#the reason it's so shit is mostly because it's a code-based adaptation of a physical cipher mechanism

[the-one-and-only-overlass]

me in programming class making an incredibly shitty and inefficient encryption algorithm that is nonetheless incredibly convoluted:

It's basically a case-sensitive wheel cipher where both wheels are randomized (a total of (52!^2 possible combinations) and then given an offset based on the number of previous characters in the message.

And when I put it like that it doesn't really sound so bad. But the thing is, that's 832 bits worth of cipher key, since each letter corresponds to an 8-bit ASCII code, and it's being used incredibly inefficiently. A single properly random 832-bit key would offer WAY more actual security.

Just how much more?

Well, 52!^2 is roughly equal to 6.506 x 10^135. A ridiculously big number, yes, but....

2^832 is roughly equal to 2.864 x 10 ^ 250.

For those of you unfamiliar with scientific notation, this does not mean that 2^832 is about twice as large as 52!^2. It means it's about 3000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 times as large.

[princess-of-the-corner]

I never watched Winx as a kid, so I really hope I don't sound like an idiot for asking this. What exactly does the Netflix Winx series do wrong besides giving it the "dark and gritty" makeover?

So like. There are a lot of problems here and I’ll try to tackle them. I haven’t finished the reboot because I have difficulty getting through things I like, much less things I hate watch. But anyway, this gets long and is separated into parts. 

Let’s start with it’s issues on it’s own and not as an adaptation: 

It’s still pretty garbage. Not ‘the worst thing ever’. Interesting enough. But it does have problems. Some racist and homophobic and fatphobic writing. The characters range from ‘kind of a jerk’ to ‘straight up assholes who will cause physical harm for petty reasons’. The nicest one so far is Terra, but even she kinda snaps and strangles a guy with her plant powers. 

Now on to things it fails on as an adaptation!

First, the whitewashing!

Of the six main characters, 3/6 were poc-coded in the original cartoon(I say ‘coded’ because they’re not Humans from Earth but still). Aisha is black, Flora is Latina, and Musa is Chinese. 

Aisha is the only one who remains black. I’ve heard varying testimonies on Musa’s actor, but the ‘best’ I’ve heard is that she’s 1/4 Singaporean and white passing. I don’t have the authority to say if that’s in the clear or not so I’m leaving that to other fans. 

Flora gets the worst though. They cast a white woman to play her. Then backtracked and said ‘oh, this isn’t Flora. We replaced her with her white cousin Terra’. Yeah you can see the problem there. 

Characters they got rid of entirely! I’ll only discuss characters that showed up in the first two seasons of the original show since Fate only has one season. (I’d say just the first, but they included Aisha who is from Season 2). 

Let’s see. They got rid of Tecna, one of the main six girls. It’s likely because they’re going for a more ‘bootleg Hogwarts’ vibe, and Tecna’s magic being heavily technology based ruins that. So she’s just tossed altogether. 

The boys! Oh my god my boys! Sky and Riven are the only ones who were kept in, while Brandon, Timmy and Helia got scrapped and replaced as well. The other boys like Dane and Sam? Totally could’ve just given them those names and been done with it. 

Then there’s Icy, Darcy and Stormy! I’m counting them together because that’s exactly what Fate did! The three Witches are villains in the series, and instead of keeping a trio, they combined her into a single character. Beatrix. 

I think Silva was also an amalgamation of the remaining Headmaster/Headmistresses and a few other staff members but considering they condensed it to just one school it kind of makes sense. 

Sometimes there’s just a name change like the Headmistress of Alfea was changed to Farah Dowling instead of Faragonda which is so pointless. 

Overall there’s other minor characters that don’t show up, like the rest of the school staff, Mirta and Lucy, so on and so forth. But I’m less upset about that. Still upset though because I love them. 

Personality changes! And romance drama!

Oh boy. Oh boy oh boy oh boy. 

