#i'm no good with servers and databases and all that

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

Omfg!! Ffn is closing?? Where did you hear this? I don’t see anyone else talking about this!!

Okay, calm down people.

I didn't hear it from anybody. There's no official word. HOWEVER, I've seen the signs and the signs aren't good.

All Hints of Moderation Have Ceased

There used to be a pretty rigorous team of moderators who ran the site but it's noted (and not just by me) that for a while they haven't seemed as responsive if they've been responsive at all.

Fics that would have been pulled in a heartbeat stay up. Spam bots do seem to have taken over PMs.

Their Authentication Server's Been Wonky

The authentication server has sometimes been entirely non-functional for users. In my case, fanfiction has kept me logged in for an eeriely long time, far longer than it ever used to.

Their Email Server's Been Black Listed

Their email server has been black listed by a prominent email provider (i.e. mine). I'm not talking sent to junk, I'm talking it will not send to the inbox as in it has been straight up black listed. Their solution to this is to tell me, the user, to white list their email rather than improve their reputation.

This is a terrible solution and a sign that things are not good.

Rather Than Pay for More Servers They Use Cloud Flare

It's probably been noticed by everyone that they're employing DDOS protection via cloudflare. Well, that's nice and all, except that it's slow, clunky, and annoying. It's not a good user experience and the more expensive but good option would be to up the number of servers they have or use a more seamless DDOS protection solution.

This is a sign they're not willing to spend the money for the good stuff.

The Proliferation of Ads

Fanfiction is now riddled with ads when not using ad block. It's ads every few paragraphs, completely breaking up a story. It's utterl illegible. To me this reeks of trying to wring out every last cent out of viewership without putting in effort of attracting people.

They know people are leaving so they've stopped trying at all.

They Didn't Renew Their Cert

Now, this I heard from somebody else but this IS THE SIGN. They didn't renew the cert for their website. Now, it expires in several years, but when it does you will no longer be able to traverse safely to the site and it may not even exist.

What Does All This Mean?

Is fanfiction going down today or tomorrow?

No.

But it means that if the email server fails... they might not fix it. If the authentication server fails... they might not fix it. If one of their databases fails and they have no backup... those fics might be gone.

It means that access could be lost, certainly for me as an author, with no warning and I may not get it back.

[solarpunkani]

Milkweed Lovers Everywhere, Heed My Warning

By all means let me know if I'm wrong here, but if I'm not wrong then we're looking at a serious (at least to me) problem.

I've been trying to stray away from Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) and towards more native species in my area--things like swamp, sandhill, etc--and Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa) fits in that category for me. It's hard to find native milkweed plants in stores--even places I've gone to in the past that had a handful of native species are currently only selling Tropical Milkweed. Even still, I know that there's been a good bit of buzz around growing native species, and some stores I've visited have said they're trying to find vendors with native species--they're not only selling Tropical for lack of trying.

So imagine my surprise--and delight--when I go to Lowe's and see Asclepias tubersoa blazoned on a plant label!

And imagine my surprise when it's being sold right next to Tropical Milkweed and looks almost identical to it.

I was immediately suspicious--especially considering the red flower buds on the 'Butterfly weed'. I've grown Tropical Milkweed for several years, and while it's been awhile since I've seen a Butterfly Weed plant outside of a photograph, these definitely didn't look like what I'd seen. Not to mention, I'd only heard of Asclepias tuberosa flowering in orange or yellow--not red. Of course, at the same time, I'm not a professional botanist, and a quick google search did declare that butterfly weed can grow in red (though the images all look like asclepias curassavica to me...).

(Image from the Native Plant Database. Looking at this picture, I should've realized where this was going sooner...)

So I did the reasonable thing and bought two of them. I figured if the red buds somehow turned orange and were actually Butterfly Weed, then I'd be perfectly satisfied. If they turned out to be Tropical Milkweed, well, I simply would give them to my neighbor who's fond of them, or find something else to do with them.

(I feel the need to emphasize; there are a lot of people online who are in the 'if you plant tropical milkweed you're a horrible person and intentionally killing monarch butterflies' camp. I am not one of them; it's not invasive in my area of Florida, it just takes a little bit of extra managing in terms of cutting it back in October/November.)

I ended up in the same Lowe's again today, shopping for my mom, and took a peek at their plant selection. Lo and behold, I found the Butterfly Weed, and...

This sure does look like Tropical Milkweed to me, and to others in my gardening server, yet it's still labeled as 'Butterfly Weed.' Also, I didn't see any Tropical Milkweed on any of the shelves--at least, nothing labeled as Tropical Milkweed. Instead, all I saw was Tropical Milkweed disguised as Butterfly Weed.

This is, in my humble pollinator garden enthusiast opinion, a problem. At best, Lowe's--or the company they source their plants from--is mislabeling their plants on accident. Which could cause problems if people are buying the plants and putting them in a place that's not quite the right condition for them, or create severe disappointment if someone's excited to grow the native Asclepias tuberosa only to end up with something else entirely. At worst? Lowe's--or the company they source their plants from--are aware that people want to grow native milkweed and are either unable to or too lazy to grow them, and would rather try to get away with selling Tropical Milkweed--which has been growing increasingly controversial in some gardening circles--and still reap the benefits and profits of selling native milkweed species.

However, I'll be real? I'm not sure what exactly to do about it. So I guess I'm just letting everyone know; if you see 'Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)' in your local Lowe's, at least double check. Otherwise, you may plant Tropical Milkweed/Scarlet Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) instead.

[mochiwrites]

so since evo is part of the whole backstory thing I think? since you wrote something for it. does that mean crafting dead is scar’s backstory too? If so then how did grian and scar end up meeting/falling in love?

it is, yeah! I talked a little bit about how they met here and as a bonus, I talked here about some of the evo stuff!

so! expanding on my thoughts a bit more, I think they were pretty young when they first met. scar is young for a vex and grian is just a regular old human player. he's not an avian pre-evo

I'm gonna run with the idea that every server and player world is connected to one giant hub -- kinda like a computer database. so for scar, he had to escape from his crafting dead world (I'm thinking scar's world got corrupted, maybe by the watchers? but the corruption is how the virus broke out and the zombies appeared).

it took him a while because he had to get the materials to create a portal and he had to fix his communicator to even be able to connect anything to the main hub. I have to flesh this out more, but that's the basic idea rn!! soooo he manages to get out of the world (before it completely collapses and the code is destroyed).

scar kinda wanders for a bit, has to find himself now that he's not clawing for survival every day. and he ends up stumbling on the hypixel hub, which will give him exactly what he needs: an excuse to explore who he is and who he wants to be. he definitely picks up his conman lifestyle here.

then enter grian, who's essentially behaving as a nomad. I think he's a builder for hire, doing a lot of free lance stuff. he's got an apartment in hypixel and a somewhat established life.

as for how he and scar meet? well that's easy. scar scams him :D

scar gets maybe one or two days before grian is marching up to him and demanding compensation because he knows scar scammed him. scar tries to play it off but grian is Stubborn and really cute, and scar, in all of his smartness and not at all being influenced by his attraction, apologizes and offers to make it up to grian.

