#Battleship Grid

[zolakin]

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[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Outside the Lines 6

Warnings: this fic will include dark content such as dubcon/noncon, obsessive compulsive behaviour, kidnapping, and other possible triggers. My warnings are not exhaustive, enter at your own risk.

This is a dark!fic and explicit. 18+ only. Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Warnings have been given. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you.

Summary: Reader has her routine and her fellow patient gets in the way of those.

Character: Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers, (lumberjack AU)

Note: I am tryn rotate through fics and such. Thanks for all your patience.

As per usual, I humbly request your thoughts! Reblogs are always appreciated and welcomed, not only do I see them easier but it lets other people see my work. I will do my best to answer all I can. I’m trying to get better at keeping up so thanks everyone for staying with me <3

Your feedback will help in this and future works (and WiPs, I haven’t forgotten those!)

Love you all. Take care. 💖

You put away the last of the dishes. The smell of bacon hangs in the air as your stomach mulches the few bites you managed to swallow. You're trying but it's very hard to get used to it all. Dr. Makira always says change is difficult. 

Everything is just new and strange and confusing to you. Not just the walls you don't know but the men within them. You know that Steve is a hero and Bucky too, but you really don't know them. 

"Hey, sweetheart," Steve startles you as he enters behind you. "Looks good in here. Good job cleaning up." 

"Yes, sir, er, Captain," you correct yourself as you face him, looking down to keep between the borders. 

"Bucky just went to go get that label maker so it'll be just me and you for a bit," he nears the island and leans his elbows on it. Even as he curls his shoulders forward, he seems inconquerably large. "Do you want to do something fun?" 

"Fun? Oh, do you have books... Captain?" You tug on your ear three times and mouth the last word again. 

"Um, maybe later I'll dig some out. I was thinking we could play a game." 

"Play a game? Like, er, go fish?" You ask. 

"Yeah, how about... battleship?" 

"Battleship? I've never played that." 

"No? I thought it was really popular," he says. "Guess we can learn together." 

"Okay, I can do that, but uh... Captain? Don't I have other chores? Laundry?" You wonder. 

"Later," he assures you as he comes around the counter. He offers his hand. "You earned some fun." 

"Yes, Captain. I'm trying real hard, don't you know?" 

"I know it, sweetheart. I see it." He takes your hand and tugs you across the tile. You teeter and squeal as you arch your feet and walk on your toes to keep from crossing the lines. 

He brings you into the front room and points to the couch. You dutifully go ahead and sit in the middle. He goes to the standing cabinet at the wall and opens the doors. He takes out a box and nears. He sits beside you, close enough to touch you. 

He lifts the lid off and reveals a cluster of small pegs; red and white. They're all mixed up. It makes you feel itchy. You reach and take a handful and start dividing them by colour. He doesn't stop you. 

Instead, he takes out the boards and opens them like cases. There are grids marked with numbers and letters. 

"Alright, so, we can't look at each others' boards," he grabs the instruction booklet and scatters the pegs. You continue to sort through them. "Sweetheart, are you listening?" 

"Oh, yes, uh..." you keep your handful of pegs and pluck up a cushion, "I'll sit on the floor." 

"You don't have to, we can move the chair." 

"It's okay," you hurried circle the table and drop the cushion. You sit on your legs and keep sorting the pegs. You don't like that there mixed up. 

"So, you put your ships on the board wherever you want. I do the same thing. And then we guess where the other put theirs," he explains. "The red, you use to mark hits on your ships and the white, you mark up on this," he points to the verticle board, "your hits and misses too. The white are misses." 

"Hm, okay," you say as you keep the red and white pegs from rolling into each other. 

"Here are your ships," he takes out a handful of the little plastic boats. 

"Thank you, Captain." 

"Good girl," he praises again and you look up at him over your board. 

"Am I good?" 

"Of course," he smiles. 

You take the boats and line them up by size; smallest to biggest across the top row. That's nice and tidy. Steve takes longer to finish his. 

He looks up with a pinch between his brows, "you ready?" 

You nod. 

"You first," he says. 

"Me? What do I do?" 

"Guess. So you can look at your board and guess where you think I put my ships. So like... E4, and if you hit, I'll tell you. You can put red if you do. If you hit every spot on a ship, then you sunk my battleship." 

"Oh, right, right," you say. "Um, er..." you look on the board. "G2?" 

He glances down, "miss." 

You take a white peg and mark the space. He hums before he makes a guess. 

"I9," he says. 

"Miss," you chime then check the board, "hmmm, C4." 

"Nope," he puts a peg in where he missed. The board looks tiny in his large hands. "B2?" 

You shift and check the board, "hit." You pout and takes a red peg. "A8?" 

"Miss," he replies. You mark it. 

"B3?" He says. 

"Hit. Erm, D2?" 

"Miss. What about... B1?" 

You blink. All your ships are together. Oops. 

"Hit." 

Your next guess is a miss too. Then he hits. He sinks the smallest ship with A1. 

"Oh, I lost a boat," you say. 

"It's not over until you lose them all," he says. "How about we add some extra fun?" 

"Um, what?" You ask. 

"We could make it more interested. How about, each time we sink a ship, we... give the other person a kiss." 

You squeak, "what?" 

"Yeah, it'll be nice," he goads. 

