#g: cultist simulator

[vgtrackbracket]

Video Game Track Bracket Round 2

Polumnia Omnia from Genshin Impact

vs.

The Old Must End from Cultist Simulator

Propaganda under the cut. If you want your propaganda reblogged and added to future polls, please tag it as propaganda or otherwise indicate this!

Polumnia Omnia:

It's sung by the composer himself in both Latin and Japanese — Japanese being in there to highlight the boss character's past/home. The mix of real and synthesized instruments is also there because of the giant mech he's inside.

[pirunika]

Masterpost ᐖ

last updated: 6.1.25

Tags :

#sudraws #my writing #xx #music #reference #photography #self reblog #video etc.

Art Blog @mandoart

A03 (being revised)

LIs of choice bc why not :

Lann (Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous)

Heinrix (Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader)

Alistair, Fenris, Blackwall (Dragon Age)

Garrus, Jaal (Mass Effect Trilogy)

Danse (Fallout 4)

Torian, Aric (Swtor)

Elliott (Stardew Valley)

Astraeus, Alain, Reiner, Nav (Lovestruck)

Liod, Andvari, Chris (Romance Club)

Asra, Julian (The Arcana)

Jumin Han, Zen (Mystic Messenger)

Lucifer, Mammon (Obey Me)

Hanzo (Nightshade)

Raze honestly all 3... (Demonheart)

Ernol, Haron (Ebon Light)

Leander (Touchstarved WIP)

Flannan (The Good People WIP)

Mason (The Wayhaven Chronicles)

Ricardo Ortega (Fallen Hero)

Hadrian (The Golden Rose)

Ulysses (Whiskey-Four)

Toshie, Junko (Samurai of Hyuga)

Zhu (Relics of the Lost Age)

Preston (Tin Star)

Marcel for now (Thicker Than WIP)

Blade (Shepherds of Haven WIP)

Laurent (Perfumare: Avulsion WIP)

O, G..idk everyone (Infamous WIP)

Games I play/ed not mentioned above

Dragon Raja Mobile

Sims free2play, mobile, 3, 4

Black Desert Mobile

Fate Grand Order

Cookie Run Kingdom

Vampire's Fall: Origins

Eldarya

Lovelink

MeChat

Blush Blush

Choices

Ikemen Sengoku

Samurai LBP

A Date with Death

Andromeda Six

Tailor Tales

Hollywood Red Embrace

When the Night Comes

Guild Wars 2

Slay the Princess

Fear & Hunger

Cultist Simulator

Soul Stone War

Tally Ho

I, the Forgotten One

Blood Moon

Fields of Asphodel

Choice of the Deathless

Werewolves series

Playlists :

Astraeus (Astoria Fate's Kiss - Lovestruck)

Astoria MC (aka Eos just below)

Sails in the Fog (Romance Club)

Shepherds of Haven WIP IF

Infamous WIP IF Band

Mason (Wayhaven Chronicles)

Some main-ish OCs/MCs :

Manolya 'Mili' Rosebud Sackville (Lord of the Rings Online) #oc: mili

Gulsary (DnD Online) #oc: gulsary

Vorawin'ther Vandree 'Vora Winter' (Neverwinter/1/2, Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous — a drow in one and dhampir in the latter) #oc: vora, #oc: vorawin'ther

Balta Granar (Elder Scrolls Online) oc: #balta

Ayka Delgerdzaya Aeducan (Dragon Age Origins) #oc: ayka

Aurora Hawke (Dragon Age 2) #oc: aurora

Talas Adaar (Dragon Age Inquisition) #oc: aysha

Sue (lol i made a self insert for Fallout New Vegas) #the courier

Anna Arslanowicz (Fallout 4) #oc: anna

Elnara 'Ellie' Seitosmanovna Krymsky (Saints Row series) #oc: ellie

'Lia' Shepard (Mass Effect trilogy) #oc: lia

Valentina 'Tina' Ryder (Mass Effect Andromeda) #oc: valentina

'Nino Balkish' (Star Wars the Old Republic, Chiss Mando Bounty Hunter) #oc: nino

Emija Prizrak (Star Wars the Old Republic, Chiss Republic Trooper) #oc: emija

Berra H'akan (Star Wars the Old Republic, Cathar Mando -by birth- Bounty Hunter) #oc: berra

Kartili Kelborn (Star Wars the Old Republic, Twi'lek Smuggler mando ) #oc: kartili

Yvadin Stagard (Star Wars the Old Republic, Twi'lek Bounty Hunter) #oc: yvadin

Lirash Paaran (Star Wars the Old Republic, Togruta Bounty Hunter) #oc: lirash

Koalcha (Star Wars the Old Republic, Chiss Imperial Agent token male oc) #oc: koalcha

Eos Eremenko surname may vary (MC of Astoria Fate's Kiss / Lost Kisses, interactive fiction (guess all of them with exceptions) & Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader & my WIP interpretation of the titan goddess with the same name) #oc: eos

Ela (The Arcana, Fictif, interactive fiction where Eos isn't the mc lol - Blood Moon for one) #oc: ela

Eve Mac Diarmada (Obey Me / Nightbringer, my WIP interpretation of Eve herself!) #oc: eve

Others :

Star Wars Clan H'akan (original Mandalorian clan settled on Werda, led by Danyal H'akan - also, father of Berra ) #clan h'akan

Star Wars Clan Strillir (also my Mandalorian clan on Werda, led by Sidar Strillir) #clan strillir

ASOIAF House Dawnbreak (a semi-noble household) here

Cultist Simulator (Follower) OC here

My Writing :

Homecoming, gen but Lucifer being Lucifer (OBEY ME)

My Moodboards, Edits :

SHEPHERDS OF HAVEN MC TEMPLATE

SHEPHERDS OF HAVEN MC MOODBOARD

BLADE X MC MOODBOARD

BLADE X MC MOODBOARD 2

ASTRAEUS X MC MOODBOARD 1

ASTRAEUS X MC MOODBOARD 2

ALAIN RICHTER MOODBOARD

[captainsvscaptains]

Prelims

Poll G

A mistake on my part : I've read the wrong line while coming up with the polls, David Anderson is from the game Mass Effect. The tags are now corrected. Sadly, I can't do anything for the poll itself

