#i am simply. doing my best to deal with it.

[glngrbred]

Ok, Reblog To wrap up this one, Thanks for the feedback, I apreciate it. If something I say is a based on feedback, it'll have 2** next to it. This is also a super long post, so TLDR, yall R right! and I don't disagree with you, but I am still changing counterspells for my game. Also if you only want some important informationa bout my game and exactly why some changes needed to be made, at the very end I talk about some important things specifically and only relevent when talking about MY GAME IM MAKING. the rest is a more broad look. First some clarifications,

I initially wanted to talk about My descision to remove counterspells from my card game, and the Way I did that was by talking about some issues with counterspells in MTG. Unfortunately I did not effectively convey that, which is MY B. **(thank you @ouraois). Right now, I have a descision to make about countermagic in my game, and the issues with them in magic are what I want to avoid for the design of my game

I was ranting about counterspells, because I wanted to talk about why I've decided to limit their function in my card game. I sort of rage-baited, and said things like "force all control decks" which is obviously false, the best deck, lantern control, is not about counterspells whatsoever.

I also said that counterspells are "bad design", but I don't really mean that.** Counterspells both "fix" and enable a design issue. The issue is uninteractive win-cons, and also combo decks. single cards that often straight up win the game should simply not be made, but they are really cool, and fun for whoever's using them so "just counter it" becomes the design solution. thats actually a problem in MTG, since not every color has access to removal on the stack. counterspells and uninteractive wincons become beat 'em or join 'em. (for slow formats, big costly win the game things dont work as well if agro is good)

But what else are you supposed to do when designing high-cost cards? (i actually have a fix for that in my game but its weird, so i'll get to that at the very end, it also explains some of the reasons why i CAN't have mtg style counterspells in my game specifically, even if i wanted to)

the same is true to a lesser extent with combos, which is why Legends of Runtera avoids combos. I don't think I'll be able to avoid combos, and I don't think I'll be able to patch out a combo, I'm a single person with no coding experience and some cardboard...

In either case, its sort of like an auriboros, where counterspells fix the issue of cards ending the game unsatasfyingly, but then counterspells are unsatasfying. Power creep makes creatures who are made to "interact" with hard-to-compete-with removal spells, and then those counterspells become more important to slow down those big guys. And since typical removal can't deal with those uninteractive win cons, Counters become necessary (kill spells vs counters triangle) ** (thank you @almaignismare) I could probably explain this better. Design space is freed by counterspells existing, but what is made available in the new design space isnt necissarily healthy for the game.

In magic, players expect both counterspells and things you have to counterspell. but in my game, there is not that expectation yet, I think that there is a more healthy space focused around damage, protection, and card disadvantage that I could create for my game, which would not necessitate counterspells.

before I talk about that tho, I want to finish talking about MTG with a little note. Counterspells are the only way blue has effective card removal, the other removal-like options that designers have attemptes with blue are bounce and stun counters. Both of these are not effectively removing a card, and as such are kind of just card disadvantage. Because of this, the only real way for a blue deck to have removal is to counter stuff ** (thank you @gcu-sovereign) But colors not having good access to removal isnt immidiately bad. black has a hard time with artifacts and enchantments, but fucks with creatures, white is great at alot removal but struggles with interaction, red has a hard time with straight up removing cards, green struggles with creatures, and blue doesn't really have a card type struggle, but it struggles with interacting with the board state. Blue just has to counter stuff, or it won't be able to remove things.

So what's the point? If I included countermagic as it is in MTG, it would not work with my game's ecosystem. The 2 mana counterspell that just straight up removes a card is overpowered for a game where interaction is normally based on doing the oposite of an effect to minimize the downside. At the moment, my game only exists as sets of precons, and in every one of them, the removal of cards is either A. expensive in order to be perfectly effective, like a 5 mana kill spell for any target. B. Able to be easily interacted with, like a 1 mana recuring ping that can only recur if something died (any buff on it's target neuters it) C. Technically temporary, bounce is actually really fun, since it slows down the victem without removing their plan. Or D. Sets up a little side quest that removes the effect. I have an effect called "root" which makes something kinda just die until whatever is rooting it is removed.

