u/Korky_5731

My best guess is it is a DNA test that Renee got on him. Perhaps for a short time there was some semblance of a relationship between Wren and his grandparents, until it soured once Renee found the undeniable truth about his origins, distancing herself from him and his parents. Chances are that he is looking in an attic for pictures or clues as to who his real father was, and he stumbles upon this document stating that Andrew is his biological father. Just a random thought.

My best guess is it is a DNA test that Renee got on him. Perhaps for a short time there was some semblance of a relationship between Wren and his grandparents, until it soured once Renee found the undeniable truth about his origins, distancing herself from him and his parents. Chances are that he is looking in an attic for pictures or clues as to who his real father was, and he stumbles upon this document stating that Andrew is his biological father. Just a random thought.

Saw this recent developer log about a game jam esque event, figured I would toss a proverbial stone in the water, if nothing else, to see what happens. I have neither the resources nor knowledge to develop a game for this possible event, what I do have is time to spend or waste depending upon the ultimate outcome of this metaphorical stone.

The Concept: Story would be about two step siblings who grew up together. One of them is a highly responsible and intelligent adopted step sister, I will call her Mira and her step brother Steven who is the polar opposite of Mira. Their parents, an enabling mother and an alcoholic and drug addicted father barely pay any attention to these two, with the mother pre-occupied by work and worry whereas the father is drowning in his vices. So, because nobody really pays attention to Steven, he predictably acts out. Mira does not care though, she has her own issues, focusing on her studies instead of her troubled brother. Steven has nobody, his sister does not care for him, his mother sees him as a problem child and a burden, whereas the father only sees him as a means to an end, a way to collect off the government dole for drinking, drug, and gambling money. Granted, he sees Mira as the same, with the only real difference being that he plans to manipulate her into being his enabler should anything happen to the mother or as a contingency if the mother decides to stop enabling his bad habits.

A story of enabling, regret, and guilt: Whereas coffin is about generational trauma and codependency, this story would be about enabling (with their mother enabling the father’s bad habits and Mira enabling Steven’s spirit through giving him host bodies which he carelessly abuses and discards). Steven uses Mira’s regret against, blaming her and their parents for ignoring him to the point where he became reckless and ultimately paid the price for this with his life when he perishes after being killed by someone who he owed money to, as Steven fought this loan shark, the situation turned violent and Steven ended up getting killed when the two were teenagers.

Nobody would ever know the truth besides Steven and this loan shark. Of course, none of this is Mira’s fault, yet she still feels guilt, such guilt is what Steven’s spirit uses to manipulate Mira into helping him possess innocent people, pulling the souls from their body and implanting his own.

Mira’s tragedy: Everything was lined up for her, she had a promising future ahead of her, and all it cost her was a social life. Mira was largely introverted for this reason and always secretly hated her father and brother, only turning into an enabler as her mother was once Steven’s spirit returned from the dead. Now, she is nothing but a pawn of her step-brother’s spirit.

No romance: Mira does not fall in love with her step brother, her sole motivation is guilt and the futile hope that her brother will change if she allows his spirit to possess one more person. As stated previously, Mira’s motivations are guilt, regret, and a misplaced hope that if she gives Steven one more chance at a life, then he will make something of himself. This is meant to mirror the relationship between their parents, with the father having a tragic upbringing and the mother being guilted into enabling him, despite none of his trauma being her fault, with most of his hardships being the result of his own poor choices. Mira sees romance as a waste of time and Steven only cares about the physical intimacy aspect, so there would never be any romantic connection between the two.

Yet his constant guilt trips, namely when it pertains to having Steven and adopting Mira are brought up. Seeing his son as a deadbeat and his daughter as an introverted loser.

