#but i think we can move on without being shitty about devs yeah?

[thefirstknife]

Hi Bel,

I keep seeing comments about people complaining about the quality of destiny’s writing and story in the last few weeks. I haven’t really engaged with destiny since season of defiance, what’s currently gotten everyone so riled up? I thought that people were enjoying Season of the Deep/Witch in terms of narrative, why is Season of the Wish causing people to deride the destiny writing staff again?

I don't know!

Deep and Witch have been absolute bangers in every aspect to me. I've been enjoying all interactions and lore tabs we've received. A lot of them are stuff that we've never had before, a lot of reunions and closures, a lot of development and interactions between characters who you wouldn't really think would have much in common.

Sloane's return and healing from what she's been through has been fantastic, Drifter opening up with her to help her because he also got help from others was fantastic, Sloane reuniting with Aisha and Shayura brought me to tears (Shayura's descent into madness was triggered by immense trauma of Sloane staying on Titan and Titan disappearing), everything with Sloane and Zavala...

Witch was just incredible in every single way; the focus on Eris, the amount of Eris and Ikora content!!!!! Everything about Xivu and Savathun and their interactions together!! Eris finally fulfilling her goal she promised Savathun YEARS ago, getting that closure.

Wish so far has been equally great to me. All the new stuff about Ahamkara is amazing, finally giving us proof for long-standing speculation about Ahamkara and how they aren't universally evil creatures and expanding on them as a species. I love all interactions we've had so far; finally we have Petra back, Mara's singleminded focus on figuring out how to defeat the Witness and her continuous work to improve as a person, ALL SJUR MENTIONS!!!!! I won't talk about the "leak" because we have no context for it so I will wait for the full story to be revealed before I can pass judgment; something that I think should be a lesson to learn from this entire year. Maybe wait for the story to finish before judging the story.

Literally everything this past year that involves Osiris, but especially this season now that he's back in his element with the Vex. And of course every little detail we get of him and Saint. Osiris honestly shaped this year for me with everything that he's done to uncover the biggest mysteries. I think a big reason is that a lot of people just don't like Osiris, which I consider a massive skill issue.

Other than that, I don't know what are the issues people have besides just not being interested in any of these storylines and attributing it to a nebulous "bad writing" claim. I also genuinely believe that way too many people get wrapped up too much in fandom, imagine storylines they want to see and then get disappointed when the actual story doesn't go there. Almost like people forget that this isn't their story and these aren't their characters. A lot of it is also fandom completely warping characters into not what they actually are and then feeling like the canon story is the one that's wrong.

Whatever is the reason, I guess everyone is entitled to their perspective of the story and everyone is free to explore the story in different ways through fanfics and AUs and whatever. I do that too!

But I would definitely ask people to be normal with how they engage in criticism, especially in the current state of affairs. Writers are developers; they experience a ton of harassment and negativity from the community and also from inside the company. And they are online: they can see what we're saying. It's been documented that community commentary has been used to harass writers:

Imprint this into your brain and never forget what these people had to go through. Let's not forget also the way people treated Seth Dickinson on social media when he was active with Destiny fans. "Fans" were actively arguing with him about his own work (telling him that HE is wrong) and were utterly disgusting towards him when he tried explaining what he wrote. His works are now hailed as the best writing in Destiny and people want him back. If I were him, I wouldn't want to come back ngl, not with how he was treated and not with how fans are still treating writers (and hey, Seth wrote LF Collector's Edition! So he was back, technically, this year!). Let's not forget that a lot of writers are members of various marginalised groups. And I'd definitely not want to go back with zero support from leadership.

Which is also an important aspect for all developers, including writers: sometimes they have orders they may not like, but can't argue against. They do the best they can with what they're given, the time they have and directions they receive. And with that in mind, I am enjoying everything we've gotten this year, obviously with some specific complaints about things I didn't particularly enjoy (like the universally mid reception of Defiance; I've spoken about my gripes with it before, a big one being the shafting of Suraya who should've at least been mentioned in a lore tab).

I can tell that there is passion in their work, even if maybe they would prefer to do more with it, but can't. Maybe even if they want to take different routes, but can't. But from what we got, I can feel that they care about this world and these characters. I can tell that someone lovingly wrote about Sloane and her friendships with two grieving women. I can tell that they deeply cared about Sloane's friendship with Zavala and that they loved showing us Saint and Drifter caring about a fellow trauma survivor.

I can tell that the writers are immensely careful and loving towards Eris; everything she went through was crafted with love and passion from both writers and her VA. Eris' story is such a fundamental aspect of Destiny and I can tell that this was important to the writing team and that they gave her everything they could to do justice to her character and her arc and her healing and her release from the cycle she was trapped in for so long.

I can tell that there are writers who care a lot about Osiris and Saint and their relationship. I can tell that someone cared a lot about expanding on Ahamkara and giving them more personalities. I can tell that someone cared DEEPLY about Sjur and Mara and that her repeated mentions are the passionate work of writers who want us to remember her.

I could go on. And I know that not everyone sees it this way, which is fine; we all have different ways of perceiving stories. I enjoy discussing things we in the fandom disagree on and I enjoy hearing different perspectives! Unfortunately, this has recently become rarer and rarer. And for the love of god, please try and treat writers with some respect, especially now, especially those who are still working and doing their best with the shitty situation they're in. None of the cries of "poor devs" ring true to me unless the same is given to writers, instead of treating them like punching bags.

[weaselle]

Sims 4 Build

OK. So. I started a new play through a while back and I wanted my sims to go out to eat and if you aren’t familiar with the Sims there are only bar/lounges and of course that ridiculous place in the faux Hollywood world. So I went to the Gallery and downloaded a couple of restaurants and...

Because I have worked for 25 years in the F&B service industry, I immediately became salty about a number of things.

And that’s why I built this restaurant, full of all the things people leave out of their restaurant builds.

See, it’s not a house. Stop building house shaped restaurants. And, nobody includes parking lots, but since I did, I made sure the handicap spots are the two closest to an entrance and have a loading zone adjacent.

I’m detail oriented in my sims builds.

If you’ve worked in restaurants, you’ll identify with all the commonalities I’ve found missing in most gallery builds that I’ve applied to this restaurant, even if you don’t play Sims.

If you haven’t worked in restaurants but you do build them in Sims 4, you could view this as a tutorial

FOH - The Floor

First of all, idk what people are looking at when they go out to eat, but evidently it isn’t the seating arrangements -- I kept finding restaurant after restaurant that seemed to have no ideal how to set up a dining area with tables. Like, the tables would be so crammed together the sims couldn’t actually walk between them, or they’d have a white cloth establishment with almost all 6 and/or 8 tops (a six-top is a table with six chairs) and almost no 2 or 4 tops; sometimes there would be like, mostly 10 or 12 tops!

Or they’d put chairs on every side of every table even though this makes everything cramped, or they’d jigsaw a bunch of different table sizes into a giant crowded square filling most of the restaurant. But mostly I saw people... doing all of these things at once they were all just doing all of this all the time omg. 

(Though I did see a couple builds where they had a huuge restaurant and then like, five small tables) Nobody seemed to know how many people a space should comfortably seat, or how many tables/seats a restaurant might need, or how to set them up

look

some things to notice: 

This seats 46. That’s good. When we move into the bar the bar tables and seating at the bar are going to bring it up to 63. Depending on your restaurant you’ll usually have between 40 and 80 seats, so I’m hitting my target perfectly. 

more than half the tables are 2 tops, but more than half the chairs are at larger tables; this isn’t like, a rule, but does mean there is probably close to the right mix of table sizes, especially for a white table cloth kinda place. There are only two “large” tables, which is about right.

The layout is easy to comprehend and section out. This floor easily lends itself to a two-server or four-server shift, and three servers isn’t hard to figure out. Like, I know exactly which tables each server would have as a four-server shift transitioned down to the closer over the evening.

It’s nearly symmetrical but not quite 100% which is what you usually see in a restaurant.

The lights are not placed randomly. You might think this doesn’t need to be pointed out. You’d be surprised.

There is plenty of room to move between the tables and have guests feel like they have their own area, with like, lanes to walk down, but there is no wasted space. It’s very full, but not at all crowded.

There’s a defined entrance, with a waiting area. The game tells you that you have to include this host station

which, yeah, some places just have a simple podium, but I built it out to help define the entrance, which has a menu stand and some seating for a wait list and the host stand has clutter like extra table tent menus and a condiment caddy. 

Similarly, the game says you need this server station

but I turned it into this

Now THAT’s a server station, with a drinks fridge, extra menus, plates, condiment shelves, and a coffee pot, which is orange for decaf because theres a regular coffee station that includes an espresso machine behind the bar. See?

Lastly, you can’t really tell from the pics so far, but the dining room and bar seating is only about half of the total space in the building, which is about right.

Here’s the bar tops

and the bar, which has a pass window right to the kitchen line, under the TV (don’t worry, there’s a proper pass for the servers and an expeditor through that door to the right) 

But once I addressed these issues with the Front of House, I realized: there is so much more missing from most restaurants on the gallery.

Like the back office.

BOH - Office

I didn’t find a single restaurant on the gallery that included one, but just about every restaurant has a shitty little back office crammed into what should be, like, a small closet. They all tend to look a little something like this

I had to hunt through debug for most of this clutter - it’s hard to tell in this pic, but that’s a couple stacks of money just sitting out on the desk to the right of the computer. That’s, shall we say, not super unusual to see in one of these crappy little paperwork prisons. And of course the mess of files and mail and shit.

You know what else every restaurant has but I never saw in any on the gallery?

Dish Pit

The game is not set up to allow you to make a proper dish pit. Like, there isn’t an industrial dishwasher or anything. Bu tI made one anyway. From the floor sinks, to the dish racks, to the horrible, heavy-ass red rubber mat that’s such a pain to clean at the end of the shift, I think you’ll recognize this room right away

I really had to fiddle to get this one -- those dish racks? they’re actually overlapped home counter racks that look like this

they were super hard to line up right. The “floor sinks” are actually a drain that’s supposed to go on the bottom of a pool, the dishwasher is actually three floor models raised to the right hight and overlapped facing different directions, and I added the little drain panels on either side by shrinking and raising floor vents to the height of the counters, which are actually overlapping tables. The floor I lucked out on, the Sims 4 has a tile floor pattern that comes in both grungy and clean, so I placed the clean ones on the outside edge of the dish pit floor in half-tiles along an irregular pattern with the edges matched to the lines of grout and added a couple of my own floor smudges so there wouldn’t be a straight line of dirty versus clean tile. Then I put some water stains over the whole thing to mask it better, overlapping some of the water stains to create the illusion of a flow of water going down the floor drain. 

Speaking of the dish pit, most restaurants have this cousin to the dish pit, that I don’t know what to call except maybe a 

Mop Closet

The Sims doesn’t have one of the yellow industrial mop buckets with the squeezy thing attachment, but I did pretty good here. Wish I could have erased the shower head, but I for sure needed the wall spigot handles and the hose. Managed to size up a bucket with water to the right dimensions and trick the game into letting me stick in a mop that’s supposed to hang on a wall. Added some cleaning supplies and stuff to the shelves.

Speaking of shelves, nobody ever includes dry storage when they do a Sims 4 restaurant. You know, with the empty beer kegs and those metal rack shelves full of, like, rows of little bottles and the restock items like six packs of soda and sacks of dry ingredients and way up on the top is the shit that never ever gets used but somehow you have to get up there every other week anyway?

See that door, the one with a light over it and a light next to it and a little temperature gauge? Yeah, you know what else I never see in gallery restaurants builds? 

