Hi everyone!
Thank you so much for being here and reading Rivera's Repairs. I'm genuinely floored at how popular this story became and how well it did on Royal Road for something I basically brain-dumped during the writeathon.
So here's the thing.
After experimenting with epub software (Atticus, specifically), I've had to admit defeat. The current system formatting simply will not publish. The code blocks, the nested JSON structures—all of it looks like garbage (and doesn't render on half the e-readers on the market). There's nothing I can do about it. The whole thing needs to change.
Which, honestly, might not be the worst thing.
I've received a ton of feedback about the system readouts. Some people love them. Some people hate them. Most people just skip past them entirely. They've always been there for the number nerds (like me) who want to see exactly what Tess is looking at when she uses [ANALYZE].
I spent a chunk of the weekend working through options, trying to find something that actually prints properly while still giving the system-focused readers what they want. I think I've landed on a format that works—cleaner, more readable, and it won't explode when I try to export it.
Here's the old format (from Chapter 14 in Issue #1):
And here's what I'll be using going forward:
·········································FCN-01 SKILL ANALYSISLast Error: MisalignedIssue: Physical substrate damage causing coordination failureUser Tech Skill: 3·········································Crystal A · Routing Master ........ Corrupted[Tech 3]> Primary pathway degraded
Crystal B · Circuit Control ....... Degraded[Tech 2]> Dead circuit in secondary branch
Crystal C · Power Distribution .... Misaligned[Tech 2]> Flow parameters incorrect
Crystal D · Secondary Logic ....... Functional[Tech 1]> Underutilized, redundant·········································INTERFACE — Available Modifications·········································> Extract Skill ........ 2 AP [Tech 3]> Embed Skill .......... Varies> Modify Parameters .... 1 AP per parameter·········································
A few other examples:
·········································EXTRACTION COMPLETEAP: 1/3 (2 consumed)Skill Extracted: Routing MasterInterface Storage: 1/3·········································
·········································SECONDARY LOGIC·········································> Add Skill ................. 1 AP> Replace with Routing Master … 0 AP·········································
·········································COOLING UNIT CY-4402Designation: Commercial RefrigerationLoot Seed: 0xC44Status: OnlineHardware: OperationalLast Error: Skill Crystal MisalignmentUser Tech Skill: 2·········································Temperature Regulation ... Active [Tech 3]Humidity Control ......... Active [Tech 4]Aether Distribution ...... Active [Tech 3]Diagnostic Monitoring .... Active[Tech 2]·········································
·········································SKILL CRYSTAL DETECTEDPattern: Temperature Regulation········································Skill Tree: Chill· Freeze (Subset)· Cool (Subset)· Preserve (Subset)· Regulate (Subset)
Available Modifications:· Extract Skill ........ 2 AP [Tech 3]· Embed Skill .......... Varies· Modify Parameters .... 1 AP per parameter·········································
None of this is final.
Let me know what you think in the comments. The change has to happen regardless (epub formatting wins every argument), but I'm curious whether this actually works, or if I'm just biased.
—M.S. Davidson