Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[ping]

17 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Is Novgorod an option? Create a world where Rus was united not by autocracy, but by medieval republicanism!

It's an option, and I believe the recent patch also introduced some specific mechanics for republican Russia as opposed to Tsarist Russia. It used to be that Novgorod forming Russia would automatically transform it into a monarchy, indistinguishable from a Muscovy- (or Ryazan- or Odoyev- or Tver- or Beloozero- or Rostov- or Yaroslavl-)formed Russia, so it's neat that that has been changed.

However, Muscovy is a lot more powerful than all those other Russian tags, oddly enough to no small part because they're fairly decentralised at the start of the game. They start with five small vassal states (Perm, Yaroslavl, Beloozero, Rostov, Pskov) and because every tag gets a small (but not insignificant at game start) base value for their income and army size, the total power of Muscovy and their little friends is very difficult to overcome. And because Muscovy will always want Novgorod's land (it's of vital interest), I don't think that you have a lot of time to prepare yourself against a Muscovite invasion when playing as Novgorod.

[Acacia Sgt]

3 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Is this a reference to some act of defenestration that I am not aware of? If so, for shame for one who considers themselves a history nerd.😆

Just a semi-joke regarding recent events. After all, there are those who might take offense that "glorious" Muscovy does not deserve to be "The Land of the Rus"

 

[Acacia Sgt]

Hmm, I only intend it to be a one-shot... but I'm tempted to write more, at some point in the future. I find the premise interesting enough to leave it at just a one-shot. Eh, who knows, time will tell...

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Just a semi-joke regarding recent events. After all, there are those who might take offense that "glorious" Muscovy does not deserve to be "The Land of the Rus"

 

Certainly the past is present right now over there. Differing Ukrainian and Russian narratives of the primordial golden days of Rus and its descent into a sort of Rus-ian warring states period have to be happening in the public-historical sphere.

 

2 hours ago, ping said:

It's an option, and I believe the recent patch also introduced some specific mechanics for republican Russia as opposed to Tsarist Russia. It used to be that Novgorod forming Russia would automatically transform it into a monarchy, indistinguishable from a Muscovy- (or Ryazan- or Odoyev- or Tver- or Beloozero- or Rostov- or Yaroslavl-)formed Russia, so it's neat that that has been changed.

However, Muscovy is a lot more powerful than all those other Russian tags, oddly enough to no small part because they're fairly decentralised at the start of the game. They start with five small vassal states (Perm, Yaroslavl, Beloozero, Rostov, Pskov) and because every tag gets a small (but not insignificant at game start) base value for their income and army size, the total power of Muscovy and their little friends is very difficult to overcome. And because Muscovy will always want Novgorod's land (it's of vital interest), I don't think that you have a lot of time to prepare yourself against a Muscovite invasion when playing as Novgorod.

Nice to hear Novgorod gets some love. Just a shame about the rough start. -But if it's all upfront for the challenge, then I'm guessing wouldn't take too long to reload and try again until the ambitious Moscovite despot sneezes and dies an early death or something which then creates an opening to change the historical narrative.

...Maybe I should start dipping my toes in Paradox games the next time they're inevitably on sale.😆

[Acacia Sgt]

A challenge, huh. I already had to deal playing Asturias in 769AD CKII startdate, with the Umayyad Blob below and RNG-Prone Charlie above.

Counting mods, it's pretty much Maddening difficulty being Mexico in Vic2 when the Manifest Destiny Horde of Hell comes knocking and you want to keep the land.

Edited May 17, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Saint Rubenio]

I have three chapters left of Engage. Time to spend three hours drawing instead.

Emboldened by all the kind praise you guys gave the Jade drawing, I decided to go ahead and draw six characters this time. Six Jeigans, to be specific.

It is not going well so far.

Vandad's face is just wrong. Jagen's nose looks like a dick. The sword is bent. The hands, always the hands. I hate it. I keep pressing ctrl + Z and nothing is happening, help

3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

Maybe another idea would be to unite Spain as Leon and see what happens.

Dew it. Por la patria, or something.

3 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

No, I mean, it's not about not knowing how to write it either. Just... actually write it.

Ah, I see. Well, hopefully it comes to you soon!

[ping]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Nice to hear Novgorod gets some love. Just a shame about the rough start. -But if it's all upfront for the challenge, then I'm guessing wouldn't take too long to reload and try again until the ambitious Moscovite despot sneezes and dies an early death or something which then creates an opening to change the historical narrative.

