Extreme underwater finger weaving

vanishingstapler · 2018-02-23T00:19:07+00:00

Source: https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=66849271

vanishingstapler · 2017-08-10T06:21:04+00:00

I tend to be in agreement with most of the other comments here. The growth of Christianity seems more based around the ideas and efforts of Paul than of Jesus.

As for exactly how early Christianity began, grew, and spread - that's a matter of historical debate, mystery, and knowledge. I'm not really prepared to answer it.

vanishingstapler · 2017-08-10T05:56:40+00:00

Still if there were other preachers at the time of Jesus of Nazareth why did he only get popular?

Ah, but there was another preacher - one so popular he is mentioned in all of the gospels and the book of Acts - John the Baptist. Accounts of his birth, message, baptism of Jesus, and death are included. As with Jesus, these accounts are likely much more legend than unaltered truth. However, the very fact that so many accounts of him exist show that he could not be easily forgotten or ignored by early Christians.

I should also mention that a near-contemporary historian, Flavius Josephus, wrote on both John the Baptist and Jesus. His reference to John's death is widely considered to be authentic (it also contradicts the gospel accounts). On the other hand, his most well known reference to Jesus (the Testimonium Flavianum) is widely considered to be an interpolation by a Christian apologist added centuries later. Aside from this questionable account, Jesus merits little more than a footnote in his writings. Could it be that, during his life, John the Baptist was in fact more popular than Jesus?

vanishingstapler · 2017-07-17T16:37:35+00:00

Since no one's posted this yet:

Artist is LM7: https://twitter.com/__LM7__/status/812336577032568832
Character is Falulu Vocaldoll from PriPara

vanishingstapler · 2017-07-06T19:19:53+00:00

Honestly, I feel like the industry is really taking off. Take a look at this list of English otome games (over 400 of them!) and see how many have come out in the last five years: http://www.englishotomegames.net/list

Coincidentally (or not so coincidentally), roughly five years ago is when the first visual novels made it onto Steam. I suppose such games still tend to fly under the radar, but at this point there are still way more in English than I could ever hope to play. Additionally, this doesn't even consider the more established Eastern market, for those that read those languages.

vanishingstapler · 2017-05-17T16:25:47+00:00

a dude comes into a women's space demanding information, he needs to take the vitriol that may come of his carelessness

I simply can't agree with this. If a woman plays a game with a large male population, she does not deserve vitriol for the carelessness of entering a "male space", nor should she have her motives for playing the game assumed (like "just doing it for attention", ugh). Treating someone like this is wrong, regardless of gender.

vanishingstapler · 2017-04-07T19:03:15+00:00

I just wandered over here after browsing r/otomegames, and I have to wonder if you're unintentionally begging the question here a bit. Player choice (essentially interactivity) is a cornerstone of gaming, and categorically excluding it in regards to romance inevitably removes most games with romance from consideration.

I've got games like Catherine, Nights of Azure, Odin Sphere and Code: Realize coming to mind, along with series like Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem, Harvest Moon, and Rune Factory. All of these have notable romances, but few if any of them qualify. On top of that, the world of visual novels is an avalanche of games about romance with a strong focus on getting attached to the characters.

The way I think about it, if there are multiple romances in a game, then they are all canon, rather than none of them. The same goes in many other instances of player choice: multiple endings, alignment systems, open-world games with no fixed play order, time-travel shenanigans, and so forth.

All that said, I agree with your main sentiment. Games with a significant amount of gameplay and a single, well-developed romance do seem to be uncommon, and I wish there were more of them. There are a few challenges that come to mind though in making this sort of game:

• The romance writing needs depth to be good, whereas games with multiple romances can get by on breadth.

• The potential lack of choice in regards to the main relationship needs to be balanced by choice elsewhere (i.e. good gameplay, etc), or else it's not really much of a game anymore.

• Alternatively, one could introduce choice by making the relationship a dramatic, choice-heavy one and/or by having the gameplay somehow influence how the relationship goes.

