#working on a recolour set of a whole bunch of things

[nicolos]

Hi, this is very random but I LOVE your edits!! SO SO much!! And I wanted to ask (if you feel like elaborating but no pressure!) about your editing process (I am a complete newbie). I am in awe of the connections you draw in your edits - do you first choose a song and then try to match the content to it or the other way around? And if you don't mind me asking which program do you use? And how do you get clean audio without the background music? ((I would greatly appreciate your advice if it wouldn't be too much of a burden, wishing you the loveliest of days<3))

hi there!! first off this is so sweet, and I really appreciate hearing that you like my edits!it's always so exciting to get that kind of feedback, esp since video edits arent smth ive done a Lot of or my primary form of fanwork, i guess

For some elaboration - I assume you mean the black sails edits (?), so I'm going to be answering for those. On the whole, I don't have a super well-defined process, so it definitely varies edit to edit, but in general, I tend to work off themes or ideas rather than audio! Especially since I'm not usually working with lyrics, in which case it would be a totally different story.

A lot of my black sails edits specifically are about highlighting a specific theme and how its paralleled over the show, so finding parallels usually is just me trying to remember different scenes which demonstrate the same concept, kind of. I have a file of the whole shows subtitles pasted into one place, so I do a lot of Ctrl+f with keywords (the 'you and i' video was built off literally just that) - and then try to arrange it in a way that makes sense for the BS narrative as well as the point im trying to make in the video. i also really love finding completely different conversations that feel like call and response, and setting them up against each other. Parallels! Contrasts! Etc

I try to work with an audio already in mind, though, generally, just because the flow is kind of determined by that. I didn't for the partners video, and I think it's a bit weaker for it, though i did adjust the music to suit it later. Picking a song if I have a theme in mind is really just going thru my soundtracks playlist, which is like 30% of all music I listen to, and picking smth with a vibe that fits + a pace and length that I think the video will match. (Sometimes I will also just cut the song down a bit)

The program I use is kdenlive, which is an free and open source video editing tool! It's not got quite as many features as smth like davinci resolve, but I find it works for my purposes, which are really just cropping, pasting, and a tiny bit of sharpen/recolour. that said kdenlive has a bunch of other features and options that I simply don't use and also don't know how because I haven't experimented, so its not like snip and move clips around is All you can do with it.

re: the background audios... this one is actually a process lol. i have high qual versions of all the BS eps with 6 channel audio, and ive made versions of each episode where ive isolated the central channel which usually has dialogue. however this channel also will have some slight background music or ambient sounds, so it's not really just the dialogue - but it works for the purposes of the video, where lower sounds like that may get hidden by music anyway. ymmv, it depends scene to scene, but I don't need it to be perfectly clean so it works for me. Ive isolated these channels through ffmpeg, which is a command prompt based editing thing, and isn't difficult to learn but isn't exactly the most user-friendly thing, i guess? However I understand ( @dykementality confirm?) that davinci resolve lets you just isolate audio channels of any clip you're editing, so like, that's an option. i Can give more detailed instructions on ffmpeg, or at least on the code that I use to make files w isolated audio, though honestly I've forgotten how to install ffmpeg (though it can't have been too difficult or I wouldn't have bothered)

I hope that helped you a little, pal! If you have any further clarification I'd be happy to help w/ what I know! And I hope you have a wonderful day also!

[weatherman667]

Darksiders II:  Deathinitive Edition DLC

One of the thing the Deathinitive Edition did was include the DLC, which I was thoroughly uninterested in.

The game decided to add an idiotic item system.  Thematically, this works works well, as Death is willing to do anything to succeed.  In the first one, War was very picky about what he used.  But Death will pick up anything he has on hands.

Practically, it just doesn’t work.

For the main weapon, [], Death uses a pair of extremely powerful magical scythes that can combine together, and even transform when he does.  It makes zero sense for him to find a new pair every few minutes.

On the PS3, the game uses a non-menu menu system that everyone is excited about nowadays.  This made constant inventory juggling to be incredibly arduous.  Literally, one of the main reasons I avoided the DLC was that I didn’t want to play anymore of Darksiders II.  I loved the game, but the menu system was just so draining to use.

The PS4 has enough power to make the menu system far less annoying to use.

But, the game also Possessed Weapons.  These are weapons that you can sacrifice other weapons into and upgrade, and have some control over the upgrades.  This is an absolutely fantastic system, that almost justifies the item system.  Almost.  These could have been included in the leveling mechanics.

You secondary weapon, /\ is divided into two main characters, big and small, and each is subdivided.  The only difference between the subdivisions are /\ (hold) attack.  The game is a LOT more fluid and fast passed than the original Darksiders, which makes sense, because Death weaves in and out of combat.  The problem is that the wide area scythe combo requires a pause, and most of the time I try to use it later in the game, when I’m surrounded, I will get attacked before I can actually trigger it.  This meant it would have been better to map this to the /\ button.

How does this tie into the DLC?  Well, a lot of the DLC was unique weapons.  Weapons always spawn at your current level, and unique weapons are weaker than a same-level possessed weapon that is maxed out, and possessed weapons give you some control over what kind of stats they develop.  This means that the DLC weapons are almost all completely useless, and even worse, were an obvious cash-grab.

Next we have the DLC areas.

The Crucible

This is the only one actually integrated into the game.  The others all require you to exit to the main screen to use.

The Crucible is an arena.  Pretty simple, not spectacular at all.  The tournaments are fun.  The more battles you win, the more and better random loot you will get.  Every 5 rounds he’ll offer you loot, if you take it, you leave.  If you lose, you get nothing.  This works incredibly well with the game’s random item system.  It takes a bit of time, but it’s a good way of getting a number of possessed weapons to play with.

Argul’s Tomb

The first full DLC area, and it seems the warmup for the others.  There are two main areas here.  One is a run-and-gun section, which is decent.  The second is a portal-heavy puzzle dungeon that ends with an interesting boss battle.  All of the other enemies are simply recolours.  This kinds of sets the standard for DLC areas, as the only semblance of a story is a bit of initial dialogue, and that’s it.

Apparently the Lord of Bones wasn’t the first king of the Kingdom of the Dead.

End of story.

The Abyssal Forge

A totally not-Maker that is quite vexed at the Makers built a sentient robot that wants to destroy all creation.  Decent dungeon that you have to find Abyssal Ore.  The ore creates a red glow which makes it easy to find.  The glow is not actually attached to the ore, and so stays afterwards.  This makes it really annoying if you have all but one, and are retracing the whole dungeon trying to find it.

The boss battle breaks the gameplay engine.  It throws a bunch of tiny living bombs at you that you have to take out with Redemption (pistol).  You fought these earlier in the level, and are pretty easy to take out.  Well, during the boss battle gives the boss priority lock-on, which would make sense if the boss wasn’t fixed and sending you a swarm of bombs that you have to take out with a pistol.  It also sends out more of these than you have bullets.

All of the other enemies are just construct recolours.

