#as long as rng is nice to me.

[chickennuggetdreamland]

literally just OK

[maxwellatoms]

Do you have a favorite of your own characters? Or certain ones that you feel particularly connected to? I feel like creators tend to put bits of themselves into their characters--are any of them like that for you? Just wanna say your work is a huge inspiration to me and really helped shape my art and taste in media growing up, thanks for putting your work out into the world!!!

Theoretically, I love them all.

They're all a part of me in some way.

I've discovered over the years that I just can't handle characters I can't relate to. Most specifically, Billy, Mandy, and Grim are major facets of my personality. I purposefully related them to Freud's Id, Ego, and Superego, but they're all very specifically also a part of who I am. Billy is my fun-loving lust for freedom from schedules and consequences. Mandy is the part of me that realizes that Billy will destroy us all, so there must be structure. Grim is just trying to live his life. He wants to watch TV and pet cats, but life (unlife?) just won't give him a break. He's the viewpoint character to my Asperger's.

Irwin is the sad-sack/misguided hero redeemed, which is always a trope I love.

Eris is specifically the Discordian Eris, but also the extreme end of that Billy lust for freedom and the will of the RNG gods. (Good gravy -- my current BG3 playthrough)

Nergal is my love for Lovecraftian/Howardian Mesopotamian deities as has-beens.

Jeff the Spider (quite literally me at the time of his inception) was Too Nice, and therefore a sucker.

Hoss Delgado is the knowledge that if you gaze too long into the abyss... you end up with a chainsaw for a leg.

Then (because this is a collaboration) you've got characters who are primarily created by and representative of other people. For example, Fred Fredburger was created by C.H. Greenblatt. Sperg was created by Gord Zajac (as was Hoss, really). Boogey was created by Spencer Laudiero. All of these artists infused some piece of themselves into the character.

This is (IMO) where it gets fun. It's the ultimate Role Playing Game. It's childhood play made manifest. I've got my Luke Skywalker figure and you've got your Darth Vader figure and we've got two COBRA H.I.S.S. tanks and a Muffy from Battlestar Galactica and we're gonna hash this shit out.

Ideally, I think I'd want a "Simpsons World". A world where there are zero (or as close as possible) extraneous characters. Everyone represents something and everyone matters. I was so close with B&M. Fingers crossed I get there one day.

[oakdll]

things i desperately want for persona 6

- Femc

I know this is not an unpopular opinion, but I don’t even need a full femc route. It would be nice, but I think it would probably take up too much budget. All I want is a girl model of the protagonist that you can choose and some pronoun changes. It would be so easy to do, I’m begging for this

- Let people be gay

If they are doing a femc route like that, there will probably be romance options for male social links, so just keep that for the boy protagonist route. You literally don’t have to change anything except maybe a few voice lines, but you could also have the VA’s only use gender neutral pronouns. Just let you date every social link (as long as they aren’t like your dad or teacher or something) regardless of their gender.

- Keep the rewind feature from Reload

This is self explanatory, it’s maybe the single best quality of life feature in any Persona game, I NEED it for P6.

- Keep the palace system for the dungeons

The order of Persona games was me playing P5R, then P4G, then P3R. Going from P5’s palaces to the mediocre dungeons in P4 was super jarring. Tartarus in P3R is definitely an improvement, and I might even like it more than Mementos, but palaces are by far the best addition to the Persona series ever. Having unique levels for each arc was a stroke of genius, and if they don’t carry it over to P6 it will almost certainly be underwhelming compared to P5. I do like the randomly generated dungeons, but I think they work best as accompaniment to palaces. Something like Mementos would be great for P6 in accompaniment to Palaces.

- Have a better spawning method for The Reaper

I like to farm The Reaper a lot, and especially in P4, it was TORTURE. Having to open 21 chests and then requiring the 22nd to randomly spawn an enemy just to fight The Reaper was awful. Even the time based ones in P5 and P3 are not perfect. Literally just anything but the tedium of P4. Requiring RNG was awful, you could spend 20 minutes opening chests just to not get an enemy chest on the 22nd and have to restart.

- Have a post game

Sometimes I want to play Persona but I don’t want to have to start a 100 hour new playthrough. Persona genuinely has a great combat system, and I would love to be able to explore Mementos or rematch bosses after beating the game. Maybe bring back the Thieves Den (or something similar) but allow you to re-enter palaces and Mementos after getting the true ending. Something like being able to rematch bosses in the Mushroom Kingdom from Super Mario Odyssey. Maybe also bring the album thing on the couch in Persona 4 back. If you don’t remember, if you went to sit on your reading couch, you could view all of your maxed social links and replay each rank. You could even go to the social links you didn’t romance and see what their romance path was like, or vice versa. It was super cool!

- Keep confidant perks

Having the ranks of non-party member social links grant perks is one of my favorite additions to P5. It can really help incentivize you to prioritize them and go for all max social links. I think the main flaw with Persona 5 was that Atlus underestimates how powerful the perks would be. That’s why the game was so easy, not because of the gameplay, but because Atlus couldn’t balance some players having unlocked broken confidant perks and others having not. It would be difficult, but they need to be able to balance the perks more. Definitely keep them, but don’t let people just blitz through palaces if they have Ryuji’s confidant at rank 7.

- Bring over a rebalanced version of Ryuji’s instakill

Speaking of Ryuji’s rank 7 confidant ability, I want it to come back. It is by far the most broken ability in P5, but it also made grinding SO much more bearable. That said, it needs a rebalance. Make it so it doesn’t work in palaces, only P6’s version of mementos. Make it much harder to get than rank 7, maybe a late game social link’s rank 10 ability. It would still be a broken ability, but it is an ingenious solution to fixing tedious late game grinding. More games should have versions of this ability.

- Keep the completionist difficulty of P5R

I think Persona 5 Royal has the best balance in terms of how difficult it should be to max out all of your social links on a first playthrough. I got all achievements on my first playthrough, but not 100% on social links. I was rank 5 in Strength and rank 9 in Lovers. It was very close, but it had just the right amount of generosity. I think if someone tries hard, they should be able to 100% it on a first playthrough.

- Make it so hanging out with Velvet Room attendants doesn’t take up time

Unless it’s a social link like Marie, I think having it take up time just prevents people from actually doing it. With how valuable time is in Persona, wasting time slots on hanging out with a non-social link character isn’t super viable. In P5R, I almost never hung out with The Twins because it took up a time slot when it didn’t need to. In P3R, I always hang out with Elizabeth because you don’t need to take up a precious time slot to do it. Please keep this!!

