Japanese Hard mode for me.

Subject: Japanese Hard mode for me.
Author: Hardric
Posted on: 2017-05-06 22:21:00 UTC

I really recommend to download the audio if you can, it's more than worth it.

The real pain with Psi is the fact youu're the only able to use it for quite a while, so it can drain your SP pretty hard, and in Hard mode you just need all SPs you've got. Still, that's one of the better ways to deal with them. (The only more efficient one I can think about is checking the fusions for weaknesses. Not necessarily nice, but it helped for me.)

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Friday Forum: What's happened this week? by Huinesoron on 2017-05-05 12:15:00 UTC Reply

Welcome to the very first Friday Forum, a hopefully-regular thread for talking about the week we've just had in this lovely world of ours. I'll kick it off by sharing a few news items (and my thoughts on them), and you can join in by talking about the stuff I raise, or other things that you've noticed.

Please remember that, when it comes to the state of the world, not everyone will agree with you. You're free to state, discuss, and defend your viewpoint (provided it does not violate the Constitution), but please don't use that fact to attack others.

Fandom News

(Link)

The trailer for The Dark Tower dropped on Wednesday, and I have to say I like the look of it. It doesn't seem to focus on the horror aspects of, say, The Drawing of the Three or Song of Susannah, which pleases me (as someone who read the Dark Tower series as fantasy and doesn't want to read anything else by Stephen King).

It looks like they're drawing mostly from The Gunslinger and The Waste Lands, though future trailers may alter that balance. It's not a straight adaptation of the books - but this is the Dark Tower series, which is rife with alternate universes. (Also, rumour says that Roland has the Horn of Eld - see the end of this post if you don't mind spoilers on what that actually means...)

Silly News

(Link)

Prince Philip, the Queen's husband (and Duke of Edinburgh), has stepped down from his royal duties at the age of 95. (Well, technically he's announced that he will in the autumn, at 96... whatever.) You might think that isn't particularly silly, but, uh, the BBC decided to commemorate the decision with an article on the numerous offensive "quips" he's made over the years (see link, above). So now you, too, can wince along with the British at the thought of the Queen's husband telling Malala Yousafzai that "[Children] go to school because their parents don't want them in the house"...!

Serious News

(Britain & America)

In a continuing swing towards the Right, Britain's Conservatives have done very well in local elections, while Twitter Personality and President Donald J. Trump has pushed his replacement for Obamacare through Congress.

The UK vote is very worrying, seeing as we're in the run-up for the snap general election Theresa May called (for the very cynical and blatant reason that she wants to reduce the number of people arguing with her). Quite what left-wing opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn is thinking about this is unclear. He should be thinking that he shot himself in the foot by supporting said snap election, but who knows?

Stateside, the biggest issue with Trump's replacement (per Kaitlyn) is that it simultaneously gives insurers the ability to raise premiums based on pre-existing conditions, and removes the prohibition against counting domestic violence as a pre-existing condition. So yeah, if you go into hospital after your boyfriend breaks your arm, your insurance company can ask you to prove that he wasn't already beating you before you took out your policy. For the people!

There's good news on both stories, too. UKIP - the far-right nationalist party of the UK - were absolutely hammered in the local elections, and the Trump presidency originally thought getting his bill through Congress would be easy compared to getting the Senate to accept it. Given that it only narrowly passed Congress after weeks of wrangling means there's still a long fight against it ahead.

But in general: I do not like it, Sam I Am.

Not News

^_^

hS

Well, the trailer for The Last Jedi is out by KittyEden on 2017-05-08 06:35:00 UTC Reply

Although I suppose that's old news now, I think it came out a couple of weeks ago? Honestly, I can't really think of much stuff that's been happening this week.

Also, France didn't elect Voldemort as their president (thanks, Tumblr) putting them one-up on the rest of the world.

(also, hello!! I am back.)