[toku-explained]

The Fire and Ice Rex Pair

Trigger: Darrgon escapes his restraints, and Carmeara informs him she destroyed Hudram. Sickened she would kill a fellow Dark Giant he goes to leave, but she uses her increased darkness to turn him into her puppet. GUTS-Select take a photo together, and Akito is happy. Darrgon appears to rampage, and Akito and analysis can see he's powered up. GUTS Falcon flies into and Yuna tries to reach Darrgon unsuccessfully, so Kengo goes to Trigger, soon switching to Power-type. Akito calls out for Darrgon to remember learning strength came from the desire to protect, to no avail, Yuna is sent flying, but Darrgon catches her dedpure his possession, breaking free, but Carmeara seems amused. Darrgon tells Yuna he has been drawn to humanity's strength in bonds, and they ask him to join them, he wants to settle his rivalry with Trigger first. As the two Giants prepare to fight, Akito asks Tatsumi to let the fight go on, which is accepted but putting everyone on alert. Kengo goes straight to Glitter, but soon Carmeara enhances the curse, sending Darrgon wild he even targets Yuna directly, and GUTS Falcon launches, but Yuzare's power barely protects her. Darrgon struggles with himself, and tells them they have to stop him, before losing himself for good. Carmeara attacks Trigger, stopping him fighting Darrgon further. Yuna runs, chased by Darrgon, and is cornered. Akito fishes out the Ribut Key and requests Nursedessei use Battle Mode, and requests use of the gun himself, and uses the Ribut key to prepare the Maxima Galaxium. The point blank attack defeats Darrgon, whose last wordsare gratitude. Trigger is on the ropes from Carmeara, and defeated, Yuna picking him up as Carmeara consumes Darrgon's darkness. Shegoes human size, beating Kengo, grabs Yuna, and vanishes. She places Yuna on the alter, manipulating her body to open the gate to the Eternity Core. Ignis seeing this, swears not to let earth wind up like Lusharia. Czrmeara begins to absorb the Eternity Core, her body mutating and earthquakes start, the gate returns to tower form, and Megalothor emerges, Carmeara's new form.

Galaxy Rescue Force: Sora finishes a report to Queen Izaba about using music to empower Warriors of Light. Izaak points out a letter in a file Sora has, which she opens to find is from Daada mentioning the many nearby tourist destinations and offering to take her on a day off. Sora is unsure what to do, Izana recognising, even if Sora doesn't, that she loves another, obviously Ribut, though Sora denies it. Ribut pops by, accidentally scaring Sora, sees the invite, and tells her to have fun. Sora, confused, says she will and leaves. Izana asks if Ribut is okay with that, him seeming genuinely oblivious. He reports Dark energy traces in the base the recent days, they worry something has snuck aboard. Privately, he seems concerned about Sora going on a date.

Revice: Looking at the Giff statue, Kadota contemplates to George if it would have been better to destroy it. Director Akaishi Hideo wants them to focus on eliminating Olteca, Julio and Aguilera. Julio tells Aguilera the thing he hates the most are traitors. Olteca asks a cultist to gather fellow members. Sakura is contemplating the Ushijima house, she never stepped into the basement, when a man comes in asking to find Julio, AKA Tamaki Gou. Daiji notices Kadota's still in poor shape as Ikki arrives, asking George for a way to separate the remaining 3 Giftex, George has a new ViStamp that might do it. George puts Ikki and Vice into a simulation, the first test is against Revi Rex Genome. The man explains to Sakura he had been friends with Tamaki in high school, and his smile quote comes from himself originally. Ikki and Vice defeat Revi, and Vice freezes as George explains the new stamp should put them both on Remix level in terms of power, and they'll suffer if not in sync. Another Revi appears, and once defeated Ikki starts burning. YouTube admits he betrayed Tamaki, pressured by the bullies into destroying a gift, and he never apologised. Sakura promises to try and help. Ikki and Daiji hear from Sakura. Julio has Aguilera recall their first meeting, driven to Giff by Yousuke's action, and he is now driven by hate for him and Olteca. Olteca has gathered cultists, and shows he has the Giff Stamp. Next day Ikki and Vice continue training, and as George has them break they are witness by an alert to Olteca stamping a cultist with the Giff Stamp, transforming her directly into a Deadman. Live and Demons are soon on scene, and seeing Demons struggle, Olteca attacks, but is attacked in turn by Julio. Yousuke and Sakura arrive, and she leaps into the fray, trying to get him to listen to Yousuke unsuccessfully. Cultists grab Live and Demons, making it easier for the Deadman, Olteca defeats Julio and Jeanne stops Yousuke running to him. Ikki arrives last minute, and Olteca reveals that the Giffterian consumed the human it was born from. Ikki uses Barid Rex, then combines the new Volcano ViStamp and goes further, Revi Volcano Rex and Vice Barid Rex. Their combined power and contrasting temperature allows them to beat the Giftarian, but the human is home. In a rare, Revi charges at Olteca.

Zenkaiger: Everyone discusses kotatsus, Yatsude mentioning how they can bewitch people, when Kotatsu World appears, trapping everyone under a kotatsu. Zyuran gets free because he can't handle the heat, and goes in search of wearable ones for the others. Before he can tind any everyone affected starts turning into cats, and his attempts to energise everyone fall flat, despite his efforts being appreciated, until Secchan finds Kotatsu World. ZenkaiZyuran fights, but then Barashitara appears, in order to get to Zyuran they use the Patranger gear to combine their kotatsus, Secchan commandeers the CrocoDaiOh to get them to the scene. Everyone arrives, still hound to the kotatsu, just in time, and changes. With the battle still difficult with everyone trapped, Kaito uses the new Donbrothers Gear, summoning DonMomotaro on his bike, who helps Zyuran fight Kotatsu World. Vroon manages to move enough to annoy Barashitara, Zenkaiser uses the Zenryoku Zenkai Cannon and Fighting Power to summon Battle Kenya, Kibaranger and GekiBlue, holding Barashitara off until Kotatsu World is destroyed. Dai Kotatsu World appears. DonMomotaro offers the use of his Enya Rideon, which combines with Zyuran into Don ZenkaiOh, eventually winning with a Don Zenkai Crash. All of the attacks make use of the Donbrothers Gear. DonMomotaro has a laugh afterwards before taking off. Everyone is being considerate to Zyuran later. Stacey is in jail bemoaning his condition, when Gege approaches, and seemingly takes control of his body.

