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yugoloths · 4 years ago

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the dungeon crawl I was supposed to run tonight got delayed for another week so I'm dumping all my content here to cope

this is the first level of the abandoned mine the party will be exploring. detailed walkthrough under the cut

DRUMIAN SHALE

The main takeaway from this stage is the bandits the party is hoping to apprehend are not here… but something else is. By the end, they will have made it down to the flooded lower caverns where the cool shit is.

Area 1: Base Camp

The clearing outside the mine entrance is carpeted in yellow dust, a thin layer of which clings to every available surface. To the right of the entrance, on the east side of the clearing, stands a long-abandoned box sluice littered with old buckets and mining pans. On the opposite side of the clearing lie several ragged canvases half-buried in sand and a cluster of overturned mine carts in various states of disrepair. A set of narrow metal tracks, the same width as the mine carts, leads into what appears to be a natural cave mouth.

Closer inspection of the scene will reveal a dried-up streambed where water once poured into the sluice from above. The canvases on the western side of the clearing are crudely painted with an emblem shaped like a hand with a horizontally elongated plus sign in the center of the palm. They look to have been part of a collapsed tent, but it seems to have been abandoned for several weeks.

Area 2: Tunnel

A 10 foot wide tunnel stretches into darkness. 5 foot wide doorways are located on either side, each pair spaced 20 feet apart. The rail tracks continue along the floor in a straight line. The hall is dark and cramped, the ceiling is low, and the air smells musty.

PP >14 will notice they don’t see any signs of animal inhabitants.

Area 3: Dormitory A

This room contains twelve narrow beds with bare straw mattresses. A few have crumpled bedding, as if in use, but everything is covered in a fine layer of dust.

A DC 12 investigation check reveals a chest hidden under one of the beds. The chest is empty except for a dragonchess set and a few old stains.

A PC with proficiency in dragonchess (or who makes a DC 15 history check) will notice that the set is missing several pieces: three black warriors, a white mage, a white thief, and a white elemental.

Area 4: Old Office

This room appears to have been a record keeping office. A table stands in the center of the room, a desk in the corner, and bookshelves line the walls. A few chairs have been overturned, and papers are scattered across the desk. The same hand-and-plus-sign symbol from the tents has been carved into a corner of the table.

Any further investigation will reveal that the following books and papers are still in readable condition:

Old shipping manifests - Prices & shipments of rations, supplies, etc. If Varna or one of the PCs read this, they should be able to ascertain that the mine was just barely turning a profit at the time of its closure. They would also notice that they seemed to spend a lot of money bringing in barrels of fresh water.

Mine blueprints - Similar to Varna’s map. Shows the current level as well as two lower levels starting about 200 feet down. It appears miners used a lift at the northern end of the mine to navigate between levels. The lift was powered by a water wheel located in the far northeast chamber on the current level.

Geological survey - General measurements of soil composition and stability, rate of erosion, and location of ore veins. The writing style is extremely dry and technical, so PCs will need to either succeed on a DC 14 investigation or insight check or get Varna to read it in order to learn the following details:

-the water at the site was not drinkable, hence the need to import fresh water

-researchers had great difficulty measuring the water table; some days their instruments suggested it was very high, while other days they registered nothing at all

Varna will not notice this on her own, but a PC who lands a really fucking good investigation/insight check might be able to do a little off the cuff data analysis and notice that high water table measurements tended to occur in the mornings and evenings, while the low readings tended to occur in the afternoon or late at night. A character with extensive nautical knowledge and/or who lands a second really really good investigation/insight check might be able to make the low tide/high tide connection, but don’t force it.

Any investigation of the room reveals a heavy safe under the desk. It stands unlocked and empty, door ajar. Presumably this is where the deed to the mine was kept.

Area 5: Dormitory B

This room is nearly identical to Dormitory A, but several of the beds have been overturned and mattresses torn apart. The chest in this room has been dragged out from under the bed and opened with enough force to rip off one of the hinges. It is empty except for three silvers, four coppers, and an old sock.

A DC 10 investigation check reveals a set of two-toed footprints. With a good roll, or a separate investigation or survival check to learn more about the footprints, a PC could ascertain that the creature that made the footprints has a quadrupedal gait and seems to be some type of insect.

A DC 12 investigation check reveals a small amount of blood spatter on several of the beds.

A DC 14 investigation check reveals a strange object wedged under one of the beds. It is a flute-like woodwind instrument with an unfamiliar bulbous shape. Varna will be unable to identify what material it’s made out of, although she may note that it reminds her of shell or coral (though not from any creature she’s encountered.) Any PC who attempts to play the instrument will be able coax a few hollow, resonant notes out of it. The instrument is uncomfortable to play, as if it were not designed for their hands.

If a PC attempts to play the instrument, anyone with PP>10 hears an echoing melody coming from the end of the hall. Anyone with PP>15 can identify it emanating from below, in the mine shaft.

Area 6: Storeroom

This room contains old supplies. A heap of frayed old sacks that must have once contained grain are heaped in the northwest corner. The northeast corner is home to a pile of old crates that takes up most of the room. The south wall is lined with wooden barrels, all but a few of which have been split open and destroyed.

Closer inspection of the scene reveals that some of the crates have fallen over and/or split open to reveal general mining equipment - pickaxes, machine parts, railway slats, etc. The crates seem ancient and relatively untouched, while the destroyed barrels are more recent.

A DC 12 investigation check on the room in general will turn up 100 feet of hempen rope, three lanterns with 10 hours of fuel each, an entire crate of candles, and 100 pitons.

A DC 10 insight or investigation check on the barrels reveals that they likely held pickled vegetables and cured meats.

Area 7: Dormitory C

This room is nearly identical to Dormitory A. There are no signs of a struggle.

A DC 12 investigation check (or a decision to look under the beds) reveals yet another chest stashed under the bed. It contains two bottles of Keoghtom’s Cure-All, one of which is cracked and useless. The label purports the product “miraculously relieves sewer plague, sight rot, and tunnel stutters! Archmage Keoghtom’s patented blend of penetrating oils, restorative herbs, and secret enchantments reduces pain, enhances vigor, and restores the user to full health, all in a single application!” When applied, it restores 2d8+2 HP.

Area 8: Machine Room

This room is dominated by a water wheel about 10 feet in diameter, fixed along the north wall. A trough leads away from the water wheel to a large drain set into the floor by the southeast wall. A system of pulleys leads out of the room toward the mine shaft. The rail tracks fork just outside the doorway, with one fork leading into the room while the other continues straight. The wheel powered a lift that transported miners, slag, and equipment between levels, presumably fed by the same stream that fed the box sluice in area 1.

A DC 15 investigation check of the room (or a DC 10 investigation check on the drain specifically) reveals that the screws holding the drain cover down have been removed, and that the cover has been moved recently.

A DC 10 strength check (or whatever) allows them to move the drain cover, revealing an entrance to area 10.

Area 9: Mine Shaft

The mine shaft is a square, 10 foot by 10 foot pit that drops straight down into darkness. A rotting pulley system dangles from the stalactite-covered ceiling, but the rope has broken and the lift platform itself is nowhere to be seen. The walls of the pit are decorated with strange, insectile shapes that resemble no living creature. Go ahead and make a perception check.

The lower part of the shaft is filled with salt water. The water is too far down to be visible, but anything falling into the shaft will create an audible splash.

The mine shaft is inhabited by three darkmantles disguised as stalactites. As soon as someone pokes their head in, a darkmantle will drop down and try to engulf their face. The remaining darkmantles will use their Darkness Aura ability to create confusion before attacking. These darkmantles are unusual looking, with long cone-shaped shells covering their mantles, giving them the appearance of orthocerid cephalopods. If none of the PCs are dumb enough to stick their head into the shaft, Felix will be happy to oblige in order to get a closer look at the fossils.

About 50 feet down the shaft is a hidden entrance to area 10 containing two Chuul, the source of the mysterious flute echo from earlier (assuming one of the PCs tried to play the flute). Like the darkmantles, they are unusual, resembling anomalocarid arthropods. When the Chuul hear the PCs at the top of the mine shaft, they will attempt to ambush them through the drain in area 8. It takes the Chuul about one minute from when they detect the PCs to launch their ambush. If one of the Chuul is killed or seriously wounded, the other will attempt to flee to area 13 and escape into the tidepools.

A PC who makes a DC 12 perception check will note that the presence of stalactites is odd, as they have not seen any elsewhere in the mine.

If the players found the flute in area 5, a DC 15 perception or investigation check reveals that some of the fossils embedded in the wall look similar to the instrument.

Because the Chuul are so unusual looking, PCs must succeed on a DC 17 history or nature check in order to identify them as such.

With a DC 18 perception check, PCs can see the faint movement of the Chuul 50 feet down the shaft and hear scuttling noises, although they cannot make out what is causing them.

Area 10: Secret Tunnel

The drain leads to a rough tunnel, about 5 feet wide. It is not indicated on Varna’s map or the blueprints in area 4. The construction is noticeably different from the rest of the mine, more like an animal burrow, and the floor slopes downward. The air is strangely humid.

If the PCs managed to access area 10 before being ambushed by the Chuul, they will instead be attacked at the entrance to area 11 or 13, whichever is convenient. If they killed both Chuul, they will encounter no enemies in area 10. If one of the Chuul escaped, the PCs will hear a faint flute melody emanating from the tunnel leading to area 13 but will not be attacked.

A DC 10 investigation or perception check reveals more of the two-toed footprints found in area 5 - they should be able to figure out these belong to the Chuul.

Area 11: Brood Chamber

This roughly circular chamber contains a clutch of slimy, yellow-green eggs surrounded by human and animal bones. It is guarded by an older Chuul which is missing a claw, making it unable to multiattack. This will not deter it, however, from defending the clutch with its life. Because it is protecting its eggs, it will not pursue the party should they choose to flee.

Closer investigation reveals a single human skull amidst the bones. A DC 12 nature or survival check reveals the other bones belong to a horse, several donkeys, and two large dogs.

Area 12: Treasure Chamber

This chamber is similar to area 11, but instead of eggs it is piled high with objects the Chuul have collected from their victims and from the abandoned mine.

Any investigation will reveal the following items:

-A small pile of gold nuggets worth ~200 GP

-A steel mirror

-Robe of Useful Items (missing all of its patches)

-A viol with the initials “MQ” carved into the back of the head

-A breastplate that has been messily painted blood red, with a symbol on the front consisting of a black hand with a horizontally elongated plus sign on the palm (same as the one carved into the table in area 4)

-Two hard hats with hooded lanterns mounted on the front

-A swordbreaker (stats identical to a dagger, but if the wielder is hit by a sword attack they can make a DC 8+[attacker’s weapon attack modifier] dexterity check; on a success, they take no damage and the opponent has disadvantage on their attack roll next turn; on a critical success, they take no damage and break the opponent’s sword) with a crude hand-and-plus-sign symbol carved into the hilt

-An intricately carved sending stone that, when used, plays the following intercept message: “We’re sorry. You have reached a sending stone that has been destroyed, or is no longer in service. Please contact an operator.”

-Three silver rings (worth 15 gp each)

The deed to the mine is not present.

Area 13: Cenote Chamber

This natural cavern has a high, arched ceiling decorated with stalactites. The space is dominated by an immense monolith carved with the same pattern of wavy lines as Felix’s tablet. Covering the bottom third of the slab, a reeking carpet of matted vegetation extends to cover the entire floor. The wet stench of rotting plant matter and salt permeates the humid, clinging air.

The vegetation at the base of the slab is actually a shambling mound, which is hiding the entrance to the next layer of dungeon with its body. It is dormant, but as soon as someone steps on or touches it it will come awake and attack the PCs, revealing the cenote pit beneath it. However, music from the strange flute the party discovered earlier will render it dormant again. Upon being defeated, it falls into the cenote with a splash. As it falls it pulls away some of the vegetation covering the bottom of the slab, revealing the full design.

A DC 14 perception check before the shambling mound attacks reveals the muffled sound and faint movements of breathing. After it is defeated, it becomes apparent that the “breathing” noise was actually the sound of water rushing rhythmically from within the dark cenote.

Varna encourages the party to explore the cenote in hopes of locating the remaining bandits (or their remains) and recovering the deed to the mines. Felix, excited by the symbols on the monolith, insists on accompanying them. Varna will remain to establish a base camp; she has not survived 200 years as a geological surveyor by diving headfirst into mysterious pits.

#d&d #level design #worldbuilding #homebrew #my art #my writing

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jack-stockman-assessment-blog · 5 years ago

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Conglomeration: Transcultural and Transmedia Entertainment

Since entering our lives in 1997, Harry Potter (HP) was and still is a global phenomenon the likes of which we have only seen a handful of times in the past century or so. As of February 2018, the original seven Harry Potter books have sold over 500 millions copies worldwide, grossing around $7.7 billion. The eight films based on the books made around $6.5 billion, with a budget of $1.2 billion. On top of all this, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has made around $70 million in ticket sales, alongside countless pieces of merchandise, two theme parks and 24 videogames across 13 different platforms, the entire value of the brand is seen to be an astronomical $25 billion. Below you can see a table showing some sales figures that are relevant to explaining the constant increase in popularity that HP has even to today (Gunelius 2008).

In terms of how transcultural HP is, the books were translated into 69 languages and published in 200 UN recognised countries around the world. However, there are some religious issues regarding the nature of witchcraft and as a result, the HP books are banned in schools across the UAE. It is argued that this issue revolving around religious debate reflects the dynamics of globalisation and secularisation as the negative response to an element of pop culture in some countries simply feeds into the process of globalisation itself (Nexon 2010). In a study carried out by YouGov.com (Link Here), it was concluded that 38% of Americans had read one of the books, and 18% had read all of them. Also, 38% of Americans had seen all the films, while 76% had only seen one of them. Those numbers are reflective of the popularity of the HP universe among Americans. Strangely though, the country in which HP has been googled most is Bolivia, in fact, none of the top ten googling countries for HP are English speaking. In China, there were some issues with translation concerning the names of some characters and charms, causing a fair amount of hilarity among some readers. The books weren’t published in China until three years after the UK and US, but, the first three books were published at the same time to account for the delay.

