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botwstoriesandsuch · 4 years

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Whoopsie King Rhoam’s a dick but I gotta flesh him out so

Read Part 1 here!

Part 2

If you’re on mobile, and tumblr hates this post, follow along on this google doc!

Rules/overview this rewrite in the beginning of Part 1

‘sup ya beautiful bastards it’s time to gush about the process of storytelling and writing as we fix up the fix it fic so let’s just jump into it

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A quick recap of Part 2, and I swear this recap is faster than the recap last time: Chapter 3 of Age of Calamity opens with a more substantial scene the beginning points of Revali’s character, and contrasting the old position that Link and eggbot have, so that their later changes in this chapter (well, at least for Link in this chapter) are more pronounced. We edited a bit of the dialogue to make Revali’s intentions make a bit more sense, while also putting some little foreshadowing points with some camera tricks for the Hollow Champions. The Hollow Champions can now speak, which means their potential for being used to bring out the flaws or bitter aspects of each character is more readily available further into the story. And of course, we’ve introduced the main antagonist of Astor, and coupling his presence and dynamic with Zelda’s insecurities. While his intentions of needing Zelda for something is clear, his motivations and backstory remain a mystery as of yet, the only true clue we have so far being some sort of connection to eggbot.

I didn’t get any big asks or comments about Part 2 so I’m going to assume that it was mostly well received (although I will note that I promise I’m going to flesh out Revali to be more than he has been presented as of yet, this is just the very very start of this development don’t you worry your feather loving butts) that being said, you should totally critique me or give me your opinions or comments. I’d love to hear them! Although, keep in mind that I am restraining my rewrite to the guidelines already said, so don’t get mad at me for not killing off all the Champions or something. Thaaat’s a rewrite for another time. So yeah if you reblog you get a little kiss from me because believe it or not I spent a lot of time trying to rewrite an entire storyline while keeping it’s tone and integrity intact. So thanks much <3

Okie dokie then chaps! Let us finally delve into Urbosa lesbian vibes, a zest of Zelink angst, rants about pacing, and a couple tablespoons of Astor backstory, all starting in the latest stage of Chapter 3: The Road Home, Besieged

So right of the bat, big problem here. This Chapter follows directly after the events of Korok Forest, so you assume that maybe “The Road Home” refers to the team, going home, back to the castle, to tell King Rhoam what’s up. But...that’s apparently not the case.

So this entire stage, firstly, it brushes over any scenes where Zelda, Link or the other Champions might talk to King Rhoam about the Master Sword, or the Deku Tree, or...hmm what else happened last stage that might be interesting to see—oh yEAH HOW ABOUT that mysterious magic guy that tried to kill Zelda and was going off about the future and stuff?? That guy that wielded a bunch of dark magic and malice looking stuff and, uh yeah, you’d think it might be important and interesting to see the King’s take on was is essentially a wanted traitor to the crown who may or may not be leading the entire movement for the Calamity’s uprising. But nope, no one asks questions, no one says anything or has interesting conversations that reveal stuff about the plot. It's just….just all about Zelda and ooooOOooo she can’t awaken her powers oh no what’s a gal to do!

And I do mean that quite literally, this entire stage is all centered around two scenes with Zelda. The first, an admittedly narratively important scene of Zelda having a quick flashback about eggbot after he sings her a song, but it lasts for five seconds. And the second, being a pep talk with Urbosa as Link eats rocks in the background. For the majority of this stage, it’s all focused on Zelda, and pacing wise, it does virtually nothing to progress the narrative/plot forward.

And on paper, there’s nothing wrong with that! Hell, people read entire fanfictions dedicated to character development and relationships that have absolutely no external plot. Having a scene dedicated to just character development is completely fine, it’s something that’s pretty common and even encouraged to an extent. The problem arises when you remember that this is a story being told through the medium of a video game.

Now, I am going to try and breeze by this because, similar to Age of Calamity, I have to also construct this post with pacing that keeps my audience engaged, while progressing with my core narrative and story. But I highly encourage you to watch through this video by hello future me (On Writing: How to Master Pacing) because a lot of what I know about this I’ve picked up from his videos, and if you’re a writer or just someone who thinks storytelling is cool, it’s a great guide to the art of pacing.

youtube

Anyhow. There are two levels of pacing within a story. There is the small type of pacing, like for the structure of a singular scene. And there is the pacing of the overall core narrative, how the larger beats of the entire story is revealed. Good pacing for your core narrative is about whether the reader feels like they are getting closer to the big thing, the big climax or answer or promise of satisfaction. The smaller type of pacing, for your singular scenes, focuses on that timing between how close you get to achieving new information, this refers to your slow and fast pacing, tension versus rapid action.

So, overall the rule of thumb is: the amount of time you invest into your smaller scenes, even put together, that must correlate with a big enough payoff in the core narrative. That’s what good pacing is. (And that’s why people make stuff like the Three Act Structure to help visualize this pacing process but obviously other forms of pacing guidelines exist like the Five and Seven Act Structures but that’s too complicated for this Nintendo Game anyhow that’s just some educational flavour for ya to impress your highschool English Teacher I guess)

So knowing that, the question now is: Does The Road Home, Besieged contribute good pacing to the story? This is going to be my excuse for changing up other later scenes in the game, so when I mention pacing and narrative again, remember this. The time spent playing for thirty minutes, minimum, in the game, to only be paid off by two lines of character development isn’t good pacing. So the answer is “no.”

Delving as long an amount of time as thirty minutes, means that pretty much everytime a stage is complete, you must introduce new substantial progress to your story. A game like this just doesn’t have time to waste it’s valuable cutscenes on character development alone. There’s an even further wrench in the issue when you consider you also need to account for sidequests, so you could really be forcing your player to go through hours of gametime before you introduce new details in the story.

Obviously it’s not always gonna be cut and dry like that—sometimes you have to account for how enjoyable the gameplay is, and sometimes the amount of character development offsets any lack of narrative development—but for the majority of stages I’m gonna change, they all suffer this pacing problem. In a game that's entire story hinges on these cutscenes, bad pacing is just something it doesn’t have time for.

Anyhow anyhow anyhow, I got to get my dose of serotonin by talking about pacing writing structure and stuff and blah blah, so now I shall grace you with the changes that address these problems that would theoretically lead to vast improvement. I gave you this reasoning and backstory to writing because I am making hella changes, to hopefully make the experience more “poggers,” which is something the cool kids say these days if you didn’t know.

Firstly, timeline wise this stage is gonna take place directly after the Korok Forest battle. The gang is returning home from the battle, with Link, the new wielder of the Master Sword, along with this new information regarding a certain Astor character.

We open the same way it does in game, focusing on Zelda’s face, before the frame is suddenly blocked by the pommel of the Master Sword. A wordless way to express how the sudden revelation of Link being the hero has forced its way into Zelda’s mind, great use of camera Koei Tecmo 10 outta 10

Now I don’t want to immediately jump into Zelda’s “oh poor me I can’t awaken my powers” dialogue because—and this is something even Breath of the Wild is guilty of—This game seems to forget that there are other characters besides Zelda. It’s marketed towards kids, sure, but I assure you that kids playing this game have a longer attention span than 2 minutes. You don’t need to keep reminding the audience every single scene about how Zelda is anxious about her powers. It gets redundant, you waste the audience’s time, and therefore you waste your own time, because you could have been using that precious screen time to develop some other thing further. So anyhow, goes a bit like this.

Zelda’s walking, the Master Sword comes into frame. Zelda looks down at the ground but keeps walking, but you can tell from her expression that she’s troubled. Don’t need to waste time on dialogue for her here, show don’t tell, we need to make the most of the scene here. Camera is still on Zelda, but the focus blurs shifts from Zelda to the Champions behind her. We can start with Mipha, I don’t have my heart set heavily on any specific dialogue, but I want her to say something along the lines of “how proud she is of Link” and what an honor it will be to fight by the side of not just her dear friend, but also someone selected by the goddess to be the hero. Subtextually, I want her to say this in a tone that suggests that she doubts the need for her to be here at all. She’ll say something like “He’s grown so…” glances up at Link who's just walking ahead, “...so much stronger than I could ever imagine. [Something Something] His power has grown so much over the course of a few days, more than I have achieved in a lifetime.” She looks down, but she still has a sweet smile.

Now I’m doing this because I want to develop further this plot line of “getting stronger” that Age of Calamity sets up but never does anything with. Remember how in Chapter 2, Mipha asks Daruk to train with her to get stronger? I really like the possibilities of this arc with Mipha as it can not only parallel with her feelings for Link, but also make her character better as an individual. Mipha wants to get stronger so that she can protect Link, but now she thinks that Link’s already growing stronger to an extent that she might not be needed. She’s not jealous of Link, nor does she wish him to be weaker, she simply wants to be more than she already is. This is literally echoing her words that she left her father, about how leaving the Domain and experiencing new challenges would be “good for her.” So I wanna run with it. The dialogue here establishes Mipha’s motivation to grow stronger, almost equivalent to a rivalry of sorts.

So after Mipha says this, Revali scoffs and butts in. Again, I’m not too set on any particular dialogue here, just something like “Hmph! Well, I don’t know about that. Seems to me all that’s happened is some magic sword gave the knight an ego boost. Blade’s only as strong as the little Hylian who wields it, and—based on my own extended experience and professional observations of course—I’ve yet to see this ‘stronger’ boy that you speak of.” Another camera pan to Link a ways in front of them. “If you ask me, hero or no, that knight is still exactly the same as I first met him.”

Revali places a wing on his chest dramatically. “Perhaps if you’re truly keen on seeing growth in skill and strength, Mipha, you’d do well to—”

“Flattering of an offer as that may be, Revali,” Urbosa interjects, “But I think Mipha might find it difficult to observe growth from one of the shortest Rito in Hyrule.”

Cue laughter from others or snickering or something. We just need some banter to add a bit more flavour to the characters. Revali can do a little huff and cross his wings or flip his scarf or something. But then Urbosa continues.

“Although...he is right about one thing.” Urbosa looks straight ahead. “A sword does not alter a hand, just as strength does not alter character.” She puts a hand on Mipha’s shoulder. “Grow as he might, there is no doubt in my mind that he is the same boy as he’s always been.” Urbosa looks up in the direction of Zelda. “Whether you realize it or not.”

Ok so, scene’s not done yet, BUT quick gush on the dialogue flow here. I’m trying to establish parallels in these character perspectives based on the flow of conversation. We started with Mipha who, like I said, wished to grow stronger along with Link. This flows into Revali who also has a similar parallel as he wishes to grow above Link’s shadow. But the distinction between Mipha and Revali is that Mipha think’s Link’s strength is earned, and Revali thinks he cheated, gaining authority through a magic sword, and not through merit and skill. Thus, leading to Revali’s perspective of Link being exactly the same as he’s always been, he believes the sword doesn’t change anything. Urbosa then speaks, because she thinks exactly the same thing. However, her distinction is that Link is the same as he’s always been: a determined young boy earned his place and cares for his friends. Then she looks to Zelda who, as we know, will develop a perspective that contradicts this. So you get it? This scene is like 20 seconds long but it already mirrors nearly all the character parallels and perspective, that’s why the flow of dialogue is important. And I know half of you probably think these kinds of details are a stretch but I promise you it’s not, just look at any movie or show ever and I guarantee you can find similar stuff there too. Ok moving on moving on—

Urbosa looks up at Zelda, comments her, “He’s the same boy, whether you realize it or not” piece of dialogue. Camera shifts back to Zelda and Link, who, idk if I mentioned this, but in the scene there’s enough distance between the Champions and Zelda and Link that the Champions can speak without the other two listening. So they didn’t hear any of this.

So the camera is back on Zelda, and now we can get her “How can I…..If I am unable to awaken my inner power….” line. Eggbot senses her sadness, does his little cheer up dance, Zelda gets a flashback.

One small change I wanna make to this flashback: Instead of just a baby Zelda going “nighty-night” I want there to ALSO be a figure in the background behind eggbot wearing a silk royal blue dress. And said woman has blonde hair and she’s by the table back there. We don’t have to show her face or anything because Nintendo hates that. Just place the woman somewhere in the back somewhere

Also possibly you could add the shadow of another figure by the doorway, maybe? It would serve good continuity purposes for the plot points that I’m telling, but that part is not as necessary. I just need at least the woman there.

Then Zelda is like “I remember you” to eggbot and all that and blah blah… Now, instead of Impa offscreen just yelling “enemy ahead!” I just want it to be a full on ambush. Not like a major one, but just enough where the group is surprised a bit. Maybe on the cliffs above, a lizalfo throws a boomerang, or a bokoblin shoots and arrow, or even just throws a rock. I don’t really care. I just need this to happen because…

As soon as this danger is presented, Link turns around to grab Zelda’s hand and they start running again. And he can like use his body to try and shield her a bit, I need it to parallel how he acted during Chapter 1 on the road to the Royal Tech Lab. However, this parallel has one important distinction because…

Zelda rips he grip from Link’s after a moment. “You don’t need to coddle me!” She says, or something along those lines. “Y-You...You’re the hero aren’t you! I’m perfectly fine, you don’t need to spend your precious time playing babysitter to me.” In the distance, a horde of monsters is beginning to form. Zelda looks between the monsters and Link’s Master Sword, her expression unreadable. “Well? Just...just go do what you need to do.” Link hesitates, looking between her, and the approaching monsters. Zelda speaks more sternly now, “Go!” So Link, not one to disregard an order from the Princess, gives one last look to Zelda before setting off towards the monsters. Maybe Zelda can take a deep breath to steady herself after he leaves, but as soon as Link unsheathes his sword, the metal glistening in the setting sunlight, it cuts immediately to gameplay. Start battle.

For essays’ purposes this is the part where I explain why this is better than the original. So here’s my reasoning:

Uhhh, it just is. :3

Ok but seriously, I’ve already talked a tone about why the pacing and dialogue flow is better than the original. But also this scene doesn’t just say “Ooo Zelda is sad about her powers,” because that’s not interesting. Like I said, it’s redundant information. What is interesting is see how characters deal with that internal conflict and how it affects their relationships. AKA Zelda’s relationship with Link, who now basically embodies the success that she’s been working so hard towards but never achieved, is deteriorating a bit. I wanted to get that sense of the Zelda that we see in Breath of the Wild because all things considered, they should be roughly the same character.

So that’s that, you fight the battle, the Hollows show up a bit, so insert “dark evil Champion” dialogue because if you’re gonna use the evil clone trope might as well use it to the fullest. Then you fight the Talus and hurray horrah the day is saved.

Then we have that iconic Urbosa motherly pep talk to Zelda as Link eats rocks in the background. Now honestly, I’m not that big a fan of the first half of the dialogue, so I wanna change it into something more interesting. But the rest of the beats and camera work go roughly the same.

Zelda: “Link is...so much stronger now”

Urbosa: “‘And yet I have not.’ I presume that’s what you’re thinking, hmm?”

Zelda: “Well it’s true, isn’t it? More and more, monsters have been appearing around Hyrule. It is a sign that the Calamity draws near. So...there isn’t much time. And still, no sign of my power awakening.”

Urbosa: *sighs* “Little bird…”

Zelda cuts her off, in an attempt to change topics: “Why do you call me that?”

Urbosa: “Hmm?”

Zelda: “Little bird...I feel like I’ve heard it before. Why do you call me that?”

Urbosa, after a beat looks off in the distance or something: “A long time ago, my dear friend would call me to the palace, or perhaps invite herself over to mine, [she chuckles] ...and she would talk with me all day, and ask me to gaze upon her little bird with her. Her dearest daughter...a princess”

Zelda: “You mean my…”

Urbosa just smiles with a soft nod: “Back then, times were a bit different. The destiny that you have was still upon the Queen, who worked day and night to refine her powers and fulfill her destiny. In just a few short years, I went from being friends with a Queen, to friends with the destined sealer of the Calamity.”

Another pause, before Urbosa speaks again: “But...she was still the same woman I had grown with. Still the same loving mother who spoke about her little bird with joy. She had not changed one bit.”

