#npc worldwide

[instantkrazy]

Blue mood lighting to match the show color scheme.

[hattedhedgehog]

My (spoiler-free) thoughts on Dragon Age: The Veilguard

The review embargo has lifted and I can officially say that I've played through Dragon Age: The Veilguard early! 

Here are my spoiler-free thoughts and personal opinions on the overall gameplay experience: 

Narrative:

Rook's dialogue and decisions impact SO MUCH of the game, and come into play later on. From companions remembering your beverage preferences, to whether someone you spared shows up later to help or harm you, it feels like the game is paying attention and that you matter.

The stakes are unbelievably high. The Evanuris are utterly terrifying villains, in ways that Corypheus wasn’t. You really feel the magnitude of their power on a personal level as well as a worldwide level.

Whatever your thoughts on him, Solas is FUN as a character. He’s fun to talk to, fun to talk strategy with, fun to rile up and verbally spar with and fun to grudgingly ally with. Now that he can drop his former act and appear to you as the Dread Wolf, and you get to see his memories, you and he team get to decide how to utilise his knowledge and how far your trust extends.

The setup and payoff of the story beats are absolutely superb. The emotional turmoil as a player of being ensnared by things that was foreshadowed earlier in the game is utterly exquisite. Every thread of the larger tapestry has been woven with so much love by the writing team, and every character’s arc tie into the larger story in interesting ways.

The characters feel like they have full lives outside of the player character. You frequently go exploring their home turf and can meet their friends and family. They interact with each other on their own and move about the Lighthouse to spend time together, leave notes for each other, and talk about each other even when the other isn’t there. The team feels like they all really care about each other as well as you. 

You can tell what your approval rating is with characters, but if you want to romance them you have to put some thought into it. Interactions and world events besides the heart on the dialogue wheel influence their attraction to you.

Gameplay:

The combat is very engaging, and I enjoyed how unique all the enemies were.

Abilities in the skill tree can be refunded so you can redirect to a different specialization, which is really handy if you’re indecisive and overwhelmed at first (like I get when choosing abilities).  Most companions can get healing abilities no matter what class, so you don’t have to worry about balancing your rogues/mages/warriors (most of the time).

Climbing, balancing on ledges, using ziplines and sliding down slopes made environments feel more immersive. Additionally I like how each companion has unique abilities that let them interact with the world (fixing mechanisms, breathing fire, summoning bridges from the Fade, etc), and learning their abilities alongside them helps you grow closer.

The wayfinder light makes everything feel streamlined, so it's way harder to get lost while exploring an area. I hardly had to look at the mini map at all, and usually I’m glued to it! This meant I could actually look around at the beautiful environments and appreciate how lively they were, even without NPCs.

The upgrade system is far less overwhelming than in Inquisition; there are a finite amount of weapons/armour/accessories to be found, which are designed for each specific character like in DA:O and DA:2. There's also no longer crafting from scratch. If you loot an item you already have, it automatically upgrades the single item rather than giving you duplicates.

You know that frustration of coming across higher-level armour that just isn’t as flattering as your current one? Not to worry, you can collect “appearances” which you can toggle on as the visual for the armour while still retaining the benefits of the original.

I cannot stress enough how simple and easy to use the inventory is. It's heavenly. 

Using the shops of specific cities increases your reputation within those cities, which is a good incentive to explore and use the shops. I usually hate in-world shopping but here it was simple, and thinking about it tactically worked pretty well.

Quests sometimes reach a point where you can't continue at your current place in the story, and must return to in later acts. When re-exploring familiar areas, everything feeling big enough to be fresh with each visit, and new loot and codex entires appear.

Edit: something I forgot to mention. In character creator, you get to make your Inquisitor after you make Rook. The build menus are all the same, so manage your energy accordingly for doing it all again immediately after for your Inky. I spent an hour and a half building my Rook and wanted to get right to playing, and had to re-wire my brain a bit to be patient and keep going with the CC. (Seeing my Inquisitor with new graphics was awesome though).

A couple little things I appreciated:

The control sounds are very pleasing. From the whoosh of opening the combat wheel to the clinking of upgrades to the subtle whir of holding the decision button, they're a nice touch.

If companions are interrupted in conversation by combat, they resume it afterwards with a "what were you saying before?".

Photo mode is so fun to play with, and you can adjust blur/brightness/lens/depth within the scene. You can also toggle on and off the visibility of your Rook, your party, NPCs and enemies!

Assan learns new interaction tricks at the Lighthouse as the game goes on.

Nitpicks:

Overall I had an incredibly positive experience. The gripes I had were tiny things like:

I genuinely like the new art style of the game as a whole. However, the blurriness of some of the features in contrast with some elements being very crisp was distracting.

When trying to sell valuables for faction points without using Sell All, it takes quite a long time to count up all the individual sales, and it isn't a live counter. So it's kind of annoying if you get +3 points for each item you sell, need 150 points to get the next tier of items, and over 10K worth of valuables that you want to sell to other factions. 

If you do lots of quests without returning to the Lighthouse often, occasionally companions at the Lighthouse will have dialogue pertaining to the quests you've just finished as if you haven't done them.

You can pet the dogs and cats in the cities, but Rook turns their back to the camera to do it and it blocks most of the action unless you rotate quickly.

Gender stuff:

I was incredibly moved that not only can Rook be trans/nonbinary in the character creator if you so choose, but they get options to feel differently about their identity and journey, and it impacts their dialogue and how they relate to other characters! To access this make sure to interact with Varric's Mirror in your room in the Lighthouse. There are many conversation options throughout the game to discuss your identity with other characters, or relate your change of self to other situations. Crucially, it comes up when entering a romance and you have to communicate with your partner about it, which I never even THOUGHT of including in a game because it seemed impossible to even allow trans main characters to begin with.