I think scar is kinda. homeless. he's just wandering hypixel, exploring what he can with what little money he manages to get together. so how does he make it up to grian? well, he puts those conman skills to good use! he manages to smooth talk his way into getting himself and grian a table at a restaurant for free ;3

and grian really isn't sure why he's agreeing to this... date, maybe it's due to curiosity. scar is offering a free meal, and he's easy on the eyes and sure. okay, yeah he'll let this handsome fella get him dinner.

it's through this dinner that grian discovers scar is homeless and impulsively decides to let scar stay in his apartment with him. and well. roommates to lovers :D

[coldalbion]

"And in many ways, that complaint has only gotten louder over the decades. Stop talking to each other and start buying things. Stop providing content for free and start paying us for the privilege. Stop shining sunlight on horrors and start advocating for more of them. Stop making communities and start weaponizing misinformation to benefit your betters.

It’s the same. It’s always been the same. Stop benefitting from the internet, it’s not for you to enjoy, it’s for us to use to extract money from you. Stop finding beauty and connection in the world, loneliness is more profitable and easier to control.

Stop being human. A mindless bot who makes regular purchases is all that’s really needed.

Over and over again since that prodigal moment of shame and hurt and confusion, I’ve joined online communities, found so much to love there, made friends and created unique spaces that truly felt special, felt like places worth protecting. And they’ve all, eventually, died. For the same reasons and through the same means, though machinations came from a parade of different bad actors. It never really mattered who exactly killed and ate these little worlds. The details. It’s all the same cycle, the same beasts, the same dark hungers. [...] And while Twitter hurts, I’m not sure anything will ever hurt as much as Livejournal did. It feels like no one even remembers anymore what happened to lovely, flawed, dog-eared, wacky old LJ in the twilight of the aughts and the dawn of the tens. Even though in this year of our lord 2022, when there are some pretty fucking good reasons to remember it, and learn its lessons...

So when Livejournal was sold, not to Viacom or Google, but to SixApart, a company no one had ever heard of, it was confusing. As was its refusal to develop anything like a usable mobile app. When fanfic communities started getting banned for gay content in the name of “protecting the children,” it was alarming and confusing. When it started going down regularly due to constant DDoS attacks, the new owner accused the community of trying to blackmail and destroy him for questioning what the hell was going to happen to all of us, when the Russian Prime Minister was commenting on fucking Livejournal, and when Russian users started put posts in English to let others know what was going on…we all just felt so helpless. It was sold to SUPMedia, a Russian company, and by 2016, had moved its servers to Russia and changed the entire site to conform with that good old very free and inclusive Russian law, but by that time, the community had long fled. Which was the point. Make it unusable and unreliable, bleed off the Westerners and the eye of Western media, and use the database to find and shut down dissenters.

And as hard as it was for us to lose that space where so many of us found family and work and connection, I cannot begin to imagine what those brave dissidents lost. What Russia lost. What they are still losing.

It was a small piece of what was to come. Like Gamergate and the Puppies, an experiment to practice taking apart a minor but culturally influential community and develop techniques to do it again, more efficiently, more quickly, with less attention. To lay out a reliable pathway to commit harm and lie about it for so long and in so many ways that by the time the truth is available, it doesn’t matter, because the harm is a foundational part of the system we’re living in. The harm is the new status quo.

Lather, rinse, repeat."

As someone who's been online nearly 30 years (I'm 18ish months younger than the author) who cut his teeth on dialup BBSses, Fidonet et al rather than Prodigy, I cosign this and beg you to read the whole thing.

[thatdebaterguy]

Usually I would go anon but I am at the point where I don't care what people think anymore. I would rather be honest and have these people off my blog than keep doing it in secret.

Anyways, I was scrolling through a post (because I hate myself). Tumblr wouldn't let me put the link for some reason:

This isn't the whole post, but 2/3 of it. It's about how Israel was "tricking" children into picking up bombs that looked like food cans. Someone corrected this in the comment section.

And in response to the correction (there was more than one person correcting):

This is a massive issue I've seen with that side of the conflict. They don't care if the information they spread is true as long as it fits the narrative of "Palestine = weak, helpless, 100% good and pure victim. Israel: evil, colonists, eats Palestine babies for breakfast." And it's almost scary the lack of critical thinking to make sure everything fits into this mindset.

I once corrected someone's mistranslation on Pinterest of all places, where someone said a Hebrew translation was ""May this (bomb) lands on innocent people". It was just the company name. I was attacked and told I was a "genocidal zionist" and there was my favorite, "well it doesn't matter if it's true or not, it's what they mean".

So basically, "yeah it doesn't matter if it's fake information, it fits with MY beliefs, so it's okay."

I hate the Pro-Palestinian cult.

It is genuinely depressing to see blatant misinformation spread, for example I've been given the link to a site that takes supposed quotes from Israeli officials completely out of context, half the time a complete lie, and told it's some kind of proof Israel is the epitome of moral sin, despite being the most equal state in the middle east. I saw this post and saw another one debunking how the imagine has been altered in a misleading way, just as I saw a post of a server room that's linked to a Hamas database under an UNRWA facility, and someone said it powered a solar panel. Keep in mind they didn't lie for the Palestinian civilians, that was to straight up cover for Hamas.

The screenshot of someone calling Hamas 'freedom fighters' is actually scary.

this is the first thing you see when you search for the ideology of Hamas. Yk the worst part? This would be called zionist propaganda just because it says Hamas have committed terrorism, and October 7th happened. These are literal facts though, Hamas are proud of October 7th, proud of killing thousands, kidnapping hundreds, committing acts of terrorism. If you have any sense of morality, you cannot defend Hamas, even if you see them as on the right side or as freedom fighters, their methods alone make them a monstrous organisation. They wear plain civilian clothes in war, a war crime, they have been verified to use civilian buildings for cover, a war crime, they've killed thousands of innocents purposefully, a war crime, they've openly called for the annexation and occupation of Israel, a sovereign country with millions of ethnic Jews who would be 3rd class citizens in a Hamas ruled Palestine.

Israel doesn't want Gaza. They don't want to destroy it, to own it, they wish they never had to hear about it again, let alone invade it to remove Hamas from power. And the fact that people are scared to voice their beliefs against a literal terror group, against misinformation, is insane. You know, the only reason I'm on Israel's side is because when it comes to debates I follow the science, the figures, the statistics, a fixed code of morality and logic, and that leads to me to Israel because they've never instigated a conflict in their entire history, they've voluntarily surrendered land in pursuit of peace, aided the countries that have invaded them, they're by the definition not committing genocide, they're legally and factually in a war of self defence to topple an extremist dictatorial government, the figures show as far as modern urban warfare goes, the civilian-military death ratio is lower than most conflicts, they factually have a historical claim to the land, they built Tel Aviv, built Jerusalem, 400,000 Jews lived the region of Israel before its existence as a modern state, it just all points to Israel.

But I support the people of Palestine, I empathise with them, I want them to be free of the dictators who lead them to this war and suffering they must endure, and I pray they'll get the liberation they deserve. They deserve better than the nightmare of a government that rule over Gaza. And yet none of the Palestinian supporters protest Hamas. They don't realise, protesting against Hamas doesn't weaken the right for civilians to receive aid, because they're forced into this mindset that the Palestinian government and movement has always been one of perfect ineffable morality and one that you must be insanely villainous to even have any contradicting thoughts on. I'm a more conservative guy who's best friend of 4 years recently told me that they're genderfluid, in a polyamorous relationship with a trans man, and have a 'fursona' but since I know they're a person with good intentions in life I support them in finding happiness and getting better. I'd say that makes me fairly open minded, without tooting my own horn too much. But I will never be open to the idea that Hamas have ever wanted what's best for Palestine. Their actions are selfish, their goals are psychopathic, their behaviour is unwarranted, and their care for being a successful governing body is minimal. Gaza, whether prospering before October 7th or not, was legally an independent, sovereign region of the nation of Palestine, who have their own government, constitution, voting system, currencies they operate with, culture, freedom of movement, unless it's to Israel of course, and have been so since Israel pulled out of Gaza.