I already mentioned how they made everyone an asshole in this reboot. In the original show, the only protagonist that was consistently a jerk was Riven, but he was more of the ‘grumpy but still a good guy’ type of asshole. 

Let’s compare just one character and her relationships to others!

Stella in the Original Cartoon: Preppy and sometimes a little vain, could be blunt to the point of insulting, but never malicious. Very sweet and loves her friends. She and Bloom are best friends, Stella having been the one to bring Bloom into the world of Magix and will do everything she can to make sure she’s safe. Stella’s love interest is Brandon, who is bffs with Bloom’s love interest Sky. Stella and Brandon are very cheesy and cute together. They aren’t usually jealous, and can even make a competition out of ‘how many phone numbers can I get?’. 

Stella in Fate: Total bitch to all her roommates. She’s getting the common ‘my mom’s a bitch who puts pressure on me so I’m going to be a bitch’ thing that’s become popular now. Since Brandon was deleted, they put her in a love triangle with Bloom and Sky, Sky being Stella’s ex bf. And despite breaking up with him, Stella sees him just talking to Bloom and decides ‘Hm. Let’s prey on her insecurities that she doesn’t belong here, and manipulate her into leaving!’ Which includes walking through a forest where there was recently a man attacked and viscously killed by some kind of monster, so I’m putting it up to attempted murder. 

Yeah. Everyone’s kind of like that. It’s awful. 

Bloom’s backstory and parents!

Okay, this can kind of fall under both ‘personality changes’ and ‘plot changes’ but it deserves it’s own section. 

In the Original Cartoon, Bloom’s home kingdom was attacked and destroyed by villains searching for something called the Dragon Flame. Bloom was a baby with said power, so her older sister sent her to Earth, a world without Magic, where she would be safe and hidden. Mike and Vanessa find her and adopt her, loving her and raising her very well. They are good parents. Bloom learns she has powers when she meets Stella, and instinctively uses Magic to protect her. 

In Fate, the only thing really the same is that Bloom was sent to Earth. I’m a little unclear on why, but instead of giving her loving adoptive parents, they made her a Changeling with emotionally abusive parents! Let me elaborate a little: Instead of adopting Bloom of their own free will, Mike and Vanessa’s real child died in the hospital and was secretly replaced with Bloom. Her parents are also, as mentioned, emotionally abusive. So much so that Fate!Bloom’s powers first manifested by setting them on fire in the middle of the night.

Fun. Ain’t it? 

Now onto plot points!

Again, pretty much the only thing the same is ‘Bloom discovers she has Magic, goes to another Dimension to learn at a school called Alfea. Gets into adventures with her Roomates while trying to figure out where she’s really from’. 

The whole ‘Burned ones’ were.... not a thing at all. There wasn’t any kind of ‘barrier’ to keep out ‘dangerous creatures’ or anything. 

I’m not going to go over every single subplot but that was just. No. They were easily allowed to go outside the school. 

The whole vibe

This is a big thing to talk about. While the reboot went for ‘dark and gritty’ over the bright colors and sparkles, it also went for ‘bootleg Hogwarts’ instead of anything interesting. 

In the reboot, the merging of Magic and Technloogy is mostly like. ‘Yeah we go to school in this old ass castle and we don’t use guns in weaponry class, but we have smartphones and social media and Harry Potter!”. 

In the Original??? The whole world was very Magitech. It was a combination of Magic and Scifi! Kinda Steven Universe style actually. 

The transformations!!!

Look. LOOK. Winx Club is a Magical Girl show! They have those beautiful transformation sequences that last a solid minute or so of screen time. And they also have like. At least one new Transformation a Season, which comes with an ungodly amount of different cool outfits. 

The reboot? One transformation sequence. And while the effects are nice, Bloom doesn’t even get a new outfit. Just a few flames coming off her that look vaguely like wings. 

SPEAKING OF! They are Faeries!!!! But they don’t have wings????? What????

Look idgaf about your effects budget you could’ve made the cheesiest shit like the live action Sailor Moon stuff and fans would’ve loved it!