The videogames were mostly different in terms of success, the main eight films each had their instalment in game format, and these constantly changed between a fantastic game and a complete misfire as each next edition came out. However, the real success story for HP and gaming is their two instalments in which they collaborated with LEGO. Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 are both phenomenal games in terms of keeping to the story, and retaining this sense of childhood like-ability that LEGO so uniquely possess for all age groups. Also, they created these games with the idea that it would have to potential of international distribution, as there is absolutely no spoken dialogue, meaning there is no need for translation. Therefore any person of any nationality can understand what they’re playing as much as any other person. To this day LEGO HP has generated over $1.5 billion and counting, which is an enormous success.

youtube

HP is always in the news, whether it’s just media outlets using the HP name in order to get more clicks onto online articles, or whether it’s speculation revolving around a potential ninth film that people have been clambering for since the series of films ended in 2011. On the day of writing (29th October 2019) there is a news story that has been broken today revolving around Bloomsbury Publishing and the 15% tariff placed on books published in China, of which HP is involved (Link Here). It is suspected that the 15% tariff will be placed on $300 billion worth of goods, which is an enormous amount of money. As a result of this Bloomsbury’s share price fell by over 4% on Tuesday 22nd October. This is only one randomly selected day to look for HP news, this is no coincidence, there is always a story related to this franchise somewhere in world news.

References:

Gunelius, S (2008) Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Nexon, D. H (2010) Harry Potter and International Relations, Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield.

#harry potter #university

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sketchs-trashcan · 6 years ago

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so, it seems like tumblr ate my original post...*sigh* at least this means I can do the same thing but with the entire game now.

Since I ended up with PQ2 early, I wrote down most of everything that happened and decided to put it all together in a guide of some sort. I have a less-spoilery section full of general info and a much more spoilery section that pertains to the labyrinths. The labyrinth parts will be mostly about where to unlock special screenings as well as weakness to some FOEs and the boss of the labyrinth. Keep in mind that this is NOT a full guide and I definitely left some things out and/or vague. This is more like the bare bones of the game. Kinda. idk what to call it.

if you want something a bit more specific and/or want to scream about the game, feel free to message me!

Less spoilery stuff

•don’t play based off of knowledge from PQ, literally almost every shadow has different weaknesses and resistances

•hitting a (fill in the blank)bane lexy with something it’s resistant to can cause it to use holy wrath on a row (heavy damage, all binds) (seems to only be specific ones, i have yet to find a pattern though. i don’t think it started to happen until farther along in the game, which was an aboslute bitch in some cases)

•golden shadows always move first, don’t bother with moves like line guard unless that character is in boost

•FOEs can’t be knocked down

•speaking of knocking things down, you need all enemies to be down before you can do an all-out attack. also, all enemies will go back up after one

•after getting back up, enemies might attack. it’s a bit inconsistent

•you know what else is inconsistent? some of the in-game descriptions and explanations. i’m pretty sure armor smasher or whatever only lasts one turn, not three. also, blue is the weakest color for an FOE, not white. i refuse to believe that a dinosaur is somehow less threatening than a dude in a chicken suit. there’s other problems, but those are the ones i can think of off the top of my head

-i lied. i thought of something else

•in the shop, the “have” section includes anything in storage, while inventory is what you actually have with you. it’s a bit dicier when withdrawing items, i think that counting system’s just fucked

•the huge churros are a bit of a ripoff by the time you can get them unless you want to restore only 30 HP to a row in battle. otherwise, just use normal popcorn (as a side note, i was playing on hard, so my team had to be hella buff to take on the first boss, this could be why i view the churros with distain)

•the hotdogs and large dual dogs, on the other hand, are good. especially the dual dogs, stick to those once you unlock them

•selling FOE bits doesn’t really seem to unlock new items in the shop until later. very disappointing gosh darn it yosuke, stop messing with the game mechanics

•read item descriptions. i went into the first boss battle thinking gutsy fries were the same as revival beads. they are not.

•sacrificing personas doesn’t seem to create special materials anymore

•unison attacks can happen so long as at least one participating member is in the battling party. example: the unison attack with P3P and the other (human) 2nd years can occur even if fuuka is the only one present (she’ll need to be navigating the battle though)

•unison attacks occur at random from what i can tell. they’re very strong, but don’t count on one always popping up when you need one

•follow-up attacks are also random, but much weaker. they at least knock down the shadow that’s still up and gives you the opportunity for an all-out attack, so there’s that

•always take the opportunity for all-out attacks. enemies might recover before the rest of your team can attack and get into boost mode

•some special screenings seem to be unlocked only if you check the shop/box office at specific points in the game. i don’t know if they’re only at specific points or if they can happen after that, too

•wildcards do not all need to be at a specific level to unlock ultimate personas, so don’t feel completely obligated to keep them up to speed with joker (you should still train them a bit though). everyone else needs to be at least level 55 to unlock theirs afterwards

•if two FOEs end up running into you at different times during a battle, the most recent one will kick out the older one (aka you don’t fight both of them at once). which means if you win, the newer one dies, but the older one will still be lurking next to you (this is based off of one special screening where i got cocky and nearly paid the price for it)

-i am currently unconvinced that homonculi or however it’s spelled exist outside of chests. i beat the entire game, beat every FOE, and they still haven’t shown up in the shop

That was long. Oops? Well, next up is the labyrinths, so if you want to find out this stuff on your own, best not go any farther.

More spoilery stuff

Kamoshidaman

•i’m 90% certain that the goba-k more is in a golden chest somewhere in this labyrinth. if not, it was in junessic land

•Noir and Queen do not join until after boss

•P3P does not join until second floor (if I’m remembering correctly, otherwise it’s third)

•when rescuing P3P, take out the original shadow, then beat the shit out of tank with everything you have

•just try to stay alive during inital Kamoshidaman encounter, don’t bother too much with attacking (i don’t know if attacking is required for the battle to end, i tried to attack and quickly got pummeled)

•there’s a shortcut that leads to the stairs between the 2nd and 3rd floor, but you have to fight a battle before you can activate it. the battle is not nice

•Boss: Left is weak to fire, right is weak to electricity, middle is weak to fire once left and right are gone

also, the scene where the thieves make their move is fantastic, make sure to watch it. volume on also makes it better

Junessic Land

-lots of the enemies here have a weakness to psi, some of them have weakness to nuke. change your team accordingly

•you can’t sneak up on the pterodactyl FOEs. even if you sneak up on them. they “sneak up” on you and gain advantage (they’re weak to ice, resistant to curse, and can confuse you, btw) ::edit:: they don’t gain advantage so long as you approach them from the front

-t-rex FOEs only chase you if you walk into their line of sight (they’re weak to nuke and resistant to basically everything else, btw. highly recommend avoiding battle when possible)

•IT minus Yosuke does not join until the second floor

•Yosuke does not join until you rescue one of the herbivores

•dead end in area 1, D4: regain HP and SP

•for a certain special screening, ammonite is located in D3. don’t be a fool like me. avoid the pond until you find all the chests

•electric gates are essentially mean walls. you can walk right up to them, just don’t try to walk through them

•dead end in area 3, B6: unlocks new special screening

•can begin unlocking unison attacks after rescuing Yosuke

•dead end in area 3, E4: allowing Fox and Teddie to eat the fruit causes them to lose HP and gain SP (probably only matters if one of them is in your party, idk)

•dead end in area 4, F6: unlocks new special screening

•Boss: weak to electric, resistant (and eventually null) to wind

-Left back: Weak to psi. Resistant to ice, nuke

-Middle back: Weak to nuke. Resistant to ice, psi

-Right back: Weak to ice. Resistant to psi, nuke

-Based on context clues (those being the boss going from mostly chilling to beating the shit out of me), I’m 99% certain you do NOT want to actually knock out the “boss”, focus on the back line

A.I.G.I.S.

-for the most part, anything robotic has the exact weakness you’d expect it to have

•SEES minus P3 and Aigis join on the first floor

•the stationary FOEs are stupidly easy to defeat if you have electric attacks

•the other FOEs, on the other hand, are not. they will hurt you and some of them chase you through security gates. do not engage, do not pass go, do not collect $200 (unless they’re either blue or white on your map, in which case, go nuts)

•there are three possible tasks you can choose from to open the lab. don’t know about the other two, but power doesn’t involve battling

•Aigis and P3 join on first floor of lab

•dead end in zone 1, C4: unlocks new special screening

•dead end in zone 2, C6: unlocks new special screening

•dead end in zone 2, B5: unlocks new special screening

•southwest corner of small room in lab 1F (corner is in A4): unlocks new special screening

•dead end in lab 2F, B6: unlocks new special screening

•boss: no weakness initially, but weak to everything once hacked first time (it’s still on and can attack though, and the hack is temporary), weak to curse second (haven’t checked everything)

-has an attack that brings everyone to the same amount of hp, using all/line guard is probably a bad idea when it happens depending on everyone’s hp, recommend fuuka as battle nav for healing tide and bringing along someone with mediarama

-seals one attack from each person at random

-uses multiple magic attacks (have found electric, ice, fire, and wind)

-has attacks that can bind magic, strength, or speed

-make sure ALL elements are covered, preferably by more than one skill/person

???

•be very wary if you come across an actual set of stairs, there will be a battle in the next open space/beyond the next door

•some stage lifts have FOEs on them

•gnomes turn every three steps

•mr. bear can potentially change its path when you flip a switch

-in case you were wondering. they are weak to curse. and they hit really fucking hard (as in, over 200 damage while under the influence of debilitate to a roughly lv 50 aigis in the back row, and she’s resistant to physical attacks. big yikes). but. if you use the combination of debilitate/masukunda/masukukaja/orb of haste. they hit you once in a blue moon. so basically never

•there is a goho-m more in the golden chest in the first act

•dead end in act 1, 4C: new screening

•(just assume the rest of these are dead ends) act 2, 3E: new screening

•act 5, 5E: new screening

•act 6, 7B: new screening

•act 6: 6F: i’m 99% certain this unlocked a special screening but for some reason i wasn’t given a notification

•boss: first off. can i just say. WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCK IS THAT??? WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?? DISGUSTING!!! EUUURGHHHH!!!!!

-looks like a variety of attacks, including almighty. it depends on where the eye is

-eye is the only part that can actually take damage, the rest seems to be just for boost

-knows mamudo

-eye: immune to everything except physical/almighty

-left arm: weak to wind

-right arm: ?

-head: ? (never figured out these two bc i beat it before i could bother figuring it out)

-real weak point: weak to electric and ice

-later on, if you use any support skill other than your new one (you’ll know which one), the real weak point will bind you again. also happens once everyone is unbound

-side note, normal unbinding items don’t work, unless that was a very unfortunate glitch i had

[REDACTED]

-you have to actually step on switches to use them. that’s really all i’ve got

-wait. there’s a dead end somewhere that unlocks one of the last unison skills. i forgot to write down where though.

-there is also a “treasure spot” somewhere on the last labyrinth floor :) that has :) a special surprise :) have fun :):):):) *screams into the void*

-defeating the FOE that chases you is required to unlock the ultimate weapons. the FOE that mimics you is required to unlock ultimate armor. both things require parts from other FOEs, so go nuts, i guess

-rain leg musha is weak to fire and curse, resistant to nuke. wicked turret is weak to psi, resistant to fire

-there are “reruns” of the bosses you have to beat. they’re easy so long as you exploit their weaknesses. they’re basically the easy version of when you first fought them, no extra gimmicks. i found kamoshidaman in the lower left, dino boy in the bottom right, computer in the upper right, and big ol’ blob in the upper left

ENLIL

-weak to psi and nuke, resistant to electric

MAELSTROM INCARNATE

-ok, this battle was both fun an an absolute bitch (my entire team was level 72 and i was on hard mode, if that give you any context)

-first and foremost, this boss can change its affinity. you can tell what it is based on what attack it’s using. in all cases, it’s null to wind. not sure why

-weak to ice, resistant to fire (and vice versa)

-weak to light, resistant to dark (and vice versa)

-the boss can nullify buffs to your party and debuffs to itself. this makes those skills useless overall, but they can at least distract her for a move, which could give you the breather you need

-the boss can bind and afflict ailments

-retake undoes everything that happened in the previous turn (it’s like the turn never happened in the first place), so if the boss is “charging up” and there’s no sword in front, just have everyone guard

-if the sword is in front and it starts glowing in waves? fucking. block.

-the attack seems to alternate which row it hits, but i beat the boss before i could actually think to look for a pattern

-there will come a point where the boss does an action you haven’t seen previously. see things through to the end (aka don’t turn of the game in a panic)

There’s another battle post-game, but it’s. uh. really. really. REALLY fucking hard. my team was all level 72, i switched to safety mode, and I still died before i could really do anything. the only tip i can give you is that when a new character joins the battle, for the love of all that is good, G U A R D, dammit

#sketch plays persona q2 #persona q2 #persona q2 spoilers

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pokemon-card-of-the-day · 6 years ago

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Pokemon Card of the Day #1363: Lugia LEGEND (HeartGold & SoulSilver)

Lugia cards have been pretty extreme over the years, especially those that had attacks with the theme Lugia LEGEND’s attack did. The Neo Genesis version was truly awful, having almost none of the set-up help a card that needed 3 different types of Energy required. On the other hand. Lugia ex showed up, got Holon’s Castform and Blastoise ex, and became a devastating threat that could KO anything it wanted once it got going. Lugia LEGEND, at first glance, seemed to be somewhere in between, getting some of the help but not as much as the great Lugia ex.

The first thing to note about Lugia LEGEND was its strange type. It was a Water-type despite being a Psychic/Flying Pokemon in the games. Sure, it lived underwater, but it was still rather odd. 130 HP was an amazing number on a Basic Pokemon, though it was a Basic Pokemon that needed two cards to come into play so it was mitigated a little by that. It also had some issues with Luxray GL LV.X and Zekrom due to that x2 Lightning Weakness, though a -20 Fighting Resistance was indeed helpful against threats like Donphan, Gallade, and Terrakion. Just don’t try to outlast a Machamp deck since you were still a Basic Pokemon and would just fall anyway. Lugia LEGEND’s Retreat Cost was a single Energy, which was reasonably low. Lugia discarded enough Energy on its own, though, so keep that in mind.