The Demon Lord Belial

The absolute best of the DLC areas.  There is somewhat of a story, it adds interesting new enemy models that would be absolutely fantastic if their attack rate was not faster than your combo lock.  This means you can’t dodge attacks.   But, like I said, this is the only areas that actually has new enemies.

The boss is a truly unique boss that is really interesting to fight.

[crystallized-moonbeam]

A Lot of Eyes and Stuff

Have some eyes! …lots of them! And a sclera. And a waterline. Look, it's a whole Thing.

As I explained in a previous post, the eyes currently in my game are kind of all over the place, but y'know, in case anyone else is interested...

The sclera is the result of poking at @virtualpeople's Solar sclera, mixing it with Tea Leaf's mswn + AlfredAskew sclera for some added animation-friendliness (primping faces for proof), then refining it a bit more. And then I stuck it on a bunch of eyes!

I created two new eye sets, and resclera'd some existing eyes I liked by other people. I only did the colours I personally wanted (not the full sets), and I reused the existing packages, so you can't keep these and the originals. The tooltips, filenames, and swatch images have all been updated.

New eye sets:

After Dawn (preview | swatch)

Marseilles (preview | swatch)

Resclera'd sets:

@curiousb - Box Set (preview | swatch)

@digisims2 - Falco (preview | swatch)

@entropy-sims - 4T2 Remussirion Connexin (preview | swatch; catchlight edited)

@esotheria-sims - Dragontamer (preview | swatch)

Jessi - Painting the Walls (preview | swatch)

@mouseyblue - Glossed (preview | swatch)

Nabila - Sound of Madness (preview | swatch)

Tea Leaf / @marzmud - Brick v2 (preview | swatch) and Swallowed in the Sea (preview | swatch)

Trapping / @linasims2 - Mouseyblue Glossed recolours (preview | swatch)

@whysim - 4T2 dangerouslyfreejellyfish Whisper (preview | swatch) and viiavi's recolours (preview | swatch)

All the eyes are geneticised and townified. The genetic values range from 1.0 to 3.0, with brown and dark blue being the most dominant and purple, pink, and orange being the most recessive. Swatches are all included, and in the same order as the file names. You know, for easy culling in case I kept too many purples or something.

Defaults are comprised of CuriousB's Box Set and Jessi's Painting the Walls (swatch).

And finally, a little extra thing because it kinda goes with the theme: an edit of @pooklet's Ephemera waterline edit. It's my favourite waterline for smoothing out that weird sharp slant, since it works for all skintones and doesn't obscure lower lash line makeup, but the inner corner kinda bugged me, so I made a tiny alpha edit. Here's a comparison if you want to see the difference.

I've also included a .png of the sclera, as well as a layerable overlay found in the blush bin (apologies in advance for the v terrifying swatch).

Download: Box, Mega

[ello-sims]

So, I mentioned I was working on a followers/anniversary/you guys are awesome etc etc. gift before I went on vacay in April and it’s finally ready! This is hopefully the start of an on going project you guys will hopefully find useful too. 

I feel like the easiest way to describe what this is is unfortunately by telling a pretty long and uninteresting story so tl:dr version: i defaulted every single wedding dress deedee has released* using DressFormalTrumpet.

Explanation of how (and probably more importantly why... lol) is under the cut

So i lovelovelove dee dee’s wedding dresses and wanted to default some for my future brides. I think I’ve mentioned I hate (hate) sets bigger than 10 so thought I’d pick out my favourite 10 (very hard but I did it...) and default them using DressFormalTrumpet. I then thought maybe you guys have a different 10 fave dresses to me and soooo I grouped all of the dresses into similar styles so you guys can mix and match and have a unique selection of dresses to your taste! 

This will probably make more sense when I release the downloads (which will go up tomorrow) but essentially I’ve assigned each colour of the formal trumpet swatch to a different dress style, the result being you get ten different enough dresses to suit a range of blushing brides in your game. I’ll be releasing them in batches according to style, pick one from each batch and you’ll have your unique bridal collection of sorts. 

Technical bits - these are for young adult/adult, disabled for random (so you don’t get bunch of wedding guests dressed as brides...) and I gave them the celebration pack icons because it felt fitting. Each download only has the white recolour of that style, not the whole set. I’ve tested all of the dresses in body shop but not in-game (because that would have taken forever...) so please let me know if anything borky happens and of course, I will fix. 

Like I said this will be an ongoing project and plan to keep doing these as Dee Dee releases dresses (she released two while I was doing this lol). I’ll also be doing other CC creators wedding dresses as well. I am happy to take suggestions, not requests on wedding dresses from other creators because I’m sure I’m prone to miss some. I probably won’t do super old dresses though like if you for some reason have a link to pro-nup sims from back in the day, I probably won’t do those dresses lol. I will also only do the white recolour just for uniformity/ ease though I will make an exception for dresses from other cultures where wearing white isn’t traditional.

I’d also like to do a similar for wedding ‘suits’ sort of thing? For female sims who don’t do dresses? I’d really appreciate some links to anything that fit in that theme too!

One laaast thing - I have done all of Dee Dee’s dresses apart from  Double Rose Gown which I did here already and  Ruffle Ballerina Dress which I did here.

I’d like to thank @deedee-sims of course as this project wouldn’t be possible without her amazing dresses and @moocha-muses for inspiration for my previews.

I think I’ve babbled enough and I really hope this makes sense but like I said I’m posting actual downloads tomorrow just in case you guys have any questions beforehand so feel free to drop any comments or questions in this post or send me an ask. Happy Saturday, friends!

[butternutsims]

dahlia bazaar - a living room set with outfits

Well my babes, it’s finished. I’ve spent 2 weeks on this baby and i’m super happy with it! When I first started putting it together, it had a really different vibe, and once I was a few items in, I got a really clear picture and I just went from there! There were things cut, things included at the last minute.. a lot of coffee was drunk!  This is a super long post, apologies! There’s a lot in here, 30 objects total!

Alright lets get to it, it’s all below the cut!

CAS All the clothing use a similar bunch of patterns and I tried to go for a resort wear feel, so I picked some really lovely items from other creators that I knew would fit. And I had to include some hairs as well so I could do some Sundance recolours. 

alex wears... wild-pixel Sammie Hair - mesh required, grab it from @wild-pixel​ here - recoloured in my Sundance Palette

Anessasims Wild Sun Dress - mesh required, grab it from @anessasims​ here - 10 patterns + Monterrey Palette solids

savannah wears...

QICC Michelle Hair - mesh required, grab it from @qicc​ here - recoloured in my Sundance Palette

Ophelia Dress - Strangerville required - 13 patterns + Monterrey Palette solids

devon wears..

