#I've wanted to have all my pc stuff in white for so long so it can match my pc

[dianagj-art]

Look at my beautiful bad economic decisions from last month I love them so much

(Now is a new month and I can do more bad decisions 😌 meaning I'm buying a zelda game and paying nintendo online so I can play overcooked with friends)

[prontaentrega]

how to post songs as mp3 files and avoid copyright

a bunch of people were asking how to post music on tumblr so here's some kind of tutorial n_n there's probably a thousand better ways to do it out there but this is what i do and it works for me

Step 1: Acquiring music

Before you post any music you gotta have it as an mp3 file. Bunch of people mentioned mp3 converters but my favorite way has always been to just download discographies from blogs. You google "(band) complete discography free download" or something like that and something's bound to show up. If you've doing this for a while you'll skip this first part and go straight to the places you know will have it- here's some of my favorite blogspots for it - but they're all very specific to the stuff i listen to (mainly punk and latin american rock).

These type of sites tend to be genre-specific so if you're looking for, say, a prog rock band, maybe you'll have more luck searching for prog rock downloads websites. The older or more obscure the band, the easier it will be to find. And you'll find that a lot of these sites are not in english- you have to get comfortable visiting and downloading from sites in spanish, portuguese, russian or what have you and your life will get easier.

Don't limit yourself to blogs or music download-specific sites. Some people post album dl links on youtube. When i was in high school i downloaded The Black Parade from DeviantArt. The internet is far and wide and you can find stuff anywhere

But what if i can't find an album like this?

Alternative 1: Legally

Go find a record store and buy the album you want. You can also check the artist's bandcamp or any other website where you can buy their music and get it as a file on your pc (no streaming shit). Some albums are out there for free, legally! If you know an artist who uploads their music to tumblr you can just right click on their mp3 upload and download it directly :^)

Alternative 2: The classic

you can pretty much google youtube mp3 converter and click any link and it'll do the work. Here's a link from a safe piracy subreddit. You paste a youtube vid's link and hit convert/download etc.

I've also heard some people say Lucida is good (lets you download songs and albums by pasting the spotify/bandcamp/wtv link) but i can't say it has worked for me- always gives me a network error. But maybe it works for someone else.

Step 2: I got the music- now what?

Now you post it! Some songs (obscure or copyright-free enough) will just let you post them like that. Most songs won't. For a lot of them you'll have to add some silence or edit the metadata.

Adding silence to a song:

Option 1: Get audacity for free. Go to File > Open on the top bar and open the song you wanna add the silence to. Make sure you're at the start of the track (it says 00h00m00s at the bottom). Go to Generate > Silence... on the top bar also. Choose how long you want the silence to be, click "generate". You'll see a straight line appear at the start of the track- that means it worked. Go to File > Export > Export as MP3 to save it. You'll see a pop up where you can edit the metadata (things like artist, year, genre, etc.) i like having my audio files with metadata but for the purpose of tumblr posts you'll want to leave all that empty- if it's got that info erase it. Click "Ok". Done!

Option 2: Do it online on audiomass. Go to File > Load from Computer, open the song. Click on the white square with the S (insert silence button). Choose how long you want it to be, click "insert silence". You'll see a straight line appear at the start of the track- that means it worked. Go to File > Export/Download. Make sure it's mp3 format, i always save it as 256kbps but it's not neccessary. Click export. Done!

Some songs let you get away with only 5 or 8 seconds of silence. I try to have it be as short as possible, but most songs will need 10 seconds of silence. Sometimes even a little more, if even with the 10 seconds it doesn't let you post it try adding 0.25s more and checking.

I always play the file i just exported, to make sure everything's right.

Editing the metadata:

I'm gonna be honest i don't know how necessary this is but the audio post format works in mysterious ways so it's always better to be one step ahead. If you got it from youtube to mp3 or already added the silence then your file won't have any metadata, unless you didn't clear it when exporting from audacity. if you got it legally or pirated from any blogspot type site and didn't edit it at all it will probably have metadata. To edit it you have to right click the file > Properties, go to the "details" tab, and there you'll see things like title, author, year, genre, etc. You can just click on any section and change or erase it, then click "Ok".

As a last thing, it's generally better if the file is not saved as the song's name. Just name it anything else.

Compressing the file:

I almost forgot but there's also a size limit. I don't remember it at the moment because i've only had a problem with it once, but if you do just google "compress mp3 file" and go on any website to do it LOL

Step 3: Posting it

Now just go make a new audio post. Upload the file from your pc. If there's an error sometimes it'll tell you what it is (you don't own this song/the file is too heavy/etc) but sometimes it will just delete the audio post format and not tell you anything. If there's any error make sure you did everything (the silence, the metadata, the size, the file name). Maybe go back and add 0.5 or 1 more second of silence at the start. Sometimes tumblr just won't want you to post a song even with every step done right- nothing to do about that :( Sometimes you can try back after a while and it will let you post the song- sometimes it won't. There's no real logic to it tbh.

But if everything goes right it will upload correctly. Now you can add the song's title, artist and album info, and album art or whatever image you want n_n Hit post and done!

[theshiftingwitch]

hey,

I have a few questions about shadow work, how to do it? I know, journaling n stuff. But do I like write about the topic i wanna work on? And how would I start off? Or do I just write down affirmations? Also, is it okay to write on pc or is it more useful to do it on a paper?))

Bye!!!

There is no wrong way to do shadow work. As long as you're working through your feelings instead of repressing or dismissing them, you're doing great.

Here is a basic, beginner friendly way to start:

1- identify the emotions or memory you want to work through. It's important to know what you want to resolve so you don't end up handling too much from the get go. Maybe you're feeling sad about something that just happened to you or a memory resurfaced and triggered you. Focus on one thing at a time.

2- pick your medium: whether you want to grab a journal and write it all down, or open your notes app on your phone or type it up on your pc, it's up to you. Whatever makes you comfortable.

A- You can look up prompts online that are related to your current state. (I recommend Pinterest). Shadow work prompts are specific questions designed to target the issue at hand, something like therapy but without the all white office and the not-so-comfy couch.

B- you can write down your stream of thoughts. Dig deep and face the problem head on. Let it all out on paper and don't hold back. No one will be judging you or grading you. It's just you and your feelings, so don't be afraid of them.

3- Expect the dam to break: more often than not, facing these feelings will take a toll on you. So don't be afraid to ugly cry (snot and all) or scream or laugh (no judgement) Let your body purge years worth of trauma and pain the best it can.

4- remember: this is not a one time thing. Shadow work is a life long journey, so don't try to fix everything all at the same time. Take it easy on yourself and take breaks in between.

If you need any more guidance, I have two shadow work journals on my Ko-Fi shop.

I hope that helps, and best of luck ❤️

[moosegbt]

What did you use to convert the digital video to analog for your OTGW tape? I'm a former video tape archivist and I've only ever gone the opposite direction :x

I essentially tricked my PC into thinking a VCR was a monitor, so it would send its video out into the VCR. I fine tuned the video output settings with the Nvidia drivers to make it a little crisper (this is also paired with the project being rendered at 480i to fit the format). I added a little time at the beginning and end of the video to allow time for me to stick in a blank tape and hit record.

For the orange tape, I did all that, THEN I took apart the tape I was recording on (black) and switched out the inner reels with a copy of the Rugrats Movie (orange). I’m not too big of a fan of the orange one, considering orange is reserved specifically for Nickelodeon stuff, but it looked really good when viewed in the Halloween mindset.

