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Release Note
v0.0.3
+ Basic local physical laws are in place. Apples will fall, water will flow, fire will burn. They still fail at macro level, but should be fixed once we decide for a geocentric or heliocentric model.
+ Bunny populations will spawn under the right conditions.
v0.0.8
+ Added "Magic" as debug mode. No more recompiles necessary to fool around with the settings.
+ Bunny populations will stop expanding once they hit the zone threshold. A repeat of the Fluffy Singularity should be impossible.
+ Stones won't become self-aware anymore. Performance should improve without all the questioning about their place in creation. Existing sapient rocks may linger here and there.
v0.0.13
+ Cupcakes can be baked.
+ Bunny populations won't spawn more than one "Angel" Warlord per generation per community.
+ Added Griffins to prey on the bunnies.
v0.1.5
+ Increased Griffin size and damage output.
v0.1.6
+ Increased Griffin size and damage output.
v0.1.7
+ Increased Griffin size and damage output.
v0.1.8
+ Increased Griffin size and damage output.
v0.1.9
+ Switched bunnies from omnivorous to herbivorous.
v0.1.10
+ Reduced "Angel" spawn rate to a single global instance per generation.
v0.1.11
+ Bunnies won't wage war anymore. Griffins should be able to prey upon them, now.
+ The world is now spherical and will be set in a heliocentric system. Gravity as a macro system is still wonky, so, for now, Sun and Moon will be managed by Unicorns until are mechanisms are in place.
+ Improved Bunny demographics log.
v0.1.12
+ Added Earth Ponies to feed the Unicorns.
v0.1.13
+ Added Pegasi to manage the weather and help Earth Ponies. This will be the last temporary environmental control mechanism added.
v0.3.2
+ Nerfed bunnies. Griffins had switched to prey upon ponies as it was easier.
+ Added Windigo control mechanism to dissuade genocide among ponies.
+ Pegasi will temporarily manage bird migration too.
v0.3.18
+ Deers are now sapient.
+ Earth Ponies will manage the flora.
v0.5.0
+ Implemented new Random Number Generator, code name Discord. Weather, celestial mechanics, and plant life should now be able to function on their own.
v0.6.0
+ Added Harmony framework to rein Discord in while we look out for a better alternative.
+ Deers are not sapient.
+ Reduced Bunny damage output.
+ Added Dragons to aid Griffins.
+ Restored geography to pre-Discord backup. The Everfree area has been corrupted and should be left alone for the moment.
+ Hearts-warming is now a recurrent maintenance task.
+ Rocks have become temporarily edible to Earth Ponies.
v0.6.3
+ Re-tasked Celestia and Luna to manage the geocentric system. Performance improved and Unicorns repurposed for maintenance tasks.
+ Magic feature is now stable.
+ Purged Dream Valley, it was a mess.
v0.7.1
+ To stop the Crystal Empire from breaking the economy, again, Sombra has been instantiated as a monitor.
v0.7.4
+ Crystal Empire has been removed for maintenance.
v0.8.0
+ Deers are sapient.
+ Magic has been promoted to feature.
+ Added new Garbage collector. Tirek will clean up the dangling traces left behind by Magic.
+ The experimental branch dubbed "Bipeds" now definitively forked. Interface compatibility will be guaranteed in future. Sirens moved over there.
v0.8.2
+ Tirek has been removed for maintenance.
v0.8.5
+ Luna has been removed for maintenance. Further experimental features like Nightmare Moon should be committed to alternate branches in future.
+ Bunny population under control again. removed the Nightmare Cult trait.
v0.8.9
+ Deers are not sapient.
v0.11.0
+ Reworked Harmony to run as a distributed system.
v1.0.0 - Release
+ Bunny population is stable.
+ New demographic data about the Bunny population can now be directly streamed to other applications.
+ Luna is available. There could be some minor issues, so it's advised to keep it as a background process.
+ System is stable and running. No more major reworks planned.
+ Basic local physical laws are in place. Apples will fall, water will flow, fire will burn. They still fail at macro level, but should be fixed once we decide for a geocentric or heliocentric model.
+ Bunny populations will spawn under the right conditions.
v0.0.8
+ Added "Magic" as debug mode. No more recompiles necessary to fool around with the settings.
+ Bunny populations will stop expanding once they hit the zone threshold. A repeat of the Fluffy Singularity should be impossible.
+ Stones won't become self-aware anymore. Performance should improve without all the questioning about their place in creation. Existing sapient rocks may linger here and there.
v0.0.13
+ Cupcakes can be baked.
+ Bunny populations won't spawn more than one "Angel" Warlord per generation per community.
