Martin zoladz state farm

FALLOUT 5
Fallout 5 will take place in the Dixie Wasteland, in the ruins of Charleston, South Carolina in 2322. It will be the first fallout to take place in the South. The only nuke to hit the region was a defective US nuke that detonated as soon as it was launched.
Character Building:
You start with 35 special points, making it so you have a more specialized build or a jack of all trades. The old skill system makes a return, with you choosing a perk every 3 level ups. Skill checks are frequent, and can vary from Special stats to perks. You get to choose a special perk when you start the story, like Small Frame or Kamikaze. Karma has three tiers: Evil, Neutral, and Good.
Mutations and Radiation: Mutations will occur like in 76, but you can become a super mutant if you dip yourself in a vat of FEV. Your strength and endurance will increase dramatically, but many factions and cities won’t let you in without a huge hassle. Radiation makes you mutate more, but if your mutation level is too high you will turn into a mindless Behemoth. Too much radiation will turn you into a ghoul, which makes you immune to radiation and raises your endurance. If you get too many rads while ghoulified, you become feral.
Weapons & V.A.T.S:
Makeshift weapons are far more prevalent in this game, but they are more diverse and realistic than those in Fallout 4. Normal weapons are more powerful and rarer, selling for more at stores. More real guns will be added alongside the retro-futuristic fallout guns, including the 9 round and 1 shotgun shell LeMat revolver. Weapon customization exists alongside a wider variety than of weapons. Dual wielding makes its first entry to the series, allowing for dual wielding of small melee weapons, pistols, and smgs.
Higher Agility levels makes dual wielding more accurate. V.A.T.S will return to freezing the game instead of the slowed down time in Fallout 4
Settlements:
There will be 3 buildable settlement locations that you discover on your own, and 5 customizable player home locations.
World: The Dixie Wasteland is a mix of civilized and Wild. The Western section of the map is the most dangerous, full of raiders and animals, despite that the town of Magnolia is in the west. The Northeast is the city of Charleston, the city of Civitas Ferro is set up within eastern Charleston. The South of the map is controlled by the Brotherhood of Steel as well. The middle of the map is a bunch of small towns mixed with the wildness of the west. The eastern side of the map is swamps, and the west is forested hills. A large lifeless crater exists in the in the middle of the map, simply known as the Hole.
Enemies: Some animals return, such as bloodbugs, deathclaws, ferals, bloatflies, and Yao Guais, Mirelurks, and Gatorclaws. New animals include Raddlesnakes, Giraffe Dogs (coyotes with long necks), Snappers (huge turtles), and Prowlers (mutated bobcats). Raiders are in named groups again, with three main bands terrorizing Dixie. The tribe known as the Confederates who enslave and sell rather than pillage, the Beastmasters who tame mutated animals and attack with them, and the Vaulties who were former vault dwellers. Generic raiders can also be found. Super Mutant bands have moved south from the Capital Wasteland, and continue their sackings in Dixie. Enemy robots are occasionally found, especially from the RobCo factory in the city. The last kind of enemy is the main factions if you piss them off, as they send death squads out to gank you if you have a bad reputation.
Dixie history: The Carolinians united the eastern coast and Charleston together as a large scale civilization in 2190, but by the year 2291, the Brotherhood of Steel invaded. They pillaged, plundered, and took control of the east coast and the capital of the Carolinians. Their despotic rule has causes several factions in the wasteland grow rebellious, and tensions are reaching a high in 2322.
Themes: The game has a southern theme, with the radios playing country and bluegrass music. Characters have southern accents, as do the robots.
Radio Stations:
Magnolia Radio - Swing and Jazz hosted by a charismatic ghoul named Darren Dixie. Darren will comment on the events that occur throughout the wasteland.
Hoedown Capital - A country and bluegrass station hosted by Mr. Hillbilly, a DJ Mr.
Handy. He still believes the year is 2077, and only tells news relating to events that happened leading up to the Great War.
Brotherhood Military Channel - Updates troops about tech locations and orders patrols around.
There are plenty of side quests and random events, including side quests for each faction.
Factions:
There are 5 factions in Fallout 5, and you have to side with one of them to complete the story. The Tribal ending is the wild card ending. The reputation system makes a return, with the New Vegas pictures.
Brotherhood of Steel: The Brotherhood of Steel has turned into nothing short of a jingoistic military dictatorship, developed by Elder William Garrick. The Brotherhood abandoned Maxson in the commonwealth, as Garrick lead a silent coup in the Capital wasteland. The Brotherhood has grown colossally in size, and now spans the East Coast unchecked in power. Not only do they seize military technology now, they also seize stuff like pre-war small arms, Auto-docs, pip-boys, robots, terminals etc. They’ve ruled over Atlanta for the past 2 years with an iron fist, forcing settlers into giving up their crops and crippling the wasteland and infrastructure of the Dixie Wasteland. They control a large city inside Atlanta called Civitas Ferro, with their headquarters in the center. Despite your hatred for them initially, you can join them and defeat all the rebels.
Carolinian Revolutionary Army- The Carolinians are the remnants of the former largest nation in the Dixie Wasteland called the Free Federation of Charleston. It was a democratic civilization based on the old state of South Carolina, with elections and rights for any human or quasi-human. Although it was weak and corrupt, it was better than the alternatives. When the Brotherhood rolled in, the Carolinians resisted their raids, so the Brotherhood overthrew them in a scorched Earth campaign. The Carolinians are the remnants of their military, dedicated to rebelling against the Brotherhood’s tyranny, and have the endgame goal of bringing Democracy back to Dixie. They grow steadily by the day, but they suffer from bureaucratic issues and corruption. You can join the Carolinians as an agent, and you help them lead a rebellion against the Brotherhood.
Greylock’s Hand: Greylock’s Hand are a band of violent raiders and mercenaries, who likewise want the Brotherhood of Steel gone, but instead desire an anarchic survival of the fittest wasteland. They are lead by a profane, wild ghoul named Greylock. They are basically terrorists, but their raids and ambushes against the Brotherhood are effective. They reside in a secret underground missile launch site, completed two days before the war. Even the Brotherhood knows nothing about it aside from rumors. The missiles, however, are not finished. You can join Greylocks Hand after getting kidnapped by them, and after you help them build part of the missiles.
Magnolia: The last joinable faction is Magnolia, a large settlement in and around the former plantation home. The city is ruled by a group of Mister Handys who escaped from a crashed truck driving to Charleston the day of the Great War. They saw the magnolia plantation and went their to clean, doing so and repairing it for 150 years, eventually realizing what was happening in the world around them.Their newfound “sentience” allowed them to create a settlement, inviting wastelanders and tribals to live and trade under their protection. Their elected leader is a specialized Mr Handy that has economic programming. The robots have defended themselves from several Brotherhood attacks, and after some convincing they allow you to become an honorary robot and join their faction.
Tribal: Instead of choosing any of the four main factions, you can instead unite the smaller settlements, tribes, and factions into New Dixie. You are assisted by an intelligent Supermutant from the Capital Wasteland named Spider, acting as your loyal second in command.
Minor factions:
The Network: A secret underground trading organization that sells and trades equipment that would normally be confiscated by the BoS. You can rat them out to the BoS, or you can join them.
Wasteland Marshalls: A paramilitary organization that patrols highways and hunts raiders, based on the US Marshals of the past. You can join them or convince them to join the brotherhood.
Catawbas: The descendants of the old native tribe from South Carolina, they specialize in the creation of makeshift weaponry to sell to wastelanders. You can convince them to join the rebellion, or you can convince them to join the Brotherhood.
Abolitionists: A militia of borderline terroristic anti-slavers, based on the conquests of the radical abolitionist John Brown. You can join them or eliminate them.
Plot:
South Carolina: 2322. War, war never changes.
The main character is a tribal living southeast of Charleston. The tribe has to pay a toll to local raiders, and it’s left their tribe starving. In the first part of the game, the Tribal, their sibling and their friend are searching for food for their tribe, when they stumble across an old sunken West-Tek storage depot. In it is a prototype suit of power armor called the AX-01, which is a large tank-suit with back missiles and two hand laser rifles, built for ease of use. You learn how to pilot it from a terminal, and you take it back to the tribe; the raiders and their leader are there demanding their payment. You kill the raiders with the power armor, and the tribe is free from their subjugation. Weeks later, 4 Brotherhood of Steel paladins arrive at the village. After the tribals refuse to give up their power armor, the BoS execute everyone in the village and burn it to the ground (including your sibling), seizing the suit and flying away on a vertibird. Only the Tribal remains.
Act 1: The Tribal picks up a broken pip-boy as soon as they leave the town, and they hunt down the paladins North to Charleston, you kill all 4 of them while adventuring across the map. By the end of the first act, the Brotherhood declares you an enemy of the Brotherhood.
Act 2: Due to the deaths of several Paladins and the constant rebellion from the region, a Brotherhood blimp appears. The brotherhood frequency states that if the Tribal visits the ship, they will be absolved of their crimes. The Tribal is also invited to secret meeting of between Carolinians and robots from Magnolia. You also get kidnapped by the Greylocks 2 days after this meeting. From there you can choose between the rebels or the Brotherhood, and do their specific quest lines. For the Greylocks, you have to find parts to build their rockets. Whereas for the other groups you have to find a way into their base.
Act 3: All questlines end in the ultimate battle and raid on the Greylock base. If you side with the Greylocks you repel the attackers. The end of the story is where you fire the missile array at the Brotherhood’s home base and their airship, chasing them out of Dixie. If you side with the Brotherhood you secure the missile array and fire the rockets at the fleeing rebels, crushing their numbers.
Each ending depends on your karma and what side you chose, potentially turning a “good” faction evil or an “evil” faction good.
Your actions have consequences throughout the story, and no character is essential except for potential companions.
The Tribal:
The tribal is the name of the 28 year old protagonist, and you can choose between you or your friend to be your character. One is male, the other is female. The protagonist is silent, but the character you don’t choose has voiced dialogue. Their default names are Sammy and Cora, but you can change them. Speech is back to the chart with full responses. Their personality is determined by the player, allowing for better roleplaying opportunities.
Companions:
There are 10 companions, 3 non human and 7 human. The affinity system returns, and each companion has a personal quest. They also have comments for the main quest and other miscellaneous events. Companions have specific likes and dislikes, and have different karmas. You can recruit companions outside of your karma if you pass a speech check. Any positive affinity progression while not in their karma has a 1.25 multiplier. Companions are romanceable regardless of gender.
The Tribals Friend (Sammy/Cora):
The friend you don’t choose is available to become your companion. They know your name, and revert to their original appearance and name once you choose your character. Cora is originally white with blonde hair and blue eyes, and Sammy is originally a latino with curly black hair. have good karma, and hates the BoS, but are okay with the other factions. They are 28 years old, the same age as the tribal. They wear a tribal cloak and uses a makeshift bolt action rifle. They are Romanceable.
Benjamina Pavlova - A hired gun and part time technician working for the Network, you can recruit her whenever you hire her at the Network. She has good karma, and hates the BoS and the Carolinians, but likes Greylocks hand and the Magnolia Robots (hired guns were illegal in the FFC). She is white, and has curly black hair and green eyes. She is 29 years old. She wears a confederate cavalry hat and her combat armor with road leathers, she uses a .44 trail carbine. She is romanceable.
Captain Baker Springfield - A soldier for the Carolinian Revolutionary Army, you can recruit him if you save his platoon from a super mutant attack. He has good karma, and hates the BoS and Greylock’s hand, but loves the Carolinians. He is 32 years old. He is white, has brown hair and stubble, and wears a Carolinian soldier outfit; he uses a .308 Combat rifle.
Dina Qian A vault dweller from Vault 52, you have to free the vault from a band of raiders who have cracked into the vault to recruit her. Dina is asian and has black hair in a ponytail. She has neutral karma, and hates all raider groups, including Greylock’s Hand, she is indifferent to the other groups. Dina is 25 years old. She uses two 10mm pistols and wears an armored vault suit. She is Romanceable.
Louie - Louie is a ranch hand at a farm outside of the Hole, you can recruit him if you get his family’s brahmin back from the Beastmasters. He has neutral karma, and hates Greylock’s hand, but likes The BoS due to their law bringing policies. He is 36 years Louie is white, and has a buzzcut with a mustache. He wears a ranch hand outfit and a stetson hat with leather armor, he uses a makeshift pump action shotgun.
General Ulysses Grant: A securitron made specially for the RobCo factory owner, a civil war buff. You have to repair him after clearing the RobCo factory to recruit him. His karma is dependent on how you program him, and he hates the brotherhood but loves the magnolia robots. He is a deep blue and gold securitron with General grant on the tv screen. He is a pre-war robot. He uses the 9mm smg, laser rifle, and rockets depending on what you tell him to use. He is not romanceable.
Uriah Lincoln - A respected raider within Greylock’s hand, you can recruit him whenever you join Greylock’s hand. He has evil karma, loves Greylock’s hand, and hates the Brotherhood and the Carolinians. You can change his karma in his personal quest. Uriah is 23 years old. He is black and is bald, with a bandana covering on of his eyes. He wears Greylock makeshift power armor and carries a plasma rifle. He is romanceable
Senior Scribe Weatherby - A former scribe turned ghoul by radiation, you can recruit her from the BoS after she is kicked out. She has evil karma, hates the BoS and the other factions. After her personal quest she can either rejoin the brotherhood or be open to other factions. She is 39 years old. She is a ghoul and has wears red hair wig. She wears a scribe outfit and uses a laser rifle. She is romanceable.
Belle - A Mrs Nanny built by the robots at Magnolia, you can recruit her after joining the Magnolia robots. She has neutral karma, and likes Greylock’s Hand and the Magnetic robots. Belle is 60 years old. She wears a straw hat with a flower on it, and has a light purple chassis; she uses a minigun and a sawblade. She is not romanceable.
Hambone - A golden retriever with one blue eye and one brown eye. He doesn’t care about what you do, he’s a good boy. You can have him alongside any other companion.
This is what I’ve got, feel free to add anything.