Urbosa: “Even when your mother passed, her loving smile was there until the very end. She always loved you—believed in you, Zelda. She had great hope, great faith that her daughter would grow into the beacon of light Hyrule needed. That even with her gone, you would spread your wings and fly, because you were just that amazing to her.” *Urbosa puts her hands on Zelda’s shoulders.*

Urbosa: “Destiny did not change your mother’s love, just as it does not change Link’s courage, or your value.” *the camera can pan to Link eating rocks now*

Urbosa looks directly at Zelda now: “Look how hard we’ve all worked to get this far, how hard you have worked to get here. While we may grow in strength, in that regard, we’re all one in the same.”

Zelda: “...I….well…”

Urbosa: “What did the Great Deku Tree say? There is no need to fret princess.”

Urbosa: “Our faith, Link’s, your mother’s, it’s all as strong as ever. And everyday, with every moment that you travel towards your destiny, it just grows. It is always with us. So believe in that, have hope, yet, little bird.” *Eggbot can scurry up and make cute noises here next to Zelda*

Urbosa: “I know, you are where you need to be. You must accept that too.”

Zelda: “...”

Zelda gives a solemn nod: “Thank you, Urbosa.”

So that’s that scene! Don’t let the length fool you, it’s technically even shorter than the original scene in Age of Calamity. So why is it, in my opinion, better? Because for one, we actually get an insight into Zelda’s mom and Urbosa’s relationship, something that was PROMISED To us but never given and I’m still a bit salty about it. Anyhow, in addition to just getting some lore details, that relationship between the Queen and Urbosa is important for this scene because, just like Urbosa spells out, it’s in direct parallel with Link and Zelda.

Before the Queen suddenly got sick and died, she was destined to seal the Calamity. But she didn’t let that destiny change her, she was still the same loving mother to the end. Now that is something that Zelda needs to realize about Link, as his newly acquired destiny doesn’t change who he was before, the knight who cares for her and wishes to protect her. Zelda needs to realize he’s the same and that she can still trust and confide in him. Hence, that’s why this mom backstory is in this scene and not somewhere else, because it serves to the narrative but also more impactfully to the character development.

The dialogue could probably be polished a bit more but come on, not half bad for an improvement yeah? So that concludes Chapter—

SIKE we’re not done yet. We still have to move into the entire point of this stage, the road home, to the castle.

So, badabing badaboom, I’m adding an entirely new scene from scratch right here at the end, because it is VITAL that I set up something new about the story, as a sort of clincher. So anyhow

Zelda is alone with her father, let’s set it in the royal library (Intact, not ruined, of course) because we don’t see enough of that location and it’s really cool. So Zelda is briefing her dad about the events in Korok Forest and on the journey back home. I know I always gush about cinematography but it can’t be fully appreciated since I’m….writing,,, this, BUT I think it might be fun if the side shots of Zelda have her background be some bookcases of the library, maybe half bookcases and the other half the ornate walls. Then the background for the King’s shots is the full symmetry of the elegant staircases.

[And if you needed the specific reasoning for that, because it makes camera shots more fun. Like when Zelda says something that aids in her scholarly side, the camera angle can change slightly where the bookcases take up more of the frame, and then when the King’s will takes more power, then the book cases can be angled a bit more out of frame. And then the symmetry of the King by the staircase is a way to show his higher power dynamic to her, and contrasts well with Zelda’s shots since the bookcases are dark and the stone is lighter, so on a meta level is also makes it easier for the audience to understand where they are. Shot composition is fun ok, and that’s not even getting into color theory (Thinks about Baby Driver and LaLaLand....even videogames like Undertale and Hollow Knight have such wonderful shot composition and use of color theory hhhhh love it)]

Ok so Zelda’s briefing the King in the library, she’s standing while he’s sitting at a desk. There’s maybe two or four Royal Guards on the staircase entrances, but for the most part, they’re alone. You can tell that this meeting between them has been going on for a bit now, as from Zelda’s dialogue, she’s retelling events midway through the story.

The King is flipping through some paperwork, not really looking Zelda in the eyes. She continues speaking.

“And so...with the malice cleared and the monsters being dealt with, Link and I made our way into the heart of Korok Forest.”

The King hums a response, flipping through another page. “And this is when Link pulled out the Sword that Seals the Darkness then, I presume.”

Zelda paused, as of thinking of how to phrase her next words. “Not exactly. I...we both encountered someone beforehand. A man, with a pale face, and dark hair and robes, and he had the power to control malice, using a strange object in one of his hands.”

Rhoam stops writing in his journal or whatever. He doesn’t look up, but the sudden stop he makes is obvious. Zelda notices, but continues.

“He talked about...the Calamity, and my birthday...destiny, and the future….I’m not quite sure I can remember his intentions word for word. But he did introduce himself as—“

“Astor…” Zelda and the King say simultaneously. The King has fully perked up now, looking at Zelda. She’s pleased to see a reaction from him. The King rises from his chair, and starts pacing a bit, stroking his beard thoughtfully like the asshole he is.

“So you know him then? This Astor man? Who is he, father? What does he—“

“Were you alright? Did he hurt you, or mention anything else?”

Zelda pauses for a moment before shaking her head, as if the concern he was expressing was uncharacteristic. “N-No. No, I’m fine, and Link was there. During the battle, as Link fought him off, that was when the sword was pulled. Then Astor fled, or...” Zelda pauses for a beat, “retreated...he expressed his wish to speak with me again.”

Another beat of silence, as Rhoam gets up, hands clasped behind his back. “He used to work at this very palace.” The shot is now directly on Rhoams back, as he faces a bookcase, although it’s clear that he’s just deep in thought, and not just staring at books. Rhoam is in third column of the shot (he’s to the right, not in the center)

“A trusted advisor. Someone gifted with foresight, who many years ago, had first predicted the coming Calamity.” Cut to shot of Rhoams face, the camera being by the bookcase, so that we see Rhoam’s expression and Zelda’s.

“In truth, I thought him dead. For the last time I saw him alive—truly, truly alive—was ten long years ago...” The shot goes back to the original establishing shot, of Rhoam facing away from the camera, towards the bookcase, he’s standing to the right, hands still clasped behind his back.

“...when your mother still graced this earth.”

From left frame, a younger Astor walks up and stands beside Rhoam. He runs his fingers along the books. Rhoam looks to his left, as if he is seeing Astor. Camera cuts to Astor’s right, as if looking at him from Rhoam’s perspective. He continues brushing his fingers against the spines of the books, before he finds the one he’s looking for. Pulling it out, he opens the book, flipping through its pages, before giving a genuine smile. Cut back to wide angle behind them. With the book, Astor starts walking back out left frame, but this time the camera follows him. Filter fade to a memory tint as the camera pans right to left

[when the camera fades fully into the Astor memory, the figures can have that silhouetted effect like you see in botw. Cause I know Nintendo hates making new character models for some reason.]

So if it wasn’t clear already, even though the memory filter doesn’t come immediately, Astor isn’t actually there, but it’s just a flashback. I’m a sucker for merges, which is something this game and botw NEVER do which bugs me because there are so many creative ways you could introduce flashbacks without just doing “ooOooOoo fade to sepia filter and then oooOOooOOO we fade back to reality and no time has passed.” I apologize if my explanation of the camera doesn’t make sense as it’s hard without much visual aid, but hopefully it makes sense so far. Anyhow! Let’s continue.

We’re now fully immersed in this memory, but King Rhoam’s voice still narrates overhead.

Astor brings the book to one of the desks in the library, where a woman sits writing something onto paper. News flash, it’s the queen. Astor hands her the book and starts speaking about something, although you can tell the tone of their conversation is light, almost akin to Zelda rambling about Sheikah Technology. The Queen laughs about something unheard, as Astor continues ranting about something, his hands moving to like a professor giving a lecture.

Rhoam Narration: “When he had first predicted the Calamity, things were much more hopefully for our kingdom. As although his foresight granted him only glimpses and fragments of a future, he was almost certain that with the Guardians, and the strength of your mother’s power, our victory would be absolute.”

Scene changes to the Queen walking down a corridor, Astor is leaning against the wall by a window.

Rhoam Narration: “He and your mother would often work together tirelessly to study the ancient arts, to make the most of the powers given by the goddess.”

The Queen has walked up to Astor now. She crouches down and gestures to her left, the side not yet seen by the camera.

Rhoam Narration: “In fact…”

The camera changes to focus to where the Queen was looking towards—a young Zelda, crouched behind her mother’s dress, stares up at Astor.

Rhoam Narration: “I would not be surprised if you found within yourself, a memory of such.”

I would prefer if you could see the expressions of Astor (giving Zelda not a smile, but not really a frown or anything rude either) and young Zelda. But I guess it can also just be silhouettes too cause again, Nintendo hates giving us younger character models outside of first person POV stuff. Anyhow.

The scene fades, the light from the window dimming as everything darkens.

Rhoam Narration: “I often times wish we could go back to such a time, when victory and pride swam in every corner of this castle. But of course…”

The scene brightens again, although not as bright as before. It’s the exact same corridor with the large window, but now it’s raining. A young Zelda stands alone in front of it, looking outside.

Rhoam Narration: “Such a time did end…”

We now cut to a new scene, King Rhoam is walking down a hall, the camera’s perspective is of a bird’s eye view, like we’re peering in from outside a window. We can see the shadow of Astor chasing after him, as he starts speaking frantically about something, not quite, but almost to the point of shouts.

Rhoam Narration: “After your mother died, the visions of the future shifted drastically. No longer was there glimpses of rolling fields and shimmering skies, but instead, of rubble, red earth, and death.”

You can now more clearly hear the words coming out of Astor’s mouth. He is telling something about failure, and souls, and the Calamity to the King’s ear. He’s still walking forward.

Rhoam Narration: “He was adamant that our demise was now coming faster than ever, and that without your mother, we were doomed. That even you, should you take up your mother’s mantle, could not save everyone.”

Astor: “I’m telling you Your Majesty, if you go down this path, there is no going back.”

King Rhoam: “There is no other choice, we are moving forward.”

Astor: “I don’t think you quite understand the true gravity of the fate you’re choosing for yourself. It is a guarantee that you, me, and countless others shall die.”

King Rhoam: “I don’t want to hear it.”

Astor: “And of course, there are a multitude of possibilities, but the end result is the same.”

Astor: “Do you have a preference, perhaps? Crushed by rubble? Suffocation under ash?”

Rhoam’s tone is deadly: “Stop.”

Astor: “I’ve seen fire too. I’m not yet quite sure the exact circumstances that lead to flame appearing and spreading so quickly, but rest assured that if you—”

King Rhoam: “Stop.”

Astor: “If you saddle someone else with this duty I am absolutely certain that you and I will—”

King Rhoam, voice not shouting, but still with a booming intensity: “Just like you were so certain of our victory 10 years ago?”

Astor’s face darkens. He’s silent for a moment, collecting his words before practically spitting the first articulation: “...That, future, was the one that would come to be if Her Majesty was alive. If you’re so unsatisfied with my departed wisdom you can go ahead and flail around with destiny alone. You think I choose for these events to happen? You think I lie when I saw I want what’s best for this kingdom—”

King Rhoam: “What’s best for you.”

An ugly pause.

King Rhoam: “It is decided, Seer. It’s time you accept this. My wife is dead. That is the truth. Thus the role of sealing the Calamity shall pass to my daughter. She will work to awaken her own ability. It will be her duty to save us.”

Astor half laughs: “A child?! Surely you don’t need the supernatural to see how foolish that is.”

King Rhoam’s voice is even more stern: “You are living proof that the future is not absolute. Therefore I...must place all belief in her ability.”

The King walks away, leaving Astor alone. Weirdly, he smiles. Perhaps to mask some other emotion.

After another moment, Astor yells to the King: “I’ll fix this! Alone if I must!” He’s chuckling as he shakes his head. “Your useless faith may cost many lives, but even so mark my words, I will fix this.”

The King looks back, but says nothing, his expression unreadable. He continues forward, leaving Astor alone chuckling, or perhaps something in between chuckling and crying to himself.

Rhoam Narration: “We haven’t spoken since that day. I simply left him to his devices. If he was so determined to find another way to stop the Calamity, then who was I to stop him. I doubt my word could have swayed his mind regardless.

We’re now looking at a room, the camera is just by the doorway, looking at an office, circular and domed. It’s stone brick walls are covered in parchment and ripped books, covered in symbols and frantic writing. An old Sheikah tapestry hangs crudely on the left wall, and the window on the right seems to tint grey, or even a deepest crimson. Centerframe, is the back of Astor, robe hanging just above the paper ridden floor. He is flipping through something on his desk.

Rhoam Narration: “Fixated as he was on the perfect future that you mother might have led, I still had hope that with time, he might still assist you with your destiny one day.”

The camera slowly comes closer to Astor. We can see more clearly the type of stuff that sprawls the papers and books and diagrams across his office. Some depict stars and constellations, and even a few notes on Ancient Technology, although in a noticeably cleaner font. However, as the camera moves close and closer to Astor, the papers and books depict only one clear topic: the aura of death that comes only with necromancy.

Rhoam Narration: “It seems…”

Astor finally reacts to whatever he was doing on his desk. You don’t see his eyes, but as he fully turns around to face the camera, you see his smile, along with him holding a dark orb of unknown energy. It hovers in his hand.

Rhoam Narration: “...I was mistaken.”

The camera cuts to a wide angle, looking at Astor from behind a stack of books on his desk. The stack of books on Astor’s desk brighten in color (from the memory dull filter), until the scene fully fades back into the Royal Library. The camera is now focused on a similar stack of books on the desk behind Zelda, where Rhoam was working before.

Zelda is still looking at her father, who is still turned away. Now, he turns back around to face her.

“He had disappeared completely one day, so it was my understanding that whatever he was working on killed him. However, if he is truly back as you say…”

Rhoam walks closer to Zelda, close enough that he might have put a hand on her shoulder, but his arms stay behind his back.

“It is in your utmost interest to prove him wrong. I know not what he plans on doing, but it would be wise to stop him before he does.”

Rhoam turns away now, pacing back to the otherside of the desk. “But, your more important priority is unlocking your powers, understand? Now more than ever, is not the time to get distracted.”

Zelda, taking this all in, takes a deep breath. She then nods at him. “I understand...Father.”

After a moment, the King makes a motion as if to dismiss her. She starts to walk away, her thoughts churning in her head, heart thumping to the same beat as her echoing footsteps. Suddenly, Rhoam calls,

“Zelda.” It’s not a question, but the tone is asked like one.

She turns back, looking at him, expectantly. Rhoam only stares at her, an uncharacteristic moment of uncertainty for him. The words he wants to form seem stuck in his throat, until finally, he lets out a quiet breathe through his nose, before simply saying:

“You must.”

Zelda can only frown, her shoulder’s slumping slightly, as she ducks her head and leaves.

- - - - - -

And that’s that! That’s the complete end of Chapter 3. So tune in next time for Chapter 4, including a new slight but important story changes, Yiga husbands, and shocking turns of events.

Edit: I forgot that posts with link’s dont show up in tag results so a rb is appreciated :p

#Hwaoc: The Kip Cut #fuck this is the biggest one yet #hwaoc #age of calamity #hwaoc rewrite #hw age of calamity #hyrule warriors age of calamity

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tigerkirby215 · 5 years

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5e Isaac the Time-Traveling Archaeologist build (Skullgirls)

(Artwork by Lab Zero games)

Skullgirls was the first fighting game I ever really properly got into. With a memorable cast of Roaring 20s-designed characters (Bae-owulf <3) and very solid fighting game mechanics the game is a blast to play for players of all skill levels. Probably the most memorable part about Skullgirls has to be its cast: despite having only 14 playable characters they all feel distinct and have unique personalities which make them memorable. (Granted the exception of Fukkua who was mostly made as a joke.)

But the non-player characters are equally memorable: Lab Zero’s orphaned scientific misfits, Ben’s old police force, the Canopy Kingdom’s democracy... and Stanley! While these characters are expanded a great deal in the mobile release they were still lovable additions to the cast. But the character who stood out the most for me was Isaac. DLC character 29, his theoretical time travel kit was truly unique and I’m really sad that we didn’t get to try Isaac as a fighter (we got Beowulf instead which I can’t complain about, but I could honestly do without Eliza thanks) and only got a mention of Isaac in one of the story modes. (No spoilers.)

