Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread

[Saint Rubenio]

43 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Initiating search...

...there.

Ahh, thank you so much!

Funnily enough, I saw the Funny Adder Image in a reply from Armagon and responded to that... but failed to realize Toy Box was there lolololol

44 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

 I can go back for more screenies if desired.

Ah, no worries. I just wanted to see your thoughts.

'Sides, you got the most important screenie:

On 9/20/2023 at 10:10 PM, Interdimensional Observer said:

Thar the praise.

Fuckin'. Gold.

On 9/20/2023 at 10:10 PM, Interdimensional Observer said:

Okay but that's amazing too. Olaf really did just go "I didn't want weapons, puppies are better than weapons."

On 9/20/2023 at 10:10 PM, Interdimensional Observer said:

I know I skipped over the opening dialogue. Yet against the soft Blue Moon Theme, this scene was rather touching. Weird given how dang lighthearted AW can be, but here there was a moment of poignancy.🙂

You said it. I've described it before as the most memorable moment in any of these games for me.

45 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Olaf is the winter. The season where seeds go dormant or die.🥀

[GuardianSing]

I decided to start a new file with some changes.

Originally I made Poland Adrestia because I liked the idea of going from small Kingdom into big empire but I realized that it might make more thematic sense to make the HRE Adrestia, that way Edelgard has her Empire like she did, and we have direct access to the church authority in the region, like she did.

And I guess being the HRE has plenty of useless nobles that Edelgard has to deal with, which is also fitting to her game.

I guess I could've started at the earlier date as a Wilhelm Paul Hresvelg to have founded and slowly form the Adrestian Empire but I wanted to get Edelgard as the ruler and getting any female ruler in this game is just as rare as it was in real life, and I'm impatient.

So what would be the goal? Well crests aren't a thing in medieval Europe but crests and how they dictate the nobility in the world of Fodlan is remarkably similar to how gender dictated nobility in the real middle ages. It's mostly random, has no impact on one's ability to be a competent leader, and yet every noble family seems obsessed with securing either a crest, or a male heir.

So the goal is to make Europe, or at least central Europe, a more gender equal place, and also include some of Edelgard's ideas of class and meritocracy where possible. But how do we do that?

IIIIIII...don't know. Well, I have some idea. Essentially male preferences laws are locked to culture and faith and the only way to get rid of those is to become extremely prestigious to reform the culture and extremely pious to reform the religion. Once I achieve those legs I can theoretically create a new sect of Christianity which will accept equal gender rights and upon doing so, declare myself an enemy of the entirety of Catholic Europe. This is where things could get fun and be an exact parallel of Crimson Flower where we chase after the pope while being attacked by his lackeys, and then we annex all of western Europe and force it to accept the new gender equal reform...somehow, I haven't necessarily figured that part out yet but lets be honest, neither did the writers of Crimson Flower.

I would like to do all of this within Edelgard's lifespan if possible.

[Armagon]

Ok two things: one, the production values on this one really do feel like the highest it's ever been for Doctor Who. Even The Day of the Doctor, the 50th anniversary special, as hard as it went was still shot like a typical Doctor Who episode. But this? It feels different.

Two: they brought back the motherfucking Celestial Toymaker

Not counting expanded universe stories (which are canon), this is the character's first on-screen appearance since 1966. This was him back then

Now, we all figured this tbh but it's dope having official confirmation.

.........i really need to finish the marathon. Sadly, The Celestial Toymaker is one of the many lost episodes of the show, only the fourth serial remains.

5 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

All this from that Famitsu interview I take it? Thank you.😀

Yeah, it was from the part they released. Seems the outlets just covered the "game was in development since 2013" part.

In particular, the reason for allowing all characters to be recruited during one playthrough is because the director doesn't like mutually-exclusive characters.

25 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:

This is where things could get fun and be an exact parallel of Crimson Flower where we chase after the pope while being attacked by his lackeys, and then we annex all of western Europe and force it to accept the new gender equal reform...somehow, I haven't necessarily figured that part out yet but lets be honest, neither did the writers of Crimson Flower.

It's simple: Edelgard "persuades" and makes "some really good points".

