You must start to build one voxel at a time!
Posts made by Solstice
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RE: General Video Game Thread
So, in full transparency, I didn’t care for Alan Wake II because the plot didn’t grab me and the gameplay loop wasn’t quite my jam.
But holy hell it’s a gorgeous game. The dingy interiors, the oppressive way that the woods close in on what should be ‘wide open’ levels make it feel claustrophobic in a way that really works for a horror setting. I didn’t feel relieved to be outdoors, I felt uneasy. It’s got such a cohesive art design that I really need to give kudos.
And that one level (I’ll just be vague here since spoiler tags are being a butt, but you know. The one with lots of video.) was just so out there and different that I was giggling throughout. Such a fun idea, and brings to mind similarly freaking weird portions of the Max Payne franchise.
A lot here to like.
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RE: General Video Game Thread
A similar note: I cannot stand when games micro-update and it breaks all of my mods.
Beat Saber, I swear to god I do not care that you just added a new Fall Out Boy DLC that I can buy for $9.99 or whatever, let me get my library of like 400 modded songs back.
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RE: On PvP and permanent injuries
To your point, I do think that one of the most important things is to be absolutely transparent about what is acceptable. Codified into the documentation, warned about in character generation. At that point, you’re consenting to an RP-PVP experience, and know what to expect.
Now, another thing that comes to mind in a PVP-allowed environment are things that are harder to control. That typical host of other baggage such as extremely vindictive and insular groups that can torment players that they dislike, gang up on newbies to control any ingame resources, and pressure IC actions due to the fear of character loss.
That’s some people’s jam, or else EVE Online, Rust, Ark: Survival Ascended, etc wouldn’t be a thing.
I don’t know if I’d be up to the task of policing it.
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RE: General Video Game Thread
@GF said in General Video Game Thread:
Sephiroth didn’t betray and murder Cloud’s father. He is Cloud’s father.
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RE: General Video Game Thread
Considering detoxing from the internet for this week to avoid the inevitable gleeful spoiling of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
I’ve been really enjoying the reimagining of the series, and I swear, if some random clickbait article throws a spoiler in the title (or a “clever” nonspoiler attempt, which is somehow worse), I am going to be so very grouchy.
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RE: A Constructive Arx Thread
Broadly, I think just about any premise makes for good content if the video is edited properly and the information being delivered is accurate with limited editorializing. Hell, if I can watch a whole-ass 2 hours of video about the evolution of line systems at Disney World when I have never even been, I’m sure just about anything can find an audience.
Charisma and editing skills go a long way.
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RE: A Constructive Arx Thread
And on an unrelated note:
I was discussing this with @kalakh - I so wish Arx had the budget of big story projects like Vox Machina or Critical Role, because this setting would make for such a kickass Graphic Novel or Animated Series. Argh!
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RE: A Constructive Arx Thread
I’ve had a few weeks to sit with my thoughts, and I must say that I’m actually really grateful that this story had a concrete, definite ending. I’ve never actually seen a story through to the extent that I have with Arx. There are inevitably some loose threads that never got tied off, but not every thread really needs to be.
Every other MU* I’ve been on has just sort of fizzled out like a friendship that’s run its course, but I’m really grateful that this ended up feeling story-shaped from beginning to end. It’s not an ‘ending’ for the characters, and I’m left to tantalizing daydreams about what happened after the curtain fell, and that’s a valuable thing to have.
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RE: Real Life Struggles/Support/Vent
Insurance is a joke, and I’m not laughing.
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RE: The Arx Secrets Thread
Sydney’s mother Clemensia was a famed Cardian performer. She fled from Cardia after a power grab gone awry, and Sydney was born in Arvum. She summarily walked out on Sydney. The man Sydney thought to be her father moved to Arx with her, where he acquired debt with the wrong people, got himself poisoned, and all of his debt fell to Sydney. Being barely into her teens, she got underwater on things quickly, and ended up all but owned by that debt. She took dives for coppers, scraped by, slept in bars and streets, and nearly froze to death in the winters.
Petraea Livy terrified her by gobbling up all the debt she owed to multiple lenders and telling her in no uncertain terms that she would be working for the Scales - and oh by the way, her real father was Cardian nobility who got her entire bloodline killed and Gaius Tullus (a rather potent Cardian noble), wanted her dead.
