I changed this subforum's name from "Roleplaying" to "Alex Kierkegaard's Metaverse". This is because with the launch of Alex Kierkegaard's Battlemaster—which is the world's first and only tactical metaverse—this subforum will start covering also miniature wargame news, meaning tactics game news. Moreover, it will cover all kinds of news on the franchises that comprise my metaverse: Alien movies, Blade Runner comics, Warhammer TV shows, etc. In short my metaverse has gone from roleplaying-only to ALL TURN-BASED GENRES (and in the 2030s with the launch of Battlegrounds 2.0 [ > ] it will also add all real-time ones).
P.S. What is the difference between Alex Kierkegaard's Metaverse and Alex Kierkegaard's Multiverse? Metaverse is the out-of-game term, and multiverse the in-game. I.e. we talk about the metaverse, and the characters in it talk about the multiverse. That's all.
https://x.com/gamestop/status/2008956178731290831
Upgraded my Cutlass Black to a Clipper for $25. It'll almost certainly end up among the four 2956 Best in Show ships, so I would have to upgrade to it anyway by year's end. So why not upgrade now and get to enjoy it also during its Pledge Store exclusivity period?
Looking forward to solo ops with it, it's freakin' gorgeous and super-well designed.
https://x.com/chonkrider/status/1996421536966967336
The newly launched Drake Clipper is the only way currently to bring a medbed in the field without requiring a Medic, so it's the perfect platform for solo Inquisitor operations, and has now been added to the Spec. It'll be pledge-only for a few months, but should be buyable in-game by spring or summer at the latest, for pretty cheap too. By that time, everyone should have one. Until then, we already have a couple, and I just upgraded to it too.
https://x.com/TylerGSternbach/status/20 ... 9195799815
https://x.com/HMBohemond/status/2008047525345837138
Looks like I'll end up reviewing a programmer minigame again after how many years? But first I must clean up my Warhammer 40,000 code enough to start playing that. So it will take a few days. Maybe by the end of this week I can start streaming Shinobi (more likely recording it and uploading to YT because I don't think my connection is good enough for streaming).
BTW Shinobi is 30% off until January 12. The promotion was supposed to end today, but they extended it. I am not saying grab it, because I don't know how good it is... But if you know you have to grab it, grab it.
https://x.com/For_Macragge/status/2007941018554183871
Dice, it's all about how you use them...
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eQYnnT2n_-g
I'd be put off too lol. I couldn't play with him.
https://x.com/HarmlessYardDog/status/20 ... 3957973050
Insomnia's undercover agents embedded deep into number 1 game company in the world Cult Games have uncovered what seem to be hints for an imminent release slated to be "the SECOND-best game of 2026" (the first will of course be the long-awaited Kingslayer) with the cryptic codename "Project Apocalypse" and the even more cryptic designation "PA2". We reproduce here the entirety of the message our agents were able to transmit from deep within Cult Games HQ in Monaco before their transmission was jammed by Cult Agents:
REDACTED wrote:
Kill Team to Warhammer 40K is like Warhammer 40K to Apocalypse.
Kill Team you work with individual characters in a squad.
40K you work with a collection of squads with wounds shared between them all.
Apocalypse you work with detachments for an entire, large-scale army.
Each has a larger pool of points that you use to make your army with and a different set of rules to balance things out.
Great to see 40K Battle Honours already fully signed up. They snatched it within minutes of release! That's the enthusiasm that fuels me! Now the plan is:
1. Get a couple days' rest because I'd barely slept in two days to finish up before LA NYE.
2. Take a further couple days to fix all those corners I had to cut to get the release out in time for 2025 GOTY.
3. Publish some supporting material in the mission thread so players can prepare (map, rules, music for the mood).
4. Do some prep for the VTT.
5. Play.
I reckon we can play in about a week. And things should get faster from there as we figure stuff out.
The only challenge I see is getting the VTT production values to a level I am happy with. But I am willing to start fairly low and just steadily increase it from there.
No one is ready for the stuff that's coming up. Epic beyond belief.
I'd like to sign up to play as the Tyranids.
https://akbattlegrounds.net/w/multiverse/a/battle-honours-40k
I'd like to sign up to play this as the Space Marines.
7. Battlemaster Tutorial
There's a lot more to explain about how Battlemaster works, I haven't even got into the Conquest mechanics I devised that turn Warhammer into Warhammer 2.0 like my Ultimate Edition in general turns D&D into D&D 2.0. But before I get into all of that, let's just play the tutorial mission so players can see these mechanics in practice and how powerfully they can unfold the game's world in a persistent and massively-multiplayer manner.
So first off, head to the Warhammer 40,000 setting start screen: https://akbattlegrounds.net/w/multivers ... e4a7ab639a
A few things to note:
s3xyrandal wrote:
This map is the culmination of a multi year effort cross referencing pretty much every map in every codex, supplement, and rulebook across all 9 editions.
This release is still happening tonight but at California time because Cult Games Beverly Hills has taken the lead on this. Of course I will be online helping them make sure that all the code is coded right. Can't even take New Year's Eve off. Such is the life of the ubercoder.
https://bouncyrock.com/news/articles/ha ... bouncyrock
The team at Cult Games Norway asked me to relay this message to our millions of fans across the globe!
Cult Games Norway wrote:
Season's greetings, Cult Games fans! We at Cult Games Norway are working hard to ensure that by this time next year some of you might have your own digital festive hearths to enjoy in Alex Kierkegaard's Metaverse—whether in a humble home, opulent mansion, under- or overground lair, or perhaps even stronghold and castle in Golarion's fractious River Kingdoms, and perhaps beyond—at resolutions of up to 4K... and perhaps beyond. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours!
Good to hear. Here's the plan: First I get Warhammer off the ground and running smoothly. Then I go back to the Alien setting and 1) Upgrade the old content to bring it up to my new standards I am establishing with 40K, and 2) Add the content that's been released since the last update. And then we can play. It won't take very long. I'll keep you posted.