"But... but..." you chew your lip as he stares at your mouth. 

"Just a peck, sweetheart," he purrs. 

"Mmm, but, mmm, I don't know." 

"Come on," he pleads. "It's just a kiss." 

"I... I..." you stare at him. It must be a part of the plan. You're not very good at being close to others. Touching is tough but you've been working to move past those things. "Okay." 

"So... I sunk your ship," he taunts with a playful tilt of his head. 

"Um, right," you push yourself up with the table. You reluctantly traipse around and wring your hands together.  

He offers his cheek and taps it. You bend and hover just before it. You quickly peck, his beard tickling you, then retreat, ducking to hide behind the board. 

"Oh, your lips are soft," he says. 

"Thank you, Captain," your voice comes out in a whisper. 

"Your go," he prompts. 

"Oh, uh... E9." 

"Hit," he says. 

"Oh!" you grab a red peg. 

"Good job," he returns and gives a thoughtful hum. "Mmmm, C3?" 

You mutter, "hit." 

"Alright," he comments with a hint of surprise. He probably didn't expect so many together. Did he figure it out? 

"E10?" 

"Miss. B3?" 

You groan. He knows! You could move it. No, you wouldn't be able to do it without moving the whole board. 

"You sunk another," you utter. 

"Ooh, other cheek?" He wonders hopefully. 

Your face is on fire. You stand up and go around the other side of the table. You stare at his flannel shirt. You can't bare to look him in the eye. You bend and plant another kiss, one he leans into until your lips smush on his cheek. 

You recoil and once more resume your place on the cushion. He purrs again. 

"You're go," he urges. 

You guess randomly. You forget to check where you hit. It's another miss. You don't even want to sink his ships. The kissing is too much. 

Several back and forths and a third ship goes down. You feel like crying. You didn't really think about the rules before you put the ships on the board. You're so stupid. 

"Come here," Steve cooes. 

You get up, slouching shyly as you approach. You bend to kiss his cheek but he surprises you as he turns and you meet his lips instead. His hand catches the back of your head before you can react. 

He smothers you, locking you in place, and you push on his chest. You whine as his tongue slides over your lips. You don't like that. 

He lets you go and you stumble back, wiping your mouth with the back of your hand. 

"What's wrong?" He asks. 

"Captain, I... I'm not used to it. I never... I'm sorry," you stop and sway on the other side of the table. 

"Ah, sweetheart, of course, it's alright. The more you do it, the better it'll be." He coaxes. 

"Oh, okay," you get back to your knees. "F9?" 

"Shoot! You hit. Sink." 

"Huh?" You flinch at the last word, "really?" 

"Got the small one," he says as he gets up. "My turn to pay my dues." 

"Oh, that's... that's-- You don't have to." 

"Fair is fair," he reaches for you, latching onto your upper arm to force you up.  

You stand knowing that resistance is not an option. Not only is he stronger, but you want to be good. You want to get better. That's all you've ever wanted.  

He guides you to face him and you tremble. It's much more intimidating like this. He cups your chin as he gazes down at you. You gulp. 

He bends and your body goes rigid. He tilts your head and presses his mouth to yours. The tip of his tongue flicks along the crease of your lips but he doesn't persist. He parts with a pleased drone. 

"See, we both win," he says. 

You pull away and sit. Your scalp is on fire. You don't know how much more you can handle. Dr. Makira always said change shouldn't come all at once. 

He clears his throat and sits again. He grins over his board before he refocuses. He rubs his chin as his thinks. His blue irises glimmer. 

"D1." 

Yep. You figured. 

"Hit." 

It isn't difficult for him to go down the ship. Hit. Hit. Hit. 

He wins again. 

"Steve-- Captain," you say as fidget. "I don't think-- I can't." 

"Aw, sweetheart, you already did it. You're so good." 

"But... er, I'm... I don't know." 

"Here," he waves you up and shifts over on the couch.  

You flick your lashes and stand. You go to him as he extends his arms. He puts his hands on your hips and draws you between his knees. 

"I just think you need to slow down. You're not taking your time," he says.  "So, just go at your own pace," he brings his hands up to frame your face, pushing your hair back, rubbing your cheekbones with his thumbs. "Alright, I'm yours, sweetheart." 

He closes his eyes and puckers expectantly. You stare back. He's being nice, you think. He's not angry. He hasn't hurt you. You'd like to keep it that way. 

You gather your courage and lean in. You put your hands on his shoulders and close your eyes just before your lips meet. His beard tickles you again as his hands stretch around your head. 

He holds his lips to yours and gently opens his mouth. He pokes with his tongue and you twitch. He keeps you in place. You surrender to his diligent effort and let him in. 

He tilts his head as he invades your mouth. You garble around him and clutch the seam of his shirt. You feel his muscles beneath. He's stronger than you, remember that. 

When he finally pulls away, you're woozy. He lets his hand fall down your neck and he feels along the top of your dress. As his speaks, his voice scrapes in his throat. 

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" He asks. 

[mcytblraufest]

As the dust settles on Aufest 2024, we start to look forward to what's happening next year. Because three years of aufest just sounds like a great precursor to four years of aufest: barring disaster, we'll be back next year.

But in what FORM will we be back next year?

One thing has been consistent so far with our event. We've done a new thing every year. So the decision is, do we go back to something we've done before, or do we try something new? And that's where you come in. Yes this is a post about a poll.

