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Killian Jones

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Blog Entries posted by Killian Jones

  1. Killian Jones
    We are all very much aware of the so called rule 34 of the internet. It states: "If it exists, there is porn of it." It is very famously used to excuse the fact that there is porn of anything out there. And considering the internet is a handy compendium of all media, it also is going to likely contain pony porn somewhere, and it's going to be archived.
     
    Now we know there is a significant amount of it out there if you searched for it. So unsurprisingly, considering the amount of it out there, there must be people who like it. And these people have gotten their own name to denote their actions as cloppers. Much like furries have the equivalent of cloppers.
     
    Now what does mean for the regular brony? Well short answer is nothing. But there is a problem. A problem that should be solved from both sides amicably.
     
    The deal is, people on the internet tend to be a bit public with their lives, perhaps a bit too public to people too unfamiliar with them. And this perhaps poses a kind of too much information problem out there. See the issue here becomes. is it necessary for someone who would fall under the group of "clopper" to publicly announce this? And in all honesty, it isn't. Because as information goes, it holds no added value to your person. It's not exactly wanted information.
     
    This would be equivalent to publicly stating you like naked people in a shower while playing guitar as porn, it's slightly too specific and slightly unnecessary to know. It is highly annoying that people feel the need to deprivatise such information and make it like it is a part of themselves. A part of who they are.
     
    Now cloppers shouldn't be ashamed of what they do, or what they like. But sexual themes do tend to go a little too far and a little over the rocks when it comes to having a discussion. It never is a good to hand out information if you are unsure if the person receiving it will be at any point interested.
     
    That said, for anyone. If it is a part of your life, that's fine, but that information has it's place. While we all try to be less judgmental, don't make your preference in porn a part of you.
     
    I hope I conveyed well that it's a discussion that shouldn't be an issue. And that we should only try to separate both from each other. We shouldn't let general bronydom be portrayed with clopping. It's not normal, cause it's not the general norm. And it wouldn't be preferable to have image issues concerning all the heavy debate.
  2. Killian Jones
    After quite some thinking over this past year or so, and even more so these past few weeks. I got quite introspective about friends and friendship. A lot of things have happened, which bring me to my conclusions.
     
    What I have come to realize is that so many people out there truly undervalue friendship and what it means. And more importantly, throw around the word friend at someone without thinking once or twice. Very casually like it is nothing at all. And what it turns out is that people who often do this have many, many friends as a result, or what they call friends. But the question to me is, how well of a friend?
     
    And the thing I immediately think about is a sort of test. It is simple, elegant, but difficult for the ones who are not truly your friends. It goes something like this: “Tell me something about me, that you know cause we talked about it and isn’t a superficial and you didn’t have to outright ask. ” It is a nice test, because so many won’t be able to answer these things at all. And it does end up coming down to how well you value friendship.
     
    Now it is pretty easy, how can you value friendship? You can do so with little effort through investing time in a meaningful relationship. And there aren’t that many things to do, just hanging out, chatting, playing games together are pretty easy ways to get to know each other, and the more time invested, the more you get to know each other. And the more value your friendship has. But it takes time, a lot of it, and over a course of more time. Which brings me nicely into the next point.
     
    All relationships take time and a little bit of effort, consume much of it, and some of your own mental energy. And humans have a limited amount of it. And it would seem that people who have a seemingly large amount of friends either have more time per day than there is actually time in that day and the ability to juggle so many people. Especially keeping up with them well. And I realize for myself it already is so hard.So I wonder how others must do it, but seeing their interactions with me. I honestly believe they don’t. Cause it is all so shallow.
     
    What happens often, and it is a term we use often is “best friends” and really best friend is just a substitute for friend, except we lobbed too many people into the friend category we need to start and differentiate. Which is ridiculous because it puts many people in an awkward twilight zone about where they stand with anyone else as a person. And I often feel we shouldn’t lie to each other and call each other friend when you really aren’t.
     