SingingPickles Heather Hair - mesh required, grab it from @singingpicklessims​ here - recoloured in my Sundance Palette

AxA Gwen Bodysuit - mesh required, grab it from @aharris00britney​ here - 8 patterns + Monterrey Palette solids

ilkup Sulani Pants - mesh included, thanks @ilkup​ for your generous TOU, grab the original here - 12 patterns + Monterrey Palette solids

angel wears...

nuagelle gaia hair - mesh included, thanks @nuagelle​ for your generous TOU, grab the original here - recoloured in my Sundance Palette

pinalexple Kali V2 top - mesh included, thanks @pinealexple​ for your generous TOU, grab the original here - 10 patterns + Monterrey Palette solids

Saurussims Stacey Skirt - mesh included, thanks @saurussims​ for your generous TOU, grab the original here - 8 patterns +  Monterrey Palette solids

Buy Objects (& a Wallpaper!) This is probably my pride and joy out of this pack, I am obsessed with all of it. I really love Peacemakers Oasis Chic Living wicker set and thought it needed patterns, and I found a great pattern set and just went with it, and it helped become the base theme of this pack. I know it’s technically an outdoor pack, but I love how it looks inside as well.. and well, you can use it wherever you want, cause it’s your game.. and not mine! Then I just kinda found all these other little things to compliment it and went from there.

Also.. if you’re not a fan of dark green.. there’s other colours for you! Here are some representing different styles you can achieve. (gif makes it potato quality)

Oasis Chic Living  - mesh required, grab it from @peacemaker-ic​ here (not all items from PC’s set was used, but the whole thing is great so grab it all!) - 8 patterns for the seats + Monterrey Palette solids  - 14 tiled top patterns for the tables - Lounger not pictured

Large Rug - Laundry Day required - 12 designs

Table Lamp - Vampires required - 5 patterns + Monterrey Palette solids

NynaveDesign Kala Candle - mesh required, grab it from @nynaevedesign​ here - 4 scents, Tahitian Vanilla, Lemongrass, Lychee Rose & Sparkling Bellini (new labels in simlish)

Tiled Fireplace - BGC - 11 tiled designs

Sanoysims Mjuk Folded Blanket - mesh included, thanks @sanoysims​ for your generous TOU, grab the original here - Small and large blankets (small not pictured) - 10 patterns + Monterrey Palette solids

Palms - BGC - 8 tiled pots

Small Potted Plant - BGC - 8 tiled pots

cherry-sims Milla Nanu Basket - mesh required, grab it from @cherry-sims​ here - 10 patterns + Monterrey Palette solids

Burcu Korkmazyurek Art - mesh included, thanks @mxims​ for your generous TOU, grab the original here - art from https://www.burcukorkmazyurek.com/ - 24 prints

Drapes - BGC - 10 patterns + Monterrey Palette solids

Wallpaper - BGC - 22 designs

DOWNLOAD As always, you can grab all the files together in one, or pick and choose. I had to use two different hosting services because the all together zip file was too big for SFS. It’s big because I try to keep the patterns looking HQ as I do with all other things I make.  ALL IN ONE ZIP | SEPARATE FILES

If you love what i’ve made and can spare a buck or two, donate at my Patreon! My content stays free forever, however you’ll get a sneak peek every once in a while and a cool discord role at my Sundance server

THANKS This project was a lot of fun, but at times I was pulling my hair out. Big big big thank you to @crafty-lil-alpaca​ for keeping me calm and being the best personal cheerleader anyone could ever ask for.

Many thanks to all mesh creators who work tirelessly to make these wonderful things that I like to splash patterns on. You make my life 100% easier as I have tried (and will try again) to make my own meshes.. 

Thanks also to my patreons for sticking with me over these two weeks and leaving lovely comments on the WIPs. It’s amazing that I have any patreons, it blows me away every day.

All patterns used were purchased from Creative Market. A lot of artists are struggling right now, so I wanted to help out by purchasing some pattern packs.  Patterns were purchased from Julia Dreams, Terri Henson, Emma Make,  Anugraha Design, Irina Skaska and pixaroma. These patterns will forever be in my rotation of patterns i’ll use in the future

[wildlyminiaturesandwich]

It’s time we talk about SimsDom again.

Most of you probably already know who and what Simsdom is but for those that don’t, Simsdom (or SimsDomination) claim to essentially be a CC finds website, which in essence I suppose they are... But don’t get your hopes up for a Lana replacement because they are SO much more than that. And not in a good way.

I know this is an old subject, and most people probably thought it was all over and done with, but Simsdom is still around and what’s worse is that I’ve noticed a growing trend among my fellow Game Changers who create content for Youtuber and Twitch/Mixer of promoting the site by using it to do CC shopping haul videos and streams, which is encouraging their viewers to use Simsdom. I’m not going to name names or point fingers but it made me realise that maybe some people don’t understand just how bad Simsdom is for the community in general, but especially for the amazingly dedicated CC creators of Simblr. And it’s just so disappointing to see people that some many in the community, including myself, look up to promoting this garbage site!

If you’re curious to know why this is a problem, I’ll explain under the cut. If not, keep scrolling... But don’t say I didn’t warn you.

If you visit the Simsdom website (which I’ve purposely not provided a link to because you absolutely shouldn’t visit it) you’ll notice a whole bunch of custom content is available there, more than likely you’ll even find quite a bit from some of your faves like @peacemaker-ic​, @nolan-sims​, @storylegacysims​, @crypticsim​, @renorasims​, @savvysweet​ and MANY more. My stuff is even on there as well and if you’re a creator, the chances are high your stuff is too; whether you want it to be or not.

But don’t be fooled, myself and most of the other creators whose content appears on their site did not give permission for our content to be shared on there. In fact, most of us have specifically asked Simsdom to remove our content from their site. I say “most” because there are some people who willing uploading their content there (god knows why). The easiest way to the tell the difference is to look at who posted the content. If you see this:

That content has been shared by a bot, without the creator’s permission and more than likely against their many requests that Simsdom NOT share their content. If it says the name of the actual creator instead of “Exchange”, that creator uploaded it themselves.

You might also ask why anyone would care if their content was shared on a CC finds blog, after all, it means more traffic to our blogs and content, right? First of all, whether it brings in more traffic or not, is beside point. These creators have specifically requested Simsdom not share their content and they have been ignored, disrespected, threatened, and harassed. Simsdom claims that their users make up 30-90% of Tumblr creators traffic, but I call bullshit. I check my Google analytics every single month for traffic coming in to both my Tumblr and Blogger from Simsdom and I can tell you that LESS THAN 1% of the COMBINED TOTAL traffic from BOTH BLOGS comes from there. And when you understand how they operate, you’ll understand why that is.

- UPDATE -

In reference to Simsdom’s response to this post, they linked 5 creators that they claim meet their crazy statement that their site provides creators with 30-90% of their traffic. So I just thought I’d point out some interesting facts I noticed while looking at those sites.

One of those sites is dead; literally, it doesn’t exist anymore, if it ever even did. Another, @simiracle​, is a fellow Game Changer who reblogged this post, so I’m guessing they don’t have support there. And the other 3 are alpha CC creators, none of whom have ever uploaded any of their CC to Simdom, nor have they ever mentioned Simsdom on their sites in any way. However, all three earn money on their own content via either adfly, adsense, patreon, or some combination of the three; my guess would be they wouldn’t be too happy to find out Simsdom is making money off them too.

