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Rivera's Repairs: So Let's Talk About System Formatting (Patreon)

Published:
2025-12-01 14:35:41
Imported:
2025-12
Tags:

Content

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

Files

Comments

Andrew Denton

Yeah, that is much more readable. I'd been skimming the old ones due to... Clarity issues. 😊

Uroš

I've read worse formatted JSONs in the line of work :) Also I use firefox reader mode to read these stories and that does a number on any formatting anyway. I think the real nerds will read through anything and anyone else will just skim through.

NateKnight

I'd read through it either way honestly. I think the new way is certainly more readable overall for the less technically inclined readers tho. (I am a system network engineer, so I should count as an outlier)

DB

Sorry for your loss to the epub titan causing added rework! Either way works fine for me, I vary between reading in detail and skimming depending on the scene. Although I'm also likely not a "typical" reader, if such a person exists, having worked a few years as a programmer in a prior incarnation.

Hammy

I am going to miss the old way as someone who works in jsons and other configurations

HN

I didn't mind the JSON (another programmer here), but the new format is definitely clearer. I guess you could've done prettyprinting of the JSON instead, but the new format is probably more approachable for more people. Some of the new examples are a bit off, but I think that's on Patreon, I think Patreon regularly drops spaces after italics for example.

HikinBear

Personally, I think the old way was visually better, and I had no issue reading it. But, the damned e-readers will screw things up. The missing ‘functionality xx%’ in the new format was nice in that it was a pure code related item even though it isn’t significant. After all, it was meant to interface with other code functions, not humans. Regardless, we readers can adapt!

Kazith

As an engineer I like it either way. What’s fun about your story is the diagnostic and the code itself, not so much how it’s displayed. You do you man, thanks for the story. Side note: We apparently have a ton of coders and engineers here haha.

Karol Jamison

Thank you. The new formatting makes it much easier to read. I have old eyes.😁

Stephan

I like the the first version more because it conveys a sense of looking beyond the curtain kind of feeling and reading how tess discovers all that secret/forbidden inner workings of the dungeon system is quite fascinating.

Jean Reads

Only 1/2 nerd here. (My only programming was Fortran and Matlab). Anyhow, I can follow both to some extent, but I think the casual reader will prefer the second. All the different fonts, the colors, the indents, are all going to be chancy on an e-reader, many of which are black/white. At some point, the non-engineers who love a good story are going to skim a bit, but we still want to understand the gist of what is happening.