Walk In

this was a pain, not only did I have to meticulously place every bottle on top of that fridge unit, but those kegs are actually tiny soda cans with no labels that I had to pull out of the vast un-tagged and un organized debug menu. I don’t even think they got placed by the devs anywhere in game, I think they are some kind of frame that gets a label/skin before it gets placed, usually. And see that fan up top in the middle of the wall? That’s actually two separate pieces of nonsense -- like, the center part isn’t a fan at all, its a stone wall decoration. But the design looks like a fan, so I shrank it and shoved it most of the way back into the wall til it was nearly flat and found that other thing that had a circle the right size in the middle. and viola. Oh, and it and those other vents next to it don’t just go to nothing, oh no, they match up perfectly on the outside to these

Okay, now, everybody building restaurants in the Sims DOES include a

Kitchen

And they often do a fine job, so I’m not going to spend much time here, but they do tend to skimp on prep space

(hey, see those shelves on the top right? Those are shelves full of dishes. I never see shelves full of dishes in gallery restaurant builds, but like, you need a bunch of shelves full of dishes. And off in the corner to the far left of the top wall? Prep sink tucked away back there.) 

Dude, let me just say... that prep counter?I placed every vegetable on that counter individually, AND I had to trick the game into letting me put more than the like, three items each counter space usually has slots for. What a pain. Worth it tho. It’s hard to tell, but there’s a knife next to the cutting board.

And lastly, no restaurant would be complete without 

“out back”

okay this post is long enough, but I just want to point out the stack of empty pallets, the discolored liquid and debris under the dumpsters along with a rat trap, and a little smoke break area with shitty chairs and a garbage table with some kind of bowl or something being used as an ashtray.

There’s more to this restaurant, employee lockers, bathrooms, etc, but this post is long enough, and I covered the most important stuff. 

In conclusion, I’m getting pretty good at sims builds, and other builders should ask me for tips on restaurant builds or read this post, because I swear none of them have ever worked in food service

[nullset2]

Mother 3 - An In-depth Critique and Review

Ah, Mother 3, how I love you so!

The game which with which I forwent all possible aspirations to healthily integate into normal High School society: imagine walking into a party, people are drinking and being cool, and you ask them if they have ever played a very underground, very deep RPG only released in Japan called "Mother".

Yeah! I know! It's like you're asking to be bullied, and I realized it too late.

But anyway!

Mother 3 is one of the most important games you could ever play --alas, if only it wasn't near impossible to obtain it.

Yet, perhaps this adds to its allure and to the power of its narrative --a narrative which, by the way, I'm convinced is the very actual reason why it will never release formally in the United States.

As time has passed, I've actually become more and more impressed about how relevant the game is to the socioeconomic reality that we are in nowadays. I'm impressed that Shigesato Itoi had all of this in his mind's eye as early as 1996, and that the story was already written down in 1999!

Right now it's been 14 years since it's release on the GBA, but I think that the game is a timeless classic and warrants a playthrough now more than ever. Wanna know why?

Wanna find out?

Part 1. "A Japanese Copywriter's Americana"

The year is 1989 and a Japanese Copywriter --somebody who writes "Catch Copies", which are a sort of a long-form slogan that is very common in Japanese pop culture to advertise)-- by the name of Shigesato Itoi became a fan of the Dragon Quest series of RPGs, which are massively popular in Japan, even to this day. He also loved video games: he's asthmatic, so he recalls only being able to sleep sitting up as a child, and having to occupy his lonely time through asthma attacks playing video games, since he had to sit up and had nothing else to do at night.

His love of RPGs would linger in his mind until 1989 when he had an opportunity to meet with Hiroshi Yamauchi and Shigeru Miyamoto and was offered the opportunity to develop a video game with Nintendo. Harkening back to the endless hours he poured into Dragon Quest, his concept eventually took form by deriving from it. He called the story "MOTHER", as a reference to John Lennon's "Mother", since he is a very hardcore fan of The Beatles. The games have tons of obvious influence by old American films and comics, like ET and Peanuts, which he also loved very much.

For MOTHER, he wanted to explicitly go against the grain, by designing an RPG without "Swords and Magic", which stereotypically most RPGs follow, even from things as minor as to design a protagonist who was weak and vulnerable, asthmatic and without a Father Figure, yet, still heroic through much toil --which reflects Ninten from the original MOTHER for the famicom.

Miyamoto, in his usual taskmaster persona, arranged a team to work with Itoi for the creation of the RPG, by bringing in people from HAL laboratory and APE Inc, and thus MOTHER was born to great Japanese Acclaim. A game which took many risks in its genre, such as eschewing the idea of a separate overworld from navigation in the towns, the subject matter, the movement system and many other things which made it quite Unique. It was so popular that soon after the first project was released, MOTHER 2 started development, involving people from what's currently known as Game Freak and HAL Labs.

MOTHER 2 is a very unique game because it was the very first time that the series attempted to make an incursion in the Americas. Releasing in a big flamboyant flashy box, with a strategy guide and a bunch of goodies included, MOTHER 2 released as Earthbound in the states, a bigger and better version of the vision of the first game. Better graphics, Beatles references, sampled audio, pop culture cornucopia, it's all here and then some!

Famous for its role in technically driving the game, Satoru Iwata, ex-CEO and software developer for Nintendo,7 of Wii acclaim, helped the game meet its 1996 release date. It is known that the original version of the game ran into deep technical issues which the original dev team was not able to overcome. Once Satoru Iwata got involved, the game was reworked to a viable version and released to much critical acclaim. In his own words, he proposed to rewrite the tech that powered the main game. It was a matter of either continuing with the current code and be done in two years, or redoing everything and being done in six months under his vision, he said.

No matter its strong promotion from Nintendo, the marketing got botched, and the game paled compared to the flashy and bombastic magical RPGs of its era, like Final Fantasy VI, Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger of all things. So, Earthbound faced a very bad destiny in the states, by releasing to low acclaim, bad review scores and terrible sales numbers --even though it eventually reached Cult Classic status, due to its pure hearted nature, its hallucinogenic themes and characters, and its fantastic spirit over all.

And this game is worthy of discussion by itself a whole bunch because of the ripple effects it had in video game culture in the Western world. Enter starmen dot net. To this date, the epicenter of discussion for everything related to the MOTHER series. There you had me as early as 2002, browsing a half-rendered version of starmen dot net in a dingy computer in some dingy internet cafe in some shitty neighborhood in Mexico, trying to be a part of the discussion and the hype.

To this date, I consider starmen dot net as the non-plus-ultra case for how passionate Internet fan cultures can become.

Flat out, no other fandom has ever came close to the level of dedication, attention to detail and passion to tribute the original creation around which its fans congregate. A massive amount of fan paraphernalia has come out of starmen dot net --yes, even Undertale, 2015 indie darling RPG thing, originally got started on the Starmen dot net forums. People married and even started large, commercially viable enterprises, such as Fangamer.net, the firm which publishes Undertale, from starmen dot net.

...and then... silence...

After Earthbound's 1995 release, we enter a ten year hiatus for the series.

Even though both MOTHER games were incredibly popular in Japan, HAL Laboratory and APE Inc. weren't able to successfully make a jump onto the third dimension for the series come the Nintendo 64 era. They had a demo come the infamous Spaceworld 96, where a bunch of pre-release games for the then called "Ultra 64", which was the codename for the Nintendo 64, were showcased. And lo and behold, we have a sequel to Mother coming out, called Mother 3, the ROM for which has never been found by the way.

I'd love to get a look at the materials in that ROM.

The scarce footage we have available from it exhibits some of the elements we ended up seeing in the final released version of the game, like some of the original music like the Mozart ghost theme, and the DCMC section, albeit in a more primitive low poly way. It is known that both studios weren't very proficient at 3d Game development yet, which was still nascent. This together with other factors, such as the fact that at some point development was moved onto the unreleased-in-America, unpopular 64DD addon, undisclosed factors dropped the game into development hell, which ultimately led to its cancellation in the year 2000.

Plenty of mystery surrounded the now defunct project, to the dismay of a bunch of passionate fans in Starmen.net and elsewhere online. However, it turned out that the valiant effort of the fans, who made a huge amount of effort to campaign for the revival of the series, even mailing fanmail, fanart and other materials to the Itoi Shinbun offices in Japan (a titanical task in the world of the early 2000s).

Fast forward to 2003, and the Game Boy Advance, the little portable console that could, was in its Apex. Due to Satoru Iwata's campaining, it was announced that development on MOTHER 3 would be restarted, this time in 2D, for the gameboy advance. Much anticipation in Starmen.net followed this announcement, since it finally validated its efforts...

Come 2006, once the console was well into its end-of-life, with small nudges to play the game on a Gameboy player if possible, perhaps to try to follow suit with its predecessors, the sequel finally released to much acclaim. But what did Shigesato Itoi have in store for everyone all along? What kind of beast had just been unleashed onto the World?

Part 2. "Of Monkeys and Men"

Mother 3 follows the story of a young boy, Lucas, in a multi-chapter structure, which is novel for the series but not unheard of in the RPG genre. Besides this, the RPG plays very similar to your usual JRPG fare, and basically uses the Ultimately polished version of the MOTHER series' mechanics, groovy backgrounds and all.

The first three chapters of the game follow the perspective of different characters residing in Tazmilly Village as the plot of the game unfolds. The plot is centered around the residents of a peaceful town in an Island in an unspecified location, Nowhere Islands, which in my opinion is an allegory both of Japan and America, moreover with the fact that the game of the logo very clearly has a rising sun covered in metal, in a logo that's an amalgam of two different things which don't match, a subtle reference to the game's undertones to come.

From these residents we come to know the daily lives of a particular family: Flint, a farmer; Hinawa, his wife (a name in reference to Sunflowers, Himawari, her favorite flower), and their twin children, Lucas and Claus.

The game begins in the midst of their idyllic life in the mountains visiting Lucas' grandfather Alec, and playing around with meek dinosaurs which inhabit Nowhere Islands. See, in the world of Mother 3, no violence truly exists, and people have come to live peacefully with each other and nature. There's no such thing as the concept of money, Instead relying on an economy that's mostly based around bartering and hospitality.

However, everyone's lives veer into turmoil once strange alien beings invade, the Pigmask army, an army of big, fat and slovenly creatures dressed in pig-like attire, who seem to have a vast amount of technology and resources at their disposal yet aim for Nowhere Islands for colonization.

The Pigmasks have an as-of-yet unnamed leader, who is demanding them to make everything in the World "bigger, cooler, stronger and faster", and thus they seize Nowhere Islands by force of bombings and a forest fire to use its flora and fauna. And thus, while escaping from the forest fires returning from Alec's home, Hinawa tragically gets killed by a Drago which has been modified to be aggressive against its nature through robotics implanted in it by the Pigmask army.

There's an unused cutscene in the game's ROM data where Hinawa, instead, dies by bomb explosion...

...yeah, I'm just... gonna let you process that one by yourself ;)

The Drago left a fang in the middle of her heart, which is recovered by one of the Tazmillians and provided back to Flint along with a fragment of her crimson dress. Besmirched and angry, Claus, the festier one of the twin children, sets out to try to hunt the drago and achieve revenge, but he goes missing... Flint embarks in search of Claus and to kill the drago, and thus the first chapter of the game concludes, with the implication that Claus has gone missing...

With Lucas' family torn to shreds and The Pigmasks invading Tazmilly, it seems that we're in a situation ripe for disaster.

Chapter 2 follows Duster's adventure, which runs in parallel (as every other chapter will) to other chapters' stories. Duster is the last heir in a bloodline of Cat Burglars whose abilities are not in use anymore given that Tazmilly has no more commerce or crime. However it turns out that the Pigmask invasion puts his skills back in demand to infiltrate Oshoe Castle and retrieve an artifact which the Pigmasks are after and which Duster's family is the guardian of. The nature of the artifact in Oshoe Castle is as of yet unknown, however it is implied that it is important to the fabric of Tazmilly village.

