Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Acacia Sgt]

Hmm, not gonna finish Chapter 15 tonight. Well, tomorrow, then.

[Acacia Sgt]

Okay, did all paralogues and quest battles. Will do the rest of Chapter 15 tomorrow.

[Acacia Sgt]

Hmm, I'd say. One thing I've never put much thought as I write TDatP is in regards to OC's. For the most part I was thinking I could write the whole thing with just the canon characters, and perhaps just assign minor roles should I need to actually make up characters. Like, say, the outpost captain during Chapter 1. But now I wonder if I could have recurring characters or just flesh them out more for their one-time appearances or so. Specially for the enemy side, because clearly the game didn't had enough recurring enemies who retreat after being defeated. Like, if I do start to make more use of OC's, it's not like I'd have one or two join Alear's party or anything of the sort (... maybe...?), but I still find interesting the idea of exploring situations that would require creating characters for them. Like, say...

Spoiler

One of Ivy and Hortensia's other half-siblings. We know they exist, but we only know they were driven off, with only Hortensia remaining thanks to her mother doing all the possible to make sure that happened. So most if not all must still be somewhere out there. But we never meet one. So I don't know, could be something to explore in my fanfic, perhaps.

Well, still got time to think about this. For now, I'll finish Chapter 4 first.... tomorrow, hopefully.

[ping]

So Quetzal's Muscovian Adventures caused me to boot up EU4 yesterday evening. Started a game as Aragorn, and five minutes later, as this tends to go, it was midnight.

(this looks really squeezed in the preview, I hope it won't be in the actual post)
(OK, still squeezed in the post itself, but it looks fine when you click it)

The latest patch added an event (or maybe an additional option to an existing event) that lets Aragon overthrow king and nobility and become a peasant republic. I suspect I had to do this on the current patch because right now the whole thing is a bit fucky in Aragon's favour, namely because you still get the same personal unions that a standard monarchist Aragon has access to.

• First, you start the game with a personal union over Naples. You'd think that after the Aragonese tossed their kingie into the Mediterranean, the standard line of succession would apply to the Kingdom of Napoli, but nope, some peasant from Catalonia named Èric is now the chief peasant in Aragon and the King of Napoli.
• And second, you still get the free personal union over Castile. To make Spain (much) more likely to happen, there's an event that basically copies the wedding between Ferrando and Isabel, except that in this timeline, the chief peasant of Aragon married... hopefully the widow of the previous king? Like, seriously, Castile was in a queen regency for a literal baby girl when the event happens.
  • (Note for occasional EU4 players - yes, normally Castile is wearing the pants in this PU, but if you're playing as Aragon, you get to be the senior partner)

So, the overall status is..:

• I did the standard "declare war on BYZ as soon as possible" strategy, which is honestly the meta for any reasonably-sized European tag. You get a hit to your stability for declaring a war without having a Casus Belli, but it's very worth because it completely ruins the Ottoman's game. In this particular case, the Ottos also declared on Byzantium when my war was still ongoing, so vassalising them turned that into a defensive war for me, which meant that I was able to call in my French ally. Unfortunately, they were quite busy killing Brits, so they didn't help all that much, and with the Ottomans getting to the (very powerful) Mil tech 4 wayyy ahead of me, I had to peace out with a pretty modest peace deal.
• Castile, joke nation that they are, lost an offensive war against Granada and Morocco and Tunis, but still before the Iberian Wedding event fired, so that's why Granada is a bit bigger than they are in 1444 and Galicia is on the map. They also sold a province to Navarra after that war because they were in debt and I guess their ruler had the Embezzler trait.
  • Speaking of Navarra, Aragon gets a free personal union over them, but it's not really worth the relationship slot. So I dropped that PU, Castile sold them a province, and then diplo-vassalised them. Which is quite nice for me, because Castile will most likely integrate them before I can click the "form Spain" button.
• I used Byzantium's CB to attack Epirus, who were only allied to Karaman, who in turn were only allied to Epirus and Cyprus. This made it an easy choice to make Karaman a cobelligerant in the war, which allowed them to call in Cyprus, but then allowed me to vassalise them without any extra cost.
• France rivalled me pretty soon, but I got Poland-Lithuania as an ally instead, who helped quite a lot to make the second war against the Ottomans (who were allied to Tunis and a smaller Caucasian tag with a difficult name) much less difficult. Poland and Lithuania were behind on Mil tech the entire time, but tech 5 isn't as big as tech 4. Plus, I was on par with the Ottomans in both tech and troop count, so the war as a whole was fairly one-sided. I was able to take all of Byzantium's cores, plus the two cores Karaman has on the Ottos at game start, plus two provinces in Anatolia to make sure I can control the Bosporus strait, plus a lot of money. Money is important.

