Valorian Endymion

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Everything posted by Valorian Endymion

  1. Post your face!

    Thanks a lot! both outfits are my favorites that I have.
  2. Post your face!

    Ok, so here is a photo of myself - its from one of our local japanese fashion meet ups - yeah, I kind just have photos from this events or from anime events. Talking about, here is just second one from a anime event
  3. Important If True 9: Wetzel's Podcasts

    When you guys talked about robots wielding knife, but how about robots wielding katanas? not just wielding, but doing with the same skills (or close) as sword master ? because this really exist in Japan:
  4. Episode 390: Medieval II: Total War

    - I think that among the agents, the worst one was the merchant, because, his whole concept was about taking him far away as possible to generate extra income, since the total was based on distance. Most of time, they either died of age or by murder along the way, even if they manage, at best you would get a few turn before someone murder him. - Kind like Medieval 1, 2 still suffer from a "issue", where, since most of your high level unit where draw from the most populated provinces which often also where you most far away ones, you need to move them to the front in order to use them, and move them back if you need to retrain them, this often made newer units "awesome, but impractical", which was kind "realistic" but also meant a lot of busy work, moving units back and forth, specially in Medieval 1, where you move a single province in each turn (also let´s not forget, I think that in Medieval 1 you can only train/retrain a single unit per turn, maybe more in 2) this was kind bad. Medieval 2 on the other hand, made this a bit easier, since the move range was very long. But another result was that most time you keep using the same units, the early ones, over and over again, since they are much easier to replace and retrain, at least that as good part of my experience, playing it as Milan, using the same Italian spearman and crossbowman over and over again. - One thing I do remember is that most of early game was just facing the rebels repeated times, since each battle follow the same pattern, siege -> wait until the sally forth (which they always did) -> battle-> repeat, until you finally came across another faction. But once that happen, things do get better, except the diplomacy was bit broken, and the AI would almost attack you at random. - Another fun thing I remember is that you could trade provinces, which was often all sources of abuse by the player - myself included, I often hold Jerusalem, just until the Timurids show up, when that happen if I felt I could not hold it, I simple give it away to some faction I didn´t like. - Talking about Timurids, and the late game feeling like a Renascence warfare, I do remember defending Jerusalem with armies most formed of Pikeman and Crossbowman with some bombards (but no other fire arms), since it was all I could recruit there, this battle did that did felt like that.
  5. Recently completed video games

    Just add my two cents: I think that something that affect a lot of open world struggle to make it feel alive, is how they handle npcs, in modern day open world games you would need so many npcs, that interact with them became impossible, assign them to a day-night cycle also is just not doable. Therefore, you end with huge cities which you can´t talk to a single person and in fact each just walks around. Meanwhile, sci-fi/fantasy games, can deal with this because, they can get away with urban spaces begin rather small, but this allowing each npc to have dialogues and cycles of activities, so while the capital of the realm (or the space empire) just have four shops, three houses and a castle, but still "feel alive". This also extend to the interaction, not just with people, but with the space itself, the huge modern metropolis, is just made of blocks you can´t enter or interact, but the space empire capital (most times) you can enter all places. Another thing, one simple trick that Bethesa kind does, is that while in theory their games are also huge maps with lots of dots, they don´t link this dots to any system (specially progression systems), the whole thing is kind just there, but without pressure, you don´t really need to explore the whole thing (in fact, their main quests are rather short most times). but to back to topic: I finished Hyperdimensional Neptunia Re:Birth2 Sister Generations. Good game, improve a lot on the previous game, pace and length feel right, but sometimes is just way too easy to miss stuff needed for plans.
  6. GOTY.cx 2016

    Here is my list, I write a bit about each game in my medium (https://medium.com/@Armoderic/my-2016-goty-list-e249c53801de#.gpx6safcs) Danganronpa 1 and 2 Total War: Warhammer Steins; Gate Earth Defense Force 4.1: Shadows of New Despair XCOM 2 Dragon´s Dogma Stellaris God Eater 2: Rage Burst Elminage Gothic / Mind Zero / Stranger of Sword City (Yeah, three games in one spot, all of them are dungeon crawler jrpgs) Hearts of Iron IV Shadowverse Forgotten Realms: The Archive - Volume 2 (Pool of Radiance, Curse of Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, Pools of Darkness and a couple more).
  7. Episode 377: Warhammer, Glorious Warhammer

