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rigelmejo · 16 days ago

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I love Automatic Language Growth as an approach to learn languages. I love that there are schools that do ALG for Thai, and I deeply hope it eventually inspires other language schools to do more compehensible input lessons as part or a majority of their curriculum for beginners.

I am frustrated that some ALG enthusiastic people put down other language learning approaches. I am frustrated some of them hammer how "any other method wont make you fluent, it will cause permanent damage!" Which... first, is a theory in ALG, not a proven fact with lots of research. Many language learning approaches are based on theories not extensive research. Its okay to believe in ALG and that it's true, it's okay to base your own study activities on the ALG theories. It's another thing entirely to apply the ALG ideas to all other study approaches and activities, when there really isn't enough research to say those study activities will cause a student to "fail" to learn a language. They will in fact succeed, often, because many study activities result in the success of managing to use a target language for the purposes the learner wants to use it. You can find tons of examples of successful learners who accomplished their goal, can do what they wanted to do, and achieved that result various ways.

Second, many learners goals are B2/upper intermediate aka can work and go to university in the target language. That is achievable thtough non ALG methods, we know this because tons of people on visas in college or working in companies passed B2 tests and are living their lives in the target language, who studied without ALG existing as an approach yet or who used traditional classes or who did any number of things to learn. Many learners do not have the goal to be "like a native speaker" and do not consider anything short of being "like a native speaker" to be failure. Many learners goals are their idea of success, and many learners can achieve those goals in a variety of ways.

I understand why the inventor of ALG Marvin Brown would push his own approach, he has a school with paying classes that involves needing students to engage with the ALG lessons as instructed, to get the results he's designed the classes for in roughly expected amount of hours. People who want to study in an ALG approach can emulate the recommendations he gives, and hope for similar results to his other successful students if they can approach learning as he recommends. If a person wants to follow the ALG approach recommendations with another language besides Thai, they can do that. I just get frustrated when ALG enthusiasts insist the approach is the ONLY way someone should try to learn a language.

It may be the best! We'd need many more people to approach language learning with ALG to get enough evidence to find out! But it's not the only way, and it can be really frustrating to see people give up trying to learn a language because they hear their formal classes "damaged their ability to learn the language". Yes, if their goal is to be exactly like a native speaker, according to ALG which does not have extensive research, the learners who ever thought conciously about a language when learning it or used translation theoretically will never be as good as a native speaker. Most people will be able to achieve their goals in a language, for using a language, without needing to be as good as a native speaker.

I get really frustrated with all or nothing learners. Who think the way they're doing things is perfect, and everyone else should immediately change their method to the "perfect" learner's method. That attitude is rife in the japanese learning community. Tons of people, many with different study methods, who think their method is perfect and everyone else's "wont work" and that everyone NEEDS to change to their study method. Except plenty of them have reached their language goals successfully, using different study methods... proving that all their conflicting methods do work for someone. And yet they just fight, and insist someone does it the same way as themselves or they'll fail. It's very frustrating, and toxic.

And sadly I see it in the ALG enthusiasts community too at times...

ALG lessons are comprehensible input lessons.

Comprehensible Input Lessons are just a type of lesson. They don't have to be part of a strict ALG approach to language learning, unless a learner WANTS to do an ALG approach.

Dreaming Spanish's creator Pablo took ALG thai classes, and so when he designed his comprehensible input lessons and guide he suggested learners take a similar approach to ALG - to ensure they get results in the expected number of hours other examples of students studying in this kind of way achieve. That's what a study material does - it tells you how its designed to be used for the expected results, and ypu decide if you use it that way or experiment. Some people did experiment with using Dreaming Spanish other ways like using flashcards, or continuing to take formal classes, and have written about their specific experience doing those things alongside it. You may not get the expected result Pablo suggests you'll have if you purely stick to his recommendations. You can only guess how your experiment with your own approach will go, based on the results of people who did similar things to what you are doing.

I love comprehensible input lessons. I think they should be used more, available for more languages, more plentiful! I think they'd be useful as supplements for learners doing traditional classes in school! Useful as tutoring sessions! Useful as a part of a class! Useful as an entire class depending on the students goals/teacher's goals. Graded Readers ARE COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT designed to be understandable to learners! They work great for learning to read! Comprehensible input lessons that use visuals, images and gestures, work great with teaching classes with a variety of native languages and no way to translate for all of your students to their native language! Its why the organization I worked in did comprehensible input lessons for ESL students - with 70+ native languages, anywhere from 0 prior english schooling to years of traditional classes in the country they grew up in, comprehensible input lessons with visuals to communicate the meaning of all english was the easiest way to teach everyone. To make sure everyone could understand. I'd love more learning materials designed this way, I find these types of learning resources extremely useful!

I really just hope that people don't assume that using comprehensible input lessons means you can't also use other resources if you like other resources. You don't have to stick to an ALG approach! Literally anyone can use comprehensible input lessons, just like they can use graded readers, at any point they're useful to you. As much or as little as you want.

#rant #alg #comprehensible input #my point is just.... i totally understand you personally COMMITTING to a certain approach #if youre following a guide/teacher/resource and it says to use it that way and you want to get the expected resulys #but youre also ALLOWED to use the resources differently than the recommendation #this goes for textbooks. anki. etc #if you use the resources diffetently than recommended then of course you WILL be experimenting #with what result you get. with what activtiy produces what result and how long.#you do a lot more figuring out results on your own and how to get to your goal.#and sticking strictly to some recommendations someone made is easier if you have no interest in experimenting with what works for you #but youre allowed TO experiment. youre allowed to make your own study plan and activities and yry them out

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nightingale-prompts · 7 months ago

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God's TV- DC x DP prompt

Accidentally summoning a god from another dimension can happen, especially when cults are involved. However, no can could predict that the not only was the god a teenage boy but also a very bored teenage boy who didn't want to leave.

So he stayed and moved into Titans tower.

Danny is helpful (when he wants to be) but rarely goes out on missions. He says they are boring and nothing is dangerous enough to exert the effort. Instead, he minds the medical bay. Having a healer more than made up for the lack of help.

It's not like anyone disliked Danny or thought he didn't do anything it was just that he was unpredictable. Danny could be nice, considerate, and even sweet if he was working in the medbay. He could also be a pain in the ass anywhere else. He loved pranks and scaring people with his powers. He was harmless though.

No one really knew what he did all day. He was usually in his room doing something they guested. Said room was an anomaly. It was larger on the inside having been made into a pocket dimension. The appearance and organization of the room changed every time you went in.

It was after one mission that the team learned what was in the room.

A rogue had used their invention to erase Superboy's memories and they didn't know what to do. They took him to Danny who was currently rearranging the medicine by color. They hoped that his powers covered mind-altering afflictions. Unfortunately, Danny couldn't wave a hand and fix this.

Instead, Danny took the group to his room. The decor was neon Tokyo meets space right now. The furniture was currently floating and almost hitting Wonder Girl in the head with an end table. Of course, there was no gravity here.

"Stay here while I grab it," Danny said flying up the vertical corridor.

While he was gone the room rearranged itself into a contemporary format. The furniture grounded itself and shifted into a normal living room.

Danny returned with a cart and a headset. He placed a card he pulled out of the cart into the headset and put it on the dazed Superboy's head.

"Wait what is that?" Tim asked.

"It's his memories. I kept a backup in case this happened." Danny shrugged.

Immediately everyone began asking what the hell does that mean and why does he have that.

