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Before anyone could say anything else, there was a blinding flash of white light. The Dreadnought appeared directly in front of them, impeding their progress. Stormy fired the thrusters and tried to duck underneath.
"Get back into your seats! I'm going to link away again." Northern and Zhe dove towards their seats and bucked back up, but before Stormy could link, there was a clatter and a shudder throughout the ship. New alarms sounded throughout the ship, a kind of wailing trilling noise. It was incredibly loud.
"What's that Stormy?" Zhe clapped her hands over her large ears. "Can you turn it down any?"
"It's... It's a grapple. We've been grappled!" Stormy's rage permeated her voice. "Those were banned centuries ago! I can't believe they used a grapple on us."
"Can we do anything?" Fen asked. She looked down at her screen. There were new spots of orange on the readout where the grapple was damaging the hull.
"Our options at this point are to allow us to be taken aboard, or blow the reactor." Northern shook her head. "They've got us."
"Stormy, might as well disconnect and come up here. I don't want them doing anything to you." Fen closed her pad with a snap. She looked at Zhe and Northern. "Sorry."
Zhe shook her head. "Nothing to be sorry about, Fen. We're in this together."
Northern nodded. "Despite myself, I do find that I like you two. I wouldn't be here if I didn't. It's not your fault Fen."
Fen sighed. "Yeah, but if I wasn't a clone of the first Empress..."
"There's no way these people know that Fen. They're just after their current Empress and probably think we know something about it. I'd say just answer their questions mostly honestly." Northern ticked off points on her long fingers. "We saw her on Picaresque, we went out drinking, we partied with her and her honor guard, and in the morning we left. None off that is a lie."
Stormy walked into the Command Deck and looked around. Finding a seat, she sat down and buckled in. "The four of us is enough to operate a frigate of this size without raising too much suspicion. They shouldn't ask about whether we have an AI pilot."
Zhe's ears flicked in surprise. "Really? Only four people?"
She nodded. "It's just about the bare minimum, but it's possible. It could be explained away that we're a new merc group and haven't taken on more crew yet. These kind of ships are meant to be run lean and mean anyway."
Fen wasn't so sure, but she couldn't do anything else.
They waited.
About 30 minutes later, there was a pounding on the airlock. Fen unbuckled and went to the lock. Peering through the window she saw three armored spacesuits. She toggled the intercom. "Yes?"
"Human Imperial Navy. Open up please. We have some questions for you."
Please? That was interesting. "Why did you grapple me? You could have used your radio."
"The Admiral wishes to speak to you in person."
They did not elaborate further.
The voice of the suited person sighed. "Look. If you just open the doors, it'll go better for you. We won't even restrain you. You just open up, we bring you to the Admiral and then we let you go once she's happy with the answers."
"And if I don't open the lock?"
"Then we force it open, capture you, restrain you-" They hold up some metal zip cuffs. "-and still bring you to the Admiral. Only now, your ship is damaged and you can't leave once she's finished speaking. Your choice."
Fen cut the intercom. "Fuck." she said to nobody, and pressed the purge button. Both airlock door snapped open and there was a puff of air as the pressures equalized. Fen's ears were pained for a moment, but she swallowed and her ears popped.
The guard lifted their helmet. It was two men and a woman who looked so similar they could have been related. The woman smiled. "Thank you, really. My name is Lieutenant Shelly Cooper. What's yours?"
"I'm Captain Fenchurch Whitehorse, but please call me Fen."
"Very well, Fen. Who else is aboard?"
"The rest of my crew. They're on the Command Deck. There are four of us."
That caused Lieutenant Cooper to raise an eyebrow, "Four? That's it?"
Fen smiled awkwardly. "I wasn't able to hire anymore crew than that. Believe me when I say I've been trying." It wasn't a lie, not really. Fen found that there weren't many people who were willing to sign on to an unproven merc company, even if they were a couple years old.
The Lieutenant turned to one of the men behind her. "What did the bioscan say?"
He looked down at a pad strapped to the arm of his suit and tapped at it with a gloved hand. "She's not lying. Ship is empty except for the command deck."
"Curious." Cooper stared hard at Fen. "Have we met? Are you from Sol? You seem familiar to me."
"I don't see how. I grew up in a Gren station, far outside of Colonial space." Again, it wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth. Of course people in the military would know what the first Empress looked like.
"Hmm. Okay. If your crew agrees to keep the reactor powered down and be powered by an umbilical, they can stay confined to the ship and you accompany us. Deal?"
"Yes, I agree to those terms. Let me go tell my crew."
Lieutenant Cooper nods. "You have three minutes."
Fen hurries back to the command deck. "The Admiral wants to talk to me. They said you can stay here so long as you agree to be powered only by their umbilical."
Zhe stood up and crossed her arms, her tail swishing irritatedly. "It won't matter, because we're coming too."
Northern looked to Zhe and sighed, but only a little. "We can't leave you out to dry, Fen. We'll come along too. How bad can it be? Plus, if we come with you we can't suffer "an unfortunate accident" in the hangar."
Fen exhaled. She hadn't realized she was holding her breath in. "Thanks Northern, Zhe." She turned to Stormy. "You're welcome to come along, but I also know this isn't your thing. We had just hired you after all."
Stormy looked at Northern who shrugged with her eyes. "Up to you."
She runs her hands over her face. "Fuck, me. I swear Northern, you know how to pick them." Stormy stands up and smiles. "I'll come along, what the hell. Sitting on the ship was going to be boring by myself anyway."
The four of them went to the airlock, and Fen went up to Lieutenant Cooper "I spoke to my crew, and they want to accompany me."
Lieutenant Cooper throws up her hands. "Fine, I guess we'll just give you the VIP tour on the way." She gestures out towards the hangar. "Here is the hangar, where we store our smaller ships and boats, as well as the frigate of a merc captain we captured that the admiral wants to speak to and offered to let her crew stay onboard but they want to follow their captain to the ends of the galaxy."
Fen crossed her arms, but said nothing.
"Come on then. We'll find you some more chairs or something." Lieutenant Cooper turned on her heel and walked out of the hangar, without waiting for them to follow. The two guards with her looked at each other and one of them gestured for them to follow.
Not too far from the hangar, Lieutenant Cooper came upon a small conference room. She opened the door and led them inside. As they sat, a steward came by with a small cart of drinks. Fen was offered and accepted a coffee, and they went around offering beverages. Lieutenant Cooper also took a coffee, but everyone else abstained.
Cooper took a sip and looked down at the comm on her wrist. "The Admiral will be here shortly. Please be respectful. She's... lived a long life and doesn't suffer fools. If you want to make it back to your ship, answer her questions quickly and honestly."
Fen wasn't halfway through her coffee with the door chimed. Lieutenant Cooper stood. "This is where I leave you. The guards will wait outside the door and - should you be able - will escort you back to your ship." Her face was odd. She looked worried, and also like she felt bad for them. Just what kind of person was this Admiral?"
The door whooshed open and the Admiral strode in. She was about the same height as Cooper, maybe a few centimeters taller than Fen. Her hair was blond streaked with grey and she wore it clipped very short on the back and sides and a little longer in the front. She wore her hat at an angle that probably was against regulations. Her uniform was immaculate and her chest bulged with medals. She had a hard, but not unattractive face, lined with time. As she entered, she looked down at everyone sitting, and as she passed over them she stopped at Fen, and her breath caught.
"You are dismissed, Lieutenant."
Cooper saluted sharply. "Yes, Admiral."
"Dismiss the guards as well. I will not need them."
"Admiral? With all due respect-"
The Admiral turned to face Cooper and stared at her. Without saying anything at all, Fen could feel her shouting at the Lieutenant. Her gaze was withering. Cooper swallowed and saluted again. "Yes, Admiral."
The door closed behind her and the Admiral's demeanor immediately changed. She shrank down a little, looked older, less hard. She strode around the room and glanced down at the carafe of coffee. She poured herself a cup and sat at the head of the table. While everyone watched, rapt. She took a sip and placed it down on the table without a clink. She looked at Fen.
"You look like her, you know? I can see that you're different. A product of your upbringing. It's your eyes, and the way you carry yourself. I can see so much of her though. It's a little spooky."
Fen blinked. Whatever she expected, it wasn't this. "You know I'm a clone of the first Empress?"
The admiral laughed. Her voice was surprisingly musical. "Fen, I knew Melody. I was friends with her. I... I was on a different ship when she was killed. I became Empress after her."
Stormy gasped. "No. No way. She retired to Venus, and let her daughter reign. She would be over five hundred years old. You're not her."
The admiral smirked. "If you know all that, then you know that the Nanites can extend life. I can't do the Voice anymore, and it's been more than two centuries since I carried a crown and wings, but I am still me.
Northern turned and stared at Stormy. "Who is it, Stormy?"
The admiral spread her hands wide. "I am Empress Helen Raaden, First of Her Name, Ruler of Sol - Retired."

I want to start by stating a few caveats:

1. I've seen 2 shows before. Both were in the 3D era (New Orleans in 2016 and Cleveland in 2022).
2. My favorite era of based purely on sound was Minimum Maximum. Something about the mixes from that era just hit my ear the right way. As such, I judge other eras by that standard.
3. My seats for this show sucked. I was near the end of the horseshoe and half the screen was blocked by a line array. This also affected how sound hit me.
4. I firmly believe that every Kraftwerk show is a great show, and this one was too.

But...
This show had its issues.
First, the good:

• Great crowd. People showed up for KW. Lots of people on the floor were feeling the groove and moving to the music. Lots of enthusiasm from the crowd.
• They no longer use 3D visuals. This is great for me because I wear prescription glasses, and it was always awkward trying to wear both. Seeing the visuals crisp and clear with just my normal glasses was a great upgrade for me.
• I mean, it was Kraftwerk. It's always a great show.

The bad:

• Sound quality was not a peak. Again, I may have been in a bad spot in the venue, but it felt like some half measure between the 3D shows and the Minimum Maximum era and it just didn't work for me. What I like best about the MM era was how crisp, clear, and forward the vocals are. At this show, I could barely hear any of them over the other sounds.
  • Note: I was wearing loop ear plugs. This may have impacted this, but otherwise it would have just been too damned loud.
• There were multiple mistakes on the visuals. Examples I recall include a lagging video on Radioactivity, miscued lyrics text in the Robots and Tour de France, and a few times where the screen was just black for short periods mid track. I don't know that we can blame Georg Bongartz for this or simply that the sped up and reworked setlist doesn't jive with the visuals as they were programed for 3D shows of yesteryear.
• While I do like the switch from 3D, I don't think the bridge visuals for Metal on Metal work as well without the 3D effect. I wish they had found an alternative to them for this show.
• The improvisations are just not as good. While these were always a minor part of any show (the thing about KW has always been their sameness and precision), these ones were simply not as good. I LOVE the improv segment of Musique Non Stop on Minimum Maximum era and in the 3D shows I saw. This one was just "meh," and there was a truly jarring segment on Airwaves that left me thinking "What the hell is Ralf doing?"
• Speaking of Airwaves, they seemed to place a pretty strong focus on Radio-Activity as an album. While all we got from Autobahn, TEE, Electric Cafe, and Tour De France were short versions of their main singles, we got a ton from this album, including Radioland, Nachrichten, the Voice of Energy, and Ohm Sweet Ohm. Why did we get these tracks instead of Computer Love, Neon Lights, Comet Melodies, Europe Endless, or Neon Lights, which we did not get? Maybe they were trying to get in a dress rehearsal for LA or something? EDIT: Based on the fact that the KY show seems to have done the full Autobahn Album and Columbus did the full Radioactivity album, this would seem to be the case. I would have preferred getting some of the other tracks.
• No robots. Maybe it's just me being a grump, but I really wanted to see the reaction on my 5YO's face when the robots danced on stage to Robotronik.
• And for my final nit to pick, both Henning's and Falk's LED shoes had one shoe malfunctioning and not showing the right colors half the time. Considering I had to pay >$500 for my seated tickets (on the morning they were made available because promotors/ticket sellers are scam artists), I would hope that little things like that would have been fixed.

OK... That pretty much sums it up. I don't mean to be a negative Nelly. Both I and my 5YO had a blast, and I will never regret empowering her to see them before the changes to do so all go away. If you ever get the chance to see them live, you totally should. It's amazing. Something about the way the base of Man Machine hits you in a live environment just, well, it hits different. But for those of you who may have seen them before and are worried about your last opportunity having passed you by, take some comfort. If you've seen them before, you probably got a great show that can't be beat. Cherish that memory like both my daughters now ill (took my now 8YO to the Cleveland show two years ago too).

TLDR because I realized after finishing that this is absolutely massive; Pucci with MiH has means to defeat his top tier contenders like Josuke, Johnny, Valentine and Giorno and it isn't that farfetched to believe he's a top 3 in the verse.
The top JoJo's characters have been pretty much common sense for a while now. Wonder of U, GER, Tusk, SnW:GB, D4C:LT, MiH, Heavy Weather,... (these are not in order, I just named them off the top of my head). I agree with the lists most times, except for many times where Pucci is placed. What if I told you Pucci can realistically be top 3 at least, if not top 2 (very situational)? Stay with me now. It is currently 00:32 AM, bored out of my mind with the Bleach OST blasting in my ears, so I decided fuck it, let me write this up as it's been on my mind debating myself for a couple days now. So to break this down, I'm just going to go over some general basics like who and why the top is well... the top.

Who are the top JoJo's characters? And why?

There are still ongoing debates on where some characters place specifically. Wonder of U is unanimously agreed on being the strongest stand in JoJo's and I agree. The debates come later though, like who is top 2? Can Tusk Act 4 bypass RTZ? Can Go Beyond kill Giorno before Giorno gets Gappy? Can Love Train contest with Wonder of U? All of these are valid topics people use to debate who deserves the top 2 or top 3 spot.
Wonder of U is unanimously accepted to be THE strongest stand due to the many statements behind it in part 8 that justify its abstract existence, dura neg, logic manipulation and just its overall insanely powerful hax ability and it was only barely defeated in a 3v1 (in which 1 of them had A LOT of knowledge and prep time) with the need of an ability that completely defied all laws of physics and universal logic. It worked because it logically should never work.
Go Beyond has arguments towards being the strongest since well... it beat Wonder of U. But then come the arguments that Josuke simply had a lot of help to barely pull it off to begin with, let alone doing it solo. So Go Beyond is already not above Wonder of U, but what about everyone else? I mean, it's an ability that doesn't exist but exists at the same time. It doesn't make logical sense, and that's what makes it so powerful. It has no logical counterplay to it and general defenses like RTZ (will come to it later), Love Train (will also come to it), infinity, GGGH,... just cannot negate and these are abilities the characters that use them rely heavily on to be threats. GER wouldn't be what it is without RTZ, same for D4C, Gojo and the Green Baby, so that makes Go Beyond pretty strong and a very big threat by default. the one issue with it is it's just way too unreliable to pull off consistently. It took Josuke the help of Yasuho and Paisley Park to guide his bubble to WoU, and then a direct point blank shot to WoU's face to finally put it down, even then he had to tank and push through many calamities sent towards him. So Go Beyond just simply isn't reliable enough to justify it being that strong, especially when the other stands just have more consistently strong abilities.
Tusk Act 4. This stand basically does everything you could ask. Basically unrivaled offensive capabilities with the infinite rotation, very flexible range with the wormholes,... The one thing holding it back is the setup it needs to be pulled off. Johnny NEEDS to ride on a horse and reached the perfect sync state between jockey and horse to form the golden ratio and channel the infinite rotation. This is a prerequisite that cannot be argued. Johnny had to use Slow Dancer against Valentine and then had to do the same thing to save Jorge from the misfortune put upon him when Johnny wished to save his wife. What makes Tusk so powerful is the IF it lands aspect. The only counterplay to the infinite rotation is simply cutting your affected limb off before it spreads, and Diego only managed to do that thanks to prior intel and the insane resolve it took to chop his leg off with no regret. The other counter to it is if Johnny himself decides to spare you, so I can't really count it as counterplay. The infinite rotation has been shown and stated to have the strongest gravitational influence in the JoJo's verse since it has unanimous control over the entire multiverse purely through gravitational influence. MiH only has universal influence, C-Moon's influence is way more personal.
D4C:LT. Only the greatest defensive ability in the JoJo's verse. A power able to redirect any misfortune towards the user to any timeline in the multiverse and attract fortune to the "center" (in this case, Valentine). This ability has caused massive scale environmental destruction, basically colliding the forest with the sea purely through attraction, while also killing Gyro simply by rejecting any potential dangers. The only way this ability was defeated was by having an attack that can affect the entire multiverse at once hit it, basically preventing it from redirecting the attack to another timeline since the attack already exists in these timelines to begin with. Love Train is one of these "just because A beats B and C is stronger than A, doesn't mean C beats B". There are legitimate arguments to believe Love Train can redirect all of WoU's calamities. The corpse has shown direct fortune manipulation in part 8 when Johnny prayed to the corpse to cure his wife from her illness, only to redirect the misfortune to his son, then redirected the infinite rotation back to Johnny when it was struck when Johnny used it on Jorge to cure him, only for calamity to strike Johnny later on very Wonder of U like when the boulder crushed him. The corpse has shown direct manipulation over the concept of fortune and misfortune, which is the foundation that built the calamities Wonder of U uses (calamities are basically misfortunes specifically targeted towards someone). Yet Love Train lost to Tusk, so does that make Tusk stronger than WoU? No.
GER. The previously believed to be strongest stand in the verse. Maybe it could've been sheer popularity since the part 5 anime garnered a lot of hype, which attracted a massive amount of people, spawning many misconceptions, highballs,... that simply do not make sense and well, many fans just weren't familiar with the manga, where most of the truly OP stands were invented. RTZ is what made GER what it is in the powerscaling scene today. A very strong ability that will revert and nullify the will and actions of any person who poses a threat to Giorno, no matter Giorno's physical state. The issue is, unless you're posing a direct threat to kill Giorno, RTZ will not activate (no, doing things like exploding the planet will not work since that technically still counts as a threat that can harm or kill Giorno, in this case kill). Now, the only form of counterplay we've seen for GER isn't even canon since it came from the Eyes of Heaven game where Over Heaven DIO rewrote GER's reality and made it that it can't nullify DIO's attacks (this happened the moment TWOH and GER clashed fists), but due to the canonity of the feat being all over the place, we just can't take it as fact, but by following general rules like the fact RTZ works through the manipulation of cause and effect, then by logical construction, forms of acausality bypass RTZ, so there's the counterplay, which is by no means an easy or accessible way to beat someone. so GER is indeed pretty strong and a very strong contender.
MiH, the main contender of this post and the whole reason I'm making it. Now, many people like to downplay MiH by saying it needs to speed up to be a threat, which I disagree. Pucci was speedblitzing Jotaro very early into time's acceleration and by comparing the watch's seconds arm to the moment on the rooftop compared to the moment in the ocean, the speed difference was MASSIVE. By that we can already say base MiH is at least FTL+ so no, in a lot of cases, Pucci does not have to play the waiting game (yes many characters are way faster than that, but many aren't. FTL+ is pretty fast for most verses if we're sticking to the action-adventure shounens). Now, of course, it still means you should try to deal with Pucci as soon as possible because the longer you wait, the bigger his advantage becomes. MiH has shown virtually no weaknesses other than large scale environmental manipulation to disrupt Pucci's bodily functions. MiH's base speed is already faster than most, if not all, of the stands I mentioned above (the only arguable ones would be Tusk and GER). Now, for me what makes MiH so strong and I don't know if it's overlooked or not, but it's the fact Pucci has complete control over the timeline once the universe resets.

