u/castledconch

So I (19, UK located) am beginning my first year of university in a month. I have been studying engineering in college since I was 15 (part time course while still in school) and have a solid understanding of CNC, CAD, material selection and quality management, production planning as well as solid workshop skills.

I'm going on to study a course in manufacturing engineering which also has management modules. Now it should be said that I am going to fight through university regardless of the answer to this post, as I already know what the next 4-5 years of my life will look like - deprived of fun, sleep and I can guarantee my evenings will be either studying or applying for work placements/internships/graduate jobs.

Now I think everyone in the UK who is my age and a little older understands the struggle of finding a job, every employer wants experience and no employers are willing to get you that experience. For the most part my generation has been relegated to dead-end fast food jobs and stacking shelves in supermarkets, I've watched it happen in my own part time work. I myself have accepted that the likelihood is that I will never be rich and wherever I end up will likely be dead-end with little to no prospects of branching out, that's the way the cookie crumbles but I truly believe some dead-ends are better than others.

I have no doubts that somewhere in this subreddit is a UK based engineer who's done manufacturing and went to uni, and that person is in a good spot having fought through our modern job market. I'm asking this question with hopes of pure honesty, no sugarcoating. How bad is it out there? What more can I do with my studies to improve my employability and chances of getting some work experience whilst in university and a full time job outside of university?

So I've collected a handful of Age of Sigmar armies and intend on having a somewhat playable list for when I start university. Nothing busted or meta as the people I'd be playing with are pretty casual, just fun and not totally useless. I'm aiming for 1000pts minimum, but if I can go above that I'd be very happy.

My budget is roughly £300 (around $400 USD) to build up an army or build upon an existing one. I'm personally opposed to second hand as I like to get my full money's worth in building, painting and basing.

Below are the armies that I'm considering:

FEC: Already have the 3rd edition army set, Spearhead for 3rd edition and Ushoran as well as 20 unbuilt Crypt Ghouls. I do not have the battletome but they are mostly painted.

Ossiarch: While poorly painted I possess the Spearhead from 3rd edition as well as a unit of Necropolis Stalkers and a Liege Kavalos. I do not own their battletome.

Blades of Khorne: I have the spearhead from 3rd edition which is partially painted but I don't have the battletome.

Soulblight Gravelords: I have the battletome but I don't have any models apart from a unit of 20 zombies. I'm not a great fan of the Spearhead and would rather start with a thematic 1,000-1,500pt wolf/bestial list containing Vyrkos characters and a few beast units like Dire Wolves and Fellbats.

Ogor Mawtribes: I don't own any models or the battletome for this army but the army set is available at discount at my LGS, I'm not 100% sure on how many points are in the box however.

What I'm pretty much asking is, of all these options, which army would be the most inexpensive, internally balanced and overall fun in casual games in your opinion?

So I imagine this question has been asked before but I'm going to ask it anyway. I've been looking into Paludariums as a concept as I find them fascinating, especially with the possibility of having aquatic and semi aquatic animals all in the same enclosure.

Can reptiles cohabitate with frogs or will cause issues?

So I have been absolutely fighting my guitar for the better part of two years to no avail, I can't seem to figure out anything in regards to the things and I've managed to figure out merely the below chords;

C

A

Em

Am

G

I cannot find the names of these chords as when I type 'guitar chords similar to C' I get some demented scale shit rather than 'moving my index and middle finger down a string, then another chord where they go down another string'

D

Now I'm at a point where I'm not getting better at guitar nor do I even have the patience for it anymore, what are some easy easy songs containing those chords? Now I don't mean 'easy', because apparently Black by Pearl Jam is easy and I am literally incapable of forming one of the chords in that song. I mean some 3 or 4 chord strumming comfort songs where I'm never moving more than two frets. Are there ANY songs that fit that description?

So me and my friends used to game together constantly, mainly playing survival games. Probably the most fun aspect of this was that we as a group are highly chaotic so games like Palworld, Conan Exiles, Ark and Fallout appealed to us.

Sadly gaming has taken a bit of a hit in terms of multiplayer and it doesn't seem like there are many fun multiplayer games out there. We played Guilty As Sock once then never touched it again, we also played Schedule 1 for a few days but that also got stale.

Does anyone have any recommendations for chaotic multiplayer games that we might enjoy?

So I (19M) am starting my first year of university as an engineering student in September, and would like to pick up some hobbies whilst I’m there. I’m currently already into Warhammer and Lego but I’d like to expand a bit.

I toyed with stand up and filmmaking, until reality struck and I remembered that stand up takes talent and filmmaking demands talent and money, I have neither talent nor money.

I would like to start more physical activities but sports are a bit difficult to get into when you’re 19, the people who I know who play a sport have been at it since they were like 8 or 9.

Does anyone have any recommendations for budget hobbies that I could pick up while I’m at uni?

So over the past few days myself and my friend have been working on the plot for a horror film. We’ve settled on a sort of cosmic horror and we have a rough concept, but there’s one aspect that I want to work on.

The film is about a group of teens who go camping in a forest that is also the domain of an ancient eldritch god. This god feeds on the unhealthy attachments that people have in what’s called the hunt, for one lengthened night the occupants of the forest are inhibited from leaving and are hunted by this god’s avatars until the sun comes back up.