Sign me up.
A new edition of the Alien RPG is out called Alien RPG Evolved Edition. I will have lots to say about this soon in the Alien RPG thread [ > ], along with news of more new products released and announced. It's all super-exciting for Alien fans, and I know we have a few of those here. But for now I wanted to highlight one of EE's new features: a solo mode called Last Survivor written by "masters of the trade Shawn Tomkin and Matt Click".
Solo means no GM: just one player GMing himself. But of course we will play it with a GM, because that's the only way to verify the result and enter it in the overworld. Plus it's more fun this way for the player too because otherwise he kinda has to read ahead and improvise instead of be presented with situations and react. We've already done this with SriK in Skeleton King's Crypt, by the way: that too is a solo adventure that I ran for SriK and even considerably modified to be even more fun than RAW (you can read about the changes in the thread [ > ], they were a hit with both SriK and viewers).
Unlike Skeleton King's Crypt, Last Survivor is not a single adventure: it's an adventure generator, and in theory could be used for infinite adventures. In practice you pick one out of a list of Mission Starters to generate the theme, and there are 24 of them. So that's how many adventures I want to run: one for each starter available. And the way I want to use them is as rewards for a player's character surviving one of the normal multi-character adventures. Those are already tough and most characters aren't expected to survive. Often, the entire group gets wiped, and that's intended. Ideally, only a sole character will survive, as in the typical Alien movie. But since this isn't a movie but a game, there's no way to prescribe that. So sometimes the whole group will be wiped, other times two or three characters might survive. But in the most nail-biting and satisfying conclusions, there will only be a sole survivor.
Surviving therefore an Alien adventure is a reward of its own, but why not pile on even more rewards if you can? You'll only be raising the stakes, and thus the enjoyment. So my idea is to reward survivors with a round of Last Survivor, in which they get a chance to help ANOTHER character survive. Like a bonus round, so instead of ending the adventure with one living character, they can end with two. And why would they want the extra character? Well there is a whole mechanics supplement about building colonies, and my idea is that survivors can be used there to speed up the colony's growth. Note also that we have most if not all types of aliens as models for Cult Engine 3, plus many colonial marines, the power loader, that tank from Aliens, and other support characters and machines, plus a full colony city-building kit, so we could conceivably build everything in 3D. Cult Intelligence (CI) is also at the point where it can take 2D character portraits and give us 3D models. Hell I even think we have some spaceships.
Moreover, since Last Survivor is the absolute simplest way to get into the Alien RPG, why not start the entire setting with one of these, even before Hope's Last Day? And since ysignal started that thread, and I want to reward initiative because without it nothing in my game functions, let's give him the very first Last Survivor adventure if he wants it. If he doesn't want it, the second poster in that thread can have it (recoil), and so on.
Please note that this will be an extremely basic adventure, likely with no art at all, and we may just even play it via text on Discord if a VTT isn't required. So please don't judge Alien RPG and its adventures based on this. The Alien adventures are extremely detailed and complex to the point where many GMs are complaining that they can't run them: read the review quotes I posted on the Alien overworld to see these complaints. Last Survivor is just a 16-page supplement in a 314-page rulebook in a game with maybe 1,000 pages of rules and 1,000 pages of adventures. It's just a minigame, if not a microgame, and that's how we will use it.
So, ysignal, let me know if you're in or not.
I am very excited to finally kick off the Alien setting, even in this small and humble way.
Journey Around the Sun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ainUdtq ... XVyolQO3wj
@hawkzulu5671 wrote:
For those of us with less than the top-grade rigs, it's always a treat to see SC in its full HD glory... but it's your artistic eye that really makes the game pop. Fantastic work this year on the vids and equally fantastic work on the Issue Council, pushing those bug reports so more eyes can see them and pile on to push them to confirmed status. You are a huge asset to the SC community. Thanks from your fellow citizens.
@Jhtpo wrote:
"All footage captured in-game" almost needs to be on the bottom, this looks so damn good!
@FunkThompson wrote:
A machinima maker's dream, it seems. Crazy how you can get this level of "cinematography" - as a player, without 3rd party software other than to do cuts or merges or fades or whatever. All in-engine with the in-game camera tools, then a touch of post-processing to put it together.
@intelrecon wrote:
Just beautiful! Awesome cinematagrophy! And that Akira shot was just the cherry on the top!!
@xXE4GLEyEXx wrote:
This has to be one if not the greatest Vertical Slices into the game! So much to do, so many beautiful graphics to stare at! SC is a marble, a buggy ass mess, but a marble! And this video, is God Tier! :D
With all the hype about Battlemaster, I didn't want people to forget that this is also coming soon. It will be 2026 Game of the Year, guaranteed. And no, it won't launch December 31, 2026. It's ready, bros! It really is ready. Hell that is even more ready than Battlemaster. But one of the reasons I am launching Battlemaster first is because it's an easy entry into Cult Engine 3. It's just combat, and nowhere near as complex combat as Pathfinder where I'll have to have a SECOND VTT open to run the battles, plus no dialogue, no complex events and scenes, no city-building, etc.
How can I have so many screens of diverse locations to show without feeling that I am spoiling anything?
It is an entire country rendered in 3D, every point-of-interest in it, thousands of square miles of it! Could I spoil France for you by showing you a few dozen pics? I couldn't spoil France for you if I showed you hundreds of pictures a day. That's how the River Kingdoms are in Alex Kierkegaard's Kingslayer. Nothing like this has ever been attempted, let alone pulled off. And I'll be pulling it off shortly.
Calling all tactics fans! The first and only tactical metaverse is coming!
Prepare yourselves for battle.
The C'tan Shard of the Nightbringer rises from its tomb
https://www.warhammer-community.com/en- ... m-its-tomb
Games Workshop wrote:
The new plastic C'tan Shard of the Nightbringer brings its classic miniature from 2002 bang up to date. Wielding a giant scythe, with its necrodermis cape billowing out behind it and attended by swarms of Scarabs, the new iteration is a perfect centerpiece for your immortal Necron host, and rivals the Shard of the Void Dragon [ > ] in its dark majesty.
