#and there are so many inferences you can make based on info in the game

[volunruud]

god saying aela is "mid" is massively braindead. have some imagination please

i mean... she's a powerful nord warrior and werewolf who comes from a line of female companions... she favors hircine to traditional nordic gods and practices (someone said she's "the same as all other nord women" bc she's a fighter... okay but not even most nords are warriors, so many are farmers/tradespeople/merchants). and she's not even a typical "angsty" werewolf, she's fully comfortable being a werewolf and loves it and has a good balance in her life.

i will agree you could argue she is "overhyped" but i really dont think even that is accurate. she's just a badass lesbian werewolf... which is hype af. if you were to say her writing/story is limited, i would agree. the companions guild questline and characters within it could've been more fleshed out.

OR in the same sentence you need to say farkas and vilkas are mid too... bc they are not more interesting or compelling than aela.

[slytherweasel]

MC is still MC! There is no ‘original’

Spoilers most likely

Let me start that saying that this is my opinion based on the game and my personal knowledge and understanding of general science fiction logic and the game itself.

The Love and Deepspace timeline is very complicated and confusing. I will fully admit that I don’t even fully understand it, but based on my understanding MC is always MC. She is the same MC no matter what. What differs in the timelines are the love interests. Past lives are not necessarily a different person. So you have a Rafayel timeline, Xavier timeline, Zayne timeline, Sylus timeline, Caleb timeline

Rafayel’s and Xavier’s timelines fairly up front with them being the same.

Rafayel- a Lumerian, the Sea God, 800+ years old (as long as I’m understanding his timeline correctly), and he’s found MC throughout her many lives. I do not have his limited myth pair but from my understanding that was their first meeting. MC does not retain these memories when she essentially reincarnates as herself, but Rafayel stays bond to her, she is still his “devout follower.”

Xavier- my most basic understanding of it is the MC of the future was being used as the life source of the planet and Xavier (rightfully so) was not happy about that and wanted to save her, so he left her (wrongful so), but he came back and she died in his arms. I would also like to add while I think Xavier’s timeline is pretty up front about who he is, the actual events of his timeline hurt my brain to comprehend. Being as this is a very far ahead in the future MC she would have no memories of Xavier anyway. The lack of memories is what makes her seem different (especially to Xavier, at least at first).

Zayne- He also has no memories of his past lives, but Zayne is still Zayne. He is still cursed by Astra to suffer and die for loving MC instead of killing her. If Zayne was a different Zayne why would he still be cursed by Astra? I do need to reread his Dawnbreaker stuff but it seems to be a future Zayne and he is remembering a past version of himself (Dr. Zayne) that has MC (I assume MC has already died in this future). And present time Zayne is having dreams of future Zayne. I do hope they’ll properly explain the connect these Zaynes are having with each other. I am guessing there is a sort of rift or something due to future Zayne not having an MC to love/kill. I believe that is what Astra wants, he feels Zayne betrayed him the first time just for loving her, so he will continue to torture him until he does give in and kill her. Same timeline, same people, different lives.

Sylus- We are out a good chuck of info compared to the OG 3 but we do have his limited myth which helps. My understanding is his limited myth is the first time MC meets him. MC then curses Sylus after he dies to always live by her side until she says otherwise. Sylus is born again and finds present time MC only to realize that she has no memories of their past together, but it is still their past. He still loves her because she is still his MC, she is still the girl he fell in love with. You can also draw many characteristics and habits Sylus carries over from when he was a dragon with horns (because he is still a dragon at heart). He still doesn’t understand music and is tone deaf but he loves it because of MC, he is still a treasure hoarder and loves buying MC things, and he is still a creature of the dark just more figurative speaking.

Caleb- He was just released and only has a present time myth at the moment, so I don’t have much for him yet. But we can infer he watched MC die multiply times, that he is all too aware of how she loses her memories after dying. I assume the controlled environment of the lab is what controlled where and possibly how old MC would be when reborn. She was still the same MC, just without the memories.

The overall of this is that guys fall for who MC is, not what she looked like. The fundamentals of who MC is never changed when she died, she always remained the woman they love. There is no reason for these ‘would he leave present MC for the one he first met’ videos. That is just not how timelines work. The myths are not AUs, they are past, present, or future lives. Based on my understanding of science fiction, those are two very different things.

Spoilers for Catch-22 banner

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This banner takes place in an alternate universe. It very obviously states that for us, so there should be no questions about that.

I will be using Rafayel for this because 1. He’s my main and I love him lol and 2. I’ve watch his card like 4 times already.

We’ve established who Rafayel is in the original universe. He is none of those things isn’t this AU. He’s not even a painter. He’s an opera singer who got bite by a Praedator (basically a werewolf). They also do not have that Lumerian bond but they do give you a parallel for it. He gets that chip implanted in him that allows only MC to essentially control him. This is a different Rafayel and a different MC, while you can draw parallels that match the original universe they are different people, different timeline, completely different universe. Xavier’s also has a similar and obvious parallel with the plant Philos (original universe) and organization Philos (Alt universe) and him being the Prince/Heir.

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This rant is basically due to all the sad photos with the frame background and the posts I’ve been seeing talking about the guys leaving present MC for the MC of the past or future. I just don’t agree and feels like is causing unnecessary heartbreak. That’s not my understanding of how the LaDs timelines works.

[bigsissugi]

Analyzing the Prisoners' Fairytales Part 02: Lyra

Info:

Contains spoilers for both LOCKDOWN and the beta version

Grammar issues within the official material will be retained for informative purposes

If you're a staff member, please don't give me any corrections or hints. It'll be much more fun for you if your audience is wrong.

Triggers: Lethal drugs

Her Fairytale:

A story about a maid who was bossed around all day. The maid grew sick of it and took on a deal with the devil. Signing away her soul and morality for an easy and secure life. In return she would do the devil's bidding. However, she soon grew sick of it and started running away from him. The Devil failed to see why she deserved a normal life, especially after all the poisonings the selfish maid did for the Devil in exchange for her riches. And so he would chase her, something the Maid was aware of. Eager to save herself, the selfish maid would frequently leave whoever protected her. And leave their souls and bodies to placate/entertain the devil in her stead. Despite her words, she never truly obtained a moral godly life. This was the way she'd always known, it was the way things would continue. So the Maid appeared to actually be a scorpion. And the devil feasted on her frogs.

How does the fairytale apply to Lyra?

Even though the dev openly cringes at the mere mention of it, the beta version of DR Antebellum must be addressed in this section as Lyra's fairytale in LOCKDOWN has parallels with her old backstory. Many other characters' crimes in LOCKDOWN also mirror aspects of their beta versions, but it is only necessary to reference the betas of Lyra and a couple of others. There is also no evidence to suggest the maid can be anyone else, therefore these parallels are our safest bet in determining the maid's identity.

Lyra was hired by an organized crime boss named Mr. Shedo after being leaving her abusive parents. She mostly earnt money by drug dealing, but the drugs she sold were laced with inconsumable objects so that she could con her customers into paying more for less. The latter fact is what made the mastermind bring her into the killing game. However, she also tried to live a double life. She formed several friendships thoughout her career, one of which being with a debate student named Callum. Every time Lyra formed a particularly close bond, Shedo would eventually find out, then kill/attack that person so that Lyra wouldn't stray from him.

Similarities between the fairytale and the old backstory:

The main character seeks to escape their living situation.

The MC turns to a shady individual for financial security.

The MC's boss makes her 'poison' others in some manner.

The MC forms bonds with people outside of her job.

The MC's boss kills the people she formed bonds with.

Differences between the fairytale and the old backstory:

The maid ran away from the devil while Lyra continued to work for Shedo.

The maid stayed with people for protection while Lyra's relationships weren't necessarily formed for that.

The devil attempted to kill the maid and her protectors as revenge for her leaving while Shedo killed Callum and Sachiko so that Lyra would stay by his side.

Those who keep the beta in mind may assume Lyra's crime is the exact same in LOCKDOWN based on these parallels. But would a poverty-stricken, runaway teen selling drugs and having her closest compadres killed by her boss really warrant Emilia's spiteful attitude towards her? Emilia's twisted ideals alone aren't enough of a proper explanation for this, seeing as she went easy on some prisoners (e.g. Dracul).

In order for this to make sense, Lyra's crime would have to be more severe in LOCKDOWN. The reasons why can be inferred from the symbolism in her fairytale.

(Side note: the fact that Callum is alive and Lyra's hostage according to Twitter teasers confirms his involvement with her has taken on a different nature in LOCKDOWN.)

Symbolism Explanation

Lyra is a maid: When one thinks of maids, they usually imagine them as figures of obedience. Putting Lyra in a servile role like this juxtaposes her rebellious image as shown in the prologue and promotional material. Based on this, it'd be reasonable to assume she's trying to escape her past by gaining independence in a similar manner to the maid escaping her home and the Devil. Her role also draws attention to her young age, setting her up as a vulnerable individual.

Lyra's boss is the Devil: The Devil's presence in the fairytale is self-explanatory as anyone who's familiar with the Bible or even pop culture references to it will immediately recognize the Devil as a symbol of all evil. Taking on a deal with the Devil is like turning to a life of crime; it benefits you in the short term and destroys you in the long term. Anyone who makes arrangements with a crime boss knows exactly what kind of evil they've signed themselves up for. Because of her willingness to turn to evil as a means of achieving happiness, Lyra's actions are painted in a desperate and self-destructive light.

Lethal drugs are poison: As r/im14andthisisdeep as this premise sounds, drugs are technically poison at a low dosage. However, as you've seen with Shinku's fairytale and will see with many others, the language used to describe death tends to be literal. This is one of the ways Lyra's crime is more severe in LOCKDOWN; instead of just selling any old drugs, she's selling drugs that quite literally kill her customers (her laced drugs from the beta weren't said to have directly caused any deaths). Thus, the meaning of 'poison' is simultaneously symbolic and literal, the latter moreso.

Lyra & her late protectors are a scorpion & frogs: This is a reference to a fable called The Scorpion and the Frog. Its message is that some people will just harm others because it's in their nature, regardless of whether it benefits themselves or not.

A scorpion wants to cross a river but cannot swim, so it asks a frog to carry it across. The frog hesitates, afraid that the scorpion might sting it, but the scorpion promises not to, pointing out that it would drown if it killed the frog in the middle of the river. The frog considers this argument sensible and agrees to transport the scorpion. Midway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog anyway, dooming them both. The dying frog asks the scorpion why it stung despite knowing the consequence, to which the scorpion replies: "I am sorry, but I couldn't help myself. It's my character."