Why I believe Made in Heaven is consistently stronger than most of the stands I mentioned above.

Pucci simply has ways to defeat many of the stands that are in the top 5 purely through the fact he can go to the moment where they're weak and beat them. The catch is, Pucci needs to play his cards right for him to be able to pull it off, but I personally don't think it's a stretch that he can pull it off if we go by his BIQ feats in part 6. Pucci is a fighter that plans ahead. He's been building up to the Heaven Plan ever since he heard news of DIO's defeat and learned he'll have to take over DIO's teachings and pull it off himself, he is the successor, the one that inherited DIO's heaven, the resolution of one's destiny. Many of the stands I have noted above have a prerequisite of getting attacked or having a direct threat posed onto them to trigger, like GER and Love Train; or they're simply too situational and unreliable to consistently pull off, like Go Beyond.
Other than WoU, the only legitimate threats I see for Pucci are Tusk and GER. Now, because Tusk exists in every timeline all at once, you could argue the infinite rotation will just ignore the universe's reset but that's taking into account if you believe the parts 1-6 canon has a multiverse like the parts 7-9 canon, yet stating so is headcanon since both canons are completely unrelated to each other so there is no legitimate proof the original JoJo's canon has a multiverse for Tusk to exist in. In fact, a singular universe cosmology is more favored thanks to the universe reset visual explanation we got stating the creation of a new world that can be seen as a parallel dimension, the "start of a new world",... So tusk's threat now mostly relies on the conditions behind the fight. Where does it take place? A vacuum? The original canon? The new canon?
Now GER on the other hand is where it gets tough for Pucci because whether he wins completely relies on if he attacks Giorno or not. If Pucci decides Giorno is too big of a threat to let move on to the new universe, then he'll attack Giorno and trigger RTZ, effectively losing to Giorno. But if he doesn't attack him, then this will allow him to reset the universe then go back to where Giorno doesn't have Requiem and fight him then. This enters way too much into speculation and I would like to believe that by default, Pucci will most likely look into disposing of Giorno before moving on to the new universe (which won't work). Just that there is a CHANCE Pucci wins, just very unlikely.
Now, I get the arguments in saying that while Pucci has control over the timeline, he still isn't above fate or others' destinies. The reason he lost is because Emporio is destined to escape Green Dolphin St. and go to Cape Canaveral (which was heavily implied to have happened when Ermes's counterpart suggests stopping by the space station when the crew hitch-hikes with Anakiss and irene). So saying he can just go back to before they got their abilities just won't work because of their destiny, they are "fated to move on". The issue with this argument is we're already breaking "destiny" by having them fight to begin with, so anything fate related to prevent Pucci is just thrown out the window, but I can see the argument being valid in some cases.
In conclusion, I'm not saying Pucci is stronger than them in crossverse battles. I do believe he is a better contender in fights from verses like Naruto, One Piece, Dragon Ball,... since he bypasses the AP limitations GER has and the speed limitations and setup Tusk might have while Tusk and GER will stomp weaker verses like JJK and Demon Slayer where these limitations aren't that big of an issue. I'm mostly looking at this in battles purely between JoJo's characters. Anyways, the Bleach OST absolutely slaps and don't drink caffeine at 12 AM.

This reddit has been a treasure trove of information and support. We have seen many stories of other families who are enduring a hard, long few months with a reflux baby. Thank you for helping us feel less crazy and like others understand.
In our experience, we found there isn't a lot of helpful information about how to help a baby going through reflux and how to know if your baby might have reflux. So, we wanted to share our experience in hopes that you will feel less alone and maybe encouraged too!
If you want the story, here it is! If not, skip to the bottom section.
Feeding has been a difficult journey since our daughter was born. She lost over 10% of her weight in 2 days (I am told that is normal for breastfed babies). So, the lactation consultants encouraged me to begin pumping after every feed to increase supply, or 12 times a day. I did this for 4 weeks. While my supply eventually came in, feeding continued to be immensely difficult. After 7 lactation appointments and multiple appointments with the pediatrician, we were greatly discouraged. By the time our daughter was 8 weeks old, she would scream every feed and feeds would take close to two hours. Even giving her a bottle of breastmilk would take more than an hour for her to finish. I was ready to throw in the towel on breastfeeding because I was devastated at how difficult it was. Our daughter would scream and cry more than 10 hours a day. It was awful. I also experienced lots of nipple pain around this time, which added to the frustration.
When our daughter was 8 weeks old, our pediatrician referred us to an Occupational Therapist thinking her suck reflex might have issues. We had a 3 hour appointment with the Occupational Therapist who assessed that she did have some issues with tongue positioning when swallowing and a shallow latch, but her assessment was that reflux was the biggest problem our daughter was facing. We began doing exercises for the latch and tongue issues. Because of the OT's assessment, our doctor prescribed Famotidine for our baby. Now, our baby is almost 12 weeks and is very happy! Breastfeeding is one of her favorite things and is a good experience for us both! She eats in under 30 minutes and most feeds are joyful. There are still hard reflux days where she is unhappy and struggles to latch, but overall it is much better!
Here are the top things we learned:

1. We learned the signs of reflux our LO was experiencing. For her reflux looked like: Clearing her throat, latching then quickly unlatching, throwing her head back, crying as if she was in pain, tons of spit up (even 30 minutes after she ate), and she needed to be burped a lot.
   
2. Our baby developed a fear of reflux which led to a fear of eating. She became defensive during nursing, despite her hunger because she was afraid of acid coming up. She also limited her eating because with reflux she would experience more acid when her stomach was full. So, this was a key reason why our LO fought eating. Knowing she was in pain definitely gave me more grace and patience, but it was so sad to discover that she was afraid to eat.
   
3. We began to choose a baby-led feeding position
   

In the hospital, I was taught the football feeding position and was told to smash her face into the boob so she would latch. Many lactation appointments confirmed this. However, for our reflux baby, this added fear because she would try to pull away but I wouldn’t understand her cue. We learned from the occupational therapist that the baby has to trust that I see her cues of struggle so she can regroup before taking in more milk. This meant, we had to do a breastfeeding position where I was not holding her head and where she could have more freedom to pull away as she needed.
For breastfeeding we did a side-by-side position. Where the baby lays on her side right next to me. This gives her the freedom to pull away as needed. Once we rebuilt trust, I was able to do a cross-cradle position. I still do not hold her head. She can pull away as needed.
We also do this with the bottle. We started with her mostly sitting up, leaned against pillows. When reflux started to bother her, she could pull away and then come back when she was ready.

1. With our LO, we developed a mantra: When it doubt, pull it out

Anytime we think LO is having trouble and might cough/choke, we started pulling off the breast or tilting the bottle to give her a break.
For our LO, choking means more frustration and fear of nursing. I was concerned she wouldn’t latch back on, but I found it is much better to give her a break then to push her.

1. Burping

Our LO needed lot of burping. Here's our signs she needed burped immediately: clearing her throat, anytime she starts wiggling a lot, anytime she is choking or coughing, etc.
We got into the habit of always burping every 10mL of the bottle or 4-5 minutes on the breast. I also burp in between sides.

1. Upright positions make a big difference for our LO

We keep her upright for 20 minutes after a feed so she doesn’t have as much burning acid come up. It’s our way of helping her keep it down.
We had to plan when we'd do tummy time and diaper changes so that our LO wasn't at risk of spit-up (or hiccups). We did it before feeds or after holding upright for a while.

1. We learned to use a pacifier or LO's hand to help her keep the reflux down

For our girl, we found the swallow reflex can be used with a "dry nipple" (finger, pacifier, etc) to get her to continually swallow. This helps the reflux stay down for her! You and I do it all the time to keep stomach nasties from coming back up.

1. Celebrate every minute of baby sleep you get

A well rested baby eats so much better. Our LO was much more patient with us during this difficult work of feeding when she had a good nap. Give yourself grace if all you can do is contact naps.

1. Our experience with Famotidine (Pepcid)

We saw some results immediately.
We saw better results after 5 days
We saw great results after 14 days.
All babies cry. This won't change that. But it's nothing like it was before. Our LO does not throw her head back and most feeds are very positive. She's still fussy in the evening, but that can be normal for all babies.
We think we notice when it wears off, right now we're on a single dose per day. The last feed before her dose, she usually struggles. But that's nothing compared to how it was.

1. Help your Dr. by eliminating all uncertainty that it truly is a reflux problem.

We have a great pediatrician! But how do you know if a patient really does need medication when there might be something less drastic that would solve the problem? It really helped our dr. that we gave her a detailed account of the symptoms and timing of our LO's problems. It also helped that we happened to need to bottle feed our LO in front of the dr and it was terrible! The dr could see for herself what it was. I also cut dairy and regulated caffeine early. This helped our dr. be confident that a reflux medication was the best next step. We haven't added dairy back in yet. Just happy things are better right now.

1. Don't be afraid to advocate for you and your baby.

No one will care about your baby as much as you do. Lactation, pediatrics, OT, every professional has a specific purpose and goal that's aligned with what they know best. But YOU are the kid-expert. Trust your gut. If you think something isn't working or your LO isn't alright, advocate. Lactation will hope for a completely breast-fed baby. Which is a wonderful thing. But what's most important is that your baby is happy and healthy no matter how that happens. Formula, pumped, or breast-fed. Many pediatricians will be concerned with the child's development. We hit our milestones, but it came a huge cost of time with 120 minute feeds each time, and very little sleep. Make sure that ALL medical professionals giving you important advice knows your LO's backstory. We made some mistakes with this... That's another post. Taking good notes helped our occupational therapist spot the problem over time.
And when you try new things, get some sort of timeline of how long to try it before there be improvement. Find out if the medication or technique should work after a week or a month. This will help you manage your expectations when you might be feeling hopeless.

1. Know your milestones

It is normal for certain weeks to be challenging. Knowing our milestones helped us understand the full picture of what our LO was experiencing, not just reflux related. And, it gave us hope that some of the misery wouldn't last forever. Haha.
Non reflux-related breastfeeding lessons

1. Pump-related

I hurt so bad from pumping and I assumed that was normal. I went through weeks of blanched nipples and very significant nipple pain only to discover I wasn't pumping correctly! Make sure to measure your nipples for your flange size. If you are working with a lactation consultant, they can help with this. Also, I learned to check the breast pump manual to learn about the settings. I have now made some adjustments to the settings. Now that I have discovered these things, my nipple pain has gone away.

1. Shame when breastfeeding isn't working

I experienced a lot of shame and guilt when breastfeeding wasn't going well. I thought I was a terrible mom and I felt embarrassed that something that should be natural and easy was a nightmare. That led me down all kinds of destructive thoughts, fearing that I wouldn't be a good mom moving forward because this area was hard. I had to learn to reframe things. I had to start to see that any volume of milk my reflux LO got was a win. I had to discipline myself to not compare myself to other moms who could breastfeed in public for less than 10 minutes while I had to make sure to feed in the car, knowing my LO would take over an hour and cry nonstop. I had to learn that if a feed wasn't going well, it isn't a failure to decide to offer a bottle to help LO fill up more quickly. Honestly, I had to learn to lay aside my expectations and do what worked. And, I had to have my identity not wrapped around breastfeeding and my child's success. Just as my LO struggled in this area, she will struggle with more things in the future. I will be a better mom if I can love her through it without feeling shame for where she is at. Having a supportive, loving husband greatly helped when I wanted to throw in the towel. I also found that talking with my counselor and having a space to remember the truth about my baby (i.e. her struggling to breastfeed is because of the reflux, not because I am a bad mom), greatly helped my mental health and my relationship with my baby.
It is the end of week 11 for us and it has changed dramatically for the better! We are on week 3 of the Famotidine. Our baby smiles all the time and is a joy to be around. I am beginning to like being a mom, which I couldn't imagine 2 weeks ago. People say things get better at week 12 and we didn't believe them. We felt hopeless. For us, it actually did get better. But, we know that isn't everyone's story. Regardless of how long you have been struggling with a reflux baby, it is incredibly hard on the whole family. And, I don't know when it will get better for you. My prayer is that it will get better for you very soon because it sucks and is awful. In the meantime, I hope this post helps in some way or at least helps you know that someone else in the world gets where you are coming from.