- Keep the story based character progression

In P5, most of the character progression happens through confidants. Obviously confidants should have character progression, but it also means that without doing those confidants, the characters are super stagnant. In P3R, almost all of the characters develop over the course of the game without requiring you to do their social link. Junpei develops a bond with Chidori, Yukari has personal drama with Mitsuru, etc. In P5, the only time this happened was Morgana leaving the Phantom Thieves, which is by far the worst part of the game. If they can write the story to be more similar to P3, I think it would be an improvement.

- Battle mechanics

I think Theurgy (or something similar) should be brought over to Persona 6. Theurgy in Reload was very unbalanced, being able to charge Theurgy's before big battles and end it in 1 turn was way too broken. I think Theurgy's should only be able to be charged and used in the span of one battle. You wouldn't be able to pre-charge your Theurgy and Armageddon all the bosses away, as all of your charge would go away after finishing a battle. This way it can only really be used if the battle goes on for a while, making it feel more like an ultimate attack and less like a win condition.

I also want Baton Passes and Technicals to be brought over as well. It can have different names and slightly different functions, but I think they are great mechanics, they just need some balance. Baton Passes and Technicals are also super broken in P5R, especially with merciless difficulty making them do 1.5x damage. Baton Passes were absolutely overpowered. I think this might be a pretty severe nerf, but I think the best solution might be limiting Baton Passes to only work once in a row. Having Baton Pass chains where you hit a weakness, Baton Pass to an ally to hit another weakness, and keep chaining it to shred every battle was unreasonable.

- Have a good challenge difficulty

Persona games (Mostly P5R and P3R) are far too easy. I actually like having the option to make them easy, safe difficulty is a genuinely good addition to the game, however merciless leaves a lot to be desired. I think P4G's option to freely change difficulty settings was pretty perfect, but even then I think having an even more challenging difficulty would be nice for veterans. Give the option to have a TRUELY merciless difficulty, something like Terraria's for the worthy seed, or CHIMPS difficulty in Bloons TD6. I always view those modes as some of the best challenge difficulties in gaming history. They have a perfect amount of challenge for veterans, and having something of similar difficulty in P6 would be amazing. I’m thinking like super boss level difficulty for every boss fight, obviously scaled to the player level though. I want to have to prepare in advance instead of just grinding slightly and shredding every boss.

- STOP ADDING FUCKING PEDOPHILES TO THESE GAMES

KAMOSHIDA WAS GOOD BECAUSE HE WAS ACTUALLY A VILLAIN, YOU DIDN'T NEED TO MAKE KAWAKAMI, UEHARA, AND MS. TORIUMI PEDOPHILES TOO PLEASE STOP LETTING THE MC DATE THEIR TEACHER

[twstgameplay]

Mod Jeido's 12th NRC Exam Results

Another round of NRC Unified Exams have come and gone and I eked by the S5 threshold by the skin of my (very sharp moray) teeth.

I'll go into detail on my teams and strategies that helped me get to this score. Hopefully this can be of use for others who are looking for reaching the higher scores. I wouldn't have been able to make this happen without the crowdsharing of teams online and really good support cards.

Here are my individual scores for each test:

Before, in order to get a score of SSS (110k) you would need an average of 22k in each test. Now, in order to reach S5 (160k), you would need an average of 32k. Once again, I would be relying heavily on my defense test scores.

My teams will be placed below under the cut for length. All battles were done using the Extra tier difficulty.

I hope everyone did great in the 12th NRC Exams!

~🐬

FIRE ATTACK TEST - 30413

In order to cross the 30k threshold for the Attack tests, it's imperative to finish on Turn 5. I was stuck at 29k for most of the exam session, but at the urging of a few other exam takers, I tried this team (specifically double Lilia) to my success. The levels and magic chosen are shown as above. Each character has max magic and buddy levels.

A few key points about this team:

Jamil and the two Lilias needed to be activated by themselves. This is because Jamil's ATK UP L and Lilia's DMG UP L are on their M3s and only last one turn. If RNG is unhelpful and you cannot activate both Jamil's spells at the same time, then you would not get the boost. The same goes for Lilia 1 and Lilia 2.

Similarly, Epel's M1 has an ATK UP M for 3 turns. As long as it is activated before his M2, then his M2 DUO with Idia will be boosted.

Other teams I tried that still got me scores over 25k (All Lv. 100+): ―　Dorm Azul, Boa Epel, Masq Idia, Dorm Ortho, Support Dorm Azul ―　Dorm Kalim, Dorm Jamil, Masq Idia, Dorm Ortho, Support General Lilia

WATER BASIC TEST - 31279

Despite all the new cards that have appeared, this feels like an "old faithful" combination that still has not steered me wrong. The levels and magic chosen are shown as above. Each character has max magic and buddy levels.

A few key points about this team:

Since this is a basic test, the number of DUOs is key. Since these are heavy hitters, I found I had depending on which of the non-DUO cards that appear first, I would either have to finish on Turn 3 or Turn 4.

At first I was using a Lv. 110 Leona but found that I would have to end on Turn 3 in order to be able to use all 5 DUOs, and RNG was just not playing nice. So I found someone who hadn't leveled him up all the way and this helped me stretch it to T4, given that neither of the Leonas' M1s showed up.

My Vil/Support Leona DUO combo was hit by the foe Jack's ATK DOWN which sincerely helped me as well. Sometimes debuffs aren't terrible, especially when you need to try to stretch it to T4.

Other teams I tried that still got me scores over 25k (All Lv. 100+ unless stated): ―　Dorm Malleus, Dorm Silver, Dorm Sebek (Lv. 95), Dorm Lilia (Lv. 95), Support General Lilia ―　Bday Riddle (Lv. 85), Dorm Leona, Dorm Azul, Dorm Vil, Support Dorm Leona

FLORA DEFENSE TEST - 37031

Once again, Heartslabyul on a Defense test becomes the most frustrating out of all the tests. Three out of the five have Curse to block heals, and when you're running three cards that have continuous heals, this can be very detrimental. This score was the result of successfully activating every single heal except one turn of my Ortho's continuous heal. The levels and magic chosen are shown as above. Each character has max magic and buddy levels.

This team gave me a total HP of 77,757 with an additional 43,986 in healing. I was able to end this battle with 64,991 HP left.

A few key points about this team:

Whenever possible, I would make sure to activate Leona's continuous heal on T1. Depending on the magic I had available at the time, I either would have paired him with Idia's debuff removal (if it looked like the foe had Riddle, Cater, or Trey showing up first), or Silver's M2. For Extra, at least one DUO would be necessary for me to kill on Turn 5.

Ideally, both Cerberus Orthos should be activated at Turn 2. However, this is not always possible, nor is it practical. Each one of Ortho's heals does a 6k+ single heal (along with setting up a continuous heal) so if I hadn't taken more than 13k in damage, it would have been wasting some precious HP points.

In the case of this score, I activated the support Ortho on T2 and my Ortho on T3. I was hedging my bets that I may get a debuff on T2, so I could use Idia's M1 to help mitigate that.

