tykobrian

[tykobrian]

“The bullying will go away if you just handle it with enough grace and kindness” is a disgusting lie that could only ever be perpetuated by someone who has never been bullied before. Anyone who has ever experienced real bullying knows that bullied respond to one thing and one thing only; consequences.

[tykobrian]

Midnight question from the infernal engine

(Mehe got this one to rhythm)

Part four of Midnight questions

Previous | Next (Yes I gave up on linkin all of em with how many I’m makin in this series)

Help banish all da painful nightmares with Fluff! I love that Clive is a thing, and bein the little support bear everyone deserves. You can’t tell me that no one in this camp has some type of nightmare, even the one who don’t sleep. And Karlach bringin support bear to the rescue.

#tykoreblogs #it's not me #it's queue

[tykobrian]

#tykoreblogs #it's not me #it's queue

[tykobrian]

"This fic was ai generated—" Cool, so lemme block you real quick

#tykoreblogs #it's not me #it's queue

[tykobrian]

Fascism sells a synthetic nostalgia.

#tykoreblogs #it's not me #it's queue

[tykobrian]

Baldurs Gate 3 High Quality Screenshot Tutorial 2.0

Hi everyone, I decided I wanted to make a more specific and slightly more in-depth tutorial on how I take screenshots in Baldur's Gate 3. For this tutorial, you will need ReShade and Otis_INF'S Photomode Mod. If you do not want to download these for whatever reason, my older tutorial covers alternative ways to get some nice screenshots.

1. ReShade (skip if you already have ReShade downloaded)

For this step, you're going to want to download ReShade. ReShade is important to this tutorial as it's going to allow you to take screenshots of your game in higher resolutions. To do this, find a ReShade preset you like on the Nexus. (You can find lots of them by just typing in "reshade" in the search bar). From there, most mod authors will explain how to download ReShade in their mod description and get it working for your game.

Once you successfully have Reshade installed, a bar of text will appear at the top of your screen, prompting you to press 'home.' This will put you through a mini-tutorial if just installed it.

2. Photomode Mod

For this mod, you'll need to subscribe to a patreon to get access. Installing it is really simple, just unzip the zip file and put its contents in a folder, then run the tool once you have BG3 running.

Personally, I choose to re-map all the controls to different keys on my keyboard as I find it makes it much, much easier for me to use. Specifically, I re-map the movement, camera tilt, and starting the photomode controls. FOV is also really important to pay attention to, so make sure you like the controls for that as well.

Make sure to test the camera mod to make sure it's working before moving on to the next step.

3. High Resolution Screenshots (Hotsampling)

Hotsampling simply means that we're going to briefly make our game run in a resolution much higher than what we usually would, which often times means your game window will end up looking huge and run off your screen.

To do this, we need to make sure a few things are in place before trying to hotsample, or the screenshot won't be captured properly.

Go through this checklist to ensure hotsampling will work:

• If you have more than one monitor, you have to make sure your monitor is set to show only on one screen. (This setting is found in Displays on Windows)

• Make sure BG3 is set to borderless windowed mode

• In ReShade, go to the settings tab. Ensure you have a key set up for taking screenshots, and that you know the folder your screenshots will be saved to. It's essential to use ReShade to take screenshots, nothing else will work. Use ReShade's screenshot key.

Once you make sure you have the above done, go to the photomode mod, and click on the hotsampling tab. From here, you can change the resolution of your game. Typically, I take my screenshots in 3,840x2,160 or 5,760x3,240 if I want a very clear image. Those are just 2x and 3x my monitor's resolution (1920x1080), so you can adjust if your monitor is different. Once your chosen resolution is set, your BG3 window will likely run way off your screen and potentially make your computer lag. (This means it's working). Make sure your BG3 window is active, then hit the screenshot key you set earlier in ReShade. This screenshot should now appear in the folder that's set for screenshots in ReShade. (It typically defaults to the folder where your game is installed).

4. Extra fine-tuning

There are a couple of ways to enhance screenshots in BG3 even further.

The first way is through using ICGS Depth of field. This tool will allow your sceenshots to minic depth of field the same way cameras IRL can do it it—it makes for some beautiful screenshots, and I'm seriously impressed by how well it replicates that look. The author gives a tutorial on how to get it working—I know it seems complicated, but follow it step-by-step and play around, it'll come to you very soon!

The other tool that I just found recently is Relight for ReShade. This tool allows you to add some lighting on a character, which I thought was so cool. Here's a tutorial for this, too.