You see, Simsdom might sometimes link back to the original creators site, but often times they don’t. I’ve noticed quite a bit of the content of my own on their site directly links to the file on SimFileShare, completely bypassing both my Tumblr and my Blogger. This might not seem like a big problem, but what about if the creator has put specific instructions, requirements, or notes on the original download page that if the downloader doesn’t read could result in broken/unusable CC, or worse, a broken game?

- UPDATE -

In reference to Simsdom’s response to this post, they linked to SimFileShare’s page on SimilarWeb and claimed that I was lying about direct-linking to my files there because their site does not appear in the list of referring sites. What they failed to mention is that that list only shows the TOP 5 sites that link to SimFileShare regularly. There are still 385 other sites that aren’t shown and can’t be seen without having an account with SimilarWeb. Convenient, huh?

I also said they only direct-linked SOME content. With my content it was only about 4 or 5 things out of the 15 or so they have on their site and I didn’t check anyone else’s stuff but I have heard other creators say the same thing. So of course they’re not going to show up in the top 5 if it’s only SOME links.

But wait, there’s more.

Anyone downloading from their website without an adblocker is forced to wade through potentially harmful ads as well. Notice the blue button that says “download” at the top? That’s not a real download button and if you click it, it will instantly begin shoving pop ups in your face claiming you have a system error or that your local law enforcement agency has detected illegal activity from your IP. Yes, I clicked it. There is nothing of importance left on my HDD (it’s all stored safely on an external drive that isn’t connected to the PC at all) because this drive has been slowly dying for weeks and I’m destroying it tomorrow and replacing it with a brand new one, so I decided to take a chance.

These ads, which are on pretty much every page of Simsdom, are what’s called “Ransomware”, and it’s whole purpose is to distract you with fake pop up “warnings” when you click on it so that you don’t realise it’s actually downloading a very harmful file to your computer in the background. It’s designed to be next to impossible to close the pop ups, so that even if you somehow became aware of the download happening, you couldn’t get past the pop ups to stop it before it’s had time to finish downloading and automatically begin running it’s payload when it’s done.

What payload? That’s the scariest part, you won’t know until it’s too late. It could be something as simple as a trojan that will force your PC to mine bitcoins, which is still harmful because these mining trojans are resource hogs and put a massive strain on your CPU. Or a trojan designed to target and encrypt specific files on your computer (usually sensitive ones) and demand you pay a literal ransom (usually either in bitcoin or pre-paid cash) and if you don’t, your files will either be complete erased or leaked.

Or worse still, it could be something even more sinister such as a key-logger; a piece of spyware that is designed to track and log EVERY. SINGLE. KEY. you touch on your keyboard. So every password you use, every online banking key code you enter, all the conversations you have via Discord, Twitter, Tumblr, or any other form of instant messaging, that fanfiction you’ve been working on that you are too scared to show anyone in case they think you’re a pervert, your credit card and bank account number you use to shop online, what porn you look for, even your Google search history (regardless of if you’re incognito); all of it will be no longer private and in the hands of someone who could use it to steal your identity, empty out your bank accounts, charge thousands of dollars worth of goods to your credit card, or expose every little strange thing you do on your computer that you thought no one would ever find out about, unless you pay their ransom.

Scary huh?

Also notice that those Get Famous recolours I made don’t say that they actually require Get Famous? Why is that a problem, you say? For most people it’s not, you see “Get Famous Recolours” and you automatically know you need Get Famous to use them, but what about people who are new to using CC and don’t know that for my recolours to work you need the pack they came from? Yeh, that’s a problem, because that particular download is one of those ones that leads straight to SimFileShare:

It leads directly to the merged file, which is NOT the only file available for download in that set, just the largest. But no one who finds my content on Simsdom will ever know that will they? Nor will they read the part of the download page that clearly states Get Famous is required to use the recolours.

I hear you saying “But adblockers are a thing”. Yes they are, but that doesn’t solve the issue of them linking straight to the file. And also, here’s what happens when you try to download something from Simsdom with an adblocker enabled:

You’re forced to wait 180 seconds before the download button appears. THREE WHOLE MINUTES in which you cannot move from that page or the counter will stop, and it will only restart when you go back to that page and stay there for the entire three minutes. Even Adfly isn’t that gross.

So, all of that isn’t enough to discourage you from using this vile site you say? Well, let me introduce you to the person/people who run the site. There are plenty of examples floating around Tumblr of how disrespectful, arrogant, immature, and disturbing the owner/s are (just search for “Simsdom” and you’ll see) but here’s just a few posts showing “receipts” of what happened to creators when they ask for their content to be removed from the site: Here,  here, and here.

They have threatened to doxx several creators, tried to blackmail others, threatened to shut down some people’s sites, and even actually refused to remove people’s content unless they say “please”; as though these creators are six year old children who need to learn a lesson for not wanting THEIR content on someone else’s website!

All of this was said AFTER they made a post on their Tumblr saying they would respect creators wishes to not have their content on their site. I myself had a run-in with them as well but I don’t have the receipts because as soon as they finally agreed to remove my content (after almost 4 days of arguing with them and being threatened several times) they blocked me... and they continue to share my content to this day. That’s part of the reason why my motivation to create has been so low lately; I know its just going to end up over there, locked behind a paywall making money for these disgusting people and tricking simmers into thinking they have to pay to access my stuff.

But back to the story! Once they realised 99% of Tumblr creators — the people they get most of their content from — were going to ask to have their creations removed however, they changed their mind and instead started refusing to remove content. In fact, if you go to their website and use the contact form and choose the option “Remove my Content” they literally ask if you are Tumblr creator or not, and if you say you are, this is what you get:

And that “Our Rights here” link? That leads to this nonsense that literally contradicts itself with almost every single sentence:

“Creations can’t be uploaded without the creators permission... but we do not need permission to share your creations” “Feel free to contact us to ask to remove your content... but actually don’t bother contacting us asking to remove your content because we won’t” “SimsDomination is a free website... We don’t steal any content... *literally has other people’s free content locked behind a paywall and charges people membership fees to remove said paywall*”

And as for the EA terms part... I have news for you Simsdom, YOU are the only one breaking EA’s terms of use by putting content behind paywalls. I’m an EA Game Changer, I have actually read the terms of use AND spoken at length on the topics of earning revenue from CC, and why paywalls/memberships/exclusives are against EA’s terms of use with the Sim Gurus, have you? Didn’t think so.

If you had, you’d realise that we are allowed to earn revenue from our CC by having ads on our blogs/sites provided they aren’t deceptive — you know, like that ad with the big blue button you have that shows up on every single page of your site — and don’t lead to anything malicious, which yours do. I clicked several of the ads on your site and they all either lead to disgusting 18+ websites, started producing ransomware pop ups like I described earlier, or tried to download a mysterious file called setup.exe to my computer (which was most likely a trojan as well). We are also allowed to earn revenue via donations and Patreon early access systems provided the content is also made available for free to the general public within 14 days.

We are not, however, allowed to lock content behind Patreon exclusives, memberships and paywalls such as Adfly; which is exactly what you are doing. Like Adfly, you are not only potentially exposing underage children to 18+ content and risking the safety of people’s PCs, but you are also forcing them to wait to click a link and charging membership fees to avoid having to wait to download said content that isn’t even yours; content that you have been asked REPEATEDLY to remove. That is the very definition of a paywall. It is NOT the same as Pinterest or Facebook AT ALL, they might have ads but they aren’t malicious and they do not force people to wait to view content.

