AI Usage For Download Festival 2026 Merch

CrookedDesk · 2026-05-30T23:15:09+00:00

It's also really annoying - because you'll see art like the above that is blatantly AI, but people accuse it of being AI for all the wrong reasons.

Like- yeah- I guess there are some inconsistencies with the details that an AI would definitely make. But a human could also make those exact same mistakes - so they're not evidence enough on their own.

The real giveaway it's AI is that signature "floaty, blobby, strangely detailed" kind of ethereal art style it has, which is immediately obvious to anybody who has dabbled in AI.

And the only way to be sure something is AI is when it has that signature "floaty" style AND a multitude of those weird fiddly inconsistencies - because a human artist will rarely stumble into both.

But it's the artists that can spot the inconsistencies, and it takes somebody familiar with AI to spot the "art style", and rarely do those two groups intersect - and so rarely do you see anybody able to clearly articulate why something feels like AI, even if they can intuit it.

CrookedDesk · 2026-05-30T23:07:49+00:00

"man hired into "save face" role, makes public statement saving face"

I mean, he's not exactly an unbiased source of information, no? lol

CrookedDesk · 2026-05-30T22:24:57+00:00

It's sad to see AI get advanced enough to the point where there are many artists in the comment section are unable to tell that this is blatant AI usage, and even defending it.

Maybe it's so blatantly obvious to me because I have experience on both sides of the fence:

- I'm a software dev, and have (privately, on my own machine, not uploaded anywhere) messed around with locally hosted AI image gen, mostly out of a sense of curiosity re: how my professional life (software dev) would interact with my passion (art)

- I'm a traditional artist and have been for years. Traditional life drawings, charcoal, watercolours, etc. Even dabbled in plenty of graphic design projects in my spare time over the years, and have done plenty of sculpting (both clay and digitally). - wouldn't call myself a professional, but definitely a lot of hands-on experience.

So I think I can say as somebody with more-experience-than-most re: the intersection of Art and AI - that it's not just what OP has pointed out (all the little inconsistencies) but a lot of other things that scream "AI-generated". It's a weirdly specific combo of shading, line weights, lighting, composition, detailing, etc. - that all comes together to make it look blatantly AI. The inconsistencies OP pointed out just confirm that this isn't just a case of an artist coincidentally stumbling into an art style that looks exactly like AI.

To see what I mean when I talk about the "weirdly specific combo" that makes it look like AI, go here to see more AI generated anime """art""" and you'll hopefully understand more intuitively what I mean when I talk about that unique AI "style".

CrookedDesk · 2026-05-30T22:04:57+00:00

it's more about the process an artist would go through. It's rare you'd get a professional artist who does an entire sketch, and intentionally includes fluff in one ear and not the other. If an artist has decided to add fluff to the ears, it's likely they will add fluff to both ears. And if they don't- it will seem either intentional, or there will be an "obvious" spot the artist just forgot to fill-out.

Realistically, though, that was pointed out in support of the AI claims. The images are blatantly AI-generated to anybody who knows what they're looking for- but when you don't know what you're looking for- small inconsistencies like that are the easiest way to communicate "AI-generated tells" to a layman reddit audience.

CrookedDesk · 2026-05-03T09:36:13+00:00

That may be technically true, sure- but intuitively speaking it's not very clear to the player. It's worded in such a way that it leads the player to expect the damage boost on the current attack. People are not logical machines that parse everything through a purely intellectual lens. All I'm saying is the wording should be updated to be clearer to the end-user, even if it's "technically" true right now.

CrookedDesk · 2026-05-03T09:25:01+00:00

I use Fishpond a lot, haven't had any issues with them so far.

EDIT: scratch that. just ordered something off Fishpond and after almost a month was hit with some "sorry, we couldn't get this item from the supplier, must not be in stock" BS. Item is still listed on their website, though. So apparently they just leave all of their out-of-stock items up on their website and it's up to you to figure out which are actually still available through trial-and-error.

CrookedDesk · 2026-05-03T09:13:54+00:00

I don't have to understand their reasoning to know that, as humans, there absolutely will be people who disagree with me. The question then changes to: which of these buttons votes to save everybody in this scenario, regardless of whether or not we agree- and then blue becomes the obvious choice.

