#so I figured it was indeed a mod issue

[theamazingannie]

My sims game keeps crashing, tried to see if perhaps a mod was doing it, seemed to narrow down which mod it was that was doing it by taking groups out at a time and doing the same thing until it stopped crashing. Was between two. Put one back in, game crashed, took that mod out, no crash, so I put the other kid in to double check. Crashed. Tried taking both out again, crashed. Took whole folder I had narrowed it down to previously. Crashed. I feel like my game is just fucking with me now

[dogdays-sunny-blog]

☀️Hello friends!☀️

Mod: Hiiii. This is my DogDay blog :3

Some of you might know me for my catnap roleplay blog @catnaplovesnaptime

But I decided to make a DogDay blog because I'm bored :)

Headcanons for DogDay

• He's a panromantic transmasc, and he goes by He/Him pronouns.

• He has adhd because i said so

• He is indeed very ticklish!

• He sees CatNap as a brotherly figure.

• He loves giving and receiving hugs :3

• He can be a cuddle bug sometimes ^^

Rules

• I will not allow NSFW of any kind. Yes, I will be turning 18 soon, but still. It makes me very uncomfortable.

• No harassing me or other roleplayers.

• No NSFW or hateful asks. And no spam liking my posts.

• Please just be a decent human being^^

Trigger warnings

Some trigger warnings. Because this blog will sometimes contain things like mental breakdowns, mental health issues, violence, blood, gore, and other stuff.

That's all :)

(inspiration for this blog is @that-sunny-pup ^^)

[simplyanjuta]

haii me again! nw ab the past ask i removed cien no ea lashes v6 and v3 and it's showing up now! so weird that those conflict, tysm for ur amazing mods and have a great day!

Ah, glad you figured it out and I appreciate you letting me know! I will add it to known conflicts. There's indeed another similar conflict where the "MAC Cosmetics hider" (https://modthesims.info/d/643146/mac-cosmetics-hider.html) prevents my Styled Looks from showing up. The mod disables a blush I used on my sim model which then apparently also disables the respective styled looks (even though the blush itself is not applied with the looks). Seems like there's the same issue with the no eyelashes mod.

[mimikuwo]

Sims4 CC for drones is completed!

This drone took me a long time to make, and there were several reasons for that. Firstly, in the game, the default drone blades are white, so I had to figure out how to make them black for my custom drone. This caused me to spend a lot of time figuring out how to address the issue in the particle animation.

Secondly, when recording with a drone in the game, it triggers a red dot recording particle animation, which is something I don't need for my mod. So, I spent a considerable amount of time figuring out how to remove this effect without compromising the functionality of the drone.

Indeed, the actual production of this mod turned out to be much more complex than I initially envisioned. Surprisingly, the time spent on modeling was actually a very small fraction of the total time invested.

Another challenge that took me a considerable amount of time to solve was related to the design of my drone. I referenced some of the current mainstream drone styles, many of which feature a foldable design for portability and ease of storage. However, this posed a problem as these types of drones typically have propellers with one higher and one lower blade, whereas the propellers in the game are aligned. This inconsistency presented a significant challenge in my production process.

It's fortunate that in the end, I managed to achieve this effect in the game. Additionally, I also created an additional model for the folded state, which can be used as a decoration. This mod indeed required a significant amount of effort on my part.

Next, I will continue to create some other color variants for it.

This drone is still made in an EA style and has been optimized very well. The model consists of 1956 polygons in total. Although this is more than the original EA version with 762 polygons, I believe the performance trade-off is worth it. Perhaps I can further optimize it in the future if possible.

[clatterbane]

Update: SR2 is evidently going to take some tinkering that I don't feel like doing right now, to keep it from crashing on the splash screen. 😮‍💨 This is evidently NOT an unusual issue, and multiple people have indeed posted fixes to try through the community hub. The splash screen was looking good, at any rate!

Next up: try SR3! If that needs much tinkering too, I will go fart around in Oblivion. Because I know that runs just fine.

In other news, I did actually figure out how to get my trusty old knockoff Xbox 360 controller paired again over Bluetooth. So at least I am not having to play tethered for like a week now.

Also, now I am considering whether I should spend the majority of what's left in my Steam account atm on yet another copy of Skyrim (€7.99 on sale). I do have it on the Switch besides whichever gen PlayStation that we don't actually have set up right now, but with this I could easily play around with mods. Decisions... 😰

Latest Steam sale acquisition now downloading! I actually got both 2 and 3 (with the "everything" bundle) for just under €10. Haven't played either one in years. SR3 was my intro to the franchise.

With any luck, at least SR2 will be playable on this relative potato laptop. I would expect it to do better than in an emulator like I was originally considering, at any rate. They do apparently both have native Linux ports which are supposed to behave reasonably.

[writingwithcolor]

Black, divorced, formerly teen parents, Black lgbt+ with white partners

tiredandtears asked:

Hi, I am currently working on a story about a single black mother who left her son’s father (who is also black) on amicable terms a couple years before the story’s beginning.  The mother is the main parenting figure in the son’s life, but she keeps in contact with the father who lives in the next town or two over and visits often.  They’re friendly with each other and co-parent as best they can.

Something that I am worried about is that when I started outlining the story, I wrote that they had their son a year or so after graduating high school, so they both started working to support their son.  I’m nervous that this might relate to a stereotype that black people have unplanned children as older teens/young adults.  (I’m not sure if that is a common stereotype, but I have heard it voiced in the past.)

Another thing I’m a little nervous about is that as the mother works, she starts to fall for one of her coworkers (a white bisexual woman).  I’m scared that this could play into the somewhat common occurrence that black LGBTQ+ characters only seem to appear when they have a white partner, and I don’t want to add to that if it is indeed an issue.

Teen Black parents

There is indeed a stereotype that young Black people are mothers / parents. There’s a lot more to this, but part of the matter comes from the adultification of Black children, especially girls in this case. There’s also this insistence, within and outside the community, that Black girls are “fast” or “act grown.” This hypersexualizes Black minors. I’ve heard many stories of a young Black girl being somewhere with their baby sibling / cousin / any young child and having strangers assume she is the parent, even when they’re children or teenagers themselves. It’s absolutely happened to me when I was younger, too. 

Based on birth rate statistics from the CDC, there are reportedly more BIPOC teen parents than white ones in the USA. At the same time, teen birth rates have also decreased in recent years (at the time of this post). But it’s not about whether Black teen parents exist, as teen parents exist in all races. More than white does not mean that every young Black girl / person should be assumed to be a teen parent.

Consider that:

There’s nothing wrong with people who may “fit” stereotypes. I’ve talked about this extensively here. They’re people too, even if society places a stigma or judgment of them. 