At Castle Oshoe, Duster meets a mysterious princess, Kuma-tora (which translates literally to "beartiger", in allusion to the dichotomy of her existence, since she is very... masculine in attitude and refers to herself with, yes, male pronouns, perhaps anticipating identity politics by 14 years at least), who is also after the artifact in the Castle, the Hummingbird egg. The chapter ends with the Hummingbird Egg going missing, and a mysterious peddler of goods arriving into town, while Kumatora and Duster's father realize he has gone missing...

Chapter 3 follows the adventure of a little Monkey, Salsa, which gets flown into Nowhere Islands to perform a job. This is a novelty in a town where the concept of a job doesn't exist as of yet, however, the peddler of goods is going to need a lot of hands if he wants to fullfill his vision. The peddler, Fassad (which is a tongue in cheek way to say "facade", right?) promises to all residents in Nowhere Island eternal happiness if they buy his newest product, the "Happy Box", a television-like contraption which glows with a warm light and which people are attracted to and engrossed by. For this, he introduces the concept of money and swindles people his way, convincing them that this is the way to go and promising them excitement and benefit if they listen to him.

Salsa delivers Happy boxes throughout the whole chapter, and gets shocked, even in the middle of the night, if something goes wrong with his job or tries to escape due to a shock collar implanted by Fassad. However, he runs into Kumatora and Wess, Duster's father, and they ploy together to free up Salsa and mess up Fassad's forceful takeover of Oshoe Castle, when Lucas shows up with several dragos in tow and fights against the Tank invasion of Oshoe Castle.

(A foreign animal being introduced into a new society with the express intent of exploiting it to propel forward a commercial enterprise by toil... geez, I dunno, where have I heard that one?)

From Chapter 4 Onwards the game adopts a more conventional JRPG scheme, through a timeskip which happens literally two years in the future. In this future version of Tazmilly, money (Dragon Points) and ATMs are now existent, similar to other Mother games. The game follows Lucas' adventure through a now-modernized and industrialized technologically advanced Tazmilly, trying to retrieve the "seven needles" from the island, which are soon enough shown to be a source of great power that the pigmask army is also after and to which Lucas must try to get to first due to a calling by mysterious beings which inhabit Nowhere Islands, the Magypsies. With a lot of emotional moments, such as Lucas having visions of his Mother in the middle of a field of Sunflowers, we follow the adventures of the party as they infiltrate the pigmask ranks and gather information about its nature and intentions.

It is then discovered that the pigmasks are commanded by a Masked leader, who dominates the power of thunder through a tower which was built in the middle of the town and which strikes anybody down with thunder if they overstep the Law and Order that the pigmasks have implemented. The party fights this masked leader in bouts while exploring the world and reuniting with a now missing Kumatora and Duster, who are found to have settled as employees in a Nightclub called "Club Titiboo".

Eventually, through his travels, Lucas gains an artifact from Mr. Saturn, the inhabitants of a special region in Nowhere called Saturn Valley and which has been passed down through all three Mother games, called the "Franklin Badge". When equipped, this item allows the bearer to become immune to lighting attacks and reflecting them back.

The party soon discovers that the world is inhabited by an special elder race, existant from before the creation of Tazmilly village and who know more about everything going on with the invasion, called the "Magypsies", a race of transexual, magical creatures who help Lucas discover the fact that he has Psychic abilities, also known as "PSI" within the MOTHER canon. He uses these to proceed further in his adventure to pull the seven Golden Needles, the first of which Fassad was attempting to get to, in the Courtyard of Oshoe Castle.

Lucas moves into a city called "New Pork City" in the conclusion of the game, which is a town built by the pigmasks completely in the honor of Porky, full of all sorts of Pigmask paraphernalia and amusement. It is found that the seventh and final needle is inside humongous tower in the middle of the city, the Porky tower.

Moreover, it is also revealed that the Pigmask army is led by Porky, known as "Pokey" in the American localization of Mother 2, Earthbound. Pokey is shown to have developed into a tyrant as an adult, with unlimited lust for blood and power, who used Doctor Andonuts' Phase Distorter after the events of Earthbound to mess around with the unlimited realities and dimensions it gave him access too, as a petulant child does with a video game. Once he got kicked out of every other possible reality due to the chaos he created, he found the Nowhere islands and decided to mess with it.

The climax of the game comes around Chapter 7, when the now fully-developed party runs into Leder, one of the original Tazmillian villagers, a lanky and really tall person who never spoke, not a single word, in the game until now. Leder is revealed to be the only person who knows what is the true nature of it all: tazmilly village is the remanider of civilization once the world of Mother 2 collapsed by cataclysm. A flood wiped away everything and the very last remainder of people who survived fled to nowhere islands in a big white ship and settled there, willingly forfeiting all technological advances and knowledge of the world into the Hummingbird egg, the artifact that Duster's family protected in Oshoe, a device which wiped everyone's memories, with the intent of undoing civilization and living back in a peaceful village-like state again.

It is revealed that when all seven needles are pulled, a supernatural power on which the island is built will be awakened. This supernatural power is revealed to be a Dragon by Leder, who had to be subdued by the ancestors of the Magypsies so people could live in Nowhere islands as their last resort. Whoever pulls out the needles which keep it in slumber will pass the intentions and nature of their heart onto the dragon. Thus, Lucas must be the one who pulls out the last needle instead of Porky or the masked man, in hopes that a second cataclysm like the first doesn't happen again.

After making their way through all the pigmask defenses, Lucas and Co. face off with Porky, who is now a bedridden, pathetic man. Doctor Andonuts from Mother 2, appears here, and is revealed to have developed a solution to contain Porky, the Absolutely Safe Capsule, which is a capsule which once it's sealed, it can never be opened again, trapping whoever is inside forever in a parallel universe where only them exist. The party is successful in locking Porky in the absolutely safe capsule, so, porky is not hurt by the end of mother 3, instead, he just has been locked away forever in a place far away from everyone else --perhaps, providing the ultimate form of comfort that a personality like his would seek after.

At the end of the game, Lucas and Co. face against the masked man, who is revealed to have been Claus all along, who, brainwashed with Pigmask ideologies, is hellbent on drawing out the final needle to awaken the dragon. Lucas and Claus face off in an emotive fight, where they suddenly remember each other and how friendly they used to be with each other... and moreover, their Mother. Claus strikes Lucas with thunder in a final murderous attempt before snapping out of the Pigmask brainwashing. But since he had the Franklin badge on, the attack is reflected and mortally strikes Claus, who, in his final moments, finally remembers Lucas...

The ending of the game is open ended, without showing much of what happened once the seventh dragon needle was released, so the ending of the game is subject to interpretation. However, it is heavily implied that, since Lucas was the one who released the needle, the dragon, once awakened, did not destroy Nowhere islands and instead led to a regeneration of existence.

Part 3. "A Musical-Adventure"

One of the pre-release materials for the game called it a "Musical" adventure, and I think this is completely warranted: the musical beautifulness of Hip Tanaka, famed Nintendo composer and long-time MOTHER music autheur, is joined by the expertise of Shogo Sakai, who gave the soundtrack a more mature, sample-based vibe, compared to the early two more "chiptuney" soundtracks in the series. The songs are all-time favorites of mine, and I still the soundtrack every so often given all of its mystique, its eclectiness and curiosness.

But the musical aspect to the game doesn't stop here: as an addition to the mother series, the battle system has now been changed to become rhythm-game based instead of simply turn based. If the player attacks an enemy during a battle, it is possible to strike additional damage as long as the player continues to press the attack button in rhythm to the background music in upwards of 16 hits. A full combo is incredibly effective and plays a nice fanfare if executed correctly.

As an enthusiast of rhythm games, this premise captivated me from the get-go and it works wonders, functioning as a breath of fresh air to the way overplayed mechanic of turn-based combat, which has existed since the 80s. It also provides a certain nice feeling to combat, given how every character has their personal musical instrument, with lucas being a guitar, Kumatora being an electric guitar, Duster being a bass, and Boney, Lucas' pet, being... barks.

Besides this the mechanics from Mother 2 are translated almost completely: every character has a rolling HP and PP counter, which rolls down over time as an airport display instead of immediately as in other RPGs. This may seem minor, but it adds an amazing element of strategy to the game, since it is possible to recover an ally from mortal damage if a healing PSI is executed against the clock before the counter hits 0.

Besides this you got almost completely conventional standard JRPG fare, with the character being able to move in eight directions in the overworld, with the addition of a run button, preemptive attacks and overpowered kills. Once you start facing enemies in the overworld, the first one to attack can be decided depending on the angle that the enemy was approached with: sneak up on an enemy from behind and a green swirl will display, which means that you get to attack first; if an enemy sneaks behind you, you'll see a red swirl and they will attack first instead. Otherwise, a gray swirl will display, which follows conventional order according to your stats.

Part 4. "WE WANT MOTHER 3, REGGIE!"

...Mother 3 will never be released in America.

This may be too dramatic of an opinion to have but I see no other alternative. For the most of fourteen years, Nintendo of America's head honcho Reggie Fils-Aime was requested to release and distribute the game in the americas, and for twenty years the request fell on deaf ears, citing commercial inviability, potential copyright infringment and many other reasons.

But I think the main reason that the game will never be localized is because Mother 3 was a passion project, pushed for by people with personal involvement in the series and very special sensitivities about it. Shigesato Itoi and Iwata were personal friends. The game appeals to japanese tastes and touches on issues and subjects that the American population is very politically sensitive to.

For example, in chapter 6 Lucas and the party experience a bad trip because they eat hallucinogenic mushrooms in a swamp. This leads to Lucas having visions of his family in a very bad light, with implications of violence and abuse, to try to get at the players' deepest sensitivities. Even the name of the real player is used here.

I think that it's impossible that nintendo will release a game which openly involves Hallucinogenics no matter its innocent exterior. This is the kind of subject in media that Japanese audiences usually handle better than American audiences.

Besides this, the game has very clear allusions to accelerated capitalism, anti-capitalism, colonization, slavery, transexuality and the changes and chaos they have brought onto the world, which is a tough subject to tackle in the Americas, which is still part of an ongoing, vicious culture war.

Particularly, I adore how the game even tries to convey its points through the Sound Test, of all places. Mother 3 has a collection of music pieces, which are available on demand within the game itself. Of those, there's a music piece which is a remix of Pollyanna, the Mother 1 theme, which is present throughout the series, in an nod to the previous games in the series. The hallway where this plays is full with mother references and it expects the player to sit down and watch passively all the references in order.

But this is meta, amazingly enough. The hallway is located in the final section of the game, before facing Porky, who is presented as the effigy of vicious capitalism in the game. As if he left them in his palace just as collectibles, things to be purchased or acquired.

The name of the song which plays during this sequence? "His Majesty's Memories". Subtle.

Nintendo is a company which tries to keep its image clean and sterile, so it can be used broadly for a variety of projects, usually with family friendly intent behind --and even more so in the US.

However, Nintendo has a history of risky bets with Mature content, which has become even more glaring lately: you got Eternal Darkness, Astral Chain, Bayonetta, No More Heroes, the disappointing Metroid Other M... this together with the fact that most of their target audience is of age now, could, at least remotely, mean that, perhaps, Mother 3 releasing in some manner in the future, localized in English, could happen: however, this is not happening at least the way I see it.

Once the game was released, there were several different campaigns online to try to gather Nintendo's attention: a 10k signature strong petition was completed among several other things, and if this hasn't lead to results... I don't know what will.

Part 5. "No Crying Until the End"

Mother 3 is a beautiful, engrossing and captivating game which is hidden away under a cutesy exterior. Its complex themes and characters are evoking of deep human truths which call out to us and ask us to reflect on things and the way we're living. Of strong pedigree in its series and with a superb musical production behind it and a mastermind of writing, MOTHER 3 excels at what it sets out to do.

