The Last Poster Wins [v31]

[Chakramaster]

It's back again with a new thread! V31 going strong!

Rules are simple, just be the last poster and if 48 hours pass with no one else posting, you win! Basic PXR rules still apply! Let's get things going once more!

[v1] Corey
[v2] Bulbasaur
[v3] Bulbasaur
[v4] Metal Gear Snivy
[v5] The Nonexistent Tazz
[v6] The Nonexistent Tazz
[v7] Ghostwriter
[v8] Sir Sivelos
[v9] Sir Sivelos
[v10] Sir Sivelos
[v11] Ghostwriter
[v12] Sir Sivelos
[v13] Ghostwriter
[v14] Pyrkagias
[v15] Neo Emolga
[v16] Chakramaster
[v17] Chakramaster
[v18] Neo Emolga
[v19] Neo Emolga
[v20] Neo Emolga
[v21] Chakramaster
[v22] ARandomTool
[v23] Chakramaster
[v24] NobleJanobii
[v25] Shruikan
[v26] Neo Emolga
[v27] Chakramaster
[v28] Chakramaster
[v29] Neo Emolga
[v30] Chakramaster

[Neo Emolga]

Mannnn, get distracted by just a little and... poof, it's game over no matter how long the last match ended. xD

[Voltaire Magneton]

Oh dayum, forgot about that too lmao

And I already had a reply in mind RIP

[Chakramaster]

Well let's hope this one lasts just as long. If not, longer. XD

[Neo Emolga]

But I'm ok with it being short and me winning. ;P

[Noblejanobii]

Perhaps I'll add another win to my ranks ;P

[Voltaire Magneton]

Gee, leave some for the rest of us! :P

[Chakramaster]

I would always love to add another to my win streak too. :p

[Neo Emolga]

No, you made me have to start all over! For that alone, I can't let you win. >;P

[Chakramaster]

I gotta tie your 3 win streak or beat it!

[Neo Emolga]

You will do no such thing!

Offhand, dang, I'm surprised how cold it still is for this time of year. Still only 47F out, but honestly, I'd prefer this over it being in the 80s.

[C0L0R3D]

Hold on, the last one RESET?! What have I been missing here, wowza.

[Voltaire Magneton]

Someone already won, so we're in a new round now.

[Chakramaster]

You will do no such thing!

Offhand, dang, I'm surprised how cold it still is for this time of year. Still only 47F out, but honestly, I'd prefer this over it being in the 80s.

I can try!

Yeah it sucks here. Temps are already in the mid to upper 80s here already. I would much prefer the colder 40s for temps.. xD

[Neo Emolga]

Well, it's 59F right now, so it's pretty comfortable. But yeah, in NJ, this does NOT last very long at all. When May comes around it almost immediately hits the high 70s and 80s. And then come the bugs. Lots and lots of bugs.

[Chakramaster]

Well, it's 59F right now, so it's pretty comfortable. But yeah, in NJ, this does NOT last very long at all. When May comes around it almost immediately hits the high 70s and 80s. And then come the bugs. Lots and lots of bugs.

Wasp and bumblebees are already out full force here. That and ants...ants galore. It's bad here and it's only just begun....send help. Upper 80s most this week.

[Neo Emolga]

Yep, I've found a few ants already. Ugh, they end up everywhere.

That and mosquitos. Those things are the bane of summer.

[Chakramaster]

Mosquitos are out here too. I've seen far more mosquito eaters though.

[Voltaire Magneton]

Mosquito eaters? Whichever takes out those pesky bugs I support them lol

[Chakramaster]

Yeah it's those large ones that look like mosquitos, but aren't. I hate them just as much though xD

[Voltaire Magneton]

lmao W H A T

worst biters I've ever had was horseflies, met them in June and the bites started to feel less itchy by September yikes

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, those green biting flies are the devil. My brother had a huge difficulty keeping them under control at his old house. It was one of the big reasons he left for elsewhere.

That and the neighborhood was going into the gutter...

[Chakramaster]

Green biting flies?

Yeah places around town here are going downhill too. The places where my parents grew up are so run down. Turned mostly into sketchy looking neighborhoods you wouldn't wanna be at around night time.

[Voltaire Magneton]

Seeing that must make the feeling of nostalgia hit different.

[Neo Emolga]

Some nostalgia is good, but sometimes you get reminded of all the not-so-nice stuff you forgot about and put out of your mind.

I get that while playing old video games. It's easy to forget those had limitations that modern day games don't have.

[Voltaire Magneton]

Yeah, that's why it's hard to play the older games.

For Pokemon, I can only play Gen 3 and above tbh

[Neo Emolga]

Especially controllers. I still have my original NES and it's just funny how few buttons these controllers have compared to controllers now. You just had a D-pad, Select and Start, and A and B buttons. That's it. No crazy A/B/X/Y, shoulder buttons, trigger buttons in the back, and all kinds of other stuff going on.

And yeah, there were quite a few games back then that could have used those buttons. Instead you had all these crazy combinations of buttons you had to press to perform certain actions. That and VERY few games had in-game tutorials. You had to read the instruction manual to get an understanding of how the game functioned. And good luck getting your hands on those these days! xD

[Chakramaster]

Sometimes simplicity is a good thing! I remember the Gameboy only had that too. A, B, D-pad, start and select. Not every game even used them all.

Yeah I remember games like that too. Where games didn't even have a tutorial. There was a Batman game my brother and I tried playing on the Gameboy. No tutorial at all with it. We could only make it to the end of the first path from left to right. There's a wall...we couldn't progress at all because there's no way forward without using a combination of buttons to use a grabbling hook to go up to the next floor. Never did we figure it out until I watched a video long after we didn't care anymore. XD

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, there were a LOT of old Nintendo games I got stuck on that I didn't solve until WAY later when there were guides on the Internet that explained how to do certain things and get unstuck. And so often it was something so simple but so stupid that it was overlooked.

Like in the NES game Goonies II. We could NEVER, EVER, EVER find the flippin' candle, which could be used to illuminate dark rooms. Instead, we just had to trial and error navigate through the dark rooms until we progressed to the next area, which was a pretty pesky thing to do. Thankfully, you can completely finish the whole game without the candle.

Turns out, to get the candle, you need to hit an old lady five times. That's the kind of so simple but so stupid that I'm talking about. xD

[Voltaire Magneton]

Younger you probably didn't (want to) consider beating up old people lol

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, most games back then didn't have karma/reputation things going on and moral choices usually didn't have too many consequences. It was mainly pounce the baddies, beat the bosses, win the game kind of thing.

It wasn't really until Genesis/SNES era that you started to see things like that going on, like "minimize civilian casualties" or single good/evil choices here and there that made the difference between a good ending versus a bad one. But then when Playstation and N64 came along, yeah, then there were plenty of games that had these kinds of systems really put into full swing.

Would be interesting to see a slightly more mature Pokemon game have something like this going on.

[Voltaire Magneton]

A mature Pokemon game sounds nice to me too. Heck, I'm surprised they dropped the die-word in Legends Arceus.

[Chakramaster]

Imagine an even more mature PMD game. They've already pushed the boundaries with some like GTI.

[Noblejanobii]

Yeah it's a shame they couldn't go further with that but GtI got sooooo much backlash at the time (and continues to) that I doubt they ever would even if the more mature tone isn't what drew them criticism.

[Neo Emolga]

GtI just felt like it was missing a lot of things. The personality quiz and the wide arrangement of Pokemon you could be were definitely missing big time and to a lot of PMD fans, that a major loss (PSMD did it right where the quiz result was purely optional). And there was that... ugh... one mission at a time thing that was just frustration-inducing. I almost ALWAYS do my missions in big batches in the same location, so that was a big bust and felt very inefficient.

As a big HOWEVER, the storyline had some decent twists and it had some pretty good music, also. And it had Emolga as a major supporting character with a fantastic personality. So honestly, it wasn't the greatest PMD game, but it wasn't bad and I enjoyed it from start to finish, but yeah, I didn't really go into any of the post-game stuff. I pretty much shelved it after the ending and moved onto the next game.

[Chakramaster]

That was one of the biggest busts to me. The one mission at a time thing. It would tell you over and over "hey, take a break!" While limiting how many missions you can take on at once. You gotta talk to Azumarill to tell her what mission you're going on. Doesn't matter if you have 2 more there. It's only one at a time. The hunger not being there was okay, but felt odd having been used to it.

No personality quiz was a major loss. Of course I didn't loss my Pikachu, but so many others lost theirs and it just didn't make up for it with only Gen 5 stuff. Every character was awesome though. Yes, Emolga is included of course.

The darker story tone with a great soundtrack was enough to pull the attention though. At first I thought it beat out Explorers, but took time to look back and eh. Wasn't the best. After I got the Meloetta jukebox I quit playing. Was the most annoying the to unlock, having one mission at a time. But I did it. It's half the reason I don't wanna reset the game.

[Neo Emolga]

PSMD had an interesting storyline, too, but it took a while to get going and the pacing just felt pretty slow.

With that game, I wasn't too crazy about the looplets and emera thing. The standard item setup was fine in previous games while that looplet thing just felt more gimmicky. But it did a lot other things well, although yeah, I finished that one and didn’t really do any post-game stuff either. I never checked but I'm hoping I didn't miss anything major. PMD2 had a huge chunk of additional storyline content even after finishing the main storyline arc.

[Chakramaster]

Yeah PSMD relied far too heavily on you getting and using the Looplets and Emera you find and create. The Emera only lasting during that dungeon then poof into nothing. If you didn't use it'd you weren't gonna be that strong. You'd be at a disadvantage really. Main thing post game wise was (and honestly shouldn't be a spoiler at this point, but for safety sake). PSMD SPOILER: only really thing is getting your partner back.

