#maxim rad

[spilladabalia]

Maxim Rad - She Got No Brain

[maximalismdaybyday]

Source

[asha-mage]

Cyberpunk Meta: The Power of Sticking to Your (Narrative and Thematic) Guns

I've been struggling to articulate why exactly I find Cyberpunk 2077 so damn compelling, given how far it is out of my usual wheel house in terms of genre, tone, and even ideology. And I think after beatng Phantom Liberty it finally clicked-

What enthralls me about this game is it's complete commitment to it's underlying themes and ideas.

Most video games struggle to challenge the player on a story level. Some of this is the capitalism of it all: the idea that video games that aren't trying to make every moment exciting and engaging and wish fulling aren't going to sell well, and so video games should try and maximize player satisfaction above all else. But it's not just that- video games have an inherent limitation of medium in that, since they ask for so much time from the player, they have to be hooky, to draw you in, and keep you there. You don't loose a video game when you die and have to start over. You loose a video game when you put it down and decide to stop picking it up again. And that means that the ways a video game can or will push it's audience are sharply limited- it curtails their ability to make the player uncomfortable, to deprive them, to push them into things like no-win scenarios, and bad endings, to force the player to reflect. And that limit is a hurdle to making art inherent to video games as a medium.

What I admire about Cyberpunk 2077 is it's willingness to find away around, over, and through those limits, while still sticking to it's narrative and thematic guns. Cyberpunk could so easily fall into the trap of making the torment nexus look cool and rad. But it doesn't. Night City is a suffocating capitalist hellscape plastered with advertisements, where the right of way belongs to the person with the car running you over, the only way to get an ambulance is to have a good enough insurance policy, and dodging bullets on your way to work is just a part of every day. The game is unafraid to hammer it home repeatedly that this world is broken, sick, lost, and their isn't really anything you can do to save it. One of the main themes of the game is that sometimes, their are no good choices: just ones you can live with.

And nothing hits this home harder then Phantom Liberty's King of Wands ending. The game hammers you during it's final stretch, again and again- how much are you willing to help Songbird, someone who is, at the end of the day, no different then you- a young kid way in over their head, dying from betrayal and loss, with only a razor thin margin of hope. Helping her is the right thing, but what are you willing to do for that? The game slowly strips away your other motivations and reasons, until you are sitting on that train left with just one reality: do you call Reed and betray Songbird because that's the only way to get the cure you need? Or do you preform an act of true altruism and charity, in a world tormented by greed and selfishness? Do you put her on that rocket, and send her away knowing you'll get nothing for your trouble but the knowledge you stuck to what you believed was right? Or do you choose to give her up to the FIA, to Reed, to Myers, knowing what that will mean, knowing that all she's done to win her freedom?

And like, the sheer audacity, to add an ending via DLC, and it's not a good ending. Their is no magical reward, no last minute silver bullet, or dues ex machina. Virtue is it's own reward. The extra ending you get, for compromising, for betraying, for choosing the same selfishness and greed as everyone else in Night City- it's a bad ending. You loose all your personal relationships, you loose our chance to be a legend, you even loose Johnny in the end. And for what? To most likely end up like Reed one day- on the leash of the NUSA, used up until their is nothing left but regret. I've never seen a game quite do that, because it runs against that central idea of video games- it's anti power fantasy. Your extra time, extra missions, extra choices- their not rewarded, not repaid. The story doesn't let V find a third door just because they have been moral and true. It's unjust. It's cruel. It's unfair.

Just like the world Cyberpunk 2077 is warning against.

And that, is a brilliant bit of art.

[thelittlestseal]

Sooooo Lpscon 2024…

I'm happy I went, but the best parts of my experience were the sweet, memorable interactions I had with vendors and other guests.

A few of my grievances:

1. I didn't have a CC pass but still went upstairs multiple times and attended workshops because they just let my dad sign us up without checking out tickets??? We didn't know the higher floors were closed off for general admission until 4:00pm (well into the con)

Communicating that did not happen. I'm so sorry for the people who spent extra without getting the perks ://

2. We knew beforehand that you needed to sign up for the fashion show and kahoot AT ADMISSION. They advertised it as first come first serve and knowing that, wanting to partake in both we tried to sign up AT ADMISSION and were told (paraphrasing here) "Yes it's definitely first come first serve. Come back in 15 minutes because we want to get everyone inside first. We will sign you up after admission" 15 minutes later it's sold out. This seriously put me off and was extremely frustrating. We kept up with their socials, planned ahead, came with the notion sign up would work the way they said it would, did everything right and missed out anyway. This was on them. Awful, awful experience. The whole first room was seemingly set up to maximize cramping and confusion.

3. The looping video/announcements made the first floor unbearably loud.

4. The raffle was an HOUR LATE and stretched out far, far too long. Vendors were packing up and they still hadn't finished!! It seriously killed the vibe and probably left a lot of people on a sour note.

5. I might not know much about convention planning but there HAD to be a better layout than this ://

This was my first con ever and despite the constant malarkey I made some really special moments and came away with a ton of rad goodies, customs, pets and friends. I got to meet Prescott hill in person and show him my work, see so many breathtaking customs and exist in a room with thousands of Ips (heaven)

After all that I’m really interested in starting a local small scale meetup just to rectify the mess of a management team Lpscon had. It's very "if you want it done right you gotta do it yourself" pfafaffa

[louissatturi]

CELLBIT AWNSERING TO STUPID BACKLASH ABOUT THE ONE-SHOT ON DISCORD

"I enter to see people's reaction wait and talk a little bit, i just read a bunch of out of nowhere toxicity because im doing something special with New friends.

