Happy Anniversary BTTF!
Jul. 3rd, 2022 11:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickYeah, didn't get 10:04 PM today, but I was very busy watching the YouTubes. I did make sure to wear one of my BTTF t-shirts and a pair of BTTF socks today, though. . .and I was very productive on the old to-do list:
1. Keep up on the FO4 Playthrough Progression: Check – as usual, wrote that up right after my usual playthrough, below. Pretty simple today, with just Victor, Piper, and Alice taking out Sully and the last of his raiders (and their “pet” mirelurks – though Victor managed to score a nice gun from one of the latter, who stole it off Sully in this timeline), Victor going on a scavenging and modding spree to update his new nice gun, and the gang finding an adventuring Mutt near the quarry and Victor introducing her (and later Dogmeat, once they got back to the Red Rocket) to Piper and Alice. Of course, Alice, being a vampire, is giving poor Mutt and Dogmeat the willies – fortunately, Victor being an understanding dog owner and giving them lots of reassurance is stopping them from freaking out. Don’t worry, Alice, you’ll end up getting along just fine with them in the end. . .and I have a cat in mind for you that just doesn’t give two shits about what you are. . .
2. Catch up on YouTube Subs, see about getting OXBoxtra lists out of Watch Later, and watch Jon's latest FO4 Legendary Roulette video: Check – I was hoping to watch more of the list videos, but I did get two, which was enough for the list item – and oh boy, Jon today. Let’s see what happened –
A) Started in the Subs with the latest from James Turner today – “I ate Katrina Caliente's entire house!” This was a video that had James use a werewolf version of one of his Semajs to see how far the “you can devour random objects” power stretches – pretty damn far, it seems! You can eat almost ANYTHING – from chickens and their coops, to beds, tables, and chairs (though for a few of these, notably chairs and beds, you have to find the option in the “werewolf” menu – it won’t just show up when you click on the item), to lights, mailboxes, and fridges! You can’t eat an item that’s in use, though (for example, a tent with a Sim sleeping in it); you can’t eat the larger livestock (llamas and cows); you can’t eat rugs as far as he could tell; and he couldn’t get his sim to eat a dolphin, but he’s seen it in screenshots, so. . . *shrug* But yeah, with this knowledge, he was able to basically eat the ENTIRETY of the Caliente house. Like, he emptied out the kitchens, the bathrooms, the bedrooms, EVERYTHING. And he bit Katrina and turned her into a werewolf too. XD Because reasons, you know. It maybe wasn’t QUITE as chaotic as a Kevin Sims video, but it was up there!
B) Speaking of Call Me Kevin, he was doing a different challenge in a different game: “Can you play Minecraft staying in a single snow chunk?” Yes, it was time for One Chunk Challenge Minecraft again, this time in a snowy biome! Pluses to the snowy biome were available trees, meaning Kevin could build a crafting bench, tools, and a tiny log cabin house; minuses were a distinct lack of food, water (no, apparently you can’t actually melt snow in this game, because madness), or other useful items. There was a visiting goat, though. XD Kevin did his best to burrow down and find goodies, but came up mostly with a ton of coal – it took him AGES to find iron. He also kept ending up on the EDGES of interesting things, like a giant cave system, or an underground river with the source water block out of reach – though he was able to eventually turn that into an elevator of sorts. Why did he need an elevator?
Well, because besides the cave, there was an ANCIENT MYSTERIOUS CITY beneath his little log cabin. One that he very much could NOT jump to. XD But once he got the water elevator going, he was able to explore down there, taking in the strange blocks, the soul lanterns, and the weird sights – before being murdered by “the Warden,” which I guess is a new enemy type, yay. Kevin shot back down there to grab some carpet, some wool, and a soul lantern as a souvenir before running back upstairs to quickly make a bed and carpet his floor (and briefly, his windowsills, though he immediately admitted it looked awful and pulled it up again XD). He left it after finally figuring out a way to get food – redirect the underground stream into a little cavern he filled with dirt blocks; fight skeletons for bonemeal; use the bonemeal to grow long grass on some of the grassy blocks he managed to create by knocking off all the snow; and finally get a handful of seeds to plant, yay. It was a struggle, to be sure, but it was a hell of a more successful Chonk Challenge than the desert one, THAT’S for sure.
C) Then, after supper, it was time to take on a couple of the OXBoxtra lists that have been building up in my Watch Later –
I. “7 Nonsensical Finishing Moves You Should Feel Embarrassed For Using” – Andy takes us through some truly bizarre finishing moves – from wrestler Vader in WWF In Your Home crushing his opponents with his massively expanded butt cheeks, to The Flash speeding his opponents through time in Injustice 2 (smashing them against the Sphinx’s nose, a T-Rex, and their own past self – it’s sort of cool in that sense, but wouldn’t it make more sense to feed them to the T-Rex, as a commenter pointed out), to Cyrax from the original Mortal Kombat blowing himself up (which – does kill the opponent, but as Andy points out, eliminates Cyrax as well. Nice going, buddy). Also in Guilty Gear XRD -Sign-, the vampire Slayer will punch you into space before reciting a procedurally-generated haiku. Yes, really; no, I don’t know why. It’s just a thing.