You guys know what an alpine coaster is? They are like a small roller coaster you find in the mountains. They are also called summer toboggans or mountain coasters and I think there’s some long German compound word they are called in parts of Europe. They are like a roller coaster, but with much smaller one or two person sleds you just sit on instead of multi-person cars you ride in, and instead of being built with like a scaffolding or a framework the tracks are just on the ground, using the elevation of the mountain. Basically it’s a coaster track on the side of a mountain where you ride a sled down.
They are pretty fun. Or at least I used to think so. They are more “personal” than roller coasters and although you get nowhere near the speed on them that you do on a good traditional roller coaster and they can’t do corkscrews or loops or anything like that the openness and simplicity of the ride gives an impression of a much greater speed. You’re just sitting there with nothing but a little plastic sled and the track between you and the ground as it goes zooming by. It’s like the difference between how fast a go-cart feels compared to how fast a sports car feels. You know the sports car goes faster but the open, simpleness of a go-cart feels a different kind of fast. There’s plenty of POV Youtube videos if you want to get the basic idea of what they are.
I used to love alpine coasters. Used to.
My family used to go to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and up and down the Smokey Mountains for vacations when I was a kid and they are common in that area and I’d always rode them every chance I got.
But as with so many things after I grew up and went to college they just became part of my childhood that slipped away. They aren’t exactly common once you get away from the mountains.
Until one cool spring afternoon in 2004. I was in my final year at college and I was driving back to campus in Tennessee after a short visit to my folks in North Carolina. It was only like a 4 or 5 hour drive via the most efficient route and I had no need to be back at campus early so instead of taking the freeway all the way I got off and took part of my trip through the mountains. The scenery was nicer and I admit I liked pushing my Camaro just a little faster than I should through the twisty mountain roads.
Just after lunchtime happened upon one of those little by-the-highway tourist towns deep somewhere in the Smoky Mountains near the Carolina/Tennessee border. Nothing fancy, a gas station/truck stop, a diner, a couple of places selling tourist merch nestled deep in the mountains. I pulled into the gas station. My tank was getting low and I needed to stretch my legs, maybe grab something to eat. It was still early and I only had another couple of hours. I could kill an hour or so and still make it back to campus at a decent hour.
I pulled into the gas station and was filling my tank when I happened to glance across the road and… well I’ll be damned. There it was. “The Blue Ridge Alpine Coaster.” Nestled on the side of the mountain was a building, a mockup of a red barn, where a single railed track that led up into the mountains, where it soon got lost in the greenery. Wooden hand painted standees of cartoon character bears dressed in stereotypical “Hillbilly” getup stood around, some of them holding signs showing the ride hours and ticket costs and other info. I had to admit, as silly as it was, it made me smile.I finished pumping my gas and, well, nostalgia is a helluva thing. I decided then and there I could waste a little time riding an Alpine Coaster again after all these years before getting back on the road.
I parked my car in a corner of the truck stop's parking lot, put my phone in the center console, this being the days before smart phones when people didn’t keep their phones with them 24/7 and I didn’t want my old Nokia brick phone to fall out during the ride, locked my car and walked across the mountain highway to the Alpine Coaster building.
Getting closer, the place was less inviting. The half hearted attempt at a whimsical faux-Americana kitsch was far less effective when it brushed up against the actual decaying, run down wooden building. Hell calling it a building was generous. It was a wood frame holding up a long roof that covered the area where you got on the sleds. The wood boards creaked under my footsteps.
The only real enclosed structure was a shack that held, what I assumed, was a ticket booth. A door on the side had both a single occupancy bathroom with an out of order sign on it. An old Pepsi machine buzzed and glowed next to it.
Still the place looked alive. Ahead of me a bored looking attendant was helping a mother and her young son into one of the sleds while in a bored monotone repeating the safety brief. A few people were waiting in line at the ticket booth. Up in the mountains the playful shouts of people on the ride echoed down. Fond memories of my own childhood rides flooded my mind.10 minutes and 15 dollars later I was settling into the hard plastic seat of a bright red sled sat atop a simple aluminum rail.
I couldn’t help but grin as the sled slowly climbed the track up the mountains, making click-clack ratcheting sounds that hit my nostalgia centers hard. I felt good. The air was cool and crisp and smelled of pine.Higher and higher in the mountains we went. I don’t know if this is my mind trying to make sense of it after the fact but when I remember these moments, the last good moments, I sometimes think I remember a very slight, very subtle pit of fear in my stomach. I honestly don’t know if I felt it at the time or not or it’s just how my mind tries to make sense of it looking back at.
But either way mostly I was enjoying myself. I smiled. I was a kid again. I could hear riders in front of me let out that initial yell of terrified glee you get at the first drop of any good ride.
It peaked. I glanced around. I could see for miles, rolling hills and mountains. I the sled tipped over and zoomed down the mountain and I let out the same happy yell I heard from the other passengers.The ride zoomed down the mountain, catching speed. The mountain forest floor zoomed past, only a few feet under me. Trees zoomed past. I gave out a happy whoop as the ride banked hard around a curve and then looped back under itself.Another dip, another curve. I closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of the G-forces pulling me every which way.
There was no one exact single moment where things started to go “wrong.” The ride kept going. And going. At this point the first creeping thought entered my head.
The ride… was still going.
It just started to hit me… this ride was going on for a really long time. I had taken a dozen rides on various coasters of this type before that day and they topped out at about 5 minutes or so, and that was the long ones. Longer than a traditional roller coaster but not that long. This one had been going on for what felt like 10, maybe even 15 minutes.
I looked back over my shoulder and could only see trees, moving too fast to really get a bearing on where I was at in relation to anything.
I wasn't exactly really worried yet. Okay so I had found a particularly long alpine coaster. At the time I wasn’t 100% wasn't sure they didn’t exist or anything like that. I was a little… unnerved but nothing was happening that was impossible. Yet.
I was trying to talk myself back into just enjoying the ride and stop overthinking it, and halfway succeeded, when out of nowhere I suddenly banked hard, the track jutting out almost over a sheer cliffside. I gripped the sled more tightly as I was whipped around. The ride then dipped hard and picked up speed, barreling down the side of the mountain.
I was pushed back against the seat by the force of the drop. Jesus I didn’t remember them being this rough. I was feeling slightly nauseous. And where had this elevation drop come from I wondered? I was still in the foothills and I didn’t remember seeing anything but gentle rolling hills and light drops from looking at the ride’s route earlier. How the ride had managed such a long, steep drop in this area I didn’t know. . For the first time I hoped that the ride would be over soon. I had no idea then how much I would want that same hope to be true so much more as time went on.
With a whiplash motion I was whipped forward and then back as the ride leveled out on flat ground again, but by this point I was going fast, too fast. My neck hurt from the mild whiplash and I felt sour in my throat and for a moment the contents of my stomach threatened to come back up. For the first, but hardly the last time the ride felt unsafe. Alpine Coasters are tame affairs, much slower and gentler than full on roller coasters but this thing was throwing me around like no thrill ride I had ever been on.
I looked around. I mean I wasn’t that deep into the woods. I should have been able to see a glimpse of something; the highway, the gas station, the tourist shops, the Alpine Coaster office, something, anything. But nothing. Just trees.
I forced back some panic for the first time. I closed my eyes and counted to ten. The ride zoomed along. I counted to 60. I counted to 60 again. And again. Okay this was getting uncomfortably harder and harder to explain.
Suddenly I noticed that up ahead the track seemed to just end, for one brief, terrible moment I thought the track just ended but I was wrong. Almost without warning the track dipped in an almost vertical drop. I almost screamed as I plummeted for 20, maybe 30 seconds before flattening out again.
By this point the voice in my head that was telling me something was wrong was louder and I could no longer tell myself it was wrong. This ride could not have been this long. I tried to make sense of it, wondering if somehow I had gotten diverted onto some kind of maintenance track or, hell for one brief irrational moment even entertaining the idea that I had wound up on an actual train track somehow. But that was absurd. The rail below me was not a train track, it was still just the simple, aluminum rail of an alpine coaster and there had been no diversions or junctions in the track. I was still on the ride, as insane as that was starting to feel. Had the ride somehow looped? Again after having the thought I immediately dismissed it as crazy. There’s no way I could have missed the ride building where I got on. And what kind of ride loops over and over?
The sled zoomed through the forest, oddly never seeming to lose speed despite the relatively flat grade of the track. I cursed myself for leaving my phone in the car and not wearing a watch. I don’t know exactly how long I had been on the ride at that point but it felt like I had been on the ride for a half hour, maybe more. But time is a funny thing when you’re in a situation you’ve never been in. Could have been more, could have been less, at that point.
My pride finally failed me. I started to scream for help. I screamed out that the ride was broken, to stop it, that I needed help. I did that for about ten minutes or so I think. The ride kept going. Mostly flat, level track with occasional mild dips and turns. But the simple length of the ride grew more and more unnerving and unexplainable.
I thought about just bailing out. But the ride, impossibly, was still not slowing down and chunks of mountain rock and thick tree trunks were all around me. Bailing out without risking smashing into a rock or a tree seemed impossible.
The ride kept going.
Up ahead the forest was clearing out some, I could see the forest brightening, more sunlight making it through the canopy.
I wasn’t prepared for what I saw.
The trees stopped and I had just enough time to take in a flat, open area of rock maybe 40, 50 yards at most before another sheer cliff. The tracks twisted and turned and then shot straight down. But that wasn’t the worst of it. For a moment, a very short moment, I had a clear view for miles and the landscape was, to be blunt, totally impossible. Any possibility that I had just stumbled on some incredibly long ride was blasted out of my head. Barren, volcanic looking rock stretched for miles. Jagged, black rocky outcroppings as far as the eye could see. I was in the goddamn Smoky Mountains. They don’t look like that.
I had a few moments for the terror of that view to settle in before the cart plunged into another horrifying drop. I gripped the handles of the cheap plastic sled until my knuckles turned white. The drop felt completely vertical, like I was falling at terminal velocity. I screamed. My stomach dropped and turned. I imagined the sled coming away from the track and me just plummeting screaming to my death on the rocks below. But somehow the ride still functioned. I closed my eyes tightly and just waited for whatever was going to happen. Eventually after several what felt like a full minute of steep plunging the track again leveled out, and I opened my eyes to see myself moving at breakneck speed over that black, rocky landscape.
Now that I was moving on a more or less flat horizontal track again I took a few deep breaths. I looked over the edge of the track. Nothing but that black, jagged rock, almost looking like obsidian, zooming past. I had no idea how fast the sled was moving now. Fast. Faster than a gravity powered sled should be moving. And the track was higher off the ground now. Alpine slides usually stick pretty close to the ground, but I was 20 feet or so in the air, the track suspended in the air, a simple metal tube tower like a power pylon every few yards.
Without any immediate threat and the sled moving fast but steadily and level I was able to think about my situation again, for all the good that did me. Ahead of me the track just continued to the horizon, nothing but the same rocky landscape as far as I could see. I craned my neck to look back over my shoulder and looked back behind me and it looked the same. Even the mountains were but distant specs on the horizon behind me.
This was insane. There’s not a giant seemingly endless field of black jagged rock in the goddamn Smoky Mountains. There’s no cliff faces tall and steep enough for a multi-minute vertical drop. And alpine coasters were small affairs, not major engineering projects that span miles with pylons and vertical tracks. It made no sense.
Sadly it wasn’t going to start making any more sense anytime soon.
The ride kept going.
I was on this rocky landscape for several hours. I feel comfortable saying this because I could actually notice the sun getting lower in the sky. And the sled wasn’t slowing down despite the grade of the track being flat. I was getting cramped from sitting and stretched my legs and twisted my back as best I could. Didn’t do much help. My eyes were starting to get irritated from the constant wind in them. Worst of all it was starting to get chilly. I only had on a light jacket, a windbreaker, just something to keep the breeze off me, no real insulation. I was cold, my joints were stiff, I was hungry and thirsty. My eyes watered and my throat was so dry it was sore.
But none of that was as bad as just how little sense this all made. There’s nothing like this place anywhere near the Smoky Mountains. This was like some volcanic rock landscape. The more I thought about it the less sense it made.
The ride kept going.
My mind didn’t even try to process this. Whatever I was experiencing simply couldn’t be possible. I was crazy. I was dreaming. The CIA had kidnapped me and dosed me with some new version of LSD and I was in a straightjacket in a padded room at Area 51.
The sled kept zooming along as the sky turned to dusk. Soon the bridge disappeared from my view and I continued on along the endless, rocky, featureless landscape.
I sat back against the sled, mentally and physically numb. I was exhausted. I was thirsty. I was cramping up. I was hungry. I had to pee. I held it for as long as I could, then had no choice but just wet myself. I cried until I had no more tears left. Then I just sat there.
The ride kept going.
By the time the sun dipped below the horizon my throat felt like sandpaper. I dug around in my jacket pockets hoping to find a stick of gum or piece of candy. Nothing. I checked again, having nothing else to do. Under a crumpled store receipt in the inner pocket of my jacket was a single old, forgotten cough drop. I unwrapped it from the paper and popped it in my mouth. Saliva flooded back into my mouth and I was overwhelmed by the methanol and medicine taste. It was something at least, although I knew it would be a brief and temporary fix at best.
I felt my eyes get heavy. It was getting colder. That mountain cold. That deep cold the mountains have even into the early spring when the sun goes down. That kind that just pulls the heat right out of you. I shivered. A terrible, horrible certainty came to me. I would ride until I passed out from exhaustion or the hypothermia set in. My body would tumble off the sled to fall and skip across the rocky ground like a stone skipping across a lake, my bones breaking as I tumbled until my body finally came to a stop. If I was lucky I would be killed and not have to lie for days, broken and bruised, on the ground until death took me.
The ride kept going. The ride kept going. The fucking ride kept going.
“Fuck you” I said to the ride, my voice a horse whisper. I pulled my jacket closer around me, for all the good it did. The cold wind was slowly but surely pulling my body heat away. My shivering got worse, crossing the line from a simple normal shiver into those deep, almost violent full body ones.. I wasn’t anything you could call an experienced outdoorsman, but I knew enough to know that wasn’t a good sign.
It was getting dark. There was a full moon at least so I wasn’t totally in the dark.
About then I noticed something. The landscape, what little I could see in the fading light, was changing. It was smoothing out, becoming less rocky and craggy. Up ahead an odd, shimmering light was starting to appear on the ground.
I was over it before I even realized what it was. The tracks were going over a smooth surface.
Water. It was a lake. The odd lights I had seen were the moon, reflected in ripples on the lake.
Within minutes I was out of the view of the land. After the nearly endless rocky landscape and everything else I had seen, it scared me how little I was shocked. I didn’t like how mentally numb I was getting. I leaned over. There was enough moonlight to see the water, 15 or 20 feet below the track. The pylons holding up the track went into the water, the light wasn’t good enough to even make a guess at how far they went down or how deep the water was.I leaned back in the sled. My eyes were red and bloodshot from the constant wind. I closed them. This was a mistake.I jerked awake. I don’t know if I dozed off for a split second or an hour. My weight had shifted and I caught myself as my center of gravity was in danger of sending me off the sled and into the water.
I screamed in anger. A deep primal scream. I hurt so bad. My joints felt like they were full of glass. My limbs were full of pins and needles. I glanced over at the water. For the first time on the very edges of my brain a tiny voice started to speak up, telling me that I could be all over if I just jumped. I shut the voice up, but it scared me still.
I sat there as the ride went on. It felt like hours. Eventually the lake ended in a rocky shore line. The damned ride. There was no safe place to bail out. If the ride slowed down, it was high in the air, if it moved toward the ground it sped up. Sharp rocks, big trees, nothing you could safely bail out into.
I kept having to force myself awake. I kept dozing off. Once I felt myself falling asleep and drove a vicious uppercut into my own nose to stave it off.
I seriously started to think about how much longer I could hang on. The voice came back again. This time I didn’t shut it up. I wasn’t admitting it to myself yet, but I was starting to think about the best way to land that would end it quickly if I needed to.
Something was ahead. The track seemed to dip into the ground. I was too tired, too beaten to even get scared. I was just resigned to whatever happened at this point.
With little warning the track took my sled into a tunnel in the ground. Everything went completely pitch black. After several moments even the dim moonlight was gone.
This was the worst part. The creepy forest, the immense rocky landscape, the eerie lake… those were bad. But this was just nothing. Nothing to look at, nothing to hear, nothing for reference or sense of where I was going. The walls of the tunnel felt like they were inches from me in every direction. The air felt thick, like there wasn’t enough oxygen.
With every moment I was in that tunnel I lost a little more hope. After a long, long time I made a decision. When I got out of this tunnel, I would jump. I didn’t care anymore. Hopefully there would be a spot where I could be certain the fall would instantly kill me. I was done. The ride had beaten me. I sat there, waiting for a chance to end this on my terms. That was all I had left.
Eventually up ahead, a tiny speck of light appeared. I gathered my strength, ready to end it. I sat up, getting my legs under me so I could jump as soon as we were clear. The sled burst out of the tunnel. The dim light of the full moon was enough to be momentarily blinding after the pitch black of the tunnel.. I gave my eyes a moment to adjust.
I was back in a normal looking Appalachian forest. Rolling hills, green trees. The air smelled of pine again. I heard an owl hoot off somewhere.
Slowly I lowered myself back into a setting position, in shock. At first I refused to believe it but the ride was slowing down. I held still, making sure my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me, but no, the cheap plastic sled that had been my world for what felt like an eternity was slowing down.
Up ahead, a structure was visible, peeking out from among the trees in the dim lighting as the sled moved down the track.
It was the Alpine Slide building. The crappy fake red barn where I had boarded this cursed ride so long ago. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, sure it was either my mind or the cursed ride playing tricks with me. But the building stayed there.
It grew closer and closer. The track leveled completely out. The sled slowed down more. Before I had the time to really come to terms with it I arrived back at the building.
The sled slowed to a stop, gently pumping against another sled parked on the track. I sat there for a few moments, gasping in great big gulping fear breaths, trying to assure myself the ride didn’t have one last trick of its sleeve.
I looked around. The place was empty, deserted. The overhead lights were still on and the old Pepsi machine still glowed and buzzed, but the ticket booth was dark and empty, a metal gate pulled down over the ticket window.
Suddenly it hit me that I was free and I practically leapt out of the sled and onto the platform. I immediately collapsed. My legs were jelly and my head was spinning. I tried to stand up again and doubled over, dry heaving. Have you ever been out on a boat for a day and have that weird reverse motion sickness when you’re back on solid land? It was like that times a hundred. My inner ear was literally pounding, all the motion had really done a number on it.
I laid there for a few moments and eventually forced myself to stand up on my two wobbling legs. I looked around, a horrible certainty creeping into my mind that there would be no exit, no way off the platform but to my relief an exit turnstyle, one of those full height ones, was set into the fence that surrounded the ride property.
I went through it and found myself back on the main road. The truckstop was still there, still open but far less busy. My car sat in the same corner of the parking lot I had left it.
I allowed myself one look back, just one quick one. The metal skeleton of the Alpine Slide track sat there, dark and quiet but otherwise normal.
I stumbled-ran back to my car, dug the keys out of my pocket, and collapsed inside. When the door shut I let out a primal scream, the tons of fear and confusion and anger all fusing into a single, raw emotion. I screamed again and again.
After a few moments I felt like I was emotionally at least back to a place where I could act, although I wasn’t sure yet what to do next. Not really knowing what to do I cranked the car. The A/C had been on low when I shut off the car and it came roaring back to life and cold air blowing on me almost sent me back into a full on panic attack. I fumbled with the climate controls until the air stopped blowing directly on me, then calmed down enough to turn the heat on, helping to get the chill out of my bones. There was a half full bottle of water in the center console cup holder and I grabbed it and chugged it. Nothing ever tasted as good before or sense as that few ounces of water.
That was when I noticed the clock on the radio head unit. It was 4:17 in the morning. It had been about one, one thirty or so in the afternoon when I got on the accursed ride.
Over 15 hours. I had been on the goddamn ride for over 15 hours. Over half a day.
I just sat there. Warming up. Calming down. I was exhausted. I was dehydrated. I can’t even describe how my head felt. I probably had at least a minor case of hypothermia. I thought about going into the gas station and asking for help but what would I even say, and more than anything I just wanted to get away from this place. And I just wanted to get away. I wanted to be nowhere near that damn ride.
I put the Camaro in gear and pulled into the street and in panic I immediately slammed on the brakes. I was lucky there was no traffic on the road at that moment. The feeling of accelerating to just normal surface street speeds made me sick to my stomach. I gathered myself and very slowly accelerated the car I usually treated with a very heavy foot up to 30 miles an hour. Every time I tried to accelerate at a pace faster than “Old Lady Going to Church, Uphill” I would have a panic attack. I was okay once I was up to speed, but accelerating freaked me out after being on that ride.
I drove about 30 minutes, putting some arbitrary amount of distance between myself and the coaster. Eventually I made it back to where the twisty mountain road met back up with a major road that would eventually meet back up with the highway. After a few more minutes of driving I saw the onramp for the highway. There was one of those big truckstop travel plazas and pulled in, parking right up at the door. I smelled like pee and I can only imagine how I looked, but I didn’t care.
I kept a couple of emergency 20s in the back of my wallet and spent it on the biggest bottle of water the store had, an overpriced bottle of eye drops, and a huge travel mug of coffee. The clerk looked at me as if he was expecting me to either drop dead or rob him the entire time.
Back in my car I downed the coffee. I put a few eye drops in each of my eyes and sat there as the caffeine took effect until I felt like I could make it back to my apartment. The sun was just coming up when I finally pulled out of the truck stop and got on the freeway. I slowly, very slowly, accelerated up to highway speed, put the Camaro in cruise control, and let the miles start to drift away. I turned on the radio, I needed to hear human voices. Every time my mind went back to what had just happened I turned the radio up louder, eventually drowning it out with painful levels of rock music. I wasn’t ready to think about it yet. Yes looking back I know I was just in denial. I finally made it back to the crappy little apartment I had off campus, a little two story walk up studio. I let myself in and collapsed on the cheap couch. I was asleep before I even had the time to decide whether or not to do anything else. I woke up later that afternoon. I took a shower and ate a meal and didn’t think about the ride. I washed the pee stained filthy clothes I had been wearing and didn’t think about the ride. I went back to class and didn’t think about the ride. Every time I thought about the ride I forced it out of my head. I’m sure this wasn’t the most mentally healthy thing to do but what can you say?
I didn’t forget about it, don’t be silly. This isn’t the kind of thing you forget. One day while looking up something else in the university’s library my curiosity got the better of me and I looked up the Alpine Slide. No website but a few Google Map and Yelp mentions. None of them mentioned anything weird, certainly nothing even remotely like what I experienced. Near as I can tell it closed sometimes in the winter of 2012.
Life went on. I mean, that’s what it does. The next day was a little better. And the day after that a little better. And the day after that a little better still. I met a nice girl. Graduated. Got married. Got a nice house in the suburbs. Got a dog. Had a daughter. Spent a lot of time happy and not thinking about being trapped on an endless alpine coaster.And that was my life for many, many years after that.
Until a few weeks back when as a very different person I found myself driving a boring and safe mid sized family SUV through those same mountains. My wife Carol, 5 months pregnant, sat in the passenger seat, our 6 year old daughter Emily in a booster seat in the back, and Max our mixed breed mutt next to her. It had been a nice pleasant trip, driving back from visiting her folks.
I hadn’t thought about that fucking ride in so long I barely registered that I was in the same general area until it was too late. Suddenly I realized that little mountain tourist trap town was only a few minutes down the road. I swallowed hard and gripped the steering wheel hard. Carol was looking out the window at the scenery and Emily was deep into some kid’s Youtube video on an iPad. I forced myself to keep my breath steady as we rounded the corner.The town was still there, sorta. Time had not been kind to it. The gas station was still there, at some point it had been bought out by Shell. The tourist trap shops were still there. One of them was now a vape shop. The diner was closed, the building looking like it sat unused for a long time.
But of course that’s not what I cared about. A looked over at the site where the Alpine Coaster once stood. It was gone. The kitschy fake barn was gone. The site was just a bare concrete slab with a chainlink fence around it. Faded “no trespassing” and “for sale” signs hung off the fence. A pile of old, decaying lumber that might have once long ago been part of the structure covered part of the old lot. No sign of the track remained outside of some old concrete support posts dotting the side of the mountain.
I exhaled out a breath I hadn’t even realized I had been holding in. Soon the little town disappeared in my rear view mirror.
About a half hour later we stopped for gas. I pulled up to a gas pump across from a massive motorhome. Max stuck his head out the window and started barking at a little white dog, a toy breed of some kind, in the window of the motorhome. Carol and Emily immediately headed into the store to restock on snacks while I fueled up.
I stood there, a half smile on my lips as Max barked and wagged his tail in an attempt to attract the attention of the other dog while I filled up the tank, said dog doing an admirable job of ignoring him.
Right about the time I finished fueling up and cleaning the bugs off the windshield Carol returned from inside the store, Emily in tow, arms filled with two full sized bags of Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips and what looked to be a half dozen individually wrapped pickles.
I raised an eyebrow at the collection of food but knew better than to question a pregnant woman's snack choices.
“Should we take Max for a quick walk?” Carol asked. The travel plaza had a nice little gated dog walking area off to the side.
“Yeah probably not a bad idea, he’s been cooped up in the car for a few hours.” I said. Max, upon hearing his name and the word “walk” , forgot about the other dog and upgraded from wagging his tail to wagging his entire body while making whining sounds and staring right at me.
About this time I became half aware that the big motor home next to us was pulling away. I didn’t think much of it, outside of doing a quick automatic mental check to make sure Emily was well clear of the moving vehicle, but she was safely between me and our SUV, well out of the way.
But that was when Emily looked behind me and cheerfully yelled “Daddy look a roller coaster! Can I ride the coaster?”
It’s cliche as fuck I know but my blood went cold.
I turned around slowly, certain in my knowledge that terrible old decrepit Alpine Coaster would be there, having just popped into existence to trap me again.
That.. is not what I saw. Sure enough there was a coaster there, one I hadn’t noticed earlier because it had mostly been blocked by the motor home, but there it was. It was even an Alpine Coaster.
But it was not the same coaster I had encountered those years ago. That was immediately obvious. It was a small but modern and newish looking setup with neon lights and a bunch of people. There was an actual building where you bought tickets and a little snack stand.
“Daddy! Can we go on the coaster!” Emily asked again.
My mouth made motions but no words came out. I glanced over at Carol, hoping she’d say we didn’t have time but to my horror she smiled and said “You know what? That does sound like fun. Daddy will take you while I take Max for a walk.”
My mind raced, trying to think of a way to get out of it. But Emily was already dragging me across the parking lot to the entrance.
I patted my pocket, making sure my phone was in it. Every fiber of my being was screaming to run away. I slept walked through the line and the ticket booth while Emily bounced happily.
We got into a two seat plastic sled. This one was actually a lot nicer than the one my mind wouldn’t stop thinking about. It had two nice cushioned seats, big grab handles, even a nice rollbar.
The sled started up the track. I fought back the panic. I swerved my head around, keeping the building in my view. I was terrified of losing sight of it. We made it to the top and Emily did a happy squeal as we started down the side of the mountain.
My heart raced. Any second, any second my mind told me we’d lose sight of the building and then the ride would never end. The ride sped down the mountain. My mind tortured me with thoughts of not only going through it again, but seeing Emily go through it. The ride went around a big, banking turn. Emily kept shouting happily. How long before Carol reported us missing I wondered? Could I keep Emily calm? What if it lasted even longer this time? What if this time it never ended?
And then we were back at the start of the ride. The same attendant who had helped us into the sled was helping Emily out. I stepped out. The attendant gave me a brief look but said nothing. I guess I looked a little wild eyed.
I was fine. Emily was fine. It had been a perfectly normal, fun ride.
“That was fun Daddy! Thank you!” Emily said. I forced a smile back. “It was fun.” I responded, hoping like I sounded like I meant it.
I took Emily’s hand and we walked back to the car. Max saw us coming and barked happily. Carol looked up from the pint of Ben and Jerry’s she had somehow acquired and added to her snack collection while we were gone and smiled at us.
“Did you have fun?” she asked.
“It was so fun Mommy!” Emily said.
Carol smiled down at her, but then looked at me and frowned. “Are you okay?” Carol could read my face a lot better than the attendant could. “You’re pale.”
I smiled and this time the smile felt real. “Ya know what. Yeah, I think I am okay.”
Carol looked a little puzzled, but didn’t press it. We loaded Emily back in her booster seat, stopped Max from trying desperately to eat half a discarded gas station hot dog off the ground and got him back in the car. Carol and her small collection of snack food took her place in the passenger seat and I got in the driver's seat.I smiled. I cranked the car. I put it in gear. I pulled out of the gas station and back on the road, this time accelerating just a little faster than I had in years.