[ivylili]

Der letzte Brief

"... Yes, the true Light is never merciful. Yet the skin of the world - which is to say, the reality for the most people - must be preserved. For if there was no Wake, then where does Dream come from? What would become of Mansus and the Glory? ... P. S. I am afraid that I will not be able to write in the next few weeks. There are signs of a typhus outbreak in this place, and I must go to the hospital to see if there is anything I can do to help. I will contact you when this is over. I wish you all the best. Sincerely, G. v. Jannings”

I stared at the elegant Kurrentschrift on the letter. Private letters always travel more slowly than the reports of the journalists. In that newspaper beside my right hand, there is an article about the horrifying situation of a city far away, where the dangerous disease broke out, and it mourned a foreign surgeon, who was only passing through that city while travelling, but volunteered in a local hospital and helped treating the victims, when the disease claimed him too. The article praised him, as if he was a medieval saint. "May God rest his soul." So is it written in the newspaper. I shook my head. Just like me, he was not a man that believes in God. Both of us have seen the true form of the world, which is hidden to most eyes. We have chosen different paths, though. Perhaps I will never see him again, no matter inside or outside of Mansus. Yet I yearn to see him so much, even only to ask him why. Or maybe I will never know that answer.

==========

A tiny piece of fic about the PC in Cultist Simulator main game and the NPC Count Jannings, if Jannings dies in Exile DLC

[monstersdownthepath]

So im getting Cultist Simulator on your recommendation! I have no idea, can you please give me one cryptic tip on what to do?

I'll give you three! Three non-cryptic tips to alleviate the early game stress, and three cryptic hints for actually making progress.

1) Pausing and grabbing are your best friends. Pausing time and shuffling cards where they need to go is the way to go, and magnetic verbs (such as Season of Investigation) cannot grab cards that you're actually holding. This is a godsend if you're being investigated but have only one Notoriety; grab that bad boy to keep it out of the wrong hands.

2) Working in the quarry will get you just barely enough funds to survive, and nothing else. Some legacies start out with better jobs, but the best paying one is Glover and Glover, which you can find by Working with Reason. G&G has its own pitfalls, however, and will eat your time like nothing else...

3) Don't go on any expeditions until a handful of people in your cult are at least level 5. You can also buy Hirelings to send on expeditions by Exploring with yourself or a cultist, but which Hireling you get is random and they may not be useful. At least they're disposable and delicious.

Bonus: clicking an empty verb slot will make every card that can fit in that slot light up. It's helpful to see what WON'T go in as much as what will.

C1) Winter's price is too high to pay unless you have friends you hate.

C2) All things are fuel if you find the right fire. However...

C3) ... don't Knock it till you try it.

[studyingana]

Studyblr Introduction!

Hi everyone! My name is Andromeda (Not my real name, but my online one), and I’ve tried to upkeep a studyblr twice. Both have failed. But to be fair I did make them in the summer, so there wasn’t much to blog about :P But hey! Third time’s a charm, right?

Here’s my introduction post about me and what I like to do!

A B O U T   M E

I am 16 years old (15th May, 2003)

I’m no longer in high school and instead am studying at a local college, hopefully until I am university ready :)

I am based in Scotland! So while I’m describing my school system and course work, there may be things that you don’t understand. Please feel free to send me an ask about it and I’ll do my best to explain, or compare to your country’s system :)

Although I was born and raised in Scotland, I also have citizenship by descent in New Zealand, because my mum is from there

I have an induction day for my course tomorrow (14/08/19), where I’ll find out my final timetable for the year alongside extra information

My course starts on 26/08/19 and runs for the academic year

I’m a Ravenclaw 

My favourite colour is purple

I have Anxiety and High-functioning ASD (Asperger’s Syndrome).

I am Bisexual

I N T E R E S T S

I really enjoy playing video games in my free time, especially games like Destiny 2, Division 2, and Warframe. I also enjoy other games like The Painscreek Killings, Minecraft, Sims 4, and Cultist simulator.

I have sunk more time into Destiny 2 than I would like to admit

I like listening to music! I’m more into the alternative/punk rock genres, but I enjoy a good pop song ever now and again. My favourite bands are Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, Paramore, and Twenty One Pilots

I like to explore, even if my Anxiety doesn’t appreciate it

I volunteer with my local brownie unit

M Y   C L A S S E S

My classes are currently subject to change, but only until tomorrow, where I’ll get my final timetable (and post here, of course)

Currently, my classes are across Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

History and Psychology are on Monday

Sociology and Development skills are on Wednesday, with problem solving, working with others, Crime in the community, research methods, and project work being in the two “Development skills” classes.

Core skills, ICT, Guidance and progression, anthropology, and Enterprise are on Friday. 

All my classes are National Level 5

W H Y   A   S T U D Y B L R ?

I’ve been lurking for a while, and I wanted to try it out

 I have horrible motivation and procrastination problems. I really hope this will keep me on track

G O A L S ?

I really want to do the 100 days of productivity challenge

Start my first bullet journal

Be active on here!

Hopefully create some new routines

[samueldays]

Cultist Simulator is bad

Small annoyed disagreeable rant/review after seeing a tweetseries from people I like:

> Some of the most beautiful games involve the incremental accumulation of power and potential which is nevertheless extremely fragile to disruption and must be protected. The victory condition is often a dangerous and glorious consummation of force and willpower.

> What games do this well

>  The thought was stimulated by Cultist Simulator, which distills the concept to its refined essence.

No. I’m really not seeing it. I played through the three original victory conditions to get my money’s worth, I was unimpressed with the game, and I definitely didn’t see a “dangerous and glorious consummation”. I saw grind and busywork.

