#I don't know how technically feasible it would be to implement

[terresdebrume]

Further reflexion: I guess you could make an argument that dividing by other metrics would be better... At the same time, which Phase the MCU is on is already a bit of a niche piece of knowledge and that's likely to get more niche as time progresses. Same for using the year movies were released...

I think my main question personally is if/when other mantles are picked up, do they split them the same way regardless of the race and gender of the new owner of the costume

But I mean, I would be very surprised to hear no one ever tries to sort through comic issues by asking which ones have Sam Wilson as Captain America, and the above change sort of fit into that

Now, I've seen the suggestion that it would be better to have a way to indicate who is the main character of a fic, and tbh I do think it would help in the long run, though I think there would be two snags to figure out first:

Is it possible to implement a significant change in the site's infrastructure without creating so much work for volunteers and users that it makes works published pre-change way more difficult to navigate (bc they wouldn't be updated enough)

How would mistags factor into it, considering volunteers don't see tags in context? Ie. If you have two characters named Sam Wilson and most people don't specify if they're writing about Sam Wilson (Marvel) (to say nothing of the subcategories attached to that one) and Sam Wilson (Imaginary Fandom) how does that interact with the main character option and does that interaction make fics more difficult to find than the method AO3 is currently going with?

Again this is me thinking out loud, I don't have an answer to any of this, they're just the things that come to mind at first glance

On Your Left! — Changes to Captain America Fandom Tags

Hello! In the near future, Marvel tag wranglers will be updating fandom tags on AO3 to separate the upcoming Captain America movies featuring Sam Wilson as Captain America from the trilogy of films with Steve Rogers as Captain America.

To do this, we will be renaming the fandom Captain America (Movies) to Captain America (Chris Evans Movies) and creating a new fandom named Captain America (Anthony Mackie Movies). Both will be made subtags of Marvel Cinematic Universe and Captain America - All Media Types.

In summary:

Captain America (Chris Evans Movies) will refer to the 2011, 2014, and 2016 movies featuring Steve Rogers, Peggy Carter, and Bucky Barnes. 

Captain America (Anthony Mackie Movies) will refer to the 2025 movie Brave New World featuring Sam Wilson and Joaquín Torres. This fandom tag will also refer to any sequel Captain America movies starring Sam Wilson in the title role.

Fans interested in reading about both movie series can include both Marvel Cinematic Universe and Captain America - All Media Types in tag filtering. The current fandom tag for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (TV), which is a subtag of Marvel Cinematic Universe but not Captain America - All Media Types, will also be unaffected by these changes. We’ve included more details of our reasoning below, which better explains why we’re making this change.

Why are you making two separate fandom tags? Can’t everyone just keep using “Captain America (Movies)”?

Despite both having the superhero name “Captain America” and the same continuity, fundamentally the main character has changed between the original trilogy and the new 2025 movie. We also wanted to hopefully make it easier for fans to differentiate between which movies and continuities they’re discussing. Many Sam Wilson fans will likely want to filter for the movie where he’s the central focus; conversely, many Steve Rogers fans will likely want to filter out movies where he doesn’t appear. 

We’re specifically using “Chris Evans” and “Anthony Mackie” in the fandom tags as they’re the most recognizable and consistent aspect of the movies. There’s no consistent set of directors between all Chris Evans Captain America movies, and actor names are much more recognizable than including multiple years in the fandom tags. This style of making fandom tags named after actors is similar to other fandoms on AO3. For example, there are many James Bond movie fandom tags which differentiate via the actors’ names. 

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is also not the only time Captain America has been adapted to the big screen: there’s a 1944 movie starring Dick Purnell, a 1979 movie starring Reb Brown, and a 1990 movie starring Mat Salinger. The current fandom tag Captain America (Movies) is worded in a way that technically encompasses these unrelated movies as well. It doesn’t make sense for these unrelated continuities to share one fandom tag, so we would have changed the existing Captain America (Movies) tag to be more specific regardless of the release of Brave New World. 

Like we mentioned above, fans interested in reading about both MCU movie series at once can filter for both Marvel Cinematic Universe and Captain America - All Media Types.

Why Mackie Movies instead of Brave New World?

The movie title has already changed several times in between promotion and release. It’s also highly likely Marvel will make sequel movies. Formatting the tag as Captain America (Anthony Mackie Movies) prevents the disruption of renaming the fandom tag in the future. 

We will be creating an Additional Tag for Captain America: Brave New World, similar to how there are Additional Tags for Movie: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Movie: Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). We hope the Additional Tag will help fans filter for specific movies within the broader series of movies.

Why does Brave New World get a separate fandom tag while First Avenger, Winter Soldier, and Civil War would still share? 

Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Captain America: Civil War all encompass the trilogy centering around Steve Rogers. While Captain America: Brave New World is also set in the same continuity, the main character and actor has changed, and the role of Sam Wilson has changed from being a supporting character to the main focus.

It’s likely that Marvel will release sequel movies to Brave New World, which will not receive separate fandom tags and would instead also be covered by the new Captain America (Anthony Mackie Movies) tag. We hope that separating the fandom tags now will prevent the messiness of renaming tags again in the future, and also allow fans to filter for works that focus on the specific Captain America they are looking for. 

(From time to time, ao3org posts announcements of recent or upcoming wrangling changes on behalf of the Tag Wrangling Committee.)

