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satoshi-mochida · 4 years

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Tobyfox has provided a status update on the second chapter and beyond of Undertale sequel Deltarune in celebration of Undertale‘s fifth anniversary today.

First, here are the latest screenshots from Deltarune‘s second chapter:

Get the full update below.

Introduction

Hi everyone.

If you’re reading this, you must have been sticking around for about five years.*

I want to express my gratitude for everyone that has supported and encouraged me over this time.

Thank you.

I’ve said it many many times before, but I didn’t expect the simple game I made to receive so much attention. Because of that, many interesting things have happened, and now I can even spend my time making another game.

It seems both of us received a lot of happiness from this occurrence.

If it’s okay, I would like to keep striving to do things that make both of us happy.

Let me know what you think about that.

*Since the Undertale demo released in 2013, the game has really existed for 7 years. It’s already been more than 25% of my life…

Deltarune

I will make another.

I am making a game called “Deltarune.” It is the second game in the Undertale series.

The game will be released in many “Chapters,” the first of which I released two years ago on Halloween. Since that time, I’ve been working hard to figure out the rest of the game.

However, it’s a game that’s much harder to make than Undertale.

Graphics are more complicated and several times more involved.

Systems are more complicated.

Exposes the weak points of my creative and artistic ability.

Plot is much harder to tie together (more characters, more important locations).

Significantly more content than Undertale in one playthrough (especially cutscenes).

I have only made one game ever.

Unlike Undertale, this is the type of game that would normally have many designers working on each aspect of the game.

A story writer, a composer, an audio director, a map designer, a battle designer, a minigame designer, and an overall director. Instead, all of those roles end up handled by me.

The good news is that a few months ago, I completed a significant milestone regarding the game’s design. I completed readable outlines for every chapter in the game, including first-pass dialogue for almost all the cutscenes, examples of the music, etc.

Although certain details are still hazy, the flow of the game and all major events and battles that take place are now clear.

In summary, I largely spent the past two years writing, composing, designing, and drawing. However, that’s not the whole story.

We had actually attempted to develop the game since the time too. Development started around March 2019 and a 99% work was spent on investigating engines alternate to GameMaker, which I used for Chapter 1.

Without getting into the details, I decided a few months ago to go back to GameMaker after all. It still felt like the best fit for the project. So using Chapter 1 as a base, we’ve started creating Chapter 2 since May 2020.

A lot of progress has been made since that time. I believe we can complete this chapter, content-wise, before the end of the year (not accounting for translation, bugtesting, and porting).

I feel very confident. And the strange thing is, even though we ended up using the original engine, I don’t regret the lost time, either. Not only was I still busy designing the game, but during that long period, I was able to think of many ideas that make the game’s story and characters better.

I’m glad that I’m making the Deltarune that I have now and that we are making healthy progress.

Deltarune Status Estimate

■ Chapter 2 (04.15.20 – 08.13.20)

Phase 1: Design

Main Design: 100% (dialogue, etc.)

Initial Setup: 100% (stuff involved setting up people to make the game, adding debug tools, documentation, etc.)

Phase 2: Implementation (05.01.20 ~ 08.13.20)

Art: 90%

Cutscenes: 80% (90% are started, needs 2nd pass)

Bullet Patterns: 70% (enemies are mostly completed, bosses are about 40% done, needs 2nd pass)

Non-Bullet Battle Elements: 30% (Some ACTs are done and enemies are fightable, but interactive ACTs need to be completed and polished and the bosses aren’t programmed outside of bullet patterns)

Audio: 80%

Maps: ??% most are started or placeholder, most need 2nd pass. NPC interactions are completed in all spots where written.

Other: 65%

Phase 3: Finishing

Balancing: 0%

Bugfixing: 0%

Translation: 0%

Porting: 0%

(Honestly, a lot of stuff FEELS like 80% to me, but the truth is that what’s there is quite rough now. Polish ends up taking a lot of time, so the real actual time value may be around 50% done…? We’ll see what happens. It’ll be a lesson for everybody.)

■ Chapters 3 and Beyond

Phase 1: Design

Story and General Game Progression (first-pass): 100%

Cutscene Dialogue (first-pass, lacking cutscene instructions): 95%

Map Design (textual): 70% (varies per chapter, earlier chapters totally completed)

Map Design (drawn): 0% (this takes a lot of wrist energy so I don’t do it until we start programming)

Enemy Design (conceptual): 90% (all bosses are known)

Enemy Design (bullets / visual): 80% (varies per chapter, earlier chapters totally completed)

Music (concept): 95%

Music (completed): 50%

Visual Design:BG Concept (first-pass): 75%, Important Character, Bosses (first-pass): 100%

Phase 2

Sprite Art: 20%?

Other Content Creation: 0%

Phase 3

Release Readiness: 0%

(These numbers can be somewhat deceptive though. My true design style is to reach the moment where we have to make something, then suddenly think of something different at the last minute. This is always how it’s been with me and my work. It feels like no matter how much I plan, everything comes down to what I think of at the last second…)

Team and Disability

You may have noticed from my phrasing, but yes, there is a team helping me create the game. Other than me, there are about three active team members working day-to-day, with a few other people pitching in from time to time.

Their roles of the main members are overall content implementation and organization, bullet pattern implementation (part-time), and art (Temmie). Other than designing, I still have the role of system programmer.

I’m extremely grateful to have a team helping me carry out my design especially because of my disabilities, which have also made development more difficult.

Although I have long suffered from wrist and hand pain, about five months ago my wrist was the worst it’s ever been. I could not play the piano, use the mouse, and barely could use the keyboard. I navigated everything through voice to text.

Through weightlifting, exercise, and various equipment I have been able to somewhat increase the stamina of my wrist to an extent. Various solutions have included trackball mice for each hand, using voice to text whenever possible, using a foot pedal to click the mouse, etc.

Now I can use the mouse and keyboard for a certain amount each day provided I take frequent breaks. I wish I could work without stopping. Once the world situation improves I would really like to take physical therapy again and/or investigate surgery to repair my wrist.

Future Plans

Once we finish Chapter 2, I would like to use it as the base to create future chapters from. After gaining experience from this chapter, I think making future chapters will be easier.

Part of me wonders if we could make the game faster if we increased the size of the team and did something insane like create multiple chapters in parallel. However, another part of me understands that, adding more people doesn’t guarantee that the game will be created faster if it’s not done properly. I’m already just barely avoiding becoming a bottleneck on development even with a team of this size, due to my physical limitations.

To that end, I am interested in making a list of people that could potentially help me make the game. I’m not 100% sure if I’m going to ask anyone to help, but I think if I could find just 1 person that works well with me, it’s worth asking.

Chapter 2 is proceeding at a good pace, so if we do take anyone on, it will probably only be for Chapter 3 onward. So please understand that anything you send in may not have an immediate result.

People I Am Looking For

Feel free to send in your portfolio if you have the following qualifications:

Worked in the game industry before

Worked under NDA before

Have professional references

A degree of creativity while also being okay with just following directions

Fluent in English

People I Might Actually Use

Music Transcription / Basic Arrangement (Part-Time)

I usually start making songs by playing the piano and singing. An important step after this is to take this basic outline and transcribe it into melodies and chords. Though there are not too many remaining songs to transcribe, it would still help my wrist to have someone else start this process for me. Although I know many musicians, I’m sheepish to ask for help to them, because the main role is actually just to help me compose my own music…

Helpful qualities:

Good at transcription.

Can stand listening to me sing.

Optional: can use an old version of Fruity Loops.

Bullet Pattern Programming (Part-Time)

I’m looking for someone to help me program bullet patterns into the game. These people will work from text and visual designs to create fun battles that match the feeling of the game. I already have one person helping with this, but I think a second person would help a lot. You have to be able to use Gamemaker Studio 2 to manipulate objects on the screen / okay with using pre-existing scripts to accomplish this.

Helpful qualities:

Sense of fun and understanding of player perspective and gameplay balance. This aspect is [many times] more important than programming ability.

Reliable.

Able to make patterns based off of visual/text instructions.

Fine working with a poorly made battle system.

Able to sprite bullets.

Good visual / timing sense.

Minigame Programming (Part-Time)

There are a few minigames and small interactive events in the game, which appear in and outside of battles. These could take any kind of form… who knows what I’m thinking! Have you made a game before?

Helpful qualities:

Same sense of humor as me.

Some level of spriting ability is useful.

You have to have made a game that is fun.

Ability to work together with me.

Unlikely to Hire, But Send Me Your Information Just In Case

Cutscene Programming (Part-Time)

Besides the battles, the largest amount of content in the game is definitely the cut scenes. You will have to understand Gamemaker Studio 2, but the majority of the work is simply using a scripting system that I created to make characters move around the screen. The most important quality you can have here is not programming ability but the ability to efficiently use the system in order to create scenes with a good sense of humor, timing, and emotion.

I’d strongly prefer to hire someone I know to do this because it involves the story. So I most likely won’t hire anyone else.

Helpful qualities:

Can take text instructions and impart a proper sense of timing, humor, and weight to them.

Fine working with a custom scripting system (or smart enough to make something better that makes the game easier to make).

Art (Part-Time)

Sprite art—Temmie has already drawn a massive amount of art for the game, and continues to do so. And I actually already have a few other artists that have helped me that I’m more than happy to keep working with if things become more overwhelming. So currently I actually don’t need any more artists.

However, personally, I’d really like to build up a portfolio of available pixel artists and even concept artists. It’s not as if this is the only game I will make during my life. Anyone chosen for this game needs to be able to match the style of the game, but I’m interested in seeing people with different styles as well. Knowing that I have different options can open my mind up to different creative pathways.

Helpful qualities:

Can take bad looking sketches and turn them into art that looks good (magic).

Don’t mind if your work gets completely drawn over or thrown out.

Anyone that can draw cute or cool poses is good.

Uninterested in seeing people that have an art style outside of the scope of the game.

Write (Full-Time)

Someone needs to transform into a new wrist for me.

Helpful qualities:

Flexible.

Doesn’t hurt.

Musical sense.

That’s everyone I’m looking for. The only other kind of person I might hire would be a single jack-of-all-trades type that can do any sort of things such as cutscenes, bullets, or even system programming, with a good degree of visual flair. (But if you can do those sorts of things, aren’t you busy making your own game already!?)

Anyway, I’ll show you the e-mail now. Just make sure you read these rules first:

Don’t send in e-mails about anything else!

Don’t send to other team members, Fangamer, etc. about helping out!

Got it? Then please send your information to this e-mail address:

[email protected]

Since Fangamer will be sorting through the e-mails for me, we’ll stop taking e-mails at the end of September so they don’t get overwhelmed. Ultimately, I’m only looking for one or two people, and to make a list of the rest of the potentially helpful people in the world.

Undertale is available now for PlayStation 4, Switch, PS Vita, and PC via Steam and GOG. Deltarune Chapter 1 is availble for PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Deltarune.com.

#Deltarune Chapter 2 #Deltarune #Undertale #Tobyfox #RPG #Gematsu #long post

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hippriestess · 4 years

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Part 4 - I’ve Been Duped...

It was to be expected that some of those who brought us some of the less essential Fall releases would also respond to Smith's death. One of worst was the first to arrive and it came from perennial recyclers Secret Records; a repackaging of 10 live tracks from the 2002 “A Touch Sensitive” DVD – already reconfigured multiple times – on an LP titled, and this absolutely beggars belief, “Best Of” and credited to “The Fall & Mark E Smith”, a credit never once used on a release in Smith's lifetime (a few gig posters, yes but never a record). Released just 3 months after Smith's death for about £18-20, this received the derision it deserved and, judging from the number of copies for sale on Discogs and their current asking prices, it appears to have sold just a little more than fuck all.

But even this was overshadowed come March 2019 when Ozit/Dandelion released what has to be The Worst Fall Release Ever. Pressed into horrid orange vinyl, the contents of “Mark's Personal Holiday Tony Tapes” were staggeringly poor. Proudly labelled as “Non-Record-Store-Day Release” (was it turned down?) the record boasted just 8 tracks. The album tried to elide its rotten contents by calling all the tracks “Mark's Personal Holiday Tony Tapes”. Track 1 was a 6 minute version of “Last Nacht” from “I Am Kurious Oranj”. The released track doesn't actually feature within the 6 minutes so this is probably an outtake and therefore probably not owned by Beggars Banquet. There is a drop out lasting several seconds that has gone uncorrected and it's about 4 minutes longer than it needs to be, confirming the brevity of the version used in 1988 to be bob on. Tracks 2, 4, 6 and 8 are live tracks from 1981, all of which had already been released on the otherwise unimpressive “Northern Cream” DVD. What is barely credible is that tracks 3, 5 and 7 are also “Last Nacht” but not further alternates, rather being Track 1 cut into 2 minute pieces and simply repeated! Did they think we wouldn't notice?! Utterly awful, thoroughly exploitative and an absolute disgrace. They also stumped up a 30 minute DVD of MES being interviewed. This bore the thoroughly unappealing title “30 Minutes On A Manchester Slag Heap”. I only ever saw this for sale on eBay but a couple of clicks confirmed that it was Ozit/Dandelion product being sold by them through that channel. The cover was of a slag heap rather than of MES. Enough said.

OK, let's tidy up, what's next?

The immediate future sees 2 vinyl releases in the August “drop” of the now-staggered, socially-distanced RSD2020; a double LP of “[Austurbæjarbíó] - Reykjavík Live 1983” on the now inevitable splatter vinyl and a single LP of “Cerebral Caustic” on multi-coloured “bonkers” (their word, absofuckinglutely not mine) splatter vinyl because of course it is. That's all for RSD this year, a move which represents far better judgement by the organisers. A studio album out of print on vinyl for 25 years and a properly sought after live release on the format for the first time? Yeah, that fits well with what RSD was meant to be back when we all queued up for a “Bury Pts 2 + 4” 7” in 2010.

Now, a fun wee question mark was raised over “CC” when the RSD website credited the release to Demon rather than Cherry Red. It appears Demon have the Permanent Records catalogue and have also announced clear vinyl reissues of “The Infotainment Scan”, “Middle Class Revolt”, “The Twenty-Seven Points” and, perhaps most interestingly, “The Post Nearly Man”, all on clear vinyl with expanded artwork from Pascal LeGras. It looks as though these are coming in under the £20 mark (£25 for T27P) and I reckon they'll be popular – I fancy nabbing MCR and TPNM myself. A bit of a downer that all of these, except, oddly, “The Post Nearly Man” were recently rescheduled from September 2020 to January 2021 but hey ho – probably Covid-related, much like everything else.

As for Cherry Red, whilst one report had it that “Are You Are Missing Winner” was next, they are finally releasing a 3CD/2LP edition of “Imperial Wax Solvent” in October. This includes the much-discussed original mix by Grant Showbiz and a previously unavailable live set from shortly after the album's original release. This is, basically, exactly what we wanted. Hurrah! Can't wait.

Thanks to the speculation re: AYAMW, there was a little disappointment in come quarters and I can certainly see a healthy audience for a straight single LP pressing of that as it was only ever available on a picture disc vinyl before. Here's hoping they won't go for a double splatter vinyl with unnecessary extras (“Where's The Fuckin' Taxi? Cunt” on vinyl? Come on, SPARE US).

To yr present authors surprise, an expanded edition of “The Frenz Experiment” was announced for release by Beggars Banquet/Arkive in October. I had reckoned a new vinyl edition was likely as it was the only studio album on BB not yet afforded a new pressing and the addition of a second LP with various singles tracks was no surprise either, given that there are similar packages available for “TWAFW”, “TNSG” and “Bend Sinister”. A very pleasant surprise however is the inclusion of the group's Janice Long session from 1987, their only unreleased Radio 1 session. Also, “A Day In The Life” has been licenced for the this also (it was the only studio recording from the era missing from “5 Albums”). The Long session and “...Life” are only on the CD version. As such, this release very much follows the pattern of the “Bend Sinister” reissue from 2018 and is likely inspired by the near ecstatic reception and healthy sales that release enjoyed. Nice that the CD edition is £12 this time, having been more like £22 for “Bend Sinister”.

Let Them Eat Vinyl are responsible for the illustration...they are planning an almost ludicrous onslaught of Fall vinyl. Their website currently lists an almost unbelievable THIRTY ONE Fall LP releases for the three months running September to November. Thirty-one. Now – this includes “Interim” which is already on the shelves but it also includes the “Live From The Vaults” releases. It was assumed from the inclusion of two of these on Cherry Red's “Dragnet” 3CD box that these were part of the Fall Sound Archive deal that MES cut with CR in the years before his death which makes this a bit interesting. Also, LTEV are also claiming they will release “The Post-Nearly Man” on vinyl in October, which clashes with Demon's schedule – they originally had Smith and The Fall's albums for Permanent Records releases slated for reissue in September but all except TPNM have been moved. Meanwhile, “Cog Sinister” are about to release TPNM on CD! After being unavailable and highly prized for 2 decades, we're now set for 3 separate reissues within 2 months! Anyway, the vast majority of the remaining LTEV are discs from the 2 “sets of ten (really eleven)” although also included are the excellent “I Am Pure As Oranj” and the first vinyl edition of “The Light User Syndrome” since its original release in 1996. Caveat Emptor, as the saying goes.

