim- Barbarian main. Absolutely. If he played games, anyway, he'd be the guy who's always on your ass the second you win a crazy fight. He'd also camp the fucking portals like a little bitch.

Mesa- Ranger main, obviously. Likes to put traps outside of doors, and watch doors. Hates close combat fighting. Utilitarian too. She'll leave through blue portals, but if she happens to see more than one, she'll direct you over there before she goes. She only uses the fast arrow ability. She only aims for headshots.

Visalia- Fighter main. Loves the shield and sword combo. Loves stabbing bitches and engaging. Would rather fight players than boring bosses. Hates skeletons and engaging mini bosses. Wish Dark and Darker had Tiers.

Alameda- Mix between a Ranger and a Wizard main? Loves the long range stuff. Kind of oscillates between helping his teammates and being aggressive. He's relentless though, never lets anyone escape him. Likes to kill and be killed more than to play safe and survive. Will always try and save his friends rather than just abandon them because it's easier.

Fontana- Fighter/ Barbarian main. He loves being mega aggro. Avoids skeletons and flying skulls and corpses so he can get at random people. He plays so far away from his team, he might as well play solo. But he sometimes plays with randoms so he has meat shields.

Irvine- Plays all the roles equally. Would like to play what they think the team needs, whether that's a shield, a healer, a slow heavy hitter, or a magic user. They'd avoid Rogue, though, since Rogue is pretty useless and not great for team play. They would let you have blue portal every time. I also wanna say, they'd be good enough to handle the red portals too? They're quick at adapting to new games, and would be interested in the challenge.

Sol- Well....he would be a cleric, for the self healing. He would play pretty alone, though, mostly self healing himself. The only person he'd ever look out for is bumbling little Rey, running around the dungeon like a little fool. But he'd have a good time, as a babysitter.

Thanks for the ask!!!!

#writing #writers on tumblr #7 deadly habits #fantasy #dark and darker

[sasquapossum]

I think I’ve figured out why I can’t get into Elden Ring: it’s too linear. “But wait,” I hear the cries, “it’s an open world!” No, not really. The open areas are practically empty. There are a few random unscripted encounters, but they have almost no effect on game progression. I said practically empty and I meant it. To progress through the game, you have to go through dungeons and castles and other encounter areas, which are highly linear and scripted. There’s often literally only one way through, and it’s not even hidden. That means you have to fight the same monsters in the same places, often in the same order. Even if you do manage to skip one, you’ll often find that you can’t complete your quest and/or the chest at the end won’t open for you until you go back and kill them (in boring direct confrontation) anyway. With twenty enemies between you and your goal/savepoint, it feels like a boss fight even if there’s no boss ... and I hate boss fights.

Why do I hate boss fights? Well, we all know by now that ��git gud” is the mantra of Dark Souls and Elden Ring players, but what does “good” really mean? Here’s the game-play loop of those games.

Figure out a particular enemy’s attack sequences and weak points, either by dying repeatedly or (far more often AFAICT) looking them up on wiki/YouTube.

Practice moves and timings over and over again until you can execute them twenty to fifty times in a row flawlessly.

Kill the boss, collect the reward.

Throw away 90% of what you’ve just “learned” because it will be of absolutely no use for any other boss ever.

Go back to step 1 for the next encounter.

Note what’s missing: any shred of anything but rote finger-twitch action. This is only the “good” of a pro-wrestling bout or dance routine, not actual combat or exploration. It’s Dance Dance Revolution without the aerobic benefit. (Note: there’s nothing wrong with any of these things, but it’s not the kind of “good” that players want you to think it is.) The world is open but the game-play loop is closed. Contrast this e.g. with the Dishonored series, though others such as Hitman or Deus Ex are broadly similar.

Even though the worlds aren’t as nominally open, within any one segment there’s a wealth of ways to get through.

Spatially, you can usually go over rooftops, through tunnels, in the water, around the side through a building with a whole different set of challenges - different hostile NPCs, traps, blood-fly nests, etc. You can usually go at guards head-on if you want, but it’s rarely the best and never the most interesting option.

In terms of game play, you have to learn stealth and confrontation, melee and ranged attacks (fluidly - without needing completely separate builds or stances), disguise or impersonation, and of course the strategic sense to put them all together.

You can usually avoid some enemies without penalty (sometimes a bonus), and even for those you do face you can choose practically any order.

If you do prefer combat - yes, you can do that even though the games aren’t designed around it - you have to learn to improvise. You can get through a novel situation the first time using skills that aren’t specific to one encounter, if you’re actually good.

This is a much richer style of play, requiring a much broader skillset. Even other open-world games with less focus on stealth and deception, like Skyrim or Horizon: Zero Dawn, have more of this depth. You have to “git rly gud” to succeed at any of these.

