#not related to modding

[meadowlade]

🍊 Q1 June Update: A Little Something About My Modding Experience So Far

This isn't something I talk about publicly, but I feel like I finally should: recent attitudes about my mods have really solidified my decision to not provide any tech support whatsoever anywhere outside of their respective mod pages - this includes the official SDV Discord server - and only if my directions in the pinned post are followed.

This is going to be a bit of a ramble post, so I'll keep things under the cut:

🍊 How It Started...

Cozy Rustic Farmhouse is by far the most popular mod I've ever created. I'm happy with that of course; I put in a lot of effort to make a notoriously janky kind of map mod, and it turned out great. Farmhouses are still cursed, even with the mod author-aimed features added in the 1.6 update, Content Patcher's new powers, and the valiant efforts of certain mapmaking framework authors, so this is kind of a huge deal to me.

I'm happy with what I've achieved, and I'm happy that people found joy in using this mod. It certainly boosted my popularity and I have a bigger audience now, and that's great! I'm happy that motivated me to make even more mods. However, I am NOT happy about the increasing amount of user incompetence I'm seeing in my comments and bug reports.

Within 5 days of release, Cozy Rustic Farmhouse gained just about 100 new comments, and that was overwhelming. Quite a lot of those comments are people asking why there's issues with the mods and reporting "bugs" in the comments (liable to be buried and forgotten), which... turned out to be a case of "not reading the mod description".

So I shut down the Posts section, and set up a pinned post that was henceforth copied across all of my mods' Posts section: an instruction on what to do in the event of a bug, and a warning statement that I reserve the right to ignore or delete reports that either don't follow the instructions I listed or can be solved by reading mod descriptions, mine or otherwise a dependency's.

Alas, the problem did not stop despite my efforts.

🍊 To Bug or Not to Bug

Here's the thing: modding is a huge world. Not everything is going to work with each other, and that's okay; as a user, you're allowed to be concerned that something is potentially gamebreaking, and mod authors are allowed to not want to accommodate for incompatibilities, because we do this as a hobby and out of passion.

However, the least you can do as a user is to read the mod description thoroughly. We put in a lot of effort there not just to market the features of what we ship out (as much as I loathe to describe mods as a product or especially the dreaded term 'content', we do need to do a little marketing work here and there), but also for the sake of users. Config options, installation instructions, potential conflicts and compatibility issues, known issues... it's all important info!

When an issue is encountered, I really wish more people followed something like these steps when finding a bug:

Read the mod description again, and check the Compatibility or Known Issues section. Make sure it's actually an issue with the mod you're going to report to, not your mod loadout (e.g. accidental conflicts).

Else, read the description of that mod's dependencies and their Bugs section to see if there's any similar issues.

Else, check the mod's Bugs section to see if someone else has reported a similar issue. On this note, "+1" or "bump" or "me too" does absolutely nothing unless you provide a SMAPI log like the original reporter.

Once you're sure it's an issue with the mod and there's no other similar reports, make your complete report. A SMAPI log is mandatory for a proper diagnosis; even if there are no error messages, a log displays your entire modlist and trace-level logs where mod authors can track what changes are made where by which mods.

Following these steps makes things not only more pleasant for everyone involved, it ensures your issues can be diagnosed and resolved promptly. A SMAPI log is the bare minimum but images of the issue will help as well!

Also, and I can't believe that I had to add this to my pinned posts, if you are having VISUAL issues you need to send VISUAL PROOF of said issue. Mod authors can't see what you're seeing on your screen. We sure as hell can't read your mind either.

🍊 Writing Woes

Writing the mod description is a lot of effort, and a special kind of effort for ESL people like me. As fluent as I am, English still is not my primary language and stuff like implied tone, technical terms, turns of phrases etc. can trip me up sometimes. And as an ESL person I know how frustrating it could get to not be able to comprehend stuff due to language barriers, so I take care to explain things as simply as possible.

I've dabbled in what I do for quite a while. Suffice to say, I know what I am doing, and I can generally immediately pinpoint the cause of a bug (unless it's conflicts caused by a mod I'm not aware of that patches something that mine also patched). If I don't, I will give follow-up questions or instructions to better diagnose/solve your problem.

Because of that, you will notice that I never use the word "please" when giving these instructions. It's because I am not requesting you to follow my instructions, I am telling you to do so because I know that's how we can take one more step towards solving the bug.

Does that make me sound curt? Definitely. Do I care? No, because in the end of the day you (general you) as a user are the one having the problem, I offered my (steps to reach the) solution, but then you don't do as I say, so feel free to have your issue remain unsolved. You may request help from someone else then - maybe in the modding tech support channel in the main Discord server - but good luck getting anything fixed if you don't follow the troubleshooting instructions they give you.

My experience also means I can confidently say that 8 times out of 10 a "bug" is actually a PEBCAK. And I have put a warning about this, so in the event of your concerns being ignored for weeks or even immediately deleted, you can assume that I have read your comment/report but deliberately ignored it because either 1) it's not a real issue, or 2) it's answered in the mod description.