    I personally have learned a lot this past year. I have lost many people whom I used to consider friend, but in reality, I never was, and never would have been, and to them I wouldn’t be considered a friend in return by my definition. So it really wasn’t much of a loss. But in reality, I feel like I should treasure my true friends. And while I will say this, if you are reading this, and you believe you don’t fit this category well, or you are often absent to create a proper connection. Then I am sorry, but you are not really my friend. And those who are know who they are.
     
    Thank you for reading and good day. <3 Especially to my friends.
  3. Killian Jones
    So, i have several reasons why I don't wish to RP here, or in most places, some deal with mentality. but allow me to explain.
     
    1. My lack of RP skills
     
    I am very bad at writing, I am just dreadful. And in order to get better, you have to practice, RPing, is good, but see where I am at? I am already stuck. I am woefully inexperienced in any kind of writing. Considering the other reasons I will bring up later, I won't be able to join one in the first place.
     
    My only practice is writing stories for myself, Nothing else.
     
    2. The lack of availability
     
    This community is very American, very, very American. Especially the RP community. this means shooting myself in the foot when it comes to communication. Since I am slightly busy, it means that all catch up is very, very difficult. RPs generally shoot off rather superbly quickly. And completely without me. This has happened in literally every single RP I have ever joined on this site. So it is neigh on impossible to keep up.
     
    The worst thing is, RPs tend to have a gigantic amount of participants, creating an even worse clusterfuck to deal with. Just nope.
     
    3. No interesting RPs.
     
    This is important, a lot of RPs I see, I am not even interested in story wise. It's difficult to join something you just don't care about or seems stupid and stale.
     
    Now, you might say, why not make your own? I have three major ideas I've had so far. All of the feedback I have received on them was basically, "this is stupid?" or "this is meh, I wouldn't join it." and even "You should just make slice of life."
     
    This includes Fiasco, a Fantasy inspired action RP and the Fringe RP. This has been a lot of work, and literally, no interest whatsoever. This is toxic to wanting to do this.
     

     
    This is essentially how my experiences and how people have been, this has me annoyed greatly. But it makes sense. I have been effectively been discouraged from making or joining RPs.
     
    I hope this was worth reading. Even as a cautionary tale.
  4. Killian Jones
    I believe I've had a pony OC for over a year, and he's been through a lot. And I feel like there is a reason for this. There were some very important stages that helped shaped and some of the mistakes that were made. The big idea is that TichPony was actually a spinoff character. Since Tich is actually a human, this pony should reflect that character. Let us look.
     
    1. Overall design
     

     
    Now there is nothing much wrong here, we see a female pony. Nice looking colours, they don't clash and they complement each other nicely. Not much to say here. However the character was pretty far removed from whom the pony was based off. Let's move on to redesign number one.
     
    2. The Orange t-shirt with black sleeves.
     

     
    There was a time when Tich was always drawn with an orange t-shirt that nobody else bothered with or used. But Tich did. At this stage I had decided, perhaps it was a thing. And maybe it should be. So it become a permanent piece of clothing for this pony. But still keeping all the things from the previous iteration set.
     
    3. Becoming more male
     


     
    One of the most regrettable mistakes was giving this pony too many female features. Most notably eyelashes. Biggest mistake ever really. This would doom my pony for gender confusing for ages. But now it was big more Braeburn-esque. Less eyelashes, still kind of girly, but less.More androgynous was ok. But closer to male than female.
     
    4. Becoming more Tich.
     

     
    The last thing to bother me was the hair. The hair had got to go. Well the hair as it was. This hairstyle far better resembles the hair of Tich. Wavy at the back, the bangs to the side being like Tich. And now finally this pony is far more like Tich, than he ever was. Still quite girly, but a guy, with a long flowing mane.
     