There is usually nuance to any “stereotype”, such as in discrepancies in access to proper birth control or bc education, underreported data, etc. And on that note

Check your intentions as well as your logic in writing on these topics. Are you the right voice? How far are you exploring the depths of the issue? You’ll need to be well-researched when making commentary on any matter, especially from an outside perspective. 

Depicting Black teen parents may not be well received by Black readers. And it’s well within their rights to be uncomfortable. You could avoid the matter completely by making them fairly young parents, but not teenagers.

Long story short; if you’re going to write Black teen parents, portray these parents respectfully without demonizing their actions. They sound like responsible and good parents, and likely have a support group to help them be that way. If you wanted, you could add in a white friend or two that were also teen parents. Still, some people will not be fans of someone outside of the group writing on this. And question what their intentions are.

~Mod Colette

Black lgbtqia+ with white partner

Well. interracial lbtqia+ couples absolutely exist! But since you’re worried, and I do think it’s lacking in media, it would absolutely help to add in Black lgbtqia+ representation.

~Mod Colette

Queer representation of exclusively Black couples is rare. Why can’t the new love interest also be Black, too?

-Mod Norma

It seems to me that representation in romance, especially for queer romance is either white or with one white love interest. Rarely does it not involve at least one white love interest. It would be refreshing to have her have a Black love interest especially. It would be very welcome.

~Mod Alice

[bathalafiction]

If you were Asian by any chance (Which you are not). Would you have made Demons:Recollect into a manga?

And if you curious on what manga is (to some people who aren't anime/manga fans) style of Japanese comic books and graphic novels, typically aimed at adults as well as children.

But consider hearing all the stories of fallen mangaka's with multiple issues concerning thier bodies, as you would possibly destroy your lower back for people's pleasures and desires just to see your own story being told...

I could possibly see you following a gag manga style like One Punch Man and Mod Psycho 100

I am indeed Asian by a very large chance. Also, I have the art skills of a cucumber, so manga is a no go. (Unless they don't have an issue with stick figures lol)

And if I were to mae D:R into a Manga, it would most likely become as you said. I'm not even sure what it takes to succeed in that industry or the stuff you'll need to turn a manga into anime. 🤷‍♂️

[snuggetfish]

so turtleneck majima right

uhh is that up for download because if it is i will kiss u, nut, and then die.

pLEASE i will do a n y t h i n g

Yes indeed, I want to release him as a proper mod by this weekend at the latest! There are some minor issues I need to fix and then figure out the most convenient way to package the models, but I’m on it!

I’ve also got an alternate short-sleeved version and a uhhh... tiddy window one haha 👀 I’ll make a post as soon as the downloads are up! 💗 Thank you so much for appreciating turtle Maji! He really is one handsome devil... 😌💗💗💗

[blookmallow]

rating spirit halloween’s new animatronics for 2021

or at least what’s showing as New Arrivals on the site for me. looks like we got 15 new arrivals listed here and im HYPE about them so here we go

the caretaker

pretty standard reaper character with a Gravedigger theme to it. hes... fine? nothing about this particularly stands out to me, but i dont dislike it at all. i like his gravestone. would be good for a graveyard set. i guess ill give him... 6.5/10

mr. dark

at first glance he also just looks like a standard reaper character (or voldemort. he definitely looks like voldemort now that i think about it) but it turns out he SPRINGS UP RIDICULOUSLY TALL LIKE A CURSED WACKY INFLATABLE TUBE MAN and the spring motion in the video is actually really fucking fast so, while this isn’t a lot different from other jumpscare animatronics, i gotta give him credit bc i guarantee this would have scared the fuck outta me in person. according to the site he’s almost 9 feet tall at his full height 

i expected him to jump out and scream but i did not expect. That. i feel like if you put him up on a stage or something to make him loom over people even more he’d be very menacing indeed. would also be really good if you put him behind something so you don’t see him until he's suddenly There

i like him, 8/10 springy spook man 

click for more 

grave grabber

pretty much just a zombie but he’s cute i like him. i like the green eyes. i dont know what it is about him in motion but the video makes him kind of endearing to me for some reason and i dont know why. 6/10

ophelia

at first for some reason i thought the monster’s name was ophelia but i think that’s supposed to be the name of the victim? i think the idea here is “girl haunted by a Nightmare” but the fact that the monster itself is so small and doesn’t actually have a body for the most part makes this unintentionally hilarious to me 

like. it. it’s so small. it’s just a little shoulder demon. it’s so cute 

psst. hey do we have any more cheetos

anyway i like how the girl’s eyes move back and forth but the sounds she makes are uncomfortable and she just looks so. stiff and solid and there doesn’t seem to be any movement at all other than her eyes and the monster peeking out so it’s just kind of weird to look at. it’s an interesting concept but the execution is just strange and unintentionally hilarious. 7/10 bc i still think its really funny 

someone should buy this and mod it into chrona and ragnarok 

harriet hustle

WE DID IT KIDS WE FINALLY GOT A FEMALE CLOWN ANIMATRONIC im so happy i could cry i wish my store had her set up i want to meet her  

i love how they have her hanging upside down like this, it makes it so much more visually interesting than the figures that just kinda stand there looking spooky, even though she doesn’t really Do much (she just swings and her head moves around a little, just laughs, doesn’t have spoken lines) 

i love her outfit i love her hair shes SO cute i love this little murder gremlin i love her i love her 

im still waiting on spirit to give us a female clown figure that isn’t “creepy little girl” (ive commented before on how their only female figures tend to be either the Old Hag or the Creepy Little Girl and not a lot else) but i absolutely love this all the same 20/10

this one is fun too because we also have: 

henry hustle

according to the description he’s actually harriet’s dad!! we have an evil clown father and daughter duo here and im LIVING for it

i dont think ive ever seen spirit do characters that are related to each other like this that’s so cute,

apparently his wife/harriet’s mother left them and ran off with the ringmaster. he’s a single father clown trying to raise his evil daughter clown and i support him wholeheartedly

there doesn’t seem to be any more animatronics on this storyline, we don’t have the mother here and the only ringmaster animatronic they have is the rotten ringmaster who was released previously, but i doubt he’s the homewrecker ringmaster in question. he Could Be. imagine if your wife left you for That. we dont even know if henry’s wife was also a clown or not. spirit halloween clown lore going on here

anyway i absolutely LOVE this clown, he does something INCREDIBLY STARTLING AND UNEXPECTED which i dont want to spoil for you. go watch his video and see what he does its great 

my absolute favorite type of halloween animatronic is the “does something completely unexpected” category and this one is ALSO a clown and a GOOD clown at that

and he’s got this great vintage clown style i really like, i love scary clowns like this that actually look like they could believably be a real guy and not just some kind of mutant Clown Monster 

and hes got cards!! card suit motif!!! i love it i love him this is a great clown 20/10 for him too

w. raith 

we have this one at my local store and listen to me. im completely obsessed with this ghost

