#case and bot

[emacrow]

Five years has gone by since Aquaman was unfortunately bitchslapped by the momma whale for defending her calves, one being adopted baby mer.

And the sighting of the little merman continued throughout the world, as media caught wind breeze of little white-haired mer baby playing with dolphins passing by a Cruise ship.

Arguments had started over the lone mer baby across the continents, between capturing and captivity the merbaby, letting the merbaby be, or protecting the merbaby from poachers and collectors that was suggested by PETA.

Aquaman has already discussed on behalf of the Sea and Justice League that it was best for the merbaby to be left alone for it is last of its kind to appear in thousands of years in Altanta after the Momma whale crashed sixth would be poachers and endangered species ships.

Pictures, description, and documentary began of the last merbaby journey. A new video was sent live every few weeks as sea creature biologists team and their swimmers who trail behind momma whale and her calves.

Momma whales, leaving her calves for their own harsh journey in the deep blue sea, the once tiny merbaby was the size a double wide life boat.

The once beautiful trails of sparkling white and neon green color, fade gray, and black tips mer tailwind was now deep black with green and blue bioluminescence lighting all over his tail trailing from the faded jellyfish scars, His skin was once pale is now dark tanned color. His white as a pearl hair was measured by a picture frame to be the length of 12 inches with clownfishes swimming in and out every once a as a symbiote reaction, eyes glowing darker then a neon green light and teeth sharper then a great white shark.

It was a simple Tuesday of the Justice League watching the latest video of was now known to the world nicknamed the adolescent mer, phantoms the merman day.

When something that caused everyone to jump from their own seats all together that shook and amazed the world

Phantom kept dipping into the deep dark trenches of the deep blue sea rather frequently, but for the five years now, it was normal interest of curiosity that he just like to go there.

Until today, when he came out, with 5 other Mers.

One massive mer with white hair that resemble a great whale shark or what could've been a megalodon swam slowly watching the others who there was female sea horse like mer with black hair and purple and green like patterns trail behind along side a silky like dark skinned shark mer with Egyptian like pattern and old gold relic tied in his hair, massive large orange haired humaniod jellyfish like mer the size of a sperms whale swam, as Phantom was hugging, swimming around excitedly and trilling bubbles onto a tiny little new merbaby with white hair with similar patterns as him except with a red scarf like tied to her little wrist.

Original first part here <-

[quicksilversnails]

Took some notes from the Wild Life retrospective episode of the Imp & Skizz podcast featuring Grian because I thought the behind the scenes info was really interesting!

(3:15) The wild cards were all kept totally secret from the players (apart from Grian), with the exception of the superpowers and finale (as they required the players to set keybinds)

(3:45) The players were given files containing the required mods each week, which were named things like "creeper rain" to throw them off

(4:12) Wild cards were a combination of data packs and mods

(4:38) Grian told them not to read the folder name to avoid spoilers (which is kind of impossible), so everyone fully believed there would be creeper rain lol. Grian was saying it in jest but everyone took it seriously and were apologetic about having seen it, to which Grian told them not to worry

(6:58) Grian originally contacted a data pack dev called Brace for help with programming the wild cards. Some, like the shrinking/growing could be achieved with minecraft attributes, but the snails were too janky and unusable. Grian still liked the idea though, so he reached out to mod developers Henkelmax and Breadloaf, who designed the pathfinding/behaviour from scratch

(8:49) They had a debugging mode used to test the pathfinding of the snails, shown in the podcast and in Grian's credits

(10:09) Grian wants most of the credit to go to the development team and artists, as he was mostly in charge of ideas & organization!