- UPDATE - 

In reference to Simsdom’s response to this post, this is probably one of my most favourite Simsdom lies, because it never changes but it’s so easy to prove false! “Users don’t need to pay to download any content and don’t need to wait to download them” Oh really? Shall we take a look at your site on the old SimilarWeb that you love so much?

How strange. If you don’t make people wait, then why do you need adfly? And if no one has to pay, then why do you need premium memberships to get rid of the ads and wait time you don’t have? Odd.

Also, lets talk Adsense. I never said I had a problem with you having ads on your site; I said I had a problem with the TYPE of ads on your site. If you seriously don’t think your ads are in any way harmful, I’d suggest you take another look at your Adsense, because either it’s been hacked or you seriously don’t know what you’re doing. Oh, but that’s right, “Google will never display suspicious ADs“... Mmm hmm, you just go right on believe that. Yeh, it’s definitely not possible for Google to be hacked... Nope, definitely not.

Also, if you use your Adsense revenue to pay for your site.... what happens to the extra? Because based on your SimilarWeb page I can take a rough guess at how much you earn every month through Adsense alone and there’s no way your site costs that much to run. For that matter, where does all the extra revenue from Adfly, Short.st and this mysterious “other” go? And all the revenue you get from your premium subscriptions that you totally don’t charge people money for?...

Is that fish I smell?

You are not doing anyone any favours here, so stop pretending that you’re in this for anything other than money. Stop sharing content you’ve been asked REPEATEDLY to remove/not share and breaking EA’s and many creators TOUs!

If you’ve managed to make it this far, congrats lol I know this has been long and probably boring but thank you for taking the time to read the whole thing. All this post was meant to do was explain why people should not support Simsdom, and why I’m so disappointed in other Game Changers for promoting it, but it kind of got away from me a little.

Oh well, now you know what Simsdom is and why I will NEVER support them or willingly allow my content to be shared on their site. And if you do decide to still use their site, just... please be careful. My content will always be free and safe to download, just like the majority or CC creators here on Tumblr. Don’t pay for something you can get for free from the original source.

Also, if you’re looking for a Lana replacement (aka a good CC finds blogs that isn’t shady af like Simsdom) check out @maxismatchccworld!

- UPDATE -

This isn’t in relation to anything specific, just the situation as a whole. It seems Simsdom has just removed the search box from their website completely:

I’m sure it was totally legit reasons and not at all because they didn’t want anyone searching for their own content on the Simsdom website. Just like it wasn’t for that reason the last time too...

[keyofjetwolf]

Are you responsible for the dysfunction of others?

WELP CHAPTER 12 ASSURES US WE’RE NOT SO WE’RE DONE HERE

Ah, if only. Welcome to “INT. SUB”, which I once again love as a title for the MANY RIDICULOUS LEVELS YOU HAVE TO GO FOR THIS SHIT. We wind up with this episode declaring itself a ship in a bottle (”bottle ship”, if you will, MAN HOW DEEP IS THIS RABBIT HOLE), which is shorthand for an episode style that is typically slower-paced and character-rich. And a bunch of other things that don’t entirely translate into animation, but which the show has fun with as both a contradiction (the framework requiring two guest-star actors) and going directly with type (essentially “recolouring” BoJack as BoBo the Angsty Zebra) (which then itself becomes ridiculous as we have “Emperor Fingerface” and “Tangled Fog of Pulsating Yearning in the Shape of a Woman”) (did I mention I loved this fucking episode?)

And it’s just the first of MANY meta jokes that make up the episode premise, including but not limited to the entire exchange about the two wives’ interweaving stories. Which, yes, I will in fact show you because it was fucking amazing and if nothing else I ever say on this show convinces you to watch it, please let it be this.

Dr. Indira: Ugh, I’m sorry, I feel like I’m hogging all the conversation.

Mary-Beth: There’s definitely more to your story than mine. Mine’s more like a secondary story. A B-Story, if you will.

Dr. Indira: I have a feeling it will continue to offer a light alternative as my story gets increasingly serious.

Mary-Beth: Let’s continue to switch back and forth between our stories, pausing at their most interesting moments. That feels like the most natural way to have a conversation.

I fucking HOWLED.

But, fun as all this is (IT IS), it’s not actually what the episode is about. What we have is more BoJack, more Diane, and That Moment.

How do you make it right, when you’ve made it so wrong, you can never go back?

But I actually don’t want to spend a lot of time and space on BoJack in my discussion about this episode, in large part because there’s nothing really new to say. There’s things he does, of course, and things he doesn’t do. He’s small and selfish and petty. He’s BoJack, in other words, he’s entirely everything we’ve come to expect, and there’s nothing in “INT. SUB” that actually gives us anything new to work with. (ANOTHER UNDERCUT OF THE EXPECTED PREMISE BY THE WAY.)

What’s actually interesting here is Diane, and the morass of shit we see her wade through. It’s as fascinating as it is frustrating, to watch these characters KEEP FUCKING UP.

She starts out so well! The title of the therapist’s book is the joke, but in as much as it’s so on the nose. Diane has a septic tank of her own shit to work through, and the sooner she can pull herself out from all of BoJack’s garbage, the sooner she can focus there. She takes those first steps! She sets boundaries with BoJack, When he ignores them, she enforces them. Good moves, all!

Aaaand then it flies off the fucking rails.

I’m not entirely sure what I think are Diane’s ultimate motivations. I know damn well she doesn’t either. I mean, “dealing with BoJack” is root cause of madness enough in and of itself, but that’s not exactly new for her. I’ve been tossing a few ideas back and forth since finishing the episode, and I’m still not sure where I come down on it. COME WITH ME WHILE I TRY TO TALK IT OUT I SUPPOSE

So we have BoJack and the death of his mother. BoJack is being intensely BoJack about it, as you might imagine.

“...because I am a famous actor, not because my mom died.” Repeatedly, he opens conversations with “Hey, did you know my mom died?” (twice, at least, he does it to Diane), but he insists he doesn’t want to talk about it and becomes his usual, aggressive asshole self if challenged about why he keeps bringing it up, then. As always, BoJack wants the love and care and sympathy, but not the actual solving of the problem.

Like I said up top, nothing new to learn here.

So why am I mentioning it? Because, as with BoJack himself, this is all a smoke screen. This is an actual, legit thing BoJack is attempting -- in his absolutely terrible way -- to get help with, but what Diane keeps focusing on in her therapy is the tape, which has “gotta be bad” ...

Diane, much like BoJack, isn’t looking at the ACTUAL problem ACTUALLY there that she could ACTUALLY fix, she’s reaching for a wound that she shouldn’t, by rights, even know exists.

You know you’re in for a fun time when you’re defending BOJACK, but this is his fuck-up and his shame. It’s for him to choose to tell Diane or not. (Penny, of course, can say whatever she wants to whoever she wants and all the power to her, but that isn’t what happened here.) It’s not Diane’s responsibility to wrestle it out of him, but more, it’s not her RIGHT.