"Oh please, this dimension has this happened all the time. Amnesia is so cliché and cheap. I saw a pattern and decided the easiest way to prevent you from losing the entirety of your lives was to make save states of your memories." Danny said matter of fact.

Robin pinched the bridge of his nose.

Impulse studied the rack of cases and looking for the card with his name on it.

Wondergirl sighed, she was used to this from Robin but even he wouldn't go this far.

"What? It's not like just anyone can find these. Only you can access your own memories anyways. I just decided to repurpose my RE:Viewer." Danny pouted.

"What is a reviewer?" Wally asked flipping through the cases. Each one had titles like moves or shows with an arrangement of stickers.

"The RE:Viewer is something I created to catalog things I've seen looking into other dimensions. I don't have an infinite memory you know. But the longer I have my title the more I'll lose touch with my mortality. These things help me stay close to people by giving me the chance to remember how it feels. I also have been using them to get the stories of others. Keeping their experiences like you'd keep a TV show or movie. So many stories could have been lost to time but now they are saved. I use them to teach myself." Danny smiled.

The concept genuinely sounded interesting. Like experiencing a movie in 4d.

It had been 3 minutes before Kon took off the headset and back to his old self.

Danny pulled the input card out and it disappeared into another realm with a flick of the wrist. Danny was completely honest that the copies were inaccessible to everyone but him.

"You feeling alright Superboy? Your memory should be backed up until a week ago." Danny said shining a light in his eye.

"I'm fine. I think. What happened?" Kon asked batting the light out of his eyes.

"Explanation later. Take a nap first. You aren't concussed at least." Danny informed.

"What are the stickers for?" Wally said pointing at the rainbow of colors the card cases had.

"Just the emotions associated with the experiences. Orange is comedy, red is action, pink is romance, and blue is tragedy." Danny listed. "That one with the pink is one of my favorites. I meddled a bit in that world. Two people who had never met fell in love at two points at different times. One of them was doomed to die but I worked my magic on a mirror that allowed them to meet once. They shared notes left in different places for the other months ahead. Makes you believe in true love. A real tear-jerker."

"What about the black stickers?" Wally asked.

"Don't touch the black ones," Danny said darkly, smacking his hand away. "You don't need to know about those. I don't like thinking about them."

"So you just take the memories of others and put them inside your machine to replay later?" Batgirl asked. "Isn't that kind of wrong?"

"No, I asked permission. I usually pull them aside at some point and ask. If it's my memories (that's the green stickers) I don't need to. The rainbow ones are simulations. Like a video games." Danny responded patting her on the back for not being to hard on him about this admittedly weird situation.

"So what's the black one with the rainbow sticker?" Wally asked picking up the case that was obviously stuffed in the back.

"STOP TOUCHING THOSE!" Danny yelled pulling him away.

#dc x dp #dpxdc #dc x dp prompt #dp x dc prompt #danny fenton #danny phantom #young justice #batgirl #superboy #wonder girl #red robin #dc robin #tim drake #dc impulse #wally west

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helianthus-tarot · 10 days ago

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RELATIONSHIP: Your main challenge in forming relationships + advice

This applies to both platonic and romantic relationships. I also included some advice 💗 Keep in mind, it's a spectrum: some of you probably experience these problems only mildly and occasionally, some of you may seriously have these problems, some of you may not have any problems. You can also ask about your person if you want, as in, their challenges in forming relationships.

I posted the extended version on my Patreon which includes your challenge in maintaining relationships! There are other 100+ fun and juicy readings on Patreon so definitely check it out! ✨💗❤️

Disclaimer: Here | Instagram: Here

Instructions: Focus on the topic and ask yourself the question. Choose a number/picture that you feel the most drawn to or that you can’t stop looking at. Trust your intuition. May the message resonate. Let me know which pile you choose! Feedback is appreciated!

Like my readings? Tip here!

PILE 1

Your main challenge in forming relationships and advice: Ace of Pentacles Rx, 10 of Swords, 10 of Wands, 4 of Swords, Death. Justice, The Star.

I feel like you just... don’t want to form relationships. A lot of you find forming relationships a burden, like something that is more trouble than it’s worth, something that only leads to problems and stress and a lot of work / effort that might go nowhere or that could end up pointless. There is this heavy, jaded, exhausted energy coming from you with regard to relationships. This attitude might have been influenced by your past experiences with people. Some of you have had enough of it. Some of you feel like you have experienced and seen the worst in people, their dark sides and vices, and it just feels all-around burdensome. Because to form relationships, you feel like you have to go through those stages of ascertaining whether you can trust this person or not, what their flaws are and how these might affect you, and so on and so forth. So you just overall feel kinda reluctant to initiate, to bother.

If you read this reading, then either you’re curious or you do have the desire to form relationships. And if it’s the latter, what makes it difficult for you to form relationships—besides your own reluctance and exhaustion—it's also because you take relationships extremely seriously. You think and consider a lot of things; even before a relationship starts, you have considered how it might end, you have thought about A to Z. Many of you are overthinkers, some of you are just the type of people who take things seriously.

So it's heavy from the very beginning for you, which just adds to the cycle of your avoidance and reluctance in forming relationships. Some of you may also be the one who rejects people before people can reject you; or you reject yourself on behalf of those people (you believing that there’s no way you guys are compatible, so you make that decision alone without the other person’s input and stopping the connection or not being that responsive when people want to form something with you).

Some of you are reluctant to form relationships because of fear of betrayal and being hurt; there are some kinds of past ghosts that are haunting you here. Some of you restrain from connecting and forming relationships with people because you think your past is simply too heavy to share with people, people wouldn’t understand or wouldn’t be able to connect with you because of it, so you just don’t bother, you keep to yourself. Some of you prefer to watch from the sidelines, observing people and their relationships instead of actively participating. This whole thing kinda makes you feel alone and distant from people. Some of you have gotten used to that solitariness, so you might be okay or you might say you are okay, but the solitariness probably didn’t start by choice.

The advice for you is to embrace not knowing. It’s not that you shouldn’t take things seriously; some of your principles have value in them, you’re right about some things and you are encouraged to follow your boundaries and your wisdom. But it’s also perhaps better if you let go of that heavy energy from the past that makes you think too hard and too deeply about these things, that makes you worry and try to foresee the possible end of your connections. You are asked to surrender more to the flow of life. Less controlling and more experiencing. If you think your past is simply too heavy for people, let people decide that, they can make their own decision. Relationships require two or more people to work; so do your part, and let them do their part; make your decision and let them make their decision.

And if they reject you, or if they can’t handle that part of you, if a relationship doesn’t work, learn to trust that Life will lead you somewhere better, to people who can accept you the way you need them to. You may not know who matches you well if you don’t try at all, the Universe may not be able to send the right people to you if you don’t bother at all. So if you want a relationship, put effort into forming them.

Things may not work out, but it doesn’t mean your effort is useless or wasteful, each ‘failure’ or each time things not working out, believe that you are being redirected to a better path forward—further and further. Sometimes we take detours in life, sometimes we stop by somewhere and meet some people before each of us continues on our journey. Don’t worry too much about being hurt; trust that you are smart enough to discern connections that have value for you and ones that don’t. And trust that you’ll be okay even if it doesn’t turn out the way you initially wanted it to.

