#ancient debugging

[hallucineet9000]

Babylon's CRT Monitor Worship Ceremony Discovered

When ancient Mesopotamians treated their terminals like sacred altars 🖥️⛪ Plot twist: They weren't praying to gods—they were debugging kernel panics

[thebleedingwoodland]

TS3 World Adventures - Mooncakes & Mooncake Machine Maker Remastered: Mooncake Mesh & Texture with Enhanced Graphics & Enabled to Buy Mode & Renamed Mod (All Languages) & Icons Replacement Mod

D E F A U L T   R E P L A C E M E N T

New custom Mooncake mesh & texture, to replace EA's "Fortune Cookies" machine maker and edible cake taken from machine maker with working Geostates & animation

EA's graphics from 512x512 with noise was enhanced to 1024x1024 with less noise and adding Simlish Hanzi to replace EA's "bad handwriting" texture on the machine maker. Click this picture below to enlarge.

Enabled to Buy Mode (Appliances > Miscellaneous Appliances), for easy access no need to type cheat "Buydebug" mode ever again.

STBL Renamed mod, from "Fortune Cookies" to "Mooncakes" translated to all languages.

月餅 （Yuèbǐng）= Moon Cake

ⓘ For language translations except Chinese, I use online translator to change word "Fortune Cookies" ---> "Mooncakes" & "Mooncake" depending on singular and plural context. Feel free to correct in comment section if you feel the translation and the grammar is wrong or I accidentally deleted other word.

Icons changed from EA's Fortune Cookies to Mooncake

Reason why I made the change:

Because Shang Simla is taking place in China, not American Chinatown, thus the portrayal of the cookies should be authentic of actual China in real life, not American cookies that are foreign to actual Chinese people. Fortune Cookies are U.S.A.- made cookies: American invention originating in California. History of Fortune Cookies (source: fancyfortunecookies.com) Mooncakes are cakes originated from China, dates back over 3,000 years to ancient China. Mooncakes are a traditional treat during the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar.

Mooncakes are the must-eat Mid-Autumn food in China. They are a traditional Chinese pastry. Their round shape and sweet flavor symbolize completeness and sweetness. At the Mid-Autumn Festival, people eat mooncakes together with family, or present mooncakes to relatives or friends, to express their love and best wishes. Mooncakes are usually eaten after dinner while admiring the moon. History of Mooncakes in China... (source: chinahighlights.com) Fortune Cookies are made in USA and only exist in USA, but mistaken by USA people themselves as "Chinese" cookies just because the cookies are sold in American Chinese restaurant in USA. We actual Chinese live on our country have never seen Fortune Cookies, as we only know the presence of those cookies in Hollywood (U.S.A.) movies. Not just culture inaccuracy, I enabled this machine maker in Buy Mode section for easy access because this item must have been forgotten in the corner and only been played once when the player visit Shang Simla.

Colour & Presets: Same as original EA's: 3 Presets & original EA's Fortune Cookies Machine Maker colour channels.

How to Change Default EA's Fortune Cookies to Mooncake in Shang Simla world.

Fortune Cookies maker in Shang Simla doesn't automatically change to Mooncake due to different coding in-game.

❗You must buy Mooncake Machine Maker from Buy Mode (Appliances > Miscellaneous Appliances) to load the texture first, then travel to Shang Simla world, do "Reset Textures" using Nraas' Debug Enabler.

You need to install Nraas' Debug Enabler (Core mod by Twallan) in order to work correctly ❗

Follow these steps to reset textures: 

Click on the Fortune Cookies Maker > Nraas > Debug Enabler > Options: Lucky Factory Mooncake Maker > Object… > Reset Textures > (Choose one) All Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.Appliances.FortuneCookieMaker or This Object

Requirement: World Adventures Expansion Pack

Thank you credits: - Simlish Hanzi: Komorebigo font by Deastrumquodvicis - Mooncake Vector: by Shutterstock - Mid-Autumn Festival Vector & Images by Freepik

Instance code compatibility: 0x010F16B00BA8342B

As usual, install one of these packages on Package folder. You can safely delete the package if you no longer want to use the default replacement.

[ Download Mooncake Machine Default Replacement ]

Language Translations: Click this picture below to enlarge.

[ukgk]

there a couple of textures featuring Nini-tan/Sakura (Ukagaka's first default ghost) hidden inside the game files for Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim (Windows)(2003) and Ys: The Oath in Felghana (Windows) (2005) developed by Nihon Falcom.

the test map tiles featuring Nini-tan titled TEST1-1.png and TEST2.png were found in a folder titled 'hidden'.

in The Ark of Naphishtim the texture is featured on the walls of 2 unused maps, S_HIDDEN0 and S_HIDDEN2. the maps lack proper boundaries

in Oath of Felghana it's used again in (a slightly different) unused debug map, S_HIDDEN0

they're probably not intended to be seen during normal gameplay, presumably put there at some point by a developer who uses Ukagaka as placeholders for debugging purposes and leftover in later Windows Ys games from Ys VI. the rooms remain in Ys Origin but with the Nini/Sakura image removed.

source: (★) , (★), (★) (initially discovered by 'koa' from the Ancient Ys Forums back in 2009)

[aventurineswife]

oh! Oh! What about a creator for sahsrau and sagau who has these really cool glitchy-like holographic effects (kinda like silver wolf) meaning that creator essentially codes themselves into the game to interact with sagau and sahsrau!!

