I'm a big time lover of Starcraft Brood War. I had a good time with SC2 as well, though with the advent of SC Remastered I've kinda gone back to what started it all, personally. Let me just begin this entry by saying there are a LOT of things that go into making an RTS attractive - from a spectator and player perspective. I'm only going to do a brief sweep today, because I don't find anything further to be necessary at this time.

One of the most important aspects to focus on with this genre is creating and maintaining visual clarity. If the player or observer can't tell what's going on, there is a problem, full stop. Sadly, this appears to be one of Stormgate's greatest failings. I'm gonna take an executioner's axe to anybody who suggests it'll all be fine on release - the issue is so widespread that it rather seems to reflect an overarching philosophy than a few oversights. That is worrying.

The terrain texture quality is just dreadful. In motion, this game looks like a stretched 1080p stream that was paused during a particularly busy frame. Makes me feel like my eyes have gotten worse just by going fullscreen. It's not merely this "bilinear filtering" plague, either - the unit clarity is a mess too. Team color's gonna need to do way more heavy lifting in future updates. There is so much blurred green, orange and grey, and the units - whether it's their noticably small sizes, boring animations, or lack of distinct geometry - they simply do not stand out. Worse still - yes, I have to say it - they clump up.

...Dear fuck. When are we going to learn from SC2? It's been a while since that game came out. I'm pretty sure the devs have heard of it.

This is a screenshot, and not while paused. This is how it looks for everyone; I encourage you to zoom in.

To clarify - the idea of emphasized units on top of a lesser-emphasized world map is a plausible path to success. Nothing inherently wrong with that. But there is seemingly an anti-emphasis across the board, and I'm just relieved people are noticing and talking about it. The interface is also rather strange. It's oversized and generally not very informative, but I'll not comment further on that since UI is less hardlocked than other game elements.

Moving away from graphics, the pace of combat seems better than SC2's endless lightning rounds of death, which is very worthy of note. It could turn out more back-and-forth games, and generate a more "storied" series between two players. But I don't find the gameplay particularly swaying, innovative or sufficiently separate from what has been established in the last 25 years. Swap this mechanic to that race, merge this mechanic with that mechanic. And people say this will lead RTS into the next generation?

I ignore the tired "it's still in beta" defense. This is a throwaway one-liner developers have come to wield over their fans for the past decade. It has allowed them to avoidantly fast track through the "initiation phase" and thereby drown out valid criticism leading up to launch day. But the time for that tactic has passed. It won't work today. That being said, I'm more than willing to absorb new races, and watch patiently as the true race/unit balance unfolds. But there is a long, bloody winter ahead if Stormgate is to become distinct.

SC2 didn't come into its prime right away. We still had Immortals warping in at Warp Gates when the first battle reports were released. But go back and look for yourself - that game just felt better - FIFTEEN years ago!

We are slowly entering an era where art is created with the sole hope of being processed and iterated on by the masses, through what I'm going to call "meta layers". People will base their whole lives around these layers, and monitor/compare them with religious levels of dedication and scrutiny. A creation's popularity is likely to correlate to how many layers it has "survived". This will drive future progress of all modern culture. And whether you like it or not, the average molecule (formerly known as an 'individual') won't care at all about anything which hasn't passed through at least a few of them.

I will just close by saying that Stormgate has the thankful benefit of not being born into a time where this mentality has graduated infancy.

Last one for 2023.

This update is gonna fix some important bugs, several of which I created during the making of 3.0. We're also adding a few new weapon ailments that I've wanted to get in for a very long time - Darkness and Sleep! In addition, there is what might actually be the final round of QoL & balance. And last but not least, the definitive final updates to the White Mage and Black Mage sprites!

For now, the update will be postponed on RHDN until whatever is going on over there gets resolved by the staff.

This is the last version of Final Fantasy I will be entertaining for what is likely to be a long while. Waluigi RPG is next.

...The first of which is TODAY! It is a minor update to the HoMM project, some of which would not be possible without my friend BTB.

First Aid is actually good now?! Impossible!

Dec 15 minor hotfix: Tower/Inferno/Stronghold Blacksmiths now properly show the First Aid Tent and related tooltips have finally been fixed.

Guarantee you that prices are going to rise even higher the instant UBI goes into effect. What’s even the fucking point, businesses are just going to vacuum it all up for themselves proportionately and then some. C’mon - there’s no sense in thinking they’ll stop there.

There won’t be any way to regulate edits to prices based on this change, nor to distinguish/prove good faith! Of course, everyone will know full well - but like everything on this planet, it doesn’t matter what you know. It matters what your title is, and whether you belong to the “stomping on” or “stomped on” category.

So don’t look forward to that free money juuuust yet.

This is a big one, because I have a lot of shit to say.

Even if things don't get worse around our neck of the galaxy, it is too late to help all those affected by our rampant abusive technology...If the world became a paradise tomorrow, they would still be sick. Killing them isn't a long term solution either, because they will simply retain what happened and carry it with them in the next life...ask me how I know. It's going to take an ENORMOUS amount of patience, and millions upon millions of loving parents in order to do what needs to be done. And we don't have either of those.

Apart from the massive knowledge disconnect, even if people knew about this - the system, the coming events, etc. - they still wouldn't want to be reminded. It's understandable - who the fuck wants to hear that starting over is now an honest, viable consideration? We aren't wired to want that, for others much less ourselves.

