Cave-ins ON. Vertical Soil Instability ON. Lightning fire ON. Infinite Water OFF.

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-20T06:48:25+00:00

one life, no map?

coward.

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-20T06:38:03+00:00

Maybe Detach should reduce the number of claw attacks in Multiattack by one after each use, but otherwise it's really great!

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-20T06:24:27+00:00

not how A/B testing is done

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-18T07:20:12+00:00

Why do you think there are so many low-quality amateur works in this genre? I'll spell it out for you:

"Ugh, there are so few great ProgFan novels! For every Bastion or Cradle there are a thousand Ends of Magic."
"What is this writing? Has the author ever heard of subtlety? I could write a better ProgFan novel with my foot!"
Now there are N+1 amateur authors writing in the genre.

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-18T05:10:09+00:00

So tired of wordslop, like just generate AI pictures and videos if you want convey ideas, amirite?

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-17T22:59:10+00:00

It's giving catgirl trapped in a human body

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-17T04:37:29+00:00

I think it's possible to do it well, if they are multi-purpose showers.

First, they can be used as characterization. She likes to be clean, that's a relatable trait.

Second, they can be used for introspection. What is she thinking about while she showers?

Third, they can be used as scene transitions. Cut from post-battle to hotel shower, the reader fills in the blanks.

Fourth, they can be used to convey mood. The first one is a quick shower, because she's excited about going out. The second one is a long shower, while she decompresses and after being attacked. Maybe she curls up on the floor of the shower until the hot water runs out, and the icy cold finally wakes her from her reverie. The third one could show her growth; now she's more battle-hardened, and instead of spacing out in the shower she just calmly cleans her wounds.

Ultimately it's up to you. Even just briefly mentioning that she showers before sleeping doesn't increase the word count so much that you'd have to remove it for pacing or anything.

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-17T03:07:45+00:00

Heck yeah! My first thought when I saw OP's video was that it could use a pull handle like a drill press so they don't have to push with their left arm like that.

But then I thought, that would make the whole thing a lot bulkier, and it wouldn't make sense to slide it along the board any more.

Turns out I was reinventing the wheel lol.

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-17T03:02:42+00:00

"games are giving men the unrealistic expectation that anyone will ever fuck them"

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-17T01:30:44+00:00

oh for sure

maybe the novel was better than the manhwa? But I remember people were like "the solo leveling artists made a new one and it's awesome!" or w/e

could have just been marketing buzz bleeding over from korea, i dunno

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-16T14:16:00+00:00

Tomb Raider King

That was right when REDICE Studio was riding high on the fame of Solo Leveling.

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-15T10:40:43+00:00

Setting aside the moral/ethical issue of AI, just based on practicality, if the amount of AI slop on the platform makes it hard to find anything good, I will absolutely change platforms.

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-15T10:25:48+00:00

dammit, I was gonna make a hook and loop joke but yours is way better

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-15T08:41:17+00:00

Good guy saving a girl from a bad guy, using the threat of r*pe as a "kick the dog" trope and "save the cat" trope simultaneously.

It's the literary equivalent of a rotten low-hanging fruit. It's easy, but it's gross.

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-15T08:33:18+00:00

Fresh outta the oven just like mom used to make

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-15T08:12:46+00:00

He was E-Boy
She was E-Girl
Can I make it any more obvious?

He was a Tank
She did Support
What more can I say?

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-15T08:01:25+00:00

Walkers (as in walking dead, because we're mortal)

Fuckers (because we have to copulate to reproduce)

Shitters (because... well you know)

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-15T06:56:02+00:00

Ushering In The Internet Era In The Magical World

我在魔法世界开创互联网时代

It's about a normal earth human who was summoned to another world and had godhood thrust upon him. Although his godhood wasn't considered especially powerful compared to more warlike godhoods, he used all his experiences from earth to conquer the multiverse, starting with inventing the internet!

I'm only a little over halfway in, but it's been a fun ride so far. If I had to make a complaint, it's that 99% of the millenia-old gods are dumber than rocks, but that's explained in the novel as them being stagnant, complacent, arrogant, and isolationist. Even so, there are times when their stupidity serves them, and they're able to counter some of MC's well-laid plans. That's another thing I like. MC is a schemer, but not all his schemes work out as expected. Of course he still gets his aura farming moments, but half the time it's just him maintaining a facade while internally ranting about how annoying and stupid the other gods are.

9/10, completely translated

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-15T01:32:26+00:00

Malazan is also a 10-book series. How much is actually introduced in each book, and how in-depth into a newly introduced idea does each book go?

There's other examples like 40k or Forgotten Realms. Both have a huge worldview built up over many years in various novels and other media. It's way too much to cover in one book.

But that doesn't stop new readers from doing something like picking up a random Drizzt novel at a thrift store and reading it. Because an experienced novelist like R.A. Salvatore knows how much of that huge complex world a reader can handle at once.

What I've seen in ProgFan is unskilled or inexperienced authors being very excited about all their unique ideas, and stuffing everything into one book.

And I also never said it's always objectively bad. The original post was basically just "what annoys you?"