Counterspells don't easily fit into any category if they are MTG style. They cannot be expensive, or they would only be for late game. (or they would slow you down alot, not just your opponent) They cannot be easily interacted with, since there's a very limited variety of ways they can be prevented, You can actually make them temporary, but you have to change some rules to make it work (i'll get to that) Or you could make them set up a sidequest? like, you could reasonably have the countered card attach to a creature, and then when that creature dies the card goes back to its owner, This also enables some creative deckbuilding.

For my game, I've made counterspells either be temporary, by sending the card to "exile"the outlands", which cards can recur themselves from if enough cards enter the outlands, or counterspells just get rid of resources but not the card (an effect that just gets rid of the card would just be discard). Or finaly, the counter sets up a sidequest.

I also want to avoid limiting counterspells to one color, specifically as the engine of a control deck. When counterspells have limited effects, or are designed to specifically counter one meta game plan, they are a beutiful thing. I love "counter target ability" or whatever that one card does (I forgot its name.)

To avoid going too in depth, I do have colored mana as a core system of my game, I have 4 colors and a neutral. But I'm trying to avoid limiting gameplans to certain colors, I'm moreso limiting the color pie to different mechanics between each color. So hopefully all of the modes of operation will be available to each color, but the means will be very thematic. I also have a different wincon compared to MTG, which is a work in progress but enables this also.

The final thing I wanted to talk about was mana. Typically, a 10 cost card would have to justify spending 10 mana by getting you realy close to wining the game on its own, or somehow making it virtually impossible for you to lose. likeomnicience doesn't win on its own, but once its there you're golden.

This is the very last thing.

In my game, I started the design by making a cute little mana system that uses these physical tokens to permenently track mana, so you can just hold on to recources as long as you want, its like if spell mana from Legends of runeterra was extended to be the whole mana system. Because of this, high cost spells can be cast much earlier by sacrificing you early game plays in favour of savign up for a big thing. Becausse of this, you can budget your resources to play a big thing that enables a super stong game plan, without winning, without putting yourself behind, so long as the big card makes up for the 1, 2, 3, and 4 cost you didn't play in its place.

you might beable to notice that countermagic, and holding up interaction inherently break this system, since not spending your man is no longer a downside..... THIS is actually like the main, important, design restraint that forces me to look at counterspells very critically, but it doesn't make sense as an explanation of the issue on its own

Counterspells are a toxic game mechanic that manopolize interaction slots and force all control decks to play very similarly.

they also have the problem of being much easier to use than targeted discard and ""stax"" (the broadest possible term, and only 'harder' to an extent :/). I think the only times you should be able to effectively counter an effect on the stack/being played are to counter a literal spell, like instants and sorceries, since the only ways to have "spell removal" are hand interaction, which is obviously only ok when limited, and counterspells. I straight up think that no creature or artifact/enchantment counterspells should exist in a healthy card game, because those other mechanics should be inherently interactable-enough to not necessitate counterspells, and the shear dominance of counterspells as the vehicle of control decks in MTG is evidence enough that they aren't good for a game.

also the reason I care is because I'm making a card game, and effects like counterspells are something you have to choose to have at some point, since they MANOPOLIZE DESIGN SPACE >:()

if you want to see an example of counterspells used well, play the game "unstable unicorns" which is entirely Balanced around counterspells, exclusively. but even then, you have to entirely balance the game around counterspells, exclusively

Also this isn't to say "counterspells bad :(" they have a place, and that place is in games who have not balanced the power of "instantly accessible" effects (so that counterspells aren't necessary). like yeah, craterhoof behemoth and Ghalta often can't be interacted with outside of counterspells, cuz once they ETB you win the game

that is bad design and necessitates the creation, use, and frustration of counterspells. Also, designers only want to make cards like "that" if they can say "just counter it" its just an unhealthy system that necessitates itself existing the moment you let counterspells be anything more than the most simple and direct "spell removal" effects.

thats all

[orcelito]

Unfortunate to say but with my eyebrow bandaid and the red splotches on my nose, I kinda look like I've been in an accident. Or perhaps a fight.

Unfortunate. Considering I have class in the morning.

[anti-transphobia]

What it's like being a narcissist in a group chat with other narcissists

[seiya-starsniper]

.

[midnightshard06]

This question would be answered differently depending on when it would be asked so! I will have some characters answer from three distinct time periods of the AU.

