#an interaction post-JANK 2

[callum-librrry]

New Earth

“You’re actually joking,” Laughed Tom, looking at the news article from Earth that Yongrae pulled up. “There is no way we’re naming it ‘New Earth’! That’s the most colonial thing they could do!”

“I know, it’s almost like their trying to sound like the British Empire! Peaceful control my ass!” Yongrae joined Tom in laughing.

“It’s just the easy way out at this point. I mean, you could at least anglicise the native word for it or something! Jeez, no creativity these days.”

“What’s going on here?” Hazai squeezed her head between the two humans. “What’s ‘New Earth’? I thought the one you had was fine, why do you need another one?“

Yongrae smiled, “Have you ever heard of consumerism?”

“It’s not that old Earth isn’t fine, it’s just that it’s a really common way for us to name stuff over there. You gain control of something and you name it ‘New-whatever town you’re from. It’s what those bad colonisers do. We’re making fun of how uncreative it is.” Tom explained. He stroked Hazai’s head and took out a few pin feathers.

“Oh.” 

“Yeah, it’s strange how Earth’s all for universal peace while still doing the same shit that made the World Wars world wars,” Yongrae pointed out as he got rid of the article. “But I suppose that’s enough of that. Need to go do something for Riggs now, I’ll see you two lovebirds later.”

Yongrae chuckled as he sauntered away from Tom’s flustered protests. Sometimes it was nice to be off world.

[valle-de-sombra-de-muerte]

Homestuck Reread: Act 4, Part 1/4 (p. 1358-1522)

Read the previous post here.

After a brief diversion with the Midnight Crew and Felt, it's time to go back to the story proper.

Oh fucking yuck it's that other walkaround flash that uses the story sprites. This one has jank ass combat mechanics in addition to having the same clunky controls as the one in Act 2. Just like that one, this one is also a waste of time. There's no point traversing this and its big ass map.

Wait, is this a Shoop da Whoop reference? God I feel old.

And finally we see Jade's "patron black celebrity": Charles Dutton. Look, I have no clue what Hussie means by any of this. It's just a pattern that I've noticed and nobody else has talked about it before.

Unlike the other kids, Jade always has a somewhat repulsed look on her face whenever she sees her black celebrity. I think she might just be racist, which would explain why she's so xenophobic toward the trolls.

Okay, okay, I'm just joking. Look, Jade is in desperate need of some character traits. At this point, even a negative one would be preferable to nothing at all. Anything to give her modicum of depth.

I wonder what kinds of conversations Vriska or Gamzee would have with Jade. These are things we will never know!

Vriska in particular should've had some meaningful interactions with Jade considering she's the one responsible for her narcolepsy. I'm dumbfounded we never got to see her act more outwardly malicious and cruel toward Jade, or even take a more active role in fucking with her beyond simply putting her to sleep. Vriska isn't exactly known for her subtlety, after all. If she really wanted to put her name on the kids' session and be responsible for all the key events in it, she should've went whole hog.

Perhaps if Hussie had actually planned all this out from the onset, we could've gotten something with more payoff. Recall my earlier post when I said Jade had the makings of a twist villain in these early stages of the story? I'd like to alter and expand upon that with this scenario that I would've implemented in Hussie's place.

Picture this: what if the reason Jade is such a shallow character is due to no fault of her own? What if Vriska had been the one manipulating this human like a meat puppet as her means to infiltrate the kids' session? Pushing the kids to play Sburb in the first place? Her reluctance to give away useful information? All of her intents and motives being masked with overbearing cheerfulness? The fact that she needs "reminders" to keep track of her litany of superficial interests? All Vriska, baby. She has hijacked this kid's brain and is using her as a vehicle to drive the plot forward.

This is back from Act 3, but let's look at how Jade initially reacts to each of her friends and then filter this through Vriska's perspective. John's utter incompetence and Dave's crush on Jade would make them useful idiots in Vriska's scheme. So naturally she reacts positively to both of them.

But she perceives Rose with a single, terse sentence. Rose is the only one who is actively curious about Jade's knowledge of things she shouldn't reasonably know about. This makes her a threat. Vriska would have to put a lot of distance between them in order to keep Rose from uncovering the truth.

And then there are the other trolls. Unbeknownst to them, their efforts to stop Jade would've actually been an internal struggle against one of their own. Vriska would shut them out entirely, not wanting to risk getting them involved with this. All the while, the "real" Jade never gets a chance to express herself because she has been constantly suppressed by an outside agent. Her shallowness would be by design, rather than a consequence of poor writing.

... But I think I'm getting carried away with this tangent. At this point I'm talking about an entirely different comic when this is supposed to be focused on Homestuck. Let's just move on.

So Jade knew about Sburb the whole time, okay. I don't know why it was presented like she didn't at first, but fine whatever. She still continues to be smarmy and coy while John continues to have rocks for brains. Every conversation between these two gives me new insights to the amount of bullshit I'm willing to endure to finish this comic.

I love this line from Dave. Can I get a so true oomfie?

Jade fumbles the SBaHJ reference when someone like Rose could probably recite the entirety of SBaHJ verbatim. In fact, if Rose had fudged up a quote like that, Dave would've shown her no mercy. He holds Jade's hand through it, though, because he's a dumb teenage boy thinking with his dick.

"i got served like a dude on butler island" is a great line. Also, Jade is dismissing Dave getting beat up by Bro as "drama" which, if we're meant to take Dave's domestic situation as legitimate abuse and not a joke, is pretty fucked up.

Dave repeating the whole meteor bit is shut down swiftly because Jade is incapable of keeping up with his patter. Not that I wanted the joke to be repeated anyway, but it's a telling example of how their dynamic works.

Even though Jade and John pesterlogs might be the worst combination out there, Jade and Dave conversations are also pretty damn bad. Dave is normally an entertaining character, but he's squandered in these instances. Jade offers no fun chemistry with him in the same way Rose, or even John sometimes, does. Instead of bouncing his jokes and sarcasm back at him, her obliviousness and naivete causes them to fall flat. She's less a springboard and more of a foam mattress (or smuppet ass, to use a more appropriate metaphor).

And since Dave has a crush on her and wants to appease, he rolls with it and moves along to the next subject without comment. It's like a painfully embarrassing comedy routine where one partner is letting the other flounder on stage.

The trolls act as if certain behaviors like laughing and sarcasm are exclusive to humans, despite us later seeing that such things are normal in their society. It's such a silly bit and I do like it a lot.

Karkat's trolling scheme really is the dumbest plan ever. Also some unfortunate foreshadowing for when he does eventually make shitty diagrams later on.

We needed more moments with the Exiles hanging out and getting to know each other, instead of being pawns to fulfill stupid plot contrivances. It'd make this side-plot infinitely more enjoyable to read.

Note how it's nighttime here when the previous panels with the Exiles were all during the day. This means they must have spent several off-screen hours together by this point. What were they talking about to reach a point where they're all chill with each other? Eh, Hussie deems it unimportant, so we move on!

This is actually a funny moment where Dave allows himself to be a bit of a jerk. I guess even his patience with Jade is wearing thin at this point.

Oh? Rose sounds a little jealous it seems. Dave and Jade get to have a relatively stress-free time playing server and client together. But Rose didn't get to have any of that quality time with Dave because he didn't install his disc until it reached a point where they had only seconds to save her life.

I'm once again thinking about how nice it would've been if Dave had connected to Rose earlier and we could've gotten a lot of banter between them as they navigated the game. Instead we get a lot of toothless slop with Dave and Jade. We were robbed.

Oh shit and Dave snipes right back. He has been getting ignored a lot by both Rose and John, so it's easy to see why he's frustrated. He's mad that Rose isn't putting him as her first priority? God, get a room already.

The last time we saw a conversation between John and Dave was 1,108 pages ago, back in Act 2. John has been ignoring Dave's messages since then. I don't buy the friendship these two supposedly share. If anything, it's extremely one-sided on Dave's end.

