Skye

Remind me never to talk about balance ever again.

Guess what I just got caught up to!

Spoiler

I need another break.

Haven't even watched these but this exists now.

Aaaargh, was coming here to post that.

Yeah, it's a channel for non-gaming shenanigans or editing-related nonsense. Right now, it's got stuff like the Grumps eating Harry Potter's Every-Flavour Beans and a huge-ass editing tutorial by Barry (which I'm drinking in every second of.)

 

Blizzard made a blog post about how they balance for Heroes of the Storm. Thought it was an interesting read.

 

Blizzard has never been good with balance.

 

Like how the nerfed Murky to the point where he's completely useless.

 

 

If I believed what other people told me all the time, nobody is good with balance. When you think about it, I can't think of a single developer that's praised for their balance skills.

And I feel Murky is the exception to the rule, when a majority of the game - the beta of the game - feels more balanced than a finished Valve product at this point...

Blizzard made a blog post about how they balance for Heroes of the Storm. Thought it was an interesting read.

Watched Medabots, since I missed it during my childhood. It has very much aged, but I liked it - the core concept and the charm to the whole thing. I think a reboot could be amazing, with modern-day animation and superior voice acting (since back in those days it was all very 4Kids style) and it could incorporate more modern-day elements (like the Internet, illegal robotics, etc.)

Linkara made a video on how to transfer Pokemon from Gen 2 to Gen 3 as legitimately as possible (as in minimal use of external tools - still needs ROMs, I believe.) It's Patreon-only, but it's an interesting watch for those who wanted their Gold and Silver bros in the modern day. I'm sure there's other guides available online, too.

EDIT: Ah, he's popped it up for everyone to see.

Please don't play School of Dragons.

Please don't.

Skye invites you to be his guest as he tells you the tale of Belle's Quest - for who could ever love an Englishman?

I'd be excited to see Zim again as a comic book series. I don't think it's the amazing perfection that most people remember it as, but in today's market, it'd be strong with its, you know, "quirkiness." It could push the envelope more than it could with early-2000s syndicated television shackling it, since with comics, there's usually less restrictions (by comparison, at least.)

Teaser for a new map. I like it. Has that sort of Hydro aesthetic I liked, but with a bit more colour to it (rather than lots of red rock.)

Of note, March 6 to March 8 is also the date assigned for PAX East. Coincidence?

Tried FMA again, this time the Brotherhood one. Quite better in most regards, though it made me have to take a break by episode 4 - the one with the Sewing-Life Alchemist, Shou Tucker, and his daughter and dog.

Wasn't ready for a trip down dark and gritty lane so fast. And I have no doubts that this wasn't even a taste of how morbid things might get. Still, from an objective standpoint, very well-told macabre story there.

So it appears that the whole deal with this event - the event that is causing the DOTA network to, once again, collapse in on itself and fold like a piece of paper - is you upgrade the Year Beast with points. Points that you can buy. This is paying for power, it's just undeniable.

I am getting very uncomfortable with Valve's decisions recently. Almost all items are now unmarketable and/or have some three month "lock" on them before you can trade or market them, the events are being linked with cosmetic bundles where you have to spend at least twenty dollars to get the full enjoyment of it, organisation is awful with events being "randomly" at ten minute intervals (so if you ever need to work or study or basically have a life, you're going to miss them), reports are getting more and more sparse with the penalty now ruining one of my favorite game modes, the quality threshold for cosmetics has been in sharp decline for a while and tournament bundles / Perfect World continue to get a free pass with low-poly awfulness, aaaaaand nerfs to Axe.

I mean, wow, I'm Captain Cynical right now, but I'm getting less and less enthusiastic about DOTA now. If it wasn't for how tight and great the gameplay was, and how amazing it was as an e-sport, I'd probably just play Heroes of the Storm more often (which uses hero rotation, something I dislike, and has basically no art style, but at least it's upfront about its paywalls instead of hiding them deviously.)

What a rant. Bah. I just hate seeing things I like start sinking.

WE EVOLVE, BEYOND THE PLAYER WE WERE A MINUTE BEFORE

LITTLE BY LITTLE, WE ADVANCE A BIT FURTHER WITH EACH GAME

THAT'S HOW A BLACK HOLE WORKS

(Slowly advancing up the Enigma ranks. I will break the top 100. My Black Hole will consume the heavens.)

Nothing like a new event for me to go FULL TILT. D:

Update's live. The wolves are at your door.

Abathur is so much fun, it's unreal. I feel like the fucking king of the battleground.

It's all I ever wanted and more.

I wonder if we should make a thread five years from now about the shit we say about this year.

Still though, Tangled, right? Disney will never top that. Ever.