    Conclusions and the future
     
    Since Tich pony is a lot better now than he's ever been. He can kind of stay, While for now I will be focusing on my human character more, developing his looks and feels. In order to give him some love, Tich pony will stay around. But more in the background, occasionally happening. in group pictures. However, there is some hope for the future, he is getting a similar treatment to Tich. Something I can show off right here. Meet Altich Pony, the alternate universe version of Tich pony. He has the same hairstyle as Altich the human.
     

     
    Thanks for reading, and have a nice day.
     
    Credits
    Teech - Pencils
    Classy shirt - PeachPalette
    Smeel smeel smeel - Laydee Kaze
    Wet wet wet - Laydee Kaze
    New Tich - Anarchie Mimi
    Altich - Anarchie Mimi
  5. Killian Jones
    So on Codecademy, in one of the tracks, you have to solve FizzBuzz. A simple test to see if you can write some of the easy loops and conditional structures in a language.
     
    Fizz Buzz is a game, where you count the numbers, but if a number is divisible by 3 you say "Fizz" and when it is divisible by 5 you say "Buzz". If divisible by both you say "FizzBuzz".
     
    Now their solution is slightly annoying to me as it isn't very elegant and just proposes a very nested if structure. See code below.

    var end = 20;for (var i = 1; i <= end; i++){ if (i%15 === 0) { console.log("FizzBuzz"); } else { if (i%5 === 0) { console.log("Buzz"); } else { if (i%3 === 0) { console.log("Fizz"); } else { console.log(i); } } }}
     
    It works, and it's ok, but it's not very extendable. I have my own solution which I find nicer:
     

    var end = 20;for (var i = 1; i <= end; i++){ var word = ""; if(i%3 === 0) { word += "Fizz"; } if(i%5 === 0) { word += "Buzz"; } if(word != "") { console.log(i); } else { console.log(word); }}
     
    Why do I like my solution? It uses three if statements but doesn't intend to. It doesn't nest any structures cause it doesn't need to. check for both at the same time ever. Another thing is, if the game were extended somehow, like say "Wizz" for every number divisible by 7. My solution easily allows a single if to be popped in. The proposed solution will need a completely rewrite.
     
    Bottom line is, i don't like it.
  6. Killian Jones
    I will confess something, something horrible, something awful, something so shocking it will rock your world.
     
    I used to play MapleStory. And I had several characters. And I just spent a little work using a character simulator called BannedStory. to rebuild how these characters looked a little.
     
    Where does this tie into. As many of you may no, my dead pony OC wears an orange shirt. And subsequently, any character of mine would share this characteristic. Green eyes, blue hair, and orange shirt with black sleeves. it’s a thing.
     
    Now you are wondering? Why? When I was playing. whenever I was around friends just chilling out, or when I was helping out someone lower leveled than me. I would wear some noob gear I kept around, but also a level 11 t-shirt. The funny thing about it, nobody else wore it. Simply because everyone else would get a job at level 8 or 10 and immediately switch to job specific gear. Instead of buying this stupid tacky thing.
     
    Now another thing to consider is I cheated a little. My assassin isn’t a Bandit, and certainly wouldn’t wield that, but on some private servers I loved being a Bandit. so that’s who he would be now, in my mind.
     
    And girls couldn’t wear the shirt. But screw the rules I have blue hair.
     
    Anyway, that’s it for story time. The specific hair alterations were done because it would match the character. Honestly the pirate with the bound hair and the Dawn Warrior with the blonde hair, looked amazing.
     
    And that’s the story. I did develop the look myself. It is mine, do not steal.
     
    (cross post from Tumblr)
  7. Killian Jones
    (Reposted from my Tumblr)
     
    Since it’s been officially announced that there will be a princess coronation at the end of the season which will likely turn Twilight Sparkle into an alicorn princess like Celestia, Luna and Cadence. I have heard about much outrage concerning this change. And I want to chip in. What I see as the faults and possible problems with this change.
     