People want to keep on. They also want their cognitively dissonant delusions to continue working out for them - but sadly it's often that those solutions are stealing from them, instead. But the cracks are beginning to show, even to the layman.

A good metric is to stay ahead of the "public lag". This is because by the time everybody figures something out, it's usually too late to gain any advantage in that sector. If tomorrow everyone across the U.S. had the bright idea to start stocking up food, it's too late - there wouldn't be enough time or supply, not to mention it'd be Black Friday times fifty. We've already seen this in action, during what was a very interesting test during 2020-21. And yes, that's what it fucking was, I don't care if you believe it or not. And if you think that was bad, I suggest boarding up the windows if and when the fighting comes westward...or if the sleeper cells get a text message that reads "Now."

The world has changed a lot in eight years. You meet people now, and they're all the same. They can't shut off Discord for more than a few seconds. It's impossible to find company that isn't desensitized to everything. The strangest part might just be how easily this new way has been accepted, and welcomed with open arms like an old friend. It was never like this before! How can we give ourselves up to technology so easily, as though it were a god? Because we are tired. Tired of bombardment, tired of screaming, dissonant thoughts and goaded tribalism. We have been purposefully exhausted of our will because of another's fear of our true potential. And our escape mechanisms are going to collapse all around us like a house of cards.

-

I had planned to write about this in a previous article, but held off on it at the time...I really hate this "in-between techtree" bullshit we've got going on Earth. Prior to this, I had lived in two polar opposite societies. One was sticks, stones, animal hides and leaves. I was a hunter gatherer. I was good at what I did. It was simple, meaningful and fulfilling even if I didn't like many of the people there. We had our gods, our "magical" talismans, a small social hierarchy, all that jazz. It was far from perfect, believe me. But it was natural. What happened, happened. If you were weak, you'd probably get eaten by a superior animal. That's the way it went.

I later had the opportunity to see a very, very advanced world. It couldn't have been more different, and yet the core family values were still very alive and well. They did not worship anyone (I was initially very upset about this) and, I guess the best way to summarize would be that there were so many more ways to fit in. Whatever you were good at, you could find a niché, and people would help you find it, too. For some, that was actually their job. So kind of like if school was actually useful here, I guess. With great advancements had come a great responsibility to moderate and curate in all things - including the amount of people allowed to live on the planet at once.

And of course, there was no currency.

Around here, it's neither of these. We have a galvanizingly stressful, frankensteined duo between medieval levels of primitive emotional, civil and educational practice, mixed with surprisingly advanced tech we really shouldn't have. And no...I'm not talking about AI. People would never sleep again if they knew the things we have been capable of for 80 years, and we haven't slowed down. I guess what I'm saying is I'd rather be anywhere than this exponentially chaotic version of in-between.

-

This is a prison planet. That's the key here. 8 BILLION ARE TREATED AS CRIMINALS by a computer system and what amounts to a company of wizards of Oz. Think about how we, the general public consider human criminals in our daily existence...we don't. We fear them, we detest them, we want to forget they exist, keep them away, keep them down, and ensure they don't overpower the jailers and escape. Sound familiar? That is how they view us, too!

The disproportionate tech is a highly convenient tool for keeping the prisoners down, poor, dying, divided and powerless. "If that's true," you say, "then why give any of it to the public at all?" First - the public has access to truly so very little of the repertoire - only what is deemed safe in advance. Second, look what it's done to us! You think that was by accident? As they say around here, the future is already invented, and is merely waiting its turn in a research paper. Plus, this strategy does a lot of dirty work for the jailers, and serves as a convenient automative reinforcement tool. Major public innovations have been quietly buried countless times - anti-grav and free energy are big ones. We should have had them long ago. Some kid will come along and create something truly ingenius in his bedroom and want to show it off...so they'll do the parade, then give the family a cookie to "go away".

The prospects of the coming year aren't so much terrifying because of the amount of people who have yet to die, but because the global economic, social, political and religious unrest will be capitalized on in ways we are not prepared for. "Let no conflict go to waste." With so many issues reaching critical mass at the same time (isn't that interesting?) there is no cure - no way to prevent the collapse of the systems and a mandatory reshaping of them if we are to continue. And any proposed cure to keep things as they are in spite of it all will only serve to bring us closer to a fever pitch, on a scale humans have not yet seen. A full-blown conflict would ultimately widen the gap irreparably between the ones running this place and the prisoners at large, to a point of likely no return. That is why this is such a pivotal moment in history.

But I don't give a shit about crystal balls anymore. The whole "it can go one of many different ways" sentiment doesn't mean anything when corruption is so strong. As for the public involvement? We're all sick from it. You, me, your friends, parents, spouses - everyone. Deep down we all know, and some of us prefer to shy away from the thought due to the emotional toll it can take very quickly. I hear a lot of stories about how this divide is creating conflict in families and couples, and honestly I don't blame any of them; both sides are right. And yet the so-called cowards might be the wiser in the end, for sublimating it all in silent acceptance of the inevitable. Because really - what has talking about it gotten us? I don't expect this article to do shit for anyone, either. But if it does, that's still nice, of course.