Based on the trailer, what do you think the movie's like? (nm) by twistedwindowpane on 2017-05-09 00:44:00 UTC Reply

Hmm, well, by KittyEden on 2017-05-09 01:40:00 UTC Reply

I wouldn't say I'm the biggest Star Wars fan ever (I just enjoy the movies a lot tbh) but I did see that if you sync up this trailer and the one for The Force Awakens a lot of the shots/angles match up startlingly well, almost frame-for-frame. Apart from that, I couldn't really tell you what I thought.

I'm excited, sure, and also that one really cool planet with the red dust was epic, but like. i don't know

Oh! That trailer. ^_^ by Huinesoron on 2017-05-09 14:07:00 UTC Reply

Things I flagged up, in no particular order:

-It looks like we get a proper Jedi training sequence, a la Dagobah. That's cool!

-This:

Seems to be Luke's Jedi Academy burning down; it definitely comes over the same way as the flashback in Force Awakens. All those domes and spikes look kind of like church domes - think the Vatican and St. Peter's. But I can see how it draws on the old Jedi Temple.

-The ~~rebels~~ Resistance seem to love ships with bits dangling off them. Both the dust-skimmers and the capital ships in the space battle have big long dangly things.

-Is this the first printed book in the Star Wars films?

It's certainly a rarity. I like the Internet theory that this is the Journal of the Whills, as referenced by Rogue One, and harking back to the original title of the first film.

-That one shot with the beam of light, right before the book... is that wood? Looks like a tangle of dead roots or something. Definitely not the cave-rocks theme we've had from (what's Luke's planet called again?) Ahch-To so far.

-Look at the circular side-plots in this shot:

Princess Leia is a Time Lord and nothing you say will dissuade me.

hS

Regarding Leia as a Time Lord. . . by Aegis on 2017-05-13 22:31:00 UTC Reply

Have a look at Luke's burning Jedi Academy, and tell me it might not run in the family.

--Aegis, encouraging wonderfully ridiculous fanfiction.
I am 100% behind Leia as a Time Lord by KittyEden on 2017-05-09 14:45:00 UTC Reply

She'd be the most competent Lady President since Romana's rule.

You take that plot-Nuzgul back! by Huinesoron on 2017-05-09 14:58:00 UTC Reply

Wait, are they Nuzgul if they're not in LotR? Plot-Rovie, perhaps? Or plot-Pittin?

hS

Possible Red Dead Redemption 2... by Miah on 2017-05-06 04:04:00 UTC Reply

live trailer in the works.

link

*Grumble* Not coming out on PC *Grumble* by World-Jumper on 2017-05-06 08:33:00 UTC Reply

Come on Rockstar. It can't be that hard! Heck, I'll play with Microsoft's little Xbox on PC thing, just let me play the darn game, man.

And then if you would port Red Dead 1 while we're at it, that would be amazing.

Reaction to the fandom news by twistedwindowpane on 2017-05-05 23:11:00 UTC Reply

Oh, man! That's pretty cool! It's a shame that the movie based on The Eyes of the Dragon was never finished, as I really loved that book, and I'm with you in the boat of "can't read any actual horror by Stephen King." >u<

Have you read his memoir/writing advice combo? It's pretty good, and it explains a lot about why he writes such messed-up stuff.

(Fun fact: One time, my friend shipped me with the Eyes of the Dragon version of Randall Flagg, and it escalated to the point of him having been my LO for a while. Those were interesting times.)

-Twistey

P.S. Nobody's mentioned that it's Cinco de Mayo... (quietly goes back to reading Things I'm Not Allowed to Do at the PPC)
If we're talking personal stuff... by SkarmorySilver on 2017-05-05 23:00:00 UTC Reply

I got an offer for a job near Cincinnati a couple of days a go - they have yet to sign the letter but I have good faith that they will soon enough - and we're currently working out whether to transition out of my current job so I can move there or to hold out until my current company transitions me to full-time. With luck though I should be able to go full-time once again soon enough, though! (Also, Voyd told me the other day that he has found a new job at a Wal-Mart at his town and that's wonderful. :D)