[Interdimensional Observer]

Finally got to a mission where I had to admit defeat, on Classic difficulty (woe be it on Expert!). The irony was that I was very eagerly looking forward to that particular map.😆

Also feel like I need to replay Drake's Dilemma sometime before doing the BHR final battle. Despite criticisms of the old GBA AI and some maps being easy, I've hesitated to call them bad I reserve that label for Dual Strike's laughable final battle. Drake's Dilemma is perhaps outright bad. Not a bad scenario on paper, just not executed well, and getting a good score looks like a chore.

 

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Okay but that's amazing too. Olaf really did just go "I didn't want weapons, puppies are better than weapons."

When everything settles down, you know Grit -anonymously- will donate Olaf a furry four-legged gift.🐕

While Olaf b/c villain role was rather one-dimensional in AW1, he's actually fairly well-developed in Black Hole Rising.😄 He and Grit are good, the two adults are Blue Moon's better-developed COs. I forget Dual Strike's character interactions, but straight-laced submissive Colin and his sister Sasha are the blander COs of Moon (and gameplay-wise Sasha is weirdly great in DS's campaign, pretty junk outside it).

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

👏

 

1 hour ago, GuardianSing said:

So what would be the goal? Well crests aren't a thing in medieval Europe but crests and how they dictate the nobility in the world of Fodlan is remarkably similar to how gender dictated nobility in the real middle ages. It's mostly random, has no impact on one's ability to be a competent leader, and yet every noble family seems obsessed with securing either a crest, or a male heir.

So the goal is to make Europe, or at least central Europe, a more gender equal place, and also include some of Edelgard's ideas of class and meritocracy where possible. But how do we do that?

IIIIIII...don't know. Well, I have some idea. Essentially male preferences laws are locked to culture and faith and the only way to get rid of those is to become extremely prestigious to reform the culture and extremely pious to reform the religion. Once I achieve those legs I can theoretically create a new sect of Christianity which will accept equal gender rights and upon doing so, declare myself an enemy of the entirety of Catholic Europe. This is where things could get fun and be an exact parallel of Crimson Flower where we chase after the pope while being attacked by his lackeys, and then we annex all of western Europe and force it to accept the new gender equal reform...somehow, I haven't necessarily figured that part out yet but lets be honest, neither did the writers of Crimson Flower.

You trying to piece together how to roleplay sounds both difficult to think out, yet fun.😄 -At least writing it out. Who knows how it'll go putting it into practice?😆

 

42 minutes ago, Armagon said:

.........i really need to finish the marathon. Sadly, The Celestial Toymaker is one of the many lost episodes of the show, only the fourth serial remains.

The earlier days of television and the issues of preservation. A shame.

Interesting to read. The return of something from over a half-century ago, is unique in the world of a television series.

43 minutes ago, Armagon said:

In particular, the reason for allowing all characters to be recruited during one playthrough is because the director doesn't like mutually-exclusive characters.

Certainly an understandable viewpoint. Not that I entirely dislike the idea of either-or situations, I've played FE and SRW after all. But, given the length of this game and lack of story-splitting -wherein going lawful or chaotic might make recruiting everyone strain the plot- I get the choice to do without exclusivity.

[Acacia Sgt]

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

It's simple: Edelgard "persuades" and makes "some really good points".

Aka "I'm the protagonist" syndrome.

[ping]

2 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Aka "I'm the protagonist" syndrome.

Wait, Edelgard is American?

[Acacia Sgt]

8 minutes ago, gnip said:

Wait, Edelgard is American?

Invading other countries to spread FREEDOM and DEMO... MERITOCRACY. According to one of the books in the Shadow Library, there was even oil discovered in Faerghus! She invaded and conquered a country with oil! Can't get more American than that!

Edited September 24, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[ping]

Time to move the 3H discourse from "Is Edelgard fascist?" to "Is Edelgard American?". We can even sythesise those two questions into "Is Edelgard Edelgard?" and "Is America fascist?" I'm sure everybody would have nice and reasonable talks about that.

[Acacia Sgt]

It's truly the gift that keeps on giving.

By the way, the oil bit is actually true. The book does talk about a "flammable black water" discovered in northern Faerghus.