Bonus: The fact that they didn’t have to change anything to make it ‘Dark’!

So like. Netflix decided to take all the color out of it, and make it ‘dark’ by having the characters smoke and drink and have sex and say swears. 

But they.... really didn’t have to! The original cartoon was plenty dark, despite it’s colorful aesthetic! If you wanted to do a more serious reboot, you could have easily done it by focusing more on those aspects. 

Hell, there are many fans who have done it. I’m one. I know a couple others as well. 

anyway it’s 2:30 am and this is long af so I’ll leave it at that. 

[thefallenofbajhiri]

LFRP/LFC - Toshinaku

Toshinaku ‘Bajhiri’ (Toshi)

The Basics ––– –

Former Name: Sozoh’a Bajhiri

Age: Appears to be between the age of 26 and 28, true age is unknown. (Possibly Immortal)

Birthday: Believed to be the 29th Sun of the 6th Astral Moon (November 28th, Sagittarius Sun)

Race: Voidsent (Powerful enough to be in the Third Rung of the Hierarchy) trapped in the form of an Au Ra

Gender: Male (He/Him/His Pronouns)

Sexuality: Homosexual, Panromantic

Marital Status: Single, Not Seeking

Server: Crystal Data Center, Mateus

Physical Appearance ––– –

Hair: Long, Feathered and drapes down the length of his back to the base of his tail. Usually left down but will sometimes be tied up into an elegant high ponytail/braided combo. Hair is the color of a rich burgundy that sometimes has a purple shimmer or shine to it in the right lighting and it holds a dark purple hue at the tips for highlights.

Eyes: His eyes match his hair with a deep burgundy colored iris that gets absorbed into the lavender color of the limbal ring around it. His eyes seem to glow with the way the Limbal ring sticks out due to the bright color. Toshi also has slitted pupils like that of a cat.

Height: Extremely tall for an Au Ra standing at an intimidating Eight Foot Nine Inches (8′9)

Build: Mesomorph build, Toshinaku’s body is muscular and well built for his habits and lifestyle which includes dancing and entertaining those who seek out his company in the bedroom. One would describe him as having abs for days with arms that are toned, arms that look as though they could crush a skull if he got the person into a headlock. It has also been mentioned that his legs are quite the sight and many would be envious and want to have such elegant toned legs, his legs however do stand out and look as if they are out of place... as though they should not be there at all.

Distinguishing Marks: The most distinguishing features on Toshinaku’s form are the various sigils that mark it. The biggest of these sigils being the ones on his back and chest with the one on his chest covering up the majority of his breast and stomach while the one on his back starts from the base of his neck and goes down to just above his tail. These sigils lock away the three forms that he has (True Form which is the Lamia/Naga, Cerberus esque form and a Voidal Dragon form). He has various other sigils on his body alongside these and they all seem to give off a rather interesting aether for those who are Aether Sensitive. Other markings include a floral like pattern on his forehead that is a burgundy-purple shade to match his hair and several Keeper like markings along the ridge of his nose, eyes and stripes on his cheeks.

Common Accessories: Hidden away in his silken shawl is a Golden Chain necklace that has three bone arrow charms on it. Each one is a different size with varying adornments attached to it and each one has an engravement on it that ties to a name. The first is for his deceased sister Sizah, which is the least decorated of the three. The second for his former companion Sebha’to Bajhiri which Toshi had altered to better fit his friends desires. And the last for Una’a (Nyr) Bajhiri, who was his greatest inspiration and role model and someone that he looked up to before he changed to what he is now. Toshi also wears a variety of golden jewelry on his form so that he can attract attention when he needs to.

Personal ––– –

Profession: Master Alchemist and Engineer though he rarely tinkers in Engineering these days and mostly focuses on the Alchemy. His Alchemy is primarily focused on genetics and genetic altering properties which has lead to him being a chemical creator that will alter a beings appearance/genetic code, conjures up his own personal Fantasias. Belly Dancer and Entertainer in Ul’dah, Male Prostitute.