When the game released, the game had a "Catch Copy" written for it by itoi himself, which called the game "Strange, Funny and Heartrending", and I think this is a beautiful way to bring everything full circle. Itoi wrote on the Advertisement that if you wanted to cry because of Mother 3, you should save it until the end. And those three words are a fantastic way to close off this review: if you want a game that will provide you with bizarre and laugh out loud moments one second and tear-jerkers the next, Mother 3 is the game for you.

And the game is just so poignant... to this date not only do I think it's one of the most expressive and well done pixel-art based game, I still find myself impresse at how much I can connect with the characters through small, cutesy sprites and pastel color pallettes, lack of Unreal engine and RTX graphics card be damned. Themes of grief, missing a loved one who's gone, the feeling of loss of identity due to accelerating social and economical change, how tyrannical political figures establish themselves and change communities, sexual and identity politics and how the modern world was to have shaky and voraginous sexual identities become commonplace... it's all there, and masterfully, tastefully expressed, without that icky feeling of "agenda"ism that you can get sometimes from Hollywood productions when they try to hamfist tropes and "messages" down people's throats. You know that feeling? I hate it when it happens in movies or shows I'm watching just to have a good time, and then I get some succint propaganda.

But MOTHER 3 is a kind beast, trying to reach to your heart and directly speak to the mind of the player. It tries to show us what it thinks of modernity and to make us seriously ponder what the frick is up with all of this shit, and thinking it has kept me for the last 14 years, and I anticipate another 20 ahead of me. And you can join me in reflecting about this...

Or maybe you can just go back to your happy box. Whichever way you choose.

[syncogon]

sad only 480p version this time, and delayed. oh well, temptation too strong, and clips on the weibo looked promising, so let’s go

mjy sighhh i guess he’s just dumb not malicious but man

“the truth isn’t important” glasses shing. oh wow that hair swish tho that was like unnecessarily well animated hahaha

iiiii just want jhx to tell off yy!! i think that’d be great, what a faceslap! also wtf is this thing? iron supplements?? a spray? icy-hot? 铁打损伤喷雾?? god i spent like five minutes trying to mouse-trace those characters and i still don’t know if this is supposed to be significant or if it’s just significant that jhx caught yy doing shady shit 

anyway given music / context it seems jhx is annoyed at what yy is doing? so yay friggin finally. “our classes aren’t at nanhua” nice 

“xu-da” vs “xu-ge” hmm. anyway jhx don’t fall for the lies. jhx is like sx, annoying and chuuni but probably isn’t as obnoxiously awful as he first appears... probably.... maybe. 

goddd sucks that the full version of this op is kinda weird, because i LOVE this op so much like holy crap. jiyi bei yingfu huanxing.... 

man now im like stressed about the yf at the airport scene. trailer showed an airport. what’s gonna happennn

this exchange about dd feels so weird like it sounds like ctg is trying to explain they’re not in any pre-relationship or smth but maggie is like “i don’t mind” in a way that makes it sound like she wouldn’t mind if they’re together? what??? but whatever

ok i really enjoy this cr/yf dynamic. like i feel like it’s a bit ooc and yf as portrayed here is maybe too far on the acquiescence but also it’s really funny and sparks joy for me so i’ll buy it. i’m happy to see like established relationship stuff i think bc i generally don’t in the stuff i watch. speaking of which i’m super glad that they didn’t make the awful dumb move of trying to insert like Another wack love triangle drama dynamic thing in this like the fans want yecong and tianmai!!

wowwww it’s so nice how supportive cr is being tho like i love to see it!

handholding!! soft!! nice inversion of the earlier part where cr is bandaging his fingers. but like -

WHY DOES SHE HAVE MARKS/CALLUSES ON HER THUMB AND NOT HER PINKY??? like ok i have not played ukelele but i sure have my own share of stringed instrument finger calluses and you don’t?? press on the string with your thumb???

still, they’re trying, it’s a cute detail, i appreciate it. i liked that one wwgk review i watched yesterday that pointed out s1 was like a coming of age story disguised as a music story, whereas s2 is like a real music story.... 

wait this is incredibly cute wtf. oh my god. 

YF SIGHED/FACEPALMED AT THAT? COME ON!! WTF THAT’S SO RUDE? THAT WAS ACTUALLY LIKE PRETTY GOOD?? AND SHE DID THIS JUST FOR YOU? like maybe not performance ready but bro she’s learned for two days!! also holy shit the strumming animation is really good for smth like this im impressed! that reminds me of the like actually legit violin animation they showed in the trailer yo im so ready 

like i totally understand the frustration (damn, maggie’s face... 3 free performances? really?) but also i feel SO BAD FOR CR HERE this is so awkward oh my godddd at least ctg like tries to apologize to her (and cr’s reaction to this whole thing is also v solid, good for her) but still like damn 

aww ahh man im glad maggie still like! supports encourages cr here! that’s also char dev being able to like get past her own complicated emotions at least for this sort of gesture 

awwww i also like seeing maggie’s coping, the happiness philosophy i always thought that was super interesting. she’s a great char! and i think running is good

animators animate a girl running normally challenge

oh nice you have to walk a bit after sprinting, good

the train track scenes are so pretty wahhh 

does... does the track just end there? what

the ~significance~ of maggie now sharing this piece of her that used to be a yf thing, with ctg 

also excellent bgm - oh omg it’s og soul link remix!!! 

“i don’t want you to go” 

MY GOD HE’S FINALLY MAKING A REAL MOVE. and one based in real friendship. GOD FUCKING FINALLY CTG AAAAAA she’s cryyying man this exchange is also pretty cute ngl 

i can’t believe they figured this out a full 4 episodes before the finale 

this is so pretty here wahhhhhh i wanna ss the whole thing in 1080p 

awhhhhhh

they never released pink twilight shanghai!! i want this ver!!! 

aww yayyy open still cheering her on - YF BE NICE TO YOUR GF COME ON

haha this is like reverse of cr tutoring him - WAIT YEAH YF YOU WERE A SHITTY ASS STUDENT COMPARED TO HER BE EXTRA NICE 

also remixed dream i dig it! sounds like new lyrics? 

julliard hahahaha

dong dong goddess

HAHAHA did dd just steal ctg’s fries

ctg: expressing some deep thoughts

me: just watching dd

“forever confident, forever happy” 

wait sooooooo are they a thing now or what did that count as a confession

“and qing’er is finally here” WHAT’S THE TEAAAAA WE STILL DON’T REALLY KNOW

“im a guitarist this is fine” YOU GO DD I LOVE YOU 

BEACH EPISODE BEACH EPISODE BEACH EPISODE 

omg oyzq. you’d think they were trying to extort a confession from him. what the hell is this instrument he said what is a xiao 箫. A WOODEN FLUTE? YOOO THAT’S COOL my god PLEASE let us get some kickass trad/modern fusion music im so ready 

“i trust ouyang” ahhh double char surnames are cool

HAHAHAHAHHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA WHAT THE FUCK

“because i’m about to have surgery on my knee” REALLY? REALLY? IS THIS REALLY HOW YOU’RE GOING TO JUSTIFY ALL THIS? FOLKS I AM LOSING MY SHIT I HAVEN’T LAUGHED OUT LOUD LIKE THIS IN SO LONG

ok this is interesting tho he’s not a dick for the hell of it it’s out of desperation or smth. but like half a year, oh no, what a horror. (i’m fresh out of hb feels ok you shaddap // tho i can also imagine the knife, like in lotus bloom, where they didn’t think szp’s injury was permanent). tho i do also like the “then we’ll be seniors we won’t have time to perform” but also that’s just a reminder that all of these ppl are like frigging 16 year olds and i still cannot take this seriously

i like “i didn’t expect, that i couldn’t give you the confidence to win”. god im so glad this confrontation is happening. man this feels like a wrap up already are they really spending all 3 last episodes on the competition? what’s the story gonna be? 

feel like he’d be less ugly with hairstyle that looked more consistently like this. anyway sucks that both of them are so ugly otherwise there’s some nice sun/moon (+stars?) imagery you can get going here

GROUP CHAT GROUP CHAT GROUP CHAT 

pretty! i wanna save this hq

it’s this bgm!!! godd i just want this track so bad

an empty beach?? in china near shanghai??? 

anyway ahhh it’s the iconic beach shot! i like how the promo ver cuts out dd lmfao

wow nine episodes in and cookie finally gets a character moment??? cookieeeeeeee i missed you

ok i can’t ship them he calls her shifu but also THIS IS SUCH A CUTE FRIENDSHIP calling every day 10 minutes?? wow!! i love dongdong and i love cookie. also this hits different in covid times “no one says that we can’t be friends because of distance” 

oh i guess they are pushing this as a ship. meh.

wahhhhh. need this hq then i have more propic material. 

HE HAS COVID 

ah lang is VIBING oh to be the ah lang of my own life. parasurfing. walking into poles. 

wow this is so modern! the red bag thing! wow i do love this show flexing the modern-ness 

this is the mercedes benz arena im SURE of it ahhhh holy crap this crowd. oh to be in a crowd without mask

IT’S THIS DUDE AGAIN like the trailer spoiled this but if i found out this right here right now i would’ve lost my shit my god hahhaah

im like torn about how i feel about cr’s dress like idk if it fits her well even if it’s pretty

:<

oh im scared i hope this doesn’t become embarrassing 

:0

OMG THEY INCLUDED PENCIL SKETCH OF THAT S1 SCENE. HAHAHA. char growth yayyyyy

ok anyway im happy!! spent like an hour watching this or something lmao but good times!! much better than last ep HAHA yayyy im so glad we’re finally at the comp and lots of these little things have been tied up now im ready for new song drops!!!

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

u guys know how crystalisks change color depending on element?

ohhh yeah

tl;dr: i went off on crystalisks for a while, started talking about vault monsters/guardians and siren tattoos, bloodwing, krieg, the elemental hierarchy, the bandits that got mutated by the vault key piece, the eridian ruins powering up, the moon [elpis] being teleported in that new vid we got with steve and claptrap, i rant about eleseer and technologically created pocket dimensions (heyo), and also there’s commander lily spoilers in here so be warned

i talked about a lot of things. i promise i linked them all together. somehow.

so we got the normal crystalisks that do explosive stuff

got Blue (the aptly named big blue crystalisk) that deals shock damage

(we also see a few more in hayter’s folly)

got Rouge the red one that deals fire damage

I’m honestly surprised we haven’t seen any green crystalisks since they’re pretty common in the caustic caverns.

anyway the reason im bringing this up now is because a very very long time ago (jesus christ, 2017) i had a theory that crystalisks were kinda like pets to the Eridians, like guard dogs of the ruins in the caustic caverns. which could explain why they were friendly (iirc Blue was even playing fetch with Booth) until Dahl started mining them

mostly cause of the guardian ruins everywhere

also, they show up in the Vault of the Warrior, as well. which is curious.

the other reason im bringing this up now is because im wondering if their crystals have any relation whatsoever to the purple crystals we see sprouting out of the ground in bl3.

they hang out in the ground when not active, mimicking said crystals, and there are yellow crystals sprouting out of the ground in bl2 that, when meleed, produce the same crystals crystalisks do when they die. (tho now im wondering if we’ve just been senselessly murdering crystalisk babies :|)

bonus: we know threshers are native to elpis, not pandora, and their blood is green. Crystalisk blood is blue, which could possibly hint at the fact they’re an alien species to Pandora. AFAIK rakk, skag, bullymong, stalker, and spiderant blood is all red. and so is bandit blood. (unless they’ve been huffing Eridium sludge like Zarpedon. then it glows purple i guess.)

anyway

you guys know how vault monsters change color based on element?

just recently fought this bad boy so i have a plethora of pictures

(this one is cryo)

(slag/base- which you know, makes sense. gotta slag em before u can swap guns)

(this one is shock)

nasty boy

also, interesting to note: we never got ‘explosive’ as an element with the sentinel and in bl3, explosive was taken out of the element list

you know how Siren tattoos also change color based on element?

