#devs on the ground usually mean well

[volskayadottxt]

time to engage in some Speculation*

*seriously, don't pretend i have secret insider info

**i could be booboo the fool here

***thats why im posting this here (no one reads this really) and not on twitter and im already beginning to have second thoughts abt keeping it up so we'll see i guess

i'm not gonna say that aaron's blog post today isn't pr-washed, it totally is (wouldn't get published otherwise). i didn't expect to see any blame laid at the foot of corporate mismanagement. but what i did expect (and did see) is creative mismanagement i've (and others) suspected for a hot minute.

team 4 originally thinking of themselves as an 'mmo team' post-ow launch, with their ultimate goal being the rebuilding of project titan, explains so many strange creative decisions kaplan and the old leadership made prior to his departure. they never really saw ow as we saw ow. we saw it as a fun competitive shooter. they saw it as a stepping stone on the way to creating this massive mmofps.

early in ow's history there were so many weird balancing decisions (example: trying to make each hero equally viable in all situations, balancing around quick play). before the closed beta, im pretty sure they only wanted ow to be playable in dedicated teams of 6. meaning no solo queue. which seems like a REALLY weird decision for a competitive fps, right?

well, now it makes sense. they saw ow as this small part into building this big mmo. chasing that white whale that was project titan. and yeah, in hindsight, easy to think "well they couldn't make it work once, why did they think they could the next time?" well they probably didn't expect ow to be a big runaway success, either. they might've felt like they had the right idea, wrong approach.

it also explains (although i think budgets fall into this as well) why they didn't want to just build a new team for ow2's endgame pve. they saw team 4 as the team that did "everything." that handled the whole franchise.

ironically, we probably wouldn't have gotten archives or (in august) ow2's story missions if it wasn't for that creative vision. we know from former ow producer tracy kennedy that kaplan was thinking of a sequel before ow1 even shipped. that was ow2 and its pve, and eventually... ow3?? the mmo?? so it was something they'd prolly planned to start exploring early in ow1's life cycle.

this also explains why the original ow2 announcement in 2019 was so controversial (thats ignoring the whole blitzchung stuff, which i have zero desire to talk about). i remember kaplan being... kinda hostile in some interviews. like, he was interviewed by nathan grayson during blizzcon 2019 for kotaku. in the published version, grayson expressed frustration that ow1's development had been put on ice for a sequel he didn't really want or expect. kaplan mentioned this first interview in a second interview later (although grayson wasn't mentioned by name). like, he was being professional abt it i guess, but he was clearly upset grayson did not understand the vision and sorta accused him of insulting his team (which i don't think grayson was trying to do, either).

but also--how were we supposed to react? we had no idea the goal was to make titan again. we just assumed ow would function like lol or dota. i guess i can't help but be a little angry. i think the team meant nothing but the best, but a lot of fandom angst could've been avoided if we were told abt what ow1 was (a stepping stone to a larger project) instead of what we thought it was (an always supported online game).

this of course ignores all the corporate mismanagement, which i suspect Jason The Video Game Reporter Guy will cover in the next few weeks. i hold no love for kotick and his goons. but if what aaron is saying is at least marginally true, then the old vision was also a problem. its very easy to lay all the blame at abk corporate and a lot should be, but someone had to pull the creative plug earlier i feel.

at the very least, we now have leadership that's willing to make the tough choices, i guess? i'm certain the mentality of many will be "well they should've done this years ago" but hindsight is 20/20. i'd rather focus on rebuilding now (which is what i think the goal is). and while i have issues w ow2 in it's current state, there's also quite a bit of things i like, and quite a lot of goodwill their narrative team has fostered with me (it helps that the lore/characters/story are my favorite thing perhaps).

i also don't really "blame" aaron or jared. it sucks they've become the face of this when it was a different team, with different members, different structure, different makeup. yes aaron was there but he also wasn't director or ep. jared's been at blizz for like 6 months. i'm not saying trust them wholeheartedly but also... don't treat them inhumanly either.

[mythica0]

Doctor tickle monster

🎂: Fop: A new wish (cause I’m hyperfixating WOO)

🧁: Dev

🍫: Peri

Summary: Dev is being sad. Sadder than usual. Peri helps.

A/N: my hyperfixations changing faster than life’s trajectory (I haven’t even finished the loud house yet here we are🫡) I needed some Lee Dev in my life so *yeets this fic in your general direction* (P.S we’ll say this takes place after the finale in an alternate timeline but I don’t think there’s any spoilers in here)

Doctor tickle monster

Dev was sad. That much Peri knew. I mean, not really ground-breaking; the kid was sad all the time. [even though he usually hides it behind anger, annoyance or apathy. Pushing people who try to help away because he never learned proper emotional regulation skills or how to communicate with people]

But it was a little.. more than usual. He had been pouting all day, hiding his sad eyes behind his sunglasses. When Peri Asked him what was wrong, at first the kid pushed him away- as he tends to do- but after a while he caved.

“It’s nothing, Peri- it’s stupid.”

“Your feelings aren’t stupid, kid. No matter what your dumb, pea-brained father says.”

That got a small huff of amused breath from the kid. “I know that, it’s just- there isn’t really a reason for me to be sad. Which is just making me more upset because I don’t know why I’m upset.”

The two fell into a small silence. Dev looked down at his shoes, embarrassed by the fact that his eyes were forming tears. Peri was thinking.. ‘how in the world do I cheer him up if there isn’t a problem for me to fix..?’ He thought for a moment, and then seemed to get an idea.

He made a ringing sound, and put a hand up to his ear in a phone gesture. “Brriiing, Brriing,” Dev looked up at his godfather, confused.

“Hello? Doctor? We have a level 5 situation here.”

‘What in the world is he doing?’

“What’s that? You’ll be here right away? Excellent! See you very soon.” He let his hand fall away from his ear, and then he turned around suddenly wearing a stethoscope, and spoke in a slightly different voice.

“Hello, I was called about a level 5 case of the blues?”

Dev raised his eyebrows and looked at him. “What?”

“Ah, you must be the patient! Your godfather gave me a call- said you had a case of the blues for no identifiable reason! So I’m here to help!

His curiosity officially peaked, Dev spoke, almost sarcastically. “And how are you gonna do that?”

“Simple! But first, I have to tell you something..” the ‘doctor’ gestured for Dev to come closer, and he did. Then the ‘doctor’ whispered to him,

“I’m no ordinary doctor- I’m Dr.monster-…” he paused for a moment, before scooping the kid in his arms and starting to vibrate his hand in his stomach “- Tickle monster!”

Dev burst into giggles at the touch, squirming slightly in the hold. “Peheheheheri! Whyhyhy thihihihis!!”

“I’m not Peri, I’m Doctor tickle monster- and because this is the number one treatment for cases of the blues! They do say laughter is the best medicine, after all!”

Although he wouldn’t admit it, even to himself, dev laughed slightly harder at the silly act his fairy godfather was putting on.

“Cohohohome ohohon! Quhuhit ihihit!!”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that- not until you are officially cured! And there’s still a ways to go until then!”

Dev kicked and pushed at Peri’s arms, but it was half-hearted at best. [Dev knew that he could wish for Peri to stop if he really wanted him too. Not that he would say he was enjoying himself]

“And there’s that precious smile! And you do have quite an adorable laugh if I do say so myself!”

Dev’s face went red at the comment, and he frantically tried to deny it. “I ahaham nohohohot cuhuhuhute!!

“Well, your giggles say otherwise~” Peri was having fun teasing and tickling his kid to pieces. It was nice to see him smiling and laughing and full of joy. Lord knows he needs it.

He could tell that the kid was having fun. If he wasn’t, Peri would’ve stopped. His goal was to cheer him up, not make him resentful or more upset.

Meanwhile, Dev was in such ticklish bliss agony, Giddy giggles and laughter poured out of him non-stop.

“Pehehehrihihi! Ihihihit tihihihickles!!”

“Well, duuuuhhh, that’s the point of me tickling you, kid.” At the words, Peri decided to up the ante a bit, moving his hands to his sides and squeezing gently, then moving his head to give the kid a massive raspberry right on the tummy.

Dev squealed, much louder laughter erupting from him without his permission. It tickled so BAD!

“EEEHHEEEEEE! PEHEHEHERIIHIII! THaHAT REHEALLY TIHIHICKLES EHHEHAHHAHAHA!”

“Aww really~? Good! OM NOm” Peri nibbled the kids tummy and made silly noises as he continued to tickle him silly.

Dev laughed and laughed. “Heheheheheee peheheriii StahahahaPpp!”

Peri relented for a moment, not entirely stopping, but moving to much gentler tickles, just lightly scribbling on the kids ribs.

“You cured? Are the blues allllll gone?”

“Yehehehes! Ahahall gohohone!”

“Are you suuuuureee~”

“Yehehehes! Yehehes ihihim suhuhure plehehase stohohop!” The kid giggled out, causing Peri to stop and set him back on the floor, the stethoscope gone.

Dev continued to giggle for a moment, leftover tingles still plaguing his torso.

But, he couldn’t deny the facts. He felt significantly better. He was smiling, and he found that even if he tried he couldn’t stop.

Peri flew next to him. “Feeling better?”

Dev blushed slightly, but still sighed out a “… yeah.”

“I’m glad. I’ll just have to give the good doctor a call every time you’re sad! ”

“Noooooooo” Dev whined, but he was still grinning ear to ear.

“Yes~,” Peri mocked, “new rule- no sadness allowed!! If I see a sad Dev- he gets alll the tickles until he feels better! I have a feeling we’re gonna see a lot more of that smile~~”

“Ugghhhhh” Dev whined again, clearly embarrassed.

Dev was smiling for a long time.

———THE END————————————————

[shatcey]

Victor theories. His curse and cursed ability.

After I posted my thoughts on the possible curse of Vivi, I had a very interesting conversation with @.ethereal-blossom, and she gave me some more ideas that I would like to share. Our conversation was quite long (I think we both like to talk), so I decided to start a new post. This doesn't mean that I think my previous thoughts are wrong. I just like to think about other options. They have every right to be at least considered. This time, they were mostly based on his cursed ability and the most significant aspects of his personality, which were quite difficult to not notice.

After my random joke about the poison apple, Michelle came up with another idea - the tower. And she speculated how much this concept corresponded to Vivi. I would like to continue, because it seems to me that this may be even closer to the truth than Rumplestiltskin.

Rapunzel

The tower is quite fit into the concept of a villain. There is no entrance or exit, except for the window, which is far from the ground. It takes away the freedom of a poor girl, and it's just an awful place. Yes, I'm terrible at making stupid excuses. But why can the briar and the mirror be villains, but the tower is not. This is discrimination against the towers' right to be villains!

But… let's talk about the real villain in this story. I don't remember the original…

...

...

I read it, nothing interesting.

Let's based on the animated film "Tangled" (2010). Another good movie from this year? I think it was a good year… In this movie, the villain was the greedy woman Gothel, who used Rapunzel to stay young and beautiful. Greedy. So… Vivi can be Gothel. In fact, he mentioned that he was greedy back at the first event.

I have no idea how his appearance can indicate that he is NOT greedy or greedy if that is matter. I somehow don't understand the concept that an appearance can tell you something, it's just an appearance. Whatever.

The theme of restriction of freedom was very strong in this story. And for Vivi, freedom is everything. In this fairy tale, there is a strong desire to get rid of responsibility and the inability to do so. And we all feel this in Vivi. This is a contradiction. The desire to be free and the inability to be free because he is bound… by something. Maybe it's some kind of guilt, or a promise, or something entirely different. I really try not to think about the Black Butler, I really do.

Michelle also mentioned that devs like to mix villains with the protagonist in this game. As it was with Elbert. Who is both the greedy queen and Snow white. Based on this concept… Vivi's long hair may also indicate that he is Rapunzel.

How can this be reflected in his story? He's so obsessed with freedom… maybe he just wants to fix his previous mistake. He deprived someone of their freedom, and this awakened his curse. Maybe… or maybe it was his freedom that was taken away from him… and that's why he's so desperate to protect others from the same fate.

And just to try to defend this theory within the terms of the oldest history… The concept of "Maiden in the Tower" is actually quite old. From the Wiki:

I became curious about when the Greek myths actually originated, and I got this answer:

And… that again gave us 5,000 years at most.

But if we talk only about the concept of a woman with long hair. Again from the Rapunzel article

1000 years ago. Yes, it's not that much, but for me it's still a lot.

His cursed ability

Another thing what bothers me is… his curse. I shouldn't talk about it now… it will only be in his birthday story in February. Oh well…

In the 1st birthday story translated by @.archiveikemen

He didn't tell them to do it, as William usually does. At first I thought the phrase "succumb to my wickedness" was some kind of order, but in the next part he didn't say anything, and it still works. Maybe, for the sake of the quality of the narrative, the author did not repeat his words many times, maybe not… It annoys me that I can't fully understand how his ability works.

If we go back a little bit… The Black Wedding event.

Victor chose Kate's lipstick as a weapon (from her lips) and just drew a line on the guy's throat, nothing else, and the guy was scared… Did Vivi's touch just scare the person? Did it make him remember something? Maybe he imagined himself in the place of his victims? Back then I thought maybe he had some kind of hypnosis… or poison… to change a person's perception… But it's more Ally's thing. But he won't do it anyway.

But Vivi's last remark was quite frightening.

He talks about death as if it were a living being.

Let's take a look at the latest Halloween event, "Chaotic night", translated by @.reccyls. In this event, all the boys' abilities were significantly increased.

If his increased ability causes everything around him to age faster than usual and die immediately if he touches them. What can it tell us about his abilities? Maybe he can control it better. Maybe it's activated by some words, like it was on his birthday event? Or just from a simple touch of his with a mental order, as it was at the Black Wedding?