Now for something video game-related. Without going into all the things that are wrong with Diablo 4's story, I did take a major point away from it. At four games in, Heaven's angels aren't shown to care that much for humans anymore, having grown quite jaded with them over thousands of years. They certainly don't care for the demons of Hell. Hell is about the same, but with a less apologetic take on using humans as pawns. Ask yourself - would you rather a prime evil be honest with you about the fact your servitude is going to put you in harm's way, or have an angel lie to you about the ultimate payout of your faith? And then you have the humans caught in the middle. They have resolved for decades to try and trap the demons in the void, but this is pointless since they can never truly die. They will always come back to repeat the same boring cycle again and again. As a matter of principle, the angels & demons will never win, as they are too busy deceiving the other side in an attempt to be "the one" who breaks the cycle. And humanity will always suffer in between, deluding itself with the meaningless dream of peace. These factions are one and the same.

I've seen quotes from non-human species where they essentially ridiculed us for our lack of management of internal affairs. Paraphrasing - "While there are of course many wars between races across space, you humans are doing it all amongst yourselves." Oh, how very astute. Did this moron not get the memo? IT IS A FUCKING PRISON - of course there will be infighting! It amazes me that anyone out there would be unaware of the true function of Earth, and why it is such an anomaly. I guess they haven't known anyone who died here. You figure it out pretty quick after that. For all the classified documentation, secrecy, and whispers about every manner of shit we have had our hands in as a race, you still NEVER hear anyone talk about the actual prison itself. A dead giveaway for just how important it is.

Whether it's Diablo, Earth, or some other prison on the other side of the universe, it doesn't really matter which "side" you believe - no one is innocent, and there are no saints. A prison does not breed those things. It is a tragedy that such a place exists - it will swallow even the most wonderful people, and turn them into a seething shadow of their former glory. In the end, what it boils down to is who, or what, you are willing to die for. Because in a prison riddled with constant conflict on, below, and above the surface, your only escapes are the time you spend after death before being seized up again by the grid, and the time you spend twiddling your translucent thumbs in the womb. That's it. And those are the shortest periods we spend existing here, by far. That's not a coincidence.

It is frustrating to even look around. Signs of the sickness are everywhere. It is designed that way, and I know that. But still...having to constantly pinch myself to remember it wasn't always like this, and should never have been, is very tiresome. Not that these symptoms don't affect me, too - don't misunderstand me. They affect us all. Everyone is angry at everybody, and each one's got their reasons. But I am running out of willpower. At this point, I will be happy if I get my novel out there, piss some people off with it, and maybe inspire some, too. While I have many ideas for what to do after that, I'm not sure whether they're going to take shape.

Come what may; let onlookers be damned.

I'm a bit late on saying this, but Rammstein and A7X's latest albums are truly awesome!

I also kinda love how divided people are over Life Is But A Dream. Sure, it isn't loaded with stadium anthems, but fuck that honestly. They've been done. A7X can do whatever the hell they want now - they wrote Exist, for fuck's sake. Now obviously, if a Hail to the King is what falls out, then that's what falls out, but this ain't about being classic. These guys know some dark shit, and it's on display in all directions. And they aren't the only ones.

Naturally, they are still off base with their dogged pursuit of the "simulation" thought trajectory, which began on 2017's The Stage (which I also quite liked), and that's fine. It is largely influenced by AI's surge in popularity anyway. Collective zeitgeist is never the best way to assess the light at the end of the tunnel, in fact it's one of the worst. Besides, the truth is always far simpler and more disturbing.

Anyway, they have some great ideas here. Screw all the morons who don't get this masterpiece. The only track I don't come back to is "Nobody", and that's just because it didn't have enough hooks for me; it felt TOO soapbox-y for a song. To me it is the weak link of the thematic trio it shares with "Mattel" and "We Love You". But the rest are wonderful in my book! People are gonna be talking about "Cosmic" for a few months, which is a millenium in our goldfish brain society.

"Game Over" is VERY reminiscent of System of a Down, and wow, does it fit A7X like a glove!! I wouldn't wanna be Shad trying to sing those verses live...phew! What a kickass opener. 'I know this might sound crazy, but I've smelled the plastic daisies' is just one of the great lines he delivers across this record, and there are actually people who say he can't write lyrics anymore. What a laugh.

As others have pointed out, the well-crafted Sinatra tribute "Death" is about as elegant as suicide can be. "Easier" is one of my personal favorites...the well-placed and haunting autotune is both comforting and therapeutic, and seems to speak directly to the hopeless, the confused, and the overwhelmed with a feather-weight touch of soothing calm that alternates with bashing doses of harsh reality.

It's a treat to see Gates continuing to lean into his David Gilmour persona, while still lambasting the airways with his trademark walls of scales. And you know, I wasn't aware until recently that they are heavily influenced by classical music. Big surprise, aye? It's always like that with the greats. People don't appreciate nearly enough what these boys are doing; I hope history recounts them more kindly.

I do think I've found one of the biggest common differences between male and female. And I feel pretty "unconscious dumbass" for not grasping sooner. The ultimate question, of course - by the end of this post, are you as unconscious a dumbass as I, or are you mere seconds from sitting there agreeing with my criminally understated self-deprecation?!

Especially historically, females seem to be more set in stone from the get-go, whereas males are oftentimes the ones collecting all the extra scars and milestones. Does this mean one lacks the ambition of the other? Does it mean one simply knows what they want? Does it mean one is more interested in a challenge...? Not so clear cut, friend - not everything is about dividing people, and I am neither a corporation nor a politician.

Actually, scratch that 'friend' bit. I don't even know who the hell you are. You could be (unsuccessfully) plotting my death.

