#Airships: Conquer the Skies

[savingcontent]

Airships: Lost Flotilla, the steampunk autoshooter is out now on Steam from the maker of Airships: Conquer the Skies

Continue reading Airships: Lost Flotilla, the steampunk autoshooter is out now on Steam from the maker of Airships: Conquer the Skies

[linuxgamenews]

Airships: Heroes and Villains releases on Linux

Heroes & Villains DLC launches with success for the Airships: Conquer the Skies game on Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. The fruit of tireless dedication and hard work by the brilliant developer, David Stark. Available on Steam and itch with 86% Positive reviews. The Heroes & Villains DLC launched on Linux for the sky battling, Airships: Conquer the Skies, and it's good. Since it provides a fresh expansion to step up your strategy by bringing new heroes and villains into the game. You can now recruit epic commanders to control your floating fortresses. As well as governors to keep your cities running smooth. These new characters aren't just for show – they pack some serious abilities to help you rule the world. The Heroes & Villains DLC includes commanders who can turn enemy ships into sitting ducks. Or level up their engines for an unexpected boost, or even pull random items to use as ammo. Some of these commanders are also sorcerers. So they can blind enemies, control the weather, or summon mystical creatures. Over on the homefront, governors are like your city managers. They can increase productivity, put citizens at ease, and even issue new rules and events. Due to things like martial law or forced labour, to something lighter like a masked ball party. These Heroes & Villains DLC characters are not static, either. They change over time based on what you do. They can level up, change their loyalty, and even start feeling different emotions like anger, stress, or even go crazy. Some will transform into more experienced, embittered, or powerful versions of themselves. Watch out, since a disloyal governor can be an annoyance. While a famous or super-powered hero could be the key to victory.

Airships: Conquer the Skies: Heroes & Villains DLC Trailer

Things between empires just level up as well. In the Heroes & Villains DLC, you might have to deal with some diplomatic incidents and decide whether to trust or backstab your neighbors. Want to risk a war to look more powerful? Get on the good side of some cultists? Join forces to take on pirates? What you should do depends a lot on where you stand, what you need, and what you know about the other empire. Now with the Heroes & Villains DLC, your airship crew is not just for cannon fire anymore. They'll level up the more battles they survive, so you have a good reason to keep them alive. Maybe give them a place to heal up or some better protective gear. Just to give you an idea of the scale here: there are 60+ unique heroes, 25+ combat abilities, both regular and magical. Also over 40 types of diplomatic incidents in the Heroes & Villains DLC. You can now design and award medals to your veteran airships. But be careful, if your prized airship goes down, so does its medal. And to top it all off, you don't have to own the Heroes & Villains DLC to get a taste of the action. If you hop into a multiplayer match, you can still enjoy all these features even if you haven't purchased the Heroes & Villains DLC yet. This epic launch also comes with a game update introducing changing weather, landships drawn by wurms (those are like giant worms), and new weaponry like trebuchets and mortars. Available on Steam and itch. Priced at $8.99 USD / £7.49 / 8,79€. Along with support for Linux, Steam Deck (playable), Mac, and Windows PC.

[sleepdeprivedartboi]

Airship : Conquer the skies is fucken digital cocaine . The amount of bullshit designs you can make. The freedom of tomfoolery, the absolute mess my beautiful little babies are. It's so good lmao.

[wanderingmind867]

I already have my Batman Season Four ideas planned out to an oddly precise degree, right? Well, I still have more ideas that I can't bring myself to get rid of. So I'm going to do a Batman Season Three and a Half. Here I'll adapt some of the few comics I like from the Batman '66 comic book, and maybe i'll add a few minor 50s and 60s villians I wish had been on Batman '66. So without further delay, here's my Batman 1966 Season Three and a Half ideas:

Episodes 1 and 2: A two parter based on the events of the Batman '66 Comic, Issue #1. A story involving The Riddler (Frank Gorshin) and Catwoman (Julie Newmar).

Episodes 3 and 4: An adaptation of the Lead Story in Batman '66 #2. A story featuring The Penguin (Burgess Meredith) and Mister Freeze (either George Sanders or Eli Wallach). They team up, only to get busted by the dynamic duo!

Episodes 5 and 6: Just the first story of Issue #3 of Batman '66 in it's entirety. Joker (Cesar Romero) stars, as does The Red Hood/Professor Overbeck (played by Leonid Kinsky).

Episodes 7 and 8: An adaptation of the second story in Batman '66 #3 (but an adaptation that's longer and more fleshed out). Egghead escapes from jail, and begins plotting to defeat Batman and Robin once again. To do this, he decides to conquer the skies with a gigantic dirigible of his own design! Egghead eventually captures the dynamic duo and drops them from his airship, to face the treacherous earth lying below. But due to sheer arrogance on his part, he'd forgotten to remove their utility belts.

So Batman and Robin successfully use their utility belts to survive the fall. They then fake their deaths, and prepare to snare Egghead and his gang within a trap of their own…

Episode 9: Batman is all alone on this case. He goes to the theater with a new love interest of his (and an old friend, too), one Linda Page. They've gone to see a benefit performance being put on by Chandell and The Siren, two supposedly redeemed ex-cons. But while Chandell really has gone straight, The Siren has done anything but. She uses this performance to hypnotize her audience, and then she tries to steal everything from people.

But Bruce manages to get away during the commotion, and he changes to Batman! But The Siren has learned some new tricks since last we saw her. Namely, she's learned how to summon hallucinations with her singing. So while Batman is immobilized by her strange hallucinations, Linda Page comes to the rescue and saves him from The Siren. Then she's sent back to jail, and Chandell is free to continue his performance.