Hobbies: Singing (In private, usually lullabies that his mother sung to him), Dancing, Being an absolute asshole, Killing Things which is not good, Various other things that may or may not be considered hobbies.

Languages: Common and Huntspeak (Miqo’te), he also can understand Voidsent and various other races. Toshi has the tendency to roll his R’s and draw out his S’s when he is extremely angered or his emotions are getting the better of him, so he sounds like a purring snake.

Residence: Nomadic however he has a somewhat permanent room in The Hourglass in Ul’dah. 

Birthplace: What is now known as ‘The Dead Forest’, a large forested area deep in the North Shroud close to the borders of Coerthas.

Religion: N/A

Patron Deity: If asked he will say that he does not have a Patron Deity but before his change it was Menphina.

Fears: Toshi doesn’t openly discuss his fears and many would think that he actually doesn’t have any fears because of how well he hides them. His biggest fear, which he does his best to keep hidden, is losing those that have returned to him in some way and also losing those he has somehow managed to make friends with recently. With his other fear being attached or close to others and showing emotions that he once buried away again.

Relationships ––– -

Spouse: N/A

Children: N/A

Parents: Sozoh Bajhiri (Deceased, Keeper of the Moon), Isuh’a Vethe (Unknown, Thought to be a Keeper, in reality was Cuchulainn)

Siblings: Sizah (Eldest, Deceased), Rosah (Older, Deceased), Vekhe and Zahveh (Twins, Younger, Deceased)

Other Relatives: Various other members of the Bajhiri Clan

Pets: Various Voidal ‘pets’ including a Beady Eye that he has named Kuso (AKA Shit), all of which are lucky that he hasn’t just killed them yet to use their parts for his Alchemy.

Traits ––– -

* Bold your character’s answer. * Anything in Italics are generally seen in private or in certain situations.

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted

Disorganized / In Between / Organized

Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded

Calm / In Between / Anxious

Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable

Cautious / In Between / Reckless

Patient / In Between /  Impatient

Outspoken / In Between / Reserved

Leader / In Between / Follower

Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic

Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic

Traditional / In Between / Modern

Hard-working / In Between / Lazy

Cultured / In Between / Uncultured

Loyal / In Between / Disloyal

Faithful / In Between / Unfaithful

Additional information ––– –

Smoking Habit: Overall Toshi doesn’t really smoke, he has little reason to do so and generally avoids it. Drugs: While Toshi does work with various chemicals and such he is not really the sort to do any actual drugs so to speak. Alcohol: Social for the most part, he’ll drink with company but that’s about it since for him a lot of things that work on mortals don’t really work for him all that much.

RP Hooks ––– –

Voidsent in Disguise - Toshinaku is a Voidsent in 'disguise' for the most part. His Aether can give it away easily for anyone who is sensitive to such things or those who can easily see Aether. While he doesn’t truly try and hide what he is, Toshi will generally be cryptic and give ‘hints’ as to what he could be. For those who are sensitive to Aether they will likely also be able to note that the Sigils on his body are the reason for his current form and likely pick up on the fact that they were done by a White Mage. Recently however these sigils have started to change and are actually feeding on his Aether and showing signs of ‘Light’ contamination.

Formerly of the Bajhiri Clan - Not much is known about how Toshi became what he is today, he has kept the Clan Name for whatever reason and was once a Keeper of the Bajhiri clan. Any Bajhiri's out there might be wondering what the heck this Au Ra is doing with their clan name and are certain to ask questions. They might also have heard of someone who went by the name of Sozoh'a and how his entire clan just 'vanished' one day, various ghost stories have sprung up due to the ‘Dead Forest’ which is where he once lived. Toshi’s Mother Sozoh was also an extremely social character and paid visits to most of the other Bajhiri clans within the Shroud and Coerthas, she also helped as a bit of a Midwife of sorts and helped with kits being born. 