Lugia LEGEND’s Poke-Power, Ocean Grow, was an attempt to help get its attack set up. Once during your turn, when you put Lugia LEGEND into play, you could look at the top 5 cards of your deck. You attached all Energy cards you found there to Lugia LEGEND and discarded the others. Well, it was some help, anyway, though it was very unreliable and the odds of getting multiple types of Energy you needed wasn’t that high. Hopefully you wouldn’t discard anything important in the process... Better than not having any help at all, though.

Elemental Blast was back from Lugia ex with the same effect. 200 damage took down anything, but the price was a Fire, a Lightning, and a Water Energy and you had to discard 1 of each in the process. This was extremely hard to set up since you needed a 3-type deck and couldn’t just get around it with things like Holon’s Castform. The one saving grace here was that you did have Rainbow Energy and things like Feraligatr Prime and Typhlosion Prime to help some. Nowhere near as good as Lugia ex, but better than the Neo Genesis version.

Lugia LEGEND just couldn’t live up to Lugia ex’s legacy. Even some acceleration and Rainbow Energy couldn’t make this even remotely consistent. It was best to stick with more reliable cards, even in casual settings in this case, since there were plenty of gimmicky things that didn’t require like 4 perfect cards at the same time. This was a nice collector’s item (that art is amazing) but that was about it.

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #card of the day #lugia #lugia legend #hgss

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segatoys · 3 years ago

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i had a cool dream abt pokemon its kind of long though also spoilers for legends arceus (cause it includes some elements from that)

so part of my dream last night was that i was replaying pokemon black. when i was going through the victory road, i ended up finding this weird abandoned area that looked a bit like the celestica ruins in PLA ... there was a "glitch", and all of a sudden i was at the elite four. it wasnt really the pokemon black elite four, though, and it was like the game was splicing the battles from other games too. there were battles against shauntal, agatha, a mix of marshal and lance? at the end of each battle, there was a little green box you could touch that would "heal" your pokemon, but itd wear off by the time u entered the next room. at the top left corner of each room was a computer at a very small desk with a chair hat was always knocked over or something. anyways, the last member was cynthia - specifically the look and format from BDSP. in the middle of battling her, another glitch happens, and the game cut to an outside environment. it was a mishmash of a bunch of different routes from HGSS, BW, and DPP. different routes of those games kept running into each other, and NPCs that were usually there kept glitching and having pieces of hair or clothing resemble gym leaders. shauntal kept showing up specifically. there were these two HUGE birds that looked like a combo of lugia and ho-oh that kept flying around. like their sprites would take up a third of the screen. finally, i saw cynthia, and she started talking about how we were in the distortion world and how much she loathed that the traditions and such from the celestica people (who seemed to predate hisui) were completely forgotten, and their culture smushed into one small town in sinnoh. a battle starts, and this new mechanic was in place where pokemon could "ignore" that they were supposed to faint if their HP hit 0, but this would wear off once they were hit again. after defeating two of her pokemon (a weird looking servine and a wishcash) a cutscene played where she revealed that she was actually cogita, just using some of the power of the distortion realm to make herself appear younger. the game was basically trying to imply that, despite cogita being alive during the time of PLA (which ppl theorize is 200-400 years before the events of DPP), cogita is immortal (implied in the real PLA) and that cynthia is a direct descendent - like, only a granddaughter, not a great great great great great granddaughter or anything. she talked about her familys connection to giratina, as well as dialga and palkia, but that her connection with giratina is what granted her immortality in the first place. volo did come up, but she mentioned her disgust with him. after playing this part of the game i got off some bus and went to a hotel and was chased by someone in an otis costume

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notontumblr · 7 years ago

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Character Analysis: Rean’s Opposite (CS1/2 spoilers)

Okay this gonna be super long and maybe pointless, but Trails is very big foreshadowing and catching people by surprise so I might as get my thoughts out there.

So lots of people talk about Crow and Rean’s differences and insinuate how they're opposites. It's an easy claim to make, but I'm going to argue that while Rean sure has an opposite, it's not Crow. If anything, Rean and Crow are two sides of the same coin. While there's some opposing traits- they are fundamentally the same deep down. You could write an entire essay on this and their relationship, it’s a very important relationship. But I'm not here to talk about Crow. I'm here to talk about Rean's true opposite.

And that is Elliot Craig.

There’s a lot of ways they differ in ways that had to be intentional, so I’ll just break it down into categories.

Battle Abilities

I’ll start with the most obvious one - Rean and Elliot are opposites in fights. Rean is a melee DPS/Tank while Elliot’s a Healer/Ranged DPS. In other words, Rean is a sword fighter while Elliot’s a mage.

Their crafts are also pretty opposing too. Both of them get their buff craft early on. Rean’s boosts Strength and gives a little CP (the power meter that goes up when you give or take damage), while Elliot’s boosts defense and heals HP. Rean favors going on the offense, while Elliot favors defense. Their other crafts don’t share much overlap either:

Rean: Physical attacks with an increased chance to unbalance enemies. Meant to lay on the hurt whether it be him hitting as many enemies as possible, causing burn status (which causes extra damage each turn), or even being extra enough to summon his robot friend to step on baddies. In CS2 he even gets a special form that increases his damage output.

Elliot: Only two attack crafts that can’t unbalance enemies. Instead of laying on the hurt, he puts enemies to sleep. His other crafts are a healing craft and one that scans enemy data - in CS2 this gets upgraded to one that will decrease the enemies attack strength when he scans - once again showing he’s favors defense. He’s also the only character with a healing S-Craft.

Even their elements are opposite. Rean’s elements are Fire and Time (aka darkness), while Elliot’s are Water and Space (aka light).

Backgrounds

Obviously with the reveal near the end of CS2 of Osborne being Rean’s dad, CS3 goes more into his past and gives more to say about this. But since that hasn’t been localized, I’ll just keep it to info we know from CS1/2 to spare people spoilers.

First, it’s easy to point out their social classes. Rean is an adopted noble from the countryside while Elliot’s a commoner that grew up in a big city - you couldn’t have more opposite upbringings. Sure, Rean is a commoner by birth, but his birth dad is none other than the most powerful and well known commoner in the country. Meanwhile while Elliot’s dad is a commoner with some status being a Lt. General - it’s much more limited, and only people involved with military are familiar with the name.

Both Rean and Elliot have one sister - Elise is younger while Fiona is older. That makes the relationship dynamic fundamentally different. Both Elise and Fiona really care for their brothers, but Rean is overprotective of Elise while Fiona is the one whose overprotective of Elliot. Even their personalities are pretty different- Elise is a Tsundere through and through. Meanwhile Fiona is sweet and cheerful- but is a force of nature when she wants something. If you talk to the Craigs during the 2nd day of the school festival, you find out even Craig the Red is intimidated by her.

Speaking of fathers, let’s talk about their relationships with their living parents. Elliot’s relationship with his dad is the focus of his character arc. When Elliot first talks about him, you get the impression that he’s an aloof and intimidating figure that’s trying to push Elliot to be like him. However when you actually meet him.......the stories don’t quite line up.

While Olaf IS a pushy and intimidating figure, he’s also a very loving dad that openly affectionate and tries to be there for his kids. He even makes sure to attend Elliot’s concert at the school festival despite the worsening situation in Crossbell.

Even his pushiness has more noble reasons behind it. If you choose to spend time with Elliot during the bonfire, he says this about what he realized with his dad:

"He wasn't against me going to the music academy because he was against me pursuing a career in music. He didn't want me to lock myself into it. He wanted me to be able to decide for myself just what path I wanted to follow. And more importantly, he wanted me to have the strength to do so, even if people around me tried to stand in my way..."

While Elliot says he’s just speculating, CS2 shows that he’s not far off. After reuniting with his son and seeing how strong Elliot’s become, he tells Elliot he’ll support him in whatever path he chooses. Olaf Craig wants his kids to be independent and strong enough to fight for that independence - even if it means going against him.

Another important element of Olaf's parenting? Is his honesty with his kids even when it’s an ugly truth. One example is when Fiona gets captured, the Craig kids know that if their dad has to choose between his duty and their lives- he’ll choose his duty no matter how much it hurts. Imagine a dad as loving as Olaf having to admit that to his kids. Even if it’s questionable if there’s a point of being TOO honest with your kids (hearing how your dad would let you DIE if necessary couldn’t have helped Elliot’s self-esteem issues, I’m just saying), it’s clear he feels it’s better to be honest no matter what.

Rean’s parents, adopted and biological, are the opposite. Let’s start with the Schwarzers. They are a nice and loving folk when you meet them, not at all intimidating. But they actually have their own ambitions for him, revealed mostly in the Drama CD for the CS1 Ymir trip. Rean’s mom wants Rean and Elise to get married and take over his father’s lordship - even though Rean doesn’t want that. While their intentions aren’t necessarily bad ones (though wanting him to marry his adopted sister is worrying), they're planning to use Rean for their own dreams.

And then there’s the honesty thing. The Schwarzers aren’t honest with their kids. Elise didn’t find out Rean was adopted until she was 12, and as for Rean? They pretend they don’t know who Rean’s birth parents are, but you find out in CS2 they knew all along. This exchange in the drama CD sums up their stance on ugly truths:

Rean: The reason why I want to learn more about myself is because I want to become the real Rean Schwarzer. To be proud as a member of this important family, and at the same time, as a comrade for my friends. Therefore, I must find the truth no matter what it takes. Teo Schwarzer: ...No matter how cruel the truth may be?

This shows Teo Schwarzer’s willing to lie and hide things if he feels the truth is too cruel. His stance is a sympathetic one. He wants to shield their kids from the ugly truths as many parents are tempted to do. But in the end, it just ends up hurting their relationship with Rean more than anything else.

But at least the Schwarzer’s hearts are in the right place, unlike that asshole of a biological dad. Osborne isn’t even subtle about his willingness to use his own son for his ambitions. The moment the civil war ends, he throws his son into helping him conquer Crossbell. As for not being honest, well the fact he hid his identity as Rean’s father until Rean remembered something says it all. While Olaf is raising his kids to be independent adults with a full understanding of the world, Osborne sees his son as a tool that’s on a need-to-know basis.

Personality

It’s pretty easy to see where Elliot and Rean differ in personality. While Elliot’s timid, Rean’s outspoken. Rean enjoys fighting, Elliot would rather play music. Rean notices girls on several occasions, Elliot notices the guys more during swim class. Rean is regularly in the center of attention, Elliot is regularly overlooked both in game, and by fans. The list goes on about how their personalities differ, but there’s one major theme:

If there’s one thing everyone knows about Elliot it’s that he’s obsessive about music. He practices constantly, he’s a perfectionist, his room is full music stuff- literally he’s a stone throw away from being an Ace Attorney character his obsession is so strong. But if you look carefully, it isn’t so much about music as he’s someone who when he devotes himself to something, he does it at 200%. In the last dorm visit while most characters express something vague like “our paths will cross again” or agreements to meet up sometime if you pick them for their closest bond, Elliot says this:

In other words, Elliot is the one character that REFUSES to break up or put his relationship on hold. He’s too devoted. Notably, you get his first S-Craft only after he decides he’s glad to be at Thors and becomes determined not fall behind everyone.

Rean on the other hand is a drifter that doesn’t commit. He studied 8 Leaves, but he stopped after beginner’s rank. He learned the lute, but he wasn’t serious about it and fell out of practice. He never joins a club (seriously Rean would’ve it killed you to join Fishing Club??). At the end of CS2 when it comes time for Class VII to separate so they can pursue their own goals -- Rean doesn’t really have one, so he stays at Thors, because it’s the only place he ever felt like he belonged.

Character Arcs

Let’s start with where Elliot and Rean were at the start of CS1

Elliot: Pressured to be in the military by his father. Not confident, and a bit at a loss at what his future would be.

Rean: Enrolling in Thors despite it putting his parents out. Fairly confident in pursuing his plan of easing his perceived family’s burden after graduation.

Now look at the end of CS2 where they were at:

Elliot: Enrolling in the Music Academy despite his father’s original wishes. Armed with confidence, he committed to a plan to find a way to use music to help the world.

Rean: Pressured to be in the military by his father. Confidence shaken, at a real loss about his future.

The situations are different obviously, but they basically switched places over the course of two games. Generally speaking when stories do that, it’s intentional for some reason or another.

What does it all Mean?

Truthfully? It might mean nothing. Or it might not.

It’s impossible to say until CS3 and 4 get released and localized. Maybe Elliot will have an important role to play in the Erebonia arc, or maybe there was a plan and they scrapped it. Or maybe it’s a red herring. With the Trails series, it is hard to tell because they really do like to give hints along the way that you don’t pick up until later.

But I do believe it’s not all coincidental. For one, in the character line-ups Elliot is almost always listed right after Alisa (the designated main heroine) in terms of importance. And second?

They outright say it in the game.

Thank you all 2 people that read this, this has been my TED talk.

#trails of cold steel #trails of cold steel 2 spoilers #elliot craig #rean schwarzer #sen no kiseki #my god this is long #i did not mean this to be so long

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monstersdownthepath · 7 years ago

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End-Bringer: Ragnorra, Mother of Monsters

CR 19

Neutral Evil Gargantuan Aberration

Elder Evils, pg. 99~100

Malefic Properties: Anathematic Secrecy, Impervious to the Divine. 0 miles (personal only).

Sinister Signs: Twisted Life. It seems like a blessing, at first, as a strange meteorite grows closer and closer. All spells and effects that use positive energy become more powerful, with healing spells casting as if the caster were two levels higher. Undead fall easier to attempts to Turn them. Life seems good.

And then spores start falling. These strange flakes of material afflict living beings they touch with a strange disease which drains Con by 1d4 points a day, making the affected grow unsightly boils over their body. Around the same time, anyone healed by positive energy effect grows similar boils all over their skin, though these boils can be cured with little effort. The real horror begins when anything dies from the Con drain: they collapse into a pile of pulsing tumors which split open into swarms of otherwise mundane vermin. As Ragnorra grows closer and closer to the planet, spores begin falling with alarming regularity as plantlife and even formerly-living materials (such as wood and leather) become affected by this strange disease.

