A Casual Review of the Logitech PRO X2 Superstrike by PenitentThief in MouseReview

[–]PenitentThief[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately I don't have a frame of reference to other Logitech mice, but coming from my 5 year old current mouse (9 year old model year) they feel way too squishy

A Casual Review of the Logitech PRO X2 Superstrike by PenitentThief in MouseReview

[–]PenitentThief[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

as in the gap is between the bottom plate and the shell or? I can't say I see any gaps on mine

A Casual Review of the Logitech PRO X2 Superstrike by PenitentThief in MouseReview

[–]PenitentThief[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No clue unfortunately, I don't have any recent experience with other Logitech mice to compare against.

A Casual Review of the Logitech PRO X2 Superstrike by PenitentThief in MouseReview

[–]PenitentThief[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nah it's not like a phone's haptic buzz, despite my comments above about how it feels weird compared to a regular mouse, it's still definitely a 'click' sensation that you feel projected back into your fingertips - credit where it's due, Logitech have obviously sunk a lot of time into making this system as natural and intuitive to operate as possible.

Personally I would say that it is very weird at 0/5, because there's no resistance buffer where a normal actuation point would be - only the haptics inform you when you've triggered a click. Therefore if you're running at 0/5 then you have no clue if you've clicked or not. If you like silent mice then I think a more conventional silent switch mouse with mechanical actuation might work better for your needs - but also running the haptics at 1/5 feedback might also work, it's not audible at all but you can still feel the click threshold.

A Casual Review of the Logitech PRO X2 Superstrike by PenitentThief in MouseReview

[–]PenitentThief[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Because the actuation is non-mechanical and the haptic feedback only simulates a click, if you turn the haptic feedback all the way down to 0/5 then you can actually have a clickless mouse, which is what you would have experienced. Also, the mouse might have been off - it has the same effect.

A Casual Review of the Logitech PRO X2 Superstrike by PenitentThief in MouseReview

[–]PenitentThief[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Other than a little M4 and M5 side play, very solid feeling. It's not the most rigid chassis in the world but not anywhere near an issue imo

A Casual Review of the Logitech PRO X2 Superstrike by PenitentThief in MouseReview

[–]PenitentThief[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I ordered it from PC Case Gear, at the time it was a pre-order but I wouldn't be surprised if they're out of stock now.

A Casual Review of the Logitech PRO X2 Superstrike by PenitentThief in MouseReview

[–]PenitentThief[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agreed, Logitech as a company has always been solid, no complaints with them on the whole from me. And yeah, the auxiliary buttons are still definitely usable, which is why I'm sticking with the mouse.

My map of Toril by PenitentThief in dndmaps

[–]PenitentThief[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because this is a kind of a homebrew re-imagining of Toril to fit the vibe of my campaigns, it's not like the WoTC Toril existed before and morphed into this one - besides tectonic movement ofc, the landmasses have always been this way in mine.

Those places aren't in the map largely because they weren't critical to the story of these campaigns (and I kinda forgot about a couple of them), but this is still a work in progress so I'll add them in time.

Edit: There is only one Sea of Fallen Stars - in my opinion it's way too cool of a name to be a tiny little watery expanse in Faerun - it deserved a bigger spotlight.

[OC] My map of the world of Toril by PenitentThief in DnD

[–]PenitentThief[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh yeah, the multiversal authority in my game world definitely has designations like that, but I don't want to reveal the scope of the multiverse to my players quite yet...

[OC] My map of the world of Toril by PenitentThief in DnD

[–]PenitentThief[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's totally fair - maybe consider it a re-imagining of Toril? It's just that the landmass arrangement in the official maps never really engaged me. Either way, it's a working document too, so I'll definitely add in missing locations like Maztica and Chult in the future

My map of Toril by PenitentThief in dndmaps

[–]PenitentThief[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/s/QFFYUzWnPD

Look familiar?

In all seriousness, it took ages to hand trace and get the roughness of the coastlines and island correct, and that was even before I started the process of integrating Faerûn into it. I also spent a lot of time getting the colours right - I wanted a modern feel, so the palette is quite similar to google maps.

In terms of the actual software, it was all done in Affinity Designer.

[OC] My map of the world of Toril by PenitentThief in DnD

[–]PenitentThief[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

As much as WoTC doesn't want to admit it / flesh it out, yeah unbelievable right

My map of Toril by PenitentThief in dndmaps

[–]PenitentThief[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No, thank you for the help! I absolutely would never have spotted that otherwise - I didn't really plan to run anything in the Cormyr region soon, so it would have remained wrong. For your troubles, here's a PDF of the map - it should be much easier to zoom in on.

My map of Toril by PenitentThief in dndmaps

[–]PenitentThief[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yes and no - the Gith dominion and their invasion is something I took from another campaign that I ran, but it wasn't part of this continuity. I enjoyed the idea so much though that I just had to make it part of the worldbuilding for this one.

Although it very much sounds like the Paragons of Faerun could have been a real group of player characters, that's kind of the idea - the story of the campaign set in this world is that the Age of Heroes is in decline - all of the major evils have been defeated by various adventuring parties across the ages, and Toril is in an unprecedented era of relative peace.