The pacing was like 9 Chapters of setup and yeah...that's slow xD. Even if you're first stuck in a town because you're just a "kid" in that world stuck going to school. Once things kick in it was nice. Especially when you meet Jirachi. xD

Oh man and yes, PMD2 had such a deep postgame. It's like a true ending. Then Sky just expanded on it all with Special Episode 5. Things could've gotten even worse!

[Voltaire Magneton]

The extra stuff from PMD Explorers of Sky are the best! I love thr Shaymin Village and the Spinda Bar. And the Special Episodes too! Extra lore is always nice.

[Neo Emolga]

PMD Sky is EXACTLY how all "special edition" games should be handled, because there was so much more to it and it added many extra levels of enjoyment to an already amazing game. And it would be totally awesome if they remade it, but I would welcome a new PMD game as well. It's been a while since PSMD and I'm sure there's a lot of people getting the desire to dive into a new one.

[Voltaire Magneton]

PMD Explorers DX that's based off Sky would be nice.

[Neo Emolga]

Oh, I'd buy that like instantly.

In the meantime, it's been pretty quiet when it comes to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. I kind of thought something new might have dropped regarding it, but ah, I'm sure more info will come in time.

[Chakramaster]

Oh, I'd buy that like instantly.

In the meantime, it's been pretty quiet when it comes to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. I kind of thought something new might have dropped regarding it, but ah, I'm sure more info will come in time.

Yeah seeing as it's supposed to release later this year....it's been a bit quiet. Wonder when we will see more...hopefully maybe an Explorers DX announced right before it.

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, I'm all for them taking their time with it, though. But a few new Pokemon reveals and some teasers would be nice to see.

Funny thing is I honestly don't know very much about Spain. I wouldn't have guessed it was based off of that if I hadn't heard from other people.

[Voltaire Magneton]

I wanna see the legendaries, cant wait tbh

Yeah the trailers didn't look Spain-y to me until people pointed it out. I don't know much about Spain either (even though they colonized us for 333 years lol)

[Neo Emolga]

Meanwhile, I'm curious to know if there's going to be new Eeveelutions. It's been a while since Sylveon and I feel like we're due for a few new ones. Although it is fun to see the fan-made ones for all the types that don't have an Eeveelution yet.

[Voltaire Magneton]

Oh yeah, that one too!

However, I read a theory somewhere and it looks like Pokemon is pushing Eevee as a no-evolve mon given Lets Go Eevee and Gigantamax Eevee being unable to evolve. But we'll see what's true someday.

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, they've been definitely pushing that with Pikachu. Which I honestly don't understand, Raichu is a great Pokemon and a lot of people like Raichu over Pikachu. I see no reason why that option needs to be stripped out.

[Chakramaster]

With Pikachu I can understand. Eevee not so much as it seems more to push evolution. Since through evolution it can branch many different ways. I read a rumor the one in the anime is being kept from evolving to hide a new Eeveelution. No confirmation on that though.

MYbe for Pikachu it's the same. Initially Clafairy was supposed to be Ash's companion. But they went with Pikachu cause it appealed better to focus as a mascot. Maybe to them Raichu wouldn't be as fitting for a "mascot" placement. Place a picture of 3 faces together. Mickey Mouse, Pikachu, and Raichu. When focusing for appeal to a kids perspective. I think kids would most recognize Mickey and Pikachu.

[Neo Emolga]

Oh yeah, I'm fine with Pikachu being the mascot (yeah, I don't think Clefairy would have gone down as well), but Raichu needs love, too. But yeah, I wouldn't replace Pikachu's mascot status with Raichu, especially when Pokemon has been around for this long already.

[Chakramaster]

One day Raichu will have it's time to shine. They tried with gen 7 with Alolan Raichu, but that wasn't enough.

[Voltaire Magneton]

As much as Alolan Raichu is adorably fluffy (gee I wonder why), it's probably outstaged by the handful of Z-Crystals exclusive to Pikachu.

[Neo Emolga]

And yeah, in Gen 8, Pikachu gets a Gigantamax form and Raichu doesn't. Not to mention all the other things Pikachu gets to appear in and Raichu is a no-show. :P

Makes you wonder who is the real David and who is the real Goliath. :P

[Voltaire Magneton]

The true David is Pichu from Smash ;)

[Neo Emolga]

Ok, I can't argue with that.

The funny thing is Pichu is fun to play as even when he's not the best fighter out there. He's lovably spunky and cute even if it means getting your butt kicked. xD

[Chakramaster]

Ok, I can't argue with that.

The funny thing is Pichu is fun to play as even when he's not the best fighter out there. He's lovably spunky and cute even if it means getting your butt kicked. xD

Reminds me of this video....
https://youtu.be/kL0tZJzICzg

[C0L0R3D]

We love overly violent Pokémon you'd never expect to be as overly violent as they are! Maybe that's just me, but what the hay. My mind's just a strange old thing that doesn't really hate ANY Pokémon, to be honest. Simisear somehow included.

[Voltaire Magneton]

I miss Pichu being overpowered lol

[Neo Emolga]

Was Pichu OP at one point? I know in Melee he still felt like kind of an underdog and no one would ever try to use Pichu in a competitive format.

[Voltaire Magneton]

From what I've read about Pichu being faster and having stronger attacks than Pikachu is more than enough to offset its self-damage gimmick.

They nerfed Pichu tho and now its back to being a joke character.

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, I feel that might have happened in either the Wii-U version or the 3DS version. Those were the two Smash Bros games that I missed.

[C0L0R3D]

Nope, that'd be in Ultimate. Pichu just showed up in Melee, dipped for Brawl and the two games you missed and then slipped back into Ultimate as if he was just taking a bathroom break. I honestly used to try and play the guy, and I still kinda do! It's just that I don't play Ultimate all too often anymore, and when I do I'm more into Pikachu and Yoshi now. Because hey, who doesn't like getting a dinosaur's head smacked into your face?

[Voltaire Magneton]

I'm a Wii Fit Trainer main myself!

[C0L0R3D]

And what a main to have! There’s using your head to slam folks into oblivion, and then there’s using a football to cause critical, non-canonical and instantly healing fractures. Oh, the wonderful life of a Wii Fit main.

[Neo Emolga]

I've kind of drifted into playing Terry Bogard more often. I've never played Fatal Fury so I know next to nothing about the series he's from, but dang, he's not a hard character to pick up quickly and get into and he can easily kick butts around.

Prior to that, I kind of mained Yoshi for a while, though while playing with friends, it's fun to play as Isabelle because SO DANG MANY people underestimate her. That fishing rod is just an absolute instrument of murder. xD

[C0L0R3D]

Oh yeah, I tend to roll with Isabelle every now and again thanks to encountering a player online with the legendary title of… rich tea. We’re still Switch friends.

Also, a fishing rod for murder… blimey, a certain Dragonite seems to have forgotten he’s a farmer and not a fisher.

[Voltaire Magneton]

The charm in Smash is those cute characters rocking the stage against actual fighters lmao

Also the primary reason I use a yoga trainer lol

[Chakramaster]

Roy is my main in Smash (the real Roy from Fire Emblem. Not that fake Bowser kid one). Pichu is fun to play, but Pikachu does the job a little better for me. Since the thunderbolt doesn't go as far. I typically miss those with Pichu..

Personally I hate Isabelle. Not a fan.

[Neo Emolga]

The Isabelle and Doom Guy memes are absolute epic gold, though. Especially that YouTube video where they trade places. xD

[Chakramaster]

They are...moderately amusing at times xD. It's run it's course with me. Might be if I liked Animal Crossing more.

[Neo Emolga]

Memes are like friends. Some come and go, but there are those precious few that should be held onto.

[Chakramaster]

There's a good few out there. Can't deny that. XD

[Voltaire Magneton]

It's fun to see which ones will be the next big thing in memes.

[Neo Emolga]

I think the first meme I came across was the classic All Your Base one. It was weird at first, but then it really grows on you. xD

But yeah, that one has definitely been long gone, now. And I remember how back in the early days of the Internet, people were still using the word "pwned" and now even the more recent version of "rekt" has been fizzling away. I wonder what silly thing will trend next. xD

[Chakramaster]

Each generation has a thing that comes up and goes. Like the 80s being about rock things got "heavy" when times were tough. I wasn't even born in the 80s. XD

Honestly having grown up with the memes and such I can hardly remember the absolute "first" I saw.

[Neo Emolga]

The 80s were an interesting time. I think the thing I remember most about those years is the music. It's VERY distinctive. I swore, the music in Grand Theft Auto Vice City definitely took me back listening to the K-Rock station.

And it was the early years of the original Nintendo with those early classic games Mario Bros and the Legend of Zelda. Some of those early games were DANG hard. Don't underestimate them!

[Voltaire Magneton]

(i have nothing to contribute im barely existing during the 80s lol)

[Chakramaster]

The 80s were an interesting time. I think the thing I remember most about those years is the music. It's VERY distinctive. I swore, the music in Grand Theft Auto Vice City definitely took me back listening to the K-Rock station.

And it was the early years of the original Nintendo with those early classic games Mario Bros and the Legend of Zelda. Some of those early games were DANG hard. Don't underestimate them!

Yeah it was very fitting in GTA Vice City. Just for the area and atmosphere it fit very well. Growing up (and by that I mean after I hit college years) I started liking the 80s music more. I remember those old school games too. O internet to help you out in those puzzles. So you could be stuck for hours without a guide book. Ah I even remember cheat codes in controller inputs. XD

I may not have been around in the 80s, but I feel like it grew on me in some way.

[C0L0R3D]

Can't help but agree on the music bit, it takes a good soundtrack to really get you into the flow of a game. And yet here I am talking when a game I play barely has much music in it's overworld, mainly just nature and people chattering.

But hey, looking back to the Mario and Sonic 2012 Olympic Games thing for the Wii (which I still own), I still love how an option to change in-event music exists. Nothing stopping you from playing football while Delfino Plaza blares in the background, and I love it.