sorry i would show amara’s green/corrosive tattoos BUT this was the leaked clip that i had on hand

ohhhh yeah.

now we know Siren tattoos are blue when using their base powers. according to amara, this blue means electricity is the ‘base’ element for sirens (which just plain isn’t true given what we’ve seen with maya and lilith, unless they show that further in bl3 where lilith uses phasewalk without her tattoos going red... which I’m guessing will not happen lol)

which has me like 🤔

we know in the original borderlands the vault key is blue for the vault of the destroyer

in all it’s technological glory

then it changes to purple in bl2. and apparently, we even get red in bl3.

so i know what you’re thinking “well blue must be the base element then” but imma posit that it’s actually not

We know the sentinel, when it comes out of the Vault, the first element it is is ‘purple’ (aka slag/eridium i guess, since slag isn’t in TPS). which, as we said above, makes sense.

we know the Warrior was a biological weapon built/modified by the Eridians for... some reason. It was under complete control of whoever opened the Vault. (the warrior actually has 2 elements afaik, the slag tail/wings and the fire)

I wanna say we were SUPPOSED to open the Vault of the Warrior first. Then open the Vault of the Destroyer and annihilate it with our new cool biological weapon

so then the order would be purple -> blue -> uhhh something something

oh and Siren tattoos appear to always be purple when interacting with Eridium stuff

like when Lily touches the vault key in the Vault of the Warrior, her tattoos glow purple

when Lilith is being mind controlled by Jack/the collar/charging Eridium her tattoos are purple

etc etc

also MAJOR COMMANDER LILY SPOILERS BELOW

her tattoos glow purple during the final cutscene i believe. bonus i’m pretty sure the vault map was glowing white when inside hector. it was still purple on the outside tho soooo take that as you will. i had a picture but i removed it because i didn’t wanna spoil anything for anyone. the whispy bits do remind me of angel’s wings

SPOILERS ARE DONE

dunno if any of this is important but i will say

when u fight a badass skag that’s been charged by an element and is implied to be the result of eridium runoff aka slag? mmm that’s the good shit.

Bloodwing?? her base color is purple. but jack is able to change her element based on outside stimuli (and, again, explosive isn’t actually seen as an element, just a joke... a really... fucked up... joke...)

we also know a lot of the bandits were mutated by the vault key (piece?) in sledge’s mine. might help explain burning psychos (the ones that are literally on fire). 

also maybe the eridian ruins are starting to give off ‘radiation’. you know how the original Eridian Ruins in BL1 were like white/blueish and then all the ones we find in BL2 are purple-ish? maybe they started charging up once the first Vault was opened and that allowed more and more bandits to start getting 

borderlands 1

vs

borderlands 2

(sorry for the shitty screencap, i hope it’s clear enough)

oh also maybe krieg’s ability to breathe fire and light himself on fire since he was a hyperion experiment. dunno if they did slag testing on him or not but... all things considered... it’s a probably maybe. wasn’t his assassin’s assassin the woman in the ECHO logs you find around the WEP?

also Terry the thresher? probably mutated like hell from living in those Vault ruins. might explain the size. also threshers being from the moon might just give them the fire/wormhole abilities inherently. since apparently the moon is some top secret eridian base that can see the future. im not even surprised. also you know. terry drops e-tech stuff upon decimation.

anyway i think Pandora is a lot older than Elpis and that’s why Elpis appears super fucking high-tech compared to Pandora’s ruins.

I mean look at the above then look down here

which makes sense, you’d make the planet before you make the moon yeah?

so elpis was probably put in place to watch over Pandora, maybe the Destroyer and the Warrior’s fight or maybe even to predict the future of that fight. maybe the eridians got paranoid and were like ‘fuck this’ and vanished because they were told they couldn’t win.

i do go into that whole theory of ‘zarpedon saw what the twins are about to do in bl3 and jack ain’t shit’ in an older post of mine so i won’t go into it here, but that’s another option as to why the eridians just booked it the hell outta dodge

bonus: in tycho’s ribs, some of the glowy lights are not actually purple, they’re red-ish

which has me thinking about the glowing red Vault Map we see in the Dev trailer. wonder if that’s going to lead up to elpis

oh! and speaking of elpis

yeah i don’t think that’s just an aesthetic thing cause holy shit

we’re all going to die!

yeah i actually have no idea what’s happening to the moon here

but im going to take a wild guess and draw your attention to that one scene with lilith

when she uhhh teleports in using her firehawk powers

we see it again when tyreen teleports in bandits on promethea

and they look

really

darn

familiar

im not saying we’re gonna teleport the moon but hOLY SHIT would that be F*CKING AWESOME

we also know ‘the moon is the key’ as shown on the cover art sooooo

it’s entirely possible?

which brings me to another point i made a while ago when the booth intro got leaked and i was talking about the ‘vault’ ‘not-vault’ area and decided it was on pandora because of the moon, but made a joke that maybe it wasn’t because i guess we could just move the moon.

what if it actually wasn’t lmao

nah im just playing, i’m pretty sure those are Rakk flying around there, but HEY it’d be cool!

also it’s pretty fucked up what’s happening on elpis considering it looks like it’s being bathed in fire... sucks for everyone on concordia but hey, if it means getting rid of pickle, im game.

OH GOD DAMN IT HE WAS ON SANCTUARY WITH TINA FUC-

anyway.

i wanna move the moon

oh also im still not convinced eleseer isn’t found by going thru a wormhole/alternate dimension/pocket rip/whatever

like, you know how to fight the Sentinel you go inside that giant purple crystal that looks like/is probably eridium? and the arena is WAYYY bigger than it ought to be? and it looks like the outside is made out of glowing graph paper and sick guy fieri flames that’s probably supposed to imply some sort of technological feeling?

oh and it does the “lilith just yeeted u to bloodshot stronghold- just kidding’ effect! which... y’know. my only gripe with that is it actually does appear to be somewhere inside eleseer given if u look at the ceiling it does look to be the same sky you see outside eleseer... but where the fck is eleseer... is it in another dimension inside the moon? bc i still refuse to believe the entire moon is being supported by that area... wouldn’t you see the crust?? somewhere? and it being in another dimension would help explain the whole ‘yeah you’re exactly where you were five seconds ago... but also you’re not because you’re in this arena and it’s clipping except it’s not so even though the sky looks the same because you’re in the same exactly spot you were in 5 seconds ago, you’re actually not (but you are)’. because what the fuck my scrub brain can’t comprehend that!

but god i wanna know if the eridians were harnessing the power of eridium and learned how to create pocket dimensions using their technology and fuckin DID IT the mad lads. i mean isn’t that what Vaults are? just little rips in this dimension. it’s the good shit.

also i wanna know why the Destroyer seemed to have pockets of slag/eridium on it’s tentacles when he’s supposed to be the VILLAIN tm of bl1 and also the eridians. might help explain why eridium only starts appearing after you off that physical rendition of him. also [see that one post i made about the crystals being corpses].

wow.

yeah.

i just spent a straight 2 hours doing nothing but typing this post. i should really go to bed. imma go do that

tomorrow i wanna talk about the seraph vendor. cause i can.

[grace-ko]

Small Steps | Grace + Devon

"You’re late.” Grace didn’t bother glancing over their shoulder as they heard Devon’s footsteps approach and his deep laugh fill their senses. 

“Can I be forgiven? I came bearing gifts,” he informed them as he took a seat and held out the box of cookies towards them with a grin, Red Velvet’s logo bright and distinguished on top of the box. It was still weird to go into the bakery and not be greeted by Anna but given the information Jess had just given them, he had a feeling as to why she was avoiding the general public. But he had agreed to respect all boundaries and he would stand by that.

“Dammit, did Anna tell you black and white cookies were my favorite?” They reached for one of the cookies. “Fine you’re forgiven this time but next time you better bring something else I might not be as nice,” they teased and nudged him lightly. “You look good, how’s the new place, you sleeping alright?”

Devon nodded along to their words, thanking them as they offered the box of cookies and he took one. He preferred these meetings to the one with his parole office, that was for sure. He hadn’t been mandated to meet with Grace but it had been suggested and Grace had been happy to make the time. They liked keeping up with their students and the few programs they taught in prison were near and dear to their heart. They knew Devon’s story well, had taken the time to get to know him, especially after making Eden’s their home. He had been one of their more favorite students, a quieter man, a man who just seemed to want to get home yet accept his punishment all the same. Just like Chase they had helped him prepare for his parole hearing, practice his speaking, his writing, anything he needed to convince them to give him his life back, to give his his freedom. 

“The apartment is nice, kind of place I always wanted when I was in high school. Brooks and I used to talk about getting an apartment together. We’d both get football scholarships and then get an off campus apartment.” He laughed softly as the memory before he brushed some cookie crumbs off his chest. “But it’s cool, to like not be in the way but shit my..sister’s husband just left so that’s been..that’s been hard. I feel bad almost now, you know? Now that I moved out it feels like real fucked up timing,” he admitted and reached for another cookie. "I’m just trying to keep my head above water, you know? Keep the apartment clean, make the most of it, have a place for my kids to hang out, you know?”

Grace nodded in understanding, helping themselves to a few more cookies as Devon spoke. “And your kids? Have things improved with your son at all? I think I saw him zipping by me in a motorcycle the other day. Very cute,” they joked, glancing over at him with a sweet smile. They had known Devon for almost 7 years, the entire time they had been in North Carolina. He was younger when they met him, the creases in his forehead a little more smoothed out but his eyes had been darker, hopeless, nothing like they looked now. They were rooting for him, hoping they could do something to make his life just a tiny bit easier.

“Yeah, yeah, that was probably Jax. Which his sister has been amazing, always wanting to spend time with me. It’s nice. I mean sometimes I think she makes too much time for me, should probably be hanging out with friends more but I’m not complaining. What dad would be mad about his little girl wanting to spend time with him, you know? And it’s been nice to get to know her life, I mean she’s..a grown woman now,  so, I’m trying to adjust to that and also try not to see her as the baby girl I held in my arms all those years ago. My son though, he’s..god, he’s tough,” he admitted and brushed some hair out of his face again. “Part of me gets it and part of me is fucking annoyed and I feel terrible for saying that, I do. I get it, I’m the one who got locked up but jesus, does he have to be such a dick about it, you know? I mean I tried my best, I-I can’t change what happened and now that I’m here it’s like he’d rather me be back in there, you know? Like I’m fucking inconveniencing him. I mean I get to have a life too right? I don’t know, I don’t want to yell at him or get angry, I want to understand but it’s like impossible to get him in a room with me for longer than a half hour. it’s like he’s taken it as his personal goal to express how fucking pissed his mother is at me.” He sighed and shook his head, feeling bad to admit all of this but he knew Grace would understand, especially because they were a parent themself.  

“Dev, I’m gonna tell you something parents don’t even want to say but kids are assholes. Like yeah they’re amazing, wonderful, human beings but they’re assholes. Selfish, clueless, little assholes. I mean look, your kids are in their early twenties, they’re like basically still teenagers. They’ve been without you for a long time and they’re figuring out what their world looks like now that they have you back, for good. You’re back for good and you’re not disappearing again and that’s hard. It’s a new normal. But your son is being an asshole and it’s okay to tell him that. Honestly. I have a sixteen year old son right now and believe me, he’s the definition of asshole. All he does is stink and give me sideeye as if I didn’t push him out and suffer the consequences of his bigass head,” they added with a laugh and reached out to give his arm a squeeze. “Next time he tries to dip out on you don’t be afraid to be honest. Don’t be afraid to tell him that his actions are hurting you, he needs to know. You did your time, he shouldn’t punish you any further because he’s not mature enough to grasp the gravity of the situation. But give yourself grace, Dev, don’t allow yourself to be walked all over. You’re the parent, remember that.” 