Just a random thought. Perhaps, as a child, he couldn't control his abilities and literally killed everyone around him. Terrifying… but the image is so vivid that I think it's more than possible.

This ability of his seems to be the exact opposite of the Rapunzel flower's power, which prolongs life. Could it be the same thing? Who knows. Even poison in small doses can become a cure…And the other way around, a large dose of medicine turns into poison.

And in Rumplestiltskin, there was no mention of Rumplestiltskin's other abilities other than making gold. The only thing that connects this story with death is that in the beginning he saved a woman, and in the end he had to die himself. It's a pretty weak connection.

On the other hand, the story about a man who sold his soul to the Devil… it can correspond to both his desire for freedom and his abilities. But what could Vivi ask for that? What will he gain from this?

This is from the very beginning of the "Love and Death" event, which will be released pretty soon on EN, translated by @.reccyls

So it involves making some kind of decision. But the curse doesn't give an opportunity to deside something. It just gets stuck in a person. Perhaps @.reccyls was right, and Vivi is the first cursed one and a kind of ancestor of each of boys.

And back to his cursed ability. This is what I talked about in my previous post. He wanted something to grow in his life, because his cursed ability kills everything. It's so fitting. His flower garden… his hair… his children… It's pretty obvious when you think about it…

In addition, I would like to talk about other things that I did not mention in the first post, and what it could give us.

Small details

It took me a while to find... Here.

So… butterfly, fish and scorpion. Sky, water and earth. There is only fire left, and we've got all the elements. Did they just miss it? Does that mean something? Why there is no fire?..

On the other hand… In my first post, when I mentioned the god of death… there was a line saying that a butterfly means a soul. And scorpio is quite often associated with Ancient Egypt. I probably watch The Mummy too much (1999 and 2002).

No, I was right.

So… Most likely, these two symbols were used in his design simply to indicate his occupation… The god of death, who collects souls. After all, that's why they call him the grim reaper.

Children

By a very odd coincidence, in both fairy tales, I am still considering the most possible variants of his curse, children are mentioned one way or another.

Rapunzel was literally kidnapped as a baby and raised in a tower.

And Rumplestiltskin wanted to get a child for all he had done for these ungrateful people. I'm still mad at them.

And Victor loves all his cute cursed boys very much, as if they were his children.

That's all, there's nothing to add.

And again… to complicate things

I took a screenshot from the description of the character and to compare Willy (he was just next to him, I was too lazy to look for other options).

Do you see? I'll show it closer.

And I put William's description on top.

This is a fake page!

All the pages for boys look like this:

Cursed by (name of the curse) from (name of the fairy tale)

But here… they just erase the space in the first line (which by definition should be empty), erase the place where his curse should be, and… there is no place for the fairy tale from which he comes. Even on Harrison's page, there is only a question mark, there was still room for a curse.

The second thing that makes me think so… all names of curses begin right under the word "Cursed"… but the blur on Victor's page starts from the middle… Perhaps this was done specifically for aesthetic reasons… the name is too short… but why is there no place for a fairy tale here???

And FINALLY after reading one of Michelle's posts… I caught the word "worship", and for some reason it got me hooked, and I decided to turn to Google…

This can't be! Right?

I was joking about Nico's decoration, which looks like Cthulhu… Vivi can't be Cthulhu…

But it all fits together. The god of death, who makes people worship him and follow him with joy, which is supposed to kill all of humanity… The only thing that doesn't add up is a fairly new story… from the first half of the 20th century. But the concept of the God of Death is not new. We return to the myths.

Damn you, Victor! You're a mummy. And I don't care that it has nothing to do with anything. At least it fits your curse!

(joyful exhalation)

Now I can think of something else. For example, how old he is, about his relationship with the queen, about his past, about his true identity…

Ally, save me, I'm going to drown in this man.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

🔝 𝕊𝕋𝔸ℝ𝕋 ℙ𝔸𝔾𝔼 🔝

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[snaccpopstudios]

Games Report 06/20/23

Hello everyone! Before we get into the meat of this week's dev report, today's guest artwork of Shaun Durand-Coffer and Moon Pie is by Coda Blue, a black games developer we commissioned to commemorate Juneteenth 2023!

We're also breaking a bit of convention today: it’s Sauce here to do some talking about a frequent (and valid) concern/question we get from fans.

Why so many projects at one time?

There are a lot of reasons that go into it and it’s kind of difficult to break down casually. But I’ll do my best to use the analogy of a relay race with batons!

Each project (Sunny Day Jack, The Groom of Gallagher Mansion, AphroDesia, and DacahaBo) largely has its own team, meaning that Writer A is assigned to Project A while Writer B is assigned to Project B and so forth. In a single Project, when the Writer is done with the script, they pass the baton to the Artist (usually me, in this case) to draw additional art like CGs to accentuate key scenes, while an Editor works to tighten up the sentence structure and spot missing plot points (a Musician may be working at this time as well). After editing is complete and art is at least underway, Programmers and Voice Actors can begin on their tasks. As we near completion, Programmers, Audio Engineers, and Beta Testers make sure the package is nice and tidy for everyone to enjoy.

At least, that's how it goes in an ideal situation.

When you’re working on a production, a large amount of variables (defined as an "element, feature, or factor that is liable to vary or change") are in play. Some of those variables might look like:

When does this team member get off from college, their day job, or other life commitment?

When they're done with those, how much personal time do they need in order to take care of themselves, or even recuperate?

What happens if the person actively working on something has a chronic illness flare-up, gets sick, or has something else preventing them from doing their assignment?

What happens if this person isn't openly communicating about delays in delivering work?

What happens if we can't contact someone because they're not responding to our inquiries?

What if we need to remove someone from the team, or someone we were counting on leaves voluntarily?

What happens if work that was "completed" and already paid for needs to be scrapped entirely and redone from the ground up?

Does someone else from Project C need to fill in and work on Project A to help them catch up?

Does someone assigned to one role in a Project need to take on multiple roles to help the entire team catch up?

Even from this short list of potential hurdles we might face during production, it seems like an easy solution would be to eliminate someone's time spent on outside life commitments! Except, it's not: even BáiYù can't quit his day job because in America, traditional employment often offers healthcare as part of their employee benefits and SnaccPop Studios is nowhere close to being able to provide a full living wage for everyone working with us. Maybe one day! But we’re not quite there.

So as you can imagine, sometimes there will be periods of time when an entire group of people aren't working because they don't have the baton quite yet since the person holding the baton is being held up by life. And this isn't their fault by any means, but a lack of communication about that makes it harder for us to estimate when any single relay race will be complete.

So how do you keep a Patreon filled with content?

We are very fortunate and grateful to receive a lot of Patreon support, especially after our SDJ Kickstarter! But getting all those funds is a huge responsibility. You should attempt to keep it stocked. And that’s what we attempt to do.

SP is made up of different teams suited to each individual property. Different programmers, different writers, etc. Each team is tasked with getting a set amount of work done, and between all the variables listed above sometimes we have really good months and sometimes we have pretty dry ones. Keeping all these teams moving together helps us to put out content while say, a writer is out with COVID and SDJ needs to pause for a week. TGoGM had a technical error that saw the game needing to be rebuilt in a new engine. And at the moment, AD is currently sans an audio drama writer.

These are frustrating problems and we're working on fixing what's in our direct control. But we understand that we also have to USE the money we receive visibly or else people ask us where the money is even paying for. And while we make an effort to put away savings responsibly, we can’t just accept large amounts of money without providing a product, or portions of one, in return.

The "Boring Bits"

There’s also in productions portions I like to call “Boring Bits”. These are moments where everything being done is just exceptionally boring to show off. Either it’s programming and bug fixing, or it’s deep lore writing and scripting we can’t show due to spoilers, or something else like that.

At those times all we CAN say is we’ve been fixing bugs or writing. BáiYù and some of the other team members could give an explanation of what's going on during those times but most of us can agree that it's not as enjoyable as something like a new pin-up or an audio drama. 

Sometimes to say more would be a spoiler, or we can’t say anything else. Sometimes, it's all a waiting game.

At the beginning, waiting was the hardest part. It could take anywhere from two weeks to months to get back recordings or audio or art. And we have to respect why these things happen. When it’s an instance of slow delivery, we can ask for more clear deadlines or pay a rush fee, but other than that it’s just a long wait.

So, while we waited, we tried to find other means of providing entertainment.

Productions featuring groups of people all over the world, with very different lives, is extremely difficult. But sometimes people who provide quality work require that bit of patience.

So where is everything in the relay race?

At the moment, the status of our projects is as such:

Sunny Day Jack

SDJ is still being mapped out due to the inclusion of Nick as a love interest, as his character becoming more permanent changes several things in the narrative with the other love interests. To help speed things along, we've asked Gil Finnegan (he/him) from the DachaBo team to work with Biscuwuit to split the character route workloads.

It’s a large game, and their work includes labeling every individual scene as well as planning all the programmable variables. We can’t share ANYTHING more than what we have already shared on Kickstarter and Patreon. No new art assets are prepared because they’ve either been made (BGs, GUI) or we don’t how many sprites we need for the full roster until the plot is reworked completely. We can’t give script pages because of spoiler reasons.

We anticipate that a more robust report cycle will begin appearing once we get to scripting, but as a VN writing is a heavy and very important portion of the game that requires this narrative planning, sensitivity editing, and retcon checking. We will likely be in the writing portion a lot of 2023, which was expected since the game is intended to release in 2024.

Sleepy Time Jack

STJ is our additional companion app that’s seeing its final updates with the Patreon Exclusive “Jacktor” portion currently in progress. Due to some less-than-ideal cloud storage issues, we had to remake certain assets from scratch. Additionally, Steam is currently giving BáiYù the runaround and making it difficult for him to get the page up publicly, but we think we've figured out why they're complaining about the logo (they seem to be afraid of the "Digital Talking Body Pillow" subtitle not being part of the app's name in the system).

The Groom of Gallagher Mansion

TGoGM is expected to be finished soon, with free NSFW content planned for the future, but not until we’ve given it some time to sit. BáiYù has had to not only perform his usual Producer duties across all of SP, but also take on Writer and Programmer duties in this project to keep it moving due to life circumstances surrounding team members.

DachaBo

DachaBo Classic is being maintained canonically and updated by a largely separate team, but mostly only as a cosmetic and stability update. DachaBo: Barks & Mews proper remains in pre-production (Planning lore, connecting dots, and conceptualizing) until TGoGM sees its first release in English.

AphroDesia

AD is currently planning its audio reboot. But as a lore-heavy series, it’s being taken under consideration very carefully. Audio drama writers are key, and our current writer is prioritizing living expense-crucial work.

The "Re-Pilot" has a full outline written that is about seven pages long, with a script to follow after. Priority will re-shift back to this project once TGoGM and STJ are out the door, with a slowly metered development since it is an audio drama/planned comic. This production is more about assigning duties and waiting than any other task.

What about other projects?

Anything else besides these projects and the Bachelor of the Month series (currently on hiatus) is not an official SP project, and funds do not directly contribute to those projects, as they’re considered personal items by individual members.

As has been mentioned before, I (Sauce) also make personal works. And that’s part of why I’m the one handling this.

Many people still consider me a part of SP from a heading POV. But part of why I stepped down as "Boss" was because at the moment I’m juggling a college education, full or part-time employment, and healing from years of untreated mental health. It was no longer feasible for me to manage all of these things.

BáiYù instead is compensated to handle the business aspects, and is more capable to do so at this time. I help with Patreon art, tier rewards, and additional creative work while he's been the one writing the majority of the updates and dev reports. I also work on SDJ sprite art, and additional art assets (Steam page, GUI, graphics, etc.) but with my free time I have begun to prioritize taking moments to relax with some non-game art.

I have noticed people saying my work outside is SP work, or attributing it as such. I attempted to even use a separate alias to separate the two, but I guess my style is recognizable to a degree and tried to make the best of it by declaring otherwise myself.

Anything not SDJ, STJ, TGoGM, DB, AD, or BotM is not property of SnaccPop Studios. I've invited some of the individual team members to talk about the projects they do in their free time or as parts of other game studios as SP has a wonderful platform thanks to all of you, but always be sure to look for the official SP branding or else risk accidentally affiliating unrelated work with us.

That is such the case for me, and it could very well be that way for anyone else.

In conclusion...

At the end of the day, SnaccPop does its best to balance a busy, worthwhile Patreon and quality projects done by persons whose individual circumstances are acknowledged and respected. And we understand that a lot of things at once can look flighty and unfocused.

We really hope this breakdown helps, and we apologize for any issues that not having one up prior may have caused!

Making art is messy. Confining creative and quality visions to jobs and roles can be at the best of times spontaneous. But we’re happy to be able to employ or use our funding to pay and contribute to the lives of many different types of creatives in many different lifestyles.

Again, here's how our projects are looking:

SDJ is on track to arrive in 2024.

STJ and TGoGM are in their final stretches with more content to come after.

DB Classic is being stablized before wide release while DB: Barks & Mews is in pre-production

AD is in pre-production, but the personal circumstances of a key writer are making it a bit difficult!

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[handsome-jacks-bottom-bitch]

So I ranked vault monsters and my personal take on how difficult they were to fight on a first run through. So now, I'm gonna rank weapons. Not just weapons, but the weapon manufacturers specifically, based on how useful they are, and just how fun they are to use. I'll be including all brands, including brands that only show up in one game, like S&S Muntions. As per usual, these are purely my own opinions, and based more so on my personal playstyle. I will also be taking into account the manufacturers playstyles across all games, as some change, like Tediore or Maliwan weapons.

