Landscape Staples

... dressing with a matching palm landscape print throughout Revere collar shirt... stands out from standard holiday staples Regular fit across both pieces...

... high-flying, action-packed final that the Staples Center crowd EMBRACES with INCREDIBLE ... to the top rope — the Staples Center RISING — 450 Splash! The ... center of the ring. The Staples Center COUNTS every punch. Rey! ... tournament performance having CAPTIVATED the Staples Center despite the final loss. "... ovation, and the WWE's championship landscape taking SHAPE heading into the ...

... most popular songs and concert staples, including the single "Ain't No... rhythms, Cohen surveys the global landscape with a precise, unflinching eye...

... arcades, but other classic arcade staples like action platformers or beat... hasn't really changed the arcade landscape at all.

... the versatile X3, which remain staples for action enthusiasts. You can... and streamers using INRSGGA0RFK. Scenario-led: Landscape artists in Oregon enjoy a...

... the versatile X3, which remain staples for action enthusiasts. You can... and streamers using INRSGGA0RFK. Scenario-led: Landscape artists in Oregon enjoy a...

... the versatile X3, which remain staples for action enthusiasts. You can... and streamers using INRSGGA0RFK. Scenario-led: Landscape artists in Oregon enjoy a...

... the versatile X3, which remain staples for action enthusiasts. You can... and streamers using INRSGGA0RFK. Scenario-led: Landscape artists in Oregon enjoy a...

... the versatile X3, which remain staples for action enthusiasts. You can... and streamers using INRSGGA0RFK. Scenario-led: Landscape artists in Oregon enjoy a...

... the versatile X3, which remain staples for action enthusiasts. You can... and streamers using INRSGGA0RFK. Scenario-led: Landscape artists in Oregon enjoy a...

... fractured nature of the entertainment landscape today as a whole. Let's... out today in this fractured landscape, it would likely go over... Bunny, etc. who were all staples of pop culture and things...

... the versatile X3, which remain staples for action enthusiasts. You can... and streamers using INRSGGA0RFK. Scenario-led: Landscape artists in Oregon enjoy a...

... the versatile X3, which remain staples for action enthusiasts. You can... and streamers using INRSGGA0RFK. Scenario-led: Landscape artists in Oregon enjoy a...

... the versatile X3, which remain staples for action enthusiasts. You can... and streamers using INRSGGA0RFK. Scenario-led: Landscape artists in Oregon enjoy a...

... Mike Leach navigating today's NIL landscape] The Hall of Fame lowered... viewed as unconventional are now staples throughout college football and the...

... get frost heaving so the landscape staples get pushed up and the ... and walk on all the staples driving them back down. Iirc ...

... painted and in place: The staples still need a little touch ... cover is just a simple landscape fabric that's acoustically neutral and...

... Mushroom Rock, Bill noted the landscape. Massive pillars of eroded stone... fingertip to guide and place staples all along it. It was...

... critically.” The medications section includes staples like rapamycin, metformin, and SGLT-2... crucial part of the longevity landscape is only mentioned in passing...

... cement wire cages, screens and landscape cloth off some 2"-3" ... grow into the screens...the staples don't always "pop" open like ...

... the versatile X3, which remain staples for action enthusiasts. You can... and streamers using INRSGGA0RFK. Scenario-led: Landscape artists in Oregon enjoy a...

... the quality of local hawker staples is in decline ("Quality keeps... grappling with the evolving culinary landscape of Singapore. While they fiercely...

... use. Angel stocked quick, wholesome staples that busy farm wives could... tones that blended with the landscape. Paul and Eduardo went over... pantry could hold months of staples. The rest of the house ...

One of our neighbors reached over the fence to drill holes in a mulberry tree and inject herbicide because he doesn't like the mulberries falling on his yard. This tree is huge, probably around 70+ y/o, and fairly healthy, it is fully on our property. This man has also been spraying our fence & property line with herbicide chemicals because he doesn't like the ivy growing on his side (killed a whole chunk of the ivy, rooted on our side). He made no effort to have the branches overhanging his property trimmed, and you can very clearly see the angle of drilling in relation to the fence height. What should we do to press charges or file a lawsuit against him? This seemed to have happened a few days ago, and the tree is already showing signs of injury/dying. In an attempt to reduce injury, I cleared & flushed the holes and tapped some dowels in. The dowels also clearly show the drilling angles (11 holes total, last 2 photos) EDIT: It’s a red mulberry, fully native to IL EDIT 2: I was just taught about red hybrids, and it turns out it unfortunately is one, so nevermind on that. EDIT 3: For clarity -- this property is a rental with an on-site manager, my family owns this property and I help with some of the grounds management & maintenance among other work. The only communication we've received from this new neighbor (1-2 years) about his displeasure with the tree was through a tenant who he complained to in passing. We had no idea he was so unhappy with it that he was willing to poison it for the 5% canopy overhang. This had never been a problem with the previous owners who lived there for like 20 years. This tree is one of our primary shade trees and several tenants eat from it regularly (as well as myself). We have already been planning to take down a massive tree of heaven that provides the other half of our shade and replace ir with a native hardwood, and we do not want to loose all of our yard shade at once. EDIT 4: Holy shit, I did not expect this to blow up. Yes, I know this is a blighted landscape, I just removed a whole fenceline of Japanese knotweed that had been there for probably 50 years so we could put in prairie grasses & native flowers instead. I have been working on turning over our landscaping theory to conservation-centric, but I also don't want to lose all of our shade and greenspace at once so I have been staggering work for the last few years and allocating projects as I have the energy. I didn't realize that red-white hybrid mulberries are a thing, and I had no idea there is such vitriol against mulberries in general, I've grown up with them as a staple of the Midwest fruiting foliage. Now that I know about the hybrid thing, that tree is definitely on the chopping block but not immediately because shade from very tall trees is increasingly rare in Chicago, and with the planned removal of the ToH I don't want us having a sun-baked yard. HOWEVER, I have been doing some research and I have found out about tree fruit suppressors and will be looking more into that to keep the tree from spreading while maintaining yard shade (assuming it survives). Installing trail cams today. I would also like to note that he wasn't spraying all the ivy, just the ivy behind his cheap-looking water feature which shares a fence with our native-species butterfly garden, potentially poisoning that too. He only ever made a complaint to one tenant about this while already spraying and never came to us directly when he has our information and sees the live-in manager. His yard style is also west-coast manicure as opposed to Midwest conservation, he has not attacked the other neighbor's ivy vine on the other side of his yard, I guess it looks fine there. submitted by /u/urban_spectre to r/treelaw [link] [comments]

Had the delightful privilege of visiting Taiwan in the most local way possible, thanks to a friend of mine who's lived there for 30 years. Would absolutely recommend trying to capture the whole island as we did, if you ever have the opportunity. The whole trip took 12 days including arrival and departure days, so ten days of actual travelling. We started in Taipei for a quick hotel stay and set off for Nanzhuang (pic 2). It was the very first destination on our itinerary and it blew me away. I'm used to the European climate, with the Mediterranean being the most tropical I've ever seen. Though located more the north-west, the Miaoli region is a good representation of the Central Taiwan jungle scenery. The thickness of the humid air (quite strange, given that we were in a mountainous region), the buzzing of the cicadas and the lush evergreen bushes really let you notice that Taiwan is indeed a tropical island. I had my first Beef Noodle (staple dish) in the nearby old town. Slightly to the north, in Yuanlin Village, we have noticed a beautiful submerged forest in a local reservoir. The trees resembled Cedars, as far as my limited arboreal knowledge goes. Still in the Miaoli region, in the old town, I had discovered a surprising local delicacy - the Osmanthus tea. Sold ice-cold by the locals, perfect for the scorching, tropical August heat. Our route led us down south via the West coast of Taiwan in the direction of Taichung. A "must see" location, as it appears, turned out to be the historic region of Lukang. Visiting on August 16 seemed to be a lucky coincidence, as we have stumbled upon a scene of religious celebration (pic 1). Anyone more oriented in the religious customs of the Taiwanese, feel free to tell me about the festivity. After the hottest day (or so I thought) of the trip, we have eventually reached Taichung. The city was very surprising, reminding me of Chicago and New York, due to its clear urban grid layout and newly-built skyscrapers (pic 5). It seems to be a wealthy and well-developed city. The nightlife feels very safe, the city is impressively clean. And yet it doesn't seem like it has much more to offer besides a one-day visit on the way towards the southern Taiwan. Continuing down south, a quick stop was made in the Monster Village (pic 6), where you can try some local noodle-based dishes (sometimes with crickets and other icky creatures) surrounded by a serene forest that emits a haunted vibe due to the name of the location. My biggest regret of the trip is not having the time to visit Tainan, the OG capital. But the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum sort of evened out the downside. As far as places of worship go, the Buddha Museum was stunning. Featuring a massive Buddha statue (108 meters tall!) (pic 7), a golden Buddha and a jade Buddha, the collection walks you through the importance of Buddhism for its worshippers. The temple staff was full of the nicest religious advocates I've ever had the pleasure of talking to. A line from a monk struck out to me: you don't have to believe in Him, we just want you to be tolerant. One of the key destinations of our trip was Kenting, of course. The tourist heaven, and subjectively speaking the most overrated area in Taiwan, but it could very well be the impression of a European tourist used to the retiree communities in southern European coastal towns. Don't get me wrong - it still is a beautiful place with a stunning view of the ocean and a very fun night market (pic 9), where you can try everything Taiwan has to offer in the street food department, but compared to some other places in Taiwan and the PR Kenting receives, it's a bit underwhelming (pic 8, admittedly beautiful sunset at the Kenting region coast). The Longpan Park offers the - again, subjectively speaking - most interesting views you will see in the area, as it showcases a combination of lush evergreen palm shrubs and arid clay deserts (pic 10), reminding of the Roland Garros court. Halfway across Taiwan and the journey, our next stop was Taitung - for whatever reason, the city of Doraemon (or Xiao Ding Dang, as they call him). You will find a decommissioned train station dedicated to the blue fella (pic 11) in Taitung. The area also has a hot-air balloon festival, but the weather conditions were unfortunate when we tried to get a view at the festival grounds. The city felt oddly empty, but it featured some interesting urban spots. Had my only McDonald's meal in Taiwan in the city. Highly recommended, as you can get premium quality unsweetened Taiwanese tea as an option. Side note at this point - with the amount of 7-Eleven and Family Mart spots spread out in Taiwan, it is highly recommended to use them as a base for refilling your essentials for the trip. Ice-cold unsweetened tea and the Taiwanese take on the onigiri (I think it's called Fan Tuan) make great companions in the hot humid hell Taiwan can sometimes be. Back to the itinerary. North of Taitung, following the stunning east coast of Taiwan, you will find yourself blissfuly enjoying the most beautiful oceanside you will ever experience (according to myself) - and nothing else, for at least a hundred kilometres. Three hours of a road trip later, we have finally arrived at the destination which makes my eyes water whenever I think of it - the town of Hualien (pic 12). All due respect to Malibu, which up until that point was my favourite oceanside place, but Hualien is breathtaking. The little, quiet paradise makes you wonder how is it possible that so few people visit and inhabit it. As with many such destinations, its location is at the same time a privilege and a curse. The east coast of Taiwan is notorious for hurricane and tsunami activity. No later than two months after we visited, two massive earthquakes hit the area and took several lives. The region is beautiful, but tends to be lethal. At this point of the trip I was already tired of the emotional toll Hualien and other places took on me. Needless to say, I was less than prepared for Taroko - the best national park on Earth (again, according to myself). You enter the park through a long and unsettling tunnel only to find yourself emerging in the Jurassic Park (pics 13, 14). Featured in Taroko: more temples, more evergreen landscape (this time in the shape of enormous mountain formations), beautiful tunnels and, above everything else, monkeys (pic 15). It's exciting to see monkeys literally walk right beside you, but beware of the little buggers - if you have any food on you, they will follow you until you give them everything. My friend lost a bucket of tofu this way. Taipei was our final destination and we spent the last two days exploring the city. Obligatory trip to Taipei 101, absolutely not recommended to those with the fear of heights, but recommended to virtually everyone else as it features the best view of the city (pics 17, 18). The Chang Kai-shek memorial (pic 16) makes you appreciate the history of Taiwan at least a little more. And finally, saving a top 3 spot for the very last day of the trip, we have made our way to Jiufen. Located at the northern tip of the island, the old town makes you feel like you're in Spirited Away. Overcrowded, but definitely not overrated, it should be an obligatory destination on your travel list, if you're planning on visiting. Summing up the experience, if you can enjoy travel destination with all of their pros and cons, and if you're not afraid of stepping off the beaten track, Taiwan can be the trip of a lifetime (obviously speaking from the experience of a western tourist). It's worth having a local guide of some sort, as the locals hardly ever speak English. You're more likely to see a Taiwanese person speak Chinese in your direction, expecting you to fully understand them, rather than hear English. Not a flaw, but a feature. The food comes in a plethora of varieties, but it mostly boils down to soups, noodles and snacks. If you like meat, prepare to eat fatty meat. If you're vegan, you will like it even more, as the majority of choices seem to be vegan-friendly. Don't go too heavy on the tea, although it's very tempting. Experienced a mild overdose first-hand. Sun Moon Lake (unfortunately not featured in any pictures) is the home of Taiwanese tea and you can find the best tea in the world in the area, worth every last Taiwanese Dollar you might have. The hotels can be a bit outdated, compared to European standards, but you will find perfect AC in every room, which seems to be the only requirement after a long day of traveling in the climate. A car is heavily recommended for the trip. submitted by /u/BarryKentJr to r/travel [link] [comments]