[ping]

Oh, that's fantastic. Would probably make for a great shitpost with a bit of elaboration.

[Saint Rubenio]

6 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

When everything settles down, you know Grit -anonymously- will donate Olaf a furry four-legged gift.🐕

And he'll pretend he got something in his eye when he starts crying, you know it.

6 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

While Olaf b/c villain role was rather one-dimensional in AW1, he's actually fairly well-developed in Black Hole Rising.😄 He and Grit are good, the two adults are Blue Moon's better-developed COs. I forget Dual Strike's character interactions, but straight-laced submissive Colin and his sister Sasha are the blander COs of Moon (and gameplay-wise Sasha is weirdly great in DS's campaign, pretty junk outside it).

I like how the only trait you could remember of Sasha is "Colin's sister" lol

Well, I cannot comment there. I'm biased. I'm obviously going to tell you Olaf is the best AW character.

2 hours ago, gnip said:

Oh, that's fantastic. Would probably make for a great shitpost with a bit of elaboration.

Someone swap all the black parts of Edelgard's design into blue.

[Sidereal Wraith]

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

 

Just another slow Tuesday for Rubenio.

[Lightcosmo]

Well, i think i understand why many dislike Kuro II's act III and beyond, they are very reminescent of CS IV's Great Twilight theory, which sucked. XD

[Armagon]

9 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Interesting to read. The return of something from over a half-century ago, is unique in the world of a television series.

It also gives them a chance to just give the character a very good glow up. The original Toymaker, despite being a Brit, he uh.....embraced some uh..... interesting Asian stereotypes, or so I hear. Product of the time.

But anyways, this of course isn't the first time

This scene features a cameo from one of The Doctor's original companions, reprised by the same actor.

5 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Invading other countries to spread FREEDOM and DEMO... MERITOCRACY. According to one of the books in the Shadow Library, there was even oil discovered in Faerghus! She invaded and conquered a country with oil! Can't get more American than that!

Additionally, Adresteria's banner is an eagle. And you know who else has eagles? That's right, America baby!

🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅

 

[Saint Rubenio]

They actually have the audacity to announce the first Payday 3 patch will come out in October 5th.

People literally cannot play the game depending on the hour and player count and the absolute badasses decide to announce the first patch a whopping two weeks after release.

Starbreeze/Overkill isn't a multimillionaire corpo, either. They can't just release stinky pieces of shit and ride the brand name into millions of sales, they're not Pokemon. This is a studio that's had exactly one profitable endeavor (Payday 2) and who have been on the brink of bankrupcy multiple times due to all their other flops. If Payday 3 fails, there's a good chance it just kills the company.

Why in the everloving name of fuck did they decide to make the game online only

What was the plan

3 hours ago, Sidereal Wraith said:

Just another slow Tuesday for Rubenio.

It was Saturday yesterday, old timer.

[Armagon]

4 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Why in the everloving name of fuck did they decide to make the game online only

What was the plan

 

4 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Payday 3 fails, there's a good chance it just kills the company.

Plan seems clear as day to me /s

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

It also gives them a chance to just give the character a very good glow up. The original Toymaker, despite being a Brit, he uh.....embraced some uh..... interesting Asian stereotypes, or so I hear. Product of the time.

I was going to comment on that, but didn't, the round hat looked Chinese.

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

And you know who else has eagles?

Basically everyone? There is the famed anecdote of Benjamin Franklin proposing a turkey as the national symbol, although I've then heard that he wasn't being serious about it. He didn't actually mean "I really want a turkey", it was "anything but an eagle please!".

Eagles were the bird associated with Zeus/Jupiter, certainly a mark of praise for some birds to be associated with the king of the gods. The Austria-Prussia-Russia alliance against Poland in the 1700s ultimately resulting in its three-step partition was known as the "Alliance of the Black Eagles" as all three used black eagles as an official symbol. Poland also used an eagle- a white eagle.

 

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I like how the only trait you could remember of Sasha is "Colin's sister" lol

She was nice, polite? The new COs in Dual Strike didn't get any standout writing I think. Jake was Protagonist, with an awfully-written rapper flair brushed in by the North American localization. Rachel was okay, maybe better I think. Xavier and Grimm should've been zesty, I might blame the narrative format of Dual Strike for never letting them be more than background characters in a cast of eleven heroes.

