#I guess I'm liveblogging this playthrough now

[ryniadora]

So Lena had her Joining today. She was horrified by Daveth's unsuccessful attempt, but even before seeing the fate that awaited Ser Jory for wanting to back out she knew she had to go through with it. She had to at least try - she had promised her parents she would do her best. Duncan knew, because she had promised him, that Lena would see it through, and so she did, though the pain was worse than anything she had ever imagined. She awoke to Alistair's concerned face hovering over her, with Duncan looking almost proud beside him. A Grey Warden. A blessing, or a curse? Maybe it was both.

"Are you alright? You had us worried there for a bit." "I've been better. I don't know what I expected but I don't think I could ever have imagined something like that."

Lena had never seen war before. She had only fought mock battles, training dummies and the odd wolf or rat. She was almost grateful when Duncan said that she and Alistair were to go and ensure the beacon was lit at the Tower, not that she voiced it aloud - her concern was that she would be too cowardly and flee from the battlefield.

As Lena made her way across the bridge, she was nearly flung over the side by a flaming cannonball that exploded at her feet. The combined efforts of Rufus and Alistair managed to drag her back over the railing, though it was mostly the mabari whose fast reflexes caught her belt in his jaws.

"If you'd refrain from getting blown up, that would be great. Duncan will kill me if I bring you back dead." "I'll try, but I can't promise I'll dodge every single flaming ball in time." "Maybe I should hold your hand? Or would that just fling us both over the side? On second thoughts, best not."

The battle through the tower was fierce, but the two Grey Wardens were beginning to work well as a unit. Alistair would provoke the spawn into attacking him, enabling Lena to slip around and harass the foe from the rear, of course aided by her faithful hound. Determined to complete their mission at all costs, they climbed the tower as fast as they could.

Lena was starting to feel a bit more at ease killing darkspawn now. They repulsed her, so sticking a dagger in them was vaguely cathartic. Sometimes she imagined Howe's face on the larger ones, though it was a shameful self-indulgent revenge fantasy that she would never tell anyone else about.

The battle with the ogre took its toll, but Lena was able to thrust a torch into the beacon and watch as it blazed into life. The signal had been sent, but their chances of escape seemed very slim as both Wardens turned to see hordes of darkspawn descending upon them.

"Hey, Alistair? It was fun while it lasted." "Yeah. What a way to go."

Lena was wavering now - with her dead, who would tell Fergus what had happened? That he was now the only Cousland still alive? But there was nothing else she could do but fight until she fell or rescue came.

Arrows started flying towards them, and Alistair's shield held fast as they cut down wave after wave of darkspawn. But eventually Lena let out a strangled cry as Rufus, her trusty best friend, fell to the ground with a darkspawn blade buried in his leg, and before Alistair could stop her she had broken away from him and cradled the dog in her arms.

He called her name, turning with the arrows that sang through the air, too far away for him to block them. Watched as they found their mark, as Lena collapsed forward over her silent mabari with a shriek of pain. Felt the bite of arrowheads in his own skin as the world went black for them both.

[blackjackkent]

So ... before you start your Durge playthrough - I thought it'd be interesting to see if you have plans for it, now that you have finished the full game? Are you going to just take it as it comes, or do you now have a sort of plan in mind for which romance, which characters in the party, which path to take through and which choices to make? Or a bit of both?

Good question haha! The truth is I don't really know - there's a smidge part of me that is nervous bc it's been a long time since I liveblogged a game where I already knew much of the story, and never to the degree of detail that I've started doing with Caden and Hector. So Rakha's story (she has a name now!) is going to be... an experiment on some level, haha. And I'm planning to kind of play it by ear and figure out what works and what doesn't. (Feedback from y'all on this point always appreciated tbh.)