There are also multiple trans and nonbinary characters throughout Thedas. What I found the most realistic was that just like in life, it is a consistent presence in any character's life, and comes up in conversation more than once. I have never seen a game this forthcoming and open about the topic of transitioning, and it was so validating. 

Final thoughts:

I adore the other games in the franchise. Something about The Veilguard affected me in a way no other game has. I cried multiple times while playing this game, both from joy and sadness. What struck me most is that the people who worked on this game REALLY listened to feedback from previous games, and were very set on making a piece of art that meant something to people. Even during the last few years of me testing the game, things have been adjusted and changed in direct response to our reactions and suggestions. It's surreal and quite touching.

Mileage will vary, but my playthrough was 70 hours on very low difficulty and I haven't done every side quest yet. I could easily have spent more than 100 hours in the game if I wasn't pressed for time.

I hope you enjoy this game as much as I have. See you in Thedas.

[born-in-hell]

Ive been seeing lots of opinions on the QSMP admin situation here, after both Dapper and Pomme resigned and Quackity's statement, and i feel like some things should be said:

Firstly, yes, the abusive higher ups are to blame, immensely. But Quackity, as the CEO, is not free of responsibility. Not being involved, at all, with such an immense project, as the head of it all, is honestly so insane.

(I genuinely believed he didn't participate on the QSMP as a player because he worked so much behind the scenes, and it's unbelievable to me how he lied to us all.)

We must remember this is his project. With his name. He won awards and recognition worldwide because of it. He has so much to lose with all this situation. Money, reputation, friends.

Lets remember the admins have nothing to lose, at this point. They have no reason to cover things up or lie, unlike the Quackity Studios higher up team.

Now, about the statement he made last night.

The "legal reasons" — despite being a coherent explanation for not telling us, the audience, anything — arent an excuse for completely ghosting his employees. In fact, communicating actively with the people that work for him, could avoid him a lawsuit.

The leaks are not an excuse for not communicating w his employees. Keep in mind, Léa only came out because of the lack of communication. If Quackity had dealt with this stuff internally — as he should've done — Léa wouldn't have gone public in the first place.

Grouping all these people — the exploited and tired workers and the disappointed fans — into mere "haters" and saying they all just want the project to fail and to ruin Quackity's image is a really bad faith statement. Either he does not understand the situation (which is, imo, still really bad for him as the owner and CEO) or he just wants to discredit every and all criticism.

I can bet u every single admin in there put their heart and soul into the project. Their 2023 was defined by the project. They withstood way too much just so the project and Quackity's image would be protected, that's why we never heard about any of the exploitative conditions they worked under until Léa came out.

Most — if not all — of the admins signed up bc they love the QSMP, and wanted to help make it the best it could be.

But everyone has a limit. And this was theirs.

This might not be the end of the QSMP. But how will it hold up to what it was, without the eggs, the fun NPCs, the french, and Bad? I dont know.

About the Union:

Not emailing Quackity and waiting for him to contact them is certainly one of the decisions ever made. I don't quite understand the logic behind it, to be honest. It's not illegal, as far as i know, and i don't know how common that is, despite believing it's not very.

And i don't believe we should hold Quackity entirely responsible for not talking to them. Although, someone, like Aypierre, or Bad, or Antoine, or anyone else that has access to him and knows about the Union's involvement, must've told him.

Or not, we don't know.

And about the statement being public, i believe it was intentional. It's a public threat to him. They don't merely want to sue Quackity Studios, they want us, the fans, to know why they want to sue and that they are going to sue if they can't reach an agreement.

They are mobilizing the audience.

If that's a good move or not, judge it yourself.

I just believe not holding Quackity accountable for his decisions, as the owner of the company is wrong. And holding him accountable is not the same as hating the project.

[streetkid-named-desire]

Cyberpunk 2077 Barbie Dream Closet Virtual Photography for Charity Extravaganza

Do you play on console? Are you afraid of modded clothes or posing with AMM/PMU? Do you just want to support some charities?

Send me your request and if you use modded items and I'll let you know if I can do it or not. If I can, then send me a screenshot via ask or DM of your donation receipt and all the info listed under "what I need from you." Also, if you prefer chatting over Tumblr DM or Discord. I won't get started until I see proof of your donation 😅

Charities to support

Palestinian Children's Relief Fund

World Central Kitchen

Red Crescent

Brazil Foundation

America Relief Agency for the Horn of Africa

Islamic Relief Worldwide

Ukrainian Red Cross

National Bailout

Jewish Women International

This will probably be an ongoing campaign.

Turnaround time will try to be within a week depending on volume and complexity of the request. I work a full time job so only have time for this stuff after work and on weekends.

Check my tags for my OCs listed in the pinned post for examples. I'm not super good or using Otis and a bajillion tools and mods, hence why this is for charity!

Charity tiers

Each tier is per one OC. Donate to more than one charity and I'll bump you up in the queue!

If you donate in multiples of 18 I'll also bump you up in the queue cause like, you know, Jewish tzedakah tradition.

$10 - two portraits in one outfit and one action photo of your OC

$18 - same as the above plus one non-explicit shippy photo

$25- four portraits in two outfits, two action, one non-explicit shippy photo

$36 - four portraits in two outfits, three action, two non-explicit shippy photos

$50+ - whatever the hell you want within my skillset, priority turnaround, and my admiration and gratitude <3

Charities to support (again)

Palestinian Children's Relief Fund

World Central Kitchen

Red Crescent

Brazil Foundation

America Relief Agency for the Horn of Africa

Islamic Relief Worldwide

Ukrainian Red Cross

National Bailout #FreeBlackMamas

Jewish Women International

Some notes and rules

I use VTK vanilla so only fem v with default breast size (I'm lazy I'm sorry, again this is why I'm doing it for charity and not being paid directly). Specify if you use another complexion. I use Ava's with abs, no moles.

