Our community threads are the heart of our subreddit and operate much like a specialized support group – we share our experiences and strive to collectively support one another on the topic at hand.
Please use this space for sharing and discussing any type of treatment or family building measures. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Advice / Updates on current treatment cycle or planned/future treatment cycles
• Questions / Discussion about medications, treatment, diagnostic tests, and lab results
• Any measures taken/evaluated to improve treatment outcomes – supplements, diet, exercise, etc
• Seeking emotional support related to upcoming treatment, treatment outcomes, infertility diagnosis, and confirmed loss
• Commiseration and venting related to treatment
• Supporting and cheering on fellow members as they run the gauntlet of infertility treatments

Essentially, if you mention treatment – it goes in this thread.
​
A few notes:

• Positive HPT or Beta Results (including Beta Hell) should only be posted in the Results thread as per the rules (except for confirmed loss): https://www.reddit.com/infertility/search?q=flair_name%3A%22Results%22
• We recognize that the AM/PM distinction doesn’t match up with every time zone in our global community, we ask that you pick the most recently posted thread wherever you are.
• Standalone culture here is saved for complex topics, usually including detailed conversations around scientific studies, or asking multi-part complex questions around treatment plans. We strongly recommend posting in the community threads first. If you aren’t sure, ask in the daily threads first!

Above all - Science minded perspective and respect for others is important here. Please treat your fellow peers with compassion.

I’m watching the conversation between her and tiff. Tiff is asking her politely to start having respectful conversations with her. She took blame and accepted part of the fault by saying she also needs to work on her communication skills, but that they both needed to feel listened to. ….but Mildred wouldn’t stfu and kept on interrupting Tiff. Tiff mentioned that they both interrupt each other and need to work on that so mildred responds with “oh so how often do you think I don’t let you talk??” Tiff says all the time… so of course Mildred gets that look on her face. Like ‘challenge accepted’ face. Mildred says”oh so I should just be quiet?!” Tiff says no. Then Mildred says “so when do I have permission to speak??” Tiff stays calm and mature and says “it’s not that you need permission to speak it’s just about having a common respect (mutual respect t)” so of course Mildred interrupts her and says “oh yea?! Because Now You’re telling me that I interrupt you when we’re having a conversation Clearly…” Tiff stands her ground and points out that she just now spoke over her. So Mildred says “so then how am I suppose to feel like I’m not interrupting you all the time?” Tiff says “well you just don’t interrupt and the same goes for me- I need to not interrupt you..we both deserve to feel heard and understood…”to which Mildred so eloquently responds “ but TIFF you talk a lot like you Don’t Shut Up” And then shortly after this blames the fact that she has no manners or respect on the fact that she’s Latina. When Tiff finally bites on to this and says she can not just blame it on her being Latina -Mildred finally gets the argument she’s been desperately gunning for and feels in control again. I effing hate Mildred for so many many reason but most definitely this conversation was the cherry for me. She’s so selfish, rude, narcissistic, nasty, and frankly dumb. That’s just MY OPINION 🤟🏼

Hello everyone, first time posting here or really much of anywhere but I have been lurking on this subreddit for the last couple weeks because I really have not been sure if telling my story would make me feel better, but here we go.
So first a little backstory, I am not the most traditionally attractive guy, but I have always put up a front of confidence and charm. So I will admit when I was younger especially I had very little issues talking to women. Despite this my love life has been quite the shit show. The main incident that is relevant to my story now happened a few years ago, I got engaged to my best friend of years and while when I talk about it to most people I simply say "oh it just didn't work out" the harsh reality is that she died and while I have had years to heal I still can't handle the look of pity if I tell them the truth.
Despite the loss of my fiance and best friend I moved on, as I know that's what she would have wanted for me. I went to college, first of my family, and had several relationships there. However, all of them where not long term or super serious, all where either sexual in nature or had known limited life spans,.like knowing the relationship was going to end when she graduated ect.
Then one day I met a girl, on a random chat site no less, and we hit it off. Now I have no idea what it was that drew me to her so strongly, she was kind, smart, beautiful, sexy, and just had this way of making me feel like through her eyes there was no man that could compare. She encouraged me to be the best I could be and washed away my insecurities. She truly helped me be a version of me I was proud of, and in return I was always there for her, I loved her, I did anything I could to make her happy. That was the big thing I just wanted her to be happy, and for quite some time she seemed like she really was.
We dated long distance, sadly of course she lived on the other side of the world but I had gotten my visa and had plans for me to visit after I graduated. For almost 2 years er where happy. Then a couple months before our 2 year anniversary she tells me she wants to break up, she is crying and saying how much she loves me but that the fact she found someone she can see herself spending her life with at such a young age terrified her, she was 21. I was heartbroken the first woman I let myself truly love since my fiance died was breaking up with me because she had met me too early? Despite this her happiness is what mattered most to me and I decided I would be supportive in any way I could. However, the way she treated me post breakup up is really what got me.
I understood she would have to distance herself to some degree, but she distanced herself hard, she treated me as if I was an ex that abused her, she did not trust me with things, and she made it very clear most the time randomly that we where never getting back together. I thought we had a genuine special connection and even if we where not together I thought we could translate that connection into a supportive friendship.
Two weeks after the break up, she sent on a date, it hurt but I understood and was not mad. However this guy did something to her that is not my place to talk about. I could tell she was hiding something next time we talked and I hate that I made her tell me what was wrong because it felt manipulative and that's not who I ever wanted to be. Anyway after hearing what he did I pleaded with her to not see him again for her own sake, she made it clear she was because he turned out to also be her drug dealer and she had taken up smoking a lot more than she had before which I did not have an issue with. Than on the day that would have been our two year anniversary I noticed she removed me as a friend on various platforms and I asked her about it, I wasn't blocked, she does not like blocking people. All she said was that she had a new boyfriend (the guy previously mentioned) and that he nor her was comfortable with her talking to me. And that was that have not talked since, I know it is her choice to live her life how she wants but I can't not worry to some degree about someone I loved so dearly.
Now for the first time I feel more alone than even when my fiance died. I treated my ex right, did everything I could and it still was not enough. I have always been a romantic stoic, that is to say no matter what happened in my love life I persevered but now I just don't know how to feel. Simply put I feel empty and for the first time in my life feel like maybe love is not meant for me.
I know this was long so thank you to anybody and everybody that took the time to read this, I hope you all genuinely are happy and are having a wonderful day/night.