🍊 ... How It's Going

I really like making mods for Stardew Valley. I like seeing people be happy about my mods. I read your comments, all of them. I pretty much check Nexus and this blog daily to see if there's anything.

I may be quiet, but know that I greatly appreciate all the nice comments you guys leave. And those from my fellow author friends, I always appreciate your support and enthusiasm during the working stage.

This also means that I read all the inflammatory and entitled comments I get on occasion.

I've had someone call me an asshole (more or less) because I deleted their "bug" report and publicly declare they won't be using my mods again. The report I deleted because... I warned that I would delete. Because they didn't read the config options. Which, okay, whatever suits you, because not using my mods won't impact my livelihood. This is a hobby, after all.

I've had someone deliberately misinterpret my instructions for an issue they're having, then turn around and say I'm not being clear and I should be clearer "next time", which I took as especially condescending because of the ESL thing and the fact that I spend a LOT of time writing up my descriptions and instructions.

I've had quite a bit of cases where people share/ask around with screenshots of my maps (especially Cozy Rustic Farmhouse) asking why it appears 'broken' or 'messed up' - I do not appreciate that wording because it sounds like I'm being accused of shipping a broken mod, when it's because I know for a fact they did not know a neat little Recolor config option exists for certain mods, which can be solved by... reading the mod description! Again! Why does it all come back to that!

The most recent case is someone DMing me just to say that they've read my replies to "people asking nice questions" - which in practice ranged from "could've been solved by reading" to "your mod does not cater to my specific tastes and you must make an effort to fulfill this" - and conclude that I must be a miserable person. This, I find hilarious because modding is actually going really great for me. In fact, I am presently more miserable about my consistent skill issue as Dante despite nearly 10 years of playing the Devil May Cry games.

All of the many, many, many non-issue "bug reports" I collected had gotten so bad that I genuinely get excited whenever someone reports a real issue. This is a problem but at least I'm getting some entertainment from debugging I guess?

🍊 Some Parting Words

All in all, it's been a ride, and I'm so glad I've had practice in not taking things to heart. Thank you, my thesis supervisor professor in uni (except you're actually incredibly skilled and helpful, just Loud and Harsh in wording). Also, nobody I encounter online will be as scary as my professor going on one of his tirades, I think, so I'm good.

If you made it this far through this (probably my only) rant post, thanks for reading. For the folks on Tumblr, thank you for consistently being nice and encouraging and enthusiastic, you're all very motivational. It's really filled my dark soul with light! (light! light!)

Until next time! 🧡

[galedekarios]

📚📚📚

[oddly-specific-hermit-headcanons]

no one on hermitcraft is human (and they all know this)- except for mumbo. He also has no idea anyone else is not human. For the funnies, no one believes him when he says he's human, and keep trying to figure out (in their own ways) what he is.

Impulse keeps trying to subtlety tell mumbo he has nothing to hide and can tell the hermits anything (this confuses mumbo quite a bit)

Grian says he believes mumbo, but really his diamonds are on either vampire or some sort of shadow monster in the betting pool

Doc and etho are running a betting pool

Zed has bdubs skizz and tango and himself working to keep a constant monitor on mumbo just in case he does something suspicious , this includes using cameras, spyglasses, various small holes to peek through and watch him, grian, ect.

Xisuma knows mumbo is human, obviously, but is participating in the betting pool anyway solely because he knows the hermits know that he knows, and him participating will encourage the rumors (not that he would encourage that type of thing, no, never)

Gem keeps asking mumbo random questions to try and get him to reveal something, which of course he doesn't, but she is convinced his answers must mean something, and keeps coming up with increasingly random theories about what he could be

The only person gem has managed to successfully convince of these theories is pearl, who has taken to dropping in on mumbo at random times to try to "catch him in the act"- the act of what even pearl herself doesn't know

Cub is having a field day making horns out of confused mumbo noises and various other "I'm just a human!"'s

Scar is the accomplice- the accomplice to what, nobody knows, but he was definitely the accomplice to something, possibly everything

And finally- mumbo is just as oblivious as ever, he has no idea most of this is going on (except for things asked to him directly) and thinks there must be something in the water making everyone a bit crazy, possibly the chemicals he's been pouring into it, that he has somehow been exempt from.

As an extra, autocorrect has tried to correct watch to watchers multiple times (I'm rather proud of it) doesn't know how to spell as accomplice (to be fair, I didn't either, had to look it up on Google) and seems to think xisuma should be insulation, despite auto filling xisuma- very interesting choice auto correct.

.

[shittysawtraps]

getting served with divorce papers mid-saw trap and there’s an awkward pause before the trap turns off and jigsaw comes back over the intercom to ask if you want a beer

[problematic-yuri-poll]

toxic het is rarely done interestingly because toxicity is the societal norm for het relationships. in this essay i will

[omgitssvpernxva]

meme number 14

[shadowvanillaweek]

ShadowVanilla Dividers!

