CheeseNoodle

Had a dream last night where I was on a road-trip and ended up randomly dropping into an alternate dimension, this short story is pretty much the backstory for how that dimension diverges from our own and is about 1/3 straight dream, 1/3 the random oddly detailed lore dump my brain gave me when I woke up (anyone elses brain do that?) and 1/3 creative writing to fill in the gaps. I'm not even am ameteur but I hope you guys find it interesting.
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At the end of the second great war the Manhattan project had yielded few results, though the allies would go on to win the war the power of the atom would never be harnessed for warfare. Yet deep bunkers in Germany would reveal research on a phenomena known as astrological manipulation; the effect was weak, almost a parlour trick, the sun could be turned dark or the stars made to shine brighter but only from the perspective of a small area and only for a few minutes. Fascinating to the theoretical physicists of the world but barely of note to nations in the midst of post war reconstruction.

It would not be until the 1960s that those physicists would finally attain a shaky yet certain grasp of the phenomena. Project Argus took 20 years to construct, a joint project between the United States and Great Britain, part arcane circle and part particle accelerator the enormous construct spanned 200 miles of Atlantic ocean, suspended from thousands of floating stabilization platforms. World War 3 would begin on January 5th 1980, and end with at the same no and total casualties on all side on January 6th 1980.

The goal of project Argus, the total hegemony of a united British and American empire, was to be attained by demonstration of absolute control of the sun itself, and yet such perceived control was wholly illusory. The sun would darken to a cold cinder, never to return.

By the end of 1981 desperation would truly set in all thoughts of conquest cast aside in the name of survival, great furnaces churned dark smoke into a darker sky attempting to provide light and heat to those remaining inhabitants and the precious grow houses that sustained them. On December 9th, now known as the day of the red star, Argus would awaken once more from its slumber; Those survivors of the original test, those rescued from summary execution by a now unknown yet foresighted officer would do everything in their power to light a candle in the dark.

On the day of the red star Jupiter would burn, a feint candle in the dark. Daylight earth would not see again yet the feint red light of day was as a nova after 2 years of darkness. Life would cease its gradual retreat into oblivion, though much changed and much diminished it would cling on in the twilight. Some few plants were able to subsist in the gloom and so sustain what little life was left. In the cites those who had survived the apocalypse would now dwell forever in twilight.

So I think moa companions are really cute and charistmatic but other than a blast shield equipped moa being a tankier but much less reliably shooting alternative to a verglass / contaigous bond sentinel I can't really justify using one over a beast or a sentinel with more useful precepts.

Anyone got any cool moa secrets for me?

I heard Mint is supposed to be the simplest distro to get started with but my experience so far (following the setup guide on the website) has been:

• Download ISO
• Check ISO (seemed fine)
• Burn image... crash
• Burn image in administrator mode
• Boot from USB via BIOS... crash
• Boot from USB via Bios in safe mode
• Download multimedia codecs... crash
• Not download multimedia codecs... also crash?

And that's where I am presently, it runs fine off the USB albeit a bit slow, and I know its connected to the internet because I can browse lemmy on it and make annoying posts on the Linux community. I knew Linux was going to be more work than windows but this feels like a ridiculous level of effort right out of the gate, I worry that even if I somehow get it running I'll spend 10x more time fixing it than actually using it.

Ok this one blew me away, its another little no parkour required area and this time with multiple fairly obvious yet inconspicuous entrances, beyond being pretty this one has some pretty strong cut-gig vibes.

One entrance hidden behind a Trauma team AV, I later found prettier entrances but I'm not booting up the game with all my mods again. Its pretty winding down there but you can find a small un-marked scav event as article of evidence #1.

Star of the show is this pit, equidistant from pretty much all entrances and with a clearly deliberate parkour path all the way down.

Its a looooong way down, there's also a dead guy with a lore shard down here and a weird red fan that I all the garbage slopes into like it was meant to be some kind of entrance.

This elevator has no useable floors but otherwise appears to be completely functional, even the doors work.

Map location of one entrance for convenience.

So I stumbled upon another cool little spot that's totally easy to overlook despite all of us having certainly passed it dozens of time. its another great example of verticality with a little village of shops and homes tucked into the shadowy spaces between buildings, it even has a little scene with a lore shard if you explore all the way to the bottom.

From above we can see just how far the rabbit hole goes, with the deepest part being accessable by ladders just under the pipes on the left.