Narnack are also hinting that a 3LP ��Fall Heads Roll” isn't too far off. Having teased this for a couple of years, Early in 2020, it was announced that the label was folding. This announcement was deleted and Narnack immediately moved on to asking fans to suggest what additional material could be added to this new version. Never one of their best, there would have to be some impressive outtakes to persuade yr persent scribe to cough up.

Elsewhere, Phonogram have yet to succumb to new vinyl pressings of their albums, despite the prices fetched on the collectors market for these, especially “Code-Selfish”. This may be partly due to what seems to have been a relatively low take-up for their 6CD box set from 2017. Titled “The Fontana Years”, this was just the 2CD editions of the three albums from 2007 in a box. It therefore looked weak next to the “Singles 1978-2016” box set as well as providing nothing attractive to the faithful who already had them. It hit the shelves at £35-40 a time and, unsurprisingly, remained there and can now be scored for around £20.

The much requested expansion of “The Real New Fall LP” with the original, very different mix of the album has yet to appear. At last count, contractual wrangles between the UK and US were said to be in the way but who knows? If “Levitate” can reappear, surely this can too.

Of course, we never know what else the less-salubrious end of the market will have for us but we shall approach with due caution.

The cold reality: what we get now is all there is. Mark E Smith now exists for Fall fans on paper, on magnetic tape, on vinyl and in combinations of 0 and 1. A sad fact. But it is clear that the appetite for The Fall is, if anything, increasing. Hindsight is presenting The Fall in a particularly clear light. In such a stylised, filtered and carefully marketed world, full of covert strategies and manipulative messaging, The Fall are reassuringly flawed, human, real. Their jagged edges, their constant state of flux, their DIY presentation and their disinterest in convention draws in the curious. The quantity of music suits an insatiable, want-it-all-and-now culture and, having made their albums for the vinyl format as well as bringing us so many magnificent 3-4 minute singles, their music is almost perfectly suited to today's market place where vinyl albums mix with song-by-song streams. People who love to write about music always loved The Fall and it seems that this is every bit as true today as it was in the days when we never had to wait any more than a few months for a missive of some sort, be it an album, a single, a Peel session or even just an entertaining interview.

Given that The Beatles – the most lauded rock/pop act of all time - have finally reached a generation to whom their blithe optimism means absolutely nothing, it is impossible to say how anything in music will be regarded 20 years from now. But for now, at least, The Fall endure. Their vibrations remain intense and powerful. And we, the people, dance to the waves.

Nine out of ten? Nah. Ten out of ten. Top marks.

#mark e smith #the fall #long live the fall

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cyberkevvideo · 5 years

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Throne of Night Theory Builds Part 16: The Mist Creature

Imagine my surprise when I learned the Canadian dollar dropped considerably. I’m so glad this AP was done when it was and not now. I don’t know I could have handled paying 1.5x the value we were originally quoted. That said, with so much “free time”, I can’t help but daydream that Gary’s working on the AP to kill time. During this time trying time, it’d be a nice pick-me-up.

Today’s entry isn’t a new picture, but it’s definitely cool to look at. A creature made of mist awaits our heroes and is about to ambush them. It took me a fair while to look up all the different kinds of fog and mist-like creatures in Pathfinder 1st Edition. I finally settled on today’s base creature because of the very descriptive eyes both in the picture, and in the lore write up that I discovered. They seemed to match, so that’s what I went with.

For the CR, I looked up sample encounters in the beginning of Book 5 of “Way of the Wicked”, and one of them was a CR 15. Given how difficult the creature would be to advance and make a worthwhile threat, that’s what I went with.

For space reasons, I’ll be cropping the encounter build.

All images shared here were done by the forever fantastic and amazingly talented Michael D. Clarke, aka SpiralMagus

EDIT: All stats are cleaned up and look pretty.

BTW, it suggested I make one because there are those who’ve expressed they want to reward my efforts, so I made a Ko-Fi page. No pressure in supporting it though. I know we’re all experiencing financially trying times right now. I hope everyone’s staying safe right now.

The creature I went with, due to his piercing blue glowing eyes, is the fogwarden. It’s from way back during AD&D days, and was converted by Frog God Games for their Tome of Horrors Complete. I took a few liberties and combined the 3.5, Pathfinder, and 5e versions. Yeah, all three are different from one another. This is what the “unique” aspect of it is. But this way, it’s an actual threat at CR 15. Also, I made it a psychic. While the fogwarden can still use its lightning abilities, it can’t cast any spells in its constant gaseous form. However, it can use psychic spells since you only need emotions.

For this, I advanced the HD to 8 from 4, gave it the Mighty Template, and the Mist creature template. Redundant, I know, but those extra abilities and hp from changing it to an outsider definitely round out the creature more. Despite all the overlap, it still ended up being a CR 15. It’s technically a CR 16, given the templates and HD, but it just does not have the AC nor deal the damage a typical CR 16 should, so I dropped it down to 15. If used to its fullest potential, and it can bottleneck PCs with the fog abilities, then it might actually be worth more XP, but on paper it’s only worth this amount. GMs are free to reward their players more if the encounter ends up being far more difficult than anticipated. At this level though, the PCs shouldn’t find 4th level psychic spells or obscuring fog spells that overwhelming.

I will point out that this is a 3PP monster, so it doesn’t really follow the rules too well. All monsters are supposed to have three odds stats and three even. This creature had two odd and four even. It’s not even in the original 3.5 stats. In fact, the Wisdom is 2 lower. The 5e stats are exactly the same as a the 3.5 ones, so that didn’t help me any. I needed one more odd number so I threw in a magic tome for good measure. This gave me the numbers I needed.

If you’re wondering where I got some of the damage numbers from, I was looking at the original fogwarden stats from AD&D, and what they suggested for their 8 HD advancement. Best part is even stronger ones are large size and have a less globe of invulnerability. On top of that, they’re a mystic theurge of CL 17/CL 13th (arcane/divine). It’s too bad old stats didn’t have ability scores.

VLINAUNDRA (CR 15; 51,200 XP) Unique advanced mighty mist fogwarden psychic 8 NE Medium outsider (air, elemental, water) Init +11; Senses cloud sight, darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +29 Aura fear (60 ft., W-DC 25) DEFENSE AC 26, touch 26, flat-footed 14 (+4 deflection, +6 Dex, +6 dodge) hp 256 (16 HD; 8d10+8d6+184) Fort +12; Ref +15; Will +20 Defensive Abilities air mastery, electricity discharge (R-DC 25, 6d6+5 electricity), fortification (100%), morphic form; DR 10/magic, DR 2/—; Immune cloud/fog/gas-based attacks and spells, cold, combat maneuvers, electricity, inhaled poisons and gases, mind-affecting effects, paralysis, poison, sleep; Resist fire 10; SR 27 Weakness vulnerability to sunlight OFFENSE Speed fly 70 ft. (good) Special Attacks animate dead, dark half (+1 spell DC, +2 Will, 2 bleed; 11 rounds), lightning bolt (60 ft. line, DC 27, 7d6+5 electricity, useable every other round), mighty damage. phrenic amplifications (focused force, intense focus, overpowering mind), phrenic pool (10) Melee shocking touch +26 (5d6+5 electricity) Spell-like Abilities (CL 8th, concentration +17) At will—animate dead 3/day—fog cloud, obscuring mist, stinking cloud (F-DC 24) 1/day—cloudkill (F-DC 26), solid fog Psychic Spell-like Abilities (CL 8th; concentration +18) 1/day—detect thoughts (W-DC 22) Psychic Spells Known (CL 8th; concentration +18) 4th (4/day)—black tentaclesB (CMB +18), shout (F/R-DC 25) 3rd (6/day)—excruciating deformationB (F-DC 24), id insinuation II (W-DC 24), slow (W-DC 24) 2nd (7/day)—alter selfB, fox’s cunning, mind thrust II (W-DC 23), sonic scream (R-DC 23) 1st (8/day)—comprehend languages, ill omen, magic missile, murderous command (W-DC 22), ray of enfeeblementB (F-DC 22), shield 0 (at will)—dancing lights, detect magic, ghost sound (W-DC 21), know direction, mage hand, resistance, telekinetic projectile, virtue Psychic Discipline abomination STATISTICS Str 10, Dex 22, Con 12, Int 20, Wis 16, Cha 18 Base Atk +10; CMB —; CMD — Feats Ability Focus (lightning bolt), AlertnessB, Dodge, Expanded Phrenic Pool, Great Fortitude, Greater Spell Penetration, Spell Penetration, Weapon Finesse Skills Acrobatics +22, Bluff +20, Fly +26, Intimidate +20, Knowledge (arcana) +20, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +21, Knowledge (geography) +17, Knowledge (local) +19, Knowledge (nature) +19, Knowledge (planes) +18, Linguistics +21, Perception +29, Sense Motive +27, Spellcraft +23, Survival +19, Stealth +22 (+26 to move silently, +37 in areas of fog, cloud, mist, or smoke); Racial Modifiers +4 Fly, +4 to Stealth to move silently, +15 to Stealth in areas of fog, cloud, mist, or smoke; +5 to all ability and skill checks Languages Aquan, Auran, Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Terran, Undercommon SQ air breather, detect thoughts, gaseous form (constant) Gear tome of clear thought +1 (read) SPECIAL ABILITIES Air Mastery (Ex) Any airborne creature takes a –1 penalty on attack and damage rolls against a mist creature. Animate Dead (Su) The electrical aura of the fogwarden can animate dead creatures within 20 feet. This is otherwise identical to an animate dead (caster level 8th). The animated creatures resemble zombies (and use their stats) and are under the control of the fogwarden that animated them. They are not undead however, and cannot be turned or rebuked. If the fogwarden is slain or moves more than 20 feet from a zombie, the animated creature collapses dead and cannot be animated again. Cloud Sight (Ex) A mist creature can see through clouds, gases, fogs, mists, and smoke as though they didn’t inhibit vision. Creatures and objects do not gain concealment from a mist creature due to such conditions. A mist creature may use this ability while gaseous. Electricity Discharge (Su) Electricity constantly plays across a fogwarden’s form. Any metal object (including metal weapons) that contacts a fogwarden’s body takes 6d6 points of electricity damage. Magic items receive a DC 25 Reflex saving throw to reduce the damage by half. Nonmagical items and objects receive no save and automatically take full damage. A creature holding the object or weapon at the time of contact takes 6d6 points of electricity damage as well (DC 25 Reflex save for half). Gaseous Form (Ex) The fogwarden’s natural form is that of fog or mist. This ability is similar to the gaseous form spell (caster level 8th), except that a fogwarden does not lose its supernatural abilities or its lightning bolt ability, and has a fly speed of 40 feet. It is immune to and cannot perform combat maneuvers. Mighty Damage (Ex) A mighty creature adds +5 damage to all of their attacks, spells, and supernatural abilities. If a spell or ability targets multiple creatures (ie. magic missile), the bonus damage is only applied once to a single target of the mighty creature’s choice. Vulnerability to Sunlight (Ex) Fogwardens shun sunlight. A fogwarden exposed to sunlight is staggered for as long as it remains in the sunlight, and is destroyed utterly after 1 hour of exposure if it cannot escape.

--name means “mist” in dwarven.

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aadhiskanmani · 5 years

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I am back with Part 2 as promised earlier also because it was bugging me that i have left it incomplete the other day. The formatting is going to remain exactly the same way.. am just saving myself some extra text clutter , time and typing/copy paste this time round LOL.

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS COMPLETELY MY OPINION ABOUT THE FOLLOWING FEATURES. I feel the need to say this again because last time too i got a message but x,y,z film has x,y,z issues . I've said it before and i will say it again It is all a mixed Bag, Mixed Genres, Mixed reasons to suggest them right from the quality to acting to cinematography to story to critical acclaim to some just for PURE ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. I makes these lists because I feel these features deserve love and appreciation and because some made me feel Proud and some just for pure entertainment factor . Sidenote.. all titles are actual links where you can watch the features with subs and most of these are On prime video or netflix as well

K.G.F: Chapter 1 |Kannada| *Yash | alt Link A young man's promise to his dying mother leads him on a dangerous quest for power and wealth. If I may say so this One pretty much did the same thing in terms of opening doors to kannada film industry like Baahubali did to tollywood. This one followed the formula and dubbed it in multiple languages and gave it a wide release worldwide which raised eyeballs and got me curious too esp caz this one has a similar plot with the rise of a hero and the hunger for power just set in a completely different world and era. Now the Strength here is the screenplay and the non-linear pattern which keeps you engaged, with the growth of Rocky being shown steadily. The film is set between 1951 to 2018 and maintains a sense of curiosity as each character is unveiled. Yash is Phenomenal in it as rocky. I said it back then when i watched it and i will say it again He exuded the same kind of charisma say like a 70′s 80′s hero e.g Mr Bachchan from his blockbuster hits where he Played similar roles or salman khan in his typical masala characters basically Larger than life even if he has this arc of being a nobody to Rocky Bhai to Rocky the messiah. One word of Caution... This one gets a lil confusing in Kannada and with subs as there are too many characters and each one has his/her own agenda. i was confused at many parts but then i watched the hindi dubbed version and it made a world of difference. this one is fairly well dubbed too just like baahubali and what i mean is the voices didn’t sound robotic. Also i personally felt they went a little too far with the dukhi junta in prison in 2nd half and the violence as in it got very tedious but thank God that got over soon with the rise of this hero but it is worth watching and rest of it is really good, esp the last 15 mins WOWWWWW I cannot wait for part 2. Also my only sandalwood entry.

p.s all dubbed versions are available on prime including Hindi but i have linked the kannada originals

Fidaa | tel |*Varun Tej, Sai Pallavi (on Prime as well) Two young people embark on a winding and rocky path to love after meeting at a wedding. First of all supercute romantic, comedy/ family drama but what is refreshing about it is that it is Mainly from the Heroine’s POV and we have a VERY STRONG heroine who has her opinions, her say ,her own thought process and who is just so real. On the surface it looks like just another tollywood rom com but it’s Not. the music is really Good too and Sai Pallavi is A bundle of joy as Bhanu who calls the shots mostly here. Needless to say it is one of my Feel good films when i want to see something that makes me smile and gives me that comfort vibe i go to this one mostly.

Tumbbad|hin|*soham shah . A man and his son encounter a legendary demon while searching for hidden treasure in 19th-century India.

This one will come as a surprise to many as it is a hindi title but This one a rare gem that is Underrated af and i haven’t seen a finer hindi film in the last year because of how rich it’s content is and how thought provoking it is. The makers have invested years in getting to final result and it shows. this one gave me goosebumps, sacred me, left me mesmerized and make me go WHAT too. This is also on this list because you may not have heard about it at all just like myself who had no idea and jumped into it out of supreme boredom and was left in complete awwwwww and then did my reading and research. This one is a well thought out psychological horror film with strong visuals and metaphors and makes you question as it plays with your mind. Tumbbad is a perfect example of a film that creates a surreal illusion.

Imaikkaa Nodigal| Tam| Nayanthara,Atharvaa, Anurag kashyap: alt link A suave CBI officer (Nayanthara), is in search of a serial killer who kidnaps and kills the children of important people. The killer, however, is targeting his nemesis next. a revenge thriller with a strong Plot unpredictable and amazing twists.Each character has an important role and Nayan As a Bad ass cop who freaking sets the bar too high for female officers in desi films. THis one is one of the finest Thrillers in recent years which actually gives you thrills and Shocks and most of them one can’t guess. Let me be honest i gave upon this seeing anurag kasyap as the antagonist as i was unable to bear rudra and just his Ottness on top of that atharvaa’s lovestory as the parallel track mad me go ehhh as i initially clicked on it for nayan and there was so little of her in the beginning but then i gave it another try and couldn’t stop & was WOWEDDD by the Film and Nayan as anjali and yeah she is the MAIN CHARACTER so we get a lot of her later. She is at her FINEST as anjali. this is the film one wants to watch to get a high of sorts. WATCH IT FOR NAYAAAN FOR A STRONG FEMALE ACTOR/CHARACTER Taking the center stage and BEING FANTASTIC. This one is so just so entertaining in so many ways and the film one can watch on any given day despite knowing the plot twist. Beware Nayan and Vijay’s little arc is heartbreaking and i cried a lot tooooooooo... i was shattered at that part..... it is so hauntingly shot too. TW: Graphic violence In that scene

Mahanati|Tel|* Dulquer Salmaan, keerthy suresh, samantha, vijay D |alt link Biopic based on The life story of South Indian actress Savitri, who took the film industry by storm in the late '50s and '60s Mahanati is a film about the rise of the first female south Indian superstar – Savitri. Her story one of the most heart wrenching romantic tragedies of our times.This film tells a story of the Mahanati; her life, her journey to fame, and the dramatic downfall. Keerthy Suresh, elegantly brought Savitri to life, and Gemini Ganesan, played by Dulquer Salman, makes this film a true pleasure to watch. I had no idea who Savitri was i went into it because DQ and Again was BLOWN AWAY by How well made this film is and how it is made with so much sensitivity and rawness. it keeps the real journey part intact as in doesn’t sugarcoats or overly glamorizes things to show Savitri as some mahaan hasti. They make this film the Grand celebration of her life with all her struggles and tragedies and makes you connect with her in a very real manner and All this Makes this film so much more than a film. this one becomes that Larger than life Grand,SHE IS A HERO More because she truly is rather than OH because she had this sob story IYKWIM like hindi Biopics do. They have made savitri Grand By her resilience by her courage by her will power and invested in the character and plot rather than all taam jhaam. This one is By far the best Biopic i’ve seen from desi industries and Not One and i mean it NOT one Hindi biopic even comes close to this one in terms of presentation. Keerthy suresh is a joy to watch as savitri. i am not gonna lie i broke down at few points and that is because of her acting and laughed too i connected so strongly to an actress’s story (who i had no idea about as in savitri i had 0 knowledge about savitri or in general about south industries retro eras ) only because of keerthy’s presentation.Also dulquer is a Joy as gemini ganeshan. he really slipped into it with ease and lived upto the part. they have achieved finesse in showcasing a life story and recreating old songs from black & white era. If nothing else on this list watch this and imaikaa nodigal and you won’t regret it

Rangasthalam |tel| *Ramcharan, Samantha : Chitti Babu, a hearing impaired boat skipper, becomes caught in the middle of a political feud in the village of Rangasthalam. Watch this one for Ram charan’s performance He is a delight to watch as chitti babua and this easily is his Best WORK till date this character have so much to play with and He ACES IT . The strong and intriguing story line is also a Plus . The film is not just set in the 80s; it also picks a story template from that era and narrates the tale in a refreshingly raw manner but the characters are so well fleshed out they don’t look caricatures by any means. the songs are grand and super fun to watch too.