I'll also include some fun little tidbits about each manufacturer for anyone obsessed with Borderlands lore like I am. Buckle in, cause this is gonna be a long one.

12. S&S Muntions

So S&S Muntions isn't a super interesting manufacturer. These weapons provide larger magazines and long reload times. Featuring about 5 or so legendaries in the game, one of which to this day is still bugged, these weapons don't offer much, aside from a small damage boost compared to other weapons. They didn't add anything that made their use fun.

I also rank this one so low due to the fact that it's only in one game, and was never really expanded on, like say Tediore or Torgue was. According to the games lore, S&S munitions was run out of business by BANDIT weapons on Pandora, and SCAV weapons on Elpis, hence why it was never seen again.

As a fun little extra lore drop, S&S Munitions still technically exists in the games, as the radios in Borderlands 3 can play an add for the newly rebranded "S&S Accessories", which are responsible for the little lines of light that come out of the weapons on the ground, that are deactivated when the weapon is picked up, and reactivated when the weapons dropped.

At the end of the day, S&S weapons just don't impress me all that much, but that doesn't mean they still aren't useful. The Orion sniper rifle will always hold a special place in my loadout, regardless of the character I'm playing.

11. Eridian

So I was originally going to put Eridian last, but the weapons themselves are just so fascinating that I couldn't quite place it there. Now I know I'm putting both Borderlands 1 exclusive manufacturers at the bottom two, but unfortunately neither of them were really ever expanded upon to warrant higher placements.

Now the reason I put them above S&S is because of the way that these weapons work. While I personally rarely use them unless as a last resort, Eridian weapons have saved me once or twice, and that's because they have unlimited ammo. You never have to worry about running low should you find yourself depleted. Now the downside to them is the reload, or more accurately, the recharge. Eridian weapons have a recharge on them, that can still go even if you aren't actively holding one. Therefore, if you equip four, you can just keep swapping and essentially never have to wait for a recharge.

Now what's even more interesting about them is their rarity. While nearly all Eridian weapons come in a green rarity, they're technically rarer that normal green weapons. Even rarer, is the legendary Eridian weapons, which are rarer than some pearlescents. In all my time playing Borderlands 1, I've only ever managed to get my hands on one Eridian legendary, which was thr Eridian Mega Cannon. While it's not exactly an impressive weapon by any means, it can still have it's uses in a pinch.

Now I'm not entirely sure why Eridian weapons were discontinued after Borderlands 1, though one could easily assume that it was because they, well.. sucked. Most people did not like them, and I don't blame them. Their shots are slow, and they don't really do all that much. Come Borderlands 2, these weapons were essentially replaced by E-Tech weapons, much like S&S being replaced by BANDIT and SCAV, though no lore or dev comments state that E-Tech was made as a replacement for the missing manufacturer, it's just an assumption.

The only time we ever get to see Eridian weapons come back to the Borderlands games is in Borderlands 3, with the Eridian Fabricator or, as the fan base has taken to calling it, the "Gun Gun". It's cool in concept, but it's only real use is a quick cash grab. In late 2020, it was given an alternate firing mode that allowed you to pay it 250 eridium and have it shoot a legendary or unique weapon, and it's drop pool only excluded 4 legendaries and 2 unique, so while it could be used to try and spawn that legendary you've been looking for, it gets expensive real fast.

10. Dahl

So this one is where my own playstyle really affects this placement. Dahl weapons have a high recoil reduction, but terrible accuracy. In earlier games, they has special firing modes. When you aimed down the sights, these weapons would have burst fire, as compared to the full auto when you free fired. A pretty simple concept.. unless your a sniper like I am.

I love sniping in Borderlands. I love keeping my distance and one shotting most enemies with the most overpowered rifle I can find.. but Dahl is where that falls flat, as when you aim down the sights, it burst fires. Sniper ammo is already a small pool as it is, being the weapon with the lowest possible ammo count that you can carry, so when it burst fires, couple with the weapons low accuracy.. well, sniping doesn't become fun anymore, and leads to way more missed shots and wasted ammo.

However the one weapon I will give this manufacturer that I include in EVERY build I've ever used, is the Toothpick. An Effervescent assault rifle added into Borderlands 2 with the Commander Lilith DLC. This weapon especially holds a place in my Axton build, coupled with the Mouthwash artifact. This weapon is glorious, and I will forever defend it until my dying day. Unfortunately, that one blessing of a weapon alone isn't enough to change my opinion on this manufacturer.

While their weapons are pretty decent, when you delve into the lore.. Dahl is a messed up company. From it being responsible to a lot of the bandit population on Pandora, to the fact that it nearly destroyed Elpis with its mining operations leading to the crackening.. they've got quite a bit to answer for.

9. Vladof

So Vladof is on a similar level as Dahl. High fire rate, reduced recoil, and low accuracy. The only thing that puts it a step above Dahl for me is the sniper rifles, and the Infinity pistol.

Vladof sniper rifles have potential to do loads of damage, and pretty decent stability, meaning less sway. Now in Borderlands 1, this doesn't have much effect cause most of the sniper rifles honestly suck, especially in the early game. Most sniper rifles in the early game, at least in my experience, always have very low rates of fire, which isn't ideal when you have 20 enemies on you, and they deplete all your shields and half you health while you load another round. That being said, sniper rifles were greatly improved come Borderlands 2, including Vladof.

Now the reason Vladof isn't higher on my list is because I don't use them very often. The rifles and weapons are good, but I just don't find myself choosing a Vladof over others. The stability is good, and rate of fire and increased ammo capacity is a nice touch, but it just doesn't quite meet my needs.

That being said, the Inifinity is always a good gun should you find yourself low on ammo. As long as you have at least one pistol bullet, this gun will fire endlessly, with no reload. On top of this, it can come in elemental variants, which makes it good for endless elemental damage. I always keep one on me just in case I find myself somehow out of ammo.

A fun little fact about Vladof, is that thr company is run and owned by a man named Ivan Vladof. If you play Borderlands: The Pre-Sequels DLC, and go through the challenge "A Bubble for Your Thoughts", you can actually find out that Nurse Nina is Ivan Vladofs long lost sister, which makes her conversation with her mother in the quest "Systems Jammed" all the more interesting, but we'll get into all that in another post.

8. Hyperion

Oh Hyperion, how you've screwed everything. Now as a concept, I adore Hyperion. I love it's backstory, I LOVE Handsome Jack.. but let's be honest, they aren't the best for weapons. Notably, the TERRIBLE stability. Sure, it becomes more steady the more the shoot, but GOD those first few seconds are hell.

Now don't get me wrong, Hyperion has some decent weapons. From the Bitch, to the Butcher, and the beauty that is the Morningstar berating you with every shot. However this company is also responsible for the Bane. That alone should put thos company at the bottom of the list, but alas, I'm merciful.. and biased.

Come Borderlands 3, these weapons got and added specialty, being the shields that they pop up when aiming down the sights, which are honestly.. useless. Especially if you've got enemies in all directions. While the terrible accuracy is a tad better in 3, it's still no great. Often times, Hyperion weapons rarely find themselves in my arsenal, and more than often find themselves right back in Marcus' hands for some quick cash.

Now while I've got plenty of fun facts about Hyperion, I'm going to save this particular manufacturer for its own post, as there's quote a bit of lore to delve into with this one. What I can leave you with though, is this. Did you know Handsome Jack makes an appearance in the Witcher 3?

In Witcher 3: Blood and Wine, if you take the story route that lands Geralt in prison, there's an inmate you can speak with by the name of Handsome Jacques, who will subsequently leave you to fight yourself when you're later attacked by other inmates.

7. Bandit/Scav

So I'm lumping Bandit and Scav together in the same spot, because they are exactly the same, just different names and weapon textures. So there's nothing exactly special about these weapons. While these are the direct counterpart to what was S&S Munitions, they do have some differences. These weapons have large ammo capacity, but suffer from long reload times, and exceptionally low stats all around.

Now based on that alone, these weapons sound like they suck, huh? Well.. yeah. They do. However, they're fun. They're chaotic, the legendaries special abilities can either turn the tide of battle if used correctly, or just make everything even more hectic, and I love it. From the crazy, grammatically incorrect names, to just the simple face that they're all made of spare parts, they're just fun, and because they suck, they offer challenge. That really make you fight for that win, and I adore them. Now will you find me using them very often? No, you won't. But I always keep a couple on me just in case I want to go buck wild and see what happens.

According to the games lore, Bandit and Scav weapons are what put S&S Munitions out of business, forcing thr company to change to S&S Accessories. Now one could assume, that since most bandits and scavs don't seem to have 2 braincells between the lot of them, that these weapons are being made by the ex DAHL workers left behind who turned to banditry to survive after being abandoned. This isn't confirmed or Canon in anyway, it's just a nice little assumption I like to have.

6. Atlas

So, Atlas didn't really become a good weapon brand until Borderlands 3. Why? Tracking bullets. That's also because aside from Borderlands 1 and 3.. Atlas weapons didn't exist. After Borderlands 1, Atlas fell into complete ruin, was bought out and dismantled by Handsome Jack, and revived by Rhys after the fall of Helios. Hence, why this brand didn't exist in BL2 and BL:PS.

Atlas weapons were decent in Borderlands 1, but I didn't often find myself using them. Come Borderlands 3, however, I adore them. Slapping down a tracker bullet and being able to fire with reckless abandon, knowing each of my shots will hit is always a wonderful feeling.

When it comes to their legendaries, the Rebel Yell is exceptionally handy is tracking a target, and depleting their shields like it's nothing. Now, I still don't ever really find myself using these weapons late game in Mayhem mode, but early game? These weapons were a god send, especially when I first made the transfer to PC, and had to relearn how to aim.

Not only all that, but these weapons have increased damage AND mag capacity, which just adds to their usefulness early game.

Now apparently, Professor Nakayama claims that he poisoned the original CEO of Atlas. Whether or not this was true is left to speculation, though if it was true, one could only assume it was done in an attempt to gain Handsome Jack's favor.. a lot of good that seemed to do.

5. Maliwan

Oh Maliwan.. how the mighty fall. I love Maliwan. I love elemental damage. I also love weapons with good accuracy. However what I don't love, is having to CHARGE MY WEAPONS in a FAST PACED GAME. Prior to Borderlands 3, Maliwan was a staple in my loadoutd, especially with my Maya builds, which all revolved around elemental damage and making the most of it. These weapons are a god send, even in Borderlands 1.

Then came Borderlands 3.. and they ruined it. Yes, these weapons can deal massive elemental damage, and I personally love using legendaries like the Quasar.. but the charge time. I despise the charge time. Especially when it comes to their sniper rifles. Sniper rifles should not have a charge time.

Now what I love about Maliwan, is they only produce elemental weapons, minus explosive. You will never find a plain weapon by them. Now unfortunately, there's only a few choice Maliwan weapons I'll ever use in Borderlands 3, but when it comes to Borderlands 2? I can't get enough of them.

Now weapons aren't the only thing that Maliwan produces apparently. If look closely at the beer bottles scattered across Pandora and Elpis, you'll find that some will have labels marked "Maliwan Black Label", a line of alcohol that the company seems to produce.

4. CoV

So CoV are the bandit weapons of Borderlands 3, with a major difference.. no reloads. All these weapons work essentially the same way Vladofs Infinity works, with own downside. Overhearing.

These weapons can overheat and break, causing you to have to cool it off and smack it back to working order. Now these weapons are great because if you play ot carefully, you can demolish groups of enemies in seconds with these weapons. You can also run out of ammo entirely without noticing. These weapons have plenty of pros and cons.

I love CoV weapons purely because I can just fire with near reckless abandon, and the damage on them is decent enough. They have essentially the same stats as Bandit made weapons, since.. they are. Just tweaked with engines and infinite firing power.

The vast upgrade in these Bandit weapons could be due to a few things. The CoV having access to a lot more, the merger with Maliwan, or maybe the bandits just got smarter. We'll never really know.

3. Tediore

Tediore how I love you. Sure, Tediore weapons have the potential to eat through your ammo if you aren't careful, but oh if it isn't fun. Throwing your weapon as a grenade that does increased damage the more ammo in the? Who wouldn't love that!

Tediore weapons gave fast reload speeds, being that they just digistruct back into your hands after you chuck them. Now, throwing guns as grenades is fun.. but what about turning it sentient?

Come Borderlands 3, these weapons dont just get thrown to explode, they get thrown and become temporary allies. They will float or run around, firing a few rounds.. THEN explode, and it's glorious. I adore Tediore weapons, purely because of how chaotic they can be, and how high damage they can be if you're willing to spare some ammo.

Now they didn't do any of this is Borderlands 1, and what made them special is that their legendary weapons would regenerate ammo, which was about the only special thing about them.

Because of they way their weapons are made, which is typically out of plastic and fiberglass, Tediores weapons are cheap and disposable. Due to this, Tediore is often looked at as the laughing stock of all the corporations, and often overlooked and ignored. At least until New Tales, when they showed just how much of a threat they could actually be. Not such a stupid company now, huh Katagawa?

2. Torgue

(I ran out of photo spots for one post.)

I just have one question for you. EXSPLOSIONS?! Not only is Torgue just an amazing brand, it's also the company with a CEO that has the most involvement with the player. From Torgues battle arenas in Borderlands 3, to his head hunter DLC and actual full length DLC in Borderlands 2, Torgue is just sort of always there.

Now Torgue, much like all weapons in Borderlands 1 compared to the other games, didn't have much going to for them other than high explosive damage. Yet come the later games, these weapons did a full 180 and became quickly my top three favorite brands to use.

High damage output, good fire rate, at the cost of accuracy and recoil. At the end of thr day though, it doesn't matter, because since the bullets are explosive, even if they miss and hit the ground by the target, they can still do damage. It's great for firing with reckless abandon. Like playing Junkrat in Overwatch. Shoot and pray.