Ever since the inclusion of the Archivist subclass in the Artificer UA I had a concept in my mind to recreate Isaac using that subclass. Naturally you can imagine my disappointment when Archivist was not included in Eberron: Rising from the Last War. But thankfully with the release of Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount we get the Echo Knight subclass which was exactly what I was looking for! And with a time travel theme no less? With the ability to create time clones I can finally make Isaac a reality: this was one of the builds I made this Tumblr for and I’m super excited to finally be able to publish it!

GOALS

Infinite Timelines - The core of Isaac’s kit was going to be based on summoning clones to fight for him, which we now have a class for in 5e!

Power Glove - Isaac is a smart cookie with theonite-powered inventions giving him the upper hand.

いちびょうけいか - Isaac is of course a time traveler, so we’re going to need some time traveling powers.

RACE

While never specified I’m pretty sure Isaac is a human, but that being said some variations can be taken for a time traveler... Screw Variant Human though we’re going for Eberron races because I’m a hipster like that! Originally I considered Mark of Passage humans for a one-time time traveler Misty Step but ultimately I decided on Mark of Sentinel as it fits the theme of an all-known time traveler far better. Your Constitution score increases by 2 and your Wisdom score increases by 1, and you Sentinel’s Intuition allowing you to add a d4 to Insight or Perception checks because of course you’ve been to the future and know the truth about people and where things are already.

You also get Guardian’s Shield letting you cast a Theonite Shield once per Long Rest, and you get the Vigilant Guardian ability which will let you swap places with a nearby ally if they’re going to get hit by a weapon attack: blocking a projectile is a good use of an assist too! You also get a language of your choice along with Common as a human and I’d suggest Giant to talk to your partner, but of course pick whatever you please.

ABILITY SCORES

15; INTELLIGENCE - You need to be a smart cookie to time travel, and we’re going to be using Intelligence for a lot of our features.

14; DEXTERITY - This is primarily because I like even ability scores and we need this to multiclass.

13; WISDOM - Seeing as our Wisdom is increased by our racial traits we may as well get it at a 14, and professor badass would know basic medical procedures as well as the history of the Canopy Kingdom.

12; CONSTITUTION - Extra bulk is always nice when some washed-up wrestler is hitting you with a folding chair, and we also need Constitution for our skills as well.

10; CHARISMA - Isaac has a degree of rough charm: he wears the vest well but that hair isn’t doing him any favors.

8; STRENGTH - We simply don’t need this for the build and your partner handled most of the brute forcing.

BACKGROUND

Isaac is stated in-lore to be an Archaeologist and luckily there’s a background for it in Tomb of Annihilation! You get History proficiency and I’d personally swap the Survival proficiency with Arcana since we can’t get it as easily otherwise. You can also choose between either Cartographer’s Tools or Navigator’s Tools: I opted for the former but honestly either of them work. You also choose one exotic language of your choice and again: pick whatever you think is useful.

Your feature Historical Knowledge lets you use some of your Indiana Jones skills to determine the original purpose of any ruin you enter, who built it, and if any artifacts you find are valuable. Fortune and glory kid.

(Artwork by MagicBunnyArt on DeviantArt)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - FIGHTER 1

Starting off as a Fighter primarily for their saving throws. You get two skills from the Fighter list: I’d recommend Athletics to compensate for your low Strength score but you can honestly choose whatever for your second skill. (I chose Perception personally.)

Fighters get a Fighting Style of their choice and while Unarmed Fighting from the Class Feature Variants UA would make sense for a fighting game character we’ll be getting some time-travel boxing gloves shortly so I’d opt for Defense instead for an increase to AC. (Dueling is also a good choice if you want more offense instead of defense.) You also get Second Wind, letting you sit in the back and regenerate red health equal to 1d10 + your fighter level once per short rest.

I will quickly mention that as a Fighter you get a choice between either Leather Armor or Chain Mail in your starting equipment and I’d recommend taking the Chain Mail. Yes you can’t wear it because of your Strength score so see if you can also grab some Medium armor before you head out but that chainmail is going to serve us well shortly.

LEVEL 2 - ARTIFICER 1

The real starting class of this build is Artificer, and we only really took level 1 in Fighter for proficiency in Strength saves. Regardless Artificers get Magical Tinkering which lets them do some theonite tinkering on non-magical objects: I recommend reading the feature yourself to see what it can do, because you can do it a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier.

Artificers also get access to Spellcasting. You get two cantrips of your choice: Fire Bolt is a simple Quarter-Circle-Forward Punch to shoot a projectile at your enemies, doing 1d10 fire damage and lighting flammable objects on fire. Guidance will let you give a mentorly pat-on-the-back to your Gigan partner, letting them add a d4 to an ability check.

For your leveled spells Artificers are prepared spellcasters, meaning they can swap their spells out on a long rest. Regardless the spells I’d prepare would be Cure Wounds to regenerate some red health and Detect Magic to locate any theonite reserves in the ruins you’re exploring.

LEVEL 3 - ARTIFICER 2

Second level Artificers can Infuse Items: you know 4 total Infusions and can have two active at a time.

A Bag of Holding will help you carry that chainmail I told you to grab.

Enhanced Defenses will let you block a little more damage when block.

A Rope of Climbing will help you while spelunking, and speaking of spelunking a Wand of Secrets will help you find any hidden rooms or trap doors in the ruins you’re exploring.

But remember that the key to Artificer is picking infusions that your party will find useful! Pick a good assist, or else you’d be better working solo. You can also prepare another spell and Identify will let you further identify anything you find in a ruin... duh.

LEVEL 4 - ARTIFICER 3

3rd level Artificers have The Right Tool for the Job, letting them make a set of artisan’s tools over the course of an hour. But more importantly you get Artificer Speciality and the Armorer Unearthed Arcana subclass is perfect for an inventor with a heavy time gauntlet.

Armorers get Power Armor, or as I call them power fists. You can wear Heavy Armor regardless of its Strength requirement (which is good because your Strength is poo poo garbage) as it merges with your body and can’t be removed against your will.

You can choose between two different models of Power Armor and the Guardian armor will give you a dragon punch! Your fists count as Thunder Gauntlets and do a d8 thunder damage on hit, and causes enemies you hit to have disadvantage on attacks against targets other than you until the start of your next turn. You can also create a Defensive Field as a Bonus Action to get a number of temporary hitpoints equal to your level in Artificer: remember that blocking is as good as attacking!

IF UA ISN’T ALLOWED: This build honestly works fine with Battle Smith instead of Armorer since all we really need is the ability to use Intelligence to attack. We have enough Dexterity for you to wear Medium armor instead of using the Battle Smith’s Heavy Armor. The only reason for the Armorer multiclass is that I wanted punching gauntlets instead of a robot dog.

If you’re going to play Battle Smith instead take a bludgeoning weapon (IE a flail, warhammer, or maul) and flavor them as your punchy gauntlet. A maul does more damage but can’t be used with a shield, so it’s a great option if you want harder hits but less defense.

You can also cast your Artificer spells through the Power Armor, which is neat since Armorers get the Magic Missile and Shield spells innately.

LEVEL 5 - ARTIFICER 4

Taking level 4 in Artificer for an Ability Score Improvement, or rather the Linquist Feat to be able to gather information no matter what part of the world you’re in. Along with a plus one to your Intelligence score you learn three languages of your choice (pick whatever you think will be useful) and can write ciphers. A creature can only decode your messages if you teach them the code or if they succeed an Intelligence check equal to your Intelligence plus your proficiency bonus, so Scythana won’t be reading your research papers.

With the increase to Intelligence and the level up you can prepare two more Artificer spells: Feather Fall is useful to stop you from having a ground-bounce so your opponent can extend their combo, and Farie Fire can open up an enemy for a high hit if they’re blocking low.

LEVEL 6 - ARTIFICER 5

Ah screw it may as well take another level in Armorer to get your Extra Attack already. You can punch twice now in a combo: woo hoo!

You can also cast second level Artificer spells now: Armorers can innately cast Mirror Image and Shatter, and you can prepare second level spells from the Artificer list which I’ll discuss later.

LEVEL 7 - FIGHTER 2

Bouncing back to Fighter now; level 2 Fighters get Action Surge, letting them take one additional action in combat once per short rest. Extend that combo with some time stop! WRYYYYYYYYYYY!

LEVEL 8 - FIGHTER 3

Third level Fighters get to choose their Martial Archetype and woo boys there it is: Echo Knight! Echo Knights can Manifest Echoes of themselves from the future as a bonus action. You can put a single echo down 15 feet away from you which lasts until its destroyed, you dismiss it, you make another echo, or you’re incapacitated and unable to send yourself into the past.

The echo has an AC of 14 plus your proficiency bonus, 1 hit point (don’t worry you won’t feel it if your future self gets hit... which presents some weird paradox problems), and immunity to all conditions. If it has to make a saving throw it uses your saving throw bonus for the roll. It’s the same size as you and occupies a space. On your turn you can make the echo to move up to 30 feet in any direction without using an action but if your echo is more than 30 feet from you at the end of your turn it is destroyed.

You have several things you can do with your echo:

You can swap places with your echo with 15 feet of your movement, regardless of the distance between the two of you. Clearly it’s just you time traveling to where your future self is.

Any attack you make with that action can originate from the echo’s space if you choose to do so.

When a creature that you can see within 5 feet of your echo moves away from it, you can use your reaction to make an opportunity attack against that creature as if you were in the echo’s space.

You can use Unleash Incarnation to make one additional attack from your Echo’s location when you take the attack action, adding up to 3 attacks total. You can use Unleash Incarnation a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier.

LEVEL 9 - FIGHTER 4

Talk about a lot from one level huhn? Well all you’re getting from this level is +2 to your Intelligence with an Ability Score Improvement.

(Artwork by Pantalewns on DeviantArt)

LEVEL 10 - ARTIFICER 6

May as well grab level 6 in Artificer now for more Infusions! A Radiant Weapon attachment on your gauntlets will let you use them as a flashlight which can blind enemies that hit you! A Repulsion Shield meanwhile will let you push block an enemy that attacks you. Both these items take your reaction yes, and you have Shield for Reactions as well. But remember that these are just suggestions and you’re more than welcome to build other Infusions that will help your party.

You can also prepare a lot more spells now: two total with your levels and your Intelligence, but I will be suggesting 3 since we’ll get one more spell from an Intelligence increase later on and you’re a prepared spellcaster anyways so you can swap out your spells whenever.

Enhance Ability will let you provide an assist outside of combat, aiding your allies with checks and providing them other boosts.

Heat Metal will let you put a DoT on your opponent while you fight: more of Valentine’s thing but it helps!

Magic Weapon will let you punch a little harder, turning your Radiant Fists from a +1 weapon to a +2!

I again need to reiterate that Artificers are prepared spellcasters, so remember to swap out your spells when you need them!

LEVEL 11 - WIZARD 1

Speaking of prepared spellcasters oh god it’s Wizard. Welcome to the first use of Wizard on this blog and don’t worry: we have a lot more Wizards coming after Wildemount, which scares me because I don’t play Wizards. Anyways Wizards get some more spellcasting: Mending will let you repair any chains your partner might break, and Message will let you chat with her privately. Finally Mage Hand will let your future self reach out and grab something for you in the moment. Did I just pick the three cantrips that were right beside each-other on the massive list of Wizard cantrips? Yes, but that doesn’t mean these spells aren’t good.

Sapping Sting is also worth a mention as a Dunamancy-specific cantrip that causes your opponent to trip! Remember: gay tripping is gay.

Speaking of spells you learn two Wizard spells whenever you level up, and can add more spells to your spellbook if you find them on a spell scroll. Regardless Wizards have a big list of spells they can learn so uhhhhh...

Fog Cloud is ideal for a getaway, letting Scythana kick up a cloud of dust to heavily obscure the area.

Tenser’s Floating Disk is perfect for any spelunker, as it lets you create a three foot diameter theonite disk to carry up to 500 pounds of artifacts you discover.

You also get Arcane Recovery, letting you recover a level 1 spell slot on a short rest. More uses of Shield; neato!

LEVEL 12 - WIZARD 2

Ultimately the reason for the Wizard multiclass was to get some more time manipulation powers from the Chronurgy Magic subclass from Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount. That’s right we’re using two Wildemount subclasses; rejoice Critters! Chronurgists have Temporal Awareness, letting them add their Intelligence modifier to their Initiative rolls which is nice because your Dexterity is only a +2, and this will bump Initiative to a +6.

You also get Chronal Shift: when you or a creature within 30 feet of you that you can see makes an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can use your reaction to force the creature to reroll after you see whether the roll succeeds or fails. You can use this reaction twice per long rest, so don’t meddle with the timeline unless its absolutely neccessary!

You also learn two more 1st level Wizard spells at this level:

You should be able to afford a 50 gp diamond by this point, right? Well Chromatic Orb will let you shoot a more powerful fireball at an enemy for 3d8 damage... or an ice ball. Or an acid ball!

Gift of Alacrity is a Chronurgy-specific spell so you may as well take it, as you can speed up time for an ally and give them a d8 to their initiative. Just remember that the spell does take some time to cast!

Oh god Wizards are overwhelming. Remember: you can get more spells if you find them in scrolls, which is good because right now you can prepare more spells than you have. Also if you have the chance see if you can find a Spellshard instead of a spellbook, just to keep the Theonite shard themeing.

LEVEL 13 - FIGHTER 5

Good god Wizard never again. It’s just straight through Fighter now, though it’s not like Echo Knight is an easy class either. 5th level Fighters get an Extra Attack... that you already have.

LEVEL 14 - FIGHTER 6

6th level Fighters get an Ability Score Improvement: max out your Intelligence for maximum damage with your gauntlets and your spellcasting.

LEVEL 15 - FIGHTER 7

7th level Echo Knights get Echo Avatar. As an action you can see and hear through your echo instead of your own senses. During this time you are deafened and blinded and you can see through your echo for up to 10 minutes. You can end it at any time without using an action and you can be up to 1000 feet away from your echo while using this action. Clearly you were just there the whole time, and are telling your allies what you saw.

It should be mentioned that technically you can teleport up to 1000 feet while using this ability, making it great for infiltration. Just saying!

LEVEL 16 - FIGHTER 8

8th level Fighters get another Ability Score Improvement and we’re going to improve our Constitution so that we can get back up when a detective with tuba lungs does a JoJo impression on us.

LEVEL 17 - FIGHTER 9

Level 9 Fighters get Indomitable, letting them reroll a saving throw once per long rest. Reminder that you have two rerolls that you can use on anything with Chronal Shift, and now you have one saving throw you can reroll for yourself. Turn back the clock if you get hit because life isn’t worth wasting seconds.

LEVEL 18 - FIGHTER 10

Level 10 Echo Knights get Shadow Martyr. As a reaction you can cause your echo to teleport in front of an ally you see being attacked and make them take the blow instead. Your echo appears within 5 feet of the ally and the attack is directed towards them, and you can use this reaction once per short rest. Remember to spend the next turn going back in time to save your friend: and don’t get hit when you do!

LEVEL 19 - FIGHTER 11

Level 11 Fighters get an Extra Attack that actually goes above and beyond regular Extra Attacks, so now you have three attacks total! Rejoice!

LEVEL 20 - FIGHTER 12

The final level is the 12th level of Fighter for your last Ability Score Improvement and you’re going to want to increase Constitution again for a 20 health boost at the end of the build.

(Artwork by MagicBunnyArt on DeviantArt)

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Hang on to your hat - A good Constitution modifier and most of your levels in Fighter means a health bar that’s very close to 200, and you have a positive saving throw score in everything except for Charisma with the ability to reroll up to three failed saves.