it’s pretty much just a ghost but it’s SUCH A GOOD ghost. especially in this photo here with proper spooky lighting and everything. i would absolutely LOVE to see this in a haunt attraction, it looks SO good even in bright store lighting. i feel like this under the right lights and in the right environment could look SO fuckign cool  

the shredded rag look!!! the ethereal glow!! the weird jellyfishy movement!!! the classic wooOoO oO o o ooo noises!! this may perhaps be the ideal ghost. it is without flaw. a perfect specimen. i fuckign LOVE this ghost i want it so badly but i do not have the space or the money for this thing 15/10 w. raith my beloved. my true love. maybe one day 

buzzsaw

at first i was slightly disappointed to see that this guy didn’t have an actual name, but then in the description apparently his name is Bill “Buzzsaw” Jackson and his backstory is he tried to be a wrestler but it didnt go very well so he grafted weapons in place of his hands. i guess. you know, to be better at wrestling. i dont really understand it and i definitely would not have gone with “disgraced former wrestler” as the concept for this guy  

but anyway we have mr jackson at my store right now, he’s Big, i like him. he doesn’t really move very fast and doesn’t jump at you, he just kinda swings his saw around. for some reason he just seems friendly to me and i dont know why. makes me think of like an uncle dressed up for halloween rather than an actual murderer guy. i dont know i cant explain it but i like him hes my friend 8/10

wacky mole

this guy’s also at my store this year, i didn’t know his name was wacky mole fsdgjsdg

he’s listed as a new arrival, but i thought i remembered seeing him before, and the description says he’s a returning fan favorite, so. i guess this is a re-release 

anyway pretty standard Scary Monster Clown. his teeth look like candy corn. i like it but i think they should just Be candy corn. i like his colorscheme and his silly giant buttons. light up eyes are always a nice touch. he doesnt really stand out but hes overall a pretty good clown. 7/10

grim

good ol’ classic skeleton. he’s pretty nicely modeled though and i highly recommend watching the video for this guy because he moves REALLY well for a spirit animatronic, he’s got a way wider range of movement than most of them do and his head moves really nicely. one of the benefits of a skeleton animatronic is you don’t have to deal with lip movement, so his jaw movements match with his lines a lot more realistically. i like the animated glowing eyes too, it really gives him a lot of personality. he’s really interesting to watch. like, it’s just a skeleton, but it’s a really really good skeleton, so, 8/10 

BEETLEJUICE!!

i love love love franchise character animatronics and spirit has so much great beetlejuice stuff this seems well suited to them but looking at it............. hm. hm

he just looks so. stiff and his face comes across like, deer caught in the headlights to me. it Does Not look very natural but it looks slightly better in motion (he just swivels from side to side and says a few phrases but it somehow looks less. shellshocked when he’s moving) 

maybe not the greatest execution but maybe he looks better in person and im still hype to see him so 8/10 regardless 

night stalker

we have this guy at my store too, im still not really sure what’s going on with his arms (did he just rip loose from them and leave them behind? did someone do this to him? i dont know) but i love a good spooky scarecrow. love his Wiggles. hes a pretty good boy. 6.5/10

here we have another pennywise, it pretty much just pops out at you, but it’s still pretty good. i like the full size one they had before better, but this one’s slightly cheaper and would be easier to integrate into a haunted house attraction since he comes with a built in set piece. it looks good but doesn’t do much. 7.5/10 i guess 

GHOSTFACE!!!!

FUCK YES I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS

please. please spirit halloween set him up in my store so i can see him

anyway hes got kind of the same issue beetlejuice has where the figure just. looks kind of stiff, and he looks more like a spooky ghost decoration than like, A Person. he doesnt seem to have any lines or anything either, he just kinda pops out. but then again i guess whenever we see ghostface in person in the movies he doesn’t usually talk anyway. i dont really know how id make this better but it seems a little underwhelming somehow. still hype to see it though. 7/10 i guess 

now if we could just get a jack torrance and a bela lugosi dracula id be content 

i would LOVE to see Red from Us but i doubt they’d do one. my other horror beloved is norman bates but i know if they made one of him it’d just be him in a dress waving a knife around (not that i wouldn’t still be hype to see him, but, y’know) (anyway. tangent. moving on) 

mr. howle 

it’s. a werewolf. he howls. that’s....... about it 

it’s a very nice looking werewolf, it’s a well designed figure and definitely looks very imposing, but it’s... just a werewolf. there’s not really anything particularly interesting or creative here. its a perfectly good werewolf. i dont have anything to say about this. 6.5/10 

i also just am not a werewolf person so maybe someone out there who has a greater appreciation for werewolves might like him more 

[queerofthedagger]

One thing that I feel like people constantly overlook when comparing Morgana and Arthur (although I don't think we should be comparing them) is that while Uther was obviously a terrible father in general, he still treated Morgana better than Arthur. I mean, even though he refused to acknowledge Morgana as biologically his (cause he's a massive hypocrite), he was still far more openly affectionate with Morgana than he was with Arthur. I mean we see him embrace Morgana several times throughout the series while the ONLY time we see him show any kind of affection towards Arthur was when he was literally dying. Plus, let's not forget that when Morgana went missing he was willing to risk Arthur's life by sending him on constant missions to get her back. Also, S1 E4 suggests that Uther locking Arthur up when he went against him wasn't an uncommon occurrence and there are several hints that he'd done that before throughout the series. Meanwhile, with Morgana, the only time we see that happen is when she allies herself with sorcerers and while Uther is obviously obviously POS for doing it at all, it still shows how lenient he was on Morgana as compared to Arthur. Throughout the series, Arthur exhibits classic signs of an abuse survivor and I just wish that people would understand that when they start comparing the two. At the end of the day, Uther still treated Morgana better than he did Arthur and it is so obvious to me how much that hurt Arthur

Hey! I’m so sorry for how long it’s taking me to get to your asks, I’m completely swamped with work, uni-work, my acbb fic and my rbb fic and the fests I’m modding, and I wanted to put some thought into this so... It took me a while. As usual, this got rather long.

I think one thing you said is really important to start this off, and that’s how we can’t/shouldn’t compare Uther’s treatment of Morgana and Arthur because ultimately, the abuse he piled on them is very different in kind. Yes, he was much more lenient and openly affectionate towards her than he ever was towards Arthur, and especially from Arthur’s perspective, it must’ve truly hurt at times.

The thing is though, I personally think that it has a lot to do with the fact that Uther simply didn’t take Morgana seriously. She has no power—she is his ward, yes, she outranks everyone except for Uther and Arthur, but in the end, she was a woman in medieval times and her biggest hope could be that Uther would marry her off to someone she’d be able to tolerate (especially considering that whatever Arthur and Morgana seemed to think in the early seasons, Uther obviously—hopefully jfc—wouldn’t have let them marry. But even if he did, compared to Arthur she would’ve held little to no actual power.)