I'm also given to understand that Durge starts out amnesiac so I'm trying to not go in with too many preconceived notions about her and kind of let her evolve slowly. I do have the vague thought of Resist Durge with a Wyll romance, and of trying to lean towards party members/choices I didn't spend so much time with on Hec's run, and of at least starting out by taking every Durge-specific option available and then adjusting that tendency based on how she develops and what serves the story. (EDIT: [taps earpiece] I'm being told this policy is a good way to eliminate the NPC cast very fast so maybe not EVERY option. XD)

Beyond that... your guess is as good as mine! XD Am hoping it will be an interesting adventure to find out.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Arlathan

So turns out I can actually play this thing - on the easiest settings, mind you, but I can do it. Haven't entirely figured out parry (that "too much visual noise" thing), but I get it sometimes. Doesn't help that the timing of the indicators is a bit ... wonky.

I'm beginning to see why people are a little iffy about the writing. I don't think it's bad, mind you. It's just that it's ... all got a bit of Purple Hawke to it, if you see what I mean? It feels like Rook was built around the "scoundrel with a heart of gold" trope, and all the lines the players choose really do is slightly change the degrees of 'scoundrel' and 'heart of gold'. Which ... I mean, I don't mind that much. I get that thing with Aloy, after all. I just ... understand why people might complain about it a little in a Dragon Age game, just because the series has up until recently been known for letting you shape your character the way you want, and now the vague framework we got for "Warden" or "Hawke" or "Inquisitor" has been a lot more carefully structured for a "Rook". I mean, hell, Varric gave Rook a nickname. Up until now, he's only done that with characters we don't control. The closest he comes is Mark of the Assassin, where he workshops one based on the personality you've crafted for your character over the course of however many games. So Rook has a nickname based on what Varric knows of them, which means that kind of has to stick. Thus, more structured character that we can basically guide but not hugely control, at least not in terms of personality.

Like I say, I'm not necessarily complaining. I just know that it takes somewhat more headcanoning for those of us who prefer a bigger range of character traits for their DA characters. But I know you all over here are up to it. Hell, so am I, or I will be, when I get the structure and flow of the game a little more sorted in my head.

Currently I am playing a nonbinary elven Veil Jumper named Lira - specifically Lira in the cause of differentiating them from my various Jalliras, who are definitely ladies, because this one ... isn't. This is my practice character. That whole rant above? I guess I had it on my mind because the way Rook's character is set up for us means that I can't really play a Jallira. This is definitely a Molly game. Quite possibly a Jessie game. I have a few others, but I'd have to check through the imaginary Rolodex to find out which ones hit the snark the way Rook seems to.

That said, this particular set of liveblog posts are going to be actual liveblogging, not ... well, not what I normally do. But when I do get the hang of this a little more, and can assess the flow and figure out how best I can play a Rogue? Holy hell am I running a Molly through this game. It's basically made for a Molly. Though I am having a hard time deciding which faction she should join. Veil Jumpers (again) because Things To Tinker With? Lords of Fortune because Adventure? Shadow Dragons because freedom fighter? ...Well. I mean. A Molly is a tinkerer. A Mychae is a freedom fighter and adventure-seeker. So I guess Molly of WoD Mage would be a Veil Jumper (again) and Mychae of SW:TOR fame would go with the Lords of Fortune. I do have a second Mychae - the TSW one - and she'd be the Shadow Dragon. Jessie'd be a Warden, no question. Srina ... Antivan Crows. I have an old WoD mage who might do for Mourn Watch, actually. It's thoughts for later, anyway. But the playthrough of at least one of those will get the dialogue snippet treatment (probably two; you all love the Molly and the Jessie).

Much later, because I am running on far too little sleep. But at least, for all I've heard and read, and even with it being a bit of a struggle to play, I have been enjoying myself. Met Bellara (Molly is going to love Bellara), and have a crossing to look at and probably clear darkspawn or some shit out of. Also, no, I have no idea who this nonbinary character is going to romance. I'm not even sure they'll romance anybody. This is a practice character. This is basically as close to me as I'm going to get. But you never know. This Lira might speak up inside my head at some point, if only to differentiate themself from their parent and original.

...But I doubt it.

