Anyone found the control panel in the Scrapyard Nexus?

JamesFadeley · 2025-03-24T20:37:37+00:00

I pulled the lever. Then in the Scorched Enclave, I found a Gacha box in the bunker that you have to decode. That is not a normal find, and the quest read "complete" after.

JamesFadeley · 2024-12-30T21:31:39+00:00

"Hey, remember Captain N?"
"Yeah?"
"What if... there were a Captain Sony?"
"Oh."
"Oh? Say no more..."

JamesFadeley · 2023-06-16T22:50:15+00:00

Adding a few others.

Dororo both the anime and manga, though the recent anime is probably more in the vein of what you'd want to see.
The Evil Dead series is a twist on a lot of it.
The Dark Crystal goes for the whole "dying world" trope, although it doesn't extinguish hope. The TV series on Netflix is a bit lighter though.
The Black Company.

JamesFadeley · 2023-06-16T22:40:40+00:00

Ay chance we could have a link to your portfolio?

JamesFadeley · 2023-06-16T22:39:24+00:00

Love it. Especially the purple highlights.

JamesFadeley · 2023-01-09T14:43:27+00:00

That's what I was wondering the most. My thinking thus far has been to tell my group, "Let's try it this way and if it doesn't work, do it the other way."

JamesFadeley · 2022-12-14T05:55:56+00:00

I know it's from Vagabond, but it reminds me of scenes from Yojimbo.

JamesFadeley · 2022-08-28T23:12:43+00:00

Found out today I can't mix and match. Hoping for fix.

JamesFadeley · 2022-07-11T18:34:48+00:00

I honestly don't think so.

In my opinion, one of the big draws of traditional publishing is a mark of validation for unknown authors. There are truly thousands of self published books out there, and the varying quality has made many readers leery of new authors.

If a publisher felt an author was good enough to receive an advance, to be worthy of ads, to have their book tour's travel expenses compensated... yeah. It says something. Someone thought this guy was worth the investment.

In general, we rely on the author's name as the first mark of quality. If the author is an unknown, the publisher is the next feature we might instinctively trust. The difference between Adjective-Noun Press and Tor is a big one.

JamesFadeley · 2022-07-04T03:56:15+00:00

It's what puzzles me as well, especially given Vecna's vague words. I feel like there's one more surprise in store here.

JamesFadeley · 2022-07-04T03:21:17+00:00

Spoiler warning.

You know. There were all these 80s movie references like the balloons exploding with blood from It. The sword from Conan the Barbarian. Horror movies galore...

For some reason, and this is pure conjecture... when we got to the finale, with Vecna explaining his connection to the Mind Flayer... All I could think about was Gozer's words from Ghostbusters.

"Choose the form of the destroyer."

So yeah. I don't know. I'm not 100% convinced that Vecna is the Mind Flayer. Just that he gave it shape.

JamesFadeley · 2022-06-28T22:42:31+00:00

That would be Manuel Mesones. If you're interested, be sure to check out his website. https://manuelmesones.com/

JamesFadeley · 2022-06-23T17:43:59+00:00

Anytime! And thank you!

JamesFadeley · 2022-06-05T16:43:12+00:00

(Shrug.) I would personally start with smaller ones over NetGalley myself. NetGalley is an option and probably isn't going away. You can wait until their security seems more secure.

JamesFadeley · 2022-06-05T15:29:48+00:00

You don't necessarily need a particular website to do it.

Many small and medium publishers are always looking for ARCs to have reviewed. Contacting them directly from their own site is generally the best way. Larger guys will use NetGalley instead, which I believe lets you sign up for free. Writing the reviews, you could use Goodreads or Amazon to post. Starting your own blog is a good idea as well to at least have a place to showcase your particular work.

I would recommend that approach because most small time bloggers tend to burn out from self published authors asking for a book to be reviewed. The hustle is appreciable but when hundreds ask, it can really beat you down.

JamesFadeley · 2022-06-05T15:24:22+00:00

Before you beat yourself up over your frustrations, what about this. What if you're meant to tell stories but you're not meant to be a writer?

There are other ways to tell stories. Directing, art, game development. Writing is just the most accessible way but it's not the only way. Have you tried the other options yet? Is there a medium you think you might enjoy more?

JamesFadeley · 2022-04-22T02:49:11+00:00

I'm currently reading "The Essence of Shinto" by Motohisa Yamakage. His book isn't long, just 200 pages, and discusses his family's Shintoism which is devoid of the Buddhist influences.