I'm all there is of the most real - Have I ever mentioned that Artificer is dumb when it comes to AC? 21 AC with just chainmail and a shield being both improved, and up to 23 AC if you get your hands on Full Plate. Even if your DM doesn’t let you wear Heavy armor because “Armorer is OP” a Breastplate will still give you 21 AC if you also use a shield. (18 without a shield.)

Bad puppies! (Good puppies) - You are great no matter where the enemy is with three Thunder Gauntlet attacks in melee range, several spells to use at range, and your echoes to let you teleport around and effectively be in two places at once.

CONS

Smart Cookie - Even though you’re a professor you’re not the most talented. You know hella-lot about History and Arcana but your Perception is about average and your Athletics leaves something to be desired.

Push Block - You’ve got a few too many options in combat with four different Bonus Actions (one of which is one-time use and one of which is only used at the start of the fight to be fair) and Reactions for Shadow Martyr, Chronal Shift, Vigilant Guardian, Opportunity Attacks from you or your Echo, and reactionary spells like Shield and Feather Fall. The problem with infinite timelines is that there’s infinite options to choose from.

Seconds count - A lot of your abilities have a limited number of uses, and while some of them (Second Wind, Shadow Martyr, Action Surge) come back on a short rest a lot more of them (Spell Slots, Chronal Shift, Vigilant Guardian, Arcane Recovery, Indomitable, Unleash Incarnation) only come back after a long rest.

But infinite foresight means you won’t be caught without a plan, even if you don’t have the Foresight spell. Throw a punch or ten at a zombie cat-girl and then tap out and rest up. And do get your partner out of jail: someone needs to carry your equipment.

(Artwork by Kitty-Katskratch on DeviantArt.)

#DnD 5e #DnD #dnd build #dnd multiclass #skullgirls #skullgirls isaac #explorer's guide to wildemount #echo knight #critical role

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theorynexus · 5 years

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As we reach 49, we near the half-way mark in the century of posts. My word, how many of these will there be?

Oh, and we are at Page 25 of Meat, which means that if the prologue were not included, this would represent a near perfect, “Two posts per page” ratio. Buuuut... things haven’t quite worked out that way, I guess.

... This all seems very ominous. Her speaking about trolls in such a way does not bode well for her mental state, I think. Hard to be certain, but... hmm. The implications of these generalizations about human nature suggest that she is either having great difficulty with the challenges Dirk is presenting to her, or that her aforementioned ascension is causing continued challenges to her mental stability. The scrutiny mention makes me lean further toward the former, but I don’t believe I can support either wholeheartedly, at the moment.

While in broad strokes I can certainly embrace this idea, no, it certainly is not sinful or dysfunctional to question it. This is because human beings are both social creatures demanding intimacy and belonging and individuals demanding singularity and personal excellence. To fully abandon one or the other is in fact to renounce humanity. In particular, to pour one’s self into a collectivist mentality that would seek to obtain a higher being via the blurring of thoughts and personae together to the exclusion of such matters as the love and concern one might feel for one’s wife is absolutely anathema to humanity, and should be repulsive to anyone who truly understands what it means to be human-- ... even if they have personally obtained a state already that sets them up as being more than human in the sense of capability and mortality.

Grrrrrr...! You’re taking her agency from her, Narrator! To take away from her choice as you suppress her powers and seemingly use them to expand your own is just... horrendous. I struggle now to properly express it, but the suppression of agency is a threat to her identity and undermines any important decisions, consent, or beliefs that she might come to express in the near future. Choosing what is or is not important for someone to know, especially when it is taking advantage of someone who’s in as vulnerable a situation as she is, is reprehensible, and absolutely sickens me, because it flies right in the face of her Classpect, as well. She should be able to understand and see the importance of what’s going on around her, and sense the information he’s suppressing, darnit!

Hmmm. ***scratches my head*** I do wonder, though. This paragraph makes it seem as if she might be in a better position than she seems to be in. To ask who is calling is not necessarily to suggest you do not know, in a technical sense, I suppose. Her hiding her actual face alludes to deception, and the ghostly image of herself seeming to speak, yet leaving the Narrator uncertain, could imply a certain degree of growing capacity to fool him, in general. I suppose this goes back to the statement that both of them think they are acting as puppet masters in their own little games. There certainly could be a sense of competition that is actively going on between them. A lack of information as far as Rose has been concerned, previously, along with the way that the previous last encounter we were able to have with her before the Kanaya calls made it seem like her body had slipped into unconsciousness, so this sudden contradictory information makes it hard to judge things.

I am sorry to see Rose react that way. That said: I now see that her earlier statements (at the beginning of the page) were largely meant as ground work in an argument that suggests she does not buy what Dirk’s trying to sell. I am very much glad to see that realization hit me, and quite obviously appreciate her point of contention. On the other hand, from a philosopher’s perspective, I also very much enjoy the fact that Dirk quite rightly brings that sort of question to the table, which is indeed necessary to answering that sort of question without doing so in a manner that is quite emotionally-based, biased based on deeply-ingrained preconceptions, or otherwise faulty in nature.

HEY, KIERKEGAARD IS GREAT!!! Also: I do in fact know that Rose is dealing with a severe migraine, and that it is likely that she might otherwise be more amicable to such discussions... albeit to what degree, it’s impossible to say.

I really do appreciate the fact that the lack of academic studies on the Kids’ parts is being actively integrated into the story. I would like to suggest that I very much do believe that many of them are quite intelligent, and have developed their minds in such a way that with time, the seeds of great philosophers might sprout inside many of them; however, I do in fact remain skeptical that Dirk has had anywhere near the life experience to be properly judging the issues he’s attempting to tackle, right now. Certainly, if their time in their universe had left the group in their later 20s or early 30s, I could see him being in a better position to make the sorts of weighty arguments and decisions he is apparently making (those of pursuing unity of consciousness and greater godhood of being, alongside the others, it would seem). Even the example of Kierkegaard, who began publishing important works relatively early in his life for a philosopher, was nearing 30 at that time.

I was quite surprised that Dirk is playful enough to admit the silliness of his prior statement of credentials, for a moment, but honestly, that is quite in-character. Whether or not this actually causes him to pause and think about things differently is an entirely different matter. I most certainly don’t think it shall do so.

This entire sequence is absolutely beautiful and hilarious. Also, Hegel’s pretty hilarious to bring up, at least to me. Specifically: Kierkegaard was an absolutely vehement opponent of Hegelian branches of philosophy, so his name coming up from Dirk shortly afterward is quite ironic, which I’m sure was quite intentional on Hussie’s part. The fact that this is all being argued via shorthand makes this all surprisingly humorous. As for the last bit he’s bringing up: that’s a nice segue into the actual argument/discussion.

Indeed, he brings up a somewhat valid point. This is part of the Ultimate Riddle. However, he fails to realize one greatly important thing: Free will is totally a thing in Homestuck. It’s just that certain timelines are important to the integrity of reality. Thus, they have to be pushed for, and the collective will of all life to persist nudges things in that direction, via interactions of Light, Void, Hope, and DOOM. It should also be particularly noted and emphasized that the decisions of individuals determine their fates, as shown especially via the death mechanics of godhood. Beyond this, there theoretically should be quite a bit of wiggle room allowed in getting from point A to point B on the “necessary stuff needs to happen” list, as shown via the fact that the Kids dawdled so bloody long in the first place before giving John their own version of The Choice, and essentially booting his butt out to face LE, in this timeline.

Yes, your flexing of narrative control in your limited, likely temporary fashion most certainly shows a lack of free will, especially in light of the feats of defiance that people have shown to your commands, and how closely your level of influence resembles that of other such writer figures in your position. My mind particularly turns to Andrew Hussie’s ghost influencing Caliborn, as well as the resulting shaking of the website as he attempted to crowbar its stability out of existence in retribution for Hussie’s mockery. Of course, that author seemed to be closer to omniscient--- or at least better at managing loose threads ---than the current ego taking up the Narrator’s seat. He certainly didn’t seem to be quite so cocky, and seemed a bit more performative in his role than the current one. Perhaps that’s because of the fact that he purposefully secluded himself from the main action of the story, unlike you.

***laughs hysterically at the irony of this amateurish lack of self-control, and the surprisingly go-with-the-flow sort of modus operandi that someone who projects such Machiavellian capacities has embraced*** This whimsical little break from the serious analysis and following of the story that I generally do has compelled a thought, a question, and an idea into my mind, it would seem. Namely: of course Dirk’s growing understanding and mastery over Heart will naturally have afforded him an understanding of the narrative nature of the world of Homestuck. After all, Heart, very similar to Light, deals with the true nature of things: while Light deals with broad categories of knowledge, information, data, code (overlapping with DOOM), luck, relevance, and fate, Heart deals with the true nature of things in a simple, core-oriented fashion-- it looks at what a person’s soul is, and what that makes them; the nature of love and of social bonds associated with them (which partially overlaps with Blood), and the core nature of Reality, Truth, and the Aspects which relate to them. Given this nature for Heart, his deepening connection with it would naturally cause him to tend toward a wider understanding of the world around them-- and specifically, the Narrative. Given his awakened awareness of this, it is logical for him to then become jaded concerning free will, and likewise, given his particular Classpect (Prince of Heart), it is natural for him to attempt to use his heightened capacities to interface and tinker with the story. The fact that his Class, which would traditionally be interpreted as a Destroyer, can be used to subvert its aspect (read: transforming the way it develops by partial destruction in the same way that a gardener pruning a plant manipulates the development of the plant in their care) can be evidenced in numerous ways. Most prominently: Dirk destroyed Caliborn’s core identity as Caliborn by fusing his soul with three others, thus forming Lord English; Brain Ghost!Dirk attempted to destroy Aranea’s identity as a living soul, not by fully rending her spirit, but by removing it from its place in contact with the Ring of Life; finally, Dirk-as-Bro radically altered Dave’s identity over the course of his lifetime, but most clearly and impactfully via the rending of his katana and the scratching of his shirt’s disk (which were both highly symbolic of Dave’s soul, if the fact that the Scratch taking place on just such a disk or his sword[s] later being able to transform from broken to whole via time magic [also an expression of Dave’s soul, and its resilience+destined transformation] didn’t clue you in). To the point: It is something of a wonder that Dirk has not yet begun to realize his limitations via the constraints that his manipulation of Narrative have placed upon them. My suspicion is that while his interface with Rose(? the way the story presents the aftermath is confusing, considering her continued seeming consciousness+own thoughts) may have increased his capacity to See Light, depending on how precisely it works, he has (as of yet) not such command over relevance and agency as he’d like us to believe. Furthermore, he is still not quite at the point that he has fully realized his understanding of Heart, either. The fact that he is questioning Free Will certainly shows that he is on the brink of an epiphany, but he seems to have become a bit lost in the reeds, as it were. Many characters have fallen at this point because they have attempted to egotistically promote their own will and desire to the subversion of others and the needs of the wider world. Aranea and Vriska come to mind, but also Lord English, assuming that he has indeed perished as the Narration would have us believe. This is a natural part of Fate, and I am quite certain that if Dirk remains on this path, he will fall afoul of that same Just end. Even if he does have the capacity to control the influence of one of the four Aspects which seem to deal most with Fate/ (which are Time [for obvious reasons of timing and timeline mechanics {including the Scratch}], Light [via Relevance, Canonicity, Luck, coherence, and Necessity], Heart [with regards to Classpects and their relation to key world interactions/expressions of self, entangling of individuals with one another, and through the reflections of Self across timelines {see Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff persisting on the Alpha Kids’ side of the Scratch, for example}], and DOOM [via most of what the aspect has to offer: rules, inevitability, factors {especially disasters} outside of one’s control, et cetera]), this does not mean that Dirk truthfully has wider control over Fate, generally, nor does it mean that he can avoid the consequences to his actions. I should also at this point randomly insert a statement suggesting that the other 8 Aspects can be split into two camps: Choice/Freedom --- Mind, Hope, Breath, Life and Mixed/Paradoxical --- Space, Void, Blood, and Rage The former of these two categorizations should be mostly obvious: Mind represents personal choice (both in the way you present yourself, and in your course of actions), Hope represents belief transcending the mundane and Possibility beyond the restrictions of what should be Real and/or opportunities beyond what would seemingly be available to you given the constraints that present themselves; Breath is all about freedom from constraints (up to and including the constraints of physical being) and the ability to fly off in various directions (often beyond the expected/normally available paths); and finally, Life, being the antithesis of DOOM, allows for the breaking of rules (see the sugary explosion of rulebreaking that was Trickster Mode) and the extension of possibility beyond what would be something’s inevitable end (healing, revival, prototyping, et cetera). As for the latter set: Space has a associations with birth, potentiality, and the breaking of barriers, but Space itself is as much a curse as a boon-- yes, it does allow for the interaction of beings with the physicality of the world, and it allows for the continuation of life; yet Homestuck is a Gnostic text, and that means that one must also take Space to be one of the principle forces which constrains action by allowing the defining and regulating of the world; and it imposes corruption upon things by allowing for a stage wherein the Aspects can mix and form more complex concepts. (Mind you, this is of course quite important for human life, and those of us who live in the material world could argue that it is therefore a “good”, from our perspective. Nonetheless, that fact-- that it enables such “corruption” demonstrates in and of itself that this belongs in a “mixed” category.) Void is a bit simpler: It is the Aspect of the unknowable, uncertain, and so on; but most importantly, these barriers which tend toward the production of impossibility do at the same time hide a very important flip-side of the coin --- that is, Void also presides over imagination, which is the force which brings forth possibility from fantasy and drags ideas into physical reality. As such, this slippery element of existence very clearly exists in a liminal state worthy of this group. Blood’s binding capacity ties one to the physical world, but it simultaneously entrenches one in the subtleties of social existence, which is above/beyond the bestial sort of being that Blood’s carnal title would suggest. Furthermore, while blood is by its nature a binding, restrictive force, it is one which allows for one to be given purpose. Binding yourself to a group of friends to cooperate with one another and find higher purpose is at the very heart of what Homestuck is. This allows for greater possibilities than what would be able to be accomplished alone-- and this is the nature of many (perhaps most) contracts and bonds that can/should be made: they allow for the formation of restrictions, but those are in exchange for other benefits. This is why Karkat would make a great leader: Blood is the Aspect that is closest to the Social Contract which underlies political life. A player who deeply relates to/embodies this Aspect in a well-fulfilled manner therefore is a natural fit for political power. Rage: ... Don’t even get me started with Rage. I’m a Capricorn and I don’t understand that nonsense. It narrows your mind, blocks out your thoughts, and skews your brain. Despite the fact that it should be the Aspect that focuses you and makes sure your head doesn’t hang out in the clouds all the fricking time, it’s like banging your head on a cinder block every single time you try to wrap your thoughts around it. Don’t bother with considering such double-edged Tragi-Comic garbage Aspect. Just... waste your time and focus your thoughts on something else. Now what the heck was I talking about...?

#Homestuck Spoilers #Homestuck Theory #Homestuck Epilogue #Homestuck Liveblog #Homestuck Aspects

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aurelliocheek · 4 years

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Frostpunk: Mixing Opposing Genres

The Senior Lead Designer tells about forging the right gameplay for Frostpunk.

Here at 11 bit studios, we might differ from other companies in that we don’t explicitly state design pillars per se. Instead, we do have a loose set of principles that are central to all our efforts. Authenticity and intuitiveness are on top of the list since we want gamers to be able to immerse themselves in the gameplay situation, believe the choices they’re about to make since that’s the only way to make them feel meaningful.

For this, you can’t be engaged solely in trying to understand abstract concepts the game decided to use in its gameplay model. We’re striving for all things to work “the way you imagine them to”. That’s how core mechanical elements of Frostpunk came to be: cold leading to sickness, lack of food resulting in hunger, the generator need of coal to operate and provide heat, etc. In addition to this, we always have a guiding light in the design process, the high-level pitch/promise the game is making. In the case of Frostpunk, it was a question: “What society is capable of when pushed to the limit?”. This question had to resonate both in content and mechanics, and we oriented ourselves around it in all design decisions we had to make.

During the development process, there was no single “aha!” moment that meant our gameplay loop is satisfying and engaging. Instead of it, there were many small steps. One was definitely putting together the initial “first playable/mood demo” back in 2015. It brought basic gameplay mechanics and art together to create a short (around 30 minutes long) demo that proved to us that there is something unique in the concept we were pursuing.

