Don’t do interactive. I’ve read two of them that are anything close to being good the rest just suck.

You nodded, only to realise that you were completely unsure whether you had any money on you. Fuck. Fortunately, you'd figured out a way to find out. "Great, it'll be nice to go somewhere with a good menu." At my mention of the keyword, my menu popped up in front of me, and this time, Rainbow didn't seem freaked out by it.

I shook my head, preparing a line of bullshit. "Hmm, I'm undecided. I'll see what I feel like when I get in there." That taken care of, you mentally pressed the 'Inventory' option, hoping to see that you at least had enough to pay for some lunch.

You switched to second person point-of-view a couple times there.

Also, I've been considering making this story somewhat interactive in future chapters, maybe leaving vague indications of character choices in future Author's Notes?

How exactly do you mean? I’m afraid I’m not quite understanding.

I gotta say, this story has gotten me hooked in a way not many do (because of the story and the cool thing that this is still a game, albeit a very advanced and realistic one, not the other stuff)

9067275
Thanks very much for pointing that out! I keep writing this in second and then having to switch it to first, I didn't realise I'd left any in.

As for 'interactive', I'm still not entirely sure. I was considering bringing up a quest log every now and then at the end of a section of chapters and having the audience help to decide which quest the character focussed on next? It might be better to rather than making it interactive, leave the option to comment there and potentially source on reader suggestions from time to time. That way, no one's pressured to offer a route or left out if their suggestion isn't accepted. Thanks for the input though, and I'm glad you're enjoying it!

This is pretty cool. Great story!

Good luck on your kinda/sorta date with Rainbow. you'll need it... Especially if Pinkie Pie shows up.

Dash, easily number 2 of my favorite Mane Six. mainly cause she has all 5 of my top five favorite colors and cause she is awesome. your character better treat her right or spoofs of this will be written in which your character dies every horrible and humiliating way possible. just saying. anyways, not bad so far but this is a crucial point in story and in the game. how this encounter goes will affect your interactions with her friends. screw up and the others will treat you less nicely (obvious exception being Pinkie cause Pinkie and you don't question Pinkie ) but do well and any number of possibilities can open up to you.

Good start! Time to see how not-flustered we can make Rainbow!

are there hidden achievements like scoring Chrysalis or something?

9066074
Wow man that's some really detailed explanation. I usually use VPN for torrents and stuff but it comes in handy watching banned videos as well. Just checked my IP and it changes if I switch off VPN. Guess it works then.

btw is VPN a must for dark web?

Cute. Can never have enough reader x rainbow fics.

Alright cool, we'll see where this goes. Curious about the story's direction over all. I guess time will tell and I'll be looking forward to that. Nice characterization with him being too macho to accept the help for so long.

9067433
Glad you fond it informative! I've never bothered with dark web stuff, plenty to keep me busy without going to unlisted sites and there's Internet Relay Chat (IRC) for when you want to ignore the World-Wide Web entirely. The dark web is usually content people don't want word or history of getting around so considering ISP's can both track and sell your logs to whomever they want now (depending on your country), I'd say VPN is a must for every website let alone ones that are trying hide their content and existence.

9065580
Maybe, going to think up another list storm tomorrow.

Really liking this story as it develops. Could honestly see it breaking free of the clopfic and just becoming a fully fledged story with the excellent premise! Excited to see the next chapter.

Looks nice, except for hacker's initial goal, that is. Getting real money in this way is completely unfeasible.

The only time real money is transferred, is when user buys some virtual currency. And this is how the process goes:

1. User selects what DLC|how much virtual currency he wants to buy
2. User is redirected to payment gate, which belongs to bank servicing this company and is in no way related to the game servers
3. User pays, real money is transferred from his account in his bank to company account in their bank
4. Company bank confirms successful transfer, and game server gives user whatever he paid for.

So, game server does not touch real money in any way. You have to hack the bank to get cash.