    Yeah, thinking now - there was a huge difference among DoW 1 and 2, and it was the humorous banter lines before some of the last battles - mostly for Gorgutz, but some even from the dialogue between the Necron Lord and Eliphas, where the first would speak to him via noises and Eliphas somehow would understand and say "that cannot be so", or the own among Eliphas and the Tau, where for some reason Eliphas tries to speak with the Tau using his power, but they just would hear static noise. Or even the sarcastic burn that Taldeer would deliver to the Space Marines. Talking about Dow 2 - Retribution was a quite weak expansion, while it was the nice the idea to a throw back to the early DoW 1, the problem was that campaign itself was very linear and repetitive, once you done once you most don´t have reason to do it again.
  8. Episode 377: Warhammer, Glorious Warhammer

    One thing that I still find amazing in Dawn of War, is how Relic just find the right voice work for units, everything just sounds so Warhammer 40k that is amazing, in fact, one of Chaos Rising´s charms is just hearing the chaos units. On the other hand, Space Marine voices didn´t impressed me so much, the main character sound kind bland compared to ain characters in Dawn of War (except in Soul Storm).
  9. Recently completed video games

    Curse of the Azure Bonds: The more I play the SSI´s golden box game, the more I am surprised how the pace is of each game is amazing, they are what I can call "long-short" game, meaning that there is a "long" story, but each step is just short enough to never take too much time, even the number of combats is right on the spot (most time you can just skip most of them). Drakensang: I had this one in the backlog for a rather long time, but I decided, after checking how much chapter still left, to end it. It is a good game, but it rule system, an adaptation of tabletop rule system, have this strange issue, where while you can level and improve skills, for some reason, it never appears to make much difference, meaning that every combat feel the same and require the same amount of attention due the high risk of dying. This along quest that have way too much steps, make the game feel much long that needed.
  10. Recently completed video games

    Just finished Pool of Radiance, one of the game of the so called AD&D/SSI Golden Box (it is on pack 2 or 3 on GoG). For a game, I think from 1988, is really amazing on what tries to do, there is a lot of quests, many of them which kind allow different solutions to it, but never feel too long, because each quest is kind short. While might take a while to get used with just playing with keys and hotkeys and consulting some books (or in case pdf), since lot of the text could be inside of the game itself, due technological limitations of the period, still a very good game. I recommend using a application called "golden box companion" it is a exe which add a few extra functions to the game. Ah, I almost forget! you see, Pool of Radiance, while is AD&D, it is the first edition, not the second one, which everybody is more likely to be familiar, so one strange thing to get used is some older mechanics, like non-humans having ridiculous level limitations, no paladins or rangers, and some easy exploit stuff, such sleep and hold person spell, which left the person hit helpless and any hit will instant kill the target.
  11. Episode 374: Civilization VI

    Very good episode! The strangest thing I felt right now with civ, is while some form of disjointed timeline could happen due early researches, civ 6, have this to a extreme that sometimes I felt that everything can feel very disconnected. While I do agree with Troy, that having the game follow a rigid line of progress is bad, but now it can lead to the situation or sensation, that simple the timescale don´t match anything (this also maybe because, the tech tree allow you to rush to certain points). And here I like to point something I noticed last night while playing, while the UI and graphics improved a lot - there notification for era change is very hard to notice (as the current date), you might simple not notice when someone reach something (mostly because it would be buried between lots of rumors*) or even when you reach a new epoch - I my own game I reached atomic age, but I kind don´t remember even reaching the industrialization, because I simple might have missed the notice due the almost zero fanfare they do. The map while improved a lot, also don´t appear to reflect much epoch changes, or maybe it does, but with the cities more spread around is just hard to noticed, while the city hex is surrounded by other stuff. The euraka system is great, since might at least help you to catch up if you start to fall behind, but in the other hand, while early ones make sense, late ones, became a bit random, like privateer improving electricity. Also one thing I read from Tom Chick´s review, is that maybe lead more fixed style of play, since you now have to perform those euraka moments. That said, I do agree that overall, it could be said, that Civ 6 is kind one of the best "vanilla" or "core" civs. * The rumor system is great, but kind generate stuff which don´t make sense, like me (playing as Japan) after sending a envoy to Germany, hear from my envoy (himself) has listen to a rumor about Germany receiving a envoy from Japan (so he heard a rumor about himself?)
  12. Really good episode! One of the things I really like of Endless Space and Legends is the faction design, not just in terms of gameplay, but in presentation (specially their intro videos) and concept. Meanwhile other 4x games factions often have blurry lines and might look the same, save some minor bonus, their factions stand out unique.
  13. Yes - even still inside the old stack model, that still would happen, because when each stack would meet they start in that one against one duel. Well, in Call to Power 2, which used stacks, but when they meet up the game would open a small window showing the battle (with in 12 units in each side arranged in two rows of 6 units facing each other) meaning that stack battles where much faster, the game still would have wars which last forever, reinforced because like in older civs wars had no objectives or any war exhaustion, therefore, there was nothing stopping the ai or player to make it last forever.
  14. I think I heard about Idle Thumbles from a when Brazilian podcast mentioned it (they, if memory didn´t fail me, where either talking about recommendation of other podcasts or answering a question about other podcast they listen to), but only after the Three Moves Ahead pocast when they joined the network that I start to listen to it. On Chris comment about victory conditions on civ - yeah, I agree with it, that one reason I really like grand strategy games, because they often don´t have a victory condition, you can have all those narrative where you could be someone loyal vassal/ally, or how you and allies survived the whole thing, or how you helped someone to do this or that.
  15. Idle Weekend October 22, 2016: Crazy Uber