...I'm feeling more critical of Dual Strike now than I've ever been before.😆 It was certainly the game with MORE. But Combat and Survival were half-baked bonus modes, and the campaign was simply the weakest of the lot. -And Tag Powers were an exercise in mindless excess as is well known.

24 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Starbreeze/Overkill isn't a multimillionaire corpo, either. They can't just release stinky pieces of shit and ride the brand name into millions of sales, they're not Pokemon. This is a studio that's had exactly one profitable endeavor (Payday 2) and who have been on the brink of bankrupcy multiple times due to all their other flops. If Payday 3 fails, there's a good chance it just kills the company.

If only there was a way to get rich real fast.🔫🏦💰

Edited September 24, 2023 by Interdimensional Observer

[Sidereal Wraith]

9 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

It was Saturday yesterday, old timer.

It’s a figure of speech young whipper snapper.

[Saint Rubenio]

2 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Plan seems clear as day to me /s

Back in 2018, they concluded Payday 2 by releasing the White House heist, which wrapped up the storyline and ended the game on its highest note yet. I mean, you're assaulting the fucking White House to get enough pardons for your entire crew of misfits, movie crossovers, H2H2 and a single actual real life heister-turned-actor, it doesn't get much higher than that. Well it's also a rather mid heist but details shmetails

...Then their Walking Dead game died miserably and they unended the end of PD2 to add more DLC to the game for another five years, in order to escape bankrupcy. Then they concluded the game again earlier this year with a (so I've heard, as it's not gone on enough of a discount for me to buy it) pretty impressive oil rig mission. And also botching matchmaking due to piss poor implementation of Epic Games' servers.

What I'm getting at is, there's a chance they'll unend the ending of PD2 again if PD3 threatens to leave them penniless. And that'd just be fucking hilarious.

2 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

She was nice, polite? The new COs in Dual Strike didn't get any standout writing I think. Jake was Protagonist, with an awfully-written rapper flair brushed in by the North American localization. Rachel was okay, maybe better I think. Xavier and Grimm should've been zesty, I might blame the narrative format of Dual Strike for never letting them be more than background characters in a cast of eleven heroes.

...I'm feeling more critical of Dual Strike now than I've ever been before.😆 It was certainly the game with MORE. But Combat and Survival were half-baked bonus modes, and the campaign was simply the weakest of the lot. -And Tag Powers were an exercise in mindless excess as is well known.

Don't forget the greatest sin of all - Olaf doesn't show up in the story! How could they do the best character like that?

1 minute ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I only there was a way to get rich real fast.🔫🏦💰

I mean, it's a game about armed robberies. It only stands to reason they'd set the next game in real life. Gotta up the stakes somehow.

1 minute ago, Sidereal Wraith said:

It’s a figure of speech young whipper snapper.

Okay, okay, spare me your life story.

[Sidereal Wraith]

4 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Okay, okay, spare me your life story.

I once had a gleam in my eye, pep in my step and hope for the future when I was still innocent and young…

[Interdimensional Observer]

Well this is something I didn't expect to see this morning.

Lost Light aka Japanese version of DoR/DC only. The others changed it to "No!!!".

 

15 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Don't forget the greatest sin of all - Olaf doesn't show up in the story! How could they do the best character like that?

I get what they were trying to do. The lead COs of each nation had gotten enough spotlight that they wanted to bench them. They picked the Moon-Comet-Earth BHR COs and paired them with the new ones to give them more attention. They did bring back Sami-Grit-Sonja-Eagle towards the end (why Eagle? He is the Commander-in-Chief of GE, not a secondary CO, it should've been Drake.), but they made only guest appearances really. Jake was obviously New Andy, Rachel combined the role of Nell, with the mechanic look and a pinch of healing from Andy, and explains why Max shows up again so early- to form an old new Andy (Jake)-Sami (Rachel)-Max trio.

-The problem is I'm not sure going off of memory if anyone among the heroes other than Jake, Rachel, maybe Lash, and definitely Hawke, got much characterization out of the narrative.