[ghostflowerhotpotch]

Spider-Woman, NOT Ghost-Spider

This is a tip for people who want to go as canon as possible WITH THE MOVIES, since I feel a lot of people do this mistake because they look into the comics and mix things up.

If you want to call Gwen, Ghost-Spider in your fanfic/fanart/etc because you think is cool, go ahead! Go nuts! I'm not the canon police.

BUT-

In the movies, Gwen still calls herself Spider-Woman.

An explanation as to why this is important in the read more.

(Spoilers about the Spider-Gwen comics, I guess because I am not spoiling anything that came after 2019.)

When I say "important," I mean it in the stick-it-to-the-details type of deal; if you care about technicalities you care about this, but I know that's not the majority.

However, I do want to bring it up because the reason why Gwen switched in the comics, or rather, why chose Ghost-Spider of all things- is really neat and interesting story line that I feel a lot of people skip over when they 'chose' to call her that without knowing why she chose that name.

If you think Gwen has it rough in the movies, don't read the comics because they put this girl through the wringer.

Let's go a little bit before she chose that name.

As you can see, Gwen feels that she has always been marked by death, some way or another.

First her mother, then Peter, and is now hitting pretty hard after losing Spider-UK (is not Hobie, or Malala, I don't think he has appeared in the movies,) Noir and Karn, though arguably Billy was the one who hit her the hardest.

She went to other dimensions to tell their love ones that Billy and Noir passed away; it is implied how this is her way to try to make amends to what happened, make peace with herself.

But is not really enough, the topic doesn't leave her mind,

Death and pain certainly follow her often; she almost lost her dad for good, and she was definitely shaken after Harry got gravely injured precisely because he was always there for her.

That last panel never stops hitting hard for me.

There is just some quietness to it, about how no matter what she does, how hard she tried, Death continues to follow, one way or another. Even when she tries to be a hero, to do the right thing, death follows her.

In the comics, Gwen switches her name because she is studying in Earth-616 rather than her own dimension, so she switches names in order to avoid stepping in any toes.

So, in the movies, is kind of hard to think the switch would happen. Sure, Gwen is interacting with Jessica and other spiders, but believe me, the multiple spider-man haven't changed their names, so having Jessica in the spider society doesn't change much.

However, I do bring all of this because I think implementing this story line in the movies not only is feasible, it would be *amazing.*

The phrase "Death loves Gwen Stacy," not only hits hard for the Spider-Gwen in the comics, but for the movie counterpart too.

Think about it for a second; in the movies, Gwen feels she can't have friends because otherwise, they may lose them like Peter, she has convinced herself it can't work. And then. she goes to the Spider-Society.

And now she feels Gwen Stacy and Death always go hand in hand.

She learns how in so many universes, Peter is the one bitten, he is the one who lives, while Gwen Stacy dies, over, and over again. It almost seems like she is the outlier out of spite, how because she gets to live, everyone else pays the price.

Because Death loves Gwen Stacy, powers or not, that's not changing.

But at the end of the day-

And that's why, no matter what, she will continue fighting to protect her people.

[jennamoran]

The Far Roofs: Systems

Hi!

Today I’m going to talk a little bit more about my forthcoming RPG, the Far Roofs. More specifically, I want to give a general overview of its game mechanics!

So the idea that first started the Far Roofs on the road to being its own game came out of me thinking a lot about what large projects feel like.

I was in one of those moods where I felt like the important thing in an RPG system was the parallel between that system and real-world experience. Where I felt like the key to art was always thinking about the end goal, or at least a local goal, as one did the work; and, the key to design was symmetry between the goals and methods, the means and ends.

I don't always feel that way, but it's how I work when I'm feeling both ambitious and technical.

So what I wanted to do was come up with an RPG mechanic that was really like the thing it was simulating:

Finding answers. Solving problems. Doing big things.

And it struck me that what that felt like, really, was a bit like ...

You get pieces over time. You wiggle them around. You try to fit them together. Sometimes, they fit together into larger pieces and then eventually a whole. Sometimes you just collect them and wiggle them around until suddenly there's an insight, an oh!, and you now know everything works.

The ideal thing to do here would probably be having a bag of widgets that can fit together in different ways---not as universally as Legos or whatever, but, like, gears and connectors and springs and motors and whatever. If I were going to be building a computer game I would probably think along those lines, anyway. You'd go to your screen of bits and bobs and move them around with your mouse until it hooked together into something that you liked.

... that's not really feasible for a tabletop RPG, though, at least, not with my typical financial resources. I could probably swing making that kind of thing, finding a 3d printing or woodworking partner or something to make the pieces, for the final kickstarter, but I don't have the resources to make a bunch of different physical object sets over time while I'm playtesting.

So the way I decided that I could implement this was by drawing letter tiles.

That I could do a system where you'd draw letter tiles ... not constantly, not specifically when you were working, but over time; in the moments, most of all, that could give you insight or progress.

Then, at some point, you'd have enough of them.

You'd see a word.

That word'd be your answer.

... not necessarily the word itself, but, like, what the word means to you and what the answer means to you, those would be the same.

The word would be a symbol for the answer that you've found, as a player and a character.

(The leftover letters would then stick around in your hand, bits of thought and experience that didn't directly lead to a solution there, but might help with something else later on.)

Anyway, I figured that this basic idea was feasible because, like, lots of people own Scrabble sets. Even if you don't, they're easier to find than sets of dice!

For a short indie game focused on just that this would probably have been enough of a mechanic all on its own. For a large release, though, the game needed more.