“Fuck, you’re good at this,” he admitted with a laugh, feeling like they had put words to his thoughts and made him feel less guilty all the same. 

“Yeah well I know a thing or two. I like to think I’m a pretty decent parent but we all have shit we regret. I mean I just went through a shitty divorce and I’m trying to figure out what my life looks like. I hardly feel like I’m getting it right all the time so go easy on yourself, you know? Take it slow, Devon, take it slow,” they reminded him and gave him a look before laughing. “Now my favorite subject, your love life, how’s the post breakup world treating you, hm?” Grace had never been a fan of Devon’s relationship with Bella not because they didn’t like her but because they didn’t think it was the kind of relationship that would be supportive to Devon re-entering the world in a way that made him successful. They were sad his heart had been broken but assured he’d be okay, assured he was better off single as he tried to piece his life back together. 

“Oh god talk about not taking it slow,” he admitted, his cheeks a bit red as he thought about it. He didn’t want to mention Anna, knowing the two were friends and knowing they wouldn’t look favorably on the idea of him kissing a married woman whether she initiated it or not. “Some hookups, uh, I kissed my high school ex-girlfriend which wasn’t..bad but not my best choice. She just..got me in all of my feelings,” he added  with a soft laugh, sighing as he ran a hand through his hair again. “I just..I don’t know, back in high school I was popular, you know? I wasn’t clueless that all these girls wanted to be with me, I mean i was the fucking quarterback. But I don’t know, you grow up with your dad telling you premarital sex is a sin and you’re not exactly jumping into bed with everyone, you know? Kalani and I were..always intimate, she was my first time, yanno? And uh, then Mel and I dated and I really liked being in a relationship, I liked not having to wonder, I liked the security, I wasn’t interested in anyone else. When we broke up I didn’t even want to go out there and hook up with people, I just had Kal and Kal and I found our way you know? And then...then shit got bad when I got injured and then I was out there. Parties, clubs, wherever, making out with whoever until Kalani found out and came back to pull me back to her,” he added with a sad laugh. “So being in this headspace now after years of like not even imagining being close to a woman again it’s..it’s overwhelming. It’s like I’m noticing for the first time in my life the way women look at me, like really look at me, you know? And I want to be smart but I also want to have..fun, that’s not bad, right? If she’s into it and I’m into it then is there any harm in that? I don’t know, I’m an emotional guy, I’ve never denied that.” 

Grace smiled softly as he rambled on about his love life, sounding like a teenage boy who had just discovered his sex drive. “Thank you for that thorough run through of your love life but I’m going to tell you the same thing I just told you, slow the fuck down, Dev. I mean look, get your rocks off, make sure you’re having fun but women are still women and feelings still get all fucked up if you get involved enough so just be careful, okay? And don’t be surprised so many women want you, you’re gorgeous, smart, kind, a little mysterious, they think you’re a bad boy even though you wouldn’t hurt a fly, You have so much to ffer but don’t let anyone throw you off course, okay? Be in love with yourself, the most important thing you can do is ensure that you stay on a safe path. Devon, look at me,” they told him and met his eyes,”You have time, you have time,” they repeated and reached up to pat his cheek lightly. “You have time, don’t rush.”

“Did you say I was gorgeous? Teach are you hitting on me?” He laughed as they swatted as his shoulder and hie felt some of the weight he had been holding leave his chest. He felt himself get a bit emotional when they reminded him that he had time, most days feeling like he might run out of it. He took a deep breath and before he knew it there were tears in his eyes and he was hanging his head as he felt Grace’s hand on his back, tears falling as he pressed his hands to his face. It was unexpected, not even knowing consciously that he had those fears and doubts rising to the surface, that they had put a name to the kind of fear that lived in the pit of his stomach, made him look over his shoulder, made him stand up straighter whenever a cop walked by him or a cop car zipped past his own. “Fuck I..how’d you do that?” He sniffled and wiped quickly at his eyes, a bit overwhelmed by his own reaction. 

“I have that affect on people and also my voice is calming, “they teased and reached up to cup his cheek, offering a soft smile as they tucked some of hair behind his ear the way they would for their own son whenever he got upset, whenever they noticed his hair getting a little too long. “Rebuilding a life isn’t easy. I’m finding that out the hard way right now. I have no fucking idea what I’m doing, a single parent, a divorcee. I hate it. All of it. And most days I find myself wanting to just ask my wife to come back, ask her to just...put this behind us, to move forward. Some days I can’t stand the fucking thought of her. Most days I’m trying to find a healthy balance. I don’t always have the right answers, and I’m figuring it out but I am..determined to do so. For my kids, for myself. Because my life isn’t over,because I dont want to spend the rest of my life in pain. I decide to reclaim my life, to reclaim the power my wife took from you and you have to reclaim your power too, Devon. You are not defined by the time you spent inside. You are defined by the life you’re going to make for yourself now.”

Devon didn’t reply, just turned to Grace and wrapped them up in a hug which they happily responded to, holding him as much as he was holding them. “We;ll be alright,” they mumbled and he nodded, both of them pulling away laughing slightly as they wiped their eyes. 

“God, you’re going to mess up my makeup,” they teased and shook their head. “Come on, let’s go do something fun. How about...bowling? Yeah, let me kick your ass at bowling,” they joked, discarding the now empty box of cookies as they took his arm and they headed towards the bowling alley, both of them feeling a lot lighter, a lot less in their head and a lot more hopeful to make use of the time the universe had given back to them.”

[pidgezero-one]

dont message me about this please. I just need somewhere to dump it

I had a falling out with my best friend at the end of july and he completely cut off contact with me. i trusted him more than anybody in the world and there are no words to describe how much his friendship meant to me. the way this happened destroyed my sense of self-worth and I isolated myself from people and tried to fill that empty void with drinking and shitty eating habits (namely starving myself followed by binge eating). fell into a pretty bad depression and was constantly lethargic and unproductive. hated going out in public because I hated myself and didnt want to be seen.

suffered a death in the family at the end of august. this isnt something I cope with in a healthy way. especially during that period of time

started talking with my friend again in september but that didnt go very well either. still felt shitty about this every day, just having this constant nervousness and wanting to throw up and feeling like im carrying a huge weight on my shoulders, every day 24 hours a day. i had dreams about our situation all the time and it fucked me up. cant remember the last time I got a good nights sleep. developed a lot of trust issues from revelations that came out in the few discussions we had. we havent spoken in almost 2 months now. still really miss him but also still hurting over the things he said and did

2 weeks later, boyfriend of 2 years broke up with me when I got back from dreamhack. it wasnt really a surprise and there's no bad blood but was still a really hard adjustment. we had lived together since before we started dating.

we were splitting rent on a 1 bed apartment so now I have to pay for it myself. i dont really have the means to move. this fucked me over financially bc I was in the process of paying about 8000 dollars worth of debt accrued from when I was unemployed in 2014. so that's why none of you have really seen me since then, im saving money instead of going out to do things. this is also around when I decided to cut the drinking to prevent it from getting out of hand and decided to fix my eating habits, both of which are saving me money

met someone new in november who I got close to pretty quickly. he knew I was hurting from something, a lot of things, and helped me recover and was somehow over time able to convince me i didnt deserve any of what was going on. i started to believe it too. we spent a lot of time together and became very good friends.

around the same time i saw another friend have a falling out with his best friend and the way it got him down made me really angry. he didnt deserve to feel that poorly. this helped me realize that neither did i.

start of december, i fell mutually in love with the new friend. although it was just the beginning of the relationship, it was unprecedented in how genuinely loved I felt. we were supportive of each other in ways I didnt even know I could be. never enjoyed someone's company so much before or felt so totally safe telling them literally anything, and after I was having so much trouble and anxiety over opening up to anybody like that again, this was really really special that he could make me feel that way. especially considering the vulnerable state I was in, I tried to be cautious about getting this attached so quickly, but I decided to trust him. you kinda had to be there to understand just why I let myself feel this way despite it looking like a textbook mistake and me being well aware of that fact. he was thoughtful and respectful and considerate and was the most loving person i've ever known. we live a long distance apart and decided we'd take things slowly until we had the chance to spend some time together in person and discuss what our future looks like at that time. we spent a lot of time together calling each other around the holidays and never let a day (or an hour, really) go by without making the other feel loved and appreciated and worthwhile. for a christmas gift he contacted a lot of my friends and compiled a series of video and audio clips from all of them sending me kind words at the holidays to remind me that i'm loved. he really was a wonderful person.

being able to really believe that I didnt deserve to feel as badly as I had been since the summer, combined with falling in love again... I was finally something resembling happy again, I got my confidence back, I was energetic and productive and in an improved state of mind... not completely, things still hurt and I think they always will. but I was at least functioning. the wounds were still there and they were still fresh but I was at least starting to heal.

had to replace my pc because too much of my hardware was just not working anymore. that was a big financial setback I wasnt prepared for. my laptop mobo also broke so now I dont have one of those anymore. oh well. once im done paying off the last part of my debt im going to save up for a new one

start of january, one of my closest friends goes radio silent and unresponsive to texts and calls for over a week. i was a fucking mess worrying about him. (we hung out a few days ago but at the time holy shit)

my coworker at my job (the only other dev on my team) is leaving, so I have to learn a ton of new stuff and also train who we hire next, and im pretty stressed out about that on top of the status of my current major project

i didnt go to agdq this year, but that entire week was rough. wanted to stay off social media and stuff to not be reminded of it but this is where all my connections are and I need to work on shit. I spent a lot of last agdq making good memories with the friend i had the falling out with and thinking back to that just makes me really sad now.

was finally starting to enjoy streaming again and I injured my hand recently and cant use it to use a dpad or joystick, so now im not doing that either. it got infected pretty badly and ive been worried about that for a while, but it's healing up now. hopefully ill return soon. also having numerous other alarming things happen healthwise that are too TMI for here but... yeah

last week the guy i loved dumped me. not going to go into detail on this but i feel very very slighted by how he chose to do it. it had only been a month but im pretty messed up and blindsided by it. despite the short length I can't remember the last time I had any kind of interpersonal relationship that was so emotionally fulfilling. i still don't really understand. being around him hurt so much that I left my favourite discord server where a lot of my close friends are cause he's in there too. i miss being in there so much but i just cant do it

on saturday I got the news that one of my friends from the smash 64 community passed away unexpectedly. i went to the visitation on sunday. it still doesn't feel real.

i dont want to talk about it, I dont want any offers to talk about it, I dont want to relive it, I dont want to think about it, and especially especially I d o n t w a n t t o t a l k a b o u t i t. just getting it out there bc I feel kinda overwhelmed atm from everything. i just wanna focus on doing the things I need to get done to keep my mind occupied. i want my best friend back, i want the person I love back, i want my friend to come back to life. there's nothing else that can be done for me

[autumndiesirae]

what do u think about the junk buffs?

As I discussed with @hikarain, here are some thoughts - 

I know a lot of people are saying the buffs are “unfair” or “unneeded”, and I can understand both of those things. Junkrat’s Tire now has Lucio-level mobility, and his double-mines grant him Genji-style air time with the recharge behavior of Symmetra’s turrets. This is certainly going to make him more formidable in the right hands.

The thing is, Junkrat remains one of the most heavily countered characters in the entire game. He is heavily countered by Pharah, Zarya, Genji, any sniper, etc. About 1/3 if not more of the cast can also one-shot his Tire, making his ultimate a very easily countered thing if not quickly detonated or used from a surprise secret spot. Junkrat previously was less mobile, only sported 200 health, had one chance to escape from danger with his Mine, and had a Tire that was easily deletable, sometimes even before he finished putting it down. On top of that, the Halloween event basically taught people HOW to destroy Tires, making the Halloween event an overall nerf for Junkrat’s kit.