This one-shot is heppening before the 3 spin-off because EDM (enigma of fear) delayed and that is out of my control, we are trying hard to create something interesting and yall who say that "support" the thing are only slendering because it has people yall dont know or because is in a languege yall arent fluent, althought it was already clarified that i are un search of a Professional translator team to maximize acessibility as much as possible

I feel sad with this reaction, and all i can say is : it it dosent interest you, dont consume it

Yall arent oblied to stay here, and are welcomed to give space to people that are actually interesting on the things instead of hating something that has the effort of dozens of people"

"Innit?, we ware already waiting/hoping* for that,they think that everything from ordem is too expand the universe but maybe he (Cellbit) just wanted to play RPG with his friends innit?"

Exactly, if I do spin-offs expanding on the lore and adding diferent layers, the problem is "its too complicated it was better when it was just friends playing RPG".

If i do a really short special to play with friends in getting to know, it will be "bad because it wont be relevant".

Honestely,Im only here because i care about the personal oppnions of the people in here (discord) and always come to check out what yall are talking about,I could just ignore it and go to work and everything would end up Alright anyways.

I just feelt sad seeing this type of reaction when people are working their ass off*, and who many doors this will open, enable a live-action, animation or whatever thing with the product in ENGLISH and shows results and looks way easier.

But anyways, because it was to do with minecraft and gringo creators, its a huge problem to some people in here(discord). Honestly i just really greatful for the people defending and supporting the thing (ordem paranormal), thats crucial for us to keep going having energy to do all off this.

It would be 10.000x easier to just stream minecraft 12 hours a day and gain a fuck ton off money without doing any other project, i do this because i LOVE it and want to keep doing even more.

Again, thanks for the support, and lets give your best to surprise everybody again with this special that is going to be rad* ❤️ im sure that will be really fucking fun"

TRANSLATOR NOTES

* he dosent use such crude languege when saying this, he says "trabalhando mais que nada" (working more then nothing) but because it dosent exist in english i used this cruder expression

* animal can be used as rad in brazilian portuguese

[demonfox38]

Completed: Super Lesbian Animal RPG

Yep!

Did you want to see my Twitch recap for last year?

I know, right? Total loser, being in the top 10% for two categories. (To be fair, it's usually that I'm cooking while I have a speed runner on in the background.) Relevant to this image and review is streamer Punchy, pictured above in my top 5 streamers for the year. While primarily known as a speed runner for survival horror games, dude's got a myriad of games that he routinely runs. Like, over 100.

One of those games being "Super Lesbian Animal RPG."

I know. That's a fucking title right there. Instantly curious, I put Punchy on, watching him go through about fifteen minutes of the run. I probably needed less than five to be sold on the game. I've got a certain weakness for RPG Maker games, to begin with. The colorful visuals, mixed sprite/smooth artwork, and catchy music were also sellers. Probably the thing that made me snort-laugh my way into getting this game is one of the main characters sharing a name with me.

Look, man. I only see Allison come up in video games under two categories: localizers needing to fill out names for random Pokémon foes, and localizers just being weird in general (see: "Totally Rad.") Knowing what I know about Japanese, Allison is a pain in the ass in terms of spelling and pronunciation, especially if you throw honorifics into the mix. Given most of my game choices are either Japanese or built in admiration of Japanese games, I just don't see the name come up a lot. So, I was amused it came up here, of all places.

I suppose it could be a reference to Alison Bechdel, now that I think about it…

If the title "Super Lesbian Animal RPG" isn't self-explanatory as to what the game is about, I don't know what is. In slightly expanded terms, it's a game about a fox name Melody who becomes a paladin in order to aid and protect her girlfriend (Allison) while adventuring around the Sapphire Islands. Things go awry after fellow magician and literal cowgirl Claire attempts to power them up and train them, accidentally gaining the attention of both a misanthropic, anthropomorphized VHS cassette tape and the deity long since vanished from their world. What follows is an adventure in sapphic love, undead cowboy aesthetics, winter wonderlands, and some of the greatest collections of color palettes seen since the 1980s.

"Super Lesbian Animal RPG" is also the professional, copyright un-infringing descendant of a title called "Super Lesbian Horse RPG," a "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" fangame. I only bring it up to give some kind of epiphany/explanation for the aesthetics going on here. The main tower, hometown protector Faith, and the main female villain Verena may also remind you of a few characters from that show. So, if you were like, "Hey, these vibes are—" then YES! Yes, the vibes are.

Being an RPG Maker fangame (specifically, RPG Maker VX Ace), the gameplay is pretty intuitive to anyone familiar with this engine or genre. Battles are telegraphed with moving dark, glitchy blotches on screen (although, dens with random encounters are also made available for grinding.) Combat is taken in turns, allowing the player to input commands before the enemy and your party take swings. There are some considerations here that I find both unique and extremely helpful! For example, the game rewards you with using the party members as their role dictates, granting Star Power for actions like Melody healing, Allison and Claire attacking, and fourth party member Jodie defending others and tanking damage. This Star Power allows access to more powerful combat maneuvers, so it's important to get as much as possible to maximize both damage output, defense, and recovery. Additionally, acting as the game wants you to will also adjust the combatants' actions to be most beneficial to you. Like, Melody will always move first when healing, but last when attacking. Similarly, Jodie will also break through enemy defenses before Allison and Claire can attack, allowing them to maximize their damage. It's a super rewarding system, and I appreciate its consistency!

Outside of combat, standard RPG obstacles await the player. This can include challenges like locked doors, ice skating puzzles, bridge manipulation, finding passcodes for safes, and generally what you'd expect for traversal threats. It's not the roughest challenge in the world, but should you need help, the game's creators have your back. (Additionally, lead creative Bobby Schroeder is also on Tumblr, if you want to learn more about her!)