[pochapal]

I've been following along with your playthrough and it's been really interesting! I don't want to be too agressive in trying to influence your order/pacing but I will say that in my opinion the one thing that the stageplay could spoil if you catch onto it is possibly The Biggest Spoiler in the game and is something that I think is probably impossible to tell from episode 1 of the VN? (Or even of the manga, though I agree its best to read episodes 1 - 4 of the VN before looking at the mange.) This is a thing I figured out way later (like after episode 4 later) and would have been really upset to have felt like I caught unfairly earlier on. Obviously I can't say more than that, but I know that knowing what I know now, I can see a hint in the stageplay to something I'd have really hated to learn just after finishing episode 1.

ty!!! i'm glad you've been enjoying the liveblog!!! <3

the stageplay thing being The Biggest Spoiler uh. changes things a little i think. i've been assured that i should be safe to go through it but if we're playing with Big Stuff like that i guess it depends on how much of a risk it is that i'll end up catching on. it's hard because this is a Conflicted Topic where nobody can actually tell me anything. there's still a good bit of time to go before i finish episode 1 so i'll keep this line of conversation open and maybe make a final call then?

[macgyvertape]

BG3 Act 1 thoughts and liveblog part 1

With super long games like this (finished in about 110 hours) I like to take notes to 1) remind me of stuff I did at the beginning of the game and 2) to enjoy looking back on because I'm not doing another playthrough for a few years.

Going to suffer through the spider and half spider people since the mods don’t fully work yet and they disable achievements

Going for dark urge first playthough along the lines of Durge is guard dog to those they imprint on and I knew I was rolling a bard, so I watched clips of Felix RedvsBlue as a good starting point for my character roleplay. Starting character quote “At the end of the day, if I'm stronger than you and if I'm faster than you, then I can kill you! And that's better than anything money can buy”

Trying Not to be a “charismatic mercenary with gruff exterior and a heart of gold” 

I killed Commander Zhalk in the beginning area with viscous mockery. True bard experience

Passed the perception check of Astarion pulling a knife, some fun dialgoue options with him, and its a delight to hear his tone of voice really change

I can’t tell if Gale is just flirty/horny or really just dedicated to the facade of being surface deep and a braggart to mask his secrets. Seems both and though he seems full of himself I enjoy this kind of companion who lies about things

I think I like the inspiration mechanic, I got a point for killing the mindflayer “leaving it to burn”

I’m really having to force myself to be “that asshole” and ask people to pay me for helping them

Got another inspirational event for killing the cultists lol. The game gives me a lot of options to talk about my dark urge but I really want to play that close to the chest

I don’t really know about pre-rewrite version of Wyll but he really seems a good alignment nice dude, and unfortunately I want to be almost evil/neutral Dark Urge.

Had to reload to save Nadira, I’m struggling with interrupting actions outside of turn by turn combat

Rapheal sure makes an entrance, my character turned him down but didn’t attack since he seemed so powerful. Keep my options open but it seems like there are a lot of options there

Gale is fucking lucky I had a extra piece of enchanted gear so I didn’t lose my very nice sword. I also feel like I’m throwing away some approval points by my character questioning him but I’m trying to play someone who isn’t altruistic or too trusting.

Ok I failed several perception checks for a kid stealing my stuff then I caught the last one, but then the kid ran off and everyone in the hideout ran out. I’m not sure if anything was still stolen from me or if this is a a bug 

RIP Alfira, was not expecting that from the dark urge. I chose to confess to the others, if my character is murdering people in my sleep only fair to explain and not hide

My character told Karlach to tear the place apart as catharsis for being hunted, and it was fun to see that scripted sequence play out

Gale is telling me his unstable magic backstory, but he’s doing it at camp so there is no reaction for anyone else during the conversation despite him saying he wanted to tell everyone. (edit: Not sure if a bug considering he also referenced being mind whammied by the Almighty before that had occurred in the goblin camp). Also deeply ironic he talks about understanding if my character wants him to leave since he’s a literal timebomb, but this is happening a day after D!urge pc killed someone brutally

Also incredibly funny Lae’zel is now interested in my character, and will sleep with me considering her dialogue post D!urge murder