First Incarnation lie: Steven‘s first appearance to Mira involves this lie, since Steven’s remains were never discovered and his ultimate fate is a mystery to the characters in the story, his spirit is able to manipulate Mira with a fake sob story about how he was killed by someone trying to rob or kidnap him. She is in college on a scholarship at this time, she falls for it, agreeing to help him possess the body of a vagrant known as the town drunk. He takes this body, kills the debt collector and then is caught, causing him to take his life in prison, as he returns as a spirit. Realizing that he can manipulate his sister into giving him essentially infinite lives, she goes along with his scheme of constant rebirth, leading to her own life being neglected, failing out of college and being cutoff by her mother, who by this time is solely focused on taking care of their ailing father, ailing due to his substance abuse problems, might I add.

Gameplay: This hypothetical game would have you choose between playing as Mira or Steven, once the choice is made, the entire campaign would focus on this single character until the end. This is done for two reasons, in order to give replay-ability since playing both campaigns gives you as the player additional context and it makes it easier since your focus will be on a single character/narrative. Namely when it comes to Steven, as he lies about the reason why he was killed, claiming that he was murdered in cold blood when in reality, the debt collector acted in self defense as Steven pulled a knife on him, causing the collector to shoot him.

Mental Toll: From Mira’s campaign you see her change from this innocent introvert into a woman with severe Stockholm syndrome or this resentful enabler, depending on the player’s choices in dialogue as her brother becomes more and more reckless and demanding, requiring new hosts almost constantly because of his poor decision making leading him into bad situations where the host body is either killed or dies from neglect. I could see him killing the mom and dad for the purposes of insurance, if only to convince Mira that he is looking out for her best interest when in reality he is just using her for extra lives, though this particular Faustian Pact that he makes with a malevolent entity requires that Mira stays alive, which is why he does not outright take her over, needing her alive in order to continue being essentially immortal, hoping to cheat death as long as possible so that he can avoid the consequence of his deal with a demon.

How it would end: If Mira gets killed, he is trapped in the current host body he has control over, once that one dies, he pays the price for his pact, which is eternal torment in the underworld. Mira could finally grow a spine, breaking the cycle of enabling by refusing to give in to his demands for a new host, leading him to possess her in anger, not realizing that he just ruined his chances at immortality. This leads Mira and Steven to the same eventual fate, being eternal torment for their poor choices that or the cycle continues until Mira eventually gets killed by someone who she tries to subdue and preform the possession ritual on. Either way, neither sibling gets a happy ending, as you could say, that the game was rigged from the start.

Saw this recent developer log about a game jam esque event, figured I would toss a proverbial stone in the water, if nothing else, to see what happens. I have neither the resources nor knowledge to develop a game for this possible event, what I do have is time to spend or waste depending upon the ultimate outcome of this metaphorical stone.

The Concept: Story would be about two step siblings who grew up together. One of them is a highly responsible and intelligent adopted step sister, I will call her Mira and her step brother Steven who is the polar opposite of Mira. Their parents, an enabling mother and an alcoholic and drug addicted father barely pay any attention to these two, with the mother pre-occupied by work and worry whereas the father is drowning in his vices. So, because nobody really pays attention to Steven, he predictably acts out. Mira does not care though, she has her own issues, focusing on her studies instead of her troubled brother. Steven has nobody, his sister does not care for him, his mother sees him as a problem child and a burden, whereas the father only sees him as a means to an end, a way to collect off the government dole for drinking, drug, and gambling money. Granted, he sees Mira as the same, with the only real difference being that he plans to manipulate her into being his enabler should anything happen to the mother or as a contingency if the mother decides to stop enabling his bad habits.

A story of enabling, regret, and guilt: Whereas coffin is about generational trauma and codependency, this story would be about enabling (with their mother enabling the father’s bad habits and Mira enabling Steven’s spirit through giving him host bodies which he carelessly abuses and discards). Steven uses Mira’s regret against, blaming her and their parents for ignoring him to the point where he became reckless and ultimately paid the price for this with his life when he perishes after being killed by someone who he owed money to, as Steven fought this loan shark, the situation turned violent and Steven ended up getting killed when the two were teenagers.

Nobody would ever know the truth besides Steven and this loan shark. Of course, none of this is Mira’s fault, yet she still feels guilt, such guilt is what Steven’s spirit uses to manipulate Mira into helping him possess innocent people, pulling the souls from their body and implanting his own.