Uther could let Morgana defy him and say and do things he never would’ve allowed Arthur to get away with because it posed no threat whatsoever to his authority. He could roll his eyes at her and brush her off, and that was that. To him, it made no difference at all.

To illustrate what I mean—I think he didn’t let Arthur get away with this because Uther was very aware of the loyalty the knights had for Arthur, of how the people saw him. He was very aware that if Arthur had wished to, he would’ve had reasonable chances to turn important figures in court against Uther, or at least make them question Uther’s judgement—something he was never particularly fond of to begin with, not to mention that he wanted Arthur to carry on his legacy in the exact way he wanted him to. Of course, it’s debatable if Morgana couldn’t have turned people against Uther as well, from an objective standpoint, but at least in Uther’s opinion, she wouldn’t have been able to.

I personally think that Morgana was very aware of this. She didn’t grow up in Camelot from the day she was born but was raised by her father who she clearly had very fond memories of. Unlike Arthur, she had a direct comparison to Uther’s treatment of her and she had her issues with him long before she became aware of her magic. His blatant disregard for whatever she had to say, how he didn’t take her seriously and how—from her point of view—she held no power compared to, say, Arthur, is, in my opinion, maybe one of the reasons why she eventually became so obsessed with her own power later on. Whereas Arthur, constantly confronted with Uther’s power-plays and pressure, actually tries to move away from portraying this absolute kind of power, once he becomes king (This is a whole other can of worms that I’m not going to get into here, but I do think it’s kind of important to the topic.)

Now, all this is, of course, not to say that he didn’t treat Arthur horribly. He very much did so, although in a very different manner. His expectations for Arthur were absurd, the way he pressured and disregarded Arthur despisable, and you’re definitely right when you say that to Arthur, it must’ve been incredibly hurtful to see the difference with which Uther treated Morgana.

Not to mention that there’s the whole dimension of Ygraine to Uther and Arthur’s relationship; it’s quite obvious that Uther blamed Arthur at least partly for her death, and that Arthur was painfully aware of this. That Uther’s massive expectations for Arthur were tangled into this, in a sense of “You have to be worth the prize of Ygraine's life,” and that Arthur knew this too, and never thought he was successful.

With Morgana, on the other hand, you have the whole issue of Uther not acknowledging her at all, and finding out would’ve only reinforced her conviction that his “affection” for her was artificial at best—and rightly so.

Neither of them is better nor worse, though. Uther treated them differently, yes, but both were different forms of abuse, and you can’t “rank” abuse. Where what he did to Arthur was more direct and obvious, the harm he did to Morgana was more insidious and subtle. Where his expectations for Arthur were impossible to fulfil, he didn’t have any for Morgana at all.

And the worst of this? The worst is that to both Morgana and Arthur, it must’ve looked as if the other had it better. If on purpose or not, Uther not only treated them both horribly, but also successfully pitched them against each other, and I think it's really interesting how differently they dealed with it.

Because all this being said—how you were treated is never an excuse for how you treat others, and one day I'll write a post about how while Merlin and Morgana are, indeed, mirrored, so are Arthur and Morgana if in different ways.

[immiryn]

On Otherkin And Cancel Culture

In the effort of being clear, I have personal experience with the topic at hand. I write this in an effort to spread awareness of the behaviors that I've witnessed.

It's also worth noting that I am speaking solely to my experiences in the Otherkin communities online, and that any prescriptions are to be taken in said context.

-----

My experience with the clumps of Otherkin communities is transitory. I'm a nomad. From one community to the next, I move. If a community dies, I move. If something particularly egregious happens that I cannot stomach, I move.

I have always searched for a place to call "home" in these communities, and these places for one reason or another lack what I need or desire. Often it's that activity dwindles down and that eventually a server "dies" of natural causes. In one or two occasions, it has been due to acts of a moderator or "public figure" of the server; whether that is something that I disliked personally, or something that affected the reputation of the place and thus caused a rift in the membership.

Within these communities, I have found a sense of tribalism. You are With, or you are Not. You cohere, or you leave. What brings us together is a sense of being Something Other, and sometimes some people are too Other.

This lines up squarely with my last big post, on "Kinnies" and discourse. Regardless of what the individual uses the term for, and regardless of whether they may learn about themselves as part of the group and cohere quite well, the clumps of community have sometimes decided that this was too Other for them. They don't fit into the tribe, so it's time to boot them out.

In general, as long as people are being respectful about it, I don't see a problem with server staff deciding what the focus of their server will be. It's when members decide this, or when people deign to be disrespectful and act without empathy in the process.

Something else that I've witnessed is more sinister in outcome. Most people who don't fit a particular tribe will find another to join. People who have been publicly called out and shamed over any number of behaviors will not.

The topic of the day is Cancel Culture. Hot words, hot topic. Strap in.

If you have substantial evidence, making a call-out post may well be worth it, especially in the more predatory circumstances. This typically involves a manifesto - a long document detailing clearly the transgressions and the evidence that proves that these transgressions happened.

A call-out post may come in two other forms:

A post is put out warning people away from someone. This can range from a paragraph to a few paragraphs, perhaps with a picture or two but sometimes without anything more than anecdotal evidence.

Someone says something in a community space, warning persons away from person X.

In both cases, there is little or no evidence of a transgression other than what one or possibly two people felt happened. There may not even be a criminal act involved. In this digital age, people are more than fine with getting angry over a minor argument and making it into something more.

Why is this a problem? Because people tend to trust their peers with their (social) safety, and don't engage in critical thinking as a result. This implicit trust allows people to share things like "x person did y thing, don't let them hang around". Short statements proliferate far more readily - if you've been on Twitter, you know what I mean - and the discrimination spreads.

When the discrimination is by an admin/mod or by someone who knows them well enough, it can spread through a community space without any real effort involved.

So, the target gets called out for their actions. What happens next?

They may be removed from the server or community with or without due process.

They may be ostracized from other community spaces as word spreads.

Individuals who find themselves vexed enough will assert their right to "keep others safe" by talking to people who associate with the target.

The above behaviors may even occur in a form of intervention, wherein language is used to encourage the target's associates to drift away in one manner or another.

Seems fair and all, but have you asked what kind of Justice this is? Here are consequences of our actions, in order:

Removed the target's ability to learn from their mistakes or argue for or against their issues.

Removed the target's ability to create new associations and learn to integrate into the community (or communities).

Allowed the target to take harassment for their actions.

Allowed the target's associates to be interacted with or manipulated in favor of reducing the assumed effects the target may have on others, which incurs stress and potential little-t trauma on the associates.

Allowed the target to have their associates removed from them, whom may have been able to interact with and understand the actions of the target in a way that allows them to communicate to the target about what happened.