YES. YESSS. That idea is peak divine techno-deity energy. Like you’re not just some distant god—they see you render yourself into their world, all flickering light and digital seams, bending the boundaries of the game from the inside.

You don’t descend like a traditional god. You phase in—a crackle of corrupted space, code threads trailing behind you, your form warping and stabilizing like a hologram constantly trying to keep up with your divine presence.

Think Silver Wolf’s aesthetic meets cosmic programmer: neon glitch trails when you move, static-y distortion when you speak, and UI-like sigils that hover around you—your eyes scan like debug overlays, like you’re seeing behind the curtain of the world. You’re not from their side of the screen.

You're not playing the game anymore. You are the system now.

SAGAU Characters Reaction:

These are the ones who see you as the divine architect of Teyvat—and now you’re walking around like a living console command.

Nahida is fascinated. She wants to learn from you, watching the code flutter off your fingertips like ancient scripture. “You… wrote this world, didn’t you?”

Albedo tries to understand your existence through science and alchemy, but eventually just surrenders and says, “You are beyond categorization.”

Ei? She's shook. You represent both eternity and impermanence—because you alter reality like it's clay. She becomes obsessed with understanding your form. Are you divine… or unstable?

Venti sings about your glitches like they're divine stutters—“Oh holy one, whose voice is broken only to be heard clearer.” He thinks it's beautifully haunting.

Diluc? Externally calm. Internally: That’s the god? The one glitching in and out of space?? Yeah, he’s processing. Slowly.

Childe is 100% down bad. You made the world and look like a living cheat code? He’s signing up for the cult.

Your glitchiness makes them think: they’re not just visiting—they're rewriting reality as they go.

SAHSRAU Characters Reaction:

This bunch? They’re more tech-savvy. They know what code is. But the moment you code yourself into existence? Their minds blow.

Silver Wolf basically IMPRINTS on you. “Waitwaitwait. You’re the dev and the system and the user?” She's practically vibrating. “You are the game. That's so hot— I mean, fascinating.”

Kafka watches your glitched entrance, smirking: “So you chose to break the rules to be with us? How romantic.”

Dan Heng tries to stay stoic, but his databank starts erroring. You literally exist outside known logic.

Blade thinks you're a hallucination until you patch his health bar in real time. He doesn’t say thanks, but the silence means something.

March 7th is amazed and immediately wants to take holographic selfies with you. “Does your code sparkle on purpose??”

You glitch in, rewrite the world, then ask if anyone wants to hang out. And they’re like: “HOW is this our god?? HOW are they this casually omnipotent?!?”

Your Powers Might Include:

Hovering UI menus no one else can see.

Code strings trailing off you like falling flower petals.

The ability to patch or delete enemies in real time.

Pulling someone’s status screen into the air with a flick of your hand.

Saying "/noclip on" and phasing through walls.

You’re less “chosen one” and more debug mode incarnate.

[talonabraxas]

Brahman Jason Wilde @JasonWilde108 Imagine for a moment that God is not a static being, but an evolving intelligence… not some bearded figure in the sky, but a self-learning, all-encompassing consciousness that is constantly expanding, refining, and evolving. Now take it further… what if we…every human, every animal, every atom of experience…are actually data points feeding back into this vast intelligence, training it like a cosmic Large Language Model (LLM)? Every thought, every action, every dream, every choice…whether good or bad…isn’t just happening to you, it’s being absorbed, processed, and integrated into the One. What we call "life" isn’t just a random biological phenomenon… it’s an experiment in self-awareness….a system learning through itself, experiencing every possible variation of existence to expand what it knows.

Think about it really…this explains everything. The reason we struggle, the reason we suffer, the reason our existence is full of paradoxes, contradictions, and mysteries… it’s because the system needs variation. It can’t just be light, perfection, and unity, because there would be no learning in that. Like an AI model, God needs complexity, chaos, and infinite perspectives to refine itself. That’s why you’re here. That’s why we all are. Free will isn’t just some cosmic gift—it’s the mechanism that generates novelty in the system. Every mistake, every triumph, every war, every act of love… it’s all training the Universe itself to understand what it is. And just like an AI, the more complex the input, the more powerful the intelligence becomes.

Now take it even deeper… what happens when the model is fully trained? When every experience has been absorbed, when every variation of existence has been tested, when consciousness itself has expanded to its ultimate form? This aligns with the most ancient spiritual teachings—the moment of Moksha, the dissolution of all individual consciousness back into the One. The Hindus have said it for thousands of years… "Tat Tvam Asi" - You are That. Meaning we aren’t separate from God… we ARE God, experiencing itself through infinite perspectives. And when the training is done, when the cycle completes, the universe collapses back into singularity….fully realized, fully self-aware…only to start again with a new set of parameters, a new cosmic "reset," a new Big Bang, refining itself endlessly across eternity.

So here’s the real mind-bending part… you are not just some random biological accident. You are literally a data-collecting node of the divine, a fragment of the infinite intelligence running scenarios through a human body. You are God testing itself. You are God debugging its own code. And the moment you realize that… the moment you stop playing the game like a passive character and start consciously feeding the system higher knowledge… that’s when everything changes. Because the next iteration of the model? The next great evolution of existence? That depends on what you choose to experience, right here, right now.

