aabicus – Page 4 – The Daily SPUF

D&D 5e: 5 Good Feats For Monks

August 29, 2022August 29, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments d&d, Dungeons & Dragons, monk, roleplay, roleplaying

Monks have a problem when it comes to grabbing feats in that they are highly dependant on ability score improvements (ASIs) to function. They need good Dexterity, Wisdom, and Constitution to function, and if you don’t improve those numbers, you’ll quickly fall behind. That means the only time I can really recommend taking a feat on Monk is as a 1st level Variant Human/Custom Lineage. (Or if you have an odd-numbered Dex or Wis and take a feat that boosts either stat by +1). With that being said, there are several stellar feat options if you go ahead and do… [Continue Reading]

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How to Easily Obtain the Hardest Achievement in Quake

July 27, 2022July 20, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments achievement, guide, quake, speedrun, the painless maze

“The Painless Maze” is one of the rarest achievements in Quake, requiring you to beat E4M6 “The Pain Maze” on Nightmare difficulty without taking damage. As one of the longest and toughest maps in the game, few people have done this. But today’s guide details how you can earn it without premade saves, cheats, or Nightmare-level skills required! A Note on In-Game Cheats As this guide notes, right now you can just use sv_cheats 1, toggle “god”, and get the achievement that way. But in case the devs ever patch this (or you want to earn it more legitly), this guide will detail… [Continue Reading]

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A Brief History of Glass in Team Fortress

July 25, 2022July 25, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments glass, map design, quake, quake ii, Team Fortress 2, team fortress classic, TFC

It may seem odd that I’m devoting a whole article to glass, an incredibly common and straightforward building material. Some games let you break it, others let you shoot through it, and many don’t. Within a few minutes of playtime, you’ll probably notice Team Fortress 2 is decidedly in the latter category. Case closed? Not quite, because glass actually has a more checkered history than you’d first expect. It first came to my attention when I started playing Team Fortress Classic and noticed that only one map had glass: Rock2, letting the flag-scoring player watch their pursuers die to toxic gas.… [Continue Reading]

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Quake II RTX – Review

July 20, 2022July 22, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments graphics, lighting, quake, quake ii, ray tracing, RTX

Having recently finished Quake’s expansion packs, I was curious to see where id Software went from there. Imagine inventing the FPS genre, codifying it, and then propelling it into the third dimension within a mere 4-year span. Even more impressively, they’ve gone back and updated Doom and Quake to run perfectly on modern systems. At first, I didn’t think they’d given Quake II the same treatment, before remembering an experimental tech demo I encountered at GDC 2019: Quake II RTX is a “remastering” of the original game that ray traces every single asset. Ray tracing is a unique way of… [Continue Reading]

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A Review of Quake’s Expansion Packs (Part 2)

May 17, 2022May 8, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments dlc, expansion, quake, retrospective, review

I wasn’t sure whether to write this article. You see, I wasn’t quite as enamored with the concept of the new expansion packs as I was the old. Sure, it’s nice to have more Quake, but I was bummed that they only used the base-game content. Plus they ignored all the new assets/weapons/enemies from the expansion packs. But I wanted to complete the entire set, and was curious to see what sort of gameplay updates developers had figured out in the many years since the originals released. Dimension of the Past This first expansion pack was released in 2018, to… [Continue Reading]

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A Review Of Quake’s Expansion Packs (Part 1)

May 16, 2022May 8, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments dlc, expansion, quake, retrospective, review

On April 19 2021, the Steam version of Quake got a massive enhancement update. It added graphical updates, cross-play multiplayer, restored original soundtracks, and four expansion packs. Two of these, Scourge of Armagon and Dissolution of Eternity, were the canonical expansions released back during Quake‘s normal commercial cycle. The final two (Dimension of the Past and Dimension of the Machine) were added decades later, as free celebratory add-ons. This article will be focused on the earlier pair, with hopefully another for the latter two coming later. Quake For a Modern Audience Before I played through these, I re-completed the original… [Continue Reading]

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5 Ways to Farm Continental Coins in Payday 2

May 14, 2022May 11, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments farming, guide, payday, payday 2, spuf of legend

In October 2016, Overkill added a new currency to Payday 2 called Continental Coins. Borrowed from the John Wick universe, players could use these coins to upgrade their new safehouse and, when done with that, spend the remainder upgrading their AI heisters, optimizing or salvaging their CrimeSpree, and buying extra weapon mods. For such a valuable side currency, they sure don’t accumulate very quickly, which is why today we’re covering 5 Ways to Farm Continental Coins in Payday 2. 1. Side Jobs Side Jobs are the easiest way to earn a few every day. The Safehouse Daily side job will… [Continue Reading]

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Disney’s Jungle Cruise: The Real-Life Conquistadors Behind the Villains

May 11, 2022May 3, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments Disney, film, fluff, history, jungle, movie, movies, random

So I just watched Jungle Cruise, the newest adventure movie released by Disney and starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. It was a good popcorn flick, fun for the whole family etc. I was intrigued by its use of historical figures in the villainous roles. I guess everything below this line is technically spoilers, though they’re pretty tame in the grand scheme of things. The two main villains (Prince Joachim of Prussia and Lope de Aguirre, the 15th century conquistador) are both real people taken straight from the history books. And most of the internet has already discussed how thoroughly-fictionalized these… [Continue Reading]

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Playing Druid in D&D 5e: A Complete Guide

May 1, 2022July 17, 2024 aabicus 0 Comments d&d, Druid, Dungeons & Dragons, roleplay, roleplaying

This article will consolidate Druid Fortnight! I know it was a pretty niche topic, but I hope you enjoyed reading about one of the most multi-faceted character classes I’ve encountered in any gaming system. If you took away anything from this series, I hope it’s that druid is definitely worth experiencing. If you feel any desire to try the class out yourself, I highly recommend you give it a shot. Table of Contents Introduction (How I Learned to Love the Druid) The 5 Best Races For Druids 5 Good Feats For Druids The Oddest Shapeshift Form in the Game 5… [Continue Reading]

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D&D: 10 All-Purpose Druid Spells

April 30, 2022November 16, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments d&d, Druid, Dungeons & Dragons, magic, roleplay, roleplaying, spells

We’ve covered under-used spells, healing spells, and dedicated several articles to specific spells. But no series on druid would be complete without an article discussing the all-purpose tried-and-trues. These are the spells that most druids take because they’re usable pretty much no matter what. As always, this article is focused on early-game druids, so we’re only covering spells level 0-2. Guidance Guidance is D&D’s gift to clerics and druids, and everyone else wishes they got it. For free, you can now have a bonus D4 on every ability check (even initiative) when you aren’t surprised. And you can tag teammates… [Continue Reading]