This series of pages where PM takes control of the console shows us all the key stuff from the walkaround. This makes it even more unnecessary to actually play it.

This love triangle between the Exiles gets no further attention beyond this moment. Personally I'd have solved it by making all three of them form a polycule, but unfortunately I'm not the one writing this story.

You know, I never gave it much thought before, but why is Grandpa Harley suddenly alive? He doesn't have a dreamself or anything. Nobody revived his corpse. He's just inexplicably wandering the Medium now. If this is ever explained later, I don't remember it.

I know this isn't Mom Lalonde saying this but man... I think it would've had more of an impact if she did say it. Rose never gets to see her mother again, so all she's really left with is this sobering moment of insight that, wherever it is Mom sailed off to, she's doing it for her benefit. That perhaps she's not the cold-hearted, drunken shrew Rose thought she was for her whole life and instead, was just a heavily troubled woman trying her best to be a parent. You never truly know the kind of people your parents are until it's too late, I guess.

None of the kids ever get any closure with their guardians and that's a shame. We never get to view things from their perspectives and they're just glorified NPCs. Bro in particular definitely needed some insight into his inscrutable mind, but Mom also continues to fascinate me. This woman is so full of mystique and contradictions, yet all we ever see of her is fragmented shots from Rose's (heavily biased) point of view.

I wonder what exactly Mom thinks is "best for her child," though. Helping her win the game, surely. She had to have been planning for this moment for most of her life, having known about the countdown in the lab. I wonder if she knew the full extent of what Sburb was going to do, where to go once she got there, and how to help the kids win the game.

Anyway, this panel is definitely a top 10 Rose moment. Or perhaps a top 10 general Homestuck moment, since it has to do with both Rose and Mom. I should be keeping track every time I say this line.

It's very cute how AR contributes to WV's model city. "Begrudgingly" oh come on dude, we all know you're loving this.

These imps must be weak as shit if they're getting bodied by a teenage girl with a pair of blunt knitting needles.

These are some awkward steps transitioning back into the main story, but I remember liking Act 4 the most out of these early Acts. It always stuck out in my mind as what "peak Homestuck" really is, so I can only hope things will get better as we move along. I will say that if we're devoting as much time to Dave and Jade fucking around with the Sburb mechanics as we did with John and Rose, we're in trouble.

Read the next post here.

[missirissims]

3 to 2 Traits Project - Sims who Can’t Stand Art Pack

Hello everyone! For my first ever post I wanted to share some of my first ever work on the Sims 2, so I apologise if these files are a bit jank. I have tested them and they all seem to be working smoothly in my game with no errors, but please let me know if you have any problems with them! Without further ado, allow me to introduce...

Sims who Can’t Stand Art actually won’t like art!

This pack includes a few options, for those who use the 3 to 2 traits system. Sims who have the Can’t Stand Art trait will:

• No longer roll wants to buy paintings or sculptures

• No longer view Art autonomously

• No longer paint autonomously

• Will lose fun if directed to paint

• Will lose fun if directed to view art, and will always boo art

Conflicts and Requirements

All of these mods were created with Sims 2 Ultimate Collection. As far as I know, these are the mod requirements for each:

cantstandart_nobuypaintingsculpturewants.package requires University and Apartment Life, it will conflict with any mods that change this BHAV:

0x7F739728:0x1104 CT - Test - Object Min Cost

cantstandart_noappreciateartautonomy.package requires Freetime, it will conflict with any mods that change these BHAVS:

0x7F18E0F0:0x201C Interaction - Appreciate - TEST

0x7F18E0F0:0x2002 Interaction - View - TEST

0x7F446D21:0x100C Interaction - View - TEST

0x7F7FF0C4:0x100C Interaction - View - TEST

cantstandart_nopracticepaintingautonomy.package likely also requires Freetime, it will conflict with any mods that change this BHAV:

0x7F366FCF:0x100B Interaction - Practice Painting - TEST

cantstandart_paintingmotivedelta.package likely has no EP requirements, but will conflict with any mods that change this BHAV:

0x7F366FCF:0x104B Init - Motives

cantstandart_viewartmotivedelta.package likely has no EP requirements, but will conflict with any mods that change this BHAV:

0x7F18E0F0:0x2003 View - Render Opinion

These files all require Easy Inventory Check by Hexagonal-Bipyramid, who is also the lovely author of the traits project! This mod (obviously) also requires their traits mod, found here. Please remember to let me know if you have any problems with this mod, as I have only tested it in my own game so far, and please also be patient as I am also new to SimPE modding.

Download Here!

[unpopularly-opinionated]

My thoughts on Destiny 2: Episode 2: Revenant: Act 1 so far. Spoilers below, but the TL;DR (it's just a really long yapfest below, guys) is that Bungie somehow keeps hitting new lows. Not only has the quantity of content dropped significantly between Echos and Revenant, but the quality of said-content has dropped pretty significantly as well. We're in for a rough 6 weeks.

So uh... I've always been under the notion that Bungie is a, shall we say, mediocre company these days. Destiny 2, while still unfortunately a one of a kind, has been mediocre for the past like 3-4 years. Sure, it's had its ups, but it's had a lot more downs, let's be honest. It's a one of a kind, so I keep coming back, and I'll likely keep coming back due to sunk cost. I won't pretend that anything I'm about to say will dissuade me from hyping it up in the future.

So far, after playing a couple of hours of this new episode, I'm alarmed to put it mildly over just how low the bar of quality has fallen.

To start, whether due to a bug or an intentional change, a quality of life feature was removed for seemingly no reason, that being the ability to press F1 + Tab to quickly open your Director without having to hold Tab for a few seconds. This is a small ding against the game (albeit a frustrating as hell one), to be sure, but I wouldn't have made an entire post about this if that was the only ding.

Now, just to clarify, this isn't isolated to just this episode. It just so happens that I didn't get a chance to play the final act of Ep. 1, so I was trying to do that before I began Ep. 2. One of the quests in the final act had you gather some parts from a lost sector--a standard filler mission, this isn't the complaint. The complaint comes from the fact that the 'item' you receive when you pick up each object is clearly a stand-in neon pink default texture. Really, they couldn't be bothered to give it any texture otherwise? Okay then.

Then, in this episode, we're introduced to the jankiest potion brewing mechanic ever. I would add "most confusing" as well, but I'll chalk that up to my inattentiveness when it came to the introduction of it. So you go to the table to select a recipe, which I think costs materials to select because sometimes you can only select one, other times two, but never all of them, but you eventually get all of them very quickly anyhow so gating them doesn't matter really. But then you go and grab the ingredients from the shelves, then you go through a series of button presses to play little animations. One of them was bugged for me, I guess, and I was meant to turn into a chicken but it was invisible for me. Maybe it was an invisible chicken? I doubt it.

The jank though comes from the item they put in your inventory, something which we've never really had happen before now. Before now, if Bungie wanted you to interact with an item, they'd put it in your Quest Log and have you right click on it from there. They did that this time around, putting the spot to view and drink your potions in your Quest Log. Only, if you try and open it from your Quest Log, it'll bug out and disable your mouse, preventing you from actually doing anything. Because the intended way of opening it isn't from your Quest Log, it's from your Inventory where this brand new tab appeared. So I ask, why even bother putting it in our Quest Log? I imagine because this game is held together by rubber bands and Kraft glue that it needs to be in your Quest Log in order to work at all, because instead of just building a new mechanic to allow you to open it from your Inventory, they had to just build on top of the mechanic they already had in the game to allow you to open it from your Quest Log. It's just kind of lazy, but whatever.