5. Post-Processing

This step is entirely up to your own creativity, but I just thought I'd share Photopea as a good, free software (that you don't even need to download) to help you edit your photos. It basically works exactly like photoshop!

Ok that's it for all but I think I will continue to update this post and add to it whenever I find anything helpful :)

& Thank you to all the wonderful mod authors out there for creating all this software and allowing us to take beautiful images, it makes me so happy !!

[tykobrian]

Baldurs Gate 3 High Quality Screenshot Tutorial 2.0

Hi everyone, I decided I wanted to make a more specific and slightly more in-depth tutorial on how I take screenshots in Baldur's Gate 3. For this tutorial, you will need ReShade and Otis_INF'S Photomode Mod. If you do not want to download these for whatever reason, my older tutorial covers alternative ways to get some nice screenshots.

1. ReShade (skip if you already have ReShade downloaded)

For this step, you're going to want to download ReShade. ReShade is important to this tutorial as it's going to allow you to take screenshots of your game in higher resolutions. To do this, find a ReShade preset you like on the Nexus. (You can find lots of them by just typing in "reshade" in the search bar). From there, most mod authors will explain how to download ReShade in their mod description and get it working for your game.

Once you successfully have Reshade installed, a bar of text will appear at the top of your screen, prompting you to press 'home.' This will put you through a mini-tutorial if just installed it.

2. Photomode Mod

For this mod, you'll need to subscribe to a patreon to get access. Installing it is really simple, just unzip the zip file and put its contents in a folder, then run the tool once you have BG3 running.

Personally, I choose to re-map all the controls to different keys on my keyboard as I find it makes it much, much easier for me to use. Specifically, I re-map the movement, camera tilt, and starting the photomode controls. FOV is also really important to pay attention to, so make sure you like the controls for that as well.

Make sure to test the camera mod to make sure it's working before moving on to the next step.

3. High Resolution Screenshots (Hotsampling)

Hotsampling simply means that we're going to briefly make our game run in a resolution much higher than what we usually would, which often times means your game window will end up looking huge and run off your screen.

To do this, we need to make sure a few things are in place before trying to hotsample, or the screenshot won't be captured properly.

Go through this checklist to ensure hotsampling will work:

• If you have more than one monitor, you have to make sure your monitor is set to show only on one screen. (This setting is found in Displays on Windows)

• Make sure BG3 is set to borderless windowed mode

• In ReShade, go to the settings tab. Ensure you have a key set up for taking screenshots, and that you know the folder your screenshots will be saved to. It's essential to use ReShade to take screenshots, nothing else will work. Use ReShade's screenshot key.

Once you make sure you have the above done, go to the photomode mod, and click on the hotsampling tab. From here, you can change the resolution of your game. Typically, I take my screenshots in 3,840x2,160 or 5,760x3,240 if I want a very clear image. Those are just 2x and 3x my monitor's resolution (1920x1080), so you can adjust if your monitor is different. Once your chosen resolution is set, your BG3 window will likely run way off your screen and potentially make your computer lag. (This means it's working). Make sure your BG3 window is active, then hit the screenshot key you set earlier in ReShade. This screenshot should now appear in the folder that's set for screenshots in ReShade. (It typically defaults to the folder where your game is installed).

4. Extra fine-tuning

There are a couple of ways to enhance screenshots in BG3 even further.

The first way is through using ICGS Depth of field. This tool will allow your sceenshots to minic depth of field the same way cameras IRL can do it it—it makes for some beautiful screenshots, and I'm seriously impressed by how well it replicates that look. The author gives a tutorial on how to get it working—I know it seems complicated, but follow it step-by-step and play around, it'll come to you very soon!

The other tool that I just found recently is Relight for ReShade. This tool allows you to add some lighting on a character, which I thought was so cool. Here's a tutorial for this, too.

5. Post-Processing

This step is entirely up to your own creativity, but I just thought I'd share Photopea as a good, free software (that you don't even need to download) to help you edit your photos. It basically works exactly like photoshop!

Ok that's it for all but I think I will continue to update this post and add to it whenever I find anything helpful :)

& Thank you to all the wonderful mod authors out there for creating all this software and allowing us to take beautiful images, it makes me so happy !!

[tykobrian]

In Luna's light the lonely victor stands

And I pray she holds my soul

[tykobrian]

Descent into Avernus and Why You Should Read It.

(Or, like, at least skim!)

