#madness project nexus gestalt

[no-higher-thought]

gessie is fun as hell to draw, actually

[n1ckelpistol]

Hasta el aaamaneceeeer (Será - Las Pelotas)

[green--y]

(Bonus Textless Version!)

HAPPY MADNESS DAY!!! THIS HAS BEEN BURNING A HOLE IN MY TABLET I WAS SO EXCITED TO POST THIS!!! I owe a lot to this series it's been helping me get through a bunch of things lately! As well as the friends I made because of it! I put everything I had into this and it encapsulates so much of my improvements over the years and I owe that to Madcom as well! I hope ya like it Krinkles! Here's to another year!!!

Give it attention on NewGrounds!

[deernozone]

Day 12: Explosives

Ouch, no more eye

[sivon-acidwyrm-collections]

A low effort comic of my canonical mpn2 experience (I played as Jeb during this part of the stage)

[sewer-sermon]

project parent posting lets fucking go

[monotone-inkwell]

A Gestalt Therapy!

Ok...it was not funny. Yet...in my thoughts it sounded hilarious.

[freshmeatz]

2 things i drew for my partner @dreadcharged :3 !!!!!!

[jelly-dweller]

CAN WE GET A GESTALT PICTURE MAYHAPS? 🫰

hjgnhngn a attempt i need better reference images for gestalt but their head is a weird thing to tempt to draw but i think they're very neat

[madnessself-indulgence]

Nexus probably had a space program before scrapping it in favor for gestalt after not getting enough results.

i mean........ here's MY take on it

i feel like we WOULD have heard of some sort of space program by now if any organization had figured out it was possible

so although i wouldn't rule out that they've probably tried...... i feel like if anything it'd just be well-known generally accepted knowledge that such a thing Cannot happen for reasons unbeknownst to us (it'd probably be related to limitations of the machine)

but that's ALSO if we're just talking realistically because hypothetically if the nexus core DID have a space program it'd be really funny for no reason because if anyone were to do it it would be phobos and his ego

[ask-projectparent]

WELCOME, USER!

this is an askblog for the Project Parent au, created and ran by @poryphoria!

what's that, i hear you ask? SHRIMPLE!

it's a sort of "good end" au for Nexus, in which Director Phobos, after a series of guilt-laden attempts to convince himself otherwise, fails to see Gestalt as a mere tool and instead ends up raising them as his son. HIJINKS ENSUE! Many, many hijinks....

the url was formerly cracked-office- and, for the sake of continuity, all of the old posts up here are still technically canon as in-universe uploads to the Nexus Core official social media. have fun with THAT information!

what're the rules for asking?

DON'T BE A FREAK, THAT'S ALL!

i, moripori, starkly reserve the right to ignore any ask that makes me uncomfortable for WHATEVER reason i may deem it! please don't spam me if i don't get to your question right away, either- i have a life!!

aside from standard things, this blog is much less strict in formatting than cracked-office was. asks will still be presented as emails or similar means of anonymous internet contact, so bear that in mind as you write them (if you wanna be a magical anon, or make some kind of crossover with your blog happen, you gotta figure out how that works in email form!), HOWEVER i won't be pushing myself to get too fancy with the art at all, as that was my main source of burnout last time! (that and a lack of questions, aha!)

so, who can i direct my questions to?

GLAD YOU ASKED!

the AU centers around the main staff of the Nexus Core- so any of the following characters shown below are up for asks!! please let me know who you're addressing in each ask, or i'll send it to whoever i think is funniest!

and, of course, where would the Core be without the Agency? the main staff of the AAHW (though, at this time, only known as the Agency) are also up for asks!! try to keep your questions for them somewhat sparing, though, as they aren't the primary focus here!

all of this make sense? have any questions, now?

then, feel free to get asking!

THE INBOX IS: OPEN

[nevadasgreatest]

[aegagrusscholarship]

familiarity, the lack thereof, and the only way it could have ended.

the thing is, ultrakill is a very diegetic game. near everything, from the style meter to the bottomless arsenal to the shitass graphics themselves, are explained in some way by some in-universe fact.

so, what with violence and the implication that V1 was designed to counter earthmovers

what with 7-4 and the fact that it is a culmination of this implication

i wonder. when V1 looked up at that earthmover, did it know, with whatever passes for instinct in a machine, exactly what to do? and if it did, then, how is this conveyed to the player?

diegetic as the game is, how does it engineer a situation in which the player, themselves, knows exactly what they have to do?

the biggest factor, i think, is the fact that the earthmover's health bar appears the moment you lay eyes (or camera, or whatever) on it, and it does not leave until you have finally killed this colossus.

but this factor is much more subtle than it appears at first glance. yes, big honkin' boss healthbar on screen for the entire level, what more to it. there's a good deal more, it turns out.

first off- this is the shortest leadup by far to any bossfight in the game. you slide through a single vent, and you are greeted with benjamin right out in the open. even P-1, devoid of any other hazards as it is, gives you a long trek down the spinal staircase before you reach the flesh prison. 7-4 has none of it. you enter the level, you enter the stage, and there you have it. you know exactly what you are up against right from the outset, and it's not quite a feeling of familiarity but it tells you exactly what you have to do. which is the point of this all, isn't it?