And then come all of the narrative snafus with this new episode. I knew something was off when the intro mission to this episode had us storm Riis Reborn to capture Eramis, and at the end we see this in-game conversation between her and Crow, where Crow very calmly asks her to come in so that justice can be served, but also so he can help her and her people who are being hunted by Fikrul. It's a very calm, collected conversation where eventually Eramis peacefully gives herself up to being captured. Then we immediately jump to a cutscene on the HELM where Crow's got a gun pointed at her, shouting about how she's a super dangerous criminal and telling her not to try anything. His aggro went from 0 to 100 in a second for no reason at all, it was just really jarring.

From this point on, Eramis is locked inside a prison cell in the new/updated HELM space Bungie made, which I will grant looks very nice all things considered. She's completely accessible by the player, by the way, a point which I bring up because later we get a quest step that says "Speak to Eramis on the Holoprojector" which I'd call lazy, but the irony is that I think it's technically more effort to create a Holoprojector conversation with Eramis then it would be to just have the player walk ten feet away from the Holoprojector to the prison cell she's currently held in, and talk to her there.

If you go through the portal to the old HELM, which is now partly destroyed and presumably in some hangar somewhere to be repaired, you can go to the front of the ship where the windows are, which are now broken and busted out. If you look outside of them, you can see the edges of like the skybox or whatever you want to call it. You can see the corner of the room object that the HELM space is held inside of. It's super janky looking. And like, Bungie's always had this kind of stuff, I realize that. But typically you have to go out of your way to find that sort of thing. Whereas with this, you literally just walk to the front of the ship and you see it. Like I don't know, Bungie, add in a smoke effect or something to obscure my vision of the seams. It just feels like whoever was supposed to finish the HELM got fired before they could finish, which is the "excuse" I've been half-jokingly making with all of these nitpicks.

This one you could theoretically chalk up to just being a nitpick because what I'm pointing out is merely just a narrative detail that I disagreed with based on how Bungie's done this in the past. One mission has us go to this Tangled Shore-looking map where we're trying to save a bunch of Eliksni. Crow TPs in where you spawn and says a few things, then points to a cave ten feet away from you where Fikrul is just chilling. He TPs away, again even though this cave is hardly ten feet away from us, but whatever. I get that Bungie doesn't have a standard running animation that they can use on NPCs to have them run to a certain point during narrative moments (oh wait).

Anyways, you go into the cave where Fikrul is. Deadbeat Daddy Crow TPs back in to talk to his son. His son hates him, go figure, and decides to turn all of the Scorn surrounding us at that moment against us. Now, in any other scenario, we would've gotten a standard "hold them off, Guardian, while I go chase after Fikrul" or something to that effect. Some sort of narrative indication that we're meant to kill the enemies surrounding us while the NPC goes and does NPC things. Instead, we get "DAMMIT!" before Crow TPs out, leaving us surrounded by Scorn. No acknowledgement that we're surrounded by enemies or anything, or how it's on us to handle it. Deadbeat Daddy Crow just ups and abandons us like we're his kid or something.

This wouldn't have bothered me as much as it did if I didn't already know and understand how Bungie usually writes these things. Yes, I'm aware the mission isn't difficult. I wasn't even slightly concerned with the fact that he left us surrounded by Scorn. The problem I had was that, narratively, Crow or any of the Vanguard would never just up and abandon the Guardian without so much as a word as to why they're abandoning them.

I think perhaps the biggest criticism I have so far though is that this is it for Act 1? The change they made between episodes to allow us to effectively binge all of Act 1 all at once I believe to be a good one, but now that I'm done with Act 1, I'm scratching my head wondering how the fuck they were ever planning to draw this out in the first place.

One of the missions they sent you on is like ten seconds long. You spawn in on Nessus, right at the spot where you need to be. You drink a potion at a table that does something I guess. Maybe like 20 Scorn spawn around you, only one yellow bar. You kill them in seconds and that's that. That's the mission. So I'm sitting here asking myself: "Holy shit, would that have been the weekly mission if this was still being time gated week-by-week?" A mission that seriously takes all of like 2 minutes if you don't include the dialog that you listen to after its over and you're waiting for the "Mission End" timer to go down.

Altogether, there's only three missions in Act 1. The mission where you capture Eramis at the beginning, the mission I just mentioned above where you drink a potion and kill some Scorn for two minutes, and the mission I mentioned even further up where Deadbeat Daddy Crow abandons you like you're his second child. And I've looked around and I'm apparently not alone in thinking this is crazy short.

Six weeks until Act 2 comes out, and seven weeks after that until Act 3 drops. I feel like Bungie blew their load in Echos, it being the first of these "Episodes" they introduced us to, and now comes the real new standard we should expect for Destiny 2's future. Our options are either an hour of content with a 6-7 week break in between, or an hour of content stretched unimaginably thin for 6-7 weeks. Either way, sad sad times ahead for Destiny 2. It seems like not only should we be expecting less quantity content, but less quality content as well.

Anyways, can't wait to play more of it. Blah blah blah, yap fest over.

[eeveekitti]

hi. hi . hi . i made a warrior cats fan game on scratch when i was young. seeing u post about making one activated all of my childhood programming memories so PRO TIPS FOR FREE

(disclaimer: there are probably other ways of doing these things these r just the ones i came up with lol)

make 2 separate sprites for the standing and walking. the walking sprite should be constantly cycling through its frames. pick one of them to contain the movement code (i always preferred the standing sprite for this) and set the other to always match its position.

then, when an arrow key is pressed, hide the standing sprite and show the walking sprite, and vice versa when released.

thats how i fixed the 'press button for 1 millisecond and sprite has to cycle thru all 8 frames before returning to standing animation' problem

you can extrapolate this logic into an arbitrary number of sprites for separate animations, though you can also include one or more non-looping animations within the standing sprite to save space. as long as your walking sprite is kept separate the player will have instant feedback when they start and stop moving which will rid you of most animation jank.

i dont know if you want any platforming functionality, but if you do:

use separate sprites for the terrain art and terrain hitbox!! it gives you more freedom. (to make a hitbox, you just gotta turn the sprite invisible.)

i also had separate wall detection and floor detection hitboxes to allow the character to do things like walk up inclines. set the wall hitbox to be a little bit off the ground, then if you detect floor but no wall, move the character upward. be warned, you have to make the wall hitbox cover both the front and the back! if the player turns their character backwards while up against a wall, they will be able to glitch up it.

also Do not map the interact button to the same key as advance dialogue. the player Will accidentally skip the first page of dialogue. (also include a slight delay before theyre able to advance to the next page, but not too long or getting out of dialog boxes will become hell)

anyway yeah hope aany of those r helpful GOOD LUCK WITH UR SCRATCH GAME

OOH THAT IS A LOT THANK YOU FOR THE PRO TIPS DSNFJSD?? /POS

i would say more but it is almost 1am i'm going to bed soon but these r really cool actually!! i didn't know a good chunk tbh my knowledge of coding a scratch game extends to the basics of character movement, talking, and making dens work [barely though] [i had a bug where a different background + the cats in it were in the apprentices den for some reason] [i still dont know why and cannot be bothered to figure it out]

[genshingorlsrevengeance]

Poll: What story would you like to read?

So while I hammer away at some requests, I was wanting to work on some fics I had in mind.

These will stray a little from what you're used to seeing from me, focusing on action, comedy, and character interaction rather than romance.

The specifics are under the cut, but here are the options

Below the cut is specifics of each option.

Thanks for voting as always!

1. Warhammer 40K short story featuring my Space Marines: The Estelle Marines

(My Space Marines for reference)

Following Lieutenant Schifo of the Estelle Marines, he leads Strike Force Stultus to assist friendly Imperial forces against a Xenos incursion.

2. First 4 chapters of "This World's Evil God Sucks, I'LL SHOW YOU HOW IT’S DONE!"

No 40k knowledge is required, mostly just a way to convey my method of warfare on tabletop to text.

And it indeed will be VERY stupid.

Varxus, Chosen of Chaos, has known only war throughout his life. Pledging himself to the dark gods, he became an instrument of destruction, slaying monsters, heroes, and kings alike.  But Varxus's bloody service is interrupted when a powerful spell is unleashed on his warband, and he alone is flung into another realm. Upon realising that this new world's ruinous power is sorely lacking,Varxus decides to seize glory for himself and ascend to greater heights than the gods of Chaos.