UV Male is fine. I use FrauBlume's skin.

No body rigs

Minimal customization mods please (recolors, more body or face meshes, and VTK or UV overlays are fine)

For shippy pics: only canon (lore not strictly game only) sexuality pairings: Judy x fem v, Kerry x fem or masc, Johnny x fem or masc, Panam x masc v, etc (I'm sorry it's just what I'm comfortable with, do not come here with discourse bc I do not care. This is for charity.)

All VP is final, no redos: I'll provide unedited versions and my own edits in a Google Drive folder. You're free to do whatever you want with them. Specify if you want them private, otherwise I will pick a few to share to continue promoting the charity drive/as a VP portfolio thing or whatever.

I have the right to deny any request I'm not comfortable with and I will provide alternative suggestions (e.g. outfits that cover customization options I can't do, more portrait or action photos if I can't do the shippy photos, NPC portraits, environment, etc)

What I need from you

1. Your CC values, preferably written down (Skin: 01, Eyes: 02 etc) but screenshots of the color palettes OR an NPV file OR an ACU preset file (please provide the written down CC values just in case ACU wants to crash)

2. If your OC has any signature colors or color themes they wear, as well as any other special requests such as "they dress practical" or "they are a total slut". Any additional personality info will be great too. You may specify clothing items/mods or leave it up to me for a surprise!

2. If you use arm cyberware

3. If your OC uses modded appearance items this will also increase turnaround time. Please provide either the files or link the mods and tell me what you use. *This may or may not work out depending on my own install. Have a mostly vanilla OC backup or other request available.*

3. If you want combat poses: any signature weapons they use (if they use iconics it may be a little while before I could get to combat poses depending on if it's masc or fem), how they fight (stealth, melee, run and gun, etc)

4. If you want non-explicit shippy poses: obv the NPC. Also only canon sexualities (no Judy x Masc V, Panam x Fem V, Kerry is bi so that's fine, obv side NPCs are fine their sexuality isn't quite established depending on who). These might have a longer turnaround time. If you use an NPC+ file link to the mod or provide the file.

[songoftrillium]

so I've been considering running a W5 game for some friends of mine who have been having a blast with our V5 campaign. We'd have to use a *severely long* list of houserules and lore to make it anything other than a massive trash fire of...well, everything that W5 is now. Unfortunately it's likely to be W5 instead of W20 due to the players bouncing off the x20 rules HARD. Any suggestions as to what gaping holes I should focus on first, rules-and-lore-wise?

I apologize for this essay of a response. In terms of the major mechanics holes to focus on, a friend of mine, Kaidan, was a game playtester that ran a number of games at Gencon, and has done the emotional labor of reading through the entire W5 corebook and identifying ways to make the game playable. For house rules, I'd start there.

The rest of this post is LONG, so buckle up and get a drink before reading on under the cut.

Regarding Gaia's Howl, which isn't addressed in the book, I'd look to the Mind's Eye Theater: Werewolf: the Apocalypse, the last corebook in OWoD that furthers the world metaplot. I believe the mark that was missed in a big way in w5 was that the Age of Apocalypse in that book more or less encompasses exactly what they were trying to achieve in terms of the worldwide destruction of caerns, the death of many old canon NPCs, and the Last Words of Gaia, which was a prophecy laid out by King Albrecht in his final moments of life while destroying the Storm Eater:

“Hope is not sundered; wake me, and a new age of harmony shall begin.”

Nuff said there. You shouldn't really need this corebook to play, but if you can find any information on the Age of Apocalypse online, I recommend using that as your kickoff point to explain how we got here.

Now, on to lore.

As the Storyteller, there are few ways around it; you'll have to read some old materials to construct your own chronicle. A little-known piece of information is that no one edition of Legacy Werewolf was ever meant to supersede the other. All the editions contain uniquely valuable information and were meant to build upon each other, requiring a holistic approach to the old materials: take what matters and use it.

I don't blame your players for balking at the old materials. The first editor that volunteered to help with my big project had never picked up a WoD book in xis life, and when he signed up I asked xim to read enough of the W20 corebook to grasp how to make a character. After struggling with the material for a week, they returned and said, "I'll be honest. That's almost a hundred pages. I'm not reading all that." And I don't blame them. And I don't know if you noticed, but W20 also includes no tools for Storytellers to construct game chronicles. Indeed, no 20th-anniversary edition book across all the splats really does. Since the writing team at PDX didn't use any book other than x20 to construct W5, that only further deepened the reality that Storytellers have been completely forgotten. All Meat, no Potatoes. For all the good content W20 includes, a broad number of items would be decidedly unfair to force players to wade through if you wanted to, and there's also so much of it. If you have yet to notice, the old books have laughably useless indexes, so researching and knowing which books to research to create a good game is incredibly complicated. So, you're right that your players shouldn't have to read any of the old stuff, and you shouldn't necessarily have to run a legacy game to provide a game of meaning.

Now, on to the stuff, you, the Storyteller, need to put together a bombastic chronicle. I have a bibliography of books across multiple editions that really get to the heart of the deepest lore and covers the full width and breadth of what the game has to offer. You don't need to read all these books, but having them gives you all the reference material to have a top-down overview of lore you can pull into your game world that you see fit.