Sigils and The Cursed Form - All of Toshinaku's forms have been sealed away from him through an array of seals and sigils that spance his entire body. The most notable ones being on his back and chest as they cover the entirety of the area. All of these seals appear to have been burnt into his body and then filled with a strange ink. He is seeking a way to break this seal so that he can be free.

Personal Entertainer and Belly Dancer in Ul’dah - One has to make money somehow and Toshinaku has had to learn how to adapt to this world and to make a living somehow. While he does make a good bit of money from his Alchemy and more specifically the Fantasias that he ‘sells’ where he truly shines is his ways as being a personal entertainer for people. He is very skilled at Belly Dancing and even better with the more... provocative side of things. One can easily find him in Limsa Lominsa or Ul'dah performing and might even have heard of him at one point or another because he is good at what he does.

Suggestions? - Have any Suggestions? I am always open to ideas! I am pretty much always open to just about any type of RP be it simple slice of life kind of things to the more dark and violent side of things. Ask and we'll see if we can hash something out! Do keep in mind that a lot of Toshi’s content is generally Dark Theme’d with elements of Horror in it. While he can certainly be fun and entertaining a lot of his content is dark and usually for mature audiences overall.

Contact Information/About the Mun  ––– –

* Currently my Main Blog is ToxicCreed which is where my Asks and Follows will come from. My Main, Multi-Muse tumblr for FFXIV is @thedarkestdragonknight​. I try and keep things to each of the blogs but I will reblog content from Toshi’s to my main FF blog from time to time.

* I love to Roleplay however I am an extremely shy person with severe anxieties and various other bad brain gremlins that make it hard for me to interact. I have a lot of experience with RP and for the most part have been doing so ever since the days of NeonDragonArt’s forums which is where I started out and I was roughly 13-14 years old back then and I am now 32 years old. Needless to say, I’ve been around and I have likely seen it ‘all’ for the most part and I will not be stopping any time soon though I do have those lulls where I will take a break and come back to it.

* For the most part my schedule is ALL over the place and I am generally online whenever I happen to be awake. Most of the time the easiest way to contact me is through DM’s on Tumblr and I’ll generally see them when I am up as I am constantly ‘surfing’ the tumbles. 

* I suffer from a lot of sleep problems and generally am a bit of a ‘night owl’ so to speak. I tend to sleep throughout the day and am generally awake anywhere from 1pm-6pm and am usually up all night because of it. Again, if you want to contact me you are free to shoot me a DM on here since that is the easiest form of contact for me as I keep my Discord fairly private.

* I live on the East Coast and my Timezone is EST/EDT. Again my schedule varies so you are likely to catch me at any point throughout the day.

* I tend to prefer Ask Prompts for starters or just RPing on tumblr in general as it is by far the easiest for me to do. I am more than willing to do other RPs such as In-Game and the like but overall, Tumblr is the best for me in regards to actual Roleplays. Discord RP is reserved for very close friends.

What I’m Looking For ––– –

Overall I’m pretty much open to a variety of RPs and generally open to anything that anyone is willing to do. What I am looking for in regards to Toshi is for the most part various interactions with a variety of people. Please note that overall Toshi’s themes are very dark and theme’d around horror so he’s not exactly everyone’s cup of tea so to speak. You can get a general idea for many of his interactions by looking at his Socialization page and checking out the tags there which have various RPs with my wonderful friends. You can also check out the various writing that I have done for the FFXIV 2019 Writing though do keep in mind that these have a lot of DARK content with a lot of Horror elements that include graphic gore, etc. 

Toshi is a bit of a mixed bag of tricks and while I do prefer the Dark content that I put out with him overall please know that I am willing to do more than just that. With a lot of his recent RPs he has developed a bit of a ‘softer’ side towards some people so you could be lucky and find him having a fairly ‘good’ day so to speak. Overall, it’s whatever you are comfortable with and whatever you would like to do! I am open to many things and pretty much just want to have fun and share this boy with others who would enjoy seeing him.