You may want to be balanced in your approach, though. I’m not telling you to throw yourself into a life of a socialite and make a connection with everyone you meet. Justice here feels more deliberate, it is careful, it is principled, it is knowing, it is fair. You know what relationships you like, what can be good for you; those are the relationships that you are encouraged to give a chance to. Be deliberate about it, then let go. Put effort, then surrender and let things flow, let things come to be. Balance. If it doesn’t work out, figure out what went wrong, then try again. Hold the gentle optimism of The Star, its calm openness and trust in the workings of Life in your approach to relationships.

EXTENDED VERSION IS ON PATREON! What are your main challenges in maintaining relationships? Are there differences? 🤔📝 I also included advice! There are other 100+ fun and juicy readings on Patreon, do check it out! ✨💞

PILE 2

Your main challenge in forming relationships and advice: 10 of Pentacles, 10 of Swords, Judgment, Ace of Pentacles, 4 of Swords. Strength, King of Pentacles.

You got three similar cards as the previous pile, so if you’re also attracted to Pile 1, this is probably why. The difference between your pile and the previous pile, is that in your pile, there’s more intention or desire to form relationships. You do want to form relationships. It’s just that, you usually seek to build long-term, secure, significant relationships. There's nothing wrong with that; but in this kind of world where a lot of people have fleeting interactions and behave more like rest stops with each other, it can be difficult for you to form the type of relationships that you want.

What I meant by ‘rest stops’ is that social interactions and relationships these days are more like you are just stopping at a rest stop before you move on with your journey, instead of building something long-term or lasting. And because you want something of value—something that will stay in your life, an actual relationship instead of just fleeting social interactions or acquaintanceships—there’s this contrast with how some parts of the world behave.

Which can make you feel a bit alienated. Some of you may feel withdrawn. This is like someone who wants a marriage but they exist in a community that practice casual sex and don't think about marriage at all. I’m not saying either of those is wrong, but they’re just different. There’s this mismatch of needs and goals, and this mismatch leads to your difficulty in forming relationships. Because while you may seek something more lasting with someone, that person may not; regardless of what their true reason is, it can make you feel down about it when you realise they don’t have the same goal and intention.

Some of you may feel depressed, especially if you have put effort into forming and nurturing a relationship, but it’s not being reciprocated, the relationship just doesn’t form, for whatever reason. Some of you may also internalise this as your fault, or your lack of value / worth, or something along these lines; you might have put effort into introspecting as to why it happened to you, and what you did ‘wrong’, what wasn’t enough, what you didn’t understand, etc. This may have kept happening to some of you, despite your effort to form relationships.

When we look at the advice cards, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you. You are not doing this wrong. Some of you may come into connections quite intensely, as in, you genuinely seem like you want a connection to stay and you put effort into it right from the very beginning, but this can push away the people who are more comfortable with easy-going interactions and relationships that develop ‘naturally’ (without much effort). I’m not saying your approach is wrong, but your approach may work and may not work with some people. So just keep that in mind. There are specific people who match you, and there are people who don’t. That’s just how it is.

The cards are telling you to hold on to your principles and your standard, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting long-term relationships that add value in your life, so stand by that desire. Live your life with integrity and by your own principles. But remember to be gentle with yourself if things don’t work out, if you realise the other person doesn't seek the same thing you do; just calmly state your boundary and continue being who you are and don’t internalise that rejection. There’s value in your standard; it works for you, it fulfils you, it keeps you feeling safe and secure, you know what you need, there’s no reason to sacrifice it if you don’t want to, just because people want something more casual and fleeting from you. Keep being who you are, the right people will see that and be drawn to you.

Some of you may want to drop your defence a little though; you may be a bit too strong and intense about seeking what you want, the problem is some of you may have looked down on other people while you do this; as if other people are less or inferior for wanting something more casual or wanting something different. So just be careful of using your pride in your standard as a defence against the negative feelings you feel when people reject you. Because if you come into a situation acting like you’re more high-quality than other people, it doesn’t really make you look good.

Just take it easy, be soft and firm about your needs and desires if people approach you. If people reject you, then take it in stride, don’t lose your cool, and no need to reassert your stance. You know the way some people respond when they feel rejected? For example, they upload a public status vaguely addressing a specific situation / person saying “oh I don’t need low quality connections anyway”. That doesn’t look nice especially when people know they react that way because they feel rejected. Avoid doing things like that.

PILE 3

Your main challenge in forming relationships and advice: Knight of Pentacles Rx, 4 of Swords Rx, The Hermit, 9 of Pentacles, Queen of Cups. 6 of Pentacles, King of Wands.

There’s back-and-forth energy here. It feels like a lot of you don’t really know what type of relationships that you want, or you haven’t really decided, or you are confused, or there’s something here that doesn’t feel that grounded and clear and committed. It feels like sometimes you want relationships, sometimes you don’t; sometimes you act like you do welcome relationships into your life, but then you disappear and go off doing who knows what lol.

A lot of you are independent. Some of you are solitary, meaning that you like spending time alone and you are used to spending time alone. You may also give off that vibe, like you don’t need or want relationships. Sometimes, not only you give off that vibe, you act like it, you act in a way that does not help you form relationships with people; for example, you distance yourself, you don’t stop and chat with people, instead you just do your own thing, you interact with people warmly but then you don’t start anything with them anymore for weeks despite meeting each other every day. It feels like that. It feels like sometimes you are there, sometimes you are not, most of the time you are not.

Some people can sense that you are warm, or you have the ability to give yourself emotionally to other people, that you can interact with people just fine and you can connect with them just fine, but it’s like there’s not much long-term effort being put into it. Some of you don’t try hard to form relationships in your life. Some of you may participate in fleeting social interactions more than you actually put effort into forming long-term connections with people. So naturally it can make it difficult for you to form relationships. Some of you rely on Fate too much, like “eh, if it doesn’t work out, then it doesn’t work out”, yet you may have not put much effort to make it work to begin with.

People who chose this pile are probably people who have more acquaintances than actual friendships. Some of you are introvert; you may not socialise much, or you may not even have many acquaintances; the social interactions you have with people are very brief or surface-level. For some of you, there’s emotional connection between you and people you interact with, but at the same time it feels like there’s still a barrier, some kind of distance, some kind of solitariness that is difficult to breach or pierce through for relationships that are more substantial to form and develop.

For some of you, I think you may also be kinda picky with whom you interact or form relationships. You may choose your friends well; you choose who you want to have more interactions with and with whom you prefer to keep it brief. For some of you, there are a lot of thoughts that you put into it; you just know what type of people you can get along with and who you can’t. You may also have a side to you that is more philosophical and deeper and cerebral, which you don’t often show to people for some reason, despite the fact that this part of you is very integral or important to who you are.

So when you don’t share or show something so integral to your identity or personality, it can make it difficult for you to form lasting emotional connection with another person, simply because they can’t see you for who you are and you end up not feeling like you connect well with them. You may feel like there’s always a part of you that feels distant from people, which people cannot relate to or cannot reach. You want people to reach that part of you but at the same time you may not act like it.

Advice for you is to decide what type of relationships you want if you haven’t decided yet, be purposeful about this. And once you have decided, seek those out and put effort into them. Grow them. Nurture them. Give to the other person / people. Meet them halfway, don’t leave them hanging. Steer the situation or the connection in the direction where it can grow; for example, this is a simple example, answering their questions in a way that they can comment on your answers instead of just saying “yes” or “no” that can immediately end the conversation.