(Source: Wikipedia)

The fable is analogous to Lyra's relationships with her protectors; she tricks them into letting her room with them, only to escape once her boss has caught onto her, leaving the frogs to drown and prolonging her own self-drowning lifestyle. This is the other way Lyra's crime is more severe — instead of taking a cautious approach in her relationships (e.g. the caption of "The Stars Are So Pretty"), she manipulated her roommates by not letting them know they'd inevitably die. It also feeds into Lyra's self-devaluation as an irredeemably vicious person.

Her deity:

02- Hermes: A diety of both Chthonic and Olympian status, one winged sandle in each world. He happily played both sides and was quick to trick his fellow Gods for his own benefit.

Parallels between Hermes and the Maid

The only thing they have in common is their tendency to deceive their comrades for selfish reasons. Hermes has led a lifetime of trickery, starting with his theft of Apollo's cattle as an infant (yes, seriously). Meanwhile, the maid hid the fact that her protectors would inevitably die.

The maid isn't exactly known to be living a double life, just a corrupt one. Therefore, this point must apply to Lyra instead.

Parallels between Lyra and Hermes

Both are split between elite worlds and relatively darker worlds. Hermes was primarily an Olympian (elite), but also guided souls to the afterlife and was considered a Chthonian (existing under the Earth) in early records of Greek mythology. Lyra has lived at least two double lives; one as a simultaneous Ultimate and a criminal, the other as an Ultimate and a former supporter of the Anti-Ultimates.

Both have been manipulating their peers for self-centered reasons since their youth. As stated in the section above, Hermes is infamous for his trickery which started in his infancy. Lyra's deception isn't just limited to her actions in the fairytale. For instance, she dropped her Anti-Ultimate views upon becoming an Ultimate herself (i.e. something she would've done around high school), which facilitates Emilia's animosity towards her alongside her crime:

Funny how she was completely onboard with the Anti-Ultimate movement and publicly advocated for it in debates before she became Hope's Peak's little cash cow.

She has also displayed a bit of trickery in the prologue, albeit much more subtle and brushed off as a joke (e.g. baiting Shinku into believing she hosted BDSM sessions at Hope's Peak Radio, which actually stood for Bible Discussion and Study Meetings; making Taka believe she would leak his baby photos).

Symbolism Summary

Maid/Scorpion: Lyra Devil: Organized Crime Boss Frogs: people Lyra temporarily lived with Poisoning: Dealing fatal drugs

Retelling through the lens of Maid Lyra

A story about a self-loathing teenager who's sick of being controlled by her strict parents. As a last resort, she turns to a crime boss and sells his drugs in order to gain money and freedom. She even goes as far as tricking her customers into getting themselves killed just to earn more. However, she eventually leaves again out of a need for freedom. Once her old boss catches on to this, they start hunting her down, rationalizing it as an act of vengeance. However, every time they think they've found her, they encounter a friend of hers instead. Said friend gets killed by the boss due to the runaway teen taking advantage of their company.

What is her crime?

She has multiple crimes: Drug Dealing, Homicide by Poisoning and Negligent Homicide.

What will her verdict be?

Although Lyra's fairytale constantly jabs at her apparent lack of morals, a corrupt consensus is not guaranteed for her. The maid is still presented as a pitiable figure because of her desperate attempts to abscond herself from the restraint of those in charge of her. Audience members may disagree with Lyra's self-disparagement, believing she was bound by circumstance rather than being inherently incapable of growth. On the other hand, there's always a good chance they will find themselves unable to forgive her for intentionally sending a large amount of people to their deaths.

Considering how much this analysis has fixated on Lyra's self-image, it's also worth noting how it will be impacted by her verdict. A corrupt vote will make her succumb to her self-hatred, which is another motivating factor for redemption voters. But that's not to say a redemption vote is without its risks either; while a redemption vote does challenge her pre-conceived notions of herself, her consistently cynical attitude may cause her to convince herself she conned her way into earning the audience's favor.

As of now, it would be most reasonable to deem Lyra as a Swing Vote, though I'm leaning towards redemption for her if anything (I imagine her vote would be 55-60% redemption and 40-45% corrupt).

[warrenthegamer]

How to prepare for your first MagicCon

Tickets are now available for MagicCon: Las Vegas. Are you a MagicCon newbie? This post covers what I wish I'd known before attending my first MagicCon.

I went into my first MagicCon, in March 2025, almost completely blind. I had read the event's website, but it left me with many unanswered questions. In my case, my decision to attend was made at the very last minute -- literally the night before the con. Also, I was going to the con directly from a short trip away from home, meaning I didn't have any of my Magic gear with me!

In the end, I had an AMAZING MagicCon experience, and I would recommend any mtg player to attend one. Simply put, they are overwhelmingly positive in a world with so much prevailing negativity, particularly online. But my MagicCon experience could have been even smoother. Had I known then what I know now, my Day 1 could have been like my Day 3.

So don't do it like I did. Learn from my mistakes. Below I'll talk through the various intel and preparatory steps I wish I'd known before attending my first MagicCon.

I'm organizing the preparation into categories, then I'll walk through each category in its own section.

Know the context

Know your goals

Get your badge

Register for events

Organize your gear

Master the space

Last thing before I dive in -- for the most part, this info is the same regardless of whether you're attending MagicCon solo or with a group. But when it matters, I'll mention what to be aware of when you're attending as a group.

1. Know the context

This is arguably a minor point, but it might make a big difference for some people. Find out what set will be promoted at the specific MagicCon you're looking at.

For example, for MagicCon Chicago in March, Aetherdrift was the featured set. Badges of different tiers came with different quantities of Aetherdrift boosters as perks. The promotional playmat (at least, the one included as a perk with the Premium Weekend badge I bought) featured art from the world of Aetherdrift. For limited events, the majority (~60%) used Aetherdrift product, while the minority were using either (~25%) Mystery Booster 2 or (~15%) miscellaneous, eg. chaos draft / Rochester draft. Anticipate that events using the featured set will have lower registration fees than other events using niche / vintage product.

For MagicCon Las Vegas, it appears based on the badge packages currently available that the Final Fantasy set (officially titled Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY) will be the featured set. Let me emphasize that I'm making an inference based on the badge packages currently listed for sale.

Does the featured set make the MagicCon more or less appealing for you? Opinions will always differ, but my point is that you would be wise to confirm what set will be featured, to know a thing or two about the set, and to know whether you want to lean into or away from the set during your time at MagicCon.

Side note

I myself have mixed feelings about the featured MagicCon set being a Universes Beyond set. It lends credence to the argument that WotC's "favorite children" are the UB sets while in-universe sets and IP languish from neglect and malnourishment.

My attachment to the FF franchise is very mild but nonetheless positive. I've played less than half the games in the main line, and of those I played, FFX was the only one whose story and characters I can recall. So I come to the FF set mostly as a newcomer, but not entirely. I feel for those mtg players who are excited for a MagicCon but anti-FF.

I can see why WotC would make this decision -- Vegas is a marketer's playground, and it's easy to imagine the city festooned with FF characters hyping MagicCon.

Come to think of it, I've only attended one MagicCon, so for all I know, it's the norm for MagicCons to feature UB sets, and this past MagicCon's feature of Aetherdrift was in fact the outlier.

Looking on the bright side: there's little doubt the FF set will expand the player base and will mean big business for WotC. And who knows, it might even be a great set!

2. Know your goals

What do you most want to do at the convention? For the super-planners among you, this is where you may want to make a prioritized list of activities. The spontaneous types may be less inclined to make a detailed list, but still, it's useful to know the general categories of activities available at the event.

They are, in no particular order:

Organized Playing / Competing

Buying / Selling / Trading

Meeting Key People

Exploring the Con

Everything else I will regard as unstructured / down time

Organized Playing / Competing: This means playing Magic via MagicCon-organized or officially facilitated play events. Each of these events has its own registration cost. The menu of play events is long and you can find it linked from the event website. Some events require you to bring cards and/or teammates, some do not. Times and durations vary. Check the list. More about registering later on.

Buying / Selling / Trading: If you want to find a product, whether it's cards or gaming gear such as playmats, dice, deckboxes, etc, you can find many offerings at MagicCon. If you have cards you want to sell, you can do that too. Finally, trading -- MagicCon attendees trade cards, collectible pins, and maybe other stuff too. More about this later in the section about organizing your gear.

Meeting Key People: At MagicCon you have the chance to meet artists, "content creators" (i.e. YouTubers, bloggers, etc), and certain WotC employees. You may want the autograph of an artist or creator. You may want to attend a specific WotC panel about one topic or another. Some creators and employees even stage games with con attendees.

Exploring the Con: Each con will have certain exhibits or attractions you won't see outside a MagicCon. In March, MagicCon Chicago had Aetherdrift slot car races, a Bloomburrow puzzle, a Fblthp scavenger hunt, and tons of (free) events in the Family Magic area, such as deck box decoration, drawing with a Magic artist, etc.

Granted, there are other things that will occupy you at the con -- getting food, taking photos, finding your friends -- but I recommend thinking through the above list to establish how much time / energy you want to budget for various goals. Keep in mind that the time required can vary greatly -- for example, getting the signature of artist A may take only 15 minutes of waiting, whereas the signature of artist B requires a wait of an hour -- and also know that some time requirements vary throughout the day. Generally, lines are shorter closer to the start of each day.

What I wish I'd known:

I had no idea that card selling and trading would be an option. It simply hadn't occurred to me. In advance of next time, I've catalogued my collection, and I intend to have a mini binder of "for trade" and a box of "for sale." Many vendors who buy collections allow you to drop off your "for sale" cards, and they will appraise them while you go have fun elsewhere. They text you when they're ready to meet with you, then you come back to them and decide how much you want to sell to them, if any.

I had no idea that the artists behind some of the most iconic, legendary Magic cards would be on site. They're signing stuff people bring them, but they're also offering items for sale such as original prints and playmats / accessories featuring their art.

I had no idea that participating in a Pro Tour Qualifier would take so long! More on this in the section about registering for events.

In the evenings there are events requiring no registration which I'd call shows. These are for entertainment value, for instance a live game of commander with some theatrics and comedic personalities. I decided to attend these evening events, and I really enjoyed them. However, I'm the kind of person who can easily postpone dinner until 9:30pm, so the math for me may be different.

There is some impressive cosplaying at MagicCon. If you're a cosplayer interested in joining the cosplay competition, make sure you apply in advance to participate! For Las Vegas, it looks like the deadline to apply is May 11.

3. Get your badge

The first formal step in making your MagicCon dreams a reality is purchasing a badge. Your badge is your credential to access the event. The main decision to make is which badge you want.