Maari 2 |tam|* dhanush, sai pallavi : Maari, a gangster with a heart of gold, tangles with a new nemesis who is determined to bring about his downfall. First things first this one is mileas ahead of the previous version in everything. A much stronger film in every way. Otherwise it is a pure masala entertainer with all the masala elements and dhanush and sai make a BOMB pair and their lil story is ahh sooo full of feelz.

Sudani from Nigeria |Mal|* soubin shahir: When a soccer club manager brings one of his injured foreign players home to recuperate, they form an unlikely bond despite their cultural differences.. A refreshing sports drama that touches your heart. explores the cultural differences so beautifully. the characters stay with you much longer after the film is over. The film effortlessly explores iissues in the neighborhood and much bigger political issues too. overall SImply an underrated film and one should watch it for it’s warmth and sincerity.

Koode|Mal|*prithviraj,nazriya nazim, paravthy A family tragedy causes a young man to reflect on his childhood and reassess his future.Anjali Menon and that brilliant cast should eb your reason to watch. i don’t think i need to say another word to convince you but still anyway. it takes you on and emotional roller coaster ride. it is a flawless film with an extraordinary cast. also Naz is as charming as ever in her comeback film. there are very few films who actually jump into exploring the bond between a brother and sister and this one aces it with reflecting upon various issues and things they had to go throughasa family as well as their individual struggles. AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING. Also Paro and prithvi yeah. .. simply OUTSTANDING film

Varathan |mal|* fahadh faasil,Aishwariya lekshmi: After losing his job, Abin and his wife, Priya, move from Dubai to Priya's family estate in Kerala, but peace eludes the couple. It takes it’s time in the first half but in second it comes all guns blazing and turns into a worth watching survival thriller. it does makes one uneasy at times with the contsant stalker guys lurking around but it is all worth the wait at the end. trust me..

Chekka Chivantha Vaanam |tam| *vijay sethupathi,arinswami,jyothika,simbu; An attempt is made on the life of a reigning don, and it sets in motion a succession battle between his three sons. In other words Godfather with Mani ratnam twists A delicious film to devour it si an out and out maniratnam film with massy fan moments and smart filmmaking techniques. watch it for performances esp. i wish jyo had more to do but she is good at what she does in her supporting role. . this one is a true blue multi starrer ,family drama.

Merku Thodarchi Malai |tam| Antony, Gayatri Krishnan, Abu Valayamkulam : it revolves around the life and times of a group of people living along the foothills of the Western Ghats. basically we travel along with Rangu ( teh pratagonist) who is a daily wage worker and his struggles in bringing that load upto the city and his one dream to own a piece of land someday. this oen is almost like a documentary. this makes you thank and count your blessings. feel every bit of pain and effort and struggle that these daily wage workers have to go through in their daily lives. i broke down at so many points and i just wanted to do something to help makes lives a bit easier. IDK it hit me so hard at places and made me thankful for all the things i have.

Mayanaadhi |Mal|*tovino thomas,aishwariya lekshmi : A mule driver in a gang and an aspiring actress try to navigate their way through an unexpected romance. Mayaanadhi is a beautiful tale of love. The emotions it conveys needs to be experienced and the movie gives us a taste of life. Aashiq Abu really knocked it out of the park once again with this one. this one. It is a simple enough tale with a plot that is real to life and familiar.It is perhaps the most Soulful Romantic film i’ve seen in last year or so.

Takeoff|Mal|*parvathy,fahadh : A young Muslim woman (Parvathy) struggles to find love and happiness in midst of the ongoing civil war in Iraq. It an ode to the Indian spirit. This is a riveting survival saga, made by a team gifted with acute political and social awareness. It is, in one word, stunning. Paro Simply have slayed. A bit like airlift as in the basic setting and premise is similar but poles apart. it is one hell of a film( in a good way) PARO,PARO,PARO. this is all i have to say to explain the brilliance of it.

and with that this comes to an end.. again please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions with me i would love to see you guys actually taking the use of this list and sharing your thoughts. Bye and Have a Wonderful Summer binge watching these hehe. i hope you love them as much as i do. looking forward to your thoughts

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missimofficial · 7 years

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TS4 Galaxy Legacy Challenge

Hello everyone, as promised, I present to you the new challenge I created. It’s based on ten of the galaxies within the universe with plenty of opportunity to mould it to something you will enjoy. I particularly like the tenth generation. I hope you enjoy it! I also have a PDF version of the rules. The hashtag is #galaxylegacychallenge Please tag me @missim-you-official-cc-finds or @missim-you-official so I can see.

PDF Download

The Idea

We all live in this beautiful world and it’s the same for the Sims, too. But what is beyond that beautiful night sky? Beyond the alien planet that many have claimed to have visited? Do you have a fascination with space and time? Inspired by the zodiac? This is the perfect challenge then!

The galaxies around the one within which we live are vast and glorious, but I haven’t got much knowledge about them. This is as much to learn about space as it is to have insanely fun Sims challenges. There will be ten heirs in total. There are numerous galaxies beyond those mentioned in this challenge, so you can expand your challenge if you wish.

CAS

Use the colours of the galaxies to set a colour scheme for each heir in CAS or use it more as a metaphorical approach for their traits, romantic interests or décor within their homes. It’s up to your own interpretation of how you see the galaxies.

Rules

For the sake of this challenge, I will be creating my own colour schemes, trait lists and ideal career paths, but you can edit them to your own hearts’ content.

Start your game with only a starter budget for your Sims.

No money cheats are allowed.

You may use MC Command Centre.

You can use custom content.

Spouses can be anyone, within reason or otherwise noted.

Play on a normal lifespan.

Elements like traits, colour schemes, ideal careers etc. are only a guide. You may edit them if you wish.

Name your characters whatever you wish.

Works best if your characters remain either alien or human rather than vampires. Optional.

If you undertake the challenge I would love to see it. Share your gameplay on tumblr under #galaxylegacychallenge so I can check it out. I will include my gameplay at @missim-you-official.

Inspired By

This challenge is one that has been stuck in my head for a while, but I never really got around to it because of study getting in the way. These are just some fun challenges I like that helped inspire me to work on my own challenge.

Star Signs Legacy (Zodiac) by Lifesimmerfan22.

Not So Berry Legacy by Lilsimsie.

Planet Legacy by Oxkenstead, Grnitefalls & Simbee.

Generations:

Generation One: Milky Way

Interesting Facts

We live here.

It contains more than 200 billion stars and capable of billions more.

It is a barred spiral type of galaxy.

It is 13.6 billion years old.

There is at least one supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A (which contains mass equivalent to 4.3 million suns) in the galactic centre, at a distance of 26,000 light years from Earth.

It grows by merging other galaxies, currently the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal and material from the Magellanic Clouds.

The diameter is 100,000 ly.

The distance is 0 ly (because we’re here).

Colours

Blue.

Violet.

White.

Silver.

Description

You grew up nurturing plants and learning how to garden with your grandmother, so you have a very familial-oriented perspective in life. You were a clingy toddler and now that you’ve grown up, you have a strong commitment to a work-life balance. You always wanted children and would love to have a set of twins someday. You’ve worked hard, and you can finally afford that starter home you’ve dreamed of.

Traits

Family oriented.

Ambitious.

Clumsy.

Aspiration

Super parent.

Career

Doctor.

Additional

Master parenting, cooking, handiness and gardening skills.

Have a successful marriage. (This doesn’t mean you have to stay with the first person you meet, either. Have 8 failed marriages before you meet “the one” if you want).

Develop a great relationship with your loved ones.

Master the doctor career.

Generation Two: LMC (Large Magellanic Cloud)

Interesting Facts

It is known as the Satellite Galaxy.

When the clouds of gas collapse and create new stars, they light up the gasses and result in beautiful displays of vibrant colour.

The diameter is 14,000 ly.

The distance is 158,000 ly.

It is the third-closest galaxy to the Milky Way.

Colours

Orange.

Purple.

Pink.

Description

Your mother/father/other taught you everything you know, and you grew up nurtured in the best way that your parents could. Now people are simply drawn to you, your fun-loving nature and love for all. You don’t want the same 9-5 work that your parents had, so you aspire to follow your creative nature. Your passion can be misconstrued as arrogance; however, people want to be around you regardless.

Traits

Self-assured.

Dance machine.

Flirty.

Aspiration

Soulmate.

Career

Painter/Entertainer. Optional.

Additional

Master painting, singing & musical instrument skills.

Find “the one” later in life.

Run a karaoke club.

Collect all the MySims trophies.

Complete the painter or entertainer careers.

Generation Three: Andromeda

Interesting Facts

The diameter is 220,000 ly.

The distance is 2,500,000 ly.

Andromeda and Milky Way will eventually clash in 5 billion years.

It is a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way.

Contains a bulge of matter in the middle with a disk of gas, dust and stars with an immense halo.

It contains approximately a trillion stars as opposed to the half a billion in the Milky Way, though contains less dark matter, which makes it less massive.

Colours

Orange.

Red.

Gold.

Description

Taking after your parents, you grow up being a natural magnet for people around you, but you don’t like the level of commitment that comes with it. You’re a free spirit with a love for space and science, and you live a minimalist lifestyle, only having things you need. You’re close with your grandparents and collect elements to study at your home laboratory.

Traits

Flirty.

Non-committal.

Genius.

Aspiration

Serial Romantic.

Career

Scientist.

Additional

Complete the crystals, metals and elements collections.

Discover the alien planet Sixam.

Complete the scientist career path.

Complete the serial romantic aspiration.

Have a child with your second partner.

Generation Four: M82

Interesting Facts

It is 37,000 ly in diameter.

It is 11,500,000 ly in distance.

Also known as the Cigar Galaxy.

It is forming stars 10 times faster than normal galaxies.

It was originally believed to be an irregular galaxy but is a spiral galaxy side-on.

Eventually the gasses will no longer be plentiful and in tens of millions of years into the future, it will dwindle to a halt.

There is a mystery body of material within the centre that goes unknown as to what it actually is to this day.

Colours

Orange.

Aqua.

Red.

Magenta.

Description

You’re the life of the party, creative and bright. You love decorating in bright colours and dying your hair to whatever, depending on how you feel. Tattoos are a huge part of your life, with a fun experience or important meaning to you behind each one. You enjoy visiting festivals and live a life jumping from house to house, town to town.

Traits

Creative.

Active.

Self-assured.

Aspiration

Party animal.

Career

Painter.

Additional

Master painting and athletic skills.

Own a successful art store.

Decorate your child’s room with your artworks.

Complete the party animal aspiration.

Move house at least four times.

Generation Five: M101

Interesting Facts

It is 170,000 ly in diameter.

It is 20,870,000 ly in distance.

It is otherwise known as the Pinwheel Galaxy.

You can find it in the constellation Ursa Major in the Northern Hemisphere.

It is 70% larger than the Milky Way.

The light you see of it through a telescope has travelled for 21 million years, longer than human kind has existed.

There are at least 1 trillion stars within it.

Its total mass equates to 100 billion solar masses.

Colours

Cream.

White.

Silver.

Tan.

Description

You were born into a household of bright colours and patterns that your parents loved. Your consistent moving from town to town meant it was difficult to find friends, and you enjoy solitude above all else. You find it difficult to form romantic relationships especially, and now that you’ve moved out of home you want to settle into a stable home, career and be rid of the noisy colour palette. You still enjoy some pops of colour and love computer games.

Traits

Unflirty.

Loner.

Geek.

Aspiration

Computer whiz.

Career

Tech guru.

Additional

Master video gaming, programming, logic and handiness skills.

Adopt two pets.

Master tech guru career.

Reach best friend status with one other non-related sim (do not count pets).

Generation Six: M104

Interesting Facts

It is otherwise known as the Sombrero Galaxy.

It has a white, bulbous core surrounded by thick dust lanes.

It is considered to have a black hole at the centre of the galaxy.

It has 10x more than the number of globular clusters than the Milky Way.

It is 50,000 ly in diameter.

It is 29,350,000 ly in distance.

Colours

White.

Black.

Navy.

Silver.

Tan.

Description

Like your parents, you enjoy muted colours and can’t quite shake the gloomy feeling around you from the solitude of your childhood. However, you enjoy the more expensive things in life and this leads you down a bumpy path. You think that parenthood is overrated and would rather hire people to do those menial tasks for you.

Traits

Gloomy.

Kleptomaniac.

Materialistic.

Aspiration

Fabulously Wealthy.

Career

Business/Criminal Optional.

Additional

Master the business or criminal career paths.

Master the fabulously wealthy aspiration.

If in the business career path, master logic and charisma skills.

If in the criminal career path, master mischief, programming and handiness skills.

Hire a nanny and/or butler full time when you reach a high enough income.

Generation Seven: M51

Interesting Facts

It is otherwise known as the Whirlpool Galaxy.

It is 60,000 ly in diameter.

It is 30,000,000 ly in distance.

It contains infrared light, hydrogen and a number of young and old stars.

Colours

Red.

Gold.

Blue.

Description

You were never very close with your parents but never lacked the finer things in life. You’re fascinated by smaller spaces and always wanted to live in a tiny house or apartment surrounded by books. You want to become a famous author and enjoy going to book club with your friends. Your childhood involved spending long hours with your imaginary friends, and now you want to share your stories with the world. Your nanny used to read you to sleep as a child, and you look forward to the day that you get signed by a major publishing house. You also enjoy writing to your friends and decorating your walls with photographs and postcards.

Traits

Creative.

Ambitious.

Perfectionist.

Aspiration

Bestselling author.

Career

Writer.

Additional

Master charisma, photography, wellness and writing skills.

Complete the postcard collection.

Complete the bestselling author aspiration.

Complete the writer career.

Move into a tiny house or apartment.

Generation Eight: NGC 1300

Interesting Facts

It is known as a barred spiral galaxy, where the arms do no spiral all the way into the centre but connect to two ends of a straight bar that contains a nucleus within the centre.

It is 110,000 ly in diameter.

It is 61,000,000 ly in distance.

Colours

Crimson.

Blue.

Silver.

Description

You were very close with your parents growing up and adopted the importance of caring for your wellbeing from them at a very young age. Like them, you have a raging imagination that they nurtured as you grew. They encouraged you to try many pursuits, your favourite being music. You want to embark on a journey as a musician, and you’re encouraged by the voices in your head. You often frequent karaoke nights and want to have an at-home music studio.

Traits

Creative.

Dance machine.

Insane.

Aspiration

Musical genius.

Career

Entertainer.

Additional

Master the wellness, singing, guitar, piano and DJ skills.

Master the musical genius aspiration.

Master the entertainer career.

Build an at-home music studio as you progress.

Start a karaoke club.

Marry a musician.

Generation Nine: Tadpole Galaxy

Interesting Facts

It is a disrupted barred spiral galaxy.

It is located within the constellation Draco.

It was disrupted by another galaxy 100 million years ago which created the tadpole-like shape.

The stars in Arp 188 are at least a million times bright and 10x hotter than our sun.

It is 280,000 ly in diameter including the tail.

It is 420,000,000 ly in distance.

Colours

Orange.

Gold.

Brown.

Description

You were close with both your parents and your grandparents as you grew up and you took inspiration from their dedication to their wellness. As a result, you dappled in gardening and creating beautiful spaces, but you have a quick to emotion response in life that often results in you being worked up. You combat part of this through caring for animals which led to the perfect career for you as a vet.