The Options

Option 1 - Fandom Exchange: We do what we did Aufest 2022 and we do a Fandom Exchange. Similar to the Holiday Exchange that runs in the winter, everyone will sign up and be paired with another person, and they'll have a month to make that person a gift. People will have a chance to opt into art, fic, web weaves, playlists, podfic, or other, and the basic expectation will be 1k or a clean finished art piece in a month, all on the theme of aus. This would be a one-month event.

Option 2 - Big Bang: We do what we did Aufest 2023, and we do a Big Bang. Writers sign up with an au that's halfway done, and they get matched with artists who draw art based on their fic while they finish their au. The basic expectation is 5k in two months for writers, or a clean finished art piece in one month for artists. This would be a two-month event.

Option 3 - Reverse Big Bang: We do what we did this year, and we do a Reverse Big Bang. Artists sign up with completed au art, and then writers write a fic based on the art. The basic expectation is a clean finished art piece in one month for artists, or 5k in two months for writers. This would be a three-month event.

Option 4 - Battleship. (Though we'll probably call it Dungeon Crawl.) This is the new option, if you want to try something new. This is a competitive fic and art game, heavily based on the multifandom exchange Battleship. Participants are divided into teams, and each team is assigned a board, a 10*10 grid. Each square on the grid is assigned with two tags, things like "space au" or "divorce" or "tooth-rotting fluff" or "cannibalism", and a number between 10 and 20. Participants write a fic or draw an art that can be tagged with the one of the tags on a square, gifting it to a request made by someone in the event, and once a square is "hit" the number of times indicated on it, it clears that square, and the mods will tell you if you hit a trap or a treasure. Teams race to disarm all the traps on their board before moving on to the next stage. The basic expectations for this one would be a clean sketch on unlined paper or a 300 word fic, literally as fast as you can turn it out, but most participants in battleship write multiple fics/draw multiple arts before all boards are cleared. Battleship runs until all boards are cleared, but generally people expect to see a 3-week event.

Which of these do you want to see next year?

[augment-techs]

Do you ever go back to reading Shattered Grid and find the most unique little nuggets of thought experiment? Like, all of Mystic Force showed up for aid, but Chip was the one that ended up fighting Koragg on a battleship on the moon?

I should really go back to do a head count more often. I find all kinds of interesting tidbits.

Wonder if it'll help me parse through who made it to Promethea in Beyond the Grid...

[frozenchihuahua]

Christmas miracle! I finally added it wohoo ;_;

Chapter 2 - Battleships

The week flew by in a blur, and Friday afternoon found Simon once again standing outside Y/N’s office. Despite the passage of days, his mood hadn’t improved much since their first session. Though his hostility had lightly dulled, therapy still felt like a necessary evil rather than something helpful.

The door was slightly ajar, revealing woman seated on a couch inside, a folder of papers in her lap. She seemed lost in thought as she flipped through the pages.

Simon pushed the door open with a sour smirk under mask. “On time today, huh? Guess miracles do happen.”

She glanced up and met his teasing tone with a warm smile. “It’s not a habit of mine to be late.” she said, setting the folder aside. “Last time was an unwanted exception, and trust me, i avoid exceptions. They tend to…poorly.”

Simon’s brow lifted in mild intrigue, though he masked it with a nonchalant shrug. “End poorly?” he echoed, lowering himself into the chair opposite her.

She chuckled lightly, her tone playful. “Oh, nothing you need to worry about. Let’s just say punctuality saves lives. But enough about that, let’s dive into today’s session.” She gestured toward the table between them, where a sheet of paper and a couple of pencils lay in wait.

Simon followed her gesture and frowned. “What’s this supposed to be?”

She clasps her hands. “Today, we’re playing a game.” she announced with a sincere grin.

He blinked at her, incredulous. “A game? You’re fucking kidding me?”

“Therapy takes many forms” Y/N countered, folding her hands casually in her lap. “This time, it’s Battleship. Think of it as strategy practice, for the mind, of course.”

Simon leaned back, skepticism etched into every line of his face. “And how’s playing a game going to fix my mental health?”

Her smile deepened, her voice softening slightly. “Now it’s not about fixing you. You’ve had a rough week. Today, we’re taking the pressure off, no deep dives into feelings, no forced conversations. Just a bit of a active reset.”

He crossed his arms, his stoicism firmly in place. “And if I decide not to play?”

She tilted her head, her eyes gleaming with a teasing edge. “Then you can always tell me about your feelings instead, you have a choice.” She makes blunt remark with a wink.

Despite himself, Simon smirked, shaking his head. “Alright, fine,” he muttered, grabbing a pencil. “Let’s play your damn game.”

As the game start, Simon played with an air of indifference, his pencil scratching over the paper with a mix of frustration and slow resignation. Y/N matched his pace in game, but her demeanor calm and composed, though her warm smile didn’t waver. Every so often, Simon’s frustration slipped through in the form of sharp remarks.

“So, this is therapy now? Drawing grids and guessing coordinates? You sure i didn’t walk into the wrong room?” he said, his tone laced with sarcasm as he marked a miss on his side of the grid.

Y/N chuckled softly, not rising to his bait. “It’s strategic thinking, stress relief, and maybe even a little fun, though you seem determined to avoid that last part.”