In short, we've punished the target in a way that may not be befitting of the crimes, and we've done so in a way that removes their path towards reformation.

That's Retributive Justice. It creates suffering for the sake of suffering, making spaces "safer" but eliminating people who could contribute to the spaces we share.

-----

It's something that has happened to a friend of mine. Someone who was outspoken and sometimes quite brash in certain communal spaces, but who endeavored to improve the lives of people around them. The consequences for their "actions" have been severe, and people felt it necessary to intervene in my personal life as a way to get at theirs.

I have watched as my friend lost friends, lost people to communicate with and to understand the world through. I saw them lose access to the only place that was willing to host them in the first place, all because one or two people in charge got a bug up their ass over baseless allegations.

My friend lost the opportunity to argue their position, or to reform...if indeed there ever was one.

In the process, I lost my ability to trust in them. Fears, doubts, and traumas were stepped on without a care because the intervening individual "cared for my safety" ... despite only talking to me once or twice, a year or two ago. I've been having to work hard, to journal and process how I felt while trying to understand the motivations and the feelings on the other side.

-----

Shame and blame don't create reform. They merely allow us to create suffering for the sake of our own suffering.

Be wary of anyone who would shame or blame someone else without evidence to back it up. Especially if it's someone who holds a position of power in the social space(s) you inhabit.

[erimari]

I’m replaying DA Awakening and my game keeps crashing in the same area of the Silverite Mines (where you run into the second experimental subject). I’m getting very frustrated trying to figure out the issue. I don’t think it’s a mod problem since my mod list hasn’t changed since the last time I played (about two weeks ago). I am using a different line up, so I’m thinking some piece of equipment one of my companions is wearing might be the issue? Hopefully. 

I tried switching out Nathaniel with no luck. Hopefully switching out Sigrun will do the trick. Otherwise, I won’t be able to complete the DLC and I will cry (in my heart). If only I’d remembered I need Nathaniel in my party for the final battle if I want DA2 to recognize him as being alive and also hadn’t (stupidly) deleted my whole Awakening character save in a fit of ‘Must start all over’ frustration when I realized I’d messed up. At least then I’d have a completed Awakening save in the event I can’t fix my issue. 

EDIT: Went through my mods again and found the culprit! It was, indeed, Sigrun. Or rather an armor mod I have for Sigrun. I switched her into another armor before entering the mines and no crash! I am very relieved it was an easy fix. 

That being said, I do recommend the mod - HERE - Just make sure, if you take Sigrun to the mines, that you put her in another armor.

[danganronpaandsdrastories]

Nikei, Mikado, Kanade, and Iroha confessing their love to their s/o

Yanalovesdanganronpa requested:

Greetings! I would like to request Nikei, Mikado, Kanade and/or Iroha confessing their love to their s/o! If you don't do multiple characters at once then could you do at least one of them?

Yes, indeed we do! Although next time please use the ask box as it makes it easier for you to know if we did your request! Also since you didn’t specify headcanons, imagines, etc. I went with headcanons. Hope you enjoy, as the last 2 took me a while to make ^~^ - Mod Mikado (Also since Kanade’s part has slight spoilers the rest will be under the cut!)

Y/N = your name if anyone doesn’t know

Nikei  

Oh, Nikei could not be more meticulous about how he confessed to you

Like the moment he realized he liked you he started planning the place, time, everything just so it would be perfect for you

When the time came, however, everything was according to plan except for the confession itself

The location was one of your favorite places in the city, he timed it to where it would happen at sunset, but now his words were failing him

He would just stutter and trip over his words going, “Y/N I...I um..” over and over again

Eventually he would get frustrated with himself and yell out, “Y/N I LIKE YOU!” before internally cringing and preparing himself to be rejected, only to get a kiss on the cheek instead

He is so confused

“y-you’re not going to reject me?” is all he could say in his confusion

“No, of course not! I like you too!” is all you would say in response before hugging him as he began to cheer happily

Happy boi

Mikado Sannoji

This boy would try to do something super romantic for you

Whether it be a fancy dinner, a walk on the beach and sunset, you name it he will probably have it in his mind as a possibility

Then the moment before his confession he will use his magic to make a boquet of flowers appear before handing them to you and beginning to say his confession

“Y/N, I appear to have developed feelings for you. So will you do me the honor of becoming my beloved?”

You just stood there quietly for a moment, as if wondering if this is really happening or if you are dreaming

However, Mikado took this the wrong way and immediately began to backtrack

“I-I mean, you don’t have to! I just wanted to get my feelings out there so I completely understand if you don’t-“

“Yes! I would love to be your belover!” you cut him off before hugging him happily

This shocked him, so he just happily hid his face in your shoulder

Anxious boi

Kanade Otonokoji (OOC warning)

It would take a while for Kanade to realize her feelings for you

When she does realize it, she begins to fall into the same habits she had with Hibiki

That doesn’t mean she felt the same way she did while doing so as when she did so back then though

She felt only slight joy, but it was mostly hidden by her regret over doing so and she didn’t get why

Eventually she realized she was going to have to be direct with you if she wanted you to be with her.

She was very blunt about it too, just walked up to you when you were having a conversation with Setsuka and said, “Y/N, will you be my girlfriend?”

It took you a minute to process what she said before giggling a bit at how direct her approach was. This managed to confuse Kanade, as she couldn’t figure out why you were laughing

“Y/N, why are you laughing?” Kanade said with a small frown as she looked at you

“sorry, it’s just that your approach was so blunt. I’d love to be your girlfriend!” you reassured her before hugging her

meanwhile Setsuka is just standing there and watching this happen

Iroha Nijiue

okay, lets be real here: while Iroha means well, she is not that smart

That also goes for her love life as well, as it took her a lot longer than the other three to recognize her feels

When she does realize it however, oh boy does she make it obvious.

staring at you in class, gushing about you to Emma and Hajime, complimenting you constantly

anything and everything she could do to get you to notice her feelings without physically telling you, she would do

eventually though, you did confront her about it

“Iroha, is there any particular reason you are doing all of this? I’m not mad, I just want to know” (kudos to you if you know that reference)

she tried to run around the issue before eventually saying, “y/n, I like you!” 

she expected to get laughed at, but instead was pulled into a kiss

iroha.exe has stopped working

//so yeah, these took me almost 2 weeks to write. I hope you enjoyed them!

- Mod Mikado

[kiloxy]

The Investigation (my take):

Take this with as little weight as possible. I am an unprofessional on the internet who is also a fan of Dream (the one in question). I will do my best to be as unbiased as possible but that that doesn’t make me unbiased. I acknowledge my bias but for this I will try and set aside my bias. 