The main danger of Cultist Simulator is recurring resource sinks. Money is constantly consumed, and you will need to earn more of it. Health may be intermittently consumed, and you will have to recover it, such as by resting or buying medicine. Sanity is intermittently consumed -- the game mechanically tracks it as Dread/Fascination counting up rather than sanity counting down - but the principle is the same, recover the resource or you’ll be in deep trouble.

But there’s no threat large and powerful enough to make any of these accumulated resources fragile. All the resource sinks always move one point at a time on a long track: 3-ish points for the intermittently consumed, and you can accumulate as much Money as you like (I’ve had 30+) against the constant upkeep cost. You can pretty much only lose by long-term neglect and letting these resources run out.* technically you can accumulate as much health as you like too

Nothing will come along and threaten to smash your shit. Bank robbers won’t take ten money and reduce you to penury, forcing you to scramble for money before the rent on your cultist HQ comes due. Sanity-rending monsters won’t rend more than one point of sanity each, nor will they appear in packs. You will never lose your strange tomes, nor will you forget the languages you’ve learned, nor will you become unable to perform a Rite once you have discovered it.

You might lack the ingredients for a Rite, but the Rite itself, as a game object you own, is indestructible and unlosable. And you can choose to destroy a unique artifact by ritual sacrifice or sale, but no game entity will ever come by to steal or break it.

The final threat that comes to mind is the Investigators seeking to have you thrown in jail, which is the only element I can envision as being anywhere near “fragile to disruption and must be protected”.

You can lose the game to an Investigator. If you are neglectful or don’t know the tricks yet. Because Investigators also move on a predictable track: you start with a spotless record and the investigator can look at your cult activities (Notoriety) to create weak evidence against you, and then can follow up on weak evidence to create strong evidence against you, and then can use strong evidence to make you lose if you haven’t erased evidence or otherwise stopped them.

The game’s design, at least when I played it, makes it bizarrely straightforward to ensure this doesn’t happen. There’s the "sensible" means like sending assassins to kill investigators, or speaking forbidden words to drive them insane, but even if you don’t have access to assassins or forbidden words, you don’t need any resources but player attention to ensure perfect protection against investigators in two silly ways.

1) Evidence times out after a while if an investigator doesn’t follow up on it. Investigators cannot follow up on evidence that you are holding in your “hand” (dragging with cursor). So when an investigator approaches, you can pause game, give orders, pick up evidence, unpause game with keyboard, let investigator wander around doing nothing for a minute until they give up and go elsewhere. Drop evidence once investigator is gone.

2) Investigators cannot follow up on evidence if they’re busy. You can talk to an investigator to keep them busy. You can talk to them repeatedly, back to back. You can even talk about your cult activities to them and they’ll be so busy listening to you monopolize their schedule that they’ll let the statute of limitations expire.

That mostly concludes my disagreements, some other general criticism below the cut.

The grind. Oh god, the fucking manual grind. Drag your Job Card onto your Work Verb. Wait 60 seconds. Receive money. Work Verb spits out your Job Card. Drag your Job Card onto your Work Verb. Wait 60 seconds. Receive money. Work Verb spits out your Job Card. Drag your Job Card onto your Work Verb. Wait 60 seconds. Receive money. Work Verb spits out your Job Card. Repeat many times. Repeat many times in a row, even, stop to use your Work Verb for something else, drag your Job Card onto your Work Verb another ten times. Can has automation of “keep working” plzkthx.

(no we can’t because the game is probably making an artistic statement about the drudgery of work by annoying the player with drudgery in play too, I suppose)

Replay value is low. There’s the same books, the same summons, the same cultists, the same rites the same commissioners. And since the occult books you get are drawn randomly from a pool, you can’t even do much strategizing of “I’ll go for this book today” - you just have to keep pulling from the pool until you’ve got most of the same ones all over again.

You can theoretically win with only one rite -- you can win straightforwardly with two of the ten or so rites in the game (Intercalate and either Sunset or Map’s Edge) -- or you can get five other rites and have no end of hassle because they’re five rites that all require permanent sacrifices of things which are bothersome to get or limited in supply or both. More draws from the rite pool!

When you first found your cult, you get a “Temporary Headquarters” card. It is actually your permanent headquarters, there is no change or upgrade or replacement to be done with it. This is an example of a wider problem of the game pretending to encourage discovery and exploration, but then deceiving you on several points about what is discoverable, so you can easily fuck around trying to get better headquarters to no avail for half an hour, during which you will Drag your Job Card onto your Work Verb another ten or twenty times.

The game also pretends to encourage risk-taking. Yeeeah no not with the amount of brainless grind required to get back to where I was if I lose a game and have to start over, Drag your Job Card onto your Work Verb again.

Some cards of the same type can stack, like Health and Passion. Painting a very artistic painting takes four Passion cards for highest effect. When you’re done painting, your Passion cards will be temporary exhausted and de-stack because they’re not of the same type any more. When they recover, they will not re-stack. Flarging barging card shuffle management for things that really should have been automated. Like Drag your Job Card onto your Work Verb.

Speaking of things that should have been automated, drag four Glimmering cards into your passion upgrader, now drag six, now drag eight, now drag eight Glimmering cards into your passion upgrader because you lost a passion to a rite by accident and misleading interface. Drag all these cards one by one because there’s no way we could just autofill with the only possible, necessary card to put in the upgrader, right? Do similar things for Vitality and for Erudition.

Speaking of misleading interface, a lot of the game has you inserting cards into a set of slots to produce an effect. Until you memorize what each of the slots want, there will be a lot of trial and error. To help a little in this, clicking on a slot will highlight which cards on the table fit in that slot.

It will also highlight some cards on the table which would fit in that slot under other circumstances but don’t fit right now due to what you have in the other slots, which is less useful than it could be because it doesn’t explain the circumstances.

It will also highlight some cards on the table that don’t fit in that slot at all, making it really unhelpful and you should probably just memorize what all the slots want already.