7-4 is also... not a bossfight! it is a full level! it is a full level framed as a bossfight. the health bar frames this full complete level as a bossfight.

and on one hand, this is not new news. on the other hand, i think this is the crux of it. the thing is, most bossfights are near-to-entirely new. you do not know how the boss acts. you do not know their attack patterns. you do not know their capabilities. you are learning something new. levels, though, you have done a thousand times over and so the player knows how they need to play through this bossfight in a way that is not quite present with any other boss in the game.

the content of the level is new, of course, because that's how it goes. but you know the motions. you have done this for two acts prior, you know the motions. you know exactly what to do.

also! this level does not exist in a vacuum. what i am saying is this: the rest of violence layer shifts its storytelling and its tone and even its graphics. it is something completely new in contrast to the rest of the game. 7-4, though, returns to environments and graphics more akin to what you have experienced before, bringing you back to familiarity and again knowing what to do here in a way the rest of violence hasn't let the player experience.

one more thing about this level: it plays directly into expectations. which is something that the rest of the game actually does not tend to do.

the game, at base, is just not a typical FPS. it gives you movement like a roguelite or a platformer, it takes guns you expect to know the mechanics of and goes utterly wild with how far the archetype can be changed.

in a smaller scope, here is a comparison of the earthmover and the corpse of king minos as two separate colossal bosses foreshadowed in similar ways. and i mean, minos's bossfight isn't unprecedented in other works. but i think the thing that matters here is that you are not, in fact, the underdog as is the case with so many other bosses of its ilk. riven of many voices, destiny 2, similar bossfight similar scale. you are hiding from her you are a fireteam of many you are triumphing over a dragon larger than life. project gestalt, madness project nexus, you are pulling out every stop you can to take down something so far over your head (both literally and metaphorically). corpse of king minos- V1 looks up, stands its ground, and parries his god damn fist.

and the thing is, the earthmover plays into a different expectation, but it's playing into an expectation nonetheless. you look at this thing and you climb it and you dismantle it from within, like you have done in many games prior. you know what your goal is from the moment you see that healthbar and you hook onto the conspicuously placed hookpoints that tell you- you will climb this machine; you will fight your way up to whatever its core is and you will kill it. you play through the entire level with this expectation and you get exactly this expectation. you destroy its core and it begins a countdown, and so very many games have countdowns before the collapse of whatever level you have just beaten, and you know exactly what you have to do.

i don't know. i love diegetic storytelling. i love this level.

it's just familiarity, i think. this level runs off familiarity. it gives you, the player, things and tropes and designs you are familiar with. it signals to you that you should know what to do, and it lets you do exactly what you expect to do.

if i were any more cheesy i could absolutely end this by restating something about the only way it could've ended, but uh. i am not that cheesy. this time.

aw crud now i don't know how to end this oh well goodbye then

[madness-combat-confessions]

Can someone explain to me the madness combat lore

Sure thing!

I introduce:

Madness combat lore explained by a dumbass who doesn't actually know the lore!!

Who also doesn't know how to explain shit!

From what I understood:

Project Nexus is given to Phobos by the Employers who are god-like being and "guardians" of Nevada

3 important scientists by the names of Dr Jebediah Christoff , Dr Hofnarr and Dr Crackpot work for him

Crackpot introduces the zed plan (which is basically reviving someone who died by giving a S-3LF, that are madcom version of souls, to a corpse turning them to zombies)

Christoff dislikes the idea so he suggests a different plan the sleepwalker program

Phobos agrees to the idea but doesn't take down the zed plan

PN: Classic arena mode happens where Subject 1v02P 6 is made to go through a time loop of fighting and dying to improve his combat skills which would be later used for the sleepwalker program

During that I think they also discovered the other place (which is basically the afterlife/hell) somehow? I don't remember how bro

Hofnarr was made to investigate the other place and he discovered dissonance energy

Hofnarr and Crackpot smoked dissonance energy like it was weed and that begun to fuck up their sanities, which is important later