Hey I am 19 years old you cam just call me pumn, I am looking for someone interesting to talk with or play some game .
About me: I am 188cm(6'1), 65kg(145lb), black eyes, black hair medium length, I'm on the introvert side, I would say I am funny, quite smart and can have a deep conversation.
My hobbies: I like to read a book with a cup of coffee, watch a movie/series/anime, play games currently I am playing valorant (I am silver1 😅), I train martial art (muay thai/kickboxing/boxing) and I like to listen to music I am open to any kind except hard rock if you have a great suggestion I might give it a try.
About you: 18+,in Europe(preferred because of the time zone), other than these two I don't care.
If you are interested dm me or send a massage to me discord (Numb#6803) and if we vibe we might vc in discord play some games or even watch some move.

[OFFER] for $5 I will make a business card for you.
I can also do banners for 10 dollars
die-line/ packaging design/mock-ups starting at 20 dollars
I will deliver AI, PSD, EPS, PDF in case of print or PNG, TIFF, JPEG, If it’s only for social media posts.
I am proficient in Photoshop and Lightroom. If you require that as well.
I Take PayPal, and I am in IST +5;30 time zone, so responses can be a bit late if it's late night for me.
Comment $Bid on the post and then Dm.
Here’s my portfolio https://www.dropbox.com/s/7mbwqca7uigg26h/PORTFOLIO.pdf?dl=0

[OFFER] for $5 I will make a business card for you.
I can also do banners for 10 dollars
die-line/ packaging design/mock-ups starting at 20 dollars
I will deliver AI, PSD, EPS, PDF in case of print or PNG, TIFF, JPEG, If it’s only for social media posts.
I am proficient in Photoshop and Lightroom. If you require that as well.
I Take PayPal, and I am in IST +5;30 time zone, so responses can be a bit late if it's late night for me.
Comment $Bid on the post and then Dm.
Here’s my portfolio https://www.dropbox.com/s/7mbwqca7uigg26h/PORTFOLIO.pdf?dl=0

[OFFER] for $5 I will make a business card for you.
I can also do banners for 10 dollars
die-line/ packaging design/mock-ups starting at 20 dollars
I will deliver AI, PSD, EPS, PDF in case of print or PNG, TIFF, JPEG, If it’s only for social media posts.
I am proficient in Photoshop and Lightroom. If you require that as well.
I Take PayPal, and I am in IST +5;30 time zone, so responses can be a bit late if it's late night for me.
Comment $Bid on the post and then Dm.
Here’s my portfolio https://www.dropbox.com/s/7mbwqca7uigg26h/PORTFOLIO.pdf?dl=0

I've had similiar issues in the past but always found a solution on my own. This time I cannot.
SBC says "Your audio device cannot be detected. Please check your connection."
Things I've tried:
Updating the driver.
Starting my PC up with my XLR & headset unplugged.
Shutting the system down, unplugging everything (Card from pcie & audio cables). Restart the system, launch SBC, turn off auto start, shut down system, replug the card in, start system up, plug the cables in, start SBC.
Uninstalled SBC and all AE9 drivers in device manager. Shut system down, Unplug card, start system back up, reinstall drivers and SBC, restart, update driver, shut down, plug sound card back in, start up, plug cables back in, launch SBC.
nothing worked.
Here are my basic specs:
Windows 11Mobo: Asus TUFF x570 wifiCPU: Ryzen 9 3950x (reminder: does not have integrated graphics)32 gigs of ram at 3600mhz
XLR - AT2020Headset - standard 3.5mm AKG K550 that I have just plugged into the mobo.- because I have been plagued with this wacky issue where if I use the AE9 audio out, my audio channels will flip and one ear will stop having bass, because I'll play a certain game or stream on discord. Couldn't find a fix to that issue either other than constantly switching from speaker to headset on SBC, but that got old (and is now impossible to deal with since SBC can't detect my card) and so I just stuck with my mobo audio. (Read several threads that loosely blamed strange bugs between x570 mobos and r9 3950x cpus not being very compatible with the Sound blaster drivers.)
Really not happy with this card, I've had strange issued with it after every update on either windows or it's own updates. I absolutely loved my old Sound blaster Z back in the day, and it carries on in my parents rig. But I'm really set on probably getting rid of this thing and finding another solution to using an XLR mic (Like not using an xlr mic and just getting a usb one or a headset combo lol). In the mean time though, it would be nice to stomp out this issue until I get a different audio set up in the near future, if not oh well,
Thanks for your time.