"Immortal Spirits of Fate, you who weave destiny, you who are my greatest muse and have spun countless stories in my ears, do not sit in idle silence toward me now. Sing to me of the birth of the Moradaya who came here from those mountainous lands of yore. May my words be true and my tongue possess the skill to utter the tale you speak into me without fault."
—An invocation to the spirits. Similar words are commonly spoken by storytellers in pursuit of favor from those who dictate the webs of fate.
As the cold wind howls through the valleys between that fractured piece of the Alpide belt born of the Paleogene in times long passed and nestled between two seas split by the crushing power of the advancing Arabian plate, a band traveling south and east on the backs of short stocky horses orients themselves against the rising sun hidden behind jagged peaks on the horizon which cut the sky like the serration on teeth of ocean sharks these migrants will never encounter, escape from this desolate winter landscape the one thing on their minds. They are Anyana, Iranic peoples whose ancestors roamed the steppes past the great mountains to the north where their distant cousins still drive livestock across a great sea of grass so wide and expansive it is hard for them to imagine both the land there and here in these claustrophobic ravines and gullies wrought by tectonic chaos belong to the same world. They do.
The Anyana abandoned such a pastoralist way of life when they migrated south along the coast of the Black Sea, known to them as Banga Marea, the Great Sea, which was vaster than any their ancestors before them had ever beheld, and into the lowlands between the Greater and Lesser Caucasus where rivers flow west into that massive body of water and the land is lush and fertile for farming. But this land of plenty where it seems the divines had tried their hand at crafting a paradise was not to be the home of the Moradaya. The Anyana who settled in these lands, which were at that time home to a population of Colchic Proto-Kartvelians, enslaved and intermingled with these local peoples from the coast to as far east as those who later formed the Kingdom of Asmanakashra, but many more of their brethren found no place in the small space of these lowlands, cramped as they were after the arrival of a lurch of people pouring inward as if the levy of the Greater Caucasus which once separated two worlds alien to one another had burst, and instead chose to push onward into the mountains to the south, spreading in all directions and hunting for whatever small abundances might be found in their alpine surroundings.
Massifs rise from underfoot across the plateau of the Armenian Highlands where Anyan has become the dominant culture and language, but divisions have already formed in this people. Wars were fought. Battles raged. Subjugation. The harsh topography of these lands and divisions between those original tribes who made the journey south drive the Anyana apart and erode their united identity like rivers splitting from one source in a delta before rushing out to sea, quickened by the absorption of local people's ways of life in the disparate and nascent polities forming among their culture. Some of the tribes have become wary of one another, others hostile and others more simply apathetic toward the Anyana living elsewhere in the plateau where even a few miles distance divided by a range of peaks can feel a world away.
The tribe Moradaya trace their lineage to a number of deva, beings akin to spirits or gods, the stories of their genesis passed down through the generations by oral recital and never received by the youth in quite the same manner or meaning each telling. Those travelers journeying across the Lesser Caucasus have heard the myths of their tribe’s origins many times, so often each might recite the tales from memory, as they did in the company of one another as solace for their otherwise pitiful position in a false remembrance of their greater past. The content of those myths is for another time than this. Their tribe has yet to find a home where they might permanently achieve peaceability and rest. For years they have searched, living scattered about Anyan lands, but this will soon be no more.
The band of men and women and children with their horses and all the belongings they managed to pack for the journey set their ambitions on the valley where meets a moot of all the Moradaya. For too long they have gone without a chieftain holding any true vision, but with the death of Small Vanga, deva bless his spirit, comes an opportunity to appoint a new ruler, one who might lead them to the home of which they have long dreamt. The winter journey for them has been grueling, but their ways demand a new chieftain be elected as soon as all the clan chiefs are able to convene. In that band marching beneath the slopes and now in the belly of a ravine, scrawny trees twisting and fighting each other for the scant light of the sun that makes it down all the way, Skoda goes with his family and a small number of his most trusted men to represent his clan, the Donsudra, and their wishes at the moot.
All free men are welcome to participate in the moot and the election of a new chieftain, but the clan chiefs are shouldered with the extra responsibilities of negotiating the affair and preventing strife at the results of the tribe’s decision. Skoda’s young age once made other chiefs wary of his abilities to lead, but since then he proved himself to be a skilled warrior and therefore, in their eyes, a leader in his campaigns against the Urartians, the native inhabitants of this alpine plateau, and many favor him to become the new chieftain.
After weeks of travel through winding mountain passes, Skoda and their band reach the banks of Soinya Marea, Lake Sevan, the water frozen therein beginning to thaw as spring emerges. Thin trees with leaves stripped and dead bushes and lichen growing on rocky outcroppings dot the hilly landscape. Smoke rises in the distance. Others from Moradaya had already arrived and created a camp where they weathered the remains of the cold season waiting to elect the new chieftain. Skoda’s band sets up their own tents in the disorganized array of other temporary homes along a network of mud pounded into the ground by feet of people buzzing around the camp. Tired from their journey, he rests.
They are some of the last to arrive, and soon after making their place all the clan chiefs are present on those banks, and the moot is called. They meet at the debouch of a stream snaking down to the idle water along an escarpment and flowing inside, the shallow depths gurgling over a bed of rocks. Men of other kinds have trodden these lands for hundreds of thousands of years since the age of Acheulean stone, and now rills formed in the mud by surface water from the melting snow are trampled underfoot as they gather into a haphazard circle, a little empty space in the center.
Clans Donsudra, Ibera, Kudogre, Paraba, Velun and Festuda all convene here. Besides Skoda, other favorites for chieftain are Oruges, son of the late Small Vanga, and Ekpuda, the wise and elderly leader of the Paraba. The law speaker initiates the day, and the shaman says a prayer and performs a ritual, and the thing begins. Oruges boasts of his own grandeur, standing in the center of the crowd who send cheers and jeers alike his way.
"He should be chieftain!"
"Someone older like Ekpuda ought to be in charge!"
"His father led us to ruin, and he'll do the same!"
They argue for some time with no resolution.
"Quiet, children." Ekpuda waves a single hand in the air, and soon all are silent. "I am too old to lead. That job belongs to those whose lives are still more ahead than behind them."
A murmur grows in the crowd.
"But, I must admit, I doubt Oruges' abilities as a leader, even if I respected his father."
A roar. Everyone was up in arms and yelling.
"I don't see anyone better!"
"Vanga's spawn is too weak!"
"Who else will be chieftain?"
Skoda walks to the center, the walls of which now undulate in the mass of upset bodies. "I will lead us."
After much deliberation and arguing, Skoda is narrowly elected as Moradaya's new chieftain, the first ever from clan Donsudra. He sets his mind on the task of finding his people a land on which they may grow and prosper, and these thoughts occupy every still moment for over a year until an opportunity presents itself.
The Urartian kingdom of Ushnu to the south had fallen into a state of civil war over the rights of inheritance pertaining to their king, and Skoda decides to take the opportunity and strike.
The war effort on part of the Moradaya is successful, and they drive out the rulers of Ushnu, known to them as Ošneš, and take over the land with their armies. They expand east into the territory of tribes Urartian and Iranian alike and settle them as their own.
Ošneš rests west of the endorheic lake of brine, Unya Marea, or Lake Urmia as it might be known to us. Fed by rivers, the lake lets loose none of its water except in evaporation, a draconic beast hoarding its wealth for itself. A place of stagnancy, though much life calls the lands around home. There exist many plots of arable terrain here, and it seems to all Moradaya, Skoda first of all, a good place to settle. To the east of this great salt pond is a river valley sandwiched by mountains north and the stratovolcano which looms over all therein and will soon become a place of great spiritual power south. Here, the Moradaya found a city, that of Majadaragand, the City of the Middle Valley.
For some time, perhaps a century or so, the Moradaya have called these lands home. The Urartians of the old kingdom of Ushnu still do so too, though they are in the process of being subsumed into Anyan ways of life, an integration which lends to the growing distinction between Moradaya and other Anyana. The real history of their conquests merges with legend, birthing new myths among the tribe's members now growing fat off the land. This is how the Moradaya came into their home.
Name: Moradaya
Gov't Type: Sedentary
Techs: Iron Age, Horse domestication, Spoked Wheel
map