When she’s finally visible in the night sky, every 24 hours, all living creatures instantly regain 2d8+10 hit points as pulses from the Mother pass over the world. Undead beings are harmed by this pulse of energy unless they’re shielded from the open sky by at least 15 feet of material and at least 40 feet away from any entrances or exits that lead outside. Unfortunately, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows for mortalkind, either, because each time they’re affected by this glorious blessed pulse, one of their hit die becomes corrupted, granting them bizarre, aberrant features that grow more pronounced as the corruption grows. If all of their hit die become corrupted, they become Aberrations and gain a boost to their physical ability scores. Nice!

When Ragnorra finally touches down, everything gets worse/better. The planet becomes swathed in waves of corrupted positive energy; resisting the spores, the disease, and the healing pulses becomes more difficult, and undead beings that don’t shield themselves are Turned (mechanically, by a level 24 Cleric with a +8 Charisma modifier) every 24 hours. Also? No one, nothing, is allowed to die anymore. Ever. Anyone that does rises later (1 day/hit die later), twisted as if they had all of their hit dice corrupted. So long as their body is intact, even monsters and animals will rise again and again.

She loves you. She won’t let you die. She won’t let anyone die. She’ll help you all, make you perfect, make you beautiful.

Boy that was long! But the Mother’s signal is quite a bit more complicated than the first few, which is ironic considering she has a comparatively plain statblock. Ragnorra is a mass of corrupted positive energy encased in growing, shifting flesh over 200 miles long, visiting the Prime Material Plane every 1,500 years like a nightmarish Haley’s Comet, each time selecting a new world to warp to her vision. And wouldn’t you know it? This time, she’s set her sights on our little world!

When Ragnorra lands, the entire planet feels it. A 200 mile long mass of anything traveling that fast and that hard would likely obliterate whatever continent it impacted (the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was estimated to be ‘only’ 6 miles in diameter) along with setting off earthquakes across the entirety of the planet, but this is largely not the case. Indeed, the book says that the quakes shake the world for thousands of miles in every direction and that the plume of pulverized earth (and bits of Ragnorra) can be viewed from everywhere on the continent she strikes. The impact crater alone is over 30 miles in diameter, which means 30 miles of soil was just blasted into the atmosphere, which logically would mean the planet would plunge into an ice age much like Father Llymic causes... But it doesn’t. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that Wizards of the Coast simply didn’t want to have that happen, because then the campaign would be over before it even really began.

If you wanted more explanations, you could say that because Ragnorra landed on her “face,” which was only a mile wide, the full bulk of her state-sized form didn’t have as big of an impact as it could have. You could also say that living matter--especially matter that’s mostly twisted positive energy--doesn’t have the same weight that metal and stone would have. Since she bursts like a watermelon on impact, that probably takes some of the edge off too. Whatever the case, though, when she lands, everyone knows it. The crater she leaves behind quickly fills up with her corrupted flesh as it begins knitting together; Ragnorra isn’t dead. By definition, she can’t die. She begins regenerating almost as soon as she hits, and the players must traverse the Worldskin, the writhing, growing body of Ragnorra that steadily radiates outwards, threatening to swallow the planet under a tide of mutated flesh.

We’ll get something big out of the way first: The Worldskin--and Ragnorra’s personal arena--are dotted with all sorts of grotesque growths. These growths make up most of the Worldskin’s hazards, and are a very large part of what makes Ragnorra herself dangerous, so they must be described in at least some detail. Each growth has a certain amount of HP, and triggering the growth causes its HP to drop to 0. Ragnorra and certain minions of hers can use the Regenerate Worldskin spell to infuse growths with more HP, essentially “rearming” them for another use. Growths can be destroyed completely if they take damage from certain elements while at 0 HP, removing them from play entirely.

Bioenergy Cyst: Gross mineral growths that jut out of the ground, humming with energy. They can fire a line of electricity connecting themselves and a single other cyst in the area, dealing 10d6 electric damage to everyone in the arc’s path if they fail a Reflex save. It can also be triggered to fire four explosive crystals that deal 5d6 fire damage each. 50 HP. Cold and Acid deal lethal damage.

Healing Cyst: Growths filled with twisting positive energy. Upon activation, everyone adjacent to it is healed by a Heal spell for around 150 HP (225 if Ragnorra herself activated it). However, if someone is healed to maximum HP, they gain the rest as temporary HP... And having temporary HP equal or exceeding your maximum HP twists you into an aberration that Ragnorra instantly Dominates. 50 HP. Cold and Electricity deal lethal damage.

Tentacular Boil: Deep black blisters that writhe with life just beneath the surface. Upon activation, they basically cast Black Tentacles, focused on themselves, grappling and constricting any creature that draws too close to their clutches. Note that if Ragnorra is the one triggering the growth, then the Tentacles last for 24 rounds. 50 HP. Fire and Acid deal lethal damage.

Vaporous Abcess: Pus-filled growths, the runoff of Ragnorra’s regeneration. Upon activation, they burst and release Acid Fog centered on themselves, the damage not discriminating between Ragnorra’s own progeny or her enemies. 30 HP, though they regain 15 each turn automatically without input. Fire and Electricity still deal lethal damage.

Spawning Spore: Hideous, tumorous growths that disgorge additional troops subservient to Ragnorra to aid in the battle against her many enemies. Depending on hit dice of the being activating the growth, the spawned beast can be anything from a swarm of aberrant vermin, to an otyugh, to a Blistered Soul, Ragnorra’s personal enforcers who themselves can re-arm and activate growths. Mercifully, destroying a Spawning Spore also damages the creature that re-armed it in the first place. 75 HP. Cannot be permanently destroyed without some form of disintegration effect.

Ragnorra herself is not very threatening. She possesses only a singular slam attack (3d8+19 plus 1 Vile damage) that she often pours Power Attack into, but she’s just not built for combat in the state she’s in. She relies on her Quickened Regenerate Worldskin spell to restore 50 HP to a growth of her choice anywhere on the Worldskin, and Quickened Skincasting to activate any growth within 1,000 feet of her. Note that she can cast both of those spells as standard actions, as well, allowing her to: Regenerate a growth and then instantly activate it, activate a growth and then regenerate it for next round, or regenerate or activate two growths in one round. Swarming her enemies with growths and minions from Spawning Spores, it’s very difficult to close in on her.

Destroying the growths completely makes her less threatening, but she has ways around that. Any spell that fails to overcome her 34 Spell Resistance is absorbed by Spell to Spore, gaining 5 ‘potential’ hit points per level of the spell she absorbs (a 5th level spell gives 25, and so on). As a standard action, she can pour these ‘potential’ points into her surroundings, either re-arming an existing spore or growing an entirely new one anywhere on the battlefield. Targeting her with any spell that can be blocked by her SR is risky, as it could end up just giving her more resources to convert into more minions.

But lets say you do start killing her minions off faster than she can make them. Remember the whole “no one is allowed to die” thing? Surrounded by a Corrupt Positive Energy Aura 15 feet wide, any undead being that starts its turn in there is automatically Turned... And any dead being that starts its turn is automatically resurrected as a twisted aberration under Ragnorra’s control. This not only includes her own minions, but party members that fall as well. They retain their own mind, but they’re automatically Dominated and must make a high Will save in order to resist any command The Mother gives them. A lengthy fight with her is an uphill battle of attrition.

But Ragnorra isn’t concerned with fighting. She mostly activates her cysts, and then crawls towards the center of the battlefield, trampling everything in her path (including her own minions) for 4d6+19 damage. Why?

To move to stage 2.

The True Mother

CR 19

Neutral Evil Colossal Aberration

Elder Evils, pg. 200-201

Once the party reaches the interior of the Worldskin, they effectively force Ragnorra’s nonexistent hands. The party cannot stop stage 2, but all the damage dealt to stage 1 carries over, potentially leaving Ragnorra with only 200 HP when her consciousness ascends and infuses the Neurotangle--essentially the “throne” of the Worldskin, the regenerating brain matter from her former body--something she was holding off on doing until it reached a better size.

In this state, the party gets a taste of Ragnorra’s true power. Her Corrupt Positive Energy Aura engulfs the entirety of the 100x100′ arena, anything within 15 feet of its walls, ceilings, and floors affected by its power, potentially raising every single enemy that fell in the previous rounds and seriously screwing over any undead that may still be present. In addition, Ragnorra can form pseudopods from anywhere in the arena to deliver two slam attacks (3d8+12) each round. She possesses all the tricks of the old Ragnorra, including her Quickened Regenerate Worldskin, Skincasting, and Spell to Spore, though StS now considers the whole battlefield to be the Mother’s body, allowing her to absorb any magic that touches its surfaces.

There’s also one more, extremely dirty trick up her city-sized sleeves now, too. Once per round she can launch a Bolt of Corruption in a 90-foot line, a ray of horrifically twisted positive energy that infects everyone hit by it with a ‘seed’ of corruption. The initial blast corrupts two of the target’s hit dice, just like her spore infection, and restores 2d8+10 HP, and every round after that until they make a Fortitude save, the process repeats until the effect either ends (after 18 rounds) or all of their hit dice are corrupted and they become servants to the Mother. This all is made worse by the fact she can shoot her own troops, giving them bonus tenacity.

Thankfully, the Mother’s forced ascension leaves her vulnerable. Dotting the arena are three “Chords” of corrupt energy that connects her mind to the rest of the Worldskin. Three glowing blots that can be attacked to damage the Mother directly despite the fusion. Each of these Chords possesses only 50 HP themselves and can be targeted by Regenerate Worldskin, but Ragnorra cannot heal herself by healing them. Dealing enough damage to the Chords to kill her, or destroying all three of them in a single round (since she can repair two each round by using her full turn) severs her consciousness completely, sending her reeling back into the Positive Energy Plane for another 1,500 years and freeing all beings under her thrall.

Doomsday Scale: 2/10. Potentially 4 or 5/10 if the DM plays up her initial planetary impact, but the damage she does as she’s growing doesn’t come close to the damage Zargon, Leviathan, and especially Llymic do. In fact, because she automatically resurrects everyone that dies (provided their body is intact) and gives the planet a free scrubbing from the undead, the true cost of her invasion is relatively minimal. Depending on the scale of the undead’s presence in the world, she may have actually done the planet a favor.

Killing her frees everyone she Dominated at once, with all the aberrant features they gained slowly falling away like dead warts (which is a damn shame, imo), leaving only the slowly decaying remains of the Worldskin as evidence she was ever here at all. Granted, a city-sized mound of flesh slowly rotting away brings up all sorts of health concerns, but compared to the horrors of the other Elder Evils, I’m sure the world can deal with it.

#End of the World Week #CR 16 to 20 #body horror #Monster Spotlight #dungeons and dragons #Pathfinder

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crazy4tank · 4 years ago

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10 Things Everyone Forgot About The Toyota MR2 | HotCars

New Post has been published on https://coolcarsnews.com/2021/01/05/10-things-everyone-forgot-about-the-toyota-mr2-hotcars/

10 Things Everyone Forgot About The Toyota MR2 | HotCars

Toyota certainly knows a thing or two regarding making a good sports car. They are accountable for building quite a few historic and well-known sports cars over the years , a lot of them have left quite a mark upon history. Some of those are worth crazy amounts of money nowadays as well.

But , what happens when 1 day, the chief of Toyota has an concept to make a mid-engine, affordable sports car that will handles just as well as the best supercars, at a fraction of the cost, purchase price plus maintenance alike? The MR2. The particular MR2 is a somewhat underrated sports car , filled with cool specifics.

10 A good FWD Car... Backwards

wsupercars. com

Once we already know, the MR2's engine hard disks the rear wheels. One of the most interesting reasons for the MR2, however , is exactly how Toyota pulled off the drive design. It turns out it was quite unorthodox.

wallpaperaccess. com

RELATED: 10 Coolest Vehicles You Never Knew Were RWD

In layman's terms, the MR2 is quite actually an FWD car, except turned backwards. On the earliest MR2 versions, the rear axle and suspension elements were straight out of a Corolla, and if one were to look really closely, stuff like steering linkages in the FWD Corolla was visible.

nine The Spyder Had been Faster Than The Miata

topspeed. com

Although it may not be a difficult feat to achieve, the ultimate generation of the sporty MR2, called the Spyder, was actually a lot faster than the Miata. For research, when the MR2 Spyder ski jacket arrived on the scene, the NB was the Miata generation for sale at the time .

wsupercars. possuindo

Even though the MR2 Spyder had a slightly smaller hp figure, 138 compared to the Miata's a hundred and forty, it still managed to be somewhat bit quicker than its best selling roadster competitor. Of course , it was not all that important in the long-run, because the MR2 Spyder had the same thing in keeping with the Miata; it was all about the particular drive, save the speed for later.

almost eight The Turbo Was Incredible

wikipedia. org

The first-generation MR2 from your 80s was available with a high performance engine, which made it reasonably quick. When the second generation, also known as the particular SW20, arrived in 1989, Toyota chose to crank up the forced induction in order to 11, by way of a turbocharger.

mecum. com

The particular snail that Toyota bolted for their tiny sports car resulted in the appropriately named MR2 Turbo, also called the particular GT-S in foreign markets. The particular 3S-GTE in the back produced two hundred hp and 200 lb/ft torque capacity, mated solely to a 5-speed guide transmission. The best part is, after 1993, the MR2 Turbo was limited with T-tops.

7 Lightning McQueen?

wikipedia. org

Ever since The disney produtcions and Pixar's Vehicles introduced young viewers to car culture in 06, numerous cars around the world have dazzling the iconic livery of the film's protagonist, Lightning McQueen. Amazingly, this particular MR2 Spyder race car has been endorsed by Disney themselves.

pandora. nu

RELATED: We Can't Take a look at These Sad Pics Of Cars Left To Rot

Throughout the 2000s, The disney produtcions supported race championships like the JGTC, in which the MR2 Spyder was contending at the time. The end result was a race vehicle that looked like a mid-engined, traveling car Lightning McQueen. It also included a small pair of eyes within the windshield. It might look like a Spyder, yet this monster and the road vehicle share little to no components.