First | Previous | Next Patreon | Official Subreddit | Series Wiki | Royal Road The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. Exhibition Hall. Grand Arcade. Central Thoroughfare. Prosperity Row. Local Time: 2045 Hours. Emma I blinked. Then I raised a finger. … But words refused to leave my mouth despite it already hanging wide open. I had thoughts. No. I had more than thoughts — opinions sharpened by memories of trade counsel briefs stretching all the way from the SOC-SCI departments and into Weir’s personal office. Trade had always been a matter of particular sensitivity. Yet no one could’ve accounted for this eventuality. Well they did*… but… the minutiae was inevitably lost when magic and its consequences were factored into the equation.* So I responded the only way I could. A means of preventing Etholin from pursuing a path with only one foregone conclusion. “Etholin.” I offered politely, warmly even. “I don’t believe this is the right path for both of our realms, at least not without explaining a few—” “Oh, indeed! How could I be so daft!” He interjected, his eyes darting momentarily towards the watchful gazes of the Merchant Guild’s upper-yearsmen before landing back on my lenses. “I’ve yet to actually explain the benefits, and the details of such an arrangement! Allow me~” He trailed off, but before I could interject with another offramp, the doors behind us abruptly slammed shut, and a book — a sight-seer — was promptly pulled from one of the merchant’s many pouches. The lights within the lobby quickly dimmed. Following which we were effortlessly whisked off to what I assumed to be his elevator pitch, one that landed us straight in the midst of a truly medieval landscape, or at least what stereotypical conventions of it often depicted. We found ourselves in a dirty, run-down town beneath a permanently overcast sky. A settlement consisting of stone and mortar buildings scarcely two stories tall overlooked cobblestone roads with open gutters overflowing with brown sludge consisting of god knows what. I could smell the scene despite it being purely visual. But that was only the start of the experience. Looking up, I saw barely a handful of tiled roofs interspersed between thatched roofing in various states of cleanliness, rot, and utter decay. The sight-seer quickly pushed us forward, away from the random street and towards the town square, where water flowed naturally and divided the entire town in half. There, we witnessed shadowy elven-form residents as they grabbed water by the bucketful and carted it off either by shoulder-slung yokes or in carts attached to various beasts of burden. Overlooking this entire scene was a castle. And not one of those fairytale castles either, no. It looked… functional, practical, but gave little consideration in the way of aesthetics or ornamentation, with only a conical wizard’s tower giving off the slightest bit of whimsy to this low-fantasy setting. But that wasn’t the focus it seemed. No. Instead, the merchant lord ushered us to the markets. Where stalls haphazardly lined what should have been a spacious main street, but whose presence had forced all traffic into a crowded shoulder-to-shoulder free-for-all, with horses and carts clogging the sea of faceless ghostly traffic and turning this hell into a complete nightmare. The merchant lord then quietly gestured at the stalls, pointing out their wares and speaking with the detached lilt of a documentarian. “While the typical Nexian perception of a newrealm may be that of mud huts and stick roofs, that anachronistic stereotype is far from accurate. Because as you see, for a realm to have managed the impossible — breaching the space between spaces — one would expect some level of sophistication commensurate with such a worthwhile achievement!” He offered in this sincere, genuinely uplifting tone of voice. Yet the sentiment he preached was anything but. “Here, we see a typical town in a newrealm. Not a city! But a town! A city may even possess a greater degree of sophistication!” He snapped his fingers, and the whole scene shifted. The streets were wider here. Paved somewhat but still carrying over the same grimy overtures from prior. Just… scaled up in size. The buildings here actually had facades for instance. Facades of plaster, paint, glazed mosaics. But facades all the same. Even the markets were larger, with wares and items far more varied than the town, complete with wispy elven-form citizens possessing a great degree more ornamentation and design on their otherwise nondescript tunics and robes. Etholin allowed us to take in the sights and sounds as he made sure to emphasize the grand castle at the end of this brick-and-cobble-paved road. An actual castle to write home about now, what with its tall spires, grand keeps, and even a drawbridge gate. “Yet all of this…” He continued wistfully. “... all the riches of the capital, overflowing with tributes from the furthest corners of your realm…” The scene switched rapidly between the stalls and storefronts, peering deep into grand bazaars and large indoor stores selling anything and everything from spices to weapons to armor to fabrics. “... can scarcely compare, nor compete, with the totality of interstitial trade. Indeed, when set against the full scale of Status Prospera, your newrealm becomes a drop in a practically endless ocean.” The scene paused. We moved down street after street, avenue after avenue, through winding paths and twisting alleys, until we finally arrived at a harbor harboring what I could only describe as staple commodities. Grain stacked high in neat piles, filling entire warehouses from end to end. Woven fabrics and spun fibers that filled similar volumes, piled and stacked in such a way that you needed a spelunker to be able to squeeze through its gaps. We ran through countless more such sights before the perspective changed yet again, shifting outwards and upwards, positioning us high above the harbor, granting us a bird’s eye view. Finally, we saw at least ten of those warehouses highlighted, as it was clear Etholin was leading to something of a lesson on scale. Yet the scales being presented here… felt more like the stuff found in an ancient history lesson than anything resembling a figure as weighty or impactful as the growing background music was attempting to engender. “This is the typical domestic trade volume of some of a newrealm’s most staple products as taken from a single month outside of peak season, adjusted for the average and favorably accounting for low-end outliers.” Etholin paused, giving a moment for us to ‘marvel’ at the sights before continuing on seamlessly. “Meanwhile…” His grin grew wider as warehouses of the same size started to quite literally fall from the sky — like one of those amateurish ‘x for scale’ videos, where seemingly random items are drawn up for comparative scale. Soon enough, I saw where he was going with this. These summoned warehouses landed with deep cacophonous CRASHES into neat piles, creating a clear contrast between the ten or so ‘newrealm’ stacks and the hundreds piled high next to them, creating an illusion of a bar graph. “This is the typical interstitial trade volume between two adjacent realms of minor importance. As tabulated through the Nexian trade authorities, of course.” He turned to the invisible upper-yearsmen outside of the sight-seer, bowing in the process, before turning back to me. “However… this is only the start of things.” He spoke ominously before pulling us out towards the main street, down towards the castle itself, up its drawbridge, and deep down into its vaults and coffers. “Raw trade volume and staple commodities are one thing. Indeed, one could say it means absolutely nothing when compared to this next issue, Cadet Emma Booker. But I needed to show you the scale of the issues at play, before we address the greatest threat of them all.” He took a deep breath, opening the comically sized vault doors to reveal a room filled with a modest amount of gold, silver, and copper. The EVI was quick to guestimate the quantities on display. These were fundamental base elements we were talking about after all. So assuming the purities weren’t a variable, the same constants applied for volumetric analysis and extrapolation. “Ten thousand tons of silver.” I raised a brow. “And what… four thousand tons of gold?” I pondered, garnering the first genuine stutter from the merchant. “That… that’s precisely how much is being shown… how did you guess—” “I did some quick maths.” I responded slyly, even taking Thacea and Thalmin by momentary surprise yet again before their shock dissipated far quicker than the slack-jawed Etholin. They were used to the EVI’s quick-maths shenanigans after all. It took Etholin a few seconds longer to recover. Long enough that the awkward silence became momentarily deafening. Though, thankfully, that didn’t stop the merchant lord from completely losing his stride, as he cleared his throat with a nod of acknowledgement. “Impressive.” He bowed slightly. “Which makes what I am about to say next all the more jarring, I’m afraid.” He spoke apologetically. “Because all of the gold, and all of the silver you see before you—” “And the copper.” I added. “Yes, and the copper—” He corrected himself “—are worthless.” The room went silent again. This was probably where most newrealmers had their perspectives shattered, their worldviews destroyed, and their prospects at anything short of a fair and equal standing completely upended right then and there. However, both this reveal and its ensuing ramifications did little to phase me. The former was already hinted at courtesy of Ilunor’s reactions to the wealth cube after all. And the latter? Well… 16 Psyche would like to have a word with such a paltry sum. Or it would’ve if it wasn’t already mined out. So I stood steadfast, silently anticipating Etholin’s carefully worded and practiced playbook. “As you may have already observed, the Nexus deals only in attuned gold, Cadet Emma Booker. This is because the art of transmutation, now commonplace, has effectively turned the value of what was formerly scarce… into anything but. As a result, all newrealms must face the monumental task of overcoming two major obstacles. The first…” He paused, gesturing to the warehouses ‘outside.’ “A trade imbalance of disastrous proportions. For there is nothing a newrealm can offer that the greater adjacencies do not already possess, but inversely, there is everything that the greater adjacencies can offer, that a newrealm is in desperate demand of. The second—” He paused once more before gesturing towards the ‘worthless’ gold. “—is the medium through which such trades are conducted, as any local currency is to be penned as useless, and any ‘precious’ metal or material is also to be rendered just as worthless. Thus, a period of conversion must be observed, where a newrealm’s wealth is steadily converted into sums of equivalent value in attuned currency.” We were about to reach a crescendo, I could feel it. “This is where I would like to offer my services, Cadet Emma Booker.” The merchant lord bowed deeply, far deeper than ever before. “I am willing, if you see fit, to act as your realm’s fiduciary. I shall oversee your realm’s transition. I shall personally see to it that everything is raised from the level of a newrealm, to that of a respectable minor adjacency. I do not offer miracles, I do not promise that you will immediately rise to the ranks of the middling adjacencies, let alone the preferred adjacencies. However, I promise you that I will sculpt, mold, and shepherd your economy, your industries, your merchants and banks, into that of a respectable contemporary fellow.” The ferret practically beamed, placing his hands by his hips and puffing his chest out in pride. “And as a gesture of good faith… I am willing to match your realm’s current stores and holdings of gold and silver with my own.” … I felt the proverbial record coming to an abrupt screech. As even Thalmin and Thacea turned to each other in shock before once more meeting the pattenor’s eyes. “Your auricles do not deceive you, Cadet Emma Booker. I understand that such offers will inevitably raise doubts and suspicions. I know that you of all people are wise enough not to take an offer so flippantly, and especially without concessions and guarantees on the side of the proposing party. Therefore, as collateral for placing your realm’s finances into my guiding hand, I am willing to match the entirety of your gold and silver reserves in their attuned equivalents. Free of charge. Free of interest. To be returned without limits or stipulations, all signed in mutual agreement of such an exchange, of course.” He beamed. But instead of relief, satisfaction, or excitement forming behind my helmet, there was only pure and unadulterated dread. Not for me, of course, but for Etholin should this actually play out. Because despite not having the authority to okay it, the mere hypothetical thought was enough to send shivers down my spine. I could only imagine any rep from the corpo era would leap at this, grinning at the chance to reverse our roles and fortunes, sending the ignorant ferret into Status Debtia… or whatever lofty euphemism existed for such a fate. “Etholin.” I began calmly, politely. “Disregarding everything else so far, and just addressing your latter offer…” I continued as Etholin leaned in ever closer, as if expecting an excitable ‘Yes!’ from my speakers. “Trust me when I say this, but you really, really don’t want to do this.” The ferret’s features abruptly came to reflect my own, as it was clear that he too had reached a record-screeching halt in his carefully laid gambits. It didn’t take long for him to return to his senses, however, the natural trader within him processing my rebukement with poise before replying plainly and simply. “I apologize if I have been too… loquacious, Cadet Emma Booker. I will rephrase myself, in case my intent was lost in translation. What I offer is a complete one-to-one conversion. No debasement, no arbitrage, no unequal rates. A true exchange from dead to attuned. Without surcharge, fees, markup, commission, premiums, stamps or duties.” He prattled on. “This is my collateral, my gift to your realm, in exchange for your trust in accepting my services as fiduciary to Earthrealm’s trade and economic development.” He clarified, genuinely taken aback by an offer that I imagined most newrealms could simply not refuse. The ball was quickly thrown back to my court, with Etholin’s gaze maintaining a mix between genuine disbelief and a hint of desperation. “Etholin… discounting the fact that I do not have the vested authority required to ratify such a radical offer, I cannot under good conscience agree to terms so unfair and completely catastrophic to the proposing party.” I stated plainly, pulling the words straight from SIOP and causing Etholin to flinch not only in shock but also growing bafflement and confusion. “And were I to actually explain why…” I took a deep breath. “... you would find my reasoning for this refusal outlandish, if not entirely a work of fabrication. You’d think I was saying it just to get out of an uncomfortable deal. You’d think I was committing to fiction just to avoid conflict.” I continued, as more and more I saw Etholin’s gaze shifting to what I needed from him now more than ever — curiosity and a willingness to step beyond his comfort zone, if only to limit the effects that fundamental systemic incongruity would ultimately cause him. He took a deep breath, his eyes brimming with a confident fury. “Addressing your first point.” He began. “While you lack the authority — and perhaps the conviction to carry through regardless of said authority—” He uttered that latter part more as an aside, almost as a point of derision bordering on a dare. “—you still do possess a means of forwarding said offer to those with the authority, correct?” “Well, technically yes, but I doubt they’ll—” “Then we can pen the acceptance as conditional, and pending, rather than completely off the table.” Etholin interjected, his tone dominant, as he attempted to hide the growing insecurities bubbling just beneath the surface. “You’ll find that even if I do so, my superiors’ answers will inevitably mirror my own.” “For the reasons you vaguely allude to, I assume?” “Yes.” “Then test me.” He demanded bluntly, standing his ground more firmly than I’d ever seen him do before. “Let’s hear about these supposed reasons.” Perhaps the eyes and ears around us were enough of an incentive for him to grow a stronger spine. Perhaps the past month had led to some sort of growth within him. Regardless, I nodded in acknowledgement and quickly grabbed two items from my pouches. The first was the very item that had caused Ilunor’s sentiments to shift in one swift motion — the precious metals dispenser (PMD). And the second was an item that I knew Etholin of all people would appreciate the understated significance of. I kept the second close to my chest for now as I handed him the pez dispenser of wealth. The ferret merchant received the item with exceptional care, turning it, twisting it, as if more enamored with the simplicity of the device and the mechanism within it than the coins it clearly held. His slow, methodical approach stood at odds with Ilunor's far more… aggressive handling of it. Which was a breath of fresh air but also tested my patience; I almost offered to guide him through the simple mechanis— CHA-CHING! There it was. And of course, this was followed up by a burst of mana, what the EVI assumed — within a reasonable margin of error — was a detection spell. Once that was settled, he analyzed the copper coin closely, studying it in a manner far more precise and deliberate than the vunerian’s more playful approach of running each coin through his fingers. The perfect one-troy-ounce coin was inspected further with a monocle, as Etholin seemed to take in every detail of the starless GUN seal on one side before flipping to the other to see the missing fourteen stars. This divergence from Ilunor’s more passive observation continued, as Etholin actually began interrogating the text stamped on both sides bounding their respective seals. “Greater United Nations. Peace and Prosperity for All.” He read the translated High Nexian above the English verbatim before flipping the coin over to its opposite side. “Minted Under Special Order 7 fro 32. For exclusive use in diplomatic missions.” He raised a brow at that. “Why the need for novel issuance?” He questioned. To which my answer was swift and honest. “Because we don’t mint physical currency in a way that would convey intrinsic value anymore. Nor do we expect its value to inherently transfer to an entirely different dimension.” I surmised simply, avoiding and sidestepping the topic of an opt-in cashless society, USTU-transaction chips, and purely digital transactions… not to mention the Requisition Unit. “So for the purposes of this diplomatic mission, and generally all diplomatic missions for that matter, the idea was to mint a ‘currency’ based on the intrinsic value of the so-called ‘precious’ metals themselves.” Etholin latched on to each and every word, but his eyes grew wide at that latter, seemingly throwaway line. “So-called?” He clarified. At which point I knew I had to simply drop the bombshell. “We’ve achieved post-shackling, as you say in the Nexian vernacular.” I stated bluntly, garnering a pause, a look of disbelief, and a vigorous shake of the pattenor’s head all in rapid succession. “Precious metals are only still called that because of their relative scarcity to other metals, and as a holdover term. Hence why I prefaced it with ‘so-called.’” Etholin paused. His features shifted to what I feared to be a premature point of fundamental systemic incongruity. However, unlike Ilunor, if he did have any reservations, he kept it to himself. Instead, he chose to forge ahead, continuously pressing the PMD— CHA-CHING! CHA-CHING! CHA-CHING! —until finally, he noticed something. A physical mechanism that Ilunor had avoided but one that the pattenor was quick to exploit — a small knob allowing for the mechanical selection of the type of dispensed coin. CLICK! CHA-CHING! In one swift motion, he’d shifted from copper to silver. CLICK! CHA-CHING! And in another, he moved effortlessly to gold. Then finally— CLICK! CHA-CHING! —he moved to a certain element that had proven to be the final straw for the vunerian’s back. … The stillness in his features spoke leagues in my favor. The stiff, unpracticed, nearly stuttering motions as he lifted monocle to coin was enough to clue me into what was going on behind his eyes. Indeed, his hastening breath had sealed the deal on this whole exchange. And yet… … Silence still dominated the air. As this episode, this entire process, stood at odds with Ilunor’s far more visceral response. “Emma…” Etholin finally spoke as he blasted wave after wave of unknown spells at the coin. “Is this… platinum?” “Yes.” I answered immediately. “With a few trace metals added for integrity’s sake. But it is, for all intents and purposes of trade, pure.” “Ah.” Came the pattenor’s single syllable response. CHA-CHING! CHA-CHING! CHA-CHING! CHA-CHING! CHA-CHING! He continued wordlessly, fingers primed, constantly striking that button over— CHA-CHING! —and over— CHA-CHING! —and over again— CHA-CHING! —until finally— CLINK! —he ran out. He twisted his neck towards the coins, then my lenses, then back to the coins. It was now his turn to be slackjawed, though not in the way he probably expected. “Emma… this… did you… did your realm send you with the entirety of your platinum reser—” “There’s more where that came from, if you’re interested.” I interjected, completely sidestepping and then preempting the merchant lord with an answer to a question he’d inevitably ask. “A thousand kilos and some change.” That sole proclamation was enough to finally bring the outside world back into the confines of Etholin’s sight-seer. As murmurs from beyond the veil penetrated into our little corner of reality, the magical hologram started to fracture at the seams. “Impossible!” “Absurd!” “A complete bluff!” “A fabrication!” Indignant voices erupted from the alcove above, all of which were quickly hushed by an unseen figure. “Do you dare to bear the burden of proof, newrealmer?” A figure quickly entered our sight-seer — a sea lion realmer who, like many other seniors thus far, I hadn’t yet met. “Prince Ferrian Fiswisk. Deputy Chairman of the Merchant’s Guild.” He quickly added, though it was clear his name, titles, and the rest of the typical decorum’s song and dance were the last things on his mind at present. “Well met.” I nodded sharply. “And sure. I’m a diplomat of my word.” I nodded. “Though I should note that it’ll probably take a while given how far the dorms are from the exhibition ha—” “You are located in Dragon’s Heart Tower, correct?” He questioned. “Yes.” “Then it should take no more than five minutes.” “Wait what? How—” The man quickly pointed at his ring as if anticipating my response. “I am a member of the incumbent Class Sovereign’s peer group. This grants me certain express travel privileges within the Academy.” He clarified. “Now then, I am already encroaching on your dialogue as it is. I do not wish to set an unprofessional precedent, where possible. Who do you wish to elect to act as arbitrator in your stead, newrealmer?” I blinked. Then I instinctively turned to Thacea. “Princess Thacea Dilani, accompanied by Prince Thalmin Havenbrock.” I answered. “Though I assume you will simply act as an intermediary of travel, rather than an unprompted auditor into our private spaces?” “... As we have only just met, I will not hold such words of offense against you. Do know that I am not so brusque as to dismiss the noble right of privacy.” He shook his head back and forth in a fit of indignant theatrics. “I merely wish to see the burden of evidence. Your arbitrator will be the party responsible for meeting these conditions in whichever way they see fit.” I turned to Thacea, giving her a nod of approval. “Get him one of everything. And a lot of the… special bars.” Thacea raised a brow at this but nodded all the same, following Ferrian Fiskwisk out of the sight-seer and back into the busy streets beyond those triple-volume doors. I turned back to Etholin the instant the trio cleared our sightline, seeing the merchant lord just… standing there. Still as a deer in headlights. “You showed me a world, a hypothetical newrealm forged by the rule of averages.” I paused then gestured around us. “I’m assuming that this is what you assume Earthrealm to be like, correct?” “Yes.” Etholin nodded. “You should know then, simply by our acquisition of platinum, that your preconceptions are just a bit off.” “I…” “But that’s only our primary economic sector we’re talking about here. Maybe secondary too if you count smelting and minting. But this second item should firmly clue you in to our capacity in the latter.” I continued as I offered him the instrument to both of our futures. The merchant lord cocked his head but received the innocuous item graciously all the same. “A… pen?” He questioned, garnering a simple nod as I even offered him a notepad. A gesture that also gave him increasing pause for concern. So after a moment taken to return the PMD and its coins back to me, he began inspecting this ‘new’ toy, inspecting it with bursts of mana radiation, studying its plastic exterior, before finally— CLICK! Deploying its little ballpoint tip. “A… coilspring?” He managed out under an increasingly suspicious breath. “Your… coin purse also possessed such a mechanism, if I’m not mistaken…” CLICK! … CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! “There is a spring in there, yeah. A simple mechanism, streamlined for mass production.” I spoke casually, that latter line managing to capture the merchant’s attention as much as the mention of platinum did. “This… isn’t a bespoke piece? Like your armor?” “Etholin.” I took a deep breath in. “My armor might be bespoke in certain aspects, but only because of its modifications. You’ll find that most soldiers from my realm are issued something similar, if not more deadly than what I’m wearing.” He stopped. And once again he found himself running straight into the wall of fundamental systemic incongruity. It took a moment for him to compose himself, before finally— CLICK! —he was ready to continue. “And the inkwell?” He questioned but received only a simple ‘go on’ gesture from me as my sole response. So with a shrug, he began writing. At which point, I could see his eyes narrow before dilating in the matter of a few seconds. He began furiously scribbling at that point. Writing, sketching, and going to town with the provided paper. Eventually he moved to the notepad, attempting to scrawl, scribble, and doodle all in rapid succession before finally moving to inspect the ballpoint tip, his eyes ending up dangerously close to its pointy end. “Where are the enchantments, Cadet Emma Booker?” He questioned desperately. “You know as well as I, and the rest of the year group, that Earthrealm is… deficient in mana, Etholin. Ergo, we can’t just waste enchantments on something so trivial as a pen, now can we?” I spoke under a toothy grin, skirting past the gag order and iterating off of the ‘publically acceptable’ narrative. “We did this all without magic. No spells. No enchantments.” “And not bespoke either?” He questioned skeptically, his hands carefully toying with its exterior — twisting and torquing it — before its seamless unibody construction gave way to two unscrewed pieces. His critical features soon gave way to abashment as he sheepishly met my gaze once more. This time out of worry for potentially breaking the strange artifact. “No, not bespoke. You’ll see how simple it is now that you’ve twisted it open, go on.” I urged, and he continued twisting, then finally dropping the few contents within onto an open palm. Etholin Those words echoed in my mind. They taunted me with every passing second. Their implications… worming, twisting, and prying open all that I knew and all that I could fathom. All… at the foot of these innocuous-shaped pieces of… ivory? No, they were too… lightweight, airy almost, to be ivory. They weren't carved either. Or were they? How could they have carved something so intricately, so precisely? Were they molded? Shaped? Compressed? Grown into form? What even was this material? Why couldn’t I fathom what material this was? The spells showed nothing. No origin, no tells, no signs or symptoms of production in any capacity as I understood it. That was the case for everything, at least. Save for the one item that, at the very least, retained some semblance of normalcy. The coilspring. But even then… its presence here was alarming. Not in its existence alone, of course. Some newrealms were most certainly advanced enough to possess such mechanisms, after all. … But they were all reserved for specialized equipment. Tools for the wealthy, toys for the privileged, and objects of novelty for the upper echelons. Emma’s claims stood contrary to this. No. Worse than that. Her assertions stood contrary to what should have been possible. Mass production… without manufactoriums? With mana-deficient, or completely manaless means? For springs?! What for? Just for pens? It wouldn’t be economically feasible— … Unless it was destined for more than pens. If not that, then what? Suspensions for vehicles perhaps? Locks? Clocks? Traps? Clamps? Primitive siege-engine mechanisms? Surely that couldn’t imply mass production? Surely those were specialized enough to be relegated to guilds and smithies? Why would they be needed for mass production? Unless… Unless… This was just a piece of a grander puzzle I wasn’t seeing. It was at that point, after absent mindedly squeezing that tiny spring, that it finally ‘clicked.’ What if this was a part of a grander puzzle? A small piece within an intricate web. As intricate and complex as the manufactorium and logistics of a typical supply chain? But that would make Earthrealm far more capable, far more advanced, far more sophisticated than even a burgeoning minor adjacency. That… that couldn’t be. Not when magic was scarce and its use even scarcer. The mud huts and stick roof theory should have applied stronger in that case. But the inverse was true. I saw it. I was seeing it. I was touching it… But what if Emma was lying? What if she was bluffing? That would be the obvious explanation to all of this! And yet… She’d dared to call her bluff with the deputy chairman. … My mind edged towards the cliff face of uncertainty. My efforts, my gambit, all holding on by a thread. I’d even absent-mindedly reassembled the entire pen back together, taking a few tries before finally screwing it back into place. CLICK! I began testing the writing implement once more. … It worked perfectly. And its assembly, even in my soft and untempered hands, was beyond child’s play. If each item could be produced in their own manufactorium, by their own mechanisms, then assembled elsewh— What if it was mass produced? What if— “Etholin? You okay there, friend?” Emma finally offered, pulling me out of my reverie, as I attempted to formulate something in response. “I am, thank you. I… I’m just… I was just pondering, what materials comprise—” CLINK CLINK CLINK! The ringing of glass bells prematurely ended that train of thought. I expected the return of the deputy chairman, of the avinor, or perhaps the lupinor. Instead, a thick cloud made its way into the confines of my sight-seer, and with it an unexpected guest. “Esteemed councilmen and chairs! I incur the right of the prospective fellow!” Lord Rostario Rostarion proclaimed, garnering a few murmurs from the council before a conclusion was met uncharacteristically quickly. “Motion sustained.” Following which the rodent smirked as he hovered high above both me and my potential client. “Lord Etholin Esila has had his chance. Indeed, I respect my peer for his persistence! But alas, the time has come for competition to enter the fold.” He spoke in that orator’s cadence as he made the gambit I had started. We both awaited in painful silence before the council made their final decision. “We acknowledge Lord Rostario Rostarion’s bid for guild membership, and sustain his motions for this newrealm deal. Lord Rostario Rostarion, you may proceed. Lord Etholin Esila, please await the return of the Deputy Chairman.” I let out a frustrated sigh, especially as that opportunistic creature entered the fray — now fully recognized — bringing both gift baskets and musical ensembles to the negotiation table. “Cadet Emma Booker…” He began in that sing-song voice. “I offer you, personally… the world.” First | Previous | Next (Author's Note: I'm so happy with this chapter and I can't wait to hear what you guys think of it! :D I put a lot of effort into this because the whole merchant's guild section is just filled with a lot of lore bits as well as character moments for Etholin and Rostario! :D There's also the return of the wealth cube that I established all the way back in a previous chapter too haha. That's also going to be fun! :D I hope you guys like the chapter! : D) (Author's Note 2: Hey everyone! I also posted art references of Qiv's peer group including Rostario Rostarion himself! You can check it out over here: Qiv's Peer Group :D) [If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 177, Chapter 178, and Chapter 179 of this story are already out on there!)] submitted by /u/Jcb112 to r/HFY [link] [comments]

The education landscape is radically different from what we as parents experienced. I'm guessing a number of us have plans to send our kids to higher ed, and if so, this is for you. So, I re-entered college 20 years later at my local, very large public university to get an education degree to help me be a better homeschooling educator. I also wanted to understand the landscape that my kids would be entering when they graduate in about 10 years' time. Now that I'm two classes away from graduating, I wanted to share my take: 1) I could not believe the standards, or lack thereof. My Intro to Bio class that I tacked on to help me teach it was so easy that I ultimately gave the reigns to my 10-year-old to do the work. I sat with her as oversight to be clear, but when I graded her answers, she got a 96%. Not because she's some type of prodigy... but the work was just that easy. I understand this is not the same thing as completing higher level courses, but this was straight-up impossible back when I was in college unless the child was unusually gifted. 2) It's truly possible to have ChatGPT do the vast majority of the work. We had to give peer responses and the majority were AI-generated. Not a single one of my courses in the core education program required any proctoring whatsoever, be it the quizzes or final exams (which actually didn't exist. Our work was all either essay or project-based). 3) None of the education classes emphasized how to inculcate academic excellence in students. In fact, the ethos was that we should be moving away from globalized testing like PISA scores and shift to "whole human learning." I agree with this to an extent, as I'm aware of the major problems federalized testing like NCLB has created. But I was really surprised at the dearth of actual learning theory: there was only one class in the program, and most of it was on constructivism. This is a branch that talks about the learner constructing their own meaning from their own experiences, which basically relegates teachers to be a "guide on the side" rather than a "sage on the stage." It was really disappointing not to learn specific teaching techniques like spaced repetition, retrieval practice, etc. 4) Holy activism, Batman. While helping educators instruct students on how to learn was one pithy class, using education to implement social change (along a very narrow definition of what that looks like) was the bulk of the program. To be clear, I have no political allegiance, I'm agnostic at best, and I think CRT has its place alongside feminism courses in universities. I like ascertaining all ideas, including and especially controversial ones. But it was pretty appalling to enter a mandatory course in which it was required to engage in activism with an organization of our choosing, yet the first week "suggests" only causes like gender-affirming support in teens, reproductive rights, and pro-immigration groups. The irony is that I actually agree with many of these causes but when they're the only ones put forth by the professors it's not hard to see that 1) it has a huge chilling effect on conservative students and 2) it absolutely comes across as ideological indoctrination that I thought was some type of hyperbolic strawman until I went back to school and experienced it myself. There were many anecdotes like this one. 5) Books are not a thing anymore. I think I only had to read one, which was So You Want to Talk About Race (I linked the pdf if you want to take a gander. It's... yeah). Most of the material was TedTalks, The Atlantic, a news article highlighting an author's take, and occasionally, an actual study from a scholarly journal. Very little quality reading is assigned, and when it is, students just have to make a comment or two on the material (which they often use AI to generate). It's easy for students to get away with not reading at all, especially when it's not quizzed or tested. I read them, primarily because I know how much I was shelling out for these courses and realized I'd be short-changing myself if I didn't. Most students, however, were doing the bare minimum just to get their degree. With the way the courses are structured, the bare minimum is basement-level to the point that I question the value of this degree. 6) Essays are also going the way of the dodo bird. Remember when we were given a topic and told to write a research essay? Now, professors instruct what they want in each paragraph of what's not more than a 5-paragraph essay. The longest essay I wrote was no more than 5 pages, heavily restricted and curated by specific mandates. To some extent I get this, on account of AI, but I saw no professor even trying to cut back on it. In the syllabus it states professors will explain appropriate uses of AI in the course, but then none had ever given any guidance on its usage in their class. As an educator I firmly believe in the importance of inculcating solid writing skills, but I was really surprised to see that I had higher writing requirements in my 9th grade English class (at my nothing-special public high school) than in college. Yet when I was at this same university 20 years ago, my papers were routinely 20+ pages. I don't mean to sound like that old man who constantly says, "Back in my day we walked barefoot in the snow for 2 miles" but wow, standards are so much lower than I thought. 7) Templates, templates everywhere. That was the standard assignment in quite a few of my courses. And it would more or less be re-phrasing a given paragraph in a very short reading. For example, the question would ask, "What is the ideation phase?" and the answer is, "According to ___ the ideation phase is defined as ____." The work was, at times, so tedious I wanted to outsource it my fourth grader. 8) No notes, no flashcards. Both were staples of my college experience, and I used (and needed) neither this go-round. I again think this has to do with the lack of midterms and finals as we knew them. I'm still processing what all of this means for my own homeschooling expectations. But I know for sure, university ain't like it used to be. It's pretty depressing. Has anyone else experienced something similar? submitted by /u/StrangeCatch382 to r/homeschool [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/Gemmer12 to r/landscaping [link] [comments]

