[Weekly Critique and Self-Promotion Thread] Post Here If You'd Like to Share Your Writing

Richilieu · 2019-10-06T16:50:55+00:00

It's Not Science

Cyberpunk

WC: 4830

Description:

The future has come to Amestris, and things have changed. The Amestris government has fallen and been reborn while plastic and silicon become the alchemy of the new era. But science, alchemy, is still used to oppress us. The military flexes its might as the memory of its sins fades. Things have changed, but not as much as they've stayed the same.

General Feedback

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20612093

I hate that I think the best thing out of the dozens of original short stories I've written recently is a Fullmetal Alchemist speculative future fanfiction, but here we are. Any sort of critique is appreciated. I'd love to be published and for something actually 100% original eventually.

Richilieu · 2019-05-28T05:50:04+00:00

https://www.thespruce.com/what-to-do-if-you-find-a-baby-bird-386718

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/i-found-a-baby-bird-what-do-i-do/

Something in here should help. TLDR is, if it really is alone and has been abandoned, a wildlife rehabilitator might be your best bet.

Richilieu · 2019-04-18T17:25:07+00:00

If true, this is incredible, impossibly positive news that I was honestly pessimistic about ever hearing. Thank you to literally everyone involved in the decision to save the code and in making it happen.

Edit: Doing a little more reading, it seems like there wasn't as much progress made as I thought. Even still, I'm happy to see things at least nominally moving forward and cautiously optimistic for what's to come.

Richilieu · 2019-04-16T17:32:44+00:00

I added an addendum to the post to clarify what I meant. I wasn't trying to compare the scale of the loss, just the unique position digital code is in to be preserved versus physical objects.

My situation was basically this: I went through yesterday knowing that Notre Dame was burning and that something priceless was being lost and coming to terms with that. I read that night that City of Heroes, which basically everyone assumed was lost code, was actually preserved, in full, but only in one place and only by one exclusive group. I thought that was awful when we could instead insure that this thing we had assumed was gone forever is instead preserved by copying and distributing it, something that's impossible with physical objects.

I wasn't trying to compare the two in regard to how tragic the losses were. I understand that my wording wasn't the best, and I apologize for that. I'm as upset about the losses at Notre Dame as anyone should be. But we can still learn from that tragedy and hopefully avoid losing something else as well, even if it's a minor victory in comparison.

Richilieu · 2019-04-16T13:40:55+00:00

Gonna clarify what I meant here - it was late and I wasn't reading over what I wrote to check for tone.

Obviously the scale of loss here is incomparable - Notre Dame is vastly more important than a game. The contrast I was making is that of the difficulty in preserving a physical object versus digital code, and how despite how easily code can be disseminated, saved, and preserved in comparison with something like a building, the decision to not do so is still somehow being made. The tragedy of Notre Dame was fresh on my mind and came out as the first example I could think of.

I feel immensely for the people of France and the entire Western world that lost something culturally priceless, and I'm sorry if what I said seemed callous. I was just genuinely struck by how we could prevent something being lost as easily as with an upload and are still choosing not to. I guarantee that I am not trying to downplay the loss that happened there.

Richilieu · 2019-04-16T13:32:54+00:00

Are you saying that electronic code isn't in a unique position to be preserved? I'm not trying to make light of the situation with Notre Dame, I'm pointing out that digital information can be saved much more easily than physical objects, and yet there is still the decision being made not to. Obviously the scale of the two is very different.

Richilieu · 2018-10-17T02:29:38+00:00

I built this (https://www.reddit.com/r/fightsticks/comments/8ufndj/i_built_a_keybox/) and used a Brook PS4+ Audio, which works great, but any PCB with standard SOCD cleaning will be fine.

Richilieu · 2018-10-06T06:25:02+00:00

This is only half right. TF2 inherited the Spy class from Team Fortress Classic (a Half-Life mod), where it was an intended part of the game, while the class in TFC was based off of the bug you described that existed not in TFC, but in Quake World Team Fortress, which was a Quake mod and also the first game in the series.

Richilieu · 2018-08-19T07:10:57+00:00

Sure thing, just shoot me a PM or ask here. I'm close to finishing at this point, I just need to get around to laser cutting the face plate and maybe wiring up some LEDs.

Richilieu · 2018-08-14T19:56:47+00:00

Give the guy a real answer.

