Flux

As long as I get the Mercy and the Zenyatta skins, I'll be happy. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Crest of Hope. Pretty fitting, I'd say. I tend to see myself as an optimist. The quiz had some really interesting questions too, nice job. Edit: It also looks like I'm the only one here to get that result so far. Interesting. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Three closing shifts at work plus an exam tomorrow has put me out of free time and on temporary hold, so my apologies for the delays. I should be back on track by Wednesday, or maybe even late tomorrow. Till then! o/

Editing this image made me realize once again that non-humanoid things are much harder to sp00kify. I ran into the issue last year too, but nevertheless, I have done what I can to make your image sp00ky. This one required a lot of freehand editing, and honestly I'm not sure how I feel about it. Hopefully you feel that it's spooky enough, and my apologies if it isn't. Either way, it was good practice for non-humanoid things, though I couldn't really change it in the ways I would normally change these things without completely redrawing the picture.

what about this one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Happy October M8ies.

Some of you may have been here for the Spookening's first arrival, but some of you may be new. If that's the case, prepare for the Sp00kiest time of the year, because October 1st is official here (maybe not for everyone yet, but it will be soon!). As such, the Spookening is back and ready for action. This thread is the Halloween version of the Hattening, which basically means that you post here if you want me to edit your avatar and make it extra sp00ky for the Halloween season. I like to think I've improved my editing skills since last year, so things will be extra sp00ky now. Last year I was unable to finish all the requests before Halloween, so this year I'm starting the thread earlier. I'm going to shoot for editing at least one avatar per day, maybe more if I have time, but I make no promises. That being said, I'll do my best and look forward to seing some spooky avatars around this place! Last year's edits (Example Projects):

As soon as pretty much anyone hears High Noon they should start looking for him. That's why I said the trick is finding the right times and spots to do it. For example, using it from far enough away where most characters' damage falls off or from behind a Reinhardt shield. Otherwise just using it from somewhere where people aren't going to look right away, just to give yourself as much time as possible. I do agree with you though. Against good players, the best you can hope for is usually 1 kill, maaaaybe 2. Anything above that is just a ridiculously rare scenario or pure luck. Sometimes, you might not get anybody. But even one kill is still a success in my book. A free kill for pressing Q? I'll take it. And if you don't get any kills, at least you disrupted their team, potentially setting up for your own team to make a play.

When it's such a nice day, but you can't decide on a proper face. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm probably dating myself here, but... does the anime not have Tyson and Kai any more? The old series was my jam back in the day. Classic Dragoon Storm and later Dragoon Galaxy. I still have my collection of Beyblades too, somewhere.

McCree's probably a bit better on PC (since you can aim left and right faster, making pistol spam easier to hit), but there are a few tips that should work for console too if you don't already know them. His stun is almost always better if you immediately follow with Fan the Hammer. It'll kill 200HP heroes and lower in one clip if you land the shots, and you can always roll and fire again if they live. They're also stunned for the full duration if you start it right away after the stun, but if you're a little late they can start shooting before your last 1-2 shots get out. Usually they'll die anyway in that case, but if you're low on health it's something to keep in mind. If you pull down a bit as he fires, you can keep the recoil under control too. I only ever do normal fire after a stun if it's a really squishy hero (like Tracer or Zenyatta) or if they've already lost enough health to where either one or two shots will kill. Aiming a quick headshot works wonders too. As for High Noon, it can be really tricky to get off. I usually try to wait until they're distracted by my teammates or I can sneak behind them to a place where they wouldn't even think to look. I've definitely had my own share of failed ults with him, but I've mostly had success. A lot of it comes from really knowing the maps and where your opponents will look.

I've played for a good bit of time now, and can definitely say that Tracer is my most comfortable hero. I'd say Pharah is probably second, but I also like to play Junkrat, Roadhog, Genji, McCree and Mercy. It's rare that I ever have a bad game with Tracer or Pharah though. I'm curious what buggy things you guys are experiencing though. Outside of some weird Roadhog pulls, I can't think of much, and you even get used to how that works after a while, since it isn't really a bug. The only other thing I've experienced is falling through the map once, though I've never seen that happen since. Anyway, I'm currently trying to get to Platinum in competitive. I got placed in the upper half of gold, so I'm pretty close. Hanzo and Torbjorn are the most annoying things for me right now. Torbjorn because he makes Tracer's life hell, and Hanzo because he one shots almost everybody I play, especially after the buff. The game rates pretty high in my books though. It's a ton of fun.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I've been going through Death Parade right now. For the longest time, I thought it was just a weird instance of an anime without an opening, since the source I get it from apparently didn't include it in any of the episodes. It was only today that I learned that it does indeed have an opening, and a pretty popular one at that.