From the desk of the Texas governor Bombara A. Deirer, Jr.
It has been found that the America Buffalo which has once roamed our land should be restored to their natural habitat. The freedoms of the America people also will be pushed to greater extent with this acts integration of freedoms for Alcohol processing and sale.
SECTION 1: THE BREWERY AND SALE OF ALCOHOL
1.1. The processes of distillery, fermentation, bottling, or any other processes involved in the production and sale of alcohol will hereby no longer require a license and can be undertaken by any individual in the state of Texas.
1.2. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission shall hereby be officially recognized as The Texas Commission of Alcohol.
1.3. In order to sell alcohol commercially one must register themselves with the Texas Commission of Alcohol.
1.4. To sell alcoholic beverages non-commercially is hereby legal.
1.5. Whenever a distiller reaches one or more of these following criteria they are to be considered a commercial distiller and will be subjected to any and all laws applying to commercial distilleries. These criteria are, to posses three or more stills, to be producing three barrels of more a month of alcohol, selling twelve gallons or more of alcohol a year, making $75,000 or more a year from alcohol related sales and business, or exporting ten gallons or more of alcohol to foreign entities.
SECTION 2: THE RESTORATION OF THE AMERICAN BUFFALO
2.1. The state of Texas will provide an income tax cut of 2.5% to beef farmers and rancher who cultivate a herd of 25 or more buffalo on the behalf of the state of Texas.
2.1.B. The buffalo must be up-kept, well-fed, and healthy to qualify under this law.
2.1.C. If a degree of 5% or more of the herd does not meet these criteria the state will rebuke it’s sponsorship of the ranch.
2.1.D. The sponsorship of a ranch or farm is not a sponsorship of their products or services in any way.
2.2. Three state ranchs will be constructed for the cultivation of American Buffalo for the matter of release into national parks, supporting other breeding programs, etc.
2.2.B. One ranch will be built near Haskell, one near Vernon, and one near Plainview.
2.2.C. Each ranch will be suited to hold a maximum of 2,500 head of Buffalo.
2.2.D. Federal funding request for this program will go to the president upon signature of this bill.
2.3. This program will be formally regarded as the Texas American Buffalo Breeding Institute.

Hi there!
I'm working on a mobile idle dungeon crawler and would love to get some feedback. I'm trying to inject uniqueness and replayability into the game. However, my wife thinks I might be over-complicating what is supposed to be a simple genre and as such, thinks it's good idea to pause and get feedback first. While my wife is not a gamer, she is an exceptionally brilliant person. So, here I am.
Here's a summary of the core features:
Game Overview:
A dungeon-crawling idle game. The story is centered around a magical event causing fairytale characters from multiple realms to be swept up in a series of chaotic dungeon adventures where they have to cleanse the realms before ultimately fighting the BBEG
Character Design:

• 13 unique characters, each with six unique specializations (Base, Tank, DPS, Support, Crowd Control, Nuker)
• Each specialization has two active abilities and one passive ability
• Specializations aside from Base require farming rare items to unlock
• Characters also have one positive and one negative trait each
• Positive traits example: increase health by xx% or do xx% more damage to demons
• Negative traits example: reduce damage dealt by xx%, increase cooldown of skill 1 by xx turns, higher susceptibility to stun
• For every dungeon run, characters will have a random specialization, positive trait and negative trait locked in
• Special late-game items will allow players to influence this randomness

Affix System:

• Prefixes: enemies may spawn with prefixes that enhance them
• Prefix categories: stat buffs, passive abilities, status effects, targeting modifiers, mutant enemies
• elite rank and higher more likely to have prefixes, normal mobs less so
• Suffixes: affect the entire dungeon
• significant impact on how the dungeon plays out
• Suffix categories: enemy composition, dungeon effects, loot effects, gamechangers (swap atk and health, can't heal with abilities, basic attacks deal 1 damage)

Core Gameplay Loop - Active Dungeon Exploration:

1. Players select their party members and equip them
2. Players start a dungeon run with their chosen party of characters.
3. Players navigate through the procedurally-generated dungeon, encountering enemies, traps and loot along the way.
4. Auto-combat is available from the start with a FFII-esque gambit system
5. Auto-progress is enabled alongside auto-combat as long as the game is in active state
6. Players collect loot, currencies and experience points from defeated enemies.
7. Players continue exploring the dungeon until they reach the end or their party is defeated.
8. If the party is defeated, players return to the home base and can use their collected loot and experience to upgrade their characters & artifacts before starting a new run.

