High-tale-hall walkthrough

First-Time Solo Trip Report: Apr. 8-13

2024.04.22 00:25 mozifaa First-Time Solo Trip Report: Apr. 8-13

Howdy pals, first post here! Happy to share some deets and perspectives from my first ever solo trip. I am currently battling the post-Disneyland blues and scheming for a future visit LOL.
This is lengthy, so buckle up and thank you in advance for reading through!!!
I’m currently based out of Texas and have visited annually with my SoCal-based cousins since 2022: after an awesome experience with them back in September 2023, along with keeping up with all the general park updates, I was really inspired and excited to plan and save up for a solo run!

4/8 AUS-LGB

A pleasantly sunny day which gradually got warmer in the afternoon and evened out to nice and cool in the evening: perfect arrival day weather!

4/9 DCA (full day)

An amazingly crisp start to the morning with a warmer high in the late afternoon: yummy food, awesome live music, relaxing at the GCH, hydration, and a round of cold beers made this day fantastic!
DCA Food & Wine Festival was awesome. I was so happy to experience Soarin’ Over California again while it was around (and should stay year-round tbh!) Crowds were very manageable, everyone I interacted with exuded great vibes, and all the food service CM’s were helpful and so friendly. The musicians get all my love, genuinely! Live music at DCA is really something special to me; my appreciation for DCA grew a bunch after this visit! I would definitely be down for my future annual visits to coincide with Food & Wine/just “after” the main Spring Break rush.

4/10 DL (relaxed day)

A much warmer Spring day.
This was my first time coming into the park nearly midday and it wasn’t as bad as I anticipated. Initially, I had debated with wanting to rope drop my first DL day, but opted to do a more relaxed pace after a food-filled adventure the day prior and save rope drop for the next. Having the flexibility to sleep in is SO helpful and will definitely plan the same way for future trips. Looking forward to rope drop the next day had me excited!

4/11 DL (full day and hotel change)

Significantly cooler day and that alone boosted my morning walk! This day was also my check out from Eden Roc and check in to Best Western Plus Park Place Inn - Mini Suites.

4/12 DL (final full day)

The coolest weather of the entire week, most of the day was overcast with some rain chances at night. I planned on having an “OG” Fantasyland morning and then soaking up as much ambiance as I could for my finale day. No regrets on my pace!

4/13 SNA-AUS

A cloudier, colder morning that made way for little peeks of sun, then a little rain @ SNA.

Souvenirs bought:

Quick takeaways!

Things I’m looking forward to next visit!
WHEW. To anyone making it to the end of this trip report: THANK YOU! :-)
submitted by mozifaa to Disneyland [link] [comments]

2024.04.12 23:43 LucidDreamer247 Dream Event — Maze Poll #1

Hey Scary Farmers!
I created a dream event a couple days ago. I’m grateful for all the compliments and kind words 🙏🏼
I was wondering which mazes from my event concept did you like the most? Let’s start with…
Sequel/Spin-off Mazes:
1. The Return to 13 Axe Murder Manor (Mystery Lodge) — A home renovation goes horribly wrong when a TV crew stirs the murderous specters of 13 Axe Murder Manor. — This maze will follow a TV crew attempting to renovate 13 Axe Murder Manor, sparking the ire of the restless spirits trapped within it’s walls. The spirits return to exact their vengeance upon the doomed production crew using the very power tools that was intended to be used to rebuild the cursed manor.
2. Hatchet High: Reunion (Boardwalk Ballroom) — The school spirit is deadly at the Hatchet High reunion, where alumni are just 'dying' for a chance to slash old ties. — Guests will be entering the dilapidated and abandoned Hatchet High, which is now a condemned building at this point. After wandering the ruins of the school’s hallway, they’ll stumble upon the reunion party in the gymnasium, which is occupied by murderous alumni of various professions: killer doctors & nurse, American Psycho-esque businesspeople, and good old fashion masked slashers (including the Slasher of the Dark).
3. ⁠Feary Tales: Retold (Camp Snoopy Gate) — Venture into a cursed forest where twisted versions of beloved fairy tales unfold with grim endings. — This is intended to be reboot of Feary Tales from 2007, except without the 3D and with the aesthetics of The Labyrinth. The tales that will adapted will be Red Riding Hood, Hansel & Gretel, Rapunzel, and Snow White.
4. Ghost Town Hotel (Wilderness Dance Hall) — Uncover the haunted past and sorrowful spirit of the Ghostly Bride whose love story lingers in the halls of the Ghost Town Hotel. — This maze will be set during the events of Origins: Curse of Calico, focusing on the Ghostly Bride of Calico’s own tragic origins and the fates of her victims, who’s souls are trapped in the hotel with her.
5. ⁠Theatre Macabre (Ghost Rider Warehouse 3) — Amidst the velvet curtains of a grand theater, escape becomes an act of survival as inmates from Mangler’s Asylum masquerade as performers in a deadly theatrical farce. — This maze is intended to be a spin-off of the classic Asylum maze (2004-2008), following an incident where a bus load of inmates from Mangler’a Asylum escape and hide out in of a grand theater. The climax will reveal that one of the escaped patients is Bobbins the Clown, showing how she got her costume from the theater.
The maze with the most votes will get a walkthrough description. I only have enough band width to do one write-up.
View Poll
submitted by LucidDreamer247 to KSF_KnottsScaryFarm [link] [comments]

2024.04.04 02:01 GenshinLoreModBOT Version 2.6, Zephyr of the Violet Garden [Chasm/World Quest Megathread]

Version 2.6, Zephyr of the Violet Garden [Chasm/World Quest Megathread]
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Where once miners industriously delved and tunneled, now all is silent. Only the Glazed Sand Crystal and marrows of stone, both millennia-old, still give off any brilliance.

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New Area, The Chasm)

The Chasm, which has been sealed, has experienced unknown shifts in recent days. Muning, the Ministry of Civil Affairs representative, is getting worried. To calm the disturbances below, an adventurous Exploration Team is formed to head down into the depths.
  • Notice: "The myriad mountains of Tianheng are a trove of a thousand treasures, for deep within the rocks bounteous jade gleams gloriously. Yet, sinister forces now beset the Chasm; its glorious gems are hidden and their crimson glow gone. The road to the retrieval of riches is rife with ruin... perilous is the path to the procurement of precious elixirs..."
Exploration Objectives
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Discussion and Theory

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Viewpoint Descriptions [not all inclusive]

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Lumenstone Adjuvant

What flows within this nameless, voiceless azure crystal? The secrets of the heavens? Or the whispers of the abyss?
When equipped in The Chasm's Underground Mines, this precious crystal can provide illumination. It has many similarities to the Glazed Sand Crystal that may only be found within The Chasm, but it stores even greater power within it. May it be as a sun in your palm, lighting the way through the lightless tunnels and bringing comfort where all is dark.
  • Lumenstone: It is said that it has catalytic properties. It almost blazes with light in the gloomy mines, but it loses all such effects the moment one leaves The Chasm. It seems to have other unique properties as well that have yet to be discovered.
  • Lumenspar: A sky-blue crystal that glitters so brightly that it brings forth echoes of the heavens above, which cannot be seen from underground...If you hold it up to your ear, you can almost hear a soft sigh coming from within. This might sound strange, but this crystal also gives off a faint warmth.
Loading Screen notes:
  • Lumenstone- A marvelous ore found specifically within The Chasm. It only exists within the dark underground tunnels. It has the wondrous power to store energy and release light. An object with catalytic properties created from Lumenstone Ore.

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World Quest Series, The Chasm Delvers

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The Chasm Charters
Surreptitious Seven-Star Seal Sundering
  • Zhiqiong: (about Dragonspine) Piercing the frigid blizzard to open a path, discovering an ancient, forgotten kingdom beneath the ice and frost, reaching the perilous summit, confronting the great change that came over that place with a mortal form.
  • Zhiqiong: The old miners used to call these passing earthquakes "Adakka's Breath." Adakka was a king who ruled Tianqiu Valley in ancient times. A dragon-king of the mountains. It is said that he was defeated here by the Lord of Geo's martial mastery and sealed somewhere in Jueyen Karst, where he still sleeps today.
Chasm Spelunkers
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The Heavenly Stone's Debris
  • Jinwu: Lumenspar seems to have the power to restrain the encroachment of that black mud-like substance, almost as if they were born to be enemies.
  • Clitopho: The fuses in here have all been designed such that they are activated by a catalytic reaction with Geo, but the anomalies down here in the mines must have affected them. The Geo-catalytic elements within the fuses have all turned into this strange, inert blue crystal, so they're all useless. We need to get one vial of Unmoving Essential Oil with double the usual density. A double-density potion can also serve to catalyze an elemental explosion.
  • Aren't Geo reactions themselves inert?
    • Aye, that's basic alchemical knowledge. However, the potential energy within elements can be quite hard to estimate. For example, if you were to pressurize Geo elemental particles such that they would be densely packed inside a small vessel, an elemental reaction would generate significant explosive force all the same. The principles work differently for elemental users.
  • Zhiqiong: Lumenstone only started springing up like mushrooms within The Chasm after the miners discovered this thing. This is definitely no coincidence. From the way it floats and its damaged state, it really does look like the fragments that Iris said existed on Dragonspine. Who knows, they might also be inexorably attracted to unite with a large fragment somewhere. Perhaps some nameless ancient civilization sleeps under our feet, just like the ancient catacombs on Dragonspine.
  • Zhiqiong: The changes to the geological structure of The Chasm have been accelerating. The black substance that you see covering the rocks only started showing up everywhere recently. I can't be sure, but I think that these things are all related: the mud, the flowing light, and this floating crystal fragment. They all make me feel sort of queasy. It's like getting motion sick on a carriage, or like losing your sense of direction on a ship in a storm.
After clearing and recharging the 3 mechanisms, this cutscene plays and a Hydro Abyss Herald appears. After defeating the Abyss Herald Zhiqiong says the crystal fragment's energies grow stronger.
The strange crystal plummeted toward the ground and shattered it, revealing an entrance to even greater depths.
  • Zhiqiong: The air suddenly got a whole lot cleaner!
    • Paimon: It's almost like you had a case of "terminal acidity."
    • Don't you mean "terminal lucidity"? By the way, "terminal lucidity" is not used this way!
  • Zhiqiong: It's like how people might feel faint due to the thinned air if they climb a very high mountain for the first time, or find it hard to breathe in deep waters. The environment here is no harsher than that of the Mare Jivari.
Perils in the Dark [opens pathway to nameless ruins]
  • Fatuus' Journal: Staff Sergeant Anton has discovered large bells. The rock walls have "their" script all over it. We dispatched Snezhevna and Fadeyka to ring the two bells in their respective corners. As the terrifying tolls reverberated through the stone, the black fog dissipated. What a strange phenomenon it's almost like the bells were announcing someone's arrival.
Ring the bells and two abyss Lector [Agnarr and Egill] appear at the center of the ruins where the purple mud is.
When defeated the Curious Cube is there. Their dialogue lines are:
  • Agnarr: The lies, All gone.
  • Egill: The light of heaven.
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Wherefore Did the Spiritstone Descend? [opens the pathway to Glowing Narrows/inverted city]
  • Khedive: You've seen that shining crystal fragment [Wishstone]? There should be an even larger one deeper down. Our readings should have stabilized once the fragment above "returned" to its original location. And that's what happened, but the waveform is wrong.
    • We are currently akin to beans on a stone mill, on the brink of a clash between two great powers. Albeit on a larger time scale, we are presently being crushed by these two forces — one from above and one from below.
  • Zhiqiong: This Curious Cube? I think I found a gate with a symbol similar to this one somewhere deeper down. You could hear the wind behind that gate.
    • Khedive: I looked into similar devices, the device in your hands is an exact match to the one in my research lab. Neither alchemy nor basic mechanics can help us understand the energy held within these devices, nor can they explain the principles behind their ability to unlock and lock gates.
  • What is wrong with Zhiqiong?
    • Khedive: What we're facing is very similar to the anomalies on Dragonspine, in the sense that their source is something alien to this world we know and it involves the clash of two energies. Traveler is able to manipulate the elements without the use of a Vision. For normal people who neither have Visions nor can manipulate the elements, these anomalies are malignant, even fatal.
    • Jinwu: I suspect that it's that tainted stuff that's affecting her mind and body. It's strikingly similar to the way in which locals here five hundred years ago described the dark calamity.
  • Paimon: This floating thingy resembles what we saw on top of Dragonspine. Their "smell" or "aura" is similar. Doesn't that Strange Stone Stele look new? It doesn't look like it fits in with the ruins around it at all!
    • Looks like we need to activate those five devices. Then someone needs to hit the crystal or something, and then the black spots will disappear.
      • So the application of external force can speed up the purification.
Haftvard the Worm circles around the Traveler and Paimon, and is about to attack them. Yelan, unleashes a fully-charged arrow at the crystal, which then falls and crashes onto Haftvard. Yelan leaves. After the dust settles, the crystal rises back into the air.
  • Zhiqiong: I'm feeling a whole lot better now. Was this all due to "that thing" behind the gate? I could feel some strange pulsing within.
  • Zhiqiong: I say I don't like Qiaoying Village, but if I do achieve something great this time, it would be good to go back there to rest. 👀
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World Quest, Valor's Afterglow

Walkthrough [video]
  • Day 1)
    • Zhiqiong: The Chasm has become a lot safer & the geological peculiarities here have stabilized a fair bit. Further analysis on that mysterious crystal's needs to be conducted. Wavelength, I think Khedive called it? We need to plant some beacons and get some of that data.
  • Day 2: Return by Sundown- Zhiqiong is found at beacon #5 trapped in the black mud and says "The golden city. The black watchtower! The heavenly envoys have left!"
  • Day 3: The Faint Light Remembered
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World Quest, Ecological Surveys For Khedive

  • Mycological Investigation in The Chasm
    • Khedive: Fungi evolve to adapt to their surrounding environment, but by the looks of it, this type of fungi is more suited to living in forest environments. I'm so certain of their Sumeru origin. Since they aren't an indigenous species of The Chasm, they didn't evolve to glow. Rather, the glowing is a result of some abnormal ecological phenomenon. It's probably due to absorbing the energy of the fragment that fell from the sky.
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A strange item that you fished up from the underground waterways in The Chasm. It's wet, and you cannot tell if this is a living or dead thing.
  • Khedive: At first glance, this thing does look like a fishing bait with an incredibly high concentration of Hydro energy within it. Ever since you fished it up, its elemental energy has been ebbing away. The groundwater in The Chasm contains unusually rich elemental power. Place it by the water and activate it with Hydro energy to reveal its secrets.
    • A Hydro Geovishap emerges
  • Khedive: It turned into a Geovishap in the water!? Oh, you mean that it attracted one over. My heart almost stopped, if it really turned into a Geovishap, my whole world-view would have been shattered. The groundwater in The Chasm contains dense Hydro energies. As such, certain high-concentration spots have become the nurturing grounds for the waterweed-like object that you fished up. The Geovishap — and other water-loving creatures in The Chasm—increase their power by feeding on these waterweeds that are rich in Hydro. So that thing is just some waterweed rich in Hydro elements! You don't usually find it in ordinary environments — unless some immense, pure power has altered the source of the water. These waterweeds, could turn into sentient elemental beings one day.
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  • Khedive: You can see many fossilized marine creatures in this fossil. In Liyue, there's a saying for this — "forests and fields are eventually engulfed by the vast ocean." The fact that the fossil appears in The Chasm proves that these creatures were buried underground in an instant. Otherwise, their skeletons wouldn't be so perfectly preserved. I heard that this place has frequent earthquakes which is one of the prerequisites for fossil formation, active geological movements. This finding will shed new light on our understanding of the ancient ancient marine creatures that once inhabited this place. This means that this place used to be beneath the ocean's surface before it became The Chasm. Geologically speaking, nearly all fossils found at The Chasm are located at a fixed altitude, the difference in height is minuscule. This means it was a quick process — and nearly all fossils here formed at almost the same time. Basically, something must've radically altered the ecosystem here in a split-second. I'd say something like a huge shock wave, of sorts. Hmm, what could've happened in The Chasm?
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Other World Quest

Lost in a Foreign Land
  • Katarina is part of the Fatui team sent to the Chasm and when they were about to go back to the surface Kolya (also known as Nikolay, a member of the team and Katarinas brother) was separated. She asks us to find any clues about Kolyas whereabouts as she believe he is alive due to a treasured letter she received which still smells like 'Fire-Water'.
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A Company Vanishing Into the Deep
  • Anton: Shortly after this place was locked down, we contacted the Liyue Qixing. At first, things went smoothly. Signora even nailed a few mutually beneficial trade agreements. One of the additional conditions was that Liyue would allow the Fatui to send an advance team into The Chasm. We came to investigate and eradicate the source of the anomalies. As agreed, Snezhnaya and Liyue would share whatever we were to find down here. When we entered The Chasm, the local citizens even sent us their best wishes. When we first came down, we were the Ninth Company, a company of 64 soldiers. We've been scattered and lost contact with each other.
    • But your people on the ground attacked Liyue Harbor.
    • Anton: It's surprising but I think I can understand why. To assist in endeavors of greater meaning, Lord Pulcinella won't hesitate to dispense with less valuable assets. That's his logic. As his direct subordinate, I have no objections to his cause of action...
  • About the "Dark Calamity", "the Calamity of Darkness," or whatever you call it.
    • Anton: They all mean the great disaster that occurred five hundred years ago. It's the eternal enemy of Snezhnaya. For five hundred years, the calamity has been lurking in the dark and we'll be on guard forever.
  • Anton: Katarina and her younger brother, Corporal Nikolay, were brought up in the House of the Hearth. They are the children of Her Majesty the Tsaritsa.
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The Chasm's Bounty
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Dimming Mushroom's Call for Help
  • Xamaran knows the two-legged one over there [Traveler]; How strangely familiar.
    • Xamaran: Thanks to (Traveler), my life-light is rekindled! Given time, you both will rise to become as great as Xamaran and its kin. The many-legged are inferior to the four-legged, and the four-legged are inferior to the two-legged, so naturally, the two-legged are inferior to the legless. What you both lack by nature, you can make up for through hard work. You might even be able to change the course of fate one day.
  • Xamaran can smell the lingering scent of foul energy in the air but cannot tell where its source lies. Follow the water and use the Blessings of Wisdom on the source, and Xamaran's kin will take care of the rest.
    • A mushroom grows out from within the fissure when the water is poured.
  • Blessings of Wisdom
A suspicious object you obtained from Xamaran. It is claimed that this can clear the source of the foul energy. Condensed from the fungus' absorbed nutrients, the agglomeration of spores and a thick sense of humor.
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The Missing Miner
  • Uncle He: Ever since I started eating mushroom meat, my lower back pain left me and I got more strength. It's like I've grown a few years younger!
    • Paimon: Could it be that he got strong from eating mushroom?
  • Khedive: The itchiness in his ears is from the spores of the fungi entering his ears. Long-term consumption of this type of fungus — I mean, mushroom — does impair one's sanity, it doesn't hurt the body.

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Mysterious Letter

Transcription and Translation by u/felixfellius
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04/19/2022 A take on Translating the Orb of Depths text

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Nine Abyss Purple Ruins

The messages found near the two bells are related to the Abyss Lectors.
  • Northwestern bell: Imp Agnarr "Imperator (Commander) Agnarr"
    • Mortuos plango "I mourn for the dead"
  • Southeastern bell: Pivs Egill "Pious Egill"
    • Vivos voco "I call the living"
The Abyssal Text Translation
The dwellers in heaven use the thorns, To pass judgement, I see your tears, I too mourn the dead, But if you do not wish to become like them, This pious Egill, Calls upon the living, To go into the depths, And the shadows.
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Loading Screen Notes:

  • Dark mud: A mysterious poisonous substance bursts forth from rifts underground. It has a lethal effect on any life it touches. But when some monsters are within this sludge, they become stronger and more powerful. A mysterious substance that can contaminate the ground and have ill-effects on humans. Of these, the Oozing Concretions can only be destroyed via the application of Blooming Light from a Lumenstone Adjuvant.
  • Lumenstone- A marvelous ore found specifically within The Chasm. It only exists within the dark underground tunnels. It has the wondrous power to store energy and release light. An object with catalytic properties created from Lumenstone Ore.
  • Poisonous gases sometimes leak within underground mines. This is why the miners bring finches underground with them. Some poisonous gases that leak out within underground mines will explode when they make contact with fire. This is why no one lights fires within mines and use crystal lamps instead.
  • The stony halls of The Chasm's depths are the battleground for two powers that surpass this world.
  • It is said that Xamaran was a name it took up from an old friend in Sumeru.
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submitted by GenshinLoreModBOT to Genshin_Lore [link] [comments]

2023.12.21 14:11 G-N-R History of Clifton Hill Part 6: "Canada's Midway"

Thank you to everyone in this subreddit and abroad who has followed this series. This marks the post where this series has officially had more parts uploaded than my original 5 part series years ago which I felt needed to be revised due to new information coming to light. I cannot thank everyone enough for sticking it out this long and continuing to read these lengthy posts. To view part 5 in case you missed it, click here. I originally wanted to get this whole series out before Christmas since I imagine many of you will be busy, but it wasn't in the cards. The next and final post in this series will be around this time next week between Christmas and the New Year. This installment will probably feature the most dense period of updates the area ever saw as business owners constantly tried to outdo each other, so let's get into it and see if this post can hopefully dig up a long-forgotten memory of yours.
In 1994, the Maple Leaf Village amusement park would close and become a parking lot. The Haunted Mansion attraction in the mall building facing the former park is all that remained, becoming a second Screamers location. In 1996, the mall portion closed as well, and what few attractions were still hanging on in the mall either shuttered or moved. The Screamers locations and Nightmares (now a combination of Nightmares and Nightmares II) found new homes on Victoria Ave., and the Elvis Museum moved to Pyramid Place. MLV was actually built with the intention of it one day needing to transition into a casino if the mall started losing business, with the heavy duty wiring necessary for the mall's several arcades, shows, museums and restaurants being designed to handle the power capacity of slot machines one day.
The entire front facade of the Maple Leaf Village mall was saved, and the garden out front enclosed to be an indoor lobby. On each side of this courtyard, in sections of the former MLV facade that stuck outwards more, would be a snack bar on the right and Hard Rock Cafe on the left. Hard Rock connects through to the Sheraton Foxhead, which by now had expanded and built a new parking garage where the parking lot (former site of the Antique Auto Museum and Royal London Wax Museum building) had been. The Maple Leaf Village Inn behind the Sheraton Brock was renamed the Skyline Hotel, and it's courtyards enclosed.
The mix of arcades, haunted attractions, fast food, nightlife and stores selling t-shirts and posters had started a well-known rock culture in Niagara Falls among Southern Ontario youth. The epicenter of this was "Rock World", a rock-themed gift shop that had opened in 1983 on Centre St. (the street Clifton Hill becomes just above Victoria Ave.) They would later add a second story and build Rock Legends Wax Museum above it in 1997, with all the figures sculpted by the store's owner Pasquale Ramunno. Costello Productions was apparently tied to the attraction in some way, likely the mechanics for the museum's sole animated figure, a figure of Industrial Metal musician Marilyn Manson.
It's on Victoria Ave. where Nightmares would get it's fame. Moving to the long abandoned building formerly home to the original Castle Dracula (and possibly later the Playmate Exhibits), it incorporated elements of both Nightmares and Nightmares II into one larger attraction. It would occupy the second and third floors, with the restaurant on the first floor still there from the Castle Dracula days (although by this point it was called The Wild Mushroom, now Weinkeller.) Nightmares does not currently use any first floor space behind the restaurant where Castle Dracula's impressive "Swamp" fishtank room would have been, but it's more likely that the area has become expanded restaurant space rather than any abandoned elements still remaining down there. Nightmares would install a scare where a photo of your group was taken right as you were startled, perhaps the most genius marketing move they ever made. From the dawn of social media the photos went viral, and gained international fame.
Screamers prospered on Victoria Ave. as well, with the second attraction now housed in the same building as Screamers and being dubbed "The Torture Chamber." Two "sequel attractions" were also built in the early 2000s: Creatures of the Night on Victoria Ave. and Horror Manor (also featuring the Zombie Zoo Nightclub upstairs) on Centre St. The same owners would also open a 4D ride theater called "Dino Rampage 4D" next to Screamers. The gift shop of the attraction would eventually expand and take over The Torture Chamber space. Another attraction, Alien Encounter, would open at the corner of Victoria Ave. and Clifton Hill beside the Criminals Hall of Fame in a former bank. The lobby was on Victoria Ave., with the attraction upstairs above both it and the cigar store which was located in the same building. Guests would first walk through a section with scenes of aliens from various film franchises before entering a lab area. This slightly thematically darker "North of the Hill" area with the Screamers chain, the Criminals Hall of Fame, Rock Legends, Nightmares and Alien Encounter became a "main strip" all in it's own.
The area at the top of the Hill also received one of Niagara's most unique attractions in 1997, on Ellen Ave. a block above Victoria Ave. Despite being on the outskirts of the Clifton Hill area surrounded by nothing but a few budget motels, it would be an extremely ambitious attraction dubbed "Cyberport Niagara." This is another attraction that was "discovered" through the help of Redditor's memories. It was an interactive science exhibit that was a cross between an arcade, theme park, and museum. It was the first in a planned chain of attractions across North America developed by virtual reality studio Tellurain Inc. of New Jersey, and animation firm Eye Wonder Studios of Ontario. It featured several permanent attractions including an arcade and several P-51 simulators, and also featured rotating exhibits such as real props on loan from Universal Studios that were used in films such as Back to the Future, exhibits on loan from the Ontario Science Centre, a children's area sponsored by Mega Blocks, and a recreation of King Tut's tomb. There were also costumed actors dressed up like astronauts and various other characters.
The attraction would be troubled early on however, as the various tradesmen involved in preparing the building for the high-tech attraction were initially never fully reimbursed due to a dispute between the landlord and Cyberport on who should front the costs, with a combined outstanding balance of almost 2 Million dollars between the various tradesmen. The tradesmen argued that 1 Million were costs that should be fronted by the landlord for bringing the building up to the required standard, with the outstanding $865,599 being for additional work that should be the responsibility of Cyberport. This was resolved in court and the tradesmen were paid, but it seems to have left a sour taste in each other's mouths between the landlord and Cyberport, and the attraction closed the next year in 1998 as soon as the lease was up. It then became the Greg Frewin Theatre, which features magic and tiger performances to this day.
However in a tragic historical loss for the magic world, The Houdini Hall of Fame, containing hundreds of real Houdini artifacts amongst the wax displays, burnt to ash in 1996 and took the 1800's railway station it was located in with it. Some of Houdini's last words were claiming that if the afterlife did infact exist, anything revealing his secrets would perish in flame. Even though the fire completely leveled the museum, the plywood and fiberglass paneled House of Frankenstein only separated from it by a 2-foot wide alley was completely untouched, leading a lot of Houdini's fans to believe he was conducting some kind of post-mortem practical joke. The metal objects like handcuffs and the water tank could be saved, and were bought by David Copperfield. Ripley's Moving Theatre, a ride theatre attraction, was built in it's place.
In 2001, Louis Tussaud's Wax Museum, Clifton Hill's original amusement attraction, would close on Clifton Hill after 42 years. It would rise from the ashes with some, but not all of the same figures on Victoria Ave. in 2005, replacing a restaurant (in the building Wonderful World of Fantasy had once resided.) The removal of the original Tussaud's was part of a massive plan by the Falls Ave. Company who owned the two Sheraton hotels; the Sheraton Foxhead and the Sheraton Brock. This plan kicked off with Casino Niagara in 1996, but would soon expand to include several family offerings. Further along Falls Ave. from Clifton Hill, between the Sheraton Brock and Bender St., a Planet Hollywood restaurant franchise would open in 1997. It ironically sat on land that decades before had been home to a small motel called the "Hollywood Motel." The Sheraton Brock became the Crowne Plaza, and the Sheraton Foxhead became the Sheraton Fallsview. The ground floor of the Crowne Plaza received a Coca Cola store and ice cream counter with a 50s diner theme, and a Hershey Store complete with an animatronic diorama of the Hershey's Kisses character crossing the falls on a tightrope. The rest of the inside of the store was themed as a factory, with spinning gears on the ceilings and bubbling pipes between the shelves.
Bigger plans were in store for the Sheraton Fallsview however, which was connected to the former Tussaud's building, little of which was saved and remodeled into a new structure. In 2002, the basement of this new building became a 4D motion theatre, as work continued on the three floors above, as well as on the former restaurants, gift shops, stores, convention space, games room and lobby space that filled the second floor of the neighbouring Sheraton Fallsview. Two other editions however would initially open with the motion theatre in 2002.
The first was Rainforest Cafe, complete with smoking, fire-shooting volcano facing Clifton Hill, and a large fountain outfront featuring the chain's iconic statue of a human figure holding the globe on his shoulders with the slogan "Protect the Rainforest" (this statue was later replaced with an animatronic alligator, then a fiberglass elephant.) Meanwhile, the Ride Niagara building (originally built as the Spacearium in the 60s) was also mostly demolished and re-structured, and the three level WWE store opened in it's place with the Piledriver drop tower ride on it's roof. The attraction would be designed by amusement design company Forrec (folks behind elements of Canada's Wonderland and Ontario Place to name a few), and featured a lavish grand opening ceremony with several wrestlers appearing in person and pressing their hands into concrete stones that would be displayed outside the attraction. Several stars would come back to sign autographs at the store regularly. There would be an indoor lightshow as well, in addition to an hour long video loop about the store and the WWE playing on TV screens. The same video feed was available as a closed circuit TV channel in the hotels owned by the Falls Avenue Co.
In 2003 the three levels above the 4D Theatre were completed, and opened as the MGM Complex, featuring the MGM Store on the first floor, the Pink Panther Balloon ride on the roof, and a two level walkthrough interactive museum called the MGM Great Movie Journey on floors 2 and 3. The museum held many real movie props, and was designed by Blacklight Attractions. The structure work for the expansion would be done by architecture firm Raimondo + Associates.
The 2002 additions to the Falls Ave. complex were part of a bit of an arms race going on against HOCO, who had come up with big plans themselves. A simple realization was made in terms of Dazzleland, more games = more money and higher guest enjoyment. The outdoor courtyard style with it's room for walkways between the buildings was re-designed, and HOCO again called upon WHLLG. WHLLG designed not only a remodel of Dazzleland, but an incredible 5-step plan that would have changed Clifton Hill, however only steps 1 to 3 would come to fruition... Step 1 was remodeling Dazzleland into the Great Canadian Midway, which opened in 2002. The level, concrete foundation Dazzleland was built on was kept as the foundation of the Midway, hence why it has a similar footprint. Dinosaur Park Mini Golf was moved to a former parking lot in front of the Comfort Inn. Rather than have several different buildings, the Midway would all be one indoor space, allowing for more games and year round operation, a genius business move.
The Midway, like Dazzleland before it however, was divided into different themed areas and attractions, and the interior was themed to an old-school amusement park at nighttime, to make it feel outdoors. The central area of the Midway housed the Games Zone, with miscellaneous redemption and arcade games, with strings of carnival-style lights between poles above the arcade. Surrounding this area was a variety of fake facades utilizing forced perspectives to resemble buildings and stalls.
Wendy's remained, and in the place of the former video game/pinball building in the back corner of Dazzleland, was the Ride Theater. It was originally themed to a funhouse, as it showed the Simex ride film "Funhouse Express." It would later show "Robots of Mars", and be themed to that film, with a large space mural and Mars rocks surrounding it, being renamed the "FX Ride Theater". A company from Edmonton called Art Attack FX provided the theming for the updated theatre. Robots of Mars would be replaced by the "Cosmic Coaster" film in 2007, but the thematic elements would remain as they matched the space theme of the new film. The Cosmic Coaster film would later outlive the thematic elements outside the theatre (more on that later.) Clockwise to that was a funnel cake stand (later removed for more ticket-eater machines), and next to that the prize counter. Along the wall adjacent to that one, was a large neon design resembling the marquee of a carnival game stand. Underneath it was all the carnival-esque redemption games, including Skee-Ball, Boom Ball, Roll-a-Ball and a Hi-Striker hammer game. Continuing clockwise around the Midway's walls would bring you to the Game Factory.
When Dinosaur Park was moved, the Boston Pizza and Sports Zone was built in it's place. These were also accessible from the Midway via a staircase up immediately to the right when you walked in the doors. The Sports Zone used the same tokens as the Midway, housing all the sports games for the arcade (including a pitching game, pool tables, and a bowling alley), and you could walk through the restaurant to get to the area from the Midway. It was under this area that the Game Factory existed in the Midway below, with all the water, gas and power hookups necessary for the restaurant and arcade above being cleverly incorporated into the factory theme of the lower-ceilinged area. This is where several pinball machines and other miscellaneous games resided, including an old western themed shooting gallery that may have come out of Circus World, and Blasteroids, a custom shooting gallery game by Lazer-Tron.
Underneath the rest of Boston Pizza and the Sports Zone was Ghostblasters, a backlight, interactive lazer shooting dark ride by the Sally Corporation of Florida. The ride was a package offered by Sally Corp., and was already installed in four other locations. The Midway's however would be the grandest. Rather than being themed to a regular mansion as was the pre-packaged story of the ride, the Midway's version was themed to a haunted hotel to match the history of the local area. In addition to all the props that came with the ride, several custom ones were made by Sally Corp. for HOCO to match the custom theme. Despite being one story underneath Boston Pizza, it had an impressive two story facade with crooked roof peaks, also provided by Art Attack FX. The ending of the ride would be changed a few years after it opened, with the final battle against "Boocifer" (the attraction's antagonist) in the scene after the "Boo Bomb" is detonated, being removed in favour of a much more elaborate graveyard scene. The elements of the original ending were relocated elsewhere in the ride. The new figures for the scene (as well as additions to the lobby) were produced by an Ohio company called Scarefactory at this time, and the lobby was given new, more hotel-theme-fitting wallpaper featuring a ghost pattern instead of the gothic brick design it opened with.
The Midway's logo has genius design, with the individual letter fonts making up the word "Midway" referencing all the areas and attractions originally in the complex, which flies right over most people's heads now that many of said elements have been changed or removed. The "M" is patterned with a design similar to that of the arcade's original carpet, the bowling pin "I" is a reference to the Sports Zone, the old-school lightbulbs on the "D" reference the lights around the sign for the funnel cake stand, the art-deco font of the "W" is similar to the font of the original Ride Theater's logo, the spooky and slime-covered "A" is a reference to Ghostblasters, and the industrial typeface of the "Y" is a reference to the Game Factory area.
Back on the other side of the Hill, Blacklight Attractions, who designed the MGM Great Movie Journey, also designed and completed the last phase of the Falls Ave. Company plan in 2004: Marvel Superheros Adventure City. It was a sprawling arcade and amusement centre that encompassed the entire second floor of the hotel, from Clifton Hill all the way to the Hard Rock Cafe, to which it connected. It also connected to the MGM Store and Rainforest Cafe. It contained the Captain America Games Zone (a massive arcade), Spiderman: The Ultimate Ride (an interactive lazer shooting dark ride), Mr. Fantastic's Candy Laboratory (a fill-your-own-cup candy counter), X-Men Combat Cars (bumper cars), The Incredible Hulk Mini Golf (blacklight mini golf course with interactive and animatronic elements), Daredevil's Obstacle Challenge (a timed obstacle course), The Incredible Hulk Encounter (a Hulk-themed walkthrough haunted attraction) and the Spidey and Friends Funhouse (a small children's funhouse themed to the Avengers characters.) An animatronic Spider Man and Green Goblin bantered outfront, beckoning customers in. The complex was full of neon and bright signage, themed in the colourful, cartoonish, comic book style that the Marvel brand had at the time, before the more serious turn the franchise would take later in the 2000s. As you will later see, that same distinct style that made it so appealing ended up leading to the downfall of this amazing attraction.
The Falls Avenue complex would be rounded out by the Fallsview Indoor Waterpark in 2006, which was built atop a new parking garage for the Falls Ave. hotels which was constructed where their old parking lot (mostly used for parking for the former Maple Leaf Village and now Casino Niagara) had been located. It has a tropical nautical theme and features 16 slides, a wave pool, hot tubs, a children's play area, an outdoor pool with basketball hoops, a massive water play structure, an in-park snack bar (to this day themed to Planet Hollywood despite the nearby restaurant's eventual closure, but more on that later), and an indoor patio mezzanine with a dry playground. The 125,000 sq. ft. facility takes 200,000 gallons of water to operate. It was connected to the Crowne Plaza (which itself was connected to the Sheraton) at the front via the lobby, and the Skyline Hotel (where the pool was removed at this time) at the back via a walkway.
Niagara Clifton Group would also build their own updates around this time, replacing a former currency exchange booth between the Dairy Queen and Clifton Hill Family Restaurant with an off-the-shelf shooting gallery called "The Hillbillies", although this version's name would be "The Clifton Hillbillies". They would also replace the ice cream stand and patio between The Haunted House and the driveway into the Travelodge with a children's soft play structure/obstacle course called Bronto's Adventure Playland in 2005. "Bronto" is the large dinosaur located at the top of the structure, which children can climb up into to peer out his mouth. For some strange reason the attraction has branding of the religious children's animated show Veggie Tales, with the name "Veggie Tales" as well as images of two of the show's characters being present on the sign, but seemingly nowhere else in the attraction (Bronto is not from the series according to Google.) That being said, some are present where the attraction lets out, which is the former gift shop space underneath the Travelodge which The Haunted House and The Funhouse also let out into.
The gift shop was further decreased in size at this time, with the only section remaining of what was once the world's largest gift shop being the section between The Funhouse and the Arby's (the Arby's was later removed however to re-expand the gift shop.) In the former gift shop space under the Travelodge, another children's soft play structure was built, with the part connecting it to Bronto's containing cutouts of some of the Veggie Tales characters. While I'm not sure what religious talking vegetables has to do with the exit area of a dinosaur-themed play structure which doesn't reference them at all, Bronto's is still a neat attraction for younger guests, including ball-shooting cannons, air cannons, and various other interactive elements.
Meanwhile, with the Midway making serious buck, HOCO went ahead with phase 2 of WHLLG's plan. Movieland was moved to Circus World's former location in 2005, and Circus World's owners moved a smaller version of the attraction to what was then the popular Victoria Ave. area. Movieland retained all the figures and sets they had at the time of the move, moving them all into the new space and also adding several new scenes. All the scariest elements were put in the new "House of Horrors", a small optional haunted house section at the end of the attraction after the regular horror section. The museum now emptied into the Fun Factory, that had moved down the Hill with Movieland into the former Canada Trading Co. space, although the popular Fantasy Fudge Factory counter from the space's Canada Trading Co. days was retained.
In Movieland's old home, Cosmic Golf, a blacklight mini golf with theming by Art Attack FX was temporarily set up. 2 years later in 2007, the golf moved to it's permanent home in the basement becoming Galaxy Golf, and the Niagara Marketplace gift shop that had formerly occupied the basement was moved upstairs. The new store would be a hybrid of the Niagara Marketplace and the old Canada Trading Co. gift shop. While there were now no private vendors and it was all one store like the old Canada Trading Co., a focus was still put on handmade/cultural goods like the market sold. This new store would be named the Upper Canada Trading Co., which contained a Tim Horton's beside it.
Phases 3 and 4 involved beginning to demolish the only thing that WHLLG's 5 phase plan would have torn down: Quality Inn. In it's place an amusement park would have been built, anchored by Canada's largest ferris wheel. The wheel would be phase 3 and the amusement park phase 4. The demolition of the historic Quality Inn Fallsway, though unfortunate, also made sense for two reasons. One: Comfort Inn, which was slightly newer (and also on smaller land not big enough for an amusement park), would be saved, and remain a budget option for families staying with HOCO. The other reason justifying the demolition would be phase 5: a skyscraper hotel and indoooutdoor waterpark in the field between Clifton Hill and the Skylon Tower. This would have made the aging motel somewhat redundant considering what the land it was on could be used for. The dragon figures from Quality Inn's outdoor pool were kept in HOCO's storage for a time for future use in the waterpark. The final vision for the completed plan can be seen here.
Phase 3 would go ahead in 2006, with the lobby, Golden Griddle and Q-Balls Billiards Pub of Quality Inn being torn down and the Niagara Skywheel built in their place. For the last year Quality Inn was open, you would need to register at Comfort Inn's lobby. The same year, the Space Spiral was torn down, as 2 observation attractions wouldn't be needed on the Hill. However, a new tower ride would have been constructed during phase 4 in the amusement park. The main reason the tower would be demolished rather than moved was because a tower manufactured by the same company in Wildwood, NJ, had begun to sway a few years earlier, resulting in the Niagara Tower needing to be removed entirely out of precaution. The Fantasy Fudge Factory counter and the Fun Factory it was located in became seperate stores, and the popular Fudge Factory finally earned its own store and moved into the former tower's base. The former counter in the Fun Factory became a souvenir wax hand casting place called the Wax Hands Factory, matching the wax museum that emptied into the store.
Clifton Hill had reached a level of development that made the entirety of the area a massive amusement park in it's self, and was at a stage many would consider was it's peak in terms of business, visitors, and attractions. This wouldn't last long however, and the world was changing fast. While by this point the area was much too strong to ever die, it definitely would go through a string of closures and overhauls that would change the landscape drastically. Stay tuned for the final part of this series that will bring us to present day, as well as a glimmer into a hopeful future. Thank you to everyone who has read up until now, if you've enjoyed the series so far, the final installment will not disappoint.
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2023.12.01 02:10 G-N-R History of Clifton Hill Part 2: "Honeymoon City "