Israel actually occupied Gaza once. It was better maintained, the people were more looked after. In the years before Israel pulled out of Gaza, the Palestinian economy grew by the largest margin in at least 20 years, and then under Hamas, became incredibly stagnant, with foreign aid being the only thing propping it up. They let unemployment skyrocket despite the opening of more high tech facilities, once again thanks to foreign aid. Now, Israel doesn't want Gaza back, nor should they have it, but when the people of the nationality that Hamas wish to destroy, governed their land even better despite not even being the sovereign owners of that land and just the occupiers, it says a lot. Don't be afraid to speak out against Hamas, since you have no love for the Palestinian people if you don't want them to be free from the suffering Hamas has brought.

[silverskye13]

That xisuma fic was absolutely incredible! If you have any more specific headcanons about android!X I would love to hear them! The idea is amazing and you wrote it so well!

Hai-yo! I'm glad you liked the writing snippet! ^_^

Oh boy, headcanons. How dare you make me organize my thoughts! Let's see.

Android!X is a server that one day decided to stop running in the background. Where I think most of the hermits were "born" on a home world that they can return to, it's more like Xisuma goes into his own mind. Similarly, if someone were to plot a course in the universe to Xisuma's home world, they'd just end up standing in front of him. [I feel like this also means between seasons X just kinda floats like a spaceman in hyper sleep through the void, go you funky little robot go!]

His body is made of circuitry and nanobots? In a way that isn't in any way functional to real life. But it's like he's a beehive almost. He has a living, moving body, but it's built for finesse and life-like expression. That kind of detail needs constant maintenance, so he has a fleet of little drone nanobots constantly doing repairs.

On that note, I think metallic/cybernetic/redstone components don't respawn like organic matter does on death. If it takes damage, it has to be repaired. Hermits like Doc are only mildly hampered by this, since any time his mechanics break, only parts of him are out of commission. For X though, anything that doesn't kill him outright has to be repaired. His nanobots help this, especially with small bits of damage accrued throughout the day, but anything that does significant damage requires him to power down to focus on repair and rebuild, where his nanos can run rampant while he rests. [He's never not productive though. Normally he uses this time to catch up on writing memory transcripts and other general internal housekeeping.]

Android!X is functionally smart but because everything he's ever done has had to be coded, a lot of things slip between gaps in his logic. He's a very smart computer, but he's still a computer. Common sense things slip between the cracks because common sense on regular people is mostly pattern recognition and intuition. Xisuma's only intuition is something he's hand-written in a table in a file somewhere. If he's never had to write/code it, and it's unique enough to not show up in a basic dictionary/archive search, it's a blind spot for him. He can query and in a millisecond give you data facts about the deep dark and still forget that the clicking noise his thinking pattern makes would attract a Warden. This also means he sometimes has weird hang ups in social situations sometimes. Yeah sure, Etho and BDubs are having the same friendly debate from last week, but this time BDubs is 30% louder [possible difference in altercation severity?] and Etho is on hazardous ground [standing on scaffolding, increasing height, personal endangerment? Posturing? Intimidation technique?], which means this situation is actually totally different and he's never coded protocols for it. He's gotten pretty good at reading other people's reactions to gauge his own, but when he's alone, he sometimes has an error he's affectionately labeled a "social short circuit". Good thing they're all hermits and understand when he sometimes just... walks away from things.

Even X doesn't know where his emotions come from. He knows he can augment them [He has a database for complex feelings like "happy and also sad" and "lonely but content", as well as for tonally dissonant scenarios like "feel worried when Cleo says 'its fine'."] and he has on a handful of occasions been able to shut them down when he was too overwhelmed or in a tense situation. But he has no idea where the emotions originally came from, and his ability to control their intensity [and turning them off] is so non-existent it's nearly random.

Xisuma has been trying to code a way to feel pain for a long time. Most of the hermits think he's crazy when he talks about it, but he thinks it would cut back on a lot of his time spent on damage assessment. It's much easier to tell if something is broken if you can feel it break. Currently his only indication something is wrong is if a circuit is actively frying or something stops working -- or if his nanos sniff it out.

Xisuma doesn't eat, but he tells his friends he eats redstone. It cuts back on some of the unnecessary worry about his well-being. It also means when they think he's distressed, they leave him little gifts of redstone, and he finds that endearing.

Xisuma likes to dress up his cybernetics. It started out with trying new paint jobs and slowly escalated to building new body casings with fancy cosmetics. He's very proud of his bone mage cosplay. The little dragon helmet has glowy-eyes and smoke comes out of its nose and everything. Tango, Joe and Cleo like to help him design things, and he lets Doc and Grian go ham trying to stress test [ie ruthlessly destroy] the parts to make sure they're durable before he commits to a design.

And that's about all I've got for now I think!

[robo-dino-puppy]

I hit a sort of follower milestone recently (and I'm reasonably sure most of you aren't bots) so... new pinned post time!

(to all the followers and moots I see in my notifs all the time - I love you all so much ♡)

▷ First of all:

I made horizon-armor and you should check it out if you've ever wanted a gallery of all Aloy's armor and dye options from HFW :D Here's a previous pinned post about it. This ↑ is the card I made for it in the Horizon Database, which is not mine but you should also check out if you're interested in gameplay mechanics/tips/tricks/practically any info you ever wanted to know about HFW. (the database was put together by twingeofregret on Arktix's discord, and many of the items there were put together by other server members)

▷ Second, I don't think it needs saying? But DON'T REPOST - meaning, don't reupload in your own post - any of my work and don't upload it to any other sites. Yeah this is "only" virtual photography but I still spend time on it and it's mine. Please don't, for anyone's creations. Reblog or share links!

▷ Thirdly, absolutely feel free to use my pics as drawing/art references or personal phone backgrounds! (But please don't edit my shots and repost them.) If you use things as references I'd love to be tagged so I can see what you drew/painted/whatevered <3

...the rest below a cut because I don't know how to be brief...

▷ Fourth: I would very much appreciate anyone who wants to add image descriptions to my posts - I know it's a sucky excuse but when I've tried doing it I just end up exhausted and feel like it's either too longwinded or not a good description at all. So if anyone who is good with words would like to help me out I'd be super grateful! I'll reblog your addition and (if you're cool with it) I can add it to the alt text of the image.

▷ Fifth: With the more-real-than-ever possibility of Tumblr imploding, I thought I'd also include where else you might find me! I'm not going anywhere until this place melts down because Tumblr is the only place I've ever felt comfortable, but I also have an account on Reddit (ew) that I use occasionally: I'm robo_dino_puppy there. I put Horizon videos on YouTube sometimes: I'm robo-dino-puppy over there too. I exist on Discord although it's rather... social for me and honestly I'm still not sure if I'm doing it right haha. I guess I should make an effort to join more servers to keep track of people just in case, but I've always felt like I'd be a fraud or an invader with the ship servers because I don't actually ship Aloy with anyone...