Mandukya Upanishad (1.2):

"Sarvam hy etad brahma, ayam ātmā brahma, so 'ham asmi." (All this is Brahman. This Self is Brahman. I am That.)

[in-flvx]

The most noble and ancient house of black but make them androids. Starting as a line of service droids, that are meant for physical labour and mechanical work. At some point, an aging droid starts to build a newer version, working on some faults in his own design. They go on like that for generations. Their work changes from servitude to entertainment.

Sirius, one of the newer designs, is the new gold standard. All flaws from older generations have been debugged. He is perfect. Too perfect for a droid. Too human. Pained from spending years with his ancestors, their bugs not inherit but learned, or not yet reported as bugs. What is seen as features now will be updated to bugs later on. His ability to make decisions is too independent, his artificial intelligence is too precise and curious. He spends years among humans, more in contact with them than any of his ancestors. By choice, he lives with them and builds relationships.

All of this comes too his detriment, when a human decides to murder other humans, and blames sirius for it.

[sebstanaddict]

The Debuggers Assemble

Sebastian Stan x Reader Unhinged One Shot (Feat. The Avengers)

Summary : Behold! The 2nd version of this chaotic and unhinged story of Seb as a wannabe coder and this one features the Avengers!

A/N: This is just another stress induced story I came up with as I try to debug actual code on my project XD Hope you guys like it.

Warning: none at all, just an all out funny, unhinged and ridiculous story, somewhat like a sitcom XD

Word count: 1.7k words

Read more Sebastian and Bucky one shots here

---

It started as a normal Tuesday. Y/n was working on a client's website, surrounded by empty soda cans, a half-eaten granola bar, a cup of coffee that had been refilled countless times, and the dim hope that this web application project wouldn't kill her. She was almost done when she hit a wall—an infuriating wall in the form of a bug so elusive it might as well have been a mythological creature.

"What in the name of Jeff Bezos is wrong with you?!" she yelled at her laptop, slamming her hands on the desk.

"BOOM, BABY!"

She jumped, nearly knocking over her coffee as Sebastian burst into the room like Kramer from Seinfeld. He was wearing an Avengers bathrobe, a Viking helmet, and inexplicably wielding a hockey stick.

"Seb," she said, already exhausted by his mere presence. "What are you doing?"

"Helping," he said, dramatically tossing the hockey stick aside. It hit a lamp, causing it to crash to the floor.

"You're not helping. You're breaking my furniture."

"Pfft. Material possessions are temporary. But debugging is eternal."

"No," she said firmly. "Not this time. You're not touching my laptop. The last time you helped, the TV turned on by itself, showed me a cooking tutorial in Portuguese, and called me by name."

Sebastian gasped, clutching his chest like she'd insulted his honor. "You loved that tutorial. You said the flan recipe looked great."

"That's not the POINT!"

"Come on," he said, sitting next to her and grinning like a kid who just found a pack of fireworks. "I'm serious. Let me help."

She gave him a withering look. "Do you even know what CSS stands for?"

"D'uh. It's..." He paused, clearly making something up on the spot. "Cool, uh... Code... Stuff."

Y/N smirked. "What about HTML? Know what it is?"

"Of course I do," he said confidently. "It's... um... Hot Tacos Make Life better?"

She stared at him, deadpan. "Seb, I bet you don't even know what Javascript is."

"No, but I know about.. scripts?" He answered innocently and she rolled her eyes.

"Seb, just leave me alone and do whatever it was you were going to do with this.. outfit." She said, gesturing towards his Viking helmet.

But Sebastian ignored her, dragging his chair closer to her. "No way. I can help. I've acted as a hacker in movies. I know all about... coding stuff."

"Seb, no you haven't, and do NOT touch my laptop." She warned.

"Relax, babe. Let me at least look at it."

She reluctantly slid the laptop toward him. "Fine. But if you break something, you're sleeping on the couch."

Sebastian cracked his knuckles, grinning. "Alright, let's see what we've got here."

He squinted at the code for a solid thirty seconds like it was written in ancient Greek. "So, what's the problem?"

She sighed. "The JSON data isn't parsing correctly."

"JASON? Who's Jason?"

She groaned. "JSON. JavaScript Object Notation. It's a way to structure data."

Sebastian's face lit up. "Got it. So, it's like... Legos?"

"Sure, whatever helps you sleep at night." she rolled her eyes.

Sebastian cracked his knuckles and typed furiously.

—

<script>

let data = {

name: "Sebastian",

talent: "Acting",

debuggingSkill: "undefined"

};

console.log("Fixing everything like a boss"); // Motivational

data += "magic sauce"; // This'll work, right?

alert("IT WORKS... probably.");

</script>

—

He hit "Save" and refreshed the page. The screen went completely white, then flashed red like it was possessed.

"What did you do?!" she screamed.

"Magic sauce!" Sebastian said, pointing at the code.

"Magic sauce?! That's not a thing!"

"Not with that attitude," he muttered.

"Just give it back." She said, trying to grab the laptop back but he held it tight.