(10:39) Grian's only regret with the snails was that they were too fast in session 3, leading to unexpectedly many deaths. They were apparently not so difficult to get away from during testing, but perhaps the testers were more used to them than the players were

(11:44) Grian: "We did develop to the lowest common denominator" ie. prioritizing how players would struggle over how worrying about if players would do too well

(12:56) Oli's voice for the snails was iconic. It cost Impulse a life because he intentionally stayed closer to it to hear the voice lol

(13:42) Danny was in charge of the snail models and animations

(14:11) During testing, the snails just sounded like Oli, which made it feel weird. They pitched up his voice so that it'd be less immediately recognizable

(15:18) The snails' jumping attack was meant to be clearly telegraphed: they would stop, wiggle, make a "ooeee" sound before jumping. Many players had their friendly creatures volume turned very low/off (as cows and other mobs are loud), which made this attack much less obvious for them

(16:57) The growing/shrinking had the least testing done for it, as it was the simplest conceptually and to program. This meant that the falling off of blocks due to the shrinking hitboxes wasn't anticipated

(17:55) Before the 1st session, Grian told them that he didn't think anyone would die to the wild card. Pearl's death made Grian pretty nervous, as he didn't want everyone dying too early in the season

(19:29) 6 lives were given, knowing that many of the death to the wild cards were unexpected/unfair. The intent was for ~3 lives to be allocated for wild cards, and ~3 for PvP.

(21:13) The developers were all fans of the Life Series!

(22:43) The shrinking/growing was intentionally pretty simple to ease players/viewers into the concept and build up toward more dramatic wild cards like the snails

(25:38) In the hunger episode, Grian didn't know which foods would be good

(25:58) Grian thinks that "it's unfair that Grian already knows everything" is valid criticism, but that it's important for him to be involved with the ideas. Having someone else do that is like having someone else record his videos: Life Series is his brainchild

(26:35) Well before the season began, while they were still developing the concept, Grian asked the other players for wild card ideas that would meet a few criteria. All of them ended up being unused for one reason or another. Impulse thinks his ideas were very "inside the box" because he was viewing things through what was possible in vanilla Minecraft. His idea was to have a scavenger hunt where the players would search to find a relic. The first person to find it would get a buff. Skizz's idea was for every player to turn into a random passive mob for every given interval of time. They would have to find every other player of the same mob type as them or else the whole group loses a life.

(29:44) The food qualities were weighted by the rarity of the item, so very common blocks like dirt and cobblestone would never give anything good. The other items were randomly selected

(30:23) Regular blocks/items cannot be made edible normally, so they had to circumvent that and custom code a fix for items not stacking correctly

(32:41) While a lot of players do want to win, the main priority is creating entertainment, which prioritizes playing recklessly

(33:20) The food wild card wasn't included in the finale because it would've felt like "too much". There was a higher risk of technical issues since it changed the data values of items, and Grian didn't want someone's last death to be because they ate their sword. In his mind, it was a good and fun wild card, but didn't need to be repeated in the finale. Impulse points out that they all would have collected more rare items by that point, removing the incentive to search for blocks to eat

(33:46) The wild cards in the finale were nerfed from their original sessions. The shrinking/growing had a smaller height range, the snails moved slower, etc.

(36:21) The personalized snail skins were a late addition by Danny, who made 18 skins very quickly

(36:49) Grian did not anticipate the snails becoming as popular with fans as they were. After the session released, they had the idea to release the snail merchandise, which directly funded the rest of the season

(39:20) Grian spent what "felt like every day" testing with the developers. They'd record the sessions on Tuesdays, meet up with the dev team, talk about what need to be done, testing, bugs, etc, edit and upload on Saturday, and would get a few days grace before starting again

(40:01) After the snail session, Grian was worried that the season would be very short due to all the deaths. They were considering toning down the later wild cards but ultimately didn't change them too much

(40:36) The time wild card was carefully balanced. If it had gone even a little faster, many players likely would have died because they wouldn't have time to react to threats like baby zombies or creepers.