    The first and biggest problem is how final it would be. It would irrevocably change the position of Twilight Sparkle in the show. She cannot go back to being her old unicorn self. From here on out, she will be in her new form and position. And this can pose a lot of challenge, but will definitely impose changes. Stories would have to be written differently as a result of this. The new Twilight will have new responsibilities and powers that will have to taken into account.
     
    Secondly, this change will mean Twilight will lose a certain amount of innocence. She is no longer the librarian from Ponyville sending reports on friendship to Canterlot. She will be elevated to a new position. And there is no telling what she will do and where she will be to do this. It would seem logical in a sense that she should move to Canterlot. But who knows what she will have to do. This will to some degree affect how she would deal with situations.
     
    Lastly is her friends. What will become of the other Elements of Harmony. How will their lives change? How will their friendship change? Although there are some tells that they will move on in to what they are best at. Rainbow Dash joining the Wonderbolt Academy is one of them, and we still have half a season to find out what could be going on with the rest of the Mane Six in the meantime. How their lives will turn around. Applejack is of course staying at the farm.
     
    I am intrigued to how the writers of the show are to deal with these changes, it is a mere simple show about ponies, there isn’t much to say about complicated season arcs. Although this point would become a milestone in how stories can be told.
     
    We’ll see. I recommend everyone to be cautious. We ought to see the changes and how it affects the show before drawing conclusions, challenges will come for us all.
     

     
    Posted this a while ago when it was just speculation.
  8. Killian Jones
    So today I managed (with some help) to edit this. A main problem being having to switch editing programs because Sony Vegas just doesn't cut it anymore.
     
    What basically happens with Vegas, when you import an AVI file into it, you get to not use sound in the file. That is a very, very annoying problem. I cannot change the file type I record in, Fraps locks you into using AVI for encoding. Which to me is fine. But it must be said, it is not alright for a video editing program not to be able to grab all the data from the file. And suggesting I preconvert is also annoying considering it takes valuable time grabbing either the audio or converting a video into a new file. Especially 10 minute long segments in 720p or 1080p quality. It takes time and resources away.
     
    Instead I opted into figuring out how to use Premiere, and learning how to edit footage in that. It handles AVI perfectly fine. However Premiere can be wonky in using it, it's not as straightforward as Vegas. This video is proof I got stuff working. I actually like it more than Vegas now, more shiney tools.
  9. Killian Jones
    I will rant in two parts here, don't worry.
     
    I don't like team assignments, and this has many reasons. the first reason is, I tend to have to work with people who I would say have very poor analytical skills and generally don't seem to understand how certain good practice works. At times I just think they program things willy nilly, without thinking what the hell they are doing. I constantly feel like these people don't deserve their diploma's, very simply because I cannot understand how they could possibly manage to pass courses.
     
    The very notion of this baffled me, how they continuously write poor code, fail to go through the code and use already implemented stuff. Why when they start doing stuff, they don't first ask whether I am modifying that code so I don't lose all my work for their broken as shit stuff.
     
    I don't like working in groups, especially when they lack focus and the ability to properly divide the tasks. Or think of how to complete their task.
     
    But anyway part number two. From this point on I will speak in strict programmer lingo and use programming examples. if you aren't a programmer, feel free to skip this, these are examples.
     
    Right now, I am making a chat program for school, so it's possible to send and receive messages in group chat. So what I did was look up some examples and started working, all of them having a fairly similar structure, Server side there is one thread which accepts new connections through a ServerSocket. Each ServerSocket then creates a new ClientSocket, which gets it's own thread to listen to the messages coming from a specific client. Fairly standard stuff.
     
    Now beforehand I said, we should only parse messages which are sent and received as String objects. And that anything special as a command should be preceded by a "/", like how IRC clients and Skype clients send commands through chat. But no, constantly I see code being added from a specific example I remember looking at trying to use a token, a token of the Yen symbol trying to parse fairly complicated strings and stuff. it would've been a nightmare to use. but it kept creeping in.
     