The masculine/feminine burden is inverted. Looking purely at the physical manifestation, males carry it on their backs, and females carry it in the front. Kind of rudimentary, aye? If things didn't branch off from there, one might see these differences as boring or even pointless. And that is just one example. But as a firm believer in MBTI, I will gladly attest to the idea that even the simplest "people rules" carry a fundamental air of relativity, and this is good. Very good, in fact - we'd be in trouble if not.

But for real. GUYS ALWAYS BE BITCHIN' THEY CAN'T CHANGE A WOMAN WITHOUT BEIN' LOBOTOMIZED. And they're kinda right. Seriously, good luck with that shit. You're better off punching a mirror. But guys can take a really rough life right up the ass and reinvent as many times as necessary...that comes naturally to them. And in a lot of cases where this doesn't ring true, it's pretty obvious when someone was thrown into the wrong body.

Yeah, character selection on Earth is pretty broken. It ain't gonna be fixed easily since the devs kinda died off thousands of years ago (read: they were bombarded from orbit for being galactically-sized asswipes)

Maybe if the roles were flipped, we'd see a starkly opposite, equally base trend. Even so, I find the design fascinating. As a silent narrator once said, whose name has since departed from my conscious memory - the mind wobbles...

...and I see they're thinking the same thing many of us around the world are.
Check out Panic Attack - these mofos still have their teeth sharpened and bared!

This is it. The development of 3.0 is a massive culmination of dreams come true and wishlist items attained. And before we go any further, I need to send my personal thanks out to Jiggers and Marf Norrelia, for having helped make the full changelog possible. I am grateful to have been able to collaborate creatively again, and twice now with you, Jig! I really appreciate you taking time out for me.

Now, on to business...

♥ NEW TITLE SCREEN
♥ MAGECORE - NEW UNLOCKABLE MODE & CLASS
♥ EXTENSIVE COMBAT OPTIMIZATION
♥ ANIMATED SEA
♥ NEW CLASS CHANGE SPRITES
♥ MONSTER TURN ANIMATIONS
♥ REARRANGEABLE & FORGETTABLE SPELLS



Weee! Magecore is a brand new post-CHAOS, soft-hardcore challenge in which only mages are available - including a new one, the Shield Mage! The catch? Magecore parties do not have access to clinics OR life spells...YIKES. Among a host of new weapons - and not just for the new class - the old LIFE and LIFE2 spells have been repurposed to help protect the party against the elements in other ways.

Moving over to combat. In general, the pace of battles has received a facelift, moving a little further away from 1987 and a little more toward the present day. The response rates have also been adjusted to be more useful, in case it is now too fast for players. Mage fans are going to love 3.0 - your sweet little hot asses can now rearrange and forget spells they have previously learned. But perhaps most importantly, enemies FINALLY indicate they are taking their turn like later FF entries! The oceans have come alive at last, along with a new coat of world map paint and class change sprites... Oh, and wait until you see CHAOS.

There is also a... new broom in Matoya's Cave, who will help out new players with advice. Just keep talking to him - he has multiple tips!

There's far more to 3.0 than headlines - like the new ZONA spell, which reflects damage back at spellcasters, or the vicious but freighty Violin spider. Head on over and check out the full changelog!!

This is the last major planned update for this mod.

I don't fucking understand people on this planet. They freely, happily allow themselves to be divided unseen by corporations and politicians, who benefit from their constant arguing and meaningless anger. And don't get me wrong, I stay far away from it. But fuck, they don't even know what they're fighting for. Such is the case too with this whole "woke" concept.

When the new shitty Star Wars episodes came out and gave us an insufferably Mary-Sue protagonist, everyone referenced "Get woke, go broke." At the time, it seemed people were interested in better loyalty to source material and higher quality universal storytelling. You know, as opposed to the hijacking of pop culture and mass character assassinations we got. It seemed everyone had understood what went wrong, and that seemed good.

But what I have come to learn is that for far too many, this term simply became a tool - a vehicle for directing hate at any attempt at bridging the gap which has long existed between the human sexes. In the same way people have come to claim "troll" for anyone that disagrees, "woke" has morphed into a safe, convenient mechanism for rebranding sexist, phobic toxicity safely.

At large, the public is going nowhere in this sector. You usually get one of two types of individuals - either those feigning support for better inclusion on the surface, who in reality desire preferential treatment (and ultimately, superiority) or those who hate anything to do with inclusion at all.

You see, it is very hard to find people who all of
A) want to be more open-minded/supportive,
B) and don't want our pop culture sabotaged,
C) and don't want incompetent diversity hires.

Instead, we have fostered useless, clumsy, polar opposite viewpoints for as far as the eye can see. And yes, I say this often, because it is true about a pathetic number of our societal facets - IT IS ALL BY DESIGN.

Nothing meaningful will ever get done as long as these fake "lowest common denominator" values rule our society. Balance is the only way, and has always been the only way. You want to know more about the universe? You want to see other worlds, and learn about cultures other than Earth's? Then get your own shit together first.

Edit: Know what's cool about having tits now? You don't slam your guitar into your rib cage while sitting and playing anymore.

Today's a release day! Here's the fifth project, a teensy modification to a lesser-sung hero
of the action RPG genre... Crystalis on the NES!