II. “7 Grossest Things Worshipped by People for Some Reason” – Mike and Jane walk us through some of the grossest, strangest things people worship in video games! From the Two Fingers, messengers of the Greater Will, in Elden Ring (yes, they are two literal, giant, rotting fingers – and they’re opposed by other literal, giant, rotting fingers, so you can’t get away from them if you try), to the Markers so beloved of Unitology in the Dead Space series (those things that turn you into necromorphs – Jane notes the Unitology PR department must work VERY hard), to the monstrous farting ape Chaos from fighting game Primal Rage (to be fair, his farts are so bad they can just stun his opponents outright, soo. . .), video game NPCs do love to worship weird stuff. Insert your own joke about religion in the real world here.
D) And then it was time for a double-dose of GrayStillPlays –
I. “I faced 1000 fears in GTA 5” – More fun with horrible parkour boards in GTA V designed by Alex and Danny! This one was based around fears, because why not at this point? XD Started with a multi-level plane course (because, again, Gray is genuinely going to pilot school, and if that sentence doesn’t terrify you, it should) where Gray had to face fears about flying through tight spaces (via the medium of the thumbnail hole), flying upside-down (via the medium of the inverted tube obstacle course), and spinning while flying (via a fresh set of thumbnail holes where he had to keep turning in a circle, before doing a bit focused on changing lanes while driving (via having to guess the pizza slice hole to get through – also, I might have that, I HATE changing lanes) and ending with, obviously, a jump through a thumbnail hole in a cylinder for the fear of falling. After that was a relatively simple board about the fear of trains – specifically, being run over by one – where Gray had to pick the right car to either escape the train before it smushed him by driving up a ramp (which constantly changed what side it was on) to launch himself over a wall, or at least survive the inevitable crushing. Gray tried a few different tactics – a tank to take the train’s punishment, a light small car to try and launch himself more quickly, a cheaty car where he tried to ride atop the train (this is where the windmills in the board came in XD), but finally managed to get launched out by the train smooshing his plaid monstrosity. And the final board?
Pantophobia, a fear of everything – which here was defined as “Danny making Gray run across a series of platforms broken up by MAGNETIZED SMUSHED-TOGETHER WINDMILLS, the occasional tightrope, and the occasional BMX biking section.” Yeah, Gray – Gray suffered quite a lot on this board, as you might imagine. Those flailing windmill blades were so keen on sending him into space, I swear. . .but he swore never to give up, no matter how great his fears, and managed to beat the board! May have cost him some of his sanity, but we all know he’s not attached to that. XD
II. “I became president only to ruin lives” – A mobile game let Gray become president, which we can all agree is the best decision ever. XD Though this game had a – weird idea of what made a good president. Like, asking out your chief of staff to dinner is perfectly fine, but when some rando hits you up on faux-twitter, letting her know to ask you out in the DMs so your wife doesn’t find out is bad suddenly! (Though maybe your wife is your chief of staff, I dunno.) There was also a section where Gray had to make new laws, and the Disapprove option was ALWAYS evil, despite stopping him from banning Netflix and destroying dating sites; a “pardon the prisoners” section where no matter if you chose to execute them or forgive them, they were all the right option (Gray killed everyone except the guy who said he WANTED to die and was very sour about being called a “good president”); and a part where he was testing new recruits for the military and found a glitch with the “disapprove” button on a good candidate that gave him INFINITE EVIL POINTS and allowed him to become a dictator with no effort. And then he made them all twerk and belly dance for his amusement. XD I mean, at this point, I’d take this sort of playful evil over whatever the hell the Supreme Court is doing. At least Gray is only interested in making us all do the chicken dance.
E) And finally, it was time for the weekly dose of Jon and Fallout 4 with “Legendary Roulette,” Part 3! :D And holy CRAP, this part. THIS PART. Jon has discovered a new build and it is amazing. It is truly absolutely incredible. Let me try and take you through what happened in this episode step by step:
I. Jon sent the Legend of Boston to go check out Diamond City, finish up “Jewel of the Commonwealth” (which got Idiot Savant, giving him loads of extra XP), and get “Unlikely Valentine,” level up to level 10 so all the good sniper and submachine guns get added to the leveled lists, all of that. Along the way, though, he came across Diamond City security fighting the super mutants in the building nearby, and helped them take out a couple of their dogs. It was here that Jon noticed something – when he hit the dogs with his Wounding weapons in VATS, while the dogs were moving in slow-motion, the health bars were going down in “real time” – that is, as if they WEREN’T in VATS. This led to the realization that Legend should probably be prioritizing Agility and Luck in her build so she could stay in VATS for longer, get more hits off, and just compound the damage.
II. Jon left Diamond City, swung by the nearby police precinct to kill the radroaches and see if they had anything good, then decided to risk the Boston Public Library and its super mutants just because he had legendary robots on his side. The robots proved to be TERRIFYINGLY GOOD at slaughtering the super mutants (with Jon helping with his wounding weapons), though the damage they took and their eagerness to murder every mutant meant that a lot of them ended up exploding each other by the end of the enemy wave. XD On the plus side, he did pick up some interesting stuff – both Assassin’s (50% extra damage against humans) and Troubleshooter’s (50% extra damage against robots) pipe bolt-action pistols, the latter with the .50 cal receiver mod already on it (Jon was shocked because Legend was only level 11 at the time, and that is a GOOD damage mod), plus a Powered Metal chest piece if he wanted it off one of the robots. Though he actually switched to a largely-Cunning/Chameleon build to make sneaking and VATS work better for him for the time being.
