Update on Infinite Potential and some other stuff · 5:04pm May 26th, 2020
Chapter 16 of Infinite Potential iiiiiis... done! Yep, finished him two days ago, actually, but when I finished it it was middle of the night so hadn't had the time to write a blog post, then the next day I had some paperwork stuff to do for work so once that was done I wasn't in mood for more writing, sooo I'm telling you now! Anyway, it's now being looked over by my editing/proofreading team, not quite sure when they'll finish, hopefully before the end of May.
BTW, you can thank one of my editors, TimePrincess, for the chapter coming out so soon, she convinced me to try and stick to a schedule while writing it instead of writing "whenever", so I was making as steady progress. Granted, a whole third of it was written during this weekend when I just decided to power through the last stretch, but still, wouldn't have gotten there so fast^^
Taking a week or two of break from writing after that ordeal, afterwards gonna write 2 or 3 Rebirth of the Damned chapters (will try to get the first one done before the Last of Us 2 comes out) before sitting down to next Infinite Potential. So... August-September?
That's all as far as writing updates^^
So as I said, spend most of my time writing lately. You see, my schedule wasn't especially tough, had to write only 700 words every day, but my writing process usually looks like this: sit down to write, spend HOURS watching random crap on youtube, finally start writing something, with a break for another video in random intervals. Same as my study process looked like, come to think of it; how did I get my degree and finished my studies with an A is a mystery. But yeah, thanks to that I didn't really get much to do since beginning of May.
I'm so far behind on my readings... not only I STILL hadn't finish Murky Number 7 and Heroes, but I'm also two (TWO!) chapters behind with Homelands, and 1 with Speak. I hadn't read Speak's latest chapter because I was writing Infinite Potential last week when it came out of course, and I didn't want to get "derailed". Now I'm thinking about reading it on the weekend, when I sit down calmly to it. As for Homelands, I was planning to read them before starting writing the chapter, to "get myself back into the mood of FoE", but somehow I completely forgot about that 
As for not reading them, the last one I was writing either Rebirth or Stars then, and the one before, if I remember correctly, I was writing that monstrous chapter 14 for IP. But anyway, I think I'll hit all 3 this weekend finally.
Had my tooth finally finished last week. Some of you might recall that I had root canal treatment on one tooth about two months ago. Yeah, see, what I didn't mention that they hadn't finish it, they left a small antibiotic or whatever inside, and were supposed to finish the root treatment a week later. Except, you know, the epidemy started, and all dentist appointments were put on hold. Thankfully, despite how long it has been, tooth started to bother me only within about a week before my visit, had to start taking painkillers once per day, but now everything is good, no pain whatsoever, got another appointment next week for final checkup and "wrapping up" of the tooth^^
Did play a few games. Returned to Crusader Kings 2, got a few new DLCs, and here's the result:
Yes, still pissed about Assassin's Creed: Origin ending. According to my thought process recreating the Roman Empire is me undoing Caesar's murder. I'm not trying to question it ;p Started as one of the lesser kingdoms that split from Carolingian empire, to have some challenge. Also brought back Hellenic religion, and since I controlled all the holy sites of it, I could reform as I see fit... so I made myself the head of religion, the Pontifex Maximus! I am basically a GOD in my empire!!!
On that note, did you know you can be immortal in this game? I didn't 
Suddenly a very rare event started for me, after I got to age of 80, survived the black plague and my oldest son an heir died, that started a little quest for me that ended with immortality xD Good thing too, after my other sons died too, the throne would go to my oldest son's line, aaand after grandson died fighting muslims in Africa that would meant my great grandson... who ordered his mother killed when he was SIX! And ten years later murdered his wife after like 2 years of marriage. So thankfully thanks to living longer, and getting married again and having those odd inheritence rules from Byzatian about children born to a ruler during his reign having better rights to throne it meant that my newest son would get the throne. And he will because I'll be committing suicide, part of the fun is having different rulers through the game instead of just one... plus after so many wars he has lost one hand, is disfigured, and some other thing that I forgot already. So yeah, his time is past!
Also started to play Mass Effect Andromeda, it was on super sale last week. Having a lot of fun with it! I know that it wasn't very well received by the fans of the franchise (worked with two about 3 years ago so I heard all about it), but I personally hadn't played yet any of the other games, so don't have any comparison. Anyway, having fun with this one, it's playstyle is the same as Dragon Age or Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, where you have a team, pick two people for every mission, and there is a TON of talking.
