#so then it fucked with other stuff and i'd have to toggle it back and forth

[deepwoundsandfadedscars]

I'm ready to tear my hair out, I want to comfortably use Docs without staring into a flashbang, can someone recommend a functional dark mode for using google docs? All the extensions I've looked at just darken the page and makes the text unreadable so then the whole document has to be edited to change the font (pain in the ass) and/or does not function on the google docs selection page, like the list of my documents is still fuck off bright so it is irritating to move between documents

[dreadnotau]

So, what the heck's been going on with Dread Not?

First off, kind of a big announcement, the twitter is officially GONE. As "twitter" (x?) added a policy that starting from November 15th, all posts made by users would be fed to their AI algorithm, both my personal twitter as well as the Dread Not twitter are deleted, to prevent my content from being used to feed some shitty AI algorithm. Tumblr isn't exempt from this bullshit AI fad either, but at least they gave you a toggle to opt out of it. It's a low bar and yet sites keep not clearing it. Don't be afraid, though, I've downloaded the archive of the official twitter account and if the fancy strikes me (and if there's enough of a demand for it) I might mess around with the html and make a downloadable version of the Dread Not Twitter for anyone interested in having it as a remnant of that bygone era. I'd just have to find a way to scrub all my actual personal data from that account first though, lmao…

On a more serious note, you probably noticed the comic itself hasn't updated properly since, what, June? And that was only one page. Before then the last update was in September 2023, so it's been well over a year since proper, consistent content for this comic has been made. For that, I am genuinely sorry. I made a lot of false promises and with the update in June I hyped it up with being "finally back" and then held up none of what I promised. That sucks and I wish I had anyone else to blame, but it's all me and my shitty nonexistent work ethic. I COULD'VE finished Act 1 during the summer, but with the way my motivation for art works, I got swept up in other projects thinking I could make up for lost time eventually, and then just didn't. This sucks and I wish it hadn't happened, but here we are.

Moving forward is going to be difficult because of this. As mentioned, I have other projects I'm working on now, projects I'm arguably more invested in than Dread Not. If Dread Not was EASIER to make, it'd be less of a problem, but I've set up a kind of impossible standard for myself of putting my everything into every page. This makes it look phenomenal, I can't deny it, the last few pages have been some of my best work and I still look at them very fondly, but there's also an aspect of… what it is that I'm actually putting so much work into. I don't mean to diminish my own fiction here, but Dread Not was kind of made on a whim, and while it has themes I find interesting it's not as… deeply significant as some of my other work is, or at least is MEANT to be.

To use a metaphor to illustrate, Dread Not is like popcorn that I've painstakingly made a giant ornate bowl to serve it with, while my other projects are fully planned meals that I need to find a good way to serve, and if all my energy is spent trying to figure out how to make my popcorn snack presentable, what time does that leave to the Actual Full Course Meal I'm planning? I hope that metaphor makes sense, because popcorn is still good! It's tasty! You can make it really nice and spicy, but at the end of the day that's not a gourmet meal, and I'd like to try my hand at more serious (culinary) projects. Projects that require me to work not just physically, but also mentally, to explore more difficult themes that mean a lot more to me. And, don't get me wrong, Dread Not HAS interesting ideas in there, it's just that I haven't reached them yet because I've been so preoccupied with this fucking BOWL. The popcorn is cold now and I still haven't finished painting it's goddamn container. There's a reason you usually serve this stuff in a paper bag.

And, paper bag analogy is right, because if you've seen my latest art dump on my art blog, you might've seen a couple of different styles in one place. Flat colours, monochrome colours with an emphasis on shading, a general complete lack of backgrounds, etc. What I want from you, dear reader, is to tell me what YOU want from Dread not. There's no way for me to finish act 1 in a reasonable time frame without downgrading the art, so I want to know what kind of downgrade you're willing to put up with. My personal ideal would be if I could just release the remaining pages as just line-art with minimal shading, but I understand that's probably not what people want, so…

Here's a forum for you to weigh in! (I recommend filling it out after you read this whole post)