Elden Ring’s focus on linearity, repetition, and massive stat advantages for almost every enemy just shows a complete lack of creativity on the part of its designers. The world is beautiful, the lore is interesting, and clearly many people do enjoy the gameplay, but it just fails to exercise the parts of my brain that I want games to exercise. There’s plenty of mindless repetition in real life; it’s not what I want in my entertainment.

#elden ring #dishonored #rant #long post

[mejomonster]

Ive been playing the new Alone in the Dark game. 8n progress rn

Thoughts so far:

It's scary in that the atmosphere is on edge, the music and sound works well. It is combat and puzzle, and I's say its a bit more puzzle which i appreciate because for me too much combat in a horror results in either 1. You have to get Less scared in order to handle the constant combat calmly or 2. Youre SO scared and frequently On Edge it can get exhausting to play for too long. (At least when i play horror combat). Theres decently long stretches where you only look for clues to solve puzzles, or only run into 1 monster in 10 minutes, or where you can run into 0 monsters or 5 in 10 minutes depending on if you Sneak or run around recklessly. For me, this allows for some calm down time as a player and keeps up the background tension of fear as you arent sure When a monster will appear and it wont be for a while but it WILL happen so you have to decide when to sneak and check if youre headed towards a monster. I like that it creates this low level tension as you arent sure WHEN youll be scared so you're always a bit on edge, and so the scary bits continue to be High Level tension as they are encountered. It makes it both a lower stress horror game (compared to say The Evil Within thats more frequently scaring you with Big Things) but also still has enough scary to Be Scary (compared to say a slower buildup horror like Until Dawn where only the 2nd half is really a lot of scares). Like... it feels like Fatal Frame but easier to fight monsters when theyre encountered (because im playing on easy). It also feels a bit like Alan Wake, but Alan Wake has SO much combat that i stopped feeling scared, just annoyed when fights of many enemies was difficult. Anyway. Gameplay wise, id say the new Alone in the Dark is good if you: like feeling the tension/anticipation of playing horror games, but would also like the option to have a more calm gameplay experience. The combat has enough time for preparation that you could calmly think out a way to sneak around enemies or kill them, but also charge in for a quick paced risky fight if you want the thrill, with looming low level tension of a nice slightly scary feel in the calmer parts. If you like Tomb Raider type puzzles, it also has a decent chunk of the game dping those, which i personally find relaxing and fun. And thw game lets you avoid enough of the enemies that you really can mostly just relax and do the puzzles at your pace if like me you enjoy doing that part. I also like the difficulty modes: you can have the game give you puzzle hints or NO hints, give less or more information, make combat and enemies harder or easier.

Mixed on the story so far, but i do LIKE that: its not a middle aged married/divorced main guy looking for his wife/love. (Pet peeve of mine how Many horror stories boil down to that). I like that the house is not a typical haunted house, its kind of a mental hospital getaway, its set near New Orleans so theres a lot of sunny visuals and green visuals and location specific writing which make the game feel distinctly different from a generic haunted house story, the setting in the 1930s also makes it feel like playing a historical game (like Red Dead Redemption or Ghost of Tsushima) at times, which is really fun. It feels very fun to be exploring era specific items, historical bits, outfits, places, and the aesthetic again using sunlight and green plants and streetlights for the setting instead of only the usual At-Night Ruined Haunted House horror setting is refreshing and unique feeling. Theres a few parts where it feels like its paying homage to some 1900-1950 set stories, which are cool. The actual story itself im not done with, heard it was written by the Soma writer though and i loved Soma. For now, i can say the writing is offering Somewhat Unique and distinct. It may turn out to be a typical Enough horror plot when im done. But so far its done enough unique things that im really enjoying it. That it really is a Fresh Horror story. You know HOW many horror games are just... haunted old house (pacific northwest or atlantic northeast up north), rich main character (or tourist), lost their wife or partner, on a simple trip (or trapped now). The plot itself is fine even if used a ton, but then not all stories really make that plot uniquely memorable like... why should THIS story's haunting and history be uniquely fascinating? Why should i care about THIS protagonist? Does the setting look unique or like a million other things? (Example: Until Dawn purposely is referencing a lot of horror so its meant to look Like what it references, but it does differentiate itself enough to be memorable: i remember the prank on hannah, 2 dead twin sisters, joshua's therapy sessions, the 1 year anniversary get together, joshuas prank plan, the wendigo, these details make this story feel VASTLY different to say Alan Wake which also starts with people going to a house out in the countryside, or different from Fatal Frame where a sister goes into an old house in the woods looking for her missing brother who was investigating). My point is... setting and setup can be similar sure. But why am i going to Remember this game's story? Whats going to be the unique parts that make me want to play again? So far ive been liking Emily's story in Alone in the Dark, her real and other world levels are memorable, her premise for going there and her own backstory (and dead husband) are an interesting take on a usual premise. So far im guessing ill like it At Least as much as i liked Until Dawn.

#alone in the dark #lb