Hey guys! fnafking_93 here! I just want to pause for a moment and explain a few updates to my new strategy on Agressive Nightmare Mode! Please ignore my last post, because that one is not updated and will give you some mental taxing states!
For Agressive Nightmare Mode, there are a few things that I found out:

1. Springtrap can not enter a vent at midnight, he can't kill you at midnight, niether can he appear at your window during this time frame
   
2. During the 12 AM segment, you'll be rebooting all systems 2 times (This will take about 30-40 seconds) After your finished, go back to camera system and seal the vent he's nearest to! After that, go back to the matience panel and reboot "Camera System." After that, 1 AM should roll around. If it doesn't you can try rebooting ventelation if you want but it's optional and is more risky. The rationale behind "Reboot All" is because this will prevent any sudden systems going offline before 2 AM, of course they can go offline during 1 AM but it's very unlikely to happen!
   
3. Once 1 AM rolls around, you have to be more cautious with Springtrap and keep a close eye on him! What you'll be doing until Springtrap appears at the window is spamming the camera panel up and down until he appears. If your not sure where Springtrap is, follow this: Click on Camera 10 and spam the camera panel up and down, if he's not there repeat this throughout all the cameras to prevent a Phantom BB, Phantom Puppet, and Phantom Chica jumpscare, doing this will help you look at camera's 7, 8, 9 without any trouble since they can't attack when you have the camera down and they will be gone once the monitor is back up. They sometimes can be still on the camera, but it's very unlikely as well. Once you find Springtrap while following this strategy, seal the vent he's nearest too! If he's in Camera 5, or 2 seal the nearest vent! If he's in Camera 2 prepare to play audio in Camera 2 because his next move will be the window, sometimes he can go back to Camera 5 or 6 which is good! If he goes to Camera 3 or 4 do not worry, there is no vent he can get in through. Follow this until he appears at the window! Of course, do not get distracted and keep your volume up! Having this in mind, will always keep you prepared for sudden scenario's!
   
4. Once he appears at the window, play audio in Cam 2! If he goes there, seal Camera Vent 15 and do not reboot audio right away! There's a good chance, he'll appear at the window again while your rebooting and will run by the window while the maintenance panel, sometimes he'll go back to Camera 5 which is a good thing! Basically, it's a 50-50 chance! If he goes back to Camera 5, seal Vent Camera 13 and spam the camera up and down again until he appears at the window, repeat the cycle! If he appears at the window again, play audio again in Cam 2 again! There's a very little chance he'll appear at the window for a third time! Most of the time as an ideology if mine, if you play audio in Cam 2 for the first time mostly he'll go back to Cam 5 after the Cam 2 sequence! Basically, you'll be repeating this the entire night! This strategy mainly focuses on dealing with Springtrap and elminates any distractions like Phantom Foxy appearing!
   

This strategy will take some time to get used too! But you should master it in no time and I have defeated Agressive Nightmare Mode pretty consistiently now with this strategy I made up! Of course, you still need some luck like hoping Springtrap doesn't run by the window or enter an unsealed vent while your rebooting systems at 1 AM onwards! But most runs for new players for this strategy can get you to 2 AM - 4 AM and sometimes 5 AM or even complete first try! But sometimes you just get extremely unlucky and die for the cause! This strategy does eliminate some RNG!
If your reading this strategy: Give it a shot and let me know what you think! The goal for this strategy is spend more time on Springtrap and not rebooting devices like every single rotation! This will still require luck but it's pretty consistient once you master the strategy!
If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below and I'll get back to you as soon as possible! Thank you for reading this strategy! I hope it helped you and I'll see you in the next one!
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Good luck!!!
fnafking_93

Obviously, MAJOR spoilers ahead.
Hi all! My group just finished playing through Spelljammer Academy and then straight into Light of Xaryxis, and while it was a great experience overall and my players had a lot of fun, I have some bones to pick with LoX specifically. Disclaimers: I'm not a super experienced DM (I've run a couple one shots and Tomb of Annihilation before this) and I tend to kind of fly by the seat of my pants and lean heavily on the Rule of Cool. Also, I know I'm not the first one to complain about LoX or rewrite portions of it, this is just what worked for me, maybe it will help someone else. Feel free to ask any questions.
So, my group and I decided on a spelljammer campaign- the vibes sounded cool and it was a big tone shift from the campaign we had just finished so I was excited to have some lighthearted fun in space. Fast forward to us getting a third of the way through Light of Xaryxis and me realizing that this adventure makes no fucking sense.
My issues with the story as written and how I fixed them:

1. Too many NPCs. My players couldn't keep them all straight and honestly a lot of them are not necessary to the plot. If they weren't necessary for the story, I just omitted them completely. It's easy enough to just use a couple main NPCs for most roles.
2. Most of the chapters end in cliffhangers, which sounds fun in theory, but in practice is just annoying, especially when it turns out to be a fake-out. I let go of the idea of these cliffhangers early on and just let the sessions end whenever felt natural.
3. I think this adventure leans a bit too heavily on whatever the writers think will be fun to put the players through, while not considering what players are most likely to actually do. One example of this is in Chapter 3, when players arrive at Aruun. The adventure wants your players to land on the planet and pick up Blastimoff, who is being chased by Artuuks a la Jack Sparrow and the cannibals. However, considering Aruun is a dangerous jungle planet home to rampaging Tarrasques, my players understandably refused to land there. Also, wtf was Blastimoff doing on this moon? "Peaceful entreaty" to the Artuuks? He's been attempting to form a coalition for how long and only just now got around to trying to talk to them?
4. The whole second half of the adventure doesn't make any sense. The Xedalli vs Xeleth plot is boring. Why does it matter who gets the crown if the player's world is going to die either way? Why are the only outcomes of this adventure "save your planet and genocide an entire civilization" or "let the Xaryxians live and genocide your own planet"? Like, that sucks. And what the HELL is up with that Zodar battle? I got so annoyed, I just rewrote the entire plot to be as follows:

the Xaryxians plant astral seeds on Toril to harvest the planet’s energy in order to feed their own dying star. Up until now, they have only harvested uninhabited planets, but because Xeleth and Xedalli want more power for themselves, they have decided to target a living world.
The prince and princess want more than just a thriving star for their people, they want power for themselves. They create two starlight rings that divert a portion of the harvested energy into themselves, effectively making themselves immortal.
The twins were meant to rule together and share the power, but Xeleth betrays Xedalli. He frames her for treason and she is banished from xaryxispace, so that he may be crowned instead. Xeleth believes that he destroyed Xedalli’s ring, but it was only a clever copy. Xedalli still has her own starlight ring, which Xeleth will eventually realize.
When the characters find Xedalli aboard the Last Breath, she will play the victim and will use the party to get back to Xaryxis and hopefully kill her brother. She claims:

• The Xaryxian empire drew on their own star to supplement their magic, and it eventually started to dim. They harvest other planet’s energy to keep Xaryxis alive. (true)
• Her evil brother Xeleth orchestrated the attack on Toril even though the elves usually harvest uninhabited planets (true, kind of- they were in on it together)
• Xeleth commanded her to be dropped on Toril so that she would be destroyed by the astral blight but the ship was boarded by vampirates and she was captured (true)
• She wants vengeance (true) and will do her best to save toril if the characters help her become empress (false)
• the only way to stop the energy harvest is by destroying the energy harvesting device at the top of the temple of light on the Citadel, which orbits Xaryxis (false- the device is just a decoy at this point, the set of rings belonging to the twins are the real harvesting devices)

This sets up Xedalli as a wolf-in-sheep's-clothing ally to the party, and they agreed to help her, believing that she could set the Xaryxian Empire back on a peaceful path and save their planet. I also think there's nothing more fun than a good final act NPC betrayal, and this worked out pretty well.
This is how it ended up playing out:
characters arrive in doomspace to search for the coalition.
They find Warwyck Blastimoff, who has not been able to form a coalition. the factions in doomspace don’t see the empire as a threat.
Characters seek out Vocath to convince the factions to join together. He wants them to fight in an arena in exchange for an audience with all the factions.
At the end of the fight, three Xaryxian star moths attack and try to kidnap Xedalli. The factions must all fight together to survive and win the battle. Xedalli is not captured. With that, the factions can be convinced that the empire is a threat. Whatever factions can be convinced, will join the coalition and lend their ships to the fleet. Note- I did not have prince Xeleth present for this fight, only a representative of the Empire.
The players plan an attack on the Citadel. NPCs from earlier in the adventure travel out to join the fight if informed. The fleet takes on Xaryxis’ forces while PC’s ship infiltrates their defences using Gargenhale's invisibility spell and reaches the Temple of Light.
Xedalli and PCs battle Xeleth at the Temple of Light and attempt to destroy the harvesting device (which, unbeknownst to anyone, is pretty much inert and breaking it does nothing), while the coalition fleet battles the Xaryxian forces outside. In the temple, a projection of Toril shows the planet dying in real time, crystal vines choking the surface and motes of energy concentrating in a beam toward Xaryxis. The climactic moment: Xeleth lays dying, a final blow is dealt to the device, and… nothing happens. The vines still grow and energy motes still gather. PCs turn to see Xedalli taking the twin Ring of Shooting Stars from Xeleth’s finger, and she performs a fusion spell that turns two rings into one, concentrating the diverted energy into herself, healing herself to full, surrounding herself with motes of Toril’s energy. And then I wrote a whole evil monologue revealing that this was her plan all along.
Phase 2 boss fight with powered-up Xedalli! My players have a crazy ability to blow through 'deadly' combat encounters with ease, so I gave Xedalli some extra powers, including hp replenishing at the start of every turn from her ring. The party can only kill her and save their planet by destroying her fused ring. Once they do, the crystal vines on Toril wither and die.
This leaves the Xaryxian Empire intact but without leadership, and players can convince the priests or whoever else has some authority to go back to their more peaceful methods and never again try to harvest a living planet.
And that's the adventure! Is this doing too much? Probably. Is there a less complicated way to fix the issues? I'm sure. But it was still a lot of fun for me and my players.
A note on the segue from Spelljammer Academy to Light of Xaryxis: as written, the adventures don't connect well. What I did was change the villain of Spelljammer Academy to be Hastain the reigar. While hiding behind his noble title on the Rock of Braal, Hastain had been working with the Xaryxian Empire to sabotage the Academy in preparation of the Empire's attack on Toril. I planted clues that led to Hastain being behind it all, and that way my party had someone to focus on chasing down in the first half of LoX. Of course, this did mean that we veered majorly off course and spent more than a couple sessions on Braal, as my party wanted to not only break into his house, but discredit him, embarrass him, and eventually kill him. It was worth it though, it was very funny and gave them a good way to uncover the Xaryxian Empire's plot.

Mischief walks up to the blue crystal clock. She spins the the big hand with her magic and the little hand lands of three. A blue flame is lit. Mischief walks away into the darkness; the light from the blue clock making her look like a silhouette.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuZbmLLv1vM

A bead of sweat falls down Mischief head. Her hair on the ground and her back up august the wall. Mischief had been doing a headstand for the last thirty minutes. In her mind, doing this action once a week was a good way to keep her blood flowing and strength high. Sun walked outside and saw Mischief up august the wall. 

“Are you gonna stand there all day”, Sun asks, holding a peach in his hand.
“You should try it”, Mischief said under the pressure. She uses her feet to push off the rock and picks herself up. “It helps with strength endurance and it help you think.”
“Hard pass”, Sun says, biting the peach. “You know I’m not good with my arms.” Mischief smirks and says, “That’s not what I heard from Ne Zha~” Sun stopped walking and almost chocked on the chunk of peach in his mouth. He looked over at Mischief and said in embarrassment, “Could you not bring Him up?”
“Why? What’s the problem”, Mischief teased. “Oh right, you still like him.” Mischief laughs and then says, “After a millennia and you still haven't told him?” Mischief continues to laugh while Sun burns a bright red and shouts, “Can you shut up?!” Sun starts to hit Mischief head and she still laughs.
“Okay, Okay, I’ll stop”, Mischief says. Sun stops laughing and crosses his arms in annoyance. “Go train Mk. I’ll see you in a bit.” Sun walks out to the training dojo. Mischief smiles but then holds her head in pain with both of her hands. She keeps her eyes shut and feels herself being surrounded by darkness. Even when her eyes where shut, she could see a being covered in a moon themed cloak.
“No…! Why are you here?!” The being looks back; her eyes glowing a light blue. She turns and starts to walk over to Mischief. Mischief raises her hand and cast a spell, but the being covered in the moon cloak faces Mischief.
I am you, as you are me.
We are two become one.
Mischief opens her eyes once the pain subsides and sees that the world around her is normal. She looks around to see if anybody else is there. No one. Mischief looks at her hands and sees then shaking with fear.
“No…. not this night…! Please, not this night….!” Mischief walked back into the house and looked around for a quill and scroll.

Mischief walks back outside to see Mk and Sun training. She sits under a shady area near the entrance to the waterfall. Mk jumps back and lands on the mountains wall. She pushes himself off and charges at Sun from above. Sun smirks and jumps directly up while Mk crashed to the ground. 

“Missed me again”, Sun said. He picks up Mk with his tail and asks, “Now how did I win?”
“Misdirection”, Mk guesses.
“Correct”, Sun says.
“That seams like a shady lesson”, Mischief yells.
“Too soon sis.” Mk chuckles a bit.
“I’m just saying the truth”, Mischief says. She walks over and whispers, “And I bet Ne Zha would say the same thing if he was here.” Sun gets an annoyed look on his face and says, “Whatever. And plus, I was always better at fighting than you.”
“Oh really?”
“Wait a second”, Mk interrupted, “You two have fought before?”
“Yeah. But it was for training purposes”, Sun says.
“Now that you mention it, we haven't trained in a while”, Mischief says. “What do you say, but brother?” Sun smirks and says, “Your on.”