After thinking about it I decided that what it wanted was two more core resolution systems:

One, for stuff like, say ... kickstarter results ... where you're more interested in "how well did this do?" or "how good of an answer is this?" than in whether those results better fit AXLOTL or TEXTUAL. For this, I added cards, which you draw like letter tiles and combine into poker hands. A face card is probably enough for a baseline success, a pair of Kings would make the results rather exciting, and a royal flush result would smash records.

The other core system was for like ... everyday stuff. For starting a campfire or jumping a gap. That, by established RPG tradition, would use dice.

...

I guess technically it didn't have to; I mean, like, most of my games have been diceless, and in fact we've gotten to a point in the hobby where that's just "sort of unusual" instead of actually rare.

But, like, I like dice. I do. If I don't use them often, it's because I don't like the empty page of where to start in the first place building a bespoke diced system when I have so many good diceless systems right there.

... this time, though, I decided to just go for it.

--

The Dice System

So a long, long time ago I was working on a game called the Weapons of the Gods RPG. Eos Press had brought me in to do the setting, and somewhere in the middle of that endeavor, the game lost its system.

I only ever heard Eos' side of this, and these days I tend to take Eos' claims with a grain of salt ... but, my best guess is that all this stuff did happen, just, with a little more context that I don't and might not ever know?

Anyway, as best as I remember, the first writer they had doing their system quit midway through development. So they brought in a newer team to do the system, and halfway through that the team decided they'd have more fun using the system for their own game, and instead wrote up a quick alternate system for Weapons of the Gods to use.

This would have been fine if the alternate system were any good, but it was ... pretty obviously a quick kludge. It was ...

I think the best word for it would be "bad."

I don't even like the system they took away to be their own game, but at least I could believe that it was constructed with love. It was janky but like in a heartfelt way.

The replacement system was more the kind of thing where if you stepped in it you'd need a new pair of shoes.

It upset me.

It upset me, and so, full wroth, I decided to write a system to use for the game.

Now, I'd never done a diced system before at that point. My only solo game had been Nobilis. So I took a bunch of dice and started rolling them, to see ... like ... what the most fun way of reading them was.

Where I landed, ultimately, was looking for matches.

The core system for Weapons of the Gods was basically, roll some number of d10s, and if you got 3 4s, that was a 34. If you got 2 9s, that was a 29. If your best die was a 7 and you had no pairs at all, you got 1 7. 17.

It didn't have any really amazing statistical properties, but the act of rolling was fun. It was rhythmic, you know, you'd see 3 4s and putting them together into 34 was a tiny tiny dopamine shot at the cost of basically zero brain effort. It was pattern recognition, which the brain tends to enjoy.

I mean, obviously, it would pall in a few minutes if you just sat there rolling the dice for no reason ... but, as far as dice rolling goes, it was fun.

So when I went to do an optional diced system for the Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG, years later, to post here on tumblr ... I already knew what would make that roll fun. That is, rolling a handful of dice and looking for matches.

What about making it even more fun?

... well, critical results are fun, so what about adding them and aiming to have a lot of them, though still like rare enough to surprise?

It made sense to me to call no matches at all a critical failure, and a triple a critical success. So I started fiddling with dice pool size to get the numbers where I wanted them.

I'm reconstructing a bit at this point, but I imagine that I hit 6d10 and was like: "these are roughly the right odds, but this is one too many dice to look at quickly on the table, and I don't like that critical failure would be a bit more common than crit success."

So after some wrestling with things I wound up with a dice pool of 5d6, which is the dice pool I'm still using today.

If you roll 5d6, you'll probably get a pair. But now and then, you'll get a triple (or more!) My combinatorics is rusty, so I might have missed a case, but, like ... 17% of the time, triples, quadruples, or quintuples? And around 9% chance, for no matches at all?

I think I was probably looking for 15% and 10%, that those were likely my optimum, but ... well, 5d6 comes pretty close. Roughly 25% total was about as far as I thought I could push critical results while still having them feel kind or rare. Like ...

If I'm rolling a d20 in a D&D-like system, and if I'm going to succeed on an 18+, that's around when success is exciting, right? Maybe 17+, though that's pushing it? So we want to fall in the 15-20% range for a "special good roll." And people have been playing for a very long time now with the 5% chance of a "1" as a "special bad roll," and that seemed fine, so, like, 20-25% chance total is good.

And like ...

People talk a lot about Rolemaster crit fail tables in my vicinity, and complain about the whiff fests you see in some games where you keep rolling and rolling and nothing good or bad actually happens, and so I was naturally drawn to pushing crit failure odds a bit higher than you see in a d20-type game.

Now, one way people in indie circles tend to address "whiff fests" is by rethinking the whole dice-rolling ... paradigm ... so you never whiff; setting things up, in short, so that every roll means something, and every success and failure mean something too.

It's a leaner, richer way of doing things than you see in, say, D&D.

... I just didn't feel like it, here, because the whole point of things was to make dice rolling fun. I wanted people coming out of traditional games to be able to just pick up the dice and say "I'm rolling for this!" because the roll would be fun. Because consulting the dice oracle here, would be fun.

So in the end, that was the heart of it:

A 5d6 roll, focusing on the ease of counting matches and the high but not exorbitant frequency of special results.

But at the same time ...

I'm indie enough that I do really like rolls where, you know, every outcome is meaningful. Where you roll, and there's never a "whiff," just a set of possible meaningful outcomes.