Traits

Hot-headed.

Cat-lover.

Dog-lover.

Aspiration

Freelance botanist.

Career

Vet.

Additional

Master the vet, pet training, gardening and wellness skills.

Care for your parents until they pass away.

Have 3 pets (doesn’t have to be all at once).

Run a successful vet clinic.

Collect all fish & frog types.

Have a garden.

Generation Ten: Hoag’s Object

Interesting Facts

It is a ring galaxy named after Arthur Hoag.

It is located within the constellation Serpens Caput.

It is unique and was mistaken for matter from dying, old stars.

It is 100,000 ly in diameter.

It is 600,000,000 ly in distance.

Colours

Blue.

Gold.

Description

You couldn’t imagine caring for others like how your parents do. You’re completely self-absorbed and you don’t care. You enjoy the meaner things in life and thrive off the considerable wealth you were handed from your deceased ancestors simply for existing. You’re a city slicker, with emphasis on the slick.

However, an issue with the botched paperwork from your deceased great-great-great-great grandparents in collaboration with the Landgrabs has come into the limelight and stripped you of all your wealth. Now it is your time to either make or break your way in life.

Traits

Snob.

Materialistic.

Mean.

Aspiration

Mansion baron.

Career

Any.

Additional

Lose all your wealth.

Start from homelessness.

Move to the city once you earn enough.

Aim to live in the most expensive apartment.

Master at least 4 skills and a career path.

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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15 Best Martial Arts Video Games to Play After You Watch Shang-Chi

https://ift.tt/38Sh4ly

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings isn’t just one of the MCU’s best origin stories and the movie that has everyone readjusting their box office expectations. It’s also an incredible fantasy-driven martial arts adventure that will likely leave you craving more.

While there’s no shortage of movies and shows that offer such fixes, there’s always been something amazing about pairing a hit new movie with a game that lets you live out your favorite on-screen moments as closely as possible. Granted, there has been a sad shortage of truly exceptional martial arts video games over the years, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a few true classics and a few more hidden gems out there that you absolutely need to play.

Here are 15 of the best martial arts video games to play when you’re looking for a way to come down from that Shang-Chi high.

15. Max Payne (Kung Fu Mod)

Max Payne’s Kung Fu mod isn’t exactly the most refined martial arts gaming experience, but if you prefer a mix of martial arts and gunplay in your elaborate action sequences, then you have to check out this legendary fan creation.

Yes, this mod adds extensive melee combat options to the already brilliant Max Payne experience, but the surprising highlight of this impressive mod may just be the array of athletic bullet dodge animations it adds to your defensive arsenal. It’s basically the best Matrix game ever made.

14. Dead or Alive 6

Like most of the fighting games we’ll be talking about throughout this list, I can’t really sit here and tell you that the Dead or Alive series offers the most authentic martial arts experience in the world. Actually, part of the reason it’s so easy to recommend this series is that it sometimes trades realism and complexity for bone-breaking, hard-hitting, over-the-top action sequences.

This one is for martial arts movie fans who love to buy into the idea that their favorite film fighters can send opponents flying across the room with every hit. It’s a tremendous experience for those who want to live out their most absurd martial arts dreams.

13. Overgrowth

Overgrowth is a bizarre and uneven game that honestly might be a little too dependant on its community-created content. However, the fact remains that there are very few fantasy martial arts games that offer anything close to what this one does.

This is a classic “mystical kung-fu adventure” that just so happens to star a cast of rabbits. The style is going to be a turn-off for some, but it’s hard to deny that this game’s heart is in the right place and that it gets some of its biggest ideas right.

12. God Hand

It’s almost as hard to find a way to play God Hand in 2021 as it is to beat this incredibly difficult game, but if you’re looking for some of the best martial arts combat in video game history, then it’s very much worth seeking this gem out.

God Hand is as bizarre as video games get, but this action title’s wonderfully complex and ultimately enjoyable martial arts combat system is more than enough to make you work through its rough edges and “WTF?” moments. It’s a true gem that deserves a proper remake.

11. 9 Monkeys of Shaolin

In a better world, more people would have played 9 Monkeys of Shaolin: an incredible old-school, martial arts beat-em-up with modern mechanics and RPG elements. Of course, now is always the best time to play this underrated action title if you’ve never done so.

This isn’t the deepest game in the world, but its brilliant blend of martial arts style and arcade beat-em-up action will leave you wondering why more developers haven’t tried something like this before.

10. Shaolin Vs Wutang

Shaolin vs Wutang is described as a “love letter to Martial Arts and classic Kung Fu films,” and I honestly can’t think of a better way to sell someone on the things this game does so well.

While not a hardcore fighting game by any means, Shaolin Vs Wutang is arguably one of the best ways to live out your golden age kung-fu movie dreams. This whole thing is just a warm blanket of genre goodness.

9. Redeemer

What Redeemer lacks in pure martial arts combat it more than makes up for by virtue of being one of the most entertaining and wild top-down action games in recent years.

This story of a monk with a dark past who is out for revenge is highlighted by wonderfully absurd action sequences that keep you on your toes without forgetting that the whole point of such experiences is to have as much fun as legally possible. If you are a fan of this genre at all, you really should go out of your way to play this one.

8. Tekken 7

I’m not ready to commit to the assertion that Tekken is the best martial arts fighting game series, but what I will say is that Tekken has historically done a tremendous job of emphasizing its various martial arts styles and translating them into a consistently compelling fighting game experience.

Tekken 7’s complex mechanics are a favorite among top-tier fighting game players, but the game’s core combat is enjoyable enough to help ensure that even inexperienced players will be able to enjoy much of what makes this series so special. Of course, you could also go back and play the always brilliant Tekken 3.

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7. Kung Fu Strike – The Warrior’s Rise

Imagine a kung-fu version of a Devil May Cry-style action game, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what makes Kung Fu Strike – The Warrior’s Rise such a compelling action experience.

While I can’t fairly rank this indie gem among the very best games in that particular genre, I have to say that this title scratches a very specific itch that more than makes up for its general jankiness and sometimes absurd difficulty.

6. Absolver

Absolver’s incredibly complicated combat system is both a blessing and a curse. You’re either going to fall in love with the process of learning it or you’re going to be turned off by its sometimes awkward, and almost always unforgiving, core mechanics.

If you do happen to fall in love with Absolver’s fighting system, though, then you’ll likely find that it’s incredibly difficult to go back to other martial arts fighting mechanics. If nothing else, this is an incredible experiment that will hopefully be used as the basis for something even better down the line.

5. One Finger Death Punch

Before you let One Finger Death Punch’s simple visuals and sometimes corny (maybe even occasionally offensive) presentation completely turn you off, consider that this rhythm-based action game is designed to reward its best players with some of the most insane “choreographed” martial arts fights that you’ll ever see.

It’s incredibly easy to lose yourself in this title’s unique action gameplay, but don’t forget to look up from the action bar once in a while to appreciate the results of your (hopefully) perfect input commands.

4. Yakuza 0

Any day is a good day to recommend Yakuza 0, but it would certainly be a sin to talk about gaming’s best martial arts experiences and not recommend arguably one of the best games of its generation.

Give yourself time to get used to Yakuza 0’s pseudo-open-world environments, strange story, and bizarre blend of gameplay styles, and you’ll be rewarded with one of the richest crime epics in video game history that also happens to feature some of the most satisfying martial arts-based combat you’ll ever learn to love.

3. Jade Empire

I’ve called Jade Empire BioWare’s last great experiment, which is both a testament to its creativity and an acknowledgment of the fact that it’s not exactly the studio’s most polished RPG. However, it has to be said that this game’s blend of epic role-playing and mythical martial arts action remains as appealing and unique as it’s ever been.

It’s a real shame that BioWare will probably never get a chance to get this idea right, but Jade Empire remains a more than worthwhile experience, especially if you play it after coming off that Shang-Chi high.

2. The Shenmue Trilogy

Yes, it’s a bit of a cheat to include three games in one entry, but you have to acknowledge that the Shenmue trilogy is arguably the most impressive overall accomplishment in the history of martial arts video games.

Play Shenmue 2 if you only have time for one game in this trilogy, but a little patience with this series’ sometimes glacial pacing and rough production elements will ultimately result in the privilege of getting to experience an adventure that can ultimately attribute its divisiveness to its commitment to being different.

1. Sleeping Dogs

On the one hand, it’s always felt at least a little insulting to describe Sleeping Dogs as “a martial arts fuelled GTA-style open-world game” and call it a day. On the other hand, Sleeping Dogs is somehow even better than that already promising description makes it sound.

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Sleeping Dogs is quite simply one of the most enjoyable open-world games of the last 10 years as well as one of gaming’s best uses of martial arts action. This title’s most loyal fans will tell you that it’s even better than the GTA series, which might be a little bit of a stretch but should give you some idea of just how much fun this game really is.

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groundbreaking-science · 7 years

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1-10 - Breaking Down the Power Level

From the start of my patchy teaching career, beginning as a brother then a parent, my general ethos towards explaining the world has been to never patronise. I have developed some semblance of self-awareness over the years and so may at times simplify or reign in tangents - not everyone needs to know the minutiae to gain a broad understanding of a topic. My aim though is to never shy away from trying to provide a full answer to a question posed, no matter the age or background of the poser. An earnest and enthusiastic question deserves a considered answer with all the nuance one’s expertise can provide in the situation. I trust those listening to instead communicate where clarification would be helpful, or sift through what they need in the moment and chew over the rest later.

In contrast, there’s a trend in wider media to cling to ‘consumers’ of scientific content by ratcheting up the the sensational, the over-simplified, the drama that may or may not be manufactured for entertainment. Narratives within popular science help guide and contain the message within (no one wants to be subjected to a list of facts, even regarding ki) but often the science is so watered down the only substance of the piece is the fluff. Those with a genuine palate for science (or history, or literature, or…) are left underwhelmed on repeated readings and sometimes even mistrusting of the expertise involved.

It is for those reasons I decided to include this section as a hat tip to the insatiably curious, though for those among you with little appetite for a smattering of mathematics, I first bring you a tangential, and completely true, offering in the form of a fish.

I have spoken frequently of a model for ki. By that I mean a story that explains the effects of ki we see using fundamental quantities. The story links cause and effect in the form of equations, transforming the qualitative to the quantitative.

The model presented here is not perfect. All models are an approximation to the truth and there are many simplifications (particularly in this version and I will highlight where), but broadly the model performs well and the limitations of the model are well defined. I trust you to take away what is most useful to you now, and I hope this treatment gives potential undergraduates a taster for some of the more theoretical aspects of a course on ki-use I hope will materialise in the near-future.

When in battle one question sits on the tip of everyone’s tongue: “What is the enemy’s power level?” This is proxy phrase to ask many questions at once. What is the opponent’s potential? How many people will be required to tackle them? How much strength should I use straight out of the gate? What is the risk to the local environment, the nearby populace, the planet? The highest power level will not always win a fight. Power level differences of an order of magnitude, even sometimes two, can be overcome with teamwork and sound strategy. Getting an early indication of the opponent’s location and power can give your team vital time to plan and distribute yourselves effectively.

As we discussed in a previous section, the idea of a power-level measuring device - the scouter - was first introduced to us by Freeza’s personal army and deconstructed by Bulma.

The original scouters performed perfectly well in the situation they were designed for, searching for clusters of life-forms with power levels of 0-2 (encompassing the vast majority of people in the Universe) to allow the possessors to commit mass murder extremely efficiently. The scouters were able to stretch beyond this range, reaching higher power levels of 5.3; any higher and the harmonic oscillator arrays constructed to respond to the vibrations in the ki field (with technology developed along a similar branch to Dr Gero’s) would break. Specifically: the atomic ‘pendulums’ of varied masses contained within ion traps would be kicked out of the holding magnetic fields and flung away into the rest of the structure, shorting the electronics and usually exploding the device. The designers believed the likelihood of any of Freeza’s forces encountering someone that strong so low they didn’t deem it necessary to prioritise the scouter-wearer’s safety. Clearly Freeza’s true strength, peaking above a power level of eight at that time, was hidden from the vast majority of his forces.

The fully artificial scouters were not flexible enough to cope with everything life could throw at it. Life itself on the other hand has an amazing capacity to give as good as it gets. I can sense everything from tiny fogs of ki in less-than-clean water to the brightest kis in the Universe standing almost blindingly close, and I can do it all without shorting my own circuitry. Whilst the mechanical scouters have a range of 0 to 5.3, the newer versions developed on Earth can cope with -1 to 14, (or 0.1 to 100,000,000,000,000 unlogged). That is tested. Hypothetically they should remain accurate up to a power level of 17 but we never want to be in situation where we’re reading that. Our method’s downside is the loss of precision compared to the original scouter, which was able to differentiate just as well between power levels of 1 and 2 and 10,000 and 10,001. Our scouters do maintain a 0.1% precision however, which is usually sufficient. Anyone wanting finer precision to monitor and argue their progress needs another hobby.

Capsule Corp employees have for the most part stayed away from playing with the biophysics of life, knowing the trouble and potential backfire meddling can cause through the work of Dr Gero. What little research and development that has been done in this field has been led by Bulma and Mai through all above-board personal funding. The new scouters are a result of this off-piste research and utilise a genetic modification of bioluminescent bacteria found in a tropical fish.

The fish in question - the blue-finned angelfish - exclusively inhabits the coral reefs around one of the many South Sea archipelagos. They’re crepuscular feeders, making use of the changing light levels at dawn and dusk that other fish and invertebrates struggle to cope with. When hunting for prey like small fish and krill they spread into what can appear to be a dangerously loose shoal. What makes this strategy effective is the beautiful symbiotic relationship the fish has with a bacteria within the fish’s transparent skin along the fins and tail. The bacteria glows neon yellow using bioluminescence near low power levels (-2 to -1.5) and flickers in a predictable pattern with the ki signature, the wave of flickering allowing for the triangulation of distance. When the glow starts, the fish play a game of hot and cold until close enough to pinpoint their prey through smell. The now brighter glow brings the rest of the shoal to feed into the early night.

Why then are are these fish known as the blue-finned and not yellow-finned angelfish? Well, they are named as yellow locally, though zoologists from the mainland way-back-when never much listened to local expertise, routinely removing chosen specimens from their natural environment to study in the comfort of the lab. As the scientists approached the fish in the tank back home their fins glowed a bright blue and the fish reacted poorly, racing to escape. It transpires the bacteria can luminesce over two colours, yellow for prey and blue for predators - the latter covering intensities of 0.3-2. This range catches the bigger fish and reef sharks that home in on the yellow glow of a feeding shoal. When a wave of blue creeps across the shoal in the near-dark, the fish know to hide. It just so happens this range encompasses the scientists’ own power levels, too. To the scientists with clipboards then, these were only ever blue-finned glowing fish.

The locals know of the fish’s defence intimately and is a source of great amusement. There’s a shallow, natural harbour in one of the smaller islands that, very rarely, a large shoal of angelfish will chase prey into. The harbour is sealed and all the boats dragged onto the shore. A call is then sent to the other islands for an impromptu night-long festival - a spontaneous get-together and chance to catch-up. Traditionally, the arrival of the fish had been seen as a mixed omen, that bad luck is ongoing or shortly arriving. Assembling a group to challenge the fish twice-touched by a creator god (once for each colour) however will guide the selection of the warrior or leader to pull the islands through a time of strife.

The challenge is as follows. Representatives from each attending island volunteer to take on the fish. Their true reasons for participating are varied: trained warriors, children nearing adulthood, people looking to impress an onlooker they’re sweet on, older fishermen showing off their talent, the local clown putting on a show. Each representative is then painted over the course of the afternoon by friends and family with a glowing set of pigments (not made from the fish fins, I hasten to add). Some designs are beautifully intricate; most are messy, child-sized handprints. Everyone then waits for twilight with great anticipation.

The participants take their turn to wade in and try to catch a fish in the harbour with only a net - the great difficulty being of course that the fish will glow blue and alert the shoal to avoid the intruder. This leaves an ever-moving empty ring of water around the participant to flounder in, struggling to cast the net and maybe just reaching the shoal edge. The larger their genki, the wider that ring and the greater the challenge. The winner is decided by elected older folk, and is usually a combination of how fast a fish was caught and how much paint was left on the challenger’s body. About half of participants catch and release a fish, nearly everyone trips, and the spectators have a great time.

Nowadays the omens and winners are not taken seriously beyond passing on fantastical stories, spooking the children or for gaining bragging rights. Usually.

The year before the 28th World Martial Arts Tournament, a shoal made their way into the harbour. The residents of one of many islands answered the call, the group including the young Papayaman and his family. Their island hadn’t been doing so well in recent years; the Moon’s twice vanishing and reappearing act dampened the tides for a time and their delicate yellow mangrove trees took a hit. The entire food chain around the islands and reef was disrupted and the trees would take decades to recover. As the slow-growing tree bark is prized for its tannin, the island’s economy took a brutal hit, too. The residents, previously relatively comfortable, had eaten into their savings and were near the brink. Going to the festival was supposed to be a rare fun day out. As the eldest sibling at nine years old, the boy who would become Papayaman had already resolved to compete in the hope he would be worthy enough to help his family.