What I wish I'd known:

The top tier badge, the Black Lotus, is likely to sell out. Why? Well, I spoke to one Black Lotus holder who said he had bought the thousand-dollar badge, because without it, paradoxically, he lacked the money to attend MagicCon. He told me he had the Black Lotus badge "pay for itself" by reselling the merchandise that comes with it; the backpack alone he sold for $300. Further, the intangible benefits can be sold too, to some extent. For example, the Black Lotus badge confers on its holder a dedicated line (i.e. no line) and a discount at the official show store -- which happened to be the only place you could purchase sought-after merch like Festival in a Box. My new friend told me that people paid him to do their shopping at the show store. Saved them tons of time in line, and also helped assure them they'd get the thing they wanted before it sold out. Does this feel unfair? Yes, probably. Is it understandable? Yes, totally. Aside: I can attest to the line at the show store: I was in line to enter MagicCon on Day 1 before the con started / before the show floor opened. When the show floor opened, I went directly to the show store to get in line, as did a number of other con attendees. Forty-five minutes later, my progress toward reaching the front of the line was only 50%. At that point I had to leave line (without buying anything) in order to make it to a certain registered play event on time.

Badge logistics. If you purchase before a certain date, your badge will be shipped to you. If you purchase after that date has passed -- as I did, in March -- you will have to pick up your badge at the event's Will Call. Will Call will have its own hours, separate from the convention hours, during which you can pick up your badge. You will have the opportunity to pick up prior to Day 1, as well as on any day of the con itself.

It's possible to purchase multiple badges in one transaction. However, this can lead to some accidents when registering for events. Make sure to read my note toward the end of the list in the section about registering for events.

4. Register for events

What I wish I'd known:

You need to have purchased a badge in order to register for an event. You don't need to physically possess your badge -- for example if you're still waiting to receive it -- but the registration system must be able to see that your name/email address is linked to a badge purchase.

Event registration is non-refundable and non-transferable. So, only sign up if you're ready to commit.

Some in-demand events will become full. If an event is a priority for you, sign up early. The ones I recall being popular / filling up: The Unknown Event with Gavin Verhey; events using Mystery Booster 2 product; and the commander events which required no deckbuilding in advance.

The vast majority of events will not be full until the last 24 hours, if they fill up at all. Meaning, you will be able to sign up on the day of the event, or the night before.

Registration closes in advance of the event start time -- at the last MagicCon, the buffer was 1 hour, meaning that one hour prior to the scheduled start time, it became impossible to register for an event, even if the event had not filled up.

The registration system will prevent you from registering for an event which conflicts with your existing schedule of registered events. Some events (like Pro Tour Qualifiers especially) have extremely long durations, e.g. 8 hours, which effectively blocks your registration into any other events that day.

Your event will almost certainly start late. But that doesn't mean you should show up late. Show up on time, but anticipate that the event will start, and probably end, late.

If you're not sure what an event is about, or if you're interested, take a look at the schedule and see if it will be happening multiple times during your time at the con. If so, you may be able to (unobtrusively) spectate one of the earlier instances and, if you like what you see, register for a later instance. Just make sure to tell the event organizers what you are doing, and make sure they're ok with it.

Heads up for those attending MagicCon as a group!! -- Every event registration is associated with a particular badge. If you purchased multiple badges, for example one for yourself and one for your friend, YOU MUST ENSURE YOU SELECT THE CORRECT BADGE WHEN REGISTERING FOR AN EVENT. If you make a mistake by registering the wrong person for an event, it will be a headache for you, for the event organizers, and for the other participants in the event, which will most likely not start on time. There's no guarantee that the intended participant will be able to join the event.

Registering for events is not the only way to participate in an organized event! In addition to Ticketed Play, which is what I'd call the default, most-publicized and most-self-explanatory style of event, MagicCons also offer On Demand Events (ODEs) which do not have a firm start time. For these, you purchase vouchers (on site) and when you're interested in playing an event -- whether it's sealed, draft, commander, whatever -- you go to the ODE desk and they put up a sign indicating that an event is gathering up. When they have enough people, they distribute product (if applicable) and get you on your way. ODEs, just like Ticketed Play, offer prize tickets to the participants with the best record. Unused ODE vouchers are also redeemable for prizes at the prize wall.

5. Organize your gear

This could well be the part of preparation that takes more time than any other, depending on who you are. There are two main considerations: one ties back to your goals (from earlier) and the other relates to gear management.

What I mean with gear management is simply how you maintain access to the items you'll need throughout the event. I showed up at my first MagicCon with just a backpack, which was empty except for a water bottle. It worked out fine for me because I'd purchased a Premium Weekend badge which came with a deckbox, sleeves and a playmat. The water bottle came in handy, as did the ample empty space in my bag, which I used to hold my jacket, hat and gloves (remember, it was March in Chicago).

What I wish I'd known:

There's a coat/baggage check at the con. Find it, know it, love it. I advise checking any unneeded layers and luggage as soon as you arrive at the con each day. At MagicCon Chicago '25, the coat/baggage rates were as follows. Coats: $4.50 / item; Baggage: $5.50 / item. Cashless transaction.

Pack only what you need. Stuff is heavy. If you plan to sell cards, do you need to carry those every day of the con? Maybe make selling them the focus of one day, so you aren't weighed down the other days.

Pack items in a convenient way. If you plan to be playing, pack your cards in deckboxes so you can easily grab exactly the cards you need. If you plan to participate in events that leave you with more cards than you started with (i.e. limited events), ensure you have spare card capacity in the form of empty deckboxes or space in your storage box. If you hope to engage in trading, whether it's cards or pins or whatever, put your "for trade" items in their own bundle so you can easily present them to your trading partner. There are backpacks on the market specifically designed to hold deckboxes -- at MagicCon Chicago I saw many people with one particular backpack from a company called Enhance; it was essentially just a lightly modified camera backpack. There exist backpacks for storing / displaying pins, too.

Pack safe. You don't want your stuff getting damaged. If you're packing in a way you haven't tried before, give it a try. I talked to one person who had a custom 3d-printed card storage box. It had great styling, in my opinion -- clean lines, vibrant colors, understated mtg icon detailing -- and it is what prompted me to start talking to the guy. But he told me that what he found was that after carrying it in his backpack, it developed some hairline cracks. It was strained by some combination of the vertical loadbearing and being held against his back, which like any of our backs, is not perfectly flat.

Don't be afraid to think beyond the bag. Some people use lightweight wagons to hold their stuff. I saw several of these at last MagicCon, and every time one passed by, it received longing gazes from bystanders laden down with heavy bags.

Don't forget food. While it's true that food is available on site, I recommend having a snack available on your person. There's a decent chance that, at some point, you'll find yourself hungry but unable to run for food. Maybe you're in between rounds of a tournament, or you're in line waiting for a meet and greet. Also, there's the chance that the food available doesn't meet your preferences or budget. Carry some food. Water dispensers are available throughout the space, so no need to carry all your water, just bring a refillable bottle.

6. Master the space

"The space" refers to the physical convention space, the surrounding area, and the information space related to the event.

For example, MagicCon Chicago was held at McCormick Place, which is a fabulous event space, but it's located in a bit of food desert. In fact, I'm not sure there are any restaurants located within walking distance of the event space, and your prospects would be even slimmer at odd hours like late night or breakfast.

Information-wise, you want to make sure you're receiving communications from the organizers, especially in the final run-up to the event, and during the event itself.

What I wish I'd known:

Sign up for the MagicCon newsletter. The MagicCon Vegas website has a link to sign up for the newsletter for that event. That will keep you informed, particularly during the final month prior to the event.

For the event itself, you'll want to have two apps installed on your device: First, the event app (called MagicCon: PLACE YEAR, e.g. MagicCon: Chicago 2025), and second, the Magic: The Gathering Companion app. The Companion app is used during tournaments and other play events, for example to track participant records and direct you where to go for your next match.

Look at the event app in advance. It has maps, lists of artists, vendors, schedules. It even lets you register for events. Seriously, get it in advance, and spend some time with it. You'll be a hero to some of the other attendees who have no idea what's going on.

Study the map of the event space (within the event app) and the map of the area surrounding the event space / event building (you're on your own for this). Locate the building entry as well as the event entry within the building. Locate restrooms and sources of food/water/caffeine. Locate lost and found, coat check, security, info booths and first aid. Locate the gathering points, which may be useful if you're with a group and want to designate a meet-up spot. Locate the key, named, areas where events are scheduled to happen. If the con is spread across floors, locate the escalators / elevators. Locate the places where nothing is scheduled to happen -- these are places you can take a load off or eat some lunch. Some of these places are big enough to have names, while others are merely areas with ten or twenty tables. Note that there may be tables specifically sized for certain activities, such as a game of commander, a session of D&D, etc. Something to be aware of as you're choosing a spot to settle.

At MagicCon Chicago, there was a space called Free Play that was technically OUTSIDE the show floor (it was on the opposite side of a barrier, near the food stalls) and thus it was accessible to people without convention badges.

Get on the MagicCon wifi for the sake of your connectivity and your device battery. This was one of my first priorities on Day 1 of the con. The event had free wifi, but access details were, inexplicably, unpublished. I had to visit an information booth, where they were fielding that question a lot. They eventually wrote little signs with access details.

Rideshare services are not all equal. In the case of MagicCon Chicago '25, Lyft had no trouble identifying the pickup/dropoff location to use. But Uber apparently had big trouble with it. It wanted to direct drivers to a door on the opposite side of the convention center. I'm not saying this will be the case for other MagicCons, but just be advised that there could be a difference depending on the service.

Public transit was a viable option for me to use for arriving at the con in the morning, but not viable for departing at night. This is, obviously, totally dependent on the city and your lodging situation.

There are pros and cons to staying in a hotel adjoining the event space. On one hand, it's probably neither the lowest price nor highest quality (i.e. most luxurious) option in the area. On the other hand, it's convenient to be able to take a break from the con without ending the day entirely. That in-and-out convenience is what you're paying for, and it may make all the difference in your ability to truly enjoy the many offerings of the con.

There's a discord server run by Pastimes Premiere Events, which staffs MagicCons. The server's purpose is primarily for the event-runners to stay coordinated, but I've noticed that anyone can join it, and some people use it to post messages related to lost items, questions about the con, or people looking to trade for a specific collectible pin. (Bonus tip: If you might be interested in staffing a MagicCon, get on it! I think you'll need to apply with Pastimes ~3 months in advance.)