Again, no warhammer knowledge required and is that one idea I pitched a while back of putting a Chaos Warrior into an anime land.

Starts off "grimdark" but slowly transitions to Konosuba levels of jank due to how much Fantasy Anime and Warhammer clash.

3. Fire Emblem Crossovers stories/fics (i.e House Isekai, Engage)

The original crossover story from my main blog: House Isekai (Three Houses, Konosuba, Persona 3/4/5, DOOM, Overlord, School-Live!), its sequel A Realm Reborn (Genshin, Halo, WH40K, RVB). If I were to post that all here, I'd start off small and essentially do a soft reboot to ease that story here.

Theres also all the Engage ideas I have and ones ya'll can contribute.

[whiteroseismyotp]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who liked or reblogged somethjng from you! Get to know your mutuals and followers.

Oh hi! I'm not sure how long ago you sent this but I hope it wasn't very long(I never get asks and just happened to see this was there while checking my blocked tags). Anyways lol

1. Cats. Basically anything with cats really. Petting them, watching my cats somehow get stuck in the stupidest places, their little noises. Instant serotonin boost

2. Ice cream. It truly is a perfect pair to depression(at least in my case) because anytime I eat ice cream I start feeling better almost immediately. Birthday cake being my favorite, but thus far I've yet to taste a flavor I don't like

3. Most of my family. Being able to go visit my great-grandmother whenever I want because she lives right next door is incredible since she loves to gossip and we routinely talk mad shit about the family we don't like with any others present.

4. The decorations around my room. All a collection of things from games or movies or just standalone I loved, each one reminds me of why I love what it came from(Like my Reaper Plushie bringing memories if my first playthrough of the Trilogy)

5. Speaking of Mass Effect, that's number 5. Just everything about this game, from the jank controls of the Original Mako(which I'm STILL salty was taken from me), to the squadmate banter, to the progression of the fight. This game easily took my number 1 spot and will likely remain there for a very long time.

Not really confident tagging people directly but if you know you've interacted with a post from my blog recently and want to participate in this, go for it!

[emperonan]

Howdy! What Have I Been Working on?

Hi Hi Hello, its been awhile since I've made any post ever but now that twitter is down for the moment I feel a burst of motivation! For the past few months I've been working on little things for a very niche community that I'll simply call the Mashup Tournament Community. All of it is for some small things I run, so here's a giant post of, well all the work I'm proud of. MINITOURNEY 8 This was my first Mini-Tournament that I ran in a Discord Server. The contestants were SAKUYA BRANDO SCHLATT AND CO. NOBLE SPHEREOMANCERS GALACTA KNIGHTMARE CELEBRITY CRUSH JOHNNY ^2 BLUES SIBLINGS SPONGEBOB SQUARE WAVE

Honestly? Very Fun. I even made some new art of my OC's for this. (The-The Blues Siblings those are my guys)

I could do better now but I still really like it, even with its jank. Right now I'm working on a project called SKETCHBOOK OF A TOURNEY KID, which follows the same premise of it being a Tourney, but is inspired by Diary of A Tourney Kid, which I will not go into here. Go look them up on soundcloud, explains it better than I ever could. Here's The Sketchbook Roster BTW. All of them were people that just so happened to be in a Discord Call. How fun!

We've just finished the first Losers round now, which looked like this

And now during this break we're getting ready for WR2!

Sorry for straight-up disappearing to some! Hopefully I'll post and interact more!

-Ronan

[superhero--imagines]

A/N: Happy Halloween kids! (Because I feel very old lol). So this imagine was requested by the lovely @atbucud​ who is probably the best beta reader/editor/fan/person I’ve ever known.

This imagine is going to be like the premise, and at the end you’ll have a {Love choice} and get to pick an ending. Endings will be linked and posted next week on Halloween! Hope you like it! Also let me know if this format is annoying/troublesome. I like to think it’s more interactive, but if most of y’all find it a hassle then it’s not worth it. 

Oh, and Damian Wayne is 18 in this. 

* First off, you’re rollin’ with some pretty rich kids, so you while it’s possible you go to some Jank Halloween party at someone’s house

* You’re probably going to a bougie charity gala that “the Wayne” foundation puts on every year

* “Let’s draw” Stephanie states triumphantly, placing a large glass bowl full of torn pieces of paper in the table in the middle of the living room at Wayne manor.

* Jason only raises an eyebrow, turning his attention back to his phone

* “Draw for what?” You ask, notching everyone’s disinterest

* “Costumes for the gala of course” Stephanie says it’s like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

* Damian sputters

* “Why would anyone do that?”

* “Because it would be funny” she grins, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes

* Tim flashes her a look

* “There’s no way any of us are going along with whatever crazy costumes you’ve put in there”

* Besides it’s already bad enough that they even have to go at all

* Jason would rather watch Dick clip his toenails

* Damian just wants to spend the night with Titus and watch movies with you

* Tim was hoping to go to his favorite local coffee shop’s Halloween party

* Dick would rather go to the block party his friend invited him to

* Cass just wants to stay home and pass out candy

* Barbara’s smart enough to be “out of town”

* And you’re just happy to be here tbh

* Stephanie’s not deterred by their lack of enthusiasm though, a mischievous smile curling onto her face.

* Her hand are suddenly resting on your shoulders, her face pressed against your hair

* “Aw, that’s too bad. I was really excited to see what costume our lovely (y/n) would pull out.”

* She’s feigning despair, but as soon as the words tumble out it’s like all five of their ears perk up.

* “Out of curiosity,” Tim starts, setting down his laptop. “What are some costumes in there?”

* You aren’t facing her but you can picture the mischievous glint in her eyes.

* She’s got them now.

* “Oh you know, the usual: Wonder Woman, cat woman, Zatanna’s costume-“

* You shrug, so far those seem pretty tame. The bat family seems to reflect your opinion, visibly deflating.

* Jason will be honest, you in a Wonder Woman costume does sound pretty sexy

* But it’s not exactly taboo, if he hung around you long enough he’d get to see you in it eventually.

* Dick and Cassie think you would look pretty cute in Zatanna’s costume, something about that magicians outfit hugging your form just seems right.

* But like Jason, they think they’ll see you in something similar eventually. No point in going along with Stephanie’s antics.

* Damian thinks it might be kind of nice if you were Wonder Woman, and he was Superman, that way you could both match

* But the chances of you both drawing those exact options are low. He would rather just take his chances and ask you if you would want to match.

* Tim’s bright red at the thought of you on a car woman outfit, the tight suit leaves little to the imagination

* But he’s oddly possessive and he doesn’t want anyone else to see you like that.

* So basically it looks like a bust so far

* “- and robin, nightwing, red hood, red robin, and batgirl of course.”

* All five of their heads pop back up, Stephanie grins

* Got ‘em

* The thought of you in their costume is bewitching

* “I mean it only makes sense, they’re the costumes we have in house after all”

* You know it makes sense, and it’s practical, but their collective gaze makes you blush and look away.

* But if you’re being honest there’s a certain someone you want to see in a certain costume too.

* “I guess it takes the pressure off of choosing” Jason grumbles

* “It might be funny.” Cass shrugs, but you catch the slight blush on her face

* So you all sit in a circle the bowl at the center.

* Alfred enters with a tray full of drinks and snacks, takes one look at the seven of you, and promptly walks back out.

* He’ll just..... come back later

* “Shortest stick draws last” Stephanie says.

* Which is coincidently you.

* Jason gets to go first

* “I got-Clark Kent?” He frowns, it’s not the worst, but he’s confused. Does this mean he’s supposed to be Superman?

* “Oh, I put that in for fun, easy costume, just need glasses and a white shirt”

* Jason sighs, well it could be worse

* “Batman in a recession?” Dicks eyebrows are threaded together

* Jason holds back a laugh, he could be Dick.