I see a lot of hate on Dream and a lot of blind support of him. If you want to hear a take on the recent investigation that came to light of Dream’s run (concluded he cheated), without either of those mindsets mentioned above, Please read under the cut:

Now disclaimer again: Very much not a professional, this is my opinion, and has no weight. This is meant to help open up some minds a bit (those who hate and those who blindly support). I will be playing a bit of a devil’s advocate role. (Also please don’t shit on me for this I am a rando on the internet with no real influence)

Unbiased:     From a scientific (I use this lightly as again not a professional) standpoint:

        I understand that if a number is so low after a certain point it’s calculated to be basically improbable (think p-value). A P-value is used when testing stats, it regards the probability of collected data. It is used to show significance of results under a hypothesis. 

I am going to simplify this so it’s easier to read, let’s say that for this we have the hypothesis called H1: Dream did cheat. Then we need our null hypothesis, H0: Dream did not cheat. We use data and calculations on P-value and things similar to either support or to not support these hypotheses. In this study they have concluded that, and I quote from the investigation itself:

“After accounting for any contributors of bias, the likelihood of this occurring is still unfathomably small.”

Which supports their Hypothesis:

“The only sensible conclusion that can be drawn after this analysis is that Dream’s game was modified in order to manipulate the pearl barter and rod drop rates.” (which is H1: Dream did cheat)

Key words here include: sensible, likelihood, unfathomably small. 

Now, here my friends is the great thing about science: You can never conclude anything. A hypothesis is never true. You can only provide evidence to support a hypothesis. 

What they are saying in this investigation and what the data supports is that it is very probable that Dream did cheat. The probability of him being lucky is very unlikely. As they said, “the likelihood of this occurring is unfathomably small.” But the key here is that it is not zero. It is just highly unlikely that he was able to get so lucky. Much like it is highly unlikely to win big while gambling.

So from a logistic standpoint it is clear how they concluded he cheated. The hypothesis is more probable, and the null hypothesis by numeric value is deemed insignificant. 

As shown in this figure pulled from the study. Dream’s luck (blue) far exceeds that of the expected value, and the 99.9% percentile (green) which represents one in a thousand luck. Now I should note, I do not know the accuracy of the expected and 99.9% percentile. What data did they pool from to calculate this? Was it from a wide pool of drops tested? I am unsure, and I am inexperienced with drop rates in Minecraft so I can’t comment. But this data shows that Dream is close to the projected 99.9% percentile (their lines intersect where blaze kill are lower) and then his begins to raise above the other around 100 kills. So their data does indeed represent that Dream got extremely lucky, even by lucks standards. Therefore it supports H1: Dream cheated. 

Although, as an unbiased party they should keep in mind that it has not completely rejected H0 which is that: Dream did not cheat. It’s is just more probable that he did. And they should STATE that clearly instead of damning his reputation. Their conclusion makes sense though with things involving the media they went wrong and bias began to shine through their statement:

“It has been demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt to be illegitimate.”

The way they have written this implies that evidence suggests he has cheated without any doubt. Although I understand they did still suggest he could have been lucky, it was written in a way that did not explicit state this. Instead of writing it with such bias they could have stated something along the lines of:

“We have come to the conclusion that it is more probable Dreamwastaken manipulated the game than not, and therefore we have deemed this run illegitimate. Although we recognize there is a chance he did indeed get very lucky, evidence supports it was more likely he cheated.”

This explicitly states there is still chance (although deemed improbable) Dream did not cheat. 

I have come to the conclusion that while the numbers and data is unbiased (still don’t understand Minecraft drop rates so I can’t fully conclude this, but assuming they collected without bias), the study based off them appears biased. 

I have also concluded considering the idea that the ones conducting the investigation were biased against Dream from the start (as shown in the past), that the investigation can not be fully trusted. Even from just reading the statement with no past knowledge of the conflict between them they appear biased. 

With this in mind the investigation should be taken lightly, and should not be held in high regard for issues regarding bias. I can not in good mind see their statement as fully conclusive, or the data. This investigation in my eyes does not hold much weight considering factors show it was written with bias. It appears to be framed in bias and no could science should be.

Although I can not say Dream did not cheat. The evidence by their numbers and collected data, shows that it is very probable he did cheat and the null hypothesis is not very probable. 

I suggest a call for a reinvestigation, or for an unbiased party to reevaluate data/rewrite the statement to be untainted by bias. 

Finally, Biased (my opinion):

Dream did not cheat. I trust his character and based off his reaction, and past actions, I believe he just got very lucky on a run. Why would the run he cheated on be one that was not a record or significant compared to the others? He seems genuine and from seeing all his videos I know he is a good player. An exceptional player. Someone in the very very top percentile of good players. He does not need to cheat, why would he cheat? He knows that the mods are biased against him so I doubt he would cheat with his reputation on the line. Although I acknowledge the data collected is strongly suggesting him manipulating the game some how. I just believe he got extremely lucky.

I love and support him through this all. Dream I hope you receive justice and I am with you every step along the way. And that ends this write up, thank you for anyone who read through this all!

[lustyargonianmaid]

Im so in love with your BG3 gifsets and maeve and astarion and wanna get the game myself for pc. would you recommend any mods, have any faves or cant-live-withouts?

these ALL work with the latest patch. modding this game is really finicky because it is indeed early access and doesn’t fully support mods, but here we go! hopefully i can be concise because i really could have used a post like this to help me, lol. 

also thank you @leopardmuffinxo & @silverhand-hoe for telling me some tips and tricks when i was too smooth brained to figure it out myself LOL. 

so first of all, a lot of people use candor. and candor is an absolute nightmare that i’ve NEVER gotten to work properly. so i use the BG3ModManager. i just made a folder on my desktop and unzipped the contents of that download into that folder and you should be able to launch the app no problem. there are further instructions within that link! 

i’ll start with .pak mods!

customizer legacy (it says you need the improved UI mod, but with the new patch it creates issues in the warlock class which i use. so i don’t have that and it still runs fine.) basket full of clothes. NSFW extra hair slot origin character unlocker all items

these ^^ are all .pak files which are the simplest thing to install. just unzip and place the pak files in documents>larian studios>baldur’s gate 3>mods and once you boot up the mod manager they should all be listed under inactive mods. just drag them over to active mods, and save!

AND NOW FOR THE GENERATED MODS which are annoying but once you get the hang of it, they make sense. 

i use a couple of these complexions for ladies hair edits alternate tattoos texture tweaks mizora’s dress retextures

for these you need to merge some folders, and they need to be in a very specific order! they will all give directions in the actual mods themselves but it took me about 9 tries to actually get it right. 

each of these mods will have a “generated” folder inside them once you unzip. i’ll use the hair mod as an example. 

NOW if you go to the baldur’s gate 3 game files on whichever drive you have it installed (mine is on my D drive and i purchased it from steam so it would be DATA(D:)>programs>steamlibrary>steamapps>common>baldurs gate 3) and you will see a Data folder. 

i believe there is a generated folder in there upon installation???

youll want to follow that file until it matches up with the example above ^^^ the mod that you downloaded and unzipped (in this case it is the hair mod) and then place the files that aren’t already in the games folder in there. 