    Let's not mind the fact that this one guy insisted on sending txt files filled with code INSTEAD of using the svn server we have set up. Why I ask you are we using svn in the first place?
     
    Another guy, managed to not make one project, but add three svn projects, oops. And not even that, didn't even bother adding them to to trunk folder as you are supposed to, no, just add them to the wrong folder. Cluttering up the whole thing, i mean come on man.
     
    One of the members unknowingly messed with files, and managed to create tree conflicts in a file. Meaning I had to rename it to get it working on the svn, I mean how did you do this, why are you so incompetent?
     
    And that's just svn usage. some team members decided to commit code which I was editing, meaning I had to go through the trouble of doing revert on mine, update and then find that nearly nothing changed. And that while I told everyone I was changing code.
     
    Oh yes, before I forget, the guy who added the proper project. Added a project which was still in java 5. Good god, we are using Java 7. He derped and never updated. What an idiot, Just update to the latest gorram thing, All of those things I needed. Couldn't use diamond inference, couldn't use String in a switch case. Have you got any idea how difficult more difficult this makes certain things? Not to mention whoever kept removing the diamond inference because "we didn't see this in class". It works, it's easier, use it dammit.
     
    Also stop writing code for which there is already code. here's what you wrote:
    public void sendToUser(PrintWriter writer, String message){ writer.println(message); writer.flush();}
     
     
    You know what the problem is? you had to do the following to use this:
     

    PrintWriter writer = getUser(username).getClient();sendToUser(writer, message);
     
    I don't know where you read this, or when you thought this was a good idea. Or even why you didn't notice that you can already just do getUser(username).client because all the variables are defined as package meaning you can access them. yes, you even wrote getters and setters for something when the object in question didn't need them. But let's not mind the fact that the ClientThread object you are grabbing right there has a very nice method already implemented. called you can just do clientThread.sendMessage(message) whenever you want. On every ClientThread object you want. Why did you put this wasted effort.
     
    Your code is literally littered with this. too stuck to actually what you learned then to analyse what you need. Practices you learned in class which you implement blindly. All your incessant failures to read the code which already is there and works.
     
    And trying to fix what isn't broken.
     
    let's not forget all your favourite System.out.println() you have, not even bothering to remove them after testing and not using the showOnLog() method to actually like, put it in the GUI which we made to catch problems.
     
    To conclude, I'm not going to miss you guys, I'm really not. And I won't enjoy any other group tasks I have to do, with anyone.
     
    </rant>
  10. Killian Jones

    Steam etiquette

    By Killian Jones,

    Something I have been noticing lately, people who invite me to a game without prior conversation, without bothering to ask if I have the time, or if I was in the mood to play. This happens more often then I want to, pop up with a invite to a game.
     
    It's kind of rude when you just invite without asking, ask first, then when I say yes, send me an invite.Not this, it's annoying. Because I often don't have time.
     
    No, I am not going to shut down Steam for it. I have time to maybe chat, not play a game.
  11. Killian Jones
    I tried, no seriously, I tried, but I am right now at attempt #3
     
    The first time, you said I needed 20GB more free Hard drive space, and so I had to remove a lot of stuff to make this happen, and reluctantly I managed to give you this space, but not before restarting and derping around like hell.
     
    The second time, you started moving my settings, but then you just couldn't help yourself, and you froze midway, I don't know what went wrong, all I know is, it took you a long while to restore my old Windows, which you eventually did, luckily.
     
    Now the third time, I actually managed to install you, and nicely you asked to be set up, again, I did everything I could to oblige, I set up my colour scheme, gave you the wifi password, and then you asked me to personalize more. But you also decided to remove mouse and keyboard input. So of course, I restart my laptop, and now you are restoring my old Windows.
     
    So all I have to ask, was this just bad design, how did this get past testing? Did you think my computer was a touch screen and just assume no more need for a mouse?
     