This game really does go out of its way to try and help the player. It offers two difficulty settings (normal and easy), as well as a quest log to help keep track of any pending jobs or story beats. Frankly, I'm tempted to say the game is almost too easy. Like, it was a rare instance to have a character get knocked out. About the biggest threat I faced was a set of side bosses (the VHS tape's sons), and even with them, I was able to squeak by on a first attempt. I also maxed out levels super early, so the final dungeon was more about getting enemies cleared out of the way than actually grinding for strength.

Not that I don't think things aren't trying to kill me! I just think adhering to each character's strengths goes a long, long way. Also, putting the Powerhouse Pin on Melody and having the Amorous Paladin track makes recovering MP a breeze. I've heard rumors of a hard mode being developed, so perhaps this criticism has already been noticed or taken to heart. But, if any tips for hardening the product are needed, nixing the Powerhouse Pin and the Amorous Paladin route as an option would definitely be an easy way to make things harder.

I probably should explain the whole "paladin route" thing, shouldn't I?

The major gameplay style adjustment you make early on is by selecting Melody's paladin specialization of choice. This includes Woodland (granting regen abilities to characters), Amorous (sacrificing Star Power to restore MP or Star Power for your other characters), and Resolute (inflicting damaging seals on enemies.) I haven't experimented with the Woodland or Resolute paths, but considering the amount of money I saved on not having to purchase gobs of healing items, I found what I picked to be pretty darn helpful! I would suspect that Resolute would be the next best option, but maybe I'm just not seeing much value in the Woodland's Nature Nurture ability (healing everybody the amount of health that Melody has.) Or, maybe I see that as a risk, if she gets hurt.

Despite being a stickler for character classes and the roles they play, this game is anything but orthodox. I mean, if the "Lesbian Animal" part of "Super Lesbian Animal RPG" was any indication. It's been a while since I've been as consistently amused with a game's sense of humor as I was with this one! Its characters aren't above calling bullshit on the game's circumstances, and enemies are just as quick at handing sass back. If you have an inborn sense for riffing bad movies and don't mind taking a few potshots, this game will be right up your alley.

Additionally, this is one of very few games that I felt motivated to talk to all NPCs as much as possible. Like, "Tales of Symphonia" got me to pop up to a 50% ratio, and that was only by bribing me with money and goods! Everybody's some degree of weirdo, whether it comes down to capitalist machinations, a family's fascination with world domination (and everyone treating that as cute/sweet), hidden aspirations for competition, or just generally people with urges to do weird things. The NPCs feel very unique, feeding into the motivation to talk with them as much as possible. It's rewarding even before going on missions for them.

Also gotta love an RPG that gives you a quest to get a knife for an 8-year-old, then contemplates on whether or not that's good to do (and even gives the player an exit strategy, if they're narcs.)

Honestly, if I got tired of anybody, it was Melody. But, it's in that way where my own mental defects have made me into a calloused, hardened bitch, so I lack patience with people who succumb to the mind's tyrannical nature. I'm not saying she's not right to have a breakdown or two! It's just one of those things where I go, "Okay, fine. I'll ride out your anxiety attacks/relationship squabbles until you're ready to go again." And then, "Wait, are you seriously being pissy enough to drop some of your most useful skills? GIRL, GET IT TOGETHER."

I want to highlight that the emotions I had were a minor irritant and resolved relatively quickly. Like, I go through this with most RPG leads, if they aren't mute protagonists. It's a part of the cycle. Find a problem -> whine about it -> go solve the problem when no one else will. About the only lead RPG character that didn't trigger that cycle and response for me was "Tales of Vesperia"'s Yuri Lowell, and that's mostly because he reacted to injustice and being pissed off with murder. (It's not the healthiest coping mechanism, I admit! Satisfying, though.)

From a graphical and musical perspective, this game is fantastic. It's a mix of synth instruments and Lisa Frank-esque color schemes alongside smooth illustrations and modern audio samples. Like, if you like "My Little Pony" adjacent palettes, you're gonna like this game. Pretty obvious, considering its development heritage. Approaching this as someone whose favorite furry media includes "Star Fox" games and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" properties, I thought the visual and audio design here was pretty solid! A little unusually colored? Sure. Not quite full sparkledog. At least, nothing that made me cringe like "Dust: An Elysian Tale"'s Fidget. (Though, I may hate that character more for her accidentally getting the player killed in a subquest more than anything else…)

Having zombie cowboy elves is sure unique! Gotta give it up for that call. Can't say I see that every day.

If you'd like some musical sampling, give the following tracks a shot:

Ancient Machine

Scrap Metal

Labyrinth Rave (Original 998 Mix)

Fighting in the 990s

B.A.D.

t r a n s c e n d

Given the game's subject matter, aesthetics, and ease of gameplay, I'm surprised that "Super Lesbian Animal RPG" isn't a Tumblr darling akin to titles like "Dream Daddy" or "Undertale." (Not to call "Undertale" easy, mind you. It could be called "Super Lesbian Animal RPG" for one subplot, though…) I mean, some of the playable characters are even bi and trans! Isn't that worth something? That's at least 3 letters out of LGBT getting represented! Maybe the ratio is lower in other acronyms, but I still think that's gotta count for something!

I never had to think about what it means to be a trans-passing cow prior to this game, but hell. A good game will help you generate those kinds of thoughts. Feel new things.

If you are equally entranced by the bluntness and audaciousness of this title, you can pick it up online for the current price of $14.99. It's often on sale as well, if you're feeling the need to pinch some pennies. But, honestly, for a 16-20 hour game with multiple route replayability? That's a good deal right there.

And if you need a twisted recommendation—this game pairs quite well with "Space Funeral" and "Hylics." Maybe not in the funky appearances or message. Definitely in the RPG Maker games doing cool shit way.