There are several avatars used by this god, one to encourage each character’s vice, there is also the notebook which contains the rules of the hunt and corrupts one of the characters into becoming an avatar. The main attraction however is the Elk.

The Elk is the deity’s harvester, it doesn’t encourage the character’s vices but instead feeds on them when the work is done, this is because it isn’t specialised to any one person’s attachment, it’s simply an efficient and versatile killer (it’s heavily inspired by the Wendigo). Therefore I’m taking advantage of what I’m calling the Darth Vader effect: low screen time with high impact to make the creature memorable and almost sought after.

My main issue however is building up this creature throughout the film, in my writing I’ve never held off on revealing a character or part of a film and so I’m not entirely sure on how to build up its presence or the tension surrounding its presence. I do know for certain that it won’t appear until towards the end of the film, so that does leave me some time for build up.

How would you advise building suspense around this character?

So over the past few days myself and my friend have been working on the plot for a horror film. We’ve settled on a sort of cosmic horror and we have a rough concept, but there’s one aspect that I want to work on.

The film is about a group of teens who go camping in a forest that is also the domain of an ancient eldritch god. This god feeds on the unhealthy attachments that people have in what’s called the hunt, for one lengthened night the occupants of the forest are inhibited from leaving and are hunted by this god’s avatars until the sun comes back up.

There are several avatars used by this god, one to encourage each character’s vice, there is also the notebook which contains the rules of the hunt and corrupts one of the characters into becoming an avatar. The main attraction however is the Elk.

The Elk is the deity’s harvester, it doesn’t encourage the character’s vices but instead feeds on them when the work is done, this is because it isn’t specialised to any one person’s attachment, it’s simply an efficient and versatile killer (it’s heavily inspired by the Wendigo). Therefore I’m taking advantage of what I’m calling the Darth Vader effect: low screen time with high impact to make the creature memorable and almost sought after.

My main issue however is building up this creature throughout the film, in my writing I’ve never held off on revealing a character or part of a film and so I’m not entirely sure on how to build up its presence or the tension surrounding its presence. I do know for certain that it won’t appear until towards the end of the film, so that does leave me some time for build up.

How would you advise building suspense around this character?

So I posted a bit ago about creating a cosmic horror, and I was recommended Unreal Engine for special effects. This planted another question in my mind that - while somewhat unrelated to cosmic horror - I wanted to ask.

So I don't have any experience with Blender or Unreal Engine, as an engineering student I've never really had to come across those kinds of software. I however have a history of creating stop motion films with Plasticine as a hobby when I was younger, and have a great interest in combining live action shots with stop motion as seen in the 1933 King Kong. I also have experience using modelling software such as Autodesk Fusion, Solidworks and AutoCad, but these software's are used for engineering drawings and machining components rather than animation, so I was thinking of using these to make props and practical effects. Furthermore, I've been building Warhammer models since I was eight, this includes creating scenery for use in games as well as some diorama work which I think could be used for miniaturised replicas of sets.

Could these be viable alternatives to Blender or Unreal Engine?

This post is kind of here to settle a debate between me and my friend.

So I’ve been looking into some local film festivals and I’ve decided that I’d like to put in some entries over the next few years. I’ve spoken to a buddy of mine and we’ve agreed that a horror will be an interesting path to go down, especially for me as when I write I tend to focus on sci fi, fantasy and action.

I should start this post by saying that I’m not a film student nor have I had any formal education on filmmaking. I’m an engineering student who wants to make films for the love of the game.

We ran through several different sub genres of horror and came to conclusions on each. Firstly, neither of us are good enough writers or directors to pull off psychological horror, that is a talent and it’s one that neither of us possess. We agreed that body horror would be too expensive to produce on a university student/part time work budget. We both also concluded that folk or supernatural horror could be doable.

What we failed to agree on was cosmic horror. I believe that cosmic horror wouldn’t work on a minuscule budget with minimal special effects as cosmic horror is inherently vast and otherworldly, I don’t believe that can be shown through a shoestring budget without special effects. My friend however disagrees with that, reasoning that cosmic horror is meant to be impossible to comprehend, therefore a small budget and limited special effects could work.

So can one make a cosmic horror film on a small budget with limited special effects?

So I’ve been working on a story for around two years now by the title of Olympian. It’s basically the story of a legion of super soldiers going extinct 300 years after a war with an alien species.

My aim is to write a tragedy, an emotional piece of writing that chronicles the fall of a people, as brothers and sisters in arms kill each other. But I’m not sure of how to actually bring any feelings out in the reader.

How do you go about making emotional scenes actually emotional?

So I’ve been on a health kick since the start of the year and I’ve decided to pay some attention to my oral health. As of currently I brush and use mouthwash, I have no current cavities or pain or sensitivity but my gums on my lower jaw feel slightly puffy.

Are there any foods or other things that could maybe bring down that puffiness? I’ve read online that apples and oranges are good for gum health but was wondering if there’s anything else.

So I noticed this afternoon that I received an email on Monday from an address linked back to Agile451, which is a web development agency apparently. I deleted the email and thought nothing of it.

Just a few moments ago I saw that my profile on Agile was updated by ‘Anonymous’, now I don’t recall making an account with Agile451 to begin with, and truthfully I don’t really understand how they could have my email.

Does anyone have any idea what’s going on and how I can resolve it? I checked and Agile451 is a recognised business according to gov.uk.