A lot of the time, where I'm leaning into "rolls are fun, go ahead and roll," what it means to succeed, to fail, to crit, all that's up to the group, and sometimes it'll be unsatisfying. Other times, you'll crit succeed or crit fail and the GM will give you basically the exact same result as you'd have gotten on a regular success or failure, just, you know, jazzing up the description a bit with more narrative weight.

But I did manage to pull out about a third of the rolls you'll wind up actually making and assign strong mechanical and narrative weight to each outcome. Where what you were doing was well enough defined in the system that I could add some real meat to those crits, and even regular success and regular failure.

... though that's a story, I think, to be told some other time. ^_^

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

grumbles about tumblr not wanting me to post something again

(these were all showerthoughts, literally)

prefacing this saying all of this is me throwing my brainstorming at you because otherwise it's gonna live rent-free in my head. No expectation that you actually implement any of this, especially if it's inconvenient or would be difficult to code or otherwise wouldn't fit well in the IF.

1. Someone asked at some point (either here or on the COG forum, idr) if we could choose for Dime to have all 4 of the juice appearance traits, and you said having a multiple-selection menu there wouldn't have the same "punch"/would feel like an interruption. Would it be possible to add a menu for this in the stats page that unlocks after we pick Dime's juice appearance trait ingame? 2. On a related note, can we have more interactions/mentions of other characters' reactions to pallid eyes Dime? It's a very noticeable trait but I haven't seen much response to it ingame 3. Bit of a specific one, for nodes!Dime; this one would probably be the most work out of everything I've suggested so far, and I don't know how many people would find it useful, so no worries if you don't implement it. Would it be feasible to add a toggle into the stats menu that modifies how Dime produces/reabsorbs(?) the nodes? If toggled off (default), no change, but if toggled on, it swaps out the nodes' text to be along the lines of Dime producing the nodes by tearing off chunks of their membrane/tendrils/etc that then become independent, and the nodes returning into Dime's body by kinda being "subsumed" into the rest of their membrane, or something? I love the nodes and I want to play more with them, but Dime producing them by vomiting them back up and then having to choke them back down again is a bit much for me- mostly brought this one up in case it would be helpful to anyone else with a similar issue. 4. Speaking of nodes, it would be kinda cute if they were mentioned as forming a clot to keep Dime from bleeding out after becoming Saint Paradigm- instead of the membrane clotting up, it's just a hole full of upset flesh lumps doing their very best to keep all of Dime's blood and ichor where it's supposed to be :P

Hm. I dunno. That'd technically work, I just sort of want to do specific things/references at certain points and I guess it just doesn't feel quite right including an 'all of the above' ?

Oh, right! Yeah so - I've been a little low on the reactivity with certain features so far. The eyes thing was actually intentional because essentially you have a team where two members look very unusual (Kay, Teddie), one is living with those two (Wil) and a fifth can change their appearance for fun (Mal). They mostly wouldn't get that bothered by it, basically. That said I've just left a note for myself to at least have a dialogue choice to say something similar to the "just thinking about how we match" to Kay regarding having weird eyes.

This may be doable! It'd be a chunk of work but I do like the idea of including a toggle like that because I know the nodes are really quite extreme.

That's cute. I've made a note about that.

Just in general regarding people's suggestions: there are a few things I like the idea of a lot and some of those are less feasible to implement than others. Even for stuff I do want to add I'm trying to hold off the urge to tinker because I don't wanna get bogged down on refinements when I'm still in first draft, and anything I change I need to make sure then keeps continuity with everything else.

So I definitely want to add things and tidy other stuff up, I'm just keeping myself from editing too heavily as I'm already susceptible to rabbit holes. Such as current dialogue tree I'm working on, which was intended to be a short and sweet thing and has blown up into a little interaction scene per teammate.

[ms-foobles]

for NES asks: at the time it was released, what technical aspects of the console set it apart from the other consoles of that generation (like the Master System and Atari 7800)? i know the design of the console and the strength of the games were big, but what about the machine itself made it so great?

That is a very interesting question! I don't know quite as much about those other consoles as I do the NES, so this was a great excuse to research some new tech!

(I hope this response isn't too long, there's a lot to talk about!)

In my opinion, the thing the NES does best compared to all the competition is sound. The NES has 5 sound channels: two pulse channels, one triangle, one noise, and one delta-modulation channel. The pulse channels each support various different duty cycles, which all have different harmonics and gives you some versatility in timbre even with a simple pulse wave. And the delta-modulation channel enables a game to play actual audio samples. Some of the other consoles had sample playback capabilities as well, but in those cases the CPU had to be doing all the work to feed data to the sound chip. On the NES, the system itself does that work instead, which makes it feasible to play recorded instrument samples or effects while the CPU is doing other work (kinda).

By comparison, the Atari 7800 had only two channels with a preset list of waveforms, and way, WAY worse tuning when it comes to specifying the frequency of the sound you want to play. The SMS is better, but still worse than the NES. It has 3 pulse channels and 1 noise channel, but you couldn't even control the duty cycle of the pulse channels!

Graphics are a whole 'nother story though. In terms of raw picture quality, I might have to say that the SMS wins over the NES. The SMS has way more graphics memory, and also allows for way more simultaneous colors for any given sprite or tile. The 7800 comes in last place again-- I don't think it's really a contest. Sorry Atari! (That being said, I could do a whole nother writeup on how weird the 7800's architecture is, it's exceedingly different from the others).