But watching from the audience was that famous european criminal known as the Sandman, and he's most displeased that his newest assistant (The Siren) failed so utterly. He'd increased her powers by adding his dream sand to her arsenal, but she still failed! In his eyes, truly an unforgivable sin.

Episodes 10 and 11: Batman and Robin learn of how the Queen's Guard in England was robbed of all of their hats, and they realize that the Mad Hatter is clearly up to something. So with Alfred as their guide, Bruce and Dick travel to jolly old london town. While there, they end up having to confront The Mad Hatter, who really was behind all the thefts. He invades the Tower of London and steals the Crown Jewels.

But due to Batman's peerless reputation (even across the pond in the UK), Batman and Robin successfully manage to stop The Mad Hatter from getting away with the Crown Jewels. And then the good people of Scotland Yard haul the Hatter away, to serve out his full term in a London jail cell.

Episode 12: A more elaborate retelling of the second story in Batman '66 #4, Batman and Robin are still in England (being honoured for their victory against The Mad Hatter). But then Batman recalls an odd detail regarding the chiming of clock bells during their fight against The Mad Hatter. Realizing The Hatter may have had an accomplice, him and robin rush back to the tower to investigate this mystery.

And inside the clocktower, Batman finds his suspicions confirmed: The Mad Hatter was being aided by The Clock King, who actually turns out to be his brother! And The Clock King is now proceeding with his own seperate scheme to blow up The Tower of London when Big Ben chimes five. But before he can get around to that, Batman and Robin stop him. Both him, and his army of henchmen and clock themed androids.

From there, Clock King is sent to jail to rejoin his brother. And Batman and Robin return to their feast with Scotland Yard, finally able to celebrate the fruits of a victory well won.

Episode 13: An adaptation of the secondary story in Batman '66 #25, wherein Batgirl encounters Catwoman (played by Eartha Kitt) trying to steal the expensive Tiger Topaz. It turns out that crime never stops in Gotham, even while Batman's away (this story takes place concurrently with the saga over in England). So it's Batgirl to the rescue, on one of her many solo adventures.

Episodes 14 and 15: Batman and Robin have returned from their adventure in London, only to now have to deal with The Sandman, that evil super crook from the european continent. Still angry about the failure of The Siren (back in episode 9), The Sandman has now decided to take matters into his own hands. Him and his gang plunder the city, using a new form of sleep sand that can hypnotize people through dreams.

He successfully manages to ensnare and entrance the entire city (including Batgirl), but never once accounts for Batman's powers of lucid dreaming. Batman successfully manages to resist the strange dreams of the sleep sand, and he wakes up in time to free robin and batgirl and defeat the rest of the sandman's gang.

Episodes 16 and 17: A bit of a more dramatic episode, starring a very old Boris Karloff as Basil Karlo. An old man who's angry about the new remakes of his old horror films, Basil Karlo takes up his old costumed identity as Clayface and begins a series of attacks on the studio. When the film comes to Gotham City's annual film festival, Batman and Robin are called in to investigate.

Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson also deal with Aunt Harriet and Linda Page (who both serve on the gotham film festival board). This would be the last apperance of Linda Page for a while, by the way. She makes the two appearances this season, and maybe we'll bring her back eventually sometime later. But I'm not sure yet.

Episodes 18 and 19: Batman and Robin have to deal with The Bookworm, who's come up with a new and decidedly tricky scheme to figure out Batman's secret identity. Although he still fails, Bookworm ends up coming dangerously close to figuring out Batman's secret identity. So dangerously close that one thing becomes perfectly clear: Bookworm may one day actually find out Batman's secret. Of all the rogues, only him and egghead have gotten close to the truth. If either of them should team up one day…

Episodes 20 and 21: Olga, Queen of the Cossacks has returned to Gotham City. Angry on behalf of her partner egghead's failure (back in episodes 7 and 8), Olga has left him. And now she pursues a better choice of husband: Batman himself. Luring Batman and Robin to a large, snowy mountain in great northern reaches of North America, Olga kidnaps Batman and leaves Robin for dead.

Thankfully, Batgirl had been tailing them. So she manages to save Robin, and then the two of them go after Batman. They manage to trail Olga to her lair inside of a mountain, and then they find Batman struggling in the arena against an army of Olga's best men. Robin and Batgirl jump in to lend him a hand, and then our terrific trio end up saving the day and stopping Olga, but not before she successfully steals a kiss from Batman. Knowing our heroes luck, this probably won't be the last time they'll have to deal with this strong-willed cossack queen. She's still determined to win Batman's hand, after all.

Episode 22: A longer and more in depth version of the second story presented in Batman '66 #7. Here's the synopsis of that story from the DC wiki:

The Joker successfully robs a popular game show's jackpot, but bitterly notes only one of his men had actually helped in the getaway. After an evening watching business news, the Clown Prince of Crime is inspired to fire his whole gang except that one henchman. This "downsizing" not only leaves him a bigger share of loot, but also lets him evade Batman and Robin (who have grown used to picking him out of large retinues) at his next heist.

While troubled by the Joker's new efficiency, Batman correctly judges it unsustainable. Indeed, the Joker quickly overworks his one lackey to the point of exhaustion, and their following heist fails miserably against the Dynamic Duo.

Episodes 23 and 24: Batman, Robin and Batgirl all end up dealing with the evil villian of Spellbinder, a young bohemian/countercultural artist who's learned that his pop-art can cause people to follow his every command. Now causing a real mess with light and spectacle, the terrific trio have to stop him before he can do any more damage with his hypnotic powers.

I would definitely also have Andy Warhol make a cameo during a wall climbing gag during this episode. Because this episode is all about pop art, and he is the king of that stuff.