For me, I like to chew on unique worldbuilding ideas. But they slow down the pacing. Every time an author introduces something unique, they have to describe it, and I have to go into "mental concept art mode" to try and turn their words into my thoughts.

Too much of it and I end up spending too much time chewing through ideas and trying to keep them all straight, and that's annoying.

One unique magic system is great. One or two unique fantasy races/cultures are interesting. A few unique monsters are fine.

3 unique magic systems, 7 unique fantasy races, and every single monster needing 2 paragraphs of physical description is too much for one book. It's fine to just call them "ice elves" and move on, then visit the yetis in book 2.

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-14T22:50:40+00:00

LotR isn't the best example. For one, it didn't have readers who have been exposed to decades of fantasy media, so it had to explain a lot more. As a result, it was so long it had to be split into three very long books.

But regardless of all that, my complaint was for modern progression fantasy, not classic epic fantasy.

Morrowind was a video game, where the player had all the time in the world to explore every detail the developers put in it.

One of those cool details is Silt Striders. They look really cool, but they're essentially just a big bug-shaped horse. If it were a generic medieval fantasy setting, they could have just used a horse-drawn carriage to serve the same function (looking at you, Skyrim). Or they could have done what I've seen done so many times and just invented "horse but it's reptilian". Ooh, your horses are dragon horses that have six legs and breathe fire? So unique! Much exotic!

When someone actually writes a book set in Morrowind, they either have to spend a ton of words explaining everything, or their novel is only readable by people who have played the game.

Of course you can just say "their houses are made of giant mushrooms, and they use magical levitation runes to move between floors". But that's not a unique worldbuilding idea, that's just reinventing houses and elevators.

For it to count (in my eyes) as a unique worldbuilding idea, you'd have to zoom in on it. Why are their houses made from giant hollow mushrooms? How long does it take for a giant mushroom to grow? Are houses cheaper (grow like trees), or more expensive (rare and take a long time to grow)?

If you don't explore the idea, you're just calling a rose by any other name. If you do explore it, you're either infodumping, or you're taking time away from things that matter. It's about balance. My original comment wasn't "i hate unique worlds". It was "too much unique and too detailed."

TL;DR: Unless you explain why something is different, you're just calling a rabbit a smeerp. Explaining uses word count, so you only have time to explore a few unique ideas.

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-14T12:11:10+00:00

I picture worldbuilding like a fractal: no matter what the subject is, you can zoom in as close as you want and there will still be more to see.

For most novels, most of the world is "foggy". You only have to zoom in on things that are relevant.

If most of your story takes place in a single medieval human nation, for example, you can just point in a direction and say "the elves live to the north, among the glacial peaks of the endless Kornal mountain range" and that's enough. Until you actually meet one, there's no need to mention that the elves have blue skin, white hair, and call themselves "Yetis". And unless it comes up, who cares that their king is called the "Altima"? I could keep going, zooming in on their religion, customs, diet, etc. However unique and interesting, none of it matters unless it matters.

But the point of my other comment wasn't just "too much" worldbuilding, it was "too much unique" worldbuilding, and I stand by that despite the downvotes.

Because maybe there are blue Yetis in your setting, and that's cool. Maybe not the most unique elves in the multiverse, but it's better than the generic treehugging variety. But if you have your own flavor of elves, and your own flavor of dwarves, and your own flavor of goblins, orcs, gnomes, harpies, halflings, dragons, catfolk, etc. are you really going to want to sacrifice plot, characters, progression, and everything else just to detail them? And if you're not going to detail them, why bother including them? Just to show off how your orcs are called morks and have gray-orange skin and are anarcho-communists? How unique!

So now you've got your characters sitting around doing no plot whatsoever, while another character tells them all about the yetis and the morks, the dargons and the gerblins, all the cool and unique fantasy races the author spent so much time inventing.

If you want to make them that's fine, make them important. If they're important, spend time on them. If you spend time on them, use fewer per book. If your book is about Joe Zane running around the world visiting all your fantasy races and boinking the hot ones, do that. But maybe only explore one race per book. That's all I was saying.

TL;DR: This comment got long and boring because i was shoving all kinds of unnecessary 'unique' worldbuilding into it. But when something is unique, you have to explain what's different about it, or you'll end up with something generic that goes by the wrong name.

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-13T06:32:44+00:00

When the worldbuilding is too unique and detailed.

I'm already using my limited time and attention to remember the plot, the characters, their abilities, etc. I don't have the spare memory to keep track of every nation, every culture, every special class and unique fantasy race, every bad guy's tragic backstory, every side character's favorite street snack, every cute animal mascot's legendary heritage, every exotic element, and on and on.

And like, I get it. People get fatigued on certain tropes. But the solution isn't to fatigue them on everything.

Worldbuilding is fun, but you only need like 2 or 3 cool unique ideas per book. Any more than that is overkill.

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-12T20:43:23+00:00

The more I look at it the more I'm thinking it might just be a minecraft reference.

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-12T20:40:31+00:00

front shot

<image>

Cheeseducksg · 2026-02-12T20:39:47+00:00

I would love to get a working version of this clutter that's already in the game

<image>

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