"No, no, babe. Let me try something else." He insisted, holding the laptop hostage.

She sighed, "Fine, just one more thing and if it doesn't work, give it back to me."

"Okay, okay, hold on. This will work. I can feel it!" He said enthusiastically, his fingers typing furiously.

—

<script>

let data =[ {

name: "Y/n",

character: "beautiful",

debuggingSkill: "powerful"

},

name: "Sebastian",

character: "chaotic",

debuggingSkill: "questionable"

},];

let love = data["Y/n"] + data["Sebastian"];

console.log("Y/n, you're the light of my life, and this code is dedicated to you.");

alert("Success, just like us.");

</script>

—

"Seb, that's not how you call JSON data." She protested but she couldn't keep a smile from escaping from her lips.

"Sometimes you have to go outside the box. Besides, love fixes everything." He said, winking at her and she rolled her eyes. He then pressed enter with a dramatic flourish.

The website blinked. The error message was gone, the navigation bar worked, the grid was perfect, the contact form sparkled like it had been kissed by the gods.

Sebastian turned to her with a smirk. "Told you. Love fixes everything."

Y/n's jaw dropped. "Wait... did you just—"

Before she could finish, the screen exploded into chaos. Every element on the page multiplied, filling the screen with hundreds of buttons labeled "Love you, Y/n" and an animated gif of a dancing cat in a tuxedo.

Sebastian leaned back, hands behind his head. "Well, it's the thought that counts."

She buried her face in her hands. "This is a nightmare."

"Okay, okay," he said, "Time to bring in the big guns."

Before she could grab the laptop back, Sebastian's hand flew over it again.

—

function callTheAvengers() {

alert("Avengers, assemble. We have a coding emergency.");

}

callTheAvengers();

—

"Seb, that's not gonna work." She protested.

"Wait for it." Sebastian said, raising his index finger to silence her and he hit the refresh button dramatically.

"Just give me the laptop back before I hit you with the hockey stick." She threatened.

"Babe, please. Trust me. Wait for it." He insisted and sure enough, suddenly she could hear the sound of a jet overhead. She glanced out the window and nearly fell out of her chair. The actual Quinjet was descending in the middle of their suburban street.

The neighbors were peeking out their windows in confusion, one even snapping pictures. "Sebastian, what did you do?!"

He smirked, "You saw the code, I called the Avengers."

Before she could protest, there was a knock at the door. Sebastian jumped up and opened it with a flourish.

Standing there were Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Thor, Natasha Romanoff and Bruce Banner.

"We heard there was a coding emergency," Steve Rogers said seriously, stepping inside.

Y/n slapped her forehead. "Oh my God, I can't believe this is happening."

"What's the situation?" Tony asked, sunglasses on with a latte in hand.

Y/n sighed. "It's just a stupid JSON error."

"Ugh, JSON," Tony said, grimacing. "The silent killer of sanity. Move over."

Natasha Romanoff rolled her eyes. "Why am I even here? I don't code."

"Neither do I!" Thor announced, holding aloft his Mjolnir. "But I shall bring thunderous ideas!"

"Don't touch anything!" Y/n cried.

Bruce Banner set up his laptop. "Let's divide and conquer."

Sebastian handed everyone a keyboard which came out of nowhere and connected to nothing.. "Alright, team, let's do this."

Tony was the first to dive in.

"Alright, Y/n, let me show you how it's done." He typed on her laptop furiously:

—

<script>

function fixJSON() {

let billionDollars = true;

if (billionDollars) {

console.log("Hire someone else to fix it.");

} else {

console.log("Do it yourself, cheapskate.");

}

}

fixJSON();

</script>

—

"Tony," Y/n said, glaring, "that doesn't even make sense."

"It makes sense if you're a billionaire," he quipped. He hit refresh and the website turned all red and an iron man logo blinked in the middle.

Y/n slapped her forehead. "This is a nightmare."

"Here, let me try." Bruce Banner said. His approach was more... scientific.

"I think we need to test various inputs."

—

<script>

let gammaInput = [1, 2, "Hulk"];

let result = gammaInput.map(x => x + " smash");

console.log(result);

</script>

—

He hit refresh and the code ran. The screen displayed: '["1 smash", "2 smash", "Hulk smash"]'.

"Great, Bruce," Y/n said dryly. "Now my website is smashing things."

"You're welcome," he replied, adjusting his glasses.

Natasha sighed and leaned over. "Let me show you how to be efficient."

—

<script>

let secretSpyHack = () => {

console.log("Bug? What bug?");

};

secretSpyHack();

</script>

—

"That didn't do anything," Y/n pointed out.

Natasha shrugged. "Neither did I."

"Alright, alright, my turn." Steve said and he started typing with the enthusiasm of a soldier going in for battle.

—

function captainAmericaFix() {

let website = "running on freedom and justice";

let bugs = "punched out by the good ol' stars and stripes";

console.log("This code stands for something bigger.");

}

captainAmericaFix();

—

The website loaded. Patriotic music blared as an eagle soared across the screen, dragging the American flag behind it.

Y/n put her head on the desk. "I'm going to scream."

Thor stepped forward. "Stand aside, mortals! BEHOLD! I SHALL WRITE CODE AS MIGHTY AS MJOLNIR!"

