There's not enough bitching

[Dracos]

Good luck, Ko.

[Anastasia]

Thanks. All I can do is keep trying.

[Dracos]

This week included:
A half power outage
A broken power pole
A gas leak
A full power outage
"And you must be there or we won't fix things"

All on the same couple days.

[Anastasia]

Sooooo...I'm guessing they're just not helping, huh? Seriously, was it individual things or one thing that kept going wrong?

[Anastasia]

Being woken up early remains the worst.

[Dracos]

Sooooo...I'm guessing they're just not helping, huh? Seriously, was it individual things or one thing that kept going wrong?

Individual.  What really made it a pain was shitty notifications.  They effectively gave a 2 day window for showing up, when they totally have 'we can text you when we're gonna actually be there to fix things'.

[Anastasia]

What fun.

That can run two days, that's worse than usual.

[Merc]

Been watching a streamer LaserBelch play Grand Poo World 2, a super mario world hack that just came out on...thursday I think?

He was playing it blind, pretty awesome stream overall, and he's actually been playing it for close to 12 hours today. Mods have been on point in chat either deleting messages and/or giving people timeouts when they've been backseating and/or spoiling, and he'd gotten a good milestone in the game being the second or third person to get any% completion on it, and he was working towards 100% now.

Dude just wants to complete a secret exit route he just found before he crashes for the night, and he was a bit down because he'd had a false finish - got a kaizo trap ending (link shows the kaizo trap, in case you care about spoilers) and he was looking to figure out how to difuse it since he didn't really want to go to bed without finishing the level. There was admittedly a bit of schadenfreude in watching that, but I did figure he'd solve it and then go to well deserved sleep and all that jazz.

No such luck. Even with all of the mods active on chat and giving repeated warnings...someone finds a way to spoil. Most streamers have it set up so when you make a cash donation over stream labs, there will be an announcement on stream with voice reading out any message you attach.

So someone gives a $1 donation spoiling the kaizo trap solution.

That really was a pretty downer thing to watch, and whomever did it KNEW they were being a dick. They made the donation anonymously.

[Anastasia]

Small world, I was watching his stream when that happened. Definitely agree with what you said.

On a related note, what do you think of GPW2?

[Merc]

Small world indeed. It didn't happen at a time either of us is normally still up either, I think.

Without spoilers, it looks pretty cool and it's super difficult.

I can't believe it's categorized as "Kaizo: light" difficulty in SMW central though and I'm left wondering what "Kaizo: hard" must be like.

Even having watched a number of his design streams, there's tons of surprises and easter eggs like that one fight that was completely coded by kaizoman (that boss is super neat and better than typical boo/reznor/wendy) and the funny portraits of other members in the mario hack community.

I dunno if the players just naturally miss most kaizo blocks too or if Barb was very tasteful with the usage, but I don't see them getting hit very often and whenever I do it doesn't feel like it's at a frustrating point. Just like, it's a natural gate in the level, and... "okay lesson learned, try not to hit it next time and shit I hit it again, dammit!"

So those didn't actually feel like trolls for the most part. Most of the trolls have been pretty funny though, I still crack up whenever a streamer triggers that fall with the scream (mortal kombat fall, I think?) in the water level. And people are purposely triggering some of them trying to find the portraits and trying to see if they can find one of themselves too.

I am still wondering what that one puzzle/cypher/anagram/whatever in that one orb level is about though. Don't think anybody has given solution for that on stream yet and I've certainly not been able to figure it out myself.

There's some mechanics that I really dig like the clocks and the modified mecha koopas, or the castlevania themed stage flavoring, but others like the tar pits and the rapid pokeys really felt meh and seeing other people play it did highlight the meh'ness too.

I do appreciate both the flavoring, trollishness and design of hanzo's castle though, and think that's probably my favorite level overall. So much effort into that last level too with the multiple routes, so that's also a really cool level.

Levels that I'd want to try myself though would probably be the clock level, mt moon, and sewer secret exit, which are primarily about platforming without really looking super tight or requiring a specific tech.

Edit: I'll note that overall I like Invictus more, but that's because that looks more playable in terms of difficulty level and in terms of what it throws at you, even though I like many aspects of GPW2 more.

[Dracos]

Bleh trying to get chores done today.  I'm gonna make a hit at getting through at least ten pages of my mom's tax preparer (bleh) and do some revising for my talk.  I wanna just laze instead.

[Anastasia]

Small world indeed. It didn't happen at a time either of us is normally still up either, I think.

Yeah, I just happened to wake up from a computer nap and watched at the right time.

Basically agree with your take on Grand Poo World 2, with the proviso I feel like it's at times suboptimal for play in favor of creating good stream moments. Some of the obvious and frankly unavoidable deaths come to mind here, the sort that only get you once or twice, but no way you avoid them short of the purest luck. Considering how it's set up and how they're playing up the mystery to solve, it feels designed for streaming as much as actual gameplay.  I definitely think the gameplay sacrifices itself at times for this.

On the other hand, seeing how active and prosperous streams have been on account of this, I certainly don't fault the design decisions in GPW2.

[Merc]

I've been pretty disappointed with the community in general when it comes to the last two exits in particular. I'm perfectly happy for everyone that had a blast with the combined streams of Panga, GlitchCat, Logic and Mitch to solve path to ending but fuck everyone wanting to ruin the experience for the blind players.

[Anastasia]

Did they get spoiled? I haven't been able to watch today.

[Merc]

Not successfully that I've noted (I'm at work so not seeing full news on everything), but definitely not for a lack of trying. Laser actually changed his chat to emote only because of it. There's that ass I messaged you about yesterday. Also in discord I've seen mentions of some failed attempts.