I've been playing with the idea of divorce the past year. I've told him numerous times how unhappy I was, that I wanted to split up. At least a separation! But I was weak. See, he just pretends that all the conversations never happened. That everything is okay and I didn't tell him the night before I wanted him to move out. His flat out denial was the last reaction I expected! I was flummoxed by this behavior at first, but at the same time.. i was just so damn tired of fighting. When he'd act all cheerful the day after a huge fight, I went along with it. I guess I let him think it was all good and that it was just me getting mad and ranting. I didn't mean it.
But I did mean it. Problem was I still loved and cared about him. I was not in love with him, I stopped having sex with him over a year ago. Aside from a snappy comment occasionally, he does not seem to care though. But I still let him stay and I didn't push the matter. I felt guilty for not being in love with him, for breaking my marriage vows where I promised him forever. Plus it was scary! To face being single in my 40s? To not have any guarantee that I won't die alone with 20 cats.
But now, I'm ready. I've talked about how I still cared, but not addressed the myriad of issues. My husband is a serious alcoholic and he has no desire to stop. I can no longer take it. Ive tried to help but can't help someone who doesn't want it. Now I have more than enough to justify my decision. My reluctance to put our marriage out of its misery has been a very expensive mistake this past week.
Wrecked my car, no license, no insurance. Drunk. His fault. Jail for 3 days. Almost a $1000 for new insurance and getting car of of jail (impound) not to mention the couple thousand dollars in damages to the car and oh yeah, getting sued by person he hit.
Moving this month. Was supposed to move a few days ago when "someone" ended up in jail. Instead of helping move OUR STUFF, he "had to work " So it cost a few hundred dollars paying for the truck and people to move the stuff my 5'3 self can't carry.
Tonight. Wrecked bicycle on way home from work. Drunk? Haha! You guessed it. Somebody called cops when they saw him laying in bushes on side of road. Cops called to tell me, he is fine. Maybe a few cuts and bruises, but it was either going to hospital or jail for public intoxication. Cost will be a massive hospital bill and Uber ride home.
I have had it. The car. Leaving me to move alone. The continued drinking. There's nothing I can do to make him stop and I can't deal with it. It's not only expensive and stressful, but it's causing me to be miserable and do stupid fucking shit. It just never ends between us. A never-ending drama, and I am sick of it.
Maybe it makes me a bad person to leave someone with an addiction. I've given almost a third of my life to him. I refuse to be miserable and depressed for the rest of my life because I am not happy in my marriage.
Yeah. I'm not perfect. I'm actually a hypocritical bitch. I have my own addiction problems. But I want something more, I want to stop. I'm 43, the party is over. I don't want to play anymore and his behavior enables me and gives me easy excuses to go get drunk and blow his money.
It has to end. I don't care if I'm wrong. If I'm being selfish. I'm not staying with someone who doesn't even count me in his top 3 priorities.

1 is himself

2 alcohol

3 work

That leaves me at maybe #4?
Yeah. No more.
The drama never ends... unless I choose to end it.

[OFFER] for $5 I will make a business card for you.
I can also do banners for 10 dollars
die-line/ packaging design/mock-ups starting at 20 dollars
I will deliver AI, PSD, EPS, PDF in case of print or PNG, TIFF, JPEG, If it’s only for social media posts.
I am proficient in Photoshop and Lightroom. If you require that as well.
I Take PayPal, and I am in IST +5;30 time zone, so responses can be a bit late if it's late night for me.
Comment $Bid on the post and then Dm.
Here’s my portfolio https://www.dropbox.com/s/7mbwqca7uigg26h/PORTFOLIO.pdf?dl=0

So i been on a 4 or 3 month journey already and im so happy to tell that i went from 160kg to 145 now! I think i lost around 33 pounds..i feel so much healthier i dont have work rn so i been filling my times with walks and stuff...but theres one thing im scared off.. When will u see the drastic change? Im still at 145kg and i feel so fat..i can see my face just slim down just a bit..but is it normal to not see any changes for 4 or 3 months?..oh btw if anyone doesnt mind is it okay to eat 1500-2500 calories when my maintenance is 3400? My height is 179cm..thanks for everyone that read!!!

Hey I am 19 years old you cam just call me pumn, I am looking for someone interesting to talk with or play some game .
About me: I am 188cm(6'1), 65kg(145lb), black eyes, black hair medium length, I'm on the introvert side, I would say I am funny, quite smart and can have a deep conversation.
My hobbies: I like to read a book with a cup of coffee, watch a movie/series/anime, play games currently I am playing valorant (I am silver1 😅), I train martial art (muay thai/kickboxing/boxing) and I like to listen to music I am open to any kind except hard rock if you have a great suggestion I might give it a try.
About you: 18+,in Europe(preferred because of the time zone), other than these two I don't care.
If you are interested dm me or send a massage to me discord (Numb#6803) and if we vibe we might vc in discord play some games or even watch some move.

Is driving for Ubereats or Doordash more worth the time in Brisbane at the moment? And am I just sitting in dead zones? I'm getting next to no deliveries and no quests whatsoever with UE.