It's dystopian as hell but damn this place has a vibe, wish V could have an apartment here.

Looking up from the lowest inhabited section the sky is barely visible under all that concrete and steel.

Just a map location:

So I am playing with the Hardcore 22 V2 mod which makes enemies a lot more deadly but removes the egregious spongyness of very hard mode in exchange.

This gun just has it all, quick fire shotgun blasts for cqb, long range still fairly quick lovetaps to the head for when a ton of enemies are rushing you at once and of course a charged mode to punch through walls, just beautiful with stalker optics (I also banned myself from using the middle click highlight because its OP as hell)

Item #: SCP-NC482

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: Infected induviduals are to be kept isolated inside a secure biological containment cell of class 2 or higher; anyone working with or performing autopsies on SCP-NC482 subjects is required to spend at least 3 days in isolation following cessation of work. Any non D-class personnel showing symptoms are to be given the choice of immediate termination or demotion to D-class for the purposes of furthering foundation research into SCP-NC482.

In cases of SCP-NC482 discovered in the general population mobile task force Chi-7 "Plague Tamers" is to be deployed and the immediate area quarantined under the guise of an outbreak of vaccine resistant polio. Following 3 days of quarantine infected civillians are to be transferred to site-234, uninfected civillians are to be released though remain under monitoring for a further 7 days. Following the removal of non foundation personnel the entire area is to be thoroughly sterilized and all computer equipment within the area is to be removed and incinerated.

Description: SCP-NC482 is a contaigous neurological condition seemingly originating from computer equipment, though SCP-NC482 primarily spreads through person to person transmission the foundation has been able to ascertain in ██% of cases that the patient zero of any given outbreak was in the act of using a computer at the time they started showing symptoms. What exactly causes the initial onset of symptoms in such cases is unknown and research into this is presently suspended, pending a decision from the foundation ethic comittee following the deaths of █ junior researchers.

SCP-NC482 infection comprises the following stages:

• Stage 1 of the SCP-NC482 infection manifests immediately upon exposure, the infected individual will become noticably more energetic and begin emitting a feint odor similar to ascetone.
• Stage 2 begins within approximately 5 minutes following initial exposure, during this stage the digestive system begins to shut down and the infected individual will lose the ability to feel hunger or thirst; at the same time the cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brain will begin to acidify.
• Stage 3 begins 1 to 6 hours after exposure depending on the presence of food and waste products within the infected individuals digestive tract upon initial infection. Once all solid material has been removed the infected induviduals digetive tract (with the notable exception of water which is entierly retained) the infected induviduals body will begin burning body fat in order to sustain itself. During this phase the infectee will also begin retaining water, losing the ability sweat, cry, salivate or otherwise excrete bodily fluids by any means other than injury.
• Stage 4 of SCP-NC482 infection is highly variable in its onset, with this stage only beginning once the subjects body has consumed all available body fat. Following the end of Stage 3 infection the cerebrospinal fluid around the infectees brain will have reached a PH similar to that of stomach acid and an organic film will begin to form on the outside of the subjects brain identical in structure and composition to stomach lining. The onset of this phase is marked by inflammation across the entire body with the exception of the cardiovascular system.

Addendum from researcher Dawkins: Stage 4 is significant in being the first phase of the infection to cause distinct physical discomfort to the subject, up to this point in the infection most induviduals won't experience anything worse than a dry mouth, and if left uncontained may continue their daily routine spreading the infection among their local community.

Following stage 4 however infectees will be subject to increasing amounts of pain brought on by rampant inflamation and multiple organ failure.

• Stage 5. Considered to be the terminal stage of SCP-NC482 infection, in most cases this can last up to █ months, during this stage most of the bodies muscle tissue and internal organs will be slowly dismantled by its own immune system with the resulting products being transferred to the pseudo stomach around the brain by what remains of the circulatory system. Subjects will remain alert and conscious throughout this process only sucumbing once all other organs have been consumed and the immune system finally begins dismantling the heart and lungs providing the brain with oxygen.

Experiment Log #NC482-01
During initial researcher into the long term effects of SCP-NC482 on subjects researchers became curious as to how the disease might progress further if oxygen were to be artifically introduced to the brain via an ECMO machine, preventing the usual death by hypoxia. Though experimentation was ultimately shut down by the ethics committee the following results were obtained before cessation of testing.