[Noblejanobii]

Man Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games takes me BACK. That's where I discovered my love for fencing hahaha

[Voltaire Magneton]

Those games were fun especially with people to play with.

[Neo Emolga]

For my family, it was definitely Mario Kart. Loads and loads and loads of Mario Kart. Great memories for sure.

We did play some Warioware and Wii Sports as well.

[Voltaire Magneton]

I'll probs consider buying Mario Kart when I have people to regularly play it with. Idk stuff about cart designing and pro moves, I just drive and use power ups lol

[Noblejanobii]

My parents and I used to love playing Mario Kart Wii. Good times!!

[AD]

Dang, I missed a lot while I was gone it seems

[Neo Emolga]

This is why you should stick around!

Also, Stalkers RPG: Duskwoken only just started so shameless advertisement feel free to join us! It'll be fun, I promise!

[Chakramaster]

Oh I'm sure it'll be lots of fun! Stick around! We're a fun bunch!

[Neo Emolga]

Oh I'm sure it'll be lots of fun! Stick around! We're a fun bunch!

You're definitely acting in character for Guildmaster Wigglytuff! xD

But in all seriousness, it does feel good to be hosting Stalkers again and I like this lighter and more simplified version without all the extra needless baggage that made my brain go wacko.

[Chakramaster]

Well it's nice to make sure there was some fun to the character xD.

Yeah it's nice seeing it back, but it's a lot of undertaking. So it's totally understandable it can't be run that often.

[Neo Emolga]

Honestly, it's definitely not so bad right now. So far the changes feel just right and I can't complain. It has more of a Season 3 feel and I think that was a sweet spot because I think it's more fun for everyone without being really taxing on me to manage. I just hope it continues to feel just right like this. It allows me to write up the fun narratives and suspense without having to calculate heaps of stuff, because I tend to goof up a lot on things like that. Too many variables involved (like using a weapon, having buffs from berries, and other status stuff all happening at once) and I run a big chance of missing something.

I know it must feel pretty scaled back to people who were in previous renditions, but I just wanted to keep the really important stuff. But I'd have to say the biggest energy-draining culprits were items that granted multiple actions (caffeine delights and adrenaline orbs) and combat. Xanthe created an awesome combat system, but it was still work and I just think any kind of combat system is going to be a lot of extra dice rolls and calculation work, and heaven forbid I get something wrong and overlook something and that totally changes the outcome of the battle. That happened a couple times and it just gobbles the motivation right out.

Money wasn't too big of an issue, but there was this awkward gray area thing with it that people were really reluctant to spend it (essentially the Megalixir effect). I felt eh, why bother with it? The game works perfectly fine without buying anything.

And I was on the fence about side missions but ultimately decided to scrap those for now. Again, those were extra work and I just don't think they added too much to the game. Maybe in an open world game they make sense.

[Chakramaster]

It's not bad dude. Sometimes a little scale back is all it takes to make something better. So far it looks incredible! The lower numbers is good for a one person host honestly.

[Neo Emolga]

Thanks! I was also kind of surprised how quickly I got through the first Day 1 Day Cycle posts. In previous seasons, that kind of thing sometimes took me weeks. This was one of those rare occasions where I actually beat the countdown timer! xD

Hopefully I can keep that kind of steam going. :3

[Noblejanobii]

Ayyy nice! Love to see it!

[Chakramaster]

I'm sure you got this dude! You already seem to be rocking it! I'm sure you can beat it the entire game cycle. Assuming things don't come up prior. All looks golden!

[Voltaire Magneton]

Don't forget to take a break from time to time ^^

[C0L0R3D]

Exactly what the above said! As great as it is to get into the action, breaks very much exist and can be massive lifesavers on occasion.

[Neo Emolga]

Ah, thanks for the support, guys, I appreciate it and I hope you're enjoying it. :3

But yeah, so far I'm quite happy with how things are working out with it. It feels more like that fun, classic Stalkers feel while just keeping the really good stuff that is much easier to work with. And that's exactly what I was hoping for with this.

[Noblejanobii]

Heck yeah! can't wait to see where all it goes then!

[Neo Emolga]

The guilty pleasure fun is seeing what places people pick to search and then looking up my reference page to see what craziness they're going to be running into. xD

[Noblejanobii]

Hahaha I bet. It's always really entertaining from the DM's side.

[Neo Emolga]

Hahaha I bet. It's always really entertaining from the DM's side.

It does make me wonder what a Stalkers RPG campaign run by YOU would be like... >:3

[Noblejanobii]

It does make me wonder what a Stalkers RPG campaign run by YOU would be like... >:3

Oh man, I've definitely thought about it, and I can say it'd probably look fairly different. Gore, violence, etc. typically aren't my cup of tea but that doesn't mean I'm afraid to delve into the darker elements of things. I think it'd be a lot more of a fantasy-oriented setting though. So it'd probably more akin to like... the False Hydra from D&D in terms of tone and setting. The Stalkers actually remind me a lot of the False Hydra, and one of these days I'd love to have it as a villain in one of my D&D campaigns, but the players I typically play with aren't much into that so alas, it remains to the side. So perhaps if I were to ever run a Stalkers campaign, I could do something akin to the False Hydra as the main villain.

The False Hydra, for those unaware, is a homebrew D&D monster that's regarded as one of the most terrifying beasts ever conceived. There's different interpretations of it, but the general concept is as follows:
1) The False Hydra is a creature born of malice and deception. It forms as a mound of flesh deep underground below a heavily populated city where, once its fed enough off this deception, it will grow its first head. The first head will then burrow towards the surface and, upon reaching said surface, will begin to sing.
2) The False Hydra's song makes it imperceptible to any that hear it. The song literally blocks the Hydra from detection. Additionally, if you were to chance a glimpse of it while it wasn't singing, you'd instantly forget you saw it and repress any memories regarding it as soon as it resumes singing.
3) The False Hydra has to stop singing in order to eat. The heads feast on humans, and it eats pretty indiscriminately. Another side effect of the song is that it causes people who hear it to rationalize the sudden disappearance of a person who's been eaten.
4) After eating enough humans, it'll grow another head, up to seven, and once it gets large enough, it'll burst forth from the ground and sing a new song.
5) This new song puts everyone within a five mile radius into a trance. Those that successfully resist the trance are then hunted down by those in the trance and killed. Once they've been purged, the tranced then carry the False Hydra to the next town, where it can continue to devour others to quell its endless appetite.

I had a character for a D&D campaign once that was a False Hydra survivor. His town was in the process of being devoured and his sister was one of the first victims. He and his family rationalized that she had gone off to join a nearby order of clerics but when she wasn't answering any of their letters, my character got suspicious. This plus the rampant paranoia he was experiencing and seemingly random quickly scrawled notes saying "beware the singing" and "i SAW it eat her", he decided to go consult with his sister. However, once he was outside of the False Hydra's range, all the memories suddenly unrepressed themselves and he realized the truth of what happened.

Some campaigns have the False Hydra permanently wipe memories, and a neat idea I'd had was to have a deaf NPC who everyone said was just the town crazy, but who actually was the only person in-town that knew the truth of the situation because, being deaf, they can't hear the song. Stuff like that I think could make for some interesting Stalkers campaign concepts, if I were to ever run one.

[Neo Emolga]

That hydra sounds terrifying. But yeah, like you said, being around that thing is a good occasion to not have ears! xD

For me, I try to modify my Stalker creation formulas around just because I don't want it to get too predictable. A lot of the story behind them gets created in advance, but some bits of it gets created along the way. And then sometimes I make a mistake and try to cover my butt by improvising for it. Usually I can pull it off without anyone noticing, though. ;3

[Chakramaster]

Everyone could probably have their own creative iteration of Stalkers. Or some mini game. It just takes a lot of work

[Lychee]

I guess so! But which parts have to stay the same for it to still be considered stalkers-esque and not a horror mystery?
The gameplay processes? The setting? The writing style?

[Neo Emolga]

I guess so! But which parts have to stay the same for it to still be considered stalkers-esque and not a horror mystery?
The gameplay processes? The setting? The writing style?

I feel what really defines it is the gameplay style. While it has almost always been associated with horror themes, save for Squawkers, it's really the whole PMD combined with mystery and puzzle solving that sets it apart from everything else out there.

I mean heck, Xanthe was able to map out and create an entire season all on her own. And she had a unique style to it and still it totally worked great, so it's a very adaptable system that works with different styles. I also like the fact it feels a bit more open world and not very linear.

[C0L0R3D]

Yeah, major props to her for that. The reason I ever got hooked on Stalkers was due to me just falling head over heels for how everything was so cleverly written and done with what looked to barely be a hitch. And it turns out the half wreck of S5 was in the works when I first dropped by, so I was in on the action before I could even think about it.

As much as I'd love to make my own Stalkers literation in some way, I'm 99% confident it's nowhere near as easy as Neo makes it look. There's a lotta planning that goes into this kinda stuff, and while I think I could make a good season things could go awry in a heartbeat.

[Voltaire Magneton]

Maybe you can share your ideas in the future. As they say, the more the merrier! (but idk im not neo lmao)

[Chakramaster]

Yup I'm sure Neo is all for new ideas. Heck I bugged the absolute mess out of Neo when he revealed the first Stalkers game. Wanting to help with the next xD.

[C0L0R3D]

Very true, very true indeed! Sharing fun ideas I have is always fun to do, but my head is filled with 50% Stalkers and 50% of all things related to Contests and Showcases. As many ideas as I could shovel out on the latter topic, not many folk would probably be interested in going around grabbing ribbons and keys when they'd rather be solving murders.

Not that nobody would be interested at all! And no, I see no way for the two to mix in a way I could work with.