    I have been asked to install you for school, but I don't think I even can at this point, I'll try one more time, fourth's time the charm? But I doubt it, I'll likely use my input capabilities long before that.
     
    But seriously, why?
  12. Killian Jones
    Even though many will see brohoofs as a pointless numerical value or as an addition of no value. While other attach much of an importance to how high the number is regardless of what they post.
     
    I instead see it as a measure of how successful I am. With each post I make, place though in, take time to write, think up and place out there for all to see. It's not hard to overlook a could things about it.
     
    If someone agrees with it and thinks it's a well written, brings a good argument, they will be likely to leave a brohoof. if they do not, they will in some sense either try to point this out to me, by quoting me or simply replying to me.
     
    Now as I see it, I have earned less brohoofs then I have made posts. What this means to me as a member is that I have been very unsuccessful, or very unliked, and at some points, even simply ignored. And as it stands, somewhat of a failure.
     
    Do note, this is not a plea to go and brohoof every single one of my posts, or go ahead and start brohoofing more of my posts. I accept the position I am in now. It's a long time I've felt this.
     
    It's why I changed my posting behaviour to match. And rather not put effort into something which is a futile position.
  13. Killian Jones
    I am someone in heavy support of replacing most of the things within education which don't make sense anymore or are indicative of a system behind the time.
     
    My first proposal, introduce video lectures as a main means of bringing new knowledge to students. I often see in my own classes how teachers are interrupted, have to struggle using the logistics of the classroom, stumble over their own words. There are many reasons why teaching by professing or lecturing is not optimal and frankly a waste of time. There is no reason we could automate this process by instead providing a video, which can be paused and rewound at any point which contains the same information but streamlined so there are no faults. Using some fancy video editing to bring visual and audio material together.
     
    Now doing this would require cutting up a study material into manageable pieces, I would even say YouTube has the right idea of 5-15 minute presentations. it would be more then enough to bring the essence of a new piece of information without overstaying. Although depending on the domain you could make longer or shorter where necessary.
     
    Secondly, what I would suggest is roadmapping skills and knowledge so any and all content is reviewed that is necessary to move forward to the next piece. In a very simple example, you need to learn about general addition and multiplication before you can solve simple linear equations. Similarly, a lot of knowledge can be roadmapped into "you need to know about all this before starting this new thing." By roadmapping you can steer students in the right direction and gain better insights in what fields are better and worse understood.
     
    The idea is to lock out moving forward until the prior knowledge is accrued. It is vital to have a student gain proficiency in a abject before actually going forward to a new piece where this subject is repeated over and over.
     
    Now what am I getting at here. It may seem like I am cutting out the middle man, and sincerely, slightly I am a little. In a new model you won't need a teacher to teach. A teacher will serve as an expert in his or her domain. And be available to help steer students who are having trouble, expand on subjects which some are having trouble with and monitor how all the students are progressing on the roadmap each and every one by themselves.
     
    And especially if we can make sure that such a roadmap would provide a way to check if a student has enough knowledge or skill in a certain small field before moving on. Emphasizing a skill based learning method where own pace is vital to how a student progresses.
     
    It is of my own opinion you can get a lot more people with a lot better understand and a lot better educated if we don't make them slog through a system seemingly manufactured for an industrial age while we instead could use our modern technology to improve and diversify education.
     
    In all honesty, this is barely the tip of the iceberg of what could be done in terms of reforms, So much more needs to be put in place for it to be a viable system. Rough lines do help give people a better picture, but an actual realization may be a slight effort to do first, but it would be completely worth it.
  14. Killian Jones
    I am posting this song because this is how I feel about you. And many will know who I am talking about.
     
    I'm not upset, I am merely distraught with you dumping me. And I in retrospect, I have learned my lessons from this. But I do expect you from now on not to lend you any courtesy, or lend you any.kind of friendship. I don't want to talk to you for what you said when you dumped me. What you said was really harsh and was really an unfair blow to me.
     