Mischief and Sun get into their fighting positions on each side of the training ground. Mk sits on the stairs in anticipation. 

“Not using your weapon sis?”
“I don’t need it”, Mischief said with a smirk on her face. Sun chuckles under his breath and says, “Your done if I land this.” Sun charges to Mischief at full speed. Mischief closes her eyes and smirks. She moves out of the way and pushes her brother to the wall. Sun blinks a few times in confusion and looks back to sees Mischief untouched.
“I’m waiting.” Sun runs over to Mischief and tried to hit her multiple times but each time, Mischief blocks his attacks over and over. “Wow, brother. Your getting rusty.”
“I’ll show you rusty”, Sun exclaims. He jumps back and starts to attack with his legs.
“Not really effective!” Mischief takes Sun’s leg and pins him down with her foot. “Moon: 1. Sun: 0. I win again.”
“Mischief, let me up”, Sun says. Mischief moved her foot off of Sun’s back and says, “I thought you fought celestial beings bigger than me. You sure your not getting rusty?”
“He’s not”, Mk says. “He beat Demon Bull King, Spider Queen, and More! He’s strong enough to fight the Jade Emperor!” Mischief could hear her thoughts snap in half. She chuckles to herself in annoyance and says under her breath, “Yeah…. Sure…” Mischief then holds her head in pain.
“Mischief, are you okay”, Sun asks. He holds her shoulders.
“I’m fine”, Mischief says. “It’s just a headache. And I don’t think I’ll be able to train Mk tonight.”
“It’s okay”, Mk says. “Plus, I promised Mei I would help her fix her bike”
“Thank you, Mk.”

The full moon shines from above the mountain; its rays passing the peek of the mountain. A being covered in a night themed cloak looks down on the city below. She turns back and jumps backward. She closes her eyes and summoned a portal under her. The portal was covered in shadows and it’s magic was a dark blue. The being fell thought the portal and landed on a roof with grace and elegance. She looks back and sees the lights on in each building from each block ahead. 

“Now… where are you?”

Mk walks down the street of the city. He was walking home from Mei’s bike shop and he was hoping to get some well needed rest. 

“This is the last time I stay out this late”, Mk thinks to himself. He looks up and sees a being silhouetted bu the light of the moon. “Who is that?” Mk squints his eyes and sees the being crying up at the moon. “Are they crying?” Before Mk could call to the person, they jumped to the next roof and vanish into the night. Mk runs to the end of the block but doesn’t see the being.
“That person….. Why where they crying?”

“I’m sorry, say that again?” 

“I saw a person last night”, Mk explains. “It looked like they where crying.” Mischief stopped in her tracks and hides behind the house. She looks to her right and back down to the floor.
“H-How, the, Hell, did he see me”, Mischief thought with worry, panicking in her mind. Her racing thoughts coming to a halt. Mischief touched her broach and thought, “He was with Mei that night. He must have been walking home when he saw me.” Mischief lied the back of her head on the house wall and says, “Damn you, Moon Maiden…!” Mischief sighs and thinks, “There’s no way I can control her at this rate.” Mischief walks back to the front and sees Mk and Sun walking to the top of the mountain.
“Where are you two going?”
“We’re going to train at the top of the mountain”, Sun says. “Wanna come?”
“Sorry, not this time”, Mischief says. “I still have a bit of a headache.”
“Oh… does that mean no training tonight either”, Mk asks.
“I’m sorry, Mk”, Mischief says.
“It’s alright. Take care of yourself. We can train when you feel better.” Mischief smiles. She then remembered how her mentor from years past was so understanding. She saw a lot of them in Mk. “Well see you later.” Mk and Sun walked up the path to the top of the mountain. Mischief looks off to the side is sadness. She hated lying to Mk and her brother, but she had to protect them at all cost. She could risk to lose them like she lost…… her….
Mischief sits on a rock near the edge of the cliff and looks up at the sky. It had almost been a month since she had been away from the celestial realm: her home. She wondered if the cheetah twins had been playing in the celestial forest around this time. She touches her broach and says, “I miss you, mother…..” Pink magic flew around Mischief and a scroll appeared. Mischief catches the scroll and looks at the wax seal. “This is Ne Zha’s crest.” Mischief opens the scroll and a necklace rolls into her lap. She looks at the necklace and then read the scroll as follows:
Mischief,

**It’s good to hear from you again. I heard from your mother that you moved to earth. I hope Sun hasn’t been giving you too much of a headache. I did some research on what you told me about and it lead me to this necklace. And I also found out that the reason your alter ego is coming out on her own is because she hasn’t been bound. One of your ancestors had the same problem and they had a solution. The necklace I set you is called the moon of Apithaea. It has the power to control your alter ego’s rage. It might help you. I hope you get a hendel on your powers.** 

Could you tell sun I said hi?
-Ne Zha
Mischief chuckles and says, “Looks like Ne Zha hasn’t changed one bit. Still the same helpful prince I know.” She smirks. “And his interest in Sun hasn’t left at all.” Mischief looks at the necklace and then placed it around her neck. “Thank you, Lotus.”

Mk and Sun fight along the mountain Plato. However, Mk couldn’t couldn’t really concentrate. He was worried about Mischief, and he was thinking about the person he saw the other night. Mk was so distracted that he didn’t realize that he had left an opening for Sun to hit him. Sun stops his attack midway. 

“You got distracted.” Mk lowers his staff and shudders, “S-Sorry.”
“Are you okay? You seam distracted”, Sun points out.
“I’m worried about Mischief”, Mk says. Sun looked at Mk and the to the side of him, thinking of how to help Mk. she smiles and says, “Kid, follow me. I wanna show you something.”
“What is it?” Sun taps on the ground and a hatch opens. “Now way! How long had this been here?”
“A long time”, Sun says. He jumps and and says, “Come on!” Mk jumps down the hole and lands in a cavern like cave.
“Whoa…. Had this always been down here”, Mk asks.
“Yup”, Sun says. Mk looks ahead and sees a crystal floating above a pedestal; it’s light casting along the floor. Mk walks up to the crystal and asks, “What is this?”
“This is the crystal of the sun”, Sun explains. “This crystal has protected this mountain for a very long time. It was made over three millennia ago.”
“It’s amazing.” Mk takes a closer look at and then gets a vision.
Mischief looks back at someone; her face angry and upset.
She says something but her words are distorted and scrambled.
“She was your mentor!”
Mk blinks a few times and moves his hand away from the crystal. Sun notice Mk’s discomfort and asks, “Are you okay?”
“Huh? Oh, I’m fine”, Mk reassures Sun.
“If you say so.” Sun says.
“Hey, Monkie King? Can I ask you something?”

Mk and Sun walk along the roof of a building. 

“Are you sure the person you saw the other night is gonna be here”, sun asked.
“I’m sure of it”, Mk says. The two look around. Mk looks to the north and sees the same person from the other night. “Hey!” Sun looks over to see Mk running over to the hooded person.
“Mk, wait!”
“Um. Excuse me?” The hooded figure looks back; her eyes covered in shadows. “I noticed you the other night and I wanted to meet you.” The hooded figure looks at Mk for a second.
“MK…..?”
“You know who I am?” Sun takes a closer look at the hooded woman and gains a surprised look on his face.
“Mischief?” The being blinks a few times and then says, “I’m sorry. I don’t know anyone by that name.” She tries to walk away, but Sun holds her by the solder which makes Mischief’s necklace break off. The necklace falls to the ground and Mischief’s head hands low.
“Mischief? Are you okay”, Sun asks. Mischief looks back with her glowing eyes piercing Sun’s soul from within. Sun could feel a chill go up his spine. “Um, Mischief?” Mischief rushes back and attacks Sun. “Sis! Stop! What are you doing?!”
“Anyone who get’s in my way will be destroyed”, She yells. Sun whips around and holds his sister down with all the strength he has within him.
“Mk, get the necklace”, he shouts. Mk looks over and sees the necklace. He runs over and picks it up. Mischief looks over in panic and rage.
“No!” She breaks free from her brothers hold and rushes over to Mk and holds him by his collar. Sun tries to rush over to Mischief, but she puts of a barrier. She looks up at Mk and says, “I will not be locked up like a prisoner!”
“What? I don’t get it. Who are you”, Mk asks, struggling to break free. Mischief chuckles to herself, looks up at Mk and says, “So she didn’t tell you? Your her apprentice. Surely you can tell the difference.”
“What?”
“You don’t know? I am–!” Before she could finish her sentence, A ghostly rendition of Mischief, the real Mischief, Holds back her own body. Mk falls to the ground and looks up to see the scene taking place before him.
“Mischief?”
“Mk, I’m sorry”, Mischief exclaims. “I got you and my brother rapped up in this!” Sun runs over and helps up Mk.
“Mischief, who is this”, Mk asks.
“Moon Maiden”, Mischief answers, struggling to hold her back. “She’s my alter ego. I can’t control her without the necklace! Get it!” Sun and Mk run over to the necklace. “You have gone out of control for the last time! You going back where you belong!” Moon maiden holds Mischief by her neck and says, You really think you can control me?! I am half of you that lingers in your shadow! The dark side of light! You can’t escape me, Mischief Wukong!” Mischief puts her hand on Moon Maiden’s arm and says, “No…”
“What?”
“Your right. You are part of me. But you are nothing but an alter ego! I have been through hell and back! I have lost my way over and over, but I never gave up! I have kept you back for over two damn millennia, and I’m not stopping now”, Mischief shouts, felling herself gaining power. Mischief breaks free and holds Moon Maiden with her magic. “NOW!” Mk and Sun put the necklace on Moon Maiden. Mischief lies up and forces herself back into her body. Mischief looks in the darkness and faces her alter ego. “I know you are part of me, and it’s time to make peace with the past”, Mischief says. She puts out her hand to her alter ego. “And I want you to face it with me. If you allow me to.” Moon Maiden looks down and says, “Then I guess we really are one in the same.” She takes Mischief hand.
“We are two become one. The shadow of the sun.”

Mischief gains breath and she holds herself up. 

“M, are you okay”, Sun asks.
“I’m alright”, Mischief says.

“Alter ego, Huh? That’s a new one”, Sun says. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about her before”, Mischief says. “I though I could control her on my own, but I can’t even do that right.”
“Mischief, you can talk to us”, Mk says. “We’re here for you.” Mischief looks at both Mk and Sun and says, “You know, I think me coming down here was a blessing in disguise. I’m glad you two are here with me.” The trio smiles.

If you're looking to understand more about dog boxes, you're in the right place. Dog boxes are essential for many pet owners, especially for those who travel frequently or need a secure place for their dogs. Here’s a comprehensive guide to help you make an informed decision.

What is a Dog Box?

A dog box, also known as a dog crate or kennel, is a secure, enclosed space designed for dogs. It serves multiple purposes such as transportation, training, and providing a safe, comfortable environment for your pet.

Types of Dog Boxes

Plastic Dog Boxes

• Pros: Durable, often airline-approved, provides privacy.
• Cons: Less ventilation, can be bulky.

Wire Dog Boxes

• Pros: Excellent ventilation, collapsible for easy storage, often comes with a removable tray for cleaning.
• Cons: Less privacy, can be noisy if not well-constructed.

Soft-Sided Dog Boxes

• Pros: Lightweight, portable, easy to store.
• Cons: Less durable, not suitable for destructive dogs or escape artists.

Heavy-Duty Dog Boxes

• Pros: Extremely durable, great for strong and large breeds, often made of metal.
• Cons: Heavy, expensive, less portable.

How to Choose the Right Dog Box?

Size Matters

• Ensure the box is large enough for your dog to stand, turn around, and lie down comfortably.
• Measure your dog’s height and length and choose a box that provides a bit more space than these dimensions.

Purpose and Usage

• For travel: Opt for sturdy, well-ventilated boxes, ideally plastic or heavy-duty metal.
• For home use: Wire or soft-sided boxes can be more convenient and easier to clean.

Durability and Safety

• Check for secure latches and sturdy construction to prevent escapes.
• Look for materials that are chew-resistant, especially for puppies and active dogs.

Benefits of Using a Dog Box

Training Tool

• Helps in housebreaking by teaching your dog bladder control.
• Provides a safe space for your dog to retreat and relax.

Travel Safety

• Ensures your dog’s safety during car rides.
• Many are airline-approved, making air travel with pets easier.

Preventing Destructive Behavior

• Keeps your dog safe and prevents destructive behavior when you’re not at home.

Tips for Introducing Your Dog to a Dog Box

1. Make it Comfortable: Add soft bedding and your dog’s favorite toys.
2. Positive Reinforcement: Use treats and praise to encourage your dog to enter and stay in the box.
3. Gradual Introduction: Start with short periods and gradually increase the time your dog spends in the box.

FAQs about Dog Boxes

Q: Can I use a dog box for potty training? A: Yes, dog boxes are highly effective for potty training. They help teach your dog to hold their bladder until they are let outside.
Q: How long can I leave my dog in a dog box? A: It depends on the dog’s age and training. Puppies should not be left for more than a few hours, while adult dogs can stay for longer periods if they are well-trained and comfortable.
Q: What should I put in my dog’s box? A: Include soft bedding, toys, and water (especially for longer periods). Avoid leaving food inside for extended periods to prevent messes.
By understanding the different types of dog boxes and how to choose the right one, you can ensure your furry friend has a safe, comfortable space whether at home or on the go.

I want to create a playbook on 'Understanding the PMP Question structures' for the PMP community here
Below is section one DRAFT. I think I've managed to use the PMP GPT simulator to align to its knowledge bank of questions and answers.
Feedback would be welcome before I look to develop the other sections - A) would it be helpful? b) Too much detail it may hinder or mislead ?
Othr sections would include 'decoding key phrases and terminology' eg risk indicators, issue indicators ...

1. Understanding Question Types

The PMP exam features various types of questions designed to assess your knowledge and understanding of project management principles, processes, and best practices. Recognizing and understanding these question types is crucial for approaching them effectively and maximizing your chances of success. Here are the main question types you can expect to encounter:

1.1 Action Questions

Action questions require you to identify the most appropriate action or next step to take in a given project scenario. These questions typically begin with phrases like "What should the project manager do?" or "What action should the project manager take next?" Examples include:

• "Do" Questions: Asking what the project manager should do in a specific situation.
• "Do Next" Questions: Inquiring about the most appropriate next step or action to take.
• "Do First" Questions: Assessing which action or step should be prioritized and done first.

These questions test your ability to apply project management knowledge and best practices to determine the most appropriate course of action in a given context. They often require you to consider various factors, such as project constraints, stakeholder needs, and potential impacts on scope, schedule, cost, and quality.
Example: "During the execution phase of a construction project, a major safety incident occurred on-site, resulting in injuries to several workers. What should the project manager do first?"
a) Immediately stop all work and secure the site to prevent further incidents. b) Conduct an investigation to determine the root cause of the incident. c) Update the risk register and develop a mitigation plan. d) Consult with the project sponsor and senior management.
Explanation and Breakdown: - Type: "Do First" Question - Immediate Priority: The question specifies "first," indicating a need to prioritize the immediate actions. - Options Analysis: - Option (a) addresses immediate safety by stopping work and securing the site. - Option (b) focuses on understanding the cause, which is secondary. - Option (c) deals with documentation and planning, which is not immediate. - Option (d) involves communication with management, which comes after ensuring safety. - Correct Answer: (a) - Stopping work and securing the site prevents further incidents and ensures immediate safety, which is the highest priority in project management. Addressing safety concerns immediately is crucial to prevent further harm and to comply with safety regulations. Once the site is secure, further steps such as investigation and communication can be taken.

1.2 Assessment Questions

Assessment questions evaluate your ability to analyze and assess past actions or decisions made in a project scenario. These questions often require you to identify what should have been done differently or what action or step was missed or overlooked. Examples include:

• "Should Have Done" Questions: Asking what the project manager should have done in a particular situation, implying that a different action or decision should have been taken.
• "Not Done" Questions: Inquiring about an action, step, or process that was not carried out but should have been.

These questions test your understanding of project management best practices and your ability to critically evaluate decisions and actions taken in a project. They may require you to recognize deviations from established processes, missed opportunities, or potential consequences of the actions described in the scenario.
Example: "During the planning phase of a software development project, the project manager failed to engage key stakeholders in defining the project scope and requirements. As a result, the project encountered significant scope creep and rework during execution. What should the project manager have done differently?"
a) Strictly enforced the defined project scope and rejected any scope changes. b) Obtained approval from the project sponsor before allowing scope changes. c) Involved key stakeholders in defining and validating the project scope and requirements. d) Consulted with the project team to prioritize the requested features within the existing scope.
Explanation and Breakdown: - Type: "Should Have Done" Question - Problem Identification: The scenario specifies the failure to engage key stakeholders, leading to scope creep and rework. - Options Analysis: - Option (a) suggests enforcement without stakeholder engagement, which is impractical and could lead to conflict. - Option (b) involves approval but does not prevent the initial issue of scope creep. - Option (c) addresses the root cause by involving stakeholders early on, ensuring their requirements and expectations are met. - Option (d) focuses on internal prioritization without addressing stakeholder input. - Correct Answer: (c) - Involving key stakeholders in defining and validating the project scope is essential for preventing scope creep and ensuring all requirements are understood and agreed upon from the start. This approach ensures that stakeholder expectations are managed and aligned with the project goals, reducing the likelihood of changes later in the project. Engaging stakeholders early also fosters a sense of ownership and collaboration, which is critical for project success.

1.3 Reactive Questions

Reactive questions test your ability to respond to project situations or challenges by identifying the most appropriate or inappropriate action or decision. These questions typically use phrases like "most likely" or "least likely" to assess your understanding of project management best practices. Examples include:

• "Least Likely" Questions: Asking you to identify the least likely or inappropriate action or decision in a given scenario.
• "Most Likely" Questions: Requiring you to select the most likely or appropriate action or decision to take.