Games Workshop wrote:
In aeons past, it was one of the most powerful of all the C'tan before the Necrons [ > ] yoked it in vengeance for its part in the great betrayal of bio-transference. Even now, its Shards remain among the most fearsome foes on the battlefields of the 41st Millennium.
Games Workshop wrote:
It's not just Warhammer 40,000 fans who can look forward to facing down this ancient Star God. The Nightbringer will also be appearing as a Non-Playable Operative in Kill Team – an awesome new development for the game and a fitting final boss for your brave band of warriors.
@guineapigsith699 wrote:
Perfect. Bravo to the designers. It's the art from the 1st Codex brought into realspace.
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/c ... nalia-2955
I like that they went back to naming the events out of the in-universe calendar because for the last year or so they were using the irl one. If I was them I would go back and retitle all the last year's events from 2025 to 2955. But, as perfectionist as Chris Roberts is, he has nothing on me. And he doesn't even need to do it personally, he can just get one of his 1,300 employees to do it. Anyway. Happy Luminalia everyone!
So there are 13 gifts to grab this year (most years it's either 12 or 11, but this year they've been going all-out to please the playerbase, so they added an extra). All you have to do is log in and click on all of them. Then you should check your web hangar to make sure they all registered. You don't have to launch the game at all, it's all done through the website. And if you have clones, do them for them too. I logged in today to do my clones but they were already done, must have been shubn. So we'll have a lot of these items to give out to new players if we end up using any of them for the Spec. And I believe we'll use one or two. Certainly the knife.
Not sure how long these will be available. Probably through January 1 at least.
If you can't be bothered to do it, no worries. We'll have enough extras from all the clones.
Just a quick note to say that clone 10 is Ciaróg's because we're now up to 12 and we forgot to report 10.
World Championships Preview – Captain Titus battles Nekrosor Ammentar for the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar
https://www.warhammer-community.com/en- ... f-ultramar
Games Workshop wrote:
The Imperium is under siege. Times are so dire that even Ultramar is hard pressed, and with Roboute Guilliman busy overseeing the Indomitus Crusade, the defence of the Five Hundred Worlds falls to its people. While others push out to reclaim its lost borders, one illustrious captain is tasked with securing its critical interior, a task made ever more difficult when a terrifying spectre of the lost Necron empire returns to plague the galaxy.
Games Workshop wrote:
That's right – Captain Titus, no longer the humble Lieutenant he was in Space Marine 2 [ > ] and the Secret Level animation [ > ]. He's certainly going (back) up in the world and, as Master of the Watch, is tasked with the defence of Macragge and Ultramar's soft interior, which brings him to the story at hand.
Games Workshop wrote:
Nekrosor Ammentar is thought by many to be the genesis of the Destroyer curse, and by others to be entirely mythological – a parable of guilt and betrayal that hearkens back to the shattering of the C'tan. Strangely, all memories of its origin appear to have been forcibly removed from the collective Necron psyche, though only the Silent King has the authority to make such sweeping modifications, and he's not the most talkative of people...
Ammentar is very real, however, and labours with surprising lucidity on its crusade to eradicate all life from the galaxy. It harbours an extreme affinity for the C'tan known as the Nightbringer, and aims to reunite its scattered shards to one day revive the ancient star god in full. This is widely considered to be a bad idea, especially by the Necrons themselves.
Games Workshop wrote:
Turns out, even a premature reveal [ > ] can't dampen how impossibly cool this miniature is – a Miniature of the Year contender if ever we've seen one. The emergence of this shard of Nightbringer is a real worst-case scenario for the Ultramarines, and Ammentar can't wait to set his spectral nightmares loose on the 500 Worlds.
THE PILGRIM wrote:
SM3 is confirmed. As far as I know that's all we know. I mean, GW already linked the end of SM2 to the Secret Level episode made by an entirely different company. So, it's possible that it throws them for a loop, but unlikely, as GW is intensely involved in their IP to the point that Saber was sometimes forced to make all kinds of changes at the whim of GW.
ioridrac wrote:
Who do you think approved SM3?
GW manages its cash cows personally.
It won't let SM3 go do its own thing.
It belongs to GW, and if Saber wants more money
Well they will stick to GW's game plan.
To me it won't be different then Relic's take on the game.
Next game Titus is the guy we go to, we start off as a new Marine.
We go off to kill Necrons, and rise in rank, glory, become named Marine.
Soon we become what Titus was, and maybe even start out own chapter.
Relic had that game plan way before 500 Worlds.
Everything Saber does has to get greenlit.
In preproduction, production or post.
Meetings upon meetings happen to ensure things like brand are upheld.
Ragnar wrote:
IMO in SM2 and SM3 the lore/story was predetermined by GW and Saber built the game(s) around it.
SM2 is hardly linked to Necrons lore, and so is 500 Worlds. If you look carefully at the end of the 500 Worlds trailer, the R in Worlds looks like an Egyptian hieroglyph. Necrons have the Egyptian protocol running, so there is a link between SM2, 500 Worlds and SM3.
And just to get it out of the way, Thousand Sons don't look Egyptian, they look like occult sorcerers. In our real-life history the look of the Thousand Sons is how occult sorcerers in ancient times, even before Egypt was a thing, looked like. The Egyptians took the look of the occult because they had an occult belief system, a lot about death and reincarnation, which matches what occult ancient sorcerers thought.
Long Story short: Thousand Sons unequal Egyptian, Necrons equal Egyptians.
Games Workshop wrote:
Demetrian Titus: officer, leader, strategist. Once again Captain of the Ultramarines Second Company, Titus faces a new mission with impossible odds – but he's not alone!
@lasermanso wrote:
"The Primarch demanded the impossible, but he asked Titus and Caedo, so it was actually pretty possible."