Edited September 24, 2023 by Interdimensional Observer

[Saint Rubenio]

20 minutes ago, Sidereal Wraith said:

I once had a gleam in my eye, pep in my step and hope for the future when I was still innocent and young…

That must've been long ago. I'm impressed you remember!

12 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Well this is something I didn't expect to see this morning.

Lost Light aka Japanese version of DoR/DC only. The others changed it to "No!!!".

Now there's an example of localization censorship, for shame the cowards

12 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I get what they were trying to do. The lead COs of each nation had gotten enough spotlight that they wanted to bench them. They picked the Moon-Comet-Earth BHR COs and paired them with the new ones to give them more attention. They did bring back Sami-Grit-Sonja-Eagle towards the end (why Eagle? He is the Commander-in-Chief of GE, not a secondary CO, it should've been Drake.), but they made only guest appearances really. Jake was obviously New Andy, Rachel combined the role of Nell, with the mechanic look and a pinch of healing from Andy, and explains why Max shows up again so early- to form an old new Andy (Jake)-Sami (Rachel)-Max trio.

-The problem is I'm not sure going off of memory if anyone among the heroes other than Jake, Rachel, maybe Lash, and definitely Hawke, got much characterization out of the narrative.

It's a fair idea, but it needs to be executed well. And it seems they played favorites anyway if they brought back Eagle, so... Y no funny beardman IntSys

...I do know they tried to do a sort of Lash redemption arc, which brings to mind the really funny image of the heroes bringing her back home, promising lenience and the possibility of pardon, only for Olaf to come running with a rocket launcher and bombard the shit out of her.

Though credit where credit is due, I remember reading that in the other modes, if you pair Lash and Olaf, they have the single lowest bonuses out of any pair in the game. That's nice attention to detail for a character that's relegated to side modes.

Edited September 24, 2023 by Saint Rubenio

[ping]

2 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Now there's an example of localization censorship, for shame the cowards

I can't believe weebs were up in arms over removing the face touching with your little sister and not about this

Seriously though, I still can't quite believe weebs were up in arms over removing the face touching with your little sister.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 minute ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Though credit where credit is due, I remember reading that in the other modes, if you pair Lash and Olaf, they have the single lowest bonuses out of any pair in the game. That's nice attention to detail for a character that's relegated to side modes.

Incorrect.

Using Lash & Olaf together in a Tag Power results in base Firepower during the Dual Strike being reduced to 80 (before factoring in Super CO Power bonuses, I think, I never used a negative-relationship combo). Eagle & Hawke is worse- 70. But the absolute worst? Rachel & Koal- 65. What terror, what inhumanity did Koal do to warrant such undying hatred from Rachel? He called her ugly, once, during the campaign. Oh what a crime!😱

10 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

which brings to mind the really funny image of the heroes bringing her back home, promising lenience and the possibility of pardon, only for Olaf to come running with a rocket launcher and bombard the shit out of her.

Sadly we don't get that.🧨 The most we get is Jess trying to force Lash to eat her vegetables or something.

[Saint Rubenio]

9 minutes ago, gnip said:

I can't believe weebs were up in arms over removing the face touching with your little sister and not about this

Seriously though, I still can't quite believe weebs were up in arms over removing the face touching with your little sister.

Or the removal of marrying children.

Oh boy, it starts again

1 minute ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Incorrect.

Using Lash & Olaf together in a Tag Power results in base Firepower during the Dual Strike being reduced to 80 (before factoring in Super CO Power bonuses, I think, I never used a negative-relationship combo). Eagle & Hawke is worse- 70. But the absolute worst? Rachel & Koal- 65. What terror, what inhumanity did Koal do to warrant such undying hatred from Rachel? He called her ugly, once, during the campaign. Oh what a crime!😱

I withdraw the point I gave to Dual Strike. To give a petty insult a lower "compatibility" score, as it were, than Lash and Olaf is inexcusable.

2 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Sadly we don't get that.🧨 The most we get is Jess trying to force Lash to eat her vegetables or something.

Grit told Olaf that she's Lash's innocent twin sister, Lesh.