+ Added Griffins to prey on the bunnies.
v0.1.5
+ Increased Griffin size and damage output.
v0.1.6
+ Increased Griffin size and damage output.
v0.1.7
+ Increased Griffin size and damage output.
v0.1.8
+ Increased Griffin size and damage output.
v0.1.9
+ Switched bunnies from omnivorous to herbivorous.
v0.1.10
+ Reduced "Angel" spawn rate to a single global instance per generation.
v0.1.11
+ Bunnies won't wage war anymore. Griffins should be able to prey upon them, now.
+ The world is now spherical and will be set in a heliocentric system. Gravity as a macro system is still wonky, so, for now, Sun and Moon will be managed by Unicorns until are mechanisms are in place.
+ Improved Bunny demographics log.
v0.1.12
+ Added Earth Ponies to feed the Unicorns.
v0.1.13
+ Added Pegasi to manage the weather and help Earth Ponies. This will be the last temporary environmental control mechanism added.
v0.3.2
+ Nerfed bunnies. Griffins had switched to prey upon ponies as it was easier.
+ Added Windigo control mechanism to dissuade genocide among ponies.
+ Pegasi will temporarily manage bird migration too.
v0.3.18
+ Deers are now sapient.
+ Earth Ponies will manage the flora.
v0.5.0
+ Implemented new Random Number Generator, code name Discord. Weather, celestial mechanics, and plant life should now be able to function on their own.
v0.6.0
+ Added Harmony framework to rein Discord in while we look out for a better alternative.
+ Deers are not sapient.
+ Reduced Bunny damage output.
+ Added Dragons to aid Griffins.
+ Restored geography to pre-Discord backup. The Everfree area has been corrupted and should be left alone for the moment.
+ Hearts-warming is now a recurrent maintenance task.
+ Rocks have become temporarily edible to Earth Ponies.
v0.6.3
+ Re-tasked Celestia and Luna to manage the geocentric system. Performance improved and Unicorns repurposed for maintenance tasks.
+ Magic feature is now stable.
+ Purged Dream Valley, it was a mess.
v0.7.1
+ To stop the Crystal Empire from breaking the economy, again, Sombra has been instantiated as a monitor.
v0.7.4
+ Crystal Empire has been removed for maintenance.
v0.8.0
+ Deers are sapient.
+ Magic has been promoted to feature.
+ Added new Garbage collector. Tirek will clean up the dangling traces left behind by Magic.
+ The experimental branch dubbed "Bipeds" now definitively forked. Interface compatibility will be guaranteed in future. Sirens moved over there.
v0.8.2
+ Tirek has been removed for maintenance.
v0.8.5
+ Luna has been removed for maintenance. Further experimental features like Nightmare Moon should be committed to alternate branches in future.
+ Bunny population under control again. removed the Nightmare Cult trait.
v0.8.9
+ Deers are not sapient.
v0.11.0
+ Reworked Harmony to run as a distributed system.
v1.0.0 - Release
+ Bunny population is stable.
+ New demographic data about the Bunny population can now be directly streamed to other applications.
+ Luna is available. There could be some minor issues, so it's advised to keep it as a background process.
+ System is stable and running. No more major reworks planned.
This is at the top of my slate.
In some ways it's just kind of a dense nesting of jokes, but I really enjoyed all of them, and thought that the patch notes enabled you to actually construct an unstated narrative quite well. (those bunnies are just too op) Really A+ work.
In some ways it's just kind of a dense nesting of jokes, but I really enjoyed all of them, and thought that the patch notes enabled you to actually construct an unstated narrative quite well. (those bunnies are just too op) Really A+ work.
I always suspected that was the answer to the big questions.
"Why are we here? What's our purpose?"
To make sure everything is running smoothly for our bunny overlords.
This was great. Inventive, quirky, and very well executed. As >>sharpspark said, it was fun to see the narrative take shape from release notes (It makes me want to see the debugging log, though).
Anyway, great job.
"Why are we here? What's our purpose?"
To make sure everything is running smoothly for our bunny overlords.
This was great. Inventive, quirky, and very well executed. As >>sharpspark said, it was fun to see the narrative take shape from release notes (It makes me want to see the debugging log, though).
Anyway, great job.
This is a really unconventional way of structuring a narrative.
And I love it. I love the recurring gags that come up, the bunnies, and the constant vacillation over whether or not the deer should be sapient. It's great stuff, easy to read, made me smile and laugh more than once. Especially that last sentence at the end.
Like, c'mon, you had to be smirking a little bit when you wrote that.
And I love it. I love the recurring gags that come up, the bunnies, and the constant vacillation over whether or not the deer should be sapient. It's great stuff, easy to read, made me smile and laugh more than once. Especially that last sentence at the end.
Like, c'mon, you had to be smirking a little bit when you wrote that.
This is beautiful, and it is why somepony needs to petition Knighty to allow case-by-case rules violations to established authors who want to do something like this, or a play, etc. I laughed at pretty much all of it.