For my future projects, I would love to do:

- Scott Pilgrim on a red VHS

- ITSV with a black tape and a red latch

- Steven Universe Season 1 across 4 tapes (due to its length) in Yellow, Blue, White, and Pink.

- Steven Universe the Movie in Pink

- The FNAF movie on a white VHS (white was usually reserved for very young children’s media like Barney and Little Einstein, so I think it would really fit the Chuck E Cheese aesthetic)

I have a HUGE respect for physical media archivists, that’s an awesome line of work. I have an old really long VHS recording of when they aired They Might be Giants on the series finale of Blues Clues on Nick Jr, and I’ve been meaning to teach myself how to digitize it correctly. I’ve made digital recordings of it using my VCR, but I want to make a higher quality scan.

[lordsovorn]

3, 4, 8, 14, 18, 25 for the end of the year asks? 👉👈 I know that's a lot, so please feel free to skip some of those if you don't want to answer!

3. Favorite musical artist / group you started listening to this year?

Ohh, gonna have to write those down next time! The start of 2024 feels like a lifetime ago, certainly an exercise for memory recall. So...

Kensuke Ushio's stuff is definitely the highlight of the year - discovered him through the same awesome Dandadan trailer that led me to read the entirety of the manga. [Metric] songs are also really memorable and fill a unique niche in my soul, even though I've listened to only two. Lastly, to my surprise, Lady Gaga.

Guess how?..

Fear & Hunger memes.

4. Movie of the year?

Out of strictly movies, the original Halloween was campy and neat (I don't watch a lot of movies). Neat to learn the classics in the face, you know.

Other than that... To my surprise, I can't remember anything. Gotta write them down in a spreadsheet 😅

Shows and series are a different beast

8. Game of the year?

A lot of great candidates! White Knuckle gets the prize for the most polished and creative gameplay loop (and this is just a demo!).

Trepang2 (demo, my pc sadly couldn't handle the finished game) scratches my all-time favorite itch of simulating enemy fear. Yeah, bro, "oh fuck" is an appropriate reaction to me appearing out of thin air and dropkicking your buddy's head into a wall! *disappears into thin air* Prepare to watch me do it again!

In terms of long-term affecting experience, I've played Rain World properly this year. Yeah. It's weird and strangely meaningful, and beautiful.

14. Favorite book you read this year?

Erasure in Late Antiquity - a most fascinating collection of articles about erasing things as an act of deliberate cultural negotiation. My favorite chapter was about the way the Roman penal system literally erased the humanity of those it condemned, physically turning them into monsters through torture and disfigurement - and how Christian thinkers of the era, while not protesting against such a system in general, searched for ways to "win back" the humanity of thus executed christian saints.

I don't think I've read any fiction this year, if you discount comics.

18. A memorable meal this year?

Macarons flavored with pear and dor blue. I love macarons, nothing beats that.

Maybe scrambled eggs with caramelized onions? But it wasn't a single particular meal, I did that a lot.

25. Did you create any characters (in games, art, or writing) this year? Describe one

No, I didn't actually! I have illustrated a few of the old ones for the first time though. "Lord Sovorn", notably. And, for my setting of the Under, I've illustrated the second of the Elders - Fate; and the horrible, merciless Hand.

Thanks for the ask :)

[hath-e]

Something completely out of left field:

SD Gundam Battle Alliance, or probably best Gundam PC game that you can *legally* get.

(Img source is the games cover from the Bandai Website)

I'm not a game reviewer so take what I say with a grain of salt, and as much as I love the game I don't want to claim that it's perfect.

The premise:

You're playing as someone called the "Commander" running some tests on GM's during Operation Odessa, unfortunately during the test you and you're squad called the Gatheroad Squadron got thrown into something the G Universe. And now it is your job to fix it.

The story isn't anything to write home about, but it's certainly a good background for the gameplay. And it facilitates a whole bunch of interactions between characters who otherwise couldn't.

The game might be all about using chibi-fied Mobile Suits to wreck other chibi-fied Mobile suits and getting paid for it. But to me the standout gimmick is that I can put Sulleta Mercury and Char Aznable on my team and have them bicker a bit, sure not everyone gets unique interactions but what there is is great.

The Gameplay:

The gameplay is really simple, it's a hack-n-slash, you explore some decently sized maps, collect some chests and most importantly use your chosen MS to absolutely wreck some stuff.

Throughout the game you're taken into some different moments in all of Gundam, but something is just not right, like when Ramba Ral attacked the White Base but he's replaced by Mika in the Barbatos, or how Io Fleming joins you during the Battle of Solomon and helps you kill Lok Kujan. Those are just a few of those moments because the game is completely filled with those.

But onto the actual gameplay, you get to choose between a lot of Gundam's, Ace MS's and a few grunts, they're divided into the three classes:

All-Rounders, the class that's good at close and long ranges, the Xi Gundam for example.

Sharpshooters, excelling at long range, like the Aerial.

In-fighters, the melee units, think units like Barbatos.

And you're goal is to beat the missions in a given time (it's usually long) while listening to the team waffle with the characters taking part in the mission. No dub but it's not too bad but if you struggle with reading quickly it might be a problem.

The resident Char clone:

Hermes Mercury and his dope Gundam Latreia, I won't talk too much about him to avoid spoilers but his boss fights are probably the hardest thing the game has to offer.

The aesthetic:

All the Mobile Suits and maps are build around the SD aesthetic but it still looks really good and the mecha have a good amount of detail. Outside of the actual gameplay the game takes on this visual novel thing where you sometimes respond but it's mostly the crew giving you exposition.

All in all it's one of my favorite games I've played ever, even if it's a bit dlc heavy.

8/10 genuinely recommend any Gundam fan play it.

[notsocheezy]

Brain Curd #146

Brain Curds are lightly edited flash fiction - practically first drafts - posted daily (haven't missed one yet!) and sometimes written with the express intention of being terrible… but, you know, in an endearing way. Please like and reblog if you enjoy - the notes keep me going!

He's gonna be Frank with you. Read the rest of The Frank Program here on Tumblr!

“Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome back to the new-and-improved Frank Program! I'm Frank, over in the corner is my wonderful son, Daryl, and today our guest is a personal hero of mine, star athlete David Helper-Cummings! Welcome to the Program.”

“Good to be here, Frank, good to be here.”

“Be honest with me, David, you'd rather be competing in the Olympics, am I right?”

“I'd love to be able to compete in the Olympic Games, no doubt, but it just wasn't in the cards this year. Maybe next time.”

“I really do think you're good enough to win gold.”

“Thanks, Frank, but there's just been too much happening in my life lately. The affair, the divorce, I mean, you've heard about all that stuff. It's no secret. I can barely play right now. My short game is in the toilet.”

“You've still got the most impressive drive I've ever seen!”

“Sure, sure, I can still get the distance, but there's too much on my mind. I slice the crap out of it every time. It's really throwing me off.”

“Well'n, forget all of that. Let's talk sports in general. I'm really curious to know what ya think about some controversial topics.”

Daryl closed his eyes and shook his head.

Frank continued. “David, what's your take on transgenders in professional sports?”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“You know, men who make themselves look like women so they can get trophies.”

“Doesn't seem to me that a real man would do such a thing. That's downright embarrassing.”

Daryl spoke up. “That's not how it works. There are very specific requirements for -”

“Daryl, will you shut the fuck…” Frank caught himself and cleared his throat. “Daryl, you don't even like sports. Stay out of it. Ya got no business talking about things you don't understand.”