Pre Shadow 05 Arc

“Oh! Question for us huh?” Sonic taped his chin. Nearby Shadow tilted his head curiously as his brows scrunched up in a confused expression. “Well that sort of depends. Barring any sort of surprise attack from Eggman or someone else, which has been getting less frequent, I’ve just been trying to get Shadow used to things. Sometimes he’s not up for that though, so I’ll maybe go out for a run or bother Tails or my other friends. I have to admit, I’ve really started to enjoy the time I’ve got to spend with Shadow. Showing him all this new stuff. Watching him open up and show me who he really is.” He rubbed the back of his head. “Plus I’ve been trying to teach Shadow more sign. He’s a pretty quick learner if I do say so myself.”

After a moment of silence Shadow raised his hands. ‘I… often am shown things by Sonic. More recently he has started bringing me out to the nearby city. It is…’ He paused, thinking. ‘...uncomfortable but I find it easier to deal with when Sonic is there. We have also been visiting a Chao Garden recently. Even on days Sonic does not go with me I find myself going there. It is peaceful.’ He turned a bit so that Sonic couldn't see his hands. ‘I am doing my best to live my life for Maria. She always wanted me to be happy, and I will try. For her.’

“Hold on, let me go grab Tails and get him to answer this too.” Sonic sped off and came back a moment later with the fox in question. “So Tails, the people are dying to know. What’s your day to day life like?”

Tails blinked in confusion. “Uhhh.” He cleared his throat. “I guess I spend a lot of time working on stuff in my workshop. I’ve also been doing some… recreational hacking on the side let’s say.” He put a hand on his chin, his voice dropped lower so the others in the room wouldn’t hear him. “Trying to figure out what’s going on with Shadow has been as interesting as it is infuriating. I don’t want to force him to talk about things but I have so many questions.”

“That’s us I guess!” Sonic shrugged. “Of course there’s more interesting things going on but that’s not the normal day to day stuff!”

Post Shadow 05 Arc

Eclipse perked up. “Oh a question. Well of course I can humor you.” He put a hand on his chest. “My day to day is a lot of helping the Black Arms get established. Making sure me and Shadow’s rule goes unchallenged.” He crossed his arms. “Biggest thing has been getting used to earth I guess. Shadow is insistent that we work with the other inferior species on the planet. It’s been… fine I guess. Shadow’s trying to teach me stuff, and in turn I’m helping educate him about the Black Arms.” He puffed out his chest proudly before he slumped. “The people Shadow has met are… tolerable I guess. I respect Sonic for saving Shadow. Plus I can see how important the hedgehog is to him.”

Shadow walks into the room and blinks in surprise. “Again?” He clears his throat. “Well I suppose a lot has changed since I first answered this question…”

“Wait.” Eclipse held up a hand. “You’ve done this before?”

Shadow simply shrugged. “My days are often split between my duties with the Black Arms and spending time with those I care about. Eclipse has admittedly been very helpful in allowing me to manage my time more effectively. He’s been handling more of the physical transition while I’ve been trying to handle the… logistics and diplomatic side of things.” He pinned his ears down. “I’m very thankful for both Sonic and Tails’ help with that. Sonic is on good terms with more or less every nation on the planet and Tails has proved to be quite the debater. It is… amusing to watch him run circles around the much older world leaders. I do hope we’ll reach the end of this sooner rather than later though. It’s… uncomfortable knowing how widespread my existence is now.” He waved. 

Future Arc

“How and why are random strangers asking questions..?” Mephiles squinted.

Silver shrugged. “No idea, but what’s the harm in answering?”

“I could give you a list if you gave me a few minutes.” Mephiles huffed.

“Well our days can vary depending on when and where we are.” Silver grinned and Mephiles gave him an unimpressed look. “When we’re in my present I personally spend at least a couple hours a day tending to the garden I’ve started up. Sometimes I’ll go out and scavenge the nearby ruins for anything useful, but I don’t do that too often. A lot of it’s been picked clean by now anyway. I also try and spend time with my family! Especially when both my dads are here. Sonic goes out a lot so he’s not here all the time. He won’t tell me exactly why he’s out all the time, only that he’s looking for something…” He trailed off.

“Not suspicious at all.” Mephiles crossed his arms.

“A-anyway. When we’re in the past it’s a lot of research. At first it was mostly about different plants and things to help improve our situation here. More recently though we’ve been trying to figure out what happened. What caused things to end up like this in the first place. That’s been… a lot less productive. But! We’re not giving up.”