Werewolf: the Apocalypse Storytellers Handbook (1994)This edition was published during a time when White Wolf was still establishing what the World of Darkness represented. It was drafted during 1st edition and came out shortly after the 2nd edition core rulebook came out, making it a hybrid that shares stats between both editions, including renown conversion guidelines between 1st and 2nd editions. You’ll find three essays and a section from it reprinted in this very book, but even those are just a fraction of the value this book offers Storytellers. Beyond what I carry over here, this book includes expanded Garou culture, setting, and enemies, dedicated sections on kinfolk and kami,  and a dedicated chapter on making talismans (fetishes). It even includes a dedicated section for 1st edition to 2nd edition renown conversion and a chapter dedicated to building a custom chronicle suited to your tabletop! Definite must-have and must-read.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse Storytellers Vault Style Guide (2018)Beyond a collection of well-written tales, this book includes a chapter devoted entirely to metaplot. In that way, this section serves as a roadmap towards getting a good feel on which books across which edition may best serve you. It breaks down three different approaches to Metaplot (Passive, Reactive, and Proactive), the pathos driving each edition, and following those threads, one can more easily find which books and editions are best suited to each purpose and tailor their own Storytelling library to best suit their style accordingly.

A World of Rage (2000)

This book is indispensable for learning about the world at large where the game is set. It covers every region published and really cuts out the fat in terms of delivering setting information and systems just about anywhere you’d like to set your game.

Players Guide to Garou (2003)This one’s a home run for any table. Expanded tribe societies and unique gifts? Check. Merits and flaws and expanded fetishes? Check. MOOT MECHANICS? That’s right, check. Moots are the lifeblood of Garou society, and there are structures for this! If you ever wondered what the typical phases of a moot look like, what roles different auspices play, and what your pack of players may be doing during any given time, it’s all laid out here in plain words. Even the Ragabash has (arguably the best) role to play during these events.

Guardians of the Caerns (2000)Ever wondered what exactly werewolves do all day? Wonder no longer. Guardians of the Caerns is the sourcebook of septs and caerns, detailing the sacred places and the Garou communities that guard them. It contains information on sept offices, tribal septs, caern logistics, defensive tactics--even an in-depth look at those who must grow up strictly as Garou, the crinos-born. This is the book for anyone who wants to understand what they're fighting for. 

Book of the Wyrm (1st Edition, 1993)While acknowledging the latest edition of this book, this gives a lot more specific insight into the ins-and-outs of the Urge Wyrms and Maejlin Incarna, who have taken a faceless investment in this chronicle. Understanding the ubiquity of their influence helps to understand not just these entities themselves but also their hierarchies, as they are mirrored across each of the many heads of the Wyrm.

Book of the Wyld (2001)It includes information on the naming of spirits, stats on the Nameless, information on caern abscession, and the not-so-subtle recommendation to write a chronicle surrounding the final days of an ancient caern. It offers insights into this not-understood aspect of the Triat, including many that aren’t in print in the 20th Anniversary Edition. Some enemies come from the woods, after all.

Rage Across the Heavens (1999)

Meet the Gaian Pantheon, all the celestial incarnae to be found across the Tellurian may be found across this book, including unique powers associated with them. This also includes a chronicle encompassing the emergence of the red star Anthelios, believed to be a portent of the end times.

Hearthbound (2023)

That's right, ya girl wrote a cross-edition book this year, and I highly recommend it! This is a good answer for players looking for a drop-in solution to confront the systemic issues in the lore directly in-game. The problematic features of the Garou nation were always meant to be confronted by the tabletop, and this sourcebook offers a turnkey approach to doing just that. It details many of those issues up-front and lays bare many of the not-so-pleasant aspects of the Garou Nation in plain English, including several story seeds on how to work this new tribe into any chronicle.

Lastly, on language and tabletop terminology. It's best to treat U****a and W*****o as tribes separate from the Galestalkers and Ghost Council. They are different enough that you can't easily move the names over and call them such. That said, they are named after things considered extremely inappropriate to use in a tabletop setting, so I recommend presenting them using two Conlang terms I constructed for my games. For U****a I recommend Hapil, and to rename their patron to The River Serpent. For W*****o, I recommend Kalaril, and to rename their patron to Old Windtooth.

Lastly, if you'd like to know how to scare the piss out of your players' characters, I wrote an essay on how to do just that. Good luck!

[iodrawsandtalks]

Criticism of Penacony and why i think HYV shouldve quit while they were ahead.

//vent towards the end, references to suicide while those references are quest spoilers Recently I've been doing world quests and grinding out the new region and been repeatedly finding myself walking straight into microagressions and slights to the point where it's been jarring enough for me to put my game down. As a black dude playing HYV games i know well enough not to act like the stupid billion dollar game company cares about appealing to minorities but its 2024 man.

First off, the obvious issue. Penacony has been repeatedly mentioned by the devs themselves to be based off of the Jazz Age from the U.S. a few decades ago.

The Jazz age was a period of time in American History between the 1920's and 1930s where the popularity of Jazz just boomed from being like an indie type of music to one of worldwide popularity. Obviously, Black people in that era are wholly responsible for Jazz itself.

So yeah, Penacony takes its origins from a key black history movement. Penacony, the region that released at the start of February. Black History Month. Star Rail is arguably one of the most popular games right now in terms of outreach because it's free, its new, and its colorful/futurisric etc.... And yet....

Just like with the rest of the HYV games that take real world inspirations, they fucked over black people and their stories.