* “What the hell does that mean Steph?”

* Stephanie shrugs

* “Like you know, instead of a bat mobile you have a Prius, and instead of those bat-erangs you have like, knives idk get creative”

* Duck huffs, you better get robin after this

* “Raven” Cass says. Praying no one will notice that her piece of paper says “the penguin”

* To her relief everyone passes right over her, she crsuhes the slip of my paper in her hand, and breathes a sigh of relief

* Tim spends several minutes shuffling his hand around in the bowl

* “Tim just pick one!”

* “I’ll pick one when I’m damn ready, I’m not getting Wonder Woman dammit!”

* The moods pretty tense, so you say-

* “Idk I think you would make a cute Wonder Woman Tim!”

* Cue Tim.exe failing to work, his hand shooting out of the bowl

* “Catwoman, well, I guess cat boy in your case” Stephanie reads off the paper from his hand and Tim only blushes darker

* Damian’s hand shoot into the bowl, pulling out a scrap

* “A tennis player” he reads in a deadpan voice before scowling. “Brown that isn’t even a superhero”

* “You watch Serena Williams win another championship and then tell me what she does isn’t a superpower.”

* Stephanie’s hand dips into the bowl

* “Dolly Parton.” Stephanie shrugs, she pit it in because she thought it would be funny if one of the boys got it, but she actually pretty pleased

* Stephanie’s sure she can make a pretty hot Dolly Parton

* All at once their eyes turn to you.

* There’s still a handful of scraps in the bowl, but you feel a bit of pressure under their gazes.

* You look down at your hand.

* “A cheerleader for your favorite superhero?”

* Stephanie had put that one in as a joke too, imagining Damian with clip on ponytails and Pom poms.

* “Yeah, just like it sounds. You get to pick which superhero you’re rooting for” she grins, this should be pretty interesting

* “So who will you go as?”

* You gulp, to be honest there’s only one person you’re really rooting for

{Love Choice}

Who’s the number one hero in your heart?

Dick

Jason

Tim

Cassie

Damian

Surprise 1! 

Surprise 2! 

I like marvel better

A/N: on Halloween next week you’ll be able to pick which ending/character you want! I’ll add the links in to each choice for the imagine. This is not a voting situation. They’ll all be written (probably)

[lollich0p]

Lollichops Mile Long Video Game Rec's

Nobody asked but I've decided to make a list of games I personally belive everyone should play because they fuck (mostly shooters sorry not sorry)

there should be a cut here if there isnt send a pipe bomb to my email address

Half-Life 1&2 +the episodes All of half-life is good and is in my opinion the grandfather of every modern shooter ever and for how old and mildly janky it is it still holds up with a gripping 'story' and excellent gunplay, hl2 is similar to that but just feels slightly different overall the hl series is a must play.

Portal 1&2 Another valve classic it's just sits in my mind as a staple of gaming. Its an amazing puzzle platformer where you get this use portals. You HAVE to play portal it's an impotent part of gaming history.

Tf2 Okay last valve game I prommy tf2 is a great ftp game that is fairly easy to get the hang of if you're familiar with multiplayer fps its great fun with friends and just feels good to play (its also a gaming classique).

Postal (I prefer the original over redux but both are good) I am holding you at gunpoint go play classic postal right now or else its a top down edgy late nineties shooter that if played correctly will bewitch your brain and make a wholly different person also it's genuinely fun and on normal difficulties almost feels arcadey.

Postal 2 Is literally nothing like postal apart from having the same main character, it a charming fps that has fun mechanics and some of the most bizzare player/ai interactions I've ever seen you should play postal 2 please play postal 2.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl I've already made a post about this one so here's the short version. Stalker is an open world post-apoc shoot that takes place in and around chernobyl. It really enjoy it's inventory management and gunplay. I also think it has excellent voice acting and it holds a special place in my heart.

Zoo Tycoon 2 I was an animal kid and love classic zoo tycoon so this was greatest birthday present when I was like nine, it's a free download on archive.org

Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 or RCT classic It's the first 'tycoon' themed game ever I believe and the two versions I've recommended are the best, you build custom theme parks and then stare at them in wonder. There's challenges but you don't get punished for not completing them so you can do basically whatever you want.

Dishonored 1&2 Stealth games with an incredibly gripping story and excellent gameplay dishonored is great if you hate rich people and want to kill them with swords.

FATE: The Traitor Soul This is a combo pack of every FATE game in one, this is not really a must play but it holds a special place in my heart as one of the few games i physically bought and owned on my family's PC. It's a topdown dungeon crawler with a completely randomized dungeon that you try to reach the bottom of. it has a charming story and a very interesting artstyle that feels very world of warcraft but with less boobies.

Bioshock 1&2 Do I even need to say anything? Bioshock 1&2 have a mild amount of jank and may look a little rough around the edges but are overall excellent games. Both have an amazing plot that holds up even after multiple playthroughs, both have actually fun gameplay where it's challenging in the beginning and is almost like a light horror game (more for bio 1 than 2) but by then end it becomes more of run and gun action game.

Disco Elysium An insane rpg/visual novel with an amazing amount of choices that actually effect the world around you. has an intensely gripping story in an incredibly interesting world. Please play disco elysium.

Borderlands 2 It may not have the best dialogue or gameplay and has an objectively weird default control scheme but it makes up for it with raw charm other games can kinda feel like borderlands but nothing really comes close to how it feels exactly. I consider it a slice of early 2010s everything. (this means it's very painful to hear the funny internet references somtimes)

[bait-n-switchblade]

if discord implements nfts, use telegram

their website: https://telegram.org/

features:

1. available on mac, pc, linux, android, and ios

2. messages are encrypted and can "self-destruct"

3. no limit to size of media, chats

4. open api; source code free to everyone

5. groups can hold up to 200,000 members

6. a lot of customization options

7. accounts are based on phone numbers; you can have up to 3 accounts (numbers) open at once

their faq has way more than i listed here and they're constantly updating. their nov 3, 2021 update included hyper-speed scrolling, a calendar view for media you've shared, a filter for photos, videos, or both, join requests, invite link customized names, a whole bunch of new chat themes with dark/light versions of each (currently on ios with android waiting in the wings), a settings update on ios to match ios 15, and more interactive emojis

this is a jank little post to give the basics and isn't meant to be thorough because there's so much more shit i haven't mentioned. this is the best messaging app i've ever used. and if discord loses our trust, we shouldn't have to go back to skype who spies on us and uses too much memory to run.

[avctcr]

{ Ye Ol' Switcheroo AU }

AU that branches into different variations where the main cause of chaos is Avatar Funzen and Avatar Anng switching places.

In this AU, the switch takes place when Funzen ( & his gang ) sneaks into TaoTais Lair, and messes with prototypes while snooping around after splitting up.

He ends up fiddling with an odd time machine that ends up flinging him back 300 years , and Aang, who was three avatars before funzen in the cycle, forward 300 years.

In all variations, because I love Aang and I think he dESERVES A VACATION--- he is found by Funzens team Avatar. And because he's only 12, they take him for vegan ice cream and convenience store snacks while they ( the adults) try to figure out what to do about the switch, and also, TaoTai. Yes they ' baby sit ' him and keep him safe, yo, let Aang have this.

Funzen, however....

There's a few split AUs, here;

1) Funzen switches places with Aang while Aang is still in the iceburg. This is for the purpose of any Sokka or Katara muses to interact. Though he is wearing a fire nation uniform so it is safe to assume they are hostile at first or run away. Regardless, Funzen isn't about to hurt no kids or teens. Mans is in his mid 20's here. This is also for any Zukos or uncle Irohs to interact early on with an easier plot already set up.

2) Funzen switches with Aang around the time Aang finds Toph. Would be pretty funny for her to be in the middle of training him then poof. He's gone and a fire nation Avatar is in Aangs place. Would probably also be pretty funny for the gaang to freak out over that. Interesting start up.