“Fun?” Simon snorted, glancing at her briefly before looking back down at the grid. “Yeah, nothing says fun like pretending we don't waste time while i get lectured by a therapist.”

She raised an eyebrow, unfazed. “Who’s lecturing? I’m just sinking your battleship.”

Simon’s jaw twitched as he glanced at his paper. “You didn’t sink it yet.”

“Not yet” she agreed with a teasing grin. “But I’m getting close. B4.”

He grumbled under his breath, marking another hit. “Lucky guess.”

“Sure” she replied lightly, though her tone hinted at a playful challenge. “It’s all luck.”

They played on in a strange rhythm, Y/N’s calm, measured demeanor met with Simon’s clipped retorts and occasional cutting remarks. Every now and then, she’d glance up from her paper, her warm gaze briefly meeting his stormy one. He always looked away first, a flicker of discomfort crossing his masked face.

“How’s your week been, aside from tolerating this?” she asked casually as she marked a miss on her side.

Simon shrugged, not looking up. “Same as always.”

“And always is…?”

“Busy.” he replied shortly, his tone making it clear he wasn’t interested in elaborating. “F7.”

“Miss.” she said, jotting it down. “Busy can be good, though. Keeps the mind occupied.”

“Yeah, because that’s what I need, more distractions.” Simon muttered, his voice tinged with bitterness.

Y/N paused for a moment, her pencil hovering over the grid. “Distractions can be a double edged sword” she said carefully. “Sometimes they help, sometimes they just delay things.”

Simon snorted, a bitter edge to his laugh. “And you think this game isn’t a distraction?”

She met his gaze steadily. “Yeah it is, for steam off. Sometimes, a little distraction is the first step toward lowering the walls. We won't get anywhere if there's tension between us.”

Simon didn’t respond, turning his attention back to the grid. He called out another coordinate, his tone brusque. “C3.”

She marked a hit, her smile faint but knowing. “Nice shot.”

The game ended with a narrow victory for Simon, though his triumph was muted by his reluctance to engage. As he leaned back, arms crossed, he studied Amalia for a moment, as if trying to figure her out.

“You really think this is going to work?” he asked suddenly, his voice low but pointed.

Woman gathered up the game sheets, her expression thoughtful. “I think it’s a good start.” she said simply. “And sometimes, that’s all we need.”

[sinvulkt]

Battleship Exchange 2025

Bcs I keep falling on interesting multifandoms events. So here are some info i copy pasted from their dreamwidth page hyperlinked in the title.

Schedule

Tag claims: through June 25

Tag suggestions: June 21–25

Nominations: June 23–ongoing (please nominate before the game as much as possible; nominations will be checked once daily during the game)

Prompting: June 30–ongoing

Sign-ups: June 30–July 9 (or until the cap of 280 sign-ups is reached)

Team assignments: no later than July 11

Game begins: July 12

There is no set schedule for the game; it all depends on how quickly the teams surmount their challenges. We estimate it will last about three weeks.

After one team wins the game and another comes in second by accomplishing all their board 3 goals, there will be a 48-hour editing period, and then works will be revealed. Authors will remain anonymous for two weeks.

What is Battleship? How does it work?

Four teams race to clear boards of targets. Each board is a grid on which targets of various sizes and shapes are secretly placed. Teams fire shots at the boards. When a shot is fired at a square on the grid, the mods declare it a hit or a miss. Once all the squares occupied by a target are hit, the target is eliminated.

The rules are loosely based on the Battleship board game, but for the Battleship Exchange, shots are fired by creating fanworks with particular tags. This year, each square is assigned a quantity (from 2 to many) and some tags (such as Sharing a Bed or First Time). There will also be goal quantities of AO3 ship types, ratings, and archive warnings (collectively metadata). Once a team collectively posts enough works to meet the goal quantity of a square's tags, the square is cleared; once all the necessary squares are cleared and the level's AO3 metadata goals have been met, the board is beaten.

After the first board level, there is a boss level. Like the boss at the end of a video game level, this boss has hit points. Each team must defeat the boss by creating more works. For the boss level, tags and metadata don't matter. Points are earned through wordcount or elaborateness of art. Another boss appears after the second board level.

This is a fanwork exchange, so works must be created to fit fandoms, ships, and tags in the exchange tagset, and to fulfill requests or prompts by exchange participants. There will be no official assignments. You aren't guaranteed a gift, but the mods will provide a giftless and treatless list to encourage gifting to all participants.

There are a number of additional rules that make the game more complicated and more fun, but the gist is this: Create both rapidly and strategically, collaborating with your team, to clear the boards, defeat the bosses, and win the Battleship Exchange!