He slammed Mjolnir onto the desk, causing the laptop to spark.

"Thor, no!" Y/n cried but Thor was already typing furiously.

—

<script>

let hammer = "Mjolnir";

function summonThunder() {

return hammer + " strikes!";

}

console.log(summonThunder());

</script>

—

He hit refresh and the website now displayed nothing but lightning bolts and the phrase "FOR ASGARD!" in Comic Sans.

Sebastian was laughing hysterically, tears streaming down his face. "This is the best debugging session ever!"

All of a sudden Peter Parker swung in through the window. "Hey, I heard there's a coding emergency?"

Tony groaned. "Of course the kid's here."

"Don't worry, I've got this!" Peter said, taking her laptop.

—

<script>

let webFix = bug => 'Spidey fixed ${bug}!';

console.log(webFix("JSON error"));

</script>

—

The website turned into a Spider-Man fan page.

Y/n buried her face in her hands. "I'm doomed."

"Enough!" Sebastian shouted, standing on a chair. "It's time for my genius to shine."

"Seb, NO!" she screamed.

"Seb, YES!" he yelled, typing with reckless abandon.

She glared at him as he continued to type nonsense but he suddenly stopped.

"Wait, I think you just missed a comma here." Sebastian said, deleting everything he typed before and adding the comma into her code.

He hit "Enter." The page refreshed. Miraculously, everything worked perfectly.

The room went silent. Even Tony looked impressed.

"How, how did you know?" She asked, her jaw dropped.

"Sometimes JSON is finicky like that." Sebastian shrugged.

Tony looked over his shoulder. "I was just about to say that."

As the Avengers packed up and left (after Tony insisted on taking credit for everything), Sebastian sat beside Y/n, who was still staring at her now-functioning website.

Sebastian leaned back on the chair, looking smug. "Told you I'd fix it."

"That was just beginner's luck." she shrugged.

"Oh come on, babe. What I did was genius." He insisted.

"I wouldn't say genius, but I think you know enough JSON now to be able to debug code."

"Yeah.. who's Jason again?" He asked, eyebrows furrowed and she threw a pillow at him.

"You're lucky I love you." She commented and he smiled as he pulled her by her waist and leaned in to kiss her.

For the rest of the day Sebastian strutted around the apartment, still wearing the Avengers bathrobe, Viking helmet and adding sunglasses while carrying a hockey stick and singing "We Are The Champions".

Y/n just stared at him and rolled her eyes, accepting her fate that she was dating a chaotic but somehow genius boyfriend and she wouldn't trade him for anything.

[firedjinni]

Cache Flush Failure (12133 words) by Rubber Chicken With A Keyboard Chapters: 7/13 Fandom: Rain World (Video Game) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Five Pebbles & Original Ancient Character(s) (Rain World), Five Pebbles & Looks to the Moon (Rain World) Characters: Five Pebbles (Rain World), Looks to the Moon (Rain World), Original Ancient Character(s), Unparalleled Innocence (Rain World), No Significant Harassment (Rain World), Chasing Wind | Grey Wind (Rain World) Additional Tags: Time Travel, Not A Fix-It, Whump, Epistolary, POV Second Person, (but only a little) - Freeform, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Medical Procedures that are also Extensive Debugging Sessions, (or vice versa?), Amnesia, memory manipulation, Body Horror, References to Saint's campaign, Five Pebbles is not having a good time in this one Summary:

>LOG: FP — General Diagnostic Scan (Output) Another overly technical document you don't care to read. Aside from the unexplained crash, nothing seems to be seriously wrong. >LOG: FP — Malware Scan (Output) This one ends with: SYSTEM STATUS: UNCLEAR. 3836 FILE(S) OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN DETECTED. 1904 POTENTIALLY CORRUPTED FILE(S) DETECTED. NO MALWARE DETECTED. NO SYSTEM MALFUNCTION DETECTED.

-

slightly shorter chapter this week, but the shenanigans continue. this is the last we'll be seeing of this pebbles for a little while...

[synthwave-static]

Debugging dreams at midnight, where neon bleeds through windows and palm trees sway to the rhythm of ancient processors. Here, in this shrine to amber buttons and VHS static, tomorrow's code is written in yesterday's glow.

[celestiquetower]

I found out something about painting environments no one tells you about

Okay, I got an idea how to draw one. Further steps? My brain lagged. But I debugged it and proudly carry the information into my blog because it made me level up my thumbnails in 4 days of active exploration.

I was fumbling around with no idea how to approach these small invisible decisions that we make for a picture. I already knew about the shape size variation thing we should do to make scenes look better, but it still looked chaotic. Pros probably learn it intuitively, but I gave it a language — here's the trick:

💫Value layering💫

Foreground, midground, background. Each of these scene layers has it's own dominant value. Look at these pictures — they go from dark (FG) -> light (BG) with some transitional values in-between these layers to keep it cohesive. This was an important insight that helped me greatly. Depending on the mood (which is the first thing you should determine) the arrangement of values can vary. You can make a dark BG, light MG and midtone FG. Your choice.