Bonus Tip

If you've read this far, here's a bonus I-wish-I'd-known tip that is less about preparation and more about how you manage your time at MagicCon. Events give you rewards in the form of prize tickets, or prize tix. These are a currency you redeem at the Prize Wall. There's an inherent tension between redeeming early vs late. Early on, all the merchandise is available, but your collection of prize tickets is low. Late, you have a larger quantity of prize tickets, but some of the merchandise may already be gone. Plan for this tension, and, on the final day of the MagicCon in particular, don't delay visiting the Prize Wall. If you're involved in an event, you may even consider whether you want to offer your opponent(s) the option of splitting the prize tickets 50-50, and either skip the actual play, or play a no-stakes match at a quicker pace. That helps you get to the Prize Wall before the item you want is sold out!

Conclusion

MagicCon is a celebration of the game and the community. It's a positive, affirming event, and I'm pleased to know that in the past year, each one has attracted more attendees than the one before. I encourage all mtg players and mtg-curious to attend one sometime. Just make sure you learn from my mistakes and prepare in advance!

[kelocitta]

Since a couple people expressed interest, heres the complete transcript (Its much longer and includes some bonus info)

So Rivulets actually really neat because external gills tell us a ton of things: Rivulets most likely from a tropical/warm water location with murky water, such as a swamp or bog. We can guess at the murky or low-visibility water due to the eyes. In environments like that animals generally either reduce their eyes and attempt other forms of sensory input, or improve it to make up for the harsher environment. Slugcats, even Rivulet, are not restricted to the water and are highly visual animals- thus the increased eye size can be seen as a corrective measure for their native environment in place of giving up their existing visual strength and terrestrial advantage. We can infer they likely aren't cold-water because thin, branching structures like external gill fringes would be extremely prone to freezing and lose a ton of heat from their high exposed surface area, which they need for a decent amount of gas exchange at all. Rivulet's fringes are also quiet long, which suggests they are of functional use and need the additional surface area, as many species who are in colder or more highly oxygenated waters have reduced gill size in order to minimize risk. Cold water has higher oxygen capacity than warm water- which means less gill area is needed in order to meet demand. Interestingly, axolotls, which are likely Rivulet's inspiration- are actually cold water animals with notable gills. However they are also much lower energy animals and highly temperature sensitive to maintain metabolism. Given Rivulet's status as a traveler, they likely do not suffer from such a strong need for temperature stability, especially being semi-aquatic and highly active. As for external vs. internal, internal gills are on average much better for the 'job' of gills, especially in open water, with the additional advantage of being much more damage-resistant (because of this, external gills are mostly used in larval stages where the gill will be reabsorbed and regenerated) but interestingly… its actually way more efficient to breathe air than try and filter it out of the water! This is why whales and other land-animals-turned-aquatic keep their lung systems. We actually know Rivulet themself actually doesn't even truly breathe underwater like a fish does, they can still drowning in-game, but can maintain themselves longer than normal slugcats. This suggests that their gills aren't super core to their overall respiration, since its unlikely that all sources of water in Rain World, including Shoreline, are just so incredibly oxygen poor that Rivulet's gill system is struggles to function as intended in them. Its fairly likely that Rivulet might have some sort of lungfish-like system with access to both functional gills and terrestrial lungs, and is more reliant on their lungs. So where do long, fragile external gills pay off? In 'bad' water where there is very little oxygen or very little movement (of water over the gills). External gills can be waved from a static position, which is ideal for minimal energy waste or ambush predators. This makes them great adaptations for things like muddy ponds or small flooded areas, especially for animals like salamanders or frogs who will eventually 'outgrow' these areas. This seems pretty fitting for the rain filled waters of Rain World, many of which probably contain large amounts of run off or are stagnate, isolated ponds without much water flow. This obviously wasn't part of the original, but here is a diagram from a scientific paper about external gills, showing gill variation based on environment. In general the better the water quality (oxygen levels/movement), the less gill you need. Big gills on Rivulet suggests that their normal water is rather hard to breathe in, which would probably explain the lack of Rain World fish.

Also for another fun bonus, many amphibians can do gas exchange with their skin and use this as a means of breathing. Rivulet could be breathing through nose, gills and skin! Yummy Air!!!

Rivulet fandesign quirk I just kinda find funny

[ptitelidio]

My Rivetra heart literally broke after reading this💔 is this actually Canon? I almost cried

Hi aviee28, these pieces of info that this person uses come from different SNK stuffs but they’re like spin offs or games, but they’re not written by Isayama himself. They are official SNK content but we cannot really say that it’s canon since it was written and drew by other people. For example the thing when Levi says to Petra that he went to circus with Hanji is from Spoof on Titan comics, but imo in this spin off Levi and Petra are very close to each other more than with Hanji, it was implied more than once that Petra was in love with him, for example these:

Going to the circus with Hange doesn’t mean that he’s in love with them, or that he isn’t, this comics is supposed to be funny with a lot of gags, so don’t take it as a serious information.

As for the cooking thing, if they thought of one of the games that was developed a long time ago, the real thing is that everyone including Hange asked Levi to cook, but Hange complained because she wanted some more, so Levi did them because they were insistent. But then, a worried Petra appears and wanted some more too haha, the game developers wanted to do something funny! Even Petra herself learned to Levi how to make some sweets (cookies) for the cadets because she thought it could give them energy, but all these pieces of information are from spin offs, games, etc.

They’re not officially told by Isayama himself in interviews or in character books, this insta user is only trying to infer something that isn’t official as for Rivetra. Isayama made the choice to not officialise Levi with anyone probably because of ship wars and probably because Levi is commercially profitable (in other words, maybe you noticed that Levi is drawn a lot with Eren in the commercials (sometimes with Erwin or Hanji, and sometimes including Mikasa or Jean) because they are the most popular people from the manga, if Isayama ever officialised any relationship involving Levi, you can imagine that many Levi fangirls won’t continue to buy the merchandises! It’s for profit). Moreover, it’s not manga-based or anime-based, so it’s not that important in their relationship. I think Isayama tried to express Rivetra and Levihan relationship (romantically or not) the better he could in the few pages of the manga and the anime, so I think everything is in the manga and the anime not in the side contents even if it’s a cool bonus!

[lairofsentinel]

Hiii!! I’m the last anon. I loved reading your take on the Oskar situation! To be honest I was a little paranoid because of all the Gale hot takes on Reddit. Most of them seem to think he will betray you in the end and it’s a little discouraging! Your post made me feel better tho :)

Hello there again!

Ah... Reddit... Honestly, I'm so TIRED of reading their bullshit when a friend of mine shares with me some post there. Most of the time they do stuff based on plain lies. Like, all the drama about “Gale asks you to cheat your LI to whom you are married” XD like 5 shades of lies… it is just such a level of garbage. People doing that can't read, and can't understand a game which qualifies for +18. They should play tetris, please. XD

I think Gale can betray you like all chars can: it depends on your actions. If you go evil, and do the goblin path, Gale leaves the party unless you roll the dice and get a very high number. In that case, he remains, but he is super bitter and filled with regret. I can see that this Gale will “stop” an evil main char from doing more evil if you keep going on that path. Gale is a char who defends life. Like Ifan in DOS2 [a char I can speak a lot, and I can do a lot of comparisons with Gale, and even though both games are different world, the “larian style” with which they write their characters is kind of “obvious”, but that's another topic, I jump a lot in different topics XD sorry], As I was saying… the most sacred thing for Gale is Life. If Gale starts seeing that you are a menace, bigger than his own orb problem, you are going to be killed by him. Or attempt to be so. Specially if he can see you are beyond redemption [which is something he believes, but he needs to see you trying].

I'm pretty convinced of that. We already have a char who tries to kill you, and in fact he kills you if you fail the dice. If you know about datamining stuff... There is a situation where 2 companions are going to struggle to kill one another in their sleep. Swen said in some interviews that this mechanic is going to happen. So, it seems fair to expect this from the rest of the chars, Gale included. But it has to be “in character”. After all, it's the same style we find in DOS2. Again, I know I've said that it's pretty poor to compare BG3 with Dragon Age games... BUT comparing it with DOS2, you can see certain patterns in Larian style that make you suspect certain things. If you played DOS2, you can remember that ALL your companions can betray you, if you give them reasons enough to do it. Which is, to no one's surprise, how most RPGs with companions work. Again, Reddit just does a drama out of nowhere, and magnifies everything related to Gale just to make people hate him even if nobody played with him. XD So… how can you criticise a char you never played with??? Meh.

Gale is a flawed char. Perfect chars are boring. Gale's main flaws are emotions, but we also see him in a moment of his life where he has reflected about his mistakes. A lot of his approvals and scenes and comments are DEEPLY related to “forgiveness” and to “accept the mistakes of the youth”, and “learn from your mistakes”, “second chances”, and “take responsibility for it”. He approves if you redeem Kagha, he asks you to be kind to children who do big fuck-ups, he approves and is relieved when he is forgiven for not having told you about his orb after the party [which is pretty weird… because we have like 4 scenes where we are hinted that whatever is happening in his chest is pretty wild, but well, maybe we can fail ALL the dices and inferring that fact with the death protocol is too much for us... who knows]. If we know how Larian works, we know that most of their chars represent “concepts”. I think Gale explore all the concepts related to mistakes and forgiveness [which are very human concepts] : accepting to make mistakes, but taking responsibility for them, even if it's a bit late, even if it's harder, even if it's beyond forgiveness.

Gale, in the second dream, speaks very clearly: he knows the tadpole dreams are not true because [we can infer] he saw Mystra forgiving him. And he KNEW that was a lie. Because he has accepted he is beyond forgiveness. He desires it, sure, because it's human nature to desire things you can't have, but also he is a pragmatic, realistic man: it cannot be her. Because he knows that when he uses magic, when he taps from the Weave, she is “disapproving” him [all this info is in that video, people only needs to think about why he says what he says and check lore in wiki, that’s all].

After the romance you can ask him if he is in love with Mystra. I found a meta in tumbl pretty long but very worth reading that I share in many points: human love is not just that sexual, romantic love. Love can get complex shapes, including the divine love. And Gale has that: he has the ashy love for an ex, that played with him because that's what a Goddess does in Faerûn [people should learn SO much lore before thinking that Mystra needs to be defended of anything XD], but he also is a devote to her, because she IS and REPRESENTS all what it's life for him: Magic. So, any person expecting him to “get over her” as you do with a normal ex.... are ignoring the immense religious and arcane part his story has—inserted in Faerûn. So yeah, he may have a complex love for Mystra, but betraying you if you are not an asshole to him, or evil, I cannot see it. Because that’s not what Larian has done in previous games either. I wish people could understand that Larian is not Bioware, and DOS2 and BG3 are not Dragon Age.  You see... People see Gale as if BG3 were a high-school sitcom. I have no idea how much can I stress the fact that Mystra is a goddess in a world where gods play their wars between them by using mortals as paws.... Anyway. I have some few, old metas in my blog [probably too out-of-date since I did those in patch 1 I think], and like I said, there are some really good deep metas in tumblr too on this matter. Reddit is just a pit of brainless hatred. To me, reading Reddit seems a waste of time (and mental sanity, too). And I hope Larian doesn't focus only on the crap that appears there, because it's very discouraging to think that these people with so little ability to understand contexts will shape the game eventually.