3) Funzen and Aang switch places at any random time during Aangs story. Ask about plotting this.

4) They switch places when the gaang isn't around, most open starters will be this version. The other versions are for plotting purposes.

This post is made so that I can post starters for ATLA at any given time, and link this so y'all know what the jig is before interacting with my open starters!

.

{ Character interaction wishlist for this AU:

Roku / Kyoshi / other Avatars before Aang - Korra totally janked up the cycle. So Funzen never actually met any of these versions. Nor have they met him.

Ozai - It would be very interesting to see how Ozai would react to a fully realized fire nation Avatar in place of Aang.

Iroh - just because he's my favorite.

Zuko - for obvious reasons. This switch would directly effect him as he no longer would be hunting down a stressed and traumatized 12 year old, but rather , a fully realized 25-27 year old fire nation Avatar. Zuko being 17 canonically ( If I'm not mistaken ) would make him far younger than the Avatar.

Katara / Sokka / Toph : explained earlier in this post. For humor purposes.

General Zhao: am I spelling that right? He used to be my fav so just for the purpose of an interesting interaction !

[skyrim-realistic-first-pee2]

The Witcher 3 is a whole new experience in first person - The Verge

💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥 Skyrim, and all the earlier Elder Scrolls games, for that matter, were designed with the first-person point of view in mind first. Individually moving physics-enabled clutter objects in the world is something that no other RPG franchise had captured, save for Arx Fatalis and Bethesda's Fallout games. This design approach also spills over into Skyrim. However, just like Morrowind and Oblivion, Skyrim also has a third-person perspective that can be switched to at almost any time. As satisfying as it can be to look at your custom-made personal dragonborn in Skyrim with all their bling on, third-person gameplay used to be a minority choice to play the game. Skyrim improved it over Oblivion by adding diagonal movement animations, but the combat remains janky and unsatisfying in the third person. Thankfully, ten years of modding has done much to completely erase the jank and introduce feature-complete Souls-like mechanics, for example. Mod author Shrimperator has finally introduced what can be considered the final piece of the third-person gameplay puzzle with their latest 'Better Third Person Selection. Better Third Person Selection provides an alternative way to interact with objects in the world of Skyrim. The Elder Scrolls games allow the player to interact with every in-game object, from tiny soul-gem fragments to worthless miscellanea-like ladless. To do so, the crosshair must be aligned with the object properly for the prompt to appear. This behavior also goes for the third-person perspective. However, as the camera pans out for a broader third-person view, it gets further away from the small objects laying around in the world. Things such as loose septims become small enough that it becomes a hassle to individually point at them and pick them up while in the third person. Instead of the player pointing the camera manually, the prompt to interact with nearby objects will come up as the player gets closer to them. This includes an object priority system that will preference more valuable and functional objects and interaction prompts over useless clutter. Players can either move around the camera slightly or use the object cycling feature in the mod to snap to other nearby objects. As a side-product, this also improves mounted gameplay. Like in Elden Ring , the player can interact with and pick up objects with the usual interact button while on horseback. To dismount, the player must now hold down the button instead of tapping it, complete with a handy widget to show how long they need to hold it down. New User posted their first comment. Log in. Manage your profile. With this mod, you can interact with objects without pointing your camera at it. Modified 23 Jul Also Read Story Continues below. Edited by Srijan Sen 2 Reaction. Sort by: Most popular Recent Most upvotes. Show More Comments. Comment in moderation. No thanks. Cancel Reply. Be the first one to comment on this story. Manage notifications. About Us. Write For Us. Editorial Standards. Journalism Awards. Fact Check. Affiliate Program. Contact Us.

[tichshowers]

I posted 7,790 times in 2021

2 posts created (0%)

7788 posts reblogged (100%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 3894.0 posts.

I added 10 tags in 2021

#0 - 1 posts

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#ai image - 1 posts

#nintendo squid game - 1 posts

#same - 1 posts

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Longest Tag: 112 characters

#maybe worth thinking about the fact that they are removing and hiding chronological timeline as much as possible

My Top Posts in 2021

#2

0 notes • Posted 2021-11-04 19:38:23 GMT

#1

I love that on Tumblr dot gov I rarely interact with my notifications or statistics. I do not know how much followers I have. No information. Just existence.

0 notes • Posted 2021-08-12 20:46:31 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

I am popular on tumblr

[bub-the-voidling]

Custom Card Competition wk 18: Investigate

(This is a post about a private Card Brewing competition. Entries were not open to the public.)

This week of CCC or CCL! I still don’t know what the real name is honestly!

Before this all starts, I’m just going to have to say sorry that the quality of this write up is worse than the others (not that they were good judging on the minimal amount of people who actually read these. No need to lie, I know you’re here for your own cards.) but that’s for a very good reason! It was rushed, and if you don’t know yet why it was rushed. Please go to the CCL chatroom and read the latest message I sent with @card-makers. So the ratings in this write up may be a bit off or I might miss obvious stuff. Sorry guys.

This week we’re being the scoobygang and making investigation cards! Sadly no one made the scooby snox card, but I can always wish. **This is where you imagine me snapping my fingers** First card!

I’ll be honest, I’m starting off with this card because I just find it funny. Just look at the art and then despair when you realize that it’s somehow fitting. It fits the name, the flavor, and the effect. I love and hate it.

But what about the actual card? It’s like a Rhystic Study you have to pay for with benefits. Which in my opinion is how it should work, but even if you disagree with it this effect could be explained as different as it lets you sacrifice some clues for free to get the the dimir scry. Which is a pretty neat effect. The more I look at this card the more I like it. I’m also not sure that this is worse than Rhystic Study either since the power is now in your hands instead of the opponent.

9.4/10, Ape, I’m mad about how good this card is.

And after Long-Term we have another card which would be super fitting with that picture. But this would probably have some serious picture about the Scooby Doo gang being after Emrakul with a mask or something.

Anyway, actual card! A late-ish game slow card engine that if synergized with lets you tutor for “free” any card in your deck and eventually win. I like it, no I love it. This might be my control bias showing (I play Goblin control for crying out loud.) but I just like this card. If you’re in need of a specific card you can sac 5 of your needed 15 to win the game just to get a card that’ll help you secure the win, if you’re desperate you’ll actually read the tokens and use their effect to draw cards. The win part seems like something for against the odds, but still fun. Some games will be janked out by that line and I’m all for it.

This card should’ve been further down if they go in order of points. But I just wanted to tell you guys that this could have the artwork from “Idfk lol”

9.2/10, Don’t have much to say, I just like it.

This… this just screams mill mill, yummy yummy!

Like… If you really want to ruin someone, Ghost Quarter (before playing this to bait the opponent to search), play this card into Archive Trap. From there you basically win the game as you can take an extra turn while gaining 8 life, and in that extra turn you can mill the opponent and get a million clues that you turn into extra turns. The mana shouldn’t honestly be a problem given that some mill players already go Esper to have a stronger sideboard and better interaction in general.

This card honestly needs some extra lines that prevents some general mean things like letting you get clues from mill, or from the enemy casting spells (which is debatable), stopping the life gain from saccing clues to himself. Or just remove the extra turn thing, but that seems like the whole gist of the card, so please don’t. Also, holy moly On The Trail with this would be so silly. Actually this card plays well with all the cards here that alter the use of clues.

6.7/10, Wait… you can draw with clues?

More creatures! Looks like we’re assembling the scooby gang! And it’s a promo version at that.

Feels a bit strange to me that this isn’t a legendary, but she does seem fun in multiples. So, what does she do? She copies artifact tokens, be that Servos, Ancient Stone Idol tokens, or maybe even the intended Treasures and Clues. I must say I find it quite funny that this is not the only “Clues matter, but so does treasures/gold.” Which is quite fitting to both this card and the future card’s flavor.