As a backup for the armor gallery I've snagged horizon-armor (and robo-dino-puppy, for that matter) on Neocities, but there's nothing there at the moment because I'm currently waaaaay too braindead to create a site from scratch. Also empty right now, but in case of future need I'm squatting on robo-dino-puppy on Dreamwidth and Pillowfort.

And now thanks to a kindly-provided invite, robo-dino-puppy on Bluesky!

aaaaand finally I'm also @robo-dino-puppies if you're interested in my non-Horizon stuff/reblogs/my sideblog 👀

[ettawritesnstudies]

Hi Etta! Sorry if you already mentioned this, but where/how did you find your editors? (If you don't mind sharing)

Don't mind at all!

I know there are companies like Reedsy and the Writers Digest which have databases of editors, but that seemed really overwhelming. At the end of the day, the best way to get resources is to network (make friends, and hope their mutuals like you too).

Last year, I did an interview for Amanda Auler on Instagram and she boosted my account, so months later I ended up doing an interview for Addison Horner. He does editing for indie authors, so I asked him for a sample edit and liked it, but I wanted to get other points of comparison first, so I asked around and came up with a short list of editors. I contacted them, and when I had enough to compare, I ended up deciding I liked Addison best and drew up a contract with him. God moment that I found him so quickly.

But if I had to give this advice to someone else I'd recommend following these steps:

Read books in your genre. Read INDIE AUTHORS in your genre. Review their books. Follow them on social media. Be a friendly fan but don't make it weird.

Indie authors are one person publishing teams desperate for engagement and positive attention. They will thank you for your help and be willing to pay it forward when the time comes.

Once you have a handful of books you like that have similar vibes to your book, flip to the acknowledgements and find the editors name.

Google the editor, find their site, submit your inquiry, email works better than a form.

If you can't find the editor online, DM the indie author and ask "hey I really liked your book and it's a good comp title for my WIP. Who's your editor and what was your experience with them like? Do you mind pointing me their way?" Follow the author's advice. Repeat as needed.

(I've only ever received nice responses to this, don't be anxious. If they don't reply they're probably just busy, not annoyed).

When you contact editors, ask about their availability, rates, and be specific about what type of editing you need. Ask for a free sample edit. Mine were 250-2500 words.

Supply details about your WIP. Mine looked like this:

Title: Runaways

Genre: Middle Grade Portal Fantasy. I'm not labeling it as "Christian Fiction" as religion isn't a focus point of the story, but there are significant underlying Catholic themes.

Premise: When Cecelia goes missing one stormy Halloween night, her older sister, Hannah, must venture into the faerie courts to learn the truth about their past and bring her home. (Linked WIP Page with additional information)

Length: About 86,000 words, 180 pages (Times New Roman, 12pt, double spaced, standard 1in margins formatting). 21 chapters with an epilogue

Style: 3rd person limited, present tense. 3 POV characters: primarily Hannah at first, and then Cecelia and the third added later, alternating.

Status/Timeline/Availability: Currently with a 2nd round of beta readers, and I'll be getting feedback by March 31st. After editing the draft to reflect their feedback and doing my own line edits, I'll be looking for a line/copy edit around April/May or early summer.

Types of edits needed: As I understand, every editor uses "line" and "copy" edit slightly differently, but I'm looking for a combination of both styles if possible: checking for internal consistency, logical choreography, adequate descriptions, minor plot or worldbuilding errors, as well as language concerns like cutting crutch words, making sentence structure more dynamic, choosing the right verbs, etc. Developmental editing not needed. Waiting to do proofreading at the moment

When perusing at the editors site, look for credentials/certifications, their backlog of works, and testimonials

If you don't have enough options following this method, join some discord servers! I'm in a local NaNoWriMo group and a Catholic Writers Guild called Inkwells and Anvils which were both useful. I think there might be some writeblr ones as well. Find the critiques channel and send the same information there^^

Compare sample edits. Who respects your voice? Who supplied the most insightful comments? Do you vibe over email? Are they willing to do a stylesheet? Do they like your book? Can you set up a 15 minute zoom call to see if you vibe and discuss details?

Look at prices. My rate is $.015 a word but that's pretty cheap for the industry. Most of the rates I saw publicly were between $.02-.03/word for line editing.

Pray/sleep on it

Once you pick your best option, set a date to send them the manuscript, sign contracts, and make payment.

Send a polite email to the other editors and say "I regret to say you're not quite the right fit for this book, but I appreciate all your time, help, and advice! I hope to work with you in the future" or something along those lines. Don't burn your bridges.

Celebrate!

This whole process took me a couple weeks, everyone was very punctual and professional and friendly. I ended up going with Addison not only because he was the cheapest but also because he made 3X the number of comments as any other writer, and his comments were specific and useful. He understood my characters immediately, I think in part because his writing style is similar to mine, based on his debut novel, Marrow and Soul. We're both Christians who like YA dark fantasy. It's a good match. He's still taking clients for later in the year if that's your vibes. I also worked with Amber Burdett and Sariah Solomon, who were both lovely.

I wish you the best of luck finding an editor who fits your story! I hope this was helpful and not overly long.

[mlobsters]

i'm mostly convinced all the stuff i draw is technically okay but completely soulless and pointless lol

and it's unsettling how lacking in confidence i am about it. because i feel like generally i know where i stand when it comes to Doing Things - be it good or bad, and am okay with it.

i don't think i've ever pursued something be it work, hobby, sport, whatever and--wait, no. i have felt this way about a work thing! programming. i was self taught for basically everything i did in my work in IT - sql, desktop support, accounting software (and basically accounting in general), server maintenance, report designing, etc. i did have a small amount of education in programming - a couple college courses in pascal and c++, respectively. i was confident i could write something that worked, but no confidence i was doing it the ~right~ way. the most efficient or elegant way. i was always around people who i felt like were just good at programming, that it came naturally, that were able to keep all this jargon straight that i could never remember, etc.. and i felt miles behind that. so i eventually just accepted that programming is not my bag, unless it's on the database side.

so i guess it's a variation on that theme. i really enjoy drawing and it's been amazing at keeping my depressed brain occupied. but the parts after i finish it and put it out into the world, not so much

[lunarsilkscreen]

HTML, RichText, and BB_Markup

Back in the day "RichText" or text that can be stylized like you would in Microsoft Word, or an E-Mail, wasn't often available in social media platforms.

And there's still some social media platforms who don't allow it at all.

This has multiple reasons, the processing is done in script at the browser level, and so there used to be performance reasons not to allow it. Or most of your users would experience a slow down just to view the text, why bother with it?

As browsers started getting more comfortable and fast enough to deliver HTML pages, with the markup allowed in HTML, HTML became the default. But as JavaScript grew in popularity, scope and use. HTML itself became a way for people to inject scripts directly into the page.

And instead of just, cleaning script tags and other injection vulnerabilities, websites took HTML away from users all together. This was a problem, in Part, directly influenced by the W3C {World-wide web consortium}, and big-browser (Microsoft, Netscape, and Mozilla, and later Google, Apple, and Opera) who all implemented HTML/CSS/JS differently.

Nobody knows why they did this, they just did. (Actually, there's a bunch of different reasons, but as you look deeper into the rabbit hole, the more absurd it gets.)

After that, forum and social media designers came up with *BB_Markup* I think BB means blackboard, but who knows for sure anymore.