Have a good day!

[jonathanullmer]

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[hydrus]

Version 354

windows

zip

exe

os x

app

linux

tar.gz

source

tar.gz

I had a great week. The first duplicates storage update is done, and I got some neat misc fixes in as well.

false positives and alternates

The first version of the duplicates system did not store 'false positive' and 'alternates' relationships very efficiently. Furthermore, it was not until we really used it in real scenarios that we found the way we wanted to logically apply these states was also not being served well. This changes this week!

So, 'false positive' (up until recently called 'not dupes') and 'alternates' (which are 'these files are related but not duplicates', and sitting in a holding pattern for a future big job that will allow us to process them better) are now managed in a more intelligent storage system. On update, your existing relationships will be auto-converted.

This system uses significantly less space, particularly for large groups of alts like many game cg collections, and applies relationships transitively by its very structure. Alternates are now completely transitive, so if you have a A-alt-B set (meaning one group of duplicate files A has an alternate relationship to another group of duplicate files B) and then apply A-alt-C, the relationship B-alt-C will also apply without you having to do anything. False positive relationships are more tricky, but they are stored significantly more efficiently and also apply on an 'alternates' level, so if you have A-alt-B and add A-fp-M, B-fp-M will be automatically inferred. It may sound odd at first to think that something that is false positive to A could be nothing but false positive to B, but consider: if our M were same/better/worse to B, it would be in B and hence transitively alternate to A, which it cannot be as we already determined it was not related to A.

Mistakenly previously allowable states, such as a false positive relationship within an alternates group, will be corrected on the update. Alternates will take precedence, and any subsequently invalid false positives will be considered mistakes and discarded. If you know there are some problems here, there is unfortunately no easy way at the moment to cancel or undo an alternate or false positive relationship, but once the whole duplicates system is moved over I will be able to write a suite of logically correct and more reliable reset/break/dissolve commands for all the various states in which files can be related with each other. These 'reset/set none' tools never worked well in the old system.

The particularly good news about these changes is it cuts down on filtering time. Many related 'potential' duplicates can be auto-resolved from a single alternate or false positive decision, and if you have set many alts or false positives previously, you will see your pending potentials queue shrink considerably after update, and as you continue to process.

With this more logically consistent design, alternate and false positive counts and results are more sensible and consistent when searched for or opened from the advanced mode thumbnail right-click menu. All the internal operations are cleaner, and I feel much better about working on an alternates workflow in future so we can start setting 'WIP' and 'costume change'-style labels to our alternates and browsing them more conveniently in the media viewer.

The actual remaining duplicate relations, 'potential', 'same quality', and 'this is better', are still running on the old inefficient system. They will be the next to work on. I would like to have 'same quality' and 'this is better' done for 356, after E3.

the rest

The tag blacklists in downloaders' tag import options now apply to the page's tags after tag sibling processing. So, if you banned 'high heels', say, but the site suddenly starts delivering 'high-heel shoes', then as long as that 'high-heel shoes' gets mapped to 'high-heels' in one of your tag services, it should now be correctly filtered. The unprocessed tags are still checked as before, so this is really a double-round of checking to cover more valid ground. If you were finding you were chasing many different synonyms of the tags you do not like, please let me know how this now works for you.

The annoying issue where a handful of thumbnails would sometimes stop fading in during heavy scrolling seems to be fixed! Also, the thumbnail 'waterfall' system is now cleverer about how it schedules thumbnails that need regeneration. You may notice the new file maintenance manager kicking in more often with thumbnail work.

Another long-term annoying issue was the 'pending' menu update-flickering while a lot of tag activity was going on. It would become difficult to interact with. I put some time into this this week, cleaning up a bunch of related code, and I think I figured out a reliable way to make the menus on the main gui stop updating as long as one is open. It won't flicker and should let you start a tags commit even when other things are going on. The other menus (like the 'services' menu, which will update on various service update info) will act the same way. Overall menu-related system stability should be improved for certain Linux users as well.

The new 'fix siblings and parents' button on manage tags is now a menu button that lets you apply siblings and parents from all services or just from the service you are looking at. These commands overrule your 'apply sibs/parents across all services' settings. So, if you ever accidentally applied a local sibling to the PTR or vice versa, please try the specific-service option here.

full list

duplicates important:

duplicates 'false positive' and 'alternates' pairs are now stored in a new more efficient structure that is better suited for larger groups of files

alternate relationships are now implicitly transitive--if A is alternate B and A is alternate C, B is now alternate C

false positive relationships remain correctly non-transitive, but they are now implicitly shared amongst alternates--if A is alternate B and A is false positive with C, B is now false positive with C. and further, if C alt D, then A and B are implicitly fp D as well!

your existing false positive and alternates relationships will be migrated on update. alternates will apply first, so in the case of conflicts due to previous non-excellent filtering workflow, formerly invalid false positives (i.e. false positives between now-transitive alternates) will be discarded. invalid potentials will also be cleared out

attempting to set a 'false positives' or 'alternates' relationship to files that already have a conflicting relation (e.g. setting false positive to two files that already have alternates) now does nothing. in future, this will have graceful failure reporting

the false positive and alternate transitivity clears out potential dupes at a faster rate than previously, speeding up duplicate filter workflow and reducing redundancy on the human end

unfortunately, as potential and better/worse/same pairs have yet to be updated, the system may report that a file has the same alternate as same quality partner. this will be automatically corrected in the coming weeks

when selecting 'view this file's duplicates' from thumbnail right-click, the focus file will now be the first file displayed in the next page

.

duplicates boring details:

setting 'false positive' and 'alternates' status now accounts for the new data storage, and a variety of follow-on assumptions and transitive properties (such as implying other false positive relationships or clearing out potential dupes between two groups of merging alternates) are now dealt with more rigorously (and moreso when I move the true 'duplicate' file relationships over)

fetching file duplicate status counts, file duplicate status hashes, and searching for system:num_dupes now accounts for the new data storage r.e. false positives and alternates

new potential dupes are culled when they conflict with the new transitive alternate and false positive relationships

removed the code that fudges explicit transitive 'false positive' and 'alternate' relationships based on existing same/better/worse pairs when setting new dupe pairs. this temporary gap will be filled back in in the coming weeks (clearing out way more potentials too)

several specific advanced duplicate actions are now cleared out to make way for future streamlining of the filter workflow:

removed the 'duplicate_media_set_false_positive' shortcut, which is an action only appropriate when viewing confirmed potentials through the duplicate filter (or after the ' show random pairs' button)

removed the 'duplicate_media_remove_relationships' shortcut and menu action ('remove x pairs ... from the dupes system'), which will return as multiple more precise and reliable 'dissolve' actions in the coming weeks

removed the 'duplicate_media_reset_to_potential' shortcut and menu action ('send the x pairs ... to be compared in the duplicates filter') as it was always buggy and lead to bloating of the filter queue. it is likely to return as part of the 'dissolve'-style reset commands as above

fixed an issue where hitting 'duplicate_media_set_focused_better' shortcut with no focused thumb would throw an error

started proper unit tests for the duplicates system and filled in the phash search, basic current better/worse, and false positive and alternate components

various incidences of duplicate 'action options' and similar phrasing are now unified to 'metadata merge options'

cleaned up 'unknown/potential' phrasing in duplicate pair code and some related duplicate filter code

cleaned up wording and layout of the thumbnail duplicates menu

.

the rest:

tag blacklists in downloaders' tag import options now apply to the parsed tags both before and after a tag sibling collapse. it uses the combined tag sibling rules, so feedback on how well this works irl would be appreciated

I believe I fixed the annoying issue where a handful of thumbnails would sometimes inexplicitly not fade in after during thumbgrid scrolling (and typically on first thumb load--this problem was aggravated by scroll/thumb-render speed ratio)

when to-be-regenerated thumbnails are taken off the thumbnail waterfall queue due to fast scrolling or page switching, they are now queued up in the new file maintenance system for idle-time work!

the main gui menus will now no longer try to update while they are open! uploading pending tags while lots of new tags are coming in is now much more reliable. let me know if you discover a way to get stuck in this frozen state!

cleaned up some main gui menu regeneration code, reducing the total number of stub objects created and deleted, particularly when the 'pending' menu refreshes its label frequently while uploading many pending tags. should be a bit more stable for some linux flavours

the 'fix siblings and parents' button on manage tags is now a menu button with two options--for fixing according to the 'all services combined' siblings and parents or just for the current panel's service. this overrides the 'apply sibs/parents across all services' options. this will be revisited in future when more complicated sibling application rules are added

the 'hide and anchor mouse' check under 'options->media' is no longer windows-only, if you want to test it, and the previous touchscreen-detecting override (which unhid and unanchored on vigorous movement) is now optional, defaulting to off

greatly reduced typical and max repository pre-processing disk cache time and reworked stop calculations to ensure some work always gets done

fixed an issue with 'show some random dupes' thumbnails not hiding on manual trashing, if that option is set. 'show some random dupes' thumbnail panels will now inherit their file service from the current duplicate search domain

repository processing will now never run for more than an hour at once. this mitigates some edge-case disastrous ui-hanging outcomes and generally gives a chance for hydrus-level jobs like subscriptions and even other programs like defraggers to run even when there is a gigantic backlog of processing to do

added yet another CORS header to improve Client API CORS compatibility, and fixed an overauthentication problem

setting a blank string on the new local booru external port override option will now forego the host:port colon in the resultant external url. a tooltip on the control repeats this

reworded and coloured the pause/play sync button in review services repository panel to be more clear about current paused status

fixed a problem when closing the gui when the popup message manager is already closed by clever OS-specific means

misc code cleanup

updated sqlite on windows to 3.28.0

updated upnpc exe on windows to 2.1

next week

The duplicates work this week took more time than I expected. I still have many small jobs I want to catch up on, so I am shunting my rotating schedule down a week and doing a repeat. I will add some new shortcuts, some new tab commands, and hopefully a clipboard URL watcher and a new way of adding OR search predicates.