Plus, who doesn't love Torgue? He's loud, he's eccentric, he's respectful.. what isn't there to love? Now, is Torgue still CEO of his own company? No, he's not. He sold it for $12 and a high five.. but he still owns it in my heart. We love him, and he loves all of us. That's what truly matters.

1. Jakobs

Ok. Hear me out. I know this probably isn't what you were expecting to placed at number one, but I have my reasons.

So Jakobs weapons have always had low magazines, reloads and fire rate, but their damage makes up for that. Jakobs weapons deal high damage and have great accuracy. On top of this, their "fire as fast as you can pull the trigger" trait is perfect for saving ammo. You can easily control just how many bullets you fire at once.

Then come Borderlands 3, these weapons got an even better trait. Ricochet bullets. For every critical hit you land will cause 1 or 2 bullets to ricochet to nearby enemies, making sniping even more dangerous.

One downside, is that Jakobs doesn't make any elemental weapons, save for about 5 unique/legendary exceptions.

But when it comes to my ideal, keep my distance and snipe playstyle with most of my characters, this brand is perfect for me. Stability to aim, ricocheting bullets, impressive damage.. it's the perfect brand.

Plus, the corporation is run by an absolute gift of a man, Wainwright Jakobs. Sure, the company was overrun for a bit, but what corporation hasn't been overrun and nearly destroyed at this point. Very few can say they haven't. In the world of Borderlands, Jakobs is considered the least aggressive and problematic company of them all, and it's held that appearance for 300 years, and continues to.

I know this post was a lengthy one, and if you read it all the way to the end, thank you! I know my rankings probably aren't even close to what popular professionals would rank them at, but while I try to take into account mechanics, I also take fun into account, and just my playstyle preferences.

So, as always, let me know your opinions. Tell me if you agree with my rankings, or what you'd change. I'd love to know what your favorite manufacturer is.

[fantomette22]

Nightmare frontier (Loran) geologic interpretation

Alright, here I am to talk about another detail I noticed while replaying Bloodborne! It has more to do with well the geology of the nightmare frontier and from what it's based on in real life. I like analysis and trying to understand those in video game! But also might bue because I'm a technician geologist too XD Still I will try to stay simple and short.

So The Nightmare frontier in the Nightmare. This optional zone you can unlock thanks to Patches! And where we fight the Amygdala to obtained the Loran's chalice.

Notes : the nightmares are in layers. Mensis nightmare is on top then the frontier, under the fishing hamlet with the boats. And under the hamlet the hunter's nightmare/Yharnam of the dlc. For the one who didn't knew.

Notes 2 : The nightmare frontier is probably a nightmare originating from the region where Loran is (the out place area and the Loran chalice are goos indicator). You know that Pthumerian civilisation far from pthumeru & Yharnam who all become beasts... But if you are into the lore you probably know about Loran and all.

So in the frontiers we can find those strange stone hexagonal columns around :

Well it is a real geologic structures! Also named volcanic (basalts) columns, organ pipes etc (orgues volcaniques in French)

Volcanic columns of Panska skala. Source image : https://planet-terre.ens-lyon.fr/ressource/orgues-volcaniques.xml,

So, how it's formed? Well it is a bit complex but I will try to explain simply. You see those are formed from (effusive) volcanism (don't cofound with magmatic plutonism). You see when a volcano create really liquid lava and don't explode it's effusive. The lava cooled fast on the surface (huge thermic difference with the air or water) and don't crystallised, it often formed basalts (this black rock without minerals visible) or similars stone (can be andesite too in that case or even diorite. It's the same "family").

Those columns are not directly made on the surface but meters under the first couch of lava or they can be formed in magmatic veins that came from a magmatic chamber (in the ground) but cooled way faster than the chamber: it can create those or dyke or sills for exemple/ A magmatic chamber who cooled of will be crystallised on the contrary and take a lot of time! (Thousand if not millions of year) Still it's seems those columns take years or century to become rocks. Still it is "fast" on a geological levels.

Apparently with specific conditions temperature it create this hexagonal columns. It is also similar when clay who became dry and cracked on the ground if you prefer.

Anyway those volcanic columns can be found in many places! Europe, Africa, Asia, America etc There are usually millions of years old and we can see them thanks to erosions of the more tender rocks around it.

The first pic I show are at 80/100km north to Prague in Czech Republic. And You know Bloodborne is a bit more based on easter Europe so 👀

Anyway I think this is very cool the devs inspire themself from those! Very Interesting!

SO what it says about Loran region and Bloodborne world then ?🤔 Well I'm not sure but it's sure is very ancient geologic formation and even in XIX century 2 big theories fought about geology so it sure could be see as specials for old civilisation! Especially in link with old great ones or smt. And maybe Loran could be closer to Yharnam than we think.

ALSO

You see those weird ?ball rocks? in the all the nightmare area? really remind me of pillow lava. You know when lava pierce through the ocean and cold really fast

Ok and I'm not sure for Yharnam or Cainhurst geology but pretty sure the fishing hamlet is volcanic stone too. Why? Well the huge massifs black stones and the BLACK SAND, like in Hawaii ! Or in Iceland. Volcanic region with huge volcanic activity.

Black sand always means it came from volcanic rocks or that it's rich in iron minerals for exemple.

[pessimisticshapewithablog]

How are Death gods made?

I was thinking about TOWW's origin as a god. Maybe that was why TOWW was so different from his siblings? His origin as a god was one of death. Let's begin!

TOWW seems to be dead. He is a 'dead' death god. In mythology, gods of death aren't always dead themselves. As death for gods usually means they ceased to exist. This is very likely why the bishops couldn't kill him, only seal him away. You can't kill what's already dead. 

Now we know that gods in COTL can die just like mortals can, so whatever TOWW is, was not a normal death state for a god. Something about his death or how he died had to be significant enough to make him like this. Where death was a part of his being, enough to be a death god, not just the state he was in. Think Osiris, the Egyption god of death and mummification. He was not always a death god, he was once a living one with a different sphere of influence. Once he died, death became his portfolio. When it comes to death gods they are usually the first dead of their pantheon.

When it comes to how a death god is created it is expected for death to play a part in their origin. But this is not always the case. In some mythos, gods of death are living, they're just responsible for managing the dead. In TOWW's case it's implied that he is in fact dead. He makes a statement about his heart not beating and the state of his arms might imply some level of decomposition has occurred. The fact that he uses his eyes as combatants could also hint that his body isn't alive and he doesn't really need them, no other boss uses pieces of their body to fight us. 

Because TOWW is a 'dead' death god, I make these speculations under the pretense that all death gods in COTL are dead or must die to become one.The exact timeframe for when TOWW could have died isn't possible to know. He could have perished as a mortal and arose as an undead, possibly by the red crown, slowly gaining enough power to become godlike. Or he could have died as a god, and through some profane ritual, awoken as a death god. 

I liken TOWW's origins as a death god to that of a church grim. Church grims were guardian spirits of churches and their graveyards. They were 'created' when an animal, usually a black dog, was buried alive on the church grounds at its creation. It was believed they would serve as protectors and guides for the souls of the deceased. Animals were chosen to spare people from this eternal duty but not always. Their death was seen as a necessity.

COTL is a world of gods and the supernatural, so I imagine a church grim would be a real life necessity rather than simply a barbaric practice. But why, you ask, would Narinder have been at risk of becoming what amounts to a sacrifice? Well, he is a black cat. The devs state TOWW was designed after the belief that seeing a black cat would mean someone would die soon. 

With that in mind I imagine in the magical world of COTL that maybe a real possibility rather than a superstition. A possibility that could lead to prejudice against black cats. Maybe Narinder was a victim of prejudice, being murdered and turned into a church grim against his will? Maybe it was a cultural practice within society? Maybe it was a sinister ritual done under the cover of night. Maybe it was a punishment? Who can know?

Within the same cultures as church grims there was also a belief that the first person buried in a churchyard was tasked with protecting the souls of the deceased until the next funeral/burial. The newly dead would be their replacement. If something were to happen, and no more burials occurred there, that soul would be trapped in eternal vigil, with no replacement, and no way to pass on themselves. This is why animals were usually chosen. I believe this is the current predicament that TOWW is/was in. Why he seemed to grow tired of his duty as a god. 

"Lamb. Mortal life is so... fragile. So fleeting. So long did I stand at the gates between this life and the next, trapped at the nexus of what was and what wasn't."

-Narinder

Conclusion

Speculation Station 

In the beginning TOWW may have enjoyed the power of being a god but being dead may have been an uncomfortable state to be in for all eternity.

On a lighter note ,there is an IRL god with origins similar to church grims. Ankou, a servant of death. He was responsible for collecting the souls of the dead before he could go to the afterlife. This god has many disputed origins but he is the death god I personally associate most with TOWW. 

[the-s1lly-corner]

Thinking very hard about the fact that- excluding the bandages on kallamars ears and shamuras head- shamura and heket are the only bishops to have bandages on other parts of their bodies in their eldritch forms (and presumably in their regular forms too, just out of sight under their robes)

Heket has bandages on her front legs, and shamura has them wrapped around their spider abdomen

Why... is that?

I like to think at least in Shamuras case it could be a means to protect their body during fights- they charge right at the lamb during the boss fight as well as slam into the ground from their webs. The bandages line up with how they hit the ground... But if that were the case, wouldn't it make more sense for them to wear actual armor? We see Kallamar wielding multiple weapons in his fight- and in game the armor would just be a cosmetic than anything.

And then there's Heket. The bandages are on her upper arms/legs. Something worth noting too is that there's ichor leaking from Hekets bandages, but not Shamuras. Which I find... interesting. Additional wound from Narinder or from something else? Who else would manage to get close enough to her to deal that sort of damage? With the bishops we know that the wounds given to them from Narinder don't stop bleeding until they're transformed into scars after their final quest is completed- so maybe the arm wounds WERE from the fight (I bring this up because the only other bishop who has a visible wound/scar is Kallamar, but considering it's a scar prior to the final quest I'm led to believe that it wasn't from Narinder)

So in Hekets case there IS a wound for the bandages to protect and cover, whereas in Shamuras case we just... dont really know. Maybe they do have one that we just can't see? But even then, the devs went through the trouble of adding ichor to Hekets bandages so surely they'd do the same for Shamura if they were hurt there too?

Thinking hard

Chat what do you guys think-- I usually don't tag these kinds of posts but I yearn to know what other cotl fans thoughts on this are because as far as I'm aware no one else has brought this up

[axl-ul]

The Lakebed

(Shortstory)

Bang! A loud noise came from behind the thick door.

Kogar opened his eyes. They were black just like the night sky outside the small shed. His grizzled braids slithered around the pale nearly ashen face as he slowly got up from the sleeping bag. His bare feet ringed against the cold floor. He tried his best not to wake the child on the wide bench – Ulfrika, his latest disciple. The smouldering fire pit illuminated the parentless child who had been carried out of the forest by a wolf. The creature with coals instead of eyes and fangs for teeth. The cub was so grotesque not even the rest of his fellow demons had dared to take a closer look when the group of woodcutters had found her.

Kogar stopped in his tracks. These local frosts were biting through thin cracks all too much. Her tiny frame trembled as a harsh proof of it. All she needed was just a woollen blanket over those tiny shoulders to prevent them from further shivers. Just that old tattered piece of brown cloth to keep the little one warm. Just that so she can remain peacefully in her small world of dreams.

The man’s hand was soon stopped by another banging on the door. This time, a growl followed soon after, “Embalmer, open up! We know you’re there. And so that little dev…“

“Shut it, Ctibor! We’ll be doomed if you’re gonna use that nickname. Old Kogar’s more than sensitive ‘bout her,“ much younger male joined in. Kogar’s ears easily picked up on a terrible lump in his throat.

“Yes, sensitive. So is my nose when the danger’s nearby. I’m telling ya that thing better be gone by dawn. And the embalmer? Listen closely, ya foolish lad. We demons feel the same way people do. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any exceptions. Look at him. He’s a vrupir, a bat demon, a vampire. No way he’s getting attached to that disgusting, hellish piece of…“ Vainly the horned comrade tried to calm down the old leshy. It was all too late for them.

The embalmer jumped quickly to the door. His grasp on the handle was firm yet a distant tranquillity settled on his features. Anthracite eyes burned the forest spirit until there was no more courage left. All Ctibor could do was to lower the mossy head under the healer’s sharp gaze. Since then, he didn’t dare to cast another look on the figure. However, his younger neighbour held onto different intentions. With a foxy glint shining under thick brows, hands clasped with a massive slap, „Dear Master Kogar! We’re both terribly sorry to disturb…“

“The youngling is asleep.“

“Well, yes, sir. That’s why we were hesitant to wake you up so late at night…“

“The sun shall rise soon.“

“And especially in this terrible weather…“

“No surprise in this region around this time of year.“

Kogar blinked not once during sharp exchange. He stood his ground. As tall as a tree he towered even over the wisent demon Sivko whose palms were drowning in sweat.

“Master Kogar, would you mind inviting us, poor travellers, under your roof? As a host, it’s not very polite to keep us in the snowstorm.“

The resolute answer caught them off guard. “Yes, I would. I don’t need any snoopers. If you don’t get away now I’ll make you. But in that case, you’ll have to run. “

“Is that a threat?“ the leshy diffidently let out a small whimper.