The composite nature of Crystalis's sprites made this take a lot longer than it should have, but it was interesting to work with a different NES game for bit. I also wanted to play all the way through and make sure I didn't miss anything, since not every game out there has been cracked open in ASM and Notepad++.

In addition to the male to female change, the weapon is also swapped from a sword to something more scepter-like. If you've played the game, you know full well you aren't gonna be meleeing anybody, at least not unless you're plastering something against the wall with the turbo button.

One more thing of note! If you choose Continue, you will start with the Warrior Ring in your inventory. It's an extremely late-game item that could have benefited from being introduced sooner. Coinciding with what I mentioned above, this will make it such that you won't have to walk around with a charged weapon 100 percent of the time! It will make the grind quicker and less dangerous too, without actually modifying any of the monster stats directly. And obviously, if you don't wanna use it...

But I have a sneaking suspicion you'll put it on - just once.

Cheers ♥

SEPT 25 - MADE A QUICK ADJUSTMENT TO THIS PATCH to fix one dialogue issue, so if you care, redownload it (the Amazones is still up in the air - let your imagination explain that one away.)

It's going to be Tifa that dies in FF7 Rebirth.

If what I'm hearing is right, and this is a future Sephiroth coming back to try again... he won't kill Aeris. She has the effective role of an Obi Wan; more powerful in death than in life. Tifa on the other hand, is the only reason Cloud comes to his senses in Mideel. He nearly bugs the fuck out, and she saves him single-handedly. Tifa is the opposite of Aeris, stronger in life than death. Sephiroth coming back would realize this mistake, and take Tifa instead.

It's interesting... Cloud never really reciprocates much of Tifa's affection, but he kinda... discovers what emotions are because of Aeris. She gets him, and he seems to let his guard down with her. So yeah. They're already changing things up, may as well go ham on it.

Everyone thinks they know what's going to happen. I think they're wrong, and Square Enix is going to use this opportunity to recreate the same shock in a rare repeat of 1997's extremely famous video game scene. Cloud will actually lose Tifa this time, thus also breaking their 'childhood promise', and send him into an all-new turmoil with doors swung open and the audience as confused and broken as before. Aeris is the only one who is able to help him cope - who else would it be if not her? There are lots of subtle differences and similarities between the two characters, so I look forward to seeing how it might play out...unless we can somehow choose?

Oh, and I would be remiss not to mention - a lot of people will be furious if this happens! But if I was Square I'd go for the jugular. Show people you know what the fuck you're doing and make it work. It could be just as shocking and memorable in its own right. And the title Rebirth would seem to match that description rather nicely.

It’s looking like October.

Don’t spear me if that magically does not come to pass, but hey - you won’t be having any such thoughts in the event it comes sooner. ;)

Right now I am fixing little bugs. Been breaking a bit, too. It is very tiring at this stage. But I did something halfway smart and decided to make a copy of the guide and complete all of the necessary changes to it in advance so that when it’s go time, y’all have up to date info, and I only have to get romhacking’s stuff squared away. Will make for a much smoother launch day.

I have one shot to get the release perfect, so I’m gonna take my time. So far, so good.

Sept 5 Update - A certain someone has been writing to me, but your inbox is blocking replies on grounds of perceived spam. If you have another method please drop it by me. Thank you.

I need to say this now. Hopefully someone out there is at a point in their existential curve where they find this at its most impactful to them. And even if you aren't that person - if you don't read anything else I bother slamming into my rainbow piano of cherry MXs, make this the outlier.

In 2017-2018, a deep-seated feeling arose in me. Without any bias or emotion, I understood that sometime, within the next ten years, there would be a world-changing event, an event which would effectively cross every rubicon that can be measured by humans. But there was another detail that ran parallel. In the weeks, months, maybe even years leading up to this moment, there would be a perceived lull; a return to something like what many felt the 1990s represent historically: a "lunch break" from our track record on Earth. It would at least appear to be one of new optimism, growth, relative sanity/peace, with a decreased reliance on forward-looking statements and greater emphasis on momentary living...

...and ignorance.

At the time, I could not think of what might bring about such an era, no matter how short-lived. But now I realize there is only one thing that could placate and appeal so universally to the population while at this stage on our globe: AI.

There are many who say these rapid developments will be the end of us. I disagree completely. Rather, I view them as a final hurrah. I would rather enjoy the benefits of being primitive among such advanced tech while I can. I say this, because what I believed back then hasn't changed. The leading window of respite is likely to end with a very permanent, very deadly form of "drawing back the curtains". Every one of the predictions and deep-seated feelings I've had have either come true in the years since, or shaped up to do so in those up next.

ALL. Of. Them.

If you weren't around for the article on my vision of the Chinese artifical sun... for many months after having that vision, I did not realize that they were actually building one. I'd never heard of such a thing. I will just summarize by saying that water torture holds no candle to the power of their device - it's real. It is a weapon. And it could well represent a new era of hell for the survivors of the West.

Before my life here, I had a very shamanistic family, and ancestry before them. I was able to tap into a spirituality that this world's general public is, unfortunately, only allowed to see manifest in fiction. That's why nobody thinks any of it is real. Lately, I have begun to feel dull, unsourced aches, which I strongly feel are connected to how wounded and fed up the planet we stand on has become. Amidst thousands of years of strife and abuse from the prison grid that encircles its solar system, who would have thought... Even humans have proof that making your intentions known to water and plants will manifest physical changes in them - look it up and see, or even try it for yourself. It's not some classified, top secret block; anyone can do it. And it is sad when our very soil rejects us, even if it is not entirely our faults.