One thing the NES did very differently from almost all the competition though was the way that it accessed video memory. On most systems, including the SMS and consoles that came after the NES, it works like this: The system motherboard has a graphics card and a video memory chip (VRAM) on it. The CPU occasionally sends graphics information into VRAM (such as pixel data or tile maps), and the graphics card then uses whatever data is in VRAM to draw a frame of video.

The NES is very similar, except that instead of the graphics card asking an internal VRAM chip for graphics data, the graphics card asks the game cartridge for graphics data. This means that custom hardware can be put inside of the cartridge that handles the graphics card's requests in special ways in order to achieve REALLY cool effects! This is particularly powerful when combined with the idea that drawing a frame of video happens line-by-line, top-to-bottom linearly over a span of time. If the hardware inside the cartridge re-maps memory in the middle of the graphics card outputting a frame, then everything before that point (i.e., above it/to the left on the TV) will look one way, and everything after that (below/to the right) will look another way. This can be used cleverly to, e.g., expand the maximum number of tiles that are visible at once, or even implement cool stuff like rudimentary vertical split screen! None of this would be possible if the NES fetched graphics data solely from internal VRAM, because if it did, there would be no way for custom in-cartridge hardware to intervene.

[rainofaugustsith]

SWTOR: On Switching Factions

Faction switching. Your ex-Jedi is disenchanted. Your Imperial Agent wants to work for the SIS. You've been able to declare your loyalty to the other side, and so far all it's gotten you is some questionable cantina meetings. 

Spoilers for Iokath, Onslaught and Osssus

I think that despite the challenges, this is something SWTOR's devs will have to approach more directly eventually. Yes, we understand the willing suspension of disbelief, but for some characters it's completely impossible that their old faction would trust them in any way. There's the Jedi Knight, who can be denied a Master title at the end of their class story if they are too dark-sided. There's the smuggler, who may have opened fire on Republic ships and started a pirate empire. There's the bounty hunter, who may have blown up the ship of the Darth they were working for. There's the Imperial Agent who may now work for the SIS. There are all eight classes able to choose to ally with the Sith Empire in KOTET and all eight classes able to freely choose to support either side on Iokath, an act that leads to the death of the other faction's leader.

If a character has been actively working against their old faction for several expacs now, why does it make sense that they would be put in a position of great trust? It doesn't. And yet, on Ossus only Major Anri comments, and then only briefly, if an Imperial sided with the Republic on Iokath. If a Republic character sided with the Empire on Iokath, it's casually brought up in a news interview and then never again. While Tau and Darth Savik can question the player character's judgment, again, there are no repercussions, and they are still left in positions of great authority and responsibility.

Republic traitor Ror encounters Imperial Major Anri on Mek-Sha. 

At some point, it's going to fall apart. So far, if you are in the Untitled Saboteur Game you have caused major damage to your old faction on Mek-Sha, Onderon and Corellia, as well as more minor damage on Osssus and Dantooine. Somebody should have noticed already, and there's no way it can continue indefinitely. But how?

From a technical standpoint I don't think we are ever going to see a scenario where your character completely changes every single thing about themselves - all their abilities; titles, access to the other side's heroics from earlier in the game, etc. I think there's still much they can do.

New planets, new coding?

I think that trying to recode/flag PCs so they can walk into the opposite faction's fleet or homeworlds would be too much trouble, and lead to nothing but a mess of errors. If a PC who has defected needs to visit, say, Tython or Dromund Kaas they could always do what they did in the SoR Prelude flashpoints, the end of the Jedi Knight story and KOTET chapter 2, and make it an entirely different instanced area or different version of the planet that is not connected to the class story open world.

I also think it would be problematic to try to switch defectors over so they can access the other side's heroics or repeatable quests, so it would perhaps end up being that the old content is still accessible and the newer content is where they are recognized as defectors. There's already a lack of continuity and consistency with the old content so I don't see this as being problematic - for instance the NPC quest giver of the Tatooine bonus series still refers to my Sith Inquisitor as being an apprentice of Lord Zash, even if she is now the Alliance Commander and hasn't had anything to do with Zash in a decade of the story timeline. My level 75 Alliance Commander Sith Warrior can still fight the Hate Machine on Korriban. Yeah, it's out of order, we know, leave it be.

For content going forward, though, I think it could be more feasible. They set up Iokath so Republic OCs who chose to switch faction allegiance could enter the Imperial base and access the Imperial vendors and vice versa. On Dantooine and Onderon there are also specific quests/drop points for saboteurs that differentiate them from loyalists.

There are also quite a few planets where there are clickables, missions and resources which can be accessed by players in both factions from SoR onward. On Rishi, both factions can talk to Harlow Ricks; on Yavin 4, Oricon and Ziost they have the same daily quests. On Zakuul and Odessen all the medical droids, etc. are neutral and can be used by both factions' OCs. Thus, I'm assuming that there are ways to implement things so the bases and NPCs aren't hard-coded to only respond/reject to a specific faction.

New icons?

I'm thinking each class should have a new icon on the nameplate for anyone who has defected. Maybe the same icon they originally had, but in a different color.

New abilities?

I think switching everything would be a coding nightmare that would likely break the characters. However, I've noticed my "fallen Jedi's" eyes going red from time to time now. If they ever raise the level cap or offer a NEW ability or two, I think they could potentially code it so that saboteurs could train an ability more in line with their new faction, ie, a fallen Jedi learning lightning. They already have different abilities for different advanced classes; they could add one universal for all specs that is for saboteurs. There could be a 'secret trainer' on Odessen to teach it - like the training holos on Zakuul and Asylum who can accommodate all eight classes - so it's available to all factions.