On a different note, I want to heavily stress that I'm not abandoning the project, it's just morphing into something different now. It kind of HAS to in order to survive. Originally, working on Dread Not was something I did between classes, it was my only real "organised" artistic outlet if you could call it that, but now that I'm going to school FOR art, something as demanding as a full comic is less an outlet and more a chore. Even WITH downgraded visuals, that's still time spent on something that's not getting me grades or recognition, and while it's fun I'm kind of planning on doing art as a career now, so fun projects have to be REALLY fun for me to still invest so much time into (again, refer back to how my shitass art motivation works). This is why Act 2 is now planned to be entirely text, like other fics I actually work on in my spare time as a Break from visual art. It's a continuation of Act 1 still, just as originally intended, but I'll be adjusting my original script for Act 2 to fit into the new format. I'm sorry if this is disappointing to anyone (if the visual downgrade for the end of act 1 wasn't enough), but this is the most reliable way I can get myself to actually work on Dread Not since, again, I don't think a "passion project" should be draining to think about.

All of the technical stuff about the comic/AU/fic ASIDE… I want to give a huge shoutout to everyone in the Dread Not Discord server. Despite all the hiatuses and despite all the Lack of content I've given them, the server's been decently active and we've even made stories and characters completely divorced from Dread Not or even Deltarune as a concept! It's a really nice group to be a part of and I'm eternally grateful that something I made attracted such creative and thoughtful and SKILLED people into one place to share new ideas and discuss old ones. It's just a great time all around, and I don't think I'd be where I am today if it weren't for that server, as corny and stupid as that may sound.

I'm sorry this ended up being kind of a damper of an announcement, but seeing the state this blog is in I think it's a little necessary to make a proper post addressing all the stuff that's been going on behind the scenes. I hate leaving ya'll in the dark, but I also know that these posts are really long and probably really boring so getting something like this every other week would probably be even more annoying than complete silence.

Again, thank you all for your patience and, by all means, weigh in on what you think should be done with this AU going forward.

-Kooki

PS - I'll announce my other projects when they're in a more presentable state, for now you'll have to wait for those too, sorry.

[heat--end]

beat the scarlet/violet DLC! i havent done some of the bigger postgame stuff yet, but ive beaten the main story, which is really the important part

ill leave my longer thoughts under the read more to avoid spoilers

honestly, i really like how they handled this DLC. i think part of me likes kitakami as a place more, but this is also a really nice little spot. the terarium is a cool place, the pokemon in it are cool, etc.

what i REALLY liked was the story, as well. ive talked about this with a lot of other people, but SV's main theme seems to be getting yourself too lost in your own desires, so much so that you don't realize what happens, and this continues that. ambition is a great thing, but pushed too far, it can put others at risk. i think kieran's character is fantastic in this regard. it genuinely makes sense, and it's no surprise he ends up the way he does, and his desire to look up to the player becomes warped and corrupted because he wants to be better, he wants to achieve the dreams he's seeing the player reach, etc.

it's really interesting stuff. i really, REALLY like it, honestly, and i love how they handled briar in the way, too. briar literally gets so invested and excited about terastialization research that she's putting *three children* at risk. she actively realizes this and apologizes, and i like that they highlighted this. it's a neat theme, and i think the DLC tackles it really well

like the lore and extra stuff introduced is cool, but i feel like always, the character writing shines really well here. it's nice to see a bit of old kieran peek back out, him falling into old habits, but then we see him lose himself again as SOON as a sliver of a chance for him to be better than the MC arrives. for that, i'm a huge fan, i think they did a really good job there

also, big fan of BBQs. scratches that "i want to do PLA tasks forever" itch just enough to be satisfying

the one thing i wasn't a fan of was the battle difficulty, however. now, keep in mind, after asking my friends for some help i WAS able to adjust my team and have strategies to beat them and all that, but MAN, this is WAY too drastic of a leap in difficulty compared to base game, IMO. it'd be one thing if this was optional, but this is the main story.