Episodes 25 and 26: An adaptation of the main story in Batman '66 #7, featuring False Face, a plot where he impersonates Bruce Wayne, and a subsequent showdown at Mount Rushmore between False Face and the dynamic duo!

Episodes 27 and 28: The Penguin is back with another new fiendish crime spree, all themed around rare and exotic birds. A ornithology exhibition has come to Gotham, and this bird of crime can't help but make a spectacle of himself stealing all the objects. Can Batman and Robin stop him? Or is it too late for our heroes to stop this foul bird of prey?

Episode 29: The Riddler is back in town, and he's come to menace Gotham with a scheme involving clues hidden within the daily crossword puzzles at the Gotham Tribunal. Can Batman, Robin and Batgirl successfully solve all of his riddles in time? Or is this curtains for our terrific trio?

Episodes 30 and 31: Catwoman ends up seemingly collaborating with Batman and Robin when another villian frames her for a crime she didn't commit. The villian in question ends up being revealed as a master magician known as The Great Marini. Using his masterful illusions, he manages to frame Batman for all sorts of crimes, and he manages to even successfully convince the GCPD that Batman and Robin are on the outs as useful crime fighters. That's when Batman learns the truth: Catwoman was a double agent all along!

Episode Two of this saga leaves our heroes no better off than they were before, as they're now hunted by the authorities. But they do escape Marini's deathtrap, and they even successfully manage to stop him and Catwoman before they can do too much harm to the city. To be fair: they were already beginning to fight amongst themselves. They were practically sitting ducks for the dynamic duo. But still, this would be the way that season three and a half ends.

[wildberry-12]

I suppose it was finally time to make an intro post :3

Hi I'm Wildberry(she/it)! A 19yr old socially incompetent transfem who loves strategy games, mechs, monsters, and sleeping in a dog bed.

The kind of posts you can expect from me will usually be recent stuff going on in my life, outfits I like, my writing, transhumanist rants, and horny posting or any combination of said topics. My reblogs are whatever I find Interesting :p

Currently owned by the lovely @lapo-opal <3

Always feel free to send me DMs! While I only give my name and stuff to moots, I love talking to all the little gay people in my phone.

And as always, Minors DO NOT interact with this blog, this is definitely 18+ only

Cohost: @Wildberry

Fedi: @Wildberry@transfem.social

Below is my game list!

Factorio

Unturned

Team Fortress 2

Rimworld

OpenTTD

Starsector

Hearts of Iron IV

Forts

Kenshi

Minecraft (modded that's how we do)

Bloons TD 6

Garry's Mod

Lethal Company

From The Depths

Airships: Conquer The Skies

Space Engineers

Battlebit: Remastered

Oxygen Not Included

TerraTech

[3dspecbio]

Scalepiercer: Real time lighting in pixel art

I wanted to share some sprite normal mapping that we're implementing for our game! One reason I prefer 3D artworks is the dynamism of lighting that can be easily achieved with a renderer, something you couldn't historically do in 2D art with ease.

But lots of modern 2D engines adopted the 3D concept of 'normals' and now we can do stuff like this!

In Scalepiercer, we are using normal maps for characters and weapons/explosions. Our characters will react to light in real time similar to games like CRYPTARK and Airships: Conquer the Skies!

So how do normals work? What if you wanted to do this for your own game? Well there's many ways to normal map sprites! but here's how we did it:

We went into Blender and created a 'shape-sheet' like this by positioning 3D objects and taking a screenshot of their normals as viewed from above. The funky colours are because we are actually encoding *directions* for how individual pixels are "rotated" in 3D space! That's a normal map!

A TLDR of the directions are as follows:

A color value of 128 means "middle/no angle", with 0 and 255 being 90* facing one way or the other.

Red is the East/West facing angle

Green is the North/South facing angle

Blue is "tangent"/facing-camera and is always 255 (which is why our 'normal map color' is this specific 128,128,255 blue for a flat surface).

Knowing this information, we paint over our cargo container by sampling the 'directions' from or normal map sheet to create something like:

Keep in mind different game engines may have different direction encoding, if your sprite lighting looks backwards try inverting the red or green channels!

This is human-readable data too if you keep in mind that the presence or lack of a color means a direction! After some time you may be able to read (and even possibly paint) your own normals without constant reference.

P.S: I didn't know where to fit this but a note on automatic normal mappers: There's great tools like Laighter and Modlab which let you instantly create normal maps from sprites! These tools are very powerful and often make it very easy to do these effects, the reason we avoid them here is because they rely on the *brightness* of a sprite instead of intentionally knowing the *direction* of one. We found that the generated results often don't "understand" the 3D forms of a sprite as well a human who can think abstractly. If you want to mess with these techniques with little effort, or your art style is compatible with how these programs 'read' files, I'd recommend trying it! It's fun!

[susdusts]

I have suspicions about you name

Have you ever played the spectacular videogame Airships: Conquer the Skies

dawg what is this

i have not, maybe fate will guide me to it someday?

[hyrtwynwrites]

[Spoilers!] Light's Falle Timeline

Updated 18 July 2024

Note: Links only go to the first chapter referenced per day - e.g., a link on Ch.12-15 will go to Chapter 12.