    What I have learned is, you decided not to be honest, hide your feelings, and just not talk about how you felt. And I should've seen this coming, you had done this before with others, completely excommunicating them from your life for no real reasons, and you still decide to do this. This is why I don't pity you or your situation. When you decide to walk away from people who cared about you like that.
     
    You can still go around and walk around and comment on my stuff, but don't expect me to suddenly start talking to you, because in your own words, we have nothing in common.
     
    I am over you, goodbye.
  15. Killian Jones
    There is a reason I don't role play and a reason, on this forum or anywhere else. And I will explain some of the gripes I have with role playing, as it may explain what could be done if you want to entice me. I won't be talking about specific gripes with people, or time zones, but other inherent problems.
     
    Lack of endgame
     
    Most role plays will have a huge problem with this one. Lacking an endgame means the characters lack a goal. Usually an endgame should be resolving an event, or getting justice for a tragedy. It needs to have a resolve. The goal should be clear. This part should be placed prefaced inside the first post. It can be a mystery, but clues should be given.
     
    A role play without direction threads water too much. Finds itself no where and the participants will lose interest fairly quickly. As progress should be made. So all characters should be aware of the quest and be capable of progressing it.
     
    This brings me onto the next point.
     
    Improper DMing (Dungeon Mastering)
     
    Whoever creates the role play inadvertently becomes dungeon master. Being dungeon master is an important role as this person must not only steer their own character but also steer all the other characters. Sometimes even not being able to be on the good side and having to work against the other characters.
     
    It is such a great role as you help shape the bath as the other players encounter it. Especially during long role plays, and the role really gives a different game. As you have to throw situations at the others. Doing this well is not covered by me, but there are some things you can do, which relate to the next problems.
     
    Lack of Decisions
     
    While having an open world open ended place may seem like a world full of decision, it isn't. In fact it's bad as you lack something, crucial decisions. Having the character stand on the precipice of a point of no return. Or making one decision which will exclude other possibilities in the future. By having a DM give proper choices to the players, they can make decisions, perhaps even life or death, exclusion or inclusion. which can take a dramatic turn on the story you are trying to tell.
     
    Good decisions come from a well crafted obstacle, and having multiple one time tools to get around it, especially decisions which may have undesirable side effects.
     
    In order to have them done well, a DM would have to determine outcome, so Mary-Sue like decisions are avoided. You can have a non-Mary Sue character take decisions which perfectly align with the characters strengths and play out just perfectly. Which shouldn't happen, and I will explain in the next point
     
    Lack of Adversity
     
    A lot of role plays lack adversity. This can be through a form of loss, or even being forced into a no-win situation, a point where something of great value must be given up. Having characters fight with each other and themselves is a great way to move story, by backing them into a corner and pushing their limits, you can create true character development. True happiness once situations are resolved and actual grief for something that is lost. Great stories place characters in positions they rather not be. And do so to a breaking point. Just to see growth. Forcing tough decisions that the Dungeon Master places on the characters can help to facilitate this.
     
    No randomized outcomes
     
    What dice rolls can do is basically wonders, having outcomes be so undecided, and be so based on randomization. Not even the participants know what will happen next. Randomization of outcomes places a unique constraint on everyone, even the story crafter themselves. Having to roll literally with the hand you are dealt can be a creative inspiration to all.
     
    Having everything go as planned is never good at dealing with any of the problems mentioned above. But randomization can throw such a wrench in the story. It can range from happiness, to sadness, to frustration, to relaxation. It constrains yet allows for beauty to flourish from the story it crafts.
     
    Too many characters
     
    In a lot of role plays you see a lot of people joining, often even, far too many. Creating a sort of ensemble cast. Now the problem is interaction. a role play often has to do a great many things, explain backstory, explain situations, introduce characters. For each character more that is introduced, interactions invariably become more difficult to manage and to maintain. Time and time again does a role play need to force split ups, force grouping. But it doesn't help but create a mountain of content to peruse through as a Dungeon Master.
     