(40:57) While sessions normally run for a variable amount of time, session 4 was hardcoded at 2 hours. Grian ended the session ~10 minutes early, just after they hit max speed, because he felt like things were getting dicey

(42:46) When the wild card first activates, it looks a lot like the server had frozen or crashed. Grian told the players before the session started that it would look like the game was broken, but that it isn't broken. Skizz tabbed out anyway and missed the beginning 😔

(43:30) Having the rain start just as the wild card began was a good visual indicator of time slowing down. This was a suggestion from the dev team (probably Brace)

(44:41) Impulse and Grian "cheesed" the end of the session by going branch mining. Grian wanted players to take advantage of the wild cards (eg. mining quickly, helping to kill someone), and not have them just be an annoyance.

(45:30) Keeping the client and server-side time stay in sync was challenging. The sky's motion was changed to be smoother on client-side. The players were also not as fast as the server (around 2x faster), the server was going faster than that, and the time of day was even faster

(46:56) The sounds were pitched up/down based on the speed to add to the effect

(27:46) In testing, if the players were made 7x faster, it would be basically unplayable, which was why it was capped at 2x speed. This made mobs very dangerous, as they were now faster than players and could catch up to you and kill you easily

(49:01) On several occasions, they had to extend the fuse duration of creepers to make them more fair. In the time session, their speed was only increased by ~10%

(49:39) Usually, Grian was the one to test the wild cards and notice when things like creeper speed would be an issue, since he was the one with experience making videos

(50:50) A challenge with balancing wild cards is accounting for the playstyles of so many players: reckless players like Scar and Skizz, "kind and gentle" players like Bigb who would stay off to the sides, and "the sweat squad" (Scott, Impulse) who play very cautiously

(52:48) Trivia Bot was the only wild card that was not planned in advance. Grian was struggling to come up with a wild card for that episode, and wanted to have a wild card available that could give people lives in case many people died to early wild cards without it feeling cheap.

(53:33) Trivia seemed a little boring on its face, so presentation was essential

(54:34) This one made Grian the most stressed due to all the moving parts involved in making it (coding and pathfinding mostly by Henkelmax, visuals by Hoffen, audio/music, questions)

(55:08) Trivia Bot's design was based on Grumbot and Mettaton from Undertale. Hoffen drew concept art shown in the video

(58:32) They show Trivia Bot's custom animation for becoming a snail and it's really cool

(59:12) The music was the most stressful part of the project. Grian spent 2-3 days looking through Epidemic Sounds for a Trivia Bot theme song and couldn't find anything good. He commissioned Zera @hopepetal for a theme song, which is played in the podcast. However, Grian realized he needed a full audio package, so he commissioned Oli late in development, who created the final soundtrack and many audio variations

(1:01:38) Grian wants to send appreciation for everyone who worked on the project, even if their work ultimately went unused

(1:02:58) Skizz was happy to give back however he could by staying on standby in the final episode as a zombie, as the players were able to "reap all the benefits" of the hard work of the development team

(1:05:21) Grian didn't know any of the trivia questions beforehand, which were done by fans of the series. The goal was for ~50% of the questions to be answered correctly, which was approximately met

(1:07:11) Players couldn't get questions about themselves because it would be too easy. This would encourage players to leave their bot, allowing other players to mess with them

(1:07:57) Grian felt a little left out from the discovery element of the wild cards, and decided to mess with Scar by hiding his bot. He wasn't expecting Scar to die from it, and could tell that he was genuinely a little upset by it. Grian felt bad about it, which led to a genuine in-game alliance between them

(1:12:32) Grian was very close to letting Trivia Bot give lives as rewards, but decided it would feel too cheap

(1:14:38) Mob swap was slightly toned down, with more camels and sniffers spawning

(1:15:07) Evokers didn't drop totems anymore. Instead, there was a minuscule chance a warden or wither would spawn, which would drop a totem if killed. Grian was a little disappointed that the warden got cheesed in the end

(1:17:45) Having the mobs start passive and turn hostile was mostly for the presentation, building anticipation, and so players could predict where mobs would spawn and react accordingly, making things feel less unfair

(1:20:32) There was no superpower made for Skizz (or Mumbo presumably)

(1:20:38) The superpowers were another late addition. There was a large design doc where Grian created all the powers, which were handed over to Henkelmax and completed over 4 days

(1:21:42) Grian avoided superpowers involving strength, that could cause someone to die easily. Most of the powers were social or movement-based, which couldn't be used for offence as easily

(1:22:25) Some powers were randomly assigned, others weren't. Impulse's was random. Cleo's, Bigb's, Lizzie's, Grian's were assigned.