While I think this is definitely not a canon FIO story (see friendship is optimal for reference) it does have some of the same vibe to it.
Who is the "mastermind" directing our hero from his criminal ways to embrace the 'friendship and ponies' path to satisfaction of this Equestria Online(tm)
BTW. As an aside as someone who has had to deal with hackers since the 1980s I really hate it when people glorify them or try to make them into heros trying to be anti establishment. No they are terrible morally deficent people with a knack for vandalism. (And that's the "White Hats" the "Black hats" haven't evolved enough to qualify as people)

9067815
The game sending you to that gate could still be a vector for a virus to get into the bank's system. from there it could then skim money off of each account into an exchange for a cryptocurrency, which could be disguised as transaction fee's the bank has. this could actually lead to the game company first being accused of the illegitimate business practice, giving more time for the virus to remain hidden, and if the hacker is smart this is when the "Discovery" routine will kick in which will randomly dump the currency into different accounts, both player, company, and even just randos. Once that happens this is when the hacker, or his hiring body, will cash out. so long as they don't dump too much of a majority into their account. Bonus points if the hacker has insiders in anti virus companies, then they can plant a "hibernate" function into the code with random wake up dates so the code can reactivate, and be considered killed even though the virus truly isn't. Now defeating the encryption will be tough, but if you can hide neural nets in the various servers and PC's on a, and I can't remember the "actual" term for it, ghost network you could have those trying to come up with it. As for how it could be vectored into the multitude of computers you could hide it as a Trojan into the player data servers that have send receive packets so you could inject your code into the data your computer naturally sends the servers, and then when those servers send the "Can I haz Ur data" request packets it puts the virus onto player computers. You'd have to data mine to figure out the DLC/VC data, you embed you virus there, and then that injects the data into the gate from there. Simular things could have gone on in even things like minecraft, or roblox, Wow, any of those. You inject data with a data manipulator such as Cheat engine. then its clever coding from there.

To the author, I'd be game for the openended nature.

9067884
There is none. Where the game leads the players is to become payers )) Doing it by showing the pleasures of embracing, and then gently reminding that you can do it even better with some money paid)

As about hackers - they're usually heroes in cyberpunk settings, where morality spectre is grey to black and corps go full Orwell. Which they actually are pretty close to IRL, unfortunately.
So they're not good, but are simply better than the alternative. The funny thing is, even if they fall a corporation, most likely the only consequence would be another one taking its place.
Also, that is just another revamp on the classic "trickster/rogue" archetype, except for geeks.

IRL there are people who're good at finding bugs and people who are criminals|just malicious. Being a hacker impies the first, but not the second.

9067912
First of all, "sending to payment gate" means that game asks the bank to request a payment, which is pretty much opening a website through a specific link. There is no entry point here, at least one specific to games. Any online shop does exactly the same thing.

Secondly, there are no "player accounts" in the bank. What we have there is a corporate account. If you get to transfer money from it somehow, then you have either hacked the bank, in which case FBI is after you and there is no reason to only pull from game developer's account only. Same with "insider in antivirus company" business - if you got that far, there is no reason to just rob one game. Not to mention that this insider will get the jailtime first, as he's not just a random anonimous.

Either you got access to company's passwords. This is somewhat more plausible, as game servers might serve as an entry point into company's network. Still, in this case the company tells the bank to freeze their account and "discovery" program goes to trash.
Even more, they will try to chargeback malicious transactions, which means the ones who get the damage will most likely be the cryptocurrency trader.
What real bank robbers/carders do instead is hire "drops" who take real money using ATM and put it somewhere else. This way the money is really gone.

As for hiding itself in the system, in this case developer would most likely just restore all machines from backup or does a clean install.

And if we look at your suggestion to corrupt game update files with an antivirus - first of all, this is gonna be noticed real quick, which kinda defeats the purpose. Secondly, a "fix" would be delivered just as quick through the same game updates. And lastly, this definitely does not adhere to "Robin Good" attitude the character takes here.

Great stuff, looking forward to more soon! =)

Liking it so far, keep up the good work!

...You got me hooked. Loving it so far, i shall be following with glee!

> Press Tilde key to access console
> sv_cheats 1
> IWTCIRD
> SYSTEM.VAR 'RDAFFECTION' SET TO 100

9068300
You can't activate sv_cheats 1 while being on server Real World!
The Real World Server needs to enable sv_cheats 1 by server operator!