In Honkai Impact 3rd, basically we had this one black girl who's like sandpaper brown and complains about how much her DARK SKIN ruins her look and how she bleaches her skin using various products to keep it lighter. She is ashamed of her DARK SKINNED mother who's a military woman. Her father is absent. Her mother is also a grown adult who is a B-rank soldier(main character white teenagers are S-rank for reference). Carole Peppers is her name if you want to go further down that rabbit hole.

In Genshin Impact, besides the fact that people with different skin tones are CLEARLY sectioned into certain regions(no seriously there's no real reason why i shouldnt see a black person in any of the existing regions.), and besides the unnecessary amount of whitewashing and besides the perpetuation of the idea of melanin NOT being natural, every single brown/black character in the game has awful playstyles and/or poor matching with weapons/artifacts, inaccessibilty, and they NEVER make it to the top of any meta tierlists. I'm not outright saying they're bad they're just harder and almost never get specialized weapons.

The only previously relevant example in Star Rail was Arlan, a lightning/destruction character. He chews through his own HP and unlike characters like blade/clara, does not have resistance or healing to handle that. Serval, the other lightning 4 star, out-dps's him veryyyyyyy easily. So yeah, the ashy black person character basically dies if you use him for too long and is never relevant TO ANY quests except where he needs to be the sidekick.

sometimes these games have dragons, animals that can understand and process english, or magic.... but then not black people...

Penacony has no black main characters. No black stories of relevance. Yesterday found an NPC whose name was detracted from chocolate and the player had the option to let commit suicide.

yeah ill get to that 💀. This large mass of at least 4 supernatural looking characters and yet no black person. NOT EVEN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS FROM penacony itself are black.

so yesterday I was grinding clockwork quests and had to help out some apathetic shopkeeper named Cocona. Her story was almost a bit sad but midway into going through her background i realized her name is one letter off of cocoa. now imagine being on a creative team coming up with a name for a melanated NPC and somebody decides on fucking CHOCOLATE with an extra letter. before anybody implies that one was something i shoehorned, think about how itd go if i had a bunch of POC characters and one white girl named crackerella.

Cocona and her once again sad backstory reach a hard tipping point as the player follows her to the edge of a building and can either grab her to stop her from jumping or simply let her end her life jumping off the building.

Yes we've seen how this game lets you make choices and watch the consequences of your actions, but there have been established rule-breaking predecents. Take Ruan Mei's quest where you have no choice but to eat the cake she offers you and once again lose the ability to make a choice on saying anything related to her. or any time the trailblazer gets pushed into a fight and cannot de-escalate. ....with this in mind consider why was saving the cocoa girl from killing herself NOT a forced option.

normally id be the kind of silly person looking for lore bits and stuff and making theories, (like how clockie is from the path of elation :v)but as a black dude this whole region is disgusting. THEY ARE GENTRIFIYING JAZZ AND COVERING UP ITS BLACK ORIGINS idk who said HYV cared about their audiences they fucking dont.

wouldve posted this on reddit but whoop dee do i am NOT getting doxxed today.

[beaningeneralacceptance]

Nimbus story lore speculation

At the beginning of Chapter 6, we learn that the people of Sameria (or just the empress and the military, who knows if the people are aware) know that King Calvus is dead but they don't know who the culprit is. Now, Morden has bought the group time by saying that they're mercenaries (which isn't a total lie but no one is getting paid so) who are willing to help settle things with Keraxe. So, Empress Nilah thinks that we are good guys.

.

.

We are not.

With the Drachmae pirates out of the way, Samerian ships can come and go as they like. By this point, Ravenna is probably looking for the murderer of their king and unless Neviro has somehow managed to hide everything, the Empress is going to learn everything. Even if the Player is the most normal person in the war seas, we have a very temperamental anomaly whose legend has been spread worldwide (maybe) and a curse user in the group (and there is a survivor to report them *ahem* Revon -though he has gone missing according to a Ravenna npc- and General Julian -he's probably alive). Regardless, it is only a matter of time till the Empress learns of what took place in Ravenna Castello.

And then we won't be the good guys in her eyes. In her eyes, we'd be the ones who put her country in danger by killing King Calvus, the sole reason the treaty between the Sameria Province and Keraxe was signed in the first place. Now, she has reason to suspect us.

Because Morden said we're mercenaries. She thinks we're probably hired by someone to kill the king to indirectly wound Sameria. So, she could be suspecting that we are somehow going to exploit her to bring Sameria down or something along those lines.

So I think that while we're sailing to Port Mistral, news will reach the Empress, she'll send soldiers after us to arrest and interrogate us (or torture us if you love angst like me).

It's going to be a massive misunderstanding but also not that much of a misunderstanding because we killed a king and accidentally voided a peace treaty. But we're also lacking a man who is good with words to get us out of that misunderstanding.

(Hmmm perhaps Neviro will arrive at the nick of time to save our butts?)

[basedkikuenjoyer]

So you may have heard there was a controversy around the upcoming Dragon Quest 3 remake on the Switch. Which kinda fits a pattern with the series recently. We had longtime iconic composer Koichi Sugiyama coming out as a hardline nationalist a few years back, but he died in 2021 so it isn't as pertinent today. Today though it's about the guy on the right, Yuji Hori, who is the real mastermind behind the series. He gave an interview and grumbled about two changes the company forced to appeal worldwide. Mainly taking umbrage with standards for the American release.

First was simple and pretty common nowadays, toning down some of the racier class costumes. Which I get. Dude in white makes a fair point nothing will ever be completely inoffensive and they've had to change a lot over the years with Nintendo of America policies. It's a fair frustration for a longtime creator. They talk about how it used to be an irrelevant concern; they developed for the Japanese market and if it sold well internationally that's a nice bonus. You see similar conversations with other long-time creators and honestly? I'd rather they didn't change it personally. Yes, boob armor is a stupid concept. Yes, make new stuff that improves. But if you really care that much about keeping the legacy Toriyama designs...it just seems stupid to get worked up about.