...Maybe I should start dipping my toes in Paradox games the next time they're inevitably on sale.😆

EU4 has a couple of those rough starts, most famously Byzantium (which fell in 1453 IRL, EU4 has 1444 as its start date), although I think the Byzantophile crowd among the player base always figures out some reliable ways to beat up the Ottomans. Never played them myself, but I think the general idea is to get a naval advantage, block the Bosporus so that the Otto's land troops can't get across, and hope that they don't get military access to walk around the Black Sea.

I think the most unreasonably difficult start ever is (or rather was) Sukhothai, a small vassal of the fairly powerful kingdom of Ayuthaya. The problem: Ayuthaya is a tributary of Ming China, which in EU4 mechanics means that the Ming will defend them if a non-tributary attacks them. As a vassal state, Sukhothai is completely incapable of becoming a tributary state (can't be subject to two overlords), so if you declare a war of independence, the Chinese would get involved. I say 'would' instead of 'will' because at some point, a patch made independence wars exempt from Ming's protection. With that, I'd reckon that Sukhothai is fairly doable - small vassals often have an easier time finding big friends than small independent states because one's overlord's enemies tend to be more willing to lend support.

21 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Dew it. Por la patria, or something.

Alternative proposition:

[Acacia Sgt]

Meanwhile I formed Spain in like, the 9th century during CKII and now it's ready to go through EUIV... someday...

[BrightBow]

Vester: It's an ordinary castle, defended by entirely ordinary men.

The entirely ordinary men:

 

[ping]

You can form Spain as Portugal (and I'm pretty sure it's an upgrade as far as national ideas go), too, although this particular campaign is an achievement run: All Blue - make sure that every European province is owned by a blue country, and Spain is unfortunately very yellow.

[Lightcosmo]

Thanks to @Interdimensional Observer I decided to pick up SA2B and mess with the Chao Garder starting a new Garden without transferring my better Chao from other memory cards. 

So far, things are going extremely well!

[Acacia Sgt]

JONATHAN! CHARLOTTE! JONATHAN! CHARLOTTE! JONATHAN! CHARLOTTE! JONATHAN! CHARLOTTE!

... I really wish they get ported someday...

[Interdimensional Observer]

7 hours ago, ping said:

EU4 has a couple of those rough starts, most famously Byzantium (which fell in 1453 IRL, EU4 has 1444 as its start date)

The solution is obvious- if you lose to the Ottomans ~50 ingame years pass and Constantine XI miraculously returns with an army of Powers led by a Seraph that is 99% invincible for as long as he continues to live.

Semi-related note, I decided to play some Civ 5 again. A very chill Standard-sized Immortal Oval French game.:

😁

Missed the Great Library, comes way too early to nab it. Paris wasn't coastal so I couldn't build the Sydney Opera House there. Parthenon was stolen from me too. Size 48 capital and still growing with a ~60 surplus of food. My second city (which had King Solomon's Mines) had: Oracle, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Angkor Wat, Notre Dame, Taj Mahal, Big Ben, Porcelain Tower. My one coastal city, the runt of the trio, had Sydney Opera House and the Hagia Sophia. Paris had got Borobudur, Broadway, CN Tower, Cristo Redentor, Eiffel Tower, Globe Theatre, Hanging Gardens, Louvre, Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, Sistine Chapel, Statue of Liberty, Temple of Artemis, and Uffizi. 22 Wonders all-in-all, in comparison to the 19 the rest of the world had to share.

-To be fully honest, I intentionally cooked the books by selecting the seven AIs with the lowest Wonder emphasis: Mongolia, Zulu, Carthage, Songhai, Denmark, Celts, and Polynesia.😉 I wanted to see the power of the City of Light, and on a higher difficulty level it's practically impossible to utilize in full force. This did keep me from getting the theming bonus from the Hermitage though, there was only one work of non-French art I could trade for and the Louvre needed it for that sweet City of Light + full Aesthetics 16 tourism bonus (much better than the usual 4/8).

The issue of my setup was the bellicose neighbors. A bunch of City-States got gobbled up, and I did a few reloads when I got invaded. Thankfully, Shaka is extremely easy to bribe, and the rest of war-hungry the map didn't like him either, so I could bribe them. Was never declared on once even after Ideologies rolled around, which is unusual. Boudica died early to Genghis, Harald got Shaka'ed, Kamehameha was done in by Dido. Askia was left with a single city after Shaka and Dido took him on, but amazingly they left a rump Songhai live. Shaka did a number on Genghis, and I concerned he was going to devour the entire map and I would have no choice but to fight him.😐 However, Genghis endured after some losses, and Dido stalemated Shaka even after he got aircraft. They were still at it dozens of turns later when I sneakily won (Autocracy vs. Order does that). Shaka had -69 Unhappiness in ideological pressure, yet the stupid AI bonuses meant his vast empire still was positive 18. I built a nuke at the very end to deter Shaka, who then oddly sold me all his uranium in an act of utter fear.