now, keep in mind, i don't mind if they want to make pokemon games harder. i think it's a good thing. challenge and all that. but when base SV wasnt... ANYTHING like this, it is VERY jarring for them to like, legitimately start using competitive movesets and strategies and all that, without so much as a means to prepare you for it. i feel like there's gonna be a lot of people who just get hard walled by some of the battles, and idk how i really feel about it.

i AM glad this is here, but, i don't think it shouldve been the DEFAULT. some kind of toggle or even having these be post-game battles wouldve been great. but having it be the main difficulty scaling feels really bizarre in comparison to SV's base difficulty. hell, kitakami wasn't nearly as bad as this. it's a leap that is very, VERY drastic.

(and yeah, i did get fucked up bad early on, but keep in mind this is coming from someone who first tried kieran, who is the hardest battle in the DLC. so it's not like i was just playing poorly all the time)

also stellar as a tera type is kinda just whatever i feel. idk not really as interesting as it seemed to be. it's cool lore wise, but even then it's just like... eh, neat, i guess LOL

all in all, i really liked indigo disk. it wasn't the most mindblowing thing ever, and i feel like i MAYBE liked teal mask more, but honestly, it's not by a huge margin. it was pretty good, i had a good time. i'd say it won't win over anybody who already didnt like base SV, but it's worth if you like the base game because it improves on a lot. honestly, i think i like the DLC more than i do the base game, and i already liked SV, lmao

[foxpunk]

the new discord update is something i'm...disappointed about. yeahhh disappointed is apt. i think things like the launchpad and swipe gestures are neat ideas in theory, but their execution leaves much to be desired. not having gestures be a toggle is an accessibility nightmare, for one. the gesture responses are also too finicky. not smooth at all and often responding even when there's a swipe in a different direction. lagging significantly as well. discord's claims of improving load times fall flat when so many people are complaining about even longer load times.

complaints and observations and general ranting below the cut along with a list of hopefully helpful settings and alternatives for those who need it.

i feel like a lot of discord's issues with their updates in the past year or so could be negated--or at least abated--by expanding their pool of beta testers, testing for longer lengths of time, and (crucially) refining changes more before rolling them out. like...super basic shit they're just not doing to the extent they need to be doing them.

(on that note...discord, you literally have the email of every user, would it kill you to send out a few more surveys asking your userbase what possible new features sound good to them? i know a lot of people have discord email stuff turned off but can you at least try?! hell, if there was an option to opt in to email surveys and i thought they'd actually listen to responses they got, i'd turn it on out of sheer desperation at this point.)

also--and i know this is some extra work for them to do, and they seem to really hate that--i think that when such major changes are rolled out they should 1) be rolled out a bit slower/in smaller chunks and 2) at least SOME of the features should reasonably have a toggle to keep the old settings (*cough* GESTURES *cough*). their motive for this doesn't even have to be out of the good of their hearts! like, fuck telemetrics, but if they're gonna have them in their app anyways at least use telemetrics to like, gauge how many people are using these hypothetical toggles so you have another way to judge how users are responding. there! free idea! please use it.

anyways, i want to end on something helpful so here are a few bits of info about the updates i've discovered messing around, and also ways (or. well. A Way) to change them back if you have too much trouble adjusting. i'm sure plenty of people have noticed these things already, but i thought i'd compile them for those who want it all in one place or who haven't had the time or energy to mess with things in the app.

Settings > Accessibility > Reduced Motion: as far as i can tell, this does not seem to apply to the new transition animations in the app. oof, to say the least.

Messages > Add Friends > "Allow contacts to add me": many people were worried about this checkbox, but thankfully they seemed to have fixed the its-checked-automatically-and-doesn't-stay-unchecked thing. and, regardless, it doesn't actually change your app settings. if you already have Contact Sync disabled (Settings > Privacy & Safety > Find Your Friends > "Sync Contacts") checking this separate box will not suddenly enable it. however, if you have not disabled contact syncing then this checkbox will function as intended when you click the "Find friends" button below it.