I think this buff is comparable to Symmetra’s. Prior to her buff, she was an insanely weak troll-pick hero who was borderline useless outside of the first point on defense for 2cp/hybrid maps, her damage output was poor, she was easily countered, and her initially starting with only 3 turrets meant she had to wait an extra amount of time to regenerate all 6 to place. This combined with her ult which was always either placed against a cliff for a troll move, or was quickly found and destroyed with its shitty health, made her useless in almost all situations. After her buff, she had a longer reach and more damage, making her more formidable at chasing and killing opponents, she could put down all six turrets and gain her ult much faster (and get the Car Wash achievement much faster too), and her two ults made her more useful outside of just one or two situations. The shield gen literally is capable of winning games now - if you don’t get the shield gen, more often than not you will be incapable of winning. Despite all of these changes, though, Symmetra is still easily countered by the likes of Tanks or Pharah, so while she is more powerful against other squishies and provides more to her team, she is still capable of being beat if the enemy team puts their mind to it. And she easily falls apart once her shield gen is deleted, as does her team.

Junkrat before his buffs was certainly a lot more powerful than pre-buff Sym, especially in the right hands or against poor foes. I have killed Pharahs as Junkrat plenty of times if said Pharah was bad or we had a good Soldier/Widow to help, and Pharah is arguably Junkrat’s number one counter. Junkrat’s double mines grant him increased mobility without compromising the consequences that can occur if he wastes both. Yeah, he can triple-jump if he uses his mines carefully, but there is still a massive 8 second cooldown between uses - if you blow both mines and land in the middle of the enemy team without some sort of plan, you will die. If you use both and fall off a cliff, you will die. The main purpose is to get up to places like sniper nests or other high locations to take out snipers and get a height advantage (aka Junkrat’s best friend). His increased Tire speed and wallclimbing changes make it so he can maneuver his Tire more easily around without it getting one-shotted - this coincides with the dev team’s tip to ult from cover as Junkrat, because ulting in the middle of the open often subjects your Tire and subsequently you to a quick death. Now Junkrat can be more safe and secretive while still wreaking damage against a team that’s huddled or that fails to take care of the Tire when they see it. Additionally, he can use his additional upward mobility to fight against his strongest counters - using his ult or himself to fly up to a Pharah or a sniper and take them out. Considering that in a lot of cases unless the Pharah on the enemy team was countered by an ally Soldier76 or Widowmaker, most Junkrats would have to switch off or risk being useless to the team, this will make him a bit better at holding his own.

But even if Junkrat has some increased mobility and power, the main thing is that he is still easily counterable much in the same way as Symmetra. These changes aren’t making him OP, they’re making him usable outside of against heroes who can’t aim at the Tire. Many times Junkrat is regarded as a shitty pick and Junkrat mains are shit on for playing him because of his supposed uselessness in most situations (even though South Korea, the best OW players in the world, have a Junkrat main on their team and had said Junkrat main play with them in the World Cup). This will lessen that while still maintaining not ruining Junkrat’s counters - a Pharah who stays out of the way of his frags and Tire will still be easily able to kill him. Junkrat’s Tire still has unchanged health, meaning most heroes can still one-shot it and destroy it easily, especially if a poorly-playing Rat doesn’t hide and surprise them. Junkrats also tend to stand still and spam down a chokepoint, making them easy targets for snipers or just anyone who can aim. Zarya can still majorly benefit from an enemy Junkrat who just fires off frags and feeds her charge, Genji can still kill a Junkrat who decides not to stop shooting when he’s reflecting, etc. These buffs don’t alleviate poor playstyles or bad choices done by the Junkrat player - they merely make him more viable in the right hands. If he or the Tire was given extra health, if he was given more powerful shots, then maybe I would understand him being OP because his mistakes would be less punishable while he would still be easily capable of blindly killing someone by just firing down a hallway. These changes don’t do that, they instead expand his kit and make it better at doing what it was previously capable of doing. This may make people who were okay or bad at Junkrat better at playing him, and it may make some people who play Junkrat-counters angry because he is actually capable of putting a fight against them now, but this is a natural result of changing a character who previously was weak unless played by someone with extensive knowledge of the character.

If you want to bring up an example of a completely unfair or pointless character change, pre-nerf Bastion is a great example. Before his most recent nerf, Bastion was capable of living through almost ALL enemy ultimates just by healing at the right time, and had damage output that shredded enemies while also being unkillable in return because of his armor and healing. This produced a new meta where Bastion was played in every single situation because he was almost never punishable even if he made terrible mistakes due to his healing and armor, and he was capable of annihilating most enemies (even Tanks). That was neither fun to play against nor fun to play as. And while prior to those changes Bastion was not very popular outside of lower levels, he was still a pretty strong character. His only real counters are people who can stay out of his way and hit him aggressively (like Pharah or Junkrat), or Genji and his Reflect or D.Va and her Defense Matrix. One of the best ways to kill a Bastion was always to ult, because he took forever to get out of sentry mode and was often killed while camping - the new changes made him impossible to kill even with most ultimates. THAT was an unfair and frustrating buff that was quickly rectified. Junkrat’s isn’t.

TL;DR - Junkrat’s buffs are necessary because they help people who play him well have a chance to contribute without getting barked at and forced to switch, since they grant him increased mobility and reward good playstyle, but they don’t make him OP because he is still easily countered and bad play choices are still very easily punished.

[huntermun]

Conker: King of War

This is not real, yet.  A.K.A.: Game Ideas with Huntermun...

Conker: King of War

At the end of Bad Fur Day, Conker regrets not asking the Developers to save Berri and blames himself.  However, it's been years since BFD, and he's had plenty of time to fall deep into his drinking once again.  He develops a paranoia about the world around him... Reloaded, Project Spark, Young Conker... why wouldn't the Developers go forward?

Then it hits him, like a brick.  Or, knowing this series' humor, an actual brick.  He's not moving forward in his own timeline because the Developers wanted Berri dead.  In his drunken rage, he decrees that all his subjects report back to him about any news on the Developers.  All these subjects assist at first, but as I said, years have past, and Conker is now seen as a Mad King figure, cursing the old gods for the loss of his life.

And this is where we meet one of the young gods, though not exactly.  Things begin to happen around Conker, and I think this would be best in his castle setting as part of a tutorial.  Walls move, doors shift, and it becomes clear to him that he's being lead somewhere.  A young developer, off screen, moves Conker into a testing area for a new game and Conker begins to understand that in order to best the Developers, he'll have to learn new powers and abilities and take them down.

King Conker must become a God of War.

And it's in this idea where I think Conker can truly shine... because so much of what was great about Bad Fur Day was Conker turning things on their head... conventions and expectations.  Cutesy Platformer?  Yeah, full of swearing, bountiful breasts, alcohol, scat, giant testicles, and the like.  Cutesy, but with Nazi Teddy Bears...

But more than that, Conker poked fun at video game and movie conventions in the later levels.  Heck, his final boss fight is the prelude to this game... poking fun at games rushed and not properly tested... unfulfilling boss fights all wrapped into one purposeful slap that was great in how it was poking fun at the bad in gaming.

Conker had one Collectable, one.  Cash.  And what's the only way for Conker to get a new game from this plucky young developer?  Cash.  Supposedly, a giant AAA company pulls a universe-equivalent Kickstarter and you've got to meet "Milestones" to unlock the next giant block of the game.

This all comes to a head half-way-through when Conker, having learned the tricks of the trade for platforming, racing, FPS, sandboxes, and the like... finds out that he was actually part of a fan game.  Rare and Microsoft shut the whole project down and Conker drops off back to his kingdom... finding it in revolt from all the time he spent away.

Why do this?  Because it's half the beginning of the tale.  Berri is dead, but this fan game sparks interest in Conker again.  Since modern gaming needs more female protagonists, Rare goes a "different direction" and resurrects Berri.  I'm thinking she gets a different spectrum of powers revolving around tech, and might be cyborged up.

She can steal see-through-walls abilities from the likes of Deus Ex, Manhunt, and Tomb Raider.  Crafting systems for spending hours making or earning marginally better gear.  Loot!  She becomes the embodiment of corporate-managed AAA modern games while still being a woman whose moved up in the world.

...and she hates it.

And so it's no quite MGS2 with Berri instead of Conker.  Being without him after just getting him back will probably make the player's mad, and Berri needs to reflect that anger.  She's not a bimbo, she's just a valley girl.  In this incarnation, she's smart, and she understands that even her appearance was made by the Developers as some sort of sexist doll figure and her dialog should bridge the gap between 199X's thinking and 201X's thinking.

So her levels are still collecting cash, but her goals are harder because AAA development is more demanding.  And somewhere in here, she also needs to get signs that the world is being missed with.  Someone else is out there, trying to lead her to Conker.

On the way to another twist, Rare didn't just end the fan game... they took on it's plucky young developer... and he's slowly be bringing assets from home and working Conker quietly back into the code.  Suddenly there's a stage as Conker, going through Berri's levels differently... without all her new-age abilities.  It gives a new perspective and reinforces cool multi-character level design.

Maybe Berri gets to go through some of Conker's old levels as well, turning each level into something new or different.  Maybe the code is corrupt or not designed to handle her, and thus fractures and breaks in ways that make new platforms or new obstacles... new baddies when some fuse together into monstrous creations.

Conker and Berri eventually meet, and their love is true.  They berate the Developers for taking so long to make a new game and trying to split them up... and the Developers... are not happy about this.

Now here's where I'm not sure where to go, because this feels like a place for a shitty cliffhanger... but I don't want that.  And, instead, I see two possibilities: Both start with Conker and Berri teaching each other what they know, with the other character being smart AI... and they continue to make their way through to the end of the game, with constantly having the Developers up the ante on them.

Each level in my first version has a Developer represented in code, either by a regular boss, a Master Hand-figure, or a cavalcade of all the assets this one Developer created... destroying them destroys the Developer.  This might bring the characters to yet a third version of each previous stage, further enhanced by the Dev or broken by their actions earlier.  When the last Developer is defeated, Berri and Conker embrace each other in oblivion, destroying the game Snake Plissken-style with their final blows.

Or... things get freaky in HD.  Conker and Berri, clearly self aware, work together to find a way to escape the game code itself and destroy their Developers.  Each level ends with a Twisted Pixel-style real life section... perhaps even absurd FMV... where Conker and Berri truly earn their M-Rating by murdering said Developer in a suitable if horrific way.  In this version, when they destroy the Developers, they destroy the game, but they are left in the real world... the two anthropomorphic squirrels step out of the office complex, red and blue lights flashing upon them from cop cars all around... the two hug, kiss, then together say "Bring it On" and rush towards the screen.  Credits.

Just an idea I had.  What do you think?

See you in the Future, —Huntermun

[stuprosu]

september 23rd, 2018 12:08 AM

in my last entry, i said that i would not type up another until i had confronted my mother. 

well. over a year later, and here we are. my mother has been confronted, but not by me. i would like to attempt to do an overview of my life the past year. 

a warning. i am in emotional states all the time. if my thoughts dwell on my family members that i miss or events that enrage me, i bring myself to tears within seconds and my head aches and i cannot focus much these days. my depression is at its height but by some fucking miracle i didn’t relapse. i didn’t. i also didn’t have the means as the box cutter disappeared.

i will try to remember the details. i found out recently that untreated mental illness literally erodes away your physical brain and memory. so. forgive me. 

[aug 2017] my birthday passes by with a quiet birthday. we had taken my brother down to his school in hollister. my mom came with us and everybody was uncomfortable. my mother made a scene, asking my father if it was okay to eat the food that came with our air b&b. she was pathetic. i ignored her and shut her out this entire time. the brakes went out in my dad’s yukon. what would have been a fun trip is now spent fixing the yukon and sweating in the car. this trip marks the end of the close relationship i had with my brother for nearly all my life. we’re still close but i see him every three months for a few days at most. this wears on my soul and brings me to tears now. i miss him so god damn much, all the time. anyways. mom moves to atchison. toby goes back and forth each week despite his desire to live with my dad all the time. my mom doesn’t care, doesn’t get a job, can still to this day never pay for anything, such as gas or food for her own son, and constantly pawns my brother off on my father. my littlest brother is 13, now 14, and is still subject to all that. 