In closing, it feels like half the game only works when you are ignorant (discover! explore! oh no, a strange and unknown threat! spooky!) but the other half only works well with a manual at your side (to extract value from book A, you need to learn dead language B which can be gotten from summonable character C whose undocumented summoning requires quantity D of resource E, quantity F of resource G, and quantity H of resource I, and depending on whether you use Rite J or Rite K you will permanently lose either the resource E or the resource G)

[beacon-of-chaos]

Defenders of Aura - A Battle Century G Campaign Diary

I've always wanted to do one of these things and I've just started a new sci-fi mecha campaign with friends using the Battle Century G system (I highly recommend it!) so there's no better time. If you’re interested a few quotes from this game have already made it to the GitP No Context thread, which will give you a bit of insight into the characters, and hopefully a laugh or two.

The campaign is an original setting, set on the world of Aura. The capital city, Neovara, has been recruiting a mecha-based military force and four rather unusal pilots have managed to make the cut and join a new team. They are:

Alexander A.K.A. Ax. Lead singer and guitarist of the popular metal band, Break the Abyss. A charming ladies' man, possibly a little narcisistic. His mech has been custom built with a guitar for a controller and the whole thing responds to the music he plays. In battle it moves at a snail's pace but hits hard with powerful long range weapons.

Fiona. Previously a spacer and junker, her expertise in taking apart ships for parts has translated into great skill in taking apart enemy mechs by force. She seems to have quite the temper. Her mech carries a giant wrench into melee combat.

Dr. Spectre A.K.A. Dr. S. A scientist who got the job by building his own mech, in a cave, with a box of scraps funding from a private investor. Somewhat meek, he is never seen without Eric, his adopted alien son. His mech is the fastest and balances long and short range combat, with a preference for the former.

ZX-10222 A.K.A. Sinclair. An android who originally worked as a croupier at a casino and was "encouraged" to join the miliary after it was discovered he had been fitted with an illegal hacking rig without his knowledge. A pacifist and an optimist. His mech is purely support, supplying repairs and ammo to the others. Played by Yours Truly.

Session 1:

First day on the job, the team is gathered at military headquarters in the capital city to meet each other and our commanding officers. We're met by Adam Westfield, commander of one of the other mecha teams. After brief introductions he shows us around the base, in particular noting the simulation machines for training purposes. Fiona suggests we set up some kind of tournament, partially to keep sharp, partially to "keep score".

Next, we're shown around the mech hanger where we're greeted by Sara Wong, Sinclair's handler and someone the GM describes as "...a bit odd"

GM: You're not sure if she wants to dissect you or sleep with you.

Yikes. I don't know what to make of that, but when we arrive she gives me a big hug, so at least she's friendly either way. She's also our team's mechanic and she assures us the mechs are ready for action, though she questions Ax's choice of controls. Ax offers to give her a quick lesson, though she seems to be watching him rather than his playing.

Lastly we are shown to the office of our boss, Commander Nina Burgess. She explains to us that our team's main directive will be the defence of the country against outside forces, though thankfully this won't be for some time as we are not currently at war.

We're then given some time to get to know each other and hang out. Fiona gushes over Ax's music, then grills Sinclair on his purpose, being suspicious of his combat ability. Sinclair assures her that he is there to keep the team's mechs running and, by extension, keep the pilots alive. This seems good enough for the junker. We then ask Dr. S about Eric. Apparantly they met when he was young and the Doc saved his life. Eric doesn't speak English too well, but Sinclair is able to speak a pidgin language that he understands.

Not long after this, a communication comes through from Burgess: We've got a mission. A ship has been seen leaving the atmosphere at high velocity from an island that should be uninhabited. Intial intel suggests that these may be smugglers attempting to sneak goods off-world. We're asked to move in and secure the area, but to be careful as a powerful railgun turret has been set up.

Our dropship move us towards the deployment area and we choose where our mechs are going to land. We're in a hurry and there's no time for stealth, so we find a hill near a forest we can drop down behind for cover. Our mechs are dropped from the ship and...

GM: Make a roll to see if you land where you want to. >:)

Damn. Sinclair rolls high enough to stick the landing. Unfortunately Fiona ends up landing on top of him. Ax ends up in the forest and immediately trips over a tree, and Dr. S ends up landing in between the hill and forest where there's no cover. So, y'know, we nailed it. :P

Combat begins and the railgun immediately begins turning towards us, and several anti-grav tanks move towards our position. Fiona and Ax begin moving forwards, the former using jammers to mess up the turret's targeting while the later begins taking potshots with his sniper rifle. Dr. S takes a few shots too, while Sinclair keeps the group supplied with upgrades and ammo.

After a couple of turns command tells us that the ship leaving the atmosphere was intercepted, but it moved far too fast for them to catch. It was an alien vessel, belonging to the Deitus. These guys avoid most humans like the plague while claiming to be the gods from human mythology. That means the guys we are fighting are cultists.

After a few more turns of battle, the railgun is back in action and needs to be taken out. Fiona rushes in, breaking apart the gun's armour with her wrench. The GM tells us that we detect unusal energy fluctuations coming from it. Fiona decides to book it out of there, which is a pretty good decision as the gun explodes in a massive fireball. Dr. S chases a few remaining cultists to some kind of storage area. After laying down a few (missed) shots we find out what was in the crates they had. Dismembered cow parts fly across the battlefield. Ew.

The final tank makes a last ditch charge attack against Ax. Ax, however, has a melee weapon saved up for just such an occasion. A giant hammer, shaped like a guitar and filled with explosives (he's got a theme going, okay?). One powerful hit smashes the tank to bits, but also breaks the leg that was damaged earlier from the fall into the trees.

We check out the remains of the tanks, looking for survivors. We find none. Anyone who survived our attacks took their own lives rather than be captured. Sinclair mourns the loss of life while a grim Fiona says good riddance to the "contemptable vermin". What we do discover is a laptop. Sinclair offers to hack into it, but Fiona advises against it, warning that it probably has defences against such a thing. Or, as she put it:

Fiona: Do you want to delete System 32!?

The team heads back for debriefing, followed by some R&R.

And there ends the first session. Looking back at what I've just written, it doesn't sound like much, but we had great fun. A lot of the best bits were the character interactions, which I don't think comes across well, but I don't really want to write the dialogue line-by-line. Hopefully you guys are interested enough to read more. I may also post some setting lore later. If anyone wants to give any tips on how to make a good diary, those would be welcome. I'm not really a writer.