NOW the part of this i didn’t get is that, with the color retexture ones you’ll want to place the contents of the retexture folder INTO the final resources folder for them to show up. for the mizora’s dress i chose black, so the inside of the final folder for that particular mod/path looks like this. 

ANYWHO. i really hope this makes some sense. it took me a hot minute and a few reinstalls to get a system going that really worked for me, but this is definitely the cleanest and best i’ve had them all running! if you have any other questions pls dm me and i can do my best to help if this wasn’t useful! ♡

[self-loving-vampire]

Pathfinder: Kingmaker (2018)

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a game that I liked a lot when I played it, but also a game that has a lot of obvious problems that drag aspects of it down. Fortunately, one of its big strengths is that it is extremely customizable, meaning that annoying or broken parts can be toned down for the most part.

Summary

This game has been called a spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate, which I can see only on a sort of superficial level. What I can say it is that an ambitious and (in some ways) expanded adaptation of the Pathfinder tabletop adventure path of the same name, which I have run a little bit of.

For those who don’t know, an adventure path is essentially a whole campaign, starting at first level and spanning several interlinked chapters with their own minor antagonists and themes, sometimes but not always all the way to 20th level.

This particular AP is one that I’d consider extremely hard to make into a computer game without losing a lot of what makes it appealing in the process. It starts with a simple hook: A wild part of the world is under the rule of a bandit lord, if you defeat him then you will be allowed to found a barony on his land and develop it as you wish.

While the concept is straightforward, this is a great idea with tons of potential in the infinite freedom of tabletop play. While it is impossible for any existing computer to realize this potential as well as a skilled human DM could, the game does have a lot of strengths (and weaknesses) that make it interesting to analyze.

If I had to compare it to an older game, I’d actually use Troika Games’ 2003 cult classic Temple of Elemental Evil rather than Baldur’s Gate, for reasons that will become apparent to any who are familiar with it.

Freedom

I would say that this area is mostly fine. Once you finish the prologue (which doubles as a tutorial) you are largely free to explore the Stolen Lands... except that areas open up gradually depending on your main story progression.

While I understand that this helps keep things focused and manageable, there are times where these limitations end up feeling a bit contrived. Still, this is not a huge deal since each area is reasonably big and full of optional content.

One nice thing about exploration is that there are many areas with encounters that are far deadlier than anything you may be used to at that point, but which usually guard extremely valuable loot. This means that if you can figure out a way to overcome the encounter before you’re “supposed to” level-wise you will get a very satisfying reward out of it.

Defeating these encounters is not even strictly needed at times either. For example, there is a hidden crag linnorm (a CR 14 monster) in a cave within an area full of far weaker monsters (around CR 6 or so if I recall). While defeating the linnorm would not be easy for characters at this level, I managed to use the party’s rogue to sneak past it and loot its hoard without combat.

In terms of things like dialogue choices and the like, the game is also mixed. While you very often have multiple options, some of these options can be Stupid Evil (attacking people for no reason) or even flatly blocked by your alignment in ways that feel arbitrary.

For example, you need a Neutral alignment component to make peace between the mites and the kobolds in chapter 1.

There is one particular quest (courtesy of a kickstarter backer) that is a horrible railroad as well.

But overall I’d say you have more options here than in many other similar games, I mostly just wish the alignment stuff made sense and did not lock you out of options.

The game has multiple endings and Fallout-style ending slides describing what became of the people and places you influenced based on your decisions. However, achieving the secret ending or the secret romance is so extremely obscure that I’m actually surprised I managed to do it on my first playthrough.

Character Creation/Customization

This is easily one of the game’s most significant positives, while also being one of the things that may be extremely intimidating about it for people who haven’t played the tabletop.

With the DLC, there are 9 races to choose from and like 16 classes (not counting prestige classes). Adding to this, each of those classes has 3 optional archetypes that function as subclasses that add, remove, or modify class features.

Many of the races also have different heritages that switch around things like racial bonuses/penalties, resistances, and spell-like abilities.

However, I do have some complaints about it as well. Sometimes the explanations of what an archetype adds don’t seem as complete as they should be, and from what I remember a lot of your character creation decisions did not have enough of an impact outside of combat.

While the game does feature skill checks both in dialogue and in other parts of gameplay, they use the highest modifier within your party so your own stats are not vital to passing them, and (unlike its sequel) the game rarely features things like special dialogue options based on things like your race, class, or chosen deity as far as I can tell.

Also, while many tabletop options were understandably cut since the game was already over-ambitious as it is, this includes all kinds of item crafting (without mods that is). Things like potion-brewing are a pretty central aspect of the alchemist class, while wizards really benefit from scribing scrolls to handle many different situations.

Worse, this inability to craft and enchant your own gear can end up hurting the itemization in the game. There are tons of different types of weapons you can choose to specialize in, but for many of them you will struggle to find good weapons of that type to use within the game.

Also missing is the ability to meaningfully apply several types of spells out of combat, which really hurts some character ideas that would have been very interesting in the tabletop version (such as diviners or enchanters).

The whole system can also be a bit confusing to those unfamiliar with the tabletop. The game is not as clear and good at teaching as it should be.

Story/Setting

The game is set in Golarion’s Stolen Lands, an anarchic area with heavy fey presence. Compared to many of the more colorful locations in the setting, this is one of the more “standard” and generic regions, but there are still some noteworthy things that help define it, such as the ancient cyclops ruins beneath the land or the links to the alien First World of the fey.

Like the adventure path it is based on, the Kingmaker computer game has a story separated into several linked but defined chapters that each present a new threat. Kind of like anime arcs that introduce increasingly dangerous villains at the center of each.

The story is generally fine and the secret ending is as satisfying as it is obscure. However, I would say that story is not what makes this game good in my opinion. This is no Planescape: Torment.

The game features many companions. I did not really care much about roughly half of them to be honest, but I do like the approach used to present them. They are all very visibly flawed, which can make for bad first impressions, but as you spend time with them and do their quests you discover new depths to them that make them far more interesting, and you see them change over time as well.

One notable example is Jubilost, a rude know-it-all gnome with an unpleasant and caustic personality that covers some measure of real kindness underneath (as well as the fact that he does indeed know a lot, he just needs to be less of a dick about it).

And of course, the central idea of the story is something that you don’t actually see that much of in RPGs, or even in a lot of modern tabletop campaigns: The player gaining a kingdom to rule. I think that while there is no way to properly provide the same range of options for how to handle this as the tabletop version can, the game still manages to accomplish something interesting (even if not wholly good) in how it integrates the gameplay into this.