Make plans with them, offer them something that can allow them to be more integrated or more involved in your life. It’s like playing football; you kick the ball and then they kick the ball back to you. Actively give yourself to the relationships. For those of you who are independent, who are used to living a solitary life; giving yourself to another person regardless whether it’s a friendship or a romantic relationship may be a bit difficult. You have to be involved and be willing to start a give-and-take dynamic with people. You may also need to be more consistent with giving; some of you are quite sporadic in your approach so this may need to change if you want to form relationships.

PILE 4

Your main challenge in forming relationships and advice: 7 of Cups Rx, Ace of Cups Rx, The Magician, Strength, Ace of Swords. 3 of Pentacles, Wheel of Fortune.

I don’t think you have problems forming relationships; I think your issue is probably that you are quick to drop relationships the moment they don’t fit your idea, or visualisation, or the moment they don’t look exactly how you want them to look right away. Some of you have high standards, and you seek people who fit these standards exactly the way you want them. Some of you are just waiting for your manifestations, while not interacting meaningfully with anything / anyone else.

There’s curiosity here; so you have enough openness to interact with people, this can keep conversations going, you may seem or are genuinely interested in the other person. It’s just that you may expect to see the other person’s authentic self quickly through these interactions, and this may not happen, simply because some people take time to open up; so whatever they show you in these moments may not be who they truly are, but you make decisions based on these moments.

A lot of you also probably seek intellectual connections; but again, some people may not be that open that fast, so they may seem intellectually incompatible with you when in reality they may actually be compatible, they just don’t show themselves as early as you do. I’m not saying you are wrong, we should make decisions based on what is clear, however, you may go about this quite fast, like you don’t have much patience to wait and linger and let people unfold. You can move on or just drop people and move to the next interesting person / thing.

For some of you, you are interested in people as concepts, instead of being interested in the emotional aspect of relationships; people are interesting intellectually to you, some people may pick up on this and may be emotionally restrained as a result; they could feel like you’re treating them like an experiment subject (I’m not saying you do, it’s just that some people may put up some walls when they realise the other person is trying to figure them out without being fully emotionally invested in them). Some of you find it very easy to form relationships, that this kinda makes you slack a bit at times; you don’t put much effort and you don’t care if you lose a connection because you know another opportunity / connection will appear.

Some of you are interesting people, talented and skilful, you stand out because of your skills and who you are; so you naturally attract people, which adds to this ‘carelessness’ that you have with regard to forming relationships. Others of you use your skills and talents to attract people, you don’t give much of your emotional self to people, you contribute more cerebrally, intellectually; the issue here is relationships may require emotional connection and investment. So while you can form relationship through shared interests at first, it disintegrates right after because you don’t follow it up with much emotional investment. Basically, relationships can form but they don’t properly form, like a shape that comes into being then immediately disintegrates the next second, and repeats.

Advice for you is to put effort into forming relationships but at the same time, let them develop. There should be balance. Some people take time to unfold; so let them unfold, take it easy, slowly build upon the connection in a grounded and practical way. For example, there’s no need to have a deep conversation right off the bat; you can start with a conversation every few days, and then gradually getting deeper and more frequent. Be patient with the flow, be patient with people, be patient with Life and yourself when things don’t work out exactly the way you want it to be at the time you want it to.

There should be a give and take between you and the other person; there’s something you should contribute and there’s something that they should contribute in building this connection. Make plans with people, include them in your life. For those of you who are just waiting for your manifestations, all I can say is that sometimes other relationships are important too, they can lead you to your manifestations. The thing about people is that they connect you to more people or more opportunities. Manifestations can happen through people, especially if it’s a relationship that you are trying to manifest.

#pick a card #pick a pile #tarotblr #tarot readers #tarot community #divination #pick a picture #love relationship #free tarot readings #future spouse #pick an image #free tarot #pac #love tarot #self love #healing #shadow work #spiritual healing #spiritual journey

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human-pet-they · 3 months ago

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(gay man patrick bateman) I log onto my four-thousand-and-six follower Tumblr blog, using the ad-free browsing experience. After giving a look over the accounts of the individuals who have followed me during the night, I notice one account run by a transgender woman, and report her profile, as her opinions on Voltron differ from my own. Then, I reblog three images of female celebrities (Meryl Streep, Jennifer Coolidge, Roger from American Dad), and two homoerotic images (one involving urine, the other a vintage pornography magazine), ensuring that I distribute both who I reblog from, and the time they will be released from my queue, to indicate my varied daily routine, and cultural input.

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seumyo · 12 days ago

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Please please pleaseee more dad shoto x mom reader its js too fluffy and cute 😭🙏

NOTE. so much fluff, my heart can’t take it anymore <3

Todoroki never thought that there would be a point in his life where he spent his weekends lying on the living room floor, holding a full conversation with his eight-month-old son as if the tiny human could actually understand every word. And yet, here he was—stretched out on his back, staring at the ceiling while his son, Shuu, rested against his chest, happily kicking his little legs as they engaged in what Todoroki was beginning to consider their usual weekend routine.

You had gone out to get groceries, leaving them alone for a while, and he had quickly discovered that Shuu was happiest when he was either being held or allowed to clamber all over his father like a small, determined climber.

Currently, said baby was on his stomach, his tiny hands gripping at Todoroki’s shirt as he made an admirable attempt to push himself up with all the strength his chubby little arms could muster. The doctor had mentioned tummy time was good for his development, but to Shuu, it was a grand adventure—maybe even his greatest enemy.

His son looked so much like him that it sometimes took Todoroki by surprise.

His wispy hair was still soft and undecided in color, but those round, curious eyes were a perfect mirror of yours. Every so often, when Shuu blinked up at him with an expression of innocent curiosity, it hit Todoroki that this was his child.

His son.

The little person that he and you had brought into the world. The realization never failed to strike him in quiet moments like this, when he had nothing to do but bask in the weight of it.

“You wouldn’t believe the week I had, Shuu,” Shouto murmured, lifting a hand to gently rub slow, soothing circles on his son’s tiny back.

Shuu let out an excited coo in response, one of his chubby hands grasping at the fabric of Todoroki’s shirt. His fingers barely curled around the material, but he held on determinedly.

“Midoriya somehow managed to schedule us for a meeting at seven in the morning. Seven, Shuu. On a Friday. You know what that means?”

Shuu let out a happy shriek, completely unaware of the horror of early morning meetings. Todoroki sighed dramatically. “Exactly. It means I had to wake up even earlier to get dressed, drink coffee, and mentally prepare for Midoriya’s enthusiasm before the sun was even fully up.” He paused, frowning slightly. “And then he had the audacity to say it was a ‘great team-building experience.’”

His son slapped a tiny hand against his chest, his bright eyes gleaming as he babbled incoherently. Todoroki nodded as if he understood.

“Mhm, I know. I should’ve expected it. But at least your uncle Bakugou suffered with me.”

His son cooed in response, the sound soft and bubbly, like he was adding his own input.

Todoroki nodded solemnly. “Yes, exactly. You understand.”

The baby let out another happy noise before suddenly pressing his face against his father’s chest, his tiny mouth leaving a damp spot on the fabric. Todoroki exhaled through his nose. “And now you’re drooling all over me. Again.” He chuckled in amusement, bringing a small bib up to carefully wipe away the small trail of drool forming on his son’s chin.

“Wah uhm!”