I'm also working on the second of two interludes I have planned, and kinda waiting on the current beta for the first one (and looking for a second beta for both). Unfortunately, though, progress on this interlude has been stupidly slow, thanks to... well, I won't say, but it's a personal project I thought up this past weekend and I'm keeping it under wraps until I sort out the baseline mechanics for it. But once it's ready for presentation I'll put it up on the Board for your evaluation along with both of the interludes! 'Twas about time I got something posted for the PPC after being out of touch with writing my agents for like what, six months? ^^;

DAMMIT! And right as I'm about to leave! by HerrWozzeck on 2017-05-06 01:49:00 UTC Reply

We'll literally have JUST missed each other. Literally, how!?

Yeah, I'm not exactly known for my timing. ^^; by SkarmorySilver on 2017-05-06 04:11:00 UTC Reply

Not that it really matters, either... My family wouldn't want me going out to visit people I only know thanks to online communication, because they're super tight and all that. We're not known for being gregarious, which is sad and awful because there are a number of friends I've made here whom I've longed to meet in person for a while now... just my luck that my responsibilities and my parents are working together to prevent that, and not necessarily unintentionally, either. :C

Eh, I've just been spamming playtime of Persona 5 lately. by HerrWozzeck on 2017-05-05 18:37:00 UTC Reply

God, that's a good game. And when I'm not doing that, I'm running around the open world of Horizon: Zero Dawn, which is also a really good game. So yeah, it's a great week for gaming.

I also found out I'm gonna be moving out of Cincinnati next Friday. I'm... not looking forward to it, because it means I'll be down in Florida, with my folks. And that's not gonna be great for me, because that means I'm going to have to deal with my parents. And God, is that thought scary, particularly in light of the recent AHCA vote. They're gonna rub that shit in my face, I just know it...

Also, something else happened to some friends recently, and all that I can really think about with what's happened with this friend is "gee, where was [i]that[/i] a couple years back?" I guess life is weird like that.

Amen to that. by Hardric on 2017-05-06 14:24:00 UTC Reply

I'm about to go for the fourth boss of Persona 5's storyline today. That's so good when a good game holds of its promises and even more. Also yay for another Persona fan here.

On other news... Second turn for presidential elections here in France that Sunday. And after that, the legislatives' circus. Boy are we on a ride here.

Yeah! by HerrWozzeck on 2017-05-06 14:48:00 UTC Reply

I'm not a super hardcore fan of Persona, though: I actually haven't played Persona 4, and I only got about a third of the way through Persona 3. But it's always been an interesting series of games nevertheless. But yeah, Persona 5 is awesome.

I just hit the fifth change of heart myself. And I can't wait to go on from there, either...

I... watched a stream when the Japanese version was released by Hardric on 2017-05-06 14:55:00 UTC Reply

Let's just say the remaining part of the game still raises the bar for future games. Can't wait to reach it myself.

Especially fifth's boss. From the stream I saw, in Hard mode he's everything an Atlus boss should be: challenging, pushing you and the gameplay to the limits, and so satisfying to take down.

I actually didn't like the fifth dungeon as much. by HerrWozzeck on 2017-05-06 15:09:00 UTC Reply

The design was really cool, sure, and I had a good laugh at the party's reaction to the fact that the "Break" option on one of the puzzles lasts about five seconds, but it was hard to find places to ambush enemies from, and that got annoying fast. The airlock puzzles in the latter half of the dungeon didn't help, although those were kinda satisfying when I finally solved them.

Still, the plot twist around it is really awesome, so... Yeah, fun times!

Yeah I saw that. by Hardric on 2017-05-06 16:17:00 UTC Reply

The fact you're hitting the first regular mobs who flat out repel physic attacks and skills don't help either.

And just wait for the next plot twists, they're even better. (Out of curiosity, are you playing with the Japanese or English audio? And what difficulty?)

I'm playing on Normal with the English audio. by HerrWozzeck on 2017-05-06 16:30:00 UTC Reply

I didn't even know the Japanese audio was an option, actually. I'm gonna have to hold off on downloading it, though: my PS4 is a bit pressed for memory at the moment, and I don't want to push it too far over the edge...