[kdtheghostwriter]

SNK #106 Recap

Look here, fandom, it’s not just you. Armin has also been angsting over Annie’s self-imposed confinement for the past several years. Isayama is a meme factory. He’s probably lurking in the tag right now.

In other news: ask for relevant backstory and you shall receive. We finally discover the fates of the many scout ships that made their way to Paradis, in a flashback chapter that is far more clean and concise than the last one. They weren’t destroyed and the occupants weren’t killed. The Marley soldiers were captured and their superior engineering knowledge was used to vastly improve the island’s infrastructure. (There’s a Metal Gear joke here somewhere that I will not go looking for.)

This is how we meet Yelena and our pilot friend, Onyankopon. They aren’t Eldian, but they do hate Marley’s guts, and are more than game to join the fight to overthrow them. This is good news for everyone, except Levi, who is more salty than usual in this update.

Historia is back, too. She doesn’t say anything, but her presence is still very important based upon what it helps us infer. Eren finally reveals what happened in Ch. 50 to a room full of government officials (including Zackley wassup bro). Levi - in his most annoyed ‘tch’ voice - asks why he waited so long to say something. Eren confirms what we guessed: he couldn’t risk Historia’s safety by relaying information that couldn’t be confirmed at the time. Eren was willing to break protocol for this. I’m not sure where their relationship stands, but it seems to be very important to one of them. Speaking of relationships...

Whaaaaaaat the fuck is going on here, eh?

In the context of the scene: Eren is at the shooting range for target practice while Mikasa and Armin look on. The latter two discuss methods of diplomacy in regards to the outside world; Eren shoots down those suggestions with cold, cynical remarks about their political status in the world. “Where’s the confusion?” he asks Armin. “They see us as monsters. So, that’s what we are.”

We saw a flash of this Eren when the SC reaches the ocean for the first time. The whole squad is joyous in their victory - their survival. Mikasa and Armin are nearing tears of happiness. And all Eren can manage is: “Do we have to kill all of them, too?” Isayama has only gotten better at these 'Show, Don’t Tell’ moments the longer this story has gone.

Eren is breaking off from his friends and breaking their hearts in the process. Even Levi can’t get a grasp on where his mental state is. Poor Armin is no better. He is so at odds with Eren’s recent behavior, he can only find solace in speaking to a catatonic Annie, who hasn’t budged in four years.

Also confirmed: Paradis has been in touch with Zeke-san for a long time. Whether he convinced his little brother to go AWOL is yet to be seen (if ever) but soon enough the two will meet properly to discuss Zeke’s Final Solution. At this point for me, the question isn’t if, but which megalomaniac Zeke will reveal himself as.

Will he be Doctor Doom: ruthless dictator who supplies his own people with ample land and resources to the detriment of everyone else? Or, will he be Thanos: depressed commander riddled with PTSD who literally kills half the world because they’re making too much noise?

Dis gon’ be good!

Stray Thoughts

Hange’s reaction to the Marley engineer’s train model will sustain me until next month. Sasha’s reaction to gourmet seafood is just bonus. As is Floch’s reaction to gasp international trade relations!

It’s not just Isayama’s art that’s come a long way. He was able to communicate lots of important info in a relatively short window. As a writer, I can tell you that’s not easy, so I’ll give him props here.

Onyankopon seems to have become a protégé of sorts to Hange. Someone to pass her feverish Titan knowledge down to.

With hair that long, it was just a matter of time. Manbun!Eren has shut down the fandom indefinitely.

It’s worth repeating that everyone grieves in their own way. The recent God of War revival makes a big deal of this. Mikasa is no exception. She was very close with Sasha. Mikasa won’t be overt about her sadness, but the panel of her sitting against Sasha’s headstone says all you need to know.

[katatty]

Characters

Part 5 of my Custom Neighbourhood Guide

While working on your neighbourhood you most likely already have an idea of the families and sims that will be living there, and how they relate to each other. Now’s the time to flesh those characters out! This section of the guide will cover creating sims, characterisation, relationships, and the question of whether to include townies and/or NPCs. 

(As always do take everything I say in this guide with a grain of salt – every creator is different and my own preferences & opinions might not be your own. But hopefully there’ll be something useful in here for everyone.)

Making Sims

You can create you sims in either Bodyshop or Create a Sim. There are advantages to both! Many people find Bodyshop easier to use and it has slightly more tools available, plus it will allow you to save copies of your sims easily. CAS sims won’t be able to be saved without first extracting their appearance in SimPE – however it will allow you to do genetic mixing more easily, and with debugging mode on will enable more of the catalog, such as career outfits and alien skins. Whichever one you use is really just down to personal preference.

When creating sims to populate a neighbourhood, it’s generally good to have plenty of genetic diversity. You might choose otherwise, for example if you are closely basing your neighbourhood on a real-world location with a less diverse population, but a good rule of thumb is to try to include at least one sim with each of the available hair colours, eye colours, skin colours, etc.

Different players will have different tastes when it comes to sim faces. I have bad facial recognition and like extreme, cartoony features. Other players might prefer prettier sims! Again, this is something that’s entirely up to you. Almost all players, however, like to see sims with unique and recognisable faces, so try and avoid simply using templates when creating sims. Pick at least one “unusual” feature, perhaps a large nose, beady eyes, a slightly upturned mouth - anything to make them stand out! Another possible idea is to combine existing templates for more interesting results.

It’s also worth looking at the some Custom Sliders! Sims made using these will still work in a cc-free game, and they open up a lot of new options, like asymmetrical features, buck teeth and elfier ears. Honestly, I am not the greatest at face sculpting, so I’ll link to a few resources and tutorials on it by other people:

Sims 2 Sliders - index of all sliders

Pooklet’s Method - a “randomisation” method for making interesting faces

The final detail for you sim will be their hair & outfit! Resist the temptation to pick the cutest items in the catalog – think about the personality, occupation and interests of the sim you are making and try and give them an appearance that suggests that. Desiderata Valley is actually a great example of this being done well – most of the inhabitants dress in a way that reflect their chosen hobbies. Remember that many players LOVE giving everyone makeovers so don’t get too attached to their appearance! This is another reason to place more importance on getting across their characterisation rather than focusing on making everyone look cute.

Characterisation 

To me this is one of the most important aspects of a sim! Aside from their physical appearance, there are so many things that can help flesh out and define a sim:

Bio – This is one of the least subtle as it is literally what you tell the players about your sim, so make it count! I like my bios to be short and snappy, and try to include fun facts, personality traits, or info about the character’s values and motivations.

Memories – I’ll go into more detail about editing memories in the next part, but memories are one of the easiest ways to show a character’s history. Who taught them their toddler skills, if anyone? When did they have their first kiss? Did they ever run away from home? Take a look at the full List of Memories for more ideas!

Storytelling images – Another good way to show a family history!

Aspiration – This is one of the things that most defines a sim. They might be a very typical sim for their aspiration, like the Curious brothers, who are very much classic knowledge sims! Aspiration doesn’t have to define them, however, and there’s no reason they have to follow the classic stereotypes. Maybe they’re a family sim in love with two people, like Widespot’s Mary Hart? Maybe a shy, grouchy romance sim like Nina Caliente? Take a look at Rockethorse’s Alternate Reads of Aspirations and Dinuriel’s Psychology Version of Aspirations for some “outside the box” ideas.

Personality Points – Bear in mind that more extreme personalities will result in more interesting behaviour from a sim! In my view it’s worth giving each sim at least one extreme personality trait (such as being a mega-slob or a outgoing chatterbox) to help define them.

Zodiac – This will effect chemistry, which is the only real gameplay effect, but players into astrology might infer some character traits from this!

Interests – This mainly effects the conversations sims will have, but again will give players ideas about their personality. A refined sim might have a lot of interest in culture. A high interest in crime could point towards a potential criminal career, or maybe in law enforcement. Eco warriors might have a high interest in environment, politics and animals.

Hobby – Similar to interests, this can flesh out what a sim is all about, and in some cases can even give them new traits and abilities. I particularly enjoy giving sims points in the film & lit hobby so that they’ll walk around with a book in their hand.

Skills – It makes sense for a sim to have a few skills, especially if they are an adult or elder! As a general rule I give sims skills corresponding with the point they are at in their career.

Many of these things, like interests, skills and hobbies, will be assigned to a sim when they are created, but these can easily be changed with testing cheats, SimPE, the Simblender, or the Batbox if you have a strong preference for what they’re into! There are other things you could consider too, like turn ons, sexual orientation, vacation memories, skill badges, etc.  

This is my own preference, but when defining a sim’s personality I think it’s importance to give them both some positive and negative traits, and keep the details ambiguous enough that there is plenty of room for player interpretation. Donna Fusilli, for example, can be interpreted as a victim, villain, or something in between. She’s a mob boss’s wife, they have a low relationship and it’s implied she married for money, but she also does love him, and has turned down the opportunity to have an affair according to her memories. She has a good relationship with her kids but is thoroughly detested by her mother-in-law, and the reason for this is up to the imagination of the player.

Then again, perhaps you prefer more clear-cut good guys and bad guys? That can work, too! Bear in mind though, that the player might not agree with the roles you have cast them in. Don Lothario and the Caliente sisters seem to me as though they were intended to be villains by Maxis, but many players like to give them more sympathetic backstories and motivations. Remember that the characters you are creating should be giving the players prompts and ideas rather than dictating any one “correct” interpretation.

Relationships 

Another important part of a sim is the relationships they have with other characters in the neighbourhood! How big is their family? Does it only consist of their household, or do they have other relatives living in the neighbourhood? Do they get on well with their family, and who are they closest to? Who are their closest friends? Are their friends in the same age group, or do they get on better with a different age group? How long have they been friends? Are they married, single, do they have a love interest? Multiple love interests? What about enemies, or rivals? Is there anyone in town that they dislike, or who dislikes them?

One-sided rivalries or crushes can be particularly interesting! When I made Europa, for example, I made all of the elder females dislike Viola Rochetti – implying (along with her biography) that she was the subject of a lot of gossip.

For most neighbourhoods the interwoven network of relationships will comprise a lot of the plot. Pleasantview has its tangled love web, Veronaville has its bitter rivalries, Strangetown has its complex family trees… the only limit is your imagination. When creating a sim I like to work out what their connections are to the rest of the town very early on – there shouldn’t be any sims included with no relevance to the neighbourhood plot and no links to the other residents. (Unless perhaps they’re a hermit or recluse? In which case, carry on.)

You might find it helpful to scrawl out some family trees or relationship maps on paper, especially if the set-up you are envisioning is complicated!