Some things that do interest me are the potentials that could come from Toshi running into a Sin Eater/Lightwarden, people from the first, generally things involving Light, etc.

[symbianosgames]

For a game about piloting giant mechs, it sure feels good to run around on foot in Titanfall. Well, maybe not on foot, exactly, since when you’re outside your titan you’ll mostly be leaping through the air and running along walls. This is a game in which you can traverse levels at fantastic speed and explore their full vertical heights, using a moveset which not only rewards skill but is also surprisingly intuitive to grasp. 

And it feels great, even with a gamepad. Titanfall is a model of firstperson fluidity and precision on gamepad, while also capturing a sense of your pilot’s – and titan’s – physical body. This moveset and sense of motion emerged from the firstperson shooter greats. Both Titanfall, which was released in March 2014, and its sequel, which was released in October 2016, were built in heavily adapted versions of the Source engine and therefore inherit the fundamental control systems of Half-Life 2. 

But in sculpting the game’s actual feel, developer Respawn was also looking back to another classic, Halo: Combat Evolved. “It’s still the gold standard,” says senior software engineer Rayme Vinson. As he began to block out the controls for the game that would become Titanfall, he’d load up Halo’s first level and play its first encounter over and over again, killing off all the AI apart from a single grunt. “Then I could dance around him and see what [Bungie] did,” he says, noting the way Halo’s crosshair is lower than the center of the screen so you can see more of the world, how it deals with aim-assist, and how its stable view as you walk gets across a sense of Master Chief’s indomitability.

The team didn’t adopt all Halo’s lessons by any means. For instance, Titanfall has view-bob to communicate an awareness of physical motion, but they wanted it to maintain some of Halo’s steadiness. “Intuiting from what they did, it seemed they had a big focus on making it so players could shoot the bad guys as easily as possible and not get motion sick, and not getting motion sick became a big part of Titanfall,” says multiplayer design lead Todd Alderman.

Motion sickness in firstperson games is complex and subjective, but Respawn found that when they added view-bob but kept the crosshair fixed to the center of the screen it would feel like the player character was constantly looking left-right-left-right, causing some players to feel nauseous. “I think a big thing that causes motion sickness is a disconnect between what you’re seeing on screen and what you’re trying to do,” says programmer lead software engineer John Haggerty. “Any time we move the view without your input that can cause motion sickness.”

Alongside these fundamentals, Respawn also started to develop Titanfall’s emblematic wall-run, which takes a central part in its overall movement system because it grants the speed boost that gives both games their kinetic emphasis. The wall-run also feels skillful to pull off, despite actually being simple to initiate. 

Haggerty began to develop the wall-running system by allowing players to freely walk on walls by pulling towards them instead of having gravity pull them down. He then tested it in Half-Life 2, specifically the section just after you get the pistol, where train tracks run through a walled channel. “I was just wall-running around that for days, messing around,” he laughs. “You do it a bit, something goes wrong so you change the code, and then you do it again, and you do it a few hundred times and you end up with something that’s reasonable.” From there it was a matter of adding features like gravity gradually pulling the player down over time and refining with designers as they implemented it in levels. 

To the player it’s a matter of jumping into wall and they simply start running along it. For the game, it meant having to define between slopes and walls (“slopes are complicated”) and also having it constantly check around the player for surfaces that can be run along, disregarding such elements as the sides of steps. One change between Titanfall and Titanfall 2 was to stop players who were starting their runs near the tops of walls from falling off, because the arc took them over the top. It sounds like a simple fix, but it was a challenge since it added yet another thing for the game to need to check about the world to an already computationally expensive list.

Part of its easy feel is down to the way Titanfall communicates what’s going on, tilting the view away from the wall to indicate that you’re running on it. One thing that was added and immediately made it feel much better was Alderman’s suggestion to tilt the view as a player starts to jump towards a wall but before they begin to run, allowing them to anticipate it.