The evening went smoothly until the boy took the long walk down towards the water. As he hit the shoreline the fish retreated, that blue ring growing to taunt him, he believed. When in the water the scale of the challenge stretched before him. There was no way he would be able to throw the net that far out, let alone hold onto it to drag a fish back. He became more and more frustrated as his time and paint dwindled and his anger, something he rarely felt, rose… then burst. For a moment the entire bay was full of blue stars, lighting up the dusk. Then the fish bolted, some even jumping onto the shore in a frantic escape attempt, causing pandemonium amongst the younger children.

The boy did not catch a fish himself in the end. But there was no doubt about his potential throughout the archipelago, and he was brought into warrior training as soon as he returned home. He was then selected to attend the tournament on nearby Papaya Island to earn money for his village. Although he didn’t win, due to his efforts and subsequent training the island eventually did recover.

A number of years later the shoal returned and the now young man eventually found a way to catch that fish, finally marking (from his own perspective at least) his graduation from training with my father. And as they say, the rest is history.

My first encounter with the fish was a little more begrudging. I had just “moved” to East City for a postdoctoral position into a cosy office with two others funded on the same grant. We got on well and I was hoping for a relatively relaxing couple of years. That was thrown out the window within the first month when the zebrafish aficionados in the labs two floors below decided to branch out, nabbing a number of blue-finned angelfish to get to grips with the bioluminescence. They’d hypothesised the glowing bacteria were responding to the fish’s excitement and stress levels (apologies for not correcting you sooner) and were planning on running behavioural studies.

Those fish hated me. Even at that distance, my natural aura was just the right strength to set them off. No one could figured out why the fish were constantly stressed during lab hours, until of course the news reached our office and I put two and two together. My chronically guilty self had the most fun five months suppressing my genki at work until the lab moved from data collection to analysis and the fish returned home. Still, I’m grateful I got to peruse the results from the bacterial DNA sequencing. I relayed the gist to Bulma and she was able to isolate, then modify, the particular colour and ki range the bacteria glowed at. I’ve contacted the old lab members for co-authorship on this new work. I hope they’re not too mad.

The new scouters use these modified bacteria to read power levels and ki signatures. Stacked into mini vials filled with agar, the bacteria respond to ki much like cone cells in the eye respond to light wavelengths. The spectrum of light emitted by the bacteria indicate the intensity of ki hitting the scouter, and the specific pulsing is monitored and decomposed to identify ki signatures - much like instruments can be isolated from a song. With at least two detector packs and accelerometers to track the movement of the wearer, ki signatures can be triangulated and located. A simple pair of glasses (less conspicuous than the original scouters) can be used display results - one lens for a simple overlay or both for a full 3D effect. The isolation isn’t fantastic at a distance as the baseline separation between the detectors isn’t that great, but in relatively close quarters they work perfectly. Better yet are the systems Mai built into the jet flier and jeep windshield that give a heads-up display of the scene for both the driver and passenger. Due to “popular” demand there is a smartphone app, though sadly the hardware is not included.

All in all we’re pretty well-equipped to quantify overall power level. The measure was rendered completely useless by Earth’s martial artists, however. As soon as Freeza’s army found we could suppress our ki and therefore their scouters were unable to accurately predict any form of maximal potential, the tech was discarded. With the new scouters, getting beyond that one measure to find all the components - genki boosts, yuuki, shouki, the base power, flow suppressions, effort - is entirely possible and we can fully model a person’s ki-use and potential. The equations for the model (omitting the calculus) are as follows.

The overall power P (without being logged) can be defined as the total energy E_T divided by the time interval t, or

We know the total energy can be expressed as

Or, as the sum of energy derived from the field (E_F) and what is remaining of genki energy E_G,rem. This can be substituted into the first equation to form

Genki energy E_G is divided into two parts: the genki that is amplified (E_G,amp) and the remaining genki (E_G,rem), so the above is expanded to

From section 1-9 we know E_G,amp can be expressed with the fraction of genki chosen to be converted from genki to field, f_GF. Substituting for E_G,rem we get

Recall also from that section E_F is a function of E_G,amp, the converted fraction fGF and the efficiency of amplification from genki to field, a_GF,

Substituting through we get

And then simplified down:

Let’s take stock here. We’ve been able to break down the power level into a number of base stats - the amplification, the fraction converted and genki energy. As a sanity check here, if the amplification of genki (a_GF) is less than 1 this will lead to that central bracket becoming negative and the entire combined power level less than if it were from genki alone. This correctly mimics the disappointing early stages of learning to amplify genki, where you get less out than you put in. You will need to persevere!

We can further break down the genki energy into the flow rate of particles from the centre Q and the average charge per particle, q.

We use the average charge rather than an exact value due to the slight variation genki charge can possess, the variation of which is mirrored in the colour spectrum of the aura. In extreme cases (like the kaioken with a double peak in section 1-8) the two averages can be noted and incorporated in a full treatment. The assumption of only one smooth peak and therefore one mean is usually made.

From section 1-8 we also know that the flow Q is the flux Phi_p multiplied by the surface area A. This is simplified. The flux measured can be directionally dependent if the ki-user is focusing down an attack for example. For the most part though, the aura is isotropic (the same in all directions). In reality the calculation should be a closed integral over the centre surface, modelled as a sphere.This then all ties together as

and substituting in

The power level is not a static value. The surface area A can change with transformation or suppression, as can the average charge q. Both of these quantities are defined with dynamic variables. Remember from section 1-9 that yuuki (y, courage) can affect these manipulations of surface area and charge,

And

where A is the surface area at rest, q the average charge at rest, and f refers to the resultant fractional change the ki-user is affecting. e is the effort assigned to perform these changes. Theta refers to all the parameters needed to define the function translating effort and yuuki into that fractional change. From section 1-8 we know most ki-users step up in genki using those harmonically defined troughs of required effort and sit at one level rather than hovering in tricky spots. Yuuki modifies these curves by raising them, meaning the ki-user requires more effort to reach the same desired fractional change. Some levels even become ‘locked out’ entirely. These functions take the same wavey and upwards shape for everyone, though the actual width, height and ramp up of effort required will change between ki-users. Whilst these functions are complicated, a good approximation can be made with a relatively small number of parameters. Explicitly defining those functions is beyond the scope of this book, but suffice to say the parameters for those functions can be thought of as base stats, too.

Similar to yuuki, shouki (s,strength of will) feeds into the efficiency of conversion between genki and field energy in a similar fashion -

Where a_GF,0 is ones go-to conversion rate. Whereas yuuki affected the ki-users ability to change from natural outputs, in this case we do not perform any amplification naturally (though we have a habitual value) so shouki affects the ki-user’s ability to amplify genki at all - if shouki is 0, no amount of assigned effort will amplify genki.

There is an additional constraint on these values. One of course only has a limited amount of effort to give. Some must go into general thought and movement, so we can surmise

Knowing some manipulations of flow, charge and amplification would be downright impossible, this one inequality can help constrain the rest of the parameters considerably.

In full then, one rearranged form of the equation for a ki-user’s power level (omitting some nuances for legibility) is

Putting this all together, we have a number of default ‘base stats’ - A_0, q_0, a_GF,0 and Phi_p (along with the effort to flow rate, effort to genki charge and effort to amplification functions defined with θs) and the dynamic stats y, s, e_A, e_(A_GF) and e_q. From these there are a number of derived stats like f_GF, f_q, f_(a_GF), Q, q and the most useful split of power level, E_G and E_F .

Given some loose assumptions and probabilities assigned to each of these variables - so-called priors that were discussed in section 1-3 - one can monitor a changing power level and narrow down these assumptions using increasing evidence as time passes to give parameter estimates.

What kind of priors? We know some states of particle flow and genki charge are difficult to reach due to the harmonics inherent in the process, and so ki-users are going to avoid particular power levels due to the increase in effort required to hold them. We can assume ki-users will default to a habitual level of genki amplification. Flow rate will never increase above base without particular techniques like transformation. Charge never drops below the default level unless the flow rate is unnaturally high or the ki-user is exhausted. All of these assumptions can be programmed into the model as prior assumptions.

One must be careful with priors to never attribute zero probability to a possibility otherwise that one-in-a-million chance will never appear in the probable results in the updating model. I could assume that no one with a Earthling appearance could have a power-level above 2, for example. If I turn these assumption on my Uncle Krillin the model will give the best answer it can, maybe trying to say that he has a very efficient genki to field conversion rate to compensate for the lack of flexibility in the model. Instead, by allowing some very small, highly unlikely chance for an Earthling to have such a high natural power level, the updated prior will be pulled to this region with every new data point, showing the unlikely to be more and more possible.

When encountering odd enemies one may ‘widen the priors’ to encompass highly unlikely scenarios like godly-powered Earthlings. ‘Flattening the priors’ means allowing all possible scenarios. Whilst that sounds like the best idea, flattening leads to a large number of possible solutions when you know some combination of base stats are more likely to occur than others. Choosing priors for any kind of succession analysis is an art form in itself.

There can be a lot of information and possibilities to process when building up a picture of a ki-user, but with a careful set of tasks to perform in a calm environment, someone’s base stats at least can be obtained and updated on a semi-regular basis. This narrows down the parameter space before entering battle considerably, reducing the uncertainty when finding the dynamic variables. Some tasks include running up and down ki output from fully suppressed to maximum, or how quickly one can amplify a set amount of genki. For new enemies the scouter has to work overtime, but with every second of new information our intel improves considerably. Even if all the enemies’ parameters haven’t been constrained, the more varied their attacks and strategy the faster we can build up a picture to start answering key questions such as whether the enemy is holding back their strength.

For our team, Mai is able to feed us updates about each other’s status, allowing us to adjust the plan should someone be running low and too proud to admit it, or the enemy be surprisingly resilient. For all the rudimentary single word or single image telepathy usually thrown around the field,hearing an articulate voice in your ear confirming that you’re tired or Auntie Bulma yelling to calm down should the panic be setting in can be very disconcerting. I refer to ‘us’; I’m never very careful with the tiny earpiece and I blow it within minutes. As much as the data intrigues me I’m far too used to running from my own observations. I’m not the only one to have been on the sharp end of a scolding, the earpieces are notoriously difficult to keep intact. Pan has the longest survival time of forty-five minutes and even that’s contested as for the first half an hour she was deliberately suppressing as a feint.

The scouters are useful in the moment and for review, but their most interesting day-to-day function is how the software can track improvement. This of course leads to competition. Endless competition. From conversations I’ve overheard, the moment one of the kids feels they’ve improved the scouters are out. There are often disputes because someone is 'using the scouter wrong’ and Mai is dragged in to adjudicate or fix what turns out to be perfectly functional hardware… Bulma put her foot down very quickly on getting drawn into these arguments. Even the old guard cannot contain their curiosity and will play with them at parties for old times’ sake.

Realistically though, the live-feed technology is more a gimmick for us. We know each other well enough and are sadly so experienced that our gut reactions, whilst not quantifiable, are usually correct. In actuality, the technology as a whole continues to be developed for future use. It would be well-suited for personal status trackers across a large group to be fed back to a control hub, or to help tailor training for new ki-users to maximise their efforts.

“New ki-users”. For those who haven’t flicked to later chapters that phrase must be torture to read right now. I understand. This section now closes the ‘brief’ chapter on the theoretical framework behind ki and we will now move onto the practical elements. You can breathe. Speaking of, if you have been working on those centring exercises I’d hope you’d have found your centre by now, have fantastic posture and felt the first hints of the natural flow of genki with your breath. This is preparation that will, in the coming chapter, pay dividends.

Ah. During this chapter I did promise you a particular story. I hadn’t forgotten, nor have I left it deliberately late to tease. I wanted to put myself, friends and family in a wider context before tackling it lest there is any misunderstanding after. I also wanted to put the story front and centre in the textbook chapter I believe will be the most read because of the tale’s significance - not just to world history or tangentially to ki but to me.

The story’s about the Cell Games, and how I came to be that little boy on the hill.

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exalted--zealotry · 7 years

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Have you thought about doing a verse where Anri's alive in Awakening? Like he survived with amnesia or something, or stayed away once he realised Ylisse was better off without him?

( ooc. FYI, everybody, don’t expect answers like these to be common at all– it’s just a topic I thought to be interesting. It’s very long, I feel, and there’s going to be some spoilers for Awakening, Shadow Dragon/Mystery of the Emblem, Echoes and the Jugdral duology, with major spoilers for Jugdral, so it’s going under the cut; if you’re not interested, or haven’t played either Awakening or the Jugdral games yet and want to play those games as blind as possible, feel free to skip this post! You have been warned.

Oh, and this is also an experiment to see whether or not I’m making a fool of myself by trying to add in HTML to certain places where it may not work– )

In all honesty, anon? No, I hadn’t; not until I saw this in the inbox, and I did a little bit of pondering. It wasn’t too much, and not for too long, but I’ve come to the conclusion that it would be better off for Anri to be dead prior to and during the events of Awakening, unless it was an AU that heavily altered the timeline to the point where the events of Awakening never took place to begin with; while it would be easier RP-wise to have such a verse, I think that would betray some of Awakening’s themes. It’s been a while since I last played Awakening, so I may be somewhat rusty when it comes to the plot, but I have two main points for this:

1. In Awakening, Chrom’s father was stated to be a warmonger, which is why he’s remembered poorly by pretty much the entirety of the game’s cast who remembers him. In a Skype conversation with a few friends of mine– names won’t be named, but they’ll know who they are, with one person in particular hopefully helping me out if I missed something or got something wrong– it’s mentioned how eerily similar some of the actions Chrom makes after the game’s timeskip are to actions Anri would take, with the most notable I feel to be Chrom’s utter lack of hesitance to Robin’s plan to burn the ships during chapter 14 of the Valm arc; after all, they are Plegian ships. Even before chapter 14, this is present– either in the cutscene before before chapter 12 plays, or the cutscene after chapter 12, Chrom absolutely refuses to go to Plegia for assistance; he only goes to them for help when he realises that there’s simply no other option in the fight against Walhart. And do I really need to mention Chapter 9? I won’t for the sake of not spoiling those who haven’t played Awakening yet– which is probably like 7 people or something– but I will mention that in Chapter 10, Chrom is absolutely unwilling to surrender to Mustafa, who was essentially Awakening’s Camus archetype and deserved so much more screen-time. Chrom makes it absolutely clear early on that he aspires to be like Emmeryn, but the way he acts throughout pretty much the entire game goes against that goal, and from what I remember, it’s not until near the end of the game where one of the Khans– either Flavia or Basilio, but I think it was Basilio– calls him out on it. With these details in mind, I think it would be better if Anri stayed dead during the events of Awakening– the man is remembered as a hated warmonger by his own children, Chrom specifically, IIRC; if Chrom were to find an amnesiac Anri, or an Anri who became a hermit, then I feel it’d be a detriment to Chrom’s character, as he’d be able to confront the man himself and air his feelings and grievances– but he can’t. Chrom would never get those answers; based on the Art of Awakening artbook, Chrom is 6 years younger than Emmeryn, and 4 years older than Lissa, as revealed by an illustration with an age 14 Emmeryn, age 8 Chrom, and age 4 Lissa. It’s stated in-game that Emmeryn was crowned Exalt at the age of 9, close to 10 IIRC, making Chrom only about 3-4 years old when Anri died, and making it highly likely that Lissa was born after her father’s death, so Chrom and Lissa would’ve grown up hearing so much hatred and vitriol said about their father– it’s likely that’s how they’ve known him their entire lives.

2. IIRC, it’s never exactly stated why Chrom’s father went to war with Plegia in the first place, although I imagine the most likely belief among the community is that the Exalt was made aware of the Avatar’s birth and the implications of that, so he rode to war to stop that; for this point, I’m going to go a lot more subjective and headcanon-y, which is why I’ll refer to Chrom’s father as Anri from this point on– this goes slightly into detail about the Grimleal breeding programme, but if you want more depth about that, I recommend reading the post(s) written by my close friend Jessica, over at @i-nsubordination; this is also where the spoilers for Marth’s games, Echoes/Gaiden and the Jugdral duology come in, so if you want to stay unspoiled for those games, please stop here. Given that I imagine Anri to be a deeply religious individual, who’s incredibly devout to Naga, I believe that his war on Plegia was, more than anything else, crusade, if you will– a holy war, if you catch my meaning; specifically, the part of Plegian religion revolving around Grima– I’m, of course, referring to the Grimleal. For those who have played or know the synopsis behind Genealogy of the Holy War’s story– referred to as just ‘Genealogy’ or ‘Jugdral’ from here on, even though the latter would like infer both Genealogy and Thracia 776– then you should be aware of the Grimleal’s method of producing an Avatar for Grima through a breeding programme is very similar to the Loptr Sect/Loptyrian Cult’s method of creating a vessel for Loptyr– even though the Grimleal almost certainly would’ve done theirs entirely internally, as Arvis worked with Archbishop Manfroy to make his ideals a reality; Manfroy blackmailed Arvis with his knowledge of Arvis’s minor Loptyr blood, most likely to ensure Arvis’s co-operation. Then Deirdre’s kidnapping and mind-wiping by Manfroy happens in/during Chapter 3 of Genealogy, where she’s left in close proximity of Velthomer castle… where she’s found by Arvis. This is not a coincidence.