Townies and NPCs

When setting up your neighbourhood you will have taken steps to avoid generating unnecessary townies and NPCs. However, perhaps you want a few townies around so that the dating options in the neighbourhood are more varied? There might be some NPCs you can’t avoid generating, and maybe you want to customise them to fit in better with your neighbourhood?  Perhaps you’d like a few non-playables to play a role in the plot, like Kaylynn Langerak? Most sharable neighbourhoods contain a few townies and NPCs, and even Meetme’s uberhood templates contain a few “plot relevant” townies, like Crystal Vu.

You may even want to include a complete townie and NPC pool. There are pros and cons to doing this; some players prefer fewer character files and like being able to choose whether to add townies themselves, whilst others might appreciate having less work to do, and being able to play a more customised neighbourhood which feels fully populated. Quadington University and Tumbleton are a few examples of this! Creating multiple versions of your neighbourhood with and without townies and NPCs is also an option.

Something I haven’t seen done but am interested in trying myself in a future neighbourhood is townie-owned community lots! According to some testing by @dramallamadingdang, it’s possible to have a townie purchase a community lot and run it as an owned business. This could open up some interesting possibilities, like shops that can sell just about anything, restaurants with more selective menus, staff that you can pick out and customise yourself very easily... could be fun to experiment with!

There are quite a few ways to go about making and customising townies and NPCs, and the method you use will depend on your game configuaration and exactly what you want to do with them. Personally I create townies in CAS and townify them with the Simblender. I let NPCs generate through normal gameplay then change their appearance using SimPE. I’ll link a few tutorials/resources below:

Alternate Sim Surgery Plugin 

How to Use Sim Surgery with SimPE

Modifying a Sim's genes

Extracting & Packaging sims

Clean custom neighbourhoods + townie creation

NPC and Townie Maker

Make your own hobby sims

Make Your Own Default Townies, Downtownies, Dormies, and Adoptable Pets!

[360digitmgba]

Why Do Some Traditional Engineers Not Trust Knowledge Science?

These contain a compromise in building the model relying on which elements we choose to incorporate or ignore. to grasp the behaviour of a phenomenon, you needed to hold out a bodily experiment to mannequin that phenomenon and solely then may you be expecting it.

Given sufficient examples of outcomes from the coaching knowledge, you'll be able to be taught the underlying sample of the system - from which you'll be able to infer future behaviour. In the later case, you would still mannequin the behaviour of the system so long as you have a lot of examples of outcomes. In both cases, we are trying to mannequin the issue as an equation and remedy the equation.

Whether it’s an automobile producer, an internal-metropolis artisan bakery or an international investment hedge fund, every business has several properties from which it can derive worth. Regulations allow corporations to do what they do, shield citizens, as well as drive change in sentiment that “crypto is darkish and scary,” said Gronager in an interview. One of the entities helping with the schooling part isReal Vision, a broadcast media company, which launched a crypto site final November to supply content material for traders, finance professionals, policymakers and educators who need to study extra about crypto markets. While big banks are using cryptocurrency for international transfers, it is nonetheless not a compelling way of payment that most individuals sometimes perceive or are in a position to manage, he stated.

Investors handed out $23.2 billion to global blockchain firms since 2016, and $three.3 billion to U.S. corporations throughout that same interval, based on Crunchbase information. An exploratory question is a query where you attempt to find a pattern of a relationship between variables i.e. you aim to generate a hypothesis.

There are six broad questions which can be answered in data evaluation according to an article known as “What is the query? These questions help to frame our thinking of data science problems. Here, I propose that these questions additionally provide a unified framework for relating statistics to knowledge science. As adoption of blockchain positive aspects momentum, so does venture capital funding within the technology. LeadBlock is an enterprise capital fund investing in early-stage business-to-enterprise blockchain startups.

I also find that these questions present a comprehensive set of questions that link statistics to information science. They allow you to to suppose beyond the norm i.e. past problems that you encounter to consider all attainable issues. The six questions framework elevate awareness about which query is being asked and aim to reduce the confusion in discussions and media. However, additionally they assist to offer a single framework to co-relate statistics problems to information science. Meanwhile, regulatory clarity regarding cryptocurrency has improved in the past five years, saidMichael Gronager, CEO ofChainalysis. The firm provides blockchain data and evaluation to government agencies, exchanges and financial institutions.

A mechanistic question asks what is the mechanism behind an observation i.e. how a change of 1 measurement at all times and solely results in a deterministic behaviour in one other. A mechanistic query asks what is the mechanism behind a remark i.e. how a change of one measurement at all times and exclusively leads to a deterministic behaviour in another. From a learning standpoint, we could use the method to introduce extra engineers to machine studying and deep studying primarily based on data that they already know. However, in case you have no direct knowledge about the behaviour of a system, you can not formulate any mathematical model to explain it and make correct predictions. However, if you have no direct data about the behaviour of a system, you can't formulate a mathematical model to explain it and make accurate predictions. In the primary case, we are modelling the problem as a physical / empirical problem and determining the equation through an experiment. This downside could be solved utilizing primary high school equations by modelling the physics.

Further validating the industry is major monetary services companies adopting them, corresponding to PayPal, saidDaniel Polotsky, crypto chief and CEO ofCoinFlip, which touts itself as the largest crypto ATM firm on the planet. As DeFi surpasses$19 billion in total worth locked, the amount of capital being invested into startups constructing within the blockchain house is inconceivable to ignore, saidAlon Goren, founding partner atDraper Goren Holm, by way of email. The firm is a fintech venture studio centered on incubating and accelerating early-stage blockchain startups.

More typically, you would say that you're proposing a speculation which may hold in a new pattern from the inhabitants. An exploratory query is a query where you try to discover a pattern of a relationship between variables i.e. you aim to generate a hypothesis. If we have direct theoretical understanding of the problem, the mathematical modelling strategy works.

Central Bank Digital Currencies , a new type of central bank cash issued on a blockchain, basically central bank-backed digital foreign money. “We anticipate a funding want of more than 350 million euros [about $425.5 million] in Europe within the subsequent 12 to 18 months after talking with more than 200 B2B blockchain startups for ourEnterprise Blockchain 2020report,” Chreng-Messembourg informed Crunchbase News. Blockchain is digital info that's stored in a public database, and the profit, particularly in the monetary sector, is the flexibility to have a shared ledger recording detailed transactions without any figuring out information, leading to improved security.

An inferential query restates the proposed speculation within the form of a question that might be answered by analyzing the info. Still, blockchain faces hurdles, including volatility in cryptocurrency pricing and confusion and misunderstanding from many customers about the technology and related financial providers, specialists say. Mathematical models may be carried out utilizing many mathematical constructs such as statistical models, differential equations, game theoretic models and so on.

There remains to be plenty of work forward though, saidGraham McConnell, co-founding father of blockchain-based fintech startupNth Round. Pollack additionally expects to see high-progress companies that raised seed and Series A rounds to boost larger rounds this year as they scale and attract extra attention from enterprise traders. Tokenization, or the process of issuing a token on a blockchain which represents a real asset. This is a “highly lively space with heavy VC investments,” stated Chreng-Messembourg. The contribution flagged with a + is our choice for the picture of the week. A predictive question would be one where you expect the end result for a particular instance.

Startups are popping out with instruments and products under decentralized finance, or DeFi, which is a monetary software program constructed on the blockchain that may be pieced collectively. Some examples areBitpay, which provides bitcoin payment solutions for companies and organizations, andBlockFi, a secured nonbank lender that offers crypto-asset-backed loans to crypto-asset homeowners. Bitpay has raised $72.5 million, while BlockFi has raised nearly $a hundred and sixty million, in accordance with Crunchbase knowledge. Experts say 2021 is poised to see larger adoption and venture capital funding in blockchain know-how. That prediction comes as extra monetary companies' apps are constructed utilizing blockchain know-how and cryptocurrency has turned out to be extra broadly accepted. An inferential question restates the proposed speculation within the type of a query that may be answered by analyzing the info. You are validating the hypothesis i.e. does the observed pattern maintain beyond the data at hand.

Improve the model by incorporating additional concerns and constraints to the baseline model. The scope of the system – The system includes the area of interest for our study. Real world phenomena are often too sophisticated to mannequin in their entirety. Hence, the definition of a system entails the scope of the features being chosen for the examine and the boundary circumstances.

A predictive query could be one where you expect the end result for a particular instance. To not miss this sort of content material sooner or later,subscribe to our publication.

This will be familiar to anybody signing up to a mailing record or consenting to cookies on a website. These could be categorised as inventory , folks, land, cash, autos, investments and even good will. There are additional belongings that you could derive intellectual property from, and that you simply treat as a capital asset of the business. Across the globe, organisations large and small are beginning to harness the ability of data. Data capital might be considered one of a company’s most important assets, changing into an engine of commerce and innovation for the twenty-first century. McConnell predicts 2021 may mean a wider adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrency as cost strategies. Although the deal moved between 2019 and 2020 was comparatively flat due to the international pandemic,Brooke Pollack, managing partner atHutt Capital, expects it to extend in 2021.

When fashions are constructed utilizing maths, the structure of mathematics introduces a formal rigour. The precise mannequin is a set of features that describe the relations between the different variables. The model itself could be made up of variables, control variables, governing equations, assumptions, constraints, preliminary and boundary situations. Mathematical models are extensively used within the natural sciences, engineering and social sciences. It might also generate non-individual data, such as that produced from machines, stock or an understanding of processes in a given space of the market that they serve. Data capital is now being recognised as something akin to these other types of property, and more and more organisations are realising the opportunities it opens for them.

They would then typically mix that information with the info that they generate themselves, and the sum of the 2 could be how the corporate would think about data capital within the broader sense. Data assets may be centred around the customers that a business serves. People will have opted in, for instance, to allow information that they generate to be used by the organisation.

If we have direct theoretical understanding of the problem, the mathematical modelling approach works greatest . The second factor of compromise includes the level of mathematical and computational feasibility. Since the target of the mannequin is to provide an outcome, the mannequin should be computationally possible. Since prehistoric times easy fashions such as maps and diagrams have been used to capture the state of a system. The means of creating a mathematical mannequin is termed mathematical modelling. An organisation may additionally utilise a 3rd get together, corresponding to a research or analyst agency, and collect external knowledge on a market area.

Explore more on Data Science Training 

 360DigiTMG - Data Analytics, Data Science Course Training Hyderabad

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[phanique]

First Impressions / Half-Review of Go Go Squid 2: Dt. Appledog's Time

Firstly, some info on the show: https://mydramalist.com/58373-my-dear.

You can also watch this video by Avenue X: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03cdEKRxThQ which also mentions some points I thought of too.