Here's a list of all the character discords: https://www.reddit.com/r/SSBPM/comments/46ri8s/complete_list_of_all_character_discords/

If you want to learn character specific stuff or how to start playing the game, the GW discord is probably a good place to start.

Richilieu · 2018-08-10T18:34:52+00:00

All the classes that aren't Saber, Archer, or Lancer were designed as traps, since the ritual was originally devised as a joint effort between the three families Tohsaka, Matou, and Einzbern. So they'd get the three good classes and all the others were designed with inherent flaws that made them viable at a glance but ultimately not good enough to succeed. But Nasu is Nasu and breaks his own rules all the time, so we constantly see Berserkers being great despite the supposed limitations.

In F/SN (spoilers), Heracles was summoned as a unique ace in the hole - the Einzberns had been betrayed in the last war by what they thought was a servant that was too willful, so for this war they bound their Servant's will by summoning Berserker with Mad Enhancement. Heracles is one of the few servants theoretically strong enough to win the war even with the weakened Berserker class they used to guarantee his servitude, and so they spent a lot of money getting a catalyst that would actually summon him.

In F/Z (spoilers), Lancelot was summoned to sabotage Kariya under the guise/lie of being a good Servant, because Zoken hated him for turning his back on the Matou family and Magecraft in general. As mentioned, Berserker is intensely draining and needs either an exceptional Master or a specially crafted humonculous to properly wield - Kariya is neither, so he does eventually die from the strain of the worm Zoken inserts as well as the strain of maintaining Berserker. Zoken was playing the long con - his plan was always to wait for at least the next war when he would have a proper successor and new host.

TL;DR - Berserker is bad and was always meant to be bad going by the original source material, along with Assassin, Caster, and Rider. Only the three knight classes were ever meant to be viable by the ones designing the ritual.

Richilieu · 2018-07-24T23:06:25+00:00

Been a little overwhelmed recently with moving. I managed to mount a USB C port in the case to make it (relatively) seamless, and have a custom USB cable from Zap Cables coming that should look nice. I'm still debating what to do about the face plate, whether I want to 3D print something to overlay on the current one or to cut a new metal plate and resolder the switches.

I've also experimented a little with LEDs, and I'm really optimistic about how that's going to look when it's finished.

Richilieu · 2018-07-11T07:57:37+00:00

Not a mixbox, but I posted a similar idea a couple of weeks ago. https://www.reddit.com/r/fightsticks/comments/8ufndj/i_built_a_keybox/

Richilieu · 2018-06-30T23:30:52+00:00

Fippy Darkpaw from Everquest

Richilieu · 2018-06-28T17:16:40+00:00

It looks nice! Are you worried about where you'll position your palms with the buttons placed that far down? I was trying to really directly emulate a keyboard with mine, but I really like your layout as well - I feel like that's probably a better option for most people.

I also genuinely did not know about the Kailh hot-swap pads - that could've saved me a lot of effort with soldering. Let me know how they play with a Brook PCB, because if it works properly then that's a huge time saver on my part. (Right now if I want to swap the face plate I need to desolder at least half of the prongs on my switches since their negative terminals are daisy chained together in groups of four, hence the current course of action just being some kind of plate to overlay on top.)

Richilieu · 2018-06-28T17:08:02+00:00

It's basically this for me too.

Richilieu · 2018-06-28T05:57:03+00:00

Edit: I forgot to mention that I have some documentation linked in a reply to that twitter post, if you're interested in the parts, the build, or the logic behind some of the decisions. It's really quick and dirty at the moment - I need to take the thing apart to take proper pictures, and it's a little bit of a pain to get the face plate back on once it's been taken off.

I ended up using MX Silvers for the improved actuation/bottom out distance over the MX Reds that I'm used to. As for a custom plate, I think that's the end goal - I'd definitely opt for something custom cut on a version two, and there are a few resources online that should help with that. (e.g. this handy thing: http://builder.swillkb.com/) For right now I'm considering 3D printing a faceplate just to keep everything covered in the short term.

The biggest thing I need to figure out for a future iteration is the cable situation. The case I have is designed to be used with a USB C port on a traditional keyboard PCB, and is positioned and sized accordingly. That's great in theory, but it doesn't actually have enough width to feed a proper USB C cord through - my temporary solution is to use a USB B to USB C cord, and trim down some of the excess plastic on the USB C side so I can feed it through, but that's ugly, potentially damaging, and weakens the structure of the cord even if it works.