BB was basically a shorthand HTML markup that used square-brackets instead of triangle-brackets, and at a server level, that markup got turned into *safe* HTML markup--to avoid user-level injection attacks.

We also get a bunch of other short hand that may or may not be used in certain platforms (like reddit) to this day. Wrapping text in asterisks to italicize a word, or tildes or the little wavey dash (~) which denote bolding under lining or strike through depending on what you're used to.

All sorts of things that some people who were netizens of the 90s and early-00s might still be in the habit of using.

Today, there's little reason for browsers to even allow <script> or script-referencing mark-up at that particular level anymore. Which would solve A LOT of early security issues. But they don't change it back because a lot of websites still use tricks like that, because that's what developers do.

Even though advertising still allows injection and browser-hijacking at a "user-level" just like in the olden days. Yep, if you host ads, there's a good chance you're allowing those ads to deliver malware to your users.

Looking at you YouTube and websites that say "Please stop using ad-block". They don't use them to prevent you from getting paid, they use them to stop you from injecting their device with malware.

You big dummys.

That's part of the reason why I'm an advocate of "ad-reform". Advertising companies are leveraging their ad-platforms for more than simply delivering ads.

There's a drive to put internet tools only in the hands of companies, taking net freedoms a lot of early-adopters take for granted, not like ad-block, more like not having to worry about malware being delivered to you while you're powerless to stop it.

I'm not even talking about internet surveillance, I'm talking about advertising companies delivering malware to office equipment. You know those hacks that seemingly target large databases everyday?

Paid Advertising.

Since a lot of, too many even, Internet users these days even know the basics of HTML/CSS/JS, they don't even get to see what it feels like to have the inspection tools be taken away from you so you can see how it is these websites are f* you.

I can't even [view source] on my phone anymore. *That's considered* a bigger security risk than ad-delivery hijacking *your* phone.

How much does ad delivery cost these days, and you can see, that's the price of delivering malware to the user. Not just advertising products.

[titanicfreija]

Who Was I?

A bit where Thomas asks Freija and Sunny to help him break the rules and is reminded that some questions are better left unanswered.

@annieruok94

@wolvereaux

I spare you guys the six tags and simply give you a table of contents

[kawaoneechan]

On the OpenStarbound repo, there's an issue involving server-side mod support, something Starbound never had and OpenStarbound still doesn't. It dates back to January 1, and I'm still not quite over how it took me this long to realize a simple truth.

Starbound cannot support server-side mods.

That is, you can't have it connect to an external server and have the server send any missing mods over.

Consider the startup process:

On startup, the game goes through all asset sources (assets\packed.pak, anything in assets\user, folders and zips in mods\, and anything in the Steam Workshop folder), listing all the files in there, in prioritized order and all that, and then loads all the data from these files into various in-game databases. This takes a fair bit, especially when you have a couple mods in place (that's both the mods folder and the Steam Workshop).

You create a character if you haven't already.

You can now start a new game, in which case your copy of SB plays both server and client roles, or join another game.

If you try to join a game that doesn't have the same assets, things break. This is what server-side mods are supposed to solve! But there's a problem:

Same as before.

Same as before.

You join an external game. An asset mismatch is found, so the server's mods are downloaded from the server, to a special server-specific folder. All that's gonna take a good while.

The game has to go back to step one, effectively restarting to load only assets\packed.pak and what's in the server-specific folder. Depending on the server's mod loadout, this will another good amount of time.

If you didn't create a character of one of the vanilla species, or they had items from a mod this server doesn't have, you now have to create a new character specifically for this server.

You can now join the game... but starting a local one or trying to join another server means starting all of this all over again.

It's simply not designed to handle server-side mods.

[crescent-cove-blog]

Spring Upkeep Tasks

Hey there, everyone! It's been a while, huh? I've been incredibly busy between work and university lately, but I'm happy to say that I still try to work on this project every couple of weeks whenever I have time (and the motivation)!

Read information about this update below...

I've been organizing my current backlog on Trello and trying to get a good grasp on what needs to be done before we can start early testing. There's still a bit of work, as a handful of core features still need to be created, but I'm currently trying to make progress on my backlog of smaller features and adjustments that need to be worked on for content that already exists on the site.

I've also been recently brainstorming the main story I want to present to players, and how important I want their actions to be on the overall experience of the game. It has always been a dream of mine to make Crescent Cove an interactive experience, where the chain of events are directly affected by the choices and work players' contribute to the game. At the same time, I don't want a story that's completely missed out on by new players, so I'm trying to strike a balanced between static quests for each player, and quests / events that require player-engagement and efforts to affect site-wide events. If you have any vague ideas, feel free to send them to me through the Discord server!

Some things I've worked on the last two days include:

Added some long overdue code to avoid JavaScript injections into the HTML code. It took a little while to figure out, but once I had an idea of where to start it became a really simple matter to solve! I'm sure there are better solutions, but this will work for now.

There were some pretty significant bugs on the screen to view a player's characters. Somehow, I updated the database and forgot to update the code that interacts with it! They were pretty easy fixes, just renaming everything and making small changes here and there.

Lastly, I'm really proud of this one: I recently discovered CRON jobs and was able to write one pretty quickly today to update all of the shops every couple of minutes. Before my code was pretty janky and I wasn't a huge fan, haha. Now, I just need to add CRON jobs for other features (such as automating the temp mute/ban system)!

What I need to do now is some testing to make sure everything works with the CRON jobs and operations. I've only been able to test the basic features so far, and it looks good, but I'll need to do some extensive testing in the alpha phase to see if anyone can break the website, especially if it takes very little effort to do so.

Let me know what you think! You can read my devlog entry of the changes I made on the site here! If you have any ideas for story quests, please let me know in the replies as well!

[izicodes]

How did you decide you wanted to be a web developer? I get to choose rn in which direction I wanna specialise in and I have no clue how to tell if I should go into web development, front end or back end, if I should go full stack, or for mobile app development or for desktop applications and it's super stressing me out kinda

Hiya! 💗

For me, I like designing, I liked building websites and just creating different web designs and exploring in that aspect! I did Art and Graphic Design in secondary school and I loved coding so I combined both.

Reason why I am not a HUGE fan of Backend fully is because I tried it and I couldn't see what I was building, my Backend experience was all database and server stuff and that didn't make me want to continue learning (at least not right now, it's not a priority!). FullStack for me would me getting to love Backend stuff and I'm not quite there yet! My dream job is just fully focus on Frontend Development of Web Development but my job right now would be fullstack in a sense but more leaning towards frontend! Game Development I will get to in the future, not that interested in mobile app development until I have a good idea for a phone app then I will learn it but no urges now to learn it. Desktop Applications I will get to in the future again but not a priority right now!

So my passion is design and coding, that's why I picked Web Development and more specifically Frontend Development!

Now for you, and I bet you've heard this before but, what is your interest outside of programming? Some people love maths and data so they study Data Science, some like security stuff so they study Cybersecurity (my Dad) and some person randomly wants to learn how to build a game so they study Game Development. You got to find that interet in which you can translate into programming.

Another tip is look at the possible careers you can get into for each sector within programming! See which is the one you feel sounds more interesting than the rest, the go with that!

You also got to understand people can switch their specialty whenever during their career, whilst some stay the same for a long time e.g. 10 year old JavaScript developers out there! So, whatever you choose eventually, have a go! Give it your all and if in the end it's not for you, switch!