Kogar’s eyebrows furrowed while his deep voice remained monotone as usual, “A warning.“

His gaze fell heavily once again upon worried locals. Little by little, two cloaked figures began to back away, shame hiding in the fuming noses. Not hearing two pairs of wet footwraps being dragged across the freezing snow anymore, Kogar finally closed the door behind. However, the Man with No Eyes stayed outside. His slim back leaned against the building while the whirlwind of thoughts surrounded the mind like a pack of ravenous beasts. At last, they now have the chance to strike. They’ve been waiting far too long.

Although he felt the clutch around the cold heart the pale man breathed slowly in and out. Soon, every muscle and tendon relaxed. The tension left his shoulders, too. He knew well they weren’t the last as they weren’t the first either. Even if the healer finds a way to drive them off, new ones will come sooner or later. The fact there was such a hybrid, a walking proof of an entity that is truly out of this world, a creature neither alive, nor dead… It… no. Not it. She. Ulfrika. The little girl who can be no more than five or six. A curious child cursed with a twisted body and a face of a corpse. Yet, there was more life inside than on a blooming apple tree. Though strangely, her heartfelt smile seemed to appear only in the presence of the venerable Master. Her beaming eyes, her ringing laughter. Her strong will to walk on legs properly. The mere possibility of becoming healthier. Stronger. More dangerous. Following the grim idea another thought popped into his mind. Thin lips contorted. She is deadly. There’s no doubt about it. Such agility and swiftness. That intelligence…

“Embalmer – healer for the sick, hunter for the damned,“ he whispered under his nose and returned.

Glancing sideways, there she was. Always cuddling her gaunt legs. The small nose was twitching under a thick curtain of dark hair. Suddenly, Ulfrika sighed. Certainly, the dream cannot be as engaging as she had perhaps hoped for.

The embalmer’s forehead furrowed. Inevitable must be done. And he was running out of time.

An owl hooted.

“Majstre, what’s going on?“ Ulfrika yawned and wiped big eyes.

“Put on some clothes, Ruta. We’re going fishing.“

The little girl casted a mistrustful look. “It's the middle of the night, Majstre.“

“Isn’t it what I promised you?“

“Well, I’m not denying…“ she turned her head to the left, ghostly skin tinted with slight pink. “It’s just that I made trouble. And you were angry with me. So, no tracking. No hunting. Or fishing. Especially the night fishing, Majstre.“

“You realise your mistake. You know what you did to those kids was wrong…“

“It was downright terrible.“

Kogar paused for a brief moment. Even now, he was able to recall the hubbub of approaching villagers from the nearby demonic settlement. In the middle of the chaos was his little Ruta herself; feet dragged across the forest floor, dark liquid pouring from an open skull, the fear written all over the pale face. No youngling, only the sight of an old damaged rag doll.

“Put on warm clothes. The snowfall has just reached its peak. At least, you put your reflexes to the test.“

“Yes, Majstre.“ Uncertain leap from the bench and she ran towards the pile of furs, nearly tripping and falling over.

“Hey, careful, lass. I don’t need another patient for today.“

The usual answer in the form of a silent nod wasn’t present. Instead, a low playful chuckle escaped from her.

“Ruta, are you disobeying? Or even laughing at me?“

“I would never, Majstre!“ a long arm shot up and clenched onto her chest. Dark brown eyes lit up with joy and mischief.

Kogar’s corners twitched upwards slightly. There it was again, a strange warmth inside. Eventually, both demons fell silent while they prepared for their common trip to the nearby lake. Of course, Kogar had hardly anything else for Ulfa other than his old tunics and trousers. It all hung on her. However, he was sure she would one day be as tall as he was. Maybe even surpass him.

Covered in brown and black they finally set out. Immediately before they ventured forth Kogar remembered to take one more item aside from a fishing rod and a small wooden box.

It didn’t pass unnoticed. “Majstre? Why did you bring a bow with yourself?“

Slowly, the Master looked down with mild annoyance. He was prepared to snap at the youngling. “Mind your business, lass,“ Master Embalmer readied himself. But gazing into those big eyes that were so familiar to him, so deep, so curious, so…genuine. No. What kind of Master Healer would he be? Instead, Kogar patted the hooded head with much kinder words on his tongue, “I need to try something out. Don’t worry.“ Listening to warm words Ulfa nodded and sprinted ahead in an attempt to improve her scouting.

Once more, the tall man observed the tiny frame with so many familiarities he questioned himself whether they truly hadn’t met before. The ridiculous idea played in his mind while he shouted, “Don’t wander off, Ruta. I won’t be looking for you.“

“Really, Majstre? Wouldn’t you miss your disciple?“ Somehow, she managed to return so silently it made Kogar unwillingly jump up.

“I must admit you’ve made quite the progress with sneaking. And though it is rude to answer a question with another one – since when are you my disciple?“

“Weeell…I figured out you’ve been looking for someone. Plus, you’ve never once scolded me over calling you Majstre.“ Small feet sheepishly drew pictures in the snowdrifts.

“What else? There’s still something on your mind, Ruta. Out with it, lass.“

“People call me Ulfrika because when I first showed up there was the wolf. But you, Majstre…you decided to name me differently.“

A line between his brows vanished, “Is that all? Besides, I remember calling you either Ulfrika or Ulfa. For example, yesterday on the market.“

“Others were around. But when you scold me or when you want to teach me something around the shed you call me Ruta. Why? And what does that mean? Majstre, please, I’m serious!“ Blinded by her own desperation to know more, her hand shot up. It grasped Kogar’s. When she realised that she touched him without approval her ears turned pink. Indescribable terror crossed the poor girl.

She prepared herself for spanking as it became a routine for her over the past months, a year even. Kogar himself was no different – squirming at any unappreciated touch from outsiders. Although this time it was different. It felt different. He welcomingly squeezed the tiny limb. A smile played with otherwise straight-faced features. Little Ulfa, miraculously, snuggled up to him. The alien look and gaping emptiness long gone. Last time somebody showed to the half-breed such a friendly gesture was her wolf guardian, Neron.

Does he truly need to do it? A lot of people, gods and demons preach about sparing lives. Giving another chance. But what about her? No soul? If so, why does she comprehend so much while still being a small child? Yes, a dreaming beast dwells inside. That ‘twin’ she has which appears whenever it feels like. On the other hand, maybe she truly needs only a good healer, not a hunter. Yet, this isn’t about him nor her. It’s about everybody’s safety. Only if she didn’t have those big eyes. As deep as these forests, casting a resourceful look into every corner. Why does she remind Kogar of his…?

“It is a medicinal herb. Slightly bitter with yellow flowers. It’s poisonous. If misused or not taken seriously, of course,“ he casted a side glance. The lass wasn’t very impressed. “But it can be helpful, too. When people give it a chance in a healthy amount this simple plant can cure many difficulties.“

“It can…treat. Just like you, Majstre.“ Again, that deep puppy-like gaze.

“Yes, Ruta. You’re right.“

“And you call me like that just when it’s only the two of us…?“

“It’s your first name. We, embalmers, are given it by our masters. It defines our true nature. But we keep it a secret. Only two people in the whole world are allowed to know the embalmer’s true name – the healer and the healer’s master. In other words, that is how I view you, my disciple.“

The half-breed's jaw dropped. A quick inhale. A blinking of widened eyes.

“That doesn’t mean you should neglect your other name. You can keep it as the proper one. The one on the more official note. Besides, it suits you quite well, wolf-child,“ he winked as Ulfa’s mouth widened into a broad smile. The healer saw through the thin veil, though – she might have been grinning but the rest of her movements remained reserved.

They fell into another comfortable silence. Tall pines, firs and spruces began to retreat in favour of rockier soil. A view of a great frozen lake displayed in front of the wanderers. It was as wide as it was deep, a common human would be able to see on its other shore with visible difficulty. By its shallow waters, some fishermen already created several holes in order to sustain income of their catches during merciless winter.

Kogar took a deep breath. His black eyes closed. “Lass, go over to the centre and cut out a hole with the hatchet I gave you. Be quick.“ A small nod and long legs started moving carefully stepping on places thick enough for walking. One, two. A jump on three. Now, it would be for the better to crawl for a while.

Meanwhile the little girl was making her way forward, the embalmer put on his gloves. Thoroughly he prepared the bowstring. The wood of the old bow pliably bent.

“Majstre?“ The harsh wind carried a smooth voice over to Kogar, “How big the hole should be? Enough for that rod? Or you’re going to throw in something bigger?“ The tone of the last word put him off. It sounded lower. Almost resignedly.

“Like what? Do you still have in mind the fishing net we made last week?“ In a swift motion he took out the only arrow he brought and readied himself for what was about to come. Now, the vampire’s thoughts revolved around a single thing. “Don’t turn around.“

“No, Masjtre. Not the net. Me.“

The bat demon cursed the youngling, the village, gods, the whole world. Himself. Yet, he never dared to break his tranquil stance and demeanour his people were known for.

“Majstre, I know I’m a hellish spawn. I shouldn’t have torn away that girl’s fingers. Neither her brother’s ears. Yet, I did. Though, they started first and threw rocks at me. I should have controlled myself. We should control ourselves. Others call us names because this body is but a shell of two minds.“

“Stop, lass. Just check whether there’s some fish in this lake.“ Unconsciously, the manly voice rose. He wasn’t asking anymore, he was commanding.

The wind rose up carrying tiny snowflakes away to the unknown. v“We know we don’t belong here. Nobody’s ever wanted us. Except for poor Neron who found us. And then you. But we’re a burden.“ Her voice altered here and there. It sounded like there were two people talking at the same time, not just one. “We destroy. We petrify. We devour. That’s not how the venerable Master Embalmer ought to be thanked for deeds. You had great confidence in us. Put all your trust into ‘little devil’.“ Upon the nickname reaching his ears Kogar gritted teeth. Gods, it’s been less than four months. It’s impossible he grew fond of her.

The master wasn’t the only one with pain squeezing his breath out. Ulfa’s voice was trembling terribly while she spoke, “You could have been luckier but all that you received for your deeds is a walking curse to burden your soul.“ Right hand closed the distance between the palm and wet cheeks. She was sobbing profoundly. It surprised Kogar. It never occurred to him what kind of turmoil must be boiling underneath the strange facade.

“Ulfrika, stop it. Just check the hole. Is it enough?“ He was shouting at this point. A single tear ran down his cheek. Though sharp tongues of winter tore it down quickly.

“It wasn’t a coincidence you chose the lake, right? All of us come from it. So, it makes sense we’ll return to water one day. That bottom is both the cradle and the grave…“

“Ruta!!!“

Suddenly, her sobs stopped. Her head gently shook. It reminded Kogar of mornings when she would wake up from dreams. “Majstre? Can I have one last request?“

A huge lump formed in Kogar’s throat which he didn’t find a will to fight against. For that his lips remained sealed.

“Will you pray for me? Only to remember me. Nothing else. And Majstre? I’m sorry I didn’t live up to your expectations. Especially as your disciple…“

Finally, the heavy weight of the situation left the thin body with the exhale. Ruta Ulfrika, the last disciple of Embalmer Kogar, the Master of Blades, relaxed eyelids and gratefully welcomed the darkness, waiting for the inevitable.

Kogar squinted. ‘The Embalmer is a healer for the sick and a hunter for the damned.’

“No. I won’t.“ The arrow left its owner. A silver shine of its head cut the night and the falling snowflakes as it rushed forward. It swished through the web of moonlight.

An owl hooted.

In the end, the arrow finally landed into the water. A red slick formed on the surface. Something quivered for the last time in its life.

Ulfa opened her eyes. She was still standing on the ice. The only wet part being the footwraps and simple boots. Underneath her, a catfish pierced with an arrow fluttered. Without hesitation, the half-breed grabbed fish in between her claws and brought it out of the lake.

“Congratulations. You passed your first exam. You shall now officially become my disciple.“ It was Kogar’s turn to surprise the child with a hand on her shoulder.

The poor thing fell down on her knees and tightly hugged the vampire. They stayed for a while in the fragile moment living fully through it.

“Thank you, Majstre. I won’t let you down,“ words which were merely a whisper nearly sank down to the lakebed. The demon’s ears caught them at the last moment.

“Thank me later. There’s a lot of training ahead.“

Ulfa glanced at him with curiosity written all over her. Although, it’d never held her back. It had only fuelled the desire to know, to understand. “For example?“

“You can start with the catfish. Tomorrow, I’ll teach you how to shoot from a bow. There’s a possibility I’ll show you how to catch an arrow mid-air. Because today you failed in this regard.“

“How did I pass then?“

“You dodged.“

“I didn’t.“

“You were honest, too. But promise me one thing, Ruta. Never repeat those words. Is it clear?“ Kogar stretched his back and folded arms.

“Yes, Majstre. Hm…Majstre? Did you truly want to shoot me down?“

He paused, “Never, my disciple.“

He patted the young head before diving into a quick lesson about proper fishing methods and life in lakes. In the meanwhile, the sun started to come out. Unable to resist the sunlight for long without the proper clothing and skin treatment the master and his disciple decided to come back.

For the last time, the Man with No Eyes looked behind where the ice was cut out. He found the right successor. Even though she’s not the typical demon nor that it’ll be an easy path. But he sensed the potential. And she deserved to get the second chance.

With unusual happiness settling down and unaware of the doom he brought upon himself on that fateful day he returned home with Ulfrika.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taglist (let me know if you'd like to be added) : @vanessaroades-author @rubywrite @aohendo

[miloscat]

[Review] Butterflies: Episode 1-3 (PC)

They understand the concept of love.

After Bomb Rush Cyberfunk wowed me, I wanted to take a second look at this even more indie project memorialising Jet Set Radio. I've played Episode 1 (and some pre-release demos) before but since then, French lead dev Le Capitaine and their Le Crew have finalised Episodes 2 and 3, and published them to Steam as a bundle. Supposedly it's still to be continued but for now the team is hard at work on an F-Zero homage. Hopefully they come back and keep expanding this because what's there so far is really good!