“But you don't -”

“Shh! Anyway, David, it's real and it happens. There was a boxing match between a woman and a transgender, and he beat the shit out of her in one round!”

“That's awful.” David scratched the side of his head. “Can't believe they'd let that happen.”

“Actually, Dad, neither of those women is transgender. The one everyone thinks is trans just has long arms.”

“You're too damn gullible, son. You believe everything you see online? I know more about this than you do.”

“Oh yeah? What are their names?”

“Huh? Who cares about their names?”

“Did you even watch the fight?”

“Pfft. Ain't nobody got time for women's boxing! Hahaha!”

Frank put his hand up for a high five and David quickly slapped it, but realized that might not be a good look.

“Uh, for the record, I respect women's sports. I rescind that high-five and would like to apologize to all the women athletes who were offended by it.”

“Aww, come on, Davey, have a little backbone! You got no spine, man, that's why you keep slicing!”

“Hey, I take offense to that, okay? I love women.”

“No kidding,” Daryl muttered under his breath. Frank glared at him.

“Alright, alright. Forget that topic. I've got another question for ya, David, if that's alright?”

“Yeah, uh, sure.”

“Do ya think we ought to have a separate basketball league for Whites?”

Daryl put his face in his hands and groaned. David looked at his watch and pantomimed shock.

“Oh, damn, Frank, look at the time! I gotta be going. I got a divorce hearing in a few minutes.” He got up from his seat and patted his pockets to make sure he didn't forget anything. “I'll see you around, okay? Alright.”

David Helper-Cummings was out the door before Frank could even react.

“What the hell?”

“You gotta stop making guests uncomfortable, Dad.”

“I didn't make him uncomfortable! You got him thinkin’ about PC and woke! It made him nervous to say what he wanted to say.”

“I couldn't let you spread misinformation…”

“Why the hell not? It's my show, boy.”

Daryl crossed his arms. “You want me here, you gotta treat me with respect. And quit lying.”

Frank sighed. “Whatever you say, your highness. Anyway, folks, this has been The Frank Program. Thank'ya much for letting me be Frank with you.”

[sxyphen]

soooo I made some morphology's and outfits for td charcters, here’s what I have so far (warning, this is gonna be long)

Gwen: outfit (Female Pearlcatcher; teal Jupiter, obsidian Basic, and emerald Basic) This is one of my personal favorites, it's simple but it works really well, but you'll see the morphologies and outfits get more complicated soooo

Courtney: outfit (Female Coatl; sand Cherub, camo Constellation, and wisteria Basic) Another favorite, she just looks pretty :3

Duncan: outfit (Male Bogsneak, eldritch Cinder, fern Blaze, and flaxen Basic) Silly little eepy guy, I feel like this is probably the most accurate dragon of any td character i've made. not much to say about him tho

Alejandro: outfit (Male Imperial; coral Python, maroon Shimmer, and blood Smoke) This is actually a dragon that I have, you can check him out here, but it actually took a couple tries to get an outfit that I think works with him lol

Bridgette: outfit (Female Skydancer; caribbean Lionfish, sanddollar Shimmer, and cobalt Okapi) nothing much to say other than, pretty :3

Geoff: outfit (Male Pearlcatcher; magenta Clown, ivory Butterfly, and strawberry Spines) same with Bridgette, I wanted them to be matching, cause, y'know. they kiss :<, but I honestly prefer this one over Bridgette (the outfit, not the morphology)

Harold: outfit (Male Ridgeback; periwinkle Skink, orange Hex, and fern Stained) I'm really happy with how this came out, even if it took a couple redos lol, and the steampunk apparel works with Harold's, vibe

ok for some stupid reason I can't put the pictures of Beth, Justin, Katie and Sadie [im on pc], so I'm just going to link the morphologies here: Beth (Female Aether; ivory Candy, magenta Butterfly, and shamrock Wish), Justin (Male Aether; bronze Boa, hunter Daub, and overcast Flutter), Katie and Sadie (Female Aberration; brown Pinstripe, ivory Flair, and cottoncandy Koi)

Ezekiel: outfit (Male Wildclaw; algae Pinstripe, soil Patchwork, and stonewash Veined) My favorite tbh, can't really explain why it just, ✨does✨

Feral Ezekiel: outfit (Male Mirror; fern Stiched, camo Patchwork, and cobalt Ghost) yeah, i made the eepy. i changed the breed cause 1) it reflects how ezekiel changed after his mutation, and 2) Male Wildclaw's position(?) isn't creaturey enough

Leshawna: outfit (Female Obelisk; ginger Falcon, obsidian Rosette, and cerise Contour) Nothing much to say about this one tbh, she looks real pretty tho :D

Owen: outfit (Male Snapper; metals Ground, marigold Safari, and teal Koi) I like this one, it's simple but unfortunately i couldn't find anything to represent his maple leaf :(

Cody: outfit (Male Coatl; gold Swirl, twilight Fissure, and copper Contour) i'm honestly not happy with this one, specifically the outfit. might redo this one later, and remove all the autumn stuff

DJ: outfit (Male Tundra; camo Python, brown Constellation, and dust Runes) lookie, is my boy :3333333333

Izzy: outfit (Female Mirror; sunshine Clown, pear Eye Spots, and avocado Gembond) really happy with this one, it fits her well and gives off her craziness :>

Sierra: outfit (Female Spiral; jade Clown, mulberry Hypnotic, and blackberry Opal) i'm very lucky to have found the apparel that i did for her, cause if i didn't, i have no idea what outfit to have given her ;-; but yeah she pretty

Eva: outfit (Female Snapper; cobalt Falcon, sapphire Peregrine, and obsidian Spines) big buff lady :D

Tyler: outfit (Male Ridgeback; cherry Jupiter, sable Eel, and white Basic) A fan of this one, and the Love's Herald was a gift from Lindsay. and now thinking about it, i might wanna make some lore for this. it's a big maybe though

Lindsay: outfit (Female Fae; garnet Flaunt, honey Jester, and cornflower Scales) i don't know how to feel abt this one, not a fan of it. and also will probably redo the outfit. the morphology i can live with.

Noah: outfit (Male Nocturne; brown Jupiter, pthalo Safari, and crimson Underbelly) another favorite, it gives off very Noah vibes lol (and i just realized that he shares a gene with Owen. so do with that information as you will)

Trent: outfit (Male Skydancer; algae Viperia, forest Eel, and obsidian Koi) I love this one, gives off very bard/guitarist kinda vibes. and if there was lore, i imagine trent would be a nomad entertainer, playing in small towns and cities, and maybe at a bar or two

Chris: outfit (Male Fae; forest Falcon, teal Myrid, and obsidian Smoke) look, it's him, the guy!!!!/j but in all seriousness, this is literally just him. entitled little short king who slays (i also have one for Chef, but it's yucky :,<)

i had one for Heather, but I deleted the outfit for her, which was of a dragon that i already sold, soooooooo i'm just gonna make a new one for her :3 also thank you for reading this long ass post (if you actually did), it means a lot to me :3

[semper-legens]

25. Destined, by PC and Kristin Cast

Owned: No, library Page count: 325 My summary: Neferet's plans have ramped up. Killing Zoey's mother to make her perfect vessel, Aurox, wasn't enough. She wants to destroy Zoey and her friends, and she's going to need power to do it. The Darkness is calling...meanwhile, Zoey's friends face trouble amongst themselves. Rephaim is still settling in, and Erin and Shaunee have started to separate themselves. And Zoey is grieving her mother's death. Can they get it together long enough to find out what really happened? My rating: 1/5 My commentary:

Back at it again with the House of Night and hoo boy folks, this one's a doozy. I'm so close to the endgame now - only three more to go after this! And as soon as they come into the library, I swear, I'm speedrunning this shit. But this post is going to be the opposite of speedrunning. Turns out I have a lot to say about this continued train wreck, and I'm gonna spill a lot of digital ink in so doing! So without further ado, let's get down to it.