[selfmaderibcageman]

Okay ^_^

So for those who don’t know (most people (especially on here)) Foxhole is a mmo(rp?)g played as an (eternal) series of open-form matches (wars) between two factions on a 36-hexagon(best) map grid, each of which is a server that fits about 250 players, so a war might be fought by about 2-4k people at once, but in a (frontline) hex it’s sort of a rotating 100-on-100 match. Your faction wins the war when you take X(~=28)/36 hex capitals slash *prozd voice* victory points

Probably the most important thing in Foxhole, though, is that basically every single thing in the game is made by players. Every trench is dug by someone, every bunker base is dug out, fortified with materials that were refined from scrap that was mined at one of the dozens of scrap fields, crated up and hauled to the front. Every rifle and every bullet was made out of the same reprocessed scrap, every truck, tank, barge, destroyer, battleship. (Well, not quite- there’s actually about a half dozen types of resources all used and processed into more and more advanced materials at, you guessed it, player-built facilities)

Because of this, there are absolutely massive benefits to specialization and division of labor. A regiment (clan) dedicated purely to logistics will be orders of magnitude better at turning their time into usable equipment. It’s simply not worth doing things not at scale. Not only are there duplicate paths that let you use for better outgoing production efficiency, collecting resources at peak hours is going to lead to you competing with dozens of other players, but an Australian can have basically free access to resource spawns.

All of this is sort of adjacent to the main point of why I wanted to write this. You’ll notice I haven’t really talked about the combat at all. It’s a twin stick shooter basically. Probably not what you expected! It’s fun though, there’s skill, it feels appropriate for the interwar period aesthetics, etc. But it doesn’t matter! Shooting dudes on the frontline is simultaneously the only reason the game exists and literally pointless. New players will spawn in on the frontline, fight over a broken bridge for 6 hours straight, have a great time, and have contributed literally NOTHING.

Right now, in the current war, about 3 weeks in, in the center of the map there’s been a fight that has stagnated since day 2 or 3 of the war at the outskirts of a city.

Six Hundred And Seventy Five Thousand player deaths have occurred.

Zero territory has been captured.

So obviously, nothing ever happens, the game is impossible to push in, etc. Except wars very much do progress and end! Like I said, we’re only 3 weeks into this war. There’s been like 4 or 5 wars since the year started. So how do you actually do something? I mean, you’re not gonna brute force it. You can’t die 675k times on your own.

For better or for worse, the answer is in game mechanics. When you capture an enemy base (player-built or map town) by destroying and rebuilding it, you get 25% of the supplies in it, but more importantly, you reset its defensive tech progress. Map bases start out with all their tech, player built with none, but if you capture (“tap”) it, all that progress is gone, and it takes IRL days to re-tech it. Things like garrisoned houses in cities, seaports and stockpiles, advanced construction materials for bunkers, anti-tank and artillery counterbattery emplacements, your ability to build all of that goes away. What this does is turn the area into a no-mans-land (often filled with artillery craters and rubble). This type of frontline is impossible to really effectively hold while it is frontline, hence no-mans-land, but you can push through it. When you tap a town with a storage depot full of supplies in it, even if you don’t hold the town you knock all their private supplies public, and more importantly, you stop them from getting to any of it for at least 2 days, even if they retake and hold the town (which they now have to do without all those supplies!!)

Everything in Foxhole is about time. You want to make sure you are using your time in a way that has the biggest multiplier of your time spent to enemy time destroyed. Every time you kill someone, their respawn costs 16 salvage, plus the cost of all their extra gear, plus the time it took to refine all that, drive it up to the front, etc. This actually ends up being a piddling amount- you have to kill like a hundred people to deal even one logi truck worth of time-damage to the enemy, and at a hot frontline, a logi will be rolling up every 3-5 min. This is why shooting dudes does not win the war.

For a long time, my regi’s philosophy was to go directly after the juicy, valuable Enemy Gamer Time directly- we’d camp out a klick behind an enemy base, shoot up logi drivers as they shuffle up to the frontline, steal their truck, and send someone to sneak it back to our frontlines and deliver the supplies. Here too though, you run into time problems. This ie a fantastic strat with 3-5 players. A few good partisans (the community’s somewhat inaccurate term for logi interception and backline harassment) make a fantastic impact in terms of player time spent per player time destroyed/recovered. But they saturate quickly- if you have 3 people holding a road, you can probably stop 75% of trucks, 5, 95%, but beyond that you’re investing tons of extra player time for almost no gain. Any time you hit 6 people camping a road, you should immediately mitose and hit two roads with three people. Once you saturate all or even most of the roads to a base, extra partisans do nothing! Your td/ts goes to shit!

So if you’re a big group, you also lose efficiency by being big. Same effect with partisans happens with tanks- if the terrain doesn’t let all your tanks frontline, you’re wasting those tanks time. These independent saturation effects make multitasking more important. If you have 40 people in hex, you should have, yknow, 18 doing tanks, 8 doing arty, 10 doing infantry, and four doing logi/building up the front. Each of these activities is a force multiplier on the other, but you end up with everyone doing the same thing in 80% of clan ops. I partially blame discord for this, because it doesn’t have whisper functionality, and you really need like a command comms channel where all the squad leaders can talk to each other.

Some regis can pull this off, sure, but it’s rare. Making best use of player time is just a really multifaceted issue that has both exogenous and endogenous constraints.

[p-rtyboy]

Flag id: The Mulvistarr flag. It is a square flag, sectioned into a 3x3 grid, with white outlines. The colors, from left to right and top to bottom is; pinkish grey, purplish grey, pale silver, baby blue, moonstone blue, battleship grey, slate, amethyst grey, and cool grey.