Mira’s tragedy: Everything was lined up for her, she had a promising future ahead of her, and all it cost her was a social life. Mira was largely introverted for this reason and always secretly hated her father and brother, only turning into an enabler as her mother was once Steven’s spirit returned from the dead. Now, she is nothing but a pawn of her step-brother’s spirit.

No romance: Mira does not fall in love with her step brother, her sole motivation is guilt and the futile hope that her brother will change if she allows his spirit to possess one more person. As stated previously, Mira’s motivations are guilt, regret, and a misplaced hope that if she gives Steven one more chance at a life, then he will make something of himself. This is meant to mirror the relationship between their parents, with the father having a tragic upbringing and the mother being guilted into enabling him, despite none of his trauma being her fault, with most of his hardships being the result of his own poor choices. Mira sees romance as a waste of time and Steven only cares about the physical intimacy aspect, so there would never be any romantic connection between the two.

Yet his constant guilt trips, namely when it pertains to having Steven and adopting Mira are brought up. Seeing his son as a deadbeat and his daughter as an introverted loser.

First Incarnation lie: Steven‘s first appearance to Mira involves this lie, since Steven’s remains were never discovered and his ultimate fate is a mystery to the characters in the story, his spirit is able to manipulate Mira with a fake sob story about how he was killed by someone trying to rob or kidnap him. She is in college on a scholarship at this time, she falls for it, agreeing to help him possess the body of a vagrant known as the town drunk. He takes this body, kills the debt collector and then is caught, causing him to take his life in prison, as he returns as a spirit. Realizing that he can manipulate his sister into giving him essentially infinite lives, she goes along with his scheme of constant rebirth, leading to her own life being neglected, failing out of college and being cutoff by her mother, who by this time is solely focused on taking care of their ailing father, ailing due to his substance abuse problems, might I add.

Gameplay: This hypothetical game would have you choose between playing as Mira or Steven, once the choice is made, the entire campaign would focus on this single character until the end. This is done for two reasons, in order to give replay-ability since playing both campaigns gives you as the player additional context and it makes it easier since your focus will be on a single character/narrative. Namely when it comes to Steven, as he lies about the reason why he was killed, claiming that he was murdered in cold blood when in reality, the debt collector acted in self defense as Steven pulled a knife on him, causing the collector to shoot him.

Mental Toll: From Mira’s campaign you see her change from this innocent introvert into a woman with severe Stockholm syndrome or this resentful enabler, depending on the player’s choices in dialogue as her brother becomes more and more reckless and demanding, requiring new hosts almost constantly because of his poor decision making leading him into bad situations where the host body is either killed or dies from neglect. I could see him killing the mom and dad for the purposes of insurance, if only to convince Mira that he is looking out for her best interest when in reality he is just using her for extra lives, though this particular Faustian Pact that he makes with a malevolent entity requires that Mira stays alive, which is why he does not outright take her over, needing her alive in order to continue being essentially immortal, hoping to cheat death as long as possible so that he can avoid the consequence of his deal with a demon.

How it would end: If Mira gets killed, he is trapped in the current host body he has control over, once that one dies, he pays the price for his pact, which is eternal torment in the underworld. Mira could finally grow a spine, breaking the cycle of enabling by refusing to give in to his demands for a new host, leading him to possess her in anger, not realizing that he just ruined his chances at immortality. This leads Mira and Steven to the same eventual fate, being eternal torment for their poor choices that or the cycle continues until Mira eventually gets killed by someone who she tries to subdue and preform the possession ritual on. Either way, neither sibling gets a happy ending, as you could say, that the game was rigged from the start.

Context: Going to dump my thoughts on this character below.

Origins: Wren is the result of Andrew accepting Ashley’s advances rather than pushing her away. This is why the parents are still alive. It mirrors how the parents had Andrew and later Ashley when they were too young and reckless due to a mistake, which seems to go in line with the motif of the mistakes of the parents being transferred onto the children.