Hello,
​
I have recently (a couple of months) started a Ph.D. in Germany in the field of reinforcement learning, which I try to combine with Optimal Control to give guarantees and /or analyze performance and convergence properties and the like, or at least that was the initial idea.
​
The thing is, I am not enjoying the experience so far. I was never interested or very good with theory and math proving, but I was applying to many machine learning Ph.D. programs last year, and that was the only one I got accepted in (or at least the first). Because the salary is tolerable and the overall program prestigious, I thought I might as well take the risk and plunge in and push myself out of my comfort zone, even though I was, and still am, very uncertain I would succeed.I do not like it so far for several reasons, which I will provide for context.
​
First, the lab itself: While the other Ph.D. students are likable people, and I have no issue with them, they are all essentially doing theoretical research in control theory, and just one tries to combine it with deep learning. Besides that, there is no machine learning and not even much data-driven work. Ergo, I am in a lab where I neither understand nor care about anyone's research, which feels isolating and, quite frankly, useless. There's also the issue of teaching assistance, which I have been told takes substantial time ("We don't have time to do research over an entire semester" time). I can experience it for myself already as I am supposed to be a TA at a theoretical optimization course with material I don't understand.
​
Then it is the issue of the supervisor. The lab's PI is a super senior Prof with tens of thousands of citations and over 10 Ph.D. students. Mine is a super junior Professor who just started on the tenure track a little over six months now and has two other Ph.D. students. I feel our mindsets don't match my Prof's because he's way too theoretical. At the same time, I am much more software-oriented and even feel like he is trying to micromanage me by telling me how many hours I should spend on X course, always letting him know what I am working on, etc.
​
He is even opposed to the idea of me doing projects outside of work, like an entrepreneurship incubator, because "before I have results, this kind of work, as well as networking, are useless," which I honestly find idiotic. He even lectured me when I let him know I would join, even though I had asked him before applying because he said I should listen to him more and tell him these things like I would tell my friends and some other nonsense. While the program will last around six weeks and require my presence for six days, I still do not think that kind of reaction was warranted or useful. Truth be said, I dislike him increasingly as time passes, and I am afraid I will hate him in a few months.
​
Finally, there is the issue of the work itself. I just don't find myself excited to try to make sense of papers all day. It feels dull and meaningless. I am still figuring out my exact research topic too. Still, I am thinking of going into more causality-based learning, which I am surprised the Prof sort of accepted after several attempts because while he constantly says he is flexible, the first few times I suggested some topics beyond the very initial rough ideas we had sort of agreed on, that is the theoretical analysis of RL algorithms, he has several times said he is more interested in staying the course on those initial ideas and not exploring more, which feels constricting. I mean, the whole point of a Ph.D. is to explore relevant topics freely, isn't it? Right now, I feel less free here than I felt when working in the industry.
​
Therefore, and because I do not believe those problems can be overcome, or even that I want to overcome them, I have come up with the following plan: I will give this program some time so that I am confident beyond reasonable belief about these observations and to figure out I indeed do not enjoy or am good at this kind of thing. I want to give it enough time to clear any doubts I may still have while trying very hard to make it work and not have any thoughts about quitting without a fight.
​
I will minimize my time toiling on my Ph.D., working diligently during my 9-5 but no more. Instead, I will dedicate significant time to upgrading and expanding my data science and software engineering skills and preparing for technical interviews. Then, if in one year the situation has not dramatically improved, I will apply for jobs in the tech area in the US and quit the program after I have secured an offer. If I am asked by employers why I quit the Ph.D., I will sell it as the sort of thing I just realized is not for me, and I want to create value, work with code, etc.
​
What does the community here think about my thoughts and plan? Is there anything I need to improve or rethink?

This is long, sorry.
I’m 30 and I’m finally finding myself able to admit certain things to myself. Namely that my attraction to femininity and androgyny isn’t only limited to females, and maybe actually skews the other way quite a bit. Maybe always has.
I’ve known for a long time that I’m “not straight”, but I guess I had always kind of filed that away as some kind of fantasy. Now I’m reconsidering. I’d like to branch out and make a friend to explore my attractions with but so far I’m finding it all quite intimidating.
The people I’ve talked to so far seem to want me to play a role that isn’t really native to me. Basically I keep getting called “daddy.”
I think it might have to do with the nature of my attractions/desires and the “type” I’m into (basically highly-effeminate, petite people)… and the fact that physically I might come across as more or less masculine? But being called this just sorta makes me sad because I’m not like that. Due to complicated stuff from childhood I’ve never felt comfortable with power. It just makes me feel very uneasy to “wear that jacket”, if that makes any sense. I need to feel more of a “peer” thing or else I kinda shut down.
In my past dating life I’ve really only had relationships with women who kinda worked their own ways into my life. And other than those I’ve never been one for anything other than extended “friendships.” Beyond that it’s just too intimidating and just I’m too sensitive, I need to have a certain connection before anything.
I haven’t tried apps yet because I’m worried I’ll get scared off from the whole thing. People’s confidence. I’m happy for them but I am just a million miles somewhere else. A tortured soul lol.
I’ve tried a couple personal ads on here but that’s how I keep running into what I’ve mentioned. I’m not sure what else I can try.
I feel like people might’ve felt my posts were tiresome or needlessly complicated. Maybe they were but I had hoped to try to avoid being hurt or hurting anyone’s feelings that way; I have a pretty comprehensive sense who I am and what I like.
Just like for example, previously in dating, when I’d omit the complexity, I’d repeatedly run into non-starters on like second and third dates. Stuff that doesn’t come up right away but, when it does, makes me realize “oh, nope, neither of us are gonna be good for each other.” But maybe that’s just dating? It’s just been the overwhelming majority of my experiences. And it’s so far from enjoyable as to just not be worth it. Hurts, basically. Like playing out a game when you know the ending isn’t going to be what you’re looking for.
When I was trying to “date” none of that ever actually translated into anything anyway; my relationships have only ever evolved out of knowing people. But meeting my “type” with the stuff I’m talking about here is not exactly common, especially since I’m quite a homebody.
Does anyone have suggestions how I could approach this stuff in a way that’s more fulfilling? Should I just numbers-game it? Chews me up inside.
Thank you