Moodboard id: A 3x3 moodboard with white borders around the images. From left to right, top to bottom, the images are; Artificial eyes with light colored pupils, various lit candles, two white beta fish, close up photo of a white wing, a model of canine teeth with clear gums and bluish white teeth, various white jellyfish on a dark teal background, photo of a clear ocean, photo of a pearl, and photo of clear glistening water. /end ids

Mulvistarr

Pt: Mulvistarr /end pt

Mulviboard term related to the moodboard above- it can be used on its own, as a gender, as an allion, as a aldernic term, etc

Alt flag

Pt: Alt Flag /end pt

Flag id: The alternate Mulvistarr flag. It is a rectangular flag with 17 horizontal stripes, every other stripe is significantly thinner, colored white. The other stripes, from top to bottom, are colored; Slate, battleship grey, purplish grey, moonstone blue, baby blue, amethyst grey, cool grey, pinkish grey, and pale silver. /end id

Coined on August 13th, 2024

Colors picked from the moodboard — etymology: mulvi + [starr]flesh

Tagging @inviane-archive

Banner id: @/prettypinknarc in lavender text, with clipart of a rosy maple moth on the left and a black outline /end id

[retrogamingloft]

Battleships, released in 1987 by Elite Systems for the Commodore 64, is a digital adaptation of the classic naval strategy board game. Players take turns aiming to sink their opponent's fleet of six ships before their own fleet is destroyed. The game supports both single-player and hotseat multiplayer modes, allowing two players to compete by alternating turns on the same device.

The gameplay unfolds on a 20x20 grid where players strategically place their fleet. The ships vary in size and shape, including non-linear options like the aircraft carrier and submarine. Once the game begins, players take turns firing salvos at the opponent's grid. The number of shots per turn depends on how many unsunk ships remain in the player's fleet, with a maximum of 20 shots in the early game. After targeting specific coordinates, the game provides animated sequences to display hits or misses, adding a layer of immersion to the experience.

Developed by Elite Systems, the Commodore 64 version was programmed by Chris Butler, with graphics by Pete Lyon and music composed by Mark Cooksey. The game was also ported to other platforms, including the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and Atari ST, each featuring slight platform-specific variations.

I’ve always appreciated Battleships for its faithful adaptation of the classic board game. The engaging visual effects and strategic gameplay make it a joy to play, especially when competing with a friend in multiplayer mode. Its straightforward design captures the essence of the original while offering a nostalgic experience that still holds up for fans of turn-based strategy. For me, the simplicity is part of its charm—it’s easy to pick up and enjoy, whether you’re a seasoned strategist or just looking for some lighthearted fun.

[jothehat]

Let's play Battleships!

There are three ships hiding in the grid (2x one-square boats, 1x two-square boats) - vote in the poll and the square with the most votes will be chosen.

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

Game Theory: How Much Worse is Smallest First?

So if you're filling a board with ships in random configurations in Battleship, my assumption is that it's going to take substantially fewer retries on average if you start with the largest ships and move to the smaller ones. The number of valid configurations is way bigger.

Consider a simplified example: You have a 3x3 grid with a 2-pip ship and a 3-pip ship. If you're putting in a 3-pip when the board's empty there are 2 valid spaces/configurations per corner and 2 invalid, one valid per edge and 3 invalid, and no valid ways to do it from the center. So there are 12 valid and 24 invalid configurations total. Due to mathematical parallels (the ability to imagine the board flipped around) we only have to test two shapes for the 2-pip: in the corner, and poking from the edge into the center.

If it's in the corner, the shape you're dealing with is like

x x o o o o o o o

The top right corner has 1 valid configuration and 3 invalid, the middle left and middle right have the same single valid option (going straight across), the bottom left has also been reduced to 1 valid, and the bottom right still has both its options. We're down to 6 valid and 30 invalid. How about the other option?

o o o x x o o o o

Still 6 valid. Two of the corners have 2 each, the other 2 corners have 1, and none of the edges have any.

So if the 2 goes down before the 3, your odds of being able to place your random ship in a valid space and configuration drops from 1/3 to 1/6. (Note: Because both of the prerequisite possibilities lead to the same result, we don't need to calculate in how likely each one is).

What about the other way around?

x x x o o o o o o

o o o x x x o o o

2s fit in 2/4 options on corners, 3/4 on edges, and all 4 in the middle if the board's empty. Of the 36 configurations possible (4 directions from 9 starting spaces) 24 are valid. If there's already a 3 in it, the "3 is against one edge" configuration (of which there are 8 possible) has 14 valid locations for a 2-pip ship, while the "3 runs through the middle" configuration (of which there are 4) has just 4.

So the 14/36 has 2/3 odds while the 8/36 has 1/3 odds:

(14 * 2)/(36 * 3) + (8 * 1)/(36 * 3) = (28 + 8) / (36 * 3) = 1/3

Your odds of placing the 2-pip after the 3-pip is down are 1/3. Multiply that by the 1/3 odds of putting the 3-pip on the board when the board is empty and your odds of getting both ships down on a given random try are 1/9.

Your odds of placing the 3-pip after the 2-pip is down are 1/6. Multiply that by the 2/3 odds of putting the 2-pip on the board when the board is empty and your odds of getting both ships down on a given random try are 2/18...also known as 1/9.

WELP. My assumption was wrong.

Turns out it's better to go from smaller ships to larger for placement, because then you can keep a list of invalid coordinates you've already tried (if a 2-pip ship won't fit, you know a 4-pip won't fit there either). In fact, once you're trying a location the first thing you do can be removing it from the list of locations, because either it succeeds and now it's got a ship in it or it fails and none of the ships you have left would fit.