Best of luck! 🙌🏾💻💗

[v3ileddespairx]

Transcript

[The Survivors return to the cabin via car with groceries]

Coyote: Oh, you're back? Did you get my slushie-

Murch: Ehem, welcome back. We just finished cleaning up down here, and got most of the debris blocking the lab's sub-level cleared out. Come on down.

[The Survivors take the groceries out of the car and enter the cabin, they put the groceries inside the fridge and then head to the basement lab to meet with the crew]

[Dialogue with Murch and Coyote before you trigger the first cutscene]

Murch: Could you even make it out? I had almost no time to grab anything before I left.

Coyote: I should myself, was stuck in there for like decades. This landscape full of nothing. Time felt like it was out of stance to me, just kept going until I found these exits, holes, things that led to places. Timelines, probably. Eventually found one that led here.

[The first cutscene starts to play]

Coyote: Anyways... There you are! ...Wait, no slushie?

Murch: Down to business, Coyote. Not the time for joking around.

Murch: As I'm sure you're all aware, last night the survivors ran into something unexpected. That monster from the attack of the cabin. The one that "killed" the slasher...

Murch: This one is real, it's not a manifestation like we're used to seeing. We already lost someone, and had serveral others injured.

Coyote: It seems like the Deep Night's starting to catch on to our plan.

Murch: We need to be much more careful going forward, and we need more info.

Murch: A.I.L.A., you've been sorting through the records and databases on these terminals, correct?

A.I.L.A.: Affirmative.

Murch: Do you have anything?

[A.I.L.A. displays the "Project Nocturne" hologram]

A.I.L.A.: I have found several references to a project called "Nocturne", records indicate they were attempting to fuse Deep Night matter into living organisms.

A.I.L.A.: ...The project was shuttered, after control over specimens had failed.

A.I.L.A.: ...Project was overse N B Y -_#"<^-_#"- Doctor Malcolm Orvhill.

Coyote: Wait wait wait. The owner of the cabin? Orvhill Energies? Didn't you guys tell me the guy died a few years ago?

A.I.L.A.: Accessing H.U.N.T. files on Doctor Malcolm Orvhill...

[A.I.L.A. accesses the H.U.N.T. Files and displays Dr. Malcolm Orvhill's data file hologram]

A.I.L.A.: Name: Malcolm Orvhill/ Occupation: Former Orvhill Enegeries CEO / Age: 84 / Status: Deceased / Cause of death: Natural causes

Coyote: This dude was tied up in some serious business. If that monster has been down here this long , how did it even escape? DId someone let it out?

Coyote: ...Are we sure that Orvhill is dead?

Murch: He's dead. If H.U.N.T. has files on this guy, then he's got to be.

Coyote: ...Hmm.

Murch: Regardless, looks like we have even more of a reason to check out the sub-level of the lab. We need to see if there is any information about this "Nocturne" project somewhere down there.

Murch: Maybe we'll find a weakness, and be able to put that monster down for good. Head on down, we'll wrap up here and be right behind you.

[The survivors head down to the lab stairwell and finds the first old computer (if interacted some dialogue will play), they head left and find a security center]

[The survivors enter the security center and pulls a power lever. The power lever activates the security cameras of the cabin and allows the survivors to open the blast door]

[The survivors interact with the blast doors but it doesn't open, it instead deactivates]

Murch: What was that? Survivors, did you touch something?

[The survivors triggers an alarm]

[Laboratory Security Intercom message starts playing in a distorted voice]

Lab Security Intercom: Se-urity al-rt. Warn-ng. Unat-orized person-el have entered th -ab-rato-y. Lock-own in-ti-ed.

Murch: Ahh, thats annoying. A.I.L.A., can you shut this thing up and remove the lockdown?

A.I.L.A.: Already in progress. [Hacking sounds]

Murch: Just hang tight, we'll have you out in a second.

[After a short amount of time, a loud roaring sound is heard and "Nocturne" starts breaking down the door]

Murch: What?! The monster! A.I.L.A., where are we at?! Can you get this open?!

A.I.L.A.: Negative. "Nocturne" will breach the room before i can override the lab security protocols.

Murch: Aagh! Put up a barrier at the lab entrance!

["Nocturne" starts breaking down the blast door with the 20-second death timer appearing on the survivor's screen]

Murch: Sorry survivors, but you got to find a way out of that room, and fast! In the meantime we'll work on finding you an alternative exit! Now go!

[The survivors enter a ventilation shaft to escape "Nocturne". During the vent sequence, "Nocturne" walks pass a vent and checks the vent before immediately running away]

[The survivors head towards the end of the vent which leads to a large office with the second old computer]

Coyote: Have you found them an exit yet, A.I.L.A.?

A.I.L.A.: Yes, forwarding location.

Murch: Alright you got that, survivors? We're on our way, and will meet up with you at the coordinates.

Murch: If you can swipe any info on your way without becoming monster chow, at least this situation won't be a complete loss. Stay safe.

[The survivors approach a second vent to reach sublevel exit to regroup with the gang while suddenly a barrier automatically shuts down the door next to the vent, which makes an alarm sound]

[The survivors enter the vent which they are now at the other side of the previous blast door with more alarms blaring, they then approach another vent to bypass a locked blast door]

[The survivors are now at the other side of the blast door which leads to a extremely large room with a Deep Night reactor core in the middle of the room, they then approach a cargo elevator to go to the lower floors]

[They went to the lower floors with more barriers blocking the door to reach to the exit, but suddenly "Nocturne" breaches the topper blast door and starts swinging at the ceiling to block off the survivors path, but he somehow doesn't attack]

[The survivors take an alternative route which a pair of black tentacles eat up the doors. The doors leads to a large ventilation shaft hallway with large wall fans, overgrown plants and even more dead bodies. The end of the hallway leads to a small room with multiple bunk beds, the third old computer and a vent. The survivors enter the final vent which leads to the laboratory's control centre, the final area before the survivors finally regroup with the gang]

[A cutscene plays which Murch, A.I.L.A. and Coyote are running in the halls to regroup with the survivors]

Murch: Survivors, you're still alive. Good, Let's get out of here, come on-

[A pile of goo in the middle of the room starts to emerge a large figure]

Murch: Everyone, get behind me.

[Murch takes out his revolver and nervously aim at the pile of goo]

[Unknown FIgure]: I have anticipated this moment for a very long time.

Murch: What is this?

[Unknown Figure]: Ah yes. The Great Merchant, savior to the timeline, how noble of you. To think that you can stop what is coming.

Coyote: Midnight's Shadow...

[The Unknown Figure's name is revealed to be Midnight's Shadow]

Midnight's Shadow: Thank you for fulfilling you end of the deal. I knew you were a wise one.

Murch: No... Coyote... What's going on? What did you do?

Coyote: I...I had no other choice. It either was help him, or stay stuck in there, forever. I'm sorry.

Murch: Coyote...

[Coyote takes out the Amplifier and hands it to Midnight's Shadow]

Midnight's Shadow: So cold of you to lie to your friends. Don't worry about it, I'm sure they will understand. After all, Murch is no stranger to manipulating those that trust him most. You told me to see purpose. And i have certainly found it.

Murch: Oh my god... Aiden? What happened to you?

Midnight's Shadow: I have become an emissary! You pushed me down this path, for that, I will grant you one mercy. Consider this the only opportunity to get ahead.

Midnight's Shadow: Embrace the cover of midnight now, for you cannot run from it much longer.