Thank you to everyone who read and commented on part 1, your feedback is much appreciated. If you haven't read part 1 or want to see my post about my original series that brought me here, follow this link: https://www.reddit.com/niagara/s/UFsuC70MOQ . My apologies for the delay between the previous post and this one, there were some random Reddit technical difficulties that I've never had issue with before. Turns out after much searching for answers and trying various things, I had to use the desktop version of Reddit to be able to post this. Huge thank you to the mods for the suggestion. This is going to be the first longer post in this series, so sit back, grab a coffee, beer, tea, or whatever you'd like, and enjoy.
By the 50s, it had become clear that using Clifton Hill as a series of budget, away from the falls tourist camps wasn't nearly as lucrative as the land could potentially be. Welland Securities opened the Quality Courts (later Quality Inn) Fallsway where Dinosaur Adventure Golf now sits around 1955, and the Park Motor Inn (later Master Hosts Inn, then Venture Inn, then Comfort Inn) where Niagara Speedway now is in 1956. Clifton Touring Camp was torn down to make way for these, save for the snack bar where Wizard's Golf now is that was an original Zimmerman estate gate house. The other guest house building and gardens of the estate that remained at this point were torn down, but the stable building was gutted, re-enforced and turned into the Welland Securities offices in the Park Motor Inn. This remained Welland Securities' (now HOCO's) offices until Comfort Inn was torn down in 2015 (and the nearly 150 year old stable building with it).
Quality Inn Fallsway featured a restaurant and nightclub in it's lobby building: the T-Bird Room. The T-Bird hosted a variety of crooners and early rock and roll acts over the years until it's eventual transition into a Golden Griddle in the 80s. The hotel also featured 2 outdoor swimming pools in its centre courtyard which overlooked Queen Victoria Park down the hill; a large diamond-shaped pool, and an outdoor kiddie pool. In the 70s, a wing of the motel connecting the T-Bird Room and lobby to the rest of the structure would later be built. In the middle of this wing was a courtyard of rooms overlooking an indoor pool and a hot tub, bringing the total number of pools in the hotel to 4. The Park Motor Inn only featured a single outdoor pool and hot tub (the area became an enclosed atrium in the 70s), however it featured the Queen's Door Lounge (later became the breakfast buffet.)
Also in the early-mid 50s, the Clifton Inn/former Alexandria Hotel was demolished and rebuilt as the Pilgrim Motor Inn, featuring a large gift shop and the Pilgrim Restaurant. It featured an outdoor rooftop pool on the third floor, which would later be enclosed in the 70s.
Back in the late 30s, the basement of the hotel/restaurant portion of the Hotel Bettina/Darling Cabins was dug out by Mrs. Reinhart's son, and became his gift shop. Around this time Mrs. Reinhart became known as "Grandma Reinhart", and her son ended up on the wrong side of the tracks. The basement store wasn't enough for him, and by the 50s he had somehow rose to become the head Ontario operator for the Buffalo crime family's bookie operations. He would eventually be taken down by the feds around 1971, and seemingly spend the rest of his days in jail, but meanwhile, the more legitimate business of Grandma Reinhart herself continued. Around the time Quality Inn opened, the Hotel Bettina/Darling Cabins became the Darling Motel. The Hotel Bettina structure (former Reinhart's Riverhurst Inn), remained and became the offices and Darling Restaurant. Most of the cabins were torn down at this time to make way for a two story motel building running along the back of the property.
In 1959, Clifton Hill's first amusement attraction came onto the scene, Louis Tussaud's Wax Museum, located in a former section of the Foxhead Hotel that was just up Clifton Hill from the main building. Its' detailed figures were designed by Stubergh Wax Models. It was a smash hit, and kicked off the future of Clifton Hill, becoming Niagara's must visit location second only to the falls itself. It (along with Marilyn Monroe's breakthrough film "Niagara" in 1953) opened the floodgates, and by 1960, all the cabin courts had been demolished.
In 1963, an edition was put on to the Park Motor Inn bringing the structure right to Clifton Hill. This included more rooms, a gift shop and cafe (where Kelsey's has been since the 90s), The Yard pub (became the Rathskeller Pub in the late 60s, then Rumors Nightclub in the 80s, now divided up into multiple things like the relocated Kelsey's bathrooms and Zombie Attack) and the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum downstairs. Ripley's leased the space from Welland Securities. It was the second attraction in the Ripley company's popular chain of "Odditoriums", predated only by the original St. Augustine, Florida location.
Also in the early-60s, Charles Burland had torn down his Niagara Falls Tourist Camp (by then Honeymoon Cabins) and built the Honeymoon City Motel. The motel had the Beefeater Restaurant (with expansive patio/snack bar) where Ruby Tuesdays now is, as well as the world's largest gift shop at the time. The Beefeater Restaurant would later be named the Coachlight, and the snack bapatio the Jolly Brewer beer garden. The gift shop was massive. It occupied a two story building where the Big Top Mirror and Lazer Maze now sits, and had underground access to a large basement floor under the Honeymoon City Motel and it's parking lot. This connected to the building across the parking lot and down the Hill where the Beefeater Restaurant was. Below the restaurant, in the later home of the Guinness Museum, was even more gift shop space. Clifton Cabin Camp became Clifton Court Motel, and opened the Clifton Hill Family Restaurant (still there) and the "Peppermint Stick" ice cream counter (later Frostee Freeze in the early 70s, now Dairy Queen.)
Over on the other side of the tourist area, a new district was about to become an established area itself: the Fallsview district. Contrary to popular belief, it's not named that due to the massive casino built in 2004 which occupies a good portion of that area today, rather the casino was named after the area in which it's located, which itself is named after the breathtaking views of both falls and the Niagara River above them. In 1790, a natural gas spring had been discovered in the Dufferin Islands which could be ignited for continuous flame. After the War of 1812, entrepreneurs began charging to see the "Burning Spring", but when the Ontario Power Company took over the land in 1924, an artificial "Burning Spring" (which modern gas technology now permitted), re-opened in the Fallsview area at the corner of Buchanan (present day Fallsview Blvd) and Dunn. Attached to it was a small observation tower, overlooking Table Rock and Queen Victoria Park down the hill. In the area, several cabin courts and motels had established themselves as well by the 60s, coming up around the same time as the developments over on Clifton Hill.
The entire Burning Spring complex was reimagined in 1962, when the long out of date observation tower was demolished, and the over 325 foot tall Seagram Tower was built in it's place. It contained a gift shop, hotel, restaurant, and observation deck. The tower has had a variety of names over the years, becoming the Heritage Tower in 1969, Royal Inn Tower in 1971, Royal Center Tower in 1972, Panasonic Tower in 1973, Minolta Tower in 1984, and most recently the Tower Hotel in 2010. While somewhat lost amongst the modern Niagara skyline, the tower was the first observation tower in the area, and at the time was the city's tallest structure. Financed by Seagram's Whiskey, the tower was deliberately shaped like a giant shot glass, being affectionately referred to by locals as "the world's biggest shot glass". While no secret upon opening, rather being part of the branding, it's just subliminal enough to go over the heads of people nowadays who don't know the building's history.
The Burning Spring attraction was revamped as well when it was purchased by Malcolm Howe and Arthur White, becoming the Burning Springs Wax Museum after a large wax museum containing 50 historical scenes was added to the building. The "Burning Spring" itself was now incorporated into a historical scene in the museum depicting the 1790 discovery of the spring, as the novelty of the artificial "spring" itself (that was essentially a large Bunsen Burner), was by this point long faded. It would begin as a licensed Canadian franchise of National Historical Wax Museums, who owned several museums in the U.S. and provided the figures and branding. Howe and White had exclusive rights to the Canadian use of the brand. In addition to the wax museum, a large outdoor fountain next to the Tower would be constructed, but this fountain would be unlike any other that existed at the time. The fountain was known as Waltzing Waters, a large dancing fountain, even programmed with synchronized lights at night. It was a technological marvel at the time, unlike anything the world had ever seen, and at a time when computers were in their infancy. There was also an Aquarium and reptile exhibit in a seperate building next door. Across the street was also the small and short lived Tower View Amusement Park, and an incline railway on the hill leading down to Table Rock Centre below would be built in 1966 to connect the Tower complex with Queen Victoria Park. The fountain would be created by a company that would redefine the amusement industry, not just in Niagara, but as a whole, and become an integral part of Clifton Hill's development and growth. This company was known as Waxattract, headed by the creative genius Robert Dunham.
Dunham was a painter who had first branched into the amusement industry at the nearby Crystal Beach Amusement Park in Fort Erie, where he constructed Fantasyland, a walkthrough fairytale and folklore attraction, under the ballroom sometime around the late 50s. It was run by Dunham as a concession, but he noticed something while running the attraction. Families were flocking into Laff in the Dark, a haunted house dark ride attraction across the pathway from Fantasyland, while Fantasyland remained less than popular. That being said, Laff in the Dark was built way back in 1935, a package ride by Travers Engineering, and the extent of the scenes contained within were plywood cutouts with a flood light on them, or noisemakers on the ground which your ride car rolled over. Fantasyland on the other hand contained scenes with multiple full 3D figures, animated in a similar style to a department store window display at Christmas. Despite Fantasyland being the much more detailed attraction, and family oriented, Laff in the Dark was more popular because it was the parents spending the money, not the children. Parents would drag their hesitant children into the dark ride, have a good laugh, and then the children who felt they had braved the attraction would want to return. It was also popular with all age groups, including teenagers and adults without children, whereas Fantasyland was not. He took note of the impact a horror theme had on an attraction, and remembered it for his future endeavors which would change Niagara Falls forever, but in the meantime, branched further into the amusement industry with projects like Waltzing Waters. Howe and White apparently saw how successful the fountain was for them, as Dunham would be in charge of major subsequent updates to the Burning Springs in the coming years after Howe and White (for whatever reason) ended the National Historical Wax Museums branding.
He was also involved around this time with a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea themed submarine ride at Crystal Beach. It's unknown if this ride was a tracked dark ride with lighting tricks, actually submerged in water, or a remodel of Crystal Beach's "Jungleland" Old Mill boat ride. Apparently a mysterious ride called "Jolly Roger" replaced Fantasyland under the dance hall, and was there until the park closed in 1989. It's possible between being Fantasyland and becoming the Jolly Roger it was the submarine ride while the space was still operated by Dunham, and the Jolly Roger was the park's own version of it they remodeled to a pirate theme when they took over.
Back in the Clifton Hill area, the two-story Antique Auto Museum opened in a building on Falls Ave. attached to the Sheraton Foxhead in 1962. The building was built on the hotel's former parking lot, and contained an expanded parking garage (accessed from a driveway off Clifton Hill around the corner) in the back half of the building as well as on the roof, with the Auto Museum in the front half. It contained historical scenes that matched each of the antique cars on display, with the scenes and the figures in them created by local artist and city engineer Derek Costello, who would go on to create the Water Molecule sculpture at city hall in 1967 which would garner heavy praise. For the Auto Museum project he would found his company, Costello Productions, his amusement and exhibit design firm that would serve as his side job while employed with the city. The museum was owned by Harley Nielson, with the driving force behind it being Steve Demko, who was inspired after a visit to a similar museum in Silver Springs, Florida.
Meanwhile, Burland responded to Ripley's Odditorium in the late-60s by opening the Life Museum in part of the gift shop space in the Honeymoon City (the same halls the Guinness Museum would later occupy.) The Life Museum, another Costello project, also had scenes created by a man named Bruce Randall, who had previously worked for Stubergh-Keller Wax Studios in Niagara Falls, NY (the folks who built Tussaud's), and was now setting out with his own company, Universal Android. The Life Museum was a bizarre, but socially lightyears ahead of its time attraction celebrating the life cycle from conception to death for both the male and female body, incredibly taboo for the time. Ripley's and the Life Museum would begin Clifton Hill's staple of bizarre attractions themed to the curious and macabre.
In 1964, Sheraton Foxhead, the owners of Tussaud's attached to the hotel, built a new building in between the driveway into their aforementioned parking garage and the Life Museum up the Hill. It was a space museum with a large radio tower on the top of it called the "Spacearium" (may have also been called "Spaceland" at one point as stated in some printed ads.) Very little is known about this attraction, other than it featured a primitive, Disney-esque "trip to the moon" simulator. This building sat where Niagara Brewery now does. It was at this time they also demolished the original Foxhead Hotel, rebuilding it as a tall, modern structure, but leaving the part of the building housing Tussaud's the same, as the English Tudor style matched the theme of the museum.
Just up from the Pilgrim Hotel was Oneida Ln., leading to the parking lot for the offices of Oneida Silverware. At the front of Oneida's large plot of land down on Falls Ave. however, between the Crowne Plaza and the Antique Auto Museum, Oneida would add a large observation tower beside the offices in 1964, dubbed the Oneida Tower. This is now the abandoned steel-plated tower that simply says "Casino", but we'll cover it's further rise and eventual demise in later parts. In addition to its observation deck, it also featured a restaurant at the top. Oneida also added a small museum at the base focusing on Mounties at the same time simply called the "Mountie Museum." The Hilltop Cabins were demolished around 1960 also and became the Hilltop Motel. It featured a new building right at the street that housed a gift shop and restaurant on the main floor, and an auction gallery and the motel offices in the basement. This building is the current day home of the House of Frankenstein. The building was only one story at this point, seen [here](http://imgur.com/gallery/bhrgyX0). The second story wouldn't be added until 1971, due to a creation by Robert Dunham that would forever change the face of Niagara Falls, the world of animatronics, special effects, and the amusement industry as a whole. We'll cover that later in part 3.
Meanwhile, riding high on the success of Ripley's, Welland Securities leased more space to third-party companies for more attractions to be built starting in 1965. The first was located in the last remaining gate house from the Zimmerman estate that was being used as a gift shop and snack bar. For the 1965 season only, it was the incredibly obscure and short lived Niagara Gun Museum. It's unknown what exactly the displays inside were like, only that they were created by Costello Productions and featured several historical gun models on display. The attraction would close at the end of the tourist season that year, and the over 100 year old building would be demolished in November 1965. After this, Malcolm Howe, who co-owned the Burning Springs Wax Museum, leased the land from Welland Securities and would build a pivotal attraction: Movieland Wax Museum.
Opened in 1966 in the building now occupied by Wizard's Golf and the Upper Canada Trading Co., the museum was on the main floor with a gift shop called Niagara Marketplace in the basement. All of the figures were sculpted by legendary monster mask creator Don Post Studios in Florida. Chances are, if you know anything about Halloween and monster culture from 1950 to the early 90s, you're familiar with a latex mask created by Don Post. However, Post's artistic abilities went far beyond disposable plastic monsters. The team at the Florida factory, headed by sculptor Pat Newman, created 60 wax figures for the museum. In a tribute to the actress who had boosted Niagara's fame as a honeymoon capital, beside the ticket booth in the lobby was Marilyn Monroe standing over her iconic subway grate, a fan blowing air up her skirt every few seconds. Inside the museum were many stars including Elizabeth Taylor, Bing Crosby, Lucille Ball and Laurel and Hardy. The most impressive figure however was a 12 and half foot tall King Kong figure, the largest wax figure ever made at the time. The news article about his creation can be read [here](http://imgur.com/gallery/w2qfMTs), however it calls Movieland the "Hollywood Wax Museum", which it operated as for the first three years. The connection between familiar halloween masks and the museum went far beyond the design team however. The horror section of famous movie monsters, most of which were characters from Universal Pictures, was mostly comprised of wax casts of the same face and hand molds found in the original (and now highly collectible) line of Don Post Universal Monster halloween masks.
To coincide with Movieland's opening, Howe also leased the land from Welland Securities just down the Hill from the driveway into the Quality Inn Fallsway. On this land he constructed the 184 ft. tall Space Spiral Tower, built by Universal Design of Wildwood, New Jersey. The tower was half ride-half observation deck, with a large, circular, slowly spinning observation deck that held 30 riders and rose up the tower. This is exactly where the Fudge Factory now sits, as the store is circular because that was originally the loading area for the tower before it was demolished in 2006.
In 1968, the Houdini Hall of Fame, an exhibit featuring Houdini artifacts and wax figures, would be built in a former meat packing plant on Centre St. (what Clifton Hill becomes above Victoria Ave). It was owned by a group of local businessmen headed by Henry Muller and Vince Delorenzo, with displays by Costello Productions. In 1972 it would move to the former circa 1872 Victoria Ave. railway station at the top of Clifton Hill, now the land occupied by Ripley's Selfie Stuido. At that time, a deli was also added to the front of the attraction.
The Wonderful World of Fantasy opened in 1970, replacing the Spacearium. It was a museum of wax and fiberglass animatronic characters from cartoons, fairy tales and nursery rhymes. It was co-owned by the Sheraton Foxhead and a group of local investors headed by Charlie Lavey. It contained figures from Warner Bros., Disney, and Hannah Barbera to name a few, many of which were done by Costello, who received the actual licenses to use the characters. He also welded the giant, colorful, metal castle turrets which were placed atop the building, and brilliantly illuminated with colours at night. Coincidentally, this is another attraction Bruce Randall of Universal Andriod also simultaneously had a hand in, creating a Wile E. Coyote figure for the attraction. There were two front windows facing the street. One contained prince charming leaning down to kiss Sleeping Beauty, but no clear photos of the other window have surfaced.
By this point, the Hill had gone from a budget, off the main strip camping and cabin area to a strip of motels and small attractions, with a large observation tower ride as it's focal point. Motel strips like this could be found all throughout North America in the 60s, in tourist hot spots like Lake George, Gatlinburg and Myrtle Beach. But a single attraction was about to usher in a wave of arcades, haunted houses, and testaments to the weird and unusual that would make Clifton Hill unlike anything else on earth... And it would all be thanks to a local family run company who would change not just the industry here in Niagara Falls, but the entire industry as a whole. Stay tuned for part 3, it will be a "monstrous" chapter!
submitted by G-N-R to niagara [link] [comments]