Brief background: I'm an over-the-hill class gamer who grew up with FF's 1, "2", and "3" (those are 4 and 6 now, and yes, I know you already knew). FFX and X2 represented a glaring hole in my experience that I sought to correct over the past couple of weeks. And while I don't have much to say on FFX -- it's a great game, maybe not for me -- I have quite a bit to say about FFX2. I need the catharsis, so I'm just going to jump right in, by topic.
The Stuff Everyone Hates
Just to get this out of the way, the completion business is completely bonkers. Some of the stuff guarding 100% (Via Infinito is a great example) feels like post-game screw around stuff to extend playtime, not critical do-this-or-get-a-bad-ending stuff. My theory is that that's how it was intended to work, but at some point they put more and more emphasis on that elusive completion, and it's... ugh. I mean, they make you perform a major faction choice early in the game, and one of them will then and there torpedo your "perfect run". Another bit of completion and an either-or choice of unique accessory relies on who you talk to first with no indication of it mattering. It's confusing and obtuse.
Oh, and the outfits are ridiculous. I'm not gonna spend a lot of time there. Just talking about it makes me feel a bit skeevy.
Mechanics
I love job-change systems, strategic building, and the new ATB system here is a lot of fun, with shit happening everywhere. So it's easy to come in excited. Unfortunately, it all is kind of ... well, let's break it down.

• The ATB system, more and more towards the end of the game, exhibits a huge amount of queueing problems, as more and more you have full charge bars just sitting around waiting for some other shit to get done. More than once I'd finish casting something while a fat tonberry was waving his knife around, only to sit there staring at him for several seconds, and then have him attack again. Against multitarget fights (like Major Numerous) it feels particularly punishing as it seems easy for your actions to clump up after quite a few of the enemy's. Some clarity on the turn ordering would have helped a lot (perhaps an FFX-style display). As it is, it's very hard to make multipart strategies work. Which you need to do, because...
  
• The job system is, like, not really a job system. It's a weird beast, because most of the jobs feel like they're pretty locked in to a role, but then there isn't any credible way to benefit from more than one job at a time. (Yes, hang on, I'm getting to that.) So clearly the sphere change system is meant to pick up that slack, and the idea of strategically laying out jobs on a board to move between was really cool, up until the first time I needed to traverse the whole board (Paine's special sphere, maybe?) and it became obvious that there wasn't any cost to doing so; if you spam the sphere changes you can get everyone through all of their boards before the enemy does anything in 90% of cases. There's no other cost to changing spheres, so I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing here, but it feels like any board with some powerful effect behind "hit all the gates" is just saying "to continue character progression you're going to have to do thirty seconds of mindless button mashing before every fight." Okay, so I leave that behind, but then, if you don't swap jobs, it's back to overrestricted roles again.
  
• As you progress, items try to address this, as you get accessories (and boards!) that let you access skill sets from another job. By and large these are pretty terrible, for the next few reasons (which also hurt the game as a whole).
  
• The jobs are clogged up with way too much useless gimmick garbage. Almost every job has one or many HP-percent attacks (think Demi), and they have the same problem they've always had, which is that against enemies it would work against you're almost always better off just, like, hitting them. The fat guys you might actually want to try this on are all immune to it, guaranteed. Every single one of these skills is a waste of design and a waste of space, and I resent having to scroll past them looking for something that might work. Except, I can't, because...
  
• Almost all of the stuff that isn't HP-percent is instead normal-attack-plus-status-effect. Anyone who's spent any time playing RPGs knows this issue, and it's the same one as above; against stuff that it would actually work on, you should just get to killing it; it doesn't matter if you put some weak-ass poison on it (and, despite the FFX poison being ridiculously good, the FFX2 poison is so trivial that I stopped bothering to get it off my team halfway through the game). Jobs are absolutely riddled with this shit. For half the classes, literally everything they learn that you can click on is "normal attack plus something that every strong enemy is immune to". And that's what makes the other-job accessories so bad, because getting access to a bunch of ways to pay MP to do a normal attack with a fancy "GUARD" shield over it isn't useful.
  
• Just to cap off these lists of useless moves, the "best" skills in jobs will frequently be some kind of instant death (there are dozens of these). Same problem as above except moreso, because even more stuff will be immune. Like, seriously, some jobs have multiple instant death attacks, and none of them ever work.
  
• But what about magic? I've been a black magic fan for decades. Well, the designers hate me specifically, because magic in this game sucks shit. I mean, it's absolutely awful. The black mage class learns three levels of the elemental spells and nothing else (power spells like Flare and Ultima are unlocked on sphere change boards and aren't specific to any job), and they do horrible damage. Without context maybe this isn't useful, but a max level black mage (99) with max magic (255) and the pay-more-for-stronger-spells ability (Magic Booster) can come up to Shiva, weak to fire, and hit her with the strongest fire spell right in the face, and it will do less than 2000 damage. At those stat levels normal attacks are expected to hit the 9999 cap regularly, to say nothing of -- well, I'm getting to that.
  