• Stage 6. Following the attachment of an ECMO machine to the remaining blood vessels surrounding the subjects brain the infection was noted to begin consuming bone and dermal tissue, starting at the extremities; as a result what remained of the subjects body appeared to gradually recede into itself in a manner resembling the damage caused by necrotising fasciitis, though far more complete. Following ███ days after the onset of stage 6 the subjects limbs had completely dissapeared, with the torso following after a further ███ days leaving the subject as little more than scab covered head. Despite this the presence of eye movement, and periodic ECG readings confirm that the subject remains concious and aware of its surroundings.
• Hypothetical Stage 7. Theorised to occur following stage 6, it is believed the brain would eventually finish canibailizing the subjects head before ultimately re-adsorbing the psuedo-stomach formed during stages 2 to 4. Following this we can only assume death would occur due to the loss of any kind of protection from the external environment, though a slowing of brain activity and increase in delta brainwaves measured towards the end of stage 6 suggests the subject may enter a time-dilated dream like state, potentially experiencing far more time passing from their own perspective.

So after a lot of playing Koumei this is a series of tricks, some obvious and some hopefully not, that you can use to get the most out of her kit. I'm going to try and format this thing into sections but I was never the best at typography so hopefully the end result is coherant.

The goal of this guide is not to build around specific decrees but instead to allow her to directly benefit from as many decrees as possible and thus reducing the rng element.

--Koumei herself--
So there's a few things you can do on Koumei herself to make life easier, most of these are pretty well known but I'm including them for the sake of having a comprehensive guide.

• Sickening Pulse: Probably the most well known Helminth for Koumei, its popular because it works, synergizing with her 4 to allow for nuking all the way up to level cap, this buff to her 4 also makes several decree challenges much easier.
• Parkour mods: I know a lot of people hate the idea of wasting an exilus on this but it really does make her gameplay that much smoother, something in the lightning dash family of mods is ideal and once you start the extra bullet jump distance is hard to give up.
• Armor: This is more than just defense for Koumei, in long runs it can also translate directly into power strength, and with arcane battery a mod like umbral fiber can sub in for (primed)flow too. A full Umbral Koumei hits a permament 600% power strength once her decrees are stacked.
• Equilibrium: Another useful but niche option, Koumei has decrees that both create and benefit from health orbs and this mod synergizes well with them.

--Decree challenges--
Some decree challenges can be a pain but with the minnimal investment of sickening pulse (and maybe that parkour mod) most of that pain goes away.

• Kill X enemies afflicted with element: Basically free, if its not one your weapon just prime with your 4 or kill with your 4 + sickening pulse, or with whatever weapon your passive is on right now.
• Kill while airborne, sliding or wall latched. Cast your 4 when on the ground, then do the appropriate manuver and hit sickening pulse, works everywhere from base level to endurance. Alternatively shotguns can do this a little slower but are less finicky, especially with sliding.
• Headshot kills: This is actually the only challenge I routinely skip, you can make it easier with skill or specific weapons but weapons that work best with Koumei tend not to be the greatest for headshotting and one of your own decrees can actually steal your own headshots by turning them into toxin procs.

--Equipment--
Koumei is in many ways a weapons platform frame, however unlike frames like Rhino, Mirage or Saryn the buffs she provides are less clear cut; in her hands some weapons hardly benefit at all while others can achieve heights far above what can be achieved with more conventional buffs.

• Hybrid: This is the most basic rule of gearing Koumei, decrees benefit both crits and status so a weapon that inflicts both is going to get the most consistent benefit.
• LMGs and Shotguns: A large number of her less popular and thus wasted decrees relate to magazine capacity, ammo efficiency and reloading. With many weapons these are useless, with the right weapons they can be excellent. Both weapon types tend to suffer from long or frequent reloads, delaying or skipping these alone is a nice buff. LMGs in particular have huge base magazines which can reach or exceed a thousand capacity with the right decrees, this can turn into truly bottomless magazine with reload on kill or even an additional 1000% electrical damage. Shotguns are similar, with magazine capacity, ammo efficiency and reload decrees allowing them to function as bullet hoses, its less dramatic than with LMGs but you haven't lived until you've tried bottomless magazine Felarx.
• Melees: Another way to put the initial summary of this section is that Koumei is a jank amplifier. dual ichor and okina incarnons are already strong but the daggers and clouds proccing decrees on their own is a whole new level of crazy. Projectile weapons go crazy with multiplicative CO and the inevitable melee rainbow status you aquire (even without priming). Heavy attack crit weapons make an entertaining alternative to hybrids with their own set of decrees that turn everything into a corrosive syam. Of course if you can get a fun hybrid heavy attack weapon then that's the dream and please mention it in the comments.