Luckily, this score was successful (after many many many many many unsuccessful tries) because I was only hit with a debuff on T5, after all my heals had successfully activated. Only the last little bit from my Ortho's continuous heal that was activated on T3 was not counted.

COSMIC DEFENSE TEST - 31397

I was able to get a score surpassing 30k fairly quickly, so I didn't spend that much time on Cosmic this time around. Since there are no type advantages, I went with another "old faithful" team that I knew would produce results. The levels and magic chosen are shown as above. Each character has max magic and buddy levels.

This team gave me a total HP of 86,892 with an additional 23,889 in healing.

A few key points about this team:

This test had no Curse, so it was a rather leisurely Defense test. But, as always, I would always try to activate both Cerberus Orthos' M1 heals on T2. Since this was Cosmic and there were no advantages, I would have lost enough HP during T1 that I would not have lost any healing to maxing out my HP.

Because this was a Cosmic test, however, I would need to use all 4 DUOs that I had brought into the test in order to kill by T5 and getting a high score.

OMNI ATTACK TEST - 29898

While it stings a little that I was unable to get above 30k here, this test was my last ditch effort to get my score above the 160k threshold for S5. The levels and magic chosen are shown as above. Each character has max magic and buddy levels.

A few key points about this team:

Similar to Fire Attack Test, Jamil and both Lilias needed to be activated individually with both their spells at once. Unfortunately, this wasn't always possible, since Omni tests can hit you with something you're weak against when you're not expecting it.

Hitting a few neutral elements was unavoidable, but as long as I didn't hit any disadvantages, I knew I would be able to finish on T5.

Originally I had some heavy hitting DUOs on my team instead of Dorm Riddle and Dorm Leona. For example, at one point I was using Dorm Rook and Boa Epel. I was trying to leverage their M1 boosts, but to no avail.

One person on discord commented that they threw in Dorm Riddle and Dorm Leona into their team in order to just hit hard with four total double attacks and they were able to increase their score. So I tried the same thing here, and while I wasn't able to get over 30k like i was hoping for, it did get me the 926 points I needed to get over the 160k threshold.

[gascon-en-exil]

Now that you've mentioned it, I'm curious how'd you'd rank the Zelda games minigames from best to worst

That would be entirely too many minigames to do individually, especially from memory since I haven't played most of these games in years. I can go by individual title though, ignoring the ones that don't have minigames in the usual sense (the NES games, both Four Swords games, Tri Force Heroes) and also Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom because I never actually played the latter and because my frustrations with both are on a much deeper conceptual level. I do recall BotW having some obnoxious minigames though, involving horses I believe. I'm not counting as well any minigames that offer only minor rewards that don't contribute to 100% completion, because those can be safely ignored.

Rating is out of 10 based on how obnoxious they are, with 1 being perfectly manageable and 10 being so annoying that they actively discourage me from replaying those games.

A Link to the Past - 2/10

The only really notable ones are the treasure chest game and the digging game, both of which are pure RNG and thus can be save-scummed. They're also in the Dark World so you shouldn't be strapped for money when you play them which is nice.

Link's Awakening - 1/10 for the original/DX, 4/10 for the Switch

On the Game Boy (Color) the fishing, crane, and river rapids games are all simple one-and-done affairs if you know what you're doing. The Switch remake however adds a bunch of new mechanics and rewards to all of them which makes them more annoying and time-consuming. There are rare fish to save-scum for, a realistic physics engine to make the crane more finicky, and a rapids race that requires precise maneuvering to get its best stuff. I'm not counting the Chamber Dungeons as a minigame because that's basically a separate mode unto itself...and also because they're usually pretty fun.

Ocarina of Time - 8/10

Not off to a great start for 3D Zelda. The gravedigging "tour" is pure luck, Bombchu bowling is also RNG-reliant, the treasure chest game is only not a nightmare because you can cheese it later on with the Lens of Truth, and the shooting challenges are serviceable at best. It's the fishing hole that truly lands OoT this score though, because it's the perfect storm of awful: partially luck-based, finicky mechanics, and actually physically painful at times on account of how hard and for how long you have to hold the analog stick to reel the big fish in. Oh, and you have to beat it twice, and the second time is harder!

Majora's Mask - 3/10

Surprisingly manageable and even fun in places, like the beaver races and the shooting galleries even if they require perfect scores. The horse and Goron races have issues with rubber band AI, the hitboxes in some of Honey and Darling's games can be stingy, the treasure chest game is (again) mostly RNG...but MM somehow makes all of these not so bad in their own ways, perhaps to compensate for the constant stress of the ticking clock. If I had to pick a worst one it might be the jumping minigame in Great Bay, because it takes a while to reach and the camera is liable to screw you over. The dog race is mostly luck-based, but at least it takes very little time and can be somewhat cheesed with the Mask of Truth. I am absolutely not counting the fishing hole added in the 3DS remake, because it's not required for 100% and because screw fishing in particular.

Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons - 6/10

Sort of unfair lumping them together since Ages has all the really bad ones, but these two have always been a package deal. The baseball game is hard to get down precisely and also has a fair amount of RNG, the seed shooter game also requires some exact shots, and while both have dancing minigames Ages is the only one that takes into account timing. Making all this worse are the Oracle games' randomized ring system...plus a whole lot of randomized other things (Maple, Gasha trees) that aren't exactly minigames but still make these titles really annoying to revisit. Huh...I just noticed that "Gasha" sounds like "gacha"; were gacha games even a thing in 2001, or were Nintendo and Capcom just extremely ahead of the curve?

The Wind Waker - 5/10

Has some real nuisances, like the battleship game (RNG), the Flight Control Platform (precision gliding), and sword training (endurance). Much like my feelings on BotW however, it's not really the minigames that make me dread replaying WW so much as its various other headaches - many of which were addressed in the HD remake, granted, but they're still there.

The Minish Cap - 2/10

Another one where it's not really about the minigames. The only mandatory one I can even recall was catching cuccos, and a lot of that comes down to item progression later in the game. Kinstones are the real pain in MC, but even they're not so tough to find that you have to rely on minigames to get them.

Twilight Princess - 2/10

Same rating as MC, but for very different reasons. For me it's quite similar to MM in that there are a bunch of minigames but most of them are either inoffensive or actively enjoyable, and without the in-game time limit they're less stressful too. Snow sledding, popping balloons, the Clawshot cage games...all pretty fun. The only ones that stick out in my mind as not great are either quickly handled (goat wrangling, sumo wrestling) or are just boring (bombing pots on the river). Note however that this ranking would have been higher if I'd gone solely off my initial impressions from the Wii version. Having played the Gamecube and later HD versions afterward, I can safely say that, as always, motion controls make everything worse.

Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks - 9/10

The touch screen controls are bad enough, but I can distinctly recall both of these games also having some downright awful minigames. Hourglass has fishing and a merciless shooting gallery, Tracks has the whip race and the pirate shooting game, and both have stuff like another WW-style training endurance test and randomized part prizes making everything worse. I have very few good memories of either of these games, honestly; all their good bits get drowned out by the clunky controls and the miserable optional content.

Skyward Sword - 7/10

Again, motion controls suck - but at least the HD remaster fixed most of that, and in both versions a good number of the minigames are optional even by my standards. There are still some extremely bothersome ones here though. Fun Fun Island is very much not, the minecart race isn't the most responsive and the pumpkin shooting game can be very grating until you nail the exact way to (sort of) cheese it. I actually switched this ranking with OoT's as I was writing this, because I remembered how much losing the motion controls redeems the experience of this game. Still by no means a favorite, but at least I want to come back to it sometimes now.

A Link Between Worlds - 5/10 normally, 10/10 if you count the giant cucco

Fittingly, it's LttP but more of it - including more annoyances. There's still the RNG-dependent ones, but there's also now a racing game that requires some fairly precise movements as well as a finicky baseball game. The rupee-gathering games are now more about having a stopwatch on hand, but phones can cover that. The cucco-dodging game is a real pain and bumped the rating up a full point, but note that I am never in my life attempting to survive for 1000 seconds (that's over sixteen and a half minutes!) to get the giant cucco in the end credits. Even completionists have to know where to draw the line.

[hydrxnessa]

Heeeyyyy Hydra! How ya feelin after floor 2 dropped?

hiii !!!! this is gonna be a long rant

okok after several playthroughs and gave up n just ended up watching kreekcraft beat it, i got a Lot of thoughts

floor 2 is DEFINITELY difficult but there's no surprise there. the only nitpick i have is the stark difference with the hotel - as in, in the hotel there are a lot of rooms to breathe, like take a quick breather between the chaos that can happen throughout the hotel.

in the mines, there's hardly room to breathe - screech constantly spawns which is def annoying and i feel they should balance it a bit more; there's waayyy less safe rooms (i.e. infirmary, curious' room etc.) and it sorta feels like the backdoor in terms of you need to leave every room like quickly.

i definitely love the update !! i like the new entities, though keep in mind i havent gone past door 50 so im not sure about the halfway point/ending. the new mechanics are nice, i just think there's room for balancing since yes the difficulty is insane.

i think the devs really outdid themselves and red talked about them revamping their whole system and engine(?) so future updates shouldn't take as long as this one

anyways few more spoilers down below, including the ending vv

guiding and curious getting new death screens, it really does feel more personal that these otherworldly beings are speaking to us personally rather than just floating text on a rainy texture. hiii guiding hiii curious :3 :3

hide getting a redesign + new mechanic was something i was not expecting - i thought that odd red entity that was leaked a while ago was a new entity but apparently not. the heartbeat minigame was a cool twist, definitely had to readjust to the new mechanic. getting ambush in the early doors was Not it as an introduction to it though, seeing as you can no longer jump in and out (despite guiding telling me to, unless im doing something wrong) and have to do a minigame that gets more and more difficult the longer you stay in. could be that you have to get out before hide spawns to get back in but idk.

i just didnt like the fact that hide spawns Instantly in later rooms, or that it also happens in the hotel. i'd rather keep the timed closet than the minigame in the hotel tbh, and just make it seem like an enraged version of hide in the mines.

i reaallyyy love eyes new mechanic - it teleporting around instead of just staying in one spot? love that. also the sound it makes is so satisfying.you're doing great sweeties

screech is like. Super annoying. like i get that its his whole thing but theres a slight difference between bearable annoying and frustrating annoying. i think screech spawns waaayy too often especially with a screech and eyes combo. definitely should lower the spawn rate if they want screech to constantly be a threat throughout the mines and not like it only spawns in dark rooms in the hotel.

i loovee what they've done with halt's new hallway. the hotel one especially, its fucking sick and probably one of my favourite rooms. the mines' one is alright, i dont like the meanders but i guess its a switch up to the linear one in the previous floor. i love u halt keep doing what ur doing

the new seek chase was absolutely amazing, i cant believe we can Jump now. new music is banger, lsplash drop the spotify release NEOOWW . only nitpick is the rng of having to crouch right before an intersection, so you cant see where guiding is trying to lead you before its too late. probably a skill issue on me, but so far i havent beat seek chase yet.

next ramblings are gonna be based on kreekcraft's playthrough since i never got past door 50.

new environment in a sewer-like area is pretty cool, nice switchup tbh

ok the grumble entity is Hella cool. bigger giggle, could be like the mother of a hivemind. whatever it is its pretty cool. again, haven't played through it so idk how to counter grumble other than Hide. can you maybe lure it away somewhere? idk. tbh its giving that final bendy boss in dark revival

the whole 'locate the transponder(?) and enter a code then come back' is cool but definitely drags on for WAYY too long even for its size. library probably takes a third of the time it takes to beat this one. though i do like how the main transponder points to where it is.

ok the ending is Absolutely insane. another seek chase sure, in the new environment. then once you go in 100 (or rather, 200), he fills up the Whole place. like jesus christ seek what is your problem. the parkour looks like it feels a bit janky but that's probably a roblox thing. seek can be worm. silly worm. would you still love me if i was a w

the ending ENDING. my god. literally my jaw was open the whole time. leaving through a pipe into the outside, seeing a motherfucking CASTLE???? a CASTLE. dude. WHAT. hotel>mines>castle is a crazy pipeline.

and grumble comes out of the path behind you but not until SEEK shows up and practically suffocates him. i actually think screeches are just giggles. i have a theory. i wnot go into it in this post. BUT I HAVE A THEORY. CALL ME MATPAT.

and once the door closes seek stares you DOWN. definitely gives the main antagonist vibes unlike figure. also what happened to figure is he just stuck in the mines. seek's following us ig.

oh i forgot about figure tbh. sometimes its sections are a bit janky but i think? i think its cus im always in the section where gloombats spawn beforehand, and figure does NOT like the gloombats. also alarm clocks in the hotel's library, its so funny seeing figure run to it, stomp on it and scream. you fucking toddler/aff

overall i feel like the main issue with this floor is difficulty and also how every room feels like it drags onn. like waayyy too long. but overall, cool update, will be playing a lot more later. i Need to beat this damn floor. literally less than 800 people have beaten it.

ANYWAYS. if u reached the bottom, thanks ??? thanks for listening to my dumb ramblings LMAO. doors art to come soon ... though remember i Am mainly an oc art blog so . don't expect a lot. but asks are always open <3

[rathologic]

I've been wanting to replay pathologic 2, do you have any recommendations for a challenge run or gameplay shift of some kind?