@esc9869 wrote:
Titus made a lot of money for GW. This won him a deserved promotion.
@haha1996VN wrote:
That means he soloed the whole planet, saved Metaurius, and extracted with both of them.
Damn, the emperor protects.
@MrOmoreau wrote:
Leandros in his corner: "This proves nothing".
@SkySweeperSyn wrote:
I'm glad they're using Titus as sort of their "Master Chief" of 40K now. He's perfect for the role and letting people embody him who play. Seeing him come back after a decade and thinking he was forgotten to seeing this rise is truly a treat for those of us who like him.
Welcome back, Captain!
@gogos1003 wrote:
It is 50th millennium. Titus singlehandedly closed eye of terror, saved the emperor, and brought about golden age of humanity. Leandros: The stain of suspicion never completely fades. I will be watching you, Titus.
@lukenichols8219 wrote:
"Captain Titus, you have accomplished much...
You have reconquered the 500 worlds of Ultramar,
Destroyed both the entire tyranid and ork races,
Brokered a lasting peace between the Imperium, the Aeldari and the T'au,
Reconfigured every tomb world tk keep the Necrons asleep indefinitely,
Convinced the fallen primarchs to forsake Chaos and rejoin the Imperium,
Destroyed Commoragh,
Reignited and completed the Emperor's Imperial webway project,
Closed the Eye Of Terror,
Murdered Erebus,
Killed Lucius the Eternal permanently,
Wiped out the remaining C'Tan shards,
And rebuilt and reinhabited the destroyed planet of Cadia...
...But know this, Titus..."
@BaconMemes wrote:
"... you have won the trust of your brothers, your chapter master, and a video from Games Workshop. But know this, the stain of suspicion never completely fades..."
-Leandros (probably)
@BoltPistol wrote:
This is quite literally the BIGGEST middle finger to Leandros.
Official Page: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/c ... ngineering
I was expecting some narrative content this month as with every month this year, so I was a bit disappointed we didn't get it. On the other hand, it's a huge mechanics update, and we barely got any of those this year. So they made up for it in the last month. The lack of an event/mission chain is actually good for me because it gave me the extra time I needed to finish Warhammer. So I am not complaining.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgpLAqW ... XVyolQO3wj
Cloud Imperium Games wrote:
Prepare, manage, react, maintain - there's no rest for an engineer. Instantly strategize, fix on the fly, and hold your nerve, because if you take care of your ship, it'll take care of you.
@Winterx69 wrote:
Those engines firing up... :) Warm and fuzzy USS Cygnus and USCSS Nostromo vibes.
@FunkThompson wrote:
"I'll just put this over here... with the rest of the fire..." :D
@patrick106 wrote:
Subject: Fire
@TaoistZombie wrote:
Dear Sir/Madam, FIRE! FIRE! looking forward to hearing from you. All the best Maurice Moss.
@myztklk3v wrote:
I love how romanticized the repair process is in this trailer as if there wouldn't be 5 rats in light fighters plinking away at you the entire time.
@starbreaker_zed wrote:
I get it, but this is obviously the scenario where you've won the space fight. If you're still fighting then you're not repairing.
@WillytheSilly69 wrote:
Boy did you guys Cook. Whoever that Chef is, keep it up! Much love everyone, Happy Holidays and God Bless!
@SplendaMyGuy wrote:
PRAISE THE MECHANICUS
Why Warhammer fans love the game but hate the company
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8BeRxTOM5U
Morning Brew wrote:
Warhammer 40k is a complicated, 1980s tabletop game. It requires a huge time commitment, a massive financial investment, yet somehow it's thriving, despite the tenuous relationship its fans have with the owner, Games Workshop. So how does what seems like it would be a niche hobby become a $5 billion dollar, publicly traded business?
That's just one faction out of nearly 30 lol. It's not even all its units, quite a few are missing. Granted it's by far the biggest faction, the Space Marines. But still, do you know any other tactical game with anywhere near this level of variety? One of the reasons StarCraft got big is because it has 3 factions lol, unlike the normal 2 for programmer games.
Everyone who loves tactics will be blown away by Alex Kierkegaard's Battlemaster: the first and only tactical metaverse.
Still working feverishly at it, and just solved another stumbling block: the setting's theme. Initially I was going to go with Thomas Bergersen's "Sons of War": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utujHPkjfwI
Problem with this is that it's too... energetic. Too dramatic, too nervous. It's better for D&D than to represent 40K. So I wasn't happy with it, but I liked the title because it fits well with 40K. But then I found this:
Warhammer 40,000 (Concept Theme for Amazon Studios)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLn4O_F3FhE
This is 40K. It's grim, it's dark. It's perfect. As slow and heavy as the armors in the game.
It's from a Spanish composer with a Patreon who's been pumping out a ton of 40K music: themes for all the factions, you name it. Amazing stuff. And of course he works for Cult Games now. Here's another example:
Music to serve the Emperor (Warhammer 40,000 Ambience)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyOtjCea4vM
It's 10 hours!!! Just in case you were wondering what you'll be hearing while playing 10-hour massive tactical battles like no one has ever seen before.
More soon.
I am at a point now where, if I cut some corners, I could have this running in an afternoon. But I'd rather not cut any corners because it would create what we coders call "tech debt" that I'd have to pay somewhere down the line. So I am soldiering on with it, and I say soldiering because... it's boring work. That said, if it's not done by December 31, I will cut the fucking corners and release the game with tech debt. One way or another, Alex Kierkegaard's Battlemaster will be out this year, and win Game of the Year.
To be clear: the design and most of the development aren't boring: they're some of the most fun I've ever had in my life. But getting all the details to the level of perfectionism that I like... that's boring. So I am struggling with it. The end is in sight though, one way or another.
Watch a free new animated vignette – Ave Imperator: His Angels
https://www.warhammer-community.com/en- ... his-angels
Games Workshop wrote:
You might have been expecting a feel-good Christmas animation? Sorry to disappoint - this is Warhammer after all.