    On the subject of a reader email which comment of how internet often treat some games (I might not be remembering right this): Internet has this tendency to often turn everything in hyperbole or polarization to a point, that any discussion is lost - one side is the devil himself and it is your duty to "win", this have also the effect that different voices inside a group tend to be ignored or reject if they don´t match the hyperbole (became the whole, self validation by invalided everybody and everything) - a long time ago, you could spot this when people debate the whole thing about ludology "vs" narratology, at one point some people turned the debate in a bizarro sport match, with teams (with people self proclaim themselves in this or that side), cheerleaders and narration..
  16. Idle Weekend October 16, 2016: My Anime Life Coach

    Really good episode! I have been hearing a lot about Yuri on Ice and I do plan watched soon. I have a deep interest in Visual Novel and while I couldn´t play Mystic Messager (I don´t think my phone could handle it) from what I read about looks very smart concept. Make me wonder, based on what have been debated if sometimes the usage of "chatroom language" in some games can produce a dialogue which somehow looks more natural, because we don´t expect this kind of language to be natural or fluid like normal conversation.
  17. Life

    - In finally got my cosplay, the cosmaker which made is very talented, it was much better that I could expect. And in anime event at the beginning of the previous month, I could for the first time, cosplay - it was amazing experience, before it I had only joined more the Japanese fashion part. I even joined in the cosplay contest at the end, and even got at 6th place. - However, I still haven´t got my prize for the last Japanese fashion contest I joined in another event, I talked to the person which organized and she is seeing what could be done. - I do have deep interest in Visual Novels, did write one of game jam, and plan maybe write more (I have just no idea where I would put them*) and lately I have been doing some research about how the art was made in old Japanese Visual Novel/Adventures, as some of them where quite impressive - spoilers: for what I could get, is a mix between scanning, dithering, pixel art, limitations of the computers of the period (things like 256 colors) plus 80-90 anime aesthetics. * Also I can´t decide a theme or thing that don´t become overcomplicated in a instant, despite having several ideas. Add to this the need of produced several arts for the game, which might take a lot time as I don´t illustrate "fast". - Polycount forum is really helpful, I am getting some small feedback, still at I am at the kind at the same point (which is leaving me worried a lot, as sometimes I fear begin not "good enough", something I know I should avoid), but is a progress.
  18. Idle Thumbs 282: Winnie the Putin

    So, the thing about numbers in games, is how well designed they are, specially how feedback works. What happens, is that some games, you have some systems, but you aren´t well told or explained how their work, so you can´t have a full picture of how of them as one thing. Also, because many of them also work in very small increments, depend of how the feedback (or don´t) work, you have no idea what you are doing or what is improving. Example, in many space 4x games you often research things like "improved laser" that make them do 2,5% more of damage, but you often had no idea of what exactly your laser used to do of damage and that 2.5% maybe is just too small to make noticeable difference. By least there is the problem of lack of "trade offs", they are maybe one reason Nick said that tech/skill trees are better, what happen is that when well designed, they are all about trade offs, you are choosing A instead of B or C. However, when not very well designed you hey became what I like to call the "warrior/mage/thief" problem, where you told you can be either one of them, but for some reason (you have too much points, the game demands certain skills) you always became all of them no matter what. Now, I like some numbers in certain games, and do understand that maybe the whole thing getting a bit of control, like in some older rpg games, like Daggerfall, Realms or Arkania (or Drakensang), when done right - they can be really good and improve a lot of the "self-expression" when creating characters (good examples might be some older AD&D games, some jrpgs have interesting systems, a couple of old-school rpgs).
  19. Recently completed video games