III. Jon took a quick break from the action to set up an adhesive farm at Sanctuary with the help of stealing food from Diamond City and Graygarden, and made as much of his armor “lighter build” as he could to increase his AP pool while using it. Because VATS-based build, don’t you know.
IV. Then Jon went back at it, because he wanted to see just how good his new “hit them for loads of bleeding damage and abuse VATS to make it happen faster” build idea was – by taking on Swan in the Boston Common. He got off a few shots with his shotgun, reloaded in VATS, realized THAT just increased the time in VATS as well, then used Jet to just pepper Swan with bullets from the Wounding 10mm, and Swan just went DOWN. Didn’t even get a chance to let out his famous roar. :D Nice.
V. With that done, it was time to go through Hubris Comics and clear that out! It didn’t go – perfectly; he did die a few times, particularly to the Glowing One upstairs, but he did find that abusing VATS for bleed damage was the way to go – reloading in VATS and using its defense to help wait out the enemies as they bled to death kept him alive at the end. As did managing to use the slow-time to glitch through a particular ghoul (resurrected by the Glowing One) and avoid a painful death there – the damn thing got stuck speed-running into a wall, it was great. XD But yeah, that and killing the ghouls on his way to Goodneighbor convinced him that using reloads to stay in VATS while enemies bled to death in “real time” was definitely the way to go. Also, his build is definitely made for Cunning or Sentinel armor (which gives him more defense if he’s standing still, and you’re always standing still in VATS), so he’s primarily on the lookout for that these days.
VI. With THAT taken care of, it was time to hit Park Street Station and take out some of the Triggermen! The first room gave him some trouble, what with the Triggermen in there having decent cover – and then in the SECOND room, somebody had a damn EXPLOSIVE weapon, meaning Jon really had to keep his distance and make some smart decisions. He managed to clear the place out, and get the Explosive weapon – an Explosive Pipe Pistol. He wasn’t thrilled with the type of gun it was on, but the effect? Oh, Explosive might be the only thing better than Wounding, because it has area of effect damage, CRUNCHES through limbs – and is the only legendary effect that can be MODIFIED thanks to responding to the bonuses granted by the “Demolition Expert” perk. So Jon was interested in seeing what he could do with that, and took it back to Sanctuary. . .
VII. Only to discover that if he wanted to get it up to its best self (with rapid fire and big magazines and whatnot), he needed to level up to 13 to take Gun Nut 2. Fortunately, he was already at Level 12, and going and clearing out College Square for the Brotherhood (using said Explosive Pipe Pistol to take out as many limbs as possible – as he showed, you could just blind-fire at the GROUND and the splash damage would probably take them out) pushed him up to 13. A few mods later, and Jon showed off the frankly TERRIFYING power of the Explosive Pipe Rifle on some radstags. So much limb damage – it’s like having Crippling and Staggering on the gun as well! Plus he got a Kneecapper Submachine Gun off the College Square ghouls, so now THAT’LL be his every day for simple leg removal.
So yeah – all in all, this series is just getting wackier, and I am HERE for it. It really is starting to look like he might attempt a full playthrough, and I hope he does, because this is FUN. Even if it makes me REALLY want the Legendaries he’s getting. I shall just have to be content with my Mighty Sniper Rifle and my Powered Synth Right Leg at the moment. . .
3. Play Fallout 4 and finish clearing out Thicket Excavations: Check! Turns out Victor and Piper were closer to the bottom of the dratted quarry than I thought – I had them carefully sneak down there, and finally came across those enemies that had been almost-but-not-quite detecting them up top – two mirelurks in a pen, one raider psycho –
And Sully Mathis himself! Victor took a lot of pleasure in shooting HIM, let me tell you. And even better, those penned-up mirelurks? One of them was a Legendary Razorclaw, and when I killed it via shotgun, it dropped a Mighty Sniper Rifle! What’s “Mighty” mean in terms of legendary effects?