Swipe-to-Reply: thankfully, you do not have to swipe to reply, the option to long press a message for a menu is still there. (for those wondering: swiping is nice accessibility for some and horrible accessibility for others, and should always be a toggle if you know what you're doing when making an app...*pointed stare into camera*). unfortunately, there's no way to turn swipe replies off that i've found.

Settings > Advanced > LaunchPad > "Full Screen Gesture": this claims to turn swipe replies off in exchange for using the gesture to activate the LaunchPad. however, after testing it out multiple times it does not actually turn them off and simply creates a gesture conflict that leaves both swipe replies and the LaunchPad more difficult to access.

Settings > Advanced > LaunchPad > "Right Edge Gesture": same issues as the first option with the additional difficulties of a more...sensitive touch response. forget "gesturing" if you so much as tap near the right edge of the screen it will attempt to pull out the LaunchPad. this right "edge" area also covers the reply button and settings menu toggles, by the way. so if you enabled this, good luck sending messages or turning the feature back off.

(did i mention these first two options also make it nearly impossible to swipe the left side channel and server lists open and closed? because they do.)

Settings > Advanced > LaunchPad > "Pull Tab": this is the option to choose if you want to keep the LaunchPad without gesture conflicts and shit navigation. it creates a tiny tab on the right edge of the screen for you to pull out the LaunchPad with, and you can adjust where the tab floats as well.

obviously, the final "Disabled" setting simply disabled the LaunchPad. Bye bye!

the fact that other color schemes for the app are behind a paywall is absolute bullshit by the way and i hate that there's no easy fix for that on mobile.

personally, i like that the vertical server list is here to stay and that DMs are now in a separate place, as this is a bit more similar to the desktop version where servers are vertically listed and DMs are in a different place (albeit still along the left edge).

before you ask, no there's no setting to get the old color scheme and layout back...UNLESS--!!!

(FOR ANDROID USERS ONLY; RIP EVERYONE ELSE.) if discord has become less accessible for you or you simply don't vibe with any of the shit currently going on, then you can download the previous version of the discord app through an APK file. first, disable auto-updates in google play. then uninstall discord from your phone. lastly, follow the instructions on this post that will help you download the necessary file from APKMirror (please note the recommended version is 206.16). do not use a different site, APKMirror is the safe one (well. safest. remember folks nothing online is 100% safe).

[lowpolyshadow]

sonic frontiers review go!!!! (non spoilers then MASSIVE spoilers under the cut) TLDR overall score: i would say it's an objective solid 8/10, but for me personally i just. i just had so much fun. 10/10

gameplay (combat/bosses) 9/10 gameplay (cybers) 6.5/10 gameplay (shmovement) 8/10

i fucking Love. Comboing Shit For Video Game Combat. it's Fun. it's Exciting. I Love That Shit. excellent combat system, i just wish either skills were harder to unlock or there were just more to unlock (preferably the latter i guess, but i can't think of anything i want ... added ... it's just that skill points are so easy to come by and i maxed out the tree pretty fast, so i have a bunch of excess points for nothing. tbf i have a LOT of excess EVERYTHING but)

bosses were fucking excellent. THE highlights imo. mob fights and stuff are fine, everything manages to be its own puzzle which i adore but mini bosses and bosses are the shit. the cyberlevels are fun genuinely but either too short to get into, have some jank physics in a couple of them, or . well some of them aren't that fun GJKLASDF but i didn't hate them! ive only played sa2 so i only recognized those ones + the Super iconic ones (chemical plant and all that) and that probably affects judgement since blind reacting to a sonic stage is the fun part imo

they're ridiculously easy (to... me at least) though. besides 1-2's s rank which i finally got, i was able to get all four missions done for every cyber level within one sitting ... on average like . 3 tries per i'd say (blind first, going back for any red rings or ring reqs, and then speed) with some taking a few more for speed but never more than like. 10-20 min tbh. in general i almost want a very hard mode bc the game overall was a very chill time, which is fine but sometimes i want my shit rocked