2023.09.16 07:01 PropRatActual The Black: Ep20 Homecoming

4th wall here, keeping it short as I am up against a word limit. Welcome to Delmar
First- https://www.reddit.com/HFY/comments/16baslg/comment/jzc7fma/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Previous- https://www.reddit.com/HFY/comments/16jptw5/the_black_ep19_broken_demons/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Next- https://www.reddit.com/HFY/comments/16kqfq4/the\_black\_ep21\_family\_reunion\_p1\_the\_hall/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
The small Delmar Fleet exited subspace into the outskirts of their home system. Delmar was the second Planet of 2 with a substantial asteroid field acting as a belt between the two planet. This Ring was in an off axis orbit that made for some spectacular shooting star showers during the fall and spring months of the year. An ancient religion of primitive Delmar had dubbed their start "Signus" some time during their pre written times. No one knew what religion but the name had stuck. Technically the Delmar Confederation resided in the Signus Prime system on the official star charts. The Signus System also resided on the far edge of the Galactic Unity. Due to the almost total Delmaracian monopoly on the Freight hauling capabilities of the G.U., Delmar lacked the normal heavy hand of the Unity in open uniformed presence. While The Delmar had Lost their bid against the Unities expansion, the "Delmaracian Confederacy Tribal Land" remained under the direct control of their Defense forces under penalty of economical collapse.
Mac had joined Lyrian on the bridge for the entry into Delmar taking one of the observation seating provided just aft and to starboard of the 'captains chair'. Mac had to stifle down a bit of a chuckle.. 'If Jene Roddenberry had lived to see that he guessed the bridge lay out right..' raced through his mind as Lucid Travelers forward viewports flashed blue as she exited subspace. "First time I've seen that" mac whispered over to Silu.
"I suppose so, you would have been on standby in your ship for most of these" he responded
"Jump complete, ETA 4 Hours to Decel burn. Turning on course 061 by 227" Came Lyri's voice from the Con Silu sighed, "Very good. status on our escort"
"all escorts report in, their commander would have a word with you and.... Mackenzie." came the reply from Coms
"Well then, Tell him we will meet in Hanger2" Silu responded, "Marge you have the bridge"
Silu stood, "Lieutenant, Lets not the commander waiting" He nodded to Mac, who stood and followed the captain out.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Commander Folmur exited the shuttle into Hanger 2 of Lucid Traveler. Captain Silu and.. well.. someone stepped through the Hangers Corridor entrance and began walking over to them.
"Commander, A pleasure to finally meet you", Captain Silu offered with a nod.
"Likewise, Captain. your request on our exit from Argorania was certainly was energetic." Folmur offered. "And who might be your guest?'
"Lieutenant James Mackenzie Grarzia, Commander under the void of the TALON3 Concord", the Being responded in almost perfect Delmar.
"Grarzia, wait... This is him? This is your Nieces claim?" Folmur looked him over. His was basically the same height of a Delmar female not the significantly taller Males of the species, He lacked any skin patterns made him a strange looking being with his brown hair cut short. He was wearing a void suit, but it was slightly bulky in odd places around his upper and lower legs. His face almost caused Commander Folmur to balk. This Lieutenant Grarzia's eyes were an icy blue and they felt like they were piercing his very soul. They were colder than just a moment ago during introductions, more calculating. Folmur got the very distinct feeling that the mind behind those eyes was methodically deciding if he was worth killing.
"Yes, commander. Lyrian is my wife" the Ice in this mans eyes came out of his mouth and sliced into the commanders spine with warning
'This is a dangerous man, I walk a thin branch'. Commander Folmur rallied, "I meant no offense, It is just that you are not Delmar. You are fluent in our language, of that I am impressed"
"Thank you, Commander. No offense taken, and Call me Mac" Mac said. and with a flash the over tones of danger were gone from his features and He smiled. "Now, what can I do for you?"
"I watched the engagement during our run out of Argorania. I know from the lack of visible light signature that you had to have used a Kinetic, but I cannot just put, "I Donno" down in my report.
"Ah... Well, Commander. without getting into to great technical detail. What I used is very similar in concept to he Flak Kannons that you possess already. The primary difference, is that while your point defense Kenetics fire with a projectile speed of around 150 'kilometers' a second. The MAC cannon, that's what we call them, are loosing projectiles much closer to 30,000 'kilometers a second', with a combined output of several thousand projectiles a second'." Mac explained to a mouth agape Folmur.
"You cant be serious... How do you have the capacitance for that!" he asked
"I don't, They are run directly off the reactor." Mac held up a hand, "I cannot tell you how much power Concord makes. That is Classified under an oath I look years before being flung into this part of the galaxy. I hope to remedy that, but for now. just know that I could power every energy weapon on most UGN ships of the line for months of continuous fire. I make more than enough power to fling shaped metal rocks at relativistic speeds"
"considering your worlds recourses, I guess the reports of your ship being armed with Atomics are accurate?" asked Folmur
"They are. what I can tell you is in Silu's report" Stated Mac
"I see, May I see this.. Concord?"Folmur asked
"Right this way Commander" Silu responded. This had been predicted, and Mac had given his consent to an external tour in an earlier conversation with Silu.
A few minutes later, The three men walked into Hanger3
"This, is Concord" Mac announces stepping out in front with a wave of his hand.
They walked around the nose then the left wing, "I'm confused, I see no weapons at all. No hard points. No guns. Nothing" Folmur observed
"Concord is a 12th Generation Fleet Escort and Interdiction Fighter. All of her weapons systems are internally mounted, even the port that the G.A.U. cannons fire from is covered with a panel that opens just before firing." Mac interjected, "I'm sorry, but I cannot open the panel's. Classified."
"You walk a thin branch, Lieutinant" Folmur stated sternly. "you are a member of Tribe Helyon are you not"
Mac's eyes locked in his, "I am, but I hold Oaths that precede Helyon. Imagine what you would do if a your weapons officer went and married into another tribe, then started spilling secrets" the cold warning was back
"I get your meaning" Folmur nodded, "thank you for the tour. I believe I have enough for my report" He glanced once more as the sleek grey predatory machine sitting in the hanger. It triggered ancient instincts he disliked immensely.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lyrian hopped up from the Con as Traveler was taken under Tow. The orbital tugs plied to their Charge, Guiding Traveler Laying her to her Berth inside the Helyon's orbital shipyard facility. From there most of the Crew would be ferried down to to their ancestral lands for the Celebration of Return. Mac had dubbed it, "Homecoming". She was not. When She and Mac had wed, the Tribe had been notified and his pay/bonuses had been calculated into the construction of a private residence. She and Mac had received a generous payout this season. Lyrian, for being senior Bridge crew, had received a handsome raise from her last season. Mac had recorded his Kill's. Although the weapons he used were not like anyone had ever seen. His 'gun cam' had shown irrefutable proof that he had indeed sunk 2 Pirate Barges, and 5 snub fighters as well as the disabling of the now dishonored Convergent Dawn. he had used that to add to Lyrian to have Gravity plating installed under the flooring of their lodge. Mac had spent a large amount on having a 20000 'meter' by 120 'meter wide section of their property to be level'd, packed down, and paved with Duracrete .5meters thick. She had noticed that when it popped up on their console as completed but had not had the opportunity to ask. Delmar was a largely jungle world so finding enough open property to make that happen had been a challenge. They had ended up with one end of this paved strip butting up against the Helisty straight. a body of salt water taht had been the origins of Tribe Helyon's seafaring, then space fairing traditions. Mac had approved of them so now Lyrian was in their Quarters double checking everything was ready for the Movers. She finished putting on her G-suit on. 'Is it getting tighter?' she wondered, heading down to Hanger3 to Join mac in Concord for their trip down to the surface.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mac finished up his walk around just as Lyri, positively skipping, entered the Hanger and bounced up to him, "We ready?" She asked
"Mostly. Time for another lesson, You have to know how to check over a ship like this. Your job-while I finish up down here- is to get into your seat and boot up Jarvis and ask him for 'preflight checklist walkthrough' he will walk you through what you would need to check as the back seater, then as the pilot." He slapped her on the rump then pecked the cheek of her shocked face, "of you go!" he grinned and turned back to the outside of concord
"Cretin!" she scoffed and started climbing up the ladder. She didn't see him lean back to watch her go up from below. 'he's gonna pay for that later' she smirked to her self as she hopped in her seat, "Uh.. Jarvis?" she asked tentatively.
*Voice authentication accepted. Greetings Ms Grarzia*
"Uh, Hi. Mac told me to ask for the 'preflight checklist' walkthrough?"
*Preflight Checklist tutorial Walkthrough initiated, please activate your helmet. This Module is HUD based*
"Right, uh, thank you" she said, deploying her suites Helmet and listening for the tell tale sounds of it sealing properly
*Helmet Hud boot up detected, Starting Module. Ms Grarzia, Jarvis is linked directly to this module as a voice interface. you can pause at any time and ask question through voice interaction*
"Uh.. thanks. Jarvis, Start module" She stated and her helmets HUD came to life pointing out with virtual Icons where everything was as Jarvis' voice went through the list and indicating action. She was just finishing up as Mac crested the cockpit seal and hopped into his own seat up front
"Figure it out?" He asked as he started flicking through buttons and controls with practiced ease
"Yea, I think. could you check me?" Lyri asked
"I am, you haven't missed anything it looks like. I am going to have you run that tutorial until you don't need it as part of learning Concord.... Looks like you got all the Wizzo stuff, and what I asked jarvis to include on the Pilot/commander side. Button up, lets get out of here before they close the Shipyard for the night." Mac activated his helmet and the Canopy started closing as Concord started to awaken. Lyrian's helmet was already on, She let her hands and feet fall to her controls, feeling the Ship come to life at her finger tips.
Mac called the Hanger control room and started the opening sequence. Then, swapping frequencies he checked something on his arm data pad. "Helyon harbormaster, Helyon harbormaster, this is Concord, Concord." he spoke in practiced clarity
*Helyon Shipyard harbormaster, Concord. We were told to expect you, Exit Hanger 3 then turn to bearing 020 by 355. Main Drives are not permitted until crossing the Shipyard Doors threshold. upon reaching the doors contact departure on point 79.*
"Exit Hanger 3, direct heading 020 by 335, maneuvering jets only till exterior, point seven niner for departure at the doors" Mac repeated over the Coms
*Readback correct Concord. Cleared to the doors as read, Harbor out*
Concord stalked out of her home for the past few months and turned toward the large yellow trimmed doors. Lyrian could hear fait puffs of gas as Concord tip toed up to the hanger doors. Mac Turned on the now installed Delmar Ship Becon as he closed on the doors
"Helyon shipyard departure, This is Concord. Concord. at the outer doors in station keeping, transmitting on point seven niner" he called
*Concord, Helyon departure, I barely see you on sensors, just your beacon*
"Concord is designed to do that, Beacon transmitting 224867 is accurate. that's us, you should be able to see us with your optical systems" Mac was being understandably patient. Stealth was not something this part of the galaxy had even considered as an option in spacecraft
*We have a visual now Concord. gods your tiny. I've not seen a ship like yours before. Gates cycling, cleared to the surface along Homestar 3 approach via Tri then direct Homestar3. Welcome Home Concord*
Mac plugged in the approach details into the Nav and eased Concord out of the doors.
"Homestar3 is clear, nobody on sensors anywhere near our route" Lyrian reported
"I'll make a fighter pilot out of you, yet" Mac chuckled engaging the main drives of Concord settling them into Low idle
"Looks like they cleared us down through the scenic route, Homestar3 is one of my favorites" Lyrian looked over the Nav inputs.
"Care to do the honor's?" mac asked, "your controls. Keep it under 1.5 Human Gravities. Take us down to atmo, I'll handle reentry then hand it back. You don't know Concord's reentry profile. I'll give her back once we are in atmo"
"My controls, got it" Lyrian responded, and Concord leaped to her finger tips as they made for the approach markers. Lyrian flew the approach down to the upper atmosphere. she gasped a little when Mac took over.
he promptly pitched concord up hard until her engines were pointed along their route of flight, as he gunned them. Concord Howled as He started a sedate 3 G deceleration profile, slowly bleeding off speed until Jarvis told him that Concord was safely on profile, Mac then shut the engines down and pitched down until they were facing forward again. Lyrian had to work a bit at staying awake during this time, but it was considerably easier than her first flight. 'My training is working' she thought as she looked around as concord spoke a new noise. she looked around outside and noticed that Concord was glowing slightly, and that huge perforated panels had deployed from her wings. "Uh, mac? we're glowing"
"That's normal for Concord on reentry. remember she is designed for war in deep space. A powered reentry system was considered unnecessary for her class. Concord was designed for a powered retro burn then friction braking. Normally I would be doing this at around 6 Human G's. I had Jarvis calculate out a more palatable profile for you. Jarvis, Deploy scram. and mode swap-Aero
*Changed Confirmed*
Concord was no longer glowing at this point and Lyrian could see bits of the wing moving on their own and Concords Air borne fighter jet lineage flexed their muscles once more. Concords Belowing Howl changed as well as Ram intakes opened, providing Concord with oxygen to feed from as well, This air was mostly for cooling, but added considerable thrust as it was super heated while being fed through the main drives. This allowed Concord to fly in atmo at a lower power setting than she would normally need without her intakes deployed. Her bellowing howl was now accompanied by a Low-frequency rushing roar. much like wind rushing past the ear if one was standing in a tornado.
"Your controls" Mac called over their helmets, "you have the coordinates, take us down."
"My controls" Lyrian repeated back and gently caressed The Sticks. Concord was not as twitchy in atmosphere. and Lyrian had to remember her early flight training in power gliders to remember to think in terms of control surfaces not thrust vectors and maneuvering jets. Concord was buttery SMOOTH to fly in atmosphere. Lyrian had gotten a taste of her Fury in the Void over Argorania. In the Skys above her home, Lyrian got to feel her grace. Lyrian giggled as she inverted Concord through a series of gentle 2 G rolling spirals as she frolicked with Concord among the clouds and air currents. The Sensors paired to the HUD made every cloud transparent as she found one of the Crew return shuttles and soared over, settling in off its left wing with ease and waving to the pilot and passengers. They couldn't see her face through her helmet, but She could see them. The pilots face was one of awe and fear. the fear faded with the predatory machine failed to kill anyone, but the Awe remained. Hardly anyone from Traveler had actually seen Concord, She saw the Pilot have to compensate as the entire weight of passengers pressed against one side, clamoring for a look at the Warship.
"wiggle the wings slightly back and forth" Mac offered, "It makes you look like concord is waving to them.
She gave concord a slow oscillating role for 2 or 3 evolutions then waved one more time before barrel rolling over the top of the shuttle and diving for the surface. she felt a flicker of worry from Mac before it subsided as she closed the throttles.
"I forget you were a pilot before we met. you have the throttles closed, ease them back up to high idle, we are in atmosphere with our intakes out. we need to maintain a little power to prevent a flame out." he explained never once requesting the controls back, "reach down by your right hand, just inside and below the throttles. feel the lever? that's your air brake, throw it over center back toward you" She did so and those perforated panels deployed from Concords wings. She felt concord slow as the airbrakes bled her dive speed back to a more sedate pace, "That's good, close 'em" Mac called hands interlocked behind his head, obviously relaxing. She flipped the levers and leveled out about 2000m above the surface of the Helisty straight. Lyrian restarted their descent until they were below the level of the jungle on the shore line, but about 150 meters above the water. Mac was enjoying himself letting out a little "whohoo!!" as she weaved back and forth feeling out this new language Concord was speaking.
*Waypoint Marked HomeSweet 1 20km out and closing* Came the voice of Jarvis and Lyrians breath caught in her throat. Mac had input a custom beacon for their Lodge and named it
"James, its perfect" she Coo'd.
"thanks, now my controls. concord does not have Vertical take off and landing capabilities, its why i had them build a runway" Mac called
"That explains those messages, Your controls" lyrian responded.
Mac whipped a quick 3 HG turn to course and started a slight climb while throttling down slightly, "Im toing to talk through this so that you have an idea when we do this for practice." Mac called over his shoulder. Lyrian nodded. They could see each other through little cameras in their helmets and display section in their HUDS.
Mac found what he was looking for, "under 600 first notch of flaps, turning downwind to runway 23" he called, "you will be able to see it over your left wing". concord slowed further as they flew out over the water from the shore line, "under 400 second notch, landing gear deploy." Mac turned in a slow hook keeping his eye on the runways threshold. As the nose of concord lined up with the fresh Duracrete and painted stripes Mac called again, "below 350 final notch. landing flaps deployed , confirmed gear down and locked. approach speed in this gravity and air density three zero zero. concord floated in, hanging on her wings slightly nose up as the water got closer and closer. Lyrian couldn't see the 'runway' anymore, she hoped mac could. The beach came rushing by so close that Lyrian felt like she could touch it, then the end of the runway flashed under them just moments before *CHIRP*, the wheels on Concords landing struts contacted and Concord touched down. Mac shut the engines down then pulled up on the throttles lifting them out of their mount slightly then he pulled them back some more. she heard a clunk sound as deflectors clamped over the exhaust of the Final drives and mac pulled the throttles back even further, spooling up the final drives as they bellowed into their muzzles, deflecting exhaust out and slightly forward. Lyrian sagged forward in her seat at the unexpected braking.. and then it was done. Mac returned the Engines to low idle and closed the Atmo Intakes. concord coasted up to a strange giant shed with huge doors as Mac shut down the drives entirely. "Concord is still a starship first. I dont have a true jet turbine to taxi her around properly. Luckily, the crazy nerds at Skunk Works gave me an electric motor in each of my main gear axles. Time to put her to bed." he chuckled as he flipped a switch and Concord silently stalked into her new home, spinning on her wheels until she was pointed towards the door just like on Traveler.
Mac started flipping switches, "go through the post flight with Jarvis. I'll beat you there and start on the exterior. Join me when you're done"
She nodded and activated the module once more.
She hopped off the bottom rung of the ladder just as Mac was finishing up placing little red 'remove before flight' tabs of little openings he needed to protect from critters.
"Well that was not what I expected Concord to sound like" the familiar voice of her father rang out through the hanger
She waved and then checked up on Mac before running to her parents with a Hug, "Oh my god.. Da'! Ma'! she's a warship in space, but she is truly a Dancer on the wind."
" we were on that shuttle, you made an impression Mac, She does dance. " Tili half scolded as Mac joined them.
"Don't look at me, Lyrian took us in. I just did the re-entry and landing. It was her the whole time. I was to busy staring at your world. an Auburn and Silver leaved Jungle. Its magnificent!" Mac finished before noticing Tili staring at Lyrian in shock. That got a belly laugh out of Mac and a Chuckle out of Doc Icario
Lyri tried and failed to look innocent, fizzling into a bout of giggles.
"Come" Icario said finally, "Lets not be late to the party."
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Mac was Proud of Lyrian. She seemed at home among the clouds, and she was taking to Concord quickly. Mac, for himself. had spent the entire descent taking in This new world. It was the first planet he had been on outside of Terra, he never even set foot on Mars. The sweeping waves of Auburn and Silver contrasted with the Deep Blues and Greens of the Winding inlets and Seas. Delmar was broken up into 3 land masses that appeared like their edges had been shattered into an explosion of Archipelagos. Lyrians Ancestral Home was abutted against one of the bigger coastal bodies dubbed the Helisty Strait. Mac knew he was acting like a little kid at Christmas. He didn't Care, They were going to a Home-coming.
​
submitted by PropRatActual to HFY [link] [comments]

2023.03.13 23:28 SingularWorks Escape from Norwood - Act 4 walkthrough - Convergence

Disclaimer: the title says it all, this is the fourth installment in a series of walkthroughs, so you can find the others in this sub. If you keep reading, know that here be spoilers, skeletal and flimsy, grinning and bulky. always threatening to show you too much lest your curiosity overtakes you.
This being an open world adventure, there is no single path to success, so the guide is organized around 7 sections, one per main diary rubric and one for things to do that are not in the diary. Within them, one sub-section exists for each quest. If you are stuck on a particular mission, you can look only at it and ignore the other spoilery paragraphs. If you want more personalized help and advice, feel free to join our Discord or reach me directly on the various means displayed on the website contained in my profile (Reddit spam filters, I see you).
In order to limit cross-spoilers, each quest here will only contain spoilers to its direct predecessor from act 3 (when one exists) and to any other quests that are required for it to be completed, so read slowly and carefully.

Context

You start the main storyline of this act outside town but will quickly have to go back there to do all those new quests and finish a lot of pending missions.
Geographically speaking, this guide covers the areas outside the town:

The Road to Safety

The Empress’ secret
Following the events of act 3, you and Dad are in a safe house outside town (the location depending on who you eventually followed, the Hidden Eyes or the Children of Ona).
Now is the time to tie some loose ends between you and your father: if you have not finished « Family Stories » below, you should. Similarly, you need to finish the business with « The Outcasts » in act 3. This will prompt Dad to want more information on the grave accusations contained in the manifesto. But first, you must find a way for him to go back in town… This will depend on which side you chose in act 3, so refer to the corresponding rubric below according to the organization you chose to work with.
Once this is done, Dad will point to Zaloa in the Aesyum that stands in the north of the Orchard. If you go there she will sideline you because of all the preparation for the arrival of the Empress. While you’re there, you might as well sort things out with your father any way you see fit and finally enter adulthood in the process.
When you exit the Aesyum, walk through the main bridge in the middle of the city to trigger the imperial progress and an impressive display from Empress Lizays.
Go back to Zaloa: she will be more receptive and quick to put you to work for herself and the three other keepers. Talk to all of them to trigger their quests, which are all detailed in other paragraphs below:
After you accomplish all these heroic feats, you will be (almost) all set to go. Before you are allowed to leave for the next walkthrough you will need to:
When you’re ready and really sure you don’t want to do any more things in the whole scope of these first four acts, say the word to Zaloa and go to the next walkthrough.
The Powers of a Shroud
Skodiwa is very interested in your being a Shroud, given the fact they are outlawed and hunted throughout the empire, making them a rather evasive subject of study. She may be onto something regarding your magic, but will require high quality glass and some mercury for her experiment.
Glass is the easy half of the mission: it is indeed in the Harbor’s warehouse, as the Keeper of Time suggested. The guard there is quite obnoxious, preventing you from trifling with the various containers. To get rid of him, give something to eat to the stray dog that runs around the marketplace. He will follow you and wreak havoc when entering the warehouse.
While the guard is distracted, move the cask. This will free the crate, which is a bit heavy. Use the pricking awl from the leatherworker or the slick from the carpenter to bore a hole that will alleviate the crate of its turnips. Last is the barrel, which can be made lighter if you fill whatever container you have with the wine it contains, or at least enough of it.
A hole appears! Through it you will find the glass pane Skodiwa needs.
Mercury is another matter altogether. It is indeed in the mine, but you don’t know the game very well if you think you will just find it lying around. As a matter of fact, you do, but only after you finish the « Resourceful Masons » quest below. Finding the mercury ore, is just the beginning though, as you will soon realize it is far too heavy to carry around. You can push it toward the entrance of the mine, albeit with great difficulty. The first step is to go back outside and into the abandoned mines from Meshal's Barrow and push the fallen beams out of the way; then you can come back through the tunnel below the destroyed tower and open the door down from where the boulder is. Push it through several rooms and once you reach the drowned shaft, dig through the wall to reach the bottom of the well with your enormous rock.
As hard as it was until now, this was only going down… To lift the ore through the well you will need some help. First go to the surface to clear up the well thanks to the axe (see « Procuring the Axe » below). Then find a rope, which can be any rope, but the closest is the one owned by Iana. She has setup camp in the ruins and you may need some invisibly spell, or wait for the night, to get it.
Now you can go back down to the bottom of the well and attach the hanging coil of rope to the ore. Victory? Well, it’s still too heavy to pull, even thanks to the well’s mechanism… Now is the time to put the little fortune you have amassed through all those side quests to good use and purchase the hackney in the marketplace. It has the added benefit of speeding up your travels. Don’t forget to use the saddle from Hegas (cue act 2) for extra speed. Ride to the well and tie the rope to the horse, then ride again to the Sunken road, where the construction crew will offer you the service of their barge. Then it’s only a matter of talking to Skodiwa, go back to your pal Leandra (if you have not finished helping her, it’s in act 2) and on to the experiment.
Do what Skodiwa tells you (first wait, then veil yourself when she tells you after the mirror arrives, then talk to her) and you will make an interesting discovery into new possibilities for your powers.

The Hidden Eyes

A Path Home for Dad
This is technically not a quest, but a specific path to allowing Dad to go back into town. You start in an old stone barn among the fields east of the town. First, locate the part of the wall that is barely watched. You will need to attach something to it. It so happens there is a rope ladder in the store room of the local inn, The Three Wardens. But obviously the door is locked.
Ferina, the innkeeper, is looking for eggs. You have the easy way and the hard way out of this predicament:
Once you procure the rope and use it on the wall, you’ll only be halfway there. Here, again, you have two options:
This should be enough to allow Dad to come back inside.
The Claim
Once the Empress has arrived, Odemar will tell you to meet Belkin up the Hill, provided you find a way there… Maybe for the next walkthrough?

The Children of Ona

A path Home for Dad
This is technically not a quest, but a specific path to allowing Dad to go back into town. You are in a little cabin in the forest west of Norwood, and need to find a way out. First, you need to « Procure the Axe » below. Once you do, you will be able to hack at the undergrowth along the city wall to free a section of it that bears little pitons where you will surely want to fasten a rope.
There are two ropes in the areas covered by this walkthrough. You will eventually need both, but it does not matter which one you use where. Let’s discuss the one at hand. To get it, you need to hack through the vegetation to access the northern part of the forest. Therein, you will notice a fresh campfire and tracks going from it. Follow the tracks, leading to a part of the forest where a giant tree has fallen. Try to push it and cutthroats will appear. You’re not a fighter, and this game is not about fighting, so simply cast a veil and see what happens… then get the rope.
Once you fasten either rope to the wall it will be safe for Dad to go back in town.
The Grand Finale
This triggers when you go back to Solyver after having witnessed the arrival of the Empress, but will really resolve in the next walkthrough.

Stories from the Past

Family Stories
[Continued from Act 3]
There is really not much to do to finish this quest: if you have followed the main storyline up to here and are reunited with Dad, he will answer all of your questions (or only part of them if you have not done all the steps of the quest until there). What you do with this truth is up to you…
The Secret of the Temples
[Continued from Act 3]
The last piece of the puzzle, and the last animal totem, you need is in the depths of the forest (see « Procuring the Axe » below). There is an old dolmen to ancient gods there, with a mysterious black stone in it. Mauduin’s hint that « When the stone hatches, the prowler appears » will make you try everything to break the stone, but you really need a lot of strength, and the water mill is where you want to be looking: drop the black rock on the grinding stone and you will find the final animal: a mink.
But where is the puzzle? In the ruins of the derelict temple! The book will yield its final clue if you look at it there: « Forthwith as I ascend to meet the immortals, so rise the four totems to open the portal«. This will give you the order in which the four animal stones need to be pushed: minx, fox, crow and finally hawk.
Now you can enter Mauduin’s crypt and look at his bones: so much for his vanity! There is someone else who is interested in Mauduin’s work: Iana the treasure hunter has a lot to say about the old architect and will be quite frustrated when you bring her the news that you cracked the puzzle. She will offer you the second volume of Mauduin’s works if you get back a lost necklace from the sunken harbor. Push the ferns there to find a way into the underwater harbor.
It’s very dark in the depths , and your candles strangely don’t burn when immersed, so you will have to resort to the glowing fungi that litter the swamp:
Once you are able to see underwater, dig out the old chest and use either the pricking awl, the slick or a knife to open it. Give the necklace to Iana to get the new tome and a new riddle that you will use in the next walkthrough.
The Durlane's Disgrace
[Continued from Act 3]
Zaloa puts you back on the track of the old man in the Temple of the Fortunate. He will point you to the registration hall where a dusty old tome awaits you. If you go back to the cemetery and talk to the other old man there, he will confirm that the venerable cedar in the vicinity is the memory tree of the Durlane. Checking it will yield nothing out of the ordinary, but even this venerable cedar is young compared to the history of the family: it was planted after the conquest of Norwood, when the city was rebuilt on the other side of the river. There is actually another Cedar in the ruins: the original memory tree of the dynasty… and when you look at that one, it does not totally add up. Now a little less serene if you share this information with him, the Durlane heir will show off his signet ring and tell you the words of his ancestors: « Three Hills, Five Forests, One Ruler ».
At that point you will be curious to explore more of the antique castle of the old kings of Norwood. Solve « Resourceful Masons » below if you haven’t already done so. In the tunnels beneath the ruins you will see a blocked door bearing three rotating tumblers: push them in order so that the first one displays « 3 », the second one « 5 » and the third one « 1 ». Zaloa will be more than happy to add the signet ring you find there to her collection, and the tales of the forgery of the Durlane’s legacy to future generations.

Mysteries

Rotten Fruits
Krisepher is interested in the way a disease is spreading among the Orchard’s fruits. Soon enough, you will identify a guarded apple tree with rotten fruits that are out of your reach. You need to use the bow (see « Procuring the Bow » below), and then a little veil, to get it. Once the Keeper of Trees confirms the disease is unnatural, it’s time to call that favor Kolnis owes you if you finished « The Flock » from act 3. Report the contrived plan of the banker to Krisepher and you will have gained his friendship.
The Beast in the Forest
[Continued from Act 3]
So there’s a beast in the forest? Better start exploring there, going to the hidden part (see « Procuring the Axe » below) and you will meet Dayna the huntress. Before letting her help you, she will want proof of your hunting skills. Procure the bow (see below if you don’t have it yet) and use it on the giant elm not far from there. Impressed by your catch, Dayna will delay yet again because she needs to investigate the campfire in the surroundings. If you go there you will notice tracks going from it. Follow the tracks, leading to a part of the forest where a giant tree has fallen. Try to push it and cutthroats will appear. You’re not a fighter, and this game is not about fighting, so simply cast a veil and see what happens…
At last, you’re good to go for your hunt! Meet Dayana in the part of the forest with the gnarled oaks. With her help, and that of a knife or the axe, you will be able to hack through the roots and locate a needle-sized artificial hole. This is where the pricking awl from the leatherworker will come in handy. Enter the grotto, follow Dayna and the events as they unfold (you may need a little « push » at some point). When the dust settles, you will find a digging opportunity and a hammer to show to the clerk in the registration hall (as mentioned in the loose page of the blacksmiths register back in the Guild of Crafts).
The Missing Mare
[Continued from Act 3]
There is really not much to do to mop up this quest. If you have not done so, give the missing iron to Wran in Tatum Plaza: he will show you a vision of the horse thief. As you know he will be in the Three Wardens, go there to identify him. Inform Riera, then the head judicator and get your reward.

Missing People

No new quests here, is it soon the end of the game?

People of Norwood

Resourceful Masons
You meet the party of the stonemason’s guild trying to do something about the sunken road north of the river.. The young man, who is carrying a mysterious chest, looks familiar: maybe you should check back in the Guild of Crafts? There you go, a cutscene, and if you bring wine from the dinner table to the leading woman, you will gain a folded paper with some authority to it. You almost got the chest, but the fumbling party lost the key in the marsh. You will need to use the sieve found in the farm to the east of the town in the surrounding area to locate the key. Once you find it and give it to the young man, he will unlock the chest and give it to you.
Inside is a jar of black powder that looks quite dangerous. You should add a wick to it, and why not the braided cotton from the candle shop where it all started? Now you need a nice place to blow up, and that ruined tower in the northernmost reaches of the map is a very good candidate. Use the jar once inside, run for your life, then come back to find a hidden passage underneath the ruins that connects to the mine, provided you know how to dig. To open the passage at the end of the secondary corridor, you will have to push the beams in the abandoned mine out of the way from the other side first.
Chivos the Eccentric
This old man in his Mosaic Cabin, does not talk much sense but wants you to capture something using his net. Find the pine trees and get the cone to catch the interest of a squirrel. Drop it a little further away into the burrows and then drop the net on the burrows to capture the squirrel. Chivos will part from a ruby for the little furry animal (he is really strange, isn’t he?). You may give this ruby to Leandra the Blacksmith from act 1 if you have not found or used the other one at this stage.
The Northern Song
Wilgorn is curious about the northern steppes of Canha. If you have not already talked to her, go find Dandelion in the Undine and the Jonquil. When you enquire about the flute she will tell you of a companion that is wrongfully jailed. It is the mysterious prisoner in the other cell from act 3. A little rehearsal comedy of some tallow and a spell of invisibility will send him to his friend in no time. It’s then only a matter of talking things out, procuring the flute and bringing it back to the Keeper of Melodies.