6 Name Alter

caranddriver. com

The MR2 is one sort of a car that didn't experience any kind of significant name changes depending on the marketplaces where it was sold. It was the MR2 almost everywhere, except in Italy and Belgium.

wsupercars. possuindo

When examine in French, "MR2" sounds like french word "merde". Needless to say, Toyota instantly got to work with the best attempts to improve the name to avoid misinterpretation and to ensure it is more appropriate. In the end, they settled to get MR and MR Spyder. Because of this, the MR2 Spyder was the MR Spyder only in Italy and Belgium, while in Japan it had been known as the MR-S.

5 The Origin Story

drivermod. california

One of the most fascinating things to know about the MR2 is certainly its origin story . Back in the 1970s, Akio Yoshida, a part of Toyota's testing department, got the idea of a compact car that would supply great handling and dynamics, with no hampering fuel economy all that a lot.

superstreetonline. com

Toyota's engineers eventually completed on a mid-engine layout with 2 seats. Because it was a fun circle with a midship layout and 2 seats, it became a Midship Runabout Two Seater, which ultimately got abbreviated to MR2. The particular SA-X prototype was the result of the particular team's efforts at first, and eventually, it had been morphed and finessed into the MR2.

4 They're Nevertheless Affordable

wsupercars. com

As mentioned previously, just about any single one of Toyota's sporty versions have shot up in value considerably, with the Mk4 Supra leading the way. Because the MR2 doesn't get nearly just as much attention, or indeed, as much as this deserves, prices have stayed fairly low.

mecum. com

A potential buyer need to expect to pay a five-figure sale price for a pristine one, but somewhat rattier ones can be found for some really low prices. What's more, the MR2's powertrains can take a beating, and there is certainly quite a bit of aftermarket support. If everything else fails, there are tons of engine exchange opportunities as well.

3 The Group B Prototype

drivetribe. com

Once the MR2 finally arrived in the mid-1980s, Toyota decided that it deserves an area on the Group B rallying main grid. They set about tooling and trying out an original AW11 MR2 and preparing it for Group B responsibilities, which resulted in the bonkers 222D.

pinterest. com

RELATED: Ranking The 10 Many Brutal Monsters Created For Group W Rally

The 222D, although based on a good MR2, shared little to simply no parts with the production model. Just by the figures alone, the 222D was absolutely insane. The motor could be tuned to produce up to 750 hp, in a car that considered only 1, 650 lbs . Sadly, by the time it was finished, the writing was on the walls for Group B, and Toyota never actually got to race this.

2 The SARD MC8-R

shakotantoday. com

Although the MR2's rallying story was never written, not to mention told, the little two-seater saw achievement in other motorsports. Toyota's Sigma Sophisticated Research Development team, also known as SARD, took an SW20 MR2 plus built a totally insane machine from it.

gtsupreme. com

The resulting car was your MC8-R . Designed for the GRAND TOURING class, the MC8-R looks like exactly what might have happened if Hennessey Efficiency used the SW20 MR2 instead of the That lotus Exige as a basis for the Venom GT. In the back, there's no weak 4-cylinder, but rather Toyota's legendary 1UZ-FE V8, tuned to develop 600 horsepower.

1 The Meaning From the Name

wikipedia. org

One of the coolest reasons for the MR2 was undeniably the name. Toyota's focus groups plus marketing teams scrambled to find a suitable name for the little two-seater, till they decided to look at some of the specialized details of the car that the company made.

evo. co. uk

Eventually, they observed, the result of Toyota's engineering work a new mid-engine layout, or midship, this had only two seats, plus it was a fun, throw-into-corners and easy to operate a vehicle fast runabout. After arranging plus abbreviating these pieces of info, they will ended up with MR2, standing for M idship R unabout 2 Seater.

FOLLOWING: 2024 Toyota MR2: The actual Production Model Might Look Like

#Fast Cars

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acradaunt · 7 years ago

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Wanted to gab about Monster Hunter World for a while. It's probably going to be really rambly and sound overly negative, but hey. I tend to be like that. Super negative. It's easier to pinpoint and hammer on a weakness than a strong point.

I guess let's start at the very, very beginning. While it doesn't bother me even slightly, the concept of Capcom pouring all this money and focus onto Monster Hunter, but then not even remotely trying any sort of lip-syncing for the very first cutscene was... jarring. I don't really get complaints about it being too hand-holdy, though. You're fighting Jagras by the third quest and maybe an hour and ten minutes, compared to like three for Jaggi/Jaggi/Maccao in the previous games. Yeah, that first hour is like 105% cutscenes and scripted as heck, but that's them trying to be 'cinematic'. It's not great, but it's better than kicking you back and forth between town and the plains level for ten missions of gather honey/bones/ore/Aptonoth. NPCs tend to feel kind of like completely worthless human beings, but that's just a global videogame issue. Of course nobody else could actually show up and fight something. I guess not showing up at all is better than the Huntsman/Field Leader/Ace Cadet getting bodied time and again.

While yeah, no loading zones are nice, and most of maps are absolutely stellar (though Forest has that confounding middle floors region and Coral Highlands has waaay too many huge pointless regions), I think weapon and quality of life changes are what matters the most. While I think I prefer Gen's (Guild style for both) SnS (World's feels a touch too spammy, and the backleap suuuucks now; Gen's SnS required some finesse) and Greatsword (in spite of the fact that MHWorld's GS is designed around my 'stay in there' playstyle and not running away like everyone else does), almost every other weapon feels at its best. I've found love for Dual Blades, Gunlance, Bowguns, the Bow itself, and even slightly the Katana in this one. Still hate Insect Glaive, but at least they fixed the bugs. I like the LBG and Dual Blades enough to break them into regular usage. Hammer is just so pure and powerful that it kinda makes the Greatsword's damage feel woefully inept. Lance is amazing with guard being worth a damn and being more mobile than ever. Switch Axe makes actual use of both switching and axing. All shields are good. Blocking Nergigante's dive with a SnS shield like it's no huge deal is glorious and refreshing, because that would NEVER have flown before.

Seeing the weapon tree is great, even if what's on the tree is a bit barren. Like, really, I'm not even gonna whine about the boring weapon designs; why are old designs like the Rathian Switch Axe and Dual Blades missing? Poor things don't even GET poison without Awakening. Lots of weapons have huge holes without Awakening. The clear winner is armour skills. It's just so simple and intuitive, it's honestly baffling they didn't do this ages ago. My only quibbles are that you might possibly get TOO many skills now. You're packing more goods than an endgame G-Rank character in 4U. Also, sometimes some Alpha pieces feel exceptionally dumb. Like, is anyone ever going to take the version with, like, freaking Entomologist on it over a free socket? I do think I'd have preferred seeing more Set Skills to scale things down slightly so you had to get a few subpar pieces to get a better, prominent skill, but hey. Set Skills only needing typically 3 makes them a lot more palatable to me.

I might be in the minority here, but I like the switching of decorations and charms. Getting that one good charm completely changed your armour sets, and the 5000 others you got until then were wholly worthless. With decorations, you can equip multiple at a time, sometimes nearly a dozen. You can actually get lots of use out of 'okay' ones. The weekly gold tickets for free gems is really fair. And kinda necessary for upgrading charms. A couple skills really stand out, which I guess isn't anything new. Health Boost went from wholly worthless to the single best skill, allowing for 200 HP, Fire Res stops fire's constant burn damage and near global usage (especially with Bazel and Rathalos' interruptions), and Stun Res is more useful than ever, with Stun taking thrice as long to recover from. I'm sure the 'metagame' is still herp derp handicraft and crit boost or whatever, but I prefer not dying. Ever. I can run all that stuff handily and still get a pricier skill like Elemental Crit or some serious Guard points and not look like complete clownshoes, so that's always a huge plus. Oh, however. Female armour design is at its all-time low. One of the plusses of switching primary genders every game is that I dodged that bullet. Course, in Gen, I knew going in that I wanted Tigrex for Hearing and Eating, so I could use the name Amber quite fittingly. Two armour styles helps sometimes, but. Just. Stop. Making. Everything. Be metal thighhighs and have random-ass patches of bare skin.

A lot of the new monsters are mostly just rehashes. Which is... reasonable, really. There's only so many moves and so many ways to do stuff. Legiana is a less threatening ice Rathalos. Anjanath is a more aggressive, less burly Deviljho. Even Paolumu is Kecha Wacha with a few low-grade Kush attacks. Bazelgeuse certainly stands out among the crowd, because his moves are wholly unique, and he's actually a threatening party-crasher, unlike Deviljho. The fact he's mostly about area of effect makes him incredibly dangerous (and/or helpful) when you're preoccupied, but when the focus is on him, he crumples surprisingly easily. I think most people have a love/hate relationship with him and the 3-monsters in the field. It does spice things up, but it also sometimes turns into an absolute fustercluck.

What's less thrilling is the near universal amount presence of fire. It's one thing that ALL the old guys are fire (minus Diablos, Kushala, and Kirin), but the fact that several of the new monsters (Anjanath, Bazelgeuse, Xeno'jiiva) are fire too is just pouring gasoline on the, well, fire. Kirin, Paolumu, and Vaal Hazak are the only three weak to it, I think, while each weapon gets two-four trees for fire. The free DLC doesn't change matters, with both Lunastra and maybe Alatreon doing fire too. I don't actually remember if Alatreon can light you up. For the other elements, Thunder and Ice get two (plus Oroshi, later). Water has just Jyuratodus and nobody even does Dragonblight. This means if you want elemental weapons, you'll be killing a shitton of Jyuratodus, Tobi-Kodachi, and Legiana. It also makes Fire Res probably the second best general-purpose skill, but I've already been there.

One thing I really did like is how HR just opened up pretty completely. It was fun seeing if you could immediately tackle Rathain or whoever to get some solid HR armour right away. The only shortcoming was the sad, sad excuse at 'oh no, monsters are invading other envir-- Anjie and Pukei are the in desert. That's it. It would've been a nice change of pace to see different guys different places, not to mention it could better use certain otherwise barren rooms and cause 'party chambers' to sometimes be more or less dangerous. Because I've never once fought Dodogama without in the main crystal room without it being a four-way. Lavasioth won't go there, but the three others are mighty fond of the room, too. On this thought, why the hell doesn't Nergigante show in the desert? They had his AI working there for the beta, and you first find traces of him in the swamp. :|

Investigations, Expeditions, and Bounties are all nice enough ideas, but I really think it would've worked better if they reworked how they functioned. Expeditions are kinda... pointless? Other than stupid gather-y bullshit like the ultra-rare endemic life and tempered tracks only show up there. Bounties are an alright way to guide your hand to specific quests, but it's flow breaking early on, and once you don't need armour spheres, you can just forget all about it. Investigations giving bonus rewards with stricter demands is genuinely nice, although there's always the issue of running a quest dry before you have enough Jyuratodus Fins or whatever. I'd more prefer these be like sliders that you can play with to set it to be as hard and rewarding as you can handle, but hey. I'll take it any day over 4U's Guild Quests.

It's kinda a half-baked idea, but I could sort of see a revision of these ideas into one bigger thing. Like, you'd choose a set of three or so investigations at once (like bounties), and when you go to a viable locale, those goals slot themselves in. If it's 30 minutes for Rathian and 50 for Barroth, she'll leave at 30 minutes and Barroth will stay for 50. Or once room opens and Diablos shows, Diablos' timer starts. I'm not sure how death would work. Take ten minutes away? It's not perfect, but it would flow a lot better than having to reload the same map twice every ten minutes when something dies.

Tempereds are just the stupidest attempt at harder monsters yet. Frenzy wasn't great either, as they gave nothing better compared to their normal counterpart, but at least there was a mechanic beyond 'hits harder'. And I seriously think half the G-Rank monsters don't have non-frenzied quests, so it's not much of an option. Hyper was never explained at all, but its heads above the other two. Specific stronger attacks with weaker weak points. Further, with Hypers, you still needed to fight the appropriate monster to get their parts (with some more variety for semi-generic parts like Hyper Horns). With Tempereds, your goal isn't to get parts, but horrifically rare drops, so there's no reason to do anybody but the easiest guy of that tier. You gain nothing more from fighting Radobaan versus Jagras. While I can live with never getting those amazing decorations, streamstones and augmenting are just awful to be linked to luck. Yeah, it's post-postgame, but that junk alone makes me feel I'd rather see a new game that refines World's new ideas rather than it get a G-Rank expansion. Generations was content to have the end be the end, not involving any roulette crap. ...Double Cross might've done some wacky random-luck bullshit. I don't know, come to think of it.

I feel like I had other, nicer, things to say, but this is already waay too damn long and sounds bit too bitter, so I think I'll just stop. Oh yeah, and needing a subscription to play online sucks, so I haven't even attempted to enter or use an SOS out of curiosity. But from what I hear about it only having two scales, one for one player, and one for four, is really stupid. It reeaallly favours single player, which, hey, is working for me, but might've missed the point of the series. See? I can't even end this without sounding negative. :|

#Monster Hunter World

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ravenwolfie97 · 7 years ago

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Follow-Up TOMERPG Stream Notes

Click here to read on the notes I took from the previous stream!

First, let me retread over old notes with their updates!

- The three demo battles have been revealed: one with four players based on the Game Theorists, one with two TeamFourStar OCs with a special team attack, and one with three particular enemies - Rockoon, Archy, and Skeight, known collectively as the Digital Troublemakers! Rockoon has the hacking ability during this fight. - The demo team will be Alpha, Kirbopher, and Flamegirl, and they are Neutral, Technical, and Infernal respectively. - The Speaking Line tier is now set at $90, and the seven $500 slots have been split into two options: Boss and Dojo Master! There are three boss character slots and four Dojo Master slots, but the latter must all be different elements as they correspond to a region to teach the White Hat Hacker a special ability. - The types of abilities the elemental alignments cover are described more clearly this time around. Natural uses plants, wood, earth, and wind. Infernal uses fire and darkness, demonic abilities. Crystal uses water, ice, and psychic energy. Technical uses light, electricity, steel, and technological abilities. Neutral can do any of those but not as powerfully.