These questions evaluate your ability to make sound judgments and prioritize appropriate responses based on the given project context. They may involve assessing the likelihood and potential impacts of different actions or decisions, as well as considering factors such as project constraints, stakeholder needs, and best practices.
Example: "A project is running behind schedule. The project manager decides to fast-track the project. Which of the following is least likely to be a consequence of this decision?"
a) Increased risk of rework. b) Improved stakeholder satisfaction. c) Increased project costs. d) Potential conflicts in resource allocation.
Explanation and Breakdown: - Type: "Least Likely" Question - Context Understanding: The project manager decides to fast-track the project to recover schedule delays. - Options Analysis: - Option (a) mentions increased risk of rework, a common outcome of fast-tracking due to overlapping tasks and potential errors. - Option (b) suggests improved stakeholder satisfaction, which is less likely as fast-tracking typically introduces more risks and issues. - Option (c) refers to increased costs due to additional resources or overtime required to accelerate the schedule. - Option (d) mentions potential conflicts in resource allocation, a typical risk of compressing schedules where resources are stretched thin. - Correct Answer: (b) - Fast-tracking typically leads to increased risks, costs, and resource conflicts. Stakeholder satisfaction is least likely to improve because the additional stress and potential quality issues that arise from fast-tracking can cause dissatisfaction. This answer reflects an understanding of the negative impacts of compressing project schedules and the trade-offs involved in such decisions.

1.4 Other Question Types

In addition to the above question types, you may encounter variations or combinations of these formats, such as:

• "Most Important" Questions: Assessing your ability to prioritize and identify the most important action, step, or consideration in a given scenario.
• "Least Important" Questions: Evaluating your understanding of which action, step, or consideration is least important or can be deprioritized.

Understanding and recognizing these different question types is essential for approaching each question effectively and providing the most appropriate response.
By familiarizing yourself with these question types and practicing with relevant examples, you can enhance your ability to tackle the PMP exam confidently and successfully.

Imagine being told the house would take 10-13 months to build. And then imagine being assigned a crappy construction manager named Kevin Thornton and waiting 18+ months for the completion of your home, who seemed to only been hired because his brother Chris Thornton was already a construction manager for the company.
Being told 4 false closing dates. Having to lose a good interest rate because they don’t know how to build a house within a reasonable time. I’ve seen whole apartment complexes built in the time we’ve been waiting.
Having to reach out to said construction manager and the sale consultant Zac Davidson every single month to get an update when you were told you would get an update roughly every two weeks. Being lied to every single month. Trish is also a dishonest unprofessional woman who constantly dodges phone calls and lies about everything.
Finding a crappy job being done in the primary bathroom shower and them having to rip it out and start over again, because part of the shower wall was bowing out into a triangle shape and the small square tiles were not flat and straight with tons of extra grout around them. Having a crappy grading job where 1/3 of the back yard is unusable. And nothing can be done about it, Holiday Builders just loves cheap labor.
Going through a full roll of blue painters tape to point out all the flaws in the construction, where the manager will run out of tape, but luckily we brought some to continue using half the roll. And they still didn’t fix everything the first go around, where we had to call them back multiple times to fix the issues described at the first walkthrough, after closing. You’ll find paint on every single door handle in the house. And paint splatter all over your floors. Different caulking colors used on the countertops right next to each other. You’ll ask them to paint the water access water into the home because it looked like crap the first time and then they’ll make it worse and also paint the grass and gutter runoff as well because they simple don’t give a hoot about anything.
They even had to rip up two parts of the yard to have water and septic lines in place inspected because they forgot and now we’re stuck with even more shitty grading and yard work because of that.
They’ll schedule exterior stuff after laying sod down that end up leaving the yard dug up and not manicured and looking like trash. And then you’ll wait weeks for them to come fix it.
They give you a smart door lock that’s supposed to come with the Rekeying tool, but they won’t give it to you for unspecified reasons, even though you paid for it. You’ll ask if the front door lock is a smart/Wi-Fi compatible one. They’ll say no, but after reading the manual you’ll find out it is. They don’t even know how the products they’re installing works!
Being told a shower door for the primary bathroom isn’t even included after finding out 1 week before closing, seems like their architects failed physics, because water still gets out the shower with a door there if it’s it recessed. Finding out that something as inexpensive as cabinet handles are not included and finding out after the first walkthrough that they’re an “expensive upgrade”, when it was never mentioned during the upgrades selection. Why would I upgrade to 42” upper cabinets and soft close but not op for handles, does that make sense to you. Paying nearly 400k for a house and they can’t even do these simple thing’s correctly or offer these simple things as standard. What if someone had a disability and opening cabinets without handles is extremely difficult for them. Holiday Builders doesn’t give a single hoot about you if that’s the case.
When blinds and a refrigerator and a washer and dryer and a garage door openers are already not included. I would expect the said things above be STANDARD! And a sales consultant that only cares about his paycheck and his ego, than the customer named Zac Davidson, who won’t let you know certain basic things are an upgrade. Zac Davidson is a man that gets his feelings hurt when he gets caught in a lie and starts to be disrespectful when he doesn’t agree with something you’re trying to explain to him.
Holiday builders doesn’t care about the customer. They only care about their wallets. They’ll rush to get the CO before having everything installed. In hopes of you signing before notice they put a hole in your drywall while installing your shelves. Or better yet the construction manager won’t even walkthrough the house prior to have any touch ups or fixes done before the first walk through. We found out our water heater wasn’t even hooked up correctly after closing. Holiday Builders are real comedians.
The trades that they hire can’t even get simple things done like paint and caulking and not painting the floor and door handles, we basically covered the whole house in blue tape and only 50% of it was taken care it. 50% of the trims around the door frames were missing paint and the other 50% looked like a blind man painted the door frames, thick goops of paint and splatter everywhere. They’ll even make sure the caulking where the base boards meet the dry wall has spider web cracking in every single ROOM. Every single one of these trades and construction managers need glasses because I do not honestly understand how you can be proud of your work and let customers find this type of garbage work.
We were so fed up with this process we ended up just fixing all of the issues ourselves. Don’t build with them unless you’re okay with paying for upgrades on basic things that should be standard and you’ll have to ask the construction managers like they’re a 4th grader if they completed their homework. And having to do all the basic touch ups yourselves. It’s extremely frustrating and sad that I can’t be excited about being my first home because of this shitty fucking experience. Also any response to this review will be taken as passive aggressive, if you state that this was taken care of because it wasn’t, everything still looks like shit.
The plumbers and septic company they use suck too. We’re still dealing with sewage smells in our home that they can’t figure out. Constant back ups due to poor plumbing ventilation and workmanship. The plumbers came to investigate and didn’t even have any of the right tools or equipment to do anything and had to borrow my equipment. If you’re wondering which clowns they use. Naber Plumbing and Brain David Septic.
They even under size the AC unit tonnage for the home. Your AC will run for 18 hours a day. I found that they didn’t even seal the area for where the cold air comes out the air handler. It was just blowing all the cold air into the AC room and into the attic. Mechanical One don’t know what they’re doing and Holiday Builder takes shortcuts everywhere they can with undersizing your AC unit and going with the cheapest labor.
Every single builder in the area builds homes faster than these clowns.
Holiday Builders suck. Ever heard the saying lazy people work twice. Everything about their workmanship is trash. The construction managers do not inspect work done by the trades after it is completed. Their scheduling sucks too. They lie about everything, every step of the way. Don’t build with them. We’re still finding issues every single damn day with this house. Don’t make the mistake of building with Holiday Builders. Build with Maronda or anyone else other than this clowns. Zac Davison sucks. Trish sucks. Chris Thornton sucks and his brother Kevin Thornton sucks even more, Steve Pettko sucks. Chris Cubillos Suck.

Wassup people, I bring Discord tidings once again. If you know base stuff already, slingshot will be at bottom.
No doubt lot of you (kinda obvious from threads lol) have now experienced the shift from no longer doing the endless number monuments with blocks directly, into having 4 buildings surrounding a central block storage pile.
This is called "Base Builder", and is a currently beta feature that has been expanding to eventually come to everyone.
On the left side you have a hot air balloon looking "Logistics", on the right you have "Arsenal" that's kinda like a barracks / factory, bottom in turn is fortress / mini castle looking "Defense" or what was it. And up top you got "Town Hall".
After you set a building up, with the exception of TH (more on that in a sec) what you gotta do is spend blocks from storage to do "jobs" at them. I >think< arsenal also needs you to spend some cards from a card of your choosing? (I dont have BB yet so can't check)
After a job is finished, you'll get a decent small payout (grows with building level), including XP for the building. Once you've filled up the XP gauge, you can level the building up. This'll give you some benefits, mainly 1 skill point to use on any of the 3 skills the buildings have.
Currently only logistics skills are open, we dunno what TH's environments will do, the other 2 are just preview images that you can't unlock.
Pretty self-explanatory. 4x adds a 4x multiplier to the middle of reward gauge, and further points grow the area to make it easier to hit. More looting time is just that. Caps around 2 sec extra or so? Teleport will at random move some of your mobs, sometimes champs, from phase 1 of a map to phase 2 to give you a head start (or phase 3 if you got slingshot)
Currently the level caps for the 3 skill buildings are 100, so you'll get 99 points max to each. It >might< grow later but for now be a little careful what you put points into unless you want to spend some time doing ads to take em back for respending 5 points at a time.
Town Hall differs in the sense that it can't be leveled directly cause it has no jobs, and it only gains XP from leveling up the other 3 buildings. Due to this its always gonna lag behind a bit, and has a level cap of 50. For the most part its just for storage (until environments anyway, whenever that'll be), with the rest coming from your league. (immortal is 10k storage, god tier don't count cause not a league).
Storage full? What about events?
Unfortunately yes, blocks at this time that exceed your storage capacity will be wasted during normal play. Key phrase >normal<, because during Piggy Race and World Clash your entire loot will still count, even if you can't fit a single block more to space. This will change later, more of that in a sec.
BUT ADS-ADS-ADS
Yes, I know =w=;; I'm not all too big on the situation either. Now don't take this as absolute 100% unchangable truth since I'm not a developer, but the main boss man of theirs did tell us in Elite Chat area that their current plan to try if not solve then at least remedy the above excess block wastage and ad galore issue, by later introducing a "time machine" of some sort. This, be it a building or feature or whatever (we dunno what form yet), will take your excess looted blocks, and use them to speed up your ongoing timers. Number subject to possible change, but the value he mentioned so far was 1000 (1k) blocks for 1 minute skipped each. I'd presume its to all ongoing timers at the time, for ease of coding.
So simply said, not best situation, but it >should< hopefully get significantly better soon.
I been waiting, why no BB yet?
Its their by far most massive update to the game so far, so despite going as fast as they can (especially due to unexpected bugs) its been a little slow going. The impatience of players and their displeasure at uneven competitive scene due to this has been made known though, so their current priority above all seems to be trying to get at least basic BB out the door for everyone.
We just now on friday had a significant expansion of the percentage to what I believe is more or less 50% of the entire player base. The next stage >might< be what they were promising before this, an inclusion of everyone who has at least 100 or more bases made on the old form.
I want the purple memento to have a funny number. Wat do?
When you receive the beta, finishing the current base you are on will convert you to the new form, and take that last finished number as your mini monument at top right. So lets say you want it to say 500? Then you need to finish 499 bases, then stay on the blueprint unfinished stage of 500 until you receive beta. After receiving, complete it, and puff it should say 500 on monument.
Okay I know all that, wut dis slingshot thing?
Pretty much self explanatory, a small occasional (seemingly random chance) activity to spice up normal 2 phase maps a little. It'll appear during transition from phase 1 to 2, a gap of some sort (collapsed bridge, energy storm, void, lava, etc), with an enormous giga slingshot like in the moon battle ad of the game against that giant 999 HP tower.
There's a predetermined path you can (dont have to, but why not? more benefit) take for some extra coin, and you'll have anywhere from I believe 2 to 4-5 bubbles rotating around over the gap. Red coin bubbles reduce them, green ones give. Green blocks gives blocks of course, and green skip is 1 skip.
Most seem to quite enjoy it, no bugs that we can see, with a lot of suggestions of wishing the rewards were a little higher. No dev comment on if they'll do that or not yet, but I think it might be in beta phase still so I reckon its not impossible it might be finetuned for full release.

Hail, fellow Helldivers!
I’m a game dev with over 20 years experience, half of that on live service games or MMOs, all of it on core combat for action games, on game teams ranging from 10 people to over 600.
I play a ton of hard co-op action games, and I was a huge fan of Helldivers 1. I’m honestly in awe of how good Helldivers 2 is, even after the hundreds of hours I’ve put into it, and how they’ve sustained the pace of updates for so long after launch.
Yes, this is a throwaway Reddit account, I wanted to share some of my thoughts without inviting death threats.
Development
This game must have been in development since shortly after Arrowhead’s last released game, Helldivers 1 (plus whatever DLC and maintenance), so, 8 years give or take (I sent Pilestedt a congratulatory email, but presumably he’s drowning in them, haha).
I ran into the devs at GDC 2019, shared a few drinks and we talked shop about our similar games. They were super cagey but very excited about what they were working on, even moreso when they found out I was a huge fan of HD1. They were clearly already deep in development of HD2 at that point.
This has been discussed elsewhere, but it adds to how impressive this game is: this is the same engine (Autodesk Stingray) as Helldivers 1, a top-down game with 2D gameplay and much lower visual fidelity. Stingray is no longer supported by Autodesk as of sometime after 2018, so most of the features HD2 required would have been built in-house by Arrowhead. To my knowledge there’s only one other studio actively using the engine, and that’s Fat Shark, the developers of (most recently) Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.
The AH team has grown massively in size over the past 8 years. I don’t have the exact numbers, but it’s a 5x to 10x increase in size. Scaling up that fast and not ruining your company culture is super hard, and you can see plenty of other studios that have tried to grow so they can build bigger games and have fallen apart doing it.
Helldivers 2 easily has a AAA level of polish. I’ve gone back to HD1 recently, which at the time looked and played super well, and the improvements are night and day. HD2’s production values compare favorably to any random AAA game released in the last few years
Weapons
Building first or third person weapons to this level of quality is extremely expensive. A unique gun for a AAA first person shooter might take 4-6 weeks of artist time and the same (or more) of designer time to set up and tune the gameplay. For any completely new type of weapon, factor in around 6 months of animator time, and a few weeks for a variant that has a different reload animation or similar. E.g. all rifle-sized shotguns might use the same base shotgun animation set, but the continuous reload shotguns would have a different reload animation than the Breaker family. Then you need VFX and audio too.
Vehicles are even moreso, taking months for each, more if they can seat multiple players or have points that contact the ground (e.g. wheels).
Environments
Building environments that look this good is expensive even if you know what you want, having built a prototype version, you then have to iterate on it while you refine the gameplay and then build the final art. Building environments that look this good and are procedurally generated in as freeform a way as in HD2 is mind-boggling. Let alone doing that in a way that runs fast enough. Sure once it’s all up and running you have a ton of variety for relatively cheap, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen the proc gen create a serious gameplay problem, and that indicates very clever design and thorough testing.
AI
AI that works as well as this is expensive to build, and typically computationally expensive at runtime too. In games like Call of Duty or whatever, you have a static environment, with maybe 10-20 active AI at a time, prebuilt navmesh (which is a hand-drawn or generated map that allows AI to move around the environment without having to calculate valid geometry constantly at runtime), and level or encounter designers have hand scripted a lot of what looks like emergent AI behavior. HD2 can’t do any of that; there can be hundreds of enemies active at once, the environments are procedurally generated, AND terrain can be deformed, buildings can be destroyed etc. The AI can’t be scripted to the same degree as on a static map, probably the devs have hints that are procedurally added to the world and not much more. It helps that all of the enemies we’ve seen so far are the “implacably advancing” kind, typically they don’t have any complex behaviors, and instead the design of the character themselves and their attacks carries the gameplay. Smart design. The Illuminate in HD1 were much sneakier, it’ll be interesting to see how that faction translates to a full 3D game with a lot more enemies active at once.
UI
This game has a lot of quality of life features that it’s easy to take for granted, but are hard to build, and hard to retrofit to an existing game, for example:
· A zoomable, pingable minimap (IMO this is a best-in-class minimap implementation)
· A ping system
· Battlepass implementation allowing for not expiring old battle passes.
And all of this is UI-heavy, where UI is one of the most expensive things to make in AAA games. Every project I’ve shipped, UI has been a bottleneck. It doesn’t help that every company basically builds a UI system from scratch, since engines rarely have something shippable built in, and Scaleform (the most prominent UI middleware) went away. And then it takes a ton of iteration to get to a point where a feature is powerful and intuitive to players.
Gamefeel
If you play much of the most highly-regarded AAA shooters, you might not like the feel of some of the weapons in Helldivers 2 by comparison. They often feel slow to use, hard to aim, and punishing of misses, bad timing or bad positioning. Some of this is a polish thing and probably isn’t intended, e.g. scopes that look janky in first person, misaligned reticles and similar stuff. Most of it though looks deliberate, and supports the gameplay they’re laser-focused on building. The weapons are largely useful in very specific situations, and are not power fantasy moments for the player. There are serious tradeoffs, including “if I’m caught by a melee enemy with a Recoilless Rifle out, I’m in trouble”, the most powerful support weapons preventing you from bringing a shield, the snappiest weapons typically only being useful against weak enemies, etc. Most mass-market shooters sacrifice this extreme level of tradeoff in service of making the game feel better to play, and can lack gameplay variety as a result.
Given all of the above, most of the content that Arrowhead has released post ship must have been built alongside the rest of the game. It’s unlikely that they’re able to turn around 3 new weapons, new giant enemies, new mission types etc every month for several months in a row building them from scratch since ship. And yet, the game at launch still felt complete. This is a hard balance to strike. I wonder how much near-shippable content they have in their war-chest, and whether they’ll be able to generate more quickly enough to satisfy the appetite of the community on an ongoing basis.
Balance
Typically on a live game, the same designers build gameplay, ship it, and then balance it in patches post-ship. Sometimes a studio will have a separate “live team”, either dedicated, or rotating members of the dev team through it, but this isn’t common and it doesn’t look like Arrowhead splits the team up like this.
In any case, players always ask why developers ever nerf anything, and it’s for three reasons:
· Typically only a small number of things (weapons, abilities, heroes) are dominant, and a very large number are OK or weak in the current meta – buffing everything else would be extremely expensive, and since it’s the same people doing this work and building new content, it’d reduce the amount of new content the team could make. So it’s much more efficient to tamp down the overpowered things as a priority, and buff some other options at the same time.
· “No nerf, only buff” results in player power creep over time, which makes the game easier, and eventually will require a correction either in the form of a large scale nerf pass or buffs to enemies – both of these are bad: players hate widespread nerfs, and buffing enemies can put the game in a degenerate state where lethality is skewed, or only the best players can compete because they have all the best gear, or you end up in an arms race between player design and enemy design as both teams try to react to player feedback or overall game difficulty.
· Having a small number of overpowered things is much more destructive to a varied meta than a small number of weak things. Say you have 100 abilities and 3 of them are overpowered. Well, now everyone’s only using 3% of the possible content. Say you have 100 abilities and 3 of them are too weak.The other 97% is viable. Overly simplistic, clearly there’s a gradient, but you get the idea.
BTW the pace at which Arrowhead has updated balance is extremely fast for a large PvE game. Some small PvP-only games can react this quickly to a developing meta, but on large-scale games it takes weeks or months of testing and platform certification to ship balance updates on consoles. And “hotfixes”, i.e. very quick responses to critical issues, have a high level of scrutiny on them, i.e. lots of justifiable red tape, and often require crunch.
Community Interaction
It’s extremely rare for developers from large studios at any level to talk directly to the community, mostly because the gaming community burned those bridges long ago, by doxing devs they don’t agree with, sending them death threats, or just generally abusing them publicly and anonymously. No way in hell would I be public facing, and no one at any studio should be required to unless it’s explicitly part of their job. And even then, I feel for community managers. Direct communication from devs is a precious thing, and not one that should be taken for granted or used as an avenue for abuse.
*Salutes* to Arrowhead
Huge, huge kudos to Arrowhead. This game is an absolute triumph. To go from a small team making top-down games, to a medium-sized AAA team that shipped a game that catapulted right to the top of the most-played charts and game of the year lists and has stayed there is a massive accomplishment. I hope you’re all seeing a big payday from this success!