A Jedi with glowing red eyes and power?

New Names?

5/8 of the class names are faction specific. A few, like "Sith Warrior," "Imperial Agent" and "Jedi Consular" could be changed just by lopping off the first word, and there are several like the Smuggler which really don't need anything at all since they are not faction specific, but the others are trickier. But since it's mostly just used on the  login screen, it doesn't seem necessary to change it.

As to how the character is addressed in game, that changes several times just over the course of the class stories, and again once you get to SoR and again at KOTFE - the Imperial Agent goes from being called 'Agent' to "Cipher Nine' to 'Legate' to 'Cipher Nine' to Commander, for instance - so the ability to change seems feasible. They could keep using "Commander" as it's a neutral Alliance title. "Agent," "Captain," and "Hunter" are also neutral. The Trooper may have been demoted since they have switched from the Republic to the Imperial military, but they may also may be given the same or a higher title, like General, in recognition of their service as the Commander of the Alliance.

For the Jedi and Sith? This gets tough because switching factions does not necessarily mean they intend to become a Sith or Jedi (Scourge certainly worked with the Jedi Knight without flipping over, for example). As I recall from the Jedi Knight story, the Republic characters completely ignore Scourge's title and do not refer to him as 'Lord Scourge' and I can't see the Sith Empire referring to defected Jedi as 'Master Jedi' either. Perhaps they will need to clarify your Jedi or Sith characters' intentions in the story. They could formally give a Sith lord or Darth title to the Jedi who have switched - Empress Acina or Vowrawn would certainly have that capability. Giving a former Sith a "Master" title might be trickier. The Jedi who were originally Sith seem to have to start at the bottom, and having the Alliance Commander referred to as a padawan would just be...weird. So they could always just go with the neutral Commander in all cases, or other titles like Battlemaster or Wrath.

Companions

I think it's inevitable that a defector will lose some companions - including those considered "main story." There are a few that are so staunchly loyal to their faction that they will not entertain the idea of working with you if you switch. In practice this may end up being like the "departures" that occurred after Ossus, ie, the companions send letters telling you that they are leaving, but they remain active in your companion list and can be accessed and used for questing or crew skill missions at any time.

[branderp94]

On the Frustrating way the Government is Handling TikTok

I have been frustrated with the way our government is handling TikTok.

This post is super long and I would appreciate a read but I wanted to offer a TL;DR:

Our leaders do not understand tech, which would be fine, except, they regulate it. They are wasting time and resources pointlessly. The ban feels xenophobic because it does not address identical problems in home-grown platforms or identify any TikTok-specific problems. There are real threats feasible and we should do more to protect against them but we should be applying those things uniformly. None of those threats are unique to TikTok but TikTok does have unique implementation vectors that make it particularly vulnerable to those attacks from the inside. China does not allow our internet companies in their country. It would be fair for us to go tit for tat in hopes they will relent and the world can come together but that hasn't been proposed by anyone in the government. This is a scary path for us to go down for no concrete reason. It also chips away at our rights and that's pretty shitty.

The TikTok hearing is full of fundamental misunderstandings of how technology fundamentally works. The best example is when Congressman Richard Hudson asked the CEO of TikTok 'does TikTok access the home WiFi network?'

There is a lot wrong with this. It's a broad question that fundamentally does not understand what a network is. It's being directed toward a CEO whose job it is to run the company, not architect the app form a technical perspective. While the CEO would likely have a better understanding on how networks work than the Congressman, expecting him to know exactly how the app uses network resources is a pretty technical ask. It doesn't even matter though. Assume the CEO knew exactly how the app worked. The question itself is fundamentally confusing to anyone who knows how networks work. It's an unanswerable question designed out of either incompetence or malice. Neither of which are productive.

That lack of productivity in the hearing is fundamental to the hearing. It's impossible to separate malice from incompetence in this case. I really think it's malice because I really have a hard time believing people this smart and well-resourced are actually this dumb. It's entirely possible I am giving them too much credit. Focusing on whether they're malicious or just bad at what they're doing kind of misses the point though. The point is that they wasted so much time and effort on being specifically unproductive. There are bigger fish to fry. You can say that about literally anything and it's usually true. That doesn't mean that they shouldn't tend to more than one issue. This just feels particularly wasteful.

The desire to ban feels almost entirely xenophobic to me. The anti-Chinese rhetoric during 2020 is all but forgotten by the news at this point but this feels so directly fueled by it to me. I really can't think of another reason our government would be so focused on TikTok's flaws while pretty plainly not caring that American social media platforms have the literal same flaws. This was plainly pointed out by TikTok's CEO directly to Congress in the hearing more than once and they plainly didn't care. I don't like 'what about the other guy' as an argument. But in this case, the argument seems to be genuine in that the problems are identical so far as I can tell, the difference is that this company is a subsidiary of a Chinese company and those companies are corn-fed. I do think that difference actually means something and could have real consequences. What's disturbing is that Congress seems to out-right not care about why that difference is distinct. They didn't explore that once in any meaningful way in the 7-hour hearing as far as I know.