Another one came to be when we finally settled on the tech tree, and the way temperature works in the game, with discrete levels and 5-day weather forecast: this created a nice tactical playspace to strategise in an interesting economic decision with 2-3 paths to play around with, each with different consequences. Yet another (probably the most pivotal one) was implementing the Book of Laws for the first time which became the main method to introduce social dilemmas into the game in a way that allows the player to form his strategy.

The social fabric of the game is the Purpose Tree which allows you to shape the society and bend its spirit to your will.

Unavoidable Conflict One of the most difficult tasks, mostly due to a very real conflict of player’s motivations, was to combine gameplay styles of a city builder and a survival sim. It quickly occurred to us that city building players are mostly focused on open-ended, experimentation-fueled gameplay. They got a high tolerance for mistakes and trigger-happiness when it comes to restarting a new city if something doesn’t work the way they want it to (or if they are simply bored of the current design). It’s a sandbox, toylike approach to the game.

On the other hand, survival gameplay provides the complete opposite. For survival experience to work, the gameplay needs to be perceived as difficult. The challenges should be present even in small things, and the consequences of your actions should be strong and very real to your progress. We realised we couldn’t please both audiences at the same time and the only way out of this brain teaser was to escape forward. So we set up the game as a distinct experience that doesn’t provoke immediate associations with any one genre in particular and force the player to take the experience for what it is: a unique mix of theoretically opposing genres. It was a grim, tough survival experience, so the pressure had to be there. But the way to navigate the challenges was through city-building mechanics and tech/social development. It all clicked together after lots of sweat, swears, testing and iteration.

Also, decisions during the planning phase were affected by our setting and cruelty of the XIXth century portrayed in Frostpunk. Research on both of the realities of the era as well as survival scenarios was the backbone of every piece of social content in the game. Things like child labour, sawdust in food, cannibalism – these are, unfortunately, authentic things, both in and out of the XIXth century. The social fabric of the game is the Purpose Tree which allows you to shape the society and bend its spirit to your will. This was, in a sense, what happened in the pivotal moments of propaganda and national fervour during the wars of the era, and beyond. We very explicitly steered clear of too fantastical and caricatural ideas and tone. We wanted the game to be meaningful. Therefore we grounded the choices and content in reality.

Unfortunately, it often proved more grim and gritty than our wildest imagination. Of course, not every idea proved to be working as intended. There were a lot of mechanics that didn’t make it into the final game, both large and small, as with any game development project. One notable example would be snowstorms. One could think a mechanic where a storm encompasses the city, and the player has to deal with consequences would be a natural fit for a game about survival in a frozen wasteland. But the implementation proved to be a nuisance. The player had no interesting choices coming from this type of interruption, and it quickly degenerated into a “cleanup simulator” after the storm. It was irritating instead of fun.

By the mix of mood, mechanics and carefully designed content we moved a step closer to a truly emergent narrative in the traditional sense of the word.

Nomination for Narrative I could surely tell that Frostpunk was a very challenging project design-wise and there are quite a few things I’m happy about. But the one that definitely stands out is the way we were able to weave in narrative into an inherently strategic gameplay experience.

I believe we are onto something unorthodox regarding the usual tools of storytelling in games, somewhere in the middle between anecdote generators of games like Dwarf Fortress and strictly directed, cinematic experiences of most AAA stories. I feel that by the mix of mood, mechanics and carefully designed content we moved a step closer to a truly emergent narrative in the traditional sense of the word: a story with a meaning, beginning, and end, but co-authored by the players’ choices. And it seems to have worked well, as we’ve received a BAFTA nomination for Narrative – for a game without a single NPC! I feel this is something unique to the language of games, and I definitely want us to explore this area of game design in future projects.

On the other hand – there are some things we could do differently looking at how the game played when launched on the market. After all, no game is ever finished, just abandoned. But I feel we’ve abandoned Frostpunk in a pretty good place and I’m happy with the result. One thing I would give more thought in the future was accommodating players that were missing the Endless Mode on launch. While I feel Frostpunk strength lies with the unique scenario structure and the narrative it delivers, I fully understand the need for a more sandbox-like experience of many city-builder/survival players and I’d definitely like to give them a chance from the beginning.

Setting A New Tone All of that gave us a lot more confidence in using the tools and paradigms we’ve developed for the base game when telling stories in this world. On the other hand (and because of that) we’ve sometimes felt somewhat constrained by the form factor of Frostpunk communication channels. That’s an exciting area to explore going forward for the Frostpunk franchise. So to challenge ourselves, and to provide something new to the tone of the game, The Last Autumn, our latest expansion, is both the biggest and the most tone-nuanced scenario in the game. We’ll see if more subtle concepts, ideas, and narratives carry well in this format. Since the Frostpunk main threats – severe froze and weather in general – are absent from the gameplay loop in the expansion, because this story takes place before the advent of winter which changed a lot in terms of design. Temperature is the sole challenge engine in the base game. Now we had to make sure we have the tools to exert pressure on the players and control the difficulty/pacing. One way to do it was to introduce the concept of Toxic Gases, that put everyone working near the generator at danger. As a bonus, it fitted well with the tone of the worker’s sacrifice.

The Frostpunk team is now working on third and final expansion from Season Pass and after that, they will be seeking new challenges.

Interestingly – and that’s symptomatic of the challenges to balance in Frostpunk in general – as soon as cold is reintroduced these same Toxic Gases proved to be too much, overwhelming the players with too many balls to juggle. So we had to find ways to balance them against the onset of a cold. There are more examples. Another element to make the challenging work in that kind of scenario was to make the time pressure (which is somewhat present all over of Frostpunk) an overt and clearly stated constraint: you’re on a deadline, and you have to deliver. We also beefed up the role of strikes which, again – fit well with the tone of the pre-end-of-the-world era in the Frostpunk timeline. Strikes were a very natural thing in the XIXth century and were somewhat underused in the base game. They served as a different type of challenge, delaying the player, enabling a new negotiation mechanic and tying well with the time pressure.

On top of everything that was said, we always thought of Frostpunk as a spiritual successor to This War of Mine. Serious theme and tone, challenging gameplay, tough choices to make: these are the backbones of both titles. However, we wanted to try a very different genre, presentation and production values bar. And we’re proud we’ve been able to unleash a different beast in this regard.

Kuba Stokalski Senior Lead Designer

Kuba is a Project Lead and Lead Designer at 11 bit studios. His work on Frostpunk earned a BAFTA nomination for Narrative, and he aims to create meaningful experiences in a language native to the medium of games. He is currently overseeing continuous development of the Frostpunk franchise – and more, unannounced stuff.

The post Frostpunk: Mixing Opposing Genres appeared first on Making Games.

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ncmagroup · 5 years

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By Yatin Pawar

Performance reviews are meant to be unique and tailored for each individual. That is how they can be most effective. Generic (& meaningless) rhetoric does not lead to any performance improvements.

Having said that, the competencies for which the individuals are measured tend to be similar to an extent. Mind you though, the similarities are only ‘up to an extent’. Each position requires its unique set of skills that can never be generalized. Additionally, company & team values could also be included in the list of competencies by some organizations.

From a manager’s point of view, it can be difficult to not repeat phrases to more than one individual about the same competency. This may result in team members getting the impression that all performance reviews are generic and the same things are said to pretty much everyone. Thus, despite carrying out performance reviews in a very careful manner, a few repetitive sentences here and there could damage the credibility of the entire process.

In this article, we have consolidated about 450+ positive & negative phrases that could be handy. These phrases should serve you as a reference when doing performance reviews. Word of caution though, they should only serve as guidance. If the relevant context is not added, the review would not yield expected results.

A. Marketing

Positive phrases for performance reviews

Achieved phenomenal growth with the number of visitors on the website in a short duration

Established key marketing metrics to effectively measure the efforts of content published on the website

Exceeded original target of X number of visitors by Y% increasing quality and quantity of content on the website

Effectively measured the impact of X on the branding of the company

Introduced innovative tactics for sales promotion resulting in X% reduction in advertising cost

Is highly responsible and makes sure completes (list of tasks)

X has a go-getter attitude making him/her highly valuable for the entire team

Increased number of MQLs per week by X% during (period)

Always takes care to improve core Marketing competencies by leveraging HubSpot, Simplilearn, etc

Is able to conjure imaginative solutions to challenges faced by the team

Is able to empathize with customers/prospects and understand their grievances before taking any drastic step

Level headed thinking helps ‘X’ take faster and better decisions

Is highly dependable and delivers close to 100% on every responsibility that he/she undertakes

Rarely waits for others to tell him/her what needs to be done to achieve end results

X is always able to connect the dots and see the bigger picture before undertaking any initiative

Able to deal with stressful situations and handle each task as decided

Has developed a team-oriented approach among all the employees

Highly capable at identifying and rewarding exemplary performance by teammates/subordinates

X conducts careful research and is well prepared before meetings

Despite facing backlash for the decrease in MQLs provided in (period), continued efforts to improve the website with higher intensity

Maintains effective communication with clients/customers/teammates when they face technical problems

X has his/her sights on a clear vision and takes steps accordingly to reach there

Always one step ahead of the game when it comes to technical expertise

Negative phrases for performance reviews

Lacks understanding of buyer persona which leads to incorrect messaging for the target audience

Falls behind schedule to achieve targets of providing quality leads to Sales

Takes decisions without analyzing historical data which leads to poor campaign management

Lacks patience, abandons initiatives midway when results do not show (such as a weekly newsletter)

Reluctance to upskill and gain marketing expertise has led to performance stagnation

Lack of commitment often results in (list of tasks) being revised multiple number of times

Needs to improve analytical skills to make sense of data being collected from multiple sources (Analytics, Email campaign, etc.)

Great presentation skills but usually presents incorrect information due to lack of (list of products/services) understanding, due to which clients get confused

Tends to stray away from the actual point of conversation during (meetings/presentations/demos)

Is unable to overcome client objections, that led to a 30% drop in sales

Lacks the commitment to ensure new initiatives are completed within the time

Assumes that teammates/subordinates have required skills to fulfill certain responsibilities without checking with them

Poor knowledge of web analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Netinsight, WebTrends.

Has been known to engage in unethical behavior with vendors to increase profits

Takes a lot of time to develop relationships with prospects, leading to a lower conversion rate of prospects to customers

Relies more on manual work than technological advancement to document information being collected

Openly criticizes others for not following traditional marketing tactics

Lacks preparation before presentations leading to poor demonstrations with customers/prospects

The organization is done more according to personal choices rather than any effective procedure

Planning marketing goals at the last minute leads to inaccurate or faulty planning and unrealistic expectations from team

Goal-setting skills are non-existent so rarely any chance of reaching end results

Is not willing to help others set their goals and align them with overall objectives

Provides poorly researched and often incomplete content on a due date just to obtain points for timeliness

Does not follow company protocol when it comes to adhering to marketing standards set by management

B. Engineering

Positive phrases for performance reviews

Is constantly coming up with innovative approaches to reduce the time required for completion of (list of tasks)

Consistently learns new skills and uses them to improve performance and provide suggestions for betterment of (list of tasks)

Champion problem solver. Can be relied on when projects have a hard deadline

Goes the extra mile to ensure technical issues are resolved within the time

Manages all technical challenges systematically and notes down guidelines for future scenarios

Takes utmost care to meet cost standards by preparing cost-benefit analyses, tracking and reporting expenses

Never displays a negative attitude despite being overwhelmed at times

Surpassed engineering and organization mission by achieving X% over Y during (period)

Helps network support staff to identify and take care of network bugs, and design network expansions

Demonstrated ability to proactively offer technical support to the executive staff for internal network functions and any Internet-enabled applications

In case of disputes among teammates, provides rational inputs effectively without favoring any one side

X’s decision making skill is unparalleled in the entire department

It can always be relied upon to protect operations by keeping information confidential.

X is a goal-oriented person and always tries to find creative ways to meet goals

X has an imaginative mind and comes up with innovation solutions whenever necessary

Is able to quickly develop a plan for identifying and isolating hardware defects

Never disappoints and meets the needs of the organization by designing support peripherals whenever required

Supports teammates/subordinates when they need to take calculated risks

Has leveraged many groups to create a strong network of like-minded individuals

Keeps himself/herself focused on achieving the end goals despite few deviations

Keeps managers/employees updated by developing documentation, flowcharts, layouts, diagrams, charts, code comments, and clear code.

Aligns personal and professional goals efficiently and strives to achieve both

Demonstrates exemplary technical knowledge and expertise as compared to peers

Negative phrases for performance reviews

Lacks latest/new technical knowledge and is unable to contribute during brainstorming

Unable to translate theoretical knowledge into practical applications

Not able to comprehend directions leading to a mismatch between expectations and result

Lacks knowledge about state-of-the-art development tools, programming techniques, and computing equipment to take on challenging projects

Provides temporary solutions that have created long term problems

Needs to improve observation skills and pay more attention to finer details of the task

Low understanding of (list of tasks) due to poor analytical skills

Has difficulty articulating content due to poor understanding of (list of products/services)

Communication is good but needs to approach (recipients) tactfully without offending anyone

Lacks the confidence to speak in large groups or anyone with higher authority

Does not follow up on tasks according to the project schedule

Cannot keep to his/her words when the situation demands it

Delegates entire workload in one go and expects teammates/subordinates to finish it within unrealistic timelines

Has faced several disciplinary hearings with the HR department

Finds it difficult to work closely with network support staff to identify and take care of network bugs

Does not know how and what to communicate to team members leading to ambiguous instructions

Is unable to understand changing technology and instructions

Is not open-minded when it comes to listening to constructive criticism

Always looks to negotiate on own terms leading to a win-loss situation

Spends considerable amount of time retrieving simple information that should ideally take only a few minutes

Anticipate needs for replacement of hardware but fails to submit orders

Resists asking for advice when faced with challenges, thus wasting a precious amount of time

Is reluctant to work in a team and seeks independent assignments

Uses fake information to prove own point

C. Sales

Positive phrases for performance reviews

Exceeded expectations by X% of the target during (period)

Has the ability to quickly identify and grasp prospects’ pain-points and providing them with the right solutions

Consistently meets sales targets and sets higher goals for himself/herself

Thorough reporting in CRM helps team members quickly identify the status of the sales funnel

Is most sought after salesperson to handle difficult clients

Owns all responsibilities that come his/her way and ensures on-time delivery

X’s attitude has endeared him/her to the entire team and made him/her a highly sought after teammate

The challenged traditional manner of working and introduced a new approach to (list of tasks) thus efficiently reducing the time taken to complete them

Shows initiative in understanding new skills and techniques

Created a list of must-do tasks while negotiating with customers to increase performance levels by X%

Is able to make quick decisions about discount rates or special pricing plans to close sales

Takes decisions based entirely on objective observations and avoids any biases

Maintains high energy and performance levels making him a consistent achiever

Is never complacent with performance and seeks to improve his/her performance levels

X is the go-to person to have a fresh look at a long-standing challenge in the workplace

Highly flexible when it comes to meeting goals and objectives

Encourages everyone to develop a winning attitude

Collaborates with teammates/subordinates to project sales and determine the profitability of products and services

Is always well dressed and presentable to make a good first impression

Carefully monitors customer preferences to determine the focus of sales efforts

Can effectively handle most objections and provide sustainable solutions

Has clearly established checkpoints for short term and long term career path

Can quickly adapt to newer technologies as well as help others understand them

Negative phrases for performance reviews

Lacks the confidence to plan and coordinate training programs for sales staff

Very liberal with discounting during negotiations, leading to lower margins

Shows no willingness to improve negotiation/presentation skills

Has failed to meet sales targets on numerous occasions thereby decreasing allotted quota of the entire team

Highly argumentative. Prospects have left negotiations midway due to poor attitude

Is not efficient at assigning sales territories and setting sales quotas for himself/herself and team members

Avoids tasks that require analyzing sales statistics

Needs to understand (list of products/services) before undertaking any activity

Communication is good but needs to approach (recipients) tactfully without offending anyone