[androidmaniaco]

Cazando Gangas: OnePlus Nord, Realme X3 SuperZoom, Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro, Galaxy A71 y muchos más con grandes descuentos

Cazando Gangas: OnePlus Nord, Realme X3 SuperZoom, Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro, Galaxy A71 y muchos más con grandes descuentos

Si estás pensando en cambiar de móvil, ahora es un momento tan bueno como cualquier otro por un simple motivo: que encontrarás en nuestro Cazando Gangas las mejores ofertas del momento en móviles, accesorios y aplicaciones Android.

No importa el presupuesto o la gama, seguro que encontrarás en nuestra selección un móvil que cumpla tus expectativas, desde un Samsung Galaxy S20+ a un Moto G Pro, pasando por campeones de la relación calidad-precio como el Poco F2 Pro o el OnePlus Nord, todavía más rebajados.

Móviles Android en oferta

Samsung Galaxy S20+ por 729 euros. El Samsung Galaxy S20+ es el último gama alta de la compañía sin excluimos los modelos plegables, con casi todo lo bueno del modelo Ultra, pero en un tamaño más normal. Destaca por su pantalla AMOLED a 120 Hz y su cámara cuádruple 64 MP. Puedes llevarte uno con 8 GB de RAM y 128 GB de almacenamiento por 729 euros en Amazon.

OnePlus 8 por 595 euros. Otro gama alta interesante del año, el OnePlus 8, también está rebajado esta semana. Con cámara frontal perforada, pantalla AMOLED a 90 Hz, Snapdragon 865 y cámara triple, puedes llevarte uno a casa por 595 euros, en Amazon.

Teléfono OnePlus 8 Brillo Interestellar | 6.55” Pantalla Fluid AMOLED a 90Hz | 12GB de RAM + 256GB de Almacenamiento | Triple Cámara | Warp Charge 30 | Dual Sim | 5G | 2 Años de Garantía

Hoy en Amazon por 658,00€

Realme X3 Super Zoom por 399 euros. El Realme X3 SuperZoom es una de las sorpesas del año, siendo un gama alta con Snapdragon 855+ y seis cámaras en total: dos delante y cuatro detrás. Su precio era uno de sus puntos fuertes, y lo es todavía más con la última rebaja en Amazon: 399 euros por la versión con 8 GB de RAM.

OnePlus Nord por 360 euros. Otro campeón de la relación calidad-precio es el OnePlus Nord, con la ventaja de que se trata de un terminal 5G con Snadpragon 765G. El OnePlus Nord destaca por su pantalla AMOLED a 90 Hz, su cámara de cuatro lentes y frontal dual perforada en la pantalla. Todo esto, por 360 euros en Gearbest.

Samsung Galaxy A71 por 350 euros. Unos diez euros más barato te sale el Samsung Galaxy A71, el gama media con Snapdragon 730, pantalla AMOLED de 6,7 pulgadas y cámara trasera cuádruple de 64 megapíxeles. Se lanzó por 469 euros y ahora lo tienes por unos 100 euros menos en Amazon: 350 euros, y versión española.

Samsung Galaxy A71 - Smartphone de 6.7" FHD+ (4G, Dual SIM, 6 GB RAM, 128 GB ROM, Cámara Trasera 64.0 MP + 12.0 MP (UW) + 5.0 MP (Macro) + 5 MP, Cámara Frontal 32 MP) Color Azul [Versión Española]

Hoy en Amazon por 350,55€

POCO F2 Pro 6/128 por 342 euros. El POCO F2 Pro es uno de esos teléfonos que dan más de lo que cuestan y una de las formas más económicas de disfrutar de la potencia del Snapdragon 865. Cámara frontal motorizada y trasera cuádruple, gran batería y un precio de 342 euros, en Aliexpress.

Huawei P30 Lite New Edition por 249 euros. Huawei se sacaba de la manga una reedición del Huawei P30 Lite con más memoria, acabados y disparador para selfies, con la ventaja de que sigue incluyendo todos los servicios de Google preinstalados. Su precio oficial era de 349 euros, y está rebajado 100 euros en la tienda online de Huawei: se queda en 249 euros.

Motorola Moto G Pro por 249 euros. Terminamos nuestra lista con uno de los terminales más recientes: el Moto G Pro. Se trata de un curioso móvil con Snapdragon 665 y cámara cuádruple que incluye su propio Stylus, y puede ser tuyo por 249 euros en Amazon.

Accesorios rebajados

Huawei Watch GT 2e por 125 euros. El Huawei Watch GT 2e está rebajado unos 50 euros en Amazon. Es un smartwatch con pantalla AMOLED de 1,39 pulgadas, GPS y batería para hasta dos semanas, que se queda en 125 euros.

Huawei Watch GT 2e Sport - Smartwatch de AMOLED pantalla de 1.39 pulgadas, 2 semanas de batería, GPS, Color Negro (Graphite Black) 46 mm (55025281)

Hoy en Amazon por 125,61€

Amazfit GTR de 42 mm por 90 euros. Si prefieres un smartwatch más pequeño, el Amazfit GTR de 42 mm, con pantalla AMOLED de 1,2 pulgadas, GPS y resistencia IP68 baja la barrera psicológica de los 100 euros en MediaMarkt: se queda en 90 euros.

Xiaomi Mi Band 5 por 31 euros. Por último, tenemos la pulsera de actividad por excelencia, la Xiaomi Mi Band 5. Con pantalla OLED de 1,1 pulgadas y autonomía para unas dos semanas, te ayudará a registrar todas tus sesiones de deporte, mantenerte al tanto de las notificaciones que te llegan al móvil y mucho más, por 31 euros en eBay.