Husband never knows why im upset 🙄
Context of today and last night
Hubby lays down 3yr old to nap at 4pm (his naps are between 1:30&2 normally, 4 way too late)
I say no cause i know LO will be up all night (foreshadowing)
Hubby lays down at 4:30 and says “its fine ill be up with him tonight”
Fine, whatever.
LO actually falls asleep at 6:30pm then gets up EVERY HOUR THROUGH THE NIGHT then gets up for the day at 4 am, ive been up all night at this point(of course now im pissed cause his schedule is wrecked)
Btw hubby never woke up
Im like okay fine ill just sleep when he get up, figuring he’ll be up any minute.
LO is out where he is on the couch, turning on all the lights, yelling, playing with toys, yelling “daddy! Daddy!”, jumping on hubs face….not a move.
At this point me and LO have been out there for an hr (LO is playing with some pebbles at the counter-important later)
Finally hubby wakes up on his own once I’ve finally got the kid calm down on my own, im exhausted and even more pissed at this point.
Im 21wks pregnant btw and put LO to bed and get up with him everyday.
Hubby tries to come in and I don’t even wanna bother with him, he sees LO is with me and just leaves to play the computer.
I put LO out in his room with his tablet because he’s jumping on me and getting rowdy (hubby has the [audio video] baby monitor) he knows LO is in his room.
I go back in and fall asleep assuming he will get LO since he’s up with the monitor and i told him i haven’t slept.
LO gets up and comes back in bed with me (quietly like a sneaky toddler) while im asleep then decides hes gunna put some more random rocks he found under the bed, in his mouth (he collects rocks)
Hubby comes in (im still asleep) and he sees LO putting some in his mouth and he starts yelling at me and LO waking me out of a dead sleep.
He starts yelling at LO and spanks him then comes back in at starts yelling at me about watching LO and why he has rocks etc (he lets LO bring rocks in when he finds them)
He had the monitor and can see and hear the doors open and close but he was too busy on the game to know/care that the baby came in my room. Hypocrite.
He starts slamming shit around and keeps yelling at me about it while dramatically and ineffectively ‘sweeping’ the mess just to seem more annoyed and prove a point. They are rocks, they don’t need sweeping.
Btw all he has to do is tell LO to spit it out and put it in the garbage, LO is pretty good with listening when not YELLED at. he didn’t need to scream at him and hit him.
I take the broom and yell at him to GTFO. He gets all baffled and is having a ‘what did i do wrong moment’ i kick him out and lock the door.
I throw all the rocks away and go check on LO. At this point its 7:30am and Ive kinda slept 4 hrs through the night.
I fall asleep for like 15 mins then get up. I come out to see hubby sent LO back to bed while he was wide awake, didn’t give him breakfast, try to play with him, even took the tablet away from him, and send him right to befd(he had already slept for almost 10 hrs between wakes for drinks, pull ups, and random energy burst because of the schedule being off and he was wired )
I get pissed yet again and take LO back to my room and try to stay up and play with him because obviously the computer is more important. Ill play with and take care of our child and stay up all day and night if i have to just so our child doesn’t feel punished and neglected.
He comes in all pissed that is took the baby and hes like “what are you doing i was putting him back to bed” and im like “you are NOT putting him back to bed at 8am! He went to bed at 6:30 pm-LATER that YOU did, you obviously don’t wanna play with him so ill stay up and play with him”
He got pissed and went back to his computer. LO decided he wanted to watch tablet in his room so i let him.
Hubby on computer and i decide since im up now because im worried that hubby is just gunna ignore LO if i fall back to sleep so i decided ’well if i have to stay up im gunna go shopping’
I go to the store thats walking distance from us.
—
Fast forward to 3:30pm, hubby says ‘you can go nap, i got him’ so i go lay down, fall asleep for 15 mins then i have LO in jumping on me waling me up.
Whatever, fine ill just get him to cuddle.
I did he was nice and calm and i was able to close my eyes for a few more minutes, then hubby comes storming in, starts getting both the baby and our dog(texas heeler, XL chunky dog) riled up then decided while they are going nuts and jumping on me that hes gunna come try to cuddle by me and ‘pretend’ to sleep (he will immediately fall asleep if he closes his eyes)
I get pissed and get up and storm out knowing if i stay he will fall asleep and ill be stuck with both of the psychotic children.
He get up and goes “What the hell is your problem now?!!”
Im in the kitchen trying to make myself food because i haven’t been able to eat much of anything all day between nausea and not wanting to be around him all day.
He goes “what are you really pissed because i am taking your car for a few hours?!” (His parents need to borrow him for moving his sis)
REALLY?! NO IM NOT PISSED BECAUSE OF MY F*CKING CAR!
I give up on food and just go back to the room, accidentally, not aggressively, shutting the door with LO behind me.
Im sad cause now LO thinks im mad at him so i sneak out and steal him, leaving the jeys on the counter hoping hubby will just leave and leave me alone until i calm down. Nope hes still bugging me, i ignore him (he knows talking to me when im mad is useless and he should do it after he comes back.
He is finally gone and im hanging with LO making food and writing this. Im so tired and in so much physical pain im dreading him coming back later.
Ps: IK i could have done things better but the issue was so simple and hes so stupid to MAKE THE PROBLEM WORSE. I just thought the one day of the year that i could sleep-in in the morning because hubby was already up in the morning for once in his life.
RANT OVER.

Context of today and last night
Hubby lays down 3yr old to nap at 4pm (his naps are between 1:30&2 normally, 4 way too late)
I say no cause i know LO will be up all night (foreshadowing)
Hubby lays down at 4:30 and says “its fine ill be up with him tonight”
Fine, whatever.
LO actually falls asleep at 6:30pm then gets up EVERY HOUR THROUGH THE NIGHT then gets up for the day at 4 am, ive been up all night at this point(of course now im pissed cause his schedule is wrecked)
Btw hubby never woke up
Im like okay fine ill just sleep when he get up, figuring he’ll be up any minute.
LO is out where he is on the couch, turning on all the lights, yelling, playing with toys, yelling “daddy! Daddy!”, jumping on hubs face….not a move.
At this point me and LO have been out there for an hr (LO is playing with some pebbles at the counter-important later)
Finally hubby wakes up on his own once I’ve finally got the kid calm down on my own, im exhausted and even more pissed at this point.
Im 21wks pregnant btw and put LO to bed and get up with him everyday.
Hubby tries to come in and I don’t even wanna bother with him, he sees LO is with me and just leaves to play the computer.
I put LO out in his room with his tablet because he’s jumping on me and getting rowdy (hubby has the [audio video] baby monitor) he knows LO is in his room.
I go back in and fall asleep assuming he will get LO since he’s up with the monitor and i told him i haven’t slept.
LO gets up and comes back in bed with me (quietly like a sneaky toddler) while im asleep then decides hes gunna put some more random rocks he found under the bed, in his mouth (he collects rocks)
Hubby comes in (im still asleep) and he sees LO putting some in his mouth and he starts yelling at me and LO waking me out of a dead sleep.
He starts yelling at LO and spanks him then comes back in at starts yelling at me about watching LO and why he has rocks etc (he lets LO bring rocks in when he finds them)
He had the monitor and can see and hear the doors open and close but he was too busy on the game to know/care that the baby came in my room. Hypocrite.
He starts slamming shit around and keeps yelling at me about it while dramatically and ineffectively ‘sweeping’ the mess just to seem more annoyed and prove a point. They are rocks, they don’t need sweeping.
Btw all he has to do is tell LO to spit it out and put it in the garbage, LO is pretty good with listening when not YELLED at. he didn’t need to scream at him and hit him.
I take the broom and yell at him to GTFO. He gets all baffled and is having a ‘what did i do wrong moment’ i kick him out and lock the door.
I throw all the rocks away and go check on LO. At this point its 7:30am and Ive kinda slept 4 hrs through the night.
I fall asleep for like 15 mins then get up. I come out to see hubby sent LO back to bed while he was wide awake, didn’t give him breakfast, try to play with him, even took the tablet away from him, and send him right to befd(he had already slept for almost 10 hrs between wakes for drinks, pull ups, and random energy burst because of the schedule being off and he was wired )
I get pissed yet again and take LO back to my room and try to stay up and play with him because obviously the computer is more important. Ill play with and take care of our child and stay up all day and night if i have to just so our child doesn’t feel punished and neglected.
He comes in all pissed that is took the baby and hes like “what are you doing i was putting him back to bed” and im like “you are NOT putting him back to bed at 8am! He went to bed at 6:30 pm-LATER that YOU did, you obviously don’t wanna play with him so ill stay up and play with him”
He got pissed and went back to his computer. LO decided he wanted to watch tablet in his room so i let him.
Hubby on computer and i decide since im up now because im worried that hubby is just gunna ignore LO if i fall back to sleep so i decided ’well if i have to stay up im gunna go shopping’
I go to the store thats walking distance from us.
—
Fast forward to 3:30pm, hubby says ‘you can go nap, i got him’ so i go lay down, fall asleep for 15 mins then i have LO in jumping on me waling me up.
Whatever, fine ill just get him to cuddle.
I did he was nice and calm and i was able to close my eyes for a few more minutes, then hubby comes storming in, starts getting both the baby and our dog(texas heeler, XL chunky dog) riled up then decided while they are going nuts and jumping on me that hes gunna come try to cuddle by me and ‘pretend’ to sleep (he will immediately fall asleep if he closes his eyes)
I get pissed and get up and storm out knowing if i stay he will fall asleep and ill be stuck with both of the psychotic children.
He get up and goes “What the hell is your problem now?!!”
Im in the kitchen trying to make myself food because i haven’t been able to eat much of anything all day between nausea and not wanting to be around him all day.
He goes “what are you really pissed because i am taking your car for a few hours?!” (His parents need to borrow him for moving his sis)
REALLY?! NO IM NOT PISSED BECAUSE OF MY F*CKING CAR!
I give up on food and just go back to the room, accidentally, not aggressively, shutting the door with LO behind me.
Im sad cause now LO thinks im mad at him so i sneak out and steal him, leaving the jeys on the counter hoping hubby will just leave and leave me alone until i calm down. Nope hes still bugging me, i ignore him (he knows talking to me when im mad is useless and he should do it after he comes back.
He is finally gone and im hanging with LO making food and writing this. Im so tired and in so much physical pain im dreading him coming back later.
Ps: IK i could have done things better but the issue was so simple and hes so stupid to MAKE THE PROBLEM WORSE. I just thought the one day of the year that i could sleep-in in the morning because hubby was already up in the morning for once in his life.
RANT OVER.

Welcome to the first post in the prophesied Design Notes Series, which will see periodic releases during the (probably long) wait until 3.0, and will preview and discuss upcoming content.
As was mentioned in the Anniversary post, I am working on 3.0 whenever I find the time and motivation; treating it like homework did not do wonders for my creativity, back when I started. So this Series is meant to serve as an appetizer and periodic reminder that progress is still being made.
The Design Notes Series will also have prompts in the comments; questions from me about the things discussed in the post.
Let's get into it!

Weapon Art?

I am considering renaming the phrase "Special Ability". As casual language, pretty much everything in SW is an "ability" that is "special," so the term always felt ambiguous to me. But more importantly, it just doesn't shine. I'm a fan of vivid, evocative language in fiction, and nothing about the phrase "Special Ability" actually feels special to me. It's... generic.
So I may rename it to "Weapon Art." No less clichéd, really, but the point isn't to make the word unique, just unambiguous, evocative, and a maybe little more iconic.
And I would just do it, if it weren't for the fact that find-and-replace is really glitchy in Inkscape (of course it is), so I would have to manually replace every instance of the phrase.
Since I haven't decided yet, I'm going to use the phrase Weapon Art for the rest of this post, to try it on and see how it fits. Let me know what you think of the term, and whether you think it would be an improvement worth taking the time to implement.
Personally, if nothing else, I think it enhances clarity.

The Importance and Function of a Weapon Art

Weapon Arts are the defining heart of a Weapon Class. If I can think of a unique Art for a weapon, it gets a Class. If I can't, it doesn't. But how do I decide what Art to give to a weapon? I have a process, and it goes a little something like this:
The Function of the Art should be to...

1. Make it Possible to use a weapon that is otherwise too impractical for combat. If this isn't applicable, it should instead...
2. Compensate for a Weakness of the weapon. If this isn't applicable, it should instead...
3. Amplify a Strength of the weapon.

Examples of Function 1 — Cleaver, Boomerang, Yo-yo. Examples of Function 2 — Polearm, Crossbow, Bolas. Examples of Function 3 — Sword, Bow, Boots.
(Besides these guidelines, every option in SoulWeapon must synergize with other potential choices; that's the Golden Rule for Everything, since the very start).
There are a few exceptions, like Cane Sword or Wand, where the Art hones in on some thematic principle of the weapon or does something unique entirely. I would define these as Arts that enable a trope, which is sort of a hidden 4th Function.
But there are other exceptions I am less happy with. There are some Weapon Arts that have always struck me as incorrect, or just insufficient, but they stayed because I could never think of anything better.
But I've reevaluated the principles behind Weapon Arts. As a result, a number of Weapon Classes—some of which have been unchanged since 1.0—are seeing new Weapon Arts in 3.0.
Let's talk about a few of them.

Knives

For such a common, bread-and-butter weapon, Whisper Walk is a really niche ability that is specific to certain settings/builds. In general, if a weapon is something that gets used a lot, I want its Art to be something that gets used a lot as well.
Cane Sword is a rare and weird weapon that is already almost exclusively used as a way to conceal a weapon or exude style and poise. So the Art reflects that stealth-based nature. But knives are used in a variety of ways besides stealth: open melee combat, ranged attacks, etc. So its Art should at least be a little broader.
The new Art serves Function 2: Compensating for Weakness. One of the weaknesses of the knife is its short range in melee; it's difficult to get past the defenses of most standard-sized weapons to where knives can thrive. The new Weapon Art is called Close-Quarters Combat.
If you really liked Whisper Walk, or had some builds that depended on it, don't worry: it will still be possible to access the effects of Whisper Walk in 3.0.

Mace

If Sword is the "default" bladed weapon, Mace feels like the "default" blunt weapon. (Even if it can technically have spikes on it, its purpose is nonetheless to smash, where the Sword's is to cut). Seems like it has a similar versatility and number of design Variations as the Sword, too, doesn't it? It feels appropriate, then, that they would be reflections of each other, with Sword leading the charge on Page 1, and Mace leading the charge on Page 2.
So, since Sword grants improved skill and and a buff to Runic Potency, Mace shall grant improved might and a buff to Runic Potency.
This feels really really right to me, whereas the old Art (Brute) felt pretty lackluster. Swords are about precision, so they buff your skill, and Maces are about crushing power, so they should buff your might. Both weapons buff Runic Potency, and so you have twin "default" melee weapons that act almost as spokespersons for their broader weapon types. As a bonus, the new Art sort of encompasses what Brute did, so it's a strict buff at the end of the day.
You might think the other "default" weapons to be Knives (the default throwing) and Bow (the default shooting). These haven't gotten parallel Runic Potency -type abilities, but their Weapon Arts have been buffed or reworked in other ways.

Tonfas

Non-Lethal was very cool, but it did not feel like a Weapon Art. Its effects have been moved to a section that makes much more sense for the type of ability it is (you can probably guess to where, if you grok the design philosophy of SoulWeapon).
It has been replaced with a new Art that better suits the beat-and-block nature of Tonfas: Missile Deflection. This lets you intercept projectiles and helps with blocking melee attacks, so you can close the distance on ranged foes and then out-defend them. It's meant to be strong enough to effectively invalidate mundane archers and make the lives of Soulbound archers rather difficult; tonfas are a below-average weapon, so they deserve an above-average Art to compensate.

Kusarigama

Shadow Creep had the same problem as Whisper Walk: stealth is too niche a boon for Weapon Art; it restricts the potential of a Class by limiting its use-cases.
The new Art fills a niche we for some reason didn't have before: a true spinning chain weapon. It is called Spin Control, and it is to Corded weapons as Hover Spin (Giant Shuriken) is to Throwing weapons. It has a little extra bonus of allowing you to remotely control the orientation of the blade (separately from the chain), which can have some niche utility applications beyond just ensuring the kama hits your target point-first when you spin/fling it.
As with the others, the effects of Kusarigama's old Art will be accessible one way or another in 3.0; nothing is getting truly left behind.

Conclusion

There are a number of other Classes that have had their Arts updated or completely remade, but you'll have to wait until release to see those.
Future Design Notes posts likely won't be as long as this one, as most of them will focus on one single item instead of an entire design philosophy.
And
See you in the next! (And don't forget to let me know what you think of the new name).