I like the card but honestly it could pack more of a punch, I love how she can turn clues into mana if you’re in an excess of them (or infinite comboing with something like Whitemane Lion, Bygone Bishop, and this.) but it could do more without breaking the game imo, it’s rare so it’s allowed to have some more punch to it. Maybe it makes either a clue or a treasure upon hit and then makes a copy of target, maybe she copies each differently named artifact token, or maybe she even has some sort of evasion like most Scroll Thief effect cards.

But being a lord for specific tokens seems cool anyway :P

7.6/10, “She either trades information for gold or gold for information.“

Enough creatures for now! Let’s go to something less permanent, a sorcery!

So, the flavor here. Yummy, we have either an enraged creature that gets stronger with their rage for each piece of evidence or an impulsive punch to the face for each piece of evidence gathered this turn. I love it. And the effects? Eeeeh… Not sure. Now I’m no card designer but as far as I know the consensus is that if the when the mana cost is split the card itself should be printable as either color. Like, it should only do things that both colors can do. Investigate, unconfirmed for R as there hasn’t been a single red investigate card but it doesn’t feel off flavor for our impulsive color. Gaining attack, yeah that R/W. And going face… The elephant in the room. Dealing damage to face. There are next to no white cards that can deal pure damage to face, and the only ones I do know about are from waaaay back in the day. Back when red still destroyed creatures. So when colors didn’t have their identities yet. Even if you’re okay with red investigators, it’s hard to justify the last effect.

So, how do we fix the color identity problem? Deflecting Palm. As much as I love hybrid mana, this card should really be RW. That would also allow you to lower the CMC to 2 without making the card too… “I do everythingy.” It’s weird to not have a combat trick at instant speed, but I do know that the creator didn’t want to make to too powerful as it’s a common. So I’ll kind of let it slide.

7.4/10, Questionable artist tag imo.

Literally last-minute submission we have this! :D Another card that cares about Clues and Money!

So a colorless land that can produce clues? Interesting, funnily enough we do know the going rate for normal colorless lands drawing cards. It’s 5 mana, thanks Arch of Orazca. So that means this one is balanced, right? 3 mana to investigate and then 2 to draw, 5 mana total. That’s where the nature of clues comes in and ruins stuff. Creating a clue for 3 leftover mana is immensely better compared to simply not drawing a card if you don’t have 5. Clues are permanents, permanents you can cache in whenever you want for that 2 mana (And technically they can be shattered, but come on.) which makes investigating quite a bit stronger than drawing if it costs less. I’m not sure if I made sense as I can barely think myself right now, but the cost to investigate should be at least 4, even if you want to power-creep Arch of Orazca as it has a secondary effect which is both “Turn those clues we made into mana.” and “You can’t shatter any clues as I’ll just turn them into gold if you do.”

7.3/10, just like this write up. A bit too rushed. It’s still just common.

Flavor bomb time, you even have the right icon for where this would thematically be set.

Card effect! Basically, Cabal Therapy but stronger added to all clues if you pay an additional two mana. Which is spooky when it’s at instant speed, even if the whole ordeal is 4 mana. It’s still probably balanced as you have to play a 3 mana do nothing and then spend 4 mana next turn to draw a card and guess what’s in their hand. Good play and deck building can get around this, like sacrificing clues to some effect for free or Peek-ing into their hand beforehand.

Personally I think the losing life seems like a silly thing to add onto the card, punishing good play isn’t my forte.

8.3/10, “afaik Avacyn won the 1v1.” Also, how is the icon misaligned?

Hearthstone time! I couldn’t think of a longer joke!

Wow… Now this is something unique. It’s roughly a 4 mana 4/4 that makes 1-2 clues with the potential up to 4. The etb is so weird to evaluate. If you use cards such as Brainstorm you can get the MAXIMUM VALUE. 4 cards in the future for 8 mana. Nice. Even the second ability seems fun to play with. Manipulating the top to make Aria stronger and stronger.

The only drawback with this card I can think of is that some people will find the revealing top 4 and putting back in the same order confusing. I’ll be honest and admit I missed that interaction until I was doing the write up. Sorry, Xyrillow. And I’m name dropping you because you were really close to being the winner this week and you should be proud of your craft.

9.8/10, you do know they’re a Nightelf and not Veldaken right?

Next card!

This week it was hard to decide a winner. The last card and this one went back and forth and there was even a while I was thinking about maybe sharing the winning slot. But that feels like cheating, so I have to give the edge over to this card. I love this card. Super elegant. The flavor and flavor text is on point, the effect is on point, all the way down to the evasion that costs a card to gain two cards eventually later on in the game… I just love everything.

This is without a doubt the best designed card, proud to be in any set with investigation.

Perfection is impossible, but this is pretty damn near to it.

10/10, could maybe be uncommon. Idk.

I’m lacking words, but please congratulate DrKungFu for such an amazing card. And Xyrillow for being such a close second. And actually a lot of people as this week was quite stacked.

But Mainly DrKungFu.

Now, the next prompt is to make your own guild mechanic, something like Riot, Surveil or maybe even Dredge if you’re ballsy. Sorry that this is rushed, I didn’t even proof read it for crying out loud. But please do read the update in the chat. It’s important.

Thank you for all your submissions, you’re all lovely. Love, Sami.

[mtg-weekly-recap]

MTG Weekly Tumblr Recap: April 17th

202: There’s Something About Nissa (04.13.17) | Durdling Around

Welcome to this week’s subtly blue-mana infused edition! So many things to look at this week, including a look at the spoilers for Amonkhet, more of the Gods and the Planeswalkers that love them, this week’s Magic Story, “The Writing on the Wall,” as well as a minor revision that echoed loudly. And as always there has been some great fan-art from many wonderful artists. Join us under in the desert paradise that is this issue of the Magic: the Gathering Weekly Tumblr Recap.

1. Spoilers for Choice

Forsake the Worldly | Original MTG art by @steveargyle

Wow! The second and final week of Amonkhet spoilers came upon us like a sandstorm. The Amonkhetu pantheon of deities has been filled out with cards for Oketra, Rhonas and Bontu showing us that not all god’s combat restrictions were created equal. Oketra and Rhonas, who have an interest in creatures being present, or simply being big seem to promote a very safe and straightforward playstyle, as opposed to having to have creatures around to kill, or sandbagging 7 cards in your hand, or simply going all out with no cards in hand to respond to your opponent. It remains to be seen if the unusual play styles encouraged by the Grixis gods. 

Speaking of Gods, and the Planeswalkers who love them, Nissa, Steward of Elements was also unveiled and was full of surprises. Firstly, a new Nissa planeswalker so soon after her Kaladesh and Planeswalker deck iterations. Secondly she had been shifted to a Green-Blue casting cost, something that had been slowly and subtly infusing her appearances in the story. Finally, Nissa, Steward of Elements marks the first planeswalker card with X in its cost ever! This has the minds of constructed brewers from Standard to Commander percolating with ways to take advantage of this ability.

Gods of Amonkhet | Original MTG art by Chase Stone

With the full spoiler unveiled on Friday, we have an inkling of understanding of the limited archetypes that Amonkhet draft and sealed will offer. From the overwhelmingly grinding value of White and Blue’s embalm themes, to Red and White’s aggressive, go-wide with team pumping effects, it remains to be seen how the speed of the format will play, although signs point in the general direction of a slower format.

As with every time new toys are given to the brew-masters and jank-junkies, new combos and archetypes float around Tumblr, either for magical-christmas-land value that kills on turn 3, or the flavor absurdity of a Heart-Piercer Manticore flinging an Aradara Express to the face of an opponent that it also is driving. (thanks to @transreliquat for that amazing visual)

— Liam W, @coincidencetheories

2. Standard Shakeup?

Gideon of the Trials | Original MtG art by Izzy

Amonkhet is in a fantastic position to shake up Standard, providing competent answers to the two menaces of Standard: Mardu Vehicles, and Saheeli combo.  