Aplicaciones y juegos Android en oferta

DISTRAINT 2 7,49 euros 2,99 euros

Note Recognition - Convert Music into Sheet Music 2,99 euros gratis

Cultist Simulator 6,99 euros 3,49 euros

Stony Icon Pack 0,99 euros gratis

FBReader Premium – Favourite Book Reader 5,99 euros 3,89 euros

Aprender Francés - MosaLingua 5,49 euros gratis

Sound Sampler 1,59 euros gratis

Paranormal Territory 2 2,89 euros gratis

Legacy of Elaed: RPG 2,19 euros 0,99 euros

Ahorcado Premium 2,99 euros gratis

AR GPS Compass Map 3D Pro 3,99 euros 0,99 euros

Tormentum - Dark Sorrow - a Mystery Point & Click 5,49 euros 3,59 euros

She Sees Red - Película de misterio interactiva 3,39 euros 0,99 euros

Guitar Engineer 3,09 euros 1,59 euros

Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition 10,99 euros 4,99 euros

Tiny Guardians 4,49 euros 2,19 euros

Tallowmere 2,09 euros 0,99 euros

Peace, Death! 1,79 euros 0,99 euros

SSH Server 1,49 euros 0,89 euros

Strive Minutes - Meditation Timer with Intervals 2,79 euros gratis

BabyBook – Diario del bebe y registro de rutina 2,99 euros gratis

¿Más ofertas?

Si te haces de Amazon Prime, dispones de 30 días de prueba gratis (después 36 euros al año) para disfrutar de envíos rápidos gratis, accesorio prioritario a ofertas, servicios como Prime Video, Prime Music, Prime Reading y almacenamiento de fotos ilimitado. Además, si eres estudiante, hacerte de Prime Student cuesta la mitad y dispones de 90 días de prueba.

¿En serio, no has tenido suficiente con eso? No te preocupes, tenemos muchas más ofertas: puedes estar al día de las principales que hayamos descubierto en los cazando gangas de Xataka, Xataka Móvil, Xataka Foto, Vida Extra, Espinof y Applesfera, así como con nuestros compañeros de Compradicción y también en esta revista de Flipboard. Puedes ver todas las gangas que publican en Twitter y Facebook, e incluso suscribirte a sus avisos vía Telegram.

Os recordamos que si conocéis o encontráis cualquier oferta salvaje que os aparezca de golpe durante vuestros momentos de navegación libre, tenéis el espacio de los comentarios, como siempre, para que ampliéis estas magníficas gangas que internet nos regala semanalmente. Y si queréis más, el viernes que viene volvemos. ¡Buen fin de semana a todos!

Nota: algunos de los enlaces aquí publicados son de afiliados. A pesar de ello, ninguno de los artículos mencionados han sido propuestos ni por las marcas ni por las tiendas, siendo su introducción una decisión única del equipo de editores.

- La noticia Cazando Gangas: OnePlus Nord, Realme X3 SuperZoom, Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro, Galaxy A71 y muchos más con grandes descuentos fue publicada originalmente en Xataka Android por Iván Ramírez .

Xataka Android https://ift.tt/3jQXLwt

[vgtrackbracket]

Video Game Track Bracket Round 1

The Old Must End from Cultist Simulator

vs.

Learning to Play from Unravel Two

No propaganda was submitted for either track.

If you want your propaganda reblogged and added to future polls, please tag it as propaganda or otherwise indicate this!

[automatonvice]

Final Essay

Contreltophobia Incarnate

Contreltophobia, or agraphobia, is defined as the phobia of sexual abuse. Generally, phobias are seen as extremes of a fear, taken to a point of sensitivity where they cannot be explained. But, sexual abuse, as well as the ideals similar to it such as rape, can easily be understood as producing a strong and understandable fear, and even more so for females. Video games hold the interesting aspect of being able to simulate and represent realistic fears and create a unique type of immersion for the viewer through pure interaction. The RPG video game trilogy LISA contains almost three different generations in a family that the viewers gets to know, beginning with the more abstract and experimental origin story of Lisa, a child very obviously sexual abused by her father, and followed by two games set in a post apocalyptic world containing no females but one, a young girl named Buddy. It is mostly in this strikingly contemporary and perverted wasteland that LISA begins to reveal culturally implanted fears and paranoia of women through its extreme circumstances of abuse.

Due to warnings from parents or the increasingly common cases appearing in public news, women from a young age begin to fear the mere possibility of being taken advantage of and raped. Patricia D. Rozee, author of "Fear of Rape" from the Women's Studies Encyclopedia, found that women fear rape more than any other violent offense, such as physical non-sexual assault, armed robbery, and even murder. Rozee’s studies indicate that this intense fear of rape appears in the early years of girls’ development, between about ages 2 and 12. She also reports that women participating in the studies claim to remember hearing parental warnings about stranger danger at very young ages (Rozee Fear of Rape). LISA: THE FIRST can be described as having this fear as a major core concept. Lisa, the main character of LISA: THE FIRST, physically appears to be a young girl, and one who very clearly characterizes a child used and abused by her guardian. The choice to make Lisa so young not only emphasizes the lack of power, especially mentally, that one has as a victim of such a situation, but she also comes to represent the “worst case scenario” or parental horror story. As with all successful educational media, it is that which is the most shocking and intense which leaves the most lasting mark in one’s memory. Lisa takes on many of the warning signs of a child put in a similar situation in the real world. Key symptoms and signs of sexually abused children is that they often look distracted/distant, have nightmares, think of their self or body as repulsive, attempt suicide, have inadequate personal hygiene, and/or attempt running away from home (Stop It Now!). Lisa has long mangled hair, worn clothes (Image 1), experiences many feverish and symbolic nightmares (Image 1 and 2), which the viewer also gets to experience through her eyes, and does not speak throughout any of her game. The viewer sees her home through an exaggerated perspective, where it is implied that she is drugged regularly by her father, so the home is covered in vomit stains (Image 3). Lisa spends the entirety of the game attempting to run away from her home, and her father, who covers the landscape in many shapes and forms, such as spiders, cultists, and most often as horribly deformed monsters (Image 3 and 4). There’s even a recurring phallic looking character named Tricky Rick (Image 5) who, when Lisa tries to bypass, tells her "Did you really think that would work? I'll never leave you. You have to swallow me, get over it". The later game, LISA: THE PAINFUL, reveals that Lisa asks her brother to maim her face through cuts so that she may become unpleasant to look at as a last ditch attempt to have her father leave her alone. Her suicide on the title screen of the third game (Image 6) implies her unsuccess with that theory as well as her final, and brutal, escape. Lisa represents the most extreme case of sexual abuse, from start to finish, along with all of the nuts and bolts and quirks of one suffering from such a home life. LISA: THE PAINFUL plays with the subject of men who casually speak of rape, which on the exterior may seem hard to miss in our current world, but is more likely than you think. A canadian college in recent years has finally received backlash over a popular student orientation chant: Y is for your sister. O is for oh-so-tight. U is for underage. N is for no consent. G is for grab that ass (The Canadian Press). Completely lacking in any moral story or educational purpose, this chant solely became a way for male students to joke or relate over non consensual sex, even including underage as part of it. LISA: THE PAINFUL, the second game of the trilogy, portrays a male population with a widespread desire to take advantage of the single remaining female on earth, Buddy. Men of LISA: THE PAINFUL also casually refer to rape by spouting lines such as “You can lead a horse to water, and then do whatever you want to it!”(Image 7) in regard to Buddy. To cement this, the enemy, Bolo, even has a pretty clear attack move called “Grope”. Buddy frequently meets men seeking to take advantage of her sexually, despite her alarmingly young age. The society of the post apocalyptic world emphasizes a lack of intelligence, and therefore connects this open pedophilic ideology, rape, and similar perverse ideas as that of unintelligent people and of a degraded culture. Again, the games aim to give the worst possible scenario, as all apocalyptic tales tend to. LISA builds a world of regret to try to get viewers to read into the warning signs and into what makes this world so horrible as to get them to avoid it happening in the real world.