Key

AM - Astral Moon

UM - Umbral Moon

SQ - FFXIV Canon Timeline Dates

LF - General Light's Falle Dates

GP - Book 1: Gridanian Prelude

WT - Book 2: White Towers, Deep Waters

OT - Book 3: An Oasis at Twilight

Timeline

6th Astral Era

1 4th AM 1527: Vivail Aikiria is born. [LF]

ca. 1535: Papalymo Totolymo and Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn are born. [SQ]

4 5th AM 1536: Aebba Falle is born. [LF]

ca. 1545: Y'shtola Rhul and Thancred Waters are born. [SQ]

ca. 1546: Yda Hext is born. [LF]

ca. 1549: Kan-E-Senna and Adalberta Sterne are born. [SQ]

ca. 1550: Jacke Swallow is born. [SQ]

ca. 1552: The Ala Mhigan Civil War begins. [SQ]

22 1st UM 1556: Yenifer Falle is born to Aebba. [LF]

ca. 1557: Ala Mhigo is conquered by the Garlean Empire. [SQ] Yenifer and her mother escape Ala Mhigo. [LF]

ca. 1558: Yenifer and Aebba settle into life in the Gridanian hamlet of Quarrymill along with other Ala Mhigan refugees. [LF]

ca. 1562: The XIVth Legion is defeated in the Battle of Silvertear Skies. [SQ]

ca. 1572: The events of Final Fantasy XIV 1.0; Dalamud falls, unleashing Bahamut and the 7th Umbral Calamity. [SQ] Kan-E-Senna leads the Gridanian element at the Battle of Carteneau. [GP Ch.32] Aebba is killed during the Calamity. [LF]

7th Umbral Era

Year 5

18 2nd UM: The start of Light's Falle and Gridanian Prelude; Yenifer digs a ditch outside of Quarrymill and makes a fateful decision. [GP Ch.1]

24 2nd UM: Yenifer leaves Quarrymill for Gridania, joining the Lancers' Guild and encountering her rival, Foulques, for the first time. [GP Ch.2-9]

32 2nd UM: Yenifer is recruited by the Twin Adders to assist in a manhunt. [GP Ch.10]

3 3rd AM: Yenifer meets Scions Yda and Papalymo for the first time, and finds her Crystal of Light. [GP Ch.10-12]

11 3rd AM: Yenifer encounters Foulques for the second time, and stumbles into what would be called the Battle of Spirithold; she experiences her first Echo vision in the aftermath. [GP Ch.13-16]

29 3rd AM: Yenifer has her spear taken for repairs, and has a brief altercation with gawking Gridanians. [GP Ch.17-18]

30 3rd AM: Yenifer has her third encounter with Foulques after he kidnaps a Guild member. She finds herself stumbling into aiding the Gridanians in a battle against the Ixal. Yenifer has her first encounter with a Paragon, only narrowly surviving, and for her heroism is made Emissary. [GP Ch.19-29]

31 3rd AM: Yenifer fulfils the role of Emissary for the Greenbliss, but an Echo vision interrupts the ceremony. [GP Ch.30-31]

32 3rd AM: Yenifer is made Envoy of Gridania, and is dispatched by its leader, Kan-E-Senna, to deliver vital missives across Eorzea; end of Gridanian Prelude. [GP Ch.33-34]

ca. 3rd AM: Legatus Gaius van Baelsar of the Garlean XIVth Legion makes an inspection of Castrum Occidens. [GP Epilogue]

1 3rd UM: Yenifer arrives in Limsa Lominsa and delivers Kan-E-Senna's missive to its leader, Merlwyb; she also makes the acquaintance of several locals, most notably the rogue, Jacke, the Scion, Y'shtola, and the marauder, Vivail. Yenifer and Vivail are recruited by Y'shtola for an adventure to the Sastasha Seagrove to begin the following morning. [WT Ch.1-9]

2 3rd UM: Yenifer, Y'shtola, and Vivail travel to the Sastasha Seagrove; while investigating, Yenifer and Vivail become separated, and together fight through a pirate stronghold to liberate kidnapped civilians. Reunited afterwards, the three return to Limsa Lominsa, where Yenifer says her goodbyes to them, and to Jacke. Vivail is recruited by Y'shtola to join the Scions. End of White Towers, Deep Waters. [WT Ch.10-Epilogue]

2-3 3rd UM: While en-route to Ul'dah, Yenifer is incapacitated by the Echo, and is treated frantically by the airship's crew. Lost in the vision, Yenifer accidentally enters the memory - and then the present - of an Ala Mhigan, Arenvald. Surprising them both, Arenvald is able to see her in the vision, and strikes her, jolting her awake. [OT Prologue-Ch.1]

3 3rd UM: Yenifer arrives in Ul'dah and encounters yet another Scion, Thancred, while trying to get her bearings. Yenifer is abused by Brass Blade mercenaries after she attempts to save the life of a fellow refugee, and is in turn saved by the Miners' Guild's master, Adalberta. When Adalberta asks Thancred to investigate the Copperbell Mines going silent, Yenifer forces the Scion to take her along. Thancred allows her presence, but goes to recruit an ally of his for the mission as insurance: Arenvald. [OT Ch.2-13]

[dokkywokky]

EMERGENCY COMMS RESULTS #3

This one's for @ dictatorputski, who you might recognize as a mod developer for Airships: Conquer the Skies back in the day! He's got some sci fi stuff, too—and this one in particular is a reference to a fairly old 80's show in the same vein as Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica. Can you guess which?

[linuxgamenews]

Airships: Heroes and Villains is gearing up for its release

Airships: Heroes and Villains the first DLC for the game is coming to Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. All credit goes to the ingenious developer, David Stark. Due to make its way onto Steam, GOG, and itch next month. On July 20, 2023, an exciting new expansion will hit the digital shelves. Coming to Airships: Heroes and Villains. This isn't just the first DLC for the game, though. It's the first one for the steampunk infused creation and battle simulator Airships: Conquer the Skies. Along with the thrill of crafting flying machines and taking over the world. So, what's special about Airships: Heroes and Villains? Well, this isn't your ordinary expansion. In this one, you can bring on board unique personalities - commanders and governors - to help run your ships and cities. They're not just figureheads. Each one has their own unique abilities that can really change the flow of the game. Take commanders, for example. These are not your run of the mill ship captains. They can perform crazy maneuvers to sneak past rival ships, turbo boost their engines for that quick escape. Even find unexpected things to use as ammunition. But the real showstoppers in Airships: Heroes and Villains? Some commanders are sorcerers. These guys can mess with opponents, change the weather, or call upon mystical creatures for help.