These were produced in both Jingdezhen and Arita and copied each other faithfully. One of the few examples of a wider blue ring on the base of a Chinese dish. submitted by /u/OGBeerMonster to r/ChinesePorcelain [link] [comments]

We have an order to print and it would make the most sense for the staple to be top right landscape. I tried loading the paper SEF but that didn’t change anything. Any tips or just leave as is? submitted by /u/BigDaddyDepot to r/OfficeDepot [link] [comments]

Today I went to donate some clothes that don’t fit/aren’t my style anymore and try and replace them with a few new staples at Goodwill. I try to thrift all my clothes to reduce clothing waste and save money. I’m flicking through the racks, pull about 5 items, then go to look for the dressing rooms. None to be found. I asked an associate and she said all the local Goodwill’s closed them permanently this month. She was happy because people would shoplift and dirty up the dressing rooms, which I can sympathize with from the employee’s part- it’s extra work and I’m sure Goodwill isn’t generous with its staffing or compensation. But seriously. I’m not buying clothes I can’t try on only to have to come back within 7 days to exchange them for more mystery fit clothes on loop. It’s crazy. The fact that the powers that be at Goodwill were to concerned about the excess theft of FREE CLOTHING to the point of, imo, ruining the shopping experience, is crazy. Goodwill’s whole “mission” is providing job training and work opportunities right? Hire a couple extra people per store and create an actual monitored dressing room system where someone limits the clothes you take in, unlocks the room, etc. But no, that would require the CEO to give up some of his insane compensation package. The extra sad part is I left with no purchases and drove to 2 other independent thrifts to shop. No dressing rooms either. Now I was in a rough area so it may just be one of those things but man, I hate it here. I feel like Goodwill has more resources to run dressing rooms correctly if they cared to though. submitted by /u/samirawifey to r/goodwill [link] [comments]

After a year of research, debate, and help from many of you in your home regions, I’ve finished a national map of 78 U.S. food regions. Each area is based on distinct culinary traditions shaped by geography, culture, and history, from Gullah and Tex-Mex to Monroe BBQ and Crucian cuisine. I’d love your feedback: Did I miss something obvious? Should a region be renamed, removed, or split further? A version of this map’s headed to print next year as part of a national cultural atlas, so this is the last round of tuning before it gets locked in. Methodology note: This map is interpretive rather than purely statistical. Regions were defined using a mix of historical settlement patterns, agricultural zones, immigration history, regional dishes, and feedback from locals across multiple revisions. This is the 5th major revision, and I’m posting here specifically to invite critique before it goes to print as part of a larger cultural atlas. Edit- just tried to reupload this in higher resolution. I went as high res as Reddit would let me. Sorry if it's still blurry or unreadable. DM me or look at links in my profile and I'll point you to a higher-res version submitted by /u/piri_reis_ to r/dataisbeautiful [link] [comments]

After a year of research, debate, and help from many of you in your home regions, I’ve finished a national map of 78 U.S. food regions. Each area is based on distinct culinary traditions shaped by geography, culture, and history, from Gullah and Tex-Mex to Monroe BBQ and Crucian cuisine. I’d love your feedback: Did I miss something obvious? Should a region be renamed, removed, or split further? A version of this map’s headed to print next year as part of a national cultural atlas, so this is the last round of tuning before it gets locked in. Edit- just tried to reupload this in higher resolution. I went as high as Reddit would allow. Sorry if it's still fuzzy. DM me or look at links in my profile and I'll point you to a higher-res version submitted by /u/piri_reis_ to r/MapPorn [link] [comments]

Figuring out how to make art of actual people in this so I can make a full commander deck with this vibe, but here's some basics for now. submitted by /u/Local_Door_6092 to r/mpcproxies [link] [comments]

Thanks for all the love on this 🙏 Reddit compresses the map—if you want full-res zoom-ins (and prints), they’re on my IG. My bio there has the link to the shop. IG: americanfoodatlas submitted by /u/piri_reis_ to r/MapPorn [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/NoCulture3505 to r/television [link] [comments]

So, I’ve seen this weird idea floating around that the publishing industry is dead-set against male readers--like there’s some hush-hush boardroom meeting where executives rub their hands together, plotting to exclude every man from the literary world. Trust me, that’s not happening. Publishers are out to make money, and if there’s a market for it--be it epic fantasy sagas with wizard bros, gritty contemporary thrillers, or even romance novels set on moon colonies--they’ll publish it. But let’s pause for a second and look at what’s actually happening in bookstores and across the broader literary landscape. Walk into one--I’ll wait. See that fantasy section with 47 different sword-wielding dudes on the covers? The thrillers where a grizzled ex-CIA guy saves America from a vague European villain? The romance novels featuring a rugged billionaire who definitely isn’t toxic? Those aren’t dusty relics. They’re still selling like hotcakes, with extra syrup. Nobody’s forcing you to read anything else if you don’t want to. And it’s not limited to fantasy; look at general fiction, sci-fi, young adult, or any other category. The old staples are all there, alive and kicking. But here’s where it gets interesting: People who shout the loudest about how the industry is “anti-male” tend to ignore their own double standards on representation. For literal decades, the publishing world primarily catered to white men, churning out stories that centered their viewpoints while often sidelining women and people of color. On top of that, white male authors have historically been paid more than their female counterparts, and significantly more than Black female authors, so it’s really strange to claim that the industry somehow hates men. Y’all say, “We need more books for guys,” or “Male readers deserve protagonists we can relate to,” right? But the second someone points out that most fantasy shelves--and frankly, many other genres--are overwhelmingly white (like a Tolkien elf’s skincare routine), suddenly it’s “Anyone can relate to anyone,” or “Stop forcing diversity.” Oh really? So it’s totally fine to demand stories featuring dudes because that representation is important, but the moment Black readers ask for main characters who look like them and reflect their culture, it becomes “forced diversity”? Nah, that’s not confusion, that’s willful ignorance. If you get why boys and men want male protagonists, you already understand why Black readers, queer readers, or anyone else might want the same. Stories across all genres--fantasy, romance, mystery, literary fiction--don’t exist to coddle your nostalgia; they’re supposed to reflect the whole world, not just the corner where you’ve built your dragon hoard of tropes. Also, publishing more stories by marginalized groups doesn’t mean fewer stories for you. It’s not a zero-sum game. The industry isn’t a pie where Karen from HR took your slice of “generic military sci-fi” and replaced it with “queer cozy mystery.” There’s just... more pie now. And pie is good. The market isn’t shrinking--it’s growing. More stories mean more readers, more creativity, more fun. Unless your idea of fun is rereading the same chosen-farmboy-saves-the-kingdom plot until the heat death of the universe (in any genre). Now, to be fair, publishing does have real problems--old-school gatekeeping, weird marketing formulas, and yes, a track record of not showcasing enough marginalized voices in general. But hating on male readers specifically? That’s not one of them. They want all the readers they can get because more readers = more sales. It’s that simple. If you’re mad that you’re not finding enough “guy-centered” books on the shelf, you have options: dig deeper into indie titles, explore new subgenres, and (shockingly) check out books featuring main characters who aren’t just carbon copies of yourself. The same open-mindedness applies when people call for better Black representation, better LGBTQ+ representation, better any representation. The world is huge, and people want to see themselves within the diverse tapestry of literature--be it fantasy, mystery, or contemporary fiction. Why slam the door on that? So yeah, the publishing industry isn’t perfect--it might be chasing the next hot trend (shout out to all the cat wizards or mafia-fae prince romances) because that’s where the money is. But it’s not actively trying to shoo men away from reading. If there’s demand, publishers will deliver. The trick is being cool with everyone else demanding stuff too. Because you can’t claim the importance of representation one moment and dismiss it the next. The industry isn’t your ex--it doesn’t hate you. It just also likes other people now. Are you scared of sharing the shelf, or just scared of expanding your imagination? TL;DR: The industry doesn’t hate men. It wants your money just as much as it wants everyone else’s. Men still buy books, men still write books, and none of that is going away. If you’re annoyed about your reading options, dig deeper, ask around, try new authors. And if you ever feel tempted to say, “But why do we need diversity in fantasy (or any genre)?” remember: if it’s valid to want more male-led books, it’s equally valid for Black readers (and everyone else) to want stories that highlight their experiences. Literature is for everybody, folks--let’s actually keep it that way. submitted by /u/Venedictpalmer to r/Fantasy [link] [comments]

So, I’ve seen this weird idea floating around that the publishing industry is dead-set against male readers--like there’s some hush-hush boardroom meeting where executives rub their hands together, plotting to exclude every man from the literary world. Trust me, that’s not happening. Publishers are out to make money, and if there’s a market for it--be it epic fantasy sagas with wizard bros, gritty contemporary thrillers, or even romance novels set on moon colonies--they’ll publish it. But let’s pause for a second and look at what’s actually happening in bookstores and across the broader literary landscape. Walk into one--I’ll wait. See that fantasy section with 47 different sword-wielding dudes on the covers? The thrillers where a grizzled ex-CIA guy saves America from a vague European villain? The romance novels featuring a rugged billionaire who definitely isn’t toxic? Those aren’t dusty relics. They’re still selling like hotcakes, with extra syrup. Nobody’s forcing you to read anything else if you don’t want to. And it’s not limited to fantasy; look at general fiction, sci-fi, young adult, or any other category. The old staples are all there, alive and kicking. But here’s where it gets interesting: People who shout the loudest about how the industry is “anti-male” tend to ignore their own double standards on representation. For literal decades, the publishing world primarily catered to white men, churning out stories that centered their viewpoints while often sidelining women and people of color. On top of that, white male authors have historically been paid more than their female counterparts, and significantly more than Black female authors, so it’s really strange to claim that the industry somehow hates men. Y’all say, “We need more books for guys,” or “Male readers deserve protagonists we can relate to,” right? But the second someone points out that most fantasy shelves--and frankly, many other genres--are overwhelmingly white (like a Tolkien elf’s skincare routine), suddenly it’s “Anyone can relate to anyone,” or “Stop forcing diversity.” Oh really? So it’s totally fine to demand stories featuring dudes because that representation is important, but the moment Black readers ask for main characters who look like them and reflect their culture, it becomes “forced diversity”? Nah, that’s not confusion, that’s willful ignorance. If you get why boys and men want male protagonists, you already understand why Black readers, queer readers, or anyone else might want the same. Stories across all genres--fantasy, romance, mystery, literary fiction--don’t exist to coddle your nostalgia; they’re supposed to reflect the whole world, not just the corner where you’ve built your dragon hoard of tropes. Also, publishing more stories by marginalized groups doesn’t mean fewer stories for you. It’s not a zero-sum game. The industry isn’t a pie where Karen from HR took your slice of “generic military sci-fi” and replaced it with “queer cozy mystery.” There’s just... more pie now. And pie is good. The market isn’t shrinking--it’s growing. More stories mean more readers, more creativity, more fun. Unless your idea of fun is rereading the same chosen-farmboy-saves-the-kingdom plot until the heat death of the universe (in any genre). Now, to be fair, publishing does have real problems--old-school gatekeeping, weird marketing formulas, and yes, a track record of not showcasing enough marginalized voices in general. But hating on male readers specifically? That’s not one of them. They want all the readers they can get because more readers = more sales. It’s that simple. If you’re mad that you’re not finding enough “guy-centered” books on the shelf, you have options: dig deeper into indie titles, explore new subgenres, and (shockingly) check out books featuring main characters who aren’t just carbon copies of yourself. The same open-mindedness applies when people call for better Black representation, better LGBTQ+ representation, better any representation. The world is huge, and people want to see themselves within the diverse tapestry of literature--be it fantasy, mystery, or contemporary fiction. Why slam the door on that? So yeah, the publishing industry isn’t perfect--it might be chasing the next hot trend (shout out to all the cat wizards or mafia-fae prince romances) because that’s where the money is. But it’s not actively trying to shoo men away from reading. If there’s demand, publishers will deliver. The trick is being cool with everyone else demanding stuff too. Because you can’t claim the importance of representation one moment and dismiss it the next. The industry isn’t your ex--it doesn’t hate you. It just also likes other people now. Are you scared of sharing the shelf, or just scared of expanding your imagination? TL;DR: The industry doesn’t hate men. It wants your money just as much as it wants everyone else’s. Men still buy books, men still write books, and none of that is going away. If you’re annoyed about your reading options, dig deeper, ask around, try new authors. And if you ever feel tempted to say, “But why do we need diversity in fantasy (or any genre)?” remember: if it’s valid to want more male-led books, it’s equally valid for Black readers (and everyone else) to want stories that highlight their experiences. Literature is for everybody, folks--let’s actually keep it that way. submitted by /u/Venedictpalmer to r/writing [link] [comments]