Sometime after that Christoff realises how messed up this shit really is so he decides to put end to it. He takes the Keystone Fragment (the halo)

With the help of Hofnarr and Sheriff he takes down Phobos and project nexus daming nexus city in the process

Hofnarr fucking loses it and becomes Tricky some time after that

Then the events of the series begin and Hank becomes a problem

The AAHW either already existed and was changed to the AAHW or was formed after Hank became a problem idk, it is lead by the Auditor who's one of the employers

Eh Sheriff who lead over the AAHW temporary activates the improbability drive and fucking dies lol

Then everything goes to hell, basically

And uh oh turns out some scientists and agents from project nexus had survived and they try to restart the Project

One of them being Crackpot who fled after the city fall and started a clut

And it also turns out Phobos had a backup plan to dying: Project Gestalt which is basically he used Gestalt as a vessel to absorb S-3LFs to reach godhood

So eh Christoff teams up with Hank, Sanford and Deimos to stop Phobos, again.

Oh and it turns out Sheriff was somehow revived and now leads a faction called MERC cool

Anyway the events of the game happen I'm lazy to explain it watch a play through

Yippe they defeat Phobos!! Whoooo! Not so yippe Hank decides to fucking betray them and try to kill San and Dei. It's okay tho they kill them, and Doc probably revived them after

Goddamnit Hank

And then the events of the series continue

I'm not sure when exactly MPN:2 takes place but If I had to guess I'd say sometime between MC:7 and MC:8 because my instinct tells me that

[cosmica-galaxy]

Oh man I just had the funniest thought.

Madness Combat Player au, but the player is a speedrunner.

The boys get taken for a ride through cutting corners and clipping through the map to make it to the end of each levels, practically flying through them by all the bunny jumping and other shenaniganery the Player is making them do.

Gestalt gets one-shot instantly by a physics object and Hank gets launched into the stratosphere. Deimos and Sanford walk through a door and suddenly there are thirteen copies of them filling in by behind. Jeb now has infinite power balls and Tricky is permanently stuck following the crew around.

In a way, it’s true Madness.

You know, I actually thought about this on multiple occasions and how hilarious it would actually be. Funnily enough, I even checked for speedrun records for the 'Madness: Project Nexus' game only to find very few submissions for that category. There's not even a submission for normal mode! But if a Player DID play the game and was sharpening their skills to take all of the crowns in every category, it would be SO thrilling for the vessels. Once the speedrunner takes control, each vessel suddenly feels a powerful burst of adrenaline and their heartbeat skyrockets. They hear the sound of a stopwatch in their ears and the strings that attach to their body just keep screaming into their minds "FASTER FASTER FASTER!!". The vessels obey. They just breeze past all of the enemies, popping them off with practiced accuracy and each item and room is carefully blasted through with practiced routine. They don't even know how they're reflexes have heightened up to a point that they know where everything is and how fast they're moving through Nexus City.

It's fast. It's thrilling. It gives them a rush. It's straight up addicting. The pulse that thunders in their chest as they run through the streets as everything is blazed past them and how fast their enemies are going down. It's like they're in the middle of a high or trance as their body moves with such perfected movements. The Player even makes them break through some sequences and skip some areas entirely. Much to their vessels surprise. Dialogue is skipped over rapidly that the grunts in question could barely utter a word. All the vessels can hear is their own rapid heartbeat and the same word being uttered again and again. "FASTER FASTER FASTER!" The strings feed their minds the demand of the Player and the vessels continue. Bosses fall without as much as a hit on your chosen vessel. Stunlocking and comboing them until they are below a certain range before dodging and reattacking in succession. The vessels can only pant and keep up the assault as the Player guides them with tenacious accuracy. Then...the vessel blinks...and suddenly... Gestalt itself falls. Phobos is slain shortly after that and it feels like the world has passed in a sudden furious blur. A mission that would've taken possibly days to complete...was finished in mere hours. The vessel hears the clock stop ticking the moment Hank falls into a heap in his own blood. The demands for speed suddenly stop and the vessel falls to their knees to catch the breath they lost long ago. They look around in a confused manner. Barely remembering much about what happened on their journey. Their heartbeat finally falls into a natural rhythm as the strings leave the vessel's body and they collapse onto the ground. In the muddle of their mind, they swear they can hear a voice cheering happily...and it sounded familiar...? "Yes! Sub 3 hours! The WR is mine!!" The giddy sounds of the player's voice make the vessel smile in relief as they slump to the ground. Exhausted, but thrilled at the same time. What a rush...

[sewer-sermon]

EHMM. WHAT THE FLIP?