Todoroki sighed, but there was no real annoyance in his expression. But there was an odd sense of contentment settling over him as he let his hand rest on his son’s back, feeling the gentle rise and fall of his breathing. It was moments like this that made everything else—the long work hours, the exhaustion, the constant balancing act of being both a hero and a father—completely worth it.

“You are very talkative today,” he observed, shifting slightly so Shuu was better balanced on his chest. His son blinked down at him, completely unbothered, before letting out another high-pitched babble. “Oh? That’s your input? You think I should get revenge on Midoriya?” Todoroki’s lips twitched. “That’s devious. Just like your mother.”

At the mention of you, Shuu’s little face brightened even more, and he kicked his legs with excitement, making Todoroki smile. “You miss Mama already?” He kissed the top of his son’s head, inhaling the soft baby scent that lingered in his hair. “She’ll be back soon. She’ll probably scold me if I let you get too drooly before she comes home.”

As if on cue, Shuu blew a big, wet raspberry against Todoroki’s shirt, successfully soaking the fabric. Todoroki sighed again. “Well, I walked right into that one.”

He shifted slightly, tilting his head to get a better look at his son’s tiny features. “You’re going to grow up into a strong, smart boy, Shuu,” he murmured, his voice softer now. “And I’ll always be here. Even when you start talking back to me instead of babbling nonsense.”

Shuu responded by planting both hands on his father’s chest and pushing up, his tiny arms trembling with the effort. He held himself up for a moment before collapsing back down with a happy squeal, his round cheeks pressing against Todoroki’s shirt.

Todoroki smiled, gently rubbing his son’s back again.

The front door opened a moment later, and your voice called out, “I’m home!”

Shuu perked up instantly, letting out a delighted squeal as he tried to push himself up again. If anything, Todoroki thinks that Shuu would’ve crashed into your legs by now if he were able to walk. And he just lifted him with ease, sitting up just as you walked into the living room with a grocery bag in each hand. You took one look at them—Todoroki’s shirt covered in drool, Shuu’s delighted expression—and shook your head fondly.

“Did you two have fun?” you asked, setting the bags down on the kitchen counter before making your way over.

“I think he’s plotting something,” Todoroki said seriously. “He suggested I take revenge on Midoriya.”

You gasped, placing a hand over your mouth in exaggerated shock. “Shuuchan! Are you already learning how to scheme?”

Your son shrieked in response, his chubby arms reaching for you, his mother. You laughed, scooping him up and peppering his face with kisses. Todoroki watched you, his heart full.

Yes, he never thought he’d be here—spending his weekends talking to an eight-month-old like he was a full-grown adult.

But he wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

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americankimchi · 1 year ago

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Do you have any tips for writing Obi Wan or any meta in mind with his characterizarion?

hmmm sure why not! i'll give a few tips on how i'd write obi-wan. mind you this is how i interpret the character, so ymmv.

i truly do not like it when fics have obi-wan voluntarily leaving the order. like it's so out-of-character for me in my head that the premise of the story + the writing would have to work triple-time to get me to stick around. now if he's been removed from it by an EXTERNAL SOURCE (not the order. i cannot stress this enough: the jedi kicking obi-wan out is so jarring to me i'll leave the fic in an instant) or somehow unable to return to the order for whatever reason, all is well.

not a prodigy, but a genius. obi-wan is an incredibly intelligent person with an absolutely staggering knowledge base in a wide variety of topics, but all that knowledge was earned through blood, sweat, tears, and time. he sat down with his game face on and put in the work. that's also why he makes an excellent teacher: he knows what most students will struggle with because he struggled too, and knows through experience how best to overcome them. i headcanon that it contributes to why he's such a good negotiator: he's really good at stripping down information to the essentials and communicating that information effectively and efficiently to others because of his intense study habits.

humble, but not ignorant of his skills. it's pretty impossible to fully divorce yourself from pride in your achievements, and i don't think it's healthy to not feel any pride at all, so i think obi-wan has a very clear understanding of his skillset and how best to use it. i don't think he'd be ignorant of how good he is at something, especially since the direct consequence of his aptitude led him to being a member of the jedi council. pretty hard to be blind to your strengths when you're being asked for your input on topics that directly draw from that knowledge.

averse to healthcare. listen i enjoy obi-wan whump just as much as the next obi-wan stan (the desire to put him in the cosmic salad spinner comes with the territory, i fear) but as a character who grew up in an environment that deeply cares for the well-being of all, and knowing that you cannot help others unless you yourself first have the ability to do so, i can't really see him ignoring injuries outside of combat scenarios. like on the battlefield he's got more pressing concerns than a pesky little shrapnel wound or five, but once the battle's over?? he might not be first in line to the medics but i can't see him avoiding them entirely. an army without a general is working at a sharp disadvantage and i don't think he'd risk his men by neglecting his physical health in that manner. note that i said 'physical'. make of that what you will :)

duty. obi-wan is the definition of a paladin. he takes an oath and by the force he's going to keep it. train the boy? absolutely, qui-gon. whether or not anakin chooses to respect that training is another matter, but he did definitively get knighted! refuse to kill anakin? listen he's handed vader his own ass to him twice post order 66 and each time he did it he did it nonlethally. that takes skill. that takes dedication. exile yourself to tatooine for 19 years and then decide fuck it, we ball, and die after Once Again Deciding Not To Kill Anakin Skywalker? step aside casper, there's a new friendly ghost in town. every time obi-wan commits to something the man COMMITS. you GOTTA respect that grind.

flirty but in the sense that he's going to match the energy someone brings to the table. like he's a negotiator. he knows how to read people and figure out the Vibes. if he thinks the other person will be 1) 100% receptive and 2) will respond with a delightful wit, why the hell not? obi-wan's highest stat is charisma and he's got expertise in persuasion. whether they're allies or not does not factor into this equation. he can have a little flirtation with morally dubious and potentially hostile characters. as a treat.

this has nothing to do with his character but i firmly believe that he and quinlan vos had at LEAST a fling when they were padawans. there is zero evidence to back this up aside from a few comics where they were being goofy teenagers together but i stand by this. it is an unshakeable aspect of obi-wan to me that has only gotten worse with the kenobi show.

no matter what, no matter how terrible or devastating or downright apocalyptic it gets, obi-wan kenobi will never fall to the dark side. never. it won't be easy, but that is a line he has never, and will never cross. i will not hear any "obi-wan touched the dark side during the theed generator fight" slander. if that was true tell me why the force theme was playing during his moment of triumph!!! Would John Williams Lie To Us Like That?? to our face?????

anyways i could go on forever about obi-wan because he is My Ultimate Blorbo but this post is getting super long so i'll leave it there. hope this helped even a little or at the very least was entertaining for you to read <3

#anon #ask #star wars #obi wan kenobi #long post #THIS TOOK. SO LONG TO ANSWER IM SO SORRY LMAO;;;;;;;

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lightyaoigami · 11 months ago

Text

☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ how to resume ⋆｡ﾟ☾｡⋆｡ﾟ☁︎ ﾟ

after 10 years & 6 jobs in corporate america, i would like to share how to game the system. we all want the biggest payoff for the least amount of work, right?

know thine enemy: beating the robots

i see a lot of misinformation about how AI is used to scrape resumes. i can't speak for every company but most corporations use what is called applicant tracking software (ATS).

no respectable company is using chatgpt to sort applications. i don't know how you'd even write the prompt to get a consumer-facing product to do this. i guarantee that target, walmart, bank of america, whatever, they are all using B2B SaaS enterprise solutions. there is not one hiring manager plinking away at at a large language model.