Descent into Avernus is the D&D 5E module describing the events that took place just before the timeline of Baldur's Gate 3 picks up — including more information and context for the ordeals undergone by the tiefling refugees.

The module is described as "complimentary [sic.] to the story of Baldur's Gate III", and the studio itself made a point to note that they "worked with Adam Lee, one of the lead writers of Descent Into Avernus, when crafting the story of Baldur's Gate III."¹

The section I would most strongly recommend taking a look at concerns the city and citizens of Baldur's Gate itself, the "Baldur's Gate Gazetteer", spanning from pages 158 to 215.

Included here are things like:

A stat block and bio for Nine-Fingers Keene (although, sadly, nothing on just what she has going on with Jaheira–).

Further information on Dukes Ravengard and Stelmane.

A full map of the city, and subsequent sections giving details of each region.

A section on Ramazith's Tower, and its current master, Lorroakan.

Details on a variety of named and well-described businesses.

Further clarifying information on exactly what is going on with Wyll's new horns.

I'll work on making some individual posts in the coming days delving into these aspects and more, but if you'd rather not wait around for that for all your worldbuilding and storytelling needs, go forth with my blessing, and this handy guide² to an accessible copy:

[Keyword Search Terms: "Descent Into Avernus" + "Anyflip"]

¹ Christian Hoffer. "Dungeons & Dragons Clarifies Relationship Between Descent Into Avernus and Baldur's Gate III". June 2019. comicbook.com.

² I tried to include the link with the original attempt at this post, but the Tumblr tag index did not like that. I hope this alternative suffices.

[tykobrian]

Hey there! I just read your post about how M%stra didn’t smell or taste of literally anything during their times together with Gale and it got me thinking… Had Gale literally never experienced a loving physical touch AT ALL during their relationship that LASTED DECADES??

Hiiiii!! 😘 Thanks for the ask!

(also TW for anyone for Mystra talk ahead bc theres a lot of strong feelings about her for good reason)

So, I thiiiiiink so. Yeah. (Poor Gale). I'm not sure if its ever actually fully confirmed or if I'm mixing up fanon and canon, but I'm actually fairly positive Mystra only 'made love' to Gale in the astral form; the way the gods do - as he puts it when showing you the same.

Theres a couple things, I think, that confirm this. During his romance you can tease that hes 'out of practice' with kissing. Which I guess could be because he'd been in isolation for a year but I took to mean that he literally hasn't kissed anyone in 10 years. Also, generally the line about making love the 'way the gods do' heavily implying that that is just what they do, that is how they make love. That is all he has know the last 10+ years. That is where he is most comfortable right now in terms of 'lovemaking'. I dont know if (after becoming a god) Mystra ever took a 'human' form again.

Theres a couple other notes - like the line when talking to Elminster (her feet are far too delicate - that Gale delivers with such wonderful snark) that imply she general stays in her realm and either sends messengers to do her bidding or brings people into her domain to speak with them directly. (Which again, would mean no, she never got sweaty or messy or kissed sloppy style like we mere mortals like to do). When going to the Stormshore Tabernacle she channels her magic to invite Gale back to her domain - and I think all this leads to the idea of her just generally not wanting to 'lower' herself to the mortal plain and actually preferring to stay in her realm.

He also talks a few times about spending time in her realm, and we know he wasnt there the entire time he was her chosen, so I think he would go be with her and learn from her and then go back to the mortal plains to go about his business.

Lastly, there is a dialogue Gale and Halsin share (Galemancers help me here - I know I read it here but cant for the life of me find it anywhere (and my search history is crazy trying to find it)) - where Halsin asks Gale if Mystra ever took any different shapes when making love - and Gale says no because she preferred far more 'abstract' ways of making love. (Someone please let me know the exact quote because its driving me crazy).

Reading a bit more about Mystra, I dont even know if she would necessarily even consider what they did 'making love' herself. (I know when they talk in Act3 she calls him her 'lover' but that could be her using a term Gale could connect with). Gale mentions her eyes have no feeling after meeting her again and given the general relationship history between Gods and mortals I fully get the impression it was more of a spiritual/astral connection than ever an actual physical one. If anything, I would go as far as to say I dont think they ever 'had sex' in the way mortals would consider it but just connected in the weave (with all the pleasures it would bring, which I'm sure was very very intense for Gale).