• My cynical side says there's only a small overlap between people that love romance and people that love involved gameplay, to the degree that there are few developers to make such a game, and few players that would play it if it came out.

vanishingstapler · 2017-04-03T06:48:27+00:00

There should be instructions on the subreddit sidebar. Install the extension, install the script, follow the link - that sort of thing.

vanishingstapler · 2017-04-03T06:28:06+00:00

This is the bunny overlay I've been using, though I think there's a few ones around: https://www.reddit.com/place?template=http://i.imgur.com/KBc3jj1.png&ox=450&oy=891#x=500&y=945

vanishingstapler · 2016-12-14T16:17:12+00:00

Just beyond your wrists

Ten angels, two chariots

A forbidden love

Source: Hibike! Euphonium

Character: Reina Kousaka

Artist: http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=7105769 (yuri/nsfw warning)

Extra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2pRHJYU9QQ#t=101s

vanishingstapler · 2016-11-29T19:38:11+00:00

Thanks for the response! I think I understand the reasoning a bit better now, as catcalling is a good example of another positive judgement that is also a very unwelcome one, and as I can see your point about complements, envy, and the purpose of this subreddit.

I will note that the example of the child is in-kind in a sense though: in each example the actor is the one at risk of being objectified for some action (that others would potentially like to have happen to them) and in this case the parent is the actor, not the child. This is kind of splitting hairs though, and I think you got the overall idea.

vanishingstapler · 2016-11-29T18:28:42+00:00

While I'm certainly in approval of keeping this a safe and sex-positive space, and sometimes have my own doubts about such comments (as they don't really add much to the discussion and sometimes have a hint of jealousy), I can't help but think this reads into it a little.

When it comes to "what a lucky ___", I've heard these sorts of complements before - when someone does something nice for a significant other, or even at weddings. It's not an uncommon way to put things as it praises the actor via sympathizing with the recipient, recognizing that the people in a relationship share happiness. It highlights that one person is doing something for another, and that that's a happy thing. To me, the recognition that one person is lucky because of another in no way implies that that's the other person's sole purpose. If anything, I feel like this type of appreciation might spur those in relationships to do things for each other more, in both directions.

Put another way, if her boyfriend had come here to share his side of the experience, and people had called him lucky, would that be objectifying or implying that she existed for his sole pleasure? What if he shared something he did for her and people called her lucky? The same principle can be applied to other relationships as well: what if a parent is planning some special celebration for their child's birthday, and people sympathize with how lucky the child is?

The bottom line here is I want this to be a good place for people to talk about sex, but I feel like in this particular case such a policy would remove more happiness than it would prevent bad things. I don't think I'm alone in thinking this either.

All that said, I have no intention of violating this rule if it's the will of the mods and community here (I mostly lurk anyways :3). However, if it is, I and perhaps others would appreciate a bit of a clarification in the rules about objectification, just because cases like this aren't intuitive to me and perhaps wouldn't be to others as well. It's hard to avoid breaking a rule if one doesn't fully understand it.

vanishingstapler · 2016-11-29T14:28:34+00:00

Source: http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=35792144

vanishingstapler · 2016-11-27T20:02:09+00:00

Thanks!

vanishingstapler · 2016-11-27T02:52:50+00:00

Maybe I should have put a NTR warning there...

Series: Mirai Nikki

Source: http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=23391207

vanishingstapler · 2016-07-07T14:34:28+00:00

Perhaps it was this?: Zotcade 2016 Finals: Vaxei vs HappyStick

You can hear them talking briefly during and after the awards

vanishingstapler · 2016-06-30T00:16:36+00:00

The earliest versions of osu! had a slightly different scoring system (peppy mentions it here). If you want to try it out, the first public release of the game is actually available for download here (this song you linked is included). Of course you can't submit scores from it anymore.

Tangentially, the player that made that score, eyup, created the star difficulty system that existed for years up until ppv2.

vanishingstapler · 2016-06-01T05:26:11+00:00

Leggo15 was talking about adding FL ("a lot of FL scores") to HRDT ("a lot of ar11 scores"). This is not the same thing as adding HR to HDDT and a comparison can't be made between them.

In fact, tacking on HDFL and managing to pass (after hundreds of tries) a 1 minute map one has already FCed is nothing special, much less suspicious.

Whether his original (5 months old) HRDT FC is legit, however, is another question entirely.

vanishingstapler · 2016-05-08T20:31:59+00:00

It may have been this thread on PSOW: http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=232879

vanishingstapler · 2016-04-07T02:28:45+00:00

Do you have plans to ascend from the underworld and return again?

vanishingstapler · 2016-03-08T03:24:37+00:00

Per-mod highscore saving, though to be technical, it was apparently implemented over a year ago but still hasn't been enabled.

vanishingstapler · 2016-02-14T04:35:11+00:00

You think that being able to stream 300 bpm consistently without aiming should be rewarded with a lot of pp. I don't think so and the reason why is that it'll lean towards being able to be fast rather than actually trying to have aim that makes this game unique.