I'm not certain if this is a FiO reference. I've already reviewed one FiO fic this round. I don't think this is intended to be one, but I know not.
The geocentric switch wasn't clear, because the Discord reset shouldn't have gone back that far in the past.
I really think you should restructure the versioning to match the timeline more exactly. Like, have a beta versioning system, then Luna gets taken offline on the first 0.0.0 (or .1) release.
I'm not certain if this is a FiO reference. I've already reviewed one FiO fic this round. I don't think this is intended to be one, but I know not.
The geocentric switch wasn't clear, because the Discord reset shouldn't have gone back that far in the past.
I really think you should restructure the versioning to match the timeline more exactly. Like, have a beta versioning system, then Luna gets taken offline on the first 0.0.0 (or .1) release.
This was cute. I liked the various jokes, as well as the obsession with bunnies and all the problems they were causing.
Also amused by the ending noting that the system was stable and running, given that we all know that all hell breaks loose after that point, but it keeps getting fixed.
Also amused by the ending noting that the system was stable and running, given that we all know that all hell breaks loose after that point, but it keeps getting fixed.
Okay, this was cute, clever, and entertainingly formatted. And it really does explain the entire system! Definitely at the top of my slate.
This is cute... and very gimmicky, which is something I'm harsh on in part to counterbalance the rosy reviews from novelty value. As you can see above, a lot of people are scoring it well, but not really delving into it beyond "That was cute, wow how original, I laughed, top slate!" Once we get over the novelty, what's here? What does this entry use its unconventional nature to do well, and why? Is this the best patchnote story it could be?
It IS a narrative, which is nice, and goes some way towards justifying its existence. There is progression over time, and at least a vague sense of a beginning, middle and end.
I can't tell what exactly the narrative is, though. Just what is this software, and what is it supposed to do? Who are the end users? Some of the terminology implies that it's a game, but the bits at the end seem to go in a different direction and imply that it's a simulation, or maybe an operating system? This bothers me, because it should be a very easy question for the reader to answer. Every line is an opportunity to communicate something about the nature of the whole, there's no shortage of ways in which it could have been tied into a coherent picture of what this thing is, yet it just... doesn't do it.
As >>Trick_Question points out, the version numbers are another missed opportunity. I can't discount the possibility that I'm missing some subtle references, but as far as I can tell from a casual look, the numbers are completely arbitrary. They could have been used to add to the text, like, say, add Discord in 0.0.42, or remove Tirek in version 4.26. It's disappointing that nothing along those lines seems to have been done.
The bunny/griffin stuff is good and funny. I wish there was a little more of that, and a little less boring stuff or loose retelling of canon. When we see Sombra and Tirek come in, we know they're going away in the next update, and in neither case do they leave in a particularly amusing way. Discord gets a little more flavor, but he too is in and out in a flash. Much more could have been done with them. Lines like those, and the physics notes, are lines that could have been used for further jokes or narrative/pseudonarrative development.
Best line in the piece, by far. More stuff like that, more dynamic elements like the bunny saga, would go a long way. Maybe some mention of parasprites, or some extremely bizarre or disturbing [thing] that isn't something we know from canon and was commented out just before release. There are a lot of possibilities, I'm just tossing out a couple at random there, but hopefully you get the idea: this is a fairly plain, conservative take compared to what could have been done with this structure given a little more effort.
So, in the end, I can't put this too high. It's fine, and probably going to score pretty well, but I'd like to challenge the author a bit to think about what they did vs what they could have done, and what we can learn from that. Thanks for writing!
It IS a narrative, which is nice, and goes some way towards justifying its existence. There is progression over time, and at least a vague sense of a beginning, middle and end.
I can't tell what exactly the narrative is, though. Just what is this software, and what is it supposed to do? Who are the end users? Some of the terminology implies that it's a game, but the bits at the end seem to go in a different direction and imply that it's a simulation, or maybe an operating system? This bothers me, because it should be a very easy question for the reader to answer. Every line is an opportunity to communicate something about the nature of the whole, there's no shortage of ways in which it could have been tied into a coherent picture of what this thing is, yet it just... doesn't do it.
As >>Trick_Question points out, the version numbers are another missed opportunity. I can't discount the possibility that I'm missing some subtle references, but as far as I can tell from a casual look, the numbers are completely arbitrary. They could have been used to add to the text, like, say, add Discord in 0.0.42, or remove Tirek in version 4.26. It's disappointing that nothing along those lines seems to have been done.
The bunny/griffin stuff is good and funny. I wish there was a little more of that, and a little less boring stuff or loose retelling of canon. When we see Sombra and Tirek come in, we know they're going away in the next update, and in neither case do they leave in a particularly amusing way. Discord gets a little more flavor, but he too is in and out in a flash. Much more could have been done with them. Lines like those, and the physics notes, are lines that could have been used for further jokes or narrative/pseudonarrative development.
v0.1.12
+ Added Earth Ponies to feed the Unicorns.
