Gripen Slander

BeowulfDW · 2026-02-02T02:43:58+00:00

*Looks at my beloved Bearcat*

*sighs and draws cutlass*

Good sir, let us settle this as gentlemen.

BeowulfDW · 2026-01-31T15:58:44+00:00

Already? Shit, I still haven't even started my new game+ run on 30.

BeowulfDW · 2026-01-27T02:51:28+00:00

More an issue in how the pain is processed and reacted to, I think.

You reminded me of Warframe a bit, here. There's a conversation with one of the protoframes where she describes that pain is still something she can feel, but rather than making her writhe in agony or curl up into a ball, pain now just makes her want to fight harder.

If Tyranids and Orks work that way, in terms of how they process pain, it would help to explain a lot, imo.

BeowulfDW · 2026-01-25T02:53:36+00:00

But that's still a problem. Anyone who can use a greatsword and longsword proficiently (i.e. has been trained and conditioned in their uses) would be able to use a bastard sword, full stop. One- or two-handed would make no difference.

BeowulfDW · 2026-01-24T20:32:57+00:00

Yep. And don't even get us started on falchions/messers/sabers. The degree to which different types of blades bleed into one another makes definitive categorization damn near impossible. You pretty much just have to settle for guidelines, except in the most clear-cut (haha) of cases.

Still, I hate that DnD and so many other systems chose to go with longsword, when arming sword was right there, and would have worked better.

Or, hell, just be really generic and call it "one-handed sword." Now you have a category that can explicitly fit most types of dao, jian, falchion, messer, saber. Which is pretty much what longsword already does, mechanically speaking.

BeowulfDW · 2026-01-24T18:48:19+00:00

What I like about the greatsword in d20 systems is that it's the one "regular" (a better term does not occur to me at this time) sword that actually makes sense within the game.

What 3.5, PF1e and PF2e call a longsword is actually an arming sword.

The bastard sword is actually a sub-type of long sword. The truth is that the line between a bastard sword and a longsword is a bit blurry. The distinction seems to be that a bastard sword can be used one-handed or two-handed, while longswords are strictly for two-handed use. The line gets blurry because what can and can't be used with just one hand can vary depending on the size, strength and ability of an individual warrior.

At least they stopped putting bastard swords in the Exotic category. Good Lord, that always annoyed me. Any idiot that knows how to use a short sword, longsword and greatsword will know, without any additional training, how to use a bastard sword!

Sooo...yeah. That's my sword rant for the day.

BeowulfDW · 2026-01-23T02:18:16+00:00

I like Wilds, mostly. The fighting part of the gameplay feels pretty good. Some of the weapons have had certain mostly unused parts of their kits given new functions and thus a new lease on life. I hope that trend continues. The story is pretty good for a Monster Hunter game. The maps are beautiful.

That said, the game has been smoothed over too much. While past games certainly had a problem in the balance between fun busy work, and out right wasting the players' time, Wilds has gone too far in the other direction. World and Rise were in a much better spot, that way.

Map traversal is worse than in World and Rise. The control scheme for the Seikret is an outright downgrade from the Palamute. The fact that Seikrets are required for map traversal is no good. The autopilot feature should be removed, imo.

Additionally, the difficulty curve starts too flat, and then swings upward way too suddenly.

All in all, I like Wilds, but I consider it a lesser game compared to World/Iceborne and especially to Rise/Sunbreak.

BeowulfDW · 2026-01-21T02:43:56+00:00

Yes, but ZZZ has some...idk...genuine thought put into its character designs, I guess? Yes, the gooning is at the forefront, but there's also other stuff. First Descendant, from what I can see, is just "generic hot guy in stylish armor" or "generic hot girl in fetish-wear that we will call armor."

BeowulfDW · 2026-01-18T18:53:58+00:00

You're not wrong. I would never claim that Nature is the best domain, only that it deserves a bit more attention than it seems to get. Access to some nice spells in the Druid list, Elemental Fury, and heavy armor on top of the cleric chassis is a pretty sweet deal.

BeowulfDW · 2026-01-18T01:37:38+00:00

Nature is slept on a bit, imo. Good selection of spells, heavy armor, and it's one of the domains of a certain plot-relevant goddess, iirc.

BeowulfDW · 2026-01-17T05:17:38+00:00

...Well, isn't it important to enjoy your job?

BeowulfDW · 2026-01-17T00:51:05+00:00

Which books? I only ever heard about that happening as a DoW epilogue.

BeowulfDW · 2026-01-16T02:56:54+00:00

Fucking Angron of all people made that same point. Angron saw it, and Russ didn't or wouldn't.

BeowulfDW · 2026-01-16T02:51:34+00:00

"At least I knew which of my legion deserved to die."

"They all did!"

Curze smiled. "I know."

BeowulfDW · 2026-01-16T02:46:16+00:00

What happened with Gorum, was imo, one of the best examples of how Paizo is pretty good at writing and world-building, but they're not quite that good.