Game Information Game Title: Avowed Platforms: Xbox Series X/S (Feb 18, 2025) PC (Feb 18, 2025) Trailers: Avowed Story Trailer Avowed - Official Gameplay Trailer Developer: Obsidian Entertainment Publisher: Xbox Game Studios Review Aggregator: OpenCritic - 81 average - 83% recommended - 74 reviews Critic Reviews 4News.it - Danilo Di Gennaro - Italian - 8.8 / 10 Avowed represents quintessential game design according to Obsidian Entertainment. While not offering a radically new experience, the return to the world of Eora is an exciting action RPG, graced by the traditional care the development team put into the script. Free to be able to create one's alter ego among a thousand opportunities for customization and to direct it indiscriminately toward the paths of good or evil, Avowed puts players within a setting that is the antithesis of the dispersive risk of an endless open world, with gameplay devoted to action and fun. It may not be a revolution, and technically some hiccups are there, but for all fans of the genre it is a must. ACG - Jeremy Penter - Wait for Sale "Despite issues with some of the games shallower systems I found myself having a great time most of the time I played Avowed." AltChar - Semir Omerovic - 85 / 100 Rich with a vibrant world, intriguing story, remarkable companions, and engaging combat, Obsidian's first-person fantasy RPG, Avowed, offered so much flavour that I found it hard to stop playing. Andrenoob - Andres Perdomo - Spanish - 9 / 10 Avowed is a game that takes the risk of showing the best of Obsidian Entertainment and delivers everything you expect. Delivering an adventure worth playing if you love RPGs. Atarita - Atakan Gümrükçüoğlu - Turkish - 90 / 100 Avowed looks like it's going to make a name for itself for a while. I have no doubt that it will give you a good time with its scenario, missions, characters and lots of content. It has some problems, but they are not insurmountable. Its structure that leaves the player free is its most impressive feature. But Why Tho? - Charles Hartford - 9.5 / 10 Avowed marks another triumph for the folks at Obsidian. Through its gorgeous world, memorable characters, frenzied combat, and intuitive yet deep customization system, it highlights player agency. Everywhere in its gameplay and narrative, ensuring that each playthrough offers something new. More importantly, it does so while never compromising the strength of its core story. CGMagazine - Dayna Eileen - 8 / 10 Avowed is a game I have had my eyes on for four years now, even before I set eyes on any gameplay. Obsidian Entertainment and Xbox Game Studios always manage Cerealkillerz - Steve Brieller - German - 8.3 / 10 Obsidian Entertainment stays true to its strengths and delivers great story telling and dialogues. Gameplay wise Avowed is fun but not very complex as the player character can pretty much do everything and doesn't have to commit. All in all this release is a solid action RPG that is available in the game pass from Day 1. Checkpoint Gaming - Luke Mitchell - 9.5 / 10 Avowed is impressive in almost everything it sets out to do. It has sharp writing, captivating companions, an intriguing story and a varied world that is just thrilling to explore. It's visually stunning, too, with high production values including satisfying audio that makes the Living Lands feel bustling with life. Where many games falter in offering "bigger and more", Avowed smartly focuses on its strengths, making for a breezy yet vibrant RPG that feels polished and intelligent, offering lots to do but never outstaying its welcome. Obsidian Entertainment has once again proven they are skilled storytellers, offering a must-play adventure for anyone who has a love for the fantastical. Console-Tribe - Francesco Pellizzari - Italian - 88 / 100 To answer the question posed at the beginning of the article, for us, pronouns have absolutely nothing to do with the success or failure of a title, and Avowed is proof of that: an excellent RPG, with some flaws, but many strengths, including an engaging plot, choices that change the game world, and almost total freedom of action. Do yourself a favor: play Avowed, or you'll regret it. Daily Mirror - Aaron Potter - 3 / 5 Quote not yet available Dexerto - Jessica Filby - 4 / 5 It may not be groundbreaking, but Avowed certainly leaves one hell of a mark on the RPG genre. The game's fun, challenging, and extremely enjoyable to play from start to finish, even when you're being hounded by giant mechanical undead creatures. Digital Spy - Joe Draper - 4 / 5 Avowed is full of consequential player choices, meaningful side content and rewarding exploration all backed up by slick movement and some of the best combat in a first-person action RPG. It might not reinvent the genre, but Obsidian has achieved everything they set out to by creating a super fun adventure worth your time. Digitale Anime - Raouf Belhamra - Arabic - 8.5 / 10 Avowed offers an immersive RPG experience that combines exploration, combat, and storytelling in Obsidian’s signature style. The Living Lands world is alive with life, encouraging exploration and experimentation, while combat offers flexible weapon and spell choices. Companions add a personal and dynamic touch to the journey, and despite some limitations in customization and combat interaction, Avowed remains a promising experience for RPG fans, offering an adventure full of mystery and challenges. Echo Boomer - David Fialho - Portuguese - No Recommendation There's a lot to admire in Avowed—its old-school RPG soul, captivating world, and flexible gameplay—but predictable writing and some questionable design choices make this Obsidian experience less engaging than it could be. Enternity.gr - Christos Chatzisavvas - Greek - 9 / 10 The journey into the world of Pillars of Eternity continues through Avowed, the newest RPG from Obsidian. And it's great! Eurogamer.pt - Bruno Galvão - Portuguese - 3 / 5 Obsidian has delivered an action RPG with a weak technical component, in which it doesn't do anything exactly new or epic, but its combat gameplay is exciting and the story interesting enough to deliver an entertaining game. EvelonGames - Joel Isern Rodríguez - Kaym - Spanish - 7.8 / 10 Avowed is an RPG that reflects both the talent and limitations of Obsidian. It is a solid, enjoyable game with moments of quality, but it falls short of being unforgettable. Its magic system and vertical exploration stand out as strong points, complemented by an artistic design brimming with personality. Additionally, its performance is smooth, delivering a more than satisfactory technical experience. Expansive - Laurie Jones - 4 / 5 Avowed is a wonderful RPG that feels like Skyrim’s true successor, at least until TES VI arrives, despite the scale and scope making it feel a tad barren in the genre’s current landscape. Combat is the game’s truly shining star with its variety and wealth of options and the writing is as compelling and engaging as you would hope and expect from this world and developer. Between that and the healthy amount of content you can find and the beautiful environments to explore, you’ll find yourself going deep under Avowed’s spell. We absolutely need more from this world and franchise as Obsidian continue to be one of the crown jewels in Xbox’s developer crown. Explosion Network - Dylan Blight - 9 / 10 I wasn't ready for the breadth of lore and world-building here that would have me both enamoured by this game, its characters, and its setting. GAMES.CH - Benjamin Braun - German - 79% Quote not yet available GRYOnline.pl - Przemysław Dygas - Polish - Unscored Avowed is a great RPG, it’s as simple as that. This game made me forget about mediocre The Outer Worlds and refueled my trust for Obsidian. The creators of great role playing games are back and their new game is full of all the things that made New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity or Tyranny so good. (Review in progress) GameOnly - Daniel Kucner - Polish - 8 / 10 Video Review - Quote not available GameSpot - Alessandro Barbosa - 6 / 10 Avowed's impactful and satisfying combat is undone by a widely unbalanced upgrade system and an uninteresting story that wastes its potential. Gamer Guides - Patrick Dane - 84 / 100 Avowed continues Obsidian’s tradition of creating excellent RPGs that feel heavily linked to well-trodden genres, yet not doing quite enough to carve out a new identity. There’s a lot to be charmed by, be it nuanced characters and choices, a heavy dialogue focus, and a compelling central mystery where what’s ‘good’ isn’t often clear. While it doesn’t push the envelope, it does enough to justify its place, and for just the price of a GamePass subscription, it’s easy to recommend trying. Gamers Heroes - Blaine Smith - 85 / 100 Avowed takes a few hours to find its feet, but once it does, this RPG provides an unforgettable journey that never outstays its welcome. Avowed features a jaw-dropping world to explore, complete with a solid cast of intriguing characters and choices that will remain with you long after the credits roll. Gamersky - 心灵奇兵 - Chinese - 8.5 / 10 Avowed is a solid title, though its appearance leans towards the conventional. It doesn't introduce particularly innovative mechanics or standout concepts, but it consistently delivers quality gameplay across all aspects-story, combat, and exploration-ranging from decent to excellent, without any major flaws. If you're a fan of traditional sword-and-magic (with a hint of firearms) settings, immersive storytelling, and the freedom to shape your own destiny, particularly in the style of Obsidian's atmospheric narratives, Avowed is definitely worth a look. GamesFinest - Luca Pernecker - German - 8 / 10 Avowed proves once again why Obsidian Entertainment is one of the leading studios in the RPG genre. With a world that deserves to be explored at leisure, remarkable freedom in decision-making, fascinating characters and a gripping story that draws you in, the game is an impressive achievement. The action-packed combat system also provides plenty of fun. It's just a shame that weaker side quests as well as technical problems and bugs tarnish the overall impression. Even if Avowed does not offer any groundbreaking innovations and has minor weaknesses here and there, it is a game that experienced and future role-playing game fans absolutely must experience! Gaming Nexus - Eric Hauter - 8 / 10 While balanced in a way that forces the player to experience almost everything the game has to offer, Avowed is still a lot of fun. A great story, fun companions, and a richly designed world all contribute to an overall good time. Just remember to take your time early on, because this game wants you to see everything, and it will punish you for trying to skip ahead. Geeks & Com - Anthony Gravel - French - 9 / 10 Avowed offers the perfect balance I'm looking for between freedom and narrative cohesion to keep me invested in the adventure. The story is excellent, the choices are important and the gameplay is a key part of the fun. There's no doubt in my mind that RPG fans will find pleasure in exploring Eora and discovering all its mysteries. Glitched Africa - Marco Cocomello - 9 / 10 Avowed is Obsidian at its finest. It is the fantasy RPG that I hoped it would be without consuming my entire life to experience it. We’ll be talking about this game for a long time and replaying it whenever the itch returns. Sure, it isn’t the most ambitious and grand RPG ever made, but it shines in everything it does. Hinsusta - Pascal Kaap - German - 9 / 10 Avowed is an outstanding action-fantasy RPG with a magical world and a spectacular combat system. Avowed is a successful action RPG that impresses with its magical and spectacular combat system. Avowed not only impresses with its thrilling battles, but also with its deep and lively world IGN Deutschland - Elena Schulz - German - 9 / 10 Avowed is an old-school RPG at heart, allowing you to shape your character and the world around you with your choices while still providing a very modern and action packed open world to explore. INVEN - Jaihoon Jeong - Korean - 8.3 / 10 With its well-established lore, solid narrative, and highly polished world, Avowed is a fantastic game that lives up to Obsidian Entertainment’s reputation. However, compared to other games in the genre, its world feels overly rigid and lacks the sense of being truly alive, which keeps it from standing among the very best. Just Play it - Yacine Tebaibia - Arabic - 8 / 10 Avowed offers a fun experience with a branching story, smooth and deep gameplay, and a visually stunning world full of color and detail. Though it has some technical issues, like performance instability and simplistic AI, it’s still worth playing for RPG fans. Le Bêta-Testeur - Patrick Tremblay - French - 10 / 10 Avowed kicks off 2025 with a bang with an epic RPG experience. It’s already establishing itself as one of the major titles of the year. After so many hours spent exploring the Living Lands, it’s hard to shake its spellbinding appeal. The world, lore, and characters are among the most carefully crafted I’ve ever encountered, a testament to the attention to detail and love that has gone into this universe. Obsidian Entertainment has created a masterpiece, and every RPG fan should play it. Loot Level Chill - Mick Fraser - 8.5 / 10 Despite a few issues, Avowed had me hooked throughout. It's a beautiful, incredibly charming game that does its best to fill a gap where the Elder Scrolls 6 should be. Lords Of Gaming - Mahmood Ghaffar - 8.5 / 10 Avowed is one of Obsidian’s most ambitious projects to date. They meticulously crafted vibrant zones that culminate into a beautiful, yet wild, Living Lands continent. Best of all, they delivered such an amazing experience while making it so streamlined for players. Whether that comes from the accessible lore glossary, helpful mini-map, or robust and flexible skill trees, Avowed is a joy to play and stays well within its scope. Even its rougher edges cannot deter your adventure in the Living Lands. Manual dos Games - Joao Victor - Portuguese - 8 / 10 Avowed is a game with an expansive universe and an engaging story, complemented by solid gameplay and rich exploration. However, it fails to deliver overly simplified mechanics and an unbalanced difficulty curve, which undermines the depth of the experience. MondoXbox - Giuseppe Genga - Italian - 9.3 / 10 With Avowed, Obsidian confirms itself as one of the best RPG studios around, capable of reworking a now-classic formula by rejuvenating it, lightening it up, and combining it with first-rate storytelling, world building, and gameplay mechanics. We are undoubtedly in front of a true gem of the RPG genre, to be played without hesitation. MonsterVine - Luis Joshua Gutierrez - 4.5 / 5 I'm happy to report that Avowed has the sauce, and this is perhaps Obsidian Entertainment at its absolute best. Every time I stepped away from the game to do something else, all I could think about was how much I wanted to step back into this world and find new things. The more I thought about the game, the more I enjoyed it. Avowed is a game that asks a lot of its players but delivers on it, too. It creates a unique sense of exploration while covering intense topics such as imperialism and nature preservation with a fun combat system that encourages you to try new things. NextPlay - Brad Goodwin - 7.5 / 10 Avowed offers a serviceable RPG experience that relies a little too heavy on its ravishing combat and compelling world-building. The story, while distinguished, can falter occasionally due to some unfair dialogue choices and suffered writing. Despite this, Avowed is still a game worth playing because it capitalises and personalises action-RPG tropes and mechanics found in its peers. Nexus Hub - Andrew Logue - 8 / 10 Avowed is easy to recommend to fans of The Outer Worlds or even Skyrim, blending epic, flexible role-playing with Obsidian's signature writing and storytelling - even if it feels more like comfort food at times. PPE.pl - Maciej Zabłocki - Polish - 8.5 / 10 Avowed is a solid RPG that combines first-person exploration (although there is also a third-person mode) in the style of titles from Bethesda with the depth of dialogue and choices native to Pillars of Eternity. Although the optimization leaves a lot to be desired, and the side quests could be more original, the engaging storyline and extensive conversation systems make up for many of the shortcomings. The game will undoubtedly appeal to fans of Obsidian games and anyone who appreciates the freedom of conflict resolution. If you are ready to turn a blind eye to the technical pains, Avowed offers a beautiful expedition into the magical world of Eora, which you will remember for a very long time. Pizza Fria - Matheus Feldmann da Rosa - Portuguese - 7.4 / 10 If you’re looking for an accessible RPG with a visually stunning world and rewarding exploration, Avowed could be a worthwhile option. Its focus on straightforward combat and item gathering could appeal to players who don’t care as much about narrative complexity or deep RPG systems. PowerUp! - Leo Stevenson - 9 / 10 Avowed is a genuine triumph and one of the first major releases from Xbox game dev buying spree that will pay dividends. It's a deep, complex and though-provoking RPG from masters of the genre. It revels in being played and tugs at the back of your lizard brain beckoning you back when you take a break. Press Start - 8.5 / 10 Like The Outer Worlds before it, Avowed is Obsidian's truncated spin on a well-worn genre-and a genre they've got plenty of experience in. For those eagerly awaiting the next Elder Scrolls, this is a satisfying scratching of that itch even if its role-playing elements are stripped back to make room for more action. It's a bright, boisterous adventure full of politics and a fluid combat system that marries all manner of might and magic. Restart.run - John Carson - Recommended We need more games like Avowed. It’s not impossibly huge, it doesn’t hold you hostage for hundreds of hours, and it doesn’t try to be the last game you’ll ever need to buy. Instead, Obsidian Entertainment has made another engaging addition to an existing lore-rich world that’s fun and rewarding to explore. It's filled with great characters brought to life with excellent writing. Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Unscored Avowed is not the Obsidian fantasy RPG I wanted, but the decently fun spell-slinging parkour FPS I didn't expect. SECTOR.sk - Táňa Matúšová - Slovak - 8.5 / 10 Avowed doesn't aim to make you a superhero in an epic story on great battlefields. Instead, it wants you to listen, uncover the narrative page by page, find characters who reveal something important, and perhaps keep you uncertain about your final decision until the very end. A vast array of dialogue and combat choices is somewhat hindered by a lack of enemy variety. Minor visual and technical shortcomings slightly impact the otherwise unique aesthetic of a game that challenges you to reflect on your core principles and values. SIFTER - Gianni Di Giovanni - Worth your time Strong writing, a world packed with loveable weirdos, and lore for days, Obsidian have managed to transition the world of Eora from the top down to the front on, building a world that'll encourage you to pick at every nook and cranny of the Living Lands. Seasoned Gaming - Don Lionheart - 8.5 / 10 Avowed is superb, with true RPG goodness, real choices, deep systems, fun combat, and a true understanding and reverence of Eora. Shacknews - Donovan Erskine - 9 / 10 Quote not yet available Spaziogames - Italian - 8.3 / 10 Avowed has a lot of strenghts, from its worldbuilding to its RPG systems, and it entertains for at least forty plus hours thanks to them. Obsidian didn't reinvent the RPG wheel, but considering how cold is Bethesda's first-person RPG throne, and how far still a new The Elder Scrolls game might be, this is a very solid effort that any RPG fan should try. Stevivor - Jam Walker - 7.5 / 10 There’s just something about Avowed that makes it feel very much like a product built for a subscription service. Not in a live-service game kind of way, but in a Netflix Original Movie kind of way. TechRaptor - Austin Suther - 9 / 10 Obsidian Entertainment continues to live up to players' expectations of delivering a game with quality writing, engaging choices, and compelling gameplay. Avowed is all those things and more: an epic fantasy that'll keep you hooked, which makes it one of the best RPGs this decade. The Beta Network - Anthony Culinas - 8 / 10 Avowed delivers satisfying combat, engaging exploration and fun weapon-switching combinations, making it an enjoyable action RPG despite its generic story, weak soundtrack and frustrating technical issues. Whether this is Obsidian’s greatest is debatable, but its strong side content and Game Pass availability make it at least worth a playthrough. The Outerhaven Productions - Jordan Andow - 4 / 5 I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with Avowed. Obsidian has crafted another fantastic RPG, and while it does nothing revolutionary, the quality it shows across board make it a joy to play. A game I would highly recommend to any RPG fan. TheSixthAxis - Dominic Leighton - 9 / 10 Avowed is an incredible RPG. Its vibrant world and stellar cast make every moment a joy to take part in, enhanced by a script that gives equal measure to drama, action and humour. Coming hot on the heels of Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, Microsoft's software revival is well underway. Tom's Hardware Italia - Andrea Riviera - Italian - 8.5 / 10 Avowed was everything I wanted from Obsidian: a role-playing game where choices truly impact the adventure, and writing plays a fundamental role in the game's structure. It’s not a perfect production—small imperfections, less impactful voice acting, and a level of polish that could have been better prevented the team from delivering a title that could have been truly memorable. But in the end, it doesn’t matter much, because as far as I’m concerned, Obsidian’s new IP is perhaps one of their best projects to date—a true RPG that, while it may not achieve immediate acclaim, could very well become one of the team’s most beloved titles in the long run. VGC - Chris Scullion - 4 / 5 Avowed is a solid action RPG with an entertaining script, satisfying combat and impressively detailed environments. The inability to clean up side quests after the main story is beaten can be frustrating, but take your time with it and enjoy everything it has to offer, and you'll find plenty of memorable moments. WellPlayed - James Wood - 6 / 10 Avowed moves Obsidian Entertainment even further toward the action side of Action-RPG with a satisfying combat system and vibrant world stapled to an unengaging narrative and surface level roleplaying systems. Despite its initially promising setup, Avowed never rises above a binge and forget experience. Worth Playing - Chris "Atom" DeAngelus - 7.8 / 10 Avowed is a game full of fun exploration, an interesting story tied to lackluster combat, and an annoying equipment system that keeps it from reaching its full potential. When I was engaged in Avowed, I would spend hours wandering around, talking to NPCs, and completing quests. However, when the game wasn't firing on all cylinders, I was frustrated and frequently bored. It's a game of high highs and low lows, but the highs were enough to keep me engaged despite the flaws. XGN.nl - Ralph Beentjes - Dutch - 9.2 / 10 Obsidian has proven once again that they are the masters of role-playing games. Avowed has excellent combat, lively characters, a beautiful world and the storytelling is masterful. If they just fix a couple of bugs, they’ve got a masterpiece on their hands. XboxEra - Jesse Norris - 8.8 / 10 Avowed is an excellent game. One major issue keeps it from being an all-timer for me, with the gear progression system being as restrictive as it is at launch. They can patch that, and I hope they do as the rest of the game is excellent. Obsidian’s top-tier writing has finally been matched with gorgeous visuals and satisfying gameplay. ZTGD - Ken McKown - 8 / 10 Quote not yet available ZdobywcyGier.eu - Paweł Bortkiewicz - Polish - 8 / 10 Avowed is a pretty good RPG that is limited in places by its technical state. Nevertheless, it was a very enjoyable adventure from a standpoint of gameplay and storyline alone. Obsidian definitely knows how to make games that players want to play, but they still need to work on the technical elements, because in this case it could have been polished more. submitted by /u/Shock4ndAwe to r/pcgaming [link] [comments]

What I am trying to do is take as much of the rocks pebbles out and then lay down landscaping fabric on top of it and then replace it with the rocks/pebbles. submitted by /u/Unfair_Natural_5868 to r/landscaping [link] [comments]