• Okay, but what about other jobs? BLM sucks, what else is there? Okay, there's White Mage -- no Holy, just heals. And... well, that's it. All the other classes are variants on fighters with only a couple gimmick exceptions (the Songstress doesn't use stats, and the Alchemist only uses items). Someone is about to bring up the Gun Mage -- the Blue Mage of FFX2, but check it out -- quite a few of the blue magics are physical, all of them are kind of bleh, and the other menu the Gun Mage gets is the ability to do a physical, strength-based attack that will do quadruple damage if you can pick the enemy's type from a list. Seriously, for physical dealers we have Fighter, Gunner, Samurai, Dark Knight, Berserker, Trainer, and Thief, explicitly strength jobs (oh, did Dark Knight fool you because it's sphere grid gives bonuses to Magic for some reason? The darkness command doesn't use strength, the spells they cast all inflict status and don't care about Magic, and also don't work, and the capstone Black Sky does magic damage but is based on your strength). Even the oddballs have no use for magic, even as a simple "attack" command (strength, natch) never goes out of style.
  
• Okay, but magic lets you hit elemental weaknesses? No. This is another big filler for classes -- not as much as status and fraction, but just about as useless, many physical jobs will have attack commands for each element. Why spend MP to cast a spell to hit a weakness for 2000 when you can hit a weakness with a physical attack for four times that? But by the latter parts of the game, elemental weaknesses are becoming very rare, and a bit hard to guess at, meaning playing the elements is really asking for it.
  
• Doesn't this mean the magic stat is useless and magic-users suck shit? Yeah, that's what I said above.
  
• But even most of the physical stuff gets gimmicked out of the room; there are a handful of physical abilities that ignore defense. FFX2 uses a smooth percentage based defense-based system, and higher-level mobs have more defense, so ignoring defense is a HUGE deal, especially against bosses and superbosses (for instance, an attack might do 1200 on a hard target, but ignoring defense would do more like 15,000 with the same power.) So you can try to overpower enemies with strong defense-affected attacks, and lose the game, or you can use... well, let's give it its own bullet point.
  
• Allow me to introduce the bread and butter of the game. The strongest, defense-ignoring, hit-everything attack. It's a specialty of the Samurai, so you know it's going to be good. What happens is, you swing your sword, and use it to... launch a little firecracker at enemies, which lands at their feet and merrily pops, dealing basically the most damage you can deal, easily growable into tens of thousands. Yeah, it's called Fireworks, and it being the strongest move in the game is ridiculous. And there's not even any contest; you can set someone up with max magic (inadvisable, see above) and magic boost and Ultima and get everything right and blow all your MP and -- you'll hit almost not quite as hard as a samurai just randomly using Fireworks. Sometimes enemies have much lower magic defense, but remember, Fireworks ignores defense. It's exactly as good against everything, it hits everything on the field. (One might note there are not any player-accesible spells that ignore magic defense.)
  
• Seriously. Fireworks. And yes, I know that gunpowder, and rockets, and all that jazz, and if the thing had a little more oomph to it I might like it, or if it made any sense at all, but to completely outclass actually using the sword you're holding in every possible way? FFS.
  
• There is one decent alternative for damage-ignoring, and it's on the Mascot sphere -- a "super" job you unlock by doing everything perfectly. They're different for each person, but they come with a pile of status and fraction attacks (...) and Yuna and Paine's can use a powerful single-target defense-ignoring attack. Arguably Fireworks is still better, but you can mix it up with these. Not that they look any cooler; the Mascot job puts each girl in a huge fluffy costume (a Moogle, a Cait Sith, and a Tonberry) with big goofy details, and the moves for all of them are all cartoony jokes. I hate when games do this -- make the strongest stuff these kinds of joke items -- but whatever.
  
• Ok, so, whatever, that all sucks. What about the special dressspheres? These turn one of the three into a super-powered version that chases off the other party members and replaces them with parts of their new huge form. In principle this is badass, and the idea of three pieces designed to work together is cool, and it's a powerful moment to go completely... well, whatever they're going. If the things were ever useful it'd be great. Unfortunately, they have stats that are fixed to your level, and don't gain the effect of any equipment you have, and don't get the benefit of the sphere grid you used (apart from a small HP bonus for larger ones), and their stats are not great. They accelerate at high levels, but by then you'll have accessories that increase your power dramatically, and losing those for the special spheres means they're going to struggle to do any damage at all. Oh, and they're clogged to the gills with status attacks, and instant death, and all that, of course. They woulnd't really be usable even if you didn't have to play fox-and-hound on your controller for thirty seconds to unlock changing into them.
  
• I'm getting too worked up, let me segue. Equipment consists entirely of two accessories per person, and any bonus effects on your sphere grid. There aren't any weapons and armor; the aesthetics (and, nominally, the stats) are built into the jobs themselves, so you're always using the same weapon. I found this really boring, especially since most of the accessories for most of the game are simple stat bonuses or immunity to one specific status effect. Later you start getting more interesting options, but then those get blown away again by the late-game stuff; massive stat bonus items and needing to use an accessory to break the damage cap. (And another to break the HP cap, if that's your thing.) You can't really get this stuff intrinsically, creating a "tax" on a resource you only have two of. Notably, the special spheres I mentioned above can learn to break the damage cap automatically, which is hilarious because typically it doesn't matter, they can't do 9999 anyway. And if that wasn't enough, you have to unlock that ability with FFX-flavored finding key items in random places everywhere.
  