Plus 25% damage. So it was definitely the one to take over the Marksman Hunting Rifle I’d picked up! Victor finished killing the Mirelurks (hilariously, because the “lesser” Mirelurk didn’t go hostile until Victor fell into the pit with it, it actually did more damage to Victor than the Legendary Razorclaw managed), then took the elevator all the way back up to the top to cook up some meat (in an attempt to clear out his inventory a bit), have a poop, then worked his way back down to the chem bench to pick up all the armor he’d stored to scrap for later, combine a few drugs into super-drugs to trade later, then camp out and get some sleep from 6:30 AM to 1:30 PM. From there he scrapped down a load of old armor, and made his Powered Synth right leg deep-pocketed, then made his way to the weapons station to build a bunch of standard mods for the Marksman Hunting Rifle so he could take all the good mods off it and put it on the Mighty Sniper. :D Also scrapped down a couple of other guns – though I’ve kept the submachine gun from Vault 114 and a pipe pistol with good damage, because if I can fix some of the recoil issues with the former and get the latter up to even better damage. . .well. More weapon variety is never a bad thing, right? Anyway, with that all sorted, and some more stuff looted from the quarry, Victor and Piper headed back to the top via the elevator, leaving the main quarry at 8 PM –
And rounding around the back of it to pick up Mutt. :D Yup, finally got to use that “recruit Mutt” mod that I downloaded a few weeks ago, and it worked perfectly! I got a nice little “adopt” prompt when I saw her, and I was able to send her straight to the nearby Red Rocket, where Dogmeat lives. Hell, Victor and Piper walked back there with her! Victor promptly made Mutt and Dogmeat a couple of doghouses round the back door (though I need to get a second doggy dish), and Mutt her own doggy bed in the office. :) He also made himself a proper bed, and put away a few things (the Speech Bobblehead on the bobblehead stand, the latest “Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor” in the magazine rack) before I decided I wasn’t sure what mods I wanted to do on what things and just sent him to bed shortly after midnight on 12/4/2287. He’s back on a diurnal sleep schedule for the moment, having woken up at 8 AM – think I’ll run by Sanctuary to see about what I can do for more backpack space (if anything), then take a bunch of junk over to Sunshine Tidings because THEY have genuine needs (more food and beds, I believe) and see what I can do over there. And then I think we’ll head over to Finch Farm, and THEN back to Diamond City to meet up with Nick. And after THAT, once the initial Kellogg stuff is over with, we’ll do the Castle, and the Automatron quest line. *nods* Feels good to have a plan!
4. Work on tumblr drafts: Check! I am pleased to say that, on Victor Luvs Alice, I am set for most of the upcoming week! I spent the time before lunch catching up on the dashboard and my tags (and making sure to reblog my friend Moose’s latest two BTTF fics), then wrote out my post regarding what I’d like to see in an “occult refresh” for The Sims 4, at least in regards to aliens, mermaids, vampires, spellcasters, and werewolves (I care less about ghosts, Servos, and plantsims, though I won’t object to updates for those – oh, and the bullet points of my wanted refresh are “perk/power trees for everyone,” “more fun lore books with the occasional unlock,” and “more cross-pack occult interactions, malicious and benign”). Then after lunch I drafted out some reblogs for the upcoming Valice Anniversary (July 7th), including an update to my “masterpost” of Valice wedding scenes (adding my two Sims 4 weddings in Newcrest Adventures and The Chill Save to the list of fanfic bits) and the Semi-Official Valice Wedding Song for Saturday (because “Lights Down Low” is one of two songs I think I reblog EVERY year since I found it). So that means I’m good for Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday of next week – just have to think of something for Friday. Hmmm. . .
Oh yeah, and on Valice Multiverse, just got a couple of ask replies so far. Already chucked those in the queue!
5. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike, with a trio of Sims videos today –
I. The latest from Simmer Erin, talking about the reveal trailer for High School Years and the features that it seems to promise, and how she wants to believe this is good – especially as it seems like a direct response to Simmer criticism about the game needing more consequences for Sim actions, plus the 2020 survey (hell, this pack seems to be combining three items from that survey – the American high school experience, cheerleading, and sim growing up with more emotional changes and whatnot – into one expansion) – but it is Sims 4, and she’s worried that stuff like trying to customize the school prom is gonna end up like My Wedding Stories and its extremely broken system. *grimaces* I mean, it’s a fair fear, let’s be honest.
II. An old video from Petey Plays It covering the various vampire powers per rank and talking about how good or bad they are – stuff like Super Speed, the Bat and Mist Forms, Command, and Hallucinate ranked high for fun factor, while stuff like Dampened Emotions and Eternal Slumber ranked low because they actually take away fun elements (like, a vampire with fully Dampened Emotions can’t benefit from moodlets, and Eternal Slumber just raises Vampire Energy regen while sleeping – meditating is MUCH better and gets you points as well!). Good stuff!
III. And a slightly newer video from Petey covering and ranking the various Lot Challenges available to Sims! Stuff that either didn’t really impact gameplay (Fault Zone for the earthquakes) or was just annoying to deal with (Gremlins, which breaks EVERYTHING at midnight) was ranked low, while stuff that actually pushed you out of your comfort zone (Off The Grid for the lack of electricity and utilities) and encouraged new gameplay (Simple Living for requiring ingredients for meals) was ranked high. Pretty much agree with everything he said, though I’m not sure I would give “Wild Foxes” a 4 out of 5. Then again, I haven’t played with that lot challenge yet – we’ll see what happens when my Chill Save thruple ends up in Henford-on-Bagley!
Additionally:
-->Weather finally got genuinely nice again after a cloudy start, so yeah, went out for the traditional weekend five rounds! I had an excellent first two games, choked MIGHTILY in the third, came back in the fourth, and then battled it out with Mom in the fifth and lost. But this is still better than Mom and Dad, who both had trouble getting past me when it counted, but also managed one win each. Final scores were me W-W-3-W-3; Dad 3-2-2-2-W; Mom 2-3-W-3-2. So everybody won once, and I still get to be champ. Nice. XD
Whew, busy day! But I got through everything I wanted to get through, and had a lot of fun doing it. :) And of course I've still got one more day of this long holiday weekend, so let's get the 4th of July to-dos sorted:
1. Either go back to "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland" or finish up the Hypnokinky Valicer Stuff
2. Keep up on YouTube Subs and clear out the Plumbella in the Watch Later
3. Play Sims 4 and do Winterfest with Smiler
4. Work on tumblr drafts
5. Get in a workout
I am hopeful about getting most of this sorted, at least! Especially since I've already made such good progress on the drafts for this week. . .night all!