[Neo Emolga]

You guys might not believe this, but the VERY first thing I do when preparing a new season of Stalkers is… *drum roll*… come up with the single word that links them all together. Liked “wicked” or “corrupt.” Each Stalker’s name then starts with one of those letters. So for “wicked,” I might have one Stalker use the “W” to be “Wanesoul” while the “I” might be “Ichorspit.” Or something like that. It may sound silly, but the thing is, it gets the creative juices going. I come up with a Stalker name for each letter and there we go!

Once I get a Stalker name for each of those letters, I then start working on some of the other things like the map, though first I kind of need to decide what biome is going to be featured and how big of a town this is going to be and what its story is. Then I kind of go random with it, drawing roads here, square and rectangles here and there to resemble buildings, add some forests here and there, and so on. After that’s done and the map looks nice, I start numbering all that stuff and then writing those short one-paragraph descriptions as to what those places are. Some of them I had advance intentions as to what those locations are, but I’d say about 80% of them are made up on whim. I have a dark love for writing up the descriptions of the dark, effed-up ABANDONED places. >:3

While those locations get determined, I make the list of civilians. So if I decide some square on the map is an apartment building, then I create Pokémon characters to live there (same with businesses), and usually I use the random Pokémon generator and use the ones I think would be the best fit for the setting and scenario. I might drop in a few homebrewed characters I suddenly come up with. I then give all of them personalities, likes/dislikes, a workplace, a living place, hobbies, and friendships/rivalries with other civilians (sometimes those get added during the course of the game). I then randomly roll which ones are Stalkers (I used to decide this manually, but I have a feeling with all the seasons that have gone on, people would know my style xD). That makes it much harder for peeps to figure out which ones are the culprits.

So we could say some random Jubilee the Eevee ends up as Wanesoul. I look at their personality and their likes/dislikes and decide “ok, how can I corrupt these and what does it mean to be Wanesoul?” I then flesh out their background story a bit more. Sometimes I tweak the personality a bit depending on how I want this corruption to go. Let’s say Jubilee the Eevee is a kind and faithful soul who likes knitting and sewing. Well, now that she’s Wanesoul, those traits of hers are now used for all evil intentions, BUT in a way that’s hard for those who know her to detect. She may now be deceptive, using her kindness and previous honesty to have others let their guard down around her. Then, maybe because she likes sewing, she does something sick and twisted with that as a murder signature, like sewing her victim’s eyes, mouths, and throats closed with some sick, demonic power, causing them to suffocate. And bingo, a new Stalker is born!

With the Stalker’s backstory made, I then decide what their route is going to be like. And each Stalker has a theme, so we can use Wanesoul as Jubilee the Eevee again and her dark theme of sewing. So maybe a few things along the route could be a corrupted plush doll that has reassembled, or maybe gathering dark needles to ram those into a voodoo doll that causes some other kind of reaction or item to appear. I always build a Stalker route working backwards from the big reveal and it works like a tree, branching out with small paths of A goes to B to unlock C that lead to the item(s) that unlock that Stalker’s lair. Some items will be rigged with traps. So in Wanesoul’s case, we could say she’s big on Purity damage (since her Stalker’s name implies harm to the spirit). Maybe a little Sanity damage dashed in here is okay, too. Some Stalkers really stab the Health stat down. Others might go more for Sanity damage. A lot of them are mixes of these. It all depends on their kind of style and what their murder signature and themes are like.

Once I have all the items and steps needed for that Stalker’s route, those then get placed on the map or handed to a civilian (I have a giant reference thread for where everything is and it’s all color-coded too xD). I try to place these in locations that somewhat make sense, but sometimes it can be a bit of a stretch. But that’s ok, I figure I can work those into the narratives later. I then add the extras like graphics, puzzles, and all those good extra bits that sure, don’t NEED to be there, but they give the whole thing a lot of enjoyable extra flavor. And I repeat this whole process again for all the remaining Stalkers.

Once those are done, then I decide exactly what I want to do for the “Sin Purge” ritual thing and this changes every time, essentially. Some components of it may have the same kind of route system going. Others… might have some other gimmicks going on. It’s a bit more open-ended compared to Stalkers. I play around with various ideas but I can honestly say for Duskwoken, things have changed from “ah, this thing looks holy, obviously part of Utopia’s Sin Purge stuff” to… well, you’ll see. Things aren’t so obvious anymore and you’ll have to dig around to find out! But I try to make a background story with these as well and give each part of the route or process some kind of purpose as opposed to “well, you need this holy water because… well, just because.” Nah, at least use it in a way that it cleanses a previously corrupted item that needs to be converted because it has some special kind of function or something along those lines.

But that’s basically how it goes! Yeah, it takes a few months to create everything and get all the prep stuff done, but it’s a dang fun thing to host. Search and interview results may have the items and route/item things the player will run into, but when the whole thing is underway, I now have the enjoyment of writing the narratives of what that player comes across in that search or how that discussion with the civilian will go (based on the rapport and the civilian’s personality). That’s a whole lot of fun, too. But the ultimate guilty pleasure comes from finding out the player DIED from the trap they ran into and that prompts Aglome Oen to narrate the post instead with snarky and cynical commentary.

It’s quite a bit of work to host, but it’s a HECK of a lot of fun, also. The other great thing is that it’s flexible. Even after the whole thing has begun, I can add new graphics later or adjust things depending on the situation. Usually I try to avoid making drastic changes (like Season 5), but it’s possible. If a gimmick I had in mind isn’t working, I can try to work things out behind the scenes that doesn’t make it look so obvious something got chopped. Or if I forgot to place an item (sometimes happens), well, poof, I can hand it over to a civilian or put it in an unexplored location and as long as I can explain how it got there during the narrative-writing, no one will suspect a thing! It’s impossible to predict exactly how things will go down, but having that flexible room to make tweaks can make all the difference.

I think the only thing I wish I did with Stalkers RPG was invent it years earlier. There have been plenty of PE2K and PXR members that have come and gone and I would have loved to see if and how they would have gotten into these. But hey, you guys are here and I’m glad to see it’s gotten plenty of love! You guys make it all fun and awesome! :3

[Voltaire Magneton]

I'd love to join (I did say it in the interest check lmao) but life gave me lots of stuff to do so I have to pass rip anyways those ideas are amazing! I'm sure it can maybe make others return here.

[Neo Emolga]

I'd love to join (I did say it in the interest check lmao) but life gave me lots of stuff to do so I have to pass rip anyways those ideas are amazing! I'm sure it can maybe make others return here.

No worries, you can always join us later if you'd like! Sign ups never close for these.

[C0L0R3D]

Yup, these here Stalkers are like a flame and we're all Mothims. It's always good fun looking at past seasons thanks to the Stalker Route Reference in the archives, so you can see just what Neo was up to in some cases of narration.

My personal favourite being in S5, where a Yamper said he once had a nightmare about a Stalker being in his school and looking at them made him feel lost. Turns out said Stalker was actually one of the teachers IN said school! That bit alone's honestly taught me to try and link dots the best I can.

[Neo Emolga]

Yup, these here Stalkers are like a flame and we're all Mothims. It's always good fun looking at past seasons thanks to the Stalker Route Reference in the archives, so you can see just what Neo was up to in some cases of narration.

My personal favourite being in S5, where a Yamper said he once had a nightmare about a Stalker being in his school and looking at them made him feel lost. Turns out said Stalker was actually one of the teachers IN said school! That bit alone's honestly taught me to try and link dots the best I can.

Yeah, the old development notes and info basically explains all the thought processes. And most of the Stalkers follow that same pattern, though for some Stalkers (Overkill, Huskpuppet), the approach was drastically different.

I had several different theories about what might happen with Overkill (Yandil the Smeargle) and it was quite the amusing social experiment into reverse psychology just to see what would happen. Even after confirming with utmost 99.99% certainty, no one wanted to take the plunge and actually exorcism him out of that slight slight chance maybe everything was wrong or it just seemed too easy. But yeah, that was my golden confirmation that people tend to be extremely risk adverse in Stalkers.

Meanwhile, Huskpuppet... yeah, that was one of those Stalkers that would have dragged on for a LONG time if I had Season 5 stay the course normally. 9 instances of combat didn't seem that daunting at first, but oof, during the course of the game it felt like it would never finish. At most, I should have only had like 4 or 5 instances instead.

Personally, I like it much better without combat. Sure, there are a few instances where I could have had some fighting thing going on, but there honestly wouldn't have been that many occasions where that would happen. Just didn't seem worth it to bring back the whole system for what would be a few combat encounters.

[Noblejanobii]

Yeah I agree! Definitely seems that keeping things simple is the way to go with this kind of game

[Voltaire Magneton]

As they say, less is more.

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, it's always better to start small and build up from there. There were times in the past when some forum project was just WAY too big from the get-go and of course... it toppled. You can always add a little to a promising idea if things seem to be working. It's easier to do that than to take away stuff, but it's not impossible to scale back things, either.

Some things in the past just didn't work as well as I thought they would. Not a biggie, though, the thing is to just keep trying new things and make modifications to the formulas and recipes. It's all part of the risk-taking process.

[Noblejanobii]

Mhm mhm! Like I said, if I were to ever do a "Stalkers" I think it'd be more of like... a fantasy style game. A sub-genre if you will. Scholars, perhaps? XD

Alas, I barely have the time to host something like that nowadays.

[Neo Emolga]

I do wonder how many people would be up for another go at the legendary rendition known as Squawkers again... xD

Yeah, it does take quite a bit of time to plan, create, and host, but it's fun though and the work that goes into it is its own reward. But yeah, it becomes tricky to juggle any other side projects you've got going on with it, and I know you've got plenty. For me, the only other things I have going on alongside Stalkers are my comics and I wouldn't tack on too much else besides that right now.