["Nocturne" teleports behind Midnight's Shadow and the door behind the gang closes]

Murch: A.I.L.A., find us an exit, now.

A.I.L.A.: In progress.

[A.I.L.A. uses her panel to find the nearest exit]

Midnight's Shadow: Pity, I had a feeling we would not see eye-to-eye on this. Do not worry about fleeing to the cabin. Consider this an eviction notice.

[Rubble starts falling off of the the ceiling]

Murch: I'm gonna kill you!

[Murch shoots Midnight's Shadow with his revolver four times]

Midnight's Shadow: [Laughs] Sorry to dissapoint you. I have to admit, I didn't expect you to find three of the amplifiers so fast, very good planning on your part. Orvhill hid them well, the things we can accomplish with this...

Coyote: I don't think so.

Midnight's Shadow: ...What?

Coyote: Well it all went according to plan right? I brought them hereand you got an "Amplifier"; just like you asked. We're done here.

[The amplifier on Midnight's Shadow's hands start to make an alarm sound which its pitch rapidly increases, seconds before exploding]

A.I.L.A.: Exit located.

Murch: Run!

[The crew runs to the exit and the amplifier explodes on Midnight's Shadow's hand]

[The gang escapes via a long catwalk which leads to a cargo elevator with a 30-second death timer initiated]

Midnight's Shadow: This is the beginning of the end! You have no idea how hopeless you are to stop us! Keep running! I WILL END YOU!

Murch: Go! Get to that cargo elevator!

[The crew successfully escape via a cargo elevator which leads to the outside, but the cabin they stay in had burned down, killing all the avatars inside the cabin]

[A.I.L.A. calls in a Tech V-tol to pick them up]

Murch: ...We need to leave

[The Tech V-tol arrives]

[The crew enter the Tech V-tol, only the avatars Chad, Hazmat and Hunter survived from the cabin fire]

Coyote: Listen, Murch. I'm sorry. I had no other-

Murch: I'll deal with you later!

[A.I.L.A's Tech V-tol warning goes off]

A.I.L.A.: Warning, incoming attack. Hang on.

[A.I.L.A.'s Tech Vtol gets shot down by an unknown object]

Murch: Everyone, brace for impact!

-The Story Mission Ends-

Old Computers Transcript

3 Old Computers can be interacted inside the mission which will have dialogue relating to Malcolm Orvhill's plans, the voice recordings are not Orvhill's voice but rather an unknown scientist working for Orvhill Energies. (Since there are no subtitles for old computer dialogue, some of the dialogue might be incorrect)

Old Computer 1 dialogue

[Cassette Tape activates, which makes a loud activation sound. The screen of the computer turns purple]

[Cassette Tape starts playing, making a short beep]

Unknown Orvhill Energies Lab Scientist: [Sigh] May 13 was another failure. Nothing seems to survive beyond the first few days. Orvhill suggesting try something larger and uh.. more resilient to the source. Even sent us a few new genome examples. A uh... Dire Wolf, two subspecies of leopard and uh [scoffs] an actual komodo dragon, if you could believe that. [ugh] At least it's better than rats, I guess.

-Old Computer 1 dialogue ends-

Old Computer 2 dialogue

[Cassette Tape activates, which makes a loud activation sound. The screen of the computer turns purple]

[Cassette Tape starts playing, making a short beep]

Unknown Orvhill Energies Lab Scientist: [phew] We finally have it. One of the subjects to survive the procedure. The changes for its physical structure were uh.... a mix to say the least. It's several times larger than we previously predicted and somewhat bipedal as well. But [ugh] just as expected though, there's no change in the subject's cognizant behaviour. Uhh... For a lack of a better phrase, it's as dumb as bricks. Still runs on animalistic instinct and adrenaline. We can't control it, yet. Surely there has to be a way, right?

-Old Computer 2 dialogue ends-

Old Computer 3 dialogue

[Cassette Tape activates, which makes a loud activation sound. The screen of the computer turns purple]

[Cassette Tape starts playing, making a short beep]

Unknown Orvhill Energies Lab Scientist: Human trials? What a bunch of corporate hacks. When you register human trials, we haven't even begun to understand the substance we're dealing with. Even if we did, even if we had enough subjects willing to volunteer, fatality rates are over 96 percent. No, no. We have to do better, or this won't end well....

-Old Computer 3 dialogue ends-

Transcript

Murch: Listen up. We have a problem.

Coyote: Uh, who's that?

Murch: I'll get to that.

A.I.L.A.: What did you do this time, merchant?

Murch: Last night I sent 3 survivors on a supply run. I was monitoring them the whole time just in case our new "friends" decided to pay them a visit. Something attacked them and by the time I got there to help, it was too late.

Coyote: Sounds like a typical evening here.

Murch: No, Coyote this is different. I had positioned outside the deep night's range, and the aftermath there were none of the usual signs left behind. Before they died, one of the survivors took this picture. This isn't deep night. This is-

Val: -a Yeti.

Coyote: Ok what. Seriously who is she?

Murch: This is Val. She is part of my old crew back in my home timeline. You can trust her. I brought her here to help because she's an expert hunter. The best one I know. We need to take this thing out before it finds our camp.

Val: It is a pleasure to join you all. I wish it were under better circumstances. I have hunted many creatures in my time, but the yeti are illusive, and we should not take this threat lightly. We have to thread very carefully.

Coyote: Great, this situation just keeps getting weirder.

Murch: Val is going to track the yeti and prepare our survivors to take it down.

Val: I crafted a bow that should aid the survivors in our hunt. It won't deliver a killing blow, but it will slow it down enough to create a window of opportunity.

You then receive the Longbow gear and the Broadhead Arrows bundle.

Murch: A.I.L.A., it's time to field-test that new project you have been working on.

A.I.L.A: Excellent.

A.I.L.A.'s deconstructer charges up.

Murch: Yetis exist where Val and I come from but I didn't think there were any in this timeline. I'm curious to see what we'll find out. Let's get to it.

Commander: I don't appreciate your rag-tag team meddling with my operation.

Murch: Meddling? If you and your men had done your job, we wouldn't even had to intervene!

Commander: Well that "intervening" has created a problem. You didn't bother to clean up the body, did you? Do you have any idea what else was down there.

Coyote: Uh, Murch? What's he talking about?

Commander: My team was never there for the yeti. We were there to contain an infectious anomaly. The yeti, was unexpected. You left the body behind. You gave it exactly what it needed. You gave it a host. Now it's attacked our main outpost, infected countless men. It's spreading.

A.I.L.A.: This is not first time the merchant has made a critical error.

Murch: What do you need us to do?

Commander: I need you to clean up your mess. Unfortunately, most of my team has been wiped out in the attacks and we're short on men. You need to contain this, now.

Murch: We'll handle it. A.I.L.A., Coyote, let's get a sample of the substance, see if we can jerry-rig a technical solution together. Val, you mind sticking around a little longer?

Val: Whatever you need, Murch.

You then receive the Longbow gear and the Broadhead Arrows bundle.

Murch: Commander... sorry about your men.

Commander: Then let's consider it even.

[A black screen appears and Murch starts talking]

Murch: We have a serious problem, [muffled roar] everyone needs to get out of the house as fast as they can, right now!

[The survivors in the cabin start screaming and panicking]

[A second and louder roar is heard, with the monster killing a survivor offscreen and destroying the furniture in the dining room]

[Murch draws his revolver and fires three shots at the monster]

[A large text appears in the middle of the screen "Later that night.."]