(1:24:25) Grian gave himself the mimic because it could easily backfire (like in Grian's fall damage death), and because it would've been confusing for a player who wasn't aware of the other powers. They likely would've spent the episode just figuring out how everything worked and not actually using the power to its best ability

Lots of discussion about the superpowers and how they interacted in the episode itself, go watch if you're interested :)

(1:33:38) Talk on how the series "standard" rules evolved since 3rd Life. There was no keep inventory, and no restrictions on enchanting levels or potions, which created slow or unbalanced fights

(1:36:23) 3rd Life was designed to be an experimental series, which made Grian eager to improve it. For example, some people just weren't dying in 3L, leading to the boogeyman in LL, and so on

(1:37:17) The goal with the seasons isn't to one-up the previous one, but to create a different experience every time, which keeps things engaging for the creators

(1:38:31) At the end of each session, Grian would ask the group if they had fun and how they felt about the wild cards. According the Skizz, the answer was "a resounding yes"

(1:39:08) Grian had moments throughout the season where he personally felt like things didn't go well for him, and was anxious for the rest of the group's episodes. Things worked out while editing the raw footage, though. His issues were never with the wild cards themselves, but his own actions (traps not working, spending too long branch mining), but would always find funny moments in his footage

(1:43:41) Everyone in the Life Series cast genuinely likes and genuinely respects everybody else in the group. This allows them to make the show and get mad at each other, because they know it's all just in-character

(1:44:50) It'd be hard to top Wild Life in spectacle, and Grian doesn't want to start an arms race with himself. The next season could potentially be closer to 3rd Life, but Grian's not sure yet. For Grian, Wild Life was the most enjoyable

(1:45:20) Grian: "As long as people keep enjoying [the Life Series] then I'd love to keep doing it"

(1:49:35) With the finale, Grian knew how the wild cards played out the previous sessions and was able to adjust them

(1:49:56) Grian's goal was to create safe chaos where everyone knew what was happening and wouldn't die to them, which didn't go entirely to plan. The snails were 60% of their original speed and people still died

(1:51:03) Grian made a precise timeline of when each wild card would start/stop, it wasn't randomized.

(1:54:16) All the superpowers were randomized, with Bdubs' power being removed from circulation because it didn't have much use in a finale setting

(1:56:10) It was important for Grian that in the final moments, the wild cards were removed, so there were no interruptions. The timing worked out well because there were a few people left and it ended within ~10 minutes (this implies that the change wasn't based on # of players alive, as people had speculated based on Gem's death)

(1:58:48) The players all randomly switched to zombie skins throughout the session to mess with people on NameMC. Well-played :)

[screwpinecaprice]

infinite kisses! [reuloaded]

I learned that Fire Alpaca has an animation option, so I could actually see it moving while editing instead of just guessing in Medibang. So have had it adjusted to make it less snappy as originally intended.

[transformers-synergize]

Not sure if this is considered spoilers but are the characters in any relationships with each other?

Yes, Cliffjumper and Hound are conjuxed from the start. I was originally gonna hold off on talking about them being together until it is mentioned outright in the comic, but it's not really a spoiler, and it's revealed in off-handed dialog, so ya, these bots been gay for each other since before the start of the main plot.

Redalert is conjuxed with Inferno and Firestar, though nobody knows where his conjux's are after the crash,

Also, I'm not gonna mention characters who get together during the comic because that would be spoilers, lol.

[vic-does-battlecats]

Ik that the Erins will not handle her well at all but I’m so interested in Moonpaw’s sister as a character actually (Maybe more so than actual Moonpaw tbh…).