Games Workshop wrote:
An official new Warhammer animated vignette.
Get a glimpse into the grim realities of everyday life in the Imperium, featuring a haunting new in-universe song from the 41st Millennium.
Download the song and free digital extras at https://www.warhammer-community.com/en- ... his-angels
Games Workshop wrote:
As we creep ever closer to Christmas, we aim to remember the things most cherished to us: our loved ones, our friends, and, of course, the God-Emperor of Humanity. Carolers and choir singers are out there treating folks to renditions of festive tunes, and so we reckon it's time to turn back the clock and remind ourselves of Never a Silent Night, our first Imperial Hymn.
Games Workshop wrote:
A story of faith and worship – watch the Adepta Sororitas in action and hear the first official Imperial Hymn sung in High Gothic!
Read more about the Imperial Hymn, and learn the words yourself: https://ow.ly/EcP350Uu78s
Games Workshop wrote:
This isn't the only Adepta Sororitas-themed thing happening. The original Sisters of Battle Army Set is also coming back as a limited Made to Order product on the 1st of January 2026, so you can start the year off with a bang, and a heavy helping of faith and flame.
Games Workshop wrote:
Originally released as part of the triumphant return of the Sisters of Battle, this army set contains a varied collection of miniatures that make the perfect start to an Adepta Sororitas force. It contains a Canoness, a Repentia Superior and four furious Sisters Repentia, three Arco-flagellants, a high flying squad of five Seraphim, a 10-strong Battle Sisters squad, and a Penitent Engine.
By adding an Adepta Sororitas Rhino, you'll have the complete Penitent Host Combat Patrol ready to roll out and achieve absolution through the deaths of their enemies. As a Made to Order product, the Sisters of Battle Army Set will only be available until 8 AM on Monday, 12th of January, 2026, and will take up to 180 days to produce and ship.
Don't miss out on your chance to order on January 1st!
Can't believe how beautiful it is. But that's what happens when I take over coding.
I have a tip for people on slow connections that have trouble downloading updates, or even the game itself, because the launcher keeps resetting their download progress. I've seen multiple people complain about that on Reddit, and I've had this issue too for the past few months due to relying on a cellphone connection to download and play. Someone on Reddit posted a solution that I saved but haven't been able to find since: he said you basically have to periodically backup some folder(s) in order to create checkpoints to revert to if the launcher sends you further back than the download. I don't remember the specifics, but that was the gist of it.
Well what I did with this latest massive update (45+ GB) because it wouldn't even go past 5 gigs before resetting so I'd never have got it down, is simply shut down the launcher every now and then. When you restart it, it banks the already downloaded data, so it can't reset it. This worked fantastically all the way down to about 3.5 gigs left, at which point there was only one file left to download and it wouldn't let me bank progress beyond that, meaning I had to download the last 3.5 gigs in one go. And it took like 4-5 tries to do it. But now it's done.
I figured all this out by thinking about my initial download of the full game (100+ gigs) back in the summer. There was no way I could get all of that in one session, so every time I would start the launcher, instead of the progress bar showing me what I had downloaded and what was left to download, it would only show me what was left, as if I had just started downloading. Such weird launcher behavior: never seen anything like it. Typical CIG reinvention of the wheel. And of course it's bug-ridden. But it turns out I can employ the goofy design to overcome the bug lol, and that's how after weeks of trying I finally managed to download the game back in the summer. And it only just clicked with me that I can employ this strategy even for the updates. Would have saved me a lot of grief over the last few months if I had figured this out earlier. I missed at least a couple of Saturday sessions because I couldn't get the updates down in time.
What's icycalm been coding recently?
Probably nothing.
#akbattlegrounds #akbattlemaster #2025goty #ubercoder
PROTIP: The year isn't over yet, and the best game hasn't been released yet. Watch this space. Because icycalm always has the last word.
Wondering what it would look like if icycalm had a chat with the last remaining OG D&D creator? Here you go: https://x.com/threelinestudio/status/20 ... 0498187599
I was expecting pushback after my last retort, but he utterly capitulated in spectacular manner to my bulletproof logic and blew up on me and blocked me. Not the slightest attempt to refute me, and note this is a guy whose every other Twitter post is an essay. But the only way to deal with icycalm with the least amount of ruined face is, indeed, to block him. Any attempt at a response and I'll just make you look even dumber.
He really did try the "I have thousands of pages no one will ever see!" retort as an argument lol.
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/co ... nents_stay
What's crazy about this picture is that these aren't mere items, these are fully functional components like power plants and coolers that can be manually installed in numerous spacecraft to upgrade and customize them, or even traded with thousands of players across multiple planets and solar systems. Everything is fully physicalized and even photorealistic.
There's no other game that can produce such an image.
Merry Christmas from CIG!
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/c ... play-Guide
Yeah I aint reading all that. I am happy for you tho. Or sad that happened.
The only thing I want to know is how I can play this with my arcade stick.
4.5 Release Candidate 2 is in PTU right now and could launch on Live at any moment, so we need to talk a bit about how we'll handle engineering.
So first of all, below you will find the Cult Engineer Spec, but THIS engineering is not the same type that CIG calls engineering. Engineering is designing and building things, and that's not what the engineering update brings to the verse. More accurately, this update should be called the technician update or whatever, because maintaining and repairing and tuning machines is a technician's job, not an engineer's. So here you can see at a glance the differences between the duties of a Cult Technician and a Cult Engineer:
Technician: repairing, rearming and refueling (plus tuning when that comes online) + hacking and data-running
Engineer: fabrication (=crafting) and construction (=base-building) and also mine-laying when that comes online
Crafting as a term (and also game concept) comes from D&D and is out of place in a sci-fi setting so please try to use the term fabrication instead (which CIG is also using, which is why Greycat's upcoming rover is called the MFC) unless you're indeed making arts & crafts trinkets or whatever. Similarly, base-building comes from RTS where you're indeed building military bases, but in SC you'll be building also purely civilian industrial facilities and the like, so the more general term that is appropriate here is construction, which again CIG is using.
