Janaina Medeiros
dirt enthusiast
ojovivo
Product Placement
blake kathryn
Discoholic 🪩
oozey mess
@theartofmadeline
hello vonnie
tumblr dot com
Monterey Bay Aquarium
JVL
Today's Document
DEAR READER
shark vs the universe
Peter Solarz
sheepfilms
titsay
Love Begins
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
seen from T1
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@adventurerordae
I've been thinking. The color of a Soul Ally represents their element, so Secundus might be Doom element. And with Doom being such a big part of Book 4 (if the title is anything to go by), might we see a Doom Knight become some sort of Weaver empowered by the (presumably) Doom element Secundus? If so, that would be a heck of a lot of Doom all around. (And sick as heck!)
One of the great parts of dragonfable's writing is how it describes the chains and cycles of violence through time.
Tanislav sacrificed his wife to save his son Roirr, who grew up obsessed with immortality, ignoring his children. His daughter Pandora lashes out at everyone, and in turn her son Aspar froms the Corrupted Seven, which proceed to torment the world. His other daughter Oyva isolates herself from everyone else, and eventually her descendant Vaal becomes a megalomaniac, who comes to support Roirr's bloody path, eventually culminating in the two of them getting sent back in time to give Tanislav the ritual to save his son in the first place.
Wargoth enslaved the Atealans, and when his son tried to overthrow him he was banished and reincarnated as a human. Falling back on what he had learned from his father, Warlic comes to set his rival Alexander on fire and sealing their mutual friend Jaania into an ice crystal. When Jaania is freed, she decides that magic is too dangerous and has caused too much pain, proceeding to seal Warlic, Xan and the Hero in a crystal, inflicting that very same pain on other people.
The dragon Akriloth burned down Konnan's hometown, and blaming the Hero, Konnan pursued fire magic to exact revenge, becoming Drakonnan and eventually being considered a dragon in mindset.
When King Slugwrath was overthrown, his son Drakath began searching for a way to reclaim his birthright, eventually becoming a dragon. Even after death, his corpse was used to consume the Sun and plunge Lore into Darkness.
And then upstream of basically everything else, you have the Exaltia turning on their creators the Aequilibria. Magic, Lore, the Wastes and Elemental Plains are the aftermath of a gun designed to kill God that uses cities as ammunition.
Dragonfable is about cycles. The balance of lore is such that there will always be saviors to face its destroyers, and destroyers to face its saviors, in perpetuity.
Which makes Magus Neron all the more fascinating. When he lost his family, community and half his face to Akriloth, he continued to be a doctor. He became the benevolent exception to the pain the Rose caused, and performed groundbreaking research on Lycanthropy. Magus Neron is one of the only people who have succeeded in going "this ends here" to the pain and suffering.
I can't believe this is actual game dialogue
It's just the alpha right now, but currently there's no temp inventory for quests in AQW Infinity. That has me curious as to what will be done with all the lovely temp item descriptions that have shown up in recent years. Ideally that text will be woven back into Infinity in some form, but if it isn't, I wonder if AQW Classic will have slightly more flavor in retaining the temp item descriptions, or if the temp items will go back to being descriptionless. I like err on the side of optimism and think the first option will happen, though I know not how. (Quest progress is persistent between logging out and back in, which is nice for the grindier farming quests.)
I am soooo glad that the new ultra battle confirms that malgor would be insufferable even if he did get everything he wanted.
This is my dear son boy he has the personality of toxic sludge. ~ ❤ 🧚♀️ ❤
@explorer-of-sky
Scolding Spray Bottle
Weapon type: fist
120% bonus damage to malgor type enemies.
Vohu supplies the spray bottles
Kinda hoping astero gets a weekly fight so we can take a bat to him regularly
100% my favourite after image dialogue and it's got so much potential angst buzzing about in my head.
whitetigerpoint's dynamic between Kylokos and Valencia already got me shipping them. Now we can pull it back past the Reset, and even tie into Valencia's DF ship with Symone.
imagine the three of them living together in Soluna. Val working at the museum, Kylokos as a researcher at GEARS, and Symone in the SDF. It doesn't matter what brought them together but they were happy. Oh, they'll fight, get on each other's nerves, but never anything that can't be taken back.