[unscharf-an-den-raendern]

Für die maximal 4-5 folgen die er noch dabei sein wird,ist ein Happy End unmöglich,falls es einen geben sollte währe es nur kurzfristig,sie kriegen ihr Happy End und colin erzählt im am nächsten Tag dass er das Einstein verlässt…

Ach ja, die gute alte Schloss Einstein Art: "Endlich bin ich mit meinem Crush zusammengekommen! Ab nach *dreht Rad* Papua-Neuguinea!"

[kivaember]

YES RUBICON REUNION OLD MAN YAOI Walter comes to Michigan like 'I'm here to discuss G13 Raven.' And Michigan knows damn well he's just here to angst. He also knows that Walter cant resist him--

there are a few old man yaoi anons in my inBOX BUT YOU GET THE LUCKY DRAW OF. i'm writing the pwp. here's a teaser wip bc ofc i can't help but do. fucking. worlbuilding. oeugh.

On the outskirts of Brigid, the provincial capital of the southern Belius region, the Redguns had set up their permanent base of operations within an industrial brewery complex. 

The deep, underground cellars that had once stored Rubiconian ale were now reinforced bunkers for ammunition and other dangerous substances, and the large, sprawling warehouses that had been used for ale storage prior to interstellar shipment had been converted into field garages for the Redgun’s ACs. What had once been a rustic perimeter of ornate fencing and lush gardens were now towering Bremer walls, steel-reinforced concrete that had regular patrols of both foot soldiers and MTs. Floodlights lit up the cracked road that snaked its way towards the complex, and its entrance had not one, but two tetrapod MTs standing guard, their robotic hands carrying heavy-duty gatling guns - keeping to the Dafeng maxim of “material superiority”. 

It made for an imposing sight, but Walter didn’t let a single shred of apprehension show as his transporter trundled towards that militarised outpost. His ride was fairly ubiquitous to the Rubicon of today: a BAWS-produced MRAP vehicle, heavy on the armour and designed to survive mostly landmines or peripheral explosions. If you weren’t rolling around in a heli-transporter or some sort of mech, then the BAWS MRAP (known ‘affectionately’ as the Pillbug) was the only safe way to travel on Rubicon.

His driver was one of the men Carla had ‘loaned’ him when he and C4-621 had landed on Rubicon. Her most ‘reliable’ men, she had sworn, and thus far Walter begrudgingly admitted he had no issue with them so far. Yeah, they spent their recreational time huffing Coral fumes or trying to get high from Coral-infused mealworms (with varying levels of success), but on the job - that being, repairing and maintaining C4-621’s AC and the garage, as well as collecting supply drops and doing other various chores - they functioned well enough. So long as they did that much, that was all Walter cared about. 

They were also fairly blase about practically everything. A hired merc off-world might’ve been sweating bullets driving up towards a military outpost that had more guns than a Furlong Dynamics warship pointing at them - but Carla’s RaD guy? He was smoking away, both hands tapping away at the steering wheel as the vehicle’s radio blasted out something that resembled dubstep, of all things. Not a single care or worry in his head. 

“Turn the radio off,” Walter muttered as their vehicle slowed to a halt in front of the outpost’s checkpoint. “The Redguns aren’t known for their taste in music.”

“Got it, Boss-man,” his driver drawled, obligingly muting the music and rolling the window down. A blast of arctic cold air immediately swept into the vehicle, but Walter suppressed a shiver. 

A heavily-armed guard approached the opened vehicle, dressed in tundra fatigues and their face concealed behind a balaclava and snow goggles, their hands grasping a frost-coated heavy assault rifle. Despite their imposing appearance, though, they seemed very relaxed. 

“ID,” they said flatly. 

Walter leaned forwards, resting a hand against the back of his driver’s seat as he held up his ID: his old Furlong Dynamics AC pilot one. Though it had been taken almost forty years ago, Walter had to admit that he’d lucked out on the genetics lottery and aged fairly well. His resemblance to the youthful Walter Kohler on the ID was clear.

“Michigan’s expecting me,” Walter said as the guard took the ID to closely scrutinise it. “I’m the handler of the independent mercenary, Raven.” 

The guard nodded and turned away slightly, accessing the walkie talkie hooked onto the front of their fatigues. Though they spoke quietly, Walter could still hear them over the loud growl of the vehicle and the whistling wind. 

“...yeah, Walter Kohler… the boss is expecting- right, okay. Got it…”

The guard turned back to face them and handed Walter his ID. “You’re clear to go in. Just you, though. Your driver’ll have to come back to pick you up when you’re done.”

“Fine.” Walter pocketed his ID and climbed out.

The ground was nothing but icy slush, but Walter kept his balance as he stepped away from the vehicle and shut the heavy door. He banged the side of the vehicle with his cane, and slowly the MRAP reversed away from the checkpoint. Walter didn’t wait to watch it leave, he just turned back to the guard. 

“Gotta go through security,” the guard said, pointing towards the checkpoint. Next to the large gates meant for vehicles, there was a small door leading into the attached building. “You’ll be given a pass, so no one thinks you’re some spy. Though…”

The guard’s gaze lingered on his cane, slowly dragging up to take him in as a whole. “I doubt anyone’ll think you a threat, old man.”

[slightlytoastedbagel]

Top 5 Vivid Bad Squad songs? Can be covers and commissions

I am preemptively saying that when the WAVE cover comes out this month it will be on this list unless they fuck it up so badly somehow (which I doubt). anyway

1. Alter Ego

Only thing that may withstand WAVE sweep. I love this cover so much you don't understand. The power in their voices contrasting with how Miku almost sounds... Dead I suppose? Which works well considering it's Alter Ego. Like Misumi's og version is good but VBS version is also good and they're so different despite being the same song gahhhh I love it. my only wish was that Kohane also got an alt. Curse you Gunjo Sanka (I kid ily Gunjo Sanka).