Wyll gets turned by his patron demon into a semi horned being, ok so I guess just seeing what he looks like shows the obvious decision you made with Karlach

Wtf is up with Wyll, that he’s so proud he made his pact when it was just made obvious he was sent on basically an assassination mission. All his talk of “saving innocents” wonder how many innocents he’s killed from bad intel

The trifling child gang hideout is very bugged

Perception check for the swamp reveal was really cool

I haven’t been taking many long rests so I just now got the Astarion vampire one. Fun to see all the options if you let him kill you, but I save scummed to let him really go for then stop for roleplaying purposes 

I actually realized I was right by the vampire hunter so I loaded a save where Astarion hadn’t revealed himself yet and fun how different it goes, he will kill the vampire hunter out of combat to keep his secret if you don’t intervene and that’s very fun. It also gets brought up when he tries to feed on you for the first time at camp, but I haven't found a dialogue option where you can say “weird coincidence the guy called you by the same name”

Got the scene at the goblin area where the party would get mind whammied if not for the mysterious artifact. I’m really trying to pick a moment when my character would go from “more people is better odds” to “ride or die for certain characters” and I think this is a good point along the line of “oh if these people aren’t with me then they’ll immediately be soldiers against me”

I really enjoy how Astarion treats you like a fool if you say he’ll be safe because you would protect him from Cazador, in the cliche all power player character here to fix the companion’s problems. I mean my character still said it of course because that was my favorite of the 3 options at that point. Interesting I only now can ask about what offer Raphael made, like that was hours and hours ago but guess it needed specific dialogue flags 

No other game has given me an S&M scene like this for a stat buff where its fun and horny. I love Gale’s “well whatever you’re into”. The first time I did the scene (pun intended) Astarion was standing a little too far away, so I only got Shadowhearts dialogue, but its much better with them talking back and forth

My character told Shadowheart she doesn't care that she worships Shar but more along the lines of not that she likes Shar its just she don’t really care about religion 

I am majorly arachnophobic so I just covered up the screen and freed the spiders so the goblins would kill them

My character asked the priestess to meet alone then assassinated her with Astarian cloaked to get an extra out of combat turn. I expect to do this setup a lot more

I found a Selunite outpost and went down there, then reloaded since that seems way too big an area to explore right now

Setting up Minthara to be doublecrossed was a great tactical way to clear out the goblin camp, especially since I’m out of short rests

Killed Dror Ragzlin with barrelmancy, aka stole a bunch of explosive barrels and put them around him and the crowd and then exploded them from the rafters above

Note to self in however many hours when I get to Baldur’s Gate, see how Ronan’s apprenticeship faired (I bet not well)

Astarion calling my character darling and saying he’s going to like me and it's clear I like him too, definitely feels like he’s rolling to seduce and being a bit manipulative so she will like him (tangent: Margaery Tyrell was one of my favorite GoT characters kinda similar vibes) 

My character was upfront about enjoying it but very funny to say that a less trusting person would be suspicious and have him vouch that the only thing on his mind was carnal lust. I tried the immediate agreement then reloaded and I love that his response feels very different like he’s succeeded in a seduction check. 

I made my dream visitor a hot masc teifling and there is big horny energy with his scenes

Got the “morally acceptable massacre” for defending the grove. I created some barricades out of crates, blew up the sappers with fire arrows and then the enemies were just trapped at the bottom as I killed them with archery. Took a few tries for barricade positioning but then was easy and none of the tieflings died

I’d like to think my D!urge character would love massacring the goblins, in the same way she enjoyed getting the Knoll leader to kill the others then kill themselves brutally. Sort of a “I just love killin’” character approach, but my D!urge character dislikes that the Dark Urge takes away her control. 

My character absorbed Minthara’s tadpole at the prompting, I figured my character would be all about gaining power she could control. Astarion certainly had a very camp approval option. 