1. Keep up on the FO4 Playthrough Progression: Check – as usual, wrote that up right after my usual playthrough, below. Pretty simple today, with just Victor, Piper, and Alice taking out Sully and the last of his raiders (and their “pet” mirelurks – though Victor managed to score a nice gun from one of the latter, who stole it off Sully in this timeline), Victor going on a scavenging and modding spree to update his new nice gun, and the gang finding an adventuring Mutt near the quarry and Victor introducing her (and later Dogmeat, once they got back to the Red Rocket) to Piper and Alice. Of course, Alice, being a vampire, is giving poor Mutt and Dogmeat the willies – fortunately, Victor being an understanding dog owner and giving them lots of reassurance is stopping them from freaking out. Don’t worry, Alice, you’ll end up getting along just fine with them in the end. . .and I have a cat in mind for you that just doesn’t give two shits about what you are. . .
2. Catch up on YouTube Subs, see about getting OXBoxtra lists out of Watch Later, and watch Jon's latest FO4 Legendary Roulette video: Check – I was hoping to watch more of the list videos, but I did get two, which was enough for the list item – and oh boy, Jon today. Let’s see what happened –
A) Started in the Subs with the latest from James Turner today – “I ate Katrina Caliente's entire house!” This was a video that had James use a werewolf version of one of his Semajs to see how far the “you can devour random objects” power stretches – pretty damn far, it seems! You can eat almost ANYTHING – from chickens and their coops, to beds, tables, and chairs (though for a few of these, notably chairs and beds, you have to find the option in the “werewolf” menu – it won’t just show up when you click on the item), to lights, mailboxes, and fridges! You can’t eat an item that’s in use, though (for example, a tent with a Sim sleeping in it); you can’t eat the larger livestock (llamas and cows); you can’t eat rugs as far as he could tell; and he couldn’t get his sim to eat a dolphin, but he’s seen it in screenshots, so. . . *shrug* But yeah, with this knowledge, he was able to basically eat the ENTIRETY of the Caliente house. Like, he emptied out the kitchens, the bathrooms, the bedrooms, EVERYTHING. And he bit Katrina and turned her into a werewolf too. XD Because reasons, you know. It maybe wasn’t QUITE as chaotic as a Kevin Sims video, but it was up there!
B) Speaking of Call Me Kevin, he was doing a different challenge in a different game: “Can you play Minecraft staying in a single snow chunk?” Yes, it was time for One Chunk Challenge Minecraft again, this time in a snowy biome! Pluses to the snowy biome were available trees, meaning Kevin could build a crafting bench, tools, and a tiny log cabin house; minuses were a distinct lack of food, water (no, apparently you can’t actually melt snow in this game, because madness), or other useful items. There was a visiting goat, though. XD Kevin did his best to burrow down and find goodies, but came up mostly with a ton of coal – it took him AGES to find iron. He also kept ending up on the EDGES of interesting things, like a giant cave system, or an underground river with the source water block out of reach – though he was able to eventually turn that into an elevator of sorts. Why did he need an elevator?
Well, because besides the cave, there was an ANCIENT MYSTERIOUS CITY beneath his little log cabin. One that he very much could NOT jump to. XD But once he got the water elevator going, he was able to explore down there, taking in the strange blocks, the soul lanterns, and the weird sights – before being murdered by “the Warden,” which I guess is a new enemy type, yay. Kevin shot back down there to grab some carpet, some wool, and a soul lantern as a souvenir before running back upstairs to quickly make a bed and carpet his floor (and briefly, his windowsills, though he immediately admitted it looked awful and pulled it up again XD). He left it after finally figuring out a way to get food – redirect the underground stream into a little cavern he filled with dirt blocks; fight skeletons for bonemeal; use the bonemeal to grow long grass on some of the grassy blocks he managed to create by knocking off all the snow; and finally get a handful of seeds to plant, yay. It was a struggle, to be sure, but it was a hell of a more successful Chonk Challenge than the desert one, THAT’S for sure.
C) Then, after supper, it was time to take on a couple of the OXBoxtra lists that have been building up in my Watch Later –
I. “7 Nonsensical Finishing Moves You Should Feel Embarrassed For Using” – Andy takes us through some truly bizarre finishing moves – from wrestler Vader in WWF In Your Home crushing his opponents with his massively expanded butt cheeks, to The Flash speeding his opponents through time in Injustice 2 (smashing them against the Sphinx’s nose, a T-Rex, and their own past self – it’s sort of cool in that sense, but wouldn’t it make more sense to feed them to the T-Rex, as a commenter pointed out), to Cyrax from the original Mortal Kombat blowing himself up (which – does kill the opponent, but as Andy points out, eliminates Cyrax as well. Nice going, buddy). Also in Guilty Gear XRD -Sign-, the vampire Slayer will punch you into space before reciting a procedurally-generated haiku. Yes, really; no, I don’t know why. It’s just a thing.