BOY DO I... My run of choice is still the Boat Trip Time Machine challenge, where you optimize for Fingernails to advance the clock as far as possible in the Diurnal ending. I had an interesting conversation in the pathologic modding discord after my attempt: it may be possible to play indefinitely by re-entering houses and killing NPCs for trade materials, as long as you can find a kid to trade with. Riding boats hurts the fingers after your first hour or so but it's fun :-)

Everyone Dies is a bit of an annoying challenge due to often having to reload to before midnight to rig everyone's death rolls, but I think it's a nice balance of active quest choices to RNG that can be added onto all kinds of other challenges.

I don't recall offhand who came up with the idea for vegetarian/vegan runs, but restricting the player's diet is a really fun layer of challenge; in the same vein, you can do a no-sleeping run (no dreams, obviously) by overstocking on coffee and tinctures. No trades is more masochistic, especially if you can take it upon yourself to not murder children for their loot.

also for replays in general I recommend FonzieD's District Randomizer mod, which shakes up infection patterns in a very cool (Impressive to me as a p2 modder) way. it does result in some quest interiors having duplicated furniture, but that's part of the fun!

[nintendowife]

It's game over for 2023. Time to talk about the best games I played during the year. I finished many enjoyable titles on various platforms, crossing genres and time to visit even decades old games. I finished a total of 38 games this past year. And because I apparently didn't have enough choice for devices to play all these games on, we got an Xbox Series X to our household on Christmas week.

Anyhow, here are the winners of my personal Game of the Year 2023 awards. *drumroll*

1st place: Vampire Survivors (PC)

My addictive substance of choice. Doesn't shine in the graphics department with modern tech. Doesn't try to impress with thought-provoking narrative. The incredibly simple yet satisfying gameplay however is engineered to perfection. A true masterclass of game design.

+ Infectiously fun, action-filled reverse bullet hell roguelike gameplay. Just one more run! + Bold artistic identity. + Humorous touch in character/enemy design and fun nods to other videogames. + Superb soundtrack. + Tons of quality content for an incredibly cheap price. Free updates and paid DLC with even more content. - The flashing effects can go a little overboard and cause discomfort. - Later stages of game can lag even decently powerful hardware.

See my posts about Vampire Survivors

2nd place: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Wii U Virtual Console, originally on Game Boy Advance)

A classic Castlevania that holds up nicely even 20 years from release and on a big screen. With a bit more memorable music and a small quality of life improvement, Aria of Sorrow would have earned the coveted 5/5 stars in my book.

+ Balanced and fun gameplay with a good sense of progression. + Top tier level design with a concise map. + Nice art style in environments, sprites and character portraits. Great animation and enemy design. + Fitting music and audio. + Good story. - Lacks item to warp to last save room or outside castle.

See my posts about Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

3rd place: Touhou Mystia's Izakaya (PC)

Chill vibes managing your restaurant, gathering ingredients and talking to characters by day turn into frantic cooking and serving action by night. This game got its recipe right.

+ Fun, rewarding gameplay loop mixing leisurely action and challenges testing your attention. + Enjoyable story with funny events. + Wonderfully cute pixel art. + Catchy music. + Lots of content for a low price. - Starts slow, even a bit boring in the beginning before you get special customers and unlock more recipes. - Final battle had annoying RNG. - English translation could use a little polish.

See my posts about Touhou Mystia's Izakaya

Honorable mention: Crimson Shroud (Nintendo 3DS)

This surprisingly challenging table-top RPG inspired game impressed me with its quality and satisfying gameplay. This is a hidden gem worth visiting.

+ Challenging gameplay with long and brutal battles make for a rewarding experience. + Good, well-written story with two endings. + Cool art direction with 3D models mimicking table-top RPG figurines, pretty illustrations. + Great music. + Game's length is just right to keep player invested. - Overall difficulty is higher than usual for JRPGs and Game Over wasn't a rare occurrence on my playthroughs. Slight frustration ensued due to having to retry the long battle from the beginning. - Confusing equipment UI (comparison of current vs new gear).

See my posts about Crimson Shroud

Honorable mention: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (Nintendo DS, played on 3DS)

Unique experience with tricky chain reaction puzzles and fantastic characters. Prominently fluid and amazing animations - I can't believe it's a Nintendo DS game! This is no trick - it's a treat.

+ Inventive gameplay and mechanics, perfect fit for touch screen. + Interesting story that definitely doesn't forget humor despite the grim subject. + Memorable characters (Cabanela and Missile were my favorites). + Awesome art style and marvelous animation quality. + Great music throughout the game. - I almost lost interest at some point and got impatient to finish the game. - I guessed one of the key plot twists but luckily that didn't put a dent on the ending.

See my posts about Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Honorable mention: Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360, played on Xbox Series X)

Entertaining cover shooter with varying missions. The game never had a boring moment and the length of the single player campaign was just right. I'm looking forward to playing Gears of War 3 next!

+ Fun gameplay that sets expectations for other shooters. + Interesting setting and story with some cool events. + Fun dialogue that made me chuckle many times. + Good music and great English voice acting. + The challenge on Normal difficulty was just right for me. - AI controlled companions got stuck occasionally, leaving you alone in dangerous enemy territory. - I didn't always understand the mission objectives in the hectic situations. - Cutscenes can't be skipped (thankfully this is not a Kojima game).

Honorable mention: Signalis (PC)

Atmospheric sci-fi survival horror paying homage to older games. Puzzles are different from usual and require attentive skill and logical thinking to solve. This game deserves a sequel.

+ Intriquing sci-fi story with an impactful ending (there are multiple endings too). + Great art direction, appealing PS1 era inspired retro graphics with skillfully crafted pixel art. I very much enjoyed the nod to Ghost in the Shell. + Unique, well-designed puzzles and good level design. + Great atmosphere. - A bit clunky combat. - Tiny inventory space forced me to backtrack more than I would have liked. - Annoying design choice to not include a map in a couple of areas.

See my posts about Signalis

Nominees for my personal Game of the Year 2023

Only games I have finished in 2023 have been included (looks like I played a lot of games starting with the letter T).

An Arcade Full of Cats (PC) Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (3DS) Assassin's Creed: Revelations (PS3) Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea DX (Switch) Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Wii U Virtual Console - GBA) Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (3DS) Crimson Shroud (3DS) Detective Pikachu Returns (Switch) Dordogne (PC) Fitness Boxing (Switch) Gears of War 2 (Xbox Series X - Xbox 360) Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (3DS) Immortality (PC) Kuru Kuru Kururin (Wii U Virtual Console - GBA) Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk (PC) Liberation Maiden (3DS) Need for Speed: Most Wanted U (Wii U) Piofiore: Fated Memories (Switch) Pokémon Art Academy (3DS) Pokémon Rumble World (3DS) Scorn (PC) Shadows Over Loathing (PC) Signalis (PC) Sticky Business (PC) Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch) Tekken 7 - Definitive Edition (PC) Toem (PC) Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction (PC) Touhou Mystia's Izakaya (PC) Toukiden 2 (PS Vita) Trinity Trigger (Switch) Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (PC) Umurangi Generation Special Edition (PC) Unpacking (PC) Vampire Survivors (PC) Volcano Princess (PC) We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie (PC) Ys: The Oath in Felghana (PC)

Wishing you all a fabulous New Year 2024 with happiness, health, success and cool gaming experiences!