parries being Not timing based both threw me off (bc i would try to let go at the exact time when in fact you just hold it) and made them feel a little less ultra cool since sonic will just hold the parry for as long as ... you do, essentially (though there is heavy end lag on it so if you don't parry anything that's at least punished) it's a minor tryhard gripe where i wish there was like a PARRY parry i could toggle or smth

i like being sonic in a big environment it's just fun. the amount of fucked up shit you can do is great, he truly is a prime candidate for bigass open areas (and he controls pretty nicely, just got a couple weird moments and things like he goes into 'trick' mode too easily or some platforming things don't work the way they're supposed to bc you go too fast lol)

story…… 8.5/10 characters 10/10 i like them :)

character writing was absolutely the highlight for me this game, good banter, many quips, overall just characterization i adore and love to see i was well fed this game with my beloved little scrimblos it was a good time

the story itself went pretty hard ngl, a lot more lore than i expected and generally it was sonic taking its ridiculous plot seriously again which is all i wanted !!!! it's like somehow ridiculous but probably the most straightforward story they've done in a while, but that's not a bad thing. good story i pogged a few times

music 11/10 straight bangers they just don't fucking miss

i don't think i have much spoiler stuff i'd wanna say other than i genuinely think they hyped themselves too much at the start. like the gameplay was fun learning how it works, how movement goes, the setup and everything etc. etc. i always 100% the map first thing as soon as i can then go through for anything i need/pick stuff up along the way and then i do the boss fight

and that first boss fight. is so fucking sick. oh my god. i felt like. if i was 12 and played this and got to experience that boss fight the way i did now it would've literally changed the trajectory of my life. it DID change the trajectory of my life right now at 23 it was just pure hype, i was so giddy, i had the biggest fucking grin i was literally ready to physically pop off yelling LETS GOOOOO i just let the little tutorial popup chill while i head banged to the song like dear fucking god dude. INSANE intro they set the bar way too high off the bat

wyvern/second boss was perhaps my favorite mechanically just bc it really goes at you the most, you gotta react a lot and parry a lot to get through the fight which is Fun .... giganto/first boss tho. easily the most memorable experience in gaming that i've had in years. it was just so phenomenally done, probably biased bc it's the first one but shadow of the colossus-ing your way up to his fucking head to get the emerald, turn into super sonic, hear that FUCKING SONG

but this game has sonic be so fucking anime and that means knight/boss 3 easily has the best fucking finisher when sonic picks up a sword the size of the island itself and does the most anime cut in half shot he possibly can god it was so fucking SICK THIS GAME IS SICK SONIC IS THE COOLEST

the story weakness imo is the ending where they had so much build up but not a Ton of payoff, not even talking about sonic like essentially dying in soul/mind and then being revived with friendship (based tbh) but like the last boss fight and last islands just weren't nearly as cool as the others imo .... supreme was a lil similar to giganto and went by a lot faster than expected, probably bc by that point sonic's probably juiced up from upgrades (i went all in on attack no defense too lol sooo) ... i love a good bullet hell but i wanted a super cool super sonic fight, a hyper sonic fight, something that lets me go to town and see a fucking Spectacle

fun bullet hell but that wasn't what i'm HERE for (also finally hearing im here was sick but the fight itself really was so short/not quite as hard or anything innovative that it.... ehhh .... plus it was oddly quiet compared to the other songs i think, like, the sound mixing)

the ending feels a liiiittle rushed? The End is cool as a concept especially with how fucked up we know it is but i dunno, it really does feel like it blew the load a little too early and the ending just didn't live up to earlier hype/expectations

but it was still fun it just. it just didn't make me Feel the way giganto did, the way wyvern did, knight was where the hype started dropping off a liiiittle but knight was still a fucking SHOW where sonic beats a mf with his own shield AND THEN BLOCKS A SWORD BIGGER THAN MOUNTAINS WITH HIS OWN FUCKING HANDS THEN USES IT AGAINST HIM ITS' SIK IT'S SICK the final boss didn't have any truly THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME bits that really let you walk away going YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH and that's the part they need to fix

also no boss rush :/ brings the score down tbh i want to relive these things so fucking bad

the character relationships were soooo good though i just. gughugh. i don't want to get emo again but GOD they're such good friends they love and care about each other, i'm obsessed with amy saying how sonic loves the world and he has so much love to show because it's true sonic just LOVES living he loves life he loves getting to just Be and

tails is growing up on him faster than he expected .... uuu ....