Lastly, a game that I've played once before, and I will again, as soon as it arrives... Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky! Yeah, so, as you might know, a few months ago a remake of the PKM: Red/Blue Rescue Team came out for Switch, and while I didn't get it as I don't have the console, it made me think back to Explorers, and how fun it was. Hadn't played it in about 8 years. To those who don't know, the premise is: you're a human, for some reason you'r transformed into Pokemon, you start a team and help other Pokemon out. Back when it came out I considered it great, but was still more interested in main series. Now I consider it easily the best Pokemon game^^ Believe me, the story in Explorers is AMAZING, and it will make you CRY!
But wait, I said "as soon as it arrives"? Yeah, see, I actually had this thing called "R4 Revolution for DS", basically had the game downloaded But the thing now doesn't work, so I decided to buy the real game! Aaand... turned out I couldn't. Nintendo shop sells virtual copy only for Wii U, not for DS. And no store was selling this anymore, and on internet shops such as Amazon and such, they were AMAZINGLY expensive. Like, on average, TWICE as expensive when the game was when it originally came out (in 2009!), while the earlier games from the same "generation", PKM: Explorers of Time/Darkness, are getting sold at reasonable prices (though still high for such old games). Apparently, it's a combination of the game being very good, having extra content from the Time/Darkness ones, wider selection for starter Pokemon, and... the fact that Nintendo didn't make as many copies of it as for the previous two 
So yeah, at first, I changed my mind, didn't get it. But about a week ago, in my suggested videos the song from final battle in that game, called "Fight to the Finish", popped up. I listened to it... and dear lord, all the feels came rushing back to me, everything I /my character felt during that fight... I had to buy the game! Found a copy that wasn't TOO expensive, only around 80$ I think, which according to the interned is far from the worst when it comes to this game. And just now as I'm writing this, I got a message saying that I can pick it up from the closest inpost post^^
Anyway, despite this horrendous little ordeal of actually getting the game, I HIGHLY recommend it. In a year or two they'll probably do a remake for Switch, so if you can't get the DS version do get that one^^ I know I'll buy Switch if it means playing an updated version of it, this game deserves the same treatment as Resident Evil 2 and 3 and Final Fantasy 7!
(Also duh I know I could play on emulator, but I fought out that controls for Mystery Dungeon games were too weird for me to play on PC).
So, gonna play it literally within the hour of posting this. Gonna play as Shinx, with Eevee as my partner. Yeah, I know, not the best of combos, not a great movepool between the two of them. About the only good strategies I can think off are Eevee using Helping Hand on Shinx, then Eevee using Dig while Shinx using Discharge, and later in battle Eevee using Last Resort. Not the best, but dammit, Shinx and Eevee will be cute together!
Yeah, basing my strategy on cuteness level , I kinda ship the player character and partner from this game. Probably I'm not the only one. I've played this game three times before, first time, which I didn't finish, one of the bosses was too tough and had to start again, I played as Pikachu with Chikorita as partner. Second time, which I finished, played as Charmander with Chikorita as partner again (one of my favorite Pokemon^^), then finally the last time, played as Totodile (really good movepool, Crunch, Hydro Pump, and Superpower) with Vulpix partner (pretty usefull movepool, Imprison, Flamethrower). Fun times^^ So, anybody else got Explorers stories to share?
Hadn't really watched anything new, except more of that series that I mentioned last time, about two guys playing New Vegas, and one show. An anime called "Ghost Stories", and I'm watching them with english dub. Why, since I am sure I had mentioned about a hundred times by now how much I prefer watching original dub with subtitles because dubbing companies like to change more than just language and also generally think they audience is stupid and won't pick up on anything subtle (still pissed about Gohan transformation in Dragon Ball Z). Well, Ghost Stories is a special case. Apparently, the anime hadn't been really well received in Japan, and as a result it didn't bring much money, so when a dubbing company approached them about getting the show to America, they basically let them do what they wanted with it, except to change names and the general plot. Oh boy, they went to town on this thing xD
They later made Japanese subtitles and re-aired it in Japan with English dub xD This series is very funny and I highly recommend checking it out.
Anyway, that's pretty much all that's been new for me. As I said, gonna relax a few weeks, except for tweaking the new chapter here and there together with my team and publishing it once it's ready.
Woo! Update!
new IP?!? wow. Gotta tell on the forums ^^
Ah, thanks for the update. :)
And thank you, TimePrincess in particular, but also the rest of the editors!
Good luck with the writing and reading!
Glad you're getting the tooth taken care of; good luck.
re CKII:
Hah! :D
Well, glad you're having fun there. :) And I assume, of course, that the restoration of order to the provinces is still ongoing?
...Ordered his mother killed when he was six. Wow.
Sounds like an interesting time you're having. :D
Oh, and glad you're having fun with that one! I'd heard it was pretty bad.
(I've not played any of the four, myself... just read fanfiction. :D)
And I don't know much about those games, but I hope you enjoy that one too!