I then used 4 Ithilid powers across Astarion, Gale, and myself really just to get rid of the menu icon being bright red and distracting

Oh wow I completely missed doing Kagha’s secrets until now, so I could tell Halsin but not much else happens 

Didn’t expect my character could talk Lae’zel into using the tadpole powers and make a good persuasion attempt with Kalrach, and then persuaded everyone else. Playing a charismatic character is fun, she is manipulative af

[stealthnoodle]

Engineering 101: Let's Play Tears of the Kingdom

I haven't liveblogged a game in mumblemumble years and I've got Tears of the Kingdom in my hot little hands, so here we go! There will be spoilers, obviously, so everything's under a cut. Mute "stealthnoodle plays loz: tears of the kingdom" to opt out of this ridiculous experience.

I'm not sure far in yet--there are two quests under Main Quests marked "Complete" and two in progress, if that helps orient without spoiling!

Had to restart 5 seconds in because this game detects the language from the console setting and I don't want my first playthrough to be (slowly) in Japanese, lol.

Zelda wants to do her nerd shit but I want to spiderclimb on the ceiling, and guess who has the plot reins right now? Imma skitter.

A kingdom of weird-looking people in the sky, you say? Zelda's ancestors confirmed for bird-fuckers.

I am so intensely SMT brain-rotted that I saw a glowing magatama and expected Zelda to eat it. I don't care if it just tumbled out of a freaky mummy, it is probably full of skills and stats!

Aw man, I got Metroid Fusioned. :(

And now I got Luke Skywalkered! :D

I am truly in my element now: half naked and plummeting recklessly to an uncertain doom.

Robot foes AND robot friends! What a world. Zelda wants me to come meet her in what I presume is her new nerd paradise but I have frogs to catch. Surely she's known Link long enough at this point to expect my behavior.

SHAGGY CRANE WHY WON'T YOU LOVE ME

Shows up 15 minutes late with toasted mushrooms

"Rauru - Source of the Right Arm" is fully hilarious, no notes. Full marks for long flowing hair, taking advantage of big ear real estate for piercings, and goat face. Top 10 Glowups of All Time

I can't wait to find out who my new pussy is gonna come from.

Oho, I got a bow now. It's over for you shaggy crane bitches.

ULTRAHAND. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE. Everything I own has a rock permanently fused to it now and I've never been happier.

I should be allowed to build with birds.

LOL I just got my first game over by dropping a heavy metal hook on my own damn head

After a tremendous amount of fucking around I have finally entered the Temple of Time, found another magatama, somehow still not eaten it, and gotten a magical handshake from a brief apparition of Zelda that lets me reverse the motion of an object. This is by far the magical power that would have the most practical application for me, a person with two cats.

Ascend is the funniest one, though. Love swimming up solid stone and popping out of the floor like I'm surfacing in a backyard pool. Canceling it is even funnier, like, well, now that I've had a peak at what's going on up here, I am choosing to return to the depths. Ta-ta.

I stuck my broken Master Sword into a ball of light and it went to what I guess is the Zelda Dimension so she could give it a little hug? That hug agitated a dragon and cleared up the weather. At least we go to show each other our new outfits.

(I will NOT wear a shirt except when the plots mandates one onto me. That is how I played BotW and I'm not giving in to Big Modesty now. Tiddies of the Kingdom)

Anyway I'm loose on Hyrule so further bulletins as event warrant.

I lied, one more important thing: I solved your little engineering puzzle on my first try with my hardcore GAMER STRATS.

I am very good at building sound structures, you see.

[victorianimmortal]

So, I’ve spent my summer playing Ace Attorney at an absolutely breakneck pace (Investigations 1 in five days, the sequel in seven, I slowed down a bit after that but still got through the last three games in under six weeks) and writing a slowburn lesbian enemies-to-friends-to-lovers after-the-end fanfiction of a D&D campaign that wrapped up in May (it’s over 30k so far and I have no doubt I’ll hit at least 40 before it’s through).

Honestly, the absolute best ways I could be spending my time. 

[umbrahighpriestofgiratina]

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

I'm going to talk a bit about my plans for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet now but first, a foreword. 