• Areas? The outdoor environments are beautiful and varied, and while the new "jumping" (read: "hold B to keep going") is a bit cheesy and obstructionist at times the areas are interesting to navigate and explore. Of course, then you go in a dungeon and everything is murky square corridors forever. It's kind of a jarring change.
  
• Oh, that reminds me. You know how sometimes in RPGs they'll make dungeons that have just ridiculously long, featureless corridors, obviously there just to make you get in more fights? Via Infinito is 100 floors of that, and it's an absolute grind, and it's needed for completion. I mean, this thing is worse than the Chrysler Building, or the Karma Palace. It's just... ugh.
  

Okay, I'm tired of talking about mechanics. Basically, they suck, the game hates the Magic stat and anyone who wants to cast a spell, there's one ability out of all the abilities on every job that matters and it throws a little party for the enemy before breaking the game over your knee. Hope you like fireworks.
Story
The story is told from a unique perspective and with kind of a unique flavor. Some of that flavor I absolutely hate -- the music for most of the game just kind of grates on me, some of the characters are just too much, and things stay always a little silly -- but that's not bad, it's more a matter of preference. I think that writing this story was a fun experiment. By the time it had concluded I feel like it lost track of what it was doing and left some stuff just kind of hanging, but all in all I enjoyed it. It's frustrating because so many elements and details are locked behind impossible-to-predict random actions, triggers, and areas, so to see it all you need a walkthrough and a spreadsheet, which really kills the flow of the story itself.
** Creature Creator **
This -- where you capture fiends and make them fight in arena battles -- is completely disconnected from the rest of the game, but is a lot of fun. I enjoyed trying different strategies with different creatures, and since you can customize their abilities by feeding them items it helped to recapture some of that tactical complexity that I feel is missing with the specialized jobs and no equipment. Really, I wish it wasn't there, because I would have been done with this game 100 hours earlier, but it was fun to mess around with.
The stories you unlock from releasing monsters are all basically comedy skits, but some are entertaining and it's fun to get a glimpse into the lives of random people.
** Other **
I really enjoyed most of the battle quips and the quotes that go with the various jobs, although sometimes they were a bit forced. This, though:

• "Duck soup!"
  
• "Duck what?"
  

is the funniest thing I've heard all year and I'm not kidding.
** Overall **
You know already just from the word count above. I found the story inoffensive and some of the side activities fun, but the mechanical aspects of this RPG feel very... I don't know, amateurish, like they were put together by someone who has never actually played an RPG and confronted the harsh reality of strong enemies being immune to things. Between that, and the domination of Fireworks, and the deep hostility to magic, there was never really anything I was excited about learning or developing. I'd get a new job and I'd know already what I'd find -- more pointless attacks and a couple of good auto-abilities. There was precious little to look forward to getting, meaning the strategic element I crave in my number-based games was almost entirely missing. It promises Tactics and delivers Mystic Quest. (No shade, FFMQ had amazing music and I really kind of like it, even if it's a wafer-thin game.)
I'd love to discuss any of this in the comments with anyone with different experiences. Having put the game to rest, in retrospect it felt... draining, more than anything. A billion things to keep track of over tiny little fractions of percent of progress, dozens and dozens and dozens of "attack-plus-this" that don't matter, and probably the worst black magic nerf of any FF game. Pretty disappointing overall.

No matter how you point out the problems ailing this country, no matter how genuine you are and you even might be sometimes a bit wrong with your facts, they'll fucking try their best to put you down rather than join you for a fucking constructive criticism. So fucking sure of their fundamentalism and beliefs, they'll ignore fucking mediaval form of violence like lynchings and rather spend their energies in why it's not that bad or worse, they deserved it.
Standards have fucking gone down the gutter, linear ways of simplistic thinking pisses me off and we are fucking quick to put a label on you. Oh he's a leftist, commie, oh he's a chaddi. I mean what's it even worth to gain this 2 seconds of victory? So insecure we are, despite being an open society, we usually behave in a desperately triggered sense. Whataboutery being at its peak, and at the end, being this loyalist to a party or idea that the best of your ideas are quick to be subservient to this cool speaker who's new in town, roasts everyone.
Serious fucking matters have been made trivial in these pathetic dick fighting. Basics like atheism are so beyond some folks, no fucking nuance at all. It has pissed me off for a long time and all one can to is, suck it up or fight a pointless battle on the internet.

Does it ever get mentioned in all the time that VM spends in Whitestone’s castle that Percy’s family got brutally assassinated in one of those rooms? idk thought occurred to me the other day and i’ve been thinking about it. Obviously they can’t talk about everything and this is in no way like “oh my god how could they miss that”, just was wondering