Encouraging players to wall-run in the first place was another matter. “People wouldn’t trust the wall-run and press the A button as quickly as they could, and they’d end up jumping right off it,” says Haggerty. “Training people to trust the wall is hard because it looks like you’re going to fall.” The solution was in level design, whether in the first Titanfall’s training sections or in having early enforced wall-running in Titanfall 2’s campaign.

The next problem was to give players a reason to wall-run. “That’s funny, actually,” Haggerty says. “We’d had wall-running for a while and then it was like, ‘Why would you wall-run when you can just run around?’” This is where wall-running’s speed boost came in, an incentive that came to inform Titanfall’s distinctive speed-through-motion design, in which by performing acrobatics players can traverse the levels at up to 30 mph, well over double a pilot’s sprint speed. 

Wall-running itself gives a boost, and jumping off a wall boosts still further. The slide move, achieved when the player hits crouch while sprinting, also grants a small speed boost. “We talked about sliding for a long time and I was always like, ‘Ah, whatever. That’s stupid,’ says Haggerty. “I ended up doing it one day and threw in a basic slide, and people loved it. A slide is mostly just regular ground-walking movement except you can’t stop or change direction as easily, and it gives you a little boost when you start it. It’s all the same code, plus some minor tweaks.”

The slide is an important part of high-level play because it allows players to chain speed-boosting moves together on open ground and it enables slide-hopping. This is bunnyhopping technique that involves hitting slide while in the air after jumping, and then repeating by jumping again right after landing. Titanfall also features air-strafing, an inheritance from the Source engine, through which by steering left and right while airborne players can reach the highest speeds.

Pro-play aside, sliding also feels good to pull off. “It’s the movie in their head,” says lead animator Mark Grigsby.

“It’s not only the feeling of it, but the way your gun turns and when you see other players doing the knee-slide, and you want to do it,” says Alderman.

And sliding highlights the role of animation in Titanfall’s control systems. “Everything we’re doing, we think about what it’s going to look like when you do it. When you see someone pulling off these moves, you need to definitely look at them and say, ‘Holy shit, that looks fucking cool,’” says Grigsby.

“We try to take into account all of your senses, except maybe taste, but you never know,” says Alderman. “But even the audio for when you slide or double jump, it all plays into it. Where you’re seeing your gun, what it sounds like, the inertia you’re feeling. It all plays into how the end result comes out. So you really have to watch it from every angle.”

“These pilots are in love with wall-running. So when they’re running, they’ll have their gun in one hand and with the other they’ll be caressing the wall,” says Grigsby.

“The first thing thought when I saw it was a surfer riding a big wave; they run their hands in the water,” says community manager Jay Frechette.

The slide was harder to realize. The team first imagined it looking like a baseball player sliding into third base, but having one foot extended and one tucked under the body looked odd from firstperson. So they started to think of John Woo-style action movies, with the hero sliding on his knees, firing twin Desert Eagles, and this is how players look in thirdperson in the first Titanfall when they perform one. In firstperson, the gun becomes canted, pointing down at a 45 degree angle, to indicate the pose.

It’s a subtle and largely subconscious reminder of your virtual body. Another reminder is in the way your view springs back to normal after landing from a long fall. The depth of the spring is relative to the height fallen, and a feature that’s down to a quick experiment Vinson made after the system was added that bops your view around when you’re shooting weapons. “It was the simplest thing I think we’ve ever done because the system was already there, and suddenly it made landing feel way more real, even though the actual mechanic, the movement code, was identical,” he says.

Titanfall’s controls feel great and offer easy access to powerful abilities, and they also possess skill-based depth, allowing experienced players to perform moves that transform the way the game is played at high levels. And yet so many of them are the result of exploring the game’s systems as they came online. “Just in the moment we had those tools, someone tried a thing, and oh, shit! That works,” says Vinson. “Some are big giant things, and some are the accumulation of lots of tiny things.”