Best line in the piece, by far. More stuff like that, more dynamic elements like the bunny saga, would go a long way. Maybe some mention of parasprites, or some extremely bizarre or disturbing [thing] that isn't something we know from canon and was commented out just before release. There are a lot of possibilities, I'm just tossing out a couple at random there, but hopefully you get the idea: this is a fairly plain, conservative take compared to what could have been done with this structure given a little more effort.
So, in the end, I can't put this too high. It's fine, and probably going to score pretty well, but I'd like to challenge the author a bit to think about what they did vs what they could have done, and what we can learn from that. Thanks for writing!
This piece is indeed great fun, and I am pleased to see so much positive reception.
That being said, I, too, will suggest that it could be augmented.
1. Release notes, done properly, are always as exhaustive and complete as possible. No entries are skipped, no changes are omitted. The jumping around here is a definite impediment to the credence of the format, but somewhat essential given the word limit.
2. There is great variance, there is almost always sub-sections of "added", "changed", "removed" (optionally including 'deprecated'?), "fixed", and possibly others, categorizing the modifications in each update. Another very common convention is to put the changes in present tense, e.g., "Increase Griffin size and damage." As a style guide that I, personally, would not mind adhering to (YMMV), this one is pretty good, and is similar to many of my own pet projects.
3. This point is much more subjective, but play with the idea of treating all changes as authoritative and final, removing this "temporarily" and most other wibbly-wobbly hemming and hawing; thought being that the dancing around with the features plays off of this ironically, in the "Well, that was a stupid idea, but this one is the best! (later) Well, ****." kind of way. Additionally, some of the entries strike the tone more of a developer's working notes more than a change release.
"Properly" filling this out could be huge, as you are effectively creating a log of creating the universe. Expanding it with such an intent may be impossible or rob it of the comedic punch this version possesses. I just don't know. Still, food for thought if you do continue this elsewhere.
(What did the deer keep doing to keep having sapience toggled?)
That being said, I, too, will suggest that it could be augmented.
1. Release notes, done properly, are always as exhaustive and complete as possible. No entries are skipped, no changes are omitted. The jumping around here is a definite impediment to the credence of the format, but somewhat essential given the word limit.
2. There is great variance, there is almost always sub-sections of "added", "changed", "removed" (optionally including 'deprecated'?), "fixed", and possibly others, categorizing the modifications in each update. Another very common convention is to put the changes in present tense, e.g., "Increase Griffin size and damage." As a style guide that I, personally, would not mind adhering to (YMMV), this one is pretty good, and is similar to many of my own pet projects.
3. This point is much more subjective, but play with the idea of treating all changes as authoritative and final, removing this "temporarily" and most other wibbly-wobbly hemming and hawing; thought being that the dancing around with the features plays off of this ironically, in the "Well, that was a stupid idea, but this one is the best! (later) Well, ****." kind of way. Additionally, some of the entries strike the tone more of a developer's working notes more than a change release.
"Properly" filling this out could be huge, as you are effectively creating a log of creating the universe. Expanding it with such an intent may be impossible or rob it of the comedic punch this version possesses. I just don't know. Still, food for thought if you do continue this elsewhere.
(What did the deer keep doing to keep having sapience toggled?)
So, the system is helio- or geocentric? I got conflicting signals.
It’s, like the others said, nice and original. However, it’s not really a story, so I feel you cheated somewhat w/r to the other authors. That’s why, even though I’m sensible to the novelty and the jocular tone, I will rank it high but not top.
Oh deer, good job anyway.
It’s, like the others said, nice and original. However, it’s not really a story, so I feel you cheated somewhat w/r to the other authors. That’s why, even though I’m sensible to the novelty and the jocular tone, I will rank it high but not top.
Oh deer, good job anyway.
Cute and gimmicky with some good laughs, but I don't think this quite gels the way you are looking for. One of the bigger annoyances for me is that this kinda stands half-heartedly between game notes and something else. I think if you want to do it, you need to commit to the gimmick of making it look like a game. Similarly, your language is a bit weird, varying between really pure utilitarian notes and then throwing out things like a system was "wonky." There's nothing wrong with either form, but I think they don't work super well together and probably amplify the above problem.
Unlike a lot of people, I wasn't too fond of the bunny jokes. It's a bit weird, but I come here expecting pony patch notes and I end up bunnies for a massive chunk of the notes. :p
That said, seriously, this is still cute and amusing and decently well realized! I just wish it were more patch note-y.
Unlike a lot of people, I wasn't too fond of the bunny jokes. It's a bit weird, but I come here expecting pony patch notes and I end up bunnies for a massive chunk of the notes. :p
That said, seriously, this is still cute and amusing and decently well realized! I just wish it were more patch note-y.