ATS scans your resume in comparison to the job posting, parses which resumes contain key words, and presents the recruiter and/or hiring manager with resumes with a high "score." the goal of writing your resume is to get your "score" as high as possible.

but tumblr user lightyaoigami, how do i beat the robots?

great question, y/n. you will want to seek out an ATS resume checker. i have personally found success with jobscan, which is not free, but works extremely well. there is a free trial period, and other ATS scanners are in fact free. some of these tools are so sophisticated that they can actually help build your resume from scratch with your input. i wrote my own resume and used jobscan to compare it to the applications i was finishing.

do not use chatgpt to write your resume or cover letter. it is painfully obvious. here is a tutorial on how to use jobscan. for the zillionth time i do not work for jobscan nor am i a #jobscanpartner i am just a person who used this tool to land a job at a challenging time.

the resume checkers will tell you what words and/or phrases you need to shoehorn into your bullet points - i.e., if you are applying for a job that requires you to be a strong collaborator, the resume checker might suggest you include the phrase "cross-functional teams." you can easily re-word your bullets to include this with a little noodling.

don't i need a cover letter?

it depends on the job. after you have about 5 years of experience, i would say that they are largely unnecessary. while i was laid off, i applied to about 100 jobs in a three-month period (#blessed to have been hired quickly). i did not submit a cover letter for any of them, and i had a solid rate of phone screens/interviews after submission despite not having a cover letter. if you are absolutely required to write one, do not have chatgpt do it for you. use a guide from a human being who knows what they are talking about, like ask a manager or betterup.

but i don't even know where to start!

i know it's hard, but you have to have a bit of entrepreneurial spirit here. google duckduckgo is your friend. don't pull any bean soup what-about-me-isms. if you truly don't know where to start, look for an ATS-optimized resume template.

a word about neurodivergence and job applications

i, like many of you, am autistic. i am intimately familiar with how painful it is to expend limited energy on this demoralizing task only to have your "reward" be an equally, if not more so, demoralizing work experience. i don't have a lot of advice for this beyond craft your worksona like you're making a d&d character (or a fursona or a sim or an OC or whatever made up blorbo generator you personally enjoy).

and, remember, while a lot of office work is really uncomfortable and involves stuff like "talking in meetings" and "answering the phone," these things are not an inherent risk. discomfort is not tantamount to danger, and we all have to do uncomfortable things in order to thrive. there are a lot of ways to do this and there is no one-size-fits-all answer. not everyone can mask for extended periods, so be your own judge of what you can or can't do.

i like to think of work as a drag show where i perform this other personality in exchange for money. it is much easier to do this than to fight tooth and nail to be unmasked at work, which can be a risk to your livelihood and peace of mind. i don't think it's a good thing that we have to mask at work, but it's an important survival skill.

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ good luck ⋆｡ﾟ☾｡⋆｡ﾟ☁︎ ﾟ｡⋆

#i don't know what to tag this lmao #job hunting #resume writing tips

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osakanone · 2 months ago

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The steel battalion controller could fix me. Some company needs to make specialty mech controllers so i dont have to spend £350 on 2003 hardware (so i can spend £350 on 2025 hardware).

Mech game Controllers: Solving the unsolvable

I have put so much time into thinking about this and you've basically asked the perfect question.

I think there are really complex and important questions that nobody really has a good robust answer to but also that nobody is really asking those big questions in the first place either, so we're stuck on this issue.

My take is I genuinely think if we want big mecha controllers we have to think about this stuff deeply and profoundly. Like, why we need them and what they're for.

So… This has been tried many times.

NOK or NextOfKin Creatives did try this.

The Mek-Fu lopped horribly, and I was absoloutely fascinated by this at the time and wanted to understand exactly why it had failed. I think we must learn from this failure, so we don't make the same mistakes again.

The lesson I took from Mek-Fu was this: it didn't take because players had nothing to use it in where it was the best fit.

What does this mean?

1) For other games in the real world, it was inferior to keyboard and mouse in games which do not simulate a vehicle. 2) The design wasn't trying to meet some sort of pre-existing need from other games. 3) Steel Battalion emulation did not exist meaningfully yet, and in turn no equivalent game existed on the PC platform which would need it.

Therefor: There was no special environment where its employment made the best sense.

It had nowhere to excel and thrive.

So where have specialty controllers existed, and thrived?

Digital Combat Sim (DCS)

Star Citizen

Euro Truck Simulator

Farming Simulator

What do they all have in common?

They all have robust modding tools for user-created content

They all have some form of social experience or multiplayer

They all are highly accessible (PC, and are controller agnostic*)

They are all sandboxes in some capacity and let users find their own fun.

No mech game which exists at time of writing meets all these terms that I know of.

So what do these controllers look like?

In the case of real vehicles, you can simply ape the real vehicle 1:1, but for fictional vehicles, something special happens -- you see people approach and try to solve the problem in many different ways.

You see, control design in any area exists to solve a problem. The Mek Fu (a response to the VT controller) was a solution looking for a problem, and no problem existed.

From this, we learn that for specialty mech controllers to exist, you first need specialty mech games. Steel Battallion is limited, because it won't run on general hardware and doesn't network or mod easily so it isn't a good fit for this because it makes the game inaccessible and limited.

Let's actually think about the SB controller for a bit:

Steel Battalion approaches its problem from the standpoint of a robot. You might not realize this but a VT or Vertical Tank intentionally controls very similarly to a tractor.

It is influenced by a real thing. I know that sounds absurd, but let me show you what a modern tractor's task control console looks like:

Yeah, not what any of us would have expected.

If you wanna be a mech pilot in 2025, go drive a tractor. I'm not kidding.

Once you're on the field, your hands aren't on the wheel, they're on this thing:

The big stick controls the course in the computer, the little one controls your tool, the many buttons toggle states (or what the little stick is currently triggering) and through these inputs you drive the tractor.

Steel Battalion is very fun, but it won't hold your attention for more than around 100 hours unless you're a real freak about tractors and just don't know it yet.

What's more, Steel Batallion isn't playable to anybody without the controller which limits how many people will be playing it and it isn't social or moddable like the successful games we talked about earlier.

Okay, so what can we do about this?

I think the one feature here that nobody talks about is that of input-agnosticism: The ability to bind your own inputs to something in the game (directly or indirectly through some middle thing) and get good results… But not in some hugely "okay bind 100 things using our controller, or use a keyboard and mouse" binary.

The binary is still not input-agnosticism, and it still will not work.

It has to be granular.

Input agnosticism results in controller agnosticism:

You can bind as much or as little as you want, and you can pass features you don't want to bind directly to a helper subsystem middle-man like an assistant or instructor which will perform limited tasks for you - while you provide the helpers context by telling them which of a limited set of goals you want to achieve.

Say, face a target, or a direction, or aim at a thing. It saves you mental time, though if you did it manually you might get better results (incentivising you towards experimenting in that direction).

Let's touch on why controller agnostic design is really what's needed here, and why its important:

This is the omnithrottle, and and this is the Sublight Dynamics 6dof joystick.

The Omnithrottle tries to solve 6dof throttle management by adding an extra piece to a joystick at the bottom, turning the yaw z-axis-twist of the stick into a sort of vertical axis for direct up and down movement, ascending and descending.