Story time: So I've spent this entire summer event trying to get Mercy's new red skin, and after all the loot boxes I'd opened, I still hadn't gotten it by today (Which was actually a lot of loot boxes. I managed to get the Genji skin, the Widowmaker skin, the Torbjorn skin, both Lucio skins, one of the Tracer skins, and one of the Zarya skins just by leveling up by this point) So I basically said, "What the heck. I've got some spare cash - let's buy a bunch of loot boxes for the heck of it and hopefully get that Mercy skin." So I bought the 11 pack first, opened them all, didn't get it. Leveled up again, got another loot box, didn't get it. Bought 20 more in desperation, since today's the last day of the event, and I literally get almost every epic summer skin except the Mercy one. So I go to work, spend a bunch of hours there, and I got back around 10:30pm. Started playing Overwatch around 11pm, leveled up and got one more loot box. It's now 11:55pm, I've opened the last loot box I was going to get during the event, and finally, low and behold, Blizzard took pity on my sorry soul. My last loot box had the Mercy skin in it, so needless to say, I'm pretty darn happy right now. Mixed feelings about spending like $30 on loot boxes that didn't even have it though. At least I got a bunch of gold out of it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is exactly the point I was trying to make. Game mechanics stories and visuals should and often do evolve over time, but the main reason soooo many people still hang on to Melee is because the game mechanics didn't evolve, at least not as a whole. Comparing Melee to Brawl or Smash 4 mechanics-wise, they removed far more than they added. Wave-dashing, L-Canceling, and directional air-dashing are far from "broken." They simply benefit the competitive crowd more than the casual crowd, which was my whole point. On a purely competitive basis, many players prefer Melee for those reasons. It's partially the same reason the newest Devil May Cry game was so poorly received by fans, despite being a hit with those newer to the series. The combat had fewer mechanics and less depth than DMC 1-4, and while it was still a great game on its own, those who had really invested time into the predecessors could easily recognize that something wasn't quite the same. Imagine if the next Pokemon game removed half the types and a bunch of moves that were considered too difficult for new players to grasp. It would hardly be considered an evolution in gameplay mechanics, and I'm sure many people would stick to earlier generations for competitive play. That's not to say Smash hasn't evolved at all since Melee, because obviously it has. Rage mechanics, more unique and niche attacks, Final Smashes for those who like to play with them... Of course there were advancements. But the point was that for players who played competitive Melee, the game simply feels like it's from a completely different series. Aside from the most basic mechanics and controls, there are very few similarities between how the games are played. It's why you see almost no players who are at the top level in both games. If you look at games like Street Fighter, Marvel vs Capcom, or Killer Instinct, many of the current top players have been top players since previous games. If you look at Smash 4, only one of the top players was also a top player in Melee, being M2K. Even then, he's not even at the top of the top as far as Smash 4 players go. The mechanics simply don't transfer from one to another I mean, this was exactly my point. The differences are real and important, and definitely produce different experiences, hence the split in the community and the reason Melee is still so popular despite being 15 years old. It's not people just hanging on for nostalgia, it's people hanging on for drastic differences in gameplay.

Aside from Pokemon, one of the first series that comes to mind for me is the Souls series (and Bloodborne). I started on Dark Souls 2, and I would always here from the veterans about how Dark Souls 1 is the best, and Dark Souls 2 sucks. Coming into the series on number 2, I was having a blast and just ignored it. However, after playing through Dark Souls 1, I came to agree that it was better in many aspects, though not all of them. The conversation gets started again with Dark Souls 3 having recently been released, and I'm hearing a lot of "Dark Souls 1 ftw" again. This time, as somebody who has played all the Souls games, I do have to disagree with the nostalgia train. Dark Souls 3 improved upon a lot of things from Dark Souls 1, and while there are a few steps backwards, I still consider it the best in the series. I only wish that the director hadn't been so adamant on ignoring Dark Souls 2. Almost all of the improvements made in that game have been lost, which I think is partially due to all the negative feedback DS2 got. I think it may have scared the developers away from taking anything from the game, which is a real shame. As an avid fan of Melee, as well as a casual Sm4sh player, I'd have to disagree that the Melee/Current Smash comparison is really a fit for this thread. While it may simply be nostalgia for some, there are real, important differences in the mechanics of the games that make the argument for Melee quite compelling. While I understand you don't like the idea of using tech and whatnot, it makes a real difference for those who do, and want to play the game on a competitive level, myself included. Melee and Sm4sh really feel like different games to me, each with their own benefits. I suppose at a casual level, the argument stands that the newer games are pretty much better in almost all ways, but I don't think there are many casual players hanging on to Melee anyway.