-----

I'll be honest. I was never all that big a fan of Nuzlockes. 

I never got the appeal. I had no need for the added challenge and all the restrictions and caveats of a Nuzlocke run just seemed more frustrating to me than fun. 

And it honestly very much seems like Pokemon playthroughs of any kind are dominated by Nuzlockes, to the point part of why I do my big livelog events is to put more non-Nuzlocke Pokemon playthrough content out there. And yet. And yet. 

I know I just complained about Pokemon playthroughs being dominated by Nuzlockes, and it's true and I should say it, but at the same time I do. In fact. Enjoy watching and reading Nuzlockes even if they never seemed like my thing to actually play? Shout out to @/kynimdraws , @/helloyellow17, @/alephnull47 , and Failboat here. And a while back @/enigma-boi told me of a Nuzlocke variant that actually sounds... fun?

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet approach. 

And for this liveblog. I'm selling out. 

Umbra Plays Pokemon Violet: Wonderelocke Edition

(Not Really) Frequently Asked Questions:

Q. What is this exactly?

A. It's me posting my reactions to Pokemon Violet in real time on Tumblr and Twitter! This also includes ficlets, fanart, and on Twitter specifically screenshots! And this time IT'S A SURPRISE TRADE NUZLOCKE!!! -children cheering- Q. What Nuzlocke rules are you using?

A. See here! (remove spaces): h t t p s : // bit . ly / 3zqDzvy 

Q. How much do you know about the game going in?

A. I'm trying to go into this one completely blind this time! Including none of the new Pokemon that aren't pre-release.  If anyone spoils literally anything non-pre-release for this game without me asking about it, including new Pokemon or mechanics, and ESPECIALLY STORY SPOILERS, I will come to their house and decompile their lemons. THIS INCLUDES STUFF THAT WAS LEAKED LONG BEFORE RELEASE

Q. Do you accept gameplay advice?

A. Usually only when I'm stuck, or asking for advice, or something is coming up I should probably be warned about. Please do not try to crit my gameplay choices otherwise. 

Q. What about spoilers?

A. Spoilers will be hidden and/or tagged, depending on the platform. Please do not tell me spoilers. Anyone giving me spoilers for this game will be met with the punishment of getting their kneecaps grated.

Q. Is there a nickname theme for the Pokemon? Can I suggest nicknames?

A. No nickname theme this time! Didn't feel right for a new generation. So while I won't necessarily use them you can suggest whatever nicknames you want, as long as they aren't like,slurs or some shit like that

Q. I don't want to see this on my timeline/dash. What should I do?

A. If you're on Tumblr, mute "#Umbra Plays Pokemon Violet" with your tagblocker of choice. Twitter uhhhhhhh I guess just mute me until it's over

Q. Who's the protagonist this time?

A. You'll seeeeeeeeeee.

[gay-4-space]

Figure I'd start a blind DA:O playthrough liveblog of sorts now instead of making 500 separate posts as I make my way through.

Block the tag "Mars Plays DA" if you don't wanna see it

Played about 3 hours last night and here are my thoughts:

Fuck I accidentally skipped the opening cinematic while trying to turn on subtitles, well I'll watch it once I'm done making my character

Hehe Elf mage!

OH FUCK it doesn't pause when the window isn't in focus shit I just missed the first like 10 lines

TANK CONTROLS????

Oh thank God I can change it to normal ones

how do I fight how do I fight

talking rat

getting the hang of this I beat up a spirit and solved some riddles and that fight wasn't so bad

talking rat is evil :(

hey what the fuck is up with the circle

Templar man is a bitch also I am definitely gonna help my friend escape

eugh spider level

christ this basement just spiked in difficulty but im glad my friend is finally free

aw man my friend was a bloodbender and now his girlfriend is gonna get punished for it :(

Wow the king is gonna die for sure

this dudes defo evil

DOGGY

Alistair is amusing

ELF RACISM REAL???