I’m not a good critic of dramas and am bad at reviewing but I like sharing my thoughts so if you are interested to know, then read on.

SPOILERS AHEAD because I do not know to to review something without spoiling.

And some clarifications because I start from a different point than many others out there. I watched Go Go Squid (drama) and found out that there will be a spinoff (/sequel but it is definitely more of a spinoff, why? I’ll tell you later) which is based on a novel too.

So Go Go Squid is based on Novel 1, Go Go Squid 2 is based on Novel 2. I watched Drama 1 then read Novel 2 and now am watching Drama 2.

I also watched/read everything in Chinese so there might be some stuff which are understood better as translated stuff does miss out on nuances.

I will segment this into a few parts because I do want to explain the universe(?) that this is based on.

I have only seen Drama 2 up to episode 16 of 38 as of 17 Feb 2021 but will be updated as I watch more.

1. Names of Dramas / Novels

Drama 1 has a Chinese name of  亲爱的，热爱的 which I would translate to as Dearly, Passionately if it is literal, and as you can see has nothing to do with Squids. However, the novel it is based on is named 蜜汁炖鱿鱼 which means Honey Stewed Squid, Squid Stewed in Honey and this is where the word Squid actually comes from. Novel 1′s name does have a reason, the female lead is a singer whose name is 鱿鱼 or Squid if I remember correctly and honey is something sweet which I would guess is like melting the ice prince kind of feeling.

Drama 2 has a Chinese name of  我的时代，你的时代 which I will come to later. It’s original intended name is actually 亲爱的，挚爱的 which is Dearly, Belovedly kind of name but they scraped that which I have some reason to why. Novel 2 has a name of 密室困游鱼 which I translate to as Swimming Fish Stuck In Escape Room, this name also has a reason which I will bring in later in the next part. Okay so for the current name, it is related to the Novel 2, it is actually the concluding line of the novel which translates to My Era/Generation, Your Era/Gen, which I guess they wanted to relate to the novel more, the original name would be closer to Drama 1′s name and has some meaning has Belovedly hints at how the male lead has loved the female lead for a long time.

Do I like any of the translations? Honestly, not really as the novel names reflect the novel and the drama names only reflect some of the adaptations but is still largely inaccurate.

2. Universe of Dramas / Novels

Both novels (I assume but I have not read Novel 1) are based on a gaming world where they compete in games like Counter Strike, Novel 2 has a focus on this game called Escape Room which explains its name.

Drama 1 is based on a coding competition actually so elements of team fight / attack and defence is more prominent like in games.

Drama 2 is based on a robot fighting competition which has more attack and defence elements but less of team fight.

By the way, they reference a lot of the characters by their in game name and not their actual name.

3. Solo Team Breaking Up / Relationships

From Drama 1, I understood that Solo Team broke up because Solo’s ex was pregnant and thus he broke up with Appledog and fathered the child. The mess between the relationships eventually caused the team to be unhappy and broke up.

From Novel 2, this is also what I inferred.

From Drama 2, I do not get what happened but it seemed that Appledog was the main reason.

Next, in Drama 1 and Novel 2, Solo/Wang Hao no longer has feelings for Appledog/Ai Qing and is just her superior. It is known that Dt/Wu Bai is Gun/Han Shang Yan’s cousin to everyone and that Gun/Han Shang Yan knows that Dt/Wu Bai likes Appledog/Ai Qing.

In Drama 2, all the above is not true.

4. Certain Events

In Drama 1, Drama 2 and Novel 2, the part where Xiao Mi is falling behind is mentioned. The dramas seem to make it a big deal while Novel 2 had made it known and it became a little part of something that pushed Wu Bai/Ai Qing’s relationship further.

In Drama 1 and Novel 1, Ai Qing is a game interpreter(? Idk if that is the official term) but in Drama 2, Ai Qing was still a competitive player and only stepped off after some time later.

5. Wu Bai/Ai Qing’s Relationship

I’m only comparing between Drama 2 and Novel 2 here, not much happened in Drama 1 so I would just say that they were hinting at the relationship.

Wu Bai in the novel is super quiet and always wears his cap which hides his eyes underneath its shadow. Wu Bai in the drama is almost talkative to me(?) like maybe because he is the main character and main characters talk a lot but it’s almost as if that his feelings for Ai Qing is like super super obvious. He also does a lot of things for Ai Qing even before they met (like fixing the light, drawing the flowers etc) but in the novel, Wu Bai is definitely not like that, he does things but is sort of more reasonable.

Ai Qing also seems to be more flirty(?)/interested in Wu Bai from the start for the drama while in the novel, she gradually realises that she has feelings for him through spending time together. I have not watched if they got together yet in the drama but I am definitely expecting it to be very different from the novel.

At Episode 17 now and oh my god, why did they kiss in the gaming arena???? To me it is super OOC for Wu Bai, I would see him as a guy who prefers a private place to kiss in the novel (their first kiss was also in a room/house) but dude.

At Episode 27 now 17:30 mark and the line which Wang Hao/Solo said when he told Bao Na that Wu Bai/Dt and Ai Qing/Appledog is dating is actually the sentence he posted in the Weibo post when their relationship was made known to the public in the novel.

6. Shen Yue/Ai Jing’s Relationship

Their relationship is not a super big part of Novel 2. There are mentions of how Shen Yue’s ex brings about problems, how they are on/off and the ending for them is that Ai Jing is trying to get over him but I do think that it is more open ended.

Drama 2 on the other hand just straight up says that here is your second couple, and how much they flirt, done. Honestly, I am like okay for that couple, not necessarily shipping them but just okay.

7. Should You Watch The Drama?

I think it’s okay to give it a go, you might like it and watch it once or twice but I doubt it will be a drama that I will rewatch often. Again, I have only watched 16 episodes but I think my thoughts would not really change that much.

8. Should You Read The Novel?

YESSSS. IT IS MY FAVOURITE NOVEL OF ALL TIME.

Again, I have read like 20 novels at most but it is a very lovely one.

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The Best 5 Do’s of Phone Dating Every Chat Line Users Must Know

When you do go out on a date with the best phone chat line member and your ultimate objective is to get in a relationship that can last for long, every phone dater tries their level best to make it a success. Who wouldn't like to begin the cheerfully ever-after immediately? In spite of the fact that there's no obvious manual or protocol for phone dating, keeping a few Do’s will certainly be a game-changer. 

5 Do’s of Phone Dating for Single Chat Line User 

Do Make Your Limits Understood 

How would you take phone dating with like-minded Singles? For a few, dating over the phone at a time is typical except if there's been an understanding that they are entering the restrictive dating stage, the phase where you date just a single individual. Unexpectedly, there are other people who feel cheated when they discover that their date is seeing another person. These distinctions considered you should make your boundaries defined. 

Be Interested and Show Your Interest Too 

When you choose to find and connect a compatible phone date singles via free trial phone chat line numbers, it is important to show your interest in the conversation and chat. In addition, when you receive a private message and it meets your expectation and preferences, show your interest too to him or her. When you talk to your potential phone dating partner, acknowledge the conversation. 

Remain Consistent with Yourself  

Be true to yourself as well as your partner from the best chat lines for Black. There are many African American Singles who pretends to be someone else that they are not in reality. Experts from the Vibeline Black chat line believes that it is not recommended in phone dating and chatting to pretend the kind of person they are not. 

Do Deal with Your Time 

It is important to know how to meet a person and manage your time based on the situation. When it is your first date, never make any commitments. Plan your time and stay focused on the goal for which you have registered your local phone dating number. If you are looking for some just for fun or flirt, connect with only such person who also has a similar thing in their mind. 

Know your Black Phone Date's Preferences 

Everybody has their own preference, so when out on the first meeting, be perceptive to realize what you want and whatnot. Is it alright for your date to pay for the bill? For a few, that is sweet, however, for other people, they think that it’s offending on the grounds that maybe you're inferring they can't pay for their own dinners. So, if everything is alright between the two and if the phone date is meeting your expectation, then move on to the next level upon mutual decision. 

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[ldso-tron]

TRON games – Steam sales numbers for 2017

Last year, I wrote about how many copies each of the TRON games have sold on Steam, and in general.

For the 35th Anniversary of TRON, I thought I’d take another look at the Steam sales numbers.

Studying (at least one facet) of TRON merchandise sales can be interesting, and merch sales as a whole is important if we’re going to see another TRON sequel.

All sales info is courtesy of SteamSpy. While not 100% accurate, it still provides ballpark figures for us to work with. Unfortunately, sales for console versions of the games is kept confidential, unless you want to pay NPD Group for the privilege. SteamSpy, on the other hand, provides ownership information for free. And sites like VGChartz are considered even more unreliable than SteamSpy.

All the numbers quoted from SteamSpy are from the most optimistic historical data. In other words, the sales numbers fluctuate daily (actually ownership numbers, but this essentially equals copies sold). So I’m quoting the highest number that has ever been recorded for each game. (This includes the ± “plus or minus” number being added to the base number.)

Since being released on Steam in October 2014, TRON 2.0 has sold approximately 48,000 copies.

Last year, TRON 2.0 had sold approx. 40,000 copies. So that’s an increase of 8,000. And the majority of the increase seems to stem from the recent 2017 Steam Summer sale. Before the sale, the number sat at approx. 42,000. Meaning a fairly astonishing 6,000 copies were sold during the sale.

Why so many? Likely because of the very recent “Windows 10 compatibility” update to TRON 2.0, widely reported in the press. Except, TRON 2.0 has been capable of running properly on Windows 10 all along. Regardless, the news certainly seems to have raised awareness of the game once more.

Since being released on Steam in October 2014, TRON Evolution has sold approximately 22,000 copies.

Last year, TRON Evolution had sold approx. 20,000 copies. Making that an increase of 2,000.

Checking sales numbers before and after the 2017 Steam Summer sale, showed no noticeable increase. I personally find this a bit hard to believe, especially after the announcement that Evolution had a “Windows 10 compatibility” update that replaced the outdated GFWL bundled with the game.

It’s possible that SteamSpy might not have updated the Evolution numbers yet. (SteamSpy’s owner mentions that it takes a minimum of 3 days after a sale for the site to catch up. We’re at 4 days already, but I will check again soon.)

And since its full release on Steam in February 2016, TRON RUN/r has sold approximately 18,000 copies.

Last year, TRON RUN/r had sold approx. 14,000 copies. Which is an increase of 4,000.

Before the 2017 Steam Summer sale, RUN/r had sold approx. 17,000 copies. Meaning an additional approx. 1,000 were sold during the sale.

So what can we infer from all this sales data? At the right price, the TRON games can sell very well. There is definitely a demand for them.

- TronFAQ