--Specific gear reccomendations--
Just some gear for Koumei that's effective and fun, and most importantly helps avoid wasted decrees.

• Trumna(prime): Its no torid incarnon (what is?) but as far as Koumei primaries go this has it all. At the start of the mission is a solid hybrid LMG with an alt-fire that can really come in clutch when you're having trouble with those airborne/latch/slide kill challenges. Stick around for a while and its an endless stream of bullets with all the fire-rate and damage you'll ever need.
  -Quellor: A side-grade to Trumna that trades damage for being a bit more consistent with headshots, and trades the grenade for the alt-fire that opticor wishes it was. Also has the highest base magazine capacity in the game if you really want to make the most out of the magazine size to electrical damage decree.
  -Scourge(prime): Largely a utility pick for the headshot challenge but also a decent weapon in its own right, most decrees just help this keep up with level scaling but if you get the ones that inflict toxin and electric AOEs on headshots then this thing is suddenly a rapid fire rocker launcher.
  -Shade(prime): At low levels this plus verglass or primer of your choice can help with damage CC or whatever you need. Into endurance (or right away if you want to build for it) you almost certainly have enough strength and efficiency from decrees that you can just sit around invisible and spam this + sickening pulse to nuke everything without even being shot at.

Continuing my recent playthrough of deliberately letting myself get distracted by every vaguely interesting piece of scenery here are 4 interesting spots around night city that never come up in scripted gigs.

Fairly easy to find, a random security gate near the Kiroshi Optics HQ leads to a surprisingly detailed little loading bay.

Beneath an unassuming overpass lies a whole little village of tyger claws. This area even includes a tyger claw dragon who's appears to be particularly tough, akin to the minibosses often found in criminal activity scanner hustles.

Just a hop, skip and jump from Dantes Den (literally) how many of us have ever looked down to realise there's a whole housing block sealed in by a wire mesh, based on a light in a bottom floor window it appears to still be inhabited to. (The media outer chest piece can be found on the balcony to the right of the image)

Just down the hill from the monestary we can find a whole abandoned housing development, as well as a gas pipeline running underneath the highway. Alas the alluring skywalk of mystery has an invisible wall that prevents the player from following it past the black electronic billboards.

So equipping a glowing clan emblem in either front/back sigil slot will cause the ephemera to be completely overridden by the sigils colour, mostly annoying but could also be interesting if its what you want.

On this playthrough I've decided to just wander around Watson a bit before the heist and keep finding streets I've never seen before, even on previous playthroughs where I walked everywhere. This particular street is practically subteranian and its a shame most of the content takes place at surface level or in the main streets when there are great environments like this hidden around the place where most players will never see them.

So for a lot of people Patch 2.13 has been a great performance boost; though I personally have a 40 series GPU and intend to keep using DLSS since it looks better (FSR 3.1 when CDPR?) FSR does actually gain me significantly more frames at the cost of some visuals.

However some of you (like me) will have initially had a significant FPS drop compared to pre-patch, along with weirdly low GPU utilization and loss of access to frame gen for 40 series cards. The fix is simple, go into windows graphics settings and enable hardware accelerated GPU scheduling. For me at least that solved all the above issues and I hope it can for some other people too.

Small update:
I was just trying some things to get latency down and while I was in Nvidia control pannel decided to give:
"Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample optimization"
A try. I can confirm that I saw almost no shimmering and it dropped my GPU/CPU useages from about 70% to 50%. I'm playing at 1080p with DLSS on balanced and settings maxed. My system is a 32GB of ddr4, an AMD 3700x cpu and an RTX4070 GPU for reference.

Thought I'd add it to this post because it seems to be a fairly substantial performance boost with no downside, at least on my setup.

Tiny update:
Changing multi-threaded optimization from 'auto' to 'on' in the nvidia control pannel or your GPUs equivelent appears to result in a small but noticable boost to performance on some setups. This is due to windows often having auto default to off, though you should do this on a cyberpunk specific profile as it can break older applications.