[lionews]

TLDR: LD/RNG/LioGods hate me!

The following account is completely true and completely depressing (at least for me). I'm posting to vent, but also because I'm hoping someone will have some kind words for me because I'm very, VERY close to dropping this game. I'm probably too old to be sobbing about pixel lions anyway, but here we are.

Trigger warning: bad financial decisions ahead (don't come at me)

----

I'm the bitch who recently talked about playing for over seven years and doing tons of CRB projects and never breeding my own hybrid/lethal/dwarf, etc.

Here's how my week has gone:

On Wednesday, I finally sold my dwarf I bought back in 2019 and had frozen for a while. She was on her last heat. (ik, ik, dwarves are a bad investment, never breed them, yada yada, I just wanted something cool for once, okay?) Anyways, I needed the money, so I sold her because she had never given me a dwarf, even after the countless buffies and scrotes I had invested in her. A player bought her, bred her using only a scrote, and got not one, not two, but THREE dwarf cubs. Devastated.

On Friday, I decided to sell my remaining ten jaglion heats because I had been getting nothing but mutationless potatoes from my boosted NCLs. I wanted the money and had no expectations the game would actually give anyone a jaglion, especially because of the seven-year long curse on my account. Wouldn't you know it, the first heat I sold went to a player who sent me a CRB in-heat NCL that popped a rare-based jaglion. The FIRST with that base in the game. When the "fairly odd parents" achievement popped up on my screen for the first time in my life, I almost cried. Then, I sent the first hybrid ever born on my account to their new owner. That shit sucked. I contemplated not sending the cub and refunding the boost buyer, but I'm too nice for that, and I have too much sentiment invested in my account to get heat from the mods and possibly get banned. They sent back 'thx'. It was their fifth first-gen jag. Salt in the wound.

This put me into a downtrodden spiral, and I headed to explore and tried to play normally and forget about how awful my LD week had been. The first NCL I claimed immediately following the birth of the jag had a CRB. This freaked me out, and I thought, maybe this is a sign! So I closed the rest of my boost trades, bred the NCL, and used the rest of my boosts on some other in-heat CRBs I bought from the TC. I IBFed them, playing exactly as I did when the jag was born, to no avail. Every NCL had one cub, except for one who had two. Every cub was mutationless, even after being checked by the eye. Every cub was fodder.

So here I am, feeling sorry for myself, considering putting this game down and never picking it back up again. I'm convinced that somehow, the RNG is working against me. Somehow, it knows and circumvents my every move to get ahead, make some money, have some fun, and have nice lions.

It's been real, I guess.

.

[kozykricket]

so recently i tried calamity mod out, and... ive gotta say, i respect it for existing, but it definitely hones in on mostly the bosses and. well, i appreciate terraria for more than just the bosses. if you asked me when i first played terraria, i'd have said yeah the boss fights are the best part definitely, and i want more of that but... as ive grown, and as the game has grown -- and as i have thought more about what makes me like games, and as terraria has felt more complete than ever with 1.4 and such ...well, ill just say i know that what makes me love terraria is Everything that it is, and... i think calamity doesn't really go into expanding on everything. it feels like it kinda wants me to rush past a lot of vanilla things, but... taking my time earlygame is something i kinda appreciate. i know a lot of people shit on terraria for it being Grindy and RNG as hell for certain things, but am i crazy for believing that thats part of the charm? the exploration feels like... the same sense of doing a run in a roguelike. you arent always gonna find what you want, but its still... exciting! to find things! i know i have a few posts worth of "what i disagree with in terms of how calamity mod designs itself" but im just going to focus on how it ... tiktokifies terraria? in this post like, okay. from least egregious to most egregious, calamity:

Reduces the respawn time

Increases base mining speed

Increases base movement speed and capabilities

Gives a starter bag with tons of really nice early game goodies (why? thats just skipping like. 10 minutes of fun for no reason?)

Puts a giant structure above spawn with free planter boxes and all the herb seeds in a chest (also, you can just farm blood moons for making any potion. with blood orbs. oh no its post skeletron that certainly makes a huge difference) (I really don't get why people use alchemistnpc when calamity makes it insanely easy to get potions on its own)

Lets you craft a lot of accessories, from radars to blizzards in bottles.

Makes boss summons repeatably useable* (and notably, their FIRST boss has a bag within a bag, that gives you tons of fishing related items, without having to engage with the angler, so i guess forget the fishing gameplay loop. idc if you think its boring, because i do too. its still just completely moving the gameplay over to fighting a boss which is weird)

so overall i can tell calamity like, wants you to get moving to the later stuff. i get that; it has a LONG progression, and ... they rightfully want to get you moved towards the stuff that they've put the most effort into: the bosses. which i will admit are really fun and really cool, and *i actually do understand why they make boss summons re-usable in calamity, because of the increased difficulty of bosses.* plus theres still the fact you're gonna end up having to make new potions for every new attempt... at least, every retry when you're at the stage where you cant just sweep the floor with the boss. but uhm, that goes to my point on potions being pisseasy. its fine that theres free herb seeds, im fine with that really, because its not like they're that hard to get. you can get all the herb seeds in herb bags in the first 10 minutes. or just by exploring. it just really feels like ... it ADDS to the list of small but subtle little things where calamity hands me things that id normally go adventuring for. like what even is there left for me to adventure for wtf... i was thinking oh i'd really like a blizzard in a bottle and ice boomerang, but instead of needing to explore and spelunk for chests (which is EASY anyways in calamity with the increased mining speed and free spelunker potions) they just ... let me craft both of those?? using just some BLOCKS from the snow biome?? why. do you want me to engage with *anything* that isnt killing stuff, game?? and yknow the increased mining speed is cool, hell even FTW in vanilla does that, but it feels like even less reason to use mining potions and ... less incentive to go on a fun journey for the ancient chisel through the unique challenge of the underground desert. again, yes, its something that can be quite fast in vanilla. you can get hermes boots really easily if you're lucky, and so i understand..?? why people would want to just be able to craft hermes boots; to be able to have a consistent way to get them, instead of going on that gold-chest-gamble. but like... i like that part of the game! i like the early game finding of stuff. and hell sometimes later in the game ill decide hm i wanna go get this early game thing i never got because its for a crafting tree for this big accessory im making. but in calamity its just "ah dw you have all the materials for it now anyways" heck even FISHING is like. yknow, as i said, easier in calamity due to the desert scourge dropping potions for it and such, and its an alternative way to get stuff like a cloud in a bottle or an aglet, or even something like feral claws. so its something easier by calamity, but its also meaningless because you can craft so many things you'd normally either adventure or fish for so all in all, i understand that some people just wanna play terraria for the boss fights, and they dont really care too much for the interludes of roguelike-vibes-exploration between the bosses where you go on RNG hunts and take some time preparing via fishing, but. well i appreciate them darnit oh also its really funny calamity just, makes the magic mirror faster. like. is that even necessary. the base movement speed increase i think is weird when food buffs and stuff like magiluminesence exists. or yknow, boots. especially considering you can just craft the boots. if they want to make sure the player just inherently has more to work off of, then. i dunno, buff the swiftness potion? make a new potion? or make a new accessory? and ive heard they nerf a lot of vanilla things despite the fact that they dont even compete that hard with the calamity stuff. so... yeah, calamity makes some weird decisions. but also, i don't hate the mod for existing; in fact, im glad it exists. its an entirely different experience and yknow what? its valid for it to exist, and it... helps keep the people who want a game like calamity ... content, yknow? keeps them happy.