and the fucking SONIC AND KNUCKLES BAYBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH YEAHYEAHYEAHYEAHYEAHYEAHYEAHYEAH BUTTING HEADS SNARLING AT EACH OTHER LAUGHING AND GIVING FIST BUMPS AND TALKING SHIT THEY WERE SO GOOD YEAHYEAHYHEAY MOTEHRFUCKING KNUCKLES SWEEP BABY LETS GOOOO

god. so good. so fucking good. this is a game about love (sonic and his friends, eggman and sage of all people, the koco and their. selves? their history?, even chaos technically ....) and who am i if not a fucking Sucker for that shit. lets show that creep the real super power of team work

i did not actually hear vandalize in game yet because that is apparently only if you go into the final fight on easy or normal (i played to completion on hard exclusively) but the "true" ending song by nate goddamn wants to battle is INCREDIBLY sonic. one way dream is soooo reach for the stars/endless possibilities. it just makes me Feel happy. it's a little melancholic the way all of frontiers sort of is, but it's still hopeful and all about like. going forward. overcoming anything in your path and getting better for it and seeing the start of another new adventure and that sure is sonic the hedgehog

[retphienix]

Digging my 360 out is always a weird blast from the past for me, especially if I hook it up to an ethernet and look at more stuff (I recall getting really emotional over a lost family member's account still being there the last time I did this, I won't this time I promise).

Instead I just wanted to point at some of what shows up on My Games tab because it's a fun mix of good memories and things I don't recall at all.

Beat Hazard, played a bunch of songs on that.

My nerd ass getting all the achievements on Fallout 3 and NV because I was obsessed.

GAME ROOM existing, oof.

Hitman Absolution was my first hitman game if you don't count a handful of minutes at a relatives! I LIKED it! What the FUCK! lol I'm glad I liked it, but I honest to god could not go back to it today, I'm certain of that.

Maxed cheevos on I Am Alive- a game most don't respect at all but I really enjoyed it at the time- it came out when I was obsessed with post apocalypse stuff so it scratched that itch at just the right time.

I Made A Game With Zombies in it is a MASTERPIECE of a game, highly recommend looking up a playthrough for the music alone.

Iron Brigade is actually a game I've brought up before! For good reason! It's a game I love wholeheartedly and I think to date it is the only game I became THAT invested in the COMMUNITY side of things.

And what a unique experience that was.

Picture a game, right. You love it, it is niche as heck and you love it. The game has an official forum and pretty much no other place on the internet- so the forum is active! The devs are there! The best of the best and the most obsessed are there!

Now picture my nerd ass diving in, making an ass of myself, becoming at least recognized by a great portion of them, receiving a gift from the DEVS THEMSELVES, building the wikia with them, writing guides with them, stupidly turning down the opportunity to be involved in world first perfect runs with them (what the fuck was my problem) building broken strats with them-

I was incredibly active on the community side for that game, I miss that dearly. I really should take such a big commitment step again for the next niche game I enjoy :)

Enough about IB.

I went and maxed out Minecraft on 360 for some reason? What a bizarre thing to do. I'm pretty sure the achievements were stupid as hell (I ain't checking) and I don't recall really "playing" much? But that's also the biggest platform I ever played minecraft on? Oof.

Monday Night Combat, that was a fun game during its time.

Maxed out oblivion- fun story on that one.

Oblivion was one of those few games that I was hyped beyond words before release. I would watch the trailer again and again, I'd talk with friends and family about it nonstop, I recall going on and on about being able to choose how you used weapons, dual wield, one hand, two handed, magic, bow- I was blown away by the concept.

I did a similar bit of "gushing about basic mechanics" with Halo 1 to parental figures, that was fun.