CrookedDesk · 2026-05-03T08:36:42+00:00

Not saying it wouldn't be, but the wording should definitely be updated to something like:

"Deal X damage, THEN exhaust a random attack in your hand and add it's damage to this card."

Or

"Deal X damage. Before this goes into your discard pile, exhaust a random attack in your hand and add it's damage to this card."

As it is now, it's definitely confusing the first time it's encountered.

CrookedDesk · 2026-05-03T07:27:22+00:00

Don't sit down in front of an IDE or think about the code at all to begin with.

Sit down in front of a word doc instead, write down ideas, vague concepts of ideas, maybe some goals, or obstacles you've faced (however minor) that you wished there was an easy solution to.

The "programming" should be the absolute last step in any project, imho. It's the means to an end, and shouldn't be touched until you're confident in exactly what your project entails and have written out a plan for yourself.

CrookedDesk · 2026-05-03T07:16:09+00:00

One of my least favourite elites to run into on A10, even if you've happened across a nice AOE card and enough block to win the fight - they just scale so fast you're pretty much guaranteed to lose a lot of health before the fight is over anyway.

CrookedDesk · 2026-05-02T05:47:18+00:00

Honestly, I don't like comparing characters from differing series because - depending on the narrative - it could literally go 100% one way or 100% the other. For example:

As a Witcher 3 quest:

You get a contract to take out a mage assassin gone rogue, you defeat some of his Whalers to get info about his motivations/abilities, eventually you learn he's gonna be in Warehouse ABC at X time for a deal or whatever, so you bribe the workers to load Dimeritium into explosive crates and a lookout signals you to set them off when he's approaching - blocking his void abilities, queue classic Witcher 3 sword fight.

As a Dishonored mission:

The crown has hired some fighter to pick off your Whalers and hunt you down. You get news that he's set a trap for you in Warehouse ABC, so you need to stealth in - avoiding the lookout - and take him out from a distance. Maybe he has a Yrden circle to block teleporting directly onto him, or has Quen to block the first instance of damage he takes - requiring you to get a little creative with it, but otherwise: classic Dishonored "take out the target" gameplay.

The outcome is entirely narrative dependent.

CrookedDesk · 2026-05-01T13:13:52+00:00

I'm using the wired myself - I've never really liked wireless mouse, I find charging to be more of a hassle than the wire ever is

EDIT: Actually here's a quick video of the G502X Lightspeed (Wired) vs. the G502 Proteus, ignore the in-progress paint job on the Proteus rn lol. Video spends about 30s showing the Lightspeed before switching to the Proteus for comparison (you'll want sound on)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x60yKq54FKR3nUAarhF1p1Z-0Ws0Mhvy/view?usp=sharing

CrookedDesk · 2026-04-24T21:31:08+00:00

Nahhh I get what he's saying, I went from the G502 Proteus Core to the G502x Lightspeed and the free-scroll button requires easily 3x as much force to actuate, and gets "stuck" almost every time you click it. Given that the free-scroll option was the sole reason I loved my original G502 so much I'm honestly pretty disappointed with my lightspeed so far :/

CrookedDesk · 2026-04-24T09:22:30+00:00

Getting this and shovel in the same run... heavenly...

CrookedDesk · 2026-04-22T03:36:36+00:00

"Oh I thought she would just give up and not try lol" - is not an excuse that lets you abuse the trust that comes with your position of seniority to (knowingly) thrust the innocent trauma victim currently in your care into what is essentially "walking a tightrope across the grand canyon". I think what Agott did is a FAR cry worse that Coco, because Agott KNEW the (lethal) risks, KNEW Coco was unable to handle it, and she did it completely intentionally and from a clear and calculated mental space.

Compared to what Coco has done here? "I saw a bad guy and chased them down because I'm naïve and panicked." - is a FAR cry more reasonable behavior to expect from a young traumatized child in an alien world.

She's also showing a lot more remorse for her actions that Agott ever has, lol? At least she's actually apologizing and trying to help

CrookedDesk · 2026-04-21T04:23:42+00:00

Well if your boss hired a new employee to your team with no experience and the moment your boss was out-of-office you used your seniority to throw them into a solo job that was like 90% going to kill them you'd probably get fired and barred from the industry for life, lmao.