Frequently presents unrealistic sales forecasts, revenue and expenses report to management

Offered assistance for project ‘Y’ but backed off when the time came to help

Doesn’t trust teammates/subordinates enough to delegate important responsibilities to them

Fails to identify emerging markets or market shifts and loses out on the valuable opportunity

Does not consider integrity to be as important as it actually should

Lacks patience to deal with stressful negotiations, often ending up arguing with customers/prospects

Rarely takes it upon himself/herself to design and implement a strategic business plan that expands the company’s customer base

Has difficulty comprehending what the other person is trying to say

Is not able to put forth own opinions in an assertive manner and often comes across as aggressive

Abysmal organization skills have led to the loss of information on three separate occasions

Does not monitor the progress of sales for prolonged periods of time

Does not deliver on outcomes as promised in the first stage

Lacks business acumen to drive sales from plan to close stage

Takes credits for efforts taken by others

D. Customer Support

Positive phrases for performance reviews

Able to efficiently handle X% more customer request volume as compared to standard expectations

Consistently X% more average number of replies per request in a day

Quickest resolution rate enable X to handle more volumes as compared to teammates

Regularly rated >7 out of 10 in customer support feedback

Assists teammates when they are loaded with higher volumes without compromising on own targets

Is genuinely interested in identifying and implementing strategies to improve quality of service, productivity, and profitability

Always up for identifying and addressing staff training and coaching needs

Reduced errors in handling customer grievances by implementing an efficient checklist for all team members

Never fails to monitor the accuracy of reporting and database information

Regularly experiments on existing processes using relevant technology trends and applications to improve productivity

Highly approachable by employees from every level of the organization

X’s sound decisions have helped teammates avoid problems that could affect their productivity

Puts in extra hours to ensure the necessary resources and tools are available for quality customer service delivery

Always willing to liaise with company management to support and implement growth strategies

Constantly searches for new ideas and ways to improve efficiency and shorten the time duration required to complete tasks

Helps others to co-ordinate and manage customer service projects and initiatives

Ensures every team member efficiently tracks customer complaint resolution

Ensures each employee as well as himself/herself is held accountable for their responsibilities

Highly professional when dealing with clients, irrespective of their designations

Does not give up upon failure but instead looks for other ways to achieve success

Often called upon by teammates for advice about potential obstacles

Shows great willingness to ensure his/her goals are achieved successfully

Shows willingness to improve technical expertise on a consistent basis

Negative phrases for performance reviews

Poor support has led to being rated < 3 out of 10 on more than 5 occasions in 1 month

Does not understand the problem that customer is trying to present

Not patient while dealing with customers as evidenced by analysis of recorded calls

Less than average capacity (Actual – 8; minimum target – 12) of handling customer support requests

Takes 20% more amount of time to handle simple queries

Only 25% instances per month of providing error-free work

Incorrect data analysis has led to poor decision making in 3 out of 5 instances

Does not take efforts to develop conceptual clarity about (list of products/services)

Needs to significantly improve communication skills

8 customers complained about X’s attitude and unwillingness to listen

Always up for a new challenge, but abandons it midway when the going gets tough

Overwhelmed due to a large number of responsibilities but cannot delegate when required

Comes in late to meetings and disturbs others when they are in the midst of important work

Lack of integrity noticed on 3 separate incidents in one month

Has a dominating personality and not open to listening to customer’s views and opinions

Has difficulty accepting limitations of own performance and skills during performance assessments

Poor body language dissuades others from maintaining a conversation

Interrupts others consistently leading to problems in negotiations

Lack of organizational skills have led to the loss of important information

Finds it difficult to maintain productivity levels and deviates at the first opportunity

Repeats same mistakes over and over leading to delay in completion of tasks

Does not listen to teammates opinions and talks over them

Has been rated poorly by teammates and is considered untrustworthy and unreliable in the organization

E. Human Resources

Positive phrases for performance reviews

Displays a genuine interest in understanding employee grievances

Provides fair guidance to all those who approach him/her

Has created an efficient and systematic database to extract information at a moment’s notice

X has introduced (list of initiatives) that have led to an X% increase in employee engagement levels

X reinvented HR policies that have led to X% decrease in attrition levels

Goes the extra mile whenever necessary to improve employee engagement levels

Has a positive disposition yet makes it clear when he/she is overburdened with responsibilities

Consistently performs at optimum levels and ensures individual queries (tax, leaves, compensations, etc) are resolved

Highly proactive at providing feedback to employees whenever needed

Never hesitates to look for alternative approaches to problems

Has reduced turnover by 20% after introducing employee-friendly policies

Capable of reviewing employee performance based on analytics as opposed to subjective decisions

Introduced new team-building exercises to increase collaboration by 10% in the organization

Needs minimal supervision and yet achieves complete payroll compliance with greater accuracy

Is known to challenge the ‘we have done it this way’ phrase and come up with better solutions

Is calm and composed irrespective when dealing with complaints irrespective of the designation/level of the accused

Has provided training and development to a team of mediocre performers to achieve 15% better results within 3 months

Provides necessary guidance and help in case of personal emergencies

Carefully balances listening and speaking time to ensure both parties are thoroughly familiar with each other

Welcomes changes rather than oppose them and introduces them in the workplace

Keeps a level head when representing the company as its spokesperson

Always sets challenging goals for himself/herself and strives to achieve them

Is able to comprehend how to follow a complex set of instructions even in stressful situations

Negative phrases for performance reviews

A large number of employees have complained about X’s unfair and biased practices

“All complaints have fallen on deaf ears” is the most common feedback received through anonymous feedback

Lack of coordination between team members has led to candidates leaving recruitment procedures

Unorganized employee information makes it difficult to obtain information in a timely manner

The high amount of resources have been wasted behind unsuccessful employee engagement initiatives (list of activities)

Often misses out on minor errors which appear due to lack of revisions

Faces difficulty in correctly analyzing data when presented with a large amount

Lack of understanding about (list of products/services) prevents X from establishing a rapport with prospects

Finds it difficult to convey the message effectively

Lacks the ability to understand employee needs and takes 60% more time on average

Displays a genuine interest, but lacks the commitment to fulfill the responsibility

Hoards responsibilities close to his/her own chest and does not delegate work among others

Does not conduct himself/herself in a disciplinary manner while preaching others

Lacks good interpersonal skills and behaves irrationally most of the times

Favors quicker results over the integrity

Takes a long amount of time to inculcate innovating engagement practices in the workplace

Focuses more on speaking rather than listening during employee performance reviews

Unwillingness to compromise during salary negotiations has led to good candidates leaving the process

Focuses more on organizing everything rather than actually getting the job done

Sets unrealistic expectations leading to over-commitment and under-delivery

Has little patience to deal with obstacles

Argues aggressively when teammates do not listen to what he/she has to say

Hardly pays attention to any rules and regulations in the workplace

F. Finance

Positive phrases for performance reviews

Regularly upgrades knowledge as per changing rules and regulations of the Government

The highest number of instances where accurate financial reports were generated within specific deadlines

X is a high performer and actively contributes to formulating strategic and long-term business plans

Pays attention to the smallest of details while liaising with auditors to ensure annual monitoring is carried out efficiently

Always the first one to keep abreast of changes in financial regulations and legislation

Has a strong acumen for producing accurate financial reports

Has improved the quality of decision making by carefully analyzing and presenting (list of tasks) information

X is perceived as the go-to person when conducting reviews and evaluations for cost-reduction opportunities

Capable at analyzing market trends and competitors and explaining them quickly to even a layman

Handles all customer queries even after sales to provide a rich customer experience

Ensures all financial information is collected, interpreted and reviewed during the specified time limit

Is proficient at delegating the right task to the right individual at the right time and getting expected results

Brings in a sense of discipline and sets high standards for other teammates/subordinates

Leads by example when it comes to being up to date with technological advances and accounting software to be used for financial purposes

When faced with a conflict, disagrees respectfully and presents facts in a logical manner

Acknowledges limitations and takes efforts to overcome them at the earliest

Encourages others to speak without interrupting them continuously

Overcomes objections effectively leading to the successful negotiation of deals

Helps teammates/subordinates get organized and simplify their work, removing all clutter

Helps others in planning their activities

Takes help whenever necessary to ensure work is completed on time

Quick to track the company’s financial status and performance to identify areas for potential improvement

Gives credit to teammates whenever appropriate

Negative phrases for performance reviews

Has a difficult time processing and analyzing financial information

Does not seek help when needed which leads to delays and inaccurate processing of information

Takes on more than capacity and avoids delegating work to get it done quickly

Focus more on menial tasks rather than producing financial reports related to budgets, account payables & receivables, etc.

Has not learned any new financial models that can help him/her increase their contribution

Needs to be more thorough while analyzing market trends and competitors

Tends to buckle under pressure when faced with numerous complex transactions

Has had difficulty presenting financial reports to board members, stakeholders, executives, and clients in formal meetings on more than one occasion

Needs to update knowledge about upcoming technological advancements in finance and accounting software

Does not display the willingness to ‘think-out-of-the-box’

Inability to provide insightful information has led to senior executives take a longer amount of time to form long term plans

Lacks basic decision-making skills and relies on others to make decisions on his/her behalf

Makes extravagant claims but fails to back up with research and statistics

Always needs to be supervised while reviewing, monitoring and managing budgets

Lacks the ingenuity to change directions when the team requires it most

Has managed to ruffle quite a few feathers while trying to get work done by others

Focuses more on the end result than on fostering teamwork

Holds too many meetings (of longer duration) that end up reducing the productivity of employees

Poor interpretation of market trends has led to an increase in financial risks

Does not set goals or objectives that could help him/her increase own contribution

Easily overwhelmed when faced with multiple problems at the same time

Sets personal goals that are in direct contradiction to professional goals

Drastically behind teammates with respect to technical expertise

G. Operations

Positive phrases for performance reviews

Responsibly coordinates activities that affect operations decisions and business requirements

Highly efficient at planning, scheduling and reviewing workload and manpower availability

Provides guidance to employees when the situation demands it

The systematic approach of planning, scheduling, and reviewing workload and manpower enables the team to maintain productivity

Increases workplace morale and productivity through effective facilitation of activities

Reduced errors in (list of tasks) as a result of a thorough analysis of historical information

Excels at analyzing data retrieved from (lists of tasks) and providing actionable solutions

Expert at delivering presentations about (list of products/services) due to conceptual clarity

Communicates the (message/company policies) clearly without offending anyone

Always achieves more than 7/10 NPS

If ‘X’ commits to any activity, he/she makes sure that activity is taken to its desired end

Sets up a timeline after discussing with team and follows up at specific checkpoints

Maintains high self-discipline and does not rely on policies to conduct himself/herself

Has never been known to proactively communicate any changes in the order or delivery date to relevant parties

Has a good sense of humor and makes sure the work environment is positive

Embraces change and adapts to newer skills quickly to ensure smooth work

Correct body language and gestures help the other person relax and speak what they have in mind

Is able to decide when he/she should walk away from a negotiation during the purchase of materials and services required for production

Organized projects and tasks in order of their importance and ensures that work is completed on priority

Involves teammates/subordinates in the planning process, thereby increasing trust in the team

Leverages the right tools and technologies to ensure the end result is of the highest quality

Has established a good rapport with all team members and can bring them together to work in collaboration

Contributes towards the improvement of work policies and removing orthodox ones

Negative phrases for performance reviews

Cannot comprehend the impact of poor planning and scheduling of resources on a larger scale

Repeatedly failed to carefully organize and allocate manpower leading to lower productivity

Is rigid and sticks to traditional systems of data collection rather than experiment with new ones

Needs to work on planning and organizing skills before undertaking (list of tasks)

Tends to blame others when health and safety regulations are not followed effectively

Is unable to complete a set of activities owned by him/her such as consistently monitoring of production schedules

Is highly comfortable with the existing set of responsibilities and does not want to get out of comfort zone

Intent to provide perfect solutions often ends up delaying (list of tasks) significantly, affecting overall team productivity

Does not help others develop their skills or provide guidance to employees

Has a strong analytical mind but lacks creativity while resolving problems and complaints

Employee turnover has increased by 35% due to poor allocation of resources

Relies more on ‘gut feeling’ rather than objective approach required for forecasting and budgeting of resources

Promises deadlines will be met but always delivers later that deadline

Continues to neglect newer opportunities for improving customer experience

Performs activities in the same monotonous manner despite being given the freedom to innovate

Is not flexible enough to handle any change in situations

Finds it difficult to make decisions in stressful situations such as coordinating activities that affect operational decisions

Focuses more on self-development rather than teammates/subordinates

Fails to follow up with important contacts established during networking events

X is not confident about own abilities and shies away from taking up any challenge

Finds it difficult to analyze any problem objectively

Too ambitious goals and no plan on how to achieve these goals

Does not understand how to follow a set of instructions

H. Product Design

Positive phrases for performance reviews

Never loses sight of time constraints and delivers designs as planned

Always displays can-do attitude when faced with any challenging assignment

Avoids traditional approaches and seeks innovative solutions to prepare product design specification and integration documents

Can better visualize the end result, making it easy for him/her to create prototypes of design

Consistently improves skills to ensure designs are not only functional but also easy to use

Nothing escapes X’s watchful eye as he/she pays great attention to detail while designing and building products

Has the potential to spot hidden patterns that are missed by average individuals

Has displayed a strong understanding of benefits of all the features of (list of products/services) which enable X to address pain points of end customers

Excels at leading a discussion towards the desired outcome for an effective product design

Tactfully answers all objections raised by the team about design specifications

Displays willingness to embrace accountability and make new mistakes to grow consistently

Encourages others to utilize his/her own ways and create innovative designs, in order to build trust

Regularly helps others understand policies and how to maintain it

Determines the most effective ways to follow agile methodologies and ensures others follow them too

Has a handle on emotions when dealing with stressful situations and tight deadlines

Quickly understands how to navigate through complex design architecture and achieve the end result

Does not offer judgment but rather a constructive criticism for improving drawbacks in existing specifications

Always asks questions to ensure everyone involved is on the same page

Brought order to a chaotic team/department by introducing agile methodology and implementing it successfully

Is always prepared for any contingencies with a backup plan

Takes responsibility to overcome challenges and makes sure his/her word is fulfilled

Participates actively in all team discussions and contributes ideas assertively

Pays attention to work policies and follows them diligently

Negative phrases for performance reviews

Struggles to meet basic design standards set by manager/team

Failure to comprehend instructions leads to a mismatch of expected design and the final outcome

Hesitates to learn new design tools and software that could be essential to improve performance

Poor quality of work leads to increased workload for other teammates

Never able to deliver on-time leading to dissatisfied clients

Bites off more than he/she can chew which leads to delay in completion of (list of tasks)

Often blames others when specifications of a product are not met

Reduced productivity by Y% due to lack of commitment towards (list of tasks)

Has difficulty in analyzing what are his/her missing skills

Always focusing on being practical, where sometimes creativity is also required

Is often biased towards one tool and neglects using advanced techniques that could reduce time required for task completion

Focus on short term implications when making decisions, while ignoring long term impact

Handles projects extraordinarily at the start but loses enthusiasm midway leading to shoddy work at the end

Stays in comfort zone more than necessary

Has rarely shown any artistic flair in his/her entire tenure

Has failed to adapt to changing environments and upcoming technologies

Has a more autocratic approach towards getting work done by teammates

Preaches about bring innovation in design but does not lead by example

Does not maintain records of versions changed from the product design’s start to its most recent stage

Avoids taking tasks that require a long term commitment

Takes a long amount of time to provide any solution by which time the problem reaches its critical stage

Focused solely on self-improvement and often neglects to help teammates

Cannot adapt to newer technologies which make him/her take a long amount of time to complete basis activities

I. Research and Development

Positive phrases for performance reviews

Has a flair for coming up with groundbreaking ideas for (list of products/services)

Thinks of the problem before trying to coming up with a random solution

Has a thorough understanding of the target market’s needs

Leverages advanced technology to ensure best (list of products/services) are developed