Hey everyone, I had a bit of writer’s block for this one so sorry if it’s a bit lower quality than usual. Regardless, I hope that you all enjoy.
First Previous Next
-------------------------------
Aeva
“So much for BSing our way out of this one.” Alex said, shaking his head.
I gave him a look. “Did you really think your people could lie your way out of this whole situation?”
“Well, if there’s one thing that humans excel at, it’s lying to each other. We’ve been doing it for as long as we have had sapience, and we’ve gotten pretty good at telling people what they want to hear.”
I blinked at him. “I don’t think that anyone is going to want to listen to you guys since you’ve kind of been lying about everything for as long you’ve been in the galactic community.”
He waved his hand dismissively before speaking, “I’m sure that all we need is one good speech explaining all the reasons that we did this, and it’ll all blow over. That is, except for the couple of species that will probably declare war on us or something like that.”
I shook my head. “You must have some good speakers if you think that your species can just make one speech and suddenly everyone will be ok with how much misinformation you’ve spread.”
Alex shrugged. “Well, at this point, there’s nothing I can really do right now so worrying about it is a waste of my brain power that could be used trying to get this mech working!” And with that he went down his little elevator thing, and made his way over to the closet, where he pulled out a series of tools and put them in a backpack.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Well, I have about 45 minutes before I need to pick up that battery and wheelchair from the fabricator, so I need to get the mech itself ready for repairs. Pulling out what’s left of the original battery so that I can replace it when the time comes,” he said as he started to climb the mech.
I nodded. “I suppose that makes sense,” I said. “Do you need any help?”
He sighed as he tried to unscrew a tiny screw to dislodge a piece of battery and shrapnel. “Yeah, actually, I will. The battery itself is going to be about twice as big as me, and we usually have automated repair bays in our ships, so I will probably need some help,” he said before mumbling under his breath so quiet that I could barely hear him, “Good thing I’m an engineer.” He finally dislodged the piece of shrapnel and pulled out the battery piece that was attached to it. He looked at it for a second before tossing it onto the floor. “Once I get this thing up and running, I’ll start cleaning up the mess that I make.”
And with that, we got to work. We would end up spending most of the time pulling out the damaged components from the mech, with the occasional pop culture reference coming from Alex. Of course, I didn’t know what he was even talking about, because the most I knew about human culture was the very little that humanity even gave us in the first place. He seemed a bit crestfallen when I first said that but got increasingly irritated until he finally just pulled up a video on his holoprojector and left it on for me to view as we continued to pull apart the mech where it was broken. We had just finished as I heard Alex’s communicator go off.
He looked at it, looked back up to me, and said, “I just got a message that the fabrication is done. Could you get the battery and wheelchair for me? I would go with you, but I really don’t want to get on the captain’s bad side right now.”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course, you start following the rules after you cause an incident that could throw your species into war.”
He chuckled. “Gotta start somewhere. Oh, and can you tell the crowd of about twenty people to stop lurking outside my door?”
I opened the door just a crack. Sure enough, there were about twenty people of various species lurking outside Alex’s cabin. I closed the door and turned to him. “How did you know how many people there were out there?” I asked.
“Don’t tell anyone that I told you this, but when I got here, I put a motion sensor outside, so I know if anyone’s trying to sneak up on me,” he said, still focusing on his communicator.
“Alright, don’t get kidnapped while I’m gone!” I said jokingly.
“I will make no such promises,” he said back.
And with that, I opened the door back up and stepped out into the hall. I did a headcount once again, finding Alex’s count to be accurate. They all seemed to be waiting there, expecting something to happen.
One of the group who I clocked as Kraark, a Chupir, one of the few species in the galaxy that is capable of flight with their wide wingspans, stepped forward. “Is Alex ok? We heard what happened, and just wanted to make sure he’s ok,” he said.
I gave a heavy sigh. “We both know that you couldn’t care less if he got hurt, you just want to see if the rumors about Alex are true,” I said as I tried to muscle my way through the crowd.
“Well, yeah, that is true,” he responded, “But we also want to know if he’s ok. That was a nasty breach in his suit that he had.”
I stopped and looked back at Kraark. “Well, he’s ok now, that’s all you really need to know. And can you leave him alone? He’s already gone through enough today without other people harassing him into showing his face when he doesn’t want to. You never cared about his wellbeing before this, so stop pretending to care now!”
There were a few mutters of acknowledgment before the entire crowd finally dispersed. I sighed and started making my way over to the fabricator. Occasionally I would get stopped by various people trying to get the latest from me about Alex, and I told them the same thing that I told everyone else. You’d think that they would have other things to gossip about but nooooo, they must focus on the one thing that they really shouldn’t be. If only I hadn’t been so nosy in the first place this probably never would have happened. I was snapped out of my introspection as I finally made it to the fabricator bay. I stepped in to see a fellow Cosholay manning the computer where they managed the incoming orders.
They looked up at me and the crest of their feathers popped up in a greeting. “Hello there, how can I help you?”
I popped up my crest in greeting as well. “I’m here to pick up a few things that a friend had fabricated, it was a battery and a wheelchair.” They nodded knowingly and went to the back of the bay and pulled out a small box on top of the wheelchair.
“It was a bit of an odd request, but hey, those Terrans are odd ones,” they said. They seemed to get a glint in their eye as they looked me over. “So, how long have you known the Terran for?”
I snorted. “The same amount of time as anyone else. But I did get to talk with him more often since we were both on the security team.”
“So did you know?” they asked.
“Of course I didn’t. The Terrans are so secretive, and for good reason too, considering how much the crew has been harassing him since everything happened.”
“It’s hard to imagine that they were lying about so much. It really makes you wonder what else they could be lying about.”
I pondered that for a moment before responding. “Alex has been nothing honest and kind to me with the things that he can talk about. I trust him,” I said.
“Yeah, but how do you know that he really is?” they asked.
I thought back to the ready room, and the emotion that Alex showed. “I just know, ok?”
“Alright, I hope that you know what you’re doing,” they said, doubt evident in their voice.
With that I collected the battery and wheelchair and started back to Alex’s cabin. Luckily, I didn’t run into any more people trying to get the latest on our resident Terran. I finally walked into the cabin and saw him sitting on the bed looking at his communicator. I immediately knew something was wrong as he was a couple shades lighter than I had seen him previously. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
He looked up at me and said, “Someone just declared war on us.”