Source: https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/Article/tfs-abilities-tuning-preview Hey folks, Combat Gameplay team here for a rundown of ability changes coming with the launch of The Final Shape in just a few short weeks. As a warning, this is one of our largest balance patches in recent years, so you may want to settle in for a long read. Here’s a brief overview of what we’ll be covering today: Updates to a large portion of the Stasis ability suite, including our new keyword, Frost Armor. The near future of Well of Radiance and Ward of Dawn in The Final Shape. A subclass-by-subclass breakdown of balance changes to abilities, Aspects, and Fragments, including—but not limited to—those included with Prismatic. ##STASIS SUBCLASSES Image Linkimgur Let’s start with Stasis. Shortly after the release of Stasis, we shifted focus to the back-to-back launch of the Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack and Void 3.0, and we haven’t really let up on the gas since. As a result, other than smaller changes we’ve been able to make here and there, it’s been difficult to evaluate the relationship between Stasis and our other damage types and make larger feature-level updates to it. This was something we wanted to change with The Final Shape. In particular, we wanted to upgrade the Stasis Shard Overshield that lived on the fringes of the damage type to make it a full-on keyword that we could incorporate into abilities, armor, or weapon perks. Frost Armor is a stacking buff that reduces incoming damage, with greater damage reduction as your stacks increase. At launch, Frost Armor will be granted from a variety of sources, including the Tectonic/Grim/Glacial Harvest Aspects, Fragments, and Exotic armor. By default, you can build to a maximum number of 5 stacks of Frost Armor that last 9 seconds, but with the newly reworked Whisper of Rime Fragment, Frost Armor’s maximum lifetime increases to 13 seconds and can build to a maximum of 8 stacks. Unlike the Stasis Shard Overshield, Frost Armor remains active when your Super is cast, though its effectiveness is significantly lower while your Super is active. New Frost Armor keyword: You are fortified by layers of durable Stasis matter, reducing incoming damage. Frost Armor damage resistance grows stronger as you gain additional stacks. Reduces damage from PvE combatants by 4.5% per stack and from enemy players by 2% per stack. Whisper of Rime reworked: No longer grants a Stasis Shard Overshield when collecting a Stasis Shard. Now increases the maximum duration and stack count of your Frost Armor. One long-standing piece of feedback we’ve received is that Stasis Shards felt too limited, requiring a specific Aspect to generate. Because Stasis Shards are created for all allied players at once (rather than being a shared consumed resource like Tangles or a local-only resource like Firesprites, Ionic Traces, or Void Breaches), it would be easy for the number of Stasis Shards on the field to spiral out of control if we were to make their creation intrinsic to the damage type. Instead, we’re increasing the number of sources that players can build into to generate them—more on this shortly—and increasing their value when collected with a Harvest Aspect equipped. When Tectonic, Grim, or Glacial Harvest is equipped, in addition to their previous behavior, collecting any Stasis Shard now grants a small amount of health and a stack of Frost Armor. Alongside this increased potency, we’re also implementing a shared cooldown on rapid Stasis Shard creation. This cooldown is intended to be pretty generous, and primarily limits cases of oppressive behavior, like triple Behemoth Trials squads. All Harvest Aspects: Added new behavior: While Grim, Tectonic, or Glacial Harvest is equipped, Stasis Shards grant a small amount of health and a stack of Frost Armor. Large Stasis Shards from Grim Harvest grant more health and Frost Armor stacks. All Harvest Aspects now have a standardized cooldown when a large number of Shards are created very quickly. Tectonic Harvest: Now creates a Stasis Shard when shattering a frozen target in addition to shattering Stasis crystals. Our intention is that Frost Armor can be granted through a variety of sources. As part of this, we’ve updated Renewal Grasps and Ballidorse Wrathweavers to directly grant Frost Armor, rather than their own custom damage resistance or Stasis Shard Overshield. Renewal Grasps: Replaced generic damage resistance with Frost Armor: On entering your Duskfield Grenade volume, you or your allies gain a stack of Frost Armor. About every 0.9 seconds while in the volume, an additional Frost Armor stack is granted, resetting your timer. Ballidorse Wrathweavers: Replaced Stasis Shard Overshield with Frost Armor when you activate your Rift or use your Winter’s Wrath shatter attack. To help increase players’ capabilities to generate Stasis Shards, we’ve created a brand-new Fragment that offers a straightforward method that can slot into many different build types: Whisper of Chill. Whisper of Chill: Stasis weapon final blows have a chance to create a Stasis Shard. As part of this effort, we’ve also reworked Whisper of Chains. This Fragment has been a popular choice since its inception due to its ease of use and stat bonus. However, its gameplay benefit was frequently difficult to read and ran counter to core gameplay loops revolving around creating and destroying crystals (and the core human compulsion to destroy every crystal you see). To make Whisper of Chains fully successful, it required cooperation from teammates in a way that sometimes took success out of the user’s hands. This resulted in situations where, by shattering a Stasis crystal for damage, players could unknowingly reduce their (or their teammates’) combat effectiveness. This introduced negative social friction that we wanted to remove outright. We’ve pivoted Whisper of Chains to instead focus on chaining creation of Stasis Shards and Frost Armor when paired with a Harvest Aspect. Whisper of Chains: No longer grants passive damage resistance when near a Stasis crystal or frozen target. Now grants a chance to create a Stasis Shard when defeating a target while you have one or more stacks of Frost Armor. Next on our list of Frost Armor Fragment reworks is Whisper of Fractures. With Stasis Shards granting melee energy as a base behavior, relying on a difficult-to-read passive melee energy regeneration bonus felt like a place we could reduce overlap and build in support for the new keyword. Whisper of Fractures: No longer increases melee energy regeneration while surrounded by enemies. Now grants a stack of Frost Armor when you shatter any frozen target with a melee attack. Our final Fragment rework is Whisper of Torment. This Fragment is a sleeper pick that does its job well, but its actual output has too many variables to keep track of and required the player to be at critical health for its largest bonus, so we’re simplifying things a bit. Whisper of Torment: Grenade energy gains are no longer dependent on your current health value. Base grenade energy regeneration amount per incoming damage event increased from 5% to 7%. While you have Frost Armor, energy per damage event increases from 7% to 12%. Finally, we’ve created one more brand-new Stasis Fragment. Whisper of Reversal is a close-combat tool for our Frost Armor users, adding chances for additional crowd control if you’re willing to take the risk. Whisper of Reversal: While you have Frost Armor, dealing or receiving physical melee (i.e., not projectile melee) damage slows your victim or attacker. Now, let’s talk shatter. While we want the focus of Stasis to be primarily in high-value crowd control abilities, in the current sandbox, shattering a frozen target doesn’t always result in the payout that other damage types are able to deliver with their capstone keywords. Especially in high-difficulty activities, misjudging your ability to capitalize on a freeze can lead to dire consequences. To help address this, we’re bumping base shatter damage vs. PvE combatants from 200 to 400 (note: this does not affect Stasis crystal detonations), but simultaneously, we’re fixing an issue where boss combatants received double damage from auto-shattering, so we don’t quadruple the shatter damage Stasis shatter: Increased base PvE shatter damage from 200 to 400. Fixed an issue where bosses auto-shattering were being hit by two instances of shatter damage. Fixed an issue where players in an active Super would show immune damage flyouts when automatically breaking out of Stasis freeze. Okay, that’s it for our general Stasis updates. In addition to these changes, we made a number of updates to subclass-specific Stasis abilities. Let’s go through them class by class. Warlock Up front, we believe that Shadebinders are largely in good shape across all game modes, relative to our other Stasis subclasses. Therefore, we’ve limited our focus here. We've added a small boost to Iceflare Bolts’ ability to lock down rooms over the course of a combat encounter before going on cooldown. Iceflare Bolts: Increased maximum number of seekers created before going on cooldown from 5 to 7. ###Hunter Let’s talk Revenant. With Winter’s Shroud included in the Prismatic Hunter kit, we knew we needed to increase its viability in high-difficulty content, where getting up close and personal gets much riskier. We also wanted to provide a smoother gameplay loop between Winter’s Shroud and other Revenant abilities. We’ve updated Winter’s Shroud to provide a moderate boost to class ability regeneration when you slow a target from any source and added a brief window of damage reduction from PvE combatants when activated. Winter’s Shroud: Added new behavior: Slowing targets briefly increases your class ability regeneration rate. Bonus is reduced in PvP game modes. Now grants PvE damage reduction when activated. Touch of Winter has been widely used by our Stasis Hunter players since its introduction in Season of the Splicer, primarily when paired with Duskfield Grenades for high-uptime zone denial or Glacier Grenade for Shatterdive combos. The latter has struggled in PvE content in recent Seasons as the sandbox has matured, so we’re making a targeted change to increase its PvE potency without returning to an era of the Crucible where you had to fear rounding any corner into a barrage of ice. In addition, Touch of Winter’s Coldsnap Grenade upgrade has been widely underused since its inception, so we’re implementing a larger rework to its functionality. Touch of Winter: Glacier Grenade: Added an additional Stasis crystal to the ring formation, increasing total count from 6 to 7. Glacier Grenade ring now forms over 0.27 seconds, rather than instantly. Coldsnap Grenade: No longer chains an additional time while Touch of Winter is equipped. Instead, seekers now duplicate when they freeze a target. Second and third seeker chains now create a medium and large Stasis crystal respectively, rather than every chain creating a small crystal. While Silence & Squall are still effective at locking down rooms full of enemies, we’ve done a small touch-up on its ability to roam the battlefield and how quickly it converts from a slow to a freeze on PvE combatants. We think this will increase its viability in target-rich environments. Silence & Squall: Increased Squall maximum travel speed by 10%. Squall storm now slows down when any target is within its area of effect to reduce instances where it could overshoot its target. Increased damage and slow tick rate vs. PvE combatants by about 40%, bringing its freeze time from approximately 0.8 seconds to ~0.5 seconds. ###Titan For our Behemoth players, we’re making several quality-of-life improvements. We are making Shiver Strike and Glacial Quake more reliable, improving the ease-of-use of Diamond Lances to fit into the cadence of combat on the Prismatic Titan, and tweaking Cryoclasm to be more intuitive. Shiver Strike is a melee ability with a higher barrier to entry than most of our roster, and while that is intended at a high level, there are instances where it can misread the player’s intent and fail to find a target as a result. To help mitigate this, we’re increasing its ability to find and lunge towards targets in its now-larger search area and are increasing its damage vs. PvE targets. These changes also affect the Glacial Quake light attack. In addition, Glacial Quake will now auto-sprint when the player starts moving forward—so no more awkwardly bashing your face into a crystal you were meaning to shatter after performing a heavy slam. Shiver Strike: Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 10%. Increased size of melee target search area cone by about 50%. Increased maximum lunge tracking angular speed from 7 degrees per second to 21 degrees per second. Glacial Quake: Now automatically begins sprinting when the player throttles forward. We’ve had a number of iterations on Cryoclasm since its initial release in Beyond Light, with its current version requiring a sprint windup to activate. While this solved the Behemoth mobility balance issue at the time, it resulted in a state where it can be easy to mistime your slide just before Cryoclasm is ready to activate. To address this, we’re returning to a middle ground between Cryoclasm’s original release and now. We’re removing the sprint requirement but implementing a cooldown after a single extended slide. Cryoclasm: Removed sprint time requirement. Cryoclasm now goes on cooldown for 4 seconds after one extended slide. For Diamond Lance, we’re making a couple of quality-of-life changes to help make it easier to pick up on the battlefield and are generally improving its ease-of-use by increasing the size of its thrown projectile detonation vs. all targets and its slam attack vs. PvE combatants. Increased thrown Diamond Lance detonation radius from 3.5 meters to 5 meters. Increased Diamond Lance slam detonation radius from 6.75 meters to 8 meters vs. PvE combatants. Diamond Lance now shatters Stasis crystals on direct impact. Reduced Diamond Lance pickup interaction time from 0.2 seconds to 0.1 seconds, matching Strand Tangles. Increased Diamond Lance pickup interaction radius from 0.7 meters to 3 meters, matching Strand Tangles. ##WELL OF RADIANCE AND WARD OF DAWN Image Linkimgur Back in November, we briefly touched on Well of Radiance and Ward of Dawn and how we were evaluating their place in the sandbox. With the launch of The Final Shape, we’re making some larger changes to both of these Supers to push them into more distinct identities and to reduce the fire-and-forget nature of Well of Radiance. Well of Radiance’s core fantasy has always been a supercharged healing-empowering rift combo, offering a rally point for your fireteam during moments of focus. In its current form, its healing and damage resistance offer effective invulnerability, which removes any other defensive option from consideration on top of providing a sizable boost to your fireteam’s offensive output. We’ve chosen to push Well of Radiance further towards that offensive capability by allowing its radiance to persist for a short duration after players leave the well. We're also pulling back on its defensive output (both damage resistance and healing rate) by a significant margin. Well of Radiance: Now grants radiant for 8 seconds when players exit the Well of Radiance area. Reduced player survivability while standing in the Well of Radiance aura. Reduced healing per second from 100 to 50 health points, matching restoration x2. Increased heal on cast from 40 to 300 health points. Reduced damage resistance vs. non-boss combatants from 40% to 20%. Reduced damage resistance vs. boss combatants from 40% to 10%. Note: damage resistance vs. enemy players is unchanged. Increased maximum Orbs of Power from defeating targets while in your Well of Radiance aura from 4 to 5. Ward of Dawn, on the other hand, is meant to be a highly defensible safe haven for you and your team. In practice, our combat encounters don’t have a lot of opportunities for this type of gameplay to shine, so we’re making a change to allow Ward of Dawn to provide defensive capability while fighting around the dome, not just in it. We’re also reworking Armor of Light to make your current health state while in the dome of Ward of Dawn more understandable, and we’re pushing Ward of Dawn away from its current offensive capability, unless you specifically build into it. Ward of Dawn: Armor of Light: Removed Armor of Light overshield. Ward of Dawn now immediately applies a full Void Overshield to the caster and allies that enter its dome. Armor of Light now instead grants additional damage resistance to players inside the Ward of Dawn:30% vs. enemy players and 60% vs. enemy combatants. Effective health of players inside the Ward of Dawn dome remains roughly the same as it was before vs. PvE combatants. Effective health of players inside the Ward of Dawn is significantly lower than it was before vs other players in PvP, and cannot be further increased by stacking Bastion Barricades inside the Ward to gain additional Overshield layers. Allies near the Ward of Dawn dome now have Void Overshield trickled on over time, similar to the volume behind a Bastion barricade. No longer provides Weapons of Light by default. This behavior has been moved to the benefits of Helm of Saint-14. The Ward of Dawn caster can now generate additional Orbs of Power by defeating enemies with melee attacks in or near their Ward of Dawn dome. Additionally, we’ve seen that the Supers above and burst damage Supers in the same tier have increasingly dominated the Crucible landscape due to their uptime. While we do want to maintain some texture across a match when Supers become available, the delta is currently a bit too high, especially in 3v3 game modes. To reduce this a bit, we’re making a change to all Supers with The Final Shape. While different types of Supers will have different passive recharge times, all Supers will now use the same damage-based rechargers. This means that no matter what Super you have equipped, dealing a specific amount of damage to a specific enemy type will result in the same amount of Super energy gained, whereas previously that value could vary by about 30%. This effectively increases the real-world uptime of our roaming Supers in the slowest recharge tier and reduces the uptime of our fastest-recharging burst Supers. Now let’s dive into each subclass for some more general balance changes. ARC SUBCLASSES Image Linkimgur Hunter In general, Arcstrider has found a solid niche in mid-level PvE content but struggles to execute its gameplay loop at our highest tier of challenge. With a new Super and Aspect on the way, we’re not making any large changes to the kit with this release, but we plan to evaluate how it’s feeling with the full package as we go. For now, we’ve focused on adding keyword utility to Arc Staff and increasing the uptime of Disorienting Blow to make it a stronger choice in comparison to Combination Blow. We're also increasing players’ ability to survive when using Tempest Strike, which now grants a short duration of PvE damage resistance. Arc Staff: Heavy palm strike attacks and heavy air slam blind enemies. Disorienting Blow: Decreased base cooldown time from 100 seconds to 90 seconds. Tempest Strike: Added additional damage resistance vs. PvE combatants when activated, lingering for a short duration after the attack. ###Warlock We’ve made a corresponding change to Stormcaller’s Lightning Surge in the same vein, with more survivability when you aggressively teleport into groups of enemies. We’ve also increased the proximity detonation volume (we call this an “arming shape”) for Ball Lightning, fixing an issue where the projectile would pass above a target that it could damage but fail to detonate. Lightning Surge: Added additional damage resistance vs. PvE combatants when activated, lingering for a short duration after the attack. Ball Lightning: Increased the final arming shape size by 30%. Fixed an issue where the arming shape was offset upward, higher than the maximum damage range of the projectile’s detonation. Chain Lightning has been a staple of Stormcaller’s identity since its inception as an upgrade to the Thunderstrike melee in the original Destiny. With the introduction of jolt in Season of Plunder and its propagation across the sandbox, however, it’s started to feel a bit left behind. We’re increasing the damage dealt by its chains by 100% to help increase its effectiveness against crowds of enemies and make it feel like a worthier option in comparison to Warlock’s many ranged melees. Chain Lightning: Increased secondary chain projectile’s base damage from 27 to 54. ###Titan Like with Tempest Strike for Hunters and Lightning Surge change for Warlocks, we’re implementing the same extra damage resistance vs. PvE combatants during the Thunderclap windup to help Titans stand their ground during a full charge. However, because Thunderclap doesn’t allow Titans to move until the strike is finished, we’re increasing both the minimum and maximum damage output to help offset the tradeoff in mobility against PvE combatants. We're also increasing the maximum damage output vs. players to ensure that a fully charged Thunderclap can overcome player damage resistance or Overshields. Thunderclap: Added additional damage resistance vs. PvE combatants when activated, lingering for a short duration after the attack. Increased minimum damage vs. PvE combatants by 20%. Increased maximum damage vs. PvE combatants by 33%. Increased maximum damage vs. enemy players by 14%. It's been difficult for us to find a solid place for the Knockout Aspect across game modes. In part, this is due to the harsh difference in the value of unstunning passive health regeneration in different combat environments. Knockout's passive health regeneration is very quick at max recovery but can be interrupted. Generally, in PvP encounters, players are dramatically less likely to take chip damage after resolution of an engagement, resulting in much more health recovery than we think is comfortable. By contrast, with the increased number of enemies in PvE encounters, Knockout’s passive healing can feel ineffectual because there are many more sources of incoming damage in a given moment. To help address this, we’re reworking the way Knockout’s healing works altogether. Rather than unstunning passive regeneration, defeating enemies with melee attacks now grants a chunk of health in a very short window (0.1 second), and that chunk of health increases based on the type of target you defeat. We’re also increasing the bonus damage granted to powered melee attacks vs. PvE combatants while Knockout is active. Knockout: Increased bonus damage granted to powered melee attacks vs. PvE combatants from 25% to 50%. Reworked healing behavior: No longer unstuns health regeneration on melee defeats. Now instantly grants a chunk of healing that scales with the type of target defeated. Player: 30 health points. Minor combatant: 50 health points. Major combatant: 75 health points. Champion+ combatant: 100 health points. With Update 6.3.0.5 in January 2023, we implemented a change to drastically reduce the travel speed of Touch of Thunder’s Storm Grenade upgrade to reduce its potency across the board, with a specific focus on the Crucible. We’re not in love with how that’s shaken out in PvE game modes, so we’re making a targeted change to increase its speed only when tracking PvE combatants. This will help it better roam across an encounter space and catch multiple targets. Touch of Thunder: Storm Grenade: Increased tracking travel speed when targeting PvE combatants by between 0.5 and 1 meters per second, increasing with the storm’s lifetime. Keeping with Touch of Thunder, its Lightning Grenade upgrade is currently a bit too spicy, so we’re making a change here to curb the amount of immediate burst damage it can deal, especially outside of its actual effective detonation range. Following this change, Lightning Grenade will apply its jolt immediately after the initial damage occurs, preventing the jolt from zapping its chain lightning instantly on creation. Touch of Thunder: Lightning Grenade: Now applies jolt after the first damage event, rather than prior. ###Arc Grenades Storm Grenade is also getting a bit of a boost outside of the Touch of Thunder variant. We’re increasing the base version’s damage vs. PvE combatants by 20%. Skip Grenade is getting a 15% boost to its PVE damage, and we’re also increasing Arcbolt Grenade’s damage vs. PvE combatants by 15%. Give it a shot on Prismatic Hunter and let us know how it’s feeling! Storm Grenade: Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 20%. Touch of Thunder variant’s damage is unchanged. Skip Grenade: Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 15%. Arcbolt Grenade: Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 15%. ###Arc Fragments Wrapping up Arc, we’re making some quality-of-life changes to our Arc Fragment suite. Spark of Recharge is one of the few sources of direct ability energy regeneration outside of Ionic Traces in the Arc subclass kit, and we feel it’s currently too difficult to make use of. So while it will still initially activate when becoming critically wounded, we’re extending the duration of its benefits until the player returns to full health, rather than deactivating as soon as the player has any shields. Spark of Recharge: Ability regeneration bonus now persists until the player returns to full shields, rather than deactivating as soon as shields begin to recharge. Spark of Beacons has always been relatively popular and has spiked in usage with the release of Indebted Kindness. We don’t mind this spike and are extending Spark of Beacon’s activation triggers to include Arc Power weapons as well—time to break out the Thunderlord. Spark of Beacons: Now also triggers on defeating targets with Arc Power ammo weapons while amplified. Finally, for Spark of Frequency, we’re bringing back just a hint of the old Frontal Assault Striker talent. Spark of Frequency: Now also grants 15 weapon stability on powered melee hit, in addition to its reload benefit. ##SOLAR SUBCLASSES Image Linkimgur For Solar, in addition to our Well of Radiance changes detailed above, we’re making some targeted improvements to abilities that are included with Prismatic as well as making some improvements to standalone abilities that needed some love. Hunter For our Gunslinger friends, we’re taking a look at Lightweight Knife, which has struggled to find an identity for itself. Our overall goal for this ability is to provide a low-barrier-to-entry melee with a payoff for high-skill usage. However, it’s not currently hitting our fantasy bar. With the release of The Final Shape, this melee is getting a small rework. It now has two melee charges by default and can be thrown back-to-back dramatically faster. Lightweight Knife: Now has 2 melee charges by default. Increased throw animation speed by 33%. Reduced suppression time between throws, so both knives can be thrown very quickly back-to-back. Note: The additional melee charge does not stack with Ophidia Spathe, due to the Exotic’s unique energy recharge behavior. We’ll be monitoring this and evaluating how things are playing once things go live. To support this, we’re also updating Knock ‘Em Down’s internal cooldown on its melee refund. This was initially intended to prevent situations where Knife Trick could refund many charges at once, but with the Lightweight Knife update, we felt it was important to enable a faster cadence of potential refunds. Knock ‘Em Down: Reduced internal cooldown on throwing knife refund from 1 second to 0.2 seconds. Some raid teams have a niche strategy of Hunters fully stacking Golden Gun - Marksman to instantly refund each other’s Supers with the Orbs of Power created on precision hit in combination with the additional Super energy granted on Orb pickup by Star-Eater Scales. While we always appreciate this kind of buildcrafting ingenuity, this level of Super chaining isn’t very healthy for the game. Therefore, we’re reducing the strength of the Orbs created by Golden Gun - Marksman’s precision hits perk and making some targeted adjustments to the specific combination noted above. Golden Gun – Marksman: Reduced strength of Orbs of Power created on precision hit as follows: When hitting non-boss enemies, reduced strength from 0.75x to 0.5x of a normal Super Orb of Power. When hitting boss enemies, reduced strength from 0.75x to about 0.4x of a normal Super Orb of Power. When hitting boss enemies while Star-Eater Scales is equipped, reduced strength from 0.75x to about 0.35x of a normal Super Orb of Power. ###Titan For our Sunbreakers, we’re taking a look at Consecration. We made some improvements to Consecration in Update 7.3.5 that landed pretty well, but with its inclusion in Prismatic, we wanted to make sure Consecration could stand on its own without relying on Roaring Flames. We also wanted it to have some interesting interactions with other Prismatic Titan abilities. As a result, we’ve increased the damage of ignitions caused by Consecration vs. PvE combatants and further increased its consistency against floating targets. You’ll still need a different tool to take down a pesky Grim, but a Servitor or Shank should cause less frustration. Consecration: Consecration’s slam attack can now shatter Stasis crystals. Ignitions generated by Consecration now deal 20% additional damage to PvE combatants. Fixed an issue where Consecration’s slam attack was sometimes unable to damage floating combatants while they were grounded. Fixed an issue where Consecration’s intended PvE damage resistance was not being applied. Another Sunbreaker ability featured on the Prismatic Titan is Hammer of Sol, which we feel is too reliant on the additional damage granted from the Sunspots created by Sol Invictus. We’re making a change to Hammer of Sol that only affects the Super when Sol Invictus isn’t equipped. This will increase the number of shrapnel submunitions created on impact based on the primary projectile's lifetime and the damage those submunitions deal. Hammer of Sol: Increased projectile submunition count when Sol Invictus is not equipped as follows: If the projectile detonates within the first 0.7 seconds of its lifetime, it now creates 4 shrapnel submunitions, up from 3. If the projectile detonates after the first 0.7 seconds of its lifetime, it now creates 6 shrapnel, up from 5. Note: When Sol Invictus is equipped, only 3 shrapnel submunitions are created, regardless of flight time. Shrapnel submunitions now deal additional damage when Sol Invictus is not equipped, with the damage increasing after the first 0.7 seconds of the projectile's lifetime. ###Swarm Grenade Finally, a few weeks ago we revealed the abilities coming with each Prismatic subclass, and some Hunters raised an eyebrow at the inclusion of Swarm Grenade. We agree, so we have boosted Swarm Grenade’s ease-of-use and PvE damage output to make sure it shines in that kit. Swarm Grenade: Increased tracking shape size from 4 meters to 6 meters. Increased linger duration from 7-8 seconds to 10-11 seconds. Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 20%. ##VOID SUBCLASSES Image Linkimgur Hunter Nightstalkers are generally in a pretty strong place, as seen by their high popularity in Onslaught. A large portion of that is driven by the potency of Shadowshot and its ability to lock down hordes of incoming enemies. and not necessarily its neutral game offering, so we’re making a few changes to help shore up that side. With the release of Void 3.0, we removed the Corrosive Smoke melee ability in favor of Snare Bomb, leaning further into the trap-laying trickster fantasy. We want to walk that back a little bit and are baking in small, escalating damage over time to the Snare Bomb’s now-longer smoke volume. This will help Nightstalkers capitalize on an incapacitated enemy caught in their trap. These changes also apply to the smoke volume created by Trapper’s Ambush. Snare Bomb: Increased linger duration of smoke after detonation from 3 seconds to 5 seconds. Now applies small damage over time to enemies in the smoke , which increases in strength the longer they remain in the smoke. Trapper’s Ambush: Increased linger duration of the smoke after detonation from 4.5 seconds to 6 seconds. Now applies Snare Bomb’s damage over time to enemies caught in its smoke. Fixed an issue where Trapper’s Ambush’s smoke effects could be obstructed by ground geometry. We’re also updating Stylish Executioner to allow its weaken effect while active to be applied by Glaive melees as well. Stylish Executioner: Stylish Executioner’s weaken effect can now be applied by Glaive melee attacks. ###Titan For Sentinels, we’ve focused on a large consistency pass for the Shield Throw melee attack. While we want this to feel weighty and impactful, our previous passes haven’t done enough to make it able to deal with groups of minor combatants. We’re taking a much stronger swing here, resulting in a much larger improvement to its consistency. We’re also increasing its PvE damage to help ensure that any combatants who are hit have a meaningful dent left in them. Shield Throw: Increased maximum bounce count from 4 to 5. Increased maximum lifetime from 3 seconds to 4 seconds. Now increases its tracking shape size and strength after each bounce, increasing its ability to consistently find a new target. Slightly increased gravity and decreased thrust speed with each bounce. Increased damage vs. PvE targets by 20%. We’re also making a small change to Offensive Bulwark. This is partially a preventative fix to stop players from getting into a bad timer state (similar to the Ember of Empyrean issue resolved earlier this season), so we're making a quality of life change to offset it. Offensive Bulwark: Can now only extend Void Overshield’s timer to its normal maximum duration, to prevent an issue where players could get into a bad timer state. Now regenerates a small portion of your active Void Overshield with each melee defeat. ###Warlock Finally, our Voidwalkers are getting a number of improvements, starting with Chaos Accelerant. It's overcharged Magnetic Grenade has fallen by the wayside since its inception as Handheld Supernova with Forsaken. To help remedy this, we’re increasing its damage output and knockback capability as well as its uptime. Chaos Accelerant: Charged Magnetic Grenade: Increased maximum intensity of physics knockback impulse by 10%. Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 20%. Now passively decreases your Magnetic Grenade’s cooldown by 10% while Chaos Accelerant is equipped. From the first minute of your experience with Prismatic, Pocket Singularity will be available to equip and use. A piece of feedback we’ve heard for a while now is that Pocket Singularity struggles in high-level PvE content, and we agree. While we want its overall primary fantasy to remain displacement and knockback, we’re giving it a sizable damage increase vs. PvE combatants. Pocket Singularity: Increased detonation damage vs. PvE combatants by about 50%. Finally, we’re taking a look at Nova Bomb to improve its overall damage output without the need of a Super-boosting Exotic. For Cataclysm Nova Bomb, we’re increasing its maximum secondary seeker count and making it more consistent, and for Vortex Nova Bomb we’re increasing the lifetime of the lingering damage-over-time volume. Nova Bomb: Cataclysm variant: Increased seeker count from 4 to 6. Fixed an issue where seekers could impact the environment on creation. Vortex variant: Increased Vortex linger duration from 7 seconds to 10 seconds. Fixed an issue where the linger visual effects were shutting off early. ##STRAND SUBCLASSES Image Linkimgur Last up is Strand, which has remained a popular pick since its introduction last year with Lightfall. Our focus for Strand with this balance pass is primarily to bring in outliers at both the top and very bottom ends of the spectrum, rather than the larger reworks we’ve seen with other damage types. As we evaluate how these changes are feeling and how the Strand abilities included with Prismatic are playing, we’ll be taking another look in the future. Thread of Warding Before we get into individual subclasses, the first outlier we’d like to address is the Thread of Warding Fragment. While we appreciate the defensive value it provides by granting Woven Mail, it is currently too potent. It overshadows the role of Berserker’s Into the Fray Aspect of being the best source of Woven Mail for your fireteam. Thread of Warding: Reduced Woven Mail duration on Orb of Power pickup from 10 seconds to 5 seconds. ###Hunter Threadrunner’s Ensnaring Slam has remained popular throughout Strand’s life and has seen a small bump in PvE popularity following the increased uptime post-Update 7.3.5. However, it is currently too powerful against other players, with a detonation radius that is very difficult for victims to understand, so we’re reducing its overall area of effect vs. players. Ensnaring Slam: Detonation volume vs. enemy players is now a cylinder with a 6.5-meter radius, rather than a sphere w submitted by /u/DTG_Bot to r/DestinyTheGame [link] [comments]

