It’s not terribly mysterious why shit like the load-bearing coconut happens. Usually it goes something like this:

Goal: the programmers have a bunch of data they need to have access to in every scene  

Problem: the game engine they’re using does not support a global scope  

Solution: create an invisible game object that holds all of that data in its attributes, and make sure it’s the first thing that loads in every scene  

Additional problem: the game engine requires every object to have a texture assigned to it, even if it’s never rendered  

Additional solution: assign this random stock photo we just happened to have lying around as the texture for the fake global scope object  

Result: the resources folder now contains a random JPEG of a coconut that can’t be removed or else the whole game stops working

One might think that this understanding would make load-bearing coconuts less funny, but this is not in fact the case: it makes them much, much funnier.

Okay, so, question I've had for a while but never got around to asking, what the FUCK is up with Grian's wings?

If all physical differences in players (like those particularly ascribed to 'Hybrids' in mcyt fanon) in Hunger AU are a result of conscious altering of your own code for the express purpose of achieving YOUR IDEAL BODY(tm) then what does that mean for Grian and his wings? No one seems to regard Grian's wings as "What The Fuck, You Can DO That?!?" so presumably wings aren't so big of a change from normal biology that players can't do that. If so, why is it not more common? Man, if I could have wings I'd jump on that in seconds. Especially with the sheer utility the ability to fucking FLY gives players. Are wings (and maybe other larger alterations) just like, REALLY HARD to code in? If so, that might add a really cool layer of "Oh wow! They must be a really good coder!" to players who meet people like that.

On a related note, Grian seems to have a positive regard for his wings, which is interesting because I would be willing to bet he didn't have that before *insert sounds of worm-bursting and non-consensual body modification*. I imagine seeing his wings would likely feel like a reminder of the Watchers and what they did to him. BUT, Watchers manipulate their own code when they change like Grian did to, y'know, not be a worm anymore so Grian probably specifically chose how he looked, right? So, unless he did so really rushed and somehow made a mistake while doing so (which he might not be able to risk the structural damage of correcting), keeping the wings was a conscious decision. Does Grian just not associate his wings with the Watchers or is it something else? Does he just really enjoy having wings?

HELLO I AM SO GLAD YOU'VE ASKED THIS BECAUSE I HAVE ‼️‼️‼️‼️ MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT IT ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

Okay okay so these are all SUCH valid questions, lemme go through them one by one. Wings are indeed something anyone could have if they wanted to code them in-- and in fact, i do believe many other Players have wings throughout the universe!!! As far as body mods go, i like to think of them as decently popular, so its definitely not anything too weird to see. In chapter 5, i even make a mention to Pearl having moth wings she occasionally codes in due to preference!!! So wings of many different types are definitely available-- but the catch is that they're real fiddly to code. You cant just give yourself wings, you have to code in the bone structure, the muscles, the tendons, etc etc, and then you have to change your entire body structure as well to work with and fully support them. They can be awkward and unwieldy, as ive tried to show in the fic itself, and i think that alone can be a big discouragement for Players considering coding in wings, along with the sheer coding effort needed to obtain them and make them functional

And the thing is, elytra already exist-- they're far more compact, they dont take up as much space, you can take them on and off super easily without having to mess with your coding, and they basically do the same thing. Sure, its a pain to get one, but a lot of Players really enjoy the sense of accomplishment, and i think theres a bit of cultural prestige too in that regard. Server milestones are a huge thing in Player culture, and getting your first pair of elytra is a big one!!! So it makes sense to me that people who just dont want to go through the effort of coding in wings (which can then in turn complicate how they code other future modifications) primarily stick to elytra.

And everybody is different-- some people prefer attributes that arent wings. I like to think everyone in hermitcraft generally is a mix of "jeez thats effort, i could be building my base instead of doing that" and "eh im fine how i am, i like it" and "well we have elytra shops everywhere so why bother".

So in short, yeah!! Wings are a bit complex to code in. They're still pretty popular, i think plenty of Players do choose to incorporate them, but it takes a lot of hard and thorough work to make sure they function right and wont bug you out when you use them. There are billions of Players scattered across the universe, so what you're seeing in the fic right now is truly just a drop in the ocean when it comes to Player body diversity :] and then, elytra basically already help Players achieve a form of flight without the hassle of recoding their entire body structure, so i think the majority of Players just prefer to use them instead.

AS FOR GRIAN'S WINGS IN PARTICULAR......

Well..... its complicated. Particularly his feelings about them-- in the fic, i referenced them as the only good thing the Watchers ever gave him, and thats how he sees it, i think: a thin silver lining. He's had many, many years to get used to them, and i think he goes through periods where he hates them and the memories attached, too. Ultimately, he's kinda stuck with them, so i think he hit a form of acceptance (as bitter-tinged as it may be) out of sheer necessity for his own sanity.