Miscellaneous

How to get there
There are several ways to enter the three areas that make up this walkthrough:
Procuring the Bow
Technically, the bow is found in the Hill, so more of an act 3 reward, but it is used in quests only in this fourth act. Procuring the bow is actually not an issue provided you have deep enough pockets: it’s for sale at the fletcher workshop south of the city barracks. But then you need to learn how to use it! For this, go to the training grounds inside the barracks when Major Penuvia is here so she can put your foot in the stirrup. Shoot a few more arrows at the target until you are confident in your skill.
Procuring the Axe
The axe is borne by Shireez the charcoal burner in the forest west of the city (reached through the Lumber Gate). She won’t part from it and won’t even discuss it with you: you need a diversion if you are to snatch it. Fortunately, you have all you need in the neighborhood: a noisy hunting party (during the day), the wild boar they are purchasing and the acorns the boar loves. Get acorns and drop them in successive rooms so that the boar follows their trail until it reaches the hunter, and then the Charcoal kiln. The mayhem will start once the hunters find the boar and Shireez will drop the axe you need.
You may use it on the undergrowth to the north to open up the rest of the forest for your exploration.
submitted by SingularWorks to u/SingularWorks [link] [comments]

2022.05.03 15:19 Delusionn [Long Essay/Retrospective Review] Gold Box Classics [AD&D video game series] - Can you ever go back again? [OC}

Gold Box Classics - Can you ever go back again? Maybe.
[Sort by: Old - this is very long.]
My thoughts on the Gold Box Classics (and by extension certain aspects of AD&D 1e), available on Steam as part of a six-collection series of twenty games, currently as of this writing available as a single bundle for a reasonable price, $33.76 USD. If they are not on sale now, they probably will be again.
I'd like to specifically discuss the "Gold Box" games:
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Additionally, the full bundle contains two Dark Sun games which use a 2D system which was developed later and is more advanced than the Gold Box engine, two Ravenloft 3D games which came later, and the Eye of the Beholder series which was a 3D engine which was an AD&D engine which pretty much directly adapted the gameplay concepts of the classic Atari ST/Amiga game from 1987-1988, Dungeon Master. While some of these games are quite good, I'm only going to talk about the Gold Box games included in this bundle, since they are easily accessible on Steam. They're on GOG, too, but not as an all-inclusive bundle for as low of a price as of this writing.
Notably absent in this collection, however, are the following Gold Box games:
1980's photos, slightly faded: My background on this material is typical of a genuine FRPG nerd of my vintage. I played most of these on a Commodore 64, and I bought most of them, and probably pirated a couple. The copy protection in these games was some sort of lookup device, with the device being a cypher code wheel or later on, a lazy page, paragraph, word, letter journal book lookup. God forbid you ever lost that code wheel, or a floppy disk went bad. You also needed a pencil and paper, ideally a nice thick pad of graph paper from AD&D Nerds "Я" Us. I mean, come on, "ADVANCED" is right in there - it's ADVANCED Dungeons and Dragons, this isn't Kiddie Dungeons and Dragons! The patience we had for this kind of thing was amazing - the first game or so has no auto-map feature, and when it does, it shows no doors, is often disabled in areas where it doesn't make sense, thematically, or where the game is trying to make a 16x16 grid seem vast via a series of scripted overlaps, but I digress.
Modern day Quality of Life (QoL) improvements: Each of these modern reissued games is a patched set of MS-DOS releases with a DOSBox emulator doing the not-so-heavy lifting of making sure your system doesn't run the game too fast and that the configuration is correct. Don't use the largest possible window size from the launcher, use the size just below your maximum vertical resolution. For a 4K screen, the maximum of 1440 will be fine, but for a 1080p screen, step down to 720. There's a Gold Box Companion and it will show you some extra information above your screen which will be incredibly handy. The Automap/Companion have a hard time consistently displaying over some types of windows - I found them able to cooperate best when I didn't have any browser windows up on the screen they were on. You'll be getting a useful automap, too, instead of the trash automap the game included back in the day. Well, it's mostly useful. That Gold Box Companion will give you some options which are cheating, there's no other way to put it, and it's at this point you need to ask yourself a few philosophical questions. Ce n'est pas une pipe, n'est-ce pas? Or put another way, what are your goals here? Are you trying to re-create the experience of a childhood in the 1980s where you could easily pump weeks into each game because you either bought each game on allowance money or the goodwill of your parents which you weren't going to magically get twenty games in one fell swoop and this was even before you discovered the joys of high-volume BBS piracy and copy parties? If so, go ahead, disable the Companion, get out your sweetest mechanical pencils, eraser, graph paper, and pretend the Clue Book doesn't exist. Speaking of which, the Clue Books, Rule Books, Journals, Code Wheels and other printed material are all included as PDFs, easily opened from the Launcher application itself. Originally, the Clue Books were purchased separately, which were sometimes helpful, but sometimes pretty much necessary if you couldn't find a walkthrough on a text files BBS. But, back to goals, you may just want to re-experience a particular game's or series' story or experience the highlights of what playing those games was like as a kid without necessarily experiencing the frustration of stretching the game out for months of playtime between after-school sessions after homework when you didn't have other obligations on your time. I'm clearly in this latter camp - I just kind of want to see the game play out, be reminded of what the game engine was like, how it developed over time, see a snapshot in CRPG gaming history in the late 80's, early 90's when Dragon Magazine was at its creative peak, when AD&D Second Edition was about to rear its head, before Forgotten Realms (FR) nation-building module-of-the-month printing cycle got out of control, when the Commodore 64 was a viable platform, experience some of the differences of the MS-DOS versions, and have a guided tour through a bit of nostalgia, not a hair-pulling struggle session. I mean, if you want that truly old-school experience, you can forego the Steam version of this product entirely, grab the VICE Commodore 64 emulator, and make sure to not enable fast 1541 emulation so you can enjoy the realistic multi-minute load times every time you do a full-party wipe because as originally written, these games are much harder than you're probably going to play them today, and the load times were such that you have time to watch a relatively short YouTube video while it re-loads the hobbyist computer versions back up. Except if you're going for verisimilitude, you should probably not do that, either, since these were games we all played on single-tasking computers that could run exactly one program at once. We didn't have multiple screens, we weren't running 300 browser tabs on the same system, our computers ran exactly one program - this game. So maybe put on a television channel you can't view on-demand and watch a show you're probably not really into while it loads after you wipe, or have a magazine handy or grab the nail clippers. The full retro experience looks less and less attractive, doesn't it? Every retro experience is a curated piece of nostalgia, not a "pure" experience, and that's fine - just figure out where you're at and be at peace with it.
I've decided that I'm going to to use the Gold Box Companion, and effectively do Tourist Mode. And I'm going to use it to its maximal extent. And above and beyond that, I'm going to cheat up a bit, because I had fun cheating in the day. I have fond memories of going into my save disks and scouring the games in my hex editor to look for character data to edit names to use PETSCII characters the game wouldn't allow me to enter directly, edit the ability scores to HEX 19 (24 across the board), and pop the hit points to 200 for starting characters. Back then I did it with a disc-based hex editor, these days I'll edit .sav files with UltraEdit - until I discovered that there's a newer, much better version of the Gold Box Companion software, which makes this a less fussy experience, which I will get to. Like I said, I just want to have a nice, smooth, tourist ride, not a screaming match.
The QoL in these games was very, very low by modern standards and I have no idea how we put up with it then; I'm not putting up with it now. Let's look at the Gold Box Companion at its maximal best. When not hovered over, it shows you all your characters with experience point bars (a phenomenal improvement already) and hit point bars, with all status effects - good and bad. With AUTO ID=ON, items in the inventory are identified as soon as they enter a character's inventory, rather than having to cast Detect Magic, guess what's good, and lug it back to town or just giving up and missing good stuff that might not be obvious because you don't want to bother. AUTO-AMMO = ON refreshes and re-fills ammo (arrows, quarrels, darts) as you use it, which means your range characters can do what they're supposed to do combat after combat instead of having to buy five trillion arrows and waste inventory slots doing so. FIX DRAIN = ON allows you to conveniently restore level-drained characters with ENCAMP FIX, a source of irritation which made powerful undead not just irritating, but feel like the developers were just trying to make you quit the game back in the original release. STORE and MEMORIZE SPELLS to make getting your spells back easier, since playing the game with spellcasters who can't get any spells because monsters won't let them rest never, ever felt very fun, TOGGLE MAP, which moves the map from the right to the left, or off, SWITCH FONT, which I highly recommend, which turns the original font's fusty fantasy trope squiggly font into another typeface: Readable fantasy, original ornate less readable fantasy, thick modern, thin modern. Thick modern is the most readable, since they all take up the same amount of space. The modern fonts probably come from the Buck Rogers games, with or without an extra line of thickening. This is a really great feature and a point of interest to me. The Buck Rogers font may or may not have been original but there's really only so much you can do in a limited set of pixels with 1-bit colour. There were so many sources for this sort of thing, and the vernacular typography present in the 8/16-bit era games were very limited when dealing with 8x8 to 12x14 letterforms like this that outright copying was common - the default typeface for the Commodore 64 and the Atari 400/800 was identical, for instance, because nobody thought that that was software you could copyright or "look and feel" that you could trademark. No sass here, I'm all for drastically reducing the contagion of copyright length, it's just kind of amusing by today's standards. And then there's ENCAMP - FIX. This is the heart and soul of Tourist Mode. ENCAMP - FIX cannot be used in combat, but outside of combat, it restores your hit points and fixes most (but not quite all) ailments, including $*@*ing Level Drain if you have FIX DRAIN = ON set. In old-school hard mode without Gold Box Companion on an old C64, Amiga, MS-DOS box, etc, the alternative was generally to hobble back to a safe hideout - if one existed on the level you were at, or if you could find one, to camp and rest, or if one did not exist, to rest and risk getting popped into another combat that you very well might not survive, and your cleric was out of spells, and your two magic users were out of fireballs, your thief-magic user was turned to stone, and your paladin needed a TON of healing and you were out of potions and WELP, there's fifteen enemy priests ready to carve you open with a volley of Hold Person spells, you're dead, I hope you saved recently, oh you forgot to save for the last hour, sucks to be you! Yeah, that's not the vibe I'm after. ENCAMP - FIX still means you have to make combat work, but it doesn't mean you have to make eight combat sessions in a row work as you try to claw your way back to an alcove you can sleep in so you don't lose a level's worth of progress in because who knows how many tries it will take you to get through it even if you do save. Hard pass, this isn't 1991, the Gold Box Companion knows this isn't acceptable today.
The version of the Gold Box Companion automatically provided with the Gold Box Classic series is reasonably limited, but it is not the most recent, most flexible, and most powerful version of the Companion which is available. Even if you don't need more power, I would highly recommend using the newest version, as it allows more flexibility, including field-levelling without having to go to training halls, and the option to have non-humans without a level cap, a critical flaw in this series (and the AD&D 1st Edition system), which I will get into. The current version of the Gold Box Companion is available at http://gbc.zorbus.net/ , a site that has countless other useful links for the Gold Box games. The new version works a bit differently than described above, but it contains all those features and many more, and it's well-documented in its text files. Some features of the included version of the Companion are in different executables in the later Companion, such as font switching, so if something you expect isn't in the Companion, just check the directory for the text files which explain the programs.
The Experience(s) - a taste of cognitive dissonance: Diving in head-first might be a real hit of nostalgia. Or not. I play games like these every couple of years, so it wasn't culture shock, but it's been a while since I started a series run. And when I do play them, I usually play versions I grew up on - which wasn't MS-DOS versions, but Commodore 64 versions, which in the case of the earliest Gold Box games came out first or concurrently with the MS-DOS versions. Early on in the series, this is crystal clear, but all the way through the series, this holds the series back. In the first couple games, each character has a portrait, built from a head and a body, and my god, do they look janky. Today, the best approach is to offer a ridiculous amount of choices, in every in-system race, ethnicities that allow characters to resemble people of varying types, as well as characters that look so remarkably "alien" that they clearly could only fit in a fantasy or sci-fi setting - sometimes you just want to be the "other". But for the couple games, before this feature was axed, there were just a few bodies, a few heads, and none of them looked good on any system, with the exception of the Amiga, which looks to be the only one any studio spent any time creating attractive art assets on. The MS-DOS profile graphics are, interestingly, probably the worst-looking of all, with the heads looking like they are too small for the bodies, and an extremely limited amount of options - effectively just one body type per class. It's off-putting and kind of charming at the same time. The gameplay is definitely faster and otherwise better looking than the Commodore 64 version, simply for having more to work with. You can tell, however, that design limitations were built with the most limited 8-bit systems in mind, such as the Commodore 64 and the Apple II.
The game story is delivered by onscreen text, and by the printed "journal", available here as a PDF which you'll probably want to have on your second monitor or eBook device, and this allows you to be given text chunks as well as scraps of images, maps, and false maps and clues. It's not a terrible system. It feels pretty dated, of course, but I don't think I'm going to fault it much for that. I'm sure these journals kept the disc count down, as well as the fact that some of these entries wouldn't have been practical to deliver in-game, particularly if the player was expected to be able to handily refer to them any time they wanted to. The journals have got a good amount of information in them, and a Commodore 1541 floppy only had 175 KB (and that's not even considering how much the directory structure takes out), so offloading a few dozens of KB of text isn't a bad move.
Interestingly, during combat, the games actually lose a QoL feature after a couple of games - defaulting to a menu instead of move/attack for each character, and losing the ability to use the CENTER ability during an AIM/CAST function, which is inconvenient when you're firing off an area-of-effect spell such as the ever-popular fireball. It was there for two games, I believe, then it goes away, for no good reason. Later, I realized it probably didn't go away, but became undocumented in at least one game by disappearing from the combat menu but still happening if you pressed 5 on the numpad. Something like this is so crucial that it should not just become unlisted in the UI. Of course, the game really should have a means of indicating the area of effect (AOE) of a spell before you cast it, particularly as this is crucial information and not all spells have the same AOE range. If a spell has an AOE of four squares total, you just have to know that you're targeting the upper left square, and you usually find out these AOE targeting issues in the heat of battle by either not hitting the enemies you want to, or by hitting your own characters, too, the first time or two you use a particular spell that has a certain AOE range. At least after the first game it's introduced, the developers understood that you never actually want to cast "Delayed Blast Fireball" to delay it, but because it does more damage. It's not like you're calling it up in advance and warning it that it might want to take a shower first because the gang is going out for drinks. You want to deal some damage right the hell now.
After these games go on for a bit, there's really no excuse (if there ever was) for them to be using a limited colour palette on MS-DOS, and they do start to open up a bit on that front, while certainly not breaking any ground, but by the time you get to Pools of Darkness (1991), it already looks considerably better than Pools of Radiance (1988). It seems TSR was treating these games more as "modules" for the Gold Box engine rather than as discrete videogames, which resulted in releasing far too many games on an engine that, even in 1988, wasn't cutting edge. Improving it piecemeal was an option, but a better option probably would have been to improve the engine more drastically and cut off the 8-bit computer line sooner - the last Commodore 64 version was published for two of it's THREE 1991 Gold Box games, not including Neverwinter Nights, which was AOL/MS-DOS only. The only mainline 1991 game left off the table for the C64 was Pools of Darkness.
Even so, with the improvements that came later on in the series' MS-DOS releases, such as better use of colour, intro music, slightly less pingy but still intensely repetitive spell and death noises, it's still hemmed in by the fact that it's the same engine under the hood. While I've never liked videogame music (except C64's Wiz Ball, a hill I will die on), as I've always preferred to enjoy my own music, rest assured that the sound to the Gold Box games are ridiculously minimal, with anything approaching music being limited to the intro screen in later games. The sound limitations remind you that the game needed to run on unenhanced MS-DOS machines and Apple II computers, and not only the systems with better sound, such as the C64, which was very good for its class, and the 16-bit systems like the Atari ST and Amiga. The game engine's limitations are always present, and playing the series definitely feels like a new module for an existing system rather than an entirely new game as you continue along. It's not helped in the main FR series by the fact that you can import your characters from your previous game, or create new characters which are level-appropriate for where the new content starts. The series never progresses in the MS-DOS versions to the level where it would be a top notch or even mid-tier C64 game in terms of sound and music, which is kind of amazing. They could, at best, compete with the Apple II on sound, and that's about all they aspire to in the first FR series.
Continuity is bad? For the mainline FR series, only the very first game, Pools of Radiance, do you start with brand new level 1 characters. Later on, in Curse of the Azure Bonds, and later games, you have the option of creating new characters, but they're characters with a given pool of experience points (XP), and they are at whatever that amount of experience points would put them at. This was a line of thought that was well-established by mid-1980's fantasy CRPG series like The Bard's Tale and Wizardry. I don't recall if Might and Magic had this feature, but Ultima wisely avoided it though it was probably by mistake until Ultima IV when the series actually started having a non-generic plot. This was even seen as a selling point - you love your characters or party you barely survived with in the DUNGEON OF DARK DANGER? Great, you can keep using them in DUNGEON OF DARK DANGER II: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO. But you don't have to. The problem with this sequel/module approach is that at the end of Pool of Radiance, your characters are probably about fifth to ninth level, and are a maximum of 6th level for clerics and mages (I'm not going to use the phrase "magic users" any sooner than I'm going to call a fighter a "weapon user", it's too dumb, sorry, it's always been dumb AD&D terminology), 8th level for fighters, and 9th level for thieves. The problem here is that the biggest power boosts are when you get the stinking cloud spell (mage, third level), fireball spell (mage, fifth level), can turn wraiths (cleric third level), sweep attack on low-level trash (fighter, second level, goes away pretty much after Pool of Radiance), or get two attacks every other round (fighter, seventh level). There are some other milestones later in Gold Box character levelling, but these are biggies. And most of them happen as soon as you create your character in later games. A real opportunity was missed by just ... not doing that. This would have required each game to be big enough to level every character up to the maximum the new game allowed, which is not inconsequential, I admit. The number of disks in each game would have had to increase, and the games would have had to get larger in scope, but this could have justified a larger price. It also probably would have slowed down the release schedule on this series, which was, I believe, too fast and not doing it any favours in terms of quality or sales as it went on. There are other games of this period, particularly on the Amiga, that really made this series look very dated even in its own era. It's just not satisfying to either import or create 5th, 8th, 10th level characters as it is to just start out fresh at the beginning of the power curve. I realize I'm saying this as I play through on Tourist Mode, but I'm saying that retrospectively, not as a modern critique: it cheapened the series. For those of you who've played tabletop RPGs, would you feel as attached to a set of the three characters you started out at (respectively) first, fifth, and tenth level and played for a half dozen sessions each, or a set of three characters, each of which you played from the first level to fifteenth? Those fifth level Gold Box characters, they already did stuff and if it wasn't with "you", they're probably going to risk just being "numbers", which risks making the game more tactical RPG combat simulator in the players' heads than a tactical CRPG. That was the problem with Bard's Tale, which was a very fun game to play, but tactically felt like fighting spreadsheets (as an Excel pervert, that's not necessarily even a damning insult, but it's probably not the feel the developers were after.) Even if you import the pre-existing characters from a prior game, there's less gameplay value, because you either have to let them in with a bunch of overpowered equipment and they're too far up the power curve, or use a story justification to remove all their equipment, which always feels like a deus ex machina and a cheap shot, but might be necessary to balance a game, in which case, why bother importing them at all? Plus, in Pool of Radiance, you only have four character options - fighter, cleric, thief, mage (and dual-class and multiclass but oh we'll get to that). When Curse of the Azure Bonds comes up, you add Ranger and Paladin and that means you probably want to try at least one new thing anyway, so it's not like you're going to strictly commit to getting the gang back together.
Between those two games, there's Hillsfar where you can level up and train and do an action game montage and, you know what, I accidentally started up Curse of the Azure Bonds before remembering Hillsfar came between them, and realized I didn't have many fond memories of that little digression, so I didn't replay it. Literally a training montage. Hard pass.
The thing about Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is that it's so ADVANCED! There's some real funk in AD&D that never felt good, and Gold Box follows AD&D core rules as closely as possible most of the time. This isn't 2022 coming home to roost, this is stuff that felt stupid then, and which a lot of campaigns happily ignored, and which was controversial. First, we have the Strength cap on female characters. Given that there's no functional difference between female and male characters in the game (nor in the storyline, if I recall), having a hard cap on Strength if you have two extra letters in the character's gender seems arbitrary because it is. As AD&D stressed many times, Player Characters are not "ordinary" humans. Great. So if I want my STR 18 (75) human fighter to be female, what investment does the game (a Gold Box game or AD&D itself) have in telling me I can't do that? It's a relic from D&D's 1960's male-dominated male-authored historical wargaming roots. More importantly, it's not fun, and it curbs fun for an arbitrary reason. I mean, sure, it's also an arbitrary result in the Gold Box series - I can just select "Male" and give the character whatever name I want, after all, but it's just an annoying reminder of how dumb AD&D rules were at the time. Similarly, the much hated racial maximums. In AD&D, every race had a level limit for every class except thieves. Because apparently, being a sneaky miscreant was the thing that all untrustworthy fantasy races had in common. Otherwise, you were limited by your race from going past certain levels, or even choosing some classes at all, depending on what race and class combination you wanted. A high-intelligence elf mage? You can go to level 11, congratulations. A high-strength dwarf fighter? You'll go all the way to level 9. A half-elf cleric? You're going to get as far as level 5 and that's it. A gnome ranger? Inconceivable. A human? ANY CLASS, NO MAXIMUM LEVEL*.* In Pool of Radiance, this isn't too big an imposition. In Pools of Darkness, it's crippling, since there's literally no point in creating any non-human character except for your thief, since all of your human characters can go to level 18 in terms of regular progression, and all the way up to 40 in real levels, but all you're really getting from 18 to 40 is even more marginal upgrades such as a dusting of hit points. Your 11 level elf mage? Suck it, Lathaelian, go teach sparklemath at Hogwarts, loser. Next is magic use and disabling characters. By disabling characters, I mean pumping up enemy armies with spellcasters and creatures that can paralyze, poison, or turn to stone. Secret of the Silver Blades seems like the last quarter of the game are mostly armies of medusas and basilisks, or Lords and Priests. Monster variety is low because of programming Gold Box to the lowest common denominator of system compatibility, for sure, and it shows - numbers are always favoured over variety - the most kinds of monsters you get in any fight are four, and loading up on character-disablers is the winning move. So every combat is about playing tag with spellcasters and paralyzers/stoners so that they can't do their thing to the point of ignoring everything else, and the doing cleanup on melee fighters afterwards. Spells of delayed fireball, fireball, lightning bolt, choking cloud, wands of fireball and magic missile, bows, and even darts - it feels like every major combat is about making sure to tag every spellcaster every turn until those are all dealt with. This results in very samey combat over and over. That's a risk with any "tactical" style combat game, and tactical CRPGs are certainly more true of that than most, but it definitely could have been improved by unlashing the series from its C64/Apple II/PC-89 roots and updating the engine to allow more than four enemy types in combat at the same time, and incorporating more terrain functions than "obstacle" and "cloud spell", and so on. I remember runs of playing some of these games "fairly" and the way difficulty was increased never felt so much "unfair" as "unimaginative" and that's what always felt frustrating. Still, though, two can play unfairly. In the end, it feels a lot more like AD&D combat kabuki - not unlike a simplified D&D 4th edition, and that's unfortunate. The games load you up with coin, and coin only feels "useful" to a limited degree during Pool of Radiance, but saddle you with the least fun AD&D game mechanic of all - encumbrance, as well as the FR-specific exchange rate of 1 platinum to 9 gold to 8 electrum to 28 silver to 294 penny-farthings to 2909 groats to 17 Canadian nickels. Obviously I'm a little off on those figures but seriously, there's no reason to have anything below gold in the first game, and barely any reason to have anything below platinum if you're going to whip out rules like encumbrance on something like coin storage. Yes, I realize that it's not reasonable to carry 100,000 coins per character. 10,000 US quarters alone would weigh about 125 pounds. Just handwave me an Accountant's Changepurse of Holding and quit making me do my taxes after every encounter. And seriously, copper coins in Pool of Radiance? Screw yourself. It's a FANTASY role playing game, not Elminster's Eldritch School of Economics, handwave encumbrance and just base movement on what I'm wearing and wielding; if I'm also carrying five more sets of Plate Armor +4 and three Drow Swords +3 because I don't realize they aren't worth anything (spoiler), let that just be between me and my inner fourteen-year-old. Also, give me more than one page of inventory, or a method to just zap it all into a sorting hole so I can do inventory management later and get back to the actual gameplay, because my god looting is a chore. In some of the games after Pool of Radiance, it is not at all obvious until later in the game or until you literally stumble upon it where you are supposed to train your characters. Call me a three-ply adventurer in a one-ply world, but maybe you give that one to me to start out with - no matter what I'm doing and no matter what world I'm in, give me information on where or who I return to for when I get enough XP to train so I can kick ass better, OK? Don't make it a mystery. But speaking of both money and training, Pool of Radiance is the only game where it feels like you need both money and XP - after that it's just XP, and there's nothing to really spend your money on after that first game. Sure, technically there is, but there's nothing you need, and nothing that's useful once you have some starter equipment (and later games just start you out with a few weapons so you don't have to bother with that ). So, why bother with money at all if you're not going to use it? It's a mechanic that's used intelligently in one game, and only partially. In later games, I regularly left behind what would be the equivalent of millions of USD in platinum behind per fight because I had no way to carry it, and no use for it if I did. That's a serious lack of imagination.
1/6
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2021.01.30 23:05 nstav13 [Spoilers] Assassin's Creed Valhalla Mission, Legendary Weapons, and Romance Guide

Here is a full list of missions and arcs in the base game of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla with their recommended levels and in the recommended play order to act as a guide if you don’t know what to do next. This is not a walkthrough, which many other sites have easily available.Tracked missions are all main story and world events have replaced side missions. For questions on any mysteries, wealth (armor, weapons, and upgrade materials), or artifacts, please click on their links. We highly recommend completing the Mythical Arcs first, then the Hidden Truth (locations here), and then beat the game. Notes will be included only for MAJOR CHOICES, and at the end I’ll describe how to get the legendary weapons. Obviously, beware of spoilers, though I will spoiler tag what I can.
Sigurd Strikes are decisions made during missions that will result in the "bad ending". 3-4 Sigurd strikes will give you the “bad ending”, but can be reversed. The 5th Sigurd strike will always give the “bad ending”.
Most of the game will only let you have one person Romanced, and breaking up with a Romance Option is permanent. A full list of Romances will be at the bottom.
The post launch guide has been moved to HERE. Year 2 Post Launch can be found HERE.
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There are:
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STORY GUIDE
Rygjaflyke and Fornburg - Battle for the Northern Way - Level 1
Choices - During the Seas of Fate, choosing to take the plunder is a Sigurd Strike.
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Ravensthorpe - No Arc
Choices - N/A
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Grantbridgescire - The Song of Soma - Level 20
Choices: Choosing the correct traitor will get you a jomsviking. The traitor is Galinn
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Ravensthorpe - No Arc
Notes: The Thousand Eyes Quest must be completed to move on to the East Anglia Questline.
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Ledecestrescire - The Kingmaker’s Saga - Level 20
Choices - During the mission Heavy is the Head you can kill or spare Leofrith. Sparing Leofrith will give the mission Hunted and you must immediately go burn the scroll. This will make the playthrough easier for your first time. Killing Leofrith or not burning the scroll fast enough will cause Zealots to actively hunt you.
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Ravensthorpe - No Arc
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East Anglia - The Tale of Thegn Oswald - Level 55
Choices - You can kill or spare Rued during “A Fury from the Sea”. Sparing Rued will make him appear at Wedding Horns. Fighting Rued yourself makes Finnr join you. During Wedding Horns you can also have a one-time romance with Broder.
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Ravensthorpe - No Arc
NOTE: Most of these missions are based on Settlement Level and buildings built. If they don’t appear for you, build up your settlement.
Choices - The Baker’s Plaint will open a chance to enter a Romance with Tarben. The Taken for granted quest will open a path to Romance Randvi. Doing so now will result in a Sigurd Strike. Have You Seen this Man will open up the path for a Romance with Petra.
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Lunden - The City of War - Level 90
Choices - N/A
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NOTE: If you kill (Order Member) Hunta son of Hunta and Leofgifu at this point you can do:
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Vinland - Vinland Sagas - Level 0 (possibly 160 due to balance changes)
Choices - N/A
EDIT/ NOTE: This arc can be done at almost any time, and according to the 4Pillars, Darby Mcdevvit recommended this to be at the end, however, the Hamtunscire Arc and Norway Arc are both clearly within 877, and the ending with the father cannot be more than about 3 months after that due to timing of events. As a result, Eivor could not have visited Vinland during the epilogue, and it makes the most sense to do before Oxenefordscire. Due to the potential power level change, if you cannot do it before Oxenefordscire, I'd recommend after Suthsexe.
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Oxenefordscire - The Paladin’s Stone - Level 90
Choices - During “Blood from a Stone” you can punch Basim and Sigurd. Punching both is a Sigurd Strike. Punching one or neither is fine.
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Sciropescire - The Book of Dragons - Level 130
Choices - During War Weary you can give the money to anyone, Ivarr always goes berserk. Giving it to Rohdri’s brother makes it lootable off his body. During King Killer you’ll have to fight and kill Ivarr, either granting or denying Valhalla. You then have a choice to lie or tell the truth to Ubba about how his brother died. This will come up later.
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Cent - The Instrument of the Ancients - Level 130
Choices - N/A
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Ravensthorpe - No Arc
Choices - You will have to fight and kill Dag. Denying his entrance to Valhalla is a Sigurd Strike.
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NOTE: You will likely have the “In Dreams…” quest by the point, which is what opens up the mythical arcs. We’ll get to those later, but they can be started now if you wish.
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NOTE: You will have the ability to go to the Suthsexe arc around now, however it is recommended to build Alliances first, though it’s not necessary.
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Essexe - A Breviary of Broken Hearts - Level 160
Choices - During old wounds the real traitor is Gerhild. Rollo will join you either way, though. It is also possible to have a one-time romance with Estrid.
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Lincolnscire - The Lay of Hunwald - Level 160
Choices: You can cast a vote, but it ultimately doesn't matter.
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Jorvik - The City of Greed - Level 190
Choices - During “Closing the Vault” the final target to tell Ljufvina is Audun.
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Ravensthorpe - No Arc
Note - Rivalry for the Ages is just a small quest for Octavian’s Museum in Ravensthorpe that can be done at any time. I had level 5 Charisma around this time, allowing me to complete it using Charisma.
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Snotinghamscire - The Tales of Two Jarls - Level 250
Choices - Do not let Trygve kill himself and you can choose him to become Jarl. With that Vili will join your settlement. Vili will also present himself as a one-time Romance option to you.
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NOTE: It is possible to do the Wincestre Arc now, however, due to dialogue in it containing spoilers, it’s recommended to do Suthsexe next,
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Suthsexe - The Siege of Portcestre - Level 160
Choices - Choosing to speak with Saxons rather than killing them outright will give the mission Arrive Unexpected.
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Eurvicscire - The Sayings of Halfdan - Level 190
Choices - There are multiple choices regarding Faravid’s allegiance, but it appears that only the choice at the end determines whether he lives or dies. During Blame and Sail, going against Sigurd is a Sigurd Strike.
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Ravensthorpe - No Arc
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Glowecestrescire - A Tale of Wicker-Fire - Level 220
Choices: You can choose to kill both or neither of Gwenydd’s parents. You can also meet Tewdwr before the burning and have a one time Romance.
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Ravensthorpe - No Arc
Notes: If you told the truth before, Ubba will give Eivor a silver ring, but if you lied, he will be angry. This doesn’t affect the story any more than this interaction. This would also be a good time to play the Isle of Skye event.
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Wincestre - The City of Faith - Level 250
Choices: N/A
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NOTE: DO NOT give Hytham all of the order medallions. Duplication bugs can cause you to miss out on the final Order mission, forcing you to revert to an old save. Just hold on until the end.
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NOTE: You may now be told to go talk to Sigurd to begin the ending arc. Do not do this yet, now do the Mythical Arcs. The Dawn of Ragnarok is best followed just after these arcs as well.
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Asgard - The Fate of the High One - Level 90
Choices: N/A
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Jotunheim - The Saga of the Snows - Level 190
Choices: During A Feast to Remember you can have a one-time romance with Gunlodr.
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Asgard - The Fate of the High One - Level 250 (possibly 350, due to recent balance changes)
Choices: N/A
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NOTE: It is now recommended to complete all Animus Anomalies and watch the Hidden Truth. Animus Anomalies are found here.
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Hordafylke - In the Halls of the Slain - Level 280
Choices: If you have under 5 Sigurd strikes, you can convince Sigurd to come with you back to England.
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Hamtunscire - The Prophecies of the King - Level 340
Note: You must now kill all order members that are alive other than the father. This includes the Zealots.
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Hamtunscire - No Arc
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Note: It is now recommended to enter the old Minster in Wincestre where you first met Aelfred and read the notes in the study. It is also now safe to give Hytham the medallions and complete Breaking the Order.
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Ravensthorpe - No Arc
Choices: During this, you have a final chance to tell Randvi how you feel, and this will not count as a Sigurd Strike. If you are dating someone else, it is currently possible to start dating both people by confessing your love to Randvi.
Notes: It is recommended to leave the animus after this quest and sit next to the fire for a final cutscene. It would also be recommended to play the Wrath of the Druids and Siege of Paris DLC in that order next.
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ROMANCE GUIDE
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Rygjafylke - Bil - (Female)
Ravensthorpe - Petra - (Female)
Ravensthorpe - Randvi - (Female)
Jotunheim - Gunlodr - (Female/ Jotun)
Essexe - Estrid - (Female)
East Anglia - Broder - (Male)
Snotinghamscire - Stigr - (Male)
Ravensthorpe - Tarben - (Male)
Glowecestre - Twedwr - (Male)
Snotinghamscire - Vili - (Male)
Lunden - Reeve Stowe - (Male)
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LEGENDARY WEAPONS
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East Anglia - Thor’s Helmet and Full Outfit
Hordafylke - Mjolnir
Hordafylke - Gungnir
Hamtunscire - Excalibur
Eurvicscire - Noden’s Arc
Ravensthorpe - Swordfish
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2021.01.24 23:30 Gaarawarr Gaarawarr's New Player Reference: A Guided Tour

This is an old version of this guide. You can find the new one here.

