#engine move

[vocalsynthsource]

Miki and Kiyoteru have just been announced for Synthesizer V!

It was announced on a livestream that they will both be getting SynthV AI voicebanks for their 15th anniversary in 2024.

[thunderglade]

i got csp 🔥

[fiannans]

If it was a choice between actually getting to know our companions better and developing their relationships with Rook as the player's avatar through classic, Bioware-style investigative conversations or having companions appear in random locations every time you return to the Lighthouse to listen to them spout banter that I could have just heard in the field instead, I know which I would have preferred.

[0straycat0]

Tomodatchi saving my ass from having zero ideas

[deoidesign]

when your main characters start dating after years of writing so they finally get to be like this

[another-delta-lover]

wh. what if in tf2 all the mercs slept in the same room. what if some of them move their beds together when they wanna sleep with their favorite buddy. what if they all move their beds together so they can tell eachother cool stories. What if huh. What if they had their own customized lil corner where their beds are. what if huh.

[tostada-turtle]

OUGH THEY ARE SO SO DELIGHTFUL TO ME!

[kmpostal]

Blood [1997]

[phitstop]

GUYS BRITISH CARLOS SZN HAS RETURNED

[serpentface]

Extremely quick and dirty speedpaint of a dream I had last night

[homestuckreplay]

Is The Wayward Vagabond Good At Chess?

On page 721 of Homestuck, the Wayward Vagabond kills time by playing chess against himself – a ‘stiff training regimen’ (p.720) for the citizen-militia of Can Town that leads to Black checkmating White, just as it was prophesied by Nannasprite that the forces of darkness would always triumph over light. But how does WV’s chess game actually play out, and what can this tell us about them and about Sburb?

First, as @tenaciouschronicler pointed out, the board is set up incorrectly. It’s a perfect mirror of how the board should be – the bottom left and top right squares on a chessboard should always be black, but in WV’s game, they’re white. To analyze this, I transcribed the actual moves that WV makes, and flipped them all horizontally – moving a piece to a2 became h2, b3 became g3, c4 became f4, etc – at which point the game becomes correct.

Here's the game after move 6 and move 13.

And, in standard chess notation (which is surprisingly quick to learn!), the moves that got us to this point.

d4 Nf6

c4 g6

Nc3 Bg7

e4 O-O

e5 Ne8

f4 d6

Be3 c5

dxc5 Nc6

cxd6 exd6

Ne4 Bf5

Ng3 Be6

Nf3 Qc7

Qb1 dxe5

Every move WV makes is legal within standard chess, so right away, we know they’ve got a good grasp of the rules and aren’t cheating. As Black, they play the King’s Indian Defense, which allows White to control the board in the early game in hopes of a counter-attack afterwards – according to chess.com, it is a ‘risky opening’ that ‘leads to unbalanced positions where Black tries to fight for an advantage instead of equality’ and makes it ‘more difficult for White to play for a draw, which tends to lead to more decisive games’.

Black’s fifth move with the knight is uncommon, but not bad. I spoke to a chess International Master to get his thoughts on the game, and he said ‘Normally people play 4…d6 in the King’s Indian to stop the knight being pushed back like this, but what Black did is also good, and he has a comfortable position out of the opening.’ He described the King’s Indian as ‘a typical fighting opening to get White to overextend’, and White fell for the play.

Homestuck doesn’t show us the middlegame, instead returning to WV’s mayoral dreams and Tab drinking as the timer rapidly counts down – but we return to the game with White in a terrible position. Here's the game where we pick up, and with White in checkmate.

Here, White is in check with an opportunity to take the opposing queen, but instead plays the following endgame moves.

Ke2 Qxg4

Kf2 Ne4

Kf1 Qg3

Re1 Qf2

This isn’t a strategic choice, but ultimately doesn’t matter - ‘No reason at all not to take the queen, White’s move is ridiculous - but he’s completely lost in the endgame anyway, with no real drawing chances’ (Chess IM). The game ends quickly, and the IM’s overall analysis is that ‘Black plays very well, either a strong tournament player or he’s cheating :) But not enough moves to go off to decide that. White is much weaker’.

Of course, Black and White are the same player. This tells us that WV does have a strong knowledge of chess, but either only knows how to play as black, or has a strong bias towards black winning. Either is believable. As a citizen of the ominous planet where the black chess pieces live, WV would likely have spent a lot of time learning strategies for Black to play, but their only knowledge of White would be how to counter their moves. They’re also indoctrinated into loyalty to the dark kingdom royalty, and to seeing Black as the superior force in battle, fated to always triumph.

Especially notable is WV’s unwillingness to capture Black’s queen. It’s an obvious move that wouldn’t have cost them the game. On page 687, WV asserts their hatred of kings as ‘petty, bossy tyrants’ who are ‘basically awful in every way’, but says nothing about queens – I wonder if WV retains some loyalty towards the dark kingdom’s queen, leading to an internal conflict where they’re unwilling to harm even her can representation.

While the battle/chess game likely plays out differently in each iteration of Sburb, WV comes from John’s game and is recreating the battle ‘years in the future’. Can this game tell us about dark and light kingdom politics during John’s game, predicting what we’ll see next in Homestuck? If so, it seems like four white pawns – perhaps representing the four players – will be allowed to initially advance, making it appear that they’re doing well in the game. John, Rose, Dave and GG will have some successes, and might let themselves get complacent with their abilities.

But the dark kingdom will hold back their best resources, and plan for the long term. They’ll take advantage of a couple big mistakes our main characters make while fighting on the side of light, skillfully eliminate these pieces from the board, retain their own queen while destroying the light kingdom’s, and, as the title of page 721 foretells, ‘lead [their] men to victory’.

It’s not a great prophecy for John and his friends – but then again, it’s uncommon for a piece taken off the chessboard to travel to another planet and start sending commands back through time. So, maybe there’s still a chance to swing the real battle in light’s favor.

[vocalsynthsource]

Gumi is coming to Synthesizer V December 20th!

Preorders for SynthV Gumi are now open. He vocal modes include Ballade, Cute, Soft, and Vivid. It has been confirmed that she will not be replacing Vocaloid Gumi.

[bsptourist]

gm_liminal_commercial

created by RileySV

[hazelcongestion]

cardboard engine guy I made with his stupid fucking face

I love him <3

[littleguypumpkinsheep]

I’m tired grandpa.

[grogumaximus]