Edited June 11, 2023 by gnip

[ping]

9 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

Wait...I can just do this?!

Huh, I think it became a bit cheaper recently, too. The "swap government form" button has been in the game since they introduced these government reforms, but I'm pretty sure that you used to lose like five reforms if you did. You're still behind a 1444 republic in terms of reforms because high Republican Tradition gives a bit bonus to reform progress (+100% at max, iirc), but the button is definitely a lot more "worth it" than it used to be.

I'm curious, do you still get a special Russian Tier 1 government reform if you go about it this way?

[Sidereal Wraith]

5 hours ago, Capt. Fargus said:

You live long enough, stuff like this kinda sticks with ya because you know it’s starts ringing true

  Reveal hidden contents

”What if the choice were between brother and friend? To choose one means abandoning the other. He would come to despise himself whatever his choice” 

~Oswin to Hector

 

 

[Saint Rubenio]

10 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

>Sommie getting doubled

Hey, I'm just testing! In actuality he will have stats befitting of him.

6 hours ago, Armagon said:

Tears of the Kingdom review

You know, it's kinda funny to read this not 12 hours after a friend tore the game to shreds and called it lazy and overrated. Not saying he's right, I mean, I've not played the game myself. The timing's just funny.

...And to be fair, he mostly did it to try and get me to play Dark Souls for the twentillionth time. He's been trying for years.

3 hours ago, gnip said:

Money is important.

You can't fight without your weapons!

[Codename Shrimp]

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

This is why I never settled down. Girls can be scary.

And he naturally thinks Adventure is the hottest of them all!

[Lightcosmo]

Does anyone know how X/Y/Z coordinates work?

Like, what determines whether or not it needs to be a positive for X or a negative for example?

Is the center just set at 0 and positive/negative go one way or the other?

Also, Z is up and down laterally, not the same as Y coords which are... also up/down. XD

[ping]

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You can't fight without your weapons!

You can't commit war crimes without paying your troops!

10 minutes ago, Lightcosmo said:

Like, what determines whether or not it needs to be a positive for X or a negative for example?

Is the center just set at 0 and positive/negative go one way or the other?

I don't know the context (and assuming the context is game modding, it wouldn't help me), but, generally speaking... yeah, what you say is correct, although one couldn't tell just from the table if zero is the centre of anything. All coordinate systems are arbitrary in the sense that the (0|0|0) point and the direction of the three axes can be choosen freely (...with the x/y/z axes orthogonal to one another unless you want to be weird about it). There's general conventions that "make sense", like defining the ground (or sea level, if applicable) as zero height, but nobody forces you to put the origin coordinate in the bottom left corner of the map.

[Armagon]

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

And to be fair, he mostly did it to try and get me to play Dark Souls for the twentillionth time. He's been trying for years.

My friend keeps trying to get me to play HuniePop since at least like 2018. So I can relate.

[Eltosian Kadath]

3 hours ago, Sidereal Wraith said:

He’s actually referring to Henry IV Part 2:

He quoted Hamlet a fair bit too, and possibly even Macbeth as well. Really he was randomly quoting Shakespeare, but the Hamlet quotes (like "get thee to a nunnery") were the most immediately obvious to me.

 

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

...And to be fair, he mostly did it to try and get me to play Dark Souls for the twentillionth time. He's been trying for years.

Why not give it a try, you might end up liking them. 