But as the war carried on cracks began to emerge. Symone's experiences, nurturing a deep and justified hatred of the Shadowscythe. She'd seen what they and their virus had done to her comrades and to civilians. Kylokos' research would lead her in a different direction. She'd seen their ability to change, to become something more than the Master's puppets. She began dreaming of a post war peace with the freed Shadowscythe. This led to increasingly tense arguments.
Valencia often sat in the middle, mediating the two. She understood that you can't write an entire civilization off as ontologically evil, but also that as the war currently stood, mutual peace was very unlikely and few would accept it.
Shortly before the Carcossa departed, it reached a breaking point, an ultimatum. Valencia sided with Symone. Kylokos burnt every bridge she could and left aboard the Carcossa, where she remained until the EDoT's death and the Great Fusion.
However in the Fusion, Symone remained between the pages. Since that final argument, the three of them have never once been fully reunited.
I started playing the Great Dragon Hunts the other other week and it helped me finally put into words an issue I have with AQW. Most of the maps feel like they were designed to be individual "quests" like in DF and MQ, rather than places you can explore in the world. One part of the Nature Dragon Hunt has you hinted to go to /BlindingSnow and the following to /DeluzeTundra. But there's not link between those maps where one leads to the other. You're following the trail of this Great Dragon in the text, while in the gameplay you have to either /join or know where a button to the next map is. Mind you, I understand why. Keeping track of all the maps and, even if haphazardly, choosing to have it link to another map in that region would be quite the undertaking. That and not wanting to be tied down by a set layout of the world. And, since each map is designed around the questline on that map, rather than to be part of a more cohesive world, it would feel weird wandering around /BlindingSnow and stumbling into a map change that takes you to the middle of a Nulgath story where the Hero is there intentionally. Maybs this is something being considered with Infinity. There is /River and /RiverQuest, which are the same, but the latter has a questline associated with it and the former is the only one that links to /HorcPath. That said, it's still the alpha, so things might just be done that way for testing. I guess, to whatever degree possible, I'd just like to see the world of AQWorlds treated as something that can be explored, with buttons for adventures and /join being helpful to reach a specific destination but not be the only option (still looking at you, Bright Oak, no buttons to you even in the adventures sections). As a hypothetical, how cool would it be if a new player is wandering around in AQW (or Infinity) and stumble on a link Termina Temple back when it was the abandoned Temple of Light. Nothing to do there but fight some monsters, then hours later they get far enough in the story that /TempleDelve and /TempleSiege take place, so that link changes to those maps, and then again to the /TeminaTemple after those quests and SoW2. Make the world feel more cohesive while just reusing map art that already exists. Will it happen? Probably not. But it's fun to imagine.
I often think of AQW /DF/etc. similar to a cartoon or comic/manga with a weekly release. But I've come to realize a narrative and writing advantage these games have given their medium. Or at least, I see it as an advantage. That being the ease at which the releases can go between main story to side story to holiday, etc. without breaking the narrative flow long term. One week, you're dealing with an evil chandelier that's trying to eat existentially displaced refugees, and the next there's cool chicken from space setting up food stands and a hot spring to become the Chicken OF Space. And it's fine because you're jumping between different story lines, which will eventually be finished so that future folks can play them all in narrative order anyway. It's better than when linear released stories might want to do something different for a bit and break the overall flow of the main narrative for side quests, or pad for time with poorly done filler like in older anime adaptations. All that to say, I like the release structure of these games and the flexibility it allows, as well as being able to give those invested in the story as it releases more time to sit with big revelations. (And, hypothetically, giving the production team more time to polish the writing and cutscenes of the main story. But that part's just speculation.)
I'm curious as to how AQW Infinity will handle some of the weirder aspects of the early story. One instance that comes to mind is when Lionfang kidnapped all the characters you know so well (because of the other games) and you have to become undead in order to reach him. That would be the easiest to handle, since even in AQW, that event went rare for years before coming back as part of Chaos Lord Lionfang's full story arc. But the idea of seeds like that being planted so early to come back to later is fun. The more interesting one will be when Xing and Xang first appeared, since that whole thing was wrapped up in them convincing Drakath to launch not 1, but 2 meteors at BattleOn. That then being a fun excuse for players to come together to cast a teleportation spell on the town and, more importantly, give an in game excuse as to why they were moving BattleOn to a different place on the map. Especially with, as important as Xing and Xang are at Drakath's side, it makes me wonder how Infinity will handle their introduction. Heck, I think AQW just has those cutscenes relegated to books at the back of Warlic's Shop, so anything would be a nice improvement to make it feel more a part of the main story. As long as it doesn't totally sand off the fun nonsense.