In many ways, ruling the kingdom can actually be kind of stressful outside of easier difficulties due to the interminable problems and literal curses plaguing it. You will have to contend with everything from monster raids to plagues and invasions throughout the game.

While the mechanics of managing the kingdom are not really all that well-balanced and are more of a pain than anything to a lot of people, the throne room events where you get to make decisions on policy and such are often fun and not something you see in many other games.

One thing that can be off-putting about the game’s approach to narrative decisions is that there are a few times where the outcome of a quest can feel a little arbitrary due to depending on seemingly minor dialogue options. This is especially bad about the above-mentioned secret ending and the secret romance option. They go far beyond “secret” and into “you will be lucky to achieve this without a walkthrough”.

Finally, a few of the alignment tags applied during conversation options make no sense. This is particularly bad during chapter 2, but the issue comes up outside of it as well.

Immersion

This is one area where the game is not that strong, for multiple reasons. For instance, the fact that there is no crime system at all. You can loot your entire town (where even magical items are sometimes inexplicably placed in random homes).

The day/night cycle also seems to be for aesthetic purposes only as there are no schedules to go with it (which at least makes sense from a gameplay standpoint I guess).

The one thing the game actually brings to the table here above most others is also one of its most controversial features: The passage of time.

There is a real urgency to your quests, as there’s actual consequences to neglecting threats and situations that are meant to be urgent. 

In most games this kind of urgency is completely fake and the story advances at whatever pace the player decides. Not so here. If you ignore, say, the troll hordes early in the game then their attacks will eventually overwhelm and ruin your kingdom.

Everything from travel to resting and even hunting in place of using rations takes time. Rest too much and you could be sacrificing your long-term ability to manage the endless threats around your kingdom in exchange for an edge in the encounters immediately ahead of you.

This not only makes the mechanics somewhat more interesting by forcing you to manage time instead of playing it safe by resting liberally and doing a 15-minute adventure day, it also ties in with the narrative of just how deeply cursed, troubled, and flat-out burdensome caring for your kingdom can be.

It also just feels more real that events move on their own regardless of whether or not you are present to deal with them. This feature is not entirely positive, though. It can obviously be painful if you are struggling or lost.

Gameplay

This is one of the game’s strong points, at least if you enjoy the mechanics of the tabletop. Just as Temple of Elemental Evil was a simplified and buggy but reasonably faithful adaptation of D&D 3.5 rules, Kingmaker is a simplified and buggy but (somewhat less) faithful adaptation of Pathfinder 1E rules.

Obviously there are many, many things missing from the tabletop. Classes, races, feats, I think also grappling in general, firearms, and etc.

I think a lot of these cuts are fair. This is a huge game already and it would have been downright miraculous to include every single option possible in the tabletop. The consolidation and removal of skills that were unlikely to have much use in the adventure also makes sense for balance purposes.

The combat as a whole is deep and complex enough to remain interesting for a long time, at least in turn-based mode (which I recommend). The amount of options available to magic users in particular is extreme even if many spells are missing, and many martial classes also have some features of their own beyond just basic attacks.

Also helping things is the very wide variety of enemies, some of which require a specialized approach to take down easily. You can’t just use the same tactics for every encounter in the game.

For example, trolls regenerate unless attacked with fire or acid. Undead have a whole host of immunities but are vulnerable to positive energy. Golems are immune to spells and extremely tough.

My main complaint about this aspect of the game is really just that combat is a bit excessive. There are far too many random encounters and even outside of that there is much more combat in general than in the tabletop version. Too many of these encounters end up feeling like padding.

This game probably could have been under 100 hours easily if a lot of the superfluous fights had been cut and overall XP gain had been increased. Even with enjoyable combat, 100+ hours of this is way too much.

Besides combat, there are “storybook sections”, where you are presented with situations and must make decisions about how to resolve them, often making use of skill checks to determine results. These are nice, not much else to say about them.

Which brings us to  the last major aspect of gameplay: The kingdom management. This aspect is controversial, and you can turn it off entirely if it sounds like it may not be for you.

There are three major aspects to kingdom management: Decisions, projects/events, and city-building.

Decisions are the most interesting by far. You will be presented by an issue or a request to decide on your policy in one area. You will be given a handful of choices with varying consequences, which may be referenced in later decisions.

Projects and events are more flawed while still having a good idea at their core. These are basically issues that you will need to assign one of your advisors to fix. For example, sending your general to deal with a hostile.

Where it falls apart is the fact that a dice roll is involved in determining success or failure (though there is a type of currency you can spend to improve your chances, which can reach 100%). There are also so many things going on that some of your advisors can be busy for months on a project while various events that require their attention pile up.

The worst part is that there are certain projects that require you to spend a fortnight at your capital doing nothing.

But even worse than this is the city building, which is a missed opportunity. Most buildings provide little beyond a relatively small amount of kingdom stats. This is still beneficial, but not very inspired or interesting.

So there are a lot of problems with kingdom building, one of the core features of the adventure path. While I didn’t hate it myself, I understand why some people might want to focus on the adventuring and combat.

This is also the point where I should mention that the game was incredibly broken at release even by eurojank standards. It is definitely a lot better in this area than it used to be, but is still not the most reliable of games.

Aesthetics

This is one area where the game does very well. Some of the environments look great, the monster designs are generally good, the music is great (though repetitive by the end due to the game’s length), and the combination of sound effects and brutal animations can make combat extra satisfying.

Areas can even change depending on the weather or the time of the year.

The only negative that comes to mind is that most of what you see in the game is relatively generic fantasy environments that don’t really stand out. I was never much of a fan of lush, bright forests and the like.

At least there is still a bit of variety, with dark swamps and mountainous areas, as well as the rare trip into the bizarre First World that fey creatures inhabit.

Accessibility

This is one of the three big complaints about the game (the other two being the bugs and the difficulty). If you are not already familiar with the PF rules then you may struggle to play this game effectively, at least for some time. From what I recall, many things are not that well explained.

In fact, you may have already heard horror stories about how one of the very first side quests you find sends you to a spider cave where you have to fight swarms, which is a type of enemy that is immune to normal weapon attacks outside of the easier difficulties.

This lack of clarity can also extend to your story decisions, as previously explained.

Conclusion

Like many other big and ambitious RPGs, Kingmaker has a lot of jank and technical problems, and its complexity and difficulty mean that it is not really the kind of game that will have widespread appeal. 

However, this does not mean it has no appeal at all. It is a huge game with entertaining combat, a story that puts you and your decisions at its center, and the rather rare opportunity to become a ruler in an RPG. It tries to do a lot  and I for one prefer games with big ambitions and passions like this over games that play it safe, even if they are more competent and polished.

I’d say that this game is mostly recommended for tabletop RPG nerds, people with “old school CRPG” sensibilities, and people with a high tolerance for jank. Others can definitely still enjoy it, but may want to use the easier difficulty modes.