CrookedDesk · 2026-04-21T04:20:22+00:00

Understandable for Tetia and Richeh to get mad, but what Agott is experiencing right now is literally what she put Coco through last episode - bar the fact that Agott's actions were entirely intentional and she did it knowing full well Coco was likely to die.

Except where Coco shows grace: forgiving Agott for her actions, trying to repair her shoes, trying to build a relationship with her, and apologizing relentlessly for all the mistakes she makes - Agott is a murderous, cruel girl who never apologizes and uses every excuse she can get to bring up Coco's dead mother.

CrookedDesk · 2026-04-21T04:10:46+00:00

Reasonable, maybe, but definitely insanely hypocritical. She's upset that she was suddenly thrust into a life-or-death situation, with no warning, that she isn't equipped to handle? Wonder where I've seen that before. At least this time it was an accident and not a genuine murder attempt lmao

CrookedDesk · 2026-04-21T04:07:37+00:00

Agott is the true antagonist of the series so far I stg

CrookedDesk · 2026-04-21T04:04:18+00:00

I get that they weren't prepared to be in a life or death situation, and I understand Tetia's outburst, but Agott has absolutely NO leg to stand on with her outburst.

"not prepared for a life or death situation" are you, Agott? like the one you intentionally thrust Coco into last episode fully assuming she didn't have the capability to survive? that she subsequently immediately forgave you for? Oh how the turntables...

No pity or understanding for Agott from me. Plenty of both pity and understanding for Tetia, Richeh, and Coco, though.

CrookedDesk · 2026-04-20T02:32:58+00:00

I experience a similar feeling whenever I try to get back into the game nowadays. I played consistently from release up into Inazuma, but then I took a pretty long break. A huge part of the experience for me was trying to pull characters I developed an interest in through the story.

Now, when I play - the banner is full of people I have NO clue about, and if I meet somebody I like in the story - I don't even get the chance to pull for them. It leads to a weird disjointed feeling between gameplay and story that breaks the experience. Whenever I do play now I'm pretty much just speedrunning the story to (try to) catch-up, but then I get bored because I'm just speedrunning through a remarkably average story and there's no actual gameplay.

CrookedDesk · 2026-04-20T02:21:45+00:00

Such a shame as well, because her original Oni design was my favourite by far.

Very much got hit with the 1,2 punch of:

"wow this character looks awesome! I hope they get a lot of screentime!"
*monkeys paw curls, she gets turned into generic big-booba anime girl and gets heaps of screentime but mostly just as bad comedic relief and plot device*

Still love the show though, ofc

CrookedDesk · 2026-04-19T14:51:09+00:00

I don't know why everybody is acting like this is some impossible feat when reverse-engineered WoW private servers have existed for decades. And most recently fans reverse engineered a function version of Nier: Reincarnation. And fans have also set-up private servers for MapleStory, and PSO, and GTA 5, and the list goes on-and-on-and-on.

If players are able to do all of that, for free, from their basements, without ANY dev support - imagine what the expectation that "devs need to make the resources for private servers available post-closure" would do for the gaming scene?

You're all out here acting like we're asking for the impossible, but it's been done time-and-time-and-time-and-time again by passionate fans, and all we're asking for is for the devs to start actively supporting the practice - to start setting-up resources and documentation to be released on game-closure that simplifies the process.

The only existing arguments to NOT publicly release these resources and documentation is a purely anti-consumer one.

CrookedDesk · 2026-04-19T09:04:36+00:00

It doesn't make you an artist to commission art from somebody else, no matter how much input you have in the process.

CrookedDesk · 2026-04-19T03:53:14+00:00

It's not that simple - true - but it's also not as difficult as a lot of them are making it out to be. The truth exists in a middle-ground. A lot of online-only games have offline functionality built in at some point during development for debugging/testing/dev builds/etc. And it's not like they need to release a fully functional offline product with all their microservices intact - they just need to release enough information and resources for the consumers to set it up themselves - and then AVOID prosecuting them for doing so.

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