The Sublight Dynamics 6dof joystick combines all six axis into a single device, and is an interesting experiment. I particularly like the puck switches ahead of the user's fingers, inspired likely by Evangelion which in turn was inspired by Sol Bianca's use of them.

We got great lessons in human factors for space dogfighting from both:

The omnithrottle produces huge fatigue if you use it in coupled mode (software assisted flight), because you have to hold the joystick base forward, fighting the springs. This is fine in decoupled mode (where you coast under newtonian force) but not everybody uses it. Likewise, if you remove that spring, you lose fine movement because you can no longer feel where the middle is anymore.

The SD6DOF creates a conflict in Fitt's law (speed and precision are enemies of each-other, and to get both you need a tool in the middle to help you) where some precision is lost due to the same muscles needing to drive more axis at once.

These are both many years old now, and over time we've seen many many solutions to this problem flop.

Well, VKB announced the Space Throttle Grip a few days ago, which rethinks the distribution of axis and combines the best features of both.

youtube

The key thing is, this is an evolutionary space with competing ideas. A healthy ecosystem.

And its only possible because the game's inputs are controller agnostic.

This doesn't just mean that it'll let you bind any input device directly to things, but that there are multiple ways to achieve your desired outcomes even on the software side with the helper middleman we talked about (in this case, coupling modes).

Does your machine turn to face an arbitrary vector which is the thing you actually steer or select (Warthunder)? Do you have direct input control? Do you haven an autopilot?

Here's a lecture by F22 Raptor test-pilot Randy Gordon talking about some of this stuff, giving you a frame of reference with a real vehicle which exists.

youtube

When you can pick between those goals them, you have what's called "a software" in human factors. Your two grips become arbitrary and are now called inceptors.

The software drives the machine, and you drive the software. You can override the software and provide a manual input, but the other elements you are not overriding will try to compensate to maintain a desired state. If you know how to manipulate this, it means you only need a small number of axis to achieve a very complex control action.

A great example is how long you hold the A-button in Mario changes how much power his jump has. The action is a versatile verb.

Imagine a person balancing. If their goal is to stay upright, and I push them, they translate across the ground and try to stay the right way up, turning that push force into horizontal force. They are following an instruction: remain upright.

If I make that person carry a very heavy thing, they compensate their body's balance accordingly. If I then use my finger and tell them to act as if I am pushing them with that gentle motion, they will respond but if they go too far they can say "hey, don't do that, I'll drop the heavy thing!" and ignore my pushing instruction -- because my directive telling them to remain upright superseded it.

We need to think of mecha in terms like these, and to do mecha, we need to make a standard of accessible rules like this which input devices can talk to via axis and buttons, with lots of middlemen.

Absolute (mouse-like) and relative (stick like) and accumiulated (driving a mouse with a stick by having a variable over time) and blended (driving a car with a d-pad with a simulated wheel that wants to return to zero all the time, replicating a stick) inputs must be middle-modes processing and digesting inputs in these ways. Curves matter. Biases and preferences must be accounted for.

This means finally solving "how" the giant robot works in software (even if its a design conceit), and then having systems which poke at the "how" to bias it in a direction toward an outcome.

My favourite version of this is a deliberately clumsy mech-game called Robot Alchemic Drive (RAD for short).

youtube

Playable on a regular PS2 controller, the triggers and bumpers drive the legs like a tank. The sticks drive the arms.

The robot's body has physics. You are controlling a thing.

There are no helpers to correct your motions other than when the robot stands up and to keep it upright (its otherwise 100% manual, playing back motion planning which gets fed into the physics) but yes, there is a simulated body here.

With helpers, this could get faster and way, way more fluent.

So how might these "helpers" in software work?

Think for example of how a body in motion continues to move. With a robot in a vacuum like space, you'd continue indefinitely. That's hard to control.

Do you automatically slow down and fake aerodynamic drag axially with your boosters to allow curved trajectories and soft stopping with a motion-control-decoupling-mode (as Star Citizen does), or do you have a breaking system a user can activate on a pedal or trigger, to apply those forces on different axis when they want them?

youtube

What are those axis bound to, the pelvis, the thorax, the head, the synthetic vision 3rd person camera?

These are really complicated questions, and this is just about how we make a vehicle come to a stop!

Now this might seem niche, but this exact same kind of thought also applies to how a robot balances, and how it digs its feet into the ground, creating torque or not situationally.

This isn't just fine grained motion like "moving our legs manually", but how and when we apply breaking force on the ground.

Do we apply it when we let go of the left stick?

Does the left stick prescribe a preferred velocity?

Does it prescribe input forces?

Do we change between these situationally, or maybe with a button?

Its important to think about these things.

"You're making this too complex!!"

"But why would we do this? What is the value? People are playing Armored Core 6 with a HOTAS!!"

Yeah, and that experience is not great, actually?

youtube

You're actually less capable than a keyboard and mouse-player, because Armored Core 6 isn't a game which simulates orientation over time (the body turns instantly as if by magic), so you're just driving relative inputs. You are literally disadvantaged.

Armored Core 6 has no "vehicle": This is an action-game's 3rd person control software. Its Elden Ring's horse, with a jetpack, and the roll replaced with a dash. Everything else is animations.

Its visually impressive, but there's something fundamentally missing:

Fahrvergnügen.

It means "driving pleasure" in German.

The feeling you get when you speed up going down hill, or you feel the give of the wheels against the road and the lean of the car when you take a corner.

When you bank against air in an aircraft, or turn faster than your velocity changes and you drift.

That good feeling, that's fahrvergnügen.

A game which really gets this I think is Armored Core: For Answer. I know many of you might have expected Mechwarrior here but the physics of Mechwarrior games are extremely simple, following an interpolative model.

youtube

Interpolative here means, a bit of calculus is used to ensure a smooth arching curve is how you go from zero to a high speed at all times, or a rotation, so on and so forth. This "smoothness" is the same smoothness present in Armored Core 6.

Armored Core For Answer on the other hand, is additive in how it calculates velocity per second, meaning your AC's velocity curve is inconsistent. The game has hidden stats calculating aerodynamic drag per part, it has a simplified model of angular momentum, and it has ground friction and its boosting system is different on each axis.

All of your inputs are analogue, including the angle of your boosters on left stick, and two booster-types: Your main booster handling like a motor-cycle throttle curve, and the other not only having many stages of output for flashes of thrust via contexts (combining motion and direction together to produce an intent) but also combos and even cancels. Its VERY sophisticated!

That's a lot of different factors to control. A lot of fahrvergnügen to be experienced when you master them, and feel ownership of them.

Lots of areas for skill expression.

This, combined with a rich weapon balance and a complex combat geometry (the emergent spatial and pressure rules of motion, aspects, angles and motions similar to the aircraft dogfighting) are why people are still playing this game today.

The match I uploaded was from four days ago, as of time of writing. People are still modding a game from 2008, limited to console by hacking the rom file's patches. Yeah.

I know among many game reviewers, "smooth" and "smoothness" is considered a compliment in game design (its easy to control), but interpolative motion really is the opposite of fahrvergnügen:

Interpolative suffers from feeling "zippy" and "hollow" when its fast, which is why lots of players and designers insist on slowing games down so they recover their fahrvergnügen.

You don't have to do things this way. A good mech sandbox should reward both fast and slow movement in its design!

There should be room for everybody to play!

In interpolative movement games, motion is already solved, to sell you the superficial power-fantasy (that you're good, despite not having learned how to be good) instead of giving you the experience.