So as you can see none of the Engineer's duties are in the game yet. I expect fabrication to come online in the first half of 2026, and construction in the second half, so the Engineer Spec is a little premature. That said I did want to get it out of the way because it scoops up all the fabrication and construction vehicles that I had previously given to the base ranks and dumps them on the Engineer, all the way up to the mighty Pioneer. I had initially given that to the Supreme Commander, then moved it to the Contractor Supreme Commander, and now I realize it's really the Engineer's capital ship. Though it will still ideally require a Supreme Commander to command it. The Engineer will be using it on a day-to-day basis, but the SupCom in each system will be giving it its orders.
So for our current purposes what matters is the changes I have made with this update to the Technician Spec to accommodate the engineering update. Above all, I removed the gun from his back so that he now comes default with the Cambio SRT for repairs and the fire extinguisher for handling fires: the two most important tools for a technician aboard a ship. All the torso slots are now filled with canisters for these two tools, and his backpack now contains batteries for them (for when batteries come online). So the only weapon he has by default is the laser pistol, which can also be used to disable components so that still has a technical job. I have included the laser rifle in his backpack and some ammo for it in case he gets into a serious firefight (for example when hacking or data-running), but for the most part he shouldn't be (and you're free to add more ammo if you want, as well as canisters and batteries). The MaxLift and the rest of the multi-tool attachments are in the backpack, so he has the complete range of tools currently in the game for performing technical work, and I've also put in 5 fuses, same as the Engineer. If it turns out we need more of anything, I'll add more.
So, ideally, we'll have a Technician on every ship larger than single-seat fighters, so Cutlass etc. That's the ideal, but I don't know if it's workable. Maybe it'll be too much trouble to bother with, in which case we'll keep the Technician for the larger ships like Carracks and Idrises or whatever. But to start with, try to go with the strict rule so that when you have 2-3 players in the channel, and take out say a Corsair, one of the players should gear up as Technician, and then he can man a turret for the most part, but above all his job will be to make sure the ship is running at peak efficiency and effectiveness at all times. This won't be an easy job, and the bigger the ship the harder it will get! It's a brand-new world of mechanics veering closer to Starbase and Space Engineers, and it probably won't be for everyone, so if you don't like it just let someone else do it. That said, everyone will probably have to learn at least a little of it for the times when they're playing solo.
As for the Engineer, he has even less weaponry on him as I haven't even put a rifle in his backpack: he only has the laser pistol. For armor I've given him the Aril, which I am not a big fan of, but it currently does look like the most engineering-y armor in the verse, so we'll have to go with it. It's the helmet that bothers me above all, but I've seen someone use a yellow Morozov helmet with it which looks much nicer, so we might want to give that a try. At any rate I am sure the game will get tons more industrial armors when base-building is added, so we'll get the opportunity to upgrade his armor eventually.
My goal with the Engineer will be to just leave him in my base because by that time I hope to be multiboxing. So my main will be out in the verse doing things, while my Engineer will be building, fabricating, repairing and organizing back at my base. Because remember Rust? When we played Rust I would spend pretty much the entire game time at the base—we're talking dozens of hours per run—crafting and building things. Because crafting takes a lot of time, and even though building in Rust is instantaneous, it still requires much thought and planning. And then you have tons of things to administer, like for example ensuring the furnaces are always stocked and working, and all the gear goes in the correct boxes etc. In Star Citizen there won't be as much building customization, but the construction won't be instantaneous: the drones will take hours or even days to finish their job, and the industrial facilities will need management of inputs and outputs, plus maintenance etc. Then there's the gear administration. So I totally foresee an alt account being occupied in there for entire sessions. And I'll be able to give him orders when my main account is e.g. in quantum or waiting for teammates etc.
So that's it for now. Enjoy checking out the Engineer Spec until it's time to use it hopefully in the second half of next year, and don't forget to check all the updates to the Technician Spec.
CULT ENGINEER
Role: A Cult Engineer uses math and science to solve military problems through various roles, including building bridges and creating obstacles, and handles large-scale infrastructure, construction, and environmental projects. Key duties include ensuring mobility for friendly forces while hindering the enemy through tasks like route clearance and demolition, and building fortifications and other defensive and offensive structures. The role can also include humanitarian aid, such as providing clean water and power.
Requirements: Must possess a passion for multi-disciplinary learning and aptitude for scientific acumen, logical thinking, creative problem-solving, technical and analytical skills, project management and teamwork, and strong communication skills.
Training: Engineering and construction games, management games, survival-builders, real-time strategy games.
GROUND SPEC
Venture Undersuit Yellow [Verse]
Aril Helmet Hazard [Verse]
Aril Hazard Core/Arms/Legs [Verse]
Aril Backpack Hazard [Verse] w/ APX Fire Extinguisher [Verse], 3x APX Fire Extinguisher Canister [Verse], 5x Pulse Laser Pistol Battery (60 Cap) [Verse], 2x Cambio SRT Battery [Verse], 2x MaxLift Tractor Beam Battery [Verse], 5x Fuse [Verse]
Chest: 3x Yellow QuikFlarePro [Subscribers]
Left back: MaxLift Tractor Beam [Verse]
Right back: Cambio SRT [Verse]
Left thigh: 4x MedPen (Hemozal) [Verse]
Left Thigh: Pyro RYT Multi-Tool [Verse] + LifeGuard Medical Attachment [Verse] w/ LifeGuard Refill [Verse]
Right thigh: Any Pulse Laser Pistol [Loot]
Right thigh: XDL Monocular Rangefinder [Verse]
Left torso: 3x Cambio SRT Canister (Filled) [Verse]
Right torso: 3x Cambio SRT Canister (Filled) [Verse]
GROUND VEHICLE SPEC
Ground Generalist: Auxilia [N/A] [N/A]
Ground Fabrication: MFC [N/A] [N/A]
Ground Construction: CSV-FM [N/A] [N/A]
Ground Transport: CSV-SM [Verse] [359,100]
Construction: Grav-Cart [N/A] [N/A]
SHIP SPEC
Heavy Construction: Pioneer [N/A] [N/A]
Minelayer: Nautilus [N/A] [N/A]
Construction: Starlancer BLD [N/A] [N/A]
Fabrication/Refining/Mining: Forge [N/A] [N/A]
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/co ... _bravo_cig
El_90 wrote:
VR - Bravo CIG!!!