Game Information Game Title: Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Platforms: PlayStation 5 (Dec 7, 2023) Xbox Series X/S (Dec 7, 2023) PC (Dec 7, 2023) Trailer: Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – Official World Premiere Trailer | Ubisoft Forward Developer: Massive Entertainment Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment Review Aggregator: OpenCritic - 69 average - 49% recommended - 51 reviews Critic Reviews ACG - Jeremy Penter - Buy Video Review - Quote not available Atarita - Eren Eroğlu - Turkish - 75 / 100 Despite the fact that Avatar Frontiers of Pandora manages to captivate the player from the very first minute with its masterfully designed world, it misses its great potential by having serious shortcomings within itself. Attack of the Fanboy - J.R. Waugh - 3.5 / 5 The idea of Avatar being mixed into this formula is great, and when you're flying on your ikran, it's an intoxicating experience, even if aspects of the combat and game stability leave something to be desired. But Why Tho? - Kate Sanchez - 8 / 10 Even with its faults, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a stunning visual achievement, much like the films on which it's inspired. Only here, a rich narrative pulls you deep into the Na'vi and explores more tangible means of fighting back against a colonial power that offers a cathartic experience... Blow up a pipeline, save an animal, and explore the vast world of Pandora. That's a heck of a way to close out a year. Checkpoint Gaming - Charlie Kelly - 4.5 / 10 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a big misstep and feels like Ubisoft's biggest missed opportunity in a while. Not even the fantastical and majestic sights of Pandora and some engaging hunts can cure the buggy, unoptimised product presented to the world. Offering a dull story while it trips and stumbles on delicate themes, it too is simply a confused formula of everything you've seen before from other titles, almost all of it ill-fitting. Two adaptations under their belt and it seems Ubisoft just can't get that voyage of Pandora right. Cultured Vultures - Jimmy Donnellan - 6 / 10 While it has some novel ideas, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora's extremely repetitive quest design, underwhelming progression, and wholly monotonous gear system make it one of the most forgettable open world games of 2023. Destructoid - Steven Mills - 9 / 10 If you walked away from Avatar wishing a world like Pandora actually existed out there, here you go. This is that world. Seeing Pandora is one thing, but being able to scale its massive treetops, soar high above its floating mountains on an Ikran, and traverse its wide open plains on the back of a Direhorse is really something special. This is the best version of Avatar yet. Digital Trends - Giovanni Colantonio - 3 / 5 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora can't put its human nature aside long enough to properly honor the Na'vi. Entertainment Geekly - Luis Alvaro - 3.5 / 5 "Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora" has moments of brilliance, particularly in exploration, platforming, and immersive world-building, but are tempered by inconsistencies in combat and visual polish. GAMES.CH - Benjamin Braun - German - 75% Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a nice open world action game. But beside the great and detailed graphics there is nothing worse or better than solid. That might be enough, if you love the movies, but it's not enough to make Ubisoft's Avatar game a need to buy for action fans in general. GGRecon - Dani Cross - 3 / 5 There are lots of design choices I didn’t mesh with in Frontiers of Pandora. I love the world, but barriers blocked me from fully immersing myself in it, and it’s littered with activities and outposts plucked straight out of the 2010s and planted in Pandora’s soil. Game Informer - Matt Miller - 7.8 / 10 Even so, I found a lot to love in Frontiers of Pandora, including the welcome addition of two-player online cooperative play, which lets players enjoy the game with a friend. With time, the many interlocking features started to make sense, and I pushed past any frustrations to find a remarkably large and rewarding game. Enter Pandora’s vast wilderness with patience and a willingness for a measured march to understanding, and I suspect you’ll uncover what I did – a flawed but still praiseworthy addition to this growing science fiction universe. Game Rant - Adrian Morales - 2.5 / 5 In the face of an IP filled with rich themes with something important to say, Frontiers of Pandora ignores the point entirely and goes on to have a gameplay loop where players spend most of their time killing otherwise docile animals to make arbitrary numbers go up so they can be as immortal as possible within the confines of the game. This would be business as usual for any other open-world gameplay loop, but it's embarrassingly ironic and tone-deaf for an Avatar game. Sure, anti-pollution sentiments are there because it's impossible to make an Avatar spin-off without them, but they're there superficially and treated as a checkbox for players to complete - ultimately ringing hollow. A betrayal of Cameron’s themes with the Avatar IP, seemingly stapled together as an attempt to get a slice of the highest-grossing film of all time’s pie, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora isn’t just generic; it is downright cynical. GamePro - Annika Bavendiek - German - Unscored At some point, however, I switched off internally during the trivial story sections. And even though the game promotes free exploration well, I still caught myself working through the points on the map every now and then. So, for me, Ubisoft doesn't completely resolve this part of its formula, but it's on the right track. GameSpot - Phil Hornshaw - 8 / 10 Though it includes a lot of familiar open-world elements, a minimalistic user interface, fun movement mechanics, and a gorgeous setting make it a blast to explore Pandora. Gameblog - KiKiToes - French - 7 / 10 All in all, an excellent adaptation, but also a good open-world action game. Gamer Guides - Ben Chard - 80 / 100 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a gorgeous open-world adventure that, despite having some similarities to Ubisoft’s own Far Cry, has its own identity that begs you to explore every nook and cranny. That exploration won’t be for everyone, but for those of you tired of having your hands held, there’s a lot to see, do, and enjoy. GamesRadar+ - Leon Hurley - 3.5 / 5 A decent, if unspectacular take, on an alien Far Cry that uses its source material well to create an engaging world to explore. GamingTrend - David Flynn, Ron Burke - 80 / 100 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has some excellent mechanical depth let down by repetitive missions and a very safe story. When you're flowing through the environment taking out RDA soldiers with volleys of arrows, it feels fantastic. Unfortunately, the game doesn't provide many opportunities to use the full breadth of its systems. Still, it's drop dead gorgeous and very fun for what it is. Geek Culture - Jake Su - 7.8 / 10 As far as we are concerned, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is more than a serviceable open-world action-adventure experience, made better for fans who cannot get enough of James Cameron’s masterful sci-fi franchise. That said, for an adventure on a distant moon, it continually hints at a potential to do things differently and with a dose of freshness, but retreats into well-trodden territory to bring us crashing back to Earth. There is always going to be a fascination with the Na’vi, but you just might find yourself backing the RDA this time around. God is a Geek - Mick Fraser - 8.5 / 10 It's not without its flaws, but Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is still one of Ubisoft's best games of recent years. Hobby Consolas - Daniel Quesada - Spanish - 87 / 100 It doesn't break the mold in its gameplay proposal, but Avatar Frontiers of Pandora is an amazing recreation of this cinematic universe, with gameplay and narrative moments that will impact you. IGN - Tristan Ogilvie - 7 / 10 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora features a stunning alien world to explore, but doesn’t contain as many genuine surprises as other modern open-worlds. INDIANTVCZ - Filip Kraucher - Czech - 4 / 10 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora held all the cards and, at least from our perspective, squandered them all. This reskinned Far Cry is a mediocrity gallery reflecting the current AAA production stuck in the last decade. The Snowdrop engine does help cover up some visible flaws, but when there's a lack of polished plot, quests, and meaningful gameplay, players will figure it out sooner or later. So, while Frontiers of Pandora may not rank among the worst games of the year, it is definitely one of those games that will soon be forgotten with all the mediocrity. Kakuchopurei - Alleef Ashaari - 50 / 100 An Avatar game was a strange choice to become a game from the beginning, and adding the Far Cry formula to it has resulted in a game that's not good but not too bad either; it's just mediocre. Hopefully, Massive Entertainment's next game, Star Wars Outlaws, looks to have higher prospects of being a better game and not just another uninspired game based on a famous IP. Avatar Frontiers Of Pandora is truly only for fans who just want more from James Cameron's Avatar, but not those looking for a great open-world game to sink their teeth into. Multiplayer First - Vitor Braz - 9.5 / 10 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a mesmerizing journey into a place that is very much unlike anything out there. It’s fantasy and technology boldly clashing and offering a sprawling, remarkable world that deserves all sorts of acclaim. The more you explore, the more you realize just how amazing this planet is, the windy peaks making for some jaw-dropping vistas, the parkour navigation and Ikran flying a contrast that ironically couldn’t work any better. One More Game - Chris Garcia - Wait While the FarCry formula is certainly evident in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, the game does just enough to make it stand out from similar titles that simply tick off boxes in the open-world formula. The world is beautiful and interesting enough to explore, and Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment have done well to translate this IP into a worthwhile title for some players, especially fans of the franchise. Oyungezer Online - Oguz Erdogan - Turkish - 7.5 / 10 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is an extraordinary visual experience, allowing you to breathe in the atmosphere of a living planet. However, the scarcity and lack of variety in the action makes the pace very slow. Still, if you're a fan of the Far Cry games, you should give it a chance just for the gorgeous landscapes. PCGamesN - Anthony McGlynn - 6 / 10 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora gives you the strength and stamina of the Na'vi, but not the consistency and depth of their homeworld. Unless you're an avid fan who wants every morsel of storytelling, Ubisoft's latest open world doesn't always justify the trip. PlayStation Universe - Simon Sayers - 7 / 10 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora offers a visually appealing open world that fans of the movies will certainly enjoy. That said, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is routinely held back by repetitive gameplay, while a lack of enemy types and weapons stops the combat from being quite as enjoyable as it could have been. Technically impressive and satisfying for the most part, it's also clear that Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora feels essentially just like another Far Cry game from a game design point of view, rather than the sort of entirely fresh offering one would expect from a modern day Avatar video game. PowerUp! - Adam Mathew - Liked Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is quite a bit better than I thought it was going to be, on the whole. Despite some half-baked mechanics and ideas, I still had a blast shredding outposts in this overwhelming, sumptuous sandbox. Press Start - James Mitchell - 7 / 10 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora successfully brings the world of Pandora to video games in a big way. It's lush and vibrant and without a doubt one of the most luxuriant open worlds that Ubisoft has ever created. Its gameplay, on the other hand, is lacking the spark that makes great open worlds sing. Fans of the franchise will absolutely adore exploring everything this previously unexplored side of Pandora has to offer, just don't expect it to reinvent the wheel. Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Ed Thorn - Unscored A beautiful open world world can't make up for a dull rebellion that succumbs to Ubisoft's by the numbers method. SECTOR.sk - Peter Dragula - Slovak - 5.5 / 10 Overall, Avatar is a strangely designed game that offers something different than you would expect from an action-adventure game in this world. Not an action adventure, it's more of a survival effort and slow stealth combat. But in no area is it fully fleshed out. But the world itself is handled very nicely. Screen Rant - Ben Brosofsky - 4 / 5 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a staggering sensory experience, and the consistent beauty of its world goes hand-in-hand with an engaging story and meaningful progress for Ubisoft's approach to open-world game design. Its weakest points are the areas where it doesn't go back to the drawing board, although repetitive elements go down more easily as part of a package that stuns in so many ways. A flight to an alien moon might never be in the cards for most of Earth's inhabitants, but Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is, and it might just be the next best thing. Shacknews - Lucas White - 5 / 10 It helps that you can see what you're doing when you're driving around a desert. Sirus Gaming - Lexuzze Tablante - 9 / 10 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora deserves recognition for staying faithful to its source material. Fans of the Avatar franchise will love what Massive Entertainment created. Despite the flat and predictable story, I enjoyed the significant amount of content it offered, plus the co-op feature where I got to experience the entire campaign with my wife. Frontiers of Pandora showcased the beautiful world created in the Avatar universe by James Cameron perfectly, its incredible flora and fauna, and the scenic views from atop the Hallelujah Mountains. Slant Magazine - Justin Clark - 2.5 / 5 Frontiers of Pandora is, in essence, just another Far Cry experience—one with breathtaking art direction and a thoughtful portrayal of an alien culture, but a Far Cry experience nonetheless. It’s a tired formula applied to a property that’s capable of showing us much more. This game’s Pandora is a beautiful place to visit, but living there makes for a boring existence. Spaziogames - Francesco Corica - Italian - 7 / 10 Even if we appreciate how Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora tries to give fans an experience similar to living the movies in first-person, all its excessive problems serve to point out that, in case we need to say it, developing a compelling videogame is way different from making a successful movie. Stevivor - Steve Wright - 5 / 10 This is textbook average entertainment; it won't disappoint, but it certainly won't excite. TechRaptor - Andrew Stretch - 5 / 10 With a story that follows predictable beats, mechanics that provide zero gameplay benefit, and murky visuals, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora delivers an extremely underwhelming experience. PC players be warned of many technical issues. The Game Crater - Jayden Hellyar - 8 / 10 What Ubisoft Massive has accomplished is nothing short of incredible. While you may come away forgetting the villain’s name or even the reason why you were exploring this world, you’ll never forget what it felt like to fly your Ikran for the first time or step out into the lush world and soak it all in. Frontiers of Pandora is perhaps the best example of a game that exemplifies the saying, “It’s not the destination, but the journey that matters. The Games Machine - Emanuele Feronato - Italian - 8.8 / 10 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a huge game in which exploration plays a very important role, as every corner of the Western Frontier is full of plants to catalog, ingredients to collect and materials to use to improve our equipment. The fights are very addictive and it is essential to combine stealth actions with raids based on the surprise effect. The proprietary Snowdrop engine offers us a beautiful graphic representation, which combined with a quality soundtrack guarantee an almost cinematic experience. Those looking for non-stop action might find a few too many dead moments, but it remains an open world shooter adventure of extreme quality despite never trying to introduce any novelty to the genre. Twinfinite - Keenan McCall - 3.5 / 5 I really wanted to like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora more than I did, but the game’s various shortcomings make it difficult to love entirely. The exceptional graphics and brief moments of greatness make it worthwhile for Avatar fans, but most anyone else is likely to be frustrated by how close it comes to doing something special only to fall shy of its potential. VG247 - Fran J. Ruiz - 4 / 5 Like it or not, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora feels like the perfect companion piece to James Cameron’s movies: it’s big but often intimate. Savage but calm. Familiar but charming. Even without playing a single minute of it, you should know whether it’s something you want to play. If you decide to make the jump, I suggest letting go of cheap analogies and using Na’vi instincts first and gamer brain second. Vamers - Edward Swardt - Essential Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora more than lives up to the legacy of its cinematic counterpart. In fact, the title elevates itself to the ranks of exceptional and essential gaming - an incredible feat for a movie franchise tie-in. Ubisoft, often recognised for their prowess in open-world gameplay, absolutely exceeds expectations with this title. While its foundation may draw parallels to the Far Cry series, the game's unique setting, narrative depth, and immersive gameplay set it apart as a groundbreaking experience. VideoGamer - Antony Terence - 8 / 10 Look past Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’s dull story and you’ll find spectacle and freedom lurking in its Na’vi customs and breathtaking ecosystems. WayTooManyGames - Leonardo Faria - 8 / 10 Getting lost in the absolutely gorgeous world of Pandora and having fun with the brutal, tribal-like combat make up for the weak story and the fact that, at the end of the day, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora does suffer from some of the traditional Ubisoft open world tropes. We Got This Covered - David James - 4 / 5 'Frontiers of Pandora' may occasionally feel like a reskinned 'Far Cry', but it absolutely nails the ambience and atmosphere of James Cameron's eco-scifi world. One of those rare licensed games that retroactively improves the source material it's based on.Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Worth Playing - Cody Medellin - 6.5 / 10 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is going to appeal the most to die-hard fans of the film series. The ability to ride some of the creatures of Pandora and take in the lush surroundings of the moon are more than enough to satisfy those who want to wander around and soak in everything. For everyone else, the game is simply decent. The missions are very hit-and-miss in quality and execution, while the ability to use human and Na'vi weapons isn't as appealing as the developers may have expected. The world looks gorgeous, but navigating it isn't that intuitive due to a poor map and navigation system, and that also goes for other elements, like hunting and gathering. The game isn't terrible or as bleak as the first title, but you'll need to temper expectations to get some enjoyment out of Frontiers of Pandora. XboxEra - Jesse Norris - 8.8 / 10 A delight for fans of Avatar, this game is so damned good that even one apathetic to the IP like me couldn’t help but fall in love with it. submitted by /u/diogenesl to r/Games [link] [comments]

First | Prev | Next Patreon | Kalsim's Sentence | Series wiki | Official subreddit | Discord --- Memory transcription subject: Captain Sovlin, United Nations Fleet Command Date [standardized human time]: January 16, 2137 With multiple crews having touched down at the Galactic Archives, we split up into teams. Tyler presented us with one hour to accrue the most essential data, and reconvene at the submarine to transport the intel elsewhere. In case anything went wrong, getting any information about “key species” off-world was critical. Venlil, Zurulians, Arxur, Yotul, and Krakotl were considered the top five; thankfully, my commander also honored my personal request to investigate the Gojids. Officer Cardona decided to accompany Onso to the Yotul room, while also keeping watch over Farsul prisoners such as Veiq. Carlos wound up leading our small posse, roping a timid archivist into showing us the way. Hunter had acquired suitable attire from the submarine, and loped after us. If someone told me a day ago that I’d turn my back on a primitive predator, with a name that fit how I imagined their nomenclature, I would’ve laughed. However, my concerns about the ancient Terran had all but evaporated. I have bigger issues on my plate, with what I’m about to seek out. This could destroy the little that’s left of my heritage. To say I was terrified of the Gojids’ true history was an understatement. Depending on the degree of atrocities I uncovered, what was best for my species might be to bury it once and for all. Certain unsavory elements shouldn’t come back, no matter how egregious the Federation’s removal methods were. How would the rest of the galaxy perceive us, and our refugees, if we were at all similar to the Terrans’ past? Shadows moved behind me, and I felt slight pressure on my spine. A yelp came from Hunter, who nursed his now-bleeding pointer finger; the primitive human had decided, without warning, to poke the end of a bristle. He brought it upon himself, touching a sharp object for no reason. Maybe Onso wasn’t so bad, compared to other creatures below a certain technological level. “What compelled you to do that?” I spat. Hunter shrugged. “Curiosity killed the cat. Only one way to find out how sharp it really is, you know? Say, why do you just have spikes on part of your back? It’s like there are blotches without it.” “Well, let’s say they got lined up by a machine gun, and were ripped out of my spine by a stream of bullets. It hurt, it really hurt. They can’t regrow either because I’m fucking old, so Sam calls me Baldy to rub it in my face. Does that answer your question?” “Ouch. Yeah, man.” Carlos risked a curious glance back. “What year was it for you? You sound like you’re from the States.” “1966. American, born and raised.” “I used to wonder why aliens would target you crazy Yanks, in all the UFO tales,” Sam quipped. “Maybe they were drawn to you because of your media presence. Figured you represented us all; you act like you do.” “Australian accent?” “That it is. Now’s your chance for the kangaroo jokes. Never heard those before.” “Actually, I wanted to ask about the glass rectangles you all have on your belts. Are those 22nd century TVs?” I barely kept my disdain to myself, instead focusing on Carlos. The male guard was holding a Farsul prisoner at gunpoint; we’d entered a new hallway in search of the Gojid room. Again, I remarked internally how Onso was versed enough in technology to regurgitate a textbook, at least. He never questioned what basic things were, or showed such an obvious lack of knowledge. Hunter clearly knew very little about any technology. “No, people still like their television sets large and mounted.” Samantha unclipped her holopad, unlocking it with facial ID. “This is a holopad…it actually can facilitate watching TV shows, though. Mostly, it’s used to access the internet and talk instantaneously with friends. You had phones in your time, right?” Hunter huffed in indignation. “Phones existed since the 1800s! You’re telling me, that little thing…can call people?” “With video streams, or send them written messages. The screens being 3D are a nice touch.” “Okay. Streams like a river…is the video water-powered? And, uh, what’s the internet?” Does he even know what a computer is? That’s going to be difficult to explain. I attempted to withhold a derisive tone. “Streams are a live video feed. Does the word ‘computer’ mean anything to you? We should start there.” “Yes, but that can’t be a proper computer. They take up entire rooms. Your ‘holopad’ could fit in a pocket. There’s no way that could have the necessary power, and you’re not even chilling the mechanisms!” Hunter exclaimed. “We can pack enormous processing power into tiny chips, and perform functions more complex than you can imagine,” Carlos explained. “The internet is a way that computers communicate, all the way across the globe…and now, the galaxy. It’s basically a web for housing forums and information, and by now, it encompasses the collective knowledge of mankind.” Samantha hummed in appreciation. “It is remarkable, really. You can ask a question, and a program scours that entire archive. Millions of results on any topic you can dream of—science, history, celebrities, entertainment—at your fingertips in seconds.” “Wow! I can’t even understand how humans could build something like that. Research must be so easy for you. We had to scour books to find a single source, and you have millions of encyclopedias thrown into your lap. You have no idea how good you have it, do you?” “Humans have come a long way from being primitive,” I acknowledged. Carlos curled his fist, and started to round on me; that was before noticing that the Farsul had finished guiding us to the Gojid chamber. My spines bristled, sensing a grave threat in the information housed here. Grappling with the undisguised truth of our omnivory, and possibly seeing my own kind feast on flesh; I wasn’t ready for concrete evidence. The knowledge of my ancestry had almost sapped my will to live the first time, even with my unpaid debt to Earth. I felt disgusting, just dwelling on the loathsome facts. My human companions weren’t as hesitant as me, skulking into the room. They barked orders, using their guns as motivators; Gojids were mixed in with the native staff, and part of me wondered if these were from the cradle’s primitive era. However, the fact that some called out “United Nations” suggested they were active conspirators, not captives. I tailed my comrades, sweeping my gun around the room for any threats. Hunter tiptoed after me, apprehensive about our locale. Samantha took the privilege of coercing the staff to lie on the ground. Flexing a tattooed arm in menacing fashion, Carlos ordered the Farsul archivist who guided us here to unlock the mainframe. The conspiracy employee trudged forward, and leaned over a sensor for a retinal scan. Too soon for my liking, we had access to the grand collection; everything documented at Gojidkind was at my claws. Hunter fell in by my side, and arched a quizzical eyebrow. He didn’t understand why I was keeping away from the console, like it burned to the touch. “Tyler said we have one hour to gather intel, but take your time,” Sam hissed. I drew a deep breath, and hovered my claw over a series of folders. Carlos procured a drive, starting to download any files he could find. Should I have prevented the human from transcribing this info, at least until I reviewed the contents myself? Nerves hindered my breathing, as conscious thoughts diminished. My mind was in a trance, but I managed to pull up a piece labeled ‘Overview’, on screen. “Welcome, archivists of the future, and congratulations on your promotions!” A Farsul voiceover thundered over the video feed, and I flinched at the volume. “This video will be a brief synopsis of species 92-A, who go by the name ‘Gojid.’ Millions of hours of pre-contact footage are available, to be sorted over the years by your diligent paws. I’ve compiled examples of the key aspects of their culture, and a conclusive analysis of their successful conversion.” Hunter tilted his head, watching footage of prehistoric Gojids rigging a sailboat. The video scrolled through a series of clay houses, and sprawling orchards that didn’t look much different from the modern day. An overhead image of a village, with limited electric lights, completed the narrative. It slowly faded to black, void of narration, and switched to primitive cave artwork of workers tilling fields. “The Gojids call their homeworld the cradle, a name that stems from a local deity: the Great Protector. As their creation myth goes, all of nature was crafted to be the perfect home for their species,” the Farsul declared on the recording. “The land provides, and She heeds their cries against threats by famine or beast. This has been their predominant religion since the advent of agriculture. Farming doctrine and the faith were spread alongside each other, with the locals claiming the Protector taught them how plants grew.” Surveillance video showed Gojids sorting through a forest, and gathering up anything they could find. The camera lens zeroed in on half-eaten carcasses, which were thrown onto a cart by the primitives. These filthy members of my kind stopped short of a clearing, ducking into bushes. Splotchy, lean predators with massive fangs were stalking a grazing species, and downing as many of the prey as they could. The Gojids are hiding because they saw the predators. That’s prey behavior, right? A gunshot rang out, and the Gojids burst from the foliage with reckless abandon. One splotchy predator snarled in pain, as a bullet bore into its haunches. The primitive sapients were stretching their arms out to appear larger, and waving their claws around. To my bewilderment, the hunting animals dashed off without their prey; my people drove predators away from a catch, with aggression. The Gojids congratulated themselves, before collecting the kills. The recording proceeded with an explanation. “Gojids are a scavenger species. They allow predators to do the dirty work, then swoop in to obtain the carcasses. Flesh is not a staple of their diet, but rather a pricey treat for occasional consumption. What you just witnessed is a family of market vendors, scrounging for cuts to sell to the upper class. With this being an accepted cultural item, one of status even, it’s apparent to us that a cure is needed. The government, locally-elected settlement councils, even send out foraging parties during times of hardship; it’s endorsed as a method of survival by their very leaders.” The footage transitioned to grainy images of starships landing, and stories plastered in prehistoric newspapers. CREATURES FROM ANOTHER WORLD — THEY COME BEARING GIFTS, the headline read. The front page image showed a priest of the Great Protector in conversation with a Kolshian. I managed to read a bit about a new future for Gojidkind, before the feed cut to pro-exterminator pamphlets. My emotions were in turmoil, after seeing my kind scooping up predator food on film. Could I argue that the Farsul’s gift of the cure wasn’t a blessing? Was it that wrong to initiate a proper beliefs system? “Their temperament toward aliens proved non-hostile. Formal reeducation seemed too extreme. With how invested Gojids were in ‘nature’, convincing them to adopt exterminators…they weren’t amenable to the concept. They laughed off our teachings, and spurned our ways. Conversion would go on to require decades of gradual effort. Had the Gojids been introduced to the wider galaxy in a hurry, it would’ve been disastrous. But with the technology we gave them, how could they not come to love us? That was how we got our paws in the door, and it also let us slip our ideas into the public domain. We mixed the cure with life-saving medicines, and spread the rumor that it was a judgment from the Protector.” Clips of Farsul transporting our priests to remote wilderness, and beginning excavations, played on the main screen. The time-lapse showed days of work, condensed into a span of minutes. Hunter and Samantha both were enamored with the landscape, between the jagged fronds on the trees and the sunset-orange sands. I was more focused on the tablets the archaeologists were digging up, and passing to Gojid observers for examination. Those were the Protector’s Stones; they were preserved in our planetary museum, and cited as its oldest texts. “Of course, the Priesthood insisted that all of nature was created by their deity for a higher purpose. But after discovering the texts we planted, they did our work for us. Predators were cursed by bloodlust, tarnishing the Protector’s creation; they existed to threaten and kill. Her words! Gojids, the chosen, would be punished if they continued down the predator path…why else would they suddenly be dying from meat consumption? Within decades, we’d wiped all recollection of their scavenger past.” I had already grown accustomed to the idea that our religion was falsified by the Federation. Fortunately, I’d never been an adherent of the faith, so it didn’t affect me. What was alarming was how easy it’d been for them to convince our entire planet those tablets were legitimate findings. History could be rewritten at their whims, and nobody would remember that it had once been different. Was this distortion of our primary faith necessary? All things considered, the summative montage hadn’t been as horrific as I imagined, with a single incident captured of carcass collection; perhaps I could pass it off as a single tribe, and clear our name. The final pieces of the video were of Gojids at Federation summits, and patrolling on starships. I reminded myself that these clips were from before the Arxur’s discovery, to our knowledge. The military fixtures on the bridge seemed odd, and left me wondering if our aggression was that severe as to build war vessels. Why would we need a military? For the exterminators to clear colonies, or for violent purposes? “The Gojids had become model Federation members; they completed a slow, but smooth transition. Their malleability allowed us to fine-tune their temperament. We worked to elicit fleeing responses to predatory stimuli, of course. But their natural ability to tackle threats and protect their fields from harm made them the ideal military species, in a defensive capacity.” I paused the video. “What?! They chose for us to become a powerful species, despite being omnivores? I knew they used the Krakotl, but we’re not that aggressive!” “They co-opted your religion, poisoned you through doctors, and that’s what you focus on?” Hunter grumbled. “I don’t understand any of what I woke up to, but my head hurts.” Samantha wagged a finger. “What’s with the chitchat? Finish the video, so we can pack it up. There’s only a few seconds left in this prick’s monologue, thank heavens.” I played the Farsul’s endnote, at the human’s request. “Due to the Gojids’ location, it’s in the Federation’s interest to encourage their military growth. They could act as a safeguard, to keep Species 45-G in line, should those nightmares ever find their roots. Having a compliant asset mitigates risk of such aggression spilling over our borders unchecked. Thus, I’m grateful they’re stuck being 45-G’s neighbors. I expect Gojids to necessitate little correction, and to fulfill a stabilizing role…perhaps even pacifying the region.” Carlos and Samantha looked mystified by the mention of “Species 45-G.” I was befuddled too, until I pondered the short list of Gojid neighbors. The Venlil were the weakest race in the galaxy, so it was obviously not them; the Zurulians specialized in healing, which wasn’t an aggressive practice. The Dossur couldn’t attack a cotton ball with their size. That led to the apparent answer: the Farsul must have discovered humanity before Hunter’s time—before they’d even discovered the Gojids. Why wasn’t that documented in the Terran chamber? Why hadn’t cure research begun sooner? “That’s certainly interesting.” Samantha, having not stumbled upon the only possible answer, waved her gun in the Farsul prisoners’ faces. “Who is Species 45-G? Are they dead?” “Sorry, but I can’t tell you,” a staffer croaked. I chewed at my claws. “Is it humans?” “No. That video is from before the Arxur were discovered, let alone the Terrans. Use some modicum of logic.” “Give us a straight answer, right now! We don’t have time for your games! Who is it?” Samantha roared. “We’ll find out eventually, with or without you in one piece.” Carlos raised a placating hand. “It can’t be worse than what you’ve done to humans. A little late to start hiding things, don’t you think? Just give us a name to put with this 45-G designation.” Without our history haunting me, I could focus on helping the United Nations pick apart other findings. I checked the progress of the humans’ data download, which showed as almost complete. Perhaps the last note could be used to make the Gojids respectable again. This mystery species must be one the Federation wiped out, which suggested Earth wasn’t the first planet they were willing to genocide. It seemed likely nobody had heard of 45-G, so we’d have to locate their extinct homeworld. Pushing the focus onto the truly dangerous species might be good. It offers an unknown threat, and the Farsul complimented our civility by comparison. The female predator bared her teeth. “Why aren’t you talking? Name. Spit it out! “Why don’t you ask about something else?” The Farsul staffer gulped, as Samantha fired a bullet right next to his ear. “THE VENLIL! It’s the Venlil.” Shock made my blood run cold, and the humans displayed equal surprise. Hunter showed no signs of disbelief, but he wasn’t familiar with the Venlil’s reputation. The Farsul must be fibbing with his answer, though it was bold to provide an obvious false response at gunpoint. Perhaps it was worth it to investigate what other Terran soldiers found in their greatest ally’s archive chamber. --- First | Prev | Next Patreon | Kalsim's Sentence | Series wiki | Official subreddit | Discord submitted by /u/SpacePaladin15 to r/HFY [link] [comments]