 
Hi there! Welcome to Idle Champions.
The following guide is targeted at brand new players, or recently started players, who are actively looking for an efficient way to play through the early game instead of just muddling along on their own or getting disjointed advice from multiple sources. This is not a complete walk-through, but more of a guided tour of the early game with milestones laid out to easily track your progress.
I'll be linking to external information sources (guides, videos, etc) at various points and after that link will expect you, the reader, to have gone and consumed that information.
Yes, there is a lot to know in this game. No, you don't need to know it all at once. However, taking the time to understand foundational systems will help you to make informed decisions as you progress. Each player's game experience is unique, so learning to make your own decisions based on your experiences is key.
There are a lot of guides for the game out there, so if this one doesn't feel like it fits your style of play for some reason, definitely go hunt down one of the others and see if they work better for you.
This guide was built off the knowledge gained from the 2020 Marsawarr Challenge. It is meant to get you through the "Early Game" and get you firmly situated in the "Mid Game" for Idle Champions.
 
Good luck and have fun!
~Gaar
 
Epic Games Creator Code: GAARAWARR
 

1st Milestone: Unlock Drizzt Do'Urden, the Drow Ranger

First things first: open the in-game Menu, click Newsletter, and sign up. This gets you a new Champion right away that is very useful, each week you'll get a free Weekend Gold Chest, and they tend to give away a fun Champion Skin each year over the holiday break.
Reference Material: Hitch Guide & Core Champions Video Guide
The goal here with the first Milestone is to complete the Tutorial and then work your way through the Sword Coast storyline until you can attempt to unlock Drizzt. As a new player, your focus should be on the base storyline adventure, not the variants.

What's an adventure versus a variant?

In this image the storyline adventures are "The Cursed Farmer" and "The Mad Wizard" while the variants are the sub-adventures below each. You can't do a variant until you've done the base storyline version of it first. Variants have more restrictive rules for attempting/completing than the regular adventures, which is why you want to mostly ignore them when starting out. You'll need to complete some soon to move forward anyway, so just attack the adventures and push each for Favor before completing and moving to the next one.
Note: Do not complete a storyline adventure when you meet the requirement and the pop-up asks you to complete or continue. Continue on and keep pushing to earn Favor on each run. This ensures each subsequent adventure is easier to push in and variants are easier to complete. (This is why you want to wait on doing variants.) If your next few regular adventures show as Difficulty: Easy (Green), then you can choose to just complete the adventure and continue until one doesn't show as Green and then do a Free Play (or a few) for Favor until it does if you don't want to push each adventure.
While working towards your first Milestone, make sure to spend some of your newly-acquired Favor on Blessings and spend the Gems you earn in the Shop!
Reference Material: Formation Strategy 101, Blessings 101, Gems Visual Aide (Note: The Mage Hand Familiar is now only 250 Gems, so should be purchased immediately), Items Guide, & Consumables Guide
Here is a list of the storyline adventures you want to aim to complete for this milestone:
  1. Tutorial 1
  2. Tutorial 2 (If they give it to you)
  3. The Cursed Farmer
  4. The Mad Wizard
  5. Beast Intentions
  6. Terror in the Dark (Needs 11 Adventures/Variants completed; complete at least 6 of the 9 Variants from the first 3 Adventures)
  7. Unearthed Evil
  8. Escort to Waterdeep
  9. Waterdeep Detours
  10. Underdeep Cartography
Once you complete Beast Intentions, you will need to do 6 variants, as noted above, to continue your progress. This is the game's way of telling you it's time to try some variants. By now, you should have earned a lot of Favor and all the variants should show as "Difficulty: Easy" and be green. If they're not, don't attempt them. Instead, go into a Free Play of one of the completed adventures and push for Favor.
Note: The Difficulty rating system in Idle Champions is more of a "we recommend you be at least this tall before riding this ride" as opposed to "oh, you can definitely do this, no problem." Early on, making sure it shows as Easy gives you the best chance of completing it without wasting your time, in most cases. It's up to you to read the restrictions on a variant and understand how much harder it might be than the normal adventure.
When choosing your variants to complete, keep in mind that any that restrict the number of Formation Slots you have available are much harder to complete than ones that just make enemies hit harder or have more health. Knowing how to build a proper formation in restrictive variants is key.
Here are the variants I did, in order, on my most recent new player run:
  1. Were-verpowered
  2. Mad Cow Disease
  3. Pure Energy
  4. A Persistent Buzzing
  5. Maddening
  6. Beast Mode
I made sure each showed as Green/Easy before attempting and they were easily completed. You might be able to pass the last two when showing as Yellow/Fair.
Once you've completed Underdeep Cartography, you'll gain access to the variant that unlocks Drizzt: Overdue Rendezvous. Along this journey, you may also run into a Natural Time Gate Weekend or an Event. Those take priority over Milestone progress as they're only available for a limited time.
Reference Material: Drizzt Guide, Drizzt video walkthrough, Time Gates 101, Time Gate Video Guide, & Event Planning Guide
Once you've unlocked Drizzt, it's almost time to start on your next Milestone. First, make sure you earn enough Favor in Sword Coast to unlock the Tier 2 Global Blessing "Gem Hunter" as you want to earn as many gems as you can get as soon as you can start earning them. You can do storyline adventures in Sword Coast and push for Favor or just run a Free Play for Favor to do this but you may as well complete more story while you're at it. Once you have that, it's on to Milestone #2!
One other thing you want to start working towards is unlocking Multi-Party Mode and Modron Automation. This requires having 2 Champions in each of your 12 Champion Slots. You should keep this goal in mind when making choices during both natural and manual Time Gates.
 
 

2nd Milestone: Unlock Azaka Stormfang, the Human Fighter

It's time to switch campaigns! Don't worry, we'll return to the Sword Coast later. From the map screen, choose the Tomb of Annihilation campaign and dive right in. Also, be sure you're buying Blessings here as you can afford it. They're fantastic in this campaign.
  1. Ring of Regeneration
  2. Seeking Allies
  3. Exploring Port Nyanzaru
  4. Running of the Saurs
  5. The Templar's Camp
  6. Rescue in the Jungle
  7. Homecoming
  8. The Lost Heir of Omu
  9. The Forbidden City
  10. Captured!
  11. A Grand Puzzle
  12. Tomb of the Nine Gods
Now, you could stop here and go back to do 18 variants out of the adventures you've done so far to unlock Azaka's variants, but there's an easier way. Keep on going with the story!
  1. The Immortal Warrior
  2. The Wyrmheart Mine
  3. The Guardian of Orolunga
  4. The Lost Love
This gets you four more credits, finishes the storyline, and helps you to maximize your Favor here. You want to hit at least e16 to unlock Azaka, but if you can get e18-20 on the way through these adventures, all the better!
Note: What's this e16/18/20 nonsense? It's Scientific Notation and it makes for a much easier way to reference your progress and make comparisons than the normal letter-based numerical notations. The numbers after e represent how far you move the decimal to the right. (Example: 1.58e5 = 158,000) You're going to end up with numbers in the e100s, so may as well learn how to use this now. Hit Y with the game open, or go into Settings and select it, to activate it.
You'll still need to knock out 14 variants to access Azaka, but with your high levels of Favor at this point, this should be pretty straightforward to do. There are a couple very difficult variants in ToA, but you need to learn to recognize them when you read the restrictions, so I'm gonna let you figure this out. You can do it!
Once you've completed a total of 30 adventures/variants in ToA, you'll gain access to the Grand Puzzle variant "Azaka's Procession - Part 1." Yup, this is a two-parter. Complete this and you'll gain access to the Tomb of the Nine Gods variant "Azaka's Procession - Part 2" to finally unlock her. Azaka opens up an entirely new way of earning Gold during a run. You can find more on that in the video linked in the guide below.
Reference Material: Azaka Guide & Azaka video walkthrough
 
 

3rd Milestone: Unlock Dragonbait, the Saurial Paladin

We're already in ToA and are only a few more variants away from this next Milestone, so this is an easy one! Play all the way through to The Lost Love, if you haven't already, and make sure you have a total of 35 adventures/variants completed to access the A Sauriel's Resolve variant.
If you're below e23 Favor at this point, you may want to fix that before attempting this. Check the guide below for more information.
Around this time, you may also qualify for your first Patron: Mirt the Moneylender. It will be up to you if you want to unlock him right away or not. Just know that Patrons are a time-sink and will slow down your progress a bit while you do their chores (Challenges) each week.
You may also now have enough, or nearly enough, Champions to attempt Split the Party. Do it! I believe in you! I also have a guide for that.
Reference Material: Dragonbait Guide, Dragonbait video walkthrough Patron Video Guide, Champions Visual Aid, Split the Party, Split the Party video walkthrough & Multi-Party & Modron Video Guide
 

A Brief Discussion of Patron Priorities

So you unlocked your first Patron. Now what?
Currently, the accepted priority in the community is to get enough Influence for that Patron (by doing Patron variants) to purchase your Time Gate piece weekly. That doesn't take much work to do and should be the first step when unlocking each Patron going forward.
After that, you really want to start working towards the Influence needed to purchase the Modron Component Chest each week. This is a higher goal, but very much worth it. Getting both the Time Gate piece and the Modron Component Chest each week helps you tremendously in the long run.
This does mean you'll need to earn 7500+ Patron currency each week for those purchases, so some of your campaign progress may slow down a bit here, but it's worth it due to how much these investments pay off over time.
Now, back to our previously scheduled programming...
 
 

4th Milestone: Complete 'Towering Expectations' in Barovia (Sword Coast)

I told you you'd be coming back here. It's time to do more of the Sword Coast campaign and delve into the mists to get to Barovia. This journey fulfills one of the requirements to unlock Strahd as a Patron. By now, you may have already unlocked Mirt and Vajra, but if not, that's fine. You'll get there eventually and it's not a race. If you haven't unlocked Multi-Party & Modron Automation by this point, focus on that with your Time Gate choices as it will help with Patrons.
  1. Silken Swamp
  2. Supply Run
  3. The Mists of Ravenloft
  4. Family Entanglements
  5. Tower on the Lake
  6. Backtracking Through Barovia
  7. Flies on the Wall
  8. Seeds of Deceit
  9. Excavating History
  10. Towering Expectations
Once you're done here, it's time to go to Waterdeep.
If you've unlocked Patrons and have been working on their Influence or Currency, target Mirt's Tier 4 Perk "Challenge Accepted" as your first Perk goal there as it will help increase your Currency gains from all Patrons. Spend Patron Currency primarily on Time Gate Fragments and Modron Component Chests early on to help flesh out your Champion pool as well as get pipes to help with increasing your Modron Flow. At this point, you'll want to make sure you're progressing in all the various ways you can to gain power to complete harder campaigns and variants.
Reference Material: Automation Video Guide, Progression Guide, Patrons Visual Aid, & Modron Flow Video Guide
 
 

5th Milestone: Unlock Ulkoria, the Dwarf Archmage

You're done with ToA for the time being. You'll return later to knock out all the variants, but for now it's time to head to Waterdeep! This Milestone is quite a bit more work as Ulkoria requires you complete 45 adventures/variants to access her variant. That's the majority of the campaign, so get to it!
  1. A Mysterious Summons
  2. Building Trust
  3. The Dinner Party
  4. The Botched Kidnapping
  5. Trollskull Manor
  6. Attack on the Manor
  7. Nimble Escape
  8. Fugitives
  9. Hopelessly Lost
  10. Enter the Sarguath
  11. Lair of the Xanathar
  12. Waterdeep Under Siege
  13. Vault of Dragons
  14. Champions of Waterdeep
  15. Once More Into The Breach
  16. Wyllowwood
  17. An Illithid Undertaking
  18. Deja Vu
  19. Alterdeep
As you can see, that's only 19 adventures. That means you need to do 26 variants, which is a lot of variants. If you made sure each main adventure always showed as Green/Easy and Azaka-farmed a few times, you should have e20-23 Favor by now and all the Blessings. I would target e23 to give you the best chance at soft-capping your Champs prior to the final fight.
Once you complete that 45th adventure/variant, you'll get access to the Alterdeep variant "The Gargoyle" which you'll need to complete to get Ulkoria. This one is pretty restrictive on the Champions you use, so hopefully you've picked up some options via Time Gates & Events on the way here. Specifically, Champions whose base attack is magic. You can find more information on this variant in the guide below.
Around now you should also be at or near the requirement for Split the Party 2 which grants you a Speed Core. It's nice. You'll want to do that as soon as you qualify.
Reference Material: Ulkoria Guide, Unlocking Ulkoria video, Split the Party 2 (at the bottom), Split the Party 2 video
 
 

6th Milestone: Complete all Adventures in Baldur's Gate (Descent into Avernus)

Focus on the storyline here and work on maxing out the first two Tiers of Blessings. Don't worry about the others as they will take a lot more power than you may have at this point.
  1. A Tale of Two Cities
  2. The Dead Three
  3. The Darkness Runs Deeper
  4. Difficult Terrain
  5. Elturel Has Fallen
  6. Resolve Amongst Chaos
  7. Into the Fire
  8. Dreamscape
  9. The Path of Dreams
  10. The Lost Hollyphant
  11. The Wandering Emporium
  12. Tiamat's Army
  13. Questlines
  14. Bel's Forge
  15. The Sibriex
  16. Wrecked Flying Fortress
  17. The Bleeding Citadel
  18. Idyllglen
  19. The Battle of High Hall Tower
  20. Elturel's Last Stand
That final adventure, Elturel's Last Stand, is a solid milestone in and of itself. Completing it qualifies you for Patron Zariel and the Trials of Mount Tiamat. It's not easy though as the level 50 Boss is a serious DPS race. You'll face off against them the final time on area 550, so be ready with some solid Favor. I did this recently at 1e28 Tiamat's Favor and as many Blessings as I could buy, but only a Level 3 Modest Core and a few Patron Perks. So while it's hard, it's doable with Favor thanks to the new Blessings.
Once you've completed the storyline here, you're going to have a lot of options on your plate. You can do Patron variants to build up Influence and buy Perks. You can complete The Mad God to start the Trials. Don't hesitate to pause and start those things if you want.
You'll also be able to unlock Reya in Avernus via a variant. That's going to be our next official Milestone.
Reference Material: Completing Elturel's Last Stand on a newer account, Trials of Mt. Tiamat, Legendary Forge
 
 

7th Milestone: Unlock Reya, the Human Paladin

You've already knocked out all the basic storyline adventures here, so it's time to go back and hit up the variants. Some of these are pretty straightforward with high completion goals and not only make for good targets to complete, but also make for fantastic sources of Patron Influence and Currency. Try to knock these out along with any others you can complete to get to the required 40 completed adventures/variants.
  • The Path of Redcaps
  • Madcap Adventures Redux
  • Raggadragga's Crew
  • Relentless Peril
  • The Madness of Yeenoghu
Blessings cost a lot more in this campaign, so you'll need a lot of power to make progress. You should have a solid amount coming in based on Global Blessings from other campaigns and you should pick a specific Modron Core to level up so you get power from that as well. Focusing on Global Perks from your Patrons also helps while trying to push for Favor unless you can field a good push/Azaka farm setup in a Patron Free Play with lots of Local Blessings. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't.
The Reya Reborn variant is basically limiting you to the Zariel restrictions, which you should now be somewhat familiar with having completed Elturel's Last Stand and unlocking her. This also means that once you complete this variant, you can do it for Zariel easily to get a ton of Influence and Currency for her. Bonus!
Reference Material: Completing Reya Reborn on a newer account, Reya Guide/Unlock walkthrough
 
 

8th Milestone: Complete all the current Adventures in Icewind Dale (Rime of the Frostmaiden) and The Wild Beyond the Witchlight campaigns

You know how this works by this point. These campaigns are still under construction, so there's no Evergreen to unlock yet. However, doing the content here will let you grab the available Blessings and, as always, you never want to ignore those Global Blessings.
Once you're done with these, you can knock out the rest of the current storyline in Grand Tour of the Sword Coast, then start working through all the base variants in all campaigns. You'll need them completed to be able to access the Patron versions, if you haven't realized that yet.
This transition into working primarily on Patron variants is what I see as being firmly in the Mid Game. It's gonna take a lot of time and effort and you'll also be working on gearing out your Champions and collecting new ones while fiddling with the "Pipe Game" of Modron Flow.
If you haven't by now, make sure you join the official Discord where you can chat with the community and get assistance on difficult variants, among other things.
I'll update this guide as necessary, but most likely it won't see a major Milestone adjustment until they add a new Evergreen Champion. Those make for the easiest milestones for a new player to focus on.
Reference Material: All of my Guides
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2020.11.09 12:02 Ghost_LeaderBG Assassin's Creed Valhalla Review Megathread

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is almost upon us. Use this megathread to post and discuss the reviews of the game. The post will be updated as we get more reviews. Do not post spoilers here or if you do, make sure to hide them!

Game Information

Game Title: Assassin's Creed Valhalla
Platforms:
Trailers:
Developer: Ubisoft
Review Aggregator:
OpenCritic - 83 average - 91% recommended - 67 reviews

Critic Reviews

3DNews - Алексей Лихачев - Russian - 9.5 / 10
Brilliant development of the modern formula Assassin's Creed - everything that could not be liked in Origins and Odyssey, here corrected.
ACG - Jeremy Penter - Wait for Sale
Some amazing changes to the way the game is presented, all for the better, can't get out of the way from somewhat weightless combat, bugs and other issues.
Cerealkillerz - Manuel Barthes - German - 9.1 / 10
With Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Ubisoft ventures into something incredible: Taking the Odyssey formula and reinvent it completely. Players will face a realistic and brutal world with a serious story behind it. Protagonist Eivor and the game world are thoughtfully build with a lot of love for details. An amazing experience that is presentable.
Critical Hit - Darryn Bonthuys - 9 / 10
A saga for the ages, Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a breathtaking journey of discovery that has a cold charm to it. It is both serious and ludicrous in equal measure, an RPG that has added more than it has removed from its core experience while delivering a game that feels familiar and completely new at the same time. Skal!
Cubed3 - Drew Hurley - 8 / 10
Fans of the series are going to adore Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Origins and Odyssey felt like Ubisoft trying something new, stretching out and seeing what worked, and Valhalla takes what was learned there and expands upon it. Some things, like the combat, don't feel quite there yet, still, but other elements absolutely have evolved for the better. There's a lot to love here, and not just in the frankly absurd amount of content available. The story is fantastically enjoyable, with Eivor really shining throughout (play Female for what feels the canon story!) - they are truly deserving of standing alongside the icons of this long-running series. This is a legendary tale and an addition to the franchise that is good enough for the gods.
Daily Star - Tom Hutchison - 5 / 5 stars
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is another success in the series.
Destructoid - Brett Makedonski - 6.5 / 10
But I also found myself making excuses for Assassin's Creed Valhalla until I couldn't any longer. It mimics the Odyssey formula but takes a step backward in almost every way. It sacrifices story for scale. It's designed to discourage stealth in favor of epic battles. It's true to the Viking experience, but it isn't true to the Assassin's Creed experience. That's why it comes off feeling like the least essential game in the whole series. Impressive in some of its accomplishments, but inessential all the same.
Digitally Downloaded - Matt Sainsbury - 4.5 / 5 stars
That being said, as far as the gameplay is concerned, this series is going nowhere interesting at this point there while there will be more, and I really implore Ubisoft to take a good, hard look at the bloat and consider whether a more streamlined approach that doesn't get in the way of the best feature (the history and narrative) would not be wiser next time around.
DualShockers - Cameron Hawkins - 9 / 10
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a combination of everything that made the series great up to this point while cementing all that it needs moving forward.
Enternity.gr - Christos Chatzisavvas - Greek - 8 / 10
The change of direction seems to be paying off and Valhalla is forming a new basis for future titles in the series.
Eurogamer - Tom Phillips - Recommended
Valhalla is another enormous Assassin's Creed saga, lavishly designed, with its sights set on story direction over narrative choice.
Everyeye.it - Giuseppe Arace - Italian - 8 / 10
Anyone willing to turn a blind eye to some technical and silly edges will play one of those adventures that the Vikings would not hesitate to sing in the Norse courts. Odin's with Ubisoft.
Gadgets 360 - Akhil Arora - 6 / 10
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is too much of the same thing, and it's not nearly engaging enough.
Game Informer - Joe Juba - 9.3 / 10
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is full of interesting stories and fun interlocking systems, making it an engrossing world you can easily get lost in
Game Rant - Joshua Duckworth - 4.5 / 5 stars
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a love letter to fans of the classic action-adventure titles as well as the newer role-playing mechanics.
Game Revolution - Michael Leri - 2.5 / 5 stars
Obsessing over playtime and Content™ at the cost of innovation and depth puts Valhalla‘s ability to actually get into Valhalla in question, as it doesn’t quite earn the kind of glory that only the best Vikings achieve.
Game Volt - Ahmed Hassan - Arabic - 8.4 / 10
I can easily recommend Assassin's Creed Valhalla to everyone, everyone should go through this experience and enjoy it and its world full of many different and really useful changes for the series. This is a game that brings back the glories of Assassin's Creed as we used to.
GameMAG - Russian - 9 / 10
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is still an Assassin's Creed title, but the one that manages to left behind some questionable things from the last two games, all the while presenting us with a much greater direction, a really dense map, engaiging plot, and a breathtaking setting.
GameSkinny - Jordan Baranowski - 8 / 10 stars
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla builds its world around a familiar formula, but with a compelling story and plenty of things to do, it's a game series fans will find inviting.
GameSpot - Jordan Ramée - 8 / 10
Though its campaign takes time to get going, Assassin's Creed Valhalla brings a satisfying finish to the current saga of the franchise.
GameZone - Mike Splechta - 9 / 10
As an Assassin's Creed fan who has stuck by the series through its high points, and was certainly disappointed by many of its low points, I can confidently say that what Ubisoft has crafted here was not only crafted with an immense amount of love and respect for the series, but for its fans as well. Assassin's Creed Valhalla is one Viking adventure you certainly don't want to miss.
Gameblog - Thomas Pillon - French - 7 / 10
With Assasin's Creed Valhalla, Ubisoft tries to synthesize a decade-long series, thanks to clever adjustments on its RPG rhythm. With a brilliant lightning, the game visually stands out, but sometimes fail to really follow on its technical part, with messy AI and way too many loadings times which can break the momentum of the adventure. Rich, dense, but also time-consuming, Assassin's Creed Valhalla still offers a good run, thanks to its historical setting and beautiful landscapes.
Gamer Escape - Eliot Lefebvre - 9 / 10
Like I said at the beginning, you kind of want these games at some point to stop working, but… Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla really works. It works in all the ways it wants to work. It takes the bones of its predecessor and improves the overall gameplay significantly, giving players plenty to do, characters to invest in, and a satisfying core gameplay loop that’s been refined down to a careful formula at this point.
Gamers Heroes - Blaine Smith - 95 / 100
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the best tale the franchise has ever told, featuring the most varied and rewarding gameplay the series has seen in years. Valhalla will forever dine in Odin's Hall as one of the greatest RPGs of this generation.
Gamersky - 不倒翁蜀黍 - Chinese - 8.7 / 10
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the wildest installment in the franchise. Compared with Origins and Odyssey, it's slightly improved in terms of performance, the open-world, and variety of gameplay.
GamesRadar+ - Louise Blain - 4.5 / 5 stars
With a sprawling world to conquer and gory combat but also the chance to use that iconic hidden blade, Assassin's Creed Valhalla brings a triumphant balance to the series.
GamingBolt - Shubhankar Parijat - 9 / 10
Assassin's Creed's third crack at the massive open world RPG formula is also its most confident, making for a streamlined yet sprawling adventure that ranks as one of the best the series has delivered since its inception over a decade ago.
Generación Xbox - Juan Lorente - Spanish - 9.5 / 10
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla continues the path started with Origins and gives us one of the best RPGs of the last years. A world full of life, a system that fights brutally and hundreds of things to do make it a serious candidate for GOTY 2020.
GideonsGaming - Joseph Pugh - Unscored
There's a ton of stuff left for me to do, so while I'm not comfortable settling on a score just yet. I can say with incredible confidence that Valhalla is the most refined and well-designed Assassin's Creed game to date. As I move toward converting this piece from a review in progress to a full review. I expect I'll double down on that stance.
Glitched Africa - Marco Cocomello - 9 / 10
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla may be an even further step away from the traditional Assassin's Creed recipe but it is still a great game. Besides the addictive combat and fantastic skill tree, I loved how it fixed the pacing issues from Odyssey. I had a purpose this time around and knew where I was going and what I was doing. The Viking setting is refreshing too and delivers some decent tales to experience while exploring a breathtaking world.
Hardcore Gamer - Chris Shive - 4 / 5
Assassin's Creed Valhalla brings quality of life improvements to the new Assassin's Creed model but doesn't stray too far from familiar territory.
Hey Poor Player - Francis DiPersio - 4.5 / 5
At the end of the day, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is an exceptional adventure that should please fans of the series. Ubisoft Montreal has succeeded in crafting a striking medieval world that’s just begging to be explored. I loved the new town-building mechanic. It was hugely addicting and provided a satisfying sense of progression. Speaking of progression, while initially overwhelming, the staggeringly deep skill tree and wealth of unlockable combat abilities combine to give the player an incredible amount of freedom when it comes to customizing their ideal assassin.
If you’re a fan of the series, don’t sit this one out. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is an adventure fit for Odin himself.
Hobby Consolas - Daniel Quesada - Spanish - 89 / 100
If you weren't a fan of the franchise, this game won't change your mind, but if you are a believer of the Creed, you'll find a gigantic, really engaging experience here. The vikings context fits like a glove.
Hynerd.it - Alice Rondoni - Italian - 8.3 / 10
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla proves to be the worthy continuation of its predecessors, both in gameplay and in terms of story. Maybe there are some bugs too many on day one, but considering the period we can pass on them. Nothing a patch can't fix. If you like the RPG mechanism you will love this chapter, which will keep you glued to the screen for many hours, without ever getting tired.
IGN - Brandin Tyrrel - 8 / 10
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a massive, beautiful open-world fueled by brutal living and the dirty work of conquerors. It's a lot buggier than it should be but also impressive on multiple levels.
Impulsegamer - Stephen Heller - 4.6 / 5
A intriguing change of pace that gives the Assassin's Creed series the breathing room it has so desperately needed for eons, without making any compromises on content. Well worth you time to enter the gates of Valhalla.
Kakuchopurei - Alleef Ashaari - 80 / 100
If you liked Assassin’s Creed Origins and Odyssey, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla improves on almost every aspect from its predecessors. The combat and open-world are better, as is the writing and narrative. Plus, you get to live out your fantasy of being a Viking in 4K crystal clear glory.
Kotaku - Zack Zwiezen - Unscored
Overall, it feels a lot of care and thought went into making Valahalla feel less like a checklist of things to do and more like a world to organically experience.
Leadergamer - Alper Dalan - Turkish - 4 / 5 stars
So many things to do!
Merlin'in Kazanı - Emre Yurt - Turkish - 80 / 100
Assassin's Creed Valhalla promises long hours for fans of the series with its open world and successful Viking theme.
MondoXbox - Andrea Giuliani - Italian - 8.6 / 10
With Assassin's Creed Valhalla Ubisoft keeps on improving on the action-RPG formula, streamlining some gameplay mechanics and reviving some others from the series' distant past. The Viking plot feels accurate and fully convincing, with many interesting references to their myths and uses, while the modern-time storyline keeps on feeling too underdeveloped.
Noisy Pixel - Azario Lopez - 9 / 10
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla takes the advancements of the series found in Odyssey and applies it to a whole new setting. As brutal as the period of Vikings is, there’s something beautiful about this adventure. Every action is rewarded with some great moments of storytelling, and aside from a few narrative roadblocks tied to the player’s level, there’s an amazing world here just waiting to be discovered.
PC Gamer - Steven Messner - 92 / 100
Bloody and captivating, Valhalla is Assassin's Creed at its best.
PSX Brasil - Thiago de Alencar Moura - Portuguese - 85 / 100
Assassin's Creed Valhalla ends this trilogy in the series in a very satisfactory way. The return of stealth to its origins is great, the combat keeps the same structure from the previous games and the story is up to par with its predecessors. It is a pity that the PS4 version suffers from several technical problems, but other than that, it is a mandatory game for fans of the franchise and manages to capture the Viking spirit well in their adventures.
Pixel Arts - Erfan Sedeghi - Persian - 8.8 / 10
Assassins' Creed Valhalla can be considered the most detailed Assassin's Creed EVER, in the vast and spectacular area of which you have numerous activities to experience that you will need at least 100 hours to do all of them! Of course, there are problems that will occasionally damage your experience, but Valhalla is definitely a desirable Viking title that you should not doubt.
PlayStation Universe - Michael Harradence - 8 / 10
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is everything I hoped it would be, and more. It sells the Viking fantasy flawlessly, is brimming gorgeous locations, vistas and interesting characters, and will keep you busy for 100 or so hours if you want to grab everything on offer. It's buggy in places, and the grinding is overwhelming at times to the point where it spoils the feeling of exploration and progression. However, these shortcomings can be overlooked if you're willing to stick with it. And you should, because Eivor's journey is one worth soaking up.
Polygon - Nicole Carpenter - Unscored
Valhalla’s most intriguing story is one about faith, honor, and family, but it’s buried inside this massive, massive world stuffed with combat and side quests. That balance is not always ideal, but I’m glad, at least, that it forces me to spend more time seeking out interesting things in the game’s world.
PowerUp! - Leo Stevenson - 9.6 / 10
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the best Assassin's Creed ever. Fully embracing its new genre and giving players so much choice and freedom has paid off handsomely. There's not really much more to say. You simply have to experience it for yourself.
Press Start - James Mitchell - 9 / 10
Assassin's Creed Valhalla blends old and new to create a unique experience and one of the best Assassin's Creed experiences yet. It combines series-best combat, a compelling story, and mesmerising locales to dually offer a definitive Viking and assassin experience.
Pure Playstation - Chris Harding - 9 / 10
Ubisoft delivers another open-world epic, but this time it's a focused and streamlined affair. The graphical overhaul works to announce the end of one era and the beginning of another as Assassin's Creed continues its ongoing evolution as an accessible action-adventure for the long-time fans, while still offering a deep RPG experience for those introduced via Origins and Odyssey.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Alice Bell - Unscored
For fans of the series it’s really entertaining. It might not set the world on fire, but you can set some virtual bits on fire yourself if you want.
Rocket Chainsaw - David Latham - 4.5 / 5 stars
It’s hard to find flaws in Valhalla unless you’re a die-hard Assassin’s Creed fan.
Screen Rant - Rob Gordon - 3.5 / 5 stars
Enjoyable, but struggles with scope.
Shacknews - Bill Lavoy - 8 / 10
Ubisoft is known for their fun open worlds, but it appears that experience and previous stumbles have seen them take big steps forward, making Valhalla one of their best Assassin's Creed games in recent memory.
Sirus Gaming - Jarren Navarrete - 8.5 / 10
Eivor's tale is an interesting story to experience and the gameplay that comes along the journey is liberating without being repetitive. With that, we recommend the game fully. It's not without its flaws. Even under the shadow of its predecessors, Valhalla is certainly a game that stands on its own.
Spaziogames - Paolo Sirio - Italian - 7.8 / 10
Assassin's Creed Valhalla has compelling story and themes, an often brave exploration component and inspired characters, even though those are all flooded by fillers seeking to artificially raise the longevity value.
Stevivor - Ben Salter - 9 / 10
Like Origins, Valhalla benefits from a year off with a fresh audience. It doesn’t reboot this time, but instead improves upon the duo it’s following, introducing proven elements from some of the best in the business.
TechRaptor - 9 / 10
Assassin's Creed Valhalla streamlines the best parts of Origins and Odyssey while trimming the fat, though is hampered consistently by bugs and technical problems. Still, it's a journey well worth taking.
The Digital Fix - Seb Hawden - 8 / 10
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is fun, with its many activities and a rewarding gameplay loop. There is nothing better than rocking up to a monastery with your raucous crew and robbing them blind.
TrueGaming - محمد جابر الصهيبي - Arabic - 8.5 / 10
Assassins creed Valhalla is fantastic on next generation systems with 60fps smooth gameplay experience and fast loading times, it is a great game with an impressive world to explore for hours and hours.
USgamer - Reid McCarter - 3.5 / 5 stars
Assassin's Creed Valhalla's vision of ninth-century England is a beautiful place to explore, populated with a great cast of characters who make up for the bland new protagonist, Eivor. Nevertheless, the tired overarching story of Templars and Assassins, and a design ethos that overstuffs the setting with side activities, add unnecessary bloat and distractions to the experience. Valhalla's a solid action-adventure game that does well to capture the turmoil of its historical era, but it's weighed down by the increasingly ponderous legacy of the series it represents.
Vamers - Edward Swardt - 95 / 100
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla takes inspiration from every single one of the franchise greats. From Assassin’s Creed II’s exceptional writing and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag’s unlikely hero, Valhalla is both expertly written and has an unusual hero destined for greatness - one who has no real interest in the Hidden Ones, at least to start. From Assassin’s Creed Origins’ superb and intimate narrative and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s full-fledged role-playing game (RPG) mechanics, Valhalla doubles down on all facets to deliver one of the best gameplay experiences featured in any Assassin’s Creed title to date. Evior truly is a loveable protagonist that players fall in love with quickly. Their struggle is the player’s struggle, and that is the best compliment a game can ask for. However, there are so many additional aspects that make the game an even better experience: the exceptional soundtrack and sound design; World Events that do not repeat; settlement building, and so much more! Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is immensely fun and satisfying to play, and offers constant surprises that do not seem to stop or disappoint. It is, undoubtedly, the best Ubisoft has to offer at this stage in time, and will forever be regarded as one of the greats in the Assassin's Creed franchise.
Video Game Sophistry - Andy Borkowski - 9 / 10
This is not a tactical assassination simulator - it's a complicated, crafted and nearly perfect open world experience that (if you give it a chance) it will win you over
Wccftech - Francesco De Meo - 8.5 / 10
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a definite step up for the series, thanks to the many tweaks made to the RPG mechanics that powered the previous two entries in the series, better storytelling, great atmosphere, and meaningful side-content. Even with the tweaks, however, Assassin's Creed Valhalla is still an Assassin's Creed game at heart, so those who are not into the Ubisoft open-world game design will hardly change their opinion with the game. Everyone else will probably love every second of Eivor's adventure, especially if they are into Vikings and ancient Norse culture.
WellPlayed - Adam Ryan - 9 / 10
Valhalla brilliantly mixes brutal combat with satisfying stealth to offer up a package that ticks many open-world boxes that are so often missed
Windows Central - Jennifer Locke - 4 / 5 stars
Assassin's Creed Valhalla provides a gorgeous playground to explore with excellent combat. Though the story seems unnecessarily long, it's a fun Viking tale mixed with the series' own flare and sci-fi elements.
Worth Playing - Chris "Atom" DeAngelus - 6.5 / 10
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is a mostly solid, if somewhat unambitious, Assassin's Creed game that is dragged down by a shockingly poor PS4 release. I look forward to seeing how it runs on a PS5, but the last-gen version is hard to recommend due to the sheer amount of issues that I encountered while playing through the game. If you discount those issues, Valhalla would be a comfortable 8.0, but one can't just ignore those issues. Fans looking to continue the franchise's story should wait until Valhalla receives a series of patches or until they can pick up a next-gen version.
Zoomg - Sadegh Tavazoyi - Persian - 7.5 / 10
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla delivers a great blend of storytelling and characterization for a true Viking journey and mixes it with enjoyable gameplay that has deep combat and RPG elements. The problem is that Valhalla technically has serious problems. Bugs and glitches in this game are really annoying and effect almost every other aspect of it.
The Codex Network - Rino The Bouncer - English - Unscored Video Review
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is not story that shows its clear focus from the opening chapter like the older titles, nor does it tackle the essential lore aspects as easter eggs, but it lays out its concepts here and there and it takes its time developing each of them over tens of hours of playtime in the main narrative arcs alone. It is one experience that needs to be consumed as a whole to completely appreciate its value and place within the grand universe, and it does so phenomenally well.
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2020.11.09 11:59 ninjyte Assassin's Creed Valhalla - Review Thread