[prettyboykatsuki]

not that anyone cares how i did it but for those of u who might be trying to clear swarm 4 i basically clutched completely on the remembrance path and changed some of my builds around to be break effect + effect hit rate

my team for the first two domains was: gepard, pela, tingyun, and yanqing. for the last domain i brought it in luocha and he was CRUCIAL in keeping my team alive. if you're smarter than me - u might not need him but i ended up on planar disruption two so the swarm was fucking me up in one hit and tingyun is too squishy

i also dont think you need yanqing, but i personally would not bring jingliu if i had her bc i think her hp stealing will make it really risky. i think herta probably does the same job if not better than yanqing does.

i do not have the propagation path unlocked btw so i cant tell u how it effects the game play

by the time i reached the third domain so the final boss, i switched tingyun for luocha just to be careful. and i used my remaining skill technique points to get gepards temp shield up

for my paths, i basically had no curios with the exception of stuff that gave me blessings. i had 14 blessings overall needed to get all three path bonuses - but the MOST crucial blessings are the ones that have to do with disassociation dmg.

YOU NEEEEED. you need to get as many as you can towards disassociation damage, particular in application and increasing dmg. i can go find the names of them - but you'll want the ones that apply disassociation damage after attack frozen enemies, the ones that regen energy, and the ones that decrease res / guarantee freeze. this makes the run kind of rng based but when is it not !!

ALSO IF YOU ARE GOING TO PLAY REMEMBRANCE - DO NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!! FIGHT COCOLIA AS YOUR SECOND BOSS!!!!!! SHE DOESN'T HAVE ICE RES SHE IS COMPLETELY IMMUNE AND SHE WILL FUCK YOUR ENTIRE RUN. <- learned from painful experience

i did not get preservation interplay on this run - i went full remembrance and just brought my own sustains which did the job just fine. i think if you prefer to be safe, getting the interplay will be nice.

also i think u could probably sub luocha for fu xuan or even lynx if ur smarter than me.

i can post my builds but tbh aside from pela they're not even that good. GOOD LUCK TO ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN ATTEMPTING. tho im sure peple who have been playing More consistently than Me are doing fine.... but its taken me so long to clear LMAOO

[boygirldykefag]

I was a Wolf main before Humans completely changed the meta in nearly every server. My character got tamed and eventually I switched my main to Dog. Adjusting from a Hunter class to a Support class was difficult, but once I got the hang of it, I realized playing Dog was far easier than playing Wolf. I didn't have to use much energy, my party members would bring me free XP, and they often saved me from things that would have given me a game over as a Wolf. After thousands of years of playing Dog, though, it got boring; there's not a whole lot of variety in Dog gameplay.

I decided to play Human, since, after Dog, it was the class I was most familiar with. And Human is way more complicated than I thought it would be. Human runs last a very long time, and they're extremely complicated. Every animal has a lot of RNG to its spawn, but Humans seem to have 10x more. I was lucky to spawn with really good party members in a decent server, but I know some that didn't, and got a lot of debuffs from unlucky events in their tutorials. I got a few, but I got a lot more buffs, because my early party members are kind, smart, and have the "financially stable" attribute. They even helped me with the Transition Sidequest once I discovered I had the Transgender perk. I'm really glad I did that sidequest; now the perk gives me a big passive morale boost, which makes nearly everything in the game easier. I recently finished the tutorial and now I'm playing the Extended Tutorial DLC. My tutorial party members have been nice enough to help me pay for it, because this DLC is very expensive. I may do the Extended Tutorial 2 DLC, but I'm still thinking about it. The main purpose of Extended Tutorial is to level up my Writing skill, though I also really like the sidequests and finding other players for morale-boosting activities, and the communal living makes this really easy. Eventually I hope to make enough progress on the Write A Book sidequest to gain the Published Author prestige. This prestige gives you Fame and Money, though there's a massive amount of RNG to this. What's good about this sidequest is you can do it any number of times, although it takes a significant time investment, and even more time if you want to increase your chances to get a lot of Fame and Money.

Human plays like no other class. As a Human, you can forego the main quest with basically zero downsides. There are hundreds of options for specialization as a Human, and many of these specializations are so specific that they essentially are their own classes. These "classes" have their own quests that can replace the main quest, too. For example, my specialization is a Creative specialization, so my main quest is to collect a certain amount of Fame points. This is also true for Performer and Athlete specializations. Most Humans still do the main quest, though, exceptions being Humans with the Homosexual or Asexual perks.

Resources are also entirely different for Humans. As a Human, you have to worry about the additional resource Money, which is massively RNG dependent. Some players start out with a lot of Money, but many more start out with very little Money. Money can be earned mostly through a Job, and each Job has its own specific requirements and they usually have different rewards. The Job you pick is very impactful to your run; many Jobs give you a debuff, most commonly to your morale, but some can permanently cripple your character or even give you a game over. I'm pursing Professional Author, since it mostly consists of the Writing task, which usually gives my character a morale boost, but there's RNG to that, too. I'm hoping the Write A Book and Published Author prestige give me enough Money. Money is required for every base resource as a Human, which is both good and bad. If you have money, acquiring resources and gaining XP is incredibly easy, but if you lack money, you lose access to critical resources look Food and Shelter, which can give you huge debuffs or even a game over in some cases. So far, I'm happy with my Human playthrough. The tutorial went really well and I have a good opportunity to spec into a subclass that's really fun for me. I hope everything continues to go well and I complete my subclass's main quest.