Airships: Heroes and Villains First Look

And then you've got governors. They're the ones who ensure that your cities are functioning smoothly. They boost output, keep the peace, and can declare all kinds of actions. Serious ones like martial law or forced labour, or even things like a masked ball. But here's the kicker - your actions in Airships: Heroes and Villains will shape these characters over time. Depending on what you do, they can earn experience, show more or less loyalty or their moods can change. They can become more angry, stressed, or even lose their minds. But they can also become more powerful, renowned, or even morph into entirely different versions of themselves. Due to being more seasoned, disillusioned, or invigorated. Just keep in mind that these changes can swing both ways in Airships: Heroes and Villains. If a governor turns against you, they could cause serious problems. But a hero that gains fame or magical power? That's a ticket to controlling the world. You'll get to see the impact of your choices in real time, which is part of what makes this expansion so good. So, mark your calendar for July 20, and prepare to recruit your team in Airships: Heroes and Villains. The first DLC is due to be priced at $8.99 USD / £7.49 / 8,99€ on Steam, GOG, and itch next month.. Along with game support for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Conquer the Skies is still receiving 97% Very Positive reviews. Available on Steam, GOG (discounted 40%), itch, and Humble Store. Priced at $24.99 USD / £19.49 / 20,99€ for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC.

[daemonya]

Enchanted Legacy

The "Enchanted Legacy" series is set during the Age of Discovery, a time when uncharted territories beckon and the world is ripe for exploration. It unfolds across a tapestry of diverse, fantastical landscapes where enchanted forests, mystical islands, and hidden realms teem with magic and ancient secrets. Towering airships sail alongside majestic sea vessels, navigating through ethereal skies and treacherous waters. Kingdoms and empires clash, driven by quests for powerful relics and mythical creatures. The setting, rich in lore and wonder, intertwines the thrill of discovery with the enchantment of a world where magic and reality are inseparable.

Click on the territories to be redirected.

The Crimson Horde

Aggressive expansionist power from eastern steppes

Tribal structure led by a Khan

Nomadic, warrior-centric culture of tieflings and humans

Skilled horsemen and archers

Shamanic religion worshipping war and nature spirits

Economy based on conquest and tribute

Recently conquered Aethoria and Lunaria

Threatens borders of Dornath and the Novorossian Empire

Aethoria (Conquered Kingdom)

Capital: Luminark

Former constitutional monarchy, now Crimson Horde puppet state

Economy in shambles, black markets thriving

Cultural preservation through secret traditions and oral history

Magic system tied to the four classical elements; rare individuals can combine elements for greater power

Late medieval technology level with some magical innovations (e.g., airships, enhanced weaponry) but much knowledge lost, some innovations stolen by conquerors

Important factions and groups: The Whispered Circle (underground resistance movement), Order of the Ashen Flame (secretive mage guild), Merchants' Covenant (powerful trade alliance)

Lunaria (Conquered Queendom)

Capital: Selenopolis

Former matriarchal monarchy with female-dominated society, conquered by Crimson Horde

Resistance collaborating with Aethorian rebels

Twin moons, shimmering lakes, lush forests

Inhabitants: elves, drows, humans

Polyandry common among nobility

Advanced architecture and crystal-powered airships

Former colonies (Sylvan Realms) asserting independence

Important factions and groups: The Twilight Rebellion (men's rights movement, quickly suppressed), Black Sun (elite assassin organization)

The Shattered Isles

Neutral trade hub of floating islands held aloft by ancient magic

Council government of island representatives

Maintains diplomatic ties with all nations

Diverse inhabitants known for neutrality

Economy: rare magical resources

The Nexus: central island where magical ley lines converge

The Misty Archipelago

Isolationist naval power controlling important sea routes

Surrounded by perpetual mists

Secretive seafaring inhabitants: merfolk and humans

Economy: fishing, whaling, shipbuilding

Trades with most nations

Magical lighthouse beacons guide trusted ships

Dornath Kingdom

Capital: Adelmos, a fortress-city carved into the mountainside

Feudal monarchy in mountainous terrain with fertile valleys

Bolstering defenses against potential Horde invasion

Uneasy alliance with Novorossian Empire

Inhabitants: dwarves, gnomes, orcs, humans

Known for heavy infantry and siege weapons

Economy: mining, metalwork, agriculture

Values strength and honor, wary of magic

Sylvan Realms

Former Lunarian colony seeking independence

Cautious diplomatic relations with neighbors

Inhabitants: fauns, dryads, woodland creatures

Loose federation of groves led by eldest trees

Nature-based magic tied to forest health

The Great Oak: said to be the first tree of the world

Novorossian Empire

Capital: Petrograd, known for grand architecture

Constitutional monarchy with strong military influence

Major power balancing against Crimson Horde

Lost territories to Crimson Horde in Great Northern War (ended 10 years ago)

Seeking to expand influence in power vacuum left by fallen kingdoms

Rivalry with Misty Archipelago over sea trade routes

Diplomatic conflicts with Dornath over border territories

Internal tensions between reformists and traditionalists

Emerging merchant class challenging traditional nobility

Focus on technology over magic: early steam power and telegraph networks

Major industries: military production, textiles, agriculture

Key Dynamics

Power struggle between Crimson Horde and Novorossian Empire

Smaller nations (Dornath, Misty Archipelago) maneuvering to maintain independence

Shattered Isles leveraging neutrality for economic gain

Conquered nations (Aethoria, Lunaria) fostering resistance movements

Sylvan Realms exploiting chaos to assert sovereignty

[wanderingmind867]

I already have my Batman Season Four ideas planned out to an oddly precise degree, right? Well, I still have more ideas that I can't bring myself to get rid of. So I'm going to do a Batman Season Three and a Half. Here I'll adapt some of the few comics I like from the Batman '66 comic book, and maybe i'll add a few minor 50s and 60s villians I wish had been on Batman '66. So without further delay, here's my Batman 1966 Season Three and a Half ideas (now revised to include two or three extra stories):

Episodes 1 and 2: A two parter based on the events of the Batman '66 Comic, Issue #1. A story involving The Riddler (Frank Gorshin) and Catwoman (Julie Newmar).