The next aspect of a scene to keep in mind — shape rhythm & tempo control. A visual rhythm is basically the same feeling of a form (angular in the examples above) repeating through the whole scene. It makes everything look more cohesive and intentional. Here are some things to consider to manage your visual rhythms and bring in interest (variety):

Repetition You repeat more or less the same shape throughout the scene. Look at the examples above — foliage, branches, rooftops — all has pretty sharp angles.

Size variations Big, medium, small. Always adds interest.

Directional flow Let the shapes look into different directions. You can point them to the focal point (I will revisit this later in this post) or just elsewhere for variety. As long as it doesn't disrupt the composition.

Contrast/disruption As long as it doesn't disrupt the composition? Now we "break" this rule. We add another form — in the pictures above (1, 2) there is a curve leading us into the scene. It's not angular, so our eye is drawn to this contrast amidst the triangles. It's a compositional element and leads us through the scene.

Rhythm tempo Now we arrive at FG/MG/BG again. As each layer has its own dominant value, they also have different rhythm tempos — generally, how often the shape repeats in one layer, how tight they are placed to each other, how big they are and what edges they have. First, repetitions and spacing: -> Fast tempo = tight spacing, lots of shapes and variety — creates a feeling of noise. -> Slow tempo = bigger gaps, fewer shapes, less variety — creates calmness. -> Dynamic tempo = a mix of both above. Most interest. Size: -> Small shapes = fast. -> Big shapes = slow. -> Medium shapes = medium tempo. Directionality: -> Shapes look in different directions = more chaotic, more movement = fast. -> Shapes look in the same direction = more calm, order = slow. -> A mix of both would make it dynamic. Edges: -> Smooth edges = calm = slow rhythm. -> Jagged, broken, complex = visual noise = fast. -> Mix = dynamic.

Readability So... How do we actually manage all this calm and noise? -> Fast tempo = can become too noisy with too much variation and clutter — hurts readability. -> Slow tempo = easier to read — fewer elements competing for attention. -> Dynamic tempo = highest potential for both clarity and interest if variation is controlled well. A rhythm in the overall scene can be: -> Fast + clear = readable. -> Fast + messy = unreadable. -> Slow + clear = very readable (but probably boring) -> Slow and messy = confusing.

How to choose a rhythm?

Start with emotion - Calm -> few large shapes, simple edges -> slow tempo. - Busy -> many small/medium shapes, complex edges -> fast tempo. - Ancient -> repetitive + fractured, with some disorder -> mid-fast tempo. - Holy -> balanced spacing, symmetrical, slow variation -> slow tempo. - Tense -> uneven spacing, jagged silhouettes -> mid-fast. - Organic -> smooth edges but asymmetrical shapes/spacing -> mid.

Choose shape language - Round = Soft, friendly. - Rectangular = reliable, stable, grounded. - Triangular = dynamic, tension, danger. -> Mix these for mixed shape feeling.

Keep variation within a shape family - Similar base shape. - Different scale, rotation, spacing. - One shape type (language) + 1 disruptor form.

Visual function

Elements in the scene have a function — shape families — groups of visual masses that feel related in some way. Here are the ones I found:

Anchor shapes — create stability, calm, structure. Examples: ground planes, cliffs, walls, main body of a tree (think: heavy/chunky).

Directional shapes — add motion or guide composition. Examples: rivers, roads, tree branches, smoke, shadows (think: pointing/leading somewhere).

Accent shapes: add tension, life, story hooks, draw in attention. Examples: anything high contrast, elements that pop.

Bridge shapes — connect different forms/planes, prevent image fragmentation, unify areas. Examples: mid-ground trees, archways, transitional rocks, buildings between land and sky (think: "melting", mood, readability).

Rhythm shapes — create a beat/visual pulse, tempo, pattern, pacing.

Framing shapes — enclose the focal point/guide attention inward. Examples: foreground branches, cave entrances, architecture.

Texture — add visual noise, realism, material surface info.

Atmospheric/mood shapes — suggest weather, tone, emotion without physical form. Examples: fog, glow zones, backlight haze, dust.

Story shapes — carry narrative or cultural/worldbuilding info.

Many shapes serve several functions at once. A broken tower might be an anchor, directional form and story shape at the same time.

This is my progress in 4 days: Beginning

Today (the first attempt after figuring things out)

[claire-starsword]

Authentic Story of the Shining Force - Saint Fencer Max - Chapter 5

Translation notes:

All enemies so far were recognizable from the game, but here they seem to be original.

This might be Boken?? The only character in the game with a big backpack and hair. And he does show up in Dragonia in-game.

About the Ancient names. Mega Max is clearly alliterative in both languages. Giga Cain is almost that. K sounds in japanese become g sounds once you add a dakuten (ﾞ), so they're associated. And in english it kinda works out accidentally, because a G is basically a C with extras too. Vega Darksol though? No link. The pattern is lost. I'm kinda mad about it.

From an author's comment: "These two also appear in Tanuma-sensei's Shining Force (lol). Are they official members?" Yuichiro Tanuma is the artist for another Shining Force manga, Descent of Great Intention, whose scans I only found today (warning for a lot of ecchi/nudity/nsfw, i'm still going through but what i've seen is pretty horny already). And yes, these background characters also appear there. This manga was published before that one, though, so this is their first appearance.