Soooo yeah, I'm pretty sure Gale hasnt felt actual physical touch until you first pull him out of the portal. 😭 Hence why I think he is so happy to love Tav however they look AND why he loves their M U S K so much. 🫠🙃

Also, I tried to keep this really based on in-game conversation. Because A) I'm still not yet very well versed on Forgotten Realms lore. B) From my basic understanding BG3 was a liiiitle loose with some of the timelines and blurred some of the history a touch. Please anyone correct me if I'm way off base with any lore! 🙏

[tykobrian]

me when i meet the person who created webp files

[tykobrian]

you ever feel like you were born with something rotten inside you and if people get close enough they’re gonna find out

#tykoreblogs #it's not me #it's queue

[tykobrian]

There’s no such thing as work-life balance for neurodivergent & chronically ill people.

This is because everything in my life requires work:

maintaining friendships

keeping up with my hygiene

managing bills

making money

remembering my basic needs

sleeping regularly

outputting creatively

All requires some aspect of work for me.

And when everything in your life requires work, your balance goes out the window.

If you're neurodivergent and overwhelmed — I see you.

If you're chronically ill and overwhelmed — I see you.

You're not dysfunctional.

You're not incapable.

You're doing your best.

#tykoreblogs #it's not me #it's queue

[tykobrian]

Companions' Wishes

Wyll:

Shadowheart:

Gale:

Karlach:

Astarion:

Lae'zel:

I just thought these were cool insights on the characters.

(Haven't checked if Lae'zel's options change if she visits the Creche first, but it is too late for that )

Edit: If you are wondering where this is, you should investigate the basement of the apothecary in the Blighted Village.

[tykobrian]

Evil or redemption, I can’t get over the idea that Gortash was the first person Durge ever loved and it inevitably triggers the demise of the Dead Three.

Just based on how Bhaal treats redemption Durge, it seems likely he made Durge kill anyone he had soft feelings for. It started with his foster family when he came of age, and it probably never stopped. In an almost Pavlovian way, Durge eventually must have felt revulsion, anger at himself for caring about anyone and letting them live. Bhaal had him well-trained. But then Enver Gortash came along.

He saw Durge— he liked Durge, and Durge clearly liked him back. Normally Durge would have killed him for that without Bhaal even having to tell him to, but he couldn’t, and Bhaal knew he couldn’t. Not this time. Gortash was protected. He was the Chosen of Bane; he was necessary for the Absolute hoax to succeed so Durge could usurp it and end the world. Cue the overwhelming guilt and shame from Durge that gave us the miserable ‘prayer for forgiveness.’

Sarevok says Durge got cocky and that’s why he didn’t see Orin’s betrayal coming. I think he got distracted. He was really happy, for the first time since the Urge awoke, but the source of his happiness was also something he had to struggle with constantly. A knife to the brain was probably a fitting punishment for loving someone other than daddy, something other than murder and fear and blood.

But then Durge gets a second chance. He’s literally taken apart and put back together again, born anew out of his own ashes. With absolutely nothing in his head, Bhaal has the perfect chance to rebuild his Chosen exactly as he wishes from an utter tabula rasa… and yet. And yet.

Durge does it again. His body may remember—the body always does—but he doesn’t, and he lets himself fall in love again. He just can’t help himself. And this time, without the fear and obligation and guilt conditioned into him over decades, he doesn’t even try to escape it. Instead, he fights to overcome what his body is telling him, what Sceleritas is trying to remind him of, just to hold onto this precious thing he’s found.

He was crafted from Bhaal’s own gore to be the perfect, heartless murder machine, but even a god can’t stamp out a mortal’s propensity for love. And it’s such a tiny thing. Such a petty, common emotion. It shouldn’t matter.

But it does. There’s no way around it. The murder god’s favourite bespoke weapon will fall in love again and again and again, even across a thousand different universes.

And so it all unravels.

[tykobrian]

if you play video games long enough you see the fandoms treat black characters the same way over and over and over again (wyll ravengard, felix iresso, preston garvey, vivienne de fer, etc etc etc)

#tykoreblogs #it's not me #it's queue

[tykobrian]

The thing I find most depressing about these chat ai things is when people say they’re so real and like. They just aren’t at all? And it doesn’t make me feel judgemental it just makes me profoundly sad that people maybe only read the most surface level parts of interaction with another human being, they don’t relish the strange rhythms or quirks of human fallibility. Or, even sadder, they’re so removed from genuine human connection that they’ve forgotten what it’s like.

#tykoreblogs #it's not me #it's queue