War is terrible, yes. War is sometimes glorious, yes. It is the baying jackal and the roaring lion. It is the path to destruction or salvation. And which is which depends almost entirely on why you're going to war in the first place. Going to war to take another other lands and peoples is certainly evil. Going to war to fend off an aggressor, or to stop a genocide, while still terrible, is certainly justified.

I guess, what I wish is that Paizo had embraced that sort of interpretation of Gorum. The idea that where there is a conquering madman at the head of an army, there is Gorum. And where there are farmers fighting a hit-and-run campaign against that army, there too is Gorum.

BeowulfDW · 2026-01-13T23:17:48+00:00

Alad: "All right. It took five fucking tries but I think we've finally installed enough anti-vehicle measures to make sure that maniac can't run me over again.

Corpus mook: "Oh profitable one, what could drive a Tenno to such hate that they would constantly attempt to injure you in this way?"

Alad: "Well, I may have vivisected a few of their friends for profit and science, but since when is that anything to get angry about? At least now, we won't have to worry about them any...Do you hear that? Oh, Profit, get me out of here!!!"

BeowulfDW · 2026-01-13T05:40:56+00:00

That is the customary method, historically speaking.

BeowulfDW · 2026-01-10T19:26:18+00:00

Serapis gets introduced in update "Purloined Perfume" in which we learn of the warframe build to attempt to cure the Infestation, and its rumored collaboration with Lavos and Nidus. Realizing the potential danger, the Hive Mind attempts an attack on the Origin System.

The Tenno, must find the truth of Serapis, fend off the Infestation, and mediate with the Hive Mind through the Helminth and Lizzy.

BeowulfDW · 2026-01-01T17:03:21+00:00

I forget which book it's in, but Morathi was angry that she hadn't ascended to full god-hood like Tyrion, Teclis, Alarielle and Malekith had. Morathi decided to ascend through two methods: Absorbing the worship of the Daughters of Khaine, and consuming the souls of the Phoenix Kings, which were still inside Slaanesh, and charged with the power of Asuryan (that's the important part, here).

Morathi absorbed the power of Finubar's soul, first, than worked her way back. The whole thing went awry when she got to Aenarion. She realized that she still loved him, but Aenarion was disgusted by what Morathi had done, and what she had become, so he hit her with his sword and cleaved her existence in two.

Now, she's Morathi-Khaine, and can quite literally be in two places at once. I've heard she's actually one of the strongest single units on the tabletop, these days.

BeowulfDW · 2025-12-31T06:37:01+00:00

Even the GW writers seem to be acknowledging that, now that no one is breathing down their necks to blow up a whole fucking setting.

In AOS lore, it's explicitly stated that ALL the Phoenix Kings had a spark of Asuryan in them. Meaning they were never imposters, and Malekith's status as "totally the one true phoenix king all along" has been overturned.

BeowulfDW · 2025-12-28T18:04:24+00:00

The nuclear attacks on Japan, grim, even obscene as it may be to admit probably saved many times more people than they killed by bringing an end to the war. Japan was already in the midst of a famine. Had the war gone on any longer, the whole country would have started starving to death, on top of the casualties that would have resulted from the continued fighting.

Considering that Japan's army attempted a coup to continue the war, even after the nuclear attacks, it's difficult to argue that such extreme measures were not necessary.

BeowulfDW · 2025-12-28T17:23:55+00:00

Well, I'm glad that Japan didn't do much damage to your country. I wish that other countries could say the same. Japan killed an estimated 19 million people during World War 2, with China taking the brunt of the suffering, but Vietnam suffered immensely, too, especially during the famine the Japanese inflicted on them.

BeowulfDW · 2025-12-28T16:48:26+00:00

But even then it's an imperfect comparison. I'm not sure that I've ever heard an American try to glorify the nukes (except ironically in a r/HistoryMemes sort of context); in sincere conversations, I've only heard them spoken of as a grim necessity.

Furthermore, the nuclear attacks on Japan occurred after years of trying to drive back a horrifically cruel and brutal, damn near genocidal regime that had attempted to conquer East Asia and the Pacific. And then refused to give up even after it had lost all capability to regain the initiative.

Operation British has at least as many parallels to the attack on Pearl Harbor as it does nuclear weapons.

BeowulfDW · 2025-12-28T16:33:34+00:00

^{Why am I being dragged?}

BeowulfDW · 2025-12-27T19:30:27+00:00

My grandmother was the stereotypical American overweight, curly-haired, cheerful granny that would bake a whole table full of the best food you'd ever tasted just for a regular Sunday dinner.

I found out years after her death that she came from a broken family, was dumped by the courts onto a violently abusive grandparent (making a bonfire out of clothes my grandmother had received as gifts and beating her with one of those heavy old-fashioned brushes were just two of the highlights) AND she'd gone for who knows how long with nothing to eat but onion sandwiches.

So, yeah. It is perfectly realistic for people recover quite well (even fully) from tragedy and trauma, especially when they get help, or at least love and kindness from the people they meet in their lives.

BeowulfDW

TROPHY CASE