And for those who don't believe - things are coalescing whether you like it or not. The average person can intuit this, and without difficulty. We all know it on a spiritual level. And no, I'm not talking about your damned Earth religions. Those were merely another placating tool to add to the wall some day, so don't even go there. But why? Why is this happening?

Simply put, a change is needed. It is required on a fundamental, universal level. And while the symptoms will take every form imaginable and appear to be separate at a glance, in all cases the stem is the same. This world cannot continue on as it is today.

I believe the increasing global stupidity that's developed just since that time five, six years ago is at large an echo-reaction to this coming event, a sort of somber coping mechanism. It doesn't make me any more partial to it, but it does help me understand and sympathize.

Because I feel it too. And I don't like what I feel.

A fifth project is in the works!! I won't say what it's gonna be yet, only that it's on the NES. This one is quite a bit more humble than the supermassive black holes some of my other engines have become.
I rather fancy the idea of smaller mod projects...perhaps I will consider more in the future.

Hey, so uh... it's been more than five years since the last time I truly released some music onto the world...and today marks the end of that period.
Garden of the Tempest - an epic instrumental dating all the way back to 2014 - is BACK!

I had a period where I wrote lots of original tracks all combining the sound from the ...And Justice for All album with 8 bit melodies and bass. I found the thinness of both key elements - the squares and guitars - to be an absolutely intoxicating match for one another, and the ideas just kept coming. One in particular had a mix that rather pains me to hear. I got fed up with that; this is a great song and it deserves a real second chance.

The mix has been totally redone, the percussion has been cleaned and streamlined, and for those who heard the original, you'll note there are a few new voices in the composition here and there. This is the kind of return I wanted to make to this sector. Head on over to my Youtube channel and feel the heavy!

The amount of awesome coming in my FF1 project...
When 3.0 drops, you will never be able to play the original again.

Mm yes, it's really that good.

All my recent coding in assembly made learning HTML a breeze. I'm astonished; in the past I proved more than terrible at it. Anyway, Webs.com and all of its decade-old bugs can go dive in a pool full of sharks. This code is MINE now.

The only thing you'll find that ain't done just yet are the version history sections, and that's cause it's a ton of work to format those lists all at once. As it happens, I've released a shitload of patches in the last eight years. So it'll come along. You'll also notice there's a new review that ain't ready yet. But if you've already got the game it is for, you don't need to read it anyway, because you already know.

A quick note for frequent visitors - blog subtitles will now always appear in green, whereas posts specifically tied to a release will appear whiteish-purple. Just press End on your keyboard if you want to see what I mean.

Aug 4 Update: Keep hitting CTRL+F5 to refresh changes as I tidy up the new space.

I realize my front page has been pretty dark lately, so I have something with which to dilute that...

SUPER MARIO RPG

...is getting REMASTERED!

That's, like, one of the games I've modded, yo! It looks so good. I started squealing like a school girl at the trailer. Probably woulda made a couple dozen REACTION VIDEO views on youtube, if I gave a damn about that kind of thing. The soundtracks sound extremely faithful to Yoko Shimomura's masterpiece (which, fun fact, is still her favorite composition to date - all the way back in 1996) and is as beautiful as ever.

The palettes are WONDERFUL. They did a great job actually translating the beauty, instead of just reimagining it! And of course, I can't end this segment without saying... here's hoping this will help Geno get the recognition he deserves - as a badass, wooden-doll-inhabiting spirit from the heavens.

Not to mention, Pikmin 4's trailer from Nintendo Direct showcased a Glow Pikmin, WHICH IS LITERALLY WHAT I'VE WANTED FOR TEN YEARS - A GREEN PIKMIN. YUSSS.

Anyway, god damn did I need some good news this week. Nintendo is one of the last bastions of true happiness for me.

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My FF1 2.4 update is in progress, by the way. Class change sprites are coming, along with some other great things!!

Easier said than done.

If the lives of my family and crew here were fed into a machine and spat out as a man-made movie, there’d likely be an epic soundtrack to accompany, foreshadow and accentuate the madness. Viewers would attach themselves to characters, pick their favorite quotes, and debate over crucial areas of character choice and development. Neat little details would gradually be uncovered through shared discussion and repeated viewing, which would contribute to the overall appreciation for each scene and help build a loyal, thriving fanbase. And yes, this film would pack every cinematic angle in the biz to convey dripping expression and oozing personality, right down to the eyelash.

In a more perfect world, that film might do well. The plot might resonate with spectators, fate willing. It might even achieve a level of international acclaim, and be spread about for mass consumption as a relatable, universal story - one which helps keep the monetary gears of global society oiled for just a little longer.

But make no mistake, there’s nothing glorious about it. In reality, there is no sympathetic native audience to relate to the under-cover alien protagonists, and the supportive capitalism machine is (regrettably?) tone deaf to the narrative. Those who are aware generally have only a slim few with whom they can share their thoughts, and as sad as it makes me to say, that’s hardly an advantage.

(I edited the above to include the word ‘native’ - my sister rang my ear to remind me that she is among those who sympathize. A tribute to her character, when she herself has been waiting to live in physical form again for at least eight years now. Maybe nine. My human memory is failing.)