[mcytblraufest]

Seeing all the works that came out aufest this year was so much fun! thank you to the mods for running the event :D

On the polls to decide whats happening next year, one of the options is 'To play Battleship'.

What does Battleships mean in this case, i've not heard the term (outside of y'know, actually ships lol)

Battleship is a competitive fic and art game, heavily based on the multifandom exchange Battleship! Participants are divided into teams, and each team is assigned a board, a 10*10 grid. Each square on the grid is assigned with two tags, things like "space au" or "divorce" or "tooth-rotting fluff" or "cannibalism", and a number between 10 and 20. Participants write a fic or draw an art that can be tagged with the one of the tags on a square, gifting it to a request made by someone in the event, and once a square is "hit" the number of times indicated on it, it clears that square, and the mods will tell you if you hit a trap or a treasure. Teams race to disarm all the traps on their board before moving on to the next stage. The basic expectations for the event would be a clean sketch on unlined paper or a 300 word fic, literally as fast as you can turn it out, but most participants in battleship write multiple fics/draw multiple arts before all boards are cleared. Battleship runs until all boards are cleared, but generally people expect to see a 3-week event.

[theworldasiknowitnow]

The World as I Know it Now; Blog post two.

I missed a day, whoops. However today I'm back with something I learned about yesterday. Like yesterday I will be covering two days (Today and the day I missed yesterday.) I'm thinking about making this a weekly blog instead of a daily one. It would be easier to manage but the posts would be longer. Anyways. Today is January 23rd, 2025. Trigger warning: opinions. If you don't like them, please scroll.

Elon Musk at the T. inauguration did the Nazi salute. There is no way to put this politely. He stood up there, on that stage, in front of millions, and did a gesture that is banned throughout many countries. He stood up there and did that just for his supporters to say it was the “Roman Salute” or him “giving his heart to the crowd.” Who gives their heart to the crowd with a tucked thumb and a down facing hand? The most common way I’ve seen someone give their heart to the crowd is with two hands, palm up while they are being spread to the sides. Not palm down, up and to the right. “Oh, but he’s autistic!” Oh, and you’re making excuses for a Nazi. Forgive me for not jumping for joy that we have a Nazi helping to run this country. Day by day we are seeing our rights disappear and we are seeing the government embrace fascism. They are banning books, banning history, banning religious texts. All these T. supporters wanted to be all “he’s just the Christian choice!” What Christian choice? All I see is a man who wants to ban freedom and take control. He’s already started doing it, and one of his first steps was putting Elon, one of, if not, THE RICHEST man on the planet, in power. Made up a fake roll for him to take and everything, just because Elon is willing to eat the little orange Cheeto puff that nobody wants.

T. is going after Greenland, the Panama Canal and Canada. He is going to throw us headfirst back into a world war, and we won't even have enough soldiers because he banned trans militants. We don’t need more land; we don’t need a president getting cocky and taking unnessecary risks. Every empire falls, and with the way this Cheeto prick is acting it might be within these four years. It might even be sooner than that. Why are we taking so many risks? Canada controls our power grids. If we piss them off, they could shut down our power. They could plunge us into darkness just as fast as our president is prepared to plunge us into a war. In an interview he was asked if he could promise to use nonviolent tactics to take Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal, and his response was chilling. He said he couldn’t promise that, and that he would use any means necessary to take these places, and yet he hasn’t explained why he wanted them yet. This oligarchy, if left unchecked, could be the downfall of the American empire. The average empire lasts a mere two-hundred and fifty years. America is two-hundred and forty-eight years old. We are two years away from that potentially crucial point and we have an orange who doesn’t know what he’s doing as president. He is trying to play Monopoly and Battleship when he doesn’t have a Clue. He is appointing random inexperienced people for positions they aren’t suited for. Elon is Administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency. Elon. The Nazi. Is in charge of basically controlling how modern our technology is. This man shouldn’t even be in a government position, the only qualification he has is money! You know what that sounds like? Say it with me now, oligarchy. Olee-gark-ee. We don't need an oligarchy if we already have a democracy. Actually, we just don't need one in general.

T. pulled us out of the WHO (world health organization) and he got rid of the thing that says that companies need a diversity hire. He framed it as making America a “colorblind nation.” The likelihood is though, without that, people who aren’t straight white men won't get hired as much anymore. Speaking of straight men, legally they don’t exist anymore. T. redefined what a male and female were, the only problem is, he defined a woman as someone who’s embryo was female when they were conceived. Which isn't the whole problem, it’s actually great news for the trans girlies. Congrats, you guys are all now cis women!!!! The problem with that is, that means that men are defined as anyone who was conceived with a male embryo. Now this is the funny part, all embryos at conception are female. All of them. We are all legally females in America. I’m so glad that MADAM president was brave enough to come out. I bet she is so happy that she made herself cis!! Now, it gets funnier, not only was she the first female president, she's also the first LESBIAN president! Maybe now that she is out, she’ll stop taking our rights! No? She’s still gonna be taking those? Well damn, worth a shot I suppose. But yes, basically they didn't consult anyone in the scientific field, and not only are we all considered legally female, but the entire intersex population has also ceased to exist.

