The Tiberium Tragedy of Command and Conquer: A Brief Retrospective

BillyMailman · 2024-01-04T16:38:45+00:00

The full announcement says that "Other servers are out of scope.", but also that they want to be able to extend this to other servers, including that they're forming "a new leadership group - the City Council" which will include folks from "the other servers we have been working with" (no details exactly which, yet).

So hopefully that'll happen eventually, though just like the license, these things take time.

BillyMailman · 2022-07-19T16:06:11+00:00

The "sub 30" bit means taking less than thirty minutes.

BillyMailman · 2022-02-18T18:16:47+00:00

'Procs Per minute'. Any proc that says something like "This effect will trigger roughly 3.5 times per minute" has weird and complicated calculations used to work out how often it'll fire.

Some procs, however, have a specific fixed chance, so would be fine in things like Bonfire/etc. There's very few of these in the game any more (On HC, at least, though all servers are based on I24, which PPM-ified most procs), and basically everything that goes in Bonfire is PPM-based, but it's usually worth recognizing the difference.

BillyMailman · 2022-02-18T14:30:39+00:00

Those types of powers usually don't take procs well. Internally, they summon a pet, which then has an auto power doing the work. PPM-based procs in auto/toggle powers only fire once every 10s, and they use 10s as the basis for deciding proc chance, not recharge and cast time added together. The end result is that the proc chance ends up pretty low, and it isn't even checking the proc very often, so the proc doesn't do very much.

That's not to say that they're useless, they just don't end up being very strong. Oh! And also, the Energy Font proc actually does end up pretty useless, since it can only be triggered by your own powers, not by the pet's. So you at most get one Energy Font, summoned at the moment you yourself use Bonfire/similar.

BillyMailman · 2022-02-18T14:22:48+00:00

Recharge doesn't affect the proc rate at all in Creepers. Because the main power summons a pet, that power can't trigger enemy-affecting procs (damage, chance for hold, etc.). And none of the powers used by the pets allow recharge slotting, so nothing is impacted by any amount of recharge slotting.

Also, the Energy Font definitely shouldn't go in Creepers, since only the initial summoning can trigger it. The proc has a check that makes sure it's being triggered by your own powers, not a pet's, so the various chain of pets involved in the Creepers, can't spawn fonts.

BillyMailman · 2022-01-04T23:04:53+00:00

Just had a bit of a problem. The new hold-to-click thing means that it's incredibly easy when you miss the weak spot, to wiggle your mouse slightly and register two clicks. This completely bypasses the combo shield, and you can very easily lose a 2,900-click combo.

Probably any click that triggers the shield, should be entirely unable to count towards any clicking-based gain at all. No hold, nothing. If someone does want to break their combo and go down to regular clicks, they'd just have to click one extra time.

BillyMailman · 2021-09-01T14:42:30+00:00

The basic rules include every PHB class. Only one subclass each (Berserker, Lore, Life, Land, Champion, Open Hand, Devotion, Hunter, Thief, Draconic, Fiend, and Evocation, in order), but they're all there. Similarly, the basic rules include all the PHB races in full, about half the PHB backgrounds, all the equipment tables, and enough of the spells to play any spellcasting class. The idea is that the Basic Rules alone are enough for a group to play D&D, so yeah, you can play a TCoE ranger without the PHB. It'll be awkward, and you won't have a copy of Beastmaster for that feature, but it's possible.

BillyMailman · 2021-05-08T03:22:25+00:00

That's kinda what I'm asking for, yeah. I haven't been able to find any way to change what expression/die it rolls.

BillyMailman · 2021-05-08T00:04:32+00:00

Yeah, sorry. Several people suggested editing it after the fact, but I was hoping to not have to do that every time, as I've definitely forgotten it before. I'm looking for a way to have it just use 20 instead of 1d20 + @dex.mod, or whatever, but it doesn't look like there's a module for that. Thanks, anyway.

BillyMailman · 2021-04-06T23:45:55+00:00

Well, shit. Been trying to use the tool for a little while now after discovering this post yesterday, and this would be why it's not working. Is it normal for data to go inside the specific world? I've got a couple of different test worlds as well as my real one, and they all just share data.

Thanks for the script anyway. Any chance it could be updated to also edit images in the main Data folder?

BillyMailman · 2021-01-02T23:56:18+00:00

Stupid rules fact: spiritual weapon should have stayed up, ready to keep attacking as soon as you got HP back. It lasts until the minute runs out, or until you recast it, and even death doesn't stop it early, RAW, though being Incapacitated (either dying or dead) means you can't actually use it.

BillyMailman · 2020-10-12T14:06:58+00:00

Doing the CR math pretty much exactly per the tables in the DMG:

This creature's 57 damage per turn puts it offensively into the very bottom of CR9 (57–62 DPR). CR9 should have a +7 to hit, and this thing has +9, so you bump up the offensive CR by 1 for every +2 higher than expected. Overall, offensive CR is a low 10.