Hokay time to go fight some things again

Aw man the grey wardens are like witchers aren't they

This Ser guy is nice but he's definitely gonna die

it managed to completely crash my entire computer

morrigan! pretty witch lady!!!

ah fuck it crashed

it crashed again

okay something is wrong wait it's because the GRAPHICS are too high!?!

Yep there goes the other two :/ and we're all just okay with the murder there yep okay I guess

yeah other not king guy is definitely evil

I'm gonna go to bed shits about to hit the fan

[staravya]

at last, my knowledge of pi pays off

... it really doesnt, actually, lma o

[thessalian]

Thess vs Do-Overs

So for those of you with side blogs, did anyone notice as how the "Create" button for posting doesn't swap you back to your main blog for posting anymore? Why does it do that? It's really aggravating.

Other minor sources of aggravation include my weird attempt at Wacky Cake last night. Gods, recipes, please flag up for those of us who don't bake often that sifting / sieving dry ingredients is a necessity. My cake wasn't ruined but the frosting was a bit of a mess.

Also ... I'm not 100% happy with my current Baldur's Gate 3 playthrough and now, towards the end of Act 2, I kind of want to go back and start from the beginning. But I am liveblogging this shit so I guess I'm stuck with current world state for now. Of course, I could just 'mark my place', as it were, and pick up from where I left off when I get there, but ... eeeeeh. It didn't occur to me that [REDACTED] would completely close off [REDACTED AGAIN]. It should have. It really should have. Just if I have to go through that fight again without a lot of breather I am going to chew my own head off. Yes, even on story mode.

Well, I'll keep going with [REDACTED AGAIN] and decide what I want to do after that. I mean, it's fun starting over again and now I know what kind of party configuration I want and ... yeah, it's probably going to be a restart. I mean ... I could just start liveblogging right from the beginning again. I guess I'd have to, since I'd probably do a few things differently at this point and that would involve ... serious world state changes. So kind of like my Wacky Cake, I could just do a do-over.

I need more coffee before I make any decisions.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Patches and Mods

Here's to the modders, for they are seriously on the ball with fixing shit when a patch or hotfix fucks shit up, as well as providing a valuable service to the gaming community.

See, Larian doesn't seem exactly against people modding their games, or at least I haven't read anything about them publicly complaining. Thing is, they don't exactly seem to take modders into account when they're doing the patches, either. I figure Larian must know that people are using the Script Extender - mostly because the person who came up with it is way, way better at actually updating the damn thing to keep up with the patches and hotfixes than the person who came up with the Mod Manager, who responds to every single conflict between the Mod Manager and any patches and hotfixes with, "Mine works fine; it's not my problem and I'm not fixing shit". Anyway, I guess I know why devs don't necessarily even so much as look at the Script Extender to see what people are up to and how to maybe not cause so much damage to people's mods, but I guess I still just wish they would, once in awhile. For one thing, the 5e spells mod? I do not know how I lived without that. Not to mention wanting to play my aasimar properly.

However ... some of the quality of life improvements Patch 6 dropped? Probably worth it. I'm not even talking kissing animations (none of which I've really seen yet - the first kiss with Shadowheart doesn't have that kind of angle), but hell, even just the ability to trade and barter stuff from companions' inventories without having to switch to said companion is a help. [EDIT: And being able to swap companions by talking to the one you want in and picking which one you want out? FANTASTIC. I always feel so bad at their "Are you sure?" dialogues so I'm glad I don't have to deal with them anymore.]

This message brought to you by my whole thing of, "I couldn't play yesterday because the patch reacted badly to a bunch of mods and made the game crash every time I tried to pick a lock or disarm a trap, but everybody fixed their mods today and now I can play again, and I just yeeted the phase spider matriarch into a chasm with Thunderwave and I should probably at least add snippets to the ongoing liveblog. It won't be in order, given that my new playthrough is not very far through Act 1 and the last one got all the way to the middle of Act 3 but the great thing about this game is that it's nearly impossible to play the same way twice".

[pochapal]

i fully planned my team to the letter but then this little creature showed up while i was honey hunting aipom and well...love to change plans on a whim