Interpolation is insisting the burger you got at McDonalds is the same as the burger on the commercial. Like the burger at McDonalds, its also way way easier to make, and in today's market yeah, you take what's easy and known because you have economic pressures to get things done quickly.

You can't make a five star meal in a McDonalds kitchen, and the AAA games industry is the McDonalds kitchen of gaming.

So, what is a three star michelin meal, in terms of inputs, with additive movement?

You incentivise people with the cheaper stuff on the menu. That's robust helper tools which let keyboard and mouse players, or gamepads interact fluently.

Its affordable, and easy and gets people invested in your experience.

Then when people use fancy controllers, you get better response-rate. Because everybody buys into the mecha fantasy when they play, being beaten by someone who is controlling more complex control factors more directly at once (making them a better pilot) feels fairer.

They are negotiating the machine's limits better than you are.

You both know they more "an char" than you are:

youtube

It becomes aspirational, rather than annoying, which is how the culture of space-simming, and flight-sims, and other vehicle sims express this. It also fits the mecha fantasy, because those with basic controls are your grunt units.

We see this if we look at cockpit controls in Gundam: A Jegan's control inceptor is way simpler than say, Unicorn's.

It is just part of the fantasy.

So let's talk about these limits we negotiate.

It means, some kind of vehicle must be simulated in software, even if its a very simple abstraction purely enough so it feels good for players.

Also, I say "a software" or "helpers" what do I mean?

I don't just mean the simulated vehicle, but a robust modular middle system in the "player controller" part of the game simulation which interprets desired outcomes from a pilot user or operator and tries to achieve them.

Here's an example, let's talk about Armored Core's lockon system, which uses a software stack to turn your intention into an outcome in exactly this way.

Your robot's simulated sensors (radar, visual, etc) detects a list of potential targets…

Which uses camera orientation of a synthetic vision system to give you comprehensive 3d awareness to determine which target is interesting to you…

After selecting the target, it passes that information to the fire control system which computes a trajectory from its position and velocity…

This then talks to your weapons which know how fast your bullets go…

and this picks where to lead along that trajectory…

then that location is sent to the arms to execute that command…

Which then sends the state of this command chain to your HUD, so you understand what the body of your robot is currently trying to achieve.

Each step is influenced by ingame statistics and simulated mechanical limits -- meaning, how well you can lock up, or even select a target is very important.

You can't instantly put a cursor on something and bot a game, because everybody already has a deliberately limited aimbot, it came with your robot, to negotiate its deliberately limited body.

The key thing is, this is much much faster and more effective than you could as a human select the target manually and hit accurate than you could with round velocities -- with most videogames hiding this with hitscan (instantaneous bullet) weapons meaning whatever you click on is hit right away.

When the round takes time to get there, things are far more difficult. This is why almost nobody uses manual aiming unless they're throwing explosives at big bulky targets in AC.

From limitations like this, booster performance, turn-rate, and so on and so forth -- the negotiation of limits produces a combat geometry and how well you understand that combat geometry, and how well you understand your abilities to your opponents abilities dictates how the fight will go.

We see something somewhat similar in Steel Batallion with the lockon system but we also have a lot of deep manual control over our VT's orientations which change its balance and so on. Steel Batallion is in fact, one of the few games where your robot can fall over and get back up.

This is exactly how DCS and Star Citizen also work, and very similar principles apply in Eurotruck Simulator and Farming Simulator via the fuel, cooling, air, combustion cycle, and transmission, and shock absorbsion systems of your vehicle.

Okay, so now what?

I've been thinking for a while now about writing what I think would be the mech-game equivalent of the paper Tim Berners Lee wrote for the web (Information Management: A proposal) going into what I think the simulation would really need, what the software would need, what the controller would need and some suggested practical strategies for solving these problems based in real research I and others have done.

The system I've already built solves for fire control, fine arm motion, head movement, independent pelvis and foot motion, the operation of boosters and other similar systems in a 6dof environment which accounts for gravity, aerodynamics, balancing, alignment and full motion control -- all on a standard game controller. Its not modular yet, simply because I am not a skilled programmer, and would need real help to do this.

There's also game-design research here, which would ensure the combat geometry would reward skill expression via investing in that agnostic game design, so the control skill aligns with the power-fantasy through skill expression. This means no one strategy becomes overwhelming.

It likewise, also has the "for gamepad and keyboard/mouse" solve which would be needed to ensure its accessible for those who aren't ready yet for custom controllers.

In turn, it also has considerations and proposals for such likely controller designs and probable strategies of employment which of course translate and map to two big sticks, in a HOSAS (Hands on Stick and Stick) layout.

So what's your ideal controller?

Less a controller, and more a principle:

Key to the proposal is you can scale up the amount of control bindings, or scale it down passing automation to helper subsystems which take your intention and act on it in a useful way.

You could have just two plain sticks with foot pedals, or you could go ham and have some complex force feedback device with tons of inputs -- because of this input agnosticism.

The secret sauce I think to the highest end control is the use of software defined force-feedback not only for the two big sticks, but also four smaller ones: one each for your thumb, and one each for your finger on each hand, and an analogue trigger. I've seen this solved in open source projects, so its entirely doable.

What does this actually mean?

Source: KAIST-HCIL/FS-Pad

The purpose of a force-feedback stick is software defined -- driving the camera, pelvis, upper body, boosters, walking etc variably, with the feedback not necessarily telling you about the environment -- but also by providing what amounts to new input devices.

To explain, force feedback works by providing input to the stick like a robot arm and is not at all like a rumble feedback device. This means the position the stick "wants to return to" at any given time is not defined by springs like it is in a conventional controller, but by active software which can update in real-time.

This means resistance can be different in different directions, or the stick can even hold a position you give it in one axis but not another, replicating a hat switch or a flight throttle.

I've looked at many different open source projects which achieve these outcomes both on thumb-sticks and main sticks with great outcomes, and I think a prototype could be made if I had a team, or other people to work with.

If interest is expressed, I'll produce a specification proposal for what this input agnostic design in software needs to be (eg, how the robot is controlling) in strictly defined terms which can be implemented.

You can already see it on my Tumblr account as TOMINO, NAGANO, etc where I go into some of this -- all of which works on a standard controller, but adapts extremely well to a large HOSAS.

Likewise, I'd (eventually) also produce a proposal for a controller design which meets this specification.

I've been testing this concept on and off for many years now in Unreal Engine (I'm not a skilled programmer, not skilled with CAD or electronics, depression limits my effective outcome returns -- but I'm still getting very promising outcomes).

Ultimately what I'd really want access to is expertise and help, since my background is mainly thinking about and designing solutions for problems not necessarily implementing them -- and I'm essentially on disability, so I have unlimited time to think about this.

I don't want to ask for money, which I figure is the thing everybody is anticipating: I'd rather get this done than make money from it.

In conclusion?

To solve this what's needed isn't some figure of brilliance in a basement or garage somewhere, but an organic ecosystem of designers and builders responding to pressures, and we've already see that work many times very well.

In our case, nobody has defined the vehicle or the modular helpers in a way robust enough to capture every fantasy effectively.

That's the issue.

tl;dr coming away from this:

For the controller to exist, you first must have something to control.

To be a pilot, you first need a vehicle.

Live forever, Apes.

#.AskOsaka #Mecha #Mech #Mech Design #Game Design #Peripheral Design #Peripheral Concepting #human factors engineering #Human Factors #Scifi

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