Episodes 3 and 4: An adaptation of the Lead Story in Batman '66 #2. A story featuring The Penguin (Burgess Meredith) and Mister Freeze (either George Sanders or Eli Wallach). They team up, only to get busted by the dynamic duo!

Episodes 5 and 6: Just the first story of Issue #3 of Batman '66 in it's entirety. Joker (Cesar Romero) stars, as does The Red Hood/Professor Overbeck (played by Leonid Kinsky).

Episodes 7 and 8: An adaptation of the second story in Batman '66 #3 (but an adaptation that's longer and more fleshed out). Egghead escapes from jail, and begins plotting to defeat Batman and Robin once again. To do this, he decides to conquer the skies with a gigantic dirigible of his own design! Egghead eventually captures the dynamic duo and drops them from his airship, to face the treacherous earth lying below. But due to sheer arrogance on his part, he'd forgotten to remove their utility belts.

So Batman and Robin successfully use their utility belts to survive the fall. They then fake their deaths, and prepare to snare Egghead and his gang within a trap of their own…

Episode 9: Batman is all alone on this case. He goes to the theater with a new love interest of his (and an old friend, too), one Linda Page. They've gone to see a benefit performance being put on by Chandell and The Siren, two supposedly redeemed ex-cons. But while Chandell really has gone straight, The Siren has done anything but. She uses this performance to hypnotize her audience, and then she tries to steal everything from people.

But Bruce manages to get away during the commotion, and he changes to Batman! But The Siren has learned some new tricks since last we saw her. Namely, she's learned how to summon hallucinations with her singing. So while Batman is immobilized by her strange hallucinations, Linda Page comes to the rescue and saves him from The Siren. Then she's sent back to jail, and Chandell is free to continue his performance.

But watching from the audience was that famous european criminal known as the Sandman, and he's most displeased that his newest assistant (The Siren) failed so utterly. He'd increased her powers by adding his dream sand to her arsenal, but she still failed! In his eyes, truly an unforgivable sin.

Episodes 10 and 11: Batman and Robin learn of how the Queen's Guard in England was robbed of all of their hats, and they realize that the Mad Hatter is clearly up to something. So with Alfred as their guide, Bruce and Dick travel to jolly old london town. While there, they end up having to confront The Mad Hatter, who really was behind all the thefts. He invades the Tower of London and steals the Crown Jewels.

But due to Batman's peerless reputation (even across the pond in the UK), Batman and Robin successfully manage to stop The Mad Hatter from getting away with the Crown Jewels. And then the good people of Scotland Yard haul the Hatter away, to serve out his full term in a London jail cell.

Episode 12: A more elaborate retelling of the second story in Batman '66 #4, Batman and Robin are still in England (being honoured for their victory against The Mad Hatter). But then Batman recalls an odd detail regarding the chiming of clock bells during their fight against The Mad Hatter. Realizing The Hatter may have had an accomplice, him and robin rush back to the tower to investigate this mystery.

And inside the clocktower, Batman finds his suspicions confirmed: The Mad Hatter was being aided by The Clock King, who actually turns out to be his brother! And The Clock King is now proceeding with his own seperate scheme to blow up The Tower of London when Big Ben chimes five. But before he can get around to that, Batman and Robin stop him. Both him, and his army of henchmen and clock themed androids.

From there, Clock King is sent to jail to rejoin his brother. And Batman and Robin return to their feast with Scotland Yard, finally able to celebrate the fruits of a victory well won.

Episode 13: An adaptation of the secondary story in Batman '66 #25, wherein Batgirl encounters Catwoman (played by Eartha Kitt) trying to steal the expensive Tiger Topaz. It turns out that crime never stops in Gotham, even while Batman's away (this story takes place concurrently with the saga over in England). So it's Batgirl to the rescue, on one of her many solo adventures.

Episodes 14 and 15: Batman and Robin have returned from their adventure in London, only to now have to deal with The Sandman, that evil super crook from the european continent. Still angry about the failure of The Siren (back in episode 9), The Sandman has now decided to take matters into his own hands. Him and his gang plunder the city, using a new form of sleep sand that can hypnotize people through dreams.

He successfully manages to ensnare and entrance the entire city (including Batgirl), but never once accounts for Batman's powers of lucid dreaming. Batman successfully manages to resist the strange dreams of the sleep sand, and he wakes up in time to free robin and batgirl and defeat the rest of the sandman's gang.

Episodes 16 and 17: A bit of a more dramatic episode, starring a very old Boris Karloff as Basil Karlo. An old man who's angry about the new remakes of his old horror films, Basil Karlo takes up his old costumed identity as Clayface and begins a series of attacks on the studio. When the film comes to Gotham City's annual film festival, Batman and Robin are called in to investigate.

Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson also deal with Aunt Harriet and Linda Page (who both serve on the gotham film festival board).