Coordinates with everyone and gets multiple ideas before finalizing one

Is highly efficient at assessing the benefits and monitoring the costs and effectiveness of research and development activities

Ability to comprehend and interpret a large amount of data with minimum supervision

Deep knowledge about (list of products/services) enables X to provide guidance on research and development options available to the organization

Ability to direct any deviation from the original idea back on track

Thorough understanding of customer needs helps in determining and recommending product usage information

Follows through on all commitments irrespective of the challenges involved

Delegates tasks to the lowest level of the organization without any biases

Has suggested valuable points for preparing yield computation including product costings

Has helped increase compliance with safety and maintenance regulations by providing guidelines for maintaining equipment and lab infrastructure in optimal working conditions

X is respectful of others opinions yet assertively expresses the right solutions whenever required

Is able to quickly grasp the finer nuances of complicated activities by drawing upon basic scientific knowledge

Has been proven to be a great listener when engaged in conversations

Makes sure everything is clarified in case of ambiguous terms and conditions

Adopts a systematic and methodical approach towards all work

X establishes a clear set of guidelines to ensure the task is efficiently completed well within time

Brainstorms multiple solutions with teammates/subordinates until an efficient solution is developed

Encourages team members to come up with creative ideas and experiments with them as well

Is known throughout the company for preparing competitive monitoring report and providing necessary recommendations

Negative phrases for performance reviews

Lack of coordination among other team members has led to redundant work

Does not utilize modern technologies or equipment to improve performance of (list of products/services)

Incorrect research methods have led to poor data collection

Does not look to innovate unless specifically asked

Hoards information that can be useful to others as well. fearing competition

Needs repeated reminders to make sure technical reports/ presentations for various R&D activities to R&D Manager are ready

Refrains from seeking complex problems due to fear of failure

Lacks basic scientific knowledge to grow in the current position

Sabotages teammates work when they display a higher level of skills

Tends to approach peers/managers for support rather than coming up with unique solutions

Lack of willingness to follow standard communication and training materials and relies more on instinct

Takes decisions that favor him/her work but not necessarily the entire team

Expects perfectionism from teammates/subordinates but not from himself/herself

Thinks inside a box and avoids coming up with innovative approaches

When faced with a problem, tends to give in and succumb to the pressure rather than innovate

Easily gets distracted if there is a minor deviation

Puts down others if they are not able to perform, instead of motivating them

Is not able to manage teams effectively

Spends an excessive amount of time providing simple product labeling information leading to wastage of time

Loses will or motivation to work after failing at any task

Often relies on other expertise rather than solve problems on his/her own

Does not accept responsibility for compiling, validating, organizing, and updating data for existing analytical modeling tools and systems

Delivers poor results due to a lack of awareness of new technology/tools

J. Purchasing

Positive phrases for performance reviews

Is highly meticulous when it comes to assessing needs and tracking inventory

Keeps a thorough and updated record of all items purchased using advanced tracking systems

Efficiently coordinates with all other departments/functions to determine and fulfill their needs

Excellent negotiation tactics ensure that the company gets the best deals possible

Efficient planning helps ensure all requirements are made available within the time

Follows a self-made checklist to ensure nothing is missed out

X’s has strong analytical skills that help him/her study complex data retrieved from (list of tasks)

Has thorough knowledge of market rates of (list of products/services)

Highly efficient at communication with peers, suppliers, and vendors

Demonstrated ability to calmly deal with angry/frustrated/rude vendors and address their queries successfully

Highly engaged in all activities that he/she undertakes

Is great at articulating the desired outcome, making it easier for subordinates to achieve those results

Maintains records of goods ordered and received that can quickly retrieve as and when required

Always exhibits exemplary skills while controlling purchasing department budgets

Completely aware of what needs to be said in what situations

Makes it a priority to Review purchase order claims and contracts for conformance before progressing further

Patiently analyzes market and delivery systems in order to assess present and future material availability.

Ensure he/she is in charge of negotiation and leads to a win-win situation for both parties

Displays excellent organization skills during all tasks he/she undertakes

Is highly skilled at planning for short term as well as long term goals

Sets goals, checks in progress regularly to ensure he/she is on track and achieves end results effectively

Is always respectful towards teammates ideas and opinions

Clearly communicates what is expected of others and the standard measurement of achievement

Negative phrases for performance reviews

Late processing of purchases often impacts the schedule of project deliverables

Lacks the tenacity to get the best deals possible from vendors

Biased towards vendors who are new in the market

In case of errors, does not take ownership

Fails to coordinate with other departments to assess their needs of (lists of products)

Is not fully committed to the tasks so finds it difficult to bring activities to fruition

Negative talk tends to lower the entire team’s morale

Lacks engagement to drive (list of tasks) to the desired outcome

Does not display on open mind when given constructive feedback

Does not contribute new/innovative ideas while brainstorming with the team

Unable to take stern action when the situation demands it

Takes a prolonged amount of time to take smaller decisions leading to delay in the number of subsequent activities

Needs to work extra hours because he/she is distracted during normal hour

Speaks of improving himself/herself but backs out when the time comes to take on a new role

Relies on on tried and tested methods more often than required

Does not help others despite them asking for help

Should focus more on creating a sensible plan than other lesser important initiatives

Fails to provide support when it is absolutely vital

Forces himself/herself between conversations without considering other two parties

Sets targets without any purpose so lose focus after a short period of time

Fails to provide a correct estimation of how much time resolution of the problem will take

Sets multiple goals at the same time and fails to achieve even one

Finds it difficult to learn new technologies

Go to our website: www.ncmalliance.com

450+ handy performance review phrases sorted by functions By Yatin Pawar Performance reviews are meant to be unique and tailored for each individual. That is how they can be most effective.

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doxampage · 7 years

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7 Critical Steps to Growing a Profitable Jewelry Business – Part 5: Negotiation 101

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As a small business owner, being an effective negotiator can sometimes make the difference between running a profitable business and not. In part 5 of our 7-part series on Growing a Profitable Jewelry Business, we’ll provide you with the tactics to equip yourself for a negotiation from start to finish.

1. General Considerations Around a Negotiation

Before digging into the tactical preparation for your negotiation, a critical exercise is to take a step back and establish the high-level goals of the conversation. By consciously framing the negotiation and situation, you can be more aware of distractors that make you less effective as a negotiator.

Focus on building trust and relationships

A core tenant of small business negotiation in particular is to focus on building trust and relationships through the negotiation. Generally, you’re not only setting up a one-time deal, but also laying a foundation for how you are going to work with a partner into the future, whether that’s a supplier, a buyer, or a collaborator. Be conscious of actions which build trust and those that diminish it; be intentional and honest with your capabilities as well as your limitations; and above all, avoid just appealing to what you think the other party wants to hear. Good negotiation requires actual dialogue.

Keep your emotions and ego in check

During a negotiation, things can get heated and you may be reduced to your basic animalistic instincts in many ways. A common result of this is mental traps and assumptions, often referred to as cognitive biases. These biases cloud logical judgment and decision making by letting our emotions and egos get the best of us. Review the list below (via Business Insider) and try to think through potential biases you may encounter going into a discussion.

Being thoughtful about this list before a negotiation can make you aware of these biases when they happen and to prepare mental countermeasures. The first time you catch yourself and pivot on one of these is always a pat-yourself-on-the-back moment.

2. Preparing for a Negotiation

While the negotiation itself is obviously where the deal-making actually happens, much of the success or failure of a negotiation is determined by the tactical preparation that takes place beforehand. Having a game plan equips you with an arsenal of information to make insightful decisions and to control the conversation.

Establish your position

Before stepping into a negotiation, you’ll want to consider what you want to have when you step out of it, i.e., you need to determine what is the ideal outcome you’d like to achieve. In a negotiation with a buyer, for example, what order value or margin dollars are you aiming for? What’s the ideal production lead time or credit term agreement? As you consider the different variables at stake in the conversation, you’ll also want to rank them in order of importance to you and your business. Creating a list of these variables can help to establish your bargaining chips for the negotiation and help you define which are more or less expendable to you.

BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement)

Once you have a good sense of the variables of the negotiation, you’ll want to establish your acceptable outcome ranges. In this sense, you’re considering the best case and worst case that you’re willing to take for each item you’re negotiating. The best-case scenario is the easy part. This likely includes the prices, lead times, etc. that you envisioned when creating the list of variables to begin with. The worst case scenario, or the BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement), can be a bit more involved.

The BATNA is the absolute minimum agreement that you would be willing to accept in a negotiation. It is a jargon-y way of saying: “what would be your next best option or opportunity cost if you stepped away from a deal?”

BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement)

Example: If you are negotiating over unit-pricing for a wholesale order where the cost to produce a ring is $25 and your wholesale markup is $40 (total WSP of $65), your BATNA would be $25.01. Any lower and you would be in the same position or worse than not selling the rings at all. One thing to note about this example is that it excludes considerations beyond price. In reality, your BATNA should account for less tangible items such as time and effort spent on producing the order rather than on other business activity. It should also take into account your target margin across all of your sales.

Calculating your BATNAs during the preparation phase of the negotiation can prevent you from agreeing to a deal which puts you into a position that’s actually worse than not having any deal at all.

Anticipate all potential scenarios

As with any debate or rhetorical speech intended to persuade, anticipating areas of concern or argument is also critical with negotiations. Although you can’t think of every possible scenario that could come up, try to anticipate the most likely ones and walk through how you would approach them. This works in conjunction with the cognitive bias exercise we discussed before, but helps to prepare for the more tangible aspects of the conversation. Identifying the most favorable potential scenarios can also help you to steer the conversation toward those scenarios.

Create an agenda

The last step of negotiation preparation is to create an agenda of the topics you want to cover and the order in which you want to cover them. Creating an agenda ensures you don’t miss discussing a major topic, but also helps to establish a framework for the conversation. Some items are inevitably more important to you than others and the same goes for your negotiating partner. Being strategic about when to ask for more of one thing or concede another is key to keep in mind within the larger conversation.

3. Navigating a Negotiation

Establish the agenda

Once the negotiation begins, the first thing you’ll want to do is establish the agenda that you created before the meeting. If there is any disagreement on the sequence, decide on an order of topics together — this can sometimes be a mini-negotiation in and of itself. Be clear on the ultimate objectives of the meeting, i.e., what items you want to have agreement on once you each walk away from the negotiating table.

ZOPA (Zone of Potential Agreement)

Next, you’ll want to find your way as quickly as possible into what’s called the ZOPA (Zone of Potential Agreement). ZOPA is another piece of negotiation jargon, which refers to the area between two parties’ BATNAs.

ZOPA (Zone of Potential Agreement)

As you’ll recall, the BATNA is the absolute minimum required by either party to reach agreement. If you’re looking at two parties’ outcome ranges, the area between a buyer’s and seller’s BATNA is where you would actually anticipate reaching an agreement. As you negotiate, you are trying to get as far as possible towards the outer limit of the ZOPA as possible.

The ZOPA does imply that there is actually overlap between the two BATNAs; sometimes this isn’t the case. In those situations, the best outcome for both parties is to walk away from the deal.

Dig into your partner’s interests and motivations

The only real way to determine the ZOPA is to ask questions. To get an idea of where your negotiating partner’s BATNA lies, you’ll need to understand their interests and motivations. On top of that, you’ll want to figure out which of those interests and motivations are most important to them. Just as you went through the exercise of establishing a ranking of your own interests before the meeting, you’ll want to work towards a similar ranking of important items for your partner as well. The discrepancy between what you find important and what your partner finds important is the critical information you need to move a negotiation in your favor. For example, if lead time is of primary importance to the buyer, but is less a factor for you, you know you can concede a bit to their lead time demands in exchange for something that’s more important to you.

People often believe that good negotiators simply make demands and play hardball, but the true masters of the art are those who simply know how to ask the right questions, and when. Focus on asking open questions — that is, questions without a binary ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer — as these will open you to the most information.

Get to the core of why your partner is motivated to act in a certain way and what you have to offer to address those motivations. This calls to a focus on value creation, where you are scoping out your shared interests and how you can each benefit from working together.

Create solutions and trading packages

Taking into consideration what you learn from your exploration, start to create solutions and trading packages. Using “If…then” statements, you’re going to scope out what your partner is actually open to and move toward a resolution. Continuing on the lead time insight from the last example, you might propose: “If you’d like us to shorten our standard lead time to meet your holiday timeline, then we would request a revision of credit terms from n/30 to n/15. Is that something you would feel comfortable with?”

Creating theoretical packages like this decreases uncertainty and generates possible solutions without immediately committing to them.

Avoid compromise

The final critical tip for navigating the negotiation is to avoid compromise. Not every negotiation works out, and that’s okay. Don’t be afraid to walk away from a deal if it isn’t creating the value that you need it to. Be aware of your cognitive biases, keep your BATNA top of mind, and try to remain as objective as you can.

4. Closing the Deal

Assuming you do reach an agreement with one of the packages you created, the final step is to close the deal. First, you’ll want to lock down the order itself – when to expect it to be placed, the details of price and discounts, lead time, payment terms, etc. Next, establish any action items for moving forward, define the respective owner(s) of each item, and agree on its deadline. Finally, summarize, clarify, and document the discussion for both parties.

Any time a negotiation occurs, it’s best to send an email the same day with meeting minutes to ensure both sides are on the same page.

Stay tuned for the next part of our series, where we’ll sit down with Shapeways’ General Counsel, Michael Weinberg, to talk through legal considerations for transitioning from B2C to B2B.

About the authors: Ross Keong is a Strategic Sales Manager specializing in growth development for B2B users in the industries of jewelry, fashion, art, and design.

Virginia Gordon is the US Jewelry Community Manager, helping designers build a successful jewelry business using Shapeways and 3D printing

The post 7 Critical Steps to Growing a Profitable Jewelry Business – Part 5: Negotiation 101 appeared first on Shapeways Magazine.