But anyway- I was hyped for Oblivion, and I got all the achievements as you can see- but to this day I have not actually done much in Oblivion lol.

Little kid me was new to the entire concept of an open world RPG!

Little kid me JUST followed the quest markers and ONLY for the main quests and guild quests!

Little kid me did NOTHING in Oblivion! lol

So I have all these hours in it, I went and did a lot of the traditional Oblivion things like making a 100 chameleon armor set with duped sigil eyes or whatever but I haven't actually "just played" Oblivion, outside of stealing, I did a lot of stealing. But side content? Nope.

OH HECK YEAH PAYDAY 2!

I played Payday 2 on 360!

For those who don't know, PD2 on 360 is the OLD version, the OG skill system and the like. It's kind of a train wreck, but I played it nonstop for like a week? Maybe just a weekend? I recall telling my cousin to get it and then I don't remember us actually ever playing? I played with some friends, then by myself, then quit.

Fast forward and I buy it on PS4 and play it TOO MUCH then buy it on PC and play it TOO MUCH lol.

Oh, Rainbow Six Vegas is in the mix. Vegas and Vegas 2 were extremely fun IN THEIR TIME. I'd revisit them with a friend I'd bet, but the liklihood of that is kinda low.

You could use the 360 camera to add yourself to the game which was sick, and I'll never forget that sniper rifles could pinpoint blind fire due to an oversight. If you went against a wall (it's a cover shooter) and clicked in the zoom toggle for a sniper you would "zoom" your blind fire reticle which actually made the sniper go from "blind fire inaccurate" to "pinpoint directly on the reticle accurate" so snipers were busted lol.

If my reckless ramble wasn't a hint at what I'm about to say at the beginning: The 360 was the true height of my gaming history. It was the console I played as a teen which is to say it was the console I had infinite time and resources to pour into, and pour into I did.

Even today I don't just sit around playing games nonstop, sometimes I wish I would, but it just doesn't "fit" anymore- but kid me? He loved that shit.

So when it comes to stories I have about games, most of them are about the 360 which means a lot of them aren't really the most entertaining to share I think?

Most people want to hear about classic game stuff, or modern game stories- but I have all this weird and out of place knowledge about what it was like being obsessed with games on the 360- an experience a lot of people my age also have so, again, they aren't interested in hearing :P

[intrepidmare]

I haven't spent the last 10+ years of my life on this site curating my dash to EXACTLY what I want to see in it for you @staff to come and forced an algorithm on me!!! DON'T YOU DARE!! That would make me consider to leave (even there's nowhere else I'd like to go bc the rest of social media sites are shitter). This is my hellsite, and I want to stay here, so don't fuck it up!

Do you want to make things better for users? How about fixing the search engine within the site? I'm positive that the user base at large will be eternally grateful if every time we search for a post we could actually find it! We don't need you to tell us what we should look at; let us seek what we want to see.

And oh! You know what else would make things better for us? Getting rid of Tumblr live, or at least let people turn it off permanently as any other feature on this site. I know why you got the thing on, and I get that money needs to come from somewhere to make the site profitable, but can you really tell me that a significant portion of the userbase is actually using that?!? Because from I can see, nobody is.

And stop babying people. This site is not difficult to use. Let me tell you that, back in the day, I had much more trouble understanding how twitter worked than I ever did with Tumblr, and this was in the ancient wild days. Anyone who doesn't understand how the site works is because they're used to get things thrown at their face, content being spoonfed to them, and having no active role in shaping their experience to their liking. Do you really want to contribute to the mindless content consumerism rampart on the internet right now?! Especially when Tumblr prided itself for the opposite?!!

Faciliting conversations, yeah, ok, that would be nice. That includes the ability to choose which blog you reply a post from (main or side blog), right? At least when you're the original poster using a side blog. It would be very very very cool if you allowed that. Sometimes, you want to keep your main blog completely separate from side blogs and people is more likely to recognize the url if they follow the side blog not the main. I understood the need not to allow that before, probably making more difficult for haters to harass other people under the protection of a different url, but if now you can track anonymous asks to users (since they have to be logged in to send said anonymous), you can do the same thing with side blogs.