Right off the bat, we have a healthy dose of ableism! Yep, this book introduces Shaylin, who became blind as a child and is Marked by Erik. But she's Marked as a red vampire, and immediately regains her sight - and is gifted an aura-sensing True Sight. And of course, she goes on and on and on about how great it is that she's not blind anymore, and how bad being blind was, and it's just enough to make me cringe. Because all blind people need is to magically get their sight back! Not, like, better accommodations to help them live in a world that hasn't been built for them, or to be treated like actual adults or something. Nope. Magical sight, that's the best thing. It carries forward that unhealthy idea that vampires in this world are physically 'perfect' - before, we've seen the kids whose bodies reject the Change being portrayed as fat, greasy, and unfit. Now, it seems that disabled kids aren't allowed to be vampires while retaining their disability. Gross!

Nefert has a new boytoy, and his name is Aurox. Get it, because he's a werebull. Sort of - he was gifted by the white bull of Darkness, and he can turn into a bull involuntarily. But because Neferet botched the summoning, Aurox has a soul and stuff. Specifically, Heath's. Remember Heath? Zoey's human boyfriend, got necksnapped by Kalona? Yeah, the book treats it like it's a big mystery, but it's so obvious that it's Heath. Aurox knows things about Zoey he shouldn't, calls Zoey by Heath's pet name for her, has his mannerisms…it's one thing for a book for teenagers to be simpler than I, an adult, expect, it's another for it to be so obvious that a toddler could realise what's going on. And yet again, we've got another topless teen badboy who angsts about being evil and is gonna get a redemption arc. Christ alive, how many of those are there? Stark, Kalona, Rephaim, now Aurox…we get it, Casts, you got a kink. Can you please come up with another male character?

Speaking of male characters, in order to sew some chaos, Neferet's invited humans to come work at the House of Night, which means we're introduced to Lenobia's cowboy, Travis. He's a cowboy. Who works at the stables. And Lenobia, running minor character and horsemaster at the House of Night, is falling hard for him. What does this relationship do, plotwise, other than add a sexy cowboy to the cast? Even though I've criticised things like Stevie Rae and Rephaim or Zoey and…most male characters…I can at least acknowledge that they serve a function. Introducing or adding to the theme of redemption, giving those characters conflicts and secrets, furthering the plot somehow. But this? I guess it's giving us an insight into Lenobia, but so far all I've gathered is that she has a thing for cowboys and doesn't want to be romantically involved with anyone but oh no this guy's too sexy. It drags the book down and takes up valuable page time - not to mention that Travis himself has less depth than a Mills and Boon cowboy. He's just…charming and folksy and respectful to Lenobia and loves horses. Exactly the sexy cowboy archetype. Bleh. Lenobia seems like she might have been an interesting character, but the new context we learn about her is entirely about her love life, or lack thereof, and nothing to do with who she is as a person. It's lacklustre, is what I'm getting at here.

Neferet continues to be the big bad, evilly doing evil things because she's evil. She's escalated to human sacrifice and gives blood to the Darkness to drink whenever she needs something. As if she wasn't enough of a cackling supervillain already. My biggest problem with Neferet is that there's no depth to her. Why is she doing what she's doing? Sure, she wants power, she wants to rule the world and become a goddess, but why? I don't need a Disney-live-action-movie backstory for her, just something other than her hatred for Zoey and lust for power! Has this always been a facet of her from before Zoey? Was she striving towards this goal before Zoey? And, of course, for all that the Casts seem to think they're clever for making the evil bull the white one, we have the Darkness demanding blood in order to do Neferet's bidding. Not at all an overdone trope. And the way they take it from her is uncomfortably sexual - almost like the Casts haven't gotten over their whole 'slutshame the villainous female character' thing. Above all, though, Neferet falls into the biggest trap for her character archetype - she's not camp enough. If you want to have a cackling balls-to-the-wall Evil Bitch as a main villain, she needs to own it. Think Maleficent! Think Ursula! Neferet just isn't interesting enough or ridiculous enough, that's my problem.

Meanwhile, there's trouble in Zoey's inner circle. Erin and Shaunee, the Twins, have started to un-twin themselves, separating from each other to become their own people. This would be a perfectly fine plot point, but for three things. One, Erin and Shaunee aren't well-developed in general - literally, their only character trait is that they are Twins. This would be a good time to give them more character, except that this mostly unfolds with people standing around and telling Shaunee how much nicer she is now, rather than us being shown it really. Two, it seems to come right out of nowhere? There's no particular reason it happens. And three, none of the other characters seem to care about Erin after it happens. They're obviously setting up for Erin to become more of an antagonistic character later, but as soon as the split occurs, all Zoey and her friends seem to care about and check in on is Shaunee - nobody ever checks in on Erin or seems to give much of a shit about her as a person. Which is…really fucking weird? Like, if Zoey et al had checked in on Erin and been yelled at or something, that'd make sense. But it's like this girl wasn't their friend at all, so quickly is she dumped. And that's just lazy writing. It's a clear signal to the reader that Shaunee is the 'good one' and Erin is the 'bad one', despite it being a particularly cold and uncaring thing for the characters to do in-universe. There's no reason why Zoey can't be like 'hey are you okay' to Erin at least once. It'd give a chance to show how Erin is changing! But nope. Subtext is for cowards. Let's just spell it all out to the audience. Wouldn't want them to start thinking.

And yet, for all that seems to be going on here, that's actually a negative. Because it makes the book so unfocused. You can hardly concentrate on one plot thread, so much is being brought up and juggled and dropped. And a lot of it isn't resolved - sure, this is a series and there's three more books after this, but it just feels like the Casts are throwing a lot of spaghetti at the wall to see what will stick. It strikes me as a series that hasn't been tightly planned, that was loosely improvisational, and it really shows. New conflicts come out of nowhere and aren't properly foreshadowed in anyone's behaviour. New twists are set up that are predictable from the moment they are introduced. Characters are sort of fleshed out, but only in very limited ways. Characters stick to one-dimensional archetypes. There's a lot going on, but it's all as thin as paper. And it's just as bad as all the books that came before it.

Next up, time travelling meets a pirate tale.