Sequel Potential: If there was to be a sequel to burial, one where Andrew and Ashley’s narrative arc were completed, I could see this character being the main protagonist of a potential sequel. The Afterlife of Wren or The Decay of Wren as I will call it. Chances are that besides his cataract, his issues will be psychological rather than physical, given that this game is psychological horror, it fits.

Wren’s Schizophrenia: Wren, since he does not appear to have a sibling, will probably hallucinate one. Starting as what his parents see as harmless, yet causing issues later down the line. This hallucination will serve as the narrative codependent, much in the same vein as Andrew and Ashley needing each other to progress throughout the story, Wren and this imaginary sibling will become hopelessly codependent.

Hallucination or sone thing more sinister: I suspect this will depend upon player choice as to whether or not this imaginary sibling is a product of untreated psychosis or a demonic entity manipulating Wren. If this hypothetical sequel allows you to play both characters, then I could see it being an entity but if you only play as Wren, it could just be an hallucination or a conduit for Wren’s potential telekinetic powers. Largely dependent upon gameplay.

Love this mod, just wish there would be an option to have the editor be symmetrical by default. Posting this here as a feature request as I do not know where else to post it.

Is there an equivalent to this Chrome privacy and security options feature wise wherein these features such as Javascript/images/microphone/etc and select permissions are able to be disabled by default, only to be enabled by a button on the taskbar?

A random thought, Steve made The Grox to prevent other species from reaching the core, wanting to only share the gift of The Staff of Life with those who were able to overcome the obstacle that was The Grox. He genetically engineered them to be able to survive on uninhabitable worlds, cybernetically augmented them, and made it so they were programmed to protect the core from any would be intruders, which was somewhat effective as The Grox creature still had some agency. The Grox, knowing that the staff was a potential hazard to them, followed their directive out of self preservation. This is why we see them never expand beyond the core, their programming prevents them from doing so. I would expect Steve to leave the galaxy if The Grox were ever defeated, just so he would not have to deal with the surge of empires going to the core while The Grox would defend the core to the last soldier with no real purpose once defeated.

Since most of the game's archetypes have adventures, I got bored and thought of what The Grox's adventure would be, it they had one. I called it controlled opposition, where the description would be "Two powerful empires meet to discuss plans to align their forces against The Grox. This must not be allowed to happen as it would prove disruptive to the status quo". It would be an adventure where you have to kill and replace the leader of a powerful Empire who is trying to create a military alliance against The Grox with another powerful military power. Your goal would be to ambush their transport, (the planet they are meeting on would be a jungle planet, so they would have to use a land vehicle for transport.

On a remote dirt road, away from prying eyes, overlooking the jungle, giving you a perfect hiding spot to ambush this dignitary. You and a squadron of clones made by The Grox to resemble the other empire's soldiers wait there. Your job would be to kill the leader of this empire when an EMP disrupts the vehicle, then The Grox send in the clone duplicate, who is one of their agents. They go to the meeting, badmouth the leader of the other empire, accusing them of an attempted assassination, claiming that they had killed a body double, and they would order soldiers to open fire on this other leader and those in attendance. You would have to escape the massacre as the guards open fire on the diplomats there and then escape as the once peaceful village erupts into chaos with the first shots of a war starting as both sides begin to fight, just as The Grox wanted.

Got inspiration from Fallout 4 when writing this, namely The CPG massacre. Along with the promotional commercial for Galactic Adventures, namely the "kill a dictator" part.

The new mapbase update says that it adds "New silent_suit response context for use on players to silence HEV suit lines". I do not know how to achieve this, how is this feature enabled so that the suit does not make any noise?

About 10 years ago I remember playing this free Counter Strike inspired fan game (that was not steam affiliated, just an independent download game/program. yet I cannot remember its name. I recall that it had a zombies mode. Was mainly bot focused, and had some space maps. It did have the name “Counter Strike“ in it. And it was not on Steam.

Update: Found it. It was called Critical Strike Portable. Thanks for all the replies.