Particularly given the difficulty of acquiring it; glad you were able to find an available copy. :)
I'm not familiar with the anime, but I hope you're enjoying it too!
edit after watching the video: Huh. Yes, I can see why you're enjoying what they did with it. Wow. :D
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^^
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I mostly look up Reddit and Fallout: Equestria Resource for news, used to look up Cloudsville forum but I think that forum went dead sometime after Project Horizons ended. Anyway, will make a post on Reddit when the chapter is published.
There are forums?
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No problem^^
^^
Yeah, weekend almost over and hadn't yet read anything... though in my defense, Heartshine did put my favorite pony into a coma a few chapters ago and Somber is Somber, I think I'm right to be a bit afraid to read their stories
But will read at least Speak thoday, maybe will leave Homelands for the next weekend.
Thanks^^ Well, actually I don't have to worry about that, because when I reformed Hellenic faith I allowed people to wage religious wars on the other faith, and since I am surrounded by Catholic and Muslim countries and my vassals are allowed to declare war, they've been doing a pretty good job of reclaiming the rest of old Roman Empire themselves. Of course, this led to them claiming territories that weren't part of it, like deeper into Africa or up north took some provinces in Russia, and some other issues, but considering I am currently "threatening" other countries so much, they all formed defensive pacts so if I'd declare war on somebody I would pretty much have to fight the rest of the world at this point , so this is safer
Still, the threatening level decreases over time, so at one point I took over Poland (to create a proper province out of it, not just have my vassals absorb it into their countries, I think a third of Poland is now part of Sicily or Corsica or something) from Denmark, and Egypt from Arabic Empire (as my vassals on their own wouldn't be strong enough to take it). Anyway, as far as "restoring order" goes, the more difficult process is to convert culture back to Roman and religion to Hellenic; got all my vassals to switch religion, but majority of provincess still need to convert, and culture changes over longer time too.
Yeah, not sure how that could happen though, pretty sure you can't make such decisions when you are underage character, you get a regent that decides most of things (and usually results in him "granting" himself your provinces) xD
Yep, it's a fun game to play from time to time^^
Thanks^^ I always assumed that most negativity came from fans of the series, because it's probably different. I didn't play the previous three but I am pretty sure the main character dies at the end of the third, so they would have problems with various changes. However, now that I play it, I can see that there are other things that would bother people who weren't fans of this franchise, there are a lot of bugs, people shaking oddly in a conversation, companions speaking very quietly sometimes if they interject into dialogue with somebody, everything freezing suddenly when driving a vehicle, and some other things. I mean, I can look over those, I play Fallout after all (
), but it's still annoying. As far as story goes, so far it's interesting, and I like the general idea.
Thanks^^ Those games are surprisingly good considering the silly concept, and Explorers series' story is easily the best from Pokemon games^^
Yeah, that was ridiculously difficult to get xD
Thanks^^
Exactly xD
Also I'm still watching the previous series I mentioned, just watched the funniest thing I saw in weeks:
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:)
:)
Heh, sorry. :)
I hope you don't find your fear too justified. :D
"Issues", right, because the old Roman Empire definitely would have not conquered those places if it could have pulled it off. :D
Glad it sounds like you're enjoying it, and good luck. :)
[shrugs]
:)
I've been playing some HoI IV recently, myself. Still haven't gotten around to Equestria at War, even though it's probably the thing the convinced me to get the game. So much I've wanted to do in Old World Blues and Kaiserreich, so many other things besides HoI IV to do... and also some waiting for mod updates, and also, I think, kind of a desire to maybe drag out the anticipation? :D
(I am interesting in CKII, but... time, money, and so many expansions. Maybe getting in near the ground floor on CKIII would be good, but that doesn't solve the first two issues.)
Well, most of what I know about the game comes from this series of blog posts.
...Ah, and I see you're discovering some of the other issues.
Anyway, from what I've heard, I suspect I wouldn't enjoy it even not having played any of the first three games, but I'm glad you're getting joy from it. :)
:)
:D
:D
...And I laughed quite a bit watching that video; thanks. :D
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yeah.. as much as most fb, IRC and reddit groups are long dead, there are still some discord servers that are fairly active. i even invited you to 1 of them IIRC.
Oh, before I forget, the new chapter should be published today^^
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,although there is one thing that's been bugging me that still hadn't been addressed there...
Well, read Speak new chapter, I suppose my fear weren't justified
Hm, if I recall correctly, at one point they decided that the Empire had grew to big already, and having larger territory would make it harder to protect borders. Heck, one of the later emperors even moved some borders back, giving up on land that was worthless, so that the new border could go along the river or something. And yeah, it is a pain to have armies travel all this distance, and while I don't really have to fear other countries, in few hundred years there will be Mongol and Aztec invasions to deal with and they will be taugh; in the past I always opted to leave at least one country on my border that would give me time to prepare, now I doubt anybody is going to last so long xD
).