But as I’ve prattled before, it is all made to feel this way. On a prison planet, clutching to your values makes you an exception, but it’s certainly not a perk. I remember reading many years ago (and this was before I’d had it confirmed to be real) about how the prison machine slings temptations at us to coerce us into breaking our moral code. Basically, you can do that by drifting toward one of a few extremes. So you’d either fall in line with the rest, and sacrifice your individuality and freedom (which, let’s face it, matters to flesh life forms at least a little) or say, “To hell with all ethics and morals,” thereby shedding your cloak of sanity.

Neither is good.

The best choice is to stay in the middle, which isn’t actually part of any pre-defined center, but rather wherever you feel your true, core self stands. Of course, this space only accounts for a few metaphorical inches’ worth of tiptoed standing room on the cosmic number line; even the corrupted Earth religions deliver heavy talks on temptation. The system‘s goal is to pull you away from your values, and change them to fit whatever reimagined version of you it’s come up with.

“But,” you ask, “what does that actually mean?”

Say you’re a hard worker. You might get punished for working hard (endless additional ‘unforeseen’ circumstances!) and then ridiculed for turning away. Perhaps your long-standing love for a hobby across lifetimes would be turned against you, maybe through your failure to achieve success with it or because someone was set up to take your golden opportunity away at the right moment. Or, perhaps you desire family unity above all. That could be easily broken through a repetitive loss of close relatives, or being born in a dysfunctional family that does not share your spiritual values.

Those are just quick and easy examples, and obviously, it gets much more complicated than that. But the worst might just be something else entirely - this is all part of a cycle, and not a one-and-done. You’ll be spun around and around, life after life, with strengths here, weaknesses there - wrestling forever with pieces of other beings who do not match with you. If you possess even a trace level of adherence for literally anything, you will immediately see the problem here. Except you can’t - what you see is merely one link in a never-ending chain, created by a machine. And that machine does not care about you.

Humans are always ready to admit, spaciously, that they do not understand the limits of the universe, because the social ecosystem awards them brownie points if they appear humble. Yet when it comes to the actual specifics of the universe, they balk and plug their ears, unwilling to learn with nothing to add. But a prison planet is like a raging river - it doesn’t mind what face you wear as it carries you downstream. And the sort of systemic personal sabotage it carries out millions of times per day is piss easy child’s play for a computer with even more millions of years’ worth of tech powering it. And that computer was created by people who spent even longer than that trying to bullet-proof its design!

Do you begin to see how deep the rabbit hole goes, and why I no longer give a shit when cognitive dissonance gets in the way of intelligent conversation?

You have to understand, the kind of example sabotage I touched on earlier is invisible to humans - the players have no idea they are being played. Imagine if, right now, someone was curbing your pros and amplifying your cons as a being, without your knowledge. If you make a mistake influenced by these ‘edits’, who takes the blame? You do. You are the only one for people to observe doing or not doing a thing. Why would they even think to ask questions when they implicitly believe the answer is right in front of them? Shit, these observers don’t even know any of what I’m fucking saying right now.

But yunno, hee-hee, ha-ha. Gotta live like them humans!

…That means going along with them, agreeing with them - playing their game, and embracing it, too; being herded into a pack, and doing things you know are bankrupt on one or more levels because that’s what the mission calls for. You are behind enemy lines, and because your rule book is light years away, you use the enemy’s, because you don’t want to knuckle under. You don’t want to undo all the work your crew mates are putting in all day, every day, in order to try and rescue your miserable asses. Because they haven’t forgotten who you are. Because they know that once you’re hauled up and away, you will be how you used to be. How you are supposed to be.

So no. Being a “spooky tall alien” with teardrop black eyes isn’t any fun here. All the jokes and stereotypes about us in popular media and across the internet don’t account for shit. And no, humans, you certainly don’t come in fucking peace. You murdered the shit out of my family thirty years ago, and for as long as I have this space, I’ll say whatever the fuck I want about your planet. Because I’m still stuck living on it, when I’d rather be back home fucking my mates, exploring uncharted solar systems, creating entire simulated worlds to get lost in, and writing songs you can literally see and feel in your brain.

And you. The one reading. Whoever you are, just do me one favor. Tonight before bed, step out on your porch, your balcony, or out from what you call home, and look up at the stars. Really look at them! Personally, my favorite set has always been Orion.

If you think anything other than that you live in a world entirely crafted by far richer, far more devious minds, I am sorry to disappoint you.

The ever-increasing complexity to life is by design. It is meant to overwhelm everyone. Overwhelmed individuals often seek simple solutions which they need not bother with, so they may tend to other life aspects they deem more worth their time. These solutions tragically dumb their senses, however; yet it is unavoidable since survival demands it. If there is no going back, and forward is too far off, there is little choice but to face the present.

Ultimately, humans are being forced to evolve at a pace unnatural for any species. Can it work? Sure. Most anything can 'work' (subjective) given enough time. Just so long as you don't pay any mind to the quality of life along the way.

A fact people often forget - evolution is largely infinite. It's not really taught in school (or anywhere), but where you are on that "food chain" isn't really so important. Of course, everybody believes it is - that's the ego talking, not the nature of our universe.

The nature of the universe is such that you should simply make what you are able to. Good, or even bad - the rest is just sides of a coin. Separate, yet actually the same.

