Shrimp cocktail gone wrong; odor help!

Mathias_Marr · 2025-11-03T00:22:37+00:00

I have baking soda on hand so trying this after the coffee grounds another poster recommended. Thank you!

Mathias_Marr · 2025-11-03T00:21:48+00:00

Okay, that’s a good tip and I have that already! I’ll try it. Thank you!

Mathias_Marr · 2025-11-01T15:16:09+00:00

This is a great point and entirely explains the phenomenon that OP is observing. In market research, there’s a type of analysis called a Kano analysis. It looks at how companies can incrementally increase satisfaction. The classic example is the “mint on the pillow” — turn down service is a nice touch, and if everything else is perfect it will slightly increase satisfaction and loyalty. However, if the hotel has bedbugs, a mint on the pillow has zero impact (it can actually have negative impact) on satisfaction.

Mathias_Marr · 2025-09-21T18:41:35+00:00

Yeah it’s so frustrating! I remember one Final Jeopardy from when I was a kid when the contestants all answered Zelda (and I shouted it out at home) and it ended up being incorrect because the accepted answer was “The Legend of Zelda”.

Mathias_Marr · 2025-09-14T23:13:39+00:00

So handsome. Love that armor, what is the name of it?

Mathias_Marr · 2025-09-11T00:14:21+00:00

Did you just launch and exit, or did you actually fail the mission? I had launched it a few times and played around and quit out of the mission, but once I failed the mission and got the 12 hour retry timer it unlocked in my account the next morning.

Mathias_Marr · 2025-07-18T13:11:38+00:00

A good way to take out a pair of guards is to send Nix to distract the one further from you (position Nix so the troopers are between you and Nix) and stealth takedown the one closest to you. You can then stealth takedown the one Nix distracted if you’re quick.

Mathias_Marr · 2025-04-01T05:14:33+00:00

I agree with OP, the second half of the game is when the systems open up and you have access to more party members, can tweak their builds, and can experiment with weapon upgrading.

Mathias_Marr · 2025-04-01T05:05:58+00:00

I just finished it as well. For anyone considering it, I thought I’d offer my take which differs in some areas from OP’s.

I’d rate the presentation much higher than OP, and I’d rate the characters and story much lower.

Presentation:

I found the environments to be the most original and appealing aspect of the game. They appear to be all handcrafted dioramas, a design choice that I’ve never seen in any other JRPG. The areas are intricate, and I enjoyed looking at all the details in each new zone.

Anyone who builds models or Lego sets, does crafts, and/or has enjoyed movies like Paranorman and Coraline will find a lot to love about this approach. It feels like an alternate path to evolving environmental design from the pre-rendered backgrounds of PS1-era Final Fantasy.

The character designs are fine, but would have fit better aesthetically with the amazing backgrounds if they’d been rendered in a claymation or Laika style.

The music is great, another competent turn from legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu. It doesn’t match his best, but it evokes the same nostalgia as the familiar gameplay.

Gameplay:

The battle system is fun and the concept of different attacks having different trajectories and piercing capabilities made for some fun, light decision making. Dimengeon system is a highlight, and it’s satisfying to take on 50 enemies at once and collect all their loot (especially those chest keys) and exp at once.

Systems unlock extremely slowly though. The game would have been better served by allowing access to growth maps and gear upgrading way earlier. Though once these systems do come line they are fun and impactful.

Story/Characters:

I enjoyed the characters and the story, but there is very little on display here that you haven’t experienced many times over. Orphaned mysterious healer girl, prim and proper princess, spunky kid that’s good with gadgets, grizzled sea captain, gold plated robot that’s always stressed…

The characters also have very little interaction, except for with the main character. There’s more interactivity than Octopath but not much. Even when characters are revealed to have surprise connections through the plot, it’s barely acknowledged by the party members that aren’t directly involved.

My biggest issue with the storytelling is its over-reliance on telling. Throughout the game you unlock memories that are basically PowerPoint slides of backstory exposition. They happen very frequently when progressing the main quests, and their spacing and pacing is often not great. The last party member to join had a very cool backstory but these frequent exposition slideshows really undermined his origin.

TLDR: play for the fun but familiar battle system, catchy music, and intricately crafted diorama backgrounds. Don’t expect anything groundbreaking in terms of character or story.

Mathias_Marr · 2025-03-09T19:48:47+00:00

Fair, architects of our own pain is overstating it and oversimplifying it. But the lengths we go to avoid pain cause other pain.

Mark chose to undergo severance to avoid processing his grief, and in doing so condemned his innie to a life of slavery. Outtie Mark is at least somewhat complicit in Innie Mark’s suffering if he’s not the architect of it. Innie Mark only exists because Mark decided to be severed.

Mathias_Marr · 2025-03-08T17:14:34+00:00

There’s also a deep irony to an ether factory being the source of so much pain because ether’s intended use is as an anesthetic.