Rather than using JSRF as a jumping off point for gameplay, Butterflies seems to prefer refining what the original JSR was doing. This means a more realistic sense of inertia, and managing the momentum of your crew of inline-skating delinquents. The dash button is there to pick up speed on the ground and grinding rails is not effortless. It's clearly set on improving the clunky play control of the Dreamcast game though, and the result is fast, technical, and satisfying... when you've put some time into mastering it.

To get you there is a low-pressure kind of game design with a set of missions that populate the large levels. You can roam around, tackling them and finding tag spots as you please without a timer ticking down, which on its own is a big step up from JSR for me. These tasks are usually races that pass through checkpoints or specific line runs that require keeping a combo going—some in Episode 1 are particularly strict—while Episode 3 adds in extra graffiti challenges. Going through the checklist is a nice way of showing off these urban sandbox levels as you hunt for write spots or (as of Episode 2 onwards) collectible music tracks.

Each episode has one map to itself while advancing the overall story. The first two are hilly suburban areas, with a bit of industrial in E1, and E3 features a sprawling inner-city area connected by train tracks. Powerlines to grind on and the ability to wallgrind on almost any wall if you have enough speed help you traverse the high degree of verticality built into these zones. The first two episodes have an interesting grungy, sketchy look while the third revamps things with more colour and shiny detail. Populating the maps are your typical low-poly NPCs (I spotted some modelled on Lammy and Parappa!) as well as bear-hugging cops, flying police drones, and zap-projectile-slinging cameras: as of E3, these can all be dealt with by a quick application of spray paint (which by the way is unlimited).

The story is handled a bit more seriously than in some other street punk simulators. In this near-future world, a Japanese city has seceded and is now run as an independent autocracy by one General Sakamoto, and by the end of E3 the rebellious Nat and her growing Butterflies crew are gearing up to rise above petty rudie squabbles and vandalism to really fight back against the fascism. The inclusion of real-world cultures and concerns keeps the tone grounded, like when one of your teammates Jae (who tags in Hangeul) comments on the treatment of Korean immigrants; another, Zinnie, wears a hijab and interjects in Arabic, while Rin is a trans girl and you follow her journey of self-discovery in dialogue which I thought was handled pretty well.

On top of their characterisation in cutscene dialogue, these touchstones make the characters deeper and more relatable, more than just a cool cel-shaded character design. They also for the most part have clear strengths in their stat distributions; I favoured speed specialist Zinnie for getting around. Each one has distinct graffiti designs (they all get a refresh in E3 as well) that, while simple, usually include their name (in katakana) and tell you something about their personality. Writing involves a three-stage timing-based minigame so everyone has three unique designs, although you might find you end up with the simplest "bare minimum" one all over just to save time with the ~200 spots per map.

Since Butterflies has been released episodically over five years, it's interesting to watch as the new instalments make changes and become more polished. It's still rough around the edges even as of E3 but solid enough, and this release structure gives me hope that even more refinements will be implemented going forward (a better in-game map would be nice!). Either way, I've enjoyed what's there so far, and it's refreshing that multiple projects have been springing up in this vein while having their own character: in this case a little bit subdued, down to earth, but it's got heart.

[of-beasts-and-blood]

Character Intro

🖌 Basics: Name: Devereaux Sauvage Junior Pronunciation: Dev-er-oh Sew-vahge  Meaning: Devereaux ~ "bank of the river" Sauvage ~ “untamed” Junior ~ "the younger one" Birthday: September 25th, 1959 (Libra) Age: 23 Gender: Demiboy Pronouns: he/him (and they/them) Sexuality: Demisexual Siblings: Two older sisters, Marie-Joëlle and Blanche Mathilde Mother: Rosemonde Sauvage Father: Devereaux Sauvage Senior Other Family: N/A Languages: French, English, Latin Current Residence: Aix-en-Provence, France  Hometown: Aix-en-Provence, France

🖌

🖌 Wizard Fun: School: Beauxbatons House: Papillonlisse  Year of Graduation: 1977 Occupation: Junior Spellsmith at the French Ministry of Magic Pet: A crup named D’Artagnan Blood Status: Pureblood Patronus: A crup. Little, but fierce - like someone else in his life that might protect him. Boggart: His father discovering his secrets and scolding him for it. It starts as a trail of broken and torn artworks on the ground and if he doesn’t pull himself away, the scene gets progressively worse.  Amortentia Scent: Fresh paint, D’Artagnan’s wet fur, lilies, mushrooms frying in butter Wand type: Pine, dragon heartstring, 9 ½ inches Affiliation: Death Eaters (but strongly hates their beliefs)

🖌 Appearance: Face Claim: Austin Abrams Height: 5’8 Hair Colour: Dark blonde Eye Colour: Hazel - the kind that seem to change colour in different lights Typical Hair Style: Fwoopy. His hair is soft and long enough to want to run your fingers through. He wears it brushed to the right, forming curls around his ears and at the back of his neck. For work and formal events, he does gel it back.  Fashion Style: Rich and comfortable. He wears sweaters, knits and jackets that look expensive. If he had his way though, his closet would be just as full of loose shirts and men’s blouses and more flowery prints.  Distinguishing Features: Generally looks tired. Resting bitch face away from public events. Dazzling conversationalist at public events. Dog at his side wherever possible.

🖌 Personality and Interests: Positive Traits: Attentive, well-rounded, sociable, promising, expressive. Negative Traits: Dry, snooty, selfish, apathetic, vain. Quick Facts: Can paint (duh). Likes jogging. Can only cook maybe 5 meals tops. Feels alone. Would die for his dog. Would kill for his dog.  Hobbies: Painting. People watching. Reading the papers. Going to art galleries for hours at a time. Walking D’Artagnan in nature.  Skills: Good at playing a role. Bad at keeping his cool around Laure. Good at painting. Great at making a statement. Good at horse riding. Great at finding hiding spots for items. Bad at intimidation.  Theme song: “Prince of the Hanging Gardens” by Beatenberg

🖌 Headcanons:

Voice: Devereaux’s voice changes depending on the situation. He’s been trained to be a good guest or host at parties, so he tends to sound livelier then. His voice is usually a little nasal though as he is very French, with a touch of vocal fry. A generous helping of vocal fry when he’s talking to friends. He speaks English with a strong French accent.

Handwriting: Cursive. He fills out a lot of Ministry forms on the daily, so his writing has to be legible.

Devereaux’s crup’s name follows a naming convention started by his eldest sister, Marie-Joëlle. Her first pet was a crup named Porthos, who all three children doted upon. She then named her owl bought for school Athos. When she left home, she bought twin puppies for her remaining siblings without asking permission from her parents, marking the first and only sign of defiance she ever showed. Blanche Mathilde chose the name Aramis, and Devereaux’s hound ended up as D’Artagnan. 

Devereaux has synaesthesia. When he hears or says a person’s name, he has a strong association with a colour. 

He suffers from periods of depersonalisation. He’s never told anyone about it. 

Under the pseudonym Vérité, he frequently defaces public property with graffiti protesting the Death Eaters as well as old-fashioned pureblood society. 

Devereaux dreams of having his artwork up in a gallery, but has never voiced this desire. Not only has his father actively discouraged his artistic pursuits, but Devereaux isn’t sure he’s talented enough. His work comes from the heart and that makes it hard for him to look at objectively. 

Devereaux only learnt how to swim due to the amount of times Laure shoved him into rivers and ponds growing up.

Devereaux loves eclairs. Melted chocolate on his fingertips reminds him of his childhood days with René and Laure, licking all of the chocolate and cream off of the pastry and throwing bits of the dough to feed the ducks.

[mythica0]

If you could maybe do a fic of Dev being sad at recess and Hazel, Jasmine, and Winn do something about it. I love this squad so much

Recess

🎂:Fop; a new wish

🧁:dev

🍫:Hazel, Winn, Jasmine

Summary: when Dev is a little down in the dumps at recess, the friend group helps him out when Peri can’t.

A/N: thanks for the request! Sorry for the slowing of my writing, as I said school started back up so I’ve got less free time. Enjoyyyy

Recess

“Tag! You’re it!” Hazel giggled as she lightly tapped Jasmine on the shoulder.

“Ohoho, you better run!” Quickly the chase turned around, as the pair ran around the playground during recess.

Not too far away, Dev was sitting on a bench watching. He hadn’t really felt like playing today.

It was one of those days where he just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, feeling tired and unmotivated. A little sad.

Eventually Hazel realized Dev wasn’t occupying himself at all. They had thought he was just going to read or play on his IPad or something and that’s why he didn’t want to play with them, but he wasn’t. He was just sitting there, staring off into the distance.

As soon as she realized, she stopped running and pointed it out to the others. They all looked at each other, slightly confused, then walked over to him.

Peri was disguised as a pair of headphones around Dev’s neck. He tried to talk to him, but made no progress, as he just seemed to zone out.

“Hey dev!” The cheerful voice of Winn exclaimed as they walked over.

Dev startled out of his trance. “Huh-? Oh, hey guys.”

“What’s got you all in the dumps?” Jasmine asked, seeming genuinely concerned.

“Nothing. That’s the problem. There is literally nothing wrong.”

Peri spoke up from his position. “Usually I would help, but we’re in public so I can’t come out of disguise.”

At the comment, Hazel perked up, an idea striking her. “Well if you can’t, we’ll just have to do it in your place~” her voice gained a teasing edge, causing Dev to feel nervous. The other two didn’t realize at first, but with a glance from Hazel and a slight nod, they got the hint.

“Uhm- guys- what’re you doing?”

“Tickle attack!” Hazel shouted, pouncing on the ginger and starting to spider on his sides. Winn and Jasmine quickly moved over and held one of his hands each, pulling them above his head, and used their free hand to dig at his underarms.

“Guhuhuys, nohohoho!”

Jasmine just giggled. “Oh, shut up, you know you like it.”

Dev blushed furiously and was unable to cover his face due to his hands being pinned.

“Uhuh- nohoho ihi dohohont! Shuhut uhup!” He flusteredly tried to deny it, stuttering.

Winn smirked. “Don’t lie, Dev~ we all know you do!”

Dev just whined through his giggles, scrambling on the ground. He tried to pull his arms down out of reflex, but no matter how hard he tugged they didn’t budge.

“Ohoho myhyhy gohohod, stohohop tahahahalking!”

“No way! Teasing’s part of the fun~ and doesn’t it make the tickles so much better~” Hazel drawled.

While most of the kids either didn’t notice or didn’t care, continuing to play, a few gathered around to watch.

“Awwww he’s so cute!”

“I didn’t know Dev was ticklish!”

“This is the greatest thing ever!”

“Uhuhughuhuh nohohohoho! Stohohohop ihihit!”

“Not until you feel better!” Winn announced, smiling brightly.

“Peheheople ahahare wahahahatching!” Even though Dev admittedly enjoyed being tickled, he was severely embarrassed knowing they had an audience.

“Hey, there’s no need to be embarrassed! No one’s going to judge you!” Jasmine comforted gently. The audience spoke up in agreement.

“Yeah, I’m super ticklish too!”

“I feel like if anyone was gonna judge, it’d be you, Dev. Good to know that outta the question.”

“Yeah it’s super normal! Pretty much everyone’s at least a little ticklish!”

Hazel decided to be a little mean, smirking. “Oh, he’s not just embarrassed by the fact that he’s ticklish, he’s embarrassed because he likes it.”

“Hahahahahazel! shuhuhut uhuhup!” Dev panicked internally at the reveal. But he was once again comforted by the replies of the group that had gathered.

“That’s not embarrassing! That’s super cute!”

“If I’m being honest, I do too haha”

“Man I’m jealous! I can’t stand being tickled. It’s like my worst nightmare.”

It was nice to know that he wasn’t being judged, but dev was still flustered to all hell.

“Plehehease guhuhuys! Ihi feheheel behehetter, okahahahay?!”

“I’m not sure I believe you..” Winn said, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, maybe we should do a biiiiig finish just to be sure!” Hazel chirped, before taking a deep breath.

“Whahahait hahahazel nohohoHOHO!” His protest ended in a squeal as Hazel blew on his tummy. At the same time, the two up by his arms dug in slightly harder, causing him to try and fold over himself, stuck still by the hold on his hands.

“Guhuhuys plehehehehease! Ihihi’m behehehetteher ihihi prohohomihihise!” They all finally released him, smiling at his flushed face.

Finally able to live freely, he covered his face. “You guys are mean.”

“You know you love us.” Hazel retorted, nudging him gently with her elbow.

His nerves still hyped up, he squeaked at the contact, pushing her away. “Noho!”

Hazel giggled. “Ohoops, sorry, didn’t mean to get ya there.”

Just then the kids were all called inside to continue class, and Dev was ready to take on the day, with a smile.

———THE END————————————————

[zorbasmedia]

Bet on It: Building Your Sportsbook from the Ground Up

Hey, have you seen how sports betting is totally taking off? So, maybe now is the time to jump in and be the go-to bookie? Well, the pot is getting bigger every day. If you’re nodding along thinking, “Yeah, this sounds like my jam,” then you’re probably wondering how to get in on the action, right? We’re dropping a guide with all the steps to kick off your own sportsbook.

The tech side of your sports betting business 

So you’ve decided to jump into the sportsbook pool — cool. When it comes to the gear you need, you’ve got two main plays:

DIY your own betting platform

Grab a ready-to-go package from the pros

Going DIY with your sportsbook tech

If you’re thinking of building your sportsbook platform from the ground up, you need to be loaded with iGaming smarts and totally get the tech side of things. Taking this route means you’re in charge of all the details — from coding to customer service. It’s a big ask. You’ll need a squad of devs, managers, risk analysts, etc.