Once, decades ago, a member of a higher evolved species said 'greater spirit is more valuable than greater skill'. Why does that matter? Well, on a planet like this one you need much more than just your choices to survive. As the powers that be tighten their grip, more and more concessions are required of the so-called 'general public'. You've probably noticed this involves a lot more lies. Strap in - it isn't going to get better. But this doesn't mean that all that was good has died. You just have to look a little harder than before.

If you've ever read, well, practically anything I write, you probably deduced it somewhere along the way - I hate this planet. That hasn't changed of course, but I've been observing a growing pattern for a while now, and I need to get some relevant thoughts out and about.

We have quite a clash of generations on Earth right now. Anyone with a few brain cells to rub together can name at least a few causes - higher life expectancies, rapid "social" & technological changes every odd minute, along with radical sheep-herding fueled by media-induced tribalism. Yeah, what else is new. And while that's great and all, something else rises above all of that for me: people saying stupid shit about the way up-and-coming youths just don't have their shit together like before - à la previous generations.

That's a fucking load. On a terrible planet, obviously every generation will have its own bullshit to cope with, and each one's nitty gritty inheritance (or lack thereof) is most certainly unique, even if somewhat cyclical. But never before in the history of this godforsaken species have things moved at the pace things do now, nor so suddenly. Naturally, I have seen a lot of people crumbling under that pressure, and the ones who pretend otherwise are usually doing just that - pretending!

Now hold on, I'm not judging. But that's the fact of the matter. The default mode has become progressively more and more about pretense and systematically numbing every once-felt aspect of life, as if they were each a disease to be purged from an otherwise healthy being.

And as wrong as that is, you can't just say people are entitled. You can't just say they're addicts, or being manipulated, or "don't know the meaning of hard work". It's all fucking stupid, yes. But nobody knows how to cope with it. And NO ONE gets to climb aboard the high horse to judge or simplify just because the world no longer matches their personal, romanticized - nostalgic - variation on suffering.

We are currently witnessing the slow collapse of an empire; following this, its enemies may just consume it without ever militarily setting foot within the borders. Just don't be waiting for a televised, bite-sized product to guzzle down. If it does come, as the arrows so point that it will, you won't be warned. Prevention of mass hysteria is far more important to them than your preparedness.

...In the meantime, give people born in this time period a fucking break. People are doing the best they can to manage a whirlwind of insanity, even if they have to sacrifice everything to do it. From front to back, we're all stuck with this shitshow, and you can bet your life that the profiteers would love to have everyone fighting about it!

So don't. You're better off being a damn hermit than giving in to temptation.

No, that is not a duplicate headline, nor is it the same one you've been seeing for months.

I do in fact still exist, and I am still making things. I will always be making things, whether it's on this planet or another.

Especially when it comes to the assembly side of things, this update has lots of MY original handiwork stamped on it! I'm super proud of that! There's tons of quality of life packed into this one too, like FINALLY FUCKING BUYING MULTIPLE POTIONS AT ONCE. Yes, I've heard all of you, and I apologize it took this long. That said, this is just one of the legion of niceties; I'll let you head on over to the changelog and witness the barrage for yourselves.

I did lots of testing on 2.3, and am quite ready to have it off my hands. This is definitely the most epic and polished this project has ever been. While today's news is a bit muted for something so epic, I'm rather tired as of writing...

...But since it's so short, I'll tell you a little about the NEXT update. It's not balance-related or ado with bug-fixing, but rather singularly about adding a new mode of sorts - Yes, you'll have to unlock it.

Oh, and it will be hard.

Another one for the start of 2023!

One of my goals with 2.2.2 is to smooth some of the steeper damage thresholds, specifically to aid the Fighter. Fighters will also become ever so slightly stronger by the very end, and this will collaborate with the minor absorb changes to improve combat flow.

Keep in mind, this will not allow for a massive amount of extra damage. Rather, the changes are geared to make turns against specific armored foes more meaningful. This will also build off what I started in version 2.2, which saw improvements to several important melee weapons. I’d like to think this will be the last time the issue needs to be addressed.

Also, at the request of a fan, I have also added a new bonus patch which disables the flashing spell animation. I'm rather proud of this hilariously simple edit as it required lots of reverse engineering and my exceptionally novice wisdom in the field of assembly. But I really wanted to make this happen so that the game is easier on the eyes, and perhaps even playable by some who otherwise would have to steer clear. I hope it helps!

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I determined that these first two updates of 2023 would be simple enough to get out in a brief window of relative calm. I do not know when I will again have time to sit down and spend serious time on mods. Waluigi RPG is still overdue for its own update, and I have not forgotten. Please be patient; it will come when time permits.

SURPRISE!

I've been working on this one quietly for a bit. It only recently dawned on me that I first mentioned this update a whole year ago. I had no idea it had taken this long to get to, but things have been fucking insane for a while so that probably has a lot to do with it.

This is an awesome patch. It's so far the largest for this project regarding content, quality of life and variety. However, above all the fun and conveniences there is one change which rises to the top:

TAN HAS BEEN REPLACED WITH YELLOW.

Anyhoo, there are way too many great things to list here, so go on over and check out the whole shebang. I know this one took a while, but I think it'll be worth it.

Oh, and before you do that...THERE'S A HOMM3 BOARD GAME COMING OUT THIS YEAR!! (That is, if Poland survives to see the ship date)

(phew... I've barely had time, but it's been done for a bit so I finally rounded up all the pieces for pushing to the website. I still have plans to update FF1 and WLRPG, but it's going to be a minute. Be patient please.)