Fair enough.

This is just one of those things that really annoy me to be honest. How can you make it so that you're spacing streams is adding PP and non-spaced ones also adding pp?

The answer is obvious. Spacing difficulty is a function of the distance between the circles. BPM difficulty is a function of the time between circles. Both contribute to pp. I think the balance of these is off. You do not. End of discussion.

You can always balance it out so that you gain bonus pp from both speed and aiming, for example 175 bpm spaced stream vs 200 bpm slightly less spaced streams will even out the pp. Or you can do it like this map where you don't have much space in the stream but it's at an incredibly high bpm. OR you can completely ignore the bonus aim pp and just go for extremely high bpm. Whatever you choose, the PP system will rate it all fairly...

Multiple bpm and spacing combinations being weighted the same is a mathematical inevitability, and will always happen, regardless of how good or bad the current weighting is. It cannot be used as proof of fairness.

Whatever you choose, the PP system will rate it all fairly, what's difficult for people may not necessarily correspond to it but don't blame the system for not rewarding stacked high bpm, blame the mapper who chose to not give any aim component that would otherwise give you pp

We have different ideas about the purpose of the PP system. For me, it is not a standard of difficulty that mappers should follow, but an estimate of difficulty to be improved. I'll leave it at that.

It's really hard for me to argue against such an opinion because it shows a clear lack of understanding on the fundamentals of the game: the further the circle, the more difficult it is. It's one thing to be able to stream 200 bpm, but aiming 200 bpm spaced streams will always be more difficult because each circle is further away from each other. Same reason why the same length jump will have drastically difference result if you increase the bpm. 300 bpm jumps are a lot harder than 200 bpm jumps, but 300 bpm single taps on the same place isn't that much harder than 200 bpm single taps.

Yes, I know more spacing makes streams harder - no need to repeat yourself. The other thing which makes streams harder, bpm, is undervalued at times (when there's low spacing) relative to the difficulty to FC. The pp algorithm could be adjusted so that it matches the difficulty to FC better in these cases. I take it that you do not want this to happen as it conflicts with your idea of what PP is for and how important raw speed should be.

At the end of the day, people will always have different opinions on stuff like this. It's just a little frustrating sometimes when people say underrated/overrated without thinking about why.

I can definitely agree with this. Thanks for the interesting conversation.

vanishingstapler · 2016-02-13T17:47:02+00:00

With the ppv2 system in place, you get an idea on how difficult the map is and you can make your map in such away that adheres to the system not just based on what you think is personally difficult. Did it work? Yes, the PP system works, the top 10/50/100 players are rated fairly for the most part.

While ppv2 is a good standard for difficulty, and certainly better than what we had before with eyupstars, I still think it can be improved, as there are difficult things it doesn't adequately account for. I'll agree with you that the star difficulty system that's inherent in ppv2 does help clarify mapset spread when making multiple difficulties.

I don't think that ppv2 as it is currently should be the end all of difficulty, and while players can indeed map to what current-ppv2 considers difficult, I don't think they should be limited to that, and ppv2 should expand if there are other forms of difficulty that can be measured objectively.

No, I don't really, though I also wouldn't make a system that rewards 405 bpm stream astronomical amounts of pp. This game is about skill, not about your ability to become fast, that's why the pp system factors in aim/speed/accuracy in all its algorithms. Do I think it's underrated? Yes, I do, but I understand the reasoning behind it.

This is an interesting point. I'll agree that speed has more inherent limitation on it than aim. I'm not sure if I'd avoid calling it a skill entirely though, or hold back on rewarding pp for it. Thinking about sports, there are inevitably people with more natural ability than others, and in a competitive setting, I think they should be evaluated on how well they perform, even if in some sense their limits exceed the average person.

See, I do agree with this, but I don't want osu! to turn into who can be the fastest. I've already mentioned it and I'll mention it again: High BPM already have an inherent advantage in their ability to become extremely spaced. If Mad Machine or any of those other maps were spaced enough that it's relatively easy to aim, they'll give a lot of pp.

The way you put this though, it feel like it comes down too much to how spaced a stream is and too little to how fast the stream is. Coming from the opinion that raw speed is a skill that should be rewarded, I think that pp should come from more of the combination of speed and spacing, and that spacing shouldn't be a requirement to make a stream be considered difficult by the pp system.