I'm particularly interested in feedback on the following aspects:

1. Complexity: Have I over-complicated the entire thing through the many specializations and affix system? Each specialization for each character has a unique playstyle in mind which translates to the abilities. Currently, there are 78 character builds comprising of 234 active and passive skills. Realistically, it means there are 78 characters once you unlock everything but you only have access to 13 for each run (randomly chosen by the game) and can only use 6 of them anyway. But it's still a lot of information to process and learn about.
2. Dynamic meta: When you factor in the impact of the dungeon suffixes and enemy prefixes, together with the above, there is a very high degree of variance for every run. Meaning, there is little to no meta. As such, you need dynamic strategy for each run and for how you level artifacts and weapons etc as they need to work for whatever you get. Would that be a pro or a con?

Any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your time and insights!

I call it mid game, but I am not sure, I am about to start building for construction IV parts, that means plastic and such
Mu power consumption is about 20MW, I have 3 sets of turbines, each consuming full boiler of steam and producing 12 MW, so there is a room for expansion still
​
My problem is, that I don't feel like I am doing it efficiently enough for the complexity it requires.
What is the best fuel to produce steam at this state?
I am currently burning Naphta, for one as a final product of the cracking and then I turn diesel into Naphta.
Recently I created a digestation facility, that produces quite some Fuel gas, but it's not constant and not deterministic, as it runs on farming surplus and therefore I don't want to rely on it for power.
​
I am thinking about having a steam producing unit with 4 gas boilers burning fuel gas primarily, swithing to naphta when that runs out and 4 coal buring boilers as a backup
This would allow me to extend the powerplant to 48MW
But now with plastic coming into the game, naphta is not a byproduct anymore, but it becomes an important input material, so I am not sure how to aproach this

What's up wc5e! Back with more of my 5e Classic-ish+ campaign, this one is a one on one session with my Rogue player, Orfiz. As always, I'm stoked to share this with you all and love any feedback or questions.
Just like with Val's one on one for the Mistmantle questline, I wanted to really give Orfiz a good dedicated session that he could bring some cool moments back to the group with. This served as the perfect opportunity to paint a better picture of the political state of the kingdom without boring the other new players stiff or having them risk getting overloaded with exposition.
No pictures this time, this session was strictly a notebook, a dice tray, and some bourbon.

The Tl;Dr:

• Party questions NPCs in stockades entrance, finds that their bounty was a former stone mason that had turned to the Defias.
• Rogue connects with SI:7 and investigates Lady Prestor and Baros Alexston to get more info on the stonemasons' exile.
• Party is then directed to Westfall to collect a report from a deep undercover agent working to identify and take out Defias leadership.

The setup:

This was mostly a catch-up session for Orfiz since he couldn't make the stockades session itself. We ended up taking a few hours for some heavy RP, which was great because Orfiz's player generally doesn't lean that way during a normal session. It allowed for some awesome character moments and plot that could come organically from a player to the rest of the party next session. We got to dive more into Alterac being a suspicious faction and threat, and introduce Prestor in a low stakes way.
This isn't really mechanic heavy except for just some perception checks, lockpicking, and really leaning on the player to decide what threads he was going to follow and how. He got to play Stormwind P.I. and it was awesome.

The session:

The party emerges from the stocks and has a chance to question the NPCs in the foyer. The girl is revealed to be Hope Saldean, whom was attending the farmers market in the city on behalf of her family back in Westfall. When she saw Garrick being taken into the prison, she began cursing and throwing her produce at him. She had bad aim, so she hit the party and was taken into custody when the guards worked to quell the riot.
Orfiz questions Hope, all he could get out of her were that she thought they were in love and she can't believe that he'd fall in with the bandits. He moves to question Garrick, and gets the backstory of the masons being exiled from the city and labeled as criminals, so he had to pick up work on local farms to survive. He had a summer fling the prior season with the farmer's daughter while he was there that harvest, and she was convinced as young lovers tend to get, that he'd be back to whisk her off her feet and take her away from the mundane farm life. Seeing him with the red scarf draped around his neck sent her into despair.
The party collects the bounty reward and goes about restocking, grabbing some basic gear improvements from what's available, and finally collecting their estus flask health pots.
Orfiz uses this downtime to investigate Garrick's story about the masons being ousted from the city, and figures he could tap into the kingdom's spy network. His training at Ravenholdt in the ways of the rogue led him to discover markings in cant near the sewer they used to get past the riot by the stockade entrance. Makes sense - spies would want an easy incognito route directly to the prison.
In the tunnels beneath stormwind, he recognized some of the cant as sarcastic propoganda style "if you see something, say something" isms. He reached SI:7's HQ through the tunnel and was immediately greeted by blades to the face as he entered through the trap door. Hands up, he shrugged and said "if you see something... say something?" and the guards eased. As a gnome, he went to the nearest desk, knocked on the side of it to get the attendant's attention, and found himself talking to the man himself, Shaw.
Shaw lamented how things played out and how hard it's been policing the city and weeding out any dissidents or guild associates, as there had been another riot in the streets prior that had led to queen being struck and killed by a thrown rock from the crowd. He knew things didn't add up but didn't have the manpower or resources to investigate the matter, but he's been keeping a close eye on Orfiz and his companions since they first set foot in the city.
Orfiz's immediate reaction to that statement was to pull out some coin and set it on the desk... he "forgot" to pay their gate fee when they got off the deeprun tram. This got a hardy laugh out of Shaw and got his guard down, so he gave Orfiz the skinny: he knows something is up with the House of Nobles but he can't get near them while the King is on the warpath since the riots. Orfiz grabbed a parchment he'd looted off of Bazil, and Shaw tilted it at the candlelight to reveal a reflective type of invisible ink. Orfiz recalled this was a trick that his Ravenholdt pals had used to be able to communicate secret messages and have them readable in the faintest of light. But this was a trick that only worked with ink crafted from a rare orange flower only found in the Alteraci region...
Shaw curses that Lady Katrana Prestor is the diplomat from Alterac, and she's been too close to the King to question without him flying into a rage about the stonemasons. Orfiz volunteers to gather some intel, all Shaw could help provide is that she takes a route through the castle gardens on the way to her late committee meetings, he could catch her there.
He questions her in the garden as a "concerned constituent" of the city and hands her the bloody note (right?). He asks if she knows anything about it, she of course blows him off, and moves on to her budget committee meeting. He eavesdrops to hear her arguing against any treaties or restitution for the masons and digs her heels in.
Next stop was Baros Alexston, the patron noble house that had commissioned the stonemasons to rebuild Stormwind in the first place. The exterior was damaged, like it had been pummeled with rocks and dirt and even started on fire in a few spots. There were large door-spanning locks across his cellar access and front door, Orfiz was able to pick the cellar entrance and slink in unnoticed. Baros returned from his errands and Orfiz got to do the Nick Fury sit-in-the-corner-shadows-with-a-cigar thing. Baros was terrified, and looked exhausted, and his house was in complete disrepair. Baros burst out that he doesn't have anywhere to go and everyone wants to kill him, he can't even go back to his family stead in Westfall because the thugs have taken it over in a move that seemed very personal. Sweet, Next clue!
Orfiz returns to SI:7 and reports his findings. Shaw says he's got a man on the inside, but he's deep undercover and they have not been able to pull him out or even get his report. Since these guys have handled themselves well, and they're special deputies already, Shaw tasks the Orfiz and his companions to keep digging into this. They part ways with Shaw's praise, "you're short in stature, but you've got it where it counts. These are desperate times, and you know what they say, desperate times call for"
Orfiz interrupts "Half Measures". The party found their company name.
End session 5.5!