As for why he has them, and hasnt coded them out: i think of it as a particular quirk of biology/structural coding. Watchers have a more instinctive way of coding than Players, but a Player-minded Watcher is still going to think like a Player, and thats going to muddle things a lot. Grian essentially had to relearn how to code, in a way that satisfied both Player and Watcher-style coding, and the results at first were.... a little rough around the edges. Once he managed to finally take on his original former appearance, the wings from his true form just kind of.... stuck. I like to think it took a few increasingly desperate tries before he realized he just could not figure out how to get rid of them (bc of how different his new code was), and had to accept that this was just how he was gonna have to live for a while until he finally figured it out. And then, well.... you can get used to anything, if you're stuck with it long enough. I think after a while it just stopped being a huge priority, and then he reached a point where it would be more awkward to live without them than with them, and he eventually dropped the idea altogether. And i think sometimes, they function almost like a scar, to him-- a reminder of what he went through, yes, but a reminder that he did manage to escape. And, ofc, he also just really, really likes flying skdjskdjdj

So yeah, loads of complicated feelings there about his wings, and its stuff i do plan on exploring later in the fic!!! This got a little rambly, but i hope this makes sense and answers your questions!!!! :D its a fun little complicated knot that im glad someone has gotten curious enough to ask about!!!!

"Coconut", not used in game

Don’t know shit about tf2 but I found this meme and that a thing you enjoy

Also is this dead ass it needs a coconut to run the game?

you know I had always just taken the load bearing coconut at face value before, but I decided to look into it for this lol

the dev note was a joke from a redditor after the unused coconut texture was found by fans, cause tf2 is pretty infamous for it's horrid spaghetti code. In reality it's actually an unused texture for coffee beans in a soldier taunt (at least according to one video I found in my brief research). It doesn't even break the game, you can actually play it just fine if you remove literally every texture.

this guy actually went through and made a video testing what files you could remove from tf2 before it crashes. the coconut isn't load bearing but a half life loading screen is for some reason

she bear my load til i coconut

“Why was C-3PO programmed to know the Ancient Sith Language but not allowed to use it?” Load bearing forbidden language next question

Name: Viris

Affiliation: Krimzon Guard (Praxis Regime)

Occupation: Krimzon Guard Elite (KGE). Head of Cyber Security and Communications, Intelligence

Specialty: Blue Eco, Data Systems, Deathbots

Abilities: "Infection" - Once a system is infected, it can be controlled and/or relay information to V at their will.

Combat: Viris rarely comes onto the battlefield in person, preferring to send Deathbot Clones/Proxies instead. V can control any Krimzon robot that they can infect via the Eco Grid, including Power Armor and KG Mechas.

(They can also create and manipulate full holograms of people and environments - but only in certain areas, like the KG Training rooms and arena).

This ability extends to listening in through spybots and hacking personal comms, making them an invaluable resource for Intel (and a devastating problem for the Underground).

V tries to avoid melee combat at all possible instances. On the occasion that they do have to step directly into a fight, Viris relies on the Blue Eco in their Armor to outpace an opponent and quickly subdue them with shock batons. However, this super-speed only lasts for as long as there's Eco in the tank, and V burns a LOT of it to maintain the advantage. Once it's out, they're fully vulnerable to attack until recharge.

---

CS, SP4

Pokemon AlteRed With Gun is um. Really good so far?

The last time i tried AlteRed was a couple years back and the sprites were...pretty bad. Evidently the team refined a lot of their ideas and made some genuinely excellent pokemon in the end.

Here. Just one example.

This is Zigzagrub. It's a bug/electric retype of Zigzagoon. It has some fun ideas, and the core color palette is pretty good, but the shading is off and the freehand spritework is less than stellar. It's pretty average as far as rom hack spriting goes. This is from the original AlteRed, it's what I encountered in version 10.2.

THIS is the modern Zigzagrub.

Holy SHIT what a pokemon! FosterZ and Chairry did this according to the doc and just look at that little guy! It's still recognizably a Zigzagoon retype, but it's also a firefly and those BLUES. I saw that and said "I NEED IT." This sprite is in AlteRed With Gun and i believe is also in the current version of the original AlteRed.

It shows an incredible improvement in the art department, and it gets me excited to find out what else they've done to the pokemon i know and love. AlteRed With Gun is sort of a difficulty hack, a companion to AlteRed they apparently released for April Fool's. As old school binary hacks they have their bugs, but come on. Go back and look at the Zigzagrub. That's a friend.