After a few years of proving herself running a mix of morally murky tasks, Petraea (sometimes prickly and often awkward woman that she was) revealed that she was Sydney’s half-aunt. That being indebted to her was never a real thing, just a way to keep her in sight. She also learned that one of her sisters who escaped Cardia self-immolated herself due to the powerful and uncontrollable nature of her fire magic. She met allies, and she formulated a plan with them to put an end to Marcus Sulla (and then Malar), both of whom were ever just out of reach of their designs. One of them went on to slay Gaius Tullus back in Cardia.
She made wonderful friends along the way, dated freely, laughed often, and drank just as often. She called everyone with more than one syllable by a nickname, wanted or not. She was afraid to tell people she loved them. She reveled in a good spar, but soon realized she hated seeing people die, and took every effort to limit casualties, something that with her bare-handed style she had every ability to dictate without limiting herself.
She broke after being in Bastion. She tucked her tail and ran sooner than anyone else when she saw how overwhelming the force was. She picked up the pieces, and they never really fit back in the right places, but she carried on. She trembled through many of the fights after that.
She fought with allies to obtain The Last Breath, one of the piece of the Will. She fought to defend Artshall. She fought to retake Bastion. She inherited Petraea’s wealth and name, became Sydney Livy, and donated almost all of it to the Lower Boroughs. She helped convince Cardian dragons to return to Arvum, she helped fight back the final assault of Azazel’s forces, and she stood shoulder to shoulder with her allies and defended the Thinnest Point. She said her goodbyes to those she loved, and flew forth back to Cardia to help finish the Civil War alongside Cynara, to whatever outcome.
Sydney was often a coward beneath the mask she wore around most people, but she found the courage to fight for what she cared about and who she cared about when it mattered. Her highest skills were Brawl and Empathy.
My sincerest gratitude to all of the lovely story scenes over the years from Sydney’s dearest friends and companions (Yes, if you suspect I’m talking about you, I am!), for the many people who enthusiastically accepted her being an antagonistic brat at the start, and for the rest for being patient with her, to the people who Sydney never got close to but I sure as hell noticed and adored, and last but not least all the storytellers, with special kudos to Herja, Crawfish, and Apostate. All of you helped sculpt something super meaningful to me.
Now I’m going to go roll Composure at Daunting.
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RE: TV series, news, recommendations
@GF My only real complaint is that there’s only 4 episodes out so far.
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RE: Real Life Struggles/Support/Vent
I’m collecting phobias like they’re pokémon, and I would like to fucking release a few into the wild, thanks.
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RE: Real Life Struggles/Support/Vent
@Jenn Quite the opposite of making it worse - this resonated really well with the sort of feelings I’ve been having, and I’m not even going to pretend that you didn’t make me have a good, productive cry.
Thanks so much for sharing your experience. You laid it all out so beautifully.
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RE: Real Life Struggles/Support/Vent
After spending the better part of the last four years successfully dodging it, I got COVID at the (mandatory) work Holiday Party this year, because they had the genius idea to have it be a self-serve buffet. Over a dozen of us popped positive from it. PaxLovid knocked it on its ass in relatively quick order, and I’m on the mend, but. The experience itself? Sobering.
Now it feels my thoughts are stuck on an endless cycle of the fragility of human life.
Feels like I just cannot break out of a funk of thinking about how if things were even a little different, that would have just been it. A life’s journey ending due to awkwardly mingling and eating cold spinach dip. And realizing that situations like these were the capstone for so many people… I just can’t. It breaks my heart.
So… yeah. It’s a grey day outside, and I just wish I could stop thinking about death.
And fuck brainfog, too, while I’m at it.
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RE: General Video Game Thread
Honestly, couldn’t have asked for a better way to end the expansion than Amir’Drassil. It’s one of the most respectful raids of peoples’ time in recent memory, and the barrier for entry is pretty low while the tippy top-end is brutal. Just a great, balanced experience.
Your group sounds like a particularly wonderful way to experience it!
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RE: Real life happy
I’ve been on benzos for my panic attacks for the last 20 years. They’ve been sedating and miserable but have been the only thing that have done the job. Worse, any temporary lapse in them meant I’d be a quivering pile of sobbing withdrawal.
With the help of a psychiatrist, we found something else that worked, finally. An anti-seizure med, of all things. Sure, why not. Not questioning it. It works.
And after a grueling stepdown process over the course of the last year, rife with mini-withdrawals, I’m finally fucking free of benzos.
And that feels just enormously great to say.