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eurekakinginc · 7 years

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"[P] Sigma – Creating a machine learning framework from scratch (Update on high school thesis advice thread)"- Detail: TLDR: Asked this subreddit for advice in deciding on ML topic for high school thesis 2 years ago (see original thread), ended up writing a machine learning framework from (almost) scratch in C#/F#. It can’t do as much as all the others, isn’t as fast or as pretty, but we still think it’s kind of cool. Here it is: our github repo and a short UI demo.ResultsUpfront the current feature set of our framework Sigma, to give you an idea of what the next few paragraphs are about:Input, Output, Dense, Dropout, Recurrent, SoftmaxCE / SquaredDiff cost layersGradient descent, Momentum, Adadelta, Adagrad optimisersHooks for storing / restoring checkpoints, timekeeping, stopping (or doing other things) on certain criteria, computing and reporting runtime metricsEasy addition of new layers with functional automatic differentiationLinear and non-linear networks with arbitrarily connected constructsDistributed multi- and single- CPU and GPU (CUDA) backendsNative graphical interface where parameters can be interacted with and monitored in real-time 1. IntroductionThis is the story of us writing a machine learning framework for our high school thesis, of what we learned and how we went about writing one from scratch. The story starts about 3 years ago: we saw a video of MarI/O, a Super Mario AI that could learn to play Super Mario levels. We thought that was about the coolest thing of all time and wanted to do something at least kind of similar for our high school thesis. 1.1 The Original PlanFast forward, over 2 years ago we asked for help in deciding what kind of machine learning project we could feasibly do for our senior year high school thesis (see original thread). Quite ambitiously, we proposed a time investment of about 1000 hours total (as in 500 hours each over the course of 8 months) – for what project, we didn’t know yet. In that thread, we were generously met with a lot of help, advice ranged from reproducing existing papers to implementing specific things to getting to understand the material and then seeing what peaked our interest. After some consideration, we figured we would implement something along the lines of DeepMinds arcade game AI and then make it more general, figuring that would be easy for some reason. When planning our project in more detail we however quickly realised thatwe had no idea what we were doing andit would be a shame to do all that work from scratch and have it be so arbitrarily specific. 1.2 PivotingBefore doing anything very productive, we had to properly study machine learning. We figured this might take a while and allocated that part of our time to writing the theoretical part of our thesis, which conveniently overlapped. But because around that time we had to hand in an official target definition for our thesis, we set the most generic “goals” we could get away with. For reference, for a concerning number of months our project was officially named “Software framework for diverse machine learning tasks” with an even longer and even less specific subtitle. During further study and first attempts to draft the actual target definition for our project, our plans gradually shifted from a machine learning framework for playing specific types of games pivoted to an “any kind of visual input” learning framework and then finally to an “anything” machine learning framework – because why not, it seemed like an interesting challenge and we were curious to see how far we would get. 2. Research and PlanningAlright, so we've decided to write a machine learning framework. How does one create a machine learning framework? It takes many weeks to get reasonably proficient in just using a given framework, and that with proper guides, video tutorials and forums to ask for help. Creating a machine learning framework is a whole other story, with no 12 step guidelines to follow. For a considerable amount of time, we were at a loss at what we actually needed to implement – constantly encountering new and conflicting terms, definitions and not-so-obvious-“but the actual conclusion is obvious”-articles. After a little over a month we slowly got a very basic grasp of how this whole machine learning thing worked – something with functions that are approximated at certain points in steps typically using differentiation to make some metric go down – still magic, but a bit less so (until we read about CNNs, LSTMs and then GANs, each of which confused the heck out of us for some time). 2.1 Sketching our FrameworkAs soon as we knew a bit about the art of machine learning we got more serious about the writing a new framework part. Because there are no guides for that, we resorted to reading the source code of established frameworks – all to us relevant parts, many times, until it made some sense. In the meantime, we had decided to use C# as our primary language – mostly because we were already very familiar with it and didn’t want to also have to learn a new language, but officially also because there were no other proper neural network frameworks for .NET. Alongside reading the source code of machine learning libraries (mainly Deeplearning4J, Brainstorm and Tensorflow) we sketched out how we wanted our own framework to be used. After some time, we felt like there was some unnecessary confusion in getting to know machine learning frameworks as an outsider and we set out to design our API to avoid that. Note that because our design makes sense to us doesn’t mean that it makes more sense than the existing ones to other people, nor do we recommend everyone wishing to use machine learning to write their own framework, just to spare their own sanity.Our naïve ideas on how a machine learning should look like was clearly inspired by our C#/Java based programming experience, as is evident from the code example we drafted a few weeks in:Sigma sigma = Sigma.Create("minsttest"); GUIMonitor gui = (GUIMonitor) sigma.AddMonitor(new GUIMonitor("Sigma GUI Demo")); gui.AddTabs({"Overview", "Data", "Tests"}); sigma.Prepare(); DataSetSource inputSource = new MultiDataSetSource(new FileSource("mnist.inputs"), new CompressedFileSource(new FileSource("mnist.inputs.tar.gz"), new URLSource("http://....url...../mnist.inputs.targ.gz"))); DataSetSource targetSource = new MultiDataSetSource(new FileSource("mnist.targets"), new CompressedFileSource(new FileSource("mnist.targets.tar.gz"), new URLSource("http://....url...../mnist.targets.targ.gz" [, output: "otherthandefault"]) [, compression: new TarGZUnpacker(), output: "mnist.inputs" , forceUpdate: false])); DataSet data = new DataSet(new ImageRecordReader(inputSource, {28, 28}).Extractor({ALL} => {inputs: {Extractor.BatchSize, 1, 28, 28}}).Preprocess(Normalisor()), new StringRecordReader(targetSource).Extractor({0} => {targets: {Extractor.BatchSize, 1}} [, blockSize: auto/all/1024^3]); Network network = new Network("mynetwork"); network.Architecture = Input(inputShape: {28, 28}) + 2 * FullyConnected(size: 1024) + SoftmaxCE() + Loss(); Trainer trainer = sigma.CreateTrainer("mytrainer"); trainer.SetNetwork(network); trainer.SetInitialiser(new GaussianInitialiser(mean: 0.0, standardDeviation: 0.05)); trainer.SetTrainingDataIterator(MinibatchIterator(batchSize: 50, data["inputs"], data["targets"]); trainer.SetOptimiser(new SGDOptimiser(learningRate: 0.01); trainer.AddActiveHook(EarlyStopper(patience: 3)); trainer.AddActiveHook(StopAfterEpoch(epoch: 2000)); gui.AccentColor["trainer1"] = Colors.DeepOrange; gui.tabs["overview"].AddSubWindow(new LineChartWindow(name: "Error", sources: {"*.Training.Error"}) [, x: 1, y: 0, width: 2, height: 1]); gui.tabs["overview"].AddSubWindow(new LineChartWindow(name: "Accuracy", sources: {"*.Training.Accuracy"})); sigma.Run(); And skipping ahead a bit, it should be noted that the final framework is extremely similar to what we envisioned here: merely changing around a few syntax things and names, the above example from about a year ago can be used 1:1 in our current framework. The jury is still out on whether that’s a sign of really good or really bad design. Also note the python-style kwargs notation for layer constructor arguments, which was soon discarded in favour of something that actually compiles in C#. But back to the timeline. 2.2 The Sigma ArchitectureAfter defining the code examples and sketching out the rough parts we felt a machine learning framework needed, we arrived at this general architecture for “Sigma.Core”, divided into core components (which translate almost 1:1 to namespace in our project):Util: Mostly boring, well, utility stuff, but also registries, a key part of our architecture. Because we wanted to be able to inspect and visualise everything we needed a global way to access things by identifier – a registry. Our registry is essentially a dictionary with a string key which may contain more registries. Nested registries can be resolved using registry resolvers in dot notation with some fancy wildcards and tags in angel brackets (e.g. “network.layers.*.weights”).Data: Datasets, the records that make them up in various formats, the pipeline to load, extract, prepare and cache them from disk, web, or wherever they come from and make them available as “blocks”. These blocks are parts of an extracted dataset, consist of many individual records, and are used to avoid loading all of a potentially very large dataset into memory at once. Also, data iterators, which slices larger blocks from datasets into pieces that are then fed to the model.Architecture: Abstract definitions for machine learning models, consisting of layer “constructs”, which are lightweight placeholder layers defining what a layer will look like before its fully instantiated. These layers may be in any order and connected with however many other layers they would like.Layers: Unfortunately named since we started out with just neural networks, but these are the individual layers of our machine learning networks – they store meta-parameters (e.g. size) and actual trainable parameters (e.g. the actual weights).Math: Everything that has directly to do with math and low-level computations. All the automatic differentiation logic (which is very much required for doing proper machine learning) and everything that modifies our data is processed here in various backends (e.g. distributed CPU / GPU). To support calculating derivatives with respect to anything we opted for an approach with symbolic objects – essentially an object for a number or an array where the actual data was hidden (it can be fetched, but only via copies). These symbolic objects are passed around through a handler which does the actual data modification. This abstraction proved to be useful when implementing CUDA support where, due to the asynchronous execution of the CUDA stream, the raw data could not exposed to the user anyway, at least not without major performance hits (host-device synchronisation is very slow).Training: The largest component with many subcomponents, all revolving around the actual training process. A training process is defined in a “trainer”, which specifies the following:Initialisers, that define how a models parameters are initialised, which can be configured with registry identifiers. For example, trainer.addInitialiser(“layers.*.biases”, new GaussianInitialiser(0.1, 0.0)); would initialise all parameters named “biases” with a Gaussian distribution of 0.1 (mean 0).Modifiers, that would modify parameters at runtime, for example to clip weights to a certain range.Optimisers, that define how a model learns (e.g. gradient descent). Because we mainly considered neural networks we only implemented gradient based optimisers, but the interface theoretically supports any kind of optimisation.Hooks, that “hook” into the training process at certain time steps and can do whatever you want (e.g. update visualisations, store / restore checkpoints, compute and log metrics, do something (e.g. stop) when some criteria are satisfied).Operators, that delegate work to workers which execute it with a certain backend computation handler according to some parameters. Notable is our differentiation of “global” and “local” processing, where global is the most recent global state. This global state is fetched by local workers that then do the actual work, publish their results to the operator which merges it back into the global scope. A global timestep event is only ejected when all local workers have submitted their work for that timestep, enabling more fine control in distributed learning, at least in theory.Sigma: The root namespace that can create Sigma environments and trainers. An environment may contain multiple trainers, which are all run and, if specified, visualised simultaneously (which was supposed to be helpful in hyperparameter search).Monitors: Technically outside of the core project, but still a component. These monitors can be attached to a Sigma environment and can then, well, monitor almost everything about the trainers of that environment using the aforementioned registry entries. Behaviour can be injected using commands, a special form of hooks that are only invoked once. This way monitors can be used almost independently of the core Sigma project and can be pretty much anything, like a graphical interface or a live, locally hosted website. 3. ImplementationAnd that’s what we implemented, step by step. We started out with me mainly working on Sigma.Core and my partner on our visualisation interface, working to a common interface for months until we could finally combine our individual parts and have it miraculously work in a live graphical interface. The specifics of implementation were very interesting and quite challenging to us, but most of the particulars are probably rather dull to read – after all, most of the time things didn’t work and when we fixed something, we moved on to the next something that didn’t. 3.1 Low-level Data and Mathematical ProcessingThe very first thing we did was getting the data “ETL” (extract transform load) pipeline up and running, mainly fetching data from a variety of sources, loading them into a dataset and extracting them as blocks. I then focused on the mathematical processing part – everything that had to do with using math and calculating derivatives in our framework. I based our functional automatic differentiation, aptly named “SigmaDiff”, on an F# library for autodiff named “DiffSharp”, which I modified heavily to support n-dimensional arrays, improve performance significantly, fix a few bugs, support multiple simultaneous non-global backends, variable data types, and some more stuff that I’m forgetting. The specific details of getting that to work aren’t very interesting – a lot of glue code, refactoring and late-night bug-chasing because the backpropagation didn’t work as it should with some specific combination of operations. One memorable bug was that when remapping backend operations to my own OpenBLAS-based backend I forgot that matrix transposition did more than just change its shape – a mistake that cost me weeks in debugging efforts down the line, because things just didn’t work properly with large layers or more than 1 record per minibatch (duh). 3.2 Performance OptimisationsCompared to all the backend work, the “middleware” of layers and optimisers was rather trivial to implement, as there are hundreds of tutorials and papers on how to create certain layers and optimisers, where I only had to map them to our own solution. Really, that part should have taken a few weeks at most, but took that much longer because we only then discovered dozens of bugs and stability issues. Skipping over a lot of uninteresting details here, it should be noted that at this point performance of the framework was quite bad. I’m talking 300ms/iteration of 100 MNIST records with just a few dense layers on a high-end computer bad. This bad performance not only slowed training but also actual development down by quite a lot, hiding a few critical bugs and never letting us test the entire framework in a real-world use case within a reasonable time. You might wonder why we didn’t just fix the performance from the get-go, but we wanted to make the actual training work first so we would have something to show for our thesis. In hindsight not the ideal choice, but it still worked out quite well and otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to demonstrate our project adequately in time for the final presentation. 3.2.1 A Self-Adjusting BufferIt took many months before we finally got around to addressing the performance issues, but there was no single fix in sight, rather a collection of hundreds of small to medium sized improvements. A major issue was the way our SigmaDiff math processor handled operations: for every operation, a copy was created for the resulting data. That added up. The copying was necessary because backwards differentiation requires all intermediate values, so we couldn’t just not copy things. We couldn’t even create all required buffers in a static way ahead of time because there was (and still is) no way to traverse the operations that will be executed – the computation graph is constructed anew every time, and we can’t completely rely on them to remain constant. To introduce a reliable way of buffering anyway, we introduced the concept of sessions: A session was meant to be a set of operations that would be repeated many times. Iterations, essentially. When a session is started we would start storing all created arrays in our own store and when an array of the same dimensions was requested in the next session we could return the one from last session, all without allocating any new memory. If more memory was required than last time, we could still allocate it, if less was used, we could discard it for the next session, rendering this neatly self-adjusting. To not overwrite data that was created within a session but was needed for the next one (e.g. parameters) we added an explicit “limbo” buffer, which was basically just a flag that could be set at runtime for a certain array that marked it as “do not reuse”. 3.2.2 SIMD and Avoiding Intermediate AllocationOther significant performance improvements were adding SIMD instructions (which enables processing of typically 8 values at the same time for CPU-bound arithmetic operations) wherever possible and reducing other memory allocation to a minimum by adding some in-place operations wherever intermediate values weren't strictly needed. For example, copying results when accumulating gradients during backpropoagation on nodes with multiple operands is unnecessary because the intermediate values aren't used. By analysing profilers to death, I eventually got the iteration time for my MNIST sample down to an acceptable 18ms in release configuration (speedup of about 17x). Incidentally, the core was now so fast that our visualiser sometimes crashed because it couldn’t keep up with all the incoming data.3.3 Monitoring with Sigma 3.3.1 The monitoring SystemWhen developing Sigma, we not only focused on the “mathematical” backend but also implemented a feature rich monitoring system which allows any application to be built on top of Sigma (or better said Sigma.Core). Every parameter can be observed, every change hooked, every parameter managed. With this monitoring system, we built a monitor (i.e. application) that can be used to learn Sigma and machine learning in general. 3.3.2 The WPF MonitorUsers should be able to not only use Sigma, but also learn with Sigma. To address this issue, we built a feature-rich application (with WPF) that allows users to interact with Sigma. plot learning graphs, manage parameters and control the AI like controlling a music player. This monitor, as every other component of Sigma, is fully customisable and extensible. All components were designed with reusability in mind, which allows users to build their own complex application on top of the default monitor. But why describe a graphical user interface? See it for yourself, here is the UI (and Sigma) in action. (Example builds of Sigma can be downloaded on GitHub).Learn to learn at the press of a buttonDirect interaction during the learning processSave, restore and share checkpoints3.4 CUDA Support and Finishing TouchesOnly 2 months ago we started finalising and polishing our framework: adding CUDA support, fixing many stability issues and rounding off a few rough spots that annoyed us. The CUDA support part was particularly tricky as I could only use CuBLAS, not CuDNN, because our backend doesn’t, by design, understand individual layers but just raw computation graphs. A problematic side effect of the previously described session-logic was that there was no guarantee when buffers would be freed, as that was the job of the indeterministic GC. To not leak CUDA device memory I added my own bare-bones reference counter to the device memory allocator, which would be updated when buffers were created / finalised, which works surprisingly well. With CuBLAS, many custom optimised kernels and many nights of my time we achieved around 5ms/iteration for the same sample on a single GTX 1080, which we deemed acceptable for our envisioned use cases. 4. ConclusionApproximately 3000 combined hours, tens of thousands of lines of code and many long nights later we are proud to finally present something we deem reasonably usable for what it is: Sigma, a machine learning framework that might help you understand a little bit more about machine learning. As of now, we probably won’t be adding many new features to Sigma, mainly because we’re working on a new project related to it that’s now taking up most of our available time. Even though it lacks a lot of default features (most importantly the host of default layer types other frameworks offer), we’re quite happy with how far we got with our project and hope that it’s an adequate update to our original question 2 years ago. We would be happy if some of you could check it out and give us some feedback. 4.1 The Cost of Creating a Machine Learning FrameworkExcluding time, it’s quite cheap. Honestly, with some solid prior programming experience (so that the low-level programming part doesn't become an issue), the whole thing isn't terribly difficult and is probably something most people could do, given enough time. A lot of time. Overall, we it took us approximately:Some 600 hours of researchSome 2400 hours of development2 tortured souls, preferably sold to the devil in exchange for less bugsWe have long since stopped properly counting, so take these numbers with a grain of salt, but they should be in the right ballpark. 4.2 Final remarksAll in all, an undertaking like this is extremely time intensive. It was very much overkill for a high school thesis from the get-go, and we knew that, but it just kept getting more and more elaborate, essentially taking up all of our available time and then some. It was definitely worth it though, for now we have a solid understanding how things work on a lower level and, most importantly, we can say we’ve actually written a machine learning framework, which grants us additional bragging rights :). Caption by flotothemoon. Posted By: www.eurekaking.com

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