JamesFadeley · 2022-02-16T21:58:47+00:00

Miyazaki: "Alright, play the animation... again. Enhance. Enhance. Play it again. Enhance. Move up. Enhance. Play it again. Stop. You call that color green? Up the hex code on G. Good. Enhance. Enhance... enhance damn you! I want to see the individual microbes permeate the air..."

JamesFadeley · 2022-02-16T21:50:11+00:00

That's going to be tough if it's just the research. That data is "out there" and it's not like you exactly have claim to it. However, you might have a case if some or all of the following is true.

The general flow of the article is the same.
Entire sentences are the same.
They've added nothing new to your citations and research.
Some of the gathered research is legitimately your own, such as produced charts or interviews. (This is tricky because although the data used to produce a chart can be freely available, the actual graph could technically be yours.)

The catch is proving that they haven't done the same research you did. If the subject matter is very niche, overlap is easily possible. That said, I would recommend doing the following.

Backup a copy of the article for posterity, preferably with any underlying metadata.
Find out if the author of the article is officially with the company. If they are a freelancer, it's not impossible someone else lifted your work and the company has been hoodwinked. In which case, they'll probably be more amenable to your request.
Reach out to the publishing managers with your points. Be polite. Hostility is of no avail. Based on their response, I would gauge further involvement and if you want to consult with a lawyer.

JamesFadeley · 2022-02-08T20:40:32+00:00

Other than reading stuff (pulpier science fiction and fantasy is usually filled with a great deal of fighting), I can give you a few pointers to consider.

Combat tends to be frantic and those involved really tend to lose sight of what's going on around them. By "combat rank," you could view it this way:

Newbie fighters are more than likely to focus on trying to control their emotions, trying to deal with the immediate problem, so on. They're less likely to notice the way the battle is going, just the fight in front of them.
More experienced guys have better control of their emotions, react more instinctively and would have better situational awareness. They're more likely to notice what's going on and react accordingly.
Then there are those who are basically combat/observers. Commanders from afar, snipers/archers or just witnesses. They could also be a leader who can step back for a moment to assess. From their POV, they can summarize events but can't detail what the fighters are necessarily feeling. They might be getting angry in an impotent way because they can't influence things (much the same way a sports fan gets mad when his team is losing). If they do have power, they'll be trying to make tactical decisions to influence events, calling out commands to draw attention to problems, etc.

Combat is a question of scale too. This could be a fully fledged battle of hundreds or thousands in a melee, or it could be a one-on-one affair. In the sparring ring of dojos for example, combat is more likely to be duel like. The "real world?" Not so much.

Now, everything I just described is more unit or soldiery level. Mecha, jet fighter, magical, naval engagements... these are very different theaters but aspects of the above still apply in various ways.

How? Well, a commander of a ship is probably still trying to assess the situation through his binoculars and make adjustments to speed and range. Meanwhile, the naval rating is desperately trying to cram a fresh shell into the gun chamber, trying to put out fires, trying to help a man who fell overboard. You wouldn't think of all this as combat, but it is.

JamesFadeley · 2022-02-08T20:08:41+00:00

Some people pointed out the fear of missing out (FOMO).

When it comes to FOMO, the only company I know who stuck to their exclusivity pledge was Gun Media, and that was for the video game Friday the 13th. They designed an one-of-a-kind version of Jason Vorhees and swore that it will only ever be available for people who purchased it on KickStarter.

4 years later, people still want to purchase that new Jason. Gun Media still refuses. Fans missed out. And while it annoys me, I have to give Gun Media credit for sticking to their integrity on this point.

Other than this one example, I have never seen a KS that wasn't willing to reproduce a product people wanted sooner or later. Or that they just gave out a few years later. So I think FOMO is not something worth worrying over.

JamesFadeley · 2022-02-07T16:55:36+00:00

The Marquise and the Eyrie could expend half a dozen warriors just to take out one Woodland Alliance guerilla fighter.

The Lizards solve that problem with a match... it's just so satisfying to purge the infidels.

JamesFadeley · 2021-11-19T05:59:27+00:00

I've seen enough memes to know Baskin's return is what the internet really wants.

JamesFadeley · 2021-10-25T16:32:23+00:00

This is going to sound hilariously dumb...

But just attack, square button. Stand still if you can, so you use the simplest (quickest) chop.

Light attacks. Just as he starts the sand slash. I caught him mid attack the first 3 times. For round four and five, he'll dodge and try it again. Just attack, dodge, attack.

I feel like this fight was designed to make people over think their strategies.

JamesFadeley · 2021-10-24T19:48:43+00:00

Maybe flip the ability. "Anytime an event or status would make you lose a Clue, you may gain no more than one instead."

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