 

15 minutes ago, Lightcosmo said:

Like, what determines whether or not it needs to be a positive for X or a negative for example?

Is the center just set at 0 and positive/negative go one way or the other?

Also, Z is up and down laterally, not the same as Y coords which are... also up/down. XD

The 0,0,0 point is an arbitrary reference point, with +X being how far directly East of that point, -X being how far directly West of that point, +Y being how far directly North of that point, -Y being how far directly South of that point, +Z being how much higher in elevation of that point, and -Z being how much lower in elevation from that point.

You can think of it like directions in a way, so for instance as the first entry there starting from the 0,0,0 point you go West 8550 unit, then go North 3500 units, then increase the elevation by 405 units to reach that point.

[Saint Rubenio]

18 minutes ago, gnip said:

You can't commit war crimes without paying your troops!

Oh, the humanity...! I shouldn't need to pay my troops to commit war crimes. The fun of war crimes should be reward enough in itself.

17 minutes ago, Armagon said:

My friend keeps trying to get me to play HuniePop since at least like 2018. So I can relate.

HuniePop, huh. That's the one porn game, isn't it.

12 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Why not give it a try, you might end up liking them. 

Two friends have been trying to get me to try it for years. It's also their fault I've not tried it yet. They always make a point to confuse the shit out of me with the version situation. They say the remaster sucks, but then the prepare to die edition is no longer available, and I'd also need to patch it for it to even work, but it's the definitive edition for nebulous reasons, but sometimes they say the remaster's worse, not necessarily bad, and I wouldn't notice the worse aspects but they still tell me they're there just to give me a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that says "you're playing the bad edition".

The result is that Dark Souls is a game that I'd have to do homework to play, so I always get distracted with other, more easily set-up games and push it further and further back in time. Which is a shame, because one of them graciously gifted me DS3 years ago and I really enjoyed it. Only reason I didn't finish it was... again, their fault. They kept pushing me to play the DLCs. I tried the first DLC and dropped it because Friede is a shitty boss with too many phases to be enjoyable. Then I made it almost up to the end, but they forced me to play the second DLC and I dropped it on this dragon thingy because it was a shitty boss with too many phases to be enjoyable. Then I never came back lol

Dark Souls 1 wouldn't have this problem, I know this much, so I would probably quite enjoy it, but... again, how the fuck do I go about playing it? They've given me massive decision paralysis and it's just easier to play something else.

12 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

He quoted Hamlet a fair bit too, and possibly even Macbeth as well. Really he was randomly quoting Shakespeare, but the Hamlet quotes (like "get thee to a nunnery") were the most immediately obvious to me.

Wait till you see what he's called, it's actually amazing.

Edited June 11, 2023 by Saint Rubenio

[Armagon]

4 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

HuniePop, huh. That's the one porn game, isn't it.

There is an X-rated patch yes.

6 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

The result is that Dark Souls is a game that I'd have to do homework to play, so I always get distracted with other, more easily set-up games and push it further and further back in time.

You could always look into Bloodborne, Sekiro and Elden Ring if you just want to jump into one without doing homework. Though I imagine they recommend those too.

[Saint Rubenio]

3 minutes ago, Armagon said:

There is an X-rated patch yes.

Well, all I know about the game is that one time Youtube decided "you know what Ruben needs right now? To be jumscared with a porn game clip" and then I saw an anime girl yelling "do it for the pussy."

It was funny, I'll give it that.

3 minutes ago, Armagon said:

You could always look into Bloodborne, Sekiro and Elden Ring if you just want to jump into one without doing homework. Though I imagine they recommend those too.

Oh no, I've only heard them recommend Dark Souls. I'm pretty sure they didn't really try to talk me into Elden Ring or anything. They want me to go into Dark Souls first and foremost, then we'll see.

