Dustin Ballard

Allow me to introduce you to my debut novel. It has swords! Wizards! Fighting! Terse dialog! If you enjoy fantasy adventures, you might like this. #writing #WritingCommmunity #publishing amazon.com/dp/B0CL7SNJJG

@TeaRoseKent Nobody likes sympathetic characters. Stop begging for your audience’s approval. Write the amazing dominant tower of perfection that your protagonist *really* is.

Too many writers. Stop giving them your best writing tips. We must whittle down their ranks, steer them in the wrong direction. Give them your #WorstWritingTips. (Devious, aren't I?)

@OlliHull I assume that's relatively large due to the landing light, but heck it could be a shaver and it's battery pack. There's not much on the item itself to give scale.

Im actually puzzled

@TheRubenSaurus I think the mission system likely isn't capable of delivering missions that don't dip into the FPS or space combat game loops. IMHO, every loop needs to be fun, on its own, without dipping into another loop. Every loop should have its own skill, threats, and excitement.

FPS is a massive part of the Star Citizen universe, but I agree that it doesn't need to be everywhere all the time. I don't always want to have to fight for everything with guns. Games can still be interesting without fighting, solving puzzles and mysteries etc. What do you think about this? #StarCitizen

@fandompulse So, what I’m reading here is that he’s going to keep digging.

Rings of Power showrunner Patrick McKay on his vision for the show: "We never approach making this show as trying to add to Tolkien’s vision. I think we approach it as wanting to unearth his vision and, hopefully, unearth aspects of his vision in his world that hadn’t been brought to the screen before." Did he do this?

@skorpiomag Their ships were equivalent to a Toyota technical.

lately i’ve been reading a nonfiction book about the history of piracy and i can’t believe the majority of pirates were conducting their business in sloops. like imagine getting robbed at gunpoint by a guy in a toyota corolla

@AutismCapital I play all the time. Half the game is playing and half is working around bugs. Nothing else like it.

Does anyone actually play Star Citizen? Has it delivered anything or did it just eat up $950M of naive gamers money since 2012? Is it actually a game? Is it even in "beta" yet after 14 years of development?

@AdamPlantinga I’m WAY past nine.

If you're wondering how many times authors can spell gray "grey" before their copyeditors throw their hands up in disgust and quit the profession forever, I have recently come across anecdotal evidence that you're still good at nine.

I think the A-Wing is best when you have no other responsibility but dogfighting. The X is a great fighter and can hurt big stuff, and the B is just a flying tank. I always found the Y-Wing very challenging, but it often gets some of the best missions because of the torpedo load and ion cannons.

@AllForger In this order: A-Wing, X-Wing, B-Wing. I would not fly the Y-Wing, it is a death-trap. A-Wing is the most maneuverable. X-Wing is highly versatile. B-Wing delivers a major payload.

If you flew for the Rebellion: A-Wing X-Wing Y-Wing B-Wing And why?

@patrickcathwrit I figure somebody will launch a counter-discussion for the Empire. ;)

@AllForger You’re asking me to fight for the rebel scum? The disturbers of order and peace? Rubbish!

@AnthropicDualiT @NVIDIAGeForce @RobertsSpaceInd Not a fan.

Well Damn.... #Nvidia DLSS 5. Machine Learning and Neural rendering to Enhance lighting and details. Wonder if /when #StarCitizen could take advantage of It. The overall lighting looks good, the Character models after the DLSS pass not so much. What do yall think?

@IshmaelWesleys Awesome choice. I loved those things

@AllForger A-Wing. Loved flying it in the "X-Wing" series of games growing up. Fast. Nimble. Looks cool.

I played Red Dead Redemption 2 for a long time. I totally forgot I was an outlaw and was just a guy and his horse living in the wilderness. Eventually I ran into the plot again and was surprised I had to steal stuff. 11/10. Would get lost in the mountains again.

@jakonrath I occasionnally leave in typos so people know I'm not an AI.

I have been using Oxford commas, em-dashes, and three-shot prompting (before it was called three-shot prompting) for decades. LLMs pirated over 80 of my books--and trained on them--and now Oxford commas, em-dashes, and three-shot prompts are considered glaring signs that the writing is AI-generated. Recently I have been accused of using the technology that learned from me because it writes like me. That's batshit crazy. I sound like me, and that's a red flag. Does any other writer feel like they unwillingly trained their own assassin? Chime in if you were pirated by LibGen, Book3, and PiLiMi (Anna's Archive) and are getting accused of sounding like AI. #AILearnedFromMe

You might not remember when the Berlin Wall fell. One day we were living in the Cold War, and the next day, we weren’t. Things that couldn’t change were changed. This year reminds me of that one. Everything won’t turn out perfectly, but it will change. I hope for the better.

I read Ender's game over and over when I was a boy. I never counted, but it had to have been twenty or so times. Last year, I gave a copy to my son. The enemy's gate is down.

Thanks for caring about a character I created when I was 24 and a book I wrote when I was 33. I'm old now, still trying to come up with truthful stories, and glad to know that you've taken Ender Wiggin to heart. @thomas_garrard *I’m also happy to see how many fellow humans have volunteered to replace Grok in a book discussion. **And speaking of being old, I first posted this incorrectly. Grok may have to replace me.

I read Ender's game over and over when I was a boy. I never counted, but it had to have been twenty or so times. Last year, I gave a copy to my son. The enemy's gate is down.

If you haven’t read some Patrick O’Brian, you should. The beauty of the language alone is worth the read.

@thomas_garrard The enemy's gate is down.

I just had a conversation with Grok about one of my all time favorite books “Ender’s Game” I had to talk to Grok, because I’ve never met anyone who’s read it, besides me. Lol. It’s a great book, though, if you’re ever so inclined.

No, I did not know this. I mean, I'd be a little sad to get just the bag ... but on the other hand ...