And now for the all-new stuff!

-The Kickstarter was delayed because a business bank account needed to be provided, and an LLC had to be established, which has not been processed yet. For this delay, the demo is being expanded upon. The overall "fun factor" wasn't there, and it needed some polish. They updated the presentation of the character's abilities, created a revised timed hit system more akin to quicktime events, and revamping the user interface to be more informative. (As of September 2nd, the LLC has been confirmed!)

- In the gameplay showcase, we go up against the newly redesigned Digital Troublemakers: Rockoon, Archy, and Skeight in their fight that will be in the demo. The battlegrid itself hasn’t changed, but a simple grassy background was added underneath the colored tiles. An HP/SP bar has been added for each party member on the top edge of the screen, with their front-facing overworld sprite as an icon along with their name. - The Strategize option allows you to defend yourself or hack your foes. - The orange tiles in the center of the battlegrid are for full-party attacks. - The two TeamFourStar DragonBall Xenoverse OCs Puddin and Dumplin were shown off, with some of their attacks being shown off. Puddin appears to be a Fighter, with a multi-hit Strike. She also has a Spirit Bomb projectile, another kick attack, a multi-colored power boost, and a rock attack that hits the entire opposing party. Dumplin seems to be a Spellcaster, with a singular punch Strike. He can shoot pizza slice projectiles, emit a blinding light from his body, psych himself up, and release a Spirit Bomb that effects the whole opposite party as well. - The four Game Theorist characters showed off their powers too! Mattheorist has his Theorist Fist as a Strike, psychic cat and shark fin attacks, a Diet Coke booster, and some ability that he crouches down to do - I can’t see any effects for it, so it’s unclear, but the Cybernetic WHH does take damage from it. He may have a green-light visor on that does something. Stephastream’s Strike is a Stab and a Half, a flashlight beam, a tea heal, and a plushie attack. Gaijingoom slashes with his katana, unleashes glitchy projectiles, a leaping downward strike, a defensive booster, and a ninja-like sneak attack. Ronnieditor’s Strike is a kick, and his other abilities seem to be some blue energy wave attack and “acting sheepish”. - Jourdan Lasko and Crescent Roads are coming to make the graphics and they’re beautiful. - Every character starts with two special attacks and can gain up to six by the end of the game with the help of the Dojo Masters. - The three $500 boss characters will be part of an enemy guild relevant to the plot, presumably more black-hat hackers. - If a person donates to have their own original character put into the game, they are required to sign an “Assignment of Rights” contract, which will be distributed via a Kickstarter survey once the donation window closes. It simply means you are allowing Chris and his team to put your character or your likeness in the game; it does not mean they will own the rights to it. - Along with the survey/contract, it is there that you will be able to describe your OC/likeness via text, reference images, etc. with their appearance, race, class, elemental alignment, and an idea of their abilities. If you donate to be a $500 character, you will be in direct communication with Chris to debate over your character’s setup, but while the rest are up to him in the end, there is plenty of creative freedom to be used. - There will be a few sidequests and minigames! - There are sprite/talking avatar-based cutscenes, but no immediate plans for fully-animated scenes. - While voice actors aren't being auditioned/you yourself cannot voice your character, you can possibly suggest the sound of their voice along with the rest of their info. - Voiceover in the middle of battle isn't going to be repeated clips of dialogue, rather it would play out like a small cutscene with predetermined lines. - Traps can be laid on the battlegrid. - As of now, the characters won't "level up" or gain experience points; their strength will be equipment-based. - There's more than one ending intended...

- Got new official HD art of the White Hat Hackers!

- Some not-HD promo art of the Troublemakers!

- A look at the overworld map, which is comprised of regions analogous to each elemental alignment! All that is known is each area has a hub town, each of which we can clearly see on the map.

- The two TeamFourStar OCs, Puddin and Dumplin!

- The four Game Theorist characters: Mattheorist, Stephastream, Gaijingoom, and Ronnieditor!

Updated tier list: $15: Get a credit in the game $30: Get an overworld sprite/a copy of the game $50: Get an overworld sprite AND a copy of the game $90: Get an overworld sprite with a speaking line & talking avatar AND a copy of the game $200: Get all of that plus the ability to battle your character as an enemy. $350: Battle your character in a special segment of the game. $500: Battle your character as an enemy Boss OR as a Dojo Master!

Again, the $500 tier is limited to three bosses and four Dojo Masters of each element. The special enemies and the normal fightable characters have a larger limit of around 100 or so. The speaking lines will have some larger limit than that, and the basic overworld sprites are unlimited. Also, if you donate $500 but the seven slots have already been processed, you can choose any of the other tiers and still donate that amount of money. You can always change your pledge on Kickstarter later. The Kickstarter campaign will go for at least 30 days, and only one character/tier per donor (for now).

That’s all I’ve got! See you around for the Kickstarter and the demo!

#terrain of magical expertise #tome #tomerpg

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adrenalineguide · 7 years ago

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Volkswagen Atlas and Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro

Text and Photos by Michael Hozjan

Volkswagen Atlas: Getting it right

I wasn’t supposed to like the Atlas. It’s big, square and the furthest departure from what we’re used to from Volkswagen in the company’s history. They call it a seven-passenger. Hell, in the sixties my buddy’s parents stuffed more people into a Beetle. I’d hate to see how many kids and adults they’d fit into the Atlas!

Like I said I wasn’t supposed to like the Atlas and I don’t. I love it. Volkswagen has gone out and broken all the rules and given us a behemoth (it’s nearly 200 inches long) that’s as easy to drive as a compact sedan, is as smooth as a limo and then turns around and is as agile as a sporty sedan.

The Atlas doesn’t replace any outgoing model as we were led to believe. It’s an all-new model geared for the big gulp, super-size me, generation. Unlike other mid-size SUVs like the Ford Explorer and Honda Pilot whose greenhouses feel claustrophobic despite their seven and eight passenger cargo ability, the Atlas feels airy. No matter which of the three rows of seats you choose, foot, leg and elbowroom is abundant. Slide the second row all the way back and your passengers can actually cross their legs (shades of 1950 Cadillacs)! Likewise getting into the third row seat, usually a backbreaking chore left for the rug rats, is a cinch even for adults thanks to the folding and sliding second row seat, which can be articulated with one hand. Incidentally the third row is an option and VW also has second row captain’s chairs on the options list (standard on the Execline).

While we await the arrival of Volkswagen’s new minivan, the Atlas can serve as both a people and cargo mover thanks to a whopping 97 cubic feet of space with the second and third row seats folded. Even with all the seats up there’s still an impressive 21 cubic feet behind the third row. Both rear row seats split to offer a slew of seating/cargo carrying capabilities. Need more space; the Atlas has a 5,000 lb towing capacity (V6 model).

Oh and did I say the Atlas’ interior is quiet. Very quiet. That is until you turn up the sound on the sat radio through the intuitive touch screen of the infotainment system and light up the Fender speakers peppered throughout the truck. Honda, Fiat, Alfa and a slew of other manufacturers should take note of the VW’s user-friendly (read uncomplicated), instinctively placed infotainement controls.

The Atlas is available in front-wheel-drive and VW’s 4Motion all-wheel-drive. You get a choice of two engine options; a 2.0L turbo charged four that develops 235 horses and 258 lb.ft. of torque or the 276 horsepower 3.6L V-6 that produces that delivers 266 lb.ft. of torque. Both connect to an 8-speed automatic tranny with Tiptronic.

Ever been frustrated where to stow your blind? VW has the answer.

Duh!

Oh come on!

A friend of mine who worked at a local VW dealer once told me how a fellow mechanic would use the term Mickey Mouse to describe a non-useful item on a car or an item with no design sense what so ever. The term stuck. The fake twin exhaust tips (above) are the first time I’ve used it on a VW product. Yes that’s the real exhaust pipe under the fake one!

Prices start at $35,690 for the 2.0L powered Trendline, which is almost in par with the lid trim line price of the smaller Tiguan. Next up the ladder is the Comfortline at $39,690 with such amenities as adaptive cruise control, heated front seats and washer nozzles, pedestrian detection and sat radio added. My Highline starts at $48,990 and nets you the V6 plus a power tailgate, heated tushies for the rear seat passengers, panoramic sunroof and ventilated front seats. The good news is it’s still priced under the entry level Toureg! Then there’s the top of the line Execline which starts at $52,540 which adds 20” wheels, 12 fender speakers, a digital cockpit, park and lane assist…

Our Kurkuma Yellow Metallic Atlas drew a lot of attention and one or two even liked the color!

Price as tested: $51,524

Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro: Old school cool

“I can’t believe they’re still making this dinosaur!” exclaimed Eric Descarries, my co scribe, here at Adrenaline Auto Guides.

“Yup, and I’m glad they do.” Came my response.

Obviously we have different visions of what an SUV should be. Eric is of the new school, unibody construction. I on the other hand, still lean more towards the old body-on-frame construction. Maybe it’s the hot rodder or the off-roader in me.

Oh I know I’ll have lots of letters about how unibodied cars have crumple zones to keep their occupants safer than their body-on-frame counterparts and how unibodied cars have withstood the test of time when it comes to rust.

It all depends on what your definition of a SPORT-UTILITY vehicle is, and over the years the term seems to have lost it’s meaning. Today most SUVs are little more than overgrown station wagons with all wheel drive. That’s precisely why we have nonsensical terms like crossover. To me a sport-utility meant you could haul all your gear deep into the woods or across the desert in relative comfort protected from the elements, unlike a 4x4 pickup where your gear would be exposed. The sport portion was more towards hunting, fishing, crossing deep ruts and deeper mud holes, making it to the lot where you hoped to one day build your cabin. And utility meant the truck would be able to haul your construction materials/gear up with you. It didn’t mean how many rug rats you can haul to the baseball diamond – which is what it seems like today’s so called SUVs are all about, even our beloved VW Atlas falls into that category.

The early Jeep Wagoneers, Ford Broncos and Chevrolet Jimmys are a prime example of what I’m talking about. Oh and off-roading doesn’t mean going through the 8 inch trench the construction crew dug up on your street. I’ve taken sports cars through deeper holes.

What makes the Toyota 4Runner the last true sport-utility? To begin with I’ll echo my previous statement, it’s a rugged, utilitarian that will just about go anywhere. While most SUVs, crossovers and the like are built on car-based chassis, the 4Runner still gets its DNA from a pickup.

From a performance aspect, all 4Runners, regardless of which of the five trim packages you opt for are powered by a 4.0 liter, 270 hp, V6 that pumps out 278 lb-ft of torque mated to a five-speed automatic transmission. My Toyota Racing Development Pro (there’s also a TRD Off Road) came with 4-wheel crawl control, TRD Bilstein high-performance shocks with remote reservoirs, TRD-tuned front springs, 17” black aluminum wheels with 31.5" Nitto Terra Grappler all-terrain tires. A locking rear differential, Multi-Terrain Select system and Downhill Assist Control all work in conjunction to get you in and out of the toughest trails. The four-wheel-drive system is of the part-time variety and can be engaged with a manually operated transfer case. Hey these systems, like the 5-speed automatic are bulletproof and have proven themselves over the years. Adding some macho visual appeal while protecting your ride from rocks and logs is a heavy-duty aluminum skid plate mounted up front.

Oh and yes the TRD did get plenty of admiring stares and thumbs up.

As capable as the 4Runner is in the rough, on the road the Toyota doles out a smooth, comfortable ride despite the noisy off-road tires. If there’s a downside to the 4Runner it’s the truck’s off-road traits translate into more sway than usual when doing quick lane changes. The five-speed automatic may be great for tackling the Rubicon but on the highway the truck could also use an extra gear. Let’s not forget the 4Runner hasn’t had a major upgrade in years.

My sunroof-equipped tester’s interior was more truck-like than car-like with large buttons that can easily be manipulated even with gloves. Fit and finish is Toyota quality. Red stitching on the black leatherette seating is a nice touch and rear seat passengers get a provision to tilt their seat backs for added comfort. There is a third row option on the other trim lines. The tester offered an impressive 47 cu.ft. of cargo space behind the second row seats – that’s one of the largest trunks in the midsize SUV category. But what truly sold me on the 4Runner is the opening rear window, a feature that has disappeared off the SUV/crossover/station wagon landscape and something that all of my friends with SUVs have wished for.

The tall off-road tires and ride height make ingress and egress a challenge, but isn’t as bad as the first generation. Showing the truck’s age is the lack of techno gadgetry such as blind-spot monitoring and lane departure warning. You’ll have to old school it and pay attention to the road! However, Vehicle Stability Control, Active Traction Control and trailer sway control are all part of the base vehicle, which starts at $44,800. The TRD Pro package adds another $7395 to the tag. The Toyota can tow 5,000 lbs, only the Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango can tow more, 7,400 lbs.

If your looking for a large station wagon with all-wheel drive and car like ride, look elsewhere, this Toyota is not for you, But if you want a rugged, tough workhorse that will carry you, your buds and your gear over any kind of terrain, your choices are very limited and none has the opening rear window on the hatch. Add Toyota’s high resale value and the choice gets narrower.

At the end of my tenure with the 4Runner I must admit it was hard to surrender it. Like the Jeep Wrangler, it may not be the greenest vehicle, I managed to squeeze out 12.5L/100kms of the good stuff, but the feel of the truck is so unique and yes it’s smoother than the Wrangler.