The writing of the book and even the warriors website treats her as if she’s Completely Evil (going so far as to literally name a character trait of hers as ‘malevolent’ on the website) but like… This isn’t just an evil spooky spirit cat being evil just Because. This is the ghost of a kid who never got to grow up properly, never was properly parented, who had to live vicariously through watching and interacting with Moonpaw when she was a kitten. She had nobody else who could hear her, no other contact with anyone else. And Thunderclan refused to even acknowledge she EXISTED whatsoever, even hiding it from Moonpaw herself. So when Moonpaw suddenly needs to focus without someone chatting to her all the time, and begins to treat her sister like a nuisance and literally begins ignoring her… it would make sense that said sister, who basically has the mindset of a jealous, hurt, abandoned kid, would be mad about it. This is her ONE CONNECTION WITH ANYONE. So her being all ‘if I can’t be with you in your world, you’ll be with me in mine’ makes sense. Moonpaw is all she has. I’m on your side voicepaw….

[beanbeansson]

is there a really quick way to get the haiku bot to find your post

what if i was to type out a few phrases that would fit in haikus

just asking in case anybody knows how to make it find my post

[circusclowne]

i am fond of cabbot

[ai-art-thieves]

got this under my latest art post (a messy gouache painting)

blocked and reported as a bot, and recommend everyone does the same. nfts suck, btw

i feel sad for the guy who's identity and images got stolen from this bot.

[istoleyourboredom]

I wanted to draw my top ten favorite bots across all of the transformers franchise together ❤️💜

You just know this room is way to goddamn loud

[raileurta]

Thinking about that post I made about Miko with the apex armor and how her going to different aus would seriously mess them up. And it got me thinking what universes of the sort would suffer the most impact from her entering them?

My first thought was Bayverse because you know ✨guns✨ and stuff but honestly they're pretty used to all types of transformer psycho bs so I think they could adapt. It might take a bit but they eventually get there. (Also if we're being completely honest here she would probably fit into this universe too well. They would get along like a house on fire and a arsonist.)

Series like tfa where everything is sillier with the bots being significantly much smaller than tfp would definitely feel more of the negative impacts of Miko. Then again in some continuities we're humans don't exist or aren't relevant there's definitely a major psychological aspect that would apply to it.

I mean how would you feel if suddenly an organic alien child constantly ready to throw hands showed up in your inderstructable relic armor? Definitely not thrilled to say the least. Like just imagine it with a world like Tf one. They just went through some major politics of the century and as Optimus is about to start attacking Megatron out of nowhere this little pink screaming thing just slams into the decepticon. I do mean very little as tf one bots are ginormous dude, Google it. What would proceed to be peak comedy, not so much damaging but definitely entertaining.

I'm not that knowledgeable about many transformers continuities. I'm really only familiar with Bayverse, Earthspark, and tfp of course. So you guys gotta lock in for me with your tf knowledge. Debate in my reblogs/comments about this; would really love to see it.

[rambunctioustoons]

banter by the water cooler fizzy-faz machine! (not sponsored!!!!™™™)

[kitanotatsu]

wof again they're sitting .. ..

[mincedpeaches]

Commission I got at tfcon Orlando from Sara Pitre-Durocher of another IDW styled Heatwave ❤️

[transingthoseformers]

I think it’d be funny if instead of stds transformers got malware. Like imagine you don’t use protection and you get the You Are An Idiot virus blaring out your speakers, or someone uses a hookup to infect you with a crypto mining program.

Would it be MTI (Malware Transmitted by Interface) or ITM (Interface Transmitted Malware)? 🤔

(would probably still categorize under STI though)

I will admit my first thought was Starscream looking both very embarrassed and very mad in Hook's medbay with Star's speakers up so loud they're staticky😔 (a certain someone who's been interfacing with Earth technology is going to get a serious talking to)

Fucking someone to mine cryptocurrency has to be a top tier asshole move to do

[luciolefire]

Holoform design 🧡🤍💚