[Chakramaster]

Yeeeeees! Squawkers was so fun xD but I'm a little crazy for how whacky things can get

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, when it comes to Squawkers, I know what I did wrong last time and I'm quite sure I can do it right if I were to have another shot at it. Squawkers had a combat thing going on, too, but it never really got used (though I wouldn't try to bring that back either). Coming up with Squawker routes was tricky the first time because I was playing more off of randomness, but then things in the route wouldn't make too much sense. If I were to try it again, I would still have the Squawkers have their own themes, but at least the silliness would be more consistent.

Some things I might consider...

You can use money to buy healthy food which fills your Chonk stat just a very tiny bit, but it prevents you from eating the super-fattening stuff that the Squawkers leave all over the place when you venture out for a Search. This, of course, would make money and shopping come back, but I think I could do it.
I would, of course, bring in the new "Floof" stat. So each player would have Chonk, Kawaii, and Floof stats (replaces Health, Sanity, and Purity) where if you go past your limit on any of those, you go boom. (imaging being all cute, fat, and fluffy at once!) xD
WAY more breaking the 4th wall kind of meta stuff. Come on, this is fun and you know it. xD

I know for sure I would have a tough time trying to top "Booplesnoot" as the name of the town that was used the first time. Storyline would be kinda of similar, though. The Squawkers would be trying to have realty TV make a comeback by televising all the insane stuff they do, along with bringing back eye-rolling trends that should have never been started (wearing your pants backwards, powdered wigs, and dubstep). It's up to you to save the world!

But yeah, I'd like another swing at it if I can get another players to be on board. :3

[Chakramaster]

Yeah and I probably won't go actively looking to change forms as much as.....as much as Poke-possible xD

[Voltaire Magneton]

Yeah, leave the changing forms to DBR :P

[Neo Emolga]

It only happens occasionally, though. You could potentially go through the whole thing without changing once. Yeah, unlike DBR where you change constantly. :P

[Chakramaster]

Well in Squawkers when you revived you changed. We didn't have anything set so it was random to your choice.

[Neo Emolga]

Well in Squawkers when you revived you changed. We didn't have anything set so it was random to your choice.

Yep, that part was quite a bit of fun. You know... maybe we should bring that back, eh? xD

[Voltaire Magneton]

Whatever happened to not putting way too many stuff? :P

[Neo Emolga]

Good point, but yeah, this would be later. I could never host two events at the same time and trust me, I've tried. Totally didn't work!

In fact, that's what killed the first season of Squawkers. I thought I could run PXFIRE at the same time and that was a big fat no, so I was forced to retire Squawkers early. Ugh, that was such a hard decision because I was having so much goofy fun with it.

[Chakramaster]

Yeah no need to go too crazy. A little here and there is good enough.

[Neo Emolga]

Well, I don't think we'd ever host another PXFIRE or WAR season again. They were a lot of work and required a lot of people. Plus we tried many, many different setup systems, scoring systems, and so on and there were pros and cons to them all, but there was never a PERFECT game system.

They were fun, though. Sure, they sometimes caused a bit of drama, but I still think there were more good times with those than bad times.

[Voltaire Magneton]

I enjoyed WAR, even though I can only participate in the memes/jokes contests lol

[Neo Emolga]

I went all out in WARs. There were a few sections that I just couldn't do for the life of me (URPG, trivia, sprites) but there were plenty of other sections that I got into.

WAR RPs were the best, though. Especially when fan fictions got made from them. Some of the battles we had in those made Star Wars look like child playground squabbles. xD

[Voltaire Magneton]

Ooooh trivia! I love that too!

[Neo Emolga]

I'm just lousy at trivia. xD

And I've tried it in multiple contexts. I just don't keep loads of randomish facts and things in my head, and I'm not really too into pop culture, so yeah, I will probably always be your lease valuable player on any kind of bar trivia team.

Heck, I'd sooner jump in on a game of bingo. xD

[Voltaire Magneton]

Bingo is fun too! We had a bingo event back in my dorm, and there's a special rule where it plays like usual Blackout but once you get the bottomest number on the N column, you're out of the game. Keeps the adrenaline running lmao

[Neo Emolga]

Haven't heard of Blackout Bingo before, but that's an interesting variant.

I just realized you could mash Bingo and Sudoku together and make it a competitive speed game. Everyone starts with empty Sudoku grids and the numbers get revealed over time. Whoever solves the Sudoku puzzle first wins.

[Neo Emolga]

Haven't heard of Blackout Bingo before, but that's an interesting variant.

I just realized you could mash Bingo and Sudoku together and make it a competitive speed game. Everyone starts with empty Sudoku grids and the numbers get revealed over time. Whoever solves the Sudoku puzzle first wins.

[Noblejanobii]

This is a test post for the Database errors pay me no mind lmao

[Chakramaster]

Haven't had the database error pop up here yet, but still keeping a lookout.

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, I've been getting it a lot... and it's causing me to double post, too. :P

[Voltaire Magneton]

Haven't heard of Blackout Bingo before, but that's an interesting variant.

I just realized you could mash Bingo and Sudoku together and make it a competitive speed game. Everyone starts with empty Sudoku grids and the numbers get revealed over time. Whoever solves the Sudoku puzzle first wins.

That's just "fill up all the squares in your Bingo card" maybe it's named something else over there?

[Chakramaster]

A Bingo and Sudoku mashup would be pretty interesting. XD

[Voltaire Magneton]

RNG + Puzzle, wonder how that will turn out lmao

[Chakramaster]

Sounds like a mobile game to me xD. Gacha included.

[C0L0R3D]

Yeah, as painful as some gacha games are, the good ones give you stuff to do besides from spend heaps and heaps of money on one little thing. And here I am, simply playing a rhythm gacha game and only having enough of the rarest thing in the game to make a single team. Five, if you wanted to know that.

[Voltaire Magneton]

I've already had my fill of rhythm gacha games after playing one competitively, so I feel you.

[Neo Emolga]

The whole presence of microtransactions in mobile games has caused me to almost never play them. The only ones I play are Pokemon Cafe, which is pretty enjoyable without spending money, and Words With Friends because you can also play that without spending money. Now, it takes a LOT for me to be lured into trying a new mobile game.

But so, so many of them are just outright defiled with heaps of microtransactions. I used to play Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem which was really fun and hilarious, but then it kept bugging me about offers and paywall things and I also hit a progression wall where I just couldn't go any further without shelling out money. Not to mention you'd get pulverized by other players that were clearly spending money. Not cool.

I also heard Diablo Immortal is HORRIBLE for microtransactions and endgame spending.

[C0L0R3D]

Makes me grateful that most of my stuff isn't paywall locked, and what IS isn't mandatory. So large F for you.

Though, I'm going to be honest, I wonder what the next big forum thing after Duskwoken Stalkers is going to be. I'm pretty certain that as fun as it is for everyone, Neo can't just go dishing these out like a lemonade stand.

[Voltaire Magneton]

Based on these discussions, hopefull the next forum thing won't have microtransactions :P

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, I would totally NOT put any of my stuff behind a paywall even after people have already paid one amount already. Man, that just feels so predatory and greedy. If I were to ask for a payment for anything I create (still have yet to do that anyway), I would tell people the full amount up front. But really, I think the most I would do is a Patreon and I would keep super-faithful to whatever I put on there as offers.

After Duskwoken Stalkers, I might start a new RP since I’ve had an interesting storyline setting come to mind. It wouldn’t be connected to Wishmaker or Spiritwater, so if you haven’t been in or following the events of those RPs, no worries. This would be totally new stuff with new characters and such.

Yeah, it wouldn’t be a big forum thing, but I kind of need a break from hosting those. Not to mention DBR was like the only other event thing I have to host and I’ve pretty much retired that completely. It’s just too much work and the battle system is busted (trying to fix it only seems to make things more complicated, too :P). But if someone else has a pretty nifty big forum idea in mind, go for it! Something fresh and new sounds like it would be fun. C:

[Voltaire Magneton]

Tip jars like Patreon and Ko-fi work too! Voluntary money giving.

[Neo Emolga]

Ah yeah, I keep forgetting about Kofi! I've used that and Patreon to send money, but I've never gotten money through it. But yeah, I haven't been doing art commissions, so there hasn't been much reason for me to get payments from it. xD

Although that would be my Plan B, if I were to ever be laid off from my job. Do art commissions while looking for a new position, take a LinkedIn Learning training every now and then, and ramp up the production of my webcomic with Patreon/Kofi support to as least soften the financial blow in the meantime.

[Voltaire Magneton]

Although that would be my Plan B, if I were to ever be laid off from my job. Do art commissions while looking for a new position.

That's my position right now lmao, I'm not laid off but I had to resign while applying for a different school. I'm trying to set up my commission details, but setting up infographics, terms and conditions, and prices is quite a lot to manage lol

[Chakramaster]

Definitely need to have a set game plan though for commissions and payment plans for when you get a job though. Cause following through with commitments would be that much harder to just up and drop once you start a new job.

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, and I would need to figure out pricing and come up with a pricing sheet, too. I think I'd have a tough time trying to put a price value on my work...

[Voltaire Magneton]

I just look at market prices and add a splash of self confidence lmao

[Neo Emolga]

True, but how does one assign a monetary value to confidence? xD

[Voltaire Magneton]

Its more like knowing your worth I guess? If you think you can offer your art at that price

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, I'd have to reach out to a few people I know that have some experience with this kind of thing and have them appraise my stuff. Then hopefully they could let me know what they think it might be worth and what people might be willing to pay for it.

Although I dread the "oh, I don't like it, I'm not paying" people. Or the people that keep wanting things changed and can't ever settle on something. I've run into plenty of people like that before. :P

[Voltaire Magneton]

I've seen artists limit revisions to just 2 times. Some even limkt how major the revisions are.

[Chakramaster]

Well try starting off in moderation. Start off with sketches alone to build up with those that would want something. If they want it lined/colored/etc. next month or batch they can ask for addition. Ooooor if full from the start. Only do sketching and leave a watermark over it so they can't just take the sketch and run. Then they pay before you do more.