Game Information

Game Title: Assassin's Creed Valhalla
Genre: Action-adventure, role-playing, open world, Vikings
Platforms: Playstation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC, Stadia
Media: - Opening Hours Gameplay Norse Mythology
Cinematic TV Spot
Post Launch & Season Pass Trailer
New Gameplay Walkthrough Deep Dive Trailer
Story Trailer
Official Soundtrack Cinematic Trailer Eivor’s Fate - Character Trailer
Gameplay Overview Trailer UbiFWD July 2020 Official 30 Minute Gameplay Walkthrough UbiFWD July 2020NA
First Look Gameplay Trailer
Cinematic World Premiere Trailer
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal Info
Publisher: Ubisoft
Price: Standard - $59.99 USD (contains microtransactions)
Gold - $99.99 contents
Ultimate - $119.99 contents
Release Date: November 10, 2020
PS5 - November 12, 2020
More Info: /assassinscreed Wikipedia Page
Review Aggregator:
OpenCritic - 84 92% Recommended [Cross-Platform] Score Distribution
MetaCritic - [PS5]
MetaCritic - 85 [XBSX]
MetaCritic - 85 [PC]
MetaCritic - 82 [PS4]
MetaCritic - 82 [XB1]
Viciously arbitrary compilation of main games in the Assassin's Creed series -
Entry Score Platform, Year, # of Critics
Assassin's Creed 81 X360, 2007, 77 critics
Assassin's Creed II 90 X360, 2009, 82 critics
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood 89 X360, 2010, 81 critics
Assassin's Creed: Revelations 80 X360, 2011, 77 critics
Assassin's Creed III 84 X360, 2012, 61 critics
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag 88 PS3, 2013, 36 critics
Assassin's Creed Rogue 72 PS3, 2014, 53 critics
Assassin's Creed Unity 72 XB1, 2014, 59 critics
Assassin's Creed Syndicate 76 PS4, 2015, 86 critics
Assassin's Creed Origins 81 PS4, 2017, 63 critics
Assassin's Creed Odyssey 83 PS4, 2018, 86 critics

Reviews

​
Website/Author Aggregates' Score ~ Critic's Score Quote Platform
Kotaku - Zack Zwiezen Unscored ~ Unscored Overall, it feels a lot of care and thought went into making Valhalla feel less like a checklist of things to do and more like a world to organically experience.
Polygon - Nicole Carpenter Unscored ~ Unscored Valhalla’s most intriguing story is one about faith, honor, and family, but it’s buried inside this massive, massive world stuffed with combat and side quests. That balance is not always ideal, but I’m glad, at least, that it forces me to spend more time seeking out interesting things in the game’s world. XB1
Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Alice Bell Unscored ~ Unscored For fans of the series it’s really entertaining. It might not set the world on fire, but you can set some virtual bits on fire yourself if you want. PC
IGN India - Shunal Doke Unscored ~ Unscored Its new skill system promotes experimentation with different builds, and gear has been streamlined in a way where you’re not constantly chasing bigger numbers every single moment. Level grinding has all but disappeared, and the new setting just oozes atmosphere and theme. Boring protagonist aside, Valhalla is definitely the strongest of the new Assassin’s Creed RPG trilogy.
ACG - Jeremy Penter Unscored ~ Wait for Sale Some amazing changes to the way the game is presented, all for the better, can't get out of the way from somewhat weightless combat, bugs and other issues. PC, XB1, XBSX
Eurogamer - Tom Phillips Unscored ~ Recommended Valhalla is another enormous Assassin's Creed saga, lavishly designed, with its sights set on story direction over narrative choice. XBSX
Daily Star - Tom Hutchison 100 ~ 5 / 5 stars Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is another success in the series. PS4
PowerUp! - Leo Stevenson 96 ~ 9.6 / 10 Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the best Assassin's Creed ever. Fully embracing its new genre and giving players so much choice and freedom has paid off handsomely. There's not really much more to say. You simply have to experience it for yourself. XBSX
Gamers Heroes - Blaine Smith 95 ~ 95 / 100 Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the best tale the franchise has ever told, featuring the most varied and rewarding gameplay the series has seen in years. Valhalla will forever dine in Odin's Hall as one of the greatest RPGs of this generation. PS4
Vamers - Edward Swardt 95 ~ 95 / 100 It is, undoubtedly, the best Ubisoft has to offer at this stage in time, and will forever be regarded as one of the greats in the Assassin's Creed franchise. XBSX
Game Informer - Joe Juba 93 ~ 9.3 / 10 Assassin's Creed Valhalla is full of interesting stories and fun interlocking systems, making it an engrossing world you can easily get lost in XBSX
Impulsegamer - Stephen Heller 92 ~ 4.6 / 5 A intriguing change of pace that gives the Assassin's Creed series the breathing room it has so desperately needed for eons, without making any compromises on content. Well worth you time to enter the gates of Valhalla.
PC Gamer - Steven Messner 92 ~ 92 / 100 Bloody and captivating, Valhalla is Assassin's Creed at its best. PC
Critical Hit - Darryn Bonthuys 90 ~ 9 / 10 A saga for the ages, Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a breathtaking journey of discovery that has a cold charm to it. It is both serious and ludicrous in equal measure, an RPG that has added more than it has removed from its core experience while delivering a game that feels familiar and completely new at the same time. Skal! XBSX
Digitally Downloaded - Matt Sainsbury 90 ~ 4.5 / 5 stars That being said, as far as the gameplay is concerned, this series is going nowhere interesting at this point there while there will be more, and I really implore Ubisoft to take a good, hard look at the bloat and consider whether a more streamlined approach that doesn't get in the way of the best feature (the history and narrative) would not be wiser next time around. PS4
DualShockers - Cameron Hawkins 90 ~ 9 / 10 Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a combination of everything that made the series great up to this point while cementing all that it needs moving forward. XB1
Game Rant - Joshua Duckworth 90 ~ 4.5 / 5 stars Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a love letter to fans of the classic action-adventure titles as well as the newer role-playing mechanics. XB1
GameZone - Mike Splechta 90 ~ 9 / 10 As an Assassin's Creed fan who has stuck by the series through its high points, and was certainly disappointed by many of its low points, I can confidently say that what Ubisoft has crafted here was not only crafted with an immense amount of love and respect for the series, but for its fans as well. Assassin's Creed Valhalla is one Viking adventure you certainly don't want to miss. PS4
Gamer Escape - Eliot Lefebvre 90 ~ 9 / 10 Like I said at the beginning, you kind of want these games at some point to stop working, but… Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla really works. It works in all the ways it wants to work. It takes the bones of its predecessor and improves the overall gameplay significantly, giving players plenty to do, characters to invest in, and a satisfying core gameplay loop that’s been refined down to a careful formula at this point. PS4
GamesRadar+ - Louise Blain 90 ~ 4.5 / 5 stars With a sprawling world to conquer and gory combat but also the chance to use that iconic hidden blade, Assassin's Creed Valhalla brings a triumphant balance to the series. XBSX
GamingBolt - Shubhankar Parijat 90 ~ 9 / 10 Assassin's Creed's third crack at the massive open world RPG formula is also its most confident, making for a streamlined yet sprawling adventure that ranks as one of the best the series has delivered since its inception over a decade ago. XB1
Glitched Africa - Marco Cocomello 90 ~ 9 / 10 Assassin's Creed: Valhalla may be an even further step away from the traditional Assassin's Creed recipe but it is still a great game. Besides the addictive combat and fantastic skill tree, I loved how it fixed the pacing issues from Odyssey. I had a purpose this time around and knew where I was going and what I was doing. The Viking setting is refreshing too and delivers some decent tales to experience while exploring a breathtaking world. PS4
Noisy Pixel - Azario Lopez 90 ~ 9 / 10 Assassin’s Creed Valhalla takes the advancements of the series found in Odyssey and applies it to a whole new setting. As brutal as the period of Vikings is, there’s something beautiful about this adventure. Every action is rewarded with some great moments of storytelling, and aside from a few narrative roadblocks tied to the player’s level, there’s an amazing world here just waiting to be discovered. PS4
Press Start - James Mitchell 90 ~ 9 / 10 Assassin's Creed Valhalla blends old and new to create a unique experience and one of the best Assassin's Creed experiences yet. It combines series-best combat, a compelling story, and mesmerizing locales to dually offer a definitive Viking and assassin experience. XBSX
Pure Playstation - Chris Harding 90 ~ 9 / 10 Ubisoft delivers another open-world epic, but this time it's a focused and streamlined affair. The graphical overhaul works to announce the end of one era and the beginning of another as Assassin's Creed continues its ongoing evolution as an accessible action-adventure for the long-time fans, while still offering a deep RPG experience for those introduced via Origins and Odyssey. PS4, XB1
Rocket Chainsaw - David Latham 90 ~ 4.5 / 5 stars It’s hard to find flaws in Valhalla unless you’re a die-hard Assassin’s Creed fan. XB1
Stevivor - Ben Salter 90 ~ 9 / 10 Like Origins, Valhalla benefits from a year off with a fresh audience. It doesn’t reboot this time, but instead improves upon the duo it’s following, introducing proven elements from some of the best in the business. XBSX
TechRaptor - Nirav Gandhi 90 ~ 9 / 10 Assassin's Creed Valhalla streamlines the best parts of Origins and Odyssey while trimming the fat, though is hampered consistently by bugs and technical problems. Still, it's a journey well worth taking. PC
Video Game Sophistry - Andy Borkowski 90 ~ 9 / 10 This is not a tactical assassination simulator - it's a complicated, crafted and nearly perfect open world experience that (if you give it a chance) it will win you over
WellPlayed - Adam Ryan 90 ~ 9 / 10 Valhalla brilliantly mixes brutal combat with satisfying stealth to offer up a package that ticks many open-world boxes that are so often missed PS4
Sirus Gaming - Jarren Navarrete 85 ~ 8.5 / 10 Eivor's tale is an interesting story to experience and the gameplay that comes along the journey is liberating without being repetitive. With that, we recommend the game fully. It's not without its flaws. Even under the shadow of its predecessors, Valhalla is certainly a game that stands on its own. PS4
Wccftech - Francesco De Meo 85 ~ 8.5 / 10 Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a definite step up for the series, thanks to the many tweaks made to the RPG mechanics that powered the previous two entries in the series, better storytelling, great atmosphere, and meaningful side-content. Even with the tweaks, however, Assassin's Creed Valhalla is still an Assassin's Creed game at heart, so those who are not into the Ubisoft open-world game design will hardly change their opinion with the game. PC
Cubed3 - Drew Hurley 80 ~ 8 / 10 Fans of the series are going to adore Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Origins and Odyssey felt like Ubisoft trying something new, stretching out and seeing what worked, and Valhalla takes what was learned there and expands upon it. Some things, like the combat, don't feel quite there yet, still, but other elements absolutely have evolved for the better. There's a lot to love here, and not just in the frankly absurd amount of content available. The story is fantastically enjoyable, with Eivor really shining throughout (play Female for what feels the canon story!) - they are truly deserving of standing alongside the icons of this long-running series. This is a legendary tale and an addition to the franchise that is good enough for the gods. PS4
GameSkinny - Jordan Baranowski 80 ~ 8 / 10 stars Assassin's Creed: Valhalla builds its world around a familiar formula, but with a compelling story and plenty of things to do, it's a game series fans will find inviting. PC
GameSpot - Jordan Ramée 80 ~ 8 / 10 Though its campaign takes time to get going, Assassin's Creed Valhalla brings a satisfying finish to the current saga of the franchise. XBSX
Hardcore Gamer - Chris Shive 80 ~ 4 / 5 Assassin's Creed Valhalla brings quality of life improvements to the new Assassin's Creed model but doesn't stray too far from familiar territory. PS4
IGN - Brandin Tyrrel 80 ~ 8 / 10 Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a massive, beautiful open-world fueled by brutal living and the dirty work of conquerors. It's a lot buggier than it should be but also impressive on multiple levels. XBSX
PlayStation Universe - Michael Harradence 80 ~ 8 / 10 Assassin's Creed Valhalla is everything I hoped it would be, and more. It sells the Viking fantasy flawlessly, is brimming gorgeous locations, vistas and interesting characters, and will keep you busy for 100 or so hours if you want to grab everything on offer. It's buggy in places, and the grinding is overwhelming at times to the point where it spoils the feeling of exploration and progression. However, these shortcomings can be overlooked if you're willing to stick with it. And you should, because Eivor's journey is one worth soaking up. PS4
Shacknews - Bill Lavoy 80 ~ 8 / 10 Ubisoft is known for their fun open worlds, but it appears that experience and previous stumbles have seen them take big steps forward, making Valhalla one of their best Assassin's Creed games in recent memory. PC
The Digital Fix - Seb Hawden 80 ~ 8 / 10 Assassin's Creed Valhalla is fun, with its many activities and a rewarding gameplay loop. There is nothing better than rocking up to a monastery with your raucous crew and robbing them blind. PS4
Windows Central - Jennifer Locke 80 ~ 4 / 5 stars Assassin's Creed Valhalla provides a gorgeous playground to explore with excellent combat. Though the story seems unnecessarily long, it's a fun Viking tale mixed with the series' own flare and sci-fi elements. XB1
Screen Rant - Rob Gordon 70 ~ 3.5 / 5 stars Enjoyable, but struggles with scope. PS4
USgamer - Reid McCarter 70 ~ 3.5 / 5 stars Assassin's Creed Valhalla's vision of ninth-century England is a beautiful place to explore, populated with a great cast of characters who make up for the bland new protagonist, Eivor. Nevertheless, the tired overarching story of Templars and Assassins, and a design ethos that overstuffs the setting with side activities, add unnecessary bloat and distractions to the experience. Valhalla's a solid action-adventure game that does well to capture the turmoil of its historical era, but it's weighed down by the increasingly ponderous legacy of the series it represents. XB1
Destructoid - Brett Makedonski 65 ~ 6.5 / 10 But I also found myself making excuses for Assassin's Creed Valhalla until I couldn't any longer. It mimics the Odyssey formula but takes a step backward in almost every way. It sacrifices story for scale. It's designed to discourage stealth in favor of epic battles. It's true to the Viking experience, but it isn't true to the Assassin's Creed experience. That's why it comes off feeling like the least essential game in the whole series. Impressive in some of its accomplishments, but inessential all the same. XB1
Worth Playing - Chris "Atom" DeAngelus 65 ~ 6.5 / 10 Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is a mostly solid, if somewhat unambitious, Assassin's Creed game that is dragged down by a shockingly poor PS4 release. I look forward to seeing how it runs on a PS5, but the last-gen version is hard to recommend due to the sheer amount of issues that I encountered while playing through the game. If you discount those issues, Valhalla would be a comfortable 8.0, but one can't just ignore those issues. Fans looking to continue the franchise's story should wait until Valhalla receives a series of patches or until they can pick up a next-gen version. PS4
Gadgets 360 - Akhil Arora 60 ~ 6 / 10 Assassin's Creed Valhalla is too much of the same thing, and it's not nearly engaging enough. XB1
Game Revolution - Michael Leri 50 ~ 2.5 / 5 stars Obsessing over playtime and Content™ at the cost of innovation and depth puts Valhalla‘s ability to actually get into Valhalla in question, as it doesn’t quite earn the kind of glory that only the best Vikings achieve. PS4
​
Thanks OpenCritic for the review export
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2019.08.31 19:54 M_Tootles A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand: Targaryen Re-Unification and Young Aegon's True Lineage — An Appendix of Sorts (Spoilers Extended)

This post is also available on my wordpress blog, asongoficeandtootles, HERE, where it will probably be much easier to read on-screen than it is on reddit.
Note: This writing is an Appendix (of sorts) to a two-part post about Young Aegon's/"fAegon's"/Young Griff's lineage. You can find Part 1 HERE on reddit and HERE on my wordpress blog. You can find Part 2 HERE on reddit and HERE on my wordpress blog. This post literally picks up where Part 2 "concluded", so if you haven't read Parts 1 and 2, it won't make any sense.

Illyrio + Rhaella = "Young Griff"/Aegon/"fAegon": An Appendix of Sorts

In this "appendix of sorts" to my argument that "Young Griff"/Aegon/fAegon is the son of Illyrio Mopatis and Rhaella Targaryen, I'll sketch some more of the textual, "rhyming" allusions I found regarding the idea that Illyrio impregnated Rhaella and sired Young Griff on Aerys's sister-queen. This post doesn't lay out anything like a systematic argument, but I think it contains some super fun, almost mind-bending stuff. But I'm a strange sort.
But before we get to that…
Since posting "A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand", I've made a number of small edits, mostly thanks to the valuable feedback of IllyrioMoParties, who loves when I tag him as much as possible while noting his contributions. I also just hit upon a "major" find upon re-read, which I likewise edited into the originals. If you read the posts during the first 24 hours they were posted, these will all be new to you.
Here's whats been added to the original posts:
First: Remember when I argued that Cersei fucking Jaime right under the passed-out drunk Robert's nose provides precedent and a rhyme to the idea of Illyrio rogering Rhaella under the nose of the passed-out Aerys?
Well, IllyrioMoParties reminded me that this cuckolding of King Robert by Jaime-the-Kingsguard and Robert's Queen takes place in Raymun Darry's bedchamber, and thus "rhymes" all the more perfectly with Illyrio fucking Queen Rhaella under the noses of not only her passed-out King, but also those of his Kingsguards, Jaime and Jon Darry (to whom Jaime appeals when it sounds like Rhaella is being raped.)
Second: Remember when I was talking about the "rhyme" between Illyrio's sexualized beard prongs, the merman statue's "broken off" prong, and the "prong" of the grappling hook that tears a "gash" in Vermax's belly? Well, IllyrioMoParties pointed out that the belly wound may augur that Rhaella gave birth via Caesarian section, perhaps having her life thereby saved. This could be consistent with Rhaella giving birth to twins, just like Tormund's she-bear.
Third: When I was talking about Theon's water snake, and the way its slithering up the steps to bite people in the night was reminiscent of the idea of Illyrio climbing the steps from the sewers to bang Rhaella, I mentioned that when the verbiage "thick as your leg" is used to describe the snake, this evokes Illyrio, whose custom-made "throne" has "thick sturdy legs to bear his weight". (DWD I) IllyrioMoParties points out that the "bear" language looks auspicious in light of the Illyrio's parallel with Tormund of she-bear fame.
Fourth: This one regards the description of the merman statue, "twenty feet tall" with the "broken off" prong. IllyrioMoParties pointed out that a "broken off prong" sounds a helluva lot like what happened to Illyrio-analogue Tormund's cock when he fucked the she-bear in a story I believe presages Illyrio boffing Rhaella:
All ripped and torn I was, and half me member bit right off, and there on me floor was a she-bear's pelt. (SOS Jon II)
Broken-off prong, indeed.
And finally, the big one, which I ran smack-dab into last night, during my ninth complete read of ASOS. I made it its own section in the original posts, inserted right after the discussion of Illyrio being described using language which lines up incredibly well with the very vivid description of the dead direwolf mother in AGOT B I, thus hinting that he is a "savage beast", just like direwolves are.
Here's that new section, in its entirety:

Illyrio the Nightfire: Nightfires are (verbatim) "Beasts", Too.

Earlier, I pointed out that Illyrio's clothing—
loose garments of flame-colored silk (GOT D I)
—makes him a kind of figurative Red Priest of R'hllor, like Melisandre, and thus associates him with glamors and hints that he could have glamored himself to appear as Aerys.
But the description also does the same thing the Illyrio-direwolf "rhyme" does: it suggests Illyrio was the "beast" who fucked Rhaella was Jaime stood guard.
How so? Simple. His clothing makes him sound (a) R'hllorian, and (b) like a fire. Now, what is R'hllorian and a fire? A "nightfire", right? You know, like this one—
The nightfire burned against the gathering dark, a great bright beast whose shifting orange light threw shadows twenty feet tall across the yard. (SOS Dav VI)
—which just so happens to also be a verbatim "beast".
Why did I highlight the fact that the beastly nightfire "threw shadows twenty feet tall"? Because it so happens that the same language, scrambled into "rhyming" motifs, attends Illyrio when he first appears in AGOT Arya III:
From somewhere far below her, [Arya] heard noises. The scrape of boots, the distant sound of [Illyrio and Varys's] voices. A flickering light brushed the wall ever so faintly, and she saw that she stood at the top of a great black well, a shaft twenty feet across plunging deep into the earth. …
Far below, [Arya] saw the light of a single torch, small as the flame of a candle. Two men, she made out. Their shadows writhed against the sides of the well, tall as giants. …
The tall shadows were almost on top of her…
It's impossible for me to believe the foregoing passages aren't contrived so as to textually code Illyrio as a nightfire like the one that is explicitly a "beast", thereby coding Illyrio once again as a "beast" like the one that savaged Rhaella.
OK, that concludes the run-down of the additions I've made to the main posts since they were "published".

The "Appendix of Sorts", Proper

Illyrio and the Red Temple, Casterly Rock, and the Merchant's House

In the two posts comprising my main argument, I discussed how Illyrio is coded as a red priest, which suggests he can cast a glamor. In fact, even the temple of R'hllor in Volantis sounds like Illyrio in his "flame-colored silk" robes:
Three blocks later the street opened up before them onto a huge torchlit plaza, and there it stood. Seven save me, that's got to be three times the size of the Great Sept of Baelor. An enormity of pillars, steps, buttresses, bridges, domes, and towers flowing into one another as if they had all been chiseled from one colossal rock, the Temple of the Lord of Light loomed like Aegon's High Hill. A hundred hues of red, yellow, gold, and orange met and melded in the temple walls, dissolving one into the other like clouds at sunset. Its slender towers twisted ever upward, frozen flames dancing as they reached for the sky. Fire turned to stone. (DWD Ty VII)
A few things stand out. The temple is an "enormity"; the same could be said of Illyrio. (Later, I'll run down a tight parallel between Illyrio and the Yellow Whale of Yunkai, who is likewise called an "enormity".)
The temple is "Fire turned to stone." If Illyrio is a Targaryen and if a Targaryen is a "dragon" and if a dragon is "fire made flesh", then surely the statue of "Illyrio" in his manse's garden could be called "fire turned to stone", just like the Temple of R'hllor. Moreover, the fact that the statue is supposedly Illyrio but (in my opinion) isn't truly seems consistent with the idea that Illyrio is a glamorer.
The red temple looks "chiseled from one colossal rock", which sounds like Casterly Rock:
Yet by far the greatest lords in the westerlands were the Casterlys of the Rock, who had their seat in a colossal stone that rose beside the Sunset Sea. (TWOIAF)
That sounds Illyrio-ish, in that he's not just akin to the Temple, but continually related to Casterly Rock. He's…
…a cheesemonger half the size of Casterly Rock. (DWD Ty II)
He reminded Tyrion of a dead sea cow that had once washed up in the caverns under Casterly Rock. (DWD Ty I)
Illyrio gave a laugh and slapped his belly. "As you will. The Beggar King swore that I should be his master of coin, and a lordly lord as well. Once he wore his golden crown, I should have my choice of castles … even Casterly Rock, if I desired." (DWD Ty II)
As if to confirm that we're supposed to think about Illyrio when we read about this temple, just afterward we "meet" another building described in a manner that's even more on the nose with its Illyrio references, thereby encouraging us to see Volantene buildings as figurative Illyrios:
"Just there. Fishmonger's Square."
Their destination proved to be the Merchant's House, a four-story monstrosity that squatted amongst the warehouses, brothels, and taverns of the waterside like some enormous fat man surrounded by children. Its common room was larger than the great halls of half the castles in Westeros, a dim-lit maze of a place with a hundred private alcoves and hidden nooks whose blackened beams and cracked ceilings echoed to the din of sailors, traders, captains, money changers, shippers, and slavers, lying, cursing, and cheating each other in half a hundred different tongues.
Tyrion approved the choice of hostelry. Soon or late the Shy Maid must reach Volantis. This was the city's biggest inn, first choice for shippers, captains, and merchantmen. A lot of business was done in that cavernous warren of a common room. He knew enough of Volantis to know that. Let Griff turn up here with Duck and Haldon, and he would be free again soon enough.
  • Illyrio's manse is literally a "Merchant's House".
  • He surely owns countless "warehouses" and found his wife Serra in a "brothel".
  • The phrase "some enormous fat man" not only sounds like Illyrio (an enormous fat man I linked to the "enormity" of the Red Temple, above), it also recalls "some beast": the phrase Jaime uses to describe Rhaella's seeming rapist and the phrase Illyrio uses when he "slapped a meaty thigh" like Tormund does when he tells his tale of impregnating a she-bear after stealing into her den and having rough-and-tumble sex with her.
  • "Surrounded by children" rather than "by his children" recalls my theory that Illyrio raised multiple children he did not sire.
  • "Squatting" recalls Tywin dying "squatting on the privy", which led to Tyrion's exit via a system of tunnels Illyrio used to access the Red Keep.
  • "Fishmonger" and "larger than the great halls of half the castles in Westeros" recalls "a cheesemonger half the size of [Westerosi castle] Casterly Rock".
  • The juxtaposition of "the castles in Westeros" with "a dim-lit maze of a place" reminds us of the dimly-lit, labyrinthine hidden ways of the Red Keep.
  • "[A] hundred private alcoves and hidden nooks" reminds of the "little snuggeries in the pleasure gardens" in Meereen we hear of in the context of an attempt to bed a Targaryen Queen—the very woman who was supposedly born on Dragonstone after Rhaella was "savaged" by "some beast".
  • As for "sailors, traders, captains, money changers, shippers, and slavers, lying, cursing, and cheating each other in half a hundred different tongues", this basically describes the explicitly multi-lingual Illyrio to a tee. He is all those things, and he does all those things.