2. Kashika

I have (?) talked about how much I love Kashika before it doesn't need repeating. It's Kashika. Still the best comm ever.

3. Hitsuji Ga Ippiki

Kick It Up A Notch will forever be famous to me it's what took me from "yeah Kohane is my fav character in this game" (Awakening Beat's fault) to "Kohane has reached a level of beloved only one other character has ever achieved" that solo song was life changing. And Hitsuji Ga Ippiki is equally life changing definitely a song to listen to on loop.

4. Ultra C

Recency bias be damned because I am also Kohane biased lmao. This was the perfect song to round off the RAD Weekend stuff with. Giga/Teddyloid/Reol commission was also the right call 100% idc what people think OVER RAD SQUAD!! was an almost perfect event for how they have taken VBS's story in my eyes.

5. Rekka

This could have also been Beyond The Way. Or Unaware Drunkard. Or Marshall Maximizer. Or YY. Or Odo or Shanti or Gekokujou or any other Akito comm or Beat Eater or any of their covers since Egoist or Children Record or Devil's Manner or Daybreak Frontline or Imperial Girl. What I'm saying is that I like VBS covers and commissions and choosing a top five gets hard because the top 4 are (more or less) set in stone so ???? But it's Rekka because Niki and Whip The Wimp Girl and An Shiraishi and AnHane progressing as a duo. Uh yeah.

Thank you <33

[lonestarbattleship]

USS Texas (BB-35): Firing the 14 inch guns, Part 1: loading and operations inside the turret.

To fire each 14 inch/45 caliber gun, it required several moving parts and men to move in unison. Gun crews were trained consistently to maximize the amount of rounds fired per minute, as this could mean the difference between life and death in a fire fight.

Each turret required 70 men to operate, which moved the Shells and Powder Bags from their storage in the magazines, deep in the ship, to the Gun House to fire. Each shot required one shell and four powder bags and could fire a shot every 45 seconds. The shells can vary in weight from 1,400 to 1,500 IBS (635 to 680 kg) depending on the type used. The Powder Bags each weigh from 90 to 105 pounds (41 to 48 kg). Since the Bags were hand carried and loaded, several training manuals from the era recommended these men lift heavy weights every day. This was to ensure they had stamina to last during a prolonged fire fight. This entire process was very labour intensive compared to WWII battleships. The operation of the turrets did not change during her career, except for the addition of an electric hoist for the powder bags later in her career. It cost $777 in 1914 to fire one gun, or $21,110 in 2021.

The Shellman in the gun house calls up a shell, or projectile, from the Upper Handling Room. If there were shells already on this level, men would load a shell from a rack along the outer Bulkhead, onto Upper Projectile Hoist. If there weren't any or not of type requested, a new shell was ordered from the magazine. For more information on this, read my magazine post: link. These men would move the shell to the Lower Projectile Hoist and send it up. The Upper Handling Room could store 30 shells.

At the same time, an Officer ordered for Powder to be sent up. Powder Bags would be loaded onto Powder Hoist and carried up to the Powder Flat Room. See my post on the magazines for their storage and makeup: link.

From there, handlers would feed the bags into a cramped room of the Powder Transfer room, through a port in the floor. A sailor would place the bags on the powder tray. This tray had wooden rollers and the bags would slide down into the Gun Pit.

Two men, called Powder Man 1 and 2, would move the bags on the powder trays in the gun house.

In the Gun House, the breech was unlocked and swung to the side. A metal tray, called the Rammer Tray, was lowered to the breech seat. The shell would be shifted out of the Upper Projectile Hoist and aft onto the Shell Transfer Tray or dump tray.

Then the shell is rolled onto the Platform Tray (Loading Tray). A mechanical rammer would push the shell into the chamber.

It is there, two men, called Powder Man 3 and 4, would lift up the two powder bags from the powder trays and place them on the Rammer Tray. The bags had a rad patch on the back, which contained the primer charge, and would be placed facing aft. The Rammer Man would use a wood pole and with the assistance of the Powder Man 3 and 4, would ram the bags into the chamber. The process would be repeated so there were four bags in the chamber.

The Rammer Tray was folded up and out of the way. The Plugman would close and lock the breech. A primer change was placed on the back of the breech.

The gun crew in the Gun House and Gun Pit would move from their positions and stand along the side of the turret, out of the way as it was elevated and from gun recoil. An officer would then flip a switch to let the crew in the Main Battery Plotting know the gun was armed. See my post on the factors in the targeting and when the trigger was pressed: link.

After the gun was fired, the barrel was lowered back to 0°. The barrel still has hot residue gasses and other debris that can cause blow back, which can seriously injure or kill the crew. The Plugman turned a valve on the side of the barrel, which would release highly compressed air into the barrel to discharge the gas and any unburned material. The Plugman would open the breech and the Powder Man 3 would inspect the barrel for any remaining debris and damage to the gun itself. The Rammer Tray would lower and the process was repeated.

The last time her guns were fired was while transporting Soldiers home, sometime between November and December 1945 during Operation Magic Carpet. One of the men asked the Captain if he could fire one of her guns. The Captain obliged the returning soldier's request.

A special thanks to Tom Scott for allowing me to use some of his animation. He has posted a video on his YouTube channel and is worth a watch, link.

source, source, source

509636457

[definitely-not-a-lucifer-clone]

How would i be able to maximize the use of my reactor to spread the blessed rads of the ommnisaih via meltdowns?