I have sleep paralysis somewhat regularly, it comes and goes. I have noticed I tend to get it more often when I don’t have a lot of sleep for a couple days. I have seen different sleep paralysis “demons” how ever the hat man experience I had was probably the worst sleep paralysis I have ever had. Here is the story
At the time I was living by myself in somewhat rural Alaska in a small duplex. My place was sorta small it was about 1000 sq ft with 2 bed 1 bath. When you open the front door the living room opens up to your right, the kitchen then bathroom are to your left and the 2 rooms are straight back with the doors being on the back side of the living room. Both rooms were pretty small, one I used for storage and the other my bedroom. Since the room was small my queen sized bed only fit comfortably in one orientation with the front door to the home being in direct line of sight from my bed and vice versa. Normally I sleep with my door closed but this particular night I slept with it open because I was so tired and accidentally fell asleep when I got home from a long day of work. I remember waking up to a noise and immediately noticed I couldn’t move. Since I get sleep paralysis often I have gotten better about not freaking out and normally if I close my eyes and focus on quickly rolling my body or moving my arm or leg I can move myself out of it. So almost routine at this point I quickly get myself out of it and sit up and look out into my living room to see what the noise was. Right next to my front door is a big window, I leave the blinds closed but light goes through them fairly easily. On this night the moon was probably full and the moonlight was coming through the window pretty bright and I could see my living room and kitchen fairly good. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary and I figured the sound came from sleep paralysis because not only do I sometimes see things but I also sometimes hear things. I went back to sleep. I again awoke in sleep paralysis but this time my chest was a bit heavier and my heart was pounding. The anxiety was a little more frightening and I didn’t immediately do my routine to get out of the sleep paralysis and mistakenly started looking around. That’s when I saw the hat man. My front door was wide open and white moon light shining in. At the door way the completely black figure with the distinct hat stood staring at me. I was in a state of panic and shock, I couldn’t tell if it was real or not because normally the environment doesn’t change and this time my front door was clearly open. I have a pistol I keep for self defense and it was on my nightstand. I did my routine, rolled my body and quickly grabbed my pistol. I sat up and pointed my pistol at my front door but it was closed and everything was normal. At this point my anxiety was high and I was nervous to fall back asleep because I haven’t had such bad sleep paralysis in a while but I laid back down, went on my phone for a bit and decided to go back to sleep. The way my duplex is set up my neighbor is on the bottom unit and I’m on the top so you have to go up some stairs to get to my front door. There is a small one car garage but it belongs to my downstairs neighbor and was used for storage so I parked my truck in front of it and the stairs to my front door was to the right of the garage and my truck. Now the dream is foggy but for some reason I dreamed that I woke up again, gotten scared and went outside to get in my truck and fell back asleep. I woke up again in sleep paralysis but this time I was in the passenger seat of my truck. Again I didn’t follow my routine, my head was foggy, confused, and nervous. I started looking around not being able to move and having my heart have this indescribable heavy pit of anxiety. I looked at my front door open with the hat man standing there looking inside my house. I was at this point, in such a state of panic I wanted to start crying, the type of crying when you make those disgusting audible sobs and gasp for air in between each sob, but because I couldn’t still being in sleep paralysis and not being able to move or make sound all I could do is watch this hat man in horror. It would get worse, while being a completely pitch black figure I could see the hat man move and turn his body around. He was now looking at me, my anxiety was at an all time high and at this point everything felt so real and looked so real that I believed it was real. I watched him slowly walk down the steps and make his way to my truck. He walked up to the window and I looked directly at his pitch black figure staring at me through the tinted window of my truck. And for the first time I saw a sleep paralysis “demon” with a color other than pitch black when the hat man grinned from ear to ear with pearly white teeth. His smile looked like Chester cat’s smile from Alice in Wonderland. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this level of fear at any other point in my life, panicked, I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to roll out of the sleep paralysis. I could vividly feel the cold leather of my car seat on my skin but when I finally rolled out of my sleep paralysis I was in my bed. Safe to say I didn’t go back to sleep. That was my worst and most frightening sleep paralysis experience and (knock on wood) I haven’t experienced anything nearly as scary since.
That was when I was about to turn 20, I’m now about to turn 23 and I have made significant improvements to my sleep which in turn has caused me to experience way less sleep paralysis. That time still haunts me. The worst part was how real it felt I legit thought I was in my car I couldn’t tell the difference between reality and dream, everything felt so real. Sleep paralysis is the worst and none of my friends and family experience it, so when I talk about it they don’t seem to grasp how scary it is for me. I have had demons squeeze my throat to where I couldn’t breathe while their pitch black face stares at me. I’ve had people stand in my room and all I could do is watch hoping they aren’t real feeling so vulnerable from not being able to move. I’ve tried screaming at my partner to help as I watched them sleep next to me not being able to get the scream out and feeling so trapped and anxious. It really does suck and I’m sorry for all the other folks who have to deal with it. Feel free to share your worst sleep paralysis stories I’m curious as to what other people have experienced.

This is tagged as a Spoiler, but only if you haven’t watched Season 3 Part 1 yet-
So I have seen a lot of conversation about whether or not Penelope and Colin’s relationship has felt rushed so far. Personally, I feel like the relationship this season does feel a bit awkwardly paced and I’m going to explain my reasonings.
A big argument used for why their relationship isn’t rushed is that it’s been in development for 2 seasons. I’m sorry, you mean Penelope’s unrequited love for Colin?? That’s not really development, I mean Penelope’s relationship to Colin in the beginning of season 3 is the same as it is in the beginning of season 1… unrequited, nothing has developed or changed on that end other than her overhearing his hurtful words about her. So I don’t really think their relationship being stalled at that stage for 2 seasons means that it can’t be rushed once it is being developed. In fact I rather feel it’s the opposite because when you sort of build up that anticipation around certain characters over multiple seasons, you better be able to make that payout satisfying. (Think of like HIMYM, lot of build up for a horrible last 6 episodes😂)
And those arguing- actually it just went over y’all’s head, Colin has had feelings for Penelope all along, he just didn’t realize…yeah, seemed like it when he proposed to that other girl, or told his bros he would never court her💀like yes, I get it- He sought her out, and wrote to her, and enjoyed hanging out with her, but the boy was oblivious, and I really needed more from him this season to make up for that fact.
Another thing that bugs me-
Colin has gotten a lot of credit in the show this season for helping Penelope on the Marriage Mart…like I need the writers to be so for real with me, what has Colin actually done to help Penelope draw in a suitor besides himself??💀because from my perspective, he’s done quite the opposite….

• He criticized her behind her back to eligible bachelors and told them he would never think courting her even though she was his friend.
• His plan to “train” her by himself in his house (that she was hesitant about) caused her to be caught in scandal that the whole ton found out about
• He literally destroyed her chance with her one other potential prospect before even knowing if she actually wanted to be with him over the other guy

So really Penelope should be at least a little pissed at Colin. For me, this would add the tension that I feel this story is missing. Something maybe like…

• Colin interrupts Penelope and Lord Debling, and Lord Debling finds out about their potential love from Cressida
• Penelope gets rejected by Lord Debling because of her potential love for Colin and she leaves the ball super upset
• Colin chases after her and ends up confessing even though she is clearly upset at him
• Penelope is all like “How dare you?! I have loved you for years, and have waited for the day that you would see me as more than just your friend, but the minute I finally resign myself to never being anything more to you, to find a lifelong companion in someone else, you ruin my chance…and for what?? I cannot be some passing fade for you like those women in your journal, like Marina…my heart could not handle it! Thank you for your help, but no thank you. I will find a husband by the end of this season and it won’t be because Colin Bridgerton took pity on me…”
• So we have a double confession, and Colin knows that Penelope has feelings for him, but he has to prove to her how series he actually is. This adds tension, he has to pine and grovel.
• And he is doing some real like public declaration of love type of stuff to try and win her over and show her how much he cares and how sorry he is for the stuff he did/said before.
• This kind of works in her favor because she actually managed to pull in a couple of new prospects because of a Bridgerton now being after her. Maybe she even writes about it as Lady Whistledown to help boost her prospects.
• Then obviously it reaches a point where she realizes he’s completely serious and devoted to her, and she doesn’t want to give him up either, and she accepts his proposal.

I think something like this would have been a lot more satisfying than him being kind of oblivious until episode 3 where he realizes he likes her and proposes to her one episode later, and her immediately accepting despite being mad at him 2 minutes earlier.
Of course another big argument people make is- “well the people complaining haven’t read the books because this is exactly how it happens” and to that I say- My criticism isn’t about whether it’s accurate to the books or not, it’s about whether the story is satisfying. So say it is exactly like the books, then I guess I’m criticizing the book too😂
Anyways, please feel free to comment your agreement or disagreement, I would love to hear other’s opinions on this topic!

My city has like 7 or 8 roundabouts. Boomers don't know how to use them. Part 1.
The one I was at in particular has two lanes for the exit, one for people already in the circle and one for people entering and immediately turning right. This is ALL marked on signs around the traffic circle AND on the road.
Boomer manchild in a brand new blue pickup truck is exiting at the same time I am turning right onto the exit. He must not have known it was a two lane exit and just starts honking at me over and over. he pulls up next to me at the next stoplight and he just is giving me the finger over and over and over and making an angery face in only the way boomers do.
I give him both fingers back and when he sees this he gets even angrier.
Now, he's in the left lane as he used that lane to exit the traffic circle. I'm in the right lane because I am turning right again.
When the light turns green and I start turning, he tries turning into me but misses.
He then blasts past me after the turn, going past me in the OPPOSING LANE, and then tries brake checking me. Insurance fraud at its finest, trying to make me rear end him.
Thankfully my car isn't a 3 ton truck and I can outbrake him.
Why on earth do they act like this? This isn't normal road rage.

Losing the one shot is definitely disappointing, however I don't think the character is dead. I know there's been a lot of hopelessness in the Hanzo community, but my aim is to help you guys improve your game so you can still excel on Hanzo and feel like a GOAT. In this post I'm gonna talk about the general playstyle that works for me on Hanzo, and how to adapt your playstyle based on the enemy comp. And at the end I'll put a couple tips for improving your aim.
Hanzo still has some distinct advantages that he can leverage against his enemies. His wall climb is amazing for a medium range hero, considering most other heroes either can't access high ground, or need to commit cooldowns to get there. Storm arrows are an incredibly consistent kill tool at medium/close range. And having a leap every 4 seconds, combined with wall climb, gives you the ability to be just as slippery as you are deadly. And of course, sonic arrow lets your whole team have wall hacks 50% of the time, and on defense, lets you see the enemy comp before they even come out the doors, allowing you to plan your positioning accordingly.
The thing is, most people think that hanzo is a long range hero, but he's really not. The only time you want to be shooting enemies from long range is before the fight to do pressure, get ult charge, and potentially get a pick on any hero that's taken chip damage. It's not about being a goat and hitting long range headshots. It's about proper medium/ close range positioning and proper timing, to make your shots easy to hit.
The way I play Hanzo is as a medium range pressure hero with incredibly high dps. You don't want to hold long range sniper angles on your own, you want to be active in the fight from medium range and use your slippery mobility to take off angles and high ground at opportune moments. Getting kills at close range is incredibly consistent with Hanzo, you just can't expect to get a 5k with headshots only. You want to take an off angle to get a kill or two with storm arrows. Then as soon as the enemies turn to react, use your leap and wall climb to escape.
It sounds crazy but you want to play on a razor's edge of feeding to maximize your damage output. Push in close from an off angle near your tank to get easy headshots and storm arrow kills, but always be one leap away from safety... Whether that's a high ground to climb up to, or just leaping back into your team.
I've also had some success with full committing on a hard flank, but the key is timing. You want to get behind/to the side of the enemy backline shortly after the two tanks clash. When the enemy supports are tunnel visioned on helping the frontline, THATS when you pop around the corner and take your shots on the supports and burst them with storm arrows. Best case scenario, you kill the supports, then the DPS, then finish the tank in a perfectly executed pincer attack. Worst case scenario, you distracted the supports and made people turn to shoot you, while the enemy tank is left with no support in the frontline.
There are times where it's better to just spam from main, and I'd say that's usually when your tank has a distinct disadvantage against the enemy tank and both are fighting in the frontline. Keeping constant pressure on that tank can help sway the matchup into your tank's favor, or at least make space for them. But of course, killing squishies can still carry games.
DIVE COMPS:
The other time to stay in main with your team is when the enemy team has flankers/ dive heroes who can kill you if you are isolated. Generally in those matchups, I just try to focus on hitting shots on the threatening mobile heroes. They won't push you if they're half HP. In these cases, using yourself as bait can be very effective.
Let's say there's an enemy Genji, you should play slightly outside of his dash range while also being near your healers. He will want to dash at you, but he will fall just short of hitting you. Then you can pop your storm arrows, but don't shoot. He will instinctively deflect. Now, suddenly the Genji is in the middle of your team with no dash and no deflect, while you still have a full volley of storm arrows. Similar tips can be used against Dva and Winston as well.
Against Wrecking Ball, it depends. You don't wanna try to kill him, just force him out. If he rolls back to his team, keep putting out pressure. But if he chooses to escape BEHIND your team, try to hit him with a sonic arrow as he's leaving, then you can tell where he's going. It helps a lot.
Against Tracer and Sombra, Keeping tabs on their position is key. Sonic arrow is good to scout flanks. Plag near your team, but DONT PLAY BEHIND YOUR SUPPORTS. Play in front of them. The ideal scenario is that they target one of your supports, then you can turn and shoot them while they're tunnel visioned. Your burst damage is high enough to often kill them, or at least enough to force them to run away and reset. When you do force them away, try to estimate how much time you have before they come back, and use that time to apply pressure to the frontline.
But let's say you werent able to scout them, and don't know exactly where they are, but you know they're lurking somewhere. Take a shot at the frontline and then do a 180. Literally check the flank after every shot. Good flankers generally wait for you to be distracted by the frontline before they pounce. By shooting the enemy tank and doing a 180 turn, you can keep applying pressure while still being able to react to the flank at a moment's notice.
This last tip is SUPER risky but it works sometimes. Sometimes when I'm facing a Dive comp or lots of flankers that are rolling me, I will actually flank as Hanzo. I will hide in a concealed area behind the enemy team and then when I'm confident that the flankers are in my backline, I'll start attacking the enemy backline. The reason this works sometimes is because when you're facing flankers, they will be lurking around YOUR backline. But if you're lurking in THEIR backline, you're essentially on the complete opposite side of the map from them and they'll have no clue. This is a strategy that pro players called "trading backlines". If the enemy flankers are going to kill your backline anyway, you may as well target their backline too. After all, Dive comps don't usually peel for their own backline, they commit to killing yours. This works especially well when they're hard targeting you specifically. The last place a flanker expects to find you is in their own backline.
POKE COMPS:
The name of the game is map control. A big mistake Hanzo players make is trying to ego duel hitscans from long range, banking on hitting long range shots to win. Straight up, don't do that. It's ok to aim for hitting one body shot to keep them in check or force them off their angle. Sonic arrow also helps deter them from peeking those angles. But the way you beat those long range heroes is getting up close and dumping storm arrows into their face. I will literally get close enough so that I could literally leap into their face and melee them to finish them if I wanted to. 3 storm arrows is 225 damage, to body shots or one headshot is 240, so getting leap-melee finishers is actually very useful. I KNOW it sounds crazy to play this close, but I urge you to challenge your beliefs about Hanzo. Your damage output is so high that you will beat pretty much every long range hero up close. Storm arrows are ridiculous. Though medium range storm arrows are fine if they're unaware of you or have cover to escape to.
Against Ashe, just remember that you have plenty of ways to delete Bob. Headshots while jiggle peeking from cover, or storm arrow headshots, or even using dragonstrike to melt him if he's near the enemy team.
And against widowmaker, use your sonic arrow to scout her specifically. If she's bad, she'll stay scoped in and let you line up headshots. If she's good, she'll hide for 5 seconds or take a new angle. This means you can push up while she's given up the angle.
Against poke comps, you know that you're always safe in cover, because they have no flankers. So as long as you're controlling the angles and bullying the enemy off of their angles, you will win over time by controlling all the space and winning the objective.
BRAWL COMPS:
Brawl comps are generally slow and tanky, and usually only good at close range. And many of the brawl heroes have big hitboxes, making it easier to hit them from further away. Hanzo LOVES playing against slow brawl comps. With your mobility, you can bully them from angles where they can't even contest you. Even if you don't get kills, you can farm ult so fast that you can zone them off the objective with dragons and do tons of damage to their clumped up team. Just don't spend too much time focusing the tank, because if they have lots of healing you probably won't kill them. Though you can still pressure the tank to make them fall back to buy space for your team.
RUSH COMPS:
Rush comps are kind of a hybrid between dive and brawl, and so many of the tips for both will apply. You want to put out lots of pressure, and take off angles when you can. BUT!!! You need to rotate back to your team sooner than you normally would. You might think you're safe from a decent range on an off angle, but a Lucio speed amp or Junker Queen shout, Rein pin, or Moira fade can let them rush you down much faster than you'd expect. Don't get greedy on your off angles, and dont expect kills. Even just hitting a shot or two to bait out defensive cooldowns like Shout, Wraith form, etc can lower the enemy team's lethality and make them hesitant to rush. If a rush comp gets a numbers advantage, they can pretty much run your team down for free. So don't get greedy.
Also, the baiting tip works well with rush comp too. If you're playing near your team, you can be in the front just behind your tank and bait the enemy team to rush you, and then you can quickly leap away and climb to high ground. Now, you're on high ground above a ground-based comp that just wasted resources to push you. You simply need to watch your spacing and use your slippery movement to dodge the rush. Just remember to play in sight of your healers incase you do take some damage.
People HATE Hanzo to a degree that is completely irrational, and they will literally feed their brains out to try and kill you. You can use that to your advantage. He has the mobility and burst damage to slip out of arms reach and burst them down, making them even more tilted, making them feed harder.
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR AIM:
A HUGE tip that I've barely heard anybody talk about it a really simple one: Don't focus your eyes on your crosshair, focus your eyes BELOW your crosshair. Essentially you just aim at head height but focus your eyes on the enemy's body. Because it's much easier for your eyes to track a moving body than a moving head. Once I started doing this I noticed an immediate difference.
My personal favorite way to warm up my aim is a custom workshop code for an improved practice range: AJERA
Before every session, I go to the area by the roaming bots, and press interact on the blue orb near the ledge. It will spawn a flying Pharah bot. Then I climb up to the various high grounds and practice shooting Pharah from different ranges. Its hard at first, but once I can hit shots on her semi consistently, then I know I'm ready to queue.
And for practicing close range consistency, the central area has an orb that spawns a Lucio bot who jumps around and wall rides within an enclosed area.
The custom practice range also has a blinking Tracer bot to practice on, which is nice.
The only thing it's missing in my opinion is a jumping Genji bot, but there are other custom codes that have those like VAXTA, which is also good.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I hope these tips are useful for you. I know a lot of people are choosing to boycott Hanzo, and I respect that. But for me, I want to keep playing him and prove that he can still carry.
Now get out there and make your enemies tilted. ;)