Illyrio and the Yellow Whale

The Yellow Whale is another curiously Illyrio-esque figure who is, like the Temple of R'hllor, described as an "enormity":
Foremost amongst them was the Yellow Whale, an obscenely fat man who always wore yellow silk tokars with golden fringes. Too heavy even to stand unassisted, he could not hold his water, so he always smelled of piss, a stench so sharp that even heavy perfumes could not conceal it. But he was said to be the richest man in Yunkai, and he had a passion for grotesques; his slaves included a boy with the legs and hooves of a goat, a bearded woman, a two-headed monster from Mantarys, and a hermaphrodite who warmed his bed at night. "Cock and cunny both," Dick Straw told them. "The Whale used to own a giant too, liked to watch him fuck his slave girls. Then he died. I hear the Whale'd give a sack o' gold for a new one."
"Yellow silk" recalls Illyrio flame-colored silks and the yellow robes of the acolytes at the Temple of R'hllor.
The Yellow Whale is "obscenely fat". Illyrio is a "fat man" who is called a "whale with whiskers", and he strokes those whiskers, his "yellow beard", "obscenely".
The Yellow whale is "a monstrously fat Yunkishman". It's Illyrio who tells us "the male line of House Blackfyre" ended "[w]hen Maelys the Monstrous died upon the Stepstones." One of just two other uses of "monstrously" in the canon comes in the same chapter, surrounded by mentions of Illyrio, dragon dreams, and lost Targaryens:
When the magister drifted off to sleep with the wine jar at his elbow, Tyrion crept across the pillows to work it loose from its fleshy prison and pour himself a cup. He drained it down, and yawned, and filled it once again. If I drink enough fire wine, he told himself, perhaps I'll dream of dragons.
When he was still a lonely child in the depths of Casterly Rock, he oft rode dragons through the nights, pretending he was some lost Targaryen princeling, or a Valyrian dragonlord soaring high o'er fields and mountains. Once, when his uncles asked him what gift he wanted for his nameday, he begged them for a dragon. "It wouldn't need to be a big one. It could be little, like I am." His uncle Gerion thought that was the funniest thing he had ever heard, but his uncle Tygett said, "The last dragon died a century ago, lad." That had seemed so monstrously unfair that the boy had cried himself to sleep that night.
Yet if the lord of cheese could be believed, the Mad King's daughter had hatched three living dragons. Two more than even a Targaryen should require. Tyrion was almost sorry that he had killed his father. He would have enjoyed seeing Lord Tywin's face when he learned that there was a Targaryen queen on her way to Westeros with three dragons, backed by a scheming eunuch and a cheesemonger half the size of Casterly Rock.
The Yellow Whale is explicitly compared to Illyrio:
Covered all in yellow silk fringed with gold, he looked as large as four Illyrios.
Four Illyrios, actually, which recalls my thesis that the four servitor dwarves represent Illyrio.
The Whale can't hold his water and covers his stench with perfume—
…he could not hold his water, so he always smelled of piss, a stench so sharp that even heavy perfumes could not conceal it.
—which reminds us of Illyrio:
They changed out teams only thrice that day but seemed to halt twice an hour at the least so Illyrio could climb down from the litter and have himself a piss. Our lord of cheese is the size of an elephant, but he has a bladder like a peanut, the dwarf mused. (DWD Ty II)
Dany could smell the stench of Illyrio's pallid flesh through his heavy perfumes. (GOT D I)
This detail—
"The Whale used to own a giant too, liked to watch him fuck his slave girls."
—reminds us of Illyrio being coded as a giant and is suggestive of Illyrio's sadistic sexual tendencies.
The Whale's goat-legged boy sounds like the Greek God Pan, which is mostly about coding Tyrion as a Pan-figure, in my opinion (something I'll detail in a future writing) but also has heavy associations with sex and fertility.
The Whale is "rotting from the inside out", while Tyrion likens Illyrio to a "rotting sea cow." (DWD Ty X, I)
Tyrion bids "all the gold of Casterly Rock" (on himself) against the Whale—
The yellow enormity was squirming in his litter, a look of annoyance on his huge pie face. He muttered something sour in Ghiscari that Tyrion did not understand, but the tone of it was plain enough. "Was that another bid?" The dwarf cocked his head. "I offer all the gold of Casterly Rock." (DWD Ty X)
—after promising the same to Illyrio:
"I would sooner have mine own weight in gold." The cheesemonger laughed so hard that Tyrion feared he was about to rupture. "All the gold in Casterly Rock, why not?"
"The gold I grant you," the dwarf said, relieved that he was not about to drown in a gout of half-digested eels and sweetmeats, "but the Rock is mine." (DWD Ty I)
The Whale has "yellow teeth" and acts like a snake—
He weighed the sellswords with his yellow eyes, flicked his tongue across his yellow teeth, and said, "Five thousand silvers for the lot."
—whereas Illyrio has "yellow teeth" and is coded as "water snake".
The Whale has "piggy yellow eyes" and huge breasts likened to a pig—a fatty farm animal—
Just the sight of him sagging across his litter, a mountain of sallow flesh with piggy yellow eyes and breasts big as Pretty Pig pushing at the silk of his tokar was enough to make the dwarf's skin crawl. (DWD Ty X)
—while Illyrio has "pig's eyes" and "heavy breasts" covered in yellow hair and likened to suet—i.e. animal fat:
[Illyrio's] brow was dotted with beads of sweat, his pig's eyes shining above his fat cheeks. (DWD Ty I)
His bedrobe was large enough to serve as a tourney pavilion, but its loosely knotted belt had come undone, exposing a huge white belly and a pair of heavy breasts that sagged like sacks of suet covered with coarse yellow hair. (ibid.)
I suspect the point of this rather obvious parallel is largely to simply foreground the fact that ASOIAF rhymes, and thus to get us to look for more interesting, more revelatory rhymes involving Illyrio, like the rhymes between Illyrio and the mother of the Stark direwolves, Tormund, Old Fishfoot, Theon, fat-bellied Pentoshi ships, etc.

Illyrio and the text surrounding the Brazen Monkey

In the main body of my writing, I talked about the way the Brazen Monkey, positioned as it is in the text between a bunch of Illyrio-evoking ships, suggests a relationship between the woman-ravaging dwarf servitors with their monkey-like "tiny pink hands" and Illyrio.
In fact, the entirety of the text surrounding the "Brazen Monkey" stuff seems to resonate with the idea that Illyrio impregnated Rhaella, so long as we treat the text like a song and look for "rhymes". The text describes Arya's walk through the waterfront. Let's walk through Arya's walkthrough.
Arya is initially being followed by a bunch of cats. As previously noted, the most prominent of these cats recalls the very cat she was chasing when she and thus the readers discovered that Illyrio can enter the Red Keep secretly via some kind of serpentine stairway in a hidden well:
Her favorite was a scrawny old tom with a chewed ear who reminded her of a cat that she'd once chased all around the Red Keep. No, that was some other girl, not me.
Two of the ships that had been here yesterday were gone, Cat saw, but five new ones had docked; a small carrack called the Brazen Monkey, a huge Ibbenese whaler that reeked of tar and blood and whale oil, two battered cogs from Pentos, and a lean green galley up from Old Volantis. Cat stopped at the foot of every gangplank to cry her clams and oysters, once in the trade talk and again in the Common Tongue of Westeros.
We talked about most of this. Now, let's add that Cat cries her clams. Rhaella verbatim "cried" "You're hurting me" when the multi-lingual Illyrio (who surely speaks "the trade talk") came for her "clam".
A crewman on the whaler cursed at her so loudly that he scared away her cats and one of the Pentoshi oarsman asked how much she wanted for the clam between her legs, but she fared better at the other ships.
This drives home the obvious clam/sex metaphor, and centers it on a Pentoshi, like Illyrio.
A mate on the green galley wolfed half a dozen oysters and told her how his captain had been killed by the Lysene pirates who had tried to board them near the Stepstones.
"Wolfed", reminding us of Illyrio the direwolf. Lysene pirates in the Stepstones reminds us of the super-fat Illyrio-ish pirate who was killed attacking Quentyn's party and whose jeweled rings could not be removed.
"That bastard Saan it was, with Old Mother's Son and his big Valyrian. We got away, but just."
An "Old Mother's Son"? Rhaella was nearly 40, an "old mother" when she gave birth on Dragonstone to a son, Aegon. A "big Valyrian" would be one way to talk about Illyrio. And it's all framed by reference to a bastard, a la House Blackfyre, a House founded by a bastard.
The little Brazen Monkey proved to be from Gulltown, with a Westerosi crew who were glad to talk to someone in the Common Tongue. One asked how a girl from King's Landing came to be selling mussels on the docks of Braavos, so she had to tell her tale. "We're here four days, and four long nights," another told her. "Where's a man to go to find a bit of sport?"
The reference to sex and "four days, and four long nights" again reminds us of the four servitors I believe symbolize Illyrio ravaging Rhaella.
"The mummers at the Ship are doing Seven Drunken Oarsmen," Cat told them, "and there's eel fights in the Spotted Cellar, down by the gates of Drowned Town.
Aerys being a drunk conditioned Illyrio's visits to Rhaella. "Eel fights in the Spotted Cellar" in "Drowned Town" surely reminds us of the flooded cellars of Moat Cailin from which "water snakes" would creep up the stairs to bite in the night, which is something we've already pegged as a reference to Illyrio boning Rhaella.
"Or if you want you can go by the Moon Pool, where the bravos duel at night."
Illyrio, of course, famously claims to have been a dueling bravo: the very one depicted by his statue. Moon-talk is always fertility/pregnancy talk.
"Aye, that's good," another sailor said, "but what Wat was really wanting was a woman."
"The best whores are at the Happy Port, down by where the mummers' Ship is moored."
The "mummers' Ship" reminds us of the "mummer's dragon", which many believe is a reference to Young Aegon.
She pointed. Some of the dockside whores were vicious, and sailors fresh from the sea never knew which ones.
This reminds me of Tormund saying his she-bear with the "terrible temper… put up quite the fight", ripping and tearing him. "Vicious" is a term GRRM doesn't use much, but he does use it to describe the blow Robert (descended from a bastard Targaryen and a Targaryen princess) lands on Cersei (a Queen and, in my book, a Targaryen herself), which reminds us of Jaime's error-filled tale of Aerys the "beast" abusing Rhaella. (GOT E X) Rhaella's son Viserys is called "vicious", as is Queen Cersei's son Joffrey. (SOS Dae I, Ty VIII) So is Varamyr, a skinchanger, with skin-changing reminding us of the other magical means of identity theft: glamoring.
S'vrone was the worst. Everyone said she had robbed and killed a dozen men, rolling the bodies into the canals to feed the eels.
We're again reminded via both the robbery and the corpse-rolling of the obese Illyrio-evoking pirate whose corpse was rolled into the sea by the men of the Meadowlark.
The Drunken Daughter could be sweet when sober, but not with wine in her.
This reminds us of the vicissitudes of Aerys's moods, which Rhaella perhaps shared.
And Canker Jeyne was really a man.
This is really interesting. A "canker" can mean "a source of spreading corruption and decay", and we've seen that the obviously hedonistic, corrupt, and decadent Illyrio is quite explicitly linked to those things. He also has huge boobs, although he's a man.
"Ask for Merry. Meralyn is her true name, but everyone calls her Merry, and she is." Merry bought a dozen oysters every time Cat came by the brothel and shared them with her girls. She had a good heart, everyone agreed. "That, and the biggest pair of teats in all of Braavos," Merry herself was fond of boasting.
Again, huge "teats" and Illyrio are bosom buddies on the page. So to speak. "Meralyn" of the "Happy Port" reminds me of merman and Myrmen, which we linked to the notion of Illyrio banging Rhaella in several ways. That she has a "true name" recalls Young Griff being truly named Aegon.
Her girls were nice as well; Blushing Bethany and the Sailor's Wife, one-eyed Yna who could tell your fortune from a drop of blood, pretty little Lanna, even Assadora, the Ibbenese woman with the mustache.
Who expresses interest in a woman with a mustache? Tormund, whose meaty-thigh-slapping story resonates so dramatically with the idea that Illyrio bedded Rhaella.
"I hope you never said how big me member is, Jon Snow, that'd frighten any woman. I always wanted me one with a mustache." (DWD J XIII)
Back to the text:
They might not be beautiful, but they were kind to her. "The Happy Port is where all the porters go," Cat assured the men of the Brazen Monkey. "'The boys unload the ships,' Merry says, 'and my girls unload the lads who sail them.'"
"What about them fancy whores the singers sing about?" asked the youngest monkey, a red-haired boy with freckles who could not have been much more than six-and-ten. "Are they as pretty as they say? Where would I get one o' them?"
His shipmates looked at him and laughed. "Seven hells, boy," said one of them. "Might be the captain could get hisself a courty-san, but only if he sold the bloody ship. That sort o' cunt's for lords and such, not for the likes o' us."
"Not for the likes 'o us", just as a queen's cunt is for the king, not a brazen beast from across the narrow sea.
The courtesans of Braavos were famed across the world. Singers sang of them, goldsmiths and jewelers showered them with gifts, craftsmen begged for the honor of their custom, merchant princes paid royal ransoms to have them on their arms at balls and feasts and mummer shows, and bravos slew each other in their names.
Illyrio is a bejewled merchant prince who can afford a "royal ransom"—indeed, I've argued he paid one to have Serra killed by the Faceless Men—and who used to be a dueling bravo. If he's Aegon's dad, he's the "mummer" behind the "mummer's dragon".
As she pushed her barrow along the canals, Cat would sometimes glimpse one of them floating by, on her way to an evening with some lover. Every courtesan had her own barge, and servants to pole her to her trysts. The Poetess always had a book to hand, the Moonshadow wore only white and silver, and the Merling Queen was never seen without her Mermaids, four young maidens in the blush of their first flowering who held her train and did her hair.
The "Merling Queen" reminds us of the "spears of the merling king", upon which Davos finds himself stranded, which clearly remind us of Old Fishfoot and his trident with its broken off prong and thus of Illyrio and his beard and an entire chain of associated symbolism. It also reminds us of the Merling King, which is used to transport Littlefinger, who seems to be the nemesis of Illyrio and Varys. (Here it's relevant that the Brazen Monkey is out of Gulltown, where Littlefinger originally rose to prominence.)
Each courtesan was more beautiful than the last. Even the Veiled Lady was beautiful, though only those she took as lovers ever saw her face.
This reminds us of the idea that Illyrio was glamored, and that only his lover, Rhaella, saw his true face. (And of another hint that this was the case: Tormund covering his face when he set off on his quest for his she-bear.)
"I sold three cockles to a courtesan," Cat told the sailors. "She called to me as she was stepping off her barge." Brusco had made it plain to her that she was never to speak to a courtesan unless she was spoken to first, but the woman had smiled at her and paid her in silver, ten times what the cockles had been worth.
Did Rhaella spot Illyrio when he was young and handsome and take a shine to him? Perhaps staking his business interests?
"Which one was this, now? The Queen o' Cockles, was it?"
The Queen of Cock, notice. Oh. Cockles. Right.
"The Black Pearl," she told them. Merry claimed the Black Pearl was the most famous courtesan of all. "She's descended from the dragons, that one," the woman had told Cat.
So is Illyrio.
"The first Black Pearl was a pirate queen. A Westerosi prince took her for a lover and got a daughter on her, who grew up to be a courtesan."
At this point this shit writes itself. Illyrio is a spice or merchant king who married a Westerosi prince's daughter who grew up to be a quasi-courtesan (Serra), and who washimself taken for a lover by a Westerosi queen, on whom he got a son.
"Her own daughter followed her, and her daughter after her, until you get to this one."
Note the emphasis on female lineage here, which is how Illyrio is "Mopatis" but also a Blackfyre.
"What did she say to you, Cat?"
"She said 'I'll take three cockles,' and 'Do you have some hot sauce, little one?'" the girl had answered.
"And what did you say?"
"I said, 'No, my lady,' and, 'Don't call me little one. My name is Cat.' I should have hot sauce. Beqqo does, and he sells three times as many oysters as Brusco."
Cat told the kindly man about the Black Pearl too. "Her true name is Bellegere Otherys," she informed him. It was one of the three things that she had learned.
"It is," the priest said softly. "Her mother was Bellonara, but the first Black Pearl was a Bellegere as well."
Reminiscent of Young Aegon hardly being the first of his name.
Cat knew that the men off the Brazen Monkey would not care about the name of a courtesan's mother, though.
We card about the name of Aegon's mother, though.
Instead, she asked them for tidings of the Seven Kingdoms, and the war.
"War?" laughed one of them. "What war? There is no war."
"Not in Gulltown," said another. "Not in the Vale. The little lord's kept us out of it, same as his mother did."
Same as his mother did. The lady of the Vale was her own mother's sister. "Lady Lysa," she said, "is she . . . ?"
". . . dead?" finished the freckled boy whose head was full of courtesans. "Aye. Murdered by her own singer."
"Oh." It's nought to me. Cat of the Canals never had an aunt. She never did. Cat lifted her barrow and wheeled away from the Brazen Monkey, bumping over cobblestones. "Oysters, clams, and cockles," she called. "Oysters, clams, and cockles." She sold most of her clams to the porters off-loading the big wine cog from the Arbor, and the rest to the men repairing a Myrish trading galley that had been savaged by the storms.
A wine cog from the Arbor reminds us of the wine from Lord Redwyne's own stock that sits in Illyrio's cellars, while the Myrish galley is "savaged by the storms", recalling both the circumstances of Rhaella's impregnation ("the queen looked as if some beast had savaged her") and the storms that hit Dragonstone as she gave birth.
Meanwhile, a Myrish galley recalls the "Myrish galley [that] cast a grapnel" and made a "gash" in secret-mother Vermax's belly, and all that that connects to.
Farther down the docks she came on Tagganaro sitting with his back against a piling, next to Casso, King of Seals.
Sounds kind of like a "Wine-king".
He bought some mussels from her, and Casso barked and let her shake his flipper. "You come work with me, Cat," urged Tagganaro as he was sucking mussels from their shells. He had been looking for a new partner ever since the Drunken Daughter put her knife through Little Narbo's hand. "I give you more than Brusco, and you would not smell like fish."
I wonder if Illyrio made a proposal of parnerrship to Rhaella after Serra's death, perhaps as he was "sucking mussels from their shells", so to speak.
"Merry says the same." Cat was sad. She liked Little Narbo, even if he was a thief. "What will he do?"
"Pull an oar, he says. Two fingers are enough for that, he thinks, and the Sealord's always looking for more oarsmen. I tell him, 'Narbo, no. That sea is colder than a maiden and crueler than a whore. Better you should cut off the hand, and beg.' Casso knows I am right. Don't you, Casso?"
That was a hugely important passage, but not regarding Illyrio and Rhaella. No, has more to do with the circumstance by which someone might only have half a hand…
The seal barked, and Cat had to smile. She tossed another cockle his way before she went off on her own.
Much as Rhaella perhaps threw one last "cockle" Illyrio's way "before she went off on her own" as Quaithe?

End Appendix

That's it. No new conclusions or anything. Just a run-through of some of the "legwork" I did running down what I believe to be the text's interreferentiality that didn't make it into the main post. Hope you enjoyed this stuff half as much as I do!
submitted by M_Tootles to asoiaf [link] [comments]

2018.01.30 20:17 extrumcreator Infidel Arena: Conclusion- The Builds and General Walkthrough

I decided to create this guide based on the requests for those who wanted to know more about how I was able to get top 500 in this event. Also, I want to express my form of gratitude to the mobius reddit community for their input and suggestions (a big appreciation to the players active in this tower event, regardless of supremes or non-supremes). By the end of this tower, I made it far beyond my expectations and have made it to rank 123 with 198 kills https://redd.it/7ty0r3. As a beforehand notice (maybe trigger warning) I used none of the following: Supremes, Bismarck: FFXIV, and Legend Jobs I hope my preemptive (which I updated as this event went on) guide helped anyone that was looking for builds to use to beat certain problem bosses/battles/etc. Now I will present the decks used

Warrior Route

Warrior Medal Count: 27 Setups Used Node 1: Main Job: Paladin > Barret: FFVII, Crom Dubh, Serah, The Undying Sub Job: Samurai > Reiki, Gungnir, KotR, A Quiet Moment Weapons: Masamune, Gunblade Walkthrough: The approach with this deck is based on a slow-creep-win approach. Paladin used Barret to whittle down the yellow gauge of the enemies, to then swap into Samurai put the dads to sleep and break the sons to then tap them to death (each hit going over 270,000 damage). For the buffalo battle, Samurai has a total of 70% Earth resist to withstand their attacks. 45% inherently and 25% from Reiki. Node 2: Main Job: Highwind > Centaur, A Witch's Kiss, Odin: FFXIV, Hermes Sub Job: Dark Knight > Tidus: FFRK, The Black Widow, Pixie, Crom Dubh Weapons: Gunblades Walkthrough: This is an all offense approach, based on stun + sleep to capitilize on turns to kill the enemies before they even get the chance to act. This job synergy worked out very well due to the job change shift of dark knight being water therefore all of highwind's dark/earth/light orbs become all converted into water for convenient nuking. Node 3: Main Job: Warrior > Crom Dubh, Serah, Chocobo Saint, The Undying Sub Job: Knight > Cloud: DISSIDIA, Ashe: FFXII, Glasya Labolas, Luchorpan Weapons: Masamunes Walkthrough: Warrior served as a line of defense for both the turtles and chimeras. I used Knight as a means to attack and tank them as well as Esmeralda due to the fact Knight could not kill her in 1 turn. Conclusion: The warrior route remained my toughest challenge out of all the routes due to poorly modded weapons. Node 2 was relatively easy and smooth going. The warrior route was definitely one of my more diverse approaches for this event.

Mage Route

Mage Medal Count: 48 Setups Used Node 1: Main Job: Tactician > Neo Bahamut, Ashe: FFXII, A Quiet Moment, The Undying Sub Job: Mage > Omniscient, Pixie, Orphan: FFXIII, Dhampyr Weapons: Truescale Staves Walkthrough: To note is that my truescale staff is at 5 stars therefore very compatible at damage. Mage can easily destroy any non-water boss in 1 turn. I used Orphan as a means to gain actions + the initial push in damage. I rotate Mage into Tactician during the buffalo battle to inflict the debuffs to then switch back and kill both the buffaloes. Node 2: Main Job: Red Mage > Ashe: FFXII, Powie Yowie, The Legendary DragonLord, Dhampyr Sub Job: Mage > Omniscient, Pixie, Orphan: FFXIII, The Undying Weapons: Truescale Staves Walkthrough: Red Mage was used as a way to gain haste as well as faith without having to bring a faith card. Red Mage was great for the job change mechanic due to being earth in which both Ashe and Powie Yowie could be used at once after job changing, especially during the battle against the shadows. Node 3: Main Job: White Mage > Ishtar, Tyro, Dhampyr, The Undying Sub Job: Occultist > Barthandeleus: FFXIII, Odin: FFXIV, A Witch's Kiss, Orphan: FFXIII Weapons: Truescale Staves Walkthrough: White mage was able to tank Kraken even at this level of play. Custom Panels are resist water 3% and all of his hall of fame panels. Occultist had the faith starter custom skill panel. Afanc would have been a better choice than Odin: FFXIV due to the fact I would follow up with the ultimate anyway and maintaining a consistent darkforce. Entering the battle against Amalthea is purely chance due to use veil as opposed to status immunity. Conclusion: This was my easiest going route due to the completed Truescale Staff being able to put in much more damage than my other routes. Mage is definitely MVP this time around.

Ranger Route

Ranger Medal Count: 48 Setups Used Node 1: Main Job: Ninja > Anemone, Legendary Belials, The Legendary DragonLord, Serah Sub Job: Ranger > Adrammelech Sicarius, Neo Bahamut, Gusion, Orphan: FFXIII Weapons: Orichalcums Walkthrough: The Ninja prioritized Ultimate spams also I did lack 1 JCR, but it didn't matter due to the fact I usually break the enemies and kill them off with Anemone (doing at average 186,000 damage). The ultimate can easily devour Dullahan and Kesari to the point where Anemone can chip them down to kill them off. The passives on Anemone (total 10%) and Legendary Belials (total 14%) are all break power passives. For the buffalos, what mattered most was to break the big buffalo (while applying Stunga of course) to then switch into Ranger to use the prismatics for Neo Bahamut. At this point Ranger will not kill the little buffalo but will be able to tank him due to slow. Ranger can easily do 999,999 damage to any broken buffalo. Node 2: Main Job: Bard > Aerith&Tifa: FFRK, Bastet, A Quiet Moment, Neo Bahamut Sub Job: Rogue(Wind) > Prometheus, Brynhildr, Orphan: FFXIII, A Palamecian Tale Weapons: Orichalcums Walkthrough: The reason I chose Bard over Ninja was mainly for the element in contrast to rogue. All of the Bard's elements watedark/light would all turn into Fire using Marauder. I was easily able to subdue the 1st two battles due to Rogue's ultimate to deal with Cockatrice. Against the shadows, what I did was kill off the water shadow with my 20 actions (orphan and a palamecian tale) saved my ultimate so that I first do damage until I have 3 actions to then job change into Bard. I then use the ultimate stun both the earth and dark shadows. I put to sleep the earth shadow and hit them with Neo Bahamut. The dark shadow gets his turn but bard was able to tank this. I switch back into Rogue and then kill them off from there. Node 3: Main Job: Ninja > The Legendary DragonLord, Tyro, Black Widow, Serah Sub Job: Thief > Fal'cie Atomos: FFXIII, Ashe: FFXII, Luchorpan, Orphan: FFXIII Weapons: Orichalcums Walkthrough: I focused my ultimates (built through drives and tap attacks) on the little turtle and put to sleep the big turtle. Preserved Serah until I could job change into thief with using Orphan to kill them off. During the chimera and marilith battle, I used Ashe: FFXIII to then kill off the little chimera to then do as much damage as I can to Marilith that same turn. I used ninja kill Marilith with the ultimate while having all buffs active for the battle against Fauviste. I activate both Serah and The Legendary DragonLord to then job change into Thief. I use Luchorpan and orphan to then nuke until I have to tap 3. I keep nuking until I have a full ultimate gauge. I was at 5 actions left. Used the ultimate, killed her with the remaining 4 actions. Conclusion: Ninja definitely provided a lot for deck compression as well as a killer ultimate therefore I usually ran cards to compensate for charging the ultimate gauge. This was definitely a diverse route for choices in jobs. I tried to stick with jobs that had a synergetic job change shift element so that I can conveniently nuke.

Monk Route

Monk Medal Count: 45 Setups Used Node 1: Main Job: Master Monk > Alraune, Hapi-Ankh, The Legendary DragonLord, Hermes Sub Job: Monk(Fire/Wind) > Reiki, Titania, The Undying, Fat Chocobo Weapons: Taijis Walkthrough: Master Monk was able to carry through the 1st 2 battles due to the consistent inflow of building his ultimate in this chain breaking process. During the battle against the buffaloes, if I couldn't break before the turn ended, this would be determined based on 3 or 2 actions left, then I would job change into Monk to tank. I made a mistake bringing both Reiki and Titania without realizing that the maximum resist is 70%. In this case, Titania would be a better choice to bring to remove faith so that you can the hit him with curse. This whole node was mainly based on chain breaking. Node 2: Main Job: Master Monk > Grizzly, Legendary Belials, The Legendary DragonLord, The Undying Sub Job: Grappler(Wind/Earth) > Snow: FFXIII, Pixie, Remora, Neo Bahamut Weapons: Taijis Walkthrough: Master Monk's role again is rather straightforward, being able to chain break the 1st two battles. During the 3rd battle against the shadows, break all 3 with the ultimate, but I did not job change yet. I Broke them again during the next turn to then job change into grappler to then kill off the light and wind shadows, leaving the fire shadow for last. With grappler I cleared the yellow gauge to then break with Spearing Tackle. This is why remora came in handy for that quick ulti-gauge build. Then I proceed to kill the fire shadow. Node 3: Main Job: Master Monk > Hapi-Ankh, Sabin&Edgar: FFRK, The Legendary DragonLord, The Undying Sub Job: Pugilist > Hope: FFXIII, Neo Bahamut, Orphan: FFXIII, Chocobo Saint Weapons: Taijis Walkthrough: This is by far the toughest node for me in the Monk Route. Killing the Behemoths is again straightforward. For the dragons though, I had to play around with Pugilist to kill off the Shadow Dragon and leave alive the Shadow Drake for the job change recast to be ready as well as using chocobo saint for the 3rd battle against Santa Umbra. Once I entered the battle against Santa Lucia, I used Orphan as a means to gain actions for Master Monk to then painfully tackle the yellow gauge until I built a full ultimate to then leave her with a little bit left, preserving The Legendary DragonLord for next turn. After that, I drove all the life orbs to build room for 16 light orbs to then pummel the yellow gauge with Sabin&Edgar: FFRK. This is where I use ultimate to then use up my last 4 actions to break then job change into Pugilist for the kill using Hope: FFXIII. Sabin&Edgar was definitely extremely valuable in this battle. Conclusion: This route was the most interesting and the most adjusted route that I did compared to the other routes. I learned a lot about that pugilist can do really decent damage with Hope: XIII. Master Monk was obviously the MVP due to consistent chain breaking.

Meia Route

Meia Medal Count: 29 Setups Used Node 1: Main Job: Amalthea > Aphrodite, KotR, The Undying, Dhampyr Sub Job: Esmeralda > Dira, Manticore, The Legendary DragonLord, Gusion Weapons: Cornucopias Walkthrough: The battle against the walls was rather simple, but what I did was clear the yellow gauge of the walls to then break the small wall with the ultimate. I then focus on the big wall because the small wall will die anyways from Aphrodite. At this point, I accumulate as much as I can for the ultimate gauge for the battle against the cyclopes. All of the Light and dark orbs will conveniently become wind once I job change into Esmeralda. I clear the yellow gauge to then attack until I have 2 actions left, then I used the ultimate. I then use Legendary DragonLord on the same turn and tamper with Manticore until the turn was over for the ultimate gauge to fill as much as possible, then I kill the big cyclops with Dira along with the mini cyclops. I gain a full ultimate gauge by elemental third strike and driving the wind orbs I accumulated,after clearing the yellow gauge, for breaking both buffaloes. 1 or 2 casts of Dira will kill them both. Node 2: Main Job: Esmeralda > Ashe: FFXII, Powie Yowie, The Undying, The Legendary DragonLord Sub Job: Amalthea > Aphrodite, Stolas, Dhampyr, Neo Bahamut: FFVII Weapons: Cornucopias Walkthrough: I mainly went for a no break strategy on the 1st two battles due to unguard. Once I'm able to job change into Amalthea, I save the ultimate built up for battle 2 to then break the treants and then only killing off the big treant. I switch back into Esmeralda to revamp my buffs and then only use Powie Yowie on the treantling. Once I job change and built a high ultimate gauge, I then kill the treantling. During the 3rd battle against the shadows, I clear the yellow gauge to then break all 3 with the ultimate, afterwards casting Aphrodite 3 times will be enough to kill all 3. Node 3: Main Job: Amalthea > Aphrodite, KotR, Dhampyr, Stolas Sub Job: Fauviste > Cerberus, Jupitera, A Quiet Moment, Neo Bahamut: FFVII Weapons: Cornucopia, Chaos Crescent Walkthrough: 1st thing to note, I would have been much better off starting as Fauviste instead of Amalthea this node. Therefore will still list what I did in battle. I first used stolas with Amalthea to then drive both other elements. I tap 3 times for enough prismatic orbs to use both KotR and Dhampyr. I clear the yellow gauge to then break both Kraken and behemoth cub. I proceed to nuke punch around on an almost dead kraken. Kraken then wastes his turn regenerating. I then kill Kraken. My buffs should now be at my disposal entering the 2nd battle. I use all 3 then switch into Fauviste to clearing the rest of the yellow gauge and drive fire. I put Idol Head to sleep. Fauviste can easily can tank Death claw with her total 70% fire resistance (25 from fire taunt and 45 inherently). I proceed to break them both with the ultimate while killing off the death claw. I never changed back into Amalthea during the rest of the 2nd battle. I kill Idol Head with Fauviste using Neo Bahamut: FFVII. I enter the Vargas battle with all debuffs on hand an a high Ultimate Gauge. I double taunts at both of Vargas' buffs to then hit him once with Neo Bahamut: FFVII and then with 1 action left, I put him to sleep to then job change into Amalthea. At this point, I had plenty of life orbs to cast all of my buffs and clear the rest of the yellow gauge for the break from my ultimate. I then nuke for the kill. Conclusion: Due to not having Santa Lucia and Glam Vamp, I still pulled through to playing majorly offensive because bosses such as Vargas would kill if they had a chance to attack. I lacked variety in this route because of having only 3 Meia jobs. I did better than I expected in this route.