The other one though...whew. Now, I'll say bad faith actors try to make this the singular reason for him calling America a ridiculous country and fuck them. But the other one...you know how modern Pokemon games don't ask your gender? They just say "pick one" and you do whatever. They wanted to do that here. And Hori expressed the same type of frustration asking "Who is that even for?"

I like the Pokemon games making that change, but I do have to wonder about this one. Hori could just be an old man yelling at the clouds, save for one aspect. DQ3 is a rare RPG where the choice of gender matters. Not just for some unique equipment, but it influences NPC dialogue. They'll comment on being taken aback they're meeting Ortega's daughter. It actually gives the female version a clear character of a rugged tomboy. So while I can get behind the shift in modern games...I think I might be with Hori on this one. Either you strip that aspect a lot of women growing up playing it liked or we're just changing the choice superficially to look hip. Kinda funny example of how times change, remember DQ3 was very progressive at the time for giving you that choice in the first place.

[wuxiaphoenix]

Worldbuilding: Being Crossed

You may have laughed at fantasy games’ penchant for dragon-cross-everything. And I couldn’t blame you. Dragons are just so cool, and D&D in particular has come up with many, many ways monsters and NPCs can be part-dragon to make them even cooler. But if you read some history, especially the niche stuff that focuses on odd bits like the History of Salt or the Little Ice Age worldwide rather than the usual politics and wars, you can get a good sense that if dragons did exist, humans would be crossing them with everything. Warning, what has been seen cannot be unseen... even if, especially if, it’s face-palmy ridiculous.

Ladies and gentlemen, the zebroid.

I... To be honest, as a student of biology and genetics I am somewhat flabbergasted this even works. Mules work out, we all know that, but the donkey has 62 chromosomes while the horse has 64, so the resulting cross critter has 63 chromosomes, and that seems... plausible to survive?

Zebras range as low as 32 chromosomes, and only as high as 46 (depending on the species), meaning all zebroid results will have at least nine chromosomes with no matching pairmate. And yet most are quite viable, if almost never fertile. Yikes.

(Biology is so squirrelly sometimes!)

I will note here that humans seem to be pretty darn fragile in this respect. We can survive duplications of only a few specific chromosomes, and a zygote missing any chromosome besides one of the sex chromosomes results in death. XXY and XO are survivable, though not without consequences; OY is not.

If you’re wondering why would anyone even try this? about the zebroid, poke a bit more history. Humans are down to cross darn near anything, it seems. Savannah cats, wolfdogs (oh what a bad idea), and killer bees (possibly a worse idea) are all hybrids deliberately created by Homo supposedly sapiens. Look into plants and it gets even weirder. Though one bit of that weirdness is probably regularly in your fruit bowl; the domestic strawberry of today came from an 18th century cross between a European species and one from the Pacific Coast of North America.

Heck, we’ve even tried to cross gems. At one point in the Middle Ages certain people sincerely believed that aquamarines were the offspring of sapphires and emeralds, and tried various experiments to produce them.

With that in mind, the zebroid seems yet another “it seemed like a good idea at the time”. But apparently it actually was a useful idea... in Boer Africa. Horses fall prey to sleeping sickness. Zebras don’t. If the Boers wanted to haul freight north into the hotter areas to expand, or pull gun carriages to fight the British, they needed draft animals that wouldn’t lie down and die. Zebroids aren’t exactly tame, and usually don’t have a temperament that makes them good mounts - but mules are nasty too, and we use them to haul guns.

The Boers lost. Zebroids are still born; sometimes by accident. And still kind of amazing.

If you have exotic animals in your world... well, it’s something to think about. What might your breeders get up to?

[satoshi-mochida]

Monster Hunter Wilds third trailer, screenshots - Gematsu

Capcom has released the third official trailer and new screenshots for Monster Hunter Wilds.

Get the latest details below.

The latest footage for the highly anticipated action RPG showcased the Scarlet Forest and a spider-like monster known as Lala Barina, who patrols this lush woodland. Capcom also presented the first extended look at a region’s apex monster and explored exciting new gameplay details, including how to clash with larger-than-life foes head-on, hunt as a group even in single player, and enjoy unprecedented freedom in the seamless world of the Forbidden Lands.

The next evolution in the award-winning Monster Hunter series is gearing up for a simultaneous worldwide release in 2025 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam with cross-play support.

New Hunting Ground – The Scarlet Forest, a newly revealed locale in the Forbidden Lands, is a lush setting with towering greenery contrasted by waters dyed a crimson hue. Like the other ecosystems in Monster Hunter Wilds, the Scarlet Forest is a dynamic environment that undergoes periods of Plenty, Inclemency, and Fallow that transform the landscape and wildlife residing within it.

New Monster – One creature that calls the Scarlet Forest home is Lala Barina. Part of the Temnoceran class of monsters rarely seen in the series, the Lala Barina possesses sharp, spindly limbs and can unfurl its thorax into a massive, rose-like form that is as treacherous as it is beautiful.

Apex Spotlight – Each region in Monster Hunter Wilds is ruled by an apex monster. Downstream from the Scarlet Forest in the previously revealed Windward Plains, a monster known as Rey Dau reigns supreme. Initially glimpsed at Summer Game Fest, the Flying Wyvern was unveiled today in its full glory. The apex predator of the Windward Plains is adapted to the harsh conditions of the Sandtides that transform its dusty grassland and can unleash destructive electrical strikes that pose a threat to even the most experienced hunters.