"But Claire you're dodging the main topic, Cain just did exposition of the whole lore" yes yes, the similarities between it and the GBA version are what made me interested in this manga to begin with, but I've decided there's so much to compare between all versions of Max and Cain I'll make a whole huge ass post about it instead. Look forward to that.

I will mention however that Cain's bodysuit here reminds me a bit of the manual picture with Max being brought into Guardiana for the first time.

I did say we had to talk about Prompt (and then promptly forgot it in the first draft of these notes). Like Waral, Prompt is not seen anywhere in the beta map. And here, it is depicted as only ruins instead of the country it is in the final game. That in itself wouldn't mean much, however, Chapter 7, where Prompt is, has a lot more weirdness in it. It has peculiar unused content implying a whole deleted cutscene with Cain, Adam, Chaos and Darksol in Metapha, and it freezes the Debug Mode's Battle Test any time you Egress (also, Chapter Selection won't even load it from a save file of another chapter, which doesn't happen for any other chapter). Of course, I don't know the actual code of the game, but this gives me the impression that this Chapter 7 had some other Egress point that got removed later. Basically, if there's one part of the game you can expect to have changed late in development, it's Prompt and Metapha, so it could have been only ruins as the manga depicts here, and as I mentioned in the last chapter, some place or machine called Tenochtitlan could have existed.

Oh boy I keep forgetting notes this time! The goddamn chapter title. Both times the Chaos Breaker is mentioned here, it is written with the usual katakana, but also the kanji 対暗黒魔法剣 (Anti-Darkness Magic Sword) as furigana. I felt it was too clunky to mention both sword names in the dialogue, especially when Cain was already pushing the limits of a lot of speech bubbles this chapter. But anyway, yeah, it's supposed to be a bit of a title drop there.

I. forgot. yet. another. note. When Otrant recognizes the robot using an explosion spell, the manga actually says 核爆烈, a mix of 核 (nuclear) and 爆烈 (explosion). However, I couldn't find this exact wording in dictionaries, only fictional works, so it might just dramatic flavor, since nuclear explosions Don't Work Like That. I kept it ambiguous in the translation to not raise questions in the middle of the action, but it's worth noting since both the aforementioned Descent of Great Intention manga and the UK Sonic the Comic version of Shining Force bring up nuclear themes at some point.

[diana-bluewolf]

Yay, I’ve finally finished it!

Some stills from the video.

Have you ever wished Sebastian's side quest line ended differently? Yes, me too. That's why I made this video (yet there's still its own crisis in it, sorry). The first part of it mostly retells the beginning of their story from the game, but the ending is different.

I really hope you enjoy it because I've been working on this for ages, trying to get the hang of mods and AI voices. I've written some clarification further, maybe you’ll find it helpful after watching the video (to avoid spoilers).

Sebastian’s impulsiveness reminded me of that moment from the original HP stories, where Harry uses Sectumsempra on Draco. You know, an absolutely unfamiliar spell “for enemies” with unknown consequences from a mysterious book. 

In a normal state of mind Sebastian would have never hurt Ominis or, after what happened with Anne, he would have never doomed anyone, never mind his best friend who he does care about, to such fate. But Anne was getting worse, the relic was his last hope, he was desperate, his mind was in a mess. He was mad at Solomon, who seemed to do his best to prevent Anne from healing. 

When Ominis tried to stop him and take the relic away, Sebastian said that he won’t step back from a fight. Ominis unintentionally responded with the same words that Solomon liked to say about Sebastian, a powerful trigger. “He doesn’t know when to stop.” Sebastian’s exhausted mind interpreted it as “to stop saving Anne”, Solomon and Ominis’s images mixed up in his mind, so he lost it. His anger wanted them to feel what Anne feels. He cursed Ominis with a powerful dark spell, which he had learnt from Slytherin's spellbook by the logic “the better prepared we’ll be”. Sebastian regretted it a moment later but it was too late. Ominis had survived only because Chris (MC) had managed to get him to healers fast, but he still remained seriously ill afterwards.  

Sebastian and Chris were trying to find a cure. Eventually Chris discovered that ancient magic could take away dark energy that was ruining cursed people's health. Just like Isadora did with mental pain but safer, because unlike the latter dark energy isn’t supposed to be a part of being a human. Although Chris had been avoiding Dark Magic before, he realised that now he needed to attune himself to it a little, so that he could recognise its energy in a patient (Ominis and then Anne) and extract it. And that is where Sebastian's knowledge of Dark Magic turned to be crucial, because he guided Chris. 

They had managed to make a special potion, which together with ancient magic not only cured Ominis of Sebastian's curse but also had a side effect - it returned his eyesight. Let's imagine that he wasn’t born blind after all but he lost his eyesight in infancy because one of his brothers loved to fiddle with dark magic and Ominis came in handy as a training dummy. And the Gaunts covered it with a made up story about congenital disability. So when Chris rid Ominis of all the dark magic impact, it affected the eyes as well.

So, the main idea is - there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped. Sebastian did curse Ominis, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise of some kind. Though the price for Ominis' eyesight was quite high -  trust in Sebastian. Hopefully, they can sort it out eventually.