Thanks^^
Ah yes, still need to look that game up, everytime I have time to check something new either there is super sale on some good game from a while ago, or a brand new game comes out that I need to check out.
(Yeah, don't really recommend getting all of the CK2, unless you wanna try the base game without any DLC, it's for free on Steam. Better wait for CK3, if you get the time and money
All I knew about the game before came from Angry Joe review
Fair enough, and thanks
Happy to share
You'd think the best part about such series is seeing all the mods and quests from said mods in this game, but no, it's those two talking about real life xD
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Ah yes, I remember, just didn't really count it as when I say "forum" I think of a normal website thing, not Discord (especially since I don't use it often)
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Yes, I saw it! :D
Looking forward to it! :D
...Also so busy at the moment that I don't know when I'll be able to get to it!
Oh well. Still, something to look forward to when I do finally get the time. Seems like these last few days I've just been rushed off my feet, and it's not over yet...
Glad your fear wasn't justified there. :)
Oh? What's the thing?
Right, but I don't see that as them wanting to stop expanding, but as needing to stop expanding. Given my understanding of Roman culture (though, of course, you may know more than me?), I'd expect them to keep going as far as their technologies and systems could support; they didn't stop where they did because the decided that they could keep going but wouldn't, but because they tried to keep going and were unsuccessful repeatedly enough they they decided this was as much as they could do.
Oh, you have the Aztec invasions turned on? :)
:)
:)
Ah, heh, sorry about that. :)
(Yeah, I think I actually did get the base game on Steam once it became free, because, well, free, and I already knew I liked Paradox grand strategy games. But I haven't actually tried it yet, and am not sure I will, with everything else I have to do; it was more of a "This is free, so just in case" thing.)
Ah, hadn't seen that, though, due to the aforementioned time constraints and, admittedly, me not being that interested in the game, I don't think I'll watch it now, either; hope you don't mind. :)
(...Admittedly, the opening forty-five or so seconds I did watch were funny enough that I was highly tempted to reconsider... but I do, unfortunately, have a lot of other things to get done. Thanks, though. :D)
Heh, you're welcome. :)
:D
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Aaaand to read my chapter, but that's secondary 
Actually, for me it was day after already, but oh well
Oh, sorry to hear that you're so busy. I hope you get some breather soon to relax
^^
Oh, just something that I wanted to comment on under the previous chapter but never got around to it. Namely the fact that a pony beats up a mare into a 9 days worth of coma, and not only he isn't locked up, but also allowed to attend school? I mean, I get that he is a kid, and that he nearly killed Blackjack due to combination of drugs and whatever exactly affected them all in that forest (plus all the pent-up and yet unexplained rage he has towards her; side note, what a winning combo), but I'd think they'd at least try to keep him away from other kids (hell, I think in real world they would keep him away from other kids on the account of drugs, but, you know, apples and post-apocaliptic oranges). Unless they I am greatly underestimating the magic of that forest and how it affects ponies and how much Stable 9 ponies understand this (or I forgot and/or missed something in earlier chapters), about the only way this makes sense to me is that Threnody and the others hadn't said in Stable 9 that Bubblegum was the one who beat up Blackjack, which would be another confusing matter to me actually. I dunno, it kinda seems odd to me, unless I missed something. Anyway, left that comment under the newest chapter, maybe I'll get an answer.
Well yeah, that seems right on the money. Alexander wanted to keep expanding his empire after all, and his was less organized than Romans'. I mean, if he'd focus at least a few years on strengthening the new empire centrally I could see him conquering more, especially since Persian empire already had some groundwork for being able to stay in control of such large area (swift messengers and spies in cities that would relay messages and more). So yeah, I could see Romans be so greedy too. I don't remember exactly what events caused them to realize that they simply cannot expand more, but sounds like you're right.
Oh yeah, I find that DLC ridiculous xD I only turn it off when I play A Game of Thrones mod, cause that's too odd. But Aztec invading Europe is just hilarious to me xD
^^
(Ah, I see.)
No worries, I often don't watch his reviews only the first half a minute before opening music, gets me the general idea if the game is worth checking out xD
^^
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Ah. :D
Thanks!
Heh, aye, thanks. :)
Of course, today continued the trend of more stuff coming in, when I was already still behind... eh.
Ah, interesting; I'm afraid I don't have an answer at the moment and am presently feeling too hurried to go and look, sorry. Though I am interested in what the reason might be, now (and whether it hasn't been given yet or we're both missing/forgetting something).
Ah, thanks.
Ah, ridiculously fun, I gather. :D
Ah, heh, thanks. :)