...I was going to say I've heard lots of talk of Sekiro, but then I realized I was confusing it for Sifu. Then I realized I've heard of both lol

[Eltosian Kadath]

5 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Two friends have been trying to get me to try it for years. It's also their fault I've not tried it yet. They always make a point to confuse the shit out of me with the version situation. They say the remaster sucks, but then the prepare to die edition is no longer available, and I'd also need to patch it for it to even work, but it's the definitive edition for nebulous reasons, but sometimes they say the remaster's worse, not necessarily bad, and I wouldn't notice the worse aspects but they still tell me they're there just to give me a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that says "you're playing the bad edition".

The result is that Dark Souls is a game that I'd have to do homework to play, so I always get distracted with other, more easily set-up games and push it further and further back in time. Which is a shame, because one of them graciously gifted me DS3 years ago and I really enjoyed it. Only reason I didn't finish it was... again, their fault. They kept pushing me to play the DLCs. I tried the first DLC and dropped it because Friede is a shitty boss with too many phases to be enjoyable. Then I made it almost up to the end, but they forced me to play the second DLC and I dropped it on this dragon thingy because it was a shitty boss with too many phases to be enjoyable.

Dark Souls 1 wouldn't have this problem, I know this much, so I would probably quite enjoy it, but... again, how the fuck do I go about playing it? They've given me massive decision paralysis and it's just easier to play something else.

They are being buffoons, the Remaster and older version are not different enough to warrant that kind of effort. Just get and play whichever is easier for you to get and play. Also if you aren't enjoying something entirely optional like the DLC, or a challenge boss, or whatever, just ignore it (or summon for it, or look up some cheese strat for it, or whatever). Sometimes fans of these games can be obnoxiously overbearing about how you should play them, when a key joy of those games is getting to play them your own way.

 

1 minute ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

...I was going to say I've heard lots of talk of Sekiro, but then I realized I was confusing it for Sifu. Then I realized I've heard of both lol

I mean Sekiro was literally the game I was playing, and talking about here just before the Great Ace Attorney games...

 

[Armagon]

6 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh no, I've only heard them recommend Dark Souls. I'm pretty sure they didn't really try to talk me into Elden Ring or anything.

Well Elden Ring just came out but not even Bloodborne or Sekiro?

2 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Sometimes fans of these games can be obnoxiously overbearing about how you should play them, when a key joy of those games is getting to play them your own way.

I saw a lot of hardcore players getting really made that players were using the tools given to them.

[Armagon]

I will say i think i want go to go through some quick short games before jumping back on Ryza 3. Games that shouldn't take me more than like a day or two to beat. Need a pallet cleanser.

Looking at Sonic Generations and Liberation Maiden. 

[Saint Rubenio]

1 minute ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

They are being buffoons

I mean, not the words I would've used, perhaps, but I can't argue a point so eloquently made lol

1 minute ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

the Remaster and older version are not different enough to warrant that kind of effort. Just get and play whichever is easier for you to get and play. Also if you aren't enjoying something entirely optional like the DLC, or a challenge boss, or whatever, just ignore it (or summon for it, or look up some cheese strat for it, or whatever). Sometimes fans of these games can be obnoxiously overbearing about how you should play them, when a key joy of those games is getting to play them your own way.

Right... Well, with the massive drought of games I'm interested in, if there ever was a moment, now might be it. Well, not right now, I'm busy with my little hack, but between it and finishing the ongoing FE6 run, it should be enough to hit the 29th, Steam summer sale. Then may just be the right time to finally throw caution to the wind, nab the remaster on Steam and hit play at last.

...If I don't buy Sifu instead. It was probably not the intended effect, but all this talk of Dark Souls has inexplicably brought Sifu back to the forefront of my mind. I've been told you get older as you die. That's going to make deathless runs mighty inconvenient...

1 minute ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I mean Sekiro was literally the game I was playing, and talking about here just before the Great Ace Attorney games...

No yeah, I know, I meant before that.

1 minute ago, Armagon said:

Well Elden Ring just came out but not even Bloodborne or Sekiro?

Wasn't Bloodborne a PS exclusive for the longest time?

As for Sekiro... No, they've not even mentioned that one to me, I don't think.

Just now, Armagon said:

I will say i think i want go to go through some quick short games before jumping back on Ryza 3. Games that shouldn't take me more than like a day or two to beat. Need a pallet cleanser.