Rigging up your own system is a giant pile of cash and effort, and it’s not guaranteed to pay off. Plus, we’re talking a year, maybe more, just to get it market-ready.

Snagging a turnkey solution

If you’re iGaming savvy, tailoring your own setup could be a smart move to level up. But if you’re just breaking into the scene, why not score a reputable, ready-made sports betting package? It’s quick and way cheaper.

Why take the turnkey route? Here’s the deal:

It’s kinder to your wallet. Skip the drama of building and running a full team, and dodge those long chats (and costs) with payment and data vendors.

Lightning-fast launch. You can roll out in weeks. Crafting your own core software? A year. Minimum. And that’s without the extra setup stuff.

Solid and tested. When you pick a pre-built product, you’re not just getting code; you’re scoring a dedicated team, a legacy of success, and some serious technical chops.

Now, before you dive in and become a bookie, picking the right software is key. How do you know who’s the real deal?

Check out how customizable it is. You want more than a cookie-cutter setup; you need tech that can groove with your vibe.

Size up the support on offer. Things like player support, design peeps, risk managers, tech wizards — they’ll make or break your rep. It’s sweet if your supplier can cover this.

Balance the cost against what you’re getting. Saving dough is great, but don’t just chase the cheapest options — it might cost you more in the long run.

Data providers

You can’t really kick-start this game without one. Picking a foolproof supplier is huge because they’ll help you grab a piece of the market and keep risks at bay. So, here’s the scoop if you’re looking to become a bookie but don’t have much XP — choosing a sketchy data provider can bite you back with dodgy odds or slow updates, messing with your bank and your rep.

How to find a top-notch sports data provider:

Accuracy is king. Get this wrong, and you’re not just losing cash on double-checking data; you’re also playing with your customers’ trust if bad info leaks onto your site.

The data delivery. There’s a bunch of ways to get your hands on data, and it’s going to fit snug with your setup. Make sure you get the instructions manual — crystal-clear documentation means easier and cheaper setup.

Managing the risky business. A risk management tool is key for spotting and handling whatever comes your way. Without it, you’re flying solo on making choices backed by solid facts.

Be the one who stands out. You could cook up your own stats and info, but that’s going to stack the costs — more dough, more dev time, and more hands needed. That’s why snagging a provider that dishes out exclusive data makes a ton of sense.

Starting from the ground up means it’s on you to plug into a data provider — and that usually costs extra. Contracts can be a maze, even for the savvy operators, and hidden fees are a real pain. Even after you sign on the dotted line, don’t expect to start using that data on day one.

Web design

You’ve got a mix in the crowd; some folks are there for the exclusive events or crypto bets, others are hunting for those sweet bonus deals. Design isn’t everything, but if your site looks like it’s stuck in the ’90s, it’s a one-way ticket for players to bounce to the competition.

Alright, so what’s the game plan for a killer betting site design? It has to be no sweat to use. If your visitors have to play hide-and-seek with your “sign up” or “promo” buttons, they’re out. And don’t forget sorting or filters — big plus for the browsing game.

Next up, make sure your design feels like it belongs in the betting world. Roll out the red carpet with colors, pictures, and a font that says, “This is where the betting magic happens” (but don’t take it too literally — be more creative).

Then, align it with what you’re hustling — grabbing attention and nudging players to sign up, bet, or catch the latest events. Make sure calls-to-action are practically winking at your visitors.

And don’t forget about the mobile version. If it isn’t smooth like butter, you’re basically giving the cold shoulder to a hefty chunk of your audience.

Legal stuff and payment integrations

Brace yourself, because in this niche, the legal stuff is like a maze on steroids. Picking where to plant your flag and which license to nab is a big deal — it’s all about where you want your biz to shine and who you’re aiming to bring in.

Going solo for a license? You’re gonna need:

A squad of legal eagles who know their way around iGaming laws.

Patience, loads of it. 

Now, let’s gab about the money movement. Chatting up payment providers can feel like running a marathon. You can’t just hook up a couple of payment methods and call it a day. Your players, they crave choices — cards, digital wallets, crypto, etc. For your sportsbook to really vibe with your users, you’ve got to think hard about what payment systems they groove to. It’s all about the markets you want to enter.

Building a legal dream team and wading through paper can bog you down, big time. It gobbles up what you can’t afford to lose — time to hit the market and test out those genius strategies. Sometimes, it’s way smarter to snag a white label sportsbook setup — a package deal with all the licenses you need and a bunch of payment methods ready to roll. Dump the legal headaches on your provider and get a head start.

Marketing

So, you’ve got your sportsbook all jazzed up and looking fly. Now, you have to make sure people actually want to hang out there. It’s showtime for your marketing game. We’re talking about getting the word out — who you are and what you’re all about:

Craft a statement that sums up what you’re bringing to the table.

Check out the competition and see where you stand.

Whip up something that makes you the go-to spot that no one else can touch.

Now, if you’re going to keep things running smooth inside the biz, you’ll need pros. A killer marketing crew is a must — they’re the wizards behind the curtain handling all the hype, setting up killer tournaments, and figuring out what freebies to throw the crowd.

Now, let’s talk perks because who doesn’t love a good bonus? They can totally tip the scales when players are deciding where to throw down their bets. Spice up your offers with themed tournaments, and personalized rewards. Give them that VIP feel on their betting journey.

Though, where there’s honey, there are bees — and in the betting world, that means bonus hunters and scammers. So, while you’re doling out bonuses and getting players hyped, make sure you’ve got a top-notch anti-fraud team. Go with a software provider that’s got their guard up.

Okay, you’ve got a sleek website and a tempting bonus menu, which is solid. But to really get your name out there, think announcements, interviews, press releases — all that jazz, especially in iGaming forums and on news feeds where everyone’s already hanging out.

Don’t just stop at SEO and ad banners. Contextual ads and affiliate marketing — these are your bread and butter. In the iGaming business, it’s all about being seen. And with search engines putting the squeeze on, having a network of affiliates is like having gold. 

Final thoughts

Jumping into the sports betting world is no walk in the park — it’s a big deal that needs you to really do your homework. It’s not just about having a slick website or throwing around cool bonuses that makes your sportsbook the place to be. What really matters is the crew backing you up — their smarts, their know-how.

Just ask any seasoned owner, and they’ll tell you straight: hooking up with a full-service squad that knows the ins and outs of running an iGaming brand is the smart move when you’re kicking off your sportsbook.

Interesting headings:

Affiliate marketing case studies

Bonuses

Reviews

[kob131]

...

You know what, I'm gonna break this down.

Every Pokemon is somebody's favorite even the 'ugly' or 'unpopular' ones, sorry not everybody's favorite Pokemon is Pikachu or Charizard; and going "oh well most Pokemon have been added in updates!" is excusing TPC's laziness and use of crunch. Just because YOU got used to not having whatever Pokemon you wanted doesn't mean its okay for TPC to cut the dex so they don't have to give their devs an actual fucking deadline.

Cool. Notice how this doesn't actually address anything I said, like the fact that your transfer were locked behind the post game so this was pretty fucking normal. Or that people tend to not use transfers in their usual runs so you didn't NEED those Pokemon.

This would only work if the Gen VII games were being deleted and thus you HAD to transfer or else lose them. That clearly isn't the case so why should I care?

And again- preaching this to someone whose Pokemon were stuck in Pokemon Black for nearly a decade. All I'm hearing is 'waah! It affects me now! waah!'

By 'too easy' we mean 'they're easy to the point its insulting to the intelligence of even their core demographic'. Gym battles were never kaizo levels of hard, but at least the games pre-XY didn't think you were a fetus who needed the gym leader to be lobotomized to beat them. Because that's what kids like, being handled with baby gloves for a whole game!

You say with the first Gen with a Gym Leader that actually understands that you can use other moves than straight attacks (Piers with a Hidden Ability Scarfty, A Skunktank with Toxic and Sucker Punch, a Malamar with Contrary and the Obstruct using Ostagoon) and a Gym that fully utilizes weather and the common VGC Doubles format (Raihan) or a Gym that can teach you about the need to switch your Pokemon to escape disadvantageous stat drops (Opal)

Those three were far more interesting Gym Leaders than any of the Totem Pokemon or Kahulas in Gen 7, let alone Gym Leaders Gens 6 and below.

To really demonstrate this, I'm going to go over EACH Reigion right now.

Kanto (Gen 1)- Some challenges like Brock and/or Misty depending on your starter. ... And that's it.

Lt. Surge can easily be taken care of due to Diglett tunnel being RIGHT THERE.

Erika specializing in the infamously weak Grass types.

Koga being a Poison type trainer...with Gen 1 Dugtrio and Psychics.

Sabrina wielding said Psychics...with only Alakazam being a threat with the frail Kadabra, underwhleming Mr. Mine and the fucking BUG TYPE Venomoth.

Blaine is...using Fire Types on an island surrounded by WATER types.

And Giovanni is using Ground types that are also weak to said Water types.

So you have two, maybe three hard fights in the game. Possibly. Because I could handle all but Misty (due to choosing Charmander) when i first played Gen 1.

At age 5.

Johto (Gen 2)- Johto gyms are a joke.

Falkiner is using a Level 9 Pidgeotto that spams fucking Mud Slap.

Bugsy is using fucking Bug types, which are also infamously underpowered. And also using Metapod and Kahuna, who have deliberately gimped stats and moves to show that they are cocoons.

Whiteny is the one challenge in Johto...partially because half of us never found out about the Machop trade.

Morty is basically Ghost-type Sabrina in that he has three severely underwhleming Pokemon (a Ghastly and two Haunters) with one dangerous one (Gengar). ... Who can be stalled by a Normal type because one of it's TWO attacks is Dream Eater and Hypnosis is infamously unreliable.

Chuck only uses two Pokemon, a Primape and a Poliwrath. Said Primape has Karate Chop as it's STAB and Poliwrath will focus on using Mind Reader + Dynamic Punch, even though there are no shortage of Grass, Flying, Psychic and Eletric types to knock it out.

Jasmine uses two identical Magnimites who, if you assume they are still Electric Types, you will KO with ease. And a Steelix...that boosts Steel's huge Fire weakness with SUNNY DAY.

Pryce is using Ice types which can be dangerous but given that both Dewgong and Seel have weakness to Electric alongside the usual Ice Weakness. As well as how the Ground Type Piloswine is located in the same general area as the Shiny Gyrados- Yeah, he's a pushover too.

And Clair. ...Who uses three Dragonair with one different move to differiate them and a Smokescreen spamming Kingdra.

Gen 3-

Roxanne is a Rock Type Gym Leader. ... In the first Gen of 3 with a Fire/Fighting starter. What little challenge Brock once had is gone.

Brawly is located on the island where you can get an Abra as well as an Intimidate Mawile/Sableye. It ain't hard to beat him, even without these.

Watson uses almost solely Electric type attacks with little to no type diversity.

Flannery does have some type diversity that can make her a challenge. ... To little kids. Any decent Water Type can punch enough holes into her team to leave it up to the next guy. Possibly another Water type because Gen 3 had plenty of them.

Norman is nowhere near as difficult as people made him out to be. Spinda is too undertuned to make use of his team's ONE super effective attack against Fighting types. Vigoroth is pretty middle or the road at that point, same with Linoone. And Slaking is strong but easy to take advantage of. Mind you, you have at least two different Fighting types that are good by this point (Hariyama and Medicham), to say nothing of what Blaziken does to this team.

Winnona is the only one with any difficulty because her Altaria uses Dragon Dance. ... But I have to REALLY emphasize this idea- ONE dangerous Pokemon amongst a sea of fodder a good Gym Leader does not make. And honestly, seeing this just pisses me off.

Tate and Liza do use Double Battles. ... The only synergy they have is Xatu using Sunny Day for Solrock. ... That's it. Either of the early game grass types (Ludicolo and Shiftry) can KO them pretty easily.

And I will admit, Wallace gets some credit because the interplay between Water and Ice is here so you can't sweep with just an Electric or Grass. No points for Juan though- You don't get credit for evasion spam.

Gen 4 (Sinnoh)-

Roark is Roxanne but with a slow and frail Craindos instead of a somewhat sturdy Nosepass.

You'd think that Gardenia would get some credit what with her Reflect Turtwig to stop a Monferno sweep. ... It doesn't work, I know for a fact. It also doesn't stop a Staravia either so you can't even say 'Well what about Prinplup users?!'.

Fantina gets some credit for trying to have some status in the form of Duskull's Will-O-Wisp. But I was always able to muscle through via brute force.

Maylene is a Fighting Type Gym leader in the Gen with the best starting Flying type. At high enough levels, even her Lucario is a cakewalk.

Crasher Wake is probably the first Gym Leader I would say has good coverage in his moves. ... 29 Gym leaders deep. But still credit.

Byron is STILL only using three Pokemon, two of them have a quad weakness to Ground and Steelix is using fucking Flash Cannon for some god forsaken reason.

Candice is an Ice type user who comes after a mountain full of Rock and Fighting types. Even Froslass isn't too useful because there are a shocking number of strong Dark type attacks in Gen 4.

And Falkner...has no real answer to a Quagsire, an easy and pretty good Ground type. To say nothing of if the player found out about Gible in Wayward cave...

Unova (Gen 5)-

The brothers would have gotten some credit if not for the free Elemental monkey in the Dreamyard.

Lenona gets some credit for her Retaliate move, almost guruanting a KO. ... It only works the first time though. And Herdier has a good chance of having Intimidate to hamper her Watchog after the KO so...

Burgh is another Bug Type Gym Leader whose ace is a Bug/GRASS type, one of THE worst defensive typing in the series' history.