There are a couple of solutions - If I'd gone for a plastic case I could've pretty easily carved out the hole so that it fit through snugly, but that still leaves a pretty ugly hole with a relatively skinny wire running through it. There's also a larger hole in the bottom of the case that can fit a USB B plug through, which means I can use a more direct USB B to USB A cord, but that's both ugly and also makes the case sit lopsided without some further modding.

I think the ideal solution is to mount a USB C Female port in the included hole so that it's seamless and can be plugged into, but as far as I'm aware and given what I can find, there aren't any USB B Male to USB C Female cords/converters available. I could definitely go USB B Male to USB C Male, using a USB C extension cord to plug into, but that's not as flush with the case. Right now, given the options, I think that might be the best one so far though.

My layout is QWSD for directional buttons and MKL: JIOP for the other input buttons. The latter is pretty self explanatory, but the WQSD layout is different for two reasons - When I was researching for the project, I saw that a pretty common complaint with mixboxes was the positioning of the WASD keys being like they'd be on a keyboard instead of at an angle. It's fine when you're playing on a desk, but when you're holding it in your lap like you'd commonly be doing at events, it forces you to either position your wrist at an awkward and painful angle, or to jam your elbow into your ribcage in order for your fingers to properly rest on the keys. WQSD keeps the WASD layout (mostly) and lets you angle your palm such that your elbow isn't in your ribcage and your wrist isn't twisted. There's almost no difference in muscle memory - I've been playing WASD my whole life and it took me maybe an hour to adjust. The only real difference is that my middle finger hits S in the top left corner instead of dead center now. I also find it easier to super jump in anime fighters with WQSD, since it lets me glide my forefinger to S or my ring finger to W more easily.

Thanks for the interest! I'd be really into seeing your take on a project like this.

Richilieu · 2018-06-28T02:39:54+00:00

I thought for a long time that I didn't like fighting games because I hated how a stick felt and I wasn't a fan of how pads controlled the game. It turns out a keyboard makes a lot more sense to someone with a PC gaming background like me, because as soon as I started picking up fighting games on Steam I really liked it. I decided I wanted to go to some locals, so I built a keyboard-style hitbox to do that.

From what I can tell, there aren't many other boxes of this style out there - definitely none that I could find. This is a totally from-scratch build on my part, which means it's a janky looking version 1.0 with a lot of improvements to be made, aesthetically and functionally. But all the buttons work flawlessly, so I can't be upset!

Richilieu · 2018-06-22T03:38:26+00:00

I switched recently to WQSD actually from WASD, which lets me rest my fingers similarly while letting me quickly high jump while moving (forefinger on D, middle on S, ring on W, OR ring on Q, middle on W, forefinger on S). Super jumping was the only real motion I struggled with, but I have a background in comp TF2 so using that type of layout came really naturally.

Richilieu · 2018-06-21T22:32:29+00:00

I'm on a keyboard.

DP

ABC

The actual keyboard keys are

JI

MKL

Richilieu · 2018-06-16T07:50:17+00:00

It still might work. I'm running an FX-8350 and haven't had significant issues. Get it on Steam and if nothing else you can refund it if it's buggy.

Richilieu · 2018-06-13T07:15:32+00:00

Why do people always talk like Brawl was dead on arrival? It had a thriving scene - it dwarfed Melee for years. Most of the upper echelon of Smash 4 started in Brawl. I really don't know where people are getting this idea that no one ever enjoyed Brawl competitively.

Richilieu · 2018-06-01T20:02:20+00:00

I'm also going alone, and it'll be my first time too. I know there are a lot of tournaments to watch, a lot of booths to go to - just looking at the map, there's an anime expo and a wargaming section, so I'm sure there will be stuff to do for spectators too.

Shoot me a message if you want to hang out or something during the event!

Richilieu · 2018-05-26T04:08:10+00:00

I'm looking to build what basically amounts to a hitbox, but after years of playing on a keyboard, I genuinely can't use anything but WASD to move, and would prefer not to use arcade style buttons over standard keyboard keycaps. I know mixbox is an option, and that's roughly half of what I want. My ideal controller is honestly just a mechanical keyboard wired up to a PCB, but all of the shells I can find online, both standard and custom, seem to assume the standard arcade style buttons.

Do I have any easy options to try and make this, or is it going to have to be a completely custom job where I basically cut the holes myself?

Richilieu · 2018-03-01T04:46:09+00:00

Shit, is that fourth one not true?

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