Just looking at how I started this reply (and other gazillion answers in the notes), you can tell you might be jeopardizing the current base if you implement some of these changes and you don't give a choice for opting out of them. Don't lose the faithful users just trying to catch potential users that will never come here in the end (talking about those users way to used to algorithms). That's a bad play, guys. Seriously, remember the exodus after the nsfw ban? This one could be way worse. Just saying!

"Push notifications and emails are essential tools to..." No, there are not!! Most people turn those off anyway. Just ask anyone. And in my case in particular, i hate getting emails. If you force me to get them because i have push notifications off, I'll hunt you down!! Altho, I admit that getting a notif when a poll is over is cool. But that's my choice. It's my decision to what and how i get the notifications, not yours.

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I was going to post this, but i saw the update staff did, saying that the chronological order is staying as it is, and the other algorithmic stuff can be toggle off in the settings (e.g., best things first). Ok that's great! But why would you put it the way you did in the original post, then?!!

The first thing you should've said was that the new changes you want to implement will be optional!! Because as it's written, it didn't sound that way.

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[grazhir]

Astro Colony [I Hate Myself]

That is the problem with these freakin' games. There's always a better way, right? Game save: 5.0 5551212 (iteration five, seed number).

Top deck, facing north, incomplete (no livestock yet) and I can't do sunflowers yet (nor do they have any use so far).

Glance into the "human" area. Six sleepers (stacked), six tables (because they can't just eat at the cafeteria thing), stairs up to the training facility and the upper row of sleepers. This is mirrored on the other side of the platform.

Just to the left is the west mining extension, then a research station. Also mirrored on the east side.

Training (two library, two training consoles) plus the upper sleeper stack.

Solar array (incomplete). I just docked a new planetoid with gold deposits (and have two more marked). I like solar because you place it and forget it. None of this, "Shit, I'm out of uranium rods. Where's the closest planetoid with some on it?"

I maybe need to go back a version or so on the auto-catcher stacks, though. Not best pleased with them hauling meteorites right through the decking on the "human" level.

And, of course, a look at the lower levels, which is a complete fucking mess and yet somehow works.

End view, facing north. Showing off my stonkin' huge water pool. I've decided I want a water TOWER in 6.0. Imma stack those fuckers, use glass walls (except at the corners) and link 'em together so I have a "water feature".

That "deck" has ice crushers, circular saws, and the third machine (the one that makes wires). One machine per output.

The absolute clusterfuck of smelters, fabricators, and conveyor belts. The auto-catchers feed into a large crate at the bottom north end (except for ice, which is diverted before it gets to that point), which distributes to the smelters (and in one or two cases, off to the buffer/output section).

I make liberal use of filter blocks to remind me what the hell a given conveyor is carrying, as well as more for each machine to tell me what I'm running belts to/from (input materials, output).

The "suspended" platform has the robot fabricator and a ladder.

An admittedly poor shot of the buffer/output crates, again with liberal use of filter blocks used as reminders of what is what. Buffer crates to the left (for building stuffs), output to the right for further fabrication.

The center belt runs north to south, with feeds coming in between the crates so I don't have a highway rush hour disaster in distribution.

Instead, I have a spaghetti mess of epic proportions, but it works! The only hiccup is over at the ore area (upper right) where there's some polite merging going on between eastward moving metal plates and southward moving carbon ore. But that's relatively minor, and after fiddling with the outputs on the large crate, the thing barely retains any material it gets pushed out that quickly.

Huge parts of the floors are missing, because I kinda have to get underneath to run conveyors, right? And odds are, if I keep this save, I'd just box in the sides with black walls so I don't have to see any of it.

But...

Of course. I already have ideas for a more efficient design when it comes to the buffer/output crates layout. Efficiency, yes.

I'll have to start a save in creative mode (I really wish there was a toggle to switch modes or stuff like "nocost") just to experiment with ideas.

Because starting over with this save is more trouble than it's worth. I'll just keep it as is and mine some damn gold.