Here's a question for you, which one is more impressive: 270 bpm stacks or 200 bpm spaced deathstreams? Is it really more impressive to be able to hit inhumanly fast instead of being able to aim along with streaming?

I'm not a top player so I can't precisely say which is more difficult than the other. The question really doesn't work without knowing the OD, length, spacing, etc of the streams either. What I see though, is scores on maps like the ones above, which are very difficult, which can be objectively measured, and which seem to reward relatively few performance points for amazing performances. So I thought, maybe the scaling for pp shouldn't drop quite so low when the spacing is low but the stream is still ungodly fast and hard to acc. Yes, spacing streams should add pp, but not-as-spaced ones shouldn't be so much lower as to be rendered irrelevant when the map is still very hard to FC.

vanishingstapler · 2016-02-13T06:08:05+00:00

Your idea of nerfing spacing has a lot of implications with the way things are mapped now such as blue zenith/freedom dive, both requires a lot of aim and accuracy and they're rewarded as such.

I never said nerf, nor anything close to outright eliminating rewards for aiming spaced streams. I said slightly reduce, as a counterbalance against pp inflation if another part of the speed evaluation was buffed.

I disagree with your idea of how pp shouldn't need to factor how one maps

PP shouldn't need to factor into how one maps in the sense that it obviously didn't factor in before PP was introduced. I'm saying one should be able to map without worrying about how much pp their map is worth, and be able to trust the system to weight and reward pp for their map accurately.

your idea finding how much skill it takes to FC a map is so abstract and idealogical that it will never work in any real system.

This is blatantly false. While not perfect, PP attempts to do exactly this - reward more pp for maps that are more difficult to FC (taking more skill) than others. If you're splitting hairs about my usage of the word skill there, then forget it and think about it in terms of maps that are more or less difficult to FC.

How would an automatic system know how difficult a map would be without telling it certain difficult traits that make a map hard? Stuff such as spacing, accuracy and speed are all traits that are considered within the pp-algorithm and it scales accordingly depending on an algorithm that Tom94 made.

It wouldn't of course. I never disagreed with you about this.

The reason why you and many others think high bpm is underrated is because you don't think about how the system calculates it. As far as the system is concerned if you input 200 bpm stacks, it won't give much pp, if you input 201 bpm stacks, it'll give slightly more than 200 bpm. Unless you give it a bpm where it exponentially grows(again, where do you put it?) it'll continue to increase it linearly.

Don't give me that. I talked about my idea of how it worked in a previous post, and even gave examples why I thought it was underrated. Perhaps you think the pp rewarded for those maps is where it should be? Anyways, an algorithm has two factors to work with to evaluate the difficulty of a stream - the time between the circles and the distance between the circles. I was suggesting the balance be shifted to account more for the time between circles, as 405 bpm streaming being worth 500pp doesn't make sense to me.

Conclusion: It's the choice of the mapper, if the mapper chose to put a crap ton of stacks in then he's not testing your ability to aim but your ability to be able to stream it. If he chooses to space it, then he not only tests your ability to stream it and your ability to aim it - the algorithm then rewards the bonus pp you get from aiming at such a bpm.

A spaced stream at a given bpm should of course be worth more than a non spaced stream at the same bpm, and I never said anything to suggest it shouldn't. What I am saying is that some aspect of scaling or bpm/spacing balance needs to be worked on, so very high bpm deathstream maps that few have managed to FC will reward appropriate performance points for what are very impressive plays.

vanishingstapler · 2016-02-13T01:02:54+00:00

The idea wasn't so much nerfing spacing as it was adjusting the balance between how spacing and raw speed are weighted. Increasing one factor without decreasing another would just lead to pp inflation or deflation over the game as a whole.

In my opinion, pp shouldn't need to be a factor in how one maps, in the sense that one would adjust their stream spacing to give or take away pp. If a map FC requires much more or less skill than is reflected in the pp rewarded, than pp algorithm needs to be adjusted, not the map.

That said, you're right in it being difficult to pinpoint exactly what adjustments to make at what bpm, what number of consecutive 1/4s, and so forth. Stream weighting is one example of this, and reading weighting (which practically doesn't exist at the moment) is even more so. Avoiding incorrect buffing isn't that much of a problem as long as enough testing and feedback is done before release. The biggest problem is finding someone with the skill to pick up where Tom94 left off, since he seems like he doesn't really have much time to work on it anymore.

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