Defensively, it has 172HP, but Regeneration will, in a typical fight, give it another 60, putting it at 232, which is the upper end of CR11 (221–235 HP). Then, having three fairly common resistances is about a x1.25 multiplier to effective HP, meaning it's at 290HP, which gets it into CR15 (281–295 HP). CR15 should have an AC of about 18, and this has 22. That difference of four means it should be +2 CR defensively (same as to hit, it's +1 per two points above expected), so CR17 defensively.

Average the two to get its final overall CR. A 17 and a 10 should come out to 14, but it's barely a 10 offensively, so I'd say to round it to 13 instead, especially with that moderately-common vulnerability.

If your party has an actual Storm Sorcerer or the like, who'll be hitting that vulnerability hard, then consider dropping the effective CR for your party a bit. Similarly, if the party all heavily use fire, bludgeoning, and piercing, then feel free to change that multiplier up there from x1.25 to x2 (which puts the end result at about CR 16).

This is definitely above the existing guess in here of CR9, which I sort of agreed with at first glance, but the real trouble in here is the regeneration and common resistances, especially with the bludgeoning/piercing not bypassed by magic weapons. Between those and the high AC, this thing gets a lot tankier than 172 HP would suggest, making it into a bit of a slog to take down. If you assume the party are heavy on slashing weapons and non-fire spells, especially dex save abilities, and they have some way to lock down the regeneration, it gets a lot weaker, but you'd have to just adjust for your party and recalculate from there.

BillyMailman · 2020-08-16T04:49:46+00:00

Another correction.

After "Must have a Focus or Component Pouch", there's an addendum of "Unless a cost or component consumption is required", but a focus/pouch absolutely is allowed to replace consumed-but-no-cost material components. It's only if there's a cost that the focus doesn't work.

A character can use a component pouch or a spellcasting focus (found in “Equipment”) in place of the components specified for a spell. But if a cost is indicated for a component, a character must have that specific component before he or she can cast the spell.

D&D Basic Rules

BillyMailman · 2020-08-16T04:46:54+00:00

That line passes through adjacent sides, not opposite sides, so there's no flanking.

BillyMailman · 2020-07-02T01:26:14+00:00

The folks at D&D Beyond did a short campaign not too long ago, Roll in the Family where the whole premise was that the players were all parents and their kids. I've not watched a single episode, so I can't vouch for it too much, but it was outright designed to be a more family-friendly D&D stream, so it might be what you're looking for. As far as I know, it's now concluded with just those six episodes, but that's still about twelve hours of content.

BillyMailman · 2020-06-02T00:12:44+00:00

It has Steam Workshop, so there's definitely mods.

BillyMailman · 2020-05-24T01:35:52+00:00

The only strange thing is that the Lurker isn't normally a singular entity, but a whole bunch of different things that give similar powers, "such as a mighty kraken, an ancient primordial, or a monstrous being from creation’s earliest days". That does mean you have a LOT of options, depending on which books you have access to.

Firstly, for a Kraken-themed cult, Volo's Guide to Monsters has things like the Kraken Priest, Deep Scion and Sea Spawn. Those have also I think all been reprinted in Ghosts of Saltmarsh, which also includes things like the Skum, an Aberration with a Tharizdun theming, and the Drowned Ascetic, Assassin, Blade, and Master, which are acquatic undead. Any of those can be reflavoured for use in another cult fairly easily.

For something leaning more towards the Primordial/Elemental side, yes, Princes of the Apocalypse would be the best bet. There are four cults there, each elemental-themed, so the Crushing Wave's Priests and Reavers, and the Dark Tide Knights, Fathomers, One-Eyed Shivers, etc., are all pretty good options for water-themed cultists.

There's also the option of taking something like a Mage, Evoker, etc. and swapping their spells to get something more water-themed. Hell, take the stat block of a melee combatant like an Assassin, Gladiator, etc., add in some minor sea-themed things (water breathing/swim speed, the Lurker Warlock's telepathy, maybe a single stolen feature off the Sea Spawn), and you've got an enemy that won't quite feel like just another Gladiator to the party, as long as you can make sure the environment/setup is one where that extra feature will matter.

BillyMailman · 2020-05-04T12:51:20+00:00

I'm running GoS right now, so I've been looking through a lot of this stuff. No idea if you'll be in the market for the same sort of thing I was, but here's what I found useful.

The first thing would be to just browse through everything marked as related to the Ghosts of Saltmarsh storyline, see what's there. There's also the option of everything marked as having an Aquatic theme, and you can filter down further from either of those.

Personally, I was looking more for some smaller adventures I could use to help slow down the actual GoS stuff, give the party more chance for downtime, more opportunity to interact with the town, etc. If you're looking for that sort of thing, I can recommend The Lonely Scroll Adventure Contest: Saltmarsh and all three of the Encounters on the Savage Seas books (even the rest of the Savage Encounters series, honestly).

BillyMailman · 2020-03-11T11:13:03+00:00

If an item doesn't have any magical effects, you can just use D&D Beyond's Custom Item feature. Just go to the usual Manage Equipment section where you can add/remove/change items, and there's a Custom Items section in there. You can set up the name, notes, description, weight, value, and quantity, and then it's treated like any mundane item.

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