The LISA trilogy also contains a perforating theme of objectification and monetization of sex and females. This can be seen today in brideprice and dowry practices in some cultures. Arranged marriages still exist in many societies where the woman has a minimal say in her future. In  the apocalyptic world of the second game, where there are barely women to defend their rights, and men have degraded in moral and intelligence, it is not surprising to see this concept implemented into the game. For instance, when Buddy stumbles upon a wandering gang led by Bolo, he states, “When it comes to a king's buffet. There's no shame in eating table scraps. Especially when the scraps are this tasty. Haaaaaaaaa! Okay. Enough goofin'. Grab that pristine meat!". The entire concept of the second game is that everyone in the country of Olathe is trying to find Buddy, either for their own, mostly sexual, personal gain, or to sell her to the highest bidder, and as the only woman alive, she is quite literally the most valuable and rare item in the world at the moment. Sex with women is yearned for intensely and obsessively, and as one NPC describes in a particularly deserted map area, "Everyone left to go after that girl. I used to be like that... Chasing women... One woman actually... Sneaky cheating bitch”. Even when remembering the time where women were abundant, most of the men continuously regard their past partners and women in general in the most negative connotation. Women also become a legitimate commodity in Olathe. Paper and metal completely falls through as a form of currency, and pornographic magazines take their place (Image 8). As the only source of images of women, magazines, or mags as they come to be called in the game, become the next best thing. More interesting is how protective Olathians are of their mags, as they are very rarely picked up through simple looting. Most mags collected come from looting corpses of people who have recently died or you have beaten, a sort of selfishness and viewing of women as their own personal property becomes a core part of the game series, paralleling real world human trafficking and trading of daughters for marriage in the past and present. Physical or even printed, women become the most wanted commodity of the apocalypse with no females.

The LISA trilogy uses comedy, a simple 8-bit RPG style game to bravely tread into sensitive content and controversial topics. LISA: THE FIRST contains no plot and no storyline. It is purely imagery and limited and repetitive text, and yet it tells a story because of its directness. LISA: THE PAINFUL and LISA: THE JOYFUL use more complex game concepts like a very developed story, backstories, characters, and in game items and dialogue to increase the immersion of the viewer as well as making a more relatable environment. Viewers are able to bond to the characters, such as Buddy and even learn more about the incredibly mute Lisa through the second game. Viewers learn to associate Buddy and Lisa with unfair circumstance and come to resent those who take advantage of them or view them as lesser. The dire circumstances transfer the same ideals into the real world and it is the emotional connections that viewers get from media that goes on to follow them into their daily lives. LISA uses the video game convoy to tell the story of the abuse degradation of moral through the gradual viewing of women as only sexual objects, and the isolation and inner scarring of a child sexually abused and educates its viewers through this content.

Works Cited

LISA. Dingaling Productions, LLC. 2014. Video game.

Rozee, Patricia (n.d.). Fear Of Rape. Greenwood Electronic Media.

http://gem.greenwood.com/wse/wsePrint.jsp?id=id222

“Tip Sheet: Warning Signs of Possible Sexual Abuse In A Child's Behaviors.” Stop It Now!,

Klingberg, www.stopitnow.org/ohc-content/tip-sheet-7.

The Canadian Press. “Saint Mary's University under Fire for Frosh-Week Chant Championing

Non-Consensual Sex with Underage Girls.” National Post, 25 Jan. 2015,

nationalpost.com/news/canada/halifax-university-under-fire-for-frosh-week-chant-cham

Ioning-non-consensual-sex-with-underage-girls.

[vgtrackbracket]

Video Game Track Bracket Round 2

Midna's Lament from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

vs.

Walking the Wood from Cultist Simulator

Propaganda under the cut. If you want your propaganda reblogged and added to future polls, please tag it as propaganda or otherwise indicate this!

Midna's Lament:

An iconic track from the zelda series, surely deserves a shot at the top spot!

[vgtrackbracket]

Video Game Track Bracket Round 1

Walking the Wood from Cultist Simulator

vs.

Their Waters Were Mingled Together from ABZÛ

No propaganda was submitted for either track.

If you want your propaganda reblogged and added to future polls, please tag it as propaganda or otherwise indicate this!

[vgtrackbracket]

Video Game Track Bracket Round 2

Vast Ice Mountain Peak from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky

vs.

The Dreams Begin from Cultist Simulator

Propaganda under the cut. If you want your propaganda reblogged and added to future polls, please tag it as propaganda or otherwise indicate this!

Vast Ice Mountain Peak:

One of the best songs in the most stacked OST ever made

[vgtrackbracket]

Video Game Track Bracket Round 1

The Dreams Begin from Cultist Simulator

vs.

India from No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way

No propaganda was submitted for either track.

If you want your propaganda reblogged and added to future polls, please tag it as propaganda or otherwise indicate this!