Which is what makes the use of BoJack’s mother’s death so fucking brilliant. THE WHOLE TIME IT’S RIGHT THERE. Something he is repeatedly, publicly acknowledging, and if Diane’s primary desire were to help him, well, there you go. But she doesn’t, not really. What she wants is to know what he did, or to feel important because he told her, or feel better about how fucked up she is because BoJack will always be worse, or...? Again, I’m not entirely sure where I’m coming down on this. But Diane wants to know, and her reasoning has little to nothing to do with anyone but herself.

Which, of course, is why this absolutely fucks her up.

So what does Diane do? She abuses her insight and her power to rip someone apart, to hurt them and make them feel small, so she can feel big by comparison.

SOUND FAMILIAR??

What absolutely GRIPS me about how this is all falling down is the way there are no absolutes. What BoJack did is indefensible. It’s meant to make you hate him, it’s meant to make you feel sick. If you cheer when bad things happen to him, particularly as a result of his near-actions with Penny, that’s okay! The show basically sends every viewer a handwritten invitation to do just that.

But Diane uses all that. Even without knowing the specifics, she uses the information she has to hurt him, because he hurt her, and when he’s standing there, in front of the crew and the cameras, playing out a scene that’s not QUITE what happened, but close enough?

Gods help me, I FEEL BAD FOR HIM.

When I finally reach the end of the series and the credits are rolling on the last episode, I think more than anything, that’s what will stay with me. There are no absolutes. Nobody is 100% right or 100% wrong, nobody is 100% good or 100% bad. Each character simply IS, and it’s what they do, from moment to moment that matters.

Diane isn’t responsible for the dysfunction of others. But she IS responsible for the dysfunction of herself.

How are you going to make it right, Diane, when you’ve made it so wrong, you can never go back?

[crusherthedoctor]

Sonic Villains: Sweet or Shite? - Part 4: BLACK DOOM

There are some villains I like. And there are some villains I don’t like. But why do I feel about them the way I do? That’s where this comes in.

This is a new mini-series of mine, in which I’ll be going into slightly more detail about my thoughts on the villains in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and why I think they either work well, or fall flat (or somewhere in-between). I’ll be giving my stance on their designs, their personalities, and what they had to show for themselves in the game(s) they featured in. Keep in mind that these are just my own personal thoughts. Whether you agree or disagree, feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions! I don’t bite. :>

Anyhow, for today’s installment, we'll be helping the brave-hearted hero take on the black-hearted evil as we discuss the alien threat of Shadow the Hedgehog's spinoff, and champion Dr. Claw impressionist: Black Doom.

The Gist: Remember Shadow? Thought he died? Well he didn't apparently, as he was discovered by Rouge in one of Eggman's compounds like it was no big deal. Though he was generous enough to help out with fighting bad guys alongside Rouge and the rejected E-Series juggernaut, E-123 Omega, there was one thing that was troubling him. Namely, he couldn't remember a goddamn thing outside of his name, his abilities, and possibly his favourite colour.

“Maybe it's the dead girl I just thought of... Wow, maybe I DON'T have amnesia.”

So one day Shadow was contemplating who he was, reasoning that sitting on his ass would be more beneficial than actually asking the other characters for information on the subject. When suddenly, right on cue, a bunch of aliens fell from the sky and started asserting their bad guy dominance via fucking shit up.

“We remembered to take the parachutes with us, right?... right...?”

The Ultimate Lifeform was initially unconcerned about something that he probably would have sorted out without a second thought if he were actually in-character, but his undivided attention was soon caught by the presence of the alien leader, Black Doom. This fellow, who already knew Shadow on a suspiciously familiar basis, made the benevolent promise that if Shadow were to find the Chaos Emeralds for him, he in turn would help him discover the truth of who he is, and maybe give him the extra cash to buy a PS4 or something.

“If he says the blue hedgehog is evil... then like it or not, I have to believe him.” - Knuckles the Echidna

Things from here onwards... got complicated. Due to the nature of Shadow's game, you could go through all sorts of expertly constructed paths depending on whether you felt like being a heroic gentleman, a villainous swine, or somewhere in-between. This meant that one moment you could be up in space, figuring out how Black Doom was involved in your past, then the next minute you're back on Earth, questioning if you're an android made by Eggman. The progression of Shadow's story was - in a word - tangled.

That said, we do find out some pretty important things thanks to Doom. About 80% of that is what we already knew in Sonic Adventure 2: scientist creates Shadow, girl makes friends with Shadow, bang bang girl is dead, bang bang scientist is executed. But if you felt it wasn't enough for Shadow to be a biological creation made by a kindhearted scientist who eventually went apeshit over his granddaughter's death via the incompetent military and subsequently concocted a devilish (and loophole-filled) plan to take everyone with him posthumously... well, get ready, because it turns out he's part alien too!

How is this so? Bad writing. As it turns out, Professor Gerald Robotnik made a deal with Black Doom prior to Shadow's completion. He needed that extra spicy flavor to make the Ultimate Lifeform worthy of that title, so he figured making a deal with Literally Satan™ was morally and logically sound. And we're supposed to believe this was before he went insane.

“Maybe he'll renounce his evil ways if I wear these fuzzy blue slippers in front of him.”

Gerald wasn't completely braindead however, as he created the Eclipse Cannon to do away with the Black Arms in the event that they turned out to be moustache twirling fiends. Still makes you wonder why he made the deal in the first place though, seeing how he had many other options to choose from in a universe filled to the brim with sources of power and/or immortality.

Also, making a giant cannon in space is dangerous.

Someone could use it for malicious purposes.

Which is exactly what happened.

Twice.

It happened in this very game, even.

By the alien it was supposed to be used against.

“Thanks for the free weapon, dumbass.”

Say what you will about Eggman's mistakes, at least his goofiness gives him an excuse.

Anyway, Shadow is naturally distraught about being the son of Literally Lucifer™, but he decides to stick it to his dad and kills him in a climactic battle anyway. Sonic and chums would have helped, but they got taken out of commission via Doom's paralyzation gas, which was never brought up at all before this point and was clearly only set up so that Shadow could be the only one to save the day. You would think everyone else WOULDN'T be affected since they DON'T have Black Arm DNA inside them, but what do I know about deus ex machinas programmed by actual aliens.

“You all failed. I didn't say Black Doom Says.”

So Shadow defeats Literally Beelzebub™, and subsequently uses the Eclipse Cannon to destroy the Black Comet, the aliens' home domain, before deciding to put his past behind him once and for all. We're thirteen years on, and we haven't seen a single Black Arm since then, so we can safely conclude that Shadow drove an entire species to extinction. Hurray!

What NOW, Attenborough?

The Design: Doom's design is looking a bit wise, man.

*seal laugh*

“One, two, three! THREE fingers! Three, two, one! ONE dimension for my character! Ah! Ah! Ah!”