[sept 2017] i move into the dorms pretty much by myself. i think my dad brought up my minifridge, but it was sophomore year and no big deal. no one else really said anything, no one else being my extended family. i expect their silence constantly and nothing else except for when it’s “important”. you know, christmas, birthdays, baby showers, all that sort of bullshit. anyways, i start classes and i actually make a ton of new friends in my biology and chemistry classes. amanda, maggie, dev, trent, carter, mackenzie, aaron, all the katies. through them? ameen, meg, brendan, kady. it’s really wonderful. i have a good community. classes are fine. i go home for toby’s homecoming. mom has become the master narcissistic manipulator that she is and is trying to warp everybody’s image of my father and me. she does so within the small, close-minded community we’re from. friends of my family, people i’ve known for years, people i haven’t had conversations with for years, block me on facebook, on all social media. it’s really awful. at homecoming, my mother carpools with us while spouting all that bullshit on facebook and actively shitalking my father. i know that homecoming is going to be fighting between my mother and father. we don’t even make the 10 minute drive to the school before they start in. they begin yelling. oh, i forgot to mention. i told my father about the men my mother had been sexting on facebook with the help of my sister. so my dad knows. he brought those men up. my mom laughs hysterically asks my dad how he knew. he doesn’t respond. my mom asks why my father isn’t stepping up and giving her gas and food money like he should. i ask her why she doesn’t get a job if she’s able to walk 12 miles a day like her facebook posts say she can? my mom scoffs and says, “so you’ve got her on your side too, huh? telling her lies?” this pisses me off as i’m 19 years old at this point, fully capable of thinking, and tell my mom this. i tell her she doesn’t have her family anymore. she tells me thanks and walks away. my mother asks my father to walk with her later on. i tell my sister and cousins the deep gossip. they send their condolences. it’s petty thinking back on it. 

[oct 2017] nothing much happens. i get along fine with my roommate. classes are fine. mom is spouting shit and i just get angrier and angrier. she walks over everybody. all my mom’s family isn’t talking to her. my sister and i bond over the salt. 

[nov 2017] pretty much the same. my cousin has the first grandbaby. she’s cute and i love her and her name is kyah. my cousin salts with me. no one lets my mom know of the baby’s birth until a facebook post a few hours later. pisses my mom off. haha. i think it was around november that a leak sprung up in my room and i was moved. the girl i moved in with is named erin. she’s incredibly rad and understands me pretty deeply. both equal parts oversharing and similar past experiences and we became very important to each other very quickly. i’m also still angry and emotionally distraught all the time and erin helped. she genuinely makes me laugh and was a pillar of support. she knew intricate details better than marissa does. she is easier to talk to than marissa. isn’t that wild? 

[dec 2017] garryck comes for christmas. i am still working. i do good in classes. i have a crush on my friend carter in my chemistry class but nothing happened with that and i’m at the point where i just appreciate the aesthetic and his personality yknow. anyways. we have christmas with my mom’s family but don’t invite my mom. shitty, yeah? who the fuck cares. i am able to tell erin about all this in full detail. i have never been so fully understood by another person outside of my family. it’s really incredible. 

[jan 2018] nothing really happens. normal month, normal me, whomst this. nah, i’m still angry all the fucking time. every little thing sets me off. it all stems from my mother and what she is still actively doing, besmirching my father and i. it’s awful awful awful shit. 

[feb 2018] something of importance happens. those first few months, i was always able to rely on my mom’s side of the family to vent and shit and i still am, but not with my sister. my sister got pregnant in december and february was when the prospect of having a child really got to her. and she didn’t want to do it alone. she didn’t want to do it without my mom. so my sister really, really pressured me into making up with my mom, to sweep everything away, to rewire my brain and change my chemical makeup and forget all my god fucking awful memories and somehow muster up the strength to speak to my mother without wanting to deck her. it doesn’t work. the kid won’t bring us together. spoiler: he doesn’t. my sister stops talking to me. she is easily manipulated. she beings believing the shit my mom says about my dad, her stepfather. it’s all shit. 

i think this went down in february. my memory is foggy. erin meets my friends and there’s awkwardness. erin occasionally makes me uncomfortable. she made them uncomfortable. i have to talk to her all the time. i have to compose myself all the time and be around her all the time and. and i dont think i could take it. i’m a really awful person, you know? i have been this past year. anger and malice has been eating away at me for so long and i am so tired. so... i switched rooms without telling erin why. she asked and asked and pestered and insulted until i finally laid it out. she apologized. she said she would change. she said she didn’t realize. she said she was sorry and sorry and sorry. i left her on read for six months. i ignored her in between classes and at meals. i became a real fucking asshole. i cut off one of my closest friends. 

[march 2018] the shit with toby goes down. i won’t bother logging it here. buchanan county courthouse already has. but it puts a strain on things. mom wants to move back to kansas kansas. like the shawnee mission area. dad does too. dad wants to leave rushville and missouri. they begin arguing about schools. mom wants wellsville, a hick town of hick people and hick classes and hick education, the worst. my dad wants a normal functioning school where toby can be a normal non-hick. so does literally everyone, even my mom’s friends. my dad gets laid off. he is struggling to make ends meet. 

[april 2018] my dad begins talk to me about rehoming my dogs and our cats. the thought really fucking tears at my heart. he wants to leave rushville so bad and go back to his friends and his life before my mom, before everything went to shit for him. i could not imagine being my father and living in that house all completely by myself. the house that held my family of 5 people, two dogs, three cats, birds, fish, loud, furniture everywhere, home everywhere, music everywhere. his family. everywhere. and that house without my brothers and me and mom became a husk. a ghost of his life when it was bad but it was full and it was full of life and it was full of his children and their voices and their music and god do i fucking miss it so fucking much i miss that so fucking much and i can’t spend my nights alone without thinking about things used to be and i miss everything so much i miss everyone so much. i was so afraid of my father killing himself after being laid off and facing massive amounts of debt that he called his father, whom he hadn’t spoken to in nineteen years, for help, only to be met with silence. he didn’t though. he had three children who loved him so fucking much and relied on him for everything and everything was him and he was everything and is everything to me and there’s no one on this godforsaken planet that i love more than my father. while untreated, my life would end with his. i think he knew that. i was so afraid of my mother killing herself because that would be completely and totally my fault but how could i prevent that? i need to turn off the smiths right now. 

i need to breathe. i need to ground myself. i need to remember it is going to be okay. april was okay. nothing happened major.

[may 2018] nothing happens here. school ends. dad has been hanging out with his friends, one of them being amy and her family. oh, my mom through all of this has been disagreeing to settlements and therefore heavily delaying the actual divorce and has been doing that since sept 2017. my parents didn’t get officially divorced until aug 2018. that’s how much of a cunt she is. my dad’s two greatest friends are amy and marilee. they’re really really really wonderful women who help my dad and help me and family and i don’t know them that well but they’d do anything for my brothers and me. they’re true friends, good kind souls that fill this world. amy is also going through a divorce. my dad and her bond over that. but they don’t see each other. they don’t date, despite my mom’s best efforts to convince the world they’ve been having a 12 year long affair and amy’s youngest is actually my dad’s. oh well, haha. my mom’s a dumb petty bitch. anyways. we go to amy’s mom’s lakehouse and have a really good time swimming in the water. garryck comes up from school for a few weeks and brings his friends and it’s all a really wonderful time and we spend weekends out there and amy’s mom nancy is a wonderful woman and everything is great. 

[june 2018] summer is still great. i work all the time. i move into an apartment in saint joseph with my friends kady and ashleigh. everything is good. we split it. jyro moves with me. everything is really great and nice. the summer is nice. i don’t hear much above my mom. living on my own, it was like. yknow. The Milestone. The last one that separated me from my adolescence. i see my dad about every two weeks on the weekends i don’t work. it is a good routine and it really really messes with me if i don’t see them at least every two weeks. i can see the damage to my mental state. it gets the worst right before i go and visit them, when it’s been the longest. i just love sitting and  chatting with my papa. i feel like it makes me whole, complete, recharged and energized. i love him so much. the summer is bliss. the summer is great. i pay rent and become and adult and bills and everything is good. 

[july 2018] my mother moves to wellsville and moves in with a guy down there, so the dumb bitch loses her alimony lmaooo. however this means there is now an hour and something odd drive between my mother and father’s house, where toby must be transported. my mother can’t even afford her phone bill, so there’s no way she can afford the gas for this. of course, my father transports him, because he’s working odd jobs constantly and stressed about not being able to find a job and i get that second hand anxiety because i want him to be okay and i want to live an easy life without stress and he can’t do that with my leeching mother. breathes. anyways. she moves toby down there without telling him that doesn’t go well and that pisses me off royally and everything is rough for a few moments. i don’t ever talk to my mom. i block her on facebook. i think my sister’s baby shower is this month. i spend the days prior with my aunts and cousins helping set up. i was also sick and pretty useless. anyways, we salt about my mom because she’s not communicated about shit and everyone is upset with her and not talking to her so i’m just drinking the tea at this point in time.  baby shower is fine, sister is exasperated with lack of a relationship with my mom, the thing goes fine, whatever. nothing really else happens in july. i bought my dad a hat for his birthday. 

[august 2018] wooooooooooo birthday month. also a really awful month. my brother went back to school. my dad rehomed both my dogs to new homes, but at least they’re together. that was really really really really really rough and i miss those pups so fucking much and i am so angry at the situation at everything at everything at everything i miss my dogs. i had to rehome my ferrets. i did that by myself. a rescue in liberty took them. i miss those fuckers so much. but they’re in a better place. my dad also rehomed our two other cats. i did not get to say goodbye. i don’t know where they went and i can’t visit them like i can the dogs. it really really gets to me sometimes, thinking i was so important in their lives and now i’m gone. i got a card from work for my birthday. marissa and ashleigh took me out to dinner. some cards and a bunch of facebook posts. school starts back up. i see my old college friends that i genuinely miss. i see erin in one of my classes and i realize how much i miss her, but she looks at me with so much resentment. i fucked up so bad. but i missed her and i needed. well i wanted our friendship back. it wouldn’t be the same, no, but god do i  need all the help i can get traversing my fucked up life. so i sent her this long ass message, explaining myself, my mistakes, why i fucked up, why i was so immature, why i was a total asshole for no reason. she took me back and i am so happy. our friendship is so good again. i love having her back and i think about the good things in my life like that a lot. toby started at wellsville, much to everyone’s chagrin. my sister has her baby. his name is bentley. he is very cute and i love him. my sister does not talk to me or my dad as much. i think she is slowly cutting us away. i try not to think about it.

[sept 2018] my dad did get a new job and apartment actually in august but i’ve already typed this and ya bitch lazy. hence all the rehoming. he gets health insurance october first. i am so ready to go to the doctor again and get my thyroid and my depression treated. i don’t remember a lot of things from my childhood anymore and it is scaring me and i think my depression is causing it. though i am not a doctor. this boy sam is talking to me and goes to my uni but we haven’t met in person, though i think he likes me. i am not sure. 

life is okay right now. i am sitting in my dad’s apartment waiting for him to get off work at 2am. i have been watching rick and morty and shitty teenage romcoms all day. i am really exhausted right now but i’m waiting for him. i hope things get better for me. they’re okay right now. i am going to see the national october 7th. i saw modest mouse back in may. that was really fantastic. i don’t have to retake chemistry 120. i have my cat. my monstera has new growth. halloween is soon. there are a lot of good things right now. i just heard matt’s “hey baby” in nobody else will be there. what else do i need right now?

hopefully i’m treated soon and will keep up with this better

xox lex