(So, the Chaos Twins totes gave the 2 meteors idea to Madara Uchiha, we can all agree?)
I'm been wondering about something for a while. At the end of Shadow of War II, it was mentioned that if the Hero, the Eternal Dragon of Time, dies then that would end the universe. As such, Drakath was looking into how to lobotomize a dragon and Old Worlds Order can just Silence beings for a similar effect. But long before that, at the end of 13 Lords of Chaos, the Hero was killed, Death even saying there wouldn't be any respawns. Yet, the universe kept spinning. The Hero coming back from this death was a whole thing, involving a contract with Nulgath, killing Death, and (if I'm remembering right) the Hero "becoming" Death. My best guess is maybe the original Death had an influence in the Hero being "dead" and the universe still existing, now with them gone all bets are off.
I have one really strange fond memory from the original AQWorlds Beta. This was when they were still trying to figure out all the online social features and there wasn't a friends list yet. Anytime other players and I would become friends, there was no way to know when they were online. So I'd login after school, look at the physical list of player names I had written down on the desk at the family computer, and just go through using /whisper to ask if they were on. It was horribly inefficient, but after all this time and how involved the process was, it's hard not to look back on it fondly. That said, I am glad there's a friends list already in the Infinity Alpha.
One of my favorite gaming memories
was when my friend and I were playing Death Stranding 1 for the first time. We'd been playing in parallel while on a call until now. She came over to visit and we hung out as I played the last bit of the game. Throughout the game, licensed music will start playing with the credits for it coming up in the corner. I start the final delivery with my friend right next to me watching. The camera pulled back, the music started, a tune that had appeared throughout the game but was never a full song. Until now. The music, the nature of that final delivery, and the song name coming up. She and I, without any preplanning, at the same time cried out, "BB's Theme?!" when we saw the name of the song. Us being so in sync always puts a smile on my face with that memory.
What do you mean, "Art Partially Converted?" There is no art! That is the point!
I wish there was cool lore to go with AQW's form of membership. "Legend" is pretty boring and generic. Ah, here are Guardians, powerful, well known defenders of these lands. You will meet many of them, if you haven't already, their tower being the landmark of this town. (And they'll have a role in our kinda-but-not-really prequel's story too.) Somehow you acquired a Dragon Amulet, an ancient artifact that strengthens your bond with your dragon. There's an entire order of those like you, other DragonLords. Our most famous big bad even has one. You are a Star Captain! You can own your own starship and mingle with others like you in the lounge. (I don't remember much of MQ, I need to replay it.) Legend! You certainly are one! Yup! We call it Legend now because "Members" sounds like you're part of a book club. Lore? What do you mean? You're a Legend! (Maybs Infinity can polish this if it still does membership subscriptions.) (Shout out to players who still just call it "Members" cause you've played for that long.)
I know what you are Circe
Once, a long time ago, I was playing AQW with a friend. I had the Armored Guardian Dragon pet out, for funzies. Like when the Guardian Dragon would be summoned in AQ Classic, the pet in AQW would say various phrases. I'm certain they were just copy/pasted directly from the original. I know that because of the phrase, "I came to kick arse and chew bubble gum… and I'm all out of bubble gum!" When I saw that in AQW way back when, knowing the game didn't allow for swears in chat, I was surprised, but I guessed the game allowed for that one. I immediately typed to my friend, who couldn't see the pet's phrases, "Oh my gosh, the Guardian Dragon just said arse!" I was muted for 2 minutes for swearing. And that was the time AQW played me.
I feel like whomever playtests the named boss fights for the new DF releases is a master of the game, knowing the ins and outs of their own build perfectly and able to read the enemy's rotation well while responding to their unique mechanics. That is to say, Konnan, Galanoth, and now Krasya have kicked my butt in a way I'm not used to from DF.
