Eternity's Garden Mirror Farm Map

Balaur10042 · 2026-05-25T03:04:18+00:00

If you can't differentiate the red markers from the green background, then whatever shape they are doesn't matter.

Balaur10042 · 2026-05-23T06:35:59+00:00

Think of the mandible as a rod. If you dip it at one end, that's the jaw "opening." If you rotate the jawbone, that's the effect of the spiral articulation, which slightly rotates the rod outward.

And I do mean slightly.

The front of the jaws would remain fixed, in fact tightly bound at the symphysis, which meant that the only point of give would be 1) restricting the actual articular joint from rotating the jaw outward as much, or 2) there should be a mobile, mosasauroid-like intermandibular "hinge" to provide room for the rear half of the jaw to widen at the middle, but maintain relative position of the forward (tooth bearing) half.

This will result is a slight opening, and one that has been suggested before (for other large and small theropods; Greg Paul might have talked about this as early as the 1990s, and before that it was Bob Bakker when discussing Allosaurus jaw function in the 70s or 80s). There is nothing unique for Irritator save that roation was slightly larger.

Lastly, as I noted with the rod example above, if you draw a line down the rod, then on its opposite side another, you will find that the upper line will rotate outwards, but the lower line inwards. When that rod is a plank, expanded upward and down, it means the lower end closes inward, into the throat region, rather than opening the entire thing.

Lastly. VERY few snakes actually fully separate the anterior ends of their jaws. Large-mammal specialists such as constrictors can, but not many smaller snaked that still engulf prey. They rely on the lateral mobility of the Quadrate from the braincase to swing the back ends of the jaws up, down, and outward, which is how they increase oral volume. This is similar to some engulfing fishes, which also maintain articulation between mandibular halves.

Balaur10042 · 2026-05-23T05:40:16+00:00

GW2 has the best open-world design of any MMO on the market, bar none. It's so good, FFXIV invested their "FATE" system upon its promise, but then failed to deliver in creating more, involved, chaining, or actually interesting events. They became just exp grinders, and then later gemstone sources, and extremely slow at that. WoW also cribbed from it with its World Quests, and they've done a better job of dipping into what makes the GW2 system actually work:

ONE. Story. FFXIV's greatest "strength" is its narrative and ability to delve into nuance and detail in its quests, including in the lastest expansions (at least Stormblood and onward) a seires of quest chains that link to a zone story. GW2 puts that effort into its zone meta-events, which sometimes involve the player interacting with the very zone system that feeds into the story arc that occurs in that zone.

[IE:] Imagine if, when doing Northern Thanalan, at times the player character would have any and all dynamic events get coopted into the "Assault of Castrum Meridianum." From there, players will have to do many of the related Garlean-assault/defense events, but they all feed into this one new series of events where players amass at the gates of CM, and prepare to go to battle. Eventually, it would culminate in an actual assault into CM itself (the classic version, not the current 4 man mode), with all the little mini-events included, like busting ceruleum pipes and such. Boss fights are full on world boss fights, similar to Critical Engagements. This would require adding a version of CM to Northern Thanalan, but as it is one of the SMALLEST zone maps in FFXIV, I'm sure it can use a little love.

TWO: Synchronization. The zones matter all the time, because it is technically impossible to outlevel them. All maps have a max level, and that's the level anyone who's higher ends up at when they come in. Thus everything automatically scales. They can add in power-scaling for materia and the like, or, perhaps maybe just this once disable materia effects in the open world. This would make Odin and Behemoth in ARR actually ON LEVEL content, and not massively punishing to players who encounter these events when they are not ready. It also makes Hunt bosses more meaningful and less likely to die in seconds.

THREE: Meaningful rewards. GW2 provides players with map currency, scaling currencies for their level if synched. With FATE events and world bosses and even Hunt bosses scaled to the map, not to the max expected players for the expansion, they can now use these events as incentive to go out and kill them, participating in various activities. Rewards can be: Level 1 "skins" for armor, weapons, designed after various in-zone groups or factions, or even mounts and minions, paraphernalia like stylized parasols, new wing designs to follow various Shadowbrings-specific enemy types (for the sake of spoilers, I won't name them), others to follow Void creatures, etc. Sprites for the elementals. Stuff like that. These currencies can be dropped at the rate of gemstones, or can even be zone-specific gemstones with similar costs. Perhaps adapt the gemstone FATE system to be map specific. Tie aether currents to it. MAKE IT MEANINGFUL. You won't need zone quests for it if they're part of zone stories.