I mean, credit where it's due, at least it's its own thing and not a recolour of another character in the same franchise, even if he did steal a page from NiGHTS. But on the whole, it's not a great design for a Sonic villain, because he doesn't even look like a Sonic villain. He looks as though he could have jumped out of any run-of-the-mill product involving demons, aliens, or demon aliens.

His Devil Doom form is not much better.

Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry™ Series

When the only impression Doom's design leaves me with is the question of how he gets his head through small doors, you know it's not looking good.

The Personality: He's evil.

And he's evil.

He's also evil.

By the way, he's evil.

Not a lot of people know this, but between you and me, he's evil.

And you know what else? He's evil.

Evil.

Yeah, there's not a lot to say here. Shockingly enough, the villain they decided to name Black Doom doesn't have much of a personality beyond his villainy. While there is a hint that he wants to expand his race, he's mainly in it for the evulz. About the closest thing to him having a trait outside of that is the curious implication that he doesn't know what lightning is.

The Execution: Black Doom is presented as a serious villain, but you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise, because everything about him is completely half-hearted. His design is generic, his lines are full of tired cliche after tired cliche, he doesn't really do an awful lot outside of commanding Shadow's actions, and his voice is less “scary and imposing” and more “I smoke twenty a day”. They tried so hard to create someone so serious, yet they ended up doing the opposite and made one of the most unintentionally brilliant comic relief characters in the entire franchise.

“Oh no. He teleported me to some ruins. This is suffering.”

And yet, because of that... I actually can't bring myself to hate him. Whereas villains like Mephiles and Eggman Nega simply annoy me with their own issues, Black Doom is so one-dimensional, so transparent, so accidentally comical in his attempts at being cool, that I can't help but have an ironic fondness for him. Granted, it probably helps that he actually is regularly mocked by everyone and never gained a massive undeserved fandom like Mephiles and Nega did, but still. You really would be forgiven for assuming that Doom is a masterful parody of one-note villains.

But I'm not blind to the reality. He's not a masterful parody. He really was intended to be cool, badass, menacing, and everything he ended up not being. Objectively, he's a failed concept, and while I personally believe that Shadow's backstory as established in canon was messy from the beginning, the inclusion of aliens nonetheless complicated it even further, and it's highly unlikely that Shadow will be living down the events of his spinoff in-universe or otherwise, all thanks to Ten Packs a Day Man.

He's a shit father, is what I'm saying.

Crusher Gives Black Doom a: Thumbs Down!

[utility-cavities]

Hey so you really like combiners, but whats ur take on the RID15 stunticons?

(ok not really but I have a lot of issues so it’s a lengthy thing behind the cut) Also probably some minor spoilers for season 3.

Their potential is pretty much wasted and the whole combiner thing is pretty much extra toyetic beeshit but frankly from what I’ve seen that’s an issue with RiD as a whole rather than the Stunticons specifically.

I’ve never been fond of replacing combiner team members but in this it at least makes sense, however visually the Stunticons are rather boring recolours of each other, (which might be more understandable from toy manufacturing standpoint but still) and I keep struggling to visually differentiate between Heatseeker, Slashmark and even Heatmark (though again this is an issue with RiD as a whole which is bit baffling since colours should be the easiest thing to create differences) and though it makes Menasor look more coherent, I still would have preferred the hilarious mish-mash of parts/colours a’la G1 since it would actually fit storywise what with the changing team members and all (if TFwiki is to be trusted). Also their proportions are really.. frustrating from art standpoint goddamn them compensation pauldrons.

As characters I like them individually quite a bit actually but storywise they aren’t really cohesive as they’re kinda retro-actively-ish informed to be much bigger threat than they ever manage to be, their actions don’t enforce the info given and they end up acting like the common one thought pony Con of the Week with the whole borderline delusional “we must conquer all the roads of Earth” non-plan. I mean I could go that the four Stunticons wouldn’t question that plan but you can’t tell me that Motormaster, who has been established to DESTROY A SOLAR SYSTEM WITH MENASOR, and has been at this for probably millions of years would really think that a “king of the road” rally-title would be literal??? And that any sort of planetary territory holding is possible with five people even though they also have a spaceship(???) that they just don’t use? (In same vein, how would Dragstrip rise up in the ‘organization’ when it’s just five of them, who would he even go past in rank? Slashmark?) Same as the inconsistency of Combiner mentalities bothers me since it’s not clear what exactly is being whether a combined robot has a separate personality or is just one robot controlling others, and how would that even work when the limbs are not really aware of what’s happening, but I admittedly haven’t seen all of RiD so it’s possible I’ve missed that. STILL. It’s handwaved pretty hard.

Basically I’d preferred if they had either been allowed to be proper villains (if there’d be someone who’d threathen to reveal their existence to humans to demand shit, it’d be these guys) OR they’d just been common throwaway villains without the combining thing, which is how they were written so it’s possible the combiner thing was had to be added on top of it because corporate. Honestly I also have more issued with Ultra Bee because it really farts out on a lot of teambuilding plot possibilities (not that any of that would stick in the next episode) and the coolness factor of a combiner drops when rather than being bunch of small bots against a large enemy its two same sized bots doing fisticuffs… Since RiD won’t even let them fight anywhere interesting, which is why Stunticons blowing their cover so they end up having a combiner fight in a city would have been really neat but alas.

OK THIS HAS BEEN REALLY NEGATIVE but I really like Menasor and his tics, Motormaster’s ass made out of tires (keeping that Cliffjumper legacy alive, thank you), Heatseeker’s car mode bellyflops, the fact that Dragstrip has some personal goals, and a lot more, but just regret the creators couldn’t do what they probably set out or wanted to fully do with the Stunticons. Also the potential on filling up the times pre-Prime up to RiD is like… sooo good, we’ve been talking about it with a friend and if I just had the capacities I’d so make a long comic about that. You will more than likely end up seeing more than few of my headcanons regarding the RiD Stunts eventually.

[evilisk-played]

DQH2 Speedrun Commentary Part 01: Tutorial Section / First Trip to Accordia

(Covered in this part: the prologue fight, the tutorial fight, the Battle for Harba, the Night Clubber fight, the first open world segment, the Bandit fight and the first trip to Accordia)

Pick Your Hero (00:00)

Before the game starts, you have to make a choice: do you pick Lazarel or Teresa as your main character? 

If you’re speedrunning the game, Lazarel should be your choice.

In regular gameplay, this choice doesn’t matter at all (there are no drastically different story sections depending on who you pick, and both characters are functionally the same).

In a speedrun, Lazarel has *enough* of an advantage over Teresa in the tutorial section of the game that he’s the better pick. In the tutorial, you’re stuck with both characters’ starting weapons, and of the two options, the Twin Swords is better to have. It’s better almost purely because of its higher DPS compared to the Sword and Shield, though the moveset also has a bunch of extra time saving tricks too.

System Settings (00:10)

I made a stupid mistake here. Please, please, please make sure you switch “Coup de Grace Cutscenes” to Off. It’s a speedrun, it should be obvious that you’ll want to save time anywhere you can.