Summing it up for those who need a quick version:

• Winter Wyvern. Ranged Intelligence support hero. Can temporarily become flying and gain huge attack range to slow and burn enemies from afar, can hit and slow several enemies at once with ice shards, can temporarily encase an ally in ice to block physical damage and heal them, and can curse an enemy hero to be attacked by other enemy heroes for a short time. Voiced by Alyx / Legion Commander. Looks cool. (Get it?)
• Frost Avalanche arcana for Crystal Maiden. Main feature is that an adorable little icewolf pup follows Crystal Maiden. It's fucking cute. For the heartless, it can be toggled on and off. Other than that, it has the usual Arcana affair; custom spell effects, animations, ambient effects, icons, and an icewolf pup emoticon. Can be pre-ordered for 20% off.
• Year Beast Brawl event is mentioned - buying the arcana gets you points for it - but not detailed.
• New Bloom map is back. Lanterns are now added.
• Mercurial's Call, the alternate Spectre voice, is out. It makes her intelligible, yet retains this very creepy filter. Very spooky, actually. I like it.
• Item drops are reworked. Single items drop frequently, while sets and treasures are still rare. No change to the marketing restrictions. I'm still not happy with it, but it's a step in the right direction.
• Items can be recycled into a prediction token. Predict games correctly for a free treasure, and incorrectly for shards towards making another token.
• New cosmetics. Three sets teased, for Vengeful Spirit, Axe, and Keeper of the Light. Also a courier I can't really describe. Small draconic skeletonesque... thing.
• New effigy material, Jade. Bonus points if you make an Earth Spirit statue with it.
• Harmonies of New Bloom music pack. Excellent stuff.
• Loading screen by Danidem, resembling traditional Chinese artwork. Looks amazing.
• WeLoveFine New Bloom merchandise added. I would love the Techies shirt, if their postage fees weren't so enormous.
• Phantom Lancer now in Captain's Mode.
• Juggernaut nerfed with less agility gain and higher early-game manacosts.
• Axe nerfed with Berserker's Call ending if he dies and higher threshold for Culling Blade.
• Vengeful Spirit nerfed with Wave of Terror lasting a shorter time.
• Bugfixes.

Saw an episode of Psychopass. Not going to do a full recap because I didn't take notes, but in a nutshell, I think it's what I expected Death Note to be, with better execution (less miserable greyscale and voice actors murmuring all the time, and more virtual reality crime solving and cool robots and people acting like... actual people.) Purely subjective, of course - I'm not the least bit experienced with thrillers or crime shows or what not, so I can't say if that part is good - but I was engaged with what was going on, so it had the "hook" working. Bit too grim for my tastes to watch regularly, but you know.
 
I realize that my thoughts in this thread are like a man with no tongue trying to review food - I lack the palette. But I hope the sentiment is there.
 
In my more familiar territory, I saw the most recent Pikachu special, literally translated as "Pikachu, What Kind of Keys are These?" Yes, really. In which Pikachu and his friends fuck around in dreams / alternate worlds / hallucinations / whatever for about fifteen minutes. Pretty much nothing happens, but it's Pokemon being cute for fifteen minutes, so I've already rewatched it. Twice. God damn, that little yellow rat is so fucking adorable, I hate loving it.

EDIT: Also now interested in anime with cute robots. Throw suggestions. Current cuteness threshold is Q-T from Space Dandy.

>send death threat to Lina

 

my sides

I really like how that's after the battle of the ancients. That's what Rylai needs to end her day with - a high note. Adorable.

Also, yeah, arcana confirmed. There goes another £20 from my wallet.

Oh, and New Bloom shirts. That pixel Techies one is my fave.

http://www.dota2.com/newbloom/part2

 

rylai

I love how she's totally adorable and yet also doesn't fuck around. Great interpretation. I really do wish Valve would just create a comic-making subsidary and pump these out more often. I'd gladly pay for them (as I did with the anthology they did in the past.) My favorite panel is the list - sums up CM in a single piece of paper, hilariously.

And, well, I got debunked, that looks like the setup for giving CM an Arcana. It is rare for me to be fooled and defeated in the realm of cosmetic items, where I have built my throne of legendary mounts and inscribed gems. Interested to see what it does - can't think of how you visually mix up "ice".

Pokemon Fire Red has now become their longest playthrough, with 109 episodes (exceeding Sonic 06 as the previous record holder with, as you may have guessed, 108.) For context, their Pokemon Fire Red playthrough is currently at Victory Road with the Elite Four and the Champion left to beat - and possibly Mewtwo, if they decide to do so - while Sonic 06 ended at the finale to Silver's campaign, and had the infamous Final Story to that game left unplayed (where the notorious "Elise kisses Sonic" scene comes from.)

Kind of cool trivia. Wonder if they'll ever break the record again?

 

0:52

 

looking forward to the CM arcana

 

Looks like just Yulsaria's Glacier with SFM effects. I don't think that's an Arcana - I don't really see the reason why she would get one, when Winter Wyvern will be the big release.

Then again, they could tie it in with the whole winter theme for this... spring event.

Valve is kind of odd.