II. “7 Grossest Things Worshipped by People for Some Reason” – Mike and Jane walk us through some of the grossest, strangest things people worship in video games! From the Two Fingers, messengers of the Greater Will, in Elden Ring (yes, they are two literal, giant, rotting fingers – and they’re opposed by other literal, giant, rotting fingers, so you can’t get away from them if you try), to the Markers so beloved of Unitology in the Dead Space series (those things that turn you into necromorphs – Jane notes the Unitology PR department must work VERY hard), to the monstrous farting ape Chaos from fighting game Primal Rage (to be fair, his farts are so bad they can just stun his opponents outright, soo. . .), video game NPCs do love to worship weird stuff. Insert your own joke about religion in the real world here.
D) And then it was time for a double-dose of GrayStillPlays –
I. “I faced 1000 fears in GTA 5” – More fun with horrible parkour boards in GTA V designed by Alex and Danny! This one was based around fears, because why not at this point? XD Started with a multi-level plane course (because, again, Gray is genuinely going to pilot school, and if that sentence doesn’t terrify you, it should) where Gray had to face fears about flying through tight spaces (via the medium of the thumbnail hole), flying upside-down (via the medium of the inverted tube obstacle course), and spinning while flying (via a fresh set of thumbnail holes where he had to keep turning in a circle, before doing a bit focused on changing lanes while driving (via having to guess the pizza slice hole to get through – also, I might have that, I HATE changing lanes) and ending with, obviously, a jump through a thumbnail hole in a cylinder for the fear of falling. After that was a relatively simple board about the fear of trains – specifically, being run over by one – where Gray had to pick the right car to either escape the train before it smushed him by driving up a ramp (which constantly changed what side it was on) to launch himself over a wall, or at least survive the inevitable crushing. Gray tried a few different tactics – a tank to take the train’s punishment, a light small car to try and launch himself more quickly, a cheaty car where he tried to ride atop the train (this is where the windmills in the board came in XD), but finally managed to get launched out by the train smooshing his plaid monstrosity. And the final board?
Pantophobia, a fear of everything – which here was defined as “Danny making Gray run across a series of platforms broken up by MAGNETIZED SMUSHED-TOGETHER WINDMILLS, the occasional tightrope, and the occasional BMX biking section.” Yeah, Gray – Gray suffered quite a lot on this board, as you might imagine. Those flailing windmill blades were so keen on sending him into space, I swear. . .but he swore never to give up, no matter how great his fears, and managed to beat the board! May have cost him some of his sanity, but we all know he’s not attached to that. XD
II. “I became president only to ruin lives” – A mobile game let Gray become president, which we can all agree is the best decision ever. XD Though this game had a – weird idea of what made a good president. Like, asking out your chief of staff to dinner is perfectly fine, but when some rando hits you up on faux-twitter, letting her know to ask you out in the DMs so your wife doesn’t find out is bad suddenly! (Though maybe your wife is your chief of staff, I dunno.) There was also a section where Gray had to make new laws, and the Disapprove option was ALWAYS evil, despite stopping him from banning Netflix and destroying dating sites; a “pardon the prisoners” section where no matter if you chose to execute them or forgive them, they were all the right option (Gray killed everyone except the guy who said he WANTED to die and was very sour about being called a “good president”); and a part where he was testing new recruits for the military and found a glitch with the “disapprove” button on a good candidate that gave him INFINITE EVIL POINTS and allowed him to become a dictator with no effort. And then he made them all twerk and belly dance for his amusement. XD I mean, at this point, I’d take this sort of playful evil over whatever the hell the Supreme Court is doing. At least Gray is only interested in making us all do the chicken dance.
E) And finally, it was time for the weekly dose of Jon and Fallout 4 with “Legendary Roulette,” Part 3! :D And holy CRAP, this part. THIS PART. Jon has discovered a new build and it is amazing. It is truly absolutely incredible. Let me try and take you through what happened in this episode step by step:
I. Jon sent the Legend of Boston to go check out Diamond City, finish up “Jewel of the Commonwealth” (which got Idiot Savant, giving him loads of extra XP), and get “Unlikely Valentine,” level up to level 10 so all the good sniper and submachine guns get added to the leveled lists, all of that. Along the way, though, he came across Diamond City security fighting the super mutants in the building nearby, and helped them take out a couple of their dogs. It was here that Jon noticed something – when he hit the dogs with his Wounding weapons in VATS, while the dogs were moving in slow-motion, the health bars were going down in “real time” – that is, as if they WEREN’T in VATS. This led to the realization that Legend should probably be prioritizing Agility and Luck in her build so she could stay in VATS for longer, get more hits off, and just compound the damage.
II. Jon left Diamond City, swung by the nearby police precinct to kill the radroaches and see if they had anything good, then decided to risk the Boston Public Library and its super mutants just because he had legendary robots on his side. The robots proved to be TERRIFYINGLY GOOD at slaughtering the super mutants (with Jon helping with his wounding weapons), though the damage they took and their eagerness to murder every mutant meant that a lot of them ended up exploding each other by the end of the enemy wave. XD On the plus side, he did pick up some interesting stuff – both Assassin’s (50% extra damage against humans) and Troubleshooter’s (50% extra damage against robots) pipe bolt-action pistols, the latter with the .50 cal receiver mod already on it (Jon was shocked because Legend was only level 11 at the time, and that is a GOOD damage mod), plus a Powered Metal chest piece if he wanted it off one of the robots. Though he actually switched to a largely-Cunning/Chameleon build to make sneaking and VATS work better for him for the time being.