[semi-imaginary-place]

ffxiv ill mheg 2 and rak'tika 1

2 headed wolf of voeburt. like the 2 headed eagle of the germanic kingdoms?

dohn mheg. i kinda miss actual dungeons that were mazes would have been appropriate here

ardbert's got that chronic depression rizz

firs tthe echo makes pc best canditate for primals and now the blessing of light makes them suitable for lightwardens. isn't it great being the player character

i was eating chocolate so this line blindsided me because it's very different and 4 times as long in the og japanese. so i didn't get it all but whats different is something like i'm not the real minfilia im not the minfilia that is his family

yeah that sounds like him. 5 years and a different world didn't make him any less emo

this is my favorite section of the game so far.

fandom is such a liar. emet selch is the true femboy of ffxiv. he's such a drama queen (literally too since he was the main patron of the sb raid theater group). he just came here to complain

speaking of ill mheg and lakeland. those don't look like 100 year old ruins. (or was lakeland earlier i dont remember). but stone structures even without maintenence don't fall apart that fast like irl we have stone castles and pyramids that are hundreds or thousands of years old. stone is durable. wood is the stuff that will fall apart after a hundred or two years. i guess the pixies went on a wrecking spree?

rak'tika greatwood. y'shtola joined a cult.

wow he's really got nothing better to do than follow us around

y'shtola joined a paranoid xenophobic cult. they called anne-san! an oira character! oira characters are the best! damn she really went no contact

yeah i got spoiled on this plot point but it's concerning that pc-kun is aetherically indistinguishable from a sin eater

oh so this is a persistent script change. in jp minfilia says "I'm not the real one" and this isn't the first time she's referred to herself as not the real one. honmono ja nai or something

idealism, hedonism, spirituality. also interesting that rak'tika is the only place outside of the shroud ive seen teh duskright models being used.

rather convenient that krile of all the scions didn't get summoned. well i guess post sb she's messing with eureka. but still imagine if 5 sine eaters were distributed among 3 people instead of 1. 5/3= 1.67 and wol-chan is ok at 2.

... it's a new age cult. the night's blessed see themselves as stars in a night sky, lights in the dark or do they consider stars/candles to be a part of the darkness too?

huh just noticed everyone this expansion is in black and white. minfilia is in mostly white. urianger and y'shtola in black. thancred is in white and black . alphi and alisaie are the most colorful. and my player character is all in white too.

... pc didn't tell anyone about ardbert.

it doesn't come across as much in eng but in jp vauthy's speech pattern is unusually childish for his position

weren't the murderous faction wanting to kill everyone. really ranjit is the better option. the audience knows the night's blessed are the "good" ones but really this sounds like a religious faction skirmish, what is one belief system over another.

finally i've been hearing about the great serpent of ronka for years now. is that a tsukinoko?

[huntunderironskies]

Hey thaks for responding my other question but i have come to bother you once more (i am really sorry btw). But do you think that werewolves are weaker in comparison to the other cofd splats in a 1on1 fight ? Like how would like a wofle compit against an obfuscated (invisible) vamp for example?

No worries, I love talking game design and the details of mechanics. :>

Quick terminology note: I use the abbreviations RAW and RAI which are, respectively, rules-as-written and rules-as-intended. RAI can include edge case rulings of "this makes sense but the writers didn't specifically say it" such as death mimicking powers like Cold Embrace which stop your metabolism also halting the progression of illness or poison. But it can also mean things like "I know what these rules are supposed to be and what they're trying to communicate but they're not doing it the way they're supposed to so I'm tweaking some things," which is about the position I ended up with regarding down and dirty combat since it's wayyyyyyy too swingy for trying to show a one-sided beatdown.

The term "whiteroom" is used in English-speaking tabletop communities to describe the most basic possible combat scenario, two guys facing off in a white room without any confounding factors like terrain, the roleplay setting, external resources like allies the characters might have, and so on.

Now, I'm going to have to put this behind a cut because it got very long.

So, the short answer is that it's super hard to whiteroom this stuff. CofD characters are way more varied and have more potential iterations than, say, DnD characters. One of the complicating factors is that drawn out fights are actually discouraged in CofD versus other games (unless you're a mummy, then you'll be fine.) The general answer to this is supposed to be "werewolves are most deadly in groups" but even that's not quite right. A smart werewolf won't get into a protracted conflict, period, unless maybe they're a Blood Talon. They're an ambush hunter, they're going to harry any prey and disappear off into the night, repeat until something's dead.

However, that doesn't really answer the question, so let's talk about hard counters. You mentioned vampires specifically, which isn't surprising since Obfuscate and any physical Disciplines tend to be...problematic for combat encounter balancing and tend to be the first realization for GMs that if monster PCs want something bad enough and are willing to spend all of their resources in pursuit of it, they'll get it and you just have to accept that and plan around it.

When talking about Obfuscate I generally assume people are referring to using Obfuscate 3/Cloak of Night specifically since RAW Obfuscate 1 doesn't help with anything other than people being much less likely to intervene when they see you doing something suspicious. I think the rule people overlook here is aura effects end Cloak of Night. Werewolves RAW have an aura effect in their Hunter's Aspect, which all werewolves have as of Shunned by the Moon, not just werewolves with an Auspice. So they would need to survive one strike (which, unless you're at an extreme of Harmony, you can shift to Gauru as a reflexive action in some way or another, meaning it's absolutely doable given the healing factor involved if you are sufficiently desperate) and then they'll be good for a turn and just need to successfully impose their Hunter's Aspect on the vampire.

(RAI I politely disagree with Player's Guide to the Contagion Chronicle about not giving other supernatural beings aura effects and one of the houserules I've bootstrapped on is giving other things aura effects given how useful they can be for these kind of rules interactions. I mean, CofD is not balanced and isn't supposed to be, but you know. Some are pretty straightforward like a Sin-Eater using their liminal aura and some I had to get creative with.)

Werewolves also have an equivalent to the Obfuscate > attack > Obfuscate > repeat death spiral maneuver if they have access to Evasion Gifts, which gets even more potent if they have Stealth or Strength paired with it, because they get what is arguably the best damage reduction power in all gamelines with Hit and Run. Burn one Essence for a guaranteed escape from one attack, and then roll if there's a hiding place to see if you can re-establish stealth and repeat an ambush. I had a (....highish ranked, he was effective Spirit Rank 3 and hit Cunning 4) Irraka in one of my games who took out three ancillae vampires without taking a level of health damage between that and clever usage of Eviscerate + Divide and Conquer so he wasn't getting ganged up on, and using Feet of Mist so the vamps couldn't pick up on his heartbeat.

Probably worth mentioning he was also on the Sacred Hunt so he was getting his bonus from Relentless Hunter which put him around 15 dice on ambush rolls in Urshul, though, and it did cost him almost all of his Essence and most of his Willpower but still pretty impressive.

Anyway, this can kind of turn fights into a game of rocket tag depending on the builds which means that at some point in time a smart monster is going to say "fuck it" and leave because it's now no longer worth it to risk health and other resources on. Vitae and Essence aren't easy to get and once a vampire ends up looping around into lethal damage (which werewolf bites do cause rather than bashing) it starts getting painful to heal. Werewolves can at least sit it out without burning off their fuel stat.

Speaking of going "fuck it," for more general purposes of dealing with invisibility, getting out is also a viable counter. Insight gives a very good utility power in One Step Ahead, which once the werewolf catches a vampire attacking they can intuitively sense where that vampire is. This is more RAI but it's not tracking in the same way that Know Thy Prey isn't reading someone's mind to figure out their names and social Merits. The world is just telling you where to find someone because you're hunting them, and as an inheritor of the God of the Hunt it's bowing to you.

Evasion (which I maintain would be the best Gifts to dip into were it not for Deny Everything being a bit of a dud, instead it's only among the best because of that) also has the fantastic Exit Strategy, which just automatically tells you where to go if you need to get away from someone. Regardless of whether or not you can see them. This isn't specifically anti-vampire but it's anti-invisibility in general. Again, utility powers are disproportionately useful in just about every gameline, the one thing better than being good in a fight is making sure you don't get in one.