Support Hunters – Whether playing solo or online, Support Hunters can fill openings in players’ hunting parties. These helpful NPCs include Olivia, a hammer-wielding member of the Forbidden Lands Research Commission, who will also play a key role in the story along with her elite Palico, Athos.

More Moves – In addition to new allies, hunters can also engage with adversaries in fresh ways. These include the Power Clash, where blocking certain attacks can lock hunters into a physical struggle, and Offset Attacks, where a well-timed hit can interrupt a monster. Succeeding with these new abilities can knock monsters off balance to provide critical openings or trigger powerful special attacks.

Windsong Village – The latest trailer also introduced Kunafa, a settlement hunters will visit in the Windward Plains. One of multiple communities in the Forbidden Lands, this village has existed here for generations and possesses its own unique culture. Shaped by its surroundings and local wildlife, Kunafa raises livestock for cheese production and is also home to Seikrets, the trusty mounts hunters will soon discover to be indispensable companions when exploring the wilds.

Seamless Exploration – When away from base camp, hunters can embark on expeditions with a number of objectives in mind. Quests can begin by targeting a monster in the area using their map or simply by striking one when out in the field. Players can also prepare for their next hunt without returning to base by using their portable BBQ grill for a stat boost or by taking a rest at a Pop-up Camp. These forward operating bases are convenient spots to manage items and equipment, serve as return points after fainting, and can be used as fast-travel destinations.

Monster Hunter Wilds is due out for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam in 2025.

Watch the trailer below. View the screenshots at the gallery.

Trailer #3

English

Japanese

[pokepollsters]

Best Poké Ball Tournament-

Round 1: Match 6

Well this match has some very unusual Balls! This could be interesting!

The Cherish Ball can never be used by a player, but if it could, it would function the same as a regular Poké Ball. Instead, when trainers receive an event Pokémon, they will arrive in a very distinct looking Cherish Ball! No eggs will hatch with a Cherish Ball, and none will ever be obtainable in a player's bag, making it one of the most elusive Balls around. The very first Pokémon to come in a Cherish Ball was Shokotan's Tropius, back in 2007. And, as a reference to this, Ace Trainer Deanna in BDSP keeps her Tropius in a Cherish Ball- the only NPC to be seen with such a Ball! How lucky for Deanna!

What could be more elusive than a Cherish Ball? Well, the GS Ball of course! A Ball that first appeared in the anime, this was an item that was distributed in a Japan-only event that allowed Pokémon Crystal players to encounter and catch Celebi. A western version of the event was planned but never released- though the virtual console release made the event obsolete worldwide as the GS Ball is obtained after entering the Hall of Fame. This is another Ball that can never be used to catch a Pokémon, instead being a Key Item unusable in battle. The player must take it to Kurt to analyse instead, before it is returned and remains in the Key Items pocket for eternity! Since it can never contain a player's Pokémon- the only Ball in the competition like this- it doesn't have any known catch rate multiplier. In many ways, the GS Ball is just as mysterious as it was back in the days of Generation 2.

[pleasanttaleswithkaityb]

Hi! I read avout your gameplay style and really like it! I would like to play rotationally more but I also like having chaotic new relationships happening with NPCs. So I wondered: do your sims only interact with the one you created and do you regularly delete the other NPCs? Also, I am curious about your mccc settings to be able to set up mine. 👀

Hi Joy!! This was the most time-consuming for me to figure out how to manage/manipulate in my game. I think the best way to start answering your question is to define the difference between "townies" and "NPCs" in my gameplay. Townies: These are families, couples, roommates, ts4 families, and, for me, the households from Strangetown and Veronaville. They usually have a backstory of some sort. I don't typically play these households; they're there for my sims to interact with, and if I develop more interest in the townie, I may add them to the rotation. Malcom Landgraab is a great example. He originally wasn’t in my rotation. Nina became pregnant with his son. Then via random autonomy Malcolm proposed to move in. So it naturally occurred for me to add him.

I will also age up the households if my sims have any relationship with someone. Similar to "age up my friends" from ts2. I particularly do this with my households from Veronaville and Strangetown. For example when I moved in Malcom I add a few days to his life span to make it make sense for about how many days have passed for my played sims. I found a mod for this! See below!!

Additional Examples: Kaylynn Langerak and Gordon King as townies. Popular townies from ts2. NPCs: These are sims who fill specific roles in the universe, and the game must have these NPCs worldwide. Bartenders, firefighters, nurses, doctors, maids, butlers, etc. For NPCs, I use simmaddness NPCs on the gallery to fill these roles. (See more information below.) I typically don't touch these households once they're in my game. Creators @anotherplumbob - anotherplumbob's amazing save file includes townies. However, not every world is populated. This is where I used simmaddness as a resource to help populate my world. If you use this save file and don't populate the world, you will have ATROCIOUS-looking NPCs because the game will auto-populate new sims to fill the required roles. (You can also use MCCC to help minimize that impact.)

@simmaddness - simmaddness makes AMAZING remakes of tons of the sims 4 households. AND as if that wasn't enough, they also have toooooons of NPCS already grouped and made for your game, so you can always keep track of which ones are in your game. (You'll need to turn off culling using MCCC so the game doesn't start going through and delete unplayed households.) You can find simmaddness creations on the gallery: simmaddness

Mods

MCCC - ofc! What will be the easiest for me is to make a separate post with all my settings. I'll also look into getting a sims share file account and upload my settings there so y'all can download my saved settings.