Gideon may have shouldered a ballista into rubble, but Red has the real automotive issues in Amonkhet! Harsh Mentor is a callback to red’s punisher effects of olde, and punishes your opponent for turning their cars on. By force is a fantastic way to eliminate their vehicles, and scales magnificently. 

Saheeli cat didn’t get as many options, but the one answer we got for it is absolute. Trespasser’s curse forbids the combo from even going off for just 2 mana. Alternatively, Haze of Pollen can stop it for a turn, and give you an extra turn to take the combo apart.

– Nick D, @nick-dowdle-jeskai-judicator

2. This  Week’s Magic Story Review

The Writing on the Wall by Alison Luhrs

Foul Orchard | Original MTG art by Mark Poole

As the Second Sun inches its way closer to the horns of Bolas on the horizon, the Gatewatch try to make sense of the plane. When we begin the third installment of the Amonkhet story, Nissa has a dream in which she communicates with the soul on the plane. It’s sick, corrupted and crying out for help.

Nissa wakes Chandra up and the two take a walk outside to try and make sense of the city of Naktamun. Everyone seems very young and always training. They encounter Hapatra, who appears to be in her mid 30’s and is the oldest person they’ve seen so far. 

Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons | Original MTG art by Tyler Jacobson

One of the most interesting things they discover are pictoglyphs on an older building. These pictoglyphs tell of the gods of Amonkhet, but instead of the five we know, there are eight gods. Above the glyphs of the eight gods is a more recently made carving of Bolas’s horns. When Nissa confronts Oketra about this, the god’s reaction is possibly one of the scariest things from this storyline so far: “the cat’s ears twitch back in a moment of fleeting, subconscious fear.” When a god is afraid, things are very wrong.

There’s much more in this story. In a bit there’s a whole section about Nissa/Chandra and the post-publication edit one of their interactions received. But there’s also more to be learned about Amonkhetu sarcophagi. For the world building fans among us, this was a super interesting story, where we are left with more questions than we started. Keep your eyes open for hints in artwork and flavour texts. By next wednesday I hope we get some more revelations about Amonkhet’s history.

— Alma V, @hopelessly-vorthosian

3. Gruul-Gate (Chandra x Nissa Discourse)

Trash | Art by @inudono​

Shortly after the release of the Magic Story on Wednesday, some Tumblr users noticed that the there was some changes to story. The changes were only a few sentences, but it was a conversation between Nissa and Chandra. Originally, the context in the story appeared to hint that Chandra had romantic feelings towards Nissa, but after the second version went up those implied feelings were hard to detect.

The Community responded with confusion at first. @voiceofallmtg was one of the first blogs to make a post  about the change, even showing screenshots of the edit. Others, like @suddenlycomics did not want to express panic until there was an official statement from Wizards. All in all, there was a lot of discussion throughout the Community about the edit in the Magic Story. Others, like @bace-jeleren did express mild frustration, but, like the rest of the Community, wanted to hear what Wizards would say.

Comparison of the two versions, Original on the left, final/updated version on the right | Picture by @bachelor-biomancer

Other discussions that occurred within the Community were about why the Community was even upset about a change in the story. Some had confusion, thinking that the Tumblr users who ship Nissa and Chandra together were disappointed that their pairing wasn’t canon. In reality, it was about representation and some of the Commuity felt cheated that their possible representation was ripped from them with the edits in the Story. Some Tumblr users, like @the-foxwolf, said that the edit is not as big a deal as the Community was expressing becuase the edit changes nothing about the context of the story.

Later in the day there was an official response  from @wizardsmagic that helped to alleviate the confusion and frustration about the edit. Wizards stated that there are multiple versions of Magic Stories during the editing process, and that an earlier version was uploaded by mistake and there was no intent to change the context of the conversation. There was relief from the Community that that it was simply a mistake and it remained true to authorial intent. @flavoracle even expressed that is was a “perfectly reasonable explanation.” 

Others however, were still upset about the edit in the story, because it still showed that the hints at LGBT+ representation in the Gatewatch is harder to detect in the new version then it was in the older one. Tumblr user @commandtower-solring-go, who asked the question that got the official response from Wizard, made a post , expressing their disappoint at the cuts, because it leaves out details and that “ the original really does a good job to normalise the idea of non-straight relationships in the multiverse.” All in all, there were a lot of mixed emotions from the Community in regard to the Magic Story change. 

What do you, the Community, think? Do you like the original version or the new version better? Do you think there is a change in context, or is the intent of the conversation still there?

— Chelsea W, @chelsea-beleren-vess

4. When It Hits the Fan-Art

Gideon Seeking | Original art by @oddsbod

It’s painting cats and dogs this week! With all the danger and menace and thrilling action on Amonkhet and the Trials of the Gods, @jakaltimes took on a more sedate subject, the Sacred Cat and the Flameblade Adept. On a similar theme, @sticksandsharks gives an interpretation of Hazoret and Oketra. and from this week’s Magic Story, The Writing on the Wall, @hirafel gives us a short animation of the unexpected breakfast visitor, 

The Gatewatch feature heavily this week, with offerings such as @erybiadraws‘s Happy Gideon, @sketchydoodles‘s Amonkhet Nissa, Jace by @0x00fj and a cheeky Liliana, by @circlesmadeofglass

Finally for the retro crowd, we have a series of pixel-art masterpieces from @the-panther4444, looking either like an authentic early 90s dungeon crawler, or possibly MTGO’s latest graphics update.

— Liam W, @coincidencetheories 

5. Quoth the RavenMan

(Source) | @dragons-suck

Late Sunday evening found the Community engaged in a long discussion about the identity of the Raven Man. Naturally, this led to some top-quality memeage. Here is a collection of some of the memes that were created:

Reblog if you think the guy on the left is also the guy on the right

@chelsea-beleren-vess​

Is the Raven Man secretly a 1/1 trampler for G?

@kideon

My Raven Man theory, by Chanda-Nalaar

@chandra-nalaar​

If anyone here is *not* the Raven Man, please raise your hand.

@phyrexian-without-a-cause

— Compiled by Chelsea W, @chelsea-beleren-vess

5. Manic Scribes

Manic Scribe | Original MTG Art by Matt Stewart

This week, for those looking to hide from all the spoiler seasons mania, here are some articles from around the web that you don’t have to frantically be refreshing pages to see if they’re superseded by the latest new reveal! Top 10 Limited Formats by Mike Sigrist,  (ChannelFireball.com) Graveborn Muse: Mind-Altering Substances by Daryl Bockett   @gathering-magic​ examines cards that subtly (or sometimes not so subtly) mess with how the game is played 

Why Aren’t There More Women Playing Magic by @not-another-mtg-fanblog

Kolaghan’s Commander by Ryan Sainio @hipstersofthecoast offers some reasons why you might actually play Dragonlord Kolaghan in Commander The Trials of Amonkhet Prerelease by Inkwell Looter, (Magic.wizards.com)

— Compiled by Liam W, @coincidencetheories

…and finally: An Historic Absence?

@askkrenko makes the point that with the absence of Goblins in Innistrad, Kaladesh and Amonkhet, the last Standard legal goblins were released in Oath of the Gatewatch. While there have been absences of varying length before, the regularity of goblins in the core set means that Goblins have always been in standard even before standard was a format (looking retroactively). However, if the currently unknown plane that follows the Hour of Devastation, it is entirely possible that we will have the first Goblin-less standard in Magic history. Perhaps we will find out when announcement day comes in June, perhaps we will remain in suspense…

Thank you again for reading this week’s issue of the MTG Weekly Tumblr Recap. Hope to see you next week!

Interested in contributing to the Recap? Want to keep track of notable posts and trends throughout the MTG community on a given week? Or write a short blurb on a specific topic? Do you just want to make us aware of one specific topic or post? Please PM our main editor @the-burnished-hart or any of our staff writers!