    It is far better to have a small crew, which makes every character that much more important, instead of making them all soft voices within a loud crowd.
     

    That is all I have to say. All my gripes with in forum role playing. Things which drain the fun and make those experiences tedious and boring. I would role play, but I would by a different set of rules.
     
    I hope you enjoyed this rant. Please have a good day.
  16. Killian Jones
    So here's the story, I once had a commissions topic (now closed and hidden) for skins for this mod, I would charge $3 for a skin to be made.
     
    Now the problem was, nopony was very interested, and the mod has since changed around some stuff, So skinning is different. Now if I do see interest in people wanting these. I'll have it reopened and also add some info on people wishing to update their skins. I detailed some of this in my previous blog post.
     
    If you do, I urge you to vote in the poll and perhaps leave a reply, I'll keep you all uprised.
  17. Killian Jones
    Well, today I decided I wanted to fix an age old problem, my human Minecraft skin. In order to do this I had looked into some more advanced skinning tools. I found MCSkin3D. Played around with it for a bit and managed to create results.
     
    What I had to go from was this picture. But losing the hat. Once I had finished it, it looked slightly bland. The result wasn't bad per se. But I managed to get the hair done nicely.
     



     
    With the initial step taked, I decided I needed to add something more, make it look less bland. So I added some hems and made the V-neck on the skin. But that wasn't enough, I was still quite stuck with having a large empty orange spot as a body. it needed some flair. Something to look at. So I decided to add two things. My ponies cutie mark, and more like angelical wings. So I eventually settled on the following result:
     



     
    Sexy isn't it? Well, I'm pleased with the result. I could maybe do something with the pants, but eh. I'm good with it. Just kind of sour about being incapable of adding the signature Tich goggles my pony wears. But eh, can't have it all I say, may still try to add it, if it looks proper I'll keep it.
     

     
    In the meantime, i discovered that the editor supported Mine Little Pony, this was doubly exciting because I needed to fix my skin for it because the latest update changed everything about skinning for it. It still supports old skins, but I should change over.
     
    Now what was exciting about this was, It also meant I could redesign it somewhat. Here are some pictures of the old skin: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4. Group picture of my accounts with Human Tich and Pony Tich.
     
    I am not very pleased of it, that's one, the hair doesn't look too great, and considering some recent additions I made to my character.I wanted to incorporate them. at least the classy shirt.
     
    So what I decided to was, first, make my character look proper under the new scheme, so all the things being displayed were in the right spot. And I must say, a lot changed, luckily.that was easy enough to fix. The next thing that bothered me was the hair, the hair looked like proverbial shit. I had to fix it. But then again, I already had drawn pretty hair. So it was just a matter of porting it over. So I fired up Photoshop. Carefully moved the human hair onto my pony. And tada! now both of these share the same hair style. Then I fixed up the wings and drew on that classy t-shirt.
     
    I will say I am pretty happy with the results. And I am here to share!
     






     
    Well then, that's pretty sexy if you ask me, I also fixed the tail texture so it looks all messy and squiggly too. And that satisfies me
     

     
    Now what does this mean, it means I am once again getting better at skinning, and I am enjoying the results. Which means I may re-open my shop for people to have their pony Minecraftized. For a small price and perhaps even throw in a new commission to allow people to port over their existing character in the new character scheme!
     
    If I did I would ask $3 for regular ponification and maybe $1.50 for transformation from ye olde to new. I would look at what I originally posted, but having colour reference sheets or a Generalzoi high res render does help in all instances. And preferably not a pony filled with accessories. And a costumer who is willing to look past Minecraft's blocky look and not mind how flat hair gets on there.
     
    Anyway, I thank you all for reading. that was a pretty long post.
     
    I bid you good day.
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