Episodes 18 and 19: A story dealing with Catwoman, this comic is an adaptation of a story first seen in Batman #122. To summarize that story (by copying from off of the DC wiki):

Catwoman escapes from prison and then threatens three wealthy men with the old superstition about black cats. When the men won't pay her, she steals from them, after placing a black cat in their way. Batman and Robin try to stop her, but Catwoman gets away, using her new vehicle, the Kitty Car. During a second confrontation between the Dynamic Duo and the Catwoman, Robin is captured and taken to Catwoman's hide-out, where he uses his belt-radio to summon Batman. Batman then rescues his partner, but Catwoman flees and is able to jump across a rising drawbridge in her car, escaping once again.

Episodes 20 and 21: Batman and Robin have to deal with The Bookworm, who's come up with a new and decidedly tricky scheme to figure out Batman's secret identity. Although he still fails, Bookworm ends up coming dangerously close to figuring out Batman's secret identity. So dangerously close that one thing becomes perfectly clear: Bookworm may one day actually find out Batman's secret. Of all the rogues, only him and egghead have gotten close to the truth. If either of them should team up one day…

Episodes 22 and 23: The Joker teams up with Louie the Lilac to cultivate flowers that produce laughing gas. They use this to lead a mad crime spree across Gotham, and only gotham's terrific trio can stop them now!

Episodes 24 and 25: Olga, Queen of the Cossacks has returned to Gotham City. Angry on behalf of her partner egghead's failure (back in episodes 7 and 8), Olga has left him. And now she pursues a better choice of husband: Batman himself. Luring Batman and Robin to a large, snowy mountain in great northern reaches of North America, Olga kidnaps Batman and leaves Robin for dead.

Thankfully, Batgirl had been tailing them. So she manages to save Robin, and then the two of them go after Batman. They manage to trail Olga to her lair inside of a mountain, and then they find Batman struggling in the arena against an army of Olga's best men. Robin and Batgirl jump in to lend him a hand, and then our terrific trio end up saving the day and stopping Olga, but not before she successfully steals a kiss from Batman. Knowing our heroes luck, this probably won't be the last time they'll have to deal with this strong-willed cossack queen. She's still determined to win Batman's hand, after all.

Episodes 26 and 27: The Penguin teams up with The Black Widow (Tallulah Bankhead). This is really just an almost completely faithful adaptation of the story from Batman '66 #15, as that's one of the few stories from Batman '66 (the comic) that sounds perfect to me.

Episode 28: A longer and more in depth version of the second story presented in Batman '66 #7. Here's the synopsis of that story from the DC wiki:

The Joker successfully robs a popular game show's jackpot, but bitterly notes only one of his men had actually helped in the getaway. After an evening watching business news, the Clown Prince of Crime is inspired to fire his whole gang except that one henchman. This "downsizing" not only leaves him a bigger share of loot, but also lets him evade Batman and Robin (who have grown used to picking him out of large retinues) at his next heist.

While troubled by the Joker's new efficiency, Batman correctly judges it unsustainable. Indeed, the Joker quickly overworks his one lackey to the point of exhaustion, and their following heist fails miserably against the Dynamic Duo.

Episodes 29 and 30: Batman and Robin meet The Monkees, in a musical crossover involving The Music Meister (Donald O'Connor) and a crime wave framing The Monkees for thefts of many priceless instruments and music trinkets. I chose to have a Monkees crossover here, because that was legitimately the only way I could it fit to introduce The Music Meister into the world of Batman '66.

Episodes 31 and 32: Batman, Robin and Batgirl all end up dealing with the evil villian of Spellbinder, a young bohemian/countercultural artist who's learned that his pop-art can cause people to follow his every command. Now causing a real mess with light and spectacle, the terrific trio have to stop him before he can do any more damage with his hypnotic powers.

I would definitely also have Andy Warhol make a cameo during a wall climbing gag during this episode. Because this episode is all about pop art, and he is the king of that stuff.

Episodes 33 and 34: Tony Randall guest stars as Mister Camera. Mister Camera, the villian who nobody ever expects. His skill with photography makes him second to none in the world of forgery, and he's now come up with a daring way to trick the GCPD into arresting Batman and Robin, while simultaneously promoting himself.

He dresses like a plainclothes businessman, but he'd do things like doctor photos and manipulate the press via his photography. He might hide out in an old, renovated dark room. And he could have henchmen with names like shutterbug, snapshot, etc. I really don't think they could make the old comic design with a tuxedo and giant camera head mask work, but I know that the gimmick of photography and cameras could work for Batman 1966. So Mister Camera is definitely getting more than one apperance.

Episodes 35 and 36: An adaptation of the main story in Batman '66 #7, featuring False Face, a plot where he impersonates Bruce Wayne, and a subsequent showdown at Mount Rushmore between False Face and the dynamic duo!

Episodes 37 and 38: King Tut falls in love with Linda Page when she's working as a nurse at Gotham's penitentiary. He kidnaps her and tries to force her to become his Queen. Batman and Robin have to stop Tut's new plans for domination of Gotham, but in the end Linda Page is frightened away from Gotham City. She moves back to her father's estate in Texas, traumatized by the three or four major crimes she'd been dragged into while living in Gotham.

This is the last time Linda Page serves as any sort of recurring character. She might make two or three more appearances in future seasons, but she's now definitively off the books as a love interest and recurring character for Batman/Bruce Wayne.

Episodes 39 and 40: The Penguin is back with another new fiendish crime spree, all themed around rare and exotic birds. A ornithology exhibition has come to Gotham, and this bird of crime can't help but make a spectacle of himself stealing all the objects. Can Batman and Robin stop him? Or is it too late for our heroes to stop this foul bird of prey?