Looking at Sonic Generations and Liberation Maiden. 

I have this really quick and short game called Berwick S--

Hey I know, play Beard Blade. Unironically, I had a fun time and it's a short game, shorter even if you don't do both versions of each level.

[Armagon]

1 minute ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Hey I know, play Beard Blade. Unironically, I had a fun time and it's a short game, shorter even if you don't do both versions of each level.

I was looking at games i already owned but never really played/beat but Beard Blade could be one i jump on in the future.

[Eltosian Kadath]

1 minute ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Wasn't Bloodborne a PS exclusive for the longest time?

It still is I think. At least an official version hasn't reached Steam as far as I know (and as such it is the one I haven't played yet).

 

2 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

As for Sekiro... No, they've not even mentioned that one to me, I don't think.

In some way I am not surprised, as it is the most different of them, and has a bit of a reputation for being the hardest of the bunch, where you can't even summon. It is the one with the least amount of choice, with the smallest world, with the greatest difference to combat (barring perhaps Bloodbourne), but once that combat really clicks, it is the most satisfying of the games to play as well.

 

[Armagon]

This art is so fucking funny to me.

7 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

In some way I am not surprised, as it is the most different of them, and has a bit of a reputation for being the hardest of the bunch, where you can't even summon. It is the one with the least amount of choice, with the smallest world, with the greatest difference to combat (barring perhaps Bloodbourne), but once that combat really clicks, it is the most satisfying of the games to play as well.

I've heard Fallen Order be compared to it so i'd be willing to try Sekiro. But also how much does the game want me to parry because i'm definitely way more of a dodge and counter guy than a parry guy.....and Fallen Order really wanted me to parry so i had to turn down the difficulty at some point.

[Eltosian Kadath]

18 minutes ago, Armagon said:

I've heard Fallen Order be compared to it so i'd be willing to try Sekiro. But also how much does the game want me to parry because i'm definitely way more of a dodge and counter guy than a parry guy.....and Fallen Order really wanted me to parry so i had to turn down the difficulty at some point.

I wasn't much into parrying in the other From Soft games myself, but parrying, or deflect as they call it (and it has a more lenient timing in this game than the others from what I have heard) is a very fundamental mechanic. You can beat it with more dodge and counter style tactics, but dodging is worse in this game, with blocking often being a more powerful defensive option, and Deflecting is one of your most powerful tools against most enemies, as it deals a lot of Posture damage to them, especially if you can chain Deflects through enemy boss combos.

 

Back to the Great Ace Attorney with the first day of this trial.

I relate too much with Natsume's sleep issues.

Edit: Non-Locum Assistant Esquiress...this guys growing titles for people is growing on me

Edit 2: Uhhh, one of the Jurors being a witness from last trial leaves me rather worried about his impartiality

Edit 3: AND THAT IS THE DEFENDANT'S LANDLORD'S WIFE AS A JUROR TOO...

 

 

Edited June 11, 2023 by Eltosian Kadath

[BrightBow]

Dark Souls is a better game to replay than to play for the first time. Because you are extremely dependent on weapon upgrades, so you need to know in advance what to invest your materials into. Otherwise you end up having to spend ages trying to get them as random drops. Not like you would even know which enemies drop them without looking it up.
It's funny how the game needlessly ruins the flexibility of it's vast arsenal by making vertical scaling such a core aspect of it. So you have to pick one or two weapons early and stick with them throughout the entire game.

[Eltosian Kadath]

Its funny how bothered Gregson gets with mention of Herlock on the stand...Also I am glad they have given me any jury scares during my cross examination this time, as pressing is such a vital tool.

Edit: The idea that the second route is the "long way around" seems so silly when the difference between the two is so slight. Also the fickleness of this jury is down right silly.

Edit 2: This Jury is way too involved with this case to be impartial. Vital evidence literally just slipped from ones lips.

Edit3: Really, Natsume witnessed one of the jurors collapse in the street?

Edit 4: DAaaw, the Beates have matching scarves on

Edited June 11, 2023 by Eltosian Kadath