I tell myself to stop play Civ for a while after a wonderful match like that -but there are always other ideas.😆

 

3 hours ago, Lightcosmo said:

Thanks to @Interdimensional Observer I decided to pick up SA2B and mess with the Chao Garder starting a new Garden without transferring my better Chao from other memory cards. 

So far, things are going extremely well!

The best part of Sonic Adventure 2!😄 Why hasn't Sega given us a full-fledged Chao Garden sim in the decades since SA2? it's the biggest mistake Sonic has ever made, and that's saying a lot.🍹😛

Edited May 18, 2023 by Interdimensional Observer

[Armagon]

Staying up past my bedtime cause Tears of the Kingdom has me by the balls.

[ping]

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Missed the Great Library, comes way too early to nab it. Paris wasn't coastal so I couldn't build the Sydney Opera House there. Parthenon was stolen from me too. Size 48 capital and still growing with a ~60 surplus of food. My second city (which had King Solomon's Mines) had: Oracle, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Angkor Wat, Notre Dame, Taj Mahal, Big Ben, Porcelain Tower. My one coastal city, the runt of the trio, had Sydney Opera House and the Hagia Sophia. Paris had got Borobudur, Broadway, CN Tower, Cristo Redentor, Eiffel Tower, Globe Theatre, Hanging Gardens, Louvre, Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, Sistine Chapel, Statue of Liberty, Temple of Artemis, and Uffizi. 22 Wonders all-in-all, in comparison to the 19 the rest of the world had to share.

Yeah, Great Library is a matter of luck even on Emperor, and Parthenon means more bee-lining than it's honestly worth. It's not like your cities don't have anything to do around that age to begin with. The list of rival civs certainly was a double-edged sword, with Kamehameha being the only nice dude among them. Interesting to see Shaka to be so successful, my experience with him is usually that he falls behind in tech in the Renaissance or Industrial age.

[Saint Rubenio]

3 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

JONATHAN! CHARLOTTE! JONATHAN! CHARLOTTE! JONATHAN! CHARLOTTE! JONATHAN! CHARLOTTE!

Also the theme of the entire cast taking turns calling Charlotte a child.

3 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

... I really wish they get ported someday...

They really need to port the entire DS trilogy. Plus Aria. Or wait, didn't Aria already get ported or am I flipping out?

9 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Vester: It's an ordinary castle, defended by entirely ordinary men.

The entirely ordinary men:

 

Half the enemies in the Entirely Ordinary Fort are named, like Vester for crying out loud it's YOU that has entirely ordinary subordinates. You think he was just trying to make Alvina look bad because he's insecure about the fact that she's cooler than him?

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

Staying up past my bedtime cause Tears of the Kingdom has me by the balls.

You lot need more discipline, not even Berwick Saga ever got me to do such things.

...though that's probably because, unlike seemingly the entire young population of the world, I can barely function on less than six hours of sleep.

[Saint Rubenio]

I'm thinking, after Engage perhaps it'd be cool to replay New Mystery instead. See how the old favorite measures up against the new bad boy in town, now that the honeymoon period has passed and I've gotten a couple runs in for Engage. To be honest, Engage probably wins still, but 12's buttery smooth experience is a definite advantage compared to Engage's horrid loading screens. It'd be nice to play again a FE that doesn't waste my time.

Only question would be, how would I spice it up. All these runs and I still haven't done Krisless, Reclassless or Lunatic Reverse. Could do Reverse Recruitment too so the clerics and the Wolfguard exist, for a change. We'll see, we'll see.

[Lightcosmo]

7 hours ago, Armagon said:

Staying up past my bedtime cause Tears of the Kingdom has me by the balls.

I didnt need this mental image, thank you.

[Interdimensional Observer]

7 hours ago, ping said:

Interesting to see Shaka to be so successful, my experience with him is usually that he falls behind in tech in the Renaissance or Industrial age.

He was only five or so techs behind me when the random "list of how many techs everyone has researched" popped up near the end, second place. I think that was before the endgame post-Research Lab Great Scientist popping on my part. He did dispatch Harald while the Impis were relevant, although I think they were past their expiration date when he took crippled Genghis. Must've been the sheer mass of cities that compensated for his bare-minimum science emphasis- 3. And Shaka could've always rolled +2 to the trait, can't forget that unless you're Gandhi with nukes, there is always a pinch of behavioral randomization at play.