I just spawned a Titan in a hangar, took off, flew around an asteroid, landed back in the hangar.
And in 30 years of gaming, that was one of the top 5 experiences I've had.
The scale of the hangar, ships, and scene is just brought to life.
There's a detail/vibe to the colours and the whole look of the scene that flatscreen doesn't render the same.
The MFDs felt so natural to how it would feel controlling a spacecraft.
Flight is transformed, coupled mode, boosting, cruise, it just felt natural.
Landing in VR is something else. Approaching upside down so the hangar is above you for full visibility then rolling 135 degrees upwards to land perfectly in the middle and flat felt like poetry.
Getting VR to work with Virtual Desktop Streamer was no effort at all, it just worked!
And this is with the current game: with Vulkan improvements, QoL to features, and polish this will be simply magical.
I'm not sure I could PvP in it, but missions, grinding, story, exploring, VR all the way!!
(Quest 3 + wifi6e + Virtual Desktop Streamer)
Not sure you will see this, but if you do... bravo, and thank you.
cmdr_fitzie wrote:
Yeah I was totally impressed too. I took my Perseus out which was amazing and did 13 waves of Vanduul Swarm in AC in my L-22 Wolf, was epic. As you say the MFDs are super clear and easy to use, imagine once we have touch control! Even on my old Oculus CV1 it was crystal clear and 'just worked' no fuss.
Joebobo123 wrote:
Yea it really is pretty bad ass, was way better than I expected so glad I didn't get rid of my Quest 3 that I used for like 50 hours prior since SC release. I've already put like 10 hours more of use in it and many more to come. My only complaint would be lack of color vibrancy and contrast but that's more of a fault of the current VR/GPU tech, If we could get the image quality of current 4K OLED in VR I'd be looking for reasons to collect a paycheck and not have to work anymore lol.
wx_Striker wrote:
I TOTALLY Agree - Going into NMS in VR was pretty good - and before this was one of my top 3 lifetime gaming experiences. Star Citizen in VR is now sitting very high up at #1. The Cockpit is "Chef's Kiss" in almost every ship I fly, and the immersion, with HOSAS, it's butter, and OMG, you feel like you're flying. Then you start wandering around some of the areas, and you start noticing all the love and detail the artists put into this game. The way the front of the Alpha Wolf-22 curves as you're looking out the canopy - the details in the med centers in New Babbage. The textures - CIG take my $$$$ - this is my GAME!
MisterForkbeard wrote:
I'll absolutely agree that the scale and sense of detail is amazing. I will also agree that the MFDs work with VR in a way that's pretty magical, though I really need to get rid of my old flatscreen instincts. I had a pretty hard time clicking on some of the arrows, especially under time pressure.
dasyus wrote:
Sounds like I'm stealing my Quest 3 back from my kids.
DifferentVariety3298 wrote:
Have played computer games for forty years now and have played SC for five. Got a Tobii 5 after about a month or so exploring the 'verse. The change in experience was MASSIVE!
Have ordered a Pico 4 Ultra Enterprise and am giddy as a kid to try it out. However great asteroid mining is with the Tobii, doing it in VR is a wish come true.
o7
Glad_Description_320 wrote:
Totally agree. A few kinks here and there that need to be polished and it will be fantastic to play.
Btw I use the Meta Horizon Link and with that it also works just great. It also gave me a performance boost to plug my main monitor back to the iGPU instead directly into my Nvidia. So the iGPU is doing all the VR video stream rendering to free up performance on the Nvidia for the game.
P.S. None of the above impacts in the least non-CULT players who don't play Ultimate Edition, because they're only playing one group, hence can fast-forward "downtime" so that months pass in minutes or hours. But we can't because we're simulating EVERY SINGLE DAY AS A 4X TURN IN MASTER OF HEROES. Therefore a decade in Kingmaker is 3,650 turns that we have to play lmao, and not just 4X turns but turns during which multiple Adventure Paths and/or standalone adventures and/or Pathfinder Society Scenarios are being played by multiple teams.
So from the perspective of all other buyers/players of this AP, it means nothing that it can take several years of in-game time. It's just aesthetics to them, while to us it's the gaming challenge of a lifetime.
Should probably post the above as a UE chapter: Ultimate Challenge.
I need to explain what this means in terms of Master of Heroes:
EzekieruYT wrote:
JJ mentioned that while this is happening in one location, there's no timer. This can take years of in-world time to finish...
The new AP just revealed for the autumn is written entirely by a single author, and it's James Jacobs of course. It's inspired by... Castlevania and... Souls games. Now you might say, icy, don't you always tell us that Souls stuff is crap? As RPGs, yeah, so if you want to see the concept done WELL, here you go: an incredible location that's not just a random collection of nonsensical corridors; a massive castle that's deeply tied to the region, and the world, and the metaplot; and a premise that's fleshed out with a host of cool mechanics INCLUDING city-building. It's an incredible project, and I have no doubt JJ will pull it off.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/c ... nt/ntvum5h
Salvadore1 wrote:
All these new systems in Bastion of Blasphemies sound so interesting!!
EzekieruYT wrote:
This is another dungeon crawl AP, similar to "Abomination Vaults" or "Shades of Blood". But this is the first time they're doing a mega dungeon based on a pre-established place, VS inventing a new place to explore. Bastardhall was first written back in the early 1st edition days by Wesley Schneider, so this will be the first time in over a decade where players will be able to actually adventure in this place.