Back on the more general topic, however, since that doesn't answer the question: I would say if you're talking about werewolves that are going to handle one-on-one conflict well and might actually do it are Storm Lord Rahu and Blood Talon Irraka (though Rahu do pretty damn well, unsurprisingly, those 8-agains and extra health levels add up.) Storm Lords get innate access to the above-mentioned Evasion Gifts, and have the usual Rahu nonsense going for them (namely, Strength and Full Moon Gifts.) Dominance also has some applications in combat, and Weather gives some debuffs, but that shouldn't be at the top of your priority list for spending Essence. All that said, you're intended to be funneled into a very long-term, slow, exacting hunt as a Storm Lord. You want to pile on as much pain as possible so you can do one final strike without much resistance, making sure you're always just one step behind to catch that opportunity to give a lethal blow. This does, however, technically count as one-on-one combat I guess.

Blood Talons are....Blood Talons. Strength gives you just about everything you want and the ability to make some truly deadly neck bite grapples due to Unchained if you chain it off Primal Strength. More turns in Gauru, damage reduction, weapon modifier bonus, and all of these become free effects if you're in Death Rage. This is, uh, very nasty to deal with and since Death Rage is very difficult to redirect your choices are mostly to just run and live to fight another day. The catch is that you could endanger your pack or any bystanders and you have absolutely no control over what's happening, but in a whiteroom scenario, yeah, this is probably the nastiest combination.

Hunter in Darkness Rahu deserve an honorable mention here. They've got the capacity for some absolutely deadly ambushes with the phenomenal Shadow Pelt and Primal Strength combined together, while Black Earth Red Hunger is great for longevity. That aside, even more than most werewolves Hunters in Darkness really thrive with a home turf advantage. They do get Nature's Lure to try and peel off a target to make sure it's a one-on-one fight.

A lot of your other Auspice/Tribe combos aren't really going to try and go for that sort of thing. And some of them will just wait until they can kill someone while they're asleep. Not a Glorious action, but probably Cunning.

With all that said....this doesn't mean much alone. I can think of some absolutely turbo busted combat builds even for splats not normally thought of as being combat-ready (four words: Stoneskin Ogre Summer Courtier. A combination of applying Tilts and having an insanely high armor rating will make it so eventually they don't have to kill you, you just stop getting up off the ground.) Most splats have at least one power that will hard counter another splat, it's all a matter of what you pick, and in some cases there's a lot less available for you and the resources you need to pull it off might be harder to get.

[benchwarmerxp]

1. Halfling because I'm a short white boy with Irish and English ancestry.

2. Bard because I was a theatre kid. Or maybe Artificer because now I'm a IT tech

3. Skilled and lucky

4. Edgy tiefling ranger who was hunting for vengeance against an orc antipaladin, who was my previous PC in a villain campaign with the same DM

5. Sai the awkward know-it-all half elf bladesinger who was always an outsider.

6. Kaladan, an agressive red dragonborn fighter who lived by survival of the fittest and was paranoid about attacks from even allies.

7. Usually it's just a song for their theme or I go from the class I want to play and build from there.

8. Playing a druid, Rolling 2 Nat 20s on a sleight of hand to stealth heal my fighter buddy while he was dueling the bad guy and the DM letting me double the healing for him.

9. That same druid died to tiamat right at the end of the campaign.

10. Bard. Always fun to mix music and magic AND I get to be a martial fighter too if I'm feeling fancy.

11. I did a tyranny of dragons campaign, we fought many dragons, this was also where I played my druid from question 8. He stabbed a dragon in the eye with a flame blade.

12. Yes, and a death tyrant

13. Yes, DM had the horrifying idea of hasting a mind flayer for extra fast brain extraction.

14. Yes, kaladan had a werebear boyfriend NPC

15. I prefer to DM, although I've been forever DM for so long I miss being a player.

16. Critical role, although unsleeping city is too damn good.

17. Brennan Lee Mulligan. Master of comedy and character.

18. Yes, I use terrains and minis every chance I get.

19. I can't really recall but I think it was critical role that got me interested.

20. Moon's haunted, gotta kill it with ocean lasers

21.

22.

23.

24. Yes. starfinder, pathfinder, honey heist, masks, dread and world of darkness.

25. Popcorn

26. Potion of longevity

27. Unseen servant so it can do all my housework

28. Killed my cleric on a res check with a Nat 1

29. Yes, drunken dnd sessions until 4 in the morning were great.

30. Homebrew. Although I mix in prewritten stuff cuz I don't have time to do all the prep.

31. Seafaring campaign. We have water genasi wizard grandma, aarakocra paladin of vigilance, spirit-talker tiefling sorcerer, human rogue teenager and scoundrel pirate human cleric.

32.

33. Yes. Usually orchestral game OST or the like to set the mood

34. Posh British.

35. The players being a party of completely exotic races in some random human town.

36. Talon, the elf wizard who grew up with human and got real sad about all his human friends growing old and dying.

37. Alra'i, the blind aarakocra paladin NPC with insane blindsight and perception.

38. Goblins

39. Would have to be the dragon from question 11.

40. "Try your luck with lady tymora!"

41. " The priestesses to continue to sing holy shark 🦈 dodododo"

42. No. I plan to change this as I've never played a wild magic sorcerer.

43. Minis and terrain

44. Mercer

45. Wouldve been about 9 hours. Finished at 4 in the morning

46. Final battle with my lich BBEG went for 4 hours.

47. Yes, but only for oneshots

48. Yes, it's me. I'm the DM

49. Unless pathfinder counts, no I have not.

50.

50 d&d questions

1. What do you think your d&d race would be?

2. What class?

3. What two feats would you have?

4. What has been your favorite d&d character you've played? (NPCs count for DMs)

5. Which of your d&d characters has been the most like you?

6. Which of your d&d characters has been the least like you?

7. How do you go about making a character or NPC?

8. What is the most memorable natural 20 you've ever experienced?

9. Has one of your d&d characters ever died? How?

10. What is your favorite class to play?

11. Have you ever fought a dragon?

12. Have you ever fought a beholder?

13. Have you ever fought a mind flayer?

14. Have you ever had a romance with an NPC or another PC?

15. Do you prefer to DM or play?

16. What is your favorite D&D pod/vodcast?

17. Who is your favorite "celebrity dm?"

18. Do you use props/minis/terrain in your game?

19. How did you discover D&D?

20. If you run a homebrew game, give an out of context spoiler.

21. Drop a picture of a mini you painted (if applicable)

22. Write a brief scene centered around one of your characters!

23. Do you have any art of your characters?

24. Have you ever played any TTRPGs other than D&D?

25. What is your favorite snack for d&d?

26. If you could have one potion from d&d, which one would you choose?

27. If you could cast one spell from d&d, which would you cast?

28. What is the most memorable natural 1 you've experienced?

29. Have you ever been drunk playing d&d?

30. Homebrew or prewritten?

31. Tell me about your current party!

32. Most memorable NPC you've encountered in a game you played in.

33. Do you listen to music while playing? What kinds?

34. Favorite accent to do for characters?

35. Favorite classic d&d trope

36. What was your first d&d character you made?

37. What is the most recent PC or NPC you've created?

38. Goblins or Kobolds?

39. Favorite villain you've defeated?

40. What d&d deity would you be a cleric of?

41. Give an out of context quote from one of your games!

42. Have you ever rolled turn into a potted plant on the wild magic table?

43. Minis and terrain or theater of the mind?

44. Mulligan, Mercer, Murphy, or McElroy?

45. What is the longest session you've ever had?

46. What is the longest battle you've fought or run?

47. Have you ever played at level 20?

48. Does your dm say "How do you want to do this?"

49. Have you ever played an edition other than 5th?

50. Any question you want!

[ttvnadeeta]

fiance is tired and i told him to take a nap and not push himself as 1. he was gaming already while waiting til i got home from work and 2. we do have a time diff,so it is late by him and stuff. so plan is he will take a 5-6 hr nap. as long as he wakes up on time,and/or feels up to gaming we will game later tonight,if not plan is to do a 3 day weekend. so Friday-Sunday. i won't solo stream,if we don't game tonight,as i did do 1 last night.