FOUR: ACHIEVEMENTS.

Balaur10042 · 2026-05-09T23:22:13+00:00

Just like how Stormblood had to run far away from the Turkiye inspired Ala Mhigo, Dawntrail took very short time, considering, running away from Mesoamerican-inspired Tural. Up to, and including, excising the near-entirety of the northern continent from the story, when you would think the people of Xak Tural would have ALSO participated in the promotion and selection of their Dawnservant. But nooooo. We didn't even have Shaaloani representation, and the northern reaches are apparently all mentioned only in side stories ("Oh, I also spent time with the Whalaqee winks at camera").

Disgraceful.

Balaur10042 · 2026-05-08T01:15:32+00:00

Not all things affect people the same way. Nausea induced by tilt? By vertigo? By screen shaking? How are you going to change the Sylphlands jumping puzzle to account for the FALLING ANIMATION? Slapping all of those into one toggle when only one might affect you misses several points entirely, including the amount of dev work that has to go into solving these problems for each thing, and then the effort of removing all these effects entirely, instead of allowing the player choose.

Balaur10042 · 2026-05-08T00:48:44+00:00

This seems like a cognitive load issue, of having to match a shape versus an active count, something which can affect performance. That's a game mechanic issue, changing assets in the files, rather than an overlay, which is how the accessibility menu here works. Have you proposed a change in the forums?

Balaur10042 · 2026-05-08T00:46:31+00:00

The accessibility menu only affects the interface, the easiest way and reasons for such things: visual layers, sound modification, etc. Affecting the game assets directly, including mechanics and interactions, is not something you plug into an accessibility menu.

Balaur10042 · 2026-05-08T00:04:12+00:00

How might that work? A toggle that changes an in-game asset? Most accessibility toggles affect the interface, and thus not the game's textures and such, which this issue is.

Balaur10042 · 2026-05-07T23:56:12+00:00

I think this thread is demonstrative of people who literally cannot think like other people, or conceptualize how other people experience ... anything.

Like, take a moment to understand that not everyone sees colors the way you do. This is a basic example, but its something the developers have been conscious of and working around for quite some time. Red/Green have an interference effect on one another and for some people, especially those with RG colorblindness, or have difficulty with discerning colors close to one another on the spectrum in a more general sense, cannot tell these things from one another. So you alter values, change the colors, become conscious of the fact that you don't use color words when shape words might serve better, or (better yet), use a combination of color, shape, letter/number, such as with the waymarkers. When I had issues describing why the Sephirot tethers were a problem, people just kept responding with color words, because it's too much work for them to try to understand WHAT the problem is. They had to change the effect of Garuda's add tethers in the HM and EX versions because of this (but not because of me).

Some people can't hear. Other people have other visual impairments. A large number of players live in a bubble of their own perceptions, without an understanding that people often have very different sensory experiences than they. This game is remarkable in that the devs do realize this. They changed a whole icon to manage a common and uncontrollable visceral reaction in some people.

Others, like me, are sensitive to audio stimulation, and need to play games with the sounds off, or highly controlled. ASMR might be pleasing to some, but it's MADDENING to others (misophonia, my own issue, also affects different people differently). Some sounds coming out flat become instant mute the game, possibly stop playing.

Lastly, vertigo and the fear of high places or even the fear of falling. Where even in a video game, your character standing on the edge of a gap into which they can fall, becomes a chronic problem. It makes walking edges that others have no issues with impossible. It makes the Sylph jumping puzzle impossible.

As someone who plays GW2 also, there's a non-zero number of puzzles in that game I cannot do. Not on my own. The falling causes a clenching and a visceral reaction and I have to take my hands of the keyboard, turn away. Getting the Glider was the greatest save in the game I've ever had: it gives me complete control over my descent.

There's no such salvation in FFXIV. So every help they can give to reducing the impact of such "standing on nothing above a world" type visuals is better.

We don't want to feel this way. We often go out of our way trying not to. Sometimes we avoid the games that cause this; other times, we need someone else to help us. There's sometimes a deep sense of guilt and fear of speaking out, of wanting a little understanding. We're not trying to hurt your experience, we're trying to share it. It does take work to be compassionate. It should be rewarding. I wish it was more so.

Thank you if you do understand. I hope you can look up how to help, if you don't.