Episodes 41 and 42: The Riddler is back in town, and he's come to menace Gotham with a scheme involving clues hidden within the daily crossword puzzles at the Gotham Tribunal. Can Batman, Robin and Batgirl successfully solve all of his riddles in time? Or is this curtains for our terrific trio?

Episodes 43 and 44: Catwoman (Julie Newmar) ends up seemingly collaborating with Batman and Robin when another villian frames her for a crime she didn't commit. The villian in question ends up being revealed as a master magician known as The Great Marini. Using his masterful illusions, he manages to frame Batman for all sorts of crimes, and he manages to even successfully convince the GCPD that Batman and Robin are on the outs as useful crime fighters. That's when Batman learns the truth: Catwoman was a double agent all along!

Episode Two of this saga leaves our heroes no better off than they were before, as they're now hunted by the authorities. But they do escape Marini's deathtrap, and they even successfully manage to stop him and Catwoman before they can do too much harm to the city. To be fair: they were already beginning to fight amongst themselves. They were practically sitting ducks for the dynamic duo. But still, this would be the way that season three and a half ends.

[emotionalmultimediaride]

GOG release: "Airship: Kingdoms Adrift"

Revolution Industry and Freedom Games‘ sci-fi trading and combat simulator Airship: Kingdoms Adrift lands on GOG’s DRM-free ground. It seems that airships have become quite common these days long after the Final Fantasy series made them popular, as games like Airships: Conquer the Skies (see the game release news) or the GOG release news of Merchant of the Skies attest. Now Airship: Kingdoms…

[dkplayer]

Airships: Heroes and Villains на Linux

DLC Heroes & Villains с успехом стартовало для игры Airships: Conquer the Skies на Linux, Mac и Windows PC. Это плод неустанной самоотдачи и кропотливого труда гениального разработчика Дэвида Старка. Игра доступна в Steam и itch с 86% положительных отзывов.

https://www.gamebuntu.ru/review/airships-heroes-and-villains-na-linux/

[retphienix]

Now there were better highlights, I took down a capital, lost my entire fleet, took down some big pirate groups, even killed one of these things-

But for whatever reason most of my screenshots bugged out and that's just how it went.

SO HERE'S MY BIG ULTIMATE TWICE-AS-EXPENSIVE-AS-MY-SUPER-STRONG-SHIPS UNIQUE UNIT!

A dragon that dies fast as fuck.

What a waste of 2k lol

To be fair, this was a suicide run if I ever saw one- my fleet took this out by dps racing it, I didn't expect a single unit to win but then again it was a TWO THOUSAND DOLLAR unit when all my ships are like 900 bucks right now.

And it did good damage, it just died too fast for that to matter.

But this made me laugh a bit, 2k was the most I'd saved up... ever in this poorly conceived run, and spending it all on my ultra unit and it just falling over was funny.

[thehutpoint]

Aaah, for me it was not "The Terror" though it did play an important part. It was "The Last Place On Earth", Titus, crawling on all fours out of the tent and it might be some time, and the lonely cairn slowly drowning in the snow out there in the white vastness of Antarctic. It premiered in Polish TV in 1986 I think, so I was what, eight at the time? But yeah, that's how it started. These pictures stuck in my mind like a shhip stucks in the pack ice.

And then, two years later I found these under the Christmas tree.

Four brochures with stories from the Arctic. Yeah, these were still the (not so) merry times of the Iron Curtain, so there were some stories about so brave and so plucky Soviet polar explorers, triumphing over Mother Nature. But the rest? The rest was pure delight. Barents, wintering in the Arctic with his crew, Dr. Kane's expedition, Hudson, De Long and his Jeannette crushed by the merciless Ice, Fritdjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen attempting to get to the Northern Pole, captain Cagni of Italian 1899 Stela Polaris, doing DIY amputation of his thumb, Engineer Andre and his balloon, Amundsen and Nobile flying over the Pole in the airship Norge... aaaahhh. Not appropriate for ten years old, though still heavily sanitised, for example the eye inflammation that rendered lieutenant Danenhower of Jeannette (DeLong expedition) unfit for duty was said to be caused by the snow blindness, while in reality it was a sad complication of syphilis. Sanitized or not, appropriate or not, I loved these stories and my favourite play in winter was always The Polar Explorer, that means me, trodding on my crappy plastic skis on the fields around home, dragging my kiddie sledges and pretending I am Amundsen conquering the South Pole, or Nansen trying to reach the North one.

After that I've read voraciusly everything about polar exploration I could find. I went through the school library and other resources, learning about Franklin, Nansen, Amundsen, Exploration of Antarctic and two expeditions of Scott. Somehow, though, Titus did not catch my attention, he stayed somewhere on the margin (isn't that typical of him?) . To be honest he is a tad neglected by the polar autors, who do not know what exactly to do with him, so usually render him to this guy, you know, this silent dude who was taking care of the horses, then said, you know, This Badass Sentence and then went to die This Badass Death. Still, the frosty tales carried me through the chamber of hell called My Teenage Years.

For some time the polar stuff was at the fringe of my attention, because, you know, life happened, adulting was harder than I expected and so on. But then "The Terror" revived my love for brave, starving boys, freezing their lovely arses on both unhospitable ends of the Earth and I started sniffing again for the polar lit. And so I bought "Widows of the Ice" by Anne Fletcher which made me, by one quote in the chapter, I think, about Oriana Wilson, to go back to the man, who started it all. Titus Oates. Quiet, humble Captain Oates, who helped me to survive quite shitty period of my life and became my personal Comfort Polar Man. You might say I made a full circle.

there’s a certain descent into madness one takes after watching the terror. one minute you’re watching the show with mild interest and the next minute you’re hand painting Robert Scott’s sledging flag to put on your wall