Don't go full blown is what I'd say to start. Start off small and see how it works before you add more options.

[Neo Emolga]

I think that yeah, I would need to have them do a deposit first, then provide the sketch of what the final piece would look like, then get the rest of the payment and then complete the full drawing. I've seen other artists do that and it seems like the most reliable method to make sure you don't get screwed over.

[[Desolate Divine]]

When I got my commissions done they were paid for in advance, 100%. I guess in that respect, it helps to have enough art that is indicative of the quality the buyer gets so that they know what they are paying for somewhat before they pay. That being said, financially I am doing well enough that whilst paying upfront and not being happy with it would have sucked, it'd not be a HUGE deal.

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, that's how I usually pay for my art commissions. Everything up front, especially if I know the artist pretty well and they aren't the type that would scam me over.

It's honestly pretty rare that I get scammed.

[Noblejanobii]

First rule of thumb when pricing your commissions: Give yourself a minimum wage. Originally, I priced myself as if I'm getting paid $10 an hour (usually), then time myself as to how long a piece would take from start to finish and THAT dictates the price. So if something is listed as $10 that means it normally takes me about an hour to do. Additionally, the more valuable your time is, like if you work a 9-5 like me, the higher you should price your stuff. It's not as if you have all day to work on these things. You've got a job, plus chores, and other engagements. Time is money, so price it accordingly. This is actually why I'm going to be raising my prices again here shortly, because my job and also overall lack of stamina due to my illness has made my drawing time very limited, and I'd much rather do personal stuff than commission work. Which leads me to...

Second rule of thumb: if you don't want to do something, either don't offer it OR charge a lot for it. If you're good at drawing robots but HATE drawing them, base price should be whatever you dictate is enough to warrant you drawing said robot, whether it be $100 or $1000. If it's a pain in the butt to draw, you make it worth your time.

Third rule of thumb: Limit alterations to as early in the process as possible, ideally to the sketching phase. This is for two reasons. 1) Because it's WAY easier to fix major mistakes in the sketch phase than it is in the later phases. Minor detail adjustments in the latest states such as adjusting colors or adding small markings are fine. But redoing an entire limb or god forbid the ENTIRE POSE can cause you to have to redo an entire portion of the drawing. So be strict about this. And if the client is INSISTENT on having a major alteration done late in the game, make it clear up front that they will be charged for it. I'm talking like at least half the price of the drawing. So if they paid $30 originally and want a major alteration late in the game? Slap them with a $15 fee. TIME IS MONEY.

Fourth rule of thumb: Take the money up front or very early in the process. I generally take mine AFTER I get a sketch approved just so that way I can price stuff accordingly, but I also always slap a huge ass WIP watermark on the sketches unless someone is a close friend or trusted client, and even then it's not always a guarantee since I've have enough art stolen from me to not trust anyone. Some people do half and half, but personally I find this system is a bit of a hassle especially if you use invoices (which btw you should ALWAYS use invoices if you use paypal it makes it way easier to keep track off stuff and you can implement payment deadlines for riskier clients). But you should definitely get it as early into the process as you can since the later into the process you take payment, the more susceptible to scam you are.

Those are my commission tips <3

[C0L0R3D]

Welp. Guess there's me mostly sorted when it comes to opening up commissions.

I mean, I'm still in high school and technically don't really NEED the money yet to tell the truth, but there's no harm in getting some extra cash in my pocket. Not everyone can live off of their parents forever.

[Neo Emolga]

Noblejanobii

VERY good tips, thanks for sharing those!

And yeah, as someone who has tried to make alterations late in the process, it's BRUTAL. Entire pose changes are usually impossible and it ends up being more work (and that's IF it even works) than just starting over.

Robots I could do, but yeah, humans... whenever I try to draw them, they just end up looking ten years older every time.

[Chakramaster]

Just make the humans smaller. BAM! 10 years younger! XD

I know it's not that easy. All of my characters always look so big compared and. Yeah it just comes out looking odd.

[Voltaire Magneton]

I can't even draw humans rip, I find it hard to grasp human faces and even the "trust the process" mindset won't work

[Noblejanobii]

Most people put in their terms and conditions what they will and won't draw! So for example I outline the fact that I don't do mechs. So you could put in yours that you don't do humans!

[Scytherwolf]

I've been trying to learn to draw stylized humans. They still look wonky, but I'm getting there.

[Neo Emolga]

Most people put in their terms and conditions what they will and won't draw! So for example I outline the fact that I don't do mechs. So you could put in yours that you don't do humans!

...Oops, I totally wasn't aware of that when I dropped one into TTT. Won't happen again! xD

I mean I think I could do humans, but I just need some more practice with them. Thankfully that COTW thing we've been doing on Neko's Discord has helped quite a bit with pushing me to practice.

[Voltaire Magneton]

I'm also interested in drawing stylized humans. Even if the art's not realistic, you can still see the identity of the person in it.

[C0L0R3D]

I would say I'm decently talented with drawing humans, but I'm not the best with them. My style tends to be just Pokémon and anthropomorphic objects. As silly as they sound, you'd be quite surprised at what folk can do by slapping a face onto an object!

And on art related news, Art Fight huh? I'm adoring the Wither v Bloom theme, and I'm definitely more leaning to Bloom myself.

[Noblejanobii]

...Oops, I totally wasn't aware of that when I dropped one into TTT. Won't happen again! xD

jkdsfhs don't sweat it. I don't mind drawing mechs for comics and such, so feel free to drop them in to your heart's content. I can get away with obscuring them via panels. That's just something I don't do for commissions. You can also outline like no fetish or NSFW content, since people will ask eventually.

[Chakramaster]

...Oops, I totally wasn't aware of that when I dropped one into TTT. Won't happen again! xD

I mean I think I could do humans, but I just need some more practice with them. Thankfully that COTW thing we've been doing on Neko's Discord has helped quite a bit with pushing me to practice.


jkdsfhs don't sweat it. I don't mind drawing mechs for comics and such, so feel free to drop them in to your heart's content. I can get away with obscuring them via panels. That's just something I don't do for commissions. You can also outline like no fetish or NSFW content, since people will ask eventually.

I mean I'm not the best with art and I tried....a little. Wasn't much, but I tried to draw some of it. Wasn't comfortable drawing a full scale version, but I've gotta try to expand at some point. Else I won't ever get better.

[Neo Emolga]

I mean I'm not the best with art and I tried....a little. Wasn't much, but I tried to draw some of it. Wasn't comfortable drawing a full scale version, but I've gotta try to expand at some point. Else I won't ever get better.

No worries! Again, it's all for good fun and as long as you're still enjoying it, it's all good.

But yeah, even if you were to get so stuck that you're not sure how to continue, we can always talk it out and find a workaround. All three of us are trying new things and learning new tricks along the way, but I know sometimes not everything comes quickly and easily. But hey, as long as you keep going and don't give up, nothing's gonna stop you!

[Voltaire Magneton]

Just keep going and you'll improve one step at a time!

[Noblejanobii]

Yeah exactly!

[Voltaire Magneton]

I wonder when I'll get the motivation to do digital art again, I've been mostly dabbling on art with color markers.

[Neo Emolga]

Some days I have a lot of energy for digital art, but other days I don't. To really get stuff done, I need that plus the time to do it. If I only have like one half hour, usually it's not worth getting all set up and then poof, time's up and I just didn't get much done.

[Voltaire Magneton]

Same thoughts tbh, plus I'm guessing I've been using my laptop for work so much I want to distance myself from it for a while hence the lack of motivation for digital art lol

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, it's along those lines of where in school, you barely ever read for pleasure because you're so drained from reading as a class requirement. I'd probably feel the same way if I was a video game play tester. Would probably not play very much out of pleasure because I'd be so drained from having to do it at work. :P

[Voltaire Magneton]

Yes, that exactly!

Making/designing video games might be the fun-ner part, playtesting/quality control not so much

[Neo Emolga]

From what I've heard, being a dev for video games is HARD work and they work many long hours to make those crazy deadlines. I also get that many of them work on projects they may not personally like, either. Such as if you didn't like horror games or the horror genre overall but that's the project you're assigned to, you may just have to deal with it either way.

Plus, it's a VERY competitive field on top of that. So I can still see the pluses and minuses when it comes to working in that industry.

[Chakramaster]

Yeah and some of those developers that work with such a small team (Like Toby Fox) that made so many masterpieces. Its a tough job.

[Neo Emolga]

Tobyfox is a wizard, I can't even begin to imagine what he did in preparation for both Undertale and Deltarune.

And yeah, I still haven't played Deltarune, yet. It's on the list. :P

[Voltaire Magneton]

I haven't either, but I guess I'd rather wait for it to be complete since I'm not in the rush to play it lol

[Shruikan]

I still need to finish Undertale... :| I'd just reached one of the last areas, but then forgot about it XD

[Neo Emolga]

I did both routes on Undertale...

And ugh, the genocide route just makes you feel awful and dirty the whole thing through. As someone who almost never plays evil characters, I didn't have a good time. :P

[Voltaire Magneton]

Yeah, the Genocide route isn't my thing either.

And fortunately, That Last Battle is separately available somewhere online so you don't have to make a mess just to see That Part yourself.

[Neo Emolga]

The Pacifist route is fun with a reasonable challenge to it. It's definitely not the easiest thing I've ever done, but it feels appropriately balanced. And it has a great, feel good kind of ending that will leave you smiling.

But yeah, the Genocide route on the other hand can be tedious, makes you feel dirty and guilty, and Undyne and Sans will kick your butt AT LEAST a dozen times over before you finally overcome them only to, well, to avoid spoilers, doesn't make it feel like it was worth it in the end.