Up Next: Session 6 - The People's Militia

If seasons are going to force us to grind renown all over again, the most boring mechanic in this game, and a huge game breaker for seasonal content, then Blizzard needs to make the last section of the renown grind (ie the paragon points section) less grindy, or more natural to obtain. In its current state no one is going to farm statues again, and this means you have to do literally everything else in the area to hit the renown cap to make up the difference.
Imo cellars in every zone should give renown when completed, and provide at least 150 renown total to cut done on the amount of side quests players will have to do for full renown completion. The main reason people don't want to grind renown again is because of the last renown section. Side quests are not fun, and statues are not fun. Even imo being forced to do dungeons i dont want to do is extremely annoying, especially when i get hit with the Kill All, even if i drop to tier 1 to get completions faster.
Right now clearing a cellar has 0 benefits. The chest is not even worth the time. Tbh i don't even care if theres goblins in there because they only drop junk anyways. Wheres the goblins that drop obols, like blood shards in D3. Wheres the goblins that open portals to new zones. Wheres the portals to Greed / Avarice boss for tons of loot. Really lackluster.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! We’ve sent out an old ugly version of this to a ton of agents and the only feedback we’ve gotten was “good query” which is weird because that was an objective lie lol. This query has yet to be submitted to an agent, let us know how to make it pop!
Edit! Thank you to everyone for the invaluable advice! It’s so refreshing to actually get real feedback. We are taking into account everything said here and will be looking to shorten the novel by 50-60k before resubmitting the novel. ——
Complete at 150,000 words, WAKING THE WITCH is an adult crime fantasy novel. It will appeal to lovers of punchy dialogue and heists like Elmore Leanord’s RUM PUNCH, but with a HARRY POTTER magical twist.
Forty years ago magic erupted from the land, and as a result many countries contested for a foothold in this terrifying new world, including the novel’s setting, the Divided States. The country, ravaged by death and sickness, struggles to recover from the Second American Civil War. It is the year 1993 and although the rights for witches have progressed, segregation and prejudice are still rampant, especially in the South. But there is one type of witch, through hearsay and propaganda, that is the most reviled of all, due to their ability to teleport through a realm deemed the ‘void’: the nomad––and unfortunately for Clementine Harding, she just so happens to be one.
At nineteen years old Clementine just wants to help pay off her mother’s surmounting medical bills and save the horse farm her father, recently deceased, dedicated his life to. So when upon discovering the existence of an invaluable prototype drug called ‘Cowfish,’ she steals it against her mother’s evangelical southern preachings.
Now she, and her three witch friends who perform as the quartet, The Nomads, when they’re not moonlighting as thieves, must flee to Oregon towards a potential buyer; a mysterious man who goes by the moniker ‘Pink Polo’ whose directly connected to the most influential drug lords of the Pacific North West, the Vernins.
In this desperate pursuit of freedom, Clementine’s doubts culminate as she is plagued by what she claims ‘prophetic dreams’ depicting one of the Nomads, Noah, dying a most gruesome death, and as the egomaniac Pink Polo is hell bent on toying with the Nomads for his own pleasure. Additionally, as she is further divided by distance and by consequence, she comes to realize that in her pursuit to save her family, she’s unknowingly pushed them further and further away; potentially to the point of no return.
All of Clementine’s fears come true when they discover the rightful owner of the prototype drug, Senimage, has long caught wind of them. The syndicate head, Ren Nishimura, gives the group an easy ultimatum, “work for us, or perish.” When Clementine learns the syndicate forces nomads into slavery, she is stricken by the knowledge that one false move could mean she’ll be lost to the world forever. Ren’s demands seem simple enough, ‘get us an in with the Vernin’s.’
But in order to do this, she must first convince the twisted sadist Pink Polo that their lives are worth saving.
Although this series is written by two authors, our intent is that it always reads as if in one voice. We are using the pen names of ___ and __, but our real names are __ and ___ respectively. We have no prior written works to our name, but in addition to this novel, we have a large portion of Volume II already written, and Volume III loosely planned, with ideas for a satisfying conclusion to this heart pounding series. We hope you will enjoy this book, as we feel it will be a great addition to your catalog. We look forward to hearing back from you.

29F in the USA
My stomach issues started in elementary school, I had lots of anxiety and was diagnosed lactose intolerant.
In high school everything made me feel sick. My blood work was positive for celiac, I did gluten free and vegan (was vegetarian) and then proceeded with a colonoscopy/endoscopy. My biopsy was negative for celiac but my doctor advised "if you feel better on the diet to keep it".
From late teens into mid 20s, I had a few GI issues including - stopped my vegetarian diet of 10+ years when I moved to Germany in 2013 for a summer and worked on an alpaca farm. was negative for parasites, was 5 weeks of non stop diarrhea, sometimes was going 5x an hour for 8 hours straight. I ate a limited diet once returning to the states, my mom was convinced I did have parasites so gave me a high seed diet including papaya seeds (she read this kills them). - in early 2019, went to Vietnam and 10 days into the trip, I noticed worms in my stool. Went to the hospital and received medication. - in spring 2020, got pregnant with my first. Had frequent diarrhea but realized was onset for any doctor appointments/ pandemic (lost my nana to Covid and my dad had cardiac arrest). Mid way through the pregnancy, I was deemed high risk and my anxiety spiked more, I had frequent panic attacks throughout the day, shook myself to sleep and had diarrhea but aligned with my frequent doctor appointments. My doctor had the mentality of "suck it down". I was hospitalized one night because I kept fainting, low blood pressure and sugar, I asked for a psych referral and was said they couldn't do anything. - Dec 2020, was a few weeks post partum and was 12 hours of not being able to control my bowels. Was it food poisoning? Idk? I have emetophobia, was dry heaving but couldn't puke. I feel like this then started anxiety induced diarrhea. Again, started with frequent panic attacks, diarrhea then more panic attacks when I had diarrhea. I made an appointment with a GI and landed to my PCP hysterical crying and she prescribed Zoloft - my anxiety calmed, was able to care for my baby. Wasn't perfect but eventually I lost count of how many weeks passed without having diarrhea. The GI did blood work for celiac and came back negative, I scheduled scopes - I'm pregnant again so cancel my scopes. I up my Zoloft and have a different Ob practice that is flexible, I receive medication for my morning sickness and ultimately my anxiety is lower and less GI issues. - Dec 2022, I'm 2 months post partum with my second and having similar GI attacks, diarrhea, shaking, and then more diarrhea. I opt for a dietitian but she wasn't a fan of lowfodmap. She wanted me to log my meals, BMs and see if there's a connection - I eventually find a dietitian versed with IBS and lowfodmap. I felt great within a few days, my provider wants me to start reintroduction 5 weeks in and my anxiety spikes. I don't feel ready, I've felt safe. I don't think I'm ready anxiety wise to make this jump so the last few days I've eaten gluten (bread). And my stomach is all sorts of wack
I guess my question is, does anyone do GF without the diagnosis? I plan to do scopes when I'm done breastfeeding but feel like long term I need to avoid gluten. Has anyone had mixed celiac testing results?

Hi all, hope you're enjoying your weekend! Here are this week's Top 4 ancient headlines:

• Nazca Geoglyphs Discovered Using AI Deep Learning — I did a double-take on this one because it’s not every day that new geoglyphs are found in Nazca, Peru, and I just covered some not too long ago in issue #39. But these are indeed newly discovered geoglyphs! Using artificial intelligence to speed up the process of analyzing photographs, researchers have found four new figures: a humanoid holding what appears to be a club in their left hand, a fish with an open mouth, a pair of legs, and a bird. The former two are in the relief-type, while the latter two are in the line-type. Linear geoglyphs are generally thought to have been created by the Nazca culture (200 BCE - 600 CE). Reliefs are thought to be from the earlier Paracas culture (900 - 400 BCE). The pair of legs measures an impressive 78 meters, while the others are much smaller (in the teens). I covered a theory about the Nazca lines in issue #44. And I’ve covered other discoveries made using AI in issues #16, #47, [#49](http://./), and #60.
• Ancient Genomes Suggest Farming in Africa Was Ignited by Oversea-Migrants From Iberia 7,400 Years Ago — While it has been unclear what sparked the change from foraging to farming in northwestern Africa 7,400 years ago, a new study suggests that farming was brought to modern-day Morocco by European and Levantine migrants who were adopted by local groups. Until this happened, there was “remarkable” population continuity for 8,000+ years in this isolated group of hunter-gatherers. According to Cristina Valdiosera, “Inspired by their new neighbors, within a few hundred years, the local foragers started to change their way of life to farming and the two groups lived side by side for at least another century.” Torsten Günthe adds, “This phenomenon has not been seen in any other part of the world.” Then about 6,300 years ago, genetics from the Levant showed up right around the time that pastoralism started. And finally, all three lines mixed in the Late Neolithic. The results are corroborated by ceramic decoration that points to diffusion from Europe.
• Archaeologists Discover Hundreds of Ancient Carvings — Roughly 250 carvings were found at the site of Roca de les Ferradures, near Cogullons, Spain. The carvings date as far back as about 4000 BP and are spread over hundreds of meters on a red sandstone formation. The figures and motifs were made using a pecking process and sometimes form scenes. The most common depiction at the site is a horseshoe shape that is thought to be a stylized human figure. There are also several anthropomorphic figures with crossed arms and disproportionately large, open hands.
• Ancient Egyptian Queen's Bracelets Contain 1st Evidence of Long-Distance Trade Between Egypt and Greece — New info has been revealed regarding trade networks between Old Kingdom Egypt and Greece, thanks to the analysis of bracelets that were discovered previously in the tomb of the influential queen Hetepheres I (the mother of Khufu). The 4,600-year-old bracelets were made of copper, gold, lead, and semi-precious gems. But in the butterfly depictions, there were also traces of silver, for which there were no local sources. It was previously thought that silver was taken from local gold sources, which were high in silver content. But the researchers found that the ratio of isotopes in the lead consisted with ores from a group of Greek islands known as the Cyclades, as well as from the town of Lavrion in Greece. The silver probably originated there too before traveling through the port of Byblos (Lebanon), which had plenty of silver objects and a connection with Egypt. According to Karin Sowada, “This new finding demonstrates, for the first time, the potential geographical extent of trade networks used by the Egyptian state during the early Old Kingdom at the height of the Pyramid-building age.” She also mentioned that the study of these trade networks gives us insights into the emergence of the Egyptian state.

Hope you enjoyed this abridged version of Ancient Beat. Have a great weekend!

Hi folks, here are this week's Top 5 ancient headlines:

• Small-Brained Ancient Human Cousins May Have Buried Their Dead, According to a Surprising Study — So this study is understandably controversial, but it’s fascinating and, truth be told, I enjoy a little controversy. According to the study, Homo naledi may have buried their dead in caves and carved symbols into the cave walls roughly 300,000 years ago. That’s well over 100,000 years before the first evidence of Homo sapiens burying their dead. And it’s the oldest known burial in the world. If you’re unfamiliar with Homo naledi, they’re cousins who were in Africa 335,000–236,000 years ago, and this discovery is surprising due to the small size of their brains (a third the size of sapiens) — it was not thought that they would be capable of such complex behavior. But recent investigations at the Rising Star cave system near Johannesburg, South Africa found the remains of Homo naledi adults and children in the fetal position in shallow holes in the ground, which the researchers interpret as intentional burial sites. The researchers also found geometric patterns and cross-hatched lines carved into the corridor and entry into the chamber. However, it’s important to note that these engravings have not been dated. The study is not yet peer-reviewed and more evidence is required for this extraordinary claim. Critics say that the remains that have been found may have just accumulated in the cave shafts and fell into the chambers, and then water seepage in the cave could have moved the remains along sloping floors into natural depressions. But if the study’s claim is accurate, this would be yet another data point that says another one of our cousins was capable of much more than we give them credit for.
• Nazca Geoglyphs Discovered Using AI Deep Learning — I did a double-take on this one because it’s not every day that new geoglyphs are found in Nazca, Peru, and I just covered some not too long ago in issue #39. But these are indeed newly discovered geoglyphs! Using artificial intelligence to speed up the process of analyzing photographs, researchers have found four new figures: a humanoid holding what appears to be a club in their left hand, a fish with an open mouth, a pair of legs, and a bird. The former two are in the relief-type, while the latter two are in the line-type. Linear geoglyphs are generally thought to have been created by the Nazca culture (200 BCE - 600 CE). Reliefs are thought to be from the earlier Paracas culture (900 - 400 BCE). The pair of legs measures an impressive 78 meters, while the others are much smaller (in the teens). I covered a theory about the Nazca lines in issue #44. And I’ve covered other discoveries made using AI in issues #16, #47, [#49](http://./), and #60.
• Ancient Genomes Suggest Farming in Africa Was Ignited by Oversea-Migrants From Iberia 7,400 Years Ago — While it has been unclear what sparked the change from foraging to farming in northwestern Africa 7,400 years ago, a new study suggests that farming was brought to modern-day Morocco by European and Levantine migrants who were adopted by local groups. Until this happened, there was “remarkable” population continuity for 8,000+ years in this isolated group of hunter-gatherers. According to Cristina Valdiosera, “Inspired by their new neighbors, within a few hundred years, the local foragers started to change their way of life to farming and the two groups lived side by side for at least another century.” Torsten Günthe adds, “This phenomenon has not been seen in any other part of the world.” Then about 6,300 years ago, genetics from the Levant showed up right around the time that pastoralism started. And finally, all three lines mixed in the Late Neolithic. The results are corroborated by ceramic decoration that points to diffusion from Europe.
• Archaeologists Discover Hundreds of Ancient Carvings — Roughly 250 carvings were found at the site of Roca de les Ferradures, near Cogullons, Spain. The carvings date as far back as about 4000 BP and are spread over hundreds of meters on a red sandstone formation. The figures and motifs were made using a pecking process and sometimes form scenes. The most common depiction at the site is a horseshoe shape that is thought to be a stylized human figure. There are also several anthropomorphic figures with crossed arms and disproportionately large, open hands.
• Ancient Egyptian Queen's Bracelets Contain 1st Evidence of Long-Distance Trade Between Egypt and Greece — New info has been revealed regarding trade networks between Old Kingdom Egypt and Greece, thanks to the analysis of bracelets that were discovered previously in the tomb of the influential queen Hetepheres I (the mother of Khufu). The 4,600-year-old bracelets were made of copper, gold, lead, and semi-precious gems. But in the butterfly depictions, there were also traces of silver, for which there were no local sources. It was previously thought that silver was taken from local gold sources, which were high in silver content. But the researchers found that the ratio of isotopes in the lead consisted with ores from a group of Greek islands known as the Cyclades, as well as from the town of Lavrion in Greece. The silver probably originated there too before traveling through the port of Byblos (Lebanon), which had plenty of silver objects and a connection with Egypt. According to Karin Sowada, “This new finding demonstrates, for the first time, the potential geographical extent of trade networks used by the Egyptian state during the early Old Kingdom at the height of the Pyramid-building age.” She also mentioned that the study of these trade networks gives us insights into the emergence of the Egyptian state.

Hope you enjoyed this abridged version of Ancient Beat. Have a great weekend!

Happy Saturday, folks! Here are this week's Top 5 ancient headlines:

• Small-Brained Ancient Human Cousins May Have Buried Their Dead, According to a Surprising Study — So this study is understandably controversial, but it’s fascinating and, truth be told, I enjoy a little controversy. According to the study, Homo naledi may have buried their dead in caves and carved symbols into the cave walls roughly 300,000 years ago. That’s well over 100,000 years before the first evidence of Homo sapiens burying their dead. And it’s the oldest known burial in the world. If you’re unfamiliar with Homo naledi, they’re cousins who were in Africa 335,000–236,000 years ago, and this discovery is surprising due to the small size of their brains (a third the size of sapiens) — it was not thought that they would be capable of such complex behavior. But recent investigations at the Rising Star cave system near Johannesburg, South Africa found the remains of Homo naledi adults and children in the fetal position in shallow holes in the ground, which the researchers interpret as intentional burial sites. The researchers also found geometric patterns and cross-hatched lines carved into the corridor and entry into the chamber. However, it’s important to note that these engravings have not been dated. The study is not yet peer-reviewed and more evidence is required for this extraordinary claim. Critics say that the remains that have been found may have just accumulated in the cave shafts and fell into the chambers, and then water seepage in the cave could have moved the remains along sloping floors into natural depressions. But if the study’s claim is accurate, this would be yet another data point that says another one of our cousins was capable of much more than we give them credit for.
• Nazca Geoglyphs Discovered Using AI Deep Learning — I did a double-take on this one because it’s not every day that new geoglyphs are found in Nazca, Peru, and I just covered some not too long ago in issue #39. But these are indeed newly discovered geoglyphs! Using artificial intelligence to speed up the process of analyzing photographs, researchers have found four new figures: a humanoid holding what appears to be a club in their left hand, a fish with an open mouth, a pair of legs, and a bird. The former two are in the relief-type, while the latter two are in the line-type. Linear geoglyphs are generally thought to have been created by the Nazca culture (200 BCE - 600 CE). Reliefs are thought to be from the earlier Paracas culture (900 - 400 BCE). The pair of legs measures an impressive 78 meters, while the others are much smaller (in the teens). I covered a theory about the Nazca lines in issue #44. And I’ve covered other discoveries made using AI in issues #16, #47, [#49](http://./), and #60.
• Ancient Genomes Suggest Farming in Africa Was Ignited by Oversea-Migrants From Iberia 7,400 Years Ago — While it has been unclear what sparked the change from foraging to farming in northwestern Africa 7,400 years ago, a new study suggests that farming was brought to modern-day Morocco by European and Levantine migrants who were adopted by local groups. Until this happened, there was “remarkable” population continuity for 8,000+ years in this isolated group of hunter-gatherers. According to Cristina Valdiosera, “Inspired by their new neighbors, within a few hundred years, the local foragers started to change their way of life to farming and the two groups lived side by side for at least another century.” Torsten Günthe adds, “This phenomenon has not been seen in any other part of the world.” Then about 6,300 years ago, genetics from the Levant showed up right around the time that pastoralism started. And finally, all three lines mixed in the Late Neolithic. The results are corroborated by ceramic decoration that points to diffusion from Europe.
• Archaeologists Discover Hundreds of Ancient Carvings — Roughly 250 carvings were found at the site of Roca de les Ferradures, near Cogullons, Spain. The carvings date as far back as about 4000 BP and are spread over hundreds of meters on a red sandstone formation. The figures and motifs were made using a pecking process and sometimes form scenes. The most common depiction at the site is a horseshoe shape that is thought to be a stylized human figure. There are also several anthropomorphic figures with crossed arms and disproportionately large, open hands.
• Ancient Egyptian Queen's Bracelets Contain 1st Evidence of Long-Distance Trade Between Egypt and Greece — New info has been revealed regarding trade networks between Old Kingdom Egypt and Greece, thanks to the analysis of bracelets that were discovered previously in the tomb of the influential queen Hetepheres I (the mother of Khufu). The 4,600-year-old bracelets were made of copper, gold, lead, and semi-precious gems. But in the butterfly depictions, there were also traces of silver, for which there were no local sources. It was previously thought that silver was taken from local gold sources, which were high in silver content. But the researchers found that the ratio of isotopes in the lead consisted with ores from a group of Greek islands known as the Cyclades, as well as from the town of Lavrion in Greece. The silver probably originated there too before traveling through the port of Byblos (Lebanon), which had plenty of silver objects and a connection with Egypt. According to Karin Sowada, “This new finding demonstrates, for the first time, the potential geographical extent of trade networks used by the Egyptian state during the early Old Kingdom at the height of the Pyramid-building age.” She also mentioned that the study of these trade networks gives us insights into the emergence of the Egyptian state.

Hope you enjoyed this abridged version of Ancient Beat. Have a great weekend!

Happy Saturday! Here are this week's Top 5 ancient headlines:

• Small-Brained Ancient Human Cousins May Have Buried Their Dead, According to a Surprising Study — So this study is understandably controversial, but it’s fascinating and, truth be told, I enjoy a little controversy. According to the study, Homo naledi may have buried their dead in caves and carved symbols into the cave walls roughly 300,000 years ago. That’s well over 100,000 years before the first evidence of Homo sapiens burying their dead. And it’s the oldest known burial in the world. If you’re unfamiliar with Homo naledi, they’re cousins who were in Africa 335,000–236,000 years ago, and this discovery is surprising due to the small size of their brains (a third the size of sapiens) — it was not thought that they would be capable of such complex behavior. But recent investigations at the Rising Star cave system near Johannesburg, South Africa found the remains of Homo naledi adults and children in the fetal position in shallow holes in the ground, which the researchers interpret as intentional burial sites. The researchers also found geometric patterns and cross-hatched lines carved into the corridor and entry into the chamber. However, it’s important to note that these engravings have not been dated. The study is not yet peer-reviewed and more evidence is required for this extraordinary claim. Critics say that the remains that have been found may have just accumulated in the cave shafts and fell into the chambers, and then water seepage in the cave could have moved the remains along sloping floors into natural depressions. But if the study’s claim is accurate, this would be yet another data point that says another one of our cousins was capable of much more than we give them credit for.
• Nazca Geoglyphs Discovered Using AI Deep Learning — I did a double-take on this one because it’s not every day that new geoglyphs are found in Nazca, Peru, and I just covered some not too long ago in issue #39. But these are indeed newly discovered geoglyphs! Using artificial intelligence to speed up the process of analyzing photographs, researchers have found four new figures: a humanoid holding what appears to be a club in their left hand, a fish with an open mouth, a pair of legs, and a bird. The former two are in the relief-type, while the latter two are in the line-type. Linear geoglyphs are generally thought to have been created by the Nazca culture (200 BCE - 600 CE). Reliefs are thought to be from the earlier Paracas culture (900 - 400 BCE). The pair of legs measures an impressive 78 meters, while the others are much smaller (in the teens). I covered a theory about the Nazca lines in issue #44. And I’ve covered other discoveries made using AI in issues #16, #47, [#49](http://./), and #60.
• Ancient Genomes Suggest Farming in Africa Was Ignited by Oversea-Migrants From Iberia 7,400 Years Ago — While it has been unclear what sparked the change from foraging to farming in northwestern Africa 7,400 years ago, a new study suggests that farming was brought to modern-day Morocco by European and Levantine migrants who were adopted by local groups. Until this happened, there was “remarkable” population continuity for 8,000+ years in this isolated group of hunter-gatherers. According to Cristina Valdiosera, “Inspired by their new neighbors, within a few hundred years, the local foragers started to change their way of life to farming and the two groups lived side by side for at least another century.” Torsten Günthe adds, “This phenomenon has not been seen in any other part of the world.” Then about 6,300 years ago, genetics from the Levant showed up right around the time that pastoralism started. And finally, all three lines mixed in the Late Neolithic. The results are corroborated by ceramic decoration that points to diffusion from Europe.
• Archaeologists Discover Hundreds of Ancient Carvings — Roughly 250 carvings were found at the site of Roca de les Ferradures, near Cogullons, Spain. The carvings date as far back as about 4000 BP and are spread over hundreds of meters on a red sandstone formation. The figures and motifs were made using a pecking process and sometimes form scenes. The most common depiction at the site is a horseshoe shape that is thought to be a stylized human figure. There are also several anthropomorphic figures with crossed arms and disproportionately large, open hands.
• Ancient Egyptian Queen's Bracelets Contain 1st Evidence of Long-Distance Trade Between Egypt and Greece — New info has been revealed regarding trade networks between Old Kingdom Egypt and Greece, thanks to the analysis of bracelets that were discovered previously in the tomb of the influential queen Hetepheres I (the mother of Khufu). The 4,600-year-old bracelets were made of copper, gold, lead, and semi-precious gems. But in the butterfly depictions, there were also traces of silver, for which there were no local sources. It was previously thought that silver was taken from local gold sources, which were high in silver content. But the researchers found that the ratio of isotopes in the lead consisted with ores from a group of Greek islands known as the Cyclades, as well as from the town of Lavrion in Greece. The silver probably originated there too before traveling through the port of Byblos (Lebanon), which had plenty of silver objects and a connection with Egypt. According to Karin Sowada, “This new finding demonstrates, for the first time, the potential geographical extent of trade networks used by the Egyptian state during the early Old Kingdom at the height of the Pyramid-building age.” She also mentioned that the study of these trade networks gives us insights into the emergence of the Egyptian state.

Hope you enjoyed this abridged version of Ancient Beat. Have a great weekend!