All made from official assets, owned by Devsisters. Free to use w/credit.

Click for better quality. Tumblr makes it look so crispy...

[thewanderingace]

"I don't watch serials to remind me of the way things actually are. I watch them to distract me when things in the real world are stressful as shit."

- SecUnit in Murderbot 1x06 "Command Feed"

[kibby-reaper]

freaky ass doctor

- mod kibby

[dragonpropaganda]

The Architecture of Rain World: Layers of History

A major theme in Rain World's world design that often goes overlooked is the theme of, as James Primate, the level designer, composer and writer calls it, "Layers of History." This is about how the places in the game feel lived-in, and as though they have been built over each other. Here's what he said on the matter as far back as 2014!

The best example of this is Subterranean, the final area of the base game and a climax of the theme. Subterranean is pretty cleanly slpit vertically, there's the modern subway built over the ancient ruins, which are themselves built over the primordial ruins of the depths. Piercing through these layers is Filtration System, a high tech intrusion that cuts through the ground and visibly drills through the ceiling of the depths.

Two Sprouts, Twelve Brackets, the friendly local ghost, tells the player of the "bones of forgotten civilisations, heaped like so many sticks," highlighting this theme of layering as one of the first impressions the player gets of Subterranean. Barely minutes later, the player enters the room SB_H02, where the modern train lines crumble away into a cavern filled with older ruins, which themselves are invaded by the head machines seen prior in outskirts and farm arrays, some of which appear to have been installed destructively into the ruins, some breaking through floors.

These layers flow into each other, highlighting each other's decrepit state.

The filtration system, most likely the latest "layer," is always set apart from the spaces around it. At its top, the train tunnels give way to a vast chasm, where filtration system stands as a tower over the trains, while at the bottom in depths, it penetrates the ceiling of the temple, a destructive presence. (it's also a parallel to the way the leg does something similar in memory crypts, subterranean is full of callbacks like that!)

Filtration system is an interesting kind of transition, in that it is much later and more advanced than both of the areas it cuts between. This is a really interesting choice from James! It would be more "natural" to transition smoothly from the caves of upper subterranean to the depths, but by putting filtration system in between, the two are clearly demarcated as separate. The difference in era becomes palpable, the player has truly found something different and strange.

Depths itself is, obviously, the oldest layer not only of subterranean but of the game itself. The architecture of Depths has little to do with the rest of the game around it, it's a clear sign of the forgotten civilisations that our friend Two Sprouts, Twelve Brackets showed us, there's not actually that much to say about it itself, it's mostly about how it interacts with the other layers of subterranean.

That said, Subterranean is far from the only case of the theme of layers of history. It's present as soon as the player starts the game!

The very first room of the game, SU_C04, is seemingly a cave. It is below the surface, the shapes of it are distinctly amorphous rather than geometric. (well. kind of, it doesn't do a very good job of hiding the tile grid with its 45 degree angles.)

But let's take a closer look, shall we?

See that ground? it's made of bricks. The entire cave area of outskirts is characterised by this, the "chaotic stone" masonry asset is mixed with brickwork, unlike the surface ruins which are mostly stone. This, seemingly, is an inversion of common sense! The caves are bricks and the buildings are stone. This is not, however, a strange and unique aspect but a recurring motif.

This occurs enough in the game for it to be clearly intentional, but why would materials such as bricks be used in otherwise natural looking terrain?

The answer lies in the "Layers of History" theme. This is in fact, something that happens in real life, and it's called a tell

To be specific, a tell is a kind of mound formed by settlements building over the ruins of previous iterations of themselves. Centuries of rubble and detritus form until a hill grows from the city. Cities such as Troy and Jericho are famous examples. The connections to the layers of history theme are pretty clear here, I think. Cities growing, then dying, then becoming the bedrock of the next city. The ground, then, is made of bricks, because the ground is the rubble of past buildings. The bones of forgotten civilisations, heaped like so many sticks!

[falloutconfessions]

"Fallout won't always tell you when there is an issue with a mod but there will be signs."

Fallout Confessions

[michiriii]

A lil drawing I made for the banner of the @gikabizine profile, super excited to be part of the new team! Go look at the carrd and the interest check :D!!

[oddly-specific-hermit-headcanons]

after evo, grian spent nearly a year just as a watcher before he had managed to get free and join hermitcraft

during his time as a watcher, he hadn't needed to breathe. therefore sometimes he'll forget that he actually does need to breathe again, and randomly take a huge and very loud gasp of air which scares the absolute shit out of anybody around him

he makes it worse by acting like nothing happened immediately after, which worries everyone else even more

.

[thatadhdfeel]

being diagnosed with something later in life is like. oh. so this is why i was lost. this is why i was hurt. this is why i was hated. this is the piece i knew was missing, but couldn’t name. now that name has been granted. and you sit in the doctor’s office chair. you stare at the insurance code. you wonder what could have been, had you known earlier. you wonder and wonder and wonder.