also i was on amazon after work as i wanted to know if i could afford capture card for my xbox,as u guys know my xbox doesn't work well with streaming. which i've said it before and i'll say it again it has to be an xbox,and/or a Microsoft thing. cuz I've never had this happen with ps5 with sony. and discord works on ps5 as well when i used to stream off the console before i got the capture card. that's why i say it has to be xbox,and/or Microsoft as it works with sony/ps5. but yeah so i got some non-streaming related stuff,but i mainly focused on streaming stuff. i got a 2 pack capture card(plan is 1 is going to be for the Xbox one and the other one will be for the xbox x.) , i got an HDMI plug with the red,white,and yellow hook ups for the wii and stuff(but i don't think my tv has that input,so i feel like it might be useless atm. at least if that's the case,it was only $13,and i can keep it for future reference. if my tv DOES have those inputs ,then i can stream wii,and/or ps2. if my tv does NOT have those inputs,i will have to find another device to use to stream off it with. unless i can use the hdmi convertor i'm already using with it. will have to mess around with things when i have free time/on a non-streaming day.) i also ordered a GeekShare Cute Wrist Rest Support Mouse Pad. plan is to put it over the lap rest i currently have(it might be a bit to big,but here's hoping it fits. if it doesn't fit then i'll just keep it for when i get a desk in the future). and lastly i ordered another headset. it says its for pc and xbox,so now i just gotta decide where i wanna use it. its a PDP one. i might use it downstairs for when i game on the xbox and stuff. cuz technically when i get the capture card,i will game on my pc,so i mean. i mean yes i would still have the headset in the xbox controller i could use,but wouldn't hurt to have a backup downstairs with me and all that. according to amazon, the capture cards and the convertor are supposed to come this upcoming monday. and the headset is supposed to come in 2 weeks,so i will use the current headset i have downstairs until the new one comes. and then lately the wrist mouse-pad thing,isn't supposed to come until near the end of the month. so at the very least i SHOULD be able to stream Xbox this upcoming week. which means until then it will be ps/pc. idk if we'll do a debate stream,or just a chatting stream,or if i backseat my fiance to do switch and then we do pc,or what the plan will be as i mean 1. there's only so many games i can do on ps/pc and 2. i'm sure u guys wil be tired of the same content over and over.

and lastly I'm srry i still have yet to post my clips/highlights on my tiktok page. i knew i was supposed to post them a month ago,but i been so busy with work,with being sick,with eating,sleeping,streaming,doing arts and crafts,etc that i just been forgetting to do it and by the time i remember its to late and there's no point. like i said in my most recent tiktok video,i SHOULD have content in the next 1-3 months. i have drafts,i just have to post them. I'm hopping within the next week or 2 to post them,but we shall see. no promises that it will happen, but that's supposed to be the plan.

well until later/tomorrow(depending what all happens),see u all then ^^. hope u all have a good rest of ur evening <3

[maria-mga2024mi4014]

Building 'Bob the Builder's' hammer on Maya

28/06/2024

Today's class brought back some memories from the good old Portfolio days. Back in portfolio, Ravindu had one class with us where he taught us how to 3D model a hammer. And that's exactly what we learned today as well. We learned how to 3D model the same hammer we used as reference for portfolio.

I will proudly admit that my amateur 3D modeling skills have improved since portfolio, but I obviously have a long LOOOONGGG way to go with this.

This is the hammer we used as a reference. (BEHOLD!!! The hammer that triggered my portfolio memories!!)

Before getting started with the hammer design, Ravindu had a Zoom call with the class to show a step-by-step tutorial on how to model a basic hammer. (For context, the lab PCs and the projector weren't working. Ravindu's only option to teach us was through the zoom call).

Below are some screenshots from the morning Zoom call.

Now, I should admit to being a novice with all these 3D drawing thingamajigs and I didn't search for any tutorials during the break to learn 3D. But luckily, Thameena was there to help. She had made some attempts at learning 3D modeling on Maya during the break. So, she had some prior knowledge to help me build the hammer.

Before we started on the hammer, I decided to play around with the faces of the cube to come up with a random shape. I ended up making this U :D (Ik it looks a bit wonky, but there's some potential to it. It's a good enough start I guess)

Alright! Back to the important stuff. The hammer modeling Work In Progress.

Before starting on the modeling, we had to select the cube shape and then extend the view to the 4-panel view. Next, we had to click the icon that looks like a 'Blue vertical sheet on top of a horizontal White mesh sheet' to import the image of the hammer.

*Note for future self - Save the images in documents and click all files to import them to Maya.

The easiest way to think about building a figure is to long-press the left mouse for selections. If you want to move just one face of the cube, long press the left mouse button, select faces, click on the face you want to move, and press 'shift' and upward arrowhead to move the cube face upwards. (It all depends on the direction you want to extend the cube)

If you want to move a particular edge of the cube figure the same process should be repeated with one exception. When you long-press the left mouse button for options, click 'Edges'.

Also, if you want to move the image around, click panel 2, Press the 'alt' key and use the mouse for movement.

zoom ins and zoom outs can be done by pressing the 'F' key.

That's all I can remember for instructions....

Moving on, this is the final outcome of the hammer model. I couldn't have created it without Thameena's and most of Ravindu's help. Although working on the hammer seemed a bit complicated at first, I now have a bit more confidence in trying out the hammer modeling on my own. So...a win is a win!

For future reference, I've recorded some videos of Ravindu showing how to do some 3D modeling adjustments when making the hammer. I will add the Google Drive Links to them down below!

That's all for today's post! Thank you so much for taking the time to read through it. From today onwards, whatever 3D modeling attempts and tutorials I find will be shared on this blog. I hope to keep some motivation up to learn 3D and master it!