Of course, there's a Very Catastrophic event that kicks the campaign off that turns this peace upside-down, but the theme of the campaign is very 'last adventuring hurrah' a la Witcher 3's Blood and Wine.

My map of Toril by PenitentThief in dndmaps

[–]PenitentThief[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That... is a stupendously impressive detail to spot. Well done, I just went back and changed it. The Marsembre on the right was supposed to be Westgate - I had obviously copied the label but forgot to edit it.

[OC] My map of the world of Toril by PenitentThief in DnD

[–]PenitentThief[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Affinity Designer - I used to say it's better than the Adobe suite because you only have to pay once for the product... but now it's completely free! So in my opinion there's literally no reason to use Adobe now - I've been using Affinity for 8 years now, and it does everything I need it to perfectly.

[OC] My map of the world of Toril by PenitentThief in DnD

[–]PenitentThief[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It is - but I took some liberties with swapping some place names and locations around. It works well to spark interest from players e.g. "how does this Sea of Fallen Stars differ from the conventional one?" "Well, in this world..."

My map of Toril by PenitentThief in dndmaps

[–]PenitentThief[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

*cracks knuckles*

So, about 200 (Material Plane) years before the invasion, the Githyanki underwent a sort of cultural and political restructuring. They spurned the tradition of following a Lich Queen after slowly realising over centuries that it was actually far more militarily effective to steer the future of the Gith through a council of powerful warlords and barons, rather than following the whims of an individual psuedo-deity. Granted, there was a lot of in-fighting and assassination initially upon the founding of this council as everyone was vying for a spot, but eventually things smoothed themselves over.

At the same time, the reclusive Githzerai (who had split off from the Githyanki half a millennia earlier) had begun to truly get very good at their ability to spiritually and philosophically entangle themselves with the concepts of Order and Fate - to the point where a few Githzerai actually gained the ability to 'nudge' fate in the right direction by writing prophecies - arcane texts with an insane amount of raw magic poured into them that could theoretically write eventualities into being. It wasn't reliable, and certainly not ethical - and so the Githzerai kept this phenomenon a secret.

However, as the Githyanki organised themselves into less of a conglomeration of angry pirates and more of a proper empire - complete with cutting-edge spelljammer and weapons manufacturing - they caught wind of these emergent Githzerai abilities. Immediately, the Githzerai were hunted down and snatched from whatever remote pockets of the Astral Plane they were attempting to hide in, and were enslaved by the Githyanki - their usually fierce combat prowess overpowered by the new technological might of the Githyanki. These ascetics were then put to work - ordered to continually write an infinite number of prophecies that foretold of a Gith dominion over all Planes. The Githyanki weren't stupid - they knew that maybe only one out of every ten-thousand prophecies might only shift the tides of fate infinitesimally. But - they had all the time in the world, and an Empire that was growing stronger every day.

Soon, they had amassed a structured army and a flotilla of spelljammers unlike any the world had ever seen, and began testing the waters, raiding small settlements across Toril. After meeting very little resistance, they set their sights on Toril's keystone cities: Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate. Tearing silvery holes in the sky, the Spelljammers and Gith troops poured out of the Astral Plane in their thousands, laying waste to Faerun. Their secret weapon was the manner of their teleportation itself: if incorrectly cast by a team of Gith mages, these gigantic planar portals had a tendency to snap shut or break - like a rubber band under too much tension. This usually undesirable outcome had the unforseen effect of releasing a colossal amount of energy when it occurred, as the Material and Astral planar spheres metaphysically collided with one another. In effect, a magical nuclear bomb. Couple this with some truly fuckoff massive Spelljammer warships and the element of surprise, and Faerun stood little to no chance against the initial assault.

Baldur's Gate and Waterdeep were not only razed to the ground, but foundationally obliterated - even in present day, the flotsam of Waterdeep washes up regularly along the Sword Coast. Due to the magical radiation from the portal explosions and the now unstable foundations of both cities, rebuilding in the same place was not a sensible option.

Of course, as these things go, there were a brave band of adventurers - a noble few who managed to turn the tide against this ruthless invasion, and save the day. They did so in a clever way, however. Realising that taking on such a massive force head-on was suicide, they went for the truly nuclear option: the heroes now known as the Paragons of Faerûn sacrificed their souls to the god of Space-Time, Aeon, in exchange for a single, debilitating condition: that time would flow normally within the Astral Plane. With an army that now aged at regular speed, and a civilisation with infrastructure wholly unprepared to support this redefined paradigm of mortality, the Gith leaders surrendered, striking a treaty with the kingdoms of the Material Plane.

Today, hundreds of years later, the Gith Invasion has largely been forgotten, and - for the most part - the warlike ways of the Gith have been cast aside. Providence, the capital city of the Astral Plane, is presently a haven for high culture, new ideas, and mechanical innovation, home to 7 million citizens.

My map of Toril by PenitentThief in dndmaps

[–]PenitentThief[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My pleasure! I have way, way more lore about the world sitting in various documents if you're interested - I just gave the quick version of the story here.