“So what?”, you may ask. “What does the story of Genealogy have to do with Anri?” Well, for my interpretation Anri, such stories– alongside the rest of the story behind Genealogy, the tale of Marth’s granduncle, the original Anri– and Anri’s namesake– alongside the tales of Marth himself, and the first Exalt– were all stories he was raised upon, and stories he obsessed over growing up, as these all involve his bloodline; from Tiki and Robin’s B support in Awakening, it’s stated that Chrom is less like Marth and more like ancestor who lived a millennia before Marth; due to the lack of confirmation that the Elibe and Tellius games exist in the same timeline as Jugdral, Archanea/Valentia and Ylisse/Valm, it’s highly likely that this ancestor mentioned by Tiki is none other than Sigurd. This support also confirms that Marth is a distant ancestor of Chrom, dating back two millennia before the events of Awakening– then again, Falchion and the blue probably should’ve done that already, alongside the fact that the Halidom is located roughly around where the various different incarnations of Archanea were, alongside Pyrathi and Caeda’s home, Talys– ironically, Anri and Marth’s homeland, Altea, became part of Plegia instead. The Exalted bloodline also means that, of course, Anri would grow up hearing the stories of the First Exalt, from the previous millennium– just to make that crystal clear, Marth is not the First Exalt. How do we know that the First Exalt lived a millennium before Anri and the events of Awakening? Simple: Grima, and the length of time Grima has slumbered before awakening– that is, before he woke up, hence the lack of capitalisation. Gaiden and Echoes are stated to take place a year after the events of Shadow Dragon; the canonicity of Echoes’s Act 6 is questionable at best among some, since Echoes would seemingly have you believe in the cutscene after finished Duma that the Valentian Falchion remained lodged inside Duma’s skull. However, if the entirety of Act 6 is canon, then that means Alm, Celica and co. managed to ( seemingly ) slay Grima at the bottom of Thabes Labyrinth, likely using Falchion in the process. The stats of the Falchion obtained in Act 5 of Echoes matches the FE1 and FE3 versions of it’s Archanean counterpart in terms of might, while forging it gives it stats equal to the Archanean Falchion from Shadow Dragon DS ( the actual Falchion, not Nagi’s Falchion ) and New Mystery– 12 Might, 100 hit and 0 crit; of course, the Falchion used to seal Grima away by the First Exalt was once the Archanean Falchion, not the Valentian Falchion, but this could imply that both Falchions could get the job done, as both Duma and Mila are sealed in the Valentian Falchion, making it likely that the Valentian Falchion could also seal Grima away. However, in order to reach Grima, the Sage’s Shield must be removed to open a door; it is almost guaranteed that, a thousand years after Alm, Celica and co. leave the Thabes Labyrinth, Grima awakens to wreak havoc across the world, until put to slumber once more by the First Exalt, a thousand years before the events of Awakening.

What’s the point of Anri waging war against Plegia, you may ask? Simple: Anri wages a holy war– a crusade– against Plegia, much like Sigurd and Seliph, in order to combat the still-slumbering Fell Dragon– this time, with the intention of slaying it for good; a way to not only live up to the legacy of his ancestors, but perhaps even surpass them, and ensure his place in history– Anri wanted to be remembered as a hero– but, even more than that, Anri simply wanted to fulfill what he believed to be the will of Naga; he went to war with Plegia because he believed that wiping out the Grimleal was the right course of action– Anri simply would not have an epiphany, and lead a hermit’s lifestyle. But he failed to stop Grima’s return, and he died, which allowed for the events of Awakening to take place. It is for this reason, and I feel for the better of Chrom’s character, that Anri is one of the most important characters in Awakening not seen in the game, alongside Robin’s mother. And it’s why I don’t plan on making a verse where he’s alive during the events of Awakening.

If you’ve stuck with me this far, thank you so much for reading! I have one last thing to say– nothing concrete, but still something interesting; in The Sacred Stones, during Eirika and Saleh’s B-Support, Saleh mentions an important figure in the history of Caer Pelyn– Nada Kuya, the warrior princess. Saleh states, “I’ve been told she was a strong woman, beautiful and proud. She spoke with the voice of nature, and she lived at one with the earth,”; “well, in ancient times, Caer Pelyn was invaded by a foreign nation,”; “ and leading the charge against the invaders was Nada Kuya. She carried a narrow sword made from a fang gifted to her by the dragonkin. With her dragon blade in her hand, she drove Caer Pelyn’s enemies away.” A princess who fought back against an invading force wielding a sword made from the fang of a dragon… If that doesn’t sound like Marth, I don’t know what does. While this doesn’t confirm that they’re related, or that Magvel is also a part of the Jugdral, Archanea/Valentia and Ylisse/Valm timeline, it’s food for thought. )

#headcanons #( I believe I shall retire for the night... [ooc.] )#fe4 spoilers #echoes spoilers #fe13 #fe13 spoilers #Chrom's Father #( Wow this got long )

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appdesignworld-blog · 5 years

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Designing Effective Infographics

As the ways we Gather data and the react native development company tools we Utilize to Analyze it evolve, our world is growing incredibly data-rich. One of the most fascinating challenges designers face in an increasingly quantitative world is how to interpret data into a medium that is readily understood by a wide audience. Information graphics (better called infographics) are a potent storytelling tool which permits users to understand, analyze, and research data.

The differentiation between information visualizations and information images is subtle, but important. Infographics often contain data visualizations, but a data visualization by itself is not an infographic.

Charts, charts and maps are the most frequently used kinds of information visualization. In human--computer interaction, the field of information Unlike data visualization, which is normally static, an information visualization enables users to manipulate the visualization in order to get to various facets of the data.

Info and information visualizations can reveal patterns Which May have Been difficult to differentiate from amounts alone. But for certain kinds of audiences or in certain contexts, a visualization could be insufficient for communicating your message. In situations like this, information graphics can get your point across more clearly.

Definition: An infographic is a multimedia graphic aiming To present complex data and information in a way that is easy to comprehend. Infographics often include data or (more rarely) data visualizations, but must also provide context in the form of illustrations, facts, quotes, and captions. Thus, an infographic can stand alone on its own as a different piece of content (though it could

This illustration on the The graph in the lower left, on the other hand, is a data visualization and could have been used as such if it was shown alone, with no explanatory context provided by the remaining portion of the screenshot.

Design Guidelines for Information Graphics

Every item on an infographic -- out of charts to the vision that illustrates Them should communicate meaningful information. Edward Tufte created the notion of the information --ink ratio in his 1983 book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information to sum up the information density at a visualization. The ratio compares the valuable information (the data) to the complete picture (the total"ink"). Ideally, data visualizations possess a higher data--ink ratio: all or most of the visual components in the graphic convey meaningful information regarding the dataset.

Tufte advocates for a slick presentation of charts that directs Viewers into the information presented instead of to the designer's artistic additions. His strategy removes all decoration -- a graph with a perfect data--ink ratio not merely omits examples but also removes items such as background images, decorations of chart items, as well as gridlines.

license here. Elements of visual interest such as illustrations, photographs, and icons are both okay and even expected in the medium. Utilizing a visual motif may ground your bit in a metaphor which makes abstract concepts easy to understand. Elements that do not divert from the graphs and add meaning to the amounts can be helpful additions. They can also increase the shareability of their infographic and assist 3rd-party users to comprehend the message when they experience a reposted visual on, say, Twitter or Instagram without the further context offered by the original website. Is to present information clearly and truthfully. Scale your charts in a way that reveals the differences in the data and communicates the range of values accurately. Should you include outline data on your picture, clearly indicate the information source you used to calculate those figures. Statisticians and Data designers have debated the specifics of Scaling in charts for decades. One topic of special contention is the beginning point of this y-axis. Darrell Huff cautioned readers to take part of any graph that doesn't start the y-axis with 0 in his 1954 book How to Lie with Statistics. Some experts disagree; Edward Tufte asserts that this principle isn't necessary so long as the chart clearly shows that the scale has been truncated. Pick a scale to your charts that strikes a balance between demonstrating trends obviously and conveying the scale of the original dataset. The y-axis of a data visualization should show a baseline condition of this information set. In many cases, 0 is a natural starting point, however it isn't necessary to force a visualization to start at 0 when a second logical beginning point exists.

For example, it is a commonly accepted practice in the financial industry To truncate the y-axis of a stock chart. The chart does not have to begin at 0 so as to establish a meaningful baseline.

Google.com's stock chart The y-axis starts at the first cost point in the chosen time period, which is a logical starting point for your own graph.

However, truncating the y-axis would not be acceptable if The main user task were to compare different values on the chart. From the stock graph above, if consumers were considering the comparative values of the inventory for October 2017 vs. Jun 2018, then they may erroneously infer the stock price doubled dependent on the position of the data points on the chart.

Similarly, the chart below brings itself to misinterpretation because of The graph was published to demonstrate how Americans felt about a controversial court decision. It visually implies that there's a stark difference of opinion between Democrats and Republicans. In fact, the absolute numbers show that 62% of Democrats and 54 percent of Republicans agreed with the court's decision.

USAToday.com: The truncated y-axis inside this chart makes the difference in view among different party members seem more dramatic than the real outcomes of the poll suggest.

Minimalism and Infographic Design

Even Though the rules of style are quite relaxed in the world of Infographics, a minimalistic approach is helpful.

Choose fonts which are Readable instead of cosmetic . Selecting a font that scales well is crucial. The medium needs a variety of text sizes: titles, headings, quotes, data, and captions should be sized otherwise to set a clear hierarchy inside the picture. Script fonts and excessively intricate serif fonts should be avoided as they often distract from the numerous factors of visual information that the eye takes in when viewing an infographic.

Pick a restricted color palette. A few distinct colors are more visually inviting and focus attention better than many colors. Color can be an excellent means to quickly convey differences on a chart or to highlight various sections of a infographic, but also many colors are overwhelming.

Never be used as the sole visual differentiation. Colorblind and visually impaired users will struggle to comprehend infographics that communicate important points using colour alone. A minimum palette needs designers to be conscious of how they use color and exactly what other visual instruments they could use to express information. Upwork.com: This Infographic on attracting remote talent is designed with many fundamentals of minimalism in mind. It uses a small number of distinct colours, keeps illustrations easy, and utilizes highly readable fonts. (However, the case of a lamp next to a laptop adds very little value to the total infographic.)

Present simple examples . Choosing simple And clean illustrations allows the focus of the infographic to stay fixed on applicable data. These examples should support the overall message of this piece but do not necessarily need to directly interpret the information.

The graphical elements within this infographic are modern and minimalistic. The lines are clear and the images do not include some intricate textures. All follow the identical aesthetic conventions. Keeping up a very simple but consistent style for all graphical elements makes an infographic feel as a unified and visually pleasing whole.

Interactivity

Interactive infographics include information or data visualizations which Users can directly control. This kind of infographic offers narrative and context, while enabling users to control exactly what aspect of the data they view. Major news outlets often feature interactive infographics to permit their readers to explore the numbers behind the stories they release.

Bloomberg.com: The Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a multipage infographic that compares and profiles the world's wealthiest people. Elements of a conventional infographic such as illustrations and explanatory text are present, but users also have the option to interact with the information, filter some charts by time interval, and change the comparison variables on other visualizations.

Think about the requirements of this item You're creating before Adding interactive elements. What facets of the data will consumers be interested in? If you merely need to make a stage, then a static visualization supporting it may be enough. If you would like your customers to manipulate and receive a deep understanding of the different aspects of your dataset, an interactive infographic could be appropriate.

Sharing and Social Media

Infographics tend to be shared on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. These channels can be helpful in driving traffic to your content. However, graphics shared on interpersonal websites are often reposted without a URL to the original source. Consider adding a watermark or logo to some infographics which you create. This inclusion will help users who come across an unattributed version of your graphic to find the original piece.

Common Mistakes

Distracting visual components . The graphic Elements of an infographic must add interest and enhance the infographic's main point. Relying too heavily on a theme or even a visual pun takes viewers' focus away from your message you're trying to send.

This common mistake undermines A teenager's informational honesty, as we discussed before. When the scale of a graph does not correctly reflect differences between data points then it provides a wrong impression of the original information. Charts within an infographic which have been cropped, stretched or otherwise distorted provide a false impression of their available data.

Duplicate as an afterthought. top android appdevelopment company Infographics are a Primarily visual medium, but what viewers read remains important. Most infographics designers include text in at the end of the design process and use uncertain copy which detracts from the general picture. What's more, some infographics fail to optimize text to the format. Long, unstructured paragraphs make an overload of info. Concise writingis harder, but has significantly more impact.

Hard to discern.

A remark on Common Mistakes

Designing information visualizations and infographics isn't an exact science. The common mistakes discussed here are so ubiquitous in part because the subject is evolving so rapidly. Data visualizations are printed for centuries, but the current evolution of the web has allowed vast changes in the way we consume the material. Interactive infographics were slow and hard to use when they had been left in Flash ten years ago but highly responsive images are possible in modern browsers. Best practices will change with technological improvements and visual trends will shift, but the fundamental principles of available information design will stay the same.

Rather than absolute perfection. Iterate the graphics that you create in order to find out how to better present your content in a means that's easily recognized by your intended audience. Conclusion

Infographics are a Superb way to microsoft communicate complicated concepts in an Accessible and even entertaining manner. This hybrid medium combines data Visualizations with text and graphics to make the information easy to understand. Many recognized heuristics of user-interface design may be applied To data visualizations and infographics in order to create educational and Beautiful expressions of data.

#Mobile Application Development company Mobile app design company

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rajakorman · 7 years

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Ratings and Hegemony

This is the original English version of a piece that appeared in LIMES, the Italian Journal of Geopolitics in the March 2017 edition. The link to the original is here. They asked for something on the rule of the ratings agencies in their “who rules the world” issue.

http://www.limesonline.com/cartaceo/legemonia-gramsciana-delle-agenzie-di-rating?prv=true

Posting now because it seemed of some interest given my persistent complaints about how local currency ratings work, but also because it also contains some thoughts on the application of ratings to the Eurozone. Fully prepared for tl;dr.

The Gramscian Hegemony of the Ratings Agencies

Karthik Sankaran

Historians have long understood that the link between the fiscal capacity of the state and its ability to engage in and sustain its position in interstate competition is an essential element in the sinews of power. Beginning with the early modern period, fiscal capacity went beyond just the ability to raise taxes but to include ability to issue debt to investors with those investors displaying the confidence that these debts would be repaid – a confidence that in turn was reflected in both the availability and the price of debt.

Fiscal sinews have historically meant the ability to raise money at home. But in a world marked by immense cross-border capital flows, the ability to deny rivals access to global capital or alternately to funnel global capital to allies becomes another aspect of power. As global capital is predominantly owned and mediated by private individuals and institutions, such an ability can take the form of state suasion targeted at investors or at the gatekeepers that influence the disposition and direction of private capital flows. In our world, the rating agencies play a critical role in this regard, insofar as their assessment and calibration of the risks faced by lenders influences not just private investors but also the behavior of regulators who use ratings as an input in determining the safety and soundness of financial institutions. Ratings agencies thus have enormous power. The question is whether this power is exercised as an overt geopolitical instrument, or whether the geopolitical consequences of ratings power reflect rather a Gramscian concept of hegemony, wherein purportedly neutral judgements in fact reflect deeply rooted values, ideologies and beliefs. I would suggest that the latter interpretation is more correct for most discussions of the geopolitical power of ratings agencies.

One of the oddities of this world is the extent to which ratings agencies are concentrated in the Anglo-American world despite the fact that both the US and the UK are actually a large net borrower from the rest of the world. By various calculations the “Big Three” dominant ratings agencies, Moodys and S&P (both headquartered in the US) and Fitch ((jointly headquartered in the US and UK), account for more than 95% of all global ratings activity, with the first two accounting for roughly 80%.

This in turn is the result of several historical factors. The first is that the US and UK experienced the disintermediation of finance earlier than and to a greater degree than other countries did—i.e., rather than banks channeling funds to companies that they understood well, US and UK financial intermediation were focused to a greater degree on the issuance of corporate bonds to a broader investor base. This in turn put a greater premium on the need for information for investors less familiar with underlying business models than closely linked banks might have been, allowing for the rise of the ratings agencies.

The information infrastructure that grew out of these factors became even more important as the US rose to global prominence in the post 1945 world. By the early 1970s, US financial predominance was reflected not in the US status as a creditor to the world (unlike the model of the UK before 1915), but rather as a large debtor, whose preeminence stemmed from an elaborate quid-pro-quo whereby dollars generated by US trade deficits were readily accepted overseas in exchange for the US provision of a defense umbrella and the US provision of ready markets to absorb excess global capacity. This in turn made the dollar the dominant currency of international finance, a status that it still occupies today, with roughly 60% of all cross-border lending conducted in US dollars (This figure does not count cross-border lending within the same currency area as is the case within the Eurozone). contracted in dollars. Globalized dollar lending made US based ratings agencies a central part of the global system of gatekeepers for finance.