Online Settings (00:15)

Turn Online Features to off. Seriously, don’t have it on. Unless you’re going for an “Online Feature on” run, don’t leave it on. It’s cheating otherwise (because of the daily boosts like “extra gold when killing enemies” or “extra XP when killing enemies”)

Control Method (00:16)

Don’t pick quick lol

Camera Settings (00:17)

It is very, very important to put [Camera] Distance to 3. The default camera in Dragon Quest Heroes 2 (and also Dragon Quest Heroes 1) is unbearably close and also makes it hard to notice your surroundings.

= = = 

Before I talk about gameplay, it’s important to note that in Dragon Quest Heroes 2, you can make dialogue come out faster by pressing circle and / or down on your d-pad. You can also skip cutscenes (if applicable) by pressing the start button. Keep these in mind, there is a lot of dialogue and cutscenes to be skipped in this game.

= = = 

Knight Terror (00:35)

Right off the bat, you can do me using some “Attack > Dodge > Attack > Dodge” loop with Lazarel. This is one of the perks of having the Twin Swords moveset. I think the slash attack is called “Attack 2″ in-game but we will be referring to it “C1″ (like in MUsou games).

Anyway, this “C1 > dodge loop” is a big time saving trick in Dragon Quest Heroes 2. When you’re in battle (or “unsheathed”) your movement speed is much slower than if you’re running, unfortunately, though you can’t run if you’re unsheathed. This loop with Twin Swords!Lazarel is one of the ways you can make yourself move faster during battles (though TS!L is not the only character with their own movement trick).

On to the actual gameplay: all you need to do to clear this section is kill the Knight. The best way to do this is like in the video: use the dodge loop to get close, then go C1 > cancel into attack 1 string > C3 > C1

C3 is that string where Lazarel thrusts a whole bunch of times. All you have to do is move to the boss’ right side while doing this attack string. Attacking this way forces the boss to constantly shuffle towards you (if you attack it head on, it won’t shuffle and will instead try to attack you). Do this until the boss is stunned, then wail on the boss again. That’s all there is to it.

= = = 

Basic Training With Captain Healix (01:20)

This section is pretty self-explanatory, so I’m just gonna use this section to talk about a few things I’ve tested in this part of the game.

First off, until you follow all of Healix’ instructions, your tension gain will be very slow. Your tension gain is also capped off at about 60% until you’ve followed all of Healix’s instructions. Also, during the portion where you have to use special attacks, you can cancel Multislash into Cold Fission into Multislash over and over and over. The game will give you infinite MP for that part (though the game will also not proceed until you’ve stopped using skills).

= = =

Baptism of Fire Part 1 (03:16)

During the first section of the fight, I don’t use the full Attack 1 string for Lazarel. I do this because doing the full string pushes enemies away from you, and doing this actively wastes time (you need to be building up tension and killing enemies to progress the section). Generally, I like to go straight into the wave in the middle, and then use Cold Fission on goons that appear from the sides. 

When you get a certain amount of Tension, you’ll activate an exchange that can’t be skipped (at around 03:51). Until that conversation is done, you can’t get max tension (which is what’s needed to progress to the next section. So if you’re near max already, don’t bother killing anything else. Wait near the gate, wait for the exchange and then once it’s done, build up that final 1%

Baptism of Fire Part 2 (04:16)

...I didn’t follow my own advice about being at the gate, but whatever. As soon as the cutscene is skipped, go immediately into High Tension, skip through the text and then immediately activate your Coup de Grace. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll realize that the Coup de Grace animation played out in full; this is because the Coup de Grace option works as “the first time it activates, it shows the full cutscene; every other instance gives you a shortened version.

As soon as the Coup de Grace lands, you’re just waiting for the forced dialogue. At this point, I like to charge up Lazarel. To time this perfectly, you want to start charging around the point the soldier says “And most of the townspeople have been evacuated to safety!” (at around 4:54). This charge will help build a little extra tension for the next part.

= = =

Welcome to the Club! (05:03)

While I messed up a bunch here, this boss fight ain’t exactly fast when you’re doing it “properly” either. I’m not gonna bother explaining all the bosses’ tells, because we’d be here forever if we did, and if you’re serious about running this game, you’ll learn pretty quickly how to fight this guy (since you fight recolours of this two other times). 

What I’ll mention is Multithrust’s super armour properties. You’ll notice a bunch of points where I’m not being staggered by the boss’ attacks, even though I’m clearly taking damage, that’s because Multithrust lets you tank hits while its animation is playing out. It doesn’t work on all of this bosses attacks (like for the butt stomp > shockwave attack, or the boss’ ground pummel that stuns you) and it’s also not ideal for all bosses (never do this against bosses with multi-hitting attacks, it’s a very fast way to die), but it’s a trick I use against this boss since you don’t have much options.

The only things worth mentioning are: make sure you have some MP leftover before you activate High Tension. Your Coup de Grace is gonna stun the boss, and having extra MP for extra damage is a smart idea. Also don’t die against this boss. You’ll have to replay this section AND the previous one if you do.

= = =

Greena Pastures (08:25)

Please, please make sure you activate the Zoomstone. I do it here, but I accidentally forgot to do it in one run, and I had to redo that run. Don’t be an idiot (like me)

= = = 

Bandits (09:19)

I feel this fight is pretty self-explanatory. Use that “C1 dodge loop” I explained earlier to get to the bushes and attack enemies before they can come out. Use Cold Fission if you have to, but for sake of getting a good time, you NEED to make sure you pre-emptively kill all of them.

 It’s worth noting that I was not slow at around 09:55; the game forces you to fight one of the two potential encounters, no matter how fast you are. I went for the leftmost bush, which forced me to fight the middle one. I’ve tried doing the reverse (middle first, left second) but you always have to fight one of those.

At 10:45, you see me at the perfect angle for seeing all of the bushes (it’s the angle where you can always see up to three bushes on screen at once). 

= = =

Bonus Ball Path (11:19)

So at around this time, you’ll notice me make a detour. This is *technically* slower than going straight for the gate. However, I found that making this detour is honestly kind of worth it. Following that path, you get a Bonus Ball (which is an item that doubles EXP for a short amount of time). Let me just say right now that you *absolutely* need it. In this speedrun, you’ll be severely under-leveled after a point, and having a Bonus Ball for that point is definitely worthwhile.

I will say though, even though Bonus Balls *are* worth it, I haven’t looked into the locations of these Balls enough, so there might be less out-of-the-way Bonus Balls to get (I know that there’s a chest with a Bonus Ball during a required segment of the Frozen Foothills).

= = =

Accordia - Achievements Place (13:27)

So there’s a place that gives you Mini Medals for achievements you complete. While it’s mandatory now, it’s not a place you’re ever forced to revisit later. I actually think it’s worth going back to for a few sections (like a certain area with Four Boss Fights). In that same building is a Vendor how accepts Mini Medals (though they’re not present here), a Knight who rewards you for numbers of enemies killed, and a Knight with an ongoing quest / route. On the first visit, the Route Knight gives you an Orb that increases your stats. He gives other items but aside from that first item, I’ve never explored his giveaways in a speedrun.

= = =