Thoughts and Opinions

Pros:

Cons:

Concluding:

Glad to hear that I was able to help with the logs that I made as this tower event went on. A big thanks to Mao_Shiro for putting the megathreads together consistently everytime ! Also I appreciate the videos that I saw from the megathread of people sharing their playthroughs. I now conclude this guide. Have a great day !
submitted by extrumcreator to MobiusFF [link] [comments]

2017.06.10 22:50 rodericktech How To Use Vivid Weathers In Ultimate Skyrim (working example)

I saw a several people asking about this - Th3Rush22 kaspie FlamePrintz olliehax and others - so I decided to give it a go and see if I could both (a) make it work and (b) provide an example configuration for anyone interested to test and improve. This has not been thoroughly tested, but it has been lightly tested with interiors and exteriors, mainly around the Rift.
I also added a couple of other modifications to Realistic Water Two that, along with Vivid Weathers, have a bit of an FPS impact, so keep that in mind. The example config I got working uses the Vivid Weathers ENB - I haven't had success (FPS-wise) with others yet.
Get ready. You'll need these:
Vivid Weathers and the ENB download
Vivid Weathers True Storms Patch
And, if you want to match my config precisely:
Realistic Water Two - ENB Textures
Watercolor for ENB and Realistic Water Two
I recommend copying your (running) US profile to a new one for the VW experiment so that you save your working config.
I installed all of the above additional mods with their 'Medium' or 'Moderate' options and checked the VW patches for AOS and Falskaar; if you have a super-beastly rig I'm sure you could go bigger (or if you're not going to run with the ENB on). I have a board / chip that's a couple of generations old and a Nvidia 1060 6GB on Windows 10, and I get somewhere between 25 FPS and 60ish depending on which ENB options are enabled.
In the Modlist order (left pane of MO), I disabled (unchecked) Climates of Tamriel and put Vivid Weathers and the VW True Storms patch underneath. Farther down I also disabled 'Remove Big Blurry Snowflakes' and, of course, the RealVision ENB files. (I use an ENB switcher to manage those files but it wouldn't be appropriate to put a tutorial for that here. Check out this tool if you want to use what I'm using: ENB and ReShade Manager )
I placed the RWT ENB textures and Watercolor (in that order) just after Realistic Water Two in the left pane. I rebuilt the belmont_boy Compatibility Patches, installing the patch just for True Storms instead of CoT. Just so you know, I'm running a by-the-book Ultimate install with EFF and almost all the optional mods except (for the moment) Dead is Dead, because I don't like losing a character due to weird lag / near-crash behavior.
Just in case, I disabled and re-installed Real Shelter to build a clean patch during the 'Final Steps'.
To make all these things play nicely, you'll also need to enable the AOS and TrueStorms ESPs in the MO right pane - I'll show you my order momentarily.
For the ESP ordering, here is my plugins.txt from MO:
Skyrim.esm Update.esm Dawnguard.esm HearthFires.esm Dragonborn.esm Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch.esp Falskaar.esm ApachiiHair.esm TKChildren.esm UnlimitedBookshelves.esp Campfire.esm notice board.esp daymoyl.esm WM Flora Fixes.esp Skyrim Project Optimization - No Homes - Full Version.esm ETaC - RESOURCES.esm RaceCompatibility.esm SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators.esm EFFCore.esm ImCh.esm HighResTexturePack01.esp HighResTexturePack02.esp HighResTexturePack03.esp CMWoodenBows.esp Dragon Stalking Fix.esp Onehanded.esp FISS.esp Cutting Room Floor.esp SkyUI.esp Customizable Camera.esp iHUD.esp FNIS.esp RaceCompatibilityUSKPOverride.esp RealShelter.esp Chesko_LoreBasedLoadingScreens.esp Auto Unequip Ammo.esp Hothtrooper44_Armor_Ecksstra.esp TradeRoutes.esp Helgen Reborn.esp Immersive Patrols II.esp Inconsequential NPCs.esp RealisticRoomRental.esp SMIM-Merged-All.esp ETaC - Complete.esp ETaC - Dragon Bridge South.esp Immersive Orc Strongholds.esp Immersive Solstheim.esp Immersive Whiterun.esp RealShelter_ETAC14.esp LootandDegradation.esp Solitude A City Of Trade.esp Windhelm Exterior Altered.esp RiftenBetterDocks.esp DawnofSkyrim-AllMajorCities.esp Dawn Of Series RS Patch.esp Nightingale Hall.esp Sanctuary Reborn.esp AOS.esp Vivid Weathers.esp TrueStorms.esp VWTSPaTch.esp Vivid Weathers - Falskaar.esp Vivid Weathers - Extended Snow.esp Vivid Weathers - Extended Rain.esp Vivid Weathers - AOS patch.esp EnhancedLightsandFX.esp ELFX - Exteriors.esp ELFX - Hardcore.esp ELFX - NoBreezehome.esp ELFX - NoHjerim.esp ELFX - NoHoneyside.esp ELFX - NoProudspireManor.esp Proudspire Manor Refurbished.esp VHTNF.esp HSTNF.esp hjerimtnf.esp BHTNF.esp RaceMenu.esp RaceMenuPlugin.esp wizDynamicThings.esp WetandCold.esp WetandCold - Ashes.esp Holidays.esp Weapons & Armor Fixes_Remade.esp Clothing & Clutter Fixes.esp CollegeOfWinterholdImmersive.esp Undeath.esp Undeath Immersive Lichdom V3.esp Point The Way.esp PrvtI_HeavyArmory.esp Hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp aMidianBorn_ContentAddon.esp Complete Crafting Overhaul_Remade.esp ESFCompanions.esp Immersive Weapons.esp dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp Hidden Hideouts of Skyrim - Merged.esp Cidhna Mine Expanded.esp Fort(ified) Dawnguard.esp Guard Dialogue Overhaul.esp ScopedBows.esp EFFDialogue.esp UIExtensions.esp Dead Body Collision.esp SmartCast_1_0.esp Thieves Guild Requirements.esp SleepTight.esp buildablehouse.esp Randomized Word Walls.esp HorsesGoneWild.esp Beards.esp Brows.esp DVA - Dynamic Vampire Appearance.esp KWTelescope.esp Dwemer Goggles & Scouter.esp WondersofWeather.esp FNIS_PCEA2.esp honedmetal.esp iCompass - Immersive Compass.esp ImprovedFishBASIC.esp Falskaar - Notice Board.esp SimplyKnock.esp Faction Crossbows.esp More Interesting Loot for Skyrim.esp Skyrim Flora Overhaul.esp SFO - Dragonborn.esp TradeBarter.esp MzarkWonders.esp HHoS Subterranean Hot Spring.esp FishingInSkyrim.esp imp_helm_legend.esp HHoS Ancient Shrine.esp iNeed.esp Chesko_WearableLantern.esp Frostfall.esp Bounty Gold.esp Immersive Sounds - Compendium.esp AddressUnknown.esp GrassOnSteroids_Short.esp ORM-Arvak.esp DesyncBirdsOfPrey.esp Book Covers Skyrim.esp Book Covers Skyrim - Lost Library.esp DisableRangedKillCams1.6.esp Footprints.esp AnonymousPeople.esp Snotgurg Simple Drop Lit Torches.esp Realistic-Voice.esp Chesko_LevelUp.esp ClassicLevelUp.esp YourMarketStall.esp Windhelm Bridge Overhaul.esp TakeNotes.esp TKChildren.esp travelerscoveredwagon.esp NotSoFast-MainQuest.esp LandLord_.esp HeljarchenFarm.esp RentMyHouse.esp Prometheus_No_snow_Under_the_roof.esp ETaC - Complete CRF Patch.esp ETaC - Complete NoSnow Patch.esp Immersive Merchandising.esp PumpingIron.esp SpellResearch.esp FollowerPotions.esp Dual Wield Parrying_SKSE.esp StealthMeterTweak.esp HoldBorderBanners.esp CFTO.esp CFTO-CoveredCarriages.esp vSCM_SmarterCombatMusic.esp AHZmoreHUD.esp AMatterOfTime.esp SimpleTaxes.esp Requiem.esp Requiem - Legendary Bugsmasher Edition.esp Fozars_Dragonborn_-_Requiem_Patch.esp KFR-Kryptopyr'sFixesReqtified.esp COR-CraftingOverhaulReqtified.esp CAR-ContentAddonReqtified.esp The Paarthurnax Dilemma.esp TheChoiceIsYours.esp Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp daymoyl_DawnguardAddon.esp da_alternate_start_extension.esp Alternate Start -- New Beginnings.esp Relationship Dialogue Overhaul.esp Hunters Not Bandits.esp mslVampiricThirst.esp mslVampiricThirst - Requiem.esp VTRFR - Vampiric Thirst Redone For Requiem.esp Immersive Merchandising - Requiem Patch.esp hearthfireextended.esp Immersive Horses.esp Craftable Horse Barding.esp Brevi_MoonlightTales.esp WWNightEye.esp Skyrim Particle Patch for ENB - Flame Atronach Fix.esp RealisticWaterTwo.esp RealisticWaterTwo - Dawnguard.esp RealisticWaterTwo - Dragonborn.esp RealisticWaterTwo - Falskaar.esp Watercolor_for_ENB_RWT.esp UltimateSkyrim.esp UltimateSkyrimBugsmasher.esp Ultimate Skyrim - Book Covers Skyrim.esp Ultimate Skyrim - True Storms.esp Ultimate Skyrim - Dawn of Skyrim.esp Ultimate Skyrim - Extensible Follower Framework.esp Ultimate Skyrim - Inconsequential NPC's.esp Ultimate Skyrim - Racial Body Morphs.esp Ultimate Skyrim - Solitude City of Trade.esp Ultimate Skyrim - Expanded Towns and Cities.esp RSPatch.esp iActivate.esp iActivate Patch 3.3 VW.esp Automatic Variants.esp DynDOLOD.esp Warburg's 3D Paper World Map - Texture 1.esp warburg's 3d paper world map - dawnguard.esp Paper World Map - Solstheim.esp Paper World Map - Falskaar.esp Requiem for the Indifferent.esp
And here is my loadorder.txt from MO:
Skyrim.esm Update.esm Dawnguard.esm HearthFires.esm Dragonborn.esm Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch.esp Falskaar.esm ApachiiHair.esm TKChildren.esm UnlimitedBookshelves.esp Campfire.esm notice board.esp daymoyl.esm WM Flora Fixes.esp Skyrim Project Optimization - No Homes - Full Version.esm ETaC - RESOURCES.esm RaceCompatibility.esm SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators.esm EFFCore.esm ImCh.esm HighResTexturePack01.esp HighResTexturePack02.esp HighResTexturePack03.esp CMWoodenBows.esp Dragon Stalking Fix.esp Onehanded.esp FISS.esp Cutting Room Floor.esp SkyUI.esp Customizable Camera.esp iHUD.esp FNIS.esp RaceCompatibilityUSKPOverride.esp RealShelter.esp Chesko_LoreBasedLoadingScreens.esp Auto Unequip Ammo.esp Hothtrooper44_Armor_Ecksstra.esp TradeRoutes.esp Helgen Reborn.esp Immersive Patrols II.esp Inconsequential NPCs.esp RealisticRoomRental.esp SMIM-Merged-All.esp ETaC - Complete.esp ETaC - Dragon Bridge South.esp Immersive Orc Strongholds.esp Immersive Solstheim.esp Immersive Whiterun.esp RealShelter_ETAC14.esp LootandDegradation.esp Solitude A City Of Trade.esp Windhelm Exterior Altered.esp RiftenBetterDocks.esp DawnofSkyrim-AllMajorCities.esp Dawn Of Series RS Patch.esp Nightingale Hall.esp Sanctuary Reborn.esp AOS.esp Vivid Weathers.esp TrueStorms.esp VWTSPaTch.esp Vivid Weathers - Falskaar.esp Vivid Weathers - Extended Snow.esp Vivid Weathers - Extended Rain.esp Vivid Weathers - AOS patch.esp EnhancedLightsandFX.esp ELFX - Exteriors.esp ELFX - Hardcore.esp ELFX - NoBreezehome.esp ELFX - NoHjerim.esp ELFX - NoHoneyside.esp ELFX - NoProudspireManor.esp Proudspire Manor Refurbished.esp VHTNF.esp HSTNF.esp hjerimtnf.esp BHTNF.esp RaceMenu.esp RaceMenuPlugin.esp wizDynamicThings.esp WetandCold.esp WetandCold - Ashes.esp Holidays.esp Weapons & Armor Fixes_Remade.esp Clothing & Clutter Fixes.esp CollegeOfWinterholdImmersive.esp Undeath.esp Undeath Immersive Lichdom V3.esp Point The Way.esp PrvtI_HeavyArmory.esp Hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp aMidianBorn_ContentAddon.esp Complete Crafting Overhaul_Remade.esp ESFCompanions.esp Immersive Weapons.esp dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp Hidden Hideouts of Skyrim - Merged.esp Cidhna Mine Expanded.esp Fort(ified) Dawnguard.esp Guard Dialogue Overhaul.esp ScopedBows.esp EFFDialogue.esp UIExtensions.esp Dead Body Collision.esp SmartCast_1_0.esp Thieves Guild Requirements.esp SleepTight.esp buildablehouse.esp Randomized Word Walls.esp HorsesGoneWild.esp Beards.esp Brows.esp DVA - Dynamic Vampire Appearance.esp KWTelescope.esp Dwemer Goggles & Scouter.esp WondersofWeather.esp FNIS_PCEA2.esp honedmetal.esp iCompass - Immersive Compass.esp ImprovedFishBASIC.esp Falskaar - Notice Board.esp SimplyKnock.esp Faction Crossbows.esp More Interesting Loot for Skyrim.esp Skyrim Flora Overhaul.esp SFO - Dragonborn.esp TradeBarter.esp MzarkWonders.esp HHoS Subterranean Hot Spring.esp FishingInSkyrim.esp imp_helm_legend.esp HHoS Ancient Shrine.esp iNeed.esp Chesko_WearableLantern.esp Frostfall.esp Bounty Gold.esp Immersive Sounds - Compendium.esp AddressUnknown.esp GrassOnSteroids_Short.esp ORM-Arvak.esp DesyncBirdsOfPrey.esp Book Covers Skyrim.esp Book Covers Skyrim - Lost Library.esp DisableRangedKillCams1.6.esp Footprints.esp AnonymousPeople.esp Snotgurg Simple Drop Lit Torches.esp Realistic-Voice.esp Chesko_LevelUp.esp ClassicLevelUp.esp YourMarketStall.esp Windhelm Bridge Overhaul.esp TakeNotes.esp TKChildren.esp travelerscoveredwagon.esp NotSoFast-MainQuest.esp LandLord_.esp HeljarchenFarm.esp RentMyHouse.esp Prometheus_No_snow_Under_the_roof.esp ETaC - Complete CRF Patch.esp ETaC - Complete NoSnow Patch.esp Immersive Merchandising.esp PumpingIron.esp SpellResearch.esp FollowerPotions.esp Dual Wield Parrying_SKSE.esp StealthMeterTweak.esp HoldBorderBanners.esp CFTO.esp CFTO-CoveredCarriages.esp vSCM_SmarterCombatMusic.esp AHZmoreHUD.esp AMatterOfTime.esp SimpleTaxes.esp Requiem.esp Requiem - Legendary Bugsmasher Edition.esp Fozars_Dragonborn_-_Requiem_Patch.esp KFR-Kryptopyr'sFixesReqtified.esp COR-CraftingOverhaulReqtified.esp CAR-ContentAddonReqtified.esp The Paarthurnax Dilemma.esp TheChoiceIsYours.esp Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp daymoyl_DawnguardAddon.esp da_alternate_start_extension.esp Alternate Start -- New Beginnings.esp Relationship Dialogue Overhaul.esp Hunters Not Bandits.esp mslVampiricThirst.esp mslVampiricThirst - Requiem.esp VTRFR - Vampiric Thirst Redone For Requiem.esp Immersive Merchandising - Requiem Patch.esp hearthfireextended.esp Immersive Horses.esp Craftable Horse Barding.esp Brevi_MoonlightTales.esp WWNightEye.esp Skyrim Particle Patch for ENB - Flame Atronach Fix.esp RealisticWaterTwo.esp RealisticWaterTwo - Dawnguard.esp RealisticWaterTwo - Dragonborn.esp RealisticWaterTwo - Falskaar.esp Watercolor_for_ENB_RWT.esp UltimateSkyrim.esp UltimateSkyrimBugsmasher.esp Ultimate Skyrim - Book Covers Skyrim.esp Ultimate Skyrim - True Storms.esp Ultimate Skyrim - Dawn of Skyrim.esp Ultimate Skyrim - Extensible Follower Framework.esp Ultimate Skyrim - Inconsequential NPC's.esp Ultimate Skyrim - Racial Body Morphs.esp Ultimate Skyrim - Solitude City of Trade.esp Ultimate Skyrim - Expanded Towns and Cities.esp RSPatch.esp iActivate.esp iActivate Patch 3.3 VW.esp Automatic Variants.esp DynDOLOD.esp Warburg's 3D Paper World Map - Texture 1.esp warburg's 3d paper world map - dawnguard.esp Paper World Map - Solstheim.esp Paper World Map - Falskaar.esp Requiem for the Indifferent.esp 1nivWICCloaks.esp AMB Glass Variants Lore.esp aMidianborn_Skyforge_Weapons.esp BetterQuestObjectives.esp Brigandage.esp Cloaks.esp CollegeApplication.esp College of Winterhold Entry Requirements (Khajiit Speak).esp College of Winterhold Entry Requirements (Normal).esp dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Realistic.esp Differently Ebony.esp Dr_Bandolier.esp Dr_BandolierDG.esp DSerHorsesRevamped.esp getSnowy.esp GQJ_DG_vampireamuletfix.esp HouseOfHorrorsAlternateEnding.esp Mortal Enemies - Requiem - No Movement Tweaks.esp NRM Falskaar - Requiem Patch.esp NRM Undeath - Requiem Patch.esp Prometheus_NSUTR Falskaar Dock.esp Racial Body Morphs.esp Realistic AI Detection Lite.esp RealisticHumanoidMovementSpeed.esp Requiem - Behind the Curtain.esp Requiem_Minor_Arcana.esp Requiem - Minor Arcana - USLEEP patch.esp Requiem - Telescope.esp Skyrim Project Optimization - No Homes - Full Version.esp SpectacularNightEye.esp SPR - Smithing Perks Reqtified.esp
With the proper mods installed and the load order correct, you'll need to rebuild several 'Final Steps' patches / ESPs. To be on the safe side I usually rebuild them all, so that's what I did. In order to preserve my canonical US build I save all those patches in 'Final Steps' as 'mods' via the 'Create Mod' option from MO's Overwrite directory, so I can easily disable existing ones in and rebuild new ones without losing the old. I followed essentially the same steps as are recommended in the US video walkthrough, except that I also use TexGen to compile textures for DynDOLOD just prior to that step. (Instructions for that are easily available on YouTube.)
So, TL/DR, disable your existing patches from FNIS on and rebuild them for Ultimate Skyrim VW edition.
There are also a few .INI changes that were necessary, for Vivid Weathers and the ENB. Here are my current INI files.
skyrim.ini
[Actor] fVisibleNavmeshMoveDist=12288 [Archive] bInvalidateOlderFiles=0 SInvalidationFile=ArchiveInvalidation.txt sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa [Audio] fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0 fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0 fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0 fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0 uMaxSizeForCachedSound=4096 [BackgroundLoad] bBackgroundCellLoads=1 bUseBackgroundFileLoader=1 bUseMultiThreadedFaceGen=1 bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1 [Camera] fMouseWheelZoomSpeed=10.00 [Combat] bForceNPCsUseAmmo=1 f1PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.7 f1PBoltTiltUpAngle=0.7 f3PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.7 f3PBoltTiltUpAngle=0.7 fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0 fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0 [Controls] bMouseAcceleration=0 fMouseHeadingSensitivityMax=0.0660 fMouseHeadingXScale=0.0200 fMouseHeadingYScale=0.8500 [Decals] bDecals=1 uMaxSkinDecalPerActor=40 uMaxSkinDecals=50 [Display] bAllowScreenshot=0 bShadowsOnGrass=1 fDecalLifetime=300 fDefault1stPersonFOV=80 fDefaultWorldFOV=80 fLightLODMaxStartFade=7250 fLightLODRange=33750 fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1000 fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000 fSunShadowUpdateTime=0.25 fSunUpdateThreshold=1.5 iAdapter=0 iPresentInterval=1 [General] bBackgroundLoadVMData=1 bMultiThreadMovement=1 bRunHighLevelProcess=1 bSelectivePurgeUnusedOnFastTravel=1 bUseHardDriveCache=0 bUseThreadedAI=1 bUseThreadedBlood=1 bUseThreadedLOD=1 bUseThreadedMeshes=1 bUseThreadedMorpher=1 bUseThreadedParticleSystem=1 bUseThreadedTempEffects=1 bUseThreadedTextures=1 fFlickeringLightDistance=8192 sIntroSequence= sLanguage=ENGLISH uExterior Cell Buffer=36 uGridsToLoad=5 uStaticNeverFade=1 [GeneralWarnings] SGeneralMasterMismatchWarning=One or more plugins could not find the correct versions of the master files they depend on. Errors may occur during load or game play. Check the "Warnings.txt" file for more information. [Grass] b30GrassVS=0 bAllowCreateGrass=1 bAllowLoadGrass=0 bDrawShaderGrass=1 bGrassPointLighting=1 fGrassFadeRange=7500 fGrassWindMagnitudeMax=125 fGrassWindMagnitudeMin=5 iGrassCellRadius=2 iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=7 iMinGrassSize=120 [Interface] bShowTutorials=0 fBookOpenTime=200.0 [LightingShader] fDecalLODFadeEnd=0.6 fDecalLODFadeStart=0.5 fEnvmapLODFadeEnd=0.7 fEnvmapLODFadeStart=0.6 [LOD] fDistanceMultiplier=1.00 [MapMenu] bWorldMapNoSkyDepthBlur=1 fMapWorldMaxHeight=130000.0000 fMapWorldMaxPitch=90 fMapWorldMinHeight=5000.0000 fMapWorldMinPitch=0 fMapWorldYawRange=400 fWorldMapDepthBlurScale=0 fWorldMapMaximumDepthBlur=0 fWorldMapNearDepthBlurScale=0 sMapCloudNIF=0 [Papyrus] bEnableLogging=0 bEnableProfiling=0 bEnableTrace=0 bLoadDebugInformation=0 fExtraTaskletBudgetMS=1.2000000477 fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=2000 fUpdateBudgetMS=1.2000000477 iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=76800 iMaxMemoryPageSize=512 iMinMemoryPageSize=128 [SaveGame] bAllowProfileTransfer=1 bUseSaveGameHistory=1 [TerrainManager] bKeepLowDetailTerrain=0 [Trees] bEnableTreeAnimations=1 bEnableTrees=1 bForceFullDetail=1 fUpdateBudget=1.5 [Water] bReflectLODLand=1 bReflectLODObjects=1 bReflectLODTrees=1 bReflectSky=1
skyrimprefs.ini
[AudioMenu] fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000 fVal0=0.8000 fVal1=1.0000 fVal2=0.5000 fVal3=1.0000 fVal4=1.0000 fVal5=1.0000 fVal6=1.0000 fVal7=0.7000 uID0=1007612 uID1=554685 uID2=466532 uID3=94881 uID4=3271560107 uID5=3271560110 uID6=3954 uID7=2165839616 [Clouds] fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000 fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000 fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000 fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000 [Controls] bAlwaysRunByDefault=1 bGamePadRumble=1 bInvertYValues=0 bUseKinect=0 fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.4050 fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0268 [Decals] bDecalsOnSkinnedGeometry=1 uMaxDecals=200 [Display] bDeferredShadows=1 bDrawLandShadows=1 bDrawShadows=1 bFloatPointRenderTarget=1 bFull Screen=0 bFXAAEnabled=0 bMainZPrepass=0 bShadowMaskZPrepass=0 bShadowsOnGrass=1 bTransparencyMultisampling=0 bTreesReceiveShadows=1 fDecalLOD1=1000.0000 fDecalLOD2=1500.0000 fDecalLODFadeEnd=0.2100 fDecalLODFadeStart=0.3100 ;fGamma=1.2400 fGamma=1.0000 fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000 fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000 fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000 fLightLODStartFade=4430.0000 fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000 fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000 fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=10240.0000 fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=8960.0000 fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=7680.0000 fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=5376.0000 fShadowBiasScale=1.0000 fShadowDistance=4000.0000 fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000 fSpecularLODStartFade=2000.0000 fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=8960.0000 iBlurDeferredShadowMask=4 iMaxAnisotropy=0 iMaxDecalsPerFrame=800 iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=250 iMultiSample=0 iScreenShotIndex=0 iShadowFilter=3 iShadowMapResolution=2048 iShadowMaskQuarter=4 iShadowMode=3 iSize H=1080 iSize W=1920 iTexMipMapMinimum=1 iTexMipMapSkip=0 iWaterMultiSamples=0 sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB" [GamePlay] bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1 bShowQuestMarkers=1 iDifficulty=2 [General] bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0 iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1 [Grass] b30GrassVS=0 fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=6500.0000 fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000 fGrassStartFadeDistance=2500.0000 [Imagespace] bDoDepthOfField=1 [Interface] bDialogueSubtitles=1 bGeneralSubtitles=0 bShowCompass=1 fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000 [Launcher] bEnableFileSelection=1 bShowAllResolutions=0 uLastAspectRatio=3 [LOD] fLODFadeOutMultActors=30.0000 fLODFadeOutMultItems=5.0000 fLODFadeOutMultObjects=16.0000 fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000 [MAIN] bCrosshairEnabled=0 bGamepadEnable=0 bSaveOnPause=0 bSaveOnRest=0 bSaveOnTravel=0 bSaveOnWait=0 fHUDOpacity=1.0000 fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=600000.0000 [Particles] ;iMaxDesired=2000 iMaxDesired=9000 [SaveGame] fAutosaveEveryXMins=60.0000 [TerrainManager] bShowLODInEditor=0 fBlockLevel0Distance=32500.0000 fBlockLevel1Distance=47000.0000 fBlockMaximumDistance=94000.0000 fSplitDistanceMult=1.1000 fTreeLoadDistance=40960.0000 [Trees] bRenderSkinnedTrees=1 bUseMultiThreadedTrees=1 uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=120 [Water] bUseWaterDepth=1 bUseWaterDisplacements=1 bUseWaterReflections=1 bUseWaterRefractions=1 iWaterReflectHeight=1024 iWaterReflectWidth=1024
At this point, assuming you're going to use the VW ENB, make sure you remove the Realvision files from your Skyrim installation - using either their uninstaller or an ENB-switcher-tool like the one I referenced above - and instead add the VW ENB files from your Mod Organizer folder as the FOMOD installer directed you to do. If you experience low FPS with the ENB, I recommend disabling Depth of Field and Ambient Occlusion first. That gets me well above 30 FPS in busy, foggy exteriors like Riften. Of course, this is very tweakable, so do your research, test, and YMMV. Here is my enblocal.ini for reference:
enblocal.ini
[PROXY] EnableProxyLibrary=true InitProxyFunctions=true ProxyLibrary=d3d9_smaa.dll [GLOBAL] UsePatchSpeedhackWithoutGraphics=false UseDefferedRendering=true IgnoreCreationKit=true [PERFORMANCE] SpeedHack=true EnableOcclusionCulling=true [MULTIHEAD] ForceVideoAdapterIndex=false VideoAdapterIndex=0 [MEMORY] ExpandSystemMemoryX64=false ReduceSystemMemoryUsage=true DisableDriverMemoryManager=false DisablePreloadToVRAM=false EnableUnsafeMemoryHacks=false ReservedMemorySizeMb=512 VideoMemorySizeMb=4064 EnableCompression=false AutodetectVideoMemorySize=true [WINDOW] ForceBorderless=false ForceBorderlessFullscreen=false [ENGINE] ForceAnisotropicFiltering=true MaxAnisotropy=8 ForceLodBias=false LodBias=0.0 AddDisplaySuperSamplingResolutions=false EnableVSync=true VSyncSkipNumFrames=0 [LIMITER] WaitBusyRenderer=false EnableFPSLimit=false FPSLimit=60.0 [INPUT] //shift KeyCombination=16 //f12 KeyUseEffect=123 //home KeyFPSLimit=36 //num / 106 KeyShowFPS=106 //print screen KeyScreenshot=44 //enter KeyEditor=13 //f4 KeyFreeVRAM=115 KeyBruteForce=66 KeyDepthOfField=118 [ADAPTIVEQUALITY] Enable=false Quality=1 DesiredFPS=30.0 [ANTIALIASING] EnableEdgeAA=true EnableTemporalAA=false EnableSubPixelAA=false EnableTransparencyAA=false [FIX] FixGameBugs=true FixParallaxBugs=true FixParallaxTerrain=false FixAliasedTextures=true IgnoreInventory=true FixTintGamma=false RemoveBlur=false FixSubSurfaceScattering=true FixSkyReflection=true FixCursorVisibility=true FixLag=false [LONGEXPOSURE] EnableLongExposureMode=false Time=1.0 BlendMax=0.0 [THREADS] DataSyncMode=0 PriorityMode=0 EnableUnsafeFixes=false
I think this covers the necessary alterations - TO GET IT BASICALLY WORKING. If I recall anything else important to the process I'll make the appropriate edits.
To reiterate the above idea, this is lightly tested and I have not gone through 40 hours and all of Tamriel to make sure I have found all significant bugs and glitches that may arise.
I'd appreciate feedback if you use this config and find helpful performance tweaks or bugs that should (and can) be addressed, as I really enjoy both Ultimate Skyrim and Vivid Weathers and would love to be able to use both on a regular basis.
Glitches and Bugs Likely Related to This Setup
  • In Riften, the barrels that should be next to Balimund's workbench (with fire salts on top) are gone, but the fire salts are there. Occasionally a lantern or some other odd object appears out of place in the air in the marketplace.
  • In Markarth, in the Cidhna mine, several barrel and bed textures in the mercenary quarters disappear until you're walking on / in them.
submitted by rodericktech to ultimateskyrim [link] [comments]

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