[trans-yllz]

apologies if this is like. putting too much authority on u so u can ignore it

i used to be really into genshin & i love a lot of the characters/story but esp with the newer stuff (i say "newer" but i left before sumeru came out) i've been getting really uncomfy w/ the lack of fat, disabled, or darker skinned folks and i wanted to ask if you think they got/are getting any better in that regard?

this got incredibly long so I'm going to put it under the cut!

for one I'd say that one of genshins biggest problems is it's complete lack of dark skinned characters. there are, what, five playable characters who aren't death pale out of the 70 something in the whole game currently? and my white dad gets darker than all of them in the summer. and then almost every single one of the darker skinned npcs in sumeru, with the exception of like three, have either been lying tricksters trying to con us, or aggressive and "brutish". they are also framed as being evil, unreasonable, and dangerous for wanting their ancestral lands back and trying to practice their culture. they couldn't even make candace, who is BASED OFF OF A REAL BLACK ETHIOPIAN QUEEN, dark skinned. sumeru is based off of swana (which, there are also problems w sumeru being based off of a huge geographical area w a plethora of different cultures while every other nation in tyvat takes clear inspiration from One singular real world nation and culture), but almost all of the characters, npc and playable, are super pale? this is obviously not to say that Everyone from a certain region looks the same way or that there are no light skinned ppl in swana nations irl, but like. cmon. they had an opportunity to represent darker skinned ppl w a nation based off of an area where a lot of darker skinned nonwhite ppl live, and they dropped the ball. not to mention the fact that out of all of the sumeru npcs, I don't think Any of the scholars from the akademiya have darker skin. there's obviously cyno as a pc but I feel like his academic side wasn't as focused on as it was w the light skinned characters. I think that the positive addition of a collection of darker skinned protagonist playable characters and npcs in sumeru sadly doesn't outweigh the fact that these characters are still ultimately whitewashed, and negative treatment of so many of the darker skinned npcs in the nation and the way that, even when those characters aren't being portrayed in a negative light, harmful stereotypes are still being perpetuated. there were quests that I could barely get through because they made me so uncomfortable. I do however know that hoyo has gotten a good deal backlash about this issue, at least from north american players, so we'll see how they handle natlan

as for fat characters... I feel like in general, genshin does pretty well with fat npcs. for the most part they're treated the same as other characters, appear in a variety of roles, and I haven't noticed any fatphobic jokes. I could very much be wrong and I wouldn't be Surprised if there were one or two but it hasn't been so much of a glaring issue that I can think of specific examples or remember it as a huge overarching problem. there was a fat npc in the most recent archon quest that played a pretty minor but positive role. sadly, I don't think there will ever be a fat playable character in genshin. there is barely any body type variation in the pcs anyway, ignoring the complete lack of fat ones. at the end of the day, genshin is a gacha game. the most popular one in the world currently. every playable character has to be marketable to the largest possible audience, and to be blunt about it, as fucked up as it is, fat bodies are not marketable. I just Know that if there was a fat pc there would be insane backlash. the amount of people losing their fatphobic minds would drown out anybody celebrating it. now, there Are instances of hoyo doing stuff w character design despite previous backlash - lyney being so blatantly gnc despite all the shit they got for venti comes to mind - so Maybe there's hope, but I honestly doubt it, unfortunately

hoyos relationship w disabled characters is.... complicated. there were two pcs in sumeru who I would consider disabled - collei had a fictional chronic illness and another character named layla has what I'd argue is narcolepsy or at least chronic fatigue. you could argue that what's happening w dainsleif is a chronic illness and I know baizhu is sick in some way but I'm not informed enough on the details to really speak on it. the pc dehya Maybe has a prosthetic arm? but it's incredibly unclear. there are of course a few characters with eyepatches. there's an upcoming character in hoyos other game, star rail, who has a prosthetic arm, but in the same game they have a blind npc who turns out to be a villain with her blindness being an obvious aspect of why she chose to be evil. in genshin a lot of the characters with sort of ambiguous health problems are treated... fine? like dainsleif is obviously isn't supposed to be a villain but I feel like his chronic illness doesn't actually affect his every day life in a significant way and it's just sort of a looming plot device. from what I remember from our interactions with layla, nothing glaring stands out as being problematic, and I think the portrayal of her illness was decent but I also don't really Remember a lot about how she acted or was treated. eyepatched characters don't get outwardly ableist treatment but it also doesn't seem to really matter to or affect their characters. and then there's collei. collei could have been so good, I was So excited for collei. the treatment of her chronic illness was surprisingly well handled, and there was a plot significant npc with the same illness who I appreciated the handling of as well. it could have been So good. but then due to plot events that chronic illness magically disappeared and wasn't a problem for anyone anymore. I was so disappointed, it felt like such a cop out like oh this playable character whose whole life has been affected by her illness and who has had to build different strengths than others due to her disability? who experienced medical abuse and was taken advantage of because she was sick? yeah all that's magically whisked away now. like it didn't even matter. honestly it's embarrassing. hoyo had been handling it so well and then they fumbled at the end. for a popular piece of media, I think genshin does alright with disabilities, there are some positive instances I can think of, but I also think they've made some real blunders in this regard. I don't know if I would call recent updates any Better about disabled characters, but I guess there's More of them

hoyo has its own handful of biases and bigotry that are very evident in the game (especially when it comes to race and colorism), there's no arguing with that, but I do think a good chunk of it comes down to what is and what they perceive as marketable, and considering genshin Is a combat game, this is especially true for fat playable characters. people would throw a fit about fat characters being """unrealistic""" in a combat setting, and hoyo knows this. they know that certain disabilities could get similar backlash or at least not be seen as being as "cool", and they know that, especially in east asian countries where colorism is very prevalent, dark skinned characters wouldn't make as much money. people like to act like because hoyo is a chinese company, they could have no possible clue that any of these things are problems, which is it's own insane brand of racism/orientalism from fans, but ultimately they are a multimillion dollar corporation trying to make as much money as they can, they know exactly what they're doing

there are many parts of the game that you can tell are made with genuine love for the story and the craft, I'm not saying it's all a nefarious cash grab, they Do care about quality and storytelling - that's clear in the intricacy of the lore and the beauty of the game itself. genshin is a game made by people trying to make good art, and I want to acknowledge that, but those people also work for a multimillion dollar company that gets the final say. I'm not trying to be pessimistic and say genshin will Never change, or that they Always bend to fan service and marketability, I do think there's hope! they've gotten better about a lot of these things! but I don't think that any of the issues you mentioned are Fixed by any means, and sadly a lot of the positive improvements have negative and disappointing counterparts

[thecurioustale]

Love this!

Love the vibe, the mood, just love it.

And at the same time I want to use it to give voice to a thought I've had.

I love pixel art because it is nostalgic for me. I was that kid using the PC in the '90s. But one thing I've noticed about contemporary pixel art is that it doesn't actually look like the old stuff and doesn't strive to. And for a long time I couldn't put my finger on why, except to say that a lot of the new stuff looks "washed out."

Then, recently, after visiting an old DOS game from my childhood on the Internet Archive (one of the Hoyle card games programs), and admiring that old-timey pixel art, it suddenly struck me why:

Old pixel art, which is to say simply computer graphics back in those days, was limited in its total number of colors, and almost always used its limited colors to fill out the entire color palette. So there wasn't much subtlety. The yellows were very yellow. The blues were very blue. And so on. At most you would typically have a light shade and a dark shade of a given color.

Modern pixel art is all about the pixilation, not the color limitation, even though in the old days those two constraints went hand-in-hand. And moreover, the modern stuff usually eschews using the entire color wheel and instead picks color schemes such that the art will specifically drill down into a small number of colors with many, many shades of those colors. The result is art that is typically quite...well, I used the term "washed out," and I do kind of feel that way about it. The old stuff was glaringly distinctive almost to the point of being gaudy or cartoonish: yellows and reds and teals and lime greens and blacks and whites all within a few pixels of each other. The modern stuff seems compelled to try and go far away from that, and pass more for "respectable" art by being muted in its use of color.

And I don't know how much of it is the nostalgia talking, and how much is my aesthetic preference, and in any case they are not independent variables when you really get down to it, but I do prefer the old stuff.

Thinking of Newer Days - Après-midi, Bonheur, Š'embrasser, Somnolente Color Variations available for 'Aviator' Tier Supporters on Patreon and Ko-Fi!