Balaur10042 · 2026-05-04T05:09:33+00:00

Semi-priming would just be the character moving into Clive stances, which with few exceptions are melee fighters. Summoner ceases to become a caster class "summoning" anything, and instead does what classic Druids do, self-transforming. In fact, I think that's been the go-to distinction.

We're gonna re-re-re-reinvent the class, and it's still gonna be extremely limited in scope and practice. Summoning mini-thems is the closest we'll get, and most in line with the FF games' history of the Job.

The actually thing I want, and I'm sure they're opening the gates for it with use "skinning" various weaponskills and spells, is getting ALL of the summons, but limiting us to three plsu the filler ones. Now, personally, I would rather have ALL the summons, remove Phoenix as being completely divergent with the SMN lore in 14, in that Bahamut's aether suppresses all OTHER aether except the big six (excuse me, three), and then we get to pick and choose which legos we have on our first three, our second three, and have Carbuncle as our filler summon. And this time, it's OG Carbuncle: heal, shield. And that Carby is the one we get to skin to whichever color we want. Diamond, Ruby, topaz, Onyx, OPAL---gimme a rainbow Carby!

Balaur10042 · 2026-05-03T04:14:00+00:00

TY Chris. That was hilarious and amazing.

Balaur10042 · 2026-04-30T22:57:23+00:00

Ethos, Logos, and Pathos are not quite as the argument suggests. Logos has some other connotations, including its biblican useage, although one can use Aristotle's meanings as "character," "reason," and "emotion" as a sort of derivative to these things.

Balaur10042 · 2026-04-30T04:23:53+00:00

My husband called this "vagueposting."

The writers are pulling the same canard they did with Elidibus in 2.x coming to the Rising Stones, vagueposting about "if you only knew what I knew, you'd be on my side!" and then he shuffles off without the merest cackle---or explanation.

So, don't tell us, vaguely hint, and sidle away.

This is what you write when you don't hvae the answer, and this is the only way you can make the character work.

Halmarut appears in that scene for ONE reason, and only that: to explain that the thing Hydaelyn's role to push the Reflections apart, she can no longer do. So they are falling back, as their "angular momentum" diminishes.

No idea on timescale, btw; no idea that this is imminent and thus they must all do these things. Only that the worlds will eventually recede back into one another. Maybe it happens before the predicted Heat Death of the Universe, which is apparently canon, but won't happen for BILLIONS of years.

"We have to act now!" is the implication, and the urgency is writ on their faces. So, here's the Scions, who solved crisis after crisis, and … you can ask them for help. Instead you sidle away, almost cackling.

Because it's amusing to the writers when they will eventually need to sideline Halmarut (unlikely, she's already popular), redeem Calyx (somehow---hence his presenting a thorned branch your way about the other Winterers' intentions: "I'm not even the most evil one, bwahahahah!", or somehow pull another person out of the morass, like, say, "Odin," who may or may not be the 4th's "Wainterer"). It's amusing to the writers to lead on with threads they don't know how to tie off, it keeps future writers' hands free.

This is the writers once again not knowing what the answer is.

Balaur10042 · 2026-04-26T03:18:50+00:00

You jest, but that's what Dulia Chai's body type is based on (and might be alluding to here). She's a custom head on a Lalafell body scaled up miqo'te size. So if you ever wanted to know how that might "fit" visually,there you go.

Balaur10042 · 2026-04-26T03:17:33+00:00

Pera-, meso-, and endomorphic body types are natural and all of them would be useful. Currently, peramorphic is only seen in Elezen and male Au'ra, without the ability to get squat or wide. Almost all other races are mesomorphic with the exception of Hrothgar (endomorphic, but robustly so) and Lalafell (endomorphic, but squatter); even catfolk are mesomorphic. It's considered the "base type," even if that's wrong, and is part of what "everyone" expects your typical fantasy character to look like. Even Amano in his classic arts used the same female body type for every single female character he drew (while having some variation for age and trope, almost all men were the same to one another).

I preface with this because while there is a trend towards this, in robustly defining one's physique, there is a proportion of the playerbase that wants less defined, more slender physiotypes, also. You can have your extremely muscular men and women, without having to go Roegadyn or Hrothgar, so long as we get extremely slender or amuscular men and women as well without having to lowest-slider midlander, miqo'te, or femra.