What is interesting that Europe was the first (and only) large economic area to try to extricate itself from its dollar linkage when the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971 led to excessive intra-European currency volatility. This in turn inaugurated a long series of arrangements to limit such volatility that culminated in the creation of the Euro. The deutsche Mark and eventually the Euro replaced the dollar has long replaced as the dominant invoice currency in the region. The Euro has also a moderately high degree of internationalization (albeit less than the dollar), with the Euro accounting for a bit more than 20 % of out of area international lending. Meanwhile, the sheer size of the banking sector means that European banks are dominant players in much of the world. As a region with large net savings, Europe is also a net provider of savings to the rest of the world via its private sector. Notwithstanding all of this, European (or more precisely Eurozone-based) ratings agencies have little influence in the world. The same is even more true of the other large suppliers of global savings –China and (until the Shale revolution in the US) the major oil exporters. It is a commonly pointed out as a flaw that the ratings agencies are compensated by issuers rather than by investors, which may in turn create conflicts of interest. There is also a less remarked meta-issue that the dominant suppliers of credit ratings are headquartered in the sinks for global savings rather than in their source.

Do these factors have geopolitical consequences? Undoubtedly yes, but in a less obvious way than might be believed. It is not too often the case that purely geopolitical calculations (or political pressure to consider the same) influence the extent to which agencies tailor their reviews. Like many modern professional cadres, ratings personnel adhere to a certain standard of technocratic autonomy that is governed by its own rules. They are largely recruited from the group of universities that the dominant institutions of globalized finance themselves patronize. This is an international fraternity (and sorority) largely schooled in orthodox economics (with the usual doctrinal schisms within that orthodoxy), and a set of substantially internalized beliefs on the interactions among institutions and economics.

There certainly are instances in which old-fashioned geopolitics plays a part. For example, sanctions meant that Iran was substantially excluded from ratings by the dominant agencies for several years (though there are reports it may seek to renew its ratings as attempts to access capital markets again following the conclusion of the nuclear deal). But even in the case of sanctions, market power matters. For example, the sheer size of Russian integration with global capital markets (with roughly 700 bio dollars owed to Western financial institutions) may have been one factor that meant sanctions after the invasion of Ukraine were calibrated in such a way as to fall well short of Iranian levels of exclusion from markets. Nevertheless, the experience did mean that Russia (like other countries) is trying to set up its own ratings agencies. It remains to be seen how much purchase some ratings will have with investors outside Russia where the advantages of incumbency will likely be very strong.

However, rather than considering ratings agencies through the prism of pure geopolitics, I would argue that it makes more sense to focus on the rules, ideologies, and beliefs that influence ratings, which then have geopolitical and geoeconomic consequences. It does some quite clear that there are issues of internal consistency across the ratings landscape that seem particularly problematic in the case of emerging markets ratings.

The basic metrics that inform creditworthiness include public sector debt to GDP ratios, the currency composition of debt, the extent of private indebtedness in the economy, particularly in the financial system (which in turn may swell sovereign contingent liabilities), and the extent of net overseas holdings of assets (which in turn may be drawn down by domestic citizens to fund their local government). The issue is that the interaction among these factors is somewhat opaque and not necessarily scaled. So some countries would seem to be unequivocally AAA credits, such as Norway with a debt/GDP ratio of 31% and a positive net international position of 170% of GDP. But so are Canada with a gov't debt/GDP ratio of 92% and an NIIP that is essentially 0% of GDP, and Australia with a government debt/GDP ratio of 40% and an NIIP of -60% of GDP. Conversely, emerging markets sovereigns with much lower debt/GDP ratios and higher NIIPs are rated much lower – for example China's gross general government debt is 42%, its NIIP is +15%, it has virtually no sovereign external debt owed to private creditors, and yet its rating is in the AA-/A+ area. While this might be justified by large increases in private sector indebtedness in the recent past, developed sovereigns with substantially higher government debt ratios, worse NIIPs, larger banking systems (implying a larger contingent liability problem), and possibly greater medium-term political uncertainty (such as the UK) are rated higher than China.

The overall impression is that a hegemonic ideal of high-income democratic neo-liberalism automatically qualifies a country for high creditworthiness despite numerical indicators to the country. The most clamorous example of this was the overrating of Iceland in the 2000s. A tiny country with an immense, internationally active and very risky banking system (whose assets were roughly 9 times GDP) not only achieved the highest rating from one of the agencies, but saw its banks also upgraded (on the assumption of sovereign support) despite the obvious fact that the sovereign was too far small to actually tender such support. Indeed as late as mid-2009, after a crisis had seen the failure of the entire Icelandic banking system and the imposition of capital controls, the country was still rated higher than Brazil by the same agency, though Brazil had largely weathered the2008-2009 crisis and still had ahead of it a few years of a tailwind from a commodity boom.

As stated before, I do not believe that this reflects geopolitical preferences or influences—that Iceland was a NATO member had to less to do with the decision than a more ideological disposition within international capital more broadly. This is the belief that capitalist democracies that respect neo-liberal tropes of “supply side efficiencies” are inherently likely to have better prospects for economic growth and political stability, which makes them better credit risks, even when the numerical indicators of creditworthiness point the other way. To reiterate, this suggests the operation of hegemony in a Gramscian sense as a set of highly influential beliefs (and rules flowing therefrom) that is both widely shared and rarely questioned, rather than in a more “political science” sense of an exercise of state power by a hegemon that seeks to push private entities in a favorable direction during the course of interstate competition.

Nevertheless, these factors can have political and geopolitical consequences. To return to the years before 2008, the major feature of that period was the sharp rise in so-called global imbalances, as current account deficits in both the US and in the Eurozone periphery exploded alongside large surpluses in the eurozone core, East Asia and among the oil exporters. Among the latter two, the task of accumulating and recycling these surpluses savings was undertaken more by the sovereign than by the private sector. The quest for high-quality assets that could absorb those savings led to the creation of synthetic securities grounded in the US real estate market whose putatively high credit ratings proved famously illusory. An important point here is that the effects on US labor of China's epochal reentry into the circuits of the world capitalist economy were hidden for a while as US consumption levels were cushioned by increases in US household leverage enabled longer than they would otherwise have been by the operations of the ratings agencies. The broader geopolitical implications of this—the accommodation of China's rise, the widening rift between globalized capital and national labor in the US and other developed markets (which in turn has led to the Trumpist retreat from globalism) are profound, but once again they seem to stem more from the operations of unconscious rules than from overt pressure to turn the ratings agencies into geopolitical instruments.

The other major node of global imbalances (between the surplus capital exporting core and the deficit capital importing periphery) was the Eurozone, and it is here that the interaction of politics, economics and geopolitics becomes most clear. The decisions of the ratings during the crisis reflected a procyclical pattern observed during the Asian crisis of 1997 of excessively high pre-crisis rating followed by excessively sharp downgrades once the crisis began, which in turn may have contributed to amplifying market responses that exacerbated the crisis. These patterns during the Eurozone crisis (as they did after the Asian crisis of 1997-98) have occasioned a great deal of criticism, but I would argue that that ambiguities in the economic and political governance of the Eurozone may well have heightened the procyclicality of ratings behavior.

As is well known, the central ambiguity of the Eurozone lies in the fact that it is a monetary union that is not also a fiscal union. This in turn creates questions about whether national debts in the Eurozone are contracted in a foreign currency or in a local currency, and simultaneously about the extent to which single countries in the Eurozone can be said to enjoy full monetary sovereignty. These facts have led many market observers to make analogies between the Eurozone and the classical gold standard and to countries that failed to maintain their currency boards (such as Argentina in 1998-2001). Yet even these analogies are in my view, very likely misplaced. The reason is that unlike the classical gold standard, the Eurozone has shared control of a fiat money producing central bank that is capable and substantially (but not unconditionally) willing to moderate the rises in credit risk premia that arise from downturns in the business cycle. The common payment system Target 2 provides unlimited absorption of very large drops in investor appetite for assets from troubled countries. The classical gold standard enjoyed neither of these features nor did hapless countries like Argentina.

At the heart of this difference is precisely the fact that the EU's creation and evolution is a consequence of geopolitical imperatives. The evolution of the EU and the Eurozone reflects first a desire to escape a history of intra-European wars, then the desire to anchor a reunified Germany to its Western neighbors in 1990 and more recently the desire to create an economic and financial unit that gave Europe a semblance of geopolitical and geoeconomic parity with China and the US. These factors are very different from the highly asymmetric motivations that led Argentina for example to import credibility by its peg to the US dollar, even while there was correspondingly relatively little concern on the US side when Argentina finally exited it calamitously.

But what complicates matters further is these geopolitical desires at a pan-Eurozone level have to negotiated against a backdrop of national preferences where there are political constraints on pooling sovereignty (or at least at the pace of such pooling); protests against perceived transfers (whether overtly fiscal or resulting from central bank action) among some countries; and protests against the fact that such transfers are conditional (and consequently seen as a constraint on the exercise of democratic choice) in still others. Political ambiguity is compounded by legal ambiguity—the language of “irrevocable conversion parities” to the Euro is not compatible with Article 50, which explicitly recognizes a right to leave the EU (a right the UK has chosen to exercise). Periodic political messaging around the prospect that Greece might leave the Eurozone, but still stay in the EU clouds matters further.

Recent history suggests an interplay between domestic political constraints and a revealed preference of European leaders to keep the Eurozone alive for geopolitical and geoconomic reasons by agreeing in moments of crisis to hitherto unthinkable expedients such as the creation of fiscal backstop (EFSF and then the ESM,) and the creation of a conditional monetary financing tool (OMT). Against this backdrop, whatever their historic misjudgments it is probably harder for the ratings agencies to get the Eurozone “right” at all times precisely because the fundamental categories of sovereignty and local versus foreign currency debt are more politically fluid as a result of the unique construction (and the ongoing evolution) of the Eurozone. The dominance in the ratings markets of English speaking countries with a particular culture of political economy might well exacerbate ratings misjudgments in the case of the emerging markets. However in the case of the EU in particular, some portion of the blame ascribed to the ratings agencies must also fall on the fact that the financial and political architecture of the Eurozone is in itself a work in creation, with the maximum creativity displayed only in the moments of crisis.

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guyinlovewitheremika · 7 years

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Dude serious question here : how are you still single ? Judging from your blog you seem so cute and friendly and an overrall fun person to be around. I for one would have loved to get to know you irl. But well keep up your amazing blog, I wish you the best in life

Aww anon that’s really sweet of you haha. Hope you have an amazing life too.

I used this opportunity for a little bit of self-analysis, which I’m keeping under-read since it’s not the main content of this blog. Quite frankly it failed and I don’t recommend reading.

THERE IS NO POINT TO THIS POST. I started writing with a huge plan, it didnt work out and now only half the thing is here, and by itself, it makes no bloody sense. I still wanna keep it here simply for myself, but anyone reading this rn will probs only get an incomplete and thusly inaccurate picture of what I’m trying to paint.

Okay, so here’s the thing. I started writing this huge thing with a clearly mapped out thought process in mind, it had structure and whatnot. Unfortunately an event I even described in my analysis, a change of my mental state, prohibited me from finishing my writing---this is thus very incomplete, lacking many arguments and most importantly an actual conclusion. I doubt I’ll ever reconnect to this particular text anyway, but I still felt like sharing it as I considered it to be a very accurate depiction my head up until the point where I got lost. So even though it’s totally lackluster and incomplete, I’m still sharing it here because I feel like I owe it to myself. Anyway. After this follows the introduction I had originally written. Since I posted this for myself, the chance of me answering asks, replies or messages about this is very little, partially for reasons explained below. AnYwAY

Le forum ofdeath and sucks balls what the fuck

You'reprobably just a lovely anon who wanted to say something nice and cheer me up,and believe me, it's appreciated^^ This extended response shouldn't be takenpersonal by you in any way at all, I simply saw an opportunity for me to writethings down I've been meaning to write down for a long time. Thing is, there'sabout a 0% chance of me talking to over people what's really going on in myhead unless I'm prompted to do so--unless there're huge indicators of therebeing legitimate interest in my psyche, I aint talking, and even then, the chancesremain slim. Granted, your message wasn't really a direct inquiry or whateverbut I've had this shit in my system so long that it's more than sufficient forme to let lose. Warning: basically everything below (and even above) are mypersonal observations of myself, and most likely don't make a ton of sense foranyone who isn't, well, me. "Translating" all of this into anythingcomprehensible outside of my head is gonna be tricky enough, but I still feellike doing it. The purpose of this text is ultimately for self-analysis; uponwriting things down it can clarify or explain certain thoughts, and that'sreally waht I'm after. I don't want to shove my own analysis of my mentalsituation down my followers throats, I'm writing and posting this only for myselfto be affected by the process of doing so; thusly, once more, this will potentiallybarely make any sense for anyone, but it's not supposed to for anyone exceptme, so in essence, don't read too much into this post.

Long assintroduction

Damn

Anyway, let'sget started, and back to the original question, how are you still single.

BecauseBOI, there's a plethora of reasons, mostly tied to my relationship with myselfand my surroundings, and that's what I wanna talk about here.

First ofall, yeah. Guy does seem like a fun, sweet person to have around here, doesn'the? You're not the first person to tell me that, and I'm not saying that tofeed on my ego or whatever, but because this perception of Guy isn't unique. Iget nice and lovely anons, Barely and hate towards me as a person despite arather rapidly growing follower count, I've even made a ton of onlinefriendships over the span of months, and those folks generally don't seem tohate Guy either, for similar reasons. That's all good and fun, and ofc Iappreciate people who're sympathetic towards me, but that's because here ontumblr and over on discord, I'm Guy. The dude who absolutely loooves snk, whoknows a lot about the series, who tries to help people out and is pretty wankfree (that's an over-the-top, stereotyped description simply for the sake ofgetting the general point across).

The problemis that "Guy" is a periodic, temporary and very much incompleterepresentation of my identity. Now of course, the following dialogue can quicklyfall into the "edgy-teenager-YouKnowMyNameButNotMyStory" trope whichtypically disqualifies any rationality accompanied by the claims, but for thesake of argument, I'd like to give my analytical skills more credit than a 21stcentury stereotype. The basic point I'm trying to make here is this: the"real", "complete" version of myself has more to it thanjust the blogger you know as "Guy", and that's simply because myonline presence is very filtered. Whenever I'm posting on my blog or talking tomy friends on discord, I'm being Guy. My mental state, my thought process, andmy emotional balance is that of SnK loving Guy. The thing is, whenever there'sa change in my mental state, a variation, one that differs from who we know as"Guy", Guy shuts down, and so does my activity. I'm not blogging24/7, I'm not being constantly Guy. And I'm not chatting 24/7 either, myfriends may confirm this: I often stop talking in the middle of conversations,stop responding, reduce or cease my current activity all together. Occasionallythat's caused by irl disturbances, but for the most part, the issue lies in avariation within my mental state, one that disrupts my situation of being Guy,causing a discrepancy between my activity and my thought process concerning myactivity. In simpler (and seriously overblown) terms, I temporarily stop beingthe person I just was (this being Guy), and swap to a different mental state, onethat differs from being Guy.

This allprobably sounds ludicrous and absolutely over the top, and I apologize for that.It's not as if I have "multiple personalities" in my head, orschizophrenia, or whatever. These varying mental states I'm describing aren'ttotally different people, but...different facades of myself, if that makes anysense. It probably doesn't, so let meprovide you with a possibly explanative analogy, to visualize everything. Letssay you're playing and RPG, and you have your core character. You level him up,gain experience, skills, and whatnot. That's default form of your character,lacking equipment and whatnot. However, in order to adapt to the constantlychanging environments and opponents you face, you need equipment, and the onlyoptions you have are various, predetermined armor and weapon sets. There's adifferent, unique type for every situation-one for each environment and eachenemy. The only problem is this: they come with a predetermined set of statsand skills. Parts of the sets cannot be exchanged with one another, and youcan't use multiple ones either. What's worse is that, despite the varyinglevels of skills you may have obtained on your core character, these arepartially or even entirely overwritten when donning one of the sets--you can'tverify or even use these stats and skills of your core character, as they'relocked away by whatever set you use. Only in down times, when in your hideout,all by yourself, can you take off the sets and access your stats andskills--only then does the experience you obtained when using the sets actuallyappear, only then can you observe your core character as a whole. That's moreor less what my head looks like, from my POV. Granted, this by no means is atotally accurate representation--it's flawed, it ignores certain other aspects,doesn't universally apply to me either, and ultimately, has no proof. However,I feel like this is the closest approximate description I can offer at themoment, and ultimately just am example to allow for some visualization--not auniversal truth or affirmation.