9068437
rcon_password iamgod******
9068300
also, "player.has_it = true"

*presses tilde*
player.additem f 5000000
*hits enter*

9067352
I bloody will hope so

9068300>>9068437>>9068590
9068703

. . .

. . .

. . .

???

I don't understand computer code. What the hell are you all talking about?

9069274
They're references to video games.

The games have an built-in console you can use, (Fallout, Half-Life, etc.)

Love how this story is going, hope it continues!.

Also #TeamDash for the win!

Well, if we're all going to make video game console jokes...

/give Space 46 64

9067616
Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation! I never quite understood how IRC functions or why it remains popular after so many years but I think imma try it out today. btw are you an EE or CS guy by any chance? You seem like someone who digs really deep into this.

I'm honestly disappointed that there's no more cameltoe... sacrifices were made

9069274
its a fallout console command reference.

To clear up comment section

Sv_cheat ones relate to Valve games that run on goldscr or source engine

the other references are to BetheSda engine including skyrim and fallout

9069730
Your welcome, and yes I'm a CS guy.

This is the point when you really want a C.A.S.I.E aug.

9071016
a what?

9072413
Another reference to videogames. This one is from Deus Ex: Human Revolution/Mankind Divided.
This name being short for "Computer Assisted Social Interaction Enhancer", it combines a psychology analyzing tool, optical polygraph for checking opponents' current mood and a pheromone dispersal that can save a botched conversation.

9072447
yeah, probably not a good idea to use on the Element of Loyalty. that could be considered a betrayal and she don't take those kindly. the only worse ponies i can think of to use it on are the Element of Honesty and Cadence.

9072471
Pheromones - probably isn't. Using her psychological profile to say what she wants to hear - mostly is.
Of course, if he was aiming for a life with somebody, pretending is not a good option. But here he's in for a rut or two, so it doesn't matter.
After all, "play menu" already provides him with such data.

9072476
true, but as i said in an earlier post, his interactions with Dash will affect his future interactions with her friends. becoming enemy #1 to the Element of Loyalty is a surefire way to guarantee nopony will ever trust you again. so going at this as an attempt to get in her nonexistent pants might be a bad idea. oh, who am i kidding, from a logical standpoint it is a bad idea but from a video game standpoint he could literally flirt with Dash, turn around and flirt with Rarity, then cross the street and flirt with Applejack and nopony would so much as bat an eyelash.

9072510
Exactly. He didn't come here to live a life, he just wants to grab some cash and have some fun.

By the way, this is just the right time for our hacker to do the conversation imperfectly, go to menu to restart the game, and then find out that there is no exit button.

9072534
true. that would be either funnily tragic or tragically funny. would still suck to be in his horseshoes though. would that make the achievements of bedding the Mane 6 become unavailable?

9067815

And in their fictional world maybe it does actually work like this. Don't worry about the money trail, just enjoy the story. It's not something we'll ever know all the details about.

I like the story so far I got to say though I want him to go after all the girls in the world. Go after all the princesses to and also Zecora

Good story so far, I would recommend not to make the story interactive, I’ve seen many fics go down the drain that way so I think it’s best if you just went with what you feel like

Who else wants to see one of the AI pull a Monika, becoming self aware and going batshit crazy as a result?

Also, apparently you could play as a changeling in this game. Are we talking the cool OG changelings or the rainbow colored eyesores?

9091859
I think the AI already is self-aware and is making things easier for him, though I don't have a clear guess on why yet.

I don't see why [system] interactions, like "Menu", can't be opened without breaking the setting. I mean, if his thoughts can make selections, it should be easy to just force-think "menu". Also, is this version of the game, the one he's in, single or multiplayer? Cuz if everyone who joined got placed outside ponyville, and with the numbers of players, I'm pretty sure it'd be crowded with others. I ask because a pause menu would be awesome, but obviously only works for single-mode.

Btw, if "Menu" has to be an in-setting thing, then why not spruce it up? Say, have a book called "Menu", and characters may ask why player is such an egghead for reading it so often, lol.