FIRST OFF, NUCLEAR CAVALIER; LAUNCHING SUPERHEATED FUEL RODS AT YOUR ENEMIES IS A GOOD START. TRAIN IN ENGINEERING; THIS WILL LET YOU TRULY UNDERSTAND YOUR MECH'S REACTOR AND HOW TO PUSH IT TO IT'S FULL POTENTIAL. NOW THEN, I'D RECOMMEND THE MANTICORE MECH AND A MIX OF GENGHIS AND TOKUGAWA SYSTEMS. THE GENGHIS WILL GIVE YOU EXPLOSIVE VENTS, ALLOWING YOU TO "BLESS" YOUR ENEMIES WITH HEAT ANYTIME YOU COOL DOWN YOUR REACTOR. TOKUGAWA SYSTEMS WILL ALLOW YOU TO PLAY AROUND WITH HEAT AND REALLY MAKE SOME FUN CHOICES. THE MANTICORE EXPLODES. CATASTROPHICALLY, AND MORE THAN OTHER MECHS. THOUGHT YOU DESTROYED IT NORMALLY? NOPE, REACTOR MELTDOWN. IF YOU ARE TO FALL IN COMBAT IT MAY AS WELL BE A GLORIOUS FALL. YOU CAN EVEN MAKE THE MELTDOWN MORE AWE INSPIRING, THOUGH IT WILL DEFINITELY KILL YOU. THE MANTICORE ALSO DISCHARGES ENERGY WHEN REACTOR HEAT BUILDS UP, WHICH SEEMS TO FIT WITH WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. (ALSO, WHAT THE FUCK IS AN OMNISSIAH? IS THIS A RA THING? IF SO, THE MANTICORE IS ESPECIALLY APPROPRIATE.) AND REMEMBER: OVERCHARGE EARLY AND OVERCHARGE OFTEN; STRESS IS A RESOURCE!

[roxynychus]

Some thoughts on the new ROTB trailer:

It looks rad.

People are still complaining about the CG but outside of a couple of shots I think it looks fine. Not jaw-dropping, but it's not taking me out of it.

I cannot fathom why they made Wheeljack look like Steve Urkel but I kinda love it.

His and Arcee's very human-looking lips kinda weird me out though.

I enjoy that Mirage seemingly laid in wait for a human to get into his vehicle mode, said "You're my friend now, we're getting soft tacos later", and immediately brought him to an Autobot team meeting.

On a related note, I'm getting exasperated father vibes from Prime and I'm down with it.

Initially wasn't sold on the look of the Maximals. They have this weird Giger lite vibe where it's hard to tell where their "organic" parts end and their mechanical parts start. It's growing on me now that we're seeing more of them in action, though.

So there's some debate as to whether or not this is in the Bayverse? Apparently one of the producers said it was- I could be mistaken about this, honestly don't care enough to verify right now. That seems pretty doubtful given Bayverse was doing the TFP "Unicron is Earth" thing whereas Unicron and Earth appear to be separate here. Not to mention the distinctly different tone and art style.

Scourge seems crazy menacing so far, looking forward to seeing more of him and hearing more of Peter Dinklage's performance. Still not convinced he's secretly Bayverse Optimus, though.

[retfarcyroeht]

Qorvex (Warframe) a quick look

(can you imagine if they gave this name to Citrine?)

Qorvex has good base health and armor; supplementing his shield gating and a decent energy pool.

+3 punchthrough on his passive synergizes with Containment Wall. Sounds really good for shotguns (Azima secondary fire also sounds like a revisit may need to happen)

Chyrinka Pillar's been disappointing some content creators but it's not a horrible power or even a bad one. It has two forms of crowd control; rad status effects and a slow... good duration and an okay base range for something you can have two of. Damage is not bad for a t1 support ability. It's definitely a defense/chokepoint ability; I wouldn't expect much more out of it than that.

It may be counterintuitive to have a cc (slow) on an ability that turncoats mobs (like the blind component of Breach Surge) but it still bumps up its own/your dps by converting trash mobs)

The line of sight may be an issue on certain maps but be less applicable in open world and roomy tilesets. I built to maximize range to start stacking those rad procs asap.

As a subsume, I'm not sure where I would go with this (outside of meming Wisp, Oberon, Atlas or Limbo)

Containment Wall is pretty fun; big wall smash type fun. It's a semi grouping tool (just lines up but doesn't bunch up mobs) that uses rad procs for its control, softens up mobs with damage vulnerability, does a bit of damage and doubles the dps of any pillers in its path for 5s (adjustable by duration mods). Strength modding to increase dmg vulnerability.

Disometric Guard - I hear that this isn't 100% status protection but it allows me to Bramma and Bubonico at point blank range, so I'm good. It's a persistent yet fluctuating buff; stay away from nullifiers.

Crucible Blast is an all or nothing "Combustion Beam"; works freaking great if there's a bunch of mobs that you can group up... not so much if mobs are scarce. Infuse (Piercing) Roar over Pillars and/or some Topaz shards to make this even more ridiculous.

Just my initial thoughts... nothing too in depth.

[samueldays]

Shared Universe Blunders interlude: WH40K, specifically

I shall indulge myself in giving an overview of Warhammer 40,000 for those unfamiliar with it. Skip to the readmore if you want:

A shithole future sci-fi setting where the closest thing to a 'main character' is the Imperium of Mankind, a violently militant caesaropapist xenophobic genocidal backward foot-shooting self-cannibalizing galaxy-spanning dominion, governing the majority of the human population. Their FTL travel relies on shortcuts through Space Hell and they perpetrate a thousand human sacrifices a day to keep the life support/stasis pod/space-lighthouse of the Emperor working. They would make excellent antagonists for any other setting, and they conveniently identify themselves as such by having skull insignias everywhere. They're the closest thing this galaxy has to (relative) "good guys" because the Imperium at least contains many baseline humans living ordinary lives, while some of the many worse enemies they're fighting are:

Lawful Evil Space Elves filled with arrogance, sneering, and a complete lack of concern for the lives of humans, playing the "last of their kind" and "dying race" tropes to the point where they'll sacrifice a million humans to save one Space Elf in a complicated gambit enabled by super precognition.