For me a rom hack lives and dies by the quality of its sprites and AlteRed is thriving. I'm personally extremely pleased with how it's developing, and I'm having enough fun with it in a casual playthrough i might even do a challenge run or two.

guys help he has just been standing there moving his mouth at me for the past five minutes

One of the more frequent load-bearing coconuts* in video games is the player character themselves: some quirk or limitation of the game engine requires that the player character must always be on screen, or at least loaded into the current map.

Most of the time, this isn't a problem, because when would you ever not want the player character to be present? There's one specific scenario where it becomes an issue, though, and that's when all of the following are true:

Your game uses in-engine cutscenes

At least some of those cutscenes occur on a different map from wherever the player character is located at the time that they're triggered (and the player character is not present for them)

Some limitation (e.g., of the game engine, of your targeted minimum system requirements, etc.) precludes loading multiple maps at the same time

Together this creates a problem: you need to load a map on which the player character is not present in order to run the cutscene, but the player character is load-bearing.

There are a variety of ways to solve this, but the customary approach is to make a note of the player character's current position, teleport them to the map on which the cutscene occurs, lock out their controls, turn them invisible, run the cutscene, then teleport them back to their former location when it's done. The upshot is that in every cutscene in which the player character ostensibly is not present, they're actually lurking invisibly in the background.

All this leads to what is possibly my favourite load-bearing coconut bug ever: Final Fantasy VII's disc 2 Midgar skip.

Basically, after you defeat one particular disc 2 boss, there's a multi-part cutscene where the action cuts to a conference room overlooking the battle; one of the NPCs present then calls another NPC on their cell phone, and the viewpoint jumps to that NPC's location (a mad science lab). The conference room map is used only in cutcenes, but the latter map, the mad science lab, is one the player can visit later.

Now here's the trick: for unknown reasons, that mid-cutscene jump to a different map re-enables the player character's controls. You're still invisible, and none of the NPCs present can be interacted with (i.e., because they're totally scripted); however, since the map on which the back half of the cutscene takes place is one you can visit later in the game, a bunch of non-cutscene assets get loaded along with it, presumably because it never occurred to the developers to disable them – critically including a boss fight trigger zone. This trigger is unconditional, since the only time this map can be visited legitimately, the fight is meant to occur.

This means that if you know what you're doing, it's completely possible to walk the invisible player character into that boss fight trigger during the cutscene. In spite of its other limitations, the game engine handles this without complaint, and play continues exactly as though you'd reached that boss fight legitimately, thereby skipping half the disc. From the player's perspective, it appears as though holding the joystick in a specific direction causes the cutscene to be interrupted mid-sentence by an inexplicable, out-of-context boss fight.

All because Cloud Strife is a coconut.

* To anticipate the inevitable well-actually, yes, I'm aware that the Team Fortress 2 coconut is a myth; somebody took a real phenomenon and falsely attributed it to a popular game for clicks, and now we're stuck with the term. If you don't like it, complain to whoever is in charge of how language works!

ended up explaining in excruciating detail something that my ex doesn’t know anything about and he’ll forget in like 30min bc he just doesn’t retain information

and god while normally i wouldn’t have cared at all i feel so self conscious. everytime i speak i wish to snap my mouth shut

That moment when you center pretty much every singe plot line around one guy

Which ends up making it so that pretty much everything ends up relating back to that one guy no matter what

And thus everything except for him and his tragic backstory is so flexible that the entire universe ends up being a broken, scattered mess of narratives that don’t make sense or fit together at all

Which is fine for most people, but a nightmare for me to work with. lmfao

So I’m gonna take the weight off of this load-bearing, bat-eared coconut.

I’m not throwing him in the trash, he’s still a person who exists.

But he’s not the storyteller.

The plot should not center on HIM.

I don’t know how to explain what I mean: I actually wrote and deleted and rewrote and deleted some paragraphs over and over again just a few moments ago cause it’s really hard to put what I’m thinking into words.

There’s just-

There should be more to the world than just what the Batman knows about. Than just the Batman. Why is he the only part of the dc universe that’s slightly consistent.

Jeez I really don’t know how to explain this, huh- lol-

vectors are so mysterious and beautiful to me but also I HATE WORKING WITH THEM

I’m sorry, the WHAT?

GOD I DONT KNOW WHERE I SAW IT but it was this one post I think? Where someone had an image of Silver the Hedgehog and if they deleted it or anything stuff on their computer would crash. So. Load bearing Silver the Hedgehog image

Videogame isekai idea: the macguffin is a "load bearing coconut"

Basically a digital asset that late in development was found for some reason everything stops working if deleted.

It can be as simple as a jpeg.