And eh, the regular mobs that repel physical attacks actually don't bother me much. Whenever I encounter a new enemy, I generally start by lobbing as many of the different elements of magic at it as I can, until I find the weakness. Which led to interesting results back when I didn't have any Psi skills, but hey, I did my best!

Japanese Hard mode for me. by Hardric on 2017-05-06 22:21:00 UTC Reply

I really recommend to download the audio if you can, it's more than worth it.

The real pain with Psi is the fact youu're the only able to use it for quite a while, so it can drain your SP pretty hard, and in Hard mode you just need all SPs you've got. Still, that's one of the better ways to deal with them. (The only more efficient one I can think about is checking the fusions for weaknesses. Not necessarily nice, but it helped for me.)

So I've been reading these books by Ken Follett. by Neshomeh on 2017-05-05 15:48:00 UTC Reply

The Century Trilogy. The first one covers World War I, the second one is World War II, and the third one is the Cold War. I'm on book 2.

They're really good books. The facts are well researched and characters are all very relatable, human people, even the ones you might not agree with.

That's kinda what make it scary, reading about these events at this time. I can't help but think there are some similarities to the way things are spiraling out of control now, with some of the same issues of economics, racial and religious prejudice, nationalism, and an unhinged leader who pushed his way to power by preying on the insecurities of his voters. ... I'm trying really hard to avoid running afoul of Godwin's Law here, but I don't think I can. I'm... I'm just gonna stop. Point is, it's scary. I wonder if it's ever possible to see an international crisis coming long enough ahead of time to stop it.

There are some bright spots. We got a bipartisan budget passed, with some good stuff for education, heath, and the environment, and nothing for a border wall. I think we can be happy about this.

~Neshomeh
Re: Dark Tower by doctorlit on 2017-05-05 13:59:00 UTC Reply

I'm actually a bit less excited about the movie, now that I've seen the trailer. I know the series had issues towards the end, but I did think the early novels were going to see fairly straightforward adaptations. There are a lot of scenes here that don't seem to have any real analogue in the first novel. (The end sequence seems to be Roland and Jake battling the slow mutants, but that should be happening in an abandoned mine tunnel, not above ground.) But beyond adaptational nitpicking, a lot of scenes just seem so shallowly Hollywood. I especially hate Roland somehow reloading his gun by throwing them in the air, and catching them in the chambers without them moving apart from each other. What? And a lot of the gun fight choreography seems terribly ostentatious . . .

As a fan of King's works in a broader sense, I do hope the house where Jake finds the portal is the same one used to film the house on Niebolt Street in the upcoming It movie, since the two are supposed to be "twins." It will also be interesting to see if future adaptations of King's works where the man in Black appears will re-use the same actor to portray him.

—doctorlit darkles and tincts

Re: the bullets. by Huinesoron on 2017-05-05 14:31:00 UTC Reply

They have a dark band of some kind holding them together. Could be a metal 6-holed circle? The gun drops out of shot as they hit it, so there's no way of seeing how it comes off, but this seems within the laws of physics. You'd have to throw it very precisely - the holes can't be very tight, or else it wouldn't come off when you load! - but this is Roland we're talking about. He's a Gunslinger. They kind of train for that.

The fact that the filmmakers actually thought of this says good things to me.

hS

Bah. Couldn't make that out. by doctorlit on 2017-05-06 04:45:00 UTC Reply

I still think doing it in midair is a little much silly, even for a gunslinger.

—doctorlit knows pretty much nothing at all about guns
That's called a quick loader, I believe by Phobos on 2017-05-05 14:42:00 UTC Reply

You load it ahead of time and it allows you to put bullets in a revolver more quickly. And he has a lot of them, by the look of his belt. It is possible that the bullets are even locked in to the ring and able to be fired from it, so the casings come out still attached.

-Phobos, maybe knows a thing or two about guns?