Chaotic Evil Space Elves whose souls are forfeit to the evil She-Who-Thirsts, but they can appease their dark goddess by constantly committing acts of torture-sacrifice on other people to prolong their own wicked existence.

Neutral Violent Space Orcs, here implemented as sentient psychic fungus bioweapons in humanoid form that are a holdover from a war between alien precursor races. Broadly similar to Saberhagen's Berserkers.

The God of Plague who is endlessly creative about inventing new kinds of plague and sending Plague Demons into the galaxy to spread these plagues to everyone (there are significant fantasy elements in this sci-fi)

WH40K, or just 40k, is a very cool shithole. It sometimes appears to be designed primarily around "how can we make the fights look Maximally Metal" so the box art features an eight-foot-tall augmented soldier in greebled power armor, slamming his chainsaw-lightsaber into the face of a spike-covered bug-eyed giant green alien menace.

The logistics of the chainsaw-lightsaber can be sorted out later, and don't think too hard about why future scifi people with spaceships are getting into melee combat.

40k is consistently inconsistent. The canon opening crawl describes the Imperium as "the cruelest regime imaginable"; the Chaotic Evil Space Elves who subsist on torture are obviously far more cruel.

The individual writers have a wiiiiide variety of vibes between "this is a necessary evil" (e.g. putting down soldiers exposed to corrupting infectious memes of the Chaos Gods), "this is an unnecessary evil" (putting down soldiers who heard about the Chaos Gods secondhand), "this is a stupid, counterproductive, really unnecessary evil", "this is not as evil as the rumors would have it", "this is an evil that the protagonist fixed", and sometimes "this is an evil that's just here because a lazy writer had to make Evil Quota".

That last one was raised to my attention by a recent thread on Sufficient Velocity which pointed out to me a canon description of Agri-Worlds and their creation posted on the 40k wiki:

In reality, life on an agri world is as unrelenting, back-breaking and monotonous as the vast majority of other Imperial vocations. There are no trees laden with glossy fruit, only kilometre after kilometre of hissing corn. There are no gentle strolls under the warming sun, only punishing work details in rad-suits, leaning into the dust-laden winds that howl around the equator with nothing to halt their rampage. Once the new arrivals have made planetfall and found this out, it is too late. Crew transports arrive on agri worlds full and leave empty. There is a saying among the indentured workers – you come for the soil, you end up part of it.

Why the fuck do the workers have to wear rad-suits? If the radiation is bad enough to hurt a worker on a shift, it's going to be several times worse to the corn growing there all day. Corn that people are supposed to eat. This in a highly xenophobic state that is extremely intolerant of any deviations from the Official Standard, and frequently executes humans for being "mutants". It is not going to put up with mutation in the planet-wide food supply.

Also, the work being "back-breaking" is stupid and contradictory to the rest of the setting at multiple levels, including:

The very same passage describes industrial machinery automating much of the process

Lifting heavy objects in particular is one of the first tasks to be automated because machines can lift heavier objects for longer times across larger distances

Workers have to eat and replacing them with machines means they're eating less of the food that is the planet's primary export which the people in charge are trying to maximize

This is a rare instance where naked greed, bureaucratic optimization, and compassion for the humans all happen to point in the same direction: Make A Machine Do It.

But 40k writers have an idea that they're supposed to sprinkle some random cruelty in. Make the Imperium behave evilly. Make the Imperium put supervillains to shame with how vile it is. So the canon fills up with this sort of thing, where workers are made to suffer for no reason - not even the bad reason that the ruler is a sadist.

.

Another example of 40k's nonsense is the Commissars. Similar to the real-world political officers of the same name, they are officers outside the regular chain of command who attach themselves to units of the Imperial Guard and have the authority to execute Guardsmen for desertion, treason, cowardice, heresy, espionage, or any number of other reasons, without trial. The superficial propaganda cover for Commissars is roughly "I'll shoot the first man who runs" (still quite nasty) to avoid desertions, maintain discipline, and ensure that Guardsmen will stand and fight. The truth, 40k hints darkly, is Commissars are murderous assholes, abusing their power, shooting whoever looks at them funny, and the Guardsmen have no legal recourse to do anything about it.

Of course, "no legal recourse" isn't the same as "no recourse". Guardsmen have grenades. Considering the rate at which relatively well-disciplined American servicemen fragged their own officers, the broader history of "mutiny" before grenades were invented, and how 40k's Commissars come from outside the regular chain of command, sometimes even from another planet to the regiment they're attached to, 40k's Commissars should be getting fragged all the damn time. Frag the Commissar if he looks at you funny, the rest of your infantry bros will back you up against this murderous foreign brass-hat. After all, what's the worst that could happen -- death?

Which is perhaps why almost every individual Commissar featured in the 40k novels is better behaved than that. Commissars have a severe case of the OOTS Dark Elf joke.

Warhammer 40k is like this a lot. The canon is contradictory all day every day. The Imperium is simultaneously colossally self-destructive and unsustainable, and several thousand years old. Every subfaction within the Imperium is the worst one, depending on the writer. Precognition is always a plothole in the making, and the Space Elves having had millions of years to refine their craft makes it worse, which the authors handle by casually ignoring it or saying "The future is clouded" as the plot demands.

Some of the problems are excused by saying that interstellar communication is unreliable and travel times are long so local culture can vary a lot from planet to planet, which is contradicted in turn by the Imperial Inquisition being well known and dreadfully intimidating by simply brandishing their sigil seemingly wherever they go, wielding near-absolute authority in the name of the Emperor - despite there being fewer Inquisitors than there are planets, and the Emperor has been in a coma for the last several millennia.