I do want to actually go over that difference. The difference from one perspective is splitting hairs. From another it has real potential to be very harmful. From the splitting hairs perspective, TikTok operates as all other social media companies do so far as anyone can tell. They're just better at it. There is suspicion that the fact that they're better at it is the only reason any of this is happening. That if they're better at it, home-grown competitors are less competitive. It is suspected that American social media companies are threatened by how good TikTok is and that, that is why they actively lobbied congress to ban TikTok. Personally I buy that they're threatened but not that, that's why Congress is holding hearings and threatening to ban. I think they hate Meta almost as much and would hate them more if they were Chinese.

That other reason? The real potential? This COULD be a real tool for foreign actors to algorithmically shift American discourse in real ways. The Cambridge Analytica scandal mostly shows us this. The ways our discourse could be impacted by TikTok are even more concerning. Cambridge's tactics used advertisements to target people predisposed to believing false narratives in order to sow chaos and heat political rhetoric. This allowed investigators to follow the money and get to the bottom of the issue. It allowed Facebook to identify the problem and stop accepting political advertisement. It was (eventually) clear that these were advertisements and who paid for them. In an algorithmically-fueled influence campaign who is doing what and why can be made invisible and indistinguishable from content you already enjoy and unknowingly spread by the very people you follow. It is very genuinely very dangerous.

However, while I would argue Cambridge successfully turned up the heat in the election, data suggests it didn't actually win Trump the election in 2016. I know this is counter to popular rhetoric but it isn't backed by available data. I do think the ability to divide us more is dangerous even if it doesn't win elections though. We need unity now more than we have for a long time.

Notice how TikTok isn't the problem here though? Notice how there is no EVIDENCE of TikTok doing anything malicious whatsoever whereas there is evidence of foreign malicious actors on Facebook? There is evidence of the same kind of activity on Twitter too, Twitter is just less relevant. This isn't a diss on Twitter's current ownership or former. It's just objectively less relevant and less effective at spreading propaganda. Not that, that's a bad thing.

If these asshats (asshats being the people running our country) were actually interested in the threats social media pose to the social fabric of our country I would suggest that intelligence communities work with social media companies to do social influence testing in test environments to identify these vulnerabilities and that they work to harden the platforms against them through detection and moderation. But, they aren't actually interested in solving the problem, are they? They'd rather punch China. Whether it's because they're racist, nationalist, or idiots; I don't care. They need to stop their idiotic and bigoted behavior in favor of actual solutions.

I mentioned earlier that I don't like TikTok. That is because I really think we need to limit our exposure to short form content. I really think it fucks with out attention span in bad ways. I know that's something said about new media every time new media comes out. It was said about radio, movies, tv, comics, video games, the internet, and now social media. The reason I think this is different is because I feel like you can plainly observe people's attention span dwindling. If you feel your attention span dwindling, I really recommend Bored and Brilliant. It's a book and an old podcast. You can no longer subscribe to the podcast. It ended a long time ago. You can still listen to it here.

This doesn't mean it should be banned. Every social media platform has this problem and it's something we need to address as a society. China does not allow our internet companies in their country. It would be fair for us to go tit for tat in hopes they will relent and the world can come together but that hasn't been proposed by anyone. As I mentioned prior, more unity makes the world a better place in almost every way.

It's concerning that so much of the government wants to ban it with no clear reason. This leads to conspiratorial thinking because 'they can't be that dumb'. It's possible they just are. It's also possible they are just trying to grab at power and using banning a foreign asset as an excuse. The proposed bill that would ban TikTok chips away at our rights in alarming ways.

Amendment:

It's also very frustrating that I have only given a few hours of thought on this and it feels more insightful than anything any official has said. They are some of the most powerful people on earth regulating a nearly $70bn. They should be a hell of a lot more thoughtful.

[scriptflorist]

Hi, thanks a lot for your answer about floral competition but it isn't what I was asking. I know how one works and have a specific reason for the couple to meet the winner. The problem is that I don't do floral art and barely know a thing about design, so I need to know how to describe them and not make what I describe improper or impossible flower care, downright ugly, out of place, etc without actually being an expert who can design something great, especially a winning design.

Hi again!

Thank you for the clarification, you’re right I kind of missed that you want to describe the actual competition. But only kind of because one of the things that’s important for you to understand here is that competitive floristry largely happens behind closed door. Preferably even each florist to themselves. The events generally aren’t advertised to the public (not counting the world cups), rather than exhibitions displaying the end results. That being said these two events always have to happen back to back because flowers don’t last forever so the works are often made available to the public the same day they were created. Usually in the afternoon, evening or on the following day.

This is largely due to the fact that competitive floristry calls for complex arrangements that take like an hour and a half to build in the first place. And while people may enjoy watching that, it would come at the cost of the florist's concentration and perhaps their flowers too. You may remember I’ve talked about that in the previous post, however, there’s a second reason this doesn’t happen. And that’s cause the actual evaluation and assessment takes foreeeeever. (I was so bored out of my mind that I brought my laptop to our finals so I could write some while waiting for the examiners judgement, me and some classmates ended up listening to music for the longest time of our wait. It was like three hours and we were only five people.) There’s a huge check-list of technical and art-related topics to go through and it will take the jury several hours to complete it for every arrangement. Technique is almost the most important thing so it makes up a rather large chunk of the evaluation sheets actually, so your florists are most likely to get points deducted in that department. People who aren’t acquainted with floristry likely won’t even notice the blemishes a jury has to criticise so it’s not necessarily essential knowledge for your characters.