For a broad overview of Vicky 3, check out my announcement coverage on IGN: https://www.ign.com/articles/paradox-reveals-victoria-3-a-long-awaited-sequel-to-a-grand-strategy-series For everything else... CAVEAT: Everything I saw was very work-in-progress. Anything could change, especially specific numbers. KEY: This is a simulation. It's not a map painter. Military conquest is not the main focus. Victoria 3 is more about diplomatic maneuvering, shaping your society and laws, building and industrializing your economy, and "tending the garden" of your nation. 1836 - 1936. 4 ticks per day, so the number of ticks per campaign is similar to EU4. The map is divided into States and Provinces. There are about 730 States at game start, which are the smallest unit you will interact with for purposes of politics and economics. It's possible to split existing states, such as when you demand a Treaty Port in a war or Diplomatic Play. This creates a new State that is only one Province in size. Even at game start there are some cases of having more than one State, gameplay-wise, within a single "State Area." Provinces are subdivisions that you usually only interact with for maneuvering armies and when colonizing (which is done one Province at a time as you add more Provinces to your Colonial State), and there are roughly the same number of individual Provinces as in HoI4. (According to Google, that's around 13,000 - roughly 18 Provinces per State on average.) Visually, urbanization will spread across individual Provinces within a State. The pre-alpha map we saw looks better than HoI4 but worse than CK3/Imperator. They did say specifically that it isn't done yet. You can definitely zoom in further than HoI4, so I'd say the map overall feels bigger than the HoI4 map. Zoomed all the way out it looks very similar to the Vicky 2 paper map. Zoomed in you can see realistic clouds and stuff drifting over the landscape. Railroads are visible. Well over 100 playable countries, but not all countries are playable. Most of Africa, parts of inner South America, and a few surviving native tribes in North America (including the Lakota, Dakota, and Cree) were not playable. These are "Decentralized Countries." Post-launch, they want to make them playable eventually. But they want to do them right because the gameplay experience should be significantly different. All the Decentralized Countries have names and governments. There are no "uncolonized" provinces, but you can colonize on top of a Decentralized Country without declaring war. Full POPs like Victoria 2. Over a billion people are modeled individually, which will roughly double by game end, including Dependents. These represent non-working children and homemakers. Your laws, i.e. Child Labor laws, determine how much economic output your Dependents create and if they collect wages. So like, kids will still be counted as Dependents, but your wages from Dependents might go up (along with mortality rate.) Example POP types I saw (not exhaustive): Capitalists, Laborers, Machinists, Farmers, Shopkeepers, Engineers, Aristocrats, Clergymen, Officers, Bureaucrats, Academics, Servicemen, Clerks Standard of Living is mostly based on a POP's Wealth, which is determined by your sources of revenue minus your expenses. This can be a salary from your job, stipends and wages from dependents in countries where women and children can work (or if they're receiving welfare payments), and dividends from buildings you own. Increasing wages, lowering taxes, and increasing the supply of goods (thus lowering the prices and therefore the lifestyle expenses) will all generally raise Standard of Living. Standard of Living affects POP Loyalty and Population Growth. Your GDP measures how much you produce and affects your Great Power ranking, but it doesn't necessarily reflect how much money you, as a player, have to spend. The Ottomans, for example, start with a very inefficient tax system, so they have a small state budget compared to their GDP. Capitalists work completely differently from Vicky 2. Capitalism isn't "Let The AI Do It Mode." Instead, Capitalists (and sometimes Aristocrats depending on your laws) invest profits from buildings they own into a new resource pool separate from state funds called the Investment Pool, which you can only spend on certain things based on your laws and economic system. So you are still personally directing the expansion of industry in a capitalist economy, with some restrictions. Every nation has a primary culture and state religion, with varying levels of acceptance for other religions and cultures based on your laws. Non-accepted POPs are paid lower wages (so have a lower Standard of Living) and are more likely to radicalize. In places like the US, discrimination is on a racial basis. This is based on your country's laws and can be changed. There are no culture groups, but cultures have traits like Heritage traits and Linguistic traits, and your laws will look at how alike or different those are to your main culture. So someone from England will be less discriminated against in American society. Someone from a different part of Europe will face some more discrimination than the Englishman but not too much. Someone from Africa or Asia will face a lot of discrimination. Every State has a proportion of Arable Land, which represents how much agricultural industry it can support. Arable Land you have not directly built any buildings on will automatically generate Subsistence Farms, which employ Peasants. Peasants represent the vast majority of the world's population at game start, and they don't produce very many taxes or sellable goods since they're just focused on their own survival. So you'll generally want to start moving them to work in other industries if you want to grow your GDP and your tax base. Spheres have been replaced with Markets. There are many local markets instead of a single world market. Expanding your market is going to be a new playstyle aside from conquest - "painting the map economically". You can bring other countries into your market diplomatically or through war. Trade between markets is done by setting up one-way Import and Export trade deals for specific goods, of which you can only have a limited number at a time per market, based on a number of factors. An example given was that Mecklenburg starts out in the Prussian market (modelling the historical Zollverein Customs Union), which may allow them to build luxury furniture to meet the demands of the wealthy Prussian elite. But if they leave that market to form their own, their own elites may not have enough money to afford those luxury goods, and their economy will suffer unless they can set up trade deals to find buyers abroad or join a different, larger market. The number of countries that can be in your market at a time is based on the market leader's diplomatic Influence, which is one of the main capacity types. Capacities are different from power/mana in that it's not a pool of points you build up and spend. It's more like having enough electricity to run a lot of devices. Influence is also used for things like alliances, etc. You get Influence primarily from having rivalries, your Power Ranking (Great Powers get a ton), and a few other things that add percentage modifiers. Prices of goods are based on Supply and Demand. It's not event-based with arbitrary starting prices like EU4. Full market simulation. POPs and Industries will place Buy orders while Industries will also place Sell orders for finished goods. There's a screen that lets you see what are currently the five most under-produced and the five most overproduced goods in your market, so you can set up trade deals or expand industries to meet demand better. The other factor that affects this is Infrastructure. Having insufficient infrastructure will make it harder to get goods from a given State to your wider market efficiently. Around 50 trade goods divided into Staples - Consumed by all POPs for daily needs, Industrial Goods - Consumed by industries to make other finished goods, Luxury Goods - consumed by POPs with higher Standard of Living, and Military Goods - Used to create military units including infantry, artillery, ships, and later tanks and planes. Trade Goods (incomplete list, mostly guessing based on icons): Tools, Glass, Wood, Coal, Luxury Furniture, Porcelain, Silk, Iron, Chemicals, Meat, Cannons, Ammunition, Fish, Sulfur, Basic Furniture, Clipper Ships, Ironclads, Luxury Clothing, Paper, Artillery Shells, Fruit, Tea, Tobacco, Baked Goods, Coffee, Wine, Steel, Standard Clothing, Guns, Grain, Automobiles, Alcohol, Cotton Production buildings have resource inputs and outputs, Throughput rating, and pay wages to all employed POPs. If their output can sell for more than their inputs, they will generate dividends that are paid to the owners and increase their Wealth. Otherwise, they will need to be subsidized or else they will fail. Each also has a personal cash reserve, presumably so it can run at a loss for a bit without subsidies. Production Methods affect how buildings operate. For instance, a workshop can be Privately Owned, belong to a Merchant Guild, Publicly Traded, Government Run, or a Worker Cooperative. This affects what kind of POPs are employed here, what wages they are paid, and who collects the dividends/profits. i.e. Privately Owned workshops will employ Capitalists who get most of the wealth generated with the workers getting only wages, whereas in a Worker Cooperative, the people doing the work own the workshop and split the Wealth it generates evenly. Government Run industries have mandatory subsidies, meaning any losses they incur will come directly out of your national treasury rather than letting them go out of business. But you can also pocket any profits. You can have a Statist, command economy without being Communist. Communism itself, while it often goes hand-in-hand with a command economy, is now more directly related to distribution of wealth and political power. Communism is not when the government does things. The government doing more things doesn't make it more communister. POPs can promote/demote and some types are more likely than others. Engineers and Shopkeepers are more likely to become Capitalists, for instance. Command Economies do not allow Capitalists or Aristocrats to be employed in your nation, so they will have to find a new job or leave. They also get fewer foreign Trade Routes to work with, but can enact Encourage Consumption, Discourage Consumption, and Consumption Taxes more cheaply. They can embargo all goods and they can (must) subsidize everything. You need to have a Command Economy to switch Production Method to Government Control. Free Trade gives you more import/export routes, reduces loan interest rates, allows you to subsidize only Service Industries and Infrastructure, and increases the amount of wealth Capitalists contribute to the Investment Pool. Isolation cuts off all foreign trade (so you can only operate within your Market/Customs Union), you can embargo all goods, you can subsidize all buildings, and both Capitalists and Aristocrats will contribute to the Investment Pool. Traditionalism (used mostly by Unrecognized countries and represents pre-industrial economies): Fewer trade routes, can subsidize only Services and Infrastructure. Agrarianism gives you more export routes, lets you subsidize agriculture, infrastructure, and services, Aristocrats contribute to the Investment Pool, and you can embargo Luxury Goods Different economic systems dictate what you can or cannot spend Investment Pool money on. Services are a non-tradeable good, so they cannot leave your home market. Access to services is based on Infrastructure. So for example, you might have lots of services being produced in New York, but if you don't build railroads out to California, the people in California will have very little or no access to those services (and goods from California won't be able to get to market efficiently) even though both states are in the US market. Until you have better infrastructure, you'll have to rely on producing most things locally. Services come from buildings called Urban Centers, which can't be directly built but are generated automatically based on the Urbanization of your States. All buildings you build produce a little bit of Urbanization in the target State, but some provide a lot more than others. If you focus more on expanding agriculture, you won't have as many Urban Centers. If you build lots of Factories and government buildings, you will generate much more Urbanization. The Service sector will employ POPs as well. Classes: Lower, Middle, and Upper strata. Determined by POP type. It mainly determines their wage level and taxation under uneven tax laws. Standard of Living goes all the way up to 100, which would be "Jeff Bezos level", but you generally won't see anything above 50 unless you're trying to break the game. If you have a system like worker-owned factories, you can get to a point where even the lower strata POPs in your country are richer by the late game than the capitalists were at the beginning. Each POP is represented by a 3D character model, looks like the same basic models from CK3, including regional and class-appropriate dress. National leaders have 3D, CK3-style portraits and character traits (up to 3 in the build we saw). Monarchies have heirs who also get a portrait. POPs can belong to Interest Groups, and these are the main forces that you must contend with to make changes to your society. Not all POPs of a specific type belong to the same Interest Group. i.e. Capitalists are likely to join the Industrialists interest group, but some of them might instead belong to the Devout. There are a handful of "Templates" for interest groups that will be used in just about every country, but they can have different traits and desires. For example, Industrialists in Prussia are very pro-Monarchy, whereas in the U.S. that is very much not the case. Example Interest Groups we got to see: Industrialists, Landowners (called Junkers in Prussia, Landed Gentry in Britain, Plantation Owners in the US, and Scholar-Officials in Qing), Intelligentsia (called Literati in Qing), Devout (called Anglican Church in Britain and Confucian Schools in Qing) - they said this one specifically will change A LOT in ideology depending on the dominant religion of your country, Armed Forces, Rural Folk, Petite Bourgeoisie, Trade Unions Interest Groups have a set of Ideologies, as well as Traits that can be active or inactive at any given time. Interest Groups also have a leader with a portrait and traits. Ideologies can change over time (such as Trade Unions becoming more socialist). They will be stable for most of the game, but certain events, ideas, and leaders can cause them to shift. The leader of the Interest Group might be a socialist, for instance. They are still tweaking how ideologically malleable or fixed these groups should be. Prussian Industrialists have Monarchist (very upset if you switch to any non-Monarchy form of government), Individualist (Disapprove of most welfare/social security/government healthcare/public schools), Abolitionist (Don't like slavery), two others that we didn't get to see. If Ideologies are what an IG wants, Traits are what they can do for you. These traits will become active if the IG is loyal enough to your government. Kind of like how loyal Institutions provide bonuses in EU4. The one we got to see for the Industrialists was Job Creators, which increases the contribution to the Investment Pool by Capitalist POPs by 10% if their loyalty is at least 20. You can invite Interest Groups into your government. The ones that aren't part of your government will be in Opposition. You can never make everyone happy so you have to choose which groups to champion. Clout is how much influence an Interest Group has in your nation. In 1836, the main factors are Wealth, Status, and Workforce. If you liberalize your country you can offset this with Votes. When you hold elections, each Interest Group receives Votes from the enfranchised POPs that support it, which increases their Clout by a set amount per Vote until the next election. Various laws can tweak the political weight of Votes vs Wealth, or give more people Votes, though Wealth will always be a factor. So a truly egalitarian society will need to level the playing field in terms of wealth inequality in addition to democratic reforms. Not all POPs belong to an Interest Group at game start. Some of them are considered Politically Inactive. Literacy is back from Vicky 2, with your education spending determining what percentage of the country has access to education rather than just how fast it ticks up toward 100%. 100% Literacy will be very hard to achieve. Literate POPs can take certain jobs that illiterate ones cannot. It will be hard to get modern factories and government institutions up and running with low Literacy. Higher Literacy also affects your likelihood to join an Interest Group rather than being Politically Inactive, which sort of replaces the Consciousness system from Vicky 2. Uneducated laborers are more likely to stay out of politics. Likewise, ideas like Egalitarianism and Socialism will spread to your country faster if the lower classes are educated, which further increase political participation, expected minimum Standards of Living, and cause more attraction to groups like the Trade Unions among laborers. If the expected minimum Standard of Living goes up but the actual Standard of Living for those POPs does not, they will start to radicalize. So you can give them more beer and amenities to suppress class consciousness, is basically what it sounds like. You can Suppress or Promote IGs directly using your Authority, which is an administrative capacity stat. More absolutist forms of government have more Authority, and so will have more control over the IGs in their nation, whereas democracies will be less able to combat or uplift the ones they prefer. Legitimacy is basically a check against inviting too many Interest Groups into your government. If you try to form too large of a coalition, your Legitimacy will tank. You also get Legitimacy from having the Interest Group your leader belongs to in the government – so as Prussia, we had to have the Armed Forces in the government, because they're the king's faction, or we would take a hit to Legitimacy. And that in turn makes it harder to ever pass any laws the military doesn't like. In a Presidential Republic like the US, you might have a different interest group represented by the head of state every election cycle, which dictates what you can accomplish during that term. An Autocracy requires you to work with fewer Interest Groups to maintain Legitimacy, whereas a Parliamentary Republic can form larger coalitions. By the same token, Autocratic governments can commit to a more defined strategy (at the risk of annoying everyone who is not part of the government), whereas Republics will have to make more compromises and only be able to pass policies with very broad, cross-party support (while making more people feel their voices are being heard). Trickle Migration (Vicky 2 style) will mostly happen within cultural regions, to/from colonies, and within your market. i.e. Germanic cultured pops will be free to move around the Germanic home region, between your metropole and your colonies, or anywhere in their home country's market. POPs won't just trickle migrate wherever at all times. The exception to this is Migration Waves, which can be caused by poor economic conditions, political unrest, ethnic discrimination, etc. These will be major events, rather than a trickle. i.e. famine in Ireland might trigger a Migration Wave from Ireland to the US. They will try to target countries that have better standards of living and freer laws than the place they're leaving, but it's not explicitly tied to New World vs Old World like in Vicky 2. So the US and Brazil won't have any arbitrary advantage in attracting immigrants, though conditions in those nations might still make them popular destinations. Falling Standard of Living can generate Radical pops (replacing Vicky 2's Militancy system), while rising Standard of Living can convert Radicals to neutrals, or neutrals to Loyalists. Having more Radicals in a state generates Turmoil, which can affect the economy and lead to uprisings. Having more Radicals in an Interest Group will lower that group's Approval score toward the current government (and Loyalists in an interest group will do the opposite), which can lead to a civil war or revolution. Cultural discrimination can also generate Radicals. Higher wealth POPs have a lower threshold to radicalize because they expect a higher standard of living. "They can only afford 100 Ming vases instead of 150, and this is absolutely unacceptable." Loyalist POPs (and Radicals) can die off, which causes intergenerational conflict. If you had an era of prosperity that generated a lot of Loyalists, and then they die, the younger generation with worse economic opportunities might suddenly be not so happy and change the loyalty and attitude of your Interest Groups. You can fund Police Institutions to reduce the local effects of Radicals. They don't go away, but they won't be able to cause as much trouble. You can also bring up the standard of living or change discriminating laws to deradicalize them. Or you can discriminate even harder and hope they decide to go live somewhere else. Enslaved POPs will be modeled. This is a historical simulation. They don't want to stray away from the parts of history that are horrific and pretend they didn't exist. They also don't want to pretend that it was a good idea. As an example, slavery is not a flat boon for your country, but it is very profitable for plantation owners, and those Interest Groups will fight against abolition because it's in their economic interest – they want to keep those unpaid wages for themselves and spend them on luxuries. You as the player will have to decide how to deal with those groups. At the same time, not every nation needs to be on a set trajectory toward liberalism. If you want to keep Russia an absolutist feudal serf state until the endgame, you can do that assuming you can deal with any radicals who want to change it. There is no assumed best path. Example needs for higher wealth pops: Free Movement (Transportation or Automobiles), Luxury Items, Luxury Drinks, Intoxicants, Communication, Heating - Needs are different from goods, and many of them can be filled by multiple different types of goods. Example Laws (Not a complete list, just the ones I saw) - POWER STRUCTURE Governance Principles: Monarchy, Chiefdom, Presidential Republic, Parliamentary Republic, Council Republic Distribution of Power: Autocracy, Oligarchy, Elder Council, Landed Voting, Wealth Voting, Census Suffrage, Universal Suffrage, Anarchy Citizenship: National Supremacy Church and State: Freedom of Conscience Bureaucracy: Appointed Bureaucrats Conscription: Conscription Internal Security: No Home Affairs ECONOMY Economic System: Mercantilism, Free Trade, Traditionalism, Isolationism, Agrarianism, Command Economy Income Tax: No Income Tax, Payroll Tax (more burden on the poor), Proportional Tax (everyone pays a flat percentage), Graduated Tax (more burden on the wealthy) Poll Tax: No Poll Tax Colonization: No Colonial Affairs Policing: Local Police Force Education: Public Schools, Religious Schools, No Schools, Private Schools Health System: No Health System, Charity Hospitals, Private Health Insurance, Public Health Insurance HUMAN RIGHTS Free Speech: Censorship Labor Rights: Serfdom Abolished Children's Rights: Child Labor Allowed Rights of Women: Propertied Women, Legal Guardianship Welfare: Poor Laws, Wage Controls, No Social Security, Pensions Migration: No Migration Controls Slavery: Slavery Banned Passing laws an interest group doesn't like will lower their approval. If they get upset enough, they can start a civil war. You can only pass laws if at least one interest group that is part of your government approves of it, and many of them require specific inventions as a prerequisite (ie: Graduated Income Tax requires Socialism.) The more Interest Groups that are part of your government approve of a law, the faster you can implement it. Institutions are like the organs of your government. Some Institutions are unlocked by specific laws. They have five levels each, with increasing bonuses but also increasing Bureaucracy cost. Bureaucracy is the third capacity, along with Authority and Influence, that is generated by building government buildings in your states and having Bureaucrat and Clerk pops working in them (which also requires literacy). Going over your Bureaucratic capacity will give you a tax penalty due to governmental inefficiency, but there's also a hard cap on the number of Institution levels you can have, which can be raised over time. Example Institutions- These modifiers can change based on your laws Conscription Office: +2% Conscription Rate and increases the number of Battalions you can mobilize per level (with Conscription) Education: +15% Education access per level (with Public education), +2% Wealth-based Education Access (this scales with Wealth so it works out to much higher than 2% at very high Wealth levels) and +20% Intelligentsia Political Strength (with Private Schools), +10% education Access, +20% religious Conversion rate, +20% Devout Political Strength per level (with Religious Schools) Law Enforcement: +10 Landowners Political Strength and -20% State Penalties from Turmoil per level (with Local Policing), -5% Radicals from Standard of Living decreases and -15% State penalties from Turmoil with ??? Colonial Affairs: +20% Colony Growth per level Social Security: +10% Industrialists political strength and +2 Minimum Wealth per level Workplace Safety Offices: -2% Mortality of Laborers, Machinists, and Engineers employed in Mines and -20% to Dangerous Working Conditions per level National Security Agency - No modifiers shown Institutions only apply their benefits to Incorporated parts of your country. You can also have Unincorporated areas. The Bureaucratic cost per investment level is based on the total population in all of your Incorporated states, so the more people benefitting from services will result in needing more bureaucrats to maintain. Institutions also have a financial cost since you're paying the wages of the Bureaucrat POPs out of the state treasury. There will always be some bureaucrats, even if you're not funding a bunch of government institutions, just from enacting your laws in Incorporated states. States like the Qing will begin with massive, sprawling bureaucracies that have a significant impact on their playstyle. They have a huge population in their Incorporated States day one, which is a colossal bureaucratic sink before you even start adding Institutions on top. You probably can't bring 100% education access to everyone in China because it would take an absurd amount of bureaucratic investment, while smaller nations will have a much easier time doing this. It's a valid playstyle to run a "lean state" with very few bureaucrats and very few or no public services, freeing people up to do other jobs and relying on the Investment Pool instead of state revenue to expand infrastructure and industry. Minting can allow some countries to replace taxation. Diplomatic actions are your standard Paradox stuff. New ones include Trade Agreements, Invite to Customs Union (making them part of your Market), Violate Sovereignty, Start Bankrolling - I didn't get to ask what those last two do but Bankroll is probably just monthly subsidies. Diplomatic Plays: Basically an evolution of the crisis system from Vicky 2. This is now the default way you try to get things from other countries who do not want to give them to you! I described it as almost like "Diplomatic Combat." Types of plays: Conquer State, Liberate Subject, Make Puppet, Open Market, Take Treaty Port, Transfer Subject, Annex Subject, Cut Down to Size, Declare Independence, Ban Slavery, Make Territory, Make Vassal, Return State, Take Colony, Unify Region (in the example we saw it was called "Unify Germany"). You put your starting demands on the table. Enemy puts their starting demands on the table. It then enters a maneuvering phase where either side can add wargoals, other countries can become involved (mostly if they actually want something from either side - rivals will be very likely to join just to stop you from getting what you want.) Ultimately you can back down (the side that didn't blink gets their original wargoal, but not any extra wargoals that were added later by themselves or other nations that became involved), or let the timer expire and go to war (everyone who placed a demand on the table gets called in and all demands on both sides are up for grabs). It's possible to Sway nations during the maneuver phase, offering them spoils of war to join your side. This isn't just useful for securing their alliance if it does go to war. Tipping the balance of power more and more in your favor also makes it more likely that the other side will Back Down. The more demands you add to your side of the table, the more POTENTIAL threat you will generate and the more likely it is that other nations will pledge their support to your enemy. Particularly if you are a Great Power, other Great Powers will try to head off any massive wars of conquest before they even start by pledging their support to the target and trying to get you to Back Down, to maintain the balance of power. So it's generally safer to eat your neighbors one bite at a time unless you think you can take on everyone at once. Allies will generally side with you or stay out of your way. Countries with friendly relations or who don't see you as a threat are also generally unlikely to get involved, so maintaining a strong diplomatic position with other Great Powers will enable faster conquests with less meddling. At any point during this process, before war is declared, you can Mobilize your armies to have a head start, which might cause your opponent to back down. If you wait until the war has already started to mobilize, you will be on the back foot compared to countries that mobilized before the timer ran out. They don't want this system to make every single conquest into a World War and it's being balanced accordingly. It's always a possibility though if you as a player try to overreach too much. They don't want to say One Tag World Conquest is impossible because the players will always find a way, but they described it as "implausible." There is no Status Quo in a Diplomatic Play. Either you go to war, or one side Backs Down and the other gets their initial wargoal. (But ONLY the initial wargoal.) So you can't use it risk-free to test the waters. No more "uncivilized" nations. Instead there are "Unrecognized" nations, which basically means they weren't seen as equals by the Great Powers at the time. They do NOT get any arbitrary debuffs to technology or combat just for having the "unrecognized" flag. They play by the same rules as everyone else for the most part. They will start out technologically behind in many cases, based on historical circumstances, and the social and economic conditions they have to deal with will generally make it harder to become an advanced, industrialized, technologically competitive nation. But that's all tied to the laws, POPs, Interest Groups, resources, and starting infrastructure, not their Unrecognized status. The one direct, mechanical difference is that it's cheaper and generates less threat for Recognized nations to take land from Unrecognized nations. You can go from Unrecognized to Recognized, for example by beating up a Great Power. The Russo-Japanese War was given as an example of an Unrecognized nation becoming Recognized. Colonization works in two different ways: Colonization against Decentralized Countries can be done like in EU4, where you can theoretically do it without open conflict. You establish a Colonial Institution back home and employ POPs as Colonists who will slowly build up the colony in the target province. During this time, you will generate a Tension score with the Decentralized Country you are colonizing on top of, which can result in open warfare. The natives will annex your colony if they win. Machine Guns no longer magically make you able to colonize new areas like in Vicky 2. They just help against uprisings if you do have to fight. Medical advances like Malaria Medication will have a major impact on where you can colonize, though. Colonization against Unrecognized nations, it's more like declaring a regular war. You can make them your colonial subject, or you can demand a Treaty Port, which will create a new State under your control and give you access to their market. Outright annexing overseas territory by either method will create a Colonial State, which is not the same as an Unincorporated State. They are affected by colonial policies, have special migration rules, and distinct mechanics. War/combat is unfinished. They're not ready to talk about it yet. Prestige is still a thing and affects your Great Power ranking. Cut Down to Size wargoal will take a bite out of your prestige. GDP affects your Great Power ranking directly, even if you as the state are not benefitting from that production through taxation. What matters is production, not government revenue. Factories, especially late game, will cause GDP to skyrocket, so you will need to industrialize to remain competitive as a Great Power. Each Power Rank has its own intended play experience. Minor Powers: Ideal for playing tall. Local concerns. Min-maxing your economy, encouraging immigration, building exactly the society you want, "tending your garden," becoming regionally powerful/influential. Major Power: Might have some colonies. Mass political movements outside your control might try to change the shape of your country (this is less of a concern for minor powers). Becoming a Great Power is a realistic goal. Great Powers: Global influence. Maintaining and disrupting the worldwide balance of power. Getting involved in smaller nations' affairs in lots of ways beyond just conquest. Proxy conflicts. Gunboat diplomacy. Being #1. They get more tools to change industry top-down, from a macro level, with a single click. You shouldn't be really concerned with economic micromanagement, but still have a lot of control over your economy in broader ways. Three different Tech Trees: Production, Military, and Society. More like a traditional, branching 4X tech tree, not like the tech columns in Vicky 2. No split between techs and inventions. Seems like no more RNG for inventions other than that Tech Spread has some RNG involved. About 10 "tiers" of tech. Earlier ones might only have three techs in them but later ones have up to 11. Production Tech represents the major civilian inventions of the era that directly affect industry. Dynamite, Railways, Cotton Gin, Telegraph. Military Tech is pretty self-explanatory. Hardware as well as doctrines. Ironclads, Machine Guns, Modern Nursing, Defense in Depth. Tanks and Planes are at the very bottom. Having something researched doesn't automatically implement it, so for example, just researching Defense in Depth won't give you its benefits until you decide to enact it. Society Tech is stuff like Romanticism, Urban Planning, Central Banking, Dialectics. Anarchism and Socialism are two separate ideologies now that function differently. Antibiotics, Malaria Prevention, and other civilian stuff unrelated to direct production of goods is also in this tree. Innovations (including social movements like Socialism) can spread into your country even if you choose not to research them, which can be combated by things like censorship at the cost of slowing down your Innovation rate and upsetting the Intelligentsia. Almost every tech has advantages and disadvantages. i.e. automation increases overall throughput and reduces costs, but also reduces the number of available jobs in that industry, so you have to figure out what to do with all the newly unemployed. Technology Spread is based on your Literacy rate. Higher literacy and a free press will cause techs that are spreading to you from outside to spread faster. This is separate from Innovation Points, which you invest directly into a single tech you are trying to research at a given moment. Innovation Points you can spend directly come from building universities and employing Academics. Literacy rate affects how many of those points you can directly invest into research each week. So if you have a well-funded academic elite but low general literacy, you might not be able to spend all of your Innovation Points. These "overflow" Innovation Points beyond your direct investment cap will increase Tech Spread instead. So there's a balance between increasing Literacy, which speeds the adoption of outside ideas, and building academic infrastructure, which gives you more direct control over research. (This is a complicated system and we got to see it for like 30 seconds but I'm pretty sure I was able to get the general idea. I'm sure Martin can find me and yell at me if I'm wrong.) Ideas like Socialism, Anarchism, Egalitarianism, will increase the minimum Expected Standard of Living for ALL POPs once present in your nation, so you will need to provide them with more stuff to keep them happy. This might also increase attraction for Interest Groups that want broader suffrage or to abolish slavery, for example. Having Anarchism as your organizing principle produces no Authority, so you will have a very reduced ability to make changes to your country directly once you have switched over to it. Anarchists can implement a Council Republic government, which gives more Political Strength to Farmers and Machinists and opens up the Worker Cooperative production method, in which workers own their factories and collect dividends from them. This is distinct from USSR-style communism, in which the state controls the industries and (theoretically...) passes the proceeds on to the workers from the top down in the form of subsidies and social programs. If a revolution happens, you can side with the rebels. So you can be super duper capitalist on purpose, make life hell for all the workers, then switch sides when the socialists rise up. Neighboring conservative countries will be likely to step in and try to stop a socialist revolution. They want it to be playable without a lot of prior experience. It's a very complex game but it should be much more approachable than Vicky 2. Rather than a game where you learn how to play "correctly" by following a guide, the goal is for it to be the kind of game where you do what comes naturally and are able to easily understand why your actions led to certain consequences. Historical events (Taiping Rebellion, US Civil War) can happen, but only if the correct conditions exist. If the US player plays the interest group game really well and manages to abolish slavery peacefully in the 1850s, there won't be a hardcoded Civil War event chain that fires. submitted by /u/AsaTJ to r/victoria3 [link] [comments]