Elesa gets credit for the combo of her Emolgas being part Flying and Zebstrika having Flame Charge. ... But thanks to the Sturdy buff, you're very likely to have a Boldore with Smack Down alongside a Ground type.

Clay loses any coverage outside of his stabs unlike previous examples. Swept him with my Simisage at age 13.

Same with Skyla, just that the Flying type is even easier to take advantage of.

Bryce is a late game Ice Type Gym Leader and it is stupid easy to have answers to Ice types by then.

And Iris/Drayden come right after easy access to Ice types.

Out of forty Gym Leaders, I would say only 9 give you any issues (Misty/Brock, Sabrina, Whitney, Winnoa, Wallace, Fantina, Crasher Wake, Lenona and Elesa.) For ease of reference, that is 22.5%.

And mind you, I am grading on a curve here. If I were to include stuff like the Ultra game fights alongside Piers and Raihan, quite a few of these (Misty, Broke, Sabrina, Whiteny, Winnoa and Lenona) would fall off.

Once again, Gym Leaders have never been hard. In no sense have they ever been hard. Most of the Gym Leaders in Gen 8 are no different, with the exceptions being FAR more interesting and engaging than those of the first three gens and Gen 5.

Face it- the only reason the early gyms seem hard is because you were a little kid.

I don't know how to tell you this, but if your biggest compliment to SwSh's story is that "oh its not as bad as the stories from games that came out 20 years ago!" then you truly have nothing good to say about it and you should come to terms with that. Also at least gen 2 and 3 had plots, as 1 dimensional as they were; SwSh deliberately kept you out of the plot by having Leon literally railroad you when something interesting happened like "well you should focus on your gym challenge and leave this to the grown ups!" and when you were allowed to be a part of the game's conflict it was just you running around a city for like five minutes, and then fighting the worst excuse for a main antagonist I have ever seen. Which, again, totally doesn't insult the child audience this game was made for!

Oh no, Leon tried to keep you, a child, out of adult business. Let's go ahead and completely ignore Hop, Bede and Marine's arcs because we can't let those pesks details get in the way of your narrative. eh?

Even then, at least I can understand Rose's actions and he has SOME grace to him.

He isn't a fucking pathetic child trapped in a man's body crying out for his boss to come back with no other plans, to the point of having no plans whatsoever if said boss didn't want to come back. (Gen 2 Team Rocket).

Nor is he COMPLETELY IGNORANT OF BASIC ECOLOGY despite being an eco-terrorist (Team Magma and Aqua).

And mind you, if I wasn't being lenient on Gen 1, I would throw Giovanni into this camp too.

Like I said, Gen 5 was the first Pokemon game with a good story. Shitting your pants at me about how awful gen 8's story is while refusing to engage whatsoever with those gens you fuckers praise so much in turn will do nothing but show you are full of shit.

Also sidenote, but I don't get why you're even calling gen 3 bad. I've played all of the Gen 3 games and they're some of the better games in the series. I get Gen 2 because it is a little crusty, but Gen 3 are pretty great games even today; at least when I hop on an emulator and play RSE or FRLG I know the devs who made it were allowed to give a shit and actually put in effort.

Which is why there's a barebones and shallow story that makes the villains look like idiots. Rose at his worse is basically a more dignified Archie/Maxie.

To be fair, they aren't made to be complex. ... But neither is Sword and Shield really. But here you are, holding one to higher standards than the other despite saying the other is better.

I fucking hate this shit. I've hated it ever since the Genwunner bullshit began. You're just being nostalgic. And pissing yourself in public is doing nothing but making older fans like myself feel completely and utterly embarrassed.

I tried being nice before but you earned my fucking ire.

You know, playing through the Gen 8 game (Sword up to the 6th gym)-

I really don't get the shitstorm that surrounded these games.

"They cut a bunch of the Pokemon!"

Cool. Not only will your average player only use a select few but thanks to the transfers usually being locked to the post game, you weren't gonna use them anyway. They also added in most Pokemon via updates anyway.

Also, until recently, I didn't have the money and/or consistent internet access to use Pokemon Bank so 'Dexit' for me happened in Gen 6.

"The gyms are too easy!"

Dude, they've been a cakewalk since Gen 4. Gen 5 can barely be assed to put up a fight with Lenona. And even then, they've never been particularly difficult.

"The story's bad!"

Yeah, I spoiled myself on the story and-

It's better than Gens 2 and 3's story. Gen 4 is kind of carried by the stakes and Gen 5 was the first truly good story in mainline Pokemon.

Like I get cutting Mega Evolution completely and certain moves but compared to Gen 6 and, excluding huge leaps in game mechanics, Gens 2 and 3 this isn't that bad.

[rainofaugustsith]

SWTOR: On "too easy"

I keep seeing posts elsewhere from "serious gamers" saying "waaah, they nerfed the game, IT'S TOO EASY NOW." I keep seeing posts from people who seem to think the only way to "save" SWTOR is to make it really difficult. And posts that cast judgment on those who prefer a more laid-back approach. 

I can't stand that. Truly, one of the worst things about gaming is some of the playerbase. 

I fully believe that where possible, content should have story/veteran/NiM modes available, the way KOTFE, KOTET and the non-story flashpoints do. If someone's idea of fun is to run every single thing with extreme difficulty, and that's what they get a charge from, let them at it...as long as it doesn't mean everyone else has to play that way too. That's where these discussions usually go off the rails, since these folks seem to think that everyone should play at an arbitrary high standard they deem acceptable. 

A lot of different types of players love SWTOR. Some really do want NiM all the time. Others want to decorate strongholds or dress their characters. Some are all about story. Some love the group aspect and always want to play with guildies or friends; others steer clear of all interaction with other players. Some do a mix of all of the above. Some avoid certain activities at all costs. 

I'm a solo story player. For me, extreme challenge isn't fun. It's usually enough to get me to quit. It's not fun for me to die over and over in a game or to struggle with complicated mechanics where one misstep means death. I hate things like the Onderon datacrons. I felt that Spirit of Vengeance was originally tuned way too high and had way too many mobs, even though I was fully able to finish it. 

I've gone in and done some more difficult things like Dread Seeds and veteran flashpoints solo because I wanted to see the content and complete those missions. If the entire game was tuned like the last Dread Seeds mission or those veteran flashpoints, I'd likely leave in about two seconds. In the longterm, it's not pleasant for me. It's physically painful, it's boring and I don't find it relaxing or fun.

No one playstyle is "correct" or "normal." They all are. What's abnormal is when someone insists everyone has to play a certain way. What would I say to those gatekeepers whining about content being too easy? 

The story content isn't getting people ready for endgame. 

So? 

You're assuming everyone wants to play endgame content. They don't. There's nothing Bioware could do, say or bribe me with that would get me into things like Ops, ranked PvP, PvP at all, PUGs or Master Mode flashpoints. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. I am here for the story. Period. 

A training ground for endgame content exists in the form of flashpoints. The flashpoints in the game do get progressively tougher. If someone's truly interested in getting raid-worthy skills they're likely going to be doing solo flashpoints. And using groupfinder or joining a guild that works to help players progress. There are options, and those who are interested in raids will seek them out. 

But the story is so easy. It's a faceroll. Games are about challenge.  

Challenge means different things to different people.

Everyone has different abilities. You might roll through every flashpoint. The next player might die seven times just getting through the first tomb on Korriban. By the way, I'm "next player." I think my first toon may have kicked the bucket before even getting into Ajunta Pall's tomb. The word "easy" is very, very relative. 

Also, for some of us, easier content is relaxing and fun. The same way some people like a leisurely bicycle ride along the bike path and others train for the Tour de France. 

If challenge for you involves very difficult gameplay, it does exist. Go join a NiM guild for raids. Go play ranked PvP. Play another game. Why does everyone else need to play the way you play? 

People aren't grouping. They should be forced to group. 

Because you think they should? What gives you any right to dictate how other people play or who they play the game with? Are you the National Gaming Czar and nobody told us? 

This "grouping should be compulsory!" belief is bullshit. People who want to group WILL group. That's always been the case. Hell, I remember being a kid and playing single player console games with friends. We'd take turns, cheer each other on, and yell out advice to the person playing. We found a way to play in a group because we wanted to. 

Right now, the people in SWTOR there are guilds and healthy incentives to join them. Right now, the people in SWTOR who want to play with a friend or friends can do that. Even in things like class stories or KOTFE where it only progresses for one person, they can still come along and help. There are multiple opportunities in the game for players to meet each other. There are social media sites where they can do the same. There's group finder. There are people who look for groups on the fleet. There are PvP and GSF where they can play against others. 

Bottom line? Anyone who wants to group has multiple ways to accomplish that at this very moment. 

Those who aren't grouping likely do not want to group. They don't have to explain why. If you force them to group one of two things will probably happen: they will do it and hate every second of it and not want to be there, or they will stop playing. Which is more likely? Well, I'm sure we've all finished Oricon, Iokath and Macrobinoculars, right? Oh wait...

This is a game. It's not supposed to be like a job where you have coworkers you detest and still have to interact with them. It's not some life skill. It's. A. Game. Get over it if people don't want to play with you.   There should always be open world PvP. Sure, if you want a mass exodus from the game in about a day. The minute they make open world PvP non-optional or make PvP content compulsory is the day I stop playing. And I don't think I'm alone there. I feel like this comment usually comes from people who are frustrated that others don't accept their duel requests and that there isn't a huge pool of players for PVP matches. They can't get people to play with them voluntarily so they want to force it. And you should be able to tag a mob someone else is working on. I keep seeing this brought up as an ideal in other games. It seems to be a way to force people to group with you even if they've said no to an invite. You know what will happen with this? You'll have players hitting the mob once and getting credit/loot without any effort. Or you will have players following around other players to "share mobs" with them even when that other player wants to be left alone. I'm of the opinion that any type of group play should be consensual in all cases, not forced on players because they happen to be in open world.

*sigh* It's an MMO. 

And? MMO doesn't mean "group all the time" or even some of the time. It means a lot of players are co-existing in a shared online world. It means the ability to group should exist - and it does. 

People come into group content and don't know what to do. 

#1: Everyone starts somewhere. We all know that you were so miraculously gifted that you came out of the womb knowing advanced mechanisms for every boss fight, but most of us didn't. 

#2. If you want to play strictly with a team of veteran players, join a guild, make some friends in the game and have fun. That's a lot more realistic than expecting random players in a PUG or groupfinder to meet whatever your exacting specifications are. 

#3. Blame the devs for forcing players into Groupfinder to complete Galactic Seasons and other objectives. There are plenty of people who wouldn't be there if that weren't the case. 

People come into flashpoints and want to watch the cut scenes. 

Hang on. Let me process this. In a story based game, players want to watch the cut scenes? For real? That's completely unreasonable! /sarcasm

In the latest flashpoints, they've more or less removed all the cut scenes. You have your wish granted. For the older flashpoints, there are still many that don't have solo/story mode. The only way people can see those cut scenes is in veteran or master. If you have an issue with this, start advocating to the devs to make solo story versions of those flashpoints.  I feel like the bottom line is that everyone has the right to ask for the type of gaming experience they want, but they don't have the right to insist everyone else should share that experience.

[askagamedev]

Follow up question but different anon. I like that idea of a game dev Black Ops tactical insertion team to help projects. How do you get to that kind of badass elite status? Obviously time put into the industry but what other stipulations or accolades are needed generally?

Rescue operations are a lot like any other specialization in the industry - if you do it enough times, you get better at it. If you're good at it, you'll likely get recognized as being good at it and get more opportunities to do it. If it is something you want to keep doing, take the opportunities to do more of it as they present themselves. It then becomes a cycle - recognition of skills in a particular field, doing more of it, improving skills, repeat.

I would say that becoming a rescue operator like this does require a specific mindset that the developer must be good with maintaining. One of the reasons I became a game dev is because I wanted to make cool new stuff - new games, new gameplay, bring new ideas to life, and so on. I find it really fun to start with a blank slate and come up with a whole new system or idea. I'm sure a lot of people who want to get into game dev want to do similar things - they have these great ideas that they want to make real. Rescue operators don’t get to do this and it is probably the biggest drawback of being a rescue operator.

Rescue operators don't really get much opportunity to do new things because they only get the call when the situation is dire and things need rescuing. This means that they often have to enter a bad situation - bad code, bad assets, bad designs, etc. - and fix it under time pressure. The time pressure generally means that they don't have the time to fix things the right way - they have to cobble something together that is shippable out of mostly-bad basically-reused parts. There's no time to rebuild things from the ground up properly. There's no time to re-record VO or record new cinematics. There's no time to refactor huge parts of the code. As such, these rescue operators are constantly seeing the worst parts of project after project and unable to fix them well. That's a particular flavor of misery that can really wear on your soul.

One of the hardest parts of being a rescue operator is the compartmentalization aspect - it's really difficult to get engaged with projects because you don't spend that much time on them and you tend to see them at their worst. Once you've completed your mission, you leave to do it again on another project. The projects you rescue usually don't do all that well anyway because most troubled projects rarely have only one major problem. The only way I’ve found around this is compartmentalization - you just can’t get emotionally involved because you’re probably doomed to heartache otherwise.

As you may have surmised, I've done some time as a rescue operator. I've actually had a good amount of experience rescuing parts of projects in the past, and I've been recruited specifically for that expertise. I've also seen (and fixed) things that no designer or engineer should have to see. A rescue operator almost never gets a chance to create something new. It’s interesting work, but it’s not without its own set of drawbacks. Getting to do that kind of work isn’t actually that difficult - there’s no shortage of projects with problems; willingness to jump on grenades and successfully pulling off the fix is often a job few are willing to do. It’s just important to understand the kind of tradeoffs involved with the work.

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