“Yes…” Mephiles sighed. “Research into the topic has become one of our top priorities while in the past. Though it is hard to figure out what caused something when you don’t know what event you’re looking for the cause of. Silver suspects that his… parents may know something but have refused to say anything substantial about it. As such we’ve kept our pivot in priorities a secret from them.”

Silver looked down. “I hate lying to them, but I get the feeling that if we tell them what we’re doing they may try and stop us. I don’t know why, but… Better safe than sorry.”

“Now off you go you… odd interdimensional beings. We have work to do.” Mephiles waved a hand dismissively.

for the characters!! how would u describe ur day to day life??

First question for the characters!!

[insanechayne]

~ ~ ~

[dandyshucks]

I definitely was experiencing a lot of dissociation last night that made it really hard to like. fully grasp the situation. it's hard to understand how bad something is when you are in a very thick fog and nothing feels real unfortunately. I woke up this morning and remembered the situation and it was only at that point that I fully grasped just how fucked up it all is!

so I think I will definitely be leaving Koster's music and the podcast behind - he is not handling this shit well and he makes me incredibly uncomfortable now that I have actually processed the situation a bit and have a proper grasp on the reality of it now that I'm not dissociated to hell and back lmao.

I don't feel any real need to keep the janitor as an F/O so I won't be attempting to OCify him - I enjoyed the character and story and everything but like... I feel like I'll be able to leave him behind without too much trouble. I can let it all go fairly easily all things considered! I'll be deleting his tag from posts and I figure I should also delete any of my art posts with him in it. I just feel ill looking at any of it because it reminds me of the whole situation :') The only thing that makes me a little sad is that I do genuinely feel quite proud of a couple of the art pieces I've made that feature him but ahhh well I can just make more art fsdjkl

also Star (self-insert/sona) is not actually really connected to the podcast! I made them before I'd even heard of the podcast or Koster's work - I just really like P.ierrots and I play the accordion so I made a little sona with those traits and then when I found the podcast I thought they'd be a good fit for that world/story! So I won't be leaving Star behind, they'll just go back to being a sona that isn't really connected to any story or world! a fun little internetsona :]

if you have any concerns or anything or think I am missing something, feel free to let me know! I am still not really functioning as well as I'd like to be because of some external factors outside of all this going on, so it is entirely possible I'm missing something or overlooking something.

[paradife-loft]

Knight Artorias continues to be one of my absolute favorite boss fights

"victim of the Abyss" is the sexiest description one can read on a soul in this entire game by far

decided midway through fighting him that I wanted to go for a no-healing kill, mostly to prolong the experience and see if I could, and: success!! I can and did!

[dragonji]

being a student is always going so well until it Isn't .

[torifoolery]

I do somehow still enjoy writing and sharing fanfiction and as much as I hate posting on a*3 it really is the only place to garner a decent amount of engagement, but honestly trying to get anything beyond hits and the occasional kudo—especially as someone who specifically writes Black/nonwhite ocs—is such a goddamn nightmare and so so so deeply discouraging, I really don't know if I'm gonna be able to muster the motivation to even bother for much longer

[b-blushes]

🦭🦐🦀🦈🦦🪼🐳🦑🐙🦞🐠🐡🐟🐝

[mariocki]

Infinite list of favourite lyrics: 223/?

Tina Turner - GoldenEye (1995)

"You'll never know

How I watched you from the shadows as a child,

You'll never know

How it feels to be the one who's left behind.

You'll never know the days,

The nights, the tears, the tears I've cried;

But now my time has come

And time, time is not on your side!"

[whimsyprinx]

hello new followers

[seapasture]

currently contending with a rather debilitating inability to be perceived in any capacity

[oogaboogaspookyman]

So this turned into a vent somehow!

[silkentine]

Me when they are the sisters ever: 😭😭😭 They came out soooo freaking well. I won’t lie, they took me a thousand years to finish but through the constant support from all of my buds (and my latent bisexuality), we made it 😤

Hopefully you guys know the deal by now: design choices, easter eggs, and (NEW!) closeup shots below the read more. ⬇️

I wanted Ace to have a very down-to-earth vibe and looked at Aussie beach-girls, coastal cowgirls, and vaqueras for reference. (IDK, I’ve just always envisioned Ace as part-Australian🌺 and Mexican 🏴‍☠️) Her clothing choices are mostly natural or utilitarian materials like the painted wooden beads on her top, her woven fabric and leather belts, and her denim jumpsuit. I gave her bikini top a zen-garden kind of feel because I read the first Ace’s Story Novel and I loved how idyllic and peaceful they made Sixis Island sound so I wanted to invoke that in some way.