III. Jon took a quick break from the action to set up an adhesive farm at Sanctuary with the help of stealing food from Diamond City and Graygarden, and made as much of his armor “lighter build” as he could to increase his AP pool while using it. Because VATS-based build, don’t you know.
IV. Then Jon went back at it, because he wanted to see just how good his new “hit them for loads of bleeding damage and abuse VATS to make it happen faster” build idea was – by taking on Swan in the Boston Common. He got off a few shots with his shotgun, reloaded in VATS, realized THAT just increased the time in VATS as well, then used Jet to just pepper Swan with bullets from the Wounding 10mm, and Swan just went DOWN. Didn’t even get a chance to let out his famous roar. :D Nice.
V. With that done, it was time to go through Hubris Comics and clear that out! It didn’t go – perfectly; he did die a few times, particularly to the Glowing One upstairs, but he did find that abusing VATS for bleed damage was the way to go – reloading in VATS and using its defense to help wait out the enemies as they bled to death kept him alive at the end. As did managing to use the slow-time to glitch through a particular ghoul (resurrected by the Glowing One) and avoid a painful death there – the damn thing got stuck speed-running into a wall, it was great. XD But yeah, that and killing the ghouls on his way to Goodneighbor convinced him that using reloads to stay in VATS while enemies bled to death in “real time” was definitely the way to go. Also, his build is definitely made for Cunning or Sentinel armor (which gives him more defense if he’s standing still, and you’re always standing still in VATS), so he’s primarily on the lookout for that these days.
VI. With THAT taken care of, it was time to hit Park Street Station and take out some of the Triggermen! The first room gave him some trouble, what with the Triggermen in there having decent cover – and then in the SECOND room, somebody had a damn EXPLOSIVE weapon, meaning Jon really had to keep his distance and make some smart decisions. He managed to clear the place out, and get the Explosive weapon – an Explosive Pipe Pistol. He wasn’t thrilled with the type of gun it was on, but the effect? Oh, Explosive might be the only thing better than Wounding, because it has area of effect damage, CRUNCHES through limbs – and is the only legendary effect that can be MODIFIED thanks to responding to the bonuses granted by the “Demolition Expert” perk. So Jon was interested in seeing what he could do with that, and took it back to Sanctuary. . .
VII. Only to discover that if he wanted to get it up to its best self (with rapid fire and big magazines and whatnot), he needed to level up to 13 to take Gun Nut 2. Fortunately, he was already at Level 12, and going and clearing out College Square for the Brotherhood (using said Explosive Pipe Pistol to take out as many limbs as possible – as he showed, you could just blind-fire at the GROUND and the splash damage would probably take them out) pushed him up to 13. A few mods later, and Jon showed off the frankly TERRIFYING power of the Explosive Pipe Rifle on some radstags. So much limb damage – it’s like having Crippling and Staggering on the gun as well! Plus he got a Kneecapper Submachine Gun off the College Square ghouls, so now THAT’LL be his every day for simple leg removal.
So yeah – all in all, this series is just getting wackier, and I am HERE for it. It really is starting to look like he might attempt a full playthrough, and I hope he does, because this is FUN. Even if it makes me REALLY want the Legendaries he’s getting. I shall just have to be content with my Mighty Sniper Rifle and my Powered Synth Right Leg at the moment. . .
3. Play Fallout 4 and finish clearing out Thicket Excavations: Check! Turns out Victor and Piper were closer to the bottom of the dratted quarry than I thought – I had them carefully sneak down there, and finally came across those enemies that had been almost-but-not-quite detecting them up top – two mirelurks in a pen, one raider psycho –
And Sully Mathis himself! Victor took a lot of pleasure in shooting HIM, let me tell you. And even better, those penned-up mirelurks? One of them was a Legendary Razorclaw, and when I killed it via shotgun, it dropped a Mighty Sniper Rifle! What’s “Mighty” mean in terms of legendary effects?
Plus 25% damage. So it was definitely the one to take over the Marksman Hunting Rifle I’d picked up! Victor finished killing the Mirelurks (hilariously, because the “lesser” Mirelurk didn’t go hostile until Victor fell into the pit with it, it actually did more damage to Victor than the Legendary Razorclaw managed), then took the elevator all the way back up to the top to cook up some meat (in an attempt to clear out his inventory a bit), have a poop, then worked his way back down to the chem bench to pick up all the armor he’d stored to scrap for later, combine a few drugs into super-drugs to trade later, then camp out and get some sleep from 6:30 AM to 1:30 PM. From there he scrapped down a load of old armor, and made his Powered Synth right leg deep-pocketed, then made his way to the weapons station to build a bunch of standard mods for the Marksman Hunting Rifle so he could take all the good mods off it and put it on the Mighty Sniper. :D Also scrapped down a couple of other guns – though I’ve kept the submachine gun from Vault 114 and a pipe pistol with good damage, because if I can fix some of the recoil issues with the former and get the latter up to even better damage. . .well. More weapon variety is never a bad thing, right? Anyway, with that all sorted, and some more stuff looted from the quarry, Victor and Piper headed back to the top via the elevator, leaving the main quarry at 8 PM –
And rounding around the back of it to pick up Mutt. :D Yup, finally got to use that “recruit Mutt” mod that I downloaded a few weeks ago, and it worked perfectly! I got a nice little “adopt” prompt when I saw her, and I was able to send her straight to the nearby Red Rocket, where Dogmeat lives. Hell, Victor and Piper walked back there with her! Victor promptly made Mutt and Dogmeat a couple of doghouses round the back door (though I need to get a second doggy dish), and Mutt her own doggy bed in the office. :) He also made himself a proper bed, and put away a few things (the Speech Bobblehead on the bobblehead stand, the latest “Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor” in the magazine rack) before I decided I wasn’t sure what mods I wanted to do on what things and just sent him to bed shortly after midnight on 12/4/2287. He’s back on a diurnal sleep schedule for the moment, having woken up at 8 AM – think I’ll run by Sanctuary to see about what I can do for more backpack space (if anything), then take a bunch of junk over to Sunshine Tidings because THEY have genuine needs (more food and beds, I believe) and see what I can do over there. And then I think we’ll head over to Finch Farm, and THEN back to Diamond City to meet up with Nick. And after THAT, once the initial Kellogg stuff is over with, we’ll do the Castle, and the Automatron quest line. *nods* Feels good to have a plan!