Home Regions by Kuttoe - I use this mod to help keep my worlds from being overcrowded. For example- I don't want the mascot or vampires showing up in Willowbrook. This mod allows me to control who shows up where- ESPECIALLY with NPCs/townies. In fact, I can tell which townies belong to what world, and they will STAY in that world. You can also allow the townies to show up bi-directionally. So, for example, in my game, all the occults can visit each other's world freely, but they can't just pop over to Willowbrook. I also use this mod to allow my sims from Pleasantview, Strangetown, and Veronaville to interact with each other and show up in the neighborhoods. Disclaimer: I haven't figured out how to work around this, but when I use simmaddness NPCs, they don't always appear in the right town. For example, I have three bartenders NPC. Those three NPC bartenders are supposed to be used for every bar in every world. That doesn't always happen, likely due to a setting in Home Regions because I need to tell the game to allow that NPC to show up in all worlds. So, definitely play around with the settings on this. It doesn't totally reduce the number of random sims generated for me, but it does curb it significantly. When a new NPC is created, I'll try and make a note of the sim name- or just into CAS and change their name to their assigned role, and eventually, I'll move them into my NPC household. (Example: I go to a bar, a new bartender is spawned, I will edit/make a note of the bartender, and later go into world manager and move them into the bartender NPC household.)

Townie Demographics by Kuttoe - This mod works with Home Regions. It helps keep each neighborhood feeling unique and has many other cool features. townieoverhaul_lessfame by Sims4Me - This one does what I described Kuttoe's mod does. I suspect you can use both together, but you can also use either. Kuttoe's mod gives you more control over assigning townies. Whereas this mod will just manage the NPCs automatically. You can achieve that with Kuttoe's mod, too. You'll just have to play around with the settings. Side note: you'll also need Get Famous to make it work Let Friends Age Up - LitteMsSam - This will allow you to age up friends of your played sims. For example, when I aged Beau to a teenager, I could also age up Button from Veronaville without going into the household! High School More Classmates by Aramitus - I use this high school mod to set which of my townies will spawn at the school and any of the NPCs: janitor, teachers, etc. I definitely recommend watching this YouTube video as a guide to setting up.

Disclaimer: Because of Home Regions, you'll have to play around with the settings and ensure the write NPCs have access to Copperdale. I still have difficulties getting everyone to show up, so I've given up getting it to work perfectly and got it good enough for me.

Aaaand that's how I do my townies and NPCs. It can definitely be a lot to set up. Honestly, I'm still figuring this out and tweaking my neighborhoods always. (With Home Region, click on the townie and specify where you want the sim.) So don't feel like you have to have all this perfect before you start playing.

[supersoftly]

I never played Skullgirls as much, but the reaction I've seen in response to the rightly pissed-off customers over the digital art book getting censored is the ol "Lol, only perverts and chuds are mad about it. Who gives a shit."

But they forgot one truth about an IP that has a horny fanbase that can make a push as big as how Skullgirls was once a dream to a worldwide hit because of ZONE and whatnot.

You do NOT backstab your supporting fans to this scale and scope. It's basic business etiquette, tho I guess ESG money must be worth more than common sense.

TLDR: Backstabbing your supportive fan-artists no matter how horny they may be to chickenshit devs and investors like that is a stupid business move!

It's really annoying seeing a bunch of braindead philistine npcs going around with the copypaste 'stay mad pedo nazis' as if that addresses any of the actual grievances fans have with censorship.

There's no love for its base with this decision, they don't care about preserving artistic integrity or respecting what made the thing so popular in the first place, they care about watering it down to their particular standards and tastes, purifying it of filth and flavour, all the while claiming that only when the art is "respectful", after it's safely altered for your protection, the protection of women, children, minorities, whateverelsewecanthrowinthereOK, now FINALLY, it is deserving of the privilege of being allowed to exist 😒 ok sure w.e man

[erithdrafts]

The fontaine men (yes. Including Mr Worldwide) just beating the shiz up of the npcs and LMAOO NEUVI?????? Using hydro pump isn't enough, he needs to knee strike the person with his pretty legs.

[kerosnes]

OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS I just randomly found your blog & I think your art is AMAZIIIING!! keep slaying bro, you're absolutely fantastic

do you mind taking a doodle request for my regretevator oc?? mainly just her hanging out in the elevator with other NPCS i guess.. as the WORLDWIDE VOCAL STAR!!!!

..also do you wanna become moots? i also LOVE phighting and regretevator too, including pressure o (>_>) o

hii!!!! I’d love to draw your regret oc (it’s actually so freaking cute + I need to sharpen up on my miku skills……)

I’m not rly looking for moots rn, but thanks 4 asking!!

it’ll take me maybe 1 - 2 days b4 i post my doodle to your inbox (or less) i think, so hopefully you like it later lol

[project-sekai-facts]

so if we do get a new unit how do thing it’s gonna go? my bet is the leaders gonna be somebody who just moved into the area. what sorta genre would they get in your opinion?

i reckon either it will be entirely new characters (probably ones who are younger than the current cast) or they bring in a mix of new characters and existing ones. maybe not giving a current NPC a promotion but maybe bringing in like, Airi's younger sister or someone (i don't actually know how old airi's younger sister is but in my head she's in middle school). maybe they'll introduce an NPC in the next few years and then give them a unit, i dunno. i think it would be interesting if they brought in a non-japanese character as well, pretty much all other idol franchises have at least one foreign character and honestly it would make a lot of sense for a vocaloid (worldwide sensation) franchise to have characters from different parts of the world.

in terms of genre i already answered this ealier today but I think metal would work. I know it's decently big with vocaloid and you've got famous producers like utsu-p in that genre, but the game doesn't currently have a unit that fits with it. the current units in the game have pretty broad genres so it's hard to find one that isn't already covered.