This masterpost is from way back, but it does give a good idea about what florists mean when they talk about technique. Technique at all times has to be well hidden by your florists. Although there are a few exceptions, like floral tape on a stem not counting for corsages. However, most technique is often hidden well enough to the untrained eye, keep that in mind for the characters who marvel the artwork.

The first thing you will have to ask yourself is whether or not the competition they attend is behind closed doors. Because if it is, you’re fine with just laying focus on the best (or the first three) arrangements, while pointing out general details about the rest. Their general opinion on colour, type and size should be sufficient. Maybe they notice a flower they like too, but unless they think someone else’s is waaaay better they’re not going pay much attention to detail once they see the others.

Whether or not the florists are going to work in the same space or each gets a separate room may depend a little on the location, but usually either or works. Especially if nobody needs extra space. One could even request to work by themselves if it helps them, juries aren’t picky about that. It’s more important that everyone finishes on time. Your characters may even choose to wear earplugs or headphones. I wore headphones during my midterm because talking to others makes me a slower florist and that was bad when I was working on a schedule. So I had a playlist that was roughly half an hour.

Given that every competition, there will be some for the florists too. Usually, flowers are allowed to be prepared, meaning they’ve been rid of all excess leaves, and thorns or side shoots. However, they won’t be allowed to cut them to size already. They will also have extra flowers in case something breaks. Same goes for wiring.

From there on out it’s everyone for themselves. Your florists will be busy thinking about how they have to do their arrangement, what has to be prepared first and which flowers come first. Size, shape and colour play a huge role in which flowers are chosen for which role in the arrangements. But as a rule of thumb lighter colours have to be set higher than darker ones, however, for example, a blue larkspur would have to be set above a white rose because of its shape and character. So your winning florist might catch a glimpse of their surroundings but will for the largest part be lost in their work. Afterwards comes the waiting, maybe even the announcement of the winner, unless that’s supposed to be public, and at last the exhibition where the public will be invited. (And family and friends usually.) If the arrangements aren’t already where they are supposed to be the florists have to set them up for the exhibition. This, however, depends on whether or not the arrangements are fit for moving in the first place.

The next question you should ask yourself is what sort of arrangement you have in mind for the winner. What sort of framework does it have? How tall is it supposed to be? Is it wall-like? Supposed to be set on the ground or on some sort of pedestal? Is it a wreath in any way? (Basically, is it round like a circle and made off plant? There you go consider it a wreath.) Are there branches? Is it supposed to be hanging? Go look at pictures of floral arrangements and write down what you like. Look at vases and basins and baskets and the likes – again write down what suits your tastes. Look at colour gradients and write down what you like, ask google if flowers come in that colour if you aren’t sure – write down what you like. (Complementary colours also work well.) Have a look at wreaths and garlands – write down what you like. Because this is the part where floristry is just another art form and what’s art supposed to be other than pleasing to the eye. Which is an utterly subjective thing in the end. The one thing I cannot tell you is what any of the pieces are going to look like, there are too many factors playing into it including the character of the people making them. I usually go into it by deciding I like a flower and go from there and don’t really have an idea of the final product till I’ve created it unless I am forced to articulate it.

Colors that almost clash make visual tension that can be flashy and attention getting. (Example: pale lavender daisy mums with bright orange gerberas).  - Mod Den

(You should also give the theme of the competition some thought, is it freedom, is it love, is it all retro etc. because that too will shape the arrangement in one way or another.) The bottom line here is that a lot is possible and just because Picasso may not be your taste and Monet is doesn’t mean its immediately ugly. Even if we’re talking floral arrangements and not painted art. Same rules apply. You don’t have to describe your winning arrangement down to a t, as long as you get across that it’s bedazzling and a masterpiece of craftsmanship that’s more than enough. Emotions are more important in describing artworks than knowing in which directions the brush went when crossing the canvas. For example, you could have them compliment their use of colour theory.

It’s a floral art competition, the designs can be *anything* and other than not showing the underlying support in ways that shouldn’t be, and the basic principles of design (proportion, size, form, color).

If a reference needs to be made to a design, then vague comments about the use of a certain flower or the way one of the elements of design were implemented would be best. Otherwise a specific design has to be completely thought up, checked for feasibility, and then it’s still going to be subjective of if that one should win over some other one. Heck, maybe even one of the characters thinks the 2nd place design was better, happens all the time in art competitions with other media.- Mod Den

What I can tell you is that you won’t have to worry about care unless your winner made a bouquet. Which would be an open access competition, like what I talked about in the previous answer. However the larger the competition the more likely it won’t be the only thing your winner made in the end. And bouquets only require care because they need to be cut and given fresh water. (A slanted cut with a regular boring fruit knife or preferably a pocket knife with a single blade. Many florists carry one of these.) Floral foam already takes care of everything because it’s soaked through with water and giving the stems an edge makes piercing into it way easier. (Note: Your florists do know that floral foam needs to be given a minute or two to soak up the water instead of being emerged in it because the latter only causes a dry centre and sad droopy flowers through that.)

Of all the things out of place, you could describe flowers out of season may be the worst offenders, so no tulips in summer and chamomile in winter and the likes. A florist who doesn’t know their craft would not only make for a poor competitor. Actually, they would no competitor at all.

- Mod Jana

Disclaimer

This blog is intended as writing advice only. This blog and its mods are not responsible for accidents, injuries or other consequences of using this advice for real world situations or in any way that said advice was not intended.