On top of that, a lot of the books and stories and lore are blatantly post hoc excuses for the merchandise that the main company sells.

It's a mess.

Some people might have tried to retcon it and impose a coherent vision on the setting. The Warhammer publishers instead did a bold tactical surrender: declare that all the books are simultaneously canon - in the sense of having been reported that way in-universe. It's all unreliable narrators, everywhere! :^D

Basically, if you can think of a way to fuck up a shared setting, 40k probably did it at some point, and then gave everyone a convenient excuse to selectively disregard whichever books they don't like.

This has resulted in a lot of people being Mad Online that other people are not disregarding the same set of books to form an interpretation of the Imperium.

[the-hero-of-light-and-shado-blog]

Vauge AC6 x Worm crossover coalescing in my brain, feel free to steal anything from it you like but it's not terribly original. Suicide/body horror warning.

So like. Ok. Taylor, somehow acquires Coral (running idea is that a tinker with a device the grabs random items from potential futures grabs a vital of Coral, ends deems it useless to anyone but Blasto and chucks it in... idk, the woods? Before getting got by the 9 when they came the guitar time because Manequin be mankillin.)

Taylor acquired mystery Vial, superhero fantasy ensues so she keeps holding off it with the hope that it might be like those old superhero comics from before Capes. Where random ass Chemical(tm) grants powers. The Emma shit happens, and instead of triggering, over new years break she Drinks it, justifying to herself that she wants to test the theory. (She doesn't, she knows damn well better, just wants to die.)

The Coral, in a dose that would OD even Rummy is DEFINITELY going to kill her, before Danny finds her and gets her to the hospital. Docs are trying their best, but can't do much more than make her die slower till Panacea gets there. She recognizes Coral is organic but to her surprise her power just goes "idk it's some kinda entry being but also organic. I can't work with this!"

She's freaked out, but also refuses to let this girl die because then she's not a Hero and therefore not a good person. So she starts allowing Taylors biology in a desperate bid to save her, effectively just doing enough to keep it from killing her ah giving places for the Coral to exist. The Coral obliges and Panacea eases up thinking she's saved her (probably feeling the first dose of endorphins in years as her power applauds her actually using it creatively, if less destructive than it wanted.)

Taylor now stable has her body subtly altered by the Coral that's there, now that it won't instakill her, basically making Taylor a Gen 1 augmented human. She wakes up, contexts to the Coral network very crudely, and gets like, inundated with memories, thoughts, and this from myriad people because fuck you Coral can communicate faster than light, abs FTL is time travel. Therefore it can communicate with the past and future. Most notably she gets a lot of Cinder Carla (onown doser, honestly a lot of her wngineers and techs too)shoved in her brain, so all sorts of designs from RaD are just floating around without all the technical knowhow to use them maximally.

Taylor, thinking this if just, how tinkers work, thinks she is a tinker (she isn't, it's run of the mill superscience not clarketech/paracausal madness, totally mass,prpducable and comprehensible by basic humies.) On top of this her immune system has basically been replaced by Coral since it can kill basically any bacteria, so her body is a breeding ground for the stuff that she uses to Kickstart Coral tech.

Something something, Administrative AI she makes named Cueball. (In universe she used the stock unity ball as his avatar and never changed it. Out of universe DESTROY... NINE-BALL.) Something something Squealer makes the world's worst AC, something something Coral is unpredictable because it exists in some sort of atemporal state, so the Entities can only predict what it can do after they've seen an example, allowing her to actually make her mechs and do this shit unordered. Something something, using Cueball to sell hyperefficient internal combustion engines to suffering countries at very reasonable rates, and working at a computer store to steal broken electronics. (It's circuit city, they beat out best buy HARD on bet cause it makes me laugh.)

[thetragicallynerdy]

fungi anon crawling out of the soil! sorry it's been so long friend <3 thank u ever so much for the popcorn! it was appreciated and enjoyed! i have for u a little sheep i felted myself <3 are u the type to put random things on ur bookshelves or are you a very Books Only person?

ohhh hey pal!!! i am SO sorry for the late reply, my notes have been a mess lately so i missed it coming in. and never apologize for it being a long time <3

ohhhh i love the little sheep SO much!!! i am petting its fuzzy head and sitting it beside my dollhouse (it will keep Finn from Adventure Time and the kitten with the mended paw company) (also seriously thank u it has been a hard evening and this made me smile a lot)

I am hugely hugely a "put anything and everything on my bookshelves" person XD I love little knickknacks, and my style could be called maximalism a lot more than minimalism. Bookshelves are just a useful way to display things!! I have. Well. A lot of bookshelves, but a few items on them include:

a collection of tiny Breyer horses from my horse kid days (breyers are a brand of collectible horse figurines)

a collection of tiny penguins because I love penguins

some special rocks, including a lovely carved heart rock, and not a rock but a blown glass heart that was a gift from a beloved placement supervisor

an alcohol ink painting of a forest that is one of my favourite art pieces i own

my collection of pocket watches

more breyer horses, of the normal size XD

cow art (one by me, one not by me, they go on the same shelf it is the cow shelf)

I have two rad bookends that are heavy metal unicorn heads (are we sensing a theme here pals?)

A large dollhouse my dad made me when I was wee

a skull dice holder that is mainly used as a place my hamster likes to hang out

some live plants

there are also books I guess

And some other things! I am too lazy to get up and look right now tho XD

Do you also have fun things on your bookshelves? (Books also count as fun things)

Also I am handing u a chocolate chip banana muffin I made yesterday, I hope you like banana and chocolate chip (and if u don't I have a blueberry one u can have instead :3)

Thanks for the ask friend, it was so good to hear from you <3