Price as tested: $54, 083.47

#toyota #4runner #jeep #vw #atlas #wagoneer #wrangler #suv

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dragon-above · 8 years ago

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Mror Stonelord

Mror Stonelord Gargantuan Elemental (Earth) Hit Dice: 16d8+128 (200 hp) Initiative: +3 (-1 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative) Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), climb 20 ft. (4 squares) Armour Class: 21 (-4 size, -1 Dex, +16 natural), touch 5, flat-footed 21 Base Attack/Grapple: +12/+39 Attack: Slam +23 melee (2d6+15) Full Attack: 4 slams +23 melee (2d6+15) Space/Reach: 20 ft./20 ft. Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities, rockfall Special Qualities: Darkvision 60ft., damage reduction 10/-, elemental traits, immovable, tremorsense 120ft. Saves: Fort +20, Ref +6, Will +11 Abilities: Str 41, Dex 8, Con 27, Int 16, Wis 18, Cha 17 Skills: Diplomacy +13, Knowledge (arcana) +9, Knowledge (geography) +13, Knowledge (history) +22, Knowledge (nature) +13, Knowledge (religion) +13, Knowledge (the planes) +13, Listen +14, Spot +14 Feats: Awesome Blow, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack ========================================= Environment: Cold mountains Organization: Solitary Challenge Rating: 15 Treasure: Standard Alignment: Usually lawful neutral Advancement: 17-32 HD (Gargantuan); 33-48 HD (Colossal) Level Adjustment: -

A great, rune-carved stone obelisk rises almost forty feet into the sky. At its base, four stone roots fix it in place. The stonelords of the Mror Holds are ancient and powerful creatures believed to have watched over the dwarves since they first arrived in Khorvaire. Formed from the very mountain rock, the dwarves revered them as aspects of Eberron itself. With their vast knowledge of all things arcane or mundane, the stonelords were honoured as oracles and sages, and some dwarves even idolised them as gods. However, when Lord Mror banished the clans to the surface world and sealed the gates behind them, all contact between the stonelords of the mountains and the great kingdom of stone below was lost. The stonelords continued to pass on their wisdom to the banished clans for a short time, but soon the clans fell into war and the stonelords abandoned them. After only a few generations the legacy of the stonelords was forgotten, falling into mere myth and legend. Only now, when the Mror Holds are united once more, are the stonelords beginning to stir. Though the great obelisks had been discovered before, they were dismissed as ancient ruins rather than living creatures at rest. It is unknown just how many stonelords exist, though carvings recently unearthed from the ruins of the ancient dwarven empire tell of the pillars of Eberron representing the six virtues of the kingdom. Since much of the stonelord lore was lost with the ancient dwarven kingdom, it is unknown if this is indeed a link or is simply misunderstood. Stonelords resemble mighty obelisks, cut from the rock of the mountains. Carved with ancient dwarven texts, some discoveries suggest the dwarves learnt their language from the stonelords themselves. At the base of the obelisk are stone roots like that of a tree, which can act as legs or weapons when the need arises. Stonelords speak Dwarven and Terran, their voices are low and rumbling like a distant avalanche. Combat A stonelord is a calm but relentless foe. Immobilisation is its preferred mode of defeating an opponent, it will rarely kill. If harassed, a stonelord will usually begin using its slam attacks and spell-like abilities to weaken and disable foes. Any against especially dangerous foes will a stonelord resort to its rockfall ability. Immovable (Ex): A stonelord cannot be moved from its position against its will. Bull rush attempts, and any other ability that would move the stonelord into another space, magic or mundane, automatically fail. Rockfall (Su): Once per day as a standard action, a stonelord can let out a deep, resonant cry that disturbs rock formations around it. Boulders fall and the ground splits as the stonelord commands the very mountain to lash out at its enemies. All creatures within 60ft of the stonelord take 15d6 damage, with a Reflex save DC 21 for half-damage. A stonelord can only use this ability in mountainous terrain. The save DC is Charisma-based. Tremorsense (Ex):A stonelord can sense the presence of any creature within 120ft that is in contact with the ground. Spell-like Abilities: 3/day - augury, spike stones, transmute rock to mud, transmute mud to rock; 1/day move earth, wall of stone, divination. Caster level 15th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.

#eberron #D&D #3.5e #monsters #eberronbestiary

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boobtubedude · 8 years ago

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The Tournament Of The Archomentals, Part 2

Notes for the last campaign session are here.

The latest session picks up moments after the last one ended. Garrick runs out to greet the heroes, but immediately behind him are fifty guards that quickly surround them on all sides. Garrick insists that the heroes must go talk to the tournaments architects about what just happened. The cleric Peter Dinklage was having none of it, and what ensued was a ten-minute argument that perplexed both Garrick and the DM. Turns out, Peter had forgotten all about the end of the last session in which the sky went black and the audience wheel started to glow and unholy bright red, and thought the architects were mad they had won the round, and didn’t he feel silly about all of this now.

The five heroes went inside and were greeted by Demora, whom the Halfling seamstress had transformed from a half-elf female Rogue into a male, Dragonborn beserker Barbarian named Stripe. The now finally-united team went before the architects in a grand hall underneath the arena. Gundren Rockseeker, as one intimately familiar with the heroics of the original four from their first adventure in Wave Echo Cave, thought perhaps the group had brought something back with them unwittingly from Barovia. Arzgarth denied those charges. Chad The Conquerer and Peter were then questioned, as two whom Vivienne has transformed. As a warlock, Chad’s new god might have been responsible, Artin Battlehammer suggested. Chad said that his god spoke to him through the stars, which everyone agreed was a little weird but whatever, we’re all inclusive here. Theren Amastacia thought Stripe’s mysterious absence in the last battle now felt fishy, but Stripe described her vomiting in great detail, perhaps too great, if we’re all being honest. Theren then directed her inquiries to the two newest members of the group, Danfielding and Kieran Lonesword. They too denied any wrongdoing.

The group noticed that the last architect, Kallista Orianna, was silent. The Tiefling caught Stripe’s gaze, and Stripe instantly had a vision of a bright blue scepter, almost impossibly large, with a huge tidal wave cresting behind it. As soon as the image was present, it was gone. Kallista broke contact with Stripe and immediately left the room. The architects agreed to let the heroes participate in the next round, but would need to take more precautions with the audience.

Garrick and Vivienne then escorted the group to their room for the evening. The names of the other teams were on doors as they walked down the hallway. The DM worked super hard on these names, but the heroes were clearly too tired from their battle to ask. After much prompting by the DM, the heroes finally indulged his hint and asked about the names of the other four remaining teams.

They were:

Wave Echo Cave Of Mutilation

Quoth The Raven, Neverwinter

Axis: Kobold As Love

The Archomaniacs

The DM awaited the glorious and hearty response. Three half-chuckled and the other three went to get another beer. The DM vowed to make the next round much harder than initially planned.

Overnight, a few of the heroes were awoken by the sound of rustling paper and footsteps outside their door. What they found was a mysterious grid laced with symbols. Peering outside the door, they could find no sign of who had left it for them, or what it meant. They did all agree that the artistry on it was top-notch and museum-worthy, however.

After gearing up for the next day’s events, Garrick led them down the same hallway as before to the arena: The first two archomentals were no longer lit, as the “Earth” portion of the tournament was over. Garrick explained this round would honor the “Air” archomentals, Yan-C-Bin and Chan. “In every moment, the winds of battle can change!” warned Garrick, who was still a bit sore at Peter about the misunderstanding the day before. “You don’t have to win so much as survive this time. You’ll see what I mean.” The portrait of Asmodeus lifted again, but this time, there was no light shining from above. As soon as the heroes got onto the circular platform, the door shut behind them, the room filled up with gas, and everyone passed out.

Well, everyone but Chad, who as a 10th level Warlock is apparently immune to everything, which really rankled the DM’s narrative and overall demeanor, especially because Chad’s the DM’s real-life brother and this brought up all sorts of feelings about how Mom liked him best. Chad watched two guards pick up the limp bodies of everyone else and drag them onto the new arena. The two guards assigned to Chad panicked a bit at seeing him not passed out and quickly ran into the platform and hightailed it out of there. So much for the romantic nature of mystery.

Chad saw the room go from pitch black to bright white in an instant, and the lighting change managed to wake everyone else up. While they had been in many dungeons between them over the years, the heroes never saw anything quite like this. The room wasn’t so much lit by torches as much as lit by sleek, glass-like panels. On the floor and walls were 15’x15’ panels, of which 24 total were on the floor, yielding a 60’x90’ floor space. There was a clear 2’’ gap between each square, segmenting them cleanly from one another. The panels ran up all of the walls as well, shooting 60’ high. In the dead center of the room, about 4’ in diameter, was an equally-glossy cylinder. In the four upper corners of the room were screens featuring the faces of the four Architects, looking sternly at all six of them. No crowds could be seen anywhere. Peter looked at the floor for any signs of the symbols on the map they had gotten the night before, but saw nothing.

The six tried to talk to each other, and realized quickly that they could hear some better than others. An investigation yielded that the 2’’ gap running north to south in the dead center of the room featured an invisible wall, separating the group of six into groups of three. Just as they realized that, the east and west walls raised up 15’, and out came two enormous gelatinous cubes from the space within, moving slowly towards them, in a scene no way inspired by the trash compactor sequence in “A New Hope.”

Different folks took different approaches. The bard Danfielding cast “Vicious Mockery,” in the hopes of I suppose making the jelly feel bad about itself. Peter used his lightning prowess to deal damage but also keep pushing the cube back lest it ingest them whole. The fighters Stripe and Kieran slashed away, the paladin Arzgarth made one cube his mortal enemy in order to deal extra damage, and Chad was chill because he was immune to cubes, probably.

At one point, the eastern-based cube was obliterated to the point of exploding over every clean, glossy surface, which led to the creation of the hashtag #cubelube, and there was much regret.

After defeating both cubes, the heroes heard several whooshing noises, and realized that while the north-south wall was gone, there was one running east-west horizontally between all six rows. Luckily, because of their movement in the previous battle, they were all now paired up. This was good because into these narrow corridors poured a pair of Air Mephits. The DM tried to describe them as Watto from “The Phantom Menace,” but not everyone in the group had seen “The Phantom Menace,” which initially made the DM mad but eventually jealous, because some people had not endured “The Phantom Menace.”

Chad summoned the Fire Elemental Efreeti with 200 HP to take care of his Mephits, because why the fuck not, I guess. The heroes didn’t have a particularly easy time with these creatures, as the Mephits successfully blinded most of them in the first round which required more healing and ingenuity than normally required by them. Even Efreeti had a hard time hitting the Mephits, which would be like Ted Williams having a hard time hitting a ball of a tee.

The heroes ultimately defeated the six beasts, at which point the walls all seemingly disappeared on the floor. To the north side, a single panel lifted up, out of which a djinn walk-floated into the arena. Looking at Efreeti, it smiled and conjured his own equally large air elemental. “This will teach them to not laugh at my team names,” the DM thought to himself.

#Dungeons and Dragons

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juliaelee30 · 4 years ago

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How to choose a sunlight readable display or monitor ?

Touch screen technology

Touch screen – an information input device, which is a screen that responds to touch.

History

The touchscreen was invented in the United States as part of programmed learning research. The PLATO IV computer system, which appeared in 1972, had a touch screen on a grid of infrared rays, consisting of 16 × 16 blocks. But even such low accuracy allowed the user to choose the answer by clicking on the right place on the screen. In 1971, Samuel Hurst (the future founder of Elographics, now Elo TouchSystems) developed an elograph – a graphic tablet that operated on a four-wire resistive principle (U.S. Patent 3,662,105). In 1974, he managed to make the elograph transparent; in 1977, he developed a five-wire screen. Together with Siemens, Elographics managed to make a convex touch panel that was suitable for picture tubes of that time. At the 1982 World’s Fair, Elographics introduced a touch-screen TV. In 1983, the HP-150 computer with an IR-touch screen was released. However, in those days, touch screens were used mainly in industrial and medical equipment. Consumer devices (telephones, pocket PCs, etc.) included touch screens as a replacement for a tiny keyboard when devices with large (full front panel) LCD screens appeared. The first handheld gaming console with a touchscreen is the Nintendo DS, the first mass-media device that supports multi-touch is the iPhone.

Application.

Touch screens are used in payment terminals, information kiosks, equipment for trade automation, handheld computers, mobile phones, game consoles, and operator panels in the industry.

Advantages and disadvantages of handheld devices

Advantages  The simplicity of the interface.  The device can combine small sizes and a large screen.  Speed dial in a relaxed atmosphere.  The multimedia capabilities of the device are seriously expanding. Disadvantages  No tactile feedback  High power consumption.  Particularly thin screen models, even with minor damage, run the risk of being cracked or even broken.  Hygiene of Screen. Advantages and disadvantages of stationary devices Advantages

In information and vending machines, operator panels and other devices that do not have active input, touch screens have established themselves as a very convenient way of human interaction with the machine.

Advantages:

 Increased Reliability.  Resistance to harsh external influences (including vandalism), dust and moisture resistance. Disadvantages  (For capacitive screens). No tactile feedback.  When working with a vertical screen, the user is forced to keep his hand on weight. Therefore, vertical screens are suitable only for occasional use like ATMs.  On a horizontal screen, hands obscure the view.

Even with a sharp pen, parallax limits the accuracy of positioning operator actions on touch screens without a cursor. At the same time, using the cursor creates additional difficulties for the operator, reducing ergonomics. When using the screen with not completely clean hands, use is difficult due to the the difficulty of moving the fingers, as well as the resulting fingerprints and spots, if the screen does not have special coatings to neutralize them. These disadvantages do not allow using only the touch screen in devices with which a person works for hours. However, in a well-designed device, the touch screen may not be the only input device – for example, at the cashier’s workplace, the touch screen can be used to quickly select goods, and the keyboard to enter numbers.

Principles of operation of touch screens

There are many different types of touch screens that work on different physical principles.

Resistive Touch Screens – Four-wire screen

The principle of operation of a 4-wire resistive touch screen

The principle of operation of the 5-wire resistive touch screen The resistive touch screen consists of a glass panel and a flexible plastic membrane. Both the panel and the membrane are coated with a resistive coating. The space between the glass and the membrane is filled with micro-insulators, which are evenly distributed over the active area of the screen and reliably insulate conductive surfaces. When the screen is pressed, the panel and membrane are closed, and the controller, using an analog-to-digital converter, detects the change in resistance and converts it into touch coordinates (X and Y). In general terms, the reading algorithm is as follows: A voltage of + 5V is applied to the upper electrode; the lower one is grounded. The left and right are short-circuited and the voltage on them is checked. This voltage corresponds to the X-coordinate of the screen. Similarly, + 5V and ground are applied to the left and right electrodes, and the Y- coordinate is read from the top and bottom. There are also eight-wire touch screens. They improve tracking accuracy, but do not increase reliability.