    Eliminage Gothic Very good jrpg dungeon crawler. + Lots of inspiration from Wizardry (Town Hub, change classes, classes like Lord, Ninja, Valkyrie). + Some unique classes (Shaman, Servant (which is kind like a maid/butler) and Summoner). + Amazing Music. + Great artwork for sprites. + "Events" which are kind like quests you could trigger in certain situations. + Instead of a single large dungeon you have small number of them which you visit, each one try to have it own theme and number of floors. + Most party combinations appear to work fine, I played most of the time without a mage and alchemist, and it was ok. But once I changed two characters to this classes, the game begin a lot easier. + Overall pace is quite fast, it not too combat intense (dungeons have some fixed encounter and random one are rare, also combat don´t last too much). - Slight frustrating navigation in some dungeons (specially if you don´t have a mage with the diomende spell (aka teleport)). - Finding a couple of key items require you to wander around until random chance make you find the said stuff. That said, most time this don´t take that long. - Some monsters are kind unbalanced and too difficult. - The graphic for the dungeons itself it quite simple. - When you level up you could both gain and lose attributes, which might lead to a lot of save scumming. - When a character dies and is resurrected they grow old one year, there more old they are larger the chance to lose attribute points to level up, to revert this, there very little you could do (either have a alchemist which maybe could create a item which reduce age by one, or have luck to find chest trapped with the "Kissing of the Goddess" which reduce the character age by one).
  20. Dawn of War III

    Yeah, I too liked DoW II more (but I miss the banters from the DoW I) - even when it was almost diablo like, but a mix of both games could be interesting. That said, I am excited fro DoW III, but I might need to know more before I could comment.
  21. Idle Thumbs 278: Beef Chief

    Oh, so I finnaly found the blog they comment - is actually a tumblr - http://objectdreams.tumblr.com/ there is some gold there, not much, but finest gold there. Now on the Deus Ex, I was looking forward to it - but even before most of the current debate about the game issues, I find myself floating away from it, don´t know exactly why however - I liked a lot the first game, despite that ending. When I saw the first offical stream/show of the game I find it cool, but didn´t "hyped" me or anything, then there was the debates/critics around. In the end between Deus Ex and God Eater 2: Rage Burst, I bought God Eater 2. Still I might maybe pick it later on a sale.
  22. Life

    Oh, I totally forgot about polycount - I remember coming across it, very early one, but didn´t felt confident enough to post anything there and end up forgeting about it. Thanks for the reminder, maybe there I might get some feedback, I am already looking at their wiki.
  23. Looking for TBS recommendations

    Valkyria Chronicles might be a good option too. It does have minimal stuff between missions, mostly buy upgrades and adjust your squad. King´s Bounty, it is like Heroes of Might and Magic, but you wander in real time around the map, visit places (to recruit units) and collect some resources.
  24. Life

    After about a week and more of lots of small things not going well, my cosplay got delayed, feeling a bit down, when finally the Nihon Matsuri (it is a, let´s say, joint event - both the actual Nihon Matsuri, promoted by the local Japanese community and a anime event, at the same place)one the local events I like most, happened this weekend, it rained during Saturday... However, Sunday was pretty good day, in the end I wore a outfit and manage to get there on time for the Japanese fashion contest in the part where was the anime event. I had a good chance to meet again a some friends and got some amazing photos. In the end, once back home, I was told that I got second place in the contest and also the cosmaker said the delay was because she had to make a chance the fabric, but this week we would make a test to see how is going. On other subject, I am still trying to find job/freelance as graphical designer, but without luck, which don´t help me to feel very confident as one - still, I am trying to create new things to put in portfolio and learn new stuff in the mean time. I end up creating a profile on Artstation (where I am posting most of my 3d modelling, illustration and other stuff), which turning well, I mean, compared to Behance, where I got almost zero to a single view in anything I post there, meanwhile, on the few weeks on Artstation, I got a lot more views. Oh, I know I shouldn´t bother about views and other stuff, and no I don´t think the stuff I do is "amazing" or anything, I know I have lot to improve. That said, Pixiv, still the place where my illustrations got most views and even score rates, and is the site I am enjoying it most (also that pixiv sensei is really helpful) I even became a premium user there. One really annoying thing is that often on Linkedin, while searching I often found "lots" of job offers that don´t really exist. It is hard to explain, and I don´t know if happen elsewhere, but some other sites keep posting potential job offers, but to see it (they often post as "confidential") you have to log in their website....only to find that the offer don´t really exist or are old offers...
  25. Recently completed video games

    Just finished Final Fantasy XIII 2. It is a very good game, despite the concept of you going back and forth in time to a couple of place, making the pace kind strange to get on (since you aren´t often sure where to go next), the over length and extension feel just right on. Also Noel and Serah are very good characters and do got some chemistry together and the ending was amazing. The few things I didn´t like was a couple of the minigames in the Serependy (a casino like place) where really annoying (the slot machine) or too complicated for what is worth (the chocobo race), thankfully I could farm some gil to buy the stuff I needed there without the minigames.