 

8 hours ago, Armagon said:

Staying up past my bedtime cause Tears of the Kingdom has me by the balls.

The joys of no-lifeing.😄

-Just don't EVER stop playing, else the possibility of you questioning what you've been doing with your existence might slam ya.😉

1 hour ago, Lightcosmo said:

I didnt need this mental image, thank you.

Better than witnessing LinkxGanondorf smut. HeroxVillain h-scene fanart has no appeal to me whatsoever, since intimacy should be consensually fun. Likewise, the CloudxSephiroth stuff I've bumped into is utter garbage, not helping that I find Sephy to be quite dull nowadays.

...Do the above images fix your brain?😜

 

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

..though that's probably because, unlike seemingly the entire young population of the world, I can barely function on less than six hours of sleep.

I stay up late and still get a good 6-8 hours every night

...because I don't have to wake up early whatsoever and can simply snooze on until 8 in the morning if I want to.😝 -Don't be like me.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

They really need to port the entire DS trilogy. Plus Aria. Or wait, didn't Aria already get ported or am I flipping out?

Aria of Sorrow is part of the GBA collection they did. Dawn of Sorrow its sequel is not.

Edited May 18, 2023 by Interdimensional Observer

[Lightcosmo]

15 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Better than witnessing LinkxGanondorf smut. HeroxVillain h-scene fanart has no appeal to me whatsoever, since intimacy should be consensually fun. Likewise, the CloudxSephiroth stuff I've bumped into is utter garbage, not helping that I find Sephy to be quite dull nowadays.

...Do the above images fix your brain?😜

[Acacia Sgt]

Well, I am making progress with my writing.

Though I still haven't settled on how to end the one-shot. I already have an idea on how... except it's two how's, and deciding which to use... yeah, gonna have to dwell on that. Well, I still haven't reached that point, so I have time... I hope.

[Lightchao42]

I like how Juna's response to learning that she just back talked the heir to the throne of the Empire is just "Eh?"

Cold Steel III Ch. 2

Spoiler

Ah, Crossbell. It feels like it's been only three weeks since I was here last! And Campanella's back, now the game is funny again.

One of the things I was wondering about going in is how they would explain why most of the important Crossbell characters aren't around. The answer appears to be that you only explore a limited area of Crossbell; so presumably Fran for example is still around, but you don't see her because you never visit the CPD building. Plenty of minor characters are here though: Oscar, Bennet, Ryu, Anri, Momo, Mimi, Pruna, Lenalee, Roy, Meiling amongst others, and also Becky and Linde. Come back with us to Thors Linde, we need a nurse!

As for what happened to the SSS after it was dissolved, Tio returned to Leman briefly and is now the head of Epstein's Crossbell branch. Noel was drafted into the Imperial army alongside Randy, while Lloyd is still in Crossbell but in hiding, presumably with Arios and KeA. Elie isn't mentioned, but I'm guessing she's also with Lloyd, and Rixia is either with him or back in Calvard.

As a side note,  Randy and Tio's voices sound pretty close to how I imagined them sounding. And I'm pretty sure I didn't know how "Leman" was pronounced until now...

 

On 5/15/2023 at 10:12 PM, Lightcosmo said:

Are you playing the PC version?

No, I'm pretty sure I don't have anything that run it.

On 5/16/2023 at 9:39 AM, Armagon said:

More and more that $70 is looking justified.

I can't wait to build Mechagodzilla to fight Ganon.

1 hour ago, Lightcosmo said:

I didnt need this mental image, thank you.

But that's not even the worst mental image Armagon gave us.

[Saint Rubenio]

56 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

stay up late and still get a good 6-8 hours every night

...because I don't have to wake up early whatsoever and can simply snooze on until 8 in the morning if I want to.😝 -Don't be like me.

Haha, well, if you have the possibility, why not?

5 minutes ago, Lightchao42 said:

I can't wait to build Mechagodzilla to fight Ganon.

If ever I get TotK, I will build a giant Garonbeard to fight Ganon.

[Saint Rubenio]

https://gamebanana.com/mods/444131

@Shrimpy -Limited Edition- They did it, they fixed Engage. Again.

Personally, it's a bit too late to use in this run. The only music I'd really change is the garbage enemy phase theme the paralogues use that doesn't even sound enemy phasey even though your units die horribly like in any other map. Still, very nice.

[Lightcosmo]

2 hours ago, Lightchao42 said:

I'm pretty sure I don't have anything that run it.

You're better off, it's buggy as heck on PC.

2 hours ago, Lightchao42 said:

But that's not even the worst mental image Armagon gave us

Well, that's true... But i still don't even want fo think about it!