...
Lots of Castlevania inspiration from Wesley originally, featuring werewolves and mummies and such. James' favorite mega dungeon games are the Souls series, and so there's a ton of inspiration for those games found in this AP.
...
JJ mentioned that while this is happening in one location, there's no timer. This can take years of in-world time to finish...
...
James then revealed he wrote the entirety of BoB by himself. No freelance authors this time around. Not that they wanted to stop using freelance authors for the new hardcover APs, far from it. JJ did it partly to prove that he could, but also due to the timing of things with the switch to hardcover APs, there was no time to coordinate with freelancers this time around. So JJ started writing, and ended up doing the whole AP himself. This is the largest thing JJ has written, full-stop. The previous winner was either Seven Dooms for Sandpoint, or a large amount of writing for the Sandy Peterson Call of Cthulu book for Pathfinder.
It's described as not a linear progression, but more of a sandbox one, where you'll keep unlocking new pathways forward and it sort of mushrooms out.
...
James Jacobs' spoiler for "Bastion of Blasphemies" is showing off the ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE map of the island of Bastardhall!
[REDACTED]
This is the map of Bastardhall, or specifically the land around Bastardhall, in Chapter 1 of the AP. You might not be able to tell from the image I posted, but there are 5-foot squares across the whole map! So you could scale this map up and take up 10 parking spaces worth of room. There's the village to the northwest, there's a fishing shack, a farmplot, etc. Classic horror movie locales.
This is the 5th level exploration area of the AP. And the big, black footprint in the middle is where Bastardhall proper is. There are several entrances into the castle, and as you explore more and more, you'll unlock more chambers, as well as above and below and every which way in this massive castle.
Sleeping_Dragon_Inn wrote:
Both James Jacobs and the Twitch chat described this as a Castlevania-style AP. It's a big spooky dungeon crawl where you explore a gothic castle and I am here for it.
Some progression info: The new beginner box (lv. 1), Troubles in Grayce (lv. 2-4) and Bastion (5-13) are designed so that you can run them subsequently if you want. They also all take place in Ustalav.
Rainwhisker wrote:
Paizo Live today announced a new Beginner's Box (levels 1-2), a follow up Troubles set of adventures (6 instead of 3, levels 2-5 if you do 3) and this adventure (which is level 5-13/14). Kind of like an alternative to BB->Troubles in Otari->Abomination Vaults set.
James Jacobs wrote:
It's a relief to be able to chat about this finally! Wrote it about a year ago, and it's always tough sitting on secrets. It is indeed the 3rd Adventure Path for 2026, coming out in the Fall or thereabouts in that same traditional 3rd Adventure Path slot of the year (often but not always aligned to land on or adjacent to Gen Con), and starts at 5th level. The last chapter starts at 13th level, but it's something of a sandbox dungeon (castle!) crawl so if your PCs do every single thing, they'll likely hit 14th level before the end. Which should help, because the ending (and even more so the SECRET ENDING) are intended to be tough fights!
James Jacobs wrote:
Thanks for the kind words! And yup; I'm the sole author on "Bastion of Blasphemies." We've done this once before, also by me, for "Seven Dooms for Sandpoint." The norm will remain having multiple authors on Adventure Paths, but now that they're always single books, we might now and then have single author Adventure Paths in the future if the stars are right.
Malcior34 wrote:
A sandbox? A Secret Ending? That raises a red flag for me. Are players going to be punished if they keep following the clear plot and don't turn every single stone?
James Jacobs wrote:
In that if they "boss rush" things and you're not using milestone level advancement, perhaps, but this should be less of an issue than in, say, Abomination Vaults, which was also a sandbox dungeon crawl, but with fewer "gates" between the leveled content. It's easier for PCs to be "punished" in Abomination Vaults in this way than it will be in Bastion of Blasphemies.
If you played Abomination Vaults and your group avoided exploration and pushed hard down level by level, then milestone leveling is a better fit for your table. There's no built-in timer for how long the PCs have to take to finish this Adventure Path (they can take YEARS doing this in game if they want), nor is there a reward for rushing through the content and finishing it fast. It's more about the journey than the end, I guess you could say.
This is a dungeon crawl that rewards deliberate exploration, which means it's not gonna be for every group. But then again, no Adventure Path is. If they were, they'd be campaign settings, not Adventure Paths.
James Jacobs wrote:
Nope; I wrote the whole thing. It was a lot of fun to write, but also a weird thing to tackle, since it's building something that someone else started (Wes Schneider) and so I tried hard to make it into something that he'd approve of but that I was still proud of. That was not TOO tough, though, since we've been friends for decades and have very similar tastes and styles when it comes to what sorts of messed up things we like putting into adventures we create.
The fact that this is building on a location we've teased and dropped hints about for many years (as opposed to something like Abomination Vaults, which we invented whole-cloth for the Adventure Path it debuted in) does mean that it's going to compete against a lot of homebrew games or established ideas that folks have had and have run with since Wes first introduced the place to the world years ago. And so I hope those folks who put so much work into it enjoy what I've done with the story, and I 100% agree and support them if they decide their version of Bastardhall is better. In a case like that, your Bastardhall is it. You can rename the one I did in "Bastion of Blasphemies" to something else and canonize it in your game however you want or ignore it or mine it for ideas. Or just read it for entertainment! Reading adventures for entertainment is absolutely a thing.
Anyway, that said, I deliberately did not look into any of the work other folks have done online about building their versions of Bastardhall, because I wanted/needed to keep my version to my own ideas built off of the ideas that Wes originally presented.
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/co ... a_nutshell
I just learned that some people in the VR community sleep... with their headsets on, and people in the SC Reddit speculate about the possibilities with all the beds in the verse, and CR's talk of realistic bedsheet physics.
I am all in.