2.20.2020 Animal Crossing: New Horizons Direct MegaThread Please use this thread for all pre-event hype and speculation, as well as post-event thoughts reactions. Watch & Discuss The event has now ended Watch VOD on YouTube Chat in our Discord! Recap of announcements Tom Nook has an eye for business. That’s why the staple Animal Crossing character took time out of his very busy schedule to host a new video presentation about his latest endeavor, the Nook Inc. Deserted Island Getaway Package. In the presentation, he details the ins and outs of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, launching exclusively for the Nintendo Switch family of systems on March 20. The video covers everything you, a potential Deserted Island Getaway Package customer, need to know to get started: an introduction to your new island life, the basics of home ownership, details about your new neighbors, land development, exploration, crafting and so much more. “The Animal Crossing games offer players a unique and relaxing escape from the stresses of everyday life, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons builds on that by letting players build their own island utopia from scratch,” said Nick Chavez, Nintendo of America’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “When Nintendo Switch owners pack their virtual bags and move into their new island home, they will experience more ways to customize their Animal Crossing life than ever before. Just like Nintendo Switch itself, the game lets you play the way you want to play.” Before you set off on your own island getaway, check out the full video at https://www.animal-crossing.com/new-horizons/. Some of the highlights of Tom Nook’s information session include: Features new to the series! Life on the Island: Nook Inc. confidently recommends a trip to a remote deserted island. And that’s not just because it’s the only company that offers this type of package! On the island, life is as peaceful and relaxing as it gets. Since the island is deserted, you can create your new life from the very beginning – just like a pioneer! Time flows as naturally as in the real world, including seasons and day and night cycles that mirror real time. DIY: By collecting specific materials around the island, you can craft a wide variety of things, including tools and furniture. DIY workshops teach you how to enrich your life by crafting DIY recipes. As you become more familiar with DIY, you can even learn special skills like changing the color of your DIY furniture or decorating them with custom designs. NookPhone: Nook Inc. will provide some basic necessities and services, including your very own NookPhone. It has standard apps, like a camera and map, but over time, new applications will be added to support your island needs. The camera can be used to take in-game photos all over the island – you can even add fancy filters like all the cool kids are doing! Nook Miles: For players looking for more concrete goals, and to help offer guidance and inspiration on the island, you can take advantage of the Nook Mileage program. As you fulfill certain challenges and experiences, you will earn miles to pay off the cost of the getaway package or, eventually, to exchange for in-game rewards. Rewards range from in-game Nook Inc. merchandise and helpful items that can enrich your time on the island, to tickets that you can use to visit distant islands. Island Tours: These “mystery island tours” are at the whim of the pilot, so you never know where you will end up! Once on these smaller islands, feel free to gather as many items as you want – like DIY materials and creatures – and take them back with you to your island. Party Play: With the Nook Inc. Deserted Island Getaway package, up to eight people can live on one island.* In Party Play, you can call up to three other players to explore the island at the same time. Whoever calls the others will be the Leader, making the others the Followers. It’s easy to change out the Leader, letting others quickly take charge. Any creatures or items found by Followers will be stored in a recycle box at the Resident Services building! Land Development: While you can cross rivers on your island by pole-vaulting and climb elevated land using ladders, you can also change the landscape by adding bridges and slopes. Once your island is fully decked out, you’ll receive a permit to freely pave your own paths, as well as perform major construction like changing the paths of rivers or building and demolishing cliffs. With your own maintenance and construction permits, you can flex your creative muscles on the land itself, not just the stuff on it. NookLink: Yes, Tom Nook likes to put his name on everything. But when it’s a Nook product or service, you know you are getting something that’s high quality. With NookLink, which is part of the Nintendo Switch Online app, you can scan a Custom Design QR Code pattern from previous games Animal Crossing:** New Leaf or Animal Crossing:** Happy Home Designer with your real-life smartphone and then download them to Animal Crossing:** New Horizons. When connected online, you can talk with friends who also have the Animal Crossing: New Horizons game with the Nintendo Switch Online smartphone app using your smartphone as a keyboard or for voice chat. NookLink will launch in March, soon after the selected departure included in your Deserted Island Getaway Package. A detailed breakdown of the Getaway Package experience! Choose Your Island: Before boarding your flight to the island, you will choose the island from a range of options. Choosing to live in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, for example, will affect the timing of the seasons, so select the location that suits you best. When the seasons change on the island, so do the activities. For Northern Hemisphere residents, spring will just be starting when the game launches on March 20, so expect blooming cherry blossoms to show up soon! Orientation: After landing on the island, you will receive a helpful orientation session from the Nook Inc. staff. At this time, you’ll be provided with the tent that’s included with your getaway package. You can chat with other island residents about where you want to set up your new home, and help them choose their home locations as well. Resident Services:** The Resident Services facility is available to support your daily needs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They provide you with services such as the sale of everyday goods, the purchase of unwanted items and helpful advice. Become a Home Owner: The tent provided to you by Nook Inc. is great, but have you considered a house? Home loans have no deadlines, interest or assessment, and you can pay your loan back at your own pace. A house offers much more space than a tent and also includes storage space for any extra furniture and baggage. Once you own a home, you can channel your inner interior designer, setting up the walls, flooring and furniture however you like. You can also use extension and remodeling services to expand and customize your home even more. Customization Deluxe: Animal Crossing:** New Horizons offers more customization options than ever before, from personalizing the look of your character all the way down to skin tone, hairstyle and clothing, to placing buildings and items wherever you want on the island. You can even decorate the inside and outside of your home! Turn that island into a MY land! Airport: This is the first place you will land on the island. (It is an airport, after all.) It’s also available to use 24 hours a day, beginning on the day after your arrival. At the airport, you can invite residents of other islands to your own island via the internet or local wireless. You can also travel and visit other islands yourself! Up to eight people can play on a given island at one time**, so feel free to get a good group together and make some fantastic memories. Island-wide Broadcasts: At the start of each day, Mr. Nook, CEO of Nook Inc., will make a broadcast to all residents, updating them with the latest on important island events and advice about how to best enjoy island living. Features and updates to further your island enjoyment! New Residents: When you first land on the island you will only have a few animal residents living there with you. But as you develop your island from the ground up, more neighbors will visit and choose to move in. You can even invite some of the new residents to live there yourself! There’s nothing better than a welcoming neighbor. Free Updates: Free updates will be added after the game launches, with seasonal events continually added throughout the year. The first free update will be on launch day, March 20. By installing this update, you can celebrate Bunny Day with a special event in April. If you own both Animal Crossing:** Pocket Camp for mobile devices and Animal Crossing:** New Horizons, you’ll receive special items in each game. Details will be announced at a later date on the official Animal Crossing:** Pocket Camp Twitter account. Additional Facilities: As you grow your island, more facilities will be built. This includes a museum showcasing the rich ecosystem of the island, a shop full of ready-made furniture and goods you can’t craft yourself, a tailor offering clothing and fashion items, and a campsite where you can invite guests for recreational purposes. Tourists & Events: Your island will not only be home to new residents, but also tourists as well! These temporary visitors are always welcome and can offer up items that cannot be crafted on the island. Visitors can also participate in fun events like Fishing Tourneys and Bug-Offs, which will pop up throughout the year. Through free updates to Animal Crossing:** New Horizons, new special events and seasonal guests will be introduced. amiibo Support: Animal Crossing:** New Horizons supports amiibo figures and amiibo cards from the Animal Crossing series. You can also invite these familiar faces to Photopia, an island that exists in the game, where you can place models in creative photo shoots. Twitter Takeover: Keep an eye out for social media savvy Tom Nook, who is rumored to take over the @AnimalCrossing Twitter account right after today’s video presentation. Animal Crossing:** New Horizons launches in stores, in Nintendo eShop on Nintendo Switch and on Nintendo.com on March 20 at a suggested retail price of $59.99. In addition to the game, players can accessorize with Animal Crossing:** New Horizons Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch Lite Carrying Cases, available in stores at a suggested retail price of $24.99 each. A special-edition Animal Crossing themed Nintendo Switch system will also be available in stores on March 13 at a suggested retail price of $299.99. The system takes design inspiration from Animal Crossing: New Horizons (sold separately), with lovely pastel green and blue Joy-Con controllers that are white on the back, with matching pastel green and pastel blue wrist straps and a white Nintendo Switch dock, adorned with images of characters Tom Nook and Nooklings Timmy and Tommy. For more information about Animal Crossing: New Horizons, visit https://www.animal-crossing.com/new-horizons/. Remember that Nintendo Switch features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about other features, visit https://www.nintendo.com/switch/. *Up to eight Nintendo Account holders can live on the same island within each game. With one Nintendo Switch system and one game, up to four of those Nintendo Account holders can play on the same island at the same time (additional accessories required). With additional systems and games, up to eight players can play on the same island at the same time via local wireless or online play. Nintendo Switch Online membership and Nintendo Account required for online features. Not available in all countries. Internet access required for online features. Terms apply. nintendo.com/switch-online. Games, systems, additional accessories and Nintendo Switch Online membership sold separately. **Additional games, systems, accessories and/or Nintendo Switch Online membership required for multiplayer mode. Sold separately. FAQ What is a Nintendo Direct? A Nintendo Direct is a pre-recorded video presentation to make game announcements and provide fans with general updates directly from Nintendo. What is the difference between an Animal Crossing Direct and a standard Nintendo Direct? This presentation will ONLY include information about Animal Crossing, unlike a traditional Nintendo Direct that would focus on a variety of games and topics. This one is approximately ~25m in length. What if I can't watch the Nintendo Direct live due to work/school/etc.? If you would prefer a spoiler-free experience, we will be editing the top section of this post to include a direct link to Nintendo's official video replay (once it's available). We will also edit a recap of the announcements into the post body. Just don't scroll down! This helps prevent you from accidentally seeing any trailers or video thumbnails if you visit Nintendo's YouTube channel listing or the Nintendo Direct website. There WILL be spoilers here on the subreddit, so watch the video first! If you see any posts that should actually be here in the MegaThread, please do us a favor and hit the report button. Our SOP for posts is as follows: We will allow one post per announcement. The post we allow may not necessarily be the one that was submitted first. We typically will receive about 15 of essentially the exact same post in the span of about 60 seconds and will select the one that has the best title and links directly to the original source when available. Commentary on the announcement(s) should take place either in this thread or on the related separate announcement post. Each person's specific opinion does not need its own post. submitted by /u/NintendoSwitchMods to r/NintendoSwitch [link] [comments]