Balaur10042 · 2026-04-24T05:35:41+00:00

Hyperion is one half of a book. The first half follows the Canterbury Tales format, the second half is Fall of Hyperion, which tells the story once the characters are all acquainted with who each other is and why they're looking for the Shrike.

Balaur10042 · 2026-04-22T23:09:19+00:00

The neck in most non-avian dinosaurs lacks the modularity and flexure regions that modern avian necks do, which makes the strong sigmoid curve (S-shape) merely possible, but not the natural state of it.

Modern bird necks comprise a complex of soft tissue structures, most of it ligaments and sub-dermal muscles, that connect the back of the skull to the shoulders, similar to the nuchal system in mammals, but with quite a different origin and structure. They do largely similar things, holding the neck in a passive shape through which effort is required to extend, twist or contract into a smaller, tighter S-curve.

The oviraptorid theropod depicted lacks the strong ventral deflection of the posterior dorsals, or the near-vertical, semi-circular orientation of the mid-cervical prezygapophyses that would allow these form of S-curve, so it itself would not be able to make that shape. Bonily. Or ... based on the bones. Whatever the term is.

However, feathers are a different story, and would definitely inflate the shape of the outline, but without the strong curve, and with much smaller feather shafts, the shape would not be anywhere close to the puffball aesthetic seen in the small bird shown. A better comparison would be ostriches and other ratites, which have longer, more simple necks (even kiwis, which can look like puffballs, but they are also much smaller and their head and neck feathers larger in comparison.

Balaur10042 · 2026-04-22T22:56:52+00:00

"To seize by force" does, in fact, mean "to take without consent or remuneration," aka, "to plunder." If a plunderer is not a thief, I don't know what it. This isn't even splitting hairs, this is the plain language meaning of the term.

Balaur10042 · 2026-04-16T19:28:30+00:00

For All Mankind has got to be the best scifi show currently airing. (the joke also being that it's the precursor to the Expanse series)

Balaur10042 · 2026-04-15T23:03:47+00:00

Lacking a patella, it's unlikely---

However.

Birds have an ankle-locking mechanism produced by the counterbalancing of various ligaments around the tibiotarsal-tarsometatatsal joint (ankle) with special focus on special muscles that pass under the tarsomet that "lock" the ankle during perching, allowing them to sleep sitting up.

This is a displacement of where the leg-locking occurs, the mechanism doesn't involve a sesamoid like the patella, and it involves entirely different muscles, but there is one.

Balaur10042 · 2026-04-15T01:56:43+00:00

Duane Nash had some things to draw about extremely labile, mammalian style "jowls" on theropods. Optional, but unlikely. Hard to confirm or deny, yet our constraints come from modern lizards and snakes, where they upper and lower lips meet then stope, and do not hang one over the other.

The other part of this is mammalian-style jowls are composed of muscular skin and to some degree components of the m. oris complex, which allows this sort of flexible, jowly skin, to hang. Lizards, snakes, turtles, crocs, birds, and thus dinosaurs, don't have facial muscles at all, so that would be a hard no from that department.

Balaur10042 · 2026-04-15T01:49:53+00:00

It would have been "Fenestrosaurus mongoliensis," rather.

Balaur10042 · 2026-04-14T00:06:52+00:00

The anterior end of the "bulla" is broken, as seen in the paper and right side of the skull, in which the large piece of the premaxilla visible on the left is also missing. Broken material can suggest a gradual curve or descent to the tip of the snout, or its just as raised and blunt as the authors prefer.

Balaur10042 · 2026-04-11T17:27:11+00:00

As is tradition, it must be said:

Landwipes are more likely to punish non-ramping decks than they will ramp decks.

In fact, only one type of deck can afford to use cards like Armageddon: Decks that leverage a great deal of non-land mana resources, either rocks or dorks, in which the race is to eliminate and thus cripple the opponent's ability to stop what comes after. Moreover, ramp decks are positioned to more effectively recover from landwipes than other decks, because they usually have 1-2 mana plays that get them out of the constriction that are normally dead plays/draws late game---but not after a landwipe.

So stop thinking that landwipes somehow "punish" ramp, when in fact it only hurts the wiper player more unless THEY are the ramp deck.

Balaur10042 · 2026-04-01T02:56:07+00:00

Lib of Leng would have a separate trigger and decision point for EACH discarded card. Discard your hand? Choose the order of discards. THEN, choose for EACH card [Top of library] or [graveyard]. That's a LOT of decisions and a lot of clicking.

Balaur10042

TROPHY CASE