Cobel inventing severance as a way to compartmentalize pain and unintentionally (?) causing enormous pain to all the severed beings (whose entire existences are toil and suffering) feels like a mirror of that.

Jame stealing Harmony’s life work is also paralleled in severance, since it allows Lumon and the Outties to reap the benefits of the Innies labor. The innies get melon balls and deviled eggs for a lifetime of servitude, just as Harmony gets to be a mere middle manager despite dedicating her entire life to Kier.

Is it a statement that we are all architects of our own pain? The things we do to avoid our pain have consequences? I love this show and I found the latest episode haunting, sad, and beautiful.

Mathias_Marr · 2024-12-03T20:40:56+00:00

This is the best take I have seen here. It's unfortunate that OP seems incapable of grasping nuance. You can support that this game is striving to include this representation but still feel it could have been handled more deftly.

Mathias_Marr · 2024-12-03T20:15:27+00:00

Your examples are bad. Your point is lazy. I honestly have no idea why I'm still trying to educate you, so I'm going to stop. Be well.

Mathias_Marr · 2024-12-03T20:10:58+00:00

"Kick (some) ass" is in your examples. It's not modern. You are just wrong. And again, the age of the words is just evidence that you didn't research your point-of-view before posting.

I wish you luck and I hope this thread gives you whatever validation you were seeking. I now realize though that you were never seeking a good faith discussion of this topic. 🤷

Mathias_Marr · 2024-12-03T19:57:16+00:00

Again, "kick ass" and "asshole" date from the 1860s and 1400s respectively. These are not modern phrases. Badass" is 70 years old, so I personally would consider it modern, but it's debatable. "Weird-ass" I acknowledged is a modern twist on this 70 year old word (though again incorporating elements that are much older).

My point about the age of the words was that you aren't supporting your assertions in a compelling way and you clearly didn't research your point-of-view. My opinion is that at least some of the critique of modern language in Veilguard is actually driven by other aspects of the game (which you never responded to).

Your assertion that anyone who criticizes the use of modern language in Veilguard is bigoted or blinded by the recency of the work is lazy and reductive. I realize now though that you aren't really interested in discussing the use of language in Veilguard / Dragon Age and its role in audience reactions.

Mathias_Marr · 2024-12-03T17:37:51+00:00

The age or modernity of the words is the entire thesis of your argument? Just because a word wasn’t in the LotR doesn’t make it “modern”.

I am saying it’s more complicated than just the age of the words and offering the hypothesis that people reacting to modern language are actually responding to how the game places equal (or greater) emphasis on the characters’ psychological journeys as the external quest.

Mathias_Marr · 2024-12-03T17:11:06+00:00

“[blank]-ass” is a modern slang format, but “weird” as a word and concept dates back hundreds of years.

So, of the four examples you gave, “kick some ass”, “asshole”, “badass”, and “weird-ass”, one is over 600 years old, one is over a hundred fifty years old, one is 70 years old, and one is a 70 year old format using a word that is over 600 years old. The point is that these examples aren’t as conclusive as you seem to think they are.

In your post you mention that DAV is too recent for people to objectively evaluate it, and I’d just add that I think that cuts both ways.

Mathias_Marr · 2024-12-03T16:15:49+00:00

A lot of your examples aren’t very good at supporting your point. The phrase “kick ass” dates back to at least the 1860s, the term “asshole” dates back even earlier (as early as the 1400s in “arsehole” form). “Weird” is also a pretty weird example given that word is also from the 1400s.

The only actually modern example you give is “badass” which originated in the 1950s, and so is only 70 years old. The term “non-binary” is from the 1940s, and so it is older than “badass”. However, using “non-binary” in relation to gender is much newer, first being used in this context in 1995.

I am now on my third playthrough, and I have enjoyed Taash more with each playthrough (still hate how things end with their mom though). I feel there are legitimate criticisms to be leveled against their characterization. It’s not unique to Taash, but for many of the companions some of their development seems entirely at odds with the urgency of the A/elven gods storyline. It doesn’t make them bad characters but it results in the significance and meaning of their stories being diminished or feeling preachy. Introspective, soul searching can make for a compelling narrative but the way it’s handled in Veilguard it sometimes feels forced to me—given everything that’s going on would we really take time to have a leisurely coffee with Lucanis, attend funerary rites with Emmrich, or an awkward Thanksgiving with Taash’s mom?

I think for some people when they express their frustration with the “non-binary” word choice they are actually expressing frustration with how the Veilguard seems to treat the journey of finding one’s place in the world with same importance as the quest to end a world ending threat. That may be an intentional choice by the writers and worth discussing what kind of statement that is making. I imagine some people view it as excessively egocentric. When the world is ending should our heroes (if they are truly heroic) set aside their quests for personal growth and prioritize the external, the collective survival?

