I saw the movie first, then read the book after hearing it was different/maybe better, since aside from the bear, I found the movie fairly whelming. I ended up really enjoying the book, particularly the dream-like style. Authority, however, I found… really slow. I was intrigued by the premise, and the reveals were interesting, but the pacing was just glacial, imo, and it did away with what I’d liked about Annihilation. I did start Acceptance afterward, but was sort of over it at that point, and never finished it.

Despite the first book winning the 2021 SPSFC (admittedly, a much less well-known competition than the SPFBO), I almost never see the Primaterre series by S.A. Tholin mentioned. They are doorstoppers, but very well paced, imo: I inhaled the first two books. If you like space opera that manages to avoid a lot of plot tropes, give the series a try!

(Sidenote: if you’re put off by the “cosmic horror” label on the first book, I recall there being a couple of mildly gory scenes, but it’s mostly in the realm of “unfathomably alien” rather than trying to scare.)

Deftones - Cherry Waves

Bear’s Den - Pompeii
This version, specifically.

An obvious one: Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charmed Life

Angus & Julia Stone - On the Road

Sparklehorse & Danger Mouse - Little Girl (ft. Julian Casablancas)

Deftones-y. I like it!

Couldn’t decide, so here’s two.
Finch - What It Is to Burn
TOOL - Ænema

Jack Off Jill - Angels Fuck
Very dramatic, but extremely cathartic at the time.

The War on Drugs - Suffering

Actually found this harder than expected–most of the songs I associate with summer are the wrong genre, or became super mainstream. But I played this album extensively one summer, and this song in particular has that warm, stuffy evening vibe for me.

And another excellent song from the same album: Smashing Pumpkins - Thirty-Three

Zwan - Ride a Black Swan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ7550OtqPQ

Via Tenno Tools.

Wow, thank you for the detailed reply! 7-1-7 was kind of what I was leaning toward after reading your post, so I think that’s what I’ll end up building to replace the… whatever monstrosity I have now. Appreciate the arcanes recommendations, too!

That video is awesome, thanks for putting it together!

Is it reasonable to build just one multi-purpose amp, and have it be effective for eidolons/angels/last gasp? Obviously, specialized amps are better, but I won’t remember to swap them out. WTB operator loadouts.

This looks great!

[…] There are also instances with varying levels of moderation, which may be encompassed in this.

I know you didn’t really touch on what the moderation aspect might involve (and maybe you have provisions for this in a section I skimmed), but ideally I would want defederation lists to be included somehow, at least as an advanced option. Does the user want/not want an instance federated with [other instance]? And then, before final instance selection, present the full list just for verification.

Glad to help! Hopefully I haven’t misspoken–I’m not an expert modder by any means.

I wouldn’t say 90% elemental mods are bad value–they have their place bulking out damage on very low status chance weapons or ones modded exclusively for crit. They’re also good if you want to beef up a status when you’ve already slotted the 60/60 version. Even IPS mods aren’t bad, they’re just very niche (some more than others… lookin’ at you, puncture).

Also, the reason Serration/Point Blank get left off is due to their being replaced by weapon arcanes like Primary/Secondary Merciless. The diminishing returns of putting more than one +damage source on a weapon are too high to justify having both (plus you get an extra mod slot to play with).

In addition to what neooffs said, it looks like a fully upgraded Buzz Kill (120% slash) increases flat damage (ignoring procs) on Gram Prime as much as a fully upgraded (non primed) Fever Strike (90% toxin) for the same cost. So if you only have one flex slot, going toxin instead is 1) an extra status type for Condition Overload and 2) upgradable to a Primed Fever Strike (165% toxin) for more damage if you’ve got the mod and capacity. If you have more than one flex slot, I guess it depends on the goals of your build and the statuses you already have access to on your loadout, but other mods might still be more beneficial.

From my (maybe questionable) understanding, slash mods have some value when:

1. you’re low on capacity and the base slash weighting is high enough, a Jagged Edge (90% slash) or Carnis Mandible (90/60) (or non-melee equivalents) adds more flat damage than a 60/60 or equivalent capacity 90% elemental mod. Again, I suspect YMMV depending on statuses in your loadout, but I might be wrong.
2. you’re trying to mess with the IPS weighting for more chance of slash damage over puncture/impact, for Desecrate dismemberment.
3. you’re trying to mess with general proc weighting for a better chance of slash procs over other procs (this is the area I’m fuzziest on, maybe someone else can explain if/when you’d want to do this).