[oneefin]

every so often puzzmo runs a crossword where i see and it instantly becomes one of my favorite themes of all time. today on this very unassuming sunday it's one of those days

solution below the break, which will spoil the theme

in this crossword, the fill contains the five ships from the board game battleships, all crossing each other, and the black squares visually represent the positions of the ships, as mentioned in the clues.

what a rich and beautiful idea! it's exactly the kind of heavily themed stuff that i hunt for when i'm constructing grids. can't stress enough how much i love crosswords that do this sort of thing

[yue-muffin]

Liveblogging chapters 2-3 since they lead into each other.

So, we started the story off in Guangzhou with Chen Jiayu as the pilot. The second chapter starts in Beijing, his destination. This time, we are introduced to the air traffic controllers and goes in depth about their role and responsibilities. Interestingly, here it says only the most experienced ATC run approach (landing and taking off). I've heard in interviews in the US, that controllers are trained on all roles and can be shuffled around as needed.

This story has really gotten me to nerd out haha...This translation is a little inconsistent with its past vs present tense and that is my only complaint so far!

Anyway, Fang Hao is our MC, and it's just a normal day for him and everyone else until the tires burst on an airplane just as it's taking off. Fang Hao immediately jumps in to assist this plane in getting back down safely. His coworkers obviously trust him, and he knows exactly what he's doing. The narrative provides a little insight to his personality by stating he likes approach control, which requires a lot of focus and really tight management skills.

Above all, echoing the last chapter, one must keep a level head even during emergency. Though he's focusing on assisting getting that plane down from the sky (which is way more involved a process than simply turning around and landing), he can't neglect all the other planes leaving and entering the airport at the exact same time.

And, keep in mind, this scene takes place AT NIGHT. It's referenced several times throughout the chapter.

Going into chapter 3, we return to Chen Jiayu. Admittedly, he did not leave a great first impression with this scene haha. Fang Hao tells him there's a "situation" and he can't land for now, going to have to hold. Chen Jiayu starts off reasonable, asking for some alternative routes which aren't available either. Then we see Fang Hao have to ignore him to direct the KLM issue, only for Chen Jiayu to KEEP pressing the issue and taking up time and space on the radio frequency (only one can transmit at a time or else the incoming signal is garbled).

Fang Hao doesn't get frustrated though, and responds to every request and even asks if he needs to declare an emergency because he's low on fuel. But I guess they can actually hold on with the amount he has left, because Chen Jiayu decides not to declare an emergency. And after he makes it clear he's not declaring an emergency, he proceeds to continue asking before he's cut off.

dude. you're just going to have to wait. this is like playing battleship on a three dimensional grid. it's not like you were stuck waiting for that long yet. And Fang Hao gets the Southern plane down while this is going on, so it's not like he's holding everyone up indefinitely. You just gotta wait your turn. I get why he immediately denies them when the Jinxiu airlines guy offers to let Chen Jiayu go first. It's not exactly easy to move these giant commercial airliners around at will, and unless Chen Jiayu's plane is actually in an emergency and running out of fuel, he's not going to to mess up the formation.

I think if there wasn't an emergency going on, then he could maybe rightfully call Fang Hao unyielding and stubborn, but c'mon, there was an emergency. No one can blame him for being short and to the point. Chen Jiayu is the one being unreasonable and stubborn. Of the ATC stuff I've watched, when there's an emergency going on, everyone is professional and cooperative, go where ATC tells you to go, offer helpful info if you can, but now's not the time to butt heads with them unless you are ALSO on fire. The plane with the emergency absolutely gets priority until the situation is under control.

The line "He didn’t care much about being famous, but sometimes, it worked to his advantage" shows he really is used to the privilege of that fame lol...though it's absolutely valid and I understand why he also doesn't like the fame as well.

At the same time, I also understand why an early landing is desirable. I'm not sure on the details, but there are different rules surrounding operational times in the air and of course fuel costs, the pressure to run on time, etc. However, rush in moderation...several accidents have definitely been caused by pilots being in a rush.

Although Fang Hao is pissing Chen Jiayu off, his calmness under the pressure and almost nonchalant tone are completely realistic. The best of the best are supremely calm under pressure, even in a worse emergency situation than this.

All in all, it's ok to be assertive, but I think Chen Jiayu was pushing it a little too far. If he has complaints, he can do it later to Fang Hao's supervisor once he's on the ground.

[riflebrass]

My idiot friend is obsessed with these Battleship targets. He likes to be competitive when we shoot. I always try to give myself a handicap to give him a fighting chance and it pisses him off. He wants to be on an even level with me so we can find out once and for all who the best shot is. In an even match he gets smoked every single time, but he's sure one of these days he's gonna best me on the range.

One of his obsessions is this Battleship target. The grid squares are about an inch and at 5 yards he really struggles with it. I noticed the gun store has some bigger versions of the same game but the grid squares are 2 inches instead. I suggested it to him and he immediately disregarded it as "cheating".

What he doesn't realize is that he'll never get on my level if he doesn't focus on the fundamentals first. He makes a lot of noise and has fun, but he wants to build the skill and that's not really happening. I'm a pretty big guy and his groupings are so awful that outside of 10 yards if he was shooting at me I'd be fully confident he won't hit anything vital.