It's the weekend! Here are this week's Top 5 ancient headlines:

• Small-Brained Ancient Human Cousins May Have Buried Their Dead, According to a Surprising Study — So this study is understandably controversial, but it’s fascinating and, truth be told, I enjoy a little controversy. According to the study, Homo naledi may have buried their dead in caves and carved symbols into the cave walls roughly 300,000 years ago. That’s well over 100,000 years before the first evidence of Homo sapiens burying their dead. And it’s the oldest known burial in the world. If you’re unfamiliar with Homo naledi, they’re cousins who were in Africa 335,000–236,000 years ago, and this discovery is surprising due to the small size of their brains (a third the size of sapiens) — it was not thought that they would be capable of such complex behavior. But recent investigations at the Rising Star cave system near Johannesburg, South Africa found the remains of Homo naledi adults and children in the fetal position in shallow holes in the ground, which the researchers interpret as intentional burial sites. The researchers also found geometric patterns and cross-hatched lines carved into the corridor and entry into the chamber. However, it’s important to note that these engravings have not been dated. The study is not yet peer-reviewed and more evidence is required for this extraordinary claim. Critics say that the remains that have been found may have just accumulated in the cave shafts and fell into the chambers, and then water seepage in the cave could have moved the remains along sloping floors into natural depressions. But if the study’s claim is accurate, this would be yet another data point that says another one of our cousins was capable of much more than we give them credit for.
• Nazca Geoglyphs Discovered Using AI Deep Learning — I did a double-take on this one because it’s not every day that new geoglyphs are found in Nazca, Peru, and I just covered some not too long ago in issue #39. But these are indeed newly discovered geoglyphs! Using artificial intelligence to speed up the process of analyzing photographs, researchers have found four new figures: a humanoid holding what appears to be a club in their left hand, a fish with an open mouth, a pair of legs, and a bird. The former two are in the relief-type, while the latter two are in the line-type. Linear geoglyphs are generally thought to have been created by the Nazca culture (200 BCE - 600 CE). Reliefs are thought to be from the earlier Paracas culture (900 - 400 BCE). The pair of legs measures an impressive 78 meters, while the others are much smaller (in the teens). I covered a theory about the Nazca lines in issue #44. And I’ve covered other discoveries made using AI in issues #16, #47, [#49](http://./), and #60.
• Ancient Genomes Suggest Farming in Africa Was Ignited by Oversea-Migrants From Iberia 7,400 Years Ago — While it has been unclear what sparked the change from foraging to farming in northwestern Africa 7,400 years ago, a new study suggests that farming was brought to modern-day Morocco by European and Levantine migrants who were adopted by local groups. Until this happened, there was “remarkable” population continuity for 8,000+ years in this isolated group of hunter-gatherers. According to Cristina Valdiosera, “Inspired by their new neighbors, within a few hundred years, the local foragers started to change their way of life to farming and the two groups lived side by side for at least another century.” Torsten Günthe adds, “This phenomenon has not been seen in any other part of the world.” Then about 6,300 years ago, genetics from the Levant showed up right around the time that pastoralism started. And finally, all three lines mixed in the Late Neolithic. The results are corroborated by ceramic decoration that points to diffusion from Europe.
• Archaeologists Discover Hundreds of Ancient Carvings — Roughly 250 carvings were found at the site of Roca de les Ferradures, near Cogullons, Spain. The carvings date as far back as about 4000 BP and are spread over hundreds of meters on a red sandstone formation. The figures and motifs were made using a pecking process and sometimes form scenes. The most common depiction at the site is a horseshoe shape that is thought to be a stylized human figure. There are also several anthropomorphic figures with crossed arms and disproportionately large, open hands.
• Ancient Egyptian Queen's Bracelets Contain 1st Evidence of Long-Distance Trade Between Egypt and Greece — New info has been revealed regarding trade networks between Old Kingdom Egypt and Greece, thanks to the analysis of bracelets that were discovered previously in the tomb of the influential queen Hetepheres I (the mother of Khufu). The 4,600-year-old bracelets were made of copper, gold, lead, and semi-precious gems. But in the butterfly depictions, there were also traces of silver, for which there were no local sources. It was previously thought that silver was taken from local gold sources, which were high in silver content. But the researchers found that the ratio of isotopes in the lead consisted with ores from a group of Greek islands known as the Cyclades, as well as from the town of Lavrion in Greece. The silver probably originated there too before traveling through the port of Byblos (Lebanon), which had plenty of silver objects and a connection with Egypt. According to Karin Sowada, “This new finding demonstrates, for the first time, the potential geographical extent of trade networks used by the Egyptian state during the early Old Kingdom at the height of the Pyramid-building age.” She also mentioned that the study of these trade networks gives us insights into the emergence of the Egyptian state.

Hope you enjoyed this abridged version of Ancient Beat. Have a great weekend!

Hi folks! Here are this week's Top 5 ancient headlines:

• Small-Brained Ancient Human Cousins May Have Buried Their Dead, According to a Surprising Study — So this study is understandably controversial, but it’s fascinating and, truth be told, I enjoy a little controversy. According to the study, Homo naledi may have buried their dead in caves and carved symbols into the cave walls roughly 300,000 years ago. That’s well over 100,000 years before the first evidence of Homo sapiens burying their dead. And it’s the oldest known burial in the world. If you’re unfamiliar with Homo naledi, they’re cousins who were in Africa 335,000–236,000 years ago, and this discovery is surprising due to the small size of their brains (a third the size of sapiens) — it was not thought that they would be capable of such complex behavior. But recent investigations at the Rising Star cave system near Johannesburg, South Africa found the remains of Homo naledi adults and children in the fetal position in shallow holes in the ground, which the researchers interpret as intentional burial sites. The researchers also found geometric patterns and cross-hatched lines carved into the corridor and entry into the chamber. However, it’s important to note that these engravings have not been dated. The study is not yet peer-reviewed and more evidence is required for this extraordinary claim. Critics say that the remains that have been found may have just accumulated in the cave shafts and fell into the chambers, and then water seepage in the cave could have moved the remains along sloping floors into natural depressions. But if the study’s claim is accurate, this would be yet another data point that says another one of our cousins was capable of much more than we give them credit for.
• Nazca Geoglyphs Discovered Using AI Deep Learning — I did a double-take on this one because it’s not every day that new geoglyphs are found in Nazca, Peru, and I just covered some not too long ago in issue #39. But these are indeed newly discovered geoglyphs! Using artificial intelligence to speed up the process of analyzing photographs, researchers have found four new figures: a humanoid holding what appears to be a club in their left hand, a fish with an open mouth, a pair of legs, and a bird. The former two are in the relief-type, while the latter two are in the line-type. Linear geoglyphs are generally thought to have been created by the Nazca culture (200 BCE - 600 CE). Reliefs are thought to be from the earlier Paracas culture (900 - 400 BCE). The pair of legs measures an impressive 78 meters, while the others are much smaller (in the teens). I covered a theory about the Nazca lines in issue #44. And I’ve covered other discoveries made using AI in issues #16, #47, [#49](http://./), and #60.
• Ancient Genomes Suggest Farming in Africa Was Ignited by Oversea-Migrants From Iberia 7,400 Years Ago — While it has been unclear what sparked the change from foraging to farming in northwestern Africa 7,400 years ago, a new study suggests that farming was brought to modern-day Morocco by European and Levantine migrants who were adopted by local groups. Until this happened, there was “remarkable” population continuity for 8,000+ years in this isolated group of hunter-gatherers. According to Cristina Valdiosera, “Inspired by their new neighbors, within a few hundred years, the local foragers started to change their way of life to farming and the two groups lived side by side for at least another century.” Torsten Günthe adds, “This phenomenon has not been seen in any other part of the world.” Then about 6,300 years ago, genetics from the Levant showed up right around the time that pastoralism started. And finally, all three lines mixed in the Late Neolithic. The results are corroborated by ceramic decoration that points to diffusion from Europe.
• Archaeologists Discover Hundreds of Ancient Carvings — Roughly 250 carvings were found at the site of Roca de les Ferradures, near Cogullons, Spain. The carvings date as far back as about 4000 BP and are spread over hundreds of meters on a red sandstone formation. The figures and motifs were made using a pecking process and sometimes form scenes. The most common depiction at the site is a horseshoe shape that is thought to be a stylized human figure. There are also several anthropomorphic figures with crossed arms and disproportionately large, open hands.
• Ancient Egyptian Queen's Bracelets Contain 1st Evidence of Long-Distance Trade Between Egypt and Greece — New info has been revealed regarding trade networks between Old Kingdom Egypt and Greece, thanks to the analysis of bracelets that were discovered previously in the tomb of the influential queen Hetepheres I (the mother of Khufu). The 4,600-year-old bracelets were made of copper, gold, lead, and semi-precious gems. But in the butterfly depictions, there were also traces of silver, for which there were no local sources. It was previously thought that silver was taken from local gold sources, which were high in silver content. But the researchers found that the ratio of isotopes in the lead consisted with ores from a group of Greek islands known as the Cyclades, as well as from the town of Lavrion in Greece. The silver probably originated there too before traveling through the port of Byblos (Lebanon), which had plenty of silver objects and a connection with Egypt. According to Karin Sowada, “This new finding demonstrates, for the first time, the potential geographical extent of trade networks used by the Egyptian state during the early Old Kingdom at the height of the Pyramid-building age.” She also mentioned that the study of these trade networks gives us insights into the emergence of the Egyptian state.

Hope you enjoyed this abridged version of Ancient Beat. Have a great weekend!