Speaking of her painted wooden beads, they hang off the back of her top and represent her connection to Sabo and Luffy. They watch her back once she sets sail. She only wears one red glass bead earring because the other one got ripped out of her ear when a child, leaving her earlobe torn (don’t think about it too much 😢). Also, YES! she does wear a hibiscus flower just like Rouge (because I hate you and I want to make you cry, muhwahahahaha).

Also, I really wanted her to have super textured curly hair that licks behind her like flames. I am always considering whether or not a character should have long hair or not because I don’t want it to be a hindrance if they’re in a fight (or if they ARE a fighter with long hair, how to they avoid an enemy making use of that?). Ace is, of course, a Logia-type Devil Fruit User so I think she wouldn’t have trouble with people grabbing it LOL I get the feeling that she doesn’t take very good care of it even though it looks amazing. Like you’d think it would be soft and bouncy just by looking at it but if you ever get the chance to run your fingers through it, it’s a total rat’s nest and there’s sand and food all up in it. She still falls asleep while eating 😂 but she tries her best to only do it around people she can trust (woman moment 😔).

Honestly, her design is not that different from Ace’s canon look. It feels really vital to Ace’s character to have a lot of skin showing. And he’s always hanging all over himself with his hips all cocked like the weight of the world is too much to stand up straight. It is certainly not my OWN preference to make her an absolute smoke show. That’s just the character, okay? (I’m partially lying and the proof is that I turned the emblem on Ace’s hat strap into a sternum tattoo for no other reason than that it is sexy af.)

Here are some closeups of Ace:

Now for Sabo, I’ve made her very girly. I tried putting her in pants or something more militant but she told me that she’d wear the big poofy sleeves and hiked-up ruffled skirt. I think Sabo has always had a strong grasp on his fashion sense and individual flair and I truly believe that his personal style is one of the major influences for the rest of the Revolutionary Army resulting in the very flashy, queer, steampunk aesthetic (aside from Dragon’s plain-ass cloak). So of course I had to implement her nonconformist look when reimagining her as a woman and dress her up to the nines.

I’ve given her very ornate jewelry that is there to tell a story, even if she herself doesn’t know it. I like to think she picks up stuff from her travels that resonate with her, such as a damaged set of earrings with one stone missing or red cup-shaped shells featuring three nestled pearls. Another accessory that cannot go unmentioned is her dragon claw hat pin that keeps her top hat resting on top of her hair (and is definitely used as a weapon when the situation simply doesn’t call for trusty metal pipe). She also has a veil that obscures her prominent facial scar. I imagine she’s not very keen on the reminder of the incident from her childhood that took away her memories. I also kept her chipped toothed because 1) it’s fucking adorable and 2) is a visual reminder that she no longer aligns herself with the nobility who would have gotten such a thing fixed. She is so poised in almost every outward facet of her life from her dignified role as the Chief of Staff to the elegant materials in her clothing that it can be easy to forget she was also a rough and tumble forest dweller. Every time Koala remembers this, he lets out the biggest sigh.

Her hair is inspired by Gibson Girls and Elizabeth Swann from the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I wanted it to be fussy and tidy but fall apart when she’s in moments of distress. For example, when she remembers her sisters, her hair starts to look like Ace’s flaming mane. I’m so in love with her, I think she looks like an adorable little porcelain doll that would fuck you up. I made an effort to keep her eyes a little bit manic. I get lost in her steely black orbs (and also Ace’s warm brown ones, but we’re talking about Sabo rn).

Here are her close-ups:

Plot notes for this AU:

For this series of character designs, I wanted the expressions and outfits to be aligned with the canon plot but I don’t know if I have the heart to kill fem!Ace in my AU. I’m too attached and ASL has suffered enough!!!!! But Ace’s death is also a major defining moment for Luffy so it feels disingenuous to completely avoid it. Also a huge aspect of Sabo’s character is carrying on Ace’s will and I have so many thoughts about how the Dressrosa Colosseum scene would play out if they were all women. Oh well, I’ll cross that tragic bridge when I get to it. I’m definitely going to draw some Modern AU Girl Piece ASL though. They deserve to hang out with no stakes 😭 They are sisters!!!

Check out the tag “girl piece” on my blog for my other One Piece genderbends! 🥰