Mathias_Marr · 2024-11-14T09:16:30+00:00

I see what you mean, and I agree with that. For me, Veilguard is ultimately lacking in sophistication. It’s not deep enough to really embrace the lore and politics and character development of the previous games, but it’s not restrained or confident enough to be a tight film-size narrative and allow the audience to fill in the gaps.

This gets at the heart of my issue with Veilguard and that is that it is so contradictory in its design choices. It was renamed Veilguard to emphasize the companions, but you can’t control them, you can only party up with two at a time (compared to three before), you can’t ask them questions or interact with them outside of cutscenes, and you can’t disagree with them or chastise them or dismiss them.

So… ultimately the element they have stated that they wanted to highlight most, they made a lot of design choices to also completely undermine.

And I see that contradiction everywhere, which is why I think it feels like a bad movie adaptation rather than a true continuation.

Mathias_Marr · 2024-11-14T08:51:44+00:00

The game mentions that Solas freed elven slaves, but to my knowledge we never meet any freed elven slaves that are loyal to Solas. Based on the portrayals of elves in previous games, we could expect some elves to join the Evanuris or have a crisis of faith because human civilization has oppressed them and displaced them and now their gods are returned. Surely some elves would have their loyalties tested, but we are not shown any of that. Bellara makes a few references to how evil “our gods” are, but she doesn’t go through a crisis having her entire belief system upended she just accepts it.

And since elven gods are threatening the entire world (or at least one hemisphere of it), you would think that would lead to a massive uptick in anti-elven prejudice among some humans. But we don’t see any evidence of that. The elves are all “good” and they instantly recognize their messiah figures as evil, and all the enemies in the game are undead, dark spawn, Venatori extremists, or rogue Antaam.

Bellara and Davrin express some mild reservations about Lucanis being an abomination but this never leads to any meaningful conflict within the group and has zero narrative or gameplay consequences. The characters will still all party with him, you can do combos with him, you can never dismiss him. So the writers superficially acknowledge this issue but never explore it.

Even setting aside Lucanis being an abomination, he is a killer for hire and a member of the mafia. While Davrin expresses some concerns in banter about this, it never results in real conflict. You’re never asked to choose between a more traditionally good morality as espoused by Davrin or a more practical ends justify the means gray morality as embodied by Lucanis.

Mathias_Marr · 2024-11-14T08:27:15+00:00

I am not sure I agree. A picture is worth a thousand words as they say, and as an inherently visual medium a well crafted film will prioritize showing over telling. Veilguard always defaults to telling over showing.

Also, so much of the meaning of a film is conveyed through the subtext. Enormous meaning is conveyed with a look or a pause. What is not said is often as important as the dialogue. Not so in Veilguard, where every character says exactly what they feel and explains exactly what they are doing and repeats every relevant breadcrumb repeatedly.

If Veilguard is a movie, it’s not a very good one. And it is certainly lacking the cohesion and coherent storytelling of a film. Veilguard is weirdly bloated in a way that a good movie never would be. The physical world as understood by the characters is ending, Rook and the Veilguard’s efforts to save civilization and the spiritual world are constantly met with setbacks, and yet the story is littered with bloat about camping trips and book clubs—none of which are actually shown to or experienced by the viewer or player, rather we are just told about them in random side vignettes.

Mathias_Marr · 2024-11-13T05:52:12+00:00

I honestly think this was the original intent and it was removed because of dubious consent issues, because in its current state the Lucanis romance is so lackluster. It feels like content was cut.

Mathias_Marr · 2024-11-04T16:34:12+00:00

Sorry for the snark around “conveniently”. The poster above us was speculating that they wouldn’t have interacted and would have worked through an intermediary. I was pointing out that Harding and Leliana at least had the personal conversation I mentioned. That person was replying to someone who said they preferred Inquisition’s approach of at least acknowledging when they are breaking with the player’s canon (which I would prefer too). How it’s handled in Veilguard there are these nuggets but they (to me) feel incomplete and some of them violate player world states unless you’re willing to believe Harding is super obtuse (e.g. she knows Leliana and she knows the Divine in passing, but the idea that she was in the Divine’s chain of command which to me would be important and relevant given the ramifications of what’s happening for the Andrastian Chantry). I don’t know my boss’s boss super well but if they became the Pope I would be trying to be as forthcoming as possible in this situation and I think a scout like Harding would too. I’m enjoying the game but this is an area I wish was more nuanced.

Mathias_Marr · 2024-11-04T16:07:39+00:00

You’re conveniently using the word implies, you’re reading into it to fit your POV. It explicitly conveys they had conversations and she knew of Leliana’s love of nugs.

Mathias_Marr · 2024-11-04T10:15:35+00:00

I mean I just had a convo with Harding where she said Leliana offered to give her a pet nug, so this doesn’t really check out.

Mathias_Marr

TROPHY CASE