But let'stake a closer look at these equipment sets, or mental states, as I like to callthem. One of my favorite movies over the past years was the sci-fi flicArrival--Denis Villeneuve's thought provoking tale about extraterrestrialcreatures showing up on our planet and humanities attempt to interact with them.One of it's major elements was the use of language, and one theme in particularfascinated me: the theory that speaking in another language can potentiallymodify, or even rewire your brain and thought process. It's something Icouldn't agree more with. I fluently speak three languages, and, given myliving and educational situation, typically switch between all three of themmultiple times a day. I don't want to assume anyone's thoughts or feelings, butI'm certain I'm not the only one who has different relationships with thelanguages they speak, and who feel different depending on the used language.It's a pretty natural thing. Another thing we can probably all agree on is that,depending with whom we're interacting, or under which exterior circumstances(such as location), our precise way to express ourselves may sometimes vary--youmay act in a certain way with one person in a certain place, and act verydifferently with another person in a different place. Well, of course I can'tclaim that to be a universal truth for every person on the planet, but I'vecertainly heard other people describe it before, and I've felt it from otherstoo. It's there, sometimes, to a certain extent. Maybe it's totally natural, aneveryday feeling for everyone involved, and maybe I'm just too weak to be ableto counteract the consequences, but who knows. My primary issue stems from the fact that, I'm taking this varyingcircumstances and their consequences to a ridiculous level. Depending on mylanguage, my location, the time of day and the people I'm with, my expressionof myself, my (from an exterior POV observable) personality, if you want to, isborderline subject to change. "Guy" in many ways I can't mentallygrasp at the moment is fundamentally different from the person you mayencounter under specific, different circumstances.

Now ofcourse, this probably is something felt by other people alone, I'm not somehowspecial by feeling that way, probably just too weak to deal with it. But onething I can say with absolute certainty is that the consequences of thevariations has an effect on my surrounding. An example in my family: due to hisjob, my father is rarely at home, and I'm typically left with my mother, withwhom I have a rather close and positive relationship with. On the days myfather is there however, our relationship changes, my general mood is affected,and my expression of myself heavily changes. Once again, I'm sure I'm notunique in that way, I'm sure it's a normal, human concept, it just seems toaffect me really much. This isn't just limited to important, deep relationshipslike me and my parents, but its present in really every situation. Example, Imay desire to spend time with my friends at school when there, but back home,in a different mental state, that desire disappears entirely. I often don'treply to messages for weeks, and rarely ever initiate communication by myself,which can be totally different in another mental state. See, and that's one ofthe primary issues. My relationships with pretty much everyone are heavilymodified and affected by the changes in my mental state based on circumstancesand whatnot. If we follow that logic, any intimate or romantic relationshipwould be affected too. And that's one of the cruxes here: I couldn't possiblyentertain one particular mental state throughout the entirety of anoverarching, important relationship with someone. There would be instances inwhich my mental state would vary, and I would in turn be severely affected thischange, but this non-given, non-evident relationship with a significant otherwouldn't just...stop existing, wouldn't temporarily be on hold until I've returnedto a mental state appropriate of said relationship. You can't put it on hold,you can't neglect all of that while waiting for your brain to return to anadequate state. There's continuity and effort and ultimately something enduringwithin a relationship, but that's incredibly hard to entertain if the facade ofoneself is subject to constant modification. Though that in itself is somethingI would already consider rather problematic, it's far from the end. Rememberwhen I described the situation in my head? The idea of a certain core character,unaffected by the armor sets? Let's take a closer look at that.

All thesevarious mental states, these predetermined armor sets, caused by the varyingcircumstances I find myself in throughout life, have one thing in common: blockingout the "core character", the one that acquires the skills andexperience obtained through the life in armor, the one that has a sort ofoverseeing access to all of these obtained life experiences. That is what Iconsider to be the "purest" version of myself. The one thingunaffected by circumstances, the one at the center off all these various mentalstates. I can only be in this unaffected state when not in relation to anythingin my exterior: not being constrained to convey thoughts verbally through theuse of a certain language, not being actively in relation to another person,and being in a neutral place, unaffected by anything, such as my room.Basically, if I'm in an entirely neutral situation, not affected by anythingexterior whatsoever, my mind goes into a neutral state too. This neutral stateallows me one particular thing: introspection. Self-analysis, if you want to.Only in the neutral state can I fully reflect on my experiences and my life asa whole, only then can I attempt to understand my progression in life, myemotions, my mental situation. In fact, at this very moment, I find myself inthis neutral state--only now am I actually able to reflect on what's going onin my head, and the fact that I'm able to write it down cohesively is an enormousfeat in itself. However, this distinction between my neutral state, the"core character", and the various mental states, the "armorsets", comes with a plethora of issues, the first one being this verydiscrepancy. As explained earlier, the "sets" override the"core", and I mean that in a literal way. All my reflections, all mythoughts and questions, all my arguments, failures and progressions, areblocked out when I'm in one of these sets. For example, if I'm talking to mytherapist, it's downright impossible for me to communicate all these thoughtsobtained through introspection, simply because they're blocked out, they're notavailable anymore. They slip out from memory, I can barely grasp them at all,it feels like walking through horribly thicc mist; and even in the event that Istill can formulate some of my thoughts, I can't properly convey them. In fact,even if I write them down and try to read them out, it feels more like readingsomeone else's thesis: my brain doesn't connect to the material at all, itdoesn't understand, it can't back it up: in that situation, they're not my ownthoughts at all, but someone else's, and no matter how much I search my mindfor answers of clues, the only thing I can find is a bleak, empty void, leavingme feeling dumbfounded, with an empty head. Literally. When I later return tomy neutral state, everything returns to me, but quite frankly, that's notuseful, since I still lack the means to communicate it in a manner thatconvinces both me and party B.

Unfortunatelythe issues don't stop there. If we go by the assumption that this neutral, coreversion of myself is what you may call "the real me", I would kind ofbe in a pretty shit situation, because, quite frankly, being this neutralversion of myself is not fun at all. Maybe its related to ingrained pessimism,but all introspection, all reflection and thoughts, always go in a prettynegative way. Never once have I thought about myself in depth and arrived at anactual positive outcome: every answer is negative and spells out inevitabledoom one way or another. There's always a depressing note to everything, infact, there is a seriously ingrained tendency leading towards what may be aform of depression in all my thoughts, but I'll get into that later. The bigbad issue is that ultimately, this neutral state of mine, as well as everypossible variable mental state, lacks one primordial thing necessary to thehuman existence: life. I'm descending towards a melodramatic presentation oncemore, forgive me. It's a hunch towards excess. But here's the thing. Theneutral state is exclusively based around introspection, it can't do anythingbut reflect, and reflect in a pretty negative manner if I might add. There'snothing else to it. The "sets" are technically set in what we wouldcall life, they're all in relation with something, but inherently lack thecommon thing that is myself; they're mere facades, they're fakes, they'reincomplete, they're not ME. Here's thething. Perhaps it was a result of all the issues mentioned above, or perhaps itcaused the issues above and originate from a certain event in my pastirrelevant for now, but one thing is certain: I'm heavily emotionally distancedfrom my own life. I barely ever feel any real, active emotions out of anythingin life, everything is distanced, bleak, unilateral. Any real, strong emotion,be it joy, hatred, sadness or whatever else you may think of, is something Ibarely ever feel these days. Even events that have an incredibly strong effecton my life struggle to bring forth an emotional reaction. Everythingstays...bleak. Unaffected. There's often a sort of distant negativity, abackground feeling of sorts, and there are occasions of limited joy or whatnotthat last a few moments, but it takes absolutely nothing whatsoever to returnto an empty or even highkey depressed state--ultimately, the sensation of"being alive" has become incredibly elusive to me over the last 8years, now nothing more than a mere distant memory. That's just how things are,and I can't deal with it.

Granted, Imay possibly be overdoing it rn. Been writing for a long time, need to makesure I don't start getting affected just yet. Ultimately, all these thingsheavily block the way for a meaningful relationship with another person. Notonly would they have to deal with the fact that the person they know seems toundergo mental changes on a continuous basis which can't be any good, their s.o.would go through constant mood changes, would often be emotionally distant fromthem for seemingly no reason whatsoever, wouldn't be able to even entertain a relationshipon a deeper level. Whatever it would be, it couldn't even be called a proper relationshipfrom my point of view. I wouldn't be able to be myself, and that's pretty mucha death sentence for anything meaningful that's supposed to last for a bit,right?

(sidenote:I feel as if I may have just exited the neutral state and am no longer able toentertain my introspection. My thoughts are literally disappearing from my mindand my memory of everything I've said so far and what I meant to say afterwardsis getting foggier by the minute. It's absolutely ridiculous and horriblyannoying, but at the very least it proves my points to myself, that's worthsomething).

After this point, I continued writing, but quickly realized I lost all connection, I had indeed gone through a change in mental state, leaving behind my introspection. Thus, this is largely incomplete, with many threads not tied together, and many arguments lacking entirely. My analysis went much deeper than what we see here, but unfortunately I don’t seem to be able to pick it up for now. What a shame. I had thought I had finally figured out some serious progress. But in a way, it’s also fitting. This major failure is evidence that the points made are very real and not my imagination. Too bad it prevented me from going further, but that’s all I can do for now.

This is more or less the conclusion I meant to reach, but since half the arguments and reasoning are missing, it doesn’t make sense and feels like an asspull for the sake of attentionwhoring. It’s not, and I can assure you there is legitimate reasoning behind this, I just can’t access it rn: To add more finality to the actual question that I tried to properly explain here but clearly turned out incapable of doing so, I have rather convoluted but justified mental and psychological issues for being single. These aren’t by choice, these aren’t because I enjoy being lonely, in fact I’ve desired the opposite since I was a child, but for various reasons I cannot fully explain yet, it wouldn’t be good at all for neither me nor my partner, not with the way I am right now (and this current failure is proof of that). Instead, I’ll keep sitting on my ass, waiting for a miracle that will never happen, with mental and and physical issues getting worse and worse as a consequence. But in its own way, that’s desirable for me; which is based on another issue, rooted even deeper in my psychology, one that is probably the source of all my issues. But I can’t talk about that yet.

Other than that, there’s practical issues too. I’ll be leaving the continent this summer. I have very little positive memories about the last 8 years, the 2nd chapter of my life, but I don’t want to start getting attached to this life just as it is about to end. That would be the worst possible way to leave, and I need a clean cut at all costs. So yeah, no SO for me.

#dont read this #personal #reference #guy's introspection #this basically took me the entire day but like 75% is missing don't read this.#Anonymous

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davidmann95 · 8 years

Text

Roll Call of the Supermen (slight spoilers)

So Multiplicity finally hit, and it was indeed The Business much as I’d hoped. It really did shock me how far putting Ivan Reis and Joe Prado on this went to make it feel like Superman is being treated for a moment as an A-list book again (not that the likes of Gleason, Jimenez and Mahnke aren’t all top-tier themselves, but Reis lends a “this is a MAJOR EVENT” feel to any project he winds up on his with his smooth detailing and widescreen feel), and given his stint on at least the start of JLA with the Lord Havok arc, it seems all Multiversity followups for the moment are under his purview.

But while most of the guest appearances are probably (and I expect intentionally) easy to recognize or figure out - here’s the Superman from that characters’ most popular Elseworlds and even if you don’t know him you can figure out “he’s a Russian Superman, that’s his deal”, here’s a pseudo Justice League, they’ve got a Flash-type person and a Superman who’s apparently President and Iron Man even though they can’t call him Iron Man, etc. - but the big shot at the end where you see some of the other Supermen dragged into the advertised get-together gets a little more obscure.

It doesn’t help that several of the Earth numbers attached are flat-out wrong, because as it’s always worth remembering, Eddie’s a bad editor as well as a bad guy. Hell, he edited The Multiversity Guidebook, he should know that shit as well as anyone! Luckily however, I’m kind of a Superman guy, so if anybody hasn’t read Multiversity lately, I’ve got what you need. Heading down each row from left to right:

Bizarro of Earth 29: The Superman of the Bizarro universe, he’s pretty much just regular Bizarro. He had a really fun one-shot by the Pak/Kuder team in Action Comics #40.

Ultraman of Earth 43: The Superman on a world loosely based on Red Rain, where Batman was turned into a vampire to defeat Count Dracula, only to succumb to his curse and spread it to the rest of the Justice League. However, given that he’s for some reason Ultraman - and the fate of Ultraman in Final Crisis - it seems he may actually be the Pre-Flashpoint Ultraman, somehow given a monstrous second chance. Last we saw him he was part of an invasion force on the darkly magical Earth 13 - he was attacked by the Kal-El/Etrigan fusion Superdemon, until Zatanna redirected his hunger towards coffee.

Super-Martian of Earth 32: From a world home to a number of mash-up characters like Bat-Lantern and Aquaflash united as the Justice Titans, he’s fairly self-descriptive.

New Super-Man of Earth 0: Kenan Kong, who absorbed the New 52 Superman’s life energy after his passing and his learning to grow beyond the schoolyard bully he used to be; his origin is probably why the invaders thought of him as the native Superman of the main DCU. He’s got his own book at the moment, feel free to check it out.

Sunshine Superman of Earth 47: Debuting way back during Morrison’s Animal Man, he protects the funkiest of all possible Earths as the leader of the Love Syndicate of Dreamworld.

Superman II (?) of Earth 2: We don’t get a good look at him, but the design of his suit would suggest he’s Val-Zod, a Kryptonian survivor who took over the mantle after the death of his worlds’ Kal-El. Don’t know much about him beyond that, or whether or not him being here complicates or contradicts anything going on in the Earth-2 book.

Superwoman of Earth 11: What it says on the tin; while there are some notable differences on this gender-altered Earth (the Amazons took a more direct hand in world affairs for one thing), she’s pretty much exactly like her main Earth counterpart aside from being a woman. Though given she was captured rather than dismissed as an anomaly, it’s fair to say she probably hasn’t died and been replaced by her Pre-Flashpoint incarnation lately.

Supremo of Earth 35: Not helped by being identified as from Earth 50 (home of the Justice Lords), this is actually a DC-Multiverse version of Supreme, heading up the Super-Americans. His Earth was noted as being designed in ‘idea-space’ by the Monitors to reflect other worlds, and while that’s probably just a gag at his source-materials’ nature as a pastiche character, for all we know it could somehow prove important.

Superman (?) of Earth 31: We don’t actually know his name, but he’s the Superman figure of a post-apocalyptic flooded Earth where Pirate Batman (aka Captain Leatherwing) is one of the last arbiters of justice. Fun fact: this was originally supposed to be the Earth of The Dark Knight Returns - Earth-31 was pre-Flashpoint, and Klaus Janson was going to draw an image for the The Multiversity Guidebook - but Frank Miller nixed it when he heard what was up.

Superman of Earth 22: We can’t actually see him, but if the numbers’ right, this is the Superman of Kingdom Come, and you know what that is. If you’ve read all of 10 DC books in your entire life, odds are fair that it was one of them.

Knightwing of Earth 38: Another mislabel (Earth 45′s is Superdoomsday from Morrison’s Action Comics), Clark Wayne is the grandson of both Superman and Batman in Superman/Batman: Generations. Exposed to Gold Kryptonite in the womb by his father (Joel Kent, Superman’s son. Who had...issues with the rest of his family), he ended up raised by Batman’s son Bruce Jr./Batman III, who eventually made him his Robin. When he learned of his full lineage and regained the powers of his birthright, he stuck with his recently-acquired new name of Knightwing as a happy medium between the inheritances of both bloodlines.

Superman of Earth ???: Misidentified as the Superman of Earth 38, I actually can’t tell who this is; he’s pretty normal-looking, and while it’s clear there’s a couple non-standard elements to his uniform that don’t immediately match up with anyone, he’s too indistinct and awkwardly-positioned to see for certain. To be honest, what we see of his face makes me think of Christopher Reeve? Unless this is corrected for trade or Tomasi answers my (hopefully polite! It’s awkward to ask anything even remotely ringing of “can you correct this mistake for me”, but I’m sure it was a simple mix-up and I’m really curious) tweet, this is likely to remain a mystery. Until then, it’s safe to assume he’s probably just a generic filler Superman.

Superman of Earth 1: The star of the Superman: Earth One series, and the one guy I sincerely hope bites it by stories’ end. JMS has said he’s not doing more comics anyway, so he’s officially expendable. Then again, it’s so obscure an image, seemingly without a normal s-shield, that this could be a mistake too.

Even aside from those 13, plus the Red Son Superman of Earth 30, President Superman of Earth 23, and regular ‘ol Superman, along with Captain Carrot seemingly being counted as among that fraternity, there’s by my count at least 13 or so more active Supermen on top of that in the current Multiverse, so there’s plenty more last sons of Krypton who could be popping their heads in. In particular I’m curious to see if Earth 8′s Hyperion-equivalent Hyperius shows up, since his mysterious disappearance was one of Multiversity’s bigger dangling threads.

#Superman #Superman: Multiplicity #Multiversity #Peter Tomasi #Patrick Gleason #Ivan Reis #Joe Prado #Marcelo Maiolo #Rob Leigh #Analysis #Opinion

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