Speedloader. So close. (nm) by Phobos on 2017-05-05 14:49:00 UTC Reply

But this isn't an adaptation of the series. by Huinesoron on 2017-05-05 14:23:00 UTC Reply

Stephen King on Twitter, last year.

(Should I put a spoiler block in here? I feel like I should, and that I should do it with Dark Tower-specific text, but I can't think of any at the moment. "See the TURTLE of enormous girth/On his shell he carries the whole earth", or however that went? I dunno, but the Guardians were pretty cool. Almost as cool as Maerlyn's Rainbow; in fact I really liked the whole idea that the safety of the universes relied on a bunch of stuff that actually wasn't very nice. Oh, hey, that should about do it.)

This isn't an adaptation of The Gunslinger. It's something far more exciting - a continuation of the story after book 7. It starts in the same place - "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed" - but it's under no obligation to hit the same story beats.

Will the Ka-Tet all make their appearances? I certainly hope so, and there's a certain element of fate involved there, so it seems likely (Oyoy?). But they won't go to the same places, they won't meet the same people, they may not even start out identical to how we know them, nor end the same way (in both meanings of the phrase).

I agree that it would be great to see a direct adaptation of the series (maaaaybe with fewer lobstrosities, though). But that's not what this is, and the fact that it's titled only "The Dark Tower" is a huge indication that it's not going to be anything like what we know. And I find that exciting.

(Also it lets them step neatly around the usual adaptation complaints of "why was Roland's coat blue in this scene instead of turquoise?!?!?!" - and it lets them have actual suspense, since we don't know what's going to happen.)

As to your Hollywood comments - maybe; I don't know. I'm notoriously bad at recognising film quality. This is a first trailer, though, and they've deliberately chosen stuff that looks Action Movie-y. I have no doubt that they could equally have made a Horror trailer, a Fantasy one, and a Quiet Talky Movie one - and I'm guessing we'll see at least one of these before the film comes out.

hS, in memory of Gilead

Agh, I had read that. (NSFW post, possible spoilers) by doctorlit on 2017-05-06 04:43:00 UTC Reply

I had forgotten about that detail. Still, though, I did think we were getting a fairly close adaptation of the earlier books, other than something I'll bring up in a bit to keep it of preview.

The face-shrouded figures in the trailer are likely can-toi, replacing the slow mutants for a species(?) that actually appears again later in the series. They're not wearing their famous yellow coats, but I seem to recall that was implied to be their disguise when visiting Earth; they may dress more conservatively in Mid-World. (Low men were first mentioned in the novella Hearts in Atlantis, but I haven't seen the movie adaptation to compare facial make-up and in fact don't even know if they appear on screen.)

Okay, so here's the NSFW paragraph. The one scene that's basically guaranteed to be cut is when Roland comes upon Jake being molested by the lust demon, then exchanges sex with her/it for information. I totally understand they won't want the underage actor in a scene like that, but at the same time, Roland kind of needs to encounter her/it at some point. Maybe Jake will be absent from the scene, or maybe they're cutting Mordred out entirely? I wouldn't mind the Man in Black remaining the primary antagonist until the end; maybe the whole Mordred subplot was one of the mistaken paths Roland took that prevented his success in the cycle we read in the novels?

I rather hope we get the flashback sequence of Wizard and Glass. I found that whole novel quite serviceable as a standalone story. I also hope the Crimson King is . . . not a garbage character? I think that's a nice way to put that. The scene of Stephen King's prevented death could also use a delicate touch, especially in regards to the man who hit him in real life, who has passed away since.

I do think, and suspect, the whole original ka-tet will return; as you said, there's fate there. Callahan better show up as well, I don't want him getting cut.

Dad-a-chad? Dum-a-dum? Don't you dare tell me you don't like the lobstrosities! The lobstrosities are the absolute best thing ever. There was a time period in high school when I went around campus saying, "Did-a-chick? Dum-a-chum?" all over.

—doctorlit dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dum-a-chum dad-a-chad

Election by CodeCom on 2017-05-05 13:00:00 UTC Reply

I haven't been really following the election but I just hope it turns out alright.