4. Work on tumblr drafts: Check! I am pleased to say that, on Victor Luvs Alice, I am set for most of the upcoming week! I spent the time before lunch catching up on the dashboard and my tags (and making sure to reblog my friend Moose’s latest two BTTF fics), then wrote out my post regarding what I’d like to see in an “occult refresh” for The Sims 4, at least in regards to aliens, mermaids, vampires, spellcasters, and werewolves (I care less about ghosts, Servos, and plantsims, though I won’t object to updates for those – oh, and the bullet points of my wanted refresh are “perk/power trees for everyone,” “more fun lore books with the occasional unlock,” and “more cross-pack occult interactions, malicious and benign”). Then after lunch I drafted out some reblogs for the upcoming Valice Anniversary (July 7th), including an update to my “masterpost” of Valice wedding scenes (adding my two Sims 4 weddings in Newcrest Adventures and The Chill Save to the list of fanfic bits) and the Semi-Official Valice Wedding Song for Saturday (because “Lights Down Low” is one of two songs I think I reblog EVERY year since I found it). So that means I’m good for Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday of next week – just have to think of something for Friday. Hmmm. . .
Oh yeah, and on Valice Multiverse, just got a couple of ask replies so far. Already chucked those in the queue!
5. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike, with a trio of Sims videos today –
I. The latest from Simmer Erin, talking about the reveal trailer for High School Years and the features that it seems to promise, and how she wants to believe this is good – especially as it seems like a direct response to Simmer criticism about the game needing more consequences for Sim actions, plus the 2020 survey (hell, this pack seems to be combining three items from that survey – the American high school experience, cheerleading, and sim growing up with more emotional changes and whatnot – into one expansion) – but it is Sims 4, and she’s worried that stuff like trying to customize the school prom is gonna end up like My Wedding Stories and its extremely broken system. *grimaces* I mean, it’s a fair fear, let’s be honest.
II. An old video from Petey Plays It covering the various vampire powers per rank and talking about how good or bad they are – stuff like Super Speed, the Bat and Mist Forms, Command, and Hallucinate ranked high for fun factor, while stuff like Dampened Emotions and Eternal Slumber ranked low because they actually take away fun elements (like, a vampire with fully Dampened Emotions can’t benefit from moodlets, and Eternal Slumber just raises Vampire Energy regen while sleeping – meditating is MUCH better and gets you points as well!). Good stuff!
III. And a slightly newer video from Petey covering and ranking the various Lot Challenges available to Sims! Stuff that either didn’t really impact gameplay (Fault Zone for the earthquakes) or was just annoying to deal with (Gremlins, which breaks EVERYTHING at midnight) was ranked low, while stuff that actually pushed you out of your comfort zone (Off The Grid for the lack of electricity and utilities) and encouraged new gameplay (Simple Living for requiring ingredients for meals) was ranked high. Pretty much agree with everything he said, though I’m not sure I would give “Wild Foxes” a 4 out of 5. Then again, I haven’t played with that lot challenge yet – we’ll see what happens when my Chill Save thruple ends up in Henford-on-Bagley!
Additionally:
-->Weather finally got genuinely nice again after a cloudy start, so yeah, went out for the traditional weekend five rounds! I had an excellent first two games, choked MIGHTILY in the third, came back in the fourth, and then battled it out with Mom in the fifth and lost. But this is still better than Mom and Dad, who both had trouble getting past me when it counted, but also managed one win each. Final scores were me W-W-3-W-3; Dad 3-2-2-2-W; Mom 2-3-W-3-2. So everybody won once, and I still get to be champ. Nice. XD
Whew, busy day! But I got through everything I wanted to get through, and had a lot of fun doing it. :) And of course I've still got one more day of this long holiday weekend, so let's get the 4th of July to-dos sorted:
1. Either go back to "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland" or finish up the Hypnokinky Valicer Stuff
2. Keep up on YouTube Subs and clear out the Plumbella in the Watch Later
3. Play Sims 4 and do Winterfest with Smiler
4. Work on tumblr drafts
5. Get in a workout
I am hopeful about getting most of this sorted, at least! Especially since I've already made such good progress on the drafts for this week. . .night all!