Five-wire screen

The five-wire screen is more reliable due to the fact that the resistive coating on the membrane is replaced by a conductive one (the 5-wire screen continues to work even with a slotted membrane). A resistive coating with four electrodes at the corners is applied to the rear window.

Initially, all four electrodes are grounded, and the membrane is “pulled” by a resistor to + 5V. The voltage level on the membrane is constantly monitored by an analog-to-digital converter. When nothing touches the touch screen, the voltage is 5 V.

As soon as the screen is pressed, the microprocessor picks up the change in membrane voltage and starts calculating the contact coordinates as follows: A voltage of + 5V is applied to the two right electrodes, the left ones are grounded. The voltage on the screen corresponds to the X-coordinate. The Y-coordinate is read by connecting to the + 5V of both upper electrodes and to the “ground” of both lower. Features

Resistive touch screens are cheap and pollution resistant. Resistive screens respond to touch with any smooth, hard object: hand (bare or gloved), pen, credit card, pick. They are used wherever vandalism and low temperatures are possible: for the automation of industrial processes, in medicine, in the service sector (POS-terminals), in personal electronics (PDAs). The best samples provide accuracy of 4096 × 4096 pixels. The disadvantages of resistive screens are low light transmission (not more than 85% for 5-wire models and even lower for 4-wire), low durability (no more than 35 million clicks at one point) and insufficient vandal resistance (the cover-up is easy to cut). Matrix Touch Screens Design and principle of operation

The design is similar to resistive, but simplified to the limit. Horizontal conductors are applied to the glass, vertical to the membrane.

When you touch the screen, the conductors touch. The controller determines which conductors are closed and transfers the corresponding coordinates to the microprocessor.

Features

They have very low accuracy. Interface elements have to be specially arranged taking into account the cells of the matrix screen [8]. The only advantage is simplicity, cheapness and unpretentiousness. Typically, matrix screens are polled line by line (similar to a matrix of buttons); This allows you to set up multi-touch. Gradually replaced by resistive. Capacitive Touch Screens Design and principle of operation

Capacitive touch screen operating principle

A capacitive (or surface-capacitive) screen uses the fact that an object of large capacity conducts alternating current.

The capacitive touch screen is a glass panel coated with a transparent resistive material (usually an alloy of indium oxide and tin oxide is used). The electrodes located at the corners of the screen supply a small alternating voltage (the same for all angles) to the conductive layer. When you touch the screen with your finger or other conductive object, a current leakage appears. Moreover, the closer the finger to the electrode, the lower the screen resistance, which means that the current strength is greater. Current in all four corners is recorded by sensors and transmitted to the controller, which calculates the coordinates of the touch point. In earlier models of capacitive screens, direct current was used – this simplified the design, but when the user contacted the ground poorly, it led to malfunctions. Capacitive touch screens are reliable, about 200 million clicks (about 6 and a half years of clicks with an interval of one second), do not let in liquids and tolerate non-conductive pollution perfectly. Transparency at 90%. However, a conductive coating located directly on the outer surface is still vulnerable. Therefore, capacitive screens are widely used in machines that are only installed in a weatherproof room. Do not respond to gloved hand.

It is worth noting that due to differences in terminology, surface and projection- capacitive screens are often confused. According to the classification used in this article, the screen, for example, the iPhone is projective-capacitive, and not capacitive. Projection Capacitive Touch Screens Design and principle of operation

Projection Capacitive Touch Screen

On the inside of the screen is a grid of electrodes. The electrode together with the human body forms a capacitor; Electronics measures the capacitance of this capacitor (gives a current pulse and measures the voltage).

Samsung was able to install sensitive electrodes directly between the sub-pixels of the AMOLED screen, which simplifies the design and increases transparency. Features

The transparency of such screens is up to 90%, the temperature range is extremely wide. Very durable (bottleneck – sophisticated electronics that handle clicks). PESE can use glass up to 18 mm thick [10], which leads to extreme vandal resistance. They do not respond to non-conductive contaminants, conductive are easily suppressed by software methods. Therefore, projection-capacitive touch screens are widely used in personal electronics and in machines, including those installed on the street. Many varieties support multi-touch.

Touchscreens for surface acoustic waves Design and principle of operation

The screen is a glass panel with piezoelectric transducers (PES) located at the corners. At the edges of the panel are reflective and receiving sensors. The principle of operation of such a screen is as follows. A special controller generates a high-frequency electrical signal and sends it to the probe. A probe converts this signal into a SAW, and reflective sensors reflect it accordingly. These reflected waves are received by appropriate sensors and sent to the probe. The probes, in turn, receive reflected waves and convert

them into an electrical signal, which is then analyzed using a controller. When you touch the screen with your finger, part of the energy of the acoustic waves is absorbed. The receivers record this change, and the microcontroller calculates the position of the touch point. It reacts to touch with an object that can absorb a wave (finger, gloved hand, porous rubber). Features The main advantage of a screen on surface acoustic waves (SAW) is the ability to track not only the coordinates of the point, but also the pressure (here, rather, the ability to accurately determine the radius or area of pressure), due to the fact that the degree of absorption of acoustic waves depends on the pressure at the point touch (the screen does not bend at the touch of a finger and does not deform, therefore, the force of pressing does not entail qualitative changes in the processing by the controller of data on the coordinates of the impact, which captures only the area b, overlapping the path of acoustic pulses). This device has a very high transparency, since the light from the imaging device passes through glass that does not contain resistive or conductive coatings. In some cases, glass is not used at all to combat glare, and emitters, receivers and reflectors are attached directly to the screen of the display device. Despite the complexity of the design, these screens are quite durable. According to the statement of, for example, the American company Tyco Electronics and the Taiwanese company GeneralTouch, they withstand up to 50 million touches at one point, which exceeds the resource of a 5-wire resistive screen. Surfactant screens are used mainly in slot machines, in guarded help systems and educational institutions. As a rule, surfactant screens are distinguished into ordinary ones – 3 mm thick, and vandal resistant – 6 mm. The latter withstand the fist of an average man or the fall of a metal ball weighing 0.5 kg from a height of 1.3 meters (according to Elo Touch Systems). The market offers options for connecting to a computer both through the RS232 interface, and through the USB interface. At the moment, controllers for SAW touch screens are more popular, supporting both types of connection – combo (data from Elo Touch Systems). The main disadvantage of a SAW screen is a malfunction in the presence of vibration or when exposed to acoustic noise, as well as when the screen is dirty. Any foreign object placed on the screen (for example, chewing gum) completely blocks its work. In addition, this technology requires touching with an object that necessarily absorbs acoustic waves, that is, for example, a plastic bank card is not applicable in this case. The accuracy of these screens is higher than matrix ones, but lower than traditional capacitive ones. As a rule, they are not used for drawing and entering text. Infrared touch screens

The principle of operation of the infrared touch panel is simple – the grid formed by horizontal and vertical infrared rays is interrupted when you touch the monitor with any object. The controller determines where the beam was interrupted. Features Infrared touch screens are afraid of pollution and therefore are used where image quality is important, for example, in e-books. Due to its simplicity and maintainability, the circuit is popular with the military. Often on this principle do the keyboards of intercoms. This type of screen is used in Neonode mobile phones. Optical touch screens

The glass panel is equipped with infrared illumination. At the glass-air boundary, total internal reflection is obtained, at the glass-foreign object boundary, light is scattered. It remains to capture the scattering picture, for this there are two technologies: In projection screens, a camera is placed next to the projector. This is how, for example, Microsoft PixelSense works. Or they make photosensitive an additional fourth sub-pixel of the LCD screen. Infrared touch screens

Infrared touch screens are afraid of pollution and therefore are used where image quality is important, for example, in e-books. Due to its simplicity and maintainability, the circuit is popular with the military. Often on this principle do the keyboards of intercoms. This type of screen is used in Neonode mobile phones. Optical touch screens

Allow you to distinguish between pressing your hand from pressing any objects, there is a multi-touch. Large touch surfaces are possible, right down to the blackboard. Strain gage touch screens

React to screen deformation.

The accuracy of strain gauge screens is low, but they withstand vandalism perfectly. The main application is ATMs, ticket machines and other devices located on the street. DST touch screens Main article: Dispersive Signal Technology The touch screen DST (Dispersive Signal Technology) responds to glass deformation. You can tap the screen with your hand or any object. A distinctive feature is the high reaction rate and the ability to work in conditions of severe screen contamination.

Induction Touch Screens

The induction touch screen is a graphic tablet with an integrated screen. Such screens respond only to a special pen.

They are used when a reaction is required precisely by pressing with a pen (and not with a hand): high-end art tablets, some tablet PC models. 1. Supported with restrictions, maximum 2 touch points. 2. If you need only a glass panel, without any transparent conductive films – conditionally 95%. If you don’t even need it (you can use the standard screen coverage) – conditionally 100% 3. High – down to the pixel (accurately tracks a sharp pen). Medium – up to a few pixels (sufficient for finger taps). Low – in large blocks of the screen (drawing is not possible; very large interface elements are required). 4. Limited by the reliability of electronics 5. Limited by sensor fouling. 6. Limit – equipment of limited access (personal electronics, industrial equipment). Premises – shared access in a secure room. Street – general access on the street.

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Anyone who takes a laptop outdoors on a sunny day will know that standard LCD screens cannot support well in very bright environments. The main reason for this is that the backlight on the screen must compete with the incident sunlight, and the sun will inevitably be brighter.

In outdoor-readable displays, the display should be bright enough so that the display can be seen under strong sunlight, and the contrast of the display must be maintained at 5 to 1 or higher. Although it is possible to read a display with a screen brightness of fewer than 500 nits and a contrast ratio of 2 to 1 in an outdoor environment, the quality of the display will be very poor. The best sunlight-readable monitor is usually considered an LCD with a screen brightness of 1000 nits or higher and a contrast ratio greater than 5 to 1. In a dark outdoor environment, this display can provide excellent image quality.

These are the key features that enable us to choose the best sunlight-readable display or monitor.

High Brightness

The daylight visible screen has an ultra-bright backlight, which helps to promote the image in high ambient light conditions. The standard brightness measurement for LCDs is (candlesticks per square meter) cd/m2 or Nit.

nit is equal to 1 cd / m2, so these terms are interchangeable. Candela is the standard unit of brightness and it is measured on a standard area of 1-meter square for the screen. LCD screens used for desktop monitors have usually rated anywhere between 250cd/m2 and 450cd/m2 and large public display monitors range from 350cd/m22 to 700cd/m2. Some manufacturers claim that 700cd/m2 is a high-brightness screen, which is technically true, but it is not classified as visible light. Generally, anything higher than 1000cd/m2 can be regarded as a daylight screen, but as with most technologies, the bigger the better. Screens rated at 2500cd/m2 and above will produce excellent results in very bright conditions. Currently, the brightest LCD available has a rating of 5,000cd/m2.

High working Temperature and Thermal Management

A lot of power is consumed by a high-brightness backlight system and it becomes the source to increase the LCD temperature. The brighter the backlight, the greater the heat dissipation problem. In addition, if the LCD is used under sunlight, more heat will be generated due to sunlight. This problem affecting LCD panels used in sunlight is that they are easily damaged by solar heat. When the liquid crystal layer is heated, the crystals warp, forming dark spots on the screen. If removed from the heat source, these patches will usually cool and return to normal, but repeated exposure will eventually cause permanent damage.

The heat of the sun interferes with the color of the screen. Ordinary displays or LCDs can be used less than 50 degrees, and these TFT LCDs can turn black at 50 degrees. The temperature problem can be solved by proper thermal management design. LCD panels used in professional high-brightness displays can be used in extreme temperatures without warping or turning black.

Color Generation

However, having a bright backlight alone does not make the LCD screen look good. Merely turning on the light source behind the screen may result in fading, poor contrast, and disappointing images. To produce realistic images, the screen needs high contrast and accurate color reproduction. The full matrix LED backlight can provide high brightness, but combined with local dimming, it can create a high-contrast image with deep black levels. By calibrating the color of the screen can help to produce more natural colors. Many LCD screens tend to cast blue, causing colors to look cool. Ensuring that the screen is properly calibrated helps to maintain true color reproduction, so that skin tones look natural and whites look like pure white.

Waterproof

The outdoor-readable display has a waterproof stainless-steel housing. These are ideal choices for factory flushing environments. In addition, they are very suitable for outdoor use in inclement weather. The panel mount case is made of aluminum or stainless steel and this allows them to be embedded mounted. Outdoor LCD monitors with high brightness can work in a wider temperature range. Therefore, this broadens the environment in which they can be used. In addition, the temperature range is also very important when used outdoors. When we combine extreme operating temperatures with outdoor waterproof enclosures, we ensure that high-brightness monitors can work normally even in the harshest, humid, and hot environments.

Viewing Angle

The viewing angle refers to the angle at which the image quality of the LCD is degraded and is unacceptable for the viewers. When the observer moves to the side of the LCD, the image on the LCD will degrade in three ways.

The brightness drops

The contrast usually drops at a large angle

The color may change

The definition of LCD viewing angle is not absolute, because it depends on your application. For LCDs used in outdoor applications, it is not enough to define viewing angles based on CR alone. In very bright ambient light, when the screen brightness drops below 200 nits, the display is almost invisible.

A high-quality, high-brightness screen looks good in any situation. Whether the content is installed internally or externally, the increased brightness can make your content shine. Sunlight-readable displays using transflective displays are very suitable for personal use because they do not require a lot of power and affordable.

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The post How to choose a sunlight readable display or monitor ? appeared first on Eagle Touch.

from Eagle Touch https://eagle-touch.com/how-to-choose-a-sunlight-readable-display-or-monitor/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-choose-a-sunlight-readable-display-or-monitor from Eagle Touch https://eagletouch1.tumblr.com/post/628133786128875520

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