Still, it's a very decent game that has a crazy amount of surprises in it and really gets on a whole level of meta 4th wall breaking at times. It's one of those games that proves you don't need to have a AAA studio, a huge budget, super-stellar graphics, and thousands of employees to make a decent, well-designed game that sparks a whole fandom. Thankfully, in an industry where so many games are made just to squeeze money out, at least there's still great indie developers that make games out of passion and want it to be a memorable experience for gamers.

[Chakramaster]

For sure. I loved the Pacifist route. It was entertaining and enjoyable. The story was great with very creative and unique soundtrack to it too.

The Genocide route however, is very tedious yeah. Because you have to take the time to ensure you kill every single enemy in an area until nothing shows up anymore. Then the super bosses you face. Man I don't have the time to sit around playing all day on them as I used to. It'll leave you beat over and over for sure.

Toby was surprised by the game's success from what I've read. So much so it scared him. Now though you see Toby not only working on his own games, but some others. Most notably, Game Freak. Made a few songs for that Village game they made recently. Even made one for Sword and Shield. So it's nice to see how far Toby has come and is making it even further.

[Shruikan]

I ended up playing the Pacifist route my accident XD I just liked that gimmic of not killing the enemies so I avoided fighting anything whenever possible and it just kinda happened.


Even made one for Sword and Shield. So it's nice to see how far Toby has come and is making it even further.

He's also been brought back to do some songs for Scarlet & Violet

[Chakramaster]

Yup and I can't wait to see what he does for the new game! I'm sure they'll be just as good for sure.

I looked up a little about the game before I played. So I knew about the two different routes. Though they explicitly explain at the start how you don't want to "Fight." So I think I might've caught on back then. I was more observant back then. Honestly more than anything it was the soundtrack that got me hooked.

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, I'll admit I went in Undertale already knowing about the different routes, although yeah, in the beginning the game does urge you to not actually fight and kill anything. It's a stark contrast to most other RPGs where grinding by pulverizing all the monsters you face in random encounters is usually rewarded by EXP and money and is normally a good thing.

I agree that there's a lot of great music and that's where a lot of the charm of the game comes from. Not to mention the very memorable cast of unique characters.

But yeah, to anyone who really liked Undertale, try Omori. It has a lot of the same vibes as Undertale and I enjoyed that game a lot, too. And that game also has a lot of great music and charming SNES-style sprite graphics.

[Chakramaster]

Nothing wrong with knowing something like that I feel personally. Knowing a little if it's to help enjoy the game properly is just fine.

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, and on top of that, the promo video that the Steam store page has for Undertale promotes it as the "RPG where no one needs to die" so that's already giving you a big clue besides what Toriel tells you in the very beginning.

Although I'll admit...

I spent a REALLY long time on the Asgore battle the first time around thinking there was a way to talk him out of it but you do have to fight him a little bit. And the Undyne battle was a bit of the same, didn't really think running away was the only non-violent option until I realized giving up on talking her out of it and just running away from the battle was the solution.

[Voltaire Magneton]

Considering that us Pokemon trainers are used with the idea that major fights are un-Run-able, we wouldn't think of that at all lol

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, in RPGs, I almost never run from battles unless there's no hope of winning (on the verge of death and need to escape to avoid a game over) or the battle is extremely dangerous up front, and those types of battles usually don't happen with common encounters and you usually can't run from boss battles. But I know that if you run from too many battles because you're feeling lazy, the monsters are annoying, or you'd rather progress through the storyline sooner, eventually you end up paying for it by being too under-leveled and suddenly the boss wallops you like it's nobody's business, forcing you to have to go back to grind anyway. :P

But yeah, as a good example of battles where it's probably a good idea to always run away, running away from any Tonberry encounter in a Final Fantasy game is usually what I do if I can, because I know how badly those guys can MESS YOU UP regardless of what version you're playing and what level your party is at. And if you can't run from the encounter entirely (Final Fantasy Tactics Advance/A2, for example), good lord, keep your distance at all times at all costs other than getting close to those guys. And usually the risk/reward for taking these guys down is not worth it.

[Chakramaster]

I used to run a lot when I was younger and just wanted to get place to place asap for story. Now I learned and know how to fight and keep exp going as much as I can to keep things enjoyable and less frustrating.

Oh man don't get me started on those Tonberry in Final Fantasy games. Though they are fun in FF14. xD

[Neo Emolga]

I think the other case where I ran from some battles by default was in Earthbound, where there are various enemies that self-destruct when you defeat them and they do massive damage to you. In those cases, yeah, just run and grind on some other guys. There's plenty of other options.

And yeah, running from MMO battles always seems to be a mixed bag. In some of them, like WoW, monsters and such stop chasing you if you get far away enough from their original location, but in some of the older MMOs like Everquest, they are relentless and chase you incessantly unless you go into another zone and leave the area entirely or... you die. :P

Yeah, I don't have very fond memories of Everquest. That game was really stressful and very anti-newbie with its punishments for dying (besides losing massive EXP, you could easily lose all your gear if you died in a spot where you couldn't recover your corpse) and it's many high risk and low reward situations. And it was my first and least favorite MMO out of everything I've ever played. Caused me to almost never pick up another MMO after that first bad experience. :P

[Voltaire Magneton]

The idea of running away and bringing along a monster to somewhere near a rest area sounds interesting, but I guess that's what despawning is for lol

[Chakramaster]

Most safe areas I know in MMOs have security NPC to kill any monster to protect from someone randomly bringing mobs into safe zones and killing other players. Would be funny to see, but it's for safety xD

[Neo Emolga]

I saw it a few times in Everquest. It was one of those early MMOs, so the devs probably didn't play test it enough to find that out.

I got killed a few times hanging in safe areas. In one example, some hooligan had a bunch of griffons chase him out of the zone, and when he disappeared, they attacked the nearest innocent targets, included me. The more I think about that game, the more I realize just how awful it really was. And people think Elden Ring is a tough game...

[Voltaire Magneton]

That sounded intentional, making a mess out of safe zones

[Chakramaster]

I saw it a few times in Everquest. It was one of those early MMOs, so the devs probably didn't play test it enough to find that out.

I got killed a few times hanging in safe areas. In one example, some hooligan had a bunch of griffons chase him out of the zone, and when he disappeared, they attacked the nearest innocent targets, included me. The more I think about that game, the more I realize just how awful it really was. And people think Elden Ring is a tough game...

Oh no I remember it with my first real MMO Rising Force Online (RFOnline). Heck you had to level each individual stat as you progressed. Starting from lower level mobs. So to use a higher level shield as a tank class. You needed your shield/defense level at a certain level. So often times you'd be in high level areas seeing someone holding onto all the mobs for a monster others want to farm. If you tried killing one of those in that area. That person might go near you and let the entire mob hitting them AoE you dead in an instant. xD

[Neo Emolga]

Oh no I remember it with my first real MMO Rising Force Online (RFOnline). Heck you had to level each individual stat as you progressed. Starting from lower level mobs. So to use a higher level shield as a tank class. You needed your shield/defense level at a certain level. So often times you'd be in high level areas seeing someone holding onto all the mobs for a monster others want to farm. If you tried killing one of those in that area. That person might go near you and let the entire mob hitting them AoE you dead in an instant. xD

Ugh, that sounds bloody awful.

What also made Everquest horrendous was the severe EXP loss you suffered for dying, and it could even make you lose levels. Hours (days even) worth of grinding could be lost from something stupid that wasn't your fault or was just a freak accident. When you died, you had to go to the location where you died with nothing equipped at all (unless you had backup equipment in your character's bank), which mean you could easily be killed again and lose even more EXP. Then, if you managed to get to your corpse, you had to loot each individual item you had in your inventory and had equipped. All one at a time. Given the fact this is the spot where you died, it could still be a very dangerous area, which meant that while you were looting your corpse, you could get attacked and killed again. And in Everquest, they didn't give you any indication as to where your corpse was on the map, so if you got lost and died, good luck trying to get to your corpse again. You would probably need help. And if you didn't get to your corpse in time, absolutely everything you had on you would be gone.

On top of ALL THAT, where you respawned upon death depended on where your binding location was. If you died on the other side of the world and didn't get someone to bind you to a new location (only certain caster classes could do this), you could have to cross over multiple continents to get to even just the zone where you died. So instead of enjoying the game, you could spend hours just making the long trip back to where you died in hopes that you could reclaim all your lost stuff.

I think I only played up to level 19 and I decided to quit. As far as MMOs go, that's a pretty early resignation, but I just couldn't stand it any longer and I knew the game was only going to get harder and more stressful. Never had any regrets about that either.

[Voltaire Magneton]

Major losses from game overs also bum me out of playing it for quite a while too.

[Neo Emolga]

Heck, that's the kind of thing that could get me to quit a game permanently.

I'll never understand why such a thing as EXP loss needs to be a thing. How on earth does that motivate anyone to continue playing? Sure, I don't think having some little penalty such as equipment durability damage and/or money loss is a big deal, but having to fight back for EXP lost just feels really demotivating to me.

Offhand, there need to be more MMOs with cute fluffy anthropomorphic animals as playable character races. Too many of them just seem to be humanoids and more humanoids and nothing fun, cute, or original.

[Chakramaster]

Yeah EXP loss seems like a major downside to a game honestly. It was actually prevalent in RF too. Once you hit Lvl 30 leveling becomes super tough after you "class up." Taking hours of grinding things you have a hard time facing alone. Even if you were at 99% and needed just 1% more. You could lose it all with one death. Oh but don't worry. The premium shop they had included items you could buy to restore your lost EXP. A 100% pill that restores all lost EXP. It cost more than $20 if I remember right. They had cheaper options though. Pills that restore 10-50% etc. it only being a chance at a certain percentage. It....was awful xD. I never used one except for when it was given to me free during a holiday event. One of the 10-70% restore. Only restored about 12% of the lost 7% exp. 12% of the 7% lost exp is so little it wasn't even worth it.