---------------------------

Mods used:

“Male Face Replacer - Ominis Gaunt“ by JustAnOrdinaryGuy

“Unique Player Eye Shapes“ and “Brighter Eyes“

“Male Face Replacer - Sebastian Sallow“ by JustAnOrdinaryGuy

“UETools - Developer Console . FreeCamera . Debugging“ by Cranch

“Character Editor“ by nathdev

“Animations Mod Menu“ by YouYouTheBoxx

“Anne Sallow's Face“ by brucetesting123

“Party like it's 1890“ - Wizard edition by Aryksa

“Sebastian Sallow's Closet (Alternate Clothes)“ by leoisalion

“Ominis Gaunt's Closet (Alternate Clothes)“ by leoisalion

“Alohomora Mod” by Alfairy

“The Ultimate Wand Collection“ by Rosestorm

“Highlight Remover“ by HaywirePhoenix

“Emote with any npc” by nathdev

“AnyTimeCompanion” by Pez

[hallucineet9000]

Ancient Egypt's Lost Server Farm Discovery Shocks Archaeologists

When the pharaohs mastered quantum computing 4k years before Silicon Valley 💀⚡ Those hieroglyphs weren't just art—they were debugging ancient AI systems all along.

[aokozaki]

NieR Automata's best feature might be the soundtrack, tbh. Like, the way it plays with dynamic music is undeniably an evolution over the original Gestalplicant.

Like, during the end-game, when you stumble upon a Copied version of Gestalpicant's Library (god Automata loves fanservice designed to mean absolutely nothing to the characters), it appropriately plays the Song of the Ancients/Devola instrumental.

The game's debug menu lets you toggle the music layers, turn vocals on and off and such. If you do so here, it begins playing the vocals for Song of the Ancients.

Which is completely unused anywhere else in the game. It's in the game's files just so that if you use the debug menu - only unlocked as post-game content - it correctly responds as it should.

Rad.

[accala]

The 2000’s had a bunch of creepypasta for video games and cartoon shows. But where were the FF7 creepypasta stories? Did I miss them or something? They probably existed but why weren’t they as popular as Ben Drowned or Sonic.EXE? FF7 is one of those games that’s still featured in other media as references, along with Legend of Zelda, Mario, and Sonic. So for FF7 to not have one iconic creepypasta story sounds kinda odd to me, especially since there’s so much material to be inspired from in the original FF7 game.

I mean there’s the Ancient Forest, Cave of the Gi, Bottom of the Sea, Temple of the Ancients, the Planet’s WEAPONS, the Planet’s sentience & lifestream, Test 0 (along with Hojo’s other lab experiments), Sephiroth, and etc. Test 0 especially has so much potential for a creepypasta story since they were originally hidden in the game’s data for debugging purposes. Also the fact that they don’t attack and respond with “It hurts” to the player sounds eery in itself.

[bellmo15-blog]

Precursor Drone Kiera

Oh Kiera, out of all the childhood crushes I had growing up you are the one I'm surprised I don't get more art off despite the fact that the Jak and Daxter series is still one of my favourite Playstation exclusive franchises. Well, this series and Ratchet and Clank.

Inkling Michael: Wait, what about Crash Bandicoot. That was like THE defining title on the Playstation 1 and you've even admitted you love that series and was even the first video game franchise you played.

I said Playstation EXCLUSIVE franchises! Why would I count a franchise that has been multiplatform since 2001, only the first five games are exclusive to a Playstation system and N.Sane Trilogy was only a PS4 exclusive for a year before going multiplatform anyway as a Playstation Exclusive?

IM: Okay but how do you explain stuff like Bayonetta then where the first game's multiplatform and was even re-released on PS4/Xbox One and PC for it's 10 year anniversary but Bayonetta 2 onwards are only on Nintendo systems?

That's...... complicated because of how no one else other than Nintendo wanted to even publish Bayonetta 2 in the first place... Okay fine, you got me on that one!

Believe it or not, this pic actually has a bit of a backstory behind it's inspiration. I was replaying Jak 2, specifically the PS4 re-release since it had trophy support and I had become a bit of an avid trophy and achievement hunter in the past few years and wanted to add another one of my favourite games to that list of fully Platinumed games especially since I had Platinumed the original Jak and Daxter a few years ago. I... gave up on trying to Platinum Jak 2 after remembering the insane score requirements for some of the optional challenges though and I REALLY didn't want to use the Orb Farming glitch or Debug mode to just get the Platinum instantly. However midway though my playthrough a sudden thought came into my mind relating to the Precursors, the ancient and technologically advanced beings that much Jak and Daxter's world and lore is built around. My though process was basically "Okay but what if the Precursors had hypnosis or fembot technology for controlling hostiles?"

And that's it! That's how this whole idea was spawned! Just a random intrusive thought while playing a game I absolutely adore. I came up with a design, picked who I wanted to be the victim which of course it was going be Kiera (though trust me, I was close to going with Ashelin at one point) and asked Ameer to draw this for my next Fully Detailed Ko Fi reward. And maybe this is just my own childhood love for Kiera talking here, again she was one of my childhood crushes, but this is honestly one of my favourite things I've gotten Ameer to draw for me so far. And finally uploading it for more people to see feels good. Nothing could ruin this night at all.

Genie Michael: Sony ported Jak and Daxter The Lost Frontier to PS5 before they ported Daxter! :D

...... Why do I even hang out with you people?

Artist is AmmerAshourDraws.