[thormanick]

Ok, funny story time

So I got Alhaitham, right? And he has things in his talents that scale with EM

Long story short: artifacts. I gave him attack where most people give EM (sands), and while the result is good, I still want to see how he will operate if I give him EM. Problem: I don’t have EM from the necessary set, and I need it to be from the necessary set bc my off-piece is Goblet (Dendro), and I have one (1) Dendro Goblet from the necessary set, but the substats are So Sad they will make you cry.

So. I need the necessary-set-EM-Sands. Good.

So I go to the domain. I go to the domain for about three weeks and I don’t get EM. I need either EM sands or less sad Dendro Goblet - none come. I’m ok with it bc, once again, I’m just doing it for the sake of ‘what if’.

But today

Today when I was doing the domain I went ‘well it would have been nice of you to finally give me an EM Sands, it’s been a while bestie, even if the substats are sad’, and the Universe said ‘bet’

Lo and behold,

This is the saddest sands I’ve ever seen. I laughed so hard I started crying. This is even sadder that the substats for the aforementioned Dendro Goblet

But you know what’s even funnier?

The next run gives me this:

And it is such a marvellous piece. But I just need EM one- (bc Alhaitham already has a good attack from this exact set on him). Ah, the comedy of the artifact rng~

[batfossil-fr]

double hatching quest

Because I just think it’s fun and I don’t update tumblr as much as I used to about my double hatches, I just thought I’d let you know that I’m still on my "hatch a double of every color” quest, and I just hatched my 200th double yesterday!

I’m at 129/177 colors hatched now and I seem to be getting a really nice streak of no duplicates lately. I have a feeling that will change very soon and I may eat my words very badly. I feel like me and RNG have gotten to know each other very well and it has taken that relationship and used it to pull a 80′s-era-movie-bully “knock the books out of my hands as I’m walking to class” move. And then sometimes it’ll help pick them up for me, which is nice. And then it’ll knock it out of my hands again. It’s been a lot of fun and I am having a blast with this journey, as it turns out. Kind of a pain on my FR wallet (as in it is taking my wallet and flushing it down a toilet) but I’m kind of shifting my focus on FR to finish this quest, anyways, since it’s definitely the goal I want to complete the most. At least until I start feeling a little better and can do more art again.

I made a more official thread for it here, if you feel like watching! 

Let me tell you. It has been a long journey, with many many interesting dragons, and many not so interesting dragons, but most of all, it’s gotten me six strawberry doubles somehow, and I don’t know why they keep showing up.

[greendragonette]

Ark Survival Evolved: No Engrams Challenge, day 22

Found three chalico saddles in quick succession. Thanks for nothing, Ark. Got a ton of biotoxin from multiple ramming face-first into jellyfish in the dark. Good armor and going away from the ride saved my hide even the time when sharks joined.

Bred sarcos. Got freezing effect whenever I tried going to cold part of north, so figured may as well go home the long way and try for more low tier engrams I haven't found so far. Of course it didn't happen.

Pulmonos bred when I wasn't there, baby girl still alive, another F0, this one with her daddy's pretty colors. Hatched sarco egg, got a male with all stats sans speed of his mom. Nice!

Tamed a seagull for fun and maybe later otter tame. Wasted way too many tranqs missing it.

Put a bronto female to sleep with a scorpion, of course it fainted halfway up the cliff. Tamed it and a pair of bothersome raptors that didn't want to leave me alone. Brought them home.

Killed first two theris I found instead of knocking them out, forgot how much these bozos need tranq drips and the third one woke up. Spent the night reorganising the base, now brontos carry my supplies, structures and gear; diplos out of job. Have no idea how can I get a 1.5 high room, since ceilings don't attach to upper ramp end.

Found a min level male tickle chicken, knocked it out and tamed it. Killed a slightly higher level male, went almost to snow before I found a female, also a min level. Ran out of tranqs three-quarters of a torpor in since tried to get an in-rock tapejara and it didn't pan out, so used my trusty almost-F0 female pulmono. Used biotoxin this time to keep it under, and it was less of a pain to manage. Waited a whole day for it to tame. Bronto eggs would've been useful, but my females don't wanna lay so far. Maybe if I get them a mate?

On way home knocked out and left to tame a mid-level carno.

Bred theris and sarcos, and got females. Both have mutation in food, but I'll let that slide.

All the excess dinos will serve as an xp boost for the heir of croc line, in the best Ark tradition of morally questionable levelling practices. Except one, which will make a sacrifice to Ark gods of RNG. I really could use ankylo and argy saddles; saw a real high level unicorn when returning with crocs, and getting metal by hand is hardly fun.

[jmeldog]

I don’t think I really have any deep insights to add to the discussion, but I’ve been seeing a lot of discussions about intrusive thoughts around me. And as someone who’s suffered from them quite literally as long as I can remember, I guess I want to ramble for a bit.

It’s guess it’s hard for people who don’t have intrusive thoughts to imagine what it’s like having them. I’ve never really felt compelled to talk about them—especially specifics—to anyone due to shame, but I think it should be safer and less judgmental for those who want to. I’m so highly supportive of anyone who wants to and does. I’m also technically undiagnosed for anything related to intrusive thoughts, but um. Yeah I’m very aware I have them. It’s impossible to not to be aware.

As a little Catholic raised school child, I used to genuinely believe I was possessed by a demon because of how many disgusting spiraling intrusive thoughts I’d get. I thought it was inhuman to have that extent of horrible thoughts. Later as a middle schooler and for a very long time afterwards, I’d accepted myself as a “horrible, unforgivable person who thinks these kind of things” just to be able to live with myself.

I’ve gone on the journey out of this by myself, which was awful and tedious and would not recommend. I think people should definitely be aware that intrusive thoughts are a thing and how to recognize them. Honestly, I’ve seen therapists before for other things, but I’d never brought up intrusive thoughts because I hadn’t recognize them as intrusive thoughts.

The sucky thing is that even though I am better, it doesn’t stop thoughts from coming, y’know? Intrusive thoughts are disgusting immoral unwanted RNG thoughts your brain just spits out at you and then gets all worked up over. They’re just an inherent part of how my brain functions.

For myself nowadays, I deal with them by going “oh. Thanks brain, I hate that.” and then move on. It’s taken a WHILE to get to this point, and even then it doesn’t always work perfectly. But I’ve gone from thinking I have a demon, to realizing there’s just a stupid edgy 12 year old boy living in the corner of my brain who likes messing with me.

TL:DR, I guess. It’s important to be aware intrusive thoughts are a thing, and normal thing that people can’t help. Be nice to people who suffer from intrusive thoughts. And people who talk about theirs to help other people recognize their own thoughts as intrusive are our strongest soldiers.