Yes I agree. More of the cute and adorable classes with fluffy animal like races to play as. Would be fun xD

[Voltaire Magneton]

More cutesy aesthetics, yes! Might as well hope for a Pokemon MMO in the future

[Neo Emolga]

I'll admit, that was the major thing that drew me into playing Eden Eternal, one of those free to play MMOs. It featured a playable mouse race called the Zumi and they were just downright fun and cute to play as. I still have a few pictures of one of my characters that were this race:

https://i.imgur.com/6dl0Qs2.png

https://i.imgur.com/boEd45o.png

https://i.imgur.com/Mb6mY8C.png

They had a race of frogs and bears that were playable, also (I forget their names). Sadly, they pulled the plug on Eden Eternal a few years ago and this MMO is no more, but it did give me many hours of great fun and featured a lot of cool stuff. Sad to think it's all gone, but I've still got these pictures as memories.

Still, we need more MMOs with fun and unique races like this! So few MMOs and RPGs have them. After a while, you kind of just get tired and fatigued of playing humans, elves, dwarves, and the usual run-of-the-mill stuff that just isn't creative anymore and feels like it's been done over and over.

[Chakramaster]

I'll admit, that was the major thing that drew me into playing Eden Eternal, one of those free to play MMOs. It featured a playable mouse race called the Zumi and they were just downright fun and cute to play as. I still have a few pictures of one of my characters that were this race:

https://i.imgur.com/6dl0Qs2.png

https://i.imgur.com/boEd45o.png

https://i.imgur.com/Mb6mY8C.png

They had a race of frogs and bears that were playable, also (I forget their names). Sadly, they pulled the plug on Eden Eternal a few years ago and this MMO is no more, but it did give me many hours of great fun and featured a lot of cool stuff. Sad to think it's all gone, but I've still got these pictures as memories.

Still, we need more MMOs with fun and unique races like this! So few MMOs and RPGs have them. After a while, you kind of just get tired and fatigued of playing humans, elves, dwarves, and the usual run-of-the-mill stuff that just isn't creative anymore and feels like it's been done over and over.

That's why I kinda like the Miqo'te race in Final Fantasy 14. It's good fun and not really a human, but a cross....

Spoil tagging this next part cause Endwalker spoilers...

But OMG I soooooo wish they would make the Loporrits a playable race in FF14. It's not gonna happen, but I wish they did. XD so flipping adorable.

https://c.tenor.com/OoBQUN0NcuEAAAAC/loporrit-ff14.gif

[Neo Emolga]

That's why I kinda like the Miqo'te race in Final Fantasy 14. It's good fun and not really a human, but a cross....

Spoil tagging this next part cause Endwalker spoilers...

But OMG I soooooo wish they would make the Loporrits a playable race in FF14. It's not gonna happen, but I wish they did. XD so flipping adorable.

https://c.tenor.com/OoBQUN0NcuEAAAAC/loporrit-ff14.gif

Moogles as a playable race would be pretty awesome, too. But yeah, in FF14, the races really don't seem all that different from each other. All essentially humanoids with a few minor variations for the most part. And yet take another game like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance/A2/12 and there's a vast variety of races that could have worked pretty well as playable races.

Eh well, maybe one of these days...

[Chakramaster]

Moogles as a playable race would be pretty awesome, too. But yeah, in FF14, the races really don't seem all that different from each other. All essentially humanoids with a few minor variations for the most part. And yet take another game like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance/A2/12 and there's a vast variety of races that could have worked pretty well as playable races.

Eh well, maybe one of these days...

With FF14 there's Beast Tribes with the same animations as playable characters, yet you can't play as them without mods

[Neo Emolga]

With FF14 there's Beast Tribes with the same animations as playable characters, yet you can't play as them without mods

Ah, that reminds me of some of the fun stuff Game Shark could do with Final Fantasy Tactics on PS1. With that, you could give your characters access to all the special classes that were only reserved for certain storyline NPCs and all the skills that came with them. So with that, you could make Ramza or other NPCs stuff like Holy Knights, Dark Knights, and so many other options. This added an immense amount of replay value to an already great game I had played through a ridiculous amount of times. That and some of the weapons and items that were an absolute pain in the butt to obtain could be added to your inventory easy-peasy. I mostly only used them when it was possible to obtain them through a lot of frustration and tears, but I just went this method to spare myself the trouble.

Overall, it was fun to do this just to add a little extra flavor. Sure, it was possible to just instantly max everything and breeze through the game, but instead I modded it just enough to add that unique flavor of getting to use special classes I couldn't access before. And I only used equipment and abilities that I felt were balanced with the rest of the enemies on the battlefield to still give it that fun challenge. Other times, it was also fun to try and tweak it in a storyline kind of format, like making Ramza a Dark Knight as Gafgarion's apprentice (also a Dark Knight) after joining his mercenary group. And then by Act 4 I made him a Lune Knight as a kind of upgrade over the passage of time that occurs in the story. Fun stuff, but yeah, normally the game doesn't let you do this at all.

[Voltaire Magneton]

I never tried using Game Shark back then, plus it kinda looks too techy for past me lol

[Neo Emolga]

It took a lot getting used to it. You had to look up the codes online and then type them in manually. But once you got it working, you could save the codes and simply activate them upon playing the game.

But yeah, Final Fantasy Tactics was the best use of GameShark, but it did some pretty fun stuff for Final Fantasy VII as well.

[Chakramaster]

I used Game Shark on a few different games. Mostly on the N64. I tried years later on the PS2, but I broke it I think xD. Only got to use it on FFX. I did try an Action Replay on the DS for Diamond and Pearl. It was fun, but yeah nothing caught using it could be used online or trade online. I even kinda broke the game in a way there was a bugged character model left in one of the towns xD.

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, I remember the N64 one being not that great. I only used it a few times and sure, it was nice a few times (I think I used it for Star Fox 64 and maybe some other game), but you're right, it was kind of flimsy. The Playstation 1 GameShark was definitely a lot better.

[Voltaire Magneton]

Playing things vanilla is more fun (for me) anyway haha

[Chakramaster]

I somehow find a way to break games regardless. XD

[Neo Emolga]

Playing things vanilla is more fun (for me) anyway haha

I'll usually play through a game vanilla first, but if I really want more and there's a great number of mods for the game, I'll load it up.

XCOM2 is a great game that's got a lot of fun and amazing mods. The original game is pretty good (tough), but adding tons of mods to it adds a lot of great depth. A lot of them are mainly cosmetic, but even those are still quite a lot of fun. My only disappointment with those is the Long War 2 mod, which is an AWESOME mod, isn't compatible with the DLC, so I actually opted out of getting the DLC just because of that.

I wish there was a mod that would allow you to clone your troops. That way if you had a mission go so badly that the whole squad was wiped, there was very little consequence to it. Would feel a bit more realistic in a "can't win them all" sense and you wouldn't feel as inclined to reload and save just because you lost one out of the hundreds of battles you fought.

[Voltaire Magneton]

Modmakers are so creative these days, that probably exists somewhere.

[Chakramaster]

I'll usually play through a game vanilla first, but if I really want more and there's a great number of mods for the game, I'll load it up.

XCOM2 is a great game that's got a lot of fun and amazing mods. The original game is pretty good (tough), but adding tons of mods to it adds a lot of great depth. A lot of them are mainly cosmetic, but even those are still quite a lot of fun. My only disappointment with those is the Long War 2 mod, which is an AWESOME mod, isn't compatible with the DLC, so I actually opted out of getting the DLC just because of that.

I wish there was a mod that would allow you to clone your troops. That way if you had a mission go so badly that the whole squad was wiped, there was very little consequence to it. Would feel a bit more realistic in a "can't win them all" sense and you wouldn't feel as inclined to reload and save just because you lost one out of the hundreds of battles you fought.

Reminds me of a glitch in the first Fire Emblem game that came to the US. Where if you let an opponent step on a mine you place, shut down the game (completely or soft reset), and open the game again. You can control the entire enemy forces. So literally you can make the entire enemy team for one turn do nothing ooorrrrrrr my favorite. Make them all drop their weapons. So until more troops spawn. You had free reign on taking out the enemy team. XD

[Neo Emolga]

Ok, finally got around to checking but they DID update Long War for the War of the Chosen DLC, but it only happened late last year so I know why I missed it.

They don't have a means to clone soldiers (at least not when I looked through the mods), though there are mods to give your rookie soldiers a little more power, which might be a decent alternative. Late game, rookie soldiers are almost unusable because they'd get murdered very quickly and often end up as deadweight on the team, but if they're able to have at least a little more power until they get through the promotions, it might not be so bad.

[Voltaire Magneton]

Wouldn't they be considered mooks? Idk the game so I dunno how minor those soldiers are

[Neo Emolga]

Wouldn't they be considered mooks? Idk the game so I dunno how minor those soldiers are

They're not entirely worthless, but they lack a lot of the special abilities the later promotions have that you will definitely need to fight back against the stronger aliens.

I would like a setup where losing soldiers and taking heavy causalities isn't an instant call for a restart. Too many games are like that where if you lose just one member of the team during a mission, you might as well restart, even though you're mowing down hundreds of enemy soldiers...

[Voltaire Magneton]

Permadeath is a nice challenge, I've lost some units in Fire Emblem games but at the final boss stages. Kinda dramatic that way haha

[merleastrology]

May I join this run? Lol, it looks like I will need to use some schedule maker service to not forget about checking this topic every day. I believe this is a very disciplining event, and I will try my best. By the way, I see that some of you have already won multiple times. What's your secret? Maybe you can share a strategy with me or at least recommend a good schedule maker to me. Thank you for the answer in advance!Update- Nevermind, I found a decent schedule maker on the following site*create.vista.com (https://create.vista.com/create/flyers/). I hope it will help me with winning this time. I wish good luck to all.