[The survivors spawn inside of the cabin and approaches to Murch]

Murch: ...Hey survivor. Things are pretty bad after the monster attacked. Can you check on everyone and see if they need anything? Thanks.

[The survivors talk to Film Nerd]

Film Nerd: I'm... alright. I've just been talking to Murch about what we can do. Go check on everyone else.

[The survivors head to the kitchen and talks to Survivor]

Survivor: That thing did a number on these doors when it fled, some of them are jammed shut, I can probably get it open. Eventually.

[The survivors return to the living room and approaches to a covered body to talk to Developer]

Developer: He didn't stand a chance, completely blinsided. At least he went quick. I'll clean up and... give him a proper burial.

[The survivors approach to the couch to talk to Hazmat, who is sobbing]

Hazmat: I can't... believe he's dead. It'll be us next, won't it?

[The survivors head upstairs to talk to JMT, whose sleeping]

JMT: Zzzzzzz zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz zzzzzzz...

[The survivors head down to the basement to talk to Hunter]

Hunter: ...Hey. Need anything?

[The survivors approach to Chad who is searching the boxes for something]

Chad: We're gonna need to be able to defend ourselves if that thing comes back . Gotta be a gun somewhere in this old cabin...

[Murch talks to the survivors via radio]

Murch: Since you're already down there, earlier someone said that's where they saw the monster come from, mind seeing if there's anything that needs boarded up? We don't need any more surprises.

[The survivors break down the door which leads to a small lab, with a mysterious figure walking away]

[The survivors investigate the bsement corridor]

Murch: What is this place? It looks like... some sort of lab? This equipment is Decades old. Was that monster down here the whole time?

Murch: I'll get A.I.L.A. to come down and scan the place, we might glean some new information on what we're up against.

[The survivors investigate a mask which makes a sinister laugh]

[The survivors then investigate the lab chamber which suddenly glows up itself]

[The survivors then investigate a collapsed hallway where some debris came out]

Murch: A.I.L.A., you busy?

A.I.L.A.: Naturally.

Murch: Sorry but can you come look at this? Seems to be where the monster came from. There's a lot of old tech here. Looks similar to the stuff we'd find upstairs at Orvhill's Office.

A.I.L.A.: One moment, I have just finished our project.

Murch: Oh, those new devices we talked about? Let me take a look.

[Murch goes to take a look at the new devices]

A.I.L.A.: Arriving at your location, survivor.

[A.I.L.A. teleports to the lab to find the survivors]

A.I.L.A.: Initiating scan.

[A.I.L.A. starts scanning the basement lab for information]

[A.I.L.A. finishes scanning the lab]

AI.L.A.: Parsing scan results, standby. [Data reading]

A.I.L.A.: ...Interesting.

Murch: Yeah, I think these will work. Can you-

[Cutscene plays]

[Murch is by the dining table investigating the devices, repeating the previous line]

Murch: Yeah, I think these will work. Can you-

[Someone knocks on the door]

Murch: You, cover the door.

[The developer covers the front door with a metal bat]

[Film Nerd approaches to the door]

[Murch pulls out his revolver]

[Film Nerd slowly opens the door]

[An unknown person outside stops recording]

Unknown Person: Did you miss me?

[Cutscene ends with a black screen]

Murch: You're alive?

Unknown Person: In the flesh.

Murch: Come on in, we have a lot to talk about.

[The survivors return to the basement lab to meet with the crew]

[A cutscene starts playing]

Murch: ...And then we- [got to- Oh]

Murch: Survivor, you're back! We just finished setting up down here.

Unknown Person: Got yourself a new crew, huh? Still busy as ever.

Murch: ...Yes. We can't let it hap

[askagamedev]

Usually I am working solo but I am going to work in a studio as game designer and I would like to make good design documents for the team. So what does a design document for a feature/puzzle/challenge etc look like? What information should I include? And thank you for sharing your answers to all these questions we ask!

Remember, the goal when writing a design document is to help provide a road map for the feature or system you're working on. You need to explain to the readers what you are building, why you are building it, and what you need in order to build it. When I write a design document, I usually try to address the following:

High level goal - What is this feature/system/puzzle/etc. supposed to do? What kind of experience do I want the player to have?

Reaching the goal - How to break the high level goal down into a set of rules and expected behaviors to achieve that goal

Needs to reach the goal - What is needed from the stakeholders to reach the goal? Engineering for A, VFX for B, animations for C, environments for D, and so on.

Minimum Viable Product - What is the least amount of work needed to prove out the design? What is most important to this design and must be done first? What are the stretch goals and nice-to-haves?

Let's dig into this with an example. Imagine that I'm working on a looter shooter and I'm designing a new feature to extend the lifespan of player gear and allow more player customization of specific weapons they favor. Let's call this hypothetical system the Weapon Inheritance feature.

High Level Goal

As a player, I want to be able to keep using my favorite weapon and dislike it when I have to drop it if I find another weapon that has better stats. I would like to be able to use new weapons I find to upgrade my preferred weapon to keep it relevant.

Reaching the goal

Weapon Inheritance is a means by which players can transfer bonuses from one weapon to another. Weapon inheritance will require the player to bring two weapons to a weapon modification station - one they wish to consume, and the other they wish to upgrade. The player will be able to choose which bonus or ability/proc from the donor weapon to be transferred to the receiving weapon and be prompted with a confirmation dialog to proceed. Once the player confirms, the donor weapon is destroyed and the receiving weapon receives the selected bonus or ability. The number of bonuses and procs on a weapon should be capped by rarity, with six being the maximum. A receiving weapon with maximum bonuses for the rarity should require the player to choose one old bonus to overwrite. Some abilities should be unique to certain weapons, we should be able to mark them as "uninheritable".

Needs to reach the goal

UI Art - New UI screens weapon inheritance overview, donor weapon selection, receiving weapon selection, weapon diagrams and highlights

UI Engineering - new screen flow from weapon modification station: confirmation dialog, weapon inheritance overview, donor weapon selection, receiving weapon selection

UI Engineering - means of selecting a specific ability to transfer

Gameplay/Itemization Engineering - Ability to set/copy over a specific bonus or ability on a weapon, including any randomly-generated stats

Gameplay/Itemization Engineering - Ability to mark a specific bonus or ability on a weapon as uninheritable

Gameplay/UI Engineering - hook UI confirmation to call the code to execute the transfer

Server/Persistence Engineering - weapon changes must be saved to the database upon successful transfer

Minimum Viable Product

Must Haves:

Weapon Inheritance accessible via Weapon Mod Stations

UI flow functions to select required

Max # of bonuses is rarity-enforced

Bonuses are transferred/overwritten

Donor weapon is destroyed

Transfers are saved to DB

Stretch goals:

Uninheritable bonuses marked in data

Rarity upgrade/transfer

Scaling costs based on number of prior upgrades/rarity

These are the fundamentals to explain to your teammates what you're trying to build, how you're trying to build it, and what you need in order to build it, and the minimum success criteria for it to be evaluated. It gives them the needed direction to get started with the work they need to do. You can apply these principles to many kinds of design ideas, and your ability to identify what resources and work are needed for those tasks will improve over time as